Lionel Pryor Interview - June, 2013

A band that I've been following the past few months, and shot some footage of back in June, Lionel Pryor combine elements of all sorts of genres into a mash up of material performed by skilled individuals. While Pryor probably won't appeal to the ultra-raw lo-fi black metal or brutal skull-carving death metal types, those interested in music beyond beyond the underground metal scene would probably enjoy their take on instrumental metal. There is enough Metal, Doom and Sabbath influence here to warrant showing on Contaminated Tones but with other influences such as King Crimson, Rush and all sorts of Jazz and Rock influences, who knows where this band really falls. I caught up with them after their June 6th show at Saint Vitus Bar and just recently finished the transcription. It's tough figuring out three people talking...

CT: How many shows have you guys played, I guess, as a band. This is kind of like a...

Zakk: We've been a band for almost two years.

Mike: Yeah we've been playing a lot of shows. We try to play, I mean, a couple times a month if not at least once a week.

Zakk: We've definitely played over fifty shows all around...

Mike: Fifty? I would say like three... two hundred prolly...

Zakk: No. I don't think two hundred. We definitely played over fifty shows, 'cuz we play in New Jersey, New York, Brooklyn, Pennsylvania.

CT: On average, how many people do you think come out to your shows. Is there a certain area that gives you more...

Zakk: Yeah, Pennsylvania.

CT: Everyone comes out in Pennsylvania?

Mike: We've gone out to Pennsylvania twice, they've been very good to us. They definitely appreciate the music more. They come out to support us. Awesome crowd up there. We want to expand more too. You know? Like we feel like this area (Brooklyn - CT) there's a lot of techno driven stuff and if you're open to like give us a shot. Yeah.. Definitely worth the listen I think. I don't know. You got to hear us play tonight so I think we're a live band overall.

Zakk: Yeah. Definitely.

CT: Definitely interesting watching you play live because I've only been able to listen to you online or MP3 or whatever.

Mike: Yeah, definitely make sure you grab a CD before you go.

CT: Yeah I will definitely grab a CD before I leave.

Mike: We have that new one we just released. It's called Azhadhak. I'm like really pumped about that CD. I think it's like... it's just that one that really puts us on the map.

CT: Tell me about the CD. You guys are an instrumental band but from what I've seen there is lyrical contents involved with it.

Mike: We've tried out singers before I mean...

Zakk: Yeah. We've tried out a bunch of singers.

Mike: ...but we're looking for to fit the mold. Everyone's usually just backing off with like "I don't know what to put over this."

Zakk: We're super picky.

Mike: We're just waiting for Mike Patton to be like, "Alright, I'm ready to sing for you dudes."

Zakk: That's who we want to sing for us: Mike Patton.

Mike: That's what it's coming down to. But I mean, we're still open for anything. We love jamming, we're definitely a jam band.

Zakk: The only reason we jamming man.. is because we smoke weed.. and then just start jamming and then we film it, and then we listen to it and we're like...

Mike: That part's cool.

Zakk: ...that part's cool yeah... and then we make our songs from there.

CT: What kind of a vocalist would you be looking for if you could have... what's your ideal vocalist? If you had to pick a vocalist from another band...

Zakk: Mike Patton.

Mike: Someone who can groove man. Like I said, we started off just jamming, and we never found that extra element that could fill our sound even more so I mean, I think that we definitely feel that we have a good sound going now and if it's not going to add something to it then we wouldn't mind chilling instrumental until we find that crowd that's like dude... this is the music I want to listen to. This is a different thing that's not coming out anywhere.

CT: So tell me, who writes the thematical content for your records considering... cause from what I've seen it's kind of out there as far as...

Zakk: Ok so, the new CD, Me and Andy brainstormed like some ideas and Mike like... all of... everything we do is collective. Like everything we do is collective but Andy had a friend, this kid Nardy who wrote a bunch of monologues and those are the ones on the new CD and we just told him the theme we wanted and he kind of just wrote toward that.

CT: Very interesting. So as a band.. So tell me, I guess, how the band formed, who met who and how have you guys known each other beforehand or?

Zakk: I've known Mike... we've known each other since we were like in kindergarten...

Mike: We've just been jamming since we were like young kids.

Zakk: Yeah we've been jamming since we were like eleven or twelve years old...

Mike: And then we met Andy and we were like dude, let's throw him in the mix.

Zakk: We were all in tons of bands like before this. Me and him were in tons of bands. I was in a band with Andy before that. Like I went to college and I was in a band like, we all do a lot of music. Mike was in cover bands and stuff making money.

Mike: We all knew each other through the music scene.

Zakk: And then we kind of started jamming when we were like it's cool.

Mike: Let's roll with this man!

Zakk: We've just been playing shows ever since.

Mike: Let's do it! It's all about fun man. Music is fun. It should be fun. When we play music, like, I'm having a great time and if the audience is having fun I feel like I'm doing my job. You know what I mean?

CT: Definitely. So you guys recorded the new album where and how did the new album come... did you guys write all the songs in studio or before hand.

Mike: There was definitely... go ahead...

Zakk: We had everything written before the studio. We recorded at Backroom Studios with Kevin Antreassian and he's the man... he was just on tour with The Deftones. He was doing guitar teching for them and like, Dillinger recorded there - Dillinger Escape Plan - and he used to be their guitar tech... so he's amazing. He's a great recording engineer. Everyone should go to him.

Mike: One hundred percent he's the man.

Zakk: Yeah, he's the man. We would go into him with the songs and he would like add little layers and stuff and there's a few things that he played on there like he'll take something I'm playing and just do like a certain harmony and like, so he's a producer as well as an engineer. Definitely wears both hats.

CT: What bands I guess... What bands have influenced you guys as musicians individually and without going for like... a thousand minutes.

Mike: I think our music has definitely has shaped... we've been jamming out for the last three years and when we started to where we are now I think we've evolved so much as a band and a lot of influences have definitely been there since the beginning. You've got Black Sabbath and...

Zakk: That's like the number one influence of everyone...

Mike: Dude... you hear that in our music.. that's like the number one... they set the tone you know? That's a good thing...

Zakk: Mike loves Kiss. That's his favorite band.

Mike: Dude. Kiss! I'll take them any day of the week. And Opeth is definitely a huge influence...

Zakk: Opeth, Porcupine Tree... I love progressive stuff, 70's prog. All that stuff.

Mike: Dude, that's it like... King Crimson dude. They just blow your mind. We really want to recreate those things you don't really hear too much anymore.

Zakk: Electric Miles Davis from the 70's...

Mike: Ahh dude... Miles! Come on! You can't get better than Miles.

Zakk: Andy, come here we're getting interviewed. Get in here. Yeah We got Andy.

Mike: This is Andy, the bass player.

CT: This is Andy, the bass player.

Andy: What's going on?

CT: How's it going?

Andy: Pretty good. Tired.

CT: Tired?

Andy: Got to go to work at six-o'clock in the morning.

CT: Me too! It's a terrible thing!

Andy: It's awful. Haha.

CT: So, I was just asking them about individual influences and stuff and as a bass player, what bassists have influenced you?

Andy: Ummm..

CT: You have four seconds... go!

