My Dying Bride - The Barghest O'Whitby

Genre: Doom Metal
Name: My Dying Bride
Album: The Barghest O' Whitby
"I doubt I shall ever come back..."

It's true; I have been neglecting this blog. The last post was almost three months ago, and that was hardly standard fare for DkP. I can only offer my apologies; unfortunately, personal issues have had me waylaid from my usual musical fare. However, the skies are beginning to clear, and once again, I can return to the wonderful world of web-logging.

On that note, let me turn your attention to the subject at hand. My Dying Bride, lords of all things doom, have granted us all with another release. This EP, titled The Barghest O'Whitby, is a sharp contrast to their last output; Evinta, a 3-disc, 14-track, orchestral work could not be more different to a this 27-minute, traditional, magnificently metal work.

Musically, this work is excellent. Taylor-Steels' drumming is second-to-none; Abé's bass complements it magnificently. The guitar work is masterly yet melancholy, the harmonies as heartbreaking as they are heavy; showcasing Craigan and Glencross at their best. They combines with Macgowan's virtuoso-standard violin to create howling, haunting melodies, befitting the cold, blusterous north-English moors, upon which this tale is set. That tale is expressed in as dolorous a style as might be expected by Stainthorpe. His vocal work is exquisitely agonised, and lyrically, it is exceptionally well-written. All in all, it is a brilliant release, exactly what has come to be expected from My Dying Bride.

Summary: A doleful, doom-filled, heavy-as-hell EP for all metal fans out there.
Lyrical Themes: A Barghest
Rating: 8/10

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Evinta - My Dying Bride

Genre: Doom Metal, Ambient
Name: My Dying Bride
Album: Evinta, 2011

...Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me
That with music loud and long...

Evinta. A project almost 15 years in the making. An idea that has sat smoldering and never really had a reason to burn alive until now. 9 albums worth of darkness recreated anew to mark 20 years of MDB. Music arranged to the soundscapes of sorrows past. Finally the 20th anniversary allows us to release this music in a form it has been desperately, woefully waiting for.

Enjoy the Darkness.

My Dying Bride have long been one of my favourite metal bands, for one very simple reason. It is not because of Stainthorpe's vocal work, although that is excellent, both musically and lyrically. It is not because of the emotions invested in their songs, although they are there in abundance. It is not because of the heaviness of their music - there are far heavier bands out there, more angry and anarchistic. Rather, it is for the simple reason that they are magnificently melodic songwriters. They can use duel guitars and a violin or keys to make exquisite harmonies, where other bands fall by the wayside. The multiple voices come together to create beautiful music, which no other band seems to do anywhere quite as well. It is for this reason that when My Dying Bride elect to do songs without traditional metal instruments, as found in Sear Me and For My Fallen Angel, they don't just get away with it - they excel in it, masters of melody and elegance combined.

Thus, it was not with holy dread and closed eyes that I awaited this unusual opus from the honeydew-fed, milk-of-paradise-supping Doom lords; I waited with anticipation and excitement, gathered together my pittances and sent a rather large check to Peaceville as soon as they were open for business. And I was not disappointed. Evinta is a work of art, a magnificent, magical amalgamation of movements, melodies, music.

Certainly, this is not a typical My Dying Bride release. Glencross and Craighan's guitars are absent, Abé no longer plucks at her bass and Mullins is no longer atop his throne. In their place, we find Alice Pembroke playing a viola, beside Johan Baum's cello, and Jonny Maudling, famed for his work with Bal-Sagoth on piano, keyboards and samples. As you can see, this was not going to be a standard album - but then, it was never intended to be. It was something new and exciting, and, if that is what you were expecting, then it's just shy of perfect. However, do not expect anything heavy, anything metal. Instead, head in with an open mind, and embrace what you find.

Evinta is a mixture of all of My Dying Bride's old songs, riffs and themes, melded together with classical instruments, melted down and reforged into something entirely new. For example, in The Burning Coast of Regnum Italium, you can hear the piano carrying the melody once found in the intro to The Dreadful Hours, possibly the single most beautiful piece of music of all time. In Of Lilies Bent With Tears is found sections of Two Winters Only. I won't give any other "spoilers" - part of the fun of this album is the game of "Name the Tune" that can be played with it - but these are merely some examples of what can be expected in the work. After all, it is the manifestation of all My Dying Bride's work - "evinta" is the feminine perfect participle of "evincere", to evince or show clearly. It is a display of all the band has achieved in the past 20 years, and a beacon for the future, hope for all the music with which they have yet to capture our ears.

This work is, in a nutshell, comparable to Elend - strings are the dominant voice, and speed is most definitely not of the essence (there are certain songs that are minimalist almost to the point of a drone-esque sound). However, there are important differences to that band. Whereas Elend favour screeching, disharmonious violins, My Dying Bride have gone far more in the direction of mellifluous melody and harmonies which hang from each other like icicles on pine branches. I have even managed to convince various people that this is, in fact, genuinely Classical music, age-old and well-beloved.

