Ok here we go in our promised to dig into the meat of Emperor's catalogue for black metal history month The first song carries a great deal of the aggressive energy black metal is known for , but the production and arrangement to the music is more refined. "Depraved' has less of the gothic finery draped about it, the synths do not really make themselves known til two minutes in and the groove feels more death metal. Though halfway into it the riffs that I love remind me that they dwell in this song. Yes, the rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make, but these guys temper them with an impressive sonic direction to race into, often in a more angular fashion that what most of black metal was doing at the time.
"Empty" does hit you with a lot of blasts. It gets broken up with a headbanging worthy gallop, along with the song being littered with lots of weird space noises. "The Prophet" is however a better song as its melody stands out more, it is big and epic, though also lashes out with black metal savagery. There are lots of cool punches and might go down as being in my top ten Emperor songs. There are more faster moments on this album than I remembered. I tend to listen to the first two albums the most, so glad I am getting to refresh myself on this one. The melodic yet mean spirited nature of the guitars going into "the Tongue of Fire' feel more like death metal due to the technical nature, but the romantic feel of the sweeping melodies that cascade down from this bring things back to black metal. The progressive feel at the three-minute mark it incredible. They broke many walls down for black metal here. I also like hearing go up in the more King Diamond like falsetto on this.
"The Wordless Chamber" waltzes out from the previous song. As with progressive music of any genre the expansive nature of the arrangements can make it hard to tell where on song ends and the other begins. Ihsahn's croak is impressive here. "Grey" works off what is being to feel like an almost Morbid Angel like manner of grinding the grooves out in machine like fashion. "He Who Sought the Fire" is more iconic with the big melodies, though the opening verse riff sounds like black metal as usual. The riffs it races into have some of the album's most memorable hooks. "Thorns on My Grave" is another that is numbered among the band's best songs. I will give this album a 9.5, one of the genre's most progressive offerings that influenced many other bands that followed.
The Dutch metal band's 7th album finds some lineup changes in place with Mat van Baest added as a lead guitarist, along with Awakening Sun Drummer Kevin van den Heiligenberg. Former Conorach vocalist Jacco de Wijs taking returns for his second album with the band. This makes the bass player the only original member. Their third album is my favorite, and it feels like this album is going to follow a similar path of applying traditional metal values and almost power metal like hooks to the epic odes to Vikings. Being that they are south of the Baltic, I am not going to call them Viking metal as that is a term reserved for Scandinavian bands, no matter who liberal scholars might seek to revise history for their narrative. I appreciate where they are coming from and the Germanic myths seem to be sung with sincerity, so this is not total LARPing.
The more deliberate gallops combined with the bold layers of vocals give them a very Tyr like sound. They have more of a black metal influence and are not afraid to use harsher vocals and blast beats. They are not afraid to use cleaner guitar tones. The traditional metal sound factors into the riff that drives the second song, which I appreciate the dynamic balance. More time was put into the recording as this sounds like their more polished outing to date. They continue to defend the face as the album progresses even as they work in the more Renn Faire like folk sounds. I fully support the kinds of chugs they are attacking the mainland with here. Four songs in when they start going back to their old ways, seems a little less inspired in the song writing department. Nothing that is a deal breaker, it just plays it a little safe. This is remedied on "Oeros" which crunches in with a deliberate menace that is darker.
The title track is more of folk ballad with a mournful feel. They are good at capturing the feel of the Middle Ages with little frolicking involved. They couple this with epic metal from the glory days of the genre with vocals sung in a similar folk cadence as the previous song. There is some introspective ebb and flow that works really well here. They continue to rally the head banging on "Raidho". The pace picks up in a manner that feels like most of the 90s power metal. The folk elements reach a crossroads with what these guys with varied measures of ethereal brooding as the album progresses. "Holda" stands amid this as one of the sole metal moments of the album's third act. The vocals are brighter as the music reaches more epic heights. The album ends with another rousing folk ditty, that sounds like a tavern of depressed bards lamenting together. I will give this album a 9.5, it has taken what they do and perfected it while doing metal proud by sticking to the truest form. Being released on Napalm Records
This review will be different, as I gave this album a few spins yesterday before I sat down to write about it this morning. Normally my reviews are track-by-track first reactions to what I am hearing upon pressing play, this time I have soaked my ears on the album for a while. The newest album from the British stoner/sludge outfit finds the more punk undercurrent that ran through their previous album smoothed out in favor of a more Sabbath like lumber. This was an element of their sound before, but this album is refined into a more metallic direction. One thing I like that is in play is the sonic heaviness, that balances out the fact they are more of a metal band now. That is not to say there are not some burly moments that lean into more of a Motorhead like rumble when they step on the gas.
In fact, "Big Rig" works off such an attack. The vocals have a Lemmy-like gravel to their declarations. Even then the song slows into more doom-drenched lingering rather than running you over with their locomotion. There are a few experimental moments on the album. "The Weatherman" opens with a chanted chorus over the screaming feedback of guitars before the song begins to awaken. They bang it out again with a Motorhead-like enthusiasm on "Mr. Medicine". My favorite song on the album might be"Pipe Down" which has a surreal groove that balances the stoner chug with a more Hawkwind sense of stoner shadows. The vocals are also some of the album's best, as he attempts to sing more. This sways my opinion given the fact vocals are such a high priority for me. His approach is different on this album as there is less Rollins-like shouting.
The weighty throb of distortion that rolls over your ears on" The Atlas Stone" feels less inspired than what they churned out before this song. While they are still more focused on songs than curating sounds, I think the move in a more metal direction puts them in a more occupied sonic zip code that makes them fall into middle-of-the-road familiarity. The space sounds that haunt some of these songs help, but there needs to be more of that. There is more of a psychedelic feel to "Ball Lightning". The female vocals harmonizing with him as things swell to a climax is a nice touch. This album is an evolution to their sound that makes sense, it is an album I can just leave on and let play for the bulk of the afternoon so I will give this one a 9.
Been a minute since I have listened to these guys. It opens with the industrial metal going in a harder more Slipknot direction. Not the most original moment, but effective. There is a more melodic touch to "Believe" which marries alternative scene bands like Filter came from with more emo tinged Myspace metal. No experimentation just writing anthemic goth metal for the Hot Topic generation. "Best of Me" follows a similar formula , though the vocals are hookier , and the grooves of the song hold it together tighter. Edsel is a good songwriter so I am not surprised at how well the songs are put together. There is almost a Guns N Roses undertone beneath all at the black mesh and eyeliner here. "Choke" carries a Ministry like syncopation.
