funeral doom

Years ago, I discovered the immense 'Missing', a song from Belgian funeral doom act Until Death Overtakes Me. Back then, I didn't know anything about that genre. For me, at that moment, doom metal was the stuff the My Dying Bride, Anathema and Tiamat did. However, 'Missing' immediately became one of my favorite anthems and I started grabbing everything I could get from Until Death Overtakes Me. Then, the project seemingly became silent, until now apparently.

Suddenly, this album appeared in my inbox, something I could have never expected. Not that I minded, on the very contrary. I quickly downloaded it, fed it to my media machine and allowed myself to bask in the thick, torpid doom that this act produces so well. 'AnteMortem' brings four tracks, two of them being massive funeral doom anthems, lasting over twenty minutes while the other two take up about ten. 

The key ingredients are all here. Atmospheric keyboards, sluggish guitars and huge ambient passages. Fans of acts like Evoken, Shape Of Despair and Esoteric will easily embrace this album. Opener 'Before' is - in my opinion - even better than 'Missing'. In fact, the whole album shows an artist that managed to grow, improve and thrive in a genre with strict boundaries. Of course, this one comes highly recommended. 2017 is definitely going to be a Belgian year!!!


​Serge

post rock / alternative rock

Jan-Dirk Platek returns with his one-man post-rock project We Deserve This, an act that has been featured here several times before. According to the biography, this release takes We Deserve This back to its roots and that might just be spot on. 'Smile' turns out to be quite a heavy album, still thriving on heavily distorted guitars, elaborate keyboards and meticulous drum patterns. In short, post-rock you can bang your head to.

The album opens with the title track, which immediately kicks off with the heaviness. Don't expect any calm intros or slow build-ups. No, We Deserve This is a post-rock act with a firm focus on the 'rock' part. In that aspect, it is not a big surprise that I can hear influences from nineties alternative rock, metal and grunge, and I don't mind either. These elements just make the whole thing even more immersive.

Of course, you can easily place this album among your favorites by Explosions In The Sky, This Will Destroy You and so on. Over the years, this act certainly earned its place there and with this album, he only confirms that. 'Unnahbar' is probably my favorite track here, a solid rocker, perfectly suited for a road trip. 'Gloom' follows that example, be it perhaps in a lighter and somewhat more playful approach.

That being said, and to conclude, 'Smile' is a heavy album, but also a friendly and warm one. I think it's no coincidence that this album will be released shortly before spring arrives. It has a certain atmosphere which somewhat feels similar to the nicest of seasons. So yes, this thing comes highly recommended, what would you expect? Check it out, buy the album and engulf yourself in some vivacious post-rock.


​Serge

dream pop, shoegaze, ambient

Here is Aidan Baker again, by now probably to most frequently occurring artist on this website. Not that I mind, Baker's works are pretty much always welcome in my inbox,, whether it's Nadja, Caudal, Hypnodrone Ensemble, his solo musical endeavors or his cooperations with people like Karen Willems or Tomas Järmyr. In that, this release is no different. but in some other aspects, this is a completely new direction for Aidan.

That new direction is mainly guided by his interest in coldwave, shoegaze and dream pop, but also by the distinct voice of Shield Patterns' vocalist Claire Brentnall. Together, Baker and Brentnall have created something amazing, something that almost made me replace the genres on top of this review with the word 'magic'. Away from the usual drones and soundscapes we are used to by now, this cooperation beautifully pierces itself into the dream pop scene.

With that, I do indeed recommend this album to every fan of acts like Cocteau Twins,  This Mortal Coil and here and there even early Dead Can Dance. Apart from two interludes, this album is filled with atmospheric, dreamy songs. Brentnall's vocals fit in perfectly with the soundscapes and often appearing mild drums. Opener 'Delirious Things' and the breathtaking 'Wingless' are jewels, and they are far from the only ones on this album.

So yes, this is an awe-inspiring album, one that will undoubtedly become a favorite for many fans of Aidan Baker. I don't think I am the only one who wants to experience this magic live and I hope that I will have that opportunity one day. But for now, this album is going straight into my day-to-day playlist, perhaps even twice so the songs appear more often. I suggest you do the same. This is pure magic...


Serge

ambient

Strange things are happening in this house, strange coincidences to be exact. Recently, we have been working on a new project, one we truly believe in and one we are quite determined about. We believe that this project is going to take one year to be complete, at least, that is what our advisors have been telling us. A few days ago, this album came in, quickly followed by another one, both carrying the word 'Ichinen'. I'd never heard of that word before and I found it extremely coincidental that it suddenly appeared twice. 'Ichinen' is a Japanese word used in the art of zen meditation, meaning 'determination' and 'one year', among others. 

'Ichinen', the album by experimental composer Fabio Perletta, is the follow-up to his 2016 album 'Genkai'. It was inspired by a trip in Japan in 2015 and a book of Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō, titled 'Living by Zen'. So I guess it will be no surprise that this is a meditative ambient album. Divided into three parts, this album is a collection of soundscapes, drones, noises and field recordings, arranged into narrative pieces of music, or "sound art". However, don't expect blissful ambient in the vein of people like Brian Eno or Harold Budd. No, this album is abstract, avant-garde and unpredictable. 

