I'm having a year of focusing on new music. Mainly because there' s so much to look forward to this particular anum. So here's a constantly updating space where when I get ten minutes at work I'll scribble some thoughts about an album I've been listening to on the bus for the last few days then chuck it up on here. New reviews will appear at the bottom of the page for a while until I decided to alphabetise.
Virus - The Agent That Shapes the Dessert 8/10 (81%)
I have so so much love for this Norwegian band and I've been counting the days to this coming out. It's my first official Album of 2011 too, so getting off on the right foot! Carl-Michael Eide was one of the limbs in Ved Buens Ende with creative brethren Vicotnik, until they disbanded, seemingly because at the time nobody got what they were doing, lots of reviews and such claiming they didn't know how to tune (let alone play-) their instruments; when in fact, they were extremely ahead of their time (Only need to listen to Mastodon who did essentially the exact same thing with their guitars only with punk at their core rather than black metal). Then after Carl's fall VBE reformed, only for Carl to realise he wanted to do a project where he had 100% creative say and Vicotnik knew his own VBE input could be recycled in Dodheimsgard. Thus came Virus.
This album is the third in a series of completely cult releases and is still essentially avant-garde rock with leanings toward epic black metal sensibilities. It is not a big departure from previous album The Black Flux, which is a good and a, well it's just a good thing really (more later-ish).
Anyway, No hiding behind horrible frequencies to horrify the listener, just genuinely intricate guitar work. It really is a genuinely unique sound with lots of minor first intervals bleeding into one another creating beating effects that only a specific guitar tone and tuning can compliment (a fairly raw but clean sound with lots of clink and string noise). It's actually bordering on virtuoso stuff and is a whole new school in riff writing which I hope more bands can tap into and put there slant on it (Not just Mastodon (And whirling (And Acolyte) ) ).
The vocals here are, as always, a strong point and coupled with the riffs, it's majestic, maddening and ultimately charming. Maybe not quite as epic as previous releases though. They're a little dryer and louder in the mix making them slightly more uncomfortable and some of the atmosphere is lost. The vocal performance is, however, great. I imagine Czral (the kvlt version of 'Carl') didn't want to have to hide any of that under reverbs, even though it would have worked really well. This might be just me though.
Album closer 'Call of the Tuskers' has guest vocals from 'pappa wolf' Kristoffer Rygg... really eventful and extremely good track. These guys are good friends so it's touching to hear, not to mention we've got very used to hearing Garm's voice over lush strings and eerie electronics, so nice to have some solid riffs giving it more melodic grounding.
The themes as I interpret them are about erosion/evolution/nature/death/renewal and are all good in my book. Raw energetic and organic music about something other than human emotion... it's strange, but it works. The natural world is a place of wonder, it's a disturbing place we don't fully understand yet and Virus twist this enigma into something surreal and predatory.
Do I wish they'd further departed from their sound on The Black Flux? Well I was surprised they didn't, but at the same time, there's years ahead of us for Carl to explore new territory. I'm not the type of person who'd hold a successful continuation of a sound against a band.
Call of the Tuskers -
Clair Cassis - Luxury Absolute 8/10 (78%)
Argh, this is the best Clair Cassis yet. Clair Cassis is the band Josh decided to do after he announced the fall of Velvet Cacoon, one of the most influential of the American black metal bands. The attitude here seems to be - cut the shit, we're not making black metal in underwater caves with imaginary instruments anymore (although the fantasy of VC's claims were what made them so atmospheric to me, true or not, it was easy to visualise with their alien nautical sounds) We're going to write good riffs without over thinking it, organic flow of creativity, gratifying, and without second guessing or questioning. It's a very true and honest representation of where these composers are creatively.
So what strikes me most is really emotive thick sounding guitar riffs backed up with some chilling acoustic work which you can only truly appreciated if you listen to it in a quiet environment as they're mixed... well... quietly, even though they're captured beautifully.
The drum sound is bigger too. A brave move for a black metal band that's always had a weak frail rhythm, which to me was like a heartbeat struggling and skipping essential beats (that's morbid I know, but probably intentional).
I think this album lives up to some musical claims they made about VC's 'Genevieve' with somnambulant samples & under watery guitar tones that act as a positively delicious aural massage. It's like pickling your brain in aged wine, walking bare foot in wet sand (Can you smell the wet sand? because I can, it's scary), hail storms in vast fields... a coppery brass like taste in the mouth. Initiating every sense is cleverly contemplated by Josh (et al) in these compositions (No really, it's psycho acoustics, Schema and Schemata... aural/neural linguistic processing and yes, that's science... they have made claims to genuinely get involved in this but granted, claims that lead to the days they lived a life of pure drug induced fiction), which is why this "atmosphere" is so very very special.
