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.

Aksumite : "Self Interference"

Here's another one  of Damien Master's projects. The album opens with what doesn't even seem to be a fully  realized song but a brief out burst of punk. There is more of a black metal feel to "New Values" that follows which spreads out the guitar tone and offers a wider range of dynamics than I expected going into this. Then there is another outburst that is under a minute. The title track rips into a similar brand of punk of but has a more metallic Motorhead on pcp from hell propulsion. "The Silhouette Speaks" has a similar crude punk drive to it but is allowed more time to gestate into a fully formed song.

The vocals do have more of a metal roar to them than punk like shouting. The is very evident in "Rack and Ribs", which at a minute and fifty one seconds in one of the albums longest songs. "The Center is Blood" flails off course into obnoxious punk. "Forehead Kisses" like the bulk of the album is also more punk than not , but the guitars seem to be more aware that they are playing a song than just being banged upon. The interplay between the guitar and the drums is a fun way for them to switch things up. Not as gracefully punk is "Turquoise Fangs" that stumbles into a more melodic section. Then the album descends into punk that all pretty much sounds the same.Masters claims all the vocals were free styled , which might be true since you can only understand maybe every fourth word.


 The closing songs "All The Things I Think" flirts with black metal but really doesn't fully commit to to it. There are some marginal hard-core moments, mixed with noise rock. There are some good ideas here, this is not the most consistent album and the punk side of what they do which is the dominate flavor just isn't my thing. I'll give this album a 6.5. If you are a fan of Master's more punk leanings then this is the album you have been waiting for.

Liturgy : " The Ark Work"

Despite Hunter's best efforts I've remained a fan through all the hipster pre-tense Little Lord Hendrix has draped the project in. Even after the clean vocals and Bone Thugs being cited as an influence I have been waiting for this one. It opens with literal fan fare, not an actual song just an intro, that's horns. The first actual song splits the difference between the Sun Ra jazz and the black metal of old. If a real drummer is playing this and not a drum machine then it's impressive as hell. According to the credits it's Ben Fox who played on the last album. The second song sounds like and extension of the first with these glitches thrown in, which sound intentional, it could be the copy I downloaded is just pirate as hell. Tone wise the a guitar carries a similar ringing sound, maybe even less distorted . The rap elements come in on this song as well. But is sound more like chants since bass is thumping. Hunter isn't trying to really spit verses, it sounds like monotone ranting. This song grows more sonic and eventually wins me over.

"Follow II" is a much more twinkling piece of ambiance, almost bordering on the space riding tendencies of kraut rock . They explode into the song at the three minute mark. I can hear where the transcendental nature of the music lies as it is very soaring. This might have blast beats, but it's not black metal. I'm o.k with that, if you are not well they are like Rush in the fact they are not every ones bag. The vocals on this one sound like Indian chants and even when they used harshly screamed vocals it was just a layer of white noise with a more human touch.

If you clicked on this review chances are you already clicked on the single for "Quetzalcoatl". The rap thing is more predominant here. Dramatic synths swell before what is a pretty decent sweep of black metal that flows into the song. "Father Vorizen" is more deliberately paced and carries a tad more stomp to it. There is a tremendous increase in atmosphere on this album, a few little interlude like songs that carry you from one piece to the next. Synths are also more present, mainly creating string sound. Synths are pretty common in black metal so you can't fault him for that. "Reign Array" blasts into a shimmering sunrise rather than taking you to the grim winter's dusk most black metal travels to. Hunter's best attempt to sing occurs on this song as well and Rob Halford has nothing to worry about. They use the ten minutes of this song to swell similar sonic themes explored earlier on the album into radiant tapestry.

They harmonize layers of vocals in a round on "Vitriol" before  bringing more of the pseudo rap back into the picture. His lyrics are more distinguishable than when he previously tried to cold kick it.The lyrics are like something from Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" filtered through Layzie Bone. The fuzzy electronic undercurrent  is allowed to drip in from the song's cracks creating the albums most un-metal. "Total War" is almost like a slower reprise of "Quetzalcoatl" , it does float into a dark cloud. The production on this song and a few others sounds almost muffled. I'm sure this is intentional, I know they are influenced by Lighting Bolt, but for what they are doing a crisper sound might have benefited this album. This does leave me a little torn in scoring the album so I'll go on an give it a 9.5 and see how it stands the test of time.

