Posted in Whathaveyou on February 28th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Denmark’s Altar of Oblivion have signed with From the Vaults and will release their new EP, Burning Memories, this summer, with the full-length Proselytes of the Apocalypse coming at some point thereafter. The doomly purveyors were last heard from studio-wise with 2019’s The Seven Spirits (review here), which was their third LP overall and first in seven years since 2012’s Grand Gesture of Defiance (review here), though last year they put up the Live at Godset 2017 live record as well. The upcoming short release and long-player have apparently been in the can for a while, as the band informs they were tracked before the viral shitstorm that began in 2020, which if you’ve been keeping up — and bless you if you haven’t; I’m jealous — was three years ago. Therapy for everyone!
Alas, more likely not. At least not in the US. In Denmark I bet telehealth is free.
Still, doom will help as only doom can. The Seven Spirits is streaming below if you’d like a refresher on where Altar of Oblivion are coming from. I’ll hope to have more on the releases as we get closer to, uh, the releases, but here’s this off the PR wire for now:
ALTAR OF OBLIVION sign to From The Vaults
From The Vaults is proud to announce the signing of epic doom/heavy metal band ALTAR OF OBLIVION. The Aarhus six-piece, who successfully released three full-length albums and four EPs since their inception in 2006, has been one of the most convincing acts in the traditional doom/heavy metal Danish scene and is now ready for a new chapter in their careers. The first Altar Of Oblivion battle under the From The Vaults banner will be a mini-album to be released this year.
“We just signed a record deal with Danish label From the Vaults, which will put out a five-track EP named “Burning Memories” in the summer of 2023, followed by our fourth full-length album “Proselytes of the Apocalypse””, the band states. “Both sonic endeavors were recorded prior to the pandemic, and we can’t wait to have them unleashed upon old fans as well as new”.
Altar of Oblivion is an epic doom / heavy metal band from Aalborg, Denmark highly in the vein of the 80s style. Since their formation in the year 2006 (from the ashes of Summoning Sickness), they have released three full-length albums and four EPs, all very well regarded in the most traditional epic heavy/doom metal genre.
Now, in 2023, the sextet is preparing a brand new mini-album to be released this year.
Altar Of Oblivion is: Mik Mentor – vocals Martin Meyer Sparvath – guitar Jeppe Campradt – guitar C. Nørgaard – bass Danny Woe – drums Jannick Nielsen – keyboards
Posted in Reviews on September 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Welcome back to the Fall 2022 Quarterly Review. It’s not quite the same as the Mountain of Madness, but there are definitely days where it feels like they’re pretty closely related. Just the same, we, you and I, persist through like digging a tunnel sans dynamite, and I hope you had a great and safe weekend (also sans dynamite) and that you find something in this batch of releases that you truly enjoy. Not really much point to the thing otherwise, I guess, though it does tend to clear some folders off the desktop. Like, 100 of them in this case. That in itself isn’t nothing.
Time’s a wastin’. Let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
Boris, Heavy Rocks
One can’t help but wonder if Boris aren’t making some kind of comment on the franchise-ification of what sometimes feels like every damn thing by releasing a third Heavy Rocks album, as though perhaps it’s become their brand label for this particular kind of raucousness, much as their logo in capital letters or lowercase used to let you know what kind of noise you were getting. Either way, in 10 tracks and 41 minutes that mostly leave scorch marks when they’re done — they space out a bit on “Question 1” but elsewhere in the song pull from black metal and layer in lead guitar triumph — and along the way give plenty more thick toned, sometimes-sax-inclusive on-brand chicanery to dive into. “She is Burning,” “Cramper” and “My Name is Blank” are rippers before the willfully noisy relative slowdown “Blah Blah Blah,” and Japanese heavy institution are at their most Melvinsian with the experiment “Nosferatou,” ahead of the party metal “Ruins” and semi-industrial blowout “Ghostly Imagination,” the would-be-airy-were-it-not-crushing “Chained” and the concluding “(Not) Last Song,” which feeds the central query above in asking if there’s another sequel coming, piano, feedback, and finally, vocals ending what’s been colloquially dubbed Heavy Rocks (2022) with an end-credits scene like something truly Marvelized. Could be worse if that’s the way it’s going. People tend to treat each Boris album as a landmark. I’m not sure this one is, but sometimes that’s part of what happens with sequels too.