However, one could not have a My Dying Bride release without Stainthorpe's unique vocal work, and here, in Evinta, he comes up trumps, with new lyric genius sewn into the fabric of the album. Incontrovertibly, my favourite track on the album is In Your Dark Pavilion, which finishes with some of the best singing I've ever heard:

"I dream of being
Beside her
As I move
Through this water
Step over here
You Devil
Her earth looks like
My dying skin"

Stainthorpe's tortured voice dances so elegantly with the piano that the angels themselves would weep. And this is far from unique - the singing found in The Music Of Flesh is magnificent, and the lyrics of And All Their Joy Was Drowned are poetic brilliance.

However, Stainthorpe is not alone. The soprano Lucie Roche also takes to the stage, singing in English, French and Latin magnificently. The best example of her melodic voice can be found in Vanité Triomphante, the promo track released by Peaceville in edited form, which can be found here, in exchange for your email address, but is also included below.

In conclusion, therefore, I could not recommend this stellar work more highly. Certainly, it is not for the run-of-the-mill brutal death metal fan, who thinks that speed and skill equate to each other - but then, if you're reading this blog, you're probably not a run-of-the-mill metalhead. It's a elegant, resplendent work, shining in majesty and, I'll admit, just a hint of vanity, but rightly so - no other band could pull this off. Even Dream Theater have tempered their orchestral works with heavier tracks.

Summary: Magnificent orchestral doom, perfect for My Dying Bride fans and musical kalophiles of all kinds.
Lyrical Themes: Still analysing, but typical of My Dying Bride's work - melancholy and dejected, but beautiful
Rating: 10/10
Track listing:

Disc 1
1 - In Your Dark Pavilion
2 - You Are Not The One Who Loves Me
3 - Of Lilies Bent With Tears
4 - The Distance, Busy With Shadows
5 - Of Sorry Eyes In March

Disc 2
1 - Vanité Triomphante
2 - That Dress And Summer Skin
3 - And Then You Go
4 - A Hand Of Awful Rewards

Disc 3 (Collectors' Edition: What I do for you people...)
1 - The Music Of Flesh
2 - Seven Times She Wept
3 - The Burning Coast Of Regnum Italicum
4 - She Heard My Body Dying
5 - And All Their Joy Was Drowned

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I'd recommend getting your hands on one of the deluxe copies if you can - they come in great packaging, with excellent production value, and paragraphs on each of My Dying Bride's albums.

Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here

Genre: Prog, New Prog
Name: Anathema
Album: We're Here Because We're Here, 2010
No more are they subject to the Anathema...

Anathema, one of the original Peaceville three, never really seemed to hold a place in my heart as a really good band. This was for a number of reasons, partly my annoyance that they gave up being a doom metal band, as did Paradise Lost, with only My Dying Bride retaining, in my eyes, some form of integrity; I perceived that the others had sold out. As a result, I didn't follow either career with a great deal of interest, which is why it's taken close to a year for me to actually listen to this release.

Certainly, it is nothing like the original Anathema. It bears little or no resemblance to An Iliad of Woes or Serenades, with their low-tuned guitars and heavy atmosphere. But that is because it is now a completely different genre. Anathema, once the pioneers of doom metal, are now not even part of that scene.

I'll admit that this is old news for many of you; they've been drifting this way since Eternity. However, for those readers who were not aware of the band's history, I felt it important to make this clear. This album, I think, is somewhat of the antithesis of doom metal, and therefore, once you know the background, the inception of Anathema's career, it bears witness to their excellent talent as musicians, that they are capable of composing music in such a wide variety of styles.

This album, I feel, is the epitome of New Prog, a combination of progressive metal and rock with alternative music, and showcased in bands like Coheed And Cambria and The Mars Volta. The album showcases this excellently, combining heavy sections that are indubitably metal with light, atmospheric sections that would be hard pushed to be called rock. As a result, you have an album which fills the roles both of background and foreground music, something you put on and also something you listen to.

It comes, of course, with an extensive credentials. My first thoughts of this album were that it sounded like a heavier version of Porcupine Tree, and I was not mistaken in my sensing of Steven Wilson's hand in this work (He, and Jordan Rudess, seem to be appearing on everything I listen to at the moment) - he produced and mixed the album. On the exceptionally well-written keyboards, you find Les "Lecter" Smith, of Cradle Of Filth (Specifically, he was on, amongst others, the album Cruelty And The Beast, one of their best). Beyond this, you have the Finnish singer Ville Valo making a guest appearence on Angels Walk Among Us. And, of course, you have the Cavanagh trio and the Douglases making up Anathema. In short, it has got an excellent cast.

Musically, it's very well good. There are a range of vocal styles and vocalists, combined with the occasional use of samples, all of which combine to carry the album. The guitar work is excellent, as is the bass. The drumming is very well done, at times the background and at times leading the piece. But the keyboards are by far the best instrument in this album, creating excellent atmospheres and stunning music. To point any track out as the best would be to undermine any others, and it is their role as an album that makes We're Here Because We're Here so great. Each song is brought in by the one before it and carries into the one after it so gracefully and elegantly to say that any individual piece is better than any other is to say that you like that corner of the painting more than anything else within it. It is the painting as a whole, the album as a whole, that is so excellent, and why this one is worth a listen.

