Latvian experimental atmospheric black metal band Eschatos have released a promising album, last year, in The Grand Noir, and they’re already back at it with their EP Mære. It consists only of an eight-minute track and a fifteen-minute, three-part epic, but displays in that short amount of time great leaps from its predecessor. The first part of “The Night of the White Devil” is one of the most emotionally intense pieces of black metal I’ve recently heard, with some passages reminiscent of Oathbreaker, with the broken voice Kristiāna Kārkliņa pulling those same strings. Mære is a great EP, … Read more
Tag Archives: post-metal
Monotrope – Unifying Receiver
Monotrope is an experimental progressive rock quartet from multiple American states, and they’ll be releasing their debut album, Unifying Receiver, on 10 November. The avant-rock release is entirely instrumental, and they take all the room they have available to make an interesting album. It’s full of diverse influences that coalesce into something that’s somewhere between post-metal and experimental math rock. Unifying Receiver is more contemplative than demonstrative – although there’s a soft balance between both aspects of the genre –, so it’s not something that will put you in awe at every turn, but the songs are cunningly crafted … Read more
Charnia – Het laatste licht
Belgian post-metal band Charnia released their most recent work on 20 October: the forty-minute unbroken track “Het laatste licht”. Grossly, the album-length song is split in two vague sections. For the first half or so, it’s a chamber music session comprised of a violin and double bass duo where lazy and languid voices interweave to form a droning piece, between melancholy and despair. The second half starts past the twenty minutes mark with a drumbeat that is soon joined by the rest of the band. For the remaining time, strings and electrics join forces in a slow, heavy, and pounding … Read more
An Art as Catharsis Special: Opium Eater, Raven, Seims & Slowly Building Weapons
Australia has become one of my favourite places in the world to look out for new and exciting bands. From alien overlords such as Portal to fresh faces of progressive metal like Caligula’s Horse, there is a pallet of sounds to be found on the Lucky Country. However, there is a special label that has gained recognition for finding and delivering some of the most unique albums I’ve heard in recent years: Art as Catharsis.
Psychedelic drone music with eastern influences (Ḥashshāshīn), John Zorn worship jazzgrind (Kurushimi (苦しみ)) or experimental hardcore madness (Tired Minds), Art as Catharsis has … Read more
Rosetta – Utopioid
Philadelphia post-metal quintet Rosetta released their sixth full-length album Utopioid last week, and I figured I owed it to the band I named my daughter after to give their new offering a review. The troupe has been around since the peak of post-metal saturation; their debut, The Galilean Satellites, was released in 2005, right alongside undisputed classics like Isis’ Panopticon, Cult of Luna’s Salvation, and Neurosis’ The Eye of Every Storm. For my money, The Galilean Satellites – released as a metal side and an ambient side designed to be played simultaneously – is the pinnacle … Read more