Black Metal History Month -Felsenmirror : "s/t"

 When black metal comes from Portland, my first guess is it is a bunch of crust hippies. I am not wrong here. They do have a dark sound and are very deliberate, which I prefer to a bunch of blast beats, and I am not even ten days into Black Metal History Month and running out of new stuff, so I am going to give this one a shot. I think its a woman handling the screaming, it has wretched anguish but none of the resonance of a man's scream. If you are hippie from Portland, you might think this is a sexist statement, but it is a matter of science and the density of vocal cords and how women are made different from a man's no matter how much she drinks and smokes. Anatomy is a branch of science. You remember science what you were screaming for everyone to trust two years ago with your mask on hiding under your bed. Not a fan of long songs but they keep my attention with the ten-minute opening track. 

I like their use of ambience and how they weave samples into it. The second song leans more into the open space of post-rock, allowing the song to creep together from clouds that are parting, to lead you into the listless drift. The roar back to life, which is a dynamic contrast I also appreciate. This album is said to be ab homage to the stages of grief, and I suppose I can hear it. It wanders off in the last minutes of the song, before building once more. "Fear in a Handful of Ash" is faced with the challenge of bringing something new to the table. They croak over a more sludge ridden stomp, which is a smart move as it avoids retracing their steps back into the post-rock colored black metal. The bleakness of crust can be heard here. 

The last song "the Truth Reveals Itself in the Dark" sticks closer to the parameters of black gaze, with more emphasis put on the shoe gazing as the song progresses. There is a doomy mood pounding things into place once the blast beats fade away. They continue prove themselves skilled at creating this mood, it might not be the most original band ever, but they take building blocks set forth before them and arrange them into something that is their own, I will give this one a 9.5, and see how it grows on me. If you were to take away the folk of Agalloch, long with the more technical side of their guitar work and replaced it with crust then you would get something close to what goes down here. 

Ils : "Curse"

This band from Portland has been rumbling the underground with their  blend of noise rock that is so burly it hits ike methed out sudge. The vocals are more punk. They back off of the bludgeoning on  the title track  which is like a mix up between Clutch and Black Flag. Due to the groove. The vocals go into a nastier snarl in places. They use a fair amount of dissonance and a gnarly bass on tone with menacing your ears with " Don't Hurt Me" .  Their drummer proves himself with me in on the more metallic attack dealt by "No Luck".  Their sense battery of your ears, gains a little sonic atmosphere with "Noose" , while following their song writing formula. The vocals are clearly fixed into the two dynamics vomiting snarls and screams or the drunken punk exclamations.


"Whitemeat" tackles rascism, this is the only song where the lyrical content became pretty clear.Their punk side makes this political / social purging make a little more sense. The guitar riffs swirl around you on this one. They also go into how the problems of this world have something to do with parasites. If they are referring to the fact all humans are parasites then I am on board. "Northstar" finds the beating beginning to numb you out. Here they are chanting that it just doesn't matter'. This is a thought that is universal and doesn't just apply to this song, but any of the things they seem to be angry about. The vocals trade off from the screaming to more spoken sections quicker on "Casket Race" that works off a more taunt chugging. In places I can hear a Dead Kennedys influnce.  'It's Not Lard, But It's a Cyst" . Has more chaotic energy, though not vastly different than they have already been doing perhaps marginally more riff driven.,

The guitar's going into the last song have more of a throb, but they of course explode out of this. The syncopation is more deliberate, The vocals have less focus. I will give this album an 8.5. If you like rowdy punk flavored noise rock with a tendency to tell you what is wrong with the world these days then this band is going to be up your alley.

Black Metal History Month - Azoth : "Magnitude of Extinction"

When this band hits you with blast beats it is because they have already massaged your ears. You have something to contrast it with. They are from Portland they new hipster capital. Hipsters no longer listen to black metal. It's too 2012 for them. They are now into industrial. These guys do create a cascadian drone. What is in the water of the Pacific Northwest that makes them lean that way, or better yet what is in the weed might be a better question. They are able to step away from the blast beat to soothe you with post rock for a little bit before raging back into blackness. Fell Voice's earlier work is a good reference point for where they are at in their sonic escapades.

It is not until the third song t hat vocals come in. They are a very distant and almost whispered rasp. Like the ghost of an old dying man is crying out. It could be production choices but it doesn't sound like there is a great deal of power behind them. Perhaps this is why they waited three songs in for them. Most American post- black metal bands will be influenced by Deafheaven at this point. If they are it's not obvious aside from the fact they are in the same sub-genre. More intense that the more recent Deafheaven for sure. The vocals play less of a role. The ebb and flow between their two polarities is not predictable  Sometimes they are darker than others. Solemn and moody are two words better coloring them than dark. The clean guitar tones really shimmer. The title track is almost more of an interlude. It floats around in  pretty places.

