10 New Reviews 9/24/2011

Sewer Goddess- Disciples of Shit - CD ( Black Plague/Malignant)

So what is going on here is terror, nightmares and pain all in a power electronic/ harsh noise background.  You get what I mean if you've heard the term Death Industrial that is were we are with a Black Industrial overtone. Sewer Goddess is a female fronted wall of sonic bad karma thrown at you all at one.  With Disciples of shit these are all live track and having seen them live a few times this is not a let down by any means. If you like projects like Control, Slogun, Sickness, Grunt and Folkstorm then my friends you have come to the right place. Maligant scores high marks with this . Not to forget the production is great for live album and the digipak it comes in is amazing to look at..

http://malignantrecords.com/ 

RasalHague- Rage Inside the Window-CD (Malignant)

This is haunting in ways only one alone in the dark at the very middle of the night can understand. The Cold Distant feeling Rasalhague gives you is something you don't get often in Dark Ambient sounds. Its Spacial, Ritualistic, Soundscape, Drift, Drone, Atonal all in one.  Rage inside the window sounds like what you would hear in the most haunted of homes right at the time of your death.  The arrangement are just chilling and jarring in the way they are presented. There is nothing over the top going on just a collection of simple tones, sounds and loops mixed with the right effects to un nerve the best of us.  If youe a fan of Kerovnian on Cold Spring or Schloss Tegal " Black Static Transmissions" then you will be all over this. RasalHague is not for the casual Industrial or Dark Ambient listener. This is for those out there that like too feel the fear in the music... On an end not this comes in an amazing A5  digipak in tones and shades of very disturbing Reds..

http://malignantrecords.com/ 

Rwake- Rest- CD (Relapse)

Wow this starts out so delicate and acoustic folk like with female vocals and then out of no where it goes to a mix of Devin Townsend and Neurosis with touches of Black Cobra and His Hero is gone. This is one hell of a mindfuck it mixed so many elements into one stew of fury and power.. Just in the 1st 2 tracks I've  Post Hardcore, Grind, Jazz, Blues and Death metal . Rwake is one of those band live that will just come face to face with you to make you remember there in control. Rest is so heavy and Doomy but in that dirty sludge and crusty way. They just have such a talent of way to arrange it they seem so much more elegant and majestic at times. What else is there really t say other then get this one of the best bands on the Relapse roster right now with Unearthly Trance, Howl and Tombs..

http://relapse.com/

Brutal Truth- End time- CD (Relapse)

So if I need to tell you who Brutal truth are then something is wrong these Grind/Death/Jazzcore legends have been creating there madness for over 20 yrs and its great to see Dan Kevin and Rich back at the controlled chaos as I call it. Brutal truth is a band about the sounds and way they effect the listener as much as the wall of audio carnage that comes from what they create.  Brutal truth with Napalm Death and AC are what I think of for this off the wall and amazing style all at the same time.  Brutal Truth are over the last few releases adding a heavy Industrial element to all they do as well and it works so well as the sounds seems to go together is theory and tracks.

When a band can create a 15 minute or 30 second track that has the same power and emotion in it. You know you can not lose. Bands like Brutal Truth I hope are still doing this into the 60's as we need 20 more yes of this....

http://relapse.com/

Taake- Noregs Vaapen- CD (Candlelight)

Every time I hear Taake they are more influenced by Satyricon and Khold  and even Motorhead. I love the Icy cold Black and Roll sound and Taake are taking it all in with Industrial and Punk elements to a new direction all there own.  At times I swear they are becoming what Marduk were doing around the the time of Panzerdivison album. Noregs Vaapen has this other worldly element going on with the way the synth work with a more black/death guitar sound that you would hear coming from band like Dissection and Hypocrisy. Black metal from Norway is moving into more a Post Rock meets Black Death sound with heavy atmospheres over the yrs were they were add more orchestral and jazz elements lets say 5 -7 yrs ago. Taake has become a force all their (HIS) own. The Darkness is all here and so much more.. 

http://candlelightrecordsusa.com/

Noothgrush-Live for Nothing-CD (Southern Lord)

Very rarely do I review live albums but in this one we have two of them and both are better then most of there studio recordings. I mean simply Noothgrush was a band that the world never fully got to hear as they were on tiny labels with mostly 7" vinyl singles or very limited pressings. You have to be into the Sludge, Crust, Doom scene to know of them. Well Southern lord has put to amazing live radio shows they did with some of there best tracks ever on one CD for the world to understand the power and majesty of these masters of Doom, Feedback, war cries and pure hate for the world around them. Though I have nothing in common with there Eco Political rants. Is the music and passion in what they present that has always won me over this Bay area band should have been as well know as Neurosis, Eyehategod, Cavity, Buzzoven, His hero is gone etc. All I can hope is with is amazingly well done live album this band will have a 2nd life. Come on people this a female drummer crushing the skins like this  . This is were bands like Wolvserpent and Earth got the ideas that women and crush on drums!!!!!

