As a metal journalist and critic, I occasionally run into albums that are so fucking good that they’re confounding. No amount of hyperbole will suffice with which to convey the brilliance of their myriad layers and intricacies. Such is the case with The Book of Kings, the fourth full length from Australian funeral doom practitioners Mournful Congregation. In listening to it, I feel as if my meager skills as a wordsmith are completely incapable of describing such a masterful recording, and yet I’m still compelled to spill the digital ink in service of this great work.
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Tag Archives: doom
New music from The Ash Eaters.
The Ash Eaters have released a new two track digital EP, The Cruel Side via their bandcamp page. For those not familiar, the band is the new project of former Brown Jenkins mastermind, Umesh Amtey. Amtey is probably one of the most underrated guitarists in metal, his playing a schizophrenic locust swarm that attacks from all sides and encompasses elements of black metal, doom, gothic rock and beyond. But as abrasive as this material may appear on the surface, it is also strangely catchy, the sheets of insectoid distortion burrowing deep into the inner recesses of your mind. I’m listening to the EP for the first time as I type this; I’m already eager to listen further. Amtey doesn’t just write songs, he creates musical labyrinths for the ears to explore.
Those of you familiar with The Ash Eaters’ Cold Hearts demo (also available via bandcamp), will instantly notice a distinct progression in playing and composition (as well as the return of Amtey’s Cthulu-esque vocal assault); indeed, the beautiful thing about this music is that it is constantly progressing, changing, morphing into something beyond the confines of extreme music.
I could say a lot more, but I’d rather let the music do the talking. Go grab this now!
http://theasheaters.bandcamp.com/album/the-cruel-side-ep
I’d also highly recommend stopping by The Ash Eaters’ blog to download their cover versions of the Misfits’s “Angelfuck” and “Death Comes Ripping.”
Acid Witch – Stoned (Hells Headbangers, 2011)
Acid Witch is a band that appeals to me on so many levels that it’s virtually impossible not to like them. On sophomore album Stoned, the Michigan monster squad’s use of horror soundtrack synths, down-tuned doom riffage, battery acid gargling vocals and Halloween decorations gone hallucinogenic artwork is irresistible, as if someone combined all of my obsessions to create one killer recording. It’s also the perfect antidote to a metal scene that’s become a little too serious for my liking of late. I mean, how many po’ faced transcendental post-black fruit-bot-core bands do we really need?
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Wolvhammer – The Obsidian Plains (Profound Lore, 2011)
I’ve spilled enough digital ink griping about modern metal’s overabundance of sterility and dearth of originality to fill a book in 2011, which makes it all the more satisfying when a fist in the face like Wolvhammer’s The Obsidian Plains comes along. Actually “a fist in the face” might be an understatement, because this Minnesota wrecking crew isn’t just delivering a knockout blow to candyass modern metal with their sophomore album, they’re slaughtering it with a flurry of filthy, blackened riffage and punishing rhythmic ferocity.
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Loss – Despond (Profound Lore, 2011)
In my mid-twenties, I would occasionally fall into deep bouts of depression. There were days in college where I felt so miserable that I wouldn’t even get out of bed. It felt like an immense buildup of pressure inside my skull, like someone had tied cinderblocks to my legs and dropped me into the ocean. Although I never once contemplated suicide during those days when the dark waters of despair lapped at my feet, I did often think about what it would be like to just curl up and die, and whether or not anyone would give a shit if I did.
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THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums #2: Type O Negative – October Rust (Roadrunner, 1996)
Autumn in the Midwest is typically dark and chilly, a time of introspection. The sweltering heat and humidity of Summer dissipates, September’s cool, wet mornings and brown leaf vertigo eventually ushering in October, and with it Halloween, all cardboard skeletons and freshly carved jack-o-lanterns. Over the years, Type O Negative’s October Rust has more often than not served as my soundtrack to this drearily beautiful, eerily haunting season, and what a soundtrack it is.
