Summary Judgments, Volume 3

It's not you, it's me.

This is an occasionally-recurring feature wherein I mostly apologize for deficiencies in my own taste. Hey, at least I'm trying. The numbers in parentheses show how much of the record I listened to before calling it quits.

Aluk Todolo: Occult Rock (2012)
(6 out of 8 songs)

Aluk Todolo's Occult Rock has some really cool music on it. Progressive, psychedelic metal that explores elements of many different genres. Generally, just a tour de force or whatever. The problem is, it's a completely instrumental double album. Considering the instrumental part, it's amazing that it's good enough to get me through one disc and halfway through another, but I don't think I want to go any further. If you like instru-metal, though, it's rare to find anything better than this.

Void Paradigm: Void Paradigm (2012)

Hypnotic Dodecatonic

TotalRust sent me the self-titled debut of Void Paradigm quite a while ago. It’s taken me quite a while to fully digest it, because it’s the kind of record that demands that kind of thing. Much like the Austrian deviance that inspired it (more on that later).

Void Paradigm is a part of the ascendant French black metal scene, although in sound they have as much in common with underground California (e.g. Kallathon) as they do with their fellow French. I always get a kick out of made-up genre names, because 99% of the time they don’t make any sense. These guys refer to their style as “hypnotic dodecatonic black metal.” That sounds ridiculous at first blush, but there could be something to it. Picking it apart might let me explain their music to you.

Ysengrin: To Endotaton (2012)

A Huge Shift

A year ago, I reviewed Tragedies – Liber Hermetis, the second album from the French band Ysengrin. It was fairly unremarkable death/doom with some blackened influence, but had such excellent production that it was well worth listening anyway. Their new record doesn’t even sound like the work of the same band, despite the fact they’ve had no lineup changes.

To Endotaton is not produced nearly as well, though it’s by no means a poor job. This time, it's the production that's unremarkable. The music, on the other hand, is much more interesting. Instead of death/doom, this time around it’s mostly a dark sort of heavy/doom metal, with some very cool heavy metal riffs. The vocals are still death growls, with the occasional spoken/chanted piece (mixed a bit too loud). There are other things at play here, such as the keyboard which sounds as if it were manned partly by King Diamond and partly by John Carpenter, some bluesy guitar noodling in one part, and the black/Viking metal section at the end.

Stagnant Waters: Stagnant Waters (2012)

Massive Steel Asylum for Self-Aware Robots

Guest review by Patrick, proprietor of Beards, Etc.

Stagnant Waters are apparently of mixed French and Norwegian origin, and this month will see the release of their self-titled debut album. I'm not totally sure how to classify their style, but I think the closest label would be something like avant-garde industrial metal.

First and foremost, this band has three outstanding qualities. They are extremely creative, extremely energetic, and extremely diverse. The group employs an enormous amount of electronic sampling and distortion throughout the record, with sounds ranging from outright aural assaults of pure noise to quiet and spooky passages of mellow background sounds to squawking saxophone pieces. Sometimes this record is loud and aggressive beyond measure, other times it's remarkably soft. Throughout it all everything is very alien, impersonal, mechanical, and slightly unnerving. The vocals which crop up are heavily processed and distorted, as are the bulk of the instruments, so that when something makes it through the mix untouched by electronic interference the very organic nature of its existence is a shock to the senses, like a vine growing up through a crack in the floor of a massive steel asylum for self-aware robots.

Eryn Non Dae: Meliora (2012)

Improved, Against All Odds

Hydra Lernaia, the debut full-length of France’s Eryn Non Dae, made my list of the best metal albums of the last decade. A year later, I set out to write a complete review of the record, because there are so few out there, and what’s out there is usually misguided.

It’s easy to be misguided about these guys. They were clearly ahead of their time in 2009. Three years later, they’ve finally blessed us with a follow-up. Meliora is an incredibly difficult-to-define, love-it-or-hate-it experience. I will do my best to describe this music, but you should be aware that the description and list of influences do not adequately capture how they really sound. You must hear it for yourself.

Metal Briefs: Candlelight Cult Series

OK, So It's Cult, but Is It Kvlt?

Candlelight is of course one of the best-known metal labels out there, but they don't strictly release the bigger names. The label's "cult series" celebrates lesser-known musical acts that the label apparently thinks are worth your time and money. Are they?

Khors: Wisdom of Centuries (2012)
3.5 out of 5 stars

Khors is a Ukrainian melodic black metal outfit who know how to write a memorable song that's simultaneously sad and angry. They use keyboards in such a way that they add to the atmosphere without drawing too much attention to themselves. The riffs are excellent (especially on "The Last Leaves"), the sound is great, the drums are very interesting. But there are some drawbacks to Wisdom of Centuries. Between the instrumentals and the other pensive musical passages, there's nearly as much time without distortion as there is with, and they are so much better with. Although they flirt with doom (the title track) and certainly aren't playing the same thing the whole time, the record really only has one mood that it explores. It's dynamic mostly in the sense of an on/off switch, without many layers. Still, check those riffs. Nice.



