Many of the bands who are willing to label their works as "demos" in 2015 tend to be black metal, as the culture of black metal is rather friendly to demos. In other breeds of metal, bands tend to overestimate their incomplete works by labeling them as EPs and albums simply because their recordings are deemed clean enough. Because of this, it seems a lot of what comes up in the dustbin is black metal. The first one this week could certainly be called an EP, but the band presents it as a demo. There's also a duel of crappy NSBM RABM later on, and neither is particularly good. That's just what turned up in the dustbin in recent weeks.
Sounds like 2005. Blackened death metal in the vein of Belphegor, with layered vocals in Glen Benton's style with Deicide and Vital Remains around that time, though they come out less intense and seeming a little too overdone, like later Behemoth. It has all the hallmarks of black-tinged death metal of the early-mid 00s - eerie ringing leads, stuttered chugs, blast beats and tremolo. It is fairly well produced to keep that dirty and dark edge while not being overly muddy, cavernous, nor clean. It's certainly influenced heavily by that new-school-of-old-school, and it's not bad, it's just completely indistinct.
Stige is a strikingly bland and indistinct black metal band. There are fast parts that seem like an even simpler take on early Bathory, there are triumphant mid-paced marches with a pagan influene, and there's a sampling of other black metal styles. Everything feels like a blank template of a riff - the Bathory riffs are two-chords rather than three and they lack phrasing, the pagan-sounding riffs lack proud, folky, triumphant melodies and cadence. The title track comes close, but it still doesn't break the impression that this is little more than grey wallpaper.
Black metal with a strong RAC/heavy metal influence, very similar to Absurd's first album, but no clean vocals. The influence is more than overt, and the cover at the end highlights what Eweigreich fails to include in their own songs - hooks. RAC relies on being immediately catchy, yet simple, to let the lyrics do the talking. The only thing memorable about these songs is the obvious attempt to ape Absurd in practice, but the failure to do so in essence. It could be greatly improved by simply turning down the overloud drum machine, though.
Vinterskögen
Bedroom black metal from Assú, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
"Oldschool/atmospheric black metal" allegedly, with an unbelievably dull and damp practice room sound. The guitar is quiet, almost no distortion shining through, which really dulls the impact and aesthetic the band tries to embrace. The demo is mostly typical tremolo riffs and blast beats, a little bouncy at times. There are some triumphant progressions reminiscent of early Gorgoroth, but sadly they're buried in the awful sound. There's a real drummer, who seems decent from this very rough recording. While it isn't noisy outside of excessive reverb on the sound of this is simply bad.
Red and Anarchist black metal (RABM) is the left-wing answer to NSBM. While the style has its own distinct voice which embodies its views, this is basically another shitty crust punk band, an answer to the plethora of shitty bedroom NSBM bands. A shadow of UK anarcho-punk from 35 years ago which adds titles like "Darkness Falls" and "Evil Prevails" to typical punk fodder like "Fuck War" and "Police Farce." This seems to do away with any sort of catchy and memorable punk in favor of a blur of grindcore and black metal while missing the intensity and experience of both. I kind of get what they're going for from a couple angles, but this misses the point of what they're going at in every direction. It doesn't have the push/pull intensity of grindcore, it doesn't have the energy of punk, and it doesn't have the anthemic pride of NSBM, just the pathetic wheeze of bluffing crust punk without the self-aware rejection of middle-class privilege found in black metal.
The greatness of Les Légions Noires is contrasted heavily by the failures of the legions of wannabes. Vulto Abissal is a band which borrows some LLN imagery and has some utterly ridiculous pictures of a fat guy with corpsepaint dripping from his eyes and mouth. It looks more like his mouth is overflowing and he's crying than he looks morbid. Pathetic and silly. It's nice of him to let us know exactly what he's trying to ape, at least.
"My mouth is so full that's it's spilling out and I'm crying."
The sound, I suppose, has an aesthetic vaguely resembling Mutiilation's first album or a late-generation tape dub of a Vlad Tepes. Ultimately it's just a boxy distorted guitar tone from a shitty recording over a drum machine with vocals distorted from the recording. This moron clearly thinks he's emulating an aesthetic by sounding shitty by recording his two parts, guitar and vocals, poorly, but that's the incompetent, childish emulation of the black legions in which fools who pay no attention to how the music is actually composed try to emulate how a degraded tape dub sounds. It's a fucked up imitation of an aesthetic that isn't even done well, never mind the music being shitty.
Maybe the second track being cut in the middle of a line is an emulation of that time Darkthrone did it. Whoever the cranky shouting in the first track is an homage to, I'm sure they think it sounds goofy. The 20-minute synth closer is leagues more boring than the 25-minute synth track on Filosofem.
Limited edition face one copy b/w splatter
The music is mostly two-chord riffs with two variations of each chord - essentially playing a power chord and moving one finger up, then shifting the hand and repeating. A steady strum, a galloped chug, or tremolo picking, paired with a kick-snare tick of a drum machine which is set to one speed for a song, losing the human element in both components there and seeming completely linear, immobile, and incompetent. This isn't emotionally moving, it's a shallow reflection of the reverie induced by that which is truly powerful music. The title of this should be:
No cover artwork here - this was a tape released in Georgia (the country) in 1991 shortly after the fall of the USSR. The title is a rough translation - the original band name/title are written in Georgian as რკინის რაინდი - ინგრევა მონობის კოშკი
Rkinis Raindi is an endearingly wimpy melodic heavy metal band from Georgia which emerged with this album, no coincidence, very shortly after the Soviet Union fell. They managed to produce four tracks with heavy metal riffs borrowed from a seemingly narrow range of influences (Dio and Malmsteen) before turning to even wimpier, less enjoyable keyboard rock on their next album, as well as the last track of this album. I'll say it up front - this album is mainly memorable because there's an amazing and ridiculous music video for the first track. That deserves a review of its own, but anyway...
