tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88330095802777629902024-03-05T23:31:09.464-05:00SEVERED HEADS OPEN MINDSDestroy your modern metal, and bang your fucking head!Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.comBlogger689125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-36102868950618092082023-05-20T11:30:00.030-04:002023-05-20T11:30:00.303-04:00Interview with A.A. Nemtheanga of Verminous Serpent (Primordial, The Nest, Dread Sovereign, Blood Revolt…)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRpkxR4rijP0fdHjJjA399cch_-F7E65eskvOwqJmz-2BAQplttLcjlcaBPOsFXmETOAs_bfItt68m_0LiI3W2kxDyVfe3DS5HsICDjbQl5uegAUSQhrU4VF5DzgH3ZiZ07LS5XcVH8dx4gUr48Ag-x8fBwzzc0UaUDuW03I9MRi0frsUYLbHmKU_O/s867/A.A.%20Nemtheanga%20-%20Interview%20Pic.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="631" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRpkxR4rijP0fdHjJjA399cch_-F7E65eskvOwqJmz-2BAQplttLcjlcaBPOsFXmETOAs_bfItt68m_0LiI3W2kxDyVfe3DS5HsICDjbQl5uegAUSQhrU4VF5DzgH3ZiZ07LS5XcVH8dx4gUr48Ag-x8fBwzzc0UaUDuW03I9MRi0frsUYLbHmKU_O/w466-h640/A.A.%20Nemtheanga%20-%20Interview%20Pic.jpg" width="466" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>This is a more brief discussion that took place over the course of a week with the venerable and fervorous A.A. Nemtheanga with the intention of poking and prodding into the intentions and ideas of his newest group, Verminous Serpent. I had an early listening promo and spent nearly two weeks straight listening to it, munching on their blend of bestial black/death metal which draws from the wells of the underground and early adopters aforementioned below… I intended to have this up a month ago, while 'The Malign Covenant' was striking the anvil hot, but life happened and I gulped down a barrage of work and other responsibilities which halted my progress in getting this up. I digress, it was my pleasure delving into this brief conversation with A.A. and I thank him for his time and patience. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, so read on and educate.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1060574264/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 120px; width: 100%;"><a href="https://verminousserpent.bandcamp.com/album/the-malign-covenant">The Malign Covenant by Verminous Serpent</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><div><br /></div><i><b>SHOM) </b></i><b><i>First off, thanks for taking time out of your very involved life to blow some smoke regarding your newest project, Verminous Serpent and the debut album, ‘The Malign Covenant’ out on Amor Fati as of today (while I write this)… Feel free to open this up anyway you'd like.</i></b><div><b><i><br /></i></b><div>A.A.) If you like nasty, bestial analog old school black/death metal, go for it… check the link to the album!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><i><b>SHOM) </b></i><i><b>What is the genesis story of Verminous Serpent, and when and how did this trident of metal veterans come to take its shape?</b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><br /></div></i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimogREqw44_VFEeKmFZGUOXCDvIOaTdDB8PDEa7b8G_zQ5Q9LuwbVkfp2MQkvfVksLlRE1zCrj6rzmMLLuRXLmCj0cWilUkCke_1BOk1QKT0KYgA51Uzvys74cDO_cwNYPhehsipRscLu0mlifmuIpBROql8oShkYJfzb8mSMp5hDi-53RpkNIdFP6" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="112" data-original-width="220" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimogREqw44_VFEeKmFZGUOXCDvIOaTdDB8PDEa7b8G_zQ5Q9LuwbVkfp2MQkvfVksLlRE1zCrj6rzmMLLuRXLmCj0cWilUkCke_1BOk1QKT0KYgA51Uzvys74cDO_cwNYPhehsipRscLu0mlifmuIpBROql8oShkYJfzb8mSMp5hDi-53RpkNIdFP6=w200-h102" width="200" /></a></div>A.A.) Matt from Malthusian had the idea. He and I were jamming one day during the lockdown, and it came from there. He asked Joey from Slidhr and we started to put things together. No magical mystical meeting, and it took some shape and here we are. </div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>SHOM) The entirety of ‘The Malign Covenant’ is rife with a primitive and feral energy, sonically the mix of the instruments carries the same weight as a live performance and feels both raw and compelling in the same sense—What was the recording process like on The Malign Covenant? Was there any file trading in the early stages or were most of the decisions fleshed out in person in a rehearsal setting?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>A.A.) We rehearsed together, old school. I wont trade files for any band I'm in, and neither are the guys interested in that. Has to be a human process. We hired a good studio, with a live room, went in, set up in the same room, blasted through the album in 2 takes… and used the first. All done in about 4/5 hours maybe. Overdubbed a few guitars and the vocals, mixed it. Done and dusted probably in about 16 hours proper work.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>SHOM) Verminous Serpent exists somewhere between the death/black metal canopy—The overarching sound being something unfettered and bestial, do you find a different kind of catharsis in playing this type of sound over some of your other bands? Does this new sound open up different pathways of exploration for you in any creative sense?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>A.A.) Not really… my influences for this were the same as they were in 1991/92 starting out with Primordial, we just took a slightly different path. For me it's kinda like returning to where I came from. The catharsis of course exists as we made this in lockdown, its a record full of anger and intensity. The main difference for me is really bass and vocals. I'm always open to creating with new people and in new environments with different goals. Life is short, get busy. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsWDNvsUnrceFmoX7FQAeD_KvkjvJ6lMYUK7AgOUrQKXfF9q_3m2JPhfHGXfhO1WMfl81Awc5rqkh2DWMkxtnDNQr90vJTv6tTYKmWk49hPScgM5mqG3jqh5EKLEpBJIffbs9vv3ohFjAh02uvHUy1VLe_dJyZ8IZ1FjHhY_Ab_myY6OGOYtNLRuiz/s690/Verminous-Serpent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="690" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsWDNvsUnrceFmoX7FQAeD_KvkjvJ6lMYUK7AgOUrQKXfF9q_3m2JPhfHGXfhO1WMfl81Awc5rqkh2DWMkxtnDNQr90vJTv6tTYKmWk49hPScgM5mqG3jqh5EKLEpBJIffbs9vv3ohFjAh02uvHUy1VLe_dJyZ8IZ1FjHhY_Ab_myY6OGOYtNLRuiz/w400-h266/Verminous-Serpent.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo courtesy of Amor Fati Productions</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div><i><b>SHOM) </b></i><i><b>I really enjoyed what came from Blood Revolt—'Indoctrine' exists, in my opinion, as something wholly unique in the space of bestial death metal—Though the "signature" A.A. vocal delivery is still present throughout those songs, did you go into writing everything on 'The Malign Covenant' knowing you were going to explore new territory within your vocals or was it more of a byproduct of what seemed right within the desired tone and sound of Verminous Serpent?</b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>A.A.) Well I knew (we all agreed) it shouldn't have any of my signature vocal sound, and once that was agreed upon… it was just a case of finding this new tone. I took a lot of influence from all the old Brazilian and South American bands, and Eastern European stuff from the late 80's. </div><div><br /><br /></div><div><i><b>SHOM) </b></i><b><i>This "signature vocal sound" nearly casts a shadow in the closing seconds of the album opener, 'Seraphim Falls', but instead yields to something more primitive and in a higher register. It sounds cool—In the earlier stages of Verminous Serpent were you experimenting with these types of vocal nuances or were you focused on keeping it more orthodox and within the range and influence of the South American and Eastern European stuff of the 80's?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>A.A.) Well we all agreed at the beginning that it couldn't be my, what would we call it… signature voice—another band with the same tone, so we had to steer clear of it completely—Yet it also had to not be like my 'brutal' voice in Primordial either, so my intention was to always have this kinda old school obscure old style vocals and after a few experiments I got there. But also to give that tone some diversity as well, mix it up… so it had its own character, and without a doubt also me, but a different side. In the beginning really, we were concentrating on getting the songs together, the vocals weren't really first on the agenda.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><i>SHOM) What were the explored themes and lyrical focus on 'The Malign Covenant'?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4MZvijWkFAdINaddPZKNCwbZ-Hb09OmL4LCViiyt1wliIvHUa3oXb3ICLV7B8gm93i3Fd35WBrhVBnXtLEu8wdDbIu5iedpD779-qzLfZdbX_ftBc6K8jsZNCMSpeRWoFMLLTxhHKCZR2NJEJBvlHM3M-jf__HuPbcBMdva8T8Kd6lYP3k5FtNEAF/s800/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4MZvijWkFAdINaddPZKNCwbZ-Hb09OmL4LCViiyt1wliIvHUa3oXb3ICLV7B8gm93i3Fd35WBrhVBnXtLEu8wdDbIu5iedpD779-qzLfZdbX_ftBc6K8jsZNCMSpeRWoFMLLTxhHKCZR2NJEJBvlHM3M-jf__HuPbcBMdva8T8Kd6lYP3k5FtNEAF/w320-h213/unnamed.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo Courtesy of Amor Fati Productions</span><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><br /></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div style="text-align: left;">A.A.) <i>Just to set the tone, there is no specific statement being made, they are a texture, but of course dark. They are mainly (vaguely) alluding to religious, medieval occultism, secret societies, etc. But what I also wanted to do was have a flow of words based on the sounds, you might call it Onomatopoeia, a stream of consciousness to convey an overall atmosphere with no real grammatical structure. Which is why on the back of the album the lyrics are all in one long sentence.</i></div></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><div><div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><i><b>SHOM) </b></i><b><i>As a follow-up, could you illuminate the idea behind the album cover?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>A.A.) Basically I collect interesting images all the time. I keep them in a folder and when I'm creating something and need an image, you never know, something might make sense… so that's what happened here. <br /><br />This is if I am not mistaken a pencil drawing created some time in the early 19th century by an artist trying to depict the Black Death coming to the town centuries before. Seemed to make sense.</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• Ω •</div><div><br /></div><div><i>This is where we cut it off, short and sweet—No more, no less. If you got to this point, I thank you for keeping the underground lit! Thanks once again to Amor Fati and Alan. A. for taking the time to engage. Give this monster of an album a listen—One of the years best!</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://verminousserpent.bandcamp.com/album/the-malign-covenant" target="_blank">Verminous Serpent - <i>The Malign Covenant</i></a><i> </i></b>(bandcamp)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Amor Fati Productions</a></b> (bandcamp)</div></div>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-30020206972264522182023-02-22T11:30:00.001-05:002023-02-22T11:30:00.196-05:00Interview with H. of Oerheks (Silver Knife, Hypothermia, Monads…)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjv7tXUo-7cr1HYT-5W2MT8ZHyybM58e08eNVA7GiWdWv5Et36us1kYbmTA7ziVoobTgjh762Gbey83VtZcV8PvXyPj-6xbkLwZ48Y70Kq-2b0wW5nUirP1jgadDNTCJ8712TTbl3fGvtqalSgJvdaGzqQwC8Gjji87rcfeRzmmAOd1n1Cb9QQsW2Ta" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgY8llkZX1NChVjf9spPfNJWtBtxEiXOPUZdlVmHFjhyVQzdCU9M3AaSFOM8pDSSLXGKZuCfLsK-aRzb9PKeRhoHdKOaooK7J6jNzMq8zBUDb6_HMKEHjvyjsIz-jTEiRLH9HJcPxtO1IvSHOUPdu-8qWdmcJk8ETbsMCzYp2lRmxdVWM15OvmYpNo5=s16000" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>This is a discussion that took place over the course of a week with H.