Norwegian extreme metal titans ANCIENT have set the release date for their long awaited 7th studio album, "Back To The Land Of The Dead", the follow up to 2004’s "Night Visit". The album will be released September 16th in North America via (Megadeth bassist David Ellefson’s) EMP UNDERGROUND/EMP LABEL GROUP, and in the rest of the World by SOULSELLER RECORDS. The album is currently available for pre-order (in North America only) from EMP LABEL GROUP at empmerch.com, in various CD, LP and bundle configurations, with a European pre-order to follow.

​Listen to a brand new song here.

ANCIENT is:
Zel (aka Aphazel) on Vocals/guitars/keyboards Dhilorz on Guitars/bass
Nick Barker on Drums – Ghiulz Borroni on session lead guitars








​

The track listing is as follows :


1. Land of The Dead ( Music by Dhilorz, lyrics by Dhilorz and Zel)
2. Beyond The Blood Moon (Music and lyrics by Zel)
3. The Sempiternal Haze (Music by Dhilorz, lyrics by Zel)
4. The Empyrean Sword (Music by Dhilorz, lyrics by Zel)
5. The Ancient Disarray (Music and lyrics by Zel)
6. Occlude The Gates (Music by Dhilorz, lyrics by Zel)

The Excruciating Journey

7. Part I Defiance and rage (Music by Dhilorz, lyrics by Zel)
8. Part II The Prodigal Years (Music by Dhilorz, lyrics by Zel)
9. Part III The Awakening (Music by Dhilorz, lyrics by Zel)
10. Death Will Die (Music and lyrics by Zel)
11. The Spiral (Music and lyrics by Zel)
12. Petrified By Their End (Music by Dhilorz and Zel, lyrics by Zel)
Bonus track :
13. 13 Candles (Music and lyrics by Quorthon)

black metal

Symbol Of Domination

Öland, an island in Sweden with a rich and often violent history. According to archeological finds, the island had been settled by hunter-gatherers in about 8000 BCE. Scholars have also uncovered viking burial mounds, dating back to about 6000 BCE.  The Romans were writing about it. There were iron age ring forts. The history goes on and on. Now, there's also an album about that history, unsurprisingly it's a black metal album.

Isgärde was formed by Somath 2015. This debut album is dedicated to this island and to its solitude. On the other hand, it's an excellent example of the melodic but often brutal approach to black metal we regularly see coming from Scandinavia. With grinding guitars, effectual drums, haunted screams and an array of folk instruments and keyboards Isgärde certainly created something raw and majestic, something with a firm sense of grandeur.

​Most songs fit perfectly into the blackened scene of the nineties. I could mention bands like Dimmu Borgir, Graveworm and Emperor to the probably impressive list of influences but I feel like it's more than that. 'Ancient Forest of Witchery', for example, is a strange song, a slow, eerie piece of work that gnaws, claws and grinds. It's also my favorite on this album. If you want something more melodic, you will definitely love 'Dying After Dawn'

If you want gutripping brutality, 'Funeral Fire' will serve your needs. This is a blasting monster of a song and certainly not the only one on 'Jag Enslig Skall Gå' (which, by the way, loosely translates as 'alone I shall go'). So in all, we're dealing with an excellent and varied debut, recorded by a talented musician. Perhaps it would be a good idea to get a full band together and take this show on the road. I for one would love to see this live.


​Serge

drone / dark ambient / industrial / noise

Many people don't understand why other people create this kind of music. They can't grasp the minimal approach, the haunted, eerie sound and the often crushing atmosphere. "It's not fun", they say, but this music isn't supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be satisfying. It's supposed to explore and exorcise some deeply personal emotions . Besides, usually it's not even made for an audience, looking for "fun". This is deeply personal, ritualistic even.

Arnwald is a Belgian project, formed by the drummer for bands like Enthroned, Necroblaspheme, Humanitas Error Est & Lost God. Do not expect furious blast-beats or grinding guitars on this one for this is something completely different and, as I already mentioned, something deeply personal. As a fellow dark and obscure music producer, I can perfectly understand where Arnwald is going with this material. Right into his own inner self, that's where.

The tracks on this album, titled 'I' to 'XI', are collections of soundscapes, noises, repetitive industrial percussion and deranged voices. They remind me of an early Scorn, some dark ambient acts like Raison D'Etre or martial industrial acts like Sophia. For the most part, they are somber tunes, slowly dragging themselves alongside torpid percussion. Yet, here and there, as in 'VI', the whole thing turns into an industrial noise bombardment.

Other acts that come to mind, include Brighter Death Now, Whitehouse, Contagious Orgasm... At times, the musicality of the whole thing is completely gone, leaving nothing but noise and screams. On other occasions, there are hints of melody, hidden beneath a veil of drones. But the whole thing is so intense, so immersive that I kept raising the volume throughout the entire listening session. This is harsh stuff, food for the deranged brain.


