Atriarch: An Unending Pathway (2014)

Succession

The last time I talked about Atriarch, I focused on how they combine doom with punk’s equivalent of doom, deathrock. I said they were like a cross between My Dying Bride and Christian Death. But the more I listened to An Unending Pathway, the more I realized they are true spiritual successors to My Dying Bride.

I don’t have a handle on how well-regarded MDB are in general. Their name doesn’t seem to come up a lot. But to me they’re important, as they were one of the first bands that really struck a chord with me as I was getting into underground metal. And their prominent gothic influences, it would seem, were well ahead of their time.* That time is now, and the torch is passed to Atriarch.

Dead Tank Briefs

Eclecticism

Dead Tank Records is a small label that's hitting my eclecticism in a lot of the right places right now. It looks like they specialize in vinyl and cassette, but you can hit them up on a pay-what-you-want for most (all?) of their releases. Three cases in point:

Thou: Ceremonies of Humiliation (2014)
3.5 out of 5 stars

People seem to lose their shit over Thou. I don't, so much, but I appreciate their raspy-voiced slow-burn sludge well enough. This release collects all of their extensive contributions to splits from prior to Summit on 3xLP.

Beastmilk: Climax (2013)

The Kvohst with the Most

I’ve never even listened to his black metal releases with Code, but over the past few years I’ve become a fan of Kvohst. First his psych-folk band Hexvessel intrigued me. Then his deathrock band Beastmilk intrigued me. Then Hexvessel blew me away. And now it’s Beastmilk’s turn to see what it can do.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t know a lot about deathrock. My main touchstone for this style is a song or two off the soundtrack to The Crow--not the Stone Temple Pilots and Pantera that sold the record, but the moodier, gothy stuff that set the mood for the film. However, that’s only a superficially useful comparison.

Välikäsi v. Come

What?

v.
Anyone who knows punk music well would probably find this matchup untenable. Philadelphia's Psychic Teens have nothing at all to do with Finland's Sokea Piste (I believe their name means piss-soaked). But I know so little about punk that this is perfect.

First, Sokea Piste. Välikäsi has been sitting on my iPod since March, and I've listened to it occasionally several times since then, each time coming away with almost nothing to say about it. I just don't know how to talk about punk music. It's catchy hardcore, with a raw production. It has some gang vocals, but not to an offensive degree. It also has a psychedelic side, and just a hint of deathrock (note the title track). It's good stuff, and much more intelligent than the tough-guy stuff that I know is an unfair stereotype of the genre.

Atriarch: Ritual of Passing (2012)

In Which I Use the Word “Enema”

I was first introduced to deathrock by the Alaric/Atriarch split from earlier this year, and since then I’ve picked up a handful more in an effort to educate myself. Atriarch is just one of the bands bleeding the 30-year-old deathrock subgenre into the 40-year-old doom metal subgenre, making something that sounds fresh in the process. Why it took so long to combine doom with the punk equivalent of doom is a mystery, but the fact that it works so well is no surprise.

Ritual of Passing begins on a slow build that could be from just about any of the darker forms of metal, but when it breaks into the main riff it sounds much more like a deathrock riff played with metal-level distortion and amplification. The lyrical cadence and delivery are typical deathrock, until he twists it into a scream. At the end of the song, it turns into a black metal blast and screech. It’s a nice touch, and it suitably sets expectations for the album.

Punk Briefs: 1980's

I have slowly been dipping my toes into the waters of classic punk, only in those parts of the pool where the names have been dropped in metal circles.

Some may protest at my decision to boil down a significant portion of the history of such a vast genre to three short reviews of three albums, while I did a series of posts on every year of death metal from 1990 through 1994. That's fair. But this is a metal blog, and I'm not going to dig that deep into punk.

Killing Joke: Night Time (1985)
4.5 out of 5 stars

To say that Killing Joke has influenced every important rock band of the last few decades would only be hyperbole in the strictest meaning of the word. They’ve made themselves timeless in that way. In another way, 1985's Night Time is clearly a product of its time. Take the music of any early MTV band with polygonal electric drums and maybe a keytar and you'll be well on your way to getting this sound. That time capsule feeling is punctuated by album closer "Eighties" (later ripped off by Nirvana). But they gave that 80's sound an edge, with often dissonant post-punk guitars and occasional growls. And it's catchy as hell.

Punk Briefs: 2012

Do You Feel Lucky?

While it's obvious that punk has influenced metal a great deal, it's still surprising to me how much overlap there can be in the spheres of fandom, press, and PR. Southern Lord is playing a big part in that right now, as Tuesday's review of Xibalba is only the latest of their hardcore releases covered here.

I never listened to punk as a teen, and up until recently my entire punk repertoire consisted of the Misfits and Samhain. But as PR companies and labels have been making them available to me, I've given punk a chance. It's still pretty rare that I'll find something that I really like, but it's out there.

Beastmilk: Use Your Deluge 7" (2012)
4 out of 5 stars

After Pinkish Black and Alaric piqued my interest in deathrock, I happened across a promo for Finland’s Beastmilk. A cow is, by definition, a beast, so I guess they just really like regular milk. The promo materials make reference to Christian Death, whom Josh Haun identified as the source of deathrock. I still haven't listened to them yet. What I hear is a more gothic version of 80's Killing Joke. Then again, the more I listen to 80's Killing Joke, the more I hear their influence everywhere. Slow, heavy bass lines undergird quasi-metallic guitars in post-punk beats, with gothic clean singing in 80's New Wave style hooks over the top. In fact, the 80's figure pretty largely in Beastmilk's universe, as their songs make a lot of reference to atom bombs and Russia. I mean, who sings about Russia anymore, more than two decades after the end of the Cold War? Anyway, I really like it.

Pinkish Black: Pinkish Black (2012)

Deathrock, I Guess?

A lot of different things led me to check out Pinkish Black's self-titled debut. I've had a renewed interest in the areas where punk and metal overlap--specifically Killing Joke, Samhain, Amebix. The Alaric/Atriarch split introduced me to the sound of deathrock. And the record is on Handmade Birds, a label that gets a lot of underground attention for its adventurousness, but which I've sadly neglected.

I am definitely not disappointed. From the two deathrock bands I've heard, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it sounds like the goth/punk equivalent of doom metal. But this band's sound has been categorized a lot of different ways, including krautrock, doom metal, avant-garde, and many more.

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