Album Reviews

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    Enslaved – RIITIIR (2012)

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    After blowing us all away with the excellent “Axioma Ethica Odini”, Enslaved returns with another excellent release that builds up on their previous albums and further refines their sound. With their very Progressive sound, the band has managed to expand the reach of the Black Metal genre into new and uncharted territories, and “RIITIIR” is the perfect vessel to explore these waters.

    Continuin the “Axioma…” vibe, “Thoughts Like Hammers” features intricate guitar work perfectly adorned by several singing styles. The chorus section of this track is magical, both musically and vocally. With such a very well-directed aggressive sound, the band perfectly fuses in their Progressive elements with the harsh vocals and pounding drums unlike any other band we’ve heard. Moving into funkier and more melodic territory, “Death in the Eyes of Dawn” nicely keeps the album flowing with excellent guitar work, a wide variety of vocals, and a very mellow tempo.

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    Witchcraft – Legend (2012)

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    The Swedish Psychedelic rockers of Witchcraft are finally back after five years since their last release, with a heavy hitting album titled “Legend”. In this highly anticipated release the band delivers nine tracks of excellent Psychedelic Rock that will propel them back into the top ranks of this re-emerging genre. Labeled as one of the bands that propelled the revival of the genre back in the mid 2000’s, Witchcraft shows their musical quality in every compelling song that they present in this release.

    Featuring a heavier sound since the opener “Deconstruction”, the band delivers powerful Doom-ish riffs that are nicely adorned by Magnus Pelander’s excellent vocals. The Psychedelic vibe is immediately present with the funky guitar work and the drumming nicely rounds things up. Things really pick-up with the super catchy “It’s Not Because Of You”, indeed a very well-crafted track that features excellent vocals, intricate guitar work, and a super catchy chorus section. There is no doubt that this track is the indisputable first single of the release.

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    Laburinthos – Augoeides (2012)

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    Delivering a very unique and melancholic release, today we have Avantgarde Music’s latest signing Laburinthos and their debut release “Augoeides”. Featuring five very unique sounding tracks, this band crafts a blend of Gothic Rock with some excellent Dark Wave influences that they eloquently call Labyrinthine BlueWave. With very emotive vocals and a depressive aura, this band reminds us to the likes of The 3rd and the Mortal, Yearning and those types of band’s from the late 90’s.

    Opening with the very dramatic “The Great Brothel of Mankind”, the mood is set quite well with such a rich and complex piece. The lush keyboards greatly adorn the well-paced bass guitar and the guitar work. The vocals are very theatrical and fit the music quite well. With even more powerful keyboards, “Crucified Among My Loves” delivers a very interesting tempo changing track. This song reminded us of the initial use of keyboards in Death/Doom Metal from the early 90’s by the Dutch bands, like The Gathering, Etherial Winds, etc.

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    Situs Magus – Le Grand Oeuvre (2012)

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    Outputting a combination of hateful and weird Black Metal similar to Deathspell Omega and Xasthur with some hints of older Blut Aus Nord, Situs Magus delivers their first chapter with the name of “Le Grande Oeuvre”. Intended as a one piece release, this album is split into five movements that showcase the band’s ability to create wicked atmospheres and delivers gut-wrenching screams accompanied by twisted riffing.

    Hailing from France, this new band has a very well consolidated sound for being the new kids on the block. Immediately after the intro, the band’s power is felt by the very dense “Oeuvre au Noir”. Crafting a very depraved and thick atmosphere the band delivers a very grim Black Metal feeling underneath all the atmospheric events. The riffing is quite traditional and the singing is as good as you can expect it, but the pacing of the track is what makes Situs Magus quite interesting.

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    Manii – Kollaps (2012)

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    Featuring the original members of Manes, today we have Manii and their crushing ‘slow’ Black Metal that brings us back to the early days of Scandinavian Black Metal but will a depressive/suicidal edge that makes the songs slow and punishing at the same time. Manes is one of those clear examples that shows that too much experimentation and weird shit going on in one release takes things a bit too far and alienates people. With Manii this two man band goes back to the basics with raw screams, piercing riffs and well-crafted drumming.

    Thankfully for the older fans of Manes, there is still some hints remaining here and there, but the new band’s focus is more on the atmospheric side of thing. Crafting thick and memorable atmospheres is a craft that seems to escape many of the newer bands but on “Kollaps” this is never the issue. Opening with the martial “Skoddeheim”, the band really sets a very slow and painful tempo, reminding us in times to Shining (Sweden) and Bethlehem. The atmospheric elements are bone-chilling and the overall pace of the track makes the vocals sound even more depraved and powerful.

