Entry 494 - Aara - Triade III: Nyx

Aara are one of the more exciting bands I've gotten into the past few years. Their incredible debut album immediately caught my attention, and while they haven't reached those heights again all of their albums have been high quality. The latest being no exception.

The past three albums have all been part of a trilogy for the band and have shown a similar style. A slight shift from the first two albums, the Triade series focuses on high intensity rhythm riffs (almost death metal styled riffing) with melodic leads soaring over top. The production is improved over the first album and (on Nyx particularly) the band plays around with the idea of three or more guitars throughout the album.

Aara have this knack for creating catchy melodies that mix in hope, despair, darkness, and light all into one riff. It's a paradox and I don't know if I've heard another band do it as consistently as these guys do. Nyx in particular is very good at capturing this feeling. At one moment the riff will be a desparate minor scale then switch into a soaring major key. It's incredible when it happens and the fact that the rhythm guitars are as intense as they are only adds to the urgency of the songs.

Nyx also brings back the religious atmosphere that So Fallen Alle Tempel had, with moments of Gregorian chants and church bells. I absolutely adore this addition to the music and it propels Nyx as one of the better albums in their discography.

It should be noted that all of the songs only contain one speed: really fucking fast (for the most part). The band loves blast beats and tremolo picking, and it suits the style well. There are (very) brief sections where the band slows down for an atmospheric interlude but those are often shorter than a minute long before the blasting starts again.

Aara have finally wrapped up their trilogy and I'm curious where they go from here. I hope that we see another slight shift in style as they did with these three albums. They have run their course and I am always excited to see where a band takes things after the closing of a chapter such as this.

Entry 493 - Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls

 

What happens when you combine shouted/screeched vocals with repetitious synth lines, ear piercing sounds, and samples that sound like everything is disintegrating around you? You get Frozen Niagara Falls.

Compared to the other Prurient album's I've heard, Frozen Niagara Falls is as melodic and accessible as a pop album. If I hadn't heard something like Black Vase before this album I would think that this is one of the harshest albums in my collection. As it is, I've become so desensitized to the noise sounds that the sound does not phase me as much as I think it should.

Frozen Niagara Falls feels like a noise album for people that are trying to get into noise. Sure there are tracks where things go off the rails and the headache inducing tones come and dominate, but they are hardly the main focus of the album.

The album feels more like a series of scenes viewed as a distant observer. Some are slow and brooding... almost like a dark ambient track. Others are more overt, containing keyboard synth melodies that repeat over and over with spoken or shouted words over them. Others still are just mechanical sounds formed together in a rhythmic fashion.

There is true variety on this album's two hour run time, and it's a lot to take in all at once. Despite this I don't find myself getting overwhelmed by the album like I tend to do with a lot of other noise. Frozen Niagara falls treads the line of accessibility and inaccessibility perfectly. Just when you are ready to give up because of the harsh noise Prurient throws you a bone of melody or a soft moment amongst the chaos.

While I still prefer the absolute audio destruction of Black Vase, Frozen Niagara Falls has proven to be an album that I will be visiting more frequently because of its more forgiving nature. If you are trying to get into noise, this is a great place to start.

Entry 492 - Vital Remains - Dechristianize

 

Vital Remains is such a strange band for me. I dislike almost all of their albums with one exception: Dechristianize. After multiple attempts to get into albums like Forever Underground and Icons of Evil they keep falling flat and I find myself back to Dechristianize as my default album for them.

This is with good reason though, Dechristianize is a beast of an album. I don't think I've ever heard another band take the concept of melodic death metal as literally as they have here. Even though there is a lot of melody, this is a fucking brutal album. From the constant blast beats to the deep grunts provided by none other than Glen Benton, these guys don't mess around.

My first few times listening to this album I wasn't sure what I thought of it. The transitions from death metal to melody are often sudden and quite stark. One moment it'll be blasting at 200+ bpm, then the riff will end and a build up will occur to soaring melodies and less aggressive drumming. It's strange the first time it happens, but by the seventh or eighth time you start to realize that this is actually intended and a core part of Vital Remains sound on this album.

After taking my time with the album and really wrapping my head around it I've actually grown to like the sudden transitions in most of the songs. Some even are incredibly powerful, like one found in Devour Elysium where Benton screams "God you fucking whore!" at the top of his lungs as the melody starts to come in. Or the militaristic breakdown at the end of the title track: the guitars are repeating the main melody of the song with a snare drum march underneath them, all while the name of the song is being belted over top... goosebumps.

Vital Remains created one of the pinnacles of melodic death metal with Dechristianize. I can't emphasize enough how brutal this album is and how well the melodies are forced into that brutality. There isn't anything else out there like this album, and it is as potent now as it was when it first dropped. Brilliant.

Entry 491 - Tomb Mold - The Bottomless Perdition/The Moulting

 

There's been a ton of old school death metal in the past few years. I'm usually not a fan of music that tries to emulate bygone eras. If I want something from the past I can go to the records from that era directly, not someone trying to recapture bygone glories. Like everything thought there are always exceptions... and I'm all about my exceptions.

Tomb Mold obviously play old school death metal, but they do so with a huge heaping portion of riffs and a cavernous production to boot. This record is a collection of the initial demos the band released prior to their first full length, one side per demo.

The Bottomless Perdition is pretty straight forward sci-fi bent death metal that reminds me a lot of the Timeghoul demos... just not as well fleshed out or as timeless. The riffs here are the main focus, and man do they ever pack a punch. The quality of the music on this demo is better than quite a few full lengths I've heard in the same genre. Nothing super outstanding but man is it hard to turn off once its on. The opener in particular has this spectacular build before it explodes, great way to start off the record.

The Moulting is a lot more concise than the other demo and quite a bit more intense. The riffs are faster paced and are obviously out to pummel whoever is listening. The transition from the slightly slower pace of the first song to the second song in particular is excellent. The notes Vehement Indulgences get cut off suddenly by Feed Them Hate and its a swift kick in the gut. The high energy continues throughout the rest of the song and it's probably the highlight of the record as a whole for me.