Summary: A must for Porcupine Tree fans; brilliant new prog.
Lyrical Themes: the philosophical and actual roles of love and the fragility of human life.
Rating: 8/10

Track listing:
1. Thin Air
2. Summernight Horizon
3. Dreaming Light
4. Everything
5. Angels Walk Among Us
6. Presence
7. A Simple Mistake
8. Get Off, Get Out
9. Universal
10. Hindsight

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Ava Inferi - The Silhouette

Genre: Doom, Funeral
Name: Ava Inferi
Album: The Silhouette, 2007
The Hell of Birds

Once again, I didn't post something at the weekend. This was a combination of concerts, paintballing and sheer laziness. Still, I got round to it eventually

Whilst searching for tickets to see My Dying Bride this summer in London, I came across the opening act, Ava Inferi. A little research later, and I thought they'd be worth a listen, especially since they described themselves as "soul" on their myspace page. However, whilst that aspect was clear to see on the one song provided, I did not find it so with this album - certainly they were doom, but no other label can be moulded to their shape, I feel.

The Silhouette was certainly worth a listen, however. For a start, somewhat unusually for doom metal bands, there are only clean, female vocals throughout this album, which adds for a bit of variety amongst other such bands - indeed, there is even a purely vocal song, Oathbound, which features a slightly odd choir. In addition, the piano, so often overused by doom bands, makes only a brief appearance here, but is used very well in The Dual Keys. The guitars consistently play decent riffs, and the drums avoid standard and dull rhythms, notably on Viola. All in all, it seems very good.

However, there are a couple of minor flaws. Firstly, there is an over-reliance on samples - the album opens with the recording of a beach, which is fine in itself; the very next track, rain begins to patter on something like corrugated iron (or maybe they've just spilt some frozen peas); later on you find clips of fire, by which point it is getting a bit wearing, and then, towards the end, you can hear sounds of either digging or footsteps or some general sounds from the leaf-litter, which is not only unclear but now nearly downright annoying.

This is really just part of a grander point - although the tracks were individually good, as an album, The Silhouette was not particularly coherent. Take, for example, tracks 7 and 8. La Stanza Nera ends rather abruptly, which isn't a problem, but then Grin Of Winter comes in, with a grating and generally irritating beginning, which would have been far better out of context. This album has the flow of a river, on level ground, in the middle of the desert, during the dry season, and which isn't actually a river, but rather just a large, unmoving rock.


Summary: Good songs, poorly ordered. Listen to it on shuffle.

Lyrical Themes: Nature, Despair, Love, Death

Rating: 6.5/10

Track listing:
1. A Dança das Ondas
2. Viola
3. The Abandoned
4. Oathbound
5. The Dual Keys
6. Wonders of Dusk
7. La Stanza Nera
8. Grin of Winter
9. Pulse of the Earth

Myspace
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Evoken | Beneath The Frozen Soil - Split

Genre: Doom Metal, Drone Metal
Name: Evoken and Beneath The Frozen Soil
Album: Split EP, 2010
Droning on and on and on

Unfortunately, there isn't really enough to say about this for a full review. I had expected very good things from Evoken, and thought that if I reviewed this split, I could talk about Beneath The Frozen Soil too. However, there was actually very little to say.

In this release, at least, Evoken did little to back up their apparant notability and success in the doom metal scene. Although the riffs on the guitar were vaguely interesting, the only change in dynamics or tempo were brought by the drums, which created only a weak illusion of speed - the riff would remain constant, but suddenly the drums would speed up significantly, without any change in melody whatsoever. This, it seemed was their only contribution to the "death" in their supposed "death/doom" tag. I found their music, at least in parts, closer to drone metal than traditional doom - it sounded more like Wreck Of The Hesperus or perhaps some less distorted Moss. This release is possibly not their best, but I cannot say that enjoyed their part in it particularly, as proven by the fact that I began to fall asleep. I will, however, investigate some other works of theirs, to see if they can redeem themselves.

On the other hand, Beneath The Frozen Soil seemed to be the better band, fitting more in the death/doom niche that Evoken had so skillfully avoided. The gutteral vocals were quite good, the guitar not atrocious, but nothing was particularly notable. They are worth a listen, but there is nothing that makes them stand out.

Summary: Fairly dull and unoriginal for the most part, but good "filler" music, if you want
Lyrical Themes: Suffering and Dissillusion
Rating: 5.5/10
Track listing:
Evoken
1. Omniscient
2. The Pleistocene Epoch
3. Vestigial Fears
4. Into the Primal Shrine
Beneath The Frozen Soil
5. Ironlung
6. Monotone Black I
7. Monotone Black II

Myspace Evoken
Myspace Beneath The Frozen Soil

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My Dying Bride - The Lies I Sire

Genre: Death-Doom Metal
Name: My Dying Bride
Album: For Lies I Sire, 2009
Like Gods of the Sunset sounds...

