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Sonic Flower – Rides Again

13/2/2021

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stoner rock
Heavy Psych Sounds
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We all know about these long-forgotten records that are part of the fame of some bands – take Beach Boys’ Smile as an example. Church of Misery from Japan have been one of the premier heavy stoner/sludge bands this side of the millennium with their heavy instrumental vintage sound and the whole serial killer theme. Twenty years ago, CoM-bassist Tatsu Mikami and then-CoM-guitarist Takenori Hoshi founded Sonic Flower together with drummer Keisuke Fukawa and second guitarist “Arisa”. In 2003, they released their only record a six-track EP Sonic Flower. More than a rumor, the world knew that the band had entered famous Branca Studios in Barcelona to record a follow-up, but those songs never saw the light of day.

Until now and until Italy’s specialty label Heavy Psych Sounds not only rediscovered the recordings but also were allowed to release them, what they did at the end of January, when Rides Again finally is available for our eyes to behold. Tatsu re-formed the group in 2018, and (rumor has it), has already loads of new material, but first he wanted to give us this present. 

And my, my, my – what a ride this record is. 28 minutes of psychedelic stoner, with nods to all things heavy and like a bridge between the old and the new waves of heavy rock. Of course, the production is not clean like many regular heavy metal albums nowadays, it’s raw, rough and unpolished. When the distortion towards the end of the opening track “Super Witch” sets in, there might be quite a lot of stereos that cannot deliver its total crispy touch. 

The songs sway between acts like Captain Beefheart and Sir Lord Baltimore, Mountain and Cactus. They are super heavy and fuzzed out to the max, but never over-steered or trying to show off, as they want to pay real homage to their own idols. They also do so through the two cover songs on the record – “Earthquake” by Graham Central Station and “Stay Away” by the Meters. The band is all about the good old time when fuzz-rock was a thing next to funk and rock. 

“Jungle Cruise” is the highlight of the record with the brilliant guitar work that is somewhere between Afrobeat and Krautrock, some Mountain-like country rock and some flirry Jazz stuff. But the most impressive thing about the song is Fukawa’s drumming that is basically a pushing and emotive tribal beat that really makes your body sweat. Sometimes one hears about a song from this genre being the perfect soundtrack to a blaxploitation movie – the same can be said about “Jungle Cruise” but here the scene is a high intensity car chase along the New Orleans streets jumping in the Bayou.

Don’t expect anything surprising on this record – the band didn’t run amok and totally changed their sound and songwriting. What you get is what you wanted all along. Dry fuzz, awesome drumming, intense riffs and some modulations that do not seek attention gently but that will pull your head back by the hair and then give you one of the most rewarding, sexy kisses you ever got. Every little bone in your ear will be aroused by the unearthed treasure chest that is Rides Again.


Thorsten

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Mienakunaru - Lost Bones Of The Holy Butterfly

12/11/2020

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psychedelic / hard rock
Drone Rock Records
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Mienakunaru is one of the many projects (maximum) guitar player Mike Vest (Bong, Lush Worker) is involved with. When you check this British musician’s Bandcamp page or scroll on Discogs among the abundance of collaborations and bands he is connected with, you will be in for a surprise.

​Mienakunaru is a trio, Mike Vest plays bass and guitar, Junzo Suzuki (Miminokoto) also on guitar and Dave Sneddon on drums.

Lost Bones Of The Holy Butterfly is a two track instrumental album focused on dazzling psychedelic guitar music. The album is a trip filled with continuously echoing and improvised solos dressed up in hard rock riffs. Japanese psychedelic guitar player Junzo Suzuki has an important part in this eclectic sonic guitar tsunami. Suzuki’s solo music is a stripped down form style of ghost blues and improvisation that also stands out in this collaboration. The musicians of Mienakunaru recorded the music in their home place, Mike Vest arranged and mixed the album.

If we would try to write down all the releases these three artists were already participating, that page would be longer than the review of this wondrous trip. We won’t put more unnecessary words to this. These underground artists created a sound drug with Lost Bones Of The Holy Butterfly. Beware, Mienakunaru plays explosive and addictive dope music!

