Consummation - The Great Solar Hunter

By Bryan Camphire. Consummation unleash their debut full length, The Great Solar Hunter, on Profound Lore Records following an excellent EP from 2017 and a demo from 2012. The band took their time with this long player and this fact is evident in the music's meticulous delivery. A

By Bryan Camphire.

Artwork by Artem Grigoryev.

Consummation unleash their debut full length, The Great Solar Hunter, on Profound Lore Records following an excellent EP from 2017 and a demo from 2012. The band took their time with this long player and this fact is evident in the music's meticulous delivery. A black metal trio from Brisbane, for this outing they are joined by American lead guitarist John Gossard of the band Dispirit. This suite of five songs clocks in at a little over fifty minutes. The lengthy tracks allow for rich narratives to unravel as the music runs its course.

Consummation's brand of black metal is thick and aggressive. The performances are precise and the production is crisp, adding to the momentum of the music. Gnarled snaky melodies permeate the album. Bass and vocals take a back seat in the mix to guitars and drums. It's no doubt a conscious choice, emphasizing the midrange frequencies allows the guitars ample amounts of snarl and bite. All of this is accentuated by the leads, which drop in and out like a somnambulant madman raving at the stars.

"Apotheosis", the forth track, is a stand out for me. This tune is played at a slower tempo than the others. This reprieve opens the music up, steeping the listener in dread. The winding guitars drag across the song with the effect of a rusted serrated blade bound to cause infection and make a huge mess.

With a title like The Great Solar Hunter, you might expect a magisterial release. In this regard it's safe to say you won't be disappointed. The tension is ratcheted up through ever-changing ornamentation and layering of melodies as the songs build. Keyboards are used sparingly and usually towards a song's climax, supplying the music with the air of triumphant battle hymns.

Consummation can be thought of as tilling similar fields as some other great bands from the southern hemisphere; Vesicant and Heresiarch come to mind. Theirs is an ominous sound rife with dissonant chords, labyrinthine song structures and decidedly evil atmosphere. Consummation achieve this lurid ambiance deftly on The Great Solar Hunter, showcasing the band's expansive capabilities and potential.

Dreadnought - Emergence

By Calen Henry. Dreadnought’s fourth elemental themed album, Emergence, carries on the band’s signature sound while tightening it up. Pulling back from the dizzying density of A Wake in Sacred Waves, it's the band's most direct album but it doesn't sacrifice any of their intensity.

By Calen Henry.

Artwork by Mark Facey

Dreadnought’s fourth elemental themed album, Emergence, carries on the band’s signature sound while tightening it up. Pulling back from the dizzying density of A Wake in Sacred Waves, it's their most direct album but it doesn't sacrifice any of their intensity.

Emergence is still, at its core, piano-heavy blackened progressive rock. The driving tremolo riffs and shrieked vocals are still prominent, as are Kelly Schilling and Laura Vieira’s lovely piano-accompanied clean vocals and Jordan Clancy's intricate drumming. Flute, saxophone, and keys all make appearances, as with earlier releases, but Dreadnought sound more focused than ever before.

Photos by Kyle Gaddo.

Their first three albums showed ever-ascending progress towards the progressive zenith of A Wake in Sacred Waves, their busiest, heaviest, jazziest, and most dense album. It eschewed some of the dynamic push/pull between heavy and ambient found on Bridging Realms but lost some of the impact of their sound on that album. Emergence brings it back and does it better than on Bridging Realms. There is more defined separation between the band’s main styles; metal, piano-driven rock, and ambient. The sections are also less meandering than on previous albums giving the record a more immediate, less ethereal quality. Sections are more defined, making them stand out so, upon repeated listens, they build familiarity faster than before. The whole album is more immediately gripping while still giving a lot for the listener to dig into. Songs are still long, the compositions are still dense, but it all works and flows better than anything else in the band’s catalog.

Emergence is an excellent entry point into Dreadnought's catalog as well as a refreshing refinement of their formula, but anyone new to the band would do well to check out their other albums. Even though Emergence is their best work they haven’t released anything less than “extremely” compelling.

Vanum - Ageless Fire

By Justin C. I’ll put my biases right up front so you can decide whether to trust me or not: It’s entirely possible I’ve become Michael Rekevics’s unofficial PR man. I’ve reviewed a lot of his projects (and there are many), including Yellow Eyes and Vilkacis

By Justin C.


I’ll put my biases right up front so you can decide whether to trust me or not: It’s entirely possible I’ve become Michael Rekevics’s unofficial PR man. I’ve reviewed a lot of his projects (and there are many), including Yellow Eyes and Vilkacis, and I’ve certainly enjoyed his work in Fell Voices and Vorde. I’ve also had the opportunity to see him play with at least three of the bands he performs in or masterminds, and I’ve been consistently blown away by his overwhelming intensity, regardless of whether he’s drumming, playing bass, or singing. I’ve probably used some version of this simile before, but it’s like watching a nuclear bomb detonate in musical form. Rekevics himself said that his influences are “simply powerful, evocative, melodically bold, and honest black metal. No posturing, no irony, just ancient power and timeless force.” And he lives his unique take on those influences on stage.

Vanum as a recording band has been Rekevics and Kyle Morgan, but on their latest, Ageless Fire, they’ve brought their two long-time live members, E. Priesner and L. Sheppard, into the band in a more official capacity. The resulting evolution has made for a Vanum album that meets your expectations--sweeping USBM with walls of sound--while expanding their sound from their previous full-length, Realm of Sacrifice.

Realm of Sacrifice is, to my ears, a darker record, and although Ageless Fire is by no means “the softer side of Vanum,” there’s a stronger musical sense of power and triumph. There’s a striking moment in “Under the Banner of Death” when Rekevics, in his trademark, mid-range growl, proclaims, “Under the banner of death / I am alive / I declare my being / in the language of fire.” I’m not going to all lit-crit and dissect the meaning of this, but it’s hard to deny as a fist-raised, screaming-from-the-mountain-tops moment.

The album as a whole is bit tricky to tease apart. Each song tends to showcase all or most of the band’s signature sounds, making a track-by-track rundown kind of pointless. Sometimes you let the “sheets of sound” (as John Coltrane’s music was once described) wash over you, and other times you dig in with a more singular, straightforward riff. One aspect I particularly enjoy is the twin guitar work that the album returns to again and again. Lines harmonize, and sometimes offer a bit of counterpoint. Sometimes they’re isolated in the quiet, and sometimes they ride on top of the waves.

So have I further sunk into Rekevics fanboyism? Yeah, probably. Fight me. Sure, I suppose there’s always a chance he’ll ultimately spread himself too thin and start repeating himself, but it hasn’t happened yet, and I’m still in.

Evoken - Hypnagogia

By Karen A. Mann. I admit I didn’t know much about World War I until recently. But with the recent centennial of the war, which began with the 1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, I’ve gained a new appreciation for this most grisly of wars

By Karen A. Mann

Artwork by Adam Burke.

I admit I didn’t know much about World War I until recently. But with the recent centennial of the war, which began with the 1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, I’ve gained a new appreciation for this most grisly of wars, in which national identities were born as empires collapsed. Millions of average men died in squalid trenches as horrifying new technologies, including the use of poisonous gas, the widespread use of the machine gun and the armored tank were deployed. Not only did the earth became a putrid wasteland of unburied corpses but the war was directly responsible for spreading the virulent Spanish Flu, which killed millions around the world. World War I was so bad that it was called the War to End All Wars, because people thought that certainly no war could be worse. Instead, the political instability unleashed continues, like an unbroken thread of terror, in parts of Europe and the Middle East to this day.

