OSR: December 19th, 2015

Heavy and low experimental black metal with industrial tendencies; it ultimately sounds too industrial for my tastes.

Swallow the Sun‘s triple album is unnecessarily long and could’ve been much better if the individual songs were more worked upon and if the weaker ones were weeded out.

A simple yet efficient instrumental stoner/doom album.

A pretty solid progressive black metal album coming out in early 2016.

Technical death metal has never really been my thing, but this Icelandic band must be doing something right!

Atmospheres‘s The Departure is a deserving if rather simplistic ambidjent album.

This would’ve most probably … Read more

OSR: December 17th, 2015

A 2013 experimental jazz album that will get a re-release through Art as Catharsis in early 2016: as everything from AAC, it’s innovative and well executed!

An early 2016 entry for very good album of the year in the progressive death metal genre.

Although it’s not labeled as such, I think this is exactly what if black metal went pop would sound like, and it’s not a bad thing!

Self is a very decent post black metal album with interesting melodic and harmonic ideas throughout.

As is legacy from grindcore bands, this is a very concise split, but I have … Read more

Nono Cerchio – Ombre

a0705784611_16From the beautiful Italian city of Bologna, here comes Nono Cerchio – Ninth Circle -, a progressive post-metal band with two members from one of last year’s biggest new names: Nero di Marte. Their debut album, Ombre, was released in early November, and clocks in at almost 50 minutes.

With draughts of experimental music imbuing the atmospheres of the post-metal background, we get a work of art heavy with dissonance, and deeper meaning than can be thought of at first listen. In fact, the album is influenced by Dante’s Divine Comedy, most specifically, the 32nd Canto of “Inferno”, … Read more

Sales de Baño – Horror Vacui

album art

The second release from Argentinian avant-garde jazz sextet Sales de Baño is Horror Vacui, an intriguing live performance. The ensemble is led by bassist and composer Carlos Quebrada, and also features flute, trumpet, keyboard, guitar, and drums. They definitely play “outside” a lot, but what I appreciate here is that it’s often difficult to tell what is composed and what is improvised. Quebrada has done an excellent job, at times approaching a sophisticated chamber music sound and at others harsh avant-noise.

At first, it may seem that the playing here is somewhat aimless in the way that avant-garde music … Read more

OSR: December 9th, 2015

RIP Chrysalis is Eartheater‘s second full-length album, an entrancing piece of experimental electronic music.

Nono Cerchio is the side-project of two Nero di Marte members! It’s actually a more post-metal, atmospheric album, and I love it!
Sorry, that’s the only video or complete stream of a song I found online!
Hexnut is a crazy avant-garde ensemble that immediately hooked me with their two Meshuggah covers, as well as all their other insane compositions. Tvivler‘s another band the bassist of the highly-esteemed Town Portal is in. It’s not as interesting, but it’s full of drive and aggressiveness. From ex-members… Read more