The best way to approach this album is to play it loud enough, find a comfortable position and allow the sounds to guide you through your own imagination. As I already mentioned, this is a meditative album, both minimal and immersive, if played in the right conditions, obviously. I'm not even going to recommend this just to ambient fans. I'm going to recommend it to everyone. In this world, full of stress, anxiety and depression, an album like this might actually help people to relax, to meditate and to discover talents and emotions they never thought they had. So check it out, try it. It's healthier than taking antidepressant medication...


​Serge

post rock / post metal

It's strange how an album can be both fantastic and disappointing at the same time. I know, that's a pretty harsh sentence to open this review, especially since this album is far from disappointing. I'll explain. The title of this album is 'Film Noir', something I associate with dark jazz acts like Radare, Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones or Bohren & der Club of Gore. The artwork points in a similar direction and even the opening track 'Alive and Torn' has something dark-jazzy. So yes, I immediately went into post-dark-jazz-rock modus, which was rudely interrupted by sneering guitars on 'In Anger'. My mind went "damn, that was my favorite genre".

Luckily for Lithuanian post rock orchestra Autism, everything they do next also belongs to my list of favorite genres. 'In Anger' sets the tone for the rest of the album, blending post rock with progressive metal, all without uttering a word. There are words on this album, but solely in the form of samples, film noir samples I think. They turn 'Brittle Bones' into a stunning piece of music, one which breathes fear, hopelessness and pain. I think it's safe to say that 'Brittle Bones' is my favorite, as it is an incredibly immersive post-rock track that can easily compete with the greats in the genre.

'918' is another highlight, a long, narrative composition that even crawls into the regions of post-black metal, a genre Autism often seems to flirt with. I like that, it's an excellent addition to the already varied sound of these Lithuanians and it certainly adds heaps of atmosphere to the whole thing. The album closes with the title track, which is equally impressive as its predecessor. In all, 'Film Noir' simply is an exquisite post rock album, carefully and meticulously written and arranged by talented musicians who dare to think out of the box. Of course I will recommend it to all you post-whatever fans. This deserves a place in your collection, that's for damn sure...


​Serge

experimental / black metal / shoegaze

Anomie is an album to be released on March 1, by Azerbaijani musician Emin Guliyev, under his artistic nom de plume Violet Cold. With six tracks – the eponymous Anomie, She Spoke Of Her Devastation, Lovegaze, My Journey To Your Space, Violet Girl and No Escape From Dreamland – Violet Cold’s music is a complex mixture of several different – and at a first glance, disparate – genres, like atmospheric black metal, blackgaze, ambient electronic music, shoegaze and post black metal, amongst others, resulting in a peculiarly unique blend of sonorous artistry, that has created a singular kind of experimental music, in the whole history of the underground scene. A very surreal album, with sad nuances, opaque colors and emotional soundscapes, Anomie is certainly a very unique composition. With beautiful harmonies, and a fantastic melodic layout, the record is full of abyssal and enchanting dream-like fantasies, as well as sincere disdainful loyalties, deeply inserted in the vastness of a pure and cosmological vision, that resurfaces at the core of an unseen labyrinth of agony, never testified in a work with such level of sensibility, in the underground music scene before. 

With the serenity of unspoken, but deeply energizing harmonies, full of soul, relinquishing beauty and aggrandizing features of spontaneity, this is certainly a refreshing, embellished and interesting album. Deeply committed to a general level of uneasy originality, which, at least to a certain degree, seems obvious, given the fact that so many different genres are combined with the genuine proposal of creating something unique – though ambient elements do prevail most of the time throughout the album’s length –, Anomie is a magnificent record. Authentic and singular, certainly this album is anything less than a major outstanding work. 

Splendid, fulfilling, original, faithful to its roots, and genuine by the sake of its purpose, there is no other album that could be highlighted as a possible comparison. A formidable artistic achievement, you are never bored throughout its fifty three minutes long run. In the end, you will be asking yourself when something with such a powerful magnitude will ever be created again.   

A great experimental work, with a phenomenal final result, Anomie is a sensational record, being a splendid work in the experimental music category, probably the best ever made. With the perfect infusion of so many different elements from a lot of different genres, what has been created on this album is marvelously unique and unparalleled in the history of underground music. A splendorous sound from a different world, a different dimension and a different galaxy, you will never believe what you are hearing, in the first place. A majestic exemplar of artistic excellence, Anomie is an album that deserves its place of honor.  



Wagner

death metal

The Eclipse is an album released on February 8, by Japanese symphonic death metal band Serenity in Murder. A little more than forty minutes long, it has twelve tracks: Earthrise, A Torch For Avengers, Isle Of The Dead, The Revelation, Dancing Flames,
Genesis, The Sea Is…, Hybrid Evolution, Phalaris, Dreamfall, Land Of The Rising Sun and the eponymous title track, The Eclipse. A beautiful album, with amazingly melodic rhythms, an original style full of strength and vigor, and powerfully thrilling harmonies, The Eclipse is an interesting album, filled with fast guitars, enchanting solos and captivatingly intensifying vocals.

