This band is blowing writers minds because they are just slapping on the praise , and must be smoking some pretty good weed or trying to tow the hipster party line, i am listening to the album as i write this in real time and on the first of the four tracks i think the shortest song is around 8 minutes , I like any band that is dynamic and takes chances but is Altar of Plagues really the second coming?
At five minutes into Neptune is Dead , the 15 minute opening epic, i can say i like how this song moves and the fact they are heavy sonically, in the same post - metal ball park as Tombs, or even Drudkh, comes to mind , the guitars are carrying all the melody , the vocals seem to be the weak link only offering the one harsh dimension, the build up at 8 and half minutes in great guitar attack into a blast beat , really the first time i hear the black metal come through, and no i am no expecting them to be kult and grim , the drone pummel knows when to relent and that is their strong point when i am on the verge off being over a riff, the neurosis influence is here , it's in the drum patterns
on to the twelve minute feather and bone - the drummer is the secret weapon , here this double bass lead in is pretty sick , and the layered tempo feel is a nice touch ,it has not changed the way i listen to music as one reviewer suggested , part of it even in this song is the flat vocals that feel like an after thought, when you are clocking in songs over ten minutes singing some where would work and not only would be would keep it a little more varied it sounds like jazz i am listening to variations on a theme and not that we are headed into prog territory not in the king crimson sense , the guitar is more skilled at drone than shredding so far , the doom plod dominates the entire middle and we finally have have the singing i was waiting for , see that wasn't to hard was it , pretty simple vocal lines, no great range or range at all really required, a haunting background moan , than a melody to peel your ears for, the rolling guitar line is nice very isis. the black metal comes back for the last two minutes of this song, so i would say doom is more prominent than the sounds of blackness,
at the halfway mark with when the sun drowns the ocean starts with female vocals , sound Japanese, maybe mothra is on the way, then into creepy minimal guitar, sounds like an orchestra tuning if they were about to play a concerto of reign in blood, they bring the beat in at 4 mins in , so this might not be the best song for shuffle mode of your ipod. its a slow build and i predict if they are going to bring it would be at the six minute mark but sounds like they are on sound track mode for this one, the this will destroy you fans would dig this track though on a four song album bot sure if it is needed , but be a deleter her for , to save ipod space, if you are stoned and just using this as back ground music , you are scared and using this as a break to take a piss
now the closer the 13 minute all life converges to some center , opens slow with guitar bringing the doom clean doom but a little sludgey none the less, sludge with a shimmer , and the blast beats are back from spacious groove of sorts, back into a blast beat, the wheel isn't being re-defined, the swell and contract take place again as the song converges to it's center i guess, let the pretty chord ring out ala explosions in the sky if they were darker, at eight minutes into this one i can say the first two songs are the best on here unless a rabbit really gets pulled out of a hat here, but guess we are going back to the blast beats for build up, mmm well instead of that it's a half time snare pop groove still in post rock territory , maybe this is the cross over album for these guys and i'm cool with that , it builds into feedback and doom accented cymbal hits , now a min 15 left see if the bunny comes sounds like we are getting Swans - like noise here and it's kinda washing out with explosions of static - ok thats that , the end solidified my previous statement, i like the first half , middle track brought down the momentum and the last song , is nice background but heard before
looking for black metal this isn't it
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