Sonny's Forum Replies
Really enjoyed this and I am working on a review, but I just wanted to point out that after trying to order the CD on Bandcamp, for a completely reasonably £11, they then wanted to charge £172 postage for fucks sake!! What is up with that, don't they want to sell any bloody records or what? I have e-mailed the label, Dying Victims Productions in Germany to see what is going on, but that is just bloody ridiculous.
With all the modern variations of black metal it is easy to forget what made it so appealing in the first place. For me, these frosty, often quite simple, tremolo riffs with minimal bass influence, pummelling drums and blastbeats, croaky, cracked vocals intoning lyrics of fantastical occultism and thin and reedy, cheap-sounding synth overlays are a much-appreciated reminder of what it was about black metal that initially spoke to me. In truth, I think a lot of early black metal was actually far more accessible than it is given credit for. It wasn't always the home of the dissonant and avant-garde boundary-pushers it plays host to a lot of the time now and its roots in thrash, speed and particularly death metal were often quite apparent. Of course this is all relative and at the time it was more of a revolution than it appears in hindsight aided, no doubt, by a lot of the myths and legends that surrounded some of the prime movers. What I am getting at with this lengthy preamble is that listening to "Dawn of Martyrdom" for the first time, thirty years after its original release, has been a major positive experience for me, reigniting some of the fire that I felt when first getting into black metal, a fire that has been doused somewhat by a genre that has moved well beyond its original boundaries into areas that too frequently now leaves me unmoved.
In common with many from the Hellenic black metal scene, Agatus sit at the more melodic end of the black metal spectrum with riffs that are generally mid-paced rather than frantically pummelling and which owe a lot to traditional heavy metal's inherent melodicism, allowing each track an identity of its own and giving them quite a high memorability factor alongside a greater degree of accessibility than some of the more kvlt acts of the 90s. Now, personally I think there is plenty of room within the black metal realm for both the melodic and the kvlt with no contradiction in enjoying both. There is a definite tinge of Immortal to the Greeks' debut, a band that proved that you didn't have to only have ultra lo-fi production and relentless blastbeats to sit at black metal's top table, with tracks such as "Spirits From the Depths of Earth" and the opener "Under the Spell of the Dragon" feeling like they would be perfectly at home on the Norwegian's "At the Heart of Winter" album. I am not implying that this is by any means over-produced, not at all, it is still quite sparse production-wise, but it does have just enough meat on its bones to melt some of that nordic frostiness and infuse it with some Aegean brine instead, feeling less like disembodied voices from snow-covered forests and more like natural spirits calling down from mystical island mountaintops.
Very much in similar vein to Immortal's Ravendark mythos, "Dawn of Martyrdom" feels like Agatus are pulling you into an overarching saga rather than just praising satan and cursing religion, unsurprising from a band that calls the bithplace of Homeric epic home. Three of the tracks are quite lengthy, the two already mentioned and the nine-minute "King of the Forest", and these more epic affairs are where Agatus really excel, allowing their penchant for epic storytelling free rein and being my favourites as a result. This isn't the whole story of course, the short, frantic "Black Moon's Blood" sees the band proving that they can kick it with the Darkthrone's of the world and following track "When the Macabre Dance Begins" and the closer, "Nostalgia...", are interludes that sound like the music to formal medieval dances, but generally speaking, they stick to the mid-paced and melodic formula that seems to suit them so well.
I have been on a bit of a trad metal kick over the last few months as I have gone back to metal's 80s heyday with some targeted listening and I think that has really set me up to appreciate this chunk of Homeric Black Metal and its more melodic approach to black metal songwriting. Listening to this has made me wonder why I have never dived deeply into the Hellenic BM scene, a state of affairs it has made me determined to rectify. If you fancy Immortl with a bit of a medieval bent then give this a blast and I don't think you will regret it.
84/100
Hi Ben, could you add NYC doomsters Poisoned by Life please.
RYM: https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/poisoned-by-life
metal-archives: https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Poisoned_by_Life/3540384605
Hate Eternal are another of those bands whose name I have seen all over the place, but which I have never knowingly listened to. Basically "I, Monarch" is pummelling and brutally relentless 2000s death metal - and that is it really. It is unremittingly aggressive and possesses a certain degree of tech-death influence on the songwriting. They don't do anything new with that formula, but what they do they seemingly do very well. Unfortunately this isn't really the sort of death metal that lights my fire, I much prefer a looser, grimier style and whilst this isn't the most constipated-sounding of the brutal death metal albums I have heard, it leans a bit too much towards the rigid intensity end of the death metal spectrum for me to ever fully embrace it.
Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike it as such, in fact there are a couple of real highlights, such as when "To Know Our Enemies" drops into the expansive guitar solo with the didgeridoo playing in the background I think it hits an atmospheric high point. The vocals are great too, Erik Rutan having a suitably brutal-sounding bellow akin to an enraged bull looking to eviscerate a wayward matador. The production is very nice too, clear enough to hear what everyone is up to whilst not becoming too clinical and it is mercifully free of the crazy over-compression ruining a lot of more recent death metal releases. On the whole, however, it is an album I can play, nod my head to in a few places then forget about when it has finished with very little of it sticking with me for long afterwards. I have no idea how this stacks up within the wider Hate Eternal discography and whilst I have no especial aversion to exploring them further, neither am I in any hurry to jump into their back catalogue. Sometimes we just have to say "This is perfectly fine, but not really my bag" and so without it setting a fire in my belly I am never going to award it better than middling marks.
