Sonny's Forum Replies
September 2023
1. Tzompantli - "Yaotiacahuanetzli" (from "Tlazcaltiliztli", 2022) [submitted by Daniel]
2. The Body - "The City is Shelled" (from "I've Seen All I Need to See", 2021) [submitted by Sonny]
3. Crowbar - "The Lasting Dose" (from "Sonic Excess In Its Purest Form", 2001) [submitted by Vinny]
4. Baroness - "Desperation Burns" (from "Purple", 2015)
5. Type O Negative - "White Slavery" (from "World Coming Down", 1999) [submitted by Ben]
6. Dystopia - "Ignorance of Pride" (from "Human = Garbage EP", 1994)
7. Smoulder - "Dragonslayer's Doom" (from "Violent Creed of Vengeance", 2023) [submitted by Sonny]
8. Paradise Lost - "Victim of the Past" (from "The Plague Within", 2015)
9. The Abbey - "Old Ones" (from "Word of Sin", 2023)
10. My Dying Bride - "And My Fury Stands Ready" (from "Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light", 2004) [submitted by Daniel]
11. Toke - "Within the Sinister Void" (from "(Orange)", 2017) [submitted by Vinny]
12. Cult of Luna - "The Silent Man" (from "A Dawn To Fear", 2019)
13. Shape of Despair - "Curse Life" (from "Illusion's Play", 2004) [submitted by Ben]
14. Acid Mammoth - "Tree of Woe" (from "Under Acid Hoof", 2020) [submitted by Vinny]
15. Sunn O))) - "Troubled Air" (from "Life Metal", 2019)
16. Decomposed - "Inscriptions" (from "Hope Finally Died...", 1993) [submitted by Ben]
As you probably know by now, I have lately been using this thread to document my tackling of The Horde's Death Metal the First Decade clan challenge, going through the list chronologically. I have now got to Gorguts' second album, The Erosion of Sanity. It seems, from what I have seen, that this is considered to be a transitional album for the band, so in the interest of due diligence I thought I would check out the albums released either side of it. Here's a few thoughts:
Gorguts - Considered Dead (1991)
The Canadians released their debut LP in 1991 and it seems obvious to me that they were heavily influenced by Chuck Schuldiner and Death, this sounding very much like the first couple of Death releases, Luc Lemay's vocals in particular seem very reminiscent of Chuck's style. It's not a bad album at all, it is what may disparagingly be called by some, a solid slab of early nineties' death metal that sounds very typical of the times. It doesn't sit within the upper tier for me, alongside Altars of Madness, Mental Funeral, Scream Bloody Gore or even Deicide's debut, but it is entertaining enough and I would definitely listen to it again.
Which brings me to:
Gorguts - Obscura (1998)
I am reluctant to go into it too deeply, but I guess it's cards on the table time. I have a "condition" whereby I become overwhelmed by excessive external sensory stimuli, particularly sounds, which means I am exceedingly uncomfortable in situations with a lot of disparate aural inputs such as crowds. This probably explains why I favour the more monolithic genres like doom, especially funeral doom, and drone and why more complex music like jazz or technical and avant-garde metal rub me up the wrong way. As a consequence of this, an album like Obscura is like a mild form of torture to my overtaxed brain. This sounds to me like a band where all the members are displaying their technical adroitness by all playing a different song at the same time and I'm sorry, but I just can't take it. This is the type of record where I have to genuinely say, "this is not for me". I can't apologise for it and I wish it was otherwise, so I too could revel in it's complexities, but it is what it is. I have only got thtrough it once by listening to no more than a couple of tracks at a time, I find it so genuinely uncomfortable to listen to.
I only bring this up to explain why I dislike this sort of complex, technical and dissonant stuff, it's not to be edgy or counter to the consensus, it is just problematic for me. I won't insult everyone's intelligence by rating it, as I can't listen to it objectively and subjectively it would have to be a 0.5/5 for me, but we all know that is just ridiculous. Thanks for listening - I really don't wish to sound like an asshole, so I hope you understand.
I'll post a review of The Erosion of Sanity when i have had a little bit longer with it.
I am so glad I undertook this journey back to the early days of death metal as I have found I now have a much greater appreciation of it's allure. I have found some absolute gems and approaching it this way has been almost like experiencing the scene in real time. I have often felt a pang of jealousy of people who are hearing albums like Master of Puppets and Reign in Blood for the first time, remembering how much they blew me away when I first heard them myself, but now I have been lucky enough to have a similar experience with many of death metal's true classics and have been loving it. Anyway, a brilliant double-header today, starting with:
Brutality - Screams of Anguish (1993)
Brutality were unknown to me prior to listening to this (surprise, surprise), but are another product of the Nineties' Florida death metal scene that spawned so many DM classics and one listen to Screams of Anguish and it is obvious that it originated in Tampa. While it does possess the brutality of the classic Tampa sound, it also has a slight technical bent to it that, presumably, differentiated it from the Morbid Angels and Deicides of the time. It isn't excessively technical and Brutality are as capable of being wilfully bludgeoning as any other of Tampa's death metal denizens, but there is enough there to set it apart. The lead work in particular is something that caught my ear, with the howling solos being one of my favourite aspects of the album as their scalpel-like sharpness provides a perfect counterpoint to the blunt force trauma of the bludgeoning rhythm work. Vocalist Scott Reigel has a classic death metal style of ascerbic growling that sounds like it could strip paint and the rhythm section provides the perfect heavy-boned skeleton on which guitarists Don Gates and Jay Fernandez can hang their muscular riffs.
One point of contention for me was the two interludes, Sympathy and Spirit World, which I think sucked the velocity out of the album. During each of these breaks in the sonic battery I was champing at the bit for them to launch back into the attack and felt these acted like speed bumps on a racetrack, being superfluous and disruptive of the flow. I understand the inclusion and maybe the band wanted to give the listener a respite and a chance to regroup before setting about them once more, but without them in the tracklisting I think we would have had a perfect blistering and belligerent sub-forty minute album.
Anyway, minor tracklisting niggle aside, this is an album I enjoyed massively with it sitting somewhere between early Deicide and mid-era Death to my ears with those searing solos being the big take away for me. On the strength of this debut, I really can't believe that these guys aren't as big a name in the Florida scene as Death, Deicide or Morbid Angel.
4.5/5
Demilich - Nespithe (1993)
Demilich's sole release Nespithe is an album who's name I have seen dropped all over the place. However, it being tagged as technical death metal has always found me looking the other way and filing it under the heading "nothing to do with me". And now, after finally listening to it, I have got to say, "Fuckin' wow!!" I genuinely don't think I have ever heard an album so out there that I have actually enjoyed as much as this. With it's bizarre, seemingly nature-defying, technicalities and the inhuman sub-sonic growls that pass for vocals this is like the very personification of H.P. Lovecraft's stories of impossible realms and sanity-destroying astral horrors. I can see why Demilich never released another album as I cannot even conceive of how you would follow this up. In fact, it seems like three of the four members fell out of the metal scene altogether after Demilich split following it's release - and I understand why. This is the death metal equivalent of Lovecraft's legendary tome, The Necronomicon, a book so horrifying it causes any who read it to go completely insane.
