Morne – Churchburn – Obsidian Tongue – Sea: Live At The Middle East, Cambridge MA

Posted on December 17, 2014 by News Team

Did you ever go to a show and know right off the bat that it was one for the record books? Well on Friday December 12th at the Middle East Nightclub in Cambridge, there was such a show, and this one makes it into my top 5 out of about 60 for the entire year of 2014. Why? Because it had some of the best bands New England has to offer on the bill coupled with one of the most amazing atmospheres, crowd wise, I have seen in a while.

I always know it’s December in New England when Morne plays a show in the Boston area. A band that keeps it’s local show appearances to about one a year won’t ever be blamed for over saturating the local scene, not that I know anyone who would complain if they were to add a show or two each year. Stacked to the gills with local heavyweights Churchburn and Obsidian Tongue plus a solid new comer, SEA, opening up the nights musical assault, I knew there would be no complaints about the music on this night.

Unfortunately I missed most of SEA’s set but what I caught was really good. Take heavy, slow doom and mix it with part melodic, part chugging riffs. At least that’s what I took away from the 2 songs I got to hear. It was enough for me to be interested in the band and what they do in the months ahead. Hopefully there will be some sort of recording to come from them in the near future.

Next up was the Massachusetts black metal outfit, Obsidian Tongue, recently off a stint with Agalloch where they played on 6 of the North American tour dates. This band has grown so much in the past few years and now is a serious force to be reckoned with on stage. How exactly they are able to create such a full sound being a two piece, I have never understood but watching this band mature over the past 4 or so years has been a sheer pleasure and they are definitely one of my favorite local bands.

Churchburn hit the stage and began the set with their song ‘V,’ showcasing their take on unrelenting black/death/doom. I have seen this band more than a few times and have not been disappointed once. When Dave Suzuki gets to the mic it’s almost as if instead of opening his mouth, his face actually splits open (like it’s on a damn hinged cantilever or something) and spews raw venom at the audience. One of these days I think he might bust a vessel or something. Absolutely powerful performance from a really devastating band out of Providence. They are solid front to back and definitely not a band to miss.

By the time Morne started their set, the place was sold out and started to get a bit steamy. Sneaking a peek at the setlist got me excited for what was to come as it was filled with a combination of songs from all three full length albums. First song was the opening track off the newest release, Shadows, called “Coming of Winter” which was appropriate on many levels. The newest member of the band, Paul Rajpal, seems to be a superb fit to the band and gels very well. The dual nature of Milosz Gassans vocal style, filled with emotion, always reminds me of a dark and painful form of Tuvan throat singing. If you listen carefully you might understand what I mean. As they blasted through the 8 song set, the entire crowd was rapt with their performance, and for good reason. This was one of the most powerful performances I have seen them play to date, which is saying a lot since I have never seen them be anything but top notch. The band just plain crushes, I have no idea how else to put it but this time they leveled the place.

This show proved just how strong and vibrant the underground metal scene(or whatever the hell you want to call it) is here in New England.

I highly recommend checking out all of these bands if you haven’t already done so. They do not disappoint!

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Morne on Facebook

Churchburn on Facebook

Obsidian Tongue on Facebook

SEA on Facebook

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY HILLARIE JASON

Nightwish, Trivium, Cannibal Corpse Set For Summer Breeze Open Air 2015

Posted on December 10, 2014 by newsteam

Summer Breeze Open Air Festival has announced its lineup for the 2015 edition. The event is held at Aeroclub Dinkelsbuehl Airfield between Sinbronn and Illenschwang in Dinkelsbuehl, Germany from August 13th to 15th, 2015.