​LP out on Drone Rock Records Dec/Jan 2021

​
Patsker

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Brieviews 66

22/11/2019

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Nocturnalia – III Winter

dark rock
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Nothing new under those vast Scandinavian skies – yes! Nothing boring in the wide open spaces – yes! Nocturnalia are a good example that a mix of Rainbow, Deep Purple, the 69 Eyes combined with a singer who clearly likes Bruce Dickinson never gets boring. For we have heard those things so often before we can clearly identify the roots – always a great thing for every fan(atic) as he can display his knowledge. However, there is something else to that mix that lies beneath the obvious and that is some good and clever songwriting because we must remember – copying is one thing but taking lessons from idols is another. Nocturnalia definitely follow the second line and we can take singer Linus Ekermo as an example here: He knows his Bruce, he knows his Dio but he never dares to simply copy them, he adds little singular characteristics once in a while, for example in “Winter Hymn” when his (nearly) spoken word is a great atmospheric moment - “Frost be the sign of this lost ending year /  Darkness embrace me for winter draws near” words and phrases heard before but combined with a sound reminiscent of the wind of uilleann pipes and a second (at the beginning nearly inaudible) vocal line we are still drawn to it and keep on spinning “III Winter”. 


Wooden Earth – Fangs

hard rock / classic rock
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Wooden Earth (look at that band name – you already see the green smoke rising in the desert) are to release their new track “Fangs” on December 13th. The Dallas-based duo consisting of guitarist Devin Moreno and drummer/vocalist Griffin Thomas will release their debut full length next year and are currently touring their ….. off. No new witches’ brew in their mix of two similar genres, but their play with dynamics is definitely worth lending your ear if you like Red Fang’s ferociousness, QOTSA’s pop appeal and some scruffy vocals to accompany all of that. They throw in a riff that is really genre-like but their dynamics draws you in and the small kicks from the side in form of a sharp noisy lick keep you going just as much as the 60s style psychedelic organ in the background which keeps the atmosphere light and tight. Here you go, Stoner fans, you might have another band to follow! What a name anyway!


Moonreich – Wormgod

metalcore
Les Acteurs De L'Ombre
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My media player sometimes plays a trick on me and doesn’t enlist the tracks in the right order but reverses them, so that the last track is played first. It did that when I started listening to Moonreich’s recent EP Wormgod, and thus the first thing I heard was “Broken” and the first vocals I heard were “If you want control without any pain / How long will you suffer? / How long will you reign?” My mind racing, where had I, what did they, whom had they….  and then memory retrieved the wanted information – it’s a cover of a Depeche Mode-song! No, nothing worrisome about that cover but well, the rest is solid work. A lot of grindy-metalcore, blastbeats, solid screaming gutturals, some quick and harsh turns, a few moments reminiscent of Slipknot (supposedly a major influence) and some posty-swirling guitar loops. A solid Metalcore band doing some solid Post-Metal songs but being unable to hide their roots. A good band to start your summer festival day with, but well …if it wasn’t for that Depeche Mode-cover!


Blackwood – Of Flies

dub doom
Subsound
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Ever wondered what it would sound like if Godflesh emphasized the metal side a bit more and a bit dirtier? Less sterile and less dubby? With a bit less verve and some more doomy gloom? Then you might find yourself drawn to Blackwood, an electro-doom-metal-project headed by Italian artist and composer Eraldo Bernocchi who – via Subsound Records has just released his new EP “Of Flies” with the help of vocalist Emilia Moncayo and a lot of samples, for example the urgent screams “Conductor we have a problem! Press emergency!” taken from a YouTube-video filmed a few years ago, when a man ran around in an American subway screaming these words all the time. The songs are like a descent into the hell of the human psyche, one does not want to listen because of the grittiness of the songs but it it somehow impossible to stop because there might be another even more sensational sound or sample or scream just around the corner of this dirty wall of sound. And just before the finger hits the button he calms it down again and then surrounds the ears with some soothing parts and ethereal moments. But the dirt is always just one step away. A great introduction into a genre some people might never have imagined. Or never wanted to imagine. 


Ghostboy – Disgusting 

dark ambient / edm / house
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“Always on my mind”. Elvis. His late years. A classic. Always recognizable. Always? No, not as in always always, because as Ghostboy shows with his version, starting out like a desert slo-mo-acoustic guitar version then turning into slow ambient song, even a song we have all heard a trillion times can be hard to recognize even though he sticks to the original lyrics. This song was my reason to listen to the new EP by Ghostboy released on and for Halloween and thus aptly titled “Disgusting”. Four songs revolving around the themes lost love, death, loneliness and ghosts are presented here by the electronica artist, who combines burbling dream-pop with dark electronica parts or classical house elements and sometimes garners them with an interesting detail, like the aforementioned acoustic guitar. The only fault in the EP: The cover doesn’t totally fit in with the others, even though it is quite an original track, but its lyrical mood is so different and furthermore because of said western-intro. Maybe he should choose a real Halloween classic for such a themed release – my suggestion: “The Boy with the Arab Strap”. Otherwise, it becomes clear where Ghostboy comes from and where he’s headed as he stays immensely authentic. 