It would easily be a 9.5/10 if there was a little more on offer here. It is just an EP after all, but they could have stretched the material out to album length and it would've been a far greater experience. Innit rare to hear that tracks should've gone on for longer in Black Metal?
Antique Sea Smoke -
Deafheaven - Road to Judah - 9/10 (88%)
Wowza. Where did these guys come from? A better question might be; where are they going? The answer, they're going to be fucking huge and popular, and for now, they're popular with us kvlt bastards (more or less) but not for long as this is what's going to take the horrible phrase 'hipster black metal' straight to the door of all the kids who are quite happy to be spoon fed watered down crap by mainstream metal magazines and moozik video channelziz... But that does not detract from the fact that this is so fucking good it hurts.
Epic epic chord progressions played blurringly over savage muscular blasting. Beautiful, sad melodies more akin to post-metal than black metal saw over the essentially black metal body of the song. Vocals that are screamed and grim and exist aurally somewhere between WitTR and the fathers of this brand of black metal; Weakling.
Slightly watered down? Well no doubt a big divider of the kvlt hordes... but who really gives a shit about that now? I've already given that too much attention. It's a damn fine album that makes their demo look weak, but only in comparison as before hearing the album the demo was a sturdy little release!
Very strong contender for a top ten list. If there's more to come from bands of a similar ilk, this is going to be a very good year.
Tunnel of Trees [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE6EXBJjliQ&feature=related[/ame]
Sleeping Peonies - Ghosts & Other Things - 9/10 (93%)
A fantastic little DIY effort here, released by US label Khrysanthoney (a fresh innovative label who seem to engage bands that create dreamy epic atmospheres, which turns out to be a lot of post-rock/shoegaze, punk and pop (yes pop) inspired black metal). However, this is from the mind of a young talent who dwells upon our fair shores (and the British Coast line is of massive importance to the Sleeping Peonies sound)!
What do we have here then? Well, it's a very successful continuation of the completely unique sound crafted for the first demo, 'Rose curl, sea swirl' (one of my favourite releases of 2010 (what a year it was) ). The music itself is immensely descriptive and colourful...
I'll try dissect it, and what it means to me based on what I know about this projects visionary creator -
First of all, Thick harmonic, rumbling, yearning saw-tooth guitar drones with a distant and nautical sound, almost like brass horns, fill and fog the majority of the frequential space and help begin to create the picture of a seaside town in its off season. This voice feels to me to be the body for the majority of these complex compositions. At times it offers a basso continuo-like drone, but others it offers a very wide melodic wall which paints something 'schematically vast' in the listeners mind, to me it's almost certainly the expanse of the sea...
Meanwhile tremolo picked, delay-saturated guitar melodies take the lead voice. This is completely epic! Prepare yourself for some hair raising-clenched teeth-eyes watering moments. The melodies themselves are not the rising predictable aeolian mode melodies of most generic post-rock. There's a prevalence of a real sense for notes that relate to each other in an almost abstract attempt to communicate something more. To me, this instrument is painting the skies, the clouds, the weather and the birds. All the little details I suppose.
The Bass here is slick, just like on the Demo. It's a very poppy 80's goth bass sound and it's immensely charming! This plays a big part in the nostalgic, 'waking from a dream sensation' people have all related to this band.
The drums are programmed, but treat with so many effects that they sit really comfortably in the mix without taking away from the organic sound. The beats and rhythms feel tidal, tumbling up from little fills on the cymbals into blastbeats and then tumbling back down into nothing. It's not just a unique programmed-drum sound, It's also apparent the beats themselves are quite atypical and a signature part of why Sleeping Peonies are an entity of its very own.
The vocals are shouted/screamed and are performed with passion, giving this EP the raw, emotional energy black metal needs to become successful. Some describe these vocals as screamo... something I'm not too familiar with and probably wouldn't listen to if isolated away from the black metal element, but the stylistic marriage works really well for me. The vocals place the composer behind Sleeping Peonies as a character in the setting which is painted by the rest of the instruments. Spoken word sections are delivered by a female voice, adding a certain mystique and narrative to the discourse of the journey.