Despite the dense death metal atmosphere of the album, The Eclipse is distilled with a perfect mixture of symphonic and melodic musical elements. In a graceful layer of primordial components, exhilarated by the prevalence of exceedingly fast melodies, this album has on the originality of its compositions the full force – as well as the essence – of its soul. Astoundingly displayed in a panorama of majestic beauty, The Eclipse conquers the heart and the soul of the listener song by song, in such an infinite wave of poetic splendor, that you hardly remember that you are listening to a death metal album.

Grounded in a bastion of lucid sensibility and definite sagacity, Serenity in Murder has really outstood its capacities as a band, surpassing the beauty and the level of its artistry in the composition of this record, as well as the execution of the songs. A unique album in the history of symphonic death metal, The Eclipse can be more correctly defined as a collection of sad, poetic, emotional, transcendental and beautiful songs. 

Certainly a powerful album with potential to make history, The Eclipse represents a new wave of expressive vigor and authentic creativity within the genre. With a wonderful sonorous presence, an impressive musical consistency, a coherent pace of objective glory and a persistent stream of collective harmony, Serenity in Murder fully represent the victory and the celebration towards a new shape of creative wisdom. A marvelous album that gets very close of being considered a masterpiece, The Eclipse will cause an expressive turmoil in the underground scene. Full of astonishing qualities that will please each and every person that has profound affinity with the genre, the album balances perfectly softness and aggression, as well as the poetic cadence of its beauty, with the more hostile elements of its sincere despondency. A great work that you have to check it out for yourself, The Eclipse, by Japanese band Serenity in Murder, is destined to be classified as one of the best albums ever made in the history of symphonic death metal.       


Wagner

black metal

The High Heat Licks Against Heaven is an album released on February 10, by Norwegian black metal group Nidingr, founded by guitarist Teloch, that has been a member of the legendary black metal band Mayhem since 2011. With ten tracks –   Hangaguð, Surtr, The Ballad of Hamther, On Dead Body Shore, Gleipnir, Sol Taker, Ash Yggdrasil, Heimdalargaldr, Valkyries Assemble and Naglfar Is Loosed – The High Heat Licks Against Heaven is not the traditional black metal album, on the contrary. With more lose, precisely vague melodies, and almost clean vocals, the album prioritizes rapid melodies, that circulate mostly throughout the music, but departing from within, with little overall variations. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting album, with a peculiarly pungent style of its own.

An intriguing and very lucid work, The High Heat Licks Against Heaven combines intelligent elements of death metal, which has resulted in an amazingly singular album, being its strongest quality fierce, corrosive and revengeful guitar lines. Nevertheless, the convergence of all instruments – but especially the vocals, the guitar and the drums in critic moments of the music – is a major point of excellence. A profound, unlimited, dense and intense record, it has everything to please everybody that likes a perfect alignment of traditional and avant-garde black metal. 

There is not a single element on this album to badly criticize. With coherent melodies and cohesive harmonies, The High Heat Licks Against Heaven is an exponentially authentic and original undertaking on black metal, reviving the most exhilarating aspects of its music, in a more ardent and frivolous context. With aggressive and sometimes hostile expressive lines, Nidingr engraves on the genre the peculiarities of its own style, in a fearless demonstration of musical agility, that only sporadically we see on the underground these days.

Although in my personal evaluation the album cannot be regarded as a masterpiece, it is undoubtedly filled with a strong and energizing set of qualities. With potential to make the headlines throughout the underground scenario, The High Heat Licks Against Heaven comes with full and overwhelming force, highlighting the exacerbated intensity of a work that has highly concentrated within its sound the dark power of a lancinating, exhilarating and obliterating fury, being able to corrode each and every non-metal element that come on its way.            


Wagner

        

black metal

Mountain Hymns is an album released on February 8, by American black metal band Beorn's Hall. With nine tracks – being them a Conjuring of Clouds, Black Foe of the Earth, Now Call We, Over Mountains Cold, Beneath the Hooves of Sleipnir, The Accursed Wind, Brothers in Belarus (a winters tale), Lord of Silver Fountains, of Sword and Sorcery and Winternight (Falkenbach Cover) – what we have here is an interesting and refreshing exemplar of the genre. A powerful black metal album, slow, proficient, methodic and exceedingly philosophical in tone, Beorn's Hall has a thoroughly majestic sound, although in essence, they are raw black metal, but with explicit and elusively artistic differences from other black metal acts. There is not a single moment where brutal or aggressive elements prevail, neither fast rhythms feature on this album: slow, methodic and somber harmonies predominate all the way through; and, nonetheless, this album couldn’t have been better. Promoting a revolution in the way black metal are composed, created and played nowadays, Beorn's Hall triumph – besides their amazingly dreaming-like state of original approach into the genre –, relies in a mesmerizing and courageous outburst of dignifying tranquility, that not only shapes the genre differently, but adds effusively more lucid colors to it.