Thorsten
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Wheel of Smoke - Sonic Cure

11/11/2019

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psychedelic rock / stoner rock / hard rock
Polder Records
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Sonic Cure is an album to be released in the end of the month, November 29, by Polder Records, with pre-orders to start on November 15. Work of veteran Belgian psychedelic/stoner/hard rock band Wheel of Smoke, Sonic Cure is the most recent release of this group, that has been around for fourteen years now, having released previously the albums In Sense, in 2011, Signs of Saturn, in 2013, Mindless Mass, in 2016, and the EP Enter The Pyramid, in 2015. With only five tracks — Sonic Cure, Brainshaker, Beamed, On a Wave and Electric I —, this album displays a sonorous vigour and a genuine enthusiasm from the very beginning, that is amazingly pungent, legendary and remarkable. With tremendously hallucinating guitar lines, cohesive and strong harmonies, and gloriously pulsating seventies psychedelic rock vibes, Sonic Cure has an authentically fit retro atmosphere, that subsidizes its splendorous, dense and gracefully dynamic rhythmic features, for the full extent of this amazingly fabulous album.

With a remarkable musical style, that completes on the vicinities of its marvelous genuine creativity the sonorous grandiosity of its wonderfully vivid and abrasive style, the density and the practical uneasiness displayed in the sound doesn't stand as a mere copy of seventies rock 'n' roll bands, on the contrary; the group departs from a cohesive conjuncture of eclectic influences, to compose in a mosaic of complex arrangements a vast diagram of deeply resonating and colorful authorial melodies. With wonderful harmonies — whose extensive creative sensibilities defies the consistency of its own organic structure —, Sonic Cure, in its entirety, easily reveals itself as the perfect combination between appreciation of tradition and original conception of sound. 

With gracefully pungent and colorful guitar solos, that expand the tempestuous grace of its renitent restlessness over the salutary density of its vastly flexible and unorthodox rhythmic proficiency, each track has majestically unique peculiarities, distinct beauty, splendid elegance, powerfully consistent and diligent qualities, that underscores the band's huge, impeccable creative potential. The formidable heterogeneity of the band — which can be surprisingly flexible, without ever losing its characteristic sonorous identity — is a deeply strong musical feature, that gives to their style an unpredictable sensibility, whose undisputed possibilities injects ostentatious vigor into the group's virtuous harmonies. 

A formidable, unique, sensationally graceful state of the art work, Sonic Cure definitely is one of the most genuine, remarkable and perfect albuns ever released in the contemporary history of retro-styled, seventies inspired hard rock. Displaying not only superb technical elegance, but also a virtuous creative sensibility — as well as a fantastic electrical audacity, an originally discreet, but vivacious and persistent restlessness —, and a truly genuine desire to break boundaries, Sonic Cure is a concise, but practically perfect work of modern rock, destined to establish new musical standards for all the other bands in the genre, as soon as the album is released.  


Wagner

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Duel - Valley of Shadows

25/5/2019

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hard rock / stoner rock
bandcamp
Heavy Psych Sounds
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Valley of Shadows is an album released in 17 May, by American psychedelic stoner/ sludge metal band Duel, from Austin, Texas. With a furious, though vivaciously dynamic, dense and voracious sound, that encapsulates energetic and straight to the point guitar lines that revolves around their acid diagram of lancinating full throttle melodies, Duel showcases on this album a graciously aggrandizing tale of old school sonorous metabolism – truly committed to its wild and savage origins – that heavily dictates the powerful coordinates of a magnet of rhythmic legendary harmonies that burst into flames in a sonic speed, for the glory of rock’n’roll and the total amazement of the audience.      

A relatively concise album, Valley of Shadows is thirty seven minutes long, and has eight tracks: 1) Black Magic Summer; 2) Red Moon Forming; 3) Drifting Alone; 4) Strike and Disappear; 5) Broken Mirror; 6) Tyrant on the Throne; 7) I Feel No Pain; 8) The Bleeding Heart; exceedingly marvelous all the way through, the album is a genuine demonstration of creative musical vivacity, that recognizes no boundaries to the landscape of its restless, audacious and sensitive musical horizon. With the gracious atmosphere of a hazardous and scalding desert that is about to melt everything on its way, the furious, but uplifting sound of Duel definitely lives on the groundbreaking edge proposed by the mordacity of its pungent style.    

With a heavy sound whose tempestuous, but groovy melodies puts the band in a very particular category of hard rock, the expansive and vibrant elements that are abundant in the periphery as well as in the main nucleus of the band’s creative diagram conceives a very balanced sound, that is never predictable or monotonous. The synergy displayed by the ostensibly solid virtues that are highlighted in their complex sound arrangements exposes a very dense and methodic musical alignment, that dilapidates in a concentrated panorama of extraordinary artistic grace a sensational conjuncture of qualities, that are rarely combined in such a vivacious manner.

