Very few pairings can channel and embrace the art of compelling and near inaudible noise as an art form as Stephen O’Malley and Atilla Csihar of SunnO))) (and Mayhem in the latter’s case). A partnership formed with SunnO))), they have proven to be champions of incredibly dissident and daunting soundscapes within Drone and experimental Ambient musci, in as close to pigeonholing as is possible. Following on from 2007’s debut of alternative project Gravetemple, Impassable Fear (Svart Records) offers yet another snapshot into their striking vision.Continue reading
Tag Archives: Ambient
Harvestman – Music For Megaliths
If music is meant to make you feel an array of emotions, the new, third album from Harvestman – aka Neurosis singer/guitarist Steve Von Till – is music everyone should listen to. Music For Megaliths (Neurot) dishes up a feast of ambience, walking the line between folk, drone, mediation music, it quietly moves between styles without ever firmly defining itself.Continue reading
Dynfari – The Four Doors Of The Mind
Since their inception in 2010, Dynfari have proven to be a true, unearthed gem for forward thinking metal; and yet another entity in Iceland’s thriving and rich Extreme Metal scene. Continuously showing evolutionary steps across their early albums, 2015’s Vegferð Tímans (Code666) was at the time their creative zenith, bridging atmospheric Black Metal with post-Rock and ambient landscapes to stunning effect. On latest album The Four Doors Of The Mind (Code666/Aural), this duo have majorly upped the ante both in musical execution and in subject matter.Continue reading
The Great Old Ones – EOD: A Tale Of Dark Legacy
According to the works of renowned horror author Howard Phillips Lovecraft, The Great Old Ones are a pantheon of colossal, all-powerful gods who arrived on Earth from outer space. These ancient deities ruled our planet long before mankind but have since fallen into a state of deathlike slumber beneath the sea.Continue reading
TesseracT- Errai
Brit proggers TesseracT have never been ones to be even remotely stagnant with their sound, always looking for opportunity to expand and develop. Alongside their three album catalogue which has seen their sound shift Djent maestros to an even more explorative brand of hook based prog, they have also been known for rich experimentation on their EP releases. From Concealing Fate (Century Media) which would become the centerpiece to their full début to the mostly acoustic Perspective (Century Media); their EPs have been a chance to add to their quivers and have proven curious additions. Continue reading
Video: Andy Black Of Black Veil Brides Teases New Video, Announces Solo Headline Tour
Andy Black, the solo performing alter-ego of Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack, has announced his début headline tour of the USA. He announced the tour with a teaser for his forthcoming new video for the track ‘ a teaser for his ‘We Don’t Have To Dance’ on his Instagram account. You can see at this link or below:
Andy Black Solo Headline US Tour:
May 23: Baltimore Soundstage- Baltimore, MD
May 24: Brighton Music Hall- Allston, MA
May 25: Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA
May 27: Highline Ballroom – New York, NY
May 28: GameChangerWorld – Freehold, NJ
May 29: The NorVa – Norfolk, VA
May 31: Arizona Pete’s – Greensboro, NC
Jun 01: The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
Jun 03: State Theatre – St. Petersburg, FL
Jun 04: The Social – Orlando, FL
Jun 06: Trees – Dallas, TX
Jun 07: The Rock Box – San Antonio, TX
Jun 08: Warehouse Live – Houston, TX
Jun 10: Slowdown – Omaha, NE
Jun 11: Mill City Nights – Minneapolis, MN
Jun 13: Agora – Cleveland, OH
Jun 14: Altar Bar – Pittsburgh, PA
Jun 15: The Opera House- Toronto, ON
Jun 17: The Crofoot- Pontiac, MI
Jun 18: Bottom Lounge- Chicago, IL
Jun 19: Liberty Hall- Lawrence, KS
Jun 21: Bluebird Theater- Denver, CO
Jun 22: The Complex- Salt Lake City, UT
Jun 24: The Showbox- Seattle, WA
Jun 25: Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR
Jun 27: The Boardwalk – Orangevale, CA
Jun 28: Social Hall SF – San Francisco, CA
Jun 30: Observatory North Park – San Diego, CA
Jul 01: Nile Theater – Mesa, AZ
Jul 02: El Rey Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Colin H. van Eeckhout – RASA
The Church of Ra – comprising Belgian outfits Amenra, Wiegedood and Oathbreaker and sharing members between them – is a wildly inventive Cerberus which nevertheless tends to remain largely within the confines of its Metal boundaries. Colin H van Eeckhout is often regarded as the titular head of that movement but RASA (Consouling Sounds), the debut solo effort from the Amenra frontman, is moving, ambient drone with little of the growling anger usually expected from the genre.
