Chaos Echœs – Mouvement

The Music

The Words

Recently being part of Toilet ov Hell’s “Most Innovative Guitarist in Metal” poll, Kalevi Uibo is the closest thing to a band leader France’s Chaos Echœs has. And, judging by the music alone, he is awfully good at it. Now bands are most often more than one person, and I have to say that every one in Chaos Echœs knows their place and uses it to its full potential. Mouvement is the latest release from the band, and it is impressive in many regards. It would be quite easy to dismiss the band judging by … Read more

Siberian Hell Sounds and Convulsing – The Breath of the Beast and Engraved upon Bleached Bone

Australians Siberian Hell Sounds and Convulsing are perhaps two of the most punishing, dissonant, and avant-garde black metal entities out there, and they’ve joined forces on this split release, each providing a song over twenty minutes long to feed this beastly behemoth of a record. What results is not so much a split as it is a collaborative effort to bring forth to the altar a worthy sacrifice. And worthy it is, as it pleases us with its long, winding and unconventional song structures, its sickening harmony, its thick and heavy atmosphere put on our shoulders to burden, and its … Read more

Botanist – Collective: The Shape of He to Come

I was a proponent of Californian experimental black metal project Botanist, when their debut double album, I: The Suicide Tree/II: A Rose from the Dead was released, back in 2011. At the time, it was new and pretty much unheard of, at least not widely so. The following albums, however, felt like mere reiterations on the same themes and a simple reorganization of the same core sounds and ideas; no matter how long you shuffle your salad, it’s still going to be the same salad. That’s why I was [cautiously] optimistic for Botanist’s new project: there was no roman … Read more

Jute Gyte – Oviri

Jute Gyte‘s sole member, Adam Kalmbach, is said to take some sort of break, or hiatus, after Oviri, the closing chapter of what I’ll call ‘The Colours Trilogy’. The only things that are in the works are a rumoured split release and an electronic music album for 2018. The end of an era is always something to grief, but also a moment to look forward to new beginnings. In the meantime, however, let’s discuss this latest progeny. Adam talked about striving to unite the two major aspects of his creative mind: the electronic and the black metal. Nowhere … Read more