Tomb Mold would go on to release some pretty damn solid albums. While there isn't anything overly outstanding about either of these demos, they are so short and the riff pack such a punch it's really hard to do anything but finish up a side when listening... and somehow the needle finds its way back to play the side again... and again... and again...

Entry 490 - Black Sabbath - Mob Rules

 

"On a small world, west of wonder. Somewhere, nowhere at all. There's a rainbow that will shimmer when the summer falls."

Ronnie James Dio, my favorite vocalist in any genre in any time - spoke those words on his sophomore album for Black Sabbath. On that song - The Sign of the Southern Cross - I knew I had come across something special, something magical.

I did not know much about the Dio era of Sabbath for many years. I only really listened to the Ozzy era of the 70's and one day decided I was going to look into some of the later stuff. I had never heard Dio before I picked up Mob Rules and my opinion of the band was forever changed after I did.

You see Dio got something out of this band that was never able to be replicated. There is a magic to this and Heaven and Hell that was never recaptured, never see again... even on Dehumanizer. These two albums are holy ground for me, some of the best music ever recorded... again in any genre.

Mob Rules has an energy to it, a majesty... a royalty to the music. This isn't just metal, this album is divine. The riffs from Tony, the way that they interact with Geezers bass and the playfulness that comes from that. Listen to Country Girl and how fun that riff is, and how playful the bass is. On the aforementioned Sign of the Southern Cross when the guitars do the full open chord and the bass does a little jam underneath during the chorus. It's epic.

The drums are powerful and drive the music forward definitively, while still allowing the other instruments to take the lead. And then there is Ronnie.

This man is a legend. The emotion that he portrays through his voice, every single note - low, high, mid - is dripping with passion. His signature rasp only adds to the allure. In one word: perfection.

Mob Rules is my favorite of the two holy albums of Black Sabbath, but Heaven and Hell is a very close second. There isn't anything else to say about this. This is what good music is. This transcends genre. This is divine.

Entry 489 - Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side

 

Out of all of the 90's releases from Blind Guardian, Imaginations is my least favorite. But that's like saying gold pales in comparison to platinum... technically it's true but all three of the 90's albums from Guardian are top tier.

Blind Guardian come from a speed metal background, with Somewhere Far Beyond (the album before this one) they started branching out into something more... something larger, more grandiose. Something unique. Imaginations takes the growth shown on Somewhere Far Beyond and continues in the same path, but everything is more.

The band has incorporated layers upon layers of vocals for many of the songs, in addition they have also added in layers upon layers of instruments. Three guitars? Sure thing. Multiple keyboard tracks with all the guitars? Coming right up. An acoustic with all that? You got it.

With so much going on it would be easy for the band to be tripping over themselves, but that doesn't happen here. In fact the opposite is true. The more thing's that are going on the more the band seems to be in their element.

Just look at the title track. It starts out with a keyboard driven melody and drums, guitars are added in layer after layer all while the keyboards keep building. When the chorus finally comes in Hansi has at least a dozen tracked vocals, probably more. It could easily be a disaster, but instead it's a beautiful execution of everything that I love about Guardian. This is their signature sound now.

The same thing happens countless other times in the album: Mordred's Song, Bright Eyes, And the Story Ends all have their own identity yet all sound undeniably like Blind Guardian. The remaining tracks still retain a bit of the speed metal past while still sounding grandiose and an absolute joy to listen to.

Imaginations is arguably the first album where Guardian found their true sound. While I still prefer Somewhere Far Beyond overall, Imaginations is an incredible album that I keep forgetting about. I need to get out of that habit.

Entry 488 - Amorphis - Tuonela

 

The 90's really were a wonderful time for metal. There were so many bands coming out with a hugely diverse sound. Many of the staple genres that we know and love now were in their infancy and were experimenting with what worked and what didn't. Many bands would continue evolving greatly with every album, and one of the bands at the forefront of that movement was Amorphis.

Tuonela was actually my first Amorphis album. Like so many other albums I picked it up at my local shop because I had heard good things about them through various online resources. As so many other albums back then I did not know what I was in for when I put the CD in my player... by the end of the first spin I learned that you can use a flute, saxophone, and even a sitar in metal effectively.

Amorphis' fourth album sees them fully embrace their progressive leanings with the incorporation of a ton of different influence, riffing styles, and song structures. The death metal of earlier releases is largely gone, except the excellent Greed. The songs have a calm majesty about them that really remind me of my early years exploring the metal genre and all the beautiful discoveries I made in those times.

Each song has it's own character, yet everything sounds like it belongs on the album. The Way sees the band explore delay on guitars, something that would become a somewhat staple later on in their career. A saxophone makes an appearance on Nightfall and the title track. It's use is so well done I longed for it to be on more of the album.  Rusty Moon utilizes a flute giving it a strong folk feel.  Despite the diversity, many of the songs blend together in very fitting ways and lends the album a wonderful flow and cohesiveness.

After listening to so many other albums from my youth earlier this week and being disappointment, I'm very happy to hear that Tuonela holds up over time. It doesn't have the element of surprise for me anymore, but it's still a wonderful listening experience.

Entry 487 - Swans - White Light From the Mouth of Infinity

 

The story of how I got into Swans starts with My Dying Bride. I remember reading an interview with Aaron Sainthrope right around the release of Turn Loose the Swans and he mentioned Swans multiple times as a strong influence for the album. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I wanted to find out more about this mysterious band.

It would be many many years later that I finally heard White Light... it remained this elusive album that was a distant mystery for all that time. I was always curious about it, but never really had the courage to dive in. When I finally did, my whole world changed.

White Light sees Swans realize all of the potential they had shown in all of their releases prior to this. It harnesses the dark subdued tones that they had been working up to on the previous few albums, and it all culminates in an album that rivals just about any other release in any other genre.

On White Light, Swans play a hypnotic version of gothic rock that has elements of classical, noise, ambient, and just about any other genre that goes well with darkness. The music is largely guitar based but in the same way a piano concerto is based on piano. It is the main element of many - and without those other elements it is entirely incomplete.