"Seabringer" close out the album  This song finds the band back in a more dense and intense place. There are lots of blast beats here , but it is balanced out by the stirring atmosphere. There is dynamic range , but the frequency of defaulting to blast beats to convey the feeling of black metal does begin to give the songs a more uniform sound. All the same the sound might be stronger than the songs, but this was a listen I enjoyed over all I will give this an 8.5 as I think it was a success in what they set out to craft.

OSSUARIUM : "Living Tomb"

This band from Portland tips the scale much more on the death metal side of things it is blackened enough to belong here. The vocals are low growl and the double bass tramples your ears. All things that would add to up death metal. Some of the blasty sections are more black metal and the way they dip into melody and atmosphere invokes more of a black metal darkness. So I would not write them off as yet another death doom band. While they are effective at death metal it's the journey into the weirdness that is "Vomiting Black Death" that I find more interesting. This album sounds great and it's the clean guitar tones on this song that really sell me on that fact. The dynamic contrast makes the double bass that follows more powerful. They also have knack of conjuring riffs that are hard not to head bang to. They make the parts where they speed up seem like a cop out as you have just heard them do something far more cooler.

Where black metal is more about the sonic darkness , the death metal heart of this band is about hooking you in with mean riff. Of course it's going to be the sections of the songs that drip with creepy that are going to resonate most with me. There is a much more straight forward stomp to "Writhing in Emptiness". They go for a more ominous tone on "End of Life Dreams and Visions" before racing off into something much closer to black metal. The final moments of this song relax back into the shadows with the more melodic guitar parts that have cropped up early. Then it's back to a more almost Bolt Thrower like strain of death metal, before it sounds like depression grounds it. It's an effective tool for them to drop down to just the rumble of the bass. 

"Malicious Equivalence " kicks off with them storming the gates with renewed aggression. It slows into something more along the lines of death doom. This drummer is a fucking monster , which can be heard more in the sections where they guitar drops back. They last song picks up where they previous one left off though going into a darker and more melodic place.  I'll round this one up to a 9 since the production, playing and song writing are all dialed in. I would have liked to have heard them experimenting a little more , but it is what it is. While I can't call this black metal it's death metal for people who like black metal.This was just released on 20 Buck Spin. 

Living Tomb by Ossuarium

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Uada : " Cult of a Dying Sun"

This blackened act from Portland lines up to take another stab at what Dissection did.
They kick some blast beats around this, to give it a hyper thrash sensibility. The vocals split the difference between black metal and death metal. The lower vocal is more clearly death metal, with the higher rasp carrying more of a black metal feel.Sometimes these are switched out in more predictable times than others.  It's well produced and these guys can obviously play their instruments, so what I am listening to is the quality of their songs. Can they do anything at less than a 140 bpms that doesn't sound like they are recycling countless bands that came before them.Guitar melodies and double bass sometime compensate for the album's over all more singular focus.

They a good a mimicking Swedish melo-death. Throw some blast beats on top of this and they you certainly don't sound like an American band. To the point of almost sounding like a hookier more Swedish version of Mutilation Rites. It's almost cultural appropriation , but if it's white people stealing from other white people then no one males a big deal of it. It all trickled down from NWOBHM could be one argument. Three minutes into the title track and I am wondering where they can go from here. The answer seems to be deeper into death metal. We begin to hear Entombed seeping from the corners. The guitar solos keep the melody in mind and are another working part of the song. Lyrically it's a mute point as the vocals are obligatory. The lower growls are well done. The half time breakdowns are effective, though the most betraying of their American roots.

They could stand to shave the first minute of acoustic intro off of "Wanderer" . Truth be told I am not sure there is enough here to justify it being an instrumental and this might have worked better into one of the other songs to provide more dynamics. They do hold onto the strum of guitar for a triumphant gallop into "Blood Sad Ash". Here their sense of melody begins to have a greater pay off.  Aside from the more Mayhem like croak of the vocals that open the song "Spheres" sounds like more of the same. They are locking into their formula at this point. The drumming is great , but to play this kind of music it has to be. To be a rehashing of guitar harmonies we have already been blasted past earlier in the album or at least something close enough ten minutes of the closing song get tedious and tuned out. These guys are good at what they do it just feels like another Americanized remake, much like "Let Me In". If you never heard the original then you might be more impressed. In terms of execution alone I'll give this a 7.5, which is rounded down due to lack of originality. But fans of melo-death like that sort of thing.

Knelt Rote: "Alterity"

This band from Portland has gone through a few changes stylistically over the years and it sounds like they have finally landed on death metal. They do this with enough savage grace to be convincing, but it is far from remaking the wheel. It is intense. If you are really into death metal and not so discriminating when it comes to what you want aside from fast double bass powered drumming and low growls then you might really be into this. The third song is the first one that I begin to hear a shift from what they started in the albums first few blasts. So this should be filed under very straight forward death metal. I would not go as far as to call it old school, as earlier death metal owed quite a bit in terms of song writing to thrash.

