Hubeskyla - Spencer's Return (2012)

A large sticker adorns the cover of this LP, as you can see by looking to the left. It implores the reader to 'Play it loud and drive fast!'. Not only is this terribly irresponsible by encouraging poor road safety, it also reveals the album for what it is before one has even begun to lower the needle - a driving album. Now, there's nothing wrong with driving albums per se, but in many cases, unfortunately this one inclusive, it leads to an album which is distinctly devoid of real substance.

Hubeskyla to me appear to take influences from a variety of sources - a lot of noise rock, a bit of jazz rock, a small amount of post-rock and just a little sprinkle of the NeurIsisian axis. These are popular influences, and also the sort that need to be done exceptionally well to avoid making music which amounts to nothing more than bland. Once again, I can't help but feel that 'bland' is the correct term for this album. Not to say that Hubeskyla lack good ideas completely; indeed, there are many present here, but they have a habit of taking the odd good idea, mixing it with a whole bunch of mediocre ones and stretching the whole thing out well beyond its welcome. They've tried to make a 45 minute full-length when in reality they barely have enough material for a 20 minute EP.

There are some elements of how they do things that I really like though - take, for instance, the start of the very first track 'Spanish Firebird'. There is no messing around with some empty ambient introduction before they get to business - indeed, there's not more than 5 seconds of swathing ambience before the first riff starts. And it is a riff-based album, clearly - apparently there's no bass used on the album, but this isn't really apparent until one reads the release notes, which state (I believe, my French isn't perfect) 'There are two main barriers to the simplicity of rock and roll: vocalists and bassists'. Unfortunately, somebody neglected to mention that this is often what makes 'rock and roll' interesting and/or fun to listen to. Riff-wise, this is very much based around sharp, jagged, and often triadic riffs, but too many of the riffs simply sound the same due to the over-reliance on tonic triads in their composition. There's also not enough - once again using the first track for an example, its four minutes are filled with precisely two riffs, one of which consists of three notes, and the other of two chords. Although both of these riffs are clearly intended merely as bases upon which the music develops (they are consistently surrounded by guitar effects and short solos), they dominate the music, not due to the production, but due to the fact that the net effect of the guitar effects and solos is roughly equal to 0.

Much of the album is at the same pace, and hence it's a relief when a track comes along that breaks the tepid warmth of the middle pace used. It's for this reason that 'Spencer Smith' and 'Nucleon Drive Experience' are two of the better tracks on the album - the former uses a slightly faster, decidedly more driving riff than is present elsewhere on the album (and still it is repeated too much), while the latter, which is the closing track, has a slightly slower tempo to it which certainly gives it an air of finality, acting as a redeeming factor for the mediocrity of much of the rest of the album - it sticks in the listener's head after listening, and adds a real sense of having been on a journey over the album, even if that said journey roughly consisted of driving round and round in circles in the desert going nowhere new.

Seven of the eight tracks present here don't use vocals, and this really lends an introspective feeling to the album. There's very much a sense that the band are making the music for themselves rather than for anyone else, and the whole album has a slight feeling of an extended jam session, albeit an extraordinarily well-coordinated one; I would've liked to have seen more of a wild, free-flowing element to the album given the room for improvisation in an album of this type. There are a few solos as previously mentioned, but they feel overly-structured rather than original. The one track which does feature vocals, 'Ne Touchez A Rien' (with Emmanuel Colliard doing guest vocals) is more entertaining than the rest of the album for them despite the fact that the vocals amount to little more than spoken word - the change in the general timbre of the music is very welcome at this point, the penultimate track.

I think all has been said at this point which is relevant to the review, and I will reiterate the most important point here - whilst the band maybe had enough good material for a solid 20 minute EP, what's happened here is they've chosen to extend it to an overlong album. And for that reason, I'm afraid I can't recommend it to anyone.

3/10

Adversarial/Antediluvian- Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries(2012)

Adversarial/Antediluvian- Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries

Sometimes life is filled so many good things, it's hard not to take all of it for granted.  Eventually, it all becomes a blur, and our instant access to the vast bounties of information and entertainment obscure the little things that make life worth schlubbing through.  Little things like, oh, for example, a mega split featuring two of Death Metal's defining and original acts unleashing sonic devastation and plague-ridden winds of the occult onto your undeserving and worthless ass.

I try to live for the little things.

Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries is a culmination of destruction unlike just about anything you have heard.  Both Adversarial and Antediluvian bring their A+ + material here; Adversarial, a weapon of mass destruction and unholy fire, and Antediluvian, a cryptic curse of malevolent evil echoed amongst the ruins, have evolved well past many, if not all, of their peers and become something truly diabolical and wicked.  In truth, this split is slightly more important for Adversarial overall, but this harbinger brings forth the Word of two evils with equal vigor and violence.  Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries is not only essential, it's required in this modern age of Death Metal where merely imitating other bands is sufficient for success.

