Deposition: Highgate

The band Highgate interested me for a couple reasons. One, the compilation showed a lot of promise. Two, they're from a rural state, like me. Co-guitarist/co-vocalist Greg Brown was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

Full Metal Attorney: First things first: y'all are from Florence, Kentucky, a town of 29,000 people--not much more than the town where I was born. And Kentucky is rural, like my home state of Nebraska. Is there even a metal scene in Kentucky? The live cuts I've heard sound like there's not too many people in attendance.

Greg: There's a bit of a metal scene in Kentucky, although not in Florence at all. You would have to go further south to Louisville to find something of a metal scene. Other than that, there just random bands in various parts of the state...not really any scenes that I know of. The live stuff you heard was recorded in Cincinnati, Ohio, where we have played a lot of our gigs...and yes, not too many people in attendance.

FMA: How did your band get started, especially considering the rural nature of your state?

G: Things started when I ran into Jamie (Porter, Highgate guitarist) at a show back in 2005. I had known him from about 8 or 9 years prior but had literally not seen him since then. We got to talking about music and he invited me out to jam with him and his brother Steve (Porter, Highgate drummer)...the rest is history.

FMA: It's difficult enough for metal bands to get by (especially doom bands), in terms of playing live and promoting their music, when they're from an urban area. Could you describe the unique situation of your band, and how you deal with these issues?

Highgate: Black Frost Fallout (2011)

Review

TotalRust sent me a promo for Highgate's Black Frost Fallout. I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (OK, maybe I am, but that's what they ask me to do), but this is a compilation. It's difficult for me to appreciate a compilation, much less review it. Of course, in the music industry (as the term "industry" implies), the line between "art" and "product" is blurry, but I think an album is the former while a compilation is the latter. I like to think of the best bands as artists rather than manufacturers, and the best label heads as museum curators rather than salesmen. Call me pretentious, but I like to think of what I do as more akin to critiquing paintings than to comparing deodorants.

Deposition: TotalRust

Since I'm dedicating a whole week to the music of Israeli doom label Totalrust, I would be remiss if I didn't interview the label head himself.

Full Metal Attorney: Your label is said to be "dedicated to 'extreme music' with a strong focus on 'extreme doom.'" What is the mission of TotalRust? And why doom?

TotalRust: TotalRust Music supports many sorts of extreme music and you can find bands from different styles under our wings, but yes, the main focus is indeed on Extreme DOOM. Although my musical taste is pretty varied, you can say doom is my cup of tea for years now (especially the extreme and experimental corners of this genre) and it obviously affects TotalRust as well.

As for the mission of TotalRust, from the beginning the idea was (and still is actually) to provide a serious devoted home to unique bands and artists I respect. It's as simple as that.

FMA: Can you give us a brief history of the label? And who is the "we" the "about" page on your web site refers to?

TR: I created Totalrust Music in 2004. It started as an underground distro actually, but very quickly we started to work on our first release (the DOOM compilation "Asymmetry") and signed a few AWESOME bands like The Knell, Wraith of the Ropes, Funeralium . . . During these eight years of existence I had the honor to work with some excellent musicians and as for now we released 19 albums and three demos. The label has been built up really nicely to this point, operated from pure passion for muSICK and despite all the difficulties will keep growing and delivering the goods. In many ways, you can say it's a one man show, but TotalRust's crow features two more fellas; Alec Zalogin, who keeps providing the label and its artists awesome artworks and Ofir Messer, TotalRust's webmaster from the first day of totalrust-music.com (recently he created the fine metal webzine ovmetal.com, feel free to check it out). They both are good friends of mine, highly professional and they are part of this structure from its first steps.

FMA: The guys in Promiscuity said there is essentially no metal scene in Israel. What's your take on the subject?

