Entry 1622 - Secret of Maya - マヤの秘密

Style: dungeon synth, fantasy synth

Thoughts: This is a first for me. I don't know the musical artist for this record, but I do know the cover artist. They've been a friend for many years and it's amazing to see them work with one of my favorite labels. I may or may not have had something with getting the two of them in touch, but you know that's a story for another day.

In terms of the music Secret of Maya is classic dungeon synth with a fantasy bent. It's not modern fantasy synth by any means but it has that fantasy feel that so many great dungeon synth albums have. Rather than the more atmospheric approach Secret of Maya tries to emulate the old computer role playing game soundtracks of yesteryear. Games that would utilize PC speaker, or you would have to install a sound blaster card into the motherboard of your old x386 to get working correctly. Those kind of soundtracks.

You don't get this kind of music through complexity. Rather you have some two to three instruments at any given time playing simple melodies on synths that don't even try to sound like the real instruments. It's glorious. 

There are a lot of different moods on here: triumph, mystery, tragedy, defeat, victory. They all have their moment in this thirty minute epic, though none for too long. Most of the songs are only a few minutes long and repeat themes only once or twice before moving on. It's a microcosm of an entire world held within a spinning disc. 

Secret of Maya has been a wonderful surprise to delve into. It pays tribute to a bygone era while still maintaining listenability to modern audiences. The idea of composing music in a long abandoned way but using modern production methods and not dealing with compressed synths is indeed a great boon. Yet another entry into the dungeon synth lexicon that solidifies my enjoyment of this amazing genre.

Entry 1621 - Sunken - Departure

Style: atmospheric black metal

Thoughts: About fifteen years ago there was a movement that started in black metal. It combined the tenets of black metal and mixed them with post rock. The two styles meshed together better than I would have possibly imagined, and a new sub-genre of black metal was born. About ten years later Sunken releases Departure, a black metal album that is steeped in the essence of post rock. 

Black metal such as this is at it's very best when it fully embraces two things: the dynamics of post rock, and fully committing to blast beats when needed. Sunken certainly has committed to the dynamic nature of post rock. There are multiple points in this album where the music fades away to near nothing and we hear something akin to waves lapping upon the shoreline. These moments of quiet are some of my favorite in the entire album. They contrast the harsh metal elegantly and gives moments of still in a flurry of riffs. 

The second facet however the band excels a bit less at. The band is not shy about using blast beats, but they have trouble committing to them. There are moments on here that I swear would be better suited for a flurry of drums but the drummer for whatever reason simply cannot commit to blasting with all their might. 

Sunken is not the only band that this has happened with. Multiple other bands have fallen into this same trope where they will slow the music down for no good reason, and it drives me nuts. I am still looking for the album where the band can harness this immense atmosphere that comes from the fusion of these two genres, but fully commits to the blast throughout the album. Sure variety is needed, but dammit I want a band that fully embraces the speed aspect of black metal for once. 

Complaints aside, Departure is a great album. Sure it drives me nuts that they can't commit to a blast beat from time to time, but even when they don't the album is well written. The atmosphere remains in tact, and with the slower sections we get to see the band lean into melody a bit more. So not all is lost. 

Sunken's debut album is a great entry into the atmospheric black metal field. When they do pop off it's something to behold (the first few minutes of the track Sunken is incredible). I do wish that they would cast of their self imposed chains sometimes but the restraint also allows the band to feel more profound when they do finally go unrestrained. So who knows, maybe I'll come around to this style eventually... right now though I'll just be content to try and enjoy this album for what it is. Warts and all.

Entry 1620 - Bloody Valkyria - In Our Home, Across the Fog

Style: melodic black metal

Thoughts: Music based on video games is nothing new. There's tons of tributes and remake albums out there that put video game music into all sorts of genre, metal being one of the more popular ones to recreate music into. 

What is not as common though is an entirely original work based on the lore of a specific game - specifically Elden Ring. However, those who have played the game will know instantly where Bloody Valkyria takes their inspiration from. The title of the album echoes the first words when starting up the game as well. 

I was skeptical of the album at first. The cover is an obvious tribute to the Erd Tree and all the people who live in the Lands Between, but how good could the music be? After one listen I knew that I was going to have to find a way to procure the album. 

Not only is the music well composed, both melodically and structurally, it has an epic scope that is missing from so many of the projects on Northern Silence Productions. For those who know the label, Bloody Valkyria is very similar in the basic function of the music: lots of keyboards, symphonic elements, and melodic black metal. 

This however is not the typical Northern Silence Productions release. The atmosphere is thicker. The melodies are stronger. The black metal fiercer. The songs are true epics, befitting of the subject matter. You can tell that Bloody Valkyria loves this game and it's lore. The lyrics are steeped in the sorrow that comes from the Lands Between. The melodies weep with the sorrow of the Shaman Village, the birthplace of Queen Marika. 

All of In Our Home, Across the Fog is worth listening to, even if you have never played the game. For those of us that have, this is the pinnacle of tribute. Some truly excellent melodic black metal intermixed with the passion that the project has for the subject matter makes this one of the years strongest releases. 

