post metal / doom

We were on a family walk the other day and whilst talking to our son, we got talking about him missing school. I remarked “you are going to look back on this period as a pivotal moment in history” he just looked at me as if I had a cow-pat on my head and continued scooting along. This got me thinking about points of view. He didn’t care for the life lesson I was trying to impart, whereas I thought it was interesting. Some people love music, others don’t really care for it. Not caring for music really strikes me as an odd thing. Anyway, enough of my inane ramblings, lets get stuck into today’s offering shall we and see what the world of music has brought to my door today. Todays choice is the self-titled debut from Ikarass, and oh boy, it’s rather good.

Ikarass are a post metal band from Durange in Spain, and this is their debut album. Starting with gently strummed guitars on ‘Guided by Greed’ this soon explodes into life with mammoth percussion, soul bearing screamed vocals and truly titanic bass grooves. This continues until collapsing into itself around the 6-minute mark and the band let their gentler side of things take a front seat. Things continue in a similar vein with next song ‘Blood Heaven’ which starts with some downtuned bass before the music again ignites in furious fashion with a musical peak which invariably finds itself falling back down into calmer territory. This give and take, the push and pull of the music is what gives most of this album it’s power. The rest of the album follows the template laid down by the first couple of songs, in fact, if any criticism can be levelled at this album (and this really is nit picking) it is that things rarely deviate from the musical tapestry woven into the first few songs. This is no bad thing though when the songs are as expertly crafted and as powerful as this. 

So, how does this album make me feel? Well, music like a lot of things depends on mood, time of day, company and indeed any number of myriad things which are hard to quantify. Saying that though, the sounds produced here throw me through the ringer. It shakes it’s fist in my face whilst spraying venom everywhere, and then, it sits me down over a drink and asks if I feel ok whilst still trying to process what has proceeded this act of benevolence. What it boils down to, basically, is that this album makes me feel alive!

Comparisons to post metal titans Amenra are bound to follow this band as they do sound quite similar, but they have enough about them to set themselves apart from their peers. The vocals are particularly pained, they sound tortured and fit the music perfectly. Ikarass do enough to stand out in a crowded field though and if you are a fan of post metal music or extreme music in general, you will find a LOT to like here, this is a fantastic album. 

​Simon

sludge / doom / post metal

English noise-mongers Wren signed with the highly acclaimed label Gizeh Records for the third chapter in their seasonal lore exploration. The journey which started in 2017 now continues with six new tracks, six brute monsters, armed with doomed out riffs, fierce vocals and an impending atmosphere. 

Although it would be easy to just throw Wren into the sludge doom scene, these Londoners have a few neat surprises up their sleeves. Of course, the majority of the music on 'Groundswells' is a collection of sludgy post metal, perfectly suited for fans of everything between AmenRa and Isis, but listen closely and you'll be amazed.

The whole thing begins with 'Chromed'. No intro, no warning message, just a bombardment of gritty riffs, methodical drums and frightening screams. But then there is the noisy aspect of the whole thing. At one point into this track I found myself thinking "this could be what happens when Sonic Youth and Melvins cover Conan". 'Seek the Unkindred' follows that example and raises the level of intensity to near-death metal levels. After that, it's time for one of my favorite tracks here, the noise-rock induced 'Murmur', basking in dissonance, brutality and a hardcore in-your-face attitude. 

I mentioned the word "surprises" in the beginning of this review and on 'Subterranean Messiah' they show themselves in a glorious way. While most of the tracks are ferocious sludge doom tunes, this one drags the whole thing into the post metal scene. Gloomy guitars, ambient soundscapes and post-rock atmosphere deliver an absolute stunner of a track. Jo Quail and FVNERALS also appear here, which is a perfect explanation for this sudden change of direction. Nonetheless, this is a brilliant track and a breath of fresh air after the sonic violence earlier in the album.

The other tracks are up to you to discover. If you're a fan of any of the bands I mentioned in this review, or a fan of Wren, or merely a fan of being beaten to death by riffs, drums and screams, you should pre-order the hell out of this thing. 


​Serge

drone / doom

bandcamp

Out of the blue comes the one-man band Kultus, who vomit the Covid-19 situations with burning distorted synth work. We had to dig deep to get some (interesting) information about this project. Baritone saxophonist Otto Kokke is Kultus. This Dutchman is a member of the free-jazz band The Dead Neanderthals, known for their shape-changing improvisations combined with noise and grindcore.

