Hell - III

Hell - III is the final installment in a trilogy seeing Hell move from a filthy, sludgy kind of doom to a more orchestrated and atmospheric sound. Adding blackened elements, drone, and beautiful clean guitar parts. And actually making the

Gustave Dore - Purgatory IX

Hell - III is the final installment in a trilogy seeing Hell move from a filthy, sludgy kind of doom to a more orchestrated and atmospheric sound. Adding blackened elements, drone, and beautiful clean guitar parts. And actually making the sludgy, doom sound incredibly heavy, because of the contrast with the more atmospheric passages. Vocals are utterly harrowing screams; this combined with the Gustave Dore art adorning all three albums, and the choir section of the second track "Decedere" made me think of

Falling from you heavens to the hellish dirt of our hellish earth
your voice silent, music, drone, will never enter your ears ever again

An hermit monk sitting in an decrepit temple on top of a secluded mountain. Screaming in hatred and torment to the Gods that have abandoned him. And writhing in quiet rapture when filled with hallucinogenic revelations coming from his twisted mind. Or somewhere beyond.

The track below is the last one from Hell - II. It fits in very well with the two songs from III. Together these three songs have been in heavy rotation since I bought them. I really can't recommend this enough.

Valborg – Nekrodepression

Review by Sean Cordes.

Artwork by Peter Böhme.

Valborg is one of many obscure, inter-related German acts on the prolific Zeitgeister Music roster. Their music is a gloomy, atmospheric brand of doom with heavy death metal influence and some progressive touches (even a “kraut-rock” feel here and there?) thrown in for good measure. The tones they produce are MASSIVE; the drums punch you in the gut and the guitars, bass, and gruff vocals pummel you to a pulp while you’re down. The formula is pretty simple, but they do it extremely well: simple but good mid-paced, crushing riffs (interspersed with a few faster or more rhythmic ones) are paired with some clean or synthesized interludes that create a dynamic contrast, and make the hulking barbarous mass even heavier. There is a distinctly eerie underpinning to the music here as well, with ringing discordance and the aforementioned clean breaks in the doom.

Despite all that though, there’s some distinctly fun parts to the record that keep it from being too serious an affair (funeral doom, this is not)—take Under the Cross for instance: it conjures the image of a Conan-type character shouting at Christians whilst holding a horn of ale in one hand and brandishing an axe in the other. Meanwhile, Taufe is an entirely ambient keyboard-driven track, showcasing the creepy, somewhat “kraut-rock” vibe Valborg incorporates to their sound. The final two lengthier tracks, In Ekklesia and Opfer, respectively, marry the eerie atmosphere with the crushing heaviness present throughout the album. In the end, Nekrodepression is another excellent, very original work. You won’t hear another record like this all year.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

FrostSeele - PrækΩsmium

Review by Aaron Sullivan.


Released earlier this year and with no prior demos or E.P.’s. Germany’s FrostSeele give us their Atmospheric Black Metal debut PrækΩsmium. This is essentially one man’s vision, who also goes by FrostSeele, brought to fruition with the help of session musicians. But this is far from some bedroom project.

With only 5 songs totalling 45 minutes of music, songs are made to be epic feeling and sounding. Expansive tracks (two over the 10 minute mark) allow FrostSeele to add many elements to a single song. Going from acoustic strumming to mid-paced Black Metal with Die Architektur des Seins. Or the song Du, starting with a Depressive Black Metal vibe and ending with an all out Black Metal assault before closing with a soft piano and guitar mix. Also using synth and violin in many songs, and wrapping it all in crisp and full production. Vocals are typical for type of genre and really only show up in two songs as the others are primarily instrumental. Musically this made me think of a sunnier October Falls at times.

Every now and then a band seemingly comes out of nowhere and releases an album that makes people take notice. While nothing here is overly original for this genre, PrækΩsmium is well made and sets up a template for this band to grow from. A possible year end favorite for this reviewer.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]