​Serge

gothic doom metal

Sidhe is the Irish term for a supernatural race in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology (usually spelled Sìth, however pronounced the same), comparable to the fairies or elves. They are said to live underground in fairy mounds, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans. They are variously said to be the ancestors, the spirits of nature, or goddesses and gods.

And that obviously brings us right into the most loved theme of many metal bands: the pagan mythology and lifestyle, including the occult and the supernatural worlds. Since the nineties, several pagan and gothic metal bands have been inspired by Gaelic folklore and beliefs. Sidhe, the Italian female fronted metal band, follows that tradition and they seem to combine it with a firm do-it-yourself attitude.

​'Contenebrat' is their second full-length after 'She's A Witch', released in 2012. The music brings back memories of those pioneering bands, including The Gathering, Moonspell, Haggard but there's also plenty of room for good old fashioned doom metal, like Black Sabbath or Cathedral.. Furthermore, I can't help but think about gothic rock bands like Inkubus Sukkubus or Faith And The Muse, mostly because the sound of the guitars I think. Their less heavy than their predecessors.

Which obviously isn't a bad thing. You don't have to be the heaviest and most intense act to be interesting. All you need is a set of skilled musicians and that certainly seems to be the case here. Songs like 'Contenebrat',  'Hekate's Wheel' and the lengthy 'Seven Gates' are well-written and well performed pieces of traditional doom metal, interlaced with celtic influences and the dark female vocals of Tytanja.

For fans of female fronted gothic metal, this certainly is something to check out. However, I'd also like to recommend fans of twins-solos and old school heavy metal riffs to lend this album an ear. You'll definitely find something you like in here. The album mostly makes me curious about live performances. I wonder how strong this material will stand on stage because sometimes that's very different from the album version. 



​Serge

ambient / electronic

Apex is the debut album of Merrin Karras, the newest moniker of Irish electronics-addict Brendan Gregoriy. Gregoriy has been Chymera since 2002, internationally renowned in the techno/house scene. During the production of the last Chymera full album, he felt that it was time to try out something entirely different. Not limited by deadlines or the necessity to make the album dancefloor-proof, he took the time to get every single sound just right. 

Apex sounds a bit like the logbook of an explorer. Gregoriy says that it took him two winters to make it, following his heart and without actually knowing that it would become an album. In the meantime, he started digging deeper and deeper into the world of synthesizers, encountering its pioneers (Klaus Schulze, Michael Hoenig) and its contemporary composers (Abul Mogard, Steve Moore). Another influence is clearly present: Biosphere. 

With the knowledge of this making-of, you can figure out why there's quite some difference between the tracks. 'Catharsis', 'Elevate', 'Liberant' and 'Apex' sound more influenced by the latter artist than the rest of the album. 'Void' and 'Severance' are jewels of building-up experimental dronescapes, whereas 'The Veldt' and 'Isolation' in my opinion sound like a tribute to the old masters of the synth. But maybe I shouldn't try to put every track in a box, because every listen reveals new sounds and my appreciation of the album only grows.

Can you imagine how bloody awesome Apex sounds for a tenacious Biosphere fan who's also just started exploring the world of synths? Very bloody awesome, I can tell you. My favourite track is 'Severance' and I've read that on his next album, Gregoriy is planning to take the whole more in that organic direction. Even though I'm already looking forward to that album, I hope that he can continue to take all the time he needs for it. Because that, I believe, is the strength of Apex. 


Eline

psychedelic rock / shoegaze / electronic

This album has been hiding away in my albums-to-review box for awhile now. I guess I've just been very busy with other projects while trying to work through the massive pile of albums I still have to check. Yesterday however, I published the new video from Lord Kesseli and the Drums and I was stunned by what I heard. So today, I quickly grabbed the album from under the pile and fed it to my sound machine, twice, thrice, four times and even a fifth. In fact, I spent a total of four hours listening to this debut, wondering what the heck I am going to write about it. 

Lord Kesseli and the Drums are a Swiss duo, founded in 2014 by members of the band Stahlberger. They claim to make slow club music, and that's a pretty accurate description. Personally, I'd go a little further and call it 'psychedelic downtempo doomgaze blues', so no, don't expect some brutal growlings, piercing riffs and massive blast beats. Nope, we're going on an emotional ride along the meadows where electronic music meets psychedelic rock.

The album opens with the song 'Arnold', which reminds me of acts like Slowdive or Jesus and Mary Chain. But there's more to this music, something seemingly rooting in the darkwave scene, with its gloomy atmosphere and choir-like dreamy vocals. As a former DJ on (quite open-minded) gothic parties, I can certainly understand the club music reference. I'd play this at one of my parties anytime.

