black metal / industrial / doom

Sentient Ruin

Two weeks ago, I was in front of a shopping mall. The date was November 3rd, and a huge Christmas tree was looming over me... A bit early to be celebrating Christmas, I thought, but then again, it seems to put visitors in a spending mood.
Then it hit me. The irony. A long time ago, the Christians stole Christmas from some North European pageants. And now, shopkeepers have
stolen it from the Christians...
Why am I telling you this? Because, if you don't like this artificial jolly atmosphere, I have the perfect antidote for you...


On November 22nd, Sentient Ruin released Decoherence's second manifesto, Ekpyrosis. Last year, I rather enjoyed their first EP, so I was eager to check this out. Decoherence is a three-man band, but not much is known about them. They seem to be based in the UK, and the main member is Stroda, who also creates (lots of) obscure records under his own name. The music itself sounds like black industrial doom - think mid-era Blut Aus Nord. Everything is drenched in reverb and delay, mechanized drums thunder or blast along, guitars buzz, hum, drone, and somewhere deep in this sonic whirlpool you will find subhuman screaming, wallowing in its misery.

As stated before, it's not exactly an uplifting experience, and it takes some determination to finish the first listening session. After that, however, you start to discover the nuances in the different
songs, and all of a sudden it becomes an enjoyable experience. I recommend it as a background tune to a good book and a fine Portuguese wine (as I did last evening). There are five lengthy songs on this EP, and I would recommend the third one, Collapse, as an introduction to the whirling void called Decoherence. Enjoy!


Koen

industrial / darkwave / experimental / post punk

Cascades are falling down, a constant repetition of collapse. A motif found frequently in music, soundwise, in the lyrics or the music itself. Lots of artists from blackgaze to classical use it. Additionally it is found in visual arts or modern literature and over the last few decades has been connected to a critique of the present in order to change something about the future.

A new artist from Pennsylvania uses the image of collapse and a future uncertain combining it with a sonic landscape taking its bits from shoegaze and ambient, from noise and industrial. Lunacy‘s debut album Age of Truth (after releasing four EPs since 2016) is indeed a challenge to the ear but a very thoughtful one. The idea behind the record is obvious after a few seconds already because after a short lush intro the near-ambient mood is disrupted by harsh industrial marching drums. We are drawn into a world beyond Blade Runner and before Mad Max, a place where the constants of past, present and future might either still be possible or already obsolete.

The musician behind Lunacy tries to remain unknown (which can also be seen when looking at the record covers on which he becomes more and more of a blur). He does so not for his personal privacy but to render a blank canvas in order to give the listener the chance of projecting his own interpretations of and ideas about the music and the future, our planet and life in general – maybe even about the future of the future. What if our industry and society will collapse and with it the hope of changing the course of human (interference with) life on this planet? What will happen to “the future” if the end is coming, if the facades of humanity collapse and we will face the industrial downfall and machine-driven end?

Musically, Age of Truth combines his vision of a post-apocalyptic, post-human industrial age with
the help of Connor Clasen (IXVLF) recording the album and Oliver Ackermann (A Place to Bury
Strangers) mastering it. Sometimes you hear breakbeats, distorted vocal chants, shoegaze moments like that Ackermann is famous for. The foundation for this experimental electronica is a kind of 80s industrial soundtrack stemming from the use of synthesizers from that era which were then combined with several layers of guitars. Whether Lunacy is igniting a new phase of music-making for the first century after mankind or whether he is developing a new form of shoegaze is up to the listener, however it is clear that as an artist he achieved his vision clearly for the album transports us to a different place and time. Age of Truth will be released by Parisian label Third Coming Records on November 22nd


Thorsten

industrial / post rock / metal / noise

Sometimes the seemingly impossible is possible. Leicester City wins the Premier League, some player not Messi or Ronaldo wins an important award, Guns’n’Roses reunite, Tom Warrior finishes his “Requiem” with an orchestra-supported performance at Roadburn. However, can a side-project achieve something as unique as the “main” project? Sometimes yes – think of S.O.D. who sometimes outshone Anthrax. 

