Blood of Kings - Blood of Kings

Blood of Kings, not amused by their nude photographer...

Seattle, Washington is never the first place I think of when it comes to metal but Blood of Kings, a trio from the rainy city who formed in 2011, is hell bent on making sure that the city gets the heavy metal respect which it was never able to formally validate even after a number of great bands including Heir Apparent, D.C. Lacroix or myriad undervalued gems such as Serpent's Knight. It's a tough precedent to break but Blood of Kings gives it their all, and they give it admirably. Pete Yore (Bass, Vocals), Eric Jelsing (Drums) and Nick Paul (Guitars, Vocals) have quite a large amount of  talent between them and rampage through some fairly atypical and interesting songs on their debut release - an old school four song demo tape simply tagged with their moniker.

The first listen through was a fascinating experience for me simply because the band really seems to have already gelled so completely as far as their style can be concerned and the three piece has taken great care to produce a really strong product. Presentation on first impact is, however, somewhat lackluster with a cover which really doesn't seem to provide any indication of the overall contents of the tape. I honestly have no idea what the cover is. Perhaps it is intended to represent the third track on the tape, Heart of the Land, but my guess is as good as anyone else. My best guess is four skulls connected at the temple by a central heart but my second best guess is fungus... probably fungus scraped off the inner thigh of some long dead obese individual whose body has become a haven for new and exciting biological possibilities.

Music first. The tracks range from mid paced to just below what I would consider "fast." Opening track People Of The Light is my vote for weakest song on the demo though it has it's moments such as the post-solo lead and opening riff however a somewhat uninspired chorus really marks the demo's low point. It's pretty much smooth sailing from there though with Force Fed and closer Derailed really being highlights for me. The guitar tone, a crunchy muffled fluidity with hints of breakup in the bass frequencies and crisp treble clarity, suits the band's habit of utilizing more complex chord progressions and melodies and lends a doomish quality to some moments. Force Fed is a tremendous track, wandering through a heady amount of confident leads and memorable melodies. While Heart of the Land is a neat track with some, dare-say-I, unconventional progressions, Derailed is the strongest representation of what I think the band is best capable of doing; Voivodish thrash in the vein of tracks like Tornado. Blood of Kings is great at taking riffs and presenting them in a way which we haven't heard before which is really awesome.

The weakest part of the whole demo are the vocals which, I have to admit, are holding the band back at the moment. This is one moment where Mustaining it didn't work. While I'm not positive who does most of the lead vocals, it doesn't matter since all the vocals are pretty horrid. The nasally, out of key attempted vocals, though commendable, is like telling a crying baby that while we appreciate their attempt to alert the world that they aren't happy, we really could do without the deafening high pitched banshee wails. My main question is, why would the band go through such effort to produce some really strong tracks but allow the vocals to sound like a third grade teacher's fingernails on chalkboard? Either they didn't think it sounds bad - which it does - or they intended the vocals to sound like Gilbert Godfried's best impersonation of dying cats. This is something they will have to address if they want to garner any real widespread interest.

Okketaehm - Review #3

Thanks to Aristocrazia Webzine in Italy for the review.

Check it out here. There is a translation available from the Italian to the, slightly awkward, English.

Murkrat - Drudging The Mire

After a long, foreboding and tense piano intro to Murkrat's second full length, Drudging The Mire, we finally get to experience  what the brunt of this genre-bending release contains en-mass: droning archaic chants to the tune of the god fathers of ultra-slow, moody doom. With bands such as Skepticism playing major parts in the construction of a unique and solitary take on this corner of doom's vast pantheon of sub-sub genres, to try and compare Murkrat to other projects is as difficult as tying your shoes with broken hands. There really is no perfect fit. In the case of Murkrat, it really is like trying to shove a square peg in a round hole.

The most general description of the myriad components here breaks down as follows: The underlying base of the music is a structure rooted in something akin to Gregorian Chant or ritual music with an emphasis on vocal melodies. The religious symbolism removed, a haunting atmosphere is created. On the main tracks a guitar is used to create grit and heaviness. It has a strange overall tone though, as if the instrument has been played very softly and with little attack. Run through a fuzz pedal, the resulting effect is that of a cello or contra-bass bowed and played through an Engl with the bass turned all the way up and the treble turned all the way down. The foundation is rounded out with drums and keyboards, both playing prominent roles in the band's sound. The totality of the arrangement is not unlike the more recent Skepticism albums or what you would find in any number of funeral doom albums.

The two major factors that make this album so completely unique are Mandy VKS Cattleprod's vocals and Neil Dire's drumming. Drums first. Evidence for the unique drums is found through the album, though in second track (first real track after the intro) "I, Rodent," we are presented with one of the strongest displays of the unique drumming. Dire plays a style similar to that of Steve Shelton of Confessor but far far slower. Strong confident beats are punctuated with moments of experimentation and free - form fills and variants. The constant variety adds a sense of adventure to the mostly simple rhythm section. Fifth track, "Electric Womb" is an example where Dire relinquishes his experimentation slightly and the track suffers. "The Mighty Spires," marks a return to Dire's seeming need to complicate the rhythms. He succeeds here, crafting the spine to what is my favorite song on the album.  The drums play a major role in making this album listenable instead of simply an interesting attempt. Neil's drumming is about 30% of what makes this album tick.

The 60% that makes the album tock, however, would be Mandy's vocals. I have heard one other female vocal in this style though nowhere have I heard such a prominent role for this style of vocals. A quick reference point would be Vanessa Nocera from Wooden Stake. Though Nocera tends to let the riffs press the music onwards, objectively speaking, Mandy is the more skilled vocalist. Nocera may be more aggressive and I'd be surprised if Mandy could equal the extreme vocals which Nocera does so well (a moot point since there are no real extreme vocals on Drudging the Mire), but Mandy's ability to combine layer upon layer of vocal melodies and harmonies is rather astonishing. Vocally, there is an operatic element to the style employed here but it's more of a crooning at times. Mandy basically sets the stage here for every talented female vocalist who never thought that their love of the Cranberries could be translated into a doom metal setting. It's an immaculate blending of the holy and unholy - an angelic style used to perpetrate mournful and somber melodies and harmonies.

The album is long, and while the eight songs are all incredibly interesting, well composed and unique, a sense of dragging does occur. I noticed it around the midway point of "Electric Womb." While the following track, "The Mighty Spires," is, as mentioned before, a highlight in my eyes, the song which I have to give the most credit to is "World," an example of everything Mandy's vocal genius is capable of in a single track. It's the kind of song John Batchelor would open one of his radio shows with - a soundscape presenting an intimacy into the soul of a universally acknowledged musical truism; music can transport us places without a common language, without common beliefs or common experiences. "World" is mainly a vocal instrumental, if the two words could go together. Mandy lays a foundation of vocal layers and builds upon them to create one of the more beautiful pieces of music I've heard in a while. Though excellent, obviously this is not an album for everyone. There is a required interest in slow, moody, doomish music and also, I would say, a disposition of open-minded curiosity which would go well with this unique and eccentric album.

