Album Review-Wolves Carry My Name: Black Earth Tongue

It's about 6:00 am.  Pitch shit black, and I've been up since 3:15, on the road since 4:00.  Drank enough coffee to kill a horse and only about 50% sure I'm on the right road.  I'm in no mood for the horrible atrocities and audible crimes perpetrated by this so-called "morning radio".  Bieber, Bieber, country, church service, talk show, church service....  I think my soul wants to vomit.  With miles of some of NY's most boring highway ahead, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to blast the new Wolves Carry My Name album, "Black Earth Tongue".  Released on Oct 14, 2016, I got my copy the day it came out, but this was my first opportunity to listen to it straight through, uninterrupted.  Their previous release "Among the Ashes and Ruins", instantly became one of my favorite albums and I have been not so patiently waiting for a follow up ever since.  I had high hopes and was not disappointed.  This was exactly the kind of kick in the teeth I needed to get through this dismal ride. 

Only seconds in and I'm feeling rejuvenated, rocking down the highway speed limits be damned.  I've heard listening to good music is a legal defense. Legitimate in any court for speeding.  But don't quote me on that.  At only about 29 minutes long this isn't an exceptionally long album.  But it doesn't need to be.  There is no fluff, no filler, no fucking around here.  They get in, get the job done and get out!  Like a precision bank robbery.  In and out before you know what hit you, leaving you holding your ass looking for you wallet and all the killer cat food coupons contained within. 

Their Bandcamp page describes their sound as "a bastard of 90's sludge metal and ruthless hardcore fused into sonic waves of blackness".  That description works for me as they fall under no conventional label.  A tempo faster than your typical sludge but with vocals just a vicious.  Guitar hooks and stoner rock moments with a more ambient doomy feel other times.  All the different elements are woven together seamlessly.  I am guilty of never paying much attention to listening to an album in order, but one thing that struck me about the first album was how it flowed,this album is no different.  Teeth Black as Coffin Nails serves as an introduction and Tamam Shud is a fitting conclusion.  The thought about every aspect is evident throughout.  From the arrangements to the track layout.  No wasted time.  Hard hitting and straight to the point.  Do yourself a favor and check out their Bandcamp and pick up a copy. 

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Sunday Sludge: Black Seal - "Pyre"

I'm a total sucker for nostalgia. Being bombarded day after day by what's new and what's improved generally makes me wanna spit. I miss landline phones, I miss borrowing friends' cassettes to make copies for myself, and I tend to get emotional when Fast Times at Ridgemont High is diced and dubbed to air on one of 350 television channels I don't need. So a sound that can send me back with a single fucking riff is one that I'll give strong consideration.

That's not to say I dig it when bands cut their heroes and paste their best impressions. With an endlessly expanding catalog of human experience, simulacrum is difficult to dodge. Is it at all possible to sound entirely like yourself? Florida's Black Seal make their case on the five-track Pyre by stirring a cauldron of 1970 Birmingham meets 1977 London and tossing in dashes of 1980's bong rips. That all probably sounds self-contradictory, but lacing the bouillabaisse with psychedelic glaze and just a tad of sneer is about as close as you'll get to fresh these days.

You'll find N.I.B. heaviness here, sure. The slow, acid-dripped doom riffs of Scorched! immediately craft a smoky atmosphere and you start to envision your drop-out friend "packin' that shit." He might not like it when we're thrust forward in time, if only briefly, on fuzzy hair-trigger thrash. As a whole, the opener is a dense amalgam of homages strewn with dark vibes, man. Wavy Gravy warned you about that brown acid, didn't he?

The midpoint of On This Day You Lose Faith glows and warms with wholly enveloping fog and viscosity, so we can't fully escape Sabbathian nods. Led on the bass of Thomas Beals, this winter sidewalk is lined more with regret than thin ice. Spitting embers into a revved-up Hetfield shuffle, this track essentially finds the band hitting every cylinder between spirals and plods. Punk's straightforward clarity shines through Astaroth Crowley's matter-of-fact vocal, echoing Rollins and Graffin but ultimately making us question whether Black Seal fit as a Sunday Sludge feature. The way this track marches and announces its own presence, however, renders categorization completely irrelevant.

If you absolutely MUST find sludge qualification, look no further than 80 seconds of The Descent (Intermezzo). Über-heavy with the added bonus of stoner repetition, this dragging reprieve would have My Bloody Valentine written all over it if it sounded more like a dream and less like a fucking nightmare. It's far too brief, but it channels well the malevolence of Conestoga Breaks Down. Smoke and fuzz hitch to the slow sludge rhythms that truly justify why we're here on this Sunday morning in the first place. The closer is choppy and flooring, a slow-motion blast of buzz and stoner sludge roll-out. We need more than five tracks when you've got us feelin' this good.

As we've learned, psychedelia saturates Pyre. Black Seal look back, look down, and look like a band that's primed to take a huge step forward. Chanted, candle-lit vocals become pained howls, Robb Erwin's tin-barrel thumps marry tambourine suspicions, and the album's twitchy thickness lends itself to marriages of Deep Purple and punk's DIY ethic. You'll pass through cobwebs, but they'll struggle to stick. At times slow-swung, at others completely chest-pressed, Pyre is that fleeting meld of tradition and progress. A band pushing the genre while honoring heroes. Pluck and nod, Black Seal... you've got our mark.

For fans of: Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, The Wipers

Pair with: Buffalo Sweat Oatmeal Cream Stout, Tallgrass Brewing Co.

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Sunday Sludge: Maidens - "Eve of Absolution"

In an age of pressed flesh and force-fed singles, it's a comfort to find there are still bands and sub-genres dedicated to crafting entire expansive albums. Once you stop looking for that hook or a gimmicky harmony that'll sell your soul for shock 'n roll, you're left with bare-bones musicianship and songwriting. Sink or swim, eh? Turning a single idea into thirty minutes of relevant material is no small task, so you'd better have your chops honed and your focus clear.

