I’m about 30 reviews in the hole as of today, and by that I mean I’ve got 27 band names on my “Reviews To-Do” list. Not complaining. I’m glad that bands get in touch, want their stuff written up, etc. It just takes time. And, as I know I’ve said before, if there are that many albums people sent in backlogged, it’s not really fair for me to review stuff I’ve bought just because I like it. I’m sure I could get away with it and no one would know or care, but I’d feel like a dick.

So here we are. When last we met under these terms, I was raving about the genius of the latest Wovenhand and Master Musicians of Bukkake. Still killer records, both of which are on my ongoing best-of-2010 consideration list (I like making lists). Newly joining said list are two recently-purchased works by British dark/alt folk troupe Crippled Black Phoenix and French one-man post-black metal outfit Alcest. Let’s take a look:

I didn’t even know Crippled Black Phoenix had a new full-length coming out until I saw I, Vigilante had been released. Their prior 200 Tons of Bad Luck was one of my favorites of last year, so there was no way I was going to miss the follow-up. I placed my order even as I was still making my way through the album stream on Bandcamp, and was excited to find even more than the listed five tracks when the physical CD showed up in the mail.

Those familiar with Crippled Black Phoenix‘s sound won’t be surprised by the turns they take here (the ending cover aside), but they do what they do so well, and it’s all so miserably English, that I swear every time I put I, Vigilante on the sky gets cloudy. Their songwriting has developed and they tone down some of the oddball elements that showed up on the double-CD set The Resurrectionists/Night Raider from which 200 Tons of Bad Luck was culled, focusing instead on songcraft and tight but still natural-sounding performances. The only trouble with Crippled Black Phoenix is I’m not finished absorbing an album before they put out the next one. As much as I’ve already enjoyed it, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of I, Vigilante.

Alcest played New York this year and I missed them through my own negligence, laziness and scheduling deficiencies, so I wanted to make sure I picked up Écailles de Lune when I could. I finally found the album in Kim’s Video and Music on 1st Ave. in NYC, full price, new, for $17 and bought it. It’s more than I’d prefer to pay, but screw it, the other Kim’s went out of business and I was feeling saucy. I popped in the disc the next morning and was surprised to find that sole Alcest member Neige had been joined by a drummer, named Winterhalter, and was exploring a little more of a traditional black metal side as well as the excellent sense of melodic ambience he showed on 2007’s beautiful Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde.

By that I mean there’s some screamed vocals thrown into the mix. “Percées De Lumière” is probably the most abrasive thing I’ve yet heard from Alcest, but as excited as I was by that, even more thrilling was hearing that rather than use heaviness as a crutch, Neige‘s range of melody had grown as well. “Solar Song” is so encompassing when played at the (in)appropriate volume that I want to nap with it. It’s amazing to me how something so musically and emotionally weighted can also be so pretty.

Neither of these bands is going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but each has a lot to offer sonically to those with adventurous ears, and although I’m basically swamped, I thought I’d take a second to pass the recommendations on to anyone who might be interested.

I don’t know in particular what Naples outfit Kill the Easter Rabbit (abbreviated KTER on their album artwork and elsewhere) have against the mythical holiday hare. Being a remnant of the Pagan origins of the Christian Easter holiday, I’d think the Easter Rabbit is way more metal than, say, Jesus, but certainly there are those who’d argue that point. Christians, mostly, one would expect. No matter, whatever anger the Easter Rabbit has aroused in the three dudes comprising Kill the Easter Rabbit, surely their aggressions are worked out on their first full-length, Apokatastasis, available now via Trips und Träume.

Kill the Easter Rabbit (I’ll grant it’s a lot of fun to say) specialize in a modern type of sub-doom, with marked influence from High on Fire, Entombed and any number of noise rock acts. Apokatastasis — the title defined by the Stoics as the restoration of the primordial — is eight tracks/47 minutes of surprisingly diverse material working within that context. Beginning with its opening title track, the album moves through swatches of genre tints, held together by tonal consistency and the steady drumming of Ciro O., who seems ready to insert a double-kick at a moment’s notice, mostly to the benefit of the given song. “Apokatastasis” is a groover, among the album’s slower-paced and more doomed material, the riffs of guitarist/vocalist Lorenzo de Stefano held out in multiple, cleanly-produced layers and deftly switching to a thrashier approach later in the song.

