Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen Puhuu

Genre: Psychadelic Black Metal
Name: Oranssi Pazuzu
Album: Muukalainen Puhuu, 2009
...The Spaceman says "Everybody look down, it's all in your mind"...

Well, I think it's obvious that the first thing about this band that caught my eye was the name which is, to say the least, interesting (translated, it means "Orange Pazuzu", Pazuzu being a babylonian demon king of the winds, with a serpentine ahem phallus). However, I have higher standards for inclusion in this documentation of metallic awesomeness than merely an amusing name, and, fortunately, Oranssi Pazuzu have this in spades.

The album's meaning is "The Alien Speaks", and this, combined with the cover that is eerily reminiscent of Vashta Nerada, gives a great idea as to the sound of this album: it sounds like the musical outpouring of one of Scooby-Doo's space-suit-clad, manically-laughing, helium-addicted enemies. It is filled with high-pitched keys, jumping at odd intervals and tremolo guitar, used very effectively to create a slightly menacing and quite haunting atmosphere. Not being fluent in Finnish, I can not comment on the lyrical content, only the delivery, which is not particularly passionate, but well executed. The one criticism I have of this album is that the drums are not particularly imaginative, however, they are by no means dull. All in all, it is an odd, but interesting album, with a decent amount to be said for it.

Summary: What happens when you give Spooky Space Kook a guitar
Lyrical Themes: "The dark corners of space and the mind"
Rating: 8/10
Track listing:
1. Korppi - Raven
2. Danjon Nolla - Danjo's Zero
3. Kangastus 1968 - Mirage 1968
4. Suuri Pää Taivaasta - The Great Head From Heaven
5. Myöhempien Aikojen Pyhien Teatterin Rukoilijasirkka - The Praying Mantis of the Theatre of Latter-day Saints
6. Dub Kuolleen Porton Muistolle - Dub to the Memory of a Dead Whore (of Babylon)
7. Muukalainen Puhuu - Alien Speaks
8. Kerettiläinen Vuohi - Heretic Goat

Myspace
Download - coming soon! (well, -ish...)

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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Trancelike Void - Destroying Something Beautiful

Dual Review:




















Genre: Black Metal
Name: Trancelike Void
Album: Destroying Something Beautiful (2008)and Silhouettes of Misery (2010).
Deep Thought II

Thirteen posts and already I'm resorting to the same artists. Ah well.

Anyhoo, you may remember that last time I reviewed these Belgians, all the way back in April, I reviewed an EP of theirs, and, whilst it was good, it wasn't particularly great: 22 minutes and about 6 riffs. However, various sources informed me that I had picked a particularly unusal output for the duo, and I wasn't showing them in their true glory, so I promised a review of something else of theirs shortly.

And, as always, I forgot.


However, I went through my posts the other day to see what I'd promised you, and, sure enough there it was. A quick trip to the internet, and I have two reviews for you: the one I owed, plus interest.

Destroying Something Beautiful is Black Metal, but not in the syle of Abigail Williams. This is more abstract, more like Burzum or Lupus Nocturnus (both coming soon - well, soon-ish. Maybe a month). It's a mix of the heavy, pounding, slow, repetitious chords, distorted and layered on top of simple drums and new-age-esque, harmonious, abstract interludes, much shorter than their grittier partners. Also, for once, tracks labelled as interludes actually act as interludes, rather than just being a short sound clip they liked but couldn't actually fit anywhere else (I'm looking at you, Enter Shikari).

It is certainly more diverting than The Stone Pond, and keeps the attention far more easily. While it is perhaps slightly simpler - okay, significantly simpler in composition than that EP, which used more than three strings, I prefer it. This is mostly because it's just my thing - (mostly) instrumental, heavy, fairly depressing - and I can certainly see that people might not agree with me. However, this album has an advantage over its predecessor because it's possible to hear it without the volume raised to the maximum possible level.

