Never Presence Forever and Gridfailure are both experimental noise bands from the US. They have teamed up for this split release.
We start with Never Presence Forever, who offer us up two tracks lasting 15 minutes in total. Continue reading “Never Presence Forever/Gridfailure – Split (Review)”
Debutante is a solo-project from Switzerland and this is his latest EP of electro rock/drone/pop.
From the blurb – “An EP about anxiety, depression and crippling, petty envy.” So now you know. Continue reading “Debutante – EP3 (Review)”
Sea of Bones and Ramlord are both from the US. Sea of Bones play doom, while Ramlord play hardcore.
Sea of Bones have produced some monolithic, crushing doom/sludge metal in their time, so it’s with great joy that I prepared to listen to their half of this split – a single track named Hopelessness and Decay, lasting just under 11 minutes.
Slow and full of apocalyptic inevitability, the track unfolds at minimal speed, Continue reading “Sea of Bones/Ramlord – Split (Review)”
Nadja’s stunning 41 minute album Sv is a masterclass in tense atmosphere and relentless smouldering soundscapes. As a highly prolific band that have released a plethora of quality material, Sv stands up there as one of their best pieces of work and should ideally be required listening for any discerning music fan. I had the privilege to quiz Aidan Baker, 50% of Nadja, about the release…
Nadja is a duo of Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, drum machine) and Leah Buckareff (bass, vocals). We make music that has been variously called metalgaze, drone-doom, and (our preferred term) dreamsludge. This is music which incorporates elements of doom metal and industrial with the melodicism and textures of shoegaze and experimental/ambient music. Continue reading “Interview with Nadja”
This is the début album from Messa, a doom/drone metal band from Italy.
Messa provide the listener with almost an hour of occult retro doom and dark ambience.
This is akin to a strange-yet-effective mix of Sunn O))) and Pentagram, with deliciously seductive female vocals included. Some tracks are dark ambient/drone, full of mysterious atmospheres and distorted malice, while others take Continue reading “Messa – Belfry (Review)”
This is the latest release from Nadja, a doom/drone duo from Canada.
If you haven’t encountered the highly prolific and individual Nadja before, then I highly recommend them. Having amassed a pretty dauntingly huge discography over the years, Nadja have released some impressive music in their time. Continue reading “Nadja – Sv (Review)”
For someone who’s not massively into noise/drone/experimental/whatever music, Gridfailure has been a bit of an eye-opener for me. It differentiates itself from a lot of its peers simply by being pretty damn good. That’s it, really. The soundscapes on Ensuring the Bloodline Ends Here are made up of just good music; here we have something that builds, turns, changes and emotes, exactly what you want out of an album, no matter what it’s composed of. David Brenner, the evil genius behind the band, was kind enough to give a bit of insight into the birth of Gridfailure…
Gridfailure is comprised of only myself, David Brenner; the act is as of now a solo project that happened “by accident”. I’ve been playing live and recording with Theologian since last year, Summer 2015, and within that time have heavily expanded upon the bass/vocal or vocal-only responsibilities I’ve had with any of my prior acts many moons ago. All of a sudden I was unloading a wealth of accumulated ideas, recording for Theologian, in the meantime creating a plethora of toxic runoff that would not be used on our records. One day this past February I was playing with unused recordings from random sessions basically just learning how to use music creation software. Suddenly these songs just kind of “happened” within layering this dark waste, and I started creating new material to merge them together in a very Frankenhooker fashion. Gridfailure was a random name I came up with while writing lyrics for a then non-existent band in the dark during our blackout of Hurricane Sandy, then just sat there in a folder… it just popped out while these tracks were aligning, and the project was brought into existence right then, randomly dicking-around with abandoned source material and old scribble. Continue reading “Interview with Gridfailure”
Gridfailure is a one-man solo experimental project from the US.
This is a mutated, corrupted, experimental release that incorporates all manner of guitars, electronics, keyboards, noises, violins, bongos, harmonicas, and much, much more into its aborted embrace.
Okay, but is it any good? This is the Continue reading “Gridfailure – Ensuring the Bloodline Ends Here (Review)”
Schammasch are a Black Metal band from Switzerland. This is their third album.
Here we have a bold, monster of a release; divided into three parts, each lasting about 35 minutes, the entire body of work clocks in at a massive 105 minutes in length.
Schammasch play forward-thinking music that’s rooted in Black Metal, but also visits other styles such as Doom, Post-Black Metal and Progressive Metal.
Deveikuth are a French Funeral Doom/Drone band and this is their latest release.
Now this is some heavy stuff.
The first track starts off with some sickeningly distorted bass that seems to overwhelm everything else as maniacal vocals scream obscenities into a bucket. A dirty bucket filled with filth.
The striking vocals overlay the constant feedback howling and murky distortion of the tracks. Said vocals are unhinged and sound quite disturbed. Juxtaposed against the slow, unhurried music it creates quite an impression over the 12 minute playing time.
Track two is more of an ambient, mood-interlude, albeit one that lasts for six minutes. Strange sounds and odd noises accompany some semi-excited drums like something esoteric stalking something playful. Apart from a kind of spoken word bit near the middle, it’s instrumental and a nice change of pace and mood after the disconcerting menace of the first song.
The final song is the longest here at almost 17 minutes and shows the band in more of a build-release mode, with some extra atmosphere included too. Shrieking, wailing vocals accompany equally turbulent music as Deveikuth pull you under the water and hold you there, enjoying your gurgling demise.
This is a release that reeks of pain, anguish and warped sensibilities. It’s not for the faint-hearted and not for people that like clean, easily digested music.
Check it out.