Kultus keeps it simple, three tracks filled with sonic drone outbursts with no melodies. Just raw croocked sound eruptions which have a metalized doom output. The rumbling drones come in random repetitive waves where nothing much happens. Is this boring stuff? No, the sinister drone structures show transcending pathways to darkened atmospheres without rhythm or beats. In fact Kultus sounds like Sunn o))) but with more fluctuations. Otto Kokke uses only synths to produce an almost endless loop of buzzing and growling noise. Knowing there won’t come much variation in this electronic tsunami we still paid attention to discover some glitches in its balance. Instead of finding deviation in the drone flow we were taken away in some kind of meditative trance.

Some may get a headache from listening to this digital album. Others like us had an intense healing of the eardrum. Sonic Pressure is an experiment with a positive result. Kultus produces depth-seeking sounds conceived with a nod to the worship of the amplifier. A fascinating world of electronic doom drones has been born. 

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Patsker

post punk

Everybody who witnessed a concert by Cologne Black-Metal-masters Ultha knows that this was more than an assembly of musicians who work for a common goal, or a common sound. It was a kind of vision of what music should be able to do – including helping its human sources get rid of some feelings. Music from the heart and for the heart – if you want to find out more about that check out “The Inextricable Wandering”. Now two of the Ultha -boys have founded a new band called Ropes of Night and the quintet has published their first EP in mid-May via Golden Antenna Records. This is not black metal but glorious post-punk and thus it follows Ralph’s love for that glorious early 80s sound that was driven and melancholic, dark and stellar at the same time. All of this can also be heard on this self-titled debut 7inch. “Halo Cage” is a bit like Joy Division bit with more grit and bit and really takes off into one’s ear canal never to leave it for quite some time. “Faith” is a bit noisier and has a kind of shoegazey feeling to it, which might be a bit like Jesus and Mary Chain. Charming is the voice of vocalist Tatjana who sounds like an 80s pop idol on the right side of the musical spectrum. Both tracks could be leftovers from any of the good ole days when music like this was steaming hot and before it was turned into the poppy mess called New Wave or New Romantics. If you only want blastbeats and screaming, then forget about Ropes of Night; but if you liked Ultha for the underlying emotional darkness – this is your new go-to-band. They have that certain something “more”.

post metal / black metal

For a long time now, lots of metal and post-metal bands have been proclaiming their love for the Deftones as they were the one band amongst the NuMetal-wave of the late 90s that had a more diverse sound. This influence can also be heard when listening to the self-titled debut by Endless Forms Most Gruesome from Finland. The duo consisting of Ghost Brigade’s Manne Ikonen and mastermind Juuso Raatikainen (Swallow the Sun) plays a harsh, blackened kind of post-metal that fits very well to this day and age as they are afraid to first run over the listener: Opening track “Black Hole” sounds more like Full of Hell collaborating with KK Null in all its direct, noisy attack. But after this quick clearing of space in the audience’s ears they spread their filthy, yet sometimes experimenting post-metal. And here the Deftones definitely come into play: EFMG are not as groovy as the usual NuMetal-clones but they rather make use of the Sacramentonians’ experiments with sending singular guitar lines through the songs. This way, the Deftones were able to incorporate a kind of soulfulness and lightness into their sound which EFMG also tries to establish. Or they use some gentle picking over a soft string arrangement in “Free Fall from Womb to Grave” just before they riff their way through the rest of the song and show Juuso’s roots in doom metal. A promising debut in all its low-tuned, upwards-thinking, lyrically-miserable glory. 

punk / death metal / black metal

Karloff from Oldenburg, Germany have listened to some Stooges and Blue Cheer, but also some classic old school death metal stuff or stuff like Bathory. The punk thing is the first thing that strikes, listen to “Fright Fever” for example. High speed octane stuff, very much like New Bomb Turks or Turbonegro with a drummer releasing his inner Animal – remember the Muppets? But that would indicate a certain non-committing to their own ideals which is definitely wrong because Karloff is not one of these Motley Crue wannabe-bands. The guys from Northern Germany take their music seriously and that is probably the biggest difference to guys like Hank Van Helvete, they are no novelty act. The blackened vocals show despair and often blend seem like a mix of classic early hardcore shouters and black metal singers, sometimes even being close to thrash metal.  The excellent riffing and precision make for a force to be reckoned with. 