Despite the interludes, which certainly create interesting diversions - and, in fact, even including them - this album remains probably far too simple for most people. The chords follow mostly the same patterns, with only the occasional diversion, the drums are simple and certainly aren't "driving", and the whole thing seems almost willing to fade into the background. Even the interludes only get your attention because they're not the same sequence on repeat. However, as I've said, this is what I like. It's my cup of tea (Earl Grey, no milk, no sugar, a little bit of lemon). I enjoyed it, especially the exceptionally atmospheric epilogue, which is closer to a none-acoustic Where The Trees Can Make It Rain


Silhouettes Of Misery, however, is much closer to that EP than Destroying Something Beautiful. For starters, it's acoustic, and therefore doesn't have those pulsing chords of Destroying Something Beautiful. It's based a lot more on simple, repeated riffs than heavy and distorted chords, although there are acoustic equivalents. But there is nothing to say on this album, really. I have just sat through the three-quarters of an hour it took me to play it through, and found nothing worth commenting on that makes it any different from Where The Trees Can Make It Rain. The only thing I can think of - and I'm really grasping at straws here - is that the drums appear more, but that's mostly because it's longer. There's nothing wrong with it, I didn't actively dislike it, but it just didn't do anything to grab my attention. It just made me sit and think (in this case, about html - how do I get one link to open two tabs?), and I that's probably the point. It certainly was a lot more effective in this regard than Destroying Something Beautiful, and I'm sure a lot of people like it. However, I'd only have it on as white noise, or as something peaceful if I were a hippy and wanted to meditate.

Overall, Trancelike Void are a band that, if not obsessively introspective themselves, certainly encourage their listeners to be. They do compose music that holds the attention like a sieve holds water, but when you return from the ether of your thoughts, you emerge into a calm and controlled auditory landscape, sterilised and peaceful, and fairly pleasant. That is what it's about, I suppose, and I'm sure many people find this helpful. However, I'm capable of thinking deeply without musical supplements, so certainly Silhouettes Of Misery isn't for me.

Summary: Calm thought-provoking music, but not something you can rock out to.
Rating: 7/10 and 6/10

Track listing:
Destroying Something Beautiful
1. Prelude: Descent
2. Part I: Everything Falls
3. Interlude I: Daydream
4. Part II: Fragile Conciousness
5. Interlude II: Nightmare
6. Part III: Total Desolation
7. Epilogue: Escape

Silhouettes Of Misery
1. Paranoid Melancholy
2. One Bridge Drowned
3. Blood
4. An Essence Of Tragedy

Myspace

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Abigail Williams - Legend EP

Genre: Black Metal
Name: Abigail Williams
Album: Legend (2007)
And mark this — let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.

This was a landmark moment for me. Back in the good old days, when the HMV metal section was three units wide, and they had bands other than the big four and Taking Back Sunday, I found this for but a trifle and snapped it up. I later found where I'd heard the name before - Arthur Miller's The Crucible, based on the Salem Witch Trials, hence the quote above (On a side note, it's a good play. Go out into the real world and see it some time). Anyway, I had my first black metal album, and I've never regretted it.

It is, unfortunately, quite short - 20 minutes, 5 songs - but it is brilliant. The Conqueror Wyrm is, for me, the flagship track. Its introduction catches you like a sever dose of cholera, and the sudden slow section stop your heart with sorrowful sublimity. Then as the song fades away and you are left with a crackling recording of an aged man, your pulse slowly fades away, flat-lining into the silence. Yes, this song probably isn't good for your health, but nothing fun ever is. Like catching bullets in the gap between your ear and your skull. That would explain why, with only one full-length release, they've already got 18 ex-members.

But its not just the one track that's awesome. The piano in Watchtower is exquisite, the vocals permanently sound just like a banshee "sucking a scream to stab me with", the drummer is probably the first octopus-human hybrid, and the guitar lines are simply superb. The lyrics aren't perhaps the most unique, but they're certainly not bad.

As always, however, there are moments where you suspect that they felt obliged to make the track longer but couldn't come up with anything, so just put some notes together and played them really fast. But fortunately these moments are few and far between, and even when they do occur, they're blissfully brief, and, at any rate, no worse than plenty of other bands.

In short, the whole thing is rather good, and is what got me into Black Metal in the first place. Go have a listen, and you'll see why they have always been in my ten favourite bands.

Summary: Melodic Black Metal, done very well
Lyrical Themes: Nonsensical metaphors in general, based on death, darkness and the cosmos. Some simply based around quotes.
Rating: 8/10

Track listing:
1. From A Buried Heart
2. Like Carrion Birds
3. The Conqueror Wyrm
4. Watchtower
5. Procession Of The Aeons

Myspace (no songs from this EP)
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Carach Angren - Death Came Through A Phantom Ship

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Name: Carach Angren

Album: Death Came Through A Phantom Ship (2010)

Don't listen to this alone

It's back.

