Review: Old Spirit – Old Spirit

Review by Sandre the Giant

A lot of my reviews are inspired by a record speaking to me on first listen. ‘Old Spirit’ by Old Spirit is one of those records. I knew nothing of the man behind it, Vanishing Kids’ Jason Hartman, or his other work, but there is something in here that just seeps into my soul. It is out in February through Bright as Night Records.

Opener ‘Snow Leopard’ is a soulful rocker, with driving riffs and a smokey croon building to a spiralling psychedelic solo. There’s a little QOTSA to the vocals in places, occupying that same haze in the driving fuzz of ‘Cave’ which has a definite draw of old school heavy metal to it with a droning weirdness accompanying it. The hypnotic bass rumble of ‘Feel the Stars’ is glorious, groaning under a wavering and scratchy vocal and oozing a sinister vibe throughout. ‘Catastrophe’ is funky garage rock meets trippy stoner rock meets Cronos/Tom G Warrior in the 80s vocals? At this point I’m not really sure, but I know I like it. ‘Seasons’ is very QOTSA for me up to the drift out ambience, but closer ‘Freezing Brain’ is a stormer. It flows with abandon through driving riffs, cosmic melodies and trippy vocals into a gem of a track.

I had no idea what to expect with ‘Old Spirit’, but the difference between it and my usual fare caught my attention and drew me in. What I found was a fearlessly inventive and yet oddy catchy record that is as much psychedelic stoner rock trip as it is old fashioned heavy metal. Old Spirit are definitely worth a look, if only to hear those gorgeous reverb drenched solos.

https://www.facebook.com/brightasnightrecords

https://oldspirit.bandcamp.com/album/old-spirit

Review: Funeral – Praesentialis in Aeternum

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally published here: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/funeral-praesentialis-in-aeternum/

What more can you say about Norwegian doom titans Funeral, other than the fact that their sound has slowly evolved from the most miserable of all the subgenres into a more regal, gothic despair over the years. A true pioneer in the 90s of death/doom misery, it has been nine long years since their symphonic masterpiece ‘Oratorium’, and ‘Praesentialis in Aeternum’ is out now through Season of Mist, eager to reacquaint us with their own Scandinavian sorrow.

As opener ‘Ånd’ begins to drift into view amongst delicate piano and grandiose strings, it suddenly hits hard with a striding doom riff and strong vocals. This track has guest vocals from Lars Nedlund of Borknagar/Solefald fame, and it provides a swelling evocative feeling that I really appreciate. Everything feels more epic, swollen with a luxurious production that gives everything a rich weight to it. The orchestral backdrops add even more to that scale, as ‘Materie’ dips us deep into a mire of gloom and cold mist. The album has, for the first time, completely Norwegian lyrics and it has been written by a psychologist friend of eternal Funeral mainstay Anders Eek. Now, I don’t speak Norwegian at all, but I admire the idea of bringing in an outsider to contribute in this way, as it can reinvigorate and reinvent a band’s output if done right.

And, despite my linguistic failings, it seems to have done the trick as Funeral’s work is at its highest point when emotive lyrics intone over cascading riffs of sorrow and sodden atmospheres of depression and angst. ‘Erindring I – Hovmod’ is a magnificently morose piece, while its follow up ‘Erindring II – Fall’ builds upon that into what feels like a classic of antiquity, but happening on a lost planet in an eldritch time. Horns blast over a frozen battlefield, where ghosts of mighty beasts lumber, lost to existence. Like if the battle of the Pelennor Fields happened on an ice blasted tundra. I know what I mean!