All hyperbole aside, I don't possess the technical musical knowledge to even begin to explain what is going on here with Nespithe, other than to say that it is quite unlike anything I have ever heard in it's seemingly chaotic grooves and it needs to be heard to be believed. It seems on the surface to be exactly the sort of technical exercise I would normally hate, but for some reason it's constantly shifting sounds overlaid by that smothering inhuman growling just appeals to something inside me. I have seen any number of complaints about those vocals, but I think they are some of the most fascinating I have ever heard, the sheer depth of the croaking growl genuinely sounding like the proclamations of some extra-dimesional deity. The lyrics too are suitably eldritch and hint at multi-dimensional horrors whose only reason is to destroy the minds and souls of the human race, to which Antti Boman's voice gives perfect expression.
Where Nespithe scores high over most other technical death metal for me, is because it is so dripping with atmosphere and that is something I think is ignored by most technical DM bands, Nile perhaps being the only other technical outfit I know of who put any store in atmosphere... but Demilich take it to a whole new level that even leaves the Egypt-obsessed Nile floundering. The four band members are evidently supremely talented musicians to pull off such intricate instrumentation and that combined with such a singular, horror-invoking atmosphere gives this a real one-of-a-kind feel. One thing is absolutely certain, once you have heard it, this is not an album you are ever likely to forget. For me, this is a classic.
5/5, Hell yeah!!
Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence (1993)
Necrophobic are yet another band I have been ignorant of up until listening to this, the Swedes' debut album, for the Horde's death metal the first decade clan challenge. I guess I was expecting something akin to Entombed's first couple of albums, but instead Necrophobic have thrown me a bit of a curveball by including black metal elements within their death metal assault and, I've got to say, I'm quite impressed. I don't want to try and oversell the black metal elements because this is definitely a death metal album, but they are noticeable and the inclusion of those elements does make for something a bit different compared to the other death metal releases I have been listening to from this period in time. Blackened death metal is a well-established sub-genre nowadays, of course, and there are a legion of releases under the umbrella, but I guess this is one of the earlier examples.
They do have that overdriven Swedish guitar sound as employed by the likes of Entombed, but it is tempered by the blackened elements with the extra treble giving it a bit more clarity. That said, it does provide the listener with a damn good bludgeoning in true death metal style and doesn't lack for heaviness in any way, even when guitarist David Parland introduces a bit more melody into the riffs the brutal guitar tone still delivers a damn good beating to the listener's eardrums. The slight downside to this and an issue I have with a number of Swedish death metal releases, is that the guitar is so all-pervasive that I feel the rhythm section takes too much of a back seat and at times the bass in particular is swamped by that overpowering guitar tone.
Vocalist Anders Strokirk singing voice sits somewhere between a shrieking, barking black metal style and the more gutteral, growling vocals of death metal derivation, leaning a bit more to the black side. Lyrically and thematically they also embrace the anti-Christian path so beloved by black metal bands of the time with their blasphemous and satanic lyrical exhortations. The songwriting is strong, the tracks seem to strike a great balance between the brutal and the melodic, being both detructively heavy and memorable at the same time. A track such as Sacrificial Rites even hints at a heavy Slayer influence and at times sounds like it wouldn't be out of place on Reign In Blood. The death and black metal elements combine well to provide something that sets Necrophobic apart from the early-90's Scandinavian pack. The Swedish sound is not my favourite iteration of death metal, but with the addition of aspects of black metal Necrophobic seem to have found the formula to making it more interesting, to my ears at least.
A very solid upper 4/5 from me.
Blood Ceremony - The Old Ways Remain (2023)
It has been fully seven years since Blood Ceremony's previous album, Lord of Misrule, was released back in March of 2016. That release showed them moving away from their heavier, doomy sound, towards a more psychedelic, style that was a little lighter in tone than their previous material, whilst still maintaining a connection for their original fanbase, amongst which I count myself. The Old Ways Remain finds the Canadians stepping even further away from their doom metal side and completely embracing a lighter, bouncier and, dare I say, poppier sound. Having been a huge fan of the band since their earliest days, after the very first listen I was exceedingly disappointed by TOWR and it's direction. Subsequent listens have seen me walk back my opinion a little, but I have still got to say upfront that this is probably my least favourite Blood Ceremony release. Now don't misunderstand, there is still a fair bit I enjoyed here, but this is Blood Ceremony and my expectations for one of my favourite bands is much higher than for many others.
Not everything is doom and gloom however, in particular the contributions from a couple of guests are definitely worth mentioning. Joseph Shabason's saxophone on third track, Eugenie, provides one of the album's highlights and Laura Bates of ambient folk doom band Völur provides fiddle on the album's best track, The Bonfires at Belloc Coombe and the penultimate Mossy Woods, that gives both tracks a folksy, Appalachian feel. Alia O'Brien dominates proceedings though, with her distinctive vocals and her flute providing most of the soloing, she towers over Blood Ceremony in a similar way that Ian Anderson does in Jethro Tull and is the main point of focus for the band. On the downside there are a couple of absolute duds, which is something I thought I would never say about a Blood Ceremony track, but Powers of Darkness is a bit of a mess and Hecate is majorly dull and overtly poppy-sounding.
Ultimately I would have to say that The Old Ways Remain is a bit of a letdown for me personally and whilst still retaining a fair bit of Blood Ceremony's basic DNA, the band seem to be pursuing a more commercial direction which is also as likely to alienate long-term fans of the band.
3.5/5
FVNERALS - Let the Earth Be Silent (2023)
Fvnerals produce metal that is more about texture and atmosphere, rather than having any interest in traditional songwriting. As such their music has more in common with drone, ambient and post-rock, but it is nevertheless still rooted in metal and drone metal in particular. I have also seen it labelled as funeral doom but, personally, I don't think so. Musically, the bulk of the album consists of hulking, ritualistic drones laid down by songwriter Syd Scarlet's huge guitar chords and feedback, reinforced and fortified by Tiffany Ström's bowel-loosening bass and Thomas Vaccargiu's sparse drumwork. Ström's haunting vocals soar over these sonic monoliths like a super-heavy Cocteau Twins, her style of vocals being quite reminiscent of some of Chelsea Wolfe's recent work.
The tracks on display here seem to be quite simple, but everything is beautifully structured and the atmospheres and textures produced are gorgeous. Being of a somewhat fanciful nature, I find the album acting as a catalyst and back drop to flights of imagination through ancient, crumbling, cyclopean cityscapes or strange, alien, deep-sea vistas, places where sheer size and strangeness evoke a sense of wonder and awe, because that is exactly what I get from the music. FVNERALS have produced an album that gives me exactly what I seek from drone metal - something on which to hang imagination and fancy whilst still managing to crush the life out of me with huge, devastating chords.
A point where the drone metal sceptic may feel more at home regarding Let the Earth Be Silent is that the album's seven tracks only have a combined runtime of a shade over forty minutes, so this is no seemingly endless slog, with the longest track weighing in at a slight eight minutes and change. I myself tend to regard the seven tracks as movements within a single piece of music as I think they work superbly well in this regard. I think this could well have an audience outside of traditional metal circles with fans of ritual and dark ambient, darkwave, or even ethereal wave, who can shelve any prejudice against it's metal roots.
A favourite of mine to which Let the Earth Be Silent can be compared is Bismuth's The Dying of the Great Barrier Reef, so anyone who feels positively towards that should feel well at home here as it displays the same dichotomy between awe-inspiring majesty and a distinct uneasiness.