The songs themselves are often more subdued, focusing largely on Michael Gira's or Jarboe's voice. Michael's voice in particular is so warm, yet has a huge touch of sadness that never leaves.

I don't know how to effectively describe this album. It's so powerful and so unique that I have no other reference points. My only advice is to listen to it - preferably in a dark room with headphones - and do nothing but take the music in. There is so much here to feast on that it will take more than one listen to explore the depths of White Light From the Mouth of Infinity: Swans magnum opus.

Entry 486 - Gris

 

Piano, female vocals, a dramatic yet delicate collection of songs that actually feel like an album. Everything that I love about a well put together video game soundtrack is here in spades, I just don't know if I like this one or not. Maybe getting my thoughts down on paper will help me determine my actual feelings about Gris.

The music in Gris is largely piano and vocal led. This hardly tells the whole story of what is going on with the music. In between the vocal and piano interludes there are powerful swells of full orchestral builds and choirs. Sometimes these builds work well for the music, other times they fall flat on their face. I've played the game so I know what the music is doing at these points and while they work well within the context of the game, listening to it without the visual cues I don't think it works nearly as well.

On the opposite side, when the album stays fragile and venerable with minimalist melodies and a lot of reverb thrown in with it... these are some of the moments when the album truly shines. Along with the quiet moments, the music has a mastery of themes or leitmotifs. There are melodies that are explored and manipulated throughout the album, but they are always recognizable. The main theme in particular works its way in every so often in spectacular form throughout the tracks.

So in Gris there are moments that I enjoy greatly and moments that I could do without. I'm still not sure what side wins out, but man when the album restrains itself and keeps things to a minimum... this is something special when it does that. So I guess that's the side that wins, despite all it's flaws when Gris is calm it is glorious.

This is one of the last soundtracks that I wanted when I first got into video game music. With it entering the collection the list of "must have" soundtracks is down to a number I can count on one hand. It's a good feeling to feel complete with a genre of music.

Entry 485 - I Shalt Become - Wanderings

 

I dropped the needle for the first time on this record a few minutes ago. The sound coming out of my speakers was akin to that of playing a song over the phone, playing it on a loud speaker under water and then taking a single channel microphone to record the music coming out.

I Shalt Become's music is raw. Actually that is an understatement, this goes back to the early 90's sound where it's exceedingly difficult to tell anything that is happening in the wall of fuzz... and it's glorious.

I only found out about I Shalt Become a few years ago. I started seeing this album pop up in a couple of distros a few years back and eventually started seeing it in people's collections. I listened to the digital a few times and didn't know what to think... and today I saw it at my local shop and decided why not pick it up?

The experience listening to this on my main sound system rather than on headphones is drastic. This album captures that rare magic of being sloppy but having that sloppiness work in the albums favor.

Is that drum beat off a bit? Yep. Did they just miss finger that riff? Yep. Did his voice strain a little bit on that rasp? Yep, it sure did. All of these things make the album sound more organic and fit the wall of fuzz production perfectly.

The combination of the sloppy playing with the harsh production is a perfect match. While there is nothing super innovative happening on Wanderings, this is one of those rare records that manages to be greater than the sum of its parts.

Entry 484 - Borknagar - The Olden Domain

This is a hard one for me. I had such fond memories of this album, to the point where I idolized it in my memories a bit. I revisited it a few days ago and I'm wondering was I wrong?

This is the album where Borknagar broke off from the traditional black metal and started incorporating clean vocals, slight progressive tenancies and more interesting song structures - including a couple of instrumentals. All of these things elevate the album above the debut by quite a bit in my estimation, however the album itself still feels like its seeking... trying to find an identity.

Borknagar begins the album with The Eye of Oden. This song is a preview of almost everything that the album has in store. It starts off with a highly melodic riff and Garms off key clean singing. The band interlaces both guitar and keyboard melodies before speeding up and incorporating harsh vocals. The transition seems mostly natural from the start to the center of the song, but something is off too me. It sounds too sudden, like where missing a transition riff. Each individual riff is good on its own, but put together in the song the way they are... they don't fit as well as I would like them to.

And that's the story of The Olden Domain. So many of the individual riffs are great but the songs as a whole seem like they are lacking something... that one little ingredient that propels it from a collection of riffs to a fully realized composition.

There are risks about going back to old albums that you enjoyed quite a bit in your youth. Sometimes they reward you greatly, and other times the nostalgia is what was driving your fond memories. While The Olden Domain certainly is not a bad album, it feels incomplete as it is. I'll probably let this one sit for a while before coming back, maybe that time it'll recapture me as it did in my youth.

Entry 483 - Vesicant - Shadows of Cleansing Iron

 

This is the latest in my series of "gosh I haven't listened to that in so long I don't even remember what it sounds like" albums.

Vesicant play an intense style of dissonant black/death metal. There really isn't individual riffs on this album, its more of a collection of one wall of noise transitioning to the next wall of noise. That's not to say that everything blends together... there's plenty of variety and even some points where you could call this musical. Overall though this is one giant mass of extreme metal that takes no prisoners.

I remember liking this album quite a bit when I first got it years ago. I don't know why I never listened to it more frequently. I'm not sure it's quite as good as I remember it, but this does hit a very peculiar spot that not many albums can.

Shadows of Cleansing Iron hits that post apocalyptic atmosphere that is rare to get right. The combination of the wall of noise type riff along with the slower more brooding moments gives the album an "everything is absolutely fucked and were here sitting in the aftermath" vibe way better than almost any other album I can think of off the top of my head.

The band is at their best when they slow things way the fuck down. This is where the heaviness of the riffs goes from suffocating to absolutely crushing. That feeling of something gigantic and horrible about to happen and being hopeless to change your fate... that is what most of Shadows of Cleansing Iron channels. It's hopeless, it's damning, it's oblivion incarnate.

