Entry 749 - Mortiis - Crypt of the Wizard (Live)

Style: Dark dungeon music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Sitting alone contemplating the darkness of the human mind while writing solitary songs on a lone keyboard

Thoughts: Crypt of the Wizard is arguably Mortiis' magnum opus from his dark dungeon music days. It came at the very height of his song writing ability and still retains the pure sound of the early works. Basically this is as good as it gets before he started to incorporate better equipment on later albums.

I've been waiting/searching for a copy of this record for well over a decade. The only official release that came out was around 1997 on Earache records. Earache are a notoriously difficult label to license music from, with Mortiis himself sating that the costs are staggering. I'm not sure what those costs are, but the end result is that a lot of classic albums remain in their vaults instead of getting the proper treatment they deserve.

Well enter in my contender for label of the year so far: Out of Season. They managed to do the impossible. Crypt of the Wizard is on vinyl, and it's in my collection. It's a live recording of the album, but I don't really give a flying fuck about that. It sounds the same as the original, and that's all that matters. The fact that Mortiis played this album live in its entirety is a small miracle considering he moved away from this sound over twenty years ago. (He has since returned to it, but that's another story all together)

Whatever the circumstances of the albums creation... it's here now. You bet your ass that I had OOS' website on refresh right when the album dropped. I wasn't sure if it was going to sell out or not, but I'm not taking that risk. F5 for life baby.

There are some changes from the original pressing. Two major ones to be exact. The first is the track order. The songs were disordered on the first release - that has been corrected here. The second is that the album is now spread out over two LP's instead of one. With the album being just over an hour long, this is a needed change.

That's enough of the history of this release, what of the music? Well the music is exactly what you would think it is based on Mortiis' releases around the time. The ten songs on this album are rather varied and lend themselves to repeated listens quite easily.

Consisting of five separate EP's each one of them has a distinctly different mood. One will resemble a dreary dirge while another will present itself as a march. One will resemble a sombre ballad, while another resembles a Renaissance dance. 

The commonality between all of them is the composition style as well as the instrumentation used. Each one of the songs has a highly repetitious style to it and most if not all will be at a dreary pace. This combined with everything being played off of a keyboard that struggles to emulate real instrumentation gives the album a highly distinctive sound.

One might see the keyboards sound as an instant negative for the album... that couldn't be further from the truth. The keyboards are what give this album it's character, it's very soul. Without the limitations of the instruments this album does not have nearly the same charm that it would with them. Hearing them struggle to emulate strings, percussion, and brass instruments is what keeps me coming back to Crypt of the Wizard and dungeon music as a whole. It's how I can listen to a song that repeats the same few notes over the course of seven minutes without getting boring. It's this musics life blood.

Crypt of the Wizard, while not my favorite Mortiis album, is damn close. It contains everything that I love about the dark dungeon music from the period, and never disappoints me whenever I listen to it. It's an album I can put on any day, any time, any mood... I can listen to it at the drop of a hat and still enjoy the hell out of it. That's a statement that I can attribute to very few albums.

Written March 28th 2024

Entry 748 - Neurosis - Times of Grace

Style: Tribal influenced post-metal/hardcore with touches of acoustic and ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: The primal spirit of the earth has spoken through this music 

Thoughts: Do perfect albums exist? I tend to think no. There is almost always something to nit pick about any album, no matter how small. One song along the way may have an awkward transition, some songs may be too long, maybe the album isn't long enough. Who knows... but there is almost always something... except here... Times of Grace... I can't find fault in.

From the very first notes of Suspended in Light to the last tones of The Road to Sovereignty there is not a single thing that I would change about this album. Longer albums can sometimes be a deterrent for me. My gold standard is eight tracks clocking in at forty five minutes. Neurosis have this one coming in well over an hour long and the only thing I want is more. 

Long songs are something that I truly appreciate when done correctly, but when they overstay their welcome they become an easy skip. No such thing here. After taking out the intro and the outro track the average song length is right around seven minutes long. These songs are so well paced and so well composed that they could go on for double the length and still draw near the unachievable goal of perfection.

Songs that area overtly heavy can often be brutish in nature and never fulfill the promise of the genre of metal. So many bands like to pummel the listener into the ground with no real thought or care put into the riff except for the fact that its incomprehensibly heavy. Not so here. The Doorway is perhaps one of the heaviest songs in my entire collection, but it channels that heaviness to drive the song towards an ultimate goal rather than to rest on the fact that it's heavy. The heaviness is a tool that Neurosis use as one of many rather than THE singular component of the songs. 

Hardcore vocals are often a pretty big turn off for me. The shouts don't do much for me, they lack emotion other than rage. Ultimately they sound one dimensional and it's tough to make it through an entire album like that. Neurosis tun this on it's head. Both Steve and Scott share vocal duties with some additional grunts from Dave every down and then. They channel sorrow, rage, joy, regret, and a multitude of other emotions even though they are based in the hardcore shout. It's incredible. 

I was asked a few weeks ago by a friend where the best place to start with Neurosis was. A single song that would give them an idea of where the band sound was. I gave them a link to Under the Surface. This song encapsulates everything that makes Neurosis, Neurosis.

It starts out with a tribal drum beat that Jason and Steve compliment each other on. Behind them is some layered feedback that is somehow manipulated to become musical along with an accompanying bass riff. When the guitars and vocals come in the song fleshes out just a bit more to show some semblance of a normal song. Throughout all of this the drums keep going, they are ever present. Scott and Dave belt out words regarding the state of our natural order. This is the basis of the first section of the song. Even though it is not overtly heavy, the overwhelming presence of the drums and building tension makes it feel immense.

When the full band finally does come in the song goes from building tension to this incredible release, it slows down, the tribal drums are dropped for a more traditional bass/snare beat and some brass plays over the massive guitar riff that the band has going. The band continues to develop this concept for a short amount of time before they drop everything... and near silence overtakes the song.

The only thing that can be heard for nearly two minutes is the quiet tones of Noah manipulating his electronics produce. Every now and then Jason will beat the floor tom to accentuate a cycle of the noise, but that's it. It's tranquility incarnate, it's true peace. 

The band pierces the silence by combining everything that has happened to this point by bringing back the tribal drums with the massive riff from right before the ambient moments of the song. As the song continues we hear the whole band yell "Your shell is hollow! So. Am. I." God that's powerful.

This song is the microcosm known as Neurosis summed up in one song. They can rage, they can make you contemplate, they can bring peace, they can destroy it as well. This is the purity of the music that Neurosis bring, this is their true art.

The rest of the album would require as much of a description as Under the Surface, so I'm going to forgo that for the remainder of this summary. The album maintains a masterwork level of quality throughout all of its sixty eight minute length and not a single moment is worth skipping. There is an old saying that perfection is the enemy of good, and yes while this is not technically perfect, or as polished as it could be... none of that matters. This is a perfect album for me... no one else. It meets every standard that I have set out in my evaluations and surpassed them all. This is where the perfect and the good meet.