3/5 (on another day it could have been a 3.5, but I am happy to go with the lower score at the minute).
OK, so now I am officially ancient as the first of the 50th anniversaries I can remember being released has hit its half-century mark:
It is, of course, Rainbow's best album by a country mile - Rising. I was only 14 at the time, yet sometimes it seems like only yesterday. I guess I am going to come across an increasing number of these and may have to stop looking at the anniversaries section altogether before I start getting too nostalgic for a far simpler time and place!
Hi Ben, I have been contacted on Metal Archives by one of the guys from Colombian black metal band Nocturnal Feelings who asked if I would check out some of their stuff, so can you please add them to the site,
Bandcamp: https://nocturnalfeelingsband.bandcamp.com/
Metal Archives: https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Nocturnal_Feelings/40353
Paysage d'Hiver - "Steineiche" (1998)
Steineiche is the 1998 debut album / demo (delete as necessary) by a young Wintherr (Tobias Möckl) and his fledgeling Paysage d'Hiver black metal project. In its most widely available version it consists of three lengthy tracks, each quite distinct, and has a runtime around an hour. The original, limited edition, CD-R version had a fourth track, Déjà Vu, which doesn't appear on subsequent versions and which I haven't heard.
Even at this early stage it was evident that Wintherr had an uncanny knack of wringing an enormous amount of atmosphere from the most basic of palettes. The length of the tracks inevitably leads to a degree of repetitiveness, but Wintherr's genius is in never allowing such to become monotonous or boring, but continuously evolving each track so that listener engagement is maintained, whilst not straying too far from the original premise and enveloping and immersing said listener in the atmospherics. The production values are exceedingly lo-fi as anyone familiar with the project would already guess, yet Wintherr works this in the music's favour, using sparse, lo-fi recording techniques to infuse his work with an inherent iciness that feels sharp and brittle like winter frost and is eminently suited to the atmosphere of this album in particular and the wider concept of "The Wanderer" that makes up the entire discography of the project, thus laying out his manifesto very early on.
As I mentioned at the outset, the three tracks are each very distinct, yet they complement each other inordinately well. The opener "Die Baumfrau" ("The Tree Woman"), begins with an ambient intro complete with that staple of Pd'H releases, samples of a winter wind blowing frostily from the speakers, before erupting in a shivering blast of black metal iciness that is probably nearest to what most would expect from the project, but which is no less effective for that, it essentially being the acorn from which that particular black metal oak germinated. The riffing and blasting is of a pummelling intensity and the high-pitched shrieks are searingly harsh and sound like someone taking a power sander to an orc's balls, but the track feels even more sinister when these give way to a deep, spoken-word section where the vocals hover around on the edge of audibility before the frantic shrieking reasserts control. Subtle little details like this, along with the insertion of a gothick-y guitar melody over the main riff in the middle section and another near the track's end that sounds like bluegrass banjo-picking, prevent the track from becoming stale whilst still maintaining the direction of travel, a skill with which Wintherr has proven to be admirably proficient over the years. By track's end, such is the impressiveness of his nascent songwriting ability, you don't even realise that twenty minutes have elapsed.
For the second epic, very different, track we get to hear from The Tree Woman's spouse "Der Baummann" (The Tree Man). This is a much more moody-sounding piece that has a doomier ethic with a guitar sounding at times very similar to Celtic Frost, or more accurately Triptykon. Overlaid with thin keys and a picked guitar melody and featuring guttural croaking vocals mixed quite low, this has a sinister, ominous edge to it, contrasting superbly with the savagery of the opener, as if the threat of "Der Baummann" is deeper and more profound than the mere physical violence of "Die Baumfrau". Ending with a tortured (possibly synthesised) violin scraping at your mind, the track seems to threaten the annihilation of soul as well as body.
The closer is a twenty-five minute ambient piece with a haunting, ritualistic atmosphere. Now I am not known for my patience with long ambient tracks. My dislike of "Rundgang um die transzendentale Säule der Singularität" on Burzum's "Filosofem" seemingly flying in the face of popular opinion, for example, but Wintherr here shows Varg how to construct a lengthy epic with quite simple building blocks that never threatens to become tedious. From ritualistic and almost martial-sounding beginnings it reaches for the stars and becomes more cosmic and occult. With barely audible spoken vocals that feel like the probings of a Cthulhian titan seeking to escape its cosmic prison, it hints at secrets of the universe that a mere man's mind could not possibly comprehend, nor soul withstand. Ending with a female operatic aria, "Der Baum" leaves a quite stunning impression.
I must confess that, for some inexplicable reason, I had never checked out this debut until now, but now I have I would probably list it as one of Paysage d'Hiver's most interesting releases. The songwriting is extraordinarily accomplished and as he was responsible for everything on the record, Wintherr's technical competence cannot be sniffed at either. Whilst I accept that some may struggle with the sparse production, I find that the lack of high production values removes a layer of artifice from between artist and listener and allows an unvarnished reopresentation of Wintherr's intent to be heard, to everyone's benefit.
83/100
"The Time Before Time"
The great spirit descended from the Heavens, carrying we, the ones called the Matoran to this island paradise. We were separate and without purpose, so the great spirit illuminated is with the three virtues: Unity, Duty and Destiny. We embraced these gifts, and in our gratitude, we named our island home Mata Nui after the great spirit himself.
