Grave Upheaval – Sciomancy
As you can hear, the whole spectrum is drenched in a mystical atmosphere and weighed down by low pitched guitar notes and slow drumbeats, only here and there picking up and blasting waves of unrelenting polka beats. This sounded quite similar to yet another Austrialian band that goes by the name of Portal. Even though their later teachings somewhat branched off from the heavy worship, their previous works were relatively alike to this. Sciomancy is, I believe, Grave Upheaval’s attempt at expanding on the methods and approach of the earlier life of Portal.
Lingua Nada – Snuff
Snuff; an eccentric, energetic album that takes elements from shoegaze, surf rock, post-hardcore, and noise rock, and blends them all together into a palatable musical paste. This full-length album sends similar flavours to the then-peerless Brooklyn band Sheen Marina, who were a favourite of mine, last year. Lingua Nada perhaps go farther than them in terms of harshness, sprinkled here and there throughout the ten tracks on Snuff, but this only works in their favour, as every time they do it feels like a really cathartic explosion that’s been waiting to happen for a long time.
Moteur! – En traits libres
The band favours completely improvised journeys to written music. Therefore, En traits libres is made from four uncut and unedited improvisations, totalling just over thirty minutes of weird, dissonant, and directionless music. I think that the prime goal of Moteur! is simply to play and see what results from anarchy, a sort of self-ordering chaos. The tracks are weird, off-putting, dissonant, and makes no heads nor tails. In that sense, it is a vibrant success!
Soldat Hans – Es taut
Es taut is a special album that rewards the introspective listener, amalgamating an excellent set of sounds from some of the best possible influences and fashioning them into something that’s never quite been done before. (It’s worth noting that their 2014 debut, Dress Rehearsal, is even longer and nearly just as good.) Few bands can walk the line between vicious intensity and spacious immensity, much less live simultaneously on both sides. Soldat Hans marry the two, build a house for them, invite you in for tea, and tell you stories and anecdotes until you look at the clock and realize you’ve been there for three hours, yet you don’t regret a moment of it.
Honourable Mentions
Among the Rocks and Roots – Raga
Eryn Non Dae. – Abandon of the Self
Hardcore Anal Hydrogen – Hypercut
Instrumental (Adj.) – Reductio ad absurdum
Nightmarer – Cacophony of Terror
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