Dark Buddha Rising : "Inversum"

My hunger for doom is the only thing that kept me from balking in the face of  an album comprised of two twenty minute songs. Songs over ten minutes are becoming my pet peeve in metal...unless it is done right so lets see if they can rise to the challenge of having that going against them. This is the band's fifth album and the first for Neurot Records so we can only hope that it means they feel the need to prove themselves.  They drone on for eight minutes until it begins to turn into a real song once the chanted vocals come in. To their credit the guitar sound is more organic than your average low tuned thunk powered by  vintage amps. Right before the ten minute mark the song begins to take more of a Sabbath like lurch. The vocals are effected and distanced in the mix at this point and they are running  the song off of an ominous drone. The once smoky riff begins to take more solid form as it locks in with the drums. Its a cool dark groove, nothing mind blowing. Some of the vocals layering is also pretty cool,  with the more tormented vocal sitting atop the chant. The song gain steam in the last few minutes and picks up the pace as the more anguished vocals come to the forefront.

The second song "Exo" lingers in the atmosphere for the first two and a half minutes, which is fine since they have another twenty two minutes to kill. Drums begin to set the tone with a minimal tribal pound. The guitar follows with a slow strum. It sounds like throat singing and a didgeridoo set up the arrival of the ominous pounding that drones you deaf. Ten minutes left and it feels like they really haven't gotten started yet. Some one is ranting over it for a few minutes, but nothing that would yet make this a song. Around the sixteen minute mark real singing begins to intone it's chant. They move into a heavier pound, but this change is really a matter of accents. Things build up  and speed up almost twenty minutes in making me think this could have easily been a six minute song at most.


To the band's credit this album does set some rather bleak post- apocalyptic tone that I like, and the album is well recorded and performed for what they are going for. I think the long winded nature would be better served streamlined and still get the point across, though I believe they accomplished what they set out to create here so you can't fault them for that. What that is that they created really is a one time listen for me since I quit smoking pot, but if you are looking for some music to light up the bong to then this would be recommended. I'll give it a 6. This album drops September 25th, check out one of the songs below.

Aureole:"Alunar"

L.A. based Fallen Empire Records has a ton of cool new black metal projects with pending releases, but back in March this grim gem surfaced. Like the bulk of their roster this project is extremely dark and atmospheric yet not shy to unleash some raw doom tinged black metal. Pieced together solely by Markov Soroka, who resides somewhere in the United States. I've read things online claiming he is a teenager, if that's the case his parent's basement must be like a dungeon in Transylvania for him to have captured this chilling ambiance.

Unlike most bands of this ilk Aureole doesn't slap you with a bunch of blast beats. Indulging in setting the tone, it pays off dynamically making the heavier parts pack more of a punch. Keyboard heavy in almost a dark wave sense, the vocals sit back in a murk of distortion , often sounding as if you are just picking up some in of demonic frequency that is trying to break through from the other side. The guitars keep a static tremolo into motion while the drums set a dirge like tempo. So the end result is a depressingly blackened take on Funereal doom.

Theses song drone you into a mediative state and the first two pieces carry a similar sound. The third song "the Senility of the Hourglass" breaks it up into an even more ambient synth composition, that feels more like and interlude or an intro than an actual song. things darken up again on the eleven minute "Crusade of NGC 5128". The black metal guitars buzzing in like a swarm of bees. When the keys come in here it sounds more dark wave than say symphonic black metal. The production on this album is pretty raw, of course the more synth based moments sound good, it's the guitar sound that while unique serves as both a blessing and a curse. The guitar is often an abrasive scraping that band like Burzum have employed to get the "necro" sound, but at times when it sits oddly in the mix it sounds like a toilet being flushed from inside a black hole. Soroka is not afraid to bring the noise. In fact it could be argued if the first few minutes of the last song is music of sound effects, until the synths slowly build up into a melody. This could have been the soundtrack for Gummo if it had been set in space instead of a trailer park.