Although I will not call Mountain Hymns a masterpiece, it gets very, very close to it. A superb album, that should integrate the collection of each and every enthusiast of the genre worldwide, I have never heard such an excellent slow BM album before. Mostly, when other acts of the genre try to approach black metal in a more sinister atmosphere, which implies a slower and darker pace, we have usually monotonous and very tedious pieces of work, generally unsatisfying. But this is not the case here. A great, wonderful and splendid monument of gracious artistry, Mountain Hymns have it all: beautiful and incisive guitar lines, funereal, but at the same time deeply reflexive and emotional vocals, a philosophical atmosphere, phenomenal melodies, and an enchanting and equally profound intriguing sense of originality. And all of it is greatly presented to us without distorting the genre at all. Albums like Mountain Hymns are the main reason why I never lose faith on Black Metal.      

A great record, that deserves to be among the greatest albums ever to be released on the genre, you will never listen to a slow black metal piece more beautifully and carefully structured, antagonistically fascinating, poetically intense and wonderfully sensible than this album. A true pearl of the genre, what we have here is a fantastic demonstration that black metal experiences a vigorous revitalization. As a result, when you start listening to it, you really wish the album to last forever! Mountain Hymns is truly a groundbreaking, captivating and incredible record. You will hardly listen to anything this powerful on the genre in your life again. 

With a great array of qualities, and no faults to be pointed out, I reiterate the fact that Mountain Hymns is certainly one of the most marvelous albums I have ever heard on the genre. A wonderful testimony on the elasticity, creativity, strength and legitimacy carried out by black metal.      


Wagner

ambient / dark ambient / experimental

Unexplained Sounds Group

Another compilation featuring various artists, edited by Unexplained Sounds, Belgium experimental underground 017 suvey has twenty six tracks, from various groups and musicians specialized on the ambient music genre. Like all compilations, on this album you have a huge amount of different styles, several of them exceedingly good, vibrant and overwhelming, some ostensibly monotonous and despondent, others extensively ordinary, and a lot of them incredibly tense and surprising. The ambient genre primarily has to be heard and analyzed by experienced listeners, who really comprehend and love the genre. And Belgium experimental underground 017, above them all, have the best the ambient genre has to offer – both in the traditional and experimental verves –, in the underground worldwide scenario, so to speak. 

Analyzing a compilation like this one is thoroughly difficult, primarily because you have to deal with a huge amount of different artists, each one of them practicing their own peculiar style and particular understanding of the genre. Nonetheless, the compilation has a cohesive unity and a coherent uniformity all the way through, never being disparate, inconsistent or ecstatic in any moment. With a vast collection of excellent ambient tracks, the album relies mostly on very nervous, anxious and agonizing atmospheres, although more relaxing and calm harmonies can be heard throughout the album. A very singular collection of ambient music, Belgium experimental underground is a curious album, that managed to reunite the most talented, original, somber and sinister contemporary artists on the genre. The first few tunes already caught me by surprise: with conspicuous, subtle and funereal devices, they follow the more traditional layout on the genre, obeying the primary characteristics of ambient music. The apprehensive atmosphere is certainly amorphous and malevolent, and you evidently will find yourself caught into the dark underground of a depraved and doomed dimension of affliction and demise, if you listen to his whole album completely alone in the dark. The artists in the album are generally competent and skilled, knowing precisely how to properly create the exact harmonies for the sake of an ambivalent and nervous climax, precisely demanded on this type of music. If you really love ambient and dark ambient, you will definitely be thrilled by this album. With so many fantastic tunes, you will certainly find your favorites. One of the tracks that have completely captivated me is Requiem for a Star, by Aponogeton. A beautiful song characterized by a serene and transcendental harmonic cosmogony, it has an expressively poetic soundscape, infatuated by a corrosive, yet enchanted and graceful numbness, that runs free through the acquiescence of the rhythms, standardizing a correspondence between the subtle energy that flows between the invisible nature of the sincere grandiosity of a solitary universe and the dreams that unfold among the rivalries of ardent and infinite thoughts. 

Nevertheless, twenty six long tracks can be a tiresome journey. I strongly recommend you when listening to this album to divide it into two or three parts. In one day you can listen to songs from one to ten, the next day from eleven to twenty, and finally, from twenty one to twenty six. The songs are very long, and even if you are a very ardent enthusiast of ambient music, you will eventually feel tired if you listen to the album in a unique, long rush, like I did. 

But I should point it out the fact that the songs are impeccable, and the sinister atmospheres most tunes are able to evoke are simply fantastic. Belgium experimental underground 017 suvey is major ambient/ dark ambient compilation, that has everything needed to please the enthusiasts of the genre. With calm, serene, quiet and sometimes thoroughly ecstatic harmonies, the objectifying agony, the sensational anguish and the imperially dense and macabre virtuosity of these tracks really intensify a musical narration of fearful apprehension and unbelievable lethargy, as you feel yourself profoundly, physically and slowly transported to a vast and surreal dimension of delusional worlds, where nothing is what it seems.

With a prevalent hostile nature, full of afflictive vibrations, Belgium experimental underground 017 is a fantastic album, certainly the best ambient/ dark ambient compilation I have ever heard. Abundant in sinister nuances, dark grievances and derelict numbness, it is full of qualities, and has the best tunes created in the genre. A surreal collection with twisted expectancies, here ambient music escalates towards a new path of creative excellence, featuring the most melancholic, acerbic, pervasive, doomed, anesthetic, talented and experienced artists ever produced in the contemporary history of the genre.  