The problem with blanket moods and atmospheres that thread through an entire LP is that I can enjoy the first half and then have to break back into reality for fifteen fucking seconds to flip the damn record. Small price to pay, sure. So Milwaukee's post-metal/sludge quartet Maidens are victims of their own prowess. The seven tracks on Eve of Absolution, their first full-length effort, may as well be presented as one. Luckily a pair of headphones and a streaming format via bandcamp are all any listener's gonna need to experience this tome from cover to cover, uninterrupted.

There's a tight grip on the back of our heads, sternly whispering in our ear that we need to face forward and remain silent. Promising doom, drone, post-metal, and the crunch of sludge could sound a tad ambitious for one single track; but on Beginnings: Rebirth, Maidens forge a whirr that soothes and saturates, while the abrasive dirge of sludge rhythms keeps things from getting too cozy. Teeming and flickering, this opener's atmospheric passages are contemplative and rueful, countering the intense, jarring vocal. Jettisoning into the choppy stutter of Our Splendor, Our Antiquity, Maidens showcase arachnid drum-chaos and burning guitar screeches, weaving together the two into a complex tapestry of post-metal emotional doubt. Instruments are mastered here, but the layers peeled back uncover some harsh family secrets. Oh, there's more to come.

You could expect the drone and doom to carry tracks to indulgent lengths, but Maidens only stretch things on the instrumental Discord: Storm on the Horizon. Fluttering with the static of approaching woe, a slow dawn can't break these dark clouds. The midpoint in the album is patient, pensive, and peppered with cosmic surprises. Terrain is littered with ash and slow-motion sickness crunching on bleached bones. Fanning upward into an opaque menace, the track brilliantly melds into the title track that follows. The mold is given time to set here; a delicious crunch meeting the focused and precise tandem of skin slaps and condensing riffs. Doom is prevalent in the form of shifted rhythms and archaic pendulum swings. Those dark realizations are setting in.

What's ominous and repetant is countered on Lands of the Blind, with a fuzzy cruise wrapped in stoner thickness that peeks into themes later realized on The Calm, The Silence. Cool winds ease us into splintering guitars that ooze ambition and confidence. Post-metal proficiency is on full-display in the track's progressive Pelican-influenced passages. The reflective acceptance on the closer is dulled yet wholly-permeating pain. Vocal pleas form a powerful denouement and an ultimate encapsulation of the existential trinity.

Don't worry too much about how to approach this one. Maidens fit into no single tag, but somehow they manage to smoothly change lanes between genres. What you experience only grows important when it has time to absorb. Eve of Absolution is one contemplation after another, at times littered with turmoil and at others laced with hope. The controlled chaos, the swirls of fret, and the icy breath heaved between sobs all funnel into an incredible journey, heartbreaking as it is.

For fans of: Pelican, Horn of the Rhino, Neurosis

Pair with: Rendezvous, Lakefront Brewery

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Sunday Sludge: Pyres - "Year Of Sleep"

Ya see? Ya see what happens when you try to make technology work for you? Bandcamp is great, don't misunderstand me. But somehow bandcamp's user (Seth) managed to open two windows of the same page, resulting in the same track playing twice at different starting points simultaneously. I immediately concluded Pyres and their July release Year Of Sleep to be quite chaotic, furious, and oddly structured. So today marks my last experiment blending coffee with opiates and stale malt liquor.

Starting over entirely, I found these four Torontonians to be versatile, skilled songsmiths who dish one of the best metal offerings of 2013. Year Of Sleep is a tricky album to pin down and stuff into any of metal's snooty corners, so I'll offer the assertion that you must be musicians first and a metal band second. Think about it, then think about the vice versa. Pyres make the point clear by delivering a heavy, daunting exercise in melding sludge and post-metal while also displaying proficient skills and deft composition.

Year Of Sleep is six songs in forty minutes, all balanced somewhere between low-slung rhythmic thickness and ascending swirls of dueling guitars. It's all here, dudes. Rub the murk on your gums or drift with the stoner sensibilities; surge and snarl or wail and wander. Proximity Anxiety leads off with bell-rung descent highlighted with a gravel-caked vocal. The drumwork lays more than a foundation here; there's a mood, an energy, and an unrelenting lead that runs a ring through your nose and drags you on a progressive haunt, shifting and redirecting without the surge ever losing step. From these opening moments to the uptempo ambition of The Everbearing's ultimate warp-out diffusion, this is an album that's sweet and sticky from dusk to dawn.

Whether the rhythms are trotting or trampling is hardly the point. The aim of Deserter may be dusty trailblazing or pummeled shakes, but what's most impressive is how well all elements work with and against one another. Pyres seem to have a strong hold on instrumentation, but more importantly they demonstrate a collective conviction that transcends all else. But let's remember why we're here: the bounce, the groove, the buzzing swirl of distortion... these make you forget that this metal is pretty fuckin' smart.

The chaotic spiral and post-metal kickstarts find sinking sludge hidden at every step. Atlas Cast No Shadow sheds a long doom introduction to meld the filth and the polish. Stomps bury the pregnant pauses, again showcasing drumwork that picks up, quicks up, and abruptly blacks you out. Call it a pendulum of gargantuan proportions, bro. Tight and trim as The Anchorite is, it's shrouded with a permeating spook. Sure, the song spirals into and above itself, but as it slows and cautiously scans the surroundings, the desperate reflection of shifts and screeches is one of the album's highlights.

For all the quick-slugging riffage, there's a captivating and cathartic tapestry of sound spread far and thick. Most notable on the disc's title track, the atmospheric passages almost nod to Pelican until the vocal varies from caged pleas to confident declarations. Torment builds on a chop and stagger, but the evolution cruises into warbled oblivion and back. Again, timing and execution separate Pyres from their more well-decorated contemporaries.