I kinda had to.
Sorry, Rex, I have no idea what this means.
I was gambling on it, anyway. Bionicle, old franchise my brothers and I were into as kids. Saw the movie enough times to have that opening embedded in my head. Bionicle stories always started with, "In the time before time."
Ah, OK. I don't think I have ever heard of it.
"The Time Before Time"
The great spirit descended from the Heavens, carrying we, the ones called the Matoran to this island paradise. We were separate and without purpose, so the great spirit illuminated is with the three virtues: Unity, Duty and Destiny. We embraced these gifts, and in our gratitude, we named our island home Mata Nui after the great spirit himself.
I kinda had to.
Sorry, Rex, I have no idea what this means.
Desecrator - "Subconscious Release" (1991)
I fucking love early Autopsy and so too did Desecrator, apparently. Hailing from Nottingham, Desecrator was formed in 1989 by brothers Mike and Steve Ford (bass / vocals and guitars respectively) alongside drummer Lee Hawke. After listening to "Subconscious Release" I have no idea, but I am guessing they formed after hearing Autopsy's debut "Severed Survival", released in Spring of '89, deciding that was what they wanted to play. Now, obviiously, this isn't as good as any of the Californian's early releases, but it is a decent stab at reproducing their style in a British context. Bear in mind that at this time the big UK death metal bands came at the genre from a grindcore background, Napalm Death, Carcass and even Bolt Thrower played a blasting, high tempo version of death metal, so Desecrator, looking towards the hulking, often slower-paced, abyssal-sounding death metal of Reifert and Co. were swimming against the tide somewhat. Even more atypically, the album boasts several quite long tracks with four exceeding seven minutes in length, the band unafraid to drop into a slower, doomier tempo to add variation and atmosphere during the longer track lengths. They don't completely turn their back on the prevailing winds though, with the quick-fire medley of "Insult to Intelligence" and "Deadline" on side 2 clocking in under two minutes they give a nod to the deathgrind brigade.
To be honest the album is front-loaded with the title track kicking things off and being, by quite some way, the best track on the album - think "In the Grip of Winter" or "Gasping for Air" level good. Second track "Nothing Changes Anything" is also pretty great with a hot opening riff and a gothicky, atmospheric mid-track break, but the rest of the album struggles to live up to the promise of these two opening salvos. Don't misunderstand, the rest is fine for what it is, but a faint tinge of disappointment is inevitable after such a promising start. I am no musician myself, but I get the feeling that the band are a little limited technically, as illustrated by the generally lacklustre guitar solos and the d-beat drumming not always cutting it, leaving the listener yearning for a good old blastbeat to shake things up and hit the gas pedal. Whilst I acknowledge that the band had technical limitations, these probably don't bother me as much as they do some metalheads, I am quite partial to a slab of loose-sounding deathly carnage and when the band are in full flow I am happy as a pig in shit. However, the uninspiring solos and the odd clunky transition do pull me out of the moment, fourth track "Repressive Acceptance" for example has a couple of instances where the leadwork is quite poor and ruins a good headbang as the main riff is decent and gets me nodding along quite effectively up until that point.
In 1992 the band changed their name to Consumed and went off in a more punk rock oriented direction, leaving us with this remainig as the only testament to a promising, if technically limited, early UK death metal act. It is interesting if ultimately inessential UK death metal release that even a Dan Seagrave cover couldn't save from relative obscurity.
3.5/5
Imperator - "The Time Before Time" (1991)
Imperator were an early polish death metal act, forming in Łódź in 1984 and originally splitting up in 1993 with this 1991 album standing as their only official studio full-length. Their version of death metal maintains a strong thrash metal component, but this isn't the kind of deaththrash you would find on "Seven Churches", but it leans rather more towards the technical sides of both death and thrash metal with most tracks containing a surfeit of musical ideas that sees them lurching between different riffs and tempos, sometimes a little bit too much for my taste. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they opt for the staccato juxtaposition of riffs that many of the most technically-focussed death metal acts feature in their songwriting and most of the transitions are fairly fluid, so aren't especially jarring, but their songwriting technique seems to involve throwing a ton of ideas into the mix and seeing which stick.
Now don't get me wrong, I may have made it sound like I didn't enjoy this, but I actually did. Most of it works, with some very fine riffs and interesting transitions, I just get a little frustrated when the band deliver a killer-sounding riff, for it to evaporate seemingly mere moments later as a new idea occurs to them and the track develops in a new direction. On the whole the interesting stuff far outweighs the little frustrations which, to be honest, don't irritate me that much, but do need pointing out. Of course, if you are a died-in-the-wool tech-death head then Imperator may be a bit tame and unambitious for you, but they hit a nice mid-point for me between old-school deaththrash and more technical metal that combines the no-nonsense aggression of the one with the ambition of the other. The album also benefits from the old-school production which makes it sound less clinical and more organic than the over-produced, triggered-to-fuck, heavily compressed aural assaults that often pass for modern death metal production jobs.