Along with the depth of tone and general breadth of the mix, one of the aspects most enjoyable about Mother Bear‘s debut album, Zamonian Occultism, is how it seems to refuse to commit to one side or the other. They call themselves doom and maybe they are in movements here like the title-track, but the mostly-instrumental six-track/41-minute long-player — which opens and closes with lyrics and has “Sultan Abu” in the middle for a kind of human-voice trailmarker along the way — draws more from heavy psychedelia and languid groove on “Anagrom Ataf,” and if “Blue Bears and Silver Spliffs” isn’t stoner riffed, nothing ever has been. At the same time, the penultimate title-track slows way down, pulls the curtains closed, and offers a more massive nod, and the 10-minute closer “The Wizaaard” (just when you thought there were no more ways to spell it) answers that sense of foreboding in its own declining groove and echo-laced verses, but puts the fuzz at the forefront of the mix, letting the listener decide ultimately where they’re at. Tell you where I am at least: On board. Guitarist/vocalist Jonas Wenz, bassist Kevin Krenczer and drummer Florian Grass lock in hypnotic groove early and use it to tie together almost everything they do here, and while they’re obviously schooled in the styles they’re touching on, they present with an individual intent and leave room to grow. Will look forward to more.
After being kicked out of black metallers Absu for coming out as trans, Melissa Moore founded Sonja in Philadelphia with Grzesiek Czapla on drums and Ben Brand on bass, digging into a ‘true metal’ aesthetic with ferocity enough that Loud Arriver is probably the best thing they could’ve called their first record. Issued through Cruz Del Sur — so you know their ’80s-ism is class — the 37-minute eight-tracker vibes nighttime and draws on Moore‘s experience thematically, or so the narrative has it (I haven’t seen a lyric sheet), with energetic shove in “Nylon Nights” and “Daughter of the Morning Star,” growing duly melancholy in “Wanting Me Dead” before finding its victorious moment in the closing title-track. Cuts like “Pink Fog,” “Fuck, Then Die” and opener “When the Candle Burns Low…” feel specifically born of a blend of 1979-ish NWOBHM, but there’s a current of rock and roll here as well in the penultimate “Moans From the Chapel,” a sub-three-minute shove that’s classic in theme as much as riff and the most concise but by no means the only epic here. Hard not to read in catharsis on the part of Moore given how the band reportedly came about, but Loud Arriver serves notice one way or the other of a significant presence in the underground’s new heavy metal surge. Sonja have no time to waste. There are asses to kick.
Seven-minute opener ends in a War of the Worlds-style radio announcement of an alien invasion underway after the initial fuzzed rollout of the song fades, and between that and the subsequent interlude “Funeral March,” Reverend Mother‘s intent on Damned Blessing seems to be to throw off expectation. The Brooklynite outfit led by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Jackie Green (also violin) find even footing on rockers like “Locomotive” or the driving-until-it-hits-that-slowdown-wall-and-hey-cool-layering “Reverend Mother,” and the strings on the instrumental “L.V.B.,” which boasts a cello guest spot by High Priestess Nighthawk of Heavy Temple, who also returns on the closing Britney Spears cover “Toxic,” a riffed-up bent that demonstrates once again the universal applicability of pop as Reverend Mother tuck it away after the eight-minute “The Masochist Tie,” a sneering roll and chugger that finds the trio of Green, bassist Matt Cincotta and drummer Gabe Katz wholly dug into heavy rock tropes while nonetheless sounding refreshing in their craft. That song and “Shame” before it encapsulate the veer-into-doom-ness of Reverend Mother‘s hard-deliver’d fuzz, but Damned Blessing comes across like the beginning of a new exploration of style as only a next-generation-up take can and heralds change to come. I would not expect their second record to sound the same, but it will be one to watch for. So is this.
