A Music Blog

Stone Wings - Bird Of Stone Wings

2006-07-03T05:23:00.000-07:00

Formerly known as Elysium, these Australian death-doomsters have released an excellent debut album "Bird Of Stone Wings." The album is a mix of melodic death metal and doom, culminating in the epic 23+ minute final title track.

Perhaps I'm too much of a black metal fan to properly describe what this album sounds like, but I'll certainly do my best. The closest band to their sound, in my limited knowledge of death-doom, is Morgion, but such a comparison is hopeless. Stone Wings is extremely melodic! There are keybooards providing beautiful atmospheric background chords, and they are especially noteworthy in "By Hell or Highwater." That track is one of my favorites! It opens with nicely played guitar arpeggio underneath a gorgeous melodic guitar line. Vocals are a groweled mid-range rasp, well-suited to the music. "Breaching The Castle Wall" shows the more death metal side of the band. It sounds almost like Subterranean-era In Flames. The final track is, of course, the masterpiece *doom* track of the album. Extremely slow, epically mournful, and grandiose, I'm counting 32 beats a minute here, it is most certainly worthly of any funeral dirge! Midway through the song, there is a short faster section, but it quickly disappears, and what emerges is sad but uplifting melodic doom.

Finally, the production is crytal clear, and unlike many doom albums, the guitars are not overpowering or crushing; there can only be so many doom bands that can try the heavy and slow as fuck routine. The mix is balanced between guitar, drums, keys, and voice; while I think the bass (still very audible) can stand to be slightly more prominent.

I must thank my friend for introducing this band to me. I've enjoyed it enough to finally track down a real copy of this self-released album through the band members. And while they haven't released anything since "Bird of Stone Wings," a split 7" with Mournful Congregation is in the works. Please, please, please visit their myspace page here: www.myspace.com/birdofstonewings! You'll find more information on how to obtain this hard-to-find gem on the page and hear some excellent samples.

Monolithe - II

2006-04-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

I find that I enjoy doom metal, especially funeral doom whenever the pensive mood strikes me, or whenever I have a long stretch of time to just relax and enjoy music. This morning I had the pleasure of working on a long assignment, and the perfect accompaniment was Monolithe!

I first heard about Monolithe from a friend, who played the first album on his radio show. It grabbed me as no other funeral doom did; the music was was epic, cohesive, and melodic. Unfortunately, I was only able to listen for a short while, but the name Monolithe stuck in my mind. I was impressed enough to track down both Monolithe albums. However alike these two releases are in length, structure, and mood, I find that I prefer the second release over the first and always crave to hear that one first.

Supposedly a side project of Sylvain and Marc from French doomsters Anthemon, and also featuring Nicolas from gothic metallers the Old Dead Tree, Monolithe have already become a well-respected band among doom metal circles. Dealing with the origin of mankind is no easy task, but this is what Monolithe attempts to accomplish in their full-length releases.

II is an epic 50 minutes and 25 seconds of languid, fluid, and mutating funeral doom. The atmosphere is amazing, we often hear long sustained keyboard lines floating behind the distorted guitars and low gutteral growls. The piece starts with some ambient noise from which a guitar line fades in, and we are treated to background strains of accordion as the piece progresses. The tempo holds constant as various lines of guitar moves to and fro often repeating, but occasionally something new. The piece ends just as mysteriously as it begins, slowly fading way into the void.

This release is metal at its other extreme: slow and long. Definitely recommended for fans of pensive funeral doom. Personally, I find it very relaxing yet stimulating at the same time; it wonderful to have on the background when doing something creative!

Nocte Obducta - Stille

2006-04-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent EP from German black metallers Nocte Obducta. A different direction than their previous material, the music is dark and melodic, often switching between clean guitar tones and aggressive distortion. Most of the songs are modestly paced dreamy and soothing, something you can meditate to. Vocals range from low soft whispering growls to black metal shrieks, to choral-like chanting.

The second track "Tochter Des Mondes" opens up with a clean, lamenting Pink Floyd-esque guitar line that soon distorts into the main theme of the song. The next track, "Der Regen" is more of a straight forward metal song with low death metal growls.

