Away for a few days...

I probably should have made a note of this on Tuesday morning, but since I didn't I just wanted to mention that I've been away from my CD collection the past couple of days and probably wont be back home to them until later today. Even so, I wont have any time to update and I've got a concert tomorrow. So expect some new stuff on Saturday and then the usual posting will continue from there on. Sorry for this delay. Over and out.

Homselvareg - Homselvareg (2008)

Considering this re-release of Homselvareg's debut self-titled/self-released album was described by ATMF as a mix of early Ulver, Enslaved and Windir my expectations were very high before even placing it into my PC. Having listened to it a few times now I honestly can't say if this actually sounds like those elite artists early recordings, but I can definitely see the influence these bands had on Homselvareg.

This five piece Italian band essentially offers up speedy black metal with plenty of melody and lots of interesting acoustic sections. The music generally is of the faster variety although some slower almost doomy parts can be found as well even some progressive like elements. As you can also see from the track listing the songs are broken up into seven separate chapters (like Ulver's Bergtatt), while the remaining three songs are from an early demo made available on this re-release. I'd imagine also like Ulver's early work that perhaps some story is being told through this album, but all of the lyrics are all in Italian. As for Plague's vocals, well they are a fairly normal black metal scream, but it works well enough with the music presented. The production of the album is somewhat raw in character although the overall volume is loud and all the instruments are mostly easily heard.

Not a whole lot to complain about on this release as I think Homselvareg has delivered a pleasing and a unfortunately originally overlooked album. Perhaps this re-release will open some doors and gear us listeners up for the bands sophomore release, which I do hope is on the horizon.

Empty - The Last Breath Of My Mortal Despair (2007)

Considering this is the second re-release of this Spanish bands sophomore album, 'The Last Breath Of My Mortal Despair' I suppose I had my expectations set high for this release. Well, not exactly. Personally I never even heard of the band until receiving the promo of this album, but before actually playing the album I did my research and formed some hopes for a decent recording. Hopes partially met, I suppose.

Empty is tricky to describe. It seems their music lies within a speedy to mid-paced style of black metal with some slower moments and a decent amount of dark atmosphere to keep things interesting. The band themselves seem to describe their music as depressive black metal, but this is certainly much better than Xasthur, Leviathan, Wedard and other similarly horrendous bands that are greatly overrated. The guitars generally don't offer up much in the melodic variety except during the slower moments and the drums are mostly very brutal, yet the vocals are diverse and certainly don't stick to one single style as way to many black metal bands like to do. No keyboards are used, but the music retains a highly atmospheric touch to it, which is key in black metal music.

Still even as this album holds some positive qualities there really isn't any single song that stands out among the seven, yet I suppose some albums are just better to listen to as a whole anyway. An interesting album that's worth throwing on here and there, but certainly not one that's destined to become and all-time favorite.

Halo Manash - SYoMA (2004)

”All of the material on this recording is dedicated to and inspired by the dynamic subconscious force which gave impulse to visions relating to auto-cannibalism and metempsychosis.”

Halo Manash is the creative force of Anti Ittna H. and Iwo Hoccuc from Finland who released their first album in 2003. Here on their third album ‘SYoMa’ the music of Halo Manash could probably best be described as ambient/experimental music. I’ve been a fan of this sort of music for numerous years now and within this time I’ve heard some great releases and I’ve heard some bad releases. If SYoMA is any indication I’d say this is one of the greatest releases I have ever heard. Unlike most artists in this field Halo Manash is a nice mixture of both electronic and acoustic instruments resulting in a very original sound. Anticipate spooky voices, tribal-ish percussion, slow doomy omnipresent guitar drones, samples, haunting dark keyboard textures, and a variety of instruments like windbones, bells, sinebotar, pipes, sigil, and E-bowed guitar. Almost all of the songs are rather long and have a very hypnotic ritualistic sentiment to them. Sometimes there are some traditional industrial influences present, but for the most part Halo Manash takes the listener on a smooth atmospheric ride to a dreadfully eerie terrifying world.

When listening to SYoMA I’m sometimes reminded of artists like Sephiroth, Nothing, (early) Current 93, Nurse With Wound, Law, and even some of the songs Akira Yamaoka did for the Silent Hill soundtracks. However Halo Manash is just so much better and so more engaging than anything else in this genre. The music is some of the most utterly darkened soundscapes these ears have ever heard, and the outlying sinister voices in the background really start to get to you after awhile. Especially if you’re sitting in the dark while listening to this recording as I am doing at this moment. Plus with the inclusion of the other instruments this release simply doesn’t bore for a second.