Agalloch
Amorphis
Any Given Day
Avatarium
Battle Beast
Below
Belphagor
Breakdown Sanity
Cannibal Corpse
Carnifex
Combichrist
Cradle Of Filth
Dark Tranquillity
Death Angel
Devilment
Diablo Blvd
Dornenreich
Emil Bulls
Ensiferum
Falloch
Ghost Brigade
Glory Hammer
Hark
Isole
Kataklysm
Knorkator
Lantlos
Morgoth
Neagra
Necrotted
Nightwish
Ost + Front
Powerwolf
Pyogenesis
Rectal Smegma
Saltatio Mortis
Sepultura
Serum 114
Sonic Syndicate
The German Panzer
Trivium
Trollfest
VIIJA

Summer Breeze Festival on Twitter
Summer Breeze Open Air on Instagram
Summer Breeze Open Air on Facebook
Summer Breeze Open Air on YouTube

Dreams of the Carrion Kind (Part III) – The Watcher from FEN

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Steve Tovey

To celebrate the release of their stunning 9/10 album Carrion Skies (Code666 – review here) The Watcher, guitarist and vocalist of England’s atmospheric post-Black Metal band Fen spoke to Ghost Cult on a range of subjects. In the third of four parts, with a further feature to follow in the next Ghost Cult digimag, talk turned to the role of the audience in the development of a band…

When it comes to writing music, and developments and changes in Fen’s sound, do you care what your fans think, or is writing music for Fen purely for the band members?

First and foremost you have to write music that satisfies yourself; that is an absolute underlying fundament of being in a band, but I do care, yes. I think a band takes on a life of its own after a point. We’re on our fourth album, we seem to have quite a few people out there who support us, and I think it’d be disingenuous to say that your audience, or the buyer, isn’t in mind when you’re putting together material. If people are willing to take the time and effort, and potentially money, to invest in your art, then there has to be an element of reciprocation there. We are conscious of the fact we have listeners; it’s not like we’re a global phenomenon but we are aware, and if we put out a record and our established fans didn’t like it, I’d be really interested to know why.

By not being a band that is overtly a touring artist, does that audience becomes more distant, and contact with the people that buy your product is reduced? It’s not like you are a 5fDP with 18 month tours…

“It isn’t, but that’s not to say we wouldn’t like it to be [on tour that long – not that they want to be Five Finger Death Punch – ST]. I enjoy doing this, I enjoy doing shows, we enjoy getting opportunities, and if you’re in a band and you have an audience, you look to grow that audience, and it’s important. I think there are bands that are disingenuous, and they say ‘We just write for ourselves, and it’s a bonus if people choose to listen to us’, but if you’re just doing it for yourself, then just play your music loudly in the rehearsal room.”

To Misquote Al Jourgensen, as soon as you play music to other people you’re selling out…

“I think it’s a dishonest thing to say ‘We just in it for ourselves’. When you pick up a guitar when you’re 13 or 14 years old, you just want to rock the fuck out. You want to be the man! No matter how many permutations your musical endeavours go down, or whatever prisms you view yourself through, as an artist the minute you’re going onto a stage and plugging into an amp that’s cranked up, there’s an element of that original instinct that kicks in, of wanting to just rock out in front of a crowd. I’m not going to lie about that just to make myself look a little bit cooler or more detached, or more intellectual.

“OK, we have signifiers and caveats to it – we’re playing “Atmospheric post-Black Metal…” Well, ultimately, we’re playing loud rock music. That’s an underlying fact. And a part of that is an audience. It’s an important part of being in a band. No one in a band can look me in the eye and tell me they enjoy playing in front of fuck all people. That’s not true. You can lie to yourself with your ‘There were only 2 people there, but those 2 people really loved it’.

“So… ?”

“I remember in my old band, in Skaldic Curse, we started working on a 25 minute long progressive black metal epic, and we were ‘Oh, this is really going to piss people off’… Hang on a minute, where’s this thinking leading? Are we getting so wrapped up in trying to do what people don’t expect of us? But then you are still thinking about what the audience think, you’re just looking at it through a different end of the telescope. It’s an un-ignorable part of the artistic process, unless you are going to record music on your own at home and only listen to it alone. The minute anyone else enters the picture, even band mates, you’re sharing, and there’s consideration for the listener, and I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t see why that has to somehow compromise the purity of the art.”

