Sigh - Hail Horror Hail

An Autothrall Classic. Sigh is one of the best metal bands in the world, but until this release, they were simply a very good black metal band from Japan, doing a familiar style with a cool ethnic influence. Well, this is where the levee broke, and Sigh would never be the same again.

An Autothrall Classic. Originally published here.


Sigh is one of the best metal bands in the world, but until this release, they were simply a very good black metal band from Japan, doing a familiar style with a cool ethnic influence.

Well, this is where the levee broke, and Sigh would never be the same again. And neither would I. The titular track opens with a volley of Mirai's mad snarling, and 70s influenced blues leads over a raging metal riff. You are immediately confronted with several layers of melodies, the guitars are fucking everywhere and despite this being a very evil metal album, they manage to give you that real good feeling. But it's not over, for the latter half of this opening song is full of lush, beautiful orchestration which recalls classic, romantic theater productions and then relapses into more Mirai snarls...and this is all happening to simplistic slasher/killer lyrics like this:

Beyond all morality into insanity
I plunge my knife in you again and again
Torture your corpse before it's cold
I seek to devour your life and soul

What the fuck? Right? And this is only the first song! The 2nd track "42 49" brings back some of that earlier Sigh feeling where you are reminded of Celtic Frost/Hellhammer...but wait, what is that? Psychedelic robotic vocals only a few seconds into the track? Folk guitars? What is going on here. I demand an answer.

What IS going on here is an already brilliant band has gone stratospheric in their mushroom-addled ambitions, and concocted one of the best original sounds to ever exist in the wide world of heavy metal. A style so unique it belongs up there with the Voivods of the world, the few and far between.

The rest of the album is equally engaging. The frightening, discordant orchestral doom groove of "12 Souls". The pure piano dirge of "Burial". The shimmering, epic "The Dead Sing" and electro-orchestral number "Invitation to Die". And you haven't even got to "Curse of Izanagi" which is one of their classic go-to songs.

Hail Horror Hail isn't Sigh's best album. I'd reserve that title for Imaginary Sonicscape. But Hail Horror Hail is still an extremely beautiful work of art, which belongs in the collection of any person of taste. It was truly the turning point that skyrocketed them into the upper echelon of metal genius minds.

[Note from Mort Productions: The second CD, track 10-19, contains an unreleased Hail Horror Hail track and a rough mix of the album.]

From The Metal Archives Vol. 8 - Soulseller Records

[When I add labels to the Metal Labels on Bandcamp page I usually scan their releases looking for anything interesting I might have missed. The reviews on The Metal Archives are a great help when doing this: a couple of great reviews

By the reviewers from The Metal Archives.

[When I add labels to the Metal Labels on Bandcamp I usually scan their releases looking for anything interesting I might have missed. The reviews on The Metal Archives are a great help when doing this: a couple of great reviews means an album I should probably check out. With this series I'd like to share some of my finds - in this edition we feature three releases from Soulseller Records, two classics and a hard rocker of recent vintage, but with a soul of the classics.]

Cover art by Lise.

[The Metal Archives reviewer Thamuz said]

The compositions evolve eloquently, often displaying several dynamic shifts per song, combined with a neo-classical spirit that entails subtle evolutions within. The opener “I Sang With The Swans” is an excellent example of this, starting with a minimalistic melody surrounded by subtle atmospheric drum-beats before slowly progressing and building up to climatic proportions, before settling in back to the original tempo. This is only the first three minutes, before a vocal has even been sung - the start of a recital of epic proportions.

[read Thamuz' full review here]

[The Metal Archives reviewer dismember_marcin said]

I don't think there were that many new bands and albums, which came out in new millennium of 2000's that made such a big impact on the death metal scene as Repugnant's "Epitome of Darkness" did. Sincerely I think this band and album, together with Daniel Ekeroth's "Swedish death metal" book is responsible for influencing a bunch of youngsters to play this obscure style with passion and style, which haven't been seen since the early 90's! Repugnant and "Epitome of Darkness" probably also directed them to take the image of cult horror movie freaks, with all the empty tombs, zombies and stench of cadaver around it, by writing some cool, horror lyrics and using an adequate front covers.

[read dismember_marcin's full review here]

Cover art by Joe Petagno.

[The Metal Archives reviewer CHAIRTHROWER said]

Erik Sugg's (also active with Lightning Born) eerily wobbling vocals are as groovy as ever while the battery comprised of bassist Paul Walz and drummer Bill Eagen certainly doesn't play second fiddle to Sugg and Larry Burlison's heady, melodic chops and bluesy showmanship, as attested by its dominance on the late 60s/Jefferson Airplane & The Doors sounding title track and all-around solidity, from the opening, triplet based "The Waters and the Wild" to the swinging and twirling Black Sabbath evoking closer "Mourning Son", which halfway in devolves into a super nostalgic, Mountain/Leslie West sounding wind-down.

[read CHAIRTHROWER's full review here]

Kekal - Deeper Underground

By Calen Henry. Kekal are a long-running Indonesian avant-garde metal collective that I had never heard of until they contacted me about their upcoming record, Deeper Underground. They play an abrasive amalgamation of metal and electronic music

By Calen Henry.

