This is the début album from Italian Depressive Post-Black Metal band Eyelessight.
Eyelessight give us 72 minutes of music across 7 tracks. This is Depressive Black Metal mixed with Post-Black Metal intricacies that bring out the subtle side of misery and melancholy.
The album starts with a lonesome piano to set the scene. Once the first song proper starts, we begin with a bit of Post-Metal before slowly building with mournful Blackened melodies and Post-Black Metal riffs.
Depressive Post-Black Metal is a new one to me, but it makes sense, with the emotional fragility of both sub-genres working well together and feeding off each other to produce these long songs.
Intense, screamed vocals stop just short of tumbling completely into insanity and spend their time shrieking and howling into the aether. They work almost as an addendum to the instrumentality of the music. Additional female cleans add real power and presence to the track Consumami, making me wish they appeared on more of the songs. Male cleans appear on occasion too, also adding to the atmospheres.
This is the kind of album that works best when listened to holistically, letting the moods and atmospheres wash over you and getting carried away by the despair.
Have a listen and see if they scratch your Depressive itch.
Wilt are a Canadian Black Metal band and this is their début album.
Wilt play Atmospheric Black Metal that takes its time, fleshing out its expansive vision with Doom-drenched splendour and releasing negative vibes for all to feel and react to.
Despondent and glorious, Wilt play music that doesn’t lack for bite or venom, despite the fact that they know how to foster mood and atmosphere. Here, the two go hand in hand with a Blackened spite that seems to coast along the seas of guitars like a predator looking for prey.
The main bulk of this album is taken up by three long songs that are textured soundscapes writ large in considered, resplendent Black Metal. The riffs and melodies used are subtle and overpowering at the same time, creating songs that know when to use a splash of colour, and when to use shades of darkness.
Blast beats appear on occasion, underscoring the band’s Blackened core, but the majority of the material is slower and devoted to dark auras. Mind you, this is not too different a situation when the drums are going fast, as the main intention is not one of brutality, merely a dramatic emphasis on the shadowy feelings that the band evoke.
A Post-Metal influence can be heard in some of the guitar melodies, although this is only an aspect of their songwriting and is subsumed by the general Blackness and atmosphere of the music; Wilt can’t really be described as a Post-Black Metal band.
And the vocals? Despairing screams that stop short of the Depressive style, but not by much. Needless to say, you can’t go wrong with vocals like this and the singer’s performance works as a focal point for the ever-expanding atmospheres of the music. Creeping whispers also appear on The Elder, working gently to soothe the listener before the darkness closes in once more.
In the spirit of Epic Black Metal and the Cascadian style, Wilt have crafted a worthy addition to the sub-genre for anyone who likes this kind of music.
This is the third album from US Sludge Metal band Kowloon Walled City.
As a fan of their previous work, this is one I was looking forward to listening to.
Slowly expanding their Sludge Metal sound over the years to incorporate more elements of Post-Metal/Post-Hardcore, the Kowloon Walled City of 2015 is a lean, hungry beast that produces slow, heavy songs that pulse with an underlying energy.
Like a lot of their album covers, including this new one, their music speaks of an urban minimalism and decay. Haunting melodies and and riffs are covered in a modern veneer that’s showing the age of what lies just underneath. Rather than being a bad thing as one might assume, this allows the band an air of instant authority and gravitas, as if their music is older than it actually is.
The songs explore this broken down landscape with the relentless inevitability of something that knows what it’s going to find so can therefore take its time in getting there.
The vocals have a little less sharpness to them on this release and sound a little smoother, more liquid and malleable in delivery. The singer still has a quirkiness to his delivery though, and if anything this side of his voice is more apparent on Grievances than on previous releases.
Kowloon Walled City have returned with another slab of melancholic, dystopian Doom-Sludge, and I’m all the happier for it.
As the singer shouts out on the title-track – “Celebrate”!
He Whose Ox Is Gored are a Progressive Doom band from the US. This is their début album.
