It’s taken eight years for US tortured Doom activists Amarok to create an album but, finally, here it is. With four tracks clocking in at almost 70 minutes you know that Devoured (Translation Loss) is going to be a long ride, but the news here is that it’s an emotionally draining one also.Continue reading
I find that either when I am feeling down or when in the deepest parts of winter here in Massachusetts (who am I kidding, those two things are one in the same), that depressive music can help. With that said, the project known simply as, Slow, returns with the fifth chapter of atmospheric depression, entitled V – Oceans (code666/Aural Music). The Belgian seemingly solo project (technically a second member has been added on as of last year who is a lyricist) has really hit the nail on the head when it comes to funeral doom with some amazing atmosphere framing the whole sound.Continue reading
The cover art to Never Forever (Profound Lore) sums up pretty well what to expect from Monarch’s latest album; a black and white inverted crucifix fashioned from butterflies, dark and ominous juxtaposed with beauty. The symbolism of the butterfly hinting that this is going to be a tour of the darker recesses of the human psyche.Continue reading
We’re only at the beginning of March and thanks to Boise, Idaho’s Wolvserpent, we may already have one of the more unique and interesting metal releases this year. The list of adjectives that could be used to describe Aporia:Kāla:Ananta (Relapse Records) is absolutely endless. Ranging from haunting, beautiful, destructive, the list goes on. This album can only be described as an album that looks to fill you with utter darkness. The first emotion it will evoke however will be of curiosity. Aporia:Kāla:Ananta clocks in at just over forty minutes long, and at first glance you‘ll notice it is just one track. Yes, Aporia:Kāla:Ananta is just a forty minute song. Can we expect to see Aporia:Kāla:Ananta performed in it’s entirety on the road fairly soon?
Aporia:Kāla:Ananta starts with a build up of a looming atmospheric tension eventually being paired with a dreary violin. You feel as you’re floating through an inescapable bleakness that slowly surrounds and engulfs you. Taking the trash out late at night while enjoying Aporia:Kāla:Ananta on my iPod, I felt like I could have been on a movie set with the monster in the woods stalking it’s prey. Once Aporia:Kāla:Ananta reaches the seven minute mark, we hit a change of pace. A constant snare keeping pace, the atmosphere is building to what feels like the climax of a blockbuster. A subtle recitation of growls flowing with the marching snare and rhythmic violin leaving you mesmerized.
Like any climax all there is left after is the decent. The next few minutes have an ambience that feel like you’re falling into pure darkness. Further down the rabbit hole backing drones with light percussion and a haunting violin drag you straight down until the composition of your inner demons comes to an end. You’re then grabbed by the throat by pure despair. Funeral Doom metal at it’s finest. Dreary droning, echoing shrieks, dark ambience, this is clearly the soundtrack of your demise. The last twenty minutes continue with a droning doom. At times it feels like moments are drawn out too long but never in a negative way. Aporia:Kāla:Ananta has clearly been drawing out all emotion.
Aporia:Kāla:Ananta to me seems like an interesting album to recommend to others. You definitely need to be open-minded to appreciate the composition before you reach the Funeral / Drone / Doom Metal. The album as a whole is quite a bleak listen. Wolvserpent has essentially perfected the art of what being buried alive and eventually realizing you are doomed must sound like.
7.5/10
DEREK RIX
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Emerging from a sea of black t-shirts, Jason Keyser of Origin finds me standing mid-way through the venue’s pre open-door line.
“Oh, good it’s not a video recording,” Keyser says as we make our way around the corner to a quiet side of the street.
As we set down our gear on the sidewalk, Keyser greets wallet-chain wearing kids who recognize him.
“No, but this way, you can pose in the photos and fluff-out your hair,” I remark between his handshakes with fans.
“I’d rather you Photoshop me a lot,” he says as the crowd thins. “Give me a glow.”
Although Keyser and crew are about halfway through their co-headlining slot on the Devastation Across the Nation US tour, he looks rested and already illuminated, so I skirt the suggestion.