Artwork by Levi Sianturi.

Kekal are a long-running Indonesian avant-garde metal collective that I had never heard of until they contacted me about their upcoming record, Deeper Underground. They play an abrasive amalgamation of metal and electronic music that hearkens back to the early to mid 2000's drum machine heavy aural assault of bands like Genghis Tron and Agoraphobic Nosebleed but share more aesthetically and thematically with anarcho and crust punk.

They are a bit of a musical oddity, mixing hyper-speed programmed drums, howling, growling, and clean vocals, melodic not-quite-traditional-metal riffs, and synths for a sound that’s Genghis Tron meets Cormorant by way of Neo Tokyo. The sound is simultaneously futuristic and caked in grime favouring hard edged rhythms layered over top of dreamy synths, with a mix that skews trebly. There’s an eerie familiarity with which the music flows. Riffs sound like something heard before, but just weird enough that it can’t be placed, then it's gone into the next one. It’s an oddly compelling mix that will no doubt prove polarizing.

The work is clearly a passion project for leader Jeffray Arwadi. Packaged with the download is a complete lyrics book as well as a book of essays, one for each song, as well as individual artwork for each song file in the download. Lyrically the songs are a mix of scathing criticism of the state of the world from lack of attention paid to climate change, to wealth inequality, and the corruption of spirituality by religious dogma. But, in contrast to much metal, these are interspersed with tracks about pushing through and refusing to give up hope in the face of adversity.

It’s certainly not an easy listen, and those who insist on keeping their metal apolitical will be turned off. Anyone feeling musically adventurous and who has been watching the state of the world, trying to balance crushing doubt with nervous hope, will find much with which to engage in Deeper Underground.

öOoOoOoOoOo - Samen

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. This is a review that has been in the works for months, in part because of my status as both a chronic procrastinator and as a Grown Up with Many Important Adult Things To Do (like Raising My Kids, Trying To Sell My House, and the old classic Working All The Fucking Time).

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.

This is the uncensored cover, not available with the download (click for full size).

Greetings and salutations, friends. This is a review that has been in the works for months, in part because of my status as both a chronic procrastinator and as a Grown Up with Many Important Adult Things To Do (like Raising My Kids, Trying To Sell My House, and the old classic Working All The Fucking Time). However, it’s also in part due to the nature of the album I’m reviewing. You see, France’s öOoOoOoOoOo (aka Chenille, which is French for Caterpillar, and now the name makes sense) is the sort of band that is nigh impossible to describe because of the varied nature of their music. This is one of those rare chameleonic bands that changes styles numerous times throughout the course of a song, and how do you put something like that into words?

In the absence of a simple and concise way of describing öOoOoOoOoOo’s music, we can at least start with a few similar-ish bands to give us at least a point of reference. The most obvious is the ever-popular Mr. Bungle, and while the comparison isn’t exact (öOoOoOoOoOo tends to have more of a basis in metal and isn’t quite so scattershot), there’s a lot of common ground between the two, especially in the vocals (more on that in a moment). The next, somewhat obvious parallel would be in the French oddball duo Pin-Up Went Down, mostly because öOoOoOoOoOo vocalist Asphodel was also PUWD’s singer, but also because they shared a similarly wacky musical style. There are also parallels to the likes of Diablo Swing Orchestra, Pryapisme (whose drummer Aymeric Thomas handles session duty for öOoOoOoOoOo), Carnival In Coal, and the late great Unexpect, but make no mistake, öOoOoOoOoOo stands on its own.

öOoOoOoOoOo is a collaboration between the aforementioned Asphodel and French multi-instrumentalist Baptiste Bertrand, along with the session drumming of Aymeric Thomas. If you’re unfamiliar with Asphodel’s prior work, it cannot be stressed enough that she may be one of the most versatile vocalists in music. I mentioned before a comparison to Mr. Bungle, specifically to the voice of Mike Patton, and I can say in all fairness that Asphodel is at least Patton’s equal when it comes to sheer depth and breadth of vocal weirdness and range. This is not hyperbole; one needs simply listen to "Chairleg Thesis" or "Bark City (A Glimpse Of Something)" to get a taste of what Asphodel can do. Her voice soars to operatic highs, dips to lounge singer lows, detours to guttural grunts, and occasionally goes full-on childlike. It’s the sort of vocal performance that you honestly won’t find anywhere else.

It’s also the sort of vocal performance that needs appropriate accompaniment to reach its maximum potential, and on Samen Asphodel has found an effective counterpart in Bertrand, whose songwriting prowess is impressive for an unknown (I did some brief Googling and was unable to find any previous work in his name, making this an exceptionally impressive debut). There are moments when öOoOoOoOoOo goes full-blown death metal, but those moments are relatively rare and all the more precious because of it. Much of what Bertrand does plays off the vocals perfectly, finding moods and twists in the songs and bringing them out, from the lurching orchestral swing of "No Guts = No Masters" to the electronic underpinnings of "Fumigène" to the melancholy outro to "LVI" (I think that’s a xylophone). Bertrand’s musical prowess is absolutely essential to Samen, aided by the able drumming of Thomas (no stranger himself to weirdness thanks to his tenure in Pryapisme, a gloriously odd band in their own right).