I gotta give these guys credit for holding true to the style the bandwagon they jumped on when the band was started at riding it this far. "Dead World" takes you deep into the 90s as it could be a lost Stabbing Westward track. Not sure about the wrong turn taken on "Misery" that sounds like it should have been a Paramore song. Does the world really need another cover of the Cure's "Lovesong"? . Thinks improve on "Dive" which is a hookier take on their formula. "Parasite" has more of a nu-metal bounce to it. The vocal melody cuts through the crunch on the chorus, and he has certainly improved as a singer over the years,
"Row" waters this formula down , things that have worked on other songs do not feel as fresh here. The break down section works best, but is fleeting. "Fuck It Up" has a more metallic grit to the guitar, but the vocals seem like they are from a cartoon that was parodying nu-metal. "Wide" closes the album with the cartoon element from the previous song being dialed up. I will give this album an 8, it's better than expected , but relies on the tropes of yesteryear pretty heavilly.
This Finnish band normally writers pretty hooky death metal. This album is somewhat conceptual as it focuses on witches and their persecution in northern Europe. The opening track is pretty much what you expect with a few more folk elements, The second song has Sakis from Rotting Christ on the track. The album is well produced, and the guitars have plenty of room. The write with a great deal of melody haunting the songs. Johanna Kurkela provides vocals on "Godforsaken" which is more deliberate than many of the harmonized guitar thrashings I have heard from this band in the past. There feels like there is more dynamic ebb and flow with this album.
The drums could carry more thunder in the mix, which makes things not sound as heavy or as dense as they could. "Lilian" feels almost more like a Nightwish song going into it. It is not until the vocal roar to life that the distinction is made. The attack with more of an At the Gates like aggression going into it. The growling has power behind it, but is limited in terms of the range they covered. They do not create a hook, but come close. The guitars continue to get more melodic with each song. The pace picks up but it does not sound more intense in so doing. "Starless Paths" feels longer than it needs to be. It does find the band wandering off in melodic side quests . This album is surprisingly not cluttered with guitar solos and those that do appear are rather tasteful.
Aside from the strum of clean guitar "the Witch Hunter' could be any melodic death metal band following the formula originally birthed from their neighbors in Sweden. Not the album's most inspired moment, but well executed. "the Unrest" feels like a cross between Opeth and Tiamat, which works even though it is more of a ballad. "the Rapids" lingers on the mood established on the previous song before the double bass kicks in. What I said about "the Witch Hunter" applies here, though this song is more dynamic, the originality factors weighs in the same. I will however give this album an 8.5 as it excels at working off this formula and does so in a richly melodic manner.
Nick Holmes and Greg Mackintosh from Paradise Lost have ventured off to more melodic territory with this album. I heard dark wave getting thrown around in reference to this album, and that is not what I hear on the opening track. It is a more melodic and more electronic based effort in contrast to their other band , but not goth, as least on the first song. They y of come closer to that sort of thing on the second song, but but it's not much darker than the first song. The best is more dance oriented. It brings Porcupine Tree to mind more than Mission UK. There is more of a Depeche Mode feel to " Divine Emotion" which brings it closest to whatever you want to call goth these days.
On paper this should win me over with ease. It is a formula that should be destined to work. Two guys from a metal band I like venture out to make something in the zip-code of goth. But it lacks the hooks and darkness to persuade me. The beat and vocal syncopation improve on "A Troubled Mind" . The vocals fall where they should. It is not the darkest song, but it is headed in a right direction. While it's a pleasant listen " My Only Escape" makes me wonder why they did not do these songs with Paradise Lot. There are plenty of Paradise Lost songs that stroke me as being more goth than what goes down on this album.
"Years of Suspicion" is a more confident step in the darker direction they were trying to wrestle toward. "Inquisition" sounds more like Gary Numan to me. The last song does not come together in the way you might expect. Instead it's brooding hesitates and ponders. I will still give this album a 9, as it is done and if I went into this with a better understanding , my expectations might have been more aligned. For what it is it works well, they are still solid song writers, this is not as dark as expected is the only problem I have, when I listen to it knowing what this is , it works just fine.
This project from Scotland cranks out some trashing black metal, that might be more thrash than abiding in the darkness. It is about as metal as you can get. James McBain is the sole purveyor of this head banging fest. He seems to be in equal parts drummer and riff master. His snarled vocals remind me of Kreator, which is one of the larger influences looming over this project. The second song I am not as impressed by the palm muted riffage as I was the first song, but it is still very well done. There is a riff at the end of "I, the Deceiver " that reminds me of Judas Priest, but they played such a hug role influencing thrash I am not surprised. I also hear this leading into the title track.
There is a more rock n roll influence driving the more Venom like "Goat Vomit Nightmare". Much like Venom the lyrics or occult metal non-sense. Of the first four songs, it is my least favorite. There is a feeble attempt at a metal falsetto scream going into "the Cursed Carrion Crown". Then the album develops a very uniform feel, He sticks to a more formulaic approach to cranking out high speed , yet color by numbers blackened thrash that a band like Goatwhore does way better. The songs begin to all sound the same once we are at "Poison Womb". Some of this may have the vocals to blame as if there was a more varied approach to how they are spit out in the rapid snarl it might give the needed dynamic touch.
With black metal this one man band is common. It plays into the misanthropic archetype that is a theme in the genre. In some cases it works. Burzum is a fine example of this. With what is being done hear which requires an organic live band feel, the singular creative filter create a monochrome sound like we have here. How misanthropic can you be that you can not even play with three other musicians. The synergy created in a band environment brings new idea to the table rather than being in an echo chamber of your own mind. Technology has made this more possible as presented on this album. It is well executed but the inspiration is limited to the energy of this one man. The last song might be the album's best as it offers a wider range of dynamics and slow to allow for a more epic build. Giving this an 8, been pretty clear about what works and what doesn't , it does work more often than not to create what it is, how invested in what it is is the question for the listener.
The fact Bush's last album kicked so much ass is what inspired me to check out the new one from another late 90s post -grunge band. A departure from the more nu-metal earlier work, and a groove oriented rock album, that finds the vocal melody full of Led Zeppelin influence despite Sully's husky baritone. There is some great guitar work and a pretty solid chorus so the first song is exceeding my expectations. "Red, White & Blue" has a more syncopated grit, though the lyrics are about America, "Surrender" has a palm muted groove, making it marginally darker, as the crunch is added to the guitar tone. Lyrically it's juvenile, like they are dumbing it down. Erna's voice sounds pretty good, there has yet to be the kind of Alice in Chains harmonies that colored their earlier work.