“Tony Lazaro said it best: ‘I feel like an old carnie in an old circus,’” Keyser quips, referring to a remark the Vital Remains guitarist made while Origin toured with the band in 2011. Lazaro parlayed the jest while standing at his band’s merch table as he watched young kids run amuck. “There’s a new generation of fans, and we’re still holding on,” Keyser says. “But [Origin guitarist and vocalist] Paul Ryan is the only original member, and he’s still just as young at heart as you can imagine; it’s adorable—he’s a lifer!”
Although there are newer generations of Metal fans taking to the scene, Origin remains one of the well-respected staples, lauded for their blast-beat blitzkriegs and searing technicality. And while Origin isn’t touring in support of anything necessarily “new,” the band’s last album, Omnipresent (Nuclear Blast), remains innovative and relevant.
“We’re lucky we’re not big enough that we have to cater to a certain look or style,” Keyser says. “People still seem to dig it, dig what we do. It keeps it fresh. Our last album, [Omnipresent] was a little different from the last one before it, but how ever we’re feeling is how we express ourselves.”
Would you ever take fans for a loop and put out a Funeral Doom album?
“Yeah, maybe—why not? Omnipresent featured a straight-up circle-pit, Thrash-Metal song, as well as a Black Metal song, so maybe we’ll put out an Origin Sludge album—slow it all down by 100 percent.”
Do you give a shit about what your fans think?
“If we could have sold out, we would have sold out a long time ago—I guess we are one of those bands that doesn’t “care” about what fans think, because if we did we’d be “selling out.”
I don’t think about it specifically like that, but…hmm, now that you broke it down, I’m going to have to think about it. “
Do you have plans for a follow-up to Omnipresent?
“After we’re done with the tour, we’ll have a lot of time off, and we’ll start pounding out a new [album] in early spring [next year].”
Now a-days, you have to keep pumping out albums to stay relevant—
There are some bands, however, that take a long time to put out an album, like Meshuggah.
“Meshuggah makes way more money than we do—we don’t have that luxury!
It is good to stay relevant; there’s a weird time period before the next album becomes a comeback—like, you have to put out new music before two years or after six, otherwise you’re lost in the abyss.
As far as a new album, though, I’m the last person whose input gets put in that consideration—my role comes last in that.”
Other than this tour, what do you have in the hopper you’re looking forward to?
“The tour is halfway done—I’m excited about it being all the way done, actually!
Ideally, we’ll be playing South America, and we’ll be playing a festival in South Africa too—I’m basically using the band as an excuse to travel around the world—good work if you can get it!”
Keyser and I make invisible oranges, before he disappears back into the club. Doors open, and my buddy and I make our way inside. We see Keyser sitting at the Origin merch table, fashioning a quiet grin, arms folded as he observes a carnival of young fans collecting in throngs before him.
Origin continues to co-headline the Devastation Across the Nation tour with Krisiun, and with supporting acts Aeon, Alterbeast, Soreption, and Ingested. The band is planning to head to the studio next year, so be on the look out for more information on their forthcoming activities online here:
Live albums – a glorious celebration of a band at their most urgent, or a badly-recorded set of songs you already own designed to fulfil a contractual obligation? Not content with pretty much inventing their own subgenre, seminal Finnish Doom masters Skepticism have decided to change the way we see live albums too, by recording their fifth album in its entirety in front of a live audience. Captured on their first official performance, Ordeal (Svart) simultaneously breaks the usual studio/live dichotomy and demonstrates a band at the very height of their confidence and cohesion.
Skepticism’s ’95 debut Stormcrowfleet (Red Stream) is credited as one of a small handful of albums responsible for creating the Funeral Doom subgenre with all elements in place, and their career since then has focussed on developing the strength of their composition rather than progressing their style; thick, mournful riffs, elegiac keyboards, tortured withdrawn growls all woven together into long but focussed songs that highlight an emotional honesty and range not usually heard within Metal. Skepticism are a textbook example of why it’s often better to master one approach than to experiment with many – musically there’s nothing on here that they didn’t play twenty years ago, but they do it with such depth, power and vision that it’s impossible to see that as a weakness.
If the songwriting on Ordeal is beyond question, the same can’t necessarily be said for the live recording. The band’s performance is absolutely flawless, and the sound is rich and powerful, but aside from a very small spattering of polite applause it’s almost impossible to tell that this is a live album at all. As a testament to the tightness and professionalism of the band it’s a striking achievement, but it’s not clear what it actually adds to the album. The six tracks of Ordeal proper are followed up by live versions of classic songs from their first two albums which have more in common with the traditional live album, but they’re strictly an extra to the main event – and even they’re delivered in a controlled, banter-free style that might as well be live in the studio. Skepticism are strictly a Let’s Hear Some Noise Motherfuckers free zone.