The vocalist is very charismatic, his delivery impassioned yet graceful and almost without the harshness of pronunciation and syllabism. His intonation is excellent and allows the backing harmony to be harmonious in aesthetic, not just tonality. He sounds sweet, almost too sweet for a heavy metal vocalist, though he really fits the metal-going-on-pop-rock style of the band. He's right at home on the sappy soft track which ends the album, at least. The music isn't all that heavy, it's only really metal because the guitar riffs are pretty much borrowed, in template, from Dio and Malmsteen. It's really like a softened-up Dio, or the sappiest stuff Malmsteen did in the 80s. The guitar rhythm and a vocal melody on the first track are borrowed from Holy Diver, but it's still not nearly as "riffy" at that and the keyboards really fill out the atmosphere. The singer sounds more like Bon Jovi than Dio too, he's smooth but he's got no bite. Grace, but not gusto. Perhaps the production loses a bit of the edge, but the arrangements don't help either, as everything is stripped down and the synths are up there along with the guitar, which does very little most of the time. There's still a solid baroque-sounding riff in the third song, and an unexpected Malmsteen-influenced solo that dramatically picks up the pace of the first song, though clearly the guy doesn't have the chops to pull of Malmsteen.
It's still a little enthralling though, how a band came out of the former Soviet Union and quickly produced a five-track tape of decent heavy metal with some amusing exaggerations and a sound that was, at the very least, a little unusual. It's not as riffy or heavy as I prefer heavy metal and it's pretty soft and synthy in points. Despite that, it leads off with a captivating track, an unusually long anthem appropriately named "Tower of Slavery is Crumbling" - no doubt a reference to the fall of the USSR in the year that this was released.
But the real reason I remember this band is the video.
Does anyone read the flavor text? Leave a comment if you miss my lazy comments on the nature of demos and reviewing, because I haven't been putting much effort into them lately.
A guttural, rumbling cacophony with the gut-churning bass and grind of Repulsion mixed with a war metal roar of incomprehensible vocals and noise. The distorted bass which drives the music is certainly the best part of this, but unfortunately it is pretty much the only thing which drives the music as the rest of it is more noisy nonsense than most Conqueror wannabes. There is a lack of a death metal contrast between the grooves and grinds, there's nothing like the push/pull of Repulsion, just variance in the noise/abrasion levels of the gurgling. Sounds pretty cool at first, but it is tiring by the end of its short running time.
As advertised. The influences seem to mostly be late-80s Cogumelo-scene Brazilian black/death/thrash mixed with Norway '92-94 sound. The guitar work relies on melodic tremolo riffs mixed with mid-paced thrash riffs, very much influenced by early Gorgoroth. The drumming is good, mixing blasts, double bass, and standard beats. The recording is relatively clean, though dark and dirty - it sounds like a band playing in a basement, but there are no flaws of anything being too loud/dominant in the mix. The music has some interesting moments, but it largely seems to derive momentary success from imitation. Not bad, yet hollow and unfulfilling.
A lot of melodies, a good amount of bite to the guitar tone, and a pretty good live-sounding recording without much room sound/reverb. It begins with a cold, weepy lead into a thrashy melodeath riff, and each emphasizes the character of the demo - practiced, but unpolished. A wonderful contrast in an era where every guitar track is doubled, drums are triggered, and melodeath is almost entirely sterile and devoid of any sort of death. This sounds like it comes from at least ten years earlier, in a good way. It's very much textbook melodeath, but it has dark tinges and grit. A very American take on the Swedish style, but with few of the overdone cliches that American melodeath came to be known for.
Bedroom black metal from bedrooms around the world
...and I thought their first demo was bad, this one is twice as long and twice as bad. Mostly the same bullshit as the first one, a bunch of noodling and awful bedroom BM with webcam mic vocals. The second track is the real gem. Raw depressive suicidal black metal tries to rip off Pantera's "Walk" and ends up halfway off the drum machine beat. The wretched windy microphone vocals punctuate the bare, sloppy riffing even more. The track is further stretched to over seven minutes by two minutes of literal wind noise, before jumping to static to start the next one. Every single thing here is a complete and utter failure at music.
Seemingly some bedroom black metal-derived ambience. A lone synth track basks in its own sound for nearly the whole running time, crawling through new notes as a snail's pace. Nothing accompanies it. It lacks any semblence of composing or creating something - no neoclassical like Dead Can Dance, no neofolk nor folk, not even a tinge of black metal. Just a single synth track basking in its own tone with no semblence of composition. Minimalist new age, perhaps? It sounds like the least interesting third of a Yanni backing track, I guess.
Another one from the vaults, long out-of-print Finnish doom metal/post-punk recorded in 93-94 and released in 95.
Lavra blend the echoing atmospherics and melodic hooks of post-punk with the heavy, droning guitar action of doom metal. The guitars drive the music and define the structures through a blend of lightweight doom riffs, clean arpeggios, and a decidedly metal take on post-punk/new wave licks. It reminds me, in a way, of Forgotten Woods' first album in how it is a metal band's take on post-punk, with constant riffing and an emphasis on guitars, while reducing the vocals to an atmospheric overlay on top of the guitars - similarly to how a guitar run through a few effects pedals would be used to create a texture and atmosphere over vocal-driven parts in the original post-punk. A combination of distant clean vocals and hoarse, harshly-recorded whispers provide an interesting complement of textures to the guitar-driven instrumentation. I wish the bass and drums were more involved, but the absolutely absurd amount of reverb used to fill out a rather thin, trebly mix might not be compatible with that. That's just another icon of it being a metal band of those times.
This is certainly an artifact of the mid-90s - a death metal turned atmospheric doom/death band, then rebranded and turned post-punk/doom metal band making a mellow and moody piece of experimental, atmospheric rock with a very gothic appeal. The wispy, reverb-drenched production feels like an artifact of the past, even for the mid-90s, but it is also a large part of what makes this album unique. The need of the performances to fit this oversized, echoing roomfeel is also a contributing factor, and that is what differentiates it from more modern styles of post-metal. The mood captured by the weepy guitar beneath the synths in "E Minor" couldn't capture the same mood without the single-tracked, realistic feel of the guitars, nor could the intro to "Never" which follows it. The space in the mix thrives on the atmosphere of the former, yet remains comfortable in the busier instrumentation of the latter.
This is a very unique album, one which carries the creativity which flourished in early death metal and takes a similarly unusual and self-defining turn into the same type of path which former death metal bands like Tiamat. Lavra take a turn into a rather uncharted combination of styles to create an unusual, captivating atmospheric sound. While it's not the greatest album, it is undeniably intriguing for anyone with an interest in the era and the styles involved. Just do yourself a favor and don't listen to it on YouTube, the poor quality of audio there and out-of-order tracks kind of ruin the experience.
