“Country – Sweden, album cover – black&white.. What more do you need?”
This brilliant quote by a fellow forum member really describes what we have going on here with Infuneral – Torn From The Abyss.
Now of course that’s not all there is to this release. After a bit over a minute of an intro, that actually does a pretty good job at setting the mood, we are thrown into very straight forward black metal that just reaks of the rock-’n-rollish mid-90s. The vocalist – Grave, who also performs with the mighty Ondskapt, delivers the lyrics ferociously but in a refreshingly discernible fashion while Casket, the drummer, back him up with the constant artillery strike which once in while breaks down into a slower catchy tempo that will find you pumping a clenched fist into the air.
Infuneral – The Circle Master
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So what we’re talking about here is really just 28 minutes of nostalgia that’s been packaged into a 200 copies and designed for those of us who keep dusting off records that are 10-15 years old craving that simplicity that is just so efficient. Are there some things that could be improved on here? Sure, even at its very short duration, the tracks on Torn From The Abyss sometimes feel that they have been taken out of a few different albums. What I mean is that while they keep the common bond in sound, they seem to draw their influence from different bands which makes them stand out back-to-back. I’m fine with this “flaw” since overall it’s still a very sobering trip through a windy path of brutally honest black metal.
With that said, do check Infuneral out. Get your hands on the pretty limited run of Torn From the Abyss and for half an hour drift a decade back into the simpler times.
It may be that because at the moment I am laying powerless with a life-drenching sickness, no matter how temporary; my head full of moldy air and my thoughts escaping through every pore in the moist exhale of the fever. It may be because an exhausting week is coming to an end pushing me down towards the long awaited hibernation of the weekend. Whatever the case might be, Horse Latitudes is just what the doctor ordered.
Heavy and morose, this 3-piece from Finland is drowning me in ritualistic drumming and unrelenting drone of two bass guitars. This is Sludge, this is Doom, this is what you might expect in a band devoid of guitars and a ghoulish vocal howl. At times I feel as if I am chained to cold rock of a lightless cave waiting to be a part of a hidden ceremony to which Gathering is the soundtrack.
The three behind the band are Heidi, Harri, Vellu who have come together with an outlined goal of creating minimalist sound, with as they themselves say “crushing riffs and primitive vibration with the powerful beat”. What they have come to birth is an album, cover of which is adorned with mysterious symbols, oozing ceremonious chants and packed with trance from the thick bass strings.
Seeing how I am struggling to keep my fingers moving to produce these words, I hope that you will excuse me as I close my eyes and let my mind melt in the sonic groove of Gathering by Horse Latitudes.
I’m not sure if a band can get the “titans” status with only one album and an EP behind their belt, but I was failing to find a descriptor for the British newcomers – Cloaca. The whole “doom” and “post-metal” bit is more of a directional guide than an actual alignment map to the sound that these guys oh so so skillfully churn out. One of the reviewers on Todestrieb tried to pin Cloaca down as a lovechild of ISIS, Neurosis and GYBE!, while Aquarius Records talk about their track progression as “some sort of black doom post metal Hawkwind“; I do not disagree with either one, and this just goes to say that to simply call these guys “Post-Metal” will not do their music justice.
Cloaca – Shellshock
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A lot can be told by the length of songs on an album, and with their first full-length Lassitude packing 76 minutes of quite oppressive sludge, you’re in for a journey on this one. In this genre it’s a pretty common story to have a track that goes well into the teens, minute-wise, with plenty of climactic build-ups just to reach that peak and bring it all crashing down.. well Cloaca seem to more often just lock in on a riff and ride that fucker like there’s no tomorrow which I find is a fantastic technique that just chains the listener down to the floor, stationary, while at the same time forcing one into that steady and metronome-like constant headbanging.
The word count of this review could double if not triple if I were to start breaking the release down track by track, but I would much rather have you check out a track or two and then buy either the fantastic Ghost Town EP or the impressive Lassitudewhich was released on the vocalists, Chris Naughtons (Atavist, Winterfylleth) label Lone Vigil Recordings. [Edit: Please note that Chris Naughton joined the band replacing Mike Taylor shortly after the albums completion.] One thing I will point out, is that it took me 3+ full listens to this massive album to fully digest it, I’ve seen a fan compare it to having a run at War and Peace – it’s simply not a piece you absorb fully in one sitting.
I’m not going to hide the fact that a lot of the times I cruise on over to a metal mp3 board and sift through copious posts of newly added releases, quickly scanning through the bands names and genre tags. It’s a fairly efficient way of familiarizing myself with a high volume of new music in a short time. I’m not sure many share my sentiment, but I actually DO end up buying a lot of the music which I’ve come to know through a download, at least that’s how I justify this procedure.
So today was no different, I’ve listened to 15 or 20 boring tracks of various myspace pages of bands that in my opinion will go nowhere, and then I happen upon Ajattara. Should I have known about this band that’s been active for the last decade and was formed by ex-Amorphis frontman, Pasi Koskinen, and now includes Horna guitarist, Mynni Luukkainen? The answer to that question is most definitely yes. Maybe it’s the pint of Guinness in my hand or just the general mood, but I found their latest Murhat to hit the spot perfectly.
I am told that Ajattara are somewhat reinventing their sound with this new release, straying from the old roots; now this is something that I’m just repeating blindly as I wanted to get this piece out and planning on checking their back catalog later on. Even if they are, I think they have found something that works quite well. Murhat (translates to “Murders”) is assertive, modern, quite harsh with a militaristic aura about it.
The rare splashes of clean vocals go along quite nicely to slightly simmer down the abrasive punches of Pasis’ howls. Given the album title and track names like Blind Meat and Sorrows Guild, the theme of this release leaves little to imagination and is a no-frills headbanging adrenalin shot straight to the vein. It’s short album, and not to speak of it’s quality, I think that half an hour is quite enough here; as if it were to come in a longer package I feel it would loose the fast jab effect and would convert into a lasting wrestling match instead.
If you already knew Ajattara and were for some reason dissatisfied with previous efforts, give Murhat a try, and if you are as new to these guys as I am… well actually I don’t care if you know them or not, go buy this album or at least get into the pit during one of their next shows.
I might have said this before as an excuse to my sporadic writing here, but once again a release forces me to saddle the fuck up, write and spread the word. This time it’s a trio from Philadelphia, Ominous Black.
Should I start with telling you that vocals are being done by the drummer? Or that the 3 track titles of this EP add up to a total of 40 words? Or maybe that you can pick up “Repressed Memories of the Collective Subconscious” for the price of fresh air (free!).
No matter where I start, the fact remains the same – these guys will crush your skull. The ripping vocals make their seldom appearance from behind a thick bass and an ever escalating guitar, and that’s the way I like it. For one, I always found it hard to understand how a drummer can be on singing duty in a metal band, especially one pumping so much power as Wud here, but he handles it beautifully.
The other guys Jason (guitar) and Christian (bass) deliver a constant feeling of desolation that I can try visually describe with a scene from 28 Hours Later where the main character is walking through infection-ravaged empty streets of London.
Some passages in this first track, “The Steady Hand…“, make me think of Nachtmystium if they stopped doing all the cocaine, slowed the hell down but kept that fury and anger. The numerous descriptions of Ominous Black being psychedelic/cosmic sludge almost dictate the atmosphere before the sound penetrates your speakers, but to me this is post metal with balls. They build you up, they tear you down and stomp on whatever is left at the end. Great effort.