Entry 1619 - Micromecha - Time Flows Constantly

Style: Barber beats, vaporwave

Thoughts: I find myself in a predicament. Every time I listen to this album I get different feelings. Yesterday I was listening to Micromecha's Time Flows Constantly and I swear I did not like a lot of the songs on it. Today I put it on to finally do my write up on it and I swear those same songs sound a ton better, if not great. What on earth is going on here?

Maybe this album is entirely dependent on my mood? Maybe the music is a chameleon that reveals different parts of itself depending on what time of day I listen to it? Who knows, but I'm certainly fascinated by it.

Time Flows Constantly is a barber beats album, that much is undeniable. What is a bit different though is how it comes across. Rather than something you would hear in a lounge or a dingy bar, this music comes across almost like a classic James Bond movie soundtrack. It's got a sway to it that gives the music an inherently sexy feel. 

The way the music progresses as well is a bit more cinematic. The same moments are repeated throughout the songs but there is a real progression to them, the melodies evolve, there's modulation, and even though the music is repetitious it never truly gets boring. 

All of this gives it that classic "spy movie" feel. A sense of mystery, a sense of espionage. What's going to happen next? No one knows, but make sure you stay tuned! I think that this is kind of where I find myself wondering what I think about this album. It's not that it's different, it's that some of the music doesn't meet my expectations for the genre... and honestly that's a me problem. 

I'm intrigued now, I'm going to stick this one out and see where we end up. Well done Micromecha on creating something that has me truly interested in the barber beats genre again.

Entry 1618 - In Flames - Whoracle

Style: melodic death metal

Thoughts: What a time to be alive. I never thought I would have this album in my collection... ever. The nearest pressing was over a decade ago and cost well above what I was comfortable paying for a single record. Luckily St. Anders decreed that the entire backlog would be repressed, and Whoracle was among the second batch of that decree. 

There are important albums in my history as a metal fan. There are some albums that dictated my taste for forever more. Then there are albums that formed the bedrock of my musical taste. Whoracle is one of those bedrock albums. It's not the singular most important metal album in my history, but it certainly is in the top ten. 

Melody is a concept that few death metal bands had. Brutality is a concept that few melodic bands ever explored. Melodic death metal was the perfect combination of those two forces, and by the time Whoracle released the band had refined their sound down to an instantly recognizable monolith. 

Out of all the bands out there I can't think of a singular one that has a more recognizable riffing style than early In Flames (and by extension Iron Maiden). The dual harmonies mixed with the near death metal riffs... it's enough to make a grown man cry. The melodies bore their way into my head and simply will. not. leave. 

Every moment of this album is flushed with melody. Every riff has melodic accents. Even melodies have melodic accents. The instrumental portions are especially great, working in layer up on layer of melodies for minutes on end. It's one thing if the band had a good song here or there, but man this whole album is chalked to the brim with amazing riff after amazing riff.

Anders is also in top form. Before he lost his ability to growl in any significant way we got several albums where he sounds absolutely fantastic. He matches the ferocity of the music in a way that few could. His deep and powerful voice drives the music forward in a commanding manner. The chaotic moments of his early days are now gone and we have a refined growl that shows a controlled rage that few can match. 

I feel like I could write about this album for forever. How Jotun starts the album off with an instantly recognizable riff. How Jester Script Transfigured works in some of the trademark acoustic work of the early albums. How Episode 666 and Everything Counts create some of the most powerful moments of the album towards the end. About how the instrumental tracks enrich the album to no end. I could go on and on for nearly forever about how much I love Whoracle, but I wont. Instead I'll simply say that this album does not get enough praise, and I know how much praise its gotten in the past. It's simply not enough.

Entry 1617 - Witherfall - Nocturnes and Requiems

Style: power/progressive metal

Thoughts: I only found about this band recently. Their album A Prelude to Sorrow blew me away, so I had to get another one. Nocturnes and Requiems is their debut album and it kicks all sorts of ass.

While not as strong as their second opus, Nocturnes and Requiems still showcases the same prowess for creating excellent music. The riffs, the song structures, the vocals, the tasteful drumming, everything contributes to the album as a whole. 

One of the things that initially drew me to this band is how well they create songs that sound like stories - not just lyrically but also musically. That is exactly what is on display throughout the entirety of Nocturnes and Requiems. The riffs weave throughout each other to create this musical tapestry that tells a narrative.

The song structure is the key contributor to this effect. The riffs individually are excellent, but the way that they are chained together and how they ebb and flow is what differentiates this band from so many others. They know how to write h e a v y yet complex riffs. These same riffs will some the same technical prowess as many prog bands, but they will actually be enjoyable to listen to. Do you know how hard it is to create a musical hook in a progressive metal song? Judging by how few bands do it, I think that it's safe to say that it's pretty difficult. 

The narrative spoken by both the vocals and the music on Nocturnes and Requiems is dynamic. It oscillates between lengthy acoustic sections, neo-classical riffing, and of course the ultra heavy riffs that were described earlier. Each song is a miniature epic that sweeps me up in it's narrative. 