KLV was a weird experimental band best known for having two thirds of Reverend Bizarre's lineup. This compilation contains a selection of their material from a few finished works to some puzzlingly incomplete jams that serve as a reminder of why the bands other early demos weren't really distributed. The variety of releases here further emphasizes the unusual, experimental, scattershot nature of their music. From gothic/doom/death metal to gloomy rock to d-beat with flutes, it's a rather puzzling listen that feels a little bit more, but not entirely, sensible when it is broken up into segments based on the original recordings. While a highly unusual style, it is somewhat similar to the doom metal/post-punk of their fellow Finns, Lavra.
Tracks 1-3 are from the <i>Valkeus</i> demo tape from 1998. These are the heaviest and most consistent tracks here, playing a style which blends gothic rock with doom metal. There's a strong gothic metal overtone to the lighter parts, at times resembling Sweden's Stillborn with less guitars, at others more like the softened parts of doom/death of the mid-90s. The arrangements meld these nicely and move through them fluidly, perhaps the only good arrangements on this compilation.
Tracks 4 and 5 are from a split 7" with Viikate from 1999, an intro and a longer song. This shows the random and spastic nature of the band quite well, jumping from gothic rock with deep vocals to doom metal to d-beat punk with flutes, even some harsh vocals over d-beats that sound like Absurd. It's like a collection of all the non-metal styles that bands who played death metal in 1992 had started to play in the mid 90s, though fortunately no electronics. It seems that the band was trying to pursue that type of ethereally-tinged dark sound with flutes, deep gothic vocals, harsh vocals, and a spaced-out yet driving rhythm section. The guitar is surprisingly underutilized though, for all the additional instrumentation. No post-punk pedal atmospherics, just doomy riffs half the time, not much the other half.
Tracks 6 and 7 are from the <i>Katso Mihin Kätesi Pystyvät</i> tape from 1997. These are slow and doomy gothic rock songs driven by the bass trading off with the vocals, while the guitar is mostly atmospheric. The chemistry between bassist/vocalist Sami and drummer Jari is very apparent here, and it is no coincidence that this is from the year Jari joined Sami's other band, Reverend Bizarre. Aside from an impressive weeping lead in the latter track, the guitarist feels lost much of the time.
Tracks 8-12 are the earliest material, the <i>Minun Lentoni</i> demo tape from 1996, which appears last because it isn't very good. The 12-minute "Äetsene poige" sounds somewhere between attempted free jazz and a couple guys jamming in a practice room, rarely in unison. The others mix heavy, fuzzed-out doom metal with contrasting clean sections. The arrangements are primitive and rather poor, though the contrasts of dirty and clean guitars/vocals are an interesting aesthetic.
The final track is a gloomy, lo-fi mix of bass, piano, and deep vocals. It feels somewhat unfinished.
The first five tracks were later released as a 12", and that seems to be a much better presentation of the material here. It certainly made sense to include some of it on a CD compilation, but the only material here I would revisit would be those first five, the rest seems to be purely for historical perspective, for the die-hards interested in delving deep into the past works of the Witchfinder, the Earl, and RevBiz.
A dozen dustbins deep. Sixty demos reviewed. A few worth picking through the dustbin for, but most importantly, many lessons in the strengths and weaknesses, the successes and failures of music. Fortunately, there was a good one in this batch.
Riffs with a healthy influence of Hell Awaits and early Celtic Frost with gruff shouts and howls to match the latter, perhaps more like later Darkthrone's homages to the era. A bit of a war metal aesthetic at times, but fortunately more dynamic, and the constant dissonant, ominous echo gives it the cavern feeling, though not as suffocating. The production is surprisingly clean - despite the harsh aesthetic, there's no murk to it, just tight thrashing washed in reverb with the atmosphere carefully crafted, reminiscent of Unanimated's reunion album. They seem able to set up a very orthodox poise with their songs, yet it never completely focuses. It doesn't intensify, it doesn't tell a morbid tale, but it rips right from the start. The songs are rather fragmented, but the manic intensity minimizes the abrupt leaps. Leaning heavily on strong influences, this is pretty good, but the band needs to prove they are more than these influences and create a more complete work. (Steve)
Distinctively Finnish modern melodic metal, pop-sensible but with cleaned up aesthetics of viking/folk metal, on the melodic death/power metal side with hardly any trace of the gruff grandeur of Bathory. Softened up Finnish melodic metal like Amorphis, plus a bit of a shuffle or gallop and folky melodies. Essentially a hybrid of unapologetically poppy female-fronted Finn metal and folk metal with some harsh vocals like Ensefirum. If one tried to cut down Moonsorrow into Queensryche-type pop metal songs with a bit of the aesthetic left, but none of the tact. None of the grandeur which is needed to elevate viking metal, just a superficial glint of it. Sounds alright while listening to it, but it is shallow and forgettable. (Steve)
It is strange to hear new bands attempt the New England metalcore style I witnessed forming 10-15 years ago, because many, like Blackryse, seem to miss the mark on both the metal and core sides. The metal riffs here, mostly Gothenburg string skippers, tend to focus on patterns and melodies that may step up the complexity, but completely fail to outline a basic melody or chord pattern that emotes a feeling, a mood, or action. Instead, it just sounds like pointless tick-tocking. The hardcore parts don't impart any groove nor aggression on the music. They hack the aesthetic together, but they simply fall down into breakdowns, rather than setting them up and collapsing the song in a furious fit. The vocals are basically a blank accompaniment, offering nothing a frontman could provide. This sounds like the band copied enough a lot of techniques but had no understanding of why they were put together the way they were. Terrible. (Steve)
Eternal Armageddon's Black Thrash Bastards Demo is an energetic ditty, however the material lingers in a formative state with little replay value. These Bangladeshians run through four originals and a cover of Sodom's "Blasphemer" soaking the listener in material which, by local standards might be top-notch however paired against the world's scene, falls short. Iron Maiden influence appears immediately on "Darkness Shalt Reign," an intro track, and then first wave black metal influences appear afterwards. Holding this demo back more than anything on the originals is a lack of contrast, the songs are very similar and not particularly memorable. Asmodeus, Sarcophogous and Blasphemouranter's hearts are in the right place and their monikers have just the right amount of Engrish so hopefully a few more demos help this young band find their sound. (Orion)
Thrash metal with darker aesthetic leanings like Dark Angel or Slayer, but technically rather tame and unimpressive. The performance and recording are pretty good for what they are - the room sound with real drums and unlayered guitars sound good, it is pretty tight, although simple. There are some melodic Metallica-isms worked in here, but they seem like simple adornments of a band that borrows from others yet doesn't have their own direction. There's no driving force, no intensity to it. It's just lightweight thrashing on cruise control which happens to pass some monuments yet doesn't have a destination. The artwork is cool.