It’s against this hellish backdrop that New Jersey’s long-running elegiac funeral doom quintet Evoken have set their latest album, Hypnagogia. On a battlefield during that horrible war, an anonymous soldier muses bitterly on his impending death. He records his thoughts in a journal, then strikes a deal with a malevolent spirit to leave part of his soul behind to attach itself to -- and drive to suicide -- whomever chances to read the journal. With each successive death the spirit becomes stronger and more deadly, weaving an unbroken tale of terror through the century.

Evoken has always been completely unafraid to push the boundaries of metal further than they can go, and then some. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing them perform an experimental set with Merzbow for the Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh back in 2013. Brian Sanders, who contributed cello for their 2012 release, Atra Mors, returns on Hypnagogia, and at times plays a starring role. The album begins with an ominous string arrangement from Sanders, along with a distant chorale. The feeling is deep, dark and foreboding; lush and natural. A peal of squalling feedback introduces the crushing mechanical elements, bringing to mind primitive iron tanks rolling over and subjugating all that is natural about the land. Through eight songs, the band chugs through scathing doom with gnarled, blackened bits, serpentine riffage and eerie keyboard melodies, and pastoral, mournful passages with evocative vocals and stately string arrangements.

The album includes two short instrumentals -- aptly titled "Hypnagogia" and "Hypnopompic," that act as interludes in the action and represent the soldier's death and rebirth. The term “hypnagogia” refers to hallucinations a lot of us experience in the moments just before sleep when our bodies are paralyzed but our minds are still active. By contrast, “hypnopompic” is when we have paralyzed hallucinations upon waking up. If you’ve ever woken up in the middle of the night thinking there’s an intruder in your bedroom and unsuccessfully tried to scream, you’ve had a hypnopompic hallucination. Both songs have a hallucinogenic, disorienting quality and provide fitting bookends to the album's most adventurous song, "Ceremony of Bleeding, " which features a haunting, operatic choir ensemble in the middle. The album’s final song, “The Weald of Perished Men,” begins with ambient noise of crickets, wind and the sound of digging before easing into a clean, uplifting guitar melody that weaves its way through the entire song. A mournful cello and keyboard passage follows, with the soldier questioning what will become of him, then segues into crushing guitars and scathing vocals.

Fittingly released on Nov. 9, just before the centenary of war’s end on Nov. 11, 2018, Hypnagogia is an elegantly bleak, yet strangely warm and uplifting, ode to one lonely, anonymous man who found an ingenious way to live on, while repaying the world for the futility of his death.

Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper

By Justin C. If you peruse the metal interwebs, you probably already know the headlines about the new Bell Witch album, Mirror Reaper. It's one song, and it's nearly an hour and a half long. This sprawling piece is, for the most part

By Justin C.

Artwork by Mariusz Lewandowsk.

If you peruse the metal interwebs, you probably already know the headlines about the new Bell Witch album, Mirror Reaper. It's one song, and it's nearly an hour and a half long. This sprawling piece is, for the most part, composed and played by just two members on drums, bass, and occasional organ. In lesser hands, this could devolve into a droning, aimless mess, but Mirror Reaper is as far from that as it could be. It's an enveloping experience that you have to surrender yourself to.

Trying to give you some minute-by-minute breakdown wouldn't give you a great idea of the whole, and it would probably bore you to tears, but there are a couple of things worth nothing. Some vocals are recordings done by former member Adrian Guerra, who passed away during the writing of this album. This is funeral doom, so it's going to lean toward the sad side, but knowing that going into the album, it's hard not to hear that current of loss. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention what happens at about the 53-minute mark. Guest vocalist Erik Moggridge adds pure, aching clean vocals that run throughout the rest of the song. They're understated, almost to the point where you feel like you're eavesdropping on someone singing to themselves in another room, but they're as powerful as any scream.

Bell Witch 2015. Photos © John Mourlas. All rights reserved.

And of course you do get harsh vocals, along with the bass guitar doing double duty as the carrier of the melody and thundering bottom ends. Quiet sections that are almost barely there alternate with mountain-crumbling heaviness. It's an amazing amount of sound and passion to be made by just two people with (primarily) only two instruments. If you were a fan of Four Phantoms, as I was, then you have a general idea of what kind of sounds to expect. What you won’t expect is just how massive this album is, well beyond what the runtime might suggest.

I've seen arguments that Mirror Reaper is just several songs smushed together, but I beg to differ. My primary listenings to this album were in the car during long drives, which was the only way I could immerse myself in this with minimal distraction (save for the occasional motorist trying to kill me, but I live in Massachusetts, after all). It's possible I'm willing to buy this as a single composition because that's what the band told me it is, but I honestly don't think that's it. It feels like it's all of a piece. I'd liken the experience to floating in a sometimes-calm, sometimes-tempestuous body of water, absorbing waves of emotion--loss, defiance, and the swelling joy of hearing music so well done.

Yes, you're going to have to sit with this and listen to it, and at its running length, it's a big ask for music listeners who have a million distractions and other streams to click on. You can't listen to 0:00 to 13:47, then come back to it a few hours later and listen up to 28:57. You're depriving yourself of a large amount of its power by breaking it up. You miss the arc, the repeating melodic motifs, and the sheer expanse of the thing. I'm asking a lot, but I urge you to give it that time and allow yourself to be as moved as I was by this masterpiece.

Impetuous Ritual - Blight upon Martyred Sentience

By Bryan Camphire. Blight upon Martyred Sentience. The title of the third record by Australian death metal sorcerers, Impetuous Ritual, merits contemplation. Sentience can be taken to mean any kind of life. To be martyred is to have died for some sort of purpose.

By Bryan Camphire.


Blight upon Martyred Sentience. The title of the third record by Australian death metal sorcerers, Impetuous Ritual, merits contemplation. Sentience can be taken to mean any kind of life. To be martyred is to have died for some sort of purpose. Martyred Sentience can then be thought of as referring to anything that lives and dies for any sort of purpose or belief. This record is a Blight upon all of that.

It begins like an act of arson: kindling, smouldering. The guitars creep up in the opening seconds like a bad omen flickering in front of your face. Then it catches. The death knell is rung. The full band descends together like a winged demon scorching the ground. Rhythm and meter come and go. "Void Cohesion", the first track, delivers on the promise of its title.

Impetuous Ritual seem to aim at taking death metal to previously unimagined extremes of darkness and depravity. You would be hard pressed to try to find music made with harmonic instruments that turns any notion of harmony so completely inside-out as much as this. It is alien sounding. It is unrelenting. In nine songs over the course of some forty-three minutes, Impetuous Ritual deliver pure sonic madness, demonstrating complete mastery of the cavernous demented style of death metal that they helped to found. The band has once again bested themselves in their pursuit of aural perversion. It's both sadistic and delicious.

Artificial Brain - Infrared Horizon

By Bryan Camphire. Artificial Brain begin their sophomore record, Infrared Horizon, with a tune called “Floating in Delirium” and they could hardly have chosen a more fitting title for a cut to kick off this monstrous record.

