Month: March 2021

Bones Of The Earth, II (2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

The story continues on the second concept album from Arkansas metal band Bones of the Earth.

The band is a Doom trio from Arkansas. The musicians are Erik Ebsen (guitar), Raif Box (bass and vocals), and Cody Martin (drums and vocals) Their first album, The Imminent Decline of Human Spirit, came out in 2019 and started the tale. This new one, Eternal Meditations of a Deathless Crown, continues the story of a cycle of transformation in the universe where organic life eventually becomes artificial life, and then reverts to organic again.

You can see parallels between this concept and all sorts of things around you all the time. Even while there is constant change the same themes and instances seem to come up again and again, like they are on some long-run cycle that cannot be broken. Doom and Sludge Metal surely are the appropriate musical perspective to tell a story like this.

The opening foray is the instrumental “Decline,” voiceless except for some whispering at the end. “Machine Rising” is a syncopated calamity. The vocals are projected to the straining point and the music bends at sharp angles as the steady sound base holds up a platform for the other pieces to excel. There is an ebb and flow to the album with each song adding another piece to the puzzle and presenting it in a different way. The track “Inoperable,” for example, has amazing guitar work and a heavy blues feel that swirls in the eerie menace of the world it inhabits.

There is an unstoppable quality in the music. You feel like you are on a ride that has no exit. Progressive-sounding elements twinkle in the sludge and doom, but they are not reassuring. No, they are the sound of the mechanical overlord, the cadence of inevitability. Trapped in the system, in the cycle, anxiety builds in the music and it gets to you as you listen. The story genuinely is part of the music and it comes through naturally. The album is exceptional. Recommended.

CDs, cassettes, and digital downloads are out on Friday April 2nd. Pick up a copy so you can get the whole story. The first album is also on Bandcamp in case you want to see how this all started.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://bonesoftheearth.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/bonesoftheearthband

Bones Of The Earth, II (2021)

Odd Circus, Mantha (Good Idea Music 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , ,

Free-form improvisation is the orifice through which the music expands into creation on the new album from Odd Circus.

The band describes its music this way. “Forged in improvisation, the band’s music navigates a boundary-less sonic landscape that embraces the unknown and welcomes the bizarre. The result is an experimental style of psychedelic art-rock that weaves its way into garage, fusion, krautrock, no wave, post-rock, noise, hard psych, and sci-fi prog.” The musicians are Graham Robertson (saxophones and effects), Partin Whitaker (drums), Crews Carter (bass and effects)

If this music comes from live free-form improvisation then color me amazed. The notes read that the set is compiled from this process, so maybe they worked in the form and captured the lasting bits for the album. Whatever the process, the creativity is a boundless expansion that takes no time to consider what is possible.

With drums, saxophone, and bass, enhanced with “effects,” the fullness of these instrumental pieces is a marvel. It is heavy and driving and up-tempo for the most part, splashed and slammed with surprises. When the music slows a touch or quietens for a while, an eerie sensibility takes over that complements the pulsing urgency of the other passages. Progressive post-rock, we could call it, and with the saxophone you can’t take your finger off the jazz button either, but if it is jazz, its dark.

Each piece flows into the next, and still they all have their own perspectives and outcomes. The titles of the tracks are named after mythical entities like “Djinn” and “Dybbuk” and “Wendigo,” providing the perfect launch for the musical explorations.

Pushing aside predilections, the music on this EP will find its way into your psyche. It will be an altered state experience for the heavy music crowd, and we could all use that now and again. Recommended.

Mantha drops on Friday, April 2nd. Bandcamp is your best bet for a hook-up in the US.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://oddcircus.bandcamp.com/album/mantha

Website, https://www.oddcircus.net/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/OddCircus

Odd Circus, Mantha (Good Idea Music 2021)

Mortify, Grotesque Buzzsaw Defilement (HPGD 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

The new EP from Mortify will punch you into unconsciousness with Grindcore madness in less than 10 minutes.

Mortify is Ryohei Kikuchi (drums), Takuya Koreeda (guitar), and Adam Jennings (vocals). After demos in 2017 and 2019, they followed up with the full-length album Stench of Swedish Buzzsaw that holds twenty songs with a running time of ten minutes. They are on the same trajectory with the new one, Grotesque Buzzsaw Defilement, that has thirteen songs in under ten.

So what do we know? Mortify is a fairly new band that plays short, blazing Grindcore with a buzzsaw through-line. OK. Ready to go.