Andy: I guess the first band is Mercury Program. That was the first instrumental that really influenced my bass playing. I think even still to this day I always go back to them for my bass playing. Another bass player I guess is Tool. Cause it's on the other side of the spectrum - it's a little heavier and little more intricate, a little more groovier... so I kind of have the combination of both and all three of us have been metalheads from the start even though we're all a little bit different in the sense of genre but in the end we always go back to that metal sound and I think like my bass lines his drumming his guitar playing just came together... just like that... it wasn't even like...

Zakk: Mike the we... I mean, Mike's the funny one, Andy's the weird one.. I'm the serious one.

Andy: Yeah. Yeah.. Exactly. You know...

Zakk: Categorize..

Andy: It's almost the equivalent like you can call that our musical style...

Zakk: That's what I'm saying like in terms of influences... Andy's got a lot of weird influences not just... like you world music and tons of stuff. Mike's like.. I wouldn't say you're... but you're more conventional. You like a lot of...

Andy: Kiss! That's a perfect example.

Zakk: Yeah there you go. Mike loves the hits dude. And Mike can play everything on guitar in his jukebox.

Mike: I know I know.

Zakk: And I like music all over the place like I tend to like darker shit too like black metal and all that stuff.

CT: What's in your CD players right now? What have you been listening to the last week?

Mike: Lionel Pryor. Haha.

Zakk: There's a band playing here (St. Vitus - CT) tomorrow that I might come see... Windhand.

CT: That's on the Clamfight, King's Destroy show?

Zakk: Yeah yeah. They're cool man. They're good. They sound like Electric Wizard but like... a little tighter. Electric Wizard are awesome but they're a little loose. I mean I've been listening to a lot of like, sludgy stuff lately and then, I'm always listening to King Crimson.

CT: You guys post... I mean on your facebook... you've posted King Crimson videos and shit...

Zakk: Yeah Dude. 80's Crimson is fucking awesome.

Mike: I've been listening to a lot of M.I.A Paper Planes Pandora station. It's Paper Planes' Pandora Station.

Zakk: He was rocking out to Sex and Candy on the way down. Haha.

Andy: Dude! Great tune!

CT: What other bands have you interviewed from NJ that you would recommend to people?

Andy: There's two that come to mind. The first is Torrential Downpour and Toothgrinder. Are definitely the two that are like... out of all the bands that are like we've recently played with those are the two that... and Gyre... yeah Gyre. Those guys definitely like stuck out the most.... Obviously we're a little bit different from other bands in NJ. We're instrumental and we don't really have a genre you can say and it's nice to meet bands that are out of the box, yo uknow and sound a little different and are musically inclined about it too. For instance Toothgrinder, Torrential Downpour, Gyre, Impossible Voyage... they definitely think outside the box with their music. And we've only known them for about six months, maybe.

Zakk: We've known Gyre for a long time. I've known Toothgrinder for a while because I've gone to school with one of them.

Andy: Yeah we've known Gyre for a long time but playing shows wise, you know we just recently started doing it and its been fun, you know. And you know, we want to keep on doing it. We just released a new album, came out two months ago, we released it April Fools day.

CT: Is it a joke album?

Andy: No, it's all.. we released it

Mike: It's not a bigger joke than Collateral Jamage.

CT: That has to be one of the best names I've heard in a long time. What are you doing to end out this year? Do you have any more releases or shows coming up?

Andy: We're playing two festivals at the end of June one is called The Tiny Giant Summer Bummer festival. We're part of this musical group on Facebook and, it's cool it's a collective of like three dozen bands and we all help each other pass on shows. Some people are promoters, some people are reviewers of CDs and so on and so forth and so, we had this show in the background for a couple months now and it's finally happening at the end of June. June 22nd in Asbury Lanes. And a bunch of bands from that group are playing and the following week we are playing Kitten Fest. I think it's the eigth or ninth Kitten Fest and it's basically a bunch of hippie kids rent out a giant backyard and it's facepainting and beachballs flowing around and shirtless dudes and shirtless girls...

Zakk: Last year we met some guy and he gave us acid.

Andy: So that's Kitten Fest and after that we're going take a little break and we're probably going.. you know we're writing monsters so literally, we'd write an album and they'd we'd be like 'let's write some NEW songs. So I think we're in that groove right now. We just released this new album and some of the songs we've been playing for a couple months so it's like, I think we want to do some kind of like, demo or ep... like four songs. Ideally I'd like to make it a concept but... we're just going to take some time off, write some stuff and start kicking it again maybe like early September, Octoberish area. And it's like. We're going to play it out.

It's NJ you know, so it's tough, especially since the venue Maxwell's in Hoboken closed down, and that is like the venue in Jersey to play and it's like... it's almost going to destroy the scene because in the sense of a local band, there's nothing you can build up to. You know Dingbats, I mean Maxwell's was a place where you could build up to to potentially play with a bigger band. Now since that's gone what's left? Like Starland... Stone Pony? Those places... no one gives a shit about those places anymore. I feel like people are into the smaller type of stuff. Local...

Zakk: Saint Vitus...

Andy: Yeah, Saint Vitus... and it's... basically it's like... I don't know what's going on in the future. I think we want to play some shows... shop around our album. That's another thing we want to do near the end of the summer. We're really going to sit down... look at blogs... push the album... try to the more of the internet side of things. We've got the live element, we've got the music... and again, I don't want to sound like a broken record but we're instrumental metal in New Jersey which is filled with garbage music. And it's really hard to climb to the top like that.

Mike: Andy, want a beer?

Andy: No... I really got to go home. Hahaha.

CT: Before you leave, how can people get in contact with you guys if they want to get a copy of your album or...

Mike: Can we do shout outs? Shout out to us on Facebook. You can definitely find a way to get in contact with us through the internet. Coming out to shows.

Zakk: Facebook, coming out to shows. That's the main way to get in touch with us. Definitely Facebook, we do everything on Facebook and music-wise we do everything through Bandcamp. We sell our music on Bandcamp. That's like the way to hear our music - on Bandcamp. Contact is through Facebook.

Mike: Dude we are all about people checking it out, coming out to see us not being afraid to check out something different. I hope you got something out of it because it makes my night if you did.

CT: It was a cool show. I got to watch this dude play bass. As a bassist, to watch someone play slap mixed with tapping.. that's where it's at.

Andy: Haha. Thank you.

CT: Thanks guys.

Mike: Thank you!
Andy: Thanks
Zakk: Solid dude.

Mortalicum - Progress of Doom

It's no secret that Sweden is a top tier metal country. Hell, I'm reviewing this while wearing a Candlemass Nightfall t-shirt. Appropriate for the genre here, as well as the locale. Mortalicum, based out of Sundsvall, comes from an area of Sweden with very few recognizable bands. The best known is probably Setherial, who have nothing in common with the Heavy Doom that Mortalicum cook up. 2010's Progress of Doom, from a critique standpoint is a good first debut for a band which has a serious talent for welding memorable hard rock moments onto the Doom and Stoner Doom chasis which gives the band the power that would appeal to metalheads. With Progress... Mortalicum creates the vibe of a hardworking garage band that plays local bars whom everyone wishes would just get that one huge break so they could all of a sudden play to stadiums. They really epitomize everything I find endearing in great Heavy Metal, especially when it's slightly on the Doomier side. Lyrically, Mortalicum are clean and sharp and direct. You can actually belt out right along with the vocals because Henrik Högl has great inflection and pronunciation. Musically they are extremely tight, hit all the the right notes at the right times and fill down time with riffs and fills that sound like those parts NEED to be there. They conjure up similarities to a lot of bands but none so much that they sound like a worship band.

