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Label Spotlight: Pulverised Records

October 31, 2015, 5:16 am
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Written by Kevin Page.

Singapore label, Pulverised Records, have been purveyors of all things extreme since 1996. Three of their most recent releases are from the old school death metal variety and all from Sweden. Now most people fall in two categories when it comes to OSDM: they either can't get enough of it or they simply can't tolerate it. While none of these releases are going to convert the non believers, all of them are excellent examples of the genre and are sure to wet the unquenchable appetite of its fans.

Art by Ragnar Persson

With seemingly no ties to the past or its members in other projects, Bastard Grave are the newest of the bands we are discussing, but you wouldn't know it from their sound. They are definitely inspired by early Entombed, (whether they would admit to that or not) with a hardcore/grindcore vocal bark. 10 tracks of unapologetic Swedeath. What Lies Beyond is their debut album and first official release (no litany of EP's or splits before this). HM-2 lovin', bitch!


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


Artwork by Mattias "Flesh" Frisk

Under the Church features two thirds of the former Swedish death metal cult band, Nirvana 2002, so you can take a wild guess what to expect here (wink). After releasing a 21 minute EP last year, they are now gracing us with their debut full length album, Rabid Armageddon. Filthy, crusty, d-beat OSDM, with crushing hooks. Lots and lots of fuzzy chainsaw guitars, pick slides and rumbling bass. Plus, look at that cover art! The eyes are literally under the church, like a evil hat. Wonderfully creepy, just like the music. (note - this album is my favorite of the bunch).


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]



I saw lots of people getting excited over the prospect of a new Wombbath album prior to its release. Frankly, I didn't share the same sentiment. I had their debut, Internal Caustic Torments, when it came out in 1993 and wasn't impressed 22 years ago. So I viewed this sudden interest as people equating a band who had released an album during death metal's original heyday with being automatically important/relevant. But I was curious and willing to keep an open mind. Guitarist Hakan Stuvemark is the sole original returning member and I presume the main songwriter on their sophomore full length, Downfall Rising. What the band have done is stepped up their game in every department. The production is totally professional with a sledgehammer to the cranium sound. The musicianship is lights years ahead of the debut (no worries, there's no technical wankery to be found). The songs are structured better with no odd transitions or overly redundant moments. Frankly, this is so much better that it sounds like an entirely new band (which mainly it is).


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Serious Beak - Ankaa

November 2, 2015, 2:05 pm
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Written by Justin C.

Artwork: Caitlin Hackett

We're not quite done with bird-themed metal this year. Up now is Australian instrumental act Serious Beak with Ankaa, a follow-up coming almost exactly 4 years after their fantastic debut, Huxwhukw. If you know their debut, you generally know what to expect, because their brand of proggy instrumental metal has stayed pretty consistent, although this time around, I think their melodic sensibilities have grown sharper.

The album is a concept of sorts, detailing in four songs the life cycle of our sun--including its formation, its "main sequence" at the present, its eventual expansion into a red giant, and ultimate collapse into a white dwarf and ultimately going dark completely as its fuel is exhausted. Paired with each song/stage is a bird, starting with an Australian songbird and ending, appropriately, with an extinct species. It's a fascinating concept, and it's interesting to think about how one might compose a soundtrack for the trillions of years in the life of a star. It wasn't obvious to me how one might do that, and even after the first listen, I still wasn't sure. But as I spent more time with this album, I relized Serious Beak nails the hell out of it.

The music alternates between proggy dissonance and lovely, tranquil melody. The angrier/proggier parts definitely call to mind King Crimson and bits of Meshuggah-isms, but I almost didn't include those references in this review because I didn't want to color anyone's perception of the music. More than any particular influence, what kept coming to mind when listening to this was the word "balance." The jagged, syncopated riffing is interspersed with beautiful minimalism. The first two parts of "Main Sequence (Dacelo novaeguineae)" emphasize this in spades. Granted, I could have happily listened to a whole album of the shimmering spacey parts, but as it is, the harsh and the pretty are offset perfectly. You can get lost in some music, but this demands more attention.

The third track, "Red (Laniocera hypopyrra)," may be the most aggressive, and it even features some legit guitar heroics. As you might expect, though, the technicality serves the song. The whole thing comes to a beautiful end in the fourth and final track, which perfectly encapsulates the idea of a star coming to the end of its life. Its gentle melodies and lilting tremolos perfectly fit the idea of something ending, particularly something much grander than us little human beings. It's a perfect ending to a wonderfully immersive album.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Make - The Golden Veil

November 4, 2015, 4:15 pm
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Written by Ulla Roschat


Three piece band MAKE from Chapel Hill/NC have released their 2nd full length album The Golden Veil.

The album can roughly be labeled as post-rock with sludge, psychedelic, doom and drone influences…, roughly, because MAKE use even the typical post rock/metal elements in a way that makes them totally their own. The loud-quiet contrasts, the slow build ups and cathartic release, we all know well. MAKE drive them to unusual extremes at times and they manage to surprise within the well known patterns.

Beautiful, unhurried dreamy melodies provide a sense of abundance of time and space, often steeped in compelling psychedelia you can easily lose yourself in, but the next crushing riff will find and destroy you before you realize what just happened. All contrasts are extreme, be it the dense and the spacious, the loud and the quiet, the frail and the crushing.

Into this abundance of time and space MAKE complect different musical styles and layers of textures easily and smoothly. There are bits of spaced out psychedelia, acoustic folk, noisy ambience, drone, doom, and touches of progressive, black and death metal. All this is used in a thoughtful and unobtrusive way that this sense of abundance of space is retained. The vocals are used in the same vein, diverse in themselves, harsh and clean, but modestly dosed.

The album is best listened to in the given order of the songs. Right from its start the first song feels like an intro and there's a flow between the songs that builds an overall coherence of the intricate soundscapes that allows the nearly one hour and seven songs to evolve and expand their dark and cold, but irresistible atmospheres. And it's, most notably, MAKE's sense for creating spellbinding atmospheres that makes The Golden Veil outstanding.

The song "The Immortal" is featured on The Wicked Lady Show 94


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Bedowyn - Blood of the Fall

November 6, 2015, 4:16 pm
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Written by Karen A. Mann.

Cover art by Donovan Valdez.

Like their namesake, Raleigh, N.C.’s Bedowyn takes a nomadic approach to metal, journeying through doom, stoner, death and even a little Southern rock, but never settling down with any particular genre. Following their promising 2013 debut, Wolves & Trees, the quartet has delivered a masterful and extraordinarily well thought-out follow up with Blood of the Fall, a raging battle call reveling in death and despair.

