Kadotettu – Ihmisyyden viimeiset askeleet

Too much black metal honestly. When working as this blackened, surreal and somber funeral doom (though, more just very slow and depressive black metal) record, the artists intentions of creating a look into suicide and evil is realized in a fantastic way. I love the piano, I love the relaxed and cold guitars, and I feel like I’m getting a unique experience. There’s just too many blast beats. I feel like the middle two tracks are just sort of there, more as filler than anything else, and when it gets aggressive, it loses all of what makes the music so enjoyable. The vocals are also a bit subpar, trying just a tiny bit too hard to be harsh I think. The album is a bit uneventful, but when it works, it works well, and I can truly say it’s the only one of it’s kind I’ve listened to this year.

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7/10

https://kadotettu.bandcamp.com/

Ēōs – Third Demo

Absolutely fantastic demo. The main theme is present, but there’s enough slow evolution to keep your interest, which is really difficult to do in funeral doom. I especially love that opening synth, and really wish they would’ve done a bit more with that, other than play it in the background. It’s this cool moog like synth that sounds like it came right out of a black church service. Obviously it’s hard to comment on something that’s just a demo, but I’m extremely excited to see this band’s first album, moreso than I’ve been for any other band I think. It’s rare to have quality funeral doom outside of major bands, so it’s so inspiring to see it from such an obscure band, especially one that makes a demo that’s this ridiculously well produced.

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8.5/10

https://eosdoom.bandcamp.com/

Grimirg – Night Be My Grave

Creates a really nice calming and depressive atmosphere, and I REALLY love the female vocals. However even for funeral doom standards, and even despite it’s incredibly short length, the album feels uneventful. Even music that’s supposed to be as slow and patience testing as possible needs some kind of variety in it, and I feel like Grimirg just gives you a much more standard experience that’s’ wrapped up in a somewhat unique atmosphere. I think one more track that explores some textures a bit would’ve upped this into the 7 category, but as is, I’ll rate this as enjoyable, but quite disappointing.

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6.75/10

https://grimirg.bandcamp.com/album/night-be-my-grave

Inverloch – Distance | Collapse

If anything, I’ve now found the record I will always lead people to the next time (read; the first time) someone asks me “hey I want to get into death doom / funeral doom, where should I start?”. Inverloch’s debut album takes their experience from diSEMBOWELMENT and uses it to create a much cleaner, listener friendly experience. In a way, this is a massive disappointment. Personally speaking, funeral doom and death doom are genres that, at least speaking for myself, their fans enjoy because of it’s oddball nature. I don’t have a massive amount of experience with death doom outside a few classics, but I do know from what I’ve listened to that it has a certain bit of oddness in often being guttural and monster like, but in a much more subtle and calm way that fans of traditional death metal might not always appreciate. Funeral doom, of which I have lots of experience, takes this even further. Aside from the obvious aspect of slowling doom metal to a crawl, you have bands like Thergothon, early Esoteric, early Funeral, Fungoid Stream, Sketicism’s Stormcrowfleet, fucking Mordor, and other artists who push the boundaries of what could be considered sane music, even by metal standards. Even Ahab’s Call of the Wretched Sea, which is considered to be THE starting point for an aspiring funeral doom fan, is a pretty weird album to someone who isn’t familiar with the genre. The almost whispered vocals and unapologetically low budget synths would be strange to anyone who didn’t really know what to expect out of funeral doom. In a way, I feel like in order to be a great funeral or death doom record, you need a bit of weirdness to give your record personality.

There is no weirdness to be found on Distance | Collapse. It seems like this record was tailor made to be funeral/death doom for people who had never heard either of those genres before. On all levels, this is a textbook example of every genre this album includes (funeral doom, death doom, death metal). Fuck, they even separate which genres they use at which times. Sometimes they’ll be death doom, then transition over to pure death metal, then transition over to pure funeral doom, etc. It’s like that one Benjamin Britten piece A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, where they separate all the instruments from each other to give the beginning as sampler of what each instrument sounds like. That’s basically what this album is, a sampler of all 3 genre’s involved. It’s even less than 40 minutes to boot, because you know, who has time to actually get into a genre, let alone 3?