I should also mention that the album comes in a six panel digipak with some impressive cryptic drawings too. Also it is limited to just a 1000 copies and they are likely to have sold out by now. Believe me when I say this, SYoMa is easily one of the darkest releases you’ll ever hear. Astonishing!

My Dying Bride - For Lies I Sire (2009)

My Dying Bride has been one of my absolute most favorite bands for over ten years now. I can still remember picking up, 'The Angel and the Dark River' back then and being absolutely blown away. Never had I heard music like this before and never had I ever experienced such melancholy through heavy metal music either. The melancholy thing was somewhat key here as during those days of my life I was extremely depressed, but somehow it was comforting knowing that there were others out there that felt the same inside. Naturally I was devastated a few years later after reading an interview with Aaron where he openly admitted that it was just a gimmick and that they were mostly all happy people married and so on. But that's another story.

Last year MDB released, 'For Lies I sire,' which is also the tenth full-length album from these doom/death metal legends. Lies combines the best elements of the newer MDB sound with a bit of the elements from the 90's to form a nearly perfect album. I found this recording to be the darkest and generally most downhearted sounding work since 'The Dreadful Hours' nearly ten years ago. They also hired a new violinist to take Martin Powell's long vacant chair, and let me tell you Katie Stone's morose violin adds a painfully beautiful element to this album that's been absent from these guys music for way to long. Besides her presence it's business as usual with MDB and you know what to expect.

Some superb songs grace this album, but honestly, 'My Body, A Funeral' holds up as one of the best songs of their career. This is one of those MDB songs you can play over and over and never get sick of since the emotion is overwhelming and the song is more or less just a perfect doom metal composition.

If at some point you forgot about My Dying Bride, then come back now and check this one out. It's definitely one of the highlights of their discography.

Twilight of the Thunder God Tour @ Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago, Illinois, USA - 04.19.10

On Monday me and my friends drove down to Chicago, Illinois to check out Amon Amarth's, 'Twilight of the Thunder God tour.' Now honestly I'm a bit out of date with Amon Amarth's music and really need to get my hands on some of their recent releases, but fortunately AA hasn't exactly evolved much throughout their career. So, having heard only the older stuff I was still fully able to enjoy myself on this night.

This was also my first time at this venue, which frankly looked more like a wedding/party hall then a concert venue, but nevertheless I liked it. A good crowd turned out for the gig too, and I have to admit I didn't think Amon Amarth was this popular.

Holy Grail: From California was Holy Grail who played a fairly straight forward NWOBHM style (Iron Maiden, Saxon, etc.) with some slight thrash influences. The band had good energy, great stage presence, good musicianship and honestly I found myself really enjoying their set. It seems this band is fairly new, but three of the members have experience in a band named White Wizzard whom seem to be getting some attention these days. Thus far Holy Grail has only released an EP, but I'm actually curious for a full-length album. Hopefully they'll deliver soon.

Eluveitie: I saw Eluveitie (pronounced el-vey-ti) just a little under two years ago in Chicago as well when they were part of the Pagan Metal fest with Ensiferum and Tyr. Back then I was completely unknown to their music, but I was really impressed and since then I've at least familiarized myself with their album, 'Slania.' They play a type of Celtic/folk metal, but I like the way their singer said it, "Are you ready for some pure fucking folk metal!" For this set it seems like they mostly played songs from Slania as well as the new album, which I really should have bought, but I was really enjoying my drunken mood and wanted to prolong it. So, note to self, 'bring more money to awesome folk metal concerts!' At any rate, Eluveitie had amazing energy onstage and they really managed to get all of us rockin' hard. In the end this was another quality performance for these guys and I've decided that I really need to get my hands on the rest of their albums in the future.

Amon Amarth: These Swedish vikings hit the stage with relentless fury and delivered an absolutely amazing performance. Like I said earlier, I really haven't heard much from these guys in recent years, but it didn't matter since they had such energy and their dominating stage presence impressed all of us. In fact there were times when most everyone in the auditorium was singing along with Johan. They ripped through a number of newer songs as well as material all the way from their debut EP, 'Sorrow Throughout the Nine Worlds.' Collectively they must have played for well over and hour, but since the show started early at 6PM is was still early in the evening. All in all I was highly moved by their performance and hope that they'll come around again soon. If you have any love for these bands or just want to see a great display of heathen metal at it's finest then definitely check it out.