Of course, that means that there are plenty of electronics, synths, drones, soundscapes and even flashes of noise to be found. Yet, all those elements are arranged in beautiful songs like 'Siri' or the heavy doomgazer 'Fade'. Yes, doom, and yes, that means strong guitar riffs and hypnotic solos. It's all here and it's all magnificent and there's three more slabs of goodness to come, including the bluesy 'Pure Emotion' and the weird uptempo song 'MDMA which blend DAF with Iggy Pop', or something like that. But what would you expect from a song with that title?

As the album closes with the equally brilliant 'Kid' I read that Lord Kesseli and the Drums' intention is to play as many gigs as possible. Well, as far as I'm concerned, they can come play in  or near Antwerp anytime. It would be great to see them on festivals like Desertfest, incubate and even Dunk!. 


​Serge

electronic / ambient / idm

"Braindance is electronic experimental music mostly, there are included drill n' bass, acid house, future lounge, electro and some other weird electronic music". That's what Urban Dictionary has to say about this genre. Obviously, electronic music evolved over the years, with many new styles, sounds and atmospheres coming in from pretty much everywhere, but I had no idea what Braindance exactly was. 

I know now.

Bunai Carus is a duo from Montpellier, France, currently living in Brussels, Belgium. Since 2013, they released a number of ep's on a variety of labels. With this new ep, they hope to make a mark on the electronic music industry and, quite frankly, they should. I'm enjoying the heck out of this album which combines IDM (intelligent dance music) with downtempo and ambient. Furthermore, they managed to give the whole a jazzy atmosphere.

The ep opens with 'Cage's Coma' which could be seen as either an intro or just a very decent ambient track, luring the listener into the strange world of Bunai Carus. Then, 'Storm Cellar' comes up with the weird percussion and soundscapes. They're a bit eerie and the whole has a certain jazz-feel to it. You know, as if Autechre would make record an album for ECM, that kind of stuff. 

Shortly after, 'Skelet-1' completely convinces me with its perfect mix of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards Of Canada and Plaid. This is a brilliant track, as far as IDM is concerned, one of my current favorites. 'Pahoehoe' is another delightful ambient track, reminding me a bit of the works of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. Pahoehoe is a form of lava flow in Hawaii with a smooth or surface. In that aspect, the title perfectly fits the song.

'Glowdrift' is a strange, nervous, mesmerizing and adventurous collection of soundscapes, clicks, beats, hi-hats, classical music samples and other curious sounds, an orgy of electronics, so to speak. Closer 'Tableau' sounds a bit like Olafur Arnalds on LSD. Don't ask me why, but you can bet your ass that I like it. This is a magnificent ep, that's for sure. So it's no wonder it come highly recommend to all fans of weird electronics out there, you know, the 'braindancers'.


​Serge

post rock / ambient / progressive

Ortus Planetae is the debut album by Thinking Through Myths, a personal conceptual project created by guitarist Gyorgy Henyei Neto, a Brazilian anthropology student of Hungarian descent, living in Aberdeen, Scotland. 

Blending several genres of music, Henyei Neto creates a personal style exceedingly difficult to categorize, that reasserts on the verge of its creative art several different influences, from Post Rock to Ambient, borrowing elements from progressive rock, and even electronic music. With eight tracks – being them Singularity, Eclosion, FraQtal, Steps of Migration, Rupture, Serendipity, Birth of a Planet and Syzygy – and usually alternating between short and long songs, Ortus Planetae manages to be a remarkable guitar-centered album, where creativity and originality flows lightly, as a wind breeze, striking you in an expressive intensity of unimaginable fascination.

With heavy and protuberating guitar lines, that manages to give intensity, melody and rhythm to the music, all at the same time, the album seems to be a conceptual piece of experimental rock, with avant-garde elements, that blends and explores, with its measuredly hallucinatory and particular interpretation of rhythms, very different prerogatives and dynamics of sound, resulting in a very individual work, that embraces an introspective beauty of dense cosmogony, reflexive planetary exhortations, exhilaratingly profound melodies and the transliteration of artistic ambitions into very sonorous and groundbreaking dream pieces, that softly combines and rearranges the delicacy of melodies into a wider range of musical possibilities.  

Although the album is a little short, Henyei Neto manages to gives us a very striking sense of his creative purposes and capabilities, with interchanging melodies and captivating harmonies, that pulses directly into the heart of his compositions, amalgamating into the serenity of his majestic sensibility the shapes of rhythms coherently built at the core of his musical objectives, which results in striking songs that compounds an enormous degree of philosophic obliteration throughout the sonorous journey that seems to be its main proposition. With a guitar work marvelously explored in an almost minimalistic detail, Ortus Planetae manages to be an impressive, but somewhat very unpredictable work of art, with its principles centered on a layered field of uncommon experimental tenacity, persevering through a hierarchy of melodic patterns developed by a mindful set of rearranging journeys through the abysses of musical creation, constantly searching in old influences the starting point to achieve something new.             