The album opens with (and later reprises) "The Horde". This short instrumental is mostly Sabbath-like wah-drenched guitar, (think Electric Funeral), which then segues into "Rite to Kill". With its rolling, chugging drums, intricate guitar, and strong, angry vocals, "Rite to Kill" gives a serious nod to High on Fire, and sets the pace for the remainder of the album. The mood is one of foreboding and excitement, and you almost feel like you’re galloping into a great and terrible war, from which you almost certainly won’t return.

"Blood of the Fall" features some good clean singing from singer/guitarist Alex Traboulsi, who deftly switches from snarling and angry to melodic and clear. "Cotard’s Blade" begins with an acoustic melody, and for the remainder of the album the acoustic touches are more prominent, culminating in the classically-inspired acoustic interlude "For a Fleeting Moment".

Bedowyn is at its best -- and actually most accessible -- on the melancholic, regretful "Halfhand", with Traboulsi showing his full range and guitarist Mark Peters delivering a soaring solo.

The album comes full circle at the very end with "The Horde (Exodus)", which reprises the opener’s ominous wah-drenched riff, but makes it deeper and more despairing. If the album’s opener was all about riding into battle, this is the song where all is lost and devastation reigns.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Three Metal Blade Epic Wins!

November 8, 2015, 2:24 pm
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"Metal Blade is now on Bandcamp" we wrote back in July. They started out with some of their newer bands, but recently they have also been adding albums from their past archives. And frankly some of these are classics of a stature I thought I'd never see available on Bandcamp. I mean, Slayer?

You can find three of these classics here, presented by the mighty Autothrall (and also gain some insight in the author as both a young, and a somewhat older metalhead). And check out the Metal Blade Records Bandcamp for say, all post-comeback albums by Mercyful Fate and the entire Amon Amarth discography!

Artwork by Albert Cuellar

Several peers and I once passed a cassette recording of both this and Show No Mercy around to one another, terrified of its contents, perhaps clinging to those vestigial traces of Christian upbringing. Copies were confiscated by teachers and parents, and a few of us got a good 'talking to', myself in particular, for spreading the twisted diocese of Satan through the rank and file of the innocent.

Keep in mind that I was about 11-12 years old at this time, the target of crass, ignorant exaggerations by a Protestant flock, and by no means in thrall of the Prince of Hell. But the damage was done. I bought the actual cassette. My parents took it away. I stole it back. The top of the refrigerator was hardly a sufficient hiding place for my 'unapproved' stock of metal albums. They gave up. I bought the back patch, and was so armored the very day I parted ways from the Protestant faith. What an ironic portrait, a dorky pre-teen armed in denim and devils, striding proudly through a dull spring rain in 1986, having quit Church forever, wearing this image and title on my back. The prescient, magic 8-ball might read that my outlook was not so good (read the rest of the review here).


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


Artwork by Ioannis

it is the classic Fate's Warning which I hold most dear. There is something truly atmospheric about their first three albums. 1984's Night On Bröcken was a solid debut with a few catchy pieces, but it's follow-up The Spectre Within is not only the finest album in the band's career...but one of the greatest melodic metal albums ever to emerge from the US of A. Each of the seven tracks on Spectre creates a bold narrative vision, laden in the mystique of carefully plotted compositions and the haunting keen of John Arch. Outside of the music of Fates Warning, one might find Arch annoying at best, but within the milieu of old, haunted speed metal landscapes, he shines like a fallen God. (read the rest of the review here).


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


Cover art by Vincent Locke

Bloodthirst is fast and it is pissed, but most importantly, it's kind of album you can totally bang your head out to. Now, I'm an older guy, looking forward to such end of life triumphs as Viagra, checkers, more tea than I drink now, and finding my social security depleted thanks to bailouts and government entitlement programs; the kind of guy who might find it a little awkward to just break out headbanging his already strained neck. But even in writing this review, I have probably slipped at least three vertebrae from gyrating my spinal cord and planting my forehead against the nearest solid object (computer desk).

The energy here is among the most Cannibal Corpse have ever ventured, and it is the listener who reaps the gain. The album features what many will one day come to know as the 'best', if not the 'classic' lineup of the band, with George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher on vocals, Jack Owen and shredder Pat O'Brien on the guitars, Alex Webster ruling the bottom end, and the veteran skinner Paul Mazurkiewics, and each is at the very top of his career. But this is not some over-indulgent display of axe wankery, it is a force against nature which clearly has designs on the life of every human being breathing our atmosphere (read the rest of the review here).


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

November 10, 2015, 12:10 pm
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Written by Justin C.


Panopticon's new album, Autumn Eternal, is surprising in a lot of ways. One of the biggest surprises to me is that it's not being hailed as a masterpiece. People should be running through the streets, tears streaming down their faces, clutching their copies and proclaiming its brilliance to anyone who will listen. Main man Austin Lunn, disappointed after his previous, also-amazing album leaked before it was ready, understandably kept a tighter wrap on this one, which I think is part of the reason it's not getting as much attention as, say, Kentucky did. So I'll have to do my part to shine a bright light on this one

If you listen to the opener, "Tamarack's Gold Returns", you'd be forgiven for thinking that Lunn is returning to a bluegrass/folk-inspired work like Kentucky. This album does not have that heavy bluegrass influence, but let it be known that I'd listen to a full album of music like this. It's not a throwaway opener by any means. But the very next track, "Into the North Woods", kicks in with the usual Panopticon black metal intensity, with swelling tremolos and intricate percussion. It's as good as any fan could hope for based on that intro alone, but near the track's end, we're treated to a martial-sounding drum pattern with mournful-sounding coronet above it, eventually joined by what sounds like chimes and perhaps a fife (or more likely, their electronic equivalents). It's a dramatic shift, but it’s not a startling one. It works beautifully.

In fact, almost all of these songs feature stunning turns that work against all odds. "Oaks Ablaze" starts out ferocious, but then halfway through takes a turn into what I can only describe as a dark 80s movie soundtrack, featuring a rolling tom pattern on the drums, ringing arpeggios, and a bass tone so rich you'll want to spread it on your toast and eat it. "Pale Ghosts" dips into a surprisingly sunny and major-key sound for a song with "ghosts" in its title. And check out those beautiful clean vocals! I think these juxtapositions are the key to the overall feeling of the album. Culturally, we see autumn as an ending and spring as a rebirth, but maybe this is an album that switches that idea on its head, treating autumn as a celebration of survival, not a sad prelude to hibernation. Lunn hasn't provided lyrics with this album, so I could be completely missing the point, but I can only speak to how it makes me feel, and it's a nuanced emotional state that features melancholy mixed with triumph. Then again, I’ve always felt that music is the art form we use to express those subtle feelings we can’t otherwise articulate.