I am honestly impressed with the variety of music offered on this short EP. Stand out tracks are "Die Schwane Im Moor," "Tochter Des Mondes," and "Vorbei." Overall this release is a cut above the standard black metal fare. I haven't heard Nocte Obducta's subsequent releases, but if this is any indication of their new direction, I'll be picking them up immediately!

Drudkh - Blood In Our Wells

2006-04-01T09:03:00.002-08:00

Let me start off by saying that Drudkh is an NSBM band; therefore boycotters of such music need to read no further. I do not, in any shape or form, support such ideology, but I do believe that good music should at least be recognized. So... here we are.

Blood In Our Wells is the Ukrainian band's fourth album, and I can easily say it's my second favorite release behind Autumn Aurora. The first thing that came to mind when I heard it was its similarity to the first album Forgotten Legends and the latest one. However, unlike The Swan Road, the production here is clear enough for everything to be heard, but still retains the usual Burzum-esque black metal feel.

The songs are long and catchy, with a folky-pagan element to them. But do not think this is another "folk metal" band like Storm, or Otyg. Drudkh is still very much heavy metal influenced. We hear emotional guitar riffs that carry the epic feeling of paganism and nature. There are some excellent guitar solos scattered across the disk, and my favorite one falls about 40 seconds into the song "When The Flame Turns To Ashes". I don't think I've ever heard such a wankery solo from another black metal band!

I'll go out on a limb here and say that the moments of total-rock-out-metal, intertwined with calm, mellow acoustic parts are reminiscent of bands such as Opeth. The only difference here is that Drudkh's vocals are 100% deep harsh rasps. Despite having tracks of 10 minutes in length or more, "Blood in Our Wells" never gets boring. In fact, it whets my appetite for more Drudkh. I've been playing this album since it was released two weeks ago, and haven't gotten tired of it yet. This is black metal you can headbang to!

Solstafir - I Blodi Og Anda

2006-03-14T09:36:00.001-08:00

Here is an incredible release from these true Icelandic Vikings. Before I Blodi Og Anda, I had the pleasure of hearing an earlier mCD entitled Til Valhallar. It accompanied me on a trip to Yellowstone, and the fast punk-ish melodic black metal, coupled with the atmosphere of being in some of the most gorgeous scenery in the country created quite the unforgettable experience.

On this release, the music is more melodic and on a grander scale. It invokes epic scenes of fjords, lakes, glaciers, mountains, anything but the old and tired forest imagery usually found in black metal. We hear occasional interludes of acoustic guitar, and *gasp* female vocals! The upbeat punk spirit remains, albeit a bit held back this time, but overall this creates a more polished cohesive release. The variety on the album is incredible. "Tormentor" stands out as a fast, unrelenting track of crazy frantic blast beats and contains a cool guitar solo near the end. On the other hand "Arstidir Daudans" is a melodic, epic piece that starts with a beautiful acoustic intro under which female vocals, courtesy of Hulda "Dula," emerge.

I don't think I've heard anyone quite like Solstafir in style. They put former Icelandic musician Falkenbach to shame. Despite my dislike of most fast black metal, Solstafir stands out to show us that not all fast black metal has to be cold and grim. They are certainly a band to look into if you are willing to try something different.

Unholy - The Second Ring Of Power

2006-02-16T19:35:00.000-08:00

I ordered this album without any knowledge of the band or any preview of the music what-so-ever. In fact, it was a replacement for a Nokturnal Mortum cd that was out of stock in my rather large order to Battle Kommand. I'm glad I took the risk, because this is one of the best doom metal albums to cross my ears for some time.

Finnish band Unholy has flown mostly under the radar of metal, and their current disbandment certainly doesn't do much to help. As far as I can gather, the band formed in the late 80s, and lasted a decade putting out four albums, two demos, and an ep, before finally breaking up in 1999.

