A Handful of Recent Acquisitions

Jul 21, 2003
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Glenn Danzig Black Aria- One of the first "metal" musicians to develop an ambient/darkwave project. Similar in style and compares favorably to Varg's first "keyboard" album.

8/10

Robert Fripp The Gates of Paradise- This is the most focused and consciously developed of Fripp's ambient works I've encountered to date. In fact, though the approach and aesthetic are within the boundaries of ambient music, this is symphonic music at its core.

10/10

Nile Annihilation of the Wicked- Heh, there was already a copy in the used bin, so I picked it up. The talent and vision have always been there (see "To Dream of Ur"), but the band long held themselves back by being too wedded to their schtick and too solicitous of the expectations of brutal death metal fans. The soundtrack elements have been toned down to serve the music, rather than than serving as a distraction, and of the 10 tracks, only "Cast Down the Heretic," "Sacrifice Unto Sebek" and the sixth track (which has some ridiculously long title I'm not going to bother writing out) fall into that generic Incantation meets Morbid Angel meets Suffocation pit that ensnared so much of their past offerings. The rest of the material is complex, epic, innovative and, for the first time, consistently coherent. "User-Maat-Re" alone is worth the price of admission, and ranks among the better extreme metal pieces ever written.

9.5/10

Striborg Misanthropic Isolation/In the Heart of the Rainforest- This sits somewhere between Volkurah and Ildjarn. Bizarre, beautiful black metal that is as much ambient distortion as anything else (though quite melodic in the space between the noise). An arcane ritual glimpsed through night and fog.

10/10
 
I'm just giving the Nile a first listen now. I'm only on track 2, but they already appear to have improved on the bulk of their previous work in that the tempo changes sound far less forced.

I wonder if we should have an "official haul+mini-review thread" or some sort. This is ten times more useful than the cock-waggling shitness that is the regular haul thread.
 
I'm surprised that you guys have been getting into Nile at all, but opinions do change, oh yes they do.

Now, I congratulated Karl Sanders at the King Diamond show for his work on Annihilation, because the production is 500 times better than past efforts.
 
I've just recently gotten my head around Striborg, and it's quite horrific stuff if you let it envelop you. The album Spiritual Catharsis is a twisted fabric of nightmarish soundscapes.
 
"Robert Fripp The Gates of Paradise"

Glad someone has finally taken one of my recommendations and finally picked it up. I don't know if you heard about that album here, but either way, glad someone else has listened to it.

A Blessing of Tears is also recommended from the same artist.
 
Erik said:
Noone's stopping you from posting good posts in that thread though. I was just about to ask why every ANUS fanboi seems to consider himself too cool to post in the regular threads (i.e. posting reviews and acquisitions in a seperate thread EVERY FUCKING TIME instead of posting in the designated haul and "talk about music you like" threads)

If by "every" you mean "just PE" then yeah. ;)
 
Okay, forgive the ignorance, but why does the name Robert Fripp sound familiar? Has he been involved in anything else other than a solo ambient project?
 
Erik said:
Noone's stopping you from posting good posts in that thread though. I was just about to ask why every ANUS fanboi seems to consider himself too cool to post in the regular threads (i.e. posting reviews and acquisitions in a seperate thread EVERY FUCKING TIME instead of posting in the designated haul and "talk about music you like" threads)

Striborg is pretty shitty from what I have heard... Original for sure, but certainly not 10/10 material... Then again I haven't heard that particular release.

Those massive ongoing threads suck IMO.

Danzig - Black Aria, was ok, but it is a little 'artsy' for Danzig and his first 3 albums dominated so much more, this one sort of just pales in comparison
 
Ben_t said:
I think I should check this new Nile then, never liked them before but with what I'm reading here I should at least give it a try.

.



And Striborg is so bad it hurts. Bloody Tasmanian inbred bastard.