—Lone member in the atmospheric black metal project called Oerheks. I received an early listening promo for 'Landschapsanachronismen' and was levelled by the atmospheric heft and austerity flowing through the two-track demo, so I reached out to H. and bothered him with a series of probing questions in preparation for the album release—which releases today (February 22, 2023)—below is the album for stream through bandcamp followed by our conversation below…</i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3077343846/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 120px; width: 100%;"><a href="https://oerheks.bandcamp.com/album/landschapsanachronismen">Landschapsanachronismen by Oerheks</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><div><br /></div><i><b>SHOM) First of all, thanks for taking the time to chew some fat—It’s freezing cold here in Toronto as I’m writing this, what’s the weather been like recently in </b></i><b style="font-style: italic;">Kaggevinne, Belgium?</b><div><br /></div><div>H.) Hi Chris, thanks for the opportunity to talk about Oerheks! We've had some extremely cold weather in the beginning of January, resulting in some magical ice-transformed landscapes, followed by snow, followed by rain, and right now the sun seems to have come back almost right on time for Imbolc.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><i><b>SHOM) So you already have a very well received debut under your belt in </b></i><i><b>‘Cagghenvinna’ which</b></i><i><b> saw itself unfurled last year on August of 2022 by the highly regarded Amor Fati Productions and found its way on quite a few year-end lists (including my own)… did the noise around the internet change the way you approached writing for your sophomore demo '</b></i><b><i>Landschapsanachronismen</i></b><i><b>’? Was there suddenly a feeling to fill expectations or was it done within the same framework as your debut?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></b></i></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimogREqw44_VFEeKmFZGUOXCDvIOaTdDB8PDEa7b8G_zQ5Q9LuwbVkfp2MQkvfVksLlRE1zCrj6rzmMLLuRXLmCj0cWilUkCke_1BOk1QKT0KYgA51Uzvys74cDO_cwNYPhehsipRscLu0mlifmuIpBROql8oShkYJfzb8mSMp5hDi-53RpkNIdFP6" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="112" data-original-width="220" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimogREqw44_VFEeKmFZGUOXCDvIOaTdDB8PDEa7b8G_zQ5Q9LuwbVkfp2MQkvfVksLlRE1zCrj6rzmMLLuRXLmCj0cWilUkCke_1BOk1QKT0KYgA51Uzvys74cDO_cwNYPhehsipRscLu0mlifmuIpBROql8oShkYJfzb8mSMp5hDi-53RpkNIdFP6=w200-h102" width="200" /></a></div>H.) It did not, since the second demo was long finished before '<i>Cagghenvinna</i>' was released. In fact, in the Summer of 2022, about a month before the public release of the first demo, I started working on the fifth Oerheks demo. The third was also completely finished and ready to go to press before Oerheks went public. For the fourth and the fifth release I just have to finish some smaller things, add some stuff and record the vocals. In the past I've fallen into traps created by expectations of a debut recording, and my reaction over the years evolved into always trying having the next release ready before the current one goes to press. It doesn't always work, but so far with Oerheks, it has.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>SHOM) Very wild, so you’re quite ahead of yourself in the sense of song-writing—Was this spurt of individual productivity a result of the earlier lockdowns and the free-time that that period gave? And are details like album name/cover already thought of and just locked in the vault until announcement?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>H.) I wouldn't say Oerheks is a result of the lockdown(s), I've always felt the need to record music, whether for bands or solo projects. However, the first recordings for Oerheks did occur in the first lockdown, indeed. Besides isolation, the Spring of 2020 offered incredible weather, giving me the opportunity to go on walks and hikes in my area every day. It gave me the inspiration that would eventually end up in the first couple of demos. </div><div><br />Album concepts and (working) titles grow together with the songs, and very often are already set in stone before recordings are finished (sometimes even before recordings are started!). The fact that the first three demos were finished before the release of '<i>Cagghenvinna</i>' gave me time to let the concept and artwork of each release take shape to the fullest. So, in a way they weren't locked away at all, they kept evolving even after they were musically finished. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>SHOM) Now that '</i></b><b><i>Landschapsanachronismen' has already been heard by thousands of folks through the early demo premier over at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0XnVks0uPs&ab_channel=BlackMetalPromotion" target="_blank">Black Metal Promotion</a> page,</i></b><b><i> could you elaborate on the inspiration and the themes explored within ‘Landschapsanachronismen’?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>H.) Just like with '<i>Cagghenvinna</i>', the theme of the second Oerheks demo is centered around my local area, called Kaggevinne. It's a very small town with a rich history, mostly because of an ancient forest that used to be present here. The forest was called 'Prinsenbos' (or Prince's Forest, named after the Prince of Orange who used to own these lands). Today, only one survivor remains of this forest: the Old Oak of Kaggevinne. A magical solitary oak, with branches curling far and wide into the sky; it truly is a sight to behold in this sloping landscape. 'Lanschapsanachronismen' tells the story of this lost forest, how it got eradicated and how the solitary oak is a mighty yet painful reminder of what once was. </div><div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiv3kx_e-mpPtdZWtkEPLrJL1e2Ye4dJKxzFa9xiLCrfqCoyZOrvaHtCWJz8JJrCBWOyMML-XwUT0Xf3ZpEc_lGcKV6fnVZ16zSPY861s_sHqU2VrnjKp2_LVj7J2zSMrjq0EoDZAlRnw0nHchX9MHnZW3OPPpPC-4TIU4tqzikPUFsc90_17gxQ_Tl" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1620" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiv3kx_e-mpPtdZWtkEPLrJL1e2Ye4dJKxzFa9xiLCrfqCoyZOrvaHtCWJz8JJrCBWOyMML-XwUT0Xf3ZpEc_lGcKV6fnVZ16zSPY861s_sHqU2VrnjKp2_LVj7J2zSMrjq0EoDZAlRnw0nHchX9MHnZW3OPPpPC-4TIU4tqzikPUFsc90_17gxQ_Tl=w400-h266" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by @hagatissa</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div><i><b>SHOM) Inspiration is often a fickle thing in the work of artistic expression, sometimes we’re caught up in specifics and other times it’s fleeting or ambiguous—Besides the history and landscape of your surrounding area what other forces drives Oerheks sound? </b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>H.) I'd say it's a deep and unrelenting obsession with the sound of black metal, combined with the ritual-like sensation of recording music in solitude. Inspiration for Oerheks comes when it comes, and usually pretty intensely. Once I start recording, I forget all about reality and time and hours/days seem to pass within moments.</div><div><br /><br /></div><div><i><b>SHOM) As a follow-up, are there any specific albums that directly or indirectly influence your motives with Oerheks?</b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>H.) Indirectly, I'm sure there are a lot. However, there is no direct musical influence to Oerheks. I tried to cut myself off from ideas such as 'making it sound like band X meets band Y' (for example), and chose to let the inspiration come from the inside. In this way, Oerheks is a mix of my past/other current projects and something new all at once.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><i>SHOM) You released your Oerheks debut 'Cagghenvinna' on the same day as fellow-countryman Aerdryk, who was also releasing his first solo debut output, both of which were put out with the support of Amor Fati Productions—How did this take shape and unfold?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgT1a5-nFXoHwGwzgQeZaet4yUruckhkLlsFkEwPuKpK3i8rSvNnpihvOhOPzdEwbMV3c83J5-woxwlqLuPcz-ZJzI416uHCgk2tNE9joHsM0U83a_1FHYpPkcC6r_3QLA57hCSvYQBIQCjalSc95WBmJp9QFgnJ321t1X_LgGuTrzPtni1c_mIC6cm" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgT1a5-nFXoHwGwzgQeZaet4yUruckhkLlsFkEwPuKpK3i8rSvNnpihvOhOPzdEwbMV3c83J5-woxwlqLuPcz-ZJzI416uHCgk2tNE9joHsM0U83a_1FHYpPkcC6r_3QLA57hCSvYQBIQCjalSc95WBmJp9QFgnJ321t1X_LgGuTrzPtni1c_mIC6cm=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>H.) <i>CVB</i> and I are close and are in touch with each other on an almost daily basis. Whenever we're working on something new musically, we are each other's main checkpoint. In the process of recording both Oerheks and Aerdryk, a lot of unfinished stages of songs were sent in both directions. We appreciate and need each other's honesty for whatever we're working on. Thus, Oerheks and Aerdryk were growing together; and releasing it together seemed only logical to us. <i>Marius</i> from Amor Fati was immediately up for the idea, and thanks to <a href="https://addergebroed.com/" target="_blank">Addergebroed</a>, we had a double premiere with an interview to promote both releases.<br /></div></div><div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><i><b>SHOM) Can you provide some background to the album cover on Cagghenvinna and or any surrounding details? </b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>H.) All my life I've had a minor obsession with maps, especially old maps. In one of my many searches for maps of the area, and maps including variations of the name Kaggevinne, I stumbled upon the one used for '<i>Cagghenvinna</i>'. To this day, I can't exactly explain why I chose this map and not any of the other ones that were an option, but it somehow struck a chord, and I knew it was the right one.</div><div>The map itself shows the area where the current provinces of Antwerp (North), Brabant (South) and Limburg (East, just off-screen) meet. To the east, we can see the nearby town of Diest (once a stronghold of the Prince of Orange) as a walled city, with the Demer running through it like coronary arteries. It also shows Zichem as a walled city, before most of it was destroyed during the Eighty Year's War. North of Zichem, the natural flooding area in the valley of the Demer is marked by diagonally crossed lines. West of Diest and South of Zichem, there's a seven pointed star, which is Scherpenheuvel in its earliest stages of being a town. South of that is the most important element of the map: The Forest of the Prince of Orange. All around are interesting landmarks, like spots labeled 'Justice', with a drawing of a gallows. These are still referenced today on those exact spots, in names of streets and areas.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBpYKNurULNvqL71-pB5G2vtcGNzXYQ92K7y5TvBi_llzIp6bs659IrGCJWsdF_OVS8bndnV-W_KemLObtkUsOM2_Ljn5uxuMBiO0w04iG6hDsBN6DByBVYoocGZJA_KiN3WHhoZZiKE8dDG5rV8TfDQVo8IWzYO4E80z1mJwY1g3Vzq1v0hf90W9i" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBpYKNurULNvqL71-pB5G2vtcGNzXYQ92K7y5TvBi_llzIp6bs659IrGCJWsdF_OVS8bndnV-W_KemLObtkUsOM2_Ljn5uxuMBiO0w04iG6hDsBN6DByBVYoocGZJA_KiN3WHhoZZiKE8dDG5rV8TfDQVo8IWzYO4E80z1mJwY1g3Vzq1v0hf90W9i=w320-h320" width="320" /></a></div></div><div>Ever since the 1970's, Kaggevinne has been split up into two parts. The eastern, more populated part, is part of Diest. The western part, still called 'Prinsenbos' (Prince's Forest) today, is mostly fields and remnants of the ancient forest. It officially belongs to the territory of Scherpenheuvel. I live in that western part. The Old Oak of Kaggevinne is located close to the border of both parts of Kaggevinne.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>SHOM) What does the recording process for you normally look like? Do you have any rituals or practices you perform before or after a recording session?