Vocals are provided by Piotr "Bariel" Tomczyk who is also guitarist and main songwriter and don't really go for the deep gutteral growls of true death metal vocalists, but are more deaththrash-centric. Lyrically the band steep themselves in the occult and demonic, which in some quarters seems to have earned the album an unwarranted black metal secondary tag. The riffs are good and are sometimes even great, whilst the soloing isn't bad, but isn't especially impressive either, often coming off like a slightly more accomplished Kerry King. The rhythm section is fine, but the drums sound muted and could have been better served pushed up a bit in the mix as they sometimes feel like they are getting lost and only register as a distant, dull thud.
What it all amounts to is that if a mix of Slayer, Obituary and Atheist rocks your boat then you may well get a fair bit out of "The Time Before Time". It is far from a perfect album but the execution and ideas presented here are of sufficient quality to provide an interesting sidebar in the chronicles of early-90s death metal. On an interesting historical note, around the time of the album's release mainman Bariel was apparently forming a side project with Dead and Euronymous of Mayhem called Moon, which was scuppered by Dead's suicide. I can't help feeling that could have been an interesting outfit. The band have resurfaced at various points over the years, but usually without Bariel and without releasing any new studio material.
3.5/5
I will definitely give the other two albums a spin for sure.
Sorry, Daniel, I mustn't have been paying close enough attention.
Today has been a good day, mainly because I discovered this real beauty of early-90's grindcore:
Nuclear Death - "Bride of Insect" (1990)
Forming in 1986 in Phoenix, Arizona, Nuclear Death must be one of the very first grindcore acts to feature a female vocalist in Lori Bravo who also played bass and was pretty much the de facto band leader. Historical interest certainly isn't the only reason to listen to Nuclear Death's 1990 debut full-length though because "Bride of Insect" is a pretty damn good album in its own right. The pacing is frantic and is dominated by the blast-crazy drumming of Joel Whitfield who was actually replaced in the band by Steve Cowan prior to the album's release. Sitting at the fore of the mix it completely drives the album with the guitar riffs buzzing away like a swarm of angry hornets in the background whilst Lori spits bile and venom with an intense, raging delivery that obviously sits higher in range than most male grind vocalist but which easily matches any of them for vicious intensity.
The dozen tracks here clock in at 27 minutes so most sit within the typical grindcore duration of sub-two and a half minutes, with the notable exception of the four minutes plus of "Fetal Lament: Homesick" which has an extended "guitar solo" that sounds more like a frenzied attack with a sharp object than any kind of artistic expression. The old-school production job gives the album a feeling of real guts and heart too, an aspect of extreme death metal that has been sterilised by the cleaner production jobs of more modern releases, especially those overly-compressed and brickwalled releases we have all had to become so familiar with over recent years.
The top and bottom of it is, if you don't like blastbeats then don't bother, but if you love metal infused with manic hardcore energy cranked up to eleven and seething with anger and frustration, then come on in and fill your boots. Featuring an ugly hand-drawn black and white cover that also lends the album crazy underground kudos, this is a real hidden gem of early 90's death and grind.
4.5/5
I have said elsewhere i am interested in exploring more Middle Eastern traditional music, but another genre I have dipped my toes into and would like to explore further is gothic country. The trouble is, I just never really get round to it and, in truth, I don't even know where to start.
Wovenhand are probably may favourite with Blush Music my favourite album by them (it reworks quite a few tracks from the debut and has a darker feel to it) then maybe Consider the Birds.
16 Horsepower
Angels of Light (with Michael Gira from Swans - I also think some of the later Swans albums have a gothic country style to them - but they are really long drawn out affairs)
Jay Munly (under various pseudonyms)
Thanks David, I have listened to some 16 Horsepower and quite enjoyed them. I will have a listen to some of the others soon.
The playlist I am getting is slightly different to the above listing Daniel.
There is no Gojira track with Ministry being the first and it ends with Regurgitation after BaN.
I have said elsewhere i am interested in exploring more Middle Eastern traditional music, but another genre I have dipped my toes into and would like to explore further is gothic country. The trouble is, I just never really get round to it and, in truth, I don't even know where to start.
Atrocity - "Hallucinations" (1990)
In my attempt to fill in some of the gaping holes in my Horde knowledge my latest discovery was this cracking slab of early german tech-death from a band who have since made their name in several other metal sub-genres. Here is my review:
I don't recall having listened to Atrocity before, but I have gleaned from a bit of background research that they are a chameleonic act who have gone through several evolutions of sound embracing gothic, groove, folk and industrial metal. This debut, released in 1990, reveals the band's roots to be dug deep into death metal and particularly the emerging tech death sound pioneered by the likes of Death, Cynic and Atheist. Personally I have a bit of an on / off relationship with tech death as it sometimes, especially in its modern incarnation, gets a bit too jagged and staccato for my particular preferences. I do enjoy many of these early pioneering tech death albums, though, especially those that manage to retain enough of the old-school death metal sound I love and thus keep me engaged and along for the ride. Luckily, I am able to add "Hallucinations" to my list of great early tech-death releases and to expand my enjoyment of the style.
With the ambition that Atrocity exhibit here on their debut it is really no surprise that they sought to expand beyond the restrictions of just playing one style throughout their career, as if they have a pathological refusal to be labelled and stereotyped. A great example of this ambition are the twists and turns they take in a sub-three-minute track such as "Fatal Step" which leave you thinking you just listened to a track two or three times that length. The songwriting is of such strength, though, that these diverse song parts lead into each other in a natural and seemless manner that doesn't interrupt the flow of the tracks and doesn't jar with me like several other technically-focussed death metal acts do. In fact I can only really recall one occasion where I felt a bit of jigsaw-like jaggedness coming in and that was during "Hold Out (To the End)" which unfortunately failed the flow test a couple of times.