Sorry for the delays. As I said, I had a lot on my plate. But it's all finished now, so expect more of these.

Now, the main business. I'll make no bones about it: Carach Angren are, by a long, long way, my favourite Black Metal band. They haven't done a huge amount: a couple of EPs and a pair of full length albums, but what they have done is astounding.
This album is certainly their best work, and I'll tell you why.

When I first heard of this band, I didn't expect much of them: the subject matter didn't seem particularly unique, their names were obviously fake, and they just seemed pretty much standard: nothing notable, but possibly worth a listen.

I set off that night, plugged in my headphones and set the album running. Electronic Voice Phenomena seeped into my ears like blood through a rotten floorboard. My heart raced and I had scarcely rounded the corner before I was checking over my shoulder for cursed daemons of the night or other beings from the netherworld and dragging my twitching hand from the skip button. My shadow had become a doppelganger, intent on devouring me. The street lights flickered as if controlled by some malevolent force. The very air had frozen, in anticipation of my impending bloody slaughter. In short, the atmospheric opener scared me more than any thoughts of a serial killer ever had, would or could. Quite a good start.

I no longer paid any attention to where I was going; my feet took over as I focused on this audible ambrosia that was filtering into my ears. I was shocked to discover myself in the park when I looked up. The Sighting Is A Portent Of Doom kept up this unsurpassed style, with brilliantly arranged orchestral movements blending seamlessly into the driving guitars and double-bass drums. The brass comes in to close it, perfectly timed, with echoes of the Wolf theme of Prokofiev.

But it only got better. The third track is practically a horror movie in itself - I never thought that I would class shotgun blasts and falling corpses as music - and there on the tale of the nautical psychopath is mirrored perfectly by the backdrop of excellent orchestration and just general musical brilliance. Themes are played that are practically perfect, and I cannot find a single bad note or undeveloped phrase in the entire thing. Not once do they resort to blast-beat drumming, nor to simplistic rhythyms for but an instant. Yes, they do sometimes base themselves, briefly, on straight 16th bass drums, but never at the expense of the song, and never with every thing else made simple: always they have something interesting, something that seizes your ear and props it open with matchsticks.

But what makes this so special is that it is, in the absolute meaning of the word, unique. No other band could come up with this, nor would be able to do it justice when covering it, and I don't say this lightly. This is most easily shown by the lyrics. During Bloodstains On The Captain's Log, they list the cargo of the ship. Now, I know that sounds dull, even on a par with The Catalogue Of Ships (if you don't get the reference, get out. Now.), but it isn't. Somehow, "ivory and opium" is exactly what you want to hear. You realise that it's a "glimpse in his eyes", not a glint, that would be different. "A vicious false dog" is the perfect description. As you can see, the lyrics are certainly different. My personal opinion is that they were written in Dutch originally, and then translated. Certainly, that would explain "Weigh the anchor and hoist the sails!
Work harder you drunken snails!
For treasury like pepper as gold.
Let this nautical voyage begin.
We are powered by strong European winds."

But if you want a true measure of their individuality is the 6th track, which acts as an interlude: Al Betekent Het Mijn Dood (Even if it means my Death). The entire song uses just one tom (or perhaps timpani). There are sound effects of the ship, and you can even hear actual singing (not shrieks) - and it's rather good singing too. It exquisitely conveys fear, without need for screams or speed, but simply with a few violins and some trombones. It show their skill at arrangements, if nothing else. It is, in short, the perfect example of why Carach Angren should be a lot more famous than they are.

Summary: The pinnacle of Black Metal. Think Abigail Williams meets Beethoven at the cinema whilst watching a Ghost Ship. Oh, and they're both on LSD.
Lyrical Themes: It's a concept album about ghost ships, possession and divine curses.
Rating:9/10

Track listing:
1. Electronic Voice Phenomena
2. The Sighting Is A Portent Of Doom
3. And The Consequence Macabre
4. Van Der Decken's Triumph
5. Bloodstains On The Captain's Log
6. Al Betekent Het Mijn Dood
7. Departure Towards A Nautical Curse
8. The Course Of A Spectral Ship
9. The Shining Was A Portent Of Gloom

Myspace

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Netherbird Dual Review

Genre: Melodic Black Metal

Name: Netherbird

Album: The Ghost Collector (2008) and Covered In Darkness (EP, 2009)


Malice Through the Looking Glass

I have good news and bad news: The bad news is that I won't be able to buy a Netherbird CD this weekend. The good news is that they offer two available for download on their website! With the booklets as .PDF files! They, my friends, are awesome, which is only further proven by the fact that, on their facebook page, if you ask a question, leave a comment or just headbutt your keyboard, they reply. Awww, shucks... ain't that just dandy?