My new baby...

... is a new camera lens...



... ain't she just sexy? Yes.

Specifications:
Focal Length: 105mm
Lens Construction: 11 Elements in 10 Groups
Angle of View: 23.3°
Number of Diaphragm Blades: 8 Blades
Maximum Aperture: F2.8
Minimum Aperture: F32 (F45 Sigma, Canon, Minolta/Sony)
Minimum Focusing Distance: 31.3cm / 1.03 ft.
Maximum Magnification: 1:1
Filter Size: ø58mm (Lens) / ø77mm (Hood)

If interested you can see some of my photography here: Jalbum & Deviant Art. Check it out.

Endless Dismal Moan - Curse of Underground (2010)

On June 25th, 2008 the fate of Endless Dismal Moan was sealed forever when sole member Chaos9 left this world by his own hands. Behind him he left three unique albums of raw mesmerizing black metal that was not quite exactly like any other band I'd heard before. Oddly enough, exactly a year later the king of pop, Michael Jackson died, but I regress.

According to the label this release had been planned long before Chaos9's suicide, and as such it shouldn't be viewed as a compilation of unreleased recordings, but as an actual fourth and final release for EDM. Interestingly the release is incredibly simple; just a slim DVD case, few liner notes, seven untitled songs and one of Chaos9's painting's as a cover artwork. Nevertheless this is some strong material from Chaos9.

Both past releases and this fourth album titled, 'Curse of Underground' finds Chaos9's music within his own little twisted dark black metal corner. Showing traits from the raw necro black metal style of Ildjarn mixed with perhaps the sound of Emperor's first album plus some influences from the industrial and Gothic scene is one way you could describe EDM's music, though I always found it to be a challenge when it would be simpler to say this is the music of nightmares come true. Sometimes unforgivably fast with industrialized programmed percussion and raw visceral guitar work, while sometimes deathly slow and atmospheric with haunting keyboards and one of the most sadistic voices ever caught on tape. EDM was truly unique and even these seven final songs here prove just that.

It's unfortunate that Chaos9 choose the path of suicide, especially when I feel he had a lot more to give and a lot more listeners to discover his work. At least he left us with four great albums of some of the darkest evilest black metal I've personally ever heard.

Finnish Metal Tour @ The Rave, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA - 04.15.10

On Thursday afternoon my friends and I headed out to The Rave, the local venue where almost all concerts are held since it has no less than five different stages available to bands that tour here. So, no new sights exactly, though both this concert and the previous one I was at on the 12th (Yeah, I’ve been slow about reviewing shows) were both held in The Rave Underground (AKA the basement), which was weird since I don’t believe I’ve seen a show in here in at least five years. However enough about those trivial details.

This show was special since it was the, ‘Finnish Metal Tour’ and it happened to feature three bands I’m very passionate about, namely; Swallow the Sun, Moonsorrow and Finntroll. Another band from Finland named, Survivors Zero was supposed to play, but they were not present and no one said a single thing about it. So who knows? Instead we had two small time unsigned bands open up the show, and while they weren’t great they weren’t god fucking awful either, which is the way these things usually go.

? band: No idea who these guys ever were. I thought they were Survivors Zero at first, but soon as I heard the singer’s voice I realized they were definitely not of Finnish origin. Anyway, they played some sort of metalcore/Melodeath stuff which kind of reminded me of the newer Soilwork records at times. It wasn’t bad, but then it wasn’t really great either. The band had energy for sure and the singer tried to get things going, but they were the opener, no one knew who they were and ultimately they probably didn’t make much of if any impression on anyone.


Urn: Urn is a gothic/folk/power metal band from Chicago, Illinois, USA. At times they reminded me of the German band Menhir, but besides that connection it was a bit hard to pinpoint these guys sound. Their music was heavily synth based with a decent rhythm section and they also threw in some acoustic guitars, flute and brief female vocals. Unfortunately it seemed like the band wasn’t really in synch with each other and things just sounded chaotic and cluttered. On the other hand my friend says they sound better on CD, but I really wasn’t moved enough to spend any money of their records.

Near the end of their set the singer/guitarist mentioned that back in the day he played with the Electric Hellfire Club and that they at some point did a tour with Type O Negative. Here’s the shocker. Then he tells us that Type O’s singer/bassist Peter Steele passed away today and… and I don’t even know what to say or feel. Just sadness, I suppose. Therefore their next song and each band following Urn dedicated a song to Peter. R.I.P. buddy.