This is a rich, hour-long album that I'll be coming back to a lot. Sure, maybe I've drifted into fanboy territory when it comes to this project, but I'll be damned if Lunn didn't top Kentucky with this one, and that's a truly high mark to reach. Get this album and start proselytizing to those who haven't caught on yet. This is album-of-the-decade material.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Corpse Light - Without Form

November 12, 2015, 12:44 pm
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Written by Matt Hinch.

Artwork by Jim Webb

In a whirlwind 16 days back in the Spring, Grimoire Records recorded, mixed, mastered and released (with art) Without Form by Baltimore doomsters Corpse Light.

The band obviously take their doom seriously as Without Form is full of painfully slow riffs soaked in earth-shaking tone. But they don’t seem slow for the sake of it, or heavy just to be heavy either. There’s a warmth behind those resonating notes yet a painful emotion drips from every pore.

That anger and hurt is tempered by melodies reaching as high as the gut-rumbling doom is low. That sort of back and forth is measured though. For the most part the pace is consistently lethargic with brief excursions into a more explosive sound or heartfelt regions.

How they hammer down and pull back isn’t so much a tension and release mechanism as it is a stalk and pounce, or simply a parallel to the instability of many of our states of mind. Sometimes a riff will stand out as familiar as there isn’t anything terribly original here. It’s a minor gripe though as there is plenty to enjoy, including some aching solos.

Corpse Light work with the epic flair of Cult of Luna and the sludge dynamics of Neurosis wrapped around despondent doom in the vein of say, Cold Blue Mountain.

Writing about Without Form a good five months after its release actually makes more sense as it’s not a Spring-type album. As the night overtakes the shortening days and death looms on the increasingly bitter winds, Corpse Light and Without Form find a more welcoming home as the darkness falls over the land and sadness creeps into your bones.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Destroy Judas - Forever Like Stars​.​.​.​We Shine

November 13, 2015, 1:07 pm
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Written by Kevin Page.

Artwork by Fortifem

To this day I own less than a dozen cassettes and half a dozen pieces of vinyl. Heck, I haven't even owned anything to play those formats on in well over two decades. But I've proudly kept onto my 1990 Demo, 1992 Faded Dream promo and the two 7"'s released in 1991 from the mighty (and criminally underrated) Mindrot. Why am I mentioning this in the first place? The reason being, there's a lineage going on here. From the ashes of Mindrot, guitarist Daniel Kaufman & bassist Matt Fisher formed Eyes of Fire. Taking the Mindrot sound into a more straightforward and post metal direction on an EP & two full length albums (all on Century Media Records), the apathetic metal community shrugged its collective shoulders and let another amazing concoction fade into obscurity.

Not one to simply give up, Daniel Kaufman pressed on and took with him Nick Bernardi (drummer of Eyes of Fire) to form Destroy Judas. So where does this new beast sit musically? I'd say somewhere between those prior two bands. It still contains the doomy sludge and the post metal aesthetics of a California band, while retaining the soundscapes and grit of atmospheric death metal.

Forever Like Stars...We Shine is 38 minutes, which is one track in three movements. The first movement (approx 16-17 minutes) is an instrumental soaked with atmosphere that slowly builds to a furious climax of noise and frantic guitar picking. It isn't until the 18 minute mark (and I presume the 2nd movement) that any vocals make their appearance. If you were a fan of Eyes of Fire, the approach is similar (even though this is a different vocalist), sorta a gruff angst, that's not quite death metal. The 21 minute mark then kicks off what strongly reminds me of old school Mindrot: the tribal like drumming, the death metal vocals (yes, they do change styles here) and the guitar riffs, which pay a nice homage to a band that never received its just due. The 3rd movement begins at 28 minutes and quickly changes pace. It begins with nothing but atmospheric keyboards that make you think of the dark sky at night, the stars gently glistening against the moonlight. Even though it's an abrupt change of direction, it works splendidly to give you time to absorb what you just experienced. It once agains builds before erupting before coming to a sudden end. And I say 'experience' as opposed to 'heard' because this isn't an album you just passively listen to. Sure, you can do that, but you're cheating yourself out of what it attempts to deliver. That is an emotional journey that climbs, explodes and then comes back down to earth for its final rest.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


And if you like what you hear, you can also pick up their 2011 debut, Wake, as a Name Your Price download.

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A Flare in the Northern Sky - Cosmic Black Metal Roundup

November 18, 2015, 3:39 pm
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Written by Calen Henry.

Upon reflection it’s not actually all that surprising that there’s so much space themed black metal. After all, when one tires of trying to capture the sound of a cold Scandinavian forest what’s colder than the void of space? Travel with me through the void as I present some of my picks.

Cover art by Luciana Nedelea

This is the album that started me down the rabbit hole of cosmic black metal and still my favourite. Phobos Monolith mixes blistering tremolo riffs over lightning blast-beats with soaring melodic leads and spacey ambient passages to come up with Blut Aus Nord from space. My only complaint is that the programmed drums can’t keep up with the astounding quality of the rest of the music but that’s hardly the musician’s fault.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]



Mesarthim takes an almost comically obvious route of combining black metal with cheesy new age keyboard riffs. It’s like the soundtrack to an 80’s science documentary by Emperor. The ridiculous thing is it works incredibly well. This is partly due to the excellent composition in both the black metal and synth parts ending up with something like “black metal Muse” and partly due to the utter commitment in the vocals. The album is also DR 11 meaning very little dynamic range compression was used, making it sound excellent.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]



Daharaka is Turkish for “blacker” and he certainly is. Unlike some of the other cosmic black metal artists Daharaka sounds like second wave black metal played from space. His guitars and riffs are fuzzy and amorphous but rather than take the kvlt route of trebling it’s guts out he’s applied some effects that give similar results but sound very spacey. There’s something slightly off with the vocals that prevent me from outright loving the album but his unique approach deserves to be experienced. Trve kvlt space metal.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


Cover painting by Brian Smith ("By Midnight", 2010)

Tome of the Unreplenished takes the tried and true melodic black metal approach of bands like Rotting Christ and Thou Art Lord and takes it to space. Complete with chanting and “Hellenic” tremolo riffs.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


Cover art by Dis Pater

Midnight Odyssey leans more towards the ambient and slow side of things that the other bands on this list for a sound that’s kind of “blackened Enya”. Be warned, though, the album is ridiculously long; 2 hours and 20 minutes.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


Art by Paolo Girardi

While quite musically different from the previous five bands you can’t talk about space black metal without its original purveyors, Inquisition. Guaranteed to be the catchiest black metal about space Satan sung by a toad that you’ve ever heard.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Witchsorrow - No Light, Only Fire

November 19, 2015, 2:55 pm
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Written by Matt Hinch.