The bumph accompanying the one-track album tells how its creation has tapped into the man’s emotions. Initially however, the effect is purely soothing: an atmospheric thrum, its gradual increase in volume coinciding with the subtly wailing harmony of the hurdy-gurdy. Fans of van Eeckhout’s day job will be aware that the agonised shriek isn’t the only weapon in his arsenal, and here his easy yet mournful inflections add further poignancy to a lament which grows more hypnotic as even less seems to happen.
The brief introduction of rhythmic tub-thumping at the midway point brings a level of fire whilst simultaneously retaining the gentle feel of a deer springing through hard ground, the tension building while bizarrely massaging the temples. As drums re-enter the fray the listener becomes aware of having been lost in a reverie: constantly juxtaposed elements of light and dark polarising the equilibrium of the senses, the whispering laments of the sensual atmospheres whistling through a forest and bewitching the mind, with van Eeckhout’s gently howled intonations continuing to both trouble and assuage the soul.
There are elements of Amenra’s genius here: the tremendously affecting last five minutes reminiscent of the suspense-filled lull in ‘A Mon Âme’ for example. Those who have witnessed the band live will also recognise a stripped-back version of the barely controllable tension as their sound builds toward its terrible crescendo. Much as with the indigenous warblings of Wardruna, there is no crescendo here, merely a wonderfully hypnotic, emotive coda which continues to build the protagonist’s pain alongside its irresistible relief.
It has often been said that the aforementioned Norwegians draw tears from audiences, so what this will do God alone knows. RASA is a half-hour embodiment of distress and salvation, delivered with the most moving, disarming beauty, stripping the listener’s soul bare and leaving them distraught whilst not entirely bereft of deliverance. Pure and staggeringly powerful, this is a compelling, wistful drama that must not be polluted by extraneous noise and should be upheld as a beacon of perfect expression.
8.5/10
PAUL QUINN
Exclusive Song Stream: The Old Wind – Wooden Scythe
Ghost Cult is pleased to premiere the stream of the new track from The Old Wind, ‘Wooden Scythe’. The track comes from their split EP with Cult Of Luna, Råångest (Pelagic Records) dropping January 29th. You can stream ‘Wooden Scythe’ track below:
The Old Wind features members of The Ocean and Breach and the will have another new song on Råångest. Cult of Luna he heard covering Amebix’s ‘Last Will And Testament’, the last recording for the band before they go on hiatus later in 2016.
The title of the EP, Råångest, means raw anxiety in Swedish. LA-based German artist Florian Bertmer drew the cover. In a Facebook post, the band commented on the meaning of the album:
RÅÅNGEST.
The title itself is a big part of where we come from.
As much as we love the beauty and clarity of the north,
it can be a struggle. 5 months of darkness and harsh cold can definitely do stuff with your mind. For a lot of people living in the north anxiety is the main dish on the dinner table…
Us and the guys from COL can all relate to this when this is our birthplace and where we grew up. We come from the same scene and it feels like our thoughts and musical ideas are a pure reflection of our origin and the way we project it. The outcome of the harvest is RÅÅNGEST.
Råångest EP track listing:
1. Cult Of Luna – ‘Last Will And Testament’
2. The Old Wind – ‘Wooden Scythe’
3. The Old Wind – ‘Daughters Of Cleanse’
Pre-order links
LP: http://pelagic-records.com/shop/music/vinyl/cult-of-luna-the-old-wind-raangest-ep-vinyl
CD: http://pelagic-records.com/shop/music/cds-dvds-books/cult-of-luna-the-old-wind-raangest-ep-cd-digipak
The Old Wind on Facebook
Cult Of Luna online Official
Cult Of Luna on Facebook
Pelagic Records online
Gazpacho – Molok
In the world of contemporary prog, very few bands take it to such artsy and fascinating landscapes as Norwegian’s Gazpacho, whether it’s in their musicality, their craftsmanship or their narrative. Hitting a career high last year with their brave and majestic Demon (Kscope) saw them perfectly meld a haunting, classical style with a continuous and suitably dark tale of a Demon. Over a year later and the follow up album sees them not sitting on their laurels, with further stylistic changes and an equally unconventional concept.
Molok (Kscope) takes the brain stalling idea of a man who decides, in the 1920s, that all worship of any God has become the worship of stone as God has retreated to such objects. Coupled with this head scratching idea is the fact that a frequency at the album’s close could spell the end of the world.
