(Andy Synn returns to regular posting today with an apology and an attempt to atone for his absence)
As you may have noticed, I missed a lot of stuff last month… mostly because I was very busy, first with my superb stag-do (“bachelor party” to those who don’t know what that means) which involved myself and my chosen band of brothers heading to Islay for a weekend full of whiskey (so much whiskey), and then my wonderful wedding (yes, that’s right, I’m a married man now) which also involved the extended NCS family coming to visit (which, of course, meant we spent most of the week before and after the event hanging out).
As a result I had very little time to actually sit down and listen to music, let alone write about it, and it’s really only thanks to the valiant efforts of DGR – who was smart enough to write a bunch of reviews in advance of him and Islander coming over – that we actually stayed active and afloat for much of September.
It won’t surprise you to learn then that my “short list” of albums to potentially write about this time around was much, much longer than usual, and even though I’ve tried to compensate for this by increasing the number of albums from 4 to 6, I still feel like I need to apologise to the likes of Cult Member, Nexion, Occulsed, Ordeals, Piece, and Yotuma for not having the time or space to include them (and an additional apology must also be extended to Hexrot, whose late-August release I honestly had every intention of reviewing).
ABRAHAM – IDSUNGWÜSSÄ
I’ve joked before that Post-Metal (the kind I tend to like, anyway) is just “Hardcore by bands having an existential crisis”… and it’s bands like Switzerland’s Abraham (who bill themselves as “Post-Hardcore”, just not in the way that term is usually used I guess) which remind me that I’m not really joking.
The thing is, while listening to IDSUNGWÜSSÄ I can kind of hear it… and not just because the vocals sometimes bear a striking (in a good way, I promise) resemblance to Thrice‘s Dustin Kensrue (albeit with a bit more grit and grime to them).
It’s moments like the noir-ish, bass-driven introduction to “I Am the Vessel and the Vessel Is Me” and the ruppling rhythms of “Naked In a Naked Sky” which seemingly share a significant amount of DNA not just with the likes of Isis and Neurosis (who also have more than a little Hardcore in them, obviously) as they do the likes of Helmet and the aforementioned Thrice.
That’s not to say that songs such as dark ‘n’ moody (and imposingly heavy) opener “Fate of Man Lies In The Stars” and the bombastic, blast-propelled “A Discomposite Shell” aren’t in possession of a massively metallic, densely dynamic sonic presence – dipping in an out of passages of palpable, almost physical, weight and stark, shadowy ambience to create a captivating sense of contrast – it’s just that the tone and texture of the tracks clearly owes a significant debt to the heart-wrenching, gut-clenching emotional intensity of Hardcore as well.
Sure, that’s not necessarily anything new but Abraham combine these elements so well – the brooding, anxiety-inducing slow-burn of “Suurwäut” building to a cataclysmic mid-song crescendo, the patient scene-setting of cinematic closer “Home” eventually paying off in the track’s colossally cathartic climax (and cunningly creepy epitaph) – that they successfully take ownership of what might have been a familair Post-Metal sound and reimagine it in their own image here.
CODEX NERO – ORDO ACHERONTIS
Last time we heard from Polish duo Codex Nero – which was also the first time we heard from them, fact fans – they’d just released their debut album, The Great Harvest of Death, which combined mercilessly intense, yet intriguingly multi-faceted, Black Metal fury with subtle ambient embellishments in a way which made an impressive first impression.
At the same time, however, it still felt like there was a bit of a divide between the abrasive/aggressive and the ambient/atmospheric sides of their sound (which, considering it was their first release, is something we’re more than willing to forgive).
On their second album, however, this gap has closed significantly, with tracks like outstanding opener “Death As Metamorphosis” and the torrential “Abhorrent Death Eater” weaving a much more ominous sense of atmosphere directly into the fabric of the music, sometimes overtly (the former) and sometimes more subtly (the latter).
