Black Metal History Month - Vanum : "Ageless Fire"

This year the American Black Metal bands I have reviewed have been pretty decent, I was beginning to get sick of American Black Metal and yearn for something with a little more Northern European blood in it's veins until I saw these guys are members of Yellow Eyes, Fell Voices and Ash Borer. So the cream of the American Black Metal crop. The first song has more of a epic almost Summoning like gallop to it that sets it apart from the work of their other projects. Though an instrumental, it's well done , but leaves me waiting for the actual song to kick in. More in your face , foot on the monitors metal when the real song does kick in the vocals are the glaring weak spot in the over all sound as they are a dry mid range rasp that feels like more of an obligatory after thought. So it's a good thing for these guys that everything else is really dialed in to make you almost able to over look this fact. I suppose those of you who only hear guitar guitars and don't care about vocals at all will over look this altogether and not get why I am even making it a deal.

I can almost understand why you would allow the vocal short comings to pass you by as the riffs are big and command head banging. If head banging is all you ask from metal then this album is certainly for you as it is well done. They guitars are well mixed and sound great. I am not sure why people call these guys atmospheric black metal as it's pretty in your face with devil horns held high. Nothing about it comes close to Deafheaven. The blast beats might drive it but the guitar parts can be intricate. When it does come to atmosphere , some surfaces on the otherwise blast heavy " Eternity" it comes by way of odd guitar melodies. Things get a little darker on "Under the Banner of Death" , but for a black metal album there is a bright feeling in what is going on here. The vocal are accented a little different though tonally in the same place. The verses carry more stomp to them. At this point in the album at any time they can break away from the blast beats it's more impressive.

The title track employs more melody to break things up more.This includes a cleaner guitar tone, though only for the first minute, then gallops along. I am waiting to see how long they can last without defaulting to blast beat as I think their most creative writing comes without them. The answer i only two and a half minutes. When they vocals come in things go back to blast. It finds them once again leaning heavily in the more speedy direction. Overall this album is not the most original thing and I prefer the darker Fell Voices , but it sounds good and they are good at what they do. I'll give it an 8, not something I really see my self returning more than I have to review this.

Yellow Eyes : "Immersion Trench Reverie "

After seven years as a band, the forth album by the New York based based find them finally taking the time to write actual songs all the dynamic components I need from them to consider it so. They even pay attention to guitar melodies when reverting back into a more feral version of their older selves on the second song. Enough sonic dissonance to hang with the other hip black metal bands from New York. In sharpening their skills as song writers they have also learned that you can say what you need to say under ten minutes. Only one song reaches over the ten minute mark. The drums are going to be on point because this guy has also played with Fell Voices and Ashborer. He doesn't live off of blast beats alone and has a pretty mean double bass as well. How can he not if he is the go to metal drummer in New York?

Things get thankfully darker on "Shrillness In the Heated Grass". The vocals go up into a higher more scathing snarl. Everything has a horror movie like tension to it, which is how metal should feel. The guitar sounds on this album prove to take more chances and find from production stand point they did not just plug in and press record. In the murky throb of "Velvet on the Horns" there are deeper texture than the more sonic buzz saw they used to cut at you with. They revert to more of a fast and furious approach on this song. Though it has more breathing room in the riff, the title track picks up pretty much where the other song left off in terms of intensity and tempo. The stay in the same sort of static scream. The transitions riff wise can be somewhat jarring. It does speed up into more of a blur as the song progresses.

After a minute of sound effects the final song storms into place and goes on a another wrathful speed fest. Falling back into their old ways of songwriting after starting the album off with so much promise. The riffs to modulate some into some more experimental patterns melody wise, but the tempo holds steady at blast and drone and is not off set enough by what the guitar does. It doesn't slow down until the final three minutes so it was not the best use of the first seven. I will give this album an 8.5 as it is an improvement with some really strong songs starting off the album to balance things out.