I’ve sort of got a predisposition towards bands with “wizard” or “witch” in their name. It doesn’t always work mind you, but it’s a good rule of thumb. Most often said band names are associated with doom/stoner acts and such is the case with UK-bred doom merchants Witchsorrow and their latest full-length No Light, Only Fire.

As has been the case since their inception, Witchsorrow live and breathe doom both of the traditional sort and the more modern take on the genre. Take opener “There Is No Light, There Is Only Fire” for example. Sonically speaking it oozes the kind of superfuzzed tone that typifies modern doom but the pace here is blistering by doom standards, as well as compared to much of the album. It barrells forth at a gallop, instantly calling heads to bang as the leads soar to the darkening skies. Thusly, one thinks more toward the traditional spectre of doom in the vein of Trouble and the like in how they can convey a pervading sense of dread without syrupy tempos.

That sort of reverence courses through the album along with a wholesome dose of Sabbath worship, perhaps nowhere more apparent that on closer “De Mysteriis Doom Sabbathas”. It’s a 14-minute test of endurance throwing horns at both Sabbath and the obvious inspiration for the title, Mayhem. (Witchsorrow have covered Mayhem (“Freezing Moon”) previously on an EP of the same name.)

That particular bookend bristles with menace through painfully slow chords bearing down upon the listener and soulful solos breathing colour into the monochrome crush. Witchsorrow’s stock and trade is in that sort of skull-crushing doom of the droning sort but they’re smart enough to know tempo variation is necessary to keep the listener conscious and interested as we see in the six tracks sandwiched between the two extremes opening and closing No Light.

“The Martyr” is like a tar pit ensnaring the listener as they run at full sprint from the plundering pace of “No Light”. The monolithic riffs feel filthy and subterranean as they construct a towering wall of sound. The doom is eternal if not quite funereal until it rumbles into a more uptempo shameless Sabbath worshipping run.

Elsewhere Witchsorrow balance plodding movements with engaging rhythms and cathedral filling vocal laments. Scowl-faced riffs push forth with unstoppable determination, oppressive walls of sound and mind-numbing drone defeating the will to think.

No Light crawls with a disdain for anything less than pure darkness. This gives the album a blackened edge that’s more felt than heard. Their menacing riffs personify doom on both sides of the fence. They glorify Sabbath and give nods to Trouble, St. Vitus et al as well as going all in with contemporaries in North America like Windhand and Uzala.

There’s a beauty to their agonizing and painful doom, likely assisted by the clean vocals. There’s little room for subtlety amidst their calculated reverberations but it’s there if you know where to look. No Light, Only Fire is simply a huge and enthralling doom album that only gets better with each spin. Witchsorrow are well studied in the genre and it shows in how they craft songs that are memorable, menacing and muscular. Darkness reigns. Embrace the flames.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Thy Worshiper - Ozimina

November 20, 2015, 4:49 pm
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Written by Ulla Roschat

Artwork by Anna Malarz from Thy Worshiper

Thy Worshiper originally formed in 1993 in Wroclaw/Poland, but are now, after some changes in their line-up, a six piece band and located in Dublin/Ireland. They already have several releases, some demos and three full length albums, and now they return with Ozimina. They call it an EP, but with its six songs and a playing time of about 36 minutes it could almost pass as a full length album.

Ozimina is an invitation to meet the natural world as well as the supernatural. You're a few minutes into the first song and you feel like you're running through a forest driven by a strong heavy rhythm, accompanied by melodic riffs and the sounds of nature, like howling wolves, dabbling water and tweeting birds later on. The whole EP is an utter percussive matter with ritualistic tribal rhythms, and has, combined with the folky melodies, a great pagan/folk black metal character with obscure gloomy atmospheres.

Photo by Abrisad.

With the first two songs you are just running and following the forceful, compelling rhythms and enchanting melodies. With the third song "Ozyny" you find yourself in some kind of shamanic conjuration of supernatural spirits. A droning hypnotic didgeridoo sound and heartbeat backdrop, spoken words (which I unfortunately don't understand, because they are, like all the lyrics, in Polish) that sound like some magic formula, Jew's harp and bagpipe - all add up to a dense, obscure and dangerous atmosphere of a spiritual world. Other than this song with its thick droning sound, all other songs rather have an open, reverberating sound, which lends them a great dynamic and depth.

Photo by Abrisad.

The next track "Wietlica" throws you back into the "peaceful" forest, beginning with singing birds and a simple rhythm produced by some wooden percussion instrument, which btw. contributes a lot to the overall "forest-feel" of the EP. Yet you get the impression that from here everything is not like it was before "Ozyny", as if the experience of the ritual has altered your mindset by some terrifying and saddening knowledge.

Like I mentioned above, it's too bad I don't understand the lyrics. On the other hand, this way I'm free to develop my own stories to the music. Ozimina is a folk black metal album with a great portion of ethnical tunes from eastern Europe and pagan style rhythms, carefully balanced and with an exciting dynamic flow.

The song "Halny" is featured on The Wicked Lady Show 97


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Label Spotlight: Transylvanian Tapes. Vol. 3

November 23, 2015, 3:43 pm
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Written by Craig Hayes.

This is the third in a continuing series of posts highlighting recent releases from Oakland, California-based label Transylvanian Tapes. I first encountered the label back in 2013, when the decidedly fetid and pile-driving death metal found on Caffa’s bruising debut, Day Of Disease, caught my ear. Since then, Transylvanian Tapes has issued a bunch of impressive cassette and digital releases. So let’s dive into some more of that riotous noise.



In some ways, Chrch’s remarkable three-track debut, Unanswered Hymns, reminds me of fellow doom band Samothrace’s first full-length, Life’s Trade. Not because Chrch have plagiarized Samothrace’s musical endeavours in any way on their first full-length. But because, like Life’s Trade, Chrch’s first album features a mere handful of songs and still manages to be an outstanding opening salvo due to the astonishing strength of those tracks.