Ironically, for a band I haven't reviewed, I think My Dying Bride are the most mentioned band on here - they feature at least once on 5 different pages, and on all but one of those they are referred to multiple times. Therefore, I thought it only sensible that I should at least give those who have not heard them a chance to have a listen to at least some of their music, and see why I go on about them so much.

Picking which album to review was always going to be a tough decision - their body of work is so expansive, to pick any one limb of it would be to leave the bulk of the corpus untouched and unexplained - should I go for the arm that is Like Gods Of The Sun, with the excellent violin and traditional doom sound? But what about 34.788%... Complete, the experimental brain of their work? And how could I ignore the shining, glorious face that is A Line Of Deathless Kings? There was so much from which to choose, but only one that I could pick. I briefly contemplated a Meisterwerk, but they precede some of my favourites - The Dreadful Hours and Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light would be ignored, to say the least. Eventually, however, I made my choice.

Prior to my note-taking for this review, it would be a lie to have said that I had listened to For Lies I Sire, My Dying Bride's latest release. I had heard all of the songs, many, many times in most cases, but I had never sat down, put on the CD, turned off the lights, lain down on the floor and just absorbed the music (according to Tom Delonge of Angels and Airwaves, you should listen to albums with just the light of a single candle to see by). So, with notepad in hand, that is just what I did - turned on the album, and closed my eyes. And it was brilliant.

It is not my favourite album of theirs, but then that is like saying that of all the Fender Stratocasters in the world, you dislike that one the most. Aside from their early and more Deathening works, which I enjoy, but not as much as everything from Turn Loose The Swans onwards, I think that every album My Dying Bride have made is a masterpiece in its own right, and this was no exception. Right from the very first track, My Body, a Funeral, which opens with a lone slow guitar riff, and Stainthorpe's plaintive voice in exquisite harmony, you can tell that this album will be exceptional. However, they do not stick to purely slow and doom-laden riffs - the other side of the coin is showcased in the vary next track, Fall With Me, which is faster and heavier, the Death of Death-Doom metal, but without it jarring in the ear. The title track is similarly awe-inspiring, with the same atmosphere of dread and fear, and the album goes on to end, somewhat aptly, with Death Triumphant. Throughout the album, you find tracks of exquisite beauty and pathos interwoven with those of anger and rage, you find smooth curves juxtaposed with jagged edges, and you see harmony and dissonance each play their part in a mystifying but fascinating dance.

Through this dance, however, you can hear other albums, reflections beneath the surface, just occasionally managing to sneak a sound or a face above the water, to let you know that they're still there, that they haven't gone away. This is most noticeable in A Chapter In Loathing, the penultimate track, which begins with the same riff which closed A Line Of Deathless Kings. It's also apparent in other tracks - Bring Me Victory has drums with just smack of those of Apocalypse Woman from 34.788%... Complete, for example. All of those other albums which are the columns of My Dying Bride's temple are still there, if you only listen.

But it's not all the same old stuff, regurgitated just like a puppy that's eaten chocolate - My Dying Bride are not a puppy but a full grown hound, and it turns out that you can teach an old dog new tricks. Santario Di Sangue is a prime example of this - here, for what I believe to be the first time (other than a sample of some rain on The Dreadful Hours), they have used sound effects - specifically, that of a whinnying horse and a spade shovelling the earth, which, for me, at least, brings to mind grave robbery. These are, to some degree, awkwardly positioned - the sudden stop did make me think that they were the start of a new song, rather than the third minute of the current one - but they work well with the shrieking violin, if you can call it that, which isn't instantly identified as an instrument, since it blends so perfectly with the sample.

The lyrics, of course are as excellent as always: Stainthorpe (who is incidentally also an artist, and a rather good one at that - click the link for 12 pages of artistic and gothic nightmares. And a picture of a friend at an exhibition they were at) keeps some of his trademarks - for example, in Echoes From A Hollow Soul, he uses his traditional biblical imagery, talking of "sons of Adam" and "daughters of Eve" (Narnia, anyone?), and in ShadowHaunt there are lines which seem inspired by Wordsworth (specifically, the line "Through forests she walks every day" seems to me to be similar to She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways, and Stainthorpe has admitted being inspired by Romantic poetry before). However, he has also kept from his usual erotic verse, not writing (as far as my mind can tell) any of his usual poetic, imaginative, metaphorical and yet sordid but still dignified songs, songs like The Whore, The Cook And The Mother and Le Figilie Della Tempesta.
Besides from lyrics, he also employs a range of vocal styles - in this album, there are clean vocals, two different kinds of death metal grunts, whispers and a choir (whilst technically not him, this does still come under vocals).