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>H.) It's usually a pretty impulsive process. I'm a person who doesn't record all too often, strange as that may seem. Yet, when I do, I sink into the process 100% and forget about time, the world and myself. I usually can't stop before most of what's in my mind and inspiration has become a tangible result. Though I usually have ideas and riffs written down, the recording process is still greatly improvisatory. As for preparation rituals, I always try to get enough walks/hikes through the area before and during the recording process.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>SHOM) Comparably to Oerheks, your other project Silver Knife has also seen quite a lot of support and praise on a global level—How did this international collective take shape?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>A) <i>N.</i> and I kept bumping into each other in the weirdest places, usually when I was on stage with Hypothermia and he was on stage with Laster. We started playing with the idea of doing something together one day. It remained a "one day we will" kind of plan for several years, until I invited <i>N.</i> in the Summer of 2019 to go and record an album with <i>Déhà</i>. We spent two days going over riffs and ideas at my place, then spent two more days recording the album (and the groundwork for the '<i>Ring</i>' EP), and that's how <i>SK</i> started. Later that year, we asked <i>Pierre</i> (aka Business for Satan) to join us on drums.</div><div>Though <i>SK</i> is technically an international band, the term gets wildly less impressive if you see how we don't really live that far from each other at all.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>SHOM) ‘Landschapsanachronismen’ launches into a soaring riff straight out of the gate on “Een Eenzaat in het Landschap”. It’s an abrupt start full of energy and feeling which gave me the same feeling as Nocturnal Triumph’s release last year, makes the hair on your neck stand!</i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>Both your releases open with a powerful intensity, do you feel it important to set a pace and tone early within Oerheks? Have you ever explored various intro types?</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div>H.) Well first off, the comparison to Nocturnal Triumph is humbling! I could only dream of writing such unstoppable expressive riffs… </div><div><br /></div><div>As for song intros; I love them, and have experimented with them plenty in other projects. It's true that the first two Oerheks demos are filled with songs that start off straight away with little or no build-up at all, but that's just because it fitted the atmosphere of the song. On the next demo, for example, I've played around with intros some more, as it did fit on those songs.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><b><i>SHOM) Throughout ‘Landschapsanachronismen’ there are moments of what sounds like poetry or a saga in Flemish (?), tonally it gives the album a deeper sense of austerity but could you shed some light on what is being conveyed in these narratives?</i></b><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div>H.) These parts are fragments of the lyrics. One wouldn't be able to separate them from the full context of the texts, but as you mention, they offer a deeper look into what is being conveyed. In '<i>Een Eenzaat in het Landschap</i>', there's a spoken word fragment that goes as follows:<div><br /></div><div>Stap voor stap vestig ik me in dit landschap</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgx3qOH1KdPBhrhmu8OWvXFIszcZeVUeGuC7xNwY7l-bp6wWVB7yA5Q25abuYbAzA2OWtdXR4NyQZq2uszNnEm6cV6hM9N4-1j-Xw5nGUAojtJ5PH7bWsEqV7NDE4cc4cICTIUlv3i8jmhBk4_04yQ6KEdOorHXrRqipbdrt1QiAWZZgRZbpxfr-Lo4" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="727" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgx3qOH1KdPBhrhmu8OWvXFIszcZeVUeGuC7xNwY7l-bp6wWVB7yA5Q25abuYbAzA2OWtdXR4NyQZq2uszNnEm6cV6hM9N4-1j-Xw5nGUAojtJ5PH7bWsEqV7NDE4cc4cICTIUlv3i8jmhBk4_04yQ6KEdOorHXrRqipbdrt1QiAWZZgRZbpxfr-Lo4=w320-h319" width="320" /></a></div>Eenzaam, maar vertrouwd</div><div>Verloren, maar thuis</div><div>Dit landschap vestigde zich in me</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll try to translate this to the best of my abilities:</div><div><br /></div><div>Step by step, I am settled in this landscape</div><div>Lonely, but familiar</div><div>Lost, but home</div><div>This landscape has settled inside of me<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>This section shows the intrinsic, deeply personal side of Oerheks, turning the atmosphere of this landscape unto me. The text goes on to describe a specific path towards the Old Oak. In this sense, the 'Loner in the Landscape', talks about the lonely oak, but about myself as well. </div><div><br /></div><div>The spoken word fragment in 'Een Oude Wijsheid Werd hier Geveld' is:</div><div><br /></div><div>Een oude wijsheid werd hier geveld</div><div>Als bloedende lichamen onder de zon</div><div>Vloeiend sap, glimmende bijlen</div><div>Mijn landschap bloedt</div><div><br /></div><div>An old wisdom was felled here</div><div>Like bleeding bodies under the sun</div><div>Flowing sap, shimmering axes</div><div>My landscape bleeds</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously this refers to the felling of the ancient forest. It's a dramatic turning point in the song, after which the melodies and atmosphere get more aggravated</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><b><i>SHOM) The sound throughout the album is very charged in the sense that it feels grandiose and battle ready—A vast and deep expanse with an ancient wisdom to impart. Listening to the final result, do you feel like you successfully matched the tone in the music with the albums message?</i></b><br /><br />H.) Yes, absolutely. There is a sense of both triumph and tragedy in this release, which is exactly what I wanted it to convey. All in all, I want the listener to be transported to the Prince's Forest, both nowadays and many centuries ago, to witness the majesty that once was. As always, there are some things that aren't perfect and things I'd change. However, this is also why the release is a demo. Oerheks is still forming, still taking shape. Imperfections are a way of the process. I'll learn from these and refine them for future recordings.<br /><br /><b><i><br />SHOM) What aspect are you most proud about on ‘Landschapsanachronismen’? Do you have a favourite moment or riff that stands out to you?</i></b></div><div><br />H.) That's a really tough one. From day one in Oerheks, my personal challenge has been to put melodic leads over already melodic riffs, and this is something that really worked out well on <i>Landschapsanachronismen</i>. A new element are the classical guitar intermezzos, which I feel really add something special to the overall atmosphere. Favorite moment or riff, I really couldn't pick, but for the sake of it; let's say the final 4 minutes of the release (classical guitar interlude + final riffs of '<i>Een Oude Wijsheid Werd hier Geveld</i>')…<br /><br />Maybe that will motivate people to listen right up to the end of the demo.<br /><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b>SHOM) Let's leave it right here H.—A thousand thank you's again for taking the time to talk music! Feel free to close this out anyway you'd like, floor is yours…</b></div></div><br /><br />H.) Thanks so much for your time, your effort, your in-depth questions and the opportunity to share my thoughts and words, Chris. 'Landschapsanachronismen' will be available from the Oerheks bandcamp page today, both digitally and on LP. </div><div><br />LP's will be available from Amor Fati Productions (& distributors), the tape will be available from Babylon Doom Cult Records.Whoever orders the LP from me will get a little extra (to make up for Belgium's ridiculous postage rates).</div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• Ω •</div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://oerheks.bandcamp.com/album/landschapsanachronismen" target="_blank">Oerheks - <i>Landschapsanachronismen</i></a></b> (bandcamp)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Amor Fati Productions</a></b> (bandcamp)</div>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com2Kaggevinne, 3293 Diest, Belgium50.97937 5.0189650.275738610125586 3.9203271875 51.68300138987442 6.1175928125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-35769737980076518172023-02-08T10:53:00.002-05:002023-02-08T10:53:45.549-05:00Crawl - Damned (2023) 🇺🇸 | Profound Lore Records<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgINhQ-G1ZW2_LB4SjH_eindM0nWV-FXKgWTVIwo4gmW7xTXu3Q5IBg7F1tl2xDQk379Bf2oA9uvxqHEGO2CmjcV50dO2vLJqCc6-CX13YXb84fwdlrJbCqj0cAWhkxYTEoiI-GPikCiWwOedbQnXM8Qs75STPP9Gc6nGr08cXMxl2n-Wmdiu4dISFh" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgINhQ-G1ZW2_LB4SjH_eindM0nWV-FXKgWTVIwo4gmW7xTXu3Q5IBg7F1tl2xDQk379Bf2oA9uvxqHEGO2CmjcV50dO2vLJqCc6-CX13YXb84fwdlrJbCqj0cAWhkxYTEoiI-GPikCiWwOedbQnXM8Qs75STPP9Gc6nGr08cXMxl2n-Wmdiu4dISFh=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2981089549/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 274px; width: 410px;"><a href="https://crawl.bandcamp.com/album/damned">Damned by CRAWL</a></iframe></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b>• † •</b></p><p><b>Crawl</b> exists in the arena of doom metal as a one-man force of bone gnashing atmospherics that move around with the same agility and haste as old people fucking—It’s lugubrious and dismal and mired in cavernous noise, dank and crumbling. You’ve heard this before, many times actually, but maybe not exactly in this way. The use of ambient passages in <b>Lurker of Chalice</b> comes to mind. Or the stoney abrasive heaviness of <b>Rorcal</b>, distilled all the way down to the molasses paced heft of <i>Világvége</i>.</p><p>Tonally, <b>Crawl</b> is solitary confinement.</p><p>I’ve read <i>Michael A. Engle</i> word it as such: “<b>Crawl</b> is basically my attempt to put you in a space like a dungeon, where you’re slowly exploring the environment. Every step is very cautious, and every corner has a ton of anxiety. You’re afraid to take that next step or afraid to open a door.” It’s an apt descriptor for the sound he manifests.</p><p style="text-align: center;">• Ω •</p><p>Admittedly, I haven’t spent enough time with this record to absorb everything about it, my likes and dislikes are ambiguous, but as a reflex I am drawn to how it sounds. It sounds unique, despite not being wholly inventive, though I believe the execution and technique is rather unique to the genre.</p><p><b><a href="https://crawl.bandcamp.com/album/damned" target="_blank">Crawl - <i>Damned</i></a></b> (bandcamp)</p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-81836418254775483352023-02-06T12:14:00.003-05:002023-02-06T12:15:07.282-05:00Demon Bitch - Hellfriends (2016) 🇺🇸 | Skol Records<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEirEOjesIbRwS9WhlI-2hmpQrhhUFJZ2t7UaRbbvo49QUHvXcDlkbxPK9gDrbqSdBkhyF-1duOHS9GbqgzuLBhklSN0-7J07PlcJU4xlRC7l5MNkUux5F2g53sJAF7rYeKia96vaMvlVlkAGeUem4_8UQEE6OTVe9y4_zyBRpsosqtGi6Pl2r_CrY8J" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1155" data-original-width="1200" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEirEOjesIbRwS9WhlI-2hmpQrhhUFJZ2t7UaRbbvo49QUHvXcDlkbxPK9gDrbqSdBkhyF-1duOHS9GbqgzuLBhklSN0-7J07PlcJU4xlRC7l5MNkUux5F2g53sJAF7rYeKia96vaMvlVlkAGeUem4_8UQEE6OTVe9y4_zyBRpsosqtGi6Pl2r_CrY8J=w400-h386" width="400" /></a></div><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2133794625/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 275px; width: 410px;"><a href="https://demonbitch.bandcamp.com/album/hellfriends">Hellfriends by Demon Bitch</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><br />‘<i>Hellfriends</i>’ is spastic and raw plummet through the obsidian archways of early heavy metal, albeit completely jagged with a very limited reverence for conventional structure, sounding something between early <b>Slough Feg</b> in need of a Ritalin shot and a sloppier <b>Mercyful Fate</b> in full chain mail. There's a resounding energy flowing through every song, as if it were floor recorded and off the cuff. It's a stark and welcomed contrast to the overly produced and mechanically prepared acoustics typical within newer heavy metal…<p></p><p>Despite <i>Fenriz</i> shouting these guys out every chance he gets, the 530 Monthly Spotify listeners is no indication of the galactic supremacy they very well deserve… hopefully after this post it will go up to 532 monthly Spotify listeners?