http://southernlord.com/

Esoteric- Paragon of Dissonance-CD (Season of Mist)

I can tell you this will not be a long review and it doesn't need to be as Esoteric is Doom/Death perfection on all fronts. Slow, Punishing, Atmospheric, Ambient and Ethereal all at the same time and on average 10 + minute songs that ever grow boring. If you have a love for bands like Thergothon, Dolorian, Disembowlment, Dusk (USA), Shapes of Dispair, Draconian and Early Anathema then run don't walk to get this ... With every release the get more and more epic in there sounds and scope of it all. There is just something that strikes at you instantly if you a Doom/Death fan with Esoteric. Season of Mist has one of best rosters of Doom bands to being with only compared by Southern Lord and Napalm in my ears..  Here is a band that should be on next years Power of the Riff  fest...

http://season-of-mist.com/

Isole- Born in Shadows-CD (Napalm)

So more Doom metal this time from the Swedish force known as Isole. This is more of the Gothic Doom/Death style . I hear a lot of My Dying Bride, Novembers Doom and While Heaven Wept in this band with some other elements of bands that seem to work in and out of the doom metal world as there is a prog element to all that going on here .  The vocals for most part are very clean in nature but the acoustics and more flanged out doomed guitars work to envelope the feelings that Isole are presenting. The Bass is so low and massive with that heavy laid back drumming style it all comes together as a complete picture rather then one song and were on to the next. Born in shadows seems to be very story driven in that way. There is also almost an eastern element to the way all the tones and tracks are layered . The give me an Orphaned Land or Orphanaged taste from time to time. Isole is just simply impressive...

http://napalmrecords.com/

Old Silver Key- Tales of Wandering-CD (Season of Mist)

So what we have is a meeting of the minds members of Drukdh and Alcest come together to create a project and we get Old Silver key.   Just to start off this is not a metal release in the way it black, doom or death. If you can use a term Shoegazing Post Metal have we just jumped to the point of no return with that much of a sub genre??? Well that what this is to a T... Its very airy and avant with many jazzy elements mixed in with Black and Doom metal elements . There are male and female vocals both very lushly sung and effected. There is a strong heathen and nature based them going on here. The Gods of the past would love this. If you like Antimatter or the last Anathema album you will fall to your knees for this. As that is the biggest vibe I get from all of this. Old Silver key is as Delicate and it is full of dissonent layers and triphop  passages. I think they are very influenced by bands like Slowdive, Lush as well as the others mentioned. I really impressed with this but for some it will just be too much down the non metal path...

http://season-of-mist.com

The House of Capricorn-CD (The Swamps of one tree hill)

So here's a band that took me by total surprise and I mean this in a great way. The House of Capricorn is one of those bands that mixed 90's Post Hardcore, Metal and Punk in a way that is catchy , dark and powerful all its own. The remember of if you could mix  Killing Joke, The God Machine , Helmet and Kyuss into one mighty project and left them to there own crazy song writing and just see what happens. I even hear elements of Jesu and Crowbar going on in this very interesting and refreshing band. I guess being from New Zealand has let them grow into a project all there own as the population is so small you can cultivate your sound. See this is the point I always make it takes time to really see the vision of a band.  Maybe I'm coming out of left field but I can see this band on the Nuerot roster as they would fit well  with there mix of dark and doomy sounds. The more I listen to this is very akin to Alaric so this maybe why its so to my liking. I guess Deathrock and Post Metal are really coming to the forefront of the 21st century indie music scene.

http://www.myspace.com/thehouseofcapricorn

Distro Outlets for Black Depths Grey Waves CD as of 9/22/2011

Order the CD from the Following Outlets

Aesthetic Death  (UK) http://aestheticdeath.com

Crucial Blast (USA)  http://crucialblast.net/

Redstream (USA) http://redstream.org/

Masterpiece Distribution (Italy)

http://www.masterpiecedistribution.com/

Firebox (Finland)  http://www.firebox.fi/store/

Rage in Eden (Poland)  http://rageineden.org/

Heart and Crossbone (Israel)  http://hcbrecords.com/

Black Depths Grey Waves
Nightmare Of The Blackened Heart
digi CD

Cat #: ADCD 022

Recorded: Aug 2010

Released: September 2011

Tracks:

1.  The Hunt For Greater Truth
2.  3rd Candle For The Fallen
3.  Final Key To Pure Thought

Duration: 44 mins

Thrall Interview is up

http://www.thrallofvoid.com/

1. For those new to Thrall, give us a brief history of Thrall and your experimental black metal sound...

T. Thrall was originally a solo project known as Thy Plagues. In this form I recorded the Wrath Eternal demo on a Yamaha MT4X. Only 20 copies were ever released. After playing Wrath to Alex Pope (of Ruins) he invited me to perform live alongside Ruins, Psycroptic and ABC Weapons. At this time I enlisted Em to play bass. Trent Griggs offered to record us after seeing one of these rare shows. During the recording process many of the songs were reworked (Enormous Night, Black Hearts… Burn!), and some new material was written in the studio (To Velvet Blackness, Robe of Flesh). The project may have never ventured ‘out of the bedroom’ if it wasn’t for Alex, Trent and Em. I decided to change the project name from Thy Plagues to Thrall due to the shift in scope and style of the project.

In 2008 Em and I moved to Osaka, Japan. During our 2 years in Japan we wrote material for our sophomore album, Vermin to the Earth and played numerous shows in Osaka and Kyoto. Chew from Corrupted introduced us to Ippei Suda at LM studio where we tracked the drums for Vermin.

E. We then returned to Tasmania to finish tracking vocals and guitars with Trent again. It came out pretty well, and captures what we had been working on in Japan pretty well.

T: Thrall’s sound is the melding of many musical influences. Thrall is primarily intended to be dark and hypnotic.

E. Tom has really broad musical tastes and influences, whereas my interest in other people’s bands waxes and wanes – to the point where I will sometimes stop listening to music altogether for months at a time. Sometimes I think stopping the chatter of other people’s influences in my mind helps me distil my ideas.

2. You were working with Total Holocaust, and now have signed with the mighty Moribund.  How did you come to work with them?

T. Actually, Away from the Haunts of Men was released by both Total Holocaust Records and Moribund Records; and Vermin to the Earth will be released worldwide by Moribund Records, with the exceptions of Australia and New Zealand where it will released by Obsidian Records.

E: It was a case of sending demos and seeing who wanted to license the albums – both of which we self-financed. We DIY everything we can and keep our creative team close to us.

3. On your last album Away from the Haunts of Men - Tom, you did this solo.  Now, with new album, you're a duo.  What made you to add another member to the project?

T. It was intended for Em to play on the first record, much to my regret things didn’t go as planned.

E. I was very busy at the time and was unable to attend the necessary tracking session. Now that I’m playing drums Tom can’t substitute for me!

On the next album (Aokigahara Jukai) we intend to use the live line up in full. The creation of a full Thrall lineup is a natural development that we have been careful and methodical in progressing. Ramez and Leigh really add to the creative back and forth and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather play with.

T: Yeah, after many years trying to find the right members we finally have a four-piece line-up that includes Leigh Ritson (ex - Disseminate) on bass and Ramez Bathish (ex – Whitehorse, ABC Weapons, War Widow) on second guitar. Ramez and I previously played together in a grind/crust band back in the 90s when I was still primarily a drummer. Leigh became our live bass player in 2010 and this year Ramez became our additional live guitarist. I am very pleased to have a full lineup. I now have the opportunity to write songs in a less restricted form, and realise them more fully live.

4. Is it hard to perform live as a duo, or do you bring session members to perform as well?

T. Performing as a duo was very portable for touring, but also very restrictive in terms of song writing. When one rhythm guitar has to carry the entire melodic and harmonic content of a song (other than drums) it is so restrictive. The first two Thrall records are in part defined by this limitation. Live, I used to use a line splitter to play through several amplifiers each with different gain and effects chains in order to fill out the sound. We’ve previously used live guests such as Rob Crompton on bass in Japan and Trent Griggs on additional vocals in Tasmania.

5. Your music seems to have a mix of post-black metal, doom, hardcore and crust elements.  How did you come to this very interesting sound?

T. In short, naturally. I’ve previously played guitar, bass and drums in 20-30 bands of varying styles.

E. This is my first metal band. Feels like a total musical re-birth, deliberately playing within a genre and being faithful to it. It’s a fine balance. On the one hand, having the provenance that we do, it is only natural that some of the music of our former lives has snuck into Thrall - but we try to colour within the lines. I love black metal, and that is the music I want Thrall to play. I don’t want Thrall to just turn into some punk rock in long robes and corpse paint, or psychedelic post-rock shoe gaze with screamy vocals. I like black metal because the music’s got grit. It’s got aesthetics. Why fuck with the formula until it’s no longer the thing you liked in the first place? But conversely, why make music that sounds just like another band? There’s a fine line between being too experimental as to become irrelevant, and being so in-genre that you become a clone. Either way, we are very deliberate about what we put in and what we leave out of Thrall.

