psychedelic rock / blues

Today, the plan was to start another edition of Brieviews for Merchants Of Air. You know, working my way through the pile. After I'd written a few, I came across this strange little thing, sent to me by J. Kill & Mr. Mule, who apparently is a member of this band. It was presented as psychedelic blues rock with a focus on hazy improvisations. Since I had been listening to a lot of heavy stuff already, I needed something different, something calm and soothing. So I pressed play, opened my review template and just started writing.

The album opens with a long track which holds the middle between blues and post rock. One long immersive piece of psychedelic rock follows, one which somewhat feels like a massive jamsession between Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and possibly some of their colleagues. When the vocals appear, I'm immediately imagining how awesome Woodstock must have been. With that, I mean that this whole thing sounds like a live recording from back in the days, which isn't perfect but certainly has its charm.

'Valkoinen Vuori' drags the whole thing deeper into the regions of blues and jazz, leaving the psychedelic approach behind for a while. This is a strange, somewhat eerie ballad but nonetheless an interesting one, showing the versatility of these improvisations. On other occasions, as in 'Toteemi', the band shows a bit more of their experimental style. In this one, I even recognize a touch of vintage doom metal. Earth comes to mind, so does Om and several other acts.

Yet, even though there are plenty of bands to be compared with, I feel like this is mostly a joyous and successful result of an intense series of jam sessions by a bunch of likeminded musicians. As far as I'm concerned, these guys can come to Belgium and play this kind of stuff in a local venue here anytime. It'd be awesome to listen to them jamming while enjoying a beer. My advice; check it out, you just might rediscover the sheer joy of making music.


​Serge

death metal

Wara! is the most recent album by death metal project Sauron, released on November 26, by Polish record label Witching Hour Productions. With six tracks – being them Pergrubia 997 (Chwała obrońcom prawiary), Czarcie Bagna, Powrót na Czarcie Bagna, Bałtycka Mgła, Goreją Wici and Enter the Eternal Fire – Wara! is a very majestic and technically impeccable death metal album, with detailed and effusively distinct lines of guitar, that underlies in the sideline spaces of acid harmonies a heavily concentrated and abrasively consistent work, filled with solid and amazingly built melodies, unrestrained at the pace of well ordained and astoundingly crafted rhythms, that carefully shapes a horizontal sound, ready to break boundaries, and rebuild the structures of the genre, according to its own set of rules and principles.  

With a great and surprising style that effectively proposes the mixture of the likes of punk rock, traditional rock’n’roll and hardcore elements, Sauron, on this specific release, has created a very peculiar style of death metal, that manages to be very close to technical death metal. With the predominance of well-crafted rhythms over heaviness, and powerful lines of guitar that are presented at the height of the sensibility of the songs, Wara! is a constricted album, grounded in the wisdom of a powerfully conceived technique, that does not took for granted the uneasiness of its methods, conscious of the lousy effectiveness of its somber dilution, towards a seemingly crude, but interestingly profound projected field of sound, that assigns to the genre such an impressive degree of originality, that you instantly feel yourself to be guided by a new trend within the heart and the spirit of death metal. 

An intelligent and properly conceived album, that outdoes the most surprising recent releases of the genre, Wara! recreates and reworks with a potentially harmful display of unforgiving technical abilities the core, the principles and the fundamentals of the genre, shaping a new level of musical artistry, stylistic evolution and unraveling determination, which has, as a final result, elaborated a very intriguing album, that certainly has the potential to call into question everything we thought we knew about death metal, marvelously challenging the foundations of the genre, and reworking it towards something new and unexpected. At least, this is what you get, for sure, if you listen to Wara! with the same amount of soul that it was conceived. 

A very good album, Wara! undoubtedly takes to another level the most practical and technical elements of death metal, here worked in a style that goes far beyond the ordinary limits ever established in the history of the genre.              


​Wagner

electronic / trance / techno / psytrance

Biijah Records

The Myth Of The Cave is the most recent album by Hallupsynagogic, released by Biijah Records, on November 20. With five tracks – being them From Caveman to Alchemist Part I, From Caveman to Alchemist Part II, Ghost Valley, Goblin's Cavern and Hipnagogic Purple (Vs Polybius), The Myth Of The Cave is a trance electronic music album, with an effervescent psychedelic vibe and twist. 

Playing all around with the most entertaining elements of trance music, The Myth Of The Cave has vibrantly skilled and spiraled upbeat harmonies, all perfectly inserted in a very eccentric layer of intelligent rhythms, that remains somewhat constant throughout the whole album. With a distinct playfulness that characterizes ostensibly the spirit of a very basic trance, these five tracks on The Myth Of The Cave really pushes to the limit the basic elements of the genre, relying on a more fully formed traditional design to uplift the development of the rhythms.

Although this feature can be appreciated as a restrict quality, on the other hand, it represents a very compounding weakness, since no innovation is presented here, and the album eventually turns out to the just another trance record, that relies on a “same old” model of work. Although the five tracks presented here are not bad at all, they’re also far away of having some significance. Generated by the central axis of the propelling musical device which comes to subsidize the basic outline of the genre, what we really have in The Myth Of The Cave is a very good, decent trance music album, that is incapable of going beyond that. This means that, completely destitute of an impulsive energy and a groundbreaking originality, this album will never achieve a great result. While I reiterate the fact that this album is, indeed, a very good work, its normality and uniformity can’t accomplish too much. Even the more ardent enthusiasts of the genre will feel bored after listening to this album only a handful of times. 