Black Chalice - Submission Review # 5

Another review for Black Chalice - Submission has been posted on metal archives. The positive reaction to the release continues and more than half of these tapes are gone.

Review added to the others on the Black Chalice - Submission page.

Okketehm - Stones Review #2 / Diseased Oblivion Review #4

Via Metal Core Webzine.

Okketaehm - Stones: 

"Wow was this some pretty damn good raw as fuckin hell black metal. This band can create a mood and just sink you in with feeling and emotion. The riffs, the style of music, the way it is played and the vocals all play a part in this. This isn’t just saw fly by night black metal band screaming about satan and all that. Sure this is fast and raw, but to me black metal is a lot about feeling and emotion and this had both. This easily comes from the pits of hell."

 Diseased Oblivion - Portals of Past and Present:

"All this was to me was a bunch of senseless guitar and keyboard parts that sounded like a storm was approaching. It is one riff repeated over and over with some guy just growling very low into a mic saying nothing every now and then. It sounds like a thunderstorm to me with the vocals being the lighting. To me this isn’t even music and I can’t see how anybody would even like this at all. This I can say is the worst black metal shit I have ever heard in my 25 years of reviewing metal."

Ummon - Retreat

I don't know if in France they have McDonald's with the ball pits and play areas but it's like tossing your newborn into the circus colored plastic balls and then realizing the play area is full of knives and needles and other evil menacing instruments. That's Ummon's demo Retreat. While that may sound like a tempting morsel for metal fans looking for the most extreme, Ummon have taken that combination of sweet and evil and turned it into a rather confusing style that I personally can't seem to enjoy. It may be the overzealous drum tone which sounds like slamming the lid on an assortment of empty resin garbage cans, it may be the infusion of jazz and lounge elements which make even the demo's most metallic moments sound like impromptu jam sessions with no direction or it may be the release's rhythmic section which is the rhythmic equivalent of peeling back your toenails with the head of a ball peen hammer. I guess this just isn't my thing.

The three songs occupy a running time of just over sixteen minutes which, luckily for me is all I need to come the conclusion that none of the three songs has anything remotely worthy of replay. First track, "Lost found Lost," starts the clusterbang off with something between Napalm Death and Fluerty with a heavy leaning towards the latter's album Department of Apocalyptic Affairs minus the everything positive about that album. Gone are the smooth vocals, the mellow relaxing sections and the genuinely well composed tracks. There is no composition here... just moment after moment of written on the spot, "then-we-should-do-this" amateur compositional awareness we see of high school bands trying to imitate their cursory knowledge of metal. Once the second track, the title track "Retreat," runs through it's motions, I've taken the hammer and moved to my fingernails, trying to rip my fingers out of their sockets for being the accomplice to the crime of even pressing the play button. They must die for this.

I will give the band the satisfaction of being decent musicians, however their ability to play their instruments has been compromised by their ability to ruin my lunch break. I could have been sitting in my car starting to work on my review of Countess' "On The Wings of Defiance," - another doozy but we'll get to that at a later time after I review the endless history of Count Orlok's sole addition to the annals of human culture. The playing on Ummon's release is, as stated rather good, with everything being in time with each other and such. It at least makes the release listenable from the standpoint of I can tell what sections are intended to sound like; I'm still unsure if they sound like they are supposed to. Additionally, final track "Children of Boredom," has some interesting vocal experimentation. Don't let that fool you though... I would only seek this out if you are solely interested in tracking down something to piss your girlfriend off on a long car drive, irritate your friends on your way to see a show or are in need of a soundtrack to self mutilation. 

Did Ummon spell their own band's name wrong?

Wendess - Nuee Noire

Wendess return with a new flood of material, raked together to form a new album, Nuee Noire. I reviewed Wendess' original album in Contaminated Tones Zine #1. It was an atmosphere heavy, patient introduction to a band that I felt would continue to coalesce and create it's own style. Elements of that first release appear once again on these new five tracks. The airy-ness of the self titled album reappears to great effect, now completely realized and mature. So while the amateur wings of Wendess were enough to lift the listener into the sky on the first release, there was a shaky quality that reminded me of the small "cityhopper" planes I used while touring Germany. They worked but I didn't know if I could entirely trust their construction. Still it was a strong first effort and tracks such as "Par Le Dent" and the intense "8913" rounded out a strong first effort.

Nuee Noire picks up where Wendess left off - with the airy, spacious atmosphere one is accustomed to these days with bands like Agalloch and Alcest and such riding the forgotten influences of bands like Empyrium and Arckanum into the dust. Hordes of new recruits to Black Metal worship every particle of dust Drudkh's sound waves vibrate, every fiber that resonates with Wolves in the Throne Room's menacing noise and every second that some new band can suck from their life with redundancy and repetitive wanderings. I've heard few Black Metal bands in recent years that portray the feeling that their music is more than what they say it is. Nuee Noire grows closer to that final ridge and leans over gracefully, peering down into an abyss that many are afraid to cross, a canyon which, once entered, one must within thrive without any hope of reversing course. I can't say that Wendess have taken that plunge just yet but the feeling that they want to is there.

They have drifted out of the pastoral setting that was hinted at on Wendess. Nuee Noire is way grittier than the first EP as evidenced by the opening minute of the twofer opening track, "Intro & Seroquel." Hints of disharmony twisted into an endearing form are layered across more traditional Black Metal stylings.  In this particular track the introductory section and Seroquel section are separated by a fermenting ambiance, drifting between dream and nightmare. Wendess like to wander the dreamscapes of myriad emotional states. The melodies can mean anything to the listener, of course, however it is hard to describe them jovially. Most of this album is blessed with a profound attempt to create bleak introverted depression. The album also has no interest in rushing the torture. Four of the five songs are over ten minutes long, three are over fourteen minutes long. The terminology behind the concept of an LP truly has meaning here. At times, I would wager that most would agree that the songs meander. While this is generally a good thing for background music, I also fell asleep on several occasions while trying to actually listen to the whole thing in it's entirety. Luckily, the ride home from Maryland Deathfest was an excellent opportunity to finally do proper reconnaissance on Nuee Noire.

Wendess have a knack for tonality. Every tone is beautiful especially the clean guitars which are a common element and are used often to transition between motifs. This is an area where Wendess are way more enlightened than others. They are able to change tonality of instruments in sections without affecting the flow of a song or sounding out of place. How often do I hear bands break into sections with effects on the instruments that sound downright foreign to anything else in the vicinity. Black Metal has no need for tonal tourism on the part of post-production experimentation. When the listener finally gets to the second track, "Xanax," a palindrome that is not reflected in the structure of the song, I think it would be prudent to expect an intense, eight-hundred beat-per-minute blast fest to break up the tempo (the band most likely have the talent to do so) but instead they continue on with their intent to create their album. "Xanax" utilizes the above mentioned clean guitars to full potential and truly hearkens back not to contemporaries but to albums such as Where At Night the Wood Grouse Plays. Wendess do add their own life to the style and omit the wonderfully powerful clean vocals.