So, in conclusion, I feel this was the best album to have chosen not only because I could come to it afresh, not jaded by any previous emotions of the songs, not only because it is an excellent album, with no single moment that seems a mistake, but because it is an excellent introduction to My Dying Bride's magna opera, being a combination of old and new techniques, and thus a good album to post for any newcomer to the Doom metal scene.


Summary: Kings of the doom metal genre once again prove to the baying crowds why they are the rulers of their kingdom
Lyrical Themes: Despair, pain, romance, losing faith
Rating: 10/10 - recommended
Track listing:
1. My Body, A Funeral
2. Fall With Me
3. The Lies I Sire
4. Bring Me Victory
5. Echoes from a Hollow Soul
6. ShadowHaunt
7. Santuario di Sangue
8. A Chapter in Loathing
9. Death Triumphant

Myspace - Although one can easily bring the officialness of this page into question, it has music to listen to.

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Draconian - Where Lovers Mourn

Genre: Doom Metal
Name: Draconian
Album: Where Lovers Mourn, 2003
It is said that Draco himself, when asked why he had fixed the punishment of death for most offences, answered that he considered these lesser crimes to deserve it, and he had no greater punishment for more important ones - Plutarch, The Life Of Solon

Of late, I have been trawling the internet looking for a good doom metal band whom I have not yet heard; it had occured to me that, whilst My Dying Bride, Swallow The Sun and Triptykon were all very good, even when I had every last song, it still wasn't enough. So, I have been for a stroll through the tubes, and come across a variety of bands - some atrociously bad, some hilariously awful, and some so unoriginal as to be the greatest acts of plagiarism since Nosferatu, but none that I genuiniely enjoyed for the music. None, that was, until Draconian came up on my radar.

They passed the initial checks - I hadn't heard of them before, and they didn't seem the usual satanist, bland, raging rubbish that passes for metal these days. I gave them a listen, and I was not disappointed - far from the expected atrocities, I was treated to a rather excellent and exceptionally enjoyable album - Where Lovers Mourn.

Draconian have several things that make it a cut above the rest - the exceptional vocals, the wide use of instruments and the ability to be cheesy without being cheesy. This is made all the more impressive by the fact that it is the band's first full-length album.

The primary reason for the vocals being so impressive - and of course bear in mind that vocals are more important in Doom Metal than many other forms of music (choirs, of course, excluded) - is because they come in so many varieties. For starters, they have two members of the band who are purely vocals - not singing and guitar, not singing and keys, not singing and violin - just purely their because of their voices. There are three different vocal styles in fewer than the first three minutes of the album - by 2:16 of The Cry Of Silence you have had clean vocals, female singing and then death growls. In addition, none of these are weak, or tacked on - each plays its own part, and sounds damned good whilst doing so. The singing harmonies on A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal (note the Wordsworth reference - Romantic era poetry and doom metal go hand in hand, it seems) are exquisite, and there is more excellent vocal work on The Solitude.

Aside from vocals, the instrumentation is very good as well - the two guitars work well together, and the bass is certainly interesting. But besides this they have a variety of other instruments employed to create a multitude of textures. For example, the piano on the end of track one is mournful indeed (my one problem is that it seems tacked on the end - the song fades away, then the piano fades in; the one thing which I dislike about this album is that they didn't integrate that piano more); the piano then appears quietly in the background in The Solitude. Besides this, there is an acoustic introduction to Akherousia and rather delightful strings to be found in tracks two and three.
The range of instruments, however, is not confined to riff-based melodies or chord sequences, as doom metal often can be - there are themes and even a solo or two to be found amongst the songs. All in all, it is musically very good.

As for the "cheese factor", all indicators would suggest that it would be there in abundance. The final line of The Cry Of Silence begins with "Oh my God", which has a faint air of a teenage girl complaining about her curfew to her mother, and throughout the lyrics there are spatterings of "thee" and "thou" and "art", and many more "olde worlde" words. In addition, they are no strangers to standard sound effects - their next album, Arcane Rain Fell would begin with the sound of rainfall, with a thunderclap just as the words begin (that said, Dream Theater got away with that). However, despite all this, somehow you don't cringe; somehow, it all actually works together and sounds rather good. It's not self-concious, and it's not overdone. The words and phrases all fit, thread and flow together well, creating a brilliant album which is definately worth a listen.


Summary: Excellent doom metal, in the vein of My Dying Bride; similar, but not derivative

Lyrical Themes: depression, lonliness, misanthropy

Rating: 9/10 - recommended

Track listing:
1.The Cry of Silence
2.Silent Winter
3.A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
4.The Solitude
5.Reversio ad Secessum
6.The Amaranth
7.Akherousia
8.It Grieves My Heart

Myspace

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Discography - DELAYED DUE TO TECHNICAL HICCUP, expect it Thursday, or Friday at the very latest.
unfortunately, I am missing one demo (Shades Of A Lost Moon), their compilation (The Burning Halo) and one single (No Greater Sorrow). Links to these would be appreciated, and then this can and will be updated as soon as possible.