Written March 27th 2024

Entry 747 - Marche Funebre - Einderlicht

Style: Melodic doom/death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Sitting down in a familiar looking chair, it's not yours but it certainly feels close enough to be

Thoughts: There's something to be said for the early doom bands. Pentagram, Candlemass, Trouble... all of them had a swagger to them that you don't see anymore. The magic is seems to be gone from those early days of the genre. 

Marche Funebre doesn't quite match the majesty of those early bands, but damn they sure get close. There is a class to this music that is really rare in the doom metal genre these days. It seems like most doom bands are more worried about sounding the heaviest, the most stoned, or the slowest... song writing sometimes seems to be a secondary effect.... at least to these ears.

Einderlicht feels like it's written with intent. It feels like it's meant for people who like good music rather than any of the previous ways to make the music more extreme. It sounds like the band is having fun. It sounds like they actually enjoy playing the music they create.

These songs are long, six of them to be exact. Just under an hour. The pacing is quite varied. Sometimes the band lets it rip with double bass and even a blast beat, other times it's a slow and heavy as funeral doom. The band never settles in on one pace for too long though, only what the song calls for at the time.

The riffs are the real meat of the album.  The riffs always have a deep and heavy leaning, but there is a sense of melody that hearkens back to the mid eighty's. The riffs groove, they have me bobbing my head. The music captures my attention and holds it - especially the guitar solos, man those things have some heft to them.

The vocals though. This is where the band really pulls themselves back in time. While most of the albums vocals are clean there are some death growls mixed in.The harsh vocals tend to be used more at the climaxes of songs rather than dominating the entire run time. They are fine for what they are, but the cleans are the true star here.

Einderlicht is a damn fine album. It's one of those albums I picked up on release and forgot I owned it. I'm glad I revisited it, because now I have another thick slice of doom to put onto the turntable when the mood strikes.

Written March 28th 2024

Entry 746 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Style: Video game music, violin and accordion driven

Primary Emotions/Themes: Trying to pass a bridge only to have the bridge keeper give you a riddle before he will lower the bridge. The curiosity and frustration that comes with trying to solve that riddle.

Thoughts: There was a time in my life where things were simpler. I didn't have to worry about providing for my loved ones or worry about their health. There was a time where I could spend hours upon hours in the day working away at a singular task, to solve a tricky riddle, to spend time with those same loved ones - sharing notes on what to do where. 

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a game that is full of fond memories for me. I remember playing it with my partner years and years ago. Those were good times, those are strong memories. Ones that I look back on fondly and try to remember when I'm having harder days.

Putting these two records on is a near instant shot of nostalgia for me because of these memories. The music contained within is exactly how I remember it. A wonderful combination of accordion and violin driven music that breeds an air of mystery and discovery wherever it plays. 

It really has the feel of some of the "whodunit?" movies and shows of yesteryear. Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis: Murder, Murder on the Orient Express, Murder by Death, so many fond memories of those movies and television shows. The fact that this game captures that same inquisitive feel without the death is quite the accomplishment. 

It's hard for me to truly quantify how much this soundtrack brings out in me. It's never going to be on my list of favorite albums, but it will never leave my collection either. It's a record I forget about only to rediscover ever year or two. This just happens to be one of those occasions. 

Written March 27th 2024

Entry 745 - Kazumi Keneda - Hard Light

Style: Instrumental hip hop

Primary Emotions/Themes: Showin' all the kids how to create hip hop beats in the modern day, sitting at the bar sipping a drink while a jazz band plays in the background

Thoughts: Whenever I spin this album I immediately want to dim the lights, light up a cigar or cigarette, and then sip a drink. This album oozes the atmosphere you would find at a small jazz bar. A small piano in the corner. A beat up old drum set with a non functional bass pedal next to it. Maybe an abandoned microphone stand from an era long gone. 

I know nothing of Kazumi Kenada's life, their other works, or really anything about them. I prefer it that way for an album like this. It lets the music speak for itself.

In the case of Hard Light that music speaks heavily in the language of Jazz and hip hop. This entire album is instrumental (except one vocal track towards the end) and shows how excellent jazz influenced hip hop can be when created with time and care. I don't know how much of the album is sampled vs. played live... or if it was played live then sampled and chopped up... I don't really care. 

What I do care about is the end result. Hard Light excelles at ever single stage that it needs to. The piano and trumpet are the primary instruments used to convey the melodies on the album. They often play complimentary roles, with one backing off while the other takes center stage. Or they will play together but one will be the obvious lead. 

Other times they are in head to head combat, one soloing while the other patiently awaits its turn to belt out its own solo. Even when the individual instruments are doing their respective solos the album is still a vibe. It never loses that lounge feeling.

Kazumi Kenada hits every single note on this that I need them to. There is nothing out of place on this album. Even some of the awkward solos are exactly what you would get in a live setting. Not everything is perfect, and that's what makes this perfect. Now if you'll excuse me I need to finish my old fashioned.

Written March 27th 2024

Entry 744 - Lena Raine - ESCism

Style: Video game/interactive novel soundtrack

Primary Emotions/Themes: That feeling that you get when you are waking up from a nap that took too long and you don't know what day it is or even if it's morning or night

Thoughts: There are very few people in the world of video game composition that have as distinctive of a sound as Lena Raine. Her use of synths and how they are incorporated into distinctive melodies and ambience are almost instantly recognizable. 

The tones in question are what I like to call the Lena synths. If you've heard any of her soundtracks or other works then you know instantly what I'm talking about. If not I'll do my best to describe them through text. 

The melodies on ESCism are played on a distinct form of synth. It has a lot of delay to it, but at the same time it's bright and sparkly. It sounds like it's distant yet close all at the same time. They tend to be in the higher registers, and have a distinct 80's retro vibe to them while retaining the production and sound quality of modern synths and production.

That's a lot of description for only one part of this album, but it's crucial to understand Lena's sound. Without these synths and melodies the music becomes just another soundtrack, just another ambient work. With them though, they stand out as a beautiful tapestry on which the melodies are painted.

Now that that's out of the way lets dig into the actual music. ESCism is a subtle album. It rarely if ever becomes active or urgent. Most of the album has a slow build to it with little to no melody - everything revolves around ambience and atmosphere - but most of all an air of mystery.

The overall cadence of the album skews heavily towards the quiet and softer end of the musical spectrum. That does not mean that the album is calm, rather it's more of a gentle curiosity that lurks below the surface... like trying to see an object below gently moving water. There is a lot there, it's just obscured by gentle ripples. 

When the album casts aside the ambience and subtlety it makes a stronger impact than it would have otherwise. This would be lost if the album was not so skewed heavily towards the hushed moments, and I love it.

ESCism is one of the lesser known entries into Lena's soundtrack discography. That's a damn shame because this contains some of her finer works in the realm of ambient music. As of this writing the record is available on bandcamp for a mere ten USD. A hidden gem.

