Thou: Summit (2010)

Review

Thou is a sludge/doom band that's been making some year-end best-of lists in the metal world, so I decided to check out Summit.

After hearing it, I'm not quite sure why they've gotten so much attention. This is not to say that it's bad, in any way. They have a very heavy, warm sludge sound, and their vocalist has a raspy screech that could almost work for a black metal band. They play some good, simple riffs at a slow pace. They seem to know when to let a note ring out in the amplifier, and they're not afraid to throw in some dissonance here and there.

But with the recent rise of sludge/doom, nothing about this makes Thou seem special. None of the riffs are going to stick with you long after you finish the album, and honestly the songs tend to run together. The drumming didn't stick out enough for me to even notice it. None of the riffs or songs are bad either, but when the songs range from 8 to 11 minutes, you might hope for a little more variety.

The big exception to this is album closer "Voices in the Wilderness", which does have memorable riffs, includes more feedback, and has some acoustic sounds and clean vocal harmony near the end, making it memorable.

Those who praise the album tend to focus on other tracks, though. Maybe I just don't get it? Or maybe this is one that's supposed to grow on you? I'm not sure. But with all the great sludge/doom out there lately (Salome, Unearthly Trance, and Cough come immediately to mind) this doesn't really have all that much to recommend it.

The Verdict: Nothing about Summit is bad. In fact, the guitars have a great vibe and the vocals are good. But it doesn't seem to stick with you for long after you hear it. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Obscure Bands: Asmodi

Asmodi is an unsigned black metal band (with a pagan bent) from Germany. I can't remember exactly how I ran across them, but I suspect they were played on some podcast or other. Their web site is where you can download some free music. That includes their entire 2006 demo, Schattenwald.

Their sound is fairly typical for music of this genre, particularly from mainland Europe: Tremolo picked guitar riffs with mostly minimal melody, fast drumming, more or less inaudible bass, and a typical black metal rasp. There is also some folk influence, which is most obvious on the all-acoustic "Prolog" and "Epilog".

I say it's typical, which it is, but it's high quality. The production, first of all, does not sound like "bedroom" black metal. They are a five-piece, not a one-man band. Being a five-piece also allows them a little more latitude to include guitar melodies, making the title track and "Herbstblut" actually memorable.



They have a 2009 full-length as well, which you can buy on their web site. They've made one track ("Leben") available free on their web site, and it's a VAST improvement. Again, it's fairly typical, but much better written and produced, and definitely worth checking out.

They also have a Myspace page, but I try to avoid going to those whenever I can. In any case, the demo is good enough to be worth your time checking out, especially considering it's free. And if you like it, you might also buy their full-length.

Salome: Terminal (2010)

Review

It seems I'm still on my big doom metal kick. Today, let's talk about Virginia sludge/doom metallers Salome.

Salome is a band which writes their sludge/doom with a very minimalistic approach. Simplicity is, of course, a hallmark of all doom metal, but they take it to extremes. The riffs are just about as heavy as anything else out there (perhaps even the equal of Electric Wizard), and generally as slow as anything but funeral doom (although they go funereal a la Corrupted on "Epidemic"). The drums, too, are simple and slow, but the beat is kept perfectly, something that's more difficult to do at a slow tempo. The vocals are both strained screeches, provided by Katherine Katz, and very deep, slow death growls (I think those are from guitarist Rob Moore CORRECTION: Katherine Katz has informed me she does ALL the vocals--those are crazy low for a woman to be doing!); sometimes both vocal styles are present at the same time. There is no bass.

It sounds like it should be too simple to work, but for their absolute mastery of dynamics. They have a completely organic, unprocessed sound. It's incredibly sludgy, and they always make room for feedback to ring out, sometimes accompanied by sound effects. In fact, the 17 minute "An Accident of History" is driven almost entirely by feedback, with a few notes barely creeping into the song well after the five minute mark.

There are brief sections of faster tempo and the occasional guitar lead (see "Master Failure"), but mostly, this is sparse riffing and screeching. And every second of it is worth listening to. No matter how many times they play a riff, it sounds different each and every time.