I'm not sure when the next time I'm going to listen to this album is, but I'm sure glad I grabbed it from the bowls of my collection today. This is quite a good album that probably will get better with repeated listens. For now I'm content to be swept away into the realm of nothingness.

Entry 482 - 暗号零 - Mother

Ambient is such a diverse genre. On one end you have someone like Brian Eno who is content to make some of the most relaxing music in the world. On the other end you have Lustmord who is out to make some of the darkest and most disturbing soundscapes possible. Then you have everything in between.

暗号零's music is decidedly on the darker end of the ambient spectrum. Overall this is a rather minimalist album with swells of melodic interludes. The first few times I listened to this I found myself being nostalgic to a few years back. I found this album during the height of the pandemic in a time of great change in everyone's life. This album reminded me quite a bit of some of the ambient music I got into when I was younger and helped spark a renewed interest in the genre.

While I haven't been part of the dreampunk musical scene for quite some time now, this album was one of the first that resonated greatly with me from within that genre of music. The decidedly sci-fi synths combined with the quiet urban ambience makes this a highly memorable album for me.

The melodies, when there, are often simple and don't demand too much from the listener. They have an inviting tone to them, a curiosity that drives me to listen further. Its this gentle guidance into the unknown that draws me to listening to this album. The tones gently reveal themselves slowly over the course of the album. Sometimes they are soft and undemanding, other times they completely dominate the soundscape. Though the latter is usually reserved for later in the album.

Mother feels like a journey through an unknown cityscape. The more time spent in it the more it reveals itself to the listener. I know that my time with the album has been well spent exactly because of this.

Entry 481 - God Dethroned - Bloody Blasphemy

 

The previous album from God Dethroned really influenced my musical tastes for quite some time. The combination of aggression and an their incredible knack for melodic hooks was unlike anything I had heard to that point in time. When I heard that the follow up - Bloody Blasphemy - was out, I rushed out and grabbed it as quickly as possible.

On this album God Dethroned continue in the vein of the previous album, but have toned back the melody and have amped up the violence. That's not to say that the melody is completely absent, it's not. It's merely not as frequent, or well executed (except for two songs) as the previous album.

The aggression does work for the bands sound, but it's not what I come to God Dethroned for. I'm here for melodic aggression. Melodic Death metal... not melodeath, melodic death metal... death metal with melody. God Dethroned shown that they are one of the best bands on the planet to play this style at times... this is a glimpse of what that they are capable of.

Songs like Under the Golden Wings of Death, Boiling Blood and A View of Ages are all full on death metal songs with some thrash leanings. They have little to no melody and are here to rip your fucking face off. Songs like Serpent King and Firebreath incorporate a little bit of melody here and there but still fall short of the brilliance this band is capable of.

Where the band really shines though is on The Execution Protocol and Soul Capture 1562, with the latter of those two songs being my favorite song they have ever written. These songs incorporate melody with the death metal in such a fantastic way that I get chills every time I listen to them. These two songs are the reason I bought this album, and without them this album would be a hard pass for me.

For many years this would be the last God Dethroned album I would enjoy. Many years later they would shift their lyrical themes to World War I and then I would regain a lot of interest in their works. But here, this is the last glimpse of what the band was so good at before they devolved into mediocrity for years.

Entry 480 - Silent Hill 3

 

I've had a need... a dire need. I have needed to listen to something from the Silent Hill series for over a month. I don't know why I kept putting it off but this day that need is satiated.

In all of the music that I have, nothing quite matches the atmosphere that the Silent Hill games do. They are some of the most emotionally potent and striking albums that I have. Capturing fear, mystery, grotesqueness, and even beauty all without sounding disjointed. Each one of the four first games soundtracks are a masterwork, yet despite their similarities they each have their own unique character as well.

Silent Hill 3 is the first in the series to introduce vocals (outside of the ending song to the first game), both sung and narrated. The narrated vocals are taken directly from the game and offer a chilling look into the story that Heather goes through in her nightmarish journey. They add an extra level of depth and darkness to the album that would not have been there if they were excluded.

The sung vocals are all female in this entry, courtesy of Melissa Williamson. While there are only a few tracks their placement is impeccable and the lyrics constantly make me wonder who they are talking about.

The rest of the music is a combination of rock, ambient, and industrial. The Silent Hill games capture the feeling of the fog and haze of the game so well through music. So much of the instrumentation is obscured or intentionally distorted from the listener that only bits and pieces shine through.

Honestly, this album has such a unique feel to it that I will often refer to something as "sounding like Silent Hill." In a world where so much music is derivative there is no higher praise than this. Akira Yamaoka is a masterful composer, and Silent Hill 3 is one of the prime examples of why he is held in such reverie.

Entry 479 - Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

 

What band other than Arcturus could release an album like the Sham Mirrors? This is the musical equivalent of being the first beings to travel at the speed of light. What will happen? No one knows, no one has been here before... yet somehow it's all entirely sane and entirely possible.

After the previous album's insanity, The Sham Mirrors feels entirely sane and cohesive by comparison. That by no means indicates that this is a normal album... it's just a few standard deviations closer to the mean than La Masquerade or Disguised Masters were.

The album is decidedly heavier and less black metal based than any of their previous works. If anything this would fall into the progressive metal territory with crazy rhythms, great interplay between the keyboards and guitars, and Garm's newfound love of the falsetto vocal style.

There are moments on the album that are nearly brutal in their execution. Both Radical Cut and Collapse Generation are high speed scorchers that surprised the hell out of me the first time I heard them. On the flip side there are songs like Star-Crossed and For to End Yet Again that feature extended piano solos and whisk me away to a place of peace and comfort.

Yet a third side of this same coin contains the absurd. Kinetic and Ad Absurdum are borderline madness put to musical form, yet even then they are so much easier to take in than the bands previous work. Needless to say the band has a lot going on in these 40 minutes, all of it good - none of it wasted.

Wither its the harsh vocals on Radical Cut or the trumpet leading the album to its conclusion on the final track this album is so packed full of ideas that there isn't a boring moment. I haven't listened to it in years and I'm so glad I revisited it, this album is borderline genius... it has to be heard to be fully comprehended.