​Wagner

ambient

Unexplained Sound Group

Another album edited by Unexplained Sounds Group, this work is a fiercely great and majestically effusive ambient album, exponentially grounded in more fragmented musical tonalities. With a minimalist rhetoric, and an expressively meticulous baroque approach, this album heads towards intense and introspective nuances, that easily complement the more objectifying abrasiveness of a delusional sound, exponentially expanded throughout a personal universe of sensibility, experimental curiosity and effusively dimensional sonorous outtakes.

With tracks that objectify a hazardous misanthropic nature, on this work, to endeavor a fearless experimentation with sound seems to be the law. With an intriguing and overwhelming taste for an unbound and overstated eccentricity, on Innerer Dialog, the perpetual dissonance of slowly diluted harmonies collide with the desire to experiment more.

The tracks are usually calm, confident, interspersed with an uncommon sense of biological ambivalence. Quiet, serene and at times perfectly predictable, Innerer Dialog is a very logical album, if analyzed by an experimental perspective. Sometimes mostly pervaded, fulfilled and despicably persuaded by noise, the entire musical universe here is correlated by a major force of drastic secrecy, although more ordinary sonorous elements have their parts into the composition of this explicitly eccentric noise ambient record.  

Although I do not dare to say that this album is a masterpiece, it is exceedingly good and captivating on the verge of its own proposal: to be extensively experimental, innovatively eccentric and expressively out of the ordinary, in all terms and musical instances of its precise mathematical correctness. On the grounds of experimentation, this album is certainly interesting, and – I strongly suppose –, unparalleled in the very same categories of the underground music scenario. 

Only individuals with a strong affinity for eccentric noise ambient will certainly find this record interesting. Obviously boring for the general public, Innerer Dialog evokes the obliterate intensity – and vigorous insanity, for sure – of a crude, frivolous and sensational sonorous phenomena, that will stay invisible for common people and ordinary audiences alike. On the grounds of a daring and legitimate experimentation, this record certainly becomes a genuine legacy of noise ambient by its own merits. But don’t get me wrong! This album is exceedingly cool, but on the verge and on the limits of its own artistic proposal, inside the limitations of its own genre experimentations. If you are not into noise ambient music, you will definitely hate and despise this record, with all the ardent passions in your heart.                      


Wagner

alternative rock

In Tenebris is the most recent album released by French alternative rock group Evenline. With ten tracks – All Against Me, StraitJacket, Silene Capensis, Echoes Of Silence, Sometimes We Die, Broken Promises, Never There, Deeper Underground, From The Ashes and Wasted Years – In Tenebris is a solid, mature and very expressive album, with some aggressive elements, and traditional components inherent to an alternative rock musical structure. With growling and clean vocals, interesting guitar solos and a lucid musical axis, In Tenebris is a promising album, that revolves around a curious dynamic between aggression and sensibility. 

Although the album, in several passages, falls into a more generic musical category, with sometimes too symmetric passages between the brutal and soft moments, the record has its merits. With good melodies and a decent pace, there is soul and consistency within the songs. Nevertheless, the lack of stronger and more genuine elements seems to disqualify the album a little, as in some moments you feel you are just listening to another generic band of the genre, similar to Seether, Creed, HIM or Three Days Grace, or an ingenious mixture of all of them. Don’t get me wrong. The band is great. Technically, there is nothing to complain. But they need to reshape their music a little, to add more authentic elements to it.

There are some good moments on the record, and they know how to structure their songs very well, and combine different rhythms, as well as breaking and interrupting them into unpredictable irregular nuances. Nevertheless, the flavor of some of the melodies makes them too dangerously close to pop rock, being an example the track Never There. And all the way through, it becomes impossible to ignore the fact that something is missing, perhaps a more incisive musical component, that could give them the level of excellence they seem to be searching for. 

While In Tenebris manages to be just an average album, it offers interesting possibilities. Technically, there is nothing here to complain. You have competent musicians, playing good music. Nevertheless, they fall a little off in the creativity component, which is a shame, since they have potential to go beyond any limits that might be doing a little harm to their artistic goals. Personally, I think they have yet to develop the peculiarities of an individual style, to escape the more generic sound they unfortunately display, and that could possibly associate them with the radio friendly bands I’ve pointed out some lines above. 


Wagner
   

post metal

With nine furious and interesting tracks, Surrounding the Void is an album where slow, decidedly aggressive and more elaborated melodies prevail. Although their style may seem generic at first, the songs are clever, profound, and deeply emotional. With an intelligent structure, supported by realistic, arduous and potentially escalating melodies, Surrounding the Void definitely congregates the abilities for an interesting record. With thinly disguised elements of post hardcore and metalcore as well, Surrounding the Void is permeated by sentimental harmonies, that expresses a furious anger in very expressive guttural – sometimes almost hostile – vocals, with incisive drum beats, and very well structured guitar lines. Although the harmonies in between the songs seem to have little variations, the band presents a very cohesive style, and a captivating creativity. 