The Verdict: Somehow Salome manage to make listening to feedback enjoyable, even to someone completely sober. Maybe it's because the riffs are worth waiting for, or maybe it's because they know how to manipulate the feedback in interesting ways. Maybe both. I recommend listening to it on some headphones with killer bass (might I suggest the Sony MDR XB-500). I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Metal Briefs: Drone Doom

After noting the huge differences between two of the most well-known drone doom bands, Nadja and Sunn O))), I decided to take a larger sample of the genre so I can understand what it's all about.

Switchblade: Switchblade (2006)

Sweden's Switchblade has a habit of simply naming their full-length albums Switchblade, without bothering to differentiate them by number (similarly, their song titles are just the song's length). Although it seems this is their fourth full-length, this album has been identified as Switchblade III by some people. Go figure. Their sound is sludge/drone doom, so you might be surprised Watain's E provide guest vocals. Each of its two songs are deceptively simple explorations of what is, in essence, a single riff, but somehow they manage to build atmosphere around it without layering electronics all over the place. The first song, "19:30", is OK, but nothing really special. It's followed by a long ambient interlude, and then the excellent "16:45", which slowly builds intensity not unlike good post-metal. On balance, it's tough to judge when the first 2/3 of the album is OK and the final 1/3 is great, but I give the album 3 out of 5 stars. As I write this, Amazon has a copy for less than a buck, so click the picture if you're interested.

Kodiak: Kodiak (2009)

If you only get one drone doom album, ever, this should be the one. First, because it's really good, and second, because it's free from the ever-generous Denovali label. Germany's Kodiak combines drone with funeral doom, a combination which doesn't exactly make for accessible music. These songs develop so slowly it makes Neurosis look like Napalm Death. Like Switchblade, Kodiak has two songs with functional titles: "Beginning" (the sad one) and "End" (the ominous one). Both hover around 20 minutes in length. "Beginning" is slightly stronger, starting with strings (cello, I believe) and thriving on a great atonal riff, leading up to some killer lead guitar work at the end. "End" is less tied to riff-based structure and focuses more on atmosphere. Both tracks are heavy, and create a powerful mood despite minimal (non-existent?) vocals and simple arrangements. This is a very good album, and I give it 4 out of 5 stars. My only criticism is the songs build to a conclusion too predictably, and could stand to have more highs and lows, or highs in some place other than the end of the song.

Khanate: Khanate (2001)

Khanate was on Southern Lord, a label known for doom in general and drone doom in particular. This, their debut album, seems a little disjointed. The first track has a lot of screechy feedback and moves much faster than the rest of the album. It sounds a bit like a slow-motion Coalesce. The second (a highlight of the album) also moves a bit faster and has much more going on than your typical drone. But by the third track, it sounds much more like then-labelmates Sunn O))), although you can still hear a hardcore touch to the music (particularly in the vocals). Call it dronecore, if you wish. The resemblance to Sunn O))) is most pronounced on the 18 minute "Under Rotting Sky", with its sustained notes and distant screams, but the band shines most on closer "No Joy", which is built on an excellent riff. I give Khanate 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Castevet: Mounds of Ash

Review

Castevet is a hardcore/post-hardcore influenced black metal band from New York whose debut Mounds of Ash has been getting noticed by a lot of people.

Though they're on the west end of the Atlantic, they have a very similar sound to French bands like Celeste, or Deathspell Omega if the latter weren't so frustratingly spastic.

The guitars play mostly tremolo riffs, and they understand the technique well enough to create melody out of it. Many of the chords are dissonant, in true post-hardcore fashion. Drums are generally fast, but not relentless enough to be considered true blast beats. The bass is perfectly prominent in the mix, and tends to go at a much slower pace than the rest of the instruments. The vocals sound like I imagine Aaron Turner would if he were hoarse. And they throw in some horns on instrumental "Wreathed in Smoke".

Despite the mathcore leanings evidenced by many of their dissonant counterpoints and abrupt changes in rhythm (especially on "Stones"), the songs seem to progress naturally and eventually, and they put equal emphasis on melody and atmosphere. In a way, Castevet is doing to black metal what Neurosis did to sludge metal. You might say bands like Alcest already made post-black metal, but in the process they made it too pretty, and took too much of the metal out of it. Castevet has no problem with that. Yeah, it's arty, but it's also viscerally satisfying.

