Post-Metal

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    Year of No Light – Tocsin (2013)

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    If you ignore the weird side-step that was “ Vampyr”, “Tocsin” is the perfect continuation for the band’s previous masterpiece “Ausserwelt”. Year of No Light arrives from France with a pummeling dosage of Instrumental Doom/Sludge Metal that will make melt your faces. Crafting over 57 minutes of music, this six-piece outfit delivers one of the most intense and complex Doom/Sludge releases we have heard in quite a while.

    The album title track kicks things off with a heavy atmospheric intro that slowly melts into a full-on Sludge riff-aton. We particularly love how the track around the 5th minute takes a turn to the Doom side of things with some think melancholic guitars. The band’s versatility is pushed further with the Post-Metal/Rock-ish anthem “Géhenne”. The guitars are pushed to the limit and so is the pulsating bass guitar line on this one. The band keeps the intensity going and instead of being the typical band that climaxes and then slowly drifts away, they keep pushing the intensity of their sound further and further.

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    Doyle Airence – Monolith (2013)

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    With a French scene recently growing in numbers and strength, Doyle Airence is another excellent band that is finally getting some attention in the international scene. “Monolith” marks the band’s sophomore release and mixes elements of Post-Hardcore with Ambient. Rock, and Metal. The band’s very unique sound will surely grab you attention and divide opinions since they are far from your typical run-of-the-mill ‘up and coming’ band.

    Kicking off with a mood setting atmospheric track, “03.11.11”, it is not until “Painting with Lights” were we first hear the band’s punishing guitars. In this track we have a very typical Pos-Hardcore approach to thins, with devastating screamed vocals and pummeling drums. It is not until “Friendly Fire” that we get some of the band’s more experimental side with a modern sounding Metalcore-ish vibe and some very solid Post-Rock/Post-Metal passages thrown in between. While we are not huge fans of the Metalcore-ish clean vocals, they still fit the melodic aspect of the song very well.

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    Winterblood – Herbstsehnsucht (2013)

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    Making its way from Germany, today we have Winterblood and their debut full-length “Herbstsehnsucht”. Mixing Black Metal with some Doom elements, this Post-BM release is one tough cookie to crack. At first some things seem a bit rough, but once you get the whole picture of the album it comes together nicely in a very unconventional way.

    The album starts with the mysterious opener “Nur der Tod hat mir Erlösung gebracht”. In this track the band nicely builds up to some brutal sections with harsh screams. While the music is well-crafted, the drums are programmed and sound a bit fake in some points. We are usually very picky about this, but most of the time you can’t tell them apart. Taking the opposite approach, “Mit jedem Abschied wird Erinnerung geboren” starts very heavy and slowly mellows out as it concludes. The atmospheric sections have some Drone-like elements and really help setting up a dark and cavernous mood.

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    Acacia – Tills döden skiljer oss åt (2013)

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    Just when you think you have almost heard everything under the sun, it comes a truly moving release like Acacia’s debut full-length “Tills döden skiljer oss åt”. Melancholic and depressive are adjectives that barely start to describe the mood and atmosphere of this soul (and spirit) crushing album. Formed originally under the name of Livsnekad, this Swedish outfit manages to deliver 61 minutes of truly moving music that we will do our best to try to do justice while describing.

    The solemn piano opening of “Död mans mask” really builds anticipation and once the clean vocals come on, the mood suddenly gets even darker. As “Förnimmelsens lund af längtan” opens, the riffs remind us a bit of bands like Draconian and Desire with a certain atmospheric touch of My Dying Bride. Being huge fans of Death/Doom Metal, the growls are up to par to any of the heavy hitters of the scene, a very important element to contrast the atmosphere of the music. The Black Metal influences kick in and elevate the music to a whole new level, featuring extremely contrasting brutality with a highly atmospheric content. As the song winds down, we get some nice Post-Rock/Depressive Rock final minutes that serve as a relaxing culmination to this excellent track.

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    Thränenkind – The Elk (2013)

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    From the highly creative mind of Nathanael, of Bonjour Tristesse and Agrypnie fame, today we have Thränenkind’s debut full-length “The Elk”. Being released through LifeForce Records, this powerful exercise in desolate and depressive music combines Post-Black Metal elements with Depressive Rock and a huge knack for bleak musical passages. With influences from bands like Heretoir and Austere (among others) to more Post-Rock outfits like God Is an Astronaut and Godspeed Your Black Emperor, this is one emotional rollercoaster ride that you do not want to miss.