Now I want to make this clear, what I’ve been saying is not necessarily a criticism of the album as much as it is a comment on how it works in my mind. Even as by the book death doom, this is about as good as you can get by only following the guide in the imaginary book of metal genres. It’s like cooking a recipe exactly by the book (god, why the fuck do I use food in my metaphors so much, I only eat like 2 meals a day, what the fuck?). It’s going to be fine doing it that way, but it’ll lack personal touch, and often that’s what separates a good meal from a fantastic meal. Distance | Collapse sounds like a very impersonal album, as if these death doom veterans were going through the motions, rather than trying to create a unique masterpiece such as Transcendence Into the Peripheral. It’s still a good piece of music that I absolutely enjoyed listening to, but it’s clear that some (maybe a lot) of creative spark is simply gone.

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7/10

Goatpsalm – Downstream

This is THE album to prove that Rateyourmusic ratings are complete bullshit. This has some of the most unique atmosphere I’ve heard in an album this year. How often do you hear siberian mouth harps with funeral doom metal, combined with nature recordings and tribal drums? And it’s not just unique, it’s done well. It feels like an ode to the mystical natural world, and it feels that way in a completely organic manner. Sure there are some moments where the synths are a bit misplaced, or the vocals sound a bit too bizzare, but otherwise this is a spectacular work whose premise I have never experienced before, and boy am I glad I gave this a chance. There’s no joke here, just fucking listen to this you dweeb.

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8.5/10

Ill Omen – Æ.Thy.Rift

Insanely atmospheric and murky blackened funeral doom. It’s like you here the intro to the album, and you’re like “yeah this is gonna be really awesome”, and then you realize the intro IS the album, but that’s actually not a bad thing for once. You could argue either way if this is primarily black metal or funeral doom metal, and it would push the boundaries of both. Really unique and great stuff, just wish it had just a bit more of those juicy dark ambient synths instead of guitars.

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7.75/10

Electric Lizard’s Shortstacks – 2/29/2016

Preface: So I’ve been thinking of ways to combat my eventually exhaustion from reviewing, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the biggest reason this happens is because I tend to feel like I have to write a master piece for every review. That includes when I simply don’t have much to say about an album. I’ll get “stuck” on an album that I feel like I should have a lot to say about, but I don’t. Simply put, I really don’t want to take an entire post for a review that’s not even 200 words long. So my solution is every day I’m going to take the albums that I don’t have much to say about, and put them in one post. That way I can get through a lot more albums much quicker, and without the pressure of having to write 700+ words. So without further adieu, here is the first ever edition of Electric Lizard’s Shortstacks.

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Eissturm – The Oak

Really solid work. I love the intermixing of the acoustic guitar sections with the straight atmo black parts. It gives it so much more of a melancholy feel. It doesn’t feel repetitive and monotonous, more just relaxing and reflective. It even has some really soothing flutes on the first track Falling Snow, which I felt was a really unique addition to the music that I don’t here in black metal much. You would think with the whole winter theme that flutes would run rampant (sounding just like a cold winter wind), but alas. The production is also in that sweet spot of clean enough to not sound like shit, and fuzzy enough to make you feel warm inside. Granted, it still ultimately sounds like an amateur work, but it’s a solid amateur work that’s worth listening to. I was expecting this to be total shit, so I’m pleasantly surprised. Good stuff.

7/10

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Agoraphobic Nosebleed – Arc

Really not a fan. The guitar work and riffs are just mediocre, if inoffensive. But the vocals are a squeaky, annoying piece of shit. It basically sounds exactly what a grindcore band transitioning to sludge metal for some reason would sound like: they don’t know what they’re doing, and traces of their previous genre are still laden throughout the work, to ill effect. It’s not awful, but I certainly won’t be playing this again anytime soon. A major disappointment.