Describing Samen, even in a track-by-track fashion, would be an exhausting and overwhelming task, and ultimately it would be pointless. This is not the sort of album that can be easily described in words any more than you could explain the color orange to a person blind from birth. This is the sort of musical adventure that needs to be experienced firsthand. It is, however, one of 2016’s most rewarding, refreshingly odd releases, and one well worth multiple listens. Stay weird, my friends.

The cut above: a look back at 2016 part 2

By Bryan Camphire. Coven, or Evil Ways Instead of Love, the 2016 album by Polish black metal horde Cultes des Ghoules, has five songs and clocks in at one hour and thirty-eight minutes. To refer to this record as epic is no cheap use of hyperbole. The songs are dynamic and feature frequent change ups.

By Bryan Camphire.

Artwork by Mar.A.

Coven, or Evil Ways Instead of Love, the 2016 album by Polish black metal horde Cultes des Ghoules, has five songs and clocks in at one hour and thirty-eight minutes. To refer to this record as epic is no cheap use of hyperbole. The songs are dynamic and feature frequent change ups. The bass is particularly prominent, and there are even occasional drum and bass breaks, a feature that feels almost more punk rock than it does black metal. This music is raw. The production feels like it is going for as close to a live sound as possible. The effect is to give the feeling of being in the room with this evil coven of sadistic Satanic musicians, witnessing their heresy live as it happens. The singer of this group is known as Mark of the Devil (Is his given name Mark? One wonders... because that would be pretty clever...). To me, he has every bit as much character and originality as Ozzy Osbourne brought to the genre of metal some forty-five years ago. Mark of the Devil cackles, croons, chants, grunts, growls, screams, whispers and sermonizes with extreme gusto. He does his job with a depth and thoroughness the likes of which I haven't heard equaled among other hordes of blasphemers. This man truly sounds like a evangelist for Satan preaching from an altar top adorned with a prostrate virgin oozing blood from every pore. Highly recommended devilry.

Artwork by Trine + Kim Design Studio.

Virus are among the stranger acts making heavy music at present. In fact, their guitar work is predominantly clean, so it is difficult to even categorize the music they make as metal. The devil being in the details, it’s in the group’s sinister use of harmony where the real mischief lies. Put another way, if one were to take the work of Virus transcribed as sheet music and feed it into a synthesizer, no matter what patch one might try to apply (How does this music sound transposed for brass instruments? Or, how might this sound if played on an accordion?), the result would sound much more menacing than most metal music on the market today. This group has been perfecting their craft for decades, and it shows in the strength of their songwriting. This music exists in a delirium entirely of its own.

Cover Art by Raul Gonzalez.

Here we have the genuine article in contemporary American black metal. We take a look at the front cover of this record and we see cold deep blues and blacks everywhere, lightning striking, storms raging, swirling mystical mists, craggy pathways leading downward toward perdition laden with stalactites dripping dreary deathless doom. At the center of all of this is Death Fortress. What secret lies beyond those dark castle walls? How does this horde reign supreme in the realms of the Unyielding? The magic is in the breakdowns. I’m talking about those sections of music where the band plays in half time. The drummer smacks the bell of the ride so hard it sounds like broadswords clashing. The listener pumps her fists and thinks it might just be time to go burn down a church. Listening closely to the tempo changes on this album, one marvels at the rhythm section’s deft balance of tempo changes.

The first track, "Enthroning the Oppressor," goes full tilt for four full minutes of blistering blast beats until that breakdown finally comes in glorious half-time. In the next track, "The Erasure Of Species", Death Fortress seems to sense the lust for blood in the audience, and the breakdown comes forth right at the two minute marker. One can feel the boots stomping along to this deathless march. Then along comes "Mercyless Deluge", and the band careens forth until just one minute and twenty seconds before a riff is played in half time… only to reveal itself as just a fraction of a larger phrase, which speeds up and then slows back down and then speeds back up again, like some unearthly carriage racing around corners driven by mad rabid beasts unyielding in their drive towards the beyond. "Scourge of Aeons", the fourth track, speeds along unremittingly throughout its entire length.

This is where things start to get interesting into the record’s B side. This is where the breakdowns turn into dirges. Track five, "Power Beyond the Stars," plays it’s first minute and a half slowly, really letting the bass come to the fore, and the band just builds and builds from there, upping the tension more and more. "Trail of Graves", the penultimate track, starts fast before devoting its entire last half to an evil menacing dirge. The last track is the record’s title track, clocks in at ten and a half minutes, with drums changing all over the place - which, by the way, is becoming something of a trademark style of Shawn Eldridge, the same drummer of Ruinous, who plays like an undead hellspawn. Get this record already, now that I’ve broken down nearly every breakdown for you. "Enthroning the Oppressor" will never feel so good outside the confines of the unholy Death Fortress.

[Check out Bryan's playing in Bloody Panda and Traducer]

Terra Tenebrosa - The Reverses

By Justin C. I get the impression that for a lot of people, Terra Tenebrosa gets stuck in the "too avant garde/too weird/only if I'm high" category. There are probably a few reasons for that.

By Justin C.


I get the impression that for a lot of people, Terra Tenebrosa gets stuck in the "too avant garde/too weird/only if I'm high" category. There are probably a few reasons for that. The vocalist--credited only as The Cuckoo--pushes the metal-vocalist-as-an-instrument idea to its fullest. He screams, hisses, whispers, rumbles, croaks, and everything else you could think of. Then there's the issue of genre. It's heavy, but what kind of metal is this? I've seen variations on "avant garde black metal," which...doesn't really cover it. On their latest, The Reverses, there's definitely an industrial influence. Do I add that in to a multi-hyphenated description? Or is this just post-everything? Well, I'm not going to let you off that easy. I'm not going to hammer it into a subgenre, because it deserves better than that.

Having gone back through all three of their full-length albums in preparation for this review, I realized something: Terra Tenebrosa isn't that weird oddball band that's too much even for the true kvlt. In fact, they're damn good song writers. Go back to The Tunnels, their first full-length, and listen to "Through the Eyes of the Maninkari." Yes, when the vocals kick in, it sounds like a demon recorded at half speed, but at its heart, this song is based on a damn fine, stomping guitar riff with an eerie line overlaid on top. (And just wait--the vocals later in the track sound like The Cuckoo is singing from the bottom of a blender.) Sure, the band often takes detours, but when you really listen, as I've done lately, you realize that these are solid metal tunes, even catchy ones, that are being reflected back to us from a funhouse mirror.

Terra Tenebrosa 2014. Photos by Webzine Chuul.

You can find plenty of examples throughout their discography. On The Purging, "The Compression Chamber" is shifting, dissonant, and just slightly off-kilter, but the drums are rock solid. The vocals come somewhere between a whisper and croak, but broken down to its fundamentals, this is a song that could be the soundtrack to the best horror movie you've never seen. Strip some of the stranger bits away, and this is a song that wouldn't have sounded completely out of place from one of your more adventurous-but-mainstream artists, maybe even 90s-era Bowie.

"Black Pearl in a Crystalline Shell" gave a glimpse of what's to come. The kind of driving, industrial rhythm in this track is something that's grown to be a major feature of The Reverses. The Cuckoo has some new friends this time around--with guest contributions from Blut aus Nord, Aosoth, and others. And yet somehow, even with these boundary-pushing conspirators, The Reverses might actually be Terra Tenebrosa's most accessible album yet. Hell, some of this is actually dance-able. "Dance metal?" you cry. "Blasphemy!" But listen to the thundering rhythms of "The End Is Mine to Ride" and tell me you're not itching to shake your black-clad ass at least a little.

Terra Tenebrosa 2014. Photos by Webzine Chuul.

Have they gone soft? Are they selling out? Unlikely. "Where Shadows Have Teeth" is another horror-fest, carried along on an alternate-note guitar riff that sounds like an ambulance siren that never arrives. The vocals are spine-chilling, but that's pretty much what you'd expect from bitey shadows. "Exuvia" starts with a guitar played to sound like a child's toy piano that's been half-melted in a furnace, and they let that ride with gurgling vocals for well over two minutes before the crashing percussion enters to add more form. Even the closing track, "Fire Dances," plays with your expectations, stretching to a mesmerizing 17-minutes. It makes you want to move, but it's a dance around a fire pit, not a club with glow sticks and MDMA.

Is it still weird for me to call this album accessible? I don't think so. Weird and creepy, but downright addicting, and in the end, expertly crafted music with just enough liberties taken to keep things fresh. The band is known, but after checking some of my favorite sites, I realized that they really haven't gotten the kind of coverage they deserve, especially since they're nowhere near as impenetrable as some of the highlights of the metal scene these days. Start with The Reverses, and then do as the album title suggests--go back and grab up the rest of their discography.

Thy Catafalque - Sgùrr

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. It is I, your esteemed Professor, and I return to you to examine one of the year’s most intriguing new releases, Thy Catafalque’s masterful Sgùrr. Many of you may have already read my retrospective on Thy Catafalque, which discusses the importance of the band’s later works

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.


Greetings and salutations, friends. It is I, your esteemed Professor, and I return to you to examine one of the year’s most intriguing new releases, Thy Catafalque’s masterful Sgùrr. Many of you may have already read my retrospective on Thy Catafalque, which discusses the importance of the band’s later works; for those of you who haven’t, go ahead; I’ll wait.

And welcome back. Now, the impetus for writing such a retrospective was in no small part due to the impending release of this album, which at that time I had only heard a portion small enough to whet my appetite. Sometime thereafter, I was privileged enough to get to hear it, and so I began to prepare the groundwork for the very article you are presently reading. For those of you who have tried it, reviewing an album is not always easy, but it’s immeasurably easier when it’s an artist or album that you are passionate about, and as you may have gleaned from my previous article, there are few artists I that inspire me like Thy Catafalque.