The guitar line to "What About Me" kind of picks up where the previous song left off. Lyrically it sounds like it from a self help book sold at a truck stop. There is a warmer rock sound, but that finds the band also shedding the darker metallic crunch of yester years. Larkin's drumming is pretty straightforward so far. The album begins to lose it's way when it veers into piano based power ballads on "Truth". "Hell's Not Dead" is an improvement with a more AC/DC like guitar dynamic. It's the kind of hard rock NASCAR can use when it's time to transition into a word from their sponsors. The opening riff to "Soul on Fire' reminds me more of the Cult. I am not sure what Larkin is trying to do on the verses. It is more like the Cult covering the Foo-Fighters.
I am not sure what inspired this album beyond classic rock radio. I do appreciate the fact these guys went in the studio with one producer and not outside songwriters and busted this out for better or for worse. However I am sure that is why the machine that is the music business doesn't allow pop artists these liberties is the results can be unpredictable. The boogie of "Let's Go" is hard to make it through. They sound more like themselves on "Best of Times" The chorus could be better, but the verses are in the right direction. "Growing Old" explains a lot of the album's problems as it tries to be Bad Company. This problem is allowed to fester more in this direction with the title track that closes the album, it's like they forgot how to be heavy. I'' round this down to a 7, it started strong and lost more gas with each song.
The virtual band created by Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett of "Tank Girl" fame. This review is going to ignore the comic character side of this and focus on the music, which might be a reversal of what most people focus on when it comes to this project. This time around Albarn not only includes a wide variety of new guests, but works with producers Remi Kabak Jr and Adele producer Greg Kurstin. Unlike most pop music today there are only two producers rather than a baker's dozen. The title track reminds me of the Faint in the way the synths groove. Thundercat lends his voice to the backing vocals , but does not have a distinct tone to his voice has he could be any funk adding color by numbers soul stylings. The disco vibe of the song works pretty well.
The second song has Stevie Nicks on it , but on the first listen , her voice was not recognized , so I had to go back and give a closer listen, this time I found her layered under Albarn on the second verse. Once again the songwriting is groove oriented and a fun listen. Lyrically the social commentary of "Tired Influencer" puts a sardonic perspective on today's Tik Tok culture. "Silent Running" sounds like Albarn just woke up and dialed one in. "New Gold" features Tame Impala and Bootie Brown, and sounds like disco from the moon meets 90s hip hop. "Baby Queen" is more relaxed and less space disco , more like stoner pop with a side order of pills. It floats in a surreal manner I can appreciate. "Tarantula" is more upbeat, and marginally more organic sounding. His vocals remain at the same lethargic croon that the album began with even as the tempo picks up under him. This makes the album begin to drag.
"Tormenta" was the first single released. Bad Bunny does a guest spot this one. His voice is also very generic for his respective genre. It feels like Albarn is just throwing forays into varied forms of pop and seeing what sticks, which dilutes the cohesion of the album. "Skinny Ape" finds him wandering in more of a Brit pop direction, if he asked an AI what Brit pop sounds like. I get that this is weird pop, but some hooks might be nice. The last song is a duet with Beck which feels like a waste of time, his vocals are mixed under Albarn's for the majority of the song and if his name was not listed on the track I would not have know he was even there, the song is also kinda boring. I will give this album an 8, it is well done from a production stance, but loses inspiration in the third act as it becomes to streamlined.
Blackened Death Metal that leans in a more melodic death metal direction. That is not to say that just because these guys are from Poland that they are trying to be Behemoth. The vocals have a nastier snarl to them that help earned their place here this month. They write well balanced songs and do not just hit you with a bunch of blast beats. That is not to say they abandon b last beats all together as they show up on the title track, they are not limited to them , and when they do come up, are more effective since your ears have not been numbed out by them. There is a slight progressive edge to the way they allow their songs to wander. They do this really well on the title track.
Production wise the album sounds great, every thing has room to breath while still mixed in a manner with enough reverb to feel dark and a big enough sound to feel crushing. The guitar tones are really dialed in and do not have to wrestle with the thick keyboard presence. "Shred By Shred" has a great deal of groove to it. The thrashing attack of the guitars carries some toothy hooks to them. The lyrics are snarled in a way that gets the point across and makes the message clear. "Becoming" is more deliberate, thus created almost a Sentenced like feel in places. The double bass is pretty much in line with most mainstream metal drumming, bands like At the Gates come to mind in this regard. The menace of the vocals keeping them from really going in this direction.
Synths play a larger role going into "No Dreams' that finds the band going in a more black metal direction. The synths accent things nicely when the verse needs to groove. I like the palm muted tense and surprised to hear the sung vocals. Their press release like to think of them as psychedelic and I would say progressive is a better description. The vocals go lower for "Every Tree a Sanctuary" . The blasts begin to become more frequent if anyone was doubting their black metal cred. A slight uniformity begins to emerge in the similar shadows they lurk within. The last song takes it time to set the mood in a manner than reminds me of European death metal from the mid 90s. Not goth , but going in that direction. Though they are more middle of the road in terms of darkness on this even when the vocals come in. I will give this on an 8.5, excellent in terms of execution, and being mindful of serving the song, but I think they play it a little safe at times by letting themselves be defined by metal conventions and their strengths lie in getting weird.
Natalie from the Abbey, whose new album we also review, is in this black metal project. Not as raw as many of their Finnish countrymen, there is a more deliberate and majestic feel . The vocals are multilayered, with both the anguished scowling of the more wretched larynx torture along with the softer more operatic intonations of Natalie. The songs gallop more than they blast at you which is a testament to the commitment to songwriting. By the time the album gets around to "River of Blood," things have progressed to a melodic place that goes well outside of the ugly bounds of black metal. Which is fine with me, for black metal fans this might require a bit of broadening their horizons.
They snarl back to more comfortable sonic territory for the more cvlt ov us with "A Dark Place" . Even then there is plenty of melody that the song wanders into with a vampiric majesty to the synth lines that add dimension to the song. The production of this album made the most with the budget they had to work with and adds some charm to the proceedings. It is not until 'Stargazer' that blast beats really begin to surface. With this taste of blood in their mouths it opens the door for these more rabid tempos to incite a faster feeding frenzy. However they do this with a great deal of restraint and have the good sense to ebb back down into darker moments.