I seem to remember reading interviews with dearly departed Type O frontman Peter Steele in which he proclaimed October Rust as his masterpiece, and it’s damn hard to argue with him. This is a truly excellent album, conceived by a musician who wrote as if he held The Beatles and Black Sabbath (and possibly Bauhaus) in equal regard. In actuality, the lushly layered pop sensibilities of October Rust recall the work of Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson moreso than The Beatles. If Wilson had been obsessed with death, lost love, substance abuse and folklore, this might have been the album he made instead of Pet Sounds. Indeed, there is an atmosphere of dark psychedelia lurking below October Rust‘s surface, adding yet another shade of grey haze to its funereal gloom.
From a song standpoint, the album’s highlights are many. Opening epic dirge “Love You to Death” and electro/pop/goth/metal lead-off single “My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend” are probably the two most well known tracks here, and while they’re certainly worthy of their infamy, October Rust is a veritable treasure trove of deep cuts. “Green Man” is an otherworldly ode to nature, touching upon pagan and Wiccan themes. ”Red Water (Christmas Mourning)” is a drunken carol of lost loved ones that even manages to quote “Carol of the Bells”. ”Wolf Moon” is my favorite track on October Rust, the very definition of a perfect song; it’s heavy, catchy, melodic and totally original in both concept and execution. I’m pretty sure it’s about a werewolf (or perhaps a man who thinks he’s a werewolf) performing cunnilingus on a menstruating woman (“Don’t spill a drop, dear / let me kiss the curse away / yourself in my mouth / will you leave me with your taste?”); it serves as the culmination of the morose, surreal sexuality that permeates the album. On an earlier track, the lusty “Be My Druidess”, Steele declares “I’ll do anything / to make you come” and I’ve often wondered if the two songs are related, with the “anything” in question being the bloody, lupine muff diving session detailed on “Wolf Moon”. Then again, maybe I’m just a weird pervert.
The component parts of the songs on October Rust are just as interesting as the songs themselves. The down-tuned, electric ultra-fuzz of Kenny Hickey’s guitar tone is total Tony Iommi worship, but the myriad influences at work within October Rust‘s aural confines keep it from being a mere Sabbath rip-off; it’s more like Hickey studied Iommi closely and then applied what he learned in support of Steele’s eclectic writing style, creating something totally unique in the process. Steele’s affinity for crafting great songs peaked with October Rust, and his vampiric baritone vocals are also at the height of their powers throughout the recording, securing the late frontman an eternal place among metal’s greatest and most recognizable singers and songwriters. Josh Silver’s nuanced keyboards and production work completes the album’s rich sonic tapestry, which seamlessly encompasses doom metal, gothic and psychedelic rock. If you’re wondering why I didn’t mention the drums, well… according to an interview Silver gave in 2007, the drums on October Rust are canned.
October Rust is many things. It’s Summer dying fast. It’s November coming fire. It’s the Green Man, the Wolfman and Bacchus. It’s love, death and depression. It’s booze and drugs and cigarettes and fucking. In case it hasn’t already been made abundantly clear, I’ll just come right out and say it: October Rust is a perfect metal album.
THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums
1. Celestial Season – Solar Lovers
2. Type O Negative – October Rust
THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums: An Introduction + Album #1: Celestial Season – Solar Lovers (Displeased, 1995)
For a while now, I’ve been trying to think of an interesting ongoing feature for this site, a long-term project that would not only take some time to complete, but also provide me with something of a challenge. To the outsider, a top 100 albums list might seem like one of the most obvious choices possible and not a particularly challenging one either. I beg to differ. I’ve been living with some of my favorite metal albums for over a decade. They’re almost a part of me. Listening to them is nearly as routine for me as getting up at 6:15AM, taking a shower, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, hopping on the bus and heading into work Monday – Friday. What do you say about an album you’ve been so close to for so long, an album that has become a part of the very fabric of your existence? Herein lies part of the challenge. The other part lies in the fact that I am not an expert on metal, rather, I am a student of metal. I am still learning, still discovering new favorites all the time, whether they be in the form of recent releases or old classics I missed out on the first time around. I seriously doubt that THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums will be totally solidified until the final entry is posted, and I envision a lot of agonizing in my future.
