ambient / experimental / shoegaze

metalcore / metal

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hard rock

classical / ambient

drum & bass / industrial metal

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progressive / thrash metal

nu metal

synthpop / new wave

techno / industrial

alternative rock

post rock

death metal

dark ambient / black metal

experimental rock

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gothic / industrial metal

punk

dark ambient

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. I knew that one day, Sombre Soniks would release an album that would be indistinguishable from some of those dark ambient classics, released by labels like Cold Meat Industry, Cyclic Law or Cold Spring. See, even the world of dark ambient has its underground and its mainstream. Acts like Inade, Svartsinn and Lustmord are well known among all dark ambient fans, but the scene goes deeper than that, a lot deeper. Druhá Smrt might not be known to most of them, but put this album in a playlist with all their favorites and they would not be able to pick it out. Why? Because it's a perfect dark ambient album.

'The Way And The Virtue' consists of two tracks, 'The Way' and 'The Virtue'. Each track is fifteen minutes and thirty seconds long, thus providing you with a total of 31 minutes of sheer dark ambient bliss. The previously mentioned acts regularly come to mind, along with acts like Predominance, Raison d'être and Desiderii Marginis, to name a few. Yes, that means soundscapes, haunting drones and minimal percussion. That also means a hypnotic sonic journey into the darkest regions of your own inner being, which can never be a bad thing.

So yes, this album comes extremely recommended to all dark ambient fans. Druhá Smrt have been perfecting their trade for years and now it results in their most epic work so far. My advice: purchase the album, close the curtains, light a candle, play this at high volume and start meditating. You will envision things you have never imagined, see worlds you never dreamed of, or just gently float on these breathtaking soundscapes. Whatever happens, it will be worth it...


​Serge

post rock / post metal

Hell yeah, Sleepmakeswaves are back. Well, "back" might not be the correct word since they never really left. These Australians seems to work harder than most bands; recording, touring, rehearsing... It's a full-time job, being a Sleepmakeswaves member, but certainly one I would sign for. I mean, you get to see the world (supporting Devin Townsend and Underoath, or headlining) and help create some of the most mesmerizing tunes in the post-rock industry. The only thing is, I don't really have the musical talent that these guys have, so they'll probably never hire me. But that's ok, I'll just write about the new album.

So, the album title is a lie, that's one thing. This one is not 'Made of Breath Only'. On the other hand, imagine if this album wàs made out of breath only, that would make these guys incredible human beatboxes, Bauchklang or DubFX would look like amateurs compared to an a cappella Sleepmakeswaves. But, of course, there are guitars, drums, bass and whatnot on this album, all arranged in perfect Sleepmakeswaves tradition, which in my book means "party post rock". For me, these Australians have always been standing out because of their uptempo songs, their massive sound and their ability to set venues on fire with sheer enthusiasm.

On 'Made Of Breath Only', those elements still stand, even though the whole thing feels darker and more aggressive that their previous efforts. The 'metal' tag now seems to shine through, resulting in blasting tunes like 'Worlds Away' and the fierce headbanger 'The Edge Of Everything'. There seems to be a bigger emphasis on riffs this time, even though the typical Sleepmakeswaves soundscapes are still present. In the past, you could dance to Sleepmakeswaves, but now you can also bang your head, which I think is a pretty damn good evolution.

Furthermore, the songs are more complex and progressive than what I am used to. More varied too, even coming up with funky bass lines, beautiful piano tunes (that title track is breathtaking), math metal elements, dance beats and so much more. I really feel like each band member put his very soul into this album, along of course with heaps of technical abilities and experience. 'Into The Arms Of Ghosts' begins with almost typical trance, complete with dance beats, combined with typical post rock, only to blast out in brutal progressive metal, combined with psychedelic rock. The song is as complex as that sentence I wrote about it but it still is bloody awesome.

Well, I guess you should know by now that this is a brilliant piece of work, destined to grab the post rock scene by the hand and help it evolve into the future. Heavier, darker, angrier and more intense than its predecessors, 'Made Of Breath Only' is a landmark in its genre, and a magnum opus for a massively talented band. I can only recommend this album to all fans of instrumental rock music, whether it's post rock, post metal, progressive rock or anything related. You simply can't go wrong with Sleepmakeswaves. They help define the sound of tomorrow's scene...


​Serge

ambient, electronic, IDM

Infinite Waves

This album came in quite a while ago but I kept on postponing this review because of the release date, which is tomorrow, March 30. However, this is not the first time I am listening to it, on the very contrary. Almost all of the tracks have already become constants in my day-to-day playlist and quite often I simply play the entire thing. Sometimes to be enjoyed quietly as gentle background music, sometimes loud as a sonic trip. It's perfectly suited for both, and that's an excellent property for music to have.

First things first. Soft Armour is Christian Hougaard, a Danish producer. 'Multi Terrain' is his debut full length, after two ep's. The album is a mesmerizing marriage between ambient and IDM, loaded with soundscapes, field recordings, bass lines and dynamic electronic percussion. That being said, don't expect typical techno, drum & bass or dubstep beats. The ones on this album seem to breathe their own air, go their own way and drag you into an immersive audio adventure. Think Autechre, µ-Ziq or Squarepusher, that will get you closer to the sounds on this album.