Swallow the Sun: After hearing the news of Peter’s passing it was ideal to hear the gloomy doom metal of Swallow the Sun. This was my first time seeing these guys although they did tour the states a couple of years ago with Katatonia, which I very reluctantly missed out on. I’ve been listening to these guys off and on since their first release, but after this performance I’ve realized that I really need to catch up and get all of their releases in my hand. Anyway, the band played a good mixture of songs from their most recent, ‘New Moon’ record as well as a few from the stunning previous release, ‘Hope.’ There were a few older ones I didn’t seem to recognize too but what’s important here is that the entire set sounded just absolutely colossal. Admittedly I really haven’t seen many doom metal bands like this because bands like this simply don’t tour here even if I’ve been listening to doom/death metal for over ten years now. So, it was great to finally receive the full doom live treatment.

Anyway, I really liked the bands stage presence. All of the members moved around the stage sluggishly to their ominous music but it was singer Mikko who really seemed to look genuinely despondent. Basically when he wasn’t singing he would just fold his arms behind his back and stare at the ground. Sure the front man in a metal band should be absolutely electrifying but when it comes to this music it would seem creating the most depressive atmosphere is ideal. When he wasn’t growling and screaming in the microphone his normal speaking and singing voice felt absolutely wretched, especially when he mentioned that Type O Negative was a big influence on Swallow the Sun. Great set.

Completely changing the subject I found myself returning to the Swallow the Sun merchandise table a few times throughout the night because before the show even started the girl selling the merch told me that I look a lot like one of the guys from the German band Suidakra. Later on when she actually let me see a picture of him I then realized that I have a long lost twin living in Germany, haha. She even asked to take a picture with me. Weird.


Moonsorrow: I’ve known about Moonsorrow since their first album and I’ve been a fan since their 2003 release, ‘Kivenkantaja,’ which pretty much made me a fan for life. Be it their early albums or even their most recent, Moonsorrow is just stunning. The band opened with, ‘Jumalten Kaupunki’ a true favorite of mine, and then played my most favored Moonsorrow songs, ‘Kylän Päässä’ & ‘Pimeä.’ So needless to say I was flying on this evening. There’s something truly magical about seeing a band you love play live. When you know and recognize every verse, every grunt or scream and when you just absolutely reach that moment of bliss where you must headbang and play the air guitar almost as if you were a member of the band, and, well you get the idea since you’ve all been there before. As far as the bands actually musicianship is concerned they sounded absolutely perfect though a two person Viking choir isn’t quite the same as the full Viking choir they use on the albums, but I wasn’t too disappointed.

Normally most concerts I find myself getting drunk or near drunk, but this was one of those special shows where I wanted to be sober so I could really remember the whole thing and talk about it later on. The band continued their set by playing a few songs from, ‘Suden Uni’ as well as one really long song, which for some reason I didn’t recognize (contradicting my earlier statement, but whatever, haha). All in all Moonsorrow proved to be amazing. It was absolutely worth the wait all these years to see them since they played basically all of my favorite songs, they had great stage presence and they got all of us pumped like never before. Ville told us they’ll come back some day… hopefully someday soon!


Finntroll: Finally tonight’s headliner hit the stage full force with relentless trollish power! Much like Moonsorrow, Finntroll had absolutely everyone in the crowd headbanging, air guitaring, moshing, pumping our fists and singing and screaming along with lead singer Vreth. The band played a number of songs from the new album like, ‘Under Bergets Rot,’ which is one of the most amusing songs I think I’ve ever heard, while they also played old favs like, ‘Svartberg,’ ‘Kitteldags,’ ‘Eliytres’ and of course the mighty ‘Trollhammaren.’ Collectively they must have played just a little over one hour and after disappearing from the stage briefly they came back and tore things up once again with, ‘Jaktens Tid.’ Unfortunately I got a little tired during the last couple of songs since I was running on just four hours of sleep, but nevertheless I had a fantastic evening.

Honestly speaking this was the best concert I’ve seen this year and if this tour comes close to you then seriously do everything within your power to see it. These bands are stunning.

