Lord Mantis : " Universal Death Cult"

There is still some pretty fucking great music coming out this late in the year. Here is a prime example why I am hesitant to really into into my end of the year lists until December. There was a time when I might have considered these guys to be a wildly feral sludge band , but from some of the chugging on this album it feels like they making a turn towards  raw and nasty death metal. Raw doesn't mean  the production is intentionally shitty for effect. In fact Sanford Parker who produced the album made some interesting choice on what he choose to to with the vocals on the opening track which is more unrelenting than the second that offers more clarity in it's mix. There is more of a thrashing sludge attack in the chugged riff.  At times this reminds me of Parker's other project Minsk. Though darker and uglier though this time around there is an undeniable weight to the sonics .

They are able to twist this into some more melodic moments that recall earlier non- progressive rock Mastodon. So in this way they straddle the line between sludge and death metal."Consciousness exe' is more deliberate. This song also provides of a good example of the kind atmosphere I could hear some one mistaking for black metal. It does come close to a band who might have been black metal but was influenced by other types of  modern music like say Nachtmystium. This album is much more experimental and diverse in the dynamics than previous efforts. There are some great drum sounds on this album bolstered by the great playing. The vocals production is great as well as the textures brought on by the effects coating the vocals brings out a more aggressive feel to the already poisonous performance.

I like the shift in sonics of " Low Entropy Narcosis" . The needed changed in guitar tone, but it seems to drone in one place and doesn't actually develop as a song so it is more of an interlude. "Damocles Falls" has a much nastier tone. There is an intense sonic side to this one.  The enraged chant of kill yourselves is the best part of "Flesh world". It does take a darker shift in it's mood and leans away from the straight up hammering. The bring out the saxophones for "Hole" to close the album. I like the slower pulsing throb of this one. It works off this droning throb with out any significant shift. This is a very solid return for this band I will give this album a  9. 

November Doom- Spiral Guru : " Void"

All the chick dig doom. Yet another female fronted band that falls somewhere with in the bounds of the genre. This band from Brazil is more focused on getting groovy. The formula in play here is pretty obvious . It goes as follows.  We break down into a palm muted groove for the verses when she sings. We throw in some hints of  our Sabbath influences, but do not go public with them until it's time to build back up. Maybe on the second song we might start jamming. Her voice is what keeps these guys from leaning too far into a Sabbath direction. In fact it gives them a more  rock n roll feel as a general rule . I am also not going out on a limb to guess they smoke a shit ton of weed. "Oracle" has more of a Blue Oyster Cult thing going on than Sabbath. It's more up tempo and straight up rock n roll. The jam around on "Mindfulness" . Some of the fat could have been trimmed to make more time for some of the riffs they have going.

There is more straight ahead rock to "Virtual Horizon" . Things begin to get more psychedelic once we get to "Empty Space". For these guys that also happens to mean darker. But this is more of an interlude than a song. They get back to more of the brooding tension with "Time Traveler. There bassist realy steps up to the plate on this one. "the Showcase of Dreams" starts off in a slower darker  and more blues based place, not unlike the first Black Sabbath album. The vocals are given room to wander , but stay pretty close to home.The last song has more of a stomp to it, but it offers no real surprises and holds the status quo for the genre.

These guys are really good at what they do. I think the hookiest and most infectious songs were at the beginning of the record and they slowly become more jammy as the album progresses. Even their filler is still pretty solid. There were no songs that I wanted to just skip past. I will give this album an 8.5 




5.4

November Doom - the Lone Madman : "Let the Night Come"

You can never trust other blogs. I guess that is why you read my stuff in the first place.  I heard great things about this one. Even their own press is misleading. This is just traditional heavy metal with a great deal of respect for Black Sabbath.This is the second doom band  from Finland I have reviewed today. In this case I use doom more loosely The vocals are plaintive and sound like Uriah Heap if they were bored and left  the keyboards at home. It is a little more on the proto metal side and dealing in retro sounds.  By the second song 'the DownFall" I am already getting bored. The bland vocals are the worst offender in this regard.All the tired metal tropes are paraded about here and turned up 11. If Spinal Tap had been a serious band they might have sounded like this.