shoegaze / doom

Lyon, France is known to be a tasteful town. With newcomers Hadewijch a new chapter seems to be added to the former culinary capital of the world. One that doesn’t known boundaries or limitations – at least, not many. It’s not that they seem to have no musical boundaries, because they do perform within the frame of doomy post-metal. But they seem to have a very open-minded mindset as they want to show the possibilities of musically transcending the bodily realms, just like a good herbal therapy. This can also be noticed when listening to their debut-EP which is one, single track – but 19 minutes long. In that time, you can hear a lot of doomy but also noisy shoegaze elements that will help you find some positive vibes for your life. You might hear some Neurosis or My Bloody Valentine, to give you an idea that might push the comparisons a bit too far. The trio is not yet on the level of the bands mentioned, but they are quite good and for a debut, this is promising quite a lot. It will be interesting to see with which noise they follow their herbal and musical theory; nevertheless, they give you one more reason to think highly of the tasty town Lyon.

Thorsten

post metal / doom

A change of musical direction. Those few simple words can strike fear into most music fans hearts. Especially if that band has built up a fan base because of the style of music that the band play. So, when an established band release an album which has ‘a change of musical direction’ this can be a scary thing. One of the things which can happen in this instance is that it alienates the very people who liked the band in the first place, and they stop listening to that band, this is quite sad and in my view a very narrow way of looking at music in general. The other way it can go, is that people embrace the change with an  open mind and find things in the particular album on which to hang their hat, as chances are, if they like the band in the first place, there will be something in there which reminds them why they liked the band in the first place. Obviously, this is quite a simple way of looking at things and I’m aware there is a lot of nuance in any change, but in my experience, people are very weary of change in general, let alone something in which they are deeply invested.

All of which is a very long-winded way of saying that today’s album Siderael Pt. One by Italian post-metal/sludge metallers Post Vorta is a very different album from the one that I was expecting., thanks to those 5 words I mentioned earlier.

We are eased into the change quite gently and lead song Through 4k lenses starts with an ominous sounding piano, so far so metal. That is until an enchanting female voice rings out together with burst of flutes and swirling choral chants in the background. It’s fleeting, unnerving, and yet intriguing. The song builds on its emotional investment as the drums come crashing in creating a strong uplifting quality at the end of the song. It’s altogether less metal but still has elements of post-rock in there.

Next song Viper builds the ambience with a simple drum line to start things off. The gorgeous female vocals again give the song an ethereal, gentle feel, but they are tinged with a distinct undercurrent of foreboding. The electronic elements are much more to the fore in this song which builds to a nice mid song explosion before collapsing into a glitchy electronic ambient section. It’s very nicely done.

Following song Spoon feel like the electronica soundscapes introduced on the previous songs are now a much more prominent part of the band’s sound, in fact, you’d be hard pressed to even think of this as listening to a traditional band at all as the songs from this point on are almost exclusively synth driven in a style so prevalent at present. 

From then on, the songs all fully embrace the synthwave tendencies and shrug off any notion of metal whatsoever. That’s not to say that the songs are poppy with a light touch, far from it in fact, I found it to be quite the opposite and the songs all have the heavy music stylings of trying to convey the darker emotions of the human psyche.
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So, it’s a change of musical direction alright but this has brought about a rather pleasant surprise. If you are put off by the fact that the band no longer play heavy music (whether this is a permanent departure remains to be seen) then you are doing yourself a disservice in passing over what is a rather great album, indeed, I’m not usually one for synthwave but I found myself really liking this album a lot, so, try it for yourself, you may be nicely surprised by what you uncover.


Simon

progressive / sludge / doom 

Sometimes it occurs that the first spin of a record leaves you speechless and then you find your voice again more and more with every turn because, well, the record is not making a lasting impression. Sometimes there are records that work just the other way around and these are what we call growers. Interesting about this is, that sometimes there are releases that could be split in half – you listen to a, at first sight, mediocre first half and then something changes and that leaves you spellbound. When going back to the same record again, you might find yourself liking that first half a bit more because of the lasting impression of that second half. Is that then a grower? Or just a convincing way of structuring your record? 

