New Reviews

Okketaehm - Stones

1/12/2013: Okketaehm is a US duo who quite frankly have next to no band info available. A search of the internet finds no biographical data, while the brief bio I got from their label doesn't offer much either. According to what I did receive, the duo are extremely reclusive, which is understating it in the extreme. These days it is generally easy to find out almost anything about anyone with a quick Google search. These guys however, have somehow managed to make it impossible.

According to their entry on Metal Archives, Stones is the second release by the band, their last being 2010's Maggots. As I haven't heard their prior release I can't comment on whether or not the band's sound has improved or change in the two years since. What I can say; however, is that this is some damn strange and creepy stuff. Clocking in at 18 minutes and containing only one song, the album is not your typical black metal release. It starts off with some nasty-sounding black metal at full blast and while not original, has a very cool, primitive vibe to it. But at around the 2:00 minute mark a siren starts to sound and things get weird! Strange sounds fill the speakers and aurally comes across as fog and mist filling the air. After about 6 minutes of these odd sounds the BM starts back up again and the band continue at a much slower pace before bringing it all back again.

The release, while really odd, is also (like all well-played music) intriguing as it really gives a sense of atmosphere, which in this case, can be summed up as dread and fear. While not for everyone, black metal enthusiasts should visit the Contaminated Tones website and get a copy of Stones while they are still available.

1/14/2013: Wait a minute, i wasn't ready for this. I shut down it, calm down, i sit on my soft chair and play it again from the start. One long track, which starts with uncompromising black metal intro and dissolves after minute in siren sound's imitation, which slowly becomes integral trenchant sound, where you may find an meditative melody which hides into noise abyss, which ruminates everything in reverse. I found some similarities with BETHLEHEM's album "S.U.I.Z.I.D.". Black metal, which you could hear in the begining continues, sometimes slowing the tempo and finally it calms down, but not for long. Again it becomes a symphony of noise, which will be accompanied by silent keyboards. Final touch is BETHLEHEM'ish guitar tune. Even if i cuouldn't find any information about this band, but i think it may be a one-man project from USA. Really perspective one.

Diseased Oblivion - Portals of Past and Present

1/14/2013: Gas mask on a cover, it lays on a desolated floor (maybe after fall out it was left together with "colleague"), so i thought, that it will feature industrial noises. Damn i was right. Slow industrial rhymes gives the start to everything and the next turn goes to guitars, which reminds me something between tardy black metal and drone. Vocals? It reminds me a wheeze more. First two songs were recorded in 2011. Now lets skip to third one (year 2010), which title is more suitable for cover - "Ghosts of Nuclear Winter". It doesn't lacks noise, wheeze and that awesome effect, which remind me ghost howls. Everything comes to end with 4th track, which was recorded in 2009 - "Reclusa Eternus" (Steve, from Diseased Oblivion plays in a project RECLUSA under The Insect Hermit alter ego) in which doom/drone and melancholical guitar tune is interrupted by not by vocalist's wheeze, but by growl. Track ends with tubular bells/ambient sounds. It's good, that whole record is not very long, because i won't be able to not loose the plot.