Don't call it a comeback - Idiot In Remission's Top 10 Albums of 2017 (so far)

Hello internet. It's been a while. Miss me?
Probably not, but I certainly have missed you. In the 2+ years since I (ostensibly) shuttered Idiot In Remission, things have changed - I left a two-year relationship, finished university, started graduate school, developed a passion for powerlifting (of all things) and, as of yesterday, submitted my thesis, effectively concluding almost twenty consecutive years of education as I await formal recognition of my Master's degree by the university. As  I enter a new chapter in my life - namely, bidding Montreal, my home of six years, farewell - and find myself confronted with the existential horror of being in my mid-20s and attempting to break into the job market, I've decided to reactivate Idiot In Remission.

Looking back on my posts from 2014 (and earlier) brings me a mixture of nostalgia and embarrassment - this blog was a pivotal outlet for self-expression during a tumultuous time in my life. Perhaps I'm seeking to recapture that juvenile spirit, or perhaps I'm simply yearning for that self-expression. Regardless, it's 2017, and I have a lot of ideas for Idiot in Remission that I'm itching to bring to fruition. But for now, let's break the blog back in with my top 10 of 2017 so far:



10. Hellripper - Coagulating Darkness

Coagulating Darkness is the debut LP from Scottish one-man black/speed metal project Hellripper. The genre fusion, epitomized by Venom's rabid, seminal, NWOBHM-on-steroids approach, has proven a fruitful one, with plenty of modern acts such as Midnight, Chapel, Omega, and Black Fast churning out fist-pumping, razor-sharp heavy metal riffs accompanied by throat-shredding vocals with the subtlety of a jet engine. Hellripper, a relative newcomer, nevertheless hits the ground running with 'Bastard of Hades'. The record is a too-short tour-de-force chock full of catchy riffs, excellent songwriting, and a surprising amount of groove. It might lack the brooding, dejected atmospherics of its black metal contemporaries, but Coagulating Darkness' strength comes from its obtuseness. In a genre where minimalism is king, Hellripper's guitar solos, speed metal riffs, and the unbridled insanity of its songs are a breath of fresh air. This project has huge potential, and I can't wait for what comes next.

Stream Coagulating Darkness here.

9. Old Tower - Rise of the Spectre

Old Tower is a secretive dungeon synth project hailing from the Netherlands. Now, I know what you're thinking - what the hell is "dungeon synth"? Thankfully, someone did a better job of explaining than I ever could. Go read this. In short, dungeon synth is an offshoot of dark ambient that evolved concurrent with black metal, but never really experienced as much of an explosion as the latter. Think the cheesy synth opening to Burzum's Det Som Engang Var, or Summoning's Lugburz. Regardless, Old Tower delivers a droning, haunted, ominous experience that straddles the oft-fine line in dungeon synth between too cheesy and sublimely beautiful. This is dusty, melancholic music that could be the accompaniment to silent horror movies in the vein of Nosferatu. Droning, plaintive synth lines punctuated with subtle symphonic elements and an echoing bass drum round out the experience. This is one of Old Tower's finest releases yet.

Stream Rise of the Spectre here.

8. Sorority Noise - You're Not as ____ as You Think

Emo revival is an extremely polarized genre for me.  The discrepancy between the genre's best and the rest is one of the most stark I've encountered. I'm not ashamed to say that I can only really tolerate modern adherents to the genre when they fuse the oft-maligned hardcore offshoot with pop punk - the apex of which I will maintain was the Hotelier's 2014 release Home, Like No Place Is There. Three years later, however, Connecticut's Sorority Noise delivered their third full-length You're Not as ____ as You Think, and completely blew me away. This is the genre at its absolute strongest - huge guitar leads, heart-wrenching lyrics delivered in a morose baritone, and driven, tight songwriting. In a sense, what I enjoy most about Sorority Noise is their ability to maintain an emo aesthetic while avoiding the fixtures of the genre I cannot abide -  namely, the nasal, whiney vocals and the math rock theatrics, which I find clash horribly with the atmosphere and subject matter of a genre that's short for "emotional hardcore punk".

Stream You're Not as ____ as You Think here.

