Sorry for the delay, guys. School has been more work than anticipated.
Chelsea
Wolfe – Pain is Beauty
Genre:
Various
As
harrowing, cold and windswept as any Norwegian snow-demon, Chelsea
Wolfe's dark sonic webs are known for a sinister murk to their
melancholy solitude. The Californian singer-songwriter's music's
ability to transcend genres echoes Baroness, but there is no warmth
and color in the bleak corridors of Pain
is Beauty,
her newest outing from Sargent House. Instead, there's the sense that
Wolfe is alone in a very dark corridor singing her eerie,
spine-tingling melodies into total abrupt silence.
Opener
'Feral Love' is unafraid to peel back the delicate electronic stabs
and show that there is nothing but pure, black
silence underneath. 'House of Metal' simultaneously encompasses both
indie dejection and gothic candlelight, with layers of instruments
building on each other and Wolfe's haunting vocals the unifying
constant. It's not dissonant in that there's an order within the
chaos – the various pounds of the drum and glockenspiel align
perfectly, lending the song an air of frigid distance.
Wolfe
sums up her album best on 'the Warden': “It's
cold”.
As a black metal fan, I'm no novice to music trying to convey wintery
chills – but Wolfe's take on conveying misty January sunsets is a
breath of fresh air. Whether it's through the echo of her voice, or
the swelling synths and distance Wolfe puts between herself and the
listener, there's almost an intrinsic desire to put on a sweater as
this album progresses.
Throughout
Pain is Beauty,
there's a permeating sense of unease that bubbles forth when you
least expect it – a sudden malevolent twist in the textures of
'Destruction Makes the World Burn Brighter', or the hair-rising,
eerie intro to 'Sick' are the best examples of this, with the latter
evolving into its own sprawling, dark landscapes before
receding back to almost nothing, in
a crescendo that would make Godspeed proud.
Pain
is Beauty is
not for everyone. It's a highly bizarre record, reeling its victims
in with the promise of being fairly palatable post-rock-y folk before
Wolfe levels her creative cannons and opens fire in the middle and
throwing you for a loop you won't forget. For fans of True Widow,
later Sigur Ros, or even Altar of Plagues, this album is sure to be a
treat.
Notable Tracks: 'Feral Love',
'Sick', 'The Waves Have Come'.
Windhand
– Soma
Genre:
Stoner Doom
The
smoky, eerie wails of Windhand's Soma
were
the clarion call of what many consider the year's finest stoner
outing. After a split with Leech earlier in the year that had
everyone salivating and positively foaming at the mouth, the Virginia
band returned in September with their sophomore record in all of its
fuzzy glory.
To
visualize the music of Windhand, picture an elephant trumpeting
angrily into your ear. The sheer size, heaviness, and loudness
Windhand bring to the table with this record is almost comedic in
terms of how absolutely
gargantuan it is. To compare it to other giants, imagine if Yob got
somehow more stoned and abandoned their more brutal, crushing, The
Great Cessation-esque
roar for a placid, foggy afternoon staring into a lake.
Somehow,
through the curtains of smothering weight, the keen of Dorthia
Cottrell echoes and warbles, sending
the listener flying through the skies as the behemoth guitar force of
Asechiah Bogdan and Garrett Morris continue their incessant plodding.
Soma seems
to be quite fond of a light-heavy split – with Cottrell's vocals
and, later, Bogdan's rambling, nebulous guitar solos spiraling into
the misty void fitfully soaring against the dark, dirty fuzz of the
guitar/bass of the band.
Part of this reason is that Cottrell relies entirely on clean vocals,
and as her wail rises and falls through the passages of 'Woodbine'
you can see how effective it really is.
Soma
is
also unique in that it features a whole bunch of novel and
fundamentally awesome elements to the Windhand model – the acoustic
guitar on 'Evergreen' echoes Black Sabbath's more mellow moments, as
well as allowing Cottrell room to spread her wings and allow her
voice to be the dominant sound.
