SWALLOW THE SUN: “EMERALD FOREST AND THE BLACKBIRD”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jul 262012
 

(In this post, DGR reviews the latest album from Finland’s Swallow the Sun.)

Considering the amount of hype that we at NCS generated for Emerald Forest And The Blackbird in advance of its release, it’s difficult to fathom why it’s taken as long as it has to finally get some proper thoughts up about the full disc. That was, until I read Islander’s post earlier this month about the best albums of 2012 so far and noticed that my list was one of the few that included Swallow The Sun’s new album.

I’ve also been in a pretty goth/death/doom-heavy mode as of late. I think I currently have eight different reviews going at the moment, and three of them belong to bands whose music includes dirge elements (the other two being the great Inborn Suffering and Barren Earth releases), so that’s probably another factor.

And finally, Swallow The Sun seem to be one of those bands who are constantly overlooked, especially for a group whose past four releases (counting Plague Of Butterflies, since I started with Hope) have been consistently great if you’re in the mood for trying to find some beauty in utter misery and desolation.

Swallow the Sun have slowly been morphing their sound, so it isn’t as overtly oppressive and miserable, instead becoming something more cold and hopeless. The group’s previous disc, New Moon, was one of my favorites when it came out, and I still think people owe it to themselves at least to give the track Lights On The Lake (Horror Part III) a listen, because it is one of the best examples of an excellent song just lifting a whole album far beyond its initial first impression of, “This is pretty good”.

Emerald Forest And The Blackbird feels like a continuation of what the band were doing on New Moon. They’ve slowly shifted away from their initial style of slow, crawling, funeral-esque doom and started working in elements that are more melancholic and more melodic in nature. Emerald Forest includes a hefty amount of clean vocals, as well as significant usage of acoustic guitar. There’s even one song in this disc’s expanse of music that is a somewhat straightforward acoustic ballad, no matter how depressing the subject matter is. Continue reading »

WOUND UPON WOUND – S/T

 Album Reviews, Free Shit  6 Responses »
Jul 252012
 

(In February 2011, we reviewed the 2010 debut EP of Dublin’s Wound Upon Wound. Today, NCS writer Andy Synn provides his assessment of the band’s debut full-length album, which was released earlier this month and is available for free download.)

Brothers and sisters, I am here today to talk about… DOOM!!!!

Blackened doom at least. Or, Doomy black metal. Genre terms are confusing. Either way this album is a monolithic treatise on desperation and despair, soundtracked by venomous tremolo melodies and crushing slabs of doom-laden guitars.

An admission though, first. Doom isn’t one of the genres I am particularly au fait with. Though there’s a crossover with some of the more melodic, melancholic stuff I find pleasure in imbibing (a pint of Daylight Dies always goes down smooth) I’m definitely something of a neophyte when it comes to the slow struggle, at least on record (though I have experienced the breaking weight of several devastating doom bands in the flesh).

But Wound Upon Wound are far from a simple Doom band. The name itself should tell you that. No, what we have here is a black metal band who are not only unafraid to ease up on the speed once in a while, but who actually revel in reining in their breakneck speed suddenly, reducing their momentum to a crushing, cataclysmic crawl, all the chaos and calamity crashing together in a massive pile-up of sickening, juddering riffage. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: HOODED MENACE / HORSE LATITUDES SPLIT

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jul 242012
 

Among the current practitioners of death-laden doom metal, you’ll be hard-pressed to find two more catastrophic practitioners of the art than Finland’s Hooded Menace and Horse Latitudes. In January 2012, Doomentia Records released a 12″ vinyl split by the two bands, with each one contributing a song. Since January, Doomentia has gone through two limited pressings of 500 copies, and both are sold out, though it appears that copies may still be available through the bands’ online shops — Hooded Menace here and Horse Latitudes here.

Fortunately, you don’t have to scrounge around for one of the remaining copies of the vinyl edition to hear the music, because Doomentia has recently made the split available for streaming and digital download on Bandcamp.

As we previously reported, Hooded Menace also have a new album on the way via Relapse Records by the name of Effigies of Evil. It will be released on September 11 and can be pre-ordered in a variety of formats and bundles here. Today, Noisecreep premiered that album’s title track, which I strongly recommend you check out at this location.

But the main purpose of this post is to review and recommend the Hooded Menace / Horse Latitudes split. Though it consists of only two songs, it’s almost 19 minutes of music, because both songs are long-format offerings. Both songs are also lessons in how to make slow, extended, completely gut-crunching music without sending listeners into a coma. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET (AND FREE): MUDBATH – “RED DESERT ORGY”

 Album Reviews, Free Shit, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jul 242012
 

Go low, go slow, and crush all hope of life into the muck. That’s the plan of attack for Mudbath, a band from Avignon, France, who have just self-released their debut EP, Red Desert Orgy.  The spiritual offspring of bands such as Sleep, Electric Wizard, and Eyehategod, Mudbath deliver a heavyweight narcotic concoction of black doom and sludge-filled stoner metal that’s definitely worth spreading around.