By Bryan Camphire.

Artwork by Adam Burke.

Artificial Brain begin their sophomore record, Infrared Horizon, with a tune called “Floating in Delirium” and they could hardly have chosen a more fitting title for a cut to kick off this monstrous record. The track starts and immediately your sense of gravity is completely thrown off because you don’t know what just hit you. Artificial Brain has just come at you like a highly sophisticated well-oiled killing machine with razor sharp teeth.

Titles to tunes further on in the record can serve as something of an interstellar road map. “Estranged from Orbit,” “Vacant Explorer,” “Graveyard of Lightless Planets”... we are seeing a theme developing here. This behemoth of a release seems to be dealing with things not as they should be. In the face of such quandaries, there is a sense of constant frenetic motion in the music. A darkness resonates on Infrared Horizon, as though the music is frantically charting a course spiralling toward a deep black void. Perhaps that’s why the horizon is seen as infrared, because it might be completely indecipherable otherwise.

Artificial Brain plays with tempo so drastically that each song feels like a violent car chase as the music careens every which way, peeling out, caterwauling, switching gears, heaving and roaring toward a fiery death. Maybe all this is occurring on a distant lightless planet. It’s impossible to be sure.

This band is no vehicle for one star player, everyone in the group pays a deep commitment to the crushingly complex material. The playing is executed with surgical precision from all of its members.

The vocals range from deep guttural lacerations to shrill maniacal screams. The low vocals often seem to harmonise with the detuned guitars, rather than to act as a mere ornament. A highlight is the denouement of the record’s title track, the instruments lock into a half-tempo dirge, and this malevolent juggernaut roars past when the instruments drop out. A sinister bubbling emerges out of the wreckage. The vocals spew forth immitigable vibrations of tectonic dissonance, down to the very burning core of human suffering where the heart seems to crackle like flesh on hot coals.

The bass is quite prominent throughout the whole record; not only is it high in the mix, but bass lines are often leading the music. The drumming is completely visionary and suits the music perfectly. It’s never predictable and always exceedingly precise. The guitars eschew typical power chords and are constantly augmenting the band’s harmonies with jarring discordant playing. It’s a dense admixture, and in another band’s hands it might be murky. The production is so clean on this record, however, that all of the band’s harmonic mischief is on gloriously vivid display. The choice of amps and distortion for the guitars seems to steer away from a wall of sound approach, instead letting the sinister melodies speak for themselves. This effect is helped by the breakneck pace at which the band plays, throwing new parts and new atmospheres at you every five or ten seconds. All the while, Artificial Brain is really straining at the reigns shattering the confines of what has been done thus far in death metal.

Artificial Brain do not sound like that band from Canada that plays dissonant death metal. They don’t sound like that band from France that plays dissonant black metal. Nor do they sound like that band from New Zealand that plays dissonant blackened death metal. Artificial Brain sounds like Artificial Brain. They set themselves apart by putting forth dynamic tunes, none of which sound quite alike. Each song possesses its own integrity, its own gravity and its own atmosphere. With Infrared Horizon, Artificial Brain have emerged as one of the most unique sounding bands in the vast ever-expansive universe of death metal.

Pallbearer - Heartless

By Calen Henry. Pallbearer's first two albums are modern doom classics so expectations are high for Heartless. By splitting the the difference between Sorrow and Extinction and Foundations of Burden and confidently experimenting over top of their trademark mournful but hopeful epic melodic doom, they've created their finest record yet. Not only does it not disappoint

By Calen Henry.

Artwork by Michael Lierly.

Pallbearer's first two albums are modern doom classics so expectations are high for Heartless. By splitting the the difference between Sorrow and Extinction and Foundations of Burden and confidently experimenting over top of their trademark mournful but hopeful epic melodic doom, they've created their finest record yet. Not only does it not disappoint, it's almost incomprehensibly good.

Sorrow and Extinction was, especially in retrospect, a remarkably restrained record showcasing the band's expert melodic riffs above all else. The vocals were a bit timid but rounded out the band's now well established sound. The warm crush was wrapped in equally warm and dynamic production giving the band a unique voice in contemporary metal, sounding vintage but timeless.

Foundations of Burden stuck to the core musical formula the band developed on their debut, but developed their sound with more lush arrangements. Their massive riffs were fed through walls of guitar tracks and combined with harmonized vocals that were a marked improvement on the debut, adding a depth to the music that felt like a natural follow-up to Sorrow and Extinction.

Improved though the music was, the production was markedly different than the debut opting for a much more polished and modern sound. The overall sound was less dynamic and the drums, in particular, had a very "studio" sound. It diminished the overall impact of the album somewhat but certainly didn't majorly detract from the album.

Photos by François Carl Duguay.

Heartless brings back the production of Sorrow and Extinction. The drums are huge, the whole mix is wide open and the guitars are warm and fuzzy. Musically things are more restrained than Foundations of Burden. There are layered guitar parts but almost always multiple distinct melodic lines not a layered wall of sound. The vocals are the strongest they've ever been, thrown right up front and leading the band in many cases.

It's not simply a "mashup" of the first two albums. The band confidently expands many facets of their established sound. In addition to the trademark legato guitar lines, the band brings their heaviest riffs yet. There are some riffs so heavy and melodic that they wouldn't be out of place on a Jesu record. The heavier parts contrast with a new exploration of face-melting solos reminiscent of Mastodon's Brent Hinds' as well as some softer synth-supported passages. These new sounds are worked right in with the old giving a stylistic breadth to the songs that, while not lacking before, brings a new kind of magic to the band's sound.

The vocals are also a mix of old and new. Heartless has some of the absolute best harmonized vocals the band has ever done. They're mixed with some entirely new techniques for the band ranging from the processed ethereal vocals in the first half of "Dancing in Madness" to some shout-singing supporting some of the heavier parts of the second half, and even some gang vocals in "Cruel Road". Like the guitar approach, though, these vocals styles are expertly weaved together ebbing and flowing with the rest of the band.

Though an historical analysis and list of improvements goes a long way to make the case that this is far and away the best Pallbearer record, it all comes together, even more than their previous albums, to create a palpable sense of emotion that cannot be completely communicated in a review. Both intimate and awe inspiring, Heartless connects with the listener in a way many albums, especially metal albums, do not. On my fourth or fifth listen it was as though a switch flipped and I went from simply enjoying the record to really connecting with it; not the lyrics, but the music as a whole. A bit like the feeling when Sorrow and Extinction’s opener "Foreigner" transitions from the the acoustic intro into the huge distorted riff, but sustained over the entirety of the album. It's something that Pallbearer always almost instilled for me, but never completely until Heartless.

Ash Borer - The Irrepassable Gate

By Justin C. Ash Borer's new full length, The Irrepassable Gate, has been getting a lot of press, so I ended up breaking my rule about reading other reviews before writing my own. I was a bit surprised--there doesn't seem to be a clear agreement among reviewers as to whether this album is a refinement or a broadening of Ash Borer's core sound.

By Justin C.

Artwork by Glyn Smyth of Stag & Serpent.

Ash Borer's new full length, The Irrepassable Gate, has been getting a lot of press, so I ended up breaking my rule about reading other reviews before writing my own. I was a bit surprised--there doesn't seem to be a clear agreement among reviewers as to whether this album is a refinement or a broadening of Ash Borer's core sound. It's almost like a black metal Rorschach test. But that said, everyone seems to agree that it's very good.