Like Samothrace, Chrch also deal in deeply emotional and enthralling music. The kind of sludgy and transcendent doom metal that’s imbued with a sense of vast space and chasmic depth. It's the kind of music that clutches at your heart, as it soars into the firmament. And it's the kind of music that drags you down with it, when it plummets into caverns of despair.

So, yes, there are only three tracks on Unanswered Hymns. But every one of those tracks is a soul-shaking voyage of considerable length, breadth and impact. You can certainly point to the aforementioned Samothrace as a sonic reference point. As you could Yob, or Bell Witch, and perhaps you’ll even hear a hint of Hawkwind in Unanswered Hymns’more psychedelic passages too.

The point being, there's many influences poured into an album like Unanswered Hymns.But what resonates most, is that Chrch simply make honest music. Music that comes straight from the heart.

Case in point, Unanswered Hymns 19-minute album starter, “Dawning”. There’s a bold opening statement if ever there was one. It’s a do or die move by Chrch. Because your enjoyment of Unanswered Hymns hinges on whether you can digest and/or unpack a massive and multifaceted track straight away. It's a definite line in the sand. But the band wholly justifies delineating that line with “Dawning” by providing a masterclass in how to craft a ten-tonne epic that never loses focus.

Chrch further explores the potential of heavyweight and hallucinogenic doom on Unanswered Hymns’ remaining tracks, “Stargazer” and “Offering”. And both songs, which are also lengthy and involved excursions, are as equally compelling as “Dawning”.

In essence, Unanswered Hymns is defined by its immensity, and rough-hewn eloquence. It’s one of those superbly expressive underground debuts that deserves far more visibility. However, there’s also a grand sense of promise to the album as well. A vivid illustration of the brilliance that possibly lies ahead for Chrch. Because the band have clearly discovered a colossal creative vein to mine.

Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for Chrch. But, for now, there’s plenty of gigantic reverb-heavy riffing and tons of bludgeoning percussion and amp-melting noise to revel in on Unanswered Hymns. Frontwoman Eva’s vocals echo eerily and decidedly spellbindingly from the album's depths. And her voice, whether howling or whispered, forms a large part of Unanswered Hymns' other-worldly appeal.

Ultimately, what makes Unanswered Hymns’an album that I’d recommend you seek out immediately is Chrch’s decision to let their songs breathe with more minimalist and droning passages. Of course, those passages are always followed by superbly sledgehammering doom. But it's the deftly gauged counterpointing between thundering uproars and more ruminative and expansive movements that make Unanswered Hymns such a entrancing album overall.

Unanswered Hymnsha been wonderfully produced as well. It sounds huge, and raw. All jagged-edged, and monolithic in tone and texture. And all of that combines to ensure that it's is a first-rate debut well worth revisiting, time and again.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]




Like Chrch, San Diego trio Beira also deal in doom metal. However, Beira’s sound harks back further in time to a more majestic era of doom. The band’s vocalist, guitarist and flautist, Ruby Haynes, takes her time building the tension with thick and muscular riffs and on the four tracks that comprise Beira’s Vol 1 release. And, while the rest of the band stomps along with abundant capability and energy, it’s Haynes voice––savagely tearing into passages here, or whispering more ethereally there––that’s going to keep you hooked.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]



Take a look at that gruesome cover on Cartilage’s It's Necrotic release below. There’s everything you need to know about the lo-fi carnage found in the band's three-song debut writ large. Not everything has to be complicated or convoluted, and It's Necrotic sure isn't. It's simply a 10-minute deluge of blood and guts. It’s crude in character, and primitive in execution. And both of those elements work perfectly together. So if you’re a fan of old school gore-soaked death metal, or rusty bonesaw grindcore, then It's Necrotic will likely fit the butcher's bill for you too.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]



Devoid are a self-appointed “transdimensional doom metal” trio based in San Francisco. And the band’s I & II album features a great deal of aptly mind-warping noise. Really, it’s no hollow boast on Devoid’s behalf to say the band is “transdimensional” in nature. Because I & II features exactly the kind of turbulent and sludgy sonic worship that's as mesmerising as it is transporting.

Sure, Devoid might not literally be tearing a rent in reality. But you can't knock the band for making a huge effort to grind our reality into the dust on I & II. Devoid wields that same void-opening weaponry that bands such as Usnea, Neurosis or Thou utilise so well. And there's also a heavy dose of the same tripped-out accent that riff-lords such as Primitive Man, Ufomammut or Bongripper exhibit to be heard on I & II as well. Essentially, at their best, Devoid grab you by the scruff of the neck and hurl you into the nucleus of that swirling tempest illustrated on the album's cover. So, if gargantuan and hallucinogenic soundscapes sound enticing, you know where to look.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


Notes: Most of the links points to the band's own Bandcamp pages (and all the Devoid songs from I & II are available as name your price downloads on three different albums). For the tape releases go to the Transylvanian Tapes page. There you can also get the Transylvanian Tapes "Full Digital Discography" for 50% off - that's 19 albums for $50.38.

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Magic Circle - Journey Blind

November 25, 2015, 2:03 pm
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Written by Karen A. Mann.

Artwork by Joe Petagno

Composed of veterans from a slew of well-regarded Boston hardcore bands, Magic Circle are about as unlikely a doom band as you can imagine. They’re also not terribly visible. There’s no Facebook page or dedicated Bandcamp page (you can find some info on their website and the 20 Buck Spin Bandcamp page), and they don’t seem to play live very often. Any publicity about Magic Circle is almost entirely word-of-mouth from dedicated doom fans and blogs. After gaining a lot of underground attention with their 2013 self-titled debut album, they’ve just released Journey Blind on 20 Buck Spin.

Photo by Carmelo Española.

Magic Circle’s music is just as unexpected as their story. The title song begins with a melodic interlude, followed by a slow, lumbering riff that seems firmly inspired by Black Sabbath. It sounds like some funereal doom, and as the song begins to build, it takes on a kind of Pallbearer-ish feel. But then the song stops, and a new, rocking NWOBHM-ish riff with nods to Witchfinder General begins. Magic Circle isn’t planning to plod along forever. They’re going to grab you by the throat and force your fist into the air.

The band does know when to slow it down and give a good dose of molasses-thick melodies, like on “A Ballad for Vultures” and “Grand Deceivers,” and but they never creep for long. Witness the sweet “Metal Gods”-like breakdown in the middle of “Lightning Cage.”