An almost impeccable album, that displays a genuine style conceived in very exceptional and singular musical perspectives, Valley of Shadows reveals itself to be a very elegant and original work, with no artistic nor technical deficiencies whatsoever. A greatly conceived and executed work, Duel deserves to be seen as a fundamental group in the psychedelic hard rock underground scene, as they are ready to take, to shake and to reinvent the genre, with the aim to create something extraordinarily exciting and authentic, as only a few other bands have the abilities to do so, with the same amount of competence and professionalism. 


Wagner

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Brieviews 61

30/4/2019

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In Silence - One For All 

metal
Spotify
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"One for all, all for one, we will stand strong", that's an excellent statement from Swedish melodic metal band In Silence. Their music fits perfectly into the so-called Götheborg  scene, even though they reside in Karlstad. Bands like In Flames, Arch Enemy and Soilwork often pop up in my head while I listen to these delicious riffs. Frontwoman Erika ''Rejka'' Jonsson does an excellent job and the men behind her are quite talented as well. Plus, In Silence dare to experiment with electronics, which gives the whole thing something extra. It's as if the nineties have never ended...

Hope Erodes - Rainwalker

metal / death metal
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After a few line-up changes, Belgian horde Hope Erodes returns with a dark, aggressive and brutal EP. 'Rainwalker' contains four tracks, each one a fierce slab hardcore infused of death metal. Yet, there is a lot more to be found than gut wrenching riffs and soul destroying drums. At least one of the guitarists is an Iron Maiden fan, which results in brilliant guitar play and the new vocalist, Sam, is a monster with the vocal range of Satan himself. This is the stuff that will undoubtedly demolish stages and venues all over this puny little country. So, if you want music to beat you down into a bleeding pulp, you need this one.
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Lacrimae - Entropia

progressive rock / experimental
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Hailing from Athens, Greece, Lacrimae delivers highly enjoyable progressive rock with a light avant-garde feel. The EP opens with a beautiful piano intro before 'Necromancer' blasts off. Influenced by bands like Porcupine Tree and Riverside, this act delivers potent pieces of rock music, plus vocalist Annette delivers some interesting vocal lines. My favorite track here is 'Inhale / Exhale', in which Annette seems to experiment with the strangeness of Diamanda Galas for a little while. This is a fun EP to listen to. Progressive and immersive but not too complex. I like it like that.

Kavod - Wheel Of Time

psychedelic rock / doom
bandcamp
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Doom metal as a ritual, that is what Italian trio Kavod is all about. Influenced by acts like My Sleeping Karma, Tool, Ufomammut and Om, Kavond comes up with three pieces of musical exorcism. Of these three, 'Absolution' is my personal favorite, a gritty, slow and repetitive piece of psychedelic doom, which might have lasted longer. It makes me wonder about live performances, because, with a good soundman and a minimal but effective light show, this might turn into something utterly overwhelming. Let's see what the future has in stock for Kavod, might something really interesting...
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Harbour of Souls - Doomsayer

hard rock
Big Bad Wolf Records
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The stunning cover art for this EP alone is worth getting your hands on a copy of this five track EP, and if you're a fan of seventies hard rock and NWOBHM, you might want to start drooling now. Dutch rockers Harbour Of Souls got stuck in the era of old Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy and so on, which results in flashing guitar solos, heavy metal thunder and everything else that made this style of music one of the most popular things on earth. 'Queen On Her Throne' is an instant classic and the others tracks, too, will get you shake your ass and bang your heads. So yeah, hard rockers, you better check this out.

Voldt - Voken

progressive metal
Hyperurl
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German three piece Voldt does something odd and unusual with progressive metal. Their sound is unique, laced with elements from black metal, industrial and epic, progressive heavy metal, as if Queensryche and The Kovenant had decided to start a jam. On this EP, the band delivers six tracks, with opener 'To Forge Ahead' immediately confusing the listener. Then again, once you're used to the unusual sound of Voldt, you might start to realize that 'A Tractate Of Doom' is a stunning, genre defining piece of music. In any case, this is different, this is pretty damn awesome. Just give it time to grow on you, alright?
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Mount Soma - Origins

psychedelic rock /  doom
bandcamp
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Hailing from Dublin, Ireland, Mount Soma launches sludge metal into space. Driving on muddy riffs and psychedelic guitars, this quartet steps into the footsteps of bands like Yob, Black Tundra, Slomatics and so on. 'Origins' is a three-track EP where heavy riffing and chilled out psychedelica seamlessly meet. Opener 'Nebula' is simply outstanding, a trance inducing doom metal track, immersive as fuck. The short tweener 'Origin' is a nice song which functions as a bridge between the two mesmerizing anthems. 'Lazarus' comes very close psych doom perfection. Baffling stuff.

