Entry 1594 - Ashes

Style: atmospheric black metal

Thoughts: I'll be honest here, I bought this record for the cover art. I love the minimalistic sketch in black and white of a desolate well in the middle of no where. It tells a powerful story of a place that was once a central place giving life to a community now abandoned. Why? We will never know, but something happened here that took this spring of life away from the people in this region.

This cover analogy is mirrored by the music. The majority of the record is slow, repetitive riffs that breed hopelessness and misery. With music like this it's of the utmost importance that the repetition is warranted. The best bands that dabble in this style will use the same riff for minutes on end to create a hypnotic effect that will suck me in and the world around me ceases to exist. 

Ashes is one such band. The songs are long, they contain hypnotic riffs and are varied enough with the drums and small interludes that the music draws me into alternate realities. In this instance that reality is harsh, barren, and does not have enough resources to support a sustainable life. It is desolate and forbearing. Destined for death.

Finding albums like this is rare. Most of the time a band attempting this style will falter and create boring music. Ashes has created something more than that, something that taps into the beauty of sorrow. It's a short but powerful entry into the atmospheric black metal field. 

Entry 1593 - Rotting Christ - Theogonia

Style: black metal with additional elements mixed in

Thoughts: There are few bands that have released as good of albums as Rotting Christ did during their run from 2000 to 2004. Each of those albums ranges from good to absolutely mind blowing in quality. They still have several good albums out of that time period, but they vary in quality. Theogonia is one such album.

To be the album to follow up Sanctus Diabolos is going to be hard. A masterpiece of that magnitude comes around maybe once every few years. The band wisely decided to evolve their sound further rather than try to replicate the sound found on the previous album with Theogonia. The results are a bit mixed, but overall the album is one of the better ones in their discography.

The band has settled in on a much more straight forward approach this time, stripping away many of the choirs and layers of orchestral arrangements that the previous album had. The band leans further into the melodic leads with a few elements sprinkled throughout the songs to flesh out the sound. 

The quality of the album as a whole is above average for the band, but some songs are quite excellent. Nemecic has an amazing use of a lead instrument that sounds like a cross between a flute and a bagpipe. I can't quite place what the instrument is but it certainly is used to excellent effect here. Phobos' Synagogue works in a great deep riff with some keyboards that mimic early second wave black metal. Helios Hyperion has a fantastic lead guitar melody with a galloping rhythm. 

While the guitars in general seem to be a bit more focused on the bottom end on this release the songs themselves seem to be less focused on a general theme. Rather they each have their own ideas that are contained within the song. This makes the album feel more like a collection of tracks rather than a full album. Not a good or a bad thing, but certainly different than the last few albums.

Theogonia is a bit of a transition album. The band would return to a more focused album with the follow up to this, but here they seem to be throwing every idea they had at the wall to see what would work. The end result is a solid album that has a few truly outstanding moments. 

Entry 1592 - Rapture - Futile

Style: melodic doom/death metal

Thoughts: Some albums are like time capsules. They manage to capture a sound that no modern band is able to, and in doing so generate instant nostalgia. Futile is one such album for me.

Rapture's debut album is a bit different than the two follow ups. The band is not yet into Katatonia worship mode, instead they are happy to tread mostly their own path. There are no clean vocals and the song writing is more dynamic than I would have expected coming from the later albums. 

The drums in particular have more life to them than the standard snare, bass combo that dominates the later albums. These riffs are full, the drums match them with standard yet varied patterns, it all comes together nicely.

The vocals are almost exclusively growled on this release. There are a few moments where spoken word is used, but they soon give way to Petri's mighty growl. What really gets me though is that Petri is the clean vocalist on the later albums, on this album he has no problems with growling - in fact he sounds magnificent. I wonder what happened.

Futile is easily the most diverse album that Rapture ever put out. The songs structures change, they use acoustic guitars more frequently, the vocals are a bit more emotive despite being only growled... it boggles my mind how much the band changed with the next album. It's not that either iteration of the band is better it's simply a huge change. Regardless, Futile remains a favorite in the genre for me and likely my favorite output from the band as well.

Entry 1591 - Rapture - Songs for the Withering

Style: melodic doom/death metal

Thoughts: I often wonder what would have happened if Katatonia had stayed on the path of Brave Murder Day and Discouraged Ones. I think that Rapture has answered that question for me with Songs for the Withering.

