tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55232888548739419292024-03-17T01:17:29.911-07:00Curse Of The Great White Elephantheysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.comBlogger169125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-87230688754146483922014-05-29T00:08:00.001-07:002014-05-29T00:08:39.230-07:00Artificial Brain- Labyrinth Constellation(2014)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Artificial Brain- Labyrinth Constellation</div>
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<i>Labyrinth Constellation</i> is the kind of album which is just fucking miserable to write a review about.<br />
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Artificial Brain's debut full length is so instantly likeable, so warm and dissonant and fuzzy that is just immediately slides into a comfortable spot in your listening rotation, playing though it's "just right" playing length and throwing dozens of killer riffs and dynamic composition changes at you that it gets boring. It is simply a perfectly crafted album from top to bottom... and that's what also makes it at times feel so unessential.<br />
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This isn't really a fault in the traditional sense. This is an album not only of technical skill but also chock full of ideas and just a hint of uniqueness to it. <i>Labyrinth Constellation </i>fits rather snugly into the realm of hyper dissonant, hyper technical Death Metal with ever so subtle Black Metal and Industrial Metal elements, but not only athletically and aesthetically dominates much of it's lesser competition in the genre(Read: <i>Vermis</i>), but also offers enough personality to feel like something new. Between all the Gorguts-cum-Deathspell Omega of <i>Labyrinth Constellation</i> lives the brutally muscular soul of <i>Breeding the Spawn</i> and <i>Effigy of the Forgotten. </i>Imagine an art house Suffocation, thrashing through dozens of complex riffs and seeking face melting zenith while throwing lots of dissonant, melodic undertones at you from all sides. It's works too damn well, and that's largely the problem.<br />
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There is very much a cold, calculated and mechanical nature to the album, despite it's thick, inviting production and heavy reliance on atmosphere. Even at it's most unique, melodic and fuzzy, <i>Labyrinth Constellation </i>feels like a mapped out emotional journey that tries to trick you into thinking it's not on rails by moving fast and with lots of (un)wreckless abandon. Certain sections seem to repeat themselves, and the tempos move quickly but are interchangeable and refurbished across multiple tracks. Often times, I try to predict how a song will go and then see if the album can surprise me. <i>Labyrinth Constellation </i>is the least surprising album of 2014 so far, even compared to much more traditional and much inferior albums.<br />
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It seems like a small thing to harp on, but it's a big deal in the margins of Death Metal history. <i>Labyrinth Constellation</i> is an album seemingly custom made for me to adore with levels of fanboy faggotry; and album for me to lay on my custom hyperbole all over and annoy most metalheads who vastly prefer Jumpin' Jesus to anything made after 1994. And I really very much enjoy the album. I love the gargantuan brutality, the skin flaying dissonance and effortless atmosphere. And any album featuring Will Smith of the truly legendary Biolich on vocals is a keeper for me. But <i>Labyrinth Constellation</i> also feels...unworthy. Something about it fails to achieve the heart of my stars, and although it soars high, <i>Labyrinth Constellation </i>in the very end finds itself burning up and crashing toward an unforgiving Earth.<br />
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Rating: 8/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com99tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-15402734250372680642014-02-24T11:51:00.000-08:002014-02-24T11:56:24.622-08:00Gridlink- Longhena(2014)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Gridlink- Longhena</div>
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It's always interesting to hear a band when they reach the curtain call. <i>Longhena</i> is Gridlink's declaration to the world: they are no more, history is devouring them and all they will leave behind is the resonance of their art through the ages. They frankly don't give a fuck what anyone thinks, because this is it. One last shot at codifying their identity into sonic form and leaving it for the masses to judge and disseminate among themselves. <i>Longhena </i>feels very much like an album made for the musicians who created it, and we all get to bask in that freedom of not giving two flying fucks.</div>
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You can probably guess what <i>Longhena </i>is all about. Grindcore, like much of Extreme Metal(yes, it's Metal), is very much a genre of tradition and paradigms. <i>Longhena</i> has not need for such things, and both are ripped to shreds in melodic, Heavy Metal riffs and longing ambient pieces. In fact, it's debatable whether Gridlink were even trying to make a Grindcore record here, or rather just some sort of distillation of their musical taste's and influences which includes healthy doses of Traditional Metal, Grindcore, Prog Rock and Ambient, all vigorously whipped together with a futuristic, Japanese cyber punk flavor and Jon Chang's legendary vocals and powerful, poetic prose.</div>
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Jon Chang. If I can fanboy out for a moment, I need to talk about Jon Chang. Not the man, as I don't personally know him, but Jon Chang the vocalist. If the end of Gridlink means one sad thing for me, it's the idea that this might be the last we hear of him as one of the defining vocalists of his generation. Many love his style and many hate his style. Others find it unimpressive. But when Chang provides vocals for a project, everyone know it is him: his manic, inhuman shrieks and throaty guttural grunts are simply unmatched within Extreme Metal in general, and when I was grinding out vocals for some shitty Grindcore band that I really loved playing in(even if we were shitty), I tried to channel Chang in every performance. I tried to channel the wrath, disgust and complete humanity that Chang gave us on <i>The Inalienable Dreamless</i>. Often, when praising vocalists, especially Extreme Metal vocalists, we praise them for how they seem to have transcended their humanity and transformed in raging beasts, subterranean demons or longing banshees. But Chang's gift comes from the overwhelming, soul crushing <i>humanity </i>of his vocals. This is what makes him special, and for me the greatest Extreme Metal vocalist ever.</div>
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It helps <i>Longhena</i> that this is the best Chang has sounded since his time with Discordance Axis. It was hard not to noticed a down tick in intensity with Gridlink's previous releases and with Hayanio Daisuki, though this can be chalked up to the obvious throat damage of Chang's unhinged style surely has brought. But like the unhinged and off-kilter style of <i>Longhena</i> the album, Chang is clearly pulling out all the stops, throat be damned.</div>
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Grindcore be damned as well. From the opening sparkly and bouncy riff of "Constant Autumn," to the whirring Heavy Metal dual melody attack of "Ketsui" to the somber, dissonant Prog Metal sections of "Island Sun," <i>Longhena </i>declares itself separate from the classification. "Thirst Watcher" provides a moment of quiet introspection early in the album, as clean guitars twirl and dance with muted electronic sounds and a howling violin, and it certainly stands out as unlike anything you would have expected. <i>Longhena</i> does have some solid moments of what's mostly Grindcore: "Chalk Maple" is still highly melodic, but feels like a good Tech Grind songs and features some brilliant guest vocals from Paul Pavolich of Assuck fame(man, this album can't be more awesome.) "Wartime Exception Law 2005" blasts through a mere 29 seconds of techy, lush Grindcore and dissonant, off axis musical twisting, feeling pretty close to something off of <i>Amber Gray</i> or <i>Orphan</i>. Takafumi Matsubara is a relentless shred master, which he showed with Hayanio Daisuki, but he also shows a brilliant affinity for technical, metallic Grindcore riffs and discordant compositions. </div>
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There is an undeniable current of beauty that flows through <i>Longhena</i> which gives it a feeling that seems so totally alien to Extreme Metal. Dare I say, <i>Longhena</i> sounds very... happy at times. Not that is doesn't have it's dark and somber moments("Island Sun"), but there is a very noticeable positive slant to the entire experience. Gridlink are having a hell of a lot of fun on<i> </i>with this material, and it's impossible not to smile along with them. It's all helped by a sparking, crystal clear production, but it feels perfectly appropriate considering the energy and positive vibes of the material. It's one of the most listenable and enjoyable, and highly addicting, releases I've heard, and without question the best Grindlink album.</div>
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<i>Longhena</i> is the musical equivalent of a walk off grand-slam; it's rare, it's powerful and it fucking wins the game. My love for Grindcore and for Discordance Axis always kept me involved in Gridlink, but I'll be the first to admit I was not a massive fan of the project. It felt too much like Discordance Axis to me, just more Japanese and clean, and yet it lacked the massive intensity and wrath of hateful conviction. This makes <i>Longhena </i>also sorrowfully bittersweet, as it appears in their last moment Gridlink had developed a sound which helped them stand apart from the legacy of earlier progeny and walk a new, undiscovered musical path. Yet <i>Longhena</i> feels largely complete, as though nothing is really missing. Gridlink are gone, but <i>Longhena </i>remains and will be heard and appreciated for years to come</div>
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i.e. this is how you go out with a fucking bang</div>
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9/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-59086231546922019012014-02-12T21:35:00.002-08:002014-02-12T21:35:18.487-08:00Inquisition- Obscure Verses for the Multiverse(2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Inquisition- Obscure Verses for the Multiverse</div>
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Inquisition releasing a new album isn't just a big deal among the initiated in the cloak and dagger crowd. It's a time of furious infighting over Dagon's vocal transformation from early releases like <i>Incense of Rest</i> to more recent releases like <i>Nefarious Dismal Orations</i>. It's a time when the zealot seeks to destroy "the false"and disinterested, who ask: "What's the big deal? Now <i>Sunbather</i>, that's awesome." It's a time of comparisons between different era's, different guitar sounds and different song writing techniques spanning a career of consistent excellence and divisive interpretations.</div>
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<i>Obscure Verses for the Multiverse</i> is not just another release. It's an event.</div>
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Don't mistake this for hyperbolic praise for <i>Obscure Verses. </i>It's merely an observation. In truth, <i>Obscure Verses</i> is as rock solid and listenable as any release they band have produced, occasionally ascending to something greater. It's melodic, dissonant, big and ballsy, featuring the cleanest and punchiest sound the band have ever produced, though not quite as sonically massive or warm as <i>Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm</i>. It's got equal appeal among traditionalists, Black Metal newbies with a hard on for Marduk and those craving walls of atmosphere; this is the most Populist Inquisition release to date.</div>
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This isn't a bad thing: Inquisition, newly minted to Season of Mist and releasing <i>Obscure Verses</i> with the biggest budget the duo have ever enjoyed, have every reason to expand their audience. The fact that they are doing so while remaining 100% true to the sound and style that made them the dark God's of Black Metal atmosphere and intensity is all the better.<i> </i>This is vintage Inquisition magic: riffs, riffs and more riffs, filtered through a fog of cosmic gas and inter- dimensional diffuse and regurgitated by The Old Gods into sound waves big enough to smother lungs and snap bones. Dagon rants and raves in alien tongues like an extraterrestrial minister lost in a demonic trance, while a wall of dense sound crashes down upon you. The budget may be bigger, the guitar sound cleaner and the drums punchier, but this is simply Inquisition rendered in a new light.</div>
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Dagon's guitar is a weapon of mass destruction; a mighty axe, crafted from the nucleus of a long dead comet. It is the lifeblood of <i>Obscure Verses</i>, the center of it's might gravitational pull, and strikes with the force of planetary inertia. Which is both the most excellent aspect of <i>Obscure Verses </i>and it's biggest failure: this is perhaps the least imaginative and dynamic Inquisition release to date. Outside of some surprising vocal variety on "Darkness Flows Toward Unseen Horizons," this album feels largely like a complete rehashing of the bands previously ventured paths. It's hard to argue with the results in the long run, but when stacked up to a discography of almost endless brilliance and consistent redefinition of their sound, <i>Obscure Verses</i> feels like the second time for the first time in the bands legacy.<br />
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Yet if <i>Obscure Verses</i> doesn't completely dominate your listening for at least a week, hang up your spurs and buy a Lorde album... or Black Eyed Peas. Whatever the kids are listening to. This is such a purely energetic album, bristling with a true love for Metal and what makes this genre so god dame awesome is on full display. The band are such master technicians, such master song writers and craftsmen, that anything they touch will exude an artistic confidence and listenability few bands can match. <i>Obscure Verses</i> is more a testament to the artist who created it than the art itself.<br />
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Rating: 8/10</div>
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heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-79525715968213135132013-09-26T20:11:00.000-07:002013-09-26T20:11:24.196-07:00Bölzer- Aura(2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Bölzer- Aura</div>
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If you find yourself at a loss for words after spinning <i>Aura</i>, the devastating and fresh EP from Switzerland's resident warlocks Bölzer, you are certainly not alone. <i>Aura</i> is an album with a sound and sense of style no other has been able to obtain, and stands as one of Death Metal's most unique and mystifying records. It's heaviness is matched only by the controlled but adventurous creativity, and both are completely dwarfed by the sheer sonic mass of it's riffs; all a galactic force of sheer density and dynamic melody The second "Entranced by the Wolfshook" begins to soar from your speakers like a comet streaking across a blood red and black sky, leaving in it's wake ominous omens of apocalypse, you'll fully understand what you are listening to hasn't been attempted before. It's exciting, and even more so worth experiencing first hand.</div>