With an interesting degree of boldness and innovation, that somehow reinvents boundaries between genres, without limiting itself to be any of them, Ortus Planetae manages to be a fine debut album, with an intricate and daring level of experimental audacity, and a very strong perception of a serious, but nevertheless flexible guitar work. Ortus Planetae, as a debut, is undoubtedly a great beginning for Thinking Through Myths, a very introspective and personal musical project, with an enormous degree of potential. If Henyei Neto stays, deepens and immerses himself in his cohesively built, and very structural multilayered guitar work, we already could have extremely impressive and fascinating future perspectives for his next albums, although I doubt his creativity would stay confined to just that. For sure it is a little early to point it out – and even anticipate – what could be his next move, but we already can imagine, by hearing Ortus Planetae, that his audience would not be disappointed with his future works. Brilliantly challenging his creative artistic output, that absorbs influences from a great range of different musical styles and genres, never limiting himself to just follow a trend,   Thinking Through Myths’ next work will certainly be a marvelous surprise! If I may say, check it out Ortus Planetae. You will not be disappointed!    

drone / dark ambient

bandcamp

A Bleeding Star is a dark/ drone/ ambient project led by Canadian musician Alex Goth, an incredibly lucid, voracious and inspired artist, whose obscure, somber and melancholic approach to a very nefarious sound exposes desolate intricacies, mournful emotions and   sinister landscapes, brilliantly conveyed as an entire universe, made only of morbid escalations of loneliness, dark abysses and incongruent mountains of infinite despair. Mindtripsonic Treasures to Celebrate the Audible Delicacies of My Evergrowin' Desires is a nine track full-length album released by A Bleeding Star, on May 13, 2015. 

While A Bleeding Star can perfectly arrange and create tracks with an astounding pattern of lurid gray desolation, the truthful sense of ever growing anxiety and affliction that his songs pass on to the listeners is simply beyond unbelievable. While transporting every ordinary soul to another dimension with his nervous, doomed and psychologically disturbed incoherent sounds, I always point it out his increasingly remarkable ability to tell a story combining two prominent characteristics: an exceedingly large title, with the right mood proper to it. The song titled “Ever Feel Like Conjurin' An Escape that Makes thee Disappear from thy Physical Shape?” A Bleeding Star creates, compounds and saturates the air, the ambience and the cosmological shape of his exhilarating groundwork of dying nothingness, with the most outrageous reverberation of darkness, setting up in all castles of the galaxy of his unforgiving creativity a symphony of deadly shadows cast out from the fears, tears and agonies expelled from the darkest regions of his mind. Nonetheless, a conspicuous and fatalist element of serenity can be seen wandering lost throughout the inhumane conformity that inherently breathes through these untimely fields of ghostly premonitions, masterly arranged by the sordid atmospheres created by these greatly doomed set of songs, aligned to submit to reason the understanding of your soul’s decadent glory. 

On the other hand, the track titled “Too Fuckin' Sad to Sing...Too Fuckin' Dead to Care 'Vhat Anyone Thinks...How's that for Honest?” seems to be a lullaby for all the melancholic restless whisperers out there, designed to make eternal an infinite season of never-ending mornings of gray and protuberating disillusions, rearranged by fragmented patterns of vibration that makes sorrowful delusions an ephemeral drowsiness of lethargic transparency, willing to calmly prepare the listener to sleep,  and put him in a dream state of permanent expectations, never to wake up again. And soon you will be caught in a realm of foreshadowing blizzards of eternal damnation, forever trapped in an unreal place of hazardous, cruel and laborious configuration, brilliantly created by Alex Goth, the horrifying designer of labyrinthine kingdoms and otherworldly dimensions, capable to bring to existence the most abnormal patterns of reality with the dark excellence of his lurid music.     

Mesmerized by a transient sound of ambiguous and terrifying ambivalence, it is impossible not to be caught, seized or astounded by the incredibly exhilarating tone of A Bleeding Star misanthropic sound, on his Mindtripsonic Treasures to Celebrate the Audible Delicacies of My Evergrowin' Desires. Able to create an atmosphere of gloom and melancholy, with this album you will travel to dark abysses, and pass by the most obscure nebulas in and around the universe, through a fascinating journey of inspiring transcendental rapture, cornered by a sense of purely speculative hallucinations, and exposed nuances of melancholic self-discovery. A Bleeding Star albums, besides being an amazing work of art, are fractal transient moments of inexistent hours, where space and time align together to create another level of infinite demise, where the doomed antagonism of all unreliable souls are coherently redeemed, and allowed to stay forever in the fallible reign of a glorious despondency. 

