Posted in Whathaveyou on July 22nd, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Naturally, they wouldn’t want to give away too much at this point, but 11Paranoias‘ audio teaser derived from the closing track to their fourth album, Reliquary for a Dreamed of World does find what’s becoming a trademark bleak psychedelia well intact and is just long enough to give some impression of their swirling psychosis to the listener who may have been previously drawn to their work either for 2014’s Stealing Fire from Heaven or Spectralbeastiaries or their 2013 debut, Superunnatural. The album will be released Oct. 28 via Ritual Productions, the track in question is called “Milk of Amnesia” and the band is comprised of the returning lineup of bassist/vocalist Adam Richardson (ex-Ramesses), guitarist Mike Vest (also Bong) and drummer Nathan Perrier (ex-Capricorns).
A couple of live dates in their native UK have been announced — one this weekend, one next — but more are reportedly impending, so when and if I hear of whatever I hear, I’ll be sure to pass along word. In the meantime, word from the PR wire about the album is below, followed of course by links and that teaser.
Dig it:
11PARANOIAS announce new LP Reliquary For A Dreamed Of World; and share ‘Milk Of Amnesia’, plus live shows incoming
RELEASE DATE: 28 OCTOBER ON RITUAL PRODUCTIONS
11PARANOIAS send back their latest report from the frontiers of heavy psychedelic rock, bringing to Ritual Productions their staggering fourth LP, Reliquary For A Dreamed Of World.
The trio of Adam Richardson, Mike Vest and Nathan Perrier have aroused gargantuan riffs from ancient slumber, mustered streams of irradiated noise, and arranged them to form an impressive, kaleidoscopic creation that shall see the light of day on October 28th.
More details regarding the new record will be announced over the coming months. In the meantime, 11PARANOIAS are planning on more live rituals, beginning this week with two shows – details below.
July 23rd – Doomlines Festival, Yorkshireman Rock Bar, Sheffield July 28th – Big Red, London (extended set)
Well here we are. Standing on the precipice of a week of 50 reviews, looking out together at the geographic and sonic expanses that will be covered. I never know entirely what a given Quarterly Review is going to bring. Some have been smooth, some not. This one is being put together very little pre-production in terms of chasing down band links and that sort of thing, so I expect it’s going to be an adventure one way or another. I’ll keep you updated as we go as to my mental state and the deterioration thereof.
If you don’t know the drill, The Obelisk’s Quarterly Review is a week every three months in which I review 10 albums per day, Monday through Friday. Some of it was released in the prior three months, some of it is brand new, some of it probably isn’t out yet, some of it is probably older. It’s all relevant one way or another. I hope you find something you enjoy.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Sourvein, Aquatic Occult
Looking at the makeup of Sourvein’s much-awaited fourth album, Aquatic Occult (on Metal Blade), it’s understandable why it might’ve taken five years to put together. Yes, they had splits out in between, as they do, but the band’s last full-length was 2011’s Black Fangs (review here), and though the 14-song/42-minute Aquatic Occult is manageable, with a host of interludes to carry the listener along its thick-toned, undulating waves, a swath of guest appearances no doubt played havoc with logistics. Fortunately, Sourvein’s figurehead, vocalist T-Roy Medlin, seems to thrive on chaos. Working with producer Mike Dean (C.O.C.), and a revolving-door lineup that here features Lou Gorra of Halfway to Gone, Medlin brazenly explores a more melodic dynamic than he ever has. It’s a rare band looking to experiment after 20 years, a rarer band still that pulls it off so well. There’s still some sludgy rasp and guest growling, but Sabbathian roll is the order of the day ultimately and Medlin’s homage to his home in Cape Fear, North Carolina, establishes a breadth unheard before from Sourvein that’s worthy of the years and obvious effort that went into its making.