Consumer is a side-project, and Have a Nice Life is its roots. Tim of HANL formed Consumer in 2017 together with the live-band that supports him and Dan on the road. However, it must be noted that this band is hopefully more than a once-off-project because their sound and approach are different to HANL. You can hear some proto-noise in Consumer’s sound even though it is coming from an opposite idea. If we take bands like the Melvins or Pere Ubu, it is clear that the foundation for their early work was always a guitar and the wish to do something unusual with it. Consumer also want to do something unusual, but their foundation is clearly much more focused on electronics and synths. The shared motif is distortion. Consumer distort their instruments (the aforementioned plus guitars and a regular rhythm section) and twist them around and around until everything contributes to a mantra-esque hard flow of ebb and tide. 

Sometimes the drums sound as if Einstuerzende Neubauten got the idea that self-made instruments are cool but their sound had to go through a broken vocoder to make the result even more uncomfortable just to lose a battle with a synth-driven melody that alludes to the end of a sinking ship on the open sea. Everything is in its right place, flows into one another on “In Computers” and even though the sound is hard to describe it must be clear that this band has a knack for ear candy. The sounds are unusual and sometimes harsh but they never disgust. 

The instrumental trilogy “In Computers Parts I – III” at the end is definitely HANL-like, of course as Tim is at work. The electronica in “Part II” can be seen as a little nod to Radiohead in their “Kid A/ Amnesiac”-period, not the worst of mental connections; some other parts sound like a very self-indulging and noise-less collab between Mogwai and Aphex Twin. Obviously, a lot of ideas, connections, comparisons come to mind when listening to Consumer’s full-length debut but one should note that this is a release which can take all of that scrutiny and needn’t be afraid of any of it for it is unique and self-sufficient. And maybe that is the best one can say for any side-project, right? 


​Thorsten

industrial

bandcamp

Released in May 6 by BLC Productions, Shot Of Pain is the most recent album by French industrial / electronic noise project Schultz. With an exotic and peculiar sound, the record has twelve tracks: 1) Used Nerves; 2) I Hate You; 3) My Wish; 4) Fuck Buddy; 5) Drugs Are Sins; 6) Raw Fucking Power; 7) Fake World; 8) House Of Misery; 9) La Musique Me Rend Sourd; 10) I’m Your God; 11) Bitch; 12) Shot Of Pain; with a style resigned to the relatively conventional musical standards of the genre, the album has an effectively cybernetic and futuristic vibe, that its usually aligned with the sonorous diagram of its inherently expansive features. As the album progresses, though, you realize that there is absolutely nothing here that you haven’t heard before in similar albums of the genre. Nevertheless, Shot Of Pain manages to be a somewhat decent album, displays a musical identity of its own, and definitely does not disappoint, if you are an enthusiast of the genre.    

With dense and derelict harmonies, that eventually becomes profusely predictable, its heavy, drastic and intense musical beats attacks the epicenter of its intransigent and abrasive creative axis, precisely where the reinvigorating artistry of the band aligns its sonorous distinctions with a more diluted synergy, that expands to the general atmosphere of the sound. With some tracks way better than others – Raw Fucking Power and House of Misery are two marvelously fantastic exemplars of the genre, while I’m Your God, in my modest opinion, is the most excellent track of the record – Shot Of Pain manages to be a good album, that inappropriately neglects in an undesirable scale its strongest qualities, that relies in the more lenient, sober and effusive aspects of their music. But its enjoyable virtues definitely compensate its limitations, and the general sonorous layout presented to the listener is skilful and coherent, though the lack of innovation and audacity unfortunately leaves a blank space that disappoints a little.  

Displaying a restrained aggressiveness and a substantial savagery that conceives the most pleasurable aspects of the music, Shot Of Pain has virtues that consolidates cohesively creative and technical capabilities, that hides a potential that seems dormant most of the time. But its more pragmatic and dilated components definitely makes the record an interesting listening experience, that – more or less –, reveals a discreet strength, whose potential is able to aggregate on the latent possibilities of the genre more exotic and distinctive elements.  