A few things to know before we begin. First, this list will be in no particular order. It would be next to impossible for me to sit down and rank a top 100 albums. The rankings would likely change daily depending on my mood and whatever bands/subgenres/etc I happen to be obsessing over at that particular moment. Second, I have no set timetable, schedule or completion date. This list is meant to be a living, breathing, ongoing project and I will work on it as inspiration comes to me and time allows… besides, I fucking hate deadlines. Third, this is a list of my favorite metal albums, and “favorite” doesn’t necessarily mean the same as “best” “most groundbreaking” etc. It does mean albums I love, albums I have a personal connection with, albums that make me want to fuck on the floor and break shit. Hopefully, this list will feature some albums you haven’t heard, haven’t thought of, or haven’t previously held in the same esteem that I do. That’s what makes these things fun!
So, without further ado, I present the first entry in THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums…
Although the Netherlands might not be the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of the extreme metal, there can be no doubt that the country has made some unique contributions to the genre. Celestial Season’s awesome Solar Lovers just might be the pinnacle of those contributions, a gothic/doom/death metal masterpiece featuring dueling violinists and riffs for miles.
Easily rivaling and in some cases surpassing anything recorded by the “Peaceville Three” (aka Anathema, My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost), Solar Lovers is heavy, hypnotic, sorrowful and Sabbathian. It was probably amongst the most uncool albums to be unleashed upon the post-Cobain musical landscape of 1995 (which is definitely a big part of its charm). It must also be remembered that by 1995, the second wave of black metal had forever changed the prevailing concepts of musical extremity, death metal was in a state of decline and that doom metal, quite frankly, has never been cool. These factors seemingly go a long way towards explaining why Solar Lovers remains a largely overlooked/forgotten gem from that era.
Ah, but what a gem it is. Celestial Season certainly shared similarities with the aforementioned trio of UK death/doom bands, but the music on Solar Lovers is also possessed by an eerie, opium dream vibe (which can be largely attributed to the fuzzed-out yet thick as a brick guitar tone) that borders on both stoner rock and psychedelia, setting the Dutch septet apart from their contemporaries. Death metal is the smallest piece of the puzzle here, manifesting itself mainly in the vocal department, and the album is all the better for it. The druggy, doomy atmosphere created by the aforementioned down-tuned fuzz of the six-strings mixes with the gothic overtones of the violins to produce a truly intoxicating listen.
What really makes Solar Lovers worthy of the THKD Top 100 is the way it all flows together so perfectly. Each track stands on its own, yet all the tracks work together to create a complete listening experience, a journey into the realms of ultra-heavy, depressive yet trippy and darkly romantic soundscapes; even a cover of Ultravox’s ’80s new wave hit “Vienna” is seamlessly incorporated into Celestial Season’s forlorn, narcotic world. It’s positively tragic that Celestial Season would never make music this interesting again, totally abandoning their death/doom/gothic foundation in favor of a straight-forward stoner/desert rock sound, only to be met with deafening apathy.
Solar Lovers is special for me on a personal level because it’s an album I approached with zero expectations. I picked it up from a used CD bin for five bucks back when I’d blindly buy just about anything with a Metal Blade (they licensed the album from Displeased for North America), Relapse or Earache logo slapped on it, and it ended up blowing me away, becoming a staple of my metal listening for close to a decade now. To this day I’ve still never heard anything quite like it. I reckon it’s time to start hailing this largely unsung slab of death/doom as the classic that it is.
Morne – Asylum (Profound Lore, 2011)
It’s taken me quite a while to wrap my head around Morne’s Asylum. I’ve been listening to it off and on for a little over a month now and I’m still not sure I fully comprehend the band’s intent. But I’d like to think that I come a little closer every time I put the album on. I recently found a quote by Victor Hugo that makes me think I might be on the right track.
