Merchants Of Air
  • Home
  • Reviews
    • Albums
    • Concerts
  • Interviews

April Larson - Up Below

27/4/2017

Comments

 
ambient / drone / experimental
Polar Seas Recordings
Picture
Picture
check out our shirts
Another album from from Polar Seas Recordings and mesmerizing piece of ambient. 'Up Below' by April Larson is a dark, mystifying and inspiring album that every fan of (dark) ambient needs to check out. I put the word 'dark' between parentheses because I'm not exactly sure if this is meant to be a dark ambient album, but it damn well is. The eight tracks on this one are eerie soundscapes and quite often sound like the desperate cries of doomed souls.

Not that I mind, on the very contrary. This album only came in a few days ago and it is already a constant in my ever growing ambient playlist. With good reason too, it's a brilliant album. It's so good that I only have one point of criticism: seven of these tracks are way too short. Like many of us, I am a fan of long, elaborate and stretched out sonic landscapes which seem to last forever. Oh well, I guess I'll just put them on endless repeat.

That being said, you might also say that this album lacks variation as pretty much everything here consists of these haunting soundscapes and drones. However, we ambient aficionados really don't mind, as long as the atmosphere is right. And in that April Larson definitely succeeded. This album comes highly recommended to all ambient fans, bright or dark, doesn't matter. I strongly suggest checking it out. You will not be disappointed.


​Serge
Comments

Iván Ferrús – Astronomy

25/4/2017

Comments

 
dark ambient / black metal
bandcamp
Amazon
facebook
Picture
Picture
check out our shirts
Astronomy is an ambient music/ atmospheric black metal album released in April 17, by Spanish musician Iván Ferrús Fernández. Almost one hour long, the album has only five tracks: Trappist-1, Disloyal, Forgetting... Is Time, Recalling In My Thoughts and Winds. With a very organic principle, and a predominantly serene atmospheric soundscape, Astronomy is very quiet, lucid and down to the ground. With beautiful and poetic melodies, Astronomy allows the listener to efficiently undertake a legitimate journey throughout the sensibilities of one’s soul, with a genuine layout of correlated virtuosity, celebrated by the possibilities of a complete process of undeniable discovery, that foretells precious allegories surrounding our own versions of universal truth. 

With a consistent musicality, surprisingly, for an album that does not feature a heterogeneous sonority, the work doesn’t sound monotonous in any moment; on the contrary, it can be strongly appreciated. With an interior vivacity of its own, there is an ostensibly atmospheric sonorous beauty attached to the life of the music. Dispersing a calm, delightful and abundant reality through the vicinities of a peaceful and relaxing sound, Astronomy masterly creates an alternate universe where everything that dwells deep inside your soul is enthralled in the eyes of the unknown.

Despite the somewhat ecstatic – almost frozen – nature of the music, Astronomy is a remarkable album. With an unforeseeable intensity that culminates – and perfectly juxtaposes – into the fascinating galaxy of its lurid propensity of eternal dreams, you have unexpectedly the wonderful opening of a marvelous atmospheric black metal layer, permeated by the astounding sensibility of cohesively written guitar lines, that draws a universe of soul’s disillusion into the absence of a monumental correlated sorrow, that creates beauty from the innermost abysses of melancholy. Summarizing it, an achievement that resulted in a splendid and very artistic record. 

Working in a brilliantly sculpting style the ambient music, as well as the atmospheric black metal passages, consolidating a marvelous mixture of both genres – as well as perfectly delineating a frontier and a limit in between them in the record, as both styles have its different moments of highlight – with discreet, but pragmatic elements of post black metal wonderfully added to it, Iván Ferrús has created quite a unique work, efficient in the sonorous torrential expansion of the harmonies over its infinite diagrams, provided by the primarily philosophic melodies ambitioned by the purpose of the work. 

Astronomy is, undoubtedly, a great record. Although it has a stronger appeal to ambient music enthusiasts, the general outline of the work is mostly solid and competent. A lucid and firmly created work, this is an album abundant on powerful qualities, capable of opening new horizons of sensibility, towards a fundamental principle of audacious, intelligent, renovated and highly independent originality.  


Wagner
Comments

Brieviews 22

31/3/2017

Comments

 
Picture
Picture
check out our store

Lynhood - Septembre

ambient / experimental / shoegaze
Atypeek
Amazon
bandcamp
Picture
Lynhood is the solo project for French bassist Chloé Della Valle, founder of the Grenoble label. Lynhood is also a very interesting take on ambient, drones, noise pop and shoegaze. Armed with a bass guitar, her dreamy voice and a loop station, Lynhood creates textured pop songs with a gritty edge. That now results in this four track ep which at times is extremely melancholic. While opener 'Tree' is a gentle tune, 'White Emperor' is a tremendous tearjerker, gloomy and deeply introvert. In all, this ep is not an easy pill to swallow but certainly one worth the effort. It's simply another interesting take on drones and ambient. Try it out...

Duality - Archeology

metalcore / metal
facebook
Picture
French metal act Duality come up with a complex but immersive take on progressive metal and metalcore, a genre I'm not always a big fan of. However, the three songs on this ep are laced with oriental influences, unusual vocal lines and tantalizing electronics, which make this thing a lot better than I expected. The songs are quite slow but still contain heaps of energy and grinding riffs. My personal favorite on this ep is 'Osiris', an intense piece of work that will often surprise the listener. I suggest you check it out, musical surprises are always a good thing as they open your mind for new things.

Never Train - Dnar

hard rock
Inverse Records
facebook
Picture
They call it "street rock", but I think the term "hard rock" will fit the band very well. I mean, uptempo rockers with a dirty edge and plenty of power, both in the riffs and in the vocals, that spells hard rock in my book. Never Train, a band from Finland, does nothing really new but they did record three highly convincing pieces of good old fashioned rock 'n roll. There is a little bit of Skid Row in here, a dash of Ramones and even a touch of Guns 'n Roses. So this just can't go wrong. Opener 'First We Live' is my favorite. 'Hope In Youth' is a rocking dance floor filler and closer 'Dnar' is simply an uplifting piece of old school hard rock. You might need this...

Dominique Charpentier - L'attente

classical / ambient
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
The email that contained this ep, also contained the words "It's a piano solo album", which is probably the truest thing I have ever read. On this ep, there is a piano and ten massively experienced fingers who gently help the instrument reveal its dreams. The five short pieces on this ep are soothing and minimal classical pieces that can lighten up every day. I don't care what genre you usually listen to, dear reader, but I strongly urge you to purchase this album. Music like this should be in everybody's collection. Everybody needs moments like these, moments to meditate and look into their own soul. This album can help you with that...

Vautour - Vautour

drum & bass / industrial metal
facebook
Picture
With the energy of a metal album, French electronic act Vautour comes up with six massively energetic pieces of industrial music. Fans of Chase & Status or Pendulum will undoubtedly embrace this thing. There are references towards hardcore techno, dubstep, drum & bass and breakbeats but also towards rock and metal, be it a highly electronic form If you ever see a moshpit forming during a drum & bass gig, it will probably be while Vautour is playing live. In all, this debut is an interesting piece of work, one which will definitely get your dancing boots on. I can see good things happening for this act in the future.

Moonlight Prophecy - Eternal Oblivion 

progressive / thrash metal
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Philadelphia's Moonlight Prophecy is a Progressive, Thrash and Neoclassical Metal project from multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Lawrence Wallace, and that is pretty much all you need to know before getting your hands on this stunning ep. Mostly instrumental, this three-track is loaded with shredding riffs, epic guitar solos and a massive drum sound, all coming with a gloomy atmosphere. People have said that this compares to Nevermore meets Testament and I'm not going to disagree with that. Fans of epic, technical and immersive metal can easily trust this project to deliver the goods. So yep, recommended as hell, this one...

Era 9 - Warrior

nu metal
Soundcloud
Amazon
facebook
Picture
This single by Montreal based rock band Era 9 is a very nice appetizer for their upcoming album (planned to be released in May). This song seemingly blends influences from Linkin Park, Paramore, Lacuna Coil and even Skrillex and throws them into one immersive piece of music. The result is a possible hard rock charts hit, a song that would do perfectly well as a Wrestlemania tune, for example. So yes, it's worth to check this out. I'm already curious for the upcoming full-length and if you're into anything that smells like nu metal, you should too...

Electric Floor - Fader

synthpop / new wave
Vipchoyo Sound Factory 
Amazon
facebook
Picture
With elements from indie rock, new wave and synth pop, this trio politely invites you to the dancefloor, especially if you are a fan of Echo & The Bunnymen, Psychedelic Furs, The Cure, Human League and so on. These five tracks seem to come directly from the eighties but will just as well please fans of modern day indie rock. Opener 'Bluedive' and the gloomy 'Borderland' are my favorites on this five track but all the songs are worth your attention. So yes, for a nostalgia trip, this is definitely a highly recommended ep and to be frank, I'd rather go see these guys on stage than Depeche Mode.

Headless Horseman - 47009

techno / industrial
47
facebook
Picture
Speaking about invitations to the dancefloor, this one is something for the discotheques and dance festivals around the globe. Headless Horseman delivered a four track ep, loaded with beats and eerie soundscapes. Yet, instead of the regular 4/4 beats, this act gives the whole thing an industrial touch, reminding me of acts like Imminent, Sonar, Morgenstern or Synapscape. The opener, 'Widow's Peak' is my favorite here, along with the Scorn-like dark dub track 'The Day She Vanished'. So yeppers, for a techno record, this is a bloody good one, one that will find the way to my playlists quite often from now on.

Lonely The Brave - Diamond Days

alternative rock
website
Amazon
facebook
Picture
British band Lonely The Brave delivered a nice four track ep, named 'Diamond Days'. On this ep, the band comes up with small rock anthems, seemingly influenced by alternative rock, indie and post rock. Opener and title track 'Diamond Days' is a possible fan favorite, an intelligent rock anthem that would fit perfectly well in today's alternative rock community. 'Two Heads' is a bit heavier and 'Collider' is another awesome anthem. The ep closes with a nice version of 'The Rat', originally recorded by The Walkmen. In all, this ep might not be earth shattering but it's definitely a nice addition to your collection.

Misto - Infinite Mirrors

post rock
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
This debut ep by Italian one-man post rock act Misto has been released last year but it only reached us a short while ago. Usually, when that happens, the release ends up in the pile of albums-we-don't-have-time-for but this time I'd like to make an exception. Why? Well, this is a very nice six-track ep, containing some gentle post rock tunes. This certainly is one of those ep that would perfectly fit in your massive post-rock playlists, there where Explosions, Godspeed, Mogwai, Caspian and Astronaut also roam. So go ahead, download these tunes help me in hoping that Misto will form a band and tour soon...

Grave Plague - The Infected Crypts

death metal
Give Praise Records
Redefining Darkness Records
facebook
Picture
On to the extremes then, courtesy of American death metal horde Grave Plague. Their sole goal is to resurrect the old school version of death metal and on this two-track ep they do exactly that. With a sound that reminds me of something between Dismember and At The Gates, this quintet blasts two ferocious slabs of vintage death metal through my speakers at a very high paste. The whole thing is quite short but powerful enough to demolish a small suburb. So if you're into grinding riffs, sick grunts and pulverising tempos, this one should have a spot in your collection. Period.

HaatE - Crystal : Farewell

dark ambient / black metal
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Italian black ambient act HaatE returns with a mesmerizing and hypnotic ep, one that has everything it needs to be a solid reference to this dark and mysterious genre. Although mostly rooted in dark ambient, there are elements from black metal and the whole post-black/rock scene. The end result is a sonic journey that never disappoints, never gets stale and continuously contains this cold, eerie and haunting atmosphere. I can only recommend this thing to all you dark souls out there. For people like you, this music is comforting and calm while it's dark and scary for others. Great work, a must-have.

Kolfskop - Cambozola Superster

experimental rock
facebook
Picture
The weirdest ep in this edition of Brieviews comes from Belgian trio Kolfskop. These guys from Ghent once had an idea about how music should sound, threw that overboard and started experimenting, influenced by Zappa, Waits, Beefheart and Primus. Now, they come up with this strange ep, one that has the words "avant-garde" written all over it. Nonetheless, this thing comes highly recommended because it's something you just don't hear very often anymore. Oh, and it's all in Dutch, but don't let that stop you. After all, plenty of Belgians are musical geniuses as well as completely mad.

Eli van Pike - Herzschlag

gothic / industrial metal
Darksign Music
Amazon
facebook
Picture
A German-American cooperation, deeply rooted in the dark industrial metal scene, that has got to be interesting. And it is, certainly for fans of bands like ASP, Oomph, Wolfsheim and so on. This single contains the gothic rock song 'Herzschlag' and a bunch of EBM/industrial/future pop remixes. Personally, I would have preferred one or two other songs on this single, just to add a touch of variation, but nonetheless, this is an interesting example of today's gothic scene. So I guess the choice is yours, and I strongly suggest checking this single out. If you like it, why not get the whole album?

Fork / Göttemia - Indre Enfold

punk
Kraftpest
Fork
Göttemia 
Picture
And we end this edition of Brieviews with two bands from the Norwegian punk underground, bands that have been playing live and touring for years and became quite good friends. Fork comes up with two energetic punk songs, nudging towards alternative and noise rock but still raunchy enough to please hardcore punks. Göttemia adds three aggressive punk tunes to the mix, perfectly capable of getting that mosh pit started. Both acts seem to do exactly what they want, which obviously is in perfect punk tradition. So, punk of all ages, check this out. You'll love it.
Comments

Druhá Smrt - The Way And The Virtue

30/3/2017

Comments

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

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

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


​Serge


Comments

Empusae - Lueur

27/3/2017

Comments

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

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

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

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

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


​Serge
Comments

Monolog & Subheim - Conviction

21/2/2017

Comments

 
electronic / ambient / downtempo / industrial
Denovali Records
Amazon
Subheim
Monolog
Picture
Picture
check out our shirts
Denovali Records comes with two collaborations this month, both equally interesting in my personal opinion. I'll start with this strange and breathtaking collaboration between two Berlin based electronic acts, Monolog and Subheim. I don't think these are unknown names to fans of downtempo electronics and Denovali Records so I'm not going to go into introductions. However, I will have to warn you, this is not an easy digestible album. There sure is a lot going on here but the overall feeling is dark, heavy and often haunting.

​The album opens with 'Wone', a pitch black blend of dark ambient and industrial. As if Raison d'être, Lustmord and Author & Punisher have engaged in a sonic threesome. From there, things tend to become abstract, strange and definitely unusual. 'Benedict' reminds me of Scorn, much to my delight. It's been a while since Scorn has appeared in my playlist. 'Sumo Rimi' is probably the most radio friendly track on the entire album, doing something highly immersive with dubstep and the dark electronic sounds of the eighties.

'Make Stones Cry' grabs back to the eerie dark ambient sounds and layers it with sluggish beats. Perhaps this one is my favorite but that's a tough decision to make. 'Colourful Flight' closes the album, again with a gloomy electronic ambient sound. Yet, in a way, this song can function as the breather after all that sonic darkness. Nonetheless, it's another one of my favorites here, my five favorites. Yes, I know, there are only five tracks, each with a different personality and identity and each of them equally interesting. So - obviously - this comes highly recommended.


​Serge
Comments

Various Artists - Superspectrum 

20/2/2017

Comments

 
ambient / dark ambient
Eight Towers Records
facebook
Picture
Picture
check out our shirts
Superspectrum is a Dark Ambient compilation featuring various artists, released on February 17 by Italian label Eighth Tower Records. With thirteenth tracks, they follow exactly on this order: Mørkerom, by Warpness, Wasted Land, by Sysselmann, Majestic, by Alphaxone, Oblivion, by Xerxes The Dark, Breath, by Heliocentrism, Attitude, by Gopota, Manuscript, by Ocadium, L'éveil de Baron Samedi, by Damballah, Az orias felfalja gyermekeit, by Nagaarum, Ceremony, by Sonologyst, Kvasaarit, by vÄäristymä, Canis Tindalos, by Cordis Cincti Serpente and Number Zero, by Vesicatoria. 

Despite the great diversity of artists, the record is vehemently solid and consistent, and follows a very somber, genuine, sinister and inhospitable atmosphere. With a general calm and serene tranquility that explores elusive nuances, solitary confinements and hopeless invisible places of eternal disdain and disillusion, Superspectrum manages to be a terrific compilation, that reunites in one record the best artists of the genre the underground scenario has to offer.

As usual for the genre, the general harmonies are calm, peaceful and quiet, but deep into the melodies, relies the greater doom of a more sinister and improbable expectation, that emerges ostensibly contaminated by a radical and dangerous wave of fear, anguish, apprehension and affliction. All thirteen tracks are exceedingly captivating in the way they absorb the abnormal and splendid ecstatic features of the genre. Although all tracks are exceptionally phenomenal, Oblivion, by Xerxes The Dark, Breath, by Heliocentrism and Ceremony, by Sonologyst, deserves special mention. Nonetheless, all of these musicians are superb in their capacity to filter, to exasperate, to exterminate, and to compose an aggressive, and yet calmly anxious and afflictively agonizing atmosphere of imponderable and exhilaratingly oppressive sonorous ordeal.

Superspectrum is a marvelous compilation. If you are a dark ambient supporter, you should listen to this wonderful album without any hesitation. You will be instantly captivated by it. Without a single moment of boredom or monotony, Superspectrum is a monumental Dark Ambient compilation. One that really deserves all attention from the genre enthusiasts, everywhere.    

      
Wagner
Comments

Belgium experimental underground 017 survey – Edited by Unexplained Sounds Group

14/2/2017

Comments

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

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

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

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

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


​Wagner
Comments

Brieviews 20

8/2/2017

Comments

 
Picture
Picture
we have weird shirts

Aidan Baker & Karen Willems - Landlos

drone / ambient / jazz / krautrock
Midira Records 
Aidan Baker
Karen Willems
Picture
Another cooperation between Aidan Baker and a drummer, this time Karen Willems from Belgian experimental band Inwolves. Together, the duo recorded two tracks which both showcase the drone ambient we all know Aidan Baker for, but also take on elements from krautrock and jazz. Of course, neither of both musicians go for a conventional way of playing their instruments and in this case, that leads to a strange, mildly psychedelic trip. The overall tone is rather calm and soothing. Of course, this comes highly recommended for all drone ambient fans. You simply can't go wrong with Baker & Willems.

Derby Derby - Love Dance

drone / krautrock / experimental
Ormo Records
bandcamp
Picture
This debut album by French improv-experimentalists Derby Derby is quite an interesting one. Split into two parts, this thirty minutes lasting blend of krautrock and drone reeks of jazz, without losing itself in the chaotic approach of free jazz. Part one, 'Love' reminds me of Caudal, but with trumpets instead of guitars. It's slow, repetitive and immersive, and perfectly suited for all fans of Aidan Baker and company. The other track, 'Dance', is wild, energetic and psychedelic. Both are absolute recommendations for those who love to wander in elaborate musical landscapes, that is a fact. 

Noemie Nours - Songs From The Life Of Bears

singer-songwriter
bandcamp
Picture
These are four of the saddest, most fragile songs you'll ever hear, seemingly recorded somewhere in a bedroom. There is nothing complex or overproduced about this ep, on the very contrary. This is an introvert singer and her instrument, completely locked into herself, into the subdued correlation between the two. The result is an exceptionally minimal singer-songwriter ep that breathes the spirit of folk activism and protest.  Amplified and extended with other instruments, these tunes could become immersive shoegaze songs and I kinda want to hear that happen, but for now, this surely is something to listen to while shedding some tears...