Surprisingly, this was released in 1994. You would never guess it though from the sound of it. The album is well produced and clear. The music has the usual slow doomy guitars, but one thing stands out. Unlike generic doom bands these days that merely play really, really slow chord progressions, Unholy experiment in their musical direction. You may occasionally hear some guitar leads on tracks like "Dreamside" and "Procession of Black Doom."

I would compare the atmosphere and mood of this album to be Disembowelment; it has the same drugged-up, sluggish halocinogenic feeling. Occasionally, the strains of female vocals are heard. They are not angelic nor operatic, but rather deeper and fleshier sounding rather lost, almost chant-like.

This has been one of my best musical finds this year. I would highly suggest any doom metal fan to check this out.

Xasthur / Leviathan Split

2006-01-07T19:25:00.001-08:00

Here we have an excellent split album from two top notch USBM artists, Xasthur and Leviathan, released by Battle Kommand Records, a label run by Azentrius of Nachtmystium. An LP version was released earlier in 2005, but on this CD version, we find three additional tracks from Xasthur, including an excellent cover of Katatonia's "Palace of Frost", and one additional track from Leviathan, a cover of Judas Iscariot's "Where the Winter Beats Incessant".

As a Xasthur fan, I was not disappointed by the quality of these tracks. They are very similar to previous output, having much of the same tortured screams, and suicidal-depressive sound as the latest full-length To Violate the Obvious. The Katatonia cover is a unique anomaly, as previous Xasthur covers were of cult black metal bands; I kind of like the more blackened sound of it!

The sweetest surprise of this disk was Leviathan. Honestly, while I found Leviathan's latest album The Tentacles of Horror quite bland and uninteresting, I was immediately taken by their tracks on this split. These tracks are slow, depressive, atmospheric-minimalist black metal in the vein of Wrest's solo project Lurker of Chalice, but better! "The Remotest Cipher" is one of Leviathan best tracks. I love the echo effects on Wrest's screams, seemingly giving the music a dream-like effect; of course, one realizes that this is no dream, but rather a tortured nightmare. The latter half of the track is amazing... featuring soaring guitars over a constant barrage of double bass beats. Leviathan does a great job on the Judas Iscariot cover, exactly what you would expect after hearing the first two tracks.

This is a must-have for fans of the emerging USBM scene; it's worth it for the Leviathan tracks alone!

Weakling - Dead As Dreams

2005-12-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Perhaps one of the hidden gems of the US black metal scene, Weakling's one and only album "Dead As Dreams" is a masterpiece in the black metal genre. Originally recorded in 1998, the album remained unheard for two years before tUMULt records finally released it in 2000.

It is hard to imagine that this now defunct band comes from San Francisco; their sound is infinitely more developed and mature than most other fledgling black metal bands in the US scene. The music is fast and blastbeat filled, but epically drawn out, seamlessly morphing onto new territory when the time arises. The entire album plays fluidly from beginning to end. While no track is shorter than 10 minutes, this 76 minute album is hypnotic and trance-inducing, ending always too soon.

My favorite is the 20 minute title track "Dead As Dreams." The slow buildup of sound and guitar melody is gorgeously ethereal. Screams are tortured in agony. Weakling takes its influences from the Norwegian black metal scene but takes these and warps them into something strange, and beautifully tortured. Make no mistake, Weakling sounds like no other. This album is a must have for any fan of black metal.

2005 - The Year In Review

2005-12-12T15:38:00.002-08:00

Can you believe it? There's three weeks left until 2006! Well, in honor of the death of 2005... I'd like to share some of the albums I enjoyed this year, as well as some that didn't quite make the cut. Here we go....

Top Ten 2005
1. Arcturus - Sideshow Symphonies
Excellent album, I think Simen's vocals really match their evolving musical direction. He is a much better clean singer than Garm, plus the burp on Demonpainter is hilarious. I find the album more laid back than their previous efforts, but that does not detract from the quality at all.

2. Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw
One of the most interesting bands to emerge in recent years! This album is their best work to date. Along with Isis, Callisto, and Cult of Luna, they are forging new direction in the atmospheric sludge genre.

