TRACK PREMIERE: Ølten deliver a titan of sonic manipulations on "Raus"

Formed in 2012, Ølten are a three piece armed with one guitar, one bass, and a drum kit, taking these individual elements they have coalesced into a titan of sonic manipulations, a trio that doesn’t always need to flex its muscles to display raw power. Their new record “Ambiance” is set for release via Hummus Recordson November 2^nd,  and you can check out a brand new track entitled “Raus” below.  Preorders for “Ambiance” are being taken (HERE) and band offer some insight to the structure and sound of the track below

The intro riff shares similar sounds with our friends from Unfold, a Swiss band we've all admired for years. This track then continues with a long central part a bit "prog": two guitar notes, four moog notes. And finally, a trax whose brakes give out on the way down.

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Dead Empires, "Designed to Disappear"

By: Mark Ambrose


Album Type: Full Length

Date Released:23/02/2018

Label: Silent Pendulum Records

 

“Witnessed live and through my speakers, “Designed to Disappear” is a juggernaut of a record – one that hops easily between genres while remaining the work of a distinct, remarkable quartet.  I’m onboard for whatever challenging, inspiring output they have in store.”

“Designed to Disappear” CD//CS//DD//LP track listing

1. Spectacular Ruin

2. The Form

3. Slay Rider

4. Reverse Speak

5. A Summertime Song

6. Ones and Zeros

7. Ergot (feat. John Carbone)

8. Designed to Disappear

The Review:        

The term “progressive” gets thrown around pretty egregiously in metal – most often you’re left thinking of bands like Dream Theater or Iced Earth, and even then thinking in terms of scale, length, or concept albums.  Far too frequently, it’s easy to forget how the genuine first wave of “prog” artists, from King Crimson and Santanato Yesand Rush, embraced weirdly abstruse musical styles.  While a ton of modern prog enthusiasts will point to the longform arena rock epics like “2112”, there aren’t many who hold up the 80s pop experimentation of Yes as key progressive cornerstones.  Yet with the supremacy of total oddball artists like Mike Patton and his onetime collaborators in the dearly departed Dillinger Escape Plan in the 1990s and 2000s metal/math/whatevercore scenes, there is growing appreciation for boundary-free heavy music.  New York state’s Dead Empires, formerly an instrumental trio, have all the hallmarks of these monumentally talented virtuosos with a healthy injection of pop sensibility to match. 

Intro track “Spectacular Ruin” displays the muscular guitar- focused energy at the heart of Dead Empires winning formula, allowing John Bryan space to lay down harmonized, rousing leads that will please the Thin Lizzy fanatics out there.  “The Form” unleashes vocalist Jason “PRKR” Sherman for the first time – his monstrously distorted vocals and noisy manipulations are all the more exciting when his melodic strengths come to the foreground later.  The rhythm dynamic of Phil Bartsch and DJ Scully is monumental – heavy as the heart of a neutron star.  And Bryan’s apt countering of chugging rhythm and shrieking high end melodic guitar work sounds like the best Mars Voltaleads we never got. 

“Slay Rider”, a thrashy two minute blast of galloping drums and blast beat choruses, is a great example of the Dead Empires’ bold disregard for genre conventions – they could have forged on with the noisy, experimental math rock of the first two tracks and had a pretty solid record, instead, they go full on groove-thrash attack before the heady, jazz grind freakout of “Reverse Speak.”   And that’s only the first two minutes of the track, before a beautifully salsa infused guitar and piano (guest Jason Volpe) tradeoff, pounding double bass drumming of Bartsch, or the magnificently melodic bridge vocals.  Just when you think you have Dead Empires’ formula pegged they drop into a spaced out dub metal (is that even a thing?) track like “A Summertime Song”.  Like a 311song if they could just muster the grit to be HEAVY, “A Summertime Song” is the unlikeliest, weirdest 7 minutes I’ve heard on an album this year that actually works as a pop single.  DJ Scully’s gnarly bass gets some time to shine here and it’s easy to see why he’s an in demand multi-genre bassist – dude has some serious tone and chops.