For those unaware Rapture is a Finnish doom/death band that incorporates quite a bit of melody. On Songs for the Withering they also included some clean vocals to the mix. While their inclusion is very welcome, the songs are separated in such a way that they focus on either harsh or clean vocals. There is no real interaction between the two vocalists and I feel like this is a missed opportunity for the band. 

Regardless of the utilization of the vocalists this album is fantastic. This truly sounds like the logical evolution of Katatnoia's mid period sound. Listen to Gallows, that's a direct extension of the type of riffing that is present on Brave Murder Day and Discouraged Ones. The drums match the style perfectly as well. The band wears their influences on their sleeve and it's a wonderful thing.

I had honestly forgotten this band existed until I was able to find their albums at a distro. All three of them are essentially the same style with some nuance thrown in. Songs for the Withering shows the band trying to expand their sound with clean vocals. On some fronts they succeed greatly; the clean vocals add an emotive element that the roaring growls just can't. The one nitpick is why did they need two vocalists? We'll never know. Other than that nitpick this is an outstanding album, especially for those who long for Katatonia's forgotten sound.

Entry 1590 - Macroblank - ごめんと言って

Style: vaporwave, barber beats

Thoughts: Macroblank has many faces, yet they all point back to the same source. Some of his creations are more focused on jazz, some on lounge, others even still on drum n bass. ごめんと言って is not really any of these, its more like a slow dance album... it's all about the groove.

The main instrument of each track will alternate. A guitar on one track, keyboards on another, even a bass will take the lead from time to time.... but the music always comes back to the core tenant: the beat and that all mighty groove. Each song has this sway to it that encourages my entire body to move in a slow steady way. 

I've heard a lot of Macro's music and I only really like to pick up the albums that stand out in one way or another from his "typical" sound. ごめんと言って is just that. It sounds like the soundtrack to an old 70's buddy cop movie or something that would require an incredible amount of swagger to the soundtrack.

There aren't many Macro albums that I need for my collection anymore. The dude has released so many albums and I own a handful. I have all my favorites more or less, so the collection is nearly complete. Time will tell if more get added or not.

Entry 1589 - Asagraum - Dawn of Infinite Fire

Style: black metal

Thoughts: There is a sect of thought that believes that female black metal bands are nothing but a gimmick. I think there may be something to that with some bands, but not with Asagraum. This is the real shit.

Dawn of Infinite Fire is a solid if a bit generic slice of black metal. The pace of the album is almost exclusively in the blast beat region with small breaks every now and then. In these breaks the band tends to go for a tad more atmospheric. Overall though the band is as cut throat as they come with razor sharp riffs, cutting vocals, and drums that show a bit of creativity every now and then in between the blasts.

Asagraum's music is not anything that stands out on it's own, but it is exceptionally well composed and arranged. The riffs and leads keep me coming back to the album even though I can't put a finger on why I enjoy it as much as I do. The album just flows really well and I find it hard to find a fault with it, outside of the lack of originality. 

Black metal is a curious genre. I often find myself moving away from it only to come back after an unspecified amount of time. It's the genre that I find the most comfort in, the one that feels most like my musical home. Asagraum's second album is probably not one that I would enjoy as much if I wasn't as into black metal as I am, but as it stands it's an album I enjoy quite thoroughly. 

Entry 1588 - Arthuros - Goddess

Style: dungeon synth, astral synth

Thoughts: The sun sets. The curtain of night falls upon the land. As the mortal realm falls into its slumber, the goddess of the night rises to watch over her domain.

Until recently I had never heard Arthuros' music. I saw their albums come up more than once but always passed because of one reason or another. Well the Black Friday itch struck yet again and I ended up picking up Goddess on the cheap... listening to it now I think I would have paid full price on it.

Goddess is an album written for the night, written for a star filled sky. These songs have a majesty to them that not much dungeon synth is capable of. The instruments sparkle like the light of a morning star. The melodies dance together like comets fading into the distance; fleeting and swift. 

This is the kind of album that I will revisit more than once when it comes to mind. The kind that once it hits the turntable will have a hard time moving off of it. The only regret that I have is that I did not explore the wonderful music of Arthuros sooner.

Entry 1587 - Witherfall - A Prelude to Sorrow

Style: progressive power metal

Thoughts: I have a lot of metal in my collection. According to my database statistics its 42.8% of the record stacks as of this writing. A vast majority of that is extreme metal, and a most of the extreme metal is black in color. 

Other forms of metal exist in the stacks, and most of the stuff that I have in there is classic albums that I grew up with. I am chronicling all of this for two very important reasons. Having power metal in my collection is one of the rarest of the rare genres for me to have. Having a new power metal band that I didn't grow up with is possibly the rarest condition for an album to be included in my collection... in fact I think Witherfall may be the only such band that currently resides there.

