The Swiss avant-garde black metal quatuor, not satisfied from having released perhaps the best triple-album ever just last year, is already back with The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite. It’s sold as an EP, but crosses the thirty minutes threshold that is commonly used to distinguish EPs from full-lengths; it has seven tracks, but the whole thing feels like one continuous journey into the obscure places of our mind; it’s a work of art that goes above and beyond the traditional scope of black metal and the avant-garde… Indeed, the band themselves wrote that Hermaphrodite is an ‘artistic experiment’, and it’s … Read more
Tag Archives: atmospheric
(ghost) – Everything We Touch Turns to Dust
(ghost)‘s newest album, Everything We Touch Turns to Dust, was released on June second via n5MD. It’s my first experience with this project, and I must say I’m pleasantly surprised. The record delivers atmospheric IDM with some glitch aesthetics. At times, it sounds like qebrµs, but a million times less experimental and abstract, rather staying on the approachable and relatable side of things. Now, my knowledge of electronic music is quite limited, but Everything We Touch Turns to Dust is a record that I enjoyed a lot. At first glance minimalist, this façade covers some very interesting choices … Read more
The Blight – Meditations on Insignificance
Out on July twenty-eighth, Meditations on Insignificance is the latest experiment by noise metal artists The Blight. This full-length release explores the Lovecraftian themes of cosmic insignificance and the nihilistic views that nothing we will ever do will matter the slightest bit in the end. Their approach to music consists of improvised noise layered with atmospheric pads and supported by an impressive display of drumming skills, not too far from an actual drum solo. Thematically, the album goes from small scale, with ‘Self’, to a gigantic one, with ‘Galaxy’. Themes that are exploited without uttering a single word – … Read more
Gravetemple – Áthatolhatatlan félelmek
Gravetemple‘s newest barrage of sound, Áthatolhatatlan félelmek (English title: Impassable Fears), comes out on June second. This experimental, droning, and abstract death metal album consists of Hungarian chants screamed through a musical haze consisting of mostly low-register notes, uncertain rhythmics, and absent melodies. If you want a more imaged comparison, I’d say it’s like listening to Portal underwater. Áthatolhatatlan félelmek is really an odd but entrancing release. It’s relatively short, the meat of it being concentrated in three songs – ‘A szarka’, ‘Elavúlt földbolygó’, and ‘Áthatolhatatlan félelmek’ -, making up around twenty-seven minutes, and the three other tracks … Read more
Sol iustitiae – Iam, Christe, sol iustitiae
As obscure as it might be, Iam, Christe, sol iustitiae is the first, instrumental demo release of Italian post-black metal entity Sol iustitiae. For now, the three tracks present on their bandcamp page are instrumental, but the band wrote that they plan on adding vocals on them in the near future. The production is raw, but not displeasing; every instrument can be heard distinctly, and the sound as a whole isn’t too bad. There’s only the issue of some soundwave clipping, but that should be resolved with the next mix. The music, however, is totally delightful! Sol iustitiae use … Read more