For his outstanding ability to take the listener to another level of cosmic existence, A Bleeding Star remains undefeated in the symposium of the great Dark Ambient artists ever. With a corrosive wave able to achieve the pervasive center of your afflictive emotions, here you have the tracks that will lead you to a desert filled with unknown places, that were hidden inside your soul, and you never knew about it. Let A Bleeding Star pull out that places for you. And enjoy the journey. If you are able to endure the pathway, and of course, its consequences.  


​Wagner                  

doom / sludge

Well, talking about bands that are hard to find in my inbox. It took me to the end of the first track of this album to search for 'Merchant' in a '@merchantsofair.com' inbox. And yes, that is quite a long time. It's doom metal, remember? That first track isn't the longest one on 'Suzerain' but it already is a massive, eight minutes lasting monster of epic riffs, psychedelic solos and sludgy vocals. This is gonna be awesome.

Merchant is a band from Australia, Melbourne to be exact. In the past two years this quartet has been building their way up the doom ladder. They shared the stage with acts like Pallbearer, Ithaqua, Horsehunter, Watchtower and Holy Serpent.  In four tracks, in all clocking off at about fifty minutes, these guys spew out their guts, accompagnied by torpid sludge metal and cosmic doom. Like I said, "awesome".

The music reminds me of acts like Winter, Yob, Conan, Cough... It's slow, deranged, crushing and methodical, like an ever growing insanity. 'Mourning Light', for example, is a repetitive punching on your skull, before it bursts out in punk-induced sludge metal, finishing the job of breaking your spirit. Or how about the massive title track, a slowly raging beast, uncontrollably rolling through your speakers and into your dreams. 

I don't know, I'm just imagining a thick, dark green puddle of sludge oozing out my speakers at this moment. And I like it. I think every fan of psychedelic doom and sludge metal should check out this album, it's an eargasm you can feel in your stomach. This is a brilliant piece of work. I can only hope that these guys will tour the old continent soon, perhaps play Desertfest or so. I can't wait to see this live...


​Serge

black metal

This album could be seen as either a tribute or a farewell note, or maybe both. It was recorded after the death of founding member Ruahanathanas, which was her last wish. Known for her work with acts like Yayla and Viranesir, Ruhan started this project to deal with her longing for freedom, her battle to understand religion, society, life and death. After her suicide, the other members took it upon themselves to finish this farewell.

The result is a harsh, chaotic and schizophrenic album that gnaws on your very conscience. In a way you can compare this to the vintage black metal sound of the early nineties, when Scandinavian hordes of misfits gained attention. Much like those acts, this album is covered in a thick gloomy atmosphere, representing depression, terror, fear. and dark spirituality. In four significant themes ('Black Flame', 'Illusion', 'Death' & 'Suicide', this act drags you along their darkest thoughts and emotions.

Besides the gritty, raunchy and grim elements of black metal, there seem to be influences from a number of other genres. In 'Black Flame III - Death Is Life' and 'Illusion I - Religion' I sense elements from punk and noise rock. On other occasions flashes of hardcore or even sludge metal shine through, mainly in the fierce drums and often suffocating riffs. But the main part of this album is rancid blackened noise, which places this right into the underground cult-scene of the black metal world.

And that is probably how this album should be described: a testament of underground cult, twisted, controversial and uncompromising. Like all of Merdumgiriz' releases, each copy of 'Into The Cunt Of The Witch' CD, tape, t-shirt and patch will be made by hand in the artisanal style. Emir paints the discs, cuts and inserts the prints for the jewel case and jacket, making all non-machined parts from scratch. With that in mind, this truly is a great tribute and a must-have for fans of the deepest regions of the world of extreme music.


Serge

black metal

Here is the long awaited second album from Finnish black metal act Korgonthurus, the band by legendary ex-Horna frontman Corvus. This band was formed in 2000, released a few demos, ep's and an album and underwent some line-up changes. Recently, they recruited two new guitar players, preparing for a bunch of live performances. This new album was recorded in the summer of 2015 and from what I can hear, those performances will indeed be epic.

Compared to the slow and simplistic sound of their previous album 'Marras', this new work is extremely varied, even for a black metal album. There are still several slow and haunting passages, sometimes nudging towards the whole post-black metal scene. On the other hand, this music can also be fierce, brutal and driven by blast beats. Just check the opening track 'Kaaos', a track that fits perfectly with its title.

​One of my personal favorites on this album is the eerie 'I.K.P.N', which drags this album right into the avant-garde black metal scene. This song is strange, almost claustrophobic even. It's pure horror, just the way I like it. Besides, it's followed by a brutal aural beatdown in title track 'Vuohen Siunaus'. Where the previous song was claustrophobic and terrifying, this one is a severe assault on your very soul, ramming through your skull. Love it.

'Inho' goes even further into torture mode. This is pure and utter chaos, complete with deranged screams and a suffocating tempo. Black metal at its grimmest, that's for sure. The album ends with a huge track, named 'Lux' which combines all the best from the previous songs. It's audacious, often melodic, usually straight in your face and always intense. The whole album is, and it's an epic one too, highly recommended for those blackened souls who like their aural punishment with plenty of variation.