NŪR - Light Emerges

sludge metal / doom
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Formed from the ashes of several bands in the Israeli underground, this pummeling quartet comes up with an earth shattering blend of post metal, doom and sludge metal. The three tracks on this EP, 'Trader', 'Water' and 'Wise', are equally destructive, overwhelming and terrifying pieces of music, destined to slowly tear apart your very soul. Sluggish riffs, battering drums and hardcore infused vocals create a cathartic whole, something which fans of bands like Amenra, Neuroris and Cult Of Luna. So, if you want music to resemble a steamroller, this surely is your thing.
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Blodskam - Là​-​Bas

black metal
Suicide Records
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Swedish duo Blodskam seem to travel between the madhouse and the graveyard. Their music is rough, primitive and psychotic black metal with lyrical themes of insanity, hallucinations and fear.The whole takes me back to the nineties, when vile and putrid releases by Scandinavian underground bands started flooding the market. Yet, even today, 'Là-Bas' is a consciousness shattering piece of work, where the main theme of psychosis is perfectly illustrated in every aspect of the music. Fierce riffs, pummeling drums and haunted screams. This simply is an obscure gem, no doubt about that.

Kooba Tercu - Kharrüb

alternative rock / psychedelic / noise rock
bandcamp
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And we end this heavy, intense and raging version of Brieviews with something... well, heavy, intense and raging. Greek act Kooba Tercu is what would happen if Einstürzende Neubauten meet up with Melvins or The Jesus Lizard. The music on this album is downright bizarre and quite undefinable but that makes it incredibly interesting to undergo. Yes, undergo. You don't just listen to Kooba Tercu. You'll allow yourself to get emerged into their strange, noisy and rattling sound. You will love it, too, I can almost guarantee that. Unless you hate it with all your guts. Those are the only two options you have here.



​Serge
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Pijn - Loss

1/11/2018

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rock’n’roll / hard rock/ noise rock / experimental
bandcamp
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Loss is an album released on October 26 by British hard rock act Pijn. Sixty-six minutes long, the record has eight tracks: Denial, Detach, Distress, Blanch, Blush, Unspoken, Squalor and Squander. With a very flexible degree of artistry, the musicality of Pijn goes to both extremes: it can be furiously aggressive and dangerously brutal, as well as expressively calm, melodic and majestically virtuous. This is already noticeable in the first two songs: Denial is a virulent anthem of hazardous and protuberant aggression, while Detach is a serene and soft serenade of introspective melancholy. The album in general has a proverbial density that speaks for itself, although it is very accessible on the sensibility of its methodic and direct easiness, as well as playful and modest on its scale of ambitions.

While the album seems redundant at first – at least in the longer songs –, the musicality of the group, though appears to be simple, is profoundly rooted in a coherent style, that explores systematically the fugacious elements of the melodies, while delivering a deliberately generous and cosmic flamboyant eccentricity to the more dispersive virtues of its placid tonalities, formally engraved in a graceful nostalgia, that easily comes out of sound. Trying to recover lost time in the primordial vicinities of a life that is no longer there, the occasionally almost minimalist style of Pijn is a free deliverance of joy. In the course of this fascinating musical journey, it becomes more than that: a vivid celebration of life, that personally undertakes a realm of sincere melancholy to rescue the genuine golden elements of rock’n’roll, with the firm resolution to compose in a singular piece of paradise the purity, the liberty and the glory that became lost in the sands of time, though they are never restricted to this genre in particular. Their creativity is limitless and boundless. So much so, that in the process of delivering the sound, they develop their own eccentric, playful and peculiar style.   

While the heaviness of the guitar lines is the element that mostly stands out, the adherence of precise notes extending its anesthetic poignant devices in the occasional reverberations of latent melodies never divides the sensibilities of its dramatic soul. They patiently, but anxiously highlight the proverbial qualities of the album: as Loss evolves, the salutary epicenter of the music becomes more philosophic, serene, diluted and dense, although the music itself becomes lighter, digressive and effectively dispersive. 

Occasionally, you will hear awesome screaming vocals, in slow passages delivering the color of agony and despair, in the style of post-hardcore and straight edge; although the album is mostly instrumental. Given its extensive length, the record is somewhat subjected to a certain redundancy; but the sound in general is very sober, somber and delightful, able to satisfy anyone who is expecting the unexpected, with a very clean dose of melancholy, anger, hostility, despondency, acceptance, conformity and exhilaration. Not in this particular order, of course. But be positive that you certainly are going to deeply enjoy Loss.  