Yellow Eyes : "Sick With Bloom"

This New York based black metal band now boasts the drummer from Fell Voices. They are not unlike Fell Voices and Ash Borer in the manner they bring a sonic burst to their blast beaten path. Vocally things are in a higher pitched choked screamed that is very black metal , it's really the guitar tone to this album that gives the their signature sound. They do not employ the typical metallic distortion, and opt for a more Liturgy like ringing. Overall their sound is rawer than Liturgy. The overall attack holds more in common with traditional black metal, where with Liturgy even that is something to be toyed with.  Their sound alone keeps me invested in the first song , but then comes the dreaded question many a extreme meta bands fears...what else can you do.

Blast beats start off "Streaming From the Undergrowth" leaving it on a similar trajectory as the opener. The tempo change is pretty color by numbers for this style of black metal making the dynamic shift only marginal. "What Filters Through the Copper Stain" is a few degrees darker. It helps that they don't rush off into blast beats. Not that this urge is resisted for long, but long enough to let you know this is a different song. The guitar has a slight shade of melody to it hidden in the din. They use clean guitar as an outro once the song is finished, but it would have proved more interesting to me if they could have down in as a working part of the song. "The Mangrove, the Preserver" kicks off with yet another blast. The blast beat is starting to become the element that gives them a monochrome sound. The screaming becomes something that is obligatory rather than something adding more than a static layer of  organic white noise to the song. They change beats and slow down and it does wonders for the song. This eventually flows into a more melodic passage that gives a more sweeping sensation. Once again cleaner atmospheric tones come in to transition out of the song rather than being employed in the song.

At this point it almost goes without saying that blast beats are going to start off "Fallen Snag". But at a minute in they transition out of this in a slowed more chilling section. They guitar doe some interesting things until a Krallice like flourish kicks things back into the maelstrom again. There is more of the post-rock waver in the tone to the guitar of " Ice In the Spring". The feral howl of the vocals seems more distant, over the expected blast beats. There are some slight deviations that veer from the blast beat, but keep the tempo brisk. Some melodic atmosphere is dipped into and tries to shine through the wall of white noise being droned on. Then everything fades down to leave the final two minutes with atmospheric noise and clean guitar, like a few of the other songs have ended so this is not a really a creative breakthrough on their part here. They capture some cool sounds, some songs have more creative moments than others, I think this is an improvement for this band and the new drummer works well with them it's just too one dimensional for me most of the time and has an over reliance on blast beats so I'll give it a 7, but if you don't ask to much from you American black metal then round it up.

4.2

Vanum: "Realm Of Sacrifice"

Members of Ash Borer and Fell Voices have joined forces to form this band. The start of ripping into to is faster than most metal but not the blistering blast beats that are typical of black metal, though the get to those. Then slow into an actual melody that they ride out until the the final few minutes of the ten minute opener. The production is closer to more recent Fell Voices than Ash Borer, with the vocals at a coarse almost barked mid-range. The layering of guitar seems to be their strength. Things get off to a more subtle creeping atmosphere on "In the Immaterial Flame". The vocals get more feral, before they race off into a blinding blur of blast beats and the vocals sound more like an animal screaming out with rabies. At the five minute mark this converges into a reined in tremolo attack with copious amounts of double bass steam rolling the song along.T he song got off to a decent enough start before the momentum sends it rolling down hill faster than their legs can carry it. This is fairly common with black metal so if you just want something to smack you in the face this does much more than that. The formula is reversed here and the more restrained melody prevails in the songs final minutes before bestial howls bring chaos. Of all the songs the twelve minute "Convergence" is the longest. It opens with melancholy guitar that rings out into the re-verb heavy desert sky. Within two and a half minutes the blast beats can not wait though the do so in away that doesn't really crowd the guitar. The vocal come in with a commanding rasp the guitar droning gracefully beneath it. With this style of black metal it would be easier for this to become indistinguishable from their other projects but it has a darker identity of its own. However it is not to say that a song like "Convergence" doesn't find it self at times lost the chaos it creates.