Well it is what happened to yours truly when listening to Holden’s debut “Ursa Minor” (the “little bear” in astrology). At first, the first two songs didn’t really strike a chord in me, but when the 15-minute-centerpiece “However Small, However Hidden” (talk about an adequate for such a huge beast of a composition!) it was all swept away by a very dynamic tornado of a song. Completely instrumental the composition rides on one not-changing soundscape which means that the tonality of the song is pretty constant. And now comes the tricky part: How can a track that is not based on creating an epic and storytelling atmosphere blow you away? Holden’s answer: by variations of groove! This is basically an awesome stoner rock song played within the cavernous sound of good sludge metal. The way that drummer Michael Arcane (again – what a name!) is able to take us on this dragon-rollercoaster-ride is breathtaking. His cymbals are exact on spot and his use of the rest of the drum kit is really great. I could take about this song alone for hours. 

After that song the whole attitude towards the debut by the trio from Richmond, VA, changed. Even more if the next song is “Emperor of Maladies” which is like another one of those Mastodon-songs one might have come to miss on some of the last releases by the Atlantans. This might be one of those gems unearthed from the “Blood Mountain” sessions. Some hints at why this comes across like that? Because Palmer Sturman sings and screams his lungs out like Brent Hinds and plays his guitar in certain moments like Bill Kelliher. This is dirty, this is raw, this is awesome. The blastbeat middle part lead by Arcane and bassist Sam Berson is like the aggressive side that Mastodon haven’t really shown since Leviathan. One could also compare this song to bands like Conan or High on Fire. Nonetheless, Holden are pretty unique and will leave quite some metal-heads spellbound. Especially if they listen to the reprise of the guitar motif from “Emperor” in the final outro “The Way it Was and Will Be”. They even have the guts to seemingly fade out and then come back for a final moment to give the listener one last sweet kiss and then dragging him to play the record again. One might even think that the outro and the intro share some riffs so that the seductiveness is even more appealing and mesmerizing. 

Taking another spin on the first two tracks now and probably they will grow on me again after having gone through tracks 3 to 5 again. This record and its song-structure is simple magic. More than a grower or a “convincer”! 


Thorsten

post rock / doom / shoegaze

“I really messed it up this time” - hell, how wrong can a line from a new song be? Atlanta, Georgia’s Of The Vine are due to release their third regular release (which again needed five years to see the light of the night) called “Left Alone” via A Thousand Arms and dunk!records at the beginning of May and they show why someone called them “the prettiest doom band you’ll ever hear”. No, this is neither doom, nor metal. Nevertheless there is something about this band that one could link to Doomgaze bands like Spotlights; or, depending on one’s preference, to post-rock bands like Pray for Sound; still, “Left Alone” is not even in the middle of those poles or circling on any equator between them – one should not try to categorize Of the Vine because any attempt is set to fail from the start. Thus a look at the real music is necessary.

Taking two songs from the record apart will provide some insight on why this record should be on every post-rock Albums of the Year list at the end of 2020:
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“Left Alone” starts off with something the band hasn’t done before – vocals, though too unclean and non-intelligible, have never been part of the OtV-experience and very often this comes as an unpleasant surprise to post-rock listeners, especially if the song doesn’t follow the aforementioned pattern. The song uses a kind of doom structure with the slow fading of revved up guitar lines then meandering into strong moments of “non-existence” where only the simple but highly effective drum parts keep the song alive just long enough for another wave of distorted, now more coherent heavy guitar riffs to fall into place. Roughly at halftime through the song, the band incorporates some melancholic, less power-based guitar lines accompanied by a great sequence of cymbal-ladden drumming followed by blastbeats before the whole song collapses into simple wavey guitars within seconds. That “silent” collapse and ending comes more abrupt than any distorted breakdown heard in heavy post-rock recently. The song ends with a long outro of nearly two minutes playing with small guitar motifs reaching out to each other and the melancholic unintelligible singing underlines the keyboard spheres added to spread the sadness of “being left alone”. 
The second example taken from the six-song, 44-minute record would be “Messed it up” which is a really beautiful song on the musical surface playing with nice and beaming guitar licks that topple over each other like 1-year-old toddlers wanting to play but also hurting the other. That beauty is contrasted by the lyrics “I really messed it up this time / Will I ever forgive myself / Will you ever look at me again” - this is not Shakespearean quality poetry, but the song is a brilliant example of how the delivery determines the quality of a vocal performance and not the words themselves. Those contrasts born from the pain of loss and loneliness due to personal mistakes are key to understanding the record, not that it is necessary to bring up the everlasting black-white-schemes again, but with this record it must be mentioned that the despair behind it all is not an external one, it is the despair because of oneself, because of one’s own mistakes and blunders that might drive the “narrator” into the sad screams right at the start of the record and with which he has to cope. 