7. Oiseaux-Tempête - AL​-​'AN ! الآن (And Your Night Is Your Shadow - A Fairy​-​Tale Piece of Land to Make Our Dreams)

What a title. French experimental post-rock collective Oiseaux-Tempête, inspired by a journey around the Mediterranean, the recent political turmoil in the west, and the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, released their fifth studio album this past April. Making post-rock in 2017 usually means one of two things: either you're an old fixture of the genre continuing to explore your own vision (see the new Godspeed You! Black Emperor LP set to drop in September), or you're a part of the now-tired third-wave that took inspiration from Explosions in the Sky and are releasing tired, cookie-cutter instrumental rock with faux-emotional delivery. Exceptions, of course, exist, but Oiseaux-Tempête (and the new Grails, but we'll get to that later) prove that the divide isn't as clear cut as you might think. Sure, the project purveys yawning, droning sonic soundscapes, but those seemingly-hackneyed musical choices are balanced with the project's striking blend of sitar, 'oud, tabla, and traditional rock instruments. Far from being gimmicky, the unique instrumentation on AL-'AN! creates an atmosphere that's beggars comparison; transcending the sample-based tension of their previous outing Utopiya. This is a truly unique sounding record that can't be adequately described in a brief review.

Stream AL-'AN! here.

6. Black Cilice - Banished From Time

 Mysterious Portugese black metal project Black Cilice is notable for one thing that becomes apparent within the first few seconds of listening to their new release Banished From Time - that this is black metal at its most inaccessible, most cacophonous (although the new Obskuritatem gives Black Cilice a run for its money), and most uncompromising. The guitars sound like they were recorded into a computer microphone, and the crash of the drums is almost utterly lost in the grainy fuzz of the atmosphere, and yet there's something intriguing about Black Cilice's music that keeps drawing me back in. It's an intriguing mix of total sonic maximalism and minimalism. The music resolves into a pulsating morass of guitar riffs, punctuated with the frenetic pound of snare and bass drums. Vocals are soaked in reverb, and practically inaudible, railing against the wall-of-sound produced by the guitar and drums. Ultimately, while it may scare away Deafheaven fanboys, Black Cilice's music is one of the finest examples of raw black metal done right.

Stream Banished From Time here.

5. Elder - Reflections of a Floating World

The fourth outing from Massachusetts-based band Elder has the band continue to do the impossible - making stoner/doom interesting. For a genre that has struggled to fill the massive shoes left by Electric Wizard, Cathedral, and Sleep for so long, Elder are one of the finest modern iterations of the genre, and have been masterfully blending the riff-based drive of stoner rock with the slow, thunderous pace of doom metal. Reflections of a Floating World, like its predecessor Lore, makes excellent use of progressive rock elements as well, reconciling the thick, Iommi-like drive of Kyuss with the more theatric virtuoso fluorishes of Yes. The result is a stunning journey through riff-based soundscape that only ever lets up for clear-skied atmosphere to shine through. Barring a surprise release from one of the genre's greats, this may be the greatest stoner rock/doom outing of 2017.

Stream Reflections here.

4. All Them Witches - Sleeping Through the War

Nashville psych quartet All Them Witches bring their signature jam-band-meets-blues-meets-experimental-meets-stoner-rock to heel on their newest outing, Sleeping Through the War. Swaying between gentle psychedelia and fuzzed-out distortion, All Them Witches have always been notable because of their jack-of-all-trades approach to their sound, which evades both comparison and imitation. Opening song 'Bulls', which introduces the record with a gentle guitar chord before launching into a heavy riff, demonstrates the band's strengths perfectly. As the band's fifth release, Sleeping Through the War sees the band continue their meticulous ability to transition between influences, moods, and textures. Their requisite desert rock banger 'Bruce Lee' aside, the album is a masterful synthesis of various different styles. In this regard, it's short-sighted to call All Them Witches a master of none, because in the fertile niche they play in, they are the undisputed masters. 

Stream Sleeping Through the War here.

3. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me

Mount Eerie, the project behind lo-fi and indie folk figurehead Phil Elverum (also of the Microphones), are notable for their vast, diverse catalogue over a career spanning nearly a decade. The project's latest release, A Crow Looked At Me, arrived earlier this year a few months after the death of Elverum's wife Geneviève. As such, to call it heart-wrenching would be an understatement. A Crow Looked At Me is deceptively minimalist - most songs feature Elverum's crooned vocals, his guitar, and not much else. Even Elverum's lyrics are stripped back, as he numbly recites his experiences dealing with his wife's death - meeting with their counselor, at first walking hand-in-hand, then driving when his wife became too weak; receiving a backpack in the mail for his daughter that Geneviève had bought in secret, among others. The defining feature of this record, thus, is its ability to convey Elverum's raw, unfiltered grief. Perhaps abetted by the bare-bones instrumentation, forcing the listener to pay attention to Elverum's voice, this is one of the most emotionally visceral releases I personally have ever heard. A Crow Looked At Me's ability to elicit such a powerful emotional response makes it difficult to sit through more than once - arguably its most striking quality is its ability to convey emotion through music. In this regard, A Crow Looked At Me is one of the most emotionally raw releases of the year, and potentially of all time.

Stream A Crow Looked At Me here.

2. Havukruunu - Kelle Surut Soi

  Two years after the release of their sleeper hit Havulinaan, which lit up the black metal underground with its breathtaking black/folk metal fusion, Finland's Havukruunu return with an even more brazen sophomore LP on Kelle Surut Soi. Havukruunu's formula is as simple as it is effective - channel the general instrumentals of Primordial, Drudkh, and Horn, distil the atmospherics into misty, yawning soundscapes, hammer them home with folk riffs that would make Isengard blush, and wrap things up with unique vocals that sound like a Berserker gearing up for battle. While the project favors longer songs that allow them to show off their songwriting and riff-writing mettle, Kelle Surut Soi never suffers from boredom. This is black metal at full speed, and never falters for a moment. More notably, Kelle Surut Soi eschews the darkness Havukruunu toyed with in the past, in lieu of anthemic, upbeat folk metal rooted within a black metal context - think Hammerheart if Quorthon used more blast beats. Even as folk metal lapses further into "melodeath with violins", the black metal underground manages to keep folk metal alive and well, and nowhere is this clearer than with Havukruunu.

Stream Kelle Surut Soi here.

1. Slowdive - Slowdive    

Speaking of comebacks, twenty-two(!!) years after their third LP Pygmalion led to the band's untimely end, British shoegaze pioneers Slowdive return with a new, self-titled LP in what's become one of the most divisive reunions of the year. The biggest question that has emerged around Slowdive's newest release has been, namely, how can a band who achieved fame via adolescent angst (even by the band's admission) possibly live up to the hype and semi-mythical status Souvlaki has earned in the underground? A precedent exists with My Bloody Valentine's m b v, a flash-in-the-pan 2013 release that achieved only lukewarm praise, and was unable to follow up the legendary Loveless. Nevertheless, Slowdive's reunion LP, in my opinion, stands by itself as a unique blend of old and new. Straddling the divide between the dreamy, goth-inflicted melancholy of Souvlaki and the minimalist, more experimental Pygmalion, Slowdive delivers a mature, meticulous sound that manages to reflect the nearly twenty-year gap between albums - it's unmistakably the band that wrote 'Souvlaki Space Station', but the adolescent despair has been replaced with a more measured, yet equally emotional feeling. I was fully prepared to be disappointed, but Slowdive, in my opinion, managed to deliver on the hype.

Stream 'Sugar For the Pill', from Slowdive, here.

Honorable Mentions:

Blanck Mass - World Eater
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Ride - Weather Diaries
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Crurifragium - Beasts of the Temple of Satan
The Cherry Wave - Shimaru
The Black Angels - Death Song
Forest Swords - Compassion
Emyn Muil - Elenion Ancalima
Tchornobog - Tchornobog
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Xiu Xiu - Forget
Brand New - Science Fiction
Incantation - Profane Nexus
King Gizzard and the Lizzard Wizzard - Murder of the Universe
[Thee] Oh Sees - Orc 
Toro Y Moi - Boo Boo
death's dynamic shroud.wmv - Heavy Black Heart

Upcoming releases I'm excited for:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers

Dälek - Endangered Philosophies

Street Sects - Rat Jacket

Archgoat - LP 2018

Airiel - Molten Young Lovers

The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Always Foreign
Converge - The Dusk in Us
Midnight - Sweet Death & Ecstasy
Wolves in the Throne Room - Thrice Woven

And that's all for now! I hope to do a bunch more with the blog in the near future, including expanding a little bit more to my other hobbies.