5.25/10

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Bosque – Beyond

Wow what a disappointment. I was really hoping the second funeral doom album I’d listen to this year would be a real hit. Unfortunately, this isn’t so much funeral doom metal as much as it is regular doom metal extended over 13 minute tracks. The album is really monotonous and boring without any of the charm or atmosphere of traditional funeral doom. Bosque decided to ditch the synths, ditch the death growls, and everything that gives funeral doom it’s quirky charm, instead deciding to just play slower standard doom track 3 times in a row, for 40 minutes straight. Beyond is beyond boring, don’t bother with this snoozefest.

3.75/10

 

Lycus – Chasms ALBUM REVIEW

It’s already January -1st and I already have an album I was hyped about! Lycus’ 2013 debut was an extremely solid funeral doom record with massive soundscapes that gave off an aura of depression, somberness, and I would even say oddly enough, hope at times. It didn’t feel nearly as bleak as other funeral doom records do. However now the gloves are off, and Lycus starts right off with a guitar shriek, before going into a dirge of filth and doom.

While I would put Tempest on the lighter side of funeral doom, Chasms feels like its title indicates, that it’s the sound that lurks in the chasms of the underworld. However, while it is refreshing to hear a different sound, I don’t think that’s what Lycus does best. Their best work is when they throwback to their last record, ironically on the title track of the album. What really gets me about this track is the harmonies and chords they use, specifically starting at around the 8 minute mark.

They go through a slew of jazzy chords, including the repeated use of the C7b5 (if it’s not C, it’s still certainly a 7b5). You don’t often hear jazz chords in funeral doom, so I never quite realized how refreshing and delightful it is. It’s sort of like putting together whiskey and ice cream. Hard hitting, but with some sweetness to it, though I imagine getting drunk off whiskey and ice cream would be a lot more pleasant than getting drunk while listening to funeral doom. While I wasn’t feeling the violins to close and end the piece (they felt more like decoration than anything else), the track itself was a lush, beautiful, and heartbreaking doom ballad that’s easily the best track on the album.

However then the band does something even different from that, going into an infrequent blast beat frenzy on Mirage, with the track sounding more chaotic and less pleasing to hear than what they previously offered. It’s certainly an interesting direction, but it’s not the direction I think the band should go. As I said before, Lycus is at their best when the listener feels sorrowful, yet strangely inspired, not when the listener to scrambling to figure out what the heck they’re listening to. The fourth track feels like a mere afterthought, meant to be an epic finale, but feels drawn out and bland compared to the rest of the tracks on the album.

Overall this is another solid record from the US based doom band, a slight improvement at that. However there are times where I simply get bored, and as much as I can praise this, there’s never a moment where I feel like this album is any more than an 8 at max.

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7.5/10

Ahab – The Boats of the Glen Carrig ALBUM REVIEW

Full disclosure, Ahab is my favorite band. I even went so far as to get an Ahab shirt for Christmas, one which I’ll gladly show off for years to come. I’ve been saving this review for the end of the year, as I feel like it would be a nice closure to 2015. However I found that I really just don’t have a whole lot to say about this record.

It follows the familiar Ahab sound, with crushing doomy riffs (albeit at a slightly more brisk pace this time), coupled with beautiful calming clean vocals, and acoustic passages. On previous Ahab records I felt that they were exploring the notion of wandering at sea, with the waves crashing against your vessel, creating a struggle of man vs water. On The Boats of the Glen Carrig, I feel like Ahab has finally dove into the water, as the cover indicates, giving off a more atmospheric and lighter approach, rather than being sloth like in their riffs, which makes me feel like I’m exploring the vast, colorful landscape of the ocean floor that’s filled with life, rather than the bleak, desolate surface. Ahab has almost totally abandoned the funeral doom aspect of their music, making this much more a post-death doom record than anything else.