They sound marginally more feral on "Genetic Memory". This alone fails to wow me. Iguess their grind core past taught them how to cram a lot into under two minutes. The dive bomb solo at the beginning of "Othering" give it a taste of Slayer. This comparison would be blasted back out of the water when they momentum builds and this song get going. The song eventually becomes a blur of dark distortion and growling. It is not until over half way through the song after this that it begins to take on a musical quality and tries to live off of sheer heaviness alone.

Fortunately this songs are very short so you are never having to endure more than just bursts of this intensity. I'll give this album a 5 as it is too one dimensional. Though that could be said of most death metal as it seems to rely on aggression.If you are into just aggression and not things like dynamic song writing then you won't be able to tell the difference between this and the 100 other death metal albums on your iPod when you put it on shuffle.

Black Metal History Month- Dagger Lust : "Siege Bondage Adverse to the Godhead"

This is the first album from this band out of Portland. They try to be so dense and intense it threatens the definition of what is music. Any where you look it says their lyrics are about sexual depravity. While that sounds great, they are screaming in English and you can not under a word they are saying. Mostly blast beats and the dual screams of lower death metal gurgle and a higher vocal that sounds like they are clearing their throat. Its a good thing their songs are short as it is really hard to take more than a couple minutes at a time as each song seems to be more chaotic than the one before. Very raw to the point of the distortion and feed back causes power violence buzz or electric fuzz. "Black Blood in Mockery" is unable to distinguish it self from the song that came before it and continues to be a blur of noise.Almost to the point of it being hard to really find any redeeming quality.

They allow a bass line to ring out and provide the first breathing room on " Perverse Divine" . This is the bands first musical moment. It shows less is more from these guys. You are of course waiting for them to take a chainsaw to it. The blast back into what they have been doing previous to this on the song that follows, which at this point is like naming your farts for me to list song names. It had more in common with dropping a washing machine down a stair well than it does Darkthrone. It is dark enough and blasting enough to qualify as black metal. They bring it back down to trying to tune their bass on the second to the last song. Yelling the vocals more than growling them. You still can't make out anything they say. The title track is more of the same that we have already gotten from these guys.

So do you like noise ? I prefer music. I'll around this album down to a 2. It might be the lowest score I have giving a band. If you like noise, I would suggest that while you can round this album up to whatever you want you are more likely to benefit from sniffing glue and beating your self win the head with a hammer.

At the Heart of the World : "Rotting Form"

After some raw feedback this project snarls into the thick of things. They owe more to Godflesh than than the more Skinny Puppy like brand of industrial Youth Code has descended from. The vocals are harsher. They are also male. Sometimes the synths are just as metallic as the guitars, but that is where the comparison to Youth Code ends, due to the fact these guys have guitars and are not afraid to use them. The vocals are more metal in the way they sometimes go into growls where the chick from Youth Code is aggressive, but merely shouting. Now that we have that comparison out of the way, lets talk about what is going on here. "Golden Cross" has more metallic guitars than the first song. The square synth sound is more plastic and 80s in it's tone like they are from a Kraftwerk record. Not a complaint as I think it is a more analog quality I have not heard in a lot of industrial.

The synths bring in a more melodic Blade Runner quality to "Embrace the Cripple". There is a more kraut rock groove set against the melodic metal guitar that is an interesting juxtaposition. It hits the sweet spot of being heavy sonically and heavy metal. There is more of a Liturgy like angular syncopation to "Fear and Peace" before the chanted vocals bring it back into Godflesh's backyard. Sonically it's more straight forward and not far removed from other things I have heard before so the songs before this have a more original quality that intrigues me more. The guitars are thickly layered here and the drum machine has enough balls to it so it doesn't just patter weakly beneath the guitar.

The title track has an apocalyptic pound and a vocal call and response that feels more organic. The jagged single note guitar melody almost feels like it is playing a bag pipe line. The albums longest song is the four minute "If I Have Loved You I Have Failed You".  The vocals are almost more sung, but the anguish keeps him from singing actual notes. I like the darker melodies implied here. The layered synths work well against the guitars. Sometimes it is hard to hear where one begins and the other ends. There is a heavier breakdown like part that finds the vocals going into more of a growl. "Shackled" finds the synths leading in with frequencies just as heavy as what the guitars have done. So when the guitars join them its pretty powerful. In some ways these guys remind me of Atriarch's bizzaro industrial brother. I'll give this one a 9 and see how it sits with me. If you are really hungry for industrial then round it up to a 9.5, I am just thinking due to the nature of this beast the album does not work off of grooves like Ministry does so I can see where it might not wear out my iPod like the last KMFDM did as this is a denser listen.