If we do the math here, these songs are going to be less than a minute for the most part. The shortest is twenty five seconds, pushing the envelope on the idea of a fully realized stand-alone concept. Mainly, they are getting in and getting out quick, with a blistering pace and destructive attitude.

My favorite tracks are “Flesh Creep,” which is a thirty-five second doom song that opens the set, and “100 Rats,” a beautiful horror story that shreds all surroundings and has a catchy riff. “Mangy Mutts” and “Deviant” also spoke to me because of the guitar riff in the former and the oppressive, weighty shots in the latter. I’d love to see the band perform this entire album live, straight through in a sweaty, claustrophobic club. That’d be great.

If you are not into commitment but you are a fan of fast, loud, and aggressive music, this one is for you. Recommended.

Grotesque Buzzsaw Defilement is out on Friday, April 2nd from Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. Hit the Label Bandcamp link below for the download, CDs, and merch in the US.

Links.

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Mortify666/

Bandcamp, https://mortify666.bandcamp.com/album/grotesque-buzzsaw-defilement

Label Bandcamp, https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/grotesque-buzzsaw-defilement

Label, http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

Mortify, Grotesque Buzzsaw Defilement (HPGD 2021)

Suzi Quatro, The Devil In Me (SPV Steamhammer 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , ,

The unstoppable Suzi Quatro returns with a new studio album that pops and cracks with multifaceted looks at rock and roll.

The first album I ever heard from Suzi Quatro was Rock Hard (1980). There she stood on the cover wearing black leather and holding the fire engine red bass. At the time I assumed she played only hard rock, but as I started going through the earlier albums I quickly understood that she had already had an impressive career with big pop hits and a variety of albums in different styles. Whenever a new record came out from her it was a good day for me. Her music is not what I usually listen to if we go by the numbers, but I am a huge Suzi Quatro fan.

The album opens with a couple of bangers. “The Devil In Me” is a raucous rock and roll rambler with a Bob Seger spirit while “Hey Queenie” is more of a rock-sprouting lounge tune. The album takes a walk through a wide variety of styles and looks on differently seasoned rock hooks and structures. Every one of them has a familiar feel and a fresh take. The music is mostly upbeat and fast-paced, with a couple of reflective tracks and one straight-up ballad.

There are a several stand-outs for me on the record. “You Can’t Dream It” is one with its urgent pace and prominent bass work. “Do Ya Dance” hit me at an Alice Cooper angle in the 1970s sense. “Isolation Blues” is a soulful, meandering tune with a great saxophone part. And the closer, “Motor City Riders,” is the perfect guitar and piano rock and roll flashback to close the show. This album is a big win for every Suzi Quatro fan.

The Devil In Me is out now – hit the links below. Recommended.

Links.

Website, http://www.suziquatro.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Suziquatrorocks/

Label, https://shop.steamhammer.de/products/691043-suzi-quatro-the-devil-in-me

Suzi Quatro, The Devil In Me (SPV Steamhammer 2021)

Greenleaf, Echoes From A Mass (Napalm Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

A new album from Sweden’s Greenleaf is always a reason to celebrate and the new one pushes the envelope on anticipation.

Greenleaf has been laying down tracks for a couple decades now. Their most recent album was 2018’s Hear The Rivers and while the new one has the familiar presence that earlier one had, it is a step up and beyond. The band is Tommi Holappa (guitar), Sebastian Olsson (drums), Hans Fröhlich (bass), and Arvid Jonsson (vocals).

The album has ten fuzzy, psychedelic tracks that will wrap around you and soak right in. The opener is “Tides,” a get-to-know you track that lays down the blanket in the grass. “Good God I Better Run Away” follows and it is bursting with energy and urgency. It is positively loaded with wonderizing guitar work. Then “Needle In My Eye” has an ethereal quality to it, echoing as it does off the walls and telling as it does a sinister tale. You hear these three songs back-to-back and you start to drift, confident in your choice of music.

All the pieces come together on this album in the way we expect from the earlier ones. I get an extra bounce on this one, though – something about it is bigger to me. Every song has something extraordinary about it. “A Hand Of Might” sticks in my mind for its rolling tremulousness; “March On Higher Grounds” for its restless insistence. “What Have We Become” is the last song of the set and it is a meditation. On what? That might be different for every person who listens to it. At first it put me in a fog but by the end my vision had cleared. It is a good way to come down.

Echoes From A Mass is waiting for you right now. Links below. Highly recommended.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://greenleaf-sweden.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/greenleafrocks

Label, https://label.napalmrecords.com/greenleaf

Greenleaf, Echoes From A Mass (Napalm Records 2021)

Pando, Rites (Aesthetic Death 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Experimental metal duo Pando come back with another layered and complex experience for the initiated and the adventurous.