"Haxan" is heavier. The guitar take on a more sludged rumble. The vocals go into a throaty bark. This compensates for a great deal. The vocals sound more like James Hetfield singing power metal when they come back in. There is a darker more solemn sense of melody to the last song "House of Mourning". This fall within the boundaries of doom. It is also more interesting than the previous songs.  The song drops down into an acoustic guitar before predictably building back up. The they jam out into heavy metal glory, like all the other heavy metal songs that seek glory in the same manner. `

The album does get better as it goes along. the album does get better as it progresses and more aggressive vocals surface. This is normally opposite how I feel as I prefer singing to growling or screaming, in this case the more throaty vocals work better. I will give this a 7.5. The album sound good, it is just the vocal preferences nag at me, but if you like traditional heavy metal and Candlemass is too dark and dramatic for you then you might like these guys.
 

Mix Tape Mania 2019

It's NANOWRIMO time which is extra crazy. Took a break to make this. I made sure all of the songs from this edition came out this year. No old stuff, only new. These were songs that were my fall soudtrack so kinda of music to the moods of the past 3 months. In nor particular order I am however OCD so the first song has to be the first song from it's respective album, the second song the second song from it's respective album you can see where this is going without me going through all ten songs. Listening back to some of these songs and then hunting down the lyrics to say the HEALTH song , it's like woah, that what he is saying, or the Bon Iver song which I took to mean something totally different than the odd political undertones, since I normally hate political music. I mean politics are fake and boring as it is let me hear about your mental break downs, if they are because of politics then you need to get a grip . I prefer to hear emotional expressions since it's easiest for me to process my emotions through music since it provides a very safe and controlled environment to do so. Anyways here you go some of the best songs from 2019.     




Benjamin Tod - "Sorry For the Things"




Bon Iver -"we"



 Lana Del Ray- "Fuck it I Love You"




 Taylor Swift - "the Archer"




Health- "Loss Deluxe"





Sturgill Simpson - Make Art Not Friends




Orville Peck -Kansas

 

GOLD - "Lack Of Skill"





Brutus - " Space"

Chelsea Wolfe _ " a Preface to Dream Play"

November Doom- Profetus : 'the Sadness of Time Passing"

This Finnish band has always been one of the heaviest funeral doom bands. This time there is way more funeral as  the keyboards open the album " The production dialed in a  warmer more organic guitar sound I can tell I am going to like this new Profetus better than the Slow album I had to give a rest as it was putting me asleep as I was trying to write. While less riffy than Loss' newer work, they work off delicate guitar melodies  that haunt you. The vocals are similar as they are a low rasp, but not as low of a gurgle. Without sitting down to listen to this it can sound like these songs are running together and everything sounds the same. It took a second listen to this album before they really stood out. The second song the vocals are spoken in a low voice and there is lots of monks chanting, so sounds like an evil church.

The 3rd song finds the organ more prominent in the mix and the guitars playing subtle melodies. I think the bigger organic drum sound helps set them apart."Northern Crown' finds us back in the creepy church again.  It is just spoke word and pipe organ. Six minutes in a ghostly choir like vocals leads us to when the metal crashes back down. The last song begins just as "Northern Crown" before it. Tine does pass when this song plays , but I think the Sadness of the creepy church would have  been more truth in advertising. There are more grandiose swell than sorrowful mourning. The drums pick up a little as the song progresses. Far from being death metal of anything of the sort, though I can appreciate an adherence to doom.

"Tiamia" might have taken them in a more metallic motion, but all in all these songs do not shift much for the model of what this band does  They are good at what they do. What they do makes me appreciate bands like Evoken , Esoteric & even Mournful Congregation who write songs that stand on different legs rather than being one frequency. The frequency on this album does find the band progressing and growing. I enjoyed listening to this album , but I am unsure how much I would return to this records outside of what I have already heard. A good records is separated from the  great records as it does not emphatically meet the question of would like to listen to this again or do I need to listen to this again with a excited need. I will round it down to an 8.   

