THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

(Andy Synn highlights six gems from October you may have overlooked)

I’m going to say something controversial here, but… if you see someone talking a big game about how they “listened to 500 albums this month” they’re probably lying.

Ok, maybe not lying (though some are probably doing it just for clout and clicks) but definitely stretching the truth a little, because there’s a big difference in my book between hearing an album and actually listening to it.

Don’t get me wrong, I really do wish I had time to listen to that many albums each month, and I’m sure there are other writers/reviewers out there who legitimately rack up bigger numbers than I do, but chances are that anyone making a hyperbolic claim like that isn’t giving the albums in question the time and attention they deserve… especially if they’re a writer/reviewer who is supposed to actually be offering some insight into the albums/artists in question (something which takes more than just a couple of cursory spins to do).

So while I can’t, at the moment, give a full-throated and whole-hearted recommendation to everything I heard last month – the ones I’ve chosen to feature here are the ones I feel most qualified to comment on, but there’s still many more I need to spend time with and process properly – I would encourage you, once you’re done with this article, to go check out the latest releases from Galge, Scorching Tomb, and Torture Machine (if you’re of a Death Metal-y persuasion), Haeresis, Scalding, and Sunken if you’re more into Black Metal, and Mriodom and Stonebirds if you’re looking for something on the groovy, Stoner-y side of things.

Before then, however, here’s some albums I definitely can recommend to you.

BIANCA – BIANCA

For whatever reason, there are some people out there who get inordinately mad when you compare one band to another in a review.

But sometimes a comparison leaps into your head… something like, say, “Enya meets Enslaved“… and you can’t help but run with it.

Suffice it to say that the aforemention comparison is one I’ve found to be totally inescapable when listening to the debut album from Italian quartet Bianca, especially once “Abysmal” properly takes off – the combination of those crystalline cleans (which eventually transform into a series of scorching screams) and the intense, tightly-focussed riffing beneath them absolutely supports this comparison in my opinion – and much of the rest of the record only supports this observation (from where I’m standing, at least).

Of course, it goes without saying (even though I will do, just to make sure there’s no confusion) that Bianca have more to offer than can be summed up in such a relatively simplistic audio-analogy – tracks like “Somniloquies” and “Nachthexe” marry passages of richly textured, dark-hued proggery with eruptions of seething blackened fury, but often do so by blending these elements together in unexpected (and unexpectedly effective) ways – but it’s still hopefully an informative, rather than restrictive, point of reference.

Sure, the band’s debut isn’t perfect – shimmering intro track “The Dawn”, whilst pleasant enough on first listen, proves to be an early mis-step, as the aforementioned “Abysmal” essentially has to re-start the entire album all over again once it’s done, and there’s definitely a sense that the record loses a bit of its spart right around the time of “After Dark” and “Todesrieb” – but the group’s ambition, and their confidence in putting such a distinctive sonic-stamp on their particular take on Black Metal (which includes the artfully gloomy ambience of “Resonance” and the haunting hybrid of melodic, metallic, and atmospheric elements that is “To the Twilight”), marks them out already as something a little bit special.

DROFNOSURA – RITUAL OF SPLIT TONGUES

Sticking with the theme of comparisons… one of the things which initially drew me to Drofnosura‘s new album (which I coud have sworn we had already reviewed, although the fact that we hadn’t certainly ended up being a good thing for me and this article) was the similarity between the vocals here and those of Vision of Disorder frontman Tim Williams.

That’s not to say that Ritual of Split Tongues sounds all that much like VoD – although there’s maybe a few similarities, here and there, to the latter’s From Bliss to Devastation era (which I, for one, absolutely loved, FYI) – but those grimy, almost grungy, cleans during opener “Selection of a Corpse” were such a dead ringer for Williams that I knew I at least had to check the album out, even if just to confirm that it wasn’t him.

Of course, it isn’t, but that didn’t stop me from getting hooked on the Drofnosura sound anyway, especially when it comes to their use of sinister, shadowy ambience – both “Kapala Kriya” and the tormented title-track spend almost as much time wallowing in sombre, self-loathing introspection as they do grinding out savage, sludge-soaked, scorched-to-the-bone riffs – and their willingness to really take their time and let the songs breathe and bleed (out) at their own pace (with four of the album’s six tracks running past the ten minute mark).

