Month: June 2021

Funeral Chasm, Omniversal Existence (Aesthetic Death 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , ,

The first full-length album from Danish Funeral Doom duo Funeral Chasm is a rueful contemplation.

Funeral Chasm is Morten Lund and Danny Woe. The two have known each other for many years but this new band was created only last year. Omniversal Existence follows an EP from 2020, I, and lays the groundwork for future self-reflective excavations. Unlike most bands in this subgenre of doom, Funeral Chasm finds its lyrical content in contemporary questions and personal issues rather than having a preponderant emphasis on death.

There are eight tracks on the debut album, averaging in the six minute range. Each song is inspired by, or discovered through, Psilocybe cubensis, or a closely related cousin. Danny Woe describes it this way, discussing the way he deals with the symptoms of chronic insomnia…

“When those emotions are peaking, I have learned that the most effective way to break that thought loop is to visit my forest cabin with a friend and eat some magic mushrooms, which help me from spiralling further down into the abyss. I have tried to describe these monumental trips in every song, and what I’ve learned through them. Sometimes you just get a nice relaxing visit into another dimension, but other times you can experience deeper knowledge about yourself (often referred to as a ‘bad trip’ or ‘ego-death’), and that is the moment where you listen and get the opportunity to evolve.”

This makes sense when you listen to the album because it is so immersive. Consider the first song “Embellishment Of Inception.” There is a clear progression through a journey – a trip – which has many stages. The slow, dire music accompanied by both clean and coarse vocals can be experienced as revelatory. There are spacey moments and frightening ones. “The Truth That Nevers Was” is like a dark, forbidding tale of excruciating suffering that is elevated toward the end, rising out of complete hopelessness. Then the very next track, “Mesmerising Clarity,” has a lighter touch while still being dramatic. There is nuance and fully-formed, complex ideas at every turn.

In the land of Funeral Doom, Funeral Chasm has created a unique place that clearly belongs while it simultaneously stands apart. Recommended.

Omniversal Existence is out on Friday, July 2nd through Aesthetic Death.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://funeralchasm.bandcamp.com/album/omniversal-existence

Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician/Funeral-Chasm-103662204549338/

Aesthetic Death, https://www.aestheticdeath.com/

Funeral Chasm, Omniversal Existence (Aesthetic Death 2021)

Darkthrone, Eternal Hails… (Peaceville Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Fenriz and Nocturno Culto are back with another bubbling cauldron of metal: Eternal Hails…

Darkthrone has been throwing its weight around the heavy music scene since the mid-1980s. Cracking in with Death Metal at first, they became well known for the seminal Black Metal albums they released in the 1990s – 1993’s Under A Funeral Moon, for example, and its immediate successor the following year, Transylvanian Hunger. New albums came over the years, laying down the history of the band and establishing its legacy.

The new record leans into the Doom Metal side of the Darkthrone universe with five long crushing tracks. When I say doom, I mean heavy doom. “His Master’s Voice” is slow and pulverizing with a tempo change or two but clearly focused on pressing you down with its mass. “Hate Cloak,” my personal favorite of this set, stays in the same lane, with straight-forward riffs that have an overwhelming simplicity that is hypnotizing.

“Wake of the Awakened” breaks the gate with an up-tempo rate and the pace is maintained throughout, like a charging cavalry. “Voyage to a Northpole Adrift” offers a riff of despair in its establishing moments, but turns to a purposefulness later on that gives you a feeling of exploration in a barren place. The anchor song is “Lost Arcane City of Uppåkra.” This song more than any of the others fits perfectly the description Fenriz gave the album, “Five heavy dinosaurs looking in wonder and bewilderment at the stars.” Heavy, monstrous, unstoppable.

I have always liked the music Darkthrone creates no matter what direction they go in. I’d put this new album high on the list of their accomplishments, even given all the great work they have done in the past. Recommended.

Eternal Hails… is out on Friday, June 25th from Peaceville Records in CD, vinyl, and digital formats.

Band photo by Jørn Steen.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://peaceville.bandcamp.com/album/eternal-hails

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Darkthrone-101075189934422

Peaceville Records, https://peaceville.com/bands/darkthrone/

Darkthrone, Eternal Hails… (Peaceville Records 2021)

Motörhead, No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith Box Set (BMG 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Motörhead’s iconic live masterpiece No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith gets the deluxe treatment in a new 4-disc box set.