Of course, if you don’t like this genre of music, you may be bored, and the slow passages of the album do demand some patience. But overall, this is a very tempestuous album, that explicitly states in the more agonizing moments the proverbial intentions of their style. With the prevalence of abrasive guitar lines, that distinctively shapes the sound as an aggressive ritual of desperation, Surrounding the Void is a somewhat multifaceted album, with a lot of shades, perspectives and nuances, some more beautiful than others. With no fear of exposing their more delicate side, the album has some poetic and melancholic tones, full of vibrating nostalgia and never-ending colorful afternoons.

Although some songs are too long, there is transcendental majesty on this work, with serenity, calmness and happiness underneath its brutal falling on reality. An album to listen carefully, with attention and passion, certainly, as you can listen for yourself, it’s full of qualities and merits, and deserves to find its audience.    

The major problem of the album is the length of some songs: being generally too extensive, probably will demand a great deal of your patience. But putting this aspect of the record aside, if you are into this genre of music, you will find Surrounding the Void a decent and enjoyable album. With a style of their own, that intensely plays with a very genuine creative feeling, Palmer is a promising band with an authentic sound. Despite the fact that they have yet to learn how to properly infuse synergy with dynamics, they are skilled musicians on the right road. Definitely, Surrounding the Void can be considered an interesting album, for enthusiasts of the genre.    


Wagner

metalcore

Back From Hell is an album by French Metalcore band Eyes Wide Shot. With ten tracks – Waiting In Vain, A Glimpse Of Me, My Redemption, Lost For You, Lips Off My Lips, Back From Hell, Under The Knife, Livin' The Dream, See What I've Seen and Watch Me –, this is a terrific and exceptional album. Metalcore [although the band, in their FB page, identifies itself as a rock/ alternative metal band] is a superb and very emotional musical genre. With a lancinating fury, but more of a restrained, self-controlled and intelligent one, not displaying the teenage angst normally seen on certain musical acts of the genre, as well as having the lucidity of an objective style, Eyes Wide Shot worked out right to make Back From Hell an excellent and insanely wonderful album. Featuring awesome songs with intelligent choruses, exceedingly astounding rhythms, impressive sound dynamics and flavored harmonies – without falling into an art pop category –, you can positively categorize this record as incredibly amazing. Besides absorbing into a genuine style of their own the best qualities of the genre, Eyes Wide Shot is a band of skilled and mature musicians, with a great domain of their art.

Although, by a generic sound association, they do fall categorically under a more general perception of metalcore, with a lack of new elements, they really know how to do it right with their genre of choice. With powerful guitars, versatile, but lacerating rhythms, poetic elements filled by a sincere, emotional and gentle persuasive style, and a lucid approach to an authentic and intuitive sense of creativity, Back From Hell is a sensible, but strong album, full of life, vitality, soul and frailty. 

With each song having a feature of its own – but cohesively maintaining an identity throughout the whole album – coherence, sensibility and a striking sense of serenity seems to be the main components behind Eyes Wide Shot’s music. With the technical elements being just as competent, you can be sure Back From Hell is an emotionally explosive album, one you certainly will wish to listen, if you are into metalcore. 

Although I personally haven’t found this album to be a masterpiece, it certainly gets close. Amazing melodies, insinuating harmonies, aggression side by side with passion, poetic rhythms and emotionally aggrandizing passages – superbly adorned by an impeccable musical rhetoric –, definitely makes this album a wonderful work. Back From Hell definitely deserves a great score. A very good album, from a band full of potential!   
 

Wagner

death metal

Altars of Devotion is an album by Harvest Gulgatha, to be released on March 15, by Nuclear War Now! Productions. With eight tracks – A Vision Unleashed, Unholy Cipher, Transcend the Wrathful, Trance of a Tormented Hymn, Serpentine Path,
Necromantic Calling, Ritual of Traditional Sacrifice and Blood of Creation –, Altars of Devotion is an interesting work. Harvest Gulgatha plays primarily an intriguing mixture of death and black metal, centered in the agony of slow and more dynamic rhythms, that manages to be quite exciting, never boring, and exponentially audacious on the verge of its technical intuition. With the prominence of some elements of traditional death and black metal – especially on the growling brutality evoked by pungent and sometimes explicitly sinister vocals –, despite little rhythmic variations, Harvest Gulgatha has an interesting style, that follows a pattern of its own.     

Don’t get me wrong. By no means this is a terrific or excellent record. It is full of elements that you have listened before in a thousand – if not more – brutal and extreme metal albums. Nonetheless, Harvest Gulgatha works with very peculiar components, masterly arranged and combined in the slow fury of its rhythms, which gives them, indeed, very unique characterizations. 

Altars of Devotion will appeal more to fans of slow extreme metal – something that seems to be a contradiction –, since the melodies rely a lot more on expectation, agony, anguish and sinister atmospheres, with intense guitar lines holding the base of the songs. Probably the strongest quality of the band is the deeply grunt, funereal and guttural vocals, extremely profound, soul ripping and exhilaratingly dreadful to the bones.   