From my perspective, The Irrepassable Gate is a refinement. The sound is unmistakably theirs, but to my ears, they've tightened down their template and left some of their experimentation behind, especially when compared to the Bloodlands. The tracks are still long for black metal--with the exception of the two "Lustration" interludes, the shortest song still clocks in at nine and a half minutes--but for the most part the length is a non-issue, as the songs take on an almost hypnotic quality. Ash Borer does a couple of things that make this work: they play fast and slow tempos off of each other, sometimes simultaneously. The opening track starts off at almost a funeral doom pace, but that slow, dirty riff is eventually joined by increasingly frenetic rhythm and tremolo'd guitar underneath, which segues nicely to their other strength: layers upon layers playing off each other, sometimes sliding off of each other and other times propping each other up. These layers collapse back together at around the seven-minute mark, but it's not too long before we're off to the races again. There's a lot of repetition, but there are so many moving parts that you barely notice what's carrying you along.

Ash Borer 2014. Photos by Carmelo Española.

If I had to pick a couple of nits, I'd say that the song length doesn't always work in the band's favor. There's a three-minute-long ambient/noise-type break in the middle of "Lacerated Spirit," and I'm not sure it needs to be there. Tension release is handled very nicely by the shimmering "Lustration I and II" interludes, so I'm not sure any song needs this long of a release valve inside itself. That said, it's still pretty damn exciting when the song kicks back in. I also sometimes found the outro to "Grey Marrow" to be a bit of a drag, making my finger itch to skip ahead. But that's partly tempered by the fact that the next track, "Rotten Firmament," is damn near perfect over its nearly 13-minute length. The riffs are sweeping and majestic, and there's an almost palpable emotional progression through the song, even if you can't always pin simple words down to what the music is making you feel. All is forgiven when a band delivers a track like this.

I'd say that if you found Ash Borer's earlier work a bit too long and ranging a bit too far afield at times, they definitely deserve another listen for this album. I like the approach on this album as well as their earlier work, but this album is a nice demonstration of how a band can progress without re-inventing their musical wheel.

SubRosa - For This We Fought the Battle of Ages

By Justin C. I read a blurb about SubRosa's new album, For This We Fought the Battle of Ages, that irked me a little. The writer basically said SubRosa was talented, but boring and repetitive. I wasn't irked because I disagreed, but because it was clear this person hadn't actually listened to the album.

By Justin C.

Artwork by Glyn Smyth / Stag & Serpent

I read a blurb about SubRosa's new album, For This We Fought the Battle of Ages, that irked me a little. The writer basically said SubRosa was talented, but boring and repetitive. I wasn't irked because I disagreed, but because it was clear this person hadn't actually listened to the album. On the other hand, I myself was initially wary--the album is heavily front-loaded, with the first three songs taking up nearly 45 minutes of its 64-minute run time. I ultimately came to the realization that this album might be a bit difficult to approach for those used to more immediate gratification, so I'm going to be a little schoomarmish and tell you not only why you should listen to this, but also how you should listen to this. There are no two ways about it--you have to sit and focus on this album. This is doom, but it's a particular kind of doom with an intricacy that doesn't yield itself up to scattered attention.

Photo by François Carl Duguay.

A superficial listen to the first track, with its warm bass intro, simple guitar figure, and hauntingly pretty vocals might lull you, but you have to listen further, in a weird sense of that word. Remember that this band has two violists, and they're not just used for texture. They twist around each other, in and out of harmony, sometimes bowed, sometimes plucked, but always important. Check out their diving lines in "Killing Rapture." I admit that I started to flag at this point, but the violins’ part in building the intensity of the song kicked my butt back into the thick of things. There's a bombast here, sometimes as much orchestral as metal, but it's not like a giant timpani drum pounding in your face. It's more of an irresistible undercurrent.

Photo by François Carl Duguay.

Listen to the vocals. Sometimes, it sounds like Rebecca Vernon is going to go for the cliche, like in "Black Majesty" when she sings, "Isn't it good to be / acquainted with darkness." Oh, great, you might think, high school goth poetry. But Vernon twists around by following it up with, "to caress it gently, to slit its throat." That’s not where I expected that to go. The words themselves aren't only interesting, but the delivery is as well. Vernon often pushes her voice to what I call her "proclamation" mode, still clean but pushing toward a harsher sound, but the harmonies with her bandmates are also to die for. When she sings about "The self-assurance of the pure," there's a lovely vocal dance over that last word. (I know you can't see it, but I drew some awesome wiggly lines in my notes to mark this. I'm a true professional.)

Photo by François Carl Duguay.

And I haven't even started in on the guest appearances by flute and sax, and even a lyre on "Il Cappio" (Italian for "The Noose"), or the fact that the album was inspired by a Russian dystopian novel from the 1920s, We by Yevgeny Zamayatin. I haven't read the book, and you don't need to in order to enjoy the album. Lyrics like "Choice is too precious / To be wasted on vermin" gives you a very clear idea of the dystopian vibe. That said, I probably will soon, just so I can peel a few more layers back from this music. It's a fascinating concept that inspired a fascinating album. If you need steering wheel-pounding driving music, this isn't going to be for you, but the best way to find out is to sit with it and pay attention.

Pallbearer - Fear and Fury

By Karen A. Mann. It’s been almost two years since Pallbearer’s last full-length, the widely praised Foundations of Burden. For those of us getting impatient to see what the band will serve up next, there’s Fear and Fury, a surprise three-song limited release out this week on Profound Lore. There’s nothing new here: The song “Fear and Fury” is

By Karen A. Mann.


It’s been almost two years since Pallbearer’s last full-length, the widely praised Foundations of Burden. For those of us getting impatient to see what the band will serve up next, there’s Fear and Fury, a surprise three-song limited release out this week on Profound Lore. There’s nothing new here: The song “Fear and Fury” is a remastered version of their 2015 Decibel Magazine flexi single, and “Over and Over” and “Love You to Death” are covers by Black Sabbath and Type O Negative, respectively. But just because you’ve heard these songs before doesn’t mean Fear and Fury is a minor release. The remastered version of “Fear and Fury” is an improvement over the original, and that alone makes it essential for any Pallbearer fan. However it’s the two covers that make this EP so much fun.

Brett Campbell 2012.

Singer/guitarist Brett Campbell has serious cojones to tackle not one but two songs by two of rock’s most iconic and distinctive frontmen. He (and the entire band) nails it in both instances, paying homage to the originals while imparting his own unique stamp on both songs. “Over and Over,” which Ronnie James Dio sang on Mob Rules, begins with Campbell’s multi-layered voice singing “Over and Over and Over,” fading in like some transmission from the abyss, before the music itself hits you like an avalanche.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Campbell’s voice is that he always has a slightly hopeful inflection, which shines through no matter how emotionally devastating the lyrics. That’s true on “Over and Over,” and the truly surprising “Love You to Death.” As “Love You to Death” begins, Campbell almost sounds like he’s parodying Peter Steele’s breathlessly dramatic delivery. By the end, as he sings “am I good enough for you,” his voice soars, and suddenly a song with some rather cheesy eroticism becomes shimmeringly happy and sincere.

Gevurah - Hallelujah!