Continual, tireless evolutions complement the blistering clips. Year Of Sleep is as much atmosphere as it is annihilation. Heave, relent, repeat... Pyres hit fifth gear without scorching the transmission. These songs are all-at-once rueful and hopeful, looking forward but struggling to push upward. Without jarring, the album is powerful and arresting. Every tempo works, every moment is relevant. Almost clean, hard to swallow, and impossible to enjoy just once... this sludge puts on a clinic. Mr. Ford, the doctor will see you now.

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EP Review - ".​.​.​And Bear Witness To The Colossus​.​.​." by Winters.

 "…And Bear Witness To The Colossus…" retells the story of the 1969 moon landing in an alternate universe and ends with the demise of all humankind. It has space travel, religion, death, destruction. Thematically, it's everything you could want from an aggressive band aside from nautical."

Winters could be classed as a mix of Hardcore, post-Metal and Sludge and what these 5 Scots have produced with their debut EP is some seriously heavy, noisy and downright pulverising forms of those 3 genres. The subject matter is very interesting indeed and a quote from their Bandcamp states Winters are "Born from ideas and concepts over months and years" with those ideas and concepts being drawn from various musical styles, film, television, history, comics, games and anything else that manages to bleed into their songs. 

The 3 tracks on this brilliant EP are right in your face making it impossible not to sit up and take notice. The barrage of noise is beautifully relentless, reminding me of some of the work from the likes of Black Sheep Wall; the guitars and bass being tuned low, razor edged double kick drums where appropriate, passionately growled HC style vocals all played at a hectic pace with section changes so quick that if your ears could blink you would miss them. I was quite simply enthralled by the experience of hearing this EP and I came away feeling amped up, full of energy and determination, exactly how these 3 songs are played.

As much as I love ultra heavy and super slow doom and sludge, I find it refreshing to come across a band like Winters that stick to a mostly Hardcore sound but add huge weight to the songs they have crafted. If you like fast paced Hardcore with elements of post-Metal with a hint of Sludge then Winters is where it's at.

Grab their EP now from their Bandcamp where it's available as a "name your own price" download. 

FACEBOOK // BANDCAMP

Sunday Sludge: Black Sheep Wall - "It Begins Again" (EP)

Those ghost-hunting programs on television can't be real, right? Capturing enough footage in single visits to hotbeds of paranormal interference seems too hit-or-miss to carry a series through multiple episodes, let alone multiple seasons. I still watch them, they still make me walk sideways up a flight of stairs, and I still have a strong belief that ghosts walk by us. But the curiosities don't end at whether or not spirits exist. If I'm feeling this uneasy, what are the dead actually feeling?

If there's a medium between myself (the observer) and the dead (the observed), I'd argue that Black Sheep Wall have laid it to tape. 2012's No Matter Where It Ends was a thunderous chug of thick serum that, for all the abrasion it caused, still managed to coat the throat and numb the pain. What follows on 2013's EP It Begins Again is an icy sheet of nightmarish sludge, stumbling in limbo with one hand in the mist and the other in the soil. All at once even more crushing and holding more beauty than its predecessor, Black Sheep Wall marry the tangible with the fleeting.

Immediately lonely and cavernous, the EP opens with Ancient Fvck, an ill-willed hunt entwined in laughter and panning predation. Quite ominous, not quite pretentious for all its post-blackened elements, the canvas of grief and gray acceptance is haunting and exhausting. It's been ages since I've heard anything so heavy in BOTH sound and theme. Black Sheep Wall find a Clockwork Orange-balance of the synthetic, the organic, and the unsettling, employing vocals both robotic and tortured (inviting along original vocalist Jeff Ventimiglia). The rhythms never sink, but they don't dare try and keep afloat either. The choral accompaniment is utterly chilling, and Ancient Fvck is an early candidate for the most complete sludge track of 2013. Oh, what a bold statement, Seth!

Provider follows with a more subdued vibe, lulled by cavernous chants and lilting, tinny licks. But when that sticky sludge storms in, BSW have us right where they want us. Matted fur is merely collateral damage; bass hits below the belt and the hope-laden licks are knocked down with strong structures and incredible control over instruments. Drums are the backbone, but Black Sheep Wall as a whole are beginning to contemplate life as thick repetition wails and wanes. These pockets of dense, jolting buzz punctuate a black tapestry of fractured of existence. Trust the smack across your lips; it may be the last human contact you'll know.

Screening and analyzing Evangelic Exorcism would be like giving thumbs-up to a funeral. Jesus Christ, these somber keys and empty air lose comfort and succeed admirably in their bid to discover an unsettling tone. But when the clicks greet the wind and offer an inhaled, encompassing warmth, the band's confidence shines and listeners are thrown back. It's wild, considering most bands have to shake and stomp to earn your attention. When the piano relents, thank the white noise for its haunt and comfort. And when your stomach sits warm with smooth reflection, thank the old neighbor lady who spent hours in your living room minimizing the distraction of teenage sex. It's not sludge. In fact, it's quite the opposite. And it's fucking gorgeous from brim to barrel.

This is a step forward. Oh, I love those bands who never change lineups or ideologies or simple sound, but when a band's spark can grow to a steady, glowing ember is when their impact becomes fully realized. Bristling, alive, and eerily adrift, It Begins Again holds all you'd want in a record. Crushing at points, completely somber at others, you'd struggle to find a weak corner. If the wandering dead had a playlist, these three tracks would be on it. You won't say it spans the human experience because half of the human experience is unknown. Perhaps, though, this is what the other side sounds like. Goddamn, THAT'S heavy.

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LP Review: AMENRA - Mass V

Hail unto thee who art (Amen)Ra in thy rising!

Towards the end of 2012 AMENRA finally released the results of their latest ritual gathering in the form of  Mass V, coming from the Neurot Recordings camp, the label run by they of the mighty and godlike men of Neurosis.