With some killer riffs, a grimy and gritty guitar sound and a vocalist who sounds like he gargles with rusty nails and barbed wire Atrocity amass more than enough old-school credits to allow me to fully engage with their more ambitious side and to really get to grips with their technical flights of fancy. In fact they really had me hooked when the organ kicked in on closing track "Last Temptation", totally destroying all preconceptions, as if they were saying that we hadn't seen anything yet. I would quite happily set this on a shelf next to "Human" and "Piece of Time" and not consider it out of its league.
A very strong 4/5 from me with a potential for even higher marks in future.
Reverend Bizarre - Harbinger of Metal EP (2003)
"Harbinger of Metal" was released in 2003 as an EP between the trio's first two albums and in the midst of a spate of split releases with the likes of Minotauri and Orodruin. I say it was released as an EP because it has a runtime of over 73 minutes, more than most full-length albums, but was still steadfastly labelled an EP by the band themselves. I am not sure why this would be because most of the material is consistent with that on the three main full-lengths, but then again Albert Witchfinder tended to do things his own way and for his own reasons so who am I to question the decision.
Anyway, there is some great stuff on here, with Strange Horizons and its awesome doom-laden riff (one of the band's best) being my pick. Of the seven tracks available three are quite short with "Harbinger" being a kind of introductory scene-setter and "The Ambassador" and "Into the Realms of Magickal Entertainment" being little more than interludes, so the bulk of the hour and a quarter is taken up by just four tracks, which is pretty much par for the course with the Reverend. To say that Reverend Bizarre know their shit when it comes to traditional doom metal is an understatement. During the mid-2000's they pretty much wrote the book on producing epic-length trad doom sagas and are still very much the yardstick against which I personally measure any other trad doom act of the last 25 years. The simple fact is that if a band are going to produce tracks that rely so heavily on the lengthy repetition of riffs then those riffs need to be pretty damn good and in this regard Rev Biz have very few equals. It is very hard to think of any other doom metal band that manage to do so much with so little but the sheer ponderous momentum they achieve with Witchfinder's prominently mixed bass boosting the crushing weight of Peter Vicar's riffing is a marvel to behold. That said, if you are of a more impatient mindset then maybe RB aren't the band for you because they really do like to draw things out and sometimes go to extremes on this front, repeating a riff over and over, well past the point of comfort, a charge which could certainly be levelled at the first part of "From the Void", at least until it turns into an Earl of Void drum solo! I am not the biggest fan of drum solos, so the five minutes in the middle of the track here is a bit of a challenge even for me I must admit. Things are certainly redeemed though with "The Wandering Jew" being another classic slab of doom metal goodness with yet another top RB riff. For this track and "Strange Horizons" alone the EP is well worth the entry fee, but throw in Rev Biz's hulking, doom-laden interpretation of Burzum's "Dunkelheit" that adds crushing weight to the icy, frigid melancholy of the original and we have another doom metal winner on our hands.
Reverend Bizarre truly were one of the finest traditional doom metal bands ever with a distinctive and authentic sound (and sometimes a wicked sense of humour) that pushed trad doom to its extremes whilst still remaining exceedingly listenable. Whilst this EP may not be their best release with, admittedly, a couple of weaker moments, which the band may have realised themselves hence the reason why it was separated from the main full-lengths by the EP designation, when it is good it is absolutely top drawer and as such is definitely worth the time of any discerning doom head.
4/5
Hi Ben, could you add Myridian, a band of your compatriots playing death doom, please:
RYM: https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/myridian
BC: https://myridian.bandcamp.com/album/starless
Will do.
Here you go:
Eternal Rot - "Crawler" (from "Grave Grooves", 2014)
ISIS - "The Other" (from "Oceanic", 2002)
Ophis - "The Perennial Wound" (from "Spew Forth Odium", 2021)
Wildspeaker - "Cinders" (from "Spreading Adder", 2017)
Graves at Sea - "The Waco 177" (from "The Curse That Is", 2016)
Hey Vinny, I have been working on this this morning and noticed that you have nominated Isis' "The Other" again. You nominated it last month as a replacement for a Smote track. I presume you hadn't removed it from your list, so have you got a replacement? Do you want me to insert the Smote track you originally suggested last month instead or do you want to nominate something else?
Slow - "V - Oceans" (2017)
Today's selection from the Vault of the Underappreciated is a slab of funeral doom goodness from Belgium's Slow. Here is my review:
Slow is a funeral doom project of prodigious belgian Déhà, who is perhaps better known for his black metal and blackgaze work, but who is also a proficient doomster with acts like Yhdarl and Wolvennest. He has released seven albums under the Slow banner, with "V-Oceans" unsurprisingly being number five and, probably, my favourite. This is the last of the Slow albums that were produced as a solo project, Déhà since having been joined by lyricist Lore Boeykens who also contributes bass and backing vocals.
