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This CDR on Minneapolis based Altar Of Waste offers up three thick ‘n’ truly punishing slices of (mostly) fixed & set walled noise from this German HNW/ harsh noise project.
When an artist you admire decides to shift from their normal sound- it can often be probmatic. One of three things can happen- you either full enjoy & embrace this new departure, feel surprised & a little unsure yet still intrigued, or come away feeling disappointed & puzzled. This double CDR is such a case in point.
Swedish industrial/power electronics act IRM has been active in the scene since the late nineties. In 2008, they released "Indications of Nigredo," which is the first installment of an unnamed trilogy. The culmination of this comes in the form of Closure from Malignant Records. Part power electronics, part theater show, IRM's latest is a nice mix of roughness and restraint.
Candlelight Records presents Liars/Bastards, the third album by Bristol’s Hateful Abandon. The brainchild of one Vice Martyr, Hateful Abandon has been toiling in the dark crevices of the European underground since 2004.
Into The Infernal Regions of The Ancient Cult is the debut album from Inquisition- it was originally released in 1998, by now in 2015 it gets a welcome re-issue on Season of Mist. Inquisition started life in Colombia in 1988, moving to the U.S. in 1996. The band was founded by lead singer/guitarist Dagon, joining him are Incubus on drums and Debandt on bass. They’ve had quite a catalog, with various eps’, demos and full length albums.
Here we have the 8th full length album from Desiderii Marginis. Begun in Sweden in 1993 by Johan Levins, Hypnosis is a study of dreams and nightmares. Levins gathered submissions by friends, fans (and himself) to illustrate musically the emotions, atmospheres and finer points of our thoughts. All this is ensconced in a 2 cd digipak release edition of 500 copies.
I caught wind of Fen when they released their first album right in the midst of the post-black metal movement. It didn’t amaze me like it did the rest of the community at the time, but I was intrigued enough that I decided to keep an eye on their progress. Naturally, being the idiot that I am I promptly forgot about the band and never listened to their next two albums. With 2014’s Carrion Skies I have the opportunity to give this English group another listen.
I’m reviewing a digital version of an apparent tome of a package: a cd with accompanying eighty-page book. The cd contains two long tracks and the book contains an interview with Gilles Aubry, an essay and assorted photographs and texts. The subject of all this work is, to crudely summarise, the sonic environment of Christian charismatic churches; as recorded in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The interview and essay are, in places, overwhelmingly academic; whilst the cd is, somewhat against all odds, equally dry.
Multi-instrumentalist David Shea used to be an incredibly prolific composer, with a steady stream of more than 20 albums between 1992 and 2006, his work largely released on Sub Rosa. This album "Rituals", released on Room040, is his first in many years.
Long time Chicago experimental visual and sound artist Andy Ortmann started 2015 off with the release of a very limited cassette, Inconsequential. Limited to just 37 copies, this C-41 was recorded between 2009-2014 at Nihilist in Chicago (save for "The Way"). Despite the varied recording times, Inconsequential sounds pretty coherent. Fans of experimental synthesizers and musique concrete will find a lot to enjoy on this tape.
The almighty Vagary imprint presents Still Thirsty for Revenge, by HNW mainstay Cannibal Ritual. Released in the waning days of 2013, this quadruple CD-R represents one of the first (if not the first) statements from this act after a long period of dormancy. Established by Ruggero Lenzi in 2006, this German act is known for his noise walls based on Cannibal films. This release in question is an ode to the infamous flick Cannibal Ferox.
Pilgrim Chants & Pastoral Trails is Sharron Kraus sonic tribute to weathered, sometime barren, but always beautiful landscapes of Mid-Wales. This CD release offers up eight sound-scapes which sit on the more moody & atmospheric side of folk music. The tracks are built around a mix of Kraus earthy yet warming (& mostly wordless )vocals, tuneful yet dramatic folk instrumentation, and subtle ebbs of field recordings from around mid-Wales's valleys & rivers.
Ponder The Mystery finds William Shatner teaming up with Billy Sherwood, and a whole host of guest stars, to create a poppy prog rock album. And though it doesn’t reach the exellence of Has Been (his 2044 collab with Ben Folds Five ). This is often a lot of fun, as we get Shatner’s instantly recognisable spoken word delivery against Sherwoods soaring, slick & tuneful mix of pop prog & airy harmonising vocals.