Photo by Carmelo Española.

The real revelation comes when vocalist Brendan Radigan opens up and lets loose with one of the finest doom (or, really, metal in general) voices since Trouble’s Eric Wagner.

Trouble and, and to a lesser extent Saint Vitus, really are major touchstones for Magic Circle, from the riffing to Radigan’s powerful delivery to the introspective, cathartic lyrics. Magic Circle want to take you on a journey through the history of doom, and they don’t need a bong or a copy of Drawing Down the Moon to do it.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Grima - Devotion to Lord

November 28, 2015, 5:14 am
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Written by Justin C.


I've always thought "atmospheric black metal" was a bit of a misnomer. To me, the name implies a very wispy, maybe even ambient sound, whereas a lot of atmospheric BM has plenty of fire and brimstone to it. It just happens to be a bit more melodic with some quiet parts thrown in. Case in point: The Siberian duo Grima and their debut album Devotion to Lord. (Their Bandcamp page clarifies that "lord," in this case, is "Mother Nature and no human god," so we're not talking about any "white metal" here.)

The two tracks that Naturmacht originally previewed, "The Beginning" and the title track, really drew me in. Grima play heavily melody-driven black metal. The vocals are primarily an icy rasp, although there are deeper growls and the occasional chant-like clean mixed in. The audible bass is a nice touch and always appreciated, and the riffs are heavy on the tremolos. The title track brings in a little Alcest in its intro, but only for a moment. The two bands certainly share a strong melodic sense and an ability to capture a dream-like feel, but I wouldn't lump Grima in with any of the blackgaze bands. This is more of a hybrid of that sound and the nature worship in a lot of Cascadian black metal.

But that brings me to the other thing I enjoyed about this album. Unlike the polished studio recordings you here with a lot of blackgaze and Cascadian recordings, there's a rough-hewn quality to Grima's sound, not so much because of the production, but because of the performances. Grima isn't afraid to leave an arpeggiated riff naked with no accompaniment, like near the midpoint of "The Beginning," and it has a great "recorded live" feel to it, with an occasional string buzz left in. I often struggle with this in my own chintzy recordings--do I go for a raw, one-take recording, maximizing the emotion of a spontaneous performance, or use whatever limited abilities I have in recording to polish the sound? It sounds like Grima's gone for the former here, and that suits the heavy emotional impact of their music very well. And although that doesn't make for a revolution in the atmospheric black metal subgenre, I'd still highly recommend this for people looking for atmospheric BM with a Siberian twist.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Sunn O))) Monoliths and Opinions: Part XVII - Kannon

December 7, 2015, 1:51 pm
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Written by Craig Hayes.

Cover art by Angela Bolliger.

If you want to get a clear picture of the increasing mainstream acceptance of avant-garde or extreme music, then you only have to note that Sunn O)))’s brand-new album, Kannon, was introduced to the wider world by being streamed on Rolling Stone’s website. No offence to the long-running magazine, but folks had waited six long years for a new Sunn O))) album to appear, and seeing it debut on Rolling Stone was a perplexing situation indeed.

Still, I guess that’s a reflection of Sunn O)))’s position in the pantheon of contemporary rock ’n’ roll in 2015. Once upon a time, Sunn O))) were a decidedly underground experimental metal band. But then, stunning albums like 2009’s Monoliths & Dimensions, and equally compelling collaborations with Scott Walker (Soused) and Ulver (Terrestrials), clearly raised the cult band’s profile well beyond what I imagine Sunn O))) founders Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson could ever have imagined.

Sure, Sunn O))) are never going to have a smash hit record. But they’re definitely being applauded by a significantly larger audience nowadays. One thing that Sunn O))) have always done, whether popular or not, is to keep moving forward. Which, I admit, is a statement wholly at odds with Sunn O)))’s critics’ usual complaints that the band really don’t change their position enough, or at all.

Sunn O))) 2011. Photo by Webzine Chuul.

However, the suggestion that Sunn O))) are a static band is ludicrous. Because even if their music has often seemed to be made of colossal and immovable megaliths, Sunn O))) have always been fixed on transforming their sound. Yes, the band do work to a template. But increasingly diverse albums like White1, White2, Black One and Monoliths & Dimensions added increasing amounts of colour and texture to that template.

Sunn O)))’s live shows have transformed the band too, with Sunn O))) and their fans exploring enormous sonic pathways together. On Kannon, Sunn O))) also explore a new creative trajectory. It’s not a radical change in direction, but there’s more than enough movement to signal that Kannon represents another step in Sunn O)))’s evolution.

As usual, O’Malley and Anderson steer a course towards the heart of a collapsing nebula on Kannon. But all the heaviness and low-end exploits aren’t just about conveying a dark vision or evoking a grim tone. Sunn O))) also part the clouds on Kannon, with the aim to let a little compassion and illumination shine down. And they’ve drawn inspiration to do that from the world of Buddhism.

The influence of Eastern spiritual traditions might seem like a new tack for Sunn O))), but the band’s music has always featured a meditative pace and aura, as all great transcendental drone does. Although Anderson has said, “I wouldn't consider us to be spiritual people”, a sense of the spiritual is a huge component in the band’s live arsenal. Their concerts in cathedrals, recital halls, and clubs the world over have always been ceremonial affairs, with the band in robes and hoods, ritually summoning giant slabs of mantric sound while shrouded in smoke.

Sunn O))) 2011. Photo by Webzine Chuul.

So spirituality is not unexplored terrain for Sunn O))). But what is new is that Kannon marks the band’s most concise work yet. Don’t panic, Sunn O))) don’t shortchange us on the sheer sonic power front here; Kannon is still an intense experience. However, the album barely pushes past the 30-minute mark.

That doesn’t mean that Sunn O))) were aiming for a more accessible album. Even if famed experimental musician (and Kannon collaborator) Oren Ambarchi’s first response on hearing the final mixes was to say to O’Malley, "Yeah, it's kind of like … Sunn O)))'s pop record." It’s really not. Kannon is pitch-black molten riffs delivered at a molasses pace, as always. And I think we can take it for granted that Sunn O))) won’t be compromising their vision for commercial reasons anytime soon.

The three triptych drones on Kannon were recorded and mixed by Randall Dunn, and the album features long-term collaborators, including Mayhem’s Attila Csihar (who ‘sings’ on every track here), Rex Ritter, and Steve Moore. At its core, Kannon primarily orbits around O’Malley and Anderson’s interplay, as they worship at the altar of amp-melting bass and guitars. “Kannon 1”, “Kannon 2”, and “Kannon 3” are fairly straightforward drones as a result. At least, they favour Sunn O)))’s live set-up a little more, and dispense with the larger framework and orchestral accoutrements of Monoliths & Dimensions.