Anyone even remotely familiar with Déhà's other projects will be unsurprised to hear a significant post-metal and -gazey element to Slow's funereal dirges, but make no mistake this is still ponderously heavy stuff. The vocals are of the gravel-throated, abyssal demon bellowing kind that are the cornerstone of so many fantastic funeral doom albums and are more than ably delivered here by the main man himself. As he intones at the beginning of "Ténèbres", "This is not meant to bring you joy, this is not meant to give you any solace," and it surely doesn't if you take its message literally yet, ironically, if you are a lover of the melancholy and desperate atmospherics of funeral doom then it may well bring you great joy indeed (it certainly does for me).
With tempos that are measured by a calendar rather than a metronome, the five, 10-minute plus tracks here crawl under your skin and sit there draining your optimism like a vampiric parasite feasting on the mind's positive energy, leaving its host bereft and borne down by the weight of existence. The riffs are monumental chords that swell like tsunamis, given additional heft and gravitas by layered synths and choral effects which thankfully don't swamp the guitar and drums, but which add their weight to the crushing mass subtlely enough so as not to be distracting. "Oceans" covers a theme that has served funeral doom very well over the years with its huge swells of sound being an exceedingly effective artistic interpreter of oceanic environs and deep sea tectonics, here being used as a metaphor for the unalterable inevitability of death, in other words, all the best sentiments of funeral doom.
The number of ratings for Slow albums on RYM is paltry with this being the most-rated with a touch over 300, yet this is funeral doom of the highest order that deserves to be considered up there with giants of the genre like Bell Witch and Esoteric. OK, maybe not Esoteric, but everybody else anyway! Criminally overlooked, for me this is a top drawer entry into the funeral doom pantheon.
4.5/5
Fair enough Sonny.
How about
Oromet - "Forsaken Tarn" (from "The Sinking Isle", 2025): 11:21 (pushing my minutes up to around 32 minutes)
Thanks David.
Morag Tong - "Through Clouded Time" EP (2016)
I thought I would try to showcase a few of my favourite obscure doom bands through these pages, so this is the first of, hopefully quite a few lesser known releases. I will try to limit it to ones no one else has rated yet.
My review:
I have been a fan of London's Morag Tong for a good decade now, since the release of this debut. four-track EP back in 2016. They are named for the fictional guild of assassins featured in The Elder Scrolls game Morrowind and their reverb-drenched doom metal is as influenced as much by stoner metal as you would expect from a band of RPG-ing nerds. My original one-line review for this went "stoner doom that's nice 'n' slow and as heavy as an anchor strapped to an anvil that's tied to a millstone" and you know what, that remains true, but there is actually a bit more to it than just sheer weight so I thought I had better elaborate.
The riffs have an in-built bluesiness that reaches back as far as Sabbath's debut but which are delivered with such heft and distortion that they sound mountainously and crushingly heavy. The soloing, such as it is, has a psychedelic, spacey tinge that is fed from the band's stoner roots and which is aided by some Hawkwind-ish electronics buried quite deeply in the mix. I hesitate to call it trippy, though, because the tempo is so lethargic and the riffs just so fucking heavy that I am unsure if anything with this amount of heft can ever be labelled as such, although the title track "Through Clouded Time" does feature some quieter, more trippy moments, such as the introductory couple of minutes or so which almost sounds like a very heavy version of Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross" and a quite funky bass breakdown just after the halfway point. The two tracks either side, "Godhead" and "The Eyes of Men" are a bit more straight forward but deliver such devastatingly heavy doom riffs that they are still worthy of attention in their own rights.
Drummer Adam Asquith also handles vocals which are perfectly functional for this style of stonerised doom, whereas his drumming is really good within the confines of the genre and he and bassist Sam Lewis both featuring prominently enough in the mix to lay down a super-solid foundation upon which dual guitarists Alex Clarke and Lewis Crane can lay down the towering monoliths of the riffs. The four are obviously deeply steeped in the world of stoner doom and they sound like solid technical musicians perfectly able to translate their intentions into music, so there is a definite authenticity about what they delivered here.
In summary, this is a very impressive twenty-three minutes that handed out an attention-grabbing calling card to the UK's doom metal afficianados. Unfortunately I felt 2018's full-length "Last Knell of Om" failed to live up to this promise and I have yet to hear 2023's Grieve, so this stands as the band's high water mark for me so far. Truth is though, even if they never bettered this, it would still stand as a worthy testament. I was then and remain still, mightily impressed.
4/5
Ethereal Tomb – “The Sufferance of Mourning” (from “When The Rivers Dry”, 2023): 10:01
Ethereal Darkness – “On The Edge of a Cliff” (from “Echoes”, 2026): 8:48
Sunn 0))) – “Glory Black” (from “Sunn O)))”, 2026): 10:25
Just under 30 minutes, leaving some minutes spare for anyone.
I don't like questioning other people's picks, but I am reluctant to include the Ethereal Darkness track in all honesty David. I have no idea how it is labelled as Death Doom on RYM. To my ears this track is melodic black metal with little to no doom present. What do you think? Is there something more doomy on the album that may be more suitable for a Fallen playlist?
Thanks so much for adding my latest slew of requests, Ben.
A couple more for you:
Crimson Altar - US, doom metal
RYM: https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/crimson_altar_f1
BC: https://crimsonaltar.bandcamp.com/
Mangog - US, doom metal
The "obscure" bands still work best for me though Sonny so keep them coming.
Will do.
I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the fact that so many aren't available on Spotify though. I will have to try a bit harder to promote some of them via reviews etc.