By Justin C. Gevurah, a Canadian black metal duo, put out an EP in 2013, Necheshirion, that I was not sure I completely understood. It was music I felt drawn to and frustrated by at the same time, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

By Justin C.

Cover artwork by Denis Forkas

Gevurah, a Canadian black metal duo, put out an EP in 2013, Necheshirion, that I wasn't sure I completely understood. It was music I felt drawn to and frustrated by at the same time, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Good art should make you think, and sometimes even make you hate it a little bit because of your own perplexed reactions to it. Even after all this time, I'm still a bit mystified by it, but after three years, they're back with their debut full-length, puzzling me all over again.

Hallelujah!, which probably isn't the black metal album title you were suspecting, starts slowly. "The Fire Dwelling Within" opens with whispering over a swelling guitar line, and even with the addition of the percussion, it takes a bit for the track to coalesce. There's some chanting involved, and oh God we're already passed the two-minute mark. You might be tempted to click away--there's so much else to listen to--but hang on. The song proper finally kicks off with a growl and we're treated to some excellent, mid-paced rhythms underneath furious, buzzing riffs. There are plenty of clanging, dissonant chords to come, and a vocal style that sounds like Lemmy doing black metal. I swear I'm not making fun here--the style works, and once the comparison popped to mind, it stayed there.

A lot of the album is like this. It seems to aim more toward disturbing hypnosis than metal ass-kicking. Musical ideas build and fall, although the intensity rarely drops. There's no real true breather until the lovely, mid-album-ish "Lifting the Veils of Da'at," which presents a melodic idea and builds on it, simply and effectively, over the course of four minutes.

All of this push-pull is the album's strength and possibly its weakness, depending on how you like to be challenged. It clocks in at just over an hour, which certainly isn't that unusual or particularly unmanageable, but it's really heavy on the back end, with a 19-minute-long closing track. The penultimate track, "Dies Irae - Lacrimosa," would have been a killer album closer. The opening riff is simple but infectious, the vocals build to the point of sounding physically painful, and there's an abrupt break in the middle of the track that lets it build up all over again.

But then this closing track, "הַלְּלוּיָ." (It's also the title track, as the Google machine tells me this is Hebrew for "Hallelujah.") It moves and evolves, but ever so slowly. On first listen, I asked myself if these ideas needed to be repeated so often with so little variation. At one point I thought it was close to the end, but I was still only halfway through. Eventually some monkish choral work kicks in, which on first listen annoyed the hell out of me. But then the riffs after the choral parts pick up that melody, which is cool! I didn't know what to think. I wanted to punch this song in its little song face for taking so long, for weighing down this album. After a second listen, though, I was a little more convinced. Additional listens drew me in a bit more.

My ultimate conclusion? I honestly don't know. There's a lot to like here, with a dose of frustration mixed in. The album's too damn long, but on some listens, I feel truly elevated by it. Other times I feel like I'm just being ground down. With that said, post-review I find myself still listening and still thinking about it, which I've found is often a mark of good art. I highly recommend finding your own love-hate relationship with it.

P.S. If you’re interested in a fantastic breakdown of the spiritual ideas involved, head over to Last Rites for an excellent summary.

Chthe'ilist - Le Dernier Crépuscule

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Chthe’ilist sound like Demilich. There, we’ve gotten that out of the way. Greetings and salutations, friends. Today, we will plumb the depths of a madness emanating from Quebec in the form of

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.

Artwork by Paolo Girardi

Chthe’ilist sound like Demilich.

There, we’ve gotten that out of the way. Greetings and salutations, friends. Today, we will plumb the depths of a madness emanating from Quebec in the form of Le Dernier Crépuscule (French for "The Last Twilight", presumably not a reference to Breaking Dawn) and the Finn-worshipping Chthe’ilist. As I mentioned (and as has been mentioned in likely every article regarding the band in the history of time), Chthe’ilist draw no insignificant amount of influence from infamous Finnish oddballs Demilich. It’s an unavoidable comparison, given both bands’ predilection for off-kilter riffs, but to simply dismiss the band as pure Demilich worship is pure folly.

While we’re addressing misconceptions regarding Chthe’ilist, let’s not forget that despite the band’s name and apostrophe-ridden song titles like "Vecoiitn’aphnaat’smaala" and "N'triiodctuion'to Iagorsmataanph" (from the similarly apostrophe-ridden Amechth'ntaas'm'rriachth demo), none of the band’s material is drawn from the Cthulhu Mythos. This is not to say that the band’s lyrics aren’t influenced by the works of Lovecraft, because the influence is clear on lyrics such as these:

A lone traveller gazes at the stygian horizon, as twilight fades below the distant mountains. Slowly, shades of darkness descend upon the desolated plains before him, and a sense of dread plagues his mind: the certitude that something is lurking amidst the withered trees, haunting him ever since the sun has vanished.

But it is important to note that the lyrics are almost entirely based on original works by the band.

You will notice, of course, that I said “almost entirely”, and that is where we come to one element of Chthe’ilist’s work where there are no misconceptions. If the title of the album’s final track, "Tales Of The Majora Mythos Part 1", doesn’t make it abundantly clear, Chthe’ilist have written songs based on The Legend Of Zelda (specifically, Ocarina Of Time and Majora’s Mask). The deeply unsettling tone of the lyrics may seem a bit at odds with the atmosphere of the Legend Of Zelda games initially, but the combination is incredibly effective in practice:

A cursed moon hangs low in the tumultuous skies, glowing ominously over plains of arid desolation. A stone tower stands before these haunted lands, its structure perpetually ascending toward the heavens. Bitter lamentations from lingering spirits echo through the valley, speaking of a forgotten aeon. Rumours of ancient men, and their war against the gods, bridging their world to the sacred realm.

Musically speaking, I mentioned the similarities to Demilich, and I also mentioned how Chthe’ilist are far more than a mere Demilich clone. The bands share a predilection for odd compositions and unconventional, sometimes discordant riffing, and there’s a technicality to the music that bears certain similarities, but Chthe’ilist draw a great deal of influence from a number of other classic death metal bands, from Gorguts and Convulse to Adramalech and Incantation. (Certainly, vocalist Philippe Tougas bears more of a sonic resemblance to Craig Pillard than Antti Boman, aside from some moments and interludes that find Tougas creating some truly alien sounds with his vocal cords.)

Chthe’ilist are comprised of Tougas (who provides lead guitar, bass, and synths in addition to vocals AND plays in a number of other bands, including Serocs and the underrated First Fragment), Claude Leduc (who handles guitar, synths, and some occasional bass), and Philippe Boucher (an insanely talented drummer who is also in Beyond Creation). The trio are incredibly talented and rise admirably to the challenge of creating such challenging, compelling material, layering unusual riffs with eerily beautiful leads, the occasional dash of slap bass, held together by some astoundingly versatile drumming. The production is simultaneously spacious (thanks to some well-implemented reverb) and suffocating, but none of the musical elements are lost in the mix and everything is distinct without feeling sterile or robotic.

If I had a complaint about the album, it would be that the music is by its very nature rather inaccessible and difficult to wrap one’s head around. Without a number of repeat listens, the songs can be difficult to remember and may turn off the more casual listeners. However, digging beneath the surface and immersing one’s self in the music can be incredibly rewarding, revealing an album that stands out from a sea of squeaky clean tech death bands and HM-2-wielding Swedeath revivalists. The investment in time is well worth it.

So, as I said earlier, Chthe’ilist sound like Demilich, and that’s okay, but it’s important to remember that there’s much more to Le Dernier Crépuscule. This is one of the deepest, most inventive death metal creations you will hear all year, and to miss out would be to do yourself a great disservice.

Vasaeleth - All Uproarious Darkness

By Natalie Zina Walschots. Raw death metal duo Vasaeleth have unleashed a river of blood with their second album, All Uproarious Darkness. Though only 19 minutes and five tracks, the record is a full-length

By Natalie Zina Walschots. Originally published here by Exclaim.

Cover art by Antichrist Kramer.

Raw death metal duo Vasaeleth have unleashed a river of blood with their second album, All Uproarious Darkness. Though only 19 minutes and five tracks, the record is a full-length release and follow-up to 2010's Crypt Born & Tethered to Ruin. From the thick heat of the Southern U.S., Vasaeleth have managed to channel a sound with a deep sepulchral chill — the guitar tone is unforgiving and icy enough to raise hackles and shudders. It's not only the tone that's cold as a dungeon's iron bars, but the mood and concept as well. The record reeks of ill-will and hostility, evoking a sick, snarling atmosphere that stalks and slithers around the listener. The soundscape is swirling and dense, the relentless drums, thick, slime-crusted guitars and bass knitting together into a smothering sonic morass. The brevity of the record is a mercy; All Uproarious Darkness leaves the listener not only chilled and unsettled, but gasping for breath.

Vhol - Deeper than Sky

By Calen Henry. Vhol are a strange supergroup. I’m not sure anyone was expecting the debut album from Hammers of Misfortune, YOB, and Agalloch members to sound like an intergalactic transmission of aliens performing crusty second wave black metal and NWOBHM simultaneously. but it did and it was absolutely fantastic. It was, admittedly a bit of an acquired taste

By Calen Henry.

Artwork by Brandon Duncan

Vhol are a strange supergroup. I’m not sure anyone was expecting the debut album from Hammers of Misfortune, YOB, and Agalloch members to sound like an intergalactic transmission of aliens performing crusty second wave black metal and NWOBHM simultaneously, but it did and it was absolutely fantastic. It was, admittedly a bit of an acquired taste; extremely dense and claustrophobic but always with a melodic undercurrent. It certainly could take more than one spin to get into and by front loading it with some of the less accessible tracks it became even more difficult.

Deeper than Sky is much more immediate album. The lead track that streamed on Bandcamp, leading up to release day, featured more melodic vocals and guitars than those early tracks on Vhöl. The whole focuses even more on melody, and trades most of the black metal for thrash. The majority of the record flies by at breakneck speed but the subtle musical changes as well as less claustrophobic production make it much more accessible, without sacrificing what made Vhöl an exciting album.

An impressive refinement to a band who’d already created a completely new sound in metal, Deeper than Sky is way more fun than most metal this dense and complex. Of particular note in the "fun department" is the track "Paino". It's Vhol through and through, but all the lead acrobatics are on piano, rather than guitar.

Vhol, as a band, work so well because of each member's unique contribution. The fuzz bass and the lightning drumming meld with the guitar and vocals to make a bizarre and bizarrely cohesive unit. By lightening some of the denser sounds and lessening the black metal influences the band have opened up their sound making everything shine that much more.

Mike Scheidt’s vocals, though still thoroughly unique (and likely polarizing) tend towards more melody than the debut album as well. He employs a lot of melodic falsetto and shout singing on some of the thrashier tracks, again making the whole album just sound fun.

John Cobbett’s guitar work is undoubtedly the show stopper, though. His deft axe handling was key in holding together the sonic insanity of the first record but what he’s doing on Deeper than Sky is simply astonishing. Every riff is fantastic and they range from soaring NWOBHM dual guitar attacks to machine gun thrash riffs and slow interludes. The title track "Deeper Than Sky", amazingly, showcases all of this in a single track. It’s written as a three part sonata with three ragers separated by quiet interludes. It’s arguably the best guitar work on a metal album this year and the support of the rest of the band makes it unlike anything else out there.

Deeper than Sky makes it clear that these aliens are done broadcasting from space and are ready for the big time.

Indesinence - III

By Matt Hinch. Indesinence have been plying their death doom trade for almost 15 years but the aptly titled III is but their third full-length and first since 2012's Vessels of Light and Decay. I had some pretty nice things to say about the band back then and nothing has changed in that regard here.

By Matt Hinch.


Indesinence have been plying their death doom trade for almost 15 years but the aptly titled III is but their third full-length and first since 2012's Vessels of Light and Decay. I had some pretty nice things to say about the band back then and nothing has changed in that regard here.

For 71 agonizing minutes they continually drag the listener through murky depths of emotional torment. Terror through dissonance and pain through pace.

III doesn't see its first deathly growls until the second track, after “Seashore Eternal” sets the stage with some punchy death mixed with very English doom. That's the thing here too; it's dark and brooding but with a certain cleanliness instead of purely tone and massive chords.

For much of the album Indesinence dole out that slow pound, stately and measured. Mixing in the quicker tempos puts the tracks through dramatic movements preventing a complacent listener. For just as one may fall into a deep sense of melancholy, up rises something more triumphant you can bang your head to.

From thunderous, driving rhythms to the most ponderous plods (“Strange Meridian”) and much in between, it's their ability to play with tempos while maintaining a sense of utter misery that makes them so special. Except when they bring melody into the fold. The light breaks the darkness making way for feelings of desperate hope. Or is it ignorance? Or innocence? Or a lucidity toward accepting a grim fate? That's up to the listener.

Through quiet/loud dynamics, controlled and controlling vocals, effectively used atmospheric organs, acoustic touches and a heavy percussive pulse Indesinence work their listener over. But lying at the album's heart is “Mountains of Mind/Five Years Ahead”. Featuring guest leads by Robert Roth (Truly) and easily the album's strongest and most complex track, it brings together big riffs and bigger atmosphere with an almost Fear Factory feel to the synths. It moves into lighter fare with dark undertones and whispered vocals. Black metal is pulled into the mix of styles going on before seamlessly segueing into a cover of “Five Years Ahead” originally by The Third Bardo.

Rounding out this marathon of despondency is the title track. After an hour of hammering doom and oppressiveness, “III” is simply 11 minutes of ambience. A myriad of field recordings cascade through the mind mated to humming synths. Waves, wind, birds, chimes, and more let the listener down gently after the despair, the pain, the darkness.

Like Vessels before it, III is a grower. It takes time to appreciate its depth and character. There are nods to the Peaceville Three but Indesinence make a name and sound for themselves. If you haven't been turned on to them already, now is the time as III is their strongest effort to date and a must have for those seeking bother power and depressiveness.

Bell Witch - Four Phantoms

By Justin C. I should have hated this album the first time I listened to it. It was a Monday morning, I'd slept poorly, and on top of being on my way to work late on a day I needed to get a lot done, I discovered too late that I had a hole in my shirt. I was somewhere between Charlie Brown and the guy in Munch's "The Scream" in terms of mood

By Justin C.