Other various instruments come into play such as a piano sound with very short accents put on the notes, but treated with a lot of reverb and delay. This is the most melodic and 'pop' part of the band and perhaps the most attractive element to first time listeners, as it's avant-garde and dreamy melody lines which contain no dissonance create the huge contrast when the waves of drums and guitars come crashing back in. Sigur Ros would be a fair comparison. No really.
There's also a big slab of pad sounds filling out the chords, which works really well in the sense that the previously mentioned guitar has such a thick and brutal sound, it helps discern the voicing of the chords and increases the already vast detail to the ensemble of sounds.
The production is completely suitable for the job at hand, and mainly I should mention the use of DELAY! Yes, this record is full of it. Somewhere in all the swirling rhythmical milliseconds of decaying sounds, little accidental esoteric worlds are made which in the most atmospheric and powerful sections, seem to dissolve and metamorphosize into other strange and beautiful galaxies. This is a more emotive and abstract part of the atmosphere, although in one sense it's visual as it creates an accoustic, like the sounds are bouncing off a cliff face, or within a cave, or a hollow abandoned lighthouse - but mainly it's just creating a sort of spontaneous, aleatoric event which induces a subconscious wonderment.
I've been excited about this release for a while and it exceeded expectations. There's so much to get your head around when experiencing this music and it's rewarding to let your focus shift through the different voices in the composition, as well as just zoning out to let this creation wash over you! Looking forward to seeing this performed live, hopefully in the not too distant future.
Autumnbloom And Lavender
Dornenreich - Flammentriebe - 9/10 (89%)
This is an absolute powerhouse of an album. Germanique long standers on the glorious Prophecy Productions label. The band offer up black metal that feels intricately woven with our ancestry, but not in a cheesy 'swords and sandals' way, more the presentation Primordial offer. What hit me first is the unique vocals, growled and chanted in German. Rolling 'R's and spitting 'P's... So much conviction. Wish I understood the lyrics, as from all accounts they're really good. It's not massively original, but for me it's great to hear something tried and tested done so well that it pricks my ears up.
The Violinist isn't exactly a Virtuoso, but the rough around the edges bits really help Dornenreich's over all cause, in so far as I can hear he has a bit of gypsy in his tone and style, which is a more favourable sound to black metal than a classically trained violinist's offering would be.
Every song is unique, with a great dynamic and progressive structure and as a result, the album doesn't drag on at all (unlike this review, yawn). The musical pallet from which they paint is clearly varied and colourful, with all guns blazing moments of epic violence to harmonious acoustic passages. It's all superlative. The great mix on the album means nothing is left to the imagination... every instrument has its place, but there's enough bleed into each others' frequencies and space for the occasional wall of sound effect. And I must say not only are the riffs highly memorable and mesmerising, they're played with a belter of a tone!
Straight up as good as it gets... goodness.
Flammenmensch
Fen - Epoch - 7/10 (66%)
Fen are one of the leading bands for modern UKBM (please excuse me using that abbreviation, I'm not sure it amounts to anything, the bands in this 'movement' aren't really related, nor are they aurally similar, there's just a few good ones out there now so someone needed a term to ring-fence them, and yes, they share this pokey island) and with good reason. Their influences sit proudly on their sleeve and what they do they do well. Epoch doesn't perhaps raise the bar for this nations black metal output, but it's definitely a solid contribution.
I don't like making comparisons unless a band sort of invites it and here I feel there is an invitation to mention Agalloch and Alcest in so far as the melodies often sound happy or sort of hopeful. I think the intent is to sound more malicious, but the compositions seem to find themselves naturally falling into some major scale progressions.
Their previous and first album, The Malediction Fields, is an album I've returned to time and time again, mainly because I never fully got my ear around it. It has an obscure atmosphere and a ferocity that swells from a very tonal leaning.
Epoch isn't that different really. Although on first listen I enjoyed it a lot more, and subsequent listens have been increasingly rewarding. There's still sections where the synths sound clashy with the guitars and everything is piling up a little chaotically. Also the happy sound to some of the riffs distracts my ear a little, especially when the vocal delivery is bile filled and fueled with anger.
However, strange and wavering clean sounds cast a veil over blackened riffage making a 'listening to emperor while watching Twin Peaks' vibe. There's more middle ground covered here than on the previous effort, something between the all out paganistic anger and folky/experimental passages.
The vocals go through lots of transformations. Mainly, a focus on a hoarse rasp, but occasionally we're treated to some clean singing and lower growls which sound superb.