Catching up with 2014 - Alraune : "The Process of Self Immolation"

This album is a lot like Nux Vomica's new one in the sense, it takes several listens for me to gather my feelings towards it. These guys have wandered onto a few best of 2014 lists. They dropped this one back in June, and I do not remember hearing any buzz about it then, but here it is now. They do  not sound like they are from Tennessee, I'm am not going to say they sound like the next Darkthrone, but they are in more of the hipster New York or Cali sphere.

The ragged rough mix is as raw as you might want your black metal. The vocals are almost muffled behind the clanging and the snare sounds lost until they go into more of a thrash section. If not for the Deafheaven like clean break, to serve as a guidepost I might not have realized we were entering another song. They do jam on Simulacra"s lazy intro a while before gong into an even more furious blasting.There is a part at the four and a half mark that sounds like Converge. The vocals cry out in a somewhat cleaner tone. This Converge voice return for a more angular section at the six and a half minute mark.

Feedback bridges them over into "Kissed By the Red" . That Converge like anguish returns to the vocals right from the first few words he cries out.It's emotive in a manner that black metal is not known for. I am hesitant to really think of these guys as black metal , it's almost like if Converge decide to drone you with blast beats instead of dazzle you with angular jerking. The drummer is better than he lets on at first and gradual as the album unwind the flourishes have a craftier side than brute pounding.

The title track closes thing out. An 11 minute monster that is frothing at the mouth almost from the get go. The angular groove that haunt the song as a thematic element is teetering on something unsettling. The hardcore yells can not be denied on some movements. Still the lyrics are garbling beneath the guitar that dominates the mix for the entire album.The bass is a frequency some where but doesn't really come out of hiding. They default to blasting more often than not in the meat of the songs middle section.When they are not locked in a blast beat the guitars are attacking the song with a similar tension, letting the drum hammer the toms.

I seem to remember liking this album more the first listen, than I did sitting down do dissect it, then you see how many just droning blast parts there are , and the band leaves it up to the drummer to sort them all out. I like where these guys are going, fans of Ash Borer and Fell Voices take note. I;ll give it an 8, though I don't see this as something I have to have, but I feel they deserve the 8 as they are good at what they are doing .

Digging Into the Covers- Whores/Rabbits Vs the Cure

To some extent you might think I would be the perfect audience for this as my tastes are split almost 50/50 goth(post-punk) to metal, though metal might lead 60 to 40 percent if we got down and tracked my listens.In some ways it makes sense as I have always heard the Swans and Killing Joke influence in Neurosis albums so early goth/postpunk is certainly an influence. Despite coming from a more Amp Rep background Whores  almost come closer to getting the darker elements right, but in both cases the vocals are the draw back.
I can understand these bands not wanting to sacrifice some of the hipster factor back making a more emotive stab at the vocals and attempting a Robert Smith approach, who was a little more dead pan himself in the bands earlier punk days, but it really takes away from the meat of the song.The changes of arrangement was expected going into this, though thought the bass might stick closer to Dempsey's tone. However the sludge treatment in both versions creates more of a sluggish wall of sound than lending such distinctions.

Whores covered the 1979 single "Jumping Someone's Train". The vocals come a little closer as Smith was a less dynamic singer during the early stages of the band's career and went for a simplistic punk attitude. Lembach employs a more Page Hamilton like phrasing to the way the main vocal line over accents the lyrics. They are more narrated and less sung. The lumber and feedback doesn't obscure the song, the doubled vocals on the chorus stray the farthest. There is a very Page Hamilton like phrasing to the way the main vocal line over accents the lyrics. They are more narrated and less sung. I has to go back and listen to the song again because I was surprised they did not go after the drum accents that the Cure using in the final 30 seconds of the original because they seem to lend themselves to a Neurosis like pounding, instead the go into more of a rolling tom fill and stop rather abruptly.


The Rabbits took a swing at "Give Me It" from their 1984 album "the Top". The more Neurosis elements, I could have heard in the Whores' version are delivered, here but Rabbits when full tilt at the song and lost all sense of dynamics, except for the more brooding intro which is the only place the song is allowed to breathe. The coarser vocals serve as a reminder that bands like like all too often make the vocals an after thought, as they seemed to be haphazardly screamed like an Eyehategod song.

If you are a fan of the Melvins and not a fan of the Cure, you have a better chance of liking this.It's not something I really feel that I need taking up space on my iPod, as the originals are already on there. So it's a mixed bag, the Cure is such a revered band that it seems as safe of a choice to cover as if they had picked Joy Division. Though their goth cred would have been more noted if they had chosen Swans or Mission U.k....whens a Fields of the Nephilim sludge cover album coming out ?