Reviews for death's dynamic shroud.wmv and Oh Sees' new records coming soon! Stay tuned...

~-IIR

A Forest of Stars break their silence

        A Forest of Stars, that Sheffield-based metal band that has masterfully interwoven black metal, folk metal, and psychedelic rock within a bizarre, steam-powered Victorian aesthetic, have at long last announced their upcoming return. In a deluge of new information released via Facebook after their vocalist Mister Curse recovered from an unspecified illness, the follow-up to the band's 2012 LP A Shadowplay For Yesterdays has a confirmed name, release date, track listing, and art.

       The record will be called Beware the Sword You Cannot See, and will see the light of day on February 27th next year (stylized '1895' by the band) through Prophecy. Thematically, the band (in true Victorian histrionics) had this to say:

For our fourth long playing wax cylinder, we have elected to slip down the rabbit hole of death. Cliche notwithstanding, the overarching concepts here are embroiled in the stumbling off of this mortal coil and the pleasures that go with said activity.
Premature grave population, enclosed spaces, panic, worms, maggots, creeping crawling things. Alongside these happy thoughts, we explore rot, mould, feotor, decay and dilapidation. The crumbling of minds, cities and epochs. Mental collapse.

In order to keep with the programme, we also stick our hobnailed boots into organised religion. Physically abusing angels and delousing the house of god.

        Beware the Sword You Cannot See's artwork is equally insane, echoing Hieronymous Bosch's depictions of hell, and involving a train made of flesh, skeletons wearing party hats, and angels shooting up. One of the images is posted below, but all three beautiful pictures can be found here. Incidentally, it was done by Alex CF of English post-metal explorers Light Bearer, a band fans of Cult of Luna will definitely enjoy.

Click to zoom in.

        Track listings, preorders, and more information to drool over can be found on Prophecy's website. A Forest of Stars have been one of my favorite bands for quite some time now, and this information is incredibly exciting.

New Archgoat Song - "Congregation of Circumcised"

         

        It shouldn't be a surprise that I love Archgoat dearly. Their logo, their over-the-top album titles, the fact that they've been around since 1989...everything about the Finnish war metal act is brilliant - including their new song. Torn from their imminent full-length the Apocalyptic Triumphator (which is set to be released January 25th by Debemur Morti), 'Congregation of Circumcised' ratchets the intensity up ten fold, opening with a volcanic eruption of monstrous guitars and blistering drums that careen as fast as a pyroclastic flow.

         Eventually, the band returns to its signature vomitous pace just in time for all chaos to break loose as the song falls in around Lord Angelslayer's gurgled roar, even as a guitar solo - a true rarity in the putrid line of music Archgoat purveys - closes the track off. The overall feel of the song even feels mildly grindcore, coming to an abrupt halt with a howled "LUCIFER" breaking off. Combined with 'Nuns, Cunts and Darkness' (streamable here), Archgoat's newest outing does not seem about to disappoint. 

          You can stream 'Congregation of Circumcised' at No Clean Singing here.

#Metalgate - An (attempt at) objective dissection

     

     

Many folks with nothing better to do than watch nerds fling shit at each other over the internet may have noticed the recent influx of all things related to #Gamergate - an ostentatious "call for reform" in video game journalism that has split gaming culture down the middle. The entire debacle began when the boyfriend of a prominent internet feminist Zoe Quinn published an angry blog post alleging that she had slept with a number of eminent gaming journalists in order to get good press for her new game Depression Quest. The full bevy of accusations, if you can be damned to read it, can be found here.