T: We throw out at least a third of our material before recording. We’re selective and deliberate. We’ve experimented with adding even slower tempos and d-beats but so far the balance has remained fairly consistent.

6.  What are your thoughts on the modern digital age? Do you miss print zines, CDs, tapes and radio, or are you fans of webzines, digital audio and social networking?

T. Yeah, I definitely miss getting my hands on a nice shitty photocopied zine like Slayer for example. I have mixed feelings about the modern digital age. Thrall would probably still be entirely unknown without the Internet. In general, the current state of play for musicians is very grim indeed. Most of us have to hold down-down jobs that we despise in order to support ourselves, scrape together meager savings to finance our recording/touring activities, as well as put in the dedication required to maintain a band. Musicians are expected to self-finance the production of their music so that ungrateful cunt-holes can steal the fruits of their labours for free via downloading. I have no problem with downloading a band to ‘try-before-you-buy’ - that’s sensible, but if you like a band, especially a small band, you should fucking well show support and buy their work if you can. Sometimes it’s not possible to buy a band’s music, and in that case I see no problem with downloading it. It’s sad to see so many amazing record stores closing down, and the milieu associated with these stores is left somehow poorer as a consequence. However, there are some over-priced assholes in retail that need putting out of business.

The prices of CDs, LPs and musical equipment are insanely inflated in Australia and New Zealand due to high shipping costs, overblown taxes and high retails mark-ups. Seriously, people in North America should really appreciate how good they’ve got it! I can order an amp from abroad, pay extortionate shipping rates, plus the cost of having voltage changed, and I still end up paying less than half as much as retail in Australia.

Another issue for Australian musicians is impact the current liquor licensing laws. These laws have put ridiculous financial pressure on venues, and in turn, on bands. Add to that a relatively high proportion of exploitative booking agents and venue owners and all of these factors/forces go a long way toward making sure that bands get ripped off. Don’t get me wrong they’re not all bad.

Getting my music out there is more important to me than the format, but the format is also important. I’m a physical person, I used to be a sculptor, and I much prefer having an artifact, such as a beautiful gatefold vinyl cover. There would be ecological and financial advantages to purely digital releases, but they just don’t have any ‘magic’ or ‘ritual’. Vinyl baby, all the way.

E. …not to mention the improved fidelity and harmonic range. My Dad was an obsessive record collector, and some of my earliest memories are of him teaching me how to flip through the bins, gently unsheathe the vinyl and check the play surface… He had over 4,000 records when he died, but the roof leaked when he was sick and by the time we were going through dividing up his possessions, they’d all gotten wet and were ruined. I still have a few of his old records that luckily hadn’t gotten mouldy yet, but it’s nothing compared to what he had. They’re amazing artifacts… There’s power in those grooves. Ain’t no power in some corrupted, digital popping and clicking, piece of shit mp3. “I inherited my Dad’s iPod” – just doesn’t have the same gravitas, does it?

7. What is the theme of  "Vermin of the Earth," or is it just a collection of dark haunting songs?

E. Vermin to the Earth was written when we were living in Osaka, Japan. We wrote it as a suite of songs dedicated to the end of mankind. Living in the concreted Japanese cityscape, riding our bikes into the industrial estates of Taisho-ward and choking on the emissions, seeing the poisoned rivers, concreted streams and the barren parkland, traveling miles into the countryside to find little speakers in the trees piping in fake animal noises. Patchwork hills of plantation timber, latices of concrete holding every hillside up, and these bizarre tetrapods all around any inhabited piece of sea-shore. Japan’s landscape all through Honshu is thoroughly and irreparably scarred by humanity, and compared to the Tasmanian wilderness, it is a stark and undeniable contrast.

Any animal except humans will find equilibrium between its population and the environment – but not man! Oh, no! We tamper with the natural order – keep changing and destablising our environment to suit our short term aims – until we are now on the brink of wiping ourselves and the rest of the planet out. I don’t need to wish for the end of humanity because it is inevitable, and I imagine that if every human were to disappear tomorrow, the Earth would not be upset in the slightest.

T. If the Earth is a type of network of organisms, then, perhaps the various plagues that have beset humankind have been the Earth’s equivalent to an immune system trying to suppress us?