If you really like electronic noise or alternative industrial music, it is possible that you will manage to appreciate Shot Of Pain; if not entirely, at least partially. Nevertheless, there is nothing fantastic about this record, especially if you are a veteran enthusiast of the genre. There are some very good songs on this album, be sure about that. But in the end, nothing that can be considered too spectacular, innovative or exceptional. Shot Of Pain is only a moderately decent, good album at best, and it will hardly surprise you. 


Wagner

electro / EBM / industrial

Dans Les Profondeurs

Nowadays it feels strange to imagine the pre-digital underground music world.  We can still remember the young tape traders spreading obscure DIY experimental try-outs like rats from cellar to cellar. After decades of dust eating, a treasure of subsurface sounds is coming back to the obscure exterior digital realms of music.

Under Starch Clouds is a compilation of a small electronic and industrial scene from the 80’s. The scene operated from an underground pub The Yellow Lemonade in Aalst. Aalst is a town in Belgium known for its rebellion priest Daens and carnival. It was during the 80’s this industrial city blew clouds of pollution that infected the minds of the local artists and music freaks.

Nearly all the material on this compilation was originally recorded on tapes.  Those demos were exchanged among friends and played on DJ Attila The Nun’s (Peter Vercauteren) radio show “The Fall Of Western Civilization” (Radio Katanga). The tracks by Killvision and Neoprene Grt come from their debut demo tapes. Under Starch Clouds stands for experimental electronica without high tech tools. The artists used their inspiration to create effects with all kinds of kitchen gear or ancient hair dryers. Samples were taken from taped radio shows and therapeutic sessions.

This compilation is filled with pure rebellion against every known mainstream soundscape from the past and the coming future.  The music styles of the selected 10 tracks are situated between dark, sharp edged, industrial electro and electronic body music.  Under Starch Clouds is a black diamond with experimental insurgent music from an underground scene hidden in the industrial dungeons of Aalst. It was too difficult to choose a favorite track between all these outstanding items of Belgian electronic music. 

Under Starch Clouds is available on LP and digital. Hurry, grab your hands on this rarity because the (white) vinyl is limited to 223 pieces. The emperor of Wool-E Discs made us clear that in the future more of these secret sounds could be released to the world. For the time being this release has already a special place in our darkened hearts.

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Patsker

industrial / power electronics

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Institution D.O.L. is already more than 20 years active. The Austrian power electronics-noise duo, mastermind Barbie B. (music, vocals & lyrics) and his accomplice Meta Dolor (music, vocals & lyrics) released their 9th album, Our Love Can Destroy This Whole Fucking World. The band claims to be the one and only active playing Power Electronics artists in their country.

The release starts with an organ intro drowned in spiritual chanting. This surprising but cliche intro vaporizes when the second track, We Are The Black Ones, cracks our skull with harsh noise and threatening shouting vocal sounds. The horrifying mood continues with the apocalyptic track You are All Lost. Nostradamus would be rewriting his prophecies of the end of the world, after listening to the terrifying track Abschlachtung (slaughter). The noise combined with combusting soundscapes and frightening screams create an inhuman world filled with an overkill of horror. Abschlachtung makes you clear that in the world of Institution D.O.L. you want to die before you were born.

And the nightmare continues further with Absolute Hell. Institution D.O.L. forces the listener to follow their hypnotizing and addictive creations. They mixed a soft, but so mind touching piano choir guiding a speech of death with echoing screams in the distance. We embraced this Absolute Hell with pleasure. The album sounds better track after track. In Dust And Death, Institution D.O.L. reveals dark power electronics with pumping sequenced electronica taking you away, beyond your imagination. The evil vocals predict total devastation.

OLCDTWFW (Our Love Can Destroy This Whole Fucking World) is the most varied and intensive piece on this album. Twelve minutes feel like two minutes with this bursting volcano of noise changing into soundscapes and distorted voices. All fade away into an ambient piano piece releasing tranquility in this beautiful hell. Catharsis is the final end. Spoken emotions, screams of despair, grief and pain come to the surface guided by a piano, dimming into oblivion.
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The sounds and moods on Our Love Can Destroy This Whole Fucking World are definitely not for the common family and not for noise music tourists. Institution D.O.L.  gave us one hell of an industrial-power electronic-noise trip. The artists use the term “death scape” to describe their creations and they have a point. The album is available on CD and LP.