Adversarial start of this split, and this was the side I was easily the most excited for.  The bands debut LP, All Idols Fall Before the Hammer, was to me a disappointing masterpiece.  It was an album that was brutal beyond words yet as dynamic, intense and intelligent as any Death Metal album in history.  It also featured a production which would have killed a lesser album for this reviewer, and made it impossible for others to enjoy.  Between the non-existent vocals, the weak guitar tone and the utterly ruthless ping-holocaust of the snare drum, All Idols Fall Before the Hammer featured a barrier for entry that kept it from the recognition it, and the band, deserved.  Production will not be an issue for those that listen to Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries, as Adversarial's side of the split, titled "Leviathan," features the best produced material the band has released.  The guitars and bass whirl and twist in the vortex, forming a swirling mass of black matter that blots out all light, while the guttural machinations of vocalist Carlos are not lost in the mist but proudly and freakishly inhuman.  And yes, they fixed the snare sound, a triumph even the most masochistic of us can be happy about.  This isn't just the best produced Adversarial material though.  This is the best Adversarial material period.  Even the brilliance of All Idols Fall Before the Hammer pales in comparison to the inhuman feats of bestial guitar wizardry and supersonic percussion on display here.  Their exact sound is (thankfully) difficult to shoehorn into one genre or another.  We hear some Incantation, Blasphemy, Demilich, Angelcorpse and Immolation, but it all feels fluid and organic.  Adversarial are playing with demoniacal fire of their own design, walking a mythical and dangerous path that few have ever tread.  The bands technicality may not jump right out at you, but multiple listens reveal deeply entrenched complexity and inhuman precision.  Discordant riffs and tight, precise drum work drives each track through their serpentine paths of unhallowed entrancement.  "Spiraling Towards the Ultimate End" is particular stands out, not only as the best track on the split, but as one of the best Death Metal songs I've ever heard.  Equal parts haunting and brutal, the track deftly jumps from slaughter to introspective dissonance, and the two minutes or so of the track will leave you feeling cold and dead inside... and I mean that in the best way possible.  With this track alone, Adversarial have ascended, or descended, into true hellish preponderance.

Antediluvian really didn't need this split as much as Adversarial needed it to announce their grand declarations of genocide.  The bands brilliant debut, last years Through the Cervix of Hawaah, was more then enough to put Antediluvian amongst the elite purveyors of death.  That doesn't mean the band didn't try to out-do themselves again on Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries; the bands side of the split, entitled "Lucifer," is an masters-course on occult ritual and demonic influence via sound waves.  Various personal additions have obviously added to the bands improved technical chops, which are leaps and bounds from their early, underwhelming demo material, but it's the song-writing here that stands out most.  Antediluvian take over-used terms like "occult," "creepy," and "evil" much more seriously then many of their peers, and seek to develop them in new ways that isn't "doing it like Autopsy/Incantation/Entombed" did it.  Sure, their sound is informed by the past, with such influences as Incantation, Imprecation and Beheirt coming through quite clearly.  Yet much like Adversarial, Antediluvian have created their own sick rituals of sacrifice and malice, not merely stolen others.  The skin-crawling dissonance of "Dissolution Spires" or the suffocating, rhythmically intense miasma of "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh(I Am That I Am)" are unlike anything I've heard in Death Metal before: familiar yet alien.

I think it might be obvious which side this particular reviewer prefers.  I take nothing away from Antediluvian here: this band is clearly working on a different level from most of their peers, even in the brilliant Canadian Death Metal scene.  Their twisted, deformed nightmares are impressive beyond words and deserving of endless accolades.  But something about Adversarial, really since I first heard All Idols Fall Before the Hammer(well, the first time I heard it.  My first listen was spent mostly cringing) speaks to me on a deeper level.  Their incredible mix of pure technical prowess and atmospheric, emotional detail is without a doubt something to behold in terror and adulation.  To see these two bands working like this to bring down all we thought we knew about Death Metal, it's equal parts unsettling and exhilirating to think what the future might hold.  What can we, as mere mortals, do in the face of such an all encompassing artistic realization of evil?

I don't think we stand a chance.

Rating: 9.5/10

Wreck and Reference- No Youth(2012)

 

Wreck and Reference- No Youth

Deconstructive, ethereal, dripping with a noxious mix of disgust and listlessness, No Youth is this years sound-track of total defeat.  The California twosome of Wreck and Reference have been rolling on a pretty big hype machine since their demo Black Cassette, but No Youth is a different monster entirely.  It heralds the arrival of one of Extreme Music's new titans while exemplifying the limitless potential of a project devoid of barriers, genres and fear.  No Youth is a Universe of sound that expands beyond the horizon into reaches of the void that have rarely, if ever, been tread.  I don't want to use too much hyperbole: No Youth is a triumph of an album and easily one of the best records released this year and this decade, but in and of itself it might not reach the truly hallowed lands of immortality.  What makes No Youth so completely fascinating is the aforementioned formlessness of the album and the fearlessness of the song-writing.  No idea was too big or intimidating for the band, yet the album remains focused, controlled and melancholic. No Youth is the ultimate piece of cathartic expression and flawless craftsmanship.