Just letting you know that Doomicidal are already on the site.
They are and I have rated both of their releases, so I don't know what the hell I was thinking there! Sorry, Ben.
The "obscure" bands still work best for me though Sonny so keep them coming.
Will do.
A couple more for you Ben, please.
Mother Crone (US)
RYM: https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/mother_crone
Bandcamp: https://mothercrone.bandcamp.com/
Mortalicum (Swe)
RYM: https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/mortalicum
Bandcamp: https://metalonmetalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mortalicum-tears-from-the-grave
My review:
Finnish duo Convocation inhabit that sector of the metal Venn diagram where the arcs of funeral and death doom overlap, which also happens to be one of my favourite shades of metal. For latest album, No Dawn for the Caliginous Night, they lean more towards the funeral doom side of things, ultimately taking a leaf out of the mighty Esoteric's book. One danger of funeral doom that these Finns avoid is in overcooking things and allowing tracks to drag along without much variation, producing arse-numbingly long albums in the process. Convocation rarely go beyond the 12 minute mark for individual tracks and their longest album is fifty minutes, this one clocking in at forty-eight. They also like to bring in some textural and tonal variation, whilst still maintaining the slow, funereal pacing from whence the genre derives it's name.
The production is excellent, allowing the heaving chords to provide a huge wall-of-sound which towers over and threatens to smother the listener with sheer sonic immensity and even though there is an undoubted crushing power to the tracks, there is much more to them than just that, with string accompaniment and vocal and guitar melodies providing a striking countepoint to the fundamrntal heaviness of the instrumentation. Opener, Graveless yet Dead, features Shape of Despair's Natalie Koskinen as second vocalist, whose soaring, angelic vocals provide perfect contrast to Marko Neuman's bellowing roars as he rails against his fate as a cursed, undying soul, fated to forever wander the Earth. The album features another couple of guest vocalists, Corpsessed's Niko Matilainen on second track, Atychiphobia, and Dying Fetus / Misery Index singer Jason Netherton guesting on closer, Procession (which also sees Ferum's Samantha Alessi providing a spoken narration).
The eye of the album's storm is the instrumental track Between Aether and Land which sits at the heart of the album and which has a less dense feel to it, being woven through with a nice melodic thread that makes it sound less despairing and hopeless than the opening twenty minutes, allowing a shaft of light or a glimpse of open countryside to infiltrate the ominous and despairing atmosphere of the remainder of the album. Naturally this is short-lived and Lepers and Derelicts hits with the full crushing force of a tsunami of hopelessness, sucking all air and positivity out of proceedings and feeling all the more forceful for it's contrast with the preceeding track, Marko Neuman's howling roars sounding increasingly desolate as he bellows the protagonists hatred of his own existence as a torturous demon, bedevilling mankind. On closer, Procession, Convocation really reveal their hand with a track that has a massive epic quality to it, with superb compositional and atmospheric flourishes, from guest Antti Poutanen's cello accompaniment to Samantha Alessi's narration and the melodic guitar work that threads it's way through those hefty, intimidatingly massive chords. Ultimately the track (and by extension, the album) sheds it's horrors and ends with a much more serene feeling as cello and picked guitar along with the closing narration seem to offer the consolation that eventually all horrors must pass.
With No Dawn.. Convocation have truly cemented their place as one of my absolute favourite funeral / death doom bands and I would claim this as a classic of the genre, making them fit to take up their place alongside genre greats like Esoteric and Evoken.
It is a 5/5 classic for me.
Hi Andi, you can add me back on to the Feature Release schedule for The Guardians, The Infinite, and The North starting in June.
Thanks!
Yay, welcome back to the fold, Xephyr.
I like the looks of this one, so will definitely give it a spin at some point.
Y&T - "Forever" from Black Tiger (1982)2.5/5. This one's OK but doesn't give me much awe. Sorry, Sonny.
Quoted Shadowdoom9 (Andi)
No need to apologise, Andi. I picked it more as a nostalgia trip than anything. It was a song I knew from the rock club I used to attend every Friday night back in the Eighties, but I didn't know who it ws by as I was never a Y&T fan. I then heard it again on the Black Tiger album when I was checking stuff out recently for my 1982 list and it brought back some good memories, so I thought I would give it an airing.