</p><p>“There are no words, just rock n' roll.<br />Keeping me stranger, and keeping me loud!”</p><p><b><a href="https://demonbitch.bandcamp.com/album/hellfriends" target="_blank">Demon Bitch - <i>Hellfriends</i></a></b> (bandcamp)</p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-75274048881567634182023-01-28T15:36:00.004-05:002023-01-28T15:36:26.571-05:00Antichrist - Forbidden World (2011) 🇸🇪 | High Roller Records<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbttQ8wiuqFlo9VtCBJ_i2wI1QZIE8W4su4yZk7eOSOLapJtLgNHUJ4wD9pDR3e1SllMrrdLyQEpnPgB3SInlJHf8gaZQXI_EgCWnRuPRl5QL_jzjgo1A7ieWstJ0hn7MjeKa3vvG6a2QnQG4FQ5ggn7sQFuZu_4weIAGZk9Z7ECqYcS1MSF_altbc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1172" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbttQ8wiuqFlo9VtCBJ_i2wI1QZIE8W4su4yZk7eOSOLapJtLgNHUJ4wD9pDR3e1SllMrrdLyQEpnPgB3SInlJHf8gaZQXI_EgCWnRuPRl5QL_jzjgo1A7ieWstJ0hn7MjeKa3vvG6a2QnQG4FQ5ggn7sQFuZu_4weIAGZk9Z7ECqYcS1MSF_altbc=w390-h400" width="390" /></a><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1940159559/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 365px; width: 400px;"><a href="https://ihate.bandcamp.com/album/forbidden-world">Forbidden World by Antichrist</a></iframe></div><p style="text-align: center;"> • † • </p><p>One of the best modern-day approaches to an old worn-out genre, beaten to death with bad production and style and a swath of copycats who have totally missed the fucking point. Not <b>Antichrist</b> from Sweden though, these guys understand the sound of the 80’s and shove it up your ass. Sodomy through sonic annihilation!</p><p>It’s like the first time I heard ‘<i>Show No Mercy</i>’ front to back—The sheer amount of force and ferocity blew me away. This is primitive thrash that taps into that same well, do yourself a kindness and listen to this in full.</p><p><b><a href="https://ihate.bandcamp.com/album/forbidden-world" target="_blank">Antichrist - <i>Forbidden World</i></a></b> (bandcamp)</p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-5491590801918655412023-01-25T12:52:00.002-05:002023-01-25T12:52:23.950-05:00Fōr - The Life Feeding Flame (2021)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6TqnglpB4Tp7eVD0beKlHCb2XJXZaw9Q7KvG7yRcF69oykNe8NiUGAuqiBfxnCGjJoRz2fRafWAHXRawLDXAkgfJxPDhQIKPUpN27giiMF1gd6WWNAvIR72uL2tJjam2HbtQ8QPcq11_JvezA0BkqQkb_VdMej-2bFMoA0B4yuQ6ANST3mTklmBuU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6TqnglpB4Tp7eVD0beKlHCb2XJXZaw9Q7KvG7yRcF69oykNe8NiUGAuqiBfxnCGjJoRz2fRafWAHXRawLDXAkgfJxPDhQIKPUpN27giiMF1gd6WWNAvIR72uL2tJjam2HbtQ8QPcq11_JvezA0BkqQkb_VdMej-2bFMoA0B4yuQ6ANST3mTklmBuU=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2124326471/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 230px; width: 410px;"><a href="https://nihilisticnoisepropaganda.bandcamp.com/album/the-life-feeding-flame">The Life Feeding Flame by FŌR</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><i><br />The Life Feeding Flame</i> is an album that has tremendous output sonically, in that its energy is vigorous and full of weight behind it. Seriously this album has an elemental power running through it, like it's been forged through magma rather than written and performed. I don't know how to make sense of that but in the same way bands like <b>Hate Forest</b>,<b> Bølzer </b>and <b>Irkallian Oracle</b> capture and exude a formidable energy, this album manages to do something similar.<br /><br />It's a potent and ferocious bid at fusing funeral doom and death/black metal, and maybe that's where the source of its strength lies… In its ability to use the slow and heavy moments with the bolstered through a dense and cavernous atmosphere of driven guitars (with a surprising amount of melody behind them) and though the album lingers somewhere between mid-tempo and plodding it's an unrelenting and vicious ritual of the feral side of metal.<br /><br /><b><a href="https://nihilisticnoisepropaganda.bandcamp.com/album/the-life-feeding-flame" target="_blank">Fōr - <i>The Life Feeding Flame</i></a></b> (bandcamp)<p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-59154259844465618142022-12-20T09:45:00.002-05:002022-12-20T09:45:48.181-05:00Hate Forest - Innermost (2022) <p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgA5BxwzyYi3E4B-kY5gHjYPJOHEzCk5xCNkIwthhM5ozq7fDdyy0aZzT7ru2khWQr4RKur5_-YL3DmREvsrBaWQlbTJLSG0JsHw8YsJg2YthUePEklEWzNJg4E0P63iYs9PieyD-_VO8t21PA-Fzsr6cphhnIG_970Q2x1mOXty2xHIeqtt1Y3-l-q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="675" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgA5BxwzyYi3E4B-kY5gHjYPJOHEzCk5xCNkIwthhM5ozq7fDdyy0aZzT7ru2khWQr4RKur5_-YL3DmREvsrBaWQlbTJLSG0JsHw8YsJg2YthUePEklEWzNJg4E0P63iYs9PieyD-_VO8t21PA-Fzsr6cphhnIG_970Q2x1mOXty2xHIeqtt1Y3-l-q=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><br />The Unquenchable merchants of aural fury and barbarism ride into the end of the year with a late release of their trademark black metal and its sheer immensity picks up right where '<i>Hour of the Centaur</i>' left off. Buoyed by the tumult of this year, and no doubt the years prior, intensity and animosity is a palpable force on '<i>Innermost</i>' as torrents of icy riffs wage war with the galloping bombast of <b>Hate Forest</b>s' typical unrelenting blast-beats and of course Romans gruff vocal belt, which atypical for the genre, lends bulk and threat behind its framework.<p></p><p>It's because of releases late in the year like this, that I try to hold off on cementing any type of year end list. The more spins I rack on Innermost, the more it creeps into my list… The riffs are compelling and impactful, and few out there match the primitive velocity <b>Hate Forest</b> conjure. The riff a minute into "<i>Temple Of the Great Eternal Night</i>" is a <b>Bolt Thrower</b> level war anthem!<br /><br />As of the day of this posting, '<i>Innermost</i>' is set to be released by <a href="https://osmoseproductions.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Osmose Productions</a> tomorrow, so I don't have a bandcamp link directly to the album, but me and everyone else without an early-listening link have been listening to it through this YouTube link the label provided.<br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E5MadagyMMM" width="320" youtube-src-id="E5MadagyMMM"></iframe></div><br />Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine49.9935 36.23038321.683266163821152 1.0741330000000033 78.30373383617885 71.386633tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-6141863748082895782022-12-01T12:35:00.000-05:002022-12-01T12:35:00.215-05:00Foreseen - Untamed Force (2022)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjP5hfBXQBiOQ8OV1oYJseAz-Sh08i6uFYQp47W4miALMpoZcRRCHLK8KOlCy23Sv4wXcDViT2zgo5CjKyPO9kRBrHOl7bxIps_xDEQn22s2hJB-c0RlSByhAx7PjgHKf6ULk66dVbtJuu6lPOPbhk7S57m_GzP1c0JPGbY9wBU55_eVXupterzOLx7" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1167" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjP5hfBXQBiOQ8OV1oYJseAz-Sh08i6uFYQp47W4miALMpoZcRRCHLK8KOlCy23Sv4wXcDViT2zgo5CjKyPO9kRBrHOl7bxIps_xDEQn22s2hJB-c0RlSByhAx7PjgHKf6ULk66dVbtJuu6lPOPbhk7S57m_GzP1c0JPGbY9wBU55_eVXupterzOLx7=w388-h400" width="388" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=573434382/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 265px; width: 400px;"><a href="https://foreseen.bandcamp.com/album/untamed-force">Untamed Force by FORESEEN</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><br />Finland's <b>Foreseen</b> have been around for a better part of a decade, throwing their weight around in the arena of thrash and crossover, and they have never before faltered in their approach of agitated dirge. They continue the destruction on <i>Untamed Force</i> upping the ante with riff after riff under a production that is right on the money here—Mirky and heavy to the point of crumbling but not brittle under its own weight.<br /><br />This is what crossover sounds like when you listen to <b>English Dogs</b>, <b>Crumbsuckers</b>, <b>Whiplash</b>, <b>Razor</b>, <b>Verbal Abuse</b>, etc.—Drawing upon the well but never sucking it dry without throwing your own thoughts and ideas into the pot. I'm into everything about this record!<p></p><p><b><a href="https://foreseen.bandcamp.com/album/untamed-force" target="_blank">Foreseen - <i>Untamed Force</i></a></b> (bandcamp)</p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-85831047724915646812022-11-30T09:52:00.001-05:002022-11-30T09:52:50.641-05:00Chasm Shroud - Manna From Heaven (2022)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhYIL2DU_y-4HC3CNkdWyC8s8_a5CWDFNpOOWOMsyM9OcigSPyikuOWRtIfSbaRcDKXyC7L60nx0VnSPIYrAJ_8Tjm3WjRe_Q7_3fUX8ORaTVEKvv0UUVIEwayBpdXihThrvxGcMa4w52cEkM05eVXIxCoxPDOKjrJ2ABt-4Coa7c9ehjp2ILk3fa5t" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1047" data-original-width="1200" height="349" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhYIL2DU_y-4HC3CNkdWyC8s8_a5CWDFNpOOWOMsyM9OcigSPyikuOWRtIfSbaRcDKXyC7L60nx0VnSPIYrAJ_8Tjm3WjRe_Q7_3fUX8ORaTVEKvv0UUVIEwayBpdXihThrvxGcMa4w52cEkM05eVXIxCoxPDOKjrJ2ABt-4Coa7c9ehjp2ILk3fa5t=w400-h349" width="400" /></a></div></div><iframe style="border: 0; width: 410px; height: 274px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=961526603/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://chasmshroud.bandcamp.com/album/manna-from-heaven">Manna From Heaven by Chasm Shroud</a></iframe></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><br />You peer into the void. You see nothing, but hear faint sounds in the distance emanating from the yawning maw of black space…<p></p><p><i>Manna From Heaven</i> came out of nowhere, suddenly appearing (no demos or EP’s prior) and carrying with it some of the most intriguing black metal I’ve heard all year—It’s hard to pin down exactly, but a strange energy circulates here, like it’s been ritually charged and imbued with unknown intent.</p><p>The above statement might feel hyperbolic or even trite, but the overall sense is something palpable—An ominous portent of oblique black metal soundscapes reverberating around hypnotic dirges in a hallucinatory haze of frenetic dissonance. NAME YOUR PRICE, don't be a knucklehead!</p><p><b><a href="https://chasmshroud.bandcamp.com/album/manna-from-heaven" target="_blank">Chasm Shroud - <i>Manna From Heaven</i></a></b> (bandcamp)</p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0Asbury Park, NJ 07712, USA40.2203907 -74.012081711.910156863821157 -109.1683317 68.530624536178848 -38.855831699999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-39492625090061752852022-11-25T14:58:00.002-05:002022-11-25T14:59:37.567-05:00Ara - Gurre (2022)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3SzRgZyOFvueS_jXJvVPGb7KPKi6xhDELHS9-DC4aYeFnOzXIXj6-B8gi7QdrvhY8vHZ3e01_8lGpEI-9fvp2m3-UB6Pt4qs9VzGp3bgzLNbYz6UbUXOC-xN4tl4xhyRpVdjsfGk0fGx3euP_27GwAjq5m2KYehcFjXM9SG1XU42nWr_9nwFfskZ4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3SzRgZyOFvueS_jXJvVPGb7KPKi6xhDELHS9-DC4aYeFnOzXIXj6-B8gi7QdrvhY8vHZ3e01_8lGpEI-9fvp2m3-UB6Pt4qs9VzGp3bgzLNbYz6UbUXOC-xN4tl4xhyRpVdjsfGk0fGx3euP_27GwAjq5m2KYehcFjXM9SG1XU42nWr_9nwFfskZ4=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2911471527/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 272px; width: 400px;"><a href="https://ara-iec.bandcamp.com/album/gurre">Gurre by Ara</a></iframe></div><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>• † •</b></div><br />Channeling the same austerity and heft as was circling around the fjords of Norway in the 90’s black metal sound, <b>Ara</b> (meaning “Era” in German) ride under those same black banners—Evincing a similar raw power through a bottom of the barrel production and a flurry of icy tremolo picking.