The pedigree here is notable as Umbilicus features founding Cannibal Corpse drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz and guitarist/engineer Taylor Nordberg (also visuals), who’s played with Deicide, The Absence and a host of others, but with the soar-prone vocals of Brian Stephenson out front and the warm tonality of bassist Vernon Blake, Umbilicus‘ 10-song/45-minute first full-length, Path of 1000 Suns is a willful deep-dive into modernly-produced-and-presented ’70s-style heavy rock. Largely straightforward in structure, there’s room for proto-metallurgy on “Gates of Neptune” after the swinging “Umbilicus,” and the later melodic highlight “My Own Tide” throws a pure stoner riff into its second half, while the concluding “Gathering at the Kuiper Belt” hints at more progressive underpinnings, it still struts and the swing there is no less defining than in the solo section of “Stump Sponge” back on side A. Hooks abound, and I suppose in some of the drum fills, if you know what you’re listening for, you can hear shades of more extreme aural ideologies, but the prevailing spirit is born of an obvious love of classic heavy rock and roll, and Umbilicus play it with due heart and swagger. Not revolutionary, and actively not trying to be, but definitely the good time it promises.
Not as frenetic as some out there of a similar technically-proficient ilk, Lawrence, Kansas, double-guitar instrumental four-piece After Nations feel as much jazz on “Féin” or “Cae” as they do progressive metal, djent, experimental, or any other tag with which one might want to saddle the resoundingly complex Buddhism-based concept album, The Endless Mountain — the Bandcamp page for which features something of a recommended reading list as well as background on the themes reportedly being explored in the material — which is fluid in composition and finds each of its seven more substantial inclusions accompanied by a transitional interlude that might be a drone, near-silence, a foreboding line of keys, whathaveyou. The later “Širdis” — penultimate to the suitably enlightened “Jūra,” if one doesn’t count the interlude between (not saying you shouldn’t) — is more of a direct linear build, but the 40-minute entirety of The Endless Mountain feels like a steep cerebral climb. Not everyone is going to be up for making it, frankly, but in “}}}” and its punctuationally-named companions there’s some respite from the head-spinning turns that surround, and that furthers both the dynamic at play overall and the accessibility of the songs. Whatever else it might be, it’s immaculately produced and every single second, from “Mons” and “Aon” to “))” and “(),” feels purposeful.
With the over-the-top Danzig-ian vocals coming through high in the mix, the drums sounding intentionally blown out and the fuzz of bass and guitar arriving in tidal riffs, Denmark’s Holy Dragon for sure seem to be shooting for memorability on their second album, Mordjylland. “Hell and Gold” pulls back somewhat from the in-your-face immediacy of opener “Bong” — and yet it’s faster; go figure — and the especially brash “War” is likewise timely and dug in. Centerpiece “Nightwatch” feels especially yarling with its more open riff and far-back echoing drums — those drums are heavy in tone in a way most are not, and it is appreciated — and gives over to the Judas Priestly riff of “Dunder,” which sounds like it’s being swallowed by the bass even as the concluding solo slices through. They cap with “Egypt” in classic-metal, minor-key-sounds-Middle-Eastern fashion, but they’re never far from the burly heft with which they started, and even the mellower finish of “Travel to Kill” feels drawn from it. The album’s title is a play on ‘Nordjylland’ — the region of Denmark where they’re from — and if they’re saying it’s dead, then their efforts to shake it back to life are palpable in these seven songs, even if the end front-to-back result of the album is going to be hit or miss with most listeners. Still, they are markedly individual, and the fact that you could pick them out of the crowd of Europe’s e’er-packed heavy underground is admirable in itself.