When he is making these depressive blackened funeral dirge songs, Soroka creates something that is not just solid , but impressive and flows with an emotional current I can relate to. So this is an excellent album when it focuses on songs, when it wanders off course into space noises and droning ambiance with nothing to sink your teeth into it seems like a waste of talent. Even if you were going to listen to this as one solid piece I think a little goes a long ways, even bands like Swans know when to temper that sort of thing with more substance. Granted if he is only 17 then we are off to good start here and it is not fair to compare him to a band that has been around longer than he has been alive. So I will give this album an 8.5 because I love the songs that are really songs. If you like ambient noise you might even rate it higher.

Naam: "Vow"

This Brooklyn band's tour van must billow out enough smoke to put the Mystery Machine to shame , if these guys are living like they sound. That's not to call them stoner rock. What plays like an intro is tracked as a separate song, but it's not too much to distract me when it swells into the drone boogie of  the title track.

These guys aren't just Sabbath worshippers like the Sword , but are a lot less metal, however this doesn't play against them as the album starts of with darker pill heavy brooding. The song starts to soar sky ward  not unlike the sort of high Hawkwind would have done in their hey day.

Their grunge roots start to show on "Pardoned Pleasure" which sounds like Mudhoney jamming with the Butthole Surfers. Their trippier side wins out over the garage rock leanings this song takes on at first before the slurred desert breakdown that goes into an angular prog groove.

"Laid to Rest " carries the same twang to it as when Nirvana used to cover The Meat Puppets. "On the Hour" creeps into the rocks, falling some where between Mudhoney grunge and stoner rock, with the keyboards keeping it from tipping over too far into the Sub Pop. In the final minute it beefs up a bit as it builds.

"Skyscraper" the hypnosis of the underwater drone is laid on thick. Everything floats in this narcotic bubble in a dark "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun" manner. The stoner Sabbath thing does float to the surface in the opening riff of "Midnight Glow" though it's off set by the layered vocals in the verse, that carries more experimental resonance and the Sabbath lingers in the Geezer turn around coming out of what might be heard as the chorus, though like the keys to the van it was misplaced.  The punches in the song are more Deep Purple until the bass rumbles out from under it.

Their clouded memories are too burned out to write long prop epics but they do cram a wide range of sounds and dynamics into five minutes. "Beyond" touches the 8 minute mark but with metal these days that like the intro to other 15 minutes. The bass line to this one carries more Roger in its waters ,there is more attack but not in the metal sense. The pace picks up the most heading into the three minute mark. It's very "Obscured by Clouds" to my ears, but I have smoked a ton of pot to Pink Floyd in my day. The wink to the Violent Femmes, before the build doesn't escape me. I would like to hear them pull off that vocal break down in the middle section live. The middle eastern feel it drifts into is a winner in my book and gets them extra points. The drawl the singer takes on is weird considering they are from Brooklyn, but they might be getting their drugs from down south, gods know there are plenty of them to be had here.

Thats a rough song to try to follow up and close the album after with so they let the weird warble of keyboards serve as an outro for the final two and a half minutes . It twinkles like smokey stars but serves no other purpose. I'll give this album a 9 as some of the more Mudhoney elements might take me back to high school but they seem like a step back for a band that proves themselves capable of more , but otherwise color me a fan.



6.6 /7

Eight Bells : " the Captain's Daughter"

This Portland trio that formed out of the ashes of  SubArachnoid Space likes to call themselves expressionistic experimental metal. They are experimental enough, but at times not what I would call metal . The album opens with an angular shimmer, that is not short on groove or grace. Not what I expected at all , it is somewhat like Marriages but more progressive in the way it accelerates. The opening piece is well played but it's purpose unclear when set against the rest of the album.

"Fate and Technology"  features very psychedelic guitar that drips from the walls behind the breathy cadence of the female vocals, that I have warmed up into after repeat listens. The first six minutes of the song are very different than the more Kylesa like heaviness of the songs final minute and a half.  The production on the vocals is a lot cleaner a mix mix during the clean parts and then roughens when they do dynamically . I am unsure if this is an effect to make it seem like she is screaming more harshly than she is. I like the inclusion of  melody in the first half and the heavier part gets points for catching me by surprise as it darts out of the shadows.

