Morta Skuld – Wounds Deeper Than Time


 

The name Morta Skuld may ring familiar to the seasoned extreme metal fan. You know the type. The nameless ghouls on the edge of the pit armed with their grimy battle jackets and salty disposition at Summer Slaughter every year. For the denim-less, know that Morta Skuld were one of the dozens of death metal bands lost in the mid-90s shuffle, but reanimated in 2012. Oh, and Wounds Deeper Than Time (Peaceville) is their first proper LP since 1997.Continue reading


Katatonia Books Spring Tour Of The UK


Long-running progressive doom band Katatonia had a banner year in 2016, celebrating their 25thanniversaryy and releaseing their latest album The Fall Of Hearts (Peaceville). They have now booked a spring tour coming up in May, with direct support coming from Caspian, and Uncured.Continue reading


Novembre – Ursa


Novembre - URSA album cover ghost cultmag

After an absence of nine years, Italian Doom/Death Gothsters Novembre return to active duty with new album URSA’(Peaceville). With drummer and co-founder Giuseppe Orlando deciding not to pursue his interest in the band any further, his brother Carmelo Orlando has stepped up to lead the way along with long-time member, guitarist Massimiliano Pagliuso, the line-up being completed by bassist Fabio Fraschini and drummer David Folchitto.

There’s a tendency with newly re-activated bands to play things nice and safe, returning straight away to a secure and comfortable place before moving onto newer things. And this, to all intents and purposes, is where we find Novembre in 2016.

Of course, returning to a safe space isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As a band, you want to reconnect with your fans as quickly as possible, and giving them something which feels new and shiny, but also comfortably familiar, is a perfectly reasonable way of doing this. Let’s face it. It’s a gamble either way. Some people would be more than content for an act to anchor themselves once more by revisiting past successes, while others could interpret the absence of forward momentum as a nervous band requiring a safety net, or just see it as a wasted opportunity.

As a result, ‘URSA’ could possibly fall into both camps, pleasing just as many people as it disappoints. The band head back to 2006’s ‘Materia’ (Peaceville) and 2007’s ‘The Blue’ (Peaceville) for inspiration, and as a result, the new record seems like a composite piece of those recordings, and could quite easily have been released between them.

‘URSA’s main problem is that, for all of the effort involved (and I must say, it is a good album with very good performances), everything seems a little too samey and repetitive. Also, Orlando’s clean vocals are quite nasal, and have a tendency to be delivered almost lazily, his enunciation often poor and listless. His harsh, more traditional Death Metal vocals are fairly impressive, but never really bite, his guttural growl appearing to be used more as an extra supporting instrument rather than a clear focal point.

Although downbeat and melancholic for the most part, there are moments of brightness among the bleak, grey clouds. Whether it’s by means of a chorus, a guitar solo, a bassline or drum pattern, each song possesses its own particular highlight. All too often though, they don’t last for more than a couple of minutes and you’re left with songs which sound great for a short space of time but tend to drag more often than they should.

This isn’t always the case though, and ‘Annoluce’, with its special guest appearance from Katatonia guitarist Anders Nyström, and the almost entirely instrumental ‘Agathae’ are superb. In fact, the songs which bookend those, ‘Oceans of Afternoons’ and ‘Bremen’ make up the best section of the album by far. A sense of pace and urgency is injected, and dare I say it, the rare upbeat moment which actually makes you smile. Elsewhere ‘Australis’ is a nice opener, and ‘Easter’ sounds like Ghost and Paradise Lost had a baby.

To be honest, there aren’t actually any bad songs on ‘URSA’ (the album taking its acronymous title from ‘Union des Républiques Socialistes Animales’, the original French translation for George Orwell‘s ‘Animal Farm‘). Everything is played exceptionally well, and the production is thick and rich, the bass guitar benefiting the most as it pulses through each track with a vibrancy the rest of the instruments don’t quite match over the long haul. It’s just that although the album has a handful of really good moments, none of them are that extra special flash of brilliance required to make the album truly stand out. After a while it feels like, although the songs are enjoyable enough, that they’re bleeding anonymously into each other, leaving you wondering if you haven’t actually heard it all before.