It is the third track where Wendess make their blackened stand. "8915" is similar to "8913" on their self titled, but instead of being one and a half minutes, we get ten times that much material to weather. It is a storm. The most intense of the tracks available on the release. It also presents the biggest adjustment that I can notice between the two albums other than general songcraft. Vocally, there is a HUGE improvement on this album. I felt the vocals on the previous offering were the weak point. They retained a pre-pubescent lack of confidence. They were caught somewhere between being Black Metal and being metalcore. The vocals here sound more like what comes out of tape player when Eindig's Doodshcrift is inserted for prime enjoyment. Admittedly, they are better but not yet to the point to fawn over. And while "8915," at one point sounds like Dick Dale - which is awesome - it also once again fades away into more unnecessary sections as well with additional clean guitars. At times I think it would be beneficial to make several smaller songs. It takes a certain amount of commitment to listen to a fifteen minute song.

On that note, fourth track "Lithium" goes a full eight minutes without any kind of heavy distortion and by this time, when the distortion does kick in, I don't even remember what came before it. Once again, a lot of great ideas and great melodies but without the concentration of a Buddhist monk, I just don't know how effective it all is from the standpoint of composition. I guess the moral of the story is that by the last track, I'm depleted a bit. The slow, atmospherics of the last track, simply titled "Outro," is definitely enough to force me to need to move around and get my blood moving to avoid passing out.  If Wendess can find a way to maintain listenability of the album, from beginning to end, and maintain the listeners attention, there should be no problem of the band becoming a well known name in the modern day Black Metal scene. Their propensity for long, drawn out compositions which sound almost like entire jam-sessions could work in their favor or against them if they can find a way to control it. I also don't quite understand the reasoning for ending "Outro" with the same variation/section/rhythm as the intro on their self titled release. It seems far fetched that anyone would recognize that after falling asleep halfway through "8915."

The lack of physical availability of this release is disheartening. It deserves some sort of physical release. Apparently Self Mutilation Services has released a physical copy but with no distribution I doubt there will be much product movement.

Okketaehm - Stones Review #1

First review for Okketaehm - Stones has been added to the appropriate page. The original review can be viewed here, at Metal Archives.

Temple of Baphomet - In Morbid Fascination Of Sathan

This is a four track demo from Denmark. When I think black metal from Denmark one band comes to mind - and should come to mind for anyone with an interest in the genre - Countess. There are some similarities here. Both show a strong reverence to the classics - Venom, Mayhem, Darkthrone etc. Temple of Baphomet more so... Countess less in certain areas. I come from the position that Lord Beezanborgh has been profoundly influenced by Count Orlok's cinematic recent style.

Watch out Tom Sawyer, there's a new kid in town

.

In Morbid Fascination comes across as very cinematic. I'll be careful not to say symphonic lest we implicate Temple of Baphomet of being something they are not, and do this demo a general injustice since so much of that bastard offshoot is laughable and drags a whole army of fans away into the distance from the task at hand - presenting Temple of Baphomet as they are. There are some keyboards here, also some pianos and moments of clean and spoken vocals however the mood set across the fifteen or so minutes is enough for me to forget I'm at Maryland Deathfest, parked on a side road under an overpass to get out of the sun. Usually I scoff at black metal in this style. The whole showmanship aspect puts me off and creates a dichotomy which I find hard to resolve within myself but this has been done considerably well.

Atmospherically, the album proclaims itself to be a "morbid story" in which Beezanborgh declares "temptation, fascination and damnation led me upon the path to hell." Black metal is known for it's coming of age stories. Varg spent his life living out his own tale in prison and this, though cute, obviously doesn't quite live up to that standard. This carries the weight of maybe Dennis the Menace or Charlie Brown. Musically it sounds less technical, stripped down, and wiped clean of comparable hatred against any of Emperor's classics. It has a carnivalesque feeling not unlike Arcturus.

Anyway, four songs. Opener, "A Call from the Distant Stars," is what Joseph Campbell would deem 'the call to adventure.' I wasn't given lyrics but if I was, I'm sure they would read something like "hot alien entities from the distant realms of existence and bleak northern frost show themselves and I became... fascinated." The track is fast black metal in the second wave style with a melody being provided by synthesizers at times. Guitars add grit and raw energy mainly and act as a rhythmic instrument. This seems to be the order of the day through most of the ritual. Many times verses will be arranged traditionally. I find this opening salvo to be a strong first impression - driven, aggressive and moody although repetitive at times. The title track is decent though not as exciting as "A Call from The Distant Stars."

Doomed to wander closes out the release and is pretty much an ambient piece. The meat left for picking then is "Confronting The Hidden Archetypes," a slower piece upon opening but pretty dynamic and is to my ears the most complex of the release from a compositional standpoint. It showcases the vocals which, for me, are a highlight of "In Morbid Fascination..." Lord B. switches between raspy and clean vocals throughout the tape bu here, both are used together to strong effect. It creates a truly distinguishing feature - tough to come by these days. As a last criticism, it was difficult to tell where one track began and another ended. I burnt the whole album to a CDr to listen to in the car as a single track instead of splitting it into separate tracks and because it was a short enough slab of material giving it a listen on my way to and from work a few times without having to stop in the middle of something worked to it's advantage though I see some being bothered by this minute fact.

 

Promo flyer that came with tape.

Black Chalice - Submission (CTP - 005 - I)

Doom-laden death metal with heavy atmosphere and mournful melodies. This third release is the peak of Black Chalice's continuing progression into an ever more unique style which will surely be adored by anyone into the off-shades of both Doom metal and Death Metal. Inevitably, due to it's creator's involvement in other projects such as Auspicium, elements of black metal make themselves shown momentarily but this is primarily the affair of other styles.


CTP - 005 - I (QTY = 50 Copies) Sold Out
CTP - 005 - II (QTY = 105 Copies) AVAILABLE $6.00

REVIEWS:

12/01/2013 Aristocrazia Webzine

Black Chalice, a young one man band led by Patrick A. Hasson, comes to us from Portland, Maine. The creativity of the multi-instrumentalist is in constant turmoil, as proven by the three demos and the full-lenght that have been released in the two years since the foundation of the band. This review deals with the latest demo, "Submission", originally self-released in digital form only. Later, Contaminated Tones Productions has also released a first edition in tape — limited to fifty copies and now sold out — and a reissue — again in tape — limited to one hundred and five copies and containing a previously unreleased track.

The opener — "Deluge" — is a four minutes long intro made up of caressing and beautiful clean melodies, a small appetizer that sets the stage for the entrance of "Regret" and "Cornea". The sound recreates oppressive and melancholic images of desolation, that stand between desperate atmospheres and layers of guitars, mainly inspired to the Death/Doom from the early nineties. A mushy and cavernous growl serves as a counterpoint for the funereal and distressing melodies, expressing all the existential despair that flows inside Black Chalice. The feelings conveyed are dark, contrite and filled with a neverending "mal de vivre".