Now, in the first paragraph, I mentioned that "almost all of the tracks" have reached my day-to-day playlist, which leaves out the intro 'Coast'. To be brutally honest, this is my least favorite track, an experimental ambient-noise tune without most of the other elements I have been writing about. In all, 'Coast' is a fairly decent intro for what later on proves to become a brilliant album. That being said, on to the glorification of this album, because it really deserves that, at least in my opinion.

'Dune' then comes up with the drama and gentle bombast that would occupy most of the other tunes. It reminds me a tiny bit of Bersarin Quartett and other acts in that genre, but I also notice an urge for originality. Where 'Coast' didn't manage to suck me in, 'Dune' did. Slowly, I am getting into this sound, this atmosphere and these immersive rhythms.  'Moor' follows that example, be it a bit darker. Here, Mmoths comes to mind, another one of those projects that manage to stand out in the vast world of electronic music. 

'Desert', the track we are premiering on top of this review, is a gloomy and quite heavy piece of downtempo electronics and ambient, driving on distorted beats and blissful soundscapes. I think this is one of my favorite tracks, but there are plenty more to be found. The dark, weird and highly experimental 'Macadam' for example, or 'Tarmac', one which evokes visions of late night dancefloors, somewhere up in space. 'Aerodrome' is probably the most haunting track here, even nudging towards the obscure dark ambient scene.

Closer 'Urban' does its job in style, coming up with broken techno and eerie soundscapes. If I have to rank these tracks from best to worst, this one will be somewhere on top. However, I don't want to do that, mainly because I like this album as a whole, even though each track seems to have its own character. In all, 'Multi Terrain' is exactly that, a wide electronic playground where everything is possible, to be discovered again and again, by anyone who wants to. My suggestion: get your hands on a copy of this thing. You will not regret it.


Serge

post metal

The Circle is the most recent album by German Post Metal group Heretoir, released on March 24. Sixty five minutes long, the record has eleven tracks: Alpha, The White, Inhale, Golden Dust, My Dreams Are Lights In The Sky, XIX XXI XIV, Exhale, Eclipse, Laniakea Dances (Soleils Couchants), Fading With The Grey and The Circle (Omega). An album full of rich harmonies, The Circle has an exacerbated and vivacious brilliance shaping the mordacious creativity of the sound. Although the musical direction is sometimes too predictable, there is a charming, philosophical and condescending beauty in the overall perception of the melodies. 

The songs, in general, are beautiful, with delicate and poetic insurrections expanded throughout the light of perennial intonations of quiet and peaceful lucidity, widespread in the sensational and humane sensibility of a very cohesive, opalescent and carefully detailed structure, with angelical and poetic passages similar to religious anthems. With intensely philosophical overtones, and a profound immersion into the quest of the human spirit, Heretoir creates a fugacious and ephemeral bridge towards the restless triumph of an everlasting sorrow, that corrodes the strength and the perseverance of our derelict personal universes. Like a perseverant warrior that bravely emerges from the dust, their music seems to be motivated by the hopeful desire to wake humankind from its stupor and lethargy. And yet, strangely enough, despite the subjective message implicit in the poetic, serene and melancholic atmosphere of their music, there is an art for the art’s sake component, ardently projecting its outstanding ambitions from the crest of the sound, to the higher grounds of their style.      

Unfortunately, with longer tracks and slow harmonies, the album can be quite tedious, and some passages in particular are so extensively calm and serene that the style resembles more soft rock than actual post metal. Nevertheless, these demerits are not sufficient to diminish the importance and the formidable qualities displayed by the band in this extraordinary album. With its fair share of rapid, lancinating, infuriating and aggressive moments as well, the record overflows with a vast amount of principles and sensibilities, impossible to deny or to forget.

In the end, The Circle can be classified, with the restless vigor of its incommensurable beauty – and despite some minor deficiencies – as a prudent, artistic and exceptional album, with epic and proverbial intonations. Sometimes, more is less, and I can’t avoid thinking that, if the album was a little bit shorter, then it could have been a masterpiece.


Wagner 

ambient

Aeon V is an album by electro space ambient duo Solaris, released by Synphaera Records on March 21. With ten tracks – Ritual, Levitation, Inward, Waiting, Roundabout, Intrinsic, Circular, Dominant, Reception and Contemplation – Aeon V is a very interesting, subtle and captivating album, with the title of each track elucidating the objectives of its fairly comprehensible intentions. With concealed and discreet nuances of proverbial beauty, the record is compressed under an imponderable sense of calm and antagonistic majesty. Over the stars, from the dust that emerges between the corporeal sound of gentle and persuasive harmonies, there is an entire universe of solicitude that contemplates the unforgivable rapture of the soul. Permeated by the soft, delicate, ecstatic, vivid and exultant aspects of infinity, a stream of interchangeable intonations realize a correspondence between the realm of thoughts, and the freedom of reality. There is a vast terrain of sensibilities to be wisely explored. And the music of Solaris is the perfect complement, as well as the formidable juxtaposition, for the permanent traces of calmness that delineates the flagrant diligence of serenity that creates galaxies of insatiable magnitude and vehemence in the coherent expansive force of their sound.