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Bölzer has built the very essence of <i>Aura</i> around brilliant guitar work and flawless song-writing. I've already described the riffs as monolithic, and to be honest there are a dozen other adjectives I could throw at them: titanic, haunting, oddly beautiful, captivating. It goes without saying that <i>Aura</i> is the great guitar driven album of the year, and it a swirling mass of Blackened Death Metal which has no real analog in the rest of the scene. <i>Aura</i> is at it's heart a very old-school sounding album. Possessing little in the way of blast beats and no ambient keyboard or electronic noises, <i>Aura</i> feels like an album from the early years of Death Metal with it's supreme emphasis on riffs, riffs, and more riffs. Yet <i>Aura</i> also feels alien; it's creativity borders on dangerous and challenging to the established song-writing in the scene. Imagine Incantation and Asphyx had launched <i>Onward to Golgotha </i>and <i>Last One on Earth</i> into space, where it was discovered by an alien intelligence possessing the technology to use sound as a way to rip planets into pieces for some demented astrological property management. Imagine that they wrote their own Death Metal album after absorbing these albums for a decade and added their own utterly inhuman flavor to it, then sent the sheet music to Switzerland in a pod which I imagine both HzR and KzR discovered. <i>Aura </i>seems like their near perfect attempt to translate this inconceivable creation with pathetic human instruments.<br />
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I like the space theme here, because <i>Aura</i> has the sort of expansive and riff driven sound which brings to mind early Post-Sludge masters Neurosis and Isis and the thundering and classic domination of Celtic Frost. There are so many potential influences here, and they are all melted down and folded together to form a steel that cannot be broken; it will slice through your flesh with the ease of the metaphorical knife into the metaphorical flesh-butter. This is all aided by the perfect tendons which hold the musculature of the album together: the drumming is effective and unobtrusive, and it bears mentioning again how nice it is not being assaulted by endless blast-beats. The production is expansive, spacey and raw, yet even and incredibly full throated; <i>Aura </i>sounds fucking great, especially on vinyl(this is the kind of record made with wax in mind.) And the vocals are second only to the riffs in pure power and effectiveness; KzR mixes a solid guttural growl with a strong mid-register scream, but he really shines with his moaning, tortured clean yells. When KzR starts torturing his throat over this tsunami-sized riffs, it really drives home the Neurosis influence on <i>Aura,</i> though Blackend Death Metal remains the core of the albums sound. This is an album which can bring together the trve and the false together for some fascinating pillow talk.<br />
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Whether listening to the gorgeous "Entranced by the Wolfshook," with its addicting and hook laden riffs full to bursting with dissonance and melody, or being crushed under the massive weight and repetition of "The Great Unifier," an unholy nightmare mash of Deathspell Omega, Incantation and Neurosis, you can feel the weight and power of each track work their way to your very core. It leads to an incredible gushing of pure Metal-fucking-joy; <i>Aura</i> got me excited about fucking Metal like I was 13 years old again and just discovering heavier music for the first time. I imagine <i>Aura</i> has that effect on many listeners, including putting fucking in front of Metal every time you say it, write it or think it. Considering the cynacism of elder-status as a Metal fan, <i>Aura </i>accomplished something that not a whole lot of albums accomplish. Perfection? No. Fucking Metal? Verily. Experience it. I'll see you in the void.<br />
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Rating: 9.5/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-60327395426623265742013-09-13T14:10:00.000-07:002013-09-13T14:10:50.312-07:00Ogdru Jahad- I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ogdru Jahad- I</div>
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A savage and bestial grind from beginning to end, Ogdru Jahad's <i>I</i> is an album which fits comfortably into the mechanically putrid rot and filth of the scene, going through the ritualistic motions for a solid, uninspiring 30 minutes. Complete with blasphemous artwork and Lovecraftian references, <i>I </i>is an album as predictable as it ugly, minus of course the brilliant cover art, though this is another staple of the scene that shouldn't be surprising, or the limited edition clear vinyl the album comes on(only 200 copies of course).</div>
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That's the thing about <i>I </i>that I find far more fascinating; its an album that feels like it was created in some sort of Ross Bay Cult-styled atomic generator which is pushing out filth encrusted, bullet-belted abominations in droves. <i>I </i>itself couldn't be a more basic album; it sounds like Blasphemy, Conqueror and Archgoat, with hints of Thrash and First Wave Black Metal mixed in for extra credibility. It features no unique traits to speak of, other than perhaps a pair of songs which sound like they feature the same exact riff played only slightly differently in "Unholy Blessings" and "Empty Jehovah." There are some killer tracks to be sure, with the groovy and barbaric "Weeping of Angels" and the utterly uncompromising and blistering "Necromantic Rites" standing out a solid highlights. "Necromantic Rites" in particular features a hint of dissonance and mildly complex song structure, though it's fleeting and the grind will overwhelm all originality before the end.</div>
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What's more fascinating about <i>I </i>is how neatly in fits into the current Bestial Black/Death scene; another "super group" release featuring members of a dozen other bands including the mighty Lucitation and Sadomator. It features glorious cover art courtesy of Alexander L Brown, whose done the artwork for dozens of other similar albums. It's released on one of the premiere labels for such albums in Iron Bonehead Productions, and comes in both black and limited edition clear vinyl(it's since been released on CD as well). You can check the boxes both sonically and culturally with <i>I</i> and neatly place in on the bookshelf in between your <i>Gods of War</i> re-press and your H.P. Lovecraft biography, never to be listened to after a few initial spins again and more than likely to end up on discogs.com for triple what was paid for it new 5 years from now.</div>
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In an of itself, Odgru Jahad's <i>I</i> is an inoffensive album which has some limited visceral intensity, but it's an album so comfortable and safe that it feels stale and bland right out of the gate. From the very second the opening sample fades out and the opening riff slices through the air, the next 30 minutes is laid out directly in front of you, the bloody puzzle pieces stitched together smoothly. No bumps, no pauses and no mercy. And no fun.</div>
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Rating: 5.5/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-34115093835869602002013-07-12T13:45:00.002-07:002013-07-12T13:45:37.397-07:00Vemod- Venter på stormene(2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Vemod- Venter på stormene</div>
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Ethereal and twisted, <i>Venter på stormene</i> provides a hypnotic back drop of dissonant, melodic guitars and tortured, emotional vocals. The Norwegian two-piece combine snippets of the primitive Second Wave sound, particularly influenced by Burzum and Ulver but also a bit of Darkthrone, with a heavily modern Ambient Black Metal deluge inspired by the genre's titans. It's not revolutionary nor is it deserving of exhalation, but fans of the genre will find much to love about <i>Venter på stormene </i>twisting forest paths and screaming dead lost in the fog.</div>
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Above all other adjectives to describe <i>Venter på stormene</i>, hypnotic would be at the top of the list; be careful blasting this record while driving along a sorrowfully alone highway in the dead of night, because you'll likely be coming face to face with a ditch(I nearly did). A whispering, hollow and noisy production sound combines with inescapable repetition to cast upon the listener an all encompassing trance that is difficult to break. The vocals are overwhelming, mixing shrieks, moans, guttural growls and effective clean singing to further intensify the atmosphere, while the highly repetitive drumming provides the foundation for this dreamscape of ice and fire. <br />
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Those looking for Black Metal which predicates itself on ultra tight, fast moving musicianship and lots of complexity will struggle to find much of value with <i>Venter på stormene</i>, but Vemod do a very good job of adding some Second Wave grime and brutality to their sorrowful, melodic sound. The title track and second track, "Ikledd evighetens kappe" both feature a strong foundation of blast beats, throat ripping vocals, slithering bass and shrieking, thin guitars to go with the ambient, soaring compositions used to break up the endless, mechanical repetition.<br />
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Mechanical, but powerful and emotional at the same time. Truly the strength of <i>Venter på stormene </i>comes from this facet of it's sound; despite the overall lack of complexity and the bare-bones content of the songs, <i>Venter på stormene</i> is an emotional, profound experience. It's the very back-bone of the Ambient Black Metal sound, but far too many new artists utterly fail to achieve any sort of real emotion. Often, they sound more like a boring art-house Drone project for their college performance art class than a truly absorbing Black Metal beast, but Vemod have clearly mastered this concept on <i>Venter på stormene</i>, while developing a sound which should appeal to a more diverse group of Black Metal fans.<br />
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That said, "Altets tempel" is a complete waste of track; mostly a collection of various Ambient Black Metal tropes that don't involve any of kind of Black Metal, but instead a grouping of generic melodic leads and keyboard work. At nearly 13 minutes long, it sucks the energy that the previous two tracks electro-charged the room with. These incredibly boring, lazy compositions are far to common in the genre and a major black eye for <i>Venter på stormene</i>. The final track, "A stige blant stjerner" is a stronger ambient piece, featuring more straight up Black Metal and some strong melodic leads, but it likes energy and power overall.<br />
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Such as it is, <i>Venter på stormene </i>is still a fine overall album. The failings of it's second half do little to diminish the raw intensity and profound introspection of the first half, and in the right atmosphere this album will simply cast a spell of confusion and dreams over you that is nearly impossible to break. Fans of this genre, and purists looking for something more dynamic while still firmly entrenched in the old ways of the Fatherland of Oslo will find appeal in <i>Venter på stormene's</i> rotted, ice-tortured orchards and hard, lifeless soil which glows an unholy twilight across the night sky.<br />
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Rating: 8/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-71525573899898331662013-06-02T22:51:00.000-07:002013-06-02T22:51:08.249-07:00Antediluvian- λόγος(2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Antediluvian- λόγος</div>
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Few bands receive as much universal praise and are endowed with as many accolades as the mighty Antediluvian, and deservedly so. The bands last two releases, <em>Through the Cervix of Hawaah</em> and the brilliant split with Adversarial <em>Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries</em>, have set the standard for atmospheric, suffocating Occult Black/Death; terrifying and twisted in ways few artists have been able to match while developing a sound which sits on wholly unique ground. Its been a truly horrendous transformation for an artist which started out as merely another Incantation-clone, and as λόγος(Logos) shows, it is a metamorphosis which is not yet complete.</div>
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Its a very subtle evolution on λόγος from the bands two previous albums; crushing, massive Black/Death riffs, twisted progressions, wild and chaotic drumming tempos and Nabucodnosor's squishy guttural vocals are still the centerpiece of Antediluvian's sound and λόγος is no exception from the bands two previous releases. The devil is(probably literally) in the details here; λόγος is a more technical, chaotic, avant-garde release than I was really expecting from these Canadians. While <em>Through the Cervix</em> and <em>Initiated in Impiety</em> had these inhuman, disjointed chaotic moments, they were tempered by plenty of rhythmically un-obtuse sections and lots of Doom-y repose. Yet these moments have almost completely disappeared from λόγος, and instead the album is dominated by the gnarled and truculent compositions, creating a level of density few albums possess.</div>
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Its probably seems insane to think of anything from Antediluvian as "catchy," but going back to <em>Through the Cervix</em> in particular I was struck by just how many memorable many of the tracks were. The crushing grooves of "Luminous Harvest" and the blistering yet simple assaults of "Turquoise Harvest" could really stick with you well after the fact, and despite the albums truly insane moments and thick atmosphere it was an album which felt grounded in good old fashion neck snapping Death Metal. λόγος on the other hand is far more relentless and rhythmically chaotic: the drumming of Mars Sekhmet is far more turbulent and disjointed, and rarely is there ever a moment to hang your hat on, while the noisy elements of Antediluvian's sound have far exceeded previous releases. Her performance on the kit is daunting to be sure, and those looking for neck surgery are the only ones who should even attempt to do anything even close to head bang.</div>
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The subtly of this is key here, and λόγος still feels and sounds very much like an Antediluvian release. "The Ash and the Stars" twists and turns in the hurricane winds, and evokes the nightmares of ancient spirits with dissonant leads and swirling riffs. "Nuclear Crucifixion(Turning the Spear Inward)" has some of the few remnants of catchiness and memorability left on this album, though it would have been the most chaotic track on <em>Through the Cervix</em>; it has some driving Incantation-style tremolo-picked assaults and some softer, less compositionally dense moments that offer a small reprieve from the onslaught. "Towers of Silence" is truly an abomination, a bleak and devastating slice of Blackened Death Metal with perhaps the most ironic title ever, as the density and noise on this track is simply overwhelming.</div>