The final twenty minutes is some of the best emotion-driving music I’ve come across this year. Be it the crumbling ediface of mournful giant ‘Oppvåkning’, with the brutality coalescing into beauty at a moment’s notice or closer ‘Dvelen’, a mighty leviathan of symphony, gothic doom and utter bleakness. If you’re lucky enough to snag the deluxe edition, you’ll be treated to bonus tracks; ‘Her til evig tid’ which acts as an epilogue to ‘Ånd’, ‘Vekst’ as a prologue to ‘Erindring’, and even a striding cover of Candlemass’ ‘Samarithan’ featuring their then singer Frode Forsmo, recorded in 2005. This all acts to bring ‘Praesentalis in Aeternum’ full circle, as an encapsulation of everything that has made Funeral gods of this sphere. A triumphant, grandiose way to close out our year, and some of the finest work of their career.

https://www.facebook.com/funeralnorway/

https://funeraldoom.bandcamp.com/

Review: Hath – All That Was Promised

Review by Sandre the Giant

When you get the opportunity to review bands from the mighty Willowtip label, you’ve generally got the idea that they could be something a bit special. New Jersey blackened death metallers Hath look to keep this reputation for quality with their own, on new record ‘All That Was Promised’, due out in March of 2022.

‘The Million Violations’ is an impressive starter, churning with great death metal riffing while a serrated black metal edge slices through the weight to add a little nastiness. A dynamically fluid song, there’s an queasiness to it that I really like. We’re not talking Deathspell Omega or Gorguts here, but there’s definitely some playing around with atonal textures. ‘Kenosis’ is a pummelling beast and a perfect track to showcase the band’s sound in a video release, while the darkened thrashy chug fest of ‘Lithopaedic’ is deeply intense. The guitar tone is sickeningly heavy at times, forming an unholy partnership with a powerful drumming performance and some truly potent melody lines. I love the intensity of the grinding ‘Decollation’, and it includes my favourite of many ‘quieter’ moments slipped in to create variety. ‘Casting of the Self’ is full on angular riffing and Gojira-esque clean vocals.

By the time the juddering behemoth of ‘Name Them Yet Build No Monument’ comes to an end, Hath has taken you through the full gambit of what blackened death metal is in the modern age. This is cutting edge, atonal world shaking stuff, the kind of record that you keep returning to and finding new subtleties underneath each layer. ‘All That Was Promised’ looks to be a leading contender for 2022.

https://www.facebook.com/HathBand

https://hathnj.bandcamp.com/album/all-that-was-promised

https://willowtip.com/bands/details/hath.aspx

https://willowtip.bandcamp.com/

Review: Cân Bardd – Devoured by the Oak

Review by Sandre the Giant

The third record from Switzerland’s one man atmospheric folk/black metal project Cân Bardd is ‘Devoured by the Oak’, and it is out now on Northern Silence Records. Inspired by the likes of Saor and Elderwind, you can expect a vast scope for this release, judging by the work on previous records ‘Nature Stays Silent’ and ‘The Last Rain’.

A delicate, swelling ambience leads us off in the form of ‘Echoes of the Moss’, an evocative and lush soundscape of quiet orchestration and morose piano, building itself ready for the darkness to come. The folk melodies that begin ‘Une Couronne de Branches’ soon evolve into an accompaniment of a soaring yet fearsome black metal style. The triumphant, epic stylings of this track are an absolute joy to behold, a rich and grandiose slab of atmospheric black metal. There are a lot more clean vocals than I was expecting, but that also adds to the sweeping sense of scale. The two part title track is a beautiful convergence of pyroclastic black metal riffing and pastoral acoustic work, buoyed by symphonic elements and a real sense of dynamics.

But this could be said about every track of ‘Devoured by the Oak’. From the mighty flight of ‘Crépuscule’ to the babbling stream of ‘Spleen by the Pond’ and the fiery ‘Autumn Shore’, Cân Bardd‘s work is incredible. As it closes with the wonderful folk ballad, ‘Blomsterkransen’, you are fully absorbed into this world of nature. At times, I’d like a little bit more black metal in there, but ‘Devoured by the Oak’ is redefining what to expect in a truly epic black metal record. The breadth of this record is astounding, and all I want to do is take it on my iPod and go climb a mountain.

https://www.facebook.com/CanBardd/

https://canbardd.bandcamp.com/album/devoured-by-the-oak

https://store.northern-silence.de/en

Review: Sarcasm – Stellar Stream Obscured

Review by Sandre the Giant

Sweden’s Sarcasm (one of MANY on the Encyclopedia Metallum) are the vintage band from Uppsala who released a lot of killer material early in the 90s and then disappeared until 2016’s debut full length, ‘Burial Dimensions’, finally brought them crashing back in reality. Their newest, and fourth full length since this triumphant return, ‘Stellar Stream Obscured’, is out in January on Hammerheart Records.

