Category Archives: Reviews

Sila Slona – Self-Titled; Montezuma’s Revenge – Them (2017)

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Sila Slona – Sila Slona (Zero Hero Recordings, 27 January 2017)

 

Montezuma’s Revenge – Them (Zero Hero Recordings, 03 March 2017)

 

Anyone who has read or watched any sort of news in the United States over the past few months may have noticed that Russia is being mentioned in connection with nearly every story that’s being reported these days. That country is currently discussed more often in this country, than any other time in the past several decades — at least since August 1991. Not even during the Sochi Olympics do I recall having heard about Russia nearly this often.

But I’m not here to talk about political matters, and you certainly aren’t here to read about such nonsense either. So it seemed like a much more fitting idea would be to discuss some Russian music. Specifically, here are albums by two different bands from Moscow, which were both released earlier this year by Moscow-based Zero Hero Recordings. Enjoy!

 

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Conan – Blood Eagle (2014), Revengeance (2016)

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Conan – Blood Eagle (Napalm Records, 28 February 2014)

 

Conan – Revengeance (Napalm Records, 29 January 2016)

 

Following our last article that covered a few of North‘s more recent releases, it only makes sense to talk about their current tour-mates Conan as well. The Merseysider trio has been around for over ten years — although the line-up has changed a few times: from 2011 (when their split record with Slomatics came out, which was the last release we discussed here) until the 2014 emergence of their second full-length Blood Eagle, Paul O’Neill had remained behind the drums, but Phil Coumbe had taken on bass/vocal duties; then by 2016 new drummer Rich Lewis had joined, and Chris Fielding (a prolific producer and engineer who had worked on all of Conan‘s previous releases) was added as bassist/vocalist. The only constant throughout the band’s career has been guitarist/vocalist Jon Davis, who also runs Black Bow Records in his spare time — oh and by the way, you may remember from when last year when we covered Boss Keloid‘s Herb Your Enthusiasm, which was a Black Bow release, Davis and Fielding both had guest spots on that record.

Well, it wouldn’t be accurate to say that Mr. Davis being part of the band continuously has been the only constant over the past decade-plus. The sound produced by this trio has perpetually been as savage and barbaric as the literary character from which their name was derived. To be specific, they identify themselves as “caveman battle doom” — and you’ll find, as we make our way through Blood Eagle and last year’s follow-up Revengeance, there really couldn’t be a more apt description …

 
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North – Siberia (2006-15), Metanoia (2014-15), Through Raven’s Eyes (2015), Light the Way (2016)

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North – Siberia (self-released, 01 May 2006 / re-released by Prosthetic Records, 02 June 2015)

 

North – Metanoia (self-released, 11 March 2014 / re-released by Prosthetic Records, 02 June 2015)

 

North – Through Raven’s Eyes (Prosthetic Records, 14 August 2015)

 

North – Light the Way (Prosthetic Records, 18 March 2016)

 

Well. Today is going to be all about North, a band who (naturally) come from the extreme southern part of Arizona, and who, as we mentioned a while back, are touring across the country with Conan. As you can see from the title of this post and that series of album covers just above, there’s going to be a ton of material to go over, so that’s all the introduction we have time for …

 

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Obituary – Ten Thousand Ways to Die (2016), Obituary (2017)

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Obituary – Ten Thousand Ways to Die (Relapse Records, 14 October 2016)

 

Obituary – Obituary (Relapse Records, 17 March 2017)

 
One of the originators of the foundational Tampa, Florida death metal scene, formed well over 30 years ago (and using their current name since back in 1988) with three of the original members — brothers John Tardy (vocals) and Don Tardy (drums) and guitarist Trevor Peres — continuously part of the line-up ever since, surely you — visitor to a website devoted to metal music — know Obituary, right? And if I told you they had a new single available with two songs (one of which can’t be found anywhere else) that also includes basically a whole live album worth of bonus tracks, AND that they followed that with a brand-new full-length album that easily stands up among the band’s decades-long discography, what more do you need from me aside from links where you can go and buy these new releases? (See the bottom of this page, below the videos and above the Bandcamp players. Also check below that, for information on the band’s tour dates over the next few days, including a stop in Pittsburgh TONIGHT!)

But I know not everyone out there is a lifelong death metal enthusiast. I’ll readily admit that I myself listen to the genre far less than many other styles of metal, and a main reason for that is that so many of the bands all sound alike and the sound of the music often seems stagnant and stale. But every so often something comes along where the band clearly is doing everything the right way — and with the rare stability and consistency Obituary has enjoyed over all these years, they certainly exemplify that. So I’ll assume that if you’re still with me, you aren’t already a huge fan of the band BUT perhaps curious enough to keep reading this far. Great, so here we go …

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Opeth – Sorceress (2016)

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Opeth – Sorceress (Moderbolaget Records / distributed by Nuclear Blast, 30 September 2016)

 
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Abbey Road. “The White Album.” Widely considered to be hugely influential milestones in the history of recorded music. And yet the group responsible for these masterpieces began its career with mindless bubblegum-pop: stuff like “Love, love me do / You know I love you / I’ll always be true / So please love me do,” “She loves you, yeah yeah yeah / She loves you, yeah yeah yeah / She loves you, yeah yeah yeah yeah,” and “I wanna hold your hand / I wanna hold your hand / I wanna hold your hand / I wanna hold your hand.”

Certainly that’s a pretty extreme example, but the point here is that when a band experiences a seismic styistic shift, it isn’t always catastrophic, and can even be a positive thing. Naturally, when this occurs it can sometimes be unnerving to fans of the artist’s earlier work (and of course there have been plenty of moments where such a move did turn out to be a major misstep), but it never ceases to confound me, how often and how passionately hatred is spewed in the direction of Opeth for having developed a different sound over their quarter-century-plus career. This group of Swedes receives just as many nasty comments (particularly if the band is ever mentioned in the context of a metal festival or anything to do with metal music) for NOT making the same album over and over, as Six Feet Under does for essentially the exact opposite transgression.