Troll : "s/t"

The good thing about this band out of Portland is they have some atmosphere and layers to what could otherwise be a more straight forward vest metal. Taking notes from Pallbearer seems to have become the trend in doom. The have lightly crooned floating over the 70s jams.There is more Sabbath worship going on here than what you hear coming from Pallbearer, so that sets them apart. The are also more straight forward metal. Their press release tries to compare their singer to early Sabbath Ozzy and I don't hear it. He doesn't belt it out with the crazed desperation that Ozzy did and lacks the power. His voices is more of texture, there is a word growled hear and there , but his voice has a drugged creepiness to it. The band gets credit for now dragging their songs out into sprawling epics and keeps them concise with the longest hitting the eight and a half minute mark. "the Witch" lumbers somewhere between stoner and doom. The drummer plays around the guitar riff rather than hitting it head on. The mood is more scattered and the vocals don't connect as well with me as they did on the first song.

They play to their strengths more on "An Eternal Haunting". This means less vocals and letting the guitar claim the spot light. The guitars do some pretty interesting things here. I do like the fact the vocals have effects on them and I think they need to go more in that direction.The drummer also steps up his game on this one and makes it my favorite song on here so far.It's jammy and sometimes blues tinged.The vocals come across as being more ethereal, which is smart as this guys is not a metal singer. Sometimes he reminds me more of Andrew Wood from Motherlovebone. This comparison is given even more merit on "Infinite Death". I think this guy could be a decent singer, I think he has an original approach to what he is doing. Sometimes he is not sure about his lower notes and they are out of key. Musically it plays it pretty safe in a Sabbath boogie.

"Savage Thunder" rumbles along the road of more typical doom. The singer goes into his upper register and show a little more balls which is an improvement. I'll give this album an 8, I think these guys have a ton of potential. The vocals could stand to be smoothed out in places and they could play it a little less safe and veer more from the tried and true Sabbath worship and get into the more textured guitar parts where the band shines.

Zud : " A Wilderness Left Untamed"

I was under the impression I had covered these guys before , but after a search that proved not to be the case, so here we go. This is the Portland band's second album. The first song is called "Thundercats Don't Play Dead" which lets you know they are just here to have fun and are not taking the black metal part of what they do very seriously. The vocals and the low key blast beats are really the only thing that is black metal in this bitch. Black metal is more about mood than any one thing and this is more like snarling punk. Like Grumpy Cat black metal is not about having fun. Fun is too mundane for black metal. The song that follows sounds more like old Slayer, and as a general rule thrash is another fitting label for this band. Lyrically it seems like a mish mash of metal silliness.

They are good at what they do. What they do begins to blur for me by the third song as everything begins to sound the same. Even the clever name of "For A Few Fucks Left to Give" is not enough from keeping the song mired down in riffs that have become uniform. The guitar solos are ego strokers with nothing to generally contribute. There are a few that add some flair , but considering the vast number of them they are outweighed. The ten minute "Off the Map" find the band slowing down and stopping the party enough to care about songwriting and is a welcome change of pace. They pick the pace back up yet not as manically after this. Though I find myself kind of tuning it out. They are back with the kind of snarling thrash that embodies this album, and have enough energy in the riffs to sell it better and reengage me. The fact the the mood a marginally more grim helps.

Thing have a more dynamic moodiness to them going into "Chasing the Dragon's Tail". They expand upon this with the interlude that follows. It's a mixed bag on the last song which loses my attention more often than it pulls me in. It is well played and has more though put into that some of their more frantic punk paced party thrash. I'll give this album a 7, a little too upbeat and beer drinking for my personal taste. But I think for those specifications they would do well in Atlanta. Will update this with a link to the current album is availible until then if you just want to get an idea what they sound like try the link below.

Atriarch : " Dead As Truth"

Portland master's of black hearted gloom are back. The album opens with thee ritualistic pulse of "Inferno" . It lurches into a more metallic dynamic two minutes in. Lenny makes commanding declarations about a spiraling emotional state. The more death rock like croon comes in at the three and half minute mark followed by a more black metal like scowling. So right from the first song they waste no time using and array of vocal colors. Since vocals are the first thing I key in on this obviously makes me very happy...in thee grimmest manner possibly. These guys once once prove that darkness alone can make you sonically heavy.  While this song creeps along at more of a doom pace, it's this darkness that would appeal to fans of black metal. Things to accelerate by the end of the song, without having to rely on blast beats. 

"Dead" like several of the other songs on this album is from the cassette ep the band released on their own last year and plays more to their death rock side. The chants of suicide follow the despairing moans of the verses as Smith muses over slitting his wrists. The guitars offer some great sonic textures as the bass drive this song. They build into a more black metal passage, which once again find the band only using that genre as one shade of the darkness they color their sound with. "Devolver" is another new one. The drums build a tribal tension. There is a more sludge like oppression to the mood, that waits for an impending explosion. In stead of pouring on speed they hit you with very deliberate and powerful chugs. The next two songs are more familiar. The mood of "Void" reminds me of when my therapist told me that depression turned inwards eventually comes out as anger. "Repent" laments this pre-apocalyptic world where the rich keep getting stronger. The drumming keeps a brisk pace while dissonant stabs of guitar linger behind. 