It goes without saying that this is a fantastic record, though that’s more due to the fact that I’m not sure if Ahab can produce something that’s not amazing. But, hold on a sec guys. Nalpam Records. The second in command of the Legion of Shitty Entry-Level Records (also know as L.O.S.E.R) right behind Nuclear Blast. So of course they gotta make this more accessible to the avant-teen. In this case, while the tracks are fantastic, they follow an extremely predictable pattern of acoustic intro, buildup, crushing doom section, outro. Every single track does this without fail. There’s none of the subtle variety of the previous Ahab albums. While the sound is great, it overall feels sterile and catered towards mass appeal.

So yes, I feel like this is Ahab’s worst output yet. That isn’t really saying much however, as Boats is still a marvelous record that even when tainted by big industry, manages to stand out above the rest of the Napalmed metal jungle as one of the best doom albums of the year.

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8.75/10

Cult Leader – Lightless Walk ALBUM REVIEW

It’s not secret that as far as imagery and atmosphere in metal, violence is a key component to the more harsh scene. This is especially prevalent in the more underground death metal, sludge metal, and then more ubiquitously grindcore, crust punk, deathgrind, etc. Lightless Walk is absolutely no exception to that, featuring mostly shorter tracks that beat your face in while making in a point in as little time as possible, then continuing on to the next track of mostly the same thing. While this is pretty standard for crust punk, even though it is especially well executed here, the major difference that makes this album truly great is the way they change up the emotional pace of the album, and utilize much more melancholy atmosphere’s to contrast the violent smashing of heads with a more reflective approach.

The shorter tracks are exactly what you’d expect from a crust punk band. Violent, abrasive, rebellious snippets of punk anger towards an unjust world. While these are executed well here, I feel like they’re more filler than the central part of the album. Not as if they aren’t need, quite the opposite in fact. It’s just I feel like they’re there more to supplement the more soft sections so as to create a proper conflict.

And boy what a conflict it is. Or rather, how little of a conflict it is despite the opposing atmospheres. While for the most part these approaches remain contained in separate tracks, the listener gets a glimpse of what could be in tracks like Sympathetic. The start of the song seems like a fairly standard track among what you’d expect in a crust punk album. However at around the halfway mark, there’s a subtle bit of melodic structure and soft tones interwoven in the harsh music, which creates probably the best moment in the album. It catches you totally off guard, and turns out just to be a teaser for what is to come.

Unfortunately, there is never another look at the two styles mixed together, however on tracks like How Deep it Runs, and A Good Life, you,  do get the change of pace of slower, doomy, melancholy pieces. I’ve always thought that tonality is best used sparingly in which it is mostly absent. That is, mostly atonal with some tonality for maximum effect. To me it feels like such a release to listen to, having listened to all those “unpleasant” tones, and then finally getting the sweet release of a major triad. Lightless Walk doesn’t do this enough, but when it does, it’s quite something to hear. But what really separates this album is not just the fact that it combines harsh with soft, but in how slow those soft sections are. Like I said earlier, this borders on funeral doom at times, going so slow that it forces you to reflect on the music, rather than just take what it gives you at face value. The repetitive riffs on these tracks add a hypnotic feel that lulls you into a sense of daydream, completely forgetting all the pain the previous tracks reminded you life can bring.

If there’s anything really wrong with this, it’s its length, clocking in at not quite 37 minutes. It’s not really a bad length, but I feel like an extra 7-8 minutes or so would’ve done a lot of good. They also could’ve spaced the longer tracks with the shorter tracks a bit better, as right now it seems a bit random as to when you’ll hear one, rather than being more evenly spaced and used as tactical breaks. Even so, this is a fantastic album that reaches just under the AOTY candidate category. Worth a listen to anyone looking for a different kind of crust punk album.

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8.75/10