Buy Wisdom of Centuries

Gojira: L'Enfant Sauvage (2012)

No Oroborus

Gojira is one of the most iconic metal bands of today. They have an instantly identifiable style, and a strong ecological message that may be entirely unique in the genre. They also write some excellent music that pleases a wide swath of fans, leading to a rare combination of both mainstream and underground appeal. While they aren't universally beloved, few bands come close.

They have this annoying tendency to take years between releases. They blew a lot of people away with 2005's From Mars to Sirius. It wasn't until 2008 that they released one of my favorite albums of that year, The Way of All Flesh. It was well worth the wait. They made us wait another four years before releasing L'Enfant Sauvage. Was it also worth it?

Chaos Dei: Arising from Chaos (2012)

Chaos Dei Falls on a Wednesday This Year

Chaos Dei is a French black metal band whose debut Arising from Chaos was released in January. This is the second out of three albums submitted to me by Totalrust.

Right now, I think it's safe to say that the French are leading the black metal pack. They tend to be just as avant-garde and experimental as the more lauded US bands, but without losing the viciousness of Scandinavian black metal. The French black metal scene also has the distinction of having plenty of bands that don't sound like one another. The scene doesn't have a sound, per se, but certain principles and unifying themes. Chaos Dei fits those expectations perfectly well.

Glorior Belli: The Great Southern Darkness (2011)

Review

There have been many stories of musicians who sold their souls to the devil to gain fame or mastery of their craft. Italian violinists Giuseppe Tartini and Niccolò Paganini were said to have done so as far back as the 18th and 19th centuries, respectively. But the concept is more famously associated with blues musicians who met the devil at the crossroads, such as Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson. Perhaps this has something to do with the popular idea that Satan was the one who invented music, or because the establishment wanted to villify music that frightened them. But in any case the archetype is ubiquitous. The concept was parodied by Metalocalypse and Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, and even referenced in the title to Black Sabbath's greatest hits compilation.

Perhaps naturally, metal grew out of the blues, with Sabbath beginning in the blues tradition. But somewhere along the line the older genre was excised, perhaps by Judas Priest. Glorior Belli have brought it back.

Ysengrin: Tragedies - Liber Hermetis (2011)

Review

Have you ever listened to an album a few times on a stereo or in your car, and been underwhelmed--but then you listened to it on headphones and got blown away?

Tragedies - Liber Hermetis is French band Ysengrin's second full-length after forming in 2005. Their sound is death/doom (death growl vocals and an overall death sound at doom pace) with some black metal elements, including an occasional black metal rasp and a blackened guitar tone. They also use perfectly restrained synths for atmosphere. Setting them apart from the crowd are lyrics entirely in French and a healthy focus on the bass.

Aosoth: III (2011)

Review

Norwegian black metal is one of two things: stuck in the past, or abandoning its black metal roots entirely. For thriving black metal scenes in 2011, you need to look to the US and France.

Aosoth is a perfect example of why the French black metal scene is on top. They are clearly rooted in black metal's mood and raw, simple approach, but they've let it evolve. III is far heavier than Norwegian fare, and much scarier than anything to come out of the frozen North in several years.

Some nitpickers may say the approach favored by Aosoth (and countrymen Celeste) is too hardcore-influenced, with its dissonant, atmospheric qualities. As far as I'm concerned, they can keep their rehashed-from-1995 generic stuff, because this is the state of black metal in 2011.

Eryn Non Dae: Hydra Lernaia (2009)

Review

Eryn Non Dae's debut album Hydra Lernaia (from the ever-reliable Metal Blade) has only one review on Metal Archives, and it's a scathing review offering only a 20% rating. But I named it as one of my top albums of 2009, so clearly I do not agree. Since I only wrote a short blurb before, I thought I'd write a proper review to set the record straight on this excellent release.

END is a French outfit that formed in 2001. Their sound is extremely difficult to categorize; Metal Archives says it's groove metal / power metal / hardcore. I have no idea where the power metal part comes from. The last time I discussed the album, I called them progressive post-deathcore (as ridiculous as it sounds). Perhaps avant-garde groove/deathcore would be a more apt description.

I say deathcore in this context in the same way you might call Portal death metal. It's not really right, but it's the best way to get the point across. The songs are mostly composed of melodies with a lot of negative space, and breakdowns. I've mentioned before that I think breakdowns are usually boring. But these are good breakdowns, counterintuitive in the same way as Meshuggah's material, and therefore interesting. Other similarities to Meshuggah are obvious: wierd, off-kilter time signatures, minimalist guitar leads, and mellow sections as eerie as "Acrid Placidity". But there are also similarities to other French bands, like Bloody Sign, in the extensive use of post-hardcore dissonance.