Hamburg duo Mantar’s blend of thrash, sludge and blackened doom is brash, righteously punkish and thus far uncompromised in its malevolent intent. On their second album and Nuclear Blast debut, Ode to the Flame, songs like “Era Borealis” swagger as much as they sneer, the middle-finger-up arrogance becoming part of the appeal. “The Hint” offers some tinge of melody and “I Omen” some organ-laced atmospherics, but Mantar, who debuted in 2015 with the also fire-minded Death by Burning (review here) on Svart, carry their extremity forward like the next logical step of the same impulses that High on Fire once brought forth. Their tempo shifts, from blazing squibblies to outright lumbering, are pulled off with due fuckall, and the shouts from guitarist/vocalist Hanno and drummer/vocalist Erinc are spit forth in a manner near-indecipherable but still have no trouble getting their point across. Mantar are positioning themselves to be the kick in the ass that the underground needs. The next few years (and albums) will see how that pans out, but for now they have two scorchers under their collective belt.
There is a stylistic restlessness to stretches of Elevators to the Grateful Sky’s second record, Cape Yawn (on HeviSike), that becomes the uniting factor between the adrenaline-amped opening with “Ground” and “Bullet Words” and the later dream-surf Yawning Man-meets-sax unfurling of the title-track. The Palermo, Italy, outfit have stated their intention as capturing a blend of ‘90s alternative and modern heavy. Fair enough, but hearing that play out on the penultimate “Mountain Ship” in a mix of weighted riffing and laid back vocals giving way to shouts, it seems that to me that next time out, Elevators to the Grateful Sky should probably just start saying they sound like themselves, because they do. Granted, they’re pulling elements from familiar sources – Soundgarden, Kyuss, etc. – but in giving them new context, the four-piece are defining their sound as moving fluidly between the various styles, and that’s to be commended. The more you put into listening, the more you’ll get out of it.
Representing a 50 percent reunion of Burning Witch, the droning contemplations and hellish atmospherics of The Poisoned Glass’ Ritual Productions debut, 10 Swords, pique immediate interest. And bassist/percussionist/etc.-ist G. Stuart Dahlquist and vocalist/keyboardist Edgy 59 do not disappoint. With unspeakable patience, they execute six grueling and cinematic pieces that seem to find comfort in tortured expression and that feel claustrophobic even as they continue to expand outward and downward through “Plume Veil” and “Toil and Trouble” into the extended closing duo “Silent Vigil” – spoiler alert: not actually silent – and “Low Spirits,” which moves from minimalist stillness through far-back screams and into a wash of synth before its seven minutes are up, covering more ground in one track than some bands do in their entire career. Fair to say on the whole 10 Swords is an immersive listen, but the prevailing vibe is much less “diving in” than “being swallowed whole by some obscure medieval terror.” So, you know, watch out for that.
Los Angeles newcomers Spirit Collector make their debut with the self-released, three-song Owls to Athens EP, clear in its intent and brimming with airy, post-rock-derived guitar atmospherics. A particularly telling moment arrives with the Terence McKenna sample in centerpiece “Reclaim Your Mind,” which speaks of casting off the culture of celebrity worship for a richer human experience, but it’s in the extended closer “Theosophy” (7:57) that Spirit Collector find their footing someplace between a doomed plod and thoughtful psychedelia, picking up a chugging momentum as they push through toward the almost blackened finish, having come a surprising distance since their eponymous opener set the tone for expanse. An encouraging first offering if somewhat familiar superficially as instrumental heavy post-rock (think Explosions in the Sky, Russian Circles, Red Sparowes, etc.), and there’s nothing in Owls to Athens to make one think Spirit Collector can’t move forward and develop the experimental drive they begin to show here.
Vieh, the debut full-length from Colonge-based desert rocking foursome Phiasco, takes its name from the German word for “cattle.” The band owe some of their fuzz to Truckfighters and some of their psychedelic wash to Sungrazer, but the attitude in songs like “Ultimate Warrior” – comprised largely of riffs topped with an extended sample from the titular professional wrestler – and “Sunndown” is their own, as is the we’re-still-having-a-really-good-time-while-we-make-this-15-minute-song closer “Phisco” (sic), a highlight of the live-recorded full-length, which across its span is light on pretense and heavy on bounce. Cuts like “Old Town” and opener “Back to the Future” – hey, that’s a movie! – bring catchy hooks, and the uptempo “Erasing Rabbits with My Phaserlight” winds up as harmonized as goofed out, and thus is all the more engaging. There’s a certain amount of getting by on charm here, but Phiasco have a capable, varied songwriting process that’s given due fullness and clarity in these eight tracks.