A good trance music album, that doesn’t explore the vitality of its potential, or the amplitude of the genre per se, The Myth Of The Cave is a very good work, but, unfortunately it stops there. Completely incapable of going further on the path of limitless musical possibilities, exploration and exhilaration, this album is destined to lose itself in the road to sameness. In the meanwhile, you can certainly listen to it, and enjoy, at least to a certain degree. Sooner or later, you will inevitably forget about it. You can be positive about that.       



​Wagner

electronic / darkwave /synthpop

Scandroid is the eponymous self-titled debut album of an electronic cyberpunk darkwave/ retro wave/ synth wave one-man musical project, led by an artist known only as Klayton, based on the United States, responsible also for the projects Celldweller and Circle of Dust. With fifteen tracks – being them 2517, Salvation Code, Aphelion, Shout, Destination Unknown, Connection, Datastream, Empty Streets, Awakening With You, Atom & E.E.V, Neo-Tokyo, Pro-bots & Robophobes, Eden, Singularity and Eden (Waveshaper Remix), the album was released on November 11, together with another one, that is only an instrumental version. 

With a brilliant futuristic techno style of electronica, Scandroid can be best described as the perfect marriage between Daft Punk and mind.in.a.box. Its debut album, without a doubt, is one of the best things that I have ever heard in my entire life within the genre. With a powerful force of its own, filled grace, amazing rhythms, and catchy melodic twists, Scandroid certainly is the future of electronica. With a gracious, but lucid influence of 80’s pop, the artist in question really absorbed all the right things, in what concerns the musical influences from the past. With the fourth track – Shout – being an electronic version for the notorious Tears for Fears classical hit, this album is literally a masterpiece: no flaws, no boring moments, no nostalgia freaking styled tracks. Scandroid is the most beautiful electronica masterpiece that you will ever hear in your life. It’s such a powerful album that it’s impossible to become tired of it. Beautiful, poetic, filled with escalating rhythms and hallucinating melodies that travel through the magical rainbows of a hopeful philosophy of sensibility and love, Scandroid is one of the best albums of 2016, one of the best albums of the decade, and certainly one of the best albums ever made in the history of electronica, as a genre, and as a sonorous expression of art.            

A marvelous and perfect album, like I had never heard before, with equally disturbing ascendant moments filled with rapture, and an indescribable energy that encompasses the songs from the beginning until the end, such amazing masterpiece deserves all the recognition it could get, from the moment it was released. 

Fantastic, imperially suggestive, permeated with a happiness that engulfs the rhythms in a melodic dissonance that dwells from a distance, this album literally made me speechless. Beautiful beyond any description, Scandroid is a marvelous masterpiece, that will define something new in your heart, as well as shape and rearrange through another perspective your musical taste. A wonderful work of art, bound by a universe of glowing light, this is a musical experience like you have never heard. Superb, powerful, unique, with a high level of delusional excellence and majestic artistry, this is definitely the album of a lifetime. A wonderful paradise for the ears, to say the least!       


​Wagner

black metal

Afar is an American atmospheric black metal project from New Jersey, Selfless being its most recent release. With seven tracks – being them Healing, Cascading Shadows, Tsalmaveth, Endless Path, Aerial Discord, Beckoned into Fog and Twelve – what we have here is atmospheric black metal rightly done: very transposing, agonizing and lucid, centered on tension and atmosphere, rather than heaviness and aggression, you can certainly affirm that Selfless is a work worthwhile paying attention to. With its fair share of aggressive passages, of course, Selfless is an album that injects a more personal overview of the possibilities of black metal. Very somber on its displays of hostile musical moments and brutal heaviness, nonetheless, the strength and the heaviness of the album rely on an intelligent mixture of musical components, that trusts even in symphonic metal elements to strength the imperial vicissitude of its groundbreaking force. 

Although I was not impressed, I can’t say I wasn’t either. Being black metal of another brand, another space, another life, with a force of its own, Afar certainly engages its sound in the wingspan of a more peculiar and divergent style, that works perfectly at the unusual contrivance of the music. Like an abysmal force that predicts an urgent cataclysm, each and every track on Selfless comes with a pragmatic and fatalistic urge that materializes black metal by its own rules. With calm and serene moments as well, delivered by the serenity of an acoustic guitar, Afar’s music has a consistent soul at the core of its labor, being the main component of its art a formidable and sensible human discipline, that converges directly to the heart of its altruistic musical intentions.               

As vivid as the colors of a horizon in a freezing morning, Selfless present to its audience a magnificent display of beautiful music, filled with the sincere desolation that impregnates the lurid atmosphere of the sound, having balanced correctly and precisely all the majestic elements – as disparate as they appear to be at first – that properly deliver the musical universe of an intense, multilayered, sagacious and primordial atmospheric black metal state of the art work. 

A very good album, that precisely compels its sound to foster the values, the elements and the significance of the genre, Selfless, by Afar, is a very instinctive work, capable of pleasing each and every enthusiast of atmospheric black metal. With vigor, splendor, majesty, a surreal agony and a restless combustion that fuels the music with the wrath of an imperial storm and the philosophy of an endless winter, this album certainly can teach you directly and dynamically what atmospheric black metal really is!        


​Wagner

folk metal / black metal

From Carpathian Land is the third album by Ukrainian Pagan Black Metal band Paganland, released on November 4 by Svarga Music.

A thoroughly powerful and emblematic rhapsodic pagan BM deeply rooted in local culture, Paganland displays on From Carpathian Land a more organic and esoteric black metal, centered on a reflexive and poetic philosophy of immaterial essence, everlasting wisdom and silent harmony, going far beyond the usual steps of genre. With some aggressive sound, of course, they manage to standardize a ritualistic sonorous strength, filled with an impetuous vigor and a truthful resonance, which certainly makes this album a great milestone of the genre. With a marvelous set of rapid rhythms, nonetheless, Paganland manages to sound original and authorial, looking way more as a teacher of the genre, than just a hostile student. 

With some exceedingly symphonic influences, and a joyful abysmal sound, that resembles a philosophy class, filled with wisdom and lucidity, nothing can be said of From Carpathian Land, besides the fact that it is, in fact, a great and marvelous masterpiece: a new approach to black metal, and a new form of artistic genre understanding and evolution, regarding extreme blackened pagan metal, as a whole. What a marvelous and grandiloquent album: already captures the listener in the first track – a simple but beautiful intro, that mesmerizes the listener, in a very beautiful paradoxical gloomy melody, that eternalizes winter in the dubious spheres of the mortifying anxieties of your soul. 

With a style of their own, developed in a very different category of black metal, Paganland really does justice – besides introducing real significance – to what the term “pagan” really means in metal. And with a furious, but very artistic sound, filled with the most profound components of their own culture and heritage, From Carpathian Land begins a new chapter in the history of extreme metal. Consolidating an interesting style that doesn’t neglect the melodies over the rhythm – and yet, had managed to do a very powerful and heavy album – Paganland has everything to become one of the greatest acts in the history of the underground in the future, if they manage to do more fantastic albums like this one, with such a groundbreaking degree of artistic excellence (and I know they will). 

Despite being very brief – having only seven tracks – From Carpathian Land has everything an excellent extreme pagan metal album is entitled to, to please its audience. An uncommon, major, unique, exceedingly refined and majestic record, no doubt about that!    


​Wagner

death metal / black metal

Legacy is the most recent album by Polish death/ black metal act Christ Agony, released recently, on November 18, by record label Witching Hour Productions. With seven tracks, being them Conjuration, Sigillum Diaboli, Seal ov the Black Flame, Black Blood ov the Universe, Devil Worship, Coronation and Legacy Ov Sin & Blood, Legacy manages to be a decent album, deeply rooted in the basic and traditional aspects of the genre. Nonetheless, after a few tracks, you become very tired of listening to it, as the album doesn’t present anything really enjoyable or valuable, and sounds a lot like several hundred dark metal albums that were released before.  

Although Legacy really doesn’t present anything new to its audience, one certainly has to recognize that the record manages to be a decent and very well produced metal album. Stylistically, it has a very uniform sound, sustained by calm guitars with very precise lines, underlined by an axis of methodical rhythms, concentrated on a very substantial sensibility, that clearly seeks consistence as a mainstay for the musical framework. With technical devices that really overshadow the soul of the music, sometimes plagued by a little indifferent monotony, stood at the pace of almost ecstatic melodies, the guitar work on Legacy certainly is the strongest element of the album, being the driving force throughout the record in its entirety.

While I can’t say that this is a tiresome album, it certainly has so little qualities that it is impossible to point it out positive things about this work. With an embarrassing uniformity that makes several tracks sound as if they were exactly the same, Legacy is an album that can be appreciated by enthusiasts of the genre, although inevitably most of them will eventually be disappointed by the lack of vitality and vigor in the music, invariably becoming indifferent to it.

While I can’t say that I have disliked this album, I haven’t liked either. And this is not a good thing, as I certainly don’t feel any motivation for listening to this album a second time. This album has potential to capture at least a limited audience, but unfortunately, it is too much tedious and monotonous for a metal album. I reiterate here the fact that, in my evaluation, the album is not bad, mediocre or lousy. But certainly is very boring and common. There is nothing really interesting here to listen to, so, it’s probably better that you don’t waste your time on this one. 

     

​Wagner

dark metal / black metal

Godking is the third and most recent album by Dutch dark metal band Hymir, released on November 25. With ten tracks – being them A Storm Is Coming, Rise of the Godking, I Am Damnation, With Ravenous Bloodlust, Vanquishment, The Victor Is Crowned, Am I Not Merciful?, Dawn of the Rebellion, Wolves at the Gate and The Tyrant Dethroned – Hymir, on Godking, makes extensive use of symphonic, melodic and atmospheric elements, creating a delusional realm of lucid shadows, where opaque rhythms and sinister harmonies becomes the center of a very somber and elusive work, designed to teach you the boundaries of a fantastic journey made of sound, emotion and sensibility, all profoundly aligned together to devise a plan where nothing is what it seems.