The record is more than your regular post-rock or doomgaze record because the quartet is able to perform any given musical style, which speaks for their musical talent. Taking the time to sit down and listen to this record with headphones on, you can find so many small details that it might cause severe headscratching how in the name of the lord of crescendos and construct-and-collapse songwriting structures this band was overlooked? Well, maybe because they do not use those “simple” notions but more complex ideas of how to convey the idea behind their music. 


Thorsten

psychedelic / doom metal

An all-female doom trio out of Los Angeles is called High Priestess – well what kind of music would you expect? Certainly not any kind of Death Metal or RnB, but rather some kind of psyched up rock following in the footsteps of some occult doom. That is also more or less the only stereotype that Katie Gilchrest, Mariana Fiel and Megan Mullins fulfill. The three definitely have something to show for their record, or rather records because “Casting the Circle” out on Ripple Music since April 10th is their sophomore release after their eponymous 2018 debut turned some heads in the doom community. 

There are some things very special about this trio making them stand out from a lot of the doom bands of the late 2010s. The three know how to write really good songs no matter the length, sometimes they come up with short three-minute-ditties and then again they are not afraid to write the (rather self-explaining) 17 minute opus “Invocation”; the five tracks together span 42 minutes of brilliantly lit, well-clad doom rock that shares in the glory of the genre. 

Another brilliant feature of the band is their three voices sharing vocal duties so that very often one gets the idea of a Hydra-Headed sorceress standing before one’s feet luring the ears, mind and soul into an unreal safety net, just before the lullaby-like ritual turns into the gigantic that has been woven only to give the multi-eyed spider the chance to strike with chants like “Satan is not dead” or ideas of time and decay when they talk about the “sand in the hourglass” that slowly falls down leading to both – the end of time and of being. 

Musically there are seemingly simple guitar phrases layered upon each other with some awesome sixties vibe-spreading keys – both delivered by the hands of Gilchrest. The rhythm section seemingly wants to go unnoticed because Fiel and Mullins both give a tight performance that leaves the ground paved for the seductive melodies to go straight through one’s ears into one’s subconsciousness dwelling there for quite a while and removing all other things no matter how important from our agenda. 

That might be one of the most impressive things about this record – it seemingly has no agenda, it’s not made to impress in a blasting way, it’s just there and through its surface simplicity is able to seep into your heart and soul sending away everything else. Candlelit doom at its best! 


Thorsten

doom

Dublin has surely produced a lot of top-notch musicians. It is a city vibrant with music, anywhere you go. However, most of us have the image of Dublin being a good place for buskers, for Irish folk or for good singer and songwriter, but not too much to be a hot spot for loud, heavy metal. Well, with Death the Leveller, this could change.

The quartet from Ireland’s biggest city has a lot of the qualities that one is looking for in modern doom metal. Their guitar player Gerry Clince combines epic guitar lines and straight riffs so that the ears are always paying attention which turn – minor or major – the song is going to take the next moment. The rhythm section of drummer Shane Cahill and bass player Dave Murphy definitely does a very good job as they do not unnecessarily dominate the songs but rather support the moody candlelit tables. A really nice musical outcome for such a young band as DTL was formed in 2016 and released their first EP “I” one year later. 

However, the one thing that is really striking about Death the Leveller is Denis Dowling’s voice. It is crisp when needed but mostly it is clear and clean – also due to a good production with just enough chip on the songs – and he is able to mesmerize the listener with a kind of doom crooning that in part sounds like a mash-up of Mike Patton and Miko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun). He is able to suffer and despair but he never loses that last bit of hope that still pushes him on, giving up seems to be no option even as he is talking about the dark sides of life including death. But he is able to do so in a very Irish way with introspective lyrics transported in a kind of narrative that guides us through all the rough patches. The ability to purvey personal notions of the deepest problems of mankind without talking about oneself is definitely the key element to Death The Leveller and their form of folk, which combines the latter with some awesome epic doom metal following Paradise Lost’s version of heaviness. 

With this debut full-length Death the Leveller present a new shade of doom metal – very epic and focused on the Irish way of storytelling while never forgetting the basis for their own sound – good riffs and long guitar lines.