While all the tracks here are really good, it's fifth and sixth tracks which really make Progress of Doom something that deserves to take residence in many record collections. "Power and Control,"  absolutely undresses me, makes me sweaty and uncomfortably excited first. With a simple, yet decisively killer riff that wouldn't be far off of something on Jaguar's Power Games,  the force and emotion behind the music empower a set of lyrics which are eerily similar to something I've written for a future project in the same vein. It's like these guys stole the song I wrote. That's fine because they've done a better job than something I could have done anyway. The hefty weight of a simple memorable structure, lyrics about greedy assholes that care for nothing but themselves - lyrics about people which everyone generally both hates and also has first hand experience with - and Henrik's everyman vocal quality just drives home the point that there are a lot of pissed off people that find better ways to express their frustrations than shooting up schools. This is probably the most pissed off track on the album.

Opting to keep the album on the right track, "The Voyager" follows, more in line with the jammy vibe mentioned earlier. It's got more of a modern Pentagram or Monument-era Grand Magus touch - a touch which becomes more readily apparent on the follow up album - to the movement of the track and the placement of details. Either way, "The Voyager" rocks hard and tough and nasty, even though it's a really upbeat, individualistic track. The repetition of lyrics in the track is a bit more than necessary, omitting maybe one or two of the refrains would clear up some room and breath in the song, but honestly, I've got little complaints about a song with lyrics like "From the shoulder of Orion, I have seen your wars, Fighting the endless battle, Trying to save your souls." The repetition and ease at which this song sinks into your head would make it about as good of a choice for compilations and radio play as it would be a good idea for pizza places to serve cold pizza during the summer months. The only problem with both "Power and Control," and "The Voyager," is that the tracks are so strong it leaves the final tracks vulnerable to expectations. That's exactly what happens here.

"Revolution in Vain" sounds incomplete for some reason. The foundation isn't bad. The opening riff doesn't build really at all and it leaves the song with an immediate dullness somehow. The verse riffs would fit at home on Candlemass' self titled album. Something about both "Darkness All Around" and  "Inner Peace" make me feel as if these are a demo track or a scratch track or something. Backing vocals in "Darkness All Around" sound flat and out of place. Fortunately, the final ten minute culminating track "Damnation of the Soul" is a perfect solution to the end of this album, as it flows gently, yet uneasily dark from my speakers. The talents of bassist Patrick Backlund and drummer Andreas Häggström on Progress of Doom are not to be neglected though and both really round out the band's sound notably. Backlund, in particular, has a lot of clout with the band's sound.  Mortalicum's debut sets them up well for their sophomore effort, The Endtime Prophecy which, I know, is excellent and also leaves them with a lot of opportunity in the future if they wanted to do a bit more of a down and dirty doom beast, as the guitars and vibe of this album is more in line with that.

Nolentia - May the Hand that Holds the Match that Will Set This World on Fire Be Blessed Above All

Nolentia’s “May the Hand...” is an album that is as musically tight as its title isn’t. At around a half hour long the French death metal/grindcore band offers up a surprising amount of interesting ideas in a well-focused package. Even with only 4 of the 17 songs cracking the two minute mark, the band manages to blend ideas and entire songs well with one another, completely avoiding the feeling that can happen with such releases where it seems like a band has just a handful of unrelated ideas. By the time you near the work’s end and hear “The glorious march of progress” you can really notice this overwhelming sense of cohesion through the separate songs. This cohesion continues on to the very end of the album because of how well the latter songs meld in with the one another. A strong flow like this makes for really effective pacing, which isn’t always easy to achieve with 17 different songs in such a relatively short time. Even earlier in the album the band pays keen attention to timing, “Encoded” flows perfectly into “Wright” and the mid-section songs are a slightly slower middle act to give the listener a brief reprieve from the churning violence.

With a clear sense for songwriting Nolentia has no use for gimmicks or ornate musical ideas, “May the Hand...” is interesting simply because it is crushing and has meaty riffs. Nothing here will be overwhelmingly original or groundbreaking, its just good. Strongest among all songs on the album, “Et in acedia ego” pulls no punches when it comes to that eminently important meatiness factor. Screeching unhinged guitar riffs that pull away from a thick percussive bass that is crunchy enough to not need the guitars anyway. Other bands take note, this is how a bass with facial hair sounds. I only wish that the bass player was more inclined to speak up in the other songs since it sounds so damn awesome. This don’t need to include attempts to get fancy, but it would be nice to hear something like having the guitars go a bit higher every so often in order let the bass have a temporary dictatorship over the low-end.

In “Et in acedia ego,” as elsewhere on the album, you can hear how focused the band is on strong rhythms and downbeats. Occasionally, “May the Hand...” has the drums choke out this rhythmic sense by being too busy and concealing the natural punch some of the melodies have. This is a mix between too must blasting and keeping the same beat while the riffs change in rhythm. Usually though the drums, guitars, and especially vocals all line up together to unleash a battery of music. It is pummeling, which should be unsurprising given that there is a predominance of grindcore influence, although songs sometime structurally feel hinged around death metal ideas. Take for example “The boiling frog principle” which doesn’t have an abundance of mostly death metal riffs, yet still feels like it due to very first riff and the jagged transitions throughout.

One significant weakness is the upper register vocals. These higher pitched yips are really grating and whiney, but nothing unusual for the style. Despite not liking how they sounded I still appreciated how Nolentia varied the vocal styles while keeping an eye on balance. Switching off one style to another and then screaming together can be much more interesting than a more monotonous approach. Even with one of the voices being fairly poor, the two combined simultaneously manage to be stronger than either individually. Fortunately, when there is only one vocal line the gutturals effectively dominate as they often carry a melody rather than only a rhythmic punch. Moreover, the gutturals are much thicker and have more musical presence so anytime they appear it is much more noticeable. The higher vocals in contrast are dynamically flat and partly like they are the product of studio magic, there isn’t a sense of strain or volume in their delivery.

Nolentia closes off the album with “The second principle,” which unsurprisingly could be thought of as the second half of “Better” because they transition so well despite the closing track being much slower than the rest of the music. Another strong part of “The second principle” is how it has such a powerful sense of finality. The slow and steady tempo helps create a stability to bring the ending into focus, tremolo picked notes make a wall of sound that even out the rest of the album’s rhythmic thrashing. Best of all is the very ending, as things get progressively louder and distorted there is no questioning that this is the crushing finale. Not personally being into shorter songs, I didn’t think I would like this much. While the longer songs were on average stronger, this is really just coincidence because so many of the songs seamlessly meld together. This is an album with enough direction to almost make it narrative. Nolentia has a bright future and would be excellent if they allowed the bass take the lead more often, eased up on the drums, and worked on the higher pitched vocals. This would help the band’s songwriting swell up to the musical size the band deserves.