I guess it’s always been something that’s intrinsic within the Black Metal / Kvlt Metal mentality or mindset…

“Yes, there’s always the isolationist thing, but if you look at the second wave of black metal, Euronymous still wanted to shift records. He ran a record label. He wanted to sell records from a shop. It was under the guise of spreading the message of the horned lord, or whatever, but he wanted an audience.”

And let’s not pretend De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Deathlike Silence) is shit…

“It’s a brilliant record, and Euronymous wanted an audience for it. He’d do tours; Mayhem were touring around Eastern Europe in 1990, 1991, and they were one of the first second wave Black Metal bands out there doing it. And there are some real headbanging moments on De Mysteriis… take the riff on ‘Pagan Fears’, that’s a proper fists in the air riff. The mid-section of ‘Freezing Moon’… that’s a head-banging classic, and that’s why I don’t think considering your audience has to be a compromise at all. I think there’s some dishonesty in that level of thinking because you can be inspired, you can write with integrity and you can still consider your audience.

“If you’ve got to a point where your band has a fanbase, then your band has overtaken you. It’s no longer yours and yours alone. And I know John from Agalloch gets really upset with this, he gets upset with fans having a sense of entitlement, and that’s fair enough, but these people are buying and consuming your music, and it’s a sense that’s born from them enjoying your music. While that can be annoying, in a sense, you can listen to them and take some stuff on board. There is a line, but if they’re genuine fans, buying physical releases and merchandise, and they’re investing in your band and your music, then you owe it to them to take them into consideration.”

Fen on Facebook

Order Carrion Skies here

Words by STEVE TOVEY

The Official Ghost Cult Writers Albums of the Year Top 50: 30-21

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Steve Tovey

The countdown to the Official Ghost Cult Magazine Album of the Year for 2014 continues. Please consume and enjoy the results of our 2014 Writers’ Poll. We hope it will introduce you to some of the incredible works of art you may have missed that we have had the immense pleasure of listening to and writing about this year.

In our third installment we bring you albums 30 through to 21

30. CASUALTIES OF COOL – Casualties Of Cool (Pledge/HevyDevy)

“Casualties of Cool is an intriguing experiment from a man who excels in making left-field music. Go in expecting massive a prog-metal exercise will only lead to disappointment, but having an open mind will result in a rewarding experience” DAN SWINHOE 8/10 Full review here

29. ANATHEMA – Distant Satellites (KScope)

“One of our world’s most understated bands, despite the plaudits they get, Anathema have once again showcased their knack for penning both forward thinking and emotionally driven music which oozes real human character and sentimentality”. CHRIS TIPPELL 9/10 Full review here

28. DOWN – IV (Part II) (Down Records)

“When we look back on this part of their career, we will likely understand that these are less like regular EPs that other bands release, and much more like a mini-opus, in pieces. Down clearly realizes their collective vision, no matter who is in the lineup, every time”. KEITH ‘KEEFY’ CHACHKES 9.5/10 Full review here

27. VALLENFYRE – Splinters (Century Media)

“Sadistic and aggressive with endless moments of bleak reflection Splinters is a leviathan unleashed upon unsuspecting listeners and a release surely destined to grace many year end lists” ROSS BAKER 9/10 Full review here

26. AGALLOCH – “The Serpent and the Sphere” (Profound Lore)

Like a massive-antlered stag glimpsed amidst a wintry landscape, breathtaking, elusive and hard to pin down, The Serpent and the Sphere looks set to continue their elegant and ever-evolving legacy JAMES CONWAY 9/10 Full review here

25. THOU – Heathen (Gilead Media)

“A storm manifest as a piece of music, as devastating as it is awe-inspiring, Heathen is varied and compelling for the entire runtime”. TOM SAUNDERS 9/10 Full review here

24. septicflesh – Titan (Season of Mist)

“Sharp, buzzing riffs and symphonic keys, strength and brutality amongst moments of pomp and beauty, bloody entertaining and another show of form” PAUL QUINN 8.5/10 Full review here

23. PYRRHON – The Mother of Virtues (Relapse)

“The Mother Of Virtues doesn’t just challenge what is “extreme”, but calls into question whether some of what is produced is actually even music. Completely and utterly impenetrable, and exceptional with it”. STEVE TOVEY 9.5/10 Full review here

