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Usually, the Brieviews are Serge's work. Since the beginning of the series, Serge has been writing all these little reviews alone (except for one by Eline and a 'Paul Grindings'). Yet, things change and we're happy to announce a cooperative edition of Brieviews. Wagner sent in five and the other ones are written by Serge. I'll leave it up to you to guess who wrote which review. I hope we can see many more of these coming up soon. I guess I will since I only recently told the other writers that they could write brieviews as well.
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The Human Race Is Filth - Human Exposed
grindcore / crust
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York, Pennsylvania duo The Human Race Is Filth debut with a butchering blend of grindcore and crust punk. Although THRIF is new, bandmembers Paul & Kasey have been playing together in Bittered, Mans Plague and Police State. Now, as a duo the seem more relentless and destructive than ever. With thick, doomed-out riffs and pummeling drums, the duo brutally assaults the establishment, our current "leaders" and the state of our world as it is. So no, this is not a jolly, goody-goody album, this is a severe kick in your nutsack and a bloody intense debut. Recommended? Obvious-fucking-ly!
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Professor Electric - Gleam of Murder
psychedelic rock / blues / stoner
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On to Las Vegas, Nevada, where we find Professor Electric and his one-man fuzz rock machine. Blues, psychedelic rock, stoner rock are being blended with a gloomy eighties industrial feel. Acts like Om, The Residents and Bain Wolfkind come to mind, along with today's heavy psych rock scene and even Rob Zombie. And this is just one man, imagine Professor Electric forming a band and hitting the road. With groovy blues rockers like 'The Evil Poon Saloon' and 'Gleam Of Murder', psychedelic jams like 'Sexual Tyrannosaurus' or doomed out stoner tunes like 'Melting From The Morphine', this album is simply awesome.
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Seas of Years - Three Horizons Away
post rock
An effervescing idiosyncrasy of starving, but calm and levitating melodies swears to an infinite ocean of time a formidable conflagration of creative harmonious contingencies. The sound is beyond exceptional, and everything that revolves around your ears bears the scope of an infinite storm of peaceful eternity.
With precise and overly diluted, but poetic guitar lines, Three Horizons Away is an imaginative and surreal glorious panorama of exponential beauty. Despite its brevity, the sonorous sincerity expanded through the brave, but serene vastness of splendorous rhythms redirects the soul through a journey of ascendant and pure reality. The continual universe promulgated by its linear and constant propulsion of peripheral sounds exhibits the greatness of it’s fantastic, but discreet style, as a different pattern of sensibility.
With precise and overly diluted, but poetic guitar lines, Three Horizons Away is an imaginative and surreal glorious panorama of exponential beauty. Despite its brevity, the sonorous sincerity expanded through the brave, but serene vastness of splendorous rhythms redirects the soul through a journey of ascendant and pure reality. The continual universe promulgated by its linear and constant propulsion of peripheral sounds exhibits the greatness of it’s fantastic, but discreet style, as a different pattern of sensibility.
Diary Of My Misanthropy - Leviathan
post rock
A full, energizing and pure post rock work, with profoundly melancholic, but genuinely organic sonorous vicissitudes, upon which formidable and lucid guitar lines comprehend the painful vicinities of incisive and latent harmonies, that revolves around a mysteriously ancient, but poetic silence. A monumental transformation of conscience reveals itself at the grandiloquent axis of serene melodies, that not only impress by the brutal honesty and sincerity of its audacious beauty, but also by the infallible ordination of its salutary sonorous manifestation, that opens an omniscient pattern of authentic intuitive creative algorithms over the impatience of its notes. With a striking, but overwhelming simplicity, the sensitive calmness of this work is a delightful experience, that makes this brief, but majestic masterpiece a glorious necessity for all enthusiasts of the genre. Leviathan is definitely a precious and marvelous state of the art work, highly recommended.
Man Against Mankind - Lift Off
post rock
A brief, but poetic immersion towards a recrudescing world of ethereal conflagration, Lift Off ably leads the listener towards a more introspective and interior version of himself. A calm, serene and minimalistic quasi-operatic work that derives the essence of its intrinsic value through the vastness of its sincere and genuine sonorous evaluation, this EP by Man Against Mankind is a rude, but decisive filtration of translucent harmonies eager to revolve around the undermining capacities of reality, determined to descend over a spirit of pure sensibility. With seriously experimental overtones, the audacity of the musician’s style is an experience that reflects the authentic rapture of his creative spirit. With plausible sonorous features that expand the antagonistic principles of its abundant qualities without renouncing the splendor of a glamorous simplicity, Man Against Mankind deserves to be comprehensively inserted in a more singular musical category, given the fact that its aura of original sensibility is highlighted by the fantasy of harmonies impossible to forget.
Infernus Presence - Ice-Cold Souls
black metal
An interesting EP, with a full atmospheric layer of enormous grandiosity, the hazardous and afflictive anxiety that comes out from the imperial harmonies of this grotesquely delightful sound replicates with precision the endemic agony and the intense features that characterize the genre, and its sinister overtones. With a somber expectation that announces an imminent conflagration of unraveling proportions, the melodies that strikes the tissue of infinite possibilities simply reaches a level of splendor that eagerly evolves to a planetary dissension. Perfect as the soundtrack of a really macabre movie, Ice-Cold Souls drives at the core of its majestic opportunities the real lancinating devices exceedingly genuine to the genre. Undoubtedly, it’s a marvelous example of how graceful, dense, subtle and evasive the tempestuous sonorous tissue of atmospheric black metal should be.