Cover art by Paolo Girardi

I should have hated this album the first time I listened to it. It was a Monday morning, I'd slept poorly, and on top of being on my way to work late on a day I needed to get a lot done, I discovered too late that I had a hole in my shirt. I was somewhere between Charlie Brown and the guy in Munch's "The Scream" in terms of mood, which would normally call for some steering wheel-punching, shouting-at-other-drivers blackened metal, not creeping doom. I needed to get fired up, not droned out, but for whatever reason, I queued up Bell Witch's Four Phantoms. Imagine my surprise when instead of bumming me out, I was rolling on a wave of staggeringly good doom.

Photo by Invisible Hour

I liked Bell Witch's last one, Longing, just fine, but I was in no way prepared for the huge leap forward they'd take on Four Phantoms. All of the usual metal writer cliches fail here. It's ridiculous to call this music "face ripping" or "gut punching" or "toe severing" or anything else of that ilk. I struggled to think of the proper metaphor, but the second track on the album, "Judgement, In Fire: I - Garden (of Blooming Ash)" (the band's punctuation is as dense as their music on this one), finally gave me clarity: The opening percussion explosions in the song are the volcano eruptions, and the bass and vocals are the slowly seeping lava. You can't set a metronome low enough for most of these tempos, but the flow of the music will pull you along regardless.

The songcraft is excellent here, which is saying a lot for an album whose shortest track is over 10 minutes and whose longest track is pushing 23 minutes. That's a lot of space to fill and a lot of places for boredom to creep in, especially with music at such glacial speeds, but I never get bored. The vocals range from understated cleans to deep growls, and the bass, which straddles both rhythm and melody, shows just how melodic you can be on an instrument that usually hides in the shadows. Listen to the opening strains of "Suffocation, a Drowning" or the vocal harmonies about 6 minutes in and tell me you don't get chills. I dare you. The drums are minimalistic, but offer the perfect backbone to this meditative music.

Photo by Invisible Hour

As I've said in other reviews, if you play music this slow and with parts this naked and vulnerable, you have to squeeze every drop of musicality out of every note. You can't hide behind a wall of effects or technicality, and damn, Bell Witch makes every note count. There's not a throwaway moment on this album, and given some of the bloated beasts you find in underground metal these days, what higher praise can you give? Plenty of people have already talked about this album, and I'm shamefully late to the party, but if you blew this off because you usually like something more frenetic, I urge you to give it a try.

Bosse-de-Nage - All Fours

By Justin C. Bosse-de-Nage is a band that quickly found and fully inhabited their own unusual brand of black metal. Their first, self-titled album is probably closest to a

By Justin C.


Bosse-de-Nage is a band that quickly found and fully inhabited their own unusual brand of black metal. Their first, self-titled album is probably closest to a "standard," raw U.S. black metal sound, if such a thing can easily be defined, but even then there was something special about them. It wasn't long before the vocals moved further to the front and became even more raw and pained, while at the same time they started mixing in a strong post-rock/alternative rock influence, particularly Slint. I noted as much when I reviewed their last album, III, for this very site.

Have they taken any huge deviations from that template with their newest album, All Fours? Not really, but don't mistake that for a lack of progress. When first listening to this album, I decided they'd dialed back the abrasiveness in favor of more melody. Then I went back and listened to iii and then All Fours back to back, and I decided that they had in fact dialed up the harshness. It's possible that I'm just losing my mind, but I think the reality is that Bosse-de-Nage's evolution on this album is a bit more subtle and takes many more listens to fully reveal itself.

Like the last album, All Fours features screams being pushed to the very edge of control, mixed with occasional spoken word interludes that carry as much ominous feeling as the screams unleash rage and pain. The guitars chime and resonate, sometimes as tremolos and sometimes as more angular riffing. And as with the last album, the drumming is absolutely top notch. As I said in that last review, I'm convinced that the unnamed drummer has some serious jazz chops, and there's even more to love here. Listen to "A Subtle Change" and prepare to have your jaw drop at what the drummer does here. It's furious, deft, and intricate all at the same time.

III featured lyrics that were fascinating, but also surreal and elliptic. All Fours continues that tradition, but now with a hefty dose of sex on the fringes. I think that fascination has always been there--after all, this is the band that had songs called "Marie in a Cage" and "Why Am I So Lovely? Because My Master Washes Me." But to my ears, there's a whole new level going on here. Album opener "At Night" describes a mash up of sadism, masochism, and pony play. Cigarette ash is dumped onto Marie's body, and the "ashes cling to the urine on her torn clothes." Her "violent dressage thrills" the narrator. The final sentence of the song, appropriately, says, "These acts are nauseating but necessary." The instrumental music at the beginning of "Washerwoman" would be a proud addition to any alternative rock catalogs, but that's before the band turns up the "MORE!" knob all the way up, and the song ends with a female party crasher "with her mouth full of lather" announcing, “I come from the City of Hair beyond the Wrinkled Mountain and I will not rest until I've washed every penis in this room.” It's a masterful mash up of melodic sweetness and a very strange swinger party.

In early press, there have been some comparisons to Deafheaven, which isn't surprising given that the bands did a split together and both bands are clearly interested in using alternative rock as an inspiration. I've also read the inevitable backlash about that comparison, which isn't surprising given how polarizing Sunbather was. I don't want to make too much of this, because the bands aren't sound-alikes by any means. All Fours can and should be judged by its own merits, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are fans that like this album much more than Deafheaven's output. For me, I feel the similarity coming from a deeper place--it has more to do with a feeling, the one you get when both music and vocals are dripping with emotion. This is serious heart-on-their-sleeves/punch-in-the-gut stuff, and on that level, All Fours resonates with me in the same way Sunbather did. And I'd be very happy if All Fours gets the same kind of attention that Sunbather did, because I think it's well deserved.

Leviathan - Scar Sighted

By Aaron Sullivan. What can be said that has not been said before when it comes to Jef Whitehead’s one man Black Metal band Leviathan? There is no doubt he is one the best the US has to offer

By Aaron Sullivan.

Artwork by Wrest

What can be said that has not been said before when it comes to Jef Whitehead’s one man Black Metal band Leviathan? There is no doubt he is one the best the US has to offer in Black Metal and over time has established himself as consistent and productive as any of his contemporaries in the US or abroad. The release of Scar Sighted is no exception. The album shows once again why his music is so beloved.

This is the first full length since 2011's True Traitor, True Whore. Much in his life has changed since that album and all of it positive. The stories surrounding the time True Traitor was being recorded are well documented and not worth repeating here. Since then Jef has sobered up, found companionship and love in not only his new relationship with Stevie Floyd (Dark Castle/Taurus) but also their daughter Grail (who accompanied her father on the cover of the march issue of Decibel). Have no fear, these positive changes have not turned his music into something romantic and sappy. Far from it in fact. What it has done is refocus his vision for Leviathan. While many found True Traitor to be a bit of a misstep. Scar Sighted finds him starting right where 2008’s masterpiece Massive Conspiracy Against All Life left off.

All the trademarks of Leviathan are contained within. Obscure movie clips. Twisting guitar lines. Tortured vocals. Driving drums. Atmospheres that are both beautiful and sinister all at the same time. There are the barnburners like "Dawn Vibration". And then there are the almost Funeral Doomish songs like the title track. This really does feel like it has bits of everything his discography has to offer while still feeling fresh and forward thinking. There are even times one is reminded of his much revered (especially by me) side project and album Lurker of Chalice. The layers contained within each song beg for repeated listens. With each one you hear something new. I for one am a sucker for using movie clips in albums and Jef does it as good as anyone. The first words heard in the album are of a man saying, “Every fuckin’ thing that crawls, is gonna pay.” before exploding into a Blackened abyss. The final words uttered at the end of the hauntingly atmospheric song Aphōnos, come from a woman saying, “I want to see it in your face. I want to see it in your eyes. I want to see it in your tears.” Just reading those two quotes alone it gives you a pretty good idea of what awaits the listener.