4.5/5
Smoulder - Violent Creed of Vengeance (2023)
I really enjoyed Smoulder's 2019 debut, Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring, their female-fronted epic doom metal was quite a revelation at the time, so much so that I bought myself a vinyl copy from their Bandcamp page. They followed the debut, scarcely a year later, with a six-track EP featuring three new numbers and the three tracks that constituted their 2018 demo EP, two of which, The Sword Woman and Voyage of the Sunchaser, ended up on that debut. Coming hot on the heels of Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring, the EP solidified their position as a purveyor of epic doom to be taken seriously.
So now, after a gap of three, plague-ridden years they return with their sophomore, Violent Creed of Vengeance. Vocalist Sarah Ann and husband, guitarist Shon Vincent, have since moved from their native Canada to Finland and have put together a live band featuring Finnish musicians, but still record remotely with the original band, drummer Kevin Hester, bassist Adam Blake and guitarist Collin Wolf completing the lineup.
The first difference from the earlier recordings is that the production sounds much denser and has a noticeable "Scandinavian" feel to it. The second major departure is that this focusses less on the doom aspects, generally being of a higher tempo and feels like it references US power metal much more than epic doom metal acts like Candlemass or Solstice. They haven't abandoned the epic doom of their earlier material completely, tracks like Midnight in the Mirror World and the nine-minute closer Dragonslayer's Doom still bring the doom sufficiently to feed my doom addiction. That said though, tracks like The Talisman and the Blade and Spellforger fair hurtle by and are definitely more USPM than doom metal. Either way they cut it, the riffs are massive and the sound is huge, Adam Blake's bass sitting fairly prominently and driving things along superbly, although Kevin Hester's drums sound a bit subdued and could do with a bit more crispness to be honest. Sarah Ann's vocals are terrific, really powerful and clear and soar over the thunderous riffs to wondrous effect. The soloing is perfectly fine, even though it isn't especially exhilharating, but I don't really think that is what Smoulder want to emphasise here, the riffs and vocals being the main event.
Unsurprisingly, I guess, the final, doom-ridden epic Dragonslayer's Doom is my favourite of the seven cuts Smoulder have laid out for us here, although the faster stuff is great too and I think the album displays a nice balance between USPM heavy metal and epic doom that should appeal to devotees of either persuasion. The drum sound and lack of truly inspiring soloing prevent a top-tier score, but this is still a record I enjoyed massively.
4/5
I completely agree that as far as rating a release goes, then the qualiity of what is in front of you is all that should be of concern. What I was trying to say in my post was merely that whether a release is considered an EP or album is a matter for the band, but this shouldn't influence it's rating as that is subjective and the artist's intention isn't really relevant. If I was rating a 7" single and both sides were brilliant, Bowie's Life on Mars? / The Man Who Sold the World for example, then I have no problem doling out a 5 star rating, so why should an EP with 3 or 4 brilliant tracks (or even one longer one) not also have a similar rating. Never mind the length, feel the quality!
My sympathies go out to you Daniel. I have been made redundant twice during my working life, both times from huge UK companies (British Aerospace & Tesco) restructuring (aka hiring cheaper labour!) Both times it came out of the blue and so I know exactly how you are feeling, like it is some kind of mistake or something and you can't really take it all in or accept it. All I can say is that it is never the end of the world, no matter how it may seem at the moment, and I am positive you will land on your feet and bounce back stronger than ever.
Rightly or wrongly, albums are given much more weight in the rock and metal world and bands are generally judged on the quality of their studio album output. I am not saying that everyone views it this way, but the majority and certainly the "industry" do. As this is undoubtedly the case, I think the artist's view should have primary consideration as it is their work and vision which is being judged. If they feel that, for whatever reason, a release does not completely represent what they wish to convey, then I think they should have the right to designate it as a "minor" release, which is what the term EP has now come to imply. Even the case of Harbinger of Metal, it could be that these were old tracks that the band had been kicking around for years that they wanted the fans to have access to, yet didn't feel that they adequately expressed where the band were artistically at the time. True, to me, it doesn't sound out of place in their discography, but it is their vision, not mine.
Thus accepting that EP is merely a hangover term for a minor release from the heyday of vinyl distribution, it becomes obvious that length is irrelevant and it is all about artistic integrity. If a band wish to say, "this 15 minute release completely represents us as a band, where we are artistically, is important to us and is something upon which we wish to hang our legacy, so is an album", then so be it, who am I to argue.
Ii has been over two years since I last updated my list and I have been putting together a list of my AOTY's in the lists section, so now seems like a suitable time for a revision.
https://metal.academy/lists/single/231
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1971: Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
1972: Black Sabbath - Vol 4
1973: Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1974: Pinnacle - Assasin
1975: Black Sabbath - Sabotage
1976: Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny
1977: Motörhead - Motörhead
1978: Judas Priest - Stained Class
1979: Motörhead - Bomber
1980: Angel Witch - Angel Witch
1981: Iron Maiden - Killers
1982: Witchfinder General - Death Penalty
1983: Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
1984: Metallica - Ride the Lightning
1985: Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion
1986: Slayer - Reign in Blood
1987: Candlemass - Nightfall
1988: Sabbat - History of a Time to Come
1989: Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
1990: Winter - Into Darkness
1991: Autopsy - Mental Funeral
1992: Darkthrone: A Blaze in the Northern Sky
1993: Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version
1994: Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
1995: Mütiilation - Vampires of Black Imperial Blood
1996: Scald - Will of the Gods Is Great Power
1997: Skepticism - Lead and Aether
1998: Solstice - New Dark Age
1999: Opeth - Still Life
2000: Immolation - Close to a World Below
2001: Evoken - Quietus
2002: Reverend Bizarre - In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend
2003: Monolithe - Monolithe I
2004: Nehëmah - Requiem Tenebrae
2005: Tyranny - Tides of Awakening
2006: Warning - Watching From a Distance
2007: Shining - V-Halmstad
2008: Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale
2009: Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars
2010: Grand Magus - Hammer of the North
2011: Dead to a Dying World - Dead to a Dying World (2011)
2012: Hell - Hell III
2013: Subrosa - More Constant Than the Gods
2014: Saor - Aura
2015: Panopticon - Autumn Eternal
2016: Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä
2017: Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
2018: Bismuth - The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef
2019: Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence
2020: MSW - Obliviosus
2021: Panopticon - ...and Again Into the Light
2022: Messa - Close
2023: Khanate - To Be Cruel
Yeah, a lot of changes again, but what you gonna do??
Sorry, Vinny, I have nothing for The Pit this month.
My suggestions for September, Ben:
Belial - "Of Servant of Belial" (from "Wisdom of Darkness", 1992)
Decayed - "Pagan Winds Return" (from "The Conjuration of the Southern Circle", 1993)
Hey Ben, have you any suggestions for September's playlist?
I have found PoT to be an album that has grown on me more and more over the years. It is less immediate than it's predecessors and rewards more patience. I still rate Spreading the Disease and Among the Living higher, but Persistence is still a high quality thrash release and proves that when Anthrax stripped away some of the irreverence from their schtick that they were deserving of their place in the top tier of the thrash metal hierarchy.
So, here is my revised and extended funeral doom list with my top 30, none of which I have scored at less than 4.5/5.
1. Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence (2019)
2. Evoken - Quietus (2001)
3. Ahab - The Call of the Wretched Sea (2006)
4. Tyranny - Tides of Awakening (2005)
5. Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale (2008)
6. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (2017)
7. Skepticism - Lead and Aether (1997)
8. Shape of Despair - Angels of Distress (2001)
9. Worship - Last Tape Before Doomsday (1999)
10. Colosseum - Chapter 2: Numquam (2009)
11. Vin de Mia Trix - Palimpsests (2017)
12. Evoken - A Caress of the Void (2007)
13. Bell Witch - Four Phantoms (2015)
14. Arcana Coelestia - Le mirage de l'idéal (2009)
15. Ahab - The Boats of the Glen Carrig (2015)
16. Ea - Ea taesse (2006)
17. Shape of Despair - Return to the Void (2022)
18. Thergothon - Stream From the Heavens (1994)
19. Monolithe - Monolithe II (2005)
20. Slow - V - Oceans (2017)
21. The Funeral Orchestra - Funeral Death - Apocalyptic Plague Ritual II (2022)
22. Evoken - Embrace the Emptiness (1998)
23. Tyranny - Aeons in Tectonic Interment (2015)
24. Bell Witch - Longing (2012)
25. Loss - Horizonless (2017)
26. Monolithe - Monolithe I (2003)
27. Mournful Congregation - The Monad of Creation (2005)
28. The Slow Death - II (2012)
29. Ea - A etilla (2014)
30. Atavist - III: Absolution (2020)
Sleep - Dopesmoker (2003)
Sleep - The Sciences (2018)
It has been a long time since I was a literal stoner - I kicked all that shit before I turned thirty, but I believe, as I sit here in my early sixties, that I still have the heart and soul of a stoner. Despite this, I have not really paid that much heed to Sleep, which for a band so highly regarded in the stoner metal community, is very remiss of me. Truth is, I bought Sleep's Holy Mountain yonks ago but I wasn't terribly impressed by it's Sabbath copyist approach and I really failed to see what all the fuss was about. It was OK, but nothing special. So today's Fallen hole-filling is dedicated to a double-header from the Californian bong-meisters. Kicking off with The Sciences, whilst sauntering with Koko through the woods, I was pretty impressed with it's ultra-heavy doominess, Matt Pike's heaving riffs are manna from heaven for an old stoner like myself, but where it surprised me was in some of Pike's guitar soloing which reminded me a lot of 80's-era Frank Zappa on tracks like Sheikh Yerbouti's Yo' Mama and for which I am a real sucker.
This afternoon is the turn of the legendary Dopesmoker. I am listening as I type this and whilst I can understand some of the comments I see about needing to be hammered to "get it", I think I still carry enough of that stoner experience to be able to dig into it without the necessary narcotic accompaniment. I'm not gonna produce a full review now, but the crushing and hypnotic riffing along with Al's gruff vocal pronouncements is indeed having a narcotic effect on me and is actually incredibly relaxing.
For my money both of these are better than Holy Mountain and I expect to be teeing them both up again pretty soon and hopefully I'll be able to muster up a review or two. Anyway, it's been a great way to spend a lazy Saturday, now where did I put my old Cheech & Chong tapes?!
As I have given high scores to a couple of drone metal albums recently I am going to update my top drone metal list.
I have also made an actual list:
My Top 20 Drone Metal Releases by Sonny
1. Hell - Hell III (2012)
2. Earth - Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version (1993)
3. Bismuth - The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef (2018)
4. Khanate - To Be Cruel (2023)
5. Trees - Light's Bane (2008)
6. Boris - Boris at Last -Feedbacker- (2003)
7. Monarch! - Omens (2012)
8. Neptunian Maximalism - Éons (2020)
9. Wolvserpent - Aporia:Kāla:Ananta (2016)
10. Khanate - Khanate (2001)
11. Sunn O))) - Life Metal (2019)
12. Crawl - Damned (2023)
13. Big Brave - Vital (2021)
14. Sunn O))) - Black One (2005)
15. Nadja - Radiance of Shadows (2007)
16. Father Sky Mother Earth - Across the River of Time (2017)
17. Endless Floods - Circle the Gold (2019)
18. A Storm of Light / Nadja - Primitive North (2009)
19. Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions (2009)
20. The Body - No One Deserves Happiness (2016)
The opener from Windhand's self-titled 2012 debut drew a line in the sand for other female-fronted doom bands.
Windhand - Windhand (2012)
I am a real sucker for female-voiced stonerised doom metal and one of the prime exponents of the sub-sub-genre is Richmond's Windhand. The self-titled is their debut album from 2012 and it knocked me out when I heard it and it still holds it's power over me to this day. The guitar sound is immense and the riffs are absolutely monumental, like an earthquake in a thunderstorm and when Dorthia Cotterell's otherworldly vocals soar above this sonic devastation, I am in doom metal heaven. There is much competition in this field, but with this and even more so it's follow-up, Windhand have entrenched themselves firmly at the head of the field.
4.5/5
Sentenced - North From Here (1993)
I was looking for something to provide accompaniment on my Friday morning woodland dog-walk and landed on Sentenced whilst perusing my "bands I need to check-out" list. A quick bit of research seemed to indicate that the only Sentenced album that is really required listening is their sophomore "North From Here" and so here I am. I have never listened to Sentenced at all before (at least knowingly) and I found this to be pretty good to be honest. It has a blackened take on melodic death metal with most of the "blackness" coming from Taneli Jarva's vocals (who is nowadays bassist with Albert Witchfinder's Friends of Hell - circles within circles!) They also like to throw in the occasional nod to tech-death for a bit of variation, but this is mainly a bludgeoning deathly assault with a keen blackened edge. It has some nice solos and decent riffs and I do like the vocals, so this gets a big thumbs-up from me. I'm not sure if I'll be checking out too much more from them in the near future though, going by the commentary of the consensus.
4/5
My Dying Bride - As the Flower Withers (1992)
Me and MDB have a bit of a chequered past. When I was returning to metal in the early 2000s I got hold of mp3 rips of the band's complete discography up to that point (which was up to and including The Dreadful Hours, I think) and I was pretty keen on the Yorkshiremen's sound back then. However, I was playing catch up on the best part of a decade's metal development, during one of it's most evolutionary periods and I found myself exploring alleys and byways that took me further and further from the gothic musings of bands like My Dying Bride and into pastures new. My taste has mutated to such a degree that I am decidedly antipathetical towards what I often now view as the pantomime antics of a lot of gothic and gothic-tinged metal and, unfortunately, MDB singer Aaron Stainthorpe often makes me shake my head at his, what seem to me to be, OTT gothic tendencies, sounding sometimes like he has eaten a full set of Anne Rice novels and washed them down with a collection of Byron's poetry! Contrary to appearances otherwise, I don't hate My Dying Bride, far from it, but I just wish they would rein it in a bit sometimes.
