Zac's "Double Dose": Herder / Temple

 

Herder: Horror Vacui 

A soundtrack of horrors with ample listen-ability? That seems like a paradox if I've ever heard one. But really that is the only way to describe what Westereen (Netherlands) based sextet Herder are spewing, and yes this sludge is spewed forth with a passion and intensity so thick that it will coat your ear canals for days. Horror Vacui is the title of Herder's 2012 release and with-holds the very meaning of the music that awaits within. Horror vacui, in relation to art, means a fear of empty space. Guess what the one thing you will find very little of here on Horror Vacui is? Empty space. You won't have a moment of airy clarity here, just incessant murky energy that will leave your mind a bit more claustrophobic than it was before you pressed play. This doom and sludge bred bastard is so dense with sound that you will certainly sink in it. However, there is an un-suppressed amount of melody that contains the sullied and contaminated sludge that flows so freely here, bringing ties to the southern groove pioneers like Pantera and Crowbar. Even more potent than the melodic nature of Herder is their signature three way guitar onslaught. While the rhythm section certainly set the momentum and drive each song its these three separate guitars groovin' and thrashin' in unison that set Herder apart from other sludge and doom focused musicians. Check out their terrifying artwork and albums name-sake Horror Vacui below or head over to Reflection Records web-store to order a copy.

Members: 

BLITZER - Bass // Booze 

JB - Guitar // Sunn 

JEROEN - Guitar // Blaze 

MARC - Guitar // Doom 

NICO - Vocals // Smokes 

TOM - Drums // Fashion

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Temple: On The Steps Of The Temple 

A church, a mosque, a synagogue, a temple. These places we, as humans, call holy come in many different names and forms. Universally, though, we find ourselves in these areas for one reason. To dig, to reflect, and to discover more about ourselves and the world around us. Music can also be a tool used to enhance this search, whether it is heard at one of these sites in the form of sacred music, chanting, or even in a place as comfortable as your own living room. Today's second 'Dose uses the idea of a temple in and throughout their debut release On The Steps Of The Temple, even to the point of naming of the band, Temple. This creates a hugely conceptual nature to the overall package (I mean... look at that killer album art!), begging to be explored, just like a temple should. What Temple have done here with On The Steps Of The Temple is combined the atmosphere of post-metal with the intensity and aggression of the most extreme forms of metal. Here, On The Steps Of The Temple your minds eye will be clobbered by an onslaught of percussion via blast beats and good old fashioned heavy drumming. The guitars follow up Temple's percussive drive with introspective passages, sludge-laden RIFF-AGE, and haunting solos. So, take the first stride onto ...The Steps... and patiently listen to what Temple will unravel. Who knows, you may find some answers...

Members: 

Rich - Drums // Producer 

Ryan - Guitars // Bass // Keys // Engineer

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Wiht - Harrowing of The North EP Review

This is one you don't see often, a real "zombie" EP- a newer record from a group recently folded with some bonus material!Wiht was a delicious little doom outfit which toured with everyone from Orange Goblin to Yob. A distinctly dark and texture rich record originally released as a 2 track album, this particular incarnation includes a 3rd, unreleased, bonus (End of the Reign)

1. "The Harrowing of the North"- 8 movements sonically depicting William the Conqueror's conquest of northern england. Excellent. This track is texturally magnificent, a range of ambient textures slowly mesh into winding and blistering distorted behemoths. Delayed contours shifting into beastly waltzes of doom, conjured sounds in 3/4 are pachyderm heavy. Swirling chorused/delayed shoegazing occurs in wild swirls until death-marches before turning into swaying ambient piano and beautiful layered synthesis. This great slow wave of death fades into a Pike-worthy battle command. The thing to note is how much time this band takes to really build each part, nothing feels rushed, but it sways in such an even manner - it's not long for the sake of being long, the intent is clear: it does not drag!