Sacred Gate - When Eternity Ends

Sacred Gate's debut album, When Eternity Ends, a very acceptable record for the style of Heavy Metal which this German outfit produce. While there is in fact very little to set Sacred Gate aside from numerous other acts, they competently perform an album which is half Iron Maiden gallop and half mid-80's Accept without the notable riffage of the later or the songwriting and twin guitar attack of the former. Regardless, bands of this ilk are difficult to appease my love of the Heavy Metal art form which has been over-tilled like a field in the midwest during the dust-bowl. As average as Sacred Gate is on this album, there are some take-aways to mention. While two or three tracks offer some interest, all of the tracks including those that are better than average lack serious depth. The album was put together nicely and the layout, the production and the sound quality are all extremely professional however it doesn't hide the music's general flavorlessness. When Eternity Ends is like watching a carpenter build a chair that functions perfectly but no one would want to put in their house because he made it out of pressure treated two-by-fours.

The key word with Sacred Gate's When Eternity Ends once again is depth. It's not just limited to Sacred Gate of course. Plenty of modern bands lack this necessary attribute to propel an album from average to above average or better. Depth, as it relates to Heavy Metal can be found in rhythmic variety, melodic variance, harmonizing and playing against other instruments - especially the bass guitar - but there is none of that here. Sacred Gate rarely deviate from typical chugging in common time or triplet Maiden-esque sections. When Peter Beckers, whose bass playing is technically very good on this album, simply follows along predictably against all this - even if he does little fills here and there (all within the 'box') - it sets the album for a very mundane trip down Heavy Metal lane. Melodically, there is also nothing beyond what's presented immediately to the listener. It's all very novice structuring of chord progressions. The album is a great exercise for intonation practice for those that are not good with figuring out notes by ear. I know because I have terrible intonation and it was enjoyable to play along to the tracks to see if I could pick out notes and progressions. When opportunity arises for Sacred Gate to inject some harmonization or dueling leads into the tracks, it never arrives. Halfway through the title track the band goes about twenty seconds after one of the choruses where nothing happens and the rhythm guitars are very thin sounding. This would have been a great place to incorporate some variation or harmonization to build up to the lead afterwards.

More positive recognition goes to the effort put into crafting memorable leads on the album. Nicko Nikolaidis really rips it up in many of the songs with great leads and solos. "The Realm of Hell" for example sets up a kick-ass tapping solo with some finely crafted off-key bends and slides even if underneath this is the limpest rhythmic backing I've heard in a long time. The lead in "Freedom or Death" is also very good and this one has a better backing to it of marching snare drums. Another high point for me was Jim Over's vocals which were really strong across the album. I could see him being really animated and emotional in a live setting with these tracks. His voice has a slight waver which doesn't really come close to a vibrato but it's not totally stiff either. The added bit of sandiness and flex his voice offers is also unique. It's not really similar to a lot of other singers I've heard and that makes the vocals endearing to me. I touched upon the clarity and production value earlier but I'll just note again that it's well done. The guitars are crisp and sound like there has been very little post-production work on them. The drums are set back a little too much for my taste but they are clear and audible. The kick and snare are discernible and with the punchy bass tone and honest guitars, the rhythm side of things are well taken care of. Strangely, the lead tone sounds a lot like the lead tone which Orlok has used lately on the recent Countess albums. Unfortunately Orlok makes no appearance here. That would have made my night.

If you have to ask me, the second half of this disc is better than the first four tracks. Starting with "Freedom or Death," the album seems to take a slightly darker, more foreboding feel. "Freedom..." is the first track that has some more layered riffs and melodic stuff going on. It's essentially a ballad - something the Europeans love - and seems to be the track which Metal on Metal decided to go with as a single as it shows up on the Compendium of Metal Vol. 7 compilation. The song is well written and picks up later on with some leads and solos, touched upon earlier which give the track a bit of life and energy. "In The Heart of the Iron Maiden," shares similarities with "Freedom or Death" and the two pair well to create the best ten minutes on the release. These tracks are slightly more solemn and important sounding. Once the obnoxious intro and bridges in "Vengeance," which sound like plucking splinters out of your eardrum, are over, there are few terrible moments to follow. The final twelve minutes are pretty enjoyable Heavy Metal but Sacred Gate have to recognize they are doing very little to make me want to listen to them instead of listening to something with more personality and heft.

Johansson & Speckmann - Sulphur Skies

The percentage of projects which Rogga Johansson is involved in that sound like every other project which Rogga Johansson has been in is over one hundred percent. I don't even need to listen to this release to know what it's going to sound like. Remarkably, people flock to the dude like fifty year old metal fans flock to Iron Maiden concerts. Much like Iron Maiden, Rogga has been doing the exact same thing forever, is unabashed about it and doesn't seem like he has any interest in anything other than the Swedish death metal which he pumps out like an overworked assembly line that's been making the same product regardless of quality for aeons. In reality, I have no problem with any of Rogga's music. It's very good to use as a baseline for measuring Swedeath. It's perfectly average. It's pretty fundamental stuff that you really can't hate, even if we can be honest about it's redundancy. Paganizer has made appearances in Contaminated Tones several times already and the verdict was similar to my opinions here. Humanity Delete also ran into some problems but was a better effort. Johansson and Speckmann, is the same message, the same style that we've come to love or be bored by and offers the same thing we either love or are bored by, but with Paul Speckmann on vocals.

Preface out of the way, I'll make note of some of the stuff that I really did enjoy. One thing which Sulphur Skies has going for it is in fact Speckmann, whose vocals are pretty good on the release and offer a bit of differentiation and interest. At times the words at the end of phrases trail off in, what I imagine to be, a stream of dribble down his beard. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere behind the curly grey quills escaping from his face like prisoners jetting out of a POW camp, is John Tardy. There is no comparison here to Speckmann's bitterness and emotion in Master or Death Strike but Speckmann never seems tired or bored. He must be one of those guys that just unconditionally loves death metal. Still, the tracks here emit a certain level of timidity which ensconces the release in the kind of aura which you would find above a man painting his house with a toothbrush or hovering next to a seventeen year old in a first grade math class. Even some of the longer screams are not nearly vicious enough. Some other notable moments are the various leads that appear throughout the release. The first of which, several notes held out over the dross death metal underneath, comes into focus near the end of second track "Spiritual Wasteland," and again in third track "Taste the Iron," a song which I imagine has a lot to do with laundry. Slower moments on Sulphur Skies rekindle those memories of hearing Into The Grave for the first time. In my case, it made me actually put on the classic album instead of listening to Johansson And Speckmann. You can't argue with classics and this just emphasized what Sulphur Skies is missing - the evil.

If I had to pick out a highlight, it would be title track "Sulphur Skies." The one track summarizes the entire release. It's a blitzing beast of predictability and Rogga-riffs. The main recurring verse phrase is rather awesome and memorable. The lead at the end is well situated. The drumming of Brynjar Helgetun is precise and compliments his old compatriot Rogga. If I had to pick out a final lowlight, it would be the pacing of this album, also an issue with many other Johansson led releases. It's twelve tracks, all basically exactly the same length, with similar structures and not a huge amount of differentiation between tracks other than the occasional memorable intro riff. "Vile Stench and Decay" is one such track with a memorable introductory riff. At it's heart, this is a death metal fan's album. If you're the kind of person who has no restraint when it comes to Death Metal, you'll probably love this. If you like death metal that is complex, difficult and unique, there is none of that here and for that reason, it's not my chalice of blood.

