REVIEW DRAFT - The Fallen

I am already well acquainted with both Death the Leveller and Colosseum, so I will take the Alastis album, Ben. Over to you.

I'll take the Colosseum album, as I've not heard that one.

Alastis - Revenge (1998)

Alastis are not a name that has crossed my path before and they don't seem like a band who have made much of an impact on the metal world with no ratings here at Metal Academy for any of their albums and 120 the most for any of them on RYM. They formed in 1987 as Fourth Reich, but changed their name to Alastis in 1989, originally playing black metal and releasing five full-lengths before splitting in 2004. Revenge is the fourth of these albums and was released in 1998. The album is tagged as black, gothic and doom metal, but I hear very little doom metal here and the black metal is pretty much restricted to War D.'s rasping vocal delivery. Metal Archives has it tagged as extreme gothic metal and I would go along with that as a better descriptor.

Apart from the harsh vocals which are a change from most of the gothic metal I have heard previously, this is a fairly unremarkable album. It isn't terrible by any means and I have listened to it three times without any great hardship, but it just sounds like a fairly middle-of-the-road rehash of Paradise Lost style gothic metal with medium paced riffs and overlaid keyboards but without Nick Holmes' charismatic singing. The performances seem fine and all the songwriting elements are in the right place, but the whole is lacking any kind of spark and comes across as being purely functional. Once it has gone from my speakers it has also gone from my mind. I often see the "kids" describing stuff as "mid" on the RYM boards and I have never really got what they mean before - but now I think I do. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on this at all, but I can't think of any reason to go back to it when there are so many other things to listen to.

I'll have to give it a very ordinary 3/5.

Colosseum - Chapter 3: Parasomnia (2011)

Funeral doom metal is not for everyone. I can fully appreciate that some metal fans would find it boring and monotonous. It's actually difficult to describe why I love it so much, but ever since I first heard Esoteric, Skepticism and Shape of Despair back in 2001, I've found it to be the metal subgenre that I connect with the most consistently. That said, even I have to give many funeral doom albums a few listens before they wrap their tendrils around me and drag me into their heavenly depths. Colosseum's third and final release, Chapter 3: Parasomnia, is a prime example of an album that needs to sit for a while before it can be fully appreciated. What first seems to be an overly long and simplistic album has many subtleties that only work their magic with time, at which point you find yourself wondering why you didn't appreciate them the first time. In particular, the band utilises synths and strings in a very unobtrusive way and it's possibly more effective for it, as the doomy metal aspects remain front and centre throughout. Anyone that enjoys the beautifully crushing sound of fellow Finnish doomsters Shape of Despair will no doubt find euphoric pockets here, but Colosseum don't quite reach the emotional heights of their countrymen. As much as I hate to say it, given he committed suicide prior to the album's release, I do feel that frontman Juhani Palomäki's deep vocals are not quite as strong as I'd like them to be. Even still, this is pretty close to a 4.5 star album for me. It may even get there with a few more spins.

4 stars

Time for another Review Draft for The Fallen. This month's pick order will be as follows...

1. Ben

2. Sonny

The four albums to select from are... (drumroll)...

Since I have first pick this month, I'm going to go with the Ufomammut album. It's a great opportunity for me to finally give this band a proper go. I note it's their highest ratest release too, which bodes well.

Over to you Sonny...

Good choice Ben, I love that album. I will take the Black Oath album.

Ufomammut - Idolum (2008)

In recent years I've come to realise that my metal tastes are actually much broader than I thought. I've always been fairly clear cut when it comes to my likes and dislikes. I like death metal, but I don't like grindcore. I like doom metal, but I don't like stoner metal. etc. It's for this reason that I limit my searches when looking to discover new music to those genres / subgenres that sit in the like category, while disregarding the rest. I've always had sludge metal isolated into the dislikes column, but having challenged myself in the past couple of years to check out some of what the genre has to offer, I'm pretty sure I categorised as a dislike without really having any awareness of what it is. Last year's Mizmor & Thou collaboration along with Primitive's Insurmountable already had me questioning my loyalties, but if this Ufomammut album is a pure sludge metal, then sign me up to the sludge metal fan club. I'm all in!

With the exception of the drums, which have powerful clarity, the instrumentation and vocals on this release are fuzzy and sometimes distant. It's not always clear whether your hearing the bass or the guitars, as they often merge together into a wall of heavy haze. The male vocals feel like they're behind the music, or at least coming from within it, making them feel more like just another instrument than something deserving of your main focus. Even the female samples that pop up in the majority of tracks struggle to overcome the surrounding noise. Rather than being a negative though, these production choices add an immense amount of atmosphere, and make Idolum incredibly effective at what it does. There are some brilliant moments on this album. As an example, Nero's tribal drum patterns combined with psychedelic drenched doom riffs is downright amazing, but when there's a woman's voice coming through the mire, instructing me to look into her eyes and to come closer, I have little choice but to give into it / her. Stigma and Ammonia are other big highlights for me, and if it wasn't for the 27 minute closer Void / Elephantom, which isn't terrible but definitely tests my patience with it's lengthy droning centre, I'd definitely be giving this 4.5 stars.