With that out of the way, what ultimately led to the conclusion that Witherfall was worthy?  A couple of things: the album was on clearance and had a cool cover. That was enough for me to take note and listen to the album a few times before pulling the trigger. What ultimately matters here though is that last part... the music. What did I hear? 

A Prelude to Sorrow is power metal at its core, but it also has a hefty dose of progressive metal along side it. Within this framework the dudes in Witherfall create some really nasty and chunky riffs that are essentially the antithesis of what power metal typically is. These guys bring the bottom end, yet also do not shy away from the neo-classical melodies and arpeggios that power metal is so well known for.  

The other main part of this is the song writing. These guys like long songs, with the first real song being over 11 minutes long before it finally fades out. It twists and turns like trying to navigate through a labyrinth before returning to the ever elusive chorus. It's exceptionally well written and an awesome way to start the album.

The remainder of the album follows suit: heavy riffs, great vocals, lots of aggression, and even a nod to extreme metal here and there through a vocal like or blast beat. This is easily one of the best prog/power metal albums I've heard in a long time, I'm glad that I decided to give it a listen. Now I need to take this as a launching point to check out their other albums.

Entry 1586 - Kalaido - Moonlit Tales

Style: lo-fi hip hop

Thoughts: I have been looking for this album for what seems like an age. I have ordered it on three separate occasions, each time it gets cancelled or delayed or lost in the mail. I never thought I would get this record into my collection, but strange things occur from time to time and one day it randomly showed up on my doorstep... no explanation, no return address, just a package with a record in it. 

I have a strained relationship with low fidelity hip hop. The music and I used to have a very close relationship when I first found it, but over time I found that many of the artists were merely writing the same songs over and over. It's like the whole scene was obsessed with creating the same song over and over again, and it eventually made me drop out of actively looking for the music. 

Of course there are stand outs, and the ones that do truly create exceptional music. Kalaido is one such artist. I think this comes from a fundamental difference in the way that they make their music compared to most of the scene.  

Rather than rely on sampling the works of other artists through plunderphonics, Kalaido is content to make their own music. This music is then woven together into a similar style to lo-fi hip hop... but it comes from a fundamentally different source: originality. The guitars are played and recorded, much of the instruments are also recorded. Other parts of the album are indeed sampled but in a way that it compliments the live instruments rather than the main focus of the music. 

This approach gives the music life that is so uncommon in the genre. Instead of falling asleep to hearing the same nearly AI generated song for the fifteenth time, Moonlit Tales has twists and turns in directions that I would not have expected based on the tropes of the genre. A jazz piano interlude here, or a clarinet there. Hell even a violin from time to time... all spice up the music to a degree that is gloriously uncommon.

Kalaido's Moonlit Tales is likely one of the better lofi albums in my collection. Of course there is better music in the genre, but as it stands this album is among the better entries thereof.  

Entry 1585 - Old Sorcery - Realms of Magickal Sorrow

Style: classic dungeon synth

Thoughts: Old Sorcery is the project that got me back into dungeon synth after decades. It reminded me of a genre that had no name when I first started listening to it and how much I enjoyed it years ago. The epic approach, the mystery behind the melodies, the splendor and grandeur. It all came rushing back to me.

Now once again Old Sorcery sits upon my turn table and I am graced with the music that brought me back into the fold. Realms of Magickal Sorrow is the debut recording of this fine minstrel and it is everything that I had ever wanted it to be. 

It consists of five epic tracks. Each one portrays a slightly different view of a realm of mystery and magick that is unbeknownst to modern humans. This is the realm where power rules the powerless. The place where the supernatural conquers the natural order of things. A realm where mythical beasts can reign upon those of lesser will. The realm of the Old Sorcery.

There is something special about the way that Old Sorcery writes their music. It's not just good dungeon synth, it's also damn good music in general. These compositions tell a story through these synths. They draw me in and make me wonder what on earth happened during the ages of yore and make me long to be part of it. To get away from this accursed modern life style.

Realms of Magickal Sorrow is just that: a magickal album that focuses on sorrow. The music sounds exactly like you think it would with a title like that. I am proud to own this album now, and consider myself fortunate to have it in my collection. 

Entry 1584 - Spectral Castle - I Remain...

