Having gained renown as a winner of the Cannes Soundtrack Award in 2013, Brooklyn-based Dutch composer Jozef van Wissem is something of an expert lute player and is no stranger to getting Drone-like music from it. We Adore You, You Have No Name (Consouling Sounds), van Wissem’s latest album, is a journey through the archaic and the contemporary, the rustic and the mystical. Continue reading
In a short space of time, Belgian Black Metallers Wiegedood have proven to be somewhat of a special entity, and a name that has begun to creep into a wider audience (not to mention a name that your scribe has found difficult to remember how to spell for about the same length of time). Featuring members of, and having association with, the likes of Amenra and Oathbreaker, their brand of Black Metal similarly revels in moody tropes and being both explorative and emotive. It is interesting, then, that latest album and the final part of their trio of releases, De Doden Hebben Het Goed III (Century Media) follows suit fairly firmly, but does up the ante in places. Continue reading
When a band that formed in 2006 have already recorded ten full-length albums and so many EPs and splits that I can’t be bothered counting them, it’s fair to assume that they’ve (I know, it’s only one person, but you use a band-name you get called by a plural – science) nailed their sound down by now. With Metal/Noise pioneers Gnaw Their Tongues, however, it’s a bit more complicated than that – they’ve somehow managed to develop a style that is instantly recognisable but changes subtly across each album, to the extent that you’re never sure exactly what you’re going to get when a new one is announced, and how heavily it will lean towards their disparate sides. Continue reading