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Barren Womb – Lizard Lounge

25/5/2020

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grunge / noise rock / alternative rock
Loyal Blood Records
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Is it a compliment if you tell a band that they do not sound at all like the place where they come from? It definitely might be an insult to a whole region if one doesn’t really know the  “scene” one is talking about. Nevertheless it probably also depends a lot on the people you are talking to. In case of Norwegian-Finnish duo “Barren Womb” you could say they do not sound as if they were from Trondheim, Norway. If you associate that with music somewhere between Motorpsycho and black metal. However, if you think about the freedom to do whatever you want associated with the vastness of the country, Barren Womb might sound exactly like Trondheim. 

Their songs change their identity quite often, they are hardcore, punk, noise, a bit mathy but they are definitely clearly not caged into a corset intended to limit the airflow within one’s body and mind: the drummer and guitar player are definitely free thinkers. Being able to play some funky stuff like “Hairy Palms” with its mix of indie dance-guitar licks somewhere Parliament and Franz Ferdinand and rock’n’roll drumming in the style of the Black Crowes needs courage and good execution.  One band that comes to mind when listening to “Lizard Lounge” is definitely Torche with their knack for writing catchy yet heavy tunes. 

Their songwriting is really awesome because they never lengthen their songs into the unnecessary. Every song is as long as it needs to be, the whole album is only 36 minutes long, even though it comprises ten songs. “Trimming the fat”, they called it. And yet those songs are chunky and addictive. Especially as they all represent a different “genre”, remember the free thinking approach. If you then follow the Timo and Tony through their tracklist, you notice that they come up with a bluesy ditty right called “Crop Circle Jerk” right after funky “Hairy Palms”. Courage! 

The author is surprised now how often the record has been spinning in a row, but that is also a good sign how immensely enjoyable the whole affair is. Take “Nerve Salad” for example – a nice mathy bit of stoner rock. Or “Hydroponic Youth” with is slowly build-up that is able to keep the tension despite a slower tempo.  

With “Lizard Lounge” you get an awesome record for the BBQ in the summer when you want to entertain your guests with an eclectic mix of songs and ideas that never get bothersome but keep their inner entertainment level high. And then one of their guests will ask “Hey, those guys are from Cali, right?” 


Thorsten

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Coilguns – Watchwinders

5/1/2020

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noise rock
Hummus Records
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Coilguns is Jona Nido (guitar), Luc Hess (drums),  Louis Jucker  (vocals and bass),  who also play in the German progressive metal band The Ocean, and Donatien Thiévent (synths and backing vocals). In the middle of their Millennials tour, the Swiss band could gather enough time and inspiration to craft their newest record. They camped in the studio for a month starting from scratch.

The band members could vaporize all their frustrations in Watchfinders, a tank filled with exploding noise rock. Coilguns tempo of grinding guitar waves and screaming are kept in the exact rhythm by the drumming beast Luc Hess.

​Talking about a Swiss clock, no matter how the speed of the tracks changes from slow to overdrive, Luc Hess keeps everything in the right and precise balance. Louis Jucker, known as the almighty hugger during their live gigs, growls, screams, speaks in all directions. The music is heavy, psychedelic and infested by rabies. Some tracks have calmer pieces, which are only the remnants of the steaming outbursts of anger. 

Their only goal was getting darker, and they did it with brilliance. Watchwinders is like a Siberian ice tsunami crushing everything on its way. Coilguns has built a glacier with twelve levels filled with dangerous traps and pumped themselves into a higher level of noise rock. This outstanding release is available on CD and vinyl on the bands Bandcamp page. We took this bulldozer forever in our heart.

Patsker

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Luggage - Shift

7/12/2019

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noise rock
Corpse Flower
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We are who we are. But we are also what we are made to be, this “what” can be a lot of things – our circle of friends, our job, our upbringing or also the place where we live. We are the way we are because where we are. To put it into a musical context: Everybody can come up with an example of a band that could only come out of this specific region or city; Sonic Youth could never have become who they were if they hadn’t had their roots in NYC, a first class avantgarde melting pot. Outkast wouldn’t have been Outkast if they hadn’t had access to The Dungeon where Organized Noize laid the beats. Nirvana wouldn’t have become one of the biggest names in modern rock if they hadn’t sprung from an area so remote that no real genre-specific scene held them back. 