Aeon V is a major ambient music album. Displaying the highest qualities of the genre, the atmosphere is concentrated in a symbolic, but virtuous degree of exonerating immutability. Nowhere to be found, new galaxies are created in an instant, by the intrinsic devices of transitory moments, that seems to be stuck in time, although they can be redeemed by the graceful power of inventiveness in the music. And yet, there are no worlds to be properly assimilated, or fully recognized by the total alignments of the sound.   

Redemptive, striking, meditative and sublime, the overall triumph of Aeon V emerges from the strength of a style that transcends the limitations of a conscious rationalization. By the perpetual sense of an infinite coalescence of permanent harmonies, the sound captures the reason of your essence, and for sixty seven minutes, you undergo a dream-like journey of indistinguishing and delicate sensibility, that foretells with astonishing precision the profoundness of the oceans upon which your principles are floating, as well as formidable explanations that describe with precision the reasons for distant planets – the ones that revolved around the banished thoughts and solitary assignments that you used to maintain in secrecy – to became inexistent. 

Aeon V is full of intrinsic qualities and intricate objectives. Nevertheless, it can be firmly categorized as an almost perfect ambient album. With a solid style, but a soft alignment of harmonies, the subjective sense of elusiveness that inhabits the soul converts itself in a large part of the universe. No other definitions will ever be prescribed. This is what the music of Solaris engraves in your soul: a delightful cosmos of imponderable omniscience, creating in your life a perpetual state of grace. 


Wagner

stoner rock

Abominable is the debut album by American stoner rock duo Telekinetic Yeti, released on March 17. With eight tracks – Abominable, Electronaut, Stoned and Feathered, Colossus, Lightbearer, Apophis, Beneath the Black Sun and Himalayan Hymn – Abominable has formidable and eviscerating guitar lines, despite its slow and cohesively vague output. With rewarding, but at the same time captivatingly condescending harmonies, the album has the general stoner rock characteristics: mainly instrumental, with slow melodies, monotonous passages, seventies wild rock intonations and glances of psychedelic atmospheres, Abominable manages to be a really interesting album. With a solid identity, and a certain glimpse of audacity, this work is a redeeming revivalist of the true soul of wild and slow proverbial rock.

Although I can’t categorize this album as a masterpiece, Abominable has a great deal of qualities. True to the stoner rock intuition, and vehemently faithful to the loyalty of its sentimental soul – but carefully developing the axiomatic genesis of its own style –, Telekinetic Yeti has created a fascinating album, that has on the horizontal axis of the meticulous nature of their melodies the imponderable creativity that displays the fluidity of a gregarious expansion of vigorous rhythms throughout the sonorous universe of their formidable musicality. With relaxed, calm and serene – sometimes almost dragged – melodies, predominantly assuming the embryonic elements of their musical cosmogony, Abominable has revealed itself to be an astonishing work, spiritually sidelined by comprehensively eccentric harmonies and a sensorial taste for vagueness. Nevertheless, despite the complacent slowness of the rhythms, more than usually expected, the record is considerably interesting, and, unlike several other albums of this particular genre of music, the traces of monotony are scarce and inexistent for the most part.  

Don’t get me wrong: there is nothing on this album that you haven’t heard before in a hundred other albums of the genre, especially if you are a stoner rock veteran or enthusiast. But Abominable manages to have abundantly all the necessary elements to be considered a good album for the category, since each and every one of them are spectacularly worked in the highest standards possible. These are fairly competent, talented and skilled musicians. But sooner or later you reach the inevitable conclusion that, in the end, this is just another stoner rock album. 

Highly recommendable, although there is a virtual absence of surprising elements, the wrong components are almost absent either. Abominable manages to be a very outstanding, efficient, lucid, sober and vigorous stoner rock album. While there are literally no innovations, Telekinetic Yeti displays a certain degree of authenticity, with full credibility for not sounding generic or repetitive. The duo reveals itself to be a splendid musical act, capable of developing its own style, but maintaining the shapes and lines of stoner rock, without deforming or distorting the genre. 


Wagner

stoner rock

Reverently Heading Into Nowhere is an album by Italian stoner rock group Humulus, released on March 24. Almost forty four minutes long, the album has six tracks: Distant Deeps Or Skies, Catskull, Anachronaut, The Gold Rush, The Great Hunt and Rama Kushna. With slower harmonies, but an incredible pace, Reverently Heading Into Nowhere is a fantastic and very lucid album, a splendid work of stoner rock. With lancinating, but simultaneously calm, lucid, sober and serene guitar lines, this record is simply captivating. With the characteristic hazy and sometimes apprehensive atmosphere that perfectly defines the genre and delineates the shape of the style, there is an interestingly predominant symmetry in the music of Humulus: the brutal, dense and expressively cohesive melodies offers a pronounced contrast to their logical, systematically balanced and  intense sonorous upheaval, formidably displayed at the conscience of their visceral musicality. 