It's utterly amazing to think that No Youth is an entirely electronic album, considering the massive drone and deluge of static and feedback that comes whirling and whipping from the speakers.  If we are moving into a future of purely electronic music, then No Youth may be a defining release, though the bombastic, explosive drumming on the record keeps it grounded in the real and tangible.  The percussion here is massive and powerful, thundering across the tracks and keeping the often dream-like compositions drowned in hopeless reality.  "Nausea," easily my favorite track on the record, is a perfect example: a slow, Drone intro gives way to an almost oil-and-water mix of slow, ethereal Swans-esque madness driven by thundering Darkthrone-style blast beats.  I can honestly say I have never heard such a dynamic combination of sounds before, and No Youth is over-flowing with these odd, exhilarating moments.

If there is any obvious influence on No Youth and Wreck and Reference in general, it has to be the Swans.  "If" being the key word, but there are a handful of similarities: the utter hopelessness of the vocals and lyrics and the mostly short, concise tracks that still drip atmosphere and anger were both trademarks of Michael Gira's signature project, and both elements are featured prominently on No Youth.  But so is the deluge of static-y, dense Drone/Doom, and at times Wreck and Reference effectively mix both, such as on "Cannot," which dances between somber, dark spoken word poetry to soul-siophoning Doom.  Once again, everything meshes so flawlessly that this seemingly awkward approach to songwriting feels completely natural and focused.  The atmosphere of self-hatred and melancholy remains wholly intact, no matter how ferocious of defeated the music gets.

No Youth is a damn difficult album to talk about: it's easy to heap praise on it, yet tough to pin down  Genre classifications are very hard to come by listening to No Youth, and trying to prepare a listener for the experience is near impossible.  No Youth is an album that just kind of has to be experienced, and the outcome of the experience will be colored by the one who lives it.  No doubt some will find all the sopping wet depression and self-inflicted damage as overkill, or even a bit silly.  Others will be touched deeply by it, and relate with the hopelessness and cathartic intensity of the album.  I can say unequivocally that No Youth is not for everyone.  It's not accessible, rarely melodic and never fun.

It all comes down to craftsmanship and creativity.  Some have one, some have the other and a rare few albums have both.  No Youth clearly has both.  The natural barrier of entry in how dark and defeated the moans and tones No Youth features leads to tough sailing even for the heartened and curious.  No doubt some will be unable to make it into the deeper layers of No Youth.  I can't say that I blame them.  But for the most masochistic, driven listeners among us, No Youth is a can't miss album.  It's an album that doesn't even feel like it ever had any boundaries in the first place, guided only by an unseen hand which dutifully orchestrates the madness and sorrow into a handful of notes and lyrics that evoke a sickened spirit of humanity.

Rating: 10/10

Grave Upheaval- Grave Upheaval(2010)

Grave Upheaval- Grave Upheaval

Grave Upheaval is the side project of Ignis Fatuus and Omenus Fugue, the men behind Impetuous Ritual, and who also play in the legendary Portal.  A massive pedigree no doubt, but Grave Upheaval goes well beyond recognizable names.  It's not a project that needs to piggy back on the larger bands that have come before it.  Mainly because this, the project's self titled demo, is without a doubt the finest album this storied duo has produced.  From the first listen Grave Upheaval blew away any of the duo's previous material and entombed me in it's light-devouring darkness.  Ritualistic carnage devoid of any sympathy for the listener, Grave Upheaval is full contact inhumanity.

Grave Upheaval is not really a massively different project from Impetuous Ritual in terms of genre.  Both projects deal in Doom-laden Death Metal inspired by the New York Death Metal sound and the primitive East-Coast sounds of bands like Imprecation and Killing Addiction. But while Impetuous Ritual delve into chaotic and explosive compositions with a slightly more technical edge, Grave Upheaval are more sunken and sulfurous; a truly primitive and ancient evil that crawls from the Earth to wreak terrible works.  The music itself is fairly simplistic at the individual level, with lots of repetitive, Doom-y riffs and lumbering rhythms.  It sounds to me heavily inspired by Raw Black Metal with the heavy repetition and supreme focus on atmosphere over technical prowess, and the masterful duo pull it off perfectly.  The production and atmosphere is massive and thick; a swarm of plague-bearing insects that bathes you in disease.  The album personifies evil, and does so without any real cheesiness.

The focus of ritualism is what makes Grave Upheaval so powerful.  The drums thunder and blast across the empty expanse of the megalithic production while the demented vocals imitate the chanting, demonic rumblings of a mad witch doctor.  At any moment, it seems a portal straight to Hell will open up inside your head, the beckoning calls of Grave Upheaval drawing them closer and closer to the tender under-belly of your skull.

Being both genuine and skillfully performed, Grave Upheaval is one of the most impressive atmospheric achievements I have heard in Death Metal in a long time.  It attaches itself to the darkest, most primal emotions and draws them forward, drawing as many visceral head-bangs as well as more then a few moments of gloomy introspection.  It's Death Metal done right: nihilistic, genre-destroying madness.