Lincoln, Nebraska, trio Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships are right there. Right on the edge. You can hear it in the way “Beg Your Pardon” unfolds its lumbering tonality, riff-riding vocals and fervency of groove at the outset of their second album, Consensus Trance. They’re figuring it out. And they’re working quickly. Their first record, 2021’s TTBS, and the subsequent Rosalee EP (review here) were strong signals of intention on the part of guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Warner, bassist Karlin Warner and drummer Justin Kamal, and there is realization to be had throughout Consensus Trance in the noisy lead of “Mystical Consumer,” the quiet instrumental “Distalgia for Infinity” and the mostly-huge-chugged 11-minute highlight “Weeping Beast” to which it leads. But they’re also still developing their craft, as opener “Beg Your Pardon” demonstrates amid one of the record’s most vibrant hooks, and exploring spaciousness like that in the back half of the penultimate “Silo,” and the sense that emerges from that kind of reach and the YOB-ish ending of capper “I.H.” is that there’s more story to be told as to what Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships have to offer in style and substance. So much the better since Consensus Trance has such superlative heft at its foundation.
Kind of funny to think of Menticide as a debut LP from Deer Creek, who’ve been around for 20 years — one fondly recalls their mid-aughts splits with Church of Misery and Raw Radar War — but one might consider that emblematic of the punk underpinning the sludgy heavy roll of “(It Had Neither Fins Nor Wings) Nor Did it Writhe,” along with the attitude of fuckall that joins hands with resoundingly dense tonality to create the atmosphere of the five originals and the cover medley closer “The Working Man is a Dead Pig,” which draws on Rush, Bauhaus and Black Sabbath classics as a sort of partially explanatory appendix to the tracks preceding. Of those, the impression left is duly craterous, and Deer Creek, with Paul Vismara‘s mostly-clean vocals riding a succession of his own monolithic riffs, a bit of march thrown into “The Utter Absence of Hope” amid the breath of tone from his and Conan Hultgren‘s guitars and Stephanie Hopper‘s bass atop the drumming of Marc Brooks. One is somewhat curious as to what drives a band after two full-length-less decades to make a definitive first album — at least beyond “hey a lot of things have changed in the last couple years” anyhow — but the results here are inarguable in their weight and the spaces they create and fill, with disaffection and onward and outward-looking angst as much as volume. That is to say, as much as Menticide nods, it’s more unsettling the more attention you actually pay to what’s going on. But if you wanted to space out instead, I doubt they’d hold it any more against you than was going to happen anyway. Band who owes nothing to anyone overdelivers. There.
Following the mid-’90s C.O.C. tone and semi-Electric Wizard shouts of “Black Lotus Trance,” “Detroit Demons” calls out Stooges references while burl-riffing around Pantera‘s “I’m Broken,” and “Loose” manifests sleaze to coincide with the exploitation of the Never Sleep at Night EP’s cover art. All of this results in zero-doubt assurance that the Brazilian trio have their bona fides in place when it comes to dudely riffs and an at least partially metal approach; stylistically-speaking, it’s like metal dudes got too drunk to remember what they were angry at and decided to have a party instead. I don’t have much encouraging to say at this juncture about the use of vintage porn as a likely cheap cover option, but no one seems to give a shit about moving past that kind of misogyny, and I guess as regards gender-based discrimination and playing to the male gaze and so on, it’s small stakes. I bet they get signed off the EP anyway, so what’s the point? The point I guess is that the broad universe of those who’d build altars to riffs, Riffcoven are at very least up front with what they’re about and who their target audience is.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
It’s a relatively quick run on which Norway’s Kal-El and Denmark’s Bogwife will embark as both make their way around to the Esbjerg Fuzztival on May 14 — and I guess kind of geographically inefficient on the part of Bogwife who will leave Denmark only to wind up back there for the fest. Both acts are signed to Majestic Mountain Records — and Kal-El have already been announced for that label’s first festival to be held in June in Oslo (info here), and I’m kind of assuming Bogwife will join those ranks as well before the fest takes place. Seems only reasonable.
