Mamiffer : " the World Unseen"

It's been a strange mix of reviews the past couple days so I am going to keep the weird going. Aaron Turner is more than likely glad he is not in a band called Isis these days. That name alone is click bait. This project is much different focusing on atmosphere with Faith Coloccia handling the vocals. Synth and piano takes center stage away from the guitar, which is often just left to ring out from the corners. It is pleasing to the ears though the ethereal nature of what they do requires a little more glue in the song writing department, just ask Sigur Rios or the Cocteau Twins. Thus making this an album that is more of  pleasant back ground music as it pulses in waves rather than giving you anything to sink you teeth in. So if you are waiting for a riff or a groove then you will be waiting for some time as they are not coming.

One question you might want to ask your when approaching this album is how many drugs do you do? Or do you like to listen to music before you go to bed. Both options are helpful. The middle section of the album might make you space out and forget this is playing while you float around the room. There are really only three movements of this album that feel like real songs. When I say this I get emails from the bands all the time complaining about how they were using real instruments so that makes it a song. Once you get more spaced out than Tangerine Dream, then you are dealing more in wavelengths than you are music. There are some nice fey dreamy moments on this album, when they decide to make them more like a song I really like it, not something I need on my iPod, but it works for what it is. The fact the album cover looks like space is very fitting.

"Domestication of the Ewe" is the next song that finds the vocals helping to congeal the space into something like a song. This is broken up into three parts so I think it was the second part that pulled me back in.  I normally rate albums using a formula of dividing the albums good songs by the total number of songs, this album defies that form of measurement, so I am going to go off of what percent of this album was I interested in it or did it catch my attention so based off that scale I think I can give it a 6. The beginning was strong and then when the vocals came back in toward the album's 3rd act my ears perked back up. If you are checking this out because you are a fan of Turners other work then refer to the second paragraph of this review as it's nothing like Isis , Sumac or Old Man Gloom.
Mamiffer "Parthenogenesis" from Daniel Menche on Vimeo.

Dead Procession : "Rituais e Mantras do Medo"

Here is another band from Portugal , what is up out there, you guys are killing it with the metal. Though calling this project metal might be an exaggeration. The first thing that struck me about these guys is how lo-fi this is. It sounds like it could have been recording while they were holding a ritual in their basement. While production wise this is demo quality it works for what is going on here. A monotone chant in the background with the drums way up front. The bulk of what is going on here is ambient drone with minimalist doom drumming.  On the second song the vocals are  sung more than  they are chanted. The drums fake you out making you think they are going to build into something that never comes.

With the third song "Spiritual Osmosis" the first hints of distortion creep in, but rather than being used in a metallic fashion it creates noisy ambiance. The vocals and the guitar lock back into more of a drone as the chanting takes you back into the ritual chamber. It's not until "In the Labyrinth" that the distortions congeals into something that sounds like chords ringing out from a guitar. The vocals are more sung on this one , but they are also more buried behind the guitar. I think the first cymbal I have heard makes a crash during one of the pounding accents. It almost sounds like they are going to go into an actual doom groove. At ten minutes is this a little excessive...yes.

The last song "In the Bottom of the Dark Lakes" doesn't find the drums breaking any new ground. It doesn't even sound like they are playing a whole kit.It gets more sparse until it is just the drumming and the pulse of some kind of electronic instrument. Even as minimal and droning as this album is, it's way better than Sunno))) last piece of noise. The first few songs are the strongest, though most of them simmer around the same mood, the atmosphere is dark and genuine enough for me to give this a 7 despite the fact the doom elements are way more of my thing than minimalist noise. The album drops March 1t.

3.7