Now, with Luggage this idea of being who we are because of where we are is quickly supported. This sound, so clean, so sparse, so far away from any kind of over-production – it must come out of Chicago. The sound is clearly identifiable as Electrical Audio because of its brilliant clarity, its ability to be really noisy and distorted and yet still simply clean and sharp. Luggage clearly have taken a lot from Shellac, not only the producer. 

But their musical style is much more rooted in post-punk than Shellac’s, the similarity is the use of discordant, unharmonious guitar parts that whirl through the songs like abruptive lightning through warm late summer evenings. The three-piece has refined their songwriting skills since they formed in 2014, taking a lot of the city urban sprawl and laid-out, symmetrical geometry channeling it into songs with a feel of driving along long avenues passing block after block before encountering a hard stop in form of an accident blocking everything else from view. 

The repetitiveness of Helmet with their mathy schemes combined with Shellac’s feeling for implementing discordance harmoniously into a sound that is clearly more post-punk than noise. For all people who love a bridge between Shellac, Jesus Lizard, Slint and Gang of Four – this is a band you will love. All of the old heroes in a band so urgent in appeal that it is blissfully mesmerizing – the classical noise record of the year. 


Thorsten

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Timelost – Don’t Remember Me For This

2/11/2019

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shoegaze / grunge / post punk / noise rock
Golden Antenna
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It’s that special sound of the guitar strings that makes shoegaze so unique – that moment when the pick hits the string and then the sound starts winding its swirling way up the long, thick metal cord. Something similar can be said about the significance of those same strings for a grunge song, albeit here the sound is not winding up slowly and seemingly winding along even after the end of the neck, in many grunge songs the sound is pretty short but robust. You can see the difference clearly when listening to “Loveless” and then to “Nevermind”. 

Rarely a band comes along that denies its allegiance to one side or the other, which merely says “Hey, never mind being loveless!” Timelost is one of those rare bands and at the same time they are more. Another example of 2019’s singular position among recent decades when it comes to new sounds and combinations, just think of Witch Trail or Jambinai. 

So here Timelost are, now entertain us. The first song already transports a similar vibe - “You’ll never know / How strange I feel / It comes and goes / It’s always there” is a laconic take on a broken relationship and the time lost becomes its drive impersonated by the energetic drums and the   quick guitar lines that seem to reach for something beyond its origins. Singer Shane Handal mentions that this is some kind of ongoing motif on the album – relationships and loss, “It’s weird to throw yourself out there to the world and be so vulnerable but it felt honest and real. We wanted to put out a genuine record from the music to the lyrics.” There is something in those good and simple, yet exquisitely shoegaze-grunge songs that goes straight to the heart and makes us want to embrace this duo for all it’s worth. Maybe it’s something like the outro of “Nausea Curtains”, where a few harsh hits on the drum kit end a line of reverberating guitar twists, and the semi-acoustic guitar intro to the following song “Don’t Remember me for this”, where the acoustic-ness is then substituted for some swishing rides of the shoegaze riffs up the neck of Handal’s guitar. 

There are some clearly grungey moments on the record like the intro to “The River broke us” which sounds like a meeting between Kurt Cobain’s neck and Dean DeLeo’s strings. This record is much more than one part Set and Setting (Handal) and Woe (drummer Grzesiek Czapla) – it is neither and stands within a new sound realm, one it draws the listener to. Timelost are here to entertain us, no matter the melancholic mood they were in when writing the record, these eleven tracks spread loads of warmth. 


​Thorsten

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Brieviews 64

25/10/2019

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Clavicvla – Sepulchral Blessings

dark ambient
Cyclic Law
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A gray cover shower the mouldy hands of a seemingly dead person – no one could live with hands a mixture of burnt to ashes and blown up by frostbite – hanging down in front of an old garment (with one bloody stain on the left arm) as if worn by a mummy from the 17th or 18th century. This cover
gets the listener into the right mood for what will follow in the next 37 minutes.

No sunshine can permeate through the stark, distorted canvas that Clavicvla – mastermind Ittiel has concocted for the follow-up to last year’s “Sermons”, only to show that the starkness of horror scores for the most evil movies, the most gruesome images, the most horrible slow-motions need some kind of eruption: a shriek, a shrill noise wandering from left to right, a slow verbal chant to exemplify the fear to be induced.

Sepulchral Blessing” is not a bad album per se, not that is not true, in the realm of Black Ambient
this band has definitely a strong footing and will even gather more followers with this album. It is
bleak, it got a lot of atmosphere, knows how to incorporate small disturbances into the sub-bass
horror bleakness without ruining the Hadean flow. However, those of us who do not regularly watch old horror movies turning off the sound and for those who cannot envision a dark spawn of John Carpenter and Bohren und der Club of Gore lying in the grave dug up by Mamiffer and A-Sun Amissa this will not do. A class of its own – for its own scene – in its own world. Enter if you may.