    Brilliantly setting the mood with the desolate “Monument”, we don’t have to wait much to get fully immerse in the band’s melancholic music. The first heavy hitting song is the ethereal “Just Another Way of Expressing Defeat”. Featuring dreamy guitars and a very mellow pace, this is one song that is very well constructed, transporting the listener back and forth from ethereal dream states.

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    Petrychor / Frozen Ocean – Autumn Bridges (2013)

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    Having released over 10 releases in the last two and a half years, the creativity keeps flowing for Russian’s one-man band Frozen Ocean. In this split with Petrychor, another excellent one-man project from the States, we get three powerful tracks of highly Atmospheric Black Metal that will surely make you want to find more material from each band and start enjoying their excellently crafted music.

    Opening with Petrychor’s “Tomorrow It Will Rain Over Bouville”, Tad Piecka treats us to a 133-minute piece of brilliant crafting that is both highly emotional and very powerful. Starting with a lush and slow intro section, the song quickly builds up to very melodic and straightforward Black Metal with a very dreamy atmospheric backdrop. The sharp vocals are excellent and provide an excellent contrast to the very mellow and melancholic feeling of the music. This track is anything but predictable and some of the acoustic/post-rockish passages are perfectly blended into the harsher and more brutal sections.

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    Sadgiqacea - False Prism (2013)

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    With everybody and their mothers playing Doom/Sludge Metal it is getting quite annoying to weed out the bad releases from the good ones without investing too much time in it. Luckily for us, Sadgiqacea made it very easy since the first song of their debut release “False Prism” is pretty epic and quite unique from your average band in the genre. Hailing from the USA, this two-piece delivers four crushing tracks of powerful Doom/Sludge that will greatly appeal to fans of bands like Black Cobra all the way to Neurosis.

    Opening with “False Segments”, the band pummels away with some very cool (and heavy) guitars that are above your average repetitive Doom/Sludge guitar work. The band’s knack for creative rhythms and excellent musical skills allows them to sound different while retaining the griminess of the genre. As the track nears its end, there are some very cool details that made us enjoy it even more.

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    Entropia – Vesper (2013)

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    Hailing from Poland, today we have Entropia and their debut full-length release “Vesper”. Mixing Black Metal with some Sludge and Post-Metal elements, this band shows great promise in their six tracks spanning over 49 minutes of music. While not being overly cliché, the band nicely mixes different influences to create some interesting atmospheres in their very decently crafted sound.

    Opening with “Dante”, we get a typical Black Metal opening followed by some powerful atmospheric keyboards and some solid Sludge/Post-Metal rhythmical section. “Gauss” shows off some of the band’s more melodic side while keeping their effective riffs and very well paced drums. Things get a bit more dramatic with the harsh screams of desperation in “Pascal”, one of the best tracks in this release thanks to the very slow tempo and rawness of the song.

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    Apocynthion – Sidereus Nuncius (2013)

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    Going over tons of releases every month, we rarely get to enjoy unexpected masterpieces like Apocynthion’s “Sidereus Nuncius”. Having received the promo directly from the band, we got immediately hooked into their music after the first song and we have been constantly listening to it non-stop since then. Delivering seven tracks of majestic Post-Rock/Post Black Metal with Shoegaze and some Doom elements, the band’s sound is quite moving and powerful.

    Opening in a very dreamy note with a sample from “2001: A Space Odyssey” on top of atmospheric arrangements, the band commands attention with this hypnotic opening. “Redshift” continues with a Post-Rock vibe, similar to Godspeed Your Black Emperor and God is an Astronaut, filled with cool percussions and dreamy clean vocals. This ten-minute track slowly morphs into Post-Black Metal territories with powerful and dreamy guitars accompanied by shrieks of desperation. The band reminded us of Heretoir, Lantlos and similar outfits, but they always keep their own musical identity.

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    Shakhtyor – Shakhtyor (2013)

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    Originally released back in 2012 as an independent album, Cyclone Empire has scooped up Shakhtyor, a German outfit and their very powerful four track self-titled debut full-length. While many people are raving and loving all the new Sludge/Post-Metal releases, we have to say that sometimes they are just plain and dull and unluckily this is album belongs to this category. We understand that being repetitive and ‘crushing’ is part of the deal, but when you have 40 minutes of music revolve around 8 riffs, it is just unacceptable.

    Opening with “E. Jasper”, the band sets the mood for the whole song in the first minute and then it just drones around the same for almost nine minutes… WTF. We are aware of the need to build momentum and create a crushing wall of sound, but this band just delivers half and leaves you hanging like when the lights go out while watching porn. The most salvageable track of this release is “Handschuhmann”, a 7 minute piece that actually has some structure and nicely builds-up to a semi-climaxing stage.

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