The
centerpiece of the record, and comprising nearly half of it, is the
awe-inspiring thirty minute stoner saga 'Boleskine' which, while not
a significant departure from what made the band so indefatigably
charming, takes the listener through enough twists and turns to make
them dizzy, but gives you plenty of warning, and it winds up being a
pleasantly winding voyage through curtains of distortion. Soma
is
a thoroughly enjoyable album, and enters the genre from a different
perspective – the placid stillness of the countryside. To
Windhand's credit, it works wonderfully.
Notable Tracks: 'Woodbine',
'Cassock', 'Boleskine'.
Maeth
– Oceans Into Ashes
Genre:
Progressive/Post-Metal
Maeth
are a Minneapolis-based post-metal outfit who have released two
records so far – 2012's Horse
Funeral and
last year's Oceans
Into Ashes.
The latter, which turned heads this year after a feature on
MetalSucks, has shown itself to be a truly excellent little gem of a
prog album – dotting the serenity and bleakness of post-metal with
progressive wonder. As 'Prayer', replete with the scream of gulls and
the slow swell of piano dies, segueing into 'The Sea in Winter',
we're treated to the crash and roar of distorted guitars as Maeth
surge forward on concise legs in a tangled heap of melody and
punishment.
Oceans
into Ashes is
one of those records that takes a few tries
to get its balance – the introductory riff of 'Nomad', for example,
is excellent but
the rest of the song, which clocks in at nearly ten minutes? Not so
much. 'The Sea in Winter' fails to deliver a single memorable or
interesting vestige, and while 'Prayer''s calmness is breathtaking,
it can't save the record's next thirteen minutes from being
uninteresting.
Fortunately,
afterwards it's pretty bearable. There's a magical, flittering
flute-and-bongo interlude ('Sages'), and then a flute-studded Cult of
Luna-style storm ('Wolves') that segues into a melodic, layered
experience as a clean guitar solos fluidly through the bleak hills of
distortion, and a haunting chorus of vocals rises in a glorious
crescendo.
The
remainder of Oceans
Into Ashes is
a heady trip through shadowy canyons and cold nights clustered around
campfires. While the record still has lots of trouble shaking off its
boring start, it finally comes to a head in 'Troodon', which slowly
mounts the intensity by beginning with a clean riff, distorting it,
and twisting it ever-so-slowly to hold your attention captive through
its nebulous twists and turns, including
a riff that just screams Mastodon.
For those willing to brave its less-than-stellar opening moments,
Oceans Into Ashes
is
sure to deliver a memorable time.
Notable Tracks: 'Prayer',
'Troodon', 'Eulogy'.
Australasia
– Vertebra
Genre:
Post-Rock
Australasia,
taking its name from a Pelican album, is a
one-man post-rock
project from Italy. The band only recently put out their debut record
Vertebra in
September, and if it hadn't been for their kind suggestion on last.fm
that I check them out, I'm positive I would have missed this little
gem of an album. Vertebra's
approach to genre transcending is that it shouldn't be too jarring,
and as such moves between electronic flourishes, metal mourning, and
post-rock joy with utmost ease.
I
can't say anything about the songwriting except that it's absolutely
wonderful, and despite the band's newness they seem to have quite a
hand on making every song memorable. 'Vostok''s electronic sections
flit in and out of the foreground, only to be replaced near the end
of the song with a gentle acoustic guitar that echoes the synthwork
as the music slowly fades out. 'Zero', the song that follows, is
heavy and oppressive, using electronics to accent the drum-and-bass
heavy rhythm before bursting into the unthinkable – a blast beat.
The
metal elements on this record mostly take the form of an odd blast
beat, distorted riff, or chunky bass. Vertebra
is
less about riffs than it is about textures – what did you expect,
it's a post-rock band – and this is where it shines, echoing bands
like Cult
of Luna.