Things also gather more of a depressive vibe by the time the album winds it way down to "No Desire to Live". The snarling vocal do a great job of conveying contempt . There are some faster passages that begin to take root once again. The album closes with "Flame of Night" this is a return to a more grandiose regal march executed with less production value than needed , but they make it work with the tracks they had at their disposal. I will give this one a 9.5, as it is a super fun listen and dark enough to satisfy the needs of my evil soul. If you like black metal that focuses on songs more than adhering to a sound this album is for you.It drops in March.
As a fan of their previous work I was looking forward to this album. However when I clicked on the album and found the first song was 18 minutes long I was taken aback. These guys are post-punk band not prog or funeral doom. It takes the first three minutes to build into the song. If we set aside the fact I do not like long songs, and focus on what works and doesn't work here the facts are these. There is a cool Swans like atmosphere. They build this into a sonically heavy dynamic. When the song winds around to the heaviest section it has the gritty almost industrial feel of early Swans. What does not work as well is the fact they mainly work off a drone. There is also an ambient noise section that kills the songs momentum. edit down the intro and edit out the noise part and we might have been onto something here.
Of the three songs that make up this album the other two are under the 11 minute mark so more tolerable in that aspect. It is not that I do not like what they were doing in the first song, it just could have been two cooler songs if they broke things up. The second song runs into another problem that goes with the old saying our character assets are the flips side of our character defects. Swans are one of my all time favorite bands. I like when bands draw influence from them as it touches on the sonic aspects I look for in music music being heavy but not metal, and carrying a dark and depressing mood. What this requires is balance.
What is not balance is becoming a tribute band and trying to sound like Swans. sure Godflesh is an influence to at times, but there are parts where it is obvious to any long time fan of swans what is being attempted here. I appreciate that they have moved in a heavier direction , but if that means compromising their sense of identity then They could dial it back a bit. The more serpentine brooding of the last three minutes is a better balance. I will give this an 8, as they have collected sounds that I like , but on their previous album we heard something more unique which is who they are and not such a blatant leaning into their influences here.
This might be the most fitting album for this month yet. They are a piece of black metal history, but if you do not recognize the name do not turn in your cvlt card yet as you more than likely know Khold. If you do not know Khold, then you are a poseur and should burn a church with yourself in it. Granted Khold is not as big of a name in Norwegian black metal as Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor or ... well you can see where this is going. They are most impressive due to the fact they retained their rock n roll sense of groove, making their songs catchier than your average blast fest. Or really any blast fest for that matter, since they all sound the same. By the time we get to "Slagmark" they have solid footing under the songwriting, which is deliberate, with guitars well layered with creepy melody , but never forgetting they are here to rock the fuck out.
They touch on the more conventional black metal sounds on "Allstott" but refuse to conform to them. "Israk' is more up-tempo, almost more black n roll. "Sammuelsbrenna" finds more melodic elements like clean guitars surfacing but in terms of the momentum that has keep this album moving , it is not as strong as the first half of the album, but still better than most. To their credit they do switch things up. This is not Motorhead or Venom just charging through things like a punk band would. Female vocals glide in and add a nice sonic color. It's eight songs in until they blast at you, which I can not complain about given the variety of sounds and commitment to songs already shown. They do not even stay a blasting for long. They understand the value of dynamics.
While riffs alone does not a good song make, they pull out some good ones and make a song with them on "Snomyrkre". They shift from these well, though it does create more of an Immortal like sound. There is a more punk edge to the guitars at times here as well. "Barfrost" is more of an outro than an actual song as it's whispering over acoustic guitar. I will give this one a 9.5, these old pros know what they are doing and it shows. They key to all of this is not how cvlt they are but that they write some damn good songs that are also black metal rather than trying to be black metal first then writing songs.
Hailing from bands like Man Eating Tree and Shape of Despair, this doom band out of Finland , does what I wish Ghost did, by playing dark metal, with catchy layer vocals . The cadence and how the vocals are layered is what brings Ghost to mind. Unlike Ghost this has the balls of metal to it even when draped in doomy goth finery. It took a while for the Ghost thing to sink in. I am not sure if it is intentional or not, only this band can answer it. I am not going to fault them if it is, the reasons I hate Ghost if inverted would be the reasons this band works. The vocals are hooky , but not pop masquerading as metal. There is an occult subject matter to the lyrics, but they are not trying to be Satanists for Halloween.
Natalie Koskinen from Shape of Despair sings on this album, but does not really make an impression until the second song, when there is a break allowing her to soar over the gloom. They build up impressive momentum leading into this song and are able to make a chilling dynamic shift, "Crystallion' is beautifully dark in the despondence it creates. It is admirable how they shift from melody to melody. If there is any justice in the world they should at least earn a quarter of the success Ghost does, though they do not dress up in costumes to sell their show. "Starless" is the doomiest song yet on this album but it works more off the kind of soaring atmospheric dynamic Type O would allow their songs to fly off into the clouds with. They roar back with a more driving metallic chug on "Desert Temple" which adheres to expectations of metal, but not the charm of who they introduced themselves as on the first half of the album. It still works more than it does not.
I like hearing his voice drop into more of a baritone croon with "Widow's Will". It paints a darker more deliberate picture than the previous song. Things get more metallic again on "Queen of Pain". It falls neatly in the spectrum of what we consider doom here, with little owed to Black Sabbath in the process. As you can imagine a song that is a prequel is more of an intro than a song unto itself. At over twelve minutes I am not sure "Old Ones" needs an intro. Things change six minutes into the song following a nice guitar solo, though I think they could have split this into two songs at this point. The keyboard solo is a bit excessive, but I appreciate where they wanted to go with it. It could have been trimmed down by three minutes there. Overall though, I will give this album a 9.5, I really enjoyed it and look forward to many more listens.
As promised I am digging into Emperor's catalog. The fact their 1997 album starts off with a King Diamond like falsetto mixed into the harsher screams tells you how this album is going to be different right in the first few sections. Each album they progress as musicians making the arrangements more progressive in the grandiose arrangements. There is a great deal of technical fury that possesses songs like "Decrystallizing Reason". This is tempered with memorable guitar and synth melodies, that make the songs stand the test of time. Clean vocals play a larger role on this album, this can be heard on " An Elegy of Icaros". His sung vocals are dramatic and more present in the mix than the previous album.