With 4 tracks of heavy and awe inspiring post metal and doom inspired vibrations, this musical pentacle from Belgium grace our ears with another masterpiece of atmospheric and appropriately solemn odes to a broken world.

Sounding somewhat more bare and stripped down than previous releases, the record still holds much weight. It drones and it revolves with repetitive crushing riffs than do not bore the listener. There are moments of broken hearted calm, a maudlin lament sung out to those drifting within a world not understood, hopelessness consumes all but not all is lost. There is an underlying determination in AMENRA's sound; a striving to break free of the tethers imposed upon the desperate and creative minds of the ones who see a brightness beyond the veil of darkness.

The opener, Boden, is near silent from the off, with an occasional distant noise that sounds like the moving of some mysterious tiny metallic object, while an equally distant guitar drifts towards you with foreboding chords until the track drops into an aural barrage of heaviness with the pained screams of the vocalist grabbing your attention by the ears and wrenching you forward, demanding that you listen, right now! AMENRA have something to say and you had better listen. You will be forever better off for it.
The track is doom laden with low end and crushing riffs but it evolves and falls into a gentle and maudlin lament with spoken words until again the barrage of low end crushing chugging riffs falls upon you.
Keep listening, AMENRA haven't finished yet. In fact they've only just begun.

Second is A Mon Ame, with its opening of dark ambient soundscapes; ghosts drifting through a long forgotten dead forest until you are slammed into a huge wall of sound while a faint echoed voice accompanies a simple and repetitive riff full of crushing sadness. The track evolves into anguished ethereal chants and thudding tribal drum patterns moving as a 7 billion plus grief stricken men funeral march. The track promises to build to a doomed out groove but about half way it drops to soft guitar strokes and even softer whispers telling of hidden and forbidden secrets. This section builds in intensity until the heaviness drops on you again, the anguished screams sounding a call to all, filled with a raw passion and a pure will to overcome the evil that stains every mans heart.

Track 3 Nowena 19.10 features guest vocals from one of the Neurosis gods himself, Scott Kelly. It begins with sadly plucked guitar, gently weeping along to softly sung words. There comes a few brief moments of silence before an almost black metal onslaught of guitar riffs which are slowed only by the down tempo of the drums. The tone changes to a huge wall of low end chugging rhythms with Scott Kelly accompanying the lead screaming vocalist making this track as close to Neurosis' sound is it gets for AMENRA.

Dearborn and Buried is the 4th and final track for Mass V. Simply spaced guitar twangs and bass drum kicks herald a building of intensity until it reaches a doom slab of noise that hits in waves of desperation and ever more intense emotions are invoked. The riffs stay simple and repetitive but I never get bored hearing them as the track changes tempo a few times with the intensity building ever more. Towards the end of the track it falls down into a very slow torrent of feed back and huge bass, heavy guitar strokes and chunky thumping drum pounding breaks the searing noise only to a leave a morose trail of feed back that fades into the abyss of silence.

Certainly, as many have commented, AMENRA can be compared to Neurosis but they do not mimic Neurosis outright. They do have their very own sound, their own atmosphere, their own emotion which falls in huge waves of sonic devastating pleasure. The vocals are howled in heartsick anguish that sound to me like a desperate plea to humanity to lift themselves up from their hypnotic slumber, to see a rising sun, a sun that rises in us all, for we are all AMENRA.

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New Band To Burn One To: SEA OF DISORDER

HEAVY PLANET presents...SEA OF DISORDER!

BAND BIO:

We both were born in Salzburg / Austria where we still live and create our music. Our main influences come from Doom, and we wanted to create melodic, atmospheric but also rough and sometimes brutal sounding mixture of our own style. We are only two persons, and played all the instruments ourselves, did some drum recordings in our hometown Salzburg first, and then recorded the guitars, bass and keyboards in our own little ‘studio’ ( also known as: at home ).

We also feature two guest Musicians on our first EP: Loic Rossetti who sang on the last two [ The Ocean ] Albums ‘Heliocentric’ and ‘Anthropocentric’ appears on Track 3 & 4 with some vocals, which was a big honor to us! Chris Huber from Salzburg, who is mainly known as ‘Wach’ with his own Ambient / Noise Project and released three Albums on various Labels, made the Intro Track for Song 1 & 2.

[ ~ Sea Of Disorder ~ "EP" ] is about ‘something’ awakening deep below the Sea as a metaphor for the beast that slumbers in every human being and is being suppressed by the daily circumstances that are going on in everydays life that block the real emotions and feelings people would and should have…

THOUGHTS:
"With an outpouring of wave after wave of crushing guitars and cymbal crashes, this two-member band from Austria creates a beautiful yet devastating piece of atmospheric post-metal sludge. The band sets the tone by using oceanic sound effects and soft guitar passages in preparation for the release of what lurks beneath. Once the beast has risen a huge guttural howl is emitted creating a towering storm filled with furious and erratic drum fills. The story ends with the epic album closer "Chapter III ~ Reinvigoration / Thalassophobia". This is music that opens your mind, creating a vision that lets you escape the realities of our sometimes mundane existence."

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New Band To Burn One To: ORTEGA

HEAVY PLANET presents...ORTEGA!

BAND BIO:

Ortega is a four-piece sludge/doom collective from the north of The Netherlands. Four men tell a tale of the sea which is told in a broad and visual manner. the sound is best described as dark metal balanced with soundscapes and slow, heavy riffs. Formed in 2007, the band recorded their debut album ‘1634’ in 2009 after a series of gigs, which they eventually released it in January 2010. 1634 was recorded and mixed by JB van der Wal (Herder, Aborted), who is also known for his work as a producer for Dr. Doom, Greyline, Grinding Halt and Suffering Quota. 1634 was released as a concept album and received many great reviews. The CD was distributed online and sold at concerts, packaged in a limited handmade cover. In 2011 they re-released the album on cassette. Aesthetic Death re-released 1634 in 2012 as a deluxe black on black digipack with uv spot varnish, 8-page booklet and renewed artwork. The band went back into the studio in 2011, again with JB van der Wal, to record their follow-up EP, A Flame Never Rises On Its Own, which was released by Badger Records in 2012. In 2012 They went to the studios yet again to record another EP,The Serpent Stirs; their longest output so far, clocking over 18 minutes of psychedelic doom. This release is set for nov/dec 2012 to be released as a limited cassette by Tartarus Records.

THOUGHTS:

"Today's band is merely one you need to hear rather than one to burn one to. This band from the Netherlands brings forth what could be called epic Ocean Doom. The music at one moment sounds like a ship drifting on calm waters then suddenly gets overcome by huge crashing waves caused by a drenching storm and blasts into the ship over and over. Once the devastation commences, the calm waters prevail and you are then guided into the peaceful darkness of the night. The music is carried by cannon-like drumming, a huge wall of sound and throat-shredding vocals. After high acclaim of "A Flame Never Rises On It's Own", the band has just released the 18-plus minute epic "The Serpent Stirs". Go to their Bandcamp page to listen to it now!"

To help others enjoy this awesome band, please leave a comment as to whom you think this band "sounds like" or may be "for fans of". Thanks!

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Sunday Sludge: The Canyon Observer - "Chapter II: These Binds Will Set You Free"

As overwhelming as Earth's size can seem, what's devastating is the distance separating countries, people, languages, and ideas. It's staggering to think there are countless corners of the world one will never see or understand. You can call music a universal language all you want, but that's not to say I'm ever gonna know what the scene is like in a place like Ljubljana, Slovenia. Pretend for a moment that you discover your new favorite band, they've blown your fucking mind with their perfect balance of style and substance, their commitment to crafting sound over pressing the flesh. But shit, now comes the realization you may never catch them live because they're not traipsing the states in a dented van and you'll have trouble even finding (or pronouncing) their hometown on a map. Well, for all the depravity the online community holds, at least there's comfort in digital downloads.

That a band as young as Ljubljana's The Canyon Observer (formed in 2011) can craft such sonic devastation on only their second release is stunning. Chapter II: These Binds Will Set You Free is a progressive and conceptual offering committed to the idea that patient acquiescence to that which is primitively and innately frightening is the only true path toward self-realization. Perhaps that's stretching things, given the Slovene tongue is hardly familiar to this ugly American. But the track titles, as adequately revealing as they are, capture the album's theme less than the patient and heavy-handed atmospheres drawn from the four distinct chapters.

Part I: As We Surrender To Lust is initially thick and choppy, spinning a buzzy stop-start dynamic that's as pleasant as it is jarring. The break employs an odd time-signature as TCO trudge toward an unnamed voice mid-chant. Guitars float on wisp and the post-metal sludge drifts to some hot, dark trenches. The most impressive emergence on the track comes in the form of layer after layer of heavy complexities. And just as elements hit the peak of density, those distant chants become judgmental, unsettling reprimands. The bouncing sludge bass line guides this excellent opener through a dark clunk you won't forget.

The slow pluck of Part II: And The Pleasure Of Pain ominously hovers and reminds post-metallers of why the patience of Isis and Neurosis hits just as hard as distortion and abrasion. A distant mist of voices circles, haunting with ambient trances. Imagine pacing a cool cavern littered with stalagmite spires alongside an eerie, yet strangely comforting, vocal companion. When you're this badly burned and blistered, that shrouded guide is all you've got.

I won't use the term accessible, but it's safe to assert Part III: We Can Descend Into The Unknown is more discernible and concrete than Parts I & II. That sounds strange, given the track's doom lean and nuanced guitar pullbacks. Progressively, vocals move from hope-laced toward an incredible wall of agonized observation. TCO become all encompassing and, amazingly, full of warmth. As listeners have drifted, so too have their reservations. A cool, tiny crack has grown into a clean and inviting ascent, mysterious as it is. And this nine-minute exposition wasn't turning down the lights without bringing back that sludgy buzz, fully balanced with sharp licks to juxtapose the thickness. This is where patience, for both artist and audience, is rewarded.

And as the title would suggest, Part IV: And Drift Away is a slow course through sterile, icy progressions. The swirling tin elements are deceptively cathartic; there's a calm within these bursts of chaos before the ultimate doom-metal implosion/ejection. The massive, crushing malevolence is, in its most extreme form, also a sort of acceptance. Everything this album has thus far built and offered is being unrelentingly dismantled, and this crusty death-blow is a numbingly profound coup de grâce.

As you've likely noted, Chapter II strings together its track titles to form "As we surrender to lust and the pleasure of pain, we can descend into the unknown and drift away." That's a bold statement, and an even bolder concept. But the sounds actually stick to the idea even better than the titles. The Canyon Observer will draw you in and chip away at everything familiar. When you're struck by their ability to effectively change the course of your thoughts, you begin to fully sense that they're in control. You've been set out to sea and left with little more than blind faith. But hey... when that's all you've got, you'd better hold tight.

Band:

Gašper Letonja
Miloš Milošević
Matic Babič
Sašo Paljk
Nik Franko

Bandcamp | Facebook | Site | Kapa Records

Sunday Sludge: Vultures At Arms Reach - "дикари"

Does post-metal really exist? The sea of labels for metal bands has become as vast as the landscape of metal itself. Styles marry and there you have it: a new label. A new genre. The labels are helpful, sure. But when a band BECOMES that label, that band's in trouble. On the other hand, shedding that tag is gonna require evolution without departure. So now you're really in a sticky spot, Ponch. A sophomore offering could be called the most important in an artist's catalog. It can't be the same nine songs we heard eighteen months ago, but it had better not be a total bust-up sellout.