Ateiggaer – Us D’r Höll Chunnt Nume Zyt

black metal
Eisenton
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Swiss German is already a hell to understand for anybody who is not from the Northern part of
Switzerland, but turning it into the lingua franca for a black metal record seems even more absurd.
However, one thing becomes very clear when listening to Ateiggaer’s debut EP, to be released in
mid-November: These two guys (working under the monikers Fauth Temenkeel and Fauth Lantav)
make no sacrifices, they take no hostages, they are in it for themselves and for nobody else.

Associated with the up and coming Helvetic Underground Committee from Zurich, they are able to play a furious version of black metal that has long been associated with the second wave of black metal, stemming from Norway. They infuse their fundamental rage and well-shouted visions with short passages of intricate laid-back drum fills, guitar motifs and near-Gregorian chants that connect very well with the mysticism they are here to convey, just listen to “De Dämon us Levania” (the demon from Levania) – everything blends in nicely.

The world as we see it is not theirs, they talk about spheres and gods from another realm, always
able to surprise us with minuscule differences to the usual sound. Not even a year into their
existence, Ateiggaer already got a release by popular German black metal label Eisenton – no
surprise when listening to this EP which is hopefully not their last.


Process Black - Countdown Failure 

hardcore
Deathwish
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When announcing this release of one of his numerous projects on iconic label Deathwish Inc.,
guitar player Aaron D.C. Edge said that this was a dream come true. Naturally, most any hardcore band dreams of releasing a record through Jacob Bannon’s label for several reasons – worldwide acclaim, lots of fans and, of course, the respect of the scene. However, the members of the band have already earned that respect over decades of contributing with so many bands (amongst them 
Deadguy, Kiss It Goodbye or Lumbar), so that this should not be a major goal.


Nevertheless, one goal was surely to release a standout single which they did. The noisy, low-tuned shredding by Aaron, Brock Lowry’s tight drumming or Tim Singer’s brilliant vocals (his name speaks for itself, evidently) all give the listener a shiver-evoking experience. The opener “Lies > Truth” already shows all the strengths of the band and additionally marks a deeply sarcastic lyricist.
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“I don’t want truth… just lie to me” - sometimes people want to be lied to because (maybe) the
truth is too hard to bear, right? Well, truth be told, you will have to try hard to find a better noisehardcore debut single this year. The dream has come true for these experienced musicians. 

Burden Limbs – There is no Escape

"miserable bastard music" / alternative / indie
Glasshouse Records
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Burden Limbs debut EP can hit you straight in the face when you least expect it as it displays a rougher version of the kind of dark pop that Kayo Dot presented on their latest record. The darkness is not only shown musically in a synth-driven melodrama like the self-titled track “Burden Limbs” but even more in their lyrics which are pretty straight-forward: “I'm so tired of suffering these reminders of a world I can't abide / Why else would I carve out my hatred and dissatisfaction?” The little red-glowing dots on the dark horizons are not leading the way to new-found hope but rather to blood raining in slo-mo from the skies. Not a lot of songs demand repeat as urgently as this one.

Burden Limbs can also knock you out in ways that do not sound like a doom-version of The Cooper Temple Clause but much more immediate with songs that introduce themselves into your longtimememory by means of simply intriguing lyrics by Chad Murray but also through the combination of synths, drones and gently-interwoven electronica giving you the chance to discover a lot of details and something new each time you sit down to really listen. And listen you should – these Londonboys might be up to something. They provide a great soundtrack to an overdose of medicine you don’t want to take but that you just can’t stop yourself from.

Kurokuma / Under – Kurokunder Split 7” 

doom / sludge / noise rock / metal
Astral Noize
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Split releases – an interesting thing as most of us can name a few from the tip of our head, right? Isis and Aereogramme, Melt Banana and Fantomas, Battery and Ignite, The Ocean and Burst. Sometimes however, those with the unknown bands get you the most. Mid-November, Astral Noize will bring us one of the latter category, releasing a 7” by Kurokuma and Under. The combination is really striking, because both songs at first glance seem totally unrelated only sharing a certain weirdness.