Written March 26th and 27th 2024

Entry 743 - Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

Style: Traditional heavy metal with a meaty bottom end

Primary Emotions/Themes: Auditory representations of the writings of William Blake

Thoughts: 

"And so we lay, We lay in the same grave, Our chemical wedding day"

"In the atom circle, Where we break the stars, Hammer into anvil, Snuffing out the sun"

"Bring me my bow of burning gold, Bring me my arrows of desire, I shall not sleep till the clouds unfold, Bring me my chariot of fire"

Borrowing lyrics from one of the greatest poets in the last few hundred years may be considered cheating by some. I would too if a lesser vocalist was singing, but Bruce does this stuff more justice than just about anyone else on the planet could.

What Bruce and company have accomplished on this hour of music is nothing short of incredible. Each one of the ten tracks showcases Bruce's voice brilliantly. It shows the majesty of Roy and Adrian's dueling guitars. The rhythm section supports the melodies of the vocals and guitars in ways that few can - they do so much with so little. 

Let me try and dissect the individual elements of this album and how they come together to form one of the greatest traditional metal albums in my collection. First off the drums: not a single instance of double bass is used here, yet the album never feels lacking. The interplay between the bass drum and snare is particularly memorable as Dave weaves his rhythmic tapestry. From the very first moments of King in Crimson we are graced with his art. He never plays too softly, never to harshly - everything is played exactly as it needs to be.

The bass is also played to near perfection. It fills out the meaty bottom end of the album in a way that only the finest bass players can. Mind you this is not an Iron Maiden type of bass execution by any means, this is a more traditional delivery where it is meant to compliment the guitars rather than stand out on it's own power. That said, this is one of the finest executions of that style that I can think of in my collection.

This leads us to the dual guitars. First off, the guitar tone used here is wicked. It's thick and chunky like a good home made chili. Going back to those first moments of the King in Crimson, right after the snare shots the initial riff comes in and almost always I'm making a stank face at how nasty and hefty the riff is. And that's just the start of the album

The record is an absolute clinic in riffs. Most of the songs fall below the five minute mark and follow the verse/chorus formula. Normally that would be a detractor for me, but it works exceptionally well for the music contained within Chemical Wedding. These songs were written to be rockers and the song writers knew exactly what was going on when they penned these songs.

There are a few deviations though. The powerful tour de force of Book of Thel showcases both Adrian and Roy's ability to solo and create riff after amazing riff. Seriously this song never ends and continues to grow in potency over the course of its eight minutes.

Jerusalem incorporates a beautiful acoustic pairing to Bruce's powerful voice. It's likely my favorite song on the album because of how dynamic it is. Starting off slow and almost venerable sounding the song grows in potency both musically and vocally until we hear Bruce almost yell "Tears of blood fall out of the sky!" It's incredibly powerful, and gives me the shivers to this day.

Chemical Wedding is one of those incredibly rare albums that never lets up and never disappoints. There is not a single bad riff, line, verse, chorus, solo... anything on this album. It is nearly perfect. Given my normal aversion to traditional metal, and I'm considering this a near perfect album should reflect the quality of the music contained within. One word: masterpiece. 

Written March 22nd and March 25th 2024

Entry 742 - Solefald - Red For Fire - An Icelandic Odyssey Part I

Style: Viking metal, black metal, experimental

Primary Emotions/Themes: Washing up to a distant shore ready to plunder than lands before me, I ready my axe, my blade, and my saxophone

Thoughts: Solefald have always been a bit of an oddball project. From the opening notes of their debut album they have shown that they are not afraid to experiment. Sometimes the experiments work, sometimes they don't... but that never deterred the band.

When I heard that their new albums were going to focus on Viking mythology from a recent trip to Iceland was intrigued to say the least. Solefald has never struck me as a Viking metal type band, and it would be fascinating to see what they come up within the genre. 

I wasn't really sure what I was expecting the first time I put on Red for Fire, but a saxophone was about the last instrument I could have ever imagined coming out of my speakers. It's paired with a guitar riff, but still... Viking metal with a saxophone... Solefald being Solefald I guess.

As crazy as it sounds it actually works quite well with the introduction of the album. It does not overstay its welcome, and is quickly overtaken by a violin - a much more traditional choice for Viking metal ancillary instrumentation.

Sun I Call is the track in question, and it is the perfect opener for such an ambitious album. It introduces the listener to Solefald's new sound in about a straight forward way as possible. The music is more aggressive, less progressive, and Cornelius has returned to a true black metal rasp. The band even uses blast beats on occasion. This mixed with the typical tomfoolery of the band you get one hell of an opener.

Not every song is as strong as the opener. Some are outright strange like the oddly acoustic and haunting White Frost Queen. Others just fall a little flat like Sea I Called. It has all the elements to make as great of a song as the opener, but the arrangements are a bit lacking. 

Like any Solefald album there are hits and misses on the album, but unlike most of their albums the experimentation is more controlled here. More focused. The idea of making this a Viking focused album helped immensely, and it fleshes out the sound with a more epic and continuous feel than any of their earlier albums. 

Songs like Crater of the Valkyries show that the band is capable of writing incredible black metal when pressed. This song in particular realizes the band's full potential. It's adventurous, it has that experimental edge, Lars and Cornelius dual vocals are used to an incredible degree, and the arrangements are top notch. Easily one of the best tracks they have written, and probably one of my fav black metal tracks from around the mid 2000's.

Red for Fire is a bit of an oddball album, both in execution and in terms of fitting in with the larger Solefald discography. It ranges from meh to mind-blowingly good with the mean being more towards the good than the bad. I only wish that the follow up was half the album that this one is.

Written March 21st 2024

Entry 741 - Sojourner - Empires of Ash

Style: Atmospheric black metal with a tinge of folk

Primary Emotions/Themes: Facing the trials and tribulations of a journey through a fallen empire overtaken by nature.

Thoughts: Sojourner's debut album is a battle of opposing forces. On one end you have excellent compositions and a compelling use of folk instrumentation. On the other end you have the band fighting off generic song structures and predictable progressions. 

The songs on Empires of Ash are long and involved. They often go through multiple phases before they come to their ultimate conclusion. During their playtime they ebb and flow, sometimes quiet, other times explosive in their delivery. The one consistent thing throughout it all is the commitment to an epic atmosphere and the continual use of folk instrumentation alongside the metal.

When things combine well - which they often do - the music takes on a larger than life quality. It's easy to close my eyes and picture great mountain ranges and ruined fortresses as I transverse these once great Empires of Ash. The songs are usually well paced and never overwhelm me with all the things going on, everything is easy to follow and it all flows nicely... maybe a bit too nicely.

This is where the one and only knock I have on this album comes into play. Everything feels like a formula, everything is too clean, too polished and ultimately too predictable. However you want to put it, the band lacks creativity and originality in the songwriting department. This isn't always a bad thing, and it certainly isn't here - but I always have the sense that I've heard this album before scattered throughout the folk black metal realm.