"the Source of Icon E" if measure against their best work, is a little more dialed in. It thrashes by with enough conviction , but even when it comes to "Sworn" there is more of an almost Dissection like feel to the guitars that thrives more off hyper aggression than what made their previous album work so well. "Nonus Aequilibrum" is just a catchier song than the previous two, the sung vocals only factor in to an extent. The more deliberate riffing of "the Warriors of Modern Death" calls back to the days of classic metal. The end the some with some of the most ripping shredding, and people into ripping shredding need to give these guys more credit for it.
The last song "Of Blindness and Subsequent Seers" is darker and more melodic with the big epic feel we have come to expect from the more symphonic strains of black metal. Aside from the more gothy quirkiness that can be found in their songs, this encompasses everything else you might want from this band, this album gets a 9.5, which puts it behind the previous, allowing it to still hold claim to being the best album by these guys ... for now.
This band from Ukraine falls along the more bong laden styles of hard rock. The first song which is an acoustic ditty, is more of a set up from the jammed stoner boogie to come. The first verse is somewhat apocalyptic in tone, which given the fact the Ukraine has been under siege for the past year, I am surprised bands there are still making music at all. Last July was their first rehearsal since the invasion took place. Lyrically there is a great deal of current events influencing the tone of the songs, without preaching to you about them. Lines like "Nobody cares whos is right , who is wrong" makes you wonder about what they are really speculating here. I have a hard time believing they are in a bomb shelter thinking about witches'.
"Thoughts and Prayers" is lyrically clever and addresses what is going on in their world in a tasteful manner. It also sheds light on , something one side of America's political divide does not like to focus on which is they are likely to scoff at thoughts and prayers when it comes to how politicians respond regarding mass shootings, which is no different than how they are addressing the situation in Ukraine, aside from the occasional photo op. They know they can not do anything or are afraid to do anything. Not one to address politics on this blog, but given where this band is from and how their lyrics address it this is hard not to do, and pretty necessary.
There is more of a sinewy winding to the progressive slither of the riff to "Porcelain" .Dynamically it heads them into a more Tool like direction. The vocals follow a similar syncopations that add more weight to this comparison. The drumming is not as balls to the wall as what Danny Carey does when it is time to step on the gas. "CON' is more upbeat and jammy . It is also brighter in mood and does not hook me in, though they are good at what they do so hard to find fault in their playing. The plaintive vocals are often rather dry feeling. The more ominous metal feeling to the last song works better for me, than the previous song. Not the most original sound, but the songs work well , I will give this album a 9 and see how it grows on me for the rest of the year. Season of Mist drops it March 3rd.
I have cited Emperor as one of my favorite black metal bands in many a post, and in other listed this album as one of the best metal albums of all, since it is Black Metal History Month , that to dig back into their catalog as a refresher. I am going to review all of the band's album, starting with the one I feel sets the bar for the other's their second album. With Ihsahn and Sammoth at the core, and the drumming of Enslaved drummer Tyrm Torson propelling the album it is the perfect blend of black metal chaos and symphonic wonderment. The opening track sets the stage with a creepy atmosphere that reminds you what and influence King Diamond had on this band. The second song is the first actual song, and for the purpose of this review I am just going to discuss the original 8 songs and not those added in the later re-release of the album.
"Ye Entracemperium" works of the swell of synth as much as it is driven by the flow of double bass. Ihsahn's scowling vocal croak, helps to set them apart from other bands who came from Norway at the time. The melodic undercurrent that defines their sound is something other band who followed in their footsteps could not get right. The clean singing is well balanced and tasteful. Never notice how much the vocal melodies sung hear echo folk metal, but considering where they sit in the mix it works really well. Things get both darker and more epic with "Thus Spake the Nightspirit" the synth line to the verses is one of the genre's most memorable. I often rail against black metal bands who resort to living off blast beats alone. "Ensorcelled By Khaos" employs them at a frantic pace for the first minute of the song, before the mood shifts and further sonic darkness unfolds. More black metal band's need to turn to this album for inspiration.
Even when this album rages ahead with more emphasis on aggressive fury with songs like "the Loss and Curse of Reverence" the synths are still present to soften the blow and add a melodic contrast. "the Acclamation of Bonds" is another strong argument for memorable synth lines in black metal making the song more hooky. It takes a minute and a half for "With Strength I Burn" to settle in an find it's melodic legs, but the pay off if worth it. The album closes with the more subtle guitar work on "the Wanderer" I will give this classic a 10, and see how the other albums stack up
In looking around the inner webs to see what was being regarded as the best black metal coming out so far this year, this Finnish band's name came up, Like most black metal out of Finland it is rough around the edges. It carries a punk influence , with the depraved scowl of the vocals keeping things grim and metallic. The drumming is pretty simplistic and not getting a great deal of help from the production, though there is clarity in the guitar tones captured here so things are not overly Cvlt. The second song is only a minute and a half thanks to the unrestrained speed they pursue the songs with.
There is more of the classic black metal melody in "With Sulphur Carriage" the snarl is more of a Immortal like croak that makes the lyrics more easily understood on this one. There does not seem to be quite the same vampiric theme that the title of the album suggests, but the natural darkness that should come with black metal. They pick up the pace in order to be "Baptized in Jesus' Piss". Thanks to the guitars getting on the same page as the drums things are more punk, until a gallop shows up for the golden showers to come. The title track finds a more balanced approach to their style of black metal, with not so much raw power, but more of a fiendish metal mood.
When things slow down for the throb that carries "Final Descent" I am more eager to become a believer in their cause. Darkness is more important for black metal than running off primal aggression. Punk can run off primal aggression so darkness is what separates black metal from punk. This is not to say they do not speed back up, as they do, but the dynamic contrast is certainly more present than the blast attack that follows with the hyper thrashings of "Judgement From Below". You can actually hear the bass in "Call From the Void" which is worth points in my book. They also prove their musical merit with the instrumental closing track, and while this mainly bookends a guitar solo, black metal bands do not indulge in those as often so it works. I normally do not like my black metal this rough around the edges, but they are good at what they do and place the emphasis on songs which I respect, I will give this album a 9.