Style: dungeon synth

Thoughts: I went through a lot to get this album. I tried to get it through a disto in my country only to be told it was out of stock. Tried to get it from the artist themselves only to be told that their distro in my country was no longer doing anything. Finally I found it at a distributor in Europe and imported it. Was it worth it? I would like to think so.

Spectral Castle's I Remain... is largely played by one type of synth. This synth is one that I have heard before but do not know what it is called. It has a distant sound to it, a lonely sound. It sounds like it was recorded many years ago, and we're merely hearing the distant memories of someone long passed.

Simple melodies are played on this synth. Simple melodies accompanied by full chord backing. In true dungeon synth style these melodies and chords are repeated many times before progressing. The whole affair is so simple, yet so entirely elegant that I can't help but love it.

I've heard music that is more complex than this. I've heard music that has way more depth to it than this. I have not heard much music that is as well done and as nice to listen to as this. Spectral Castle has tapped into elegance through simplicity. 

All this album is is notes played on a synth over and over again, yet somehow I can't bring myself to not like it. I finish the album and immediately flip it over to start again. The beauty of this album is in that simplicity. The gracefulness of the album is revealed to those who would listen with an open ear and open mind. Truly this is one of the finer dungeon synth albums in my collection.

Entry 1583 - Macroblank - Tales of the Cypher

Style: vaporwave, barber beats

Thoughts: One upon a time there was a singular artist who made this kind of vaporwave. We all know who it is. For the longest time this was the only representation of barber beats the world had... we didn't even know it was called barber beats back then. It wasn't until a second radiance entered into the field named Macroblank that the style truly started taking off and became the tour de force that it is today within the vaporwave realm.

I have a lot of Macro's albums. So many in fact that I don't know what to do with half of them. There are only a couple left that I would consider essential for the collection - Tales of the Cypher is one of those albums.

I talked with Macro when he first started out years ago, he said that he had hundreds upon hundreds of hours of music ready to go. At the time he had three or four albums, but the rate at which he put albums out showed that this was not a fabrication. 

Granted some of these albums were higher quality than others. Tales of the Cypher is one of the higher quality albums that Macro put out during his legendary run. It leans a bit more into the lounge part of the sound, a little bit less into the jazz side, and a little bit more into the groove side... maybe even a bit of bosa nova thrown into the mix.

The lead instrument on most of these songs is a keyboard. The kind that you would find playing in a smoke filled lounge with a lounge band keeping the patrons company. This keyboard bores its way into my head, takes hold and reverberates within ever crevice I have. 

The backing instruments are equally as fulfilling. Bongos, a bass guitar, and of course more keyboards all fill the air that this music is proclaiming. As simple as it sounds the way this is all put together, I would never have guessed that this is actually plunderphonics. It simply sounds like the individual instruments belong together. 

Macro has many more albums that this, but there are few that sound as good as this. There are a lot of ideas that have been floated by this prolific plunderer, but when it comes down to it his simpler works are often the ones that show the most heart. Tales of the Cypher is indeed simple in its execution, but the result is of the finest quality.  

Entry 1582 - Midnight Betrothed - Death... My Faithful Bride

Style: Raw black metal, dungeon synth, modern classical

Thoughts: The intro to this album is so good. It's a small classical piece that revolves around piano and accompanying instruments. It's beautifully composed and gave me so much hope for the album... then the actual album starts.

Death... My Faithful Bride is... not a good album. There are moments where it is good, such as the aforementioned intro, but when the metal is included everything just kind of falls apart. The chords used for the guitars are as basic as can be and all the song writing prowess of the intro is just thrown out the window. 

The piano repeats ad nauseam. The accompanying instruments don't have nearly the character that they could have from the standard set by the intro. The vocals are kind of half growled half howled but not in any way that has any sort of redeeming quality to it. I feel like this has been a bait and switch.

There is a good album in here somewhere. There are brief moments where things do come together and the music actually does well. Those moments are few and far between though. This is one of those projects where I feel like it would be so much better if the metal was dropped and the artist focused exclusively on modern classical/dungeon synth instead. That is clearly their song writing strength. 

Entry 1581 - Dauþuz - Monventvm

Style: black metal

Thoughts: I think I misjudged this band. My first exposure to them was their latest album Uranium. That album - while good - didn't do much in the way of making me want to listen to it more. I have since heard some of their earlier albums, and while they retain the style of the new album there is a life and a misery here that was lacking in in the newest offering. 

Monventum is another earlier album that maintains the quality that I have heard from other albums. This album much like their other early works fully harnesses the German language to portray a dismal look at life in the industrial revolution.