Kurokuma starts off with a cover song (well, that is not unusual for a split release) – reworking a theme song for a 20 year old Sega game classic called “Ecco the Dolphin: The Tides of Time” - fortunately, this is not a close cover but a free interpretation as they turn the whirling theme into a pretty clever doom track with a lot of atmosphere and a striking hihat use so that the listener asks himself afterwards if this might not have been the better theme for Ecco’s second adventure.

Then Under are up next with “Abysal Gigantism” and they definitely have some sense of humor, because their track starts with some field recordings from the seaside so that you hear that kind of stuff you would expect from our dolphin. Then they turn the song into an  eight minute epic somewhere between Crowhurst and Dillinger Escape Plan making clever use of vocoder, swirling guitars and waving drums all being held together by a strong rhythm section. 

In the end, this 7” leaves one impressed by the chutzpah of combining those two bands and the
clever way both complement each other turning this split into a more than welcome stray from the
path of regular splits.

Witch Trail – The Sun Has Left The Hill

black metal / noise rock / post metal
Babylon Doom Cult Records
Consouling Sounds
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Sometimes, certain boundaries should not be crossed. For example combining Motown Soul and
Classic Hardcore – that just doesn’t work. Nevertheless, some unexpected combinations might
work, just remember Zeal and Ardor combining gospel and black metal. Witch Trail do something similar – they create their own unique blend of post-metal taking a lot from Sonic Youth and Thurston Moore’s solo work and combining it with pure post-metal. And once again, Belgium (more specifically Ghent) proves to be a brilliant soil for unique combinations as the trio is really able to provide a fresh start to a genre as trodden as post-metal.

They take the classic noise-licks and use them to replace the regular post-metal riffs. This way they also implement the pop-appeal of good noise-rock into their songs. How they start “Lucid” with a noisy take on a nearly surf-twang guitar riff and then build the shrieking vocals around it, always leaving those easy and pumping noise-rock elements at the core of the song and right in the middle of our ears – impressive! Sometimes you must think of the Beach Boys (“Stupor”), but sharing the record with Stiff Little Fingers and Discharge (“Sinking”); suddenly Kim Gordon and SY show up on your mental stage (“Silent Running”) - but interestingly all of the songs are not sung by any of those but by a guy like Fenriz. These 29 minutes full of twists and turns, of clean-distorted noisy-ness and of blastbeats, of infernal shrieks and a unique soundscape really captures any open ear. 

Thorsten
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Opium Lord – Vore

19/10/2019

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black metal / noise rock / metal / sludge
bandcamp
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Well, well, well – if it ain’t the birthplace of it all, Birmingham? Nobody needs a reminder why the
Midlands are the place where the magic started 50 years ago. Nobody needs to hear about Ozzy and
Tommi and the others. But wait – what came out of Birmingham since then? Okay, Napalm Death,
but what else? Goldie. Okay, okay, Napalm Death and Goldie, but what else? Godflesh! Okay, okay,
okay, Napalm Death and Goldie and Godflesh and… I guess most of you know which movie is
being referenced here indirectly. Just as Reg has to admit that the Romans have done numerous
things for Galilee, the connoisseur of music history must admit that rusty, rotten Birmingham has
done loads of things for music with Opium Lord being one of the latest examples.

It is interesting how Opium Lord can oscillate between Godflesh, Jesus Lizard and Mayhem,
although the later is more obvious in the vocal style only as they are clearly black metal – based.
The musical foundation is definitely AmRep-influenced noise rock (with a crisp bass sound),
although it has clearly been stuffed down the sludge version of a meat mincer only to come out on the other end in the style of a musical coldness to match the sterile cleanliness of Broadrick’s
“Streetcleaner”. This sonic versatility is also the reason why the quintet was able to share the stage with bands as diverse as Oathbreaker, Swans and Yob.

​Speaking of Yob, the five-piece from steel town was able to convince Mike Scheidt so much that he wanted to contribute to this record and thus “Columbia” was born. A song, somehow typically Mike but at the same time also typically Opium Lord. It takes its time to build slowly but then end pretty harshly with a lot of shrieking, nearly buoy-like guitar work. Yet, this track also exemplifies the single problem of this record. The clean parts make the song more interesting and add to its intensity simultaneously showing that more clean parts would benefit the album – a small blemish as the industrial soundscape of the album is still so dense.

With an album like this it is hard to believe that their former label was not interested enough in
them to make this work. However, The Sludgelord profits from it and is able to procure another
gem this year with an album whose sonic coldness that never pushes you away but rather draws you in. Birmingham is back with an example how a rusty environment can provide a good basis for a noise-band rubbing rusty metal blades against our ears. 