Man, who gives a shit about anything else when Glaswegian five-piece The Cosmic Dead are enacting their hypnotic swirl? Their latest instrumental invitation to watch existence melt is called Rainbowhead and it arrives through Paradigms Recordings (CD) and Blackest Rainbow Records (LP) with four tracks that serve as the band’s first full-length since 2014’s EasterFaust, though they’ve had splits in between to keep a prolific rate of offerings fitting for their explorational heavy psych/space rock. The bulk of Rainbowhead is engagingly upbeat as side A plays out across “Human Sausage,” “Skye Burial” and the 13-minute “Inner C,” and side B’s 18-minute title-track follows suit as The Cosmic Dead seem to have found a similar niche between progressive rock and psych to that which Mammatus proffered on their most recent outing. It suits The Cosmic Dead, and they keep an improv vibe prevalent as ever, grasping the subconscious with trip-on-it lysergic pulsations.
Deeply textured and lush in its construction around guitar arrangements, percussive and keyboard-laden melodic flourish, Postures’ second full-length, Halucinda (on World in Sound), plays back and forth between prog and heavy rock impulses. The Gothenburg, Sweden, five-piece seem most at home in extended tracks like “Myriad Man,” “Every Room” and the jazzy 10-minute “Wavemaker,” but even the acoustic-led centerpiece interlude “A Million Sequences” invites the audience to turn up the volume for maximum wash effect. Paulina Nyström delivers a powerful, commanding and fluid vocal performance, and while the rhythm section of bassist Per Pettersson and drummer Isak Björhag are the foundation on which these complex structures play out – Viktor Andersson and Benjamin Watts handle guitar; Madeleine Sjögren is credited with backing vocals/keys and Margit Gyllspång percussion/backing vocals – there’s no angle from which Postures don’t come across rich and vital in their winding but well-plotted course, one song feeding fluidly to the next until the dreamy “In the Dark” rounds out with the emotional apex of the record.
What else to call a stoner band from Estonia? Estoner’s appeal, however, goes well beyond their moniker. The Tallinn-based outfit’s second album, Lennud Saatana Dimensioonis, arrives in a handmade hexagonal CD package, heat sealed, as well as with complete visual accompaniment on limited VHS and cassette via Golem Records. The music is no less relentlessly creative, running a gamut between prog, black metal, heavy rock, psychedelia, space rock and probably a few others in its seven-track course. A song like “Teleporteerumine” conjures darkened swirl and “Reptiloid” follows through with foreboding threat, but Estoner plunge even deeper as they go, proferring aesthetic reach that makes seemingly disparate elements work together fluidly on “Hüvasti, Kosmiline Monoliit” and the 10-minute closing title-track. Perhaps the highest compliment one can pay to Lennud Saatana Dimensioonis is to call it Svart-worthy, as its diverse means of engulfing the listener speak to a forward-thinking approach that one can only hope Estoner continue to develop.
Extra points to Swedish troupe The Black Explosion for opening their third album, the space-fuzzed out Atomic Zod War (on Metalville Records), with its longest track, the 13-minute “Paralyzed.” That song offers a languid voyage through uncharted jammy reaches, and that sets an open, laid back expectation that the rest of the album seems only too glad to build on, from the Nebula-via-Monster Magnet blown out vibes of “Ain’t Coming Home” to the semi-garage buzz of “Going Down,” a highlight groove that emphasizes the natural, raw tones at play leading into “Get My Mind Together” and the finisher “Devil Inside,” which brings the guitar of Chris Winter (also Dollhouse) forward with backing from bassist Simon Haraldsson and drummer Andreas Lindquist that feels born of the new West Coast tradition but is likely playing off of older impulses. But for its hey-look-it’s-tits cover art, the grit Atomic Zod War offers comes through organically and draws the listener in with its live feel and underlying boogie.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
UK drone-trippers Bong seem to be so perennially lost in the cosmic fog that it’s a wonder their material can even be recorded. Like you’d try to put it on tape and the tape would melt. Their discography is a largely-impossible-to-track current of EPs, splits and limited releases, but damn it, Bong just keep going. It’s like they’re mining an asteroid to find a path to the Great Zoneout so we don’t have to. They’re not always heavy in the sense of tonal overload, but their explorations carry weight beyond common measurement, and they’re immersive past the point of no return. If a Bong record is on repeat, you might not escape.
