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“The End Of The World” is a C50’s worth of apocalyptic yet dreary & morose themed walled noise from this French project. I’ve enjoyed much of what of heard of this projects work in the past, so I was looking forward to hearing and course reviewing this release.
The artwork for this Nervous Corps cdr, all sealed up in a rectangular zip-bag, carries visual nods to what I think is black metal. The front cover alludes to crust, more than anything; with a torn collage depicting a studded garment and messy gothic script. But flipping over to the back cover, all we find is the track length: “63:36” and I wonder if this palindromic duration points towards “666”; giving it a more black metal slant for me. Or perhaps it all simply points to crusty black metal… Either way, the only real trace of these sub-genres in “Suffocate”, is the crackle of saturated black metal and the howl of crust.
Black and dark ambient bands seem to be a dime a dozen these days. Low drones and grim music is very evocative, so I can see why. Slap together a few layers of drone, and you're basically there. However, some artists go beyond this simple approach and craft wonderfully haunting and moving pieces that make you want to celebrate the darkness and join a mystical cult. Harlowe Macfarlane, under the moniker Funerary Call, is one of those inspiring us to the dark side. Harlowe is also the man behind Sistrenatus, a very different, but equally as awesome project. Hearing him work so well with different aspects of darkness makes you pretty sure he won't let you down, and The Mirror Reversed- Part 1 is no exception.
“Stumbling Lips” finds Irelands Where Is This offering up a taut ‘n’ tensely wavering & slowly shifting slice of static noise making.
Lurid Hallway is the new walled noise project from Mayfield USA based Ryan Barber (Hearse Fetish & Tomb Of Trickets). This new project follows a fairly similar path to his other work, as it sits squarely in industrial & looped based walled noise, but I’ll have to admit the whole thing has quite an grim, starkly appealing, and at times quite moodily surreal vibe about it.
Coltsblood is one of a number of up and coming bands, having signed to Candlelight Records after releasing just one demo and a split. This British trio leaps headfirst into the fray with their first album, Into the Unfathomable Abyss, out on 25th of March in the US, and 21st April 2014 in Europe. It’s definitely a rare thing to be signed to such a big label with so little experience, so I was hesitant at first, wondering what it is exactly that these three Brits have up their sleeves that got them signed.
This bible story themed split/ collaboration brings together two European HNW acts, and these come in the form of Scotland based Death Frees Every Soul, and German based Ataraxy.
Static Goat are a Southern California based two piece who create an often dense & extremely overloaded, hellish & psychedelic take on harsh noise. "Mental Castration" is a two disc CDR set, which brings together six ear searing ‘n’ brain melting slices of their deranged & truly head-fucking sonic attack.
This excellent split, from Excavated Productions, comes in a dvd case; adorned with murky grey pictures of buildings. The cover sleeve is printed on the kind of material I used to see used for tablecloths, in cheap cafes and fish’n’chip shops; it helps give the release a definite diy feel - the underground is alive and well!
From summer 2013, this is the 5th album from Austrian Alpine Folk collective Sturmpercht. And following on from the tone of their pervious full length 2009’s “Schattenlieder”, this new album sees the band further delving into the dark, moody & psychedelic tinged side of their sound; and more distancing themselves from the sweeter fairytale & stein mashing drinking song vibe of their early work.
Portland's Nux Vomica, now veterans of the scene (formed in 2003), are now releasing their 3rd full length, a self titled album, in 2014. Their style could be described as unusually slow epic melodic hardcore, in which their d-beat and crust roots are mixed with influences from modern stoner and sludge metal bands, black metal, and symphonic death metal like At the Gates. This album contains 3 songs, all of ambitious 10+ minute length.
Indian unleashed their brand of sludgy doom fury on the world in 2003. Two years later, their first full length was released by Portland, OR's Seventh Rule Recordings. The two follow ups were successful enough to secure the Chicago metallers a spot on the Relapse Records roster. Their Relapse debut, Guiltless, was met with great reviews from all over the community. Here we are, three years later, and Indian and Relapse have released their follow up, From All Purity. The boys took a slightly different, noisier approach on this album. Time will tell if metal fans will appreciate their new sound.