The album closes with "Hopeless". The guitar tone shifts and has a cleaner sound. There is a mix of beauty and ugly dissonance. The song is aptly named as it feels more depressing than song, though it is by no means a shade brighter than the shadows. Another great addition that takes the cassette ep and expands the world created there for this Relapse records release. The mood is very solid and opaque while not as dense or heavy in the metal sense as what we have heard from them in the past, I think it takes the two sides to this band and melds them into a cohesive presentation. I'll give this one a 9.5 and see how it sits with me for the rest  of the year. 

Spare Spells : " the Narrows"

This band from Portland makes a slinky indie rock that is too cool for you. The vocals are breathy like Love & Rockets. They have surf rock guitar grooving behind them and the bass buried somewhere in the mix beneath the clunky drums. Female vocals float in from time to time. If this came out of LA it would probably be death rock so it's an interesting exercise in nature vs nurture as these guys are products of their environment. They jangle into the second with a lo-fi charm. Some of the guitar tones are better than others. This makes me wonder. So if you get it right on one track does that mean you just didn't give a shit about the other one? The vocals have more hipster indifference to them than melancholy. I am not sure at this point if I would even call these guys post-punk. Mainly because it's so relaxed and drugged out there is no tension which is a key ingredient. The second song is too drugged out to even keep it up.

Things improve on "Neither / Neither" as there is more darkness to it's slink. The chick in the background seems to have a better voice so I am not sure why the whispering guy gets to hog the mic all the time. "Black Tom" reminds me a little of pre-"Daydream Nation" Sonic Youth. The vocal trade off is very similar and I am going to go ahead and guess that is one of their major influences. This song ambles with noise coming from different places than Sonic Youth Normally goes but the feel is still similar. The guitar lines have a little more hook to them which helps as well. The album is littered with some quirky noise interludes. The females vocal get more time on the mic as the album progresses. The bass really needs to come up in the mix as it would give the groove some backbone. I think that is the main problem with this album. No bottom end equal no balls.

Sure the wheel is not being re-invented here but these guys are at least not just ripping off Joy Division, which at this point I appreciate. "Dead?" is more noise, it's not until "the Final Girl " that they lock into something more solid. The keyboards actually help form a slithering groove. The drums are just getting the job done by the skin of their teeth and one of this band's weaker spots. The more surreal swirl the drift into is more of their strong suit. "Hexorcism" drifts aimless in a cloud of pot smoke. I think if I was doing drugs I would like this in the same way I used to like Psychic Tv's more surreal moments , but Psychic Tv are just better songwriters. I'' be generous enough and score them on creativity and keep this at a 8 as I have enough of a beard to realize these guys are not going for chops.

Black Metal History Month - Falls of Rauros : "Vigilance Perennial"

Claiming the throne from Agalloch , this band from Portland really comes into their own from the sound of the majestic stomp that drives the opening track off their new album "Vigilance Perennial". The guitar playing is the strong point, staying equal parts melodic and aggressive , with much more metal riffing than some of the more hipster cascadian black metal bands. "Labyrinth Unfolding Echoes" could very well be an Explosions in the Sky song. This speaks to the quality of their clean tones, though this is ripped apart when the blast into the three minute mark. The vocals are a hateful mid range rasp. The drumming is the most raw sounding element to their sound, though the bass is typically buried somewhere south of Mordor. Some of the tricky timing of the punches winks in a more Liturgy like direction so you can certainly grow a cool beard to this.+

After the clean guitar interlude they play it a little safer on "Arrow and Kiln" we get some cool guitar harmonies, that are not on an Iron Maiden level, but for black metal pretty good ad then the bass player wakes up and we hear him emerge from a better mix.  Any guitar players under the impression that black metal guitar is boring and simplistic need to give this album a listen. This song doesn't feel like it is 12 minutes long so they are doing something right. The last minute finds a cleaner guitar tone creep in, and think the varied guitar tones are one of the strong points of this album. As long as there are layers you have a more appealing dynamic sound.