There's a deeper well for inspiration here than just extreme metal and it's perhaps more rewarding to listen around the abrasive elements. But for now, I'm finding this slightly easier to digest than the first album and I'm happy to recommend it to anyone trying to build a catalogue of standout metal releases this year.
The Gibbet Elms [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kGdHUtivjA&feature=related[/ame]
Alfheimr - What Allows us to Endure. 9/10 (85%)
The album starts... Hang on... These happy chimes... That lung crushing synth bass... The falsetto voice... the distorted drum sound... This sounds... familiar?.. But when I check myself, I'm running through a city centre laughing with absolute joy trying to catch up with my bus. When I catch up to the bus, I sit down and read the track name "A song for laughter and forgetting", and it's bloody strange, I never run in public... I forget about my inhibitions for a second because of this music... and why the hell was I laughing? I had just had a big swig of energy drink... pure endorphin fix I suppose?
So Alfheimr is a force of mystical genius? Great coincidental little experience to introduce me to this Post-Rock solo project of complete Sigur Ros worship.
These compositions are absolutely beautiful. This guy needs his hand shaking by everyone in the world simultaneously for putting this little thing together. You can attach both happy or sad feelings to these songs. Some speak of longing, some of hope, some just of life and experiences...
The music builds and plods, and never really explodes, just shifts focus. But it's a constantly appeasing process where the energy and perpetual dynamic drags you along on the journey.
Although I'd wager only a certain clientele are going to stomach this and let it into their heart - Some people are just too seized up to let this kind of enlightening art in, others will just have major hang ups over the intense similarity it bares to the forefather of this genre. Then there's me, sat on the branch of a tree, a thousand feet above the city in which I work, feet swinging in the wind, watching people and cars and busses and trains dance this beautiful, brief and ultimately futile dance we call life... Nah, not really... just had to use some soppy Post-rock imagery to sign out this review.
A song for Laughter & Forgetting
Tartar Lamb II - Polyimage of Known Exits. 9/10 (90%)
Tartar Lamb has evolved into Tartar Lamb II. What has changed? Seemingly we're being treat to an entirely different ensemble; however, it's still a subsection of Kayo Dot. If you don't like Kayo Dot, leave now. If you do. Proceeeeed.
Toby Driver is an unevil genius of music. His compositions are utterly unique in every way. And so, the sounds and textures he presents in his various projects are almost completely foreign on the ear. Some might translate this as abrasive. To me, it's just the most glorious high-art. At times, its difficult aural flavours and melodies take a few listens to really understand, but the majority of the time the music is immeasurably communicative and emotional.
The piece is split into four movements which are depicted as tracks on the release.
I have to keep this section brief... The composition is "restricted" to a small collection of instruments. The same massive bass sound which is used on Coyote is Toby's weapon of choice. Then we have brass and woodwind... some electronics and samples... some synths... Some vocals... No Violin... No Guitar... Very little in Percussion...
I knew I was going to find this difficult to put into words. The texture this collection of instruments creates is extremely smooth and flowing and allows for progressions to move and evolve without ever needing to punctuate themselves in a conventional time frame leaving the music itself extremely loose and open to endless interpretation through its performance.
The melodies contained within are bordering on harrowing. Partly for the album's subject matter, which is the days after the passing of Toby Driver's friend Yuko Sueta, whose last days were also chronicled in Kayo Dot's latest full Length 'Coyote'. Toby Driver's sadness and melancholy is completely on display here in a way none of his compositions have shown before. The place we're taken as listeners feels more unnerving to me than his visits to the 'Lugubrious Library Loft'.
The occurrences of sound played on the bass are fairly pointillist, with a continuous bed of tumbling chords created by the brass, synth and woodwind. The bass’s sporadic licks sound quite literally obsessive around a certain motif. Very similar to the first Tartar Lamb, Sixty Metonymies in that sense. It creates a somnambulant mood over time, although with it, urgency... I suppose that’s why I've found this music chameleonic of my mood?
Anyway, here's to hoping Toby writes an essay on this piece because it's allot to get your head around and dissect, and any help to solve the massive puzzle would be hugely appreciated.
Toby Driver took a risk, using Kickstarter to fund this project! In doing so he had to raise $6000 in donations before a certain date, which he did. There's still hope for our world.
This review doesn't do Polyimage of Known Exits justice at all, but what words could? Go forth and experience it.
