Posted in Whathaveyou on November 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The announcement of the album details for Eight Bells‘ third full-length confirms the title as Legacy of Ruin, which was the title given when the Portland, Oregon, outfit first posted that they’d finished recording in Dec. 2020 with none other than Billy Anderson at the helm as engineer and mixer. In addition to that, and the striking cover art for Legacy of Ruin that you can see below, there’s also the tracklisting — six songs, three with guest violin — and a suitably apocalyptic theme unveiled, as well as the first audio, which is the new single “Nadir,” presented across five-plus minutes of engagingly anti-genre heaviness that’s more doomed than doom in its mood, if you catch my drift. Mortality of self, mortality of planet. The ephemeral everything.
It’s likewise encompassing and sad, but it would be. After releasing 2016’s Landless (review here) through the now-defunct Battleground Records, as well as Tartarus (the tape), and changing out their lineup around founder Melynda Marie Jackson — not to be confused with Melynda Marie Amann, who guests on vocals and keys — not to mention sitting on this record for at least most of this year, I’m pleased to have the album to look forward to. I guess that’s the plainest I can say it.
Preorders are up. You’ll find the link and PR wire details below. The “Nadir” video is, suitably, at the bottom of the post:
EIGHT BELLS release first single ‘Nadir’ taken from the forthcoming new album “Legacy of Ruin”
EIGHT BELLS are now revealing the volcanic video single ‘Nadir’ taken from their forthcoming new album “Legacy of Ruin”, which is slated for release on February 25, 2022.
The avant-garde doom project from Portland, Oregon conceived by guitarist and singer Melynda Jackson has also unveiled cover art, tracklist, and further details of their new full-length below.
EIGHT BELLS comment: “Our first single, ‘Nadir’ is the newest song that was written right before the recording sessions”, writes singer and guitarist Melynda Jackson. “It is inspired by the ugly part of human nature and tendency to devour everything until it is gone. There is grief in understanding that ‘right now’ is all we have.”
With their third album, Portland metal experimentalists EIGHT BELLS have sharpened their songwriting approach to create a soundtrack for the end of the world. “Legacy of Ruin” again features the trio’s trademark haunting vocal harmonies along with sometimes blistering, and sometimes impressionistic guitar riffing to create heady atmospheres of dark and light.
The result of EIGHT BELLS’ musical exploration is an emotional and insistent odyssey that transcends genre and imbues contemporary metal with 19th-century Victorian ghostliness, cinematic soundscapes in combination with female and male vocal harmonies perfectly fitting the album’s lyrical story. “Legacy of Ruin” focuses on themes of the human condition, natural destruction, death, regret, loss, malice, and retribution.
Tracklist 1. Destroyer 2. The Well 3. Torpid Dreamer 4. Nadir 5. The Crone 6. Premonition
Guest musicians Melynda Marie Amann – vocals on ‘The Well’ and ‘The Crone’ Melynda Marie Amann – Keyboards on ‘The Well’ Andrea Morgan – violin on ‘The Well’, ‘Nadir’, and ‘Premonition’
Tracked by Billy Anderson at The Hallowed Halls Produced by Billy Anderson & Eight Bells Mixed by Billy Anderson at Everything Hz Mastered by Justin Weis at Trackworx
Artwork by Tom Robers Layout by Ross Sewage
On further news, EIGHT BELLS will reissue their first two albums “The Captain’s Daughter (2013) and “Landless” (2016) parallel to the release of “Legacy of Ruin”. Both full-length recordings will be joined together under the title “Histories 2010 - 2016” as double-CD and triple vinyl editions that will also contain the bonus track ‘Purgatory’ and five demo versions.
Line-up Melynda Jackson – guitar, vocals Matt Solis – bass, harmonies Brian Burke – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 18th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
When word first came around of Eight Bells signing to Prophecy Productions for the release of their third album, I called it a good fit. That was Dec. 2020, when the band’s own Melynda Marie Jackson posted on the social media that the band’s next LP — which was called Legacy of Ruin at the time and may or may not still bear that title; it certainly hasn’t become less relevant in the intervening year — was done and would see release through the European imprint, where 2016’s Landless (review here) came out through Profound Lore (also a suitable home). It’s still a good fit.
With the presumption that, whatever it’ll be titled when it arrives, this is the same full-length that Eight Bells had completed recording with Billy Anderson at the helm, its delay has no doubt been maddening, and while Eight Bells are by no means the only band in that situation — make a thing, sit on it — they’re underappreciated to start with, so reinforced idleness does nothing to help. I expect by the time it comes out, the release will be cathartic on multiple levels. I look forward to hearing it. In the meantime, note the reissues.