While we’re talking about things they have in common, both bands released strong and well-received albums in 2021. Bogwife‘s A Passage Divine (discussed here) was issued in September, and Kal-El‘s Dark Majesty (review here) was released in August, and as previously been noted, was recently nominated for a Spellmann prize, otherwise known as the Norwegian Grammy. A feather in the cap, in any case.
The tour starts after Kal-El appear at Sonic Whip and runs for eight days with two shows still TBA. If you’re between Rotterdam and Esbjerg and can help out, speak up.
Kal-El announced the dates thusly:
As we do two festivals early May, we gang up with labelmates Bogwife for a few dates in between. Its been a bit on and of with the dates due to restrictions, and we have two spare dates up for grabs. Any takers please contact Lasher Agency to get it sorted.
6/5 – Sonic Whip Festival – Nijmegen, NL (Only KAL-EL) 7/5 – la Zone – Liege, BE 8/5 – Cafe Central – Brussels, BE 10/5 – Bastard Club – Osnabrück, GE 11/5 – Baroeg – Rotterdam, NL 12/5 – TBA (contact Lasher Agency for booking) 13/5 – TBA (contact Lasher Agency for booking) 14/5 – Fuzztival – Esbjerg, DK
This is going to be a very heavy experience, see you out there.
[NOTE: Right now, Monkey Okay are offering 20 percent off to anyone who sees this post. Use the code obelisk_discount to redeem at https://monkeyokay.bandcamp.com/. Thanks to the band for their generosity.]
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Danish atmospheric heavy rockers Monkey Okay released their second album, The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea, in Dec. 2020, and thereby began a collaboration with visual artist Peter Max-Jakobsen that continues now, the painter improvising a piece two weeks ago at a live show the band played at the Rodløs Kultur Festival in their hometown of Aalborg. The video premiering below was filmed earlier, but follows a similar idea, as the five-piece render the LP’s 22-minute closing title-track in its entirety while Max-Jakobsen provides visually creative accompaniment projected on and behind them.
“The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea” — its title referring to any number of species of apes formerly found in Europe — of course has room for such exploration with such a runtime, but it is one of five tracks on the album and by no means the only one boasting an experimentalist edge. To wit, opener “The Spiral” is a three-minute airy psych flow, gradually building up to the transition into “S-G-G-Y” — “she’s gonna get you” — which is more straightforward in structure, verses, choruses, vocals, and so on, following its Hendrixian pulls and classic heavy-stomper drums to a place nonetheless definitively Euro-futurist. In turn, the catchy-heavy-meets-cinematic-atmospherics of “S-G-G-Y” gives way to a sample or spoken word (hard to tell; it’s manipulated either way) piece “Boatman SE 84 Pt. 1,” which runs nearly six minutes, is the penultimate cut on side A, and is marked out by all manner of twisting and turning effects along with the words being vaguely delivered in signal-from-beyond fashion.
There may be a narrative at work, I don’t know, but “The Soldier” turns back to more direct songwriting and the back and forth across these initial four tracks is a fitting setup for “The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea” itself, which is an engaging work of progressive heavy, dug into its message to be sure, but still able to carry the listener along its course, working in various movements as it goes from its first verses into a solo jam, increasingly noisy then barely there in sparse guitar and vocals as it begins to reconstruct itself headed toward a second and final apex, gradually, patiently. It is an inspired piece, and leaves little to wonder as to how a painter might therefore find it inspiring, but an essential component too is inevitably Monkey Okay‘s performance of the track, which in the live session below, is also precisely where it needs to be to bring the audience on board.
I don’t know the band’s plans from here with Max-Jakobsen. They have a third album at some stage of progress, but whether the visuals will be involved there, or if they’ll tour or do something else together or what, I’m not sure. But it’s only fortunate they’ve put together this video, since the collaboration is worth preserving/documenting, and even in this many-live-video’ed era, it stands out and feels like something not everybody would be able to offer.