After a few months of ordering issues, Buffalo thrash miscreants Cain and Jersey based bastards Maximum Oversatan finally out on vinyl. This 7" features two songs from each band. Killer cover art from the awesome Todd Sullivan and back artwork from the impeccably talented Seth Bennett. This is the real deal. Both bands have dates coming up so be sure to look around your bars, strip clubs, and watering holes for a bunch of rude assholes.
Until June 30th, get this 7" and either the Sacrificial Blood or Paganfire live tapes for $10.
Comeback albums are generally tough to think about on their own merits; especially in a case like Mysticum’s Planet Satan, the band’s first full-length release since the absolute classic In the Stream of Inferno from 18 years prior. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new release, or recoil against a changed identity like a child seeing its father without a beard for the first time. So, the inevitable question is: how does Planet Satan measure up against so many years of anticipation and such high expectations? Surprisingly well. While Planet Satan certainly doesn’t have the same impact as the band’s first full length, the music stays true to the band’s black industrial buzzsaw origins without being a lazy rehash.
To understand Planet Satan, a quicker primer on relativistic physics is helpful. When Mysticum traveled to Planet Satan and returned to Earth, 18 years may have passed for us, but for Mysticum it’s still sometime around 1996. Scientists call this time dilation, but musically it means that Mysticum preserved almost everything that made the band great. Planet Satan shows such strong fidelity to Mysticum’s roots that the band’s aggression seems completely uninfluenced by the past two decades. This makes sense, as some of the songs were apparently written many years ago.
Planet Satan is brimming with the classic black metal treble hiss and the kind of hyperspeed tremolo picking that makes even the phrase “wall of sound” seem inappropriate. For those uninitiated or suspicious, Mysticum’s use of a drum machine is entirely deliberate, calculated, and appropriate for the band’s industrial sound. The mechanical percussion melds into the band’s overall high frequencies (the bass even completely drops out briefly in “Far”), and the snare cracks like slabs of metal plummeting from the end of factory’s high-speed production line. Removing the human element from the percussion enhances the sense of speed because the flatter dynamics make it impossible to interpret anything as fatigue.
Planet Satan is viciously irreverent. “All Must End” opens up with what may be a musette and has a bizarre synth-pop type interlude. “Far” incorporates a nice sonar ping effect.The varied vocals range from barked, to sounding like Tom Warrior (there’s even an “oooh” in there). Speaking of vocals, they are fairly uneven, but improve over the album. The higher pitched style works better, because of how it melts into the guitars and is strained with a complete disregard for long term health consequences, a la Wrath of the Tyrant era Ihsahn. On the lower-pitched side though, some signs of age seep into the delivery, despite the layering. The outlier, “Fist of Satan,” shows a punkier vocal style delivered with excellent passion - reminiscent of In the Streams of Inferno.
Sadly, the trip to Planet Satan has a crash-landing ending with “Dissolve into Impiety.” As you sit in the engine room of your spacecraft listening to the hum of your warp drive, or whatever, Planet Satan manifests its evil willpower by… possessing the 50-piece ratchet set in your toolbox and slowly turning each ratchet? In all seriousness it sounds like a bunch of ratchets. That, or half a dozen woodpeckers struggling to open walnuts on a smooth granite countertop. I have no idea what the band was thinking here, and while it is another example of how Mysticum marches to the beat of their own... walnut, it’s also pretty damn confusing. Still, it fits in with the band’s irreverence. While Planet Satan isn’t In the Streams of Inferno it’s still a worthwhile album of pummeling industrial black metal with Mysticum’s characteristically charming eccentricities.
It's been a strange past few weeks in terms of musical continuity. It goes without saying that I have eclectic taste at times. I find myself actively listening to more and more world music and non-metal of late. Many individuals I know would be aghast at what I value and I'm sure they would have some sly facebook comments and backhanded jabs at my lack of metal purity. Well, fortunately, I'm in this whole thing for my own reasons and my own exploration. I wasn't commissioned by a dying political power to discover something like a famous explorer. And so, I've always enjoyed the oft-ignored shows, the foul-line music genres, and the lack of really pigeon-holeing myself. Sometimes I actually confuse myself. So that whole musical-complacency feedback loop that I see a lot of people falling into definitely doesn't apply to the past ten to fourteen days of activity.
Also compressed into all this was an Electric Wizard show which I don't remember particularly well because of the beers and the residual haze that formed from the audience. I guess I should have written on that when it was still somewhat a blur. Also I was able to make myself get to an excellent show at the Grand Victory in Brooklyn featuring a handful of bands styled in the late 90's alternative rock vibe including In 1933 and Bad Citizen who were both excellent. The highlight was seeing Ambiguity for a last time before guitarist Harold 'Fro' moved to Ohio (I believe). The show was great with lots of Husker Du vibes. Ambiguity played a vivacious set of instrumental progressive metal stuff. Excellent vibes all around.
Most of last week I was focused on getting the Paganfire live tape layout finished and dubbing some awesome tapes for Incisor (Philly thrash/punk) for an upcoming live show. It was a short tape so I was able to run off the thirty-three copies required rather quickly while cutting and pasting and searching through my box of spare layout images. The Gods of metal yielded a few more goodies. Earlier last week my intrepid fiancee and I were down grabbing some food in Asbury Park and I we dipped into a local record shop which had maybe twelve metal records. You never know what treasures may end up in your paws - which is why I stopped in four consecutive thrift stores tonight - and in this case, an old crudded up copy of Ample Destruction was perfectly priced at $10 and was waiting to find a loving home. I've been looking for the album for a while too. It was enjoyable.