7.0/10

GARY ALCOCK

 


Guest Post: José Carlos Santos Top Ten Albums Of 2015


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As we dash towards the holidays and the end of the year Ghost Cult is feeling good about this season of giving. So we are giving our fans a chance to get to know our partners, peers, and friends  from bands in the world of music. They will chime in with some guest blogs, end of year lists, and whatever else is on their minds as we pull the plug on 2015. Today we have José Carlos Santos, who writes a lot about music, being Senior Writer for both Terrorizer and Rock-a-Rolla UK, Chief of staff for LOUD! from Portugal, shared with us his favorite 10 albums of 2015.

 

1. Solefald – World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud (Indie Recordings)

Solefald - World Metal. Kosmopolis Sud album cover 2015

 

Pushing the envelope isn’t the half of it. The first song on this truly revolutionary record is called ‘World Music With Black Edges’, and that’s exactly what it is. It should be just about all the guideline you’ll need before embarking on this journey. Black metal, electronics, Frank Zappa and African sounds, among many, many other things, are thrown into a free-flowing, astoundingly cohesive whole. In an age where having two songs that don’t sound like each other is already considered “genre-hopping”, Solefald are one of the few bands worthy of the term avant-garde.

2. Royal ThunderCrooked Doors (Relapse)

The best pure, true rock album in years, Crooked Doors sees Royal Thunder fulfill the potential they have always shown, and move up to the pantheon of the greats. It feels and sounds timeless – if you hand it to someone and say that it’s a lost 1978 classic, it’ll make the same sense as if you’ll tell them it’s 2024’s album of the year you just brought back from the future in your time machine. A great song is a great song, and they’re all great here.

 

3. My Dying BrideFeel The Misery (Peaceville)

My Dying Bride Verftet 220214-8613

My Dying Bride, by Kenneth Sporsheim

My Dying Bride are back to the masterpieces – 14 years after their last truly great record, The Dreadful Hours, Feel The Misery recaptures the tragic sorrow and the decadent grandeur we’ve always loved from them.

4. RevengeBehold.Total.Rejection (Season Of Mist)

Revenge Behold.Total.Rejection album cover

Because fuck you.

5. DødheimsgardA Umbra Omega (Peaceville)

dodheimsgard-a-umbra-omega

The other band alongside Solefald that warrants the proper use of the avant-garde tag, Dødheimsgard have given us a mysterious, shape shifting record, full of dark nuances and details that we’ll still be discovering come the time for the 2016 lists. The best thing Vicotnik’s done since ‘Written In Waters’ – and yes, I’m including ‘666 International’ in that appraisal.

 

6. Tau CrossTau Cross (Relapse)

Tau Cross 2015 band

Amebix are no more, long live Tau Cross. Not only is this the logical successor to the astounding ‘Sonic Mass’, it’s also enriched by the extra talents of Voivod’s Michel “Away” Langevin and crusty guitarists Jon Misery and Andy Lefton, all of them lead to greatness by the might of Rob Miller, who is still one of the most unique songwriters in extreme music.

 

7. Sigh – Graveward (Candlelight)

sigh

Sometimes you’ll have to pause halfway through ‘Graveward’ and wonder how is this possible – roughly five million tracks are all going in a different direction, all at once, and yet everything makes perfect sense, there is order and flow in the middle of the craziness and chaos. Alongside Solefald and Dødheimsgard, you’ve got enough insanity this year to wreck your brain for years to come.

 

8. Therapy?Disquiet (Amazing Record Company)

Therapy_band

Most of you might only know Therapy?’s most popular phase, but the true essence of the band has been in their last four or five fiery, adventurous and energetic records. ‘Disquiet’ is the best of them all, a mix between instant punk-ish gratification and deep, deceptively simple songwriting that’ll allow for multiple repeat plays without a hint of exhaustion. Also, closer ‘Deathstimate’ is a serious contender for song of the year, or decade, or whatever.