2."Orderic Vitalis"- Opened with down right disgusting bass-tones, the piece launches straight into a demonic sounding minor riff, the tension curls into eerie reverbed guitar lines that whisper and act as atmosphere as the bass drones. The band continues to flirt with lush reverb and delay, stopping in-between to place perfectly accented distorted riffs. A large canvas is drawn upon which the bass pounds the listener as long delayed guitars pierce through the foreground. The flirtation with a 6/8 polyrhythm occurs and the groove divides and freaks the listener. The guitar is both a mix of shoegazing fuzz and doomed out low-end in the tone department. A continuous build of ominous tension from the guitars whirls into delayed and reverbed-weirdness and grain until collapsing into a symphony of sine-waves and simple synthesis acting as a beautiful counterpoint to the range of contrast created prior.

3."End of the Reign"- Heralded by whispering ambient textures, thunder rumbles, industry, whistling wind-like feedback, and altered piano, the tune surges into a pounding d-beat style rhythm, before catapulting itself into a distorted sabbathian-romp. Sweltering into echoing, post-rockish guitar, the piece swells into a harmonized pentatonic gripping classic-rock inspired chord progression. The psychedelic echoed guitar is inescapable and gloriously wet. An excellent unearthed track.

For those of you interested, this trippy gem of a record has been reissued with the bonus track by Devouter Records here. 

The record is streaming on SoundCloud here

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Album Review : Dead Empires - Waiting in Waves

Back in 2011, I reviewed these cats prior to my foray over here on Heavy Planet. Strange to think it's been over 6 months since joining, and Dead Empires returned once more with a vicious sludgy, prog, post-metal behemoth. Their official debut record Waiting in Waves is a distinct progression forward, with the addition of a 2nd guitarist, and a melding of both their Savannah-style sludge, with Neurosis-caliber riff-mongering. All instrumental, all totally dirty

1. Carl Weathered- The opener is a hard driving up-beat psych metal tune. The drums on this track are enough to wreck a mans mind. Progressing from a slow psych romp, to an driving plethora of minor riffs, pushed forth by enough drum fills to beat up bill ward and accompanied by a series of freaky delayed guitar licks, the song climaxes with a slowed down freak-out.

2. Ted Dancin' - The 2nd tune begins with a fast paced hard-core style rhythm. It falls later into more vicious doom-riffery and melds it into a sort of modern-metal breakdown tease. I'd like to see some of those metal core kids use delay and high-hats as tastefully as these guys do. It grooves out with an uber-melodic major section.

3. Waiting in Waves- The title track has some of the cooler riffs on the record. Belligerent, punishing rock riffs with overlaid harmonics and wailing, howling reverbations. These guys spared no expense to push wet sounds that really float atop one another in-between the punching sludge riffs. 

4.Space Race- The continued exercise in echos. These guys keep punching forth with nasty space sounds before roaring into a sick double-guitar harmony in fifths, than the guitars double each-other. This tune is interesting because the tempo fluctuates between half-time and regular time, punishing riffs accompanied by slowed down doom sections.

5.Crystal Cages- This tune almost evokes Russian Circles. Swirling clean tones followed by roaring wah'd leads. The middle takes us on a galloping iron-maiden style fiasco before whirring into a grooving guitar solo. The song breaths venom until gracing us with a faux ending- this of course prior to the beastly pentagram-style brutality!

6.Blackout- Hitting it off with an ill syncopated riff before launching into a tribal set of sludge riffs, this tune is a lesson in how to play sludge metal. Grooving syncopation and powerful one off hits, and of course, the obligatory sections of weird free-jazz winding up in a climactic pounding of delayed scratchy guitars and down-right unstoppable drums.

7.Getting Head from a Guillotine- The funniest title on the album. Also starting with some spacy chorused guitars, the tune starts clean than flirts extensively with distortion until whirring through delayed weirdness into a momentous buildup preceding a wailing fury of a 2 guitar solos. The octaves which occur at the end of the first solo, give way to a serious amount of tense grooving drums. This grueling motion eventually reaches its peak blows out into an inter-galactic climax.

Overall, the record is hard-hitting and primal, the sounds giving way to motorized chaos and unstoppable trippiness. I really enjoyed the experimentation with delays that this band works with, as well as the contrast they create between parts. An asteroid solid post-metal record!