Patsker
 

black metal / industrial / psychedelic

Yeruselem is a side project of Blut Aus Nord's Vindsval and W.D. Feld. Blut Aus Nord has been around since 1993, starting out as a black metal band, but gradually drifting into more experimental/industrial territory.

While very influential, it is also a fact that their music is not exactly easy listening. Industrial metal is often quite fatiguing to listen to, so imagine what happens if you throw a heap of ambient noise and dissonant riffs on top of that...However, BoN's last release (Cosmosophy) started showing signs of going into a more accessible direction (relatively speaking, of course, it's still not Steel Panther).

Yeruselem shows these guys going further into this direction. The sound immediately reminds me of Godflesh, but the guitars would not be out of place in a goth or deathrock band, and the melodies are at times, well, poppy. Vocal-wise,it also sounds refreshing - at times it made me think of Jesu, Front 242, or even Depeche Mode (go figure). Don't get me wrong, it's still heavy, but a more accessible way.

There are 9 songs on "The Sublime", two of which are instrumental mood-setters. The rest are fairly short songs, barely exceeding 5 minutes at max. Of note are album opener "The Sublime", (brilliant guitar work) , and "Eternal", with twisted drums and catchy vocals. 

What Jesu is to Godflesh, Yeruselem is to Blut aus Nord. And since I'm a big fan of Jesu, this really made my day. 2019 is off to a good start!


Koen

black metal / dark ambient / experimental / industrial

Here's a review for an interesting release that flew largely under the radar: Haiku Funeral's "Decadent Luminosity", released end of October 2018. I do find it strong enough to revisit - after all, at the year's end, one should be compassionate to those who do not get what they deserve.

"Decadent Luminosity" is a double CD, with a total of 12 songs. Thematically, both discs stand on their own: the first one, called "Decadent", sounds like diabolical industrial metal - the band themselves call it "blackened industrial darkness". The second disc is called "Luminosity" and is a more ritualistic, organic affair ("ritual satanic ambient").

So what exactly is blackened industrial darkness? Imagine hammering industrial drums, meandering fuzzy basslines, some metallic impacts here and there, ancient string instruments, and, to top it all off, ritual chants and declamations. The end result is pretty electrifying, at times reminding me of NATO- or Wat-era Laibach, and of the icy cold declamations of Coph Nia's Aldenon Sartorial.

Highlights on this disc are the church organ solo at the end of the first song (Scientia Intra Satana), the eerie piped melodies on Lunata Sveti Kato Smwrt, and the Laibachian The Crown Of His Glory.
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As already stated, the second disc sounds more organic, largely due to the absence of the industrial drumming. Instead, what we get is a carefully constructed atmosphere, composed of slow drones, reverberating vocals, bells, saxophones, and other odd instruments. Perfect background listening, in my opinion - again, Coph Nia seems to have been a big inspiration (e.g. Poems of infernal Flesh).

Haiku Funeral is a French duo, operating from Marseille since 2008. Published by Aesthetic Death, Decadent Luminosity is their fifth release. Is it perfect? No, at times I find the lyrics to be somewhat silly. But apart from that, this is a gratifying and immersive listening experience for those cold days and nights spent sitting by the fireplace.


​Koen

drone / ambient

death metal / grindcore

death industrial / dark ambient

Exabyss Records

post rock / ambient / electronic

ambient / classical

funeral doom

gothic rock / alternative / metal

drone / ambient / folk

dark ambient 

alternative rock / funk rock

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indie / dreampop

industrial / electronic

Perc Trax

​Serge (2 & 3 by Patsker)

dark ambient

bandcamp

A fifteen minutes EP with four tracks, Dark Hymns lives to the glory of its simple, but energetic and suggestive title. With a very dark, subtle and obscure sound, the sensitive premises of the style are afflictive to the fullest – despite being paradoxically peaceful and serene –, and seems to anticipate the imminence of a profoundly terrible doom. While the work presents to the audience a very simple and surreal sound, its nuances are dense, and the excellence of its atmosphere dissipates a graceful and somber fear over the boundaries of the melodies. There is nothing too exceptional or extraordinary about this work, but for dark ambient genre enthusiasts, the vivid, morbid intensity displayed by the artist behind the project is certainly vast, very meaningful, and spiritually consistent. 