The following came down the PR wire:
EIGHT BELLS sign deal with PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS
EIGHT BELLS have signed a multi-album deal with Prophecy Productions. The avant-garde doom trio from Portland, Oregon will return in 2022 to release their third full-length via the label, which will also reissue the US-band’s existing catalogue.
EIGHT BELLS comment: “I am excited about this new relationship with Prophecy Productions along with having the opportunity to reach further into a European audience”, states singer and guitarist Melynda Jackson. “My goal all along has been to release a new album since our last one in 2016 and although it took a while to find the right combination of musicians. I thankfully have that now and am grateful to put out another album with people whom I love.”
Martin Koller adds: “When I discovered Eight Bells at the Psycho Las Vegas festival, I was immediately hooked”, tells the founder of Prophecy Productions. “Particularly their unique way of letting emotive vocal harmonies shine brightly above a sublimely intelligent dark metal foundation was striking. I am therefore stoked to welcome Eight Bells to the Prophecy family!”
Prophecy Productions will also reissue the band’s previous releases. The first two EIGHT BELLS albums “The Captain’s Daughter” (2013) and “Landless” (2016) are already digitally available:http://lnk.spkr.media/eightbells-backcatalog
Currently, EIGHT BELLS are preparing for the release of their third full-length via the label in early 2022.
Line-up Melynda Jackson – guitar, vocals Matt Solis – bass, harmonies Brian Burke – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 11th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Epic doom that doubles as a history lesson? Hell yes, you know I’m on board for that. Not everything Prophecy Productions puts out is necessarily applicable around here, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t interesting. You at least know that no matter what it is — and “it” in this instance can encompass a fairly broad aesthetic range — it’s going to have depth and atmosphere, and with the just-signed Arð, the imprint continues to push boundaries while also celebrating its 25th anniversary. The solo-project of UK-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Mark Deeks (also of Winterfylleth) will make its debut through Prophecy early next year with Take Up My Bones.
For anyone whose doctoral thesis wasn’t on National Identity in Northern and Eastern European Heavy Metal — that must’ve been a Nazi-tastic bit of academia, right there — or who might not be familiar with the story of Saint Cuthbert, there’s a video at the bottom of this post that introduces the themes as well as the music itself that’s working with them. As someone who’s also interested in the interplay between locale and art, I dig it. And if you’re unfamiliar, Northumbria is the region between Northern England and Scotland.
From the PR wire:
ARÐ sign deal with PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS
ARÐ have signed a multi-album deal with Prophecy Productions. The Northumbrian doom project has been conceived by vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and lyricist Mark Deeks in 2019. ARÐ will release their debut full-length “Take Up My Bones” via the label in early 2022.
ARÐ comment: “I am honoured to become a part of the rich musical history of Prophecy Productions, especially in the label’s 25th anniversary year”, writes musical and lyrical mastermind Mark Deeks. “Seeing my music on the same label as names such as Falkenbach, Tenhi, and Empyrium is humbling. I am both excited to work with the team at Prophecy and grateful for the faith they have placed in me.”
Martin Koller adds: “When I received the unsigned album, I was immediately struck by how easily ARÐ’s music fits Prophecy’s roster”, tells the founder of Prophecy Productions. “Mark’s lyrical concept also gives their songs the artistic equivalent of what wine makers call ‘terroir’: a particular taste that is created by local soil, climate, and other regional factors. This is something that I am also looking for in bands, which resulted in the quickest signing in the history of this label.”
ARÐ have created an introductory video that can be viewed below.
ARÐ are of Northumbria. Formed by vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and lyricist Mark Deeks in 2019, the band’s name is taken from an Old English word meaning “native land” in the dialect of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. The concept behind the debut album “Take Up My Bones“ from this insular doom metal project revolves around the legendary relics of the famous Northumbrian saint Cuthbert and their long journey over more than two centuries to their final resting place.
ARÐ have based their lyrical concept upon a solid doom foundation, a genre, which easily leans itself to such topics as prophecy, funeral, and hermitage related to St. Cuthbert. The ancient kingdom of Northumbria, named by the Germanic invaders, who built upon the heritage of the peoples that inhabited these lands before such as the Brittonic “Celtic” Votadini and their Roman conquerors, also plays a starring role in the concept of ARÐ’s debut album.