Free stream at http://www.kayodot.net/tartarlamb/
Virus - The Agent That Shapes the Dessert 8/10 (81%)
I have so so much love for this Norwegian band and I've been counting the days to this coming out. It's my first official Album of 2011 too, so getting off on the right foot! Carl-Michael Eide was one of the limbs in Ved Buens Ende with creative brethren Vicotnik, until they disbanded, seemingly because at the time nobody got what they were doing, lots of reviews and such claiming they didn't know how to tune (let alone play-) their instruments; when in fact, they were extremely ahead of their time (Only need to listen to Mastodon who did essentially the exact same thing with their guitars only with punk at their core rather than black metal). Then after Carl's fall VBE reformed, only for Carl to realise he wanted to do a project where he had 100% creative say and Vicotnik knew his own VBE input could be recycled in Dodheimsgard. Thus came Virus.
This album is the third in a series of completely cult releases and is still essentially avant-garde rock with leanings toward epic black metal sensibilities. It is not a big departure from previous album The Black Flux, which is a good and a, well it's just a good thing really (more later-ish).
Anyway, No hiding behind horrible frequencies to horrify the listener, just genuinely intricate guitar work. It really is a genuinely unique sound with lots of minor first intervals bleeding into one another creating beating effects that only a specific guitar tone and tuning can compliment (a fairly raw but clean sound with lots of clink and string noise). It's actually bordering on virtuoso stuff and is a whole new school in riff writing which I hope more bands can tap into and put there slant on it (Not just Mastodon (And whirling (And Acolyte) ) ).
The vocals here are, as always, a strong point and coupled with the riffs, it's majestic, maddening and ultimately charming. Maybe not quite as epic as previous releases though. They're a little dryer and louder in the mix making them slightly more uncomfortable and some of the atmosphere is lost. The vocal performance is, however, great. I imagine Czral (the kvlt version of 'Carl') didn't want to have to hide any of that under reverbs, even though it would have worked really well. This might be just me though.
Album closer 'Call of the Tuskers' has guest vocals from 'pappa wolf' Kristoffer Rygg... really eventful and extremely good track. These guys are good friends so it's touching to hear, not to mention we've got very used to hearing Garm's voice over lush strings and eerie electronics, so nice to have some solid riffs giving it more melodic grounding.
The themes as I interpret them are about erosion/evolution/nature/death/renewal and are all good in my book. Raw energetic and organic music about something other than human emotion... it's strange, but it works. The natural world is a place of wonder, it's a disturbing place we don't fully understand yet and Virus twist this enigma into something surreal and predatory.
Do I wish they'd further departed from their sound on The Black Flux? Well I was surprised they didn't, but at the same time, there's years ahead of us for Carl to explore new territory. I'm not the type of person who'd hold a successful continuation of a sound against a band.
Call of the Tuskers -
Clair Cassis - Luxury Absolute 8/10 (78%)
Argh, this is the best Clair Cassis yet. Clair Cassis is the band Josh decided to do after he announced the fall of Velvet Cacoon, one of the most influential of the American black metal bands. The attitude here seems to be - cut the shit, we're not making black metal in underwater caves with imaginary instruments anymore (although the fantasy of VC's claims were what made them so atmospheric to me, true or not, it was easy to visualise with their alien nautical sounds) We're going to write good riffs without over thinking it, organic flow of creativity, gratifying, and without second guessing or questioning. It's a very true and honest representation of where these composers are creatively.
So what strikes me most is really emotive thick sounding guitar riffs backed up with some chilling acoustic work which you can only truly appreciated if you listen to it in a quiet environment as they're mixed... well... quietly, even though they're captured beautifully.
The drum sound is bigger too. A brave move for a black metal band that's always had a weak frail rhythm, which to me was like a heartbeat struggling and skipping essential beats (that's morbid I know, but probably intentional).
I think this album lives up to some musical claims they made about VC's 'Genevieve' with somnambulant samples & under watery guitar tones that act as a positively delicious aural massage. It's like pickling your brain in aged wine, walking bare foot in wet sand (Can you smell the wet sand? because I can, it's scary), hail storms in vast fields... a coppery brass like taste in the mouth. Initiating every sense is cleverly contemplated by Josh (et al) in these compositions (No really, it's psycho acoustics, Schema and Schemata... aural/neural linguistic processing and yes, that's science... they have made claims to genuinely get involved in this but granted, claims that lead to the days they lived a life of pure drug induced fiction), which is why this "atmosphere" is so very very special.