November Doom- Opium Lord : "Vore"

The Brits are busting out a lot of doom these days. There are moments of post rock angular ambiance set against more hard core like screaming. At times they are like Eyehategood with more doom. "Lead Magnet' is one such moment. The production might not be the greatest, but I appreciate how they still manage to layer the guitar sounds,. The are pretty skill with these dissonant riffs you can still nod your head to,. The guitar tone is dirty and sludgey, but some of the more monolithic riffs have a doom like darkness to their oppressive heaviness, "Centurion" finds the band capable of pulling one one riff more crushing than the next at every turn. Though it also seems like these guys were in hard core bands before they started doing this as the drumming has touches of Fugazi to it.

"Suture' is darker , heavier and closer to doom, but I like the previous song better. Not that there is any thing wrong with "Suture" it just plays it safe and stick to it's brand of heaviness. "Sherwood is Connector' sticks to a similar game plan though it might go in more doomy places. By the time we get to "Columbia" it feels like the band is leaning more into the Eyehategod direction. There is variation with a guest vocal. There moment of creeping tension are darker and more interesting. When they just focus on angry and heavy they lose some of the elements that make them who they are.

There is more of a sludge vibe to "the Gift" . The general mood is more punk in tone so they fall more in the sludge direction. The doom comes only at their darkest. This one ends getting heavy as fuck. The vocals are generally monotonous. I will give this album an 8. I think they do bring new ideas to the table and with a little more love in the studio and attention to detail in the song writing depart their next step could be exciting.

November Doom- Esoteric ; "A Pyrrhic Existence"

I love Esoteric. "Paragon of Dissonance" is one of my favorite albums. But I will only listen to a 30 minute song once no matter how good it is. That is how they open their new album. They are still funeral doom. It's three and a half minutes in until the vocals come in. Understandable as there are still 27 minutes left in the song. The vocals are lower and more inhuman this time around with weird effect on them to show case this fact. The vocals do shift into higher tormented screams. Eight and a half minutes in the ambiance gets really weird and spacey. This song is as long as Slayer's entire "Reign in Blood" album. Granted that one is thrash so moving at more of a punk speed while this one really lingers through the movements. At this length you have to think of it more along the lines of symphonic work. Midway into the song the pace picks up to more of a furious pounding. Yes the heavy guitar is there, but everything is bathed in far more atmosphere. The song could have ended at the 16 minute as it breaks down into swirling ambiance. There is the hesitant introduction of cleaner guitar being strummed. They tease you with a crashes of violence before committing to fully attacking you again. This is paid off at the 19 minute mark. It's quiet beautiful, but unless I am just leaving this album on I doubt this is a song I am going to cue up even to hear it's most memorable pasts. The last three minutes of this song is sound effects that could have been trimmed altogether .

This is follow by the almost sixteen minute sprawl that is "Rotting in Dereliction" though compared to the opener this is a pop song. It does have a nastier murkiness to it. Four minutes in things get interesting and build more drive.Some much so that it gather enough steam to muster a head banging groove for a few measures. Two minutes later it erupts into blast beats and guitar solos. They deserve credit for knowing how to pull of doom without vomiting up a bunch of tired Sabbath riffs. The song floats in a drone away from me becoming more of a background pulse. There is a four minute synth interlude and then they come back with " Consuming Lies". The delayed guitar sound is chilling. The staccato riff , finds an awesome groove even the vocals lock into that might be the album's finest moment.  This progress int of a solid chug. Around he 9 minute mark this drift of into a more progressive place with jazz under pining, particularly when it comes to the drumming here.  "Culmination" has a nasty snarl. At 18 minutes it still holds your attention. Progressive elements return midway into this song. At the 11 minute mark there is a swathe of white noise as the drums hold the tension. Double bass breaks this up. It's clear these guys are like the Meshuggah of doom.

The album closes with "Sick and Tired" .  More of their forward thinking guitar playing is shone upon. It is more like Pink Floyd than Black Sabbath.. It is perhaps one of the album's most melodic moments . The low growl of the vocals offset this, though it still has a soaring transcendent feel. At the five minute mark I am wondering how they are going to maintain this kind of sonic intensity as the vocals lash out into more of a scream. They don't instead they shift gears and lower themselves back into the dismal murk . This is a great album though there is fat that could have been trimmed from a song writing perspective, so I am giving this one a 9. This album is being released on Season of Mist.