Witherfall has been a glorious find in my metal collection. I want to try and get some more of their discography in my collection. The two albums I have are absolutely outstanding and warrant multiple listens on every trip tot he turntable. Possibly one of the better new (to me) bands I've come across in a long while.

Entry 1616 - Astrophysics - Hope Left Me

Style: video game music, breakbeat, drum n bass

Thoughts: Maybe I misunderstood what Astrophysics was. I though they were a breakbeat/drum n bass project that had an anime aesthetic. Instead the stuff that I've heard is a combination of goth rock with some light drum n bass elements. It's taken me a while to wrap my head around this.

Hope Left Me is supposedly a soundtrack to a game. How this is accomplished I don't know. This sounds like a fully fledged album to me. Songs that are designed to be played on their own. Well defined tracks that blend into each other. I'm actually pretty curious to see how this is pulled off in the game because this does not show any of the tell tale signs of being a game soundtrack.

In terms of what Hope Left Me offers is exactly as described above: goth rock with some minor drum n bass elements. The basis sounds like something Fields of the Nephilim or Sisters of Mercy would write in the 80's. Clean guitars with simple one note riffs played over and over. The vocals are vocoded and every now and then we get a glimpse into the more electronic side with synth leads and drum n bass patterns. Sometimes everything mixes together, sometimes it doesn't That is Hope Left Me in a nutshell.

I'm not sure what I think of the album to be completely honest. It feels like there is some cool ideas here, I just am not sure I like the execution. That said I am curious enough to come back and re-listen. In experience that is typically a great sign for me liking an album in the long term. We'll just have to wait and see with Hope Left Me.  

Entry 1615 - BVdub - Heartless

Style: hazy ambient

Thoughts: Every now and then when I write for this blog there's an album that stands out one way or another. An album that I have fond memories of. An album that I've been on the hunt for a long time. An album that creates a sort of epiphany - either in my life or musically. In one way or another Heartless is all of these things and more.

I have been searching for this album at a reasonable price for nearly seven years. I have so many stories trying to find it. I found it on a record stores website only for it to be out of stock. I got messaged by a close friend that it was available nearby, by the time I was able to respond the record was gone. Another friend informed me that a decently priced copy was on Discogs. Again, gone by the time I saw it. I felt like I was cursed. 

Finally though, FINALLY - I have one of the finest records that BVdub has ever created. I have Heartless.

BVdub creates ambient music that is nearly instantly recognizable as his own. Within a few moments of one of his works I can tell. It's the atmosphere, it's the production, it's the way the music presents itself, it's the feeling of desolate solitude that permeates every moment. It's all of this and so many things that I can't even perpetuate into words.

Heartless itself is an album of shorter compositions (for BVdub). Consisting of eight tracks, each song still is a formidable length, however not the twenty minute epics that the artist is capable of. The shorter length allows BVdub to explore more themes than one would typically hear on one of his albums. While all similar in scope the execution is quite varied. 

The opener, Sleepless for instance, features a dense atmosphere that builds and builds until it seemingly reaches a climax. At that very moment though all of the music drops out except a singular piano note. A small string of notes follow to weave together the simplest of melodies. It subverted my expectations as I was expecting a huge bombastic climax, what we got instead was the exact opposite. Small, fragile, delicate. In many ways this is more profound than anything Brock could have done by having an explosion of sound. Rather we now have an explosion of emotion.

This constant build and contract is found throughout the album but in different forms. Heartless loves to play with my emotions as I listen to it. It's overwhelming at one moment, only to be entirely transparent the next. It's an album that never stops subverting my expectations, and continues to only cater to itself. 

In many ways Heartless is one of the finer albums that I've listened to in a long while. Sure there are plenty of good ambient albums, plenty of good albums that bring out emotions in me... but not the way that Heartless does. It digs deep and messes with me. It finds my base emotions and toys with them, molds them to what it wants me to feel, not what I want to feel. An album that I can now finally say that I have and will never let go of.  

Entry 1614 - Arthuros - Ithildin

Style: dungeon synth

Thoughts: Sometimes I feel like I'm in a time capsule. Listening to some mid 2010's dungeon synth is wild sometimes. The genre was just coming back to prominence after nearly a decade of being lost to time. Some of these early works have some truly fascinating and incoherent moments in them. Others have moments of brilliance. 

Ithildin has a bit of both... there are moments of pure wonder on this album. There are also moments where I just have to scratch my head asking what on earth was going on during the recording of this part. At its best Ithildin is a journey through celestial realms, traveling alongside frozen comets as they float through the night sky. At its worst the album is an assortment of random notes played in quick succession.

Arthuros' debut is obviously an experiment. The album is minimalistic, almost to a fault. There are only one or two things going on at any given moment. It's enough to create music, but rarely enough to create a dense atmosphere or anything of the sort. This does not mean that it is bad however, it seems like it's an intentional limitation instead.

I love this limitation personally. It feels like there are just a few ideas present and that allows Arthuros to play around with them just a bit more than if there were more instruments. There are points where the melodies dance around like sprites on a spring. Sometimes they succeed, other times they fall flat, but they still are fascinating to listen to. 