<p></p><p>It’s form over function and it sounds PRIMITIVE! A thousand other bands released albums in 2022 that tried to do the same thing, but few captured <i>Gurre</i>’s ability to do more with less. This has been flying under the banner of most from what I can tell… I think it's a great black metal album with a grimy punk tinge to it. Recommended for fans of <b>Okkultokrati</b>, <b>Bone Awl</b>, <b>Raspberry Bulbs</b>, etc.</p><p><a href="https://ara-iec.bandcamp.com/album/gurre" target="_blank"><b>Ara - <i>Gurre</i></b> (bandcamp)</a></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-83872858377264681472022-08-24T11:33:00.002-04:002022-08-24T11:33:36.719-04:00Leucosis - Leucosis (2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3cEM8JxxS6aQWNqFC3EEqcbRuXhhY8G6Lja0QxgyR4lfJEoxBlkwcQyQDhr6r5NykIeiSJHK_8fxZFwz_ecAOMIlC4DQCYW-i3s6j50VoKbOaMNF9coNX8f6XgHNjVjXZbmEiWMKCef1qybnQGL-jnHUmIs5AEpRaMzRnMFTc9gKCMcb7NsNP9Zdp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="1018" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3cEM8JxxS6aQWNqFC3EEqcbRuXhhY8G6Lja0QxgyR4lfJEoxBlkwcQyQDhr6r5NykIeiSJHK_8fxZFwz_ecAOMIlC4DQCYW-i3s6j50VoKbOaMNF9coNX8f6XgHNjVjXZbmEiWMKCef1qybnQGL-jnHUmIs5AEpRaMzRnMFTc9gKCMcb7NsNP9Zdp=w400-h382" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1352124591/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 240px; width: 68%;"><a href="https://leucosis.bandcamp.com/album/leucosis">Leucosis by Leucosis</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>• † •</b></div><br />This is a record that's been put up on here before but it's high-time for a re-up since it's been buried by a swath of posts that have come after. <b>Leucosis</b>' self-titled output from 2013 is the bands pivotal release, in my opinion—Its heft hasn't been dulled by the years one fucking bit! It remains a force of brute and murky doom metal flanked by a raw and oppressive black metal, unpolished to the point of practically having a veneer of patina over every track.<p></p><p>Albums are often over-credited with being monolithic without actually having an over-bearing power or stature. <b>Leucosis</b>' self-titled is a towering monolith, with a running time of something like 75 minutes. It's a weighty vestige to second-wave black metal with a backbone of doom, often serpentining throughout itself with pure dirge, crawling and atmospherically devastating.</p><p>This whole album is exemplary but its shining achievements are what puts it above its contemporaries. Those being the way is was produced and mastered—raw and gritty. Moreover, the way the drums sound in particular is unlike anything I've heard before. It sounds improvisational and the timbre of the kick sounds burly and under-produced… which results into something completely unconventional. SOUNDS LIKE A HAMMER FROM HELL!<br /><br /><b><a href="https://leucosis.bandcamp.com/album/leucosis" target="_blank">Leucosis - <i>Leucosis</i></a></b> (bandcamp)<br /></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-83889044586716716832022-07-29T12:56:00.001-04:002022-07-29T12:56:09.521-04:00Ærekær - Avindskjold (2019)<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjisOcl1pNJ9iN8gqs6xmDRYjyvag3ag6sYg5pYm0sM2-JDQa8iPFT9DqZverIiay9OYBHG6R_2TviIWJ1mDKMQbt16MhB_ZBGffoUglBcpm6oJx6tKy2eni44LZNLsdY98RbtY15z3YewL3iU7-uC68BuMGSGEvr32bqxEjXOcElswQcCOwR4vvi4S" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjisOcl1pNJ9iN8gqs6xmDRYjyvag3ag6sYg5pYm0sM2-JDQa8iPFT9DqZverIiay9OYBHG6R_2TviIWJ1mDKMQbt16MhB_ZBGffoUglBcpm6oJx6tKy2eni44LZNLsdY98RbtY15z3YewL3iU7-uC68BuMGSGEvr32bqxEjXOcElswQcCOwR4vvi4S=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2042045957/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 274px; width: 69%;"><a href="https://aerekaer.bandcamp.com/album/avindskjold">Avindskjold by Ærekær</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><br />I can't recall if I have already posted about these guys back when they released their first full-length back in 2018—Blowing right passed the process of writing and recording a demo or EP this Danish duo launched themselves into the sonic stratosphere via a full-length album rife with atmosphere and tonality through a musical cloth woven from early 90's black metal and soundscapes that traverse the entire range within dungeon synth.<br /><br /><b>Ærekær</b>'s sound is the perfect amalgamation between something that sounds both abrasive and pleasant—An abstruse combination of compelling synth arrangements that feel entangled in some other realm backed up against a barrage of caustic and raw black metal.<br /><br />This is one of those instances where words feel like they fall flat… I can throw a slew of adjectives into this paragraph but it feels like it doesn't matter. Simply put, if you're a fan of densely atmospheric, ambient black metal there isn't a single reason I can conceive why you wouldn't like this. Listen through!<br /><br /><b><a href="https://aerekaer.bandcamp.com/album/avindskjold" target="_blank">Ærekær - <i>Avindskjold</i></a></b> (bandcamp)Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0Copenhagen, Denmark55.6760968 12.568337127.365862963821158 -22.5879129 83.986330636178849 47.7245871tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-71412449421740438812022-07-22T13:22:00.001-04:002022-07-22T13:22:26.640-04:00Sepsis - The Divide 7" (2022)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8IAbXAsL2KgTYrWXQRP_wW0DNYuC7s5ZV2mG6Ra47pMn4Zcgzeuky9RSoWLqHR-fc_sk0XohziKPzMIiurCkvLERspj9bcC7SQ4PRFpbrV57wEZHA-u5xzqi4z9HZcOOdCp_XuiqHVJSsIvfQb4Kzdx-BaNiTb4EyLMnWatL3bolMHRWoGaGpf7Qa" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1194" data-original-width="1200" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8IAbXAsL2KgTYrWXQRP_wW0DNYuC7s5ZV2mG6Ra47pMn4Zcgzeuky9RSoWLqHR-fc_sk0XohziKPzMIiurCkvLERspj9bcC7SQ4PRFpbrV57wEZHA-u5xzqi4z9HZcOOdCp_XuiqHVJSsIvfQb4Kzdx-BaNiTb4EyLMnWatL3bolMHRWoGaGpf7Qa=w400-h398" width="400" /></a></div><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2067776656/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 274px; width: 410px;"><a href="https://hardcorevictim.bandcamp.com/album/the-divide">The Divide by Sepsis</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>• † •</b></div><br />Here's an illusive slab of frenetic crust punk/hardcore from the murky depths of Australia few here will be privy to but likely interested in! Drenched in reverb and grime. every corner of music is ransacked by overblown tone and bass, giving little time for reflection beyond total destruction—It sounds and feels like the halcyon days of newly-shaped hardcore, when early thrash was in its conception, but with ample energy taken from the UK crust scene of yore and what the band claims as a strong influence from the Swedish hardcore scene.<br /><br />Taken from their bandcamp page: <i>"Sepsis! A charged 4-piece crust bombardment from Naarm, Australia. Following hot off the heels from their sold out demo, they offer up 4 tracks thats are inspired by early UK crust with a strong Swedish hc backbone. For fans of Absolut Country of Sweden/ Scandinavian Jawbreaker era Anti Cimex, Hellbastard and Sacrilege. Maximum Devastation! Limited to 300 hand number copies."</i><br /><br /><b><a href="https://hardcorevictim.bandcamp.com/album/the-divide" target="_blank">Sepsis - <i>The Divide</i></a></b> (Bandcamp)<p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0Melbourne VIC, Australia-37.8136276 144.9630576-66.123861436178842 109.80680760000001 -9.5033937638211512 -179.8806924tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-48512224859690674362022-05-27T18:12:00.003-04:002022-05-27T18:12:58.538-04:00Interview W/ Negativa (Hässlig, Délirant)<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGh8rCVYIodI-_cLYAjRgg9bnWOr11rzuWaV66ZnculCJWFOZ3gsmxDa-H4iyifQUAQgo_sIJSNCgcJHHJHSJPZBnrcd8eIIZuNf6kvwFHqBmVjrGwLlvUHfwOggLOU5mYVtdV6Ms6n1LEwt14ylzf_6CgptMEEox114jrF1pCpL3hqPjN8FBnt9Pf" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGh8rCVYIodI-_cLYAjRgg9bnWOr11rzuWaV66ZnculCJWFOZ3gsmxDa-H4iyifQUAQgo_sIJSNCgcJHHJHSJPZBnrcd8eIIZuNf6kvwFHqBmVjrGwLlvUHfwOggLOU5mYVtdV6Ms6n1LEwt14ylzf_6CgptMEEox114jrF1pCpL3hqPjN8FBnt9Pf=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></b></div></div></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>I reached out to D.B. during the tail-end of the pandemic to see if he had any interest in chewing the fat with me about the many projects he's been involved in—<b>Negativa</b> had just put out a new record and it quickly became something I overplayed, which spawned a relatively short discussion as you see it below! D.B. doesn't miss, so check out all of his releases through <b>Negativa</b>, <b>Délirant</b> and <b>Hässlig</b> as well as an ear to the ground with his label <b>Bile Noire</b>… And it goes without saying, if you're not staying up to date with what <b>Mystískaos</b> and <b>Dissociative Visions</b> are releasing, you're just fucking the dog, as far as I'm concerned.</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>• † •</b></p><p><i>SHOM</i>: First of all, it’s gotta be said that I have thoroughly enjoyed every release you’ve put out thus far under your many banners—Whether it’s through <b>Délirant</b>, <b>Negativa</b> or <b>Hässlig</b>. How is it you manage to put consistent energy into three different bands?<br /><br /><b><i>DB</i>: Thank you and glad you enjoyed them.</b></p><p><b>I think spontaneity / improvisation play a big role in there. My guitar skills are VERY basic and I know nothing of music theory, so when I pick my guitar there is no other plan than playing and recording some "random" riffs. </b></p><p><b>I'm sure if I told myself "let's compose some music (specifically) for Negativa instead of simply playing whatever comes naturally, I would have a hard time doing it.<br /><br /></b><i>SHOM</i>: A whirring, almost hallucinatory tone seems to penetrate most, if not all of your songs. Is this something that is intentionally done or is it more of a tertiary side-effect when pursuing the type of raw and abrasive sound you have?<br /><br /><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: It was intentionally done in Délirant as the first thing I did for the album was getting a kind of psychedelic and cavernous sound. Basically, it was inspired by its own production, which worked very nice since I managed to finish the entire thing in 4-5 days.</b></p><p><b>For the rest of my recordings, I'd say its a non-intentional side-effect.</b></p><p><i>SHOM</i>: Which one word would you use to describe your general sound?</p><p><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: Negativity? (ha!)</b></p><p><i>SHOM</i>: If Negativity is the word you’d use to describe your sound, could you say the outcome could be used for positivity? In other words, if negativity was poured into it as a form of creative catharsis, do you believe the listener can use that same energy for their own catharsis?<br /><br /><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: Well it could be… Only unintentionally though, because you can't "induce a catharsis" with music onto someone else (intentionally), I think—That's something that varies from listener to listener, and only they can feel it... Which is why music is (or should be) made for oneself and not for others.