So please, enjoy:
Monkey Okay, “The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea” Live Session Premiere
The band is very proud to premiere this video through The Obelisk, and to celebrate they are giving a 20% discount on everything in the Bandcamp store, which can be found here:https://monkeyokay.bandcamp.com/and the code is “obelisk_discount”.
Monkey Okay featuring artist Peter Max-Jakobsen + visual art association PixlArt. Performed live at the Hideout studio Aalborg, Denmark.
Filmed by Anders Christian Rasmussen
A Collaboration of Art
Early in the process after the recording of the album’s title track and centrepiece, The Long Haul…, the band began a collaboration with acclaimed Danish artist Peter Max-Jakobsen on the visual aspects of the release. Akin to the uncompromising approach the band applies to the creative process of making music, the collaboration with Peter Max-Jakobsen likewise was uncompromising and took some unexpected turns. He ended up creating a 6,5 feet tall painting inspired by the music. This massive piece was turned into 4 different vinyl editions where both the cover art, vinyl colour and of course the audio are integral parts of the album’s artistic expression.
Monkey Okay, The Long Haul of Cercopithecoidea (2020)
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 11th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Snare snaps and then you’re immediately swallowed by the fuzz of Bogwife‘s new single. If you’re the type to get a headache or worse from flashing lights, you’ll want to listen to “Celestial Dawn” without necessarily watching the video that’s premiering below — that is, I encourage you to hear the track one way or the other, but I’m not trying to hurt anybody by not giving fair warning — which culls together performance footage of the Danish four-piece as they unfurl the first audio from their upcoming LP, A Passage Divine. Set to release on Sept. 17, their second album overall behind last summer’s Halls of Rebirth (on Psychedelic Salad) reunites the band with producer Jacob Bredahl (HateSphere, Allhelluja, many, many more as performer and producer) and will be Bogwife‘s first offering through Majestic Mountain Records.
The consuming riffage becomes the theme of “Celestial Dawn,” tapping into Witchcult-era Electric Wizard while remaining more clearheaded in its vocal melody, nestling into a nodding groove that is smooth, warm and weighted in kind. Whether you watch the video or put it on switch tabs or apps or whatever, the track is easy to dig and I’m happy to premiere it ahead of A Passage Divine starting preorders.
You’ll find it at the bottom of the post, following the announcement from the PR wire:
A Passage Divine, the brand-new album by Bogwife will be officially released on 17th September
Formed in 2018 in the city of Aalborg, Bogwife – named after a mythical, swamp dwelling creature from Scandinavian folklore – is a Danish quartet which experiments with elements of doom, stoner rock and psychedelia to create a mesmerising mist of sound which, much like its namesake, casts a spell over everyone it touches.
Their debut album, Halls of Rebirth, released in July of last year was not only well received across the scene in general, which was no small feat given how little opportunity the band had to play live or test their material out in front of fans. Using that spare time to write new material instead, the band pushed ahead and recorded their second full-length – titled, A Passage Divine – with Jacob Bredahl at Dead Rat Studio in the spring of 2021.
“For us, A Passage Divine is a natural continuation of what we began exploring on our last record, both in terms of our musical development and how we write and compose lyrics,” explains the band. “Lyrically, all the songs revolve around the bog and the significance the bog had mythologically in the Iron Age in Europe. Whereas musically, it all just felt ‘right’ instead of us putting pressure on ourselves to achieve a specific goal or structure.”
A Passage Divine, the brand-new album by Bogwife will be officially released on 17th September through Majestic Mountain Records
Track Listing 1. The Approach 2. Restoration 3. Among the Trees 4. Celestial Dawn 5. Descent
Artist: Bogwife Album: A Passage Divine Record Label: Majestic Mountain Records Formats: CD/Digital/Vinyl Release Date: 17/09/2021
[Click play above to stream Altar of Oblivion’s The Seven Spirits in full. Album is out April 26 on Shadow Kingdom Records.]