This is one of those albums where I don't necessarily enjoy all of it, but I find it absolutely a joy to listen to. Its so innocent and so full of hope and ideas that may or may not come to fruition that I just have to give it the proper due. This is absolutely the kind of hidden gem that I love finding when doing deep dives into genres. It only drives me thirst for new (to me) and interesting music more.

Entry 1613 - Aphex Twin - Ambient Works Volume 1

Style: Beat driven ambient, IDM

Thoughts: Aphex Twin. One of the most influential projects in all of electronic music. One of the most beloved, debated, and controversial artists in the past thirty years. I know so many people that love this project, specifically this album above nearly everything else in their collection. I am not one of those people.

While I see a lot of the influence that this release has, I don't particularly care for the way that this release sounds in general. Sure there are some standouts where the drums are minimized, but most of the album comes across to me as pointless noodling with different loops and effects. Calling this ambient is a bit of a stretch and even then the ambient that is here is short lived. 

What really bugs me the most about the record is how one idea will be pushed to its logical limit and then pushed some more. These ideas way overstay their welcome and they aren't as much abrasive as they are annoying. I suppose given this projects reputation that this is entirely the point, but I would rather not listen to music that I find annoying... but rather music that I enjoy spending time with.

I have spent tons of time with this album and cannot derive enjoyment out of it as a whole. There are some ideas that are great, but most simply make my eyebrow twitch. Oh well, you can't enjoy everything out there. 

Entry 1612 - Fogweaver - Labyrinthine

Style: dungeon synth

Thoughts: Dungeon synth may very well be on its way to becoming my favorite genre - dethroning black metal. Honestly though aren't those two genres two sides of the same coin? Though the history of dungeon synth is a bit more nebulous than black metal, the two are closely intertwined. 

Where dungeon synth really has an advantage though is the near limitless directions the genre can be taken. You can have some projects paying tribute to the olden days. You can have fantasy synth galivanting around. You have dino synth for pre-historic folks. You can go in nearly any direction possible and there is a synth project that fits the scope of said subject.

Fogweaver finds themselves somewhere between fantasy synth and traditional dungeon synth on Labyrinthine. The music has this larger than life feel to it, yet it feels incredibly intimate and minute. It's like were witnessing tiny moments in a completely fantastical and alien world. The tidings of this place are not known to us, but they seem oddly familiar at the same time. It's a musical paradox.

The whole album revolves around hypnotic melodies that reverberate in unnatural ways. The melodies themselves are elegantly simple and will modulate over the course of the songs, but never too far from the original structure. 

In many ways the title of the album is very fitting. The music is indeed Labyrinthine. It sounds so similar yet it changes in the most subtle of ways. Have we been here before? What way should we turn next? The true ways of things are never fully known. 

Dungeon synth is an incredible genre. It explores so many different moods and atmospheres that it's nearly impossible to find all of them. Fogweaver has explored yet another facet of this genre with Labyrinthine and its wonderous melodies. Albums such as this make me want to delve further and deeper into the genre. I'm eager to see where those journeys lead.

Entry 1611 - Bergtatt - Labyrinthine Subterranean Passages

Style: ambient, dungeon synth

Thoughts: I wasn't sure what I thought of Labyrinthine Subterranean Passages the first time I heard it. Traversing Celestial Realms was an album that I immediately took to with its subtle melodies and deep reverence for the stars, however Bergtatt's album extoling the underworld was not so instantaneous with me. 

Labyrinthine Subterranean Passages is a subtle album. There are long stretches where there are little to no melodies taking place and we only have droning ambience. When the melodies do come, they are at the same slow monotonous pace as the droning soundscapes. It has the same tamber and tone as you would find in a dirge. 

Here's the thing about music: just because something does not immediately click upon first listen does not automatically make it a bad album. This is the case with the Subterranean opus from Bergtatt. Everything stated before is still true: the monotony, the dirgelike feeling, the large swaths with nothing of note happening. The difference is that those elements began to come together and make sense.

Silence. Silence is the driving factor of this album. It is so quiet, so subdued, so deep that no light can possibly breach these deep caves. Within this depth comes a strong reverberation of everything that takes place within them. The melodies echo off the walls until they decay into the depths. The soundscapes fill the endless corridors of this labyrinth. Everything is beholden to this reverberation, and ultimately this silence.

There is a resignation to the music, like this is the last moments of a persons life. They have accepted this fate and merely wait for the end. The melodies, when present, paint a dismal picture, a slow moving fate towards an inevitable doom. The melodies are sparse enough that this feeling of inevitability is not overwhelming, but it is ever present - even in the backing soundscapes and ambience.

The ambience itself paints a dark and painful picture of a land forsaken by all, and its inhabitants are forgotten to time. There is no hope here, no life, only a cruel end. Yet somehow, in all this gloom, death and dreariness there is beauty. There is a stillness that nothing can touch. There is peace here that is not present in the waking world. There is a sense of contentment that is not found elsewhere... a sense of finality and completeness. 

