AN NCS PREMIERE: STORMING — “STARFIRE”

(written by Islander)

Looking ahead to November, we welcome Iron Bonehead Productions‘ release of the second album by the U.S. black metal band Storming. Its name is Celestial Clear Moonlit, an evocative title for music that sounds outside of our own time and place.

But what time and place does the music occupy? It is located on the map of the listener’s imagination, and so each person’s vision may well be different. You can begin letting your mind run away with you by listening to the song from the album we’re premiering today, an extensive, spellbinding excursion named “Starfire“.

Storming is the solo work of one Ratatosk, and the fact that the music flows entirely from the talents of a single solitary individual is one reason why it’s so impressive, and a reason why the song works so well.

Storm winds blow, drums tumble like avalanche boulders, and a gnarled riff leads off with an ancient-sounding skirl. That riff sets the hook, simple yet capable of getting deeply lodged under the skin. With a deeply murmuring bass and serrated-edge snarls joining in, Storming begins to work through variations on the theme (changing the spell-casting).

The drums happily skip and the bass vividly throbs, but the riffing transforms into a swarming bifurcated mass (high and low), both more dangerous and more bleak in its mood — and not entirely of this world either, as glittering and spiraling guitar-swirls make clear, like the star-fire of the song’s name.

Storming continues its seamless riff-work variations, morphing the mood among shades of darkness as the changes occur. The vocals change as well, singing in haunting tones that seem to echo off stout trees or ancient ruined halls as the music expands.

Things continue changing: the drums gallop; the bass vibrantly surges; the riffing roils and rises in sounds of ragged grandeur and dismal gloom, surrounding and submerging listeners like a churning blizzard; the tandem of vocals continue trading places, growling and also lifting up in hallowed and haunting tones — until the song slowly collapses near the end — and seems to collapse the mood as well, in sounds of pain and anguish.

This one song justifies the press materials that have circulated about the album:

STORMING‘s song constructions are simple and yet elongated, making for maximal mesmerization; deceptively streamlined on the surface, those raw rudiments are hypnotically layered for shimmering effect…. Wide-open wanderlust, rustic aura, modernity rejected….

“Starfire” isn’t the only extensive audio expedition on Celestial Clear Moonlit. Storming has provided two more in the 10-12 minute range (“Cleaved By Heaven” and “Over Horizons”), plus one that tops 8 minutes (“From the Heart of Breath”) and a 2 1/2 minute interlude song (“A Life-Absorbing Path”). They will all be worth your time.

Buy a paper calendar, cut off one of your less important fingers, and let the blood drip on November 14th, which will remind you: That’s the day when Iron Bonehead will release Celestial Clear Moonlit and make it available at their site for purchase on CD and vinyl LP formats.

While your blood is attempting to coagulate, also listen to the first preview track from the album, “Over Horizons” (see below).

https://ironbonehead.de/
https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions