Roadburn 2017 Day Four
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This is the fourth part of our Roadburn 2017 coverage. Read part one here and part two here and part three here.
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Day 4 – Afterburn
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Normally considered the Roadburn Afterburner, Day 4 brought a welcomed mellow energy and visibly thinner crowd. Pallbearer eased us into the final day with melodic doom on the Main Stage. This wasn’t the best day for the band’s vocals, since none of their two- and three-part harmonies really came through. Nevertheless, Pallbearer delighted Roadburners with a little old and plenty of new (no complaints there – their latest, Heartless translates well to the stage).
Over in the Green Room, Valborg began their set with the half-whispered German intro to “Vampyr”. Their brand of doom trudges through a narcotic haze, but with march-like deliberateness. Bassist and vocalist Jan Buckard performs with authority but then out of nowhere flashes a teddy bear grin. Given how stark their music is, Valborg have plenty of personality.
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IMG_8963
IMG_8969
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Headliners Ulver have released several masterpiece albums in at least two different genres. Admittedly, my expectations for their live show were high. The band had moments of brilliance (i.e. launching into the lengthy outro of “So Falls the World”, with a beat fit for a Berlin techno club), but overall the performance fell prey to the same issues as Chelsea Wolfe’s: it all felt a little impersonal and subdued. Ulver’s mastermind, Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg, laid low towards the back of the stage, shrouded by shadows. He performed all the live vocals himself, which meant that the vibrant harmonies on the band’s latest effort, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, were absent. I also would have preferred to hear another full song instead of the ambient guitar noise that droned on for several minutes midway through the set.
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“Ghosts of You” Haunt Demons My Friends’ Thunderous Stoner Rock
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S11WV4sddTk...
Demons Seem to Gather releases September 8th via Gravitoyd Heavy Music.“Ghosts of You” Haunt Demons My Friends’ Thunderous Stoner Rock
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S11WV4sddTk...
Demons Seem to Gather releases September 8th via Gravitoyd Heavy Music.Demons My Friends
“Ghosts of You” Haunt Demons My Friends’ Thunderous Stoner Rock
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S11WV4sddTk...
Demons Seem to Gather releases September 8th via Gravitoyd Heavy Music.…
In contrast, Emma Ruth Rundle delivered arguably the most stripped down and vulnerable set of the festival. Her vocal inflections stab like needles into unsuspecting listeners who might just end up crying, or at the very least staring at her incredulously. Uninhibited in a way that’s rare even for a solo performer, Rundle plays guitar like she sings: with some words and chords barely there and others barreling at us. When she sang her lyric Who else would ever stay? in “Marked for Death”, she momentarily removed her hands from the guitar and turned up her palms to gesture her curiosity. And the audience hangs on to her every move, because every detail means something in the story she tells.
Then I caught the first half of Pillorian’s set. Fronted by ex-Agalloch John Haughm, the Oregon black metal band wound up the Main Stage one final time with a fresh energy that could only come from a band in the midst of exciting beginnings.
Inter Arma soundtracked my own last gasp in Het Patronaat. I arrived at the back to the the pulsing drone of “Transfiguration”, and a friend appropriately christened this performance as “a little bit of everything at Roadburn, rolled up into one.” And just like that, Roadburn 2017 came to a very fitting close.
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Choice sets: Emma Ruth Rudle, Inter Arma
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Other Photos
“Ghosts of You” Haunt Demons My Friends’ Thunderous Stoner Rock
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S11WV4sddTk...
Demons Seem to Gather releases September 8th via Gravitoyd Heavy Music.“Ghosts of You” Haunt Demons My Friends’ Thunderous Stoner Rock
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S11WV4sddTk...
Demons Seem to Gather releases September 8th via Gravitoyd Heavy Music.“Ghosts of You” Haunt Demons My Friends’ Thunderous Stoner Rock
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S11WV4sddTk...
Demons Seem to Gather releases September 8th via Gravitoyd Heavy Music.“We’ll Hide Away” Brings Grain’s Mid-1990s Post-Hardcore Genius Into Focus (Early Album Stream)
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We'll Hide Away: Complete Recordings 1993-1995 releases August 11th via Solid Brass Records.Author and Punisher
Grain We’ll Hide Away
“We’ll Hide Away” Brings Grain’s Mid-1990s Post-Hardcore Genius Into Focus (Early Album Stream)
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We'll Hide Away: Complete Recordings 1993-1995 releases August 11th via Solid Brass Records.“We’ll Hide Away” Brings Grain’s Mid-1990s Post-Hardcore Genius Into Focus (Early Album Stream)
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We'll Hide Away: Complete Recordings 1993-1995 releases August 11th via Solid Brass Records.“We’ll Hide Away” Brings Grain’s Mid-1990s Post-Hardcore Genius Into Focus (Early Album Stream)
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We'll Hide Away: Complete Recordings 1993-1995 releases August 11th via Solid Brass Records.Five from Five: KEN mode’s Jesse Matthewson’s Favorite Records From the Last Half-Decade
Canadian noise nuts KEN mode are set to drop their new album Void as a follow up to 2022’s Null, one of my favorite albums of last year. Recorded around the same time, the album shares quite a few similarities with Void; but it also feels a bit grittier and desolate. Combined with its predecessor, the duo makes for a complete whole when placed next to one another. There is a good mix of driving tunes like ”The Shrike” and longer former crushers like ”These Wires” that help to showcase the sheer amount of variety that KEN Mode are capable of.
To help give visibility into this variety, vocalist Jesse Matthewson has provided us with a list of 5 records from the last 5 years that have really resonated with him. Some of these can be heard within the confines of his music, others merely for inspiration. Read on below and see what music helps to feed his madness.
…
…
Jesse Matthewson's Favorite Five New Records From The Last Five Years
Everyone laments how it's harder and harder to find music that gives them that feeling they got from their favorite records when they were a teenager/early 20's. It's why so many people desperately cling to these records as a symbol of their dwindling youth, and a badge of an age where music was simply "better" than it is now.
I get it. The older we get, the more responsibilities we have, your sources for new music pass you by, you get lost and genuinely have trouble making connections with new art that inevitably isn't even speaking the same emotional language you are anymore.
It's for this reason that many of us try even harder to continue to keep that spark alive. Sure, I get it… it's a desperate attempt at clinging to the thing that makes you feel alive, as life continues to get scarier and scarier as you accept your own eventual mortality.
Anyway, without new music, I fear for what I'd become. These are the top 5 records of the last 5 years that genuinely made me feel something:
Plebeian Grandstand - Rien ne suffit (2021)
This album hit me like a truck. It was everything I needed in late 2021, after dealing with the pandemic shitshow for the last two years. Equal parts black metal, hardcore, analog synth driven industrial, with elements of jazz, I fell hard. It may be my favourite new record in a decade. It plays like a soundtrack, ever evolving, with the most intense emotionality I've heard in maybe any record. The riffs feel alive, like a creeping mould growing through all of the cracks presented, and consuming everything in their path. I was aware of the band before this, but for one reason or another, previous records had never grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me and screamed in my face the way this one did.
…
Scarcity - Aveilut (2022)
2022 was a heavy year for releases...it's like everyone was trying to work something out of their system; whatever that could be? Scarcity just so happened to be the one that spoke the loudest to me as the year progressed. Atmospheric black metal leaning heavy on the hypnotic classical style guitar work. Thematically, for me, it fits in with the Plebeian Grandstand record, for a piece of music that is constantly evolving, with riffing that lurches forward almost like an organic being bending its way into new terrain so it can fit. The way it builds and recedes like a piece of classical music, it's the sort of record you have to listen to all the way through at once, otherwise it feels like you're cheating the art. I later met the composer, Brendon Randall-Myerss, who is in fact a classical composer and guitarist. Figures.
…
Ex:Re – Ex:Re (2018) and with 12 Ensemble (2021)
A solo record of Daughter singer, Elena Tonra; I was first made aware of this project upon the live rendition released in 2021, a collaboration with 12 Ensemble, and I'm still annoyed that they never did a physical release for this version. Arguably, I prefer the live version, as the string performances and choices on the live rendition of these songs make them all the more powerful. Gut wrenching and emotional - what would you even call this? Indie rock? Folk'ish? Eh, who cares, this is HEAVY.
…
Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (2020)
A similar heaviness to the previous album, but a little dirtier, with mild touches of scraping deep industrial aesthetics - like rust on a deep old drum being beat around a fire. Scraping strings, with Hilary's haunting voice echoing through the music. The moment I heard the opening track "Tongues of Wild Boar" I was immediately won over. The layer of grime over top of this recording is what really drove it home for me. What would you even call this? Folk industrial? I never know how to describe less metallic music. This is also HEAVY.
…
Mourir - Animal Bouffe Animal (2020)
This record came out just before Covid-19 shut the world down, and kind of became an anthem for the tortured desperation going on in my head. Guitarist/Vocalist Olivier Lolmède is also in Plebeian Grandstand, and clearly there's something about his music and the music of his peers that is striking a chord with me over the last 5 years. This project is a full band extension of Vermine, a precursor where he handled all of the instruments, which is also excellent - but with a full band seeing the vision through, it's all the more powerful.
I'm a huge fan of Amaury Sauvé's production, and he's managed to make a noisy, somewhat atmospheric black metal band sound huge and powerful - in a muscle + sinew way - which I frequently feel is lacking in black metal. Those drums. I love it.
…
Five from Five: KEN mode’s Jesse Matthewson’s Favorite Records From the Last Half-Decade
Canadian noise nuts KEN mode are set to drop their new album Void as a follow up to 2022’s Null, one of my favorite albums of last year. Recorded around the same time, the album shares quite a few similarities with Void; but it also feels a bit grittier and desolate. Combined with its predecessor, the duo makes for a complete whole when placed next to one another. There is a good mix of driving tunes like ”The Shrike” and longer former crushers like ”These Wires” that help to showcase the sheer amount of variety that KEN Mode are capable of.
To help give visibility into this variety, vocalist Jesse Matthewson has provided us with a list of 5 records from the last 5 years that have really resonated with him. Some of these can be heard within the confines of his music, others merely for inspiration. Read on below and see what music helps to feed his madness.
…
…
Jesse Matthewson's Favorite Five New Records From The Last Five Years
Everyone laments how it's harder and harder to find music that gives them that feeling they got from their favorite records when they were a teenager/early 20's. It's why so many people desperately cling to these records as a symbol of their dwindling youth, and a badge of an age where music was simply "better" than it is now.
I get it. The older we get, the more responsibilities we have, your sources for new music pass you by, you get lost and genuinely have trouble making connections with new art that inevitably isn't even speaking the same emotional language you are anymore.
It's for this reason that many of us try even harder to continue to keep that spark alive. Sure, I get it… it's a desperate attempt at clinging to the thing that makes you feel alive, as life continues to get scarier and scarier as you accept your own eventual mortality.
Anyway, without new music, I fear for what I'd become. These are the top 5 records of the last 5 years that genuinely made me feel something:
Plebeian Grandstand - Rien ne suffit (2021)
This album hit me like a truck. It was everything I needed in late 2021, after dealing with the pandemic shitshow for the last two years. Equal parts black metal, hardcore, analog synth driven industrial, with elements of jazz, I fell hard. It may be my favourite new record in a decade. It plays like a soundtrack, ever evolving, with the most intense emotionality I've heard in maybe any record. The riffs feel alive, like a creeping mould growing through all of the cracks presented, and consuming everything in their path. I was aware of the band before this, but for one reason or another, previous records had never grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me and screamed in my face the way this one did.
…
Scarcity - Aveilut (2022)
2022 was a heavy year for releases...it's like everyone was trying to work something out of their system; whatever that could be? Scarcity just so happened to be the one that spoke the loudest to me as the year progressed. Atmospheric black metal leaning heavy on the hypnotic classical style guitar work. Thematically, for me, it fits in with the Plebeian Grandstand record, for a piece of music that is constantly evolving, with riffing that lurches forward almost like an organic being bending its way into new terrain so it can fit. The way it builds and recedes like a piece of classical music, it's the sort of record you have to listen to all the way through at once, otherwise it feels like you're cheating the art. I later met the composer, Brendon Randall-Myerss, who is in fact a classical composer and guitarist. Figures.
…
Ex:Re – Ex:Re (2018) and with 12 Ensemble (2021)
A solo record of Daughter singer, Elena Tonra; I was first made aware of this project upon the live rendition released in 2021, a collaboration with 12 Ensemble, and I'm still annoyed that they never did a physical release for this version. Arguably, I prefer the live version, as the string performances and choices on the live rendition of these songs make them all the more powerful. Gut wrenching and emotional - what would you even call this? Indie rock? Folk'ish? Eh, who cares, this is HEAVY.
…
Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (2020)
A similar heaviness to the previous album, but a little dirtier, with mild touches of scraping deep industrial aesthetics - like rust on a deep old drum being beat around a fire. Scraping strings, with Hilary's haunting voice echoing through the music. The moment I heard the opening track "Tongues of Wild Boar" I was immediately won over. The layer of grime over top of this recording is what really drove it home for me. What would you even call this? Folk industrial? I never know how to describe less metallic music. This is also HEAVY.
…
Mourir - Animal Bouffe Animal (2020)
This record came out just before Covid-19 shut the world down, and kind of became an anthem for the tortured desperation going on in my head. Guitarist/Vocalist Olivier Lolmède is also in Plebeian Grandstand, and clearly there's something about his music and the music of his peers that is striking a chord with me over the last 5 years. This project is a full band extension of Vermine, a precursor where he handled all of the instruments, which is also excellent - but with a full band seeing the vision through, it's all the more powerful.
I'm a huge fan of Amaury Sauvé's production, and he's managed to make a noisy, somewhat atmospheric black metal band sound huge and powerful - in a muscle + sinew way - which I frequently feel is lacking in black metal. Those drums. I love it.
…
Five from Five: KEN mode’s Jesse Matthewson’s Favorite Records From the Last Half-Decade
Canadian noise nuts KEN mode are set to drop their new album Void as a follow up to 2022’s Null, one of my favorite albums of last year. Recorded around the same time, the album shares quite a few similarities with Void; but it also feels a bit grittier and desolate. Combined with its predecessor, the duo makes for a complete whole when placed next to one another. There is a good mix of driving tunes like ”The Shrike” and longer former crushers like ”These Wires” that help to showcase the sheer amount of variety that KEN Mode are capable of.
To help give visibility into this variety, vocalist Jesse Matthewson has provided us with a list of 5 records from the last 5 years that have really resonated with him. Some of these can be heard within the confines of his music, others merely for inspiration. Read on below and see what music helps to feed his madness.
…
…
Jesse Matthewson's Favorite Five New Records From The Last Five Years
Everyone laments how it's harder and harder to find music that gives them that feeling they got from their favorite records when they were a teenager/early 20's. It's why so many people desperately cling to these records as a symbol of their dwindling youth, and a badge of an age where music was simply "better" than it is now.
I get it. The older we get, the more responsibilities we have, your sources for new music pass you by, you get lost and genuinely have trouble making connections with new art that inevitably isn't even speaking the same emotional language you are anymore.
It's for this reason that many of us try even harder to continue to keep that spark alive. Sure, I get it… it's a desperate attempt at clinging to the thing that makes you feel alive, as life continues to get scarier and scarier as you accept your own eventual mortality.
Anyway, without new music, I fear for what I'd become. These are the top 5 records of the last 5 years that genuinely made me feel something:
Plebeian Grandstand - Rien ne suffit (2021)
This album hit me like a truck. It was everything I needed in late 2021, after dealing with the pandemic shitshow for the last two years. Equal parts black metal, hardcore, analog synth driven industrial, with elements of jazz, I fell hard. It may be my favourite new record in a decade. It plays like a soundtrack, ever evolving, with the most intense emotionality I've heard in maybe any record. The riffs feel alive, like a creeping mould growing through all of the cracks presented, and consuming everything in their path. I was aware of the band before this, but for one reason or another, previous records had never grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me and screamed in my face the way this one did.
…
Scarcity - Aveilut (2022)
2022 was a heavy year for releases...it's like everyone was trying to work something out of their system; whatever that could be? Scarcity just so happened to be the one that spoke the loudest to me as the year progressed. Atmospheric black metal leaning heavy on the hypnotic classical style guitar work. Thematically, for me, it fits in with the Plebeian Grandstand record, for a piece of music that is constantly evolving, with riffing that lurches forward almost like an organic being bending its way into new terrain so it can fit. The way it builds and recedes like a piece of classical music, it's the sort of record you have to listen to all the way through at once, otherwise it feels like you're cheating the art. I later met the composer, Brendon Randall-Myerss, who is in fact a classical composer and guitarist. Figures.
…
Ex:Re – Ex:Re (2018) and with 12 Ensemble (2021)
A solo record of Daughter singer, Elena Tonra; I was first made aware of this project upon the live rendition released in 2021, a collaboration with 12 Ensemble, and I'm still annoyed that they never did a physical release for this version. Arguably, I prefer the live version, as the string performances and choices on the live rendition of these songs make them all the more powerful. Gut wrenching and emotional - what would you even call this? Indie rock? Folk'ish? Eh, who cares, this is HEAVY.
…
Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (2020)
A similar heaviness to the previous album, but a little dirtier, with mild touches of scraping deep industrial aesthetics - like rust on a deep old drum being beat around a fire. Scraping strings, with Hilary's haunting voice echoing through the music. The moment I heard the opening track "Tongues of Wild Boar" I was immediately won over. The layer of grime over top of this recording is what really drove it home for me. What would you even call this? Folk industrial? I never know how to describe less metallic music. This is also HEAVY.
…
Mourir - Animal Bouffe Animal (2020)
This record came out just before Covid-19 shut the world down, and kind of became an anthem for the tortured desperation going on in my head. Guitarist/Vocalist Olivier Lolmède is also in Plebeian Grandstand, and clearly there's something about his music and the music of his peers that is striking a chord with me over the last 5 years. This project is a full band extension of Vermine, a precursor where he handled all of the instruments, which is also excellent - but with a full band seeing the vision through, it's all the more powerful.
I'm a huge fan of Amaury Sauvé's production, and he's managed to make a noisy, somewhat atmospheric black metal band sound huge and powerful - in a muscle + sinew way - which I frequently feel is lacking in black metal. Those drums. I love it.
…
Baroness
Ken Mode Void
Five from Five: KEN mode’s Jesse Matthewson’s Favorite Records From the Last Half-Decade
Canadian noise nuts KEN mode are set to drop their new album Void as a follow up to 2022’s Null, one of my favorite albums of last year. Recorded around the same time, the album shares quite a few similarities with Void; but it also feels a bit grittier and desolate. Combined with its predecessor, the duo makes for a complete whole when placed next to one another. There is a good mix of driving tunes like ”The Shrike” and longer former crushers like ”These Wires” that help to showcase the sheer amount of variety that KEN Mode are capable of.
To help give visibility into this variety, vocalist Jesse Matthewson has provided us with a list of 5 records from the last 5 years that have really resonated with him. Some of these can be heard within the confines of his music, others merely for inspiration. Read on below and see what music helps to feed his madness.
…
…
Jesse Matthewson's Favorite Five New Records From The Last Five Years
Everyone laments how it's harder and harder to find music that gives them that feeling they got from their favorite records when they were a teenager/early 20's. It's why so many people desperately cling to these records as a symbol of their dwindling youth, and a badge of an age where music was simply "better" than it is now.
I get it. The older we get, the more responsibilities we have, your sources for new music pass you by, you get lost and genuinely have trouble making connections with new art that inevitably isn't even speaking the same emotional language you are anymore.
It's for this reason that many of us try even harder to continue to keep that spark alive. Sure, I get it… it's a desperate attempt at clinging to the thing that makes you feel alive, as life continues to get scarier and scarier as you accept your own eventual mortality.
Anyway, without new music, I fear for what I'd become. These are the top 5 records of the last 5 years that genuinely made me feel something:
Plebeian Grandstand - Rien ne suffit (2021)
This album hit me like a truck. It was everything I needed in late 2021, after dealing with the pandemic shitshow for the last two years. Equal parts black metal, hardcore, analog synth driven industrial, with elements of jazz, I fell hard. It may be my favourite new record in a decade. It plays like a soundtrack, ever evolving, with the most intense emotionality I've heard in maybe any record. The riffs feel alive, like a creeping mould growing through all of the cracks presented, and consuming everything in their path. I was aware of the band before this, but for one reason or another, previous records had never grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me and screamed in my face the way this one did.
…
Scarcity - Aveilut (2022)
2022 was a heavy year for releases...it's like everyone was trying to work something out of their system; whatever that could be? Scarcity just so happened to be the one that spoke the loudest to me as the year progressed. Atmospheric black metal leaning heavy on the hypnotic classical style guitar work. Thematically, for me, it fits in with the Plebeian Grandstand record, for a piece of music that is constantly evolving, with riffing that lurches forward almost like an organic being bending its way into new terrain so it can fit. The way it builds and recedes like a piece of classical music, it's the sort of record you have to listen to all the way through at once, otherwise it feels like you're cheating the art. I later met the composer, Brendon Randall-Myerss, who is in fact a classical composer and guitarist. Figures.
…
Ex:Re – Ex:Re (2018) and with 12 Ensemble (2021)
A solo record of Daughter singer, Elena Tonra; I was first made aware of this project upon the live rendition released in 2021, a collaboration with 12 Ensemble, and I'm still annoyed that they never did a physical release for this version. Arguably, I prefer the live version, as the string performances and choices on the live rendition of these songs make them all the more powerful. Gut wrenching and emotional - what would you even call this? Indie rock? Folk'ish? Eh, who cares, this is HEAVY.
…
Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (2020)
A similar heaviness to the previous album, but a little dirtier, with mild touches of scraping deep industrial aesthetics - like rust on a deep old drum being beat around a fire. Scraping strings, with Hilary's haunting voice echoing through the music. The moment I heard the opening track "Tongues of Wild Boar" I was immediately won over. The layer of grime over top of this recording is what really drove it home for me. What would you even call this? Folk industrial? I never know how to describe less metallic music. This is also HEAVY.
…
Mourir - Animal Bouffe Animal (2020)
This record came out just before Covid-19 shut the world down, and kind of became an anthem for the tortured desperation going on in my head. Guitarist/Vocalist Olivier Lolmède is also in Plebeian Grandstand, and clearly there's something about his music and the music of his peers that is striking a chord with me over the last 5 years. This project is a full band extension of Vermine, a precursor where he handled all of the instruments, which is also excellent - but with a full band seeing the vision through, it's all the more powerful.
I'm a huge fan of Amaury Sauvé's production, and he's managed to make a noisy, somewhat atmospheric black metal band sound huge and powerful - in a muscle + sinew way - which I frequently feel is lacking in black metal. Those drums. I love it.
…
Five from Five: KEN mode’s Jesse Matthewson’s Favorite Records From the Last Half-Decade
Canadian noise nuts KEN mode are set to drop their new album Void as a follow up to 2022’s Null, one of my favorite albums of last year. Recorded around the same time, the album shares quite a few similarities with Void; but it also feels a bit grittier and desolate. Combined with its predecessor, the duo makes for a complete whole when placed next to one another. There is a good mix of driving tunes like ”The Shrike” and longer former crushers like ”These Wires” that help to showcase the sheer amount of variety that KEN Mode are capable of.
To help give visibility into this variety, vocalist Jesse Matthewson has provided us with a list of 5 records from the last 5 years that have really resonated with him. Some of these can be heard within the confines of his music, others merely for inspiration. Read on below and see what music helps to feed his madness.
…
…
Jesse Matthewson's Favorite Five New Records From The Last Five Years
Everyone laments how it's harder and harder to find music that gives them that feeling they got from their favorite records when they were a teenager/early 20's. It's why so many people desperately cling to these records as a symbol of their dwindling youth, and a badge of an age where music was simply "better" than it is now.
I get it. The older we get, the more responsibilities we have, your sources for new music pass you by, you get lost and genuinely have trouble making connections with new art that inevitably isn't even speaking the same emotional language you are anymore.
It's for this reason that many of us try even harder to continue to keep that spark alive. Sure, I get it… it's a desperate attempt at clinging to the thing that makes you feel alive, as life continues to get scarier and scarier as you accept your own eventual mortality.
Anyway, without new music, I fear for what I'd become. These are the top 5 records of the last 5 years that genuinely made me feel something:
Plebeian Grandstand - Rien ne suffit (2021)
This album hit me like a truck. It was everything I needed in late 2021, after dealing with the pandemic shitshow for the last two years. Equal parts black metal, hardcore, analog synth driven industrial, with elements of jazz, I fell hard. It may be my favourite new record in a decade. It plays like a soundtrack, ever evolving, with the most intense emotionality I've heard in maybe any record. The riffs feel alive, like a creeping mould growing through all of the cracks presented, and consuming everything in their path. I was aware of the band before this, but for one reason or another, previous records had never grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me and screamed in my face the way this one did.
…
Scarcity - Aveilut (2022)
2022 was a heavy year for releases...it's like everyone was trying to work something out of their system; whatever that could be? Scarcity just so happened to be the one that spoke the loudest to me as the year progressed. Atmospheric black metal leaning heavy on the hypnotic classical style guitar work. Thematically, for me, it fits in with the Plebeian Grandstand record, for a piece of music that is constantly evolving, with riffing that lurches forward almost like an organic being bending its way into new terrain so it can fit. The way it builds and recedes like a piece of classical music, it's the sort of record you have to listen to all the way through at once, otherwise it feels like you're cheating the art. I later met the composer, Brendon Randall-Myerss, who is in fact a classical composer and guitarist. Figures.
…
Ex:Re – Ex:Re (2018) and with 12 Ensemble (2021)
A solo record of Daughter singer, Elena Tonra; I was first made aware of this project upon the live rendition released in 2021, a collaboration with 12 Ensemble, and I'm still annoyed that they never did a physical release for this version. Arguably, I prefer the live version, as the string performances and choices on the live rendition of these songs make them all the more powerful. Gut wrenching and emotional - what would you even call this? Indie rock? Folk'ish? Eh, who cares, this is HEAVY.
…
Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (2020)
A similar heaviness to the previous album, but a little dirtier, with mild touches of scraping deep industrial aesthetics - like rust on a deep old drum being beat around a fire. Scraping strings, with Hilary's haunting voice echoing through the music. The moment I heard the opening track "Tongues of Wild Boar" I was immediately won over. The layer of grime over top of this recording is what really drove it home for me. What would you even call this? Folk industrial? I never know how to describe less metallic music. This is also HEAVY.
…
Mourir - Animal Bouffe Animal (2020)
This record came out just before Covid-19 shut the world down, and kind of became an anthem for the tortured desperation going on in my head. Guitarist/Vocalist Olivier Lolmède is also in Plebeian Grandstand, and clearly there's something about his music and the music of his peers that is striking a chord with me over the last 5 years. This project is a full band extension of Vermine, a precursor where he handled all of the instruments, which is also excellent - but with a full band seeing the vision through, it's all the more powerful.
I'm a huge fan of Amaury Sauvé's production, and he's managed to make a noisy, somewhat atmospheric black metal band sound huge and powerful - in a muscle + sinew way - which I frequently feel is lacking in black metal. Those drums. I love it.
…
Five from Five: KEN mode’s Jesse Matthewson’s Favorite Records From the Last Half-Decade
Canadian noise nuts KEN mode are set to drop their new album Void as a follow up to 2022’s Null, one of my favorite albums of last year. Recorded around the same time, the album shares quite a few similarities with Void; but it also feels a bit grittier and desolate. Combined with its predecessor, the duo makes for a complete whole when placed next to one another. There is a good mix of driving tunes like ”The Shrike” and longer former crushers like ”These Wires” that help to showcase the sheer amount of variety that KEN Mode are capable of.
To help give visibility into this variety, vocalist Jesse Matthewson has provided us with a list of 5 records from the last 5 years that have really resonated with him. Some of these can be heard within the confines of his music, others merely for inspiration. Read on below and see what music helps to feed his madness.
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Jesse Matthewson's Favorite Five New Records From The Last Five Years
Everyone laments how it's harder and harder to find music that gives them that feeling they got from their favorite records when they were a teenager/early 20's. It's why so many people desperately cling to these records as a symbol of their dwindling youth, and a badge of an age where music was simply "better" than it is now.
I get it. The older we get, the more responsibilities we have, your sources for new music pass you by, you get lost and genuinely have trouble making connections with new art that inevitably isn't even speaking the same emotional language you are anymore.
It's for this reason that many of us try even harder to continue to keep that spark alive. Sure, I get it… it's a desperate attempt at clinging to the thing that makes you feel alive, as life continues to get scarier and scarier as you accept your own eventual mortality.
Anyway, without new music, I fear for what I'd become. These are the top 5 records of the last 5 years that genuinely made me feel something:
Plebeian Grandstand - Rien ne suffit (2021)
This album hit me like a truck. It was everything I needed in late 2021, after dealing with the pandemic shitshow for the last two years. Equal parts black metal, hardcore, analog synth driven industrial, with elements of jazz, I fell hard. It may be my favourite new record in a decade. It plays like a soundtrack, ever evolving, with the most intense emotionality I've heard in maybe any record. The riffs feel alive, like a creeping mould growing through all of the cracks presented, and consuming everything in their path. I was aware of the band before this, but for one reason or another, previous records had never grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me and screamed in my face the way this one did.
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Scarcity - Aveilut (2022)
2022 was a heavy year for releases...it's like everyone was trying to work something out of their system; whatever that could be? Scarcity just so happened to be the one that spoke the loudest to me as the year progressed. Atmospheric black metal leaning heavy on the hypnotic classical style guitar work. Thematically, for me, it fits in with the Plebeian Grandstand record, for a piece of music that is constantly evolving, with riffing that lurches forward almost like an organic being bending its way into new terrain so it can fit. The way it builds and recedes like a piece of classical music, it's the sort of record you have to listen to all the way through at once, otherwise it feels like you're cheating the art. I later met the composer, Brendon Randall-Myerss, who is in fact a classical composer and guitarist. Figures.
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Ex:Re – Ex:Re (2018) and with 12 Ensemble (2021)
A solo record of Daughter singer, Elena Tonra; I was first made aware of this project upon the live rendition released in 2021, a collaboration with 12 Ensemble, and I'm still annoyed that they never did a physical release for this version. Arguably, I prefer the live version, as the string performances and choices on the live rendition of these songs make them all the more powerful. Gut wrenching and emotional - what would you even call this? Indie rock? Folk'ish? Eh, who cares, this is HEAVY.
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Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (2020)
A similar heaviness to the previous album, but a little dirtier, with mild touches of scraping deep industrial aesthetics - like rust on a deep old drum being beat around a fire. Scraping strings, with Hilary's haunting voice echoing through the music. The moment I heard the opening track "Tongues of Wild Boar" I was immediately won over. The layer of grime over top of this recording is what really drove it home for me. What would you even call this? Folk industrial? I never know how to describe less metallic music. This is also HEAVY.
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Mourir - Animal Bouffe Animal (2020)
This record came out just before Covid-19 shut the world down, and kind of became an anthem for the tortured desperation going on in my head. Guitarist/Vocalist Olivier Lolmède is also in Plebeian Grandstand, and clearly there's something about his music and the music of his peers that is striking a chord with me over the last 5 years. This project is a full band extension of Vermine, a precursor where he handled all of the instruments, which is also excellent - but with a full band seeing the vision through, it's all the more powerful.
I'm a huge fan of Amaury Sauvé's production, and he's managed to make a noisy, somewhat atmospheric black metal band sound huge and powerful - in a muscle + sinew way - which I frequently feel is lacking in black metal. Those drums. I love it.
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Bongzilla
“Ghosts of You” Haunt Demons My Friends’ Thunderous Stoner Rock
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S11WV4sddTk...
Demons Seem to Gather releases September 8th via Gravitoyd Heavy Music.“Ghosts of You” Haunt Demons My Friends’ Thunderous Stoner Rock
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S11WV4sddTk...
Demons Seem to Gather releases September 8th via Gravitoyd Heavy Music.King Woman
“A Feast On Sorrow”‘s Profound Anguish is a Bold Step Forward for Urne
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To elucidate your background, can you tell us a bit about your previous band Hang The Bastard? Myself and Angus (Nayra, Urne guitarist) were initially in a more prog-y band, which has kind of become Urne. We went on tour with Hang The Bastard, and they asked if I wanted to join, and I thought, “Yeah, I can do two bands.” But then the first two years were pretty full-on, and I let my focus slip. Annoyingly, we only did one album, but the album that I started writing for that didn’t happen turned into some of the songs on the first Urne EP. It was a great band to be in. They’re back now, with three of the original members, but I’m not involved. So when you started Urne, what did you want to do differently? Initially, it was about cutting it down from five people to three. Best thing I’ve ever done; I wish I’d always been in a three-piece. Also, previously, myself and Angus had been in more technical bands, and we wanted to get back to that. First we needed to get our chops back. We had to get our hands back after doing power chords for so long. We wanted to challenge ourselves because we had four, five years out from doing this sort of thing. Your first full-length came out in June 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic; did they change or dampen anything to do with its release? To be honest, for the first six months of the pandemic, I was living down by the coast where we had the lowest cases in the country. I'd walk down to the beach every morning with a coffee, listen to some Alcest, and do some work. We finished writing the album remotely, even though I’ve never liked that, and we managed to get into our practice room for a couple of long sessions, so we said, “Fuck it; let’s make it.” As bad as the pandemic was in so many ways, it did let us put together an album. We also got on some of the few tours that were happening—Orange Goblin, which was right after the first lockdown, then Devil Sold His Soul, which ended the day the Omicron lockdown started. You mentioned writing stuff remotely; can you tell us about your writing process? So me and Angus always used to write together. Now, it’s a bit different. I’ve moved out of London, though I still work there, so we do still manage to jam. But there’s also a lot of voice notes—playing a bass riff, singing a vocal line. We’ll end up with a library of stuff, and me and Angus will go through them and say “shit” or “not shit.” For this album specifically, does the finished project resemble the thing that you envisaged when you were putting it all together? Some elements of it are different. But once we got who we wanted to record it in mind and said to them, “We like what you did with this,” we knew it would sound heavy and massive and I think got pretty close to the thing that I envisaged. Because of the team we had, I knew it was going to sound fucking alive and organic. Do you feel like this album is a step forward for Urne? Yeah, I think so. On the last album, there were four or five good songs and three really good ones that were us at our best. We focused on those, which were the best of what we do. We knew it was going to be heavy after writing two songs, so we stayed on this especially intense sound. Honestly, it really feels like a step forward; the technical passages, songwriting, production, vocals, drums, riffs are all much better than the last album. So how did Joe Duplantier get in contact with you? Joe reached out and told us that he liked what we were doing. We had a little conversation, and I asked if we could use his studio to track drums. Joe doesn’t produce many bands, but he said he was interested. Fast forward 10 months, and we’re walking through New York City saying, “I can’t believe this has happened to us.”. It still seems surreal, even though we talk and have done shows with them. What kind of producer was he? Did he want to help shape the songs, or did he focus more on the technical side? He didn’t touch the songs; he wanted to build a sound. He wanted to give us an atmosphere and a personality. He wanted to try weird things: add bits of percussion, try out loads of tones. All the drums were done live in the room with us playing with the aim of keeping everything as real and as authentic as possible. Even though it sounds so massive, I also think it has an energy where you feel like you're sat in between three guys going mad playing technical metal. I think he smashed it. In as little or as much detail as you want, can you talk a bit about the background to some of the themes that you’re looking at on this album? It’s a personal one. When we started writing it, illnesses were affecting members of all our families. In my immediate family, two people have the same terminal illness, and one has recently passed. The album deals with getting told you’re about to go through several tough years that will inevitably end with sadness. It’s about the whole process from when you find out, to the song “Peace,” which represents the moment someone passes. Compared to anything I’ve done before, this is the most direct I’ve been in terms of lyrics. I didn’t feel pressured when writing them or in the studio, but every time we release a song, I’m feeling the pressure. There’s a starkness to the album’s aesthetic; the roomy production, the cold artwork. It’s hallowed. I interpreted that as a representation of what you must be going through. We were struggling with the artwork, but I had that image saved somewhere. I kept looking at it, and the color was what I felt and saw when I listened to the album. I have the vinyl here, and it makes me feel like, as a metal person, I want to know what's inside it. It feels powerful, and I like to think that we wrote something as powerful as the artwork. Urne seem to move fast; are you already imagining what comes next for your band? Yep. I can’t write anything for the next album until this one’s out, although myself and Angus did come up with one song by mistake a few months ago. We always have conversations when we go out for a pint about what we want the new one to sound like and what we can touch on that we haven't already. We used to play more prog-y stuff. I think that’s something that Urne hasn't touched on yet, although we need to do it naturally and organically. I used to have strict rules, but now I just think “whatever happens, happens.”...
A Feast On Sorrow is out today via Candlelight Records.Urne a Feast on Sorrow
“A Feast On Sorrow”‘s Profound Anguish is a Bold Step Forward for Urne
...
...
To elucidate your background, can you tell us a bit about your previous band Hang The Bastard? Myself and Angus (Nayra, Urne guitarist) were initially in a more prog-y band, which has kind of become Urne. We went on tour with Hang The Bastard, and they asked if I wanted to join, and I thought, “Yeah, I can do two bands.” But then the first two years were pretty full-on, and I let my focus slip. Annoyingly, we only did one album, but the album that I started writing for that didn’t happen turned into some of the songs on the first Urne EP. It was a great band to be in. They’re back now, with three of the original members, but I’m not involved. So when you started Urne, what did you want to do differently? Initially, it was about cutting it down from five people to three. Best thing I’ve ever done; I wish I’d always been in a three-piece. Also, previously, myself and Angus had been in more technical bands, and we wanted to get back to that. First we needed to get our chops back. We had to get our hands back after doing power chords for so long. We wanted to challenge ourselves because we had four, five years out from doing this sort of thing. Your first full-length came out in June 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic; did they change or dampen anything to do with its release? To be honest, for the first six months of the pandemic, I was living down by the coast where we had the lowest cases in the country. I'd walk down to the beach every morning with a coffee, listen to some Alcest, and do some work. We finished writing the album remotely, even though I’ve never liked that, and we managed to get into our practice room for a couple of long sessions, so we said, “Fuck it; let’s make it.” As bad as the pandemic was in so many ways, it did let us put together an album. We also got on some of the few tours that were happening—Orange Goblin, which was right after the first lockdown, then Devil Sold His Soul, which ended the day the Omicron lockdown started. You mentioned writing stuff remotely; can you tell us about your writing process? So me and Angus always used to write together. Now, it’s a bit different. I’ve moved out of London, though I still work there, so we do still manage to jam. But there’s also a lot of voice notes—playing a bass riff, singing a vocal line. We’ll end up with a library of stuff, and me and Angus will go through them and say “shit” or “not shit.” For this album specifically, does the finished project resemble the thing that you envisaged when you were putting it all together? Some elements of it are different. But once we got who we wanted to record it in mind and said to them, “We like what you did with this,” we knew it would sound heavy and massive and I think got pretty close to the thing that I envisaged. Because of the team we had, I knew it was going to sound fucking alive and organic. Do you feel like this album is a step forward for Urne? Yeah, I think so. On the last album, there were four or five good songs and three really good ones that were us at our best. We focused on those, which were the best of what we do. We knew it was going to be heavy after writing two songs, so we stayed on this especially intense sound. Honestly, it really feels like a step forward; the technical passages, songwriting, production, vocals, drums, riffs are all much better than the last album. So how did Joe Duplantier get in contact with you? Joe reached out and told us that he liked what we were doing. We had a little conversation, and I asked if we could use his studio to track drums. Joe doesn’t produce many bands, but he said he was interested. Fast forward 10 months, and we’re walking through New York City saying, “I can’t believe this has happened to us.”. It still seems surreal, even though we talk and have done shows with them. What kind of producer was he? Did he want to help shape the songs, or did he focus more on the technical side? He didn’t touch the songs; he wanted to build a sound. He wanted to give us an atmosphere and a personality. He wanted to try weird things: add bits of percussion, try out loads of tones. All the drums were done live in the room with us playing with the aim of keeping everything as real and as authentic as possible. Even though it sounds so massive, I also think it has an energy where you feel like you're sat in between three guys going mad playing technical metal. I think he smashed it. In as little or as much detail as you want, can you talk a bit about the background to some of the themes that you’re looking at on this album? It’s a personal one. When we started writing it, illnesses were affecting members of all our families. In my immediate family, two people have the same terminal illness, and one has recently passed. The album deals with getting told you’re about to go through several tough years that will inevitably end with sadness. It’s about the whole process from when you find out, to the song “Peace,” which represents the moment someone passes. Compared to anything I’ve done before, this is the most direct I’ve been in terms of lyrics. I didn’t feel pressured when writing them or in the studio, but every time we release a song, I’m feeling the pressure. There’s a starkness to the album’s aesthetic; the roomy production, the cold artwork. It’s hallowed. I interpreted that as a representation of what you must be going through. We were struggling with the artwork, but I had that image saved somewhere. I kept looking at it, and the color was what I felt and saw when I listened to the album. I have the vinyl here, and it makes me feel like, as a metal person, I want to know what's inside it. It feels powerful, and I like to think that we wrote something as powerful as the artwork. Urne seem to move fast; are you already imagining what comes next for your band? Yep. I can’t write anything for the next album until this one’s out, although myself and Angus did come up with one song by mistake a few months ago. We always have conversations when we go out for a pint about what we want the new one to sound like and what we can touch on that we haven't already. We used to play more prog-y stuff. I think that’s something that Urne hasn't touched on yet, although we need to do it naturally and organically. I used to have strict rules, but now I just think “whatever happens, happens.”...
A Feast On Sorrow is out today via Candlelight Records.“A Feast On Sorrow”‘s Profound Anguish is a Bold Step Forward for Urne
...
...
To elucidate your background, can you tell us a bit about your previous band Hang The Bastard? Myself and Angus (Nayra, Urne guitarist) were initially in a more prog-y band, which has kind of become Urne. We went on tour with Hang The Bastard, and they asked if I wanted to join, and I thought, “Yeah, I can do two bands.” But then the first two years were pretty full-on, and I let my focus slip. Annoyingly, we only did one album, but the album that I started writing for that didn’t happen turned into some of the songs on the first Urne EP. It was a great band to be in. They’re back now, with three of the original members, but I’m not involved. So when you started Urne, what did you want to do differently? Initially, it was about cutting it down from five people to three. Best thing I’ve ever done; I wish I’d always been in a three-piece. Also, previously, myself and Angus had been in more technical bands, and we wanted to get back to that. First we needed to get our chops back. We had to get our hands back after doing power chords for so long. We wanted to challenge ourselves because we had four, five years out from doing this sort of thing. Your first full-length came out in June 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic; did they change or dampen anything to do with its release? To be honest, for the first six months of the pandemic, I was living down by the coast where we had the lowest cases in the country. I'd walk down to the beach every morning with a coffee, listen to some Alcest, and do some work. We finished writing the album remotely, even though I’ve never liked that, and we managed to get into our practice room for a couple of long sessions, so we said, “Fuck it; let’s make it.” As bad as the pandemic was in so many ways, it did let us put together an album. We also got on some of the few tours that were happening—Orange Goblin, which was right after the first lockdown, then Devil Sold His Soul, which ended the day the Omicron lockdown started. You mentioned writing stuff remotely; can you tell us about your writing process? So me and Angus always used to write together. Now, it’s a bit different. I’ve moved out of London, though I still work there, so we do still manage to jam. But there’s also a lot of voice notes—playing a bass riff, singing a vocal line. We’ll end up with a library of stuff, and me and Angus will go through them and say “shit” or “not shit.” For this album specifically, does the finished project resemble the thing that you envisaged when you were putting it all together? Some elements of it are different. But once we got who we wanted to record it in mind and said to them, “We like what you did with this,” we knew it would sound heavy and massive and I think got pretty close to the thing that I envisaged. Because of the team we had, I knew it was going to sound fucking alive and organic. Do you feel like this album is a step forward for Urne? Yeah, I think so. On the last album, there were four or five good songs and three really good ones that were us at our best. We focused on those, which were the best of what we do. We knew it was going to be heavy after writing two songs, so we stayed on this especially intense sound. Honestly, it really feels like a step forward; the technical passages, songwriting, production, vocals, drums, riffs are all much better than the last album. So how did Joe Duplantier get in contact with you? Joe reached out and told us that he liked what we were doing. We had a little conversation, and I asked if we could use his studio to track drums. Joe doesn’t produce many bands, but he said he was interested. Fast forward 10 months, and we’re walking through New York City saying, “I can’t believe this has happened to us.”. It still seems surreal, even though we talk and have done shows with them. What kind of producer was he? Did he want to help shape the songs, or did he focus more on the technical side? He didn’t touch the songs; he wanted to build a sound. He wanted to give us an atmosphere and a personality. He wanted to try weird things: add bits of percussion, try out loads of tones. All the drums were done live in the room with us playing with the aim of keeping everything as real and as authentic as possible. Even though it sounds so massive, I also think it has an energy where you feel like you're sat in between three guys going mad playing technical metal. I think he smashed it. In as little or as much detail as you want, can you talk a bit about the background to some of the themes that you’re looking at on this album? It’s a personal one. When we started writing it, illnesses were affecting members of all our families. In my immediate family, two people have the same terminal illness, and one has recently passed. The album deals with getting told you’re about to go through several tough years that will inevitably end with sadness. It’s about the whole process from when you find out, to the song “Peace,” which represents the moment someone passes. Compared to anything I’ve done before, this is the most direct I’ve been in terms of lyrics. I didn’t feel pressured when writing them or in the studio, but every time we release a song, I’m feeling the pressure. There’s a starkness to the album’s aesthetic; the roomy production, the cold artwork. It’s hallowed. I interpreted that as a representation of what you must be going through. We were struggling with the artwork, but I had that image saved somewhere. I kept looking at it, and the color was what I felt and saw when I listened to the album. I have the vinyl here, and it makes me feel like, as a metal person, I want to know what's inside it. It feels powerful, and I like to think that we wrote something as powerful as the artwork. Urne seem to move fast; are you already imagining what comes next for your band? Yep. I can’t write anything for the next album until this one’s out, although myself and Angus did come up with one song by mistake a few months ago. We always have conversations when we go out for a pint about what we want the new one to sound like and what we can touch on that we haven't already. We used to play more prog-y stuff. I think that’s something that Urne hasn't touched on yet, although we need to do it naturally and organically. I used to have strict rules, but now I just think “whatever happens, happens.”...
A Feast On Sorrow is out today via Candlelight Records.Les Discrets
“A Feast On Sorrow”‘s Profound Anguish is a Bold Step Forward for Urne
...
...
To elucidate your background, can you tell us a bit about your previous band Hang The Bastard? Myself and Angus (Nayra, Urne guitarist) were initially in a more prog-y band, which has kind of become Urne. We went on tour with Hang The Bastard, and they asked if I wanted to join, and I thought, “Yeah, I can do two bands.” But then the first two years were pretty full-on, and I let my focus slip. Annoyingly, we only did one album, but the album that I started writing for that didn’t happen turned into some of the songs on the first Urne EP. It was a great band to be in. They’re back now, with three of the original members, but I’m not involved. So when you started Urne, what did you want to do differently? Initially, it was about cutting it down from five people to three. Best thing I’ve ever done; I wish I’d always been in a three-piece. Also, previously, myself and Angus had been in more technical bands, and we wanted to get back to that. First we needed to get our chops back. We had to get our hands back after doing power chords for so long. We wanted to challenge ourselves because we had four, five years out from doing this sort of thing. Your first full-length came out in June 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic; did they change or dampen anything to do with its release? To be honest, for the first six months of the pandemic, I was living down by the coast where we had the lowest cases in the country. I'd walk down to the beach every morning with a coffee, listen to some Alcest, and do some work. We finished writing the album remotely, even though I’ve never liked that, and we managed to get into our practice room for a couple of long sessions, so we said, “Fuck it; let’s make it.” As bad as the pandemic was in so many ways, it did let us put together an album. We also got on some of the few tours that were happening—Orange Goblin, which was right after the first lockdown, then Devil Sold His Soul, which ended the day the Omicron lockdown started. You mentioned writing stuff remotely; can you tell us about your writing process? So me and Angus always used to write together. Now, it’s a bit different. I’ve moved out of London, though I still work there, so we do still manage to jam. But there’s also a lot of voice notes—playing a bass riff, singing a vocal line. We’ll end up with a library of stuff, and me and Angus will go through them and say “shit” or “not shit.” For this album specifically, does the finished project resemble the thing that you envisaged when you were putting it all together? Some elements of it are different. But once we got who we wanted to record it in mind and said to them, “We like what you did with this,” we knew it would sound heavy and massive and I think got pretty close to the thing that I envisaged. Because of the team we had, I knew it was going to sound fucking alive and organic. Do you feel like this album is a step forward for Urne? Yeah, I think so. On the last album, there were four or five good songs and three really good ones that were us at our best. We focused on those, which were the best of what we do. We knew it was going to be heavy after writing two songs, so we stayed on this especially intense sound. Honestly, it really feels like a step forward; the technical passages, songwriting, production, vocals, drums, riffs are all much better than the last album. So how did Joe Duplantier get in contact with you? Joe reached out and told us that he liked what we were doing. We had a little conversation, and I asked if we could use his studio to track drums. Joe doesn’t produce many bands, but he said he was interested. Fast forward 10 months, and we’re walking through New York City saying, “I can’t believe this has happened to us.”. It still seems surreal, even though we talk and have done shows with them. What kind of producer was he? Did he want to help shape the songs, or did he focus more on the technical side? He didn’t touch the songs; he wanted to build a sound. He wanted to give us an atmosphere and a personality. He wanted to try weird things: add bits of percussion, try out loads of tones. All the drums were done live in the room with us playing with the aim of keeping everything as real and as authentic as possible. Even though it sounds so massive, I also think it has an energy where you feel like you're sat in between three guys going mad playing technical metal. I think he smashed it. In as little or as much detail as you want, can you talk a bit about the background to some of the themes that you’re looking at on this album? It’s a personal one. When we started writing it, illnesses were affecting members of all our families. In my immediate family, two people have the same terminal illness, and one has recently passed. The album deals with getting told you’re about to go through several tough years that will inevitably end with sadness. It’s about the whole process from when you find out, to the song “Peace,” which represents the moment someone passes. Compared to anything I’ve done before, this is the most direct I’ve been in terms of lyrics. I didn’t feel pressured when writing them or in the studio, but every time we release a song, I’m feeling the pressure. There’s a starkness to the album’s aesthetic; the roomy production, the cold artwork. It’s hallowed. I interpreted that as a representation of what you must be going through. We were struggling with the artwork, but I had that image saved somewhere. I kept looking at it, and the color was what I felt and saw when I listened to the album. I have the vinyl here, and it makes me feel like, as a metal person, I want to know what's inside it. It feels powerful, and I like to think that we wrote something as powerful as the artwork. Urne seem to move fast; are you already imagining what comes next for your band? Yep. I can’t write anything for the next album until this one’s out, although myself and Angus did come up with one song by mistake a few months ago. We always have conversations when we go out for a pint about what we want the new one to sound like and what we can touch on that we haven't already. We used to play more prog-y stuff. I think that’s something that Urne hasn't touched on yet, although we need to do it naturally and organically. I used to have strict rules, but now I just think “whatever happens, happens.”...
A Feast On Sorrow is out today via Candlelight Records.No Spill Blood
“A Feast On Sorrow”‘s Profound Anguish is a Bold Step Forward for Urne
...
...
To elucidate your background, can you tell us a bit about your previous band Hang The Bastard? Myself and Angus (Nayra, Urne guitarist) were initially in a more prog-y band, which has kind of become Urne. We went on tour with Hang The Bastard, and they asked if I wanted to join, and I thought, “Yeah, I can do two bands.” But then the first two years were pretty full-on, and I let my focus slip. Annoyingly, we only did one album, but the album that I started writing for that didn’t happen turned into some of the songs on the first Urne EP. It was a great band to be in. They’re back now, with three of the original members, but I’m not involved. So when you started Urne, what did you want to do differently? Initially, it was about cutting it down from five people to three. Best thing I’ve ever done; I wish I’d always been in a three-piece. Also, previously, myself and Angus had been in more technical bands, and we wanted to get back to that. First we needed to get our chops back. We had to get our hands back after doing power chords for so long. We wanted to challenge ourselves because we had four, five years out from doing this sort of thing. Your first full-length came out in June 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic; did they change or dampen anything to do with its release? To be honest, for the first six months of the pandemic, I was living down by the coast where we had the lowest cases in the country. I'd walk down to the beach every morning with a coffee, listen to some Alcest, and do some work. We finished writing the album remotely, even though I’ve never liked that, and we managed to get into our practice room for a couple of long sessions, so we said, “Fuck it; let’s make it.” As bad as the pandemic was in so many ways, it did let us put together an album. We also got on some of the few tours that were happening—Orange Goblin, which was right after the first lockdown, then Devil Sold His Soul, which ended the day the Omicron lockdown started. You mentioned writing stuff remotely; can you tell us about your writing process? So me and Angus always used to write together. Now, it’s a bit different. