Drone Metal

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    Wreckmeister Harmonies – Night of Your Ascension (2015)

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    Featuring over 30 musicians ranging from members of Yakuza to The Body, Wreckmester Harmonies is the brainchild of J.R. Robinson. Mixing elements of Drone, Doom, Post-Metal, and ambient into one very dense wall of sound, the collective creates haunting music that goes beyond just making crushing and punishing tracks. In this release we are presented with two monumental tracks that combined clock in around 48 minutes of sheer darkness and emotion.

    Leading the charge we have the opening 32-minute behemoth “Night of Your Ascension” which starts in a very ethereal way. The bone-chilling female angelic voices slowly lead into compelling string instrument arrangements just before it all turns completely somber with some punishing Doom riffs. This transition is handled in a very masterful way, as the tension is slowly rising. The heavier side of this track is filled with punishing riffs and some hellish screams that create a sense of urgency due to their aggressive nature.

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    Old Witch – Come Mourning Come (2014)

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    Finally reaching a wider audience, today we have Old Witch and their chilling debut full-length “Come Mourning Come”, re-released on Sun & Moon Records. With 36 minutes of aural savagery, this American band manages to release a highly dissonant and punishing release that will appeal to all fans of the intersection between Black/ Doom Metal / Noise / Drone.

    The album opens with the throbbing “Funeral Rain” and its thick droning sounds and hellish atmospheric keyboards. Like something straight out of the movie “Event Horizon”, this song sets a very sinister mood for the rest of the album. The band spares no expense and creates a truly bizarre and sickening atmosphere with “This Land Has Been Cursed” and “God ov Wolves”, expertly continuing their decadent musical spew through nearly the first half of this release.

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    Culls - The Dross Play Vol​.​1 (2013)

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    Arriving from Italy, today we have a very odd and beautifully disturbing release titled “The Dross Play Vol.1” by Culls. In this five-song release, we get a very interesting mixture of ambient and noise with a few hints of drone elements. While most releases of this genre drag songs along for 10-20 minutes, Culls delivers short and concise assaults that will elevate your conscious levels to new heights.

    Opening with the incisive “Scott 1912”, the dissonant noise elements perfectly blend with the trippy atmospherics and the spoken word samples to create a very tense and chaotic feeling. With a very apt title, “Spiral Staircase” delivers a very hypnotic droning dirge that feels like walking on an endless staircase. Quite interesting indeed how Culls, manipulates their elements to create very unique and engaging soundscapes.

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    Kajkyt – II (2013)

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    Filed under the category of unsettling and weird, today we have Kajkyt and his latest release titled “II”. Featuring eight tracks of very unique and different compositions, Kajkyt dwells in the lands of Dark-Ambient / Drone with a very mellow mood and some trippy elements. Clearly not for everybody, this release is better enjoyed on a dark room in a cold night to fully get the very minimalistic effect being transmitted in these eight tracks.

    Delivering a powerful opener track titled “I”, Kajkyt delivers distorted bass with simplistic electronics alongside some drones. Once the sorrowful clean vocals start leading the song, we are instantly hooked on the premise of the album, and eagerly awaiting for what is next to come. “II” is the longest song of the album and the whole atmosphere slows down considerably for some Noise elements to shine with a very ritualistic and minimalistic backdrop.

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    Frozen Ocean – Oneiric In Geocentrism (2011)

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    Extremely productive one-man project Frozen Ocean delivers their one of their four full-length releases of 2011 with the transcendental “Oneiric In Geocentrism”. Featuring over 65 minutes of nightmare-inducing Dark Ambient/Drone music, this release feels like a journey through space. While we are bigger fans of Frozen Ocean’s Atmospheric Black Metal, this album delivers a similar vibe that will send chills down your spine.

    Setting off with “The Striding Watchtower”, the mood is very mystic and ethereal allowing the listener to fully immerse into Frozen Ocean’s world. Our sidereal journey continues with the tense “A Chink in Coelosphere” and “Levitation”, two tracks that clock in around 24 minutes of intense atmospheric brilliance. On a lighter note, “Quiver in the Voidrift” releases some of the tension initially, but keeps the album’s flow going very steady.

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    Frozen Ocean – Steamworks: Hibernation (2009)

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    Limited to a short run of 62 CD-R copies, Frozen Ocean presents us with their 2009 EP titled: “Steamworks: Hibernation”. With a behemoth 30+ minutes song, this release is a good stepping stone into understanding the band’s evolution and how Vaarwel’s skills have been changing over time. With a constant stream of releases Frozen Ocean is one of the most active bands we have heard of, so it is nice to hear a bit more from their musical origins.

    Immediately starting with some droning percussions, the album has that unsettling vibe with a martial touch to it. The atmosphere is quite heavy and tense as it slowly builds up. The ritualistic percussions are quite interesting and give it a different vibe to what we have heard in the past from Frozen Ocean. As the song mellows out around the 20th minute, some of the tension gets released and we can finally move over from the edge of our seat.

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    Frozen Ocean – Trollvinter (2013)

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    Russia’s Frozen Ocean has always kept us guessing when it comes to their very interesting releases and today we have the totally weird and completely instrumental “Trollvinter”. Inspired by “Moominland Midwinter” of Tove Jansson, this release features 10 tracks of ambient movements that will surely bring back the nightmares generated by movies like “Event Horizon” and its weird atmospheric soundtrack.

    The very mysterious “Sömnlöshet” opens this release with a certain cinematic feeling to it from old-school cartoons of something being followed in the woods by an evil creature. This very dark and yet relaxing vibe is prolonged by the dreamy “Att Betrakta Begravde Världen”. Followed by the drone-ish “Snöa Lanterna”, Frozen Winter has managed to create very somber soundscapes that are perfect to be enjoyed while walking in the woods on a dark and rainy day.

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    Frozen Ocean – A Perfect Solitude (2012)

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    Hailing from Russia, today we have one-man band/project Frozen Ocean presenting his 2012 full-length release titled “A Perfect Solitude”. Handling all the instruments and drum programming, Vaarwel manages to craft a very powerful and atmospheric release that showcases his excellent songwriting skills. Featuring seven tracks and nearly 45 minutes of chilling music, this release delivers a hefty amount of bleak soundscapes that will surely keep you on the edge of your seat.

    The bleak intro “Broken Window” sets a very mysterious and moody atmosphere that is very unnerving in nature. As the raining sounds bleed into “Somewhere Clouds Debark”, the mood keeps being very eerie and ethereal. The powerful distorted guitars elevate this track while maintaining the chilling atmosphere created. The vocals are very interesting since they are quite lush and greatly enhance the atmosphere, reminding us a bit of bands like Falkenbach and Thyrfing.

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    Spektr – Cypher (2013)

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    Delivering the first real stinker of the year, today we have Spektr and their latest release “Cypher”. In this nine track waste of time, the band attempts to be very experimental and avant-garde with some shitty Black Metal lined up with Drone and Industrial elements and a production that will make you want to pierce your ear drums, making effectively the most extreme POS we have heard in quite a while.

    The album opens with a boring Drone-like piece titled “Hermetism”, then they deliver the first ‘BM’ dose of the night with the totally horrible sounding “Teratology”. In this track and the next (“The Singularity”), we get to ‘enjoy’ craptastic BM riffing with even more horrible drumming all distorted by some weird studio magic effects that make it sound more kvlt and evil according to the band. While some people might enjoy getting their ears raped by some horrible sounds, we are not too keen to make our pets convulse by listening to this.

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