8. I remember in the 90's Australian bands like Bestial Warlust, Abyssic Hate & Destroyer 666, but I know little of Tasmania... what is the scene like there?

T. Tasmania has a very small population of 500,000 people or thereabouts. Geographically it’s about the same size as Scotland or West Virginia, so there’s not much of a ‘scene’ to speak of. There is more so a collection of disparate individuals. However, the isolation helps mould distinct artists of all disciplines, and this can be exemplified in terms of BM by acts such as Striborg, Ruins and Throes.

E. I’ve recently become aware of some other Tasmanian BM bands like Nuclear Winter and Kill the Kristians, but I’ve never heard any of their stuff and know very little about them. Obviously don’t live on the same mountain as I do.

9. Is there a religious or political backdrop to the music of Thrall?

T. Yes. There are overt and latent anti-religious, political and philosophical themes within Thrall’s music. However, Thrall is comprised of four individuals, all with their own distinct agendas. We’re all evolving and we’re not static in our positions. We’re not revisionists. We don’t reinvent the past to support our current beliefs and actions. So, there are commonalities amongst us but we’re not a fucking cult! Ha ha.

E. People who have too much faith in either religion or politics are modernist relics. Human nature is savage, selfish and destructive - and artificial moral frameworks that attempt to harness mankind are ironically as destructive as the nature they seek to tame.

10. Your website has a dark minimalist feel to it, but has all the info you need.  I'm glad to see you're not just using Facebook or Myspace. Do you feel people are missing out on having official websites in 2011?

T. We use Facebook and Myspace only out of necessity. I particularly despise Myspace due to its perpetual technical issues! Em made our website from a desire for more autonomy in our web presence.

E. My advice to other bands would be “it’s not that hard: give it a crack!” I don’t know fuck about web design, but I made our site. All it took was a couple of afternoons of swearing at the computer, and volia!

11.  Do you feel image and art play a large role in the black metal style and sound, or is more just about the music for Thrall?

T. Artwork is very important. In my opinion a recognisable visual identity enhances a band immensely. As cynical as it sounds – branding is important when you have limited resources. However, some bands focus so heavily on ‘dressing up’ they forget to write memorable songs, or have any menace or stage presence. After all, would you rather have great make-up or great songs? In a live context, I don’t care about your corpse paint or your battle-jacket - I care about your music and your delivery.

E. I saw a band once that had corpse paint and matching outfits, a smoke machine, all sorts of props – but then they just stood on stage like stunned mullets. Barely moved aside from their fingers. Can’t remember a single note they played. Conviction and sincerity behind a song make it stick. If you’re spending all your time playing with a sewing machine of course you’re going to end up playing irrelevant music. Get your priorities right! It’s not a black metal sewing club, you poofs!

12. Will there be any videos or DVDs coming from the band? 

T. I want to make at least one film clip to accompany Vermin to the Earth, so far I haven’t had the time or resources, and no one has offered to do it. We don’t have any plans to release a DVD at this stage, but I would love to do so in the future. The idea of a complete unified album/dvd appeals to me, but the budget is totally out of my reach!

E. There was a clip made to one of our songs by our mate Janssen for one of the songs from the last album. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_tBBmdRS4A We gave him instructions: “NO HUMANS.” But he put an actor in the clip! Ha! Well, can’t complain. It’s a pretty high quality affair for a BM clip.

13. Thank you for your time, any closing thoughts here:

T. Thanks for the interview. Keep an eye out for our third album Aokigahara Jukai in 2012 or 2013.

7 New Reviews 9/17/2011

East of the wall- The Apologist-CD (Translation Loss)

More tasty Post metal with a heavy prog element going on. This is bass driven madness imagine for a moment it  Opeth, Isis and Yes all formed a band then made it a bit fuzzed out. I think you would have a good idea where East of the wall is coming from. They do like to add a Jazzy Faith no more  element to there sound from time to time. The vocals are so pissed off its were all the hardcore elements come in. This band comes from fragments of Postman Syndrome ad Biclops so always expect that Post Hardcore sound mix in which in full force.  East of the wall sound like a mix of  Slint, Rodan and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. The Apologist is an interesting ride to say the least and with each album the expend the acoustic mixed with raw brutal power of the tracks. This is as melodic as complex not your run of the mill rock band and I thank them greatly for this.

http://translationloss.com/

Einherjer- Norron-CD (Indie Recordings)