Although their sound can be best described as typical stoner rock – more or less –, Humulus has a very persuasive and expressive style. Nonetheless, despite the overwhelming qualities displayed by the group in their magnificent and sensible musical conjuncture, the album Reverently Heading Into Nowhere, unfortunately, is not perfect. With an abundant stream of monotony, you can feel all the way throughout the record the lack of more vibrant, hostile and vivid passages, which could have granted to this work a more imponderable sense of lucidity, splendor and tactical beauty. Nonetheless, it’s obvious that they are following the usual musical assignments – as well as the main categorical elements – of their genre of choice, and the sonorous lethargy and uniformity that is constant in their musical framework can be considered more of an aspect of the genre itself, than a fault or a misconception from the band. 

But, observations aside, Reverently Heading Into Nowhere is a very inspiring, consistent and captivating album. With powerful, abrasive and corrosive guitar lines, that can be strangely and simultaneously soft as well, this is an album full of underlying qualities, that not only honors the genre in an unimaginable scale, but certainly will easily find its way towards the enthusiasts of the genre.    

With an impressive amount of qualities, a vigorous and precise artistic proposal, and a lucid sense of authorial creativity, Reverently Heading Into Nowhere, by Humulus, is a genuine stoner rock album. Despite minor imperfections, there are no general faults to be pointed out whatsoever. This album is strong enough to serve as a poignant reference for the genre. 



​Wagner

ambient

A Hint of Eternity is an album by Swiss-based ambient artist Silvio Pfiffner, better known by the alias of Nyctalgia, released on March 20. A more concise effort, the album, thirty five minutes long, has only five tracks: One Heartbeat Away, the eponymous A Hint of Eternity, And Then There Was Silence, By the Coast of Broken Dreams and A Sudden Break in the Clouds. With the majesty of a vigorous serenity, A Hint of Eternity has all the classical aspects of the genre: calm melodies, continuous and profound sonorous intonations, a mordacious intensity and a profoundly dense musical cohesion, with interchanging qualities that keeps in the heart of its artistry a similitude of characteristics able to fortify the cohesion of a clean and dynamic unity.  

Displaying great and diversified technical abilities, supported by the infinite amplitude of possibilities allowed by the genre, Nyctalgia creates in the apex of its musical sensibilities a universe of simplified allegories that translates music into human feelings. The paradox of despair is profoundly described and delineated over the colorful grievances of serene and logical harmonies, able to promulgate on the strength of its main components the power to dissect the interior of the soul, as well as its primary intensities.

Within the scope of a categorical and meticulous sensibility, A Hint of Eternity display in the majesty of all tracks the sonorous rainbow of a visceral cycle of solitary melancholy, sidelined by a considerable platform of emotions, that converts the beauty of life into a precious and unique sonorous phenomenon. Exhibiting a wise and exceedingly confident musical sensibility, the peripheral labyrinths inserted by the artist in the expectancies of its sensorial particles validates the precious experience conceded by the record.     

A Hint of Eternity proves itself to be an intriguing ambient record. Although it lacks more vigorous elements, a stronger and consistent premise highlights the subtle – almost invisible – harmonic and expansive nature that is felt and witnessed throughout the whole album. With an astute, intelligent, appreciative and intuitive musical sagacity, Nyctalgia has created an interesting and responsive work. Unfortunately, as beautiful as it is, this record will remain restricted to circles of ambient music aficionados. Due to its profound and intense hermeticism, this album is virtually incapable to attract a new audience, or anyone unfamiliar to the genre. 


Wagner

electronic / ambient

Once is the most recent album by Dutch electronic music artist Eelco van Westen, better known as Taktyle, released on March 17. With an effective, inventive and cohesive mixture of electronica subgenres, like ambient music, neoclassical and progressive, this seventy three minutes album is an epic coalescence of visceral harmonies. With subtle melodies and enduring atmospheres of a prominently colorful symbiosis of deeply resonating sonorous intonations, Once can be described as a splendid record. With twelve tracks – Inside the Box, Green Sheep, Faith, Follow Me, Pinched TB, Mainstage Falafel, Pioneers, Bobbekeen, Vacuum, About Big-Eyed Barking Dogs and Electro Cats, Orange December and Waltz Macabre – the songs are usually very long pieces, where you can almost travel through the tissues of time, undergoing a progressive journey by the intrinsic expansion of your own sensibilities. With a formidable sonorous approach, explicitly lucid and exceedingly vivid, Once reveals itself to be a major record, one that really has come to change each and every aspect of underground electronic music, launching a genuine revolution in the shape, the consistency and the elemental sincerity of the sound.     

With an aggrandizing sense of beauty and eccentricity, Once is a graceful and innovative ambient electronic record. Although the album has its fair share of monotonous passages, the overall score of the album is outstanding, deeply rewarding, precisely intense, and favoring a prominent mosaic of dilapidated tapestries of reinvigorating beauty and splendid majesty, throughout the ocean of its miraculous musical proposal. Like small particles reunited in the functional diagram of a conscious display of infinity, every track in Once exhibits the veracity of a sentimental ordination, unseen in the sonorous waves spread through the lines of its unwavering melodic expansion.  

Once is an album to hear in a quiet place, to appreciate profoundly, in a very serene and sagacious state of mind. From the songs, a splendid universe of sound emanates subtlety, in such a condescending, but at the same expressive manner, that you really will find yourself situated above the clouds. Possibly, even in another planet, or another galaxy. 