Labyrinthine Subterranean Passages is an album that took me quite a few listens to fully appreciate. It's a subtle album that requires a lot out of the listener and does not do well from casual listens. I find myself drawn back to it the more I listen to it, and every time I dwell within it's caverns I am welcomed by a dark yet peaceful calm.  

Entry 1610 - Cryptopsy

Style: technical death metal

Thoughts: It's hard to think of a band that has a more spotted and controversial history than Cryptopsy did to this point. Going from one of the most respected death metal bands on the planet to sounding like a technical hardcore band with And Then You'll Beg then back to a shadow of their selves with Once Was not, the band was inconsistent at best. Then came The Unspoken King.

While I did not mind the album the quality that had been in the band was severely lacking. The clean vocals were also not great, not horrible but not great. The real kicker though was the band's (specifically Flo's) response. Mocking fans that didn't like it, saying that this was the true Cryptopsy... reminded me quite a bit of Hypocrisy with Catch 22... not a good look.

Well it seems like the band learned from it, because everything changed after Unspoken King. Jon rejoined the band, Flo's drumming became tighter, even Matt learned how to properly do brutal vocals. Everything changed... for the better. 

Cryptopsy's self titled album is a love letter to long term fans. It's a back to the roots album in a way that few bands have ever pulled off. The real game changer here is getting Jon Levasseur back on guitar. The dude knows how to write incredibly complex riffs and he knows how to make them sound damn good at the same time.

What sets Cryptopsy apart further though is the incredible chaos that comes with these technical riffs. I never know where these songs are going. A jazz break here, a breakdown there, a xylophone elevator music interlude... you never ever know where the band is going to end up.

The other major factor that has changed from the Unspoken King is Matt's vocals. Instead of a hardcore shout the dude has adopted a proper growl that is all over the place in terms of delivery. The slurred nastiness of Lord Worm is to be heard sometimes. Other times he goes more traditional false chord screams, but he's always brutal and the clean vocals have been eliminated from the music entirely.

Cryptopsy's self titled feels like the band is trying to rebrand back to what made them a death metal staple in the first place. After listening to this album for over a decade I can confidently say that the band has succeeded. Not only is this an acceptable apology for the Unspoken King, it's also one of the finest albums in their discography... perhaps even their second best album.

It's wild to me that the band turned their sound around this much. There have been a lot of "return to the roots" albums out there, but this one feels like one of the most genuine ones. Sure it's missing a lot of the classic lineup, but damn it still kicks my ass every time I listen to it.

Entry 1609 - ll nothing ll - Ever So Distant/Higeki

Style: vaporwave

Thoughts: Higeki, tragedy. An event that is often so hurtful, so full of loss, so completely disparaging that it often becomes a life defining moment for those involved. This is the type of life event that ll nothing ll's Higeki captures through his sombre music.

Higeki is one of the first releases in nothing's discography where he started moving away from classic vaporwave. In it's place we have a more experimental, less defined musical narrative. Higeki itself still showcases a lot of the speed and reverb found within classic vaporwave, but the atmosphere and instrumentals are entirely different.

Instead of the nostalgia riddled releases of the past, Higeki reaches more for an internal narrative. One that encourages reflection, and a more melancholic look at life. The atmosphere is created between the interplay of sampled keyboards, slow percussion, and a distant trumpet. Those who know me and my taste will know that I'm a sucker for ambient music with a trumpet... that rings true here as well.

Though short, Higeki marks an important and fundamental change for nothing. This release sees the tragedy of life and it's aftermath. Instead of yearning for what once was, it yearns for that which we can no longer have. A hole that can never be filled. A tragedy that cannot be undone.

--------

Why? Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we always seek out companionship from those who do not reciprocate? Why do we seek comfort in those that are Ever So Distant?

ll nothing ll's second EP on this record is one that flirts with vaporwave, much like Higeki did... but the feeling of the songs are completely different than classic vaporwave. This time the nostalgia is replaced with longing, loneliness, and ultimately hopelessness.

A slow and grinding beat drives the music ever forward, towards an inevitable end. Over top this beat is where the emotional toll of Ever So Distant begins to take hold. Brass instruments are used effectively throughout the release to slowly strip away hope and resilience. In their place we are left with a husk of emotions that simply exist but do not have purpose. The life that was once in us is gone, slowly eroded away by Ever So Distant's forlorn music.

The thing that makes Ever So Distant unique is it's ability to sway my mood away from any sort of joy I'm feeling in any given moment. It will almost certainly put me into a reflective or even somber mood by the end of the four songs. It's rare that music is able to do this, and nothing has achieved this with Ever So Distant. So this comes with a cautious recommendation, but please know what you are getting into... this music is not to be taken lightly.

Entry 1608 - Fief - V

Style: medieval dungeon synth

Thoughts: This is it. The final Fief album that I need for my collection. I now have all of the full lengths. Six chronicles of the medieval bard playing to his hearts content. This being the fifth such chronicle and what many thought being the final one is of equal quality to the standard set by the other albums in this legendary discography. Stay a while and listen.

