The Drone Metal Thread

Following up my Top 10 with my first review.

Black Boned Angel - Verdun (2009)

Campbell Kneale is a pivotal figure in the New Zealand drone/noise scene and has released numerous albums under the Birchville Cat Motel and Our Love Will Destroy the World monickers. Black Boned Angel is his drone metal trio. Verdun is the bands fourth full length album that takes on providing a soundtrack the longest and most devastating battle in World War 1.

Verdun is a single 50+ minute song split into 3 distinct parts (the 3 parts are available on the CD and digital release, the vinyl version contained the first and the third movement). Part 1 (Prayer Sodden Holes) has a sombre, ominous sound with repetitive riffs and drums underlayered with feedback that leads into a brief respite during the mellow(er) part 2 (Tears Strike the Mile High Gong) before the terrifying climax of looped choirs and a cacophony of noise, feedback and the sound of war of part 3 (Creeping Barrage). It’s the sound of desolation, hopelessness, anticipation, terror and fear.

Black Boned Angel are no more. In an interview on the inarguable, Kneale stated that “The grand-scale, crushing, sadness that is plastered all over those records was actually real for me and I can't live that way anymore.” And you can hear it all on Verdun – my favourite drone metal album.

I only did my Top 10 a few days ago, but after repeated listens of wolvserpent's 2013 album, I think this may be even better than the one I included on my list. 

Wolvserpent - Perigaea Antahkarana (2013)

Way back in 2007 or so (damn, that’s nearly 20 years ago), I was lurking on a doom metal forum associated with Southern Lord mainly for discussions and announcements for new albums. There were a number of musicians on the site who discussed their new projects. One such person was Blake Green who announced his first release as a duo with Brittany McConnel under the name of Pussygutt – a doom-laden drone metal band. In 2010, the multi-instrumentalist duo changed their name to Wolvserpent, Perigaea Antahkarana is their second full-length album.

Bookended with nature recordings of wind, a fire crackling and cawing crows, this is no one-paced drone metal release. Yes, we have big repetitive droning guitar riffs, pounding drums and droning violin and synth layers. But we also have: massive doom/stoner riffs, post-rock style ethereal violin build ups akin to Godspeed You! Black Emperor leading into an atmospheric back metal sound; guttural funeral doom style vocals from Blake and ethereal dark folk style chanting from Brittany. Layers of sound that provide a truly immersive experience. I’m no musician, but I would imagine pulling together diverse influences into a truly cohesive work is no easy task, but the duo do this seamlessly.

I see lots of reviews describing the sound as dark and its association with winter, but to me this is both lush and bleak, light and dark, and this was the perfect album for this glorious summers day.

A drone metal album? I guess, but this contains a whole lot more. Wonderful

4.5/5

I have been on an exploration of The Fallen clan releases from 2010 and sound found myslef back with Wolvserpent also:

Wolvserpent - "Blood Seed" (2010)

In terms of my exploration of The Fallen clan, one sub-genre that is noted as “not for me” is drone metal. Unable to fathom the appeal of Sunn O))), Earth or Khanate despite numerous attempts, I soon got to the opinion that this was never an area of music that I was going to gel with. Then I remembered Wolvserpent. I recalled how I had become lost in the ethereal beauty of their Perigaea Antahkarana and Aporia:Kala:Ananta releases from over a decade ago. How the haunting strings of violins played by a seemingly melancholy soaked set of troubled spirits had soothed my frantic thoughts before a crashing riff came in to wipe away any lingering fears in my soul.

As soon as I put Blood Seed on recently, I quickly found myself in the exact same space. This is the debut from the now defunct duo, from back in 2010 when the pair had been around for five years prior as Pussygutt. Brittany McConnell handled the drums as well as that tormented violin sound and Blake Green covered guitar and vocals. Not that vocals play a big part in the debut (or indeed any other release from Wolvserpent), the band have always been about the music, and this was set out very clearly on their first release. Side A is a single track, ‘Wolv’ and the ‘Serpent’ track makes up side B. I can imagine a wolf or two padding around some dark forests, hunting for prey, searching for signs of life to take from unsuspecting animals to the first track. The choral style howls and guttural gurns perhaps imitating the language between the menacing pack of predators (or maybe the screams of the victims?). At over twenty-two-minutes long, this track requires attention to fully embrace the magic of it, yet I find this a very easy ask to comply with.

‘Serpent’ lands a little shorter in duration at the eighteen-minute mark. Straight out the blocks, I can envisage a coiled snake, slowly unfurling itself to the nightmarish atmospheres that open the track. Brittany’s violin is accompanied by some distant howls (the ‘Wolv’ I suspect) courtesy of the guitar of Blake and a tense atmosphere permeates between the instrumentation. You may have noticed by now dear reader, that for someone who opened this review by remarking how little they like drone metal, I have managed to wax lyrical about a drone metal release for over two paragraphs thus far. In my defence, I think Wolvserpent are a different offering to any of the other bands that I mentioned above. They have more obvious “sections” to their tracks, incorporating varied elements of sludge (around the six-minute mark of track 2), doom, dark folk, chamber music as well as drone also of course.

Although repetition is still a mainstay here, there is enough going on at any given time to keep me focused entirely on Blood Seed, which is the similar experience that I have of their other releases I am familiar with. In short, all of drone may well not be a write off for me after all.

4/5