Fen / Sleepwalker - Stone And Sea / Call Of Ashes II

doom / dark ambient
Ksenza records
Amazon
Fen
Picture
A dark and haunting split between Russian one-man act Sleepwalker and UK's progressive black metal act Fen. Sleepwalker opens the split with three amazing pieces of music, ranging from shoegaze to post-rock and doom to dark ambient. Opener 'Somnambulistic Trance' alone is worth the effort of buying the album, an immersive piece of work, like The Cure meets A Swarm Of The Sun. Then there are three Fen tracks, two epic progressive black metal pieces and one calm, acoustic track. Obviously, all six tracks are worthy of a spot in your collection. This simply is an awesome split album, period.

Assent - We Are The New Black

metal / metalcore
bandcamp
Amazon
facebook
Picture
Aah, the French, such a bunch of stubborn experimentalists. Once again a French act comes up with something that defies all classification. This project, created in 2015 by Aurélien Fouet-Barak (vocals, bass, drums programming) blends a bunch of metal genres, including groove metal, black metal, metalcore, progressive and heavy metal, into a whirlpool of heavy, violent, technical and blasting music. With all these different elements, obviously this is a well-varied album. Yet, in all honesty, I do have to say that only trained metal ears will be able appreciate this. For other people, this is just too weird and exhausting, not for me though...

Raptor King - Dinocalypse

thrash metal / hardcore
Amazon
facebook
Picture
We're not done with the weirdness of the French yet, and apparently that also counts for the level of variation and the number of different genres. Here, thrash metal goes fist in fist with hardcore, black metal, stoner doom, heavy metal and whatnot. The result is an ep that rips on your eardrums and stomps your stomach. My personal favorite is the blackened 'Fight 'n Roll', but I would recommend the entire thing because of two good reasons. One, it fucking rocks, and two, the front man is a dinosaur who survived the meteor impact and the following extinction 74 million years ago. I know, it sounds weird but in France, everything is possible...

Nula - Kenoma 

doom / sludge
Black Bow Records
Amazon
facebook
Picture
Hailing from Serbia, Nula comes with a different and refreshing approach to doom and sludge metal. not only are the vocals in Serbian, which is already pretty unique I think, but Nula also brings a sense of melody to their rough and intense sound. Furthermore, it seems like black metal has been one of Nula's influences, along of course with several sludge doom bands. 'Silazak U Prah' is my personal favorite but I'm quite positive that all three songs on this album will eventually end up in my heavy playlist. I suggest you do the same, check out this album, let these Serbians surprise, shock and awe you. You know damn well you want to...

Adrian Pain & The Dead Sexy - Mixed Messages

metal / metalcore 
All-Core
Amazon
facebook
Picture
Canada delivers another slab of musical aggression with metal hybrids Adrian Pain & The Dead Sexy. Here, we have something between metalcore, death and progressive metal, as if Alexisonfire or Funeral For A Friend combined forces with Deftones, Ill Nino or Incubus. In a way, this ep can be seen as a gateway, something to lure younger rock fans into the massive world of metal and core. Honestly, this isn't really my cup of tea, as I'm not a big -core fan, but I have to admit that there are some awesome tunes to be found and that 'Say It Like You Mean It' is a world class song. So, youngers, meet your new favorite...

Soothsayer - At This Great Depth

doom / sludge / black metal
bandcamp
Amazon
facebook
Picture
Hell yeah, a huge dreamy post-rock/doom passage, followed by nutsack ripping black metal and sheer brutality. Normally, those sudden outbursts of aggression cause me to go 'meh' but in this case, I'm definitely sold. These Irish doomers have released a stunning ep, with two long tracks, heaps of variation and some psychedelic passages. This is sludge metal at its best, intense as fuck and immersive as hell. And then the second song still has to start. Doomers, doubt no longer, this will provide you with multiple eargasms, or it will make you go absolutely insane, which is just as good...

Illimitable Dolor - Illimitable Dolor

doom
bandcamp
Amazon
facebook
Picture
From Australia comes arguably one of the most beautiful doom metal albums of the year. This album is a tribute to Gregg Williamson, a deceased band member, and perhaps one of the most emotional tributes I've ever heard. The album contains for deep and sorrowful doom anthems, somewhere between the funeral doom of Evoken and the doom death of bands like November's Doom. If you are nostalgic for those glorious nineties and its awe-inspiring bands, you definitely need this gem in your collection, right next to My Dying Bride, Saturnus, Officium Triste & Shape of Despair. Get it now, you will not be disappointed, I promise...

Radien - Maa

sludge / doom
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Oh damn, this is a massive doom monster with fierce claws, perfectly prepared and willing to rip you shreds. Finnish sludge doom horde Radien comes up with a very nasty and gritty version of the genre, seemingly also inspired by the punk scene. The two tracks on this ep are horrifying pieces of music, and that is actually a compliment. Throughout the two songs, I've been thinking about Winter, Skullflower, Dopethrone and the complete uselessness of our existence. Besides, usually, I'm not so high on sludge metal vocals, but this one is awesome. These guys are on their way to become one of my favorites in a precarious scene...
Serge
Comments

Sielwolf & Nam-Khar - Oppressfield

6/2/2017

Comments

 
dark ambient / noise / experimental / industrial
Sombre Soniks
Sielwolf
Nam-Khar
Picture
Picture
check out our shirt designs
Last year, the apparent resurrection of Sielwolf pleasantly surprised me by releasing, 'Atavist Craft', a cooperation with German ritual ambient project Nam-Khar. Now, they return with a second effort, one that seemingly takes on an hypnotic, repetitive and industrial approach. Well, I cannot say that I'm disappointed by this direction, on the very contrary. This new album, 'Oppressfield' is pretty damn awesome, to be honest.

In fact, 'Oppressfield', both the title track and the entire album, are perfectly suited to function as the soundtrack for a post-apocalyptic horror game, or movie. There are unidentified noises coming from everywhere. The atmosphere is haunting and often quite intense. There are eerie soundscapes and drones. There is repetitive percussion, lulling the listener into a dark state of trance and taking him on an adventure through his deepest fears.

Of course, this is not an album for everyone. I cannot imagine people playing this at a dinner party or during a pleasant get together with friends and family. This is an album that should be listened to in absolute solitude, preferably loud. The gloomy drone track 'Failed States', for example, is a scary piece of work that only experienced ears can appreciate. But those ears will definitely adore this thing.

Who to recommend this to? Well, obviously to fans of MZ.412, Atrium Carceri, Brighter Death Now, Desiderii Marginis,... that kind of stuff. If you're into old Cold Meat Industry albums, 'Oppressfield' undoubtedly deserves a place in your collection. I only mentioned two tracks, but apart from the title track, I have to say that 'Crypt Trap' is the absolute highlight on this release, closely followed by the ritual droner 'Exorial' .

​Seriously, this is industrial ambient at its best...


Serge
Comments

Vena – Ex Machina 

30/1/2017

Comments

 
dark ambient
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Picture
check out our shirts
Ex Machina is an album released by Italian electronic dark ambient group Vena, consisting of musicians Francesco Maggi, Stefano Tocci, Enzo Stante and Riccardo Martucci. With thirteen tracks – being them Prologo, Origins, Avatar, Abduct, Mental, Elohim, Progeny, Descent, Singularity, Horizon, The Solution, Ascension and Zeroclock – Ex Machina is a very smooth, simple and discreet dark ambient album, that revolves around a calm atmosphere, relying primarily on a constant sonorous axis of ecstatic acquiescence and rhythmic omniscience. 

With a stylistic approach that understands ambient music as an exercise on patience, but mainly as an ecstatic sonorous moment, Vena, on Ex Machina, comprehends the progeny of its musical universe on flexible ambivalent virtues, standardized by the consolidation of sagacious harmonies, that are as good in the composition of its sonorous shapes, as they are on the execution of its literal technique. With a sound that flows naturally throughout the expressive ordeal of an infinite galaxy of monumental emptiness, Ex Machina captures the ecstatic parameters of a moment frozen in time, to dissect the frames upon which its molecules writes the agony that frivolously wanders lost at the confines of a universe splendidly unseen, uncategorized and unknown.

Although the genesis of their music is exceedingly simple, they are amazingly genuine to the basic ordeals of the genre, creatively inserting their own peculiar elements and devices into the development of a genuine and more authorial musical context. Despite the lack of extraordinarily amazing passages, Ex Machina manages to be a very good record, that not only relies on an authentic disposition that embraces the genre in a consistent, but flexible validity of intuition, but also works in a profoundly envisioned and wider musical rhetoric, that ostensibly dissipates a formidably concentrated sound, that reveals the strength of a mature and fully developed style, maybe easy to imitate, but certainly hard to genuinely conceive or create. 

Ex Machina is a very well done album. Far away from being just another generic or simple dark ambient record, here you’ll feel intensely profound and dense elements, like soul, passion, energy and, mostly, the sinister and evasive discretion that a good work on this genre should have. You may at first not be impressed at all by Vena, but – if you really like dark ambient – as you listen to this record, wonderful tracks will unfold behind your ears, slowly revealing the sound of ethereal realities, completely unknown by the measurement of ordinary standards.                  


Wagner
Comments

Diaspora Psichica – Eprom

30/1/2017

Comments

 
dark ambient / electronic
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Picture
check out our shirts
Eprom is an album released on January 20, by Italian electronic dark ambient musical duo Diaspora Psichica, consisting of Francesco Maggi and Riccardo Martucci. With eight tracks – Transmission, Vision, Equilibrium, Daleth, Vertigo, Aeternum, Hysteresis Human Mind and Thelema –, Eprom reveals itself to be a deep, transient and dense dark ambient album. With a somewhat awkwardly ostensive sense of originality, there is a coherent and expressive sense of objectivity present on this album, which greatly helps the development of its purpose, intensity and musicality.