If the hyperbole hasn’t made it plain, I find these to be admirable qualities, even if it means Bong aren’t everyday listening. After releasing their 2014 don’t-call-us-this Stoner Rock full-length, they’ll return with two more side-consuming extended slabs on May 25. Dubbed We Are, We Were and We Will Have Been, it will be released by Ritual Productions, and the PR wire brings album art and details:
BONG REVEAL DETAILS OF A BRAND NEW ALBUM, WE ARE, WE WERE AND WE WILL HAVE BEEN
UPCOMING ON RITUAL PRODUCTIONS, 25TH MAY
The fifth album from Bong has been declared and is upcoming on Ritual Productions on 25th May.
We are, we were and we will have been continues the band’s unregulated experiments on tonal prolonging. Solemn in its delivery and frightening in its implications, this latest LP signifies a point of no return from the Pied Pipers of mesmeric drone, its two near twenty minute tracks will surely loop and envelop indefinitely, freeing the listener from this increasingly unfamiliar material world and mercifully trapping them in the weightlessness of Bong’s sonic void.
Microtonal adjustments and invading frequencies are pleated into a tapestry of gooey guitar and midnight-ritual percussion, melting at a glacial pace across ‘Time Regained’ and ‘Find Your Own Gods’. The first of the two tracks creaks under the weight of residual distortion and unfathomable density, while the second opens with the powerful command of the track title, evoking a deity-defying thought process that unravels through the duration of the song, providing the synth-mist and distant rumbles with an origin so ancient it predates comprehension.
We are, we were and we will have been is Bong’s report from their explorations past the point where others fear. Dangerous and sublime, you can sample their findings when the album is released on LP/CD and DL on 25th May via Ritual Productions. The album was captured and mixed in November 2014 by Mark Wood at the Soundroom in Gateshead, and the cover art is from ‘Thomson’s Aeolian Harp’, by famed pre-impressionist painter JMW Turner, picturing an infant London in the background.
We are, we were and we will have been 1. Time Regained 2. Find Your Own Gods
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 25th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
With a sound built on echoing psychedelic doom obscurities, 11Paranoias will reemerge this fall with a new album called Stealing Fire from Heaven, furthering their penchant for horror on what will be close to the three-year anniversary of the project having been formed by bassist/vocalist Adam Richardson. Formerly of Ramesses, Richardson formed 11Paranoias with his ex-bandmate Mark Greening on drums, but the lineup is now comprised of himself, guitarist Mike Vest (also Bong) and drummer Nathan Perrier, formerly of Capricorns. This is important to remember because no doubt the songs themselves will sound brutally inhuman and one wants to be reminded that people actually made the thing.
Darkness swirls at the mouth of the PR wire, which brings word of the album and the new song “Surrealise” available to stream:
11PARANOIAS ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM DETAILS AND UNVEIL FIRST TRACK
DUE FOR NOVEMBER 10 RELEASE VIA RITUAL PRODUCTIONS
London-based psychedelic doom trio, 11PARANOIAS, have today announced details of their forthcoming album, and unveiled the first track to be taken from it.
The album, titled Stealing Fire From Heaven, will be the third release from the band, following on from their 2013 offering Superunnatural, and Spectralbeastiaries which was released in March 2014. The first track to be unleashed is “Surrealise” – a sultry jam that starts of with sleazy, sepia-toned sax before breaking out to segue into an earth rumbling doom groove.
