Lycus: Tempest (2013)

”Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises” –Shakespeare, The Tempest

Oakland funeral doomsters Lycus released a demo in 2011 that got some fairly positive press (including at Full Metal Attorney). Apparently that was enough to grab the attention of 20 Buck Spin, who released their proper debut full-length yesterday.

Tempest continues the band’s slowed-down version of early Swallow the Sun, blending morose lead guitars and equally hopeless clean vocals with a solid underpinning of steady, heavy riffage. The production is the most remarkably different aspect of the release. Where the demo had a strong, immediate, straight-forward approach, Tempest sounds distant and cloaked in reverb, a style many funeral doom bands tend toward. Just as with their demo, the album has three songs, but here the final product clocks in at 41 minutes instead of 25.

Metal Briefs: Death Metal Quickies

A Quick Death, Part 2

Lately I've found that death metal can be particularly satisfying in small doses, often. So I keep an eye out for short, intense death metal outbursts like some of these.

Bone Sickness: Alone in the Grave (2013)
4 out of 5 stars

Bone Sickness plays some of the filthiest and fastest death metal on the planet, with some of the most unclean solos you'll hear in 2013. In contrast to Acephalix, these guys put crust into a wholly American style of death. Think Autopsy running so fast that pieces of their instruments start flying off in every direction. They do slow things down a little on the title track, but not for long. This is a hell of a ride, and even though it's only an 18 minute full-length, it's genuinely every bit as satisfying as any half-hour.



(Couldn't find an embed for this release, but this demo track should give you a rough idea. The album releases April 30.)

Samothrace: Reverence to Stone (2012)

Don't Look Them Up on Metal Archives

Samothrace is a band that you should never, ever, under any circumstances, look up on Metal Archives. You will not be able to listen to them if you do.

I managed to listen to the band's sophomore album about five times before looking them up, and I formed my opinions about the record before seeing that page. What they play is often described as stoner doom with crust punk influences, which makes me think Electric Wizard and Amebix. But I find that couldn't be much further from the truth. It sounds like Isis interpreted by Swallow the Sun, or in other words, melodic death/doom with post-metal influences. OK, so they're both doom descriptions, but completely different otherwise.

Metal Briefs: Splitsville

Divide and Conquer

When I described the concept of a split to my wife, she was flabbergasted. For the kind of music most people are aware of, it doesn't make any kind of sense. The artist always has some kind of deep pockets backing them, so they don't need to band together with another artist to fund some minor release.

With the increasing affordability of studio time and the ease of web-based distribution, the practical, affordability reasons for split releases have all but disappeared. Yet they are a deeply-ingrained part of the extreme music landscape. The fan cross-pollination and creative collaborations are still staples, and, it must be admitted, there's still a sort of underground cred that goes along with it.

Alaric/Atriarch: Alaric/Atriach Split LP (2012)

Alaric is, apparently, a deathrock band. I've heard the term before, but don't know anything about this particular branch of punk music. Their sound is very bass-oriented, with guitars not too far from those of Negative Plane or Occultation. There's also a strong Pink Floyd vibe here, and I'm calling to mind a few things from the soundtrack to The Crow, where this would have fit nicely. The Alaric side of the split begins mostly in the same vibe, but the psychedelic aspect is diminished, replaced by metal. The balance of the split goes into some seriously awesome doom/post-black metal, so the whole thing is a gradual transition that really works well. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.



Buy the Alaric/Atriarch split

Vastum: Carnal Law (2011)

Review

San Francisco, 1993: A few of guys see Autopsy play, trade bootleg Incantation tapes, and hear a rote description of My Dying Bride's As the Flower Withers (without actually hearing the album itself). They get piss-drunk, buy some time at a studio, and lay down six primitive, raw, doomy death metal tracks. After making and selling a dozen copies, they lose the master tape, and the erstwhile band just sort of fades into nonexistence. There's one guy out on the Internet who heard it once, and swears it's the greatest death metal album ever made, but his copy is stuck in the tape deck of the '89 Civic he wrecked. Eighteen years later, a savvy construction worker with a Possessed tattoo finds a copy while tearing down a condemned apartment building.

OK, I made up that story. But if that were true, it would sound exactly like Vastum's Carnal Law.

Roads to Judah v. Aesthetica

v.
Hipsters have really been getting into black metal these days. I'm not quite sure what the draw is for them, but whatever it may be, they're finding their way into the more forward-thinking side of the genre, bringing far more major chords than we're used to with them. Two bands in particular have drawn my recent attention: Deafheaven and Liturgy.

When you see Deafheaven's band photo on Metal Archives, with the regular-looking guys in V-necks and button-up shirts with skateboards and a Che Guevara poster in the background, your hipster alarm should go off immediately. The cover art to their first full-length, Roads to Judah, isn't helping much either, resembling as it does the art accompanying Final Fantasy VI (formerly III in the US). Nor is the last review of it I read, which called it "extremely hip". I dared it anyway, despite my past bad experiences with post-metal, because what I heard intrigued me.