The Verdict: Yeah, this is good--maybe not quite up to some of the hype, but given that this is a debut, it's extremely impressive, solidifying Profound Lore's reputation as a premier record label. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

My Silent Wake: IV Et Lux Perpetua (2010)

Review

A couple months ago, I discussed the English semi-Christian gothic death/doom band My Silent Wake and their 2008 record A Garland of Tears. After hearing their new album IV Et Lux Perpetua, you could believe they took my criticism to heart.

Compared to their previous effort, they sound less like a clone of My Dying Bride and more like a unique entity. The clean vocals no longer ape Aaron Stainthorpe, but instead go for a more natural and less voiced approach. And the death growls (which I praised) are used far more often than the clean.

As the album progresses, it seems to start more clearly in their MDB-style roots and branch out from there. Indeed, opener "Et Lux Perpetua" sounds a great deal like "The Fever Sea". But they quickly diversify, including some tremolo riffing on "Death Becomes Us". The standout track, "Bleak Endless Winter", incorporates both organ (for drama) and some Middle Eastern-inflected leads.

From there, the album loses some of its focus as they incorporate the psychedelic elements barely touched on in their previous album. "Father" has a trance-inducing clean melody over the heavy riff, and on the next few tracks they start to sound more like Cathedral than MDB. While I applaud their exploration, it seems they would have been better served to put a little bit of psychedelia throughout the album for added consistency. And "Between Wake and Sleep" is far too bouncy to fit the mood. Closer "Journey's End" has an entirely new vocal technique, a nasal stoner style similar to Lord Vicar (or Mastodon, for a better-known analogy). It's a nice touch, but why not use this style for all of the album's clean vocals?

This sounds like a lot of criticism, but really there's nothing on here that doesn't work, aside from "My Silent Wake" being forgettable. It just hasn't been made to fit together as well as it should. (And hell, at least they didn't throw in a folk track out of nowhere.) These guys know how to write a riff, they know how to create atmosphere, and they know how to write a song that builds to a satisfying crescendo.

The Verdict IV Et Lux Perpetua is a clear improvement over A Garland of Tears, and is filled with great songs, but still suffers from lack of focus. It's one of the best Christian metal albums of the year. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Obscure Bands: Disfigure the Insane

Disfigure the Insane is/was a Scottish death metal band started earlier this year by two blokes and a drum machine. (They are called blokes in Scotland, right? Or is that just an English thing?) I like the name--I mean, if you're going to disfigure someone, why not a crazy person? No one's going to believe their version of the truth.

I was approached on Metal Archives by one of the band members to review their only release, Ouroboros. As I was getting ready to write this review, I saw autothrall had already written one, said just about everything I was planning to say, and gave it the same rating I was planning to give it. So, I'll have to think of a different way to say it.

Their Myspace page makes clear that they want extreme metal to go back to a simpler time, before crazy time signatures and other oddities that have creeped into the genre. Their music is mostly simple, old-school death metal, in the style of Morbid Angel but with the intentional campiness of Cannibal Corpse. At times it even makes me think of Dethklok--during the intro to the title track, I half-expected to hear, "Do you folks like coffee?"



The album starts on a throwaway noise/sample track, and goes into some pretty good death metal for the next couple tracks. "This Disconnection" is the first misstep along the way, as the generic-sounding death/black vocals force themselves into the forefront. The rhythm section they play behind the solo at the end is really cool, though. Follow-up "Kentucky Fried Children" is completely generic and intentionally dumb (he literally says "KFC" several times).

After that, they quickly redeem themselves with two standout tracks, "The Messiah's Whore" (featuring a highly memorable verse and great solo) and "Ouroboros" (with a blackened touch to the death). Sadly, the album doesn't go out quite as strong, with three forgettable but passable tracks (the vocals distract again on "Disfigured, the Insane").

All told, it's a half-hour of simple, old-school death metal played by guys who clearly love the genre's basics. It's a lot of fun, and I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Horseback: The Invisible Mountain (2009)

Horseback's The Invisible Mountain has made some end-of-the-year lists as a release to watch for (which is puzzling since it actually came out in 2009, but was re-released in 2010), and it sounded interesting to me. So, I checked it out.