       

        For better or for worse, Quinn's boyfriend's blog post single-handedly ignited a massive controversy as two sides gradually materialized - the arbitrarily named "pro" Gamergate side, arguing for ethical standards in gaming journalism, and the similarly randomly named "anti" Gamergate side, which drawn the internet's favorite despised subculture - social justice advocates, disparagingly dubbed "social justice warriors" (SJWs). "Anti" Gamergate folks, similar to their opponents, are also calling for standards in journalism, but any common ground the two sides had was quickly blown away as both sides proceeded to dox, harass, and make death threats against each other in what's amounted to a massive internet tantrum that's been, at its best, cringe-inducing, and, at its worst, positively worrying. As someone not too versed in video games (the last game I bought was Skyrim in 2011...), this entire kerfluffle seems to me to have lost its original vision and morphed into a war of attrition between pro- and anti- "internet social justice" camps.

         And normally, I wouldn't care too much, but over the past week, metal music has emerged as a theatre in this ongoing geek war, and my hope with this blog post is to (hopefully) clarify some misinformation and hopefully discuss why "metalgate" amounts to nothing more than concerned hand-wringing on both sides of the issue. 

        The entire "metalgate" affair began with this article earlier this week on Death Metal Underground acting as a "call to arms" for folks to prevent gamergate from happening in the metal scene. In this post, writer Cory Van der Pol dramatically misinterprets several quotes from eminent metal journalists as the advent of a great cleansing - an invasion into the precious flower that is heavy metal, which will deprive it of its ethos in the name of "political correctness". While there is some ground to the DMG post - namely, attempts to make metal "more sociable" have usually been rejected by the underground - the article is very literally making a massive deal out of two quotations, and essentially claiming that the same sequence of events leading to gamergate will eventually infect heavy metal.

       The problem is, there is no definitive proof that the so-called Great Hipster Invasion of Metal is actually anything more than an artistic shift. How many so-called "hipster metal" bands are politically outspoken and trying to alter the way metal fans behave? Deafheaven? No. Altar of Plagues? No. Krallice? Guess. Are their PBR-sipping legionnaires doing anything other than changing the demographics of metal shows? Well, besides the odd misinformed Sunbather bandwagoner whining that metal fans don't take them seriously, or Noisey throwing a tantrum about how people don't like certain bands, there's been very little pressure on metal musicians to "PC-ify" their act. This post on  Servile Insurrection compiles a list of perceived SJW-mediated slights against metal music over the past year, and while it may seem like cherrypicking, the writer does hit on two good points:

1. Social justice advocates are present in the metal scene.
2. These people are not taken seriously because they view music as a political message instead of artistic expression.

         In response to the rising amount of "metalgate" press, resident MetalSucks Babymetal aficionado Vince Neilstein wrote a scathing response that, for the most part, resonated deeply with me. Neilstein calls the debacle, which is rapidly gaining press, as "entirely manufactured. No one, or no group, is banding together to try and change metal in any one specific way — the threat is entirely imagined. Certain social values enter the metalsphere simply because those values are spreading throughout society as a whole[...]the idea of #metalgate ignores one very important fact about metal: lyrics mostly don’t matter to metalheads, it’s all about the music itself. Which further proves that the people writing this #metalgate stuff have at most a basic familiarity with metal; they’re not in metal culture so much as observers looking for a cause to latch onto."

        And you know what? He's got a point. With the exception of DMG, the vast majority of asshats feeding the #metalgate fire are at best only partially involved in metal. Return of Kings is primarily a men's rights activism (MRA) site that takes aim at social justice wherever it manifests. Speaking from experience, very few of the in-depth metal fans I know are outstandingly political - preferring instead to focus on music (as Neilstein said) than on political message. Obviously the tender question of liking Burzum presents an ethical dilemma, but very few Burzum fans will openly plug Varg's opinions.

     On the other side of the fence, with the disappointing exception of Kim Kelly's calling metal "deeply conservative" (seriously, Kim? Surprised you of all people would say that), the side whining about hurt feelings plugs such underground gems as...Slayer and All that Remains. Hell, can you even trust the Washington Post as an authority on metal? The ongoing frantic push for metal fans to accept Myrkur's frighteningly unimpressive music, which has boiled down to accusations of misogyny when people point out Myrkur's only discerning factor is her gender, is yet another case. Noisey even lashed out at metal fans who call gimmick on Myrkur as "people who still live with their parents", rapidly extrapolating those fans' reservations into "speaks a lot to gender politics in music in general with how this scenario played out". What all of these critics have in common is that they are not primarily music fans, but folks only semi-interested in metal trying to push a message. 