The phenomenal artwork for Stealing Fire From Heaven is a piece by celebrated pioneer of the Surrealist art movement, Max Ernst, entitled ‘The Temptation of St Anthony’. The artwork can be seen below.
11PARANOIAS encapsulate otherworldliness and psychedelia, drawing in inspiration, and spewing out the results in a devilish cocktail of riffs, fuzz and fury. Formed on 11/11/11 with a jam that set them off on this eventful musical path, the band has relied on improvisation and instinct throughout; at no point more so than when it came to record Stealing Fire From Heaven. With no songs written or rehearsed, the band decamped to the studio on the summer solstice to lay down the seven tracks that make up the album. The results are a heady mix of low swirling grooves, super heavy psych and seriously uneasy listening.
Adam Richardson (bass/vocals) provides an insight into the recording process for the album:
“We have made full use of the ‘automatic’ process again on Stealing Fire From Heaven – not just the lyrical/incantation aspect, but the entire process – and it has rewarded us with this ‘unseen apparition’ which we love! It takes guts, blood, trance dwelling exploration of inner and outer space, and an unflinching will to make a record in this method….
“Surrealise, despite its ‘born of nothing’ approach, delves naturally into a mournful lament, of ‘killing sadness’ – that could only be divined and not written. We have coaxed Stealing Fire From Heaven from our consciousness and the stars into this dull dimension we (think we) know. Any idiot can write a great song, learn it and record it, but this traditional approach has become dead to us…
“Long live the new flesh!”
The solid trio at the core of the fuzz-fuelled fury are Adam Richardson, Mike Vest (guitar) and Nathan Perrier (drums), who each bring their own past experiences and weight to the table. Stealing Fire From Heaven was recorded and mixed in the summer of 2014 at London School of Sound and XL Recordings. Adam Richardson also played keyboards on the record. Saxophone and synth is contributed by Austin Milne.
Stealing Fire From Heaven will be released on 10th November 2014 via Ritual Productions. Further details of the album, including preorder information, will be made available in the coming weeks.
The full track listing is as follows: 1. The Great Somnambulist 2. Paranoiditude (Beyond The Grave) 3. Surrealise 4. At The Cursus 5. By The Light Of A Dying Star (Neutron Start) 6. Lost To Smoke 7. Retribution of Dreams
11PARANOIAS will play the following shows: 30/10/14 Underworld, London, UK 01/11/14 Grenswerk, Venlo, Netherlands 02/11/14 Glazart, Paris, France 09/11/14 Exchange, Bristol, UK
Posted in audiObelisk on May 8th, 2012 by JJ Koczan
Bong‘s is a swirling cosmic atmosphere of psychedelic exploration and ritualistic drone. Among the countless live albums, splits, EPs and other limited releases, each time they coalesce in the form of a full-length, it’s more of an event than an album, and the fourth and latest, Mana-Yood-Sushai (out May 14 through Ritual Productions) is the grandest yet. Taking the Newcastle four-piece’s methods of crafting huge, expansive works of riff hypnosis and coupling them with a genuine studio production at the hands of Greg Chandler of Esoteric, the latest outing gives Bong a shape without limiting their movement into, through and around it.
It’s heady shit, in other words — and I absolutely mean that as a compliment. Comprised of just two tracks, Mana-Yood-Sushai is at once complex and minimalistic, its psych wash and chants dense, and there are times listening to the 27 minutes of “Dreams of Mana-Yood-Sushai” when you feel like there’s no path out of it, like Bong have locked you in the temple and the only option you have left is to join them in their worship. Doom by way of Stockholm Syndrome? Maybe, but it’s glorious, either way.
And yet there’s something blissful in “Dreams of Mana-Yood-Sushai” by the end of it, the gradual evolution of the guitar line leading to a sort of melodic hum underlying the weight of the ambience. Bong‘s prior LP outing, Beyond Ancient Space (review here), was nearly 80 minutes long, and at just over 46, Mana-Yood-Sushai isn’t so much a change in methodology as it is a charted course into the band’s peculiar and impeccably constructed tonal abyss.