There is a special place in the halls of metal for those who partake of epic doom. It shares with power metal a sense of grandiosity and an absolute need to be all-in, irony-free in order to be properly pulled off, and Danish five-piece Altar of Oblivion nail it. The Seven Spirits, on Shadow Kingdom, is their third album, following behind 2012’s Grand Gesture of Defiance (review here) and their 2009 debut, Sinews of Anguish (review here). They had an EP out in 2016 called Barren Grounds, but The Seven Spirits is the Aalborg-based doomers’ first full-length in seven years. Consistent with that and its title, there are seven tracks on the outing, and no lack of spirit in the delivery, as the band taps ’80s classic metal and early doom metal in order to hone their sound, distinguished by the varied delivery of frontman Mik Mentor, whose low-register approach is deceptively malleable to the melodies called forth by the guitars of band-founder Martin Meyer Sparvath (also backing vocals and keys) and Jeppe Campradt (also keys).
Tasked with thickening the proceedings and making them move are bassist Cristian Nørgaard and drummer Danny Woe, and they only add to the sense of precision throughout the LP’s 40-minute run, whether it’s the thudding start and careening groove of opener “Created in the Fires of Holiness” or the suitably mournful plod in the second half of highlight “Gathering at the Wake” before the big finish takes hold. Regardless of tempo or mood in a given track, the band remains firm in their take on the metal of eld, and there’s never a moment where their sincerity is in doubt. As keyboard lines weave between the two guitars and fill out the arrangements and atmospheres, the sense of drama is palpable, but there’s no questioning Altar of Oblivion‘s commitment to what they do. This is epic, doom, metal. If you can’t handle it, turn in your denim at the door.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Altar of Oblivion are quick to show their doomly credentials in “Created in the Fires of Holiness.” The song thuds the record to life quickly and crashes into its dual-guitar opening lead, very much the over-the-top intro before digging into its first verse, with Nørgaard‘s bassline righteously prominent — counter to a mistake so, so, so many in classic doom and metal make — as the guitars ring out and Mentor establishes his command over the turn to the chorus. By the time the opener is halfway through, the course is set in terms of style, and though its songs are varied, it ultimately does not waver from the mood that “Created in the Fires of Holiness” sets forth, coming apart gradually at the end and allowing for a moment of silence before Mentor starts “No One Left,” imagining a world where doomsday prophecy is fulfilled and nobody is there to see it.
Speedier and shorter, “No One Left” is a standout in the tracklisting, but well positioned near the start of the album in order to build on what the opener has set forth in tone and general vibe. It makes a hook of repeating its title line, and has a distinctly ’80s metal infusion of keys starting in its midsection, which the subsequent “Gathering at the Wake’ will depart in favor of raw chug initially, only to see it return later as the track embarks on a, well, epic break in its second half, worthy of comparison to earliest Candlemass and building in speed and energy until its gallop again collapses in tempo to a slowdown at the finish, leaving the vocals to end the track alone, and transitioning to the sparse guitar that opens the centerpiece title-track, also the finale of side A. Backing vocals recall Blind Guardian for a brief second in the first verse, but it’s a tease — why not go all out? — and the song unfolds in brooding, keyboard-laced fashion, its chorus resonant in the theatricality of its delivery and its guitars leading the path through a more subdued feel than anything yet presented.