I first discovered them in the History of Swedish Death Metal book, and accompanying CD. ‘In Hate’ was an absolute beauty, and I’ve tried to follow them as much as possible, so the advent of ‘Stellar Stream Obscured’ was looked forward to. I had no fears once the torrent of absolutely classic death metal poured from my speakers in the form of ‘Through the Crystal Portal’. There’s plenty of chainsawing riffs and more than their fair share of killer melodies too, from the Gothenberg-esque ‘Obsidian Eyes’ and the murderously catchy ‘The Spinning Tomb’. Sarcasm could play it safe at any point, recycling old Entombed riffs and cranking an HM2 pedal, but instead they play with the tropes a little too, the looming gothic death/doom of ‘Ancient Visitors’ is a monster while ‘The Powers of Suffering That Be’ drifts into brutal death breakdown territory every so often and beautiful Finnish death melodies float in the background of the glorious ‘Apocalyptic Serenity’.

There’s always a hint of suspicion when a band comes back from the dead for more albums, but Sarcasm defeated those fears years ago, and ‘Stellar Stream Obscured’ is another feather in the cap of those of us who have some faith in the system. Sarcasm sound like the veterans they are, effortlessly pumping out classic death metal in their homeland style but adding enough little tweaks to the formula to remain essential.

https://sarcasm-sweden.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sarcasmsweden

https://hammerheart.bandcamp.com/

Review: Deathless Void – Deathless Void

Review by Sandre the Giant

A brand new entity spewing from the Dutch underground, Deathless Void’s self titled debut EP is due out in February through Iron Bonehead, which may give you an inkling of the level of disturbing, aural terrorism you can expect from what is to come.

Opener ‘Ignus Fatuus’ builds slowly through ominous distortion, cold guitar notes and ambient industrial noise; the level of suspense builds and so does a lurking terror. It reminds me a little of Axis of Perdition, but that disappears as the cavernous rage of ‘The Shattered Realms of Man Become the Abyss’ bursts through this blackened murk with a torrent of flailing, furious black/death metal. The foundation of this work is undoubtedly bands like Archgoat or Anataeus, but there is more slithering below the surface. Deathspell Omega’s eldritch shadow looms above some of the passages too, and the dragging behemoth of ‘Crossing the Threshold’ is at once unstoppable, galaxy-gnawing entity and nasty, sewer dwelling savage. As it fades out, it feels like an expelling of a held breath, one you didn’t realise you had.

Much work in this field of void worshipping chaos has been done since Mayhem’s ‘Ordo Ad Chao’, but Deathless Void are the closest I’ve seen in recent years to fulfilling the true churning potential of this style. ‘Deathless Void’ is going to be an important stepping stone to whatever the band has next prepared, and I’m here for it.

https://www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions/

https://deathlessvoid.bandcamp.com/

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/

Review: Deliberate Miscarriage – Mortuary Melodies

Review by Sandre the Giant

If nothing else, Welsh brutal death metallers Deliberate Miscarriage will have probably one of the best band names of the last few years. ‘Mortuary Melodies’ is their debut full length, following a demo and an EP last year. It is out now through the band’s Bandcamp page.

As you can tell from the album art and a lot of the song titles, Deliberate Miscarriage play a surgically savage form of death metal, brutally precise in its torture of innocence. Opener ‘Splattered Toddlers’ speaks for itself, a monstrous chugging beast with a blitzkrieg of blastbeats, razor sharp riffing and guttural roars smashing through into your face. There is more than a taste of prime Cannibal Corpse about the rampant ‘Exhumed & Molested’, ‘Fresh Aboriton Smoothie’ is a carpet bombing exercise in weighty riffs, while the visceral hammering of ‘Slow Dance of Decay’ is music to ravaged ears. Deliberate Miscarriage have definitely taken the ‘slow and heavy’ approach over anything particularly waspish or fast, and to be honest it works really well, especially on tracks like ‘The Right to Die’. That guitar tone just totally grinds through your nerves and lodges itself deep into your brain.