Leviathan is on a small list of bands that after I’ve listened to their albums I feel spent. As though my entire being has gone through something. The atmospheres created by the music are so all encompassing that you begin to feel claustrophobic at times. Other times the song seem to be pulling things out of my emotionally, sometimes feelings I didn’t even know existed in me. Artists like this remind me why I love music and the power it can have over it’s listener.

The phrase “triumphant return” has been used for many an artist. But this is a fitting phrase to use for this album. While True Traitor may have been a bump in the road for some, Scar Sighted has solidified all that people love about Leviathan. It is an album that stacks up very well to his massive discography and perhaps even outshines a few. Triumphant return indeed.

Matt Hinch's Top 5 (or 10) Canadian Releases of 2014

Written by Matt Hinch.

When I was first tasked with selecting my favourite Canadian releases of 2014 I thought it was a weak year. But as I dug through my Oh Canada! 2014 playlist it didn't seem that weak at all. Picking my top 10 was hard enough let alone top 5. But I did and I must say, this is one helluva collection of releases! So, I present my favourite Canadian releases of 2014!

10. Thantifaxath – Sacred White Noise

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

9. Begrime Exemious – Primeval Satellite

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

8. Morgue of Saints - Monolith

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

7. Northumbria – Bring Down the Sky

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

6. Harangue – By the Strength of the Mighty Atlas

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

5. Olde – I

It took all of about 11 seconds for me to know that this album was right up my alley. That first riff is the kind of fuzzed out heavy stoner riff that directs blood flow to my nether regions. Looking deeper into the band I found that it comprises members of “local” stoner legends Sons of Otis, as well as Moneen, Cunter, Grift, Five Knuckle Chuckle and Jaww. And is for fans of High on Fire, Sleep, Sabbath and Saint Vitus. What more could you ask for? You've got the tone of Sleep/Vitus, the groove of Sabbath, and the heavy-fucking-riffage of High on Fire et al. But Olde sound like they're having a lot more fun than any of those bands. Bleary-eyed stoner sensibilities, groove to spare and whiskey-throated vocals make it feel more in line with the likes of Weedeater or Black Tusk on cough syrup. Lump them in with whatever bedfellows you want but all that matters is how hard they riff. And hard do they riff. Sludgy, doomed, fat-bottomed stoner metal rolling around in a pile of riffs and tone makes I a calculated assault on sobriety and reason. Plus there's a (somewhat androgynous) person riding a bear on the cover!

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

4. Astrakhan – A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin

Artwork by Nick Patterson

These guys really impressed me with The Pillarist EP. For this EP they've added two new songs to the two on The Pillarist to create twice as much awesome. Spawned from the same scene that brought us Bison and Anciients, Astrakhan play some serious prog-inflected sludge. Even that descriptor doesn't seem accurate. They've got the massive riffs and heavy tone of sludge but the guitar work is incredibly nuanced. Sublimely crafted songs reflect the talents of a band not afraid to grasp at the grandest of scope. Astrakhan can run rough shot with the best and then blast off in a cloud of kaleidoscopic guitars ripping out complicated rhythms and solos that will inspire even the most lumpish of metalheads. My favourite aspect of the band and EP is the vocals. Trading off hollers full of emotion and passion, they fully engage with the listener. They're not always gruff, in fact sometimes the cleaner, the better, but they aren't half-assing anything. “The Pillarist” itself illustrates the band's best points quite well. Excellent vocals, an assembly line of sweet riffs, sinuous groove, meaningful solos and tremendous flow. Two songs really impressed me. Four songs blew me away and kept getting better the more I listened to them. When Astrakhan puts out a full length who knows what kind of musically induced coma it's gonna put me in. I can't wait!

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

3. Archspire – The Lucid Collective

Artwork by Ken Sarafin

This one surprised the hell out of me. I'm not usually one for over the top technicality. Origin, Obscura and the like. But Archspire? Oh fuck yeah, bud! I can't exactly pin down what makes these West Coasters different but I kept coming back to this album over and over. The technical prowess on display here is outrageously spectacular. Yet, I never felt like they just pasted together a bunch of self-congratulatory shit and called it a song. The songs have flow and logical shifts from breakneck speed to mind-mangling technicality to head-caving brutality. Say what you want but this is technical death metal of THE highest order. I suppose a big part of what makes Archspire so appealing to me is how bassist Jaron Evil makes his bass go interstellar WITH FRETS. It's a personal thing but what keeps me away from equally talented bands like fellow Canucks Beyond Creation is that fretless bass sound. So with Archspire and The Lucid Collective you get next-level technicality fused to tangible death metal and awesome vocals on par with death metal's most inventive. Break your neck, brain and fingers all at the same time.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

2. Auroch – Taman Shud

Artwork by Antithesis

I referred to this album earlier in the year as the only death metal album you need to buy in 2014. That may not exactly be true (see above) but if I had to pick the most impressive death metal album of 2014 it would be this one. The Vancouver group puts together a potent arsenal for attacking the modern death metal landscape. Guitarist/vocalist Sebastian Montesi's slavering growl seems like it comes straight from the Lovecraftian tales that inspire their work. Back his fiendish vocals up with top quality blistering death and Auroch is unstoppable. They blend technical flair with bludgeoning brutality and a horrific atmosphere created naturally through swirling riffs. They never let the listener get totally comfortable, and the vocal diversity, from guttural to whisper and plain angry yelling keeps things from getting stagnant in that department. Taman Shud blows away much of the competition through their obvious skill and well executed vision. No death metal album in 2014 was able to dazzle and destroy quite the way Taman Shud did. It's well rounded violence equally suited to impress through technicality as it is through brutality.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

1. Culted – Oblique to All Paths

One could make an argument that Culted aren't exactly Canadian since vocalist Daniel Jansson lives in Sweden. However, they qualified as Canadian for the Juno Awards (basically the Canadian Grammy Awards) so that's good enough for me. Released back in January of 2014 Oblique to All Paths stuck around on my playlist almost the whole year. Their brand of doom is like no other. Slow and brooding obviously but the atmosphere they create is wholly unsettling. Droning noise and creeping synths create a darkness most foul as Jansson's snarling, hateful, throaty growl raises the hair on the back of your neck. For all the doom and gloom surrounding their sound, they can flat out bring the heavy when they want. “Illuminati” features a fierce doom riff that smashes it's way into your brain and refuses to be ignored. I could listen to that chord progression for days. Oblique is all about creating a mood but it's not the same mood throughout. Disconsolate, vengeful, sorrowful, and more. It's over an hour of heaving, depressing yet surprisingly uplifting at times blackened doom. The noise, synths and industrial touches put Culted a unique place in the doom world. One thing is for certain, Oblique is massive, encapsulating and as I wrote in a 9/10 review elsewhere, “painfully affecting” and the best thing to come out of Canada (and Sweden) last year.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]