Santa Cruz's Vultures At Arms Reach first caught our attention last summer with +)))((()))((()))((()))-, a heady, surprisingly forward-thinking three-track introduction to a band that hit the heavy from every angle. It was futile to seek a flaw within those 25 minutes, which now places the band under the added pressure of delivering another seamless effort with дикари, their second three-track release in just fifteen months. While adhering to dark atmospheres and post-metal sludge middle-fingers to conventions, the album also showcases a band evolving and sharpening the foundation they've already established.

дикари is less noise than its predecessor, and I can't write this sentence without making "noise" sound like a four-letter word (I love the noise). There's still an ominous grumble, a thought-provoking spook; but there's a confident aggression in these songs that you can't practice. The shoe-gaze has become a steel-toed boot-stare, and the melancholic death rattle of Tsar Bomba, the album's opening track, is juxtaposed with the grinding stop/start skull crush of Savages' choppy, stuttered closing.

That's not to trivialize what lies between those moments. Tsar Bomba buzzes with echo and swirling chants as Brian Rucker's drums circle with ravenous lure. The eerie, pinpoint sadness melts into a broader sound, picking up nicely where +)))((()))((()))((()))- left off and could likely have progressed. Still thick without being abrasive, VAAR have maintained that ability to snag inside your mind and set up camp for days, relishing the haunt. As a self-injuring cutter would argue, the pain of these cuts is what allows relief. Sounds strange, sure; but Travis Howe's guitar takes the blame here, slicing or buzzing or doing whatever the fuck he commands.

Thicker and murkier is The Lions Den, though Howe's guitars still can't stop their racing thoughts. Growing shrill and countering the dirge amazingly, a tin-drum pounding tags along to maintain an even parity. Gabe House's keys are neither too big nor small, filling a gap that listeners didn't even know existed. Listeners can enjoy a stroll through brilliant pacing under a structure that is EXACTLY why this band sounds as amazing as they do. The buzzing grind may mask the songwriting, but the need for traditional composure is still non-existent. If only every listener could exercise the patience and non-presumptuousness a band like VAAR requires...

Savages won't let VAAR be mistakenly labeled "inaccessible" or "pretentious," however. The low drag and slow plod seem to observe without interfering, and there's a detectable pattern carried out through Nate Kotila's sludge-bass patience. Howe sputters and coos on guitar, those blanketed atmospheres are drilled and sprayed with drum assaults, and the robot-clone vocal leads straight into grind. Luckily for all of us, there's no shaking the pensive, troubled ambiance. Is that their bread and butter? Well, that's difficult to say. With this many arrows in their quiver, you could argue the band pull equally from all emotions.

дикари stands on its own as an incredible step forward for a band that had already found not only their balls but also themselves. Their not stepping out of their realm, they're expanding it. And why would we expect anything else? Every track they've recorded has expanded, whether we're talking about expanding depths of sonic haze or simply one listener's own expanding interest. Vultures At Arms Reach are swimming upstream against a current that so often only wants a sea of automatons on either side of the stereo. They're earning their stripes by not only thinking, but by expecting the same from audiences. They're not gonna insult your intelligence by playing something you've already heard. But they're not gonna leave you holding your dick, either.

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New Band To Burn One To: BURWEED

HEAVY PLANET presents...BURWEED!

BAND BIO:

The area of Karhula in South-East Finland is the origin of numerous metal acts such as Omnium Gatherum, Total Devastation, Domination Black, and Demonic Death Judge just to name a few. Musically, however, Burweed dives in the murkier waters introducing a thick atmosphere, a sense of ever-present danger, and ocean-sized melodies to the genre of alternative metal: their brand new EP “Eyes Down South” is a strong display of this.

The first foundations of Burweed were cast in 2008 when Toni and Eetu began to experiment with post-metallish soundscapes in the legacy of bands such as Neurosis and Callisto. In 2009 the line-up was reinforced with Lauri on drums and a bit later with Sakari Salonen on guitar. Soon the recordings of the self-titled debut EP were on the way. “Burweed”-EP was released in April 2010 and it was immediately recognized by listeners and received gratifying reviews in media. The sound of the EP was described as sad, atmospheric and crushing; yet with glimpses of hope here and there.

After touring in support of their self-titled debut, Burweed has been trimmed into a three-piece band as guitarist Sakari left the band. The new release “Eyes Down South” will mark the first live shows of this new line-up. Working as a trio opened up completely new approaches to songwriting. By writing new material with the trio base in mind, the songs became more versatile, coarse, and, surprisingly, more melodic. It also gave space to more adventurous arrangements, giving more room for each band member to perform. With “Eyes Down South” Burweed has truly found its own voice.



THOUGHTS:


"Wave after wave of crushing riffs unmercifully bludgeon your ears until eventually giving way to a calming lull only giving you time to catch your breath only to get slapped in the face again. This Finnish 3-piece known as Burweed plants an abundance of deeply rooted post-metal sludge into the mind of the listener. Using wonderwall atmosphere and shapeshifting layers of sound, the music settles into a mind-numbing psychedelic experience. Vocals bark amongst the seismic riffing on EP opener "Less To Come" then tears into a fuzzy breakdown eventually leading back into the bone crushing mayhem. The madness continues despite the title of the opening track and does so with reckless abandon eventually culminating into the epic EP closer "Eyes Down South". Take notice because Burweed is a band to watch."


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Sunday Sludge: Earthrise - "Eras Lost"

How many of you really think Earth is in trouble come December?  The Mayan calendar is reaching its end, but does that necessarily equate to clutching one another, praying, and confessing our deepest secrets on the eve of what would normally be just another day?  I can't say I buy it.  Four dudes from Minneapolis, however, may make you doubt everything you thought you knew about chaos, Armageddon, and any apocalypse.

Driven by science, technology, and humanity's lack of progress, Earthrise's debut album, Eras Lost, is as damning and (perhaps) prophetic as any scroll or scripture.  The audio settings won't matter; the band provides far more volume than you're capable of handling this morning.  And the post-metal sludge is only half the appeal here. These eleven tracks drag you under fault lines and bludgeon your dogma until you accept the demise of everything you knew.