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If I can levy any major complaints at λόγος, they lie with the production: the drum sound is very hollow and while balanced with the mix seem loud, especially the snare, and the guitars sound much thinner and uglier than the warmness of <em>Through the Cervix</em> or <em>Initiated in Impiety</em>. With how chaotic and dense the drumming is, the drum sound can become very obnoxious. Its not a bad production mix per-se, but in comparison to previous releases this might be my least favorite since the bands early, nearly unlistenable demo material.</div>
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But from a song writing perspective, I find λόγος to be a slightly inferior album to <em>Through the Cervix of Hawaah</em>. I find myself impressed with the bands continued foray to relentless chaos and utter hatred for their listeners, but part of me misses those truly memorable moments of the past. I get far too much of a Portal vibe from λόγος, and while this album quite easily destroys anything that Portal have ever released on every conceivable level, it still suffers from too much noise and inhuman tempos to be truly enjoyable all the time. λόγος offers more good than bad to be sure, but be prepared for an album which will quite literally hate you to death.</div>
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Rating: 8.5/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-55837406262654414202013-05-25T23:46:00.000-07:002013-05-26T00:26:08.721-07:00Consummation- Consummation(2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Consummation- Consummation</div>
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As if the Australian Death and Black Metal scene was not strong enough, loaded with a veritable All-Pro group of musicians and bands, here comes the mysterious and slithering mass known as Consummation with their brilliant, haunting and dissonant s/t debut. Featuring a pair of mighty Satanic hymns for truly unclean worship of old spirits whose names cannot be uttered, <i>Consummation </i>is one of those brilliant little releases that despite it's minuscule running time delivers more than many full-length albums. Everything here works, from the song writing to the musicianship to the production, making <i>Consummation</i> a little masterpiece whose value is diminished only by it's format.</div>
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"<span itemprop="name">Heautontimoroumenos" shows off the strongest elements of Consummation's sound right off the bat: hazy, dissonant and mildly technical riffing, thundering and massive drums, earth shattering low end and vicious, tortured vocals which run the gauntlet of shrieks, guttural growls and deathly moans. <i>Consummation</i> has a sound firmly rooted in the Australian Black/Death style, but flourishes of other influences shine through from time to time, whether it's the squirming and swimming dissonant leads and "pulpit preaching" vocal patterns that bring to mind later Funeral Mist or the Celtic Frost like moments of Doom-laden, percussion driven madness, and all of these elements are present on "</span><span itemprop="name">Heautontimoroumenos"; The thundering percussion in particular reminds me of the Celtic Frost song "Dawn of Meggido" from <i>To Mega Therion. </i>A better combination of spine-tingling solos and sheer face melting blackness you will not find, and this track without question the stronger of the two.</span></div>
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"Rend the Ain Soph" has a very strong Orthodox Black Metal vibe to it, featuring a near impenetrable wall of dissonant fuzz and unholy vocal assaults. The drumming here is phenomenal, absolutely leveling the listener with power and control. I wouldn't be surprised if many a drum head needed replacing, because each strike of the snare or tom feels like a battering ram demolishing a castle gate. Everything works in brilliant conjunction to create a dense, foggy atmosphere; a ritual of burning flesh in a desiccated cathedral where nothing holy remains. "Rend the Ain Soph" isn't quite as catchy or as head-bangingly brutal as "<span itemprop="name">Heautontimoroumenos," but you'll still feel as though you bathed in blood and goat urine by the time it ends.</span></div>
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<i>Consummation</i> doesn't really have enough meat on it to truly transcend into classic territory, but the quality of the limited quantity cannot be denied. Finding a way to stand out in the Australian Black/Death Metal scene is no easy task, but <i>Consummation</i> stands as one of the more impressive debuts I've heard. It's serpentine song-structures, effortless atmosphere and commanding, unique sound is refreshing and highly enjoyable, and makes this a demo well worth your time and money.</div>
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Rating: 8.5/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-50684142694265890042013-05-25T00:31:00.002-07:002013-05-25T00:31:25.829-07:00Check The Effect- The Instant Queue ChallengeSo my younger brother has his new blog, The Effect, the new version of his old blog The Polibus Effect, and The Great Netflix Instant Queue Challenge is underway. I'll be writing film reviews for the Challenge, so be sure to check it out and see what's going down.<br />
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http://th3effect.blogspot.com/ heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-6406713788125542052013-05-12T19:39:00.000-07:002013-05-12T19:48:47.360-07:00Knelt Rote- Trespass(2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Knelt Rote- Tresspass</div>
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Few albums are as relentlessly, appallingly heavy as <i>Trespass</i>, the third album from Portland, Oregon spine snappers Knelt Rote. A group I'm not intimately familiar with, Knelt Rote apparently started as a Noisegrind side project for a group of well traveled Oregon musicians before metamorphosing into a new, equally savage and noisy though far less avant-garde beast. With Incantation worship having been all the rage for many years(though this seems to have begun to die down slightly), Knelt Rote have found a far more creative and chaotic way to emulate them: by mixing in and equal amount of blistering Grindcore into the tremolo-and-Doom formula of the Old New Yorkers. It's certainly an interesting concept, and one that surprisingly works despite what appears to be an oil-and-water mixture.</div>
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Perhaps the strongest aspect of <i>Trespass</i> is that Knelt Rote find a way to, for the most part, organically mix the two disparate styles without having songs fall into that "this part sounds like A band, this part sounds like B band" formula so many bands use. It's always impressive when an artist can instead create a synthesis, combing the essence of both styles into a single uniform approach, and throughout <i>Trespass</i> we see this unholy matrimony in full effect. The final track, "Catalepsy," is without question the strongest example of this union and the strongest track on the record, a dissonant and blasting track which mixes unholy Blackened riffs with relentless drumming, driving tempo and disjointed, demonic vocals to create that wondrous swirling effect that Incantation so completely mastered while moving at speeds far more reminiscent of Napalm Death or early Carcass. "Hunger" has a more Grind focused approach, bringing some Pig Destroyer-esque chaos and mildly technical riffing before transforming into another driving, Blackened nightmare. I was somewhat surprised by the complexities on display here, and like many of their peers such as Adversarial and Muknal, there is some subdued but tangible technical flourishes throughout <i>Trespass</i> which offer a nice contrast to the musty and murky invocations and sledgehammer blasting.</div>
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Just don't expect a ton of variety or a consistent atmosphere with <i>Trespass</i>. Though certain tracks stand out over others, there isn't a great deal here to differentiate the individual tracks from one another, and at times <i>Trespass</i> develops a droning quality that clashes with the chaotic and static-riddle madness. It's an album which can work you into a lull of concentration without ever finding a way to hook you back in, yet the loud snare often grinds against the backdrop of the coiling riffs and creates a somewhat disjointed contrast. And all this relentless brutality can at times eviscerate the strongest elements of the record: the atmosphere. Incantation did not become one of the greatest Death Metal bands, or one of the most influential, by being the most brutal or relentless band. They did it by creating an atmosphere which truly evoked a dream-like state of demonic possession, one where bathing in the madness and the nightmares made you <i>feel</i> the music on a different level. With all of it's fury and fire, <i>Trespass</i> can force you in and out of this trance in a jarring way.</div>
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Still, it's hard to find much overwhelming fault with <i>Trespass</i>. The sheer fact that Knelt Rote have discovered a creative and original way to take use those Incantation elements that doesn't fit into either banal worship or occult naval-gazing is worthy of praise if nothing else. You simply won't find another album which sounds exactly like <i>Trespass</i>, and it's an album of excessive extremes and suffocating barbarity that will not suffer survivors. If you take this album head on, be ready to search the dirt for your teeth.</div>
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Rating: 8/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-28575314658969707722013-04-29T17:00:00.000-07:002013-04-29T17:00:29.177-07:00Cultes Des Ghoules- Henbane(2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Cultes Des Ghoules- Henbane</div>
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The Polish Necro Warlocks of Cultes Des Ghoules are back, and this time they a more learned, cunning and sadistic force for the dark arts, acting as His(read: SATAN) Unholy Agents on this dying, divided Earth. <i>Henbane</i> is an album made of equal parts dense atmosphere and classic concepts, drawing equally from First Wave Black Metal, Second Wave Black Metal, Ross Bay Cult styled Bestial Black Metal and thundering old-school Doom Metal to create a sound which no other band can truly match. And aided by a brilliant conceptual identity which reeks of rot, witchcraft and occultism, <i>Henbane </i>is the perfect mood music for late nights lost in the misty woods, dripping blood upon the altar of sacrifice and preparing one's body to entertain the ancient spirits.</div>
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Compared to <i>Haxan</i>, <i>Henbane</i> seems significantly softer at first: the production sound is cleaner, more balanced and far less dense, and the bands more Bestial elements have taken a back seat to a greater focus on riffs, introspection and mystical energies. But once the incantations of <i>Henbane </i>begin to shake and rattle your very bones, you'll soon realize the massive error in judgement you had made. Sure, it's a more approachable album than <i>Haxan</i>, <i>Odd Spirituality </i>or <i>Spectres Over Transsylvania</i>, but its also a more fully realized, mature and utterly devastating album than anything Cultes Des Ghoules have accomplished to date. The atmosphere is tremendous, using a combination of spine-shattering low end, diverse arrangements, ambiance and perfectly controlled repetition to envelope the listener in a shroud from which they might never escape. <i>Henbane </i>also<i> </i>frequently and masterfully makes use of sounds and samples to further amplify the already over-whelming atmosphere on the album, creating moments of somberness, insanity and suffering. Whether it's the ringing of a Death Knell, the chants of withered witches or the bubbling of a rusted cauldron, the use of these classic and spooky conventions further intensifies <i>Henbane </i>and gives it a rather charming novelty which is impossible to deny.</div>
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Though it's still all about the riffs with <i>Henbane</i>. It's got more of them than you can shake a crucifix at: thundering, Doom-y, Thrash-y, dissonant, melodic, noisy riffs which give off an equal mix of <i>To Mega Therion, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas</i> and <i>Angelcunt(Tales of Desecration)</i>. "The Passion of a Sorceress" drips grime and filth, and the bass and drums combine to flatten mountains: at 2:25, prepare to have your skull force-fucked by damnation right off your slender, weak spine. Vocalist Mark of the Devil is simply inhuman as he moves from yelps, shrieks, growls and moans. He brays at the Moon and screams like his testicles have been forcibly removed, he chokes on his own tongue and whispers ancient enchantments into your ear. He simply dominates this album, and his ancient and desiccated style fits perfectly with the tomb-dwelling riffs.<i> </i>"The Devil Intimate" becomes a truly terrifying sojourn, led through the bowels of Hades by the hand of Virgil, and slowly builds to a horrifying and frozen crescendo in the icy halls of the Ninth Circle. Once again, Mark of the Devil pulls out every vocal trick at his disposal and acts as the most ferocious and demented barker ever, while the skull crushing riffs and horrifying organ(so fucking wicked) act as a gory and pestilential back-drop to the madness.</div>
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Awesome honestly doesn't even begin to describe what Cultes Des Ghoules have achieved with <i>Henbane</i>. This album is such a fresh and fascinating take on classic Extreme Metal sounds, as well as classic Horror elements, which makes it one of the most enjoyable and charming Black Metal albums I've ever heard. For an album which creates such an unholy and inhuman atmosphere, <i>Henbane </i>is also an album which, for lack of a better term, is a hell of a lot of fun. Its an album which conjures up old fears from your childhood, an album which brings you back to the first time you head-banged to a killer riffs and an album which can appeal to all the musical complexity you desire in your advanced age. All aspects are satisfied, and the Devil will get his due...</div>
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Rating: 10/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-68426568565637250322013-04-18T15:50:00.000-07:002013-04-18T15:50:55.564-07:00Wormlust- The Feral Wisdom(2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Wormlust- The Feral Wisdom</div>
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What great and terrible knowledge <i>The Feral Wisdom </i>is, unlocking long dormant synapses and pathways of the mind and rewiring the mainframe of the self into a new creature, more beast than man. Icelandic Black Metal duo Wormlust have unleashed this ancient erudition, this incantation of grotesque dementia that few albums will be able to match this year. Structurally progressive, hauntingly melodic and suffocatingly atmospheric, <i>The Feral Wisdom</i> is one of those rare albums which succeeds at creating a dense, inhuman melancholia while also moving at a "narrative" pace. Individual riffs may not be the center of the album, but they do matter and <i>The Feral Wisdom</i>'s four glorious tracks are structured in diverse, exciting ways which to draw as much intensity and devastation from each composition as can be mustered. Nothing is left but pure dynamism and emotional permanence, and it makes <i>The Feral Wisdom</i> easily the most complete album of 2013 so far.</div>