Having just reviewed the new Sam Smith album, I was ready to cleanse my palate with blackened hard core. As imagined there is a great deal of Slayer influence in the guitar playing and the drums are blast heavy. The snarl of the vocals , could already use some variation and this is the conclusion I came to only two songs in. That does not bode well. I can only imagine what some one who this is their favorite band is like, and you know it is always some ones favorite band. By the third song a great deal of mindless head banging could take place as the more deliberate thrashing sections as pretty effective.
"Hideous Disdain" just kind of blasts right past me making "the End is Always Near " carries a more deliberate stomps which offers a better perspective on the marriage of hard core and black metal. By the time we get to "Caustic Abomination" it strikes me how much these guys are like Ringworm. Perhaps not as thrashing and a darker dissonance to their black metal side. The dig into that darkness more as this song progresses. "Revel in Misery" blasts past you with a great deal of feral energy and an almost death metal aggression. The dissonance that haunts the fringes of their sound is the most interesting part. When they are not caught up in the their need for speed things get interesting. The title track has ample amounts of death metal influence to it.
"Weaving Oblivion" pounds pretty much a straight ahead path . It follows the rule of this album that when they slow down it can be a pretty powerful experience. "Sound of Heaven" feels like an extension of the previous song as things begin to bleed together. I will give these guys an 8, I think I have been pretty clear about what works and what doesn't I think the dark aggressive feel works best when tempered with the atmospheric darkness.
I guess I should give this a listen and see what the hype is about and if it is just that hype with little substance from the product. Not the first pop artist I have reviewed around here in fact at the end of the year I always have a top 10 pop album list, so it is a genre I sometimes enjoy if it is done right. The done-right part might be the challenge here. But I am not one to say I do not like something without listening to the album. So here we go. The facts going into this are this album which is clearly rolling off the assembly line of the industry's agenda machine boasts 14 songwriters and 12 producers for the 23 songs featured on the album. The opening track benefits from great production in how the harmony vocals are layered. Aside from that, the overall vibe is his vocals could be that of any random singer on a gay house track. Having worked in plenty of gay bars over the years, I have heard more than enough of this already, it's just being re-packaged for today.
"No God" has the most substance in terms of the lyrics having something to say. This is also the best vocal performance of the first half of the album. He clearly only listens to black female singers as he emulates Toni Braxton most of the time. "Lose You' is once again gay house being sold to a mainstream audience. So three songs in and I am not hating this album, but "Perfect" sounds like the most generic color by numbers stab at radio pop, like they used a program to find the algorithms of what gets radio play and followed the blue print. 'Unholy" uses the Hungarian minor scale, which is one of my favorite as it's darker. Satanic not so much, but we are in the middle of Black Metal History Month. This song might be the stand out as it does not conform to western pop standards, but it also just ends and does not go any where dynamically. It just ends when it needs a third section. In rock music this would be where the guitar solo went.
"How to Cry" is stripped down to the strum of an acoustic guitar. His vocals are more dynamic here, but the song itself feels empty. I think he needs Robert Smith to teach him how to cry as his best attempts at emoting do not convince me , he was not just punching the clock at the studio. "Six Shots' found his producer going into his generic pop/r&b folder and using the tracks that had just been sitting there. "Gimme" has more to it as a song, and works pretty well with it's steamy salsa undertones. Then we are back to the disco roots of gay house as interpreted by pop in 2023, which we have already heard Justin Timberlake and Adam Levine both do before. I do have more respect for this than the generic pop tracks.
The title track is a stripped down choir vocal that Smith is not a part of but ad libs over . If he had pulled a Queen and multi tracked the vocals himself I might be more impressed. Sheeran who duet's with who ever has a label to flip the bill shows up on the last song, which he even he adds a little to, but I am sure the marketing here will try to spin this as the gay anthem of the year when Pride month comes around and half of the people reading this will fall for it. I will round this down to a 6.5, as all the soul it should have gets produced out of it by cut-and-paste production. So it's a slick product that will fool stupid masses with the depth of paper plates, but musical not terrible just bland with a few decent moments, he needs to just lean into the gay house side, as mainstream success will really just be the 15 minutes of fame his current controversy grants him then the news cycle will spin away and people will forget about him.
This trio is forward thinking and does try sonically interesting things on their almost sludge like albums. They have teetering on the edge of sound vs song in the past, but typically always fell on the side of song, The more emotive experimentation that opens this album tells me things might not fall that way this time. There is drone and impassioned vocals but not much of a back bone to hold it together, until four minutes into the song. They do things not far removed from the sonic zip code of a band like Brutus, who proved more capable of writing compelling songs, where this bands is being successful at a heavier sound. Some might argue why compare music. There are only 24 hrs in a day I sleep for six of them so 18 hours to listen to music and take away the four hours I spend listening to new music that's fourteen, minus the trips in the car where my partner picks the music, so that is 13 hours. Not time to listen to everything I might want making new contributions compete vs tried and true.
What new are they bringing to the table ? Well the dynamic shift of "the one who bornes a weary load " that goes from frantic pounding to ambiance. This follows the album's formula and by the end almost predictably builds into a the pound of her anxiety attack. I was on the third song, then when I looked back at the computer screen it said I was on the fourth song, so their is a sonic uniformity to what they are doing that finds the songs all beginning to sound the same. When really the fact of the matter is they wasted four minutes and forty seven seconds of my life with a bunch of feed back. In so doing the very fact they plugged instruments in to do so it better than many artists who just looked over their producer's shoulder at the mouse being clicked. 'the fable of subjugation" lacks a backbone and finds her vocals wander aimlessly. Midway into the song the drums wake up and begin to pound things to life again. The punishment to your ears that ensures is not unlike what Sonic Youth used to do live.
'a parable of trusting" is heavy and find the drums playing a little more of a role, to keep the song moving which as it is rumbles at the more doom-trodden side of sludge. There is an ebb and flow in terms of dynamics, but it largely does not move far and little to hook you in. I appreciate the sonic force, but that is all sound with little to do with songs. However, brace yourself for the flood of reviews that are going to claim this album is incredible. I can never imagine myself wanting to listen to this again. At three and a half minutes there is time for the last song to become an actual song, but instead, it lingers around bathing in its own ambiance. In terms of music as art this is a few strokes of loud colors on a canvas that hands in a rich person's living room to make them feel cultured because they own art. I will give this one a 5.