The riffs meet this lack of joy on an intimate level. They have a lot of energy to them, but it's a nervous energy - like something horrible is going to happen; like a mine collapsing on top of you. There is also a sorrow... no a resignation within these notes. They are played as if this is the entirety of someones existence, simply a cog in the machine of human existence. Fated to die an early death from the toxins found in the mines.

This is the kind of album that is difficult to quantify. On one end it's just black metal, with great vocals, good but mostly standard riffing, and decent enough song writing prowess. On the other hand there is this desperation and resignation in the music that makes it stand apart from the average black metal album. 

Dauþuz remains an enigma to me. This music shouldn't be as good as it is, especially on their first three albums, yet here I am enjoying this way more than I would have thought. It may not be something that I would spin as often as my black metal staples but man, they sure have impressed me more than I thought they would. 

Entry 1580 - Dauþuz - In Fenstrer Teufe

Style: Black metal

Thoughts: The mines are cold. The mines are dark. The mines are the graves of countless people. This place will be our tomb.

What is it about German black metal? What makes it so god damn menacing? Is it the language? I think to some degree yes that is part of it. When I listen to German black metal vocals the language lends itself to sounding more vicious than English, French or many other languages. 

There is another aspect all together though. These guys, specifically Dauþuz, have a way of writing music that sounds bleak, without hope, and out to end human life. Considering the bands subject matter this is hardly surprising. They write songs about the old coal mines that were used during the industrial revolution in Europe. These mines were known to have a large fatality rate, create black lung in the miners, and be one of the most exploitive professions in all of the industrialized world.

The music follows the lyrics well. These riffs, oh man these riffs, create some of the most hopeless atmospheres I've heard in a while. There is a nastiness a soullessness to them that only adds to the atmosphere. We are simply a cog in the machine. 

There are a few moments of hope in the form of acoustic interludes. I like to think that these are the workers coming out of the mine at the end of a long day. Able to see the sun light again for the first time in hours, coal covering every inch of their bodies. 

These moments of respite are brief and offer only the slightest hope as right on the next track were back to the hopeless black metal. This repeats for about forty five minutes before the album ends... the cycle in the life of a miner. 

I have found other albums from the band to be a bit less compelling than this one... but here the band has a spark. The music sounds very similar to what they had previously, but there is more life, more energy in this delivery than their later albums. That in and of itself will have this album spend more time on the turntable than the later ones in their discography, though all are competent albums. This one is just a tad bit more. 

Entry 1579 - Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To

Style: true metalcore

Thoughts: Silence fills the air louder than thunder. A singular chime strikes. The world explodes in pure chaos as Brian screams, guitars wail, drums blast, and chaos becomes my reality for the next twenty six minutes.

To say that there are individual tracks on this album is as relevant as saying that there are individual movements in a classical composition. Sure they are there, sure they technically differentiate the individual parts of the score. 

What truly matters here is the entire album. The individual parts may contribute but god damn dude this album needs to be taken in as a whole. I haven't heard anything this pissed off and so god damn heavy in ages. Who cares if it's not truly metal? Who cares if there's hardcore in it, this shit is fucking good! 

Every moment of the album is filled with more rage, chaos, and is just so fucking pissed off that it's the perfect album to listen to when you need something incredibly angry to resonate with or you just want to channel those emotions into some kind of other medium. This is the album to do that to.

I can't think of enough words to describe just how massive and angry this album is. I haven't heard anything like this in absolute ages. I think I needed this. I needed an album to remind me that I can still be impressed by how simply angry music can be regardless of genre.

I had heard a bit of Knocked Loose before this, I knew all the memes (arf arf), but man I had no idea they were this fucking good. This is exactly what I need in music, something that is so uncompromising in its vision that it demands my god damn respect. Good fucking album.

Entry 1578 - Vader - Litany

Style: death metal

Thoughts: I heard a story once. It was an album that was meant to be about forty minutes long. The drummer came in and laid down the drum tracks and there was thirty minutes of music to record over... the guitarists decided to speed up all the riffs and ended up with one of the greatest albums ever created: Reign in Blood.

There is a second instance of this occurring that I'm aware of: Litany. The band had intended this to be a longer album, but when Doc came in to lay down the drums he didn't like the speed so he played it as fast as he wanted the songs to go. The band ended up with a thirty minute album that ended up being their own equivalent to Reign in Blood. A lofty claim, but one that is entirely justified.