As a means of contrast with the sublime, the grotesque is, in our view, the richest source that nature can offer.
Metal is often grotesque. So many metal subgenres revel in ghoulish imagery, content to wallow in their own filth, espousing the virtues of death and decay. But heavy metal can also be sublime. Nowhere is this more evident than on Asylum, a recording that can best be described as a search for the sublime through heaviness. It’s the kind of album I want to get lost in, to totally immerse myself in its mesmerizing sonic realm.
It’s something about the guitar tone. Milosz Gassan and Jeff Hayward somehow channel ghosts through their amplifiers, pushing air that crackles with spectral electricity. The unearthly distortion comes in waves, crashing against the rhythms before crumbling into the aether ever so slowly, leaving phantom trails in its wake. The effect is haunting. I find myself thinking about it long after the album is finished, like faded memories of past lives.
As hypnotic as those guitars might be, they aren’t the only key component of Morne’s audial alchemy. A layer of keyboards lingers just below the surface, an oh-so-subtle embellishment to Asylum‘s wraithlike atmosphere. There’s more than a bit of the Peaceville Three in those keys, lending the music a stately, gothic quality. Gassan’s hoarse, bellowing vocals recall both post metal and the crustier side of hardcore, adding a touch of grit and aggression to Morne’s otherwise heavy-yet-ethereal approach. Simple, propulsive drumming keeps the rest of the band anchored to the Earth, while the bass guitar rumbles away like thunder muffled by thick windowpanes.
Ultimately, Asylum is like a flower, slowly coming into bloom to reveal untold beauty, only to wither away and die, its wilted petals scattered to the four winds. Over the course of the album’s hour long duration, Morne proves that heaviness can be a means for achieving an end other than the grotesque. Whether or not they have truly achieved the sublime is up to the individual listener.
Passive Aggressive – Untired (self released, 2011)
“This is really fucking good! How is this band not signed?!” These were the first thoughts that came to mind while listening to Untired, the latest self-released EP from San Francisco thrashers Passive Aggressive. Although the band has been kicking around the underground since 2003, this is my first exposure to them and it leaves me craving more.
Referring to Passive Aggressive as “thrashers” doesn’t really do their sound justice though. On Untired, the band conjures up a strange old brew of thrash, black metal, doom, traditional heavy metal and even a dash of hardcore punk over the course of four tracks and nineteen minutes. Basically, it’s a crash course in ass-kicking and a great overview of what the band is capable of on both a musical and conceptual level.
The EP kicks things off with “Privately Distraught”, which is probably the most traditionally thrash-sounding of the four tracks here. But Passive Aggressive aren’t content to simply churn out thrash-by-numbers (unlike so many other bands I could name), adding some eerie slow sections, blackened tremolo riffs and a breakdown halfway through the song that’s pure punk rock. Then comes “Strength of a Thousand Fucks”, which really brings the band’s punk/hardcore influences to the fore. According to the band’s blog, they were going for a Discharge-meets-metal type song here and they very much succeeded, sounding a thousand times more authentic than any of the supposedly crust/d-beat-influenced bands currently clogging up the metal scene in the process. Up next is “Personal Terror”, a track that lives up to its name by going through a lot of unorthodox twists and turns. The song’s frantic structure and pacing perfectly suits the hallucinatory lyrics, coming off a bit like German thrash on psychedelics. Last but not least, Passive Aggressive slows things down for “Untired”, a swaggering, atmospheric doom work-out, that sees burly riffage flowing out of the band like hot magma. ”Untired” is simply an outstanding track that closes out the EP on a ridiculously high note and makes me want to push “play” again as soon as it’s over.
To top things off, Untired as a whole sounds killer. The production is clear enough to allow each instrument plenty of space in the mix, but dark and filthy enough to suit the band’s gnarly mixture of styles. The recording quality, along with the obvious attention paid to songwriting, helps Untired flow together as a cohesive work in spite of the myriad influences on display.
