Sonny's Reviews

I'm not a huge fan of DSBM, Bethlehem however, are one of the founders of the sub-genre, and are one of the better exponents of this style of black metal. The central riff to Dämonisch im ersten Blitz is particularly cool, reminding me of the kind of riff The Stooges may have used around the time of Raw Power! The album as a whole is less overbearingly self-obsessed as most DSBM and even manages to be pretty evil-sounding at times.

A masterclass in contemporary Funeral Doom - crushing, suffocating riffs relieved by heavenly, ethereal moments of beauty.

Firstly we need to put this album into context. It was recorded by founding member Dylan Desmond and new drummer and vocalist Jesse Shreibman after the other original member, Adrian Guerra, had to leave the band due to ill health. Shortly after recording began the former drummer sadly passed away and as a result the tone of the album shifted. Intended as a single 83 minute piece, due to the restrictions of physical formats, it was split into two parts for the CD double-disc release (the titles of which were As Above and So Below) and into four for the double album vinyl release. So, unusually, the digital release is the one that actually presents the album as originally intended.

Now this isn't an album for the impatient, as I'm sure you've figured out by it's length alone and it's subject matter and tone are not going to be to everyone's taste, but for those willing to give it the time, this is an extremely rewarding piece of music. For those unfamiliar with Bell Witch, they have no guitarist with the role being cleverly covered by Dylan Desmond's bass (and organ, to a lesser extent). I think this makes for a gorgeous subtlety in the sound of the album, adding an even greater depth to the already heavily melancholic atmosphere.

The album is made up of three parts, the second of which is called The Words of the Dead and, poignantly, features vocals recorded by Adrian Guerra for the previous album that were never used. Mirror Reaper is several degrees lighter than the usual funeral doom release, due to the lack of crushing guitar work and often minimalist approach, but this makes the atmosphere even more, not less, melancholy. Even so, ultimately the album does seem to reach a hopeful and positive conclusion. This is obviously a very personal piece of music to the band and an expression and processing of loss with which anyone who has felt similarly bereft can identify and maybe emerge on the way to healing, allowing a kind of catharsis, rather than merely an expression of melancholic doom.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the absolutely gorgeous cover artwork from the premier cover artist working currently, Mariusz Lewandowski, who's "Hooded Reaper" illustrations are also gracing several extreme metal releases of the recent past from bands such as Mizmor and False.

Ted & Gylve's best album for quite some time harkens back to the first wave  and the blackened metal sound of Hellhammer and Bathory. Yet, despite the retro-black aesthetic, the album still sounds vital and relevant these 30 years later. Darkthrone are one of the most important and respected black metal bands because they stayed true to themselves and never put out albums just to please others. The fact that so many people still give a shit what they're doing attests to that and more power to them.

In a way, from this album to Panzerfaust, Darkthrone are kind of beyond criticism. First off, do Fenris and Ted strike anybody as the kind of guys who could give a shit what I or anyone else think of either them or their music? These two guys have only ever produced the records they want to make, no matter how that's been received. Secondly, if you dislike black metal, then you will almost certainly hate A Blaze... despite what anyone else says. Thirdly, these guys, along with no more than a handful of others, defined black metal in the early nineties, so if you claim to be a fan of BM, but hate this, then sorry, I really don't get where you're coming from.
This album is genuinely THE shit and one of the defining albums in the history of Black Metal. If you don't own it already, then stop what you're doing and get it... NOW!

I really don't think this album get's as much credit as it deserves. I will admit to being more than a little biased, as it was not only the first Sabbath album I bought, as a naive 14 year-old in 1976, but the first metal album I ever bought, so maybe I will always see it through rose-tinted spectacles. Yes, it was a departure from previous album Sabotage and a couple of tracks were a bit of a misfire (She's Gone and It's Alright aren't great) but the rest of the album kicks ass and has three of my favourite Sabbath tracks - Gypsy, You Won't Change Me and Tony Iommi's finest ever solo on stormer of a closing track, Dirty Women. Beyond that, compared to the following album, Never Say Die and all the output between Dio's Mob Rules and Dehumanizer it's a fucking bona fide classic.