Lupus Nocturnus - Suicidal Thoughts, Pt. 1

Genre: Doom Metal
Name: Lupus Nocturnus
Album: Suicidal Thoughts, Pt. 1, 2008
Latin Americans

Here is a midweek post for you, to make up for my computer's failings. I'm having to use a public computer to do this. Still, we struggle on nonetheless.

Lupus Nocturnus (latin for "night wolf") are a Mexican black metal outfit from Mexico (that's another flag for the wall-map) who have only two releases - a split EP with Infernal Hate (which was faster than this, and far closer to their "black metal" label), and this full-length. It's almost an hour long, but only four tracks, with one exceeding twenty minutes in length.

Musically, it's generally quite slow - closer to dark and doom metal than black metal. Compare it to Trancelike Void's heavier stuff, only less black and more grey - in fact, I believe that I even mentioned them in that review. However, the key difference between them and all the other black/dark bands out there is the vocalist. Note the careful avoidance of the word "singer", because I doubt many people would care to describe the sounds which pass his throat as singing. However, it certainly noteworthy - he manages to sound very similar to the wolf to which the band's name refers. This, I'll admit, could be seen as a novelty; however, I think that it is actually - well, not musical, but certainly an interesting change.

Aside from the vocals, however, there is not a huge range of musical ingenuity - it is, for the most part, the same old chords changing every bar or two - not varied or oddly timed enough for post-metal, not fast enough for punk. It's got low production value, but that, I feel, adds to the atmosphere, which it has in great quantities.

However, they are perfectly good at what they do, and their interesting vocals stand out from the (not too large) crowd of black/dark metal bands, thus making them worth a listen. Enjoy!

Summary: Good, for what it is. Worth a listen, if you like this sort of stuff

Lyrical Themes: Howling...

Rating: 7/10

Track listing:
1. Intro (Suicidal Thoughts)
2. Depressive Landscapes
3. Immense Loneliness
4. Dying On The Mountain


Myspace
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Saturnus - Martyre

Genre: Doom Metal

Name: Saturnus

Album: Martyre (2000)

Who says metal can't be soothing?

Saturnus, as far as I can discover, have very little particularly interesting or noteworthy about them, so I cannot fill this post with my usual random useless titbits of information, except for the fact that they have had 8 ex-guitarists, which, all things considered, is quite a lot.

Anyway, on to the main business of the day: the album itself. Whilst the band may not be noteworthy, the music certainly is. This starts, like all good Inspector Morse episodes, with a choir, vocalising an exceedingly plaintive tune, which immediately grabbed my attention - I'm a sucker for choirs, not least those who sing in Latin. This artfully arranged piece, cryptically named "7" is followed by the equally excellent "Inflame Thy Heart", which changes styles significantly - no more the choral majesty, but rise the growled death vocals, complete with obligatory raven and night references. The guitar line is exactly slow enough to maintain interest while inviting contemplation (compare with Sunn 0))) ). But the excellently stately fretwork is swiftly surpassed by the piano, wrapping up the song with ornate and sorrowful ease.

Track 3 is more brash and abrasive, and brings to mind My Dying Bride with its temptress-based lyrics, and, in short, is a sharp turn from the past tracks. This is followed by another contrast, and another, and the whole is soon less than the sum of its parts. Whilst this album is made up of excellent songs, they do not fit together - they are great individual songs, but this album has the feel more of a compilation than an album in its own right.

"Lost My Way" is, for example, close to thrash (not quite, but getting there), and whilst it is an excellent track, with amazing backing vocals and guitar riffs which demand, and receive, undivided attention, it's not quite what the album left you expecting.

The closer, however, does precisely what is required. The acoustic intro, followed by keyboard backing and suitably whispered devotions to some bright-eyed girl. It gives an excellent sense of closure, whilst leaving you wanting more (if you'll excuse the somewhat cheesy oxymoron).

As a whole, the album is worth a listen. The vocals, be they choir, clean or cathartic growls, are not, as on other albums, an obligitary addition, but complement the music very well; the drums are simplistic but effective; the guitar carries mournful music with ease and efficiency; in short, excellent doom metal.

Summary: A great introduction to Doom Metal. If you haven't heard any before, or are being recommended it, try this.
Lyrical Themes: Sorrow, Loss, Death, Temptresses
Rating: 7/10

Track listing:
1. 7
2. Inflame Thy Heart
3. Empty Handed
4. Noir
5. A Poem (Written In Moonlight)
6. Softly on the Path You Fade
7. Thou Art Free
8. Drown My Sorrow
9. Lost My Way
10. Loss (In Memoriam)
11. Thus My Heart Weepeth for Thee
12. In Your Shining Eyes

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Trancelike Void - Where The Trees Can Make It Rain

Genre: Doom

Name: Trancelike Void

Album: Where The Trees Can Make It Rain (2010)

If this EP were a font, it would be Minima Sans Serif

Now, first, let me make one thing clear: I thought that trees did have some affect on precipitation. I still believe that they do, in some weird scientific way, but having been informed by the in-house fashion designer that they don't, I shall admit that I am currently losing this battle.