Rating: 9/10

Muknal/The Haunting Presence- Split(2012)

Muknal/The Haunting Presence- Split

The Black Twilight Circle are no doubt divisive, and I am not really going to get into all that with this review.  Yes, the whole thing is on the pretentious side, but then again it's impossible to ignore the sheer quality of the bands and releases from this shadowy collective of musicians.  The Black Twilight Circle, along with related record labels Rhinocervs and Crepusculo Negro, has become the center of the American Black Metal scene not through style and image, but by releasing some of the best Black Metal on Earth.  Muknal and The Haunting Presence represent new territory for the BTC however. It may seem that Muknal's cavernous, suffocating miasma of New York-styled Death Metal and the reverb choked, balls out aggression of The Haunting Presence don't really fit in with the rest of the BTC and their atmospheric, genre challenging terrorists.  But in fact they do: both bands create gloomy, rotten atmospheres of dust and insects, giving one the sensation of being forever sealed in an ancient tomb.  This focused, effortless atmosphere is a trademark of the BTC, and the true strength of this transfixing little split from two of my favorite acts in modern Metal.

The first two tracks belong to Muknal: this was the side of the split I was most excited for, as Muknal have already released the best Death Metal album of this year a few months ago with their s/t demo.  That demo has remained one of my favorite releases this year, and the chance to hear more material from the band was exciting.  I am not disappointed: "Hecatombs" and "A Winged Emblem of Evil" are the definition of subterranean evil and cosmic devastation.  Drawing heavily from New York gods Incantation and Immolation as well as the fiendish Imprecation and the demented Infester, Muknal are all about spawning suffocating atmosphere's of spiritual horror.  Muknal are not merely happy being another "Incantation-clone" and like Dead Congregation and Grave Upheaval, seek something greater for themselves and their music: dissonance and effective use of sampled sounds and gloomy electronic noises gives the two tracks a very ritualistic intensity that most imitators couldn't evoke in a dozen releases worth of material.  It's all so expertly crafted and effortless, and even more impressive when you consider that Muknal appear to be developing a more technical sound.  "A Winged Emblem of Evil" in particular has a strong, atmospheric technicality to it with the complex guitar play and fantastic drum work.  Both songs are certainly more complex then the material found on the s/t demo, and may signal a departure from the bands primitive roots.

The last two tracks are from The Haunting Presence, one of the first bands to really stand out from the BTC collective genre-wise.  With a sound clearly influenced by Blasphemy, Demoncy and Archgoat, The Haunting Presence seems like the exact type of project that would be leading an anti-BTC charge.  "Malignant Curse From Beyond" and "Hideous Faces of Unknown" are two reverb drenched abortions, viciously thrashing about in a muck of biowaste and sulfur.  Alternating between destructive speed and oceanic trenches of darkness and doom, The Haunting Presence show a masterful control of the bestial barrage without sounding like a cheap imitation.  This is also easily the best produced material the band have released, sounding both balanced and well mixed yet utterly caustic and raw.  The low end rumbles and roars and the riffs spew grime and gore while the demonic grunts of Ghastly Apparition echo above the Hellish aftermath. And once again, the bands super-primitive veneer is challenged a bit on "Malignant Curse From Beyond" which adds a small layer of complexity with some dynamic rhythms and complex drums.  I would not call The Haunting Presence anything less then primitive and dessicated however, so don't expect too much complexity.

As much as I love this split and the bands involved, I have no doubt that both projects will struggle for the notoriety they clearly deserve.  On one side you have hardcore BTC haters who, even if they like the music, will refuse to support any project involved.  On the other side we have the hardcore BTC fanboys who may look at Muknal and The Haunting Presence as the ugly ducklings on the collective, playing unrefined genre's that have long grown stale.  I sincerely hope it doesn't come to this(Fact: if you are a Death Metal fan and not into Muknal, you are missing out), but it's hard not to feel like this is a possibility.  For those of you who could care less about collectives or genre elitism, then this split will gladly devour your soul and you will be glad to offer it.

Rating: 9/10

Rahu- The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows(2012)

Rahu- The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows

Drawn to it from positive word of mouth and the brilliant cover art, The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows was the ultimate shot in the dark for me.  I've never heard of this Finnish two-piece, though I am familiar with Atvar and his project Circle of Ouroborus, nor am I an any way familiar with Hindu mythology.  But this made the thrill of discovering fresh brilliance all the more satisfying, as The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows is a dynamic, well constructed and immersive Black Metal.  Rahu don't completely re-invent the wheel, so much as deconstruct it, moving the various pieces to and fro to fit their compositional desires.  It's such an expertly done album, which feels both fully realized and warmly familiar without being derivative.  Rahu have landed in  the sweet spot of creativity and craftsmanship, and do so with such confidence and skill that it's impossible not to be impressed.