With crushing glacial-paced doom, monastic sounding chants and choirs, and sorrowful yet epic melodies, ARÐ have found the perfect musical expression to narrate a riveting tale of their homelands, of which a first taste can be heard in the background music of the introductory video that is taken from the forthcoming album’s title track ‘Take Up My Bones’.
Mark Deeks, who earned his PhD in Philosophy on the topic of “National Identity in Northern and Eastern European Heavy Metal”, is also a member of leading UK black metal stalwarts WINTERFYLLETH and keeps himself busy as a musical director, arranger, piano coach, and conductor as well as a best selling author.
Line-up Mark Deeks – vocals, all rhythm guitars, piano, keyboards, and bass
Posted in Reviews on September 29th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
According to my notes, today is Day Three of the Fall 2021 Quarterly Review. Are you impressed to have made it this far? I kind of am, but, you know, I would be. I hope you’ve managed to find something you dig over the course of the first 20 records, and if not, why not? I’ve certainly added to a few year-end lists between debut albums, regular-old albums and short releases. Today’s no different. Without giving away any secrets ahead of time, this is a pretty wacky stylistic spread from the start and that’s how I like it. Maybe by next Tuesday it’ll all make a kind of sense, and maybe it won’t. In any case, this is apparently my idea of fun, so let’s have fun.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Thief, The 16 Deaths of My Master
Someone used the phrase “techno for metalheads” in an email to me the other day (about something else) and I can’t get it out of my head concerning Thief‘s The 16 Deaths of My Master. From the swelling distortion of opener “Underking” to the odd bit of harpsicord that shows up in “Scorpion Mother” to the bassy rumble underscoring “Fire in the Land of Endless Rain,” the post-everything “Lover Boy,” droning “Life Clipper,” lazyman’s hip-hop on “Gorelord” and “Crestfaller” and Beck-on-acid finale in “Seance for Eight Oscillators,” there’s certainly plenty of variety to go around, but in the dance-dream “Apple Eaters” and goth-with-’90s-beatmaking “Bootleg Blood” and pretend-your-car-ride-is-a-movie-soundtrack “Wing Clipper,” the metallic underpinning of Dylan Neal (also Botanist) is still there, and the lyrical highlight “Teenage Satanist” rings true. Still, songs like the consuming washer “Night Spikes and subsequent drum’n’bass-vibing “Victim Exit Stage Left” are inventive, fascinating, short and almost poppy in themselves but part of a 16-track entirety that is head-spinning. If that’s techno for metalheads, so be it. Horns up for dat bass.
The album’s title is kind of another interpretation of the band’s name, the idea behind the Latin phrase Per Aspera Ad Astra being moving through challenges to the stars and the Santiago, Chile, one-man death-doom outfit being Rise to the Sky. Multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Sergio González Catalán reportedly wrote and arranged the title-track in the days following his father’s funeral, and the grand, flowing string sounds and engrossing heft that ensues feel genuinely mournful, capping with a progression of solo piano before “End My Night” seems to pick up where “The Loss of Hope” left off. The lyrics to closer “Only Our Past Remains” derive from a poem by Catalán‘s father, and the sense of tribute is palpable across the album’s 46 minutes. I’m not sure how the Russian folk melody bonus instrumental “Horse” might tie in, but neither is it out of place among “Deep Lament” and “Bleeding Heart,” the latter of which dares some clean vocals alongside the gutturalism, and in context, the rest of the album seems to answer with loss what opener “Life in Suspense” is waiting for.
Those familiar with Brian Ellis and Conor Riley‘s work in Astra should not be surprised to find them exploring ’70s-style progressive rock in Birth, and anybody who heard Psicomagia already knows that bassist Trevor Mast and drummer Paul Marrone (also Radio Moscow) are a rhythm section well up to whatever task you might want to set before them. Thus Birth‘s Demo arrives some four years after its recording, with “Descending Us” (posted here) leading off in dramatic Deep Purple-y fashion backed by the jammier but gloriously mellotroned and Rhodes’ed “Cosmic Wind” and “Long Way Down,” which digs itself into a righteous King Crimson payoff with due class even as it revels in its rough edges. Marrone‘s since left the band and whoever replaces him has big shoes to fill, but god damn, just put out a record already, would you?