So I decided to go back to MDB's debut full-length in the hopes of rekindling some of that affection I had for them a couple of decades ago now. I welcome the fact that the album lacks a lot of the overt gothicness (gothicicity?) of a lot of their later material and has quite a raw production. I think it safe to file this under death doom rather than gothic death doom and it even dallies with out and out death metal in places, The Forever People, for example. The more epic tracks such as Sear Me and The Return of the Beautiful, whilst bearing a similar structure to later epics, don't become bogged down by excess gothic window dressing and so retain a vitality and immediacy that a lot of MDB's more grandiose stuff just doesn't possess. They sound like a much more interesting prospect with this stripped-back production style and despite the sparseness of the production they still manage to sound gloriously melancholic. It is as if without all the technical shenanigans and enhanced studio techniques they have to rely more heavily on good, old-fashioned musical ability and songwriting. Generally Stainthorpe sticks to a gruff death metal growl and thankfully we don't get much of the laconic, world-weary vocal style he resorts to in later works that is always guaranteed to wind me up. The guitar riffs are thick and heavy and carry most of the album with their melancholy melodicism and intermittent bursts of aggression. The violin is employed on much rarer occasions than during your average, later MDB album and so is more effective when it does make it's presence felt.
Overall I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I might and this rawer side of My Dying Bride is something I would have loved to have heard more of. I guess this is not a popular opinion, but this is right up there as one of my favourite MDB albums.
4/5
Sunn O))) - Life Metal (2019)
I've had this one on the back burner for ages now, so decided now was the time to turn the heat up on it. It is Sunn O))), so there is unlikely to be a verdict from me anytime soon as this is not immediate music and I'll need a little while with it first.
Edit: After a couple of run-throughs I am loving this and I am going with a placeholding 4.5/5 for the time being.
Paradise Lost - Medusa (2017)
This week I have been deving a little further into Paradise Lost's discography, with particular emphasis on their later material. I really enjoyed 2015's The Plague Within, but I think that 2017's Medusa may be even better. For the Yorkshiremen to still be able to crank out an album this good after 30 years in the business is impressive by anyone's standards. There are some absolutely brilliant tracks on display here, the opening brace of Fearless Sky and Gods of Ancient is a killer way to kick off a doom metal album. Even the more overtly gothic-tinged tracks are great and that's not something you hear me say too often. I'm gonna spend a little more time with this over the next few weeks, but I am already eyeing a 4.5/5.
Interesting thoughts Sonny. The vocals were certainly challenging for me initially but I managed to see past them over time & now find "I've Seen All I Need to See" to be a really solid power electronics/drone metal record.
It is probably the power electronics that causes the issues for me. As I stated, I have enjoyed The Body previously, but I don't really think power electronics is for me. It sounds musically exactly what it sounds like literally - like power tools - and I've heard enough of them to last a lifetime!
Crowbar - Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form (2001)
I am currently endeavouring to fill some glaring gaps in my Fallen knowledge and Crowbar are one such omission. I have heard several tracks whilst compiling playlists for the Fallen, but album-wise I have only listened to their latest offering, 2022's Zero and Below, in it's entirety. Whenever I have encountered the band I have enjoyed their breed of sludge metal very much, so I figured it was high time I came to grips with arguably their best received album, Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form.
Well, by kicking off with an absolute beauty of a slab of sludgy awesomeness in opener, The Lasting Dose, they gave themselves a hard act to follow and an uphill struggle to maintain such a high level of quality for the entire three-quarters of an hour runtime. This track is a perfect balance between crushing heaviness and a pathos-infused, melancholy air, which is a tricky balancing act to carry off successfully, but they pull it off to devastating effect here, to the point where it reminds me a little of Patrick Walker's Warning - yes it's that good! So, after such an impressive opener you could he forgiven in thinking that the rest of the album may struggle to maintain the quality and while it is true that, at least for me, the other ten tracks fall a little short in comparison, this is still an impressive album.
My biggest issue with sludge is often in the vocal department and a lot of bands walk a bit of a tightrope, often tipping over into unlistenability for me, but Kirk Windstein has a gruffness to his delivery that ensures he never becomes "shouty", which is the point at which a band will lose me. The riffs are titanic and the production on the guitars is devastating, giving them a planet-crushing weight that suits those sludge-laden riffs perfectly, especially on the slower material. The riffing itself as well as being ridiculously heavy, is also tinged with that edge of melancholic introspection that is the real heart of top-drawer doom metal. Tony Costanza's drumming is simple and effective and, along with Jeff Okoneski's rumbling bass is the rock-solid foundation from which Windstein and Sammy Duet can launch those withering riff-barrages. The lyrics are perfectly legible despite the instrumental heft and with such memorable riffs, this is the kind of album you can suddenly find yourself singing along to.
There is a variation in tempo of the tracks to a certain extent but, personally, I find that it is the slower stuff that is most devastating, particularly Lasting Dose and Repulsive in Its Splendid Beauty. This is not only an album I will be returning to, but it is also one I will be seeking a physical copy of, such has it impressed me.
4.5/5
The Body - I've Seen All I Need to See (2021)
I am no hater of drone metal. Earth 2 is in my top ten metal albums of all time and I love Khanate, Sunn O))) and most of what Steven O'Malley and Greg Anderson put their name to. Hell, I even have The Body's 2016 album, No One Deserves Happiness scored as an eight out of ten. But I've Seen All I Need to See did very little for me, at least in a positive sense.
The majority of this album sounds like a recording of some demented maniac getting off in his garage on his comprehensive collection of power tools. The "vocals" consist of distant howls that often sound like an old-fashioned steam train whistle heard from several miles away. I must admit, it does pique my interest in one or two places, the track The City Is Shelled being the "standout" for me, but also the ending of opener, A Lament, when the thin keys come in and a couple of the drum patterns, such as early in The Handle / The Blade and during the latter half of Eschatological Imperative, are pretty decent. For the majority of the album, though, I just don't get it I'm afraid and a going-nowhere track like A Pain of Knowing just seems utterly futile. I've now done what I consider my due diligence and having listened through it three times in it's entirety, I can't see myself ever walking this particular path again. So, to paraphrase the album's title, I've Heard All I Need to Hear and let's leave it at that.
2/5
To be honest with you Vinny, I feel like I need to get something off my chest here as I think "Astral Fortress" is a heavily underrated release that represents yet another example of the inherent biases that perpetuate other websites. No, it may not be "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" Part II but it never claimed to be either. Darkthrone have sixteen full-length albums under their belt since the Unholy Trilogy at this point so people need to move on. Fenriz & Nocturno Culto certainly have. The cover artwork may not be in line with what the black metal elitists are looking for in their miserable, nihilist lives either but I think that was the whole point really. It makes me proud that our membership seem to able to look past these sort of prejudices in order to come up with a fair & well-informed position on releases like this one.
Hear, hear!
I absolutely love "De vermis mysteriis" Sonny & regard it as one of the top few stoner metal releases I've encountered over the years. But then... I'm an absolute tragic for production jobs like that one.
It IS a good record and it may be that I need a bit more time with it, but none of the tracks really jumped out and grabbed me by the throat on those first couple of listens. But, as I said in my short review, the production job is excellent. More stoner albums could do with a production job that heavy. On the evidence of this, I would really like to hear Kurt Ballou produce a Ufomammut album.
High On Fire - De vermis mysteriis (2012)
I have only really had a passing relationship with Oakland's High On Fire to date. I don't know why particularly as I have enjoyed the couple of albums I have heard previously, Blessed Black Wings and Death Is This Communion. Both of those were from the mid-2000's and so I have jumped forward a few years to 2012's De vermis mysteriis. There is no great divergence from the earlier albums and it consists once more of HOF's sludgy take on stoner metal. Most of the tracks fall into one of two camps, either pretty fast-paced, almost thrashy, stoner metal with a hard edge or a more doomy, slower take where the sludginess is more to the fore. The production of the album was handled by Converge's Kurt Ballou and he has done a bang-up job as the sound is super thick whilst still maintaining a superb clarity where every nuance of the instrumentation can be heard clearly, the drums and bass are beefy-sounding and certainly provide a solid foundation for the guitar work, whether it be the fast, intense riffing of tracks like Bloody Knuckles and the title track, or the more considered and heavier-sounding, slower riffs of Madness of an Architect or Romulus and Remus. It is unsurprisingly this slower material that I prefer, it sounding more intense and crushing than the thrashier stuff.