9. Goatsnake – Black Age Blues (Southern Lord)

goatsnake

It’s been a 15 year wait, but for each year of absence there’s a kickass bluesy riff that’ll stay in your head forever. Goatsnake just picked up where they left off, literally – the first song is called ‘Another River To Cross’, a nod to ‘Flower Of Disease’s closer ‘The River’.

10. Steve Von Till – A Life Unto Itself (Neurot)

steve von till a life unto itself

Rarely has such a subtle and generally quiet record packed such a thunderous emotional punch – the Neurosis guitarist/vocalist might present himself in the sparser, most minimalist fashion, just one man lost in the woods with an acoustic guitar, some effects and his coarse, haunting voice, but these songs will reach down into your heart and squeeze it with the force of a thousand men.


Autopsy – Skull Grinder


Autopsy_Skull-Grinder

One of the simplest yet strongest arguments against modern bands playing “Old School” Death Metal is that they’re not Autopsy. With one of the most seminal bands of that style putting out at least one high quality release every year since 2010’s The Tomb Within (Peaceville), it’s perfectly reasonable to ask whether we really need imitators, even highly skilled ones.

Reviewing an Autopsy release almost seems pointless (but I’m going to do it anyway, so shut up) – by this point their style has become so clearly defined that I need to say little more than the band name. The tracks on this EP perhaps tend towards the groovier, slower end of their range more regularly, but overall there are no surprises here – and fortunately, that applies to the quality too. Their reunion still shows absolutely no signs of slacking or running dry.

It has, of course, been a very long time now since Autopsy could be considered the most brutal, or the most “extreme” (that shifting, nebulous quality that means so much less than both journalists and politicians think it does) of Death Metal bands, but they still somehow manage to sound the most… sick. There’s something genuinely diseased in Autopsy’s sound, a creeping unpleasantness that goes far beyond who tunes down the most or whose drummer is the fastest. A big part of this, of course, is Chris Reifert – both his lolloping, ugly drums and genuinely tormented vocals sound genuinely nasty – but it’s the song-writing too. Autopsy have always put Death Metal’s eternal war between Brutal and Melodic to shame by reminding us that real old school DM always had both, and it’s the twisted, cloying melodies here that make Skull Grinder (Peaceville) sound so genuinely distasteful.

It’s an Autopsy EP. Seriously, what else can I say?

 

7.0/10

 

RICHIE HR

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Mayhem – Live In Leipzig


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What makes a “classic”? In the case of Mayhem’s Live In Leipzig (Peaceville) it’s primarily down to what it represents – not only the closest thing to a full album by the classic line-up of Mayhem (itself awarded the c-word at least in part for the fact that two of them were dead by violence within three years), but an important document in the development of both a scene and a genre. It’s impossible to look into the early days of “second wave BM” without running into a reference to Live In Leipzig, and it still regularly appears in lists of the most important releases in the genre. References to it tend to spend longer talking about its classic status, the “atmosphere” or the events of the scene it helped give birth to than the music itself, which can cause alarm bells to ring.

Setting everything else aside for the moment, then, the first thing to say about the music is that it’s RAW. Not just the sound – which is better than you may be expecting, especially in its’ remastered form – but the song-writing and playing too. People already familiar with the band after Dead’s… er… death may be surprised – the mystical, sinister atmosphere of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Deathlike Silence) is thin on the ground, and the experimentalism that the band embraced in their later years is entirely absent. Early tracks like ‘Necrolust’ and ‘Carnage’ push their Thrash and Venom influences to the front, and even DMDS tracks are more savage and direct than their studio incarnations.

