Boreal Hymn – Tundra
post metal / folk metal
Every once in a while a new side of a regular genre is opened and forces people to open their notions of and vocabulary for said genre. With Boreal Hymn from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada it’s quite the same. They offer an quite unique blend of medieval sounds, chants and post-metal songwriting with regular gurgling singing and guttural screaming. This EP is their debut and the four “pagan revelries” as the duo calls them show some pretty interesting ideas of composing a sound somewhere between Junius, Agalloch on the one side and Heilung, Wardruna on the other side. The soundscapes remind one of a bodhran, acoustic guitars, medieval horns and – on the other hand – some droney, ambient parts. The prominent members Colby Hink (known from Wormwitch) and Bronson Lee Norton (The Seer) have embarked one a new sound and although one naturally must remark upon the (momentary) inadequacies of the songwriting as their ideas and skills still need some refinement but one should remember this is still a demo and remember to follow this band on one of their social media outlets or the usual streaming services – they might be up to something refreshingly new.
The Deathtrip – Demon Solar Totem
black metal
Bands like Agalloch or The Ruins of Beverast have shown how shamanistic (and in part nihilistic) ritualistic Black Metal can be, a band like Heilung stresses the ritual-aspect of the music much more than their black metal roots. And now there is a band who started more than ten years ago, The Deathtrip, who are back with only their second real full-length, Demon Solar Totem released via Profound Lore and Svart Records. A band that definitely knows how to purvey a cold atmosphere while playing with shaman chants and small bells and lots of passages that remind one more of a pagan mass that puts a spell on its audience. The production is raw to say the least, sometimes this whirlwind of an album doesn’t give away whether the sounds are real soundscapes or mere very dirty feedback. This “super-group” with members of Grave Pleasures, Dodheimsgard and My Dying Bride tries to encapsulate the essence of raw ritualistic metal aiming for an effect of fear of affection. Either you hate it or you leave it – true for most black metal bands, The Deathtrip being one of the better ones albeit not of the same level as the genre forerunners mentioned above.
Canyon of the Skull – Sins of the Past
black metal
Two songs, one hour. No, we are not talking about a radio edit of Bell Witch’s “Mirror Reaper” but about a new release by Chicago-based three-piece Canyon of the Skull consisting of guitarist Erik Ogershok (who even moved to the US a few years ago in order to follow his dreams with the band), bass player Todd Haug (Powermad, 1349) and drummer Mike Miczek (The Atlas Moth). Ogershok is the mastermind behind it all and he wanted to purvey an image of a ritual performed by the Natives of Northern America, as he named the two tracks “The Ghost Dance” and “The Sun Dance”, the first one alluding to the ritual that should connect the living and the dead in order for the ghosts to wake up and fight the white colonialists. Clearly a sign of frustration and despair. The songs show remarkable songwriting skills as the band’s kind of black metal is really refreshing and is able to make the listener feel connected to the spiritual world due to its meditative character. An album for everybody interested in some form of instrumental music channeling stoner rock, doom and black metal. Put the record on, dive in and drop out.
The Spielbergs – Running all the Way Home
indie / rock
The Get Up Kids, The Goo Goo Dolls, The Spielbergs. Who? The Spielbergs! A three-piece power pop band from Oslo is on its way to become the new sensation in bubblegum punk. Of course, we have heard songs like the title track or “Fake A Reaction” or “Daisy! It’s the New Me” quite often. There is hardly something new in a genre whose heydays are twenty years past. However, there will always be an audience for this kind of music as there will always be new generations of youth who need their own (loser) anthems. The title track is one of those songs to which you can already see late teens and early twens dancing and singing along to, shouting out such anthemic slogans like “I don’t wanna be worthless / Just let me go back to start” or also “I was more than good to go / I wish you finally gave in” (from “Oh No”). Interestingly, there is as much Placebo in here as there are the Replacements, just as much uptempo as there is distortion. And who knows – maybe the Spielbergs are the ignition for a revival of a music genre that can never perish but that is always forgotten by the elders!
Thorsten
Thorsten