And the solid guitar playing keeps coming on the closing song. They do bring in tremolo guitars but it is layered against a more post rock shimmer and the effect is something other bands need to pay more attention to. The guitar solo to this song is really well done and tasteful and adds to the song rather than just wanking on it's chin. The vocals chime in with more of a gang vocal chant that makes me think these guys were into hardcore before they got into a black metal band. This album is great for what it is a very enjoyable listen I will give it a 9.5, but unsure if it will make the journey over to the iPod because the songs are so long.


https://fallsofrauros.bandcamp.com/

Red Fang : "Only Ghosts"

This is my first time really given these guys a shot . In the past when I heard them I thought they were a little derivative of Kyuss. While they are not re-inventing the wheel here, and are arguably taking more inspiration from the more hooky direction Torche went in back in 2008 on "Meanderthal", the songs are well written and by the time the vocals switch over into the hook, I am enjoying myself.  The riff to "Cut It Short " owes more to Devo's "Girl You Want" or Kiss' "Rocket Ride" than any Black Sabbath song. Ross Robinson did a good job here. I like the production on the vocals and there is a great bass tone this album. I am not sure this is what I would call metal as is rocks about as hard as the Foo- Fighters or Queens of the Stone-age. I do know my wife will more than likely dig this album due to that fact. So this is going to open some doors for the band. I'm not familiar enough with their older material to scream sell-out. Some of their fans who latched onto the band for their Sargent House debut, might think recording with Korn's producer is selling out.

The more husky vocals to "No Air" bring a more muscular attack to their sound with their barbaric bellow. The band locks in behind them and the drummer's playing is particularly impressive on this song. It's still more stoner rock and not what I would call sludge or doom. While it's driving "Shadows" doesn't feel like it's focus is as tightly wound as the previous songs. Midway into the song it veers off into some angular math before locking back in.  The song's are all tightly compressed to the three minute mark. I like the taunter groove of  "Not For You" that reminds me more of Quicksand or Helmet. The first song that comes close to being metal is  "the Smell of the Sound" which carries a weighty stomp.  The energetic "the Deep" roars ahead with a lot of momentum, but to me doesn't feel like it works off the same strengths that have made this album shine and feels more like filler.

There is a burly roar summoned to "I Am a Ghost", but despite having a more groove than "the Deep" doesn't strike me as being as inspired as the other songs on this album. The don't take their feet off the gas for "Living in Lye" which sticks to the more roaring vocals. I'll around this up to a 9, not sure if I need the last three songs on my iPod the strong song are really strong, when the album picks up steam it loses some in the songwriting department by trying to go with a more Motorhead formula that doesn't work as solidly for them. If you are already a fan of this band I'm sure you still be on board for this one and the first half of the album is good enough to hook new listeners in.

Bellicose Minds : "the Creature"

It's been three years since the Portland post-punk trio released "the Spine". Their newest opens with a more frantically upbeat number than I remember them having on their 2013 album. One their Bandcamp page the band says that they use big amps and electric drums to make music inspired by rain and cloud. This song seems a little too peppy for rain and clouds. The big amps are creating the great bass tone that opens "Exiled".  This song is tighter and the vocals fit more snugly into the grooves. The title track like the song before it is bass driven. This song glides more smoothly into the shadows. "The Mask" just fades into the background. One thing I have noticed is the vocals are not as aggressive as they once were so his voice isn't commanding you to listen.

There is more punk to the vocals of "Orwell's Troops". They punch out a little more despite being mixed back against the guitar. The mix might be what separates this album from "the Spine" . "Lost" feels more like their earlier work. The guitar coolly coasts around the bouncing bass line.  The chorus doesn't jump out at you but sits back into the moody pace of the song. "A Likely Outcome" is interesting for the first half of the song the vocals take more of a back seat. The vocals when they come in howl in like the wind from the distance.

The album closes with one of the more aggressive songs on the album "Villains" which is another song that will put a slight smile on the pale faces of even the most morose listener who went into this as a fan of "the Spine". There is almost a metal like pattern to the guitar riff. I'll around this up to a 9 it might take the kinder and gentler version of the band a little more time to warm up to me, but they get the job done. The other bands at the forefront of the post-punk revival have been pretty quiet this year so it's good to hear from these guys. This album came out under the radar last week with no hype around it. If you are a fan then it is worth your time to listen to it and hopefully with Halloween creeping up on us more of this will be coming out to play.

Atriarch : 'We Are the Dead"

This tape release heralds a new era for the band, as they now have two new members in the band handling bass and guitar. With the bass driving a deadpan punk narrative self eulogizes over the lingering guitar. The over all sound here is closer to death rock as it's stripped down. While some of the heavier moments from their catalogue play off layers of heaviness, This carries a raw urgency. It does build up into the kind of  cathartic metal explosion we have come to know them for. They delve into darker depths of punk on "Repent".  Lenny Smith gives a  more Peter Murphy like vocal. There is a little less  of a black metal scowl to the harsher vocals and more of pained hardcore roar.

The bass line to "Spider" creeps from out of the dark. The guitar takes more of a background role sitting back to let the bass carry most of the weight. The guitar does a have cool tone on this song that is different from what we have heard from this band in the past.  This creates the feeling that Lenny  is having a emotional breakdown in his screamed outbursts as the rest of the band lurks behind him brings the shadows in the wake of the ritualistic pulse. The doomier side of what they do is indulged on "Void". The new guitarist doesn't bring out the same kind of dense over driven layers, but proves to be effective in this more refined direction that are heading. Four minutes into the throb of this song, they continue to build the seething drone. Smith exclaims here that he is everyone you hate that he is the void,  so the rage on this song is  pointed both outward and inward.

