RECORDS OF THEIR YEARS: with Fórn guitarist Joey Gonzalez

Photo by Katia Sukhotskay

By pure coincidence, for the second successive week, we feature a band from Boston, and today it is none other than sludge/doom emissaries Fórn, who have returned with their highlyanticipated sophomore record, "Rites of Despair". A record of such quality that it in a frankly in a league of its own.  

With “Rites of Despair” having been in the public domain for a couple of months now, there has never been a more opportune time to feature them on THE SLUDGELORD, so I hooked up guitarist  Joey Gonzalez to discuss some of his favourite records.  Welcome to “Records of their Years”, 

THE SLUDGELORD: Favourite album from the year you were born?

Talk Talk, “Spirit of Eden” (1988) 

I actually didn't discover this record till either just before or just after I was entering my 20’s. I had kind of begun deep diving on a lot of atmospheric music and this album was elevator pitched to me from a friend as the “predecessor to post-rock.” I don’t think this album is that or even remotely post-rock to me. Post rock has always felt more to be about long build ups, carefully constructed to reach a point of overwhelming glisten, but this album is quite beautiful in its nature to deconstruct more traditional foundations and to place a great magnitude of emphasis on space, and sparseness, and an emptiness that can feel like chaos sometimes. It did me a great deal in teaching me song writing.

THE SLUDGELORD: First record you bought with your own money?

Green Day, “Nimrod” (1997) 

I’m counting this because it’s a pretty vivid memory in my mind, and even though technically it was my mom who bought this for me, it was a pretty special experience hearing something on the radio in the car and enjoying it with my mom, and we drove to what I believe was a Tower Record store, and I picked up this cd, because we had just heard “Hitchin’ a ride” come on the radio, and I wanted to listen to it. I also picked up alongside this gem, Blink182’s “Dude Ranchand” the Self titled Back Street Boys album, so least to say, 8 year old me was batting a 1000.

THE SLUDGELORD: Favourite non metal / rock album? 

Moses Sumney, “Aromanticisim”(2017)

This might come as a shock to maybe those who don’t know me, but in reality, I don’t have much metal/rock music in heavy rotation in my life currently, so the vast majority of music I have been consuming for the last 6ish years has been not that. As such, my “favorite” album in this broad realm is always changing, but my latest obsession has been Moses Sumney. This record hit me like a fucking truck, emotionally, and in terms of the production, to me it is flawless. I was introduced to this record By our engineer Alec Rodriguez so I have to drop his name here for this one.

THE SLUDGELORD: Album that most disappointed you?

I’ve been let down by some records when I was younger, but the older I get, I don’t really hold other peoples art to my standards or expectations. I am way more interested in the process of the creation of what I am consuming then I am if its living up to some expectations I’ve had, so I can’t say anything has ever really disappointed me. I have been let down by a couple of records, but I’m not going to list them here

THE SLUDGELORD: Favourite album of all time or if you prefer album (s) you’d run back into a burning building to rescue

Deftones, “White Pony” (2000)

Opeth, “Blackwater Park" (2001)

So when someone poses this question to me, I always feel like it’s hard to scope out something that has been a favorite of mine, or something that’s definitively my all time favorite. I always feel like the root of the question is like what are the “keystone” records for me in my life, and these two would be a good start. A lot of people may not know, but before I ever wrote a riff or anything, I played drums for a long time, and these are the two records I really learned how to shape my style around. These are two records I really felt were integral to me for really jumping head first into music. They’re some of the only records that elicit an honest nostalgia out of me anymore. If I had to add one more record, I would add pg.99 – “document 8”. Not only do the songs still hold up, but this band and record was my stepping stone into the ethics of art, music being an individual and part of a community, and what that responsibility entails. It’s just every bit as important to who I am as a musician now.

THE SLUDGELORD: Favourite album (s) of 2018?

Serpentwithfeet, “Soil” (2018) 

This record is painstakingly crafted, and it pays off in dividends on repeated listens, and it’s pretty much been all I can listen to lately. It’s almost obnoxious it’s so intoxicating. I’ve been searching for music that really elicits and invokes the feelings it’s crafted in wake of and listening to the record, the nature of it is obsessing and  a celebration of the feelings of grief and melancholy. It’s beautiful in the most painful of ways.

THE SLUDGELORD:..and finally The last album you bought?

Ilsa, “Corpse Fortress” (2018)

Ah, you thought I’d make it all the way without listing a single metal album, but you’re WRONG. Ilsa are some of my favorite people and they are easily one of my favorite bands doing heavy shit out there. Plus they’re from DC (*cough* silver spring*cough*), and we go back a ways. I love my boys, and this record rips harder than any other heavy music I’ve heard this year.