The instrumental “Ones and Zeros” is a bit of a palate cleanser after the consistent tonal changeups of the record so far, recalling the meat and potatoes harmonies of “Spectacular Ruin”, with some moments that recall Big Country(maybe the most overlooked non-metal guitar group of the 80s), and others that once again have me thinking of Phil Lynott and company.  “Ergot”may be the most “conventional” post-metal/metalcore piece of the whole record, if a punishing metal song in the midst of all this post-rock beauty, featuring a spoken word coda courtesy of Moon Tooth’s John Carbone, can be called conventional at all.  The epic, titular finale is a 12 minute, anthemic journey through regret and mortality that is cinematic, rewarding, and ultimately uplifting, even with lyrics like “death, the great equalizer / everything will end one day / that’s the hard truth we go to bed with everyday, / designed to disappear we all go away”.  Somehow it’s far more inspiring than you’d imagine, with moments of seriously dissonant brutality.  More than any other track, I could see this as full on arena rock – it deserves an audience of thousands to truly appreciate its massive scale.

Though there are only eight tracks on their newest record, Dead Empires’ offer lightning fast jaunts through multiple genres, embodying the bold heart of progressive music’s infinite potential.  While their forebears like Dillinger Escape Plan have retired, or Mike Patton has stopped only occasionally to focus on projects that exist as more than one-off experiments, Dead Empireshas the potential to continue as a band to watch, as every move seems to take you to new, unforeseen destinations.  It’s really amazing to see it replicated live, as I had to pleasure to experience this autumn, and hear so MUCH coming from a stripped down quartet.  If you have a chance to see them during the upcoming tour, I’d absolutely recommend it, as the pure intensity and prowess is somehow just as monumental, even in a small venue.  Witnessed live and through my speakers, “Designed to Disappear” is a juggernaut of a record – one that hops easily between genres while remaining the work of a distinct, remarkable quartet.  I’m onboard for whatever challenging, inspiring output they have in store.

“Designed to Disappear” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

FOR THOSE ABOOT TO ROCK: Riffs of Canada with Big|Brave (Montreal, Québec)

By: Mark Tremblay

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released:15/09/2017

Label: Southern Lord Records

This three song magnum opus is a sonic journey through the unexpected nuances in heavy music.  “Ardour” is Big|Brave fully realized and fully formed. In a genre full of chaotic noise, the refreshing wave of heaviness provided by Big|Brave rises to the top.

“Ardor” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Sound

2). Lull

3). Borer

The Review:

Big|Braveare the hardest band to categorize and define in heavy music. Their latest offering, “Ardor”, is equal parts calming and cathartic. This three song magnum opus is a sonic journey through the unexpected nuances in heavy music. “Ardor” opens with the serene crusher “Sound”. Ironically, it is the silent pauses within the song that give the piece its weight and impact. Big|Brave have this ability to make every note count and matter, something that many bands could take note of.

“Lull” is the perfect bridge between the albums opener and closer. Robin Wattie vocals are extremely raw and powerful. The tonal qualities of her voice feel Like Big|Brave at their most honest and vulnerable. The album ends with an absolute sludge banger “Borer”, the heaviest track in the Big|Brave canon. By the songs end, the listener is being drowned in these extremely heavy chords that have this calming effect.

“Ardor” is Big|Bravefully realized and fully formed. In a genre full of chaotic noise, the refreshing wave of heaviness provided by Big|Brave rises to the top.

“Ardor” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Blut Aus Nord - "Deus Salutis Meae"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 27/10/ 2017

Label: Debemur Morti Productions

what is truly most evident is an extreme music group that will not be bound to definitions, or at least is willing to experiment to ascend beyond what we think we know of a genre.

"Deus Salutis Meae"CD//DD//LP track listing

1. δημιουργός

2. Chorea Macchabeorum

3. Impius

4. γνῶσις

5. Apostasis

6. Abisme

7. Revelatio

8. ἡσυχασμός

9. Ex tenebrae lucis

10. Métanoïa

The Review:

Black metal features a handful of longtime performers in its midst. Among them is France's Blut Aus Nord. Since 1995's "Ultima Thulee," the now-quartet have grown from a vehicle for vocalist Vindsval, who began the project as Vlad in 1993, into a fully realized band crafting some of the already adventurous black metal scene's more daring music.