Sunn O))) 2011. Photo by Webzine Chuul.

There’s plenty of Sunn O)))’s patented 10-tonne distortion on Kannon. “Kannon 1” starts off with a seismic-shaking riff, before the track’s atmosphere thickens and becomes more ominous as Csihar’s eerie croaks and crackles appear. “Kannon 2” churns through the dramatic darkness, as Csihar zealously chants over sub-bass walls of noise. While “Kannon 3”, the final piece in the three-piece puzzle, seals the crypt with a doom-laden drone that harks back to the starkest and heaviest musical motifs of Sunn O)))’s earliest tracks.

In fact, if not for Csihar spitting, growling and/or howling throughout, much of Kannon would fit right in with the bare-boned and punishing drones from early in Sunn O)))’s career. That means, where Kannon sits in Sunn O)))’s oeuvre is a bit of a curious question. In many ways, the album feels like Sunn O)))’s most metal releases since Black One. Yet Kannon is also a sparser and brighter album than the ceaselessly choking and wonderfully nightmarish Black One.

In the end, given that this is around the 20th Sunn O))) album review I’ve written, the fact that Kannon still inspires me to try and unpack its secrets and endeavour to understand its deeper meaning can only be a good thing. Certainly, delivering a more compact yet still deeply contemplative album like Kannon, after such a hugely theatrical work like Monoliths & Dimensions, is an unexpected move. That the band continues to surprise and enthrall, 17 years after their debut, is perhaps the greatest testament to their continuing creative prowess.

Long may Sunn O))) reign as the lords of spellbinding drone.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]




The Sunn O))) Monoliths and Opinions series.


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Tod Huetet Uebel - Malícia

December 8, 2015, 2:48 pm
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Written by Majbritt Levinsen.

Artwork by Valnoir

Magnificent! Grandiose! Massive and brutal! F*cking insane!

These were the first words that arose in my mind as the crisp and clear sounds of the first track "XIII" started to overwhelm me. What a way to open up into the depths of two tormented souls' artistic world. Yes, Tod Huetet Uebel, only consist of two musicians: Daniel C, who creates all the music and Marcos M, who delivers the anguished vocal. Daniel C has also recorded, mixed and produced the album. The band spawned from the Portuguese underground and the essence of hatred back in 2012 and has since then created their own take on a skewed and anguished world.

Malícia is beautifully mixed, where every instrument has been given its own space, giving you a clear view into all of the corners this album has to offer. The singer adapts the same insane roars, anguished screams and sinister incantations as B from Lifelover and Kvarforth from Shining. Musically Tod Huetet Uebel is black metal mixed up with post-apocalyptic, avant-garde, straight up atmospheric insanity, and moments of clarity and peace.

The album is filled with machine-gun drumming and razor-sharp guitar melodies that occasionally drops into slower passages. On "I" the schizophrenic mind sees clarity, if only for a short time and offers a calm passage before it falls back into the chaotic pit of insanity. And on “IX” the mad fury drops into a dark ritualistic deity invoking state and “V” just simply tries to put a spell on you as it twists and gnarls itself out of an eerie dark place out into the light. The vocals are crow-like, manic roars straight from the asylum and takes on many disturbing shapes which suits the insane world the music is depicting very well.

As I was listening to “XII” for the third time it suddenly hit me that Tod Huetet Uebel on top of everything else has an aura of nihilistic decadence! “XII” also offers very interesting musical side tracks, which warms the inside of someone like me that loves this kind of dark and weird metal. And I could go on and on about passages and melodies I've picked up and taken notice of, but they are too many to mention.

This is music that needs attention, so headphones on and sit back and take notice! If you like the skewed and unordered as much as I, you will not be disappointed. I promise!


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Label Spotlight: I, Voidhanger Records

December 9, 2015, 2:02 pm
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Written by Kevin Page.

Italy's I, Voidhanger Records, founded in 2008, are one of the handful of labels where quality reigns supreme. Not one to simply sign a slew of bands and push product out the door, each artist is carefully picked, and more times than not, something that you should take notice of. Here are three of their most recent releases definitely worth your time.

Cover art by Sergio Gonzales

Santiago, Chile's Nar Mattaru unleash their sophomore full length effort, Ancient Atomic Warfare, 4 years after their debut (which I have not had the pleasure of hearing yet). Joined by new vocalist, Bliol, who sounds just like Dr. Claw from the old Inspector Gadget cartoon (I kid you not and I mean this in the nicest way possible), the band pummel you through 45 minutes of mid paced death metal. Unlike lots of Chilean and South American bands this isn't noisy chaotic war metal. Yet this is far from polished or pristine sounding though and reminds me of an early Immolation without the backwards sounding riffs. Favorite track: "The Great Serpent of Knowledge".


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


Artwork by Francesco Gemelli


If you didn't get a chance or simply missed my interview with Spectral Lore, there's no better time than now to give it a read/listen (links to 3 current releases included).

Once you are finished with that, Ayloss has even more new material for you to check out in Gnosis, a 49 minute experimental EP. But don't fear the experimental tag as there's plenty of metal to go along with the ambiance, acoustics and oriental instrumentation. If you are a fan of the band, this one might require a little more of your time than usual (at least it did for me). And be sure to check out the mindset behind the release (on their Bandcamp page), which is written in a far more eloquent manner than I could ever hope to.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]


Cover art by Wiley Trieff


I'm guessing that most people would never peg Howls of Ebb as an American band, I sure didn't. They seem too quirky and unique with their twisted take on the death metal genre. 2014's debut album, Vigils of the 3rd Eye, was literally an eye opener and fresh take on extreme metal. And like most things original, it was glossed over fairly easily. They have now returned with a new 34 minute EP that's even more 'out there', but not in a spacey, wanky, self indulgent way. My initial reaction was to question if this was the same band, as by comparison the debut sounded fairly easy to grasp. This took me repeated spins to finally warm up to it, but once it did, I was treated to a hypnotic black/death soundscape. From riffs, to production and song structure, everything just screams DIFFERENT and that's a good thing. Another home run for I, Voidhanger Records.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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The Visit - Through Darkness Into Light

December 10, 2015, 10:56 am
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Written by Matt Hinch


I won’t go on and on about Through Darkness Into Light by Ottawa’s The Visit. Mostly because words fail to capture the beauty found within these five tracks. As someone who knows next to nothing about classical music I implore you metalheads to listen to this most wonderful cello and voice duo.