After the show I bought the new Swallow the Sun CD as well as a Finntroll t-shirt. While my friends and I were walking back to the car some guy tried to get us to give him money to listen to him rap. Wow, really, asking a bunch of metal head’s for money so you can rap?! You got to be kidding me. We just walked away gaining pace as he nagged us further, haha.

http://metalsucks.blogspot.com/

I came across this fun little blog today, which basically has an assortment of ridiculous metal promo photos, fans and so on at their absolute worst. It's just hilarious. In their own words they describe the blog as, 'From an image perspective, there is no music genre like metal, resembling an unbelievable variety of ridiculous fauna, nonsense, useless evilness, wasted face paint, low-cost leather and hopeless wankers. We collect the most representative dead/dying bands, new bands and ridiculous metal fans.' Have a look.

Nachtmystium - Worldfall (2008)

My first experience with Nachtmystium was back in 2002 through their ultra grim, low-fi, true to the bone, fuck fest of dullness called, 'Reign of the Malicious.' I said, 'Screw this band' after hearing that one.

Five or so years later the Nachtmystium named popped up again due to the positive response from their third release, 'Instinct:Decay.' It was however not until sometime after the release of their fourth full-length, 'Assassins: Black Meddle Part I' that I finally got caught up with these guys and quickly found out that they had made some amazing changes in the years since their debut. Naturally of course, Nachtmystium were branded sell-outs and apparently people don't even consider them black metal any longer. Right...

Following the stunning Assassins album was this EP, 'Worldfall,' which shows a slightly different style of music on each of the five songs. The title track is a unique post black metal styled song that's dreamy and psychedelic in it's execution and the guitar work is just absolutely beautiful (never thought I'd use that word in a Nachtmystium review). 'Depravity' is a grinding viscerally evil attack of blast beats, heavy bass guitar, vicious screams and malicious guitar work. If this isn't black metal then I surely don't know what is. The third song is a re-recording from the, 'Demise' full-length, and while I don't remember the original song, I must admit once again were treated to an absolutely stunning black metal song here with interesting Moog synth effects, which probably weren't in the original version.

The final two songs are cover songs from Death in June and Goatsnake. DiJ is surely one of my most favorite bands/projects and to hear one of Douglas P's neo folk songs turned into some sort of strange metal song is damn interesting, but ultimately you just can't beat the original no matter who you are. The Goatsnake cover is, on the other hand, completely stunnin' traditional/stoner doom metal at it's finest and while I haven't heard the original it definitely makes me curious to search down the album it's on.

Since this EP the band has released an additional EP called, 'Doomsday Derelicts,' which I still need to get my hands on as well they'll be releasing, 'Addicts: Black Meddle Part II' in early June. I can't wait.

If like me you heard Nachtmystium in their early days and were completely turned off then I absolutely implore you to check out anything and everything they've done from, 'Eulugy IV' onwards.

Current 93 - Lucifer over London (1994)

‘Lucifer over London’ is a rather strange EP from Current 93 since there’s very little if any neo folk music or any of the other similar sounding music C93 was performing at this stage of their career. Either way this three song twenty-seven minute EP can only be described as pure genius.

The title track begins rather oddly with the opening riff from Black Sabbath’s, ‘Paranoid.’ It then shifts into a fast paced rock-ish song with David Tibet’s excellent vocals & lyrics as well as some acoustic guitar in the background. I have absolutely no idea what the lyrics are about but somehow it's absolutely brilliant since Tibet always delivers his words in such a poetic manner that it doesn't even really matter if it makes sense or not. At about five minutes and thirty seconds in it segues into much slower acoustic music accompanied with a lot of ringing bells in the background. At the same time Tibet begins reciting the words ‘six, six, six, it makes us sick, were sick, sick, sick of six six six’ over and over again for the remaining two minutes of the song. It’s hard to fully describe this wonderful song, but its simply a must hear recording and pretty much one of my all-time favs.

The second song, ‘Sad Go Round’ is another rock-ish song that mostly features electric guitar and some of the best vocals I’ve heard from Tibet. The guitar in this song is just terrific and there’s even a great solo in the middle of the song. The first time I heard this song I must have hit the repeat button five times until I decided to move forward with the EP. Apparently this is a cover from a band called, ‘The Groundhogs.’

The final song on this EP is just spectacular. The song is a mostly spoken word song that starts out rather slowly with some subtle ambiance and calm speaking from Tibet. As the songs progresses through its thirteen minutes it gradually becomes more lively and towards the end of the song the listener is treated to some fantastic acoustic guitars and very emotional vocals from Tibet. The song is both chilling and spooky, but also beautiful and fairly sad as well. Easily one of Current 93’s best songs ever and an incredibly catchy song on top of it all, even despite it's weirdness.