I don’t have to go on and on about Motörhead and how important that band is in the history of heavy music. And too, their monumental No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith album was huge back when it came out in 1981. It was the first Motörhead album I actually ever heard and it put me on track to be a lifelong fan. I am glad to know it continues to be revered and listened to and sought after.

And at the time, by the way, I didn’t like live albums much. A few years before, Kiss had a massive success with their second big live album Kiss Alive II, and I have to say I didn’t really like it much. I thought the studio versions of the songs were better and I didn’t channel anything extra from trying to listen to the music through the crowd noise on a record in my room. But Hammersmith was something different. It was all new to me at the time, and it is loaded with brain smashers coming, as it did, hot on the heels of Overkill, Bomber, On Parole, and Ace of Spades. I didn’t know what hit me, and after I got myself back together, I was never the same.

This new set is huge and includes a remastered version of the original album plus bonus tracks not included on that first record. In the big box, there are also complete recordings of the three shows that were used for the original album: Leeds Queens Hall on March 28, 1981 and Newcastle City Hall on March 29 and 30, 1981. There are also a bunch more bobs and whistles, one important entry being a previously unpublished interview. Much here to sort through and admire.

Is it too much Motörhead? Not for big fans of the band like me, but for regular metalheads, yeah, it probably is a little over the top. Still, it is worth listening to the remastered original album even if you don’t want to hear all three concerts because it sounds great in its new incarnation and it is classic metal music that never gets old. Recommended.

No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith Box Set is out now from BMG Records. Get yours before this one sells out.

Links.

Website, https://imotorhead.com/

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

Motörhead, No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith Box Set (BMG 2021)

Beartooth, Below (Red Bull Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , ,

The wild ride continues with the fourth album from Columbus punk/metal/hardcore facilitators Beartooth.

The recording journey started in 2014 with Disgusting, an album that surprised and energized the heavy music community. It was Aggressive (2016) next then Disease (2018) and now Below. Always straight to the point. After the recent departure of longtime guitarist Kamron Bradbury, the band is, by the most recent accounting, Caleb Shomo (vocals), Oshie Bichar (bass), Connor Denis (drums), Zach Huston (guitar), and Will Deely (guitar).

The music is a squish of many influences from metalcore to post-punk, often circling around soaring melodic choruses which definitely stand out in the unavoidable comparison to the screaming stanzas. The bursting energy you hear in the songs is something to behold in person. Beartooth is one of those bands I saw live having never heard any of their music before. They definitely make an impression.

“Devastation” and “The Past Is Dead” have gotten a few million plays on Spotify and they are great instances of Beartooth that will catch listeners and bring them in to the broader display of the entire Below album. I am not even going to pick a favorite. Every song is rocket ride, one way or another. You can’t listen to this album sitting down, easy in your chair – you have to get up and let it move through you. If you haven’t started your summer yet, this is the kickstart you need. Recommended.

Below is out now. Go to the band’s website (tap below) to catch the links to all the music and merch.

Live photo by Wayne Edwards, Heavy Montreal 2019.

Links.

Website, https://beartoothband.com/

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

Beartooth, Below (Red Bull Records 2021)

Stöner, Stoners Rule (Heavy Psych Sounds Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , , ,

The natural progression from Live In The Mojave Desert is Stöner’s first studio album, Stoners Rule.

If you like stoner metal/rock then you like what the musicians in this new band do because Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri pioneers of the sound and style. Both are founding members of Kyuss and, along with Ryan Güt, they are putting down the smoothest desert stoner groove there is.

The new album was recorded last Fall in Joshua Tree, California, and it sounds like it. You can feel the desert insisting and infusing and simply being there when you listen.

There are seven laid-back tracks on Stoners Rule, covering a range of subjects that appear to have emerged from the flowing consciousness that overtakes you in the desert under the right circumstances. In each, a steady bed of rhythm provides a solid base for vocal and guitar explorations.

“Rad Stays Rad” and “Nothin’” are the first songs that made their way into the airwaves and cyber pathways. They are good representations of the music on the album. I have an affection for “Stand Down” for the way it rambles, and you cannot miss the thirteen-minute closer, “Tribe / Fly Girl” that one takes a deep dive into your psyche. The lead guitar is a mystical spell spoken in six strings that transports you far away from anything that was bothering you on this earthly plane.

Stöner is on tour with Clutch (and King Buffalo in the northeast) this Fall – you don’t want to miss this show if you are a heavy music fan. Let’s go.