As with Rengeteg, the predecessor to Sgùrr, Thy Catafalque is the solo work of Tamás Kátai along with a few musical guests. Of note, prior collaborators Attila Bakos and Ágnes Tóth do not appear on Sgùrr, as the album features almost no clean vocals; however, the album does feature guest vocals and double bass from Kátai’s former Gire bandmates Zoltán Kónya and Balázs Hermann, respectively, as well as the violin talents of Dimitris Papageorgiou. That there are no clean vocals (excluding the spoken word intro, narrated by Viktória Varga, and the operatic outro, sung by Ágnes Sipos - more on this in a moment) is noteworthy, as their absence serves to further differentiate Sgùrr from the albums that precede it.

Evolution between albums is one of Thy Catafalque’s defining characteristics, a consistent thread throughout the band’s history that continues with Sgùrr. As mentioned, there are no clean vocals, a shift from the last several albums, but it is far from the only difference. The album itself is bookended by a pair of brief tracks, both titled "Zúgó", and help to provide an odd sort of symmetry to the album’s structure that is notable when looking at the tracklist and song times. The album’s main concept involves the relationship between mountains and water, inspired by the Scottish highlands of Kátai’s current home and the Hungarian lowlands of his former, and the album’s structure forms a sort of valley (consisting of three short tracks, some of the album’s fastest and heaviest) between two massive mountain peaks (in the form of two 15-minute-plus epics).

Kátai is certainly no stranger to experimenting with album structure, and so it comes as no surprise that he continues to play with the listener’s expectations on Sgùrr. After the intro, a point when most bands would blast the listener with one of their heaviest tracks, Kátai instead chooses to lead with "Alföldi kozmosz", the initial track premiered from Sgùrr and one that features an intriguing mix of acoustic guitar, violin, and Kátai’s signature drum programming. It’s a curveball straight out of the gate, and yet the track is effective in getting the listener involved thanks to its upbeat, folky stomp. "Alföldi kozmosz" also serves as a notice to the listener that, yes, this is a Thy Catafalque album and bears the recognizable hallmarks of a Thy Catafalque album, but it’s also going to be something that takes those elements and hammers them into something different.

The track that follows, "Oldódó formák a halál titokzatos birodalmában", is perhaps the clearest example of how the album uses the familiar Thy Catafalque sound to create something new. It’s one of the album’s two mountain peaks, and as such is a journey unto itself, driven by a propulsive riff/synth melody combination and some of the most creative drum programming yet heard on a Thy Catafalque album. (I understand that programmed drums can be a detriment to a lot of artists, but one of Kátai’s most consistently interesting elements is the drum sound and the beats and rhythms he creates, and Sgùrr is no exception.) The song features the first hint of the speed and heaviness that dominates a good portion of Sgùrr, but it also demonstrates Kátai’s love of varying song structures with an extended breather in its midst. More than anything, this is the song that defines the album and what it does.

This leads to the valley of the album’s midpoint, featuring the slow, melodic descent into the foothills on "A hajnal kék kapuja", followed by the turbulent river of "Élő lény" and the violent rapids of "Jura", perhaps the two heaviest songs on the album. Both tracks deliver the sort of blackened fury that characterized Thy Catafalque’s early work, but both tracks are tempered by Kátai’s incomparable sense of melody. From here, we ascend back into the peaks with "Eilde Sgùrr Mòr", a track named for a Scottish mountain, and the song builds from a similarly furious beginning to a more mid-paced ascent, some brief horn-sounding synths that bring Sear Bliss’ best work to mind, and then the song grinds almost entirely to a halt, setting the stage for a slow descent to the other side. The album concludes with the moody, almost dirgelike "Keringő" and the operatic a capella of the second "Zúgó".

Perhaps more than any previous Thy Catafalque album, Sgùrr feels like a journey, a hike through the realm of nature yet unspoiled by the infringements of civilization. It is at once familiar to fans of Thy Catafalque’s previous work and something new, a continuation of an established style and an evolution of that style all at once, something that few artists ever manage to successfully do. (Indeed, I racked my brain trying to think of a good comparison, and the best I could come up with is Trent Reznor’s ever-changing style with Nine Inch Nails.) All the trademarks of Kátai’s work are present, from the thunderous guitar riffs and distinctive drum sound to the incomparable synth melodies, but the way that they are presented and deployed serves to create an album that both fits comfortably into the Thy Catafalque discography and yet stands out as its own unique work.

I suppose what I’m trying to say, friends, is that Sgùrr is one of the most interesting, creative, brilliant albums of the year. It is a collection of excellent songs, yes, but it is meant to be consumed as a whole, listened to in a single sitting with no distractions. This is music being made for the sake of music with an utter disregard for styles and trends, art that is wholly without compromise being created simply because its creator was inspired. This is what music should be.

Artist Spotlight: Thy Catafalque

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. For those of seeing my name and wondering who the hell I am, allow to to briefly introduce myself. I am Professor D. Grover the XIIIth, and you may remember me from such obscure blogs as The Number Of The Blog, Oculus Infernus, and No Clean Singing. If any of those sites rings a bell, excellent.

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.

Greetings and salutations, friends. For those of seeing my name and wondering who the hell I am, allow to to briefly introduce myself. I am Professor D. Grover the XIIIth, and you may remember me from such obscure blogs as The Number Of The Blog, Oculus Infernus, and No Clean Singing. If any of those sites rings a bell, excellent. If not, that is unfortunate, but hopefully you will take the time to consume my mad scribblings anyway. Now, to the point at hand.