Thorsten

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30,000 Monkies - Are Forever

30/9/2019

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noise rock / sludge / psychedelic
Consouling Sounds
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After a few months of writing-inactivity I thought it would be a good idea to return with a bang, and what better way to make a comeback than with this rumbling piece of sonic confusion by Belgian noise makers 30.000 Monkies? But before I dig deeper into this album, I've got a few people to thank. In the past few months I have been dealing with some kind of writers-block. I lost interest in Merchants Of Air and in writing reviews so I announced our goodbye. Apparently, people were quite shocked by this announcement. I received a massive array of reactions, gratitude and support from Merchants Of Air fans all over the world. So to all of you: Thank you for pulling me out of the quicksand of music journalism...

...only to be pushed right back in by this pummeling album. This Belgian quartet has been composing intense music for quite some time now. 'Are Forever' is the follow up to 'I Ate Myself to Grow Twice as Big', which was released three years ago. Three years is a long time, so it was time to dispose another slab of worms-infested sludge doom over their audience. And for those not yet convinced: 'Are Forever' will either grind you into a pulp or shatter the last piece of sanity still left in you. Luckily for you, if you're a Melvins/Harvey Milk/Lightning Bolt fan, you will love the shit out of this.

​The album opens with 'Miles Of Smiles', which comes up with a sweet girl asking you if you have ever had a dream. Shortly after, the dissonant and pulsating riffs grab you by the throat, dragging you down into the vile, haunting world of 30.000 Monkies. The easiest way to describe this music is saying it's a blend of sludge doom and noise rock, hence the references to Melvins and so on. Yet, it won't surprise you when I say that there is a lot more to this. There are eerie passages with eerie guitars, impending percussion and frightful mantras. There is the punkish violence of 'The Gift' and blackened elements in plenty of other tunes.

'The Fist Of Impending Joy' is my personal favorite. Not many sludge doom tunes remind me of the old days of symphonic black metal but this terrifying piece of work will definitely grind your nutsack, so to speak. And then there is 'And Ever', which does weird things with ambient and a drug-infused Sonic Youth jam. It serves mostly as an intro for closer 'Cluck Me Up' but it's also a bloody awesome tune. That closer, 'Cluck Me Up', is one of those sludge doom tunes that will devour entire audiences everywhere and it comes with the energy of an atomic bomb.

In all, this is not suited for people who suffer from migraine, neither for people who think it's pretty cool that Luc Appermont and Bart Kaell have been a couple for 40 years. Nope, this is the perfect shot of noisy sludge doom, intended to wreck and ruin everything in its path. If you are a fan of being tortured to death by grinding riffs, violent vocals and methodical drums, you need this album. Damn, it feels good to be writing again...


Serge

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Brieviews 63

6/7/2019

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Maximilian Latva - Nekyia

noise / dark ambient / experimental
bandcamp
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After 'Hrön', released in 2017, Maximilian Latva returns with a new album. Six tracks long, 'Nekyia' is a harsh and often unsetling dark ambient trip with intense synth-scapes and wailing guitars. It's cool to hear how Latva adapts elements of noise into captivating electronic chamber music with a haunting atmosphere. The result is something that seasoned ambient-noise fans can fully appreciate. My favorite track here is 'Sanoista saastunut', a lingering set of distorted synths, perfectly suited for gritty jazz bars and eerie horror movies alike. My advice? Check it out, it'll be worth the sonic journey...

HIN  - Warmer Weather 

electronic
dSound In Silence
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Two school friends, jamming with electronics and creating melancholic yet dance-able indie pop tunes, that's pretty much how this project can be described. This duo comes up with an intriguing EP where electronics meets post rock. Most of the songs on this EP remind me a bit of Worriedaboutsatan but with emotional indie-vocals. Opener 'The Lower Heat' is already a potential top hit and halfway through 'Blue In Alkali' I'm expecting HIN to one day support Depeche Mode. Don't ask me why. This is very interesting modern-day post-whatever with intense electronic percussion and an emotional impact, neat!

Winterblind - Effigy

progressive / metal / black metal
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According to their facebook page, Belgian progressive metal band Winterblind is definitely not a pyramid scheme. That's good to know but I think it's more interesting to dive into their ruthless and complex music. 'Effigy' is their second EP, and it's loaded with warring riffs, meticulous drumming and harsh vocals. The result is a six-track EP which is just as baffling as it is confusing. If you're into the technically superior regions of black metal, Winterblind might be one of your new favorites. Speaking of favorites, 'Stride' is my aboslute favorite, although 'Black-Scholes' and the almost Tool-ish 'My Public Anatomy' also deliver the odd goods. Anyway, 'Effigy' is an EP to discover...