Despite this - despite the fact that I've heard this all before - when the album plays it's hard for me to turn it off. The combination of the heavy atmosphere, the dynamics of the music (though these seem to have been compressed somewhat), and it's ability to completely envelop me. It's way better than it should be. It's like a comfort food, it may not be the best for me - but god dammit - it makes me feel like I'm at home.

When I originally picked this up it was because of the cover. It matched the title so incredibly well I knew I would enjoy the music. I was right. It may not be the best at what it does, it may not be the most original, but dammit I like this stuff. Especially in the softer moments with female vocals and synths... that stuff hits me hard. Sometimes not everything in the collection needs to be incredible... sometimes you need something that makes you feel like you're home.

Written March 21st 2024

Entry 740 - Timeghoul - Tumultuous Travelings / Panaramic Twilight

Style: Sci-fi death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Only some of the best damn death metal to ever come out. I'll die on this hill.

Thoughts: How the living fuck did this band never get signed? Why did they give up so early on? Why were only two demo's ever created? Why? WHY? 

Timeghoul is not just any death metal band. In 1992 and 1994 they released two demos that were so far ahead of their time, no one else would be making this kind of music for at least ten years. These guys were chaotic, atmospheric, and most importantly wrote amazing fucking riffs.

The two demo's that we have on this record vary pretty greatly in style. Side 1 is the entirety of Tumultuous Travelings. This is by far the more traditional of the two demos. The riffs are deep and meaty. The vocals are full and powerful. 

The band mixes in a variety of tempos. Some play so fast it's hard to tell what the guitars are doing on the fret board, other times they are slow and doomy and incredibly ominous. As crazy as all this sounds the songs never sound like they are out of control and instead always make me wonder what is coming next. By the time the demo is over I'm putting the needle back down at the start of the record to play it all over again. 

Where the band really comes into their own though is on Panaramic Twilight. Here we have two songs instead of four, we also have even more chaos than the earlier demo and the true shift towards all things sci-fi. 

To the core of their sound the band has included sounds that are only found in old school science fiction movies, clean singing, and a bit more melody to weave everything together. Does that mean that it's less brutal than before? Hell to the fuck no. Despite all the extra elements the band is arguably more violent and visceral than they are on the first demo. 

Of the two songs on here the epic Occurrence on Miasmas is the clear favorite for me. It seems to chronicle an alien race that finds earth eons after humans are extinct. The song is well over ten minutes long and uses that time to the fullest to tell it's story. It's one of my favorite death metal songs ever recorded.

It's been said in the anneals of history that only the good die young, and that seems to be the case with Timeghoul. Why they decided to disband so early on in their career I will never know. Who knows what they could have accomplished if they had kept going... or maybe they would have spoiled what they had. No one will ever know. 

Written March 20th 2024

Entry 739 - Sentenced - The Funeral Album

Style: Depressive rock/metal, one minute of old school death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Looking at the world while holding a gun to your head, the last bastions of hope are lost and this is the album that gave you the strength to pull the trigger

Thoughts: The Funeral Album. A prophetic statement. The last album of the seminal band Sentenced. The final statement of their long and storied career. 

The band had finally found their sound and perfected it with Ville on vocals after a few albums of floundering. I've discussed this elsewhere at length so I won't go into too much redundancy here - just know that I gave up on the band for quite a few years.

Sentenced final album ironically has more life in it that almost all their other rock oriented albums. This is nothing like the death metal of the early days, but it shows a vigor to it that infuses me with energy and even makes me want to bang my head from time to time.

The album's greatest strength is how versatile it is. Every song has it's own identity, yet every song is undoubtedly written by Sentenced. The common DNA between all of them being Ville's powerful voice and the uncompromising sorrow that the album oozes from every pore.

You've got the rocking opener May Today Become the Day with it's crazy strong opening riff complete with pinch harmonics. Contrast that with the slow and deliberate - almost ballad like - We Are but Falling Leaves. Completely different in sound, yet very much belonging on the same album. Not many bands can do this. 

The deeper you get into the album the more this becomes apparent. There isn't a bad song on here. Yes, some songs are stronger than others (Vengeance is Mine fucking rocks), but not a single one gets the skip from me. 

One of the other great strengths that the band leans into here is the production, particularly on the guitars and bass. They have a hugely commanding presence and crunch to them that gives the music a biting edge, particularly on the low end. The thump of the bass is enough to get my blood pumping on pretty much every song. 

I also have to mention the cameo and old call back to their death metal days with Where Waters Fall Frozen. This thing reeks of early 90's Scandinavian death metal to the point where it sounds like it could have come off the debut album from these guys. It's basically two riffs, but dammit I love this stuff.

Sentenced's career is one of the more interesting ones in metal/rock. The first few albums were ever changing yet always extreme. The band's second phase saw them start off strong but then fade into mediocrity for a bit only to finish off at their strongest. What an amazing send off.

Written March 20th 2024

Entry 738 - LowXY - Unequal

Style: Cyberpunk influenced ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: Look at the cover to the album, that is exactly how it feels.

Thoughts: A solitary note swells into existence from nothingness. It proudly declares its existence to the world and then leaves with the same command that it entered with. As if hearing it's brother's call, another note rises into existence in much the same manner. This note though brings with several others - offspring of the first note. Together they form a sound that is so all encompassing that the only response is to sit back and let the music completely envelop me.

Infinity is the first track on Unequal. It is based entirely off of a few notes that together form a sound so powerful that I find it difficult to describe in words how deeply it affects me. It's hardly five minutes long, but within these few short minutes I'm able to take the music in, assimilate it into myself, and completely change the way that I both feel and my outlook on the world.

This music has the ability to change me. This music has the ability to ground me when nothing else will. This music brings peace to a stormy mind. This music brings tranquillity when there was only chaos before. 

I'm sitting here and taking in this album with my eyes closed. I don't have any other way that I can truly appreciate the effect it has on me. I'm floating in the void it's creating, I'm basking in its warm yet somewhat distant glow, I've reached a state of zen.

LowXY's sound is nothing that has not been done before. Slowly progressing notes that have a massive sound to them is a concept that's been explored by many genres and many artists. Where Unequal sets itself apart though is it's execution. 

While listening to this, I can't think of a singular album that demands my attention as well as this one does while doing so little. Is this minimalistic? Yes, it certainly is. Does it sound minimalistic? Absolutely. Fucking. Not.

Unequal does so much with so little, that it's nearly criminal. LowXY has managed to create a masterpiece while using some of the simplest melodies and sparest execution that I'm aware of. If that is not the work of a master artist then I don't know what is.

Written March 20th 2024

Entry 737 - Wounds - No Beauty in the World

Style: Ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: Searching for a ray of light, thinking you found it only to be crushed by the great weight of reality

Thoughts: There are many different types of ambient music in the world. Some are cold and bleak, others are warm and welcoming. There is another kind though, that is deep, reflective and almost profound. It is exceptionally rare to find an album that falls into this criterion and I believe that I've found one with Wounds album No Beauty in the World.