Unfortunately, as beautiful as it is, Once is a record that can reach only a very specific audience. It will hardly be appreciated by anyone outside the progressive/ ambient/ neoclassical electronica underground scene. But if you are one of those enthusiasts, do yourself a favor, and listen to this album. With a marvelous ascending intonation, a subtle rainbow of creative audacity, and an impeccable sense of brave originality, the beautiful melodies of this record will enchant you deeply. Taktyle’s music will penetrate the essences of your soul, bringing the whole universe with it. 


Wagner

metalcore

Vision is the most recent album by Italian metalcore group Cry Excess, to be released by Bleeding Nose Records on April 24th. Only thirty six minutes long, the album has ten tracks: Vision, Mess of me, Survival, Down 'n out, Detroit, The Path, Immortal, Lost - and Alone, The Black Squad and Chase The Sun. A very good, legitimate and audacious work, Vision is the typical metalcore album, although it is filled with powerful and highly energetic songs, that seems to be meticulously ordained by a lucid and vigorous fury, that really honors the genre with all the sardonic determination of its unmerciful and objective style.     

With amazingly created melodies, and a furious layer of inconspicuous wrath, Vision is a very outstanding and direct to the point album. Despite the general lack of innovations, the record has a very sober, realistic and true to the ground approach concerning the genre. Exceedingly rapid, with strong tempestuous rhythms and a concise musical direction, Cry Excess really has crafted, solidified and consolidated Vision as a very interesting album, built in the spectacularly lancinating axis of aggressive, but concomitantly philosophical harmonies, as usual for the genre, but in a more lancinating style.

The powerful energy, the highly effusive intensity, the beautiful melodies and the brevity of the songs are a major point of strength in the work. The tracks have a fresh, colorful, vivid and rejuvenating force, that is so full of life that it’s an impossible task not to be immediately drawn by the highly devastating force of their style. This is specially felt in the fourth track, Down 'n out, a marvelous, furious and sincere sonorous ode to a life well lived.         

Although Vision is a too much concise album, metalcore enthusiasts will be exceedingly satisfied and pleased with this glorious and splendid work. A striking and very intense album, Vision offers to the public the very best qualities metalcore has to offer to its audience: lucidity, vividness, fury, intensity, a sincere anger, an obliterate sense of damnation, an elusive hope and a sentimental disdain towards life. If you are a metalcore enthusiast, you can’t afford to miss this fantastic and exceptional release. You will be more than positively pleased with this one!  


Wagner

black metal

Arctic Hysteria is an album by Swedish black metal group Hladomrak, released on March 20. With eleven tracks – The Beast, Spirit of the Forest, Firetale, Despite, Arctic Hysteria, Archaic, Between Ice and Fire, Illusion of Innocence, Frost, Omnicide and Memento Mori – Hladomrak’s sound is deeply indebted to traditional black metal, although they play with musical elements that splendidly expose their style to be full of peculiarities as well. With elusive, corrosive and deeply incisive guitar lines, Arctic Hysteria has instrumental passages that closely resembles punk rock, despite the fact that it’s profoundly travestied in a black metal layout.

Although I haven’t found Arctic Hysteria to be a state of the art work, the album has its relevance, merits and qualities. It’s no ordinary black metal. You don’t have on Arctic Hysteria the typical posture of the genre: the melodies are usually slow, and even their rapidness can be categorized as more cautious and technical than normally displayed in the genre. I guess you can say Hladomrak has an intelligent and more mathematical style, definitely more fully aware of harmonic guidelines than usually testified in the field of black metal.

With more technical, pragmatic and interleaved harmonies, it’s almost possible to define the sound of Hladomrak as progressive technical black metal, with a hardcore/ puck rock flavor. Definitely, an interesting and unexpected creation, quite unique for the genre. It’s not every day that you can listen to a work of such an expressive and highly creative magnitude.

While the songs have a very cohesive style, they sometimes appear to be too similar to one another, which makes the overall sound of the album too uniform to a certain extent. Nonetheless, the style of Hladomrak is exceptionally intriguing, and some songs on this album – like the sixth track, Archaic – are formidable and indelible pieces of art. The album has some quite strong and redemptive elements, and, in the end, you have indeed a quite remarkable record, with a singular and majorly solid crafted work. If you like a more sensible, suggestive, refined, colorful and exhilarated type of black metal, you definitely should hear to Arctic Hysteria, by Hladomrak. It’s a very outstanding album, with an exceedingly original musical proposal. In a way that you haven’t heard in the genre ever before, in your life. 


Wagner

black metal

The Abyss of Ancient Forest is an album by Polish black metal group Sanctus Hexe, to be released on March 31. With nine tracks – The Whispers Of Eternal Forests, Rotten Soil, The Oath (instrumental), The Ritual Of Resurrection, At The Woods Of Madness, Until The Last Breath (instrumental), In The Mist Over The Hills, Nocturnal Moonlit and Embraced by The Winter Moon – The Abyss of Ancient Forest reveals itself to be a marvelous, omniscient and surprisingly original record, adherent to the most vibrant, darkest and genuine roots of black metal, and yet, authentically carving a phenomenal atmospheric style, proficiently cohesive, and wonderfully true to  genre. 