There’s something eternally, gloriously simple and straight forward about Deliberate Miscarriage that I love. Their brand of death metal is a bulldozer of subtlety; crashing straight ahead with little interest in the more esoteric parts of the genre and bludgeoning you with pure death metal brutality. The songs aren’t simple however, the chug is GOD in these parts but there’s plenty going on to give you plenty to air guitar to as well. ‘Mortuary Melodies’ is killer shit

https://www.facebook.com/DeliberateMiscarriage/

https://deliberatemiscarriage.bandcamp.com/album/mortuary-melodies

Review: Varius – Concordance

Review by Sandre the Giant

Canadian progressive/melodic death metallers Varius have a new EP out now called ‘Concordance’, and it showcases a move away from the more traditional melodeath/metalcore fare of their previous work into new territory. It is out now through their Bandcamp.

Opener ‘Golden Crown’ has a rather sedate clean intro, before an almost melancholic heavier riff appears to lead us through. A slower paced track, with a lot of classic heavy metal-isms behind an Arch Enemy-esque vocal styling. The mood is very gloomy, and the guitar work skirts along this very nicely, keeping a sense of the melancholy throughout the chugging, moody brutality and progressive oddities of ‘Concordance of the Legionfall’. The gloriously Gothenburg inspired intro to ‘Lament of Dissonance’ is a thing of beauty, and the track evolves from there into almost gothic death metal, until the weirdly jaunty acoustic ending. Closer ‘Gut Shoveler’ is the beauty here though, transforming into a rumbling doom piece from a bit of crushing death metal at the start.

I like ‘Concordance’ a lot; Varius’ work is very varied and manages to maintain that gloomy atmosphere throughout while switching up styles and weight at will with whatever suits their story best. I’d be interested to see how this approach works over a longer album length, but the EP size is promising enough!

https://www.facebook.com/Varius.band/

https://varius.bandcamp.com/

Review: Skarntyde – Flukt fra menneskeligheten

Review by Sandre the Giant

I first heard German black metal traditionalists Skarntyde on 2019’s ‘Spurvehawk’ debut, and they are now back with their full length debut, ‘Flukt fra menneskeligheten’, that they’ve self released on Bandcamp. The album title translates to ‘Escape from humaneness’, and centres on a protagonist who turns his back on the world. It is out now!

Skarntyde’s work is very Norwegian inspired, not just in name (‘skarntyde’ is Norwegian for poison hemlock), but in style and language. The band draw deeply from the second wave black metal legends like Darkthrone, Mayhem and Gorgoroth and the opener ‘Ting som jeg er så lei av’ has all the hallmarks of that sound. The buzzing, waspish guitar tone, the rasping snarls, the clattering drums and the pervasive cold atmospheres; all classic cliches but Skarntyde fight that one dimensional thought with some nice Nordic folk interludes and passages, breaking apart that permafrost to allow a little growth to sprout within. There’s a number of bleak midpaced tracks that feel a little different, like the evocative ‘Fjellene ligger foran meg’ with its cold, acoustic passages and spiralling atonal guitar work dissolving into discordant piano. These pieces help to break Skarntyde out of a mere copycat mode into something much more interesting.

‘Flukt fra menneskeligheten’ is an album that doesn’t totally confound expectations of it, but yet has enough variety and interesting diversions that you won’t ever be bored. Savagery abounds, but this isn’t just a one trick pony, Skarntyde more than deliver on the variety, songwriting and execution fronts and make this a great black metal album.

https://skarntyde.bandcamp.com/releases

List of Grievances: 2021 Albums of the Year

Not as emphatic as last year’s winner, but just as deserving of the top slot this year

When I look back on my favourite albums of 2020, death/doom and misery featured highly due to the ongoing world collapse, family bereavements and just general gloom. When I look at my picks for this year, it seems to have a lot more anger and brutality about it, reflecting my general frustration with the wreck of humanity we’ve got left. But my little daughter learned to headbang to ‘War Pigs’ so I can’t really get too down can I? 2021 was a banner year for death and destruction in the extreme scene, and I fucking loved every second of it. As always, there are albums that don’t make the cut, but rest assured, if I’ve reviewed it this year, I’ve enjoyed it. Life is too short for bad music.You can find the full reviews for each record on the site!