Wielding mighty tonality and meeting Monolordian lurch with an aural space wide enough to contain it, Old Horn Tooth follow their 2019 debut LP, From the Ghost Grey Depths, with the single-song EP True Death, proffering a largesse rarely heard even from London’s ultra-populated heavy underground and working their way into, out of, back into, out of and through a nod that the converted among riff-heads likely find irresistible and hypnotic in kind. To say the trio of guitarist/vocalist Chris, bassist/keyboardist Ollie and drummer Mark ride out the groove is perhaps underselling it, but as my first exposure to the band, I’m only sorry to have missed out on both the orange tapes and the limited flash drives they were selling. So it goes. Slow riffs, fast sales. I’ll catch them next time and drown my sorrows in the interim in this immersive, probably-gonna-get-picked-up-by-some-label-for-a-vinyl-release offering. And hey, maybe if you and I both email them, they’ll press a few more cassettes.
Pro-shop-level doom from an initial public offering by Solemn Lament, bringing together the significant likes of vocalist Phil Swanson (ex-Hour of 13, Vestal Claret, countless others), drummer Justin DeTore (Magic Circle and more recently Dream Unending) as well as Blind Dead‘s Drew Wardlaw on bass and Adam Jacino on lead guitar, and Eric Wenstrom on rhythm guitar. These personages cross coastlines to three tracks and intro of grand and immersive doom metal, willfully diving into the Peaceville-three legacy on “Stricken” to find the beauty in darkness after the lumber and chug of the nine-minute “Celeste” resolves with patient grace and “Old Crow” furthers the Paradise Lost spirit in its central riff. Geography is an obvious challenge, but if Solemn Lament can build on the potential they show in this debut EP, they could be onto something really special.
A stunning third full-length from Fayetteville, Arkansas, trio Terminus, The Silent Bell Toll bridges doomed heft and roll, progressive melodicism and thoughtful heavy rock construction into a potent combination of hooks and sheer impact. It’s worth noting that the 10-minute closer of the nine-song/40-minute outing, “Oh Madrigal,” soars vocally, but hell, so does the 3:18 “Black Swan” earlier. Guitarist Sebastian Thomas (also cover art) and bassist Julian Thomas share vocal duties gorgeously throughout while drummer Scott Wood rolls songs like “The Lion’s Den” and “The Silent Bell Toll” — that nod under the solo; goodness gracious — in such a way as to highlight the epic feel even as the structure beneath is reinforced. With three instrumentals peppered throughout to break up the chapters as intro, centerpiece and penultimate, there’s all the more evidence that Terminus are considered in their approach and that the level of realization across The Silent Bell Toll is not happenstance.
Clearly named in honor of its defining intent, Recurring Nightmare is the three-song/48-minute debut full-length from Boston-based charred sludge outfit, who take the noisy heft of ultra-disaffected purveyors like Indian or Primitive Man and push it into a blackened metallic sphere further distinguished by harshly ambient drones. One can dig Neurosis-style riffing out of the 19:30 closer “Guillotine” or opener “Torch and Spear,” but the question is how much one’s hand is going to be sliced open in that process. And the answer is plenty. Their tones don’t so much rumble as crumble, vocals are willfully indecipherable throat-clenching screams, and the drums duly glacial. There is little kindness to be had in 16:43 centerpiece “Freedom Fever Dream” — originally broken into two parts as a demo in 2019 — which resolves itself lyrically in mourning a lost ideal over a dense lurch that’s met with still-atmospheric churning. Their established goal, if that’s what it is, has been met with all appropriate viciousness and extremity.
An ethic toward straight-ahead riff rock is writ large throughout Taxi Caveman‘s self-titled debut full-length, the Warsaw trio offering a face-first dive into fuzz of varying sizes and shaping their material around the sleek groove of “Prisoner” or the more aggressively bent vinyl-side-launchers “Building With Fire” and “Asteroid.” There’s a highlight hook in “I, the Witch” and the instrumental “426” leads into the Dozer-esque initial verse of 10-minute closer “Empire of the Sun,” but the three-piece find their own way through ultimately, loosening some of the verse/chorus reins in order to affect more of a jammed feel. It’s a departure from the crunch of “Asteroid” or “Prisoner” and the big, big, big sound that starts “Building With Fire,” but I’m certainly not about to hold some nascent sonic diversity against them. They’re playing to genre across these 33 minutes, but they do so without pretense and with a mind toward kicking as much ass as possible. Not changing the world, but it’s not trying to and it’s fun enough in listening that it doesn’t need to.