It would easily be a 9.5/10 if there was a little more on offer here. It is just an EP after all, but they could have stretched the material out to album length and it would've been a far greater experience. Innit rare to hear that tracks should've gone on for longer in Black Metal?
Antique Sea Smoke -
Deafheaven - Road to Judah - 9/10 (88%)
Wowza. Where did these guys come from? A better question might be; where are they going? The answer, they're going to be fucking huge and popular, and for now, they're popular with us kvlt bastards (more or less) but not for long as this is what's going to take the horrible phrase 'hipster black metal' straight to the door of all the kids who are quite happy to be spoon fed watered down crap by mainstream metal magazines and moozik video channelziz... But that does not detract from the fact that this is so fucking good it hurts.
Epic epic chord progressions played blurringly over savage muscular blasting. Beautiful, sad melodies more akin to post-metal than black metal saw over the essentially black metal body of the song. Vocals that are screamed and grim and exist aurally somewhere between WitTR and the fathers of this brand of black metal; Weakling.
Slightly watered down? Well no doubt a big divider of the kvlt hordes... but who really gives a shit about that now? I've already given that too much attention. It's a damn fine album that makes their demo look weak, but only in comparison as before hearing the album the demo was a sturdy little release!
Very strong contender for a top ten list. If there's more to come from bands of a similar ilk, this is going to be a very good year.
Tunnel of Trees [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE6EXBJjliQ&feature=related[/ame]
Sleeping Peonies - Ghosts & Other Things - 9/10 (93%)
A fantastic little DIY effort here, released by US label Khrysanthoney (a fresh innovative label who seem to engage bands that create dreamy epic atmospheres, which turns out to be a lot of post-rock/shoegaze, punk and pop (yes pop) inspired black metal). However, this is from the mind of a young talent who dwells upon our fair shores (and the British Coast line is of massive importance to the Sleeping Peonies sound)!
What do we have here then? Well, it's a very successful continuation of the completely unique sound crafted for the first demo, 'Rose curl, sea swirl' (one of my favourite releases of 2010 (what a year it was) ). The music itself is immensely descriptive and colourful...
I'll try dissect it, and what it means to me based on what I know about this projects visionary creator -
First of all, Thick harmonic, rumbling, yearning saw-tooth guitar drones with a distant and nautical sound, almost like brass horns, fill and fog the majority of the frequential space and help begin to create the picture of a seaside town in its off season. This voice feels to me to be the body for the majority of these complex compositions. At times it offers a basso continuo-like drone, but others it offers a very wide melodic wall which paints something 'schematically vast' in the listeners mind, to me it's almost certainly the expanse of the sea...
Meanwhile tremolo picked, delay-saturated guitar melodies take the lead voice. This is completely epic! Prepare yourself for some hair raising-clenched teeth-eyes watering moments. The melodies themselves are not the rising predictable aeolian mode melodies of most generic post-rock. There's a prevalence of a real sense for notes that relate to each other in an almost abstract attempt to communicate something more. To me, this instrument is painting the skies, the clouds, the weather and the birds. All the little details I suppose.
The Bass here is slick, just like on the Demo. It's a very poppy 80's goth bass sound and it's immensely charming! This plays a big part in the nostalgic, 'waking from a dream sensation' people have all related to this band.
The drums are programmed, but treat with so many effects that they sit really comfortably in the mix without taking away from the organic sound. The beats and rhythms feel tidal, tumbling up from little fills on the cymbals into blastbeats and then tumbling back down into nothing. It's not just a unique programmed-drum sound, It's also apparent the beats themselves are quite atypical and a signature part of why Sleeping Peonies are an entity of its very own.
The vocals are shouted/screamed and are performed with passion, giving this EP the raw, emotional energy black metal needs to become successful. Some describe these vocals as screamo... something I'm not too familiar with and probably wouldn't listen to if isolated away from the black metal element, but the stylistic marriage works really well for me. The vocals place the composer behind Sleeping Peonies as a character in the setting which is painted by the rest of the instruments. Spoken word sections are delivered by a female voice, adding a certain mystique and narrative to the discourse of the journey.
Other various instruments come into play such as a piano sound with very short accents put on the notes, but treated with a lot of reverb and delay. This is the most melodic and 'pop' part of the band and perhaps the most attractive element to first time listeners, as it's avant-garde and dreamy melody lines which contain no dissonance create the huge contrast when the waves of drums and guitars come crashing back in. Sigur Ros would be a fair comparison. No really.