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    Spectral Lore – Sentinel (2012)

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    All the way from Greece, today we have the one-man beast Spectral Lore unleashing a relentless Black Metal release titled “Sentinel”. In this album, Ayloss, the man behind the band, delivers six crushing tracks with brutal Black Metal escapades filled with eerie ambient elements that create a very dense and cavernous feeling around the excellent music. Clocking in around 75 minutes of music, this album is a true gem since every second is perfectly used towards the band’s creative vision instead of wasted in mind-numbing repetition like most Ambient/Atmospheric Black Metals bands.

    Blasting things wide open with the brutal “All Devouring Earth”, the ‘band’ delivers pummeling riffs and intense drumming that will blow you away. As time progresses, the ambient/atmospheric side of things kicks in and allows the song to fully sink it while the inhuman vocals work their magic. Just around the corner “The Dejection of Arjuna” is waiting to slowly creep under your skin will more brutality and perfectly paced tremolo-picking magic.

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    Seremonia – Seremonia (2012)

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    With the current wave of old-school Psychedelic/Occult Rock bands popping out these days, it is interesting to see one that does not sing in English and that they seem to be doing their own thing and not playing the cookie cutter typical music that other bands are doing. Seremonia hails from Finland and with their debut self-titled release they are showing the world you can still do something ‘old-school’ and still sound different than the rest.

    With a huge (and very evident) Black Sabbath influence, the band still fuses some weird proto-Metal and even hints of Punk with a shit-ton of weird sounds that create a very unique and fuzzy sounding musical experience. Since the first licks of the opening track “Urhrjuhla”, the band truly carves their own unique and well defined style that will haunt your dreams for weeks. The guitars are very typical, but the distorted creepy vocals of Noora Federley are quite unique and weird since they sound very raw and natural.

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    Nocturnal Depression – Suicidal Thoughts (2011)

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    Filled with hate and self-destructive emotions, today we have Nocturnal Depression’s “Suicidal Thoughts” release. This release constitutes of a re-recording and re-arranging of their 2004 demo. Clocking in at 35 minutes, these four tracks deliver painful blows of nihilistic Black Metal that will surely please any fans of the genre due to their rawness and their slow tempo, reminding us a bit of Dodsferd and similar bands.

    After the mysterious intro track, “When Darkness Covers My Soul” delivers the first blow with painful screams and a very well-paced tempo that keeps the song very direct and engaging without blowing up into a full on blast-beat competition. This is one of the things we like the most about Depressive/Suicidal Black Metal bands, even though we think the message is retarded, the music is pretty solid sometimes. There simple combination of the riffing, the rhythmical drumming and the keyboard hints makes this track very catchy indeed.

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    Sichelstein – Sichelstein (2012)

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    With an extremely unique sound, today we have Sichelstein and their self-titled EP. Presenting five tracks of very retro sounding music, this band manages to create a sick mixture of Shoegaze and Black Metal with Darkwave and Gothic Rock elements with very depressive vibe. Totally unexpected and raw, this release is one of the most interesting ones we have received from Valse Sinistre in the last few months.

    The opener builds up nicely with some very raw sounding guitars and some very new wave-ish keyboards, but it finally explodes with creepily distorted harsh vocals and some organs. “Das Leben” is the most Shoegaze-y track in thise release with a heavy dose of trippy guitars paired with more creepy keyboards and completely deranged vocals, a very interesting listening experience indeed.

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    Bauda – Euphoria…Of Flesh, Men and the Great Escape (2012)

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    Hailing from Chile, today we have the folk version of Alcest: Bauda. This three-piece ensemble creates a very majestic unique sound when combining brilliant Post-Rock/Metal structures with lush acoustic guitars. “Euphoria…Of Flesh, Men and the Great Escape” is one of those releases that catches your attention thanks to how well-crafted the music is and how the atmosphere draws you into the band’s sound.

    Opening with a very straight forward Post-Rock/Metal track titled “Ghosts of Phantalassa”, the band wastes no time and after the momentum is built, tracks like “Humanimals” and “Silhouettes” beautifully combine the aggressive Post-Metal sections with the lush Folk elements, something we haven’t quite heard before and Bauda deserves props for taking a daring risk and pull through successfully. With these two tracks clocking at around 20 minutes, the album really pulls all the stops since the opening songs featuring a little bit of everything neatly packed in cohesive songs.

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