Traditional wisdom has Dead being the quintessential Mayhem vocalist, but his style is much more straightforward and orthodox than that of Maniac or Attila – fans of the latter in particular may be disappointed with lines like “in the middle of Transylvania” delivered in a straight rasp rather than Atilla’s vampire drag-queen tenor. The quality he’s so treasured for, of course, is authenticity –  it’s hard to deny the genuine rage and alienation of a man who shot himself in the head five months after this performance – but the extent to which it really informs the music is a matter of personal interpretation. It’s precisely that “realness” and lack of irony that can transform Live In Leipzig into something more than the sum of its sloppy parts, but it’s hard to pin down objectively – one person’s “sloppy” is another’s “dangerous”.

As a document of the genre’s early days, Live In Liepzig is as important as you’ve heard, and the bonuses in this package (a booklet full of scene memorabilia and a second disc of another performance with most of the same tracks and a rawer sound) makes it even more so. As a piece of music it’s both undeniably flawed and often genuinely captivating – and in many ways it’s the flaws that makes it so engaging. Still an essential history lesson for those interested in early 90’s Scandinavian BM, but not always an easy one to swallow, and some fans will find themselves blasphemously glad that Black Metal has been so thoroughly house-trained.

 

7.0/10

 

RICHIE HR

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Pentagram – Electric Citizen – Satan’s Satyrs: Live at The Met


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If you are into doom and 70s style stoner rock then The Met in Pawtucket Rhode Island was the place to be on Thursday, October 1st where the American masters of the sound, Pentagram, came through on their recent tour in support of their new album, Curious Volume (Peaceville).

Electric Citizen, photo by Hillarie Jason

Electric Citizen, photo by Hillarie Jason

Although Pentagram is the only band on the tour that was actually active in the heyday of doom, both bands on the tour package, Electric Citizen and Satan’s Satyrs, showed that they understood the aesthetic and vibe of the now classic sound. The only outlier was the local opener, Extinction Machine. Although their set started out slow, within minutes they got into a groove with their angry punk attitude and had me entirely captivated.

Satan's Satyrs

Satan’s Satyrs, photo by Hillarie Jason

Pentagram played a varied set consisting of six songs from the new album, some of which had never been played live before (not that you could tell), along with the classics that everyone wants to hear. Their set was exactly as you would expect. Hard hitting, mesmerizing, weirdly sexual and totally perfect. No matter where or how often I have seen them, they never seem to disappoint. Check out the tour dates and go to a show.

Pentagram

Pentagram, photo by Hillarie Jason

Pentagram, photo by Hillarie Jason

Pentagram, photo by Hillarie Jason

 

Pentagram, photo by Hillarie Jason

Pentagram, photo by Hillarie Jason

 

Pentagram, photo by Hillarie Jason

Pentagram, photo by Hillarie Jason

 

Pentagram, photo by Hillarie Jason

Pentagram, photo by Hillarie Jason

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WORDS AND PHOTOS BY HILLARIE JASON


My Dying Bride – Feel the Misery


My Dying Bride - Feel The Misery

When the history of doom metal is written, English miserabilists My Dying Bride will have their own chapter; preferably written in gothic script by a quill. As part of the ‘Peaceville Three’, along with Paradise Lost and Anathema, they helped redefine doom by blending it with the aggression of death metal and in the process created timeless classics such as Turn Loose the Swans and The Angel and the Dark River, the latter of which earned them a support slot with none other than Iron Maiden.

While their contemporaries have strayed from the path and ventured into electronic and prog territories, the Bride have steadfastly remained committed to northern darkness, with each release brimming with misery, despair and loss. Twelfth full length Feel the Misery (all Peaceville) is no exception, and while a cynic may claim that such a title indicates the band are falling into self-parody, only a fool would doubt the sheer mastery of the songs contained within.

After years spent dealing with an inconsistent line-up with drummers here one minute and gone the next, things looked even bleaker last year with the departure of long-term guitarist Hamish Glencross. However a replacement was soon found with original guitarist Calvin Robertshaw returning to the fold, and his presence has been an undeniable shot in the arm.