3. Opeth - Ghost Reveries
All around an excellent release, and certainly one of their best. It's heavier, mellower, and proggier than anything else they've done. Opeth has managed to transcend all genres. So why isn't this number one? Let's just say I tend to prefer early Opeth .

4. Alcest - Le Secret
This is one of the best eps I've ever heard in my life. If Alcest had released an album of this material, they would certainly be at number one this year. This is beautiful melodic french black metal at its finest!

5. Asgaut - Village
These musicians deserve much recognition! I've been eagerly awaiting this release since their demo was out back in 2003. This group is similar to mid-era Opeth in sound, but that is just the starting point for these Israelis. The influences are many, folk, black metal, and classical to name a few!

6. November's Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure
This is the best November's Doom album period. No longer doom anymore, the songwriting is much improved and kicks serious ass. I'm very happy they got rid of the female vocals; I don't think it fit very well with their music. Kudos to Paul and the others!

7. Drudkh - The Swan Road
A different sound than previous releases, but then stagnation is never an option for these guys. This album moves toward a more traditional black metal production with a faster pace while still retaining the trademark Drudkh pagan and nature atmosphere.

8. Evoken - Antithesis of Light
DOOM... in the most traditional, no-nonsense way! I'm not a doom expert by any means, in fact I prefer melodic death and black metal more, but quality is quality no matter what the genre.

9. Sigh - Gallows Gallery
Wow, this was a bit unexpected. Sigh has moved away from their black metal roots and incorporated more of a traditional heavy metal sound with the usual outrageous 70s prog, jazz, and eastern influences. The only minor gripe I have about this album is the murky production. Another great release from these Japanese metallers!

10. Shining - IV - The Eerie Cold
Progressive suicidal black metal, what more could you want? The first track is absolutely killer (pun intended).

Honorable Mentions:
Arsis - A Diamond For Disease (an ep, but very good)
One of the most creative melodic death bands to emerge in recent years!

Deathspell Omega - Kénôse
Not as good as Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice but a worthy piece of black metal nonetheless.

Dark Tranquillity - Character
I prefer Damage Done, but this one brings back some of the aggression of The Mind's I. The production is precise and all songs are very catchy.

Falkenbach - Heralding The Fireblade
This is a re-recording of the band's first album Fireblade plus additional bonus material. Very good!

Lurker of Chalice - Lurker of Chalice
Solo project of Wrest of Leviathan. This is a good balance of black metal and dark ambient.

Mourning Beloveth - A Murderous Circus
More doom, more preferable than the latest Shape of Despair (and I happen to think quite highly of them), although The Sullen Sulcus is better.

Mutiilation - Rattenkönig
Not quite as good as their previous material, but still better than those other LLN bands.

Ocean - Here Where Nothing Grows
Three songs, 65 minutes of slow sludge DOOM! This band deserves more recognition.

Pantheist - Amartia
I really love this release! Songs are diverse with temp changes, even sounding black metal at times! Didn't quite make the top ten, mostly because I loved O Solitude, and this one was slightly weaker.

Subterranean Masquerade - Suspended Animation Dreams
I've never heard any of their previous material, but this album was a pleasant surprise. A good mix of death, avantgarde, and progressive, with piano bits thrown here and there.

Sunn O))) - Black One
As the name suggests, this is doom drone with black metal influeces. Features Malefic of Xasthur on vocals (or rather... tortured screams).

Swallow The Sun - Ghosts of Loss
Great album from these Fins! Similar to Slumber, Rapture, mid era Katatonia, etc...

Taake - Doedskvad
A fitting end to the Taake black metal trilogy!

Twilight - Twilight
An interesting project of prominent USBM (Leviathan, Xasthur, Nachtmystium, Krieg, Draugar) musicians.

Tyrant - Grimoires
Symphonic black metal from the land of the rising sun!

There were a lot of "meh" releases that did absolutely for me (I'll probably get slaughtered for this *runs and hides*, but Nevermore, Extol, Paradise Lost, Naglfar, Demons and Wizards, Korpiklaani, Kamelot, Hypocrisy, Horna, Graveland, etc... weren't that good), however there was nothing especially horrible except...