Read more »

Well, it happened. Roareth are done. All the physical copies of their album, Acts I-VI, sold out and they played their last show at The Comet in Seattle this past Sunday night, Oct. 24. The Maple Forum‘s first band is no more. The second Maple Forum release isn’t even out yet! This whole “starting a record label” thing is going great.

If you missed that news, it’s here. Submitted for your approval are the following shots of Roareth at their final gig, courtesy of Invisible Hour Photography. Dig it:

Read more »

Boasting a nasty sound and even nastier attitude, New York slingers Komondor crotch-thrust out of the gate with a collection of sonically cruel headfuckery they’re calling A Giant is Coming and the Giant is Going to Kill You. Their tunes, available for biting into on any number of internet platforms, are short bursts of sludgy ultra-aggression, bent angular by their riffs and made ugly and mean by drum thuds and throaty growled vocals. The longest track hits five minutes, but most are around three, which tells me Komondor have a formula down they’re working from. As I’m new to the band, I dig the novelty.

I’m reminded in listening of the sludge-laden righteousness of Dopefight, who are my current obsession when it comes to this brand of bombast, but Komondor‘s guitar-work is more spindly, not as thick. That said, the plod of “The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist” is utterly satisfying in both the weird and the doomed departments in a way Dopefight doesn’t even attempt to be, and as A Giant is Coming and the Giant is Going to Kill You plays out, there seem to be more quirks at play than one might initially think. Still, very angry, very mean and very heavy. Good for isolation, bad for a party, probably killer when I’m drunk at the show. No complaints. Welcome to the radar, dudes.

Stream the album via the Bandcamp player below and get angry. Go here to make a purchase.

Short on bullshit and long on charm, Portland’s Devil Riding Shotgun are the most straightforward band I’ve heard come out of Oregon in years. As a hotbed for the ambient and post-whathaveyou, the Pacific Northwest has thrived creatively, and this trio — guitars, bass/vocals and drums — are neither hyper-intellectualized nor aspiring to influence via avant garde pretense. Not that the cover of their self-released five-song self-titled EP would lead me to think otherwise, with its devil-horned-girl-on-car motif, I just didn’t think there was much traditional stoner rock being made out that way. I was a fool, apparently.

Devil Riding Shotgun is loaded with bass-heavy grooves, standout solos, blues-tinged vocals and quality flow. Neb Fixico, who originally formed the band in New Mexico before moving to Portland with himself on bass and vocals, is the driving force behind most of the material, his molasses-thick tone providing the heft that propels EP-closer “Fetish” from the “it’s alright” to the “fuck yeah” echelon of cool. There’s a crisp metallicism in the guitar work of Brian Hunter, and though he’s outmatched tonally by Fixico, the soul and fleetness of finger he shows soloing on second track “My Breath” — the longest cut on Devil Riding Shotgun at 5:54 — argues heavily in his favor. While we’re arguing, I’d push for more of Brad Lewellyn’s bass drum on that song and elsewhere. Though his cymbals are present enough and cut through, the kick is a barely-audible pulse throughout “Who Am I.” It’s an interesting choice on the part of the band, and it definitely adds to the laid back feel of Devil Riding Shotgun, but a little more oomph in there wouldn’t hurt either.

Read more »

The title track and the doomier “Scorpio Rising” are streaming now on Electric Wizard‘s very purple MySpace page. If possible, the songs sound even dirtier than Witchcult Today, though I don’t know what’s up with all that thrash on the title track. That song has at least 50 beats per minute! And you call yourselves doom! Pfft.

Just kidding. It pretty much rules. The songs will make your day better and clear any undesirables from your vicinity. Doom on.