Atriarch is one of my favorite new band's of the past decade, so I might be protective in regards to changes that might  shift them away from the sound I have come to love. I trust their new direction as it proves that darkness is just as heavy as being metallically heavy. The emotional heaviness is very honest and feels more real than many bands who put on the angst ridden act when they get on stage. I don't feel the same ritualistic approach that they once had, but perhaps the ritual here is more internalized and has become a working part of their sound. I'll give this one a 10, if you are a fan who stuck around for the turn into a more death rock sound on the last album then, this will not be a jarring transition.

Muscle & Marrow : "Love"

This Portland based duo caught my attention when I saw them open for Author and Punisher. Then when I went back to listen to their album that had been sitting around on my hard drive I was not as impressed.  The album's heart beat comes to life with an electronic pulse. Kira Clark's emotive vocals are layered in a dizzy spiral of melodies. Then the gears get shifted to the darker and more introspective "Black Hole". The drums are very liberate and create another throbbing drone coated in her impressive melodies which has matured since the last album. The time spent at Machines With Magnets in Rhode Island was well served. The abrasive layers have not all been scrubbed from the songs. Most of them are just more carefully produced. To say "Womb" is doom, would be an exaggeration. It is heavy and holds a similar oppressive punch. It is not as rock in the delivery of these moments as say the last Chelsea Wolfe album. There is a similar darkness handing over the mood, though it is haunted by much different ghosts.

Live Clark would unleash straight up metal scream and here she sticks to a much more accessible croon. This album is far from being as sell-out, it is however refined. They drift more on the intangible river into the dark places of the soul on the more brooding "The Drooling Mouth". She coos over various noise that all she wants is love. The more aggressive streak to her voice begins to cut through on "Sacs of Teeth" .  She lets out a few fully committed shrieks as this dirge sounds like a grim take on a Siouxsie Sioux singing a trip hop ballad. "Bereft Body" is much more fragile. It floats on this cloud until a wave of noise washes over it. There is also more subtle beginning to "Light" that doesn't bang into a heavier dynamic until a minute and a half into the song and this is a brief tease. So you can't accuse them of being formulaic in their approach to song writing. It took additional listens for that one to really grow on me. The same can be said of that album as a whole. The heavier mood is more restrained at times but still just as potent , and often even more so with the improvements in the vocal delivery on this album. The lighter shades which contrast starkly with the darkness are going to take some getting used to, but I'll round this one up to a 9.5 and see how it grows on me.

Graves At Sea : "the Curse That Is"

I had been waiting for these guys to drop a full length as the splits and eps were great, but I wanted something more to sink my doom hungry jaws into. Doom begs to be questioned here right from the eleven minute title track that opens the album.  It's an odd evolution that includes the bigger production value this album has. It finds them thundering into your ears with something more akin to a stoner rock version of "Through Sliver and Blood" era Neurosis. Some evolution an be expected considering the line-up changes that have yo-yoed the band about. The vocals are still mean in their ample grit coated screams. The guitar has warmed up a bit. Perhaps it is the time they took in the studio to perfect their tone versus previous releases which have had a rawer, angrier sound. It's not a deal breaker. I can appreciate the expanded musical qualities they invested into the songs here, it is just going to take a little getting used to.

They slow enough on "Dead Eyes" to give them a somewhat more doom oriented sound. The twisting curves of the riff have a more rock n roll feel to them. They are well executed. The lyrics are more intelligible here even in their most scorned and rancid throat scraping rasps, which call out some very memorable choruses. That is what song writing is about after all no matter how heavy you want to be. It needs to bring you back to the songs over and over again. The demented slant to the vocals which drew me into the band in the first place is still there, though much more familiar in the second song. There is an almost Iron Maiden like cadence to how the riffs dance in the song's final act. While it never gets to the happy go lucky arena rock vibe of classic metal the influence can not be denied even with the shadows cast by Alex Carson's violin.

The crazed vocals carry a higher rasp on "Tempest". This song is attacked with a swampy fury not unlike that off Eyehategod. While it is very powerful it is also the most straight forward of the first three songs. The violin returns to accompany the clean guitar that opens the fifteen sprawl that is " Ashes Made Her Beautiful". It lurches into the deliberate pound of the verse, that offers up some bong boiling worship to the path Sabbath paved. In sections this finds the band at the most melodic I have ever heard them play. The violin earns its place on the album when the song reaches the six minute mark. The vocals into a more haunting lower rasp. At this point in the album the mood here  finds the band digging themselves down  the closest to doom as they have come the entire album.