Cvinger - Monastery of Fallen

Picture a Mustang Cobra with flames gracelessly adorning the sides. It's pretty tacky, but still badass enough be tolerable. Now remove the Mustang’s engine from your mental image and suddenly things aren’t so tolerable - you now have a solid grasp on how Cvinger’s works as a band. They have all the style, body, and framework for really excellent aggressive black metal, but the band can’t move anywhere because there is no power. The notes in the riffs never seem to lead to anywhere, but merely linger around the same pitches without noticeably raising or falling. Drums crash with relentless violence, but without ever feeling like they are driving forward. Every moment of music clamors for your attention creating a clashing white noise like countless screaming sports fans at a game, no individual has any character of its own. No riff is memorable. The band also fails to understand how contrasting rests or tempo changes within a song can make faster parts sound all the more aggressive. A rare and perhaps the sole exception to this can be heard in about two minutes into the titular track “Monastery of Fallen” where a slower section with a trilled note really emphasizes the fairly unrelated speed that immediately follows it. Overall though, the music is just far too monotonous. What’s also completely missing from this EP is that special feeling you get when listening to metal, where you absolutely need the next note to happen because the riffs simply command it to. Cvinger never achieves this momentum, so all we are left with is the facade of aggressive black metal - speed, but its empty, bloated, and hamstrung.

The most accurate comparison I can think of would be a bloated, “modern”, and watered down version of Zyklon-B’s “Blood Must Be Shed” but perhaps a more recognizable way to convey the same idea would be to just mention Marduk. That too may be overly generous. Essentially, Cvinger is fast but doesn’t have much else going on, this mustang is mostly a one-trick pony. But there is another major problem here, the one-trick pony ponderously gazes into the mirror and becomes somewhat self-aware of its limitations. It thinks “I know I am a fast pony, but deep in my horse heart I also know that there is more to me than that. I am a sophisticated pony.” The musical side-effects of this equine introspection are severely out of place interjections of Gregorian chants and sloppy acoustic guitar breaks titled as “Chapter[s]”. In an undisguised attempt to sound varied, the band ends up bloating the EP’s sense of speed, which also kills the bulk of the band’s identity. With around 20 minutes of music this bloat takes up around 5 minutes, a substantial blow to pacing that is further amplified by the fact that the intro and outro tracks are both devoid of metal. Clearly there is nothing wrong with trying to vary music and break up the pacing of an album to be more interesting, but this is not the way to go about it because the band still sounds monotonous. Firstly, the filler tracks are so musically unrelated to the heavier party that they serve only so disconnect the EP. Secondly, these tracks suffer from the same songwriting problems as the other songs, no sense of direction or power. “Chapter 2 Of Ashes and Dust” is a very glaring example of this. While that song’s stripped down acoustic melody may be stylistically different from most of the music, its simplicity provides an obvious reminder of the Cvinger’s weaknesses as a whole - the band needs a songwriter.

DarkBlack - Midnight Wraith

DarkBlack's debut LP, Sellsword was a great blending of late 70's early 80's Heavy Metal which pulled a lot of influence and inspiration from Thin Lizzy and wrapped it up in a box that conjured hints of Slauter Xstroyes. With Midnight Wraith, DarkBlack have dropped a some of the heavier elements of that album and some of the more intricate riffs, streamlined the style and incorporated a more decisive approach to what they want DarkBlack to sound like. In this case, it's a heavy dose of more Thin Lizzy a long with some of the sharpness and vibe of Diamond Head. DarkBlack don't simply milk old cows though. Comparisons to less referenced bands like Blackfoot fall well within range of the band's overall sound and with both Sellsword and also with Midnight Wraith these classic influences are plastered all over the band's riffs and sound. Highlighting these early Heavy Metal influences are guitar tones which would fit right at home at that period of time. The guitars are crisp and clear, very natural and bright while the bass is clunky and solid thump that stands out easily against the bright guitars. You can hear the sliding of fingers, plucks of strings and subtle (im)perfections that make appearances all over the place. It's a no bullshit recording.

Tim Smith's vocals are one thing which I don't yet fully love. I don't loathe them either. I just wish they were a little clearer. He's got a good voice and a good delivery but just as on Sellsword they are a bit buried on Midnight Wraith. It's difficult to really distinguish words. There is a hefty amount of reverb on them which seems in direct conflict with the clearness of the instrumentation. The emphasis is clearly on this aspect of the band - the instrumentation - and it hurts a bit because great vocals have to be present to make a release like this stand out. With so much throwback to those early years of Metal, a period when having a great vocalist was imperative and having great vocals on albums was such a huge part of what made bands like Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest and Rainbow famous, for DarkBlack, this is a segment of their music that needs some work. Tim isn't a bad vocalist either. I don't know why they would hide him in the background as they have.

Either way, the songs on this album are all really enjoyable. Opening track "Doom Herald" is immediately memorable, ear catching and tone setting for the rest of the EP. Even though overall, the five tracks have more of a Hard Rock feeling than the debut LP, they are nowhere near that cusp of ballessness and boredom which so many bands that try this style find themselves at. I think of a band like Riggs, whose full length album was god-awful hard rock but their track Radar Rider on the Heavy Metal movie soundtrack was killer hard rock, borderline metal. It's like that. DarkBlack are Radar Rider. They are the exception and not the rule. DarkBlack find ways of highlighting moments of harmonies with the perfect underlying notes such as halfway into "Doom Herald" or during the solo section of "Golden Idol" when you get this great sweeping tingle of melody and harmony in one fell swoop or an unexpected collaboration of melodies.

Though "Power Monger" and "Golden Idol" have their moments, "...Idol" in particular, the final two tracks are the best here. "Midnight Wraith" is just a bit rougher and just a bit more dark though and is the best song here. The refrain or chorus sections build up some pressure and tension and when drummer Eben Travis pounds through sections of the song, it sounds like he's putting his drumsticks straight through the snare and the beater through the kick. It's hard and vicious for a band that for the most part keeps it cool and concise. With "Broken Oath," DarkBlack open with the most memorable harmonization and melodies on the release. Tim's vocal lines are a bit more fluid on this track too. Midnight Wraith ends strong and opens strong. It shows a band that might be heading on a collision course with awesomeness.

Scythe - Beware The Scythe

I don't know what it is about Scythe's Beware The Scythe but no matter how many times I try and listen to it, I just find myself wandering off. It's not that the album is bad - because it's not - I just find myself having a hard time paying attention past two or three songs. Maybe it's the genre, or rather blending of genres. It's a bit of thrash and a bit of black metal but moments are also quite rock and roll. It's what Midnight would sound like if Midnight wasn't so focused on speed metal. And if the riffs were more mediocre. I guess one of the closest comparisons of Scythe's style would something like Witchery though not their better two early albums like Dead Hot and Ready or Restless Dead. Scythe is closer to the less aggressive Symphony for the Devil. Never once do Scythe break out some of the really killer riffs though. At times Scythe launches into more blackened sections similar to the Czech Avenger but they don't provide enough opportunity for atmosphere to build either. It's a really difficult and middle-of-the-road style which has never really appealed to me. A lot of people may compare them to Aura Noir. It's appropriate, maybe, but there is no similarity in quality.