If you’re a fan of any or all of the genres mentioned in this review, do yourself a favor and check out Passive Aggressive’s Untired. Over the course of a four song EP, these guys have managed to blow 99% of the metal I’ve heard this year out of the fucking water. I can’t think of a better endorsement than that.
http://www.reverbnation.com/passiveaggressive
http://passiveaggressivesf.blogspot.com/
http://www.shaxulrecords.com/
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On a related note, the band has informed me that they’re looking for a drummer. If interested, get in touch via the links above.
Also, Passive Aggressive vocalist/guitarist Stone Wolfgang runs the extremely rad Shaxul Records in San Francisco, on Haight across the street from Amoeba. If you’re in the area, stop in and buy something and if not you can order from them online via their website (see above).
Disma – Towards the Megalith (Profound Lore, 2011)
At first the old school death metal revival was refreshing. Since its early 90s heyday, death metal had become overly produced and overly technical, a bloated, sterile, wank-fest that had absolutely nothing to do with the guiding principals the genre was founded upon. In other words, the death had been taken out of death metal, replaced by endless sweep picking and squeaky clean production values. A seemingly endless legion of bands were either cranking out spastic, antiseptic anti-songs, picking the bones of Slaughter of the Soul, or otherwise dragging death metal’s name through the cesspool (and not in a good way).
Of course, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, so along came came a slew of bands flying the flag of old school death metal, attempting to take the genre back to its unholy roots. Some of them were impressive upstarts (Vasaeleth, Impetuous Ritual, Grave Miasma) some of them had been here all along (Nominon, Vomitory, God Dethroned), but the vast majority of them weren’t worthy to lick Bolt Thrower, Entombed or Incantation’s boots. Putting the death back in death metal brought with it a dearth of innovation and attention to craftsmanship. I can live without the former, but the latter is an absolute necessity.
Enter New Jersey’s Disma. Featuring legendary ex-Incantation throat Craig Pillard, as well as members of the long-running Funebrarum, Disma aren’t a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears kids who just discovered death metal. They’re a group of battle-tested veteran musicians with a thirst for devastation, and no other modern band to date has managed to capture the old school death metal zeitgeist as well as they have on their debut full length, Towards the Megalith.
Towards the Megalith is heavy. Impossibly heavy. It might just be the heaviest death metal album of the year, hell, it might be the heaviest death metal album of the last five years. The guitars and bass are de-tuned to the bowels of hell and drenched in distortion, and Pillard’s vocals are so abyssal that they actually add another layer of heaviness to Disma’s slow ‘n’ low sonic assault. You might think that all this unabashed pursuit of heaviness and distortion would lead to a murky Incantation-esque sound, but Towards the Megalith retains a high degree of clarity without sounding overly slick. In fact, being able to hear the filth dripping off of each individual instrument just makes it that much heavier. Hey, did I mention that this album is heavy?
The other immediate highlight of Towards the Megalith is its tempo. Although the band does pick up the pace occasionally, the bulk of the album is characterized by lumbering, doom-y passages, like a horde of legless zombies slowly dragging themselves across a desolate graveyard turned quagmire in search of flesh, their rotting entrails leaving a trail of putrescence behind them. I’ve always been drawn to sludgier tempos over the relentless blastbeats that characterize modern death metal, and the album’s glacial pace, combined with it’s aforementioned sonic weightiness makes for a totally suffocating listening experience, the musical equivalent of being buried alive in concrete.
I’ve talked a lot about a lack of “futurism” in death metal of late, but I’m also a big proponent of the idea that progression simply isn’t necessary if a high level of craftsmanship is present. What Disma lacks in innovation, they more than make up for with an unwavering desire to be the heaviest fucking band on the planet and an inherent understanding of what makes compelling traditional DM. Forget reinventing the wheel, Towards the Megalith crushes it into dust.