The fuzzy history-class sample of Challenger Deep buzzes through static to break into a massive doom-drone slug to the temple.  Peppered with faint hope, this solid concrete block of an opener uses agonized vocals and drifting licks to create a beautiful duality.  Mood and atmosphere are somehow detectable amid a crumbling, decrepit landscape of decay.  The grinding sludge is brutal, scraping death from pavement as a cloud of choppy smoke splits bone. Lock your doors.

Mass devastation strikes hard on Titan, rife with nervous, acid-rain ticks and steamroll purrs.  The avalanche of concaved despair burns at your skin and stomps like an angry, drunken giant.  When they assert "the end is fucking nigh," you can't help but cautiously nod.  Former Worlds, however, is far more technical and methodical.  The track sounds like science until sludge-doom crashes and vocals ache for what once was.  The sonic tautology is layered with buzzes, pushes, and third-degree burns.  A break allows for reflection on honor and an otherworldly perspective is twisted through a bass tone of yielded aggression.  Oh, but the chaos is never far; glass shards pelt your skin and a bleak future re-emerges.

The immediate precision of Polar Low shrugs off Mastodon and Baroness comparisons and creeps to a brief crawl before buzz-saw tempo returns.  The track builds, tightens its choke, and let's wrath grab the wheel.  The death knell is merely a realization of the unbearable but unavoidable, carried out on slow Taps.

Relentless marks a turning point on the album, but not for the false hope the bass roll directs.  Sure, it's a bright spot smacked into the album's overt darkness, but the honest vocals and pleasant melodies simply lull us into the fuzzy fadeout and ungodly crunch lean-in to Mirovia, where the thinking man's return to gravity is fully realized.  Plunging to the ocean floor, never allowing for a gasp, listeners are buried under a bed of bones as the planet's constant evolution/devolution is lauded and loathed.

Grinding plod on Eighteen Hundred is perhaps the album's most befitting sludge-tag.  Drums are picked-up and brutalized here, while the message is blatant.  Thick, unyielding, unsettling... Earthrise see themselves as truthsayers, prophets of doom.  "Mass destruction on an apocalyptic scale," they assure us.  Breaking, buzzing, hovering, looming... this calm before the buzz waits for guitars to burn through hope until we're assured: "The sun will not share its light again."

Transmission is an intermission of sorts, but I'll never argue with a doom tie-in that boasts settling ash and slowly descending clouds of chaos.  The technological meltdown is as ominous and unnerving as it is calming and cathartic.  The tandem with Exhale is blanketed darkness in the continued vein of the end times.  The grind and chop creates a chaotic trot via guitar pullback and a wall of congested filth.  The message here, and everywhere on the disc, is a heavy one: "...as the oceans flow upward in protest, with nothing to hold them down."  Well, fuck.  Let's just enter this foggy creep of a misty morning and look at what the night left behind. Your ears are ringing, your skin is burning, and you've already realized that it doesn't matter.

The clean "save us" lyric can't help Frame Dragging from serving as the album's thick, grating aggressor.  Flames surround as we're dragged by the ankles into a pit of insanity.  This murky rumble is beyond fitting as a closer. Your house is gonna shake, while the choppy, intermittent, and unpredictable elements slowly crawl into your pained acceptance.  "Devour me"? Ugh, go ahead!  I don't even know where the fuck I am right now.

Earthrise aren't trying to confuse you, scare you, or justify your warped tenets. But they take no issue with calling bullshit on humanity's failures and bracing for a stern fucking lashing.  The topple won't simply include tangible structure and outlined process, but also the fundamental ethic adopted by society, community, family, and individual that an established operative path is safe from greater swells of power that are limitless and unmerciful. Eras Lost is committed to a broader context, one that allows for acceptance and patience. But somehow we're still licking syrup from the corners of our mouths and hoping Earthrise never succumb to complacency.

Members:
Mike Britson
Tom Hillmann
Jimmy Neumann
Andy Rutledge

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CD Review: The Ocean - Anthropocentric

As seen on The Klepto's Guide:

After my write-up of the superb Heliocentric, I was expecting something sonically akin to it with The Ocean's next release with mixed success. Anthropocentric, the second full-length release by the band, follows it's predecessor... sort of. While Heliocentric was a venture into the unknown, merging sounds and thoughts together in creative ways, Anthropocentric is more angry sounding, focusing more on the NWOAHM influences then anything else. While they do try to mix in songs into the mix, most notably "The Grand Inquisitor III: A Tiny Grain of Faith" which is beautifully haunting, they are just few and far between. While the album is still good - a really good collection of head-banging material - it isn't what I wanted following the wet-dream that is Heliocentric.
By no means is this a bad album, I find myself jamming out to several of the songs, with no 'bad' songs to speak of, just a mix of 'good' and 'ok.' It's just missing the flare of the previous release. I'm sure if I had heard the albums in reverse order I would think it was a build up to greatness. But as it stands, the group hit it's peak, and are now on the way down the other side. Still high above the clouds of mediocrity, but no longer at the peak of awesomeness.
Another quick article about a band I apparently don't know enough about. I'm going to give the rest of their discography a listen through, to better understand the group. Although from what I've read, the previous works sound more like the quintessential post-metal of which I am not a huge fan.