I have been recruited for this article because I am, in short, a massive Thy Catafalque fanboy. I have been known to vocally proclaim my entirely platonic love for Thy Catafalque mainman and all-around musical genius Tamás Kátai. Thy Catafalque, for the unfamiliar, is a Hungarian avant-garde black metal band, although labeling it as such does the music a disservice, as the project’s music is so uniquely expansive and varied that a simple label can do little to truly describe it. However, as a starting point, such a label is the nearest touchstone that I can provide, and so it shall have to do for the moment.

The band’s roots are fairly simple, starting as a collaboration between the extremely prolific Kátai (who at the band’s inception was also releasing music under the monikers of Darklight, Towards Rusted Soil, Gort, and Gire) and guitarist János Juhász. Thy Catafalque’s initial material was decidedly more black metal than avant-garde, and in truth I haven’t listened to those albums a great deal, but even then they bore the imprints of Kátai’s unique sensibilities, which I will cover momentarily. As of the last Thy Catafalque album, the brilliant Rengeteg, Kátai had taken over as the band’s sole member, but the change did not affect the band’s sound much, which as I will discuss is a very, very good thing.

Thy Catafalque have a new album, titled Sgùrr, coming soon via Season Of Mist, and as that time approaches there has been a flurry of activity, with re-releases of the entire Thy Catafalque catalog on vinyl and CD, including the most recent (and sold out) compilation of The Early Works, which encompass the first three Thy Catafalque releases into a single 3-disc package, and the name-your-price Bandcamp release of the lone full-length Gire album, a Hungarian death metal project featuring Kátai’s synth-work and drum programming that is most likely the closest thing in sound to Thy Catafalque that I have managed to find up to this point. Most importantly, Thy Catafalque’s two most important releases have seen remasters and have also been released on Bandcamp as name-your-price downloads, and it is these releases I am here to discuss.


The first of these releases is 2004’s Tűnő idő tárlat (translated, An Exhibition of Vanishing Time), an album as daring in composition as it is brilliant. It takes true testicular fortitude to start your album with two 9+ minute tracks bookending a massive 18+ minute epic, but the opening journey of "Csillagkohó", "Neath Waters (Minden Vízbe Mártott Test)", and "Bolygó, bolyongó" bear testament to just how insanely great this album is. Across these three tracks, the listener is dragged through searing black metal, pounding industrial, trancelike electro, and dreamlike ambient passages with little regard for one’s sanity. It’s an exhausting, exhilarating way to start an album, and afterward there are still five more tracks to go.

It’s important to note at this point that while I can attempt to describe exactly what you will hear on these albums, I will fail miserably at doing so. That much is an absolute certainty. You have to hear the tracks for themselves to truly understand what I am attempting to convey. Fortunately, technology being what it is, you can listen to the album via the embedded widget as you read along! I cannot recommend highly enough that you do this, because it is the only true way for you to experience such an intricately nuanced album.

The remaining five tracks are equally dynamic, from the dirgelike riffing of "Héja-nász az avaron" and the ethereal female vocals (provided by session vocalist Nikoletta Gerzanits) of "Zápor" to the thumping drums and blistering riffs of "Az ősanya szól ivadékaihoz" and the stark soundscape denouement of "Varjak fekszenek". The most intriguing thing to my ear with this album is the mix of disparate musical styles, and not only that they are present on the same album and within the same songs, but often that they are present at the same time. This is noteworthy, because often with avant-garde and experimental music you will see bands switching between styles rather than combining them. Often you will hear ambient passages and clean instrumentation underlaid by a heavy electronic beat (the drums are entirely programmed and very distinct, an element of the Thy Catafalque sound that has existed since the beginning), or heavy riffs interwoven with melodic synth lines or the aforementioned clean instrumentation (see the latter half of "Az ősanya szól ivadékaihoz", where the riffs give way momentarily for a mix of piano and violin before joining right back in, until the whole thing is swept away by a pulsing, building electronic section). It is, to be honest, unlike anything I have ever heard.

Actually, that’s not entirely accurate, because we also have Róka hasa rádió (translated, Fox Belly Radio), the 2009 followup that matches Tűnő idő tárlat for sheer brilliance and audacity. Rather like its predecessor, it challenges the listener immediately by starting with an 11-minute track and then following that up with a 19-minute epic. Album opener "Szervetlen" serves notice that you are in for another journey, featuring some insanely heavy guitars and programmed percussion, interspersed with clean vocals (provided by Woodland Choir/Quadrivium singer Attila Bakos, who would also lend his voice to Rengeteg) and Kátai’s distinctive keyboards.