There are some tracks – like the fourth, Trance of a Tormented Hymn – that escapes the pattern a little, featuring a more nervous and rapid rhythm. But generally, especially if you are a decades old veteran metalhead that literally has heard everything available in the underground scene, this album will hardly surprise you. Although it’s not a bad album, Altars of Devotion suffers deeply from the lack of new elements. Harvest Gulgatha highlights the pantheon of their music with the benefits, qualities and the advantage of having developed its own style. Nevertheless, the album has its share of monotonous moments. Not a bad album at all, but definitely, it is way more recommended to traditional extreme metal enthusiasts, with a strong passion for slow, sinister and macabre melodies.
 

Wagner
 

power metal / gothic metal

St Matthieu – Remastered & Reborn, is an album by power metal group Mercury Rain, to be released by Bristol Archive Records, on April 7th. With fourteen tracks –Tales From Beyond, Sanctuary, The Messenger, Shadow’s Scent, Chimaera, Sortileges, Eldritch Mirror, Heaven in Sunset, St. Matthieu, The City of Ys, Bride of The Dark, The Boat of The Dead, Incubus and Amber Reflections – what we have here is a very lucid, vigorous and original power metal album, that really works splendidly well, departing from the genuine components of the genre, aligning the strength of melodic elements into a convergence of solid harmonies, that really knows how to interact between the creative intensity of poetic rhythms, and the spiritual alliance of a dense and cohesive musical versatility. 

With an original style, Mercury Rain has clear and profound melodies, that works from the ascendant fluidity of its genuine emotions, towards a pattern that reconcile the heavy passages of the songs with the more poetic and ethereal sonorous enchantments of their art. Impressively dynamic, in any moment you get bored throughout the album. With dense, but free-flowing rhythms, that sometimes evokes the fascination of distant crystal kingdoms lost somewhere in time, St Matthieu – Remastered & Reborn, is a major power metal work, that certainly will get by the heart each and every enthusiast of the genre. A phenomenal masterpiece – if analyzed inside the borders and frontiers of the genre – this album is a colossal work, being amazingly strong and lucid on the technical part as well. With a conscious sonorous outlook, and a verve for a marvelous, but easy minded proficiency, Mercury Rain definitely has to be regarded as an avatar of the genre.

With beautiful female vocals, the intense, ethereal and epic poetry that emanates from their magnificent sonorous artistry goes beyond any epicenter from the halls of imagination. Distant realms frozen in perpetual winter, epical battles that never end and the victorious coronation of kings, rapidly come to mind as you listen to this album. Perfectly aligning its musical sensibilities with the convergence of the epic imagery common to the genre, St Matthieu – Remastered & Reborn, is a powerful album, with no faults whatsoever – whether this would be major or minor – to be pointed out.

Although I do not feel inclined to evaluate the album as perfect, I admit it gets very close. With a greatness of its own, and an astounding creativity that resonates towards a marvelous sense of originality, Mercury Rain, on this album, really have outstood it’s principles as a band, and especially, in the impeccable work done in the improvement of their art. In a close interaction between shorter and objective songs and longer ones, abundant on beautiful melodies, vigorous harmonies and resonating glorious vocals, an authentic approach concerning how creativity can be worked out on the genre, and a major attention on the quality of technical devices, gives credit to St Matthieu – Remastered & Reborn, as a record, to fully deserve a spectacularly giant celebration. Certainly, this is what each and every enthusiast of power metal will think, soon after the album is released.    



Wagner

black metal

Trümmerfarben is the most recent album by German black metal band Thormesis, released on February 10, by MDD Records. With nine tracks – Intro - Aetas Nova, Trümmerfarben, Waheelas Fährte, Lodernd Flammen, Die Klagen der Einöde, Verblasst, In Stille wachen die Toten, Im Herbst trugen sie mich fort and Outro - Vale – the strength of Thormesis not even rely on the fact that the band sing in their native German language, although this is a strong feature of their style, but they display a magnificent form of neo-black metal, that is more vital, authentic, original and independent than most bands associated with the genre. With powerful rock’n’roll elements, and an expressively precise technicality, Trümmerfarben is a very detailed and whimsical album, upon which you lose yourself easily, in a wider set of beautiful emotions that transcends vehemently the commonalities of the genre, in exceedingly marvelous, surprisingly delicate and spiritually melodic forms of artistry. 

With a profound layer of inherent beauty, the music of Thormesis in Trümmerfarben departs from a deeply philosophical outlook. More nuanced and sometimes even experimental, they are not the typical black metal band. With a genuine style that doesn’t fear being categorized as unique, the music of Thormesis is a symbiosis of an intensely poetic form of melodic black metal, with a vibrant stream of neo-rock’n’roll, mortified by a spiritual insurrection of devotional vitality. Definitely, Thormesis is a very personal lesson on black metal, with peculiar elements that only this group could perfectly amalgamate into the genre, without distorting it; on the contrary, intensely improving it!  

With strong guitars, powerful vocals and expressively subtle drums that undergoes a storm of aggression when the rhythm demand, this is a major group that has what it takes to surprise the underground in a cataclysmic wave, with the strength of this new material. With a deeply infused rock’n’roll type of black metal, Thormesis, on this album, Trümmerfarben, revolutionize the genre like no other band in history. With a higher sense of originality, I can only imagine how amazing these songs probably sound in live performances.  