It's probably a stretch to call this psychedelic black metal. It's psychedelic enough, but very light on the metal. The vocals do sound like a God-damned nightmare whispering unintelligible atrocities in your ear (seriously, they are scary) but harsh vocals alone don't make it metal.

The music on the first three (of four) tracks follows generally the same pattern: a distorted guitar riff, bass riff, and understated drums are buried in the background, while a clean psychedelic-sounding riff is in the foreground. Each of these songs, about seven minutes each, is built on this one riff combination repeated over and over. At times there may be electric organ buried deep in the mix, and there are a couple simple psyched-out solos.

Sounds like boring crap, suitable only for stoners, right? For some reason I can't explain, it works anyway. It is interesting. That is, up until the last track. Clocking in at over 16 minutes in length, it does away with distortion almost entirely, and goes very minimal, with some weird sounds coming in later on. It's a complete throwaway track, but I suppose it's designed for people coming down off of whatever.



The Verdict: This drug-fest is actually interesting, for about 21 minutes, and would have been an excellent EP. But it's a full-length, and as a full-length it earns 3 out of 5 stars.

Metal Briefs: First Wave Black Metal

When most people think of the origins of black metal, they probably think of the so-called second wave bands, mostly out of Norway (Gorgoroth, Darkthrone, Immortal, etc.). Fewer take the time to consider the bands that formed the genre in the first place.

That's probably because the first wave is so confusingly ill-defined. Most of the bands cited as first wave black metal bands aren't really black metal at all: Venom, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate, Sodom, etc. But there are a few true black metal bands that made the scene before the second wave arrived.

Bathory: Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)

Sweden's Bathory is widely considered to be the first true black metal band. Their third album, Under the Sign of the Black Mark, still showed some evidence of the thrash/proto-black metal stylings of Venom ("13 Candles", "Woman of Dark Desires"), but in many places it was easy to see that this was something truly different. The tremolo-picked riffs and shrillness of "Equimanthorn" or "Chariots of Fire" are exactly what early black metal was about. Bathory also showed the style could be epic on "Enter the Eternal Fire". The album does have some serious missteps ("Call from the Grave" has a corny lead and "13 Candles" isn't really that great), but it also has some truly excellent moments, and its influence can't be denied--especially considering nearly every black metal album to this day has an intro. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Black Metal in Communist States

For whatever reason, many early black metal bands came from behind the Iron Curtain. You could write a doctoral dissertation on that observation in any number of fields. The next two bands are examples of the phenomenon.

Master's Hammer: Ritual (1991)

I decided to check out Master's Hammer after reading a post by Metallattorney. Formed in 1987 in former Czechoslovakia, they were one of many Eastern European bands in the first wave of black metal. Ritual is the band's first true album, after a series of five demos beginning in 1987. This debut has a sound similar to Bathory's epic black metal feel, but the influence from Mercyful Fate is undeniable as well. The vocals are extremely pained and awesome, and all lyrics are in Czech, so that's cool too. If you dropped the synths, this would sound surprisingly like the kings of the third wave, Watain. The songwriting and performances are superb, but the production is a bit uneven (especially the clean vocals on "Geniové"), so I give Ritual 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Tormentor: Anno Domini (1988)

Tormentor was a band from Hungary, and you may know vocalist Attila Csihar from his work with Mayhem, Keep of Kalessin, Aborym, and Sunn O))) (among others). But Tormentor was his introduction to the world, and on Anno Domini they sound like black metal via Teutonic thrash (Kreator was originally called Tormentor). At times, they do the atmospheric keyboard thing for a more epic feel ("Elisabeth Bathory" or "Beyond") but most of the time this is straightforward black metal. And it's easily recognizable as such, although at times the solos are a bit more Maiden-esque--a positive touch, in my opinion. The production sounds awful, with the volume and balance randomly shifting and some parts just blown out from being too loud (although it was remastered later on), but despite that you can hear all the instruments throughout the album. The highlight of the album is "Tormentor I", which has an incredible riff to drive it forward. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.