​Serge

ambient

bandcamp

Despite its huge calmness, Ambient I is an album that manages to reiterate a great deal of artistic harmony, engulfing in the sincere groundwork of its musical ambitions interesting patterns, that really exposes a somewhat intricate, but very colorful tone of melodies. In nine tracks delineated to be the brightest folk styled ambient album in the recent history of the underground scene, Ambient I is a remarkable and splendid work of art, that brightly highlights the still very obscure genre known as Dungeon Synth.   

With nine tracks, being them Moon Snatcher, Forest Mist, Embers of Burning Light, The Fairy That Disappeared, The Lonely Steed, Dance of the Elves, Fortress of Imprisonment, Weeping at Stars and Hibernation in Winter Castle, Ambient I probably manages to be one of the most captivatingly soft ambient albums ever created. Mesmerizing, simple, beautifully executed and as light as the wind can be, all of its tracks are astonishingly beautiful. A transcendental sense of tranquility and calmness invades the lines of your soul, as you listen to this album, that goes throughout your spirit, magically burning a deal of enchantment that rises by the thin veil of your serenity, intensifying, but at the same time healing the hidden aneurisms that you may have, suffocating your transparency. Perfect for moments of solitary introspection, Ambient I – if you have the patience to fully understand the artistic proposal behind it – manages to be a remarkable work of art by its own rights and merits, having some distinctions that ambitiously leaves space to a great deal of interpretations! 

Having created a genre that could easily be labeled as soft melodic (or melancholic) ambient, for such a “static” piece of music, this work is surprisingly multilayered. Folk styled elements, soft ambient atmospheres and easy ethnic melodies are all greatly combined together, in a very pasteurized field of sound lines, corroborating with a very relevant ambience path an interesting vibe of old cultural spheres of influence, incorporating in an ever increasing element of traditional traits a fascinating and extremely personal school of sound. As beautiful harmonies lay hidden in an increasingly soft, but always ascending pattern of melodic beauty, this soft enchanting timeless tracks carry out so much potential inside them, that you will hear, feel and touch beauty, in each and every track of this marvelous and increasingly astounding groundbreaking album.   

Although each and every track has its own beauty, the album manages to retain a style, completing a cohesive cycle of precision, density and purpose, that impressively fits a coherent concept. As the songs talk to your soul, to your mind, to your perceptions and to your unwillingly desperate desire to be on your own, Ambient I is an impressive album, that talks to the most fragile and imperative elements of the human nature, never forgetting for how long the soul fits into the most deserted spaces, to start over again what in fact has never been finished.

I simply cannot stand at how marvelous this album really is! An undoubtedly profound and relentless masterpiece, Ambient I, with its ever achieving greatness, is for the ones who know what they’re looking for, in musical terms, at least! And impressively, you don’t have to be a great fan of the ambient/ dungeon synth genres to appreciate this album, as its artistic scope goes far beyond the ordinary limits, reaching far wide the plural spectrum of undeniable insurgency that all the great works are destined to have.  

One of the best albums I have ever heard in my entire life, its atmosphere is universal, philosophical, poetic, melancholic, divine and intensely beautiful. The artistic ambitions of     Vindkaldr simply goes way above the usual, and, as a result, Ambient I turned out to be the magnificent joy of work that I politely invite you to experience for yourself. It’s simply the most outstanding and marvelous journey one can ever take, using music as a means of transportation. You cannot miss this chance. Listen and enjoy!  


Wagner

modern classical

Ever since I heard 'Die Moldau', I've been hooked on classical music, along with a massive number of other musical styles. Unlike most people, I didn't know about classical music until I was twelve or so. In school, we had one hour of music class every week and that's where I heard that magnificent piece of music for the first time. My musical journeys haven't been the same since, and I'm still discovering beautiful works, created by piano and strings. 

Lviv, Ukraine resident Egor Grushin is actually one of my favorite present-day composers. Like several of his lesser known colleagues he surpasses well known ones like Olafur Arnalds, Sebastian Plano and Nils Frahm. Grushing would fit in quite well with that ensemble, certainly with a varied album like this one. Sometimes it's minimal and subdued, sometimes it's playful and joyous. It contains piano and strings, and a whole lot of talent.

After an intro, 'Essential' is exactly what the title predicts. This songs, and many others on this album, would fit perfectly on an 'Essential Classics' compilation, right in between the Mozarts, Beethovens, Händels and whonots. This is a joyous piece, a bit melancholic perhaps. Follower 'Summer' also doesn't disappoint. It sounds like a warm day in August, somewhere in the late eighteen hundreds or so.