“Negative Libra” runs 36:36 and is the lone track on the album that bears its name from Las Vegas-based solo-project Droneroom. The flowing work of Blake Conley develops in slow, meditative form and gradually introduces lap steel to shimmer along with its post-landscape etherealities, evocative of cinema as they are without exactly playing to one or the other film-genre tropes. That is to say, Conley isn’t strictly horror soundtracking or Western soundtracking, and so on. Perhaps in part because of that, “Negative Libra” is allowed to discover its path and flourish as it goes — I’m not sure as to the layering process of making it vis-à-vis what was tracked live and put on top after — but the sense of exploration-of-moment that comes through is palpable and serene even as the guitar comes forward just before hitting the 27-minute mark to begin the transition into the song’s noisier payoff and final, concluding hum.
Blown-out vocals add an otherworldly tinge to Arizona-based one-man-band Aiwass‘ debut full-length, Wayward Gods, giving the already gargantuan tones a sense of space to match. Opener “Titan” and closer “Mythos” seem to push even further in this regard than, say, the centerpiece “Man as God” — the last track feeling particularly Monolordly in its lumbering — but by the time “Titan” and the subsequent, 10-minute inclusion “From Chains,” which ends cold with a guest solo by Vinny Tauber of Ohio’s Taubnernaut and shifts into the cawing blackbird at the outset of “Man as God” with a purposefully jarring intent. Despite the cringe-ready cartoon-boobs cover art, the newcomer project finds a heavy niche that subverts expectation as much as it meets it and sets broad ground to explore on future outings. As an idea, “gonna start a heavy, huge-sounding band during the pandemic,” is pretty straightforward. What results from that in Aiwass runs deeper.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I wish I could properly emphasize for you what a pain in the ass it has been to put this post together. Doesn’t look like much, I know. Another news post, another day, another one of the few black metal bands whose work I enjoy who I don’t often write about because no one else who reads this seems to care. Fine.
However, on the back end, this ties into a problem I’ve had with how this site works since its inception 12 years ago, and that is getting accents beyond the usual Western-Euro-style Latin characters — your ‘é’ and so on — to show up in the text. UTF-8 is what I need and what I can’t seem to make happen with my theme. I spent 90 minutes yesterday trying to make the words ‘Negură Bunget Zău’ happen and not have the band’s name or the album title show up with a question mark where the accent should be. If you look back over years of posts, you’ll see those question marks where accent characters should be. Even right now, in switching between the visual editor and the raw HTML, right this second, I’ve undone all the work I put it already this morning putting the code, helpfully given to me my June No (credit where it’s due) on FB, which was so fucking frustrating that I actually had to get up and walk away from the computer because of the time I’ve lost on this bullshit.
Could I just write Negura Bunget? Yup. Would anyone care? Nope. Would anyone remark on it? Nope. If I started this post with the standard-issue informational sentence “Romanian progressive/folk black metallers Negura Bunget will release their final album, Zau through Prophecy/Lupus Lounge on Nov. 26 and there’s a new video up now,” would anyone even blink? Nope. Why does it matter? I don’t know. I’ve even had to do it in the header.
And here we are.
The struggle is… stupid?
All of this for a single called — wait for it — “Brad.” And I know it’s in another language, and the translation is right below –BELIEVE ME I’VE READ THE PRESS RELEASE — but still. “Brad.” But yeah, the real version of the song is 15 minutes long and it’s glorious.
I can’t even get the characters to stay when I save. I might’ve wasted this entire time for nothing. Oh god damn it.
From the PR wire:
NEGURĂ BUNGET unveil details of their final album “Zău” and release video single ‘Brad’
NEGURĂ BUNGET are now unveiling the video ‘Brad’ (“fir tree”) as the first single taken from the Romanian black metal pioneers’ final album and conclusion of their “Transylvanian trilogy”, which is entitled “Zău” (“Old God”). “Zău” has been slated for release on November 26.
“Zău” is the legacy of drummer and mastermind “Gabriel “Negru” Mafa, who tragically passed far too early at the age of 42 years on March 21, 2017. This album has been completed and respectfully created upon Negru’s original drum-track recordings by the last line-up of NEGURĂ BUNGET.
Tracklist 1. Brad 2. Iarba Fiarelor 3. Obrăzar 4. Tinerete Fără Bătrânete 5. Toacă Din Cer
Release date: November 26, 2021
Line-up Gabriel “Negru” Mafa – drums, percussion Tibor Kati – vocals Adrian “OQ” Neagoe – guitars, keyboards Petrică Ionutescu – kaval (flute), nai (pan flute), tulnic (alphorn), duduk
Guest musicians Manuela Marchis – vocals on ‘Brad’
Visual design by Daniel Dorobantu
Mixing and mastering by Attila Lukinich All music and lyrics by Negură Bunget
This will be a two-week Quarterly Review. That means this Monday to Friday and next Monday to Friday, 10 releases per day, totaling 100 by the time it’s done.