        Regrettably, the stage is set for a repeat of gamergate, with the "anti" side (loathe as I am to describe it that way) trying to push a social justice agenda again, this time with metal a a bargaining chip, and the "pro" side howling "get out, poser". In any case, this debacle is nothing more than a thinly veiled political debate that happens to tangentially involve metal as a catalyst. Given the gamergate precedent, the music itself will soon become totally irrelevant in this drama as people flock in for a chance to yell down their political opponents instead of promote reform - whether toward or away from political correctness. 

       And this is disheartening, because, as the DMG article writes, "metal is beyond the left-right divide." True, metal can be highly political - see Cattle Decapitation, plenty of thrash songs, even NSBM is an (admittedly disagreeable) form of political expression. But there's just as many bands content to talk about partying, or sadness, or Satan, or death, etc. Metal is a highly diverse genre, and pigeonholing all fans as X-ist is unfair, and both serves to demonize your target demographic and delegitimize your platform. Politicizing something as un-political as songs called 'Penis Perversor' serves no real goal.

        As I mentioned in a discussion about Sunbather a year later, reform in the metal scene has never come from outliers, political activists, or attempts to make money, but from the nerdy music fans that are content to be weird and record themselves being weird. No amount of whining, no amount of howls of execration, is going to change the fact that, as Jack Black famously said, you can't kill the metal. 

        

Archgoat announce new album, release new song "Nuns, Cunts, and Darkness"

        Archgoat, the Finnish war metal act that, alongside Blasphemy and Beherit, defined the foul subgenre in the early 90s, have announced their fourth full-length: dubbed, in true (or dare I say trve) Archgoat histrionics, The Apocalyptic Triumphator. The LP will follow 2011's stellar Heavenly Vulva: Christ's Last Rites, and is slated for release by Debemur Morti on January 26th in Europe and 27th in North America. 

         To that end, the band have debuted a new song from the record. With a title like 'Nuns, Cunts & Darkness', it's easy to tell what you're in for. Beginning with a fiendishly catchy hook, the song barrages the listener through four minutes of Archgoat's signature mix of blood-curdling brutality and tongue-in-cheek obtuseness. As Lord Angelripper gurgles and burps his way through the song, it's difficult not to bang your head, and the band even makes use of some chilling choirs as they did on now-classic Archgoat bits like 'Goat and the Moon'. 

You can stream 'Nuns, Cunts & Darkness' below:

Taake announce new album, debut new track

        Three years after the stellar Noregs Vaapen, the Norwegian force of nature that is Taake will be releasing their newest record on December 8th. The record, entitled Stridens Hus ('House of Strife'), will be the one-man project's sixth full-length in a career that is about to turn twenty. 

         To celebrate the release of this news, a new song from the record has surfaced. 'Det Fins en Prins' ('A Prince is Found') is quintessentially Taake - kinetic, groovy, and unafraid to stand black metal on its head compositionally. You can stream 'Det Fins en Prins' below:

Cult of Fire announce new EP

   

          Cult of Fire, the insane Czech black metal act whose spellbinding sophomore album मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान 's brilliant mix of frenetic black metal and scintillating Eastern instrumentals earned them a last-minue place on many best-of lists last year, are slated to release a new EP, Čtvrtá Symfonie Ohně (Czech for 'Fourth Symphony of Fire', appropriately) this December. To that end, the band have debuted a new song from the album, 'Vltava'. With regards to its name, all I can find is that the Vltava is the longest river in the Czech Republic.

       While this seems to suggest a more patriotic slant for the upcoming EP, 'Vltava' is Cult of Fire at their best - frenetic, chaotic drums rattle against the backdrop as the guitars weave an epic atmosphere that pummels the listener to death, reminding me of Canadian black metallers Forteresse at times. While the sitar will definitely be missed, Čtvrtá Symfonie Ohně will definitely feature that blistering Cult of Fire sound we've all been thirsting after.

        You can stream 'Vltava' below. Čtvrtá Symfonie Ohně will be released by Iron Bonehead on December 8th.