Entry 478 - Gruth - Befallen

 

I remember buying this during my noise stint a few weeks/months back but somehow it fell through the cracks. I don't remember what this sounds like or even if it was even noise. Let's go on an adventure to find out what's in these grooves.

Gruth play a n a s t y style of industrial. This is filthy, noisy, bass driven, inhuman, distorted to the max old school industrial. Nothing here is clean. The production? Nasty as fuck, distorted to the max. The instrumentation? Compressed beyond recognition. The Songs? The instrumentals are put together in such a way that it sounds like computers are putting out the best that they can while in a torrential downpour, what's coming out of the speakers is the few bits of ruined music and sounds left over from the short circuited mess.

When I first put this on my turntable I was worried that I had bought something that was going to regret again. I haven't been in the mood for pure noise lately, and I was afraid that I over extended myself with this one. After making it through a few times I'm happy to report that's not the case.

Gruth uses noise as a part of the sound, not the entirety of it. This album is nasty as all get out, but it still has distinct patterns that lend it some level of musicality. The noise is rhythmic, it is used to add to the music... not dominate it. This is the kind of stuff that I can really get into no matter what my mood is, because there is always room to play in raw sewage.

Befallen is short, so much so that I hesitate to call it a full release. That said it uses the time it has exceedingly well. Nothing is wasted here and each of the tracks produces a visceral response in me, this hits on a primal level. There is only the rhythm and the noise. Really strong release that's going to make me look into some more releases from this project.

Entry 477 - Abyssal - Denouement

 

 

A few days ago I was writing about how I was wrong about an album. The narrative was something like this: I thought the album sucked because of one thing and couldn't get passed it - revisit 10 years later and the album is awesome. With Denouement the exact opposite happened.

I remember loving this album when it first came out. The cover is striking and brings to mind the bloodrust atmosphere of Silent Hill. I instantly fell in love with the album when it dropped and then forgot it existed.

I came back to it last year and was a bit lack luster on it. I decided to really spend some time with the album this week to see if I could recapture the love I had for it before... and it completely lost me.

Abyssal play a dissonant form of black/death metal that really tries to have a thick atmosphere and interesting idea's. Unfortunately, it just can't reach those lofty goals on Denouement. The dissonance is there throughout most of the album, but it feels forced... nothing feels like it comes natural on the album. I have a hard time telling one song from another, everything runs together and this feels more like a 50 minute collection of individual riffs stitched together rather than actual songs or a larger concept.

Some of those sections/riffs are really well done and fit the promise that the cover gives. I'll start getting into it and then it will suddenly stop and transition into something completely different and completely lose me. This happens over, and over, and over again... and it sucks. I really want to like this album.

There are some very cool idea's here, there's even a sample from some Silent Hill music towards the middle of the second side of the album. All the ingredients for a fantastic album are here... they are just put together in a way that I can't get into. Maybe I'll try again in a few more years.

Entry 476 - Grave Pilgrim - Molten Hands Reach West

 

 

I'll come straight out and say this was an impulse buy. There is a lot of chatter surrounding Grave Pilgrim in the online community these days, I saw that this EP was in stock for a reasonable price so I got it... without listening to it.

Now that breaks several of my normal rules: I don't like impulse buying things and I don't like buying things without hearing them. This one got the best of me... I just hoped it was good.

Grave Pilgrim plays a rawish form of black metal that seems to rely on a few novel factors. The band doesn't seem to use full on distortion, the guitar tone seems to be heavily over driven instead. This gives the music a classic rock and roll feel, at least with the notes coming from the guitar - not necessarily the riffs. The second, and perhaps the more compelling factor) is a heavy dose of sounds and tones from the Wild West (if that wasn't already obvious by the album cover).

The EP contains only a few real songs, and those are serviceable. They are catchy and somehow conjure tones of people moving west to find gold... that is to say they have a hope in the riffs and music despite the obvious black metal basis. This shift in tone from a typical darkness laid black metal band is quite a welcome one, and gives the album a unique character in a crowded black metal field.

This is only emphasized more by the interlude tracks. While many of these songs still have black metal elements (vocals, over-driven guitars), they also lack any sort of percussion. Young Hickory in particular feels like cowboys around a fire sharing stories at night.

While there really isn't much to Molten Hands Reach West, the 23 minutes that it does have are packed full of unique ideas and fascinating executions. I'm going to be checking out the bands full length down the road due to how cool this album was to spend time with. Here's hoping that one gets a repress soon too.

Entry 475 - Keiji Haino - Wastashi Dake?

 

 

Out of all the noise music that I've been listening to lately, most of the records at least have some sort of musical component to them. A melody here, an instrument there, a drum beat... something.  Watashi Dake? has none of that... Kaiji Haino has a lot of that... Confused? welcome to the world of early 80's Japanese noise.

Starting out with a desperate man screaming and feedback being laced through the microphone every now and then the album starts off incredibly unsettling. I don't speak Japanese so all I hear is the pure emotion and desperation of the cries. That mixed with the feedback makes this at minimum a challenging listen.

As the album progresses various noises and field recordings are woven together to form soundscapes. Some of them sound like they could be instruments, but never quite have enough musical quality to them for me to be absolutely sure. Like the start of the second track. Is that strumming on a guitar or is that someone hitting a hammer on a metal fence? I can't tell. It's probably a guitar, but again... I'm never quite sure.

Outside of going track by track and describing the details of what is going on I don't think I could possibly describe the entirety of what is going on in this album. Each song has a small concept that it runs with and as the album continues it becomes stranger and stranger.

Even in the deviant world of noise Kaiji Haino is strange. Is this music? Yes and no. Is this noise? Yes and no. What is it? I don't know... it's fucking strange is what it is. 

Entry 474 - Deathspell Omega - Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Cirvmspice

I've been listening to a lot of black metal lately. Much of it being religious in nature. I figured I may as well go back to one of the very first albums that successfully captured that "black metal in a church" feeling for me. Enter Deathspell Omega.