“Loserwood” hooked me in the first 30 seconds with a disease-ridden lead guitar riff and a brutal bass line, both of which have the distortion dialed to the point that they’ll jar fillings loose in your teeth. A dual-tracked, downtuned guitar solo dumps a heaping bucket of filth all over the proceedings, and the song also includes a screaming psychedelic solo. To top it off, Mudbath’s vocalist sounds like Eyehategod’s Mike Williams, which is to say that the skrieks are enough to wake the dead.

Getting comfortable with the music isn’t an option, and I’m sure that’s not Mudbath’s goal either. But the fat, dissonant riffs in “Mudjahideen” are pretty infectious nonetheless. Yet the lumbering stomp of the music is still bereft of hope or light, and this time the burning-lung vocals are joined by a braying yell, though it sounds no more sane. The last third of the song briefly shifts into a higher gear as the guitars skitter about crazily, but that’s just a prelude to another warbling solo that’s awful damned sweet (and awful damned ill). Continue reading »

AEGAEON: “BEING”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jul 232012
 

(TheMadIsraeli returns to NCS after a hiatus with this review of the new EP by Indiana’s Aegaeon. The EP is available digitally on iTunes and Amazon and physically from the band’s BigCartel page.)

Aegaeon’s new release is proof not only that deathcore has life left in it, but also that they’re definitely at the forefront of the bands I’d call truly legit.  They’ve released a killer debut Dissension and now this EP, Being, on a totally independent basis, funded straight out of their own pockets — merch and all.  They don’t seem to be at all concerned with finding a label, which gives the band a sort of hard-edged DIY ethic that comes through in their already cathartic brutality.

They play a style of deathcore that is not only absolutely unrelenting in its brutality, it also comes with a very morose sense of ambience and atmosphere.  Dare I say Insomnium-ish, in a way?  A lot of this EP has a rather doomy characteristic to it as well, which gives the music a real sense of heft and also helps establish a standout identity for Aegaeon, one that was already pretty well-cemented based solely on vocalist/living-Cthulu Jim Martin.

Being is only 6 songs long, but it’s an ethereal yet pulverizing journey.  It seems obvious to me it’s meant to be listened to that way, from start through to finish, because all of the songs bleed into each other.  The inside of the digipack case I have before me even states in big font, “Being is best experienced from beginning to end with no breaks”.  I agree. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: FALSE / BARGHEST SPLIT

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  11 Responses »
Jul 212012
 

“U.S. Black Metal” isn’t a true genre term, because what American black metal bands have been doing in recent years with the basic Northern European template is too diverse. Some stick close to  the Scandinavian blueprint, of course, but others have spun out some really creative variations on the theme. The subjects of this post are two of the USBM scene’s rising stars.

False is a Minnesota band who turned a lot of heads last year with their Untitled 12″, released by Gilead Media and Howling Mine (for example, it took the No. 14 spot on DECIBEL’s 40 Best Albums of 2011). It consisted of two 12-minute songs that were a mixture of hate-fueled, punk-influenced mayhem and epic wall-of-guitar jams.

Louisiana’s Barghest are another band who hit lots of radar screens last year (including ours) with their self-titled debut album (also released by Gilead and Howling Mine). It had an old-school lo-fi vibe, and no bass, but it packed in some crushing groove along with the haze of tremolo picking and percussive blasting.

Thanks to NCS reader Ørsaeth, I’ve discovered that on August 21 Gilead Media will be releasing a new False-Barghest split (12″ vinyl only) and that the split’s contents are now streaming within the internest. It’s strong music that will only fortify the growing reputation of these two bands. Continue reading »

HELLISH OUTCAST: “YOUR GOD WILL BLEED”

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Jul 202012
 

(NCS writer Andy Synn waxes viciously eloquent in this review of the 2012 album by an NCS favorite — Norway’s Hellish Outcast.)

Ah Norway. Home of black metal. Land of beauty and darkness… Where exactly are you pulling all these killer death/thrash bands from right now?! Just off the top of my head, the last few years have seen the return to life of Cobolt 60, and some truly awesome records by The Konsortium and The Wretched End. And now you can add Hellish Outcast to the mix as well.

While The Konsortium keep the black metal quotient pretty high with a heavy dose of dark, esoteric weirdness, and The Wretched End will always have sonic ties to Emperor, due to Samoth’s inimitable writing and playing style, Hellish Outcast have taken several further steps away from the sound of their homeland, creating a sound that’s all knives and knuckledusters, delivered with a cruel sneer and a priapic swagger.