Stoners Rule is out now from Heavy Psych Sounds Records with the quick digital at the ready from Bandcamp. Highly recommended.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/st-ner-stoners-rule

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

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

Heavy Psych Sounds Records, https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

Stöner, Stoners Rule (Heavy Psych Sounds Records 2021)

The Absence, Coffinized (M-Theory Audio 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

The fifth album from Tampa, Florida metalists The Absence is a tour of dark imaginings.

Melodic Death Metal is a popular lane for heavy music these days, and one of the premiere bands creating it is The Absence. For nearly twenty years and through four previous albums, The Absence has charted its way through the mire of possibilities by producing music exactly the way they wanted to, and fans have responded. Now comes Coffinized, another chapter in the band’s growing legacy.

The album opens with the title track, and it is a dismal wind blowing arctic devastation that at first seems like a dirge but soon enough starts swinging a metal hammer. The compositional approach is compartmentalized ideas stitched seamlessly together that will turn you this way and that until the disequilibrium makes you see the truth in the void.

“Future Terminal” has a clever and catchy vocal/guitar duet in a the chorus that stays with you after the close, as does the explanatory lead break near the middle. The songs are heavy and driving, fast and churning. “Choirs of Sickness” is incredible in the way it establishes drama, while a song like “Black Providence” is much more eerie and sinister in its approach. “Discordia” screeches and “Faith In Uncreation” delivers speed and depth (and has a truly bizarre ending after a few moments of silence – it is better if you just hear it without me describing it in advance).

Every song is its own microcosm while being undeniably a part of the greater whole. I have listened to The Absence consistently through the years and always liked their music. This new album reinvigorates my interest and takes it to a new level. Recommended.

Coffinized comes out tomorrow, Friday, June 25th from M-Theory Audio.

Links.

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

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

M-Theory Audio, https://www.m-theoryaudio.com/

The Absence, Coffinized (M-Theory Audio 2021)

Pharaoh, The Powers That Be (Cruz Del Sur Music 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

The Powers That Be is the first Pharaoh album in nine years and it is one of the best the band has ever produced.

One of the early purveyors of melodic metal in the power metal scene, Pharaoh began back in the 1990s and has released a string of memorable albums through years, the newest being their fifth, The Powers That Be. The line-up has consistently been Chris Black (drums), Matt Johnsen (guitar), Tim Aymar (vocals), and Chris Kerns (bass).

When the band got together to work on the new record, they faced the same issues every other band ran up against: the global pandemic. They worked around these challenges by recording some parts separately and had to wait until the situation changed enough that the finishing touches could be put on. These external shocks did not deter Pharaoh from creating an album of blazing originality that breaks new ground while holding the line on the band’s founding principles.

There are nine songs on The Powers That Be starting with the high-energy title track. The vocals are melodic with a rasping touch that catches your attention and holds it. The guitar leads are precise and intricate, and the composition itself is stacked with engaging turns and leaps. There are even prog moments sprinkled in to enrich the musical environment.

Most of the music is up-tempo, except for the short, reflective “Waiting To Drown” and a few movements here and there, so you can expect fast-moving metal to keep you rolling from beginning to end. My favorite songs include “Ride Us To Hell” with its raging lead guitar work, and the closer, “I Can Hear Them,” which I see as a showcase for what the band is about. This new Pharaoh album delivers exactly what their fans are looking for. Recommended.

The Powers That Be is out now. Get the digital at Bandcamp and the physicals at the Cruz Del Sur Music store.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://pharaohmetal.bandcamp.com/album/the-powers-that-be

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

Cruz Del Sur Music, https://www.cruzdelsurmusic.com/store/

Pharaoh, The Powers That Be (Cruz Del Sur Music 2021)

Suffer Yourself, Rip Tide (Aesthetic Death 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , ,

Intricate Funeral Doom laced with Death Metal is what you can expect from the new Suffer Yourself album, Rip Tide.

Suffer Yourself began in Poland as a one-man operation by Stanislav Govorukha (guitars and vocals). Over the years the roster has expanded and the new album includes contributions by Lars Abrahamsson (guitars), Kateryna Osmuk (drums), and Johan Selleskog (bass). Rip Tide is the third set from the band, following Ectoplasm (2016) and Inner Sanctum (2014).

The music is Funeral Doom, a category most glum. Suffer Yourself takes an expansive perspective on the genre and is not satisfied with ambient morosity. Instead, each song either has many movements that create a variegated aural landscape or has a second (and third) persistent intricacy that elevates the composition.