The second track, the aforementioned 19-minute epic "Molekuláris gépezetek", is truly special. It is the track that first made Thy Catafalque’s music truly click for me, and I cannot say enough about it. It starts with sheer blackened fury, all roiling guitars, hazy tortured vocals, pounding drums, held together by a pervasive synth melody. It quickly scales back, incorporating Bakos back into the mix and changing up the drums, and then around the 6 minute mark it takes an absolute left turn, dropping almost all instrumentation except for a shuffling drumbeat, some clean guitar, and a spare synth melody. It then changes up the drumbeat ever so slightly and adds, of all things, a saxophone melody and the beautiful clean vocals of Ágnes Tóth (who also would go on to contribute on Rengeteg). Eventually, it strips everything down to just the synths for a bit before swinging back into the drums and Tóth’s vocals. Then, when the listener has been lulled into a false sense of security around 15 minutes in, the song comes blasting back. It is an absolutely insane way to write a song, and by all rights it shouldn’t work, but it simply does.

Again, it is an absolutely exhausting and exhilarating way to start an album. From that point, Kátai plays it a bit more traditional, with the remaining seven tracks ranging from 4-6 minutes, although the music is no less weird and varied. Bakos and Tóth play important roles, with Bakos assuming the lead vocals on "Köd utánam" and "Esőlámpás", both of which combine his cleans with driving guitar riffs and the sort of utterly unforgettable synth melodies that seems to be Kátai’s specialty. "Űrhajók makón", on the other hand, gives Tóth free reign over yet another beautiful keyboard melody. The synth programming actually takes more precedent on Róka hasa rádió, playing to the album’s concept (as described by Kátai, “revolving, rotating movements of past and future, colours, sounds, long lost scents by a strange transmission from a timeless radio”), although Juhász’ guitar riffs play their own essential role, and Kátai’s bandmates in Gire, Balázs Hermann and Zoltán Kónya, provide additional bass and guitars respectively. If anything, Róka hasa rádió is even more adventurous and experimental than its predecessor, although both albums are utterly brilliant and unlike anything else out there.

I would be remiss in not at least mentioning Rengeteg, the 2011 followup to Róka hasa rádió released through Season Of Mist. Rengeteg found Kátai continuing the project as a solo act, upping the aggression ever so slightly and reining in things a bit (the longest track here is a mere 14 minutes and comes in the album’s midsection), but make no mistake, it is still most definitely a Thy Catafalque album and retains everything that makes this band special.

It seems fitting to conclude with the information we have regarding Sgùrr (translated, The Top Of A Mountain from Scottish Gaelic, a nod to Kátai’s new home in Scotland), the forthcoming new Thy Catafalque album. Due October 16th, the album promises to be another shift in sound. Says Kátai,

The title of this album derives from Scottish Gaelic and means 'the top of a mountain'. Yet most of the songs are equally about water, mountains, their interrelationship and the symbols attached to them - inspired by the Scottish Highlands and weird enough the Hungarian Lowlands. There are not many vocal lines at all, but when there occur, they are not pleasant. Compare to previous albums this music is mostly unfriendly, bristling and cold compared to the previous albums. I guess everything is more metal this time.

At this time, there is a single full track available for streaming, the drums-guitar-violin instrumental "Alföldi Kozmosz", and an ambient minute-and-a-half teaser on YouTube previewing an unspecified track. Both serve only to further heighten my need to hear this album. In the meantime, well, at least I have a couple of classics to occupy my time.

Label Spotlight: Apathia Records

By Kevin Page. French label, three French bands, each one different and odder than the next. Let's find out... Existing since 1994, this is Orakle's third full length album. They are labeled as atmospheric black metal, which I find strange. Maybe they were previously, but this new album is firmly in the avantgarde, progressive death metal-ish camp

By Kevin Page.

French label, three French bands, each one different and odder than the next. Let's find out...

Sculpture by Robert Le Lagade

Existing since 1994, this is Orakle's third full length album. They are labeled as atmospheric black metal, which I find strange. Maybe they were previously, but this new album is firmly in the avantgarde, progressive death metal-ish camp (with maybe even a little experimental stuff thrown in for good measure). The vocals at times have that black metal vomit, so there's a hint of it here and there, Ultimately, you are going to find them more in line with Opeth and even Tool, than anything else. That might scare some people off, but don't let it, since they are not a clone by any stretch of the imagination. The strange tempos and time changes make sure to give this a character all it's own.

Artwork by Michael Yee

Earth's Disease is the sophomore effort from this self proclaimed hypnotic dodecatonic black metal band. Yeah, I had to look up the term dodecatonic (which refers to the twelve note piano scale) and still don't understand what they mean. This is black metal, but like most things from France these days, it by no means follows a well established path. There's some proggy stuff going on no doubt, at times you can hear a Deathspell Omega guitar twang, yet its strange enough in its own fashion to stick its neck out. Julien Payan (guitars) and Marquis (bass) of funeral death/doom band, Ataraxie, are featured here on guitars and vocals, respectively. The vocals are thoroughly tortured and strained. There's also some old school Victorian horror movie sounding cello used to wonderful effect as well.

Artwork by Julie Gagne

And for our final and most wonderfully weird entry, we have Pryapisme. These "genre by damned" chaps combine 8-bit gaming, world beats, jazz, island sounds, dance beats and orchestral pieces you'd hear on a movie soundtrack, into this non-disjointed hodgepodge. The band states this release is about space, cats, and house rent. It’s not a full-on metal assault by any means and much less "metal" than their previous album, Hyperblast Super Collider (which was a fabulous), but that doesn’t make it any less potent or interesting. No amount of me describing it will truly due it justice, You'll just have to give it a listen for yourself. And once your brain is fried, feel free to sit back and enjoy a complete classical re-orchestration of the EP as an included bonus.