I’m fortunate enough today to be able to stream “Dreams of Mana-Yood-Sushai” in its 27-minute entirety. Please find the track on the player below, followed by some info from the label, and enjoy:
Psyched-out, marvelously prolific doomlords Bong have returned once again from the outer limits of doom, drone, and Eastern melody to grace and glorify the riff upon their latest offering, a brand new album, Mana-Yood-Sushai. The album will be released on May 14 by England’s Ritual Productions, longtime supporters and purveyors of the doomed. The ethereal cover artwork is an image of a Nicolas Roerich painting titled “Mount of Five Treasures.”
Following last year’s masterpiece Beyond Ancient Space, this two-horned behemoth was recorded, mixed and mastered in just two days in December 2011, marking the first time Bong have ever entered a professional studio and recorded with an engineer. The esoteric outfit previously preferred to record live, and in shed, and in fields, and wherever the riff saw fit to lead them.
At the helm was Greg Chandler of Esoteric, who had this to say about the experience:“It was really great to record an album live in the studio with Bong, whose heavy, droning, psychedelic improvisations unfolded like a lucid, transcendental journey. Great vibe to the session with these guys, and a real pleasure to work with. I really enjoyed the session, was cool to work with a band that can just get in and do their thing with a completely no nonsense approach!”
Bassist/vocalist DaveTerry commented, “Two tracks emerged from our battles with the unfamiliar disconnectedness of studio recording, inspired in turn by the stories of LordDunsany and the meandering psychedelic rock of Träd Gräs och Stenar. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy playing them.”
The British trio’s second release of 2011, Ramesses’ Possessed by the Rise of Magik follows the Chrome Pineal EP (review here) released earlier this year and 2010’s stunningly bleak second full-length, Take the Curse. Issued, like the Dorset unit’s two prior documents, on their own Ritual Productions, Possessed by the Rise of Magik pushes the three-piece even deeper into the ether-soaked rag of darkened ceremonial psychedelia. At seven tracks/51 minutes, it is Ramesses at their most atmospherically coherent yet, and it seems that with the prolific stage they entered last year has come a full command of their sound and aesthetic. Possessed by the Rise of Magik is as lethal for its eerie ambience as for the abrasion in the music itself.
First and foremost, Possessed by the Rise of Magik is fucked. Taking some of black metal’s lo-fi approach and transposing it onto their dreary, spaced-out riffing, bassist/vocalist Adam Richardson, guitarist Tim Bagshaw and drummer Mark Greening have truly come into their own, but the record was captured live and it sounds like it. There’s a visceral energy in what they’re doing, and an energy in the tracks that’s almost unspeakable in its potency, but it listening, it sounds like everything’s pushed back in the mix. It’s a hard listen. Richardson’s “clean” vocals on opener “Invisible Ritual” have a desperate howl, and they’re offset by a torrent of riffs and screams that only add to the mash of noise the track presents. It is among the more actively-paced songs on Possessed by the Rise of Magik, and nearly half the length of everything else at 3:38, and, like with Take the Curse, as the album develops, it only moves farther and farther out.
That, too, is a part of Ramesses’ development as a band. Where Chrome Pineal was comprised half of studio material and half of live tracks, Possessed by the Rise of Magik is unquestionably a full-length, and not just for its runtime. Though they provide landmarks along the way – memorable bits for the listener to grasp onto, as with the huge undulating riff that takes hold of “Towers of Silence”’s second half, or the militaristic snare from Greening that sets the rhythm in the opening movement of “Plague Beak,” or even the blatant groove in Richardson’s bass that leads “Duel” while Bagshaw plucks ambient notes behind – it’s easy to hear Possessed by the Rise of Magik as a morass of noise, which I think is just what the band wanted from it. Their sound has grown into this. It’s what their earlier work on 2007’s Misanthropic Alchemy was hinting at. But yeah, completely and totally fucked.