The band have in interesting and individual take on music, fusing elements of Doom, Progressive Rock, Shoegaze and Psychedelia, into a tight ball of Progressive Atmospheric Doom, (for lack of a better term).
This is music that uses Doom as a base and adds Progressive Rock and Shoegaze elements to it to create something a bit different and a lot special.
The music has multiple vocal styles, delivered by both male and female singers. These are diverse in delivery and used sparingly as necessary to complement the needs of the songs. Frequently understated, but always relevant, the vocals act as additional instruments used to enrich the music further.
Synths are employed to enhance the already well-textured songs and allow the eclectic music to have a firm, emotive foundation on which to build their diverse music.
This is highly textured music that plays with mood and emotions freely and easily. There’s a resplendent Post-Metal quality to the music that rubs shoulders with the grittier nature of the Doom influences and harsh male screaming, as well as the in-the-background-but-essential-anyway nature of the synths.
The Camel, the Lion, the Child is an exemplar of individualistic music done right and a shining example of a band ploughing their own path through the overburdened musical scenery. If you like music with a lot of character that isn’t afraid to be itself then I heartily recommend this album.
Vidian are a Polish Post-Metal band. This is their second album.
This is Post-Metal with some Progressive and Modern Metal elements, as well as a minor Death Metal influence, making for an interesting album with quite a few good ideas and interesting avenues explored.
If bands like Gorguts and Dementia Senex are Death Metal bands that are slowly evolving their Progressive Death Metal styles into Post-Death Metal ones, then bands like Vidian have already taken the next step. There’s hints of Death Metal lineage in some of the heavier parts, but for the most part this is firmly in Post-Metal territory.
Think of a band like Isis, then make the heavier bits heavier, the vocals harsher and throw in a trumpet here and there; now mix in a pinch of Tool and a few Modern Metal elements on occasion; Vidian don’t sound too far away from this description.
The vocals combine cleans and shouts, both being performed well. The shouts are tinged with a raw emotion and hark back to a more aggressive influence – almost Death Metal but not quite. The cleans have a certain amount of grit to them, allowing the songs to have an edgy feel even when there’s no shouting involved.
These songs are heavy and dark while also being surprisingly melodic and actually quite catchy on occasion. Post-Metal is not usually a sub-genre that lends itself to catchiness, but Vidian manage it in places on Transgressing the Horizon.
The light/heavy, build/release Post-Metal mechanics are maturely done, and the band have an advantage on the heavier parts as they’re just that little bit more crushing than the norm.
This is a solid album that probably won’t convince you of Post-Metal’s merits if you’re not a fan of the sub-genre, but nonetheless displays depth and skill throughout the 52 minutes playing time. Vidian have a knack for this kind of music and there’s a lot of decent material here.
Dementia Senex are an Italian Death Metal band and Sedna are a Blackened Sludge band. They have teamed up to create Deprived – one track from each band, designed to complement each other, sharing a similar space but from a different perspective.
Dementia Senex are up first with their track Blue Dusk. After their interesting début EP Heartworm demonstrated their atypical take on Progressive/Doom/Sludge-infused Death Metal, I’ve been keen to see how their style has developed over the last couple of years.
The song starts gently, almost tentatively, before crushing guitars land like a ton of bricks. The band impress again with their Gorguts-inspired take on Progressive Death Metal, and seem to be slowly moving away from the core aggression of the genre and more and more into Post-Metal territories. Post-Death Metal? Pretty much. Aggression is still here though, just done in a non-standard way, with even the blast beats surrounded by off-kilter chaos.
After this it’s Sedna’s turn to shine with their track Red Shift. Prior to this split I was not familiar with Sedna, although it seems that this has been my loss as this song is the equal of the previous one.