Opening track ‘And My Father Left Forever’ is vintage Bride, featuring pacy riffing, ghostly keyboards and some typically morbid lyrics from vocalist and figurehead Aaron Stainthorpe. Written about the recent death of his father, it’s an absolutely gut-wrenching way to open an album, with Stainthorpe opening his heart about the grief he experienced. The heaviness is jacked up with the grimy chugging and guttural vocals of ‘To Shiver in Empty Halls’ with both Robertshaw and fellow axeman Andrew Craighan perfectly in sync with each other. The snail-paced second half with its stark atmosphere and spoken word spills into funeral doom territory before finishing with a macabre folk song that in any other band’s hands would sound absurd, but here is perfect.

‘A Cold New Curse’ flits between lurching riffing and sprawling melancholy with Stainthorpe sounding utterly furious and disgusted over the thunderous fretwork while the devastating riff of the title track would have stood proud amongst the finest material on the aforementioned The Angel and the Dark River, not least for the desperately sad violin-led chorus where Stainthorpe plaintively asks “Is there hope for me?”

While the guitars play a prominent part and sound as harrowing as ever, it’s on tracks such as the beautiful ‘A Thorn of Wisdom’ where a basic piano motif, choral ambience and a snaking bassline from the understated yet competent Lena Abe take the listener on a emotional journey. This mellower avenue is further explored on the heartbreaking ‘I Almost Loved You’, where the overwhelming bleakness threatens to take over, recalling tracks such as the seminal ‘Sear Me MCMXCIII’ from Turn Loose the Swans.

The Bride’s brand of tar-thick chords and personal misery will always be an acquired taste and their straddling of the doom/death and gothic metal scenes have lead to them being rejected by purists. However, while their dismissal by the masses may appear a travesty at face value, their staunch authenticity and willingness to continue exploring the avenues of misery in uncompromising style is to be cherished. After twenty-five years in the game, their long march towards the sinister continues and Feel the Misery has to rank among their best works.

 

8.5/10

 

JAMES CONWAY


Primitive and Deadly – Host and Aldrahn of The Deathtrip


The-Deathtrip-band-2014

Since its controversial rise to prominence, in the early ‘90s black metal has continued to engage and challenge listeners’ preconceptions by mutating into challenging new forms. Acts like Arcturus, Borknagar and Dødheimsgard have pushed the limits of the genre by incorporating techno, opera and folk into the mix but while DHG’s Aldrahn provides the vocals on The Deathtrip’s visceral Deep Drone Master (Svart) that is where the similarity ends. Arising from the ranks of black metal legends Thorns, The Deathtrip is the brainchild of Host (A.K.A. Paul Groundwell of pioneering UK label Peaceville) who has sought to plough a more atavistic and primitive furrow.

Host explains how this elite meeting of minds, lead to one of the genre’s most invigorating debut records. “Kvohst (A.K.A. Mat McNerney, ex <code> Graven Pleasures, Hexvessel, Ex DHG) was going to do vocals for The Deathtrip, but he played some of the instrumental demo songs for Aldrahn, as they were in touch at the time. Aldrahn was really into them and ended up taking over the vocal duties instead. The Snorre [Ruch] connection came about because of Aldrahn’s involvement in Thorns. Aldrahn played Snorre some of the demo songs with his vocals and Snorre loved what he heard and has been a great supporter since. In regard to putting the band together it didn’t make a difference as they weren’t people I knew through Peaceville. The band grew simply from people hearing and liking those old raw demo tracks. It feels like only the music did the talking, and for that I am most grateful. The very origins of The Deathtrip though, go back to around 2003 when I made some songs just for myself to listen to, as I heard barely anything at the time which brought much magic to these ears compared to what came before.”