4 stars

I agree with that assessment Ben. It's a 4/5 record for mine.

Black Oath - Behold the Abyss (2018)

I had actually forgotten that I do have some previous history with Black Oath, having checked out their debut when it came out, back in 2011, and awarding it 4 out of 5 stars, so I must have found it to be pretty decent. The fact I couldn't remember it didn't bode well going into this review of their fourth album, Behold the Abyss, but I did my due diligence and revisited it with a real positive result as it is indeed a cracking slab of trad doom that any fan of said genre should dig. The years intevening between the debut and Behold the Abyss have seen their sound become more epic and here it sits somewhere between the out-and-out doom of Pallbearer and Monolord and the epic doom of, say, Solstice and Krux, with the inclusion of faster-paced sections and an increased number of guitar solos. On fourth track, Once Death Sang, they even introduce clean female vocals, in the vein of Shape of Despair et al, as provided by guest Elizabetta M, to even greater increase the epic atmosphere.

The album sounds great, with a real clarity that suits this more epic sound, the riffs boom out of the speakers and the solos sear through the listeners ear 'oles, while both bass and drums are functional without being overly showy, yet are suitably positioned in the mix and are clearly audible. Vocalist and bassist/guitarist, E.A. Zorath, whilst no Messiah Marcolin or Morris Ingram, possesses a voice that suits the material quite well and thankfully never resorts to embarrasing histrionics. The songs are well constructed and, whilst playing it quite safe within the doom/epic doom template, they come up with some terrific riffs and nice melodies - in fact tracks like Chants of Aradia and Lilith Black Moon are fairly catchy affairs.

Look, this is no envelope pusher, but if you dig on solid and satisfying epic doom fare, then you will be well served by Behold the Abyss. Also, it has reminded me of the debut's existence, which I have now boosted another half star, and which I personally prefer, but don't take my word for it, try them both out and see!

4/5

Time for another Review Draft for The Fallen. This month's pick order will be as follows...

1. Sonny

2. Ben

The four albums to select from are... (drumroll)...

Sonny gets first pick...

I will take the Kowloon Walled City album, Ben.

I'll try my luck with Steak Number Eight, despite the stupid name.

Not fancy Phyllomedusa after spending all that time adding them, Ben?

Kowloon Walled City - Gambling on the Richter Scale (2009)

This is an interesting slab of sludge metal that the review draft has thrown up this month. Gambling on the Richter Scale is pretty damn heavy and has a bottom end that, if played too loudly, may leave you homeless if your house isn't up to code. What it isn't though, is an indistinguishable morass of distortion-laden fuzz. Sure, it utilises distortion to great effect, but the recording is so clear that all the ingredients are sharply defined. The rhythm section of bassist Ian Miller and drummer Jeff Fagundes particularly benefit from this aspect of the production. The bass shines through and even dominates proceedings at times, providing a super-solid foundation for the guitar riffs to be built on. The drumwork is brilliant, being perfectly positioned in the mix and with plenty of interesting fills, Fagundes especially shining on Bone Loss where the more complex drumming patterns contrast really effectively with the quite basic riffing. The guitar work is essentially quite straitforward, but the riffs are as thick as you would hope for and being bolstered by the bass, they are ridiculously heavy. There isn't a huge amount of lead work, but what there is is handled well and layered over the heaviness of the riffing it hits like razorblades set in concrete.

Guitarist Scott Evans also handles vocal duties and has a decent hardcore punk bawl that sounds more derived from the NYHC scene than San Francisco. Lyrically this is as bleak and unflinching as anything by Eyehategod or other sludge legends - Diabetic Feet for example speaks of living with amputation due to ignorance of the effects of treatable disease and several other tracks deal with the erosion of self due and daily grind caused by poverty and endless back-breaking and soul-destroying labour. There is no hope or redemption to be found anywhere within Kowloon Walled City's lyrics as they are desperately try to force you to blink or look away.

In summation, this is actually a bit of a hidden gem of the sludge world and deserves more recognition than it has so far received. KWC have released an additional three albums to date and I am looking forward to checking them out - another win for the review draft!

(A very strong) 4/5

Hi Ben, can you consider me for inclusion on this next month please?

Hi Ben, can you consider me for inclusion on this next month please?

Definitely!