Overall this is a pretty solid album that does have a superb production job and while the tracks all possess the requisite heaviness and there are no duds, I'm not convinced that any of them are super-standout either.
3.5/5
I was fortunate enough to catch Anthrax on the Among the Living UK tour in a small hall in the Midlands and it was one of the best metal shows I have ever been to. Say what you like about them musically, but those guys could really work a crowd.
August 2023
1. Katatonia - "Brave" (from "Brave Murder Day", 1996) [submitted by Ben]
2. Saturnalia Temple - "March of Gha'agsheblah" (from "To the Other", 2015) [submitted by Sonny]
3. The Gathering - "Leaves" (from "Mandylion", 1995)
4. Bathsheba - "The Sleepless Gods" (from "The Sleepless Gods EP", 2015)
5. Anathema - "Sleep In Sanity" (from "Serenades", 1993) [submitted by Daniel]
6. Mournful Congregation - "Heads Bowed" (from "The Exuviae of Gods: Part II", 2023)
7. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - "Summer Comes to Multiply" (from "Obsession Destruction", 2023) [submitted by Sonny]
8. Swallow the Sun - "All Hallow's grieve" (from "Moonflowers", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]
9. Pentagram - "Evil Seed" (from "Day of Reckoning", 1987) [submitted by Daniel]
10. Iron Monkey - "Crown of Electrodes" (from "9-13", 2017)
11. Lucifer's Fall - "Doom in the Grave" (from "Children of the Night EP, 2023)
12. Grief Collector - "Asunder" (from "In Times of Woe", 2023)
13. Cathedral - "North Berwick Witch Trials" (from "The Garden of Unearthly Delights", 2005) [submitted by Sonny]
14. Astral Moon - "Arise, the Obelisk" (from "Into Solar Abyss", 2023)
15. Apparition - "Nonlocality" (from "Feel", 2021) [submitted by Daniel]
16. Woorms - "Find a Meal Find a Bed Find a God" (from "Slake", 2019)
17. Planet of the Dead - "Nashwan" (from "Fear of a Dead Planet", 2020)
18. Fires in the Distance - "Harbingers" (from "Air Not Meant for Us", 2023) [submitted by Ben]
Paradise Lost - The Plague Within (2015)
My first experience of Paradise Lost was when I bought their "Icon" album years ago when I saw it cheap on CD. Well, I didn't take to that album at all and as a consequence PL went onto my shitlist and I didn't pay them any mind for the longest time. However Nick Holmes popped up on 1914's superb "Where Fear and Weapons Meet" album and I was struck by how fantastic his voice sounded, so I became determined to give Paradise Lost another go. This time I went with their much-praised "Gothic" album which I found to be much more palatable. So now, after listening to another couple of earlier releases, I have arrived at 2015's "The Plague Within" and I must admit that Paradise Lost's redemption in my mind is complete because this album is fantastic. Whopping great doom riffs and Holmes' awesome vocals coupled with a superb production job that gives the guitars an unbelievable heft all make for a disc that is right up my street. There's a decent variation in pacing too, from the doominess of Victim of the Past to the out and out death metal riffing of Flesh From Bone that ensure that things never get too predictable. I think this is destined to be my favourite PL album.
4.5/5
Thanks for the excellent behind-the-scenes work you continuously do to give us all the best possible Academy experience Ben. I, and I am sure all the rest of the regulars, greatly apprciate you efforts and financial commitment.
Basically, Anthrax is the most likely of the four to get drunk first if they were all at a bar.
Given Hetfield's much-publicised alcoholism, I very much doubt it!
Over the last several months I was finding I had fallen out of love with black metal and only while listening to June's North playlist did it occur to me why. It is because I have been listening far too much to what is being touted as the latest bee's knees and stuff that is being championed by the online community rather than what I like myself. I have been performing all kinds of mental gymnastics in an attempt to get what it is others hear that I am missing with a lot of newer black metal and as a result I have been getting frustrated because I'm just not feeling it. Consequently, I've found myself starting to resent the genre and have latterly been turning away from it. So during the aforementioned playlist listening session I decided to go back to the basics of the genre, which is what I fell in love with in the first place. And that, my friends, is the explanation as to why I chose Armagedda's debut full-length as this month's North Feature. It is a little-known and unappreciated album from a short-lived band with a raw as fuck production that doesn't try to be anything other than evil-sounding, blasphemic black metal carved from the rock of the early second wave and that is exactly what I am in the black metal game for.
Armagedda are a Swedish three-piece comprising guitarist/bassist A (Andreas Petterson), who is also vocalist with Stilla, vocalist/guitarist Graav who is also known as solo artist LIK and drummer Phycon whose other gig is drummer with Swedish death metallers Feral. Originally splitting in 2004 after the release of their Ond Spiritism album, A and Graav started off again as folk metal band Lönndom until 2014 when that band too split-up. They then reformed Armagedda in 2020, despite saying back in '04 that the band was gone forever.
The Final War Approaching was released in 2001 and is a minimal production-values effort that has a blasphemous, icy edge to it, taking their cue from Darkthrone's classic era in it's minimalist execution. The point needs to be made that although the production is raw, it achieves perfectly the desired effect and it isn't messy in a demo-quality kind of way, as everything is quite distinct in the mix and this is certainly no unlistenable, muddy mess. Despite the vocals and riffing taking precedence, the bass and drums aren't short -changed and both are perfectly audible without becoming intrusive, which is always a danger, particularly with drumming. Graav has a nice line in cracked shrieking that sounds great in the context of this kind of raw production and produces the kind of infected, evil-sounding vocal performance that so suits the rawer style of black metal. The guitars have that thin, stripped back sound with a slight echo that the second wave was built upon and the riffs are great and with a pretty high memorability factor.
The Final War Approaching is the kind of album that perfectly sums up what I want from my black metal, you can virtually smell the blood and brimstone emanating from the record's grooves. Sure, all the experimentation, dissonance and avant-garde stylings are great in their place, but seem to have become the be all and end all among the black metal cognoscenti and they don't encapsulate what I look to black metal for. Being a dyed-in-the-wool, stuck-in-his-ways old bastard I will stick with the stuff that makes me happiest and that is exactly this kind of raw, unholy, blasphemous-sounding shit.
4/5
I think you're bang on there Sonny as those singalong choruses have definitely lost their lustre over the years. I simply don't find the hooks to be as mature as I remember them being as a thirteen year old when thrash metal was still so new to me. There's a lack of sophistication & depth in comparison to the releases that competitors like Metallica & Slayer were producing at the time.