It’s not an easy or forgiving album by any means – both the title-track and the album’s unexpectedly melodic, soaringly cathartic, closer “Desounen” clock in at over fifteen minutes each – but despite (or perhaps because of) its demanding nature it’s also an incredibly rewarding listen, one which requires multiple spins to properly appreciate, as each time you come back to it you’re likely to pick out more hidden details and subtle nuances, dark and desolate as they may be, that you missed the first (or fifth) time around.

HOPE DEFERRED – DARKNESS REMAINS

Now this is one I’ve been looking forward to ever since it was announced… after all, it’s well-documented that I was a big fan of early Embodyment and The Famine (who were essentially a spin-off of the former band), and when it was announced that ex-members of both bands (including the latter’s main riff-master, Andrew Godwin) had a new project in the works, one fronted by Dave Bunton of The Showdown, I knew I had to check it out.

Marrying the punishingly precise, pneumatically-driven power of Death Metal with the visceral aggression and venomous grooves of early/classic Metalcore, Darkness Remains obviously builds off the established Embodyment/The Famine formula (the backbone of a track like “Commanded to Kill” should be pretty familiar to anyone who was a fan of the latter’s scorching second album, The Architects of Guilt) while also incorporating some of the hefty, hammering hooks of Living Sacrifice (“Absent Souls”) and the vicious intensity of Peace Was Never An Option era Man Must Die (“Brethren of Blood”).

As a result there’s no question that this is one album that is tailor-made for me specifically, but I have to think that – even if you’re not familiar with/a fan of any of the above-mentioned bands – you’re still going to find a lot to love here, if you just give Hope Deferred a chance.

Make no mistake, these ten tracks are all killer and no filler, with every band member bringing their A-game, from Godwin’s distinctive (at times almost Decapitated-esque) combination of twisted technicality and tightly-wound rhythmic riffosity – which is on full display during tracks like the ultra-aggro “Inhumane World” and the record’s bludgeoning, bone-grinding title-track – to Derek Wadsworth’s devastating performance behind the kit (check out the scorching, almost Ringworm-esque attack of “Avarice”, which also features yet another killer solo from lead guitarist Jon Tooley), all underpinned by a thick, clankingly heavy bass presence courtesy of Jason Lindquist and topped off with Bunton’s absolutely dominating delivery.

So it looks like I’ve got a new favourite… how about you?

MASSA NERA – THE EMPTINESS OF ALL THINGS

A late discovery in the run-up to this article, but a game-changing one all the same, the new album from Screamo/Hardcore/Post-… whatever… crew MASSA NERA is equal parts protest punk, experimental art collective, and aggressively angst-ridden noise that wilfully defies easy categorisation.

Funded by a grant from the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, these ten tracks take an unflinching look at the twin horrors of environmental collapse and capitalist exploitation – of both the natural world and the human spirit – and spit this horror right back in our faces in a spiteful display of scalding distortion and howling fury.

Yet there’s also a clear method behind the madness, the song’s shifting shape and seamlessly integrating seemingly disparate elements – the screaming sludgery of “Pèlerin”, for example, eventually giving way to the moody ambience and monstrous, almost Industrial, heaviness of “Avalon Cove”, which in turns transitions into the frenetic, yet melodic, Post-Hardcore of “The Best Is Over”, before the Art-Punk/Mathcore mayhem of “Mechanical Sunrise” ups the intensity even further – in a way which only serves to highlight just how good the band are at combining a compelling variety of styles and sounds into a greater whole.

And if you need more proof of that, the back half of the album only provides even more evidence – the electronica and Post-Rock-tinged “City of Mines” providing a welcome breather before the whirling sonic shrapnel of “Lavender” (which eventually settles into a disturbingly gloomy groove) and the eerie, emotional slow-burn of “Death Shall Flee From Them” juxtapose the twin-sides of the group’s identity, the harsh and the heartfelt, in quick succession – that MASSA NERA are onto something truly special here.