There are three tracks on Ripe Tide, starting with “Spit In The Chasm,” a twenty minute suite. It is here you find the full spectrum of the band on display, including soaking Funeral Doom, eerily floating vocals and calls, sudden burst of speed and diversions into torrid Death and Black Metal territory. It is a complex affair that unfolds like a darkly absorbing drama laid bare before you.

Next is “Désir de trépas maritime (Au bord de la mer je veux mourir)” which is quiet and somber  and features a beautiful, mournful cello in its first movement. Before the three minute mark, the music changes from sad to threatening with guitars issuing an obvious warning. In the final third of the song, there has an oddly upsetting spoken word passage joined by the cello and other discordant instruments and effects.

The closer is a short ambient drone piece, “Submerging,” which is more of an exhortation regarding things to come than it is a wind-down. Taken together these three pieces coalesce into an unforgettable cortège moving toward oblivion. Recommended.

Rip Tide will be released on Friday, June 25th by Aesthetic Death on CD, vinyl, and digital. In the US, Bandcamp is a good place to pick it up.

Links.

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

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

Aesthetic Death, https://www.aestheticdeath.com/

Aesthetic Death Bandcamp, https://aestheticdeath.bandcamp.com/

Suffer Yourself, Rip Tide (Aesthetic Death 2021)

Bone Church, Bone Church (Ripple Music 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

The self-titled album from Bone Church gets a re-issue with bonus tracks.

One of my favorite albums from 2020 was Bone Church’s Acid Communion. It is as solid a set of blues-infused heavy groove you are likely to come across. Each song is an extension and a complement to the one before. It is fantastic.

When you hear a record like that, you want to go back and listen to everything else the band has released. Ripple Music is making that easy for you with a deluxe re-issue of the first Bone Church album. The new edition has the complete original Bone Church set plus two live tracks.

As soon as you drop the needle on the first album you see where the second came from. The music is heavy metal laid down with the confident ease of musicians channeling primal elements. “Altered States” and “Pale Moon Sacrifice” are my favorite tracks but they all qualify as top picks. These are the two songs that have live versions included on the re-issue so that puts me over the moon.

Bone Church is going to be at Ripplefest Texas on August 7th and I can’t wait to see them play live. At this writing you can still get tickets to that event (link below) so grab them while you can.

Bone Church is out now. Don’t let another day go by without hearing it. Highly recommended.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/bone-church-reissue

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

Ripple Music, https://ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/product/bone-church-s-t-reissue-limited-digipak-cd

Ripplefest Texas tickets, http://www.outhousetickets.com/Event/17387-Ripplefest_Texas/

Acid Communion review, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2020/06/03/ripple-round-up-2020-round-01/

Bone Church, Bone Church (Ripple Music 2021)

Entierro, El Camazotz (2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , ,

Connecticut-based metal band Entierro flap in on blackened wings for with their latest EP, El Camazotz.

The band has been active as Entierro since 2013 and have released two prior EPs and the long-player Entierro in 2018. They play a solid, middle-of-the-road heavy metal that lays the attitude plainly out and backs it up with expert performance. The band is Christopher Taylor Beaudette (vocals and bass), Victor Arduini (guitar), Chris Begnal (guitar), and Dave Parmelee (drums).

“Camazotz” refers to a wicked bat creature that shows up in the Popol Vuh and is a deity in Mayan mythology. It is excellent framing for a metal album. The music itself is not quite as dark as the title might imply, but it is heavy and surging.

Here we get five tracks: four originals and a spicy cover. “The Penance,” the opener, is a perfect driving tune with a catchy set-up, melodic chorus, and a great, tight lead break. The pace backs down on the next track, “The Tower,” offering a more serious and dramatic tone as the lead-in before turning into a driving march with a clever hook. The lead breaks are fantastic on this song, too.

“The Past” is reflective and a little melancholy, and then the title track flat out flies. You can really feel the demon bat coming for you on “El Camazotz.” The final song on the set is a cover of the Judas Priest song “Call for the Priest.” It is a faithful rendering and the world can always use more Judas Priest so it is great to hear this song chosen for the EP – one that is not often covered. It fits right in with the new music and is an effective closer.

You can get El Camazotz right now. Check out the Bandcamp link below. Recommended.

Links.

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

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

Entierro, El Camazotz (2021)