Me? I’m taking it one week, one day, one album at a time. It’s the only way to go and not have it seem completely insurmountable. But we’ll get through it all. I started out with the usual five days, and then I went to seven, then eight, and at that point I felt like I had a pretty good idea where things were headed. The last two days I filled up just at the end of last week. Some of it is I think a result of quarantine productivity, but there’s a glut of relevant stuff out now and some of it I’m catching up on, true, but some of it isn’t out yet either, so it’s a balance as ever. I keep telling myself I’m done with 2020 releases, but there’s one in here today. You know how it goes.
And since you do, I won’t delay further. Thanks in advance for reading if you do.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Carlton Melton, Night Pillers
Rangey mellow psych collected together with the natural shimmer of a Phil Manley (Trans Am) recording and a John McBain master, the new mini-LP from Mendocino medicine makers Carlton Melton is a 31-minute, five-song meditative joy. To wit, “Safe Place?” Is. “Morning Warmth?” Is, even with the foreboding march of drums behind it. And “Striatum,” which closes with interplay of keys and fuzzy leads and effects, giving a culminating seven-minute wash that doesn’t feel like it’s pushing far out so much as already gone upon arrival, indeed seems like a reward for any head or brain that’s managed to make it so far. Opener “Resemblance” brings four minutes of gentle drone to set the mood ahead of “Morning Warmth” — it might be sunrise, if we’re thinking of it that way — and centerpiece “High Noon Thirty” bridges krauty electronic beats and organic ceremony that feels both familiar and like the band’s own. They may pill at night, but Carlton Melton have a hell of a day here.
Weaving in and around genres with fluidity that’s tied together through dark industrial foundations, Crown are as much black metal as they are post-heavy, cinematic or danceable. “Gallow” or the earlier “Neverland” call to mind mid-period, electronica-fascinated Katatonia, but “Extinction” pairs this with a more experimental feel, opening in its midsection to more unsettling spaces ahead of the dance-ready finish. There’s nothing cartoonish or vamp about The End of All Things, which is the French outfit’s fourth album in 10 years, and it’s as likely to embrace pop (closer “Utopia”) as extremity (“Firebearer” just before), grim atmospherics (“Nails”) or textured acoustics (“Fleuve”), feeling remarkably unconcerned with genre across its 45 entrancing minutes, and remarkably even in its approach for a sound that’s still so varied. It’s not an easy listen front to back, but the challenge feels intentional and is emotional as much as cerebral in the craft and performance.
Swedish duo Noêta offer their second record for Prophecy Productions in Elm, comprising a deceptively efficient eight songs and 38 minutes that work in atmospheres of darker but not grim or cultish folk. Vocalist Êlea is very much a focal point in terms of performance, with Andris‘ instrumentals forming a backdrop that’s mournful on “Above and Below” while shimmering enough to bring affirmation to “As We Are Gone” a short while later ahead of the electrified layering in “Elm” and the particularly haunted-feeling closer “Elm II.” “As I Fall Silent” is a singularly spacious moment, but not the only one, as “Fade” complements with strings and outward-sounding guitar, and some of Elm‘s most affecting moments are its quietest stretches, as “Dawn Falls” proves at the outset and the whispers of “Elm” reaffirm on side B. Subdued but not lacking complexity, Noêta‘s songs make an instrument of mood itself and are pointedly graceful in doing so.
Unostentatious, which is presumably not to say “humble,” may or may not be Polymerase‘s debut release, but it follows on from several years of inactivity on the part of the Philippines-based mostly-instrumentalist heavy psych trio. The band present four duly engaging and somewhat raw feeling jams, with a jump in volume as “Lightbringer//Lightgiver” picks up from “A Night with a Succubus” and opener “The Traveler” and a final touch of thickened, fuzzy sludge in the rolling “Green is the Color of Evil,” which closes at a lurch that comes across at significant remove from the title-hinted brightness of the song just before it. Uneven? Maybe, but not egregiously so, and if Polymerase are looking to give listeners an impression of their having a multifaceted sound, they most assuredly do. My question is over what span of time these tracks were recorded and what the group will do in moving forward from them, but I take the fact that I’m curious to find out at all as a positive sign of having interest piqued. Will hope for more.