 With "Realm of Sacrifice" if you are not paying attention it seems like a melodic break in the song that goes back into where the previous song left off though there is a little more deliberateness in the double bass to keep things from racing off for a minute. At eight minutes its the albums shortest song , at the five minute mark it allows more melody to be breathed into it. Overall if you are just looking for good blasting atmospheric black metal, these guys do know how not get too atmospheric where the song gets lost, in fact quite the opposite its when thing get going to furiously that the feet of the song comes out from under it, but this can be a problem with black metal in general this comes from those who really adhere hard and fast to the old Darkthrone school of black metal, which is classic, but not the identity for everyone much less the hundreds of black metal bands in my inbox every week. These guys to stand out from the crowd in the thoughtful mood and tones so I'll give them a 7.5.

Catching Up With 2014 : Ruin Lust : s/t

This album drips with crust and filth. Not since Disma's album have I heard something with this much grime to it. This is the band's first album, which was released back in May on Psychic Violence. Ruin Lust  might benefit by having  drummer Mike Rekevics on the throne, as he is the go to hip New York metal drummer, playing with Ash Borer, Fell Voices, Vorde, but it's the guitar tone that captures the feeling of this album. All three members vomit on the mic to some extent. Can't say the vocal styles are very distinct most have a lower coarse roar. "Primal Vision" switches gears into something a little more grind core. Until the solo ish section, which is a single note drone, it's beating you with one thing. Live with the band cranked up in a New York dive, that is pretty effective but it's not until the punches come and break everything up does the song get fun . A real guitar solo even shows up to the party.

They trample you with bloody thunder on "Tethered and Lashed", whats with all the bdsm references in metal today, just got done with another death metal album all bout the humiliation. This song is rawer and more of a challenge to embrace the noise caking what they do. When the guitar comes in a the two minute marks it's clear the static drenched sound they slugged you with at the beginning of the song was intentional. It works well for these guys, they make sounding bad sound good.The anguished sound of puke into the p/a works to accent the vocals, which can be one dimensional and my least favorite part of this band.

The second half of the album is "Skin Hunger" part one and two. One is a murky sewer water tasting death metal. It's dragging sludge borders on doom. The growl to this song is one of the better vocal performances on the album. It becomes even more of a dirge as the song dips into a depression. The part two is a bestial explosion of heaviness jack hammering  your skull. For the drummer have played with so many black metal bands the blast beats on this album are more punk in the way they hit the snare. This is pretty much in your face what you see is what you get filthy shit. The sound of this album is so raw and brutal it's unreal, so if savagery alone gets you by then you might rate this higher than the 8.5 I am rounding this one up to.

Vorde: s/t

Fallen Empire hasn't led me wrong yet ,so lets see if they can keep up the streak.Vorde features members of Fell Voices and Ruin Lust. The album opens with dark ambiance an element commonly found with projects on the label's roster. After three minutes of this they launch into some fairly straight forward black metal, until the vocals come in. They are a distant gurgled moan that hovers over the faster riff. It sometimes raises into something closer to singing, though the vocalist has the ability to accent it with a punchy rasp. The drumming spirals around this in a pretty impressive display. There is a slight chaotic element to how these elements are all set against one another but it adds to the overall sonic density.

This is followed up by the more metal delivery of "Transformations of the Vessel". They blast ahead while the moans bellow out in the icy backdrop. "Blood Moon" is a mix of ambiance and storming drums before it builds into a more blasting burst of black metal. The first lyric cuts through the din as "my final whisper". The more metal attack that this swells into gives some meat to the sonic explorations. This is clearly one of those albums that is going to take several listens to digest .