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Describing <i>The Feral Wisdom</i> as "ambient" doesn't quite work, despite the ambient Black Metal elements ingrained throughout the record. While it has moments of Lurker of Chalice-esque dementia and Paysage d'Hiver's ethereal minutia, <i>The Feral Wisdom</i> can be and is often loud and heavy as fuck, swirling with technical, dissonant riffs and blasting drums. With how often Wormlust moves between the two styles, its a wonder that they make it feel so effortless and organic. Take "<span itemprop="name">Sex augu, tólf stjörnur</span>," the open track, which deftly transitions between truly creepy and vaporous ambiance and speedy, Progg-y Black Metal with a great sense of timing and atmosphere while doing enough to keep things interesting with some varying tempos and slithering bass lines. The riffing here is strictly technical and Prog influenced, so those looking for a more traditional take on Black Metal will likely need to look elsewhere; <i>The Feral Wisdom</i> is in many ways one of the most modern Black Metal albums I've heard in a while.</div>
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Modern, but not easy to pigeon-hole anyway. The ambient elements, while gorgeous and essential, are a bit easier to identify; it isn't anything you haven't heard Lurker of Chalice, Paysage d'Hiver or Blut Aus Nord do. It's the heavier, nasty sections which really defy categorization: falling somewhere between Krallice, Deathspell Omega and Aosoth without ever comfortably filling any of those stereotypes, when <i>The Feral Wisdom</i> gets fast and harsh it enters some exhilarating and original territory. "<span itemprop="name">Djöflasýra"</span>is perhaps the strongest of the four tracks, largely because it finds the ultimate synergy between the two contrasting styles and unleashes it in one truly fucked up, agonized track. The tortured vocals yet diverse vocals help bring the songs together and help sharpen their jagged, flesh rending edges, and the production on <i>The Feral Wisdom</i> could very well become the new standard for any kind of Atmospheric Black Metal. The mix is very even, save for the vocals which are distant and ghostly, and the dynamic range is kept almost completely intact without any one instrument overwhelming the others. It's a brilliant piece of engineering and only helps make <i>The Feral Wisdom</i> an even more transcendent experience.<br />
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Any complaints I have are minimal at best: the albums heavily ambient compositions are very much back-loaded on the album and it's insanely heavy and technical compositions are really only found on the first two songs. I would have liked more than the four tracks provided. These are minor issues and little more, and did almost nothing to detract from the full-contact listening experience of <i>The Feral Wisdom</i>. No other album I've heard this year has been more emotionally affecting or as addicting, especially in Extreme Metal. Crack open the flesh-bound tome of <i>The Feral Wisdom</i> and obtain the knowledge of the inner abomination in us all...<br />
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Rating: 9.5/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-60328340132544136712013-04-15T16:31:00.000-07:002013-04-15T16:31:29.152-07:00Desert Rot: Doth- Datura Wrightii(2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Doth- Datura Wrightii </div>
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Over the next several weeks, Curse of the Great White Elephant will be doing some spotlight reviews for Extreme Music acts located in Arizona.</div>
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Why? Because Arizona's local music scene, and particularly it's local Extreme Music scene, is <i>mostly</i> terrible. There is a reason why bands who gain any measure of success in the AZ either move the fuck out(Graves at Sea, Vektor) or break-up(Vehemence): because the AZ scene can be incredibly toxic at times, sucking the life out of bands and artists who try to reach a greater audience. The reasons for this are numerous: AZ largely lacks a strong youth culture and is populated by migrants from other states who would as soon leave and head to California, Oregon or New York and pursue their musical dreams there. Cities and towns in AZ are often great distances from each other, and getting together with like minded musicians can be both time consuming and cost prohibitive. As someone who was in a band, and had to drive 15 miles just to get to practice and sometimes 100's of miles just to play at an anarchist bookstore without pay, being in a band in AZ and merely being able to focus on the music can be difficult.</div>
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But it's not all bad. Since I quit following the local scene, things have started to pick up just a bit. AZ is experiencing a bit of an upswing in it's local Extreme Music scene, and since this is where I live and since I often bitch about the state of the local scene, I owe it to the bands in the AZ to support them and help build up the scene in my own little way: by being a critical, nit-picking asshole about their demos. So welcome to out first ever <b>Deseret Rot</b> segment.</div>
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Doth are a mysterious Tempe, AZ Black Metal band with very little in the way of available information on them. Signed to Phoenix based record label Tagobella, Doth play a style of raw, atmospheric Black Metal which is not easy to pigeon-hole. It's far more throat-slicing, nasty and aggressive than the Liturgy's of the world, yet has a more modern and progressive feel than the Black Twilight Circle and their LLN-esque traditionalism, falling somewhere in a strange, caustic middle-ground populated with trumpets and insane, swirling, Death Metal-infused riffs. At times eerily melodic, at other times simply head smashing, <i>Datura Wrightii </i>is a limited experience at only two songs, but also dynamic enough to be engrossing.</div>
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The title track is by far the better of the two, and comes exploding forth with the most devastating riff on the album, one heavily influenced by Blackened Death Metal and inhumanly ferocious. It quickly begins running the gauntlet between grimy and atmospheric traditional Black Metal riffs and haunting, melodic and modern atmospheric compositions, as well as the most effective use of a trumpet I have ever heard in a Black Metal song. It's an absolutely massive track, slamming like a meteor into a Russian woodland and leveling everything for miles around. The vocals are powerful and deranged, and the drumming, while a bit raw and sloppy, is also explosive and thunderous. It's the kind of track that gets heads banging and blood pumping, and it's a damn fine effort which fully explores the bands musical palette. "Schist Crevice" doesn't fare quite as well: the production quality is clearly much different and generally very poor. It lacks almost all of the aggression of the title track and stumbles in a failed effort to be hyper-atmospheric and noise-y. It has some haunting moments, particularly in the last minute or so when the noise begins to crescendo into what sounds like a choir of banshee's, and the vocals remain vicious and unhinged, but the horrendous drum sound(sounds like a drum machine) is a major buzz kill.</div>
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Doth are planning to begin recording a new album shortly, and if the album bears any resemblance to the title track of <i>Datura Wrightii</i>, than we are going to be in for a treat. Doth are a band which don't sound like any other Black Metal band from Arizona that I have heard, and have serious potential to become one of the big new things in Atmospheric Black Metal. That potential is not completely realized here, but the title track alone is worth any Black Metal fans time.</div>
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Rating: 7/10</div>
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Be sure to check out Tagobella's Bandcamp <a href="http://tagobella.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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And be on the look out for more<b> Desert Rot</b> segments.</div>
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So what can you expect to find in your worthless News Feed that is always pissing me the fuck off(FUCK OFF GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS!!)? Ill be sharing videos, reviews, Bandcamp links and as always, updating all my Facefvck friends when my new shitty reviews are up.<br />
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So check it out. Just search Curse of the Great White Elephant on Facebook and like me! Or poke me... I guess. heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-30006568496472195342013-04-04T15:05:00.000-07:002013-04-04T15:05:36.120-07:00Coheed and Cambria- The Afterman: Ascension(2012) and Descension(2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Afterman: Ascension</div>
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The Afterman: Descension </div>
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It's been a long time coming. Hell if feels like an eternity since I felt this tingle down my spine, this electricity in the air...this obsession. But I can safely say this, and it's been way too long let me tell you:</div>
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Welcome home, Coheed and Cambria. I've missed you, and I forgive you.</div>
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It felt as if the Keywork itself fell apart after Co&Ca, the purveyors behind some of the best Prog and Pop albums of the previous decade with their first 3 masterpieces <i>Second Stage Turbine Blade, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3</i> and <i>Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness</i>, had dropped the bane that-should-not-be with <i>Year of the Black Rainbow</i>. It was an album that was so devastatingly bad, so poorly produced and so lifeless that it drove many diehard fans of this once mighty group, myself most of all, into a pit of musical cynicism and despair. A bit dramatic? Certainly, but then again this is what real passion does to the person infected by it. It leads to dizzying highs and subterranean lows, and after <i>Year of the Black Rainbow</i> and it's utter lack of anything, well, Coheed and Cambria in it, I was buried under miles of defeat.</div>
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So when faced with <i>The Afterman: Ascension/Descension</i>, I felt like a jilted lover face to face with an old, painful flame for the first time in ages. I felt cold and angry, but also intrigued. I had to know what they had been up to since we had been apart, I had to see if this old flame would once again feed my obsession...</div>
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<i>Ascension</i>/<i>Descension</i> in fact did satisfy me in more ways than I could have imagined. It may not have been a complete return to the bands classic, incredibly epic Prog-Metal-Pop they had mastered, but instead a new evolution on those same genre's to produce something wholly new and exciting. By increasing the focus on the Pop elements of the bands sound, which were completely missing from <i>Year of the Black Rainbow</i>, and layering the Prog and occasional Metal on top of the hook-driven sing-along compositions, <i>Ascension/Descension</i> felt like as though it were both a brilliant return to form and a completely new sound: familiar yet fresh. <i>Ascension/Descension </i>features only a handful of songs over 5 minutes, and the epic single track yarn-spinning of earlier albums is replaced by a more accessible and textured songs which are less exhausting but even more infectious. Led by Claudio Sanchez's unique falsetto, <i>Ascension/Descension</i> is like a pied piper, leading any within earshot to start dancing like an idiot and singing along like no one is listening.</div>
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Not that <i>Ascension</i>(album 1) doesn't have it's classic Co&Ca moments, bu they are few and far between. "Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute" would have felt right at home on <i>Good Apollo I </i>or<i> II</i>, with it's saga of Metallic riffs, shredding solos and orchestral trappings, not to mention those glorious sing-scream along moments specifically designed to incite a crowd. But beyond this track(and IMO, the best one between both albums), <i>Ascension</i> is largely new territory for the band. Tracks like "The Afterman" and "Subtraction" sound closer to something from Claudio's solo project The Prize Fighter Inferno, mixing Electronic music and textures with understated or acoustic guitars and soft, whispered vocals, while "Goodnight, Fair Lady" is pure no frills Pop Rock. It's also incredibly contagious, so good luck not singing it in the grocery line. And "Key Entity Extraction IV: Evangira the Faithful" is a truly unique beast: Blues-y, psychedelic, ominous yet beautiful, it's a far more subdued and atmospheric track that we have come to expect from Co&Ca in the past. The rest of this album is so god damn fucking awesome, I can forgive the lone mis-step: "Key Entity Extraction II: Holly Wood the Cracked." Imagine Coheed playing Nu-Metal, and you about get the idea... it's an atrocious, ugly, frankly stupid song which stands out like Nicolas Cage in a good movie with talented actors, and the lone pock-mark between the two albums</div>
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One simply cannot under-state the importance of one key line-up change that occurred between <i>Year of the Black Rainbow</i> and <i>Ascension/Descension</i>: the departure of drummer Chris Pennie and the return of Josh Eppard, the man behind the kit for Coheed and Cambria's first 3 albums. Now, I am reluctant to place the blame of <i>Year of the Black Rainbow</i> on Pennie: Claudio writes the songs after all, and Pennie has serious chops and is a tremendous drummer. But it doesn't seem like a coincidence that<i> </i>Eppards return helped make <i>Ascension </i>and<i> Descension</i> the bands best material in nearly a decade. Eppard's performance on the kit for both albums is the highlight bar-none. He seems to literally <i>play</i> the hooks, and his punch-y kick drum becomes a beloved companion throughout the entire experience.</div>
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If <i>Ascension</i> feels like a new Co&Ca, than <i>Descension</i>(album 2) will feel even more alien, yet like <i>Ascension</i> it still feels like a true<i> </i>Co&Ca album. The Pop elements take an even stronger hold on the album, and there is a much greater emphasis on just pure Pop Rock and even more Prize Fighter Inferno-esque moments. "Key Entity Extraction V: Sentry the Defiant" is about as close as we get to the bands classic sound, featuring a more Metallic approach and an epic acoustic intro, but it's still very thick and heavy more in killer vocal hooks than head-banging moments. "Number City" is like a brain slug: prepare to be it's host for a long, long time. It's funky, Pop-y bubble-gum they way it should be, and Co&Ca always find a way to make even their happiest of songs feature a twinge of sadness and darkness that lets you know that the song is more substantial than sugary sweet cotton candy. "Gravity's Union" truly stands out: for a moment, I thought I was listening to a lost track from <i>In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3</i>. It has those serpentine riffs, those sudden one-off sections that never repeat but amp up the atmosphere to 11, and of course the bands patented intense bridge-section that the band has become famous for. But like the rest of the album, it has a unique feel from any previous Co&Ca effort, with the vocal hooks taking center stage and the drums thundering and smashing about, leaving the guitars to create texture and atmosphere.</div>