</b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb1851wE2wayn7VsBSxxyRzEyOwodOeTt0zmL8WAUCNFx-op_yfP2k125U1WQIoZYEwyxN8zr1A4y2MEaNT15U-KC6ZvOoIdTNeZ-zAnph9UFjl6c78eUmoL3kvm66hZW0olFQq02JXsmZya0wbop5N1hVO2StF54ggDa-e2lbdAyNuUG4meoeauI4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="846" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb1851wE2wayn7VsBSxxyRzEyOwodOeTt0zmL8WAUCNFx-op_yfP2k125U1WQIoZYEwyxN8zr1A4y2MEaNT15U-KC6ZvOoIdTNeZ-zAnph9UFjl6c78eUmoL3kvm66hZW0olFQq02JXsmZya0wbop5N1hVO2StF54ggDa-e2lbdAyNuUG4meoeauI4=w400-h151" width="400" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b></div><i>SHOM</i>: How do you tackle the design/layout for all your releases?<p></p><p><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: I actually work as layout designer so that part is among the easy ones, specially for my releases which tend to be pretty minimal on purpose. </b><b>If you want to check out some of my work: @visionsnoires on IG.</b></p><p><i>SHOM</i>: <b>Negativa</b> already has a staunch black metal album release in 2022, any plans to release a record this year between either <b>Hässlig</b> or<b> Délirant</b>?</p><p><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: Honestly, it's been close to a year since I picked up an instrument for the last time, so it’s hard to say…</b></p><p><b>There is a second Délirant album already recorded since the last 2 or 3 years, it's just missing vocals... Demotivation and the lack of mental health have made me procrastinate with it forever and I have no idea when that will be finished. </b><b>Hässlig EP will come out on vinyl soon but no new recordings so far.</b></p><p><i>SHOM</i>: Is this due to musical burn-out or other outward forces in your life?</p><p><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: A mix of things. Musical burn-out, unhealthy habits, massive lack of motivation and mental health (as I said earlier), as well as myself not doing anything to help it and medication doing the opposite of its job. Being tired of everything in general.</b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIUtmh-hGRpEvYpQfiJ1LfLN1OBqaaP9tCfTrQz_wESF4ePzxDNZBeWesR6Y4qLq1ljAtizGhhWQyvj1ytTfS4QTtaNZ1cNxLWW6a6ONjNiQsgojX0tLW219hM6DcUWOvrv304oj3q2WP6YMaoFi1HPtU0lFKBhu7ZiASDm9MFdtK8yl5cizSKk_Tm" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIUtmh-hGRpEvYpQfiJ1LfLN1OBqaaP9tCfTrQz_wESF4ePzxDNZBeWesR6Y4qLq1ljAtizGhhWQyvj1ytTfS4QTtaNZ1cNxLWW6a6ONjNiQsgojX0tLW219hM6DcUWOvrv304oj3q2WP6YMaoFi1HPtU0lFKBhu7ZiASDm9MFdtK8yl5cizSKk_Tm" width="240" /></a></b></div><b><br /></b><i>SHOM</i>: <b><i>Mystískaos</i></b> and <i><b>Dissociative Visions</b> </i>are labels that I try to follow pretty closely. How’s it been working within these esteemed parent labels? Would you say you share common goals/aesthetics?<p></p><p><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: It was all very smooth from the beginning. I sent them a promo for the Délirant album (which was originally an EP under a different name) with no expectations at all. Surprisingly they replied a few days later saying they were interested and we started discussing different ideas like making it a full length by adding another track (a 4th one) and finding a more appropriate name for the project, artwork, etc.</b></p><p><b>Later on I started talking regularly with the head of MSK / Dissociative Visions, doing some visual work for the label(s) and sharing my music with them. We share similar views, ideas and musical taste at least, and considering they have released everything I've done after <i>Délirant</i>, I guess they like it.</b></p><p><i>SHOM</i>: Which artwork have you done (excluding your own bands) for <i>Mystiskaos/Dissociative Visions</i>? </p><p><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: Oh, I haven't done artwork for them. Mostly flyers, some trippy videos for promotion, the Dissociative Visions logo, as well as both MSK and DV websites (which are pretty minimal in design, so not too much to see there).</b></p><p><i>SHOM</i>: Obviously the<i> Mystiskaos/Dissociative</i> label is heavy with an Icelandic Black Metal approach, would you say your <b>Negativa</b> stuff is directly influenced by this sound or just a slight reflection of it with a host of other influences in the mix?</p><p><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: I don't think so... When I think of "Icelandic BM" the first thing that comes to mind is the production, since most of the stuff coming out from there is produced by the same studio. I mean, all the bands sound exactly the same and I can only relate the term "Icelandic BM" with THAT production, (which got boring pretty fast, but that's another story).</b></p><p><i>SHOM</i>: If you had to pick out one release of all the releases out through <i>Mystiskaos/Dissociative Visions</i>, which would stand as your most listened to?</p><p><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: Now that's a tough one. Most likely <i>Vonlaus</i>' second EP. <i>Andavald</i> LP would be up there for sure but pretty much all releases are great!<br /></b></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0yJMNi-rl_eoEBPITruH43n8R8b-kVmX8YGduCLCa3RZOb3EoUAnzhTtzOr18bw8bPHoM92dAxnj8Qu6GmApFEI4scUIOugxKko3kj2akbUOY-J6zmukrbLQMEfT0rIIFGVL59qKZTrqP5c42p1J_YIubG4Kzibbxneb4XOp5s2pCeW9LWgqvLWL1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0yJMNi-rl_eoEBPITruH43n8R8b-kVmX8YGduCLCa3RZOb3EoUAnzhTtzOr18bw8bPHoM92dAxnj8Qu6GmApFEI4scUIOugxKko3kj2akbUOY-J6zmukrbLQMEfT0rIIFGVL59qKZTrqP5c42p1J_YIubG4Kzibbxneb4XOp5s2pCeW9LWgqvLWL1" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b><b>• Ω •</b></b></div><b><br /></b><i>SHOM</i>: Thanks again for chewing the fat with me, looking forward to your next releases and hopefully we'll be back for a part two soon enough!<br /><p></p><p><b><i>DB</i></b><b>: Of course to both! Thanks!</b></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-39119248643234521182022-05-26T12:47:00.003-04:002022-05-27T13:27:22.283-04:00Chaotian - Effigies of Obsolescence (2022)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrZTiwmXXBpkuSaLwhDUCLm8IKE1emfdY4MD6V30h46AkuqZcWB8o4c3yIljzbdShVCZU2bPX0Mgvm9baAzq8muc-4xusyONw7YHHcCUo6E3n6BVgdbGgh2eP_Un6xWO8gCUr39mfqVL5_EwTJkPD8FaUyBRGJhCs_00Z9zUtXfazRtgNmlm_WxAq5" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="777" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrZTiwmXXBpkuSaLwhDUCLm8IKE1emfdY4MD6V30h46AkuqZcWB8o4c3yIljzbdShVCZU2bPX0Mgvm9baAzq8muc-4xusyONw7YHHcCUo6E3n6BVgdbGgh2eP_Un6xWO8gCUr39mfqVL5_EwTJkPD8FaUyBRGJhCs_00Z9zUtXfazRtgNmlm_WxAq5=w397-h400" width="420" /></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=855143265/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 250px; width: 420px;"><a href="https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/effigies-of-obsolescence">Effigies of Obsolescence by Chaotian</a></iframe><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>• † •</b></div><br />Denmark’s murky death metal scene has been fertile ground for a death metal sound that I would say is uniquely its own—Purveyors of an atypical cavernous and oblique output with festering guitar chords and drums from hell!<p></p><p>It’s not that these things aren’t being done elsewhere, it’s just that Denmark is on its own level with its own ethos—Similar to New Zealand, Canada, Iceland, etc. Always dynamic and unhinged in a way that is both feral in energy and in production. Listen back to what <b>Phrenelith</b>, <b>Taphos</b>, <b>Sulphurous</b>, <b>Tardus</b> <b>Mortem</b>, <b>Undergang</b>, <b>Septage</b> have done in the last while (hell, listen to <b>Ascendency</b>’s latest EP) and you’ll see what I mean.<br /><br />I digress, <b>Chaotian</b>'s debut album is out in June and it sounds like it’s going to be a putrid pile of nebulous death metal as we’ve come to expect out of Denmark’s quiet, but venerable scene. Take notice and support!</p><p><a href="https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/effigies-of-obsolescence" target="_blank"><b>Chaotian</b> - <i>Effigies of Obsolescence</i></a> (bandcamp)</p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-64405655044886925082022-05-21T14:56:00.002-04:002022-05-21T14:56:18.453-04:00Assumption - Hadean Tides (2022)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_TvkyjA6YYvYCGv8gjDvT7LGy4N5VLO6xeryWah7qskAX319aqz3WuSbtzTTc4TxsDIPHmjqnRL45s5qBveOe1mxjnsAwqa2TT8HFrI3WNJMKLlBZHFiV4FLeXKVfUEaw2y4Z9CZgWPp67bYAwjhaSCjP1Qdi8Xtqr9wEc7d4OuXaKQgtNrVzCazL" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_TvkyjA6YYvYCGv8gjDvT7LGy4N5VLO6xeryWah7qskAX319aqz3WuSbtzTTc4TxsDIPHmjqnRL45s5qBveOe1mxjnsAwqa2TT8HFrI3WNJMKLlBZHFiV4FLeXKVfUEaw2y4Z9CZgWPp67bYAwjhaSCjP1Qdi8Xtqr9wEc7d4OuXaKQgtNrVzCazL=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=4227312053/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 240px; width: 410px;"><a href="https://assumption.bandcamp.com/album/hadean-tides">Hadean Tides by Assumption</a></iframe><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><br />In the arenas of doom/death metal, <b>Assumption</b> are a brutish juggernaut of sheer force and gargantuan magnitude, wielding —<i>Hadean Tides</i> was officially uncaged yesterday and its presence is a seismic amalgamation of glacially paced doom with bouts of frenzied death metal peppered throughout.<br /><br />As I search my skull for fashionable adjectives and pithy aphorisms to describe this I can't help but think of <b>Convocation</b>'s debut album "<i>Scars Across</i>". It's equally as crumbling and bulky in its weight, with emphasis on a slow churn and plodding rhythms, albeit with flickers of a gallop but never quite hitting a sprint. Kudos to the artwork being the underbelly version of a Turner painting, bang on!<br /><br /><a href="https://assumption.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank"><b>Assumption - <i>Hadean Tides</i></b></a> (bandcamp)<p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-30743313108580926852022-05-11T12:23:00.000-04:002022-05-11T12:23:55.535-04:00Häxenzijrkell - Urgrund (2022)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiwA6Dq4Sg9YwxiCl7qzqVL1-OZVrJzZZN8624wYdl2Dt9FDb2Yv4zsoNYZlfwVU5BZbtLkiETIxrffHSfN6cgrPDVj_cTOSCQ5m-sbg_qteXpcKTsFSsNO5wxJ2KXOjqUM4ZGDnrN0Ps8nTWodeZt1FeKYrBaT3Yms942nqO26Ua7-wY_lxsoUVjut" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiwA6Dq4Sg9YwxiCl7qzqVL1-OZVrJzZZN8624wYdl2Dt9FDb2Yv4zsoNYZlfwVU5BZbtLkiETIxrffHSfN6cgrPDVj_cTOSCQ5m-sbg_qteXpcKTsFSsNO5wxJ2KXOjqUM4ZGDnrN0Ps8nTWodeZt1FeKYrBaT3Yms942nqO26Ua7-wY_lxsoUVjut=w400-h400" width="410" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=474690912/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 241px; width: 420px;"><a href="https://amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com/album/h-xenzijrkell-urgrund">Häxenzijrkell - Urgrund by Amor Fati Productions</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>• † •</b></div><b><br />Häxenzijrkell</b>'s, <i>Urgrund</i>, is some far out there black metal, heavily entrenched in a angular and obscure atmosphere that practically exhales something arcane… something at the very least, different then what we've all come to accept under the banner of black metal. A whirling plume of esoteric sounds swirl around here in a woozy haze of mesmerizing black metal, at times feeling like a mid-tempo cross between the obscurity of <b>Cultes Des Ghoules</b> mixed with the psychedelic downward spiral of <b>Wormlust </b>built upon the janky foundation of<b> Urfaust</b>.<br /><br />Angular guitars which mostly move away from the typical frenetic tremolo picking and into a territory that is far more glacially paced and hypnotic, are the backbone on <i>Urgrund</i>, but the driving force to me is the interplay between the ritualistic like drumming and the way <i>MK</i> (of <b>Rraaumm</b>) delivers his charged (at times anthemic) vocal howls, anguished and from the larynx.<br /><br />Leave it up to <i>Amor Fati Productions<b> </b></i>to bring into the light this piece of obscure and ritualistic like black metal. Go and show your support!