It would be even more hypnotic for that if the title-track weren’t also so brief, being the shortest inclusion at 4:18. Still, it’s a relatively melancholy finish to side A, and it leaves “Language of the Dead” to pick up on side B with a resiliency that mirrors “Created in the Fires of Holiness” at the album’s outset in its general modus, finding new footing in its chorus and revitalizing the approach ahead of the closing duo “Solemn Messiah” and “Grand Gesture of Defiance.” The former of the two, “Solemn Messiah,” is a pinnacle of The Seven Spirits‘ fulsome aspects, with a patience in its execution that holds despite the grandeur of the surrounding arrangement and the layers of guitar, vocals, and keys at play over the still-solid rhythm section. It is arguably the most memorable of the cuts, though there’s plenty of competition there and it’s a question for the longer term in the end, but it serves in its penultimate position as the crescendo of Altar of Oblivion‘s third full-length, and they cap it with a quick stretch of quiet guitar that leads into the fading-in chug of “Grand Gesture of Defiance.”
Curious that they’d end this record with a title-track for the 2012 outing, but the keyboard-centric feel marks a turn in balance with the guitar — at least until the solo — that piques interest just the same. The chorus doesn’t quite land with the same effect as in “Solemn Messiah,” Mentor pushing his voice down to really emphasize that titular solemnity, but the speedier section that gives way to keys and softer guitar at the finish is a fitting enough way to go out given the focus on melody throughout the entire offering prior. Make no mistake, Altar of Oblivion are doom metal for the converted. This is get-a-vinyl-and-a-patch-at-the-merch-table fare, and while its songcraft is ambitious, part of that ambition is homage to what’s come before. Still, The Seven Spirits lacks nothing for its own personality, and after such a long stretch from the band without an LP, it’s a welcome and doomly return.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 9th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
It’s been seven years since Altar of Oblivion released their second album, Grand Gesture of Defiance (review here), and apparently the Danish outfit decided that’s long enough. The Seven Spirits will be issued backed by the ever-reliable taste of Shadow Kingdom Records this coming Spring, and they’re advancing its arrival and marking the opening of preorders by streaming the title-track now. You can take a listen at the bottom of this post, because that’s how it goes, and dig into the very metal cover art and album info below.
Of course, it all comes courtesy of the PR wire:
ALTAR OF OBLIVION set release date for long-awaited new SHADOW KINGDOM album, reveal first track
Shadow Kingdom Records sets April 26th as the international release date for Altar of Oblivion’s massively anticipated third album, The Seven Spirits, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
Altar of Oblivion are simply one of the best pure METAL bands around right now. The Danish kings proved it with 2012’s classic Grand Gesture of Defiance album, they proved it with the teasingly short Barren Grounds EP in 2016, and they prove it more than ever with The Seven Spirits. Arguably more so than any of their no-less-considerable and widely celebrated records, here Altar of Oblivion skillfully glide from morose ‘n’ mournful DOOM to absolutely EPIC and daresay regal traditional metal, safely evading any cliches or easy classification whilst reverently adding to the rich and enduring lexicon of heavy metal. If anything, this is as close to total ’80s metal as the band have gotten – but as always, done in that special Altar of Oblivion way.
In many ways, each of the seven tracks comprising The Seven Spirits is a tale in its own right, rife with both bloodlust and tragedy, redemption and remorse. They wind along many roads, some darker than others, with a robust ‘n’ rumbling heft that’s simply Altar of Oblivion’s heaviest production to date. And yet, for all this fleet-footed thunder, those seven songs remain as passionate and emotional as anything around. Just hearing Mik Mentor’s pipes is believing, and on The Seven Spirits, the frontman delivers a performance like no other. These songs could bring you to tears – or galvanize you to conquer any foe before you. The choice is yours across these 41 unforgettable minutes!
Seven years is an interminable length of time between albums, but when the standards are as high as they are with Altar of Oblivion, there’s just no arguing against perfection. Behold The Seven Spirits and bow before their majesty! Begin bowing with the new title track “The Seven Spirits” HERE at Shadow Kingdom’s Bandcamp, where the album can be preordered. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Altar of Oblivion’s The Seven Spirits 1. Created in the Fires of Holiness 2. No One Left 3. Gathering at the Wake 4. The Seven Spirits 5. Language of the Dead 6. Solemn Messiah 7. Grand Gesture of Defiance