I remember when this album first dropped, it caused quite the stir in the metal world. No one had heard anything quite like this before. Sure there was bands that had done the black metal with religious tenancies before... but nothing like this. I mean, this album starts out with a Gregorian chant to put the listener right into the state of mind that we are going to be listening to some black metal that takes satan as a literal being and this is the music the worship this entity.

To drive this point home the first song of nearly every side of this album is called a prayer. Each one of these compositions is repetitive and hypnotic, each one mimics a traditional hymn in different ways. One includes chants, another includes variations on the same verse structure throughout. They all set the stage for the chaos that is about to come.

Outside of the more meditative moments of the record the music contained within Si Monvmentvm is a combination of traditional black metal and utter chaos. The riffs will alter between normalize sounding black metal melodies and chords and then completely break down into either ambience, a cacophony of notes, or some combination thereof that results in a complete flurry of activity.

I first had this album on CD, and honestly its a bit long for one sitting. But when broken down into the 15-20 minute chunks that is required for being on vinyl the album becomes a lot more digestible. The album almost seems like it was recorded with the vinyl format in mind with the way the songs are laid out - particularly with the prayer songs being the start of 3 of the 4 sides. Whatever the intention Deathspell would use this album as the launching point for the insanity that would follow.

Entry 473 - Aara - So fallen alle Tempel

 

Holy crap these guys put out a lot of albums in a short amount of time. I had no idea when I picked this up that they would release a new album each of the following years through 2023, each one of those have their own merits but none of them have come close to the glory that is the debut.

While many of the albums that were after this would feature more intricate riffs, better production, and arguably better arrangements to the songs - So fallen alle Tempel has two things going for it. One, it feels genuine and has a raw energy to it that is not in any of the future releases. It also has an incredible atmosphere that focuses on Gregorian chants and replicating the feeling of being within a church.

The feeling of being inside a huge cathedral while also successfully channeling the feel that this album is indeed a religious experience in and of itself is SO incredibly rare. I can think of a handful of albums off the top of my head that do it as well as Aara do here.

The way the riffs swirl around without stopping. The way the music reverberates within itself, mimicking a great hall or giant place of worship. The way the vocals are pushed to the back of the mix somewhat while still having a visceral intensity to them. The way the songs are given enough time to marinate and truly get burned in my brain, much like a hymn of the past.  The way the choirs are used as a primary component of most of the songs.... all of it works together in perfect harmony.

This is an album I listen to every few months to a year, and every time I forget how good it is. Every time I put it on I sit back and go "damn, this is way better than I remember." How many albums can do that? How many albums can continually impress me over and over again - even after dozens of listens? I don't know the answer, but I do know that the number is low.

Entry 472 - Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant

 For the longest time I really despised this album. I thought the transitions were weak and despite having a couple good riffs here and there the lack of a cohesive movement from one part of a song to another turned me off to the whole thing... and that was my opinion for at least 15 years.

I revisited it maybe five to seven years ago thinking that I may have missed something. So many other people seem to think that this is a fantastic metal album, even beyond black metal circles. When I went back, I did indeed hear those transitions that made it so hard for me to get into the album in the first place... but the rest of the music. I've never been so happy to be wrong about an album.

Yes, the transitions on parts are really rough, and they do momentarily take me out of the song. Mourning Palace is particularly bad at this, the transition from the slower introduction to the faster parts in the middle of the song (especially the blasting section) really are not done well and I was afraid that I was going to have to pass on the album again. But then the song calms down again and I'm wrapped up in the wonderful interplay of the guitars and the keyboards.

Dimmu really figured something out on this album. The way that the guitars and keys work together create an incredibly compelling interaction. Where one picks up the other leaves off, when one shines the other lets off a little bit. Everything works in perfect harmony here. Listen to the beginning of In Death's Embrace and tell me that's not nearly a perfect interplay between the guitar and piano. It's so well written and gives me goosebumps when I listen to it. The album is full of moments like that!

I think I had my Dimmu albums reversed in my youth. I thought Spiritual Black Dimensions was the better of the two when I was younger, now that I'm a bit older and have taken more time with the albums I have to say that Enthrone Darkness Triumphant is definitively the better of the two. I'm very glad that I was wrong about this album.

Entry 471 - Borknagar - Quintessence

 

I've been doing this thing lately where I've been going back through my CD's and listening to what I thought were good albums back then. Most of the CD's I got were when I was much younger, and I'm really curious on how my tastes have changed over the years. Early Borknagar is the latest venture down this path.

Quintessence was the second album I got from the band. I got The Olden Domain first (because Garm was on vocals), and it blew me the fuck away. I had never heard black metal done with progressive tenancies before and the mix of clean vocals with the harsh was incredible. I quickly sought out another album from them and found Quintessance.

Quintessence saw a vocal change, from Garm to Vortex. The band still plays black metal, but they lean more into the progressive rock/metal tenancies on this album. So much so that one of the major instruments on the album is a Hammond organ. It sounds like it should be a horrible combination, but somehow it works here.

I think I need to revise my previous statement, I'm not really sure this is black metal. This is a fusion of black metal and progressive metal without really being either. There are harsh and clean vocals, there are also blasting sections, there's even the odd riff that would feel right at home on a black metal album.

On the progressive side the band has complex interactions between the instruments. The keyboards and bass in particular intertwine with each other in very cool ways, especially on songs like Revolt where the guitars aren't dominating the entire soundscape. The song structures aren't nearly as complex as most other progressive acts, but the music does have that ever changing feel to it which lends it some progressive tenancies.

Borknagar was really in some uncharted waters with this one. Perhaps one of the only comparable bands around the same time would be Solefald (ironically Lars from Solefald plays keys on this album as well). Either way this is an album that has withstood the test of time.

Entry 470 - Moonspell - Sin//Pecado

 

Picture this, a young Xorn walking through tower records looking for a new album to buy. The internet was a band new thing and somewhere (probably metal-rules) mentioned that Moonspell was a great band. Oh look they have a new album out, lets check this one out.  Based on what I had heard about the band I was expecting some gothic/black combination with a lot of great melodies... what I got with Sin/Pecado was very different.