The first time I heard this album something struck me. I immediately thought it was different for a singular reason. The second track uses a distant trumpet to help drive home a foreboding atmosphere. I'm a self admitted sucker for stuff like this, and hearing a trumpet in ambient music is one of the things that I almost always fall for.

It's not that it makes the music deeper, or that it makes the music easier to listen to. Quite the opposite actually. The inclusion of this one instrument is so counter intuitive in ambient music that it takes true skill of both performance and composition to pull it off. 

The trumpet is normally a loud and brash instrument. It demands attention and has a commanding presence. Ambient music is the exact opposite. It strives to go unnoticed to all but the most attentive, and rebukes outright melody and tempos for a vast majority of its play time. These two forces are seemingly in direct conflict with one another... but in this album they work.

The trumpet's inclusion is a minor one, but it's important. It brought me into the album, it made me realize that something was different about this compared to most other ambient albums. There are traces of instruments here that are not normally included in the genre. I've heard a pipe organ deep in the background. I've heard feedback from an electric guitar woven amongst the soundscapes. Ive even heard some subtle jazz leanings on tracks like Impossible Rooms. 

Nothing in this album is overt, nothing is in your face, and that is why I love it. There are melodies buried in the mix. Sometimes they are more evident than others, but most of the time they will only be observed by those with a keen ear. 

The album is an auditory playground for someone who loves to actively listen to music. There is so much going on in the depths of the mix that I can't even begin to touch on them here. No Beauty in the World is such an ironic title, because by it's existence it shows that there is deep beauty within the auditory realm. Few albums reach this level of depth and engagement from me and I am honored to have this in my collection.

Written March 20th 2024

Entry 736 - Kriegsmachiene - Enemy of Man

Style: Black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The embodiment of natural selection - anything and anyone who does not pass muster will be eliminated

Thoughts: There is some music that is so mechanical and so precise that it sounds like the embodiment of a inorganic beast that has a singular vision: kill every living thing standing in its way. There are very few albums that meet the criterion for this to happen, but Enemy of Man fits this description to perfection.

Each one of the riffs has a combination of strange chord progressions, hypnotic repetition, and an inhuman dissonance. The music is predictable, yet it somehow defies expectations at the same time. The riffs feel like they were written to put the listeners mind into the uncanny valley - a place where the difference between machine and human is so close it's creepy.

The vocals retain this inhuman character. Sounding more like a synthetic being than anything human, M.'s vocals continue the treacherous descent into the valley. Is this a creation of humans or is this something where AI has finally taken over and created music for it's liking rather than anything that a human could create?

I've saved the drumming for last. The drumming in Kriegsmaschine one of my favorite performances in recent memory. It's no secret that both M and Darkside are the members of Mgla as well, but whereas that band focuses on hypnotic riff and trance like states - Kriegsmaschine allows Darkside to truly explore what he is capable on the drums. 

Much like Mgla the devil is in the details. There are so many small fills, so many small drum accents that add immeasurable depth to the music that would be lost with a lesser drummer. The main difference here is that there are points where Darkside is allowed to truly go all out. He holds nothing back and the restraint that is seen throughout Mgla is no more. It's here that my jaw drops. 

Be it an insane blast beat, or a tom roll that defies what humans should be capable of, or hell, even a standard back beat that is so ridden with accents that it's impossible to ignore. Darkside is without fault on this album. The album is elevated to heights that it could never achieve without him on drums, this is a clinic - plain and simple.

Enemy of Man is a dense album. It is difficult to break into at first because of how inhuman it sounds and how impenetrable the music comes off. This was not written for anyone but the band, and that is what makes this album great. There are even small touches in the vinyl that are not present in the digital version. Just drop the needle, you'll hear them the instant the album starts.

Written March 6th 2024

Entry 735 - Sentenced - Down

Style: Depressive rock/metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Suicide, depression, loss, just about anything negative that can happen is in this album

Thoughts: I have no idea where to start with this album. There is so much to talk about: my personal history with it, the change in style, the lyrics... really everything. 

Down is an album that took me over a decade to come around on. My favorite Sentenced album - by a large margin - is Amok. I thought it had the perfect mix of melody, brutality, and innovation to be something really special. Taneli finally found his vocal style and the band perfected their death metal sound. Then Taneli left, and everything changed.

Ville Laihaiala took his place on vocals, and with the change in vocalists came a monumental shift in style. Instead of death metal it was some hybrid of gothic metal and hard rock. There are small traces of the previous style, but for all intents and purposes this is a completely reimagined band.

Where my personal struggles with the album came was the fact that they had completely abandoned the groovy melodic death metal of Amok. There was no trace of anything harsh on the album, and that blinded me to anything good that could possibly be on Down (the fact that Frozen and Crimson both were in almost the exact same style just worse didn't help me warm up to this album either).

It wasn't until The Cold White Light came out that I paid attention to the band again. They finally put out a killer album with Ville, and that was enough for me to finally revisit Down... and I'm truly glad I did. Down has so many hidden treasures in it that I was completely blind to in the past... all because of a vocalist change. 

First off, Ville is a fine vocalist. His gruff voice fits the music on Down nearly perfectly. The lyrics have also taken a stark turn. Instead of violence and war the band now sings about personal struggles, depression, and even suicide. 

Right out of the gate the album starts with Noose - an unapologetic look at what it takes for someone to take their own life. The music matches this darker tone as well, instead of Amok's almost playful nature the music here is sombre and reserved. The riffs are still heavy, but require more emotional commitment from the band and that carries over to the impact it has on the listener. 

Almost every riff in the album is in a minor or chromatic key. While this is nothing new for metal, the way it's executed here is a bit more sobering. The combination of lyrics and riffs put a dark cloud over whatever speakers is playing this music... so much so that I have to be careful when I listen to it. Even though the riffs rock and the vocals are well executed - the album puts me into a depressed state more often than not. It's dangerous. 

After many years and a lot of history with this album I think I can finally settle in on a solid opinion. Despite the change in style, there has not been a loss of the quality of the music. Down is one of Sentenced best albums and the fact that it's in my collection proves that (the same cannot be said for Frozen and Crimson). The first four albums show the band evolving at a rapid pace, and Down was the point where they found their long term sound. It's a damn shame that Miika passed away so young, but he left one hell of a legacy behind him.

Written March 5th 2024

Entry 734 - Final Fantasy - Mystic Quest

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Mowing through endless encounters to grab a crystal

Thoughts: Oh boy where do I start with this one? Do I start with the nearly endless encounters in each dungeon? You can see all of them coming, but there is nothing you can do about it. There are twenty to thirty monsters blocking every available path... so you just have to move forward. I guess the fact that there are not random encounters is a good thing, but man that was a slog.

Do I go into the story and how it was taking all the tropes of Final Fantasy to the extreme. Four crystals, four dungeons, and then a big bad at the end. It's like the first game all over, but without the exploration and character customization. 