Most notably, Blut Aus Nord's “777” trilogy of records, comprised primarily of works led solely by Vindsval, and its “Memoria Vetusta”trio of recordings wedged in between them, put forward the pensive detail for which the act is best known. Though its discography is a thread that carries on the tradition of first-wave black metal buried within its performances, the band is almost as a rule devoted to obliterating what you think of the subgenre. Its music is hard to categorize and virtually changes with every release. Sometimes loud and caustic, songs are equally at turns sweeping and cinematic. Consider its interlocking tracks from the 2016 split "Codex Obscura Nomina," where classical influences, which have frequently appeared in Blut Aus Nord'smusic, led the way through its four selections. If you are new to the group, this is music you are undoubtedly going to be pushed by, because this is a band that refuses to let you get comfortable, and instead keeps you focused on how songs, and in fact the arc of its performance progress.

As with anything Blut Aus Nord, you can't talk about "Deus Salutis Meae" on a track-by-track basis. Instead, you have to approach it as a complete work. As such, the French group's upcoming album is both a departure from its split with Ævangelist and "Memoria Vetusta III - Saturnian Poetry," its 2014 recording. That last full length saw Blut Aus Nord return to its roots – terse guitars, rangy bass and one of the best vocal efforts by Vindsval to date. Heavy in delivery while nimble in how it was performed, this particular effort was certainly hard, yet stayed beguiling in its tonality. Like previous albums, the listener was treated to a fresh experience that made it altogether creative. "Codex Obscura Nomina" was a complicated affair that divorced the old sound in favor of multi-layered effects, synthesizer and a moody, swirling mash. Brilliant on its own, this release's outcome took some by surprise. However, with "Deus Salutis Meae," you hear Blut Aus Nord constructing onto the foundations it made on the split the echoes of the classic black metal of "Memoria Vetusta III," into something that sounds futuristic and forward.

Take a song like "Impius" or even "Chorea Macchabeorum"where both, at first listen, sound like particularly good black metal, as can be said for "Apostasis,"which was released as a preview track. On a second, third and fourth listen, it is apparent how breathtaking Blut Aus Nord'smusicianship truly is. Its masterful percussion, pulsing bass, keys that add texture and vocals that set a mood, but never dominate the arrangement, are among the most stunning for black metal this year. Blut Aus Nordhave always been masters of ambience, and the new album is no exception. The group creates a despairing atmosphere, divergent from the black metal methods of its past endeavors yet somehow not far out of that territory. It's already been said by critics that Blut Aus Nord may be veering more into a death metal or funeral doom direction here. You can hear that at turns, but what is truly most evident is an extreme music group that will not be bound to definitions, or at least is willing to experiment to ascend beyond what we think we know of a genre.

The existential joy for listeners, though, will be exploring the songs and concepts. For all its volume and flame, Blut Aus Nord has always been at its very heart an intellectual band. Its songs have always explored faith, humanity and the many shades of darkness therein. "Deus Salutis Meae," the album's title, roughly translates to "the god of my salvation." Let that sit with you as you take what is an accomplished recording, if ever there was one.

"Deus Salutis Meae" is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Blood of Sokar - "Blood of Sokar"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full length

Date Released: 25/08/ 2017

Label: Lighten Up Sounds

From the opening song, "Cælestibus," cresting into "Hallucinatus," there is an unfathomable well of torment and apoplexy. The music's dirge only heaps dirt upon the exasperation that sets in. Blood of Sokar's thick bass and sludge-infested guitar lines virtually guarantee this temperament will not cease.  This Seattle-based act, which transcends funeral doom and blackened doom, delivers exactly the kind of recording that fear is made of.

 

“Blood of Sokar “CS//DD track listing:

1. Cælestibus

2. Hallucinatus

3. Hecatomb

4. Mortem Ventum

The Review:

One of the most disturbing horror films of the last few years, depending on who you ask, was 2015's “Baskin”. The New York Times called the Turkish movie, "a buffet for gore enthusiasts, without ever totally losing its elegance — unless your definition of that word could never encompass a graphic disembowelment or an unexpected stabbing of an eye." It is in truth quite a brutal fantasy, filled with mythic monsters and a curious tale, and quite a lot of violence.

Without spoiling it – and if you like the harsher brands of horror signified by the New French Extremity era of works like “Martyrs” and “Dans Ma Peau/In My Skin”, “Baskin”may be for you – there is a moment when the motion picture's protagonists approach the Ottoman Era building that once housed a police station. It is just the moment before Hell truly breaks loose.

If that moment of “Baskin”, where feet unknowingly tread upon this ignoble place, had a soundtrack, Blood of Sokar's self-titled debut would be it.