Netherbird, until very recently, had no line up - that was, apparently, part of the point. The vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist shared "a vision on how to write and record metal music without the limitations of a set line up or metal". They, however, have now procured a bassist, presumably from some form of lost-and-found, and have set themselves to release their second full length CD on May 15th (besides this, they have three each of EPs and Singles).

I plugged my ears in and bathed in the intro to The Ghost Collector. This track, "Dead Grid Incantation", has lyrics worthy of Carach Angren, and music just as good. The postponement of the final whisper of terror only adds to the tension, which is shattered by the sonic violence (and we all love gratuitous violence) of "The Blackest Breed", the first song of theirs I heard, and the only song I needed to hear to get hooked. The sublime blending of high-pitched black metal shrieks and deep death-metal doom-laden vocals create a chorus of epic sonic attributes, and the pair of tracks set the perfect tone for the following songs.

And not only are the vocals good, but the lyrics are poetry par excelence. The epitome of this can be found in the second track - "The darkness is our salvation now, / We have all become malice in wonderland" is simply exquisite. Ever since I heard it, I've been cursing myself for not having thought of it first.

The rest of the songs do not disappoint. The exemplary examples of black metal are rounded off brilliantly with the strings of an orchestra, and are interspersed with the occasional atmospheric piece, the most notable, and probably my favourite, being "Boulevard Black (Reprise)".

This excellent track is preceded by the centrepiece of the album, "Boulevard Black": 14 minutes of snares, bass drums, guitars, keyboards, piano, an orchestra second to none (well, maybe London Philharmonic) and, of course, screams which pierce your very soul and drag you down to the lowest levels of Beelzebub's palace of punishment and pain. And following this dramatic track, you are met by my aforementioned favourite: the piano is simply excellent, once again bringing back memories of "Electronic Voice Phenomena". In short, these guys really need to tour with Carach Angren.

Having now turned my attention to the EP, "Covered In Darkness" (nice pun), I found myself desperate to find out who these bands were. Annihilator and Paradise Lost are just outside my musical circle, with the former only existing on a Painkiller live album and the latter constantly nearly breaking in, but always superseded by someone else. However, this EP has been the greatest propaganda on behalf of the four bands covered that I've ever met. Paradise Lost are covered to begin it, with the quite scary intro to "As I Die" rattling the bones before we move on, and eventually we reach "Alison Hell", by Annihilator, which has captured my ear and my heart. All the covers are excellent, and inspire me to both explore the covered bands music, none of which I have heard before, and also to buy more Netherbird. Anyone who can cover something so well (especially songs not originally made for black metal) clearly has a very musically talented mind.

Summary: Excellent examples of why keyboards should be compulsory for any Black Metal band. Instantly shooting up to at least my top three, if not higher.
Rating: 8/10
Track listing:

The Ghost Collector
1. Dead Grid Incantation
2. The Blackest Breed
3. Carcass Symphony
4. Adrift On The Sea Of Misery
5. LightHouse Eternal (Laterna Magika)
6. Hidden Beneath Flesh Pest Ridden
7. The Beauty Of Bones
8. Forever Mounful
9. Adrift Towards Eternity
10. Blood Orchid
11. Ashen Nectar
12. Boulevard Black
13. Boulevard Black (Reprise)

Covered In Darkness
1. As I Die (as made famous by Paradise Lost)
2. Nepenthe (as made famous by Sentenced)
3. Alison Hell (as made famous by Annihilator)
4. Firmament Vacation (as made famous by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives)

Myspace

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Netherbird (Promo)

Hey guys,

Facebook adverts are an awesome way to find crazy bands: I found Moss (there's another promised review) that way, and now have found "Netherbird", a Swedish (they're always Scandanavian in some form or other) black Metal ban. I think that, from what I've heard so far, they're absolutely epic. Expect a review shortly, as soon as I've pieced the money together to get the CD (most likely not prior to this weekend).

Until then, to sate your appitite, here is their youtube page: Listen to that and tell me it's not absolutely awesome.

Abigail Williams have some tough competition, methinks.

Echo's Wolf out.