Tag Archives: Profound Lore

Vhöl – s/t (Profound Lore, 2013)

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VHOL cover artGiven the players involved and the label putting it out, it’s quite surprising that there hasn’t been more hype surrounding the release of Vhöl’s self-titled debut album.  I mean, we’re talking about a band that includes current/former members of the likes of Hammers of Misfortune, Ludicra, YOB and Agalloch on the goddamn mighty Profound Lore for chrissakes; if ever there was a modern band that should be having the term supergroup lobbed at its feet, it’s surely Vhöl.  And while I (fortunately) haven’t seen too many folks chucking the dreaded “s word” about in reference to this quartet of West Coast killas, their opening salvo is nonetheless pretty gosh darn super.
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Portal – Vexovoid (Profound Lore, 2013)

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Portal-Vexovoid-LargerNo band in existence conjures the musical equivalent of Lovecraftian dread quite like Australia’s Portal.  It’s one thing to simply study Lovecraft and then regurgitate the Cthulhu Mythos stories in lyrics and artwork accompanied by pedestrian extreme metal songs, but Portal take things far beyond the conventions of worshiping at the altar the great author; the blood of Yog-Sothoth flows through the veins of these men, allowing them to create an alchemical miasma of eldritch horror through music.  Never has death metal sounded so alien, so extra-dimensional.
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Atriarch – Ritual of Passing (Profound Lore, 2012)

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Rumors of deathrock’s uh, death, are greatly exaggerated. Pinkish Black proved it was still alive and well with their excellent self-titled debut earlier this year, and now Portland, Oregon’s Atriarch have knocked it out of the goddamn park with Ritual of Passing. This isn’t your granddaddy Rozz Williams’ deathrock though. While it might be built on a tortured foundation similar to what bands like Christian Death were putting down back in the day, Atriarch breaths new life into the genre by incorporating the musical vocabularies of doom and black metal into their approach, making their brand of diseased heaviness that much more, well, deathly.

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Bell Witch – Longing (Profound Lore, 2012)

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Desolation. That’s the first word that comes to mind when listening to Longing, the debut album from Seattle doom duo Bell Witch. Perhaps it’s the sparse yet oppressive instrumentation; I imagine myself attempting to traverse a scarred, barren wasteland littered with dead bodies in various states of decay, like a hastily made mass grave in the middle of a desert. Try as I might to cross these decrepit badlands, something holds me down, a psychic/spiritual weight that forces me to crawl on my hands and knees. It is the ten ton weight of depression.
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Ash Borer – Cold of Ages (Profound Lore, 2012)

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As American black metal continues to assert its dominance, so to does California continue to be a breeding ground for some of the best bands the genre has to offer.  Having visited the state on several occasions and even lived there for half a year (I was a PR intern for Metal Blade Records during college), it’s hard to imagine such bleak, harrowing music emanating from such a sunny, pleasant environment. But even the most pleasant places have filthy, pitch-black underbellies that the casual observer (such as myself) may never ever see.  If the Golden State possesses such an underbelly, then the mysterious quintet known as Ash Borer was undoubtedly born in the deepest, darkest recesses of that forsaken place, as their latest album, the devastating Cold of Ages attests.
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Menace Ruine – Alight in Ashes (Profound Lore, 2012)

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In the ever-expanding world of heavy/extreme/underground/whatever music, the emergence of artists that have truly managed to forge their own sound is becoming a rarity; originality an endangered species.  When was the last time you heard a band that sounded like nothing else out there or that struck you as a group of true musical innovators?  Enter Montreal, Quebec’s Menace Ruine.  After beginning life as a heavily blackened noise band with their debut album Cult of Ruins, the Canadian duo quickly metamorphosed into a multi-headed amalgamation of black metal, drone, industrial, noise, neo folk, psychedelia and dark ambient that (at least to these ears) has no easily identifiable precursors.  Alight in Ashes, their fourth full length and debut album under the nigh-unfuckwithable banner of Profound Lore, is the most fully realized manifestation yet of Menace Ruine’s corrosive yet haunting outsider art.
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The Howling Wind – Of Babalon (Profound Lore, 2012)

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As black metal continues to expand and mutate into ever more innovative and abhorrent new forms, one must never forget the importance of staunch traditionalism.  The moment we lose sight of our roots is often the moment we initiate a slow march down the road to total ruin.  To forget the grit and grime from which black metal was birthed in favor of so-called progression comes at a steep cost; the loss of what made the genre so compelling in the first place.
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Evoken – Atra Mors (Profound Lore, 2012)

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For the past several years, I’ve felt very close to death.  No matter what direction life has taken me in, it seems that death is there to meet me at every turn, taking away family, friends and acquaintances with a disturbing frequency.  In the past month alone both my cousin and an old college professor have passed from this mortal coil, both well before their time.  This increasing familiarity with death has indeed bred contempt; contempt for the callousness and randomness with which it has wrenched my loved ones from this already painful existence.  Of course, no one in their right mind is fond of death, but the inordinate number of deaths I’ve had to weather recently has served to make me despise life’s final chapter that much more, if such a thing is possible.
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Witch Mountain – Cauldron of the Wild (Profound Lore, 2012)

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Portland, Oregon doom-mongers Witch Mountain have been roaming the underworld since 1997, but didn’t start picking up steam until they were joined by vocalist Uta Plotkin in 2009 and subsequently released their second album (and first new release in ten years) in 2011, the well-regarded South of Salem.  Plotkin’s presence rejuvenated the band, leading to increased live activity, a record deal with Profound Lore and finally culminating in Cauldron of the Wild, an album that sees Witch Mountain coming into their own as top-tier purveyors of traditional American doom.
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Bosse-de-Nage – III (Profound Lore, 2012)

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Mysterious Bay Area quartet Bosse-de-Nage have quickly risen to become one of the most compelling bands in the US black metal scene.  After releasing two stellar albums with the up-and-coming Flenser Records, the band has moved over to the equally mighty Profound Lore for III, a recording that sees them continuing to push their unique take on the genre ever further towards the fringes, creating something that’s as surreal as it is scathing.
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