Plague 9 - Mr. Ass

heavy metal / thrash metal
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Coined as "something for headbanging metal junkies", Australian four-piece Plague 9 delivers old school thrash metal in the vein of most of your favorites. Between the intense riffs and the grooving drums we can find influences from Pantera, Megadeth, Metallica and so on. Opener 'Stuck In Hell' might need a few seconds to get used to but halfway through this song I can see a crowd of metalheads fiercely banging their heads. 'Criminal Justice' might be a bit too chaotic for me but 'Flavour Of The Weak' is a smasher and a possible fan favorite. In all, this is definitely something for old school thrashers.

Things That Aren’t There - Vicious Cycles

downtempo / electronic / post rock / shoegaze
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English electronic post rock duo Things That Aren't There return with another epic two-track EP. I reviewed their preview EP in Brieviews 38 (read) so I was curious about their evolution. Opener and title track 'Vicious Cycles' immediately delivers the goods. Driving on minimal beats and lingering electronics, this song is a modern day shoegaze epic, laced with elements from industrial and post rock. A bit like Worriedaboutsatan but darker and eerier. 'The West Was Won' nudges more towards the post rock spectrum with its dreamy guitars, making it another brilliant piece of music. Recommended? Absolutely!

Wykan - Brigid - Of The Night

psychedelic / doom
bandcamp
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In Brieviews 39 I was raving about the psychedelic rock meets extreme metal sound of Montreal based act Wykan. Guess what, they did it again. What starts out as something Pink Floyd forgot to compose suddenly and brutally dives into the world of old school black metal. In fact, Wykan regularly drags you from a trip through space into the depths of hell and back again. This is such a bewildering experience. Not enough variation for you? Well, how about some stoner rock riffs, or grinding blastbeats, or ritual doom worship? All of that is in all three of these mindblowing tunes. Be sure to get your ears on this EP.

Radien - Aste

sludge / black metal
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Beginning with one of the most haunting intros in blackened sludge history, this two-track by Finnish act Radien is one to cherish for a long time. Eerie vocals and throat-singing over slow, lingering riffs and forceful drums, creating an intense, murky atmosphere, right before all hell breaks loose in sheer Yob or Conan style. Yet, now that those comparisons have been made, it's safe to say that Radien somehow manages to lift the level of intensity even higher. Makes me wonder: why is this band not at the very top of the sludge-scene? And the second track simply repeats the whole demolition. Masterfully crafted blackened sludge, nothing more, nothing less...

Peter Jørgensen - Alt i Stykker

ambient / modern classical / experimental
bandcamp
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With a range of acoustic instruments and classically schooled vocalists, Peter Jørgensen delivers an awe-inspiring two-track EP. 'Alt i Stykker' is no regular ambient album, although the overall sentiment is slow and narrative. I think this could better be described as two lengthy pieces of modern day classical music, or sound track compositions for a gloomy film. In all, 'Alt i Stykker' is a remarkable release, not easy to categorize but definitely easy to enjoy if you are into unusual, free form and improvised classical music. Check it out. it's certainly worth your time.

Boobs Of Doom - Sorcerer

drone / doom / noise / experimental
bandcamp
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Scottish doom outcasts Boobs Of Doom are regulars here on Merchants Of Air, and for a good reason too. This duo does things their way, resulting in weird and interesting albums which defy the rules of doom metal, so to speak. In fact, 'Sorcerer' nudges harshly towards the drone and noise scene with four unique tracks. Perhaps you can say that this is the musique concrète version of drone doom. Perhaps you could say that this is a bit too strange for your sensitive ears but fact remains, Boobs Of Doom is a unique entity, walking its own path through the world of sonic composition and quite often, it's worth following that path...

Temple Music - The Unquiet Mind

ambient / electronic
Sombre Soniks
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Alan Trench & Steve Robinson have been working under the moniker Temple Music for quite some time now and with 'The Unquiet Mind', they deliver a brooding album, inspired by ​Evia, an island at the crossroads of Greek, Byzantine, Ottoman, Venetian and Albanian cultures. Musically, this results in a frenzy of soundscapes, rhythms and melodies which remind me of a mix between Master Musicians Of Bukkake and Tangerine Dream. The five pieces on this album are lengthy electronic music compositions, perfectly capable of taking the listener on a trip. It'll be an unusual sonic adventure but one with many stories to tell, I promise.