First impressions were not very good. You see I was a bit of a metal elitist at the time and this was not metal at all. Maybe one song had metal elements, but the rest was atmospheric/experimental goth rock.  I put the record to the side a few weeks/months and came back to it at a later time.

Honestly I don't know what I was thinking that first time I listened, this album is outstanding. As stated before, Moonspell play an experimental style of gothic rock on this album. There is a healthy dose of electronica, mild metal elements, deeply emotional vocals and melodies, and an atmosphere so thick it makes pea soup look watery.

What makes this album so good is not just the individual songs, it's also how they all fit together. The first few tracks all blend into each other, and start off pretty standard before moving into more experimental territory.

Erorotica is essentially an 80's goth rock/electro goth song. Mute is a highly emotionally charged song that has more synths in it than you would expect from a band like Moonspell. Both Let the Children Cum to Me and The Hanged Man have a ridiculously thick atmosphere. The Hanged Man in particular is so emotionally charged it still gives me goosebumps all these years later.

I think it was a benefit that I had not heard Wolfheart or Irreligious prior to this album. They would have tainted my view of it and I think I would have been more upset with the change in direction than I initially was.  Now 20 something years later Sin/Pecado has more character, more intrigue and more intricacy than either of the previous two Moonspell albums have for me. Outside of one other album from the band, this is peak Moonspell.

Entry 469 - Këkht Aräkh - Pale Swordsman

 

I kept seeing this album pop up on my feed for a few weeks... or months, I don't remember. Based on the cover my initial thoughts were "oh, this is just another 1 man black metal project made in a basement somewhere" and moved on. But I kept on seeing it and people kept praising it. Eventually I made my way to bandcamp to check it out...

Needless to say what I got was not at all what I was expecting. This is indeed a 1 man black metal project, but it is hardly a typical entry into that field. Immediately the album starts out with a piano piece, but its produced like something out of Norway from 1992. After its completion Thorns picks right up with the piano playing over a riff that again is right out of 1992 Norwegian black metal... complete with the production.

I can't overstate how cool the transition is from the Intro to Thorns. The piano sets the stage and then the first real song runs with it. This is not the formula for the album moving forward, but it does instantly grab my attention with its unique hook.

As the album continues a lot of the classical music elements are dropped for a while, there are moments in each song though that deviate from the blast beat norsecore that the music seems to be based off of. Both Amor and Nocturne are excellent instrumentals to end and begin their respective sides of the record.  In The Garden mixes up the pace quite a bit along with a riff that seems just a little bit off. Swordsman, the outro, features clean vocals and sounds like it was recorded on an old Edison cylinder.

This album is about as far from my expectations as it could possibly get. Yes this is raw old school black metal. Yes this is a one man project, but god damn if Crying Orc dosen't pull out all the stops for when it comes to creating interesting and engaging black metal. This is the type of release the genre needs.

Entry 467 - Altar of Plagues - Trilogy Part 1 - White Tomb

 

This is the latest entry of records I never thought would be in my collection. These guys were a deep obsession of mine when White Tomb first came out, especially the first song "Earth."

This album is actually kind of amusing, I ran across a short review I wrote of it in my email from right around 2009. In that writing I thought that the black metal sections were phenomenal, but the ambient sections were lacking. I went into listening to White Tomb for the first time in a long while with that in mind... and I'm very happy to say I was wrong.

I do have to double down on my statement that the black metal sections are excellent. The song Earth is perhaps the finest example of how you combine post rock with black metal that I've ever heard. The entire song is one long blast beat but slowly builds and builds and builds... and FUCKING BUILDS until this insane tremolo picked explosion in the middle of the song that still gives me goosebumps to this day.

Through The Collapse is a bit tougher of a song to instantly enjoy. I don't particularly care for the vocals in part 1: Watchers Restrained, but whereas before I did not like the ambience of this part of the album, now I think it's one of the better moments. The song uses silence and slow builds as weapons to lure the listener into a sense of security. The ambience reminds me heavily of a decaying dystopia and as the music continues to deconstruct itself this image becomes clearer and clearer. As a concept Through the Collapse is the superior song on this album.

This is driven home on the second part, Gentian Truth. This may as well be a post rock song all together with its build. It's not as huge of an explosion as Earth is, but god damn these guys know how to tell as story though just a song title and music. Through the Collapse feels exactly like that: we witness the destruction of Earth and somehow survive to move forward to a new day.

What a fucking debut album this my dude. I don't think I knew how incredible this was when I first listened, but now I can say that this is a rare gem.

Entry 468 - Winterfylleth - The Mercian Sphere

 

This is one of those bands I got into right when they started. Right around the end of the decade (2008-2009) I got into Winterfylleth, Altar of Plagues, Woodensthrone, and Fen. They all had that hypnotic blackgaze feel to them. Out of all the bands though Winterfylleth has the strongest black metal sound.

While The Ghost of Heritage was a decent debut album, I felt like it was lacking. I really liked a lot of the acoustic elements and choirs but felt they were  limited to just a few moments in the album. I was hoping that the band would fully embrace them on future releases. Enter The Mercian Sphere.

The Mercian Sphere takes blast beat driven black metal, combines it with hypnotic riffing and ups the folk elements hinted at on the debut album to one of the major parts of the bands sound. The instant the record starts you know something is different, a male choir leads the album for a few moments before the blast beats come in. The first time I heard it I got chills and goosebumps.

This album was everything I wanted out of Winterfylleth's sound. It has ear-worm melodies, it has powerful vocals - both clean and harsh - it has folk instrumentals that feature guitar and violin. Hell, it has entire acoustic breakdowns in the longer songs that put the album to the next level. This is all the potential the Winterfylleth displayed on the debut realized outright.

The Mercian Sphere is easily one of the better black metal albums of the early 2010's. This is fully embracing both the black metal as well as the folk elements without either becoming overbearing. Other bands trying to create something in this field should take note.