Not only do Hellish Outcast not do black metal, they also don’t do nice. Or comfortable. Or anything less aggressive than a rabid pit-bull that’s been force-fed a diet of sand and barbed wire. In fact, this album is so damned aggressive, so utterly hate-filled, that it should come with a warning label along the lines of:

Danger – the levels of testosterone and aggression on this album could cause permanent damage to your underlying genetic structure.

Continue reading »

KHORS: “WISDOM OF CENTURIES

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Jul 192012
 

Khors are a Ukrainian band on the verge of a breakthrough. Though their star seems to have been rising steadily over the course of four albums beginning with The Flame of Eternity’s Decline in 2005, their signing with Candlelight Records in May for release of the band’s fifth full-length album will likely lead to significantly greater exposure, especially because that fifth album is so damned good.

Wisdom of Centuries tests the limits of genre classification. It combines elements of black metal, progressive metal, ambient music, doom, and to a lesser degree folk metal, producing something that is bleak, beautiful, and often mystical. Distancing themselves from the black metal label, Khors characterize the music as “heathen dark metal”. Perhaps that’s as good a shorthand description as any, since “dark metal” is so often used to describe music that doesn’t neatly fit anywhere else.

To the extent one seeks guidance from lyrics in helping to understand the inspiration behind the music, the quest will be difficult because this is the first album in which all the band’s vocals are in their native tongue (though the song titles are translated). However, Khors have explained that Wisdom of Centuries “is dedicated to the 95th anniversary of Kholodny Yar Republic, to its founders and defenders.” My own feeble research indicates that this refers to a rural partisan uprising against the Bolsheviks and the Russian Red Army occupying the Ukraine, which ultimately failed — and then the Iron Curtain descended

Fittingly then, the emotionally resonant, atmospheric music on the album creates moods of longing, loss, and anguish. But calling it “depressive” would go much too far, because the songs are as melodically rich and vibrant as they are melancholy and wistful. Wisdom of Centuries has the feel of a journey through memory, an exploration of a tragic but heroic past that lives on in spirit.  Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: CULTFINDER – BLACK THRASHING TERROR

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jul 182012
 

The three songs on Cultfinder’s new EP fly by, but not like an exaltation of larks or even a murder of crows on the wing. Black Thrashing Terror flies by like a squadron of screaming Luciferian attack jets on a strafing run, spitting high-caliber ammo straight at your pathetic flesh.

Just seeing a piece of Mark Riddick artwork on the front, you could lay good odds that what lies within will take no prisoners, and you’d be right. The title track gives you a good head-fake at the start, crunching along ponderously like a death-doom golem, but then — true to the track’s name — Cultfinder begin to rip hell with a high-tempo whirlwind of distorted, punk-influenced, thrashy chords; hammering crashing percussion; and screeching, clawing vocals. There’s a reprise of that sludgy intro and then a spitfire finish.

“Archangel Burial” has its own little groaning-chord intro, and then the band let fly again, this time throwing in a wall of tremolo mayhem to spice up the rapid-riff pummeling.

And to finish off this brief offering of the devil’s music, “Witching Curse” gives you another good horse-whipping with a studded flail, pausing only long enough with a couple of doomy breakdowns and a moaning guitar solo to let you cry a little before the lacerating resumes. Continue reading »

BLOOD MORTIZED: “THE KEY TO A BLACK HEART”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Jul 152012
 

On their second album, The Key To A Black Heart, Blood Mortized take a monstrous step forward, turning out by far their finest work yet and creating one of the best old-school death metal albums of 2012. By old-school, I’m referring to that distinctive old Swedish school, where rotting flesh sloughs off the faces of the taloned teachers and the curriculum concentrates on raising the dead and feeding them from the flesh of the living — but with a heavy course load in the lessons of bands like …For Victory-era Bolt Thrower and early Celtic Frost.

To succeed in creating this kind of music with the incontestable ring of authenticity requires faithfulness to the core elements of the sound, and Blood Mortized are definitely true believers. They’re also highly skilled practitioners in the dark arts of breathing ghoulish life into the festering meat of the departed. They know what body parts this music is made of, and they know how to reanimate the patchwork corpses and give them grisly new life.

But that alone wouldn’t earn them an A. What elevates this album above many other new offerings in the genre is superior songwriting and genuine flair in the performances at all positions.

A listing of the common denominators of the songs — those core elements of the sound — must begin with a truly massive “wall of guitar” approach to the riffing. Brutally down-tuned and distorted, the guitars grind and spin like giant buzzsaws pulverizing their way through dense concrete, or they chug like some titanic black train straight out of hell, belching dense, oily smoke. The bass tone is equally tank-heavy, more felt than heard as it sets up a vibration deep in your guts. Continue reading »

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