Although this EP was a bit different than what some had come to expect from Current 93 at the time it is nonetheless a masterpiece. Each of the three songs are unbelievable. I'm sure the original pressing is long out of print, but these songs plus a few other rarities were gathered together and released on the, 'SixSixSix: SickSickSick' compilation six years ago.

Live Review: Red Sparowes w/Doomriders & Make @ Local 506 - Chapel Hill, NC 4.10.10

Make: Make are a local Chapel Hill, NC-based ambient sludge band, and prior to the show I had never had any experience with them. Their music was a relatively decent take on the tried and true ambient sludge of band like Neurosis and Isis. Make's version (mediocre heaviness interwoven with ambient parts that were quite good), while not really revolutionary, was alright, but there was some primordial element missing to really make the music stick out. Overall, not terrible, and in a few years might actually be quite good.

Doomriders: Doomriders, hoh boy. Their set can be summed up with the following: Complete Horseshit. Playing under the guise of some post-hardcore band, they played a boring, unemotional set of screamo/hardcore "metal" that was made worse by their Dave Grohl-wannabe lead vocalist's constant need to remind us we were in Chapel Hill, and make terrible jokes about retarded shit. I spent more time laughing at the band than listening to them. Stay away. Or if you're hitting this tour, I suggest arriving late or start drinking early. The only thing they did right was make me more appreciative of how good Red Sparowes were.

Red Sparowes: And now, the band I came to see. Red Sparowes, for those who don't know, play heavy, soundscape-crafting post rock. I had missed them two times around, and now they were touring without founding member Josh Graham, who left the band to form A Storm of Light, but I still had to see them. They opened with one of the more memorable tracks off their new album: 'A Hail of Bombs.' With beautiful visuals inspired by Rorschach tests, space, the formation of life, subway systems, science, war, industry, and conspiracy theories swirling overhead, they played a non-stop set mostly of tracks from their newest album. They did play one or two older tracks, the most recognizable of which was 'Buildings Began to Stretch Wide Across the Sky, And the Air Filled With A Reddish Glow'. A simple 'Thank you' as their final track came to a close, and the show was done. I would have sat through Doomriders twice to hear that absolutely fantastic set; don't miss these guys if they come by, and if you go, prepare to be transported to parts unknown by their amazing sound.

Cholera - Enslaved Humanity (2009)

Not to be confused with the deathcore band from Cleveland, USA or the Finnish black metal/dark ambient band either, this third band under the Cholera moniker is a progressive death metal band from Ottawa, Canada.

Wrote and recorded back in 2007/08 when the two members were just sixteen years old each, 'Enslaved Humanity' is the debut EP from Cholera and it's quite an interesting ride that's just two songs long, yet this EP runs for no less than twenty one minutes of music. When listening to this EP aspects of bands like Opeth, Dream Theater, Nile, Behemoth, Arcturus and Scholomance come to mind, though Cholera still sounds very fresh and absolutely original in their delivery.

Were talking heavy technical machine-gun riffing, wild solos, fast pummeling drums, both progressive rock-ish, symphonic and some ambient/soundtrack atmospheric synth flourishes and a fair balance between growled and cleanly sung vocals make appearances in these twenty one minutes. The music generally moves at a fast pace and can blow by you fairly quickly with some subtle greatness, fortunately there are some calmer moments and even some purely ambient sections too. Occasionally I even hear the band reaching some epic proportions, which just really gets me reved up to hear more from these two.

The growled vocals are hardly the most guttural delivery I've ever heard and in fact with the lyrics in front of me its easy to decipher what's being said. Somehow a more low growler seems appropriate here but maybe that's just me. The clean vocals however seem slightly odd since it seems like their are some heavy effects placed on them rather than just allowing the natural voice to show. Of course it's not awful, but just something to get used to. Oh, and the production on this little EP isn't half bad either. These two are definitely on to something good here.

Enslaved Humanity is a fantastic first strike from this Ottawa, Canada based band and hopefully they won't make us wait to long for a full-length. Head over to their Myspace page to hear samples of both of these songs.

Free albums

Over the past couple of months of doing this blog I've received a few requests from artists to review or post links to their free releases. Well, I'm not much into the idea of reviewing mp3's or online streams, so here is a list of some of the more interesting ones you can download and evaluate for yourself.


Hollow Branches: Hollow Branches` second EP: Anchored in Sleep released for free on Strix Records. The EP contains 5 tracks of atmospheric rock which touches the borders over to several genres with a lot of variations of instruments. Limited edition vinyl and CD will be printed later, as well as shirts.