I think, Daniel, that it wouldn't be unkind to label Anthrax as more of a "party" band than any of the other Big 4. It wasn't until Persistence that they finally began to mature thematically and songwriting-wise. That said, Spreading... and Among... are still a couple of great records that I spin on fairly regular rotation. I think internet music sites have made us music nerds a bit too po-faced and introspective at times and the theraputic value of a good singalong chorus should not be underestimated! Anthrax are a good place to turn when you have had your fill of Deathspell Omega, Ulcerate or Neurosis and you just feel like you need to lighten up a bit.
I was a big fan of State of Euphoria when it was released and I still think it has a couple of bangers on it - Now it's Dark and Schism being my personal favourites. In fact I used to prefer it to 1990's Persistence of Time. That position has since been reversed though because SoE seems to have aged less well than the rest of their material from this era. It is still a solid thrash album with some great sing along choruses. In fact that may be why it has lost some of it's appeal for me nowadays because since I gave up drinking many moons ago I am no longer to be found drunkenly roaring out chorus lines from the album at ridiculous hours of the night - "Now it's dark and I can see, Don't you fuckin' look at me!"
Hi Ben. Could you please add French pagan black metallers Griffar.
I think it is probably best if we put this one to bed before the mud-slinging gets too bad. Personally, I like the Academy forums because of the respect members show for each other's points of view, whether agreeing with them or not. If we are going the way of other sites then I'm afraid you can count me out and I will just go back to doing my own thing and leave the forums to others.
Not everyone has the same skills and abilities, Rex and I must admit, you seem extraordinarily fortunate in your ability to produce a review after one listen. But, speaking only for myself, I personally have an inordinate difficulty producing reviews and really have to concentrate in order to do so. In fact, weird though it sounds, I actually find producing reviews incredibly stressful. Like Daniel, it takes me several listens to firm up my impressions of a record and more often than not, by later listens I find my initial impressions are modified, if not completely changed. Of course if I really hate something on first listen then I am unlikely to follow with further listens.
Also why do you assume that we only listen to music in order to review it? Isn't it more important to listen for personal enjoyment? Why would I only want to listen to an album I enjoy one time? I understand your enthusiasm, but the nine chosen features (along with three or four 2-hour playlists) are more than enough for me as far as other people determining my listening habits for the month goes and I will pass on this initiative thanks.
Having just binned the review draft feature because of lack of time and inclination I personally don't fancy having another imposed review responsibility, so will respectfully decline.
A few notes on this month's playlist:
1. Katatonia - "Brave" (from "Brave Murder Day", 1996) [submitted by Ben]
Probably my favourite Katatonia track and a great pick from Ben which I thought would get us off to a great start.
2. Saturnalia Temple - "March of Gha'agsheblah" (from "To the Other", 2015)
Psyched-out doom with a ritualistic, rhythmic throb from these underappreciated Swedish doomsters. Imagine war-painted warriors and elephants marching to some looming ziggurat.
3. The Gathering - "Leaves" (from "Mandylion", 1995)
The acceptable side of Gothic Metal with a powerful vocal performance from Anneke van Giersbergen. Nicely melodic whilst still packing a bit of a punch.
4. Bathsheba - "The Sleepless Gods" (from "The Sleepless Gods EP", 2015)
After leaving Serpentcult, vocalist Michelle Nocon formed Bathsheba and this is the title track from their first EP. Powerful, fuzzed-up, female-fronted doom for fans of Windhand and the likes. Unfortunately the band split in 2018 just after the release of their first full-length.
5. Anathema - "Sleep In Sanity" (from "Serenades", 1993) [submitted by Daniel]
Nicely melodic death doom from the Scousers' debut.
6. Mournful Congregation - "Heads Bowed" (from "The Exuviae of Gods: Part II", 2023)
MC's second Exuviae of Gods EP (a mere 39 minutes long) continues the theme of the relics of long-forgotten gods. Head Bowed is a sublime blend of death doom and funeral doom that possesses the crushing weight and melancholy atmosphere at which the Aussies excel. I would strongly recommend both EPs to any fan of top-quality funeral doom.
7. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - "Summer Comes to Multiply" (from "Obsession Destruction", 2023)
From their debut album which has just been released after several EPs going back to 2017, this is hulking and ascerbic sludge metal and being another band opting for a Mariusz Lewandowski cover, that's a big thumbs up from me!
8. Swallow the Sun - "All Hallow's grieve" (from "Moonflowers", 2021)
From the superb Moonflowers album, this is another melodic, yet heart-rending, track from the pen of Juha Raivio as he still struggles to come to terms with personal loss and grief.
9. Pentagram - "Evil Seed" (from "Day of Reckoning", 1987)
Pentagram's signature heavier take on the Sabbath template seldom sounds better than here.
10. Iron Monkey - "Crown of Electrodes" (from "9-13", 2017)
Iron Monkey are a name I have seen bandied around for many a year now without ever actually registering with me that much. Well this is seriously heavy and kick-ass sludge that has guaranteed that I won't be forgetting them any time soon.
11. Lucifer's Fall - "Doom in the Grave" (from "Children of the Night EP, 2023)
A new EP from Australian doomers Lucifer's Fall should appeal to fans of the likes of Reverend Bizarre, although they do have a wry tongue in cheek a bit like England's Arkham Witch that may not appeal to everyone.
12. Grief Collector - "Asunder" (from "In Times of Woe", 2023)
A track from the Americans' recently released sophomore. Sounds a fair bit like Rob Lowe-fronted Candlemass, so if that's your bag then I would recommend you check the album out.
13. Cathedral - "North Berwick Witch Trials" (from "The Garden of Unearthly Delights", 2005)
OK, I know Lee Dorrian isn't to everyone's taste, but I fuckin' love that main riff to this tale of a 17th century English witch trial. The Garden of Earthly Delights is one of Cathedral's best albums and is one I would heartily recommend.
14. Astral Moon - "Arise, the Obelisk" (from "Into Solar Abyss", 2023)
This Rochester, NY doom solo act is a new one on me, despite this being from his new second album. It is vanilla-flavoured stonerised trad doom that isn't going to change the world, but if you are cool with that slow-paced, fuzzed-up shit then you'll be at home here. It does have a nice eastern feel to the instrumental breakdowns which makes it stick out a little.
15. Apparition - "Nonlocality" (from "Feel", 2021)
A nice pick by Daniel from one of last month's featured releases. Heaving death doom that is actually a bit more death than doom, but is great nonetheless. If you haven't checked this album out yet, you really should.
16. Woorms - "Find a Meal Find a Bed Find a God" (from "Slake", 2019)
A hulking, menacing track of sludgy doom from an underappreciated album. Cool cover too!
17. Planet of the Dead - "Nashwan" (from "Fear of a Dead Planet", 2020)
Groove-laden, mammoth-heavy vibes from the now defunct Kiwi cosmic stoners' 2020 debut. The whole album is heavy as fuck so if this track floats your boat there is plenty more where that came from!
18. Fires in the Distance - "Harbingers" (from "Air Not Meant for Us", 2023)
Closing out this month's playlist is Ben's selection of the opening track from the terrific sophomore from US death doomers Fires in the Distance. I think this is the best track on the album and it actually featured in June's Horde playlist, although I personally think it is much better suited here in the Fallen's melancholy embrace.