With brilliant and amazingly creative instrumental passages, filled by calm, serene and categorically elusive melodic intonations, Sanctus Hexe’s sonorous style is also gracefully permeated by a dissonant and traditional aggressiveness, corroborated by the sideline beauty of an extravagant symbiosis, sculpted at the height of a creativity that seeks on its own brilliance the authenticity of a renowned silence, buried at the ambivalent intuitive hearts of ill ancestral shadows.

Their sound is not only deeply aggrandizing, but formidably amazing, with profound and rich melodies that enchant robust and grandiloquent harmonies, firmly rooted in the dark notes of a deeply phantasmagoric originality, crafted at the rites of its own intricate proposal. With a sound reminiscent of 90’s Rotting Christ, nevertheless, Sanctus Hexe unravels a singular, rigorous and exceptionally sculpted sound, that ignites a new fuel of logical and philosophical ambitions – as well as more artistic standards – to black metal, to be understood not only as a genre, but as an audacious, compelling and vividly lucid form of art. 

With marvelous and aggressive guitar lines, The Abyss of Ancient Forest has it all: marvelous and profoundly cohesive musical alignments, a formidable sonorous rhetoric, a flaming fury, a dark atmosphere and a consistent sagacity. Showcasing the perfect mixture of a hostile rebellion of tempestuous melodies, and the more sensible artistry of expansive introspective harmonies, guided by the solitude of forests immersed in the perpetual darkness of a spiritual night, this album reveals itself to be a wonderful work of art, all the way through. 

There are no negative aspects whatsoever to be pointed out about The Abyss of Ancient Forest, by Sanctus Hexe. This is a deeply laudatory work, that highlights the best qualities the genre has to offer.   

 

Wagner

black metal

Iron Bonehead

The Murky Black of Eternal Night is the second album by Dutch black metal project Pyriphlegethon, to be released in April 14, by Iron Bonehead Productions. With ten tracks – Curse Of The Old Coffin, Monument Of Death, Funeral Bells, The Serpent's Tongue, Summoning Ancient Evil, Return To The Tomb, The Murky Black Of Eternal Night, Cursed Blood, The Coldest Grave and Night On The Black Mountain – The Murky Black of Eternal Night is an awesome and very intriguing album, that brings back everything genuinely good the genre has to offer, with that real and extensively crude vibe of ancient raw black metal, completely embraced and sidelined by the perfections of tradition, but without sounding old, repetitive or monotonous.  

Although the album is a little bit short, there is a strong sense of unity within the music. While you listen to The Murky Black of Eternal Night, you really feel the true, dark and captivating essence of real black metal, that captures the abhorrent and funereal nature of the genre, that a lot of raw black metal groups seems unable to reproduce with unwavering authenticity. 

Throughout all of its length, you can really feel the work to be compromised with the purity of the genre. And while The Murky Black of Eternal Night cannot be essentially categorized as a masterpiece, the album does stand as a perfect and marvelous example of a contemporary raw black metal record. With its essence intact, and a voraciously infamous authenticity that really embodies the dark, sinister and dreadful spirit of the genre, no word or critical assignment could be strong enough to compromise or disintegrate the solid integrity of this work. 

While this album inevitably steps into a lot of commonalities within the genre, it’s impossible not to assimilate or to recognize its indelible qualities. The Murky Black of Eternal Night, by Pyriphlegethon, came out to be a marvelous consonance of black metal essence, hostility, obscurity, mystery and sensibility. Rescuing the true spirit of the genre, this album is a sincere and honest tribute to all its formidable and genuine predecessors. While I reiterate the fact that the album does resent itself from a certain stream of ordinary complacencies, its overall sonorous abilities are simply unquestionable. The Murky Black of Eternal Night is an exceptionally good black metal album, with a genuine and insanely consistent colossal essence. 


Wagner

drone / dark ambient

Years ago, my musical endeavors focused mainly on dark ambient and ritual industrial. I devoured everything that labels like Cold Meat Industry released. In later years, pretty much after the demise of CMI, I start wandering into different territories to satisfy my dark ambient needs. Those eventually lead me to love and respect our own Belgian drone and ambient acts, including CHVE, Barst, Dirk Serries, Stratosphere, Ashtoreth, acts who inspired me to make my own little steps into the world of ambient, drone and noise.

Empusae, the alter ego of Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe is no stranger to me. During those old days, I often listened to his music, often in playlists along with acts like Sophia, Deutsch Nepal, Sephiroth, Raison D'Etre and so on. However, for some reason both forms of ambient have always been separated, at least to me. But at one point Empusae found his way to Consouling Sounds and started cooperating with Barst. Now, after all is said and done, there is this new album, one which once again proves the Belgian dominance in this scene.

'Lueur' consists of two tracks, each lasting a bit over twenty minutes. If you want a short description, you can see this as a perfect marriage between Sephiroth and CHVE or between Sophia and Barst. Both worlds of ambient and dark industrial come together perfectly well here, thriving on Empusae's talent for gloomy but immersive music and the brilliant guest appearance by Colin H. Van Eeckhout (CHVE, AmenRa). Track one alone, named 'Guiding Light' is a massive piece of constantly evolving dark ambient, sludge and drones.