Featuring a raw, space-y production, The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows sounds great and makes a strong first impression that eases you into the deeper, darker aspects of the album.  The Finnish influences are pretty strong with an evident Horna and Sargeist vibe, threads of chilling melody strewn amongst the fleshly and raw Black Metal riffs, but the dependence of hypnotic song structures and pure crushing blackness brings to mind Darkspace and even Burzum at his most raw and sleepy.  It's a powerful combination of traditional demonic practices with the ethereal darkness of modern atmospheric Black Metal, complete with all the nihilism and somberness left in tact.  The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows is firmly an Atmospheric Black Metal record, but it touches on a lot of different styles and atmospheres and feels both real and focused.  It's an album that comes about when a couple of talented, learned and visionary musicians get together and create: the perfect storm of creativity and credibility.  I wouldn't go so far as to describe The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows as ground-breaking, but it's not far off.  The influences are there but they never overwhelm the bands vision or identity and the album feels unique throughout.  Rahu sure didn't invent the disparate elements on this album, but they have without a doubt come up with a new way of operating them.

There are no real complaints for my part: The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows is a complete album and a full-contact listening experience.  Though perhaps not quite and overwhelming as Darkspace, who seek to swallow you in the massive gravitational force of their riffs, Rahu present many of the same ideas in a more diverse and vibrant way.  Rahu are masterful in their use of melody, always a tricky thing for most Black Metal, composing both eerie whispers and soaring, epic leads(or in the case of the opener "Ordeal of X," both).  The twosome also demonstrate complete control of atmospheric song-writing, as repetition is used to create hypnotic atmospheres, but never abused to the point of boredom.  The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows makes use of a lot of tricky, difficult elements: melody, repetition, rawness, extreme song-length.  All of these things utterly destroy lesser acts and albums, yet all feel absolutely essential to the greatness of this album.  It's utterly amazing when you think about it: Rahu took all of these elements that consistently ruin other bands, and then crafted an entire album around them with masterful precision.  It's as if the band were trying to win a bet, and if there was a wager on whether a band could pull all of these concepts off on a single album then somebody needs to pay up.

I honestly cannot recommend The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows enough.  Black Metal is a genre that can be so diverse that it's hard to find those albums that every Black Metal fan can enjoy.  Some want keyboards, some want epic, some want grime and ghouls and some want to be eviscerated.  The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows provides a little bit for all while being as focused and professional as one could ask for.  I don't know whether this album will be remembered for years to come as some classic or if like many great albums it will disappear into the bowls of obscurity, but for this moment, The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows is an epic undertaking worth the struggle.

Rating: 9.5/10

Flourishing- The Sum of All Fossils(2011)

 Flourishing- The Sum of All Fossils

The Sum of All Fossils represents the hope of Death Metal.

New York's Flourishing are a fresh face, formed in 2009 with The Sum of All Fossils being the bands first full length release, yet also a last proud member of a dying breed: a breed of innovators and fearless song-writers in the Death Metal scene.  It's not hard to see that Death Metal has, at the very least, become a regressive and trend happy genre: the scene is dominated by imitators, flavor of the month worship acts and tired veterans grinding out the same releases every year for a quick buck and a reason to go on tour.  Flourishing do not fit into any of the categories, which in and of itself is worth praise: while the Gorguts influence is obvious, The Sum of All Fossils is in no way a cheap imitation or easy worship, but a unique album with a new, explosive sound.  This is so rare in Death Metal now, it's almost a shock to hear it and I wasn't sure how to approach The Sum of All Fossils, as I could not easily categorize it, and any genre that I placed on it sounded either stupid, fake or failed to encompass the full scope of the album.  Not being able to stick "Incantation clone" or "stupid wanky, clean BS" on it was a bit intimidating.  But that's what makes The Sum of All Fossils so damn special.  While other bands pose tough and grunt about Satan to stolen riffs, Flourishing have created an album which is actually tough to listen to. It's what Death Metal was always supposed to be: challenging, nihilistic and heavy as fuck.

In a vague, worthless attempt to categorize The Sum of All Fossils, it's fairly easy to hear the Gorguts influence here.  What's nice is that the influence is clearly From Wisdom to Hate and not Obscura: the bass sounds pretty similar, and like From Wisdom to Hate it's an album which would fall closer to atmospheric then Jazz-y.  Songs don't rely too heavily on speed or all out aggression to make their point, with each track taking the right amount of time to fully explore every idea.  But it never becomes tedious or worn out and tracks move at the perfect level of pacing.  While it remains largely mid-paced the band to a spectacular job mixing up tempos on a more subtle level, combing with the obvious technical chops on display to make The Sum of All Fossils one of the best active listening experiences I've heard from Death Metal in a long time.  This is not merely background music as you surf the internet or read or some stupid, not-actually-listening activity that most Death Metal seems perfectly designed for in the modern scene.  The Sum of All Fossils demands your maximum attention and energy to fully impress upon you just how complex, original and breathtaking it can be.