Vader has often been described as Slayer on steroids, and no other album shows that better than Litany. These riffs have the same atonal dissonance that Slayer has, but they are beefier and draw more from classic death metal than anything Slayer ever did.

The drums are precise and drive the music forward more so than most bands. They are mixed so forward in Litany that they are nearly impossible to ignore. Doc is a human metronome on this release and I can't think of a stronger performance from him before his undue demise decades ago. 

These eleven songs are some of the most intense metal I have in my collection. These riffs are the very definition of brutal. They bludgeon me over and over again until there is nothing left. Peter's voice is the perfect accompaniment, somewhat spoken, somewhat growled, somewhat yelled. It just works.

There is no moment on Litany that is poorly written. The speed, the cadence, the brutality, the intensity, everything... nothing is lacking. Is this the prefect album? I don't know... but the fact that I can't say no immediately to that gives me pause. I can't think of a single bad moment during the entire 31 minutes... if it's not perfect it's pretty damn close.

Entry 1577 - Assorted Potions - Alchemical Recipes

Style: dungeon synth, comfy synth

Thoughts: I have purchased a lot of dungeon synth lately. Many of these were acquired during Black Friday sales where labels were liquidating much of their inventory. This was one such purchase.

Alchemical Recipes is a  collection of three demos from Assorted Potions. Each one is short and full of fun little ideas that bring to mind exactly what one would expect with a name like Assorted Potions: a small shop in the middle of the woods with a witch or other brewer of magics greeting you as you walk through the door.

The melodies are simple and the music light hearted. The instrumentation used is absolutely within the realm of classic dungeon synth: keyboards that don't even try to sound like the real instrument. It ends up sounding like a long lost video game soundtrack with the instruments trying to mimic their real life counterparts.

It's not exceptionally compelling music, but it is a nice listen. It's the kind of music to put on in the background as you settle by a fire to read a nice book. It's a quaint little collection of comfy synth songs, nothing more, nothing less.

Entry 1576 - Skyforet - A New Dawn

Style: melodic black metal, symphonic black metal

Thoughts: Here's a thought: what if black metal was filled with hope and in a major key. Would it still be black metal or would it be something else? These are questions that run through my head with Skyforest's latest album.

A New Dawn focuses on epic symphonic moments intermixed with more typical tropes of the genre. Much of the music revolves around a simple structure: small clean guitar riffs that eventually blow up into a near overwhelming level of layered keyboards, guitars, drums, and effects. The band is on Northern Silence Productions, if you know the sound that this label puts out, Skyforest represents that style well.

While I've heard this combination multiple times before, the differentiation here is that Skyforest does most of this in a major key. This gives the music a fundamental difference from much of their contemporaries in the symphonic black metal field.  

Instead of hatred we have hope, instead of despair we have wonder, instead of death we have life. It's the antithesis of what the genre usually provides. I'm unsure as to what it means for the classification of the record but it certainly is enough to make it stand out for better or worse.

So since this is fundamentally different than most of the genre, the question then becomes is it enjoyable? That answer is not quite as easy to formulate. In many ways I respect the music for what it's doing. It's applying a completely different approach to known and loved tropes that have worked for decades. Respect is different from enjoyment however.

I think on a philosophical level there is a lot to like here, but on a musical level I don't think that this album and I see eye to eye. There are bands out there that approach the genre in similar ways that have succeeded but Skyforest does not appear to be one of those bands. The songs are well constructed, well played, but they just aren't for me. 

Maybe it's the fact that I've heard this approach before from so many other of the bands label mates. Maybe it's the lack of direction of a lot of the songs. Maybe it's that some of the songs just meander too much. Whatever it is I can't find myself getting into this one nearly as much as I would like. That's okay though, there is tons of good music still left in the world. Having one album that does not fit my listening needs is not something that I will shed a tear over. 

Entry 1575 - 36 - Reality Engine

Style: melodic ambient

Thoughts: 3 six has been a favorite of mine within the ambient genre for a very long time. I discovered his music years before I found any of the other ambient that I've been delving into lately. I love most of his music, especially the early works. 

Reality Engine is the third part of what is Past Inside the Presents "synth trilogy." I'm not sure what the other two entries are, but this one is certainly quite different than the early works I enjoyed so much from 36. 

Quite a bit has changed: instead of hazy slowly evolving structures we have defined synths playing reverbed melodies. Instead of an overarching theme, the melodies will modulate in different patterns in a "variations on a theme" format. Instead of a wall of sound approach there are now individual melodic lines that build over each other creating a similar effect but with an entirely different feel to it.