Thorsten

post hardcore

If a band’s name is Quietus (the quiet one) and they say they play some kind of post-hardcore, it’s my time to step onto the plate. And man, I was not disappointed with this release as Quietus from Charleville Mezières, France, really listened well to what their predecessors had to say – and even more importantly, what they had to play. The quartet really knows how to build intriguing soundscapes around interesting song structures. Sometimes they just simply stop the song after a marching drum part, just to let the simple three chords echo into eternity and then go back into a near-pop punk only to kick the accelerator back into full swing with a high-octane ending. You will recognize some blastbeats to show an even more aggressive and spitting outlet. With the first four songs the band has already shown more ideas in roughly 18 minutes than other bands on a full record. 
However, one should note that the band needs to incorporate the lyrics a bit better because they lack something that a lot of hardcore records lack when it comes to the vocals: A clear position within the sound, not trying to say that the band has a bad singer/shouter, it’s just that he might be more in the center of attention in order to get his message across. 
If you like some bands in the middle between Thursday and Converge, this French outlet might be just the thing for you. Get on the wagon, before you are said to be a bandwagoneer!

doom

Buzzov*en plus Weedeater plus a tinge of Primitive Man – that is Atomic Trip on their second record, simply called Strike #2, released a few months ago on Wooaaargh. One other band that can be heard on this two track, 41 minute (!) assault is Earth, because the trio Lyonais from French epicenter of good taste displays the same good taste in their choice of tuning and performing a style that can – in parts – hold on to the path that the forefathers of said genre – doomy, sludgy, slow, distorted, reverb-ladden metal – paved and that Atomic Trip is following. However, the threesome also show a sense of humor (stage names are e.g. Jean-Claude van Doom or Gary McDoom) and that is something that they share with some of the best. Do not take yourself too seriously if you play some kind of pissed-off and pissed-yourself sound that shall scare and attract people at the same time. If you like anything in the vein of the bands mentioned above and can also live without vocals, then Atomic Trip is definitely something for you to check out. Nothing new on planet doom but they surely keep the paths open and maybe at some point other bands will even use them for reference in times to come. 

shoegaze / doom

Brooklyn trio Spotlights has been in the spotlight for quite some time now. Three years ago they signed to Ipecac for the release of “Seismic”, they then toured their butts off (including a stint supporting the Melvins) and released the awe-inspiring “Love and Decay” last year. Now the trip of the Quintero couple (Mario and Sarah) and drummer Chris Enriquez (of On the Might of Princes-fame) release an EP exclusively for the brilliant Post-Wax Series on Blues Funeral Recordings (this year’s edition will also have exclusives by Elder and Big Scenic Nowhere plus four more relevant records). As expected the record is heavy but not crushing, it’s soothing but not putting one to sleep. The short heavy, upwards-reaching ends of the riffs are intoxicating and the drumming is bluesy and au point. The EP shows four doomy tracks with brilliant little images in it (like the short, oriental percussion elements at the beginning of “Part III” which sparkle in a certain light), yet there are also these gut-wrenching screams in “Part I” or the near-punk-intro to “Part IV” with its driving piano intro and the simple riff just to open up when the vocals show that this is not some strange punk band on mescaline but a doom band playing a sludge-song. This band belongs in the spotlight!

drone / ambient / doom

There seems to be a little of a trend going on over the course of the last six months for bands to release multiple split EPs either on the same day or shortly after each other – one famous example would be Panopticon and their splits with Aerial Ruin and Nechochwen. A less famous band, but doing some awesome splits is [ B O L T ] who released a split with Morasth from Mainz at the end of last year and one with N at the beginning of 2020. The latter is the seventh release in this ongoing series of collaborations between the drone artist N and [ B O L T ] (who are both, like Morasth, from Western Germany) and the sound is very droney, a bit ambient but always with a bit more soul than a pure electronic version of said genre.

The way that [ B O L T ]’s two basses reverb on this record is just mind-bending. The band that jumps to mind as a reference would be AUN. The split with Morasth on the other band is very doom, very rich in harsh riffs and very dark, here the instrumentation is clearly very agitated and not meant to keep the sounds going but let the waves collapse and break off one after the other. The first reference that comes to my mind would be Black Shape of Nexus. The facts that both splits were released by dunk!records just shows how open that label is, and if you then add the total length of both split, which both clock in after circa 40 minutes, you know that you are deep in a listening session you will not forget.


​Thorsten