Each song comes with it`s each individual artwork presented in a 8 page digital booklet specially designed by :Kolån design and photography. The package include high quality audio both in MP3 and WAV formats.

Hollow Branches:
Robert Hunter, US, (Self Spiller, Coversations about the Light, A Crown of Light, Indelible)
Marius Sjøli, Norway, (Formloff, Self Spiller, Indelible)
Jason Walton, US, (Agalloch, Sculptured, Self Spiller, Indelible)

For more info see the booklet included in the download package.
Download Here

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Marc Broude:
ALBUM: MEDICINE
RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 17, 2009
LABEL: NO ZEN RECORDS
GENRE: EXPERIMENTAL/AMBIENT

Tracklist:
01. Mineral Water (04:12)
02. Face Covered In Shit (05:39)
03. Fire On The Water (05:55)
04. Happy Like Jazz (07:48)
05. For The Flies (05:55)
06. War Of The Worlds (06:25)
07. Muerte (06:44)

Download Here

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The Seed: The beginning of The Seed took place on January of 2006 when Alberto (drums) and Koko (guitars) met and decided to start a project influenced by 90's & 80's metal bands like Pantera, Sepultura, Slayer, Metallica, Machine Head... Later, Sergio (bass) who played with Koko in the death metal band Uruz, joined the band.

The Seed started making music lacking of the right vocals , but the duty of getting the right singer to fit the band became a living hell. So The Seed decided to try Koko as vocalist and lead guitarist. As a trio (Alberto: drums, Sergio: bass and Koko: guitars and vocals) The Seed recorded their first demo "Demonsterations" in 2007.

After recording "Demonsterations" Alberto and The Seed parted ways, so the band was incomplete again. After a year of trying lots of drummers, Furni (Avulsed, Terroristars) entered the band replacing Alberto, adding a new level of heaviness to the music.

With Furni at drums, Sergio at bass and Koko at vocals and guitars, The Seed played a couple of killer shows and began recording what will be their first record "From Nowhere To No One" (2009). At the end of the recording process Furni leaves the band because an old injury on his back, that led him to stop playing drums and focus on guitar playing.

Right now The Seed have released, "From Nowhere To No One" and new members have joined the band: Acaymo D. on drums and Samuel on guitar.

Download Here

Metsatöll - Äio (2010)

So far in 2010 I’ve been really slow about actually reviewing 2010 releases. Surely a wonder on my part since I’ve got a nice stack of 2010 releases sitting next to me here as well as a few other great records from 2009. So without further delay I’ll start getting to these new records. I figure I’ll start with one of my favorites.

‘Äio’ is my first experience with the wolf pack known as Metsatöll who formed over ten years ago in Tallin, Estonia as a three piece. Over the past ten years they’ve released three full-lengths albums, three DVDs, three singles an EP and now into their eleventh year of existence they’ve unleashed their fourth album, ‘Äio’ upon us through the mighty Finnish label Spinefarm.

Metsatöll’s music is a fine mix of lively folk instruments and mid-paced heavy metal with cleanly sung vocals in their native tongue. Frankly speaking I find that Metsatöll is a very rare and unique band in the folk metal genre since I’ve heard few others that sound exactly like them. The band uses a large variety of folk and nontraditional metal instruments (flute, violin, kannel, mouth harp and mandolin) with the main one being the Torupill the Estonian variant of the bag pipe, which is present during most of their songs. The folk instruments naturally add an extra lively element to their songs, which pretty much make me want to strip down, suck up a few quarts of booze and dance and headbang in a mad fury while listening to these guys music. Picture that.

As far as the metal portion of their music goes it seems the guitar work is generally a simpler affair where the band largely relies on the folk instruments for depth and color within their songs. Of course the guitar work isn’t bad and in fact there are some interesting riffs within this record, but don’t expect any wild lengthy Iron Maiden-ish solos on this one. On the other hand the bass guitar is very vibrant and easily heard and it adds an extra thick trait to the music. The drums are also quite well performed and diverse and interesting the whole way through the record.

Markus’ lead vocals are performed entirely in a cleanly sung manner with his voice having a deeper baritone quality to it, while Lauri also contributes some yoik and throat singing, which you may be familiar with if you've heard Finntroll. Although I do like the singing a lot I think for some people it may be a hurdle to leap over since most of us folk metal listeners are used to screamed or growled vocals within this genre. And of course all of the words are in the Estonian language, though again I’ve found that I really like this language but for some people it might be something to get used to.