The transition from death metal to progressive death metal occurred very early in this band’s existence, and it was the latter guise that caught most fans’ attention, gaining the ensemble a huge following. But throughout the course of a dozen full-length albums, gradually the elements of “death” had dropped away, and ultimately “metal” as well, landing Opeth squarely in the realm of “progressive” music, and leaving many earlier devotees feeling shortchanged. Nevertheless, in this reviewer’s opinion the band’s latest effort, last September’s Sorceress stands up quite well — when one judges it on its own merits, rather than attempting a side-by-side comparison with Still Life or Blackwater Park. And with that in mind, let’s jump right in.
 
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Bereft – Lost Ages (2014), Lands (2017)

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Bereft – Lost Ages (Silent Pendulum Records, 18 November 2014)

 

Bereft – Lands (Prosthetic Records, 31 March 2017)

Hey folks! Just a quick heads-up: Madison, Wisconsin blackened doom band Bereft will be appearing in Pittsburgh tonight (05 April 2017) at Howlers! Also appearing will be Aseethe from Iowa and Cant from Pittsburgh, presented by Winterforge Productions — you can click here for all the details about that. But first, who the hell are Bereft? Well, I’m glad you asked. Step right this way …

 

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The Crazy World of Arthur Brown – Zim Zam Zim (2014)

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The Crazy World of Arthur Brown – Zim Zam Zim (Bronze Rat Records, 28 July 2014)

 

For those who may have missed the announcement, about two months ago, the highly influential and iconic Arthur Brown will be performing a series of live dates with The Crazy World of Arthur Brown — for the first time since that group’s earlier incarnation had disbanded after (or during, depending on which account of events you hear) a U.S. tour back in 1969! This new run of shows will be kicking off tonight(!), and we’ve got the details for you down in the comments section. But before we get there, I’d first like to call your attention to The Crazy World‘s newest album — 2014’s Zim Zam Zim …

 

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Zgard – Reclusion (2012), Astral Glow (2013)

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Zgard – Reclusion (BadMoodMan Music, 30 January 2012)

 

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Zgard – Astral Glow (BadMoodMan Music, 25 February 2013)

 

Hey everyone. As promised yesterday, here’s a new review for you. Prior to that, almost a month ago, I wrote a quick little synopsis of last year, including some updates on artists we’d previously discussed, and what new and exciting things have been going on during our little hiatus throughout the last few months. One thing I had forgotten to mention, though, was the fact that during that downtime — about mid-October, in fact — this website reached its five-year anniversary! A lot of things have changed in five years, but a lot of things have also stayed the same.

One thing that hasn’t changed is our main mission, which has always been to discover music that’s worth listening to, and then publicizing it here in hopes of helping it to reach more people’s ears. Another thing that has remained relatively constant is the fact that the second part of that statement (writing about the music) has often lagged behind the first part (finding stuff worth sharing). Sometimes, alarmingly far behind.

Case in point: today I’d like to tell you about one of the earliest submissions we received when this site was still in its infancy, an album that came from the esteemed Russian doom label Solitude Productions, and one that has just reached the fifth anniversary of its release date. While this 2012 record and its follow-up from the next year have long graced my MP3 player as well as my to-do list, I’ve inexplicably neglected to get anything written about either of these. Until now.

 

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Green Elder / Pensive Ceremony – Split; Twilight Fauna – Fire of the Spirit (2016)

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Green Elder / Pensive Ceremony – Split (self-released, 11 August 2016)

 

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Twilight Fauna – Fire of the Spirit (Ravenwood Recordings / Fragile Branch Recordings, 19 August 2016)

 

Hello, and happy Friday! Today I’d like to call your attention to a pair of releases you may enjoy, that just came out last month. The second one is an album called Fire of the Spirit, Twilight Fauna‘s sixth full-length record over the past several years, in addition to numerous other discographical items. (As you may or may not be aware, Twilight Fauna is a solo black metal project with strong Appalachian folk roots, with everything written and performed by sole member Paul Ravenwood of Johnson City, Tennessee.) But before that, in light of it having been released a week earlier, we’ll talk about a 12″ split record that features Green Elder — also a Ravenwood solo gig, but this one entirely eschews the black metal aspects in favor of a more somber, pure Appalachian folk style. The flip side of this split consists of yet another single-member ensemble — one that’s even more elusive than the others we’re discussing today, in terms of sharing any personal information. It’s called Pensive Ceremony, and everything here is done by an individual known only as Pythagumus, apparently from somewhere near Tacoma, Washington.

 

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Frosthelm – The Endless Winter (2015)

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Frosthelm – The Endless Winter (Black Work (Alkemy Brothers), 22 March 2015)

 

Hello out there, how are you all doing on this fine afternoon?

I know there hasn’t been so much activity around here lately, and I really wish it could be otherwise, but as seems to happen pretty frequently, other facets of life get pretty crazy sometimes.

But I did want to drop by and remind you folks about the Ghost Bath and Numenorean tour that’s currently spreading across the country like some vile plague. I’ve seen lots of excitement about this one — specifically about the show in Pittsburgh that’s coming up this Friday the 16th (which, if you hurry, there is still a little bit of time left to WIN a pair of tickets for!).

And also, I thought this might be an opportune moment to say a few words about the third band featured on that tour’s line-up: Frosthelm, who hail from the frozen northern tundra that is Bismarck, ND. These guys put out an album last year that’s every bit as bitter and frosty as that incredible artwork at the top of this page; I’ve got a feeling you’ll want to check this out …

 

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