Aug 012020
 


All Thoughts Fly

 

Another week is nearly over in which I had very little time to listen to new music apart from what I agreed to premiere, and only did a scattered job of trying to add to my list of things to check out eventually. I’m not optimistic this state of affairs is going to change any time soon. I did take advantage of this Saturday morning to jump around randomly in my list. I tried to balance bands whose names I knew with unfamiliar names, and from what I heard I picked these songs and videos — four that surfaced during the past week and then an older EP I just discovered.

ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF

When I first thought about how to order these selections I was going to end the round-up with the following video, as sort of a palate cleanser and mood-changer. But upon slight further reflection I realized that would have been tremendously unfair, because I can’t remember another video I’ve seen this year that’s such an extraordinary match of sights and sounds. So, we begin here… Continue reading »

Jul 172015
 

Infera Bruo-In Conjuration Front

 

I’ve been on a Bindrune Recordings roll this week, with a review of the new Panopticon album on Monday, a review of the new Alda album on Wednesday (with a song premiere), and now this review of the new album by Boston’s Infera Bruo — and a premiere of one of its stellar new songs. I’ve been living with these three albums for a while, and life has been good. If it’s not too much to hope for some justice in the world, it should be good for these bands and this label as well.

Infera Bruo’s new album In Conjuration is the band’s third full-length, following their 2011 self-titled debut and 2013’s Desolate Unknown. In the past, the band’s music has drawn favorable comparisons to that of Enslaved, and no doubt the new album’s progressive casting of black metal will again invoke remembrances of those masterful Norwegians. These new compositions are often complex and challenging in ways that should appeal to fans who appreciate avant-garde approaches to extreme metal. But the album is also a very dark and unsettling beast, with an affinity for tension-ratcheting intensity that rarely reaches the breaking point. Continue reading »

Jan 272015
 

 

We have the great pleasure of premiering for you a full stream of an extended split release by four very talented northeastern U.S. bands, an album-length work entitled Northeastern Hymns that has quickly become one of my favorite releases of 2015.

Three of the bands — Obsidian Tongue, In Human Form, and Infera Bruo — make their homes in Massachusetts, while the fourth — Autolatry — hail from Connecticut. In each case, these long songs mark the bands’ first recorded output since albums that appeared in 2013. In each case, there is a connection to the genre of black metal, but other musical elements are more dominant. And together, they provide a tremendously multi-faceted and tremendously engaging array of musical creativity and instrumental talent. Continue reading »