“Rites of Despair” by Fórn is out now and available HERE

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Inexorum, "Lore of the Lakes"

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type:Full Length

Date Released:27/07/2018

Label:Gilead Media

This is an exceptionally composed and fully realized project. This is one person putting together all of these different elements and insuring that they work together to create something powerful in unison and for that reason I can’t recommend this album to you highly enough. 

‘Lore of the Lakes’ LP//DD track listing:

1. Raging Hearts

2. Let Pain Be Your Guide

3. Years in Exile

4. To Omega

5. Lore of the Lakes

The Review:

‘Lore of the Lakes’ feels like an album made specifically with me in mind. Its sound, courtesy of Inexorum’ssole member Carl Skildum, is a rich mixture of melodic black metal and melodic death metal. It’s a style that mixes the deep sorrowful melodies of bands like Sacramentum and Vinterland, and reinforces those melodies with the heavier death metal side of things, like an In Aeternum or early God Dethroned. But these comparisons are only to get you in the general ballpark; Inexorum has a sound all its own.

‘Lore of the Lakes’ has what I like to call a “world building sound”. The trem-picked melodies here are the kind of atmospheric that has more to do with creating images of natural landscapes or fanciful scenes in your mind than it does with keyboards or heavy effects on the guitars. It’s in that sense that this album displays just how beautiful extreme music can be. Even as the opening moments of “Raging Hearts” see the drums blasting away in properly brutal fashion, the guitars weave their way through the beat in a way that evokes a sort of melancholy fantasy. The locomotive double bass that follows is complemented by fretwork that is more nimble than before, and it all builds to an emotional climax of harmonized guitar leads that soar atop the commotion beneath them.

That’s just one specific example of something that is true of the whole album: this is an exceptionally composed and fully realized project. This is one person putting together all of these different elements and insuring that they work together to create something powerful in unison. Even at what is often an unrelenting pace, the music takes on different dimensions, sometimes feeling hopeful or driven, others feeling even whimsical. But the heart of the album is the sense of wonder it creates, bringing the listener into a world built with evocative chords and harmonies. That it does this despite being largely a guitar/bass/drums-centric affair speaks volumes about Skildum’s ability and imagination.

So yeah, ‘Lore of the Lakes’ is fucking great. It’s the kind of album that made me want to yammer on incoherently about worlds and fantasy and whatever the hell else. And when an album makes you want to talk about the deeper emotional and cognitive impact of music, even if you’re woefully ill-equipped, as I am, then it has to be an album worth investigating. There are scores of albums with great riffs. But it’s not every day you have an album come your way that actually encourages you to use your own imagination as you listen to it. And if that’s something you value; I can’t recommend this album to you highly enough.

‘Lore of the Lakes’is availablehere

Band info: Facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Northless - "Last Bastion of Cowardice"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released:17/11/2017

Label: Gilead Media |

Halo of Flies

Northless’ chemistry has gotten better, and the compositions are much more rich and the effect is nothing less than absolutely crushing.  If you enjoy intelligent sludge, "Last Bastion of Cowardice" is for you.

 

"The Last Bastion of Cowardice" CD//DD//DLP track listing

1. The Origin Of Flames

2. Godsend

3. The Devil In Exile

4. Slave To A Scorched Earth

5. Their Blood Was Always Mine

6. Never Turn Your Back On The Dead

7. Extinction Verse

8. Last Bastion of Cowardice

9. Our Place In The Dirt

10. Rotting Days

The Review:

The National Alliance on Mental Illness notes that one in five adults in the United States experiences mental illness in a given year, while one in 25 will experience a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. We've seen these issues played out again and again on the national stage, often in the form of violence. However, tragedies are only the hint at a much more widespread problem.

Now 10 years into its career, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Northless has continually captured hopelessness in its blackened, noisy sludge. Their 2011 album "Clandestine Abuse," 2013's "World Keeps Sinking" and the 2016 EP "Cold Migration"gave fans intense, personal and heavy music. Their new album, "Last Bastion of Cowardice,"delves headlong into a much darker place, telling the story of a person who discovers the futility of violence.

In his day job as a social worker, guitarist/vocalist Erik Stenglein mentioned in recent interviews the scope of mental illness he sees on a daily basis. Human suffering an institutional lack of empathy and neglect for people's most basic needs are all far more significant than you might imagine. His experience, combined with today's headlines, offer a poignant backdrop to what is, even stripped down of concept, a savage return for Northless.