Though it's pretty punchy the more upbeat "This Mental Sentence" has more of an almost rock n roll swagger to it. They get back to down and dirty basics on "Waco 177". It's the kind of heavy metal depravity that I pretty much expect from the band. Lyrically it pays homage to the fall of David Koresh. Serial Killers tend to get way more love from metal bands than cult leaders so it's a nice change of pace. "Luna Lupus Venator" is an acoustic instrumental interlude leading into the last song "Minimum Slave". I'm not too worried about the fourteen minute run time of the last song, as none of these songs have felt like they are dragging. It's a burly stoner metal riff, that has a sinew groove that recalls Tool or Kyuss to me. Though funny enough most people who will praise this band would slam Tool. The vocals do keep these guys more firmly placed in the metal camp. I wouldn't say the band jams, but they do allow the groove to wind around them.  They do crush it with a pretty molten riff. I'll still round this album  up to a 9.5 as it's going to take some getting used to the change of sound, but I do find myself wanting to go back for further listens despite the long winded songs, so something is working.

The Body : "No One Deserves Happiness"

I think the reasons I have not been into this band in the past have been put to rest on their new album "No One Deserves Happiness". The tortured bird screams are still squawked in the background, but this is balanced out by layers of melody that are dark enough to appease me. Sometimes the drums have an organic sound at others they are more electronic. The overall result is something that finds the band at the apocalyptic cross roads where sludge and industrial meet. The second song finds the female vocals taking a more dominate role giving more guidance to the song with it's melody. The heavier pound that this band's fans will be waiting for arrives on "Hallow/ Hollow" . There is a little breathing room as the song drones on with the buzz of noise and distortion with the chorus of female vocals dancing around it to save the day. The experimentation begins to break new ground on "Two Snakes" as the beat sounds like it's from a 808 on steroids, the vocals are woven around it with a blend of effects and an additional harsh vocals that is not the normal squawked one emerges.

There is more of an industrial groove to the beat that opens "Adamah". When the vocals come in they create more of a post-punk sound, despite having a more soulful sound than your average Siouxsie enthusiast. "Starving Deserter" finds the varied elements they are forcing into a brutal coupling playing well with one another. What sounds like trumpets create a melody in the background while the female vocals offer a more chanted choral refrain and everyone tries to ignore the squawking in the back ground which brays in the same cadence for every song.One of the stronger vocal lines comes at the beginning of "the Fall and the Guilt".The music behind it is dark droning noise, so the vocals do all the heavy lifting. They dip into an almost doom like dirge on " Prescience". They come to a much more organic place than where they bulk of this album pulses from. The vocals on the closing dirge "the Myth Arc" remind me of Aimee Mann.

I'll round this up to an 8.5, as this is the best thing I have heard from this band so far. Granted I'm not what  they might call a fan, but it has prompted me to take more note of where they go in the future from here. I suppose I be their target audience for this sort of thing as it combines metal with dark electronic elements. Not as close to industrial as say Health they have created a compelling blend of the two. If I was still smoking pot I might be a little more blown away by what is going on here, but as it is, I think they accomplished what they were going for and took a big step in the right direction. Thrill Jockey will be releasing this on March 18th

 

Eight Bells : "Landless"

Things have changed for this band since "Captain's Daughter". I felt they had potential on that one and here they have fully realized. The drumming shows vast improvement as they open with the doomy "Hating" . The title track finds the band taking on more of a trippy post- metal ambiance to a  riff that feels like it spirals down before ebbing down into a softer sung section.The vocal melodies are stronger on this album as well and more love and care went into the song writing. Any doubts as to the metallic nature of this band is put to rest by the blast beat section this song hangs on with the vocals taking on more of a harsher growl when it slows into more of a punk beat.The song does drone me out a little though I got sucked into the black hole of the inner webs reading about the whole Phil Anselmo thing just when they hit the section of minimalist ambiance.

"Hold My Breath" finds the band in a more upbeat post-punk place. They hit a place not unlike the almost shoegazing style of rock that Marriages last album went to. Though they dive deeper into the chaos then Emma Ruth Rundle and build up into a more black metal influenced blast that sets the aggression against the ambiance and then hops back onto the groove this song opened with in a very impressive display of dynamics. "the Mortal's Suite" is almost more of an interlude than a song as it hovers like smoke. They drip out of this dark cloud with the shadowy " Touch Me" . The vocals grow even more ghostly as the ethereal nature of the song feels like the Cocteau Twins jamming with Acid Bath. The melancholy feel of this song is heavier than the power the notes are played with going to show that you can be so dark that it makes the music heavy.They do make their way into playing something closer to conventional heavy metal and perhaps live it will get pushed over the edge.

If you need an indication of how much growth has gone into the making of this album, their last album got a 6 and this one is getting a 9.5,  so it's very tangible. They flirt with doom and black metal without being forced to commit to it and it works because the sense of where they want their sound to go is unshakable. The reason it didn't get a perfect ten is " the Mortal Suite" rides the line to close between an interlude and congealing into a solid song, but aside from that this could be one of the first contenders aside from Bowie and Savages for the album of the year list .