"Submission" and "Wain" (the unreleased song), on the other hand, contain mostly delicate and graceful movements, also enhanced by the touching and evocative Hasson's clean vocals. We may see short glimmers of light, but there's no hope at all in Black Chalice's universe: these soft rays of light are in fact overwhelmed by a gloomy blanket that swamps us completely, a blanket made of slow, heavy and sprawling Doom litanies.

The fantastic weaves laid out with the excellent guitar work should be mentioned; the guitars manage to produce a very balanced mix of both melancolic melodies and very rough riffs. The structure of the songs is not particularly varied, but they possess a strong empathic ability, and the tormented visions they evoke will definitely leave their mark on you.

"Submission" is a genuine, vibrant, black and disillusioned work: a release that can surely arouse interest among the fans of Death-Doom. Welcome to Black Chalice's dark world!

09/11/2013 From The Dust Returned

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.

01/17/2012 Sorrow Eternal Blog

A small unknown band from the U.S. has recently released a new album for the new year. The band goes by the name Black Chalice and their album is called “Submission.“ It contains four lengthy tracks and has a raw recording sound. The quality takes away from music as it‘s clear that they weren‘t purposely going for the low quality recording. As far as the genre goes, the band is clearly going for that progressive doom type of sound however they kind of go about it the wrong way. Certain parts of each song are a little too repetitive and don’t really change up too often.

The album opens with the song “Deluge” which is a four and a half minute intro that contains multiple guitars with gorgeous strings of melodies that flow together perfectly. You don’t really hear the first few riffs until about a minute in as they fade in as slow as possible. More and more layers of soothing guitars enter little by little as they give off an ambient sound. As the guitars continue to build, after hitting their peak, they quickly drop as you meet the next track. “Regret” comes in with basic drum patterns in a slow moving tempo as a calm guitar riff takes over on top. This melody kind of drags out as nothing changes until about two minutes into the song. This is when relentless guitars come roaring in with fast chugging riffs and loud snares snapping in the background. You will also run into a demon of a growl as the vocals finally reveal themselves. Large heaving lyrics rumble under the guitars shaking you violently. After the verse is done, the guitars go on a rampage of more reckless chugging as double bass pedals start to pick up the tempo. This is where you’ll want to start bobbing your head. The only issue with this track is that some of the guitar riffs are a little too repetitive. The song is over eight minutes long and half of it carries the same couple of chords over and over again. This might make some listeners want to skip on to the next track. Perhaps a little more creativity in this song structure would do the trick.

The third track on the album, “Cornea,” starts out with static guitar riffs that give off a strong depressive vibe. This repeats for about a minute and a half. Unfortunately, that’s over a minute too long. Finally the drums enter with a slow tempo as chords continue to be slammed in the background. The vocals fade in with deep demonic growls delivered with aggression. The starts to pick up speed about five minutes in as the guitar chugging becomes constant and the drums rolls start to explode. But right as the song starts to progress you start to realize again that they are just gonna continue to play this same riff over and over again. The drum pattern may occasionally change but that’s about it. The song has got so much potential as you’ll find tons of energy in the last few minutes. The only issue is that nothing changes. The melody, the instruments, and the tempo all kind of just stay the same.

The final track, “In Submission,” is an 11 minute track that starts out with a soothing guitar melody that has the same issue of being played way too many times in a row with absolutely no change what so ever. The one interesting thing about this track is that the vocals change up as you hear a soft clear voice enter with depressive lyrics. It’s nice to hear something a little different than the other tracks. Unfortunately this is the only difference. About half way through the song enters a specific guitar riff in which they decide to play for the rest of the song. Feel free to turn off the album because at this point the riff that you’re hearing just plays all the way through. So save yourself some time and move on to another album.

“Submission” has got a lot of ups and downs throughout each track. There are times you can really start to get into it and want to bob your head to the beat, however there are other times where you just want to skip to the next track because of how bored you’ve become with the same repetitive riff. The eight and ten minute long songs would be a lot better if they were trimmed down by four or five minute. Besides the opening track, the rest of the album turns into a let down with its constant repeats of basic guitar riffs. Black Chalice definitely needs to add some creativity to their music if that want to separate themselves from other bands.

02/09/2012 Desolation - Infinite Blog

Hailing from the northeastern part of the United States, this one man doom/death hybrid metal band has been getting the attention of underground fans in the genre.  Black Chalice, hailing from Maine, started out as a raw death metal band, look for Prayers of Our Lord and Saviors, and then progressed their sound into a more doom/death sound as they went through the album Years of Flame.  Now in 2012, with the new album Submission, Black Chalice continues to impress with musical talent and wondrous compositions into the doom realm at even a greater height than before.

Submission embraces us with four alluring doom/death tracks.  First thing I have to mention is the raw production. I read other little reviews of the band floating around and some discredited them because of the raw production over shadowing the instruments, I laughed. In fact, I believe that the raw production adds even more atmosphere to the music, well at least on this album and the previous. Now, first comes Deluge which is a nice clean guitar and ambient instrumental luring us in on what we are about to hear. It's not until the second track, Regret, where the productions comes into play along with nice doomy riffs and mid paced tempos. One of the things that will capture you on this album in general are the upmost guitar melodics found throughout.  While Regret can get a bit repetitive maybe to some because of its length, the melodics just suck you in a void of lunacy. 

Next comes in the more funeral-esque track, Cornea.  Again exemplifying mournful riffs, this track carries the ears on a path full of sorrow and death while indulging your thoughts in a murky cloud of bleak emotions.  While the track might start at a slow constant, it does speed up as it carries on, especially as it grows towards the end where melodics once again somber in with the music.  Finally the last track, the title track, Submission, fades in with melancholic clean guitar strums and gloomy clean vocals.  I really wasn't expecting that but it surely was nice change from all the distortion taken in.  After that, a solo bass strum takes control on what is about to be awaken. The Beast of Doom.  Traditional, signature doomy riffs take toll which pretty much carry the song to its finale. It gets even better as the sound is blessed with an array of beautiful atmosphere to accompany it on its way out.  Wow, lots of head banging there.  

Certainly after listening to Submission, it makes me want to go back to my doom days.  I use to be an avid fan of the genre for a while but I just lost touch somewhere as bands were getting too stagnant. Black Chalice has reminded me while I loved the genre so much. All in all, Submission delivers for the fans of the underground extreme metal genre. While a bit repetitive at times as I stated before, the melodics during that period make up for it.  If you like doom/death metal with nice melodics or looking to recapture some of the finer moments in the doom genre, then this album is for you.      

Both Submission and the previous album, Years of Flame, are available for free download at the Black Chalice Last.fm page.  Go check them out and spread the word!