Flourishing accomplish all this by being fearless songwriters who don't care how stupid an idea might seem on it's surface, but instead take a level-headed, talent-guided shot at doing something new.  In this case, it's mixing complex, discordant Technical Death Metal in the vein of Gorguts with Post-Rock.  Now, that maybe doesn't sound like the best idea: it's one that would send your average musician running straight into the arms of Autopsy worship and never leaving that warm, gooey place again.  It's a testament to the members of Flourishing that they even attempted this, but even more so that they pull it off so fucking beautifully.  Despite sounding professionally recorded and played with actual skill and talent, The Sum of All Fossils is one of the deepest and emotional Death Metal albums I've heard in ages.  It frequently crosses over into beautiful territory, particularly the final track "As If Bathed in Excellence," which has not been a word I have used to describe a Death Metal album since Anata's The Conductors Departure... another genre-defining masterpiece.  It can also being extremely heavy and utterly chilling, while the Post-Rock elements bring so much to the table.  The dynamic vocal shifts of "By Which We Are Cemented" are at first a bit off-putting on a Death Metal album, but once they grow on you it's hard to imagine why more Death Metal bands are not trying new things vocally(or why Flourishing don't go back to this later in the album.)  Long sections of disonant, massive Rock guitars add a whole new level of immersion on The Sum of All Fossils, like the opening track "A Thimbles Worth," which starts off as a fairly typical Gorguts-style track before morphing wonderfully into a Shoegaze-y, wall-of-noise torrent that drenches you in longing and wonderment.

The fact you can't listen to a single track on The Sum of All Fossils without discovering something new and interesting, which more then makes up for the tiny nitpicks here and there.  I am not a huge fan of the primary vocals and wish the band had remained consistently adventurous with them, instead choosing to stick with an energetic yet somewhat grating mid-growl for most of the album.  I'm also not a huge fan of the drum production:  they actually don't sound triggered which is great, but they do sound very clean and uneven in the mix.   And not matter how impressed you might be with The Sum of All Fossils initially, it's a grower(it's not even in my top 20 albums of last year, as it took several listens to fully sink in).  Little things... things that don't even really fucking matter.  I am too impressed with The Sum of All Fossils as not only a wonderful, powerful album but as a piece of art.  The album drips with personality and identity while remaining viable and accessible, and I never picked up on any pretentiousness or cynicism.  And perhaps most impressive is that despite the Post-Rock elements, the professional production and the lyrics which don't in anyway touch on Satan or decapitating hookers, The Sum of All Fossils is a real Death Metal album.  It's a challenging album which doesn't pander, posture or worship. It strikes out into a harsh, barren wasteland and from dying soil produces vivid, all encompassing life.

Rating: 10/10

The Curse Weekly Playlist: Raw As Fvck 2: Raw Vengeance

So I missed last week's playlist.  I could come up with a good reason for it, but in all honesty it was because I was playing Mass Effect 3 and didn't care about anything else.

Also, my current listening variety is shit: it's all either Japanese shit(that playlist went over swimmingly) or fucking horrible Black Metal.

So here is some more horrible Black Metal:


Raw Vengeance

Tracklist:

1. Glossolalia- "Filth In The Light" : Raw Atmospheric Black Metal from the United States.  Off the compilation Odour of Dust and Rot(2011)

2. Klor- "Ancient Timer" : Raw Atmospheric Black Metal from Denmark.  Off the LP Klor(2012)

3. Akitsa- "Cultes Vertueur" : Raw Black Metal from Canada.  Off the LP La Grande Infamie(2006)

4. Sortilegia- "White Bones Black Flame" : Raw Atmospheric Black Metal from Canada.  Off the demo Pestilent Black Sorcery(2011).

5. Tardigrada- "Hoffnungslo" : Raw Depressive/Atmospheric Black Metal from Switzerland.  Off the demo Widrstand(2012).

6. Arts- "Astral Pathways Channeled Over A Purified Lake" : Raw Black Fucking Metal from the United States.  Off the LP Vault of Heaven(2010).

7. Barghest- "Hellish Entrancement" : Raw Atmospheric Black Metal/Blackgaze from the United States.  Off the LP Untitled(2011).

8. Unknown Artist- "Untitled I" : Raw Atmospheric Black Metal from Portugal.  Off the LP Untitled I(2010)

9. Old Morgul- "My Creations in the Past" : Raw Black Metal from Finland. Off the demo The Keys of New Realm(1998)

10. N.K.V.D.- "Incipit SSSR" : Raw Industrial Black Metal from France.  Off the EP Diktatura(2007)

Anhedonist- Netherwards(2012)

 Anhedonist- Netherwards

Simplistic, bland and mostly forgettable, Anhedonist's debut LP Netherwards is classic genre pandering done with as little heart, energy or creativity as the Seattle, Washington based band could apply to the process.  I could easily imagine the entire album being written in a single day: just listen to a lot of Funebrarum and Mournful Congregation and do something that sounds kind of like that while cracking open cheap domestics in the storage room/practice space.  And that is exactly what Netherwards is: Funebrarum meets Mournful Congregation.  No doubt some of you are salivating at the very idea, but it's much, much more disastrous then it sounds.