Onto the music. It is, to say the absolute minimum, minimalist. The bass and vocals have been scrapped, the drum kit has been coated in several layers of cotton wool and there are long periods of silence. However, it is not necessarily bad.

The opening track on this twenty-two-and-a-half minute acoustic journey has a slow, melancholy intro, with pauses, which seems repetitive, but after only one-and-a-quarter minutes you get a new theme. That's right, we've got two now! There are even drums for a while. I know, shocking, right? We then return to the original riff, which isn't actually too dissimilar from the second - it's just slower and missing one note. We then get the second riff again, in another "faster" (speed is relative) section. It is only towards the end of the tenth minute that we are shown a new idea, but we soon return to the second lick once more.

The second, and final track is similar: Within an instant you see where the guitar is going, and it simply repeats itself moving up or down an interval each time. We get a hint at a change after one-and-a-half minutes, but only for an instant, and we get three minutes of the same repeated riff. We get a new idea at 3:45, but after that, I'll admit, my attention wavered a little, and I have no further comments to make. It is just more in the same vein.

Now, don't get me wrong: I did enjoy this. The music is pleasant, if not interesting: it doesn't exactly grab you, and it certainly isn't a "blink and you'll miss it affair". There are no moments that you anticipate for the entire song: no excellent fills, no lyrical twists (no lyrics at all) and no expert guitar playing that leaves you weak at the knees. It's simplistic: there aren't even any chords underneath the melody. It is the music I would use to fall asleep (in the nicest way possible), or perhaps listen to if I needed to think deeply about something.

Having written this review, I did a little research. The Belgian duo that is Trancelike Void have supposedly done four other releases, and this is "an incredible risk for TLV. It's entirely acoustic and considerably less dark in both tone and aesthetic than its predecessors" (Courtesy of Cory from emotionallyvoided.blogspot). It appears that this is unusual for this band, and they perhaps are more prone to heavier music. I shall certainly make sure my opinions are informed, and you can anticipate a review of one of their full length releases in time.

Rating: 6/10
Summary: Peaceful, pleasant but perhaps a trifle plain.

Track Listing:
1. The Stone Pond
2. Ghost Mountain

Myspace (No songs from this EP)
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Ne Obliviscaris - The Aurora Veil Demo

Genre: Metal: Death/Doom

Name: Ne Obliviscaris

Album: The Aurora Veil (2007)

Drums: Fast = Good ?

Now, Australia is somewhat cut off from the world: Many of you will not know that they have managed to lose a Prime Minister, one Harold Holt, who, upon strolling down the beach one evening "plunged into the surf and disappeared". The fact that they managed to lose a Prime Minister is somewhat impressive - if only we could achieve the same. But I use this to illustrate that there is a lot in this country that you will never have heard of.

Ne Obliviscaris is but one of these. They have only one release and this is it: A three track, thirty-three minute long demo.

The first track, Tapestry Of The Starless Abstract, opens with a fantastic drum fill: alas, it is the best we shall hear (but more on that later). The melody glides in over the top and is strangely enchanting. But then comes the first flaw: despite the brilliant singer, since they are a death metal band, they feel obliged to add some screams. Although I am usually in favour of such things, this particular time I am not. They add nothing to the song, they aren't even very passionate shrieks and they quite literally follow the singing. In short, they are utterly pointless.

Another annoyance in this band is the drums. Drummer Daniel 'Mortuary' Presland won the Australian Final for the Worlds Fastest Drummer Competition, crowning him as the Fastest Feet in Australia in 2006. Now, that isn't necessarily bad. But the band's thought process seemed to go something like this:
"Aha! We've got the one of the world's fastest drummers! Clearly every second of the song must be full of pointlessly fast drums that are really very, very bad.""
Drums are not all about speed. Speaking as a drummer myself, I can attest to that although it is hard, nigh impossible to play that fast, it is more challenging, and possibly sounds better to play in 27-32 time. Having attempted both, I can speak from experience.

Fortunately, both those ills are cured by the triplet-filled acoustic bridge, where you are allowed to relax, take a few breaths and prepare yourself for the next burst of speed. And, while receiving this audible massage, my ears were pricked by a new sound. Could it be? Surely not! Yes - It's a violin. Usually, violins are thrown in at the last minute in a somewhat vain (in all senses of the word) attempt to seem cultured. Most often, it is pointless: it is either inaudible or harmonically pathetic. However here, the strings are perfect: brilliant melodies and it never falls back on repetition.

Having seen that they are not just a standard death metal band, I awaited the new break to speed with eager ears. My more favourable outlook was rewarded with more violins and a much less riff-based section. Alas, the drummer seemed intent to make me lose my faith in the world of drummers by using the much-overused "Blast Beat": 16ths or 32nds (or, as I prefer, semiquavers and semidemiquavers) are played on the bass drums, 8ths or quarters (quavers or crotchets) on the ride and a snare once a bar. It's dreadfully dull and a standard 4/4 bar is all this really fits. Admittedly, I am slightly biased, having come from an introduction to metal based on Mike Portnoy, Lars Ulrich and 'The Rev' (R.I.P.), so have come to expect more, but really: to all budding musicians out there, never fall back on Blast Beating.