The band is Adam R. Bryant and Matthew Gagne. The music could be called experimental and/or drone and/or Black Metal and a lot of other things, too. The compositions include sounds, noises, dialogue, chants, guitars, clean vocals and craggy ones, percussion, captures, and expressions.

The set starts with what sounds like an LP of Gregorian Chants being played. A narrative track joins – a man speaking. This goes on for three full minutes, and then the savage voice breaks in and the mood turns from weird to sinister. This new reality goes on for a tight three, then new chanting begins, urgent against a tortured guitar and hopeless choir: “agapē” is the song. With that for an opener you figure anything could come next, all of it equally likely. What you actually get is difficult to put into an closing container.

The music has the feeling of ritual to it, and Rites is the therefore the perfect title for the album. You can get into a state listening to this, an altered state. The second piece is short, “dadaism,” and it will absolutely rattle your nerves with its piercing and pounding. Some tracks sound very much like a traditionally-formed songs, as in “total station theodolite,” which could live comfortably elsewhere. But others like “in god we trust with our cold dead hands” are something that could only really have a home on an album like this one.

Rites makes the most sense to me as an experience. I wouldn’t try to conceive of the separate tracks as individual entities even though many of them work well that way. Take it in all at once, altogether, and see what that does to you. Recommended.

The album is out tomorrow, Friday March 26th. Links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://thetremblinggiant.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/heaviestorganism/

Label, https://www.aestheticdeath.com/

Pando, Rites (Aesthetic Death 2021)

Breaths, Lined In Silver (Trepanation Recordings 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

Jason Roberts has put together a concept album about being in trying circumstances and finding a way out.

Roberts created this work as a solo project in composition and performance. He states that the album has a positive tilt on desperate times. “Influenced by the chaos that was 2020, the songs found on Lined in Silver take the listener on a journey through a world spiraling out of control. Lined in Silver is a concept album, and as the title suggests, the focus is not solely on the events of this year from hell as much as it is the silver lining.”

The music is a cross pollinating combination of heavy subgenres ranging from Doomgaze to Dark Ambient through the Post-Metal world of expression. Every song is heavy on emotional content with thought s and explorations about the feelings, not just declarations of anger or sadness.

There are eight tracks, ranging from five to twelve minutes long so there is space to search through every perspective that is engaged. Slow, melodic passages and pieces are interspersed with sharp, loud moments, and deep heavy ones as well. There is the occasional prog wander, and the orientation shifts are many yet were never predictable to me.

The music has very heavy moments, as in “Year On Fire,” with its pulsing percussion and coarse vocals coasting on the landscape of keys along the walls of thick guitar riffs. “In Nightmares” is the longest track and it is big enough to get lost in. It is eerie and dreary throughout with a positive ending. The closer is “In Repose,” an ethereal lullaby. The music faces the trying situations and chooses to see a finish that is not the end. Recommended.

There is a limited edition cassette and a CD to go along with the download option. It is all available on Friday, March 26th.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://breaths.bandcamp.com/releases

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/BreathsBand/

Label, https://trepanationrecordings.bandcamp.com/

Breaths, Lined In Silver (Trepanation Recordings 2021)

Aziola Cry, The Ironic Divide (Sensory Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

Chicago instrumental metal trio Aziola Cry release their first album in twelve years, The Ironic Divide.

The band is Jason Blake (Warr guitar), Mike Milaniak (guitar), and Tommy Murray (drums). That looks like two guitars and drums, which might lead us down the path of thinking that the sound will be a little hollow. Not at all. For one thing, Jason Blake is playing a Warr guitar which has a huge range (do a quick internet search on the instrument to find out how amazing it is), and besides that, the compositions themselves are designed to fill your ears with layers of sound and depths of meaning.

There is a story the musicians are working with, too, and it helps to know it going in because there is no narrative vocal. “The forty-eight-minute album features four songs which tell the story of one person’s final descent. There are two types of people in this world. There are those who do good for others and make a positive contribution to society in some way. Then, there are those who do evil and hurt fellow humans. There is no rationale behind their behavior. They are cowards. This is their story.”

Naturally, the music is guitar heavy, driven by riffs and vastly enriched through the expansion of the instruments in an impressive variety of approaches and applications. The longest piece is the title track at twenty one minutes, and the others are hefty as well. For me, though, I took it all in as one work rather than trying to assemble separated meanings or looking at it like a track-by-track chronology.