Viking/Folk metal has always been a flavor of  metal I have always loved and with Einherjer return this has not changed at all even though with Norron there seems to be a bit more of an industrial element going on which really works its has a Rammestein tone going on mix with what is very much a viking/ heathen metal  theme.  You can just feel the war themes and quests for conquest and victory in each song. Einherjer use to have a more black metal style mix in but I want to call this Industrial Viking metal and it so very impressive the production is fully there everything is crisp and massive and this maybe the best vocal attack on there albums in yrs. If you Like Borknagar, Falkenbach and Thyrfing this is a band for you hands now. Raise your Ale horns to Odin my friends this is the new hymns for Raganrok .

http://www.indierec.net/

Black Cobra- Invernal-CD (Southern Lord)

This is an odd creature all to itself I just saw them live and the power of just Drums, Guitar and vocals live blew me away and now on there 2nd full length for Southern lord Black Cobra have come full circle . They are mixing elements of Sludge, Grind, Power Violence, Noise, Drone and Doom into something that is all there own. Its  like if Mastadon and Eyehategod got into a fight at an Earth show. There is no real way to explain the mighty and epic tones that come from this Duo... The music is just pure power driven by full on overdrive and caffeine.   Black Cobra is the kind of band that causes Mosh pits just from note one. They are about the live show its a must to see. One of the brightest shining stars on a roster of amazing bands. Southern Lord knows how to pick them.. 

http://southernlord.com/

Fuck the Facts- Dismiserable-CD (Relapse)

So what we have here is a female fronted Grind/Post Hardcore trainwreck coming at you at over 200 mphs with one mission and that is to kick you in the skull and make you there bitch. Well Fuck the Facts job well done. I really can not say much more on this other then if your fan of bands like Oathbreaker, Crisis and Walls of Jericho then guess what . Don't fucking miss out on this . Full on Destruction of a musical genre going on here. They so remind me of another band on Relapse back in the day call Human Remains and that is an honor as they kicked my ass live and on album..

http://relapse.com/

Skinny Puppy- HanDover-CD (SPV Records)

So if you don't know who Skinny Puppy are then your living under a rock or just never going to care and this band is going on 30 yrs of making electro industrial noise and this is still the case with Orge and cEvin  the gang is back with a bit more glitch and goth tone to all that is going on but no less interesting actually Skinny Puppy has a better production and better song writting element going on with this album over others. There is a Killing Joke meets Ministry  vibe going on here if you remember Kovenant as well the electro Avant metal band with Nagash of Troll and Dimmu Borgir it has that going on too. I like the more gitchy industrial rock side at times Puppy gets to dancey for this review and after several tracks this has not happened here. Check it out nice to see creative and inspired work from a band still after three decades..

http://www.spv.de/

Archgoat- Heavenly Vulva-CD ( Debemur  Morti)

Christ raping Black metal has returned from this Black Death squad of raw , bombastic  and avant  musicians. There are symphonic elements but they are just that a backdrop to the dripping and seething hate that comes from this mini album. The vocals are so low and gurgled you have to feel them to understand. Its like if Incantation or Womb were a pure black metal force. Love the bass and noise elements going on with the Black grind sounds.  If you like your Black metal dirty and sick then look no further. Archgoat have mastered there craft over the yrs and this is prime example of that.  Just remember in the 90's when you waiting for your Black metal mail order Cds to come from Redstream or Osmose and you will be returned to there with the assault of Archgoat....

http://www.debemur-morti.com/

Glorior Belli- The Great Southern Darkness-CD (Metal Blade)

Your kidding me right how the hell did Glorior Belli become more impressive and experimental in sound. Metal Blade I can see why you scooped them up from Southern Lord and Candlelight. If you can mix Blues, Avant Black metal, Jazz and Post rock into one band then these French madmen have just done so. This sounds like an army of guitars, basses , synths and drums all with a vocalist that is about create and project the greatest ritual of all time on this dying world.  The complexity of this band is help by very few and making comparisons they only two I can think of are D.H.G and Code as they are cut from the same cloth.  They mystery in Black metal is back with bands like this. You hear amazing Black metal of this caliber only from a few labels like Anja Offensive, Moribund, Debemur  Morti, and Code666 really.  Glorior Belli is a cut above the rest and I know many may not hear it but this band has a huge King Diamond thing going on in Arrangements and tones.   Wow just wow we may have album of the year here with The Great Southern Darkness ...

http://metalblade.com/

Alaric interview is up (updated 9-16-2011)

Alaric

http://www.myspace.com/alaricalaric

1. So Tell us the tale of how Alaric Came to be?

Well, Rick and Jason are childhood friends and they were in the Enemies together. They had the idea of starting a "Death Punk" band somewhere down the road so when Jason quit playing in Drain the Sky they started working on the songs that Rick had been writing. Shane was their first choice as a singer and he liked the idea behind the band and joined. They already had a good hand full of songs completed by the time Russ agreed to join after several failed auditions with other guitarists.