electronic / darksynth / dark electro / synthwave

Crossing Lights is an album released on June 22, by German electronica/ synthwave act Collapse Project. A wonderfully splendid album, with eleven tracks – Where everything began, Crossing Lights, Arise from the darkness, M.e.n.s.c.h., Pursuit,
Bloody Dancefloor, Cemetery Walk, Starfighter, Nightshift, Test Drive and Rewind – this marvelous and majestic state of the art work has colorful harmonies, a vibrant, lucid and energetic pace, an intense and cohesive style and a superb sense of rhythmic rapture. With softly pungent, dense and dynamic mordacious melodies that engraves its formidable intrinsic strength at the voracious pace of the music, the album is fulfilled with a tremendously aggrandizing and creative originality, displaying a talent that has everything to stand out as uniquely authentic in the contemporary underground scene. Showcasing a sensational musical grandeur whose artistry is effectively sidelined with the most vivid and hallucinating melodies, the genuine musical abilities of Collapse Project is a gigantic cosmic evolutionary step in what concerns the general development of the genre. With some of the most beautiful songs that I’ve ever heard, Crossing Lights is an unprecedented milestone in the history of electronica. Certainly, deserves not only to be fully appreciated, but highly highlighted as one of the most beautiful, sensational and singular albums ever conceived. 

death metal 

Coffin Birth is an album released on July 20, by Californian death metal group Extremity. With eight songs – Coffin Birth / A Million Witches, Where Evil Dwells, Grave Mistake, Umbilicus, For Want Of A Nail, Occision, Like Father Like Son and Misbegotten / Coffin Death – the record is a satisfactory, lucid and efficient, but hallucinatory and hazardous death metal album, that works decently the most traditional elements of the genre. With heavy, fast rhythms that exposes the voracity of their style, Extremity showcases a peculiar, brutal, direct style, atrocious to the core of its corrosive nature. Despite the fact that the album at some rare passages becomes a little predictable and monotonous, this does not affect the general layout of the sound, nor does any damage to the competent and precise style of the band. Their aggressive strength is somewhat inherent to the most brutal and extreme ramification of the genre, and the name of the band certainly stands for it. While you can’t expect too much of innovative features on this record, Coffin Birth displays a decent amount of virtuosity, talent and definition, and certainly honors the genre with a virulent and passionate degree of astounding sonorous hostility, that will entertain avidly the most dedicated enthusiasts of extreme death metal.    

grunge / stoner rock/ power metal / black metal / alternative rock

Released on June 22, Desolation is an album by alternative post grunge/ power metal rock group Khemmis. With six tracks – Bloodletting, Isolation, Flesh To Nothing, The Seer, Maw Of Time and From Ruin – this gracefully peculiar, audacious and cohesive record showcases the splendid abilities of a band that does an amazingly superb and exceedingly sophisticated work in their amalgamation of several different genres and styles of music. With a power metal core heavily infused by a post grunge alternative rock density, the music of Khemmis has its own singular and energetic creative groundwork, fuelled by an outstandingly voracious and rude nitroglycerine spontaneous synergy, that explodes directly in the brain of the listener. A little reminiscent of more classic and mainstream acts like Manowar, Creed and Blind Guardian – although exposing a formidable degree of uniqueness – the band does a surprisingly splendorous and excellent work on Desolation, that reveals itself as a marvelous, profoundly genuine and sensational album, all the way through. Undoubtedly, Desolation deserves to be classified as one of the greatest masterpieces of the year.  