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The atmosphere of <i>Ascension/Descension</i> is without question the greatest strength of the albums. They may be infectiously catchy, but there is an air of sadness and despair over both of them which leaves a powerful, lasting impact on the listener. As you sing and scream along to these tracks, you can feel the real emotional weight behind each and every track, the power of the story and of the characters who inhabit it. Coheed and Cambria have truly bounced back in a massive way, completely blowing the lid off of low expectations and once again basking in the light of the sun. Do either of these albums compare to the band classic album? Nothing really does, but that is an unfair comparison. <i>Ascension/Descension</i> is the kind of thing which can completely rehabilitate a bands damaged image. Well done sirs... well fucking done.</div>
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And welcome home.</div>
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Ratings:</div>
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<i>Ascension: </i>8.5/10</div>
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<i>Descension: </i>9/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-46482057714304978702013-03-25T17:44:00.000-07:002013-03-25T17:44:10.071-07:00War From a Harlots Mouth- Voyeur(2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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War From a Harlots Mouth- Voyeur</div>
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Those of us in the underground, Extreme Metal community have gotten pretty damn good and filtering through the endless garbage that invades the scene from all sides without every really having to listen to any of it. We have all developed a comfortable routine of check-marks, usually a mix of general broad guidelines and personal preferences, that allow us to avoid ever having to confront a single artist which may in anyway offend our sensibilities. We form safe, secure barriers around ourselves and let the shit that's flying from the fan bounce off it, allowing only the diamonds in the rough through the force-field.</div>
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Germany's War From a Harlots Mouth was one of my many "instant fuck-offs" the very second their existence became known to me. Between the bands absolutely stupid name(which remains embarrassingly bad), their affiliations with dozens of shit artists, and well...</div>
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Looking like that, I instantly wrote them off as Hot Topic overhead tunes for 13 year old scene queens who like to "mosh and fuck shit up" between classes at the Junior High School. I am, after all, and Extreme Metal sophisticate whose pure ears are better suited for brilliant, mind-altering music such as XXX Maniak and Cock and Ball Torture. A band like War From a Harlots Mouth was, I thought, below me.<br />
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Consider me properly fucking learned, for the bands most recent release <i>Voyeur</i> has reminded me one shouldn't judge a book by it's cover(a lesson I should have learned after Morbus Chron tricked with with their gorgeous pink cover art...). Don't mistake this for endless praise: <i>Voyeur </i>is not where near the best album I have ever heard nor does it feel particularly essential. But for an album which gives off such a Devil Wears Prada-esque vibe from it's asinine cover art and, well, the fact that the band is called War From a Harlots Mouth(ugh!), <i>Voyeur </i>is a damn solid little 40 minute album which, like a good book with a worn and tattered cover, needs to be cracked open to really enjoy.<br />
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WFaHM(even the abbreviation annoys me) have stumbled on a sound which certainly stands out from the vast majority of modern Metalcore bands, mixing the aggressive, tech-and-sludge of Gaza with the dissonance, off-kilter riffing of bands like Ulcerate, Deathspell Omega and Abyssal...and lots and lots of obnoxious and same-y sounding chugs(more on this later). It's a pretty cool style, one which I haven't heard any other artist attempt and one which certainly stands out in a sea of "me too" Unearth-clones. These styles might seem clashing, but throughout <i>Voyeur</i> WFaHM finds cool, interesting ways to make it work. "Vertigo" features some very cool dissonant leads over quiet, ambient compositions to match some vicious blast-beats and some very heavy, aggressive Sludge sections, while "Terrifier" actually starts off with a good breakdown before unleashing a torrent of blast-beats and hyper complex riffing which instantly brings to mind a Sludge-y Ulcerate smoking bowls in a Louisiana dive bar. "Terrifier" is particular is a great song, creating a really strong and atmospheric sense of unease with some truly evil sounding compositions, while "Of Fear and Total Control" is a more subdued and melodic track that also has some very strong atmospheric undertones, using some Black Metal-esque sections for maximum effect. When <i>Voyeur</i> works, it works really well and shocked me to know end when I first spun it front to back.<br />
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And this whole thing is driven by the fantastic production sound, which is both incredibly professional without being in anyway too slick or sterile. The guitars and bass are Leviathan-sized, completely crushing anything and everything beneath their massive weight. The drums are obviously triggered, but they sound great, with very little to no "clicking" on the kick or the snare, which is a death-knell for most modern Metal of any genre. Obviously supported by time and money, <i>Voyeur</i> is one of the best sounding Extreme Metal albums I listened to in a long time, keeping all the punch and static without giving up on clarity and balance. It's a brilliant piece of sound engineering that helps elevate <i>Voyeur</i> to new levels that perhaps the music couldn't quite reach on it's own.<br />
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Yet for all it's strength, <i>Voyeur </i>suffers from a lack of concrete ideas to support the WFaHM ambitious style. Around the track "Temple," <i>Voyeur </i>quite literally grinds to a halt creatively and in some seemingly desperate scrambling begins to recycle it's own compositions for the second half. It's not a completely unimpressive second leg, but it is mostly forgettable, heavily handicapped by the incessant chugging which begins to infect it. There is quite a bit of chugging throughout the album, but it reaches a fever pitch in the second half, ending with the sleep-inducing "Scopophobia," which when it isn't chugging features an atrocious clean vocal section and riffs pretty much stolen from "Of Fear and Total Control." In truth, there is such a thing as a "good chug" (see "Terrifier"), but if your tolerance for chugging is low, then even the best elements of <i>Voyeur</i> will leave you cold, so be forewarned. It also doesn't help that vocalist Nico Webers is abysmal, belting out his weak, uninteresting Hardcore growl for most of the record.<br />
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For a brief moment, I lifted my blinders and discovered quite the surprise in <i>Voyeur</i>. And my final score isn't really indicative of the enjoyment I got from it, but <i>Voyeur </i>feels like an incomplete album which is missing many key elements for brilliance or even consistent competency. Yet for it's fault <i>Voyeur</i> is a fucking heavy album, sounds great and has some atmosphere and intensity to it, enough so that it's worth listening to. So does this mean that I will no longer judge bands by their name? By who they associate with? By their physical apperance?<br />
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This...or the...Apocalypse? Really? No thanks.<br />
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Rating: 7/10heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-77121438197806478132013-03-18T22:46:00.000-07:002013-03-18T22:46:30.869-07:00Vassafor- Obsidian Codex(2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Vassafor- Obsidian Codex</div>
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For the weak, I have a message: get the fuck out. <i>Obsidian Codex</i> is simply too much for you.</div>
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Those looking for an album which in any way caters to the casual or accommodates the uninitiated simply need not apply for this review or <i>Obsidian Codex</i>, the latest masterwork from New Zealand two piece Vassafor. The long running project, which formed in 1997 but has had a very irregular release history, have crafted a masterpiece so thrilling and mesmerizing that working through it's incomparably dense facade becomes a journey in and of itself. In fact, describing <i>Obsidian Codex </i>and it's 96 minute running time(you read that right) as a "journey" is about the best description I can formulate: Phil Kusabs and Ben Parker(known as VK and BP) take us on a musical adventure which features terrifying abominations, hellish landscapes and twisted black forests inundated with freezing snow, where moments of beauty and emotion are few but present, the driving force that keeps us on the path to this massive quest's ultimate conclusion. It is in no way an easy album to enjoy; it will pummel and suffocate all who challenge it, and test the endurance of anyone foolish enough to take it lightly. But it's also one of the most worthwhile musical experiences to be found in Extreme Metal of any genre. <i>Obsidian Codex</i> is simply a masterpiece removed from needless classification beyond "awesome."</div>
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Stylistically, it's not hard to pick out the genres and artists which influenced <i>Obsidian Codex</i>, but everything here is put together in such a way that those influences feel like they are being transformed by Vassafor, molded and shaped into effective new tools for the song writing mechanism, beyond the well worn instruments that have been continuously reused for the same purpose again and again. At the most "brass-tacks" level, Vassafor could be described as "Occult Blackened Death/Doom," but such a classification simply misses the mark that the band has set with this album. The atmosphere is thick to the point of solidification, the creepiness of the compositions is so spine chilling that ice forms on the flesh and the unshakably somber moments, driven by smothered melodic leads and some deeply emotional compositions, brings about occasional moments of truly subdued beauty; a fallen angel, wings broken and flesh cleaved, laying amongst the ash and crying silver tears. Of course, <i>Obsidian Codex</i> has plenty of good old brutal, bestial and even Thrash-y moments that reminds you that Mr. Kusabs has played with the likes of Blasphemy and Diocletain in his long musical career. And you can note that all of these elements are right in the very first actual song on the album, "Rites of Ascension," and continue to appear throughout the album, culminating in the truly epic monster known as "Nemesis," which starts with a short but incredible woodwind intro(unsure of the exact instrument) which sets the tone for a 23 minute epic of unparallelled proportions. </div>
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I've often complained about extremely long songs, and "Nemesis" certainly fits the bill of an incredibly elongated piece that runs the risk of going disastrously off the rails. But that's the glory of "Nemesis" and the other epically long tracks on <i>Obsidian Codex</i>: they are perfectly fleshed out with a combination of ambiance and ideas that they never grow stale or lose the listeners interest. Tracks dance between tempos and riffs with perfectly calculated brilliance, showing a level of song-writing which transcends what most artists could even hope to achieve. "Sunya(Void Paradox)" maintains a driving, aggressive rhythm throughout, showing a more take no prisoners approach to song writing that instigates furious bouts of relentless head-banging and stands in stark but effective contrast to the more Doom-y aspects of the record, while the aforementioned opening track "Rites of Ascension" features some truly horrific yet oddly haunting compositions which give off an unhinged and ritualistic intensity. And the final real track, Makutu(Damned to the Deepest Depths)" starts off with a tribal, ritualistic drum pattern before morphing into an unholy fusion of Blasphemy and Portal. And it ends with a slice of Sludge, yeah Sludge, which just adds icing to an already maggot ridden, gory cake of true nihilism All of these tracks are well over the 7 minute mark, yet never fail to entrance for a single moment. It's almost stupefying.</div>
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I mentioned the albums 96 minute running time, and that will automatically create a barrier of entry for many. Truth be told, I could see why a lot of people simply wouldn't like this album, or even hate it. <i>Obsidian Codex</i> is one of those albums where the creative direction of the artist is encapsulated to the point where it offers no leeway to the listener, a "my way or the high way" style of song-writing which some will find dull, others obnoxious or even offensive. Even the ambient tracks go for several minutes, and the album leans heavily on them to help intensify the already dense compositions. And while the production is fairly accessible, especially by the standards set in this particular genre, and many of the riffs invitingly familiar to fans of bands like Diocletain, Antediluvian or Mitochondrion, <i>Obsidian Codex</i> is an album defined by excess and disregard for the listeners time or sanity.<br />
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Yet for all of <i>Obsidian Codex's</i> excesses, for all of it's density and disregard, its an album built mostly on accessible, inviting riffs and enjoyable variety. Every track feels intertwined, yet all of them also feel distinct and unique when compared to each other. And while this album was clearly meant to be experienced front to back in one single sitting, each of the actual musical tracks on <i>Obsidian Codex</i> stand on their own feet and can be enjoyed and replayed independently of each the whole album experience. This is perhaps <i>Obsidian Codex's</i> greatest triumph, and a true rarity in this particular genre<i>, </i>where the whole album experience is the rule and playability is more often than not the exception.</div>
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I hesitate to use the word "perfection" here, but in many ways <i>Obsidian Codex</i> is the perfect album: </div>
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perfect
in it's atmospheric and thematic presentation, perfect in it's
execution and musical competency, perfect in it's song-writing and
production. <i>Obsidian Codex</i> is the ultimate realization of a single musical vision being shared by two musicians who are working as a single, cohesive creative force.