Do I go into the music and how it is hyperactive for a final fantasy title? It seems like it was written more with a rock mindset than that of a typical Final Fantasy game. So much of the dungeon music is centered around the SNES "guitar" sound that it starts wearing on my sanity after a little while. The in-between songs are decent enough and do evoke some of that classic nostalgia I have, but man those dungeon themes are rough on the ears... at least for me. 

The funny thing is, this was my first Final Fantasy. I rented this one from my local shop once a week trying to beat it. Every week I would pray that no one had erased my save, and luckily no one had. When I finally beat it I knew that there was something about the game that I enjoyed but I wasn't sure what it was. It wasn't until I picked up Final Fantasy II (IV for the real name) that I figured out what it was that I enjoyed so much and what Mystic Quest was lacking.

I enjoyed the story and the characters as well as the combat. The combat in Mystic Quest is about as simple as it gets: cast spell, monster dies. Hit monster, monster dies. There isn't much variety, even though there are quite a few characters. It wasn't until I played FFIV and FFVI that things started falling into place. 

Mystic Quest is fine for what it is: a fun adventure to get people into RPG's. It's a gateway game... or drug... or something. Whatever it was it helped get me into the wonderful genre that is JRPG's, and that in itself is worth something.

Written March 4th 2024

Entry 733 - Tenchu

Style: Video game music, traditional Japanese 

Primary Emotions/Themes: Sneaking into a fortress unseen to assassinate a crooked villain, utilizing everything at your disposal to maximize your skills and chances of success, the glory of traditional Japanese music

Thoughts: I have been charged with assassinating a corrupt samurai. He has exploited his serfs and has been deemed unfit to rule. I am ninja, I am the darkness. I come in unseen and leave with death in my wake. I penetrate his fortress and with surgical precision I dispatch my foe with none the wiser. The morning will come and only then will my exploits be known. 

That is exactly how I felt the first time I played Tenchu. I felt like I was the night, I felt like I was the elite of the elite. Going into a heavily guarded fortress completely unseen and killing only those who I was contracted to. 

Tenchu was the first of it's kind, at least for me. I had never played a stealth game before that, and it stuck with me for two reasons: the gameplay was epic (though it does not hold up as well in modern times), and the music was so immersive that it drove me back to the games soundtrack even after I was done playing it.

Tenchu's music combines traditional Japanese music with ambient and a bit of western orchestral influence. It's a bit of a melting pot genre wise, but the atmosphere and feel is very consistent throughout. The music is subtle and only starts getting exciting when combat is engaged in. Seeing as the game is a stealth game combat should be minimal, you can't take many hits.... making the subtle part of the soundtrack the main focus.

What the music does exceptionally well is match the setting with the music. When I'm infiltrating a highly defended forest (first level) the music feels very much like a traditional Japanese composition. When going deep into a cave the music is a bit more dank and dark and matches the feel of the cave nearly to perfection. 

Synths, guitar, female vocals, and orchestra are all used to portray the sounds in this album. It really doesn't matter what the genre is, they are all outstanding. Everything matches like I expect it would. Even more so, the album stands on its own when outside of the context of the game. It's a fantastic representation of what the early PS1 games were capable of both game wise and music wise.

Written March 4th 2024

Entry 732 - Jammin' Sam Miller - Donkey Kong Country Recreated

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: A classic reborn

Thoughts: Let's clear the air right now of a couple of things. One - this album fucking rocks. It's by far the best recreation that Sam has done and it matches the original soundtrack beat for beat. Two - Donkey Kong Country is one of my favorite SNES games, the game already had a banger soundtrack and nothing needed to be changed from it. 

The recreated soundtrack here has nearly zero deviations from the original brilliance that David Wise put together years and years ago. Rather the approach that Sam has taken here is to take the original instruments and recreate them as they would sound before they went through the compression process to work on the SNES sound chip. 

The end result is nothing less than stunning. The music is exactly as I remember it, but instead of the distortion that comes with the original soundtrack everything is crystal clear. All of the instruments are truly allowed to breathe and shine like they were meant to be. 

The lead trumpets in Jungle Groove sound cheesier and clearer than ever. The beautiful Aquatic Ambience has never sounded as good as it has here. King K. Rool's theme is as intense and epic as ever, though now even more so due to the clearer instrumentation. 

How do you improve on near perfection? You take the limitations of the original work and open them up with modern technology. You let the listener hear the music in it's full glory like the composer did when he was creating this in the first place. 

I'm still up in the air if this is truly better than the original soundtrack, there is a charm to be had with the limitations of the SNES and the nostalgia that brings. That said, this is a damn fine recreation and for my listening pleasure this one hits the table much more frequently than the original soundtrack does.

Written March 4th 2024

Entry 731- Svartidaudi - Revelations of the Red Sword

Style: Atmospheric/dissonant black/death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: A swirling vortex of sounds and sights with slight glimpses of hope radiating through the chaos

Thoughts: Well now, isn't this a pleasant surprise. I've had this album since it came out and completely forgot about it over the past few years. I've been on a buying hiatus of late, this lets me catch up on my older records that I haven't listened to in a while. Take a look at the forgotten tomes in the archives rather than adding new stuff to the already bloated collection as it were.

Svartidaudi was one of the first Icelandic black metal bands I came across with their debut album Flesh Cathedral. It was my first exposure to the countries unique take on the genre along with Zhrine. They both got me interested in what other treasures the country had to offer. Eventually I forgot about Flesh Cathedral and moved on to other artists. It wasn't until Revelations of the Red Blade came out that I revisited the band.

Revelations is quite a different album from the debut. Instead of the longer winding songs we have six relatively shorter (still about 6-11 minutes in length) entries. In addition to the shorter songs, there is also a slight shift in style from the epics of Flesh Cathedral.

Rather than a swirling vortex of chaos wrapping the listener in an unbreakable wall of dissonance and loss of control, Revelations takes a more measured approach. That's not to say that these riffs are not dissonant. They are, and highly so - but they are intermixed with slight traces of melody throughout the album. 

It's in the melody intermixed with the chaos that the album finds its identity. It's still an incredibly challenging listen - especially for those who are not familiar with the style. But the small glimpses of predictable note progressions here and there come off as an outstretched hand in a cyclone of incomprehensible madness. It' gives my mind something to grasp onto as the band continues to weave its chaotic spell with the music. 

Creating beauty out of a bleak and dismal soundscape is not easy, but that is exactly what Svartidaudi has done on their second full length. I would say about 80-90% of the album is the chaotic mess that we got to witness on Flesh Cathedral, but its that 10-20% that makes up the remainder that sets Revelations of the Red Blade aside from its predecessor. This is now going to be a primary example of how a band can evolve within the confines of their own sound. It's a damn shame the band isn't around anymore. I would love to see how they would explore this further.