2. The sound to me is a mix of Killing Joke, The Mission (UK), Cop shoot Cop and Grinch .. how would you explain it?

I describe it as Big, Dark Electric Music. We are clearly influenced heavily by many bands from the past but we are not coming from a place of nostalgia, we have our own musical vision. If one had to categorize our sound we are comfortable with being labeled Death Rock or Death Punk.

3. Being ex member of such bands a Noothgrush, Dead and Gone and UK Subs this is so many musical elements How did the Gloomy No wave Punk sound come out so strong?

 This is exactly what we are trying to achieve. We all feel that some of the greatest music to evolve from the Punk Underground were from the No Wave scene and those Post Punk bands that really focused in on the darker and heavier.

4. Your working with 20 Buck Spin a very impressive label in the underground Post Hardcore and Metal scene how did you come to work with them?

Interestingly enough, Jason and Rick have known Dave from 20 Buck Spin since grade school! However that really has nothing to do with the working relationship between band and label. If Dave A. didn't like our music A LOT he would not consider releasing it regardless of who was on it. This is the case with all of his labels releases.

5. With Alaric be touring the US off this album or is it more a project and not a full touring band?

We will support our releases with shows and some touring. Unfortunately at this time "real life" is cramping our ability to be total road dogs, but we will be out there.... just not for weeks and months at a time. I actually hope that we all LOSE our jobs soon and are forced to kiss the wives and kids goodbye for extended tours! "We shall see" said the blind man!

6. Is there a running them on the Self titled album or just a collection of Dark Foreboding songs??

 No theme, it is just the best of our first songs.

7. There is a very strong Goth element to the guitars and bass tones was this just a natural progression?

Death Rock, I really do not like the term Goth because it implies things like keyboards, drum machines and Sisters of Mercy rip-off vocalists, etc. etc. Death Rock is rooted in Punk and the feel, texture and tones of this style are very specific. So naturally we use these "tools of the trade" so to speak. Heavily modulated guitars with lots of echo and reverb and much the same with the bass. I am going for a "sheets of electric rain" guitar sound.

8. Being Veterans of the Underground music scenes. What the bands thoughts on the 21st century digital age .. Does it hurt or help artists and labels?

Personally, I think that the sharing and availability of information, ANY honest, reliable information is a good thing. The digital age has literally kept my old band Noothgrush not only alive (to the world) but interest and the publics desire for our music has never been greater. Without the internet our music and work would have disappeared when we split up in 2001, fans would have no real way to communicate with each other, interested labels and promoters would never be able to reach us and we would have no idea that our work that we did so long ago now has actually reached a lot of people and it has affected their bands, their art and their lives. I know that this is the case for many other bands as well. We live in the digital age, we might as well utilize it as best we can.

9. The Artwork for the Album is so disturbing tell us about it and how does it play into the theme of the album?

 The cover art is a charcoal on paper illustration (actual size is like 3' by 5') done by artist Judd Hawk who plays guitar in the Oakland based Doom band Laudanum. We appreciate his work to put it mildly and when he agreed to do our album art we all went to his place which is filled with all manner of his amazing work. Beyond all of the human teeth, syringes, antique drug bottles and bones we saw this framed image on the wall and decided right there that this was a suitable if not perfect image and look for our record. Major Thanks to Judd Hawk for doing our album art!

10. I hate using the term Death Rock but do you see this a new revival and many others are starting to bring back that sound as well. Is there void missing on the late 80's Goth Rock days?

 I would say that there has been a void of GOOD bands working in this genre.... at least that I am aware of. I can say that there are some excellent bands happening Now who are injecting new life into it with a fresh, new take on it like Atriarch and Moral Hex both from Portland and Show Of Bedlam (Montreal) and Spectres (Vancouver). We apply all of the work and experience we collectively have in the past in a manner that is totally unique to this project. There is no hint of any of our past bands in our music. We are updating a sound that started in the late seventies and filtered through who we are and where we've been it has it's own individual sound.

11.  Will be be seeing any videos or DVD from Alaric as this band would work so well with that video medium..

We have discussed this and it is something we would really like to do. We are musicians first and foremost so this would take the involvement of a committed team of people who do video for something like this to happen.

12. The Band being from San Fran area do you feel kinship with The Neurot Recording/ Prank scene and labels from there area the hardcore, punk, crust and metal scenes seem to all merge there that was one cool thing I always saw?