Of course, there are more than enough moments where the group throw any pretensions of subtlety to one side – “Ignis Maledicto” is pure sinister swagger and seething melodic hooks (especially towards the end), while “The Omen Heralds” is a five minute blasterpiece replete with a bevy of grimly infectious grooves that would surely make the likes of Kampfar raise an eyebrow in appreciation – but the real strength of this release is in the way it allows its secrets and nuances to slowly bleed through as the album progresses.
And whether that’s in the form of the unexpectedly hypnotic vocalisations and eerily melodic undercurrents of “Tenebris Amenti”, the intricate technicality and riveting rhythmic complexity of “Let the Darkness Reborn” [sic], or the moody, gloaming majesty of atmosphere-drenched closer “Emissary” (whose overall sound is something I’d love to see the band delve even deeper into next time around) one thing is for sure… Ordo Acherontis is a major step up/step forward for a band who could very well end up leaving a major mark on the scene.
HADOPELAGYAL – HAEMATOPHORYKTOS
Speaking of bands leaving a mark… although, in this case, it’s more than likely to be a gaping, ragged wound… Germany’s Hadopelagyal (not to be confused with the other very similarly named band from the same area) hit hard on their sophomore album, Haematophoryktos, which is practically guaranteed to be one of the nastiest slabs of ravaging Black/Death noise you’re going to hear this year.
Clocking in at just under forty-five minutes, these nine tracks plumb the darkest depths of man’s musical soul in an almost unrelenting deluge of raw, incandescent fury and dense, impenetrable distortion that will doubtless appeal greatly to followers of Teitanblood, Mitochondrion, and Altarage.
For all the band’s destructive prowess, however – and, make no mistake, the brualising, blast-propelled punishment of songs such as “Amidst Unending Twilights…” and “Stampede Of Exsanguinated Stygian Hordes” are more than capable of shattering your bones and collapsing your lungs with the crushing, claustrophobic intensity they bring to bear – a keen-eared listener will likely become aware over time (if they can last that long) of a brooding atmospheric undercurrent seething and simmering just beneath the surface.
And while this remains, for the most part, largely submerged beneath the raging waters which toss and turn the listener like a raging metallic maelstrom there are moments scattered here and there – sometimes fleeting (as in “Promulgating Haematekchysia”) and sometimes more fundamental (such as during the bleak and haunting back-half of “Invocation of Abomination’s Excrements”) – where it breaks through in such a way as to hint at the moody method behind the madness.
There’s even… whisper it… a dash of hypnotic melody (for a certain value of “melody”, at least) to be heard at times – the writhing tremolo at the end of “Litany Of Saltridden Exudate Under Theosechtrian Tides” is particularly effective – ensuring that this is one album whose depths you will most definitely want to spend some time in (if you can stand the pressure).
PEACE OF MIND – BLOOD IS THE PRICE
Sometimes you just want to crank up something heavy and belligerent and let out all your anger and aggression in one blistering burst, right?
Well, in that case, the riff-heavy new album of merciless, Merauder-esque Metallic Hardcore from Germany’s Peace of Mind has you covered, as it smacks you right in the face straight away with the jaw-cracking, bone-jarring riff-attack of “Burned Alive”, then follows it up with an equally intense one-two combo in the form of the galloping “Blood Is The Price” (whose climactic break-down effectively blurs the lines between Hardcore and Death Metal as well) and the churning guitars and devastating drums of “Born to Lose” (which also features an absolutely killer chorus hook).
The gut-wrenching ground ‘n’ pound of “Death Is Upon Us” and the arguably even heavier “Fear Shapes Us All” then step up to make a statement about just how heavy Hardcore can get without tipping over into Death Metal and/or Deathcore territory (the booming guitars on the latter in particular deliver some stunning impact with every gargantuan, down-picked chug), while the likes of “Seek the Light” and “Bite the Bullet” (the latter especially) add some increasingly thrashy intensity into the mix as well.