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CD Review: The Ocean - Heliocentric

As seen on The Klepto's Guide: 

I threw on Heliocentric, what I thought was The Ocean's newest album (until I saw they had just released Anthropocentric), just to have some background noise after I got home from a dull day at work. I just wanted something that would fade into the background as I checked my email and chatted with the roommate. After the first song or two I realized that I had stumbled upon something different.
Where most post-metal albums (the ones I've heard anyway) tend to be atmospheric and trance-like, Heliocentric was the opposite. It contained songs with full thoughts and structure, Not only that but it also had songs of different composition and instrumentation mixed in. It wasn't the same old picture rehashed track after track.
Besides the ho-hum intro track, the rest of the album contained solid sonic gold. This is just a quick little article, because it was my first listen of Heliocentric, and I have previously not liked any other album by The Ocean, so I don't have a lot to say. I feel now that I have to go back and give the rest a try, after hearing the (truly) newest album, Anthropocentric, of course.
As it stands now, Heliocentric, is one of the best albums I have heard of the year, and would make a great addition to my Favorite Albums page. I want to listen to it a couple more time before I do a full write-up of that however. Let the waves of The Ocean caress my brain a little more. Keep tuned for that and a following article (probably) about Anthropocentric.

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CD Review: VRSA - Old Man Gray

As seen on The Klepto's Guide:

VRSA comes to me via Reg here at Heavy Planet, after hearing of my love of all things stoner and doom. I tip my hat to him for this interesting foray into doom, stoner, and the un-understandable.

VRSA is a hard band to categorize, although everyone (on the net) calls them some form of doom, it's not the first thing I would think of. I mean that I can definitely hear the doom influences, and even the occasional spattering of stoner throughout (although I wouldn't call them a stoner band either), it's just not what I would expect to hear when handed a 'doom' album. It's almost like alternative doom, or dark metal or something....I can't classify it. The nearest comparison in style and sound is that of Baroness - but even that is a loose one. Certain sounds, styles and tracks (especially close to the end) do bring Baroness to mind, but only for a moment; then the group dives into another direction and the feeling is lost.

Old Man Gray is a mash-up of slow (but not doom), and fast (but not real fast) guitars, with drum beats to match. The fourth track, "Episonic," is the key example of this, one guitar plays a mellow lick repeatedly while the other guitar - with the help of the set - chime in periodically with a up-tempo chord bit, then fade out, then back in again; followed by a semi-breakdown section where all the instruments come together at the quicker tempo for a combined jam. It works pretty damn well (also no lyrics on this one).
The lyrics themselves are multi-focused, with some songs having clean vocals, others with a splash of growl. Some tracks focus the singer in the foreground, with his words crisp and clean; while others have it faded more into the background, battling with the guitars for center stage. It sounds really weird - which it is - but it works great for them.
At about the halfway point the album takes an interesting spin; it begins to sound more like a traditional doom album, and in the same token, becomes mostly instrumental. In a move that is reminiscent of Baroness, of the last five tracks (starting with "Quaalude"), only two have any real lyrics to them (the others have some sound bits spiked in occasionally), and even within those the vocals are pushed to the back. The strange thing is that is is the band's strongest section, where the instrumentals do tend to get a tad tedious, but the couple of vocalized tracks are good displays of the odd doom/post-metal that VRSA has been attempting for the entire album. They try to follow in the sludge/ambient wake of Baroness (the best comparison I can think of), but don't pull it off as well

This album is good, not great, but good. I can't put my finger on what they do well or bad, but sometimes you don't need to. This is kind of a crap review/introduction to VRSA, but I can't pinpoint anything about the album; it's style, what makes it good, what stands out, it's all a swirling, living creature of an album, and while it may chew up your favorite pair of shoes, you still love it.

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CD Review:As We Draw-Lines Breaking Circles

As We Draw – Lines Breaking Circles

CD Review courtesy of Zac Boda

I am very lucky to have the chance to review As We Draw’s “Lines Breaking Circles”. First, I want to express that this review will be very different from my past reviews. This style of music and album cannot be broken down into songs. This is not for the slight of heart. This album is a challenge, experience, and a journey through a violent storm. I was introduced to this trio from Laval, France with this subject line, “Review of probably the best post metal release of the year?” Needless to say, my hopes were set high simply from receiving this email. As We Draw brings memories of my early experiences with Pelican, Isis, and Neurosis. If you truly dedicate sometime and attention to listen (I mean really listen) you will walk away fulfilled. I cannot describe a high or low point of the album; it simply flows and crashes against gargantuan waves of a stormy sea. I love the album artwork; it truly fits the adventure you are preparing to set upon. I feel I am looking out the port side window of our ship, and all I see are the waves crashing against us. Enough of my ranting, if you are a fan of post, avant garde, music you absolutely have to give these guys a listen (hell they are giving the album away free). I hope you enjoy as I have. Well done AWD, well done.

If I have to “grade” this album: 4.5 out of 5

Bio:

As if you haven't had enough of these Isis, Cult Of Luna cocksuckers, with their so-called cheesy parts and badass cathartic sonic explosions... Of course, one can wonder about the relevence of playing some post-metal in 2010. But when it's done with such talent, such faith as these three young guys from Laval, either you take your hat off to them, or either your heart is made of dog food. «Lines Breaking Circles», is made for those who are still crying over Breach's split and years when Cult Of Luna still made you have a boner. This is quite a severe reproof to all those who spend more time twitting their promo photos than polishing their art in the studio. These guys are true workaholics and such gifted aesthetes that they're starting to get sickening. Especially knowing that they can kick your ass on stage as well as on your turntable. But you can't really hate them, can you? Not when you listen to these killer choruses sponsored by Kleenex on «Scum Of The Earth» or those huge slaps on «Draft» or again... Alright, enough of this, you already got that it is the same deal as their buddies from Birds In Row : LAVAL EQUALS LIFE.

Details:

• Artwork by Bart «Hello, I Am Unemployed» & Amaury Sauvé
• Graphic conception by Amaury Sauvé
• Recorded live by Amaury Sauvé & Sylvain Biguet
• Mixed by Sylvain Biguet
• Screeprinted & assembled by the band & Birds In Row
• Mastered by Alan Douches (Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan...)
• Available (pack LP+CD only) on Throatruiner Records (FR), Free Edge (FR), Demon Spawn (DE), Dare The Divine (CZ) & Guranje S Litice (CZ)  300 copies pressed (100 white 12’’, 200 black 12’’)

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