It won’t be for everyone of course – art this wilfully abrasive and purposefully unorthodox rarely is – but I’m hopeful that, by the time the climactic pairing of “The Emptiness of All Things” (watch out for those sudden, scorching blastbeats) and the immersive, introspective strains of “New Animism” are done bleeding into your ears at least some of you will have been converted to the cause.

SUM OF R – SPECTRAL

Let’s keep the momentum going with something that pushes things even further, and even weirder, from Swiss/Finnish audio alchemists Sum of R, shall we?

Originally known for their drawn-out, dirge-like Drone-Doom opuses – remnants of which can still be found here, don’t you worry – the group’s steady transition into sludgier, uglier musical territories has arguably reached its apotheosis on Spectral, which combines thick, meaty grooves and bleak, haunting ambience into nine increasingly progressive and unpredictable creative compositions.

The simmering, Prog-Grunge-Stoner amalgam of “Solace”, for example, marries eerie melodies, brooding bass-lines and crooning clean vocals into a gloomily hypnotic hybrid which eventually achieves a crushing climax, while the atmosphere-heavy avant-doom of “Agglomeration” and the densely-layered, sludgy soundscapes of “Null” (which also features some brilliantly proggy percussion courtesy of drummer Jukka Rämänen) help expand the increasingly epic and exotic scope of the album’s sound even further.

The gruesome, gloom-laden grind of “Waltz of Death” then adds an even darker pall to the album, one which grows increasingly stranger and more sinister as the track progresses – with the band’s unorthodox use of synths and samples and mutant, manipulated electronic effects further warping their increasingly genre-defying approach (I still have no idea how to accurately describe “Beer Cans In A Bottomless Pit”) – while the mesmerising melancholy of “Empty Rooms” and the droning dread of “The Solution” demonstrate, with chilling effectiveness, that being “heavy” isn’t always about maximising your volume and distortion.

Don’t worry though, things get harsh and heavy enough on “Violate” to remind you that Sum of R are still more than capable of bringing the noise (emphasis on “noise”), and if closer “Cold Signature” ultimately opts for a moodier and more meditative approach to ending the album that’s only because by this point – almost fifty-minutes into the album’s run-time – you’re likely to be more than ready to embrace the comedown that follows this particularly overwhelming, yet also disturbingly infectious, bad trip of a record.

UNSOULING – OUTWARD STREAMS OF DEVOTIONAL WOE

Last, but by no means least, we have something new (well, new-ish, since it was released exactly one month ago) from an artist who we’ve been fans of for a long time here at NCS, Andy Schoengrund aka Unsouling.

Now, as someone who was a big fan of Schoengrund’s previous work (especially with both Feral Light and Wolvhammer) I’ll admit that the first Unsouling album din’t quite grab me as much as I’d hoped it might.

The same can’t be said for Outward Streams of Devotional Woe, however, which immediately gripped my attention from the moment that the enigmatic opening bars of “Immaterial Entrance” came shimmering out of my speakers all the way through to the final, climactic chord of closer “Dissolved In Spiritus”.

In between these two poles I experienced a fascinating, and immersively organic, blending of styles – rooted in Black Metal, for sure (from the charred, choppy riffs of “Your Momentary Passing” to the pounding snare beats of “Grief Reconfigured”, to Schoengrund’s pitch-black, ever-present snarl it’s clear where the core of the project’s DNA comes from) but also incorporating elements of Doom and Darkwave and even a little bit of Death Metal here and there to enhance the music’s impact – that simply felt that much more natural and nuanced when compared to its promising, if imperfect, predecessor.

Flowing smoothly from gloomy grandeur to grim intensity, “To Come Unbound”, for example, should definitely appeal to anyone and everyone who was a fan of the new Tombs album, while the brooding, Post-Punk-meets-Post-Black Metal grooves of “Towering Black Wave” fit together seamlessly as two sides of the same coldly compelling coin, one which might easily end up buying the band’s way into the upper echelon of the modern “Post-Black” scene with the right amount of exposure and attention.

So while I’m still disappointed that Feral Light is no more, it looks like Unsouling are going to fill that void nicely, if the evidence presented here is any indication!