On Friday, scheduling miracles at work allowed me to thankfully attend Tarpit Boogie's gig at the Clash Bar in Clifton, NJ. George, who've I known since his time in Maegashira, had emailed me earlier the previous month about the show and I had promised I would make it. The show was one of the more relaxed affairs I've seen in a long time and for this old-boned-body (at least according to the pops and cracks in my knees and ankles) it was relaxing after a hectic few days at work trying to come up with some explanation for my corporation's inability to properly merchandise to customers. I arrived at the venue early. The place looks the exact same as when I was last there - which was probably back in 2010 or something - seeing Nimdot, Clamfight, Maegashira and Iron Man. The bar is still too dark, there is still an obnoxious load-bearing post in front of the stage, and the beer selection is nothing to brag about.
This show opened with locals White Void performing an admirable set of Sabbath influenced stoner rock. Initially I was excited to hear the band based on their sound check which implied the band would be more stonery than they actually were. Opening with a slow, mumbling bass riff got their set off to a most-definitely too slow start which didn't do them favors. You can tell that they hadn't put much road behind them yet in the live arena. Once they picked up the speed in second track though, the highlights started to appear. Guitarist Zach who turned out to be way too young to be in the actual venue simply ripped on guitar and was a definite highlight. His leads were spot on. Bassist Vinny has a lot of talent and definitely provides the main energy ingredient for the band but at times played a little ahead of the beat. Ray was cool and emotive on the kit. Though their original material was promising, without vocals it was difficult, though not impossible, to imagine the tracks complete and when they pulled an audience member up on stage for a cover of "The Wizard," they had won over my interest. They handed out a copy of their CDr demo which had absolutely no track titles on it.
With Useless cancelling their appearance - I was looking forward to their doom approach - Dead Blow Hammer was next. Originally Against The Grain, the band having changed names, Dead Blow Hammer provided some strong hardcore but I wasn't interested in the style that night so I stepped out to talk with the guys in White Void while I waited for Tarpit Boogie to come on. I offered an interview, they accepted, then somehow it never came to fruition. Oh well. Tarpit Boogie were better this time than when I had first seen them at Dingbatz (the Clamfight - Thank You Delaware live tape was recorded at that show). Tarpit, best described as sludge-boogie-doom, are comprised of ex-Maegashira members George Pierro and John Eager along with Chris Hawkins on drums and recently enlisted vocalist Anthony Ferrara. The change in vocalist to the harsher, more abrasive Anthony provided the extra ounce of energy the band seemed to lack at their Dingbatz show. I still am under the impression the band is finding their legs a bit stylistically though, as some tracks seem a tad too long.
The following Tuesday I made my way into New York City and The Gramarcy to see Laibach. Saxon and Armored Saint were playing a few blocks away but I've been partial to the martial industrial menace that Laibach has been providing. Ultimately, I was very pleased with their show. Arranged essentially into three sections with the first segment consisting of material from their newer album, Spectre. This was back-dropped with sharp geometric patterns and animations which fit well. After an intermission featuring audience antics which were more enjoyable to watch than to participate in, they went through tracks which appeared mostly on the Iron Sky soundtrack. Essentially the first three-quarters of their performance was soundscape styled material. Enjoyable... especially instrumentally, though I'm not totally sold on the female vocals in their material with the exception of a few harsher screams and outbursts but the overall ambience was killer. The final few tracks were classics. Leben heißt Leben, Tanz Mit Laibach and Geburt Einer Nation were really the era of material I was hoping to see more from. The visuals were excellent, incorporating imagery you would expect from Laibach such as political symbolism. To see the memorable music video for Tanz Mit Laibach essentially recreated as a stage performance was great to watch.
There was a period of time when myself and my co-conspirator had planned on ditching the show to try and catch Saxon, who apparently had an awesome setlist. Ultimately, the decision to stay was a good one. The show ended up being memorable. The beer prices at Gramarcy are fucking ridiculous though. I'm not going to pay $7 for a PBR. I wouldn't pay $7 for a PBR if you were giving me a keg with it's own wheelie cart which I could pull behind me the whole time. The fact that the seated area was all quarantined for "VIP" was also ridiculous. For a band so politically charged and visually ideological, the whole idea of separating classes of audience members based on how much they were willing to pay for the tickets seems comical. Surely this was not the band's doing but irony appears before the hidden structure of the promoter/venue/band spider-web.
I've basically come to grips with the fact that I relish the extremes of music. In one chair I've got metal and across the table a map of the world staring me in the face. Several weeks back I was heavily invested in the Bangladeshian metal scene and now I sit here and listen to I.K Dairo and Blue Spot Band sandwiched between Heaving Earth and Empyrium, prepared to go see Master and Sostice tonight and head down to Maryland Deathfest Friday morning. It has been a life goal fullfilled to finally see Aeternus live and strangely I will likely be listening to more music from Nigeria and Sierra Leone on my way there. If variety is the spice of life, than my life is a habenero pepper sauce on top of buffalo chicken pizza and music is pizza parlor.
My Grandfather (who recently passed away) had this globe which I've played with my whole life. Naturally I retained it for my own future use. It's old and half the countries are wrong on it.
CT: Hey Bon, thanks for doing this interview. Tell me about the early stages of Lamentations of the Ashen. What inspired you to create the project? Where the name, Lamentations of the Ashen, arise from?
Bon Vincent Fry: Well, the idea goes all the way back to probably 2006, but I finally recorded the first material in February of 2008. I used to record everything in a bedroom into a radio shack mic from a tiny 8" Marshall practice amp. After I was done doing the guitars I'd use my friends drums and record those tracks into the mix. Everything was in mono, I had no clue what I was doing. Right around 2005, after spending a lot of years immersed in brutal death metal and grind, I finally found stuff like Burzum, Leviathan, and older Behemoth. That led to getting into stuff like Bethlehem, Sargeist, Xasthur, Nargaroth, etc. It had a huge impact on me and it changed a lot of things for me. I had been hugely into death metal since I was pretty young and after awhile it seemed to just be getting a little stale. Black metal was something that actually moved me. I was inspired and I wanted to make music like that. When I was thinking about a name I knew that I wanted it to kind of have this paranormal, funeral kind of vibe. I was thinking about nothingness, death and lost spirits from other planes of reality. This initially resulted in something like "Lamentations of the Departed" but one day I was in my car listening to Glorior Belli and there was this lyrical line I thought I heard that was, "The ash of Lamentation". Obviously when I heard it I identified with it and so right then and there I thought of the title Lamentations of the Ashen. Honestly though, that name kind of pisses me off. It's a mouthful and I make a conscious effort not to talk about my music with anyone because I don't want to have to say those words when they ask what my bands name is. It's no ones business anyway.