In contrast to the Death Metal-based heaviness of Dementia Senex, Sedna are more firmly in Black Metal-influenced Post-Metal/Sludge territory. Red Shift has the trademark Post-Metal build/release mechanic down to a fine art, with the track gaining momentum slowly but surely throughout the playing time, only to periodically explode with Blackened Post-Hardcore violence. It’s a good combination of slow burning tension and vicious aggression that nicely builds atmosphere with harsh shouts and screams being unleashed over the ever building and expanding music.
This is an exemplary split between two quality bands. I highly recommend giving this one a shot.
This is the third album from US Doom Metallers Behold! The Monolith.
The band play Doom mixed with Sludge, producing an album that sits outside of the normal template for both sub-genres and is all the better for it.
In addition to the usual Doom staples, there’s also an anger here. This is manifest in the aggressive vocals and the more upbeat aspects of the songs.
The tracks are a combination of Doom, Sludge and even a bit of Classic Metal and Post-Metal on occasion. This is an interesting and less-travelled path for a band to tread, and in this way Behold! The Monolith remind me of the equally compelling Khemmis.
Architects of the Void is a heavy and dark album, full of slow, agonising crawls through a landscape littered with broken dreams and dying hopes. That’s not to say it’s a completely nihilistic and bleak album like some Doom; this is actually more of a well-rounded release than that, with brighter parts, epic feelings and groovier sections included too. Overall though, it’s heavy, dark and very engaging.
The songs sound introverted and personal, albeit through the lens of a public-facing band. This sounds more like music played for the sake of musical catharsis and outlet than for the need to simply rock out or any such thing. There’s a lot of feeling here, sometimes bubbling beneath the surface and sometimes right in your face.
Due to the mixing of the sub-styles, (Doom/Sludge/Metal), this is quite a varied release and each song has its own personality. The album works well holistically and there’s a lot of depth, nuance and longevity to be had on this release.
Like the tastiest of Metal feasts, Architects of the Void will leave you feeling satisfied and satiated.
Estuarine is a one-man band that’s currently based in Sweden. This is the second album from his project.
This is Extreme Metal that’s rooted in differing elements of Death Metal with a pinch of Black Metal to produce a concept album that deals in the subject of psychoactive substances. The first 6 tracks are regarding their modern use, while the last 4 tracks deal with their traditional usage.
The music is a mix of Progressive and Technical Death Metal with a subtle modern Black Metal influence. If you think of Extreme Metal bands such as Zyklon, Between the Buried and Me, (minus clean singing), and Mithras then you’ll have an idea of the kind of landscape that Lucid/Entheogen inhabits.
On the first half of the album the songs have a delightfully brutal method of attack that sees the Technical Death Metal aspect take the lead, with the Progressive Death Metal aspect coming second. Slower/lighter introspective parts, occasionally bordering on Post-Metal territory, add flavour and depth to the music, although the extremity is never far behind.
On the second half the roles are reversed somewhat, with the Progressive Metal aspects shifting to the fore and the Technical mayhem relegated to a close second place. It’s a subtle shift in many ways, but it is noticeable and results in songs that are longer, more expansive and a bit less brutal, (although this is relative as everything here is still highly aggressive and technical overall).
The vocals alternate between growls and screams. The growls are convincing enough, but it’s the screams that sound particularly good to me.
The recording is a good one and everything sounds solid and in your face. Sometimes the production on one-man projects can sound a bit flat or one dimensional, but this is certainly not the case here.
Although by no means perfect, this is still better than most. Ambitious, forward-thinking and brutally proficient; Lucid/Entheogen is an impressive accomplishment and anyone who has a penchant for interesting and individualistic Extreme Metal should make a beeline for it as a priority.
Really, really enjoyable and extremely highly recommended.
Favourite Track: Towards Infinite Kaleidoscopic Dimensions.
Old Witch are from Canada and Keeper are from the US. Both play Doom. This is their split, containing 58 minutes of crawling, evil music.
Old Witch start us off with their half of the split. Their take on Doom is dirty, nasty and filled with malevolent hatred.
Taking the template as laid down by Khanate, Old Witch proceed to bury this in the soil for a thousand years before digging it up and slowly flaying it alive.