The further British doom trio Ramesses delve into their own darkened rites and ritualistic sonics, the less relevant their connection to Electric Wizard becomes. Indeed, as that act has gone on to embrace pop structures and classic songwriting approaches, Ramesses – drummer Mark Greening, guitarist Tim Bagshaw and vocalist/bassist Adam Richardson – have moved in what feels like the opposite direction, culling their hypnotic power not from catchy choruses and riffy hooks, but from backpatch-worthy bleakness, dirges caked in sonic filth and abrasive feedback, and an ambience that seems to bubble up from some kind of primordial mud. Their 2010 offering, Take the Curse (review here), was the first release through their own Ritual Productions imprint, and in 2011, they follow it with both the Chrome Pineal 12” vinyl/digital release and the Possessed by the Rise of Magik full-length. The 12” reaches 40 minutes and is comprised half of new studio tracks and half of live material (three cuts of each), and comes off feeling more like an EP than a complete album, especially given how vivid Ramesses have become in honing a cohesive atmosphere when they want to.
The EP Chrome Pineal is named for its opening song, a nine and a half minute instrumental excursion into subdued but still creepy psychedelic jamming. Considering the abrasive ethic noted above and the fact that Take the Curse was practically death metal at times, “Chrome Pineal” is something of a surprise, but it’s nonetheless well performed, and listening to it, one can begin to get a sense of how these influences also show up in Ramesses’ “heavier” material. The live tracks, recorded in 2007 in Denmark, display some of the same bent toward repetition and open soundscaping. Shorter and more akin to what’s come to be expected of Ramesses is “Blazoned Fauna,” which finds Richardson playing clean vocals and throaty growls off each other in a more lamenting atmosphere. The transition between “Chrome Pineal” and “Blazoned Fauna” is awkward, but Chrome Pineal being an EP, it still works. There seems to be more continuity between “Blazoned Fauna” and sample-laden side A closer “Men of Horror,” which is perhaps the most ceremonial-feeling of all the songs here present. The trio’s long-maintained fascination with classic horror cinema is well noted, and the darkness they bring out of the music – slow, punishing, peppered with mysterious incantations and sludgy screams – is thick enough to drown in. It’s only five minutes long, but that’s more than enough time for Ramesses to make it hurt.
Posted in Reviews on April 28th, 2011 by JJ Koczan
With its slew of 20-plus splits, EPs, live albums and compilations, Bong’s discography over the last four years is almost as murky as the UK four-piece’s music itself. On their Ritual Productions (who released Ramesses’ album last year and will have more from them shortly) debut, Beyond Ancient Space, Bong don’t so much affect an atmosphere as inflict it. From within a haze so thick you can’t see out of it, Bong straddle a line between sludge and drone that’s unquestionably heavy despite its jammed-out, live feel. The repetition on Beyond Ancient Space’s three tracks – which cover an overwhelming 79:51 runtime – is encompassing. In succession, “Onward to Perdóndaris” (25:33), “Across the Timestream” (25:03) and “In the Shadow of the Towers” (29:16) mesmerize with riffs, or rather, with riff, because despite an evolution within each track, Bong’s tendency is to spend an awfully long time jamming out the same part.
If you’ve ever seen a solo drone performance or someone constructing soundscapes with guitar, you’ve probably watched as they set a bed of loops that gradually, as the piece progresses, is built upon. As a full band, Bong nonetheless feel like they’re doing the same thing on Beyond Ancient Space’s component material. Each song begins gradually. “Onward to Perdóndaris” opens with silence before someone – presumably bassist Dave Terry, who handles vocals when they pop up – says “Perdóndaris” and the bass kicks in, soon followed by the drums of Mike Smith and Mike Vest’s guitar. Ben Freeth contributes sitar and Shahi Baaja, which rests repetitive figures on top of the aforementioned bed of drones. Smith does the honor of keeping Bong’s Beyond Ancient Space moving forward, which is no easy task, and one gets the sense that without his (again) gradual slowdown on “Across the Timestream,” the song might just go on forever into perpetuity.