CT: You had a couple of earlier releases before your debut full length. Walk us through these releases. What were some of the early themes on these releases?
BVF:I don't really know if there was much of a contrived theme on those releases or some kind of concept. They were just dark, sad songs. Some of the lyrics were a little abstract but I'd say the songs names imply their meaning pretty closely. In the summer of 2008 I recorded 'A Memoir of Departure' shortly after Singularity Publishing hit me up about putting out a release. That song completed what would be the 2 song EP that they released that year and later re-released in 2010. It was s fucked up time in my life and I think those songs reflect that.
CT: How did the split with Desolation come about? Was that something that was set up by the label? Were you familiar with Desolation before the split?
BVF:Well, one night I was browsing pages on MySpace and I just had an idea that it would be cool to do a split with another band out there. I posted a bulletin and the guy from desolation was who wrote back. I had never heard of him before at all, but his music was dark and painful. We discussed everything and he was the one who came up with the title, 'Harrowing of Innocence'. At the time I was pretty bent on starting my own label so I took on releasing that tape myself. It was limited to 50 copies and totally DIY. I designed the cover in Photoshop and printed the J-cards out at kinkos. I had to take one of the tape cases in and have the clerk resize it multiple times to get it small enough to fit in the case. It was quite the shit show.(laughs) I dubbed all the tapes myself going from the computer, through my audio interface and direct into the deck. It was annoying having to listen to that release 50 times over as I dubbed everything.
CT: How was writing and recording your full length, In the Burden of the Heart's Plaint, different, if at all, from the writing process of your earlier material?
BVF:Well, it was a lot different. When I started writing that album you could say that was when I started to really get 'serious' about things when it came to music and this project. I started approaching everything with an obsession that almost seemed monomaniacal. I sold my record collection and anything else I could and took huge risks for the sake of funneling whatever finances I could into buying gear and recording equipment. I was still inexperienced to a great degree though. I was motivated by unrealistic ambition and I constantly made ridiculous, irresponsible decisions for the sake of actualizing this vision I had in my head of what this album would, or what I hoped it could be. It turned out to basically be a huge mistake in the end though.
I had this job at the time that involved lots of downtime between tasks so I'd just sit in the office and play my guitar for hours. I literally played constantly for 9 months straight, everyday writing that album. By September of 2009, I was ready to start recording. I set up my drums in a bedroom and spent 3 or 4 days recording the drum parts. Right after that, it was decided that I was moving to Maine. I suspended recording activities until I arrived and got settled in Portland which was in mid November of 2009. Throughout that winter, I recorded the rest of the album, finally finishing it sometime in February I believe. It was quite the experience and I think it differed greatly from the other musical endeavors, limited as they were, that I had previously taken. I don't like that album though, and I don't like that period in my life. I was basically addicted to idealism. I was naive, intellectually irresponsible and I traveled across the country looking for things I was never going to find. I guess that kind of stupidity is pretty becoming of most people in that stage of youth. Either way, I'm glad those days are behind me, where they belong.
CT: Has the context surrounding the creation of In the Burden of the Heart's Plaint affected your feelings towards the album more than the music itself?
BVF:It's probably a combination of both. I just don't like the way some of the music flows I guess. I hate to be 'that guy' that has some shitty, flippant Attitude towards past recordings but I guess I feel like things have progressed and improved a lot since then so sometimes it's hard to take that stuff seriously. It's weird though, because I don't have that same attitude towards the even earlier stuff so maybe context plays a pretty big role. Maybe a big part of it too is my general disdain for DSBM and what it became over the years. I got to a point where where I was just over it. It was a skin that I wanted to shed and I guess I outgrew it. The ones that did it first were the ones that did it best and just about everything else is basically complete garbage.
CT: While living in Maine, is this how you became in contact with Patrick Hasson? I know he contributed on your following album, EKIMMV.
BVF:I originally came in contact with Patrick before I moved to Maine. I had been planning on going up there for awhile so I put out some feelers and looked up artists in the area and came upon him. When I got there we met and formed something of a friendship which has lasted long beyond my short stay there. He's done an excellent job with vocals on these last two records and it's been a pleasure having him. I look forward to working with him again.
CT: Continuing with EKIMMV, what are your memories in the creation of your second full length?
BVF:The first pieces of what would become the second album started showing up during my last days in Maine. In the spring of 2010 I came back to New Mexico and spent the summer working on things here and there at a pretty easy pace. At the end of the summer of 2010 I fell into a bout of major clinical depression combined with severe OCD. I got this obsessive idea in my head that I was going crazy and I just couldn't shake it, no matter what degree of understanding or rational faculties I had in me to discredit such an obsession. I was just constantly afraid of not being in control, of doing something terrible or experiencing something terrible in the midst of some burgeoning psychosis. I remember being afraid to look at my own reflection for fear of what I might see. I just constantly thought about death, I wanted the peace that came with it. Music was the only thing that kept me going. I was on a mission. Music was the only thing I had, it was the only thing I was and I felt like it was the only way out. EKIMMV was the product of all this. I recorded it in the summer of 2011 here at my studio in New Mexico.
CT: There's been a significant gap in time between EKIMMV and Libertine Cyst, your new record. What were you focused on between the two records? Did you experience a sense of nostalgia - especially considering some of the events and memories surrounding the previous albums - in recording another album after such a long gap?
BVF:If the new album is any kind of a complete effort, it's definitely by virtue of the longer than usual interval within which it was created. I don't think there was any kind of nostalgia that had to do with the last 2 records. I just wrote it because it's what I do. Music is a path I chose a long time ago and I have to live with it for better or worse. There's something in me that needs to do this everyday so making another record was a pretty natural and logical move.
CT: Walk us through Libertine Cyst's origin through it's completion. With how powerful Libertine Cyst is, did that span of time help in crafting such a complete effort? I feel musically, there is more black metal material present than on the past two records.
