One of the few death metal bands I actually care about nowadays, the UK’s Mithras combines a intricate approach with delightfully otherworldly lead work that helps to separate them from the hordes of other ultra-technical acts out there. Having released their last full-length back in 2007, the band has apparently decided to break the silence with this short EP. Time Never Lasts consists of only two new tracks and three live recordings, but hey, at least it’s something.
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Falloch’s crushing debut album hasn’t left my rotation since I first heard it several weeks ago. Where Distant Spirits Remain is fresh, melodic and has just enough heaviness to keep you from feeling like a wimp after listening to it. In a lot of ways this album reminds me of Solstafir’s recent masterpeice Kold, with its clean vocal attack and subtle progressive leanings. In other ways these guys are reminiscent of bands like Anathema, Extol, or even bands like Fen, Agalloch and Alcest. Basically, if you like atmospheric, emotionally driven metal you’ll most certainly dig these guys.
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This is one of those collaborations that stands well on its own and transcends the individual styles of both bands. I knew what to expect from The Body after their crushing 2010 release All The Waters of the Earth Turn To Blood, but Braveyoung was a bit of a wildcard. The end result is not too far off from The Body’s sound on their previous release, but the music is tinged with a sinister undercurrent that helps these songs to seem more complete than the band’s usual material.
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Part of me was hoping that Forgotten Tomb’s latest album Under Saturn Retrograde would be at least a partial return to their older musical style, but I’m not really surprised with how it turned out. The new release follows the stylistic changes of 2007’s Negative Megalomania, gradually moving away from the band’s doomy black metal sound in favor of a more rock-based approach. These most recent two albums have been kind of a watered-down version of the Italian group’s once-potent depressive sound, occasionally flashing tempting glimpses of darkened brilliance but more often coming up short.
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Dort Ist Der Weg, the latest from Chicago’s enigmatic duo Locrian, maybe suffers a bit from being in the shadow of the band’s monolithic previous release The Crystal World, but it does provide another frightening glimpse into the band’s unique musical vocabulary.
The short EP consists of two tracks, the title track and another new one titled ‘Frozen in Ash.’ While the latter track basically sounds like a continuation of some of the band’s musical ideas from The Crystal World, the titular track ‘Dort Ist Der Weg,’ a cover of German krautrock act Popol Vuh, shows a new side of the band. We’re presented with a more stripped-down version of the band’s sound, but at the same time it’s a lot more musical and coherent, plodding along steadily while largely avoiding the creepy depths Locrian’s sound often reaches. The ghostly female vocals and slow crawl of the drums gives us a taste of what Locrian might sound like if they decided to limit themselves to a basic sludge sound. It’s not as immersive as their usual material, but interesting nonetheless.
‘Frozen In Ash’ reminds us why we keep coming back to this band in the first place. The seamless transitions between different textures and the brilliant contrast between harsh, alien soundscapes and soothing ambience is just as potent on this track as it was on The Crystal World, although some of its effectiveness is lost without the greater context that an album’s worth of music provides. If anything, this EP just whets our appetite for another full-length.
» Download ‘Dort Ist Der Weg’ for free from Epitonic
Swedish one-man project Srodek seemingly has all the elements in place: a mysterious foreign band name, a bleak winter scene adorning the cover of their album, and good connections, with mainman Jon Bäcklund aka Nekrofucker also doing session and live work for Svarti Loghin. With that kind of pedigree you’d expect this album to be at least decent, and for the most part it delivers. Förfall is a little inconsistent, but when the album is at its best it delivers a beautifully subtle take on black metal that evokes man’s solitary, primitive roots.
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Isolation’s newest release actually had me somewhat excited - with its serene cover art and the band’s recent split with Austere, I anticipated getting at least a few weeks’ worth of enjoyment out of this album. Unfortunately, Closing A Circle turned out to be the musical equivalent of suffering through Shia LaBoeuf’s performances in Transformers movies. Musically the album was odd but fundamentally enjoyable, but the powerfully repellant force of the singer’s monotone vocals makes sitting through the album’s 46 minutes pretty torturous.
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Norway’s Manes have finally called it quits for good according to their official blog. Fortunately they’ve also left us with tons of musical ideas and unfinished tracks which should keep fans busy for quite awhile. Included is a rough version of the Be All End All album which never actually got released.
I’m a little late to the party with these guys, having only just recently picked up a copy of Vilosophe, but I’m still bummed out that we won’t be seeing any more official Manes releases. The band’s avant garde metal approach is starting to see more and more imitators in today’s scene, but none have been quite up to the same level as Manes’s concoctions on albums like Vilosophe and View. Very cool and classy of these guys to give the fans some last pseudo-releases to chew on.
» Manes Official Blog
You know that stupid ad where the guy goes to rock school and learns to play rock guitar? Turns out something like that sort of does exist, thanks to Sick Drummer magazine. The folks at Sick Drummer are putting together a 5-day drummer camp that features George Kollias (Nile), Derek Roddy (Hate Eternal), Sean Reinert (Death/Cynic), Danny Walker (Uphill Battle/Intronaut) and Navene Koperweis (Animals As Leaders), plus guest appearances by several other professionals.
From the press release:
The event is open to those 18 and older and will be held the first week of October in Northern California, about an hour north of San Fransisco on a 5 acre private retreat. This retreat is amazing and offers seclusion, various class/performance spaces, lounge areas, hot tubs, an inground pool, billiards, hiking trails and much more. We will be close to nearby stores, shopping, restaurants, wineries, a casino and many other attractions.
This is not only a chance for you to learn from some of the best drummers available, but a chance to hang out with them for a week! You will be eating with the instructors, racing go-karts and doing other fun activities with them, and pretty much getting to know them over the course of the event. You will not only walk away with what you have learned, but with some new friends in the drumming world and what is bound to be one of the best experiences of your life. Not to mention, all of this will be filmed for a DVD!
Kind of makes me wish I was good enough at drums to go to this. It’s not cheap obviously, but how many times are you gonna get to do something like this?
Check out the press release page for details on how to sign up:
» Sick Drummer Camp
Icelandic metallers Sòlstafir have set a title and release date for their new album, which will come out later this fall. The follow-up to 2009’s Kold will be called Svartir Sandar and should come out on October 18th in the US.
Sòlstafir also recently joined Season of Mist, which means that their album should be much easier to get a hold of this time around. That’s great news for fans in the US, since Kold was next to impossible to find in the states.
I’m pretty excited about the prospect of a new album from these guys, since Kold was one of my top two or three albums from ‘09. You can follow the band on Facebook to keep up with the latest news about the album.