Well, it looks like I have got a bit of a head start on this month's features as this is another I have reviewed previously. Darkthrone are my favourite metal band and, like Vinny, I love their recent stuff and bought Astral Fortress on vinyl. Even the cover says "fuck you and your expectations!" and that is something I can respect. Anyway here's my previous review because I still stand by it:
If I was backed into a corner and was forced to choose my favourite metal band, then I would probably choose Darkthrone. Not just because of their classic black metal albums (although that is reason enough), but also because of their obvious passion for and love of metal that I too share, their absolute refusal to compromise in their musical endeavours and their lack of concern as to how they or their music are perceived by the outside world. Let's face it, how many metal bands would dare even think of putting out an album with a cover that is merely a photograph of the drummer ice skating?
So, anyway, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto return with their 20th studio album and continue with their crusty, blackened take on doom and heavy metal that came to the fore on previous release, Eternal Hails. This one is a take on late-80's, early-90's underground trad doom fed through a blackened crust filter, but updated with better production and, in truth, it differs very little from it's predecessor to the extent that they could both have been released together as a double album and no one would have batted an eyelid. I know most metalheads now want to shit on Fenris and Nocturno for not endlessly recycling A Blaze In the Northern Sky, but this is what they do now. Is it as good as their 90's stuff? Well obviously not, but I quite enjoy this tiny niche that the duo have carved out for themselves and their more recent material is kind of quaint in it's lack of pretension and total disregard for trends or adherence to the zeitgeist. For those who know of it, Fenris and Nocturno Culto kind of remind me of Lance and Andy from the BBC show Detectorists with their dogged refusal to be affected by the world at large and their almost idealistic existence in their own little corner of the globe.
Where I feel Darkthrone succeed most, is in their ability to gradually reshape their music in directions that interest them whilst still embracing a unifying "sound", as in the blackened crust that still forms the backbone of what they are about, whatever other genre thay may be focussing on otherwise. This continuity gives us diehard fans a way into whatever it is they are doing and with it comes a kind of surety as to what you are going to get. Darkthrone seem uninterested in suddenly changing direction for the sake of it and are unlikely to throw out too many jarring curveballs to their audience. Of course, this is much to the chagrin of a lot of the online metal community, whose almost ADHD-like desire for continuous change and intellectual challenge (from albums the majority will only listen to once or twice) makes a band like Darkthrone anathema to them and attracts huge amounts of criticism as the keyboard warriors vent their spleen against the duo. But of course by then, Fenriz is off skating up some frozen fjord and couldn't give two fucks what some music know-all from gods-know-where has to say about it!
Astral Fortress starts out very strongly with Caravan of Broken Ghosts which has a great crusty trad doom main riff that gets even better when the duo put their pedal to the metal on the speeded up section that used to be one of the staples of trad doom, the track as a whole coming off as a necroticised version of Pentagram or early Saint Vitus. I think Nocturno and Fenriz take their feet off the gas a little on the next couple of tracks, Impeccable Caverns of Satan and Stalagmite Necklace. They are decent enough and I really like the main black 'n' roll riff of the former, but they lack dynamism and start to drag the album down a bit, sounding as they do like outtakes from Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales that didn't make the cut. So, despite side one tailing off to some extent, side two is a much more convincing experience. Kicking off with the bizarrely named The Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea, the track itself is bookended by an intro and outro that sound a bit like very early (circa Fly By Night) Rush - believe it or not! The track as a whole is Darkthrone's own particular take on a ten minute trad doom epic that sounds like it's been dug up after thirty or forty years of decay. Next up, Kervorkian Times is my favourite track on the album with a killer main riff and Nocturno Culto spitting fire and bile, proving that even in their fifties these guys are still underground metal legends. A short instrumental and we're into final track Eon 2, which doesn't on the face of it have anything to do with the instrumental Eon off of Soulside Journey, but which does contain a Maiden-esque galloping riff before it settle back into the doom-pacing of the rest of the album.
Nocturno Culto's vocals are undiminished by time and he still fires out riffs left, right and centre and Fenriz is a complete legend so, to me, the world is a much better place with a band like Darkthrone and their love of metal and refusal to compromise still in it. So what I'm trying to say is "fuck the haters".
4/5
I checked this out whilst we were going through the best albums of 2021 (wow, was it really that long ago, it seems like five minutes) and it really chimed with my taste. I even purchased a CD copy from Bandcamp. I'll just re-iterate my short review from at the time:
"For me the best kind of industrial music isn't totally alienating, but also has some humanity to it and I think Fange achieve that here with the sludge and death metal elements working in synergy with the industrial. The hot-blooded passion of the sludge metal vocals provide a searing counterpoint to the coldness of the machine-like death metal riffs. These death industrial riffs are also overlaid with atmospheric sludge lead work that once more lends it a more human face and the layers help to build an interesting atmosphere that speaks of resistance to the inevitable that is yet tinged with a fatalistic futility, anger and self-loathing.
This all makes for an album that is extremely heavy and confrontational and may not be to every industrial fans taste - this isn't Rammstein or Fear Factory, there are no melodic hooks to hang on to, in fact it has quite a negative atmosphere derived from it's sludge metal roots. It is quite short though, comprising just two 15 minute tracks and this definitely works in it's favour as it doesn't allow time to become jaded with the relentless pessimism and crushing heaviness of it's riffing. All in all this has got to be one of my favourite industrial releases of recent years so if you like industrial metal with a bit of sullen intensity then I would strongly recommend Pantocrator. "
A lot of black metal fans seem to take against Gorgoroth's Destroyer: Or About How to Philosophize With the Hammer, but it's my favourite Gorgoroth album.
I still maintain that Suicidal Tendencies have never topped their debut and as such were a better hardcore band than a thrash band. I still spin that album quite often (even though the Reagan stuff is outdated now) but almost never play any of their later material.
Generally a pretty good bunch of releases for me, apart from one which was never intended for my ears and one absolute stinker.
The metaphorical golden statuette for Feature of the Month goes to Saxy for the excellent Tómarúm album.
THE INFINITE: Tómarúm - "Ash in Realms of Stone Icons" (2022) 4.5/5
THE PIT: Blood Tsunami - "Grand Feast For Vultures" (2009) 4.5/5
THE HORDE: Bloodbath - "Unblessing the Purity" E.P. (2008) 4/5
THE FALLEN: Tzompantli - "Tlazcaltiliztli" (2022) 4/5
THE REVOLUTION: Whitechapel - "A New Era Of Corruption" (2010) 4/5
THE NORTH: Tilintetgjort - "In Death I Shall Arise" (2023) 4/5
THE SPHERE: Scorn - "Vae Solis" (1992) 3/5
THE GATEWAY: Sleep Token - "Take Me Back to Eden" (2023) 1.5/5
THE GUARDIANS: Grave Digger - "Knights of the Cross" (1998) 1/5
I'll not be posting a review for this, but I have checked it out and I found it to be a particularly effective representation of the hypnoticism of mechanisation. Personal favourites were "Walls of My Heart" and "On Ice" and if the album had ended after "On Ice" then it would have scored much higher, because after that point I found it became a bit tedious to be honest, with the stronger material front-loaded. "Heavy Blood" and "Orgy of Holiness" in particular I found to be a bit wearisome.
3/5
I am not currently in the right headspace to produce decent (or even coherent) reviews, but I have listened to this and found it to be excellent. Where it scores over a lot of other progressive black metal is that the black metal parts absolutely rip. A Mariusz Lewandowski cover will always see me going in with a positive frame of mind anyway and here it is not even remotely misplaced. Hopefully I will be able to return to this and put together a decent review at some future date.
4.5/5