It's an absolutely stunning album, one whose flaws are so few and far
between that mentioning them is simply pointless beyond the need to be
typed here; hyperbole be damned, <i>Obsidian Codex</i> is unlike anything I have ever heard.<br />
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Rating: 10/10 </div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-31834256280053027982013-03-13T10:34:00.000-07:002013-03-13T11:16:40.804-07:00Chasm of Nis- Redolent of Spheres(2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Chasm of Nis- Redolent of Spheres</div>
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Justin Blake Smith has quickly become one of the more prolific performers of putrid, pestilential putrescence in the American Death Metal scene. As one of the main forces behind Encoffination's brand of sinfully slothful down-tempo Death/Doom and Father Befouled's well oiled Incantation worship machine, JBS has also had a prolific solo career with acts such as Hills of Sefiroth and Vomitchapel. But his newest project, Chasm of Nis, is by far the most interesting and dynamic project yet. In today's modern Death Metal scene, Chasm of Nis might not be as original as it would have been just a few years ago, but it still brings a somewhat fresh perspective on Occult Blackened Death Metal.</div>
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<i>Redolent of Spheres</i> doesn't too a lot to separate itself from the myriad of highly atmospheric, low-fi Star Cult provocateurs that are quickly saturating the genre, but it does just enough to stand out. Featuring only two real tracks(it also has a cool intro and a completely pointless outro that borders on offensive), <i>Redolent of Spheres</i> doesn't have much time to make an impact but makes the most of it. Comparisons to Portal, Antediluvian and Grave Upheaval are almost mandatory here, and they do fit. JBS brings many of the same aspects to the table: lurching, ritualistic tempos, deep guttural vocals(which suddenly sound powerful and interesting, after being completely pointless on the recent Father Befouled, which makes me think it's a production issue), and a hazy production which suffers from some unfortunate distortion that occasionally gets obnoxious. But <i>Redolent of Spheres</i> does bring a bit more to the table, namely in a distinct and surprising influence which stood out to me almost immediately: some of these riffs will being to mind Demilich, and in the best way possible. "Œnemic Subjugation" explodes right out of the gate with ferocious blasting and a strange, dischordant and chaotic lead with a guitar sound as close to <i>Nespithe </i>as I have ever heard. It's incredibly awesome, and after a moment of sleepy miasma, it returns again and expands in a way which is really exciting. "Archaiciasis Ænfernal" is an even more dynamic track, which runs the gauntlet of Portal, Grave Upheaval and Demilich with fluidity and song writing chops. It's a killer track, filled with creepy underpinnings of melody and some truly demonic atmosphere.</div>
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I can honestly say I haven't been all that kind to previous projects from JBS, but Chasm of Nis shows that the man has more in him than slow stuff and Incantation worship. <i>Redolent of Spheres</i> is short and doesn't truly light the world on fire, but it's a highly enjoyable listen which brings just enough originality to the table to stand out in an increasingly over-crowded scene. Hopefully, the Demilich-esque elements take center stage here, giving Chasm of Nis and even more defined place in America's massive Death Metal scene. Be sure to purchase the demo<i><u><b> <a href="http://archasm.storenvy.com/products/810188-chasm-of-nis-redolent-of-spheres-demo" target="_blank">here</a>.</b></u></i></div>
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Rating: 8/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-30378290035570420442013-03-06T08:46:00.000-08:002013-03-06T08:46:16.324-08:00Vorum- Poisoned Void(2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Vorum- Poisoned Void</div>
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Deja-fucking-vu.</div>
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It's 2013 and the Old School Death Metal Revival, or Aping depending on your perspective, continues full steam ahead with Vorum's <i>Poisoned Void</i>, a short and succinct blitzkrieg of "Old School is the only School" Death Metal<i>. </i>It's an album, which as to be expected, throws a bunch of different obvious influences at you and does so with aplomb.</div>
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Everyone, pull out your check lists:</div>
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Does it have blacked, blast heavy bits of furious Death Metal ala Angelcorpse? Check</div>
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Does it have Doom-laden, chunky riffs for skull cracking ala Autopsy or Asphyx? Check it off.<br />
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Does it have tons of melodic solos and leads ala every Death Metal band from the late 80's and early 90s? Check and check. <br />
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Does it have lurching tremolo picked abominations ala Incantation? You better fucking believe Check.</div>
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Does it have vocals which sound like John Tardy or Martin Van Drunen? There's a big fucking Check there buddy.<br />
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<i>Poisoned Void</i> is basically text book when it comes to modern Old School Death Metal Worship, moving from influence to influence with speed and prowess, something I have to give it some credit for. With some many of these recent worship albums feeling lazy and passionless, <i>Poisoned Void</i> remains highly aggressive and energetic throughout, and the bands musicianship is top notch and tight. On a basic technical level, musicianship and production, <i>Poisoned Void</i> delivers the goods.<br />
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Where it simply doesn't deliver is in the song-writing department, as throughout <i>Poisoned Void</i> you are taunted with moments of pure, head-banging, spine snapping, furiously flailing awesome, only to be smashed back down to earth with another redundant bit of generic blasting and riffing which sounds like the same transition from song to song. Take for example the intro to "Rabid Blood": it's fucking awesome, with some slower tempos and fantastic drumming which shows the skill that the bands talented drummer, Mikko Josefsson, is capable of. He is one of the highlights on this record, displaying incredible speed and dexterity as well as the ability to play some very complex rhythms. But like, well, every other song on the record, "Rabid Blood" becomes a generic, time a dozen amalgamation of various played out "old-skull" tropes that never ascend to the next level, and it feels like Josefsson's talents are being wasted here. It's the same with "Thriving Darkness," a killer intro followed by two brilliant sections which channels early Morbid Angel in all their Ancient glory... before it too falls into a relentless rut of basic old-school stuff that just makes one yawn. In fact, we should rename <i>Poisoned Void</i> to <i>Awesome Intros, Boring Results</i>, as this proves to be a consistent theme throughout the record.<br />
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Not to be too harsh here, for as far as blatant old school worship albums go, <i>Poisoned Void</i> is not bad. Although it lacks much of the strong atmosphere of Ectovoid's <i>Fractured in the Timeless Abyss</i>, and it's simply devoid of that wonderful spark of creativity and originality that Execration achieved on <i>Odes to the Occult</i>, <i>Poisoned Void</i> is very furious and is guaranteed to get ones head-banging on more than one occasion. Vorum avoid most of the major prat-falls that can make this style almost completely unlistenable: boring and pointless Funeral Doom segments are thankfully absent, and Vorum prefer to keep things short and violent, with songs rarely going over the four minute mark. As much as elements of this album infuriate me with it's utterly generic moments, there is just enough here for it to rise above the utter shit that the Old School Death Metal Revival has produced. It's worth a listen, but when the history of this era of Death Metal is written, <i>Poisoned Void</i> will be little more than a footnote in the annals of time.<br />
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Rating: 6.5/10</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-83310580047051999832013-02-26T07:55:00.001-08:002013-02-28T09:21:26.556-08:00Desolate Shrine-The Sanctum of Human Darkness (2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Desolate Shrine-The Sanctum of Human Darkness</div>
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By this point, Dark Descent has become a label that has well
established itself as a flagship of darkly evocative and powerful underground
black and death metal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The latest
Desolate Shrine album, the Sanctum of Human Darkness, is no exception to this tradition,
containing eight tracks of monolithic Finnish death metal that will not fail to
have ground your bones to powdered ash at the end of a full sitting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A noticeable improvement over the unfulfilled
potential of its predecessor, Tenebrous Towers, Desolate Shrine’s sophomore
effort manages to collect the former album’s expansive, yet meandering
atmospheric approach into a more focused attack, ultimately creating an album
that leaves a greater impression due to the sheer momentum generated by the
coupling of muscular riffwork and stark, obsidian atmosphere.<br />
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What is particularly impressive about The Sanctum of Human
Darkness was its inability to conjure comparisons to the usual troupe of
enfranchised death metal legends that every “old-school” revival act and their
5<sup>th</sup> cousin claims to be the inheritor of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While glimpses of regional Finnish patriarchs
Demigod and Convulse flashed by, coupled with a bombastic, infernal delivery
that more than slightly hinted at Immolation and Morbid Angel, and topped off
with a filthy layer of Incantation-esque soot, nowhere in the middle of
digesting the album was I ever given any inclination to pinpoint specific riffs
and passages to any entity other than the tormented muses of Desolate Shrine
themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a death metal scene that
has in recent years filled with acts whose sole claim to note was to do a
particularly “legitimate,” undeviating rendition of an older template, it is
refreshing to find a band that, while clearly “old-school” in their approach to
the craft, interprets their influences in a way that accentuates their own
identity as opposed to subsuming it behind a revivalist banner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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While on a song to song basis, the album is hard to analyze,
as every track more or less meshes together into a single cacophony of
whirring, choking black miasma, the album never truly becomes tiresome due to
the monolithic relentlessness of its chaotic attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Occasionally acoustic guitars and piano
pieces break the mayhem, acting as a somber eye-of-the-storm, a calm that becomes
all the more nerve-wracking knowing that the hurricane of guitar riffs and
nocturnal ambiances will inevitably return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yet even in its most violent moments, The Sanctum of Human Darkness
never loses its more morose tendencies, and as a whole there is a feeling of
tenderness and sorrow contrasted with your usual old-school sensibilities that
is more characteristic<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of Peaceville-style
melodic death/doom efforts, including early Katatonia, Paradise Lost, and more
contemporary acts such as Daylight Dies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Don’t be fooled though, this is not an album that strives to
approach accessibility in any shape or form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Almost nonexistent are the hooks and overarching melodies that serve to
anchor many other records to a backbone, and Desolate Shrine never seem to
settle down into comfortable, headbang-conducive groove.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, this opus works its way into the
mind of the listener through the layering of musical textures in a way tasteful
enough to paint evocative images of desolation and despair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At certain points, it almost feels as if you
are staring at the smoldering pillars of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where
the fragments of human civilization (analogous to the moments of extremely
human pathos that emerge through the aforementioned tenderness) stand as stark
supplicants to the majesty of destruction, heightening the sense of loss as you
ponder the futility of humanity in its struggle against the forces of
inevitable entropy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, the greatest
strength of The Sanctum of Human Darkness is, more than anything, as a holistic
work working through a wall of slightly-melodic ambiance to generate its
desired effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The songs themselves
serve as individual variations of a shared theme, as opposed to distinct
entities with their own artistic identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, the album truly comes together when listened to in one sitting,
taking the listener through an entire obsidian mountain range of emotional peaks
and valleys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The Sanctum of Human Darkness’s role as atmospheric,
impressionist music ultimately fails to place it in the upper echelon of death
metal albums, as its ambitious yet monotonous approach towards composition
renders its movements largely devoid of individual standout moments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The band mostly plods along heavily at the
same tempo throughout the album, reinforcing the idea of The Sanctum of Human
Darkness as more of a deliberate, unmovable hellforged machine than a musical
album, and unfortunately the album eventually begins running out of steam to propel it forward in any
attention-grabbing manner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, when
all is said and done, you could do far worse than to give this unique, yet
wholly traditional piece of death metal a spin or two in your passing
hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Rating: 7.5/10 </span></div>
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GodlessCysthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07541550923645318802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-89582903291356277672013-02-15T09:29:00.002-08:002013-02-15T09:29:58.889-08:00Sodb- Don Seantalamh a Chuid Féin(2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sodb-