Speaking about melancholy. The title track 'Once' really is a tearjerker and I write that in the best possible way. Remember that 'Essential Classics' compilation? Well, 'Once' deserves a spot too. It's followed by a waltz, aptly named 'Waltz'.  But I'm not going into a song-by-song on this one. You'll have to check out the other ones for yourself while I press the repeat-button and enjoy this graceful album a few times more... You should too


Serge

death metal / black metal

Well, I give up. I have no idea how this album got into my download folder. I've been searching my emails, my facebook messages, everything but no sign of this album. That won't keep it from being reviewed by the way. I don't work like that. It was in the folder so it was meant to be reviewed, right? Besides, it's a good slab of metallic brutality, grinding, progressive, haunting and harsh, something you should not ignore if you're into blackened stuff.

Giant Of The Mountain is a blackened death sludge band from Dallas, Texas. With that, pretty much everything is said about this ep, but that obviously doesn't mean it's a bad release. On the contrary. From opener 'Crawl' to the pitch black 'Instinct', this ep rages on in sheer ferocity and intensity. Slow, crushing passages, alternating with blast beats driven extreme metal and featuring an array of screams and folkish chants, everything you need is here.

It's hard to compare this band to others, since there are elements from doom, Swedish melodic death metal, present-day post-black metal and vintage blackened music. There's also a lot of highly technical progressive metal to be found, just listen to closer 'Into Dust'. In all, this is a blast of an ep, recorded by three highly skilled and talented musicians. Again, what else could you possibly want? You should have already bought it...


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sludge / grimecore / grindcore

Our local weather service predicted a massive thunderstorm today, with loads of rain and hail balls but at the moment the sky is wide open and the sun shines. What a disappointment. Luckily, I found another raging storm and I'm letting it blast through my speakers at this very moment. A bunch of extremities, thrown into a concrete-mixer, played loud and with attitude, that's what this band is all about. And I quite like that.

Their name is Hungry Like Rakovitz and they've been around since 2008, although the initial idea started back in 2004. Since then, they have been touring, recording & rehearsing. They shared the stages with bands like Godflesh & Eyehategod and with good reason too. These guys are intense and heavy as fuck, blending elements from death metal, grindcore, black metal, sludge and hardcore into one massive aural punishment.

The album opens with and intro ('Under A Wolf Skin We Lurk'), followed by one of the slowest songs, and quite frankly also one of my favorites. 'Dissident' reminds me somewhat of doom icons Winter with its grinding sound and its raunchy atmosphere. Both elements remain throughout the whole album but here and there the tempo goes up, way up. 'Inevitable Return To Darkness (Obscuritate I)' comes up with the blast beats and the blackened screams.

'With Death In Our Hearts' seems to nudge towards old school death metal with a chaotic and strangling sound. 'Trophies, Not Prisoners' repeats that recipe, be it in a more industrial way. So, where's the sludge, you might ask. Well, it's everywhere in this thick, vicious sound, and especially in 'Wildweed' and 'Refusing Light'. In all, this is a tremendous slab of extreme metal, created solely to torture and eliminate your very soul. I guess that's a compliment. 


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jazz / post rock

In the past few weeks, we have been listening to this album quite a lot, much more than usually happens with albums before I actually start writing the review. I'm sure the count will increase a lot in the months to come. And that is quite strange, considering the fact that I'm not a jazz fan. Dark jazz, sure, but jazz-jazz? Not really. However, I notice that I'm slowly being lured into the jazz-scene and albums like this one certainly help.

John Ghost is an adventurous band from Ghent, Belgium. Their music could be described simply as jazz, perfectly suited for the upcoming festivals like Gent Jazz or Jazz Middelheim. I don't think many fans of the genre will dislike this album.  Opener 'Hypnagogia' and follower 'Period Of REM' incorporate all the needed elements and instruments, such as reeds, vibes, bass, piano, rhodes, energetic drums...

But shortly after, the other influences start kicking in. 'Prologue H-H' comes up with the drones and the experimental electronics while 'Head-Habitat', one of my personal favorites, nudges towards dark jazz and post-rock. From there the album rolls on, here and there nudging towards free-jazz but never in an obtrusive, nervous way. Instead, the focus remains on immersive music. You can almost feel to joy of playing this.

'Concrete Trees / Wooden Ants' is another great highlight and another classic jazz-tune, driving on a dynamic tempo and featuring a wide array of playful solos. The breather 'Blue Rooms' feels like a ritual ambient track, you know, the ones will singing bowls and other unusual instruments. That being said, yes, there is plenty of variation to be found here. From typical jazz to elaborate musical landscapes, somehow reminding me of acts like Sigur Ros or composers like Olafur Arnalds and at times even of Laraaji.

So yeah, this is a great piece of work, certainly one of the best jazz albums in 2016. Like I said, I'm gradually getting into the whole genre and this album definitely is a gateway to other stuff. For many people, including me, anthems like 'Head-Nomad' and 'Day One' can be pleasant discoveries, guiding them into new territories. For others, also including me, John Ghost is simply a talented jazz band with a very strong album. Highly recommended...