<br /><br /><b><a href="https://amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com/album/h-xenzijrkell-urgrund" target="_blank">Häxenzijrkell -<i> Urgrund</i></a></b> (bandcamp)<p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-33546221136418319192022-04-21T14:33:00.001-04:002022-04-21T14:33:38.517-04:00Cer - The Conjuration of Nebula (2022)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQ8Wh1rHkaSkfWndqw2taCP3R65kG7ieqrK-2UnJtdGSz61Zebtc9610y1fr70ZIIJ238BEp_ordAubNveRD1NqMN7zG6Wc7joDlvEmM74AW4JdfZXsbE9tZlqZ3aNO-eFaTVVigUKGZLTYuQ8O5Zlc5WtAa84mhLb79t76rolT4CaGhYEuILHY23e" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQ8Wh1rHkaSkfWndqw2taCP3R65kG7ieqrK-2UnJtdGSz61Zebtc9610y1fr70ZIIJ238BEp_ordAubNveRD1NqMN7zG6Wc7joDlvEmM74AW4JdfZXsbE9tZlqZ3aNO-eFaTVVigUKGZLTYuQ8O5Zlc5WtAa84mhLb79t76rolT4CaGhYEuILHY23e=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><i><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3062230593/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 210px; width: 410px;"><a href="https://chronosdefied.bandcamp.com/album/the-conjuration-of-nebula">The Conjuration of Nebula by Cer</a></iframe></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>• † •</i></div><i><br />The Conjuration of Nebula</i> has seemingly flown under everyone's radar and it's a crucial misstep because <b>Cer</b>'s newest (and apparently last) output has done all the right things, and has done them with total fucking control! Two tracks running three-quarters of an hour of blown-out ambient black metal annihilation. <br /><br />The entire aural experience is drenched in a lo-fi tonal warmth, dancing between hypnotically dissonant chords and drums that sound like they're out of the metazoic period—Raw and primordial. Nothing is being reinvented on <i>The Conjuration of Nebula </i>but it redoes what's been done by many, albeit with considerable consideration towards the power of simplicity and not doing too much. This blend of mesmerizing black metal is best when it's given space to breathe and just be crude. I just bought this for a few bucks, give it a listen and consider doing the same if you can afford it.<br /><br /><b><a href="https://chronosdefied.bandcamp.com/album/the-conjuration-of-nebula" target="_blank">Cer - <i>The Conjuration of Nebula</i></a></b> (bandcamp)<br /><p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0Utrecht, Netherlands52.090737399999988 5.121420123.780503563821142 -30.0348299 80.400971236178833 40.2776701tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-66778931992013559742022-04-10T20:19:00.002-04:002022-04-10T20:21:39.327-04:00Negative Plane - The Pact [Single] (2022)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBtwHVS6eHFVySFg0tWOgWC5IYtsTcMRm_ysmS5viGaMxcWcRyLhevFuWI0nEno9eEDZiG2r4oN8I53Evq6z7xG4zyEM8AFi6jpclrhlU-m92TTBBxCXtHSJrKGeFGKl1FkAJC_StdQAGlCfzW_pwOh05UYMfkltV9s4M0dXXILpxP0VfrNi70LtEM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBtwHVS6eHFVySFg0tWOgWC5IYtsTcMRm_ysmS5viGaMxcWcRyLhevFuWI0nEno9eEDZiG2r4oN8I53Evq6z7xG4zyEM8AFi6jpclrhlU-m92TTBBxCXtHSJrKGeFGKl1FkAJC_StdQAGlCfzW_pwOh05UYMfkltV9s4M0dXXILpxP0VfrNi70LtEM=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=489837041/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 230px; width: 410px;"><a href="https://negativeplane.bandcamp.com/album/the-pact">The Pact by NEGATIVE PLANE</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>This is a big one! A new Negative Plane release announced and committed to wax is something to be hopeful about—A full decade and one extra trip around the sun later of muted silence, New York's esoteric black metal sweethearts of the underground are back and just as infallible as ever… But I'm rolling my eyes into the back of my skull by all these eager underground zealots professing it to be the album of the decade after a single track has dropped. I'm not immune to conflated statements but it's okay to dial it back a bit.<br /><br />Negative Plane's vaporous cathedral sound is one of antiquity, drawing from the wells of soundscapes that could be heard from early Mercyful Fate, Mortuary Drape or Cirith Ungol but it's also a sound of something new bubbling and taking shape in the cauldron of metal, and that innovative energy is palpable and exciting to those of us who are looking to latch onto something forward-thinking.<br /><br />From the first track alone, we can glean Negative Plane are doubling-down on their particular blend of oblique black metal with an ardent zeal, offering that well-honed esoteric sound of reverberating guitars that seem to be wailing from a cavernous depth or from some infernal place of worship. Each tonal flair carries with it the weight and ambiguity of the occult, leaning into a hypnotic atmosphere fit for gothic cathedrals whirling in incense smoke and the sound of the 80's—A faint bell rings in the distance…<br /><br /><b><a href="https://negativeplane.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Negative Plane - <i>The Pact</i></a></b> (bandcamp)<p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7127753 -74.005972812.402541463821152 -109.1622228 69.023009136178842 -38.849722799999995tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-91043738249037985892022-04-02T14:47:00.006-04:002022-04-09T19:26:55.155-04:00MORTUUS INFRADAEMONI - Inmortuos Sum (2022)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTFPWeNoHfvYmwhT926-l1W54A9RyrAwo-C1FO51kUpTqkloyjVGAoVjCypY8srgHIett15SQF0vyNgCXyYlPup1_A2Gmi9IWyMBGVQwBGsLC6FEYonT5U8PjlVeqqAH7qTXkdSC4-Zq2TwScRCuUy6oSf1zvRNxkvyf-s5j_EMemWS_g_A--bov8B" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTFPWeNoHfvYmwhT926-l1W54A9RyrAwo-C1FO51kUpTqkloyjVGAoVjCypY8srgHIett15SQF0vyNgCXyYlPup1_A2Gmi9IWyMBGVQwBGsLC6FEYonT5U8PjlVeqqAH7qTXkdSC4-Zq2TwScRCuUy6oSf1zvRNxkvyf-s5j_EMemWS_g_A--bov8B=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=720088972/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 230px; width: 410px;"><a href="https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/mortuus-infradaemoni-inmortuos-sum">Mortuus Infradaemoni - Inmortuos Sum by Iron Bonehead Productions</a></iframe><br /><br />• † •</div><br />This record came out a few days ago through the always promising <b>Iron Bonehead Productions</b>, and since then, I have been listening to it every day picking it apart in my head. At first I thought this was going to be another black/death record with a penchant for the avant-garde, but upon the 4 minute mark of the first song (excluding intro) it was clear to me that this album was going to wonder around in some weird musical territory. Which it does. It lives there.<p></p><p>After over a decade deep sleep, <b>MORTUUS INFRADAEMONI</b> return with a third album and its fucking banner is already hanging in the halls of great black metal records! <i>Inmortuos Sum</i> exists as a strong pastiche to 90's black metal, with a sound that nods to all the progenitors and early adopters but not without heavy experimentation—Obscure sonic landscapes are painted with bubbling atmospheres thick with angular and bubbling guitars building upon that putrid energy of the past but not withholding the nuances of influences that come from the newer legions like <b>Funereal Presence</b>, <b>Cultes Des Ghoules</b>, <b>Spirit Possession</b> or <b>Warloghe</b>. With the added experience from their early days in Germany's <b>Lunar Aurora</b>. Great band with a great track record, in my opinion. <br /><br />An off-balance freneticism often found in these newer acts permeates each track, moving feverishly between blistering, cold and garish into something slow, gurgling and decaying. It's a balance often failed by over zealous bands who don't take the time to understand the how and why of these sounds. Anyone around long enough can tell the difference. Thankfully the drums on this record are mixed perfectly, sounding as drums should, primitive and trance inducing…As is the whole production, murky, raw and potent!<br /><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;">• Ω •</div><br />If you're a fan of both old and new <b>Darkthrone</b> I can see no good reason you can't get into <i>Inmortuos Sum. </i>It has the entire wide-range of influence both Fenriz and Nocturno Culto cultivate and utilize. <br /><br /><a href="https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/mortuus-infradaemoni-inmortuos-sum" target="_blank"><b>MORTUUS INFRADAEMONI - </b><i><b>Inmortuos Sum</b></i></a> (bandcamp)<p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-38068245231277506002022-03-25T13:30:00.001-04:002022-03-25T13:30:00.203-04:00Véhémence - Ordalies (2022)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgBZGL31ukkf-yiluKBPI9V0-LKzMFsoZN4bB-irsdKeZLWePKhDlGnKABiXPYNtmxgf6cnTEaqq89w8PQqpMwFhJwnLKnDRq6hdUqCSsfFCo1KHh0JOY9L7j7CA6uEijBQn07CsDmAUG6-ScJ5ddFjp3OyLXHjM4mKEg3IP49FITNPX4bUy1uWuRFx" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgBZGL31ukkf-yiluKBPI9V0-LKzMFsoZN4bB-irsdKeZLWePKhDlGnKABiXPYNtmxgf6cnTEaqq89w8PQqpMwFhJwnLKnDRq6hdUqCSsfFCo1KHh0JOY9L7j7CA6uEijBQn07CsDmAUG6-ScJ5ddFjp3OyLXHjM4mKEg3IP49FITNPX4bUy1uWuRFx=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3360924766/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 230px; width: 410px;"><a href="https://vehemencembm.bandcamp.com/album/ordalies">Ordalies by Véhémence</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><br />Nowadays whenever I see anything that looks like this album (crudely illustrated) or is slapped with a "medieval", "epic" or sometimes even an "atmospheric" black metal tag I approach with the same type of caution Nosferatu might have towards a garlic factory. I used to gobble it up, things of this ilk. But now that I'm a decade older and grumpy it just mostly sounds like overproduced wankery with no real resonance—Aural or otherwise.<br /><br /><b>Véhémence</b> of France completely deflect any suspicions that this album is just another cookie-cutter black metal record parading around as half-baked pseudo-traditional medieval songs infused with the barbarity of black metal. <i>Ordalies</i> for sure leans heavily into that medieval tone, borrowing chants and melodies that seemingly harken back to the crusades, but it's done with such poise that none of it feels contrived or lame, which is where most of the other battalion of metal bands fail when writing this sort of thing.<br /><br />Right off the rip this record blasts into a barrage of blistering black metal built upon the back of uncompromisingly frigid tremolo riffs which are layered upon a foundation of equally pummelling drums, both galloping, working eagerly in unison as <i>Hyvermor</i>'s vocals scratch some primordial itch. His range (along with the group chants) carry with them a powerful weight. A genuinely antiquated atmosphere permeates every track on this album with absolutely clarity and force, which is really where 95% of the other bands fall short for me. One of the reasons I still like and listen to either <b>Myrkgrav</b>, <b>Windir</b>, <b>Bathory</b> or even old <b>Moonsorrow</b> is that they still strike a chord. No wankery, real fucking resonance.<br /><br />It's completely negligent to talk about this album without mentioning how defiantly catchy it all is. Catchier than syphilis at the greasy truck stop with a strip-club called "Last Dance at Peeler's". When the first stream came out, I replayed it in full a second time once I made my way through the first listen. I never do that. Now of course that's my experience, but if you disagree you're just wrong man, and that's on you.<br /><br />This is a mandatory album in 2022, don't sleep on it… Go ahead, play it more than the new <b>Deathspell Omega</b> record… I'd understand!<br /><br /><b><a href="https://vehemencembm.