Album opener "The Iron Witch" sounds like two or three different bands at times, hinted at previously. The production is modern, crisp and well done and emphasizes the sharpness which Scythe might be aiming at with their riffs. In general, the thrashier riffs are cut-and-dry. There is no looseness. Everything is tighter than the center of a rubber band ball. The static guitar tone leaves plenty of room for the bass guitar to stand out. It's probably the best track on the album. "Mastermind" contains more give-and-take riffing; plodding series of chugs in a more call and response fashion. The back and forth is at times taxing on the nerves. Title track "Beware the Scythe," provides the first hint of experimentation and left-field inclusion when half way through the band jumps into a Fireball Ministry esque mid-tempo groove riff complete with Stoner Doom vocals and lead. One review I saw mentioned Black Label Society in this regard. That's a proper comparison as well. It's at this point where I usually feel the tug of my waning attention span which I've come to learn can be extremely short. It's strange that even though the songs include variations and different personalities, it's all very bland. The opening four tracks are great foundations of songs, but there is very little additional detail added to make repeated listenings justified.

The final five tracks pick up basically, where the first five tracks leave off, stylistically, however there seems to be more attention paid to detail at points. Some leads, overdubs and subtle melodic movements make these tracks more promising from the band. "Planet of the Humans" in particular shows some additional effort added with some atonal ringing guitars to contrast against the riffs. It's one of the better moments on the release but it's too late and too little. The rest of the track concludes with few notable moments. One of the more subtle issues with which the band struggles happens to be the syncopation prevalent in all their tracks. There is a general argumentative feel within all the riffs that, frankly is annoying. The prominence of this inert tough-guy rhythmic swell hidden behind the whole album really monotonizes and dulls the entire release. Scythe, should they find a way to channel that feel in measured restraint, could separate themselves in a more positive light. Some may argue that it adds some originality and definition to the band to separate them from everything else. Maybe. I just find it annoying when it's present in every song.

Court Tavern - Bible Thumper Pictures

Some pictures from Bible Thumper's set at the Court Tavern last weekend:

 

The Lumberjack Feedback - Hand of Glory

I sat down to listen to this EP and instead of a casual listen, I intended to pay attention to every last note in a feeble attempt to immerse myself in the music. As I listened, “Hand of Glory” started off with a thunderous intro of dynamic drums with both guitars and bass having jealousy-inducing tones, just like it had during my previous listens. This time though, something strange happened. I was focusing on the music and found myself enveloped. A slow creeping wave came over my body as note after note sustained outward to create endless surges of aimless buildup. Blackness started to consume me as the almost tribal pounding of the drums gangled about the two long instrumental songs. The rich tonality of the EP swirled about, and I drifted away. I drifted right into a damn nap. This EP honestly put me to sleep. Asleep at a time when I was going out of my way to stay alert. “Hand of Glory” is the kind of music that requires listeners to force themselves to experience. Everything is so monotonous and flat that it simply can not command any attention. Instrumental metal isn’t inherently a problem, but the band makes it one here because none of the instruments volunteer to take up the conspicuous melodic role usually filled by vocals. Guitars serve this purpose with more extreme genres of metal, but here they are just a backdrop. Everything feels like background noise. Aside from the very first moment where the song starts in one speaker and then suddenly doubles up, the EP is extremely predictable. Take for example the chord progression from around 3:50-4:30 in “The Dreamcatcher.” Almost even before it starts you know its destination, its nowhere.

With excellent production and beautiful sounding instruments The Lumberjack Feedback was off to a good start. However, the songs are simply overwhelmingly boring. After about two minutes into “A Whisper To The Thunder,” the band almost manages a good riff with the soaring guitar over the soporific chugging. But, for The Lumberjack Feedback to fill the shoes of their obvious influences like Pelican and Isis it will take more than just good equipment and one almost good riff. Bad sludge metal is like bad thrash in this way, everything ends up sounding really similar and formulaic. In the same way that you can’t tell one song’s feel or emotion from the other, each section within each of the two songs fails to convey anything. Maybe it is a metaphor, the band sends people tumbling downward into sleep in the same way that lumberjacks knock down trees. Plodding forgettable riffs as chainsaws, boring boring away at you with the same rarely-wavering rhythm of a small engine. After feeling that the band never once changed their tempo, I consciously checked and realized that they actually had, which means that they managed to change speed without having ever appeared to. Musically breaking the laws of physics. The EP is all just one constant buildup and is lacking the kind of tension and resolution you can get out of bands like Isis. This is metal elevator music, so while its really tiresome and fades into the background, it isn’t overtly awful unless you are trying to enjoy it for its own sake.

Forestfather, Black Chalice, Lamentations of the Ashen Reviews: From The Dust Returned

From The Dust Returned offers thoughts on the new slate of releases.

Proof positive of the power of online networking, Forestfather is a project long in gestation which was finally brought to light when original member Kveldulf (from Chile) inevitably collaborated with a pair of prolific US musicians, Jared Moran and Michael Rumple, who, between them, in particular Moran, have written and released a wealth of other ventures across numerous genres. In listening to Hereafter, though, you really can't tell that there's any sort of cultural gulf or distance between the members, because the five tracks here flow seamlessly across an emotional, folkish, black metal landscape; dark in a reflective sense but largely built upon crescendos of loss and rustic reverie. A number of styles are distributed equally across the 37 minutes of content, and more importantly the vocal arrangements offer a rather unique mesh of timbres that are simply not something you'll hear on many recordings in this niche.

There are probably four central themes to Kveldulf's playing here that are given even face time through the record. Bright, hazy drifts of chords performed at a moderate pace reminiscent of the mid-period Drudkh records, which are anchored by the most potent bass lines on the disc. Tasteful, folksy acoustic licks that transition rather well in and out of the distorted escalations. Dreamy, shoegaze-like, minimalist melodies that stretch into the highest elevations of rhythmic pitch on the record, while canvasing the other instruments (great example of this is after the 1:00 mark in "Ethereal", which is very true to its title) and creating some of the most haunting and effective instances of the experience. And lastly, there's a more savage, traditional black metal ethos with intense, melodic picking supported by the hammering double-bass lines. This was most impressive in the first half of the track "The Emerald Key", which had patterns that instantly summoned nostalgia within me for Borknagar records like The Olden Domain and The Archaic Course, not to mention Enslaved around that later 90s era. Shimmering, well-plotted, yet as solemn as a wall of granite.

I wouldn't necessarily say that the majority of the riffs here were equally memorable, but each cut has at least a few to distinguish it among the album as a whole, and Forestfather has a number of other distractions to help balance out any tedium I might have felt during the less interesting progressions: the foremost of which is the multi-pronged vocal attack here, in which a number of sharp, clean lines tend to take you by surprise. Far from a common commodity in this genre, Rumple's performance nevertheless sheds the strange Scandinavian soaring of an ICS Vortex for something more dagger-like and unnerving in shape, with some soothing and expressive harmonization that adds quite a lot to the rural imagery conjured up through the chords; not to  mention the crazy screaming in the back-end of "All Tears to Come", which is bloody fantastic. I wasn't half as immersed in the black snarls here, which are really par for the course, but in fairness there are some individual instances where the lines become wretched and ugly enough to really stand on their own. But I'd actually go so far to say that I would have preferred more of the harmonies here, since there are entire swaths of the record filled only by the rasps that don't feel nearly as refreshing.