May 2026
1. Funeral Circle - "Corpus of Dark Sorcery" (from "Funeral Circle", 2023) [submitted by Sonny]
2. Smote – “Lof” (from “Clyppan”, 2025) [submitted by dk]
3. Purple Lung - "Beware the Bog Witch" (from "Mystic Vision", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]
4. For My Pain... - "Autumn Harmony" (from "Fallen", 2003)
5. ISIS - "The Other" (from "Oceanic", 2002) [submitted by Vinny]
6. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - "An Abundance of Mercy" (from "Let Us Not Speak of Them but Look and Pass On", 2026)
7. Novembers Doom - "Not the Strong" (from "To Welcome the Fade", 2002) [submitted by Andi]
8. Concept of God - "Visions (Nightmares) (from "Visions", 2007) [submitted by Sonny]
9. Unearthly Trance – “Raised by Wolves” (from “Season of Seance, Science of Silence”, 2003) [submitted by dk]
10. Neurosis - "Blind" (from "An Undying Love For a Burning World", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]
11. Departure - "Emanations of Hopelessness" (from "Mired in Descension", 2025) [submitted by Sonny]
12. Space Sugar - "Graveyard Keeper" (from "Ride Your Panic", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]
13. Sumac – “Will to Reach” (from “What One Becomes”, 2016) [submitted by dk]
14. Oreyeon - "Nothing but Impurities Pt.2" (from "The Grotesque Within", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]
15. Dawn of Winter - "The Peaceful Dead" (from "The Peaceful Dead", 2009)
16. Ennui - "Antinatalism" (from Qroba, 2026) [submitted by Sonny]
May 2026
1. Kings Rot - "Fall of the Witch King" (from "The Shadow of the Accursed", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]
2. Hellhammer - "The Third of the Storms (Evoked Damnation)" (from "Apocalyptic Raids", 1984) [submitted by Sonny]
3. Thunderbolt - "Shadows of the Deepest Night" (from "Black Clouds over Dark Majesty", 1999) [submitted by Karl]
4. Haimad - "Nen Cenedril" (from "When Night Rode Across the North", 2025) [submitted by Karl]
5. Mesarthim - "The Degenerate Era" (from "The Degenerate Era", 2020) [submitted by Sonny]
6. Thus Defiled - "Rapture of Twilight Burning" (from "Wings of the Nightstorm", 1997) [submitted by Karl]
7. LVME - "Third Flame of Disorder" (from "The Blazing Iniquity", 2024) [submitted by Vinny]
8. Crurifragium - "Slaughterers of the Flocks" (from "Beasts of the Temple of Satan", 2017)
9. Beltez - "A Grey Chill and a Whisper" (from "A Grey Chill and a Whisper", 2020) [submitted by Sonny]
10. Deadlife - "Your Life Is Pointless" (from "No Help Is Coming", 2014)
11. ShadowThrone - "Endless Dance of the Universe" (from "Elements' Blackest Legacy", 2019)
12. Veter Daemonaz - "The Awakening" (from "Trivmph", 2016) [submitted by Vinny]
13. Fermenting Innards - "Myst" (from "Myst", 1995) [submitted by Karl]
14. Cirkeln - "Hammer High" (from "Stormlander", 2020)
15. Agatus - "Under the Spell of the Dragon" (from "Dawn of Martyrdom", 1996) [submitted by Karl]
16. Bosse-de-Nage - "Leviathan" (from "Hidden Fires Burn Hottest2, 2026) [submitted by Vinny]
17. Fides Inversa - "Algolagnia Divine" (from "Hanc Aciem Sola Retundit Virtus (The Algolagnia Divine)", 2009) [submitted by Sonny]
18. Skyforest - "Reminiscence" (from "Unity", 2016)
Again, thanks for the speedy responses guys. Makes things much easier time-wise.
Welcome back, Xephyr. Great to see you back. Our little corner of the internet is still hanging in there doing its thing!
Thanks a lot guys. Much appreciated.
Wow, that WAS quick. Thanks Vinny.
As this is a three-playlist month for me, I would appreciate it if you could get your suggestions in a bit earlier guys. If not, then no probs, the 15th will do just fine.
June is a Horde playlist month, so suggestions in by the 15th at the latest please.
Damn. I thought we were through that. I haven't had any errors since I restarted, but that could be a timezone thing.
I may have to investigate what's causing it.
I actually only had a couple that may have been entirely coincidental and things generally seem to be ok now, so I doubt if it was connected to the previous issue.
The reason a release will be added to the site as Non-Metal is if there it's one that sits between other metal-tagged releases in a band's discography Sonny. That wasn't the case with "Rocka Rolla" as it preceded their metal albums & is well known as more of a hard rock record. In the case of the Money album, that was added to the site as heavy metal due to the NWOBHM tag on RYM at the time (Note: the majority tag was Hard Rock but, tellingly, Heavy Metal had been downvoted). I made the executive decision to alter the tagging after hearing the album because it's nothing like metal & the Hall of Judgement would never produce an outcome with such an obscure release. We don't generally delete releases like that, although we probably should.
Ah, ok. I get it now.
I haven't had any issues with this today, Vinny. i had a couple yesterday, but nothing like before Ben reset the server.
Edit: seriously I must have spoken too soon. Literally two minutes later 502 errors have popped up.
Very well Sonny. We shall go to the Hall on the doom metal association too.
Really, there is no need to Daniel. I am not confiident enough in my memory to vote and I really don't have any wish to revisit it. If you consider it a done deal then that is fine by me. I don't even know why I felt compelled to comment to be honest. As I have oftten been told, sometimes I really need to keep my opinions to myself!
Nah, I think you have a valid point. I personally disagree with hall entries being closed prior to voting.
I do understand why though Ben, because unfortunately the participation in the Hall entries is so low that it tends to just end up being a dumping site where entrants sit, in many instances indefinitely.
Very well Sonny. We shall go to the Hall on the doom metal association too.
Really, there is no need to Daniel. I am not confiident enough in my memory to vote and I really don't have any wish to revisit it. If you consider it a done deal then that is fine by me. I don't even know why I felt compelled to comment to be honest. As I have oftten been told, sometimes I really need to keep my opinions to myself!
I haven't listened to this for a while but I remember being perplexed at the doom metal tagging at the time. I have no wish to relisten to it and am not bothered enough to object to you passing it uncontested, Daniel, but i strongly disagree and just wish to illustrate that other opinions are available.