Despite their sound being a little generic, which is something that even the label “dark metal” is becoming entitled to, Godking is an album filled with astonishing surprises and delightful rhythms, that reminded me a little some classic Samael works, from the second half of the nineties. Nonetheless, Hymir has its own style, promulgated by the dynamics of philosophic melodies, opened at the vast panoramic space of a black hole that rapidly dilutes its serenity and sorrow over the marvelous delicacy of joyful rhythms, that balances perfectly the heavier aspects of the music with its majestically melodic counterparts. Sounding sometimes as if you had become lost in a dream, Godking resonates a sincere symphony of poetic disillusion, rescued from the perpetually lost tempestuous testimonies that were deeply immersed in your soul.

With a great set of harmonic virtues, exceedingly exposed and highlighted at the stream of an unbound devotional style, the sound on Godking is properly sculpted at the crest of the beauty of dynamic and poetically designed  melodies, with an interesting classical layer, shaped in the body of songs marvelously driven by an emotionally ridden content, filled with the true equation of a despondent soul. 

Although I haven’t liked the album on its entirety, with its more generic parts sounding far too common or ordinary, Godking certainly elevates the “dark” subgenre of metal to another level, possibly designing for the term the beginning of an original style. Certainly, Hymir has a modus operandi of their own, and labels apart, we should never stay too grounded on superficial descriptive definitions, since all of them doesn’t have too much value. Nonetheless, Godking is definitely an album worthwhile listening. A refined, elaborate and classically sculpted work, Godking definitely belongs to the elevated paths of artistic metal albums. I think each and every fan of avant-garde and symphonic metal will enjoy listening to this beautiful record, although I strongly recommend with irrevocable specificity for Samael fans, especially the ones who appreciate everything they had done so far, with the exception of the more extreme, raw black metal work they had produced earlier in their career.          


​Wagner

metalcore / post hardcore

Pariah is the debut album of metalcore duo Glasslands, consisting of musicians  Josh Kincheloe and Brandon Mullins. With ten tracks, being them Birth, Back And Forth, Fame, Deadman, Soul Without A Home, The Sounds, Demons, Meaningless, Dark and Go For Broke, Pariah certainly is, without a doubt, the best metalcore album that I have ever heard in my entire life. Powerful, complete, graciously touching, moving and poetically melodic, this work is painfully dilacerated with sad harmonies and a world full of frozen dust, fulfilled by joyful paradoxical artistic principles, and an astonishing balance between raw and clean vocals. Pariah is best described as a great, incredible, lucid and marvelous masterpiece, like I haven’t heard in centuries. Filled with emotional fury and sentimental beauty, Pariah deserves a handful of prizes. If this work passes out without any recognition, no other album in the history of the genre deserves one. Far above splendid and way ahead the limits of the beautiful lines of a true poetic artistry, Pariah will enter history as a marvelous reference for the entire metalcore worldwide scene, for such a heinous fury, transcendental poetic sorrow, undivided harmonies and gigantic colossal beautiful melodies were carefully dilapidated at the core of an enthusiastic and deeply symmetric testimony of artistic proficiency, strengthened by the confluence of a turbulent, but natural musical talent.

Combining a sincere, but sad fury, with a poetic melancholy that dilacerates the nuance of rhythms at the pace of a joyful sonorous composition, Pariah’s music has so many components correctly placed at the right angle, that for the first time metalcore was done right, without sounding like the complaints of a bunch of teenagers crying over their middle class life problems at home.   

With the power of a sincere fury deeply exhilarated by a profound existential sadness, underlined by the symmetry of a high level of musical elements standardized in a categorical style filled with a serene devotional wrath, the deeply meaningful cadences that surround the rhythms, over the pace of poetic melodies wonderfully entitled to a transcending melancholy that harmonizes the beautiful intersections of a poetic life encircled by the most wonderful melodies ever written in the history of the genre, this is a gracefully marvelous album, generated by angels in heaven, and transported to earth by these two marvelous musicians, that shares with us the most wonderful metalcore album ever produced. 

With all the power of an aggressive and sad melancholy, inserted at the heart of a meaning that dilutes the sorrow in the forgotten hearts of hungry nights, the perfect equilibrium between harsh and clean vocals intertwine the precise volatile dynamics of promising sagacious harmonies. A sincere epic hymn to the dark disgraces of the human life, Glasslands, with Pariah, undoubtedly exhibited to us all how to do an impeccable state of the art work.

If this album is good? No, it’s not. It’s excellent! You can say Pariah converted me into an avid enthusiast of metalcore. Definitely, one of the greatest albums that I have ever heard in my entire life!  


​Wagner

ambient / drone

Dronescape 13 is the most recent album by exceedingly prolific Canadian electronic music artist James Parrot, that has more than a hundred and forty releases on his bandcamp page, all in the drone and ambient genres. Released recently, on November 22, Dronescape 13 has only one track – like all of his Dronescape series has, so far – titled 12-10-1, being almost forty minutes long.

With a very calm, direct and lucid atmosphere, that transpires a vast and profound degree of constant serenity and calmness throughout the whole track, on his most recent work, James Parrott seems to reevaluate the meaning and the significance of a constant sonorous basis for the foundation of the track itself, that relies more in the maintenance of the constant wall of a pragmatic static harmony, that instills the usual force that seems to be the predominant ordeal in his work.

Perfect for a session of meditation, an afternoon spent on tranquility, to evoke calmness is to consolidate inner peace. The music of James Parrot can be characterized as exercises in calmness, as he unfolds in the interior world of the listener an entire universe made up of sonorous possibilities, filled with colorful suggestions of hope and sincere exhilaration. A calm and static music, that certainly can be qualified, first and foremost, as a philosophic detachment of every possible human correlation, understood by the conscious rules of an unbreakable and antagonistic paroxysm created by human principles. So you just have to listen, and let the sound do the travel for you. Your mind will be transferred to several curious spaces and fantastic places, that no other artistic works, instruments or intentions in this world – or in another places of this same existential sphere of influence whatsoever – could lead you to. 

With a reflexive and philosophic strength underlying its majestic axis, Dronescape 13, with its only track 12-10-1, is more of a key, or an instrument, if you prefer, built by the artist as a means for the listeners to take a journey inside their own minds. With a deep, but profoundly calm resonance that dialogues with the inner conditions of its own predisposed isolated universe, Dronescape 13 marvelously arranges a bridge to connect the listener to the other side of his own panoramic emotional landscape, in a formidable layer of inextinguishable tranquility, that summarizes a vast connection to one’s soul with the rest of the universe. It’s an infinitesimal piece of a duplicate substratum of peace, propagated by a sound that will be forever lost at the confines of the spirit of the listener, living in a timeless parallel universe, where each and every lucid harmony will resound like a note of this simple, but ethereal symphony of tranquility, that dissipates eternal quietness in the dreams of a pure majestic ambient sound, made to conjugate the sound of eternal peace.      
 

​Wagner

black metal

Paleness of the Bled World is the most recent release by Slovenian avant-garde metal act Nephrolith. Despite labeling themselves as a black metal band – in their social media page, they’ve written that they’re “re-forming black metal into something atmospheric, melodic and rock-alike, without deforming its core” – I don’t think that this is the case here, in what concerns the album Paleness of the Bled World. With a deeply melancholic introspective art house styled metal, that thoroughly escapes by all means and vicinities the commonalities of the genre, Nephrolith, as a band, really adjust itself to their own expectations and principles of sound, being like no other band in the underground today, since their style is quite unique, prominently dilapidated in a very impressionistic  art frame. Having developed a genre of their own, Nephrolit has a more calm, methodic and categorical approach, close to technique refinement and perfectionism. Sincerely I would hardly call them black metal, despite their use of corpse paint and traditional black metal adornments, at least for this album in particular. Nevertheless, they are great. Paleness of the Bled World is a major album.

With a great degree of refined technique, a very colorful set of melodic improvement and very well sculpted harmonies, Nephrolith really had achieved a new degree of metal standards. Everything here is out of the ordinary. Great songs and an astounding pace of rhythms filled with a marvelous and passionate originality, Paleness of the Bled World is a major work of art, that begins a new chapter in the history of avant-garde metal, no doubt about that.

With the opaque vagueness and the diffusion of a lucid art, all tracks on Paleness of the Bled World has such a voracious energy, promulgated by the vivid destitution of invisible worlds falling apart, that you feel instantly renovated by listening to their music. With a shape and a colossal identity of its own, each and every song on Paleness of the Bled World has a fantastic appeal that builds horizons of stone in the frame of the human soul.     

Unfortunately, if they want to be – or want to remain recognized as –a black metal band, they are too distant of such an achievement. Apparently, in their efforts of developing a new identity to their style, and exploring the genre through another perspective, they became too avant-garde. Nonetheless, I really don’t care about labels, and I don’t think they have to change at all to conform to traditional BM standards. With an effective mixture of melodic, symphonic and power metal elements, fully aligned with a profound philosophical approach, Paleness of the Bled World became the underground signature of a sonorous, fully amplified, golden written and exhilarating modern art.  


​Wagner

ambient / drone / noise

Dezoito (which means eighteen, in Portuguese) is the eighteenth album by Brazilian electronic/ ambient/ drone/ noise artist Gustavo Jobim. With four tracks – being them Heart and Sound and Soul and Vision, The Road, For Richard Pinhas and 33 – Jobim (the same last name of a great legend of Brazilian popular music, Antônio Carlos Jobim, better known as Tom Jobim) is a musician obviously influenced by the classic German school of electronica, something the artist himself acknowledges openly.  

Dezoito is a very interesting album, filled with intriguing noises, contrasts, sonorous experimentations and uplifting twisting beats. Nonetheless, given the length and the nature of each one of these tracks, I strongly recommend you to listen to each one of them separately and calmly, after you listen to the whole album, which will be a far more enjoyable experience, since each one of these tracks appear to be grounded in a very artistic, experimental and fearless exploratory field of work. 