Bass lines are silk-smooth, really finding their stride during the mid-paced sequences of the album where a groove is established to bolster the sad and pretty high-end picking patterns. The drums also feel fairly loud and natural without becoming obnoxious or drowning out the other performances. A lot are performed with a laconic, rock sensibility befitting the ebb and flow of the guitars, but numerous double kick sections and loud, abrasive fills help to challenge some of this tranquility; and there are some outright blasted components like in the latter half of "The Emerald Key" or in "The Days Ever-Done" which are more or less like a Frost/Pure Holocaust-era desperate charge through a blizzard. But, really, it's a testament to the variation here that even the percussion-less pieces, like the intro and bridge in "The Days Ever-Done" hold the attention through their composition and never give the listener any urge to be anywhere else. There's a dramatic egality across Hereafter, between its calms and storms, which seems meticulously structured without ever revealing any semblance of robotic predictability....

...that's not to say I loved every track equivocally, and was, in fact, rarely blown away here, but there was indeed something pleasant and compelling about the experience which rarely put me to sleep. For a debut, Hereafter is strong and self-assured, the sort of rustic acclimation that many black metal/folk artists seem to strive for without achieving. I felt transported to some woodland riverbank where a rucksack of supplies awaited my arrival, and then departed on a journey worth taking. Forestfather is not particularly 'evil' or sinister as far as black metal goes, nor is it happy and summery, but more like a long autumn afternoon hike when you are standing in the shadows of the trees just as often as a clearing, surrounded by withering foliage. A curious evolutionary nook between folk-era Ulver, Olden Domain Borknagar and the quixotic current flavors of bands like Wolves in the Throne Room, Woods of Ypres or Alcest...but certainly not restrained to these, there's really a lot of potential appeal here for anyone who wishes to whittle away his/her sorrows in a campfire headspace beyond the eavesdropping of humanity.

Review: Here

I'm often at a loss as to what constitutes a demo recording or an 'official' album, especially in the metal underground, where the latter can often prove just as important or substantial as the former. In the case of the Submission demo by Black Chalice, it probably has something to do with the studio process and the original intentions for the material. This is actually a considerably longer work than the Obsidian album I covered, and recorded the year before. Strangely enough, it offers some of the added variation I felt could have strengthened that work, but at the same time it's a little less consistent overall, and there were a few points at which I felt myself nodding out. I guess this better deserves the brand of 'death/doom' than Obsidian, because the growls here reign supreme, and it definitely possesses a more mournful, crushing, funeral pall, but texturally I also felt it a little dryer, less saturated with the imagination of that album.

Submission opens with a four-minute instrumental constructed from clean, sad, scintillating guitars that eventually builds into a union of chords and single picked melodies, and then beyond that comes the really heavy stuff. There's still a combination of drudging, filthy chords and melodies, but the former feel a little more gratingly tuned, and the latter seem slightly less tethered to the bottom line. The drums are really underwhelming here, faint beats that barely support the huge, ugly riffs canvased above them, though they pick up steam in the bridge of "Regret" when they start hammering away. The guttural vocals take on a maudlin, almost monotonous drift as they would in many recordings of this field, and they don't really distinguish themselves as being particularly weighted or brutal. "Submission" itself features more clean guitars, and some of the submissive, clean vocals that are commonplace on Obsidian, but it also has a pretty weak transition and then picks up into what is basically an admixture of driving, older Katatonia-style guitars. I found "Cornea" more to my liking, though the rhythm guitar distortion seems to clip a little and nearly bust out of its own recording.

The last track, "Wain" seems to come from a separate recording session and has a more repressed quality about it. Melodic vocals, groovier riffs and a bass-heavy, Sabbath like substance to some of the riffing in the bridge. Perhaps an attempt to make inroads to a more antiquated style of doom metal, but it does seem a little out of place with the rest of the material, and sloppily constructed so that the riffs don't exactly flow into one another in a meaningful way. That said, I actually did enjoy the project of Patrick using his clean vocal style over this more psychedelic riffing aesthetic, I only wish he were louder. Lyric-wise, Submission was quite good as the other Black Chalice material, especially the song "Regret" where I really enjoyed the closing line: When will we be sorry? We will be sorry. Still very personal and deep, wrist-cutting and depressing, but perhaps a bit more image-laden. Ultimately, I think this was a work borne of experimental intentions more so than Obsidian, but some of the songs drudge on a little much without many ideas of note, and "Wain" just didn't fit for me. Not without a few moments, but I simply felt more rewarded by the experience of Obsidian.

Link: Here

What hit me the hardest about Obsidian is just how abrupt the album begins, especially for a death/doom record. No lengthy, pretentious acoustic passages to kick off the experience, no treacherously slow build into the solemn and crushing riffs. This one just dumps a bucket of sorrow directly over your noggin through a miasma of churning, burly doom metal progressions, haunting and tonal clean vocals that hover below the loud swell of the chords, and a foundation of dreamy atmospherics that seem as if they could only been inspired by a dreary, overcast New England coastline. Or at least that's how I'll imagine it, since Black Chalice is the work of one Patrick A. Hasson of Maine, who some underground pundits might recognize from his black metal oriented projects Auspicium and Avulse.

But even more important, this album got me nostalgic for what must be my favorite doom metal epoch, the 90s, when the strong presence of the British scene was joined by an emergent Swedish wave of Gothic-tinted bands. For instance, some of the emboldened chord patterns here recall the first two Lake of Tears records, but then Patrick is constantly splaying out resonant melodies beneath them that remind me of Paradise Lost (circa Icon). Granted, this is marginally more solemn and funereal in disposition than those albums, to the point that it might even appeal to fans of stuff like Evoken, but this guy clearly dug out the roots of the genre and avoids the droning, endless excess that the style has often fallen into, even on the longer pieces "Heliocentric" and "Obsidian" that make up about 21 minutes of content between them. Some might balk at the stiffness of the drum programming, or the oft calamitous resonance of the production in general, but this tape is nothing if not consistently eloquent and oppressive in equal turns.

Naturally, he gives himself more space to explore in the wider tunes, like "Obsidian" where the drums drop to a sparse cadence, the drudging bass-lines rumble beneath a glaze of harmonies; or "Heliocentric" where he produces these warm, climactic fusions of the grainy rhythm guitars and melodies. But most of the material is based on the same, steady formula of dirty chords and drifting vocals. The singing is strangely subdued, and this might also prove a turnoff for those accustomed to the vocals being on top, but in reality this just gives them the substance of another instrument in the mix. He doesn't exclusively stick with this one style, capable of belting out the dirgelike gutturals most equate with the genre, but it certainly feels more drugged, numbing and ultimately unique. I did feel at times like the album might have benefited from further variation, perhaps some vocal-only passages or tempo shifts, but as it stands, four tracks in 33 minutes isn't quite enough to wear out its welcome by turning the same few tricks repeatedly.