02/20/2012 Grave Dig Blog

Black Chalice has been one of the talking points in the underground scene since the latest offering Submission surfaced where there is a transition in the sound from raw death metal demo Prayers For Our Lord and Savior through more doom/death approach in Years Of Flame. While still not shredding the roughness fully where Submission stands out on its own is that the songs burden more emotions stabbing into doom territory. There are more melodious sections accompanied by harmonic notes but not straying a bit from creating mournful atmosphere. The evolution was inevitable as the man behind Black Chalice, Patrick Hasson from Maine, has passion for both doom and death and the influence just found its way into the music. When I asked him about the inspirations behind Submission, he quoted, "Submission is as it says, a story about submitting. All the different meanings and inflections that can be used with it, whether it be positive or negative. The songs all represent an aspect of it." 

06/18/2012 Metal Archives - Rotting_Christ_Mike


Taking advantage of the physical release of this demo, I gave Black Chalice a shot; I can safely say that I am not disappointed. What we have have here is quality material from a promising project.

The music here does not move exclusively at slow paces to bring forward the feeling of doom, but also makes use of beautiful melodies to achieve a sad and mournful atmosphere. The guitars play the lead role here, and that is good news because in songs like 'Regret' the repetitive and sorrowful guitar melodies are what make the whole thing worthwhile. The drumming is what you'd expect it to be, following the guitar playing when it comes to the speed variations. The sound is thick and muddy, so I can't comment on the bass since I can't hear it, but I can tell you that this does not affect the music; the absence of the bass does not affect the listening experience and you won't miss it. The vocals are somewhat buried underneath everything sometimes, especially at the more guitar-driven pieces like the aforementioned 'Regret' while in slower ones like 'Cornea' they come to the forefront slightly above the guitar. The vocals themselves are a deep growl which sounds a bit raspy at moments and is exactly what is needed in the music. I find that the vocals are definitely not the main focus of the music though, and they are just accompanying it because my ears are mainly focused on the excellently executed melodies but during the slower parts when the vocals are more prominent they become more noticeable.

This is a well-balanced release, combining both slow death/doom and faster melodic passages which still retain the depressive feeling of the whole release. The changes are not abrupt so everything will sound natural to your ears and won't confuse you like abrupt changes tend to do. The music is very good and the melodies are actually memorable with 'Regret' being stuck into my head for days. There is enough variation to keep you interested, but when nothing changes the music does not become boring but rather feels droning and sucks you in its repetitiveness. My favorite aspects of the demo are the guitar playing and the way in which the music as a whole actually achieves the purpose of atmospheric death/doom and really creates an atmosphere rather than bore you to death. This band is deserving of their atmospheric tag. The muddy sound results in a crushing force.

Having not listened to the previous demos of the band, I can say that the 30 or so minutes of music contained in this release were enough to grab me and I will be following the project's future plans. It certainly sounds interesting and I can't wait to see what the future will bring. Give this a listen!

07/01/2012 Metal Archives - Zodijackyl

Haunting clean guitars introduce Black Chalice over four minutes where atmosphere builds, inevitably leading to lo-fi doom where a dark atmosphere looms over the plodding march of the rhythm guitars. A contrast is built between distant, ethereal leads and dominant rhythms that sound like they are rising from a cave. A drum machine punches away in the background, a distant rhythm below the cavernous sound of the guitars. The rhythm guitars sound massive, with the lead/melodies cutting through when they appear, but the vocals staying low and the drums being nearly doomed from audibility.

The elements at work here seem to be a reversal of a lot of doom these days - while doom metal bands of this day often rely heavily on a great tone and weak riffs, Black Chalice is the other way around - good songwriting and good riffs, but weak production that leaves something to be desired. The desire is strong, because the music sounds great through much of the demo. The sound is suitable for the first half, but five minutes into the third song, there is an exceptional movement where a melodic guitar lead takes control of the music, and while it's a great part, I know that this section could sound so much better if it did not sound like it was recorded in an underwater cave. I really like the music and the production doesn't detract from it most of the time, but the pinnacle of half an hour of exceptional music feels buried, rather than pronounced and displayed in its best form. It's a demo, and I would love to hear the same music captured more effectively, with the great amps and recording that so many doom bands couldn't use as well as Black Chalice could.

The songwriting is simple, but very effective. Without looking at the clock, I wouldn't know that an exceptional section repeated for well over two minutes, but it is a testament to the strength of the songwriting that one riff could be repeated for that long and when it ended, I only wanted to hear it again. The third and fourth tracks both do this, where a very simple rhythm plods along while a simple melody intertwines with it on another guitar. In other music, a melody can often lead a song over a very short timespan, but rarely can a song be led by a part like this, long enough that it tops the duration of some songs.

Simple riffs and arrangements emphasize a crushing sound and excellent doom metal atmosphere. The songwriting is efficient - every riff is worth it - never a dull moment, only a few moments where the riffs deserve massive production that I can't really expect from a demo, though the sound is as strong as many pro releases with similar styles. It's a good listen and the only downside of the demo is that it's good enough that it shows more potential than a demo could capture. Check this out and watch the band in the future.

12/07/2012 - Goul's Crypt Blog

Black Chalice. The name reeks of dying, depression and burdening, imposing matters. Black Chalice is the name belonging to an American one-man black/death/doom metal band, a band that I have been acquainted with for some time now.

With Submission Black Chalice are trying out a new approach with the album intro "Deluge", which features something very atypical for the band. Normally it's straight on and forward with chaotic, gritty guitars groaning under the stress of the player's hand, but Deluge is all about flowing acoustic guitars, thusly building an atmosphere not nearly as raw as on the prior demo material of Black Chalice. While the sound of Black Chalice hasn't changed much Hasson's approach to songwriting has changed a lot since the beginning back in 2011. On Submission he favours more melodic riffs and dredging speeds rather than the fast, unvaried drum-powered tremolo-riffs on the early demos. A change that I for one am happy to hear as it provides the music with a whole new level of detail to peak the listener's interest.

In context with the acoustic intro the last song on the demo, Submission, also starts out with simple acoustic playing that puts you into a false sense of comfort until it slowly fades into the raw guitar-dominated soundscape that I've come to link with Black Chalice. A thing that especially struck me on Submission is the accustomed use of layers that wasn't present on the earlier material. This is evident in all the tracks but in my eyes works best on the track Regret where weeping guitars provide a nice contrast to the groaning and coarse string-play of Patrick Hasson. Another thing that makes Submission stand out compared to Hasson's earlier releases is that the drums and rhythm section in general have been severely downplayed; Where monotonous drumming dominated the early demos, drowning out most of the other parts of the music, on this demo it's much easier to hear the details in Black Chalice's music.