Dissapointments:
Nattefrost - Terrorist
Like seriously... WTF? I know this is tongue-in-cheek, but that's not an excuse for poor music. The music is bland, and Nattefrost sounds like he's puking from a night of... wait a minute... that's what he always sounds like.

Belenos - L'Ancien Temps

2005-11-23T21:56:00.000-08:00

Finally it's here! I've been waiting for this album to arrive in my dirty rotten hands for 2 months. After finding the digi-slipsleeve sold out nearly everywhere, I finally tracked it down on a Swedish metal mail-order site. Luckily, for those who are not able to grab the digi version, Adipocere Records will be pressing a normal double cd version in early 2006.

Relatively obscure French black metal act Belenos has re-released their early demos, Notre Amour Eternel and Triste Pensee in this 2 disc album collection. Originally released in 1996 and 1997 respectively, these demos by no means sound dated. The music is fast melodic black metal along the likes of Nattens Madrigal Ulver mixed with Burzum and put through the usual raw black metal production.

Negurã Bunget - N Crugu Bradului

2005-11-12T11:05:00.000-08:00

Majestic, epic, sweeping pagan dark metal is the music Negurã Bunget make. Somehow, I feel that if Lord of the Rings had a metal soundtrack instead of the typical movie cheese made up by James Horner, this will be it. Negurã Bunget hails from Timisoara, Romania infamously known to outsiders as Transylvania. The band's spiritual ideology in nature is evident in the physical manifestation of this release on Italian label code666. Each cd box is handmade, containing a real leaf inside.

At times chaotic and at times brooding, N Crugu Bradului sweeps the listener up through an epic journey deep within the cold wintry Carpathian Mountains. The album explores Romainian folklore, yet the tracks are entitled simply I, II, III, and IIII, with none of them shorter than 12 minutes. Enslaved's Isa springs to mind when hearing this, yet the analogy is inappropriate. Isa was released almost 2 years after N Crugu Bradului. Regretfully, I had not discovered Negurã Bunget until fairly recently.

This is highly recommended for all fans of epic drawn out music along the likes of Weakling, Enslaved, and Burzum.

Cult of Luna - Salvation

2005-11-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

Atmospheric sludge metal, pioneered by the likes of Isis and Neurosis, has spread to the shores of Umeå Sweden. While Sweden is a land better known for its melodic death metal output, Cult of Luna sounds more like US bands Pelican mixed with Mastodon than country-mates Opeth or In Flames.

This release, Salvation, sounds very similar to latter-day Isis in the epic-like structure of songs, albeit not quite as mellow as the newest Isis releases Oceanic and Panopticon. Formed after the breakup of hardcore band Eclipse, Cult of Luna still retains a dash of hardcore here and there, most noticeably in the vocals.

Slow, repetitive, but never boring, the music sweeps over you like soothing waves over beach sand. "Waiting for You" starts quiety with a slow, clean, mellow guitar and drum jam. Slowly, newer elements are added one by one building tension, and momentum until distortion kicks in about halfway through. "Crossing Over" is almost post-rock Godspeed You! Emperor-ish until the last two minute build up. All tracks are excellently on par with anything Isis or Pelican have done, perhaps with even more variety.

If the breakout of Pelican is any indication of the recent media exposure of atmospheric sludge, Cult of Luna are destined to become vastly popular.

Mystic Forest - Romances

2005-11-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

This is one of those albums that I really enjoy, but never think to play on a daily basis. Mystic Forest is a black metal band from France, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's just another Les Legions Noir sounding rip-off band.

Mystic Forest is a severe constrast to the stereotypical raw, under-produced, cold and grim LLN French black metal. The black sheep of the family, mastermind Stefan Kozak incorporates romantic, melancholic Chopin piano interludes, flutes, and accordion-like guitar into this 42 minute opus. The music is very French indeed, I can just imagine strolling down the Champs-Elysees, seeing the black-and white striped beret-wearing Frenchmen carrying bagettes.

If Mortifera added pianos and accordions, they might sound something like this. This release is highly recommended for all fans of well-produced melodic black metal. Darkthrone fans, avoid.