Wagner

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Brieviews 53

30/10/2018

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Dizorder - Moon Phases

alternative / metal / metalcore
bandcamp
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Although I'm not always content with the term "female fronted metal", I have to say that in this case the presence of Chloé defines the whole identity of Dizorder. While the men behind her deliver a solid modern day metal foundation, Chloé varies from melancholic to firm to brutal several times in a row. This EP contains four tracks, an intro and an outro. It showcases a wide of influences, from Evanescence and Flyleaf to Linkin Park, Deftones, Otep and today's metalcore scene. Furthermorre, there are some excellent tunes to be found, like 'Erinyes' or 'Pick'. Nice work and an excellent business card.

Greyhawk - Ride Out

heavy metal / power metal
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Tsss, those Americans, rebooting something everybody in Europe laughs at, except Manowar fans but I don't think they have that much to laugh about anyway. Heading from Seattle, Greyhawk comes up with old school heavy metal, inspired by the greats and breathing the exact same air as Dio, Judas Priest, Blind Guardian, Helloween and so on. The result is this highly enjoyable and perfectly executed power metal EP, named 'Ride Out'. Fans of the old school will undoubtedly eat this up. So check it out, raise your horned fist and join the glory of heavy metal as it should be!
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Gramma Vedetta - Proof of Concept

hard rock / stoner rock / alternative rock / grunge
bandcamp
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We're not done having an old school party here. Next up is London based Gramma Vedetta and their infectious blend of blues, grunge, psychedelic rock and jam rock. Somehow these guys are stuck between the sixties and the nineties, which results in extravagant party tunes like 'Behind the Blinds', strange punky rockers like '.Taranto Train to Toronto Town' and instant grunge classics like 'She (Has A Plan)'. This EP is loaded with energy, fun and rock 'n roll. If this band can't get your party started, you are throwing the wrong party, that's for sure. So grab a beer and join me in the pit!

Godless - Swarm

thrash / death metal
bandcamp
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Right, enough fun, time to torment our eardrums with some vile extremities courtesy of Indian death-thrash combo Godless. After an impending intro all hell breaks loose as we descent into a frenzy of riffs, blast-beats and ferocious screams. Influenced by everything between Kreator, Morbid Angel and Behemoth, Godless rages on with a murderous tempo and mind shattering intensity. This EP is short, but so is a chainsaw into the skull and that is a perfect comparison. Godless are not here to mess around, they are here to demolish, destroy and conquer. 
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O n s e t - Unstructured Dissemination

doom
Weird Truth
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This debut EP by Onset, a collaborative effort of Mirai Kawashima from Sigh and synthwave artist Microchip Terror, is perhaps one of the most surprising doom metal releases this year. With elements from traditional doom, post rock, space rock and extreme metal, Onset delivers something both immersive and unsettling. The riff-heavy approach of funeral doom meets with the soul piercing experimentality of noise to create two epic pieces of dark and heavy music. This is definitely not an easy EP to listen to but it a unique and refreshing entity in the world of doom, which imply means it's awesome.

Ssanahtes - Ssanahtes

doom / sludge / post hardcore
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French "not another post metal" act Ssanahtes comes up with a whole lot of noise, surprisingly close related to post metal. This self-titled album is an intense, brutal and abrasive piece of sludge doom and noise rock, coming at you in six psychotic tunes. The band claims to be influenced by bands like Neurosis, Meshuggah, Cult Of Luna and Kickback. You might as well add the deranged sounds of Japanese acts like Skullflower to that list as well. The result is an extremely unsettling album, one that will definitely get on your nerves. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to you to decide.
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Frenzy Frenzy - Just Another

pop rock
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Time for something on the lighter side of the rock music spectrum, which takes us to French trio Frenzy Frenzy. Their six track debut EP is loaded with sweet pop rock tunes, inspired by the pop music of Michael Jackson, INXS and Jamiroquai but also by rockers like Queens Of The Stone Age and The Black Crowes. The result is a fun album that will get many asses shaking, both on rock festivals and wedding receptions. I can't pick a favorite here but 'Into It All' is a potential chart hit. This is a fun EP, no doubt about that.