There's
something in Vertebra
for
everyone – fans of Ulver's new material will enjoy the
ethereal-yet-pounding electronics of 'Aura', while fans of Pelican
will find comfort in the metallic
might of 'Deficit'.
But the best thing about this record is that they'll inevitably like
most of what this record has to offer. Vertebra
should
be the rallying cry for genre abolitionists, as it objectively proves
that pigeonholing music makes it stale. Vertebra
is
dense but never feels so – the airy passages and echoing percussion
play off one another to give the illusion of a distinctly large piece
of music. But even as it's grand in scope and impossible in genre
conventions, the album is so methodical and well-thought out that it
never stumbles –
adding to just how great Vertebra
truly
is.
My
favorite albums are those that continue to offer up new material
after the first two or three listens – that somehow manage to pack
so much that you can't help but feel like you're listening to a new
record each time. For Vertebra,
this is the case. To say it's pretty damn good wouldn't do it justice
– this is one of the best debuts I've ever had the pleasure of
listening to. You can buy the album and support this talented
motherfucker at his bandcamp. Do not hesitate. This is an
excellent record.
Fyrnask
– Eldir Nótt
Genre:
Black Metal
In
tune with the ebb and flow of the forest, Fyrnask are a German black
metal act who specialize in an eerie, shamanistic variant of black
metal – not totally unlike what you'd expect from the forests of
Washington state. But
where Wolves in Throne Room or Fauna were a group of atavistic
hippies, Fyrnask has maintained a more grounded, orthodox sound since
their 2010 demo Fjorvar
Ok Benjar which,
while it has been subject to some stylistic changes, maintains a
powerful love for Norwegian bands – Windir especially.
This
trend continues in Eldir
Nótt,
the
newest brainchild of Fyrnd, sole instrumentalist behind the act.
Impossibly, though, Eldir
Nótt raises
the bar even higher for the ritualistic sound Fyrnask has touted so
proudly – but this is no meditative forest walk. As the
introduction ponderously unveils itself – gong and everything -
the epic scope of just what is going on becomes terrifyingly clear.
You
can almost see the circle of candles dance spectrally in the wind as
Fyrnd enters with mysticism dripping from his guitar.
In
a lot of ways, it's in this introduction that we really get a taste
for what's new on
Eldir
Nótt
–
namely, the ritualistic element has been turned up way past what
we've come to expect.
With
the guitars droning into effervescently into gloom, and the drums
echoing Wolves in the Throne Room's waterfall-like taste,
Eldir
Nótt,
rasped
in an ancient Teutonic tongue, could easily have been chanted rites
from deep within the forests of heathen Europe – and it's the ease
with which Fyrnd conveys that imagery which is absolutely
astounding. 'Vigil'
moves from rainy grey to profound, soaring black in the scope of two
minutes, eschewing blast beats for rhythmic pounding and hissed,
barely-audible incantations nearly indiscernible from the cymbal
crash.
Eldir
Nótt also
features a whole host of instruments beyond the standard metal
accoutrements – brace yourself for gongs, horns, bongoes, flutes,
fiddles, and everything in between.
Atmospheric
black metal tends to mix quite a bit with drone, as the emptiness of
the mountains is easily represented through sheer simplicity, and
it's in
Eldir
Nótt's
dronier sections that the album truly starts to shine. As much as the
riffing on songs like 'Jarðeldr' or 'Saltrian' is memorable as Fyrnd
layers tremolo'd riffs atop lower, more metallic soil,
the ambient portions that yawn between these passages, in which the
pace slows to a crawl and Fyrnd's spectacular percussion skills take
a much-needed breather, are far more admirable. ' Jarðeldr' takes
nearly three minutes to reach its zenith, but the time absolutely
flies as your mind soars across the Ginunngagap. The buildup that
happens in the latter part of the twelve-minute epic is absolutely
jaw-dropping even as very little actually happens but the instruments
get louder and a skin drum beats lazily in the cold air. 'Suonnas
Sedir', the album's shortest at three and a half minutes, revolves
around a melodic acoustic guitar as the wind – uncannily similar to
wheezing breath – whistles in the background and a solitary
frequency permeates.