After a melodic outro there is the next (effectively) self-named track. It breaks in with an acoustic intro which seamlessly fades in percussive rolls, violins and then an electric guitar, so brilliantly that you don't even notice until suddenly you realise it's happened. Although the violins here seem a little discordant at first, it's soon back to its usual standard.
Unfortunately the blast beat rears its ugly head again, after another section similar to the intro, the screams are fewer and farther between and the guitar dares to stray from the bottom three strings. Unfortunately, the bass drum is constantly pounding out 16th notes which most certainly do not add to the piece.
Screams come in towards the end, but much better this time.

The third track has another minimalist intro with soothing, if I can say that, drums. The shortest track, it is more riff-based, bar the violin, and with the obligitary blast beat in the middle, it ends in a similar manner to that with which it began.

On the whole, Ne Obliviscaris are very good: they use interesting, if not necessarily innovative, melodies and the violin is exemplary. The drums leave a lot to be desired, and the screaming is quite clearly something they were obliged to put in. But aside from those few flaws, they have potential. If they address these matters, their album, should it come out (no signs yet, alas) would fly onto my shelves.

Rating: 6/10
Summary: Death/Doom with a twist, but leaves something to be desired
Lyrical themes: As yet unknown, but caught references to paternal relations (As Icicles Fall) imply family chaos.

Track Listing:
1. Tapestry Of The Starless Extract
2. Forget Not
3. As Icicles Fall

Myspace

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Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones

Genre:
Metal: Doom, Funeral, Sludge

Name:
Triptykon

Album:
Eparistera Daimones, (2010)

Only Death Is Real

Celtic Frost were a - well, not a household name, but they were the Pioneers of their genre. They have fallen apart time and time again, but their last release, Monotheist (which I shall review in due course), reached new pinnacles of sheer brilliance. But more on that another time.

It seemed that, upon the "obliteration of Celtic Frost", we had lost a brilliant musician: Tom Gabriel Warrior. But no, I rejoiced upon hearing that, nearly instantaneously, Triptykon was in the works. And when I heard that their album was to be like Monotheist, I knew that this was going to be either brilliant or a failure in all forms.

It did not disappoint. From the first riff I was hooked. The opener, Goetia, is a tirade against "the feeble human quest for salvation within the mass-delusion named 'religion'" is eleven minutes of pure bliss, bar the subject matter, and it is followed by more in the same vein. But it gets even better.
It is when you reach track seven, Myopic Empire, that you realise just how amazing this band is. The lyrics, chanting the name, are strangely hooking, and the "grand piano section" is brilliant, showing that Triptykon are not exclusively stuck to the bottom three strings of the guitar (although they show extensive skill there), but can flit to other instruments. This exquisite track is followed by the best of the album: My Pain. I'm a bit of a sucker for tragic love songs, so this naturally captured my heart, but Simone Vollenweider's vocals once again seize my ears and hold them to the speakers. In short, this is acoustically, lyrically and completely brilliant.
It ends on the longest track of the album, approaching twenty minutes long: Prolonging. This is lyrically very typical of the album, showing Warrior's bubbling hate (this can also be seen in the 'Gratitude' section, included at the end of this post). It is a brilliant ending, with guitar lower than Hermes Conrad's limbo pole that captivates and compels and courses with venom.

Now, the album itself is brilliantly presented, with cover art by H. R. Geiger (Who also did the cover for To Mega Therion and some work for the Alien movies), named 'Vlad Tepes'. Each song also has comments, which, although informative, are a little patronising, arrogant and a tad too elevated for my liking: "It is often the neophytes, the inexperience and unproven ones, those who shine solely by means of a carefully crafted and yet utterly inflated act, who ultimately and unwittingly reveal themselves to be the ingrate vermin" is but one sentence.
But the overall feel of the album is that of anger: Warrior is still caught up with collapse of Celtic Frost. And here is an obvious clue as to the boiling vat of pure hatred that is fuelling Warrior (and doing it rather well): "Those who opposed us, those who lied to tarnish our name, those who interfered, those who lacked faith, may they relish being pathetically self-appointed divinity and continue to decay within their own festering ignorance". And that's from the gratitude section. Remind me never to piss this guy off.

Rating: 10/10
Summary: Dark, dark album very well expressed.
Lyrical Themes: Anger, Religion, More Anger, Love (just the once), Even More Anger.

Track Listing:
1. Goetia
2. Abyss Within My Soul
3. In Shrouds Decay
4. Shrine
5. A Thousand Lies
6. Descendant
7. Myopic Empire
8. My Pain
9. The Prolonging

Myspace
Or: Alternative
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But I'd recommend actually getting a hard copy of the CD. The commentary is very interesting and eyeopening, and (unintentionally) downright amusing. Plus, it's legal.