One of my goals for this month is to dig up bands that are black metal but unique. This band from Iceland meets this need in many ways. Have not covered any Icelandic Black Metal in a minute and seeing how these guys are on Svart it should be to think outside of the box. There is a darker more melodic throb. The bellowing vocals are the most black metal thing about the opening track. What I like about this album is two songs in and it is clear the darkness of the overall sound is the most black metal thing about this, as they are not hitting you with the normal metallic onslaught of blast beats. For that reason, there is something more honest in the sound.
If you are wanting black metal to sound like Mayhem, this might not be black metal at all. I assure you this is. Even with all of the post-punk influence.The third song has a creepier feel and more tension to the slink of guitar as the vocals have more of a tortured rasp. Though it is not to say they are not above deviating from the genre altogether as the song after this shows. Female vocals hover against an ambient landscape that feels almost more like an interlude than the previous songs. They come back from this reprieve darker and more ominous. With a very organic guitar sound that works off a natural reverb, the note ring out magically. The vocals are more reverbed drenched , but rather than copying the cavernous cvlt sound they are continuing to do their own thing.
As the album progresses they continue to get darker and sonically heavier. The vocals remain the only element that follows the protocol for more traditional forms of black metal, The stay at a pained bellow. The drummer's restraint and the guitarist ear for melody being the band's strengths. I will give this album a 9.5 and see how it grows on me, while the songs have a mood, the vocals do not lend themselves to being the hookiest in terms of really wearing this album out, but I can leave it one and just let it play all the same. This album drops in April.
It's time for things to get heavy in the best way possible, is what I thought going into this album. It seemed like a safe bet as . Japan's death metal/ hard core hybrid is back. They started things with all the groove with them that made their previous album such a hit here last time. While I might not be crazy about the snare sound this time, everything else works on the first couple songs seems to work well enough to distract me from it. It is only when they charge at you full speed ahead that this is noticeable. Both death metal and hard core owe a great deal to thrash and on "Harder than Before" this lineage is noticed most. The vocals stay more firmly on the side of death metal this time around.
When "Burn the System" stomps to life, it seems like it is an extension of the previous song. I think the more death metal direction this album seems to have taken, also comes with the price of creating more of uniform sound that can allow it's momentum, to make these songs start to sound the same. "Reincarceration" slows to wallow in it's death metal filth, but it fails to open up the pit with the same grind their last album did. It is not until the end of the song that a break down style riff emerges, but double bass accenting it enough to keep things clearly on the more metal side of the equation. By the time the record winds to "Maze of Suffering" I am beginning to feel a little disappointed as this is becoming just another death metal album.
"Manufactured Insanity" does find a few head stomping riffs emerge that owe more to their hard core side, but at this point it is beginning to feel like too little too late as this album is not as dark or heavy as the one before it. The death track is more death metal that just sounds like everyone else , and offers little of the beat down they dished out last time. I will round this down to an 8, which is still better than most bands, but falls short of what they delivered on the album before. That said if you are a fan of death metal this is still worth your time.
This band from Portland is kicking up an interesting blend of sonic abrasion that is equal parts grunge and death rock on their second album. Imagine L7 jamming with 45 Grave and you are pretty close to what is happening here. The vocals are tortured screams and moaning. It darkly broods like a storm closing in. The way the vocals are layered reminds me of one of my favorite bands to emerge from the LA underground in the late 80s Fear of God. Not that they heard of them, but that is what it sparks, and I mention it because perhaps there is a nostalgia this awakens for me that makes me biased towards this sound. From a songwriting perspective, it is pretty simple stuff.
"Wendigo" drives with a palm-muted creep that accelerates with more metallic locomotion. There sounds like a male voice joins in the bellowing on this. "Blood Circles" is creepier and more melodic, it slithers more. The same energy possesses the marginally more pounding "Child of Owls". The arrangements are very simple but effective, proving it is not what you play but how you play it. A hypnotic throb occupies most of their songs. The first song that is not on the same level as the first half of the album is the more punk "Rattlesnake". Simple is fine, but the bulk of the one to three go, rush punk is boring, Not a problem with the band as much as the style they veer into. They get back into a better form of gloom for "Ritual of Antlers".
"Skin Walk With Me" feels more like a Melvins song. "Pale Face Lightning" recalls the more punk side of grunge that bands like Mudhoney kicked out, with a similar burly tone coming from the guitars here. There is more sludged-out weight behind the riff that pushes "Death Crow Dance". Her voice adds the needed layer to soften the blow. I will give this album a 9.5, it's an easy listen and a lot of fun. Less death rock and heavier than expected.
This band out of Portland is heavy as fuck. They blend death metal and grind core with black metal. The vocals are a coarse scowl. The most notable thing is the slower throb that is the heart of this beast the chaos swirls around. I like that they are not just beating your face in their aggression all the time .This makes it more effective when it comes. Though the first and second song did run together, do to the uniform nature of what they do making it hard to tell where one ended and the other began. They pour on more speed for "Demon' the drums feel like they are racing to keep up with the rest of the band. Not as impressive as the first two songs as it dissolves into metal mush.
"Parasite" also becomes a sonic temper tantrum that invests most of the song's energy in exploding. Then the rein it in a little tempo wise. This is always shifting from riff to riff, like they are falling down the stairs while on acid. "Killing Tree" finds them blasting back into a crustier take on black metal that reminds me of early Withered. Whos is another band that combined many of the same elements, but progressed as a band to make the death metal riffs and the black metal atmosphere work better than what does down here. When things are this angry almost to the point of being hard core it gets hard to hear the darkness . "Luciferian Pathways" also suffers from this though , it should be the album's darkest song. Though the diabolical occult references are primarily because it's the metal thing to do.
The last song pretty much pounds the predictable course of brutality that you have come to expect if you made it this far in the album. There is a more deliberate sludge like nature to some of the pounding here to make it more distinct. But once again this is ground already covered by Withered. When the chords are picked out in this song it adds a darker touch I wish there was more of on this album. I will give this a 7.5, there are pretty solid sections of sound and a couple decent songs as well, it starts strong but their momentum carries them away, but for what they are doing they are good at, and made the album they wanted to make.
I have been looking forward to this when I first heard "Unity of Opposites" . I am normally skeptical of bands who use drum machines rather than live drummers, as it is hard for them to capture the full range of dynamic. The guitars largely compensate for this. While they are on the more goth side of post punk, they are very driving and do not bask in the dramatics . Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim could all be cited as their influences , due to the vocals, which are at an edgy croon. The music is punchy and at times thanks to the choruses gets pretty anthemic. Their energy keeps me from focusing on the drum machine.