Windir
and Ulver may have been the blueprint for Fyrnd's dark brainchild,
but the rest is pure innovation. Eldir
Nótt is,
in many ways, the more ritualistic counterpart to the insanity of
Wormlust's The
Feral Wisdom,
together comprising some of the most incredibly mind-expanding new
black metal of the past year. This album is heavily
recommended.
The
Devil Wears Prada – 8:18
Genre:
Metalcore
The
Devil Wears Prada are potentially the most blatant example of the
transition metalcore has gone through over the past few years.
Beginning in the mid-2000s as the most MySpace of MySpace bands known
to mankind – songtitles like 'HTML r00lz d00d' – around 2010 the
band abruptly and incomprehensibly changed course, opting for a
decidedly bigger attempt at legitimacy. After a spontaneous EP about
a zombie apocalypse – widely considered their best material –
2011's Dead
Throne saw
the band start trying to be serious
with an album about idolatry and featuring Tim “attempted murder”
Lambesis.
8:18
is
a continuation as the adorable little crabcore band that covered
'Still Fly' back in 2006 names their album after a bible verse (“I
consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the
glory that awaits us” - Romans
8:18) and dresses less like Attack Attack! And more like the Black
Keys. Unfortunately, changing their image isn't totally enough to
actually be taken seriously. It also doesn't help that, while 8:18
is
a progression from Dead
Throne's
sound, the band's newness and laughable attempt to cover up the fact
that they're playing metalcore result in some awkward moments.
Opener
'Gloom', which gives way to 'Rumors', lacks a cohesive hook, and
bashfully hides its breakdowns behind electro fuzz and blatant
attempts to be taken seriously. Sure, Jeremy DePoyster's clean vocals
provide a rallying point behind the horribly mundane instrumentals,
but the opening two songs are totally forgettable, and the fact that
the band seems to be proud of them adds insult to injury. 'First
Sight', the track that follows, is far more memorable because it
sounds closer to the more nose-to-the-grindstone (read: good) tracks
of Dead
Throne and
even echoes as far back as Plagues
(2007)
with its downplayed synth.
While
the metalcore elements are, as expected, highly uninteresting, 8:18
introduces
a novel industrial element to several of its tracks – 'Care More'
and the intro to 'War' before Mike Hranica ruins everything with his
silly uncleans – that present a potentially interesting twist for
the band if they decide to take it. Unfortunately, however, they
won't on this album – the title track is pure melodrama, narrating
violent streets as Mike Hranica howls angstily about the end of human
life.
To
be quite simple, the band are trying to do too much to fast. While
their initiative is commendable (the new Blessthefall and August
Burns Red were regressions
if
anything), TDWP still don't completely have a hand on how to do it.
But to be completely honest, in metalcore this is commendable
considering how dry and static the genre is. Most track on 8:18
show
quite a bit of promise, and the main reason quite a few of them fall
flat is because everything hovers in the empty space between
metalcore and industrial. While I'm doubtful anyone in the band has
heard of Ministry, here's to hoping the most poorly-named band in the
world will finally shake off their uninspired beginnings and
interject a shot of novelty into metalcore.
Notable
Tracks: - 'First Sight', 'Black and Blue', 'Care More'.
Satyricon
– Satyricon
Genre:
“Black 'N Roll”
Despite
being lauded as one of the most seminal and influential Norwegian
black metal bands to come out of the early 90s, Satyricon have,
paradoxically, come under fire for failing to capture the same magic
that their debut records such as Nemesis
Divina or
Dark
Medieval Times had
in such spades. Further additions to the Satyricon lineup were at
best forgettable and at worst grating, but that hasn't stopped the
band from relentlessly pushing on. And, as luck would have it, their
self-titled 2013 release finally has Satyricon playing a fun, if
conspicuously un-trve take on black metal.