electronic

A beautiful, outstanding, lancinating and colorful EP, Gated Soul has four tracks: Blues For Jekyll, Last Raver, Hocus Pocus and To The Woods. With beautiful melodies, and very sensible, delightfully plausible harmonies, there is a genius spontaneity coming out from these songs that actually make you feel quite enthusiastic about it. With an exceedingly serene, but at the same time ostensibly sensational and mandatory vibe, the artist reveals a subtle, but formidable sense of originality on the framework of the sound that is the embodiment of this work. From within, the melodies gradually expand from a synergy that relocates the rhythm directly to the point of its graciously moving syncope. Exposing lucidity and showcasing an extraordinary degree of creativity, this electronic music artist from Great Britain has no fear in demonstrating his superb, masterful and singular talent, that easily reinvigorates in a more sophisticated sonorous artistry the greatest elements of electronica. Here you have four amazingly wonderful songs, that you will be pleased to hear over and over again. 

black metal / death metal

A very impressive, hostile and energetic album – although widely using exceedingly crude and conventional elements by some standards – Krwawy Sztorm, by Polish extreme metal group Moloch Letalis, is an aggressive, furious and bloodthirsty album. Only thirty minutes long, the record has nine tracks: Wielka Egzekucja, Sztorm, Krwawa Ziemia, Zatańczysz Ze Mną Kurwa W Piekle ?, Przysięga, Zdychaj Psie, Palownik, Gotowy Na Piekło and Żar. With ostensive and abrupt rhythmic grievances, the style of the group is simple and direct, a little reminiscent of punk rock, given the atrocious voracity, objectivity and rudeness of its style. With a solid fidelity to the most brutal aspects of the genre, the work is amazingly competent and full of acid rage. Although there is nothing too aggrandizing nor original about the work, certainly this album is a pearl for avid enthusiasts of the genre, since Moloch Letalis literally practices closely the most ardent, extreme, raw and violent aspects of death and black metal, executing a refined breed of these marvelous genres. If you like astoundingly heavy material, Krwawy Sztorm is something you would like to hear. 

electronic / techno / industrial 

With six tracks – Entrance of Gargoyles, Dance or Die, The Order, Mechanical Vampire, The Cavern of Noise and Theunderdogme 2018hardrem1x – The Cavern of Noise, by techno industrial French artist McClane is a formidable, very intuitive and lancinating work. With abrasive and disruptive rhythms, increasingly grotesque and infuriating harmonies, cohesive dilapidation of sound and very unpredictable, dense musical compasses, The Cavern of Noise is an interesting work of art, astoundingly engraved at forefront of the best tradition of techno music. With elements that plays on the fundamental axis of the noise and industrial genres, the artist evokes at the colorful blast of the music an atmospheric vitality that rejuvenates the harmonies and the anatomy of the music. With a lucid, compulsory and graceful creativity that is exponential to the ardent mordacity of the melodies, on this album, you certainly get the best the genre will ever offer you. The title track – The Cavern of Noise – is absolutely the best, and will leave you with the dense exposition of what electro techno music should really sound like. 

black metal

Mysteries of Earth, released by British black metal group Blutvial on July 5th, is a formidable, lucid and splendorous album. Fully energized, mortally intense and with sordidly aggressive, rapturous and impulsive, but lugubrious and poetic guitar lines, Mysteries of Earth is better described as a marvelous state of the art work. With ten amazingly placid and cohesive tracks – beneath the moon, black silence, existential rite, vault of unrest, carving nihil, midwinter's halls, urnacht, doomed to eternal night, in praise of noctula and where graves spring open – this fantastic work, besides its subtle originality, extraordinary grandiosity and proverbial musical audacity, consolidates firmly and brings about intrinsically the best qualities of the genre: hostile mordacity, somber harmonies, an aggressive stylish impetus, creative melodies, a rapid pace and an exceedingly volatile density. With the organic virtue of a profoundly vital and conscious musical dynamic, you can certainly highlight this record as one of the best black metal pieces released this year. Mysteries of Earth is a punctuating device and a majestic work of art in the history of the genre.     