The Seattle-based act, which transcends funeral doom and blackened doom, delivers exactly the kind of recording that fear is made of. The heaviness screams and indecipherable vocals are stagnant as an abandoned structure with its own stories untold. You can feel those spirits cut right through you in a track like "Hecatomb,"with its dissonant caws that at last merge into something sounding almost melodic. Hard to access, but rattling and memorable this debut is.

Over its four-song, 37-minute tale, Blood of Sokar tells a story that is largely one of your imagination. This is primarily because the recording's vocals are so thickly layered and droned out that your mind has to paint the picture. Such vocals are harder to pull off than you might think, simply because they form songs that are not the conflict-context-unity of your usual songwriting. The listener is challenged to see the song as a complete work, and to be part of the music as art. Lots of doom and black metal offer concept albums and stories behind and within their songs. This self-titled release is purely a tale you conjure. Hence it is difficult to recall a release that did this style very effectively since Diamanda Galas' 1993 masterpiece “Vena Cava”, a representation of the effects of dementia brought on by HIV (see Galas' 1991 live performance album “Plague Mass” as precursor to this story) or 1996's “Schrei X”, a homage to German avant garde music. Blood of Sokarnevertheless does an admirable and at many turns riveting take on this approach.

From the opening song, "Cælestibus," cresting into "Hallucinatus," there is an unfathomable well of torment and apoplexy. The music's dirge only heaps dirt upon the exasperation that sets in. Blood of Sokar's thick bass and sludge-infested guitar lines virtually guarantee this temperament will not cease.

Blood of Sokar is an overpowering new addition to funeral doom, and one that may just score a future nightmare.

“Blood of Sokar”is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

REVIEW: Lovely Wife - "Problem Rock" [EP]

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 06/08/2017

Label: Cruel Nature Records

Taken in together, you have a smoothed out jam band-esque stoner rock experience, and it is a good one.

"Problem Rock" CS//DD track listing

1. Export To Disk

2. Filth

3. Ting

The Review:

Beguiling, as it is perplexing, Lovely Wife drop a new three-song EP for your listening pleasure. And it is a really nice one, but it is not without a few questions.

This is the follow up to the group's three-song debut EP, "Lou Reed is Dead." That package was mostly a post-rock affair that clocked in at just under half an hour. It flew under the radar for many, but came across as promising.

The new release features virtually a complete change in band members and another trio of psychedelic infused heavy rock. It feels a bit unpolished and even rough at points, though it is likely a production touch. Taken in together, you have a smoothed out jam band-esque stoner rock experience, and it is a good one.

Lovely Wife's challenge is finding that right mix of personnel. It is a difficulty faced by a ton of new groups: you think you have the right mix of people until it isn't, and even when you do, musical chemistry takes time.

Although the lineup is about wholly different from its debut, even "Problem Rock" has rotating members throughout the record. Joe Garrick is the only consistent player here. The sprawling, 13-minute centerpiece "Export to Disk" features Garrick with drummer Rob Woodcock (who returns from his appearance on the title track of "Lou Reed is Dead") and guitarist Jon O'Neill. On the other two tracks, the lineups flip completely, with Garrick joining vocalist James Watts and drummer Skylar Gill.

With Garrick presumably the leader of the band, you have a talented bassist. "Problem Rock" makes his skill evident. Still, you might be inclined to wonder how much Lovely Wifewill get even better as it matures, nails its core membership and grows into tighter material.

"Problem Rock”is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: End Christian – "Energy & Strength"

By: Mark Ambrose

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 18/08/2017

Label: Translation Loss Records

“Energy & Strength” CD//DD track listing

1. Froze Red

2. Traverse

3. Preacher

4. Delivered in Shame

5. Ballinger

6. 8 Hour Job

7. Quiet Nights

8. A Relaxing Time

9. Ore Da Barbarian

10. Oscillate Forms

11. Call About Trix

The Review

 “This is a message of energy and strength!”  Among the wispy, heavily processed, often indiscernible vocals and lyrics of End Christian’sfull-length debut, this mantra serves as a thesis statement for a collective that continuously shifts between genres and emotions.  Comprised of members of Fad Nauseam(Dreadful), Hex Inverter (McKenna), Starkweather(Rosa), and Brutal Truth (Hoak), End Christianeschews the “heaviest lineup/heaviest sound” posturing that damns most supergroups.  Instead, “Energy & Strength” embraces their retro pop, shoegaze, and techno obsessions – which have recently garnered crossover success for artists like Perturbator, Gost, and Youth Code within the heavy music scenes.  Despite these analogies, however, End Christian’s debut doesn’t coast on nostalgia, but manages to be a rewarding, challenging work of experimental music.