Throughout my time with Netherwards, when I was not falling into a coma like state of sheer boredom, I found myself repeating the same thing over and over again: If you are going to write songs over nine minutes in length, make sure the songs have enough ideas to remain viable for such an idiotic run time.  Anhedonist are clearly seeking to combine the more layered, aggressive Death/Doom of a band such as Funebrarum(an obvious influence) with Funeral Doom.  But Netherwards merely ends up feeling like a pair of overly long, consciousness-obliterating-with-sheer-boredom Funebrarum B-sides, one half-way decent Funebrarum track with a much saner run-time of just over five minutes, and one of the worst, most pointless Funeral Doom tracks in history.  It's an endurance test of seemingly endless suck that goes on forever while feeling totally directionless and atmosphere free.  Netherwards does have a single thing going for it in that it at least sounds professional: the band don't miss any marks while playing the songs, and the production is appropriately heavy and static-choked.  But both of these things are not really strengths, since the simplicity of the song-writing makes these tracks easy enough to play in your sleep and the band are signed to Dark Descent records, a label with enough budget to make solid sounding albums.

Lets take the opening track "Saturnine" as an example: it begins with almost two minutes of mostly silence with some slight noise, before the opening riff kicks in with a bit of fury.  And there is nothing wrong with the opening riff, or in reality any of the riffs on the album: it's how everything is structured that makes Netherwards a chore.  "Saturnine" is largely undefined and hazy, yet somehow manages to be utterly predictable, while the repeated use of pinch harmonics also brings a chuckle.  The track feels all of it's utterly pointless nine minute and forty two seconds of running time, despite not really being written for it: the track essentially repeats the same idea back to back with a Funeral Doom intro, a bit of Incantation-like aggression and then some blatant diSEMBOWELMENT worshiping leads over the top of ultra-simplistic riffs that crawl along like a drunken zombie missing it's bottom half.  It feels like two tracks shoe-horned together into a single one, which seems to me the only explanation for why it is so painful.  Vocalist "V.B" is a competent enough Gallina impersonator, but little more, and his presence feels largely inconsequential to the actual songs: all of these tracks would have been equally unimpressive without him.

The following tracks, "Estrangement" and "Carne Liberatus" are stronger then the opening stinker, though barely.  "Estrangement" at least feels like a single track with a single vision: one of lifeless, colorless fields of sleep and tedium.  The track feels much, much longer than it's run time, and constantly seems on the verge of ending.  Only it never does: it's like a Judd Apatow movie, featuring dozens of climaxes before it actually finishes, and leaves you uncomfortably shifting in your seat waiting for the fucking thing to be over.  "Carne Liberatus" which I assume the band likely means as "Absolved Flesh" but could also be translated to "Free Steak"(I know that I am combining languages here, but I am trying to have some fun at the expense of this very joyless album) is better, but only because it ends before it becomes unlistenable.  It's heavy, slow and very Old-School sounding, so it panders well, but little else.

Then we come to "Inherent Opprobrium," which without any doubts is the single most boring track of 2012.  I have said before that Funeral Doom is not my favorite genre, but I do appreciate enough of the the genre's best practitioners to know tedium when I hear it: "Inherent Opprobrium" tedium incarnate.  At a soul-siphoning fifteen minutes and fourteen seconds, it goes absolutely nowhere.  Really.  The song is spends it's entire run time building up to something, but doesn't bother with any pay-off: no symphony of tortured voices, or cacophony of death knells.  No final tortured screams or sudden bursts of Death Metal aggression.  It just meanders between riffs and sections, and by the time we reach the ten minute point, the horrifying realization that the song isn't over hits like a sledgehammer to your skull... which might be a preferable outcome to actually finishing the song.  Perhaps this is the point of "Inherent Opprobrium," and Netherwards in general: to be punishing and unforgiving in it's boredom.  If I had even the slightest inclination that Netherwards was boring and lifeless on purpose, I might be kinder to the album.

No, what we have here instead in flavor of the month genre pandering at it's apex: the story of Death Metal in 2012.  Netherwards has all the disparate elements that bring together the various aspects of music in the modern-age: all the Old-School credibility one could ask for, with the lovely cover-art and clearly displayed Old-School influences without any of the timeless aspects that made those classics so wonderful to begin with.  Netherwards is an album designed specifically to sell lots of copies the moment it is released and generate lots of hype, but within two years be a completely forgotten piece of "oh yeah, I remember that album" trivia.  This is not art: it's a product, tricking listeners into thinking it's more than the sum of it's parts by playing up how "true" it is.  But by "true" what they mean is "genre re-hash money generator." 