Rather than just simply coming up with a weird and wonderful story alone, Gazpacho compliment and match it with vibrant and extremely well executed atmospheres and sounds that once again fully breathe it to life. At times there is a much greater focus on a more tribal and dissident sound such as on ‘Algorithm’ which emphasizes large, traditional percussion throughout, whilst the likes of ‘ABC’ prove almost contrasting with a more soothing and dreamlike air. The title track even includes like-to-like recreations of Stone Age instruments, contributed by music archaeologist Gjermund Kolltveit.
As such, this may borderline on becoming pretentious and even elitist, but Gazpacho manage to encapsulate all this in a way that is still warming and welcoming. Those unfamiliar with art rock and prog could find it daunting, but otherwise this is very melodic and has plenty to latch on to whilst all the while proving dynamic and imaginative. Meant to be enjoyed as a whole rather than broken up, each new listen reveals further nuances and details. Jan Henrik Ohme’s voice also proves as hypnotic as ever, conveying melancholy, serenity and menace with aplomb, and the accompanying female vocals add an extra, welcome dimension.
As ever, a new Gazpacho album will reveal further secrets with each additional listen and thus trying to articulate it entirely is futile, but what is clear is that Molok is a rich and heavily detailed and thought out work which will prove more and more rewarding with time. Where Demon was the band’s benchmark, Molok has very easily matched it at the very least. This could well be the band’s greatest opus to date.
9.0/10
CHRIS TIPPELL
Rust In Peace… – Jay Postones of TesseracT
With the music industry as difficult and un-financially viable a path as it is in the modern day, the survival of bands is not without some roadblocks along the way. Bands calling it quits altogether, members coming and going and a greater need to stand out and make a mark are just some such trials that can make or break.
Since their roots as a bedroom project of guitarist Acle Kahney in 2003, UK prog metaller’s TesseracT have overcome and experienced much more than many of their peers could ever have imagined, all the while almost making it look easy. Being considered a founding alumni of the ‘djent’ scene with their debut album One, they survived the style’s saturation through some evolution on follow up Altered State (both Century Media), vocalist changes as frequent as the weather. Oh, and they’ve also played on an iceberg.
The transition from One to Altered State saw a departure from the extreme metal influences of which they were known for a more melodic approach. On their newest effort Polaris (Kscope/eOne), as drummer Jay Postones explains, the forward motion is continuing: “It’s just progressed from the last album. I know that’s a really cliché thing to say because its progressive music and we just constantly strive to make something a little bit different but, I think we were perhaps more focused with this one, maybe less rushed and we had a bit more time to structure the songs and work on the ideas that really excited us.”
Comparing Polaris to its predecessors, it is an ever greater leap into more prog and ambient territory than Altered State was; a much more layered and even intricate work. As Postones explains, much of the reason for this was the working influence and presence of their sound engineer Aiden O’Brien: “He wrote a lot of the ambient parts and the piano; he had a massive input on this album. You can hear a lot of subtle differences, like, going between songs, and he has been involved in writing those parts. There’s a kind of sixth dimension to it which has been really cool.”
In fact the experience of O’Brien from other aspects of the music industry helped towards making an invaluable contribution to Polaris’ hypnotic and serene atmosphere. “He performs as much as we do (and) he’s been with us for a very long time; his main job is writing music for TV ads and stuff like that, so he knows how things should sound, for want of a better phrase.
“It’s very subtle things that many people might not hear but for people with massive speakers or headphones, they will hear the things he does. They may be subtle or subliminal but they make an impact and make a difference to us. It helps you feel the music a lot more. There’s a lot more going on than any other record.”
On the face of things it could be said that perhaps TesseracT, more than just moving from the scene that they helped to shape, are in actual fact veering from metal altogether. Certainly there are moments here where metal is entirely stripped away, for example the drifting, brooding ‘Hexes’, but simultaneously there are still heavier moments and even some growled vocals that were completely absent on Altered State. Postones gives an insight in this notion: “I think you’re fair in saying that to be honest. Even though there’s some block out moments and some screams which we didn’t do on Altered State; Dan (Tompkins, vocals) would say that works and put them in, and you never wanted to say never in case it works properly. But we’ve always tried to go with what feels right, we never want to conform to anything, we just want to write music that feels right to us.”
Postones goes on to explain that, rather than being a calculated decision by the band, or even a committee, the creative process simply happens organically: “There isn’t even conversations or emails from management saying you have to write a song like this, its never been like that with this band. We put our foot down and that’s how we choose to do it. If we ever had to compromise any creative aspect of this band to appease the business I don’t think we would get as much enjoyment out of it.
“We enjoy playing, we enjoy touring and writing. We aren’t stubbornly trying to do anything , we just do what we like to do.”
WORDS BY CHRIS TIPPELL