There's also a big slab of pad sounds filling out the chords, which works really well in the sense that the previously mentioned guitar has such a thick and brutal sound, it helps discern the voicing of the chords and increases the already vast detail to the ensemble of sounds.
The production is completely suitable for the job at hand, and mainly I should mention the use of DELAY! Yes, this record is full of it. Somewhere in all the swirling rhythmical milliseconds of decaying sounds, little accidental esoteric worlds are made which in the most atmospheric and powerful sections, seem to dissolve and metamorphosize into other strange and beautiful galaxies. This is a more emotive and abstract part of the atmosphere, although in one sense it's visual as it creates an accoustic, like the sounds are bouncing off a cliff face, or within a cave, or a hollow abandoned lighthouse - but mainly it's just creating a sort of spontaneous, aleatoric event which induces a subconscious wonderment.
I've been excited about this release for a while and it exceeded expectations. There's so much to get your head around when experiencing this music and it's rewarding to let your focus shift through the different voices in the composition, as well as just zoning out to let this creation wash over you! Looking forward to seeing this performed live, hopefully in the not too distant future.
Autumnbloom And Lavender
Dornenreich - Flammentriebe - 9/10 (89%)
This is an absolute powerhouse of an album. Germanique long standers on the glorious Prophecy Productions label. The band offer up black metal that feels intricately woven with our ancestry, but not in a cheesy 'swords and sandals' way, more the presentation Primordial offer. What hit me first is the unique vocals, growled and chanted in German. Rolling 'R's and spitting 'P's... So much conviction. Wish I understood the lyrics, as from all accounts they're really good. It's not massively original, but for me it's great to hear something tried and tested done so well that it pricks my ears up.
The Violinist isn't exactly a Virtuoso, but the rough around the edges bits really help Dornenreich's over all cause, in so far as I can hear he has a bit of gypsy in his tone and style, which is a more favourable sound to black metal than a classically trained violinist's offering would be.
Every song is unique, with a great dynamic and progressive structure and as a result, the album doesn't drag on at all (unlike this review, yawn). The musical pallet from which they paint is clearly varied and colourful, with all guns blazing moments of epic violence to harmonious acoustic passages. It's all superlative. The great mix on the album means nothing is left to the imagination... every instrument has its place, but there's enough bleed into each others' frequencies and space for the occasional wall of sound effect. And I must say not only are the riffs highly memorable and mesmerising, they're played with a belter of a tone!
Straight up as good as it gets... goodness.
Flammenmensch
Fen - Epoch - 7/10 (66%)
Fen are one of the leading bands for modern UKBM (please excuse me using that abbreviation, I'm not sure it amounts to anything, the bands in this 'movement' aren't really related, nor are they aurally similar, there's just a few good ones out there now so someone needed a term to ring-fence them, and yes, they share this pokey island) and with good reason. Their influences sit proudly on their sleeve and what they do they do well. Epoch doesn't perhaps raise the bar for this nations black metal output, but it's definitely a solid contribution.
I don't like making comparisons unless a band sort of invites it and here I feel there is an invitation to mention Agalloch and Alcest in so far as the melodies often sound happy or sort of hopeful. I think the intent is to sound more malicious, but the compositions seem to find themselves naturally falling into some major scale progressions.
Their previous and first album, The Malediction Fields, is an album I've returned to time and time again, mainly because I never fully got my ear around it. It has an obscure atmosphere and a ferocity that swells from a very tonal leaning.
Epoch isn't that different really. Although on first listen I enjoyed it a lot more, and subsequent listens have been increasingly rewarding. There's still sections where the synths sound clashy with the guitars and everything is piling up a little chaotically. Also the happy sound to some of the riffs distracts my ear a little, especially when the vocal delivery is bile filled and fueled with anger.
However, strange and wavering clean sounds cast a veil over blackened riffage making a 'listening to emperor while watching Twin Peaks' vibe. There's more middle ground covered here than on the previous effort, something between the all out paganistic anger and folky/experimental passages.
The vocals go through lots of transformations. Mainly, a focus on a hoarse rasp, but occasionally we're treated to some clean singing and lower growls which sound superb.
There's a deeper well for inspiration here than just extreme metal and it's perhaps more rewarding to listen around the abrasive elements. But for now, I'm finding this slightly easier to digest than the first album and I'm happy to recommend it to anyone trying to build a catalogue of standout metal releases this year.