Forget all the revisionary bullshit that claims otherwise, metal was born in a thunderstorm under the sound of a tolling church bell. Tony Iommi's first huge riff rumbling out of the grooves of this record, is the genuine Big Bang moment for metal music. Geezer Butler and Bill Ward hammer late 60's blues rock into a new and exciting form and Ozzy proclaims "I may not be the best vocalist ever, but, fuck you, I AM the greatest"
That this record is still relevant to so many people, almost fifty years after it's release, speaks volumes for both it's importance and quality. On side one Sabbath pretty much write the Commandments of Metal as Tony Iommi begins an unrivalled, decades-long career of churning out awesome riff after awesome riff.
If you don't love this album, then you don't like metal.

When people talk of atmospheric metal releases they usually point to atmospheric sludge or atmo-black albums and it is true, these can both conjure up marvellous atmospheres. I particularly enjoy the natural world atmospherics of atmospheric black metal, be it the icy coldness of bands like Paysage d'Hiver and ColdWorld, the sweeping highland majesty of Saor or the awe-inspiring cosmic metal of Darkspace or Mare Cognitum. However, nothing expresses the atmosphere of the most fundamental forces of the natural world, such as heaving tidal forces, than funeral doom. At it's best it is overwhelming and implacable, either smothering or sweeping away all that stands before it in the same way that lava flows or tidal waves are capable of doing. German four-piece Ahab and their debut album The Call of the Wretched Sea, based on the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville from whence they get their name, is one of the great albums for summoning up the sensation of being out on the deep ocean and it's immense tidal forces, along with the interaction of Ahab with it's most huge and implacable denizen, the white whale Moby Dick himself. As we all know, Mastodon released their classic Leviathan album two years prior, but the fact that they both draw on the same source material is the only real connection and I don't think Leviathan had any influence on Call of the Wretched Sea at all. The Mastodon album is a straight-up narrative of storytelling whereas Ahab's aims for a more immersive and overwhelmingly tactile experience.

Funeral doom metal is not really for the impatient and will most likely always be a niche genre, particularly with the modern world's obsession with instant gratification and ADHD-like impatience in it's junkie-like hunt for that next dopamine hit. However, for those willing to invest the time and to surrender themselves to it's all-pervasive heaviness, funeral doom is ultimately one of the most rewarding of metal genres. Call of the Wretched Sea is one of the greatest examples of why and is one of the absolute peaks of funeral doom metal in my opinion. There is a genuine sensation while listening to this that forces way beyond our ken or ability to control are at large and that ultimately men are at the whim of these vast, unknowable forces. Whilst listening to this and indeed any truly great funeral doom, I feel like it registers on a physical level and can almost feel it's ebbing and flowing within my own bloodflow, such is the power of this music for me.

Despite being over an hour in length Call of the Wretched Sea never gets dull or overly repetitive as there is more than enough going on to keep things interesting, but it is never hurried and the tracks are allowed the time to develop in a natural and organic way. Funeral doom gets a reputation for being monolithic and eschewing riffs for huge chords, which can certainly be true, but here there are definitely some great riffs, albeit they are exceedingly slow, smothering, and crushingly heavy - check out the riff to The Sermon, it is basically an ultra-slow, mega-heavy sea shanty. Keyboards are used fairly subtly, but they add an extra layer to the already thick atmosphere that increases the cloying nature of the music and adds to the sensation of being dragged down to a watery grave in the lonely isolation of the vast and unforgiving ocean. Daniel Droste's subsonic growl further adds weight and sounds like some Cthulhian elder crooning into a drowning man's ear to just let go and surrender to the ocean's lure.

This is not just one of my favourite funeral doom albums, but one of my favourites of any genre, metal or otherwise and stands as testament to sheer unadulterated heaviness and almost palpable atmospherics.