“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
Infuneral – The Circle Master

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.

Links:
MySpace
Blackcrowned Records

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.

Links:
Horse Latitudes MySpace
Horse Latitudes Bandcamp
Horse Latitudes on Lurkers Path

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
Cloaca – Shellshock

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 Lassitude which 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.

Links:
MySpace
Facebook
EP and Merch
Lassitude CD

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.

Links:
Official Site
Facebook
MySpace
ReverbNation

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.

Those plans for August West Coast Tour better not fall through. See you at the show.

Our friends at Invisible Orages posted some disturbing news earlier today – an amazing artist Stephen Kasner is unfortunately having health problems and needs our help. As Cosmo accurately points out, most artists often lack any sort of medical insurance and in the unfortunate cases where they fall ill, must rely on the support of family and friends.

Stephen Kasner has been producing great art that has been used by countless bands for almost two decades and his unique and haunting style has been seen by most metal fans out there and now it’s our turn to help a member of our metal family and donate whatever we can to help him out.

In order to preserve a single point of donations I will repost the information from Invisible Oranges who have also offered to to enter all donors into a drawing for a signed book of  Stephen Kasners works.

Here is how you can help:

1. The first is a direct donation by PayPal to kasner@stephenkasner.com. Times are tough, so no amount is too small. If 1,000 people give $5 each, that goes a long way. Depending on his health, Kasner will do drawings/sketches for all who donate.

2. The second is to purchase merch from Kasner. He has two stores, a main one and one for his Blood Fountains musical project. You can buy books, album art prints, CD’s, silkscreens, posters, and more. They make great gifts for this holiday season.

Please help us ensure that this great man can continue producing great art!

The title of this post is definitely not accidental. A lot has happened within these past few weeks: I got married and I moved to San Francisco. I have actually gotten a few other things acomplished in my personal life, and of course they have spilled over into my ability to write here and keep up with new music. But along with immeasurable stress of getting things done, moving to San Francisco has proven extremely fruitful already. Last Sunday I was able to drive for 5 minutes to see Enslaved perform with Dimmu Borgir at the Regency.

Now as I have told my friends I actually added this concert to my calendar without knowing that Dimmu were going to play, thinking that Enslaved will headline. For last few years I haven’t really kept up with Dimmu Borgir, and not in a pretentious “they are no longer metal” way, but simply because I found their new album to not fit my taste and just in general not being what I am personally into at this moment. Having said that, I still chose to get raped by Ticketmaster on the ticket fees and prepare myself for coming into work the next day all tired from the night before.

So before I go on, I am one of those assholes who a lot of the times does not go see opening acts. I know that this is the best way to support upcoming new artists, but a lot of the times I really find them to just wear me down before the gig I want to be there for even starts. This was the case for this past show too. Both bands, Blood Red Throne and Dawn of Ashes were not my thing so I decide to skip them and showed up right for Enslaved. I’ve given their last album a couple listens and there were definitely some interesting parts, and what some might find silly I actually wanted to see them because I wanted to put them down on my metal-concert-goer resume as a legendary band that I have seen.

Maybe it’s that I have not had much time to go to shows lately, and this was my first in some months, but damn they blew me away. The sound was great, they played some tracks off the new album, the clean vocals seemed to fit and the band had an awesome attitude, just really making it fun for the crowd. The energy and crispness of guitars, the growls slicing through the ballroom like a knife just made my night and I was ready to explode by the time they got to Isa.  They were perfect.

And then BAM! Dimmu Borgir come out after an epic orchestral intro. Damn did they deliver! Opening up with Spellbound by the Devil was a very welcome move for me and got the crowd going. Of course they did Gateways off of the new album which sounded pretty good live and they threw in Mourning Palace into the encore. Now as I mentioned this was a Sunday night show and I had work the next morning, but I have to give these guys respect for making me say “fuck it” and quickly making my way into the pit to violently headbang and get knocker around by the guys twice my size.

If you are trying to catch them on their remaining gates of this tour, do yourself a favor and be there. All of the bands put in a lot of energy and force into this one and you will not regret going!

Before starting to write this, I checked out what other people are saying about Wolvhammers debut – “Black Marketeers of World War III” and was really surprised to see “not bad”, “standard” and “non memorable” describing the album. Actually I would even say that I was shocked to see that kind of a response to a release which can easily end up on some Metal Albums of the Year lists, especially being the bands first album. I’m not sure if the other reviewers expected a genre-defying masterpiece, but for me this debut is just a signal that Wolvhammer is a band that has gotten through a few demos, found their sound and are on the way to continue developing their own formula of sludgy, punky black metal.