The slow, thoughtful assault of their earthy-sounding Doom combines at once an unforced naturalism and a feeling of urban decay and darkness. The minimalistic Khanate-style approach is enhanced with eerie melodies and textured nihilism that has shades of Funeral Doom.
Other apt comparisons would be the murky Sludge of Culted, only without the Blackened elements, or the marathon of filth that is Venowl, only with more of an emotive presence.
At any rate, this is my first encounter with Old Witch and they have turned out to be an extremely gratify proposition. Their name held a lot of promise as it pretty much evoked images right from the off that gave me high expectations of their sound. I have not been disappointed.
After the grim majesty of Old Witch, many bands would be found wanting. Thankfully, Keeper are not just any old band. Unlike Old Witch I’m already a firm fan of Keeper’s crushing Doom from their recent split with Sea Bastard and their EP The Space Between Your Teeth.
Keeper are heavier than Old Witch and sound like an avalanche of Sludge Metal descending from a great height to destroy anything it lands on.
The acerbic vocals always provide a wonderfully acidic focal point that the guitars seem to congregate around as if feeding off them.
Maybe it’s keeping company with Old Witch, but Keeper sound blacker and darker on this release. The shining, contemplative Post-Metal side of their style is still present and correct, but even this sounds more villainous than usual.
These two songs are just as impressive as I’ve come to expect from Keeper and the entire split, almost an hour of Doom, is a fantastic release that I can’t recommend highly enough.
Locrian’s new album Infinite Dissolution is a highly textured and multi-faceted release that requires repeated spins to really make its wonders known. In an effort to delve deeper into all things Locrian I got in touch with keyboardist/vocalist Terence…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
I’m Terence and I play keyboards and do vocals in Locrian. I live in Baltimore while the other guys live in Chicago.
Give us a bit of history to Locrian
We started in 2005 as a duo of just Andre on guitar and myself on keyboards and vocals. In 2009 Steven joined on drums and we released “The Crystal World”, we’ve collaborated with Mamiffer, Christoph Heemann and Horseback.
Where did the band name come from?
Andre came up with it, it’s a mode in music theory but it’s also a lost civilization in antiquity.
What are your influences?
It’s really diverse, for the band it’s a lot of progressive rock, noise, German kosmiche music, Industrial and metal – everything from Voivod to Emperor. Personally I would say Einsturzende Neubauten, Skullflower and Brian Eno are big for me.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
The new Container LP just titled LP is nice. Chaos Echoes “Transient” LP is beautiful I think.
The cover for Infinite Dissolution is pretty special – tell us about this
I am a visual artist and I used to be an art critic and had to review a show that I saw some of David Altmejd’s early work in. I’ve always been enamored with his work and just kept following it as it got bigger and more immersive. Anyway I thought a mirror was kind of this negating surface to compose with mirrors is a way to dissipate an image or presence – it just fit.
Is having a visual aspect to accompany the music an important thing to you?
Absolutely.
What are the subjects/themes of the songs on this album?
The extinction of humanity. By the elements and by our own doing.
What’s your favourite song on the album and why?
The whole album is a story you can’t really pick one – just listen through.
Your songs are quite complex and feature many different parts – what’s the creation process like?
Thank you. Our process is very intuitive we use the studio to create and we just want to surprise ourselves and the listeners. I don’t think there is much new under the sun but I hope we can try and get people excited.
How did the recording go?
Great! We recorded at Electrical Audio with Greg Norman in our favorite space, studio B. It was great. I got to use their Mellotron and an EDP Wasp. Just a great time.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
I’m not sure, we kind of go where we want and where the narratives go.
What’s next for Locrian?
Well we will be playing on the west coast in August 13-22 and are really excited to get there and celebrate our decade of existence in November with some special dates in the Midwest.
This is the début album from Italian Depressive Post-Black Metal band Eyelessight.
What are the subjects/themes of the songs on this album?
Wonderbox Metal 