New Blog

2005-11-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

Hello there! This blog is mainly about the newest music that's been grabbing my attention lately. I suppose in a couple of years, it'll be interesting to take a look back and see how my music tastes have evolved.

I mainly enjoy three very different genres of music: classical, progressive rock, and metal. Strangely enough, I discovered them (or perhaps heavily delved into the genre) in that listed order.

Classical was easy. When I was four and still living in Shanghai, my parents scolded me for fooling around at dinner. Turns out, I was pretending to play violin with one chopstick held horizontally to my chin, and the other dragging back and forth perpendicular to it. I finally started learning violin in fourth grade through a program in elementary school, and I've been playing ever since. That was 12 years ago!

Through my participation in various orchestras, I came to appreciate the nuances of some of classical music's greatest composers, especially the later romantic and early 20th century masters like Bartok, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mahler, Profokiev, and Stravinsky.

I clearly remember the single event that made me a diehard progressive rock fan back in the early days of high school. My local library held an impressive collection of music cds for loan. On the recommendation of a friend, I checked out Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here."

That afternoon while doing homework, I pressed the play button on my cd player. Needless to say, I was mesmerized from the first minute of that album to the last. I ended up staring out the window for the entire 44 minute duration of that album with my jaw dropped to the floor. Unfortunately the attempt to do homework that day was a complete failure. I played that album non-stop for a week, and on my next trip to the library, I instantly checked out Dark Side of the Moon. The rest is history.

The discovery of metal was somewhat of an odd thing. My bus driver loved hard rock and that's all we listed to on the bus. He used to gush on and on about how Stairway to Heaven was the greatest song ever. Personally, I found Led Zeppelin to be quite boring, and never listened to much hard rock outside of commercial radio. Those days, the rage was all about Korn, Incubus, and Godsmack. Godsmack never interested me, I liked Incubus, and Korn was okay. I still prefered Pink Floyd over all of them.

If it wasn't for file sharing, I would never have found the amazing genre of metal.

After hearing about Opeth from their crazy fanboys (and girls), I downloaded the song "Harvest" on a whim. That became the second time in my life in which I was completely awed by music. Within the course of 4 months, I had collected the complete Opeth discography, including buying Deliverence for $18 at Virgin when it came out (what a rip off!) and ordering Damnation from The End and getting it one day earlier than the official release date!

One often hears the quote "Where there's a will, there's a way." I never thought much of that quote until the great lengths I had to go to see my first metal/Opeth concert ever. It was the weekend before finals when I should have been studying. I went home to "see my parents" but really ended up retrieving my car, driving 60 miles to Worcester alone, surviving the mosh-crazy crowd during Shadows Fall and Nevermore, and finally seeing Opeth headline the New England Metalfest squeezed 5 rows from the stage. They were so phenomenal that I waited outside the venue afterwards for an hour in snow/rain/slush to get a chance to talk to Mikael and Peter after the show.

Opeth may have been my first metal obsession, but they are certainly not my last! From there onwards, I delved heavily into black metal, melodic death metal, and progressive/power metal. In many ways, I was lucky in how I discovered black metal. I'm happy to say the first black metal album I ever bought was In the Nightside Eclipse on July 4th. That album brought chills down my spine, despite the fact that it was over 100 degrees that day. I also realize that if I hadn't started off with Burzum's "Hvist Lyset Tar Oss" album, I probably would not be a fan of minimalist black metal at all. The first track off that album is incredible; I played that track 6 times before even moving on to the second song.

Along the road, I've come across other incredible black metal artists like Weakling, Windir, Drudkh, Enslaved, Arcturus, Abigor, and Summoning. I never quite got into Darkthrone though...

My latest craze is doom. I must thank Alex for sending me a copy of Shape of Despair's "Angels of Distress." That alone dragged me further into the genre with gems like Esoteric, Thorr's Hammer, Disembowelment, Mourning Beloveth, Pantheist, etc.

That's about it for my first post. Hopefully I will be writing many thoughts on new discoveries in the future. Thanks for reading! :-)