The 12 minute epic title track starts off with a slinking groove that wouldn't be out of place on a Tool or Mastodon album. Shortly after the two minute mark it disintegrates into an ambient drone. I understand if this was executed like the Swans and done from the abrasiveness for its dramatic effect but it lacks the organic wandering their songs have and for an album that is only four songs to begin with a little over indulgent . The song begins to congeal back together around the six minute mark. There is a Hendrix like solo that bubbles up from the murk.  It dips back down into an even more minimalist drone though with a bit of a sonci swell to it, the sort of thing that Locrian album was full of.  Fans of drone might really enjoy this song to me it's a bit of a bore and eats up time that could have been used for actual songs.

"Yellowed Wallpaper" wraps up the album. It's a sprawling instrumental that displays their prowess as players but not as songwriters because it sounds like just a jam. This album leaves me thinking they would be a great band to catch live but writing actual songs could be a weakness as only one of these pieces I consider an actual song. The one song that is on here I like an would be interested in hearing an actual album from these playful boys and girls. I'm not sure I understand  the hype Cvltnation is putting behind them but I have also yet to see them live so maybe this is a souvenir of  that experience which I am missing out on in order to appreciate this to the fullest.  I will give this album a 6  though fans of drone might want to go ahead and round it up, as they might enjoy the middle section of the album that I felt to be filler that was stalling for time yet no songs emerged after that .      

Locrian : Return to Annihilation

This marks the Chicago band's first release on Relapse Records. They have been labelled as being experimental, drone and black metal, but on this album its not clear how fitting some of those monikers might be. Sure they have a hypnotic element to their music that lulls you in but I tend to think of drone being more of a minimalist art form than the texture and layers they have simmering over one another on this album.
 
The opener has almost a Cure vibe, though the production of the keyboards sounds almost identical to the last Circle of Ouroborus album. The vocals have an almost black metal scathing to them and are the heaviest part of the song. The vibe of  " Visitation From the Wrath of Heaven" feels more like a jammy post-rock band, it recalls those moments the Greatful Dead would hit live where they were waiting for the spirit or the acid to move them in a more congealed direction.The direction this band finds just happens to be varied shades of heavy.

There are more elements of sludge than black metal which is becoming more of a comfortable blanket for all things dark and heavy." Two Moons" swirls it's self awake with over driven synth swells . The embellishment of the guitar never allows anything to carry you a away like white noise. If drone means not allowing it to fully develop dynamically then I can where on a song like this is might apply.

The band apparently likes to claim Kraut rock as an influence and if you want to get fancy and hipster with what you are calling goth then I can see how that might get thrown around with the title track. The low moaned vocals ringing out from the distance help color that vibe. Midway they hit a metallic swarm of bees that hits they drone place they are going for. It does challenge the listeners endurance which I think any music of this ilk should do . It becomes heavy but not in a metal sense , when when the drums kick up dust. There's  few second here where it sounds as if they might let go into some genuine black metal, but they are never maintained for long.

"Exiting the Hall of Vapor and Light" creeps in on a visceral swathe similar to mid-period Swans. This creep doesn't begin to take off until three minutes into this five minute long song, so maybe I'm wrong but drone is coming across like wearing a chastity device ,  deprive your self from the release , limit the pay  off because that would be the easy way out ,  it makes for cool sounds but not a good song here.

The kraut rock tag I can see only in the sense that the song " Panorama of Mirrors" feels like something from an eighties sci-fi soundtrack, though less Tangerine Dream. This does build into some rather minimalist drum hits and black metalish screaming. Once again we get the benefit of some cool sounds that turn into ideas no fully mapped out. I understand  the tension in not resolving  and like the hypnotic elements but I need  more pay off.

The fifteen minute monster that is " Obsolete Elegies" begins with more melody than most of this album has show, though there is enough ambient noise to satisfy those who obviously must think conventional song writing with hooks is not abrasive enough for them. The intro section is the first five minutes then there is more sci-fi sounding stuff with some post- rock single note swelling. Then song then devolves into some feedback before going blasty The blasting has a very programmed feel to it .The albums best moment is the melody in the final minute and a half of this song.

Some of the more minimalist stuff on here isn't my thing but its well done so I will give this one a 6.5