The music is ambitious and there is no mistaking this for something other than a metal album. Instrumental heavy metal has always fascinated me and I find it to be one of the best ways to imbibe in the form. This is my first pass at Aziola Cry and I am off now to listen to the earlier albums. You can concentrate on this music intently or have it instead surround you as part of your environment. Either way, it will soak in. Recommended.

The Ironic Divide hits the streets on March 26th in CD digipak or digital forms.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://lasersedge.bandcamp.com/album/the-ironic-divide

Website, https://www.aziolacry.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/aziolacrymusic

Label, https://www.lasercd.com/cd/ironic-divide-preorder

Aziola Cry, The Ironic Divide (Sensory Records 2021)

XificurK, 1410 (Void Wanderer Productions 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Polish band XificurK return with a blacker-than-black metal EP, 1410.

The band is a duo who think that Black Metal has gone soft and wants to reinforce the underpinnings, labeling their own work Blackest Metal. They certainly are committed to the themes that surrounded the early movement in the genre, I can attest to that. The music carriers the requisite heaviness and also offers a notable variety in instrumentation and tonal execution. The Metal Archives record the band members as being Sitre De Sitirin (drums, bass, and keys) and Temira De Temirin (vocals, guitar, and drums).

You can hear church bells ringing and the steps of someone walking on hard ground as the song opens. Voices from the crowd outside subside when the door is closed and a gentle refrain takes up, followed by a solitary voice singing in devotional tones, Gregorian chants. The metal kicks in at the two minute mark, coarse and ravaging. Just past the midway point, keys take over as the foundational instrument and the feeling goes over to eerie and, even more, somber. The metal returns for a final battle, and we are walked out on gentle notes. That is how the EP begins, “Vilthaaen.”

“Durmak” is next, followed by “Donabad” and then “Tasna.” There is a driving, story-telling element to the way the music progresses in each song that exists outside of the lyrics. The soundscape generated inhabits a three dimensional space, and in any particular direction it is nonlinear but followable. The compositions take unexpected turns while holding the line on the precept thereby generating reliability and ingenuity simultaneously. Listen to it twice (at least) to soak in the nuance and receive the transference. It is heavy, penetrating Black Metal. Recommended.

The digital version of 1410 is available now and a very limited edition cassette will be out from Void Wanderer on March 31st.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://voidwandererproductions.bandcamp.com/album/1410

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Xificurk.Official

Label, https://voidwanderer.com/

XificurK, 1410 (Void Wanderer Productions 2021)

Clouds Taste Satanic, Cloud Covered (Kinda Like Music 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , ,

The full album containing all the singles from the Satanic Singles project plus two new tracks has made its way to the earthly plane.

I have been telling you about this for months. A quick recap…

“This New York instrumental metal band is peopled by these fine persons: Steve Scavuzzo (guitar), Rob Halstead (bass), Greg Acampora (drums), and Brian Bauhs (guitar). For years on end they have been producing their unique brand of vocal-free doom (and doom-adjacent) heavy music, typically in long form. Recently they decided to shift gears a bit a put out a series of shorter cover pieces as singles, leading to a collection early in Spring.” The full collection is titled Cloud Covered and here it is now.

So, I have been waiting to hear these last two songs for some time. It was worth it. There are two duos, “Not Fragile” / “Free Wheelin’” from Bachman Turner Overdrive and “In the Flesh?” / “One Of these Days” from Pink Floyd. That is covering a lot of ground. The BTO pair is a down-and-dirty, no-shower-havin’ road trip and it is fantastic. The Pink Floyd double is more theatrical in the first place and more cerebral in the second. Very trippy, too, and the longest song of the ten in the series. If you are in an enhanced frame of mind when you listen to it, you will take flight.

It has been a good long trip and as glad as I am to see these last two bricks in the road get laid, I am also sad to see it end. But then there will be more music from Clouds Taste Satanic down the path and anyway let’s live in the now. Recommended.

There are vinyl, CD, and digital forms for this complete album. Even if you have the singles, picking up this album is a good decision.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://cloudstastesatanic.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/CloudsTasteSatanic/

Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/artist/5QidF8yXlvTyGkDy24JImY

YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvVu8mcXrE2eVjq_ApcGBmw

Overview Article on Clouds Taste Satanic, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2020/04/07/a-quick-look-at-clouds-taste-satanic/

Clouds Taste Satanic, Cloud Covered (Kinda Like Music 2021)