The music of Black Chalice could always be best described as "discordant" and "rough around the edges", and while the previous releases also seemed rather unrefined the same things go for Submission. But Hasson has found a more suiting focus for the band which makes the album a much more interesting and welcome experience than Years of Flame and Prayers for Our Lord and Saviour. Though all the releases are very organic in their sound and composition Submission is by far the least mechanical-sounding, and even though Hasson's chosen style of black- and death-infused doom metal mostly focusses on depressive themes and desolate soundscapes he has still found room for epic compositions and gloriously melodic parts. 

Walk Through Fire - Furthest From Heaven

Walk Through Fire is a murky specimen. Their second album, Further From Heaven, has a propensity for Isis and Neurosis style buildups with Earth style patience. I would wager that fans of sound combinations and guitar tones would enjoy the atypical clanginess of Walk Through Fire's approach to the sludge and doom style histrionics of their contemporaries. From a totally unbiased standpoint, I would claim that Walk Through Fire learn and grow across the album admirably though do little to solve the problem that I find so fundamental in most of this general style; a lack of climactic dynamic. There is only so far you can take a fourteen minute track - or, due to the similarity of the first songs on this album, a twenty five minute track - before you begin to wonder if the song had reached it's height and is starting to die down or if it has yet to climb that final hurdle and manhandle your ears. That single important factor is what betrays most bands similar to Walk Through Fire. I'm patient, but apparently not sluggish enough for this one.

Still, there are some interesting moments on Walk Through Fire's Furthest From Heaven that are worth discussing. As mentioned, the band tackles the issues of tonal depth well, with a clear yet viscous tone that produces contrasting tones that are interesting to reflect on while you wait for the meandering structures to move along. The problem of variety is compounded with passionate though predictable vocals with the characteristic rasp of angry middle aged men with too much time and not enough compositional acumen. Both guitarist Ufuk Demir and bassist Andreas Olsson offer ingredients to the vocal oatmeal on this platter but without looking in the booklet there is a good chance you wouldn't be able to tell. With two vocalists, there is an opportunity for more depth and variety than is presented.

Though both opening tracks, "Furthest from Heaven," a song about there being no heaven (truly original subject matter, I know... ), and second track "Through Me They Bleed," a vague song about being a martyr or something, it isn't until the final two tracks that the album produces worthy listening. "The Dying Sun" is basically an intro for "The Dead Sun." It's ambient, eerie and subtle. It does more for the album's flow and pacing than anything that happened in the first two tracks and while it's best to view the track as it relates to it's successor, to mention it as itself is important as well. It moves through a slow dirge and fades away triumphantly into the most memorable track on the release, "The Dead Sun." It follows a long, drawn out chord progression into the abyss. The progression lasts about two full minutes to make a single rotation before reverting back into the buildup which opened the track and it works well in this case due to the strength of the chord progression. Though the drumming during the progression sounds a bit tired and lacking, it almost works with the song somehow. The song breaks apart halfway in, revealing a length section of noisy clean guitar strumming - a nice dichotomy for the track which remained mostly loud and distorted throughout. It cleanses the auditory palette.

Ending with a reprise of "The Dying Sun's" ambient style, the song makes a strong cycle around leaving one fulfilled that the album wasn't a total bust. I really felt that Walk Through Fire shined when they focused more on the melodies and less on the sludgy, heavy aspect of their sound. They don't do enough to compel the listener with heaviness. Overall, this really is only worth checking out for fans of the post-rock, sludge, droney style of things. Anyone else will probably find Walk Through Fire incredibly boring. For myself, I have a hard time listening to half the album because of it's redundancy. At least the final track and it's satellite were somewhat gratifying.

Okketaehm - Stones (CTP 003 - I)

The second album from this reclusive act is sure to appeal to anyone with even a cursory interest in black metal. Thick, suffocating, and concealing subliminal uneasiness, "Stones" rewards the listener with feelings of uncertainty, awkwardness and fear. Preoccupied only by it's own mission and it's own patience, there is a vastness and scope few bands attempt and succeed in meeting. Somewhere between everything, there is a comfort that one can only find upon the realization that we are all, ultimately, consumed.

CTP - 003 - I (QTY = 75 Copies) SOLD OUT

REVIEWS

12/13/2012 - Goul's Crypt

I was on my way out the door one early winter morning in freezing Denmark. I got in the car to go to work on the hitherto coldest and snowiest morning this year, and like so many times before I was going over my CDs to find a couple to bring on the trip. I was going to go with some Entombed and Darkthrone, feeling like listening to some old school stuff, but then I found Okketaehm's promo "Stones" from Contaminated Tones Productions and thought I might aswell give a listen on the way to work. Though the total play-time of Stones is a mere 18 minutes of grey, wintry, space-like ambience and raw black metal the demo never left the car's CD player even though the trip is almost 40 minutes each way.

It was early, the climate was frosty and the road to work was long. Having only ingested some toast and a cup of luke-warm coffee I wasn't much in the mood for anything as I began my journey through the soundscapes of Okketaehm. The music that met me through the speakers was well befitting of the desolate roads. Stones consists of various parts of icy black metal, dark ambience and something that borderlines white noise mixed into one long track of 18 minutes, and all these parts in conjunction with masterful production lead my mind to things like the vast emptiness of space, void-like depression and mist-veiled frostscapes. Characteristics I normally attribue to bands like Darkspace, Ash Borer and Paysage d'Hiver. I admit I at this point wasn't much focused on my driving.

Let's not kid ourselves, ofcourse Okketaehm isn't perfect or innovating, but it sure as hell did make my drive to- and from work a lot more enjoyable. Okketaehm provides incredibly accurate atmospheres, and while you at times wonder wether the music is still on or someone is just vacuumcleaning in a nearby room it simply adds to the enormous impact the half-melodic black metal pieces of Stones presents.

07/18/2012 - Aristocrazia Webzine 

Inutile girarci intorno, la "cascadian scene" oggi la fa da padrona nel black metal d'oltreoceano (e spesso non solo). Eppure, al di là della moda, al di là dell'esposizione mediatica temporanea, è innegabile il fascino che questa è in grado di esercitare. Gli spazi, i colori, le inquietudini che questo stile è riuscito ad aggiungere al black metal ne hanno reso lo stampo atmosferico perfettamente riconoscibile tra i tanti.

Ora, il progetto statunitense Okketaehm non si sa da dove arrivi: potrebbero suonare da uno scantinato a Phoenix, nel mezzo del deserto, per quanto ne sa il resto del mondo, ma ciò che scorre attraverso le note di questo lavoro monotraccia è un'interessantissima esplorazione delle coste lambite ormai da diversi anni da formazioni come Velnias, Skagos, Ash Borer e innumerevoli altri. Ciascuna di queste band è riuscita o sta riuscendo a interpretare a proprio modo il canone dettato inizialmente dagli ormai immancabili Agalloch e Wolves In The Throne Room, e la band americana non fa eccezione - sempre che ci sia più di una persona alle spalle di questo monicker, dalla fascetta dell'audiocassetta non è dato comprendere altro che l'immagine di copertina, un insieme di lapidi, ed una sgranata foto interna raffigurante quello che sembra il rudere di un edificio in mezzo ad un bosco -.