Lunden - Lunden

noise rock
bandcamp
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Danish duo Lunden sounds like two members of Melvins getting drunk and jamming on each other's instruments. I'm not sure if that's a compliment but still, this is mind bending noise rock, probably influenced by everything between Sonic Youth, post hardcore and ritual noise acts. 'Bestanden' is way over the top for me but most of the other tracks showcase an intense urge to experiment. 'Ultrapisme' is another weird noise act while 'Screen Walking' and 'Endlessity' scream garage noise rock. In all, this is something for the die-hard noise rock fans, who should already be drooling by now...

Jimbo - Where The Vultures Gather

stoner rock / grunge / alternative rock
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Hailing from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Jimbo throws three pieces of grooving rock music into this eclectic mix. Firmly rooted in the stoner rock scene ('Mama Wava'), this trio is not afraid to experiment with old school doom rock and grunge ('Pyrethrin') or heavy garage rock ('Where The Vultures Gather'). Perhaps not surprisingly for a band who seems to be influenced by acts like Led Zeppelin, Smashing Pumpkins and Alice In Chains. These three songs are quite interesting, especially if you love flashing guitar solos (yeah, let's also list heavy metal as an influence, just for these solos). Now shut up and rock!!!


​Serge
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Brieviews 62

18/5/2019

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Ogmasun - Into the Void

post rock / post metal
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With 'Into The Void', Swiss progressive post metal combo Ogmasun delivers a dark, broody and intense trip. Two tracks, forty minutes, this album one hell of a journey. Perhaps it is not as easy digestible as most post-rock related albums but it's certainly worth the effort. Gloomy ambient tunes alternate with heavy, guitar based pieces of music in which the bass pushes the whole thing forward. Then there are the vocal samples which fit perfectly over the music and elements of indie rock, math rock and progressive rock. The result is something highly narrative, something every fan of elaborate anthems will appreciate.

Bunkr - Schluss

noise rock / jazz / experimental
bandcamp
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What starts as a pretty normal post rock album quickly develops into something mind boggling as Swiss band Bunkr opens a box of influences from noise rock to jazz, mathcore and even progressive metal. On 'Schluss' the band comes up with five tracks, mixing dissonance with immersive hooks and sheer intensity. The result is a baffling piece of work, not easy to comprehend but definitely something fans of the unusual will enjoy. Title track 'Schluss' is my personal favorite here, or perhaps the somewhat sludgy 'Truand'. Most fans will prefer the lengthy 'Vautour', but all five of these tracks will overwhelm you, no doubt about that.

Gloson - Mara

doom / sludge
bandcamp
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Roaming somewhere between funeral doom and sludge metal, Swiss act Gloson delivered a gut piercing two-track EP. To tell you the truth, I was a bit surprised when I heard it for the first time. Instead of the hazy, stoner version of doom, which I expected, Gloson immediately comes up with massive riffs, pummeling drums and fierce death growls. Needless to say, perhaps, but I was quickly impressed with opener 'Usurper'. 'Equinox' easily walks the same rough and brutal path. Heavy, intense, yet melodic and immersive, this EP is an absolute must-have for the seasoned doom fan, no doubt about that. 

Geezer - Spiral Fires

psychedelic / doom / stoner rock
Kozmik Artifactz
bandcamp
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Can't get enough of heavy riffing and doomed journeys? Well then, put this in your pipe and smoke it. American trio Geezer throw a massive EP into the mix with 'Spiral Fires'. Opening with a psychedelic space tune, this EP quickly takes us off this planet and into the vast darkness of our galaxy. Then, when the riffs, the bass and the drums appear, Geezer guides you on sonic waves of Sabbathian riffing, something like that. And all of that continues in the other three tracks. As far as psychedelic doom metal is concerned, you rarely get anything more interesting than this. So obviously this comes highly recommended

Lecu - Scented Sonar

ambient
Left Tapes
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The facebook page mentions: "Ambient kinda guy // ambient kinda music" and that pretty much covers the load for this three-track EP. Inspired by Frahm, Eno and Aphex Twin, Lecu comes up with three enigmatic ambient tunes, a bit experimental at times but certainly worthy of a spot in your elaborate ambient playlist. My favorite here is 'Blue Desert', which combines gloomy soundscapes with playful elements, which somehow represents a soft summer rain. I think ambient fans will know what to do with this beauty. Check it out and allow Lecu to take you on a beautiful underwater journey...