Somehow, despite the oddity of the time signatures, it all grooves, and there is a clear emotional quality to the music (check the slow, eerie "The Decline and the Fall"). The atmosphere created is eerie and harsh, and heavy as hell. The song structures bear the mark of post-metal's gradual evolution, ranging from ominous to seething with rage within a single song. The vocals are done in a death/thrash/hardcore hybrid style similar to Meshuggah's Jens Kidman and Gojira's Joe Duplantier, but spoken word is also used at times. The bass is prominent in the mix, providing the backbone to their sound, and the drums are simple or chaotic, as appropriate.

I'll try to sum up their sound as succinctly as possible: Whitechapel, plus Bloody Sign, divided by Meshuggah. It has all the heaviness and brutality of deathcore (without the idiot paint-by-numbers approach of most bands in the genre), the dangerous rage of post-hardcore inflected death metal, and the intelligence and inexplicable groove of the famous Swedes. Highlights include opener "When Time Elapses", "Existence Asleep", and especially closer "Pure".



The Verdict: It's unique, and it's excellent, but it's challenging. I recommend it for fans of anything experimental, and particularly to people who love Meshuggah but hate the current djent scene. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Deathspell Omega: Paracletus (2010)

Review

Deathspell Omega is a French avant-garde black metal band that's been around for a decade. Their fifth full-length, Paracletus, is a bit of a strange listen for me, but I kept giving it more chances because of the nearly-universal praise heaped on the album. The first time I listened to it, I had no idea what to think about it. The second time, I hated it. I gave it another shot anyway, and the third time I started to think they might be onto something. And now, after about six listens, I realize they may be onto something, but they haven't quite got a handle on it themselves.

Most of the album is high-speed, repetitive, dissonant guitar riffs played over blast beats. In fact, the blast beats don't let up from the start until more than 4 minutes into the third song. The vocals are all over the black metal map, including spoken word, rasps, growls, and pained screams. The guitars have a relatively clean tone, and the drums sound just fine (except on "Abscission", where some of them get blown out). The bass has an excellent, very enjoyable tone which contrasts nicely with the high-pitched dissonance of the guitars.

When they play at high speeds, it just sounds like controlled chaos. Sure, they play tighter than an (insert vulgar joke here), but when all you have are dissonant riffs--without anything to ground them--then it doesn't make any sense.

When they finally slow things down (which happens a few times on the album, such as on "Dearth"), you can actually notice the bass and its excellent contrast with the guitars. The fast parts somehow seem to work on "Phosphene", but that track has slower bass-heavy parts, and the guitars actually play tonal chords every now and then. So, it seems what they're doing just needs some kind of anchor to hold it down, and most of the time they neglected to provide that grounding. The "Epiklesis" trilogy (rounded out by album closer "Apokatastasis Pantôn") works well enough, but "Malconfort" is just plain annoying, and by the time "Have You Beheld the Fevers?" comes around, the whole approach is just tiresome.

I love crazy music like Portal and Mitochondrion, but this doesn't do it for me.

The Verdict: There are moments of near-genius here, but no more than fleeting glimpses. Most of it fails simply because there's nothing to ground the dissonance, and it just comes off sounding like well-orchestrated noise. I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

Bloody Sign: Chaos Echoes (2010)

Review

I discovered Bloody Sign by way of a list of the top 10 old-school death metal albums of 2010 over at Invisible Oranges. They were a French blackened death metal band begun in 1995, and Chaos Echoes is their third album.

They play a style that seems to be a blend of New York death metal (e.g. Incantation) and French hardcore-inflected black metal (e.g. Celeste). The drummer, in fact, played for Incantation. As in NYDM, the tempos change up often within a single song, or even within a single riff. As in French HC/BM (or blackcore, as I'm choosing to call it), the guitars often go into dissonant territory or simply make guitar noises for effect. The result is like Behemoth if they had a much broader sonic palette but less dominant technical skills. The vocals are less commanding than Nergal's, but in the same style.

The album starts with an intro, and ends on an outro (which is a backmasked version of the intro). Each instrument gets its due on its own solo track, as well as in the songs. The bass is very prominent, and becomes moreso during the guitar solos. The songs and many of the riffs are memorable, from the hard-driving "For the Unknown" to the epic "The Call". The only serious misstep is the ill-advised punk-style backup vocals on "Words of Death". "Tongues of Shadows" is the album standout: It's seriously frightening, with tempo and riff changes fitting together perfectly, and atmosphere provided not only by guitar noises, but by some clean singing that reminds me of those Islamic prayers.

The production is well worth mentioning as well. As I noted, you can hear the bass throughout the album. The drums also sound like drums, and the whole recording has a natural sound that's clear, but not over-polished.



The Verdict: This is a very interesting death metal release, and just one more piece of evidence that the French metal scene is on the verge of exploding. It's only too bad this band broke up. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.