22. EYEHATEGOD – EyeHateGod (Housecore/Century Media)

“Eyehategod continue to age like a good whiskey, seeming to improve as time goes by, but by no means losing their sting”. CHRIS TIPPELL 9/10 Full review here

21. ALCEST – Shelter (Prophecy)

“Shedding the last vestiges of metal, let-alone any lingering black metal leanings, a captivating and stunning piece of music poured straight from the heart”. JAMES CONWAY 9/10 Full review here

Ghost Cult Magazine Albums of the Year: 50-41

Ghost Cult Magazine Albums of the Year: 40-31

Dreams of the Carrion Kind (Part I) – The Watcher from FEN

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Steve Tovey

To celebrate the release of their stunning 9/10 album Carrion Skies (Code666 – review here) The Watcher, guitarist and vocalist of England’s atmospheric post-Black Metal band Fen spoke to Ghost Cult on a range of subjects. In the first of four parts, with a further feature to follow in the next Ghost Cult digimag, he enthuses on the conscious injection of metal back into their sound that facilitated the statement album that should propel them to the head table…

“You look at a band like Paradise Lost. When they started out, they couldn’t be more Heavy Metal. Then they get to 24, 25 years old and then it’s ‘Heavy Metal is for losers. I’ve been listening to this for 10 years, it’s old hat. I’ve heard all there is to hear of this, it’s for bozos. I like Depeche Mode, let’s do that and let’s be all grown up’. But then it goes full circle, and when they hit their late 30’s they’re ‘God, I think I was a pretentious little twat back then! I actually do like Heavy Metal and I wasn’t anywhere near as clever as I thought I was when I went all experimental’.

“You see it a bit with the Norwegian scene, too, that all went ludicrously avant-garde in the late 90’s. It’s like they all went to university and thought ‘Ooh, I want to be clever now. What’s clever? Well, heavy metal definitely isn’t, so…’

“The thing is, I like Heavy Metal. I want to play Heavy Metal. It sounds a bit Bad News, but I love Heavy Metal. I listen to Heavy Metal. Heavy Metal.”

Once people stray away from the metal part of their sound they’re moving into a shallower pool of influences, and have a shortfall in their depth of knowledge. The problem is, bands not understanding these additional elements of their sound as much as they do the metal… I’m not saying don’t utilise these additional, non-metal influences, but make sure you understand what you’re doing…

“Exactly. It is dabbling. It’s going ‘I’ve been listening to a load of synthy 80s new wave bands recently, we can do something with that’. And there’s a danger for bands to get really carried away, and I think this is what was happening with us.

“At the start of last year, the end of the year before, we’d done Dustwalker (the band’s third album, also on Code666) and me and our drummer, Derwydd, had been listening to loads of Sad Lovers and Giants, The Chameleons and Snake Corps, all these guitarwave bands. Then, in rehearsal I thought I’d turn the distortion off, put a bit chorus and delay on it and, oh, we can sound like that… and it’s easy to carried away with it when you’re playing one style so much. But to your ears it’s a really fresh sound, and you’re like ‘Yes! We can do this!’ At points we were even talking about doing a whole album like that, a whole album with clean guitars.

“It was only when we got back from touring with Agalloch that we realised that we’d got completely over-excited about the fact that we do listen to some non-metal stuff and we can do a passable version of it. But it’s not really enough, and we did have to put the brakes on and take a look at it, and say ‘Are we just playing a slightly rubbish version of The Chameleons with some guy shouting over it?’ And in all honesty, we were.

“We took a really objective step back and looked at it, and a lot of the stuff that was originally pencilled in to be on the album was binned off. We had gotten carried away and were disappearing up our own arses.”

An integral part of the Fen sound has always been that it comes from black metal and the inherent extremity of black metal first, despite the fact that you are often compared with bands like Agalloch and Alcest, who are much lighter, much “nicer”…

“I like Agalloch and I like some of the early Alcest, but it’s a bit of a lazy comparison I think. Particularly with this new album, we’ve set ourselves apart from that. I mean, touring with Agalloch for a month… they do that stuff really well, but we don’t want to sound like that. They’ve got that sound nailed. We sat down and said we needed to define ourselves, we needed to really underline what we’re about.