If it hadn't already the use of clean vocals set against the dissonance and airy bleakness of what is being called forth here reminds me of Urfaust. The vocals are more long the lines of something Attila would do or even Atriarch, where the singer from  Urfaust had slightly more command to his vocal tone. The dynamic and clean guitar tones are some of the band's strong points , they way the pursue some of the more hypnotic qualities of black metal to drone into is where you here the Fell Voices among them.This is really well executed in "Crown of Black Flame". The echoing cavern that Fell Voices records in must have been used for this album as well.

The album closes out with "Funereal Vortex" that starts off on a similar left hand path as Mayhem might and then winds up in a more atmospheric almost Cure like place in the final two minutes. So that is quiet a dynamic journey. I'm not done soaking all of this in, but think this should get a 9.It uphold Fallen Empires track record and is a bold stab at a different take on black metal that I can appreciate. A dramatic step out of the comfort zone of all the players involved, who captured some great sounds here, some of which will be familiar to fans of their respective bands ,but darker and more melodic.

Fell Voices : Renum Saturni

I really like the ambiance of the previous album I heard from this California trio.

Sticking to the vast epic nature of their song writing the new album is comprised of three songs that clock in collectively at over an hour.

They take their time building into the first song. The intro is five and a half minutes before we get to the first blasts of "Dawn". While their is the hypnotic drone around the edges, in the eye of this storm is prett straight forward and raw as the production is denser but also a muddier guitar tone and the vocals even mixed further back.The modulation is slight and more felt than heard. Live if this was loud enough I imagine might come across like getting hit with the Swans wall of sound and this is something I can let drone in the back ground as I write since it doesn't demand my closest attention , but it begs the question ...What about the songs? Is it fair to even think of this in the same scope as Emperor or even Deafheaven , who create chaos but it still functions in the bounds of a song rather than as a movement. Ten minutes in and it's moving but not really going anywhere. There are very subtle shifts on more of a vibrational level than a chorus, is this blur the verse , well I'm assuming it is. Can they recreate this live and what would they be recreating is another question as there is a very in the moment organic quality to this. At the twelve minute mark we have a change, the drums are accenting the cymbals things are swelling and being stirred like a boiling broth. It takes on more of a dim shimmer than anything really black metal here, though the moment is short lived before plunged back into the frothing void. There up to this point aren't really any dynamics to speak of and the ambiance is in the punishment. The drummer begin to refocus their accents which gives it some definition. The drums roll into motion creating a swirl around the flurry that gradually seems to have notched up the intensity by the last seven minute mark. Though the final three minutes are consumed by a locust like swarm of feedback.

The vocals are pretty much an after thought like the we're on the bands previous efforts a distant howling from a far away wasteland. I doubt any real words or lyrics are present this just seems like a static layer of screaming for the sake of screaming.

The following song plots a similar course to destination unknown though takes less time getting to the blast which it hangs on for the listener is seventeen minutes into the the drone of "Emergence" something that earns a head bang takes places as they find more of a gallop before drifting off into feedback and distant howling, this is drawn out for the next two and a half minutes. The guitars do seem to have a darker tone as the album progresses, like astrommcloud getting blacker as it nears. The majority of the drone this song takes on carries a little more ferocity than the previous song.

The third song waits two minutes to develop past the ringing of delayed feedback. It simmers to life keeping with the progression of evoking a somewhat darker feeling than the rpevious song but is full blast ahead.

Often feeling dynamically flat it can be said that I can also just leave this album on and let it play. This doesn't mean the songs are necessarilly distinguishable but it all flows together like I'm listening to a more tempestuous Phillip Glass Peice . I wonder how Phillip Glass feels about black metal. Though I can listen to the album on constant repeat Becuase im a sucker for the hypnotic drone of this flavor of black metal, there is not much in the way of actually song writing , which I understand these guys are more about the sonic architecture than hooks and choruses but I feel they are capable musicians who could have taken steps forward and this feels like a lateral move the kind of uncompromising cop out Slayer makes when they pump out the same album year after year so this get a 7.5 whiles it's a captivating listen for what it is what it is could stand to be more dynamic.