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death metal / thrash metal

Well, these guys certainly aren't going to win the "most-friendly-cover-picture-of-the-year" award. I mean, gagging a nun with her own intestines while violating her from behind isn't a very nice things to do, not even when you're a satanic werewolf standing in a massive pool of blood. Then again, I don't think that the guys from Mental Disaster are big fans of nuns, or anything that smells like religion. Nope, they care about "Beer and heavy fucking metal!"

Mental Disaster hails from Norway. They formed in 2011, released a debut in 2013 and are now back with their sophomore full-length. 'Raping The Symbol Of Humanity' is a raging piece of metal, somewhere between thrash metal and melodic death metal. Here and there some blackened elements shine through as well. The sound of the whole album reminds me a lot of those early death metal acts, Asphyx, Benediction and Master often come to mind.

So yes, this is an album loaded with fierce riffs, pounding drums (often erupting in blast-beats) and an array of growls and screams. Highlights are the almost industrial track 'Thoughts Of Rot Thoughts Of Hell', follower 'Obscured By Errand Flesh' and the opener/title track. But that was a pretty tough decision to make since the whole thing totally reeks of old school awesomeness, sick, twisted, deranged and violent awesomeness.



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death metal / industrial / avant-garde

Sometimes, not often, but on occasion, it happens. Lina, our cat, sleeping as ever, suddenly hears the music I'm trying to review, looks up to the speakers and then starts staring at me, as if she wants to say "what the hell is this". I can tell you, she is already used to a lot of musical extremities, from harsh noise over grindcore to free jazz and industrial. But all at once, plus avant-garde weirdness and eerie soundscapes? Nope, that's quite new to her. She seems to like it too, since she isn't walking away.

Skin Drone, founded in 2013, aren't interested in mainstream sounds, MTV appearances or groupies. At least, that's what I can make up from their biography. All they care about is extreme metal and being one of the most surprising acts on earth. In that, they certainly succeed. After hearing three songs, I'm already calling them "the extreme version of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum", and that is a compliment. 

Other bands that come to mind include Fantomas, Gorguts, Ministry, Fear Factory, Necrophagist and Cephalic Carnage. Brutal death metal alternates with pounding, repetitive pieces of industrial audio terror, horrifying ambient and noise passages, obscure samples and almost gothic horror music. At times the listener will be torn between fiercely banging his head and crawling under a rock in absolute terror. 

This just might be what would have happened if Tim Burton were an extreme metal fan instead of a movie director. Skin Drone created unique worlds for their music to demolish. The level of variation is so immense, it really feels like a free-jazz album on steroids. Besides, these guys are damn good musicians too, convincingly performing progressive passages, calm folk melodies and extreme outbursts. They can handle it all.

My advice? Well, if you're an extreme metalhead who isn't afraid of the weird and unexpected, this certainly is something for you. If you're a grindcore freak who equally loves Nile and Atari Teenage Riot, you should check this out. Oh well, if you breathe and have ears, you should check this out. This is probably one of the wickedest, most bizarre and extreme albums you'll hear this year, certainly one of the most varied ones...


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drone / electronic / experimental

Belgium - The Netherlands, if they'd have a mutual facebook relationship status, it would probably be 'complicated'. We make fun of one another, but there's also a lot of love, certainly in the world of music. Both our countries have an amazing underground scene with brilliant artists and bands. They also seem to like to work together and perform in each other's country. Or, as is the case here, release a split tape.

We'll start with Scheerling, an electronic drone act from Nijmegen (NL). His piece 'Vertoeven LVI' is a strange journey in four parts, guiding the listener through a universe of electronic drones, ambient soundscapes and distorted field recordings. The result reminds me of the works of those early electronic noise pioneers who created a spacy sound with their mysterious machines. Spacy but earthbound, eerie but warm. The kind of stuff that always represents an elaborate journey  They also come with four poems by Dutch writer Lisa Weeda.

Thaumaturgist, from Ghent (BE), is unable to stop experimenting with house and techno sounds, which results in an abstract and quite bizarre approach to electronic dance music. His contribution to this split consists of two (although they appear as one) pieces of electronic music, distorted ambient you can dance to if you will. Sounds, noises and melodies appear and disappear, sometimes minimal, sometimes overwhelming but always intriguing. The second piece has an industrial feel to it, mixed with some jazzy sounds. So yeah, quite a diverse piece of work.

In all, this is an excellent split, showing two artists who aren't afraid of experimenting. One brings some nice drones, the other plays with beats, breaks and noises. That being said, perhaps it's time for another experiment: getting both acts on stage together in a joint performance. I'm sure it will be an immersive trip, loaded with musical surprises. I'd like to see that...


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