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Zac's "Triple Dose": Cathedraal / Rings of Rhea / Schematics for Gravity

This week my little realm of the 'Planet has been bountiful and over-flowing with music. This, in turn, has allowed me to decide to not only give readers two bands to enjoy, but three. Yes, a Triple Dose. This trio of transcendence is in thanks to a three-way split including experimental bands from France, Sweden and Ukraine. So, without further ado... 

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Cathedraal 

Our first stop on this triple delight lands us in Paris, France with Cathedraal, an experimental group of musicians who thought it good to mix black metal, hardcore and post-metal psychedelia. The outcome is an atmospheric rich sound with brief bursts of beauty and an intimidating amount of noise. Want you senses overwhelmed? Give Cathedraal's Qui Pense Encore a Toi a spin. This track has an excellent guitar driven intro and tremolo pickin', setting it as gold in my book. Interestied? Its available for a steal at bandcamp.

 

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Rings of Rhea 

Rings of Rhea are our second serving of this week's three course dose! These Ukrainian natives have discovered a paradise of dysrhythmia-inducing metal. Using ample noise and choosing to bury the scathed vocals in production, the quintet have created a fine piece of progressive doom metal which I am pleased to share with you all. The elegant addition of a piano interlude combines the two separate tracks seamlessly and creates the illusion of a single track. Their lot of fifteen minutes offers a density experienced in orchestral epics and legends of old. In conclusion, Rings of Rhea bring a blissful terror that simply escapes this listener too quickly. This is a band you will want to watch for future releases. Check out both tracks Destruction and Creation below or download for free at bandcamp.

Members: 

Anton - Bass 

Dima - Guitar 

Sasha - Drums 

Vova - Vocals 

Zhenya - Guitar

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Schematics for Gravity 

It wouldn't be a trip around Heavy Planet without dropping by, what many may consider the capital metal country, Sweden. Our last course, entitled Schematics for Gravity, is a hardcore turned post-metal five-piece sighting influences such as Cloudkicker, Cult of Luna and Sigur Rós. Focusing heavily on creating a celestial experience, Schematics for Gravity emit an Alcest-vibe. The music is more alluring, and even delicate at times, rather than terrorizing. The vocals are intense and proclaimed with a dying passion, although, similar with Cathedraal above, are enshrouded in the mix adding to the overall atmosphere of the two tracks. I enjoyed the track Behind Closed Doors most. Check it out below and in the words of the Swedes, "Inhale. Enjoy. Explode."

 

Members: 

Anders Lundgren 

Chris Campbell 

Erik Silverberg - Vocals

Martin Nilsson -Guitar 

Pontus Landgren - Drums

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Zac's "Double Dose": Bantha / Lento

Bantha: Fuzz Totems I 

Last week's first dose was a one man project from Vancouver. Well, Mr. Langer is back again this week with a completely different project and under a completely different alias. Furthermore we will refer to Mr. Langer as Wailin' Lord Bebelton and his project Bantha could not be more different from The Civil Dead. Where The Civil Dead consume the listener in isolation Bantha pick up the pace and allow the grooves and fuzz do the dirty work. Taking a lo-fi approach the tunes sound raw and the guitar is so fuzzy you'll need more than your Dad's Norelco. Give my favorite track With Blood Planets In His Head a spin and if you need more head over to bandcamp.

 

Members: Wailin' Lord Bebelton

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Lento: Anxiety Despair Languish 

Lento, our second shot, are a Roman quartet established back in 2004. Basing their creation in an instrumental sludge root, their sounds will attract fans of Baroness (the early years), Mare, Cult of Luna and Sleep. Having released two albums and one live recording Lento enthusiastically set out to break some boundaries by combining the sheer aggression of their early work and a condensed vision of heavy music in recent history and how it shaped their art. Check out some of their latest record Anxiety Despair Languish at soundcloud or get a copy from Denovali Records or Lento's web-store. Did I mention the excellent artwork?!

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