Whether the live performance is a gimmick or a vital part of the atmosphere is open for debate, but what is beyond discussion is that Ordeal is a masterful album of rich, textured and utterly commanding DOOM (trust me, it deserves capitals) from a band utterly in command of their chosen style.
8.0/10
RICHIE HR
I’ve always queried the ‘Funeral’ tag given to German behemoth Ahab. Their undeniably progressive, occasionally melodic leanings give their pummelling crawl a contradictory lightness. Fourth album The Boats of the Glen Carrig (Napalm Records) is a concept based on William Hope Hodgson’s novel of the same name, and is arguably the band’s most expansive project to date as well as boasting some staggering cover art.
Not known for an unadventurous nature, the outfit’s ambition here is nevertheless superseded by the accomplished sound, a crystal-clear production adding beef to the bones and an earthshaking resonance to the foreboding aura. Dainty musings give crushing opener ‘The Isle’ an air of mystery, decorated with Daniel Droste’s unearthly, growling scours which set the tone for this latest chapter of nautical terror. The sparing lead tones of ‘The Things That Made Search’ are evocative and emit the slight Gaelic tone expected of the scene; the subsequent mournful outset granted heartfelt emotion by Droste’s intonations and some subtle yet stirring harmonies. Harsher sounds are never far away of course, and a coruscating roar suddenly rips the ears apart, riffs surreptitiously squeezing the soul through indigent rhythms, veering movements and Cornelius Althammer’s fascinating drum patterns.
Guitar segues from lead to rhythm during ‘Like Red Foam (The Great Storm)’ are seamless, highlighting the organic, almost telepathic interaction between the instruments. Titanic explosions, meanwhile, wake the Earth’s core as they tear at the psyche, with lead edges softening the blows and solos adding an Eastern mystique. That Funereal bent does appear throughout, and introduces standout track ‘The Weedmen’: Droste’s hostile character the evil cousin of Tolkein’s Treebeard. The ‘cleans’ decorating the quiet section, however, soar into the sky and demonstrate the vocalist’s immense talent; while the superior solo work interrupts suitably morose, versatile riffs in arguably the most powerful yet emotional track Ahab has thus far recorded. The varying segments allow the fifteen minutes to fair breeze by, and indeed this is a valid statement for the album as a whole: this five-track version climaxing at just under an hour, yet the depth and meaning leaves the listener feeling every second.
The delicate, Torch-like first movement of closer ‘To Mourn Job’ explodes into a Doom-laden groove carrying more timber than a jiving pachyderm. Hushed, stroked chords open the second half of the track in wistful fashion, as if transporting the biblical character’s corpse to the crashing, swelling finale: mammoth riffs and rhythms that grind bone with slow yet dextrous power.
With more direction, cohesion and harnessed might than ever before, Ahab has produced its greatest, most accessible and soul-affecting opus.
8.5/10
PAUL QUINN
Ahab. Photo courtesy or Napalm Records.
German Doom-meisters Ahab, quite appropriately considering their chosen method of musical communication have, like the slow roiling tide, gradually and steadily progressed, increasing not just in terms of exposure but also musically, with each release improving their status (“It’s because we’ve been around 11 years, so people heard our name often enough to think “ah, they’re still around, now I’ll listen finally!””) and growing a stoic brand of progressive doom metal, all linked by the retelling of literary tales with marine and disturbing themes.
Having covered Edgar Allan Poe, and ridden the leviathan of Moby Dick on previous albums, this fourth time around matters took on a more obscure twist, as The Boats of Glen Carrig (Napalm) takes its tales from the William Hope Hodgson book of the same name. “I don’t know if he and HP Lovecraft were friends but they knew each other”, begins guitarist and lyricist Christian Hector, a quietly spoken man with a very likeable self-deprecating and calm manner.
