Sep 022020
 

 

On September 4th Hessian Firm will release a split record that includes the music of two San Antonio-based projects, Goatcraft and Plutonian Shore, both of whom have created outstanding releases that we’ve paid attention to before at this site. For this new split, each project has recorded three tracks, and today we’re presenting one by Goatcraft — along with a review of the split as a whole.

As the solo vehicle of musician Lonegoat, Goatcraft has specialized in the creation of dark neoclassical and ambient music that he has named “Necroclassical”. For this new split he created three pieces devoted to the depiction of Mars, drawing inspiration in part from Beherit’s electronic era (in particular Electric Doom Synthesis), and it’s the third of those in the running order — “Phobos” — that we’re premiering today. Continue reading »

Apr 232018
 

 

(Lonegoat, the man behind the necroclassical music of Goatcraft, provides this guest review of the new release by Plutonian Shore from San Antonio, Texas.)

 

In Alpha et Omega, Plutonian Shore invokes the axiological Logos of black metal and confronts the gentrification and stagnation brought about by indie rockers and scenesters. Their circumspection is fine-tuned and pierces through the music scene’s ruses of an abundance. Never deserted is the energetic imaginativeness which overwhelms the nondescript bottom line of reality via mind and solar plexus, woven in fierce, inexorable abstraction. Weakness is cast aside. The soul is forever athirst for unbridled power. Dalits need not apply; this is music from the dream-mind of a slumbering Brahmin. Continue reading »

May 032015
 

 

Over the last week I came across a lot of music I thought was worth sharing that could all loosely be labeled “black metal”, so much music that I’ve divided this collection into two parts (Part 1 is here). Part of what interested me in all this music was the diversity of the sounds. In some cases, the main connection to the label “black metal” is simply the spirit I sense in the songs, and in other instances simply the presence of certain musical elements in combination with others that aren’t typically associated with this increasingly amorphous genre.

And so, some of what you’re about to hear in this two-parter may be quite different from what you’re expecting, but I thought it was all very good and I hope you enjoy it.

GOATCRAFT

I haven’t written about this one-man project from lovely San Antonio, Texas, since the spring of last year, when I repeatedly featured tracks from Goatcraft’s last album The Blasphemer — as well as Lonegoat’s answer to this question (which I still find remarkably perceptive and eloquent): “What in your opinion are the essential elements – instrumentally, emotionally and philosophically – that comprise the heart and essence of Metal?” (reprinted at the end of this post). Continue reading »