[Check out more bands from Apathia Records on their free label sampler from 2013.]

Blut aus Nord / P.H.O.B.O.S. – Triunity

Written by Craig Hayes.

Cover art by Katarzyna Urbanek

No matter the style, tone, or texture of their releases, what’s always stood out in the discography of Blut aus Nord is that the band exhibits a breathtaking array of ideas, creative prowess, and instrumental expertise. The avant-garde French black metal band has constantly reshaped their sound over the years, and it’s all been delivered with wholehearted (or, perhaps more aptly, blackhearted) commitment. The band’s trademark metaphysical aesthetic has shadowed all of the band’s work, but the strongest element that binds releases such as Memoria Vetusta II, MoRT, Odinist, or the band’s heralded 777 trilogy, is Blut aus Nord’s consistent desire to experiment and remain unpredictable.

There’s no change in that approach on Blut aus Nord’s latest split release, Triunity, where the band shares space with fellow French outfit P.H.O.B.O.S. Frédéric Sacri is the artist behind P.H.O.B.O.S, and while the one-man band gazes into the abyss for inspiration like Blut aus Nord, P.H.O.B.O.S. favours the world of droning doom and industrial metal. P.H.O.B.O.S and Blut aus Nord certainly operate at different points on the extreme music compass, but there’s a clear alliance of wills where both bands favour esoteric sounds that ignore schlock chills and aim for something deeper and more unnerving.

Blut aus Nord mainman, Vindsval, is joined by drummer Thorns on Triunity; and that live percussion brings a more organic punch to the band’s three songs on the release. “De Librio Arbitrio”, “Hùbris” and “Némeïnn” mix crooked and choral vocals with eerie synths, and, of course, Blut aus Nord’s contorted riffs and melodies all feature heavily. In amongst the layers of atmospheric and Gothic grimness, there’s a sense of meticulously arranged experimentalism, where Blut aus Nord’s evolving process also brings the presence of menacing otherworldly forces. For anyone who’s enjoyed Blut aus Nord’s previous exploring of ominous shades of darkness, Triunity is set to be as equally rewarding.

P.H.O.B.O.S. brings something very different to Triunity. As mentioned, there are ties that bind the two bands, but it's probably an intimidating prospect to be sharing a split with Blut aus Nord. No problem there, because P.H.O.B.O.S. easily holds their own on “Glowing Phosphoros”, “Transfixed at Golgotha” and “Ahrimanic Impulse Victory”. Where Blut aus Nord approach the infinite void with a sense of imposing grandeur, P.H.O.B.O.S. is more surgical in methodology. Deep space electronics are fed through bitter industrialism on P.H.O.B.O.S.’ tracks. Glitchy lurches, pitch-black drone, and warped synths and samples all twist around each other, as P.H.O.B.O.S. displays a knack for evoking urban decay, and the fear of a world well past the point of return.

While Blut aus Nord and P.H.O.B.O.S. each take very different routes through the darkness on Triunity, they meet at the point where nightmares are not so easily shaken off during daylight hours. Both bands bring that feeling of profound unease we know well when we look out the corner of our eye, and see that ever-present undercurrent of doom and despair waiting to strike. Call it all harmonious disharmony, or perhaps a shared sense of discord, Triunity offers two avenues of enmity that end where the truth of existence is laid bare, in all its disconcerting horror.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Sigh - In Somniphobia

Artwork by Eliran Kantor

Sigh's In Somniphobia has just been released on the Candlelight Records Bandcamp. At the core this is black metal. But it is black metal featuring oriental sounding passages (courtesy of the Sarangi, an Indian string instrument), drops of electronic circus music, a blackened lounge song complete with porn sax, hand clapping and squelching keyboards, accordion and chanting, buried trip-hop beats. And so on. And so forth.

There are few blast beats, and very little tremolo picking; most of the blackness is in the vocals. As Dan Obstkrieg puts it in this review from Metal Review:

In Somniphobia is not particularly heavy in any conventional sense, but is so dense and unremitting in its strangeness that you would never really threaten to call it “light”.

It is also fun and catchy, has a much better production than Sigh's previous album Scenes From Hell and is littered with awesome solos, ranging from NWoBHM shredders to jazzy Santana style licks. Read more in these two reviews from Angry Metal Guy and No Clean Singing, and check it out.

Unexpect - Fables of the Sleepless Empire

Cover artwork by Mario Sanchez Nevado

Unexpect has self-released the new album Fables of the Sleepless Empire on their Bandcamp. Progressive metal with growls, screams, double bass pedal, and distortion, but also electronic passages, classical interludes and atmospheric sections. A modern and more metallic version of Mr. Bungle perhaps?

The reviews seem to agree that Fables is more focused and cohesive than their previous album. Here's one originally from The Number of the Blog, and one from Don't Count On It Reviews, who says that "the biggest step up on here, and this really goes in with the better songwriting, is the use of huge sound choruses and vocal melodies".

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]