When last I checked in with Wallingford, Connecticut‘s Redscroll Records, I walked out of there with a cassette copy of Torche‘s Meanderthal Demos. It’s a purchase I still consider the right move to have made, and as my most recent trip there was most likely going to be my last until Springtime, I figured I’d make the best of it. A thorough search of Redscroll‘s used section has done me right on numerous occasions, and this latest was no different. Dig this haul:

Bottom, Made in Voyage
Chrome Locust, Chrome Locust
Clutch, Jam Room
Fu Manchu, Daredevil
Jethro Tull, Aqualung
Lost Breed, Save Yourself
Lost Goat, Equator
My Dying Bride, Turn Loose the Swans
Natas, Delmar
The Obsessed, The Obsessed
Spiritual Beggars, Ad Astra

A few of those CDs I already own, but there are difference. The Fu Manchu is the original Bong Load Records version, where before I only had the reissue, and though it’s my third copy of Jam Room — probably my least favorite Clutch album — it’s the River Road Records pressing, and I think they only made six of them or something, so I was stoked to find it. Ad Astra is the Music for Nations digipak edition, and Chrome Locust is in a jewel case, where I’d only ever seen the digipak, so I grabbed that as well. The Jethro Tull had a sticker on it that it was the first CD issue, which made it too good to pass up. If you’re wondering, by the way, whether or not I believe everything I read on stickers stuck to jewel cases: Yes. Yes I do.

Lost Goat is on Man’s Ruin and I didn’t already own it, so that was a given. The Natas record I thought might have been a different catalog number than mine, but no, it’s a genuine double. I was bummed out on that until the other night when I thought to myself, “Gee, I sure would like to listen to the first Natas album,” and I actually had a copy on me because I was holding onto it to write about today. Maybe one just wasn’t enough.

Of the two Hellhound Records purchases, the highlight is unquestionably The Obsessed‘s The Obsessed. I had the Tolotta reissue previously, but you can’t beat the original. I had seen it for sale on Redscroll‘s eBay store, and asked if I could buy it right there in the shop. They were more than accommodating. The other Hellhound album, Lost Breed‘s Save Yourself, was the US version, where I’d only had the European before. Or maybe that’s reversed. I don’t know. The catalog numbers and back cover art are different. Apparently that’s enough for me these days.

I legitimately hadn’t owned the Bottom or My Dying Bride CDs (or the Lost Goat, which was meh), and I was stoked especially to hear the former, which didn’t disappoint. Crazy to think it’s been five years since Bottom put out their last album, but I suppose it has. Hearing their debut for the first time, it was easy to tell what Rise Above, Man’s Ruin and Small Stone all saw in the band, and by that I mean killer riffs and lethal groove. An excellent capper for an even more excellent haul.

There are two things that anyone who heard Dallas doom trio Elliott’s Keep’s first record are going to notice immediately about the follow-up. Primarily, Sine Qua Non is a lot heavier than In Medias Res, especially in the vocals of bassist Ken, and second, that there’s a lot more of it. In Medias Res — which, like the sophomore outing, was released on Brainticket Records – was 40 minutes long, and Sine Qua Non adds nearly half that time again to clock in at 58:49. It’s a lot of doom, and though it’s not without its lulls, Elliott’s Keep have clearly grown as players and as a band in the two years since In Medias Res.

And yet, a lot of the mission seems to have stayed the same. The look of the two albums is similar down to the fonts used and the layout of the back covers. Both have medieval-themed artwork (though I prefer the deep reds of the new album), Latin titles, production credited to J.T. Longoria at Nomad Studios in Dallas with mastering by Gary Long. Hell, if you stand In Medias Res and Sine Qua Non next to each other, even the logos and titles on the spines line up. Obviously, the trio of Ken, guitarist Jonathan and drummer Joel (who seem to prefer first names only) weren’t looking to revolutionize their approach, and that holds true for the music as well, though right from the start with the pummeling alliterative back-to-back heaviness of “Fearless” and “Fate,” Elliott’s Keep show their songwriting has matured. Both tracks top eight minutes both hold attention well, and with a guest solo from Solitude Aeturnus guitarist/Brainticket head honcho John Perez on the emotionally tortured 7:50 “Shades of Disgrace,” you’re 25 minutes through Sine Qua Non before you even know it.

Read more »