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Featuring a classic Black Metal sound which occasionally dips into the modern for moments of true inspiration, Sobd's debut demo
<i>Don Seantalamh a Chuid Féin</i> will at times struggle to maintain a consistent pace of excellence, but when it peaks it towers over the listener with truly glorious arrangements. Hailing from Ireland, Sodb's sound should at the beginning feel instantly familiar: elements of Emperor, Gorgoroth, Tsjunder and Shining all show themselves throughout the demo and provide much of the backbone for Sodb to explore darker, more melancholic or violent compositions. It's an impressive demo from beginning to end no doubt, even if it doesn't consistently make a positive impression.</div>
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The first thing that stood out was the surprising musicianship featured on
<i>Don Seantalamh a Chuid Féin</i>: I was consistently blown away by the individual performances on the album, particularly bassist Irene Giragusa, whose twisted basslines slither and squirm throughout the songs yet are never lost in the flurry of riffs and blast-beats. This is largely due to the brilliant production here, which is absolutely mind-boggling for a debut demo and a band's first release. The mix is even yet none of the rawness is lost in the guitar sound, while the drums sound phenomenal and completely raw while remaining at the perfect level. The vocals are perhaps a bit high in the mix, and are also perhaps the least impressive aspect of the bands performance: there's a bit too much reverb on them, and they sound somewhat over-produced in comparison to the rest of the instruments. The vocals are not bad per-se, but a more raw, throat-ripping performance might have better suited the sound that Sodb have developed.</div>
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Outside of the technical aspects however,
<i>Don Seantalamh a Chuid Féin </i>suffers from a bit of what I like to call "the songs are too fucking long." Long songs are an incredibly difficult thing to do, and many artists simply fail miserably when they attempt to go over the five minute mark: songs either become a mess of random experimentation or brutal, endurance-testing triathlons of repetition, and in both cases it's because the band ran out of ideas. These failings are not extreme nor unforgivable on <i>Don Seantalamh a Chuid Féin, </i>but they are present, especially on the first two tracks. "Don Seantalamh a Chuid Féin" runs out of steam about half way through and muddles about for about three minutes in a mire of random melodies, sudden starts and stops, and general apathy before it peter's out, while "Aigre Ré" suffers from poor use of repetition and far too much melodic noodling. Both tracks start strong but end weakly, and show that Sodb still seem to be feeling things out.<br />
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But things ascend quickly with "Tethered," a brilliant piece of Norwegian and Swedish influences that heads in some surprising directions. Starting with a brilliant acoustic and melodic intro, "Tethered" weeps atmosphere and envelops the listener in darkness; the proverbial blizzard in the dead woods. One hears the influence of Emperor and Shining clearly, but "Tethered" also has some interesting and expertly used elements of modern Atmospheric Black Metal to flesh out the minutia. There is a hint of Wolves in the Throne Room's rustic woodland-hymns and even a bit of Shoegaze-y ambiance ala- Krallice at work on "Tethered," though it's all very subtle and worked organically into the composition. "Old and Withered Form" is far more traditional, but it benefits from it's somewhat shorter running time and straight up, Gorgoroth-style neck slicing attack.<br />
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<i>Don Seantalamh a Chuid Féin </i>may not be perfect, but without question this is one of the more impressive debut's I've come across. It's certainly one of the most listenable Black Metal albums in a while, featuring an even production and a classic, well thought out sound featuring plenty of melody. Those looking for reverb-pinged snare drums and endless armies of grimm ghouls may not be overly impressed with the material here, but anyone looking for a Black Metal album that doesn't excessively challenge while remaining deep, and those looking for a more complex and melodic style of Black Metal that doesn't mesh completely with modern standards, will have a new favorite album in <i>Don Seantalamh a Chuid Féin</i>.<br />
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Rating: 8.5/10 </div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-55879458118434534922013-02-08T09:25:00.000-08:002013-02-08T09:25:10.522-08:00Up Coming Releases to Meh About: Meh...As the cynicism of instantaneous access and musical disillusionment begin to poison my every thought and alter the color of my blood to a dull, sleepy grey, I have decided to declare the year 2013 as "The Year of Meh."<br />
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I mean really, how can anyone be excited for music anymore? Why bother? All of it's free and sounds exactly the fucking same... I don't know guys. How many more times can we listen to the same band repeat the same sounds from the early 90's over and over and over. How many more Nintendocore guitar sweeps and type-writer drums can we stomach? How many more times can I refer to the production style as "murky" and "static-choked" before those adjectives lose all meaning?(Actually they kind of already have...)<br />
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Meh... here's some upcoming releases to steal off the internet, listen to once and never listen to again...<br />
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I don't know man, normally I'd be so fucking excited for the new Cultes des Ghoules. I mean yeah I pre-ordered it on two formats, but why? I'm just wasting my money, since I already downloaded the European CD rip. I've already listened to the album once and forgot about it. It's just more of the same, even if the album is incredible and amazing and worth owning on two formats and an early album of the year contender... meh </div>
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Hasn't this leaked yet? I mean everything leaks. I want the leak man. I'm not sure why, cause this new song fucking sucks. Remember when Deeds of Flesh were making some of the greatest Brutal Death Metal imaginable? Remember <i>Path of the Weakening</i>? That shit was really wicked, even on the 192 kbps rip I downloaded. I actually listened to that one twice. Now Deeds of Flesh sound like every other lame Brutal Tech Death band on the planet: over-produced, toothless and wanky. The definition of meh...</div>
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Shit man, this one is gonna blow up the internet when it leaks. Wait, it leaked? When? Can someone hook me up with a link? Seriously, I can't live without hearing this. Not that I even like Portal or anything. But what else am I supposed to listen to on my 80 GB iPod all day? Shit I actually want to listen to? This new song is actually pretty cool though, sounds like the best Portal album so far. But still pretty meh I guess...</div>
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Man, this new song fucking sucks. Will probably still download.</div>
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New Wormed huh?</div>
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FUCK YEAH!</div>
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Ok, so maybe 2013 has some pretty cool shit on the horizon. Maybe there is some shit to get excited about and a lot to look forward too. Maybe there isn't a good reason for all my apathy and instant access fatigue... </div>
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No, fuck music.</div>
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heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-60294352016768478392013-02-04T09:06:00.002-08:002013-02-04T09:06:47.837-08:00Curse of the Great White Elephant Top 20 Albums of 2012 Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Spawn of Possession- Incurso</div>
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The return of Technical Death Metal legends Spawn of Possession did not disappoint, as the Swedes showed that their long time away from the musical arena has not impacted them or their knack for inhumanly precise devastation of the brain cavity. While the obnoxiously clean production sound takes some punch from the bands sound, the song-writing here is just phenomenal: highly atmospheric and complex while never losing the speed and brutality we have come to expect from the band. Tech Death may have fallen out of vogue, or more precisely changed its name and started calling itself "occult," but <i>Incurso</i> proves that there is still room for this kind of aural micro-surgery in Death Metal today.</div>
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Muknal/The Haunting Presence- Split </div>
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Occult visions and the bellowing of secret, evil things long forgotten. That's what to expect when two of the premiere young extreme Metal acts get together to release a 4 song split that never loses it's edge despite it's running time. Muknal are simply one of the best new acts around regardless of genre, and have tapped into aspects of Atmospheric Black/Death that few bands have been able to obtain while doing very little which would be described as purely original. The band are merely song-writing savants. The Haunting Presence may be less dynamic, but are even more savage: the battle-cry of the angel slayer. The split format saw a lot of great releases in 2012, but few better than this. </div>
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Rahu- The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows</div>
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Drawing a fairly even mix of Burzum and Darkspace with just a hint of Horna, Rahu's <i>The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows</i> can devastate as well as entrance. At times even a bit "beautiful"(or as beautiful as raw, static choked Atmospheric Black Metal can be), <i>The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows</i> is not an easy album to absorb in a single sitting, yet never comes off as overwhelming or that it sets any serious barriers to entry. It's an album which creates an atmosphere of dread no doubt, but it's also inviting; the siren song encompassed.</div>
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Plague Widow- s/t</div>
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There certainly wasn't a more exciting, and ridiculously addicting, release in 2012 than Plague Widow's self-titled debut EP. With so many Death Metal bands picking one style and sticking steadfastly to it while incessantly dissecting competing styles for their "trveness" or "the level of talented needed," it proved incredibly refreshing to find a new band say "fuck all that shit, lets just mix them." When the only way to describe your band is Blackened Brutal Technical Death-Grind, you know you are in for either a giant fucking mess or something special. We definitely got something special here though: taking the best elements of bands like Portal, Deeds of Flesh, Circle of Dead Children, early Decrepit Birth and Mitochondrion, this s/t never lets up, deftly jumping between atmospheric sections and good old muscle and speed with ease and skill. Songwriting doesn't get more varied yet catchy.</div>
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Putrevore- Macabre Kingdom</div>
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I admit I never thought I would hear from Putrevore, a Rottrevore worship/tribute act from Dave Rotten and Rogga Johansson, again after their incredibly good debut album <i>Morphed from Deadbreath</i>. The project languished in obscurity despite it's quality, and with Rogga and Rotten involved in multiple other acts with a much higher profile, I thought Putrevore would end up on the back burner until it was charred beyond use. However, 2012 brought one of the most welcome surprises I've ever had when <i>Macabre Kingdom</i> hit with little fanfare. And after listening to this album, I was hit with an even bigger surprise: <i>Macabre Kingdom</i> is no Rottrevore worship album. Yes, Rottrevore's Americanized and brutalized Swedish Death Metal remains at the heart of the album, but <i>Macabre Kingdom</i> is far more dynamic than mere worship: it's an album which encompasses huge swaths of Death Metal, from modern Occult Black/Death to Death/Doom to classic gut-bucket 1989 old school and back. Truly a magnificent return for Putrevore. And I can without a doubt make this claim: the vocal performance by Rotten on <i>Macabre Kingdom</i> is easily the best of 2012, if not the last 5 years. </div>
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Vattnet Viskar- s/t</div>
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So, are we still calling this stuff "Hipster Black Metal?" Or "Blackgaze?" Do I care? No, not really. <i>Vattnet Viskar</i> might be a huge number of things, and all of them are positive: dynamic, emotional, powerful, complex. Whether or not the band have any "kvlt" credibility or listen to a little more Neurosis than Mayhem, what Vattnet Viskar were able to accomplish on this self-titled EP is nothing short of astounding. This sound, a mix of Atmospheric Black Metal and Post-Sludge with a cleaner, more defined production style, is incredibly trendy and pretty big right now. And for my money, Vattnet Viskar do it better than anyone else.</div>
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Antediluvian/Adversarial- Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries</div>
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Throughout the history of Death Metal, I am generally unsure how many split albums would be considered "essential." Splits have always been the mechanism of economics: limited edition recordings where the costs are shared, usually used to increase the hype for a future full-length for one of the acts or for an established act to help promote a young up and coming act looking to break through but lacking name recognition. Yet make no mistake; <i>Initiated in Impiety and Mysteries</i> is not some thrown together hype release, but a focused, artistically minded full-blown release by two of Death Metal's premiere bands. Both Adversarial and Antediluvian, while having distinct sounds that share little straight up correlation, brought their best material to date to bear here and appeared to have a completely focused thematic direction in mind for the split. Adversarial's sonically devastating mix of Bestial brutality with hyper-speed technicality and Antediluvian's murky, musty Satanic bowel movements play beautifully off of each other here, and combine to create arguably the best Death Metal collaboration of all time.</div>
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Wreck and Reference- No Youth</div>