“Unfortunately there are bands out there who don’t take that step back until it’s too late, until it’s ‘Oh shit, we’re not as clever as we think we are’, but I can see it from the other side of the fence, that it’s easy to get swept up in it. Everyone gets whipped up into a fervour, and gets all ‘We can do it! This is so different! Look at how versatile we are!’ , but any competent musician can turn their hand to doing a vague version of another style, but doing it well is a different thing.”

“Dustwalker is a metal album, but we did go down a certain route. There’s a lot of atmospheric stuff on there, there’s a whole song on there that’s got no distorted guitars whatsoever. With this one, we thought ‘We’re in the mood for metal, we want to do some metal!’ We’re an extreme metal band and it’s almost become a cliché for bands that are in the post-black metal scene to shed the trappings of black metal, and that’s not a game I’m interested in playing.

“I want to reassert our credentials as a metal band.”

Fen on Facebook

Carrion Skies can be purchased here

STEVE TOVEY

Agalloch – Jex Thoth – Obsidian Tongue: Live at Brighton Music Hall, Allston MA

Posted on July 11, 2014 by News Team

You knew it was going to be a killer night when for the first time I can recall for any show, the line to get in stretched around the block, over an hour before doors at this venue. Agalloch always draws a big crowd in the Boston area, what with our love of black metal and emo-style self-hatred overflowing at all times. All jokes aside, Agalloch on their first tour supporting the excellent new album The Serpent and The Sphere (Profound Lore) was a can’t miss proposition for this summer of metal shows so far. The venue was well sold out with people walking up for tickets turned away. I bumped into many of my friends in the scene and my photographer for the night, the exceptionally cool Hillarie Jason outside while I waited to get in. I wonder if selling out the House of Blues is next for this band, since every time they visit our city, the sell out yet another venue.

Growing local legends Obsidian Tongue opened tonight, following a brief, but successful mid-west run opening for this tour. Front man Brendan James Hayter has long had a relationship to Agalloch, written songs with them, and in general is in a mutual admiration society with them. All good, but playing in front of basically a sold-out hometown crowd had advantages too. Brendan, flanked by powerhouse drummer Greg Murphy just blew everyone in attendance away with their all too brief set. As always, their gut-wrenching, perfectly executed traditional USBM, captivates and kills. In addition to playing a brand new song that was nothing shot of epic at almost 14 minutes long, John Haughm himself joined the band for a closing rendition of “A Nest of Ravens in the Throat of Time”, of which Brendan remarked they will likely “never play this again.” One of the cooler moments of the night was meeting Brendan’s beaming parents, clad in their O.T. Shirts. Parents- you’re doing it right!

The BM-centric crowd was a little less forgiving the doom of Jex Thoth. For her part Jex was awesome, and in her own little world. She was nonplussed by the few mumbles in the room about them and their placement on this bill. Nevertheless her tight band blessed with her namesake blasted through a lengthy set of good songs. Caught up in the ritual, Jex wailed like the chanteuse that she is, connecting with the audience, but she was also on her own trip too. As my pal Mike Vargus commented later, she brought the sexiness to doom. Transformed by the process of the ritual, lost in the magic, she milked every bit of soul out of each note that escaped her throat. Her band was no afterthought either, they were present in the moment, right with her musically, especially guitarist Jason Hartman. Playing songs mostly from their 2013 album Blood Moon Rise (I Hate). At one point Jex jumped off the stage and into the crowd to get up close and personal with everyone. She sang, and danced and played with fire, burning some sage for effect. Maybe the beers and shots I had were fully kicking in by this time, but I was totally in her spell. She said little when their set was done, but they certainly made an impact.