               

Opener “Froze Red” is a blissed out slice of dream pop that would fit alongside any entry into the classic 4AD catalogue – whispery goth vocals, swelling synth chords, just the right amount of rhythm to slow dance with your pale companion or all by yourself.  If they continued in this vein, “Energy & Strength” would be a serviceable foray into pop for at least an EP.  But instead “Traverse” turns on the darkness, locking around a doom and gloom bass line that recalls NIN’s “Ghost”recordings.  “Preacher” goes full ambient mode, while “Delivered in Shame” is a buzzing piece of electronic hardcore and retro drumpad beats, while a Vocoder makes the whole thing twist into a track like Giorgio Moroder on downers.

By the end of the record, I was mostly recalling seminal compilations like “No New York,” that captured a brief era in the morphing post-punk and art rock scenes of the late 70s using just four artists – disparate but collaborative, bound by aesthetic similarities but not yet distilled into any formula for success.  This borderless experimentation can be taxing, as the relentlessly loose “Quiet Nights” verges on excess, while the frenetic avant jazz weirdness of “A Relaxing Time” is as “no wave” as it gets.    And yet there is undeniable positivity that flows through the record, balancing the darkness creeping at the edges.  The Vangelis-meets-dub beauty of “Oscillate Forms”; the slightly askew string lines of Ballinger; the repeated reminders that “This is a message of energy and strength!” – are just a few of the beautiful moments that propel End Christian’sdebut through any rough spots.  I, for one, hope they continue to challenge, experiment, and confound expectations.

“Energy & Strength”is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Below The Sun - "Alien World"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 26/05/2017

Label: Temple of Torturous

What you get is nothing short of spectacular. The soundscape intersects multiple metal subgenres, including funeral doom, black metal, drone and post metal. Moods throughout are bleak, as if the rumbling seas of Solaris are flicking gently at your mind and bouncing your hopes and fears to and fro.

“Alien World” CD//DD track listing:

1. Blind Ocean

2. Mirrors

3. Giant Monologue

4. Dawn For Nobody

5. Release

6. Dried Shadows

7. Black Wave

8. In Memories

The Review:

Metal has never been at a loss for concept albums. The idea versus the execution, however, is a matter that is worthy of serious interrogation. Stories can get clunky in the context of the songs. Or the songs can overwhelm the narrative a group might have wanted to present. So, when a performer succeeds at an especially grand concept, you are virtually compelled to take notice.

For Russian experimental/post-metal band Below the Sun, the concept of the sophomore release is quite ambitious. "Alien World" is centered around the idea of human memory. The science fiction novel "Solaris" by Polish author Stanislaw Lem inspires the recording. In the 1961 tome, scientists study the mythical oceanic planet Solaris from their research ship, only to discover that the planet itself is sentient and studying them. Moreover, Solaris has the ability to turn its human subjects' innermost thoughts into material form, and to bring them face-to-face with those creations. In the end, humanity is confronted with the truth that the thinking and intentions of alien life are wholly beyond our comprehension.

Below the Sunextended its complicated storyline to its composition as well. As you listen to "Alien World," you may be astounded to know that none of the eight songs contain synthesisers or samplers. Every sound you hear was made by guitars, bass, drums and vocals, though some of it is clearly enhanced by effects pedals.

What you get is nothing short of spectacular. The soundscape intersects multiple metal subgenres, including funeral doom, black metal, drone and post metal. Moods throughout are bleak, as if the rumbling seas of Solaris are flicking gently at your mind and bouncing your hopes and fears to and fro. Those sparse lyrics? You can just about close your eyes and see the anguished vocal in the visage of Lem's scientists, as they fully realize the lifeless planet they smugly believed they were prodding is very much intelligent, and instead invading their most humbling memories. The furious roar in "Dawn for Nobody," which comes about halfway through this package, almost feels a dawn of such a realization.

What additionally makes Below the Sun's new recording so distinguished is how it strikes all these emotional places, as much as brilliant art does, without being easy to classify. You will notice at least two dozen influences, including metal, classic rock, electronic and ambient music acts. Yet Below the Sundoesn't ape them or feel like a repeat. Its concept and sound is autochthonous, a base from which others may emerge.

"Alien World" is available here:

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook || Instagram