Now, I am not saying that the band Anhedonist themselves are in it for the money: this is Death Metal after all, and there is a good chance that Netherwards is not making the band a single dime because of how brutal label contracts can be.  And I have no doubts that Anhedonist are making music they want to make because it's what they like and are passionate about: no doubt the guys in Anhedonist care about their music, because making Extreme Music of any kind is a labor of passion.  I also have no doubts that there are a lot of people who genuinely like this album(in fact, I know for a fact their are).  My point is that in today's modern scene, an album like Netherwards is the Death Metal equivalent of a movie like Transformers 2 or Avatar: digestible, simplistic, bland product that has all the parts of the real thing, designed to appeal to the masses, at the expense of more creative, inventive and challenging art that encompasses everything great about the medium.  Before 2005, an album like Netherwards would have been totally ignored.  Now, this is the Savior of the genre I love... apparently.

Rating: 2/10

Dodsengel-Imperator (2012)

Dodsengel-Imperator

From the beginning, I had approached the 3^rd full-length by Norwegian Occult Black Metallers Dodsengel with a sense of urgent trepidation.  While I had enjoyed earlier releases like Mirium Occultum and Alongside Chronzon immensely, reveling in the winding, mazelike riffs that rarely failed to transport one into a realm of omniscient dread, the songwriting had always felt a tad derivative for a band with such grandiose vision for their infernal doctrine.  As Dodsengel constantly strove to distinguish themselves from the masses of black metal acolytes following the release of Mirium Occultum, plunging themselves deeper and deeper into less traditional waters with EP after EP, I could not help but feel that an additional push from Below was needed to propel them into the realms of true Orthodox triumph, alongside charred scene luminaries such as Deathspell Omega, Watain, and Ascension.   When Imperator finally surfaced upon my metallic radar, I could not help but feel my blood boil at the thought that the breakthrough album this band was always meant to make had possibly ascended from the Pits of Tartarus in all its fetid glory. 

After multiple listens and subsequent internal contemplation, I am able to safely conclude that Dodsengel have reached their vaunted potential at last, at least in part.  Clocking in at 2 and ½ hours in two discs, Imperator is not an album meant for the weekend warrior or Cro-Magnon headbanger looking for a quick blackened fix.  Indeed, I found this album an intimidating beast to digest at the onset, and was initially befuddled at the seeming monotony stretched over such a vast length.  Gone were even semblances of the forward-driving grooves and wicked hooks that once helped latch listeners onto the sides of past demonic vessels.  Instead, there existed a dreamlike, astral sense of torment that tempted the listener to their own damnation.   The ritualistic aspects of the music were more heightened than ever, proceeding with a stately grace befitting an infernal monarch leading his slaves to the sacrificial altar. 

Indeed, listening to Imperator was more reminiscent of a waking nightmare than a wild hellride, an experience aided by the increased presence of synthesizers, a contribution that added a psychedelic rock presence to the music that had only been hinted at structurally on earlier efforts.  Like Pink Floyd hollowed into a vessel of the Devil, Imperator took me deep into emotional and contemplative chasms while my body stood fixated in petrifaction.  Every additional listen revealed more crevices along the blood-soaked walls of the temple.  Over most of the experience, Kark’s vocals rasped like the grinding of dry, crackling bones along desert sands, imbuing the ritual with a feeling of hopeless desolation.  Yet at parts of the album, they warped into maddening high-pitched shrieks that brought to mind the raving of dementia-ridden hierophants.  Female vocals even made an appearance, soaring like the reveries of harlots and witches over the music, evoking a sense of ecstatic and diabolically-lustful exuberance.

While I initially felt that Imperator lacked the immediate black-mailed fist to the gut provided by past works, it became obvious to me as I explored the album more that it marked a true turning point in Dodsengel’s career, in the same way that Si Monumentum was the cornerstone in Deathspell Omega’s that transformed them from well-composed Darkthrone-worship into one of the most revolutionary bands to ever grace the face of the genre.  The unique psychedelic presence added by the increased use of synthesizers, coupled with a usage of archetypical orthodox-styled riffs in unorthodox ways, have created for Dodsengel an easily distinguishable sound that they can truly trademark as their own.   Some standout tracks include Hymn to Pan, a trance-inducing ritual with bacchanalian undertones belying an antediluvian madness hidden beneath the veil of civility, Asphyxia, a highly emotional affair resembling a crueler, more primal manifestation of the work of Frenchmen Blut Aus Nord, and Upon the Beast She Rideth, a work that evoked the sensual, yet sinister aura of Walpurgisnacht.  

Yet Imperator’s greatness comes as more of a sum of its parts than in individual moments of glory, for what the album represents is an expulsion of every experimental and creative desire Dodsengel have only tempted us with in the past 3 years, yet somehow taking a coherent and masterful form.  With their artistic vision now clear to them, I feel that future efforts by this band will see not only further sonic advances, but a tightening of those remaining loose ends in their songwriting as well.  Imperator is a staggering, yet enticing work that sheds fresh blood upon the long-stagnating Norwegian Black Metal Scene.   While other bands continue to obsess over childish clichés in nostalgic striving for past glories, Dodsengel represents one of the chosen few who have dared to glance further into the darkness, emerging with an exciting vision for black metal that promises even greater aural flagellation in the coming aeons.

Rating: 8.8/10