This album took me a bit to enjoy when I first put it on. It was not at all what I was expecting from 36, but is that a bad thing? Just because I expect a specific thing from an artist does not mean that they have to oblige. In fact if they write something for me, or really anyone else what is their art then? Isn't that the definition of selling out if they aren't making music for themselves.

Reality Engine is different, very different. It falls somewhere in between synthwave, ambient, and the usual haze that 36 brings. Yet somehow it belongs to none of these genres. It's it's own study of melody in an ambient setting. It's a celebration of aural joy. It's a place where you can come to rest... be at peace.

There is nothing overtly challenging about Reality Engine, but that does not mean that there is nothing happening here. There are textures here that are not present in most other music. There's a call and response structure to the music that evolves over time and becomes a core tenant of the music. 36 has evolved with time and Reality Engine shows just how much. A welcome change from an old friend. 

Entry 1574 - Dödsrit - Spirit Crusher

Style: Crusty black metal

Thoughts: Man I wanted to like this album. It's so easily digestible and likable on first listen. The riffs flow so nicely and just meld into each other nearly perfectly. The d-beat is integrated so well and it all just works... until it doesn't.

Spirit Crusher is is the black metal/punk equivalent of lite beer. It's nice and tastes refreshing... until  you try a real one. Then all the redeeming qualities of the music seem hollow and are simply not as appealing anymore. 

The riffs here are great for a time but they wear out their welcome. The punk elements are great but sometimes overused and drag the song down. The song length is over ten minutes per track and the songs end up meandering back and fourth between different riffs and ideas without any real direction. The album feels more like a collection of riffs that are strung together rather than songs with an overarching plan. The individual moments are fine for what they are, but they feel like there are two to three songs in each song rather than one long track loosely tying them all together. 

Spirit Crusher is not a bad album per see, it's just not something that I will find myself exploring very often. I find the music to be great for a few moments then I end up turning it off because I lose interest or I'm reminded of another album I would rather listen to. The band may be on to something here but at this point it's not something I will come back to much. 

Entry 1573 - (dolch) - III - Songs of Happiness... Words of Praise

Style: experimental rock/ambient, doom metal

Thoughts: What a curious album. It starts out with a seemingly computerized voice thanking you for purchasing the album and then announces that the album is starting. Track two is another incredibly short intro involving some brass instrumentation before the band finally begins their musical escapades.

What the band does offer at this stage of their career is a curious combination of fuzzy riffs, hypnotic drumming, droning vocals, and a sense of atmosphere that is rare. This combination gives the music a somewhat unique feel... I know I've heard it before, but never in metal. Of all things it brings to mind the legendary band Dead Can Dance. 

The River is the first proper song on the album and as soon as the vocals come in the comparisons to Dead Can Dance start parading through my head. The tribal rhythm of the drums, the haunting male and female vocals interplaying with each other, the hypnotic effect that it all has. It really feels like something out of Into the Labyrinth or Spirit Chaser, just with heavily distorted guitars instead of traditional instrumentation. It's quite the trip.

The remaining songs recall other moments from the legendary band but not to as strong of a degree. Siren is a slow dirge that focuses on haunting female vocals with a hugely distorted riff underneath. It's slow and deliberate in the same way you would expect from a dirge. 

Hydroxytryptamin Baby is a near ambient song that obscures the vocals behind a wall of guitar riffs and other noises creating a confusing and almost off putting atmosphere into play. It uncomfortable to say the least.

This leaves the final track, 100000 Days. This is a behemoth of a song and nearly half the albums length. The track length is taken up by this monolith ebbing and flowing with almost the same riff the entire time. It will grow massive before fading into new obscurity and then returning even stronger. It's an aural study in what music can do to a listener... I'm not sure if I like it or not but I do respect the hell out of the artistic vision of the song.

Dolch's third demo is interesting to say the least. Reminding me of one of my favorite projects ever to exploring aural chaos and ambience delivered through guitars and distortion. These guys are doing their own thing, and no one else that I can think of is even close.  This is all of the Dolch I have in my collection as of the time of this writing, but that may soon change as I explore their full lengths more.

Entry 1572 - Izumo

Style: black metal

Thoughts: Japanese black metal has always been a curiosity of mine. Actually Japanese music in general has been a curiosity for a long time. Much of it can be exceptionally interesting and experimental in ways that you just don't see in the west. Unfortunately, not all Japanese music can hold up to this standard.