Sure, they’re not reinventing the wheel or anything, but with tracks like the thuggish chuggery of “Hypocrite” and the punky, pugilistic vibes of “Cut the Rope” and “Peace of Mind” (both re-recorded and re-energised here from their first appearance on the band’s debut EP) you’ll be hard pressed to find a more enjobably aggressive array of heavyweight Hardcore anthems this year than Blood Is The Price.
TZEENTCH – AT THE GATES OF NAR MATTARU
Another thing that kept me busy last month, in addition to the events mentioned in the intro, was that one of my close friends also had his stag-do/bachelor weekend in September, which ended up involving an impromptu trip to Warhammer World, a place which none of us had actually visited properly before, despite the fact that a) most of us have lived around here for a while now, and b) all of us are ultimately massive nerds.
Why is this relevant, you may be asking? Well, if you haven’t put two and two together yet (though I bet a lot of you clocked it straight away) you should know that this Colombian band have named themselves after one of the four major Chaos Gods from everyone’s favourite table-top wallet-lightener, meaning I couldn’t overlook the opportunity to see what they had to offer.
Now, the one thing I immediately noticed was that the group are slightly mis-named… after all, Tzeentch is the god of sorcery and transmutation, while the band’s particular brand of blast-happy Brutal Death Metal feels like it would be more suited to the followers of Khorne, the blood god.
That’s ok though, because Tzeentch (the band) are more obviously disciples of the likes of Hate Eternal and Hour of Penance, as the contorted-yet-catchy riffs and pinpoint-precise drums of tracks like “The Zos Sortilegies” and “Invocative Manifestation” so clearly demonstrate.
As brutal and technical as the group get on songs such as “The Daath Portals” and “The Moloch Order”, however – both of which also have more than a hint of Mithras to them, in my opinion – they don’t shy away from the occasional use of a massive, bombastic hook to keep the audience engaged just at the point where all the bludgeoning brutality might be about to lose its impact a little, and if they can build on this a little more next time around, giving each and every track an even more distinct and definitive central hook, I could see them making an even bigger impact next time around.
ZATOKREV – …BRING MIRRORS TO THE SURFACE
Last, but by no means least, I’m breaking the rules a little for this one, as Zatokrev‘s absolutely fantastic fifth album – their first in ten years – was released right at the end of August just as I ran out of time to dedicate to my work here at NCS.
But it really is so good – from the eerie discordant intro of “Red Storm” (which eventually manifests as some of the henchest and most humongous, sludge-saturated riffage you’ll hear all year) to the final, fragile notes of epic, eleven-minute closer “”Deep Dark Turns Green” – that I knew I absolutely had to make time for it.
Balancing both gargantuan metallic weight and some increasingly proggy sonic sensibilities, all laced with threads of gloriously melancholy melody (both the poignant singing passages and soaring, almost spiritual, leads provide a constant stream of highlights throughout the album) and interspersed with injections of both etheral atmosphere (“Blood”) and scalding blackened fury “The Only Voice”, …Bring Mirrors to the Surface is perhaps the most extreme, yet also most intriguing, example of the band’s signature brand of cinematic “Post-Sludge” yet.
Fans of bands like Cult of Luna, Inter Arma, and Yob will all find something to love here – whether that’s the doomy glamour and bleak beauty of “Unwinding Spirits” (a song that’s equal parts heavy, haunting, and hypnotic), the barely-controlled chaos of “Faint”, or the rolling bombardment of booming guitars and gloom-shrouded grooves that is “Changes” – although I should clarify that are firmly in possession of their own distinct sound (and continually prove it on album #5).
What really makes this record such an outstanding piece of work, however – and I would not be surprised to see it in a lot of Top Tens come the end of the year – is just how rich in detail and contrast it is, from the way it marries its utterly massive riffs with moments of eerie atmospheric calm to the intricate interweaving of scintiallatingly emotional clean vocals (which reach their apex and take centre stage during the album’s aforementioned finale) and scathingly intense howls and growls, making for an auditory experience that demands your full attention and immersion to uncover all of its many layers.