TR: Besides taking part in some metal events with TotalRust, I am not really involved in the local scene, so I doubt if I am the man to answer this, but overall I think we have a pretty solid scene here. Gigs of local bands, other metal events once in a while (like markets, parties etc), forums that are active, a few producers who bring "overseas bands" once in a few months and some bands like Salem, Orphaned Land, Sonne Adam . . . who "made it" outside of Israel. So even if it's not too exciting, it's still a metal scene.

Abysmal Darkening: No Light Behind . . . (2011)

Review

I've decided to dedicate a whole week to doom. To that end, every post this week will be related to the doom specialty label Totalrust.

Abysmal Darkening is a Dutch doom metal band on Totalrust. Their debut full-length No Light Behind . . . comes eight years after the band's formation. In the simplest terms, their sound is sort of like Celtic Frost covering Black Sabbath, with some blackened touches. Not many bands have successfully incorporated tremolo riffing into a doom template, but you'll find just that on nearly every track here.

Atlas of Metal: Armenia

Sorry it's been so long since I've done one of these. But life gets in the way, you know. I have not given up on this project.

Armenia is a tiny country at the crossroads of the world. Situated on the border between Europe and the Middle East, you can easily imagine their cultural heritage is rich and complex. At the same time, they've been subject to oppression, including the Armenian genocide (about the time of World War I) and diaspora, as well as Soviet rule. So, you'd think they'd be angry enough to be full of metal bands. Not so, according to Metal Archives, which lists only 11 bands from the country.

Asparez was a heavy metal band who released one full-length album in 1990. All I could find from them was this power ballad. It's a power ballad. That's pretty much all I have to say about that.

Omega Massif: Karpatia (2011)

Review

A while back I reviewed the 2007 debut of German nstrumental post-sludge metallers Omega Massif. They've finally released a followup in Karpatia.

Not a lot has changed for the band. They're still an all-instrumental ensemble, but they manage to make up for it with good music. They still have a few more immediate, sludge style cuts, and a few slower post-metal style cuts. They still lean on the loud/quiet/loud dynamic, and they still throw in some fast sections and some chugging. Counterpoints are still here too, this time in the form of high-pitched tremolo leads culled from post-black metal.

Amebix: Sonic Mass (2011)

Review

The revivals keep on coming. First we had re-thrash, followed by the revival of traditional heavy metal, then traditional doom, and old-school death metal. Now, the crust punk revival is dawning. As with the other retro movements, it is being spear-headed at least in part by long-dormant bands who were underappreciated in their time, but whose legends grew to monolithic proportions.

Amebix, often credited as the first crust punk band, is one of those bands. Twenty-four years after their breakup, they have released the hotly anticipated Sonic Mass. It has gotten some mixed reviews, with many proclaiming it as a contender for the best album of the year, and others dismissing it. It's easy to see why, as it does not strictly adhere to their original formula.

The Atlas Moth: An Ache for the Distance (2011)

Review

An atlas moth is a giant bug from southeast Asia. Its wingspan is nearly a foot. Its coccoon is big enough to be used as a purse. Cool, huh? One would appear to be an absolute beast of a creature, but upon closer inspection they are quite fragile.

Perhaps that's why Chicago's The Atlas Moth have taken it as their moniker. On the surface, this is heavy, doomy sludge, and the blackened rasps on the opening track appear to be frightful and aggressive. But as the album title suggests, there is a longing behind that aggression. Delicate, mournful psychedelic leads play over the sludge, and soon a husky, droning clean voice comes in. There is a lot more than meets the eye.

Scary Halloween Pictures

If you don't believe these pictures are scary, you should try having a 4 year old and 4 month old twins.

Absu: Abzu (2011)

Review

Absu is a Texas blackened thrash metal band that began back in 1990. Lyrically and thematically, their albums are grouped together in distinct cycles based on myth and magic. Abzu is the second album in a planned trilogy.

This is my first experience with the band, but I don't feel like I've missed anything by jumping in midstream. The music is something I can immediately grasp. It sounds like a combination of Skeletonwitch and Melechesh, although to be fair Absu has been around longer than either of them.