20. No Light Escapes – The Purity of Grief: A weird one this for me, as the style is something I normally find a bit stale and samey, yet No Light Escapes kept drawing me back in. The dizzying mathcore breakdowns, killer hooks, djent riffing and deathcore brutality all coalesce into a record that is proving to be irresistable to my sensibilities.

19. Alda – A Distant Fire: An epic slab of atmospheric black metal that helped me sink back into the genre this year, after last year’s disappointing showing. Alda mix in some post rock parts too, clean acoustics and a sense of melody that somehow plays off the more frozen blackened side nicely. Full of grandiose epics, this is a dark revelation

18. Bonehunter – Dark Blood Reincarnation System: A visceral romp through glorious blackened thrash, but with the signature Bonehunter attitude. Venomous speed metal riffing meets necrotic black metal and a serrated thrash attack, all culminating in a raucous and energetic record of barbed wired, complex yet catchy metal for pumping your spiked fist in the air at.

17. Utburd – Story of Frozen Souls: A multilayered masterpiece of atmospheric black metal that also subverts expectations by adding a bit of doom, a bit of gothic, a lot of traditional second wave stuff and remains jaw droppingly vast. One man behind this too, which just impresses all the more. Frosted majesty

16. Mienakunara – Blood Sun: A slow burn, trance inducing psychedelica trip of churning stoner doom, layered with shimmering krautrock freakout jams and basically every absolutely perfect stoner cliche you can think of. Inspired, mind melting solos tearing across sun scorched vistas on distant worlds. Glorious

15. Chaos Over Cosmos – The Silver Lining Between the Stars: a ludicrously overwrought, spirally tech death odssey that should be too long, too wanky and too much for me to enjoy is somehow not the case at all. I keep returning to this record and marvelling at how it mashes together Dragonforce, Scar Symmetry and Devin Townsend and isn’t a total fucking mess. Progressive technical metalcore death thrash power metal genius!

14. Necrogod – In Extremis: A death metal album by Rogga Johansson in a top albums list? WHAT YEAR IS THIS?! But serious, Necrogod’s work this year was almost comically good, and some of the most enjoyable, shit-eating grin causing death metal appears on this record. Sweeping the best from Europe and Florida, this is another example of 2021’s prime year in death metal.

13. Io – Fire: a harrowing, grinding, dragging sludge doom record that conjures Crowbar, EyeHateGod and Kyuss into a single minded, bubbling force of churning lava and death. Monstrous riffs, cavernous vocals and the kind of music that is maybe best left out on a desolate, fire riddled moon, lest it destroy us all.

12. The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires: The eccentric depths of The Ruins of Beverast are always a delightful enigma, but on this record they play with death, black, doom, prog and dark ambient to a dazzling degree. At the core, it is the blackest and doomiest black metal but every track weaves so many different styles into the fabric that you’d be loath to pigeonhole them. ‘The Thule Grimoires’ is a vast beast of utter darkness, churning miasmic evil and otherworldly magic.

11. Soothsayer – Echoes of the Earth: I reviewed this all the way back in February and suggested it would cast a long shadow over the rest of the year’s releases and I was right. I find myself coming back to it again and again, a titanic sludgy leviathan that builds expertly towards the twin devastation of ‘Six of Nothing’ and ‘True North’, which could be one of the greatest two hit combos in all of sludge doom. A magnificent ode to the bleakness of existence.

10. Slimelord – The Delta Death Sirens: Although technically a rerelease of a 2020 rerelease of a 2019 record, the ugly gurgling primal force that is this debut took me by surprise on my first listen, and it has drawn me back into it’s terrifying depths a number of times this year. It’s very gratifying to see this kind of music belch up from the UK underground, and the agony drenched solos howling through the murk is the icing on the cake.