Yes, of course we do. We are all long-time friends and associates. Jason and I did an Iron Maiden tribute band with Dave Ed called Iron Vegan, Dave Ed played bass in the Enemies after Rick left and all of our past bands were / are deeply involved with the S.F. Bay Area underground music scene which has been all-inclusive for a long time now.

13. Thank you for time any closing thoughts here..

 Our self-titled LP / CD will be out on October 11th followed by a split 12" with Atriarch in January both on the incredible 20 Buck Spin label. We appreciate all of the positive comments and reviews we've gotten from everyone.... fans, 'zines. We're creating the kind of music that WE really want to hear and we are quite pleased and humbled by the response we've been getting. Thank You!

CD out now Please support my release

Black Depths Grey Waves
Nightmare Of The Blackened Heart
digi CD

Cat #: ADCD 022

Recorded: Aug 2010

Released: September 2011

Tracks:

1. The Hunt For Greater Truth
2. 3rd Candle For The Fallen
3. Final Key To Pure Thought

Duration: 44 mins

Aesthetic Death

4 New Reviews ...

Absu- Abzu-CD (Candlelight Records)

This is not a new project on the scene they have been creating Blackened Occult Death metal for over 2 Decades now. So its no surprise to hear the combustive sonic assault of Absu. Those there have many several lineups one member Drummer/ Vox Proscriptor as been there all along. There are still many eastern elements to the Blistering Black metal and Extremely heavy Thrash styles that collide here. Absu have also alway had a very proggressive element going on with all they do and create. Abzu as a whole seems to have a much faster pace to it all. The split vocals between Proscriptor and Ezezu works very well with all that is going on. It has a very raw production as well and works for this release as it sounds like earlier releases . Absu always twist and turn in new directions. I do miss the more prog direction that last album had.. Though the thrash sound is so kicked up it mixes it out...

http://candlelightrecordingsusa.com/ 

Mournful Congregation- The unspoken hymns-CD (20 Buck Spin)

So this a band that I hold on par with bands like Thergothon, Skepticism, Ras Algethi, Funeral, Anathema, My Dying Bride, Dolorian, Evoken and Morgion for the Doom metal mantel.. These are a collection of out of print and rare early versions of tracks that just make the Doom/Death musical world a better place to be. Slow and Crushing .. Deep and Low and just down right epic in the way Doom metal is , was and always will be if done with honor and pride. How can you not love the flanged and delayed guitar and bass tones with Tortured and Maddening Growled and Screamed vocals. Molasses like percussion seals the deal for this reviewer. Doom is not short either all these songs are 8 + minutes long and its the way it should be. Depressive and Powerful I miss the days of Doom/Death 

http://20buckspin.com/

Voyager- The Meaning of I-CD (Sensory Records)

So the 1st thing that comes to mind when I listen to this band from the land of OZ is If Nevermore was a prog rock band this is what they would sound like . If you mixed Warrel Dane on Vocals and had Oxiplegatz , Savatage and Rhapsody all back him then Voyager is this. There is an even more 70's Prog rock element  going on all over this releases as well. Its so hard to been point what Voyager are doing . All I know that is fucking good, focused and catchy in the prog metal way.  The Synths and guitars flow like a river of smooth whiskey into a wall of cold cold ice. The melody here is to stay for sure. This is not soft by any means I would never call it hardrock this is clearly metallic by nature. Voyager is about the layer of sound and arrangements as whole. I would love to see this live as I'm sure its even more poweful. Sensory clearly is the label of Prog metal now ...

http://www.lasercd.com/

White Willow- Terminal Twilight-CD (The Laser's Edge)

So this is 3rd time I've had the pleasure to hear the Avant Prog Rock meets Electronica meets Indie Rock sounds of White willow they so remind me of The Gathering meets Third and the Mortal with Layers of Ulver, Ayreon and later Period Elend.. There is a haunting Beauty in the female vocals and Male sung/ spoken vocals mixed with Prog, Electro, Rock and Avant elements in guitar, synths, drums. White Willow has this World Music element going with a strong love Dirty Rabbits, Bjork and Lana Lane . I know I seem to be going all over the place with the elements of this band but it really is that complex in nature and manner. White Willow are a project that will Enthrall  as well as confuse, make you think and feel the sense of safety and protection all at the same time. Terminal Twilight is music for the theatre and beyond. I would close with this there are orchestral and Neoclassic elements going on but never moves in the full Dead can dance arena... This album is so so good..

http://www.lasercd.com/