Lastly and unfortunately the album only exists as an import for now so if you live within the USA expect to pay a lot (I paid about $23 altogether with the shipping), but it’s certainly worth is since it’s a fantastic album and the booklet also contains some great nature shots as well as all the lyrics printed in both Estonian and their English translations.

If you enjoy folk metal then I highly recommend ‘Äio’ since it’s a true gem within this genre as well I’m sure Metsatöll will be a band to keep our eyes and ears on as the future unfolds.

Odium - The Sad Realm of the Stars (1998)

Odium, oddly enough was one of the first black metal bands I discovered and seriously enjoyed. It’s odd because Odium only produced one album in 1998, and even through that album they didn’t become overly huge in the scene, yet through my endless internet searching years ago I came across the band and this album. So you could say this album (amongst a few others) will always have a nostalgic remembrance for me.

The band in a way could be considered a warm up band for Demariel and Sechtdaemon who in the same year released the first demo from Myrkskog. Odium’s music was in a brutal symphonic black metal style, and despite the ludicrously evil (stupid) looking photos in the booklet and one of the members being named Bastadon, ‘The Sad Realm of the Stars’ is a rather admirable album.

The band’s style doesn’t float to far away from the Limbonic Art sound and interestingly they were also signed to the same label and LA’s Morfeus handled the albums artwork too. The guitar work is mostly a raw undecipherable mess of bedlam, and the percussion is overly loud and brutal, however it’s the synths that really make this band gripping. The synths bare a sort of lunar cosmos type of sound, and dare I say it has a relatively beautiful dreamy sort of characteristic to it at times. Lastly Sechtdaemon handles the vocal duties and his screams are piercing abrasive tortured cries somewhat similar to his early work with Myrkskog.

Although probably not the most weighty album in black metal history, Odium’s one and only album is at least for me an agreeable and mystic flight through the darkest parts of the universe. Check this album out, this sucker rocks!

Dialis - Dialis (2007)

Dialis is a dark rock band from Italy formed back in 2005 by Emil Spleen (Bass/Vocals) Julian Fade (Guitar/keyboard/backing vocals) and Gabriel Straw (Drums).

Dialis’ brand of dark rock music seems to contain a variety of influences from various bands and various genres. For the most part though it’s got kind of a Gothic rock/new-wave-ish sound with melodic guitars, solos, piano, synths, acoustic guitars and Emil’s despondent bassy lead vocals. Although the songs tend to be of a more slower speed there are moments where things do suddenly get heavier, which then usually segues into a good guitar solo that frankly kind of reminds me Katatonia. So it’s a bit hard to properly label Dialis, but I think this band could easily appeal to fans of all dark rock and even some metal listeners could appreciate this.

I am by far most impressed with the songs, ‘As Judas Curses’ & ‘Theatres.’ As Judas Curses has some really nice acoustic guitars for the entire song, Emil’s vocals are fantastic here and the guitar solo at the end of the song really makes for one stunning finish. Theatres on the other hand is very sad, but beautiful sounding with very lovely piano, orchestral synths, another great guitar solo in the middle of the song and Emil’s most solemnly sounding vocals.

At twenty three minutes this EP offers a lot, and unfortunately I can’t fully describe it to you because each song offers new ideas, but if dark, somber, beautiful music is to your liking then Dialis is definitely a band to be heard.

Recently the band released a full-length album, which I haven't got my hands on just yet, but I hope to eventually and see if Dialis has continued on making the same fine music that's found on this debut EP.

Happy Zombie Jesus Day

Phragments - Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood (2008)

Beginning in 2002, Phragments is a band from Slovakia that in the past had music mostly within the martial industrial genre, but 'Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood' generally eschews the bombastic symphonic and martial qualities found on the bands other releases in favor of a calmer ambient soundscape approach.

The music generally carries a very strong dark tone to it and in a way it could very well remind someone of a post apocalyptic event playing out. Of course some industrial characteristics can still be found within these songs, though the martial percussion is sparsely used and not nearly as powerful sounding as before. On the synth side of things they don't really have that nearly authentic orchestral sound that drew comparisons to In Slaughter Natives or Karjalan Sissit, but rather they simply move in a slow dark ominous direction. Interestingly enough both a violin and cello are used on this record, though it seems very likely that they will be mistaken as being synthesized.

Obviously Phragments has under gone some changes within their craft, though I surely wont complain even one bit since Matej has created something truly dark, sinister, and otherworldly on this full length.