Fans of Northless'work will take in its first one-third of the album with a lot of satisfaction. Drummer John Gleisner and bassist Jerry Hauppa concoct a sinister foundation for those first three songs. "The Origin of Flames" opens festivities with a tremendous noise rock/post-punk influence that enhances the sludge base of the quartet. "Godsend" slows the rhythm down as Stenglein's mammoth vocals take center stage. This cut also lets you appreciate Nicholas Elert's guitar riffs and his overall contribution to the band. As you reach "The Devil In Exile," which brings back in a bit more of the post-punk and even hardcore edge to the band, longtime listeners will appreciate the maturation process for Northless. The group's chemistry has gotten better, and the compositions are still more rich. Oh yeah, and the effect is nothing less than absolutely crushing.

Furthermore "Last Bastion of Cowardice"is effective because it weaves stories that are at once topical and still not crack-you-over-the-head political. No shots at bands who can make political music; 2017 has seen many exemplary songs that are socially conscious. Northlessjust happens to be the strongest at creating a mood and presenting songwriting that everyone can relate to in many a fashion. Without spoiling more of the story, Stenglein and company are faithful to telling their story through the tracks. "Their Blood Was Always Mine" is tightly wound lyrically. If you enjoy intelligent sludge, "Last Bastion of Cowardice" is for you.

"The Last Bastion of Cowardice" is available hereand here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Yellow Eyes – “Immersion Trench Reverie”

By: Mark Ambrose

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 20/10/2017

Label: Gilead Media (LP)

If Yellow Eyes’ output continues to shine like “Immersion Trench Reverie”, it’s only a matter of time until they’re shoulder-to-shoulder with the fellow legends of black metal.

"Immersion Trench Reverie" CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Old Alpine Pang

2. Blue as Blue

3. Shrillness in the Heated Grass

4. Velvet on the Horns

5. Immersion Trench Reverie

6. Jubilat

The Review:

Black metal has become the land of musical modifiers: blackgaze, blackened death, black doom, ambient black metal.  The expansiveness of black metal is, by and large, a great thing – is there anything more boring than some TRVE CVLT hipster claiming they have the first pressing of “Dawn of the Black Hearts”?  But sometimes, you need to strip away the permutations and bask in lo-fi menace.  Yellow Eyesare all too happy to oblige with their third album, “Immersion Trench Reverie”.  Brothers and constant members Will and Sam Skarstad hang loosely to the foundational pillars of second wave black metal: stripped down production, frenzied guitars, classical and/or monastic influences, and a preoccupation with sylvan landscapes.

Opener “Old Alpine Pang” establishes the key elements of the record quickly.   A natural field recording (captured by Will and Sam during a trip to Siberia) meshes with bells and footsteps on concrete, before an eruption of reverb laden guitars and double bass drumming.  It’s akin to stumbling into a profaned old world convent.  The guitars are layered without sounding overproduced, creating dramatic tension between the frantic tremolo harmonies and the ringing chords that punctuate the song’s movements.  Will Skarstad’s shrieking vocal attack is dry as summer pine needles, and wouldn’t sound out of place echoing through a darkened forest.  “Blue as Blue,” opens with a distinctly Russian folk sample, segueing into massive guitar riffs that evoke the Romantic bombast of Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff.

“Shrillness in the Heated Grass” has one of the most subtly menacing opening riffs of the year, like a broken music box from hell, before launching into ethereal, shifting chords.  Pushing through constant suspensions and permutations, Yellow Eyes create a virtual orchestra using only a handful of guitar tracks – you get the distinct impression that these passages would be just as grand and moving in a live four-piece setting.  As the final notes ring out, more of the brothers Skarstads’ Siberian field recordings provide a human, sacred counterpoint to the low end attack of “Velvet on the Horns”.  The track is the most distinctly “progressive” of the sextet, highlighted by tempo and time signature changes.  The guitar harmonies are at their most intricate, while Rekevics’ drumming is inhuman – by the end, I felt exhausted on his behalf.

       

The title track has some of the most interesting, restrained moments of guitar work on the whole record, sometimes evocative of post-punk, sometimes basking in nauseating dissonance that will make your head ache with masochistic satisfaction.  Once again, the drumming is both frantic and inspired – maybe the best on the record.  Closer “Jubilat”, stretching to ten minutes, is a worthy epic that alludes to Mozart’s Requiem and the ever-present folk elements in equal measure.  In the final movement, Yellow Eyes display supreme confidence, locking into a repeated pattern that will be branded onto your brain well after the final, chiming bells fade out.

On “Immersion Trench Reverie”, Yellow Eyescontinue to cement themselves as heroes of the lo-fi underground.  While they’ve honored their forebears in their compositions and production methods, they aren’t some tired pastiche.  It’s almost as if you discovered some long-lost cassette nestled among your black metal classics, a forgotten gem that deserves reconsideration.  If Yellow Eyes’ output continues to shine like “Immersion Trench Reverie”, it’s only a matter of time until they’re shoulder-to-shoulder with the fellow legends of black metal.

“Immersion Trench Reverie” is available here

Band info: bandcamp