“What I like about the book is there are some real strange creatures, slug-like man-eating monsters, and kraken type monsters. It is psychedelic, but on a different level, Hodgson wrote about social differences between the crew members, and how this was gone when they were in this special situation. I found this really interesting, especially because this also fits the time nowadays where, for some people, it’s more important who you are, what colour you are, and we dislike that, so it was a good point for us too.”
Asking for directions in a second language is difficult enough, though I’m sure I could find the beach in La Rochelle thanks to secondary school’s legendary Tricolor text books (all coming with standard dick and balls drawn on everyone’s foreheads), let alone retelling an epic, dark tale, a feat Hector has managed with some success. There is a pleasing Olde poetic feel to lyric, reminiscent of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “There’s nothing more embarrassing than to write something poetic in a foreign language that sounds cheesy!” he laughs modestly. “My problem is not being a native speaker, so I never know if my lyrics are cheesy or if they are appropriate. I’ll take some expressions from the book to get the right vibe of it, and when I’m finished I send them to a native speaker to look over them.
“There were some changes, some weird expressions that were German, but normally I try to capture the vibe of the book, and the story of the book but also try to get something into it that are emotions I have in mind, or something that happened to me and was important to me, but in a way that it still fits the book so you don’t read something into it that isn’t there.”
Ahab. Photo courtesy of Napalm Records.
If the concept is impressive, it’s swamped (pun intended) by the remorseless churning atmospheric riffs and doomy passages that show why Ahab are held as genre-leaders; at one point during ‘The Weedmen’ the song feels like it’s physically restraining an ancient giant moss-beast that wants to escape! “The Weedmen was actually a pain in the ass in the studio!” chuckles Hector, ruefully.
“Because Cornelius (Althammer – drums) and Stephen (Wandernoth – bass) played live together when we recorded, and they were so fucking laid back, and they play behind the click, you have to concentrate on what they’re doing, and this click is in your ear and you’re thinking “Ah, now they are coming!” and “Ah, I’m too late!”
“So this song is a pain in the ass to play that slow, cos if you miss a millisecond, you hear it in doom!”
Taking everything into consideration, with it’s atmospheric, doom metal combining seamlessly with a progressive lilt, is this the defining Ahab album?
“To some extent, yes. The Giant was, we feel a little over-produced, so we tried to have a bit more of an authentic harsh sound, mixed with warmer clean sounds. Some of the songs, too, have things that are new to us; it’s not prog rock, but there’s plenty of progressive music in there and ‘Red Foam’ is, for us, something different; a really fast song.
“The Giant shouldn’t sound like The Divinity of Ocea\yhhhns (both Napalm) and The Boats of Glen Carrig shouldn’t sound like The Giant, because they’re different books, a different feeling”, confirms the guitarist. “If you create these things, you should at least sound in your small universe a bit different. It’s not scientific, more like using what you’ve got in your feelings and the feelings from the book and trying to capture that.”
Adding to the development of the Ahab sound and the Glen Carrig atmosphere is a stand-out performance from vocalist Daniel Droste, whose turn is really impressive; varying sweet cleans, scary growls, atmospheric gravels, and some almost Norwegian, …In The Woods styled alternative cleans…
“We didn’t hear any of the vocals before recording, because like on The Giant Daniel did everything in the studio, so when it was finished we were really impressed. Now, he sounds quite different to the last albums, there’s a bit more 80’s in the clean vocals, and his shouting stuff is more like Gorefest style, which is great. I’m a bit of a vocal fetishist. If the vocals don’t work, I don’t like the whole album. He has a special voice for it. He really did something really good.
“This album probably sums up our whole career and these songs actually sound like they are the bridge between our first album and The Giant.”
The Boats of Glen Carrig is released via Napalm Records on August 28. You can pre-order it here
Ahab in Europe 2015
Oct 29: Elfer Club – Frankfurt (DE)
Oct 31: Bambi Galore – Hamburg (DE)
Nov 6: Club Cann – Stuttgart (DE)
Nov 11: Schwimmbad Club- Heldelberg (DE)
Dec 12: Eindhoven Metal Meeting- Eindhoven (NL)
STEVE TOVEY
“Uncanny Valley” is a phrase originally coined in the field of aesthetics to describe the feeling of revulsion caused by things which look and move almost but not exactly like natural beings, but has since been used to describe anything which familiar but different enough to be unsettling, creepy and… well… uncanny. The easiest way to describe Lychgate’s second album would be a combination of Symphonic Black Metal and Funeral Doom, but though that’s technically true fans of those two genres are likely to be a little creeped out by Lychgate’s approach to both.