9. Alchemy of Flesh – Ageless Abominations: The world needs more Morbid Angel in it, and since the REAL Morbid Angel are a little hit and miss these days, we have Alchemy of Flesh ready to step in and take up the mantle of chief Lovecraftian beast-summoners. This is some of the most well written, varied death metal I’ve come across this year, sucking on the diseased teat of Floridian classics but steadfastly maintaining their identity. Each song is a new exercise in why other modern death metal is stale and boring, and why slow and heavy is ALWAYS best.

8. Nytt Land – Ritual: Ok, it isn’t metal, but ‘Ritual’ spoke to me on a primal level more than almost anything this year. I’ve really got into this type of Nordic dark folk this year, and Nytt Land are exactly what I’m looking for. The soundtrack to a frozen wood, a crackling fire, mysterious spirits and sinister shapes in the trees. My night time soundtrack, utterly perfect and evocative of past lives.

7. Skepticism – Companion: An instant reminder of my 2020 album of the year (Atramentus – Stygian), Skepticism’s work is timeless in its scale, its execution and the ability to generate emotion from every earth shaking riff, guttural roar and bleak beautiful melody. ‘Companion’ is the work of the finest craftsmen, wringing every drop of soul and feeling from torturous riffs and shrouding, dynamic atmospheres.

6. Archgoat – Worship the Eternal Darkness: black metal’s most evil and filthy sons decided to have a go at melody this year. Well, their interpretation of it of course, which means a little doom, a little gothic synth, even a dose of Behemoth-esque grandeur. All coated in a bestial, Satanic tar that smothers almost all of it. Thirty plus years has not dulled the edge of these Finns, and somehow they keep getting better.

5. Ültra Raptör – Tyrants: In a world where you need some fucking heavy metal to break all the bullshit apart, ‘Tyrants’ was that album for me. ‘Gale Runner’ is my absolute favourite track of the year and the rest is balls to the wall fist pumping heavy metal glory that makes you absolute yearn for the live gig experience. It conjures the spirits of Maiden, Angel Witch and Jaguar into a modern NWOBHM classic, complete with an utterly, ludicrously brilliant album cover.

4. Gexerott – Hallucinetic Violet Ignition: A black metal album that embraces an almost gothic doom approach to creating atmosphere and for me it is the surprise of the year. South American black metal has a tendency to be raw, visceral and necro as fuck, whereas these Colombians take as much from latter day Mayhem as they do from My Dying Bride. An infinitely fascinating record, haunting and absorbing in equal measure.

3. Hooded Menace – The Tritonus Bell: ‘The Tritonus Bell’ was where Hooded Menace decided to bring all their favourite heavy metal influences to the fore, which is why their filth-caked death/doom monstrosities had more than a couple of belting NWOBHM leads, striding classic doom riffs and a magnificent production from Andy LaRocque. Imagine if Mercyful Fate and Angel Witch had grown up in a Louisiana swamp and took loads of crystal meth, and you’d be close. A titanic record that reaffirms and reimagines Hooded Menace as one of the genre’s premier exponents.

2. Sepulcros – Vazio: You almost got number one guys, so close. ‘Vazio’ was my frontrunner all year, a sodden atmospheric masterpiece of truly gloomy death/doom that scraped the very bowels of the abyss and shook the earth to its core. But it is never afraid to drop into the blazing torrents of fiery black/death metal to create jarring contrasts of brutality. The core of Sepulcros’ work is the atmosphere of shuddering, suffocating oppression, hopeless and bleak. You’d struggle to find anything that comes close to this for quality this year.

1. The Slow Death – Siege: I went back and forth on this or my number two as my favourite album this year. But where ‘Siege’ wins it for me is the utterly haunting aspect to this massive, dirging behemoth of cadaverous funeral doom/sludge. Drawing all of the emotional heft from the clean guitar work, the female vocals and the oppressive majesty of atmospheric death/doom, The Slow Death manage to encapsulate everything you could need in an hour plus of some of the heaviest music set to tape this year. Heaviness comes in all forms, and ‘Siege’ has it all. Utterly devastating.