One of the the things they have going for them, is most post-punk revival bands do not have this kind of power in their attack. It is not mistake these guys got signed to Season of Mist as while they are not metal, there is a heaviness to they do that will cross over into metal audiences. The drums sound pretty real on parts of the second song. I let this record play throughout the afternoon, and due to the sound alone, it was easy listening since there was something familiar to it that fell in line with what I normally listen to. Digging back into the album to write the review I was listening with ears trying to measure their merit as songwriters. Three songs in I am pretty convinced , though I am hoping for more in the way of dynamics. The croon of the vocals gets more melodic and sardonic on "Damocles". The guitar has a Cure-ish ring to it , and the bass occupies a similar space in the sonic spectrum.
It is hard to believe at times this is not a long lost album from the early 90s I some how missed back in the day. "8 in 3" works best thanks to the dreamy guitars. It launches into some pretty hard rocking at times, that has more of a Killing Joke feel. This Killing Joke feel also haunts "Unity of Opposites" . "Nightfall" is more upbeat, though not grooving enough to be called dancey. "Watchers' gets more driving, but it also comes back full circle to sound like the first song, until the verses break down a little more. I will give this a 9.5, in many ways this is defined by the sum of it's parts and the influences that make those up but this album is also a great deal of fun.
This is the second time one of their albums has fallen into my in-box on this blackest of months. The German band's 2019 album also made it's appearance here during this time. I enjoyed that release and welcomed a black metal band who atmospheric with post-rock leanings but not riding Deafheaven's band wagon. The opening track to this album is more black metal in it's feeling than what I remember of the 2019 album. It is both darker and more aggressive. The soaring atmosphere still lingers, but not enough from stopping this raging storm of sound they are creating here. The world is a darker and angrier place so this is fitting. By the second song " the Whir of Flies" finds the same conforming more closely to the expectations of black metal with a crusty edge of it. Not as impressive as what they opened with but still more original than most bands in the genre today.
They move in a more dynamic direction with the arrangement for "When Bloodsprings Become Rivers" There are passages where the thrashing speed they attack the songs with recalls their more d-beat driven past. They darker more melodic turn that leads into "Bodies as Driftwood" has a sexy groove like drive before the blast beats which I wish they would have indulged me in longer , but that is only one color they paint the black metal machine with. They ebb back down into this beat , what take it in a another direction. This kind of songwriting can not be praised enough and more bands need to aspire to it. The drummer is fucking incredible. "Eyes to the Burning Skies" starts off in an atmospheric haze that female vocals call out from to create the illusion of introspection before blasting off with renewed fury.
There is an interesting syncopation to the onset of "Final Vows" that makes me wish more black metal bands would take these kinds of risks rather than just hiding behind the safety of blast bears. When they do reengage the more common place tropes of the black metal sound it is given a fresh coat of malice. There is a dark shimmer to "Unredeemable" that owes more to Weakling than Deafheaven. The melodic guitar parts add a great deal of depth. The last song takes a minute to really build the momentum to get started. After listening to the song four times it finally sunk it that it goes from ambiance to blasting, the problem being with the stream I was listening to that it came full circle with the first song and the blasting from that one ran together. I will round this one up to a 9.5, it's one of the best black metal albums I have heard this year, which even though we are only two months into the year, this album comes out in March I have dove way ahead of the game when it comes to black metal this month. you like forward thinking black metal with plenty of dark disgust this album is for you.Drops the 17th of March on METAL BLADE.
This Hungarian black metal band does a great job of incorporating folk elements without brightening their sound or making them sound like Summoning, which would also brighten their sound. They allow for a dynamic ebb and flow as the gaze deeply into the woods and invoke the spirits of their ancestors. They do use some of the more common place sonic tropes of black metal like the tremolo picked guitar. Sometimes the dynamic swells they employ use the half time feel that black gaze bands like Alcest and Deafheaven made popular in the genre. The vocals are snarled with conviction and tend to lean more on the lower side without being death metal.
"Enter the Storm" is really well written and shows that blast beats alone do not a good song make. Not to say that blast beats are not a tool in their tool box, it is just not ones. These guys find a good balance between creating a sound, while still being song focused. Sung female vocals float in on "Ashes Remain". They work on a soft to loud formula most of the time which is still effective. The use of the folk metal intervals is also present but are not done with more glee than gloom. "Saka' soars along the normal places for black metal of this ilk. The real difference is rather than post rock passages to boreal things up, the turns the songs take towards proggy folk.
The last song is an instrumental that sounds like the kind of music you might here while you were waiting to get a massage. So for the point of this review, I am not going to factor it in when it comes to scoring this album. For this reason I will give this album a 9, as what they do on the last piece might have been interesting to have heard those more melodic sounds worked into the existing body of work presented here. This is very well done and impressive considering this is a one man band. This did what Blackbraid wanted to do better.
This quartet out of Italy plays a very dark and atmospheric kind of music that is hard to pin down. Originally I checked this out for Black Metal History month, and while I have seen this album categorized as such on a couple websites , I am not hearing in two songs in . There is more in common with neo-folk or goth than black metal, sure those genre'/s share some common ground with black metal at time, but they are not one and the same. The first songs is more droning and it is not until the second song is when things really begin to heat up. The singer uses her voice like an instrument, which I am a fan of rather than verse / chorus pop structure to songs. Artists like Dead Can Dance and Kate Bush , are a fair measure of what is going on here, which is a compliment in and of itself.
The singer's alto which can be both ghostly and ominous, is the driving for of their sound. There is more of a Cocteau Twins like sound to the vocals on "Fountain of Wraith" . Spoiler alert it is a good sign that I am bringing some of my favorite artists to mind as I listen to this album. However when it comes to how much mileage I get out of this one in weeks to come that remains to be seen. Things are darker and more dynamic as we begin to hear more of her upper register on "Emerald Blood" which is bewitching in it's own way. The song it self is not as droning as the opening track, but perhaps the second most hypnotic.
There is a more melodic throb to "Les Abres Rampants" . Her voice is more emotive and brings Zola Jesus to mind. Dynamic without adhering to the formula of pop culture's soundtrack. The last song is more of an outro than an actual free standing song at under two and a half minutes. It just pulses without actually coming to life. I will give this album a 9.5, not sure how many spins I will give it out side of tonight's listens, and the fact I already have so many artists in this wheelhouse., but the spectacular job to creating this can not be denied and a must for those into dark atmospheric folk.
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