BVF:The first riff I wrote that I was to use on the record is the opening riff of the third song, 'torpor of the persiflage', so you could say that the writing process went back to summer of 2011 when I was still recording EKIMMV. After I was done recording that album that summer I moved back home to Ohio for a year and continued writing material during that winter. This is when stuff like 'Dissentient cyclic echelons' started showing up. After my stay in Ohio i headed back west originally to move to L.A. To join up in a new band with Scott Conner of Xasthur. Some unfortunate events led to me ending up back in New Mexico in the autumn of 2012. Throughout that winter and a good chunk of 2013 the final 2 songs took shape and after a brief stay in northern Maine that year I returned to NM once again, reassembled my studio and began recording in September of 2013. I've always said that each album I did was the hardest thing I've ever had to do but this third album proved to be a much more tremendous undertaking. It took 3 months just to get the drums finished and by the time that was over it was getting too cold to record guitar since my studio is in an old train car with little insulation. At times I was just burnt out, felt overwhelmed and potentially defeated by the whole thing. I resorted to heavy drinking and generally dallied around wasting time and embracing every distraction i could. My focus was waning and I was just kind of running from myself. I think maybe I was just scared that something was going to go wrong and everything was going to flop. Then I'd have to endure the neurosis that comes with that. With wasted time, wasted life. I had so much of myself invested at that point. Years of my life. Still I continued to push myself to record whenever I could, piece by piece things continued to come together and after a year since I had originally started this journey, I was done. I didn't rush anything, I did it at my own pace and insisted on being comfortable. It had never been like that before and I honestly think that in the end, it made for a better record. I've always worked slow but in the past I had this really neurotic, stressed out energy moving me. I just can't do that anymore and I think I'm at a stage in all this now where I don't have to.
CT: Lyrically, what is Libertine Cyst cover? Are there any specific lyrics that stand out in your mind and why?
BVF:Id say that the main underlying theme lyrically is one of awakening and rebirth and anything that doesn't explicitly imply that are basically still by-products of that main theme of renewal or the pursuit of it. It's really important to know that this isn't negative music. I really can't stress that enough. I'd hope that underneath the case-hardened nature of what this and other metal music is, people can find something uplifting. I suppose that's always been a goal of mine with this music.
It's hard to abstract a section out of the whole of the lyrical content and have it seem consistent with the statement just made but I do plan on publishing the lyrics soon for anyone interested. The music really does all the talking though.
CT: It's interesting that you specify that your music and metal music overall are positive and not negative. That's something I've always felt was true about the genre. Philosophically the genre has always been a strengthening force for myself mentally as well as intellectually. Speaking about the genre overall, what do you find uplifting and positive about your music as Lamentations of the Ashen, as well as with Metal overall? Predictablly those that have discovered a deeper meaning to the music that they love are the most stalwart supporters and artists in the metal world. I know for me now, talking to metal fans in far reaching oppressive countries about their diehard love for the genre, they consistently mention how metal's themes of freedom of thought, lack of boundries, and communal feeling have provided them with an outlet from a world around them they fear/hate/are trapped in.
BVF:Well, I didn't necessarily mean all metal music. I guess I was primarily referring to the music of this project and perhaps I worded it the wrong way. I understand what you mean though. I do suppose what music means for each person is highly subjective. Some people like the music they enjoy to be negative and I think that sometimes can affect the trajectory of their life and eventually lead to destructive tendencies. Some bands try to be 'negative' as some sort of gimmick. Those are the bands I usually hate. Metal music has a huge counter-culture aspect to it though which can give it a huge appeal to those with a non-standardized orientation. There's so much imagery, philosophy and general content on top of the purely sonic aspect within the subculture to latch onto and Its no suprise that it can get its hooks into people and be a driving force of their personality and entire existence. I suppose this can be affirming to some and I suppose that's a positive thing in the end but with everything, balance is essential.
I always wanted there to be a transcendent quality to LOTA. I always wanted each record to end with a finality, a resolution. For me, there's always been a beauty in sad music. It lights a fire inside of me and it always has. As a young kid I loved metal because it sounded the way I felt. I really don't think much has changed. Now I just take part in the actual creation and overall, I don't regret it. It's been an interesting journey for me. Bittersweet. It's taken a huge toll on my life, but I've gotten to express myself exactly the way I want to, made music that will never disappear or be taken away from me, music that matters to people all over the world and even finally been able to feel something I'd call satisfaction after almost a decade of work. I'd say that's pretty positive. It all means a lot to me.
CT: You've released your three albums both digitally as well as on tape format. Tape format is how I was originally introduced to the band. What are your thoughts on the increased interest in cassette tapes lately? Are you involved with tape trading at all?
BVF:No, I've never really gotten involved in tape trading. I think it's a cool tradition that goes all the way back to the earliest days of metal culture but I've never gotten around to it. I have a small collection of tapes but I honestly don't pay much attention to them. I've always been more into vinyl so that's what I focus on in my efforts to embrace the physical aspect of music releases. I understand why people like them and why labels like to release them. They're easy to ship and produce as well as not sounding too bad either.
CT: What are your future plans for Lamentations of the Ashen, as well as, yourself musically? Are there any plans for live performances of the material or will you keep Lamentations of the Ashen strictly a studio effort?
BVF:Well, I'm slowly getting back into things and have a growing collection of riffs and ideas that I've been building on. I've also got 2 pieces that I wrote that haven't made their way into an album yet so I definitely plan on making another record. I might do an EP first though. I guess we'll just see. I'm not rushing anything though. Things happen when they happen, the world keeps turning either way. Playing live is another thing that started to come up and looked promising but just fizzled out. I've got lots of mixed feeling about doing the live thing anyway. I'm just going with the flow. I never had aspirations to play live when I started doing this anyway so if it just stays how it is then that's that. It really doesn't matter anyway. I'm not important and neither is my music. The world keeps turning...
Woudloper’s 2014 self-titled demo is a damn fine cut of top-sirloin murky black metal, and it’s marinated with both doom and death metal. Following in the footsteps of bands like Negative Plane and Hellige; you have the usual fuzzy guitars, cavernous reverb, and wide-vibrato for that unhinged quasi-psychedelic flavor. With only 17 minutes and two songs titled “I” and “II” (go figure) the project displays a wide range of sounds while keeping the atmosphere consistently oppressive. This is something that can often go awry, a kind of atmospheric decompression as songs become more dynamic, but Woudloper slithers from one tempo or riff to another without even the slightest hiccup.
Woudloper’s particular breed of murk concentrates on sinuous diminished melodies without delving into more the exotic dissonances that sometimes characterize more technical bands. This, along with an ample serving of slower riffs, gives the demo a doomy feel punctuated by accented note-bends. Doominess aside, the demo has an energetic feel to it, due in large part to the smart mixing decisions. Guitars stand at the forefront to keep the atmosphere in focus while the vibrant drums, fuzzy bass, and amorphous vocals sit back in the mix a bit to garnish the uroboric riffs.
