Light Bearer - Silver Tongue

Written by Craig Hayes.


What is it that you truly seek in heavy music? If it's a straightforward headbanging path of least resistance, then Light Bearer’s latest album, Silver Tongue, is not for you. It is neither expeditious nor immediate, and it’s all the better for its complexity. Like many profound works of art, it's serpentine in its sagacity, weaving labyrinthine trails of philosophical and metaphysical radicalism—leading, one hopes, to true enlightenment.

Formed in London in 2010, Light Bearer is a means for vocalist Alex to pursue his Æsahættr Tetralogy narrative in musical from. His allegorical tale--which draws influence from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, the book of Genesis, and John Milton's Paradise Lost—emphasizes "atheist/anti theist and radical left wing/free thought ideologies". It seeks to highlight, and thereby dismantle, doctrines that "should have been abandoned before the dark ages". Lofty goals indeed, and you can't fault Light Bearer’s dedication to the mammoth task at hand.

The bulk of Alex's tale will be unfurled over the course of four full-lengths. The band's 2011 debut, Lapsus, covered chapter one, with offshoot themes explored on the subsequent Beyond the Infinite; The Assembly of God EP, and the Celestium Apocrypha: Book of Watchers split with Northless. Silver Tongue continues chapter two of the story.

The band plays an aptly Herculean and theatrical mix of post-hardcore and ambient and progressive metal, and multi-layered musical edifices rise and descend as Alex's story unfolds. That movement is obviously familiar—Isis or Ufomammut rattle and rumble with the same momentum—but Light Bearer does not mechanically follow any previous maneuvers. Counterpointing the hymnal and the hostile is obviously de rigueur for a post-hardcore aesthetic, but Light Bearer's motivations are tied to evolutionary ideas. Thus, its sound is not limited by what is 'allowed'.

Silver Tongue offers plenty of sonic depth, with fluctuating time changes and oscillating excursions bound to the raw, gut-felt passion of the material. The hum and thrum of strings and/or keyboards, on "Matriarch", "Silver Tongue" and "Beautiful is This Burden", encourage you to search for meaning in their mournful swells. Meanwhile, the feverish blasts of hardcore and ice-cold sludge on "Amalgam" and "Aggressor & Usurper" display all the vexation and wrath. Each individual track explores avenues both serene and severe, but all come together to form an over-arching movement. Collectively, Silver Tongue is operatic in scope, its musical and thematic astuteness offering myriad colors and textures that mix pummel and dynamism with perceptiveness.

Silver Tongue bears the hallmarks of erudite post-hardcore, and that ensures its potency. Its 80-minute running time may seem intimidating at first, but the album doesn't wane. It remains wholly intriguing, as colossally heavy build-ups explode around important plot points, and atmospheric soundscapes convey the tale in mystical and material form. Light Bearer has an important message to convey, seeking to obliterate those ideologies that have stifled and subjugated freedom for far too long. Silver Tongue is a potent artistic statement, and it is delivered with indomitable intelligence and commitment.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Wolves in the Throne Room - Malevolent Grain

Wolves in the Throne Room have opened a Bandcamp page, and released the majority of their catalog to it. You're probably aware of WITTR's full-length albums Two Hunters (2007), Black Cascade (2009) and Celestial Lineage (2011), and they're all here (the only one missing is their debut full-length Diadem of 12 Stars from 2006). So I would like to point you in the direction of the EP Malevolent Grain, which was released three months before Black Cascade in 2009.

Malevolent Grain contains two very different songs. The first one, A Looming Resonance, is brooding, almost psalm-like medium to fast paced black metal, featuring solemn female vocals. The second, Hate Crystal, is a carefully crafted piece of black metal, first white hot and furious, then dissolving into ambiance and digital effects. If you don't like contrasts in your music, then maybe this EP is not for you, as these quotes from various reviews imply:

the first track is very strong and melodic, the second track sounds very much [like] throwaway B-side material.

The first track is nice for a few times, but [...] gets less interesting after more listens. Hate Crystal hasn’t yet let me down once though and is one of Wolves’ finest

[Hate Crystal is] a ten-minute masterpiece of black metal, [...] but tragically sharing space with an absolute clunker.

I like contrasts, and I think Malevolent Grain is an astonishing success. Individually the two songs are great; but they also work really well together, mixing the brutal and soothing aspects of black metal to great effect. The end result is one of those great EP's, where the whole is better than the sum of it parts.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Another album not available on the WITTR Bandcamp is Live at Roadburn 2008. But you can find it as a name your price download at the Burning World Records Bandcamp, right here.

Ladybird - Demo 2012

Written by Ulla Roschat.


Heaviness Is Spelled L-A-D-Y-B-I-R-D

Ladybird are a three piece US band from Tempe/AZ. The band was formed in 2011 and this demo was released in April 2012.

The three songs of this demo are basically heavy slow, sludge/doom riffs, thick with distortion and fuzz, to monotonous repetitive bass and drum rhythms plus snarling screeching vocals.

Monotonous yes, but it doesn’t feel like that at all. Instead the hypnotizing entrancing rhythms first draw you into a viscous magma-like sea of fuzzy heavy riffs, but then also save you from drowning in this sea of sound. The crashing cymbals cut a path through the thickness and the steady bass provides at least a tiny sense of motion.

Almost everything in the songs goes to the max... fuzz, distortion, feedback, repetition, slowness, and above all heaviness. The only thing kept a tight hold on here is change. The more precious are the moments where change occurs.

In the first song Ontological Physicalism, when it is about halfway through..., some short breaks of the cymbal beats and you are at the mercy of the overwhelming riffs, yet you enjoy the release from the repetition. Gone Away offers a break towards the end. A small island of a fuzz free quiet little blues jam gives you time to shake off the sludge crusts, just to be thrown into the droning noisy last song Slow, and here you finally drown... slowly.

This demo is far more than just a heavy sludge beast. Ladybird have a very special way to feast on abundance and simplicity at the same time, which makes a great deal of the demo’s appeal and fascination. This is 27 minutes of pure listening pleasure..., and highly addictive.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]