Ed ecco che il riffing atmosferico è soltanto una delle facce di "Stones": questo piccolo tape unisce sapientemente violenza a spettralità, incarnata nello specifico da ampi e dilatati riverberi che lasciano correre l'immaginazione e le sensazioni dell'ascoltatore, guidato da una fioca distorsione, un feedback solitario, all'interno del quale può scorgere tutto e il contrario di tutto. Una nota ci segue, per poi lasciare di nuovo spazio al fruscio, ma questo può essere acqua che scorre, da dove provenga e dove porti non è dato saperlo, o rumori spettrali dall'angolo buio appena adocchiato. Adesso una chitarra trascina verso luoghi più congeniali al drone, poi, di nuovo la violenza, la velocità, di nuovo il black metal. E così via, si susseguono le alternanze, fino alla fine di questa ottima prova, che fa dell'evocazione e della riflessione i propri punti di forza.

Decisamente non adatto per chi cerca adrenalina ed emozioni forti, estremamente indicato per chi predilige un ascolto più posato ed intimo.

06/28/2012 - Metal Core Webzine

Wow was this some pretty damn good raw as fuckin hell black metal. This band can create a mood and just sink you in with feeling and emotion. The riffs, the style of music, the way it is played and the vocals all play a part in this. This isn’t just saw fly by night black metal band screaming about satan and all that. Sure this is fast and raw, but to me black metal is a lot about feeling and emotion and this had both. This easily comes from the pits of hell.

06/06/2012  - Metal Archives - Zodijackyl

Okketaehm produce a very rough style of black metal that, despite its outward roughness, shows a very high level of refinement. The atmosphere seems to be tuned finely, fitting the music and creating a vibe that creates the whole sound that the music needs to thrive. The riffing has a bit of a medieval flair to it, reminiscent of certain second wave black metal, especially early Satyricon. It is executed as well as many of those legendary bands.

The arrangement of the whole demo is an interesting choice - one track, just over 18 minutes, moving quite seemlessly between black metal and ambient, noisy interludes that keep the same atmosphere as the guitar-oriented parts. There are clearly quite a few sections, as it changes between styles several times, but it is all assembled into one very coherent and inseparable piece, and it feels like a very complete piece, flowing from start to finish. Part of the strength of the music is the cohesiveness which holds all of it together, something that seems difficult yet essential in this style. Simplicity is often key, but the nuances of putting the parts together into a whole embodies the art.

The piece opens with a majestic melody, comparable to a medieval trumpet anthem, the guitars offering the shrill feeling of a chorus of high pitched trumpets, and the triumphant tune and timing complete it. The huge, medieval sound lasts through the first riff, reminiscent of Satyricon's "Dark Medieval Times" - the atmosphere and the riffing remind me of this throughout. Soon, the piece moves into an ambient section, and there will be several more interludes. They carry some melody and feel very welcome in the lengthy arrangement.

The atmosphere completes the piece. Both the black metal/guitar parts and the ambient/noisy parts are unified by slightly foggy production - it obscures some of the minute details while emphasizing the shape of the whole. There is a mystical feel to it, a mix of Satyricon's DMT and Sacramentum's "Far Beyond the Sun". This lends itself nicely to emphasizing the neo-medieval vibe that is present from the start. While not being an "atmospheric black metal" band as that style is generally known, the atmosphere completes the composition and sound nicely. It takes away a bit of the unpleasant edge that often makes raw black metal nearly unlistenable and turns it into a very pleasant sound.

This is a really good demo and one of the few things of this quality to come from a US black metal band in recent years. The underproduction is beautifully done, the composition is strong, and it comes together nicely. Listen to this and keep an eye on the band in the future. 

10/10/2012 - Destructive Music

Now onto their sophomore demo release, OKKETAEHM from the US of A are backing up their debut demo “Maggots” with their 2012 opus “Stones”. Now having searched around I found very limited information on this Raw Black Metal band, even it’s members and exact location, so their underground status, even kvlt status, seems to be high!

Something else that will keep this USBM band in good stead with the Underground community is living up to their title of Raw Black Metal! They certainly do just that, with furious high energy blasts of Black Metal shot directly at your heart, this bands cold icy demeanor is only slowed to inject more venom filled noise and static into the mix.  As an air raid siren sounds out through the cold dense fog, Okketaehm ready themselves, preparing for the onslaught that is inevitable!

The noise, the suspense, the tension… it carries on and on into the black! Onwards it goes, descending further into the murky depths, deep into the abyss! Through misty production and tremendous Raw Black Metal ambiance, Okketaehm dwell!

Hatred and hostility, vitriolic moods, pure and unabated blackness of the heart and of the soul! Then as if a switch has been flicked the brutal assault and barrage begins once more and reigns supreme with dominant fury! “Stones” is one song, eighteen minutes of anger and malice and is the epitome of Raw Black Metal! 

11/27/2012 - Orthodox Black Metal 

Although I searched a lot, I found very few information on the internet about Okketaehm which come from the U.S.A. and apart from the demo “Stones” of 2012 that I recently received, the band has released one more demo in 2010. This album contains only one track of eighteen minutes. The band wants to create the atmosphere and to set up the scenery combining harsh, Scandinavian Black Metal with ambient mainly, as also with noise influences.

The album begins with an awesome riff, majestic, epic and at the same time dark and imposing, creating the impression that we deal with a very interesting release. Unfortunately exactly after fifty seconds of repetition of the mentioned above riff, an eight minutes ambient part begins so that they continue with a six minutes Black Metal part after the ninth minute of the track. So you understand that the album is more ambient than Black Metal. Apart from that, in the Black Metal track, there are one or two interesting riffs that they are repeated and become tedious, while the structure of the truck makes it completely monotonous and boring. Concerning the ambient part of the album, I can’t judge if it is good for the genre as I don’t like ambient and my knowledge and experience concerning that is very limited.

The guitars are distorted and raw, they don't have any mistakes but also they don't have anything special. The bass can't be heard almost at all, while the drums are those trying to save somehow the album with some interesting lines. The vocals are raw Black Metal vocals, quite expressive and interesting. The production is very dirty, as an approach is correct as it absolutely fits to the bands style but its materialization isn't good as noise is created which makes the listen more difficult. The mix has maintained the characteristics of a rehearsal, something that fits to the sound, with the only mistake to be the bass' abcence. The lyrics are written in English but they are not contained in the promo that i received.

Generally the ambient elements Black Metal isn't something that i like, i just tolerate them, when the album is good. In the case of Okketaehm, the ambient outreaches the permitted borders of that kind of elements inside a composition and it becomes the composition itself. On the other hand, the Black Metal parts are monotonous and boring. So ”Stones” belongs in the category of those albums that he who listened to it, will never ασχοληθεί with the band again. As you understand by everything mentioned above, don't even bother listen to this one.
 