UUROP VIII-XII Places In Sun & Winter, Son is the 12th live album from The Fall, and it offers up a selection of twelve tracks from this most distinctive & long lasting of post punk project. The tracks are culled from the last five years of live work, and they take in tracks from the bands last four studio releases.
Six years after the release of their last full-length, Finland’s most blasphemous war metallers are back with a new album titled The Apocalyptic Triumphator. Black/death metal has the potential to be the most uncompromising, most relentless genre out there. With the combination of black metal’s ideological extremity and death metal’s visceral brutality, it seems like a match made in heaven. So how is it that this fusion of extremity can sound so tame? Horrible production, that’s how.
Likely my all time most listened musician, synthesizer soundscape pioneer Steve Roach has released upwards of 70 full lengths since beginning in 1982. He has grown no less prolific with age, and 2015 has already brought 2 releases within its first month, a longform space ambient track titled "Invisible", and a new collaborative album with shamanic drummer Byron Metcalf.
Untitled Ritual is a C60/ digital download release, which offers up two thirty minute slices of unrelenting walled noise from this French HNW project. Behind Black Matter Phantasm is one Joseph Szymkowiak- the projects seemingly been active since late 2013, releasing digital, CDR, and tape releases.
Several years back, I was lucky enough to experience an intimate, live performance by the percussionist Z’EV. Encouraging us to relax and lie down, he played in a darkened room for perhaps twenty minutes; though the passage of time was hard to gauge. I had seen the instrumentation as I entered, but I still left bewildered somewhat by the sounds Z’EV had coaxed forth. If you had told me that he’d actually been using a laptop and some synthesizers, I wouldn’t have felt it necessary to dispute it. The conjured soundscape was a dark, isolationist drone; drifting with meticulous care around the room - it sounded so convincingly electronic in origin, that it almost felt like a deliberate attempt to replicate isolationist pieces. “felt, if not seen” occupies a similar territory, with Z’EV playing alongside Bob Bellerue.
Ecco is one of the more recent projects from the highly prolific & multi project linked French wall noise maker Julien Skrobek (The Killer Came From The Bronx ,Ghost, The Sandman Wears A Mask, Ruine, Butch Bag, Gasp, Ruine, etc). This project started off around late summer 2014, and sound wise it focuses in on very raw walled noise, which is apparently created by using radio static as a source. The project themes all of it releases around weird, perverse & violent grindhouse movies of the 60’s & 70’s.
This C40 split brings together two twenty minute slices of pummelling & dense HNW from these two US wall noise act’s- on the first side we have a track from the mysterious, airless & punishing Nar project. And on the second side we have a track from the searing & often industrialized tinged Maryland based project Hearsh Fetish.
Bandleader/saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Frank Lowe and his quartet recorded the music on "Out Loud" in a studio, likely sometime in 1974, precise date unknown. Released as a double LP in 2014 by Triple Point Records, this music was apparently unreleased until now. Due to the chaotic and impromptu nature of Lowe's style, any scrap out of sound from the vaults can turn out to be as precious as his more well known recordings.
Death metal is a tricky beast. What works for some doesn't work for others, and some stuff, despite lots of trying, never really works at all. Any of you unfortunate to be familiar with my reviews know that band names are pretty important to me. It's stupid, sure, but if your name is goofy, chances are good your band is, too. Though not totally goofy, for me, Ghoulgotha's songs aren't enough to get past the name and song titles. Despite solid death metal bits, loose structure and wonky riffs keep The Deathmass Cloak from reaching its goal.
Though Imago Mortis have existed in one form or another since 1994, they haven’t made much of a splash outside of their home country (if Metal Archives are to be believed) . Despite their lack of international recognition, these Italians have been quietly polluting the underground with a steady stream of material over the course of their twenty year career, managing to catch the eye of Drakkar Productions in the process. 2014 saw the release of their third full-length, titled Carnicon, which was released on CD and limited to 1000 copies.
This double CDR set brings together two noise bound/searing ambient reinterpretations or re-workings of Ennio Morricone’s eerier & chilling soundtrack for John Carpenter's 1982 gooey, gory yet highly atmospheric horror sci-fi movie The Thing.