Tag Archives: avant-garde

Laudare – d.é.o.m.é.

by Dæv Tremblay

The Music

The Words

Life is a neverending game of catchup, recently demonstrated with Ryorchestra‘s overdue review, and today is Laudare‘s turn. d.é.o.m.é. was released in July and completely flew under my radar. The reason being that the band’s main music genre on bandcamp is “alternative”, a category I seldom if ever survey. I think it would do the band a great favour to change this to “metal”, and then complete with appropriate genre tags. But, in the end, the album has found its way to my ears, and I’m glad it did, because it’s phantastic.

The German … Read more

The Key to Nchuandzel –
N’gasta! Kvata! Kvakis!

by Dæv Tremblay

The Music?

The Words

The tentacled brain behind The Key to Nchuandzel has long teased me about the existence of the N’gasta! Kvata! Kvakis! album, withholding me the privilege of being able to listen to it, peer into its essence, become shattered by its gaze… Fortunately, the time of reckoning is here and the Key is unleashed, for all to be enraptured.

In twenty minutes and five tracks, The Key to Nchuandzel bewilders and astonishes incessantly with its improbable but characteristic black metal. Black metal? That’s the idea I had at first, but I’m far from being certain anymore. Grindcore, … Read more

Bollywood – Bollywood

by Dæv Tremblay

The Music

The Words

Experimental is the land of all possibles. Bollywood paints a rather stellar example of this in the realm of jazz with their self-titled debut album. Released on 12 August, it was briefly available through TVL Rec‘s page, and abruptly taken down—forbidding my sharing it. However, this can’t stop me from talking about it.

A few minutes over thirty, Bollywood is an album of what sounds like free jazz meets lowercase music, with each track fronted by a different solo instrument—here saxophone, here bass, and so on—backed by insectile percussions, noise backing tracks, or electronic experimentations. … Read more

Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury

by Dæv Tremblay

The Music

The Words

New York’s avant-garde death worshippers Imperial Triumphant recently released their much anticipated album Vile Luxury, the follow-up to 2015’s stellar Abyssal Gods. On this new record, the mysterious trio is joined by a brass quartet and a vocal quartet to craft a sonic aura more daunting and regal than ever. When the trumpets swell and the choir wails, it is the carnal embodiment of the name “Imperial Triumphant”; like the malignant annunciation of a vile king.

While the previous iterations of the band’s vision sounded more like homages to Portal and Deathspell Omega, Vile … Read more

Tele.S.Therion – Luzifers Abschied

by Dæv Tremblay

The Music

The Words

Tele.S.Therion is a self-described acousmatic black metal ensemble based in Italy, with members from various European countries. They have been making music since at least 2009, and Luzifers Abschied is their eighth and latest release, from 2017. So… what is acousmatic black metal about, exactly? Simply put, it’s a “veiled” collective improvisation. The band refers to how Pythagorus would give lessons behind a veil, so his students would better concentrate, but I find the analogy here to be questionable, at best. How Tele.S.Therion operates is that each musician will add their improvised performance to a recording … Read more