Besides the ostensibly slow harmonies prevalent on the album, here the calmness of sound, the exhilaration of silence and the anxiety of expectation are brilliantly combined, to greatly express the agonizing drifts of the genre. Like a slow shadow descending into the nothingness of an abyss of conformity and obscurity, Eprom revolves around a salutary, creative and deep understanding of the genre, as the two musicians behind the project magnificently elaborate – from a genuine correlation of concept – their own style of sound. 

Contrary to a lot of other albums on the genre, Eprom is coherent, lucid, discreet and evasive, and you never gets resented of any boredom. Astoundingly building a resonating wall of delusional musicality – although the sound is merely concrete – Eprom is a great example of a Dark Ambient album done in the right way. It’s never vague or tedious, and its primary harmonic expansions are quite unique. A strongly recommended album, it’s by far one of the best I’ve heard on the genre. With very singular tracks – each one having its own musical characteristics –, but retaining a solid unity, Eprom is a very good record! Far from being redundant, ordinary or generic, this is an impeccable album, that not only deeply comprehends dark ambient, but thoroughly and truly communicates to the listener the real meaning and the primary purpose behind the genre. 

The right choice for each and every enthusiast of dark ambient, Eprom, by Diaspora Psichica, have the potential to become a reference in the genre. With an impressive sonorous quality that easily functions as a bridge between the reverberation of a marvelous sound and the ecstatic dread of a very subtle, but hopefully imminent darkness, this album has everything the genre demands, combined in the right order, with the correct components, exactly as it should! Nobody could have done this better.  
     

Wagner
Comments

Brieviews 19

26/1/2017

Comments

 
Picture
Picture
check out our shirts and support Merchants Of Air

Alex Cordo - Origami

progressive metal
Amazon
bandcamp
Picture
This one is a guitarist's dream, the musical equivalent of a karate student looking at his sensei. Alex Cordo is a classically trained guitar player who brings his skills into the world of progressive rock and metal. The songs on this album are instrumental metal anthems, narrated by technically perfect guitar play. Fans of flashing guitars, heavy rocking music and technical skills will probably adore the hell out of this album. If you're into Vai, Malmsteen or Satriani, you will undoubtedly appreciate this compositions and you'll definitely find a spot in your already massive collection to add this. So go ahead, check it out and enjoy the awesome landscapes of Alex Cordo...

December Hung Himself - Perseidi

dark ambient
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Speaking about landscapes, this Italian duo surely knows a thing or two about atmospheric and cinematic music. Formed by the guitarists from Thank U For Smoking, Drought & Charun, December Hung Himself take their post-rock and black metal experiences into the world of dark ambient and drones.The result is a must-have for fans of Atrium Carceri, Inade, Kammarheit and so on. If you're into minimal dark ambient, there's no doubt that this album deserves a spot in your collection. Here and there you can find a hint of melody, guitars and gloomy electronics. To conclude I have to say, the trippy closer '​Beta Persei' is pure genius

Last Builders of Empire - Hades

post rock
bandcamp
Amazon
facebook
Picture
American quartet Last Builders Of Empire also seem to know their way around post-rock and with this ep they show exactly how versatile this genre can be. Opener 'Descent of Perithous' is a classic post rock anthem, something between This Will Destroy You, Mono and Wang Wen. 'Clinostat' reminds me of the heavy and drone-infused regions of the scene, with bands like A Swarm Of The Sun. 'State Of Grace' brims with symphonic arrangements and then there are two more awesome tunes to be discovered. You guessed it, this ep definitely is worth the effort, and an excellent sonic journey into the Ancient Greek underworld.

Tuath - Things I Don't Know

shoegaze / psychedelic
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Irish noisemakers Tuath come up with a dark and gritty four-track ep, breathing a vintage shoegaze atmosphere but also incorporating elements from ambient, noise rock and even a hint of sludge doom. The title track is a strange episode with soundscapes and a long vocal sample, but definitely one I can often listen to. The other tracks rock quite heavy, here and there even getting a psychedelic and occult edge, like The Jesus And Mary Chain meets Hawkwind perhaps. If you know Tuath, you know that these guys aren't easy to categorize but that's exactly their strength. So, my advice, check it out, you'll be surprised.

Cyclocosmia - Immure

symphonic doom
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Progressive, symphonic, female fronted doom from London, created by producer James Scott, vocalist Aliki Katriou and guest musicians from all over the world. The result is an interesting album, blending the symphonic approach of gothic metal with the heavy riffing of vintage death doom and progressive technicality. So don't expect Nightwish or After Forever but expect a blend between Draconian, Ayreon, Dream Theatre and more modern metal acts. Even though it's not easy to correctly categorize this ep, I would certainly recommend adding it to your collection of unique and stubborn metal releases. I does deserve a spot there.

Hummingbird Of Death / Beartrap - Split

grindcore
Here And Now Records
Give Praise Records
facebook
Picture
Grindcore, grindcore, grindcore, guttural, grindcore, short, attack, grindcore, punk, thrash, grindcore, growl, scream, grindcore.

I think that's pretty much all a grindcore fan needs to know about this fierce split between Hummingbird Of Death & Beartrap. It's a single, containing a bunch of extremely short and extremely aggressive hardcore punk influenced pieces of grindcore.

Oh, did I already mention grindcore?

​Grindcore 

Feller Buncher - 203040

alternative / metal
bandcamp
Amazon
facebook
Picture
A feller buncher is a type of harvester used in logging, something I jokingly called an "industrial treehugger". That aside, Feller Buncher is also a metal band from Paris. they have just released this heavy ep, highly influenced by sludge metal and the ever awesome power of the riff. Yet, the music reminds me more of bands like Danzig and Channel Zero, which I guess isn't that bad to be compared with. Although the tempo isn't always fierce, there is plenty of energy coming from these five tracks. Metal Fans should doubt no longer and start banging their heads to this massive machine...

Desiderii Marginis - Songs Over Ruins

dark ambient
Cyclic Law
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
When this email came in, I was pleasantly surprised, but mostly because I thought it was a brand new Desiderii Marginis album. However, this is a reissue but nonetheless an interesting one. Back in 1997 and released by Cold Meat Industry, 'Songs Over Ruins' became a landmark dark ambient album, one that influences acts and labels all over the world. Now, the good people at Cyclic Law decided to reissue this masterpiece so more fans can get their hands on a copy of this. All I can add, is "go ahead and buy this thing", this is the stuff that gave birth to an entire scene...

Pintandwefall - Red and Blue Baby 

indie rock / pop rock
Svart Records
Amazon
facebook
Picture
On the somewhat joyful side of the musical universe we find this pop rocking girl band and their damn catchy tunes. With elements from indie rock, grunge and punk, Pintandwefall present a lo-fi version of acts like The Breeders or Throwing Muses. Opener 'Come To Rest' is my absolute favorite on this album, a song that easily gets stuck in your head. 'Seasimularo' is another fav, somehow bringing the sixties back. In all, this simply is a very enjoyable album that undoubtedly goes right into my day-to-day playlist. I'm sure I'll be smiling every single time one of these songs roll through my speakers.

Ric Gordon - Just Can't Get Enough

punk rock
Russian Winter Records
facebook
Picture
While moving, punk rocker Ric Gordon discovered a box with fifty copies of his 1979 debut ep. So he decided to reissue them and make them available on CD and digital formats as well. In that case, I guess this is officially the oldest release ever to be reviewed on Merchants Of Air. Do I recommend it? Obviously I do, this is old fashioned rock 'n roll that is actually old enough to be old fashioned. There is a sense of timelessness in these songs. If you like acts like Ramones, Misfits and Status Quo, I suggest you check this thing out. Vintage just got a lot vintager... 

Gentle Savage - Introduction

rock / blues
website
Amazon
facebook
Picture
"Let the good times roll", they sing in opener 'Bring Back Rock`n`Roll' and I can't help but agree. Let me introduce Finnish blues rockers Gentle Savage and their first tribute to rock 'n roll. In three songs, one catchy, one rather psychedelic and one pretty damn southern, these guys delivered an awesome debut, something for fans of everything between Hendrix, CCR and Black Crowes. Obviously, this gem calls for a full-length in the near future, followed by a tour. So, I guess it's clear, Gentle Savage are here to bring the soul back to rock 'n roll and judging from this ep, they're doing the right thing...

Funeral Mourning - Descent MMXV

funeral doom / black metal
Nihilistische KlangKunst (cd)
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Right, enough joy and happiness. Time to drag our depressed souls through endless floods of despair and misery, courtesy of Australian act Funeral Mourning. That might sound as a little joke, but I'm damn serious about this album. This is an atmospheric funeral doom blast, one which easily fits the gaps between your Esoteric, Evoken and Shape Of Despair albums. In two lengthy tracks, this act definitely convinces. If you want the assaults on your sanity to be slow, intense and punishing, you need this album. Hell, it's stuff like this that made me become obsessed with this whole genre to begin with...

Adam Probert - The Battle For Tomorrow

noise / drone / spoken word
Sonic Entrails
facebook
Picture
Noise music and activism often go hand in hand, and that is exactly the case with this album by spoken word punk poet and dignity in care campaigner Adam Probert. The music here can be compared to acts like Con-Dom, Atrax Morgue, Brighter Death Now and Propergol, although Probert's tracks are not as harsh and punishing as the others. Yet, the whole remains in the drones and minimal noise regions and contains a heap of spoken words and samples. My suggestion, download the album, play it loud, listen to the words and think about them, even if you're not into noise, just listen and think!!!

Steelballs - Steelballs

heavy metal
Witches Brew
facebook
Picture
We've been travelling through time a lot in this edition of Brieviews. Right now, we're in the eighties, where bands like Helloween, Manowar and Grave Digger were the heroes of metal. Formed in 2013, Steelballs is a band from Argentina who honor that era of heavy metal. So how do they do it? Not bad, my friend, not bad at all. Raging heavy metal, flashing solos, high pitched vocals... it's all here and it comes to you like a freight train. The ep contains four fine tunes which will easily remind you of the bands I previously mentioned. To some it might sound outdated but to others this is timeless metal, period.

Teleport - Ascendance 

death metal / black metal
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
A band that answers the question "bands we like" with "insane ones" immediately demands respect. With that alone, this Slovenian band gained my interest, but also with the term "cosmic metal". Apparently, that means, "a complex and progressive blend of black and death metal which aims to pulverise your very soul into a massive black hole of musical extremism". So yes, blast this thing through your speakers and prepare to bang your head into an endless vacuum. Fans of extreme metal can easily trust this ep to bash them into a bloody pulp because take it from me, these guys can play.

Serge
Comments

Brieviews 16

2/12/2016

Comments

 
Picture
Picture

​Sorgu​inazia - Sorguinazia

black metal
Vault Of Dried Bones
Picture
Aah, a new edition of Brieviews, and why not simply kick of with what will probably prove to be the most raunchy and ghastly piece of musical extremism in this article. Sorguinazia is a duo, dwelling in the deepest, darkest caves and tombs of the black metal scene. Don't expect musical ingenuity on this one, but prepare to get molested by fierce guitars, haunting vocals and a relentless tempo. One these three songs, the duo constantly balances on the edge between primitive black metal and harsh noise. This is not music, this is either an exorcism or an occult ritual and it's definitely suited only for the chosen few who can handle the extremest of the extreme.


Ruínas de Sade - Ruínas de Sade

stoner doom
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
On the slower part of the metal spectrum, we meet up with Brazilian psychedelic doom band Ruínas de Sade and their self titled three-track debut. I'm not sure when this band formed, but my guess is "not that long ago". However, despite the fact that the whole thing sounds like a first effort by some enthusiastic youngsters, there is some bloody awesome potential to be found here. The tracks are long and loaded with monolithic riffs, rough vocals and psychedelic solos which even bring Pink Floyd to mind. Of course, I would recommend this to all doom fans but another shoutout goes to labels: sign these guys, lock them up in a studio for a year, add a solid producer and they might come out with a classic. This is talent!!!


Smallman & Ivan Shopov - Inner Oceans

post rock / electronic / doom
bandcamp
Smallman
Ivan Shopov
Picture
Onto one of the most unique releases in this edition of Brieviews, an astonishing cooperation between Bulgarian doom metal band Smallman and drum & bass producer Ivan Shopov (Cooh/Balansky). The result of this cooperation is an often perplexing blend of styles, contrasting rhythms, dark ambient, folk and post rock passages and intense outbursts of metal. Bands that come to mind include Massive Attack, Coldplay, Primordial and Anathema. There is plenty of atmosphere and more variation than you can imagine but most of all, these are simply excellent songs, dressed in a modern and epic sound.


Jupiter Hollow - Odyssey

progressive metal
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Since we're dwelling in the experimental and somewhat unusual corners of the music industry, allow me to introduce Jupiter Hollow. In the past few years, this duo has been absorbing all things progressive and now come up with a stunning blend of everything between Rush, Opeth, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater and Tool. The five songs on this album are complex, often downright confusing pieces of progressive rock, interlaced with ambient passages. They not only show tremendous technical abilities but also a decent flair for songwriting. Fans of progressive rock should definitely get their hands on a copy of this. This is pretty much everything you like, pressed into one ep.


Grus Paridae - Forthcoming Nonintellectual Decadence

progressive rock
Amazon
facebook
Picture
On the somewhat more gentle side of the progressive rock spectrum, we reconnect with Finnish masterminds Grus Paridae and their new single. I remember writing a review for this act in the early days of Merchants Of Air and I remember being quite charmed by their music. On this single, that is no different. 'Forthcoming Nonintellectual Decadence' is a classic progressive rock anthem, one where I can clearly hear influences from Pink Floyd but also elements from classical music. The piano and violins have a central role in this atmospheric and beautiful piece of music and the whole thing sounds well balanced, varied and as anthem-like as this kind of music should be. Nice work.


Solar Mass - Pseudomorphosis

death metal / thrash metal
Iron Bonehead
facebook
Picture
Right, back to the extremes, this time with a strange and chaotic entity from New Zealand. This tape seems to be something special and certainly somewhat exciting. It doesn't just blast out some fierce thrash metal, neither does it crawl in the thick, muddy sound of grindcore. It isn't doom metal, nor progressive rock. Nope, this is pretty much all of them, a tremendously varied blend of metal styles, pressed into something original. Bands that come to mind, include Celtic Frost, Death, Voivod, Dismember and even Sacred Recih, to give you an idea about the versatiliy of this mere eighteen minutes lasting tape. Certainly recommended.

Speedwhore - On the Verge of Dysfunction

thrash metal / black metal
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Feel like headbanging a little more? Well, here's your chance, courtesy of German blackened thrash metal horde Speedwhore and their latest effort. What makes this band so interesting for me, is the effective blend between old fashioned thrash metal, including the occasional high shrieks, and vintage black metal vocals. The result are five infectious pieces of mosh-pit inducing metal (plus an intro and an intermezzo) which are quite irresistible for the metalhead who likes his music fast, ferocious and relentless. Songs like 'Alcoholic Force' and 'Dead City' really take me back to the glory days of Sacred Reich, Tankard and Vio-Lence. Truly recommended stuff!!!

Cathuria - позив

dark ambient
facebook
Picture
Right, time for something calm and soothing after all those metallic assaults we've been through so far. On the other hand, you might replace "calm and soothing" with "dark and terrifying", which is just as good for me. This single by dark ambient act Cathuria is a great and somewhat narrative piece of music, featuring eerie, haunting soundscapes and almost ritual percussion. As a fan and composer of this kind of stuff, I can honestly say that this thing is right up my alley. If you're a fan of acts like Raison d'être , Desiderii Marginis or Svartsinn, this single should definitely have a place in your collection.

El Pretro Maniaco - As Impie As Can Be

noise / experimental
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Where the previous single was dark, mysterious and terrifying, we now go for 'maniacal, torturous and diabolic. From the first look at the cover, this act reminds of me of acts like Nicole 12, MZ412 and Archon Satani, a feeling that remains throughout the album. So yes, we're balancing on the thin egde between dark ambient and noise, somewhere in a region we call "the avant-garde". With haunting soundscapes and deranged voices, El Pretro Maniaco certainly delivered something intense and captivating, something which definitely isn't suited for everyone, only for those dark, tortured souls out there...

[ówt krì] & Fecal Fetal - Misanthropy VI

dark ambient / experimental
Sombre Soniks
[ówt krì]
Picture
Speaking of tortured souls, here is a hypnotic cooperation between two acts from Finland. While both acts are experienced in the world of dark ambient and sound design, their cooperation is harsher than their solo work, often blatanly crossing the line between music and harsh noise. There is a sense of madness in here, a heap of utter darkness and a gnawing feeling of despair. The music is a combination of unrecognizable soundscapes, rhythmic loops and vague melodies. Sometimes I can hear flashes from jazz, hidden beneath a wall of strange noises and voices. Better train your ears for this thing...

Derhead - Via

black metal
Via Nocturna
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
The first official release by this Italian black metal act immediately is a banger. With four songs and a heap of older demo recordings, this ep is a fifty minutes journey into utter despair, depression, anxiety and madness. Deranged vocals, furious tempos, bleak riffing, everything a self respecting black metal fan can possibly want is here. The atmosphere is intensely cold and dark and the music is perfectly suited to unleash your inner demons. My favorite track possible is opener 'Cenere', which might as well be one of my favorite black metal tracks this year. So, my fellow haunted souls, get your cold, dreaded hands on this thing..

Encyclopedia Frown - Phantomwise

post punk
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Right, back to the somwhat friendlier side of the music industry, where we end up listening to a teacher-student duo from The Philippines. This act comes  up with a harsh, primitive version of post-punk and shoegaze music. It takes me way, waaaay back into the eighties where bands like Joy Division, TC Matic, The Jesus and Mary Chain  and even Sonic Youth roamed. On the other hand, it sounds like many of the garage bands you can hear while walking or biking through the vast musical universe. It's not complex, not technical, not perplexing, not extremely original or varied, but it rocks and that's all that counts...

Red Cain - Red Cain

progressive / power metal
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Modern melodic metal from Canada, suited for fans of Kamelot, Symphony X, Alter Bridge and Tesseract, that's what the biography mentioned. Yet, I'd like to add bands like Moonspell to that list, certainly after listening to the brilliant opener 'Guillotine', which is an epic dark metal anthem. The rest of this ep is pretty much equally interesting with some very strong metal songs. Red Cain somehow managed to blend progressive, technical and dark metal into a mesmerizing journey. Personally, I really dig the clean but forceful vocals with this kind of music so in that Red Cain certainly delivered the goods. Closer 'Unborn' is my second favorite, especially with that epic intro. 


Plecto Aliquem Capite - The End

black metal
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Well, I guess I have to reconsider what I said in the first Brieview of these series. That was not the most raunchy and ghastly piece of music, this one is. And it comes all the way from Sri Lanka to haunt your dreams and devour your souls. Although categorized as black metal, the act sounds more like a Japanese noise act with their downright disturbing and chaotic sound. Even a seasoned black metal listener like me has a hard time staying sane while playing this stuff. This must be one of the most insane and demonic releases I've ever heard. Approach with caution, this one might be harmful to your mental health....

Wolve - Lazare

progressive / alternative rock
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Somewhere between Radiohead, Deftones and Massive Attack dwells the French band Wolve. They take the time to write decent songs and to let those songs evolve and alter on their own, something I can only applaud. Opener 'Lazare' is an amazing rock anthem with plenty of atmosphere and some nice instrumental passages. That alone makes this ep worth the effort. But then there's the other songs. A nice modern, alternative rock tune in 'Porccelain', an immersive rocker in closer 'Far' and a weird noiserock shorty called 'Inferno'. I'm not really sure about the latter, but the rest of these tunes make up for something highly promising in the future.

Beneath A Godless Sky - Beneath A Godless Sky

progressive metal / djent / post metal
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Some more relentlessness from our neighbours in France, this time with a genre called "djent". I'm not very familiar with it and many of the bandnames don't really ring a bell but I know what I like, and I like what I'm hearing right now. Short, nervous riffs, energetic drums, loads of atmospheric sounds and a harsh, screaming voice create a captivating blend of post metal and hardcore. No doubt that songs like 'The Wall' and 'Broken Streets' will be absolute blasts when played live, certainly with that amount of energy and intensity. This definitely is one for the newer generation of metalheads, but I think Meshuggah fans can easily appreciate this slab of aggression too.


Plaisir Vallée - ​Plaisir Vallée

indie rock / psychedelic
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
We're still in France, but this time something completely different rolls through our speakers. Plaisir Vallée is a trio that combines the funk of young Michael Jackson with the psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix and the indie attitude of Ween. The result is a joyous and somewhat adventurous ep with some great rock songs. This definitely is something for the stage, so I'm secretly hoping to be able to witness this anytime soon. I'm not going to name a favorite song here, since all of them make me smile and dance a little bit. I suggest you try the same. It doesn't always have to be darkness and despair, sometimes awesome rock music is all we need...

Comments

Enearth – City No Signal 

21/11/2016

Comments

 
dark ambient / drone
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Picture
check out our shirts
Another project of Spanish musician Vadym Sycantrhope, City No Signal, released under his nom de plume of Enearth, is a very smooth, linear and transcendental album, severely different from everything he has made so far! Filled with a serene soundscape, that has, a little disguised in the atmosphere of his music, a severe, but hidden layer of anxiety, that subtlety explodes in each and every note of the panoramic conscience that his dimensional sound vastly explores, this album has a beautiful nervous antagonism, that hides in a poetic display of omniscience a delicate and fragile serenity, aligned with a cosmic strength that relies over an afflictive sideline of majestic agony, where your feelings predominantly have to be exceedingly prepared, for the journey you are about to endure. 

A marvelous ambient album, permeated by a lucid fury objectified by a soft calmness and an outward uneasiness, City No Signal is filled with a very discreet demand in form, shape and character. In a hallucinatory device that disperses darkness everywhere its harmonies seems to go, this album is made primarily by fearless, but very insinuating rhythms, lost in a perpetual night of doom and demise. Unrestrained by a vicinity of shadows that never obliterates realms of haze, an agonizing tension, a sublime hostile expectation and a deranged feeling of frightful affliction will make you feel bound to a life in a very different world.

City No Signal is an album perfect for ambient music enthusiasts that really love a more obscure, sinister, dismal and unknown approach to the genre. An astounding album, corroborated by a funeral procession that will lead you into the darkness of an infinite urban night, the conspicuous rhythms that we have here will make you feel trapped into another dimension, a more tough and difficult one. Nonetheless, you will understand the proficiency of a style that never gets tired of exploring into the depths of its musical confluences the never ending nuances of the most depressing, lugubrious and restless side of existence, in a sonorous stream of sensorial  efficiency that has produced an exceedingly singular cornerstone of downward abysmal atmospheres.      

With melodies that resonates the intensity of a darkness that dwells into the highlight of a deep penumbra, City No Signal is an album that impersonates the light of a serene tension, filled with the blackened skies of an easier disgrace, dispatched by the sincerity of a ruined and painful expectation. So, no matter how far you can go, you will rapidly perceive that this is a work that only the most intuitive ones can understand, and the brightly genuine followers will appreciate.       


​ Wagner
Comments

Brieviews label special - Sombre Soniks

30/10/2016

Comments

 
Picture
A few days ago, we published fifteen songs for your Halloween playlist. If you know a little bit about the history of this holiday, you'll know that it originates from Samhain, the Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year. To celebrate Samhain, English label Sombre Soniks comes up with a Samhain Sale on 31 October and 1 November. So if you're still looking for some decent spooky music to play or if you're simply a fan of dark ambient and related genres, this might be your chance to pick up some grizzly gems. On this label special of Brieviews, we guide you through some of Sombre Soniks releases. To see all of them, click here. 


Picture

A Most Accursed - May Be

bandcamp
facebook
Picture
A Most Accursed  is a side project from members of Druhá Smrt, who are also a part of the Sombre Soniks stable. With this new album, they deliver three strange and haunting tracks, each one lasting exactly thirteen minutes. They're all grim, dark and droning pieces of work, with the second one, 'Where Owls Shriek All The Night', being the most unsettling one. You can actually hear the owls shriek in a vague and gloomy tempo. On opener 'In The Valley Of Feral Dogs' you can also hear the hounds creating this hint of rhythm. In all, this definitely is a must-have for fans of dark, mystic and obscure ambient music, certainly those who like to crossover to noise once in awhile.


Fecal Fetal - Teeth

bandcamp
facebook
Picture
From Finland comes lo-fi obsessed experimentalist Fecal Fetal with his second offering on Sombre Soniks. On this album, the artist works with a wide array of instruments and materials, from kantele to styrofoam, to create otherworldly pieces of music. The result are six strange and often uneasy pieces of music, here and there coming up with mere hints of melody and rhythm. The whole thing reminds me of other experimentalists such as De Fabriek, Maurizio Bianchi and Zoviet France. So if you're in for strange, bizarre, unconventional and downright odd, this album definitely is something for you. But beware, it might cause horrifying mental images.


Grist - Accretion

bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Grist is a master in slowly evolving layers of soundscapes and loops and on this album he further explores that art. In three long tracks, the artist slowly drags you into his mystic, hypnotic world where you will experience visions and emotions you never knew existed. This constant building-up has a captivating and almost trance inducing effect, especially when it's played loud and in absolute darkness, which is obviously exactly what I would recommend. The tracks also seem to balance on the edge between musicality and noise, another constant throughout the career of Grist. If you're looking for something deep, droning and repetitive, this definitely is your cup of tea.


Guy Harries - Fault Line

bandcamp
facebook
Picture
After his splendid cooperation with Yumi Hara on the 'Wheels Within Wheels', Guy Harries returns for his first solo effort on Sombre Soniks. On this album, Harries invites us on a long and mystic journey through soundscapes, noises and pulsating drones. The result is a gloomy and eerie album where unexpected sounds turn up. That being said, this would make an excellent soundtrack for a horror game. The five tracks consist of field recordings, modular synths and found objects which Harries turned into sonic adventures which will certainly have an effect on your psyche. This is something for fans of Zoviet France, Rapoon and Inade.


Various Artists - Dark Ambient Vol. 12

bandcamp
Picture
The 'Dark Ambient' series have become a constant throughout the oeuvre of Sombre Soniks. These compilations contain a lot of exclusive tracks from artists from the stable but also several songs from acts outside the label. On this twelfth edition you can find tracks from Akoustik Timbre Frekuency, Misantronics, Druhá Smrt, Backyard Ghost and Grist but also Kristus Kut, Catacombs Of Doom and Oneirich, amongst others. And, as usual, this is a highly recommended album for every dark ambient fan out there. If you're looking for a decent playlist for your Samhain activities, look no further and download this compilation. You simply can't go wrong with this.


Sp3ct3rs - Murmur

bandcamp
Picture
Canadian act Sp3cd3rs returns with a droning and epic album which will definitely disrupt your consciousness and gnaw on your self esteem. I think it's safe to say that the songs on this album are lingering harsh ambient tunes with loops, soundscapes and unidentified noises. Yet, it's the repetitive nature of the whole thing that gives this album a certain vibe, a quite immersive one too. It's easy to get lost in these drones and let your imagination do all the work. For fans of minimal but harsh experimental music or "death industrial", this definitely is a must-have. If you have acts like Luasa Raelon, Brighter Death Now and Tim Hecker in your collection, you should add this one too.


Babalith - Grimoire

bandcamp
facebook
Picture
This might be one of the most varied albums on Sombre Soniks. In no less than fourteen tracks, each one dedicated to a different element or planetary sphere, Portuguese experimentalist Babalith delves the listener in a whirlpool of drones, dark ambient, minimal folk and noise. The tracks differ quite a lot from each other, although they all have that gloomy dark ambient atmosphere. My favorite one is the long 'Venus Oscillation' which is a pulsating piece of music that reminds me of some of Deutsch Nepal's compositions. Anyway, this is already Babalith's fifth album for this label, one where you can certainly hear an ever evolving artist.


More reviews for Sombre Soniks releases:

Akoustik Timbre Frekuency - Harmonik Radiance
Babalith - The Dream Cycle
Misantronics - Contraformance
Druhà Smrt - Mythologem
A Most Accursed - Imaginal 
Sielwolf & Nam-khar - Atavist Craft
Yumi Hara & Guy Harries - Wheels Within Wheels
Druhá Smrt - Occurrentium
Weltensprung b Kaiserwetter - Prag​
Comments

Scott Snee and Black Hill - On a Deserted Path 

25/10/2016

Comments

 
dark ambient / drone
bandcamp
Scott Snee
Black Hill
Picture
Picture
Check our our shirt designs
On a Deserted Path is a collaborative album between two artists, Hungarian István Csarnogurszky – here operating under the alias Black Hill – and the American Scott Snee. One of the best albums of the year, On a Deserted Path is a joint effort between two astoundingly different, but very skilled and creative musicians, here united by the desire to produce the most persuasive, beautiful and atmospheric anthems of underground music that you will ever hear in your entire life!

The first track already blew my mind away so overwhelmingly, that I could not believe what I was listening to: Desert eagle, the first song of the album, is a melancholic masterpiece, filled with a universal gloom where minor and major tons mix together, to make you feel literally above the clouds and below the earth at the same time. Beautifully executed, this calm, transcending and soft atmospheric guitar lingered meticulous abrasive sound is constructed very carefully under notes played by the spiraling shift of a sonorous colorful poetry never seen before. Note by note, you can almost feel the harmonies dwindling into your soul, as the peaceful atmosphere of its sound easily correlates your senses with the unbelievable life that comes out from the musical layer. I think I’ve listened to this song at least forty times, nonstop.  

Easily, the album goes upwards, in these same directions. Great introspective songs pervaded by the minimalist timing of riffs very well constructed under the basis of the infinite background of an unrestrained sensitive domain, ordained in an increasing path of meticulously premeditated sagacity, very well dosed by the concentrated objectivity to achieve what both where searching for: atmospheric layouts of reconnaissance harmonies, emerged in a catatonic setting of an eternal night filled with a serenity undefined by space and time. The second track, Stevie Slimm in bloody mood, a deep rooted postmodern pervasive piece, grounded in a very polished ambience of universal solitude, like the rest of the album, could easily be very well defined by the guys who made this beautiful full length: according to Black Hill himself, “The album On a Deserted Path was inspired by the sand of the south, western movies, desert creatures, and blues heroes.” And this is exactly where the album goes. It really evokes deserted landscapes, desolate places, sad dust glories and loneliness in interior and exterior deserts, that could be located somewhere, in outer planets. You can almost feel those beautiful songs coming up as the possible soundtrack of life itself, especially in downplayed moments of outstanding arid melancholy, that these two guys easily create so beautifully with guitar strings, filled with composite, but at the same time very soft harmonies, that seems to rise by a life force of its own, in the insurgent path of a calm transcendental music, filled with the never ending creativity that only musical geniuses have in a very higher ground, exposing it in a true setting that really benefits the music, and the ambient it creates. 

Although being very different musicians, each one with its own unique abilities, peculiar tastes and very singular backgrounds, the combination of talents here is quite interesting: they work together very well as a team, and maintain a structure that creates a cohesive identity for the album, that fits very well the awesome characteristics that make On a Deserted Path such an outstanding work of musical proficiency!

Despite the innovations, and the singular capacities of each musician, they bring some of the old stuff as well, albeit reinvented in very creative forms. You can easily identify some seventies rock and roll influences in the guitar layered outback sensitive atmospheres of at least some of those tracks, highlighting the outstanding inspirations that both musicians bring with their respective musical crafts, very well balanced in intriguing sensibilities, correctly placed in profound melodies, that easily tells to your soul a story filled with an outstanding and enthusiastic creative mission.

This is music for true underground fans. After hearing one time, you will have the desire to hear it numerous other times as well, over and over again. And of course, this is an album that obviously deserves and receives the maximum score! What these two guys have done is a great masterpiece, and all that underground fans will do next is to demand for a follow-up, certainly! What can I say, besides reiterate the fact that this is not just another marvelous album, but an outstanding masterpiece, that could easily be regarded as a magnum opus of underground music? I can say thank you, Black Hill, and Scott Snee, for this groundbreaking musical experience!  
   
 
​Wagner
Comments

Gimu - Narwhals 

17/10/2016

Comments

 
drone / dark ambient
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Picture
check out our shirt designs, and support Merchants Of Air
Narwhals is the most recent release by Gimu, a drone and dark ambient artist from Brazil. With only one track, divided into four parts, Narwhals is a more typical, but straightforwardly substantial Gimu album, that exposes and delineates the more usual elements used by the artist on his compositions.   

With a profound, but nevertheless easy layer of inextinguishable expectations, Narwhals is filled with a delicate and imponderable sensibility, that compresses tension and expansion within a wider scope of infinite visibilities, all vehemently caught below an intuitive sense of mostly ethereal harmonies. Like most of his albums, Narwhals is an ambient track that takes the listener into a vast, cosmic, serene and mostly intrinsic journey, into the inner depths of his own self, drawing abysses of external landscapes, that plays the goal of universes within universes, holding the projection of one’s interior personal world, traveling to the exterior outside world, devoid of any major feelings of rapture.

Playing vastly with the ambiguity of emotions, Narwhals seems to be a more soft journey, not as painful and not as desolate as his albums normally are. But as the listener’s descent goes deeper and deeper into the abysses of the darkness of his own mind, surpassing the surface of a world of dreams in all of its vicious antagonisms, it is possible to feel at home, when an immensurable light of instinct tells consciousness that it finally arrived there, at the core of the palace that Narwhals wants the listener to be. 

Sometimes disguised as a premise, and not a promise, Narwhals has its fair share of ambiguities, although set up in more discreet manners. As the song evolves into a more prominent static feeling, everything that stands between the listener and his emotions starts to fall apart, but not in a conventional manner. As the listener feels himself able to organize thoughts and rationalize, Narwhals dismantles feelings and sensations, to rearrange it again differently, in a more axiomatic pattern, according to a vastly anomalous line of communication, established by the lurid atmosphere of the music, to see, at least for a brief moment, everything according to Gimu.

As I wrote above, although this is more a typical ambient album, with less texture lines, less experimentation and a more stabilized atmosphere, nevertheless, the journey offered by Narwhals is a very emotional and compelling experience, although only more avid enthusiasts of ambient music will really appreciate. But for sure, it is highly recommendable for them all. Gimu is always a musician you deeply want to have in your collection.      


​Wagner        
Comments

Coven - Worship

17/10/2016

Comments

 
dark ambient / experimental
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Picture
Buy more laundry :-)
Worship is a five track album, by Coven, a dark ambient experimental musical project of Spanish musician Vadym Sycantrhope. With very sinister punctuation devices, Coven’s music is primarily characterized by a nervous tension, and an implicit agony that summarizes the breakdown of a soul’s disillusion. With songs that rely on an afflictive insinuation of a dark expectancy, Worship, by Coven, is a very sinister and tense dark ambient album, effective in the way it rapidly and precisely evokes feelings of fear and demise, at the core of the agonizing and disguised ferocity hidden below the surface of its lurid and opaque rhythms.

Consolidating a somewhat macabre atmosphere, that apparently reverberates the frivolous capacities of everything that seems unknown, paradoxically, the very calm harmonies that underlies the entirely hideous melodies responsible for the creation of a universe of divided tension and apprehensive fate rests silently at the heart of a serenity that screams below the surface of a world doomed to fade and disappear forever. But that will, somehow, give birth to a sinister layer of unsatisfying grace, and eventually, be stuck in your head. 

With an intriguing ability to create and sustain a hideous and sonorous world of mist and dust, nobody has the ability that Sycantrhope has, of creating tension and anxiety, as well as disseminating fear and affliction, departing from such calm, vague and mesmerizing harmonies. A master of ambient devices, he certainly can be regarded today as one of greatest ambient sound artists in the underground scene.

With a disparaging reliance on ambient techniques, diffused over the atmosphere of an incisively agonizing nothingness, built under the auspices of a lenient and intrusive musical scenario, these five tracks present in Worship can be considered a vicious voyage into the heart of a desolate realm, filled with inconspicuous dark forests, arid and inhospitable landscapes and intriguing lost palaces, all built by the daydream commoner disillusion of a world lost at the bottom of a ruin.

So, to be clear, on Worship, the most recent album by Coven, Vadym Sycantrhope gives to its listeners a sordid journey throughout the most abhorrent places conceived in his mind. Creating unexpected worlds of grief and sorrow through sound, Coven invites you to go on a journey of sound sensations and vitreous melancholy, where everything is bound by the unknown. Nevertheless, this is such an appreciative trip that, for all ambient music lovers out there, is it unconceivable not to step on it.   


Wagner
        
Comments

Brieviews part 14

11/10/2016

Comments

 
Picture
Picture
T-shirts, fresh t-shirts

Narthraal - Chainsaw Killing Spree

death metal
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
We kick off this edition of Brieviews with two brutal old school death metal songs, courtesy of Icelandic horde Narthraal. This digital single is the forerunner for the upcoming full-length, which is scheduled to be released somewhere in 2017. An important aspect of their sound, is the use of the Boss HM-2 pedal which creates a filthy, raunchy sound. Furthermore, the main influences for this act are the old school bands we all love so much, including Grave, Dismember, Unleashed and Carcass. I don't think you need any more convincing. Go ahead, download the album, and prepare to fiercely bang your head. You know you want to...


Dead End Path - Hypnotic Truth

death metal / metalcore
facebook
Picture
Somewhere between the realms of death metal and metalcore roams the Belgian quintet Dead End Path. They handed out this three-track ep at the latest edition of Rocktoberfest, where the played an all-consuming set in front of a handful of people. Well, my friends, you can see this little review as a nudge to get your attention on these guys because they're damn good. Melodic yet brutal death metal which quite often reminds me of something between At The Gates, All Shall Perish and Unearth. In three tracks, these guys show a tremendous technical ability, along with the skills to write and perform decent songs, all of course as brutal and crushing as it can get. Harsh stuff!!!


Balcanes - Carne Nueva

noise rock / hardcore
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Something a little different, but in no way less in-your-face, is this ep from Spanish noisemakers Balcanes. What starts out with an impending piece of drone and noise, quickly turns into a hardcore punk infused frenzy in 'Combustible'. 'Masada' drags the ep deeper down into the world of sludge, driving on inelaborate but damn infectious riffs and monotonous drumming. That being said, no, there is not a lot of variation to be found but Balcanes definitely makes up for that by creating an intense wall-of-sound and beating you into a pulp with it. If you're a fan of sludgy noise rock, like Melvins or Harvey Milk, you should check out this little gem. Oh, and Balcanes need to tour Europe, like now!


Daddy Was Wrong - Daddy Was Wrong

alternative rock / hard rock / grunge
vi.be
facebook
Picture
Back in Belgium, a country that still teems with people who hold rock music close to their heart. That certainly counts for hard rocking squad Daddy Was Wrong. In five songs, and about fourteen minutes, they showcase some of the first songs they have written together. Although they have a firm hard rock sound, I do sense some influences from grunge and alternative rock, but of course, they mainly add to the level of variation. My favorite track is the groovy 'Immortal', probably the most headbanging-worthy track on this ep. Anyway, if you're ready for a decent portion of good old fashioned hard rock, you should give these guys a shot. Rock on!!!!


Barrow Wight - Kings in Saurons Service

heavy metal
Heavy Chains Records
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Once upon a time, this Canadian act start out as a Venom cover band. Yet, gradually they grew into what they are today, a headstrong heavy metal act with lyrical inspiration from Tolkien and musical inspiration by bands like Venom, Amebix, Manowar and several others. What you can expect on this album is pure, uncut heavy metal in the veins of their predecessors but with a raunchy, somewhat experimental edge. To me, is sounds like some of the very old school black metal albums, when the genre hadn't discovered blast beats and corpse paint yet. For you, this might be a good way to start checking out today's heavy metal scene. There is some great stuff to be found, including this one.


Dusk - Eko

industrial / dark psy
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
When band photos show the man behind this projects with respectively a KMFDM  and a Godflesh t-shirt, you know you might be in for something interesting. That certainly is the case with this ep. Dwelling in the realms of industrial metal and dark dubstep, these four songs pretty much sound like modern day electronic remixes of songs by Fear Factor or Ministry, created by Infected Mushroom in a darkstep mood. For an electronic album, it's damn heavy, coming close to the stuff Amduscia, Xotox, Ambassador21 or Noisuf-X have been blasting out over the years. My favorite track here is 'Dragged By The Shadows' which or more suited for headbanging than dancing. Check it out, this is pretty awesome


Bhutan - Vexations

drone / ambient / post-rock
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
The album from Argentinian band Bhutan was submitted by a fan. According to his email, Bhutan was the support act for Nadja in Argentina and are considered a household name in the drone-scene of their country. Well, dear fan and band members,  as far as I'm concerned, this trio should find an international record deal and a world tour to show of their beautiful blend of drone, ambient and post-rock. I mean, when an album reminds me of acts like Klaus Schulze, Pink Floyd, Aidan Baker ànd Godspeed, You Black Emperor, something fascinating is going on. This is a damn varied piece of sonic art, one that will undoubtedly be a stunning experience live.


Queen Elephantine - Kala

drone / doom / psychedelic
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
What does a psychedelic doom act with an ever-changing line-up of no less than fourteen musicians sound like? Well, apparently like a jamsession between Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Earth and Jimi Hendrix.  The word "jamsession" is important here because that's pretty much how this whole album feels. There is a number of drones and soundscapes, some strange vocals, minimal drums and a load of psychedelic guitar solos to be found on this album, all seemingly improvised on the spot. The result is an set of immersive vintage seventies psychedelics, which are at best when played at a loud volume.


Monophona - Folsom Prison Blues

trip-hop
Kapitän Platte
facebook
Picture
Now this is something nice. Luxembourg resident trip-hop act Monophona come up with a little pleaser to soften the wait between their brilliant 'Back To Black' album and the new one. On this 7", the band covers respectively Johnny Cash and Morrissey, both in Monophona's beautiful blend of gentle electronics and Claudine's fragile vocals. My favorite here is 'Folsom Prison Blues', which is an excellent cover version, bringing the song into this era. 'Every Day Is Like Sunday' takes on a different approach, a heavier, one showing some dark drum & bass electronics and a funky breakbeat rhythm. But, you know, like I said, this is a pleaser, and I'm here waiting for the next full-length.


Xaon - Face of Balaam

dark metal / death metal
website
facebook
Picture
Back to the heavier side of the musical spectrum, this time with Swiss combo Xaon and their debut ep 'Face Of Balaam'. At first glimpse, it might be easy to place these guys into the melodic death metal scene of the nineties, reminding of bands like Soilwork, In Flames to Children Of Bodom. However, listen deeper  and you'll find some more influences. From Type O Negative to My Dying Bride. Deeper still, and there is a flash of metalcore hidden beneath the violent, crushing guitars, which drags the entire melodic death metal scene into the current era. It certainly is a varied piece of work, this ep, and it shows a band that can easily pull through to the top of today's extreme scene.


Fliptop Box - Catch 22

hard rock / alternative
facebook
Picture
Greek rockers Fliptop Box are masters in balancing on the edge between rock and metal. In that aspect, they remind me a lot of bands like The Foo Fighters. Their heavy rock is influenced by acts like Therapy?, Danzig, Volbeat and Alice In Chains and that's exactly where you could place this album. With awesome songs like 'Blast', 'Class Of Underdogs' and the highly immersive and quite Deftones-inspired 'Desert', these people are paving their way to today's alternative rock scene. As a rock fan, I think you should definitely check this one out, and as a metal fan I suggest you do the same. This thing rocks and, from the sound of it, it pretty much guarantees a party when played live. 


Gespenst - Forfald

black metal
Duplicate Records
facebook
Picture
And we're back into the realm of all consuming darkness and dark misery. The album by Danish horde Gespenst is a tensive, harsh and fiercely immersive piece of work. It draws elements from black metal, funeral doom and dark ambient and blends them together into a massive whirlpool of sonic violence. The four lengthy tracks will undoubtely maintain their grasp on fans of today's post-black metal scene. In other words, this album is an epic piece of atmospheric extremes, one that you should definitely own if you like to be hypnotized by eerie guitars and haunting screams. I hope these guys come over to Belgium soon because I definitely want to see this live.


Oddhums - The Inception

stoner / doom
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Hailing from Jaén, Spain, this trio comes with an excellent blend of stoner rock and doom, a delightful must-have for the fuzz-freaks out there. Firm drums accompany vintage stoner doom riffs, while here and there an immersive post-rock passage appears. That's all good and fine and nice and stuff but what I really like on this album are the vocals. They remind me a lot more of acts like Jesus and the Mary Chain or Slowdive. You know, the shoegaze way. Sometimes, there are some Conan or Yob chants, which also fit quite well. The combination of those epic riffs and these distant vocals make this ep a stand-out for me. I hope these dudes will tour Europe soon. Recommended? Definitely!


Rest - Rest

crust / hardcore / black metal
Third I Rex
facebook
Picture
Why the hell is this band named 'Rest'? I can easily imagine people seeing this in the window of a record store and buying it because they expect something calm and relaxing. Then they come home and play the record, only to be completely wrecked by the intense blend of black metal, crust and hardcore. 'Rest', as if they want to say, "you can, you need and you will have some rest after this spiked steamroller grinds your eardrums and leaves you behind traumatized".  Italians have a weird sense of humor I guess. Now, I have to say that this is one fierce motherfucker with four brutal tracks and one epic piece of music, the closing track 'V'. If you like crust, hardcore and black metal to be relentless, intense and harsh, you need this.


Hymnambulae - Orgelhuset

dark ambient
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Welcome to the Organ House. You may enter after you have become silent. Feel free to have a look in each room, but try not to make any noise. You don't want to interrupt what you're about to witness. Oh, and beware of the god... 
Kammarheit and Cities Last Broadcast's Pär Boström joined forces with his sister Åsa, not only to create Hypnagoga Press (their publishing house and record label) but also to share Orgelhuset with the world. This is a dark ambient album of extreme quality, like we're used to from Pär (read). The right soundtrack to your inner travels. 
One can hear the cathedral of aerophones, the organ, blow in every room of Orgelhuset. In some rooms there are people hypnotically chanting, in other places the flute or the piano is present - never obtrusive but always in harmony with the rest of the sounds. Wherever you go, there's subtle sound effects intertwined with the drones, creating ever varying soundscapes. For fans of Raison d'Être, Subheim, In Slaughter Natives.

Comments
<<Previous
    subscribe to our newsletter

    Genres

    All
    Acoustic
    Alternative
    Ambient
    Avant Garde
    Avant-garde
    Black Metal
    Blues
    Children
    Classical
    Country
    Crust
    Dark Ambient
    Dark Jazz
    Darkwave
    Death Metal
    Doom
    Dream Pop
    Drone
    Drum & Bass
    Dub
    Dubstep
    EBM
    Electro
    Electronic
    Ethereal
    Experimental
    Folk
    Folk Metal
    Funk
    Gothic
    Grindcore
    Grunge
    Hardcore
    Hard Rock
    Heavy Metal
    Hip Hop
    Hip-hop
    Idm
    Indie
    Industrial
    Instrumental
    Jazz
    Krautrock
    Martial
    Math Rock
    Metal
    Metalcore
    Neo Classical
    Neo-classical
    Neo Folk
    Neo-folk
    Noise
    Noise Rock
    Noise-rock
    Nu Metal
    Nu-metal
    Opera
    Pop
    Post Metal
    Post Punk
    Post Rock
    Progressive
    Psychedelic
    Psytrance
    Punk
    Reggae
    Rock
    Score
    Shoegaze
    Singer/songwriter
    Sludge
    Soul
    Southern Rock
    Speed Metal
    Stoner
    Symphonic Metal
    Synthpop
    Techno
    Thrash
    Triphop
    Trip-hop
    World

    Archives

    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

Find us on

facebook
google+
twitter
tumblr
​
minds

About Us

Contact
FAQ
Logos and banners
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.