Izumo's self titled album is an album I got purely because it was Japanese black metal. I listened to it once and thought it was decent before adding it to my cart. This may have been a mistake. 

On repeated listens Izumo offers little in terms of depth. The riffs are repetitive and are largely played over variations of a blast beat. Sometimes repetitive riffs are a good thing, but not in this case. They don't offer that hypnotic quality to them that I would expect from repetitive riffs. The songs either don't go on long enough, or the riffs aren't engaging enough to ever achieve the desired effect.

What this album does offer is about thirty minutes of competent but generic black metal. There is a place for it, but I already have bands that have done this style in my collection. I would rather listen to the originators of a particular style than a copy cat. Especially when the derivative works are merely there to add to the quantity of the genre and not much else. 

Entry 1571 - Katatonia - Tonight's Decision

Style: progressive/depressive rock/metal

Thoughts: "You would never sleep at night, if you knew what I've been through." A strong proclamation from the first song on Tonight's Decision - For My Demons. The second album where the band switched from their doom/black/death roots into a more rock oriented focus. 

Discouraged Ones was more or less a continuation of the Brave Murder Day style with a more verse/chorus structure. The riffs largely remained consistent with the single note picked riffs that were repetitive and yet still somehow hypnotic and compelling. Tonight's Decision begins to move away from that style rather decisively. 

The simple note picked riffs are still present throughout the album, such as in the verse for I Am Nothing and in moments of For My Demons. There are other parts of these same songs though where the band starts going for a more open chord approach that kind of goes half way between a wall of sound effect and the earlier albums. 

With all these songs though the lead guitar has a lot more of a role than it did since the debut Dance of December Souls. It weaves back and fourth with the vocals as if almost in an interplay or delicate dance. Sometimes its awkward, sometimes it works so well that it offers some of Katatonia's best moments in their extensive catalog. 

It's the awkward moments where this album starts to lose me though. Songs like I am Nothing and In Death, A Song there are just too many points where I feel like the riffs/leads needed a bit more time to ruminate with the band to sound a little less rough. This isn't just prevalent in these early songs, it's in nearly every song, at least for a few moments.  It's hard to get past them as they will break up the flow before the band goes back to grooving.

I kind of get what the band was going for here. They were trying to find their sound after transitioning out of extreme metal. This is very much a transition album as the band would find their true sound post-extremity with the follow up. This album is in some ways their awkward teenage years before they finally show all of the potential that they have been hinting at for years. 

Entry 1570 - Pa Vesh En - Knife Ritual and Dead Womb

Style: raw black metal

Thoughts: I had a conversation with a co-worker a few days ago that was speaking about the appeal of obscure music. Naturally black metal came up and with that the sub category of raw black metal. We discussed a great deal many things including the production in black metal and why I enjoyed a well done raw black metal album. Knife Ritual and Dead Womb will offer a great examples of every talking point I had with this individual.

Pa Vesh En has been a favorite of mine within the raw black metal scene ever since I stumbled upon this project some three to five years ago. There is something about the way they put together their releases that resonates with me. The atmosphere, the riffs, the horrorscape... everything. 

Knife Ritual and Dead Womb are the two demos for the project, and they offer an even bleaker production than the full lengths that would follow. The music will literally start to cut out at points much like an old phone call that was put across too many relay stations. It's hard to hear anything that is happening at first glance, and this is the division point: do we investigate further or do we move on. Most will move on, but for those who choose to investigate there is much to be revealed within the mire.

Raw black metal such as Pa Vesh En offers many things that "normal" music does not. The music is obviously made not for the consumer, but because the creator of the music wanted to make inaccessible music. Doing so creates an inherit integrity to the music that is gone with music written for accessibility first. 

Additionally both Knife Ritual and Dead Womb offer different takes on this genre with greatly different productions. Knife Ritual offers a more murky sound where the instruments are buried deep in the mix obscured by a hazy and often harsh fuzz to the production. Dead Womb on the other hand has a much more forward production but none less harsh. The instruments, while clearer, are almost physically painful to listen to with the higher register notes that they play. The difference between the two productions is curious and one that I enjoy greatly while spinning this record.

Raw black metal offers a feast for those who would delve into the music. It has an inherit depth to it through the mired production and inherit difficulties presented to the listener. Over the years I have come to enjoy these in music that actually awards the listener for their efforts. Of course there is raw black metal out there that does not respect the listeners time and provides the most simple of experiences within the raw black metal scene. However, there are also acts like Pa Vesh En that put interesting music behind the layers of sonic obscurity that ultimately reward those who would listen.