Steak Number Eight - The Hutch (2013)

I can't say I was too excited about picking this release in the March Review Draft for The Fallen, but I think that had more to do with the band's silly name than it being an atmospheric sludge metal album. I shouldn't have judged a book by it's cover, as I've ended up finding quite a lot to enjoy on the band's third full length. It's certainly on the lighter side of the subgenre, with many sections sitting just as comfortably in alternative metal territory than anything close to sludge, but it does contain enough heavy riffs to satisfy my personal preferences. I can't say I ever really get bored while listening to it, despite the 71 minute running time, and many of the tracks have strong identifying features and hooks that slide under your skin with ease. All this said, the album is certainly not without flaws. There's a simplicity in the vocals that often seems at odds with the neatly structured music, and while vocalist Brent Vanneste has a pleasant (mostly clean) style, he rarely moves beyond safe, unimaginative pastures. Still, I like The Hutch enough to be interested in checking out more form the band, who thankfully go by the more palatable name Stake these days. I'll give it a mildly generous 3.5 stars for keeping my interest for several listens. If you're interested in checking out what this is all about, the three track run of Photonic, Push/Pull and Pilgrimage of a Black Heart is, in my opinion, the strongest part of the album.

3.5 stars

Time for another Review Draft for The Fallen. This month's pick order will be as follows...

1. Ben

2. Sonny

3. Vinny

The six releases to select from are... (drumroll)...

I get first pick this month. Hmmm... I'd be happy with most of these releases. I've always wanted to spend some time in The Howling Void, so that's my pick.

Over to you Sonny...

That album’s fucking awesome just quietly Ben.

I am familiar with most of these and even own a couple, so I'll go with the one from the band I have never listened to and take Fistula's The Process of Opting Out.

Over to you Vinny...

Thanks for adding me on this Ben.  I will take Thou "May Our Chambers Be Full".

Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full (2020)

The prolific release schedule of Thou is mesmerising. Not that I have tried to keep up mind, but they seem to spit out EPs and splits for fun. Odd then that I have never sat through an entire release before this one. With Emma Ruth Rundle, I have the advantage of being familiar with her 2018 album On Dark Horses which is from memory a very decent indie/alternative release – not that it gets much in the way of being revisited.

The combination of these two musical forces presents something of an untested concept to me, therefore. Although I am more familiar with Emma’s work I would hardly call myself a fan and despite having heard little of Thou I can sort of predict how they are going to say. Key in this album assessment though is not just how the individual artist contributions rate but more how they first work together. They are opposites in terms of vocal style for a start. Emma’s tuneful yet earthy vocals possessing an ethereal allure to them, with Bryan Funck’s stye being the more traditional deathly rasp that we would associate with sludge. There are times here where one of the vocalists are allowed to perform in isolation to great effect and other occasions were things work just as well when the two are layered one atop of the other. In either scenario I prefer Emma though. She just has more presence regardless of the backdrop she sings against.

No combination of heavy, distorted riffs can contain her voice from bleeding through to become the most memorable part of nearly every track. However, there is not any element of conflict between the instrumentation and the vocals, both work in complete tandem throughout. That is not to say that I always want them too though. There are times when I do find myself just wanting a little respite to be able to focus on one half of the contributions (clearly Emma) as although the album as a whole is perfectly acceptable a listen there is very little sense of completion to many of the ideas explored here. Again, this feels more like one part not giving the other enough room to breathe as opposed to any noticeable conflict.

Only the opening and closing tracks seem to draw breath long enough for the fruits of their exploits to be realised. As a one-off project, this release was never going to see the complete blending of Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou into an exceptional outfit. That withstanding, time could have been taken here to fuse the emotions of the component parts better to make things more final. As a result I listen to May Our Chambers Be Full with a virtual “draft” watermark across most tracks.

3.5/5

The Howling Void - Shadows Over the Cosmos (2010)

Daniel has recommended this album to me a couple of times in the past, but I ignored him, just like I tried to do when we were kids and he refused to get out of my room. I'm starting to wonder whether he did actually have something interesting to say all those times. It still seems unlikely, but on this occassion I have to begrudgingly admit that he's right. The Howling Void's second full length, Shadows Over the Cosmos, is 100% up my alley, and I'm hitting myself (which also happens to be something he used to make me do) that I didn't check it out earlier. This is Skepticism worship of the highest order, with slow pounding drums, a backdrop of atmospheric yet non-invasive keyboards, deep chasm-filling death vocals, and a combination of simplistic yet impactful heavy riffs and gorgeous melodies. If you like Funeral Doom Metal, and it's definitely not for everyone, then there's absolutely no reason that you won't find this to be a crushing and emotionally moving album. That said, it is an album that needs a couple of spins before you can really appreciate it, but that's really a given for music as sparse and lengthy as this (there are only four real tracks, but it still has a running time of just under an hour).

How this rates 3.47 on RYM while albums it clearly matches in quality and style are up over 3.70 is just beyond me. Sonny, don't be like me and ignore this release any longer (if indeed you haven't already checked it out). I think you'll dig this! The title track and closing monster Lord of the Black Gulf are my highlights.

4.5 stars