Written March 4th 2024

Entry 730 - Mayhem - Grand Declaration of War

Style: Avant-garde black metal, industrial, spoken word

Primary Emotions/Themes: Philosophical deconstruction of religion

Thoughts: Whoever said they saw this one coming from Mayhem at the time of release was lying. The shift in style is so large, and so completely off the wall that it rivals that of Dodhiemsgard's change on 666 international. 

While Grand Declaration of War is still decidedly metal, to call this second wave black metal would be outright falsehood. I read somewhere years ago that there was a shift in the Norwegian black metal scene around the time of the turn of the millennium. A contentious effort to make the music more inaccessible and experimental. They dubbed it the third wave of black metal. 

While I'm not sure I agree with the terminology used, the shift that this author described was spot on. There were many artists in metal that shifted from the traditional stylings into something more... experimental. Less accessible, less tame (if you can call black metal tame). 

Mayhem's entry into this new wave of Norwegian metal is a combination of the blistering black metal that they are known for mixed with several curious elements. The first of which is lengthy spoken word passages. Maniac has no problems giving speeches during the majority of this record. So much so that I labeled this as "speech metal" when it first came out. 

These dialogues focus on the duality of man vs the divine and how we are diametrically opposed to one another. They are fine for what they are, but do get a bit long in the tooth by the end of the album. 

The backing instrumentals during these spoken parts are often militaristic in nature. Hellhammer will often have snare rolls like you would hear during a march playing along with the odd riffs that Blasphemer put together. The end result makes the spoken word sections of the album sound like Maniac is giving a speech to a military unit about to head into war. Considering the title of the album, I suppose that was the intent.

The band also diverges from metal all together in the later half of the album. Industrial and electronics take over the lead from the guitars as the main driver of the music. The vocals remain largely spoken word, but they are distorted and more mechanical than anything on the first half. Any trace of black metal is completely removed at this point - save for a few select riffs here and there.

The album does return to black metal to finish itself out, but by that point the statements have been made. The band is looking to deviate from the established sounds in ways that no one has done prior to this. It's a bit too experimental for its own good, and as such a lot of the album falls flat on its face. That said, when the band do make things work they tend to come together quite well. It's a fascinating time capsule of a time long past. As another former black metal band would say: An incentive to further frolic only.

Written March 4th 2024

Entry 729 - Paysage d'Hiver - Kerker

Style: Exceedingly raw black metal and ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: The bleakness of winter, solitude, hopelessness

Thoughts: One of the defining traits of black metal is how raw some of it can be. How hard is it to listen to? I find that many black metal bands will intentionally mutilate the production of their music to the point where it's almost indiscernible what is going on. 

Sometimes this works well and adds an intangible aspect to the music that would be lost with better production. Other times the music itself is completely lost in the noise. As for Paysage d'Hiver on Kerker it feels like  it's somewhere in between.

The first time I put this record on I wasn't sure if the song had even started. Tiefe starts out so soft and so noise ridden that it's hard to hear the music at all. Eventually I figured out that the fuzz I was hearing was actually guitars, and the low pulse was drums.

I'll be honest here, this one lost me on the first few listens. I could tell that there was something buried deep in the craziness, but what that was I couldn't wrap my head around. When I tried to listen intently I got a headache, and when I gave up that approach I just heard noise. I was disappointed that I couldn't make sense of it, especially since I've been listening to black metal over half of my life.

I came back to the record after some time and somehow things were different. Instead of fuzz I heard riffs, instead of noise I heard vocals, the drums started distinguishing themselves from the noise as well. The ambient tracks started revealing the hidden layers under the rhythmic pulses. It started to click.

Even now after quite some time of the album having made its way into my brain, I'm not sure if I like it or not. I do know that Wintherr has released much better demos than this one, and I am looking forward to revisiting those as well. For the time being though Kerker is a fine album that will get revisited again in short order to answer the age old question: do I actually enjoy this or am I fooling myself?

Written March 3rd 2024

Entry 728 - Illusion of Gaia

Style: VGM

Primary Emotions/Themes: Saving the world with the help of a shadow and a big burly dude with a sword

Thoughts: I guess I've been on a little bit of an old school Enix kick here of late. The last few records I've been spinning have been from the depths of my archives, some of the first VGM records I ever got. I have so many fond memories of the early Enix games, but none more so than Illusion of Gaia. 

Illusion of Gaia is an action RPG where you play as a young child who has the ability to change forms into a powerful fighter or a shadowy figure (much later in the game). Different rooms in dungeons require different characters and their abilities. It's one part puzzle game, and one part action, and one part RPG. 

I can't go any further without mentioning the stunning soundtrack to this game. This thing is quite possibly one of my favorite soundtracks on the SNES. There is so much to talk about I fear I don't know where to start. 

I guess I'll have to speak in generalities here, or else this entry would go on forever. This game has so many different emotions and moods, some happy, some sad. Sometimes the party is celebrating, other times they are mourning. Sometimes there is a deep mystery afoot, other times there is a great foe right in front of them. Whatever the situation  Will finds himself in, the music matches it beat for beat, step for step.

Listen to the over-world music and how wonderful the combination of SNES guitar is with SNES whistling. Or the light hearted theme of the village and how it shows the journeys innocent beginnings. Contrast that with the boss theme and its incredible urgency, or the deep sense of the unknown from the mirror world where time stands still. 

The dungeons are their own thing as well. They are dramatic (maybe overly so), and drive the narrative forward in meaningful ways. While most of the dungeons share the same music, there are variations from time to time, just enough to keep me from crying fowl. 

Even just listening to this now and typing up this summary is making me want to go back and start another playthrough of this game. I had so much fun every time I play it, even in my adult years. It's not the best plot in the world, it's certainly not the most complex story either... but that doesn't matter. What matters is that the game is fun to play, and an integral part of that is the music. This game delivers on both fronts nearly flawlessly.

Written March 3rd 2024

Entry 727 - Act Raiser

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Building the world while tearing down the evils that dwell within its depths

Thoughts: Picture this: you are stuck in stone for an eternity until a small angel decides that it is time for you to revive. You have been given life and you are charged to slay the evil that lies within the depths of a volcano. 

Once the foe is vanquished you are once again greeted by the small angel, only this time it tell you that you need to rebuild the world. This then is the essence of Actraiser. One half civilization builder, the other half dungeon platformer, one entirely unique game. 

Enix had quite the experimental game mindset when it came to the early SNES era, the games we're always a bit hit and miss, but when they hit oh man were they good. On top of that the soundtracks were almost always amazing, and Actraiser is no different... in fact the music itself may be one of the strongest points of the game.

The soundtrack mashes driving, almost rock like songs of the dungeons with the more orchestral and angelic sounds of the world building. The dungeon music though is where the game really shines. When these songs go, they go hard. They have a very similar feel to Castlevania in the way that they are structured and performed. 

No matter where that little angel led me when I was playing this game I always felt compelled to explore more. I always wanted to know what the next challenge was, and even though the game has a bullshit last boss fight I did beat the game when I was really young. I went back years later and played the game again. 