Undoubtedly appearing to be a very methodical work, sometimes lucid, sometimes more hallucinatory, Jobim obviously like to explore the vastness of his musical proficiency, astoundingly studying possibilities in a noisy and protuberating soundscape, establishing for himself no limits or boundaries. On his interesting approach to songwriting, composition and execution, he clearly sees the result of what he is doing. Nonetheless, given his astounding levels of experimentation – and obvious despise for commercial appeal, which would be no surprise at all for such a fearless and skilled underground artist – and the fact that his major influences are misunderstood and audacious electronic acts from the past, his music is confined to a very restrict audience, with the hopes of being understood and properly appreciated only to a handful of eccentric enthusiasts.

But his music really has interesting potential, abilities and capacities, apparently built in a very cohesive diagram of techniques, sounding joyful, modest, playful and exhilarating at the same time. Despite the whole album being charged with a magnificent sphere of lucid sensitivity, the first two tracks set the groundbreaking standards here. The second one, The Road, really impersonates a beautiful and relinquishing atmosphere, subsumed by an 80’s nostalgia, that captures you, and never leaves you unannounced or lost at the center of its own free styled rhythms. Filled with interesting references and influences from the experimental and electro scene of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, this album reevaluates the musical proficiency of electronica in a more vast panel, properly diluted in a style that reinvigorates a fresh sobriety into harmonies that admonishes a sonorous galaxy of possibilities like only a handful of artists are capable of really doing it right, in the whole history of the electronica genre, and its multiple subgenres. 

Filled with a great multitude of layers, albeit his music can be described as static to a certain degree, given the fact that one main rhythm can be predominant throughout a whole track, Dezoito, by Gustavo Jobim, certainly is an interesting sonorous experience, that will certainly enlarge your personal concept about electronica experimental music, and will surround you with a nostalgia feeling – if you are familiarized with the genre, of course – for such magical moments that this album, in the end, will make you search for more works of this fascinating, exquisite, eccentric but very inventive, creative and audacious artist.      


​Wagner

ambient

Sometimes things don't really turn out as they should. This album came in several months ago, and since then I've become quite familiar with. I've been playing it numerous times, sometimes quietly and gentle, sometimes loud and overwhelming, depending on the activity I was engaged it at that moment. Yet,somehow I never started to write the review. One reason is the massive amount of albums to review, but another one is simply the fact that it isn't easy to write about ambient albums, no matter how good they are. I know, I can throw in some names like Brian Eno, Helios, Biosphere and so on but still, how to describe this, other than "cinematic ambient".

Of course, we all know what the combination of the words "cinematic" and "ambient" does to people. It makes them create beautiful and inspiring music, which is exactly what Eluvium has done. The American experimentalist has been around for quite some time now so he knows a thing or two about creating an atmosphere and about telling elaborate stories without uttering single word. Ok, in the opening track 'Strangeworks' you can hear some angelic chants but the majority of the music here is completely instrumental, and I like that. For the record, I absolutely love that opening track.

The album contains plenty of variation, even without beats or percussion. I already mentioned the angelic vocals but there's more. There are classical music passages, drones, jazz inspired instrumentals and soothing soundscapes. There is almost harsh noise , especially in the overwhelming 'Washer Logistics' while a track like 'Movie Night Revisited' comes up with a dark jazz element. 'Beyond The Moon For Someone In Reverse' seems to drone pretty much continuously, only showing vague flashes of melody while on other occasions the piano seems to take over. 

In the end, I think the words "masterpiece" and "highlight" aren't out of place in this review. I've had a lot of time to absorb this album and I still love every single second of it. Fans of cinematic ambient, epic soundtracks and even classical music can easily trust this to be a welcome and much appreciated gem in their collection. So, if you haven't already bought it, you really should start thinking about it...


Serge

doom

H. P. Lovecraft has been a massive source of inspiration for metal bands since the very birth of the genre. Countless of albums have been inspired by the works of the horror master, not only those of metal bands but also by an array of bands and acts who make dark music. Now, Dutch horror ensemble Swampcult unleash a new one upon the world. Yet, this one is not just inspired by Lovecraft, it's pretty much a metal opera, entirely based on the story 'The Festival'. Each song is a chapter in the story and a variety of elements in it are audible as well, from the strange murmurings in the village to the toll of bells. The band also recommends reading the story or at least the lyrics sheet while listening to the album in order to get the full experience of "Lovecraftian Metal". (click here to read)

Because yes, this is metal, obviously. The music is primarily a blend of death, black and doom metal, mostly nudging towards the latter. It's mostly slow to mid-tempo, enhanced with eerie soundscapes and a combination of growls, screams and whatnot. If I have to compare it to other bands, I think Winter and maybe Coffins come close, but there's much more to this that doom and death metal. Elements from primitive black metal often appear, as well as haunting dark ambient passages. Or course, all those elements are here with the solo function of creating a convincing and truthful musical adaptation of the main story, 'The Festival'.

And in that, Swampcult definitely succeeded, as this is an original, varied and often terrifying album which comes highly recommended to both doom fans and horror addicts. I'm not sure if Swampcult is planning to tour with this masterpiece, and if so, if they play the entire album, accompagnied with equally captivating visual effects, but if they do, expect me to be there. I only wonder how Lovecraft would feel if he knew people are headbanging themselves into a trance to the things he wrote. I guess he'd be damn proud...


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alternative rock

This one feels as if the nineties never ended. Do you remember those days? Rocking hard in clubs and venues until the sun came up. Visiting festivals and gigs all over the country and even abroad. Drinking beer, having fun, scoffing fans of electronic dance music and chasing hot rock chicks. Parties with the motto "no bullshit, no house music". Oh man, those were the days.Strangely, I don't miss them that much but albums like this one truly make me feel nostalgic about that era and surely put a smile on my face.

Our Blond Covers is a rock band from Paris, consisting of true nineties kids. They spent their youth listening to Queens Of The Stone Age, Incubus, Radiohead and all the other big names in the rock, punk and grunge world. This new album brings all the best influences from those days together, much to my delight. There are some bloody good songs to be found, both heavy rocking dancefloor fillers as emotional ballads to slow-dance with your (future) loved one, or at least the catch of the night...

The album opens with the title track 'Die & Retry', a great blend of punk and grunge and certainly a possible hit in this genre. Immediately after, the band drags us into the world of Queens Of The Stone Age inspired stoner rock with the brilliant rocker 'Maniac'. This definitely is my favorite on this album. It's fast, groovy and so damn immersive. After that, the tempo goes down a bit. It makes place for more emotion but also for more Incubus and Deftones inspired music. Hell, there's even a song named 'Deaf Tones'. 

'Artificial' is another highlight. It reminds me a bit of Rage Against The Machine without stepping too much into the world of nu metal. There's plenty of variation already to be found on this album, so adding another style is definitely not needed. On 'Something Wrong' the band tries out some Radiohead infused jazz rock, something which works out quite well if you ask me. It's not my favorite, that honor remains with 'Maniac'. Nonetheless, I'm sure many of these songs will appear in my day-to-day playlist and I suggest you add them to yours too, certainly if you're nostalgic for those groovy nineties too...


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post metal / experimental

A few days ago, I was going through the pile of albums to be reviewed when this thing caught my eye. The accompanying biography mentioned post metal, which at that time seemed like a decent companion for my daily tasks. So I shoved the disc into my audio-machine, pressed play and started doing some household chores. The opening track 'Athens' started to play. I remember thinking, "that's a pretty nice intro, all classical and stuff". Even when the post metal vocals came in,k I thought, "nice approach, I like it". But then I didn't know that the whole album was going to be like this. After about thirty minutes, it was all over, and I found myself wondering what the hell I'd been listening to. Post metal and sludge, without distorted guitars. Is that still post metal?

Regardless of what genre this is, it's awesome. There are typical post-metal vocals by Matthieu Miegeville (My Own Private Alaska, Psykup, The Black Painters), both haunting screams and clean ones. There are drums (studio: Jérémy Cazorla (Shake Us) - live: Hélios Mikhail (Meredith Huner)), equally normal in this area of the musical universe. But then there are the classical guitars of Arnaud Barat and the cello of Audrey Paquet (Trio Milonga, Quatour Eveil). The result is strange but nonetheless quite impressive. It shows that classical music and metal aren't that different from each other and fit perfectly well together. It's like listening to atmospheric and acoustic sludge metal without losing the power of the initial style.

That approach also drags some jazz influences along with it, maybe not intentionally but certainly welcome. Finding references to other bands isn't really easy either. Maybe it's best to think of an acoustic set-up for bands like AmenRa, Eyehategod and Neurosis but also acts like Tool and Deftones. Regardless of all that, I think this is a pretty daring and a highly original album, one that breaks boundaries between genres and eras. I know I didn't mention any particular tracks in this review but that's because that whole thing is such a bizarre and somewhat chaotic experience. A damn intense one too. Recommended? Definitely!


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math / progressive metal

Ok, one more dash of musical extremism before I start playing something nice and relaxed. And judging from that first track 'Acaba Amb Mi' I'm going to need that little rest or else I'd got mad. There was a time when I could listen to all things extreme for days on end, but those days have passed. Now, after listening to a few of these in-your-face, obtrusive modern metal bands, I feel tired. Guess I'm just getting old.

Anyway, on with the review.

Rather Be Alive is a metal band from Barcelona, Spain. Their music was presented to me as "math metal", and in a way that term completely justified. On this album, Rather Be Alive treats their listeners to the algebra of metal, throwing punk rock, noise rock, hardcore, metalcore, death metal and black metal into one massive blender and coming out with something that sounds like the lovechild of Gojira and The Dillinger Escape Plan.

That must be one ugly, deformed kid, but this aside.

So yes, this is a bloody extreme piece of work but to be honest, I like it a lot more than I expected at first. Some parts remind me of those ancient black metal basement recordings, being gritty and raunchy. On other occasions I find myself dreaming away with beautiful post-whatever passages, only to be smashed in the head by ferocious guitars and throat snapping screams shortly after.

​I guess live performances by this band are rather intense, certainly with blasting tunes like 'No Es Seu' and 'Passat/Futur'. I think the latter is my favorite track on this album, but that's very hard to decide since all of them are harsh, immersive pieces of extreme metal. I don't expect this one to end up in my end-year list but I'm quite sure it will end up in that of fans of all things math, core and extreme. So yes, I absolutely recommend this one to those extremists.