Lucid indeed. The band’s self-applied genre tag of “adult AOR” is more efficient a descriptor of their sound than anything I might come up with. Glasgow’s Lucid Sins released their acclaimed debut, Occultation, in 2014, and Cursed! is the exclamatory seven-years-later follow-up, bringing together classic progressive rock and modern cult heavy sensibilities with a focus on songwriting that’s the undercurrent from “Joker’s Dance” onward and which, as deep as “The Serpentine Path” or the title-track or “The Forest” might go, is never forgotten. To wit, the penultimate “By Your Hand” is a proto-everything highlight, stomping compared to the organ-prog “Sun and the Moon” earlier, but ultimately just as melodic and of enviable tonal warmth. Seven years is a long time between records, and maybe this material just took that long to put together, I don’t know, but I had no idea “cult xylophone” was a possibility until “The Devil’s Sign” came along, and now I’m not sure how I ever lived without it.
Australia’s history in heavy rock and roll is as long as that of heavy rock and roll itself and need not be recounted here, except to say that Hekate, from Canberra and Sydney, draw from multiple eras of it with their debut long-player, Sermons to the Black Owl, pushing ’70s boogie over the top with solos on “Carpathian Eagle” only after “Winter Void” and “Child of Black Magick” have seen the double-guitar-and-let’s-use-both four-piece update nascent doom vibes and “Burning Mask” has brought a more severe chug to the increasingly intense procession. A full production sound refuses to let the quick eight-tracker be anything other than modern, and though it’s only 28 minutes long, the aptly-titled “Acoustic Outro” feels earned atmospherically, even down to the early-feeling cold finish of “Cassowary Dreaming.” The balance may be then, then, then, and now, but the sense of shove that Hekate foster in their songs gives fresh urgency to the tenets of genre they seem to have adopted at will.
One does not evoke elephantine images on a heavy record, even on a debut release, if aural largesse isn’t a factor. New Hampshire trio Abel Blood — guitarist/vocalist Adam Joslyn, bassist Ben Cook, drummer Jim DeLuca — are raw in sound on their first EP, Keeping Pace with the Elephants, but the impact with which they land “The Day that Moby Died” at the outset is only encouraging, and to be sure, it’s not the thickest of their wares either. “Enemies” already pushes further, and as centerpiece “UnKnown Variant” would seem to date the effort in advance, it also serves the vital function of moving the EP in a different, more jangly, grungier direction, which is a valuable move with the title cut following behind, its massive cymbals and distorted wash building to a head in time for the nine-minute finale “Fire on the Hillside” to draw together both sides of the approach shown throughout into a parabolically structured jam the middle-placed surge of which passes quickly enough to leave the listener unsure whether it ever happened. They’re messing with you. Dig that.
Begun in 2011 by guitarist/vocalist Stanislav Govorukha and based in Sweden by way of Poland and the Ukraine, death-doom lurchbringers Suffer Yourself are not strangers to longer-form material, but to my knowledge, “Spit in the Chasm” — the opening and longest track (immediate points) on their third record, Rip Tide — is the first time they’ve crossed the 20-minute mark. Time well spent, and by that I mean “brutally spent,” whether its the speedier chug that emerges from the willful slog of the extended piece’s first half or the viciously progressive lead work that tops the precise, cold end of the song that brings final ambience. Side B offers two shorter pieces in “Désir de Trépas Maritime (Au Bord de la Mer Je Veux Mourir),” laced with suitably mournful strings and a fair enough maritime sense of gothic drama emphasized by later spoken word and piano, and the brief, mostly-drone “Submerging,” which one assumes is the end of that plotline playing out. The main consumption though is in “Spit in the Chasm,” and the dimensions of that fissure are significant, figuratively and literally.
High order Sabbathian doom rock from my own beloved Garden State, there’s very little chance I’m not going to dig Green Dragon‘s Dead of the Night, and true to type, I do. Presented by the band on limited vinyl after digital release late in 2020, the four-song, 24-minute outing brings guitarist/vocalists Zach Kurland and Ryan Lipynsky (the latter also adding keys and known for his work in Unearthly Trance, etc.), bassist Jennifer Klein and drummer Herbert Wiley to a place so dug into its groove it almost feels inappropriate to think of it as a peak in terms of their work to-date. They go high by going low, then. Fair enough. “Altered States” opens with a rollout of fuzz that miraculously avoids the trap sounding like Electric Wizard, while “Burning Bridges” murks out, “The Sad King” pushes speed a bit will still holding firm to nod and echo alike, and “Book of Shadows” plunges into effects-drenched noise like it was one of the two waterslides at the Maplewood community pool in summertime.
