To The Core...

Thaw / Echoes Of Yul - Untitled (2014)

Do you like your music heavy?  If your answer is “Yes, of course!” then this new split from two Polish bands, Thaw and Echoes Of Yul, will scratch that itch hard enough to draw blood.  Two tracks, ~40 minutes of staggering weight; gives you a good idea of what's in store, yeah?  But allow us to go into a bit more detail on what you'll find should you do the right thing and investigate this release on your own time.

First off, there's Thaw's track, “Earth Grounded”.  As I listened to it, I let my mind drift a little, trying to put some sort of visuals to the colossal sound, which works with bass, drums, and guitar, but treats them up with feedback, reverb, and seriously savvy song-writing to transform those simple components into a force of reckoning.  What came to my mind?   Well, if you can remember an early scene from Terminator, it was pretty close; war-machines looking to wipe out mankind.  But add slow-drifting snow, remove the lasers so that humans and machines have to beat each other to death, and throw in a volcano slowly cracking open as the two forces fight; that's what came to mind as the most appropriate music video for this track.  “Earth Grounded” is a serious piece of work, and while it's almost entirely composed of refining a core riff (you have to hear the bass carving away to really get what they're after), there's more than enough ingenuity and unpredictable developments to keep things from getting repetitive.   And the climax?   Gave me goosebumps, to be honest.

There's a sharp cut from that to Echoes Of Yul's half, which is titled “Asemic”.   Checking a dictionary provides me with the definition of an “inability to comprehend or use communicative symbols,” and while I can't say it entirely fits the track (they get the violence communicated without any trouble), it does fit their mysterious, near-mystical atmosphere.  Distant wails, trails of scraping buzz, careful inflections of guitar touches drawn from the finest funeral doom tradition, and a golden ear for how to build up tension all come together in this one.  I could have sworn I even heard them working in a tastefully-subdued theremin at one point.  The tension of the track builds and builds, giving few hints about how it will resolve, and by the end, I could hardly remember how it had begun, just how much everything had changed.

There's plenty of subtle details in both tracks, offering some nice rewards for those willing to undertake repeated listenings.  Really, the best way I can come up with to describe this release (sparing me from trying to pin-point their myriad of influences) is that it's an incredibly lush and fully-realized journey of sound.  Doomy, epic, cosmic, experimental, drone-utilizing... it's a wild ride, and one which has already received some significant recognition on a global scale.  The label behind this, Instant Classic, has managed quite the score, though physical copies are fast becoming scarce.  Again, if you enjoy heavy music that's unafraid to let the song go where it wills, do not miss out on this one.

~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Indukti, Ulver, Ksyatriya, Sunn O))), Mind (((O))) Reader

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Thaw - Earth Grounded (320 kbps)

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As The World Burns...

Clouds Taste Satanic - To Sleep Beyond The Earth (2014)

With a title that manages to name-drop two titans of king-sized doom while also being an evocative phrase in its own right, To Sleep Beyond The Earth is the first offering from Clouds Taste Satanic.  Setting aside the Flaming Lips inspiration behind the band's name to focus on the content of the album, you'll find that it follows staunchly in the blueprinting established by the vinyl/cassette issuings of Dopesmoker; one colossal song, split into pieces of a digestible size.  Parts I & II (a single track) begin things, while the pairing of III & IV wraps it up, with each of the two adding up to ~22 minutes of sound, ideal for the non-CD releases of this mammoth.

Beginning with the hum of imminent danger, slow-crashing waves of bass, guitar, and a sonorous gong soon surface, building up layers of feedback as the movement shifts into action.  If you're familiar with their named influences, you can probably guess where it goes from there.  For those who aren't, the answer is that they delve into exploring the limits of a riff, guided by massive resonance and carefully-controlled levels of feedback.   As they do so, Clouds Taste Satanic prove that they've got the chops to put this album right behind the works of their idols.  Since this is their first album, that gives you some idea of how much potential this group has in their future; it's also a potent warning that if you're even thinking of going to see this band live, you'll need some serious ear protection.

As relatively easy as it would be for a band looking to pay homage to Dopesmoker to crank up the feedback and volume in an effort to liquify people's eardrums, Clouds Taste Satanic deserve some serious recognition for the hard work they put into giving To Sleep Beyond The Earth engaging sections highlighting the melody behind the rumbling fuzz.   A lot of care went into the crafting of this music, and while it's not as languorous as The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull, there are certainly times when the gentle touch on the guitar's strings brings that piece of Earth to mind.  Something that can often detract from a group's first release is the production, but all the mixing and levels found here are perfectly suited to the material, earning the band still more points.  Get ready for this one to become a monster of legend, and get yourself a copy as soon as you can.

~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Sleep, Earth, Ladybird, Trees, Bongripper

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Clouds Taste Satanic - To Sleep Beyond The Earth (Parts I & II) (320 kbps)

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A Fiery Light...

Mind (((O))) Reader / Ksyatriya - TRUTH (2014)

This split brings together the Australian doom duo of brothers Rahul and Trishay Trada as Ksyatriya, and the more drone-inclined and mysterious duo Mind (((O))) Reader, from Kuala Lampur, which also features Trishay as half of the creative team, alongside an individual named eXile.  Together, they provide one serious space trip.