Charles In The Kitchen & Them Stones - Stones In The Kitchen

pop rock / alternative rock
bandcamp
Charles In The Kitchen
Them Stones
More joyous rock 'n roll from France, this time with a split singe by Charles In The Kitchen & Them Stones. Each band delivered one track beginning with the uptempo 'Arrogant Teenage Rag' by Charles In The Kitchen. This song somehow reminds me of the B52's, which is quite rare these days. Nonetheless, this is a neat tune and a definte dancefloor filler. The other side is for Them Stones, who showcase a more serious approach. Here the grunge scene comes to mind, heavy on riffs and methodical on the drums. Alice In Chains meets Weezer, something like that. In all, this is a enjoyable single, nothing more, nothing less.
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​Serge
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Forming the Void - Rift

27/8/2018

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stoner rock / psychedelic rock / hard rock
bandcamp
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Rift is an album released on August 17, by American stoner rock group Forming the Void. Forty-four minutes long, the record has seven tracks: Extinction Event, On We Sail, Arcane Mystic, Transient, Arrival, Ark Debris and Shrine. Rift – analyzed on a purely technical basis –, is a decent and competent work, without a doubt, but the style of the group unfortunately departs from a more common ground musical axis, whose elements doesn’t differ them too much from other bands of the genre. They certainly know how to accommodate and incorporate different components into their music, although they definitely fall almost entirely on a stoner rock ground. Their rhythms and melodies can be easily assimilated, and are definitely interesting. But, unfortunately, this album, on an overall evaluation, doesn’t manage to impress at all. 

Don’t get me wrong: Rift is a good album, and certainly has potential to please enthusiasts of the genre. The guitar lines are slow and dense, and displays quite a gracious and discreet aggressiveness, with walls of sound that cohesively builds around its own calm highlight an atmosphere of tense, but lucid expansion. On the other hand, their music is so saturated with generic elements that you never feel too thrilled while listening to it. Certainly, the album can be appreciated with modesty – without any expectations –, but you also wish after some time for the end to come as soon as possible.

Forming the Void is a band that has potential, but they certainly have to be more audacious, and leave their comfort zone. They do what they do with amazingly competent technical skills, but they lack a more effervescent degree of passion and enthusiasm. A little monotony – or too much calmness, if you prefer – is inherent to this genre of music, but you have to push up the boundaries, at least to a certain level, to avoid being just another generic act. 

If you want to listen to Rift, you can definitely do it, without any fear. This is a decent album. But like I wrote some lines above, there’s nothing extraordinary about this work. They follow their genre of choice with a certain amount of competence; but, in the end, Rift is just an ordinary stoner rock album, that ends up being too similar to many other albums of the genre.  



Wagner

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Brieviews 49

31/7/2018

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Naut - Raise The Lights​

post punk / new wave / goth rock
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Heading from Bristol, Naut decided to ignore all current trends and to look back to the dark eighties. Now, this five-piece comes with a baffling debut EP, containing five pitch black goth rock tunes. Influences from bands like Sisters Of Mercy and Killing Joke run rampant and come with the overwhelming energy of post punk acts like The Jesus and Mary Chain. Song like opener 'Disintegration' and 'I'm Here' are destined to fill dark dancefloors everywhere. My personal favorite here is closer 'XVI'. It makes me curious and hungry for more, but for now I'm sure that this EP will be an excellent addition to every post punk / goth rock collection. 


Kurokuma - Dope Rider

doom / sludge
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Sheffield doom mongers Kurokuma return with a two track EP, based on the Dope Rider strip from High Times in the 70s. The artwork comes from Paul Kirchner, the creator of the strip. The music is another slab of severe psychotic sludge doom, five and eight minutes long. Part 1 also showcases something industrial, reflected by repetitive, almost methodical drums. Part 2 simply continues to slow but brutal pummeling. Fans of bands like Conan, Dopethrone and Yob can easily trust Kurokuma to deliver the monolithic riffs and fierce vocals they crave so much. So if you want your sludge metal as destructive as a wrecking ball, this EP should do.


An Evening With Knives - Fade Out

post-metal / doom / alternative rock
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Several months after the release of 'Serrated', Dutch heavy rockers An Evening With Knives unleash three songs that did not make the album because of the limited space on the vinyl. Yet, these songs were to important for the band to be ignored. Opener and title track 'Fade Out' deals with the death of Marco’s father due to Alzheimer disease. It's a long, heavy and cathartic lamentation, showcasing the darkest side of this band. The other two songs follow that example, be it a bit shorter. They all walk a similar path as the songs on 'Serrated', and thus would also fit perfectly into every sludge, doom and grunge collection. These guys are growing steadily, that's for sure.


Soho Rezanejad - World Breathes People

electronic / ambient / experimental
Silicone Records
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An alienating two track EP that will leave you confused and entangled, that is what Soho Rezanejad delivers. Subtle electronics, minimalist drones, gloomy soundscapes and her vocals come together in two lengthy modern day folk songs. I can't help but think about a mix between Zola Jesus and Diamanda Galas, be it a bit less creepy than the latter. Yet, there is emotion, there is fear, mourning, wonder and hope in these two tracks. There is a mystifying atmosphere, one that borrows elements from dark ambient. Yet, above all perhaps, this is a unique piece of work, reminding me of an act like Dark Ensemble. Recommended only for eternally wandering souls.