One of the most audible ways in which Lychgate stand out is their use of keys, especially the near-omnipresent Church Organ. Nothing new itself, of course, but rather than simply garnishing riffs or creating “atmospheric” space-filler, Lychgate frequently use their organ (tee hee) as a lead instrument, creating a genuinely unsettling sense of otherness in those used to more conventional Metal songwriting. The production lends further weight to this impression, the guitars taking on a cold, clipped feeling that times calls to mind old Castlevania soundtracks.
Both of these things would be irrelevant, of course, without the song-writing to back them up, and Lychgate continue to buck both Black Metal and Doom orthodoxy with broken, nightmarish compositions that draw as much from Prog and psychedelia as from any Metal sub-genre. Greg Chandler (also of Esoteric) uses his distinctively damaged-sounding vocals to lend further emotional weight to an alternately bombastic and ghostly selection of songs.
This is Black Metal for people who like the idea of Black Metal more than the reality. Doom for people who want to go beyond stolen Sabbath riffs and feedback. Prog Metal for people who wish the term didn’t have anything to do with Opeth. Simultaneously familiar and genuinely unusual, An Antidote For The Glass Pill (Blood Music) is likely to be one of the most interesting and distinctive releases in three over-saturated genres this year.
8.0/10
RICHIE HR
With the Australian underground scene arguably one of the best in the world at the moment, US big-hitter Relapse Records has struck gold with the signing of Brisbane, Queensland quartet Hope Drone, for début album Cloak of Ash. Eschewing the morbid bleakness of fellow countrymen Woods of Desolation, Hope Drone have embraced the quintessentially American sound of post-black metal, with furious riffs, mournful soundscapes and tortured vocals the order of the day. The cover art is fantastic and worthy of mention; an arresting image of cloud and wave merged into an enveloping maelström that threatens to consume all and sundry. It’s the perfect metaphor for the band’s sound.
Starting any record, let alone your début off with a twenty-minute track is a seriously brave move, yet Hope Drone appears to be utterly unfazed. ‘Unending Grey’ begins with a torrent of cascading riffs and anguished howls before the pace stems and the listener is guided through a devastatingly beautiful section of sombre guitar notes and stark percussion. However the respite is short-lived, for when the pace picks up again, it’s utterly ferocious, with the band reaching speeds that the likes of Deafheaven can only dream of. That they do it while maintaining the same feeling of alien bleakness through the entire twenty minutes is nothing short of amazing.
After the devastating fury of pretty much a full EP’s worth of material as a mere opening track; the ten minute follow-up ‘Riverbeds Hewn in Marrow’ almost feels trite by comparison. However any doubts are soon washed away by the soaring guitar-lines and restless, pummeling percussion. This is continued with the billowing darkness that opens ‘The World Inherited’ but the rug is once again pulled from under our feet as the track decays into a tortuous crawl through near-funeral doom territory where release is an abstract hope.
The influence of noisy US black metallers Ash Borer and sadly missed Irish trailblazers Altar of Plagues is keenly felt throughout Cloak of Ash with Hope Drone devoting equal time to the crushing slow section as well as teeth-rattling speed. However, rip-off merchants they aren’t, for there is none of the tree-hugging, ritualistic elements of the former influence and little of the urban, ambient coldness of the latter. Instead, Hope Drone appears to have cultivated a vaguely nautical feel with song titles such as ‘The Waves Forever Shatter Upon Our Shores’ and ‘Carried Apart By the Ceaseless Tides.’ Indeed the overriding feeling is being swept up and torn asunder in the teeth of the almighty ocean; bereft of hope and powerless to withstand the awesome power of nature.
While they need to be careful to avoid falling into the trap of fast bit/slow bit/fast bit, and let’s be honest; seventy-seven minutes is way too long for any album, Hope Drone have done pretty much everything right on their first effort and even in a scene full to bursting, prove that it just takes a bit of imagination and ambition to stand out from the pack. Fantastic effort.
8.0/10
JAMES CONWAY