Wolvhammer – Witchery Artillery
Wolvhammer – Witchery Artillery

If you have read this blog before, you will know that I don’t go into the song-by-song breakdown, and rather try to describe the overall feel of the album; and what we have here is a release which throughout the whole length steadily delivers a payload of gritty metal. You know how some years ago there was a popular and pretty overused tag of “uncompromising black metal”, well I feel that this is it. Sure it’s not “pure black” but that’s a good thing, a variety of musical influences shines through at every turn and you will hear tones of anything from Darkthrone to Black Sabbath, at least I do.

Another kind of a weird thing that popped up on my radar when I was looking for some info on the band is that apparently there was some discussion as to the origins and meaning of the (old?) logo during which Wolvhammer were accused of being racist.  The issue has been cleared up since then and a retraction has been made on Headbang clarifying that it’s not the case. A non-issue for most, and honestly I think that just by paying attention to the band for more than 5 minutes one would see that there are no traces of that attitude here. Besides, forget ideology and listen to the music.

I’ve also had a brief interaction with the drummer of Wolvhammer, Heath Rave,while ordering merch and he was great to deal with, so I suggest you go ahead and support the band by ordering from them directly and you can also get a chance to talk to these guys in the meantime.

To finish this up, I want to say that “Black Marketeers of World War III“ really left an impression on me, I just feel that there’s something in here that these guys are doing right, and I will definitely be looking forward to the next album.

Links:
Wolvhammer Myspace
Order Album (only $8)
Download Wolvhammer demos (free)

For this post I’m not going to a single out a particular release but rather talk about a band that is yet another great candidate for the winter playlist – Lustre.

Melancholy and atmosphere do not even begin to describe the majestic sound you will find in every release from this Swedish one-man project by Nachtzeit (Henrik Sunding). While Lustre could be a bit too monotonous and slow for some, those who can appreciate this type of music will find themselves constantly putting the albums on repeat, trying to dive into the trance-inducing wall of fuzzy guitars and looming keyboards. I know it’s a common feeling that many of share, that when a release is particularly good, you wish the album had a couple more tracks, and this is definitely the case here. With songs almost never dipping below 10 minutes in length, both albums “Night Spirit” and this years “A Glimpse of Glory” barely make past a 40 minute mark, and that’s a damn shame because when these albums end it’s like being awoken mid-dream  in a warm den and being tossed into an icy river.

Lustre – This Mighty Sight

Lustre – This Mighty Sight

I am constantly reminded of another similar project – Vinterriket, about which I will definitely make a post in the near future and who I also believe definitely belong on the same winter playlist. Even though they both share the approach to the ambient passages and layout of guitars and percussions, Lustre in my opinion achieves something different by giving the keyboards a much stronger presence.

The vocals play a much lesser role in Lustre and being so faint and scarce can simply pass through the listeners ears, and at times go completely unnoticed. This is a great choice by Nachtzeit, as the setting created by the music really benefits from flowing uninterrupted by unnecessary shrieks or howls.

I could go on and on about what I think is being conveyed and expressed in these releases, but I would much rather shut up and let you listen, take in the avalanche of sound that is Lustre and let your mind wonder in the dimensions and environments that this magnificent project constructs with every note.

Links:
Lustre Myspace
Order Lustre Releases

Finally a new Atheist album after 17 years of silence! Ever since frontman Kelly Shaefer announced on July 26, 2008 that Atheist would be recording a new album, fans have been anxiously waiting. But how does Jupiter hold up in comparison to Atheist’s previous releases?

Atheist fans will not be disappointed. Of course, this is no Unquestionable Presence, but Jupiter is still a solid, captivating album. The band still incorporates the wild tempo changes and that signature jazz influenced bass flawlessly. One of the things I’ve always found interesting about Atheist is that, unlike many other metal bands, the guitar doesn’t seem to be the center of the music; each member of the band is of equal importance, and Atheist still seems to have this quality. The vocals are the only element on this album that doesn’t quite seem to live up to Atheist’s old albums; they just aren’t as hard-hitting.

I felt that the highlights of the album were the first track, “Second to Sun” and the last track “Third Person“. They seemed to be the best showcase Atheist’s progressive elements as well as their aggression as a death metal band. For the most part, the album was fairly consistent. Nothing seemed out of place, and all of the songs were enjoyable.

So all in all, I felt that Jupiter was a good, solid album with slightly better production than their old material, but it’s definitely not as outstanding as Unquestionable Presence and Elements. Regardless, I hope that the band continues to compose new material and inspires more death metal bands to incorporate progressive and jazz elements into their music.

-ynori7