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<i>No Youth</i> is the definition of bad mood music. Nothing good ever happens to anybody who listens to it, and you can't shake the feeling that nothing good ever happens to the guys in Wreck and Reference. It's essentially <i>Breaking Bad</i> or <i>Oldboy</i> in musical form: the sins continue to pile up, higher and higher until they blot out all light. Those caught underneath the shade grow colder and colder until there is little left to hope for and life becomes a cruel cosmic joke devoid of a punchline. Musically, the bombastic mix of thick electronic noise and acoustic drumming with the Michael Gira-esque vocal attack and healthy doses of skull-fucking Sludge and Black Metal makes <i>No Youth</i> simply one of the darkest albums I've ever heard. And one of the best.</div>
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Muknal- s/t</div>
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If you are not on the band-wagon, allow me to make a seat for you next to me.</div>
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Without a question in my mind, Muknal are the best new band in Death Metal. The band's self-titled debut has become a personal classic for me, and it's simply one of the best written, performed and produced Death Metal albums I have ever heard. The music perfectly evokes the gorgeous cover art: cosmic, occult, shifting and hiding in the blackness of the Earth until it can claim the blackness in your soul. The thick, musty production remains perfectly even, giving every instrument a say in the overall tapestry, while the vocals are simply unhinged and demonic. But it's the song-writing above all else that makes <i>Muknal</i> as close to perfect as it can be: no section goes on longer than it needs to be yet the album creates a flawless and suffocating atmosphere of dread. It evokes an even mix of endless navel-gazing and uncontrollable head-banging, while maintaining a consistent theme and tone throughout. The bands sound remains firmly rooted in the Old-School while feeling forward thinking and starkly original. Simply put, <i>Muknal</i> is one of the best Death Metal albums I have ever heard. Not bad for the three song debut EP.</div>
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And the best album of 2012:</div>
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Charon- Sulfur Seraph(The Archon Principal)</div>
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In order to verify my personal feeling that Charon's <i>Sulfur Seraph(The Archon Principal)</i> was truly the best album of 2012, I gave myself a challenge: don't listen to it for a solid three months at least. Step away from the album which was becoming a solid part of my listening rotation and see if it holds up to the changing of time and perspective. It's a tough test for any album to over-come, and banishes more than one former flame to obscurity.<br />
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What I found surprised me: not only did <i>Sulfur Seraph </i>hold up, it felt...well, as the song goes, it felt like the very first time. Charon's sound is easy to describe yet difficult to envision, utterly accessible yet beyond heavy and incredibly fast, mired in Old-School sensibilities yet as fresh as anything I have heard in a long time. The sound Charon achieved on <i>Sulfur</i> <i>Seraph</i> is simply magical; Thrash, Black Metal and Occult Black/Death all meet at a perfect center apex and proceed to savage the fuck out of your ear-drums while never coming off as overly abrasive or self-indulgent. It's this surprising listenability, this "pick up and listen" style of brutal, fast and evil song-writing that doesn't feel like a rehash of early 90's Death Metal that makes <i>Sulfur Seraph</i> such an impressive album, and the best album of 2012.</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-24594363062635932072013-01-25T14:10:00.000-08:002013-01-25T14:10:30.335-08:00Curse of the Great White Elephant: Top 20 Albums of 2012 Part 1Sadly, this list is going to feel largely incomplete. There were dozens of albums I wanted to listen to more closely over the last few weeks but time has just not permitted it. As such, I imagine there will be several albums left off of this list that deserve more serious consideration to be on it. Regardless, the show must go on and I can only go with the albums which have proven their staying power and impact. So without further a do, here is the Curse of the Great White Elephant Top 20 Albums of 2012. <br />
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Pseudogod- Deathwomb Catechesis</div>
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Swirling, thundering waves of chaos and devastation rip the very ground beneath your feet asunder as <i>Deathwomb Catechesis</i> unleashes its furious and unholy magics upon you. In terms of sheer aural hammering and relentlessness, it's an album which has no real equal in 2012. But amid all roar of blast-beats and the endless procession of incomprehensible riffs, <i>Deathwomb Catechesis</i> has proven a far more atmospheric and intelligent album than I first gave it credit for. This is not the pinnacle of creativity by any means, but <i>Deathwomb Catechesis </i>can show restraint and even subtlety when the moment calls for it, breaking up the monotony of pure speed with some doom-laden introspection and eery, dischordant riffs that feel as though they are being played on strings made from the broken hairs of angels.<br />
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Locrian & Mamiffer- Bless Them That Curse You</div>
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As much as I loved <i>Blessed Them That Curse You</i>, the brilliant collaboration between Drone/Black Metal noisemakers Locrian and Ambient Drone duo Mammifer, it was an album I never felt comfortable reviewing. Trying to put the experience of <i>Bless Them That Curse You</i> into words is a difficult task, seeing as how it has little parallel to my typical musical discourse. Other than the final track, the unbelievably glorious "Metis/Amaranthine/The Emperor," it features no semblance of Metal or even anything analog to it, as most of the album fills the air with ambient sounds, dark electronic shrieks and gorgeous, melodic yet twisted piano work(the main contribution of Mammifer I believe). However, <i>Bless Them That Curse You</i> is utterly and completely transfixing, slowly and methodically waltzing along the ill-defined line between music and raw sound. It's long, effortless tracks make time stand still and perspectives shift, while drawing from the listener a wide variety of emotional responses. <i>Bless Them That Curse You</i> is a somber, subconscious experience that while limited in it's listenability, provides an incredible experience in the right setting.<br />
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Fiona Apple- The Idler Wheel...</div>
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Say it with me: <i>The Idler Wheel is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Chords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Ever Do</i>. It's an album titled which <i>reeks </i>of pretentiousness and self-serving infatuation with one's own creativity. And surely enough, <i>The Idler Wheel</i> occasionally crosses that line into pure pretense, Fiona Apple's voice creaking like the most self-absorbed screen door ever opened. But Apple, the legendary semi-mainstream 90's singer-songwriter, simply cannot be denied here: <i>The Idler Wheel</i> is the single best Non-Extreme Music album I have listened to this year. Apple's voice is incredible, moving from a dull, warbling rumble to an enraged growl to a beautiful bell with an effortlessness that is near unmatched among here peers. And musically, <i>The Idler Wheel</i> is as adventurous and bleak as any album this year. The dark, piano driven "Jonathan" pulsates with power and dark electronic rhythms, while "Daredevil" is a ferocious, percussion heavy piece that would not be an easy task for any singer, yet Apple nails it. This is not a catchy or accessible album in any way, instead choosing to challenge and push the limits of the listener to the limit in a way not expected from this genre. Apple can have as many words in her album titles as she wants if she can back them up, and like Kate Bush and Bjork before her, Apple backs up the pretense gloriously.</div>
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Receptionist- This is Everything<br />
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Metalcore is fucking dead, but that didn't stop Receptionist from digging up it's corpse for one more go around. Violent, angular and incredibly pissed off, <i>This is Everything </i>could easily be mistaken for a long lost Deadguy album Strikingly original? Not even close, <i>This is Everything </i>feels literally lifted directly from the 90's Metalcore-era. But that was the point: to give a long dead genre a breath of life, and in this era where "Metalcore" has become the most bastardized and reviled genre's of Extreme Music, it's a damn important album too. </div>
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Desecravity- Implicit Obedience</div>
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How the fuck do so many bands keep fucking up this sound? Brutal Tech Death is an easy genre to do right: keep things fast, technical and insanely brutal without over-producing the tracks to the point where the guitars sound digital and the drums sound like a type-writer. Desecravity prove how simple, yet incredibly effective, the formula can be on <i>Implicit Obedience</i>, and album which possesses not one ounce of originality yet works on so many levels. It's just so rare to hear a modern Brutal Tech Death band that actually, ya know, plays riffs. And has hooks. And doesn't throw a shit-ton of ham-fisted "melody" and "electronics" at the listener. It's become so rare that <i>Implicit Obedience</i> feels brand new even if it's parts are well worn. It's that even mix of tech and muscle that always works no matter how cynical about the genre one becomes.<br />
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Axis of Light- By the Hands of the Consuming Fire</div>
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Raw and brimming with rage and hate,<i> By the Hands of the Consuming Fire</i> helped usher in Axis of Light as one of the most exciting new Black Metal projects from an emerging English Extreme Metal scene. The production here could not be less accessible, featuring almost no low end and a thin, shrieking guitar tone that grinds against the ears with that rare warm abrasiveness. Yet the emotion here is even more raw than the production and this album seethes with hated and disgust. The vocals are immense and incredibly intense and the instrumentation is the definition of controlled chaos. The best music is the most emotional music, and <i>By the Hands of the Consuming Fire</i> is overwhelming in that regard. </div>
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The Ash Eaters- Ruining You</div>
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Another album I wanted to get to but just couldn't squeeze in, <i>Ruining You </i>is one hell of a ride down the rabbit hole. The Ash Eaters, once known as Black Metal/Doom band Brown Jenkins, actually released two brilliant albums in 2012, <i>Ibn Ghazi</i> and <i>Ruining You</i>, but of the two <i>Ruining You </i>is the bands first full length and the fullest realization of The Ash Eaters twisted sound. It's a sound which can be painfully difficult to describe, but the closest I can come is Blackened Instrumental Psych-Rock. Making heavy use of thick guitar riffs heavy on repetition and simple yet aggressive rock rhythms, <i>Ruining You</i> creates an incredible amount of atmosphere despite being largely mid-tempo and devoid of much fluff, even vocals. The guitar work drives the entire album, and it's simply some of the most caustic, dissonant and fantastic guitar work you'll ever hear.<br />
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Witch in Her Tomb- Witch in Her Tomb<br />
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2012 could be described as the year of Bandcamp: this is the third album on this list so far that has almost been exclusively distributed via Bandcamp. Bands like Witch in Her Tomb are now able to spread their music farther than any underground musical artist has been able to before, and this is a glorious thing. Featuring the best bass sound of 2012 and a raw, Punk-edged Black Metal attack, <i>Witch in Her Tomb</i> is a simple but powerful listen that is equal parts pure hated and insatiable catchiness.</div>
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Coheed and Cambria- The Afterman: Ascension</div>
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Welcome back, Coheed and Cambria. <br />
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Now, this is not the best album that Coheed and Cambria album. Not by a long shot. But after the complete and utter garbage of <i>Year of the Black Rainbow</i>, merely coming close to returning to their glory days is a massive and welcome achievement. The return of drummer Josh Eppard was <i>the single best thing that has ever happened to the band, period. </i>With Eppard back behind the kit(and turning it the single best drumming performance of 2012), Coheed and Cambria made a return to their roots: a mix of Prog Metal and sugary sweet Pop caught in an extremely dark haze. Claudio Sanchez is back to loving his own distinctive and divisive falsetto vocals, and the balance of epic guitar masterpieces and straight bubble gum head boppers is back and as good as ever when the band hit that sweet spot. Without a doubt the best return of 2012.</div>
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Monomakh- MMXII</div>
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With a distinctive blend of straight up Incantation worship and classic, old school Black Thrash and even Melodic Black Death concepts, Monomakh's <i>MMXII</i> is at once thoroughly crushing in it's atmospheric holocaust, yet devoid of much if any repetition and jam-packed with riffs and even solos. It's a strange dichotomy, but Monomakh makes it work in a way that I never would have begun to guess would work. The production is thick and hazy, the vocals are powerful and evil, and the guitar work is simply marvelous: layered, diverse and devoid of any filler. <i>MMXII</i> is without a doubt the most listenable and versatile Death Metal album of 2012, and since it is completely free on Bandcamp I urge everyone to check it out.</div>
heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5523288854873941929.post-78853096828611712002013-01-09T20:55:00.001-08:002013-01-09T20:55:34.938-08:00Rebirth of the CurseSo as you may or may not have noticed(or even cared) I took some time off from the blog. There are a number of reasons for this, but they really aren't all that important.<br />
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Anyway, I am back in action and have some plans for the ol Blog. A redesign is in the future as well as hopefully a core group of consistent writers.<br />
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Also, to anyone who has sent me a demo that I have agreed to review: yes, I will review them. In fact after my best of 2012 post, I am going to make up for lost time and review your demos.<br />
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Cheers,<br />
HeySharpshooter heysharpshooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04292718755339612553noreply@blogger.com1