Entry 466 - Green Carnation - Leaves of Yesteryear

 

How many years was this album in the making? I remember reading several interviews with Tochort saying he was writing Light of Day Day of Darkness part 2 and 3. Well, those haven't happened yet. What we got instead was an album consisting of three new songs, one cover, and one rerecording.

I was pretty skeptical going into this one. Green Carnation has been hit and miss for me over their entire career. The early stuff is by far the best, especially the first two albums. The first one has that In The Woods... weirdness that would carry over from the Botteri brother's involvement. The second album is an hour long song that actually justifies the total run time, a pretty rare accomplishment.

From there the band really starts to lose me except for a few songs here and there, until we got to Leaves of Yesteryear. This album feels like the band trying to find themselves again. They are trying to reaffirm their style... and it sounds like they are trying to go back to their roots to some degree.

Almost all of the acoustic leanings of The Acoustic Verses is gone. This is decidedly a metal album. Sure, there is quite a bit of quiet/acoustic elements present in the songs (especially in Solitude and Hounds). The songs are longer than they have been in a very long time as well, with the album spanning 45 minutes in just 5 songs. All of this is very welcome.

The metal has a decidedly doomier feel than the band has had in a long time. This one also ranks amoung their heavier entries... they haven't put anything out like this really since the debut.

I was concerned about the rerecording of My Dark Reflections of Life and Death, but it really fits with the overall feel of the album. Kjetil's voice fits wonderfully with the song, and its different enough to justify a spot on the album. The same can be said about the cover of Solitude, it fits exceptionally well with the feel of the album and is an excellent closer.

Green Carnation are back, and I for one am glad that they finally got it together to put out an album. I hope that there is more to come.

Entry 465 - Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness

Ahhh yes, Primordial. One of the very few bands within metal that have an instantly distinctive sound. The combination of metal with the 3/4 timing of Irish folk music works so incredibly well.

Early Primordial mixed the folk in with black metal elements peaking with Storm Before Calm which is essentially a black metal album. The Gathering Wildness is almost a complete opposite reaction to Storm Before Calm. Almost all of the harsh vocals are eliminated (save for Tragedy's Birth), and AA's clean/moaned vocals are instead the main focus of this album.

The songs have taken on a slower, more mournful tone on this album compared to the previous entries into the Primordial discography. You can hear the pain and remorse in the vocals and the melodies as they slowly recall past events in these seven compositions, with the greatest example being the epic The Coffin Ships.

The Coffin Ships is on my short list of song that I label "perfect." Every single note, every single line spoken/sung, every instant within the ten minutes of this masterpiece drips of tragedy. The way the riffs sway back and fourth reminds me of a ship at sea, and AA's vocals recall the story of ships that set sail from Ireland never to return. Such a tale can only be told by a band such as Primordial.

This album was the first time I ever heard the band way back in 2005. While I initially didn't like their style it grew on me over time. I still don't care for the opener on the album, but every other song is absolutely stunning, especially the aforementioned The Coffin Ships.

Entry 464 - Pedestrian Deposit - The Architector

 

 

In the realm of noise music, it seems like truly well thought out albums are hard to come by. So many albums I came across when I was starting to explore noise a bit ago seemed so low effort that it was an easy pass. Albums that stood out tended to be more dynamic and not just a wall of static. Pedestrian Deposit continually came up as a cut above the rest.

On The Architector, Pedestrian Deposit tell two stories. One for each side. What the details of those stories are, are entirely up to the listener. Like the best abstract music out there the goal is not to impart a vision to the listener, but instead let the listener mold the music into a vision of their own creation.

In this particular instance, static, silence, field recordings, and sparse instrumentation are used. I still don't know what the band is trying to tell me, but I get an immense feeling of solitude and loneliness when listening to these two compositions.

The more memorable of the two tracks is on side B. The track starts out with various noises that sounds like my sound system is failing, it threw me for a loop at first until I realized what was going on. The track then falls into complete silence for what seems like minutes. I turned the volume way up and there are some small effects happening in the background, but I can't tell you what they are. The song then slowly comes back with other harsher sounds as the track comes to a close. I can't tell you exactly what happened with the track, but I do know that I remember my feelings of confusion and intrigue during it.

Why would Pedestrian Deposit make so much of their track complete silence? Are they trying to emulate John Cage? Are they trying to fuck with me? I don't know the answers to these questions, but what I do know is that this album is much more of an experience than it is music.

Entry 463 - Elden Ring - Disk IV

 

"I am Melenia, blade of Miquella... and I have never known defeat."

I heard those words over a year ago for the first time. At the time I did not know that I had reached the Elden Ring superboss and would have my ass royally handed to me for the next fucking n i n e hours. I've beaten entire games faster than I was able to beat this god damn boss. So many deaths, so many close calls... so many one shots... so many obliteration by the waterfowl dance... so much death.

All those memories came rushing back to me the instant I put Disk IV on. The first track on here is Melenia's theme. It starts off slow and brooding with whole note chords and a choir. After a bit it explodes into a sweeping epic much like the flower of scarlet rot that she expels upon you in her second phase. It's a powerful way to start the last record in the Elden Ring set, and reminds me that we are nearing the end to this epic journey.

The remainder of the selections here are all of the end game bosses or zones. Again the pacing here is exceedingly well put together. Right after a climactic battle theme the next track will be a slow choir piece that stays low-key throughout. I'm really impressed by how well everything is put together throughout this entire boxed set. So much so that I've started to warm up to it despite the negative emotions that came from the initial purchase and delivery.... give it another year or two and this thing could actually become one of my favorite OST's.

Every time I put the soundtrack on I'm reminded of my time with the game. The good times as well as the bad. I wasn't sure this would be a good soundtrack when I first got it. The ambient moments seemed too sparse and I was worried that it wouldn't translate well to vinyl. Now, after listening to the entire boxed set, I can definitively say that this soundtrack lives up to the legacy and the grandeur of the game in every way possible.