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progressive metal

We're still in France, in the coastal city of Nice this time. We're also still engaged in some ferocious metal but this time a bit more extreme. With a mix of progressive metal, death metal and metalcore, Until The Uprising tries to force themselves a breakthrough in the world of extreme metal. As far as I'm concerned, they may since, this is a more than decent album with a flair for quality and some brutal controlled aggression. "More than decent", that doesn't sound very good, I know. But give me a moment to explain myself.

Some of our returning readers might already know that I'm not really a fan of metalcore and that vague genre named "djent". For me, it's all metalcore mixed with progressive and death metal. However, I often give these bands a chance. Why? Well, first of all, most of them are hardworking and talented artists and it's not their fault that they play a genre I don't really like. Furthermore, I've listened to a lot of albums that made me change my mind about a certain genre. That's how I discovered Sepultura. I hated it the first time, became a massive fan the second time. So what couldn't that happen again?

Well, after listening to 'Out Of Time' I can say that I'm still not a fan of the genre, but I do respect and appreciate the hard work and talent that go into writing these songs. Besides, there are some awesome passages to be found on this album, passages that are perfectly capable of getting every metalhead headbang himself into a coma. Especially the younger generation of fans will adore this album, since it's loaded with heavily distorted guitars, breaks, growls, screams and pounding drums. I can easily imagine the moshpits and walls-of-death being formed on songs like 'Invisible Cages' and 'Nothingness'. 

In that, I see no reason not to recommend this album. The song structures are complex but immersive as hell. The use of electornics is simply great and some of these riffs could almost literally crush your skull. Fans of bands like Vildhjarta or Animals As Leaders can easily trust this effort to be a solid addition to their collection. The production quality is crystal clear and there is some obvious talent behind these songs. Yes, this is a must have for djent-fans.


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symphonic metal / death metal

Right, time for a decent portion of melodic metal to blast out of my speakers. For that, we head over to our neighbours in "La Douce France", a country where people seem to have their own opinion about how music is supposed to sound. For some reason the French always seem to do things a bit different. Not that I mind, different is often good. Besides, this album is a bit of an exception in that aspect. It has a universal sound, epic and victorious.

First things first, this is Lost Opera's second album, partially financed by generous fans. This band has been around since 2007, continuously trying to perfect their melodic and symphonic (death) metal. On this album, they seem to show a mature and well-attuned band, willing to go through great lengths to write and perform epic metal anthems. Fans of bands like Epica, Kamelot and In Flames might start paying attention now.

As often, the album opens with a bombastic intro, one which immediately sets the right tone for the whole album. Then the song 'Today I Cry' kicks in with the heavily distorted guitars, the heavy rocking drums and a combination of clean vocals and death growls. The song reminds me a bit of a mix between Moonspell, Evergrey and After Forever.. There are loads of  atmospheric  and bombastic keyboards, bringing even Dimmu Borgir to mind at times.

From there on, the album rolls on in great symphonic metal fashion. There are some stunning guitar solos, some fantastic songwriting and immersive metal passages which very few metalheads can resist. You can also find some actual opera vocals on this thing. 'Follow The Signs' is an early highlight but my favorite remains 'The Lonely Own', which is a damn well written metal song, perfectly suited for fans of everything between Amorphis and Halloween.

Although you might have heard stuff like this before, I'd definitely recommend this album to all you symphonic metalheads out there. Even some black metal fans can find something they like in here. Further highlighting in the tracks 'May I?' and 'My Silent Hill', this is a well-varied, well-written and convincingly played dose of epic metal that truly deserve a spot in your collection. So check it out and prepare to dwell in this wonderful fantasy of Lost Opera.


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rock / pop / singer-songwriter

We remain in the realm of singers-songwriters a little longer, this time with Finnish artist Anthony Rausku. According to the accompanying biography, the seven songs on this album were recently rediscovered on a tape. Originally recorded in 1984, Rausky forgot about them for over thirty years. For this album, he re-recorded them, this time including a new alto saxophone. The result is a rock album that is just as relevant today as it was back in those days.

As you might recall, in 1984 was a year of fear as new nuclear missile technologies entered Europe. Tensions greatly increased between the major world powers with both sides becoming more militaristic. In fact, there isn't that much difference between that "second cold war" era and the one we are living in today. Tensions still are high today. Allover the globe, many people still live in fear of war and terror. 

So in a way, the seven songs on this album are equally relevant today, and so is the music. With a blend of blues, folk rock and grunge, Rausky knows how to create compelling songs which remind me of people like Bowie, Cave, Dylan or Waits. The whole is quite rough and gritty, somehow perfectly illustrating the mood, or Zeitgeist, the artist was in while writing the songs. I guess protest-songs are a timeless thing.

It's hard to pick out a favorite track on this album, but if you make me, I think I'll pick the rocking 'Lipstick Vaccine' or maybe the gloomy 'Sparkling Vision'. Yet, all songs show excellent songwriting skills and a flair for writing timeless protest songs. Although I do recommend this album to all fans of singer songwriter and decent rock music, I hope Rausku doesn't have to release these again in thirty years. I hope by then the world is a better place...


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