Raphael Weinroth-Browne (Musk Ox) mans the cello while Heather Sita Black takes care of the vocals. And both are stellar.

Their compositions are long (the shortest is about eight minutes) but never boring. Each track is fraught with drama, moving from one emotional high to the next. From low and doom-laden to soaring above the highest peaks, Raphael takes the listener to places they can only imagine. Heather sings with the voice of an angel wistfully caressing the soul.

Together they create movements of great tension both loud and soft, slow and fast, rhythmic and melodic. These are met with the aforementioned beauty. These elements and others flow together in operatic fashion, laying out the emotional stories.

Heather’s voice is unshakable. It grabs hold with the intoxicating pull of a romantic lover, ensnaring the listener and opening up their heart with gorgeous melodies. Raphael is equally captivating. His control is masterful and bold, using his entire instrument and varied technique to ensure the darkness and light bend to his will.

Together they become more than the sum of their parts. Their dynamic approach, modern yet traditional, and unquestioned chemistry is stunningly compelling.

Through Darkness Into Light exudes a power far beyond might. Its power comes from within rendering those with open hearts and open minds helpless to resist its charms. The Visit are able to invoke a plethora of emotions and desires including heartache and sadness, joy, revenge, madness, solace, desperation and hope, all under a shifting sky both cold and warm, thick and airy, through darkness into light.

Simply magnificent.

Enough blathering. Just listen and be amazed.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Cult of Occult - Five Degrees of Insanity

December 11, 2015, 3:35 pm
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Written by Justin C.

Art by Jeni Fitts / Provoking Drama

I vaguely remember checking out Cult of Occult's first full-length, Hic Est Domus Diaboli in the summer of 2014, and then moving on without a strong impression. I found it a bit too monolithic, I think. It's hard for me to quantify how much they've changed vs. how much I've changed in the intervening time, but I found their newest, Five Degrees of Insanity, instantly addicting.

This is filthy sludge at its most pure. Earlier this year, I compared Bell Witch's album with creeping lava, and I think that metaphor works equally well for Cult of Occult. (I'm also trying to make "lava-core" a thing in metal journalism. Help a guy out!) Five Degrees of Insanity is a vicious, viscous crawl. As if being smothered by lava weren't enough, the band's happy to pound you over the head with a sledgehammer. Hell, I started pounding on my desk along with the crawling beat of "Nihilistic." That water-torture-slow drip of a riff packs a surprising amount of heft.

That song gives you a pretty good feel for the album. There's some obvious variation, like the furious energy in the opening of "Misanthropic," but for the most part, the music stays low, slow, and dirty. Vocals growl for the most part, except when they're shrieking invective like "OPEN YOUR EYES YOUR LIFE IS SHIT!. (In a nice touch, the band has included the lyrics on their Bandcamp page, written as solid blocks of ALL CAPS text. The typesetting matches the intensity.)

Sometimes I think the music could use a little more variation--after all, ten and a half minutes is the shortest track on this mammoth--but there's something absolutely magnetic in this album that pulls me along, even in the face of doubt. And talk about pulling you in: The album art for this, done by Jeni Fitts, could easily be in the Museum of Modern Art. It's the kind of disturbing piece that I'd spend at least 15 minutes staring at while other patrons edged warily around me. It's a perfect fit for this bruiser of an album.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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Locrian - Infinite Dissolution

December 14, 2015, 11:06 am
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Written by Majbritt Levinsen.

Sculpture by David Altmejd

I totally fell in love with Locrian back in 2012 when I first came in contact with this highly creative trio. They blew me away and opened up a new chapter of music to me. Even though the double album The Clearing/The Final Epoch was harsh and not so listener-friendly I just embraced it wholeheartedly. It was a trip to a haunting claustrophobic post-apocalyptic environment which I gladly revisits on a regular basis.

I have to mention that, to this day, I have not gotten into their album Return To Annihilation from 2013. After some listen-throughs I just came to terms with the fact that we weren’t compatible.

So here I am with a new Locrian album which is much lighter and much more accessible on a grander scale, the haunting drone and eerie bleak atmospheres from The Clearing/The Final Epoch is for the most part gone, and has transformed into a more focused experimental atmospheric post-black-metal with the dark electronics hovering around the tracks, and I love it!

Terence Hannum. Photo by Webzine Chuul.

"Arc of Extinction" opens up with all the ingredients that makes Locrian great: droning guitars, the tormented distant screams from Terence Hannum, the ritualistic heavy drumbeats from Steven Hess that drags you closer while the track builds up into a cataclysmic fury, a tornado of intertwined sounds that breathes like a living entity! 7 minutes of mesmerizing waves of sound and André Foisy’s fine-tuned guitar that just lifts this track above and beyond.

Just like "Dark Shales" has it’s light and fluid meditative mood that feels spacy and futuristic, "The Great Dying" will also lift your mind to another state of consciousness. It blooms out to something that gives me goosebumps, and is maybe my favourite track on this album. It floats seamlessly over into “Heavy Water” that streams thick and fluidly underneath you as you hover over it.

Steven Hess. Photo by Webzine Chuul.

"An Index of Air" makes me want to see them live, this track would be something out of this world to be able to experience live, where the initial lengthy drum and electronic intro will take your senses to another dimension. And as the track opens up and Terrence starts to scream out the few but powerful lyrics; the sound waves, the dim light and the presence of other people in a crowded room would trigger even more ways to enjoy the music.

This album feels more harmonic and balanced but you will still find darker passages with harsh noisy electronics. The track "KXL I" carries this darker and more harsher mechanical droning sound and mood. It has a light guitar on top of a darker undercurrent of screeching electronics. A gritty guitar eventually seeps out of that dark undercurrent and gives this track some really interesting layers.

André Foisy. Photo by Webzine Chuul.

After my first listen-through I noticed that the aura was brighter and more ethereal. Every sound they create in their sonic adventures is carefully placed and structured which results in an awe inspiring synergy, and that is why I never get tired of listening to their music.

With Infinite Dissolution Locrian paints pretty pictures of post-apocalyptic landscapes. So let them escort you, as your mind wander, to an Earth where humans no longer exists. Cease to Grow, Start to Dissolve ("Heavy Water").

And I might have to mention that Locrian’s Infinite Dissolution is number one on my best of 2015 list.


[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

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