To my absolute shock the game holds up very well, way better than I ever thought it would. I beat the game again, and retain fond memories of both my playthroughs. The fact that the game's music holds up as well as it does is just as incredible as the game itself. Very happy to have this one in my collection.

Written March 3rd 2024

Entry 726 - Ogre Battle

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Epic compositions in the glorious sound of the SNES

Thoughts: I've had a lot of thoughts about a lot of different video game soundtracks over the years. Specifically when it comes to the SNES there are some truly excellent soundtracks. There are also some exceedingly poor soundtracks as well. The ones I tend to enjoy the most are the epic and far reaching ones. The one's that tell a story through the music as much as they do through the game itself. 

Ogre Battle is a rather unique game. Every full battle is a series of small skirmishes that you have no direct control over. You set up your teams and you direct them where to go, the rest is automated. Your troops will attack in a specific order, and your commanders will give orders in line with what you've instructed. It's a fascinating yet flawed game.

The battles can take a long time... like over an hour each. The fights are tedious and a lot of the time you are at a solid stale mate with the opponent. One of the things that kept me engaged in the game past my four hundredth "fight it out" was the music. 

The music in Ogre Battle is way better than I would have initially thought. The way that the songs are composed make the absolute most out of the SNES soundchip and allow the music to feel more grandiose and epic than it has any business being. 

The SNES sound board is limited to eight tracks at any given time. How they managed to get such intricate and varied arrangements in just eight tracks is beyond me. There are times that this mimics a full orchestra, at other times its as minimalist as a violin solo, other times as grandiose as any Wagner symphony. 

Although short, the soundtrack does make up for it's length in quality. So many of the songs will get stuck in my head long after the record has stopped spinning. The map music and overworld music in particular are a pure joy to listen to. They hearken back to the glory days of RPG's on 16 bit consoles and remind me why I love this stuff so much.

I used to rent Ogre Battle from my local video store. I never did beat it, but I did get close. I have mixed memories of the game itself, but the soundtrack... oh the soundtrack is one for the ages.

Written March 3rd

Entry 725 - Kuon

Style: VGM

Primary Emotions/Themes: Japanese horror ambience

Thoughts: Any time an album starts off with children singing and laughing you know it's going to mess with you. It's one of the easiest gimmicks an album can do to get me into a tense mood quickly, and Kuon does that right from the get go.

I missed the boat on Kuon, the game passed me by and I haven't had a chance to play it. That said, I do have an morbid fascination with horror game soundtracks, especially on vinyl. Something about the organic horror that comes out of so many of the games fits nicely with the pure analog experience that vinyl brings to the table. 

Kuon's soundtrack meshes traditional Japanese music with horror ambience. It's one of my favorite combinations in all of music as they both work with each other exceptionally well. The ambience will build the anticipation, and then when a pan flute plays a dissonant series of notes on top of it... nothing quite like it. Or silence being interrupted by a shamisen, slowly plucking its strings to build the tension even more... only to be released when the ambience explodes into a massive swell. Fantastic, every time.

The first side of the LP is the decidedly more musical of the two. This is where most of the Japanese music will come from. This is where the themes of the game are laid out bare for all to see before the dark ambience takes over.

The second side puts melody and instruments to the way side. Instead the album takes a decidedly dark turn and focuses almost exclusively on dark ambient soundscapes and horror filled sounds. Screams, children laughing, unknown sounds in the distance... they are all represented on the second side. 

To tie things together the album ends with the same children playing as it starts with. It's a great call back to the start of the album and wraps the whole thing up nicely. Even though I haven't played the game, this album is works well as a stand alone work. I do have this game on the list of "games to play before I expire" and hopefully this gets me off my lazy ass to play it.

Written February 23rd 2024

Entry 724 - Jabbu - The Quiet Respite

Style: Experimental electronic, ambient, peaceful beats

Primary Emotions/Themes: Deep reflections on the self, unexpected outcomes 

Thoughts: I remember writing about this for my original blog several years ago. At the time I thought that the music was to quiet my soul and give me peace. While that is part of what is going on here, there is so much more. In fact there is so much more that I'm wondering if I was listening to the same album as I was all those years ago.

Jabbu plays an exceptionally interesting style of electronic music. It's a combination of beats, ambient, and experimental glitches and atmospheres that all blend together into one of the more rewarding experiences I've had in the past few weeks. 

The music is dense. Even when there is not much going on - only a blanket of ambience or a lone vocal line... the album still feels full and opaque. The metaphor of music created in a fog is a bit overdone I think, but I'm having trouble thinking of a better comparison. The music is thick and has a lot happening at any given moment, but it is also obscured. 

We are only allowed to see what is immediately in front of us. Be that a melody, or a simply noises and ambience or a drum beat... we're given limited access to the musics full character. The rest is obscured in the mist. It's there, but it's almost impossible to make out.

What is truly fascinating is how different each of the songs are. Despite this the songs form a very cohesive album. More B-Town Blues sounds like it's the soundtrack to a character who has lost their way in a video game. Compare that with the driving melodies of BAD TIME and you almost have to wonder if this is the same album. But taking a step back there are common themes. Both songs have that same dense feel to them, both only reveal exactly what they want you to hear. Bad Time is just more overt about how it goes about it's delivery than that of many of the other songs.

The Quiet Respite is an intriguing album. From beginning to end I'm drawn into it's deep folds and captivated by it's ever changing nature. The deep secrets it holds keep me coming back, wondering what other mysteries can be found within the deep mists of this album.

Written February 23rd 2024

Entry 723 - Hydrogenji - Next Heap of Sequences

Style: Instrumental hip hop

Primary Emotions/Themes: Urban life and settings

Thoughts: I've been digging through the depths of my collection of late. Finding albums that I forgot I had and putting them on the turntable. It's a wonderful experience rediscovering all these old albums that I haven't listened to in several years. Hydrogenji is the latest in a long series of records that have been collecting dust on my shelves. Well, it's been cleaned and now it's on my turntable to reveal its secrets to me.

Next Heap of Sequences is simply put an amazing hip hop album. There is nothing about this that would be considered exceptionally challenging or different. Nothing on it that would require a deep sense of concentration to truly wrap my head around. It's just simple grooves, excellently sampled instruments, and high class beats.

It's my understanding that this album came out in 2017. The thing about it is that it sounds like it's straight out of the ninety's. The grooves, the instrumentals, the beats... they all ooze mid ninety's hip hop. They even have the sampled female "oh" on a few of the songs... it's pure nostalgia. 

Even as I'm sitting here writing this, I've had to stop a few times and take in the beat. This thing is that infectious. Out of all the stuff I have in my collection, I forget that I've got bangers like this one. I was so obsessed with getting new things into the collection all the time that I forget what I have. As of this writing I've barely bought anything for the year and I intended to keep it that way. The discovery of albums like Next Heap of Sequences helps me rediscover my love of music collecting and what I already have. Highly recommended.

Written February 23rd 2024