The kind of record that probably won’t be heard by enough people but will inspire visceral loyalty in many of those who encounter it, the self-titled debut from French collaborative outfit Age Total — bringing together members from Endless Floods out of Bordeaux and Rouen’s Greyfell — is a grand and engrossing work that pushes the outer limits of doom and post-metal. Bookending opener “Amure” (14:28) and closer “The Songbird” (16:45) around the experimentalist “Carré” (4:06) and rumbling melodic death-doom of “Metal,” the album harnesses grandiosity and nuance to spare, with each piece feeling independently conceived and enlightening to musician and audience alike. It sounds like the kind of material they didn’t know they were going to come up with until they actually got together — whatever the circumstances of “together” might’ve looked like at the time — and the bridges they build between progressive metal and sheer weight of intention are staggering. However much hype it does or doesn’t have behind it, Age Total‘s Age Total is one of 2021’s best debut albums.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 25th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Think maybe we’ll get some new Year of the Cobra soon? That’d be cool. Their last record, 2019’s Ash and Dust (review here), was their best yet, and they went on tour in Europe to support its release through Prophecy Productions. The Seattle duo are no strangers to road work, but even if their thinking in that regard hasn’t changed, the world in which they’re operating has. Still, it’s more than welcome to see them getting once more into the fray even if I won’t actually get to see them perform. Hey, maybe you will. Or a couple other lucky Sacramento types. Who knows?
They’re calling it a mini-tour, which by their standard is fair enough, but one way or the other it’s select dates along the West Coast — a Seattle show at El Corazon tucked in amid a couple travel weekends — and maybe that’s an initial putting-out of feelers to see what the situation is in venues, with humans, and so on. Again, legit. One imagines that the last year-plus has left Year of the Cobra particularly antsy to play, since it’s kind of second nature to them — or was, anyhow. Whatever. Get your vaccine and go see bands and buy shirts and records and all that stuff. I hope these gigs go well and Year of the Cobra do more soon. If they wanna add a Parsippany, New Jersey, date anytime, I’ll book the Mt. Tabor Firehouse and invite a couple friends (note: I don’t really have friends). We can get Tabor Pizza and beers from Hoover’s.
Until then:
We’ve all weathered the storm, now let’s party extra hard! We’ve missed you, come out to a show and say hi! More shows to announce soon!
8/13 – Bremerton, WA. – The Manette Saloon 8/20 – Nevada City, CA. – The Brick 8/21 – San Francisco, CA. Bottom of the Hill 8/22 – Sacramento, CA. – Holy Diver 8/27 – Seattle, WA. – El Corazon 9/10 – Bellingham, WA. – The Shakedown 9/11 – Portland, OR. – The High Water Mark
Posted in Questionnaire on April 12th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Êlea of NOÊTA
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I’m a singer, musician and a visual artist.Musically, I define NOÊTA as a dynamic mixture between folk, black metal, and dark ambient, with my singing as a contrasting element. I never really chose to do music, but it’s been something I’ve needed to do to feel complete.
Describe your first musical memory.
Probably singing in the Church choir as a three-year old.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Very tough question, I’ve had so many great musical memories. I think it would be either times of writing my own music, in especially creative times, or one of the many great live concerts I’ve been to.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Constantly, I feel. I live a life of constant exploration and I think we should never stop challenging our beliefs.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
The obvious answer is to new creative expressions. But I think the neat thing about being an artist is that, at least for me, so much of the value of life is interconnected with music and creativity. So exploring and progressing in your artistic expression is in a way what gives some bigger purpose to life.
How do you define success?
Success is dangerous to define by any external values or opinions, or by things like financial gain or popularity. I believe that in the end, success is the constant work towards your goals. It’s not a place that you reach, and then you’re finished. Success to me is more a “state” and a mindset.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
The slow destruction of our natural surroundings at the hands of humanity.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Music in so many shapes and forms. I like and appreciate a lot of different expressions of music, and I hope to create something of another genre than that of my current project, NOÊTA. I’d like to sing a lot more during my everyday life. So, more so than what I want to create, my goals are about focusing more time and energy towards singing and music.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
There is no one answer to that question, as art affects people in very different ways, and in a multitude of ways at that. For me art is about experiencing, expressing or exploring different emotions, feelings, concepts or settings. Art that doesn’t prompt any emotional response whatsoever is quite useless, or serves the same purpose as a wall paper or a nice pair of pants.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