A strong candidate for BM album of the year, Trümmerfarben is a major step towards the development of a new form of artistry in the genre. A marvelous work that will drive everybody speechless, you cannot let this record pass by you without listening to it. A majestic and phenomenal state of the art album, Trümmerfarben ignites a new era in black metal. And what we will see and hear from then on, will be extremely indebted to the force condensed in the storm propelled by this magnificent album. After listening, you will agree with me in each and every word.  



Wagner

drone / ambient

Do you believe in coincidence? I don't. For the record, I don't believe in predestination either. Yet, the strangest thing happened to me the other day. I was tidying up the house when I found a box with patches and stickers. They were items I had been collecting in that box ever since I founded this website. Bands often add these to the albums they send us and I don't mind. On the contrary. One day, I'm planning to use all of them in a massive wall-collage, like the Merchants Of Air hall-of-fame or something like that. Anyway, when I opened the box, the first item I found was a Thisquietarmy-patch.

"Look", I said to my wife, "it's been a while since I heard about Eric and his drone act". So, we started playing 'Anthems For Catharsis' again, a brilliant album. Three minutes into the album, I received an email from Eric, a review submission for his next work. We looked at each other and laughed. That was a coincidence. I wasn't even aware of the fact that Thisquietarmy was going to release another album. I had missed the teaser video and I simply assumed Eric was touring continuously. We quickly unzipped the next album and fed it to my media-machine.

(so now the real review begins)

The new Thisquietarmy album is titled 'Métamorphose'. It's a vast, two hours lasting epos of drones and soundscapes, completely void of drums. Yes, that's true. The drums are gone, the suffocating bombast of 'Anthems For Catharsis'  is gone. Drones and soundscapes, that's what left, and they are magnificent. The album is inspired by a poem by Meryem Yildiz, hence the titles. All else is minimalistic and murky beauty.  Somehow, the whole thing reminds me of Aidan Baker or Dirk Serries, here and there enhanced by some Schulze-psychedelics.

On the other hand, 'Métamorphose IV - Ce corps ne te sera jamais étranger' comes close to acts like Master Musicians Of Bukkake, coming up with eerie ritualistic chants and piercing drones. In that aspect, I can compare this and some other tracks to CHVE, be it a harsher and more abrasive than the latter. I don't mind, drones are drones and pretty much all of them are perfectly fine in my book. Besides, a two hours lasting album needs a bit of variation, especially when the drums have been put aside. In that Thisquietarmy certainly succeeded.

So, to conclude, 'Métamorphose' is different from his previous work but at the same time it confirms Thisquietarmy's place among the Bakers, the Serries and the Caminitis of this world. Undoubtedly, this thing deserves a spot in your collection. It's just a great piece of drone ambient, one that I would definitely like to experience live soon. I think I said it before, but 2017 is going to be a great year for music and a bloody frustrating year for people like me, people who will have to stress over end-year lists in december. 


​Serge

drone / ambient / jazz / krautrock

drone / krautrock / experimental

singer-songwriter

bandcamp

doom / dark ambient

metal / metalcore

thrash metal / hardcore

doom / sludge

metal / metalcore 

doom / sludge / black metal

doom

sludge / doom

Serge

dream pop 

Apparently, somewhere in Portugal, someone is incredibly sad and melancholic. At least, that's what I think after listening to some of the songs on this gloomy and emotional album. Sweet Nico is a dream-pop duo consisting of vocalist and lyricist Marisa da Anunciação and guitarist and producer David Francisco of post-rockers When The Angels Breathe. Together, they wrote and recorded nine songs that will undoubtedly weigh on your soul, and they top it off with a cover of Mazzy Star's 'Fade Into You'. You can indeed say that Mazzy Star has been a major influence for Sweet Nico, along maybe with acts like Slowdive and Radiohead. Yet, in a way, the songs on 'R Evival' gnaw deeper, probably because of the edgy, lo-fi sound of the whole thing. 

When I close my eyes and let my imagination wander, I can see images of an abandoned village, soon to be completely demolished. Yet, somewhere on the edge, in an old, gloomy café, sad music is playing, slowly lingering over the empty streets and into the moonlight. The music feels like ancient blues, driving on soundscapes and percussion which are just as sad and nostalgic as the voice the accompany. Sometimes, the tempo goes up, caused only by the percussion and drums. All else remains slow, dreary and mirthless. Colors seem to fade away, nature seems to retreat. For now, there is only that old café and that murky music.

So no, this is not a happy album, not at all. This is something for shoegazers, dream pop addicts and sombre minds. Fans of Mazzy Star, Slowdive and The Jesus and Mary Chain will definitely appreciate songs like 'Honeymoon', 'Love Caravan' and 'Rain'. The latter is my personal favorite here, a heavily emotional ballad, so minimal it almost hurts your heart. So if you're in for a decent crying session, or you just want to wander in the darker regions of your innerself, you might want to give this album a shot. In that case, this comes highly recommended. 


​Serge