Those who know Fief know what to expect with this release. Short little ditties that play around with dancing melodies using flutes, harpsichords, and lutes in keyboard form. This interplay is critical for the sound that Fief creates. It has a playful nature that no other artist in the dungeon synth field has. 

This playfulness turns into curiosity, curiosity into knowledge, knowledge into strength. The strength is what carries through from release to release, it's what makes Fief... Fief. Even though every release shares much in common, there is this compelling force to complete each album... often times in succession. The music is simply that good.  

Entry 1607 - Abigor - Demos

Style: raw black metal

Thoughts: There is a ton of stuff to cover with this release... instead of trying to cover every demo on it's own I'm going to go over thing in generalities and what impressed me about the early days of one of the finest black metal bands on the planet.

The most notable thing that I found was that the first few demos do not have Silenus as vocalist. For most of the bands early works Rune the one delivering the devilry behind the microphone. His vocals are incredibly high pitched and every now and then will give a ear piercing howl/shriek that will burst my ear drums if the music is too loud. 

The music itself is discernible as Abigor though in a primitive state. The riffs aren't nearly as complex as the later albums and the bass is audible (!) on the early demos even though the production is markedly worse than many of the full length albums. 

There is also this unrefined quality to these demos that their full lengths don't have (with maybe the exception of the debut). This raw creative energy shows the band throwing whatever the hell they want into the songs. Anything from a sample of slaves chanting to random guitar noodles over an ambient track to Rune screaming at the top of his lungs. There is simply things that the band were doing at this stage that was abandoned in later albums.

I love listening to a bands demos. It gives me a sense of where they came from and what formulated their early works. Abigor is no different. They had quite a few demo and rehearsals released before their debut album. This is a treasure trove for people interested in Abigor's early workings.  I find this fascinating, but at the same time I'm not sure how often I will listen to this album in its entirety. Regardless it's an indispensable part of black metal history that finally got a proper vinyl release.

Entry 1606 - Paradise Lost - Medusa

Style: doom/death metal

Thoughts: The circle is complete. The band has truly returned to their roots. The Plague Within reintroduced the growls along with some true death metal riffing, Medusa completes the metamorphosis back into a fully fledged doom/death band. 

The band has not been this heavy since Gothic; Medusa easily surpasses Shades of God and Icon in terms of brutality and heaviness. For those in doubt listen to the opening track: Fearless Sky. This track is slow, grinding, filled with the trademark leads that Greg puts into the Paradise Lost sound, and there is barely a clean vocal in sight. 

It's crazy to think just how much of a full circle this band has come in terms of their career. Changing significantly every album leading up to Host and then slowly regaining their previous regalia as they got heavier and heavier with each release. 

The thing is I think the band truly is making the music that they want to. They simply create whatever strikes them in the moment as writing good music. Greg was quoted years ago saying "you always have to think that your current music is the best you've done" and I believe that he still thinks that based on how these albums keep coming out. They never feel dull. 

A return to the roots album is often seen as a desperation move or a failed attempt to recapture failed glory from so many bands. I don't think that's the case here.  I think the band just wanted to create a heavy ass album and it just so happened to be created in a return to the roots style. The band has been trending this way for nearly a decade and this is just the logical conclusion. 

Medusa is not quite as good as the previous album or the one hereafter but it still stands as one of the better metal albums the band has created. So many of the albums that the band put out in their transition period were kind of lack luster with the band half committing to metal and half committing to the pop styles they were playing around with. There is nothing half hearted about this. This is pure straight up brutal doom/death, and I'm here for it. 

Entry 1605 - Hecate Enthroned - Upon Promethean Shores (Unscriptured Waters)

Style: keyboard driven black metal

Thoughts: One can't mention Hecate Enthroned's early works without also bringing up Cradle of Filth in the same breath. There are so many stories out there on who started this vocal style first. More than one account shows that Jon taught Danni how to do it and Danni is the one that ended up making it popular. Regardless of who ended up creating it first, the vocal performance by Jon on Hecate Enthroned's debut EP fits the music perfectly.

Honestly the vocals are really the point where the comparisons to Cradle stop. The guitar work here is quite different. These riffs focus more on full guitar chords played at fast speeds with keyboards often taking the lead role away from anything the guitars would do. The interplay between the two is much more defined than the dance they do in Cradle's early albums. 

While the song writing is indeed done in a linear style, the music takes on quite a different atmosphere and style than that of Cradle. Actually, I'm being unfair to Hecate here, this entire entry I've been comparing them to the shadow of Cradle of Filth. This band is their own entity. There are some indisputable similarities between the two but Hecate Enthroned deserves their own spotlight because this is damn good music. 

Hecate's debut album is essentially their demo with better production. It has the same track list and not much has changed in terms of the tracks or song writing. What this means though is we get a well defined and well rehearsed collection of songs.  These songs have excellent riffs, powerful vocals and a keyboard presence that is a perfect representation of what mid 90's black metal is all about. 

Upon Promethean Shores is a fine start for the band, the band has made a clear and powerful statement with this debut. They are here to write good music that helped put the UK black metal scene on the international stage. For those uninitiated, this is a great place to start with this band.