Mind (((O))) Reader's dronier side starts off the journey with a strong cosmic sample, and lays down a few more in the slow and massive stretches of feedback and resonance which follow it, all of them integrated fantastically into the structures of the songs.  Excellent tonality and wave-shaping reinforce the psychedelic imagery of the artwork and song titles, while the addition of some thunderous drums really galvanizes the proceedings and brings a titanic sensation of power and force pouring out of the speakers.  As their half of the split continues further, some of the buzz to the guitar is burned away, while the tunes get tightened up and generally faster, adding to the sense of progression towards some higher plane.  Though that spine-tingling humming edge to the strings is never fully lost, everything grows to feel sharper and more direct.

As Ksyatriya pick up things on the second half, with an approximation of a deep-space vacuum, they build on the momentum generated by Mind (((O))) Reader, using the pre-developed tension to underline the menace of the leading guitar-work before the bass slams into place.  That menace is held onto as they carry out the rest of their songs, with a hard and low-pitched sonic edge that digs in deeper and deeper.  They also make use of some excellent audio samples, mixed in organically and very effectively.  After some high-power musical violence, the cosmic hum resurfaces towards the end, washing over everything and draining everything into a black hole of sound to close out the voyage.

The split in its entirety is a fairly large undertaking, adding up to one and a half hours of heavy reverb and transformation, but it's also an incredibly rewarding one.  There's an enjoyable sense of structure to the whole thing, something rarely found on splits, and the degree to which they develop it puts most concept albums to shame.  The band has mentioned that a physical release might be in the works, so we'll be keeping an ear tuned for more on that.  Until then, you can pick up each part at the bands' respective BandCamp pages.  Do it!

~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Ufomammut, Major Kong, Bell Witch, Ulver, Thergothon

Ksyatriya's Facebook • Mind (((O))) Reader's BandCamp • Ksyatriya's BandCamp

Mind (((O))) Reader - Procession in the temple of the mind (aRmour of light) (320 kbps)

Ksyatriya - Bitter Existence (320 kbps)

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To Be Consumed...

Sunwølf - Beholden To Nothing And No One (2014)

The third and latest album from UK-based outfit Sunwølf is an intimidatingly sizable affair, clocking in at two discs and ~90 minutes of epic-minded doom with wide vistas of resonance. For the first quarter or so of the first disc album, it's almost like a traditional doom version of post-rock, with attention to developing the details and building up into grandiose crescendos, even as dark, subtle shadows are growing beneath the brighter and more overt elements, with aching vocals and slow strums of instrumentation and soft touches of piano to paint the scenes.

Then the full-on metal vocals erupt from the sedation, the guitar swings into action with a grimy buzz, and they rumble into life like a long-buried war machine reactivated after decades of decay; after a few more songs, the rust has been rattled away, and a cleaner, sharper form emerges, rolling relentlessly on into crushing terrain, until all the concrete forms have been wiped away, leaving them back where they began, with only themselves still around to destroy.

On the second disc, the subdued style returns, with slow passages highlighted by judicious use of audio samples drifting along into sonic hypnosis with gleaming synth and sax tones and spine-tingling bass groans. There's so much to this album that I don't feel I can do it anywhere near the justice it deserves; it's something you just have to hear. Similarly, just one track can't represent all the different moods and wild moments of the album, but until June 30^th, the one down below is all you can get. CDs will be extremely limited (personally, I'm hoping like crazy that some sharp label will license it for a wider release), so be sure to snap one up fast if you have any intention of getting one. Hats off to this group for some truly magnificent work.

~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Godspeed You! Black Emperor, White Darkness, Jesu, Windhand, Wolves In The Throne Room

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Sunwølf - In The Darkened River I Found The Silence Loom (320 kbps)

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Doom And Back Again...

Ladybird - Spliff & Wesson (2013)

The first of two albums released by Ladybird this August (stay tuned to find out about the other in a few days), Spliff & Wesson is, to put it simply, massive. There's only two tracks, but the titles alone give an idea of what's in store; there's Spliff & Wesson, then Nossew & Ffilps, both of them hovering around the 24-minute mark. The first pulls the listener to the middle of the album with a dangerous undertow of bass with enough reverb to make your speakers rumble across the floor, sun-cooked desert rock guitar soup with big doomy production, and enough undulating harmonics to get your head good and properly reeling before it's spooled out across the floor. The B-side (Spliff & Wesson is currently only on CD and cassette, but keep your fingers crossed for a vinyl release!), Nossew & Ffilps, takes everything from the first track and straight-up plays it in reverse! And it works! For 24 more minutes! Pardon me if I seem over-excited, but such a bold move, fixing the success of the album on an ability to compose not only normally, but in reverse, is infrequent enough that having it actually roll its heavy way backwards across that duration (with some fine doom pay-off) makes it almost auto-legendary. Personal prediction: This one will be listed alongside Sleep's Dopesmoker in years to come, for reasons of swirling, riff-loving technique, being colossal, and being a challenging but highly rewarding experience. Beat the rush while you can, get a copy now, listen to it in a dark room, and dig it.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Sleep, Bongripper, Ufomammut, Tons, Wicked Lady

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Spliff & Wesson (320 kbps)



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