Astrum - Tales of Witchlore

I was asked to do this review about four months ago and never was able to figure out what to say about Astrum's "Tales of Witchlore." I get what Astrum is trying to do. Simple, straightforward metal with hints of punk. In one sense, they have accomplished this. The short, spastic songs have the simplicity of the early hardcore punk stuff and the chugging, more metallic riffing and soloing harnessed from the power of metal. The songs move like three-chord-punk in a back and forth, to and fro, heave - ho motion which could be a fun thing to experiment with and something you don't hear a whole lot of in the metal genre what with everyone pre-occupied with being evil, growing hair long, or guitaring faster than Yngwie Malmsteen playing renditions of Bach's inventions in a human centrifuge. I appreciate the attempt, but in the case of Astrum, it doesn't work as well as intended. In fact, it doesn't work at all and sounds like a sloppy bored mess of a band.

It's really just a straight-forward how-to-exercise in compositional and rhythmic variety gone terribly awry. Eleven songs, in just under twenty-nine minutes all sounding a like, with little variation, a whole lot of monotony and exuding about as much energy and excitement as watching your neighbor lay out on his back porch trying to get a tan - for clarification, your fat bearded geriatric neighbor, not your scantily clad super-model neighbor - on an overcast day. Additionally, every harmonized riff sounds not only out of key, but also out of tune. This isn't on one song... it's on every song in at least a shirtful of places. It's the kind of harmony that if I encountered it live, I would wonder if I had hit a wrong note. After playing the riff twice, I would be dead certain someone wasn't tuned or didn't know the proper harmony or something. It sounds as sour as rubbing your tongue on your neighbors sweaty body while he lays out on his back porch trying to get a tan on an overcast day... See what I did there? That's this whole album in a nutshell, the same joke over and over.

While song titles like Triumph of the Black, or Blood and Sand, or especially Spectrum of Death conjure up images of grand bestial armies, swollen half cauterized wounds and the facade of death painted upon the lifeless bodies of fallen combatants, other song titles form memories of Sesame Street trying to portray evil; Wizard King, Helllegion, or Queen of Hell. Additionally, two songs seem like, contextually, they have absolutely no place on the album. Those two songs, Master of Rock and Rock Your World, being like the exclamation marks on an album confused by it's own character. It's almost as if instead of the album simply being "bad," it's now "bad!!."

I also forgot to mention the solos on the album. Never before have I heard worse leads. The worst lead I've ever heard has to be the solo in Triumph of the Black. It's so bad I can't even come up with a serious analogy for it. I know, it's not a big deal to claim something is the worst or best or most this or that, that you've ever heard. Everyone does it all the time; loose lipped accusations of no real value. This album has the worst solos of all time.

On a more positive note, I found the best song on the album to be the last track, Grey. Tossed on a completely different album with a different set of tracks which didn't wear me down four or five songs in, it would be an awesome addition. It's a slower, doomier track, with a more hard-nosed, rough-necked burliness which the other tracks lacked. I can imagine a bunch of toughguys pushing each other around in a pit and stomping like Gorons dancing to this... then the solo comes in with 30 seconds left to the track and wham, song ruined. I just don't know how the band let these solos stay on the album. At least one or two of the members had to think they sounded awful.

Maximum Oversatan Review #3

Another review for the Maximum Oversatan - Too Evil For Hell Demo. This one from a user of Metal Archives.

Additionally, less than 15 copies of the demo are left so if you want to get one, be sure to pick it up soon before they all are gone.

Contaminated Tones Zine Downdate

Unfortunately, I have decided to put Contaminated Tones Zine #2 on the backburner for a while so I can concentrate on doing more demo releases and such. I will still do reviews for all promos sent to me and simply put those reviews up on the blog. The same thing with all the Interviews, some of which are now simply out of date since I started collecting material a year and a half ago. I would rather at least put that material out than have it sitting, collecting digital dust, and not serving it's purpose of promoting the bands and artists that I want to give a voice to. Anyone who has sent me demos, if you don't see your demo or album reviewed, please let me know so I can make sure I get it reviewed. You'll be seeing a handful of interviews and reviews popping up here in the next few weeks.

Aberration - 1994 Promo

When mediocre is truly mediocre you can just feel the indifferent monotony rolling out of your speakers like the passing of a Honda accord in a Wal-mart parking lot. While we all scour the depths of the past and present for that ever so elusive glorious forgotten relic, or lost demo or whatever it is that pressures us to continue our endless search, more often than not we are met with acceptable attempts more often than not. Aberration's 1994 Promo is not one of those. It also isn't a 1968 Pontiac GTO on the open highway. This five track demo is the epitome of a demo that flew under the radar for good reason - sheer blandness.

It's got a mediocre production, with a thumpy bass, rehearsal room tone drums, stock guitars and a vocalist that is there because the band needed to fill the void. I don't know what it is about tracks like "Something Wrong," or "Barbarian Summoning" that just strike me with the impact of a newly purchase pillow, but there is barely enough energy in this demo to warrant the reels spinning in the tape enclosure. It took more effort for a machine to manufacture the tape this demo was printed on then Aberration put into recording the demo. I can imagine the band in the studio, half asleep, possibly slowing down the tempo to the songs so that they wouldn't have to work as hard to play the parts. A song like "Sweet Suffering," aside from requiring a more interesting and less wimpy song title, would gain excitement ten-fold from a slight tempo adjustment of only a few beats per minute.

To the nitty gritty: the songs and such. The tape is in the style of generic US Death metal... the kind every town had in 1994 including the Polish hamlet this crew truly put on the map with their blistering product. The Introductory track trembles along... modestly... trying to be witty with tremelo riffs mixed in with standard eighth note chugging but instead, the song sounds like an embellished series of toss-away riffs. While nothing is particularly offensive, there is little to care about either. I'm not sure who exactly is singing on this demo... there is NO information on the thing. Whoever it is, they lay out a couple of decent Barney Greenway wails at points but majority of grunts - more like grumbles - are not worth the price of the tape. The guitar playing and bass playing is... nothing special. The drums are nothing special, lacking any real charm. The drummer tends to just follow the syncopation in the riffs, adding little rhythmic depth to the songs. At times the toms are buzzy and way too hot.

The lack of proper credits and information includes the lack of a cool demo cover with black and white sketched artwork of zombie penguins eating the goo-spewing-pustule-covered neighborhood children. I don't quite understand why there is a total LACK of effort in this regard. Surely they could have had someone attempt the album cover... anything would be better than the cover of that Mindland disc... I'm afraid to go by the listed lineup on websites because, with a lack of information on the demo itself... who knows where the information on the album came from on these sites. Overall, this is a total pass for anyone really. Unless you really have to own every death metal demo from the Polish town of Plock this is sure-fire demo no one really needs to hear. This review was way more effort than the thing deserves. Hopefully it saves some nomadic Metalhead time tracking this down in the end.