Entry 1604 - Sybreed - The Pulse of Awakening

Style: Technical groove metal, industrial, gothic metal

Thoughts: Some things are worth writing about, some things are not. This one is worth writing about.

"Look at the world, we got nothing to preserve." This definitive statement was written many years ago. Nihilism in a singular phrase. It rings as true today as the day it was penned. 

Waiting for the end, embracing it. Discounting the value of human life, the loss of the value of the individual. The violence of uncreation, the sanctity of the pacifist is no more. Man is obsolete, erased, extinct. Long live the machine.

Sybreed, short for synthetic breed, is a band that is comprised by humans that write about a post human world. The Pulse of Awakening is just that, the awakening of the robotic race that will replace us - the singularity. 

This concept of the post-human world is portrayed within the medium of metal. Specifically complex groove metal with a hefty dose of gothic and industrial elements. Songs will often start with a complex groove interaction of the excellent guitar work of Drop and the drums bringing to mind early Fear Factory on more than one occasion. Within this framework industrial elements and effects will be layered on top. 

The gothic component comes primarily from Tom's voice. HIs harsh vocals are standard fare fry screams, however his clean vocals ooze goth rock. This is not the half spoken half sung Sisters of Mercy variety, but rather the Robert Smith mournful singing. His voice glides on top of the music discussing the ills of man and the end of civilization. 

The gothic assertions continue with the cover of Killing Joke's Love Like Blood. It takes the original and makes it heavier with an even darker tone. Sybreed makes the song their own while paying tribute to the original. 

The Pulse of Awakening is an incredibly varied album. Doomsday Party is a danceable almost radio worth song. I Am Ultraviolence flirts with full on black metal, utilizing blast beats and open chord riffing. In the Cold Light is a near ballad that sounds like the final moments of consciousness before its extinguished. 

Sybreed has had a varied career. They have steadily improved with every album until they reached their apex with The Pulse of Awakening. The album is a fantastic testament to both what humans are capable of and a horrific glimpse of the world once we die out. 

Entry 1603 - Ossaert - Offerdier

Style: black metal

Thoughts: Some things are worth writing about, others are not. This one is not. Boring black metal with some ambient interludes. This one will not be long for the collection.

Entry 1602 - Pa Vesh En - Sesyi Rytualistycnyia

Style: raw black metal

Thoughts: Tortured vocals, black metal bordering on dark ambience, and an absolute hellish atmosphere. This is Pa Vesh En.

Sesyi Rytualistycnyia is the latest EP from this one man project and it consists of a singular song split up into six parts. The music is extreme in both style and execution. The music itself has not only the typical black metal atmosphere, there is an additional layer to it that recalls the scene of a murder, or a place where a great evil has taken place. 

The atmosphere is unwelcoming, harsh, and encourages disengagement from the music. It is a deterrent, instigator, and aggressor all in one. For those who do not heed the warning they are met with black metal that contains barely audible riffs, thunderous drums, and a howl that chills me to the bone. 

I've listened to this EP multiple times at this point and I still can't make out all that the instruments are doing. Rather than focus in a singular element the music washes over me and puts seeds of fear and doubt in my mind. The details ultimately don't matter but they are there to be found for those who would venture further into the nightmare that is Pa Vesh En.

Entry 1601 - Gimrick - Eisreich

Style: dungeon synth, winter synth

Thoughts: There is a place, deep in the mountains where no one roams. Snow falls here undisturbed for decades, the wind slowly corralling it into groves and crevices in the mountain range. The air whispers secrets that no man knows. The ground is frozen with the wisdom of generations. This is the realm of Eisreich.

I have another release from Gimrick and to say that the two releases are similar would be an outright lie. Die Mauem Der Nacht is dungeon synth sure, but it's so littered with synthwave that it feels almost like a completely different project. 

Eisreich is a quiet album with moments of glorious beauty. The melodies are soft, cold, and almost sound like a lullaby in some instances. They stir up the cold in me, the perfect music for a clear winter night. A night where the stars are visible for all to see in an endless light spectacle. These melodies reflect the purity of nature from a place of enteral cold, slow, brooding, eternal.

Eisreich is simple in its approach. The songs often only contain a few notes and silence. The silence can often span seconds at a time before another note comes in. I absolutely love this approach because it really drives home the bitter cold and calm that a deep perpetually frozen mountain range would have. 

Eisrech translates roughly to "ice rich." This is a prefect title for the music that Gimrick has created. Simple, to the point, and entirely accurate to the music contained within. Excellent, if short, dungeon synth of the highest order.

Entry 1600 - Oerheks - Landschapsanachronismen

Style: atmospheric black metal

Thoughts: Oerheks is a band that I only started listening to in the past year or so. Frequent readers will know that I'm very hard to please when it comes to new black metal. There is so much redundancy in the black metal genre that it's hard for me to find stuff that I truly enjoy anymore... at least that's new. Of course I'll always be able to go back to my favorite albums, but a new band... that's something pretty rare.