That being said, this album is just as inventive and adventurous as 'The Western Lands' by Barst, although that one has a lot more tempo changes and eclectic elements. 'Retinae Tenebrae' seems to focus more on a mix between neoclassical and dark ambient, which is just as welcome in my book. Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio comes to mind here, but also some of those epic sludge metal bands, in a way. That cannot be just Colin's influence, that must be decades of experience in all sounds dark and heavy.

The verdict? As I said, this album only confirms everything I said about Belgian ambient acts. Of course this comes highly recommended. What else did you expect?


​Serge

doom metal

A few days ago, my wife and I were talking about the evolution of some of the bands I have been reviewing over the years. Quite often, a band seems to select a certain genre to play, write a first album, do a bunch of gigs, go back into the studio to write new songs. Throughout those albums, you can sometimes notice the evolution from a beginning band to a well-attuned group that has learned a lot about making music. You can hear confidence, passion and experience.

Yesterday, I finally decided to take the new Pallbearer album for a spin, and guess what, I noticed those exact same things. It surprised me too, because for all I knew, Pallbearer was already at that point where confidence, passion and experience were present in the music. I have been a Pallbearer fan for several years. In my humble opinion, they are one of the best doom metal bands today. So yes, I was surprised to see that even a seasoned act like Pallbearer seems to evolve their style. 

Of course, that is not a bad thing, on the very contrary. Without further ado, I can honestly say that 'Heartless' is a breathtaking album, progressive doom rock at a very high level. I hear influences from King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Anathema, My Dying Bride and Black Sabbath, but most of all, I hear Pallbearer give the very best of themselves. Opener 'I Saw The End' is a very strong song, one that immediately made me like the whole album.

'Thorns' is a first highlight, an epic piece of doom rock which takes me back to the nineties and the seventies at the same time. 'Lie Of Survival' is a long, progressive rock song with a gloomy edge, which even brings some gothic rock acts to mind, be it the slow, depressive ones. I really love the guitar play on this one, along with the introvert, emotional vocals. And suddenly I think, "what would happen if Pallbearer and Depeche Mode worked together". But nevermind that.

'Dancing In Madness' is another highlight, and dare I say "a masterpiece"? This song only proves what I have been babbling about in the first two paragraphs: confidence, passion and experience. With plenty of emotion and tonnes of musical craftsmanship, this is undoubtedly one of the best songs Pallbearer have ever written. If Pink FLoyd were a metal band, this would have been their sound.

Now, for the doom fans among us, don't worry. Besides progressive beauty, there a still plenty of doom loaded riffs to slowly bang your head to. 'Cruel Road' and title track 'Heartless' will easily fulfill your metallic needs. The closer is one for you to discover for yourself, but rest assured, I will definitely be worth the effort, just like the rest of the album. So yep, this one comes highly recommended. It's probably one of the most mature metal albums in history...


​Serge

heavy jazz / grindcore / noise

Time to prepare for another slab of ruthless jazz aggression by Dutch combo Dead Neanderthals. The question is, how do you prepare for something like this? I mean, this is not the kind of music you usually listen to when you begin digging into the immense world of sound design. You got to have a certain history, some stepping stone bands, so to speak. For starters, you need to know your way around noise and experimental music. You should know something about jazz and then forget all about that. You should know about grindcore too.

A friend of mine once said that Dead Neanderthals "abuse their instrumental respectfully". I couldn't agree more. What they come up with sounds like pure equipment torture, but one that is only possible when the musicians is passionate about the music. 'Craters' is a thirty-six long extreme jazz composition, where sax and drums drag the listening into a cesspool of metallic, harsh and barely controlled chaos, for the occasion aided by a bass guitar. This album claws, scratches, screeches and gnaws, all in perfect Dead Neanderthals tradition.

I think it's safe to say that this is Dead Neanderthals darkest and moodiest work so far. In a way, it can compare to their previous work but also to acts like Barchan, Plaistow and Sunn O))). You know, jazz but heavy, overwhelming and perhaps a bit homicidal. Is it a recommended album? Well, obviously it is. Every Dead Neanderthals fan should have already got his hands on a copy of this album. Even if you're not a fan, check it out. You will either love it or hate it but you'll have to agree that it's something you don't hear every day. 


​Serge

industrial / electronic

My favorite metal-band-without-metal-instruments-or-band is back with a five track ep, something I'm always curious for. After all, since discovering this awesome act at Incubate some years ago, I have been intrigued with his machines and the sound he produces with them. I've seen him do it live a few times, resulting in shock and awe every single time. Author & Punisher is something unique, and with that in mind, this ep is quite unique too.

For those not familiar with this act, let me explain quickly. Author & Punisher is Tristan Shone, an American doom metal one-man project who builds his own equipment, influenced by his experiences in building and maintaining telescopes. His machines create drones, riffs, beats and loads of other sounds. Every performance is a blast. The music is intense, heavy and pounding, and some people can never get enough of that.