black metal

Cosmic Autumn is the debut album of an eponymous black metal project from Germany. Released on July 13, the record has five tracks: The Last Deception, Event Horizon, Indistinct Visions, Realms Of Eternal Light and Solitude (Instrumental). With a beautiful and very original musical layer, very sober and proficient, the sound is definitely strong, sensitive, dynamic and fundamentally cohesive. Although the record retains the fury typical of the genre, Cosmic Autumn is also a lesson on sincere and poetic artistry, as the music revolves itself around a shroud of mortifying serenity, like a twilight that dies in the agony of an everlasting moment of unspeakable affliction. Since the music translates into sound these imponderable passages of pervasive anger, the overall loyalty of the project’s style to the genre is emphasized, but without compromising the ability of the artist in showcasing his own peculiarities. A very good work, that certainly exposes the mordacious talent of an exponentially promising black metal artist, Cosmic Autumn is the opening gate for a musician that has everything to aggregate into the genre a whole new conjuncture of possibilities, with his audacious and ostensibly brilliant creativity. 

stoner rock/ psychedelic rock 

bandcamp

Earthborn is an album released by Greek stoner rock group Stone Age Mammoth. Forty minutes long, the record has seven tracks: Fearless, The Dark, Whispers, The Mysterious Life Of Mr Krips, The Secret, Earthborn and My Darkest Hour. An exceedingly calm, methodic and meticulous, but exceedingly vigorous and lucid album, undoubtedly, Earthborn is a fantastic state of the art work, that dissects, reverberates, comprehends and exposes the best aspects the genre has to offer. With singular, serene and soft guitar lines, a configuration of sonorous walls that grows from the sincere stylish leniency of the group and a marvelous sense of timing that knows from instinct what has to be done, Stone Age Mammoth has a formidable artistic security and a powerful domain over the genre, that comes out naturally. Revealing itself as a graceful masterpiece as the album evolves and revolves around its own atmosphere of calmness, omniscience and existential perception, the glorious creativity of the group certainly highlights them among other bands of the genre. With a singular conjuncture of sonorous qualities, Earthborn deserves to be greatly regarded, widely appreciated and publicized as the wonderful and fantastic work of art that truly is.

black metal

Nostalgia is an EP released on July 23 by German black metal artist ColdWorld. With five tracks – Cosmos Devourer, Demon Speed, The Dark Ages, Let The Devil In and Silva Nigra – the EP, almost twenty six minutes long, is concise. Exceedingly beautiful, with the typical elegance that is an engraved milestone of the artist, the proverbial guitar lines and the poetic harmonies anticipates the general conflagration of its overall majestic serenity, deeply fulgurated with the sensible character of its everlasting, elegant and somber  horizon of artistry. With rapid passages that are profoundly surrounded by graciously atmospheric interludes, the music on Nostalgia is overloaded with the imperial fragrances of its own rudimentary darkness, that is sustained by a lucid and dense, but marvelously whimsical ferocious resentment, whose vitality extrapolates the shadows of its own arrogant beauty. With everlasting precipices of color surrounding the rhythmic fortunes of the songs, I must confess that I wasn’t particularly overwhelmed by this work. Nevertheless, Nostalgia has all the elements that are characteristic of a ColdWorld work, and, to a certain extent, has enough qualities to be deemed valuable for its sincere and splendid level of singularity.    

post rock / experimental

Return is a three tracks EP released on July 25, by a musician from India, who works under the nom de plume of Phet. With three marvelous songs – Return, Distance and Liberation – Phet works very distinctively the interior perception of the harmonies, to articulate an ascendant, protuberant and expansive, but at the same time discreet, lucid and introspective degree of sonorous exhilaration. With a pungent, incisive axis of conscious melodic devices, correctly assimilated by the lenient, but purposeful stability of its glorious symbiosis of organic dissonances, that seems lethargic at first, the intrinsic nature of the rhythmic serenity that grows within this musical horizon slowly works towards the digressive elements of the harmonies, revolving around a certain complexity that obliterates the cosmic volatility of its formidably eloquent style. With a futurist, colorful, modernist musical approach that made the external shape of the songs, indeed, to sound in an exceedingly beautiful and elegant fashion, Return can be positively described as a very gracious, audacious and original work of art. The last track, Liberation, I would certainly highlight as my favorite. If you want to listen to something very surprising, astute and genuine, I definitely recommend this marvelous and surreal EP. 

Wagner