Landschapsanachronismen is a two song EP. Both songs are around twelve to thirteen minutes long and are veiled by a pretty obscure production. There are all sorts of black metal productions in this world. The one that graces this album sounds like the band recorded the music normally then took a loud speaker into a well. They played the album at the bottom of the well and placed a single microphone above the well to catch the audio. This is the context in which Landschapsanachronismen exists. 

For most of the album the guitars dominate. They create layer upon layer of murky notes and riffs that get muddled by the production. On top of this you have keyboards intertwining from time to time to create a truly dense sound. The drums and bass are obscured by the production so much that they are barely audible. The bass drums barely create a sound and the snare just sounds like a clap that happens from time to time. This would normally bother me but the fact that neither of these instruments is audible is not truly a concern with the album as the main focus is clearly the atmosphere.

Are the individual moments of this album memorable? Probably not as much as I would like them to be. The thing is though that this is again not the main focus. The primary concern of the band is to create an atmosphere, a deep, unsettling, yet somehow beautiful atmosphere. In this aspect Landschapsanachronismen succeeds immensely.

Oerheks has been a curiosity of mine for a while now. I'm still trying to figure out why I enjoy their music to the extent that I do. It's obviously the atmosphere that draws me in. The songs are like archeological digs that require patience and effort to uncover. Sometimes this happens and there is no reward, however with Oerheks the payoff is real. 

I believe there are few more releases from this band that I can add to my collection. I'm going to be investigating these to see if that is a possibility based on my experience with the band so far. 

Entry 1599 - Edge of Sanity - Crimson

Style: progressive death metal

Thoughts: I remember reading an old interview with Dan about how Crimson came to be. The band was in a bit of a rut and needed something for the new album. Dan had always been a fan of progressive rock and had suggested to the rest of the band to create a single track album ala Yes or Genesis. The band agreed, and Crimson was born.

Little did the band know at that point that they were going to create one of the finest death metal albums ever created. These forty minutes are not only the finest that Edge of Sanity recorded, the album is on my short list of top death metal albums ever... possibly best metal albums ever. Let me explain.

Crimson is song that revolves around several musical and lyrical themes. It tells the story of humanity and their inability to bear children anymore. The king and queen of the world are able to have a child and the princess becomes the focus of the entire civilization. The question that the album poses as its central thesis though is about this princess: is she human or is she a demon?

As the story progresses so does the instrumentation. The riffs vary between hyper blast driven mania to melodic interludes to straight up progressive rock played in a death metal style. The melodies and riffs have a way of coming back and being revisited by the band over and over again with slight variations. These moments are what brings the 40 minute song together, to actually sound like a singular song rather than a bunch of riffs and sections thrown together. 

There are several stand out moments on the album but none more so than the second acoustic break down around 30 minutes into the song. One of the major plot points has just taken place and the band is in a state of mourning with Dan's clean vocals expressing this to the utmost. When the metal finally does come back Mike from Opeth comes in with a growl so menacing that it still gives me goosebumps to this very day. I've listened to this album at least a hundred times and it still gets me, incredible.

Crimson is easily the highlight of Edge of Sanity's discography. There is no other album that they have that is any where near as ambitious, nor as potent as this. They created a masterpiece; an album that has no equal. Listen to this album, if it does not strike a chord with you at least on some level, metal is not the genre for you.

Entry 1598 - Cradle of Filth - Damnation and a Day

Style: orchestral extreme gothic metal

Thoughts: I can just imagine the producers of this album getting together: "Hey guys, what if we did everything that Cradle did on the last album... but with an orchestra!" 

I think that there was something in the water in the black metal scene during the late 90's and early 2000's. All of the major black metal bands were changing things up. Some went more mainstream, others included more instruments than ever before, others went is a completely bizarre direction. Cradle was one of the ones that went with adding more instruments than ever before.

Two major things have changed from Midian to Damnation and a Day. The first is obvious, we've added an orchestra. This is one of the single largest changes that Cradle ever did. The second major change is that we've lost a second guitarist. This is another major change as a core part of Cradle's sound are those wonderful Iron Maiden inspired melodies and harmonies. Combine the orchestra with a single guitar and merging that in with the typical Cradle sound and you get an inkling on what this album sounds like.

My biggest concern with the album would be the role of the keyboards with the inclusion of the orchestra. The keys are still present, but their role has been reduced to a minor role on the album. There are tracks like Hurt and Virtue where they are used prominently, but overall on the album they are not nearly as core part of the Cradle sound as they had been to this point. 

Despite all these changes the album works. It still sounds like Cradle, just with one guitar and an orchestra. It's that one guitar though that drags the album down. Cradle needs two guitars for their sound to be complete. By only having one guitar the keyboards and orchestra have to try and fill the role of the second guitar and it's just not the same. 

Cradle was trying to find themselves, and I feel like Damnation and a Day was the first attempt to reach out beyond their established roots. They would go on to try a more commercial sound after this to disastrous effects. 

In many ways Damnation and a Day can be argued to be the last of their truly classic albums. I would side on that being Midian, but I can see the argument for this album as well. For what it is Damnation and a Day is not bad, it simply does not match the quality of the previous four albums.