But then there is this ep, named 'Pressure Mine', and although this one is pretty damn heavy, it shows a different side of Author & Punisher. In a way, this one is rooted more into eighties industrial and even shoegaze. Opener 'Enter This' brings Scorn to mind. 'Pressure Lover'  and the monolithic 'Nazarene' someway remind me of old Ministry meets Nirvana and Godflesh. Furthermore, the vocals are a lot more melodic than what I'm used to from this project.

Nonetheless, 'Pressure Mine' is a very interesting piece of work, one where Author & Punisher dares to experiment with the seemingly endless possibilities of his machines. 'New World' is probably the most vintage industrial song I've heard since the eighties and closer 'Black Wand' is just weird, industrial approach to Depeche Mode. In all, I think this is a must-have for people who are already fans. Others, try it out, you will be surprised.


​Serge

post rock

A World Of Li(n)es is an album by Greek post rock band The Point Of It All, released on March 15. Very concise, being only thirty minutes long, the record has eight tracks: Once Upon A Time, Transparent, A World Of Li(n)es, The Day When You're Gone, Heart Debris, 8bit Μadness, The Sound Of Leaves and Through The Night. With poetic, profoundly insightful and meticulous harmonies, the astoundingly melodic and minimalist nature of The Point Of It All’s music is incredibly heterogeneous, despite the strong style they show, throughout the album’s splendid and unrestrained ordeal.

With expansive harmonies, strong melodies, an amazing rhythmic consonance and an incredible degree of originality, to simply call A World Of Li(n)es a formidable example of a magnificent and tempestuous album is to underestimate the album’s massive qualities. They are simply stunning, extraordinary, and out of this world! With a genuine and proficiently authentic style, that crafts guitar solos in the synchronicity of the right time, with the proper vicissitude of an unrestrictive sonorous galaxy of virtuous rebirth, I immediately became astonished by their delirious style. For reference purposes, they seem to be the perfect mixture of God is an Astronaut with Caspian, although they really have the potential, as well as a fantastic degree of talent, to surpass these masters of the genre.    

When the female vocals begin – made by a special guest in the fourth track – you literally feel yourself transported to another world. Rather than being strange, incompatible or alienated, they feet very well the song’s melodies, in such a perfect conjuncture, that you learn with them what true musical versatility really is.

With a marvelous and perfect fusion of post rock, post metal, power metal and alternative rock, A World Of Li(n)es certainly can be considered one of the best albums released this year. With a wonderfully splendid degree of originality, an audacious inclination for experimentation, an embracing universal creativity and a sensational perception of music as a lucid and visible embodiment of artistry, The Point Of It All reveals itself as a formidable album, one of the most singular pieces you will ever hear in the genre. A state of the art work, A World Of Li(n)es deserves to be highlighted in each and every possible aspect. A primordial and monumental record, you learn for a fact that these amazing musicians are the best in what they do!   


Wagner
   

black metal

Ignitiate is an album by Ukrainian Neopagan black metal band Kladovest, released by No Colours Records. Having only four tracks – Hermit Dungeons, Beneath The Reaper Shadow, Shore Of Ancient Moons and Carved In Scars... – this album is really a fantastic and very exciting black metal album. With poetic, colorful and prominently sculpted harmonies, the music of Kladovest is full of delicate and intricate flavors, being graceful to the redemption of its melancholic, sensible and definitive artistry, and seems to be more aligned with a paradoxical sentimental alternative rock rather than black metal itself, except for the vocals.

Nonetheless, Ignitiate is a beautiful and stunning record! With wonderful melodies, and an amazing and exceedingly peculiar sense of profound artistry, their sensible, kind and touching musicality is a diversified mosaic of soul elements. It is a fact that, in this album, you basically have no heaviness, aggression or hostility whatsoever, but the high levels of splendor and beauty achieved on this record certainly are no minor occurrence. With a genuine and masterful security, Kladovest displays four wonderful songs that are worthwhile listening: they are splendorous, sincere and delightful ordinations towards a marvelous and supreme redemption of the senses. A truly captivating, fantastic and excellent record. 

Like I’ve pointed out, except for the vocals, I will hardly categorize Kladovest as black metal. Their sound is too colorful, delicate and beautiful. Nevertheless, these qualities don’t diminish them in any way. On the contrary: they are strong for being genuine, have a peculiar and audacious sense of authenticity, can be considered amazing songwriters with sensibility to create superbly wonderful music, and their talent is simply unquestionable.

Ignitiate, by Kladovest is a truly unique, wonderful and highly beautiful album. Sincerely, I was exceedingly pleased when hearing this intense and graceful masterpiece. In this record, you can’t expect any heaviness at all, but if you like and appreciate philosophic and reflexive melodies, a more humanistic and touching kindness, with the ability to dialogue with your soul, and a peculiar sense of vital and sensible artistry, then Ignitiate is an album made for you. Simply wonderful, impeccable, unique and profound, this record is a true state of the art work, something that you will hardly hear, exactly on these same musical alignments, in the history of the underground. An album that came to stay, and to disperse a new form to create music. Because with Kladovest, music is made with all the imponderable galaxies of the soul.  


​Wagner