Cisza - If it is True What the Prophets Write
black metal / death metal
A majestic and very powerful metal work, with traditional elements brilliantly inserted at the core of the songs, If it is True What the Prophets Write is an elemental journey through the most sincere qualities of an intriguing style, that seems somewhat crossover.
Despite some moments of more generic harmonies, the group displays an intelligent and passionate singular style, that interestingly revives at the heart of its vibrant molecules an amalgamated version of metal. The human virulence of death metal intertwines the efficiency of its brutal coalescence with the furious fastness of black metal, in a sidereal conflagration of melodies, that exhibits fatally hostile harmonies, also abundant in sensible thrash metal intensities. Definitely a memorable work, If it is True What the Prophets Write is a curious and refreshing EP, that deserves to be highlighted at the center of the underground scene.
Despite some moments of more generic harmonies, the group displays an intelligent and passionate singular style, that interestingly revives at the heart of its vibrant molecules an amalgamated version of metal. The human virulence of death metal intertwines the efficiency of its brutal coalescence with the furious fastness of black metal, in a sidereal conflagration of melodies, that exhibits fatally hostile harmonies, also abundant in sensible thrash metal intensities. Definitely a memorable work, If it is True What the Prophets Write is a curious and refreshing EP, that deserves to be highlighted at the center of the underground scene.
Yin Waster - Staying Awake, Out On The Rocks
indie / psychedelic / alternative
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Somehow I always enjoy these lo-fi bedroom recordings. They showcase a sense of melancholy and solitude and, especially in this case, they showcase the joy of playing music on your own. Yin Waster is Griffin Mang who plays and records sweet, introvert and somewhat psychedelic pop, folk and rock tunes in his bedroom. I think bands like Radiohead have been influencing most of these songs and 'Open 24 Hours' somehow reminds me of Coldplay but in a more honest, introvert way. My favorite is the untitled closer, a song that harbors both joy and melancholy but in a very minimal way. This is nice...
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Aleksi Susi - 83 EP
electronic / downtempo
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Speaking about something being introvert and nice, here is the new EP by Finnish synth-composer/singer-songwriter Aleksi Susi (Alexanred, A:S:Örchestra, 2 Wolves, Scent of Flesh...). The songs on this EP are electronic downtempo folk songs, a bit gloomy but not completely covered in darkness. Yet, I found it hard to compare this music to other artists. I still do. I mean, Diary Of Dreams comes to mind, but without the gothic overtone. There also seem to be references from the electronic scene of the eighties. My favorites are the two first tracks, especially 'The World Has Changed'. Unusual but nice.
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Marginal - Total Destruction
crust / grindcore
Fucking shitfuck, did I just become a crust/grindcore fan or what? I mean, I wanted to add this album to Brieviews because quite usually these albums are rather one-sided and there is just not much to write about them. I also wanted to promote these guys because they're from Antwerp. But when I started to play 'Barbarians', I was in shock. Here was a perfect industrial sounding crust punk tune blasting through my speakers. Fast, delirious, harsh and intense, just what we need. So I continued listening. 'The Violent Way' is another of my favorites. These guys have just turned crust and grindcore in one of the most immersive pieces of extreme music I've ever heard.
I mean. I know some of these guys. I often see them at gigs but I have never talked to anyone of them and now they present me with one of the most impressive albums in Antwerp (and the world, or as we say "the parking lot") today. Fuck yeah this comes highly recommended.
I mean. I know some of these guys. I often see them at gigs but I have never talked to anyone of them and now they present me with one of the most impressive albums in Antwerp (and the world, or as we say "the parking lot") today. Fuck yeah this comes highly recommended.
Fuck On The Beach / Terlarang - Split
grindcore
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While Marginal came up with impressive and immersive grindcore, this split is definitely something else. Fuck On The Beach from Japan and their colleagues Terlarang from Malaysia deliver a bunch of ill-natured, incomprehensible and deranged grindcore and powerviolence songs to make your eardrums implode. This is utter chaos, raging tempos, collapsed lungs, unintelligible screams and sheer noise. It seems to go on forever, which for a grindcore fan is absolute heaven. So yeah, I would recommend this split album to fans of the extreme but don't come complaining to me if you go insane, ok?
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Dirge - Alma | Baltica
post metal / drone
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French veterans Dirge come up with a massively atmospheric album, based mostly on soundscapes and haunting instrumental passages. Furthermore, I can clearly hear a bunch of industrial influences, especially in the slow but repetitive rhythms. While this one will undoubtedly please fans of drone doom and post metal, I also urge fans of old school "Cold Meat" dark ambient to check this out. This album builds a perfect bridge between these genres. For drone aficionados like me, this is a late but certain end-year list candidate, dark, intense and atmospheric. In other words: perfect.
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