Woudloper is flush with ideas, and even the slightly melodramatic four-minute outro in “II” never quite feels like the project is chewing the cud. Each of the four separate moments of feedback worship feel necessary to divide the album. Quick breaths of air to prolong a particularly cruel drowning. This excellent demo has is just the right marbling of heaviness, atmosphere, languor, and discomforting weirdness - bon appétit.
Necropole play a very tense style of orthodox black metal driven by fast-changing melodies contrasted by a slower-changing root. It's all about tension in ther air, an endless stasis of eerie, menacing discord. Their style is very similar to Sargeist, though Necropole use two guitars, which pairs the contrast of melody and dissonance differently.
Nearly the whole running time adheres to this orthodoxy of the same tremolo patterns holding a static tension. Each song starts with a blast beat section, slows it to a back beat, then repeats. The exception is the bridge of "Trahison fratricide" which progresses nicely with a dual-tremolo harmony over double bass. Ironically, it is the shortest song which progresses the most. Despite the ever-shifting guitar parts, only one song really goes anywhere - everything is framed within the fairly strict adherence to patterns. Tension isn't built up and released, it is the unrelenting mood of Ostara. The melodies are merely a feature of the soundscape, not themes which guide you through the experience.
To once again compare Necropole to Sargeist, the tension patterns on Let the Devil In were longer, more pronounced, and drawn out. The tracks were shorter and the buildup and release of tension much more grand. Necropole's songs flow smoothly, but don't really go anywhere, a contrast to the typical dissonant French style which has an abrupt and jarring flow which escapes resolution with sharp turns.
Ostara has an enjoyable atmosphere and aesthetic, but aimless and unfulfilling songwriting that fails to complete the experience.
"Experimental Black Metal / Drone from the Pacific Northwest"
There are four components to this:
-Black metal: Crappy bedroom black metal where the reverb's presence exceeds the original recording.
-Experimental: Only marginally capable of playing fragments of music. Ticking drum machine, no semblance of composition.
-Drone: Synth/feedback/noise filler triples the running time.
-From the Pacific Northwest, which I guess has a lot more prestige than saying you're from Portland.
"We have hand crafted CD's available to help enhance the experience we set out to create on this project. Explore the depths of your own mind.."
This looks like a middle school art project. Is that really how you want to present your music? I suppose this looks like what the music sounds like, but I'd rather not have that experience enhanced. I can practically smell the construction paper, Elmer's glue, and Play-Doh while listening to this.
...is that a greeting card?
"Limited Edition Handmade Compact Disc."
I always thought limited edition splatter vinyls were a lame gimmick, but a limited edition black splatter CD-R? That's so bad that it's funny.
"We put together these kits in our kitchen."
I can tell.
"We wrote and recorded this EP in our Southeast Portland apartment."
It sounds like it. There are actually two funny pieces of fluff here. Their BandCamp profile cites their location as the Pacific Northwest, and now they have to specify which part of Portland they're from. It was recorded in an apartment, like you couldn't tell, but that sounds a bit nicer than the typical asphorism of "bedroom black metal."
The release is "sold out" so I guess you won't be able to get your very own thank you note in sloppy cursive on a hand-ripped piece of notebook paper. I'll include the link to the BandCamp page even though it is hand-written in the picture below!
Wouldn't you just love to snuggle up with the warm tone of an Orange amp at night? I could sleep through this. Do you think that simple fuzz pedals have an inherent value? The pedal's not the only thing with two holes and a knob. Tone-basking checklist aside, the production is fair enough on this album, the music is just dead boring. You'll have to deconstruct the definition of riff to excuse this shit, it's stoned alt rock with a few riffs stolen from Matt Pike. t's a trash can with the components of doom metal in it, but it's not the cheesy B-flick horror of Black Sabbath, it's a kid mashing a tritone who think he's cool because he's playing an organ. Instead of conveying a state of doom, it just revels in the boom of their tube amps. Boom metal. I think that's what I'll call it from now on. Unless you're absolutely in love with any bassy rumble and ready to apologize for every failing of an album because you feel they're <i>doing the right thing</i>, there's little to redeem a guitarist whose two moves are a downtuned drone and a power chord. Most egregious, the drummer basically bounces down a row of toms and constantly rides a crash cymbal - it's like he's trying to channel a constant state of burnout. To sum it up, there's a good riff to start track 4, after which you realize that the 37-minute runtime feels like at least an hour.
Out 4/14. Vin de Mia Trix's Live In Kharkiv was recorded in 2010 in
Ukraine and features an unprecedented example of live material sounding
20 years old. Fans of classic Doom Death Metal such as Paradise Lost and
Morgion will want to find a place for this incredible tape. Features 45
minutes of material as well as an expansive cut-and-paste DIY layout.
Years of experimentation and innovation have metamorphosed metal into countless forms, from speed metal to the slow languor of bands like Sunn O))). With Eric Carle's death metal album, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, continues this metamorphosis, changing metal into something more like Cage's 4'33" than any other active band out there. This is because there is no music on this album. Only silence. Unlike Cage's myopic experiment, which is limited in time, TVHC has no determinable track length, or even tracks. Still, this high-quality release feels too short.
With album art suggestive of a Kafkaesque nightmare and Lovecraftian lyrics detailing a voracious and decadent beast, TVHC is a death metal masterpiece. The guitars show a lot of restraint, as there aren't even any solos. Drums likewise lack any blasting, and of course there isn't any audible bass (which is just so typical in metal albums, especially on ones with no music).
Despite the album coming in a vinyl-sized booklet, there are only lyrics and artwork inside, not even a blank vinyl. This challenges our very idea of what metal is, and even what music is, so it must be pretty thoughtful. The project's mysterious lineup consists only of Eric Carle, who oddly enough uses two pseudonyms "author" and "illustrator." Still, this doesn't sound like a solo project, rather it comes across as something less than that - which makes it so much more.
I give this album 10 silk cocoons out of 10. Upon request, I will supply several excruciatingly detailed graphs, charts, and spreadsheets further explaining my opinion.
Achsan - Purification
Stige - Where Darkness Prevails
Ewigreich - Hass & Verderben
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