All in all, a fairly unique style here that rewarded me with the escapism I seek of it. The lyrics are personal and cautionary as opposed to poetic and image-heavy; dealing largely with depression, alcoholism and the confines of the human condition, but at the same time their humble. Patrick isn't speaking to you through some pretentious haze of Gothic grandeur, but more on a person-to-person level, and it helps to ground the epic quality of the music, to 'reel it in' if you will. You know, I just had to make a fisherman joke because I'm an asshole, and because there's just something so contemplatively coastal about this...lighthouse doom...a walk on the rocks, breakers spraying your toes with cold, salty tears. Obsidian isn't perfection by any means, but it IS an experience, and there's not a lot more I could ask for in a niche of metal that I sometimes find to be the antithesis of compelling. Recommended for your next gray afternoon.

Link: Here 

 

With three tracks eclipsing 15 minutes each, one of which nears the 23 minute mark, EKIMMV is an album that demands a large degree of patience and contemplation from the listener. It's a demand that I'm not sure is consistently warranted, for while there are some pleasant and engrossing riffing progressions throughout, and the sole musician behind Lamentations of the Ashen, Bon Vincent Fry, is adept enough at building layers of tension and sadness through a mixture of fell snarls, atmospheric tremolo picking and subtle bass contours, these behemoth compositions seem to drift, drift, and drift some more through a series of overt, patchwork transitions. So, the earnest attempts to imbue them with highly necessary variation tends to meander, never quite achieve a climactic payoff, and only a handful of the rhythm guitar patterns really stick.

Interestingly, the wordy song titles like "Eventide Sentinels Bedecked with Ineffable Twilight" and "Viperine Shades Linger Quiescent Among Erstwhile Passions", while lovely, seem to really set up the expectations that this is going to be quite indulgent and channel a Romantic, poetic sensibility which I feel it definitely does accomplish. This is clearly true of the lyrics, which have a classicist sense of wonder in capturing their imagery which dial back centuries. The rhythm guitar structures are largely rooted in tremolo picking sequences, which encapsulate an antiquated, Gothic longing rather than the sinister despotism I generally equate with much of the black metal genre. This is statuary black metal, regal and lonely and meant to elate the listener's spirit to a state of soaring and sadness, not to repeatedly prod the audience with aural pitchforks, and I don't believe anyone seeking out such an aesthetic would be ultimately disappointed with what Fry concocts here. He also doesn't shy away from anything: understated, atmospheric synth pads implemented sparingly across the course of the record. Samples in numerous languages. Solemn, ambient drops within the meat of the metallic content. Or cleaner, sparkling guitar passages that could be just at home in an alt rock context as this. Predictable this is not, but at the same time the pieces seemed to be wedged into the puzzle at random.

Where I find no faults at all would be the production, which is impressively clean, and even without losing the emotional depths of each instrument. Guitars are bright enough to cut right into the imagination, but gain a little power and traction when blossoming into denser chord patterns. The drums sound live and fresh, with an effortless capacity to handle the variety of beats through lumbering kicks and steady snare strikes, not to mention there are some experimental percussion sections as you'll hear in "Viperine Shades..." that might take you by surprise. The bass is pretty bleak and smooth, often just wallowing along in the wake of the guitar but always somehow managing to add another tonal tier to the experience. Fry's rasping is nothing necessarily out of the ordinary, but he generates enough of a nasty sustain that it fits the mood of the music rather well, even if there are few individual lines that I might consider gripping or interesting. Most impressive are the subtle nuances, sounds you'll hear on the edge of perception that are constantly woven in and out of the music; even if they're just synth or feedback, they often generated a compelling, panoramic effect. I'll also note that Patrick A. Hasson of Black Chalice lends his clean, haunting vocals to the track "Veiled in Clairaudient Litany" which felt like it veered into a minimalistic Dead Can Dance territory before picking back up with the guitars.

Ultimately, though, I found myself struggling to retain interest the more journeys I made through this. For one, the 5 minute instrumental intro, "...of Wraiths in White", which is essentially a piano leading into some glaring feedback and then a few droning notes, seemed the driest and least worthwhile piece on the whole album, and might just have been left off. The outro, "Ascent into the Empyrean", built on angelic synth choirs, also seems a fraction cheesy and not living up to its potential. As weighted and swollen as the three primary tunes are, they're far less irritating and decked out with generally more interesting ideas. Just not always configured into the most climactic or emotionally resonant progressions, so I often had to dig around to find a few truly inspirational moments. That said, EKIMMV's conflagration of components does feel somewhat if not entirely original, and fans of dreamier, spacious bedroom/basement black metal which doesn't adhere to any specific set of rules might find this a journey worth experiencing.  

Link: Here

 

Thy Light - No Morrow Shall Dawn

Thy Light mix a bit of folky guitar work into keyboard ambiance with an occasional passage of a distant distorted guitar drowned in a sea of reverb while the captain of the sinking ship known as the echo pedal screams as if he were waxing poetic while he's really just screaming while avoiding hyperventilating. The synths feel fairly bright most of the time, making the screams an odd inclusion - the metal side of the music appears sparsely, as this is predominantly ambient, and it really doesn't make sense at all. While the band seems to consider this some variant of black metal, it's not even background music like the neo-medieval synth/folk of Burzum's "Daudi Baldrs," it's just bland background ambiance. It's sort of like a Yanni album where nothing happens, save a few passages of echoing arpeggios played on guitar with distant screams over it. That's what most of this album is.

I mean no disrespect to Yanni, as he makes some interesting ambient/new age music, but I think most metalheads would understand what I mean when I say that the first 34 of these 41 minutes basically sound like a poor imitation of the backing tracks of Yanni's "Dare to Dream" punctuated by an occasional scream rather than an 80s-as-fuck synthesizer. It's basically the ambient equivalent of an episode of Seinfeld played at half speed - nothing happens, but if it's some sorta dumb joke that you can relate to then you'll like it, otherwise you're left wondering, what's the deal with this thing about nothing?

It's all a setup for a mediocre atmospheric black metal track. No thanks, I'll take that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer gets a garbage disposal installed in his shower so he can prepare food in it. At least I can relate to that.

Master Fury - Circles of Hell Review #5

From Pure Grain Audio:

"You have to love labels like Contaminated Tones Productions because without them a lot of cool stuff would fall to the wayside and never be released. As of late the label has been slowly but steadily putting out some of the more interesting things in the underground and this release is no exception.

Master Fury is a New Jersey-based thrash metal band that released a couple of albums, split up, and recently reunited. That said, this new release, Circles of Hell, is a compilation of their two previous albums, Hell Party and Circles of Hate, that were released in 88 and 89 respectively.

The band are extremely tight sound-wise with a non-stop, full speed thrash attack. Think Slayer, Overkill, and even early Megadeth and you'll have an idea of what to expect. The band never let up and the record is a fantastic listen for anyone who's a fan of 80s-era thrash. The only thing that may be off-putting for some is that production-wise Circles of Hell is quite rough. Most fans of early thrash, however, should be fine with it as most early recordings we love have similar a production value.

Overall this release is a solid, yet raw compilation of two albums by a band who never got the recognition they deserve. Thrash fans owe it to themselves to seek this one out before it goes out of print... because it's a good listen!"