Aleksei Nikitin - Vesna

house / techno / electronic
bandcamp
Lobster Records
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Russian producer Aleksei Nikitin comes up with a pretty exciting 12" which will get many EDM fans on their feet. Opener 'Gruv' immediately sets the tone: repetitive beats, rough sampling and minimal melodies. Yet, my favorite here is the dark dancefloor filler 'Blaze Away' which takes me back to the days of Zen Paradox, Shaolin Wooden Men and so on. Title track 'Vesna' even delves into the dark underground of gothic industrial electro and heavy synthpop. That's three different styles of house music, all on one EP, more than enough to appear on these pages. So check this out and shake your ass. You know you want to...

Druhá Smrt - Incarnatium

dark ambient
Sombre Soniks
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I don't think Druhá Smrt need an introduction on these pages. Over the past few years, this Czech duo have become one of my absolute favorites in the dark ambient scene. Their new effort, 'Incarnatium' merely cements that spot. With four tracks, this EP is another brilliant statement for Druhá Smrt. Dark, brooding and immersive as hell, this EP can easily stand next to your favorites by Raison D'Etre, Lustmord or Atrium Carceri, just to name a few. This is a somber album, mystifying and dreary, like only the most seasoned dark ambient acts can produce. Believe me, ​Druhá Smrt is a force to be reckoned with in this scene. You need this!

Chelidon Frame - NowHere Nowhere NoWhere

ambient / experimental
Sounds Against Humanity
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From the bandcamp page: "This music is an attempt to tame all the new sounds you meet when moving to a new house". Composed out of processed field recordings, this album is an outstanding piece of minimal ambient. With nine track, Chelidon Frame attempts to narrate a story, something deeply personal. Now, I can't really say I feel the story on this album but I do enjoy the music. These are unusual and unrecognizable sounds, dressed in layers of soothing ambient, fitting perfectly with the sounds that surround you, like church bells, passing cars or the neighbor's music. In all, this is a highly enjoyable album, one that will pleasantly surprise you.

Talipes Valgus - Sly

electronic / downtempo
bandcamp
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With six tracks, Russian electronic act Talipes Valgus comes up with a slow, pulsating and brooding EP where trip hop receives a modern day make-over. According to the biography, the software used for this music is Ableton and in a way you can hear that. The deep bass lines and the typical Ableton sounds are present, but that doesn't mean that this thing is stale and unoriginal. In fact, 'Ravine River' plays with orchestral samples to create something rather overwhelming. Besides, Talipes Valgus doesn't shun the experiment, resulting in a few odd but mesmerizing pieces of music.

Haunt - If Icarus Could Fly

heavy metal
Shadow Kingdom Records
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And just like that we're catapulted back into the glory days of heavy metal. Haunt digs deep into the world of NWOBHM and comes out with a flashing eight track EP. Each of these tracks could have been written by one of your favorite old school heavy metal bands but hey, they forgot so here is Haunt to make you raise your horned fist and yell along with these infectious tunes. Opener 'Run & Hide' is probably one of the most electrifying metal tunes released this year and most of the others will make your rock dick grow hard, I promise. So yeah, heavy fucking metal. If you like that, you will love the hell out of this EP.

Suffering Hour - Dwell

black metal / death metal
Helter Skelter Productions
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And to plummet in utter darkness, here is 'Dwell' by American horde Suffering Hour, an eighteen minutes lasting anthem of black and death metal torment, destined to erode your sanity. This track is a massive slap in the face of those who have strict guidelines to enjoy their death metal. This is intense, ferocious and suffocating but it also comes with a very high level of atmospheric songwriting. Suffering Hour certainly is a unique entity in the world of death metal, adding plenty of variation to a genre that thrives of violence and brutality. So yeah, this is one for the extremists among us, one you'll cherish or suffer.

Russ Young - Pala

ambient
Audiobulb
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I often end my sets of Brieviews with a soothing ambient release. I have a good reason for that. Writing these short reviews can get intense, especially if I write them in one go, which means several hours of listening and writing. This time I picked a wonderful ambient EP by Russ Young. Four tracks, one as blissful and as restful as the next. Opener 'Polaris' is a beautiful piece of music, driving on minimal melodies and flowing soundscapes. 'Cavern' feels somewhat darker but is just as immersive. In all, 'Pala' is one of those releases that you just want to dive into, which is exactly what I would recommend. Press play, close your eyes and escape from the wicked world we live in...


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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
bandcamp
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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
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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
bandcamp
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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
facebook
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.



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