Tiny Tim is probably one of the most well known musical outsiders/ odd musical stars the world ever created. He’s most recognized for his distinctive falsetto/vibrato take on ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’, but he also appeared regularly on US TV in the mid 1960’s to early 1970’s. God Bless Tiny Tim was his first album from 1968, and it stands as a highly consistent & entertaining journey into Psychedelic pop, off-kilter variety show fare, and good honest odd-ness.
Maledictum is the latest full-length from Swedish black metal horde Flagellant. Flagellant has only been active since 2007, so it’s a relative new comer to the scene.
This release collects five remixes of Nine Inch Nails tracks by Coil's Peter Christopherson and Danny Hyde. The original Coil remixes appeared on a couple of the US stadium rock band's releases in the early to mid-nineties, but the five pieces here are "PRE- BIG studio- mix downs" unreleased at the time. They only saw the light of day in 2012 after a campaign directed at Hyde by members of the Nine Inch Nails forum, EchoingTheSound.org, resulted in a free download called Uncoiled featuring all but one of the tracks presented here.
From late 2012, this 3inc CDR offers up a rewarding slice of aggravated walled noise from the Italian harsh noise/HNW project Fukte. This release came in a edition of 15 copies, and it was released by Italian HNW label Claustrophilia, which is run by Lorenzo Abbà( Nascitari, Tomorrow I’ll Shoot My Self In The Mouth)
“Blood Blind” offers up two slices of fairly simply tonal based, yet searing & industrialized walled noise from this Texas HNW project. The release comes in the form of a C20 cassette tape that features one ‘wall’ per side.
Here’s a cd on Ektro Records, with ten tracks of spacey, prog-ish rock from Finland. It comes wrapped in an elegant sleeve and booklet, dominated by moody photographs of flora. From checking the label website, there would appear to be links between Sudo and Circle - a well-regarded Finnish band I have yet to hear. The label spiel mentions “primitive blues” and “swampy Beefheartian delta”; which is somewhat unfortunate…
Caickuwi Cauwas Walkeus sees this ritual themed ‘n’ charged Finish ambient collective at their most stripped & organic. This release originally appeared back in 2009, in a edition of 29 copies- & this 2014 reissue came in two different forms; A regular cd gatefold edition of 444 copies, and wooden box set edition of 49 copies- I’m reviewing the regular edition.
Joseph Curwen is Newcastle-upon-Tyne based one man project that creates brooding, creepy & foreboding drone matter that themes it’s self around the works of H.P Lovecraft, and horror in genreal. This CDR release offers up two length submersion in eerier drone craft mixed with field recordings.
This split CDR brings together two respected & veteran European walled noise acts. With each act offers up a slice of dense & unrelenting walled noise that hits in around the thirty minute mark.
The Killer Came From The Bronx is yet another new HNW project from hugely talented & of late highly prolific Frenchman Julien Skrobek( Ghost, The Sandman Wears A Mask, Ruine, Butch Bag, Gasp). This project focus in on old school yet moody & homicidal themed walled noise, and “Perspective” is the project debut release.
France Jobin's "Valence" is another understated lowercase opus from the admirably consistent Line label, specializing in detailed deep listening music which is typically uplifting and relaxing without resorting to any obviousness or cliche. This album contains 3 tracks, averaging roughly 20 minutes in length. It was Jobin's debut release in 2012, and she has since released another album this year on Baskaru Records.
Ah, Ildjarn. What an interesting band. A one man band formed in 1991, Ildjarn created most of its work by the mid-nineties in a burst of artistic fury. It remained active until the 2005 release of Ildjarn is Dead, a massive compilation of the band’s material. Ildjarn’s debut album, Ildjarn, limited to just 750 copies on CD, was getting increasingly difficult to find until Season of Mist rereleased it in 2013 with new and improved album art.