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Véhémence - <i>Ordalies</i></a></b> (bandcamp)<p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com2Île-de-France, France48.8499198 2.637041125.602452138209188 -32.5192089 72.097387461790817 37.7932911tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-74219323978000600322022-03-17T18:45:00.001-04:002022-03-17T19:22:09.846-04:00Druid Lord - Relics of the Dead (2022)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhsTZJJ0kOBEVORQYS7jAu15eAwQ2dCAJQKAtMLO9yD-xZc0Zg5kSfS7kgCZm3ig8WS089E4MoScDXUO3rVusz7rkNxpRNI_Zqv-rHSKlXS4ji22vnVoK5cZnZFZg-2ZQ-wKGFiMei9h3TD1ZSrPJ0Zsvvz8WqGmpNZKgaa-o2fnP4i2CJRw9SNAnm" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhsTZJJ0kOBEVORQYS7jAu15eAwQ2dCAJQKAtMLO9yD-xZc0Zg5kSfS7kgCZm3ig8WS089E4MoScDXUO3rVusz7rkNxpRNI_Zqv-rHSKlXS4ji22vnVoK5cZnZFZg-2ZQ-wKGFiMei9h3TD1ZSrPJ0Zsvvz8WqGmpNZKgaa-o2fnP4i2CJRw9SNAnm=w400-h400" width="400" /></a><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=772458616/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 230px; width: 400px;"><a href="https://druidlord.bandcamp.com/album/relics-of-the-dead">Relics of the Dead by Druid Lord</a></iframe></div><p style="text-align: center;">• † •</p><p>I've been meaning to have this new <b>Druid Lord</b> album up on here since it came out in late January but got distracted somewhere along the way. <i>Relics of the Dead</i> is a perfectly executed pastiche of old school death metal a la <b>Immolation</b> with the mid-tempo execution of <b>Disma</b> flanked by the THC soaked doom of <b>Acid Witch </b>with less vintage horror campiness, albeit Relics of the Dead leans into the retro horror atmospherics with just the right amount of profanation—A small example of this can be heard 03:05 into '<i>Mangled as the Hideous Feed</i>' as that 2-cent Casio chord of gothic organ emanate around a heavily down-tuned and slow doom section breaks through for the remainder of the track.</p><p>This album is at it's strongest when it's moving around between this incredibly drooling mid tempo churn to the almost dead-stop dirge, sounding like an impersonation of <b>Ahab</b> playing <b>Bolt Thrower</b> songs at half speed—I see a lot of comparisons to <b>Hooded Menace</b> being thrown around, but unlike <b>Hooded Menace</b>'s last album, <b>Druid Lord</b> got the production right. Absolutely nailed down. I'd say it's more in line with <b>Disma</b>'s pace, the grime and mire of <b>Coffins</b>, the horror drenched wooziness of <b>Acid Witch</b> with moments of occasionally dipping into the molasses paced territory of <b>Encoffination</b>… Fuck those guys are slow!<br /></p><div style="text-align: center;">° Ω °</div><br />This comes highly recommended, so get listening. "This album is going to make a big splash in the year-end lists this year." —Nostradamus<br /><br /><b><a href="https://druidlord.bandcamp.com/album/relics-of-the-dead" target="_blank">Druid Lord - <i>Relics of the Dead</i></a></b> (bandcamp)<p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com1Orlando, FL, USA28.5383832 -81.37892690.22814936382115292 -116.5351769 56.848617036178844 -46.222676899999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-13745473852216741012022-03-16T12:10:00.000-04:002022-03-16T12:10:00.190-04:00Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (2022)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjx7XcFydzqxvrZjE1TH-M-WOwXY_ki87msKhHC7sM_lUtBVeJIKMI8LfEQmcmzIwG-oizhpgMJJwpLF67YdMsoR0sEedzafFMPJ3Igbln_J7NKNqckJ0-xJPwPj6z692QINxwVZaxfXHjQydZWEStTO3KlKZO7UehkgXNeret0OetF_ooh7b4J3dU4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjx7XcFydzqxvrZjE1TH-M-WOwXY_ki87msKhHC7sM_lUtBVeJIKMI8LfEQmcmzIwG-oizhpgMJJwpLF67YdMsoR0sEedzafFMPJ3Igbln_J7NKNqckJ0-xJPwPj6z692QINxwVZaxfXHjQydZWEStTO3KlKZO7UehkgXNeret0OetF_ooh7b4J3dU4=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3265365592/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 274px; width: 400px;"><a href="https://listen.hypaethralrecords.com/album/resilience-despair">Resilience & Despair by QAALM</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><br />I've been sitting on my hands patiently for <b>Qaalm</b>'s debut album ever since <i>Hypaethral Records</i> announced it and then benevolently dropped me an early listening link—The small perks of being a sonic traveller is that you can use tact and guile to convince people to send you unreleased records in exchange that you might put together a few (positive) words to promote a record.<br /><br /><b>Qaalm</b>'s aptly named debut '<i>Resilience & Despair</i>' needs no promotion beyond its sonic achievements. This album is an uncontested aural monolith of doom and sludge coalescing into four towering tracks drenched in dour semi-funeral doom tonnage rife with crumbling sludgy guitars and plodding drums as former <b>Harassor</b> overlord Pete Majors lays waste through that uncanny vocal rasp of his which bears more resemblance to coughing up blood and spewing bile than it does "singing"… totally charged and feral—A similar comparison can definitely be made with doom/sludge zealots as Baton Rouge's <b>Thou</b> and Chicago's<b> Indian </b>in terms of range and grit. <br /><br />'<i>Resilience & Despair</i>' is an "Abandon All Hope" sign aimed at everyone. It’s like being sucked into the nether, a slow and heavy trip into the abyss filled with down-tuned guitars and a pummelling energy. That being said, I’d be remiss not to point out the success that this album has when it segues into lighter territory, trading chopping block heaviness for compelling melodies and floating passages—It's the sonic equivalent of sour and spicy. A force meant to awaken and bolster its counterpart, which is done with aplomb here by <b>Qaalm</b>. Devastating heaviness coalescing into something purely atmospherical with a tonne of weight behind it! Abandon all hope.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">° Ω °</div><br />Fans of <b>Mizmor</b>, <b>Thou</b>, <b>Ahab</b>, <b>Convocation</b>, <b>Grief</b> and <b>Burning Witch</b> will find plenty to like within the 1-hour+ runtime of this heavy hitter. <br /><br /><i>Hypaethral Records (</i>in connection with the esteemed <i>Trepanation Recordings) </i>was incredibly cool to send me 10 free download links for readers (and takers) of <b>Severed Heads Open Minds</b> on a first come first served basis… So big thanks to those guys! Drop a comment here or send me a message through Instagram to claim your download link ya heathens & GET THIS BILLOWOUS DOOM IN YOUR EAR CANALS.<br /><p></p><div><a href="https://listen.hypaethralrecords.com/album/resilience-despair" target="_blank"><b>Qaalm</b> - <b><i>Resilience & Despair</i></b></a> (bandcamp)</div><div><a href="https://hypaethralrecords.bandcamp.com/yum" target="_blank"><b>Qaalm</b> - <b><i>Resilience & Despair</i></b></a> (download link)</div>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com9Los Angeles, CA, USA34.0522342 -118.24368495.7420003638211554 -153.3999349 62.362468036178846 -83.0874349tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-6911886859965574182022-03-04T16:37:00.003-05:002022-03-04T16:37:26.260-05:00Reveal! - Doppelherz (2021)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLbCpnmqolYy4oj-oTRHW-LufF5Hxooq_bBUABjI0TYC94MG1C1qVrBdzo6CIwyycs7jSgwknABfj0_bews99S0G-yWkO3dNkNgLhZBNOEYm56N8xidHhznUJCobSxUl4OJjc08jT7j5025iabPDR3Rni8aNDW6OGG2v8YGO-LEL2sDIU_HydLk9Qn" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLbCpnmqolYy4oj-oTRHW-LufF5Hxooq_bBUABjI0TYC94MG1C1qVrBdzo6CIwyycs7jSgwknABfj0_bews99S0G-yWkO3dNkNgLhZBNOEYm56N8xidHhznUJCobSxUl4OJjc08jT7j5025iabPDR3Rni8aNDW6OGG2v8YGO-LEL2sDIU_HydLk9Qn=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=477585829/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 240px; width: 400px;"><a href="https://reveal-svr.bandcamp.com/album/doppelherz">Doppelherz by Reveal</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />• † •</div><br />Here's an album that is absolutely refusing to be pigeon-holed by arm-chair bloggers and critics alike, a giant fuck you to those of us who feel a compulsion to tie everything down with one of our genre packages—Sweden's <b>Reveal! </b>are one of the rare groups impure and brazen enough to traverse a rarely contested musical swath of influences running the gamut of everything declared under the banner of "Extreme Metal".<br /><br /><i>Doppelherz</i> is a colourful mosaic of sounds both old and new, borrowed and invented, frenetic and calculated.—Throughout its entirety, creaky cathedral chords reminiscent of <b>Negative Plane</b> and <b>Funereal Presence</b> can be heard, which is not entirely uncommon, but definitely dubious when it's pressed up against something that sounds like early speed/heavy metal a la <b>Mercyful Fate </b>or<b> </b>disoriented black metal and thrash riffs in the vein of <b>Obliteration</b> or <b>Spirit Possession</b>… But somehow these guys fucking pull it off with gusto!<p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;">• Ω •</div><br />I'll spare the multitude of comparisons and say this, it feels like this record shouldn't work. Like there's a little too much going on and too many things being pulled and implemented for it to even feel cohesive, but there's just enough structure and swagger to make it work. And I'll be the first to admit, not having this album in my last years top albums of 2021 was an impermissible misstep, but as it usually goes with very late releases in the year, I overlooked and under-appreciated <i>Doppelherz</i> when it dropped mid December.<br /><br /><a href="https://reveal-svr.bandcamp.com/album/doppelherz" target="_blank">Reveal! - Doppelherz</a> (bandcamp)<p></p>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8833009580277762990.post-53820231602111073102022-02-28T19:06:00.007-05:002022-02-28T19:15:57.202-05:00Dead Last - Where Do We Go From Here? (2022)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_lm0fQ9uTSR-8-UN8K2WEp7p-AehTvJNXxP0aneUfz72CmFVG7beWn2esMVtr_Z8royU5m2cU4OfvTc7wvW-bdbdJxLox-mGUNQnxQFdSLHbzWIefTAjyV9v2tCNfUjK0sIODCbWMBBySlOX30eFC9TdyAr1zmrDC8IHzqxBtm6eGsxscBrXpZE_1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1187" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_lm0fQ9uTSR-8-UN8K2WEp7p-AehTvJNXxP0aneUfz72CmFVG7beWn2esMVtr_Z8royU5m2cU4OfvTc7wvW-bdbdJxLox-mGUNQnxQFdSLHbzWIefTAjyV9v2tCNfUjK0sIODCbWMBBySlOX30eFC9TdyAr1zmrDC8IHzqxBtm6eGsxscBrXpZE_1=w395-h400" width="395" /></a></div></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3945879306/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=7137dc/artwork=none/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 245px; width: 400px;"><a href="https://streetsofhateny.bandcamp.com/album/where-do-we-go-from-here">Where Do We Go From Here? by Dead Last</a></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">• † •</div><br />I haven't been overly hyped on a wide range of hardcore releases so far this year but this debut 7" by New York's <b>Dead Last</b> has been an obstinate ear-worm for me. Harkening back to the halcyon days of earnest straight edge hardcore with a valleys worth of potency and energy behind it, mining from the same vein as <b>Mental</b>, <b>Unified Right</b>, <b>Righteous Jams</b>, <b>Mil-Spec</b>, <b>Youth of Today</b>, etc.<br /><br />Despite this albums short run time there's a definitive heft carried throughout '<i>Where Do We Go From Here</i>' ushered in by the sheer magnitude of its sincerity and energy. Bang on! Very limited runs have been done through New York's <a href="https://streetsofhateny.bigcartel.com/product/dead-last-where-do-we-go-from-here-7" target="_blank">Streets of Hate</a> and the venerable <a href="https://triplebrecords.net/products/dead-last-where-do-we-go-from-here-7-pre-order" target="_blank">Triple B Records</a>. These <i>will</i> sellout, if you want one, get on it.<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://streetsofhateny.bandcamp.com/album/where-do-we-go-from-here" target="_blank">Dead Last - Where Do We Go From Here?</a> (bandcamp)</div>Chris DAlessandrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09048704751255341384noreply@blogger.com0