The Gibbet Elms [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kGdHUtivjA&feature=related[/ame]
Alfheimr - What Allows us to Endure. 9/10 (85%)
The album starts... Hang on... These happy chimes... That lung crushing synth bass... The falsetto voice... the distorted drum sound... This sounds... familiar?.. But when I check myself, I'm running through a city centre laughing with absolute joy trying to catch up with my bus. When I catch up to the bus, I sit down and read the track name "A song for laughter and forgetting", and it's bloody strange, I never run in public... I forget about my inhibitions for a second because of this music... and why the hell was I laughing? I had just had a big swig of energy drink... pure endorphin fix I suppose?
So Alfheimr is a force of mystical genius? Great coincidental little experience to introduce me to this Post-Rock solo project of complete Sigur Ros worship.
These compositions are absolutely beautiful. This guy needs his hand shaking by everyone in the world simultaneously for putting this little thing together. You can attach both happy or sad feelings to these songs. Some speak of longing, some of hope, some just of life and experiences...
The music builds and plods, and never really explodes, just shifts focus. But it's a constantly appeasing process where the energy and perpetual dynamic drags you along on the journey.
Although I'd wager only a certain clientele are going to stomach this and let it into their heart - Some people are just too seized up to let this kind of enlightening art in, others will just have major hang ups over the intense similarity it bares to the forefather of this genre. Then there's me, sat on the branch of a tree, a thousand feet above the city in which I work, feet swinging in the wind, watching people and cars and busses and trains dance this beautiful, brief and ultimately futile dance we call life... Nah, not really... just had to use some soppy Post-rock imagery to sign out this review.
A song for Laughter & Forgetting
Tartar Lamb II - Polyimage of Known Exits. 9/10 (90%)
Tartar Lamb has evolved into Tartar Lamb II. What has changed? Seemingly we're being treat to an entirely different ensemble; however, it's still a subsection of Kayo Dot. If you don't like Kayo Dot, leave now. If you do. Proceeeeed.
Toby Driver is an unevil genius of music. His compositions are utterly unique in every way. And so, the sounds and textures he presents in his various projects are almost completely foreign on the ear. Some might translate this as abrasive. To me, it's just the most glorious high-art. At times, its difficult aural flavours and melodies take a few listens to really understand, but the majority of the time the music is immeasurably communicative and emotional.
The piece is split into four movements which are depicted as tracks on the release.
I have to keep this section brief... The composition is "restricted" to a small collection of instruments. The same massive bass sound which is used on Coyote is Toby's weapon of choice. Then we have brass and woodwind... some electronics and samples... some synths... Some vocals... No Violin... No Guitar... Very little in Percussion...
I knew I was going to find this difficult to put into words. The texture this collection of instruments creates is extremely smooth and flowing and allows for progressions to move and evolve without ever needing to punctuate themselves in a conventional time frame leaving the music itself extremely loose and open to endless interpretation through its performance.
The melodies contained within are bordering on harrowing. Partly for the album's subject matter, which is the days after the passing of Toby Driver's friend Yuko Sueta, whose last days were also chronicled in Kayo Dot's latest full Length 'Coyote'. Toby Driver's sadness and melancholy is completely on display here in a way none of his compositions have shown before. The place we're taken as listeners feels more unnerving to me than his visits to the 'Lugubrious Library Loft'.
The occurrences of sound played on the bass are fairly pointillist, with a continuous bed of tumbling chords created by the brass, synth and woodwind. The bass’s sporadic licks sound quite literally obsessive around a certain motif. Very similar to the first Tartar Lamb, Sixty Metonymies in that sense. It creates a somnambulant mood over time, although with it, urgency... I suppose that’s why I've found this music chameleonic of my mood?
Anyway, here's to hoping Toby writes an essay on this piece because it's allot to get your head around and dissect, and any help to solve the massive puzzle would be hugely appreciated.
Toby Driver took a risk, using Kickstarter to fund this project! In doing so he had to raise $6000 in donations before a certain date, which he did. There's still hope for our world.
This review doesn't do Polyimage of Known Exits justice at all, but what words could? Go forth and experience it.
Free stream at http://www.kayodot.net/tartarlamb/
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and followed by a word in brackets (sindighet, stolhet, arvakenhet and bevissthet) which describe an extension of the other two virtues. Funnilly enough, these four tracks are the absolute standouts on the album for me. The opener (Slindighet) just pulsates energy and power through the latter half of the song. Mid album we’re treat to (Arvakenhet) which similarly explodes in its second half. The first half is pure ‘I am the Black Wizards’ homage.