The Man Within - The Man Within

post rock / post metal / stoner / sludge
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In today's post rock scene, new bands pop up like mushrooms. Würzburg residents The Man Within are one of those newcomers. Mostly, that first effort comes with a low production and a careful introduction in what the band really is capable of. Yet, here that results in a full-blown post metal album with seven outstanding tracks. Most of them, including 'Mount Santo', my favorite 'Institution' (that rolling bass is hot!!!) and the massive 'Limitless' can easily entertain audiences far and wide. Although firmly rooted in the post-scene, elements from sludge metal, psychedelic rock and stoner rock are never far away. A great introduction, now let's hope they can confirm this in the near future.


EITR - Hädanfärden

dark ambient
Nordvis
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The new brainchild of Nachtzeit, the man behind ambient dark metal project Lustre, comes up with an interesting dark ambient album. Although playful at time, this album takes us back to the mysterious  and dark age of the Norse gods. Early in 'Drömmarna' acts like Mortiis (on Cold Meat Industry) and Wongraven come to mind. Synths, soundscapes and dreamy melodies guide the listening on a musical tour of medieval Europe, so it seems, highlighting in 'Löftet' and 'Tårarn'. Strangely, the title track 'Hädanfärden' has an X-Files OST feeling about it, which isn't bad, on the contrary. Fans of old school medieval dark ambient can easily appreciate this album.


Breakfast At Midnight - Breakfast At Midnight

alternative rock / hard rock / grunge
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Belgian hard rock duo Breakfast At Midnight proves that two is enough to create heaps of noise. On this debut EP they blast seven tracks through our speakers, beginning with the heavy rocking 'Kidi Coke'. From then on, the rock doesn't seem to stop. Inspired by anything between Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age and Stone Temple Pilots, these two feed an everlasting fire. Most tracks drive on sheer energy but in 'What I'm To Say' and in '1813', the band delves deeply into the Pearl Jam version of grunge rock. Here, the vocals are excellent and clean while the other tunes contain heaps of aggressive screams. Not that I mind, this is pure rock 'n roll: raw, rough and heavy.


Goat Sperm - Voice in the Womb

black metal / death metal
Inferna Profundus
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Grab onto something now because Ukrainian trio Goatsperm is about to unload a hellish, chaotic and vulgar EP, loaded with orthodox black/death metal. 'Voice In The Womb' contains three tracks, each one being a pummeling piece of extreme metal, as dark as Satan's butthole but with an ambient breather here and there. Somehow, this trio manages to combine atmospheric passages with sheer metallic terror, something that might indeed make a lot of banging heads turn their way in the near future.  Besides, 'Into The Deep Waters Of Catacombs' is one of the fiercest black metal tunes I've heard this year. If you're a self-respecting extremist, you need this.


Teksti-TV 666 - Aidattu Tulevaisuus 

krautrock / shoegaze / punk
Svart Records
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What would have happened if Ramones used My Bloody Valentine's guitar effects? What would a punk rock cover album of Neu! songs sound like? Well, Finnish six piece Teksti-TV 666 might have a decent answer for you. 'Aidattu Tulevaisuus' delivers six high-octane krautrock tunes with the raw energy of punk and the immersive nature of shoegaze. I admit, it is something different from the usual slabs of rock 'n roll that appear here but 'Turbo-Mondeo' and 'Aidattu tulevaisuus' can easily get your behind shaking. My favorite here is the somewhat slower 'Rauhankone', which might be described as a down-to-earth space rock track. Recommended? Hell yeah!


Vitor Joaquim - Impermanence

ambient / electronic / experimental
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Hailing from Porto, Vitor Joaquim is a sound sculptor and visual artist, active around the strange borders between soothing ambient and otherworldly noise. This new album, 'Impermanence' contains seven tracks, revolving around repetitive soundscapes, almost subconscious loops and immersive musical textures. Here and there vocals samples have been added to increase the narrative nature of the music. That, along with the minimal soundscapes, makes the title track my favorite here but I'm sure that every fan of decent ambient music can appreciate these sounds. Obviously, this comes highly recommended.


Han - Tuning the Invisible

ambient / drone / experimental / noise
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An even more noisy and experimental variation on ambient sounds comes from Han, a project by Vitor Joaquim and Emidio Buchinho. This album revolves around live improvisation and real time processing, which results in something severely unusual and highly experimental. Yet, behind the gritty freestyle on the guitar, beautiful ambient loops lurk. These seven tracks are weird, immersive in one way, yet restrained and peculiar. Somehow this album feels like the early days of drone experimentation, when artists were exploring the other possibilities of their instruments. In all, this is an interesting release to dive into, but only for experienced avant gardists...

Serge
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