During
my writeup of Kvelertak's Meir,
I voiced my dislike of the term “black 'n roll”, finding it
redundant and a blatant attempt for black metal fans to distance
themselves from “good bands gone bad”. Sure, the rollicking beats
and bounce of Dissection's Reinkaos
or
anything Vreid has put out isn't very black metal sounding, but we're
talking about a genre with roots in 80s speed metal – and while
Satyricon's self-titled is definitely retrospective, it's got its
fair share of moments.
Now,
I'm not going to lie – this record isn't going to be on many
people's top ten of the year. Missing
from this record is the explosive ferocity of Kvelertak and the
devil-may-care rock 'n roll aesthetic that makes bands like Whiskey
Ritual so memorable. Instead, though, Satyricon's decision is to
inject a methodical, mid-tempo twist into things – essentially, the
band is playing Black Metal Lite throughout most of the record, which
would work if the band really put a lot of stock into being hypnotic
and dirge-y, but that's where Satyricon fail.
Quite
simply, most of the music on this record doesn't take any chances.
While I do like the regal pace of 'Tro og Kraft', there's not enough
rock panache or black metal fury to really distinguish it from the
rest of the pack – what little interest I had in the song comes
near the end, when the blast beats start flowing. 'Our World, it
Rumbles Tonight', on the other hand, is tons
of fun the entire way through, as it rises in intensity to a glorious
climax while always having plenty of energy in the form of relentless
drums before
breaking down into a breathy, evil break with Frost hissing
'shadow...'.
Satyricon
is
an album about going back-and-forth between good and awful, the
latter of which could have easily been fixed if they had a few more
riffs or were just a twinge bit faster. It's fairly unfortunate,
because there's no energy about this record, for the most part. For a
genre that doesn't often get all slow and doom-y, Satyricon
tries
to pull it off quite a bit, going for a murky sort of sound that
ultimately comes off as fairly uninteresting. But when Frost and
Satyr turn things up, as is the case during the buildup on 'the
Phoenix', is when the record starts to shine. To be completely
honest, I didn't love this record, but if you're up for some fairly
trivial soft rock with unclean vocals, check it out.
Notable
Tracks: 'Our World, It Rumbles Tonight'.
Vattnet
Viskar – Sky Swallower
Genre:
Black Metal
Don't
let the Swedish of their name fool you – Vattnet Viskar are a band
from my neck of the woods – New Hampshire, to be exact, and the
music of Sky
Swallower,
the band's first full-length, reflects the mountains of their home.
Beginning with a fairly straightforward black metal riff, it's only
in the later moments of 'New Alchemy' that we're treated to a barrage
of interesting ideas, from melodic licks soaring above the tremolo,
to largely ambient breaks replete with echoing notes.
This
is a bleak, desolate record. There is no purchase to be found in the
sorrowful melodies and cold corridors that fill the silences between
metal howls and rage. Even as the band moves back and forth between
punishing percussion and sleepy drone, there's a pervasive melancholy
that dogs Sky
Swallower the
entire way through. 'Fog of Apathy' begins with a lengthy passage
consisting only of one or two notes, which rise slowly into the
silence and then disappear just as they begin to grow overwhelming.
At
38 minutes, Sky
Swallower is
a concise, meticulous dose of disparity that somehow manages to cram
in abysses of silence and powerful, lonesome metal. It's an intense
record in terms of just how different the record can be at different
points – at times it echoes Earth's lush-yet-barren sound, while at
others Immortal's freezing claws wrench upward and howl at the sky.
When the black metal riffing isn't there, the silences seem that much
more ponderous, and as the crash of the guitar returns anew, it's
easy to feel overwhelmed. All in all, Sky
Swallower is
an interesting ride through tangles of music so different that it can
sometimes be jarring.
Notable
Tracks: 'Breath of the Almighty', 'Fog of Apathy', 'Apex'.
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