There was a pretty fast change-over for Agalloch to come on. The sold-out crowd held their collective breath together while the band made their way to the stage. Not one note had played, but you felt something electric in the air. Everyone felt it actually, you could just tell. From the swell of the intro music, the wave just hit the eager crowd and a cheer went out. The opening notes of ‘The Astral Dialogue’ and the rollicking beat meant there would be no slow burn build up to start the show tonight. Nope, tonight had is moments of dynamic intensity, but Agalloch was full of hustle and power much more than in the past when I’ve seen them. It was an instant reminder that American black metal is the real deal now, and a band like this is the reason. Haughm’s economical playing style looks almost too easy, and his bleak vocals just crush. He is always note perfect and flawless live. I was immediately surprised by how much knuckle-headed moshing there was, more so than any show in memory for black metal in Boston. Perhaps it is a swell of new fans, but I was turned off by it, as was Haughm who joked about it later on.

The new ‘Vales Beyond Dimension’ was more typical fare I was used to for these Pacific Northwest giants. The fans seems to chill out for a minute and soak it all in. Always impressive, Aesop Dekker almost stole the show on this night with his tireless blasting behind the kit. I have seen him live many times with different acts, and this night was a performance we’d never seen from him before. Epic in scope, ‘Limbs’ was another killer early set highlight. Oh, so heartfelt and deep, I almost felt like a hippie for a second. Almost. John finally addressed the crowd, dissed the moshers, and generally welcomed all to the tour. Picking back up with ‘Ghosts of the Midwinter’s Fires’, we fell into the emotional abyss again. This is what Agalloch does best: toying with your soul and mind with their songs. There was a lot of singing along to this one, which made me smile. Other standout songs were the newer ‘Dark Matter Gods’, ‘Celestial Effigy’ and the mighty ‘Into the Painted Grey’.

Coming back on for an encore, Haughm thanked the openers, made more jokes about moshers and then just melted the place down with the stirring ‘Falling Snow’ and Plataeu of The Ages’. We were all left speechless and happy. What a great night!

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Agalloch Set List:

Intro(Serpens Caput)

The Astral Dialogue

Vales Beyond Dimension

Limbs

Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires

Dark Matter Gods

The Melancholy Spirit

Celestial Effigy

…and the Great Cold Death of the Earth

Into the Painted Grey

Encore:

Falling Snow

Plateau of the Ages

Agalloch on Facebook

Jex Thoth on Facebook

Obsidian Tongue on Facebook

WORDS BY KEITH CHACHKES

PHOTOS BY HILLARIE JASON PHOTOGRAPHY

Agalloch – The Serpent and the Sphere

Posted on June 6, 2014 by News Team

Like a massive-antlered stag glimpsed amidst a wintry landscape, Agalloch albums have always been breathtaking, elusive and hard to pin down. Emerging from hibernation every four years on average, the Portland, Oregon quartet have never once disappointed with their unique brand of post rock, black metal and neo-folk, and fifth opus The Serpent and the Sphere (Profound Lore) looks set to continue their elegant and ever-evolving legacy.

Based around an astral premise as opposed to the spiritual themes of 2010 predecessor Marrow of the Spirit, The Serpent and the Sphere has a more refined construct this time around with nine tracks clocking in at around about an hour, three of them being brief neo-folk instrumentals composed by guest musician Nathanael Larochette of Musk Ox. His presence is a mystery given that the band are no stranger to this type of acoustic passage, but you will hear no complaints as they fit like sturdy oaks, anchoring the album steadfastly amidst a surging sea of progressive elements.

From the gradually building urgency of the eleven minute opener ‘Birth and Death of the Pillars of Creation’ which ascends ever higher with the threat of release so near yet so far, to the classy melodic black metal of ‘The Astral Dialogue’ to the soaring, shimmering post metal of equally lengthy ‘Plateau of the Ages’, there is something here to delight all fans and ensnare many a newcomer. The playing is constantly thoughtful and skilled, the production clear as the driven snow and every element of Agalloch’s soul-stirring repertoire, save for John Haugm’s solemn clean vocals are present and correct.

A spiritual journey that you will want to experience over and over again, The Serpent and the Sphere has something for everyone, and is something everyone should experience.

9/10

Agalloch on Facebook

JAMES CONWAY

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