Founded on hypnotic, repetitive riffs and beats Deep Drone Master, may not be a throwback to the genre’s origin’s but Host maintains that keeping the sound primitive was key to recapturing some of that old magic. “Well I’m sure there was some Burzum and Darkthrone in the early days as far as creating and maintaining a ‘feeling’ goes.” Host agreed. “Some of it was also simply because when programming drum beats I didn’t want to take too much time on that, so I made a primitive pattern, looped it, and made the riffs over the top. As the tracks unfolded I just thought that maintaining that same pace and beat brought a good hypnotic element, so why mess it up for the sake of ‘creative diversity’? It’s about having time to digest the riff and fall into the monotony of the patterns.”

the-deathtrip-deep-drone-master-cd

To some Deep Drone Master may sound like a homage to the past but as Host explains the album contains some extremely uncomfortable personal moments:


“The song ‘A Foot In Each Hell’ came about because of somebody’s suicide, but the song isn’t concentrated on or about the act itself. It is more about the fabricated kingdoms we invent to fortify the self and the powers of human control and persuasion.”

Mostly they deal abouta sentimental relationship between myself and my own subconscious mind. As well as the subconsciousness of humanity.”

Vocalist Aldrahn clarified. It is the connection between myself and humanity as well as the disconnection. It would be easier to answer for each song, but still it’s emotions and thoughts on paper. Many of these thoughts and feelings are difficult to describe, as they belong to my own perception of time and space an dare thus very personal.”

“Making Me” for example, deals about the complete absence of love, the total isolation from all warmth in life and then becoming it, like wearing it as an entity. A lot of them deal about journeying through the darker aspects of the mind, facing up with all sorts of ugliness inside and then forcing through it until it’s done.”

This all-star Norse/English act also feature the drum work of sometime My Dying Bride and Thine sticksman Dan ‘Storm’ Mullins and bassist Jon T. Wesseltoft. Host clearly valued the input of friends who brought his vision to life! “Well it was great to have Jon involved as he was another person who was a big appreciator of the demo tracks from early on, which he heard from Snorre I think. Bass was non-intrusive, so was sitting underneath nicely, keeping the pulse. It was the same for the drums. The idea was to keep the beat simple and keep it running. No prog rhythms for us thanks! ha-ha!”

The icy minimalistic approach does well to convey a harrowing sense of isolation. Much speculation surrounds the question of if The Deathtrip will continue to function as a studio project or if live ceremonies are on the cards. “I see it as more of a band.” Host cautiously approached. “There will be much more music regardless. We have had some interesting offers but it depends on many things such as DHG’s schedule.”

 

The clandestine nature of its creation and the pleasantly unexpected re-appearance of DHG to the live circuit this year, it will come as a surprise that a second record from The Deathtrip may not be that far away. “Well I had made quite a lot of songs and they were going perhaps even more trance-like and simplistic, but since then, the new riffs I’ve been making have reverted back a little more towards what was being done on the earlier demo tracks, with a bit more ‘attack’. It’s certainly not just replicating the old style though. There is more depth and feeling to the formation of the riffs. Some songs will need to be re-arranged but there is easily an album’s worth of ideas to focus on.” Host exclaimed. “A new album for this year seems rather optimistic even though I’d originally hoped it might’ve been possible. Will just keep writing, and maybe start some of the recording later in the year, as it is a busy year for Aldrahn anyway.”

WORDS BY ROSS BAKER


Stream Peaceville Days Podcast With Dave Pybus (Cradle of Filth, Anathema)


peaceville dave pybus podcast

The new Peaceville podcast series features former Peaceville Records employee Dave Pybus, who was responsible for the layout and design of many classic titles, and later better known for his time in Anathema and Cradle of Filth. He discusses his days at the company at the start of the 1990s, and speaks with some of the bands and artists from those days. In this first episode of his ‘Peaceville Days’ podcast, Pybus talks with Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride about the early visions of the band, plus techniques of constructing artwork in the early 90s, along with some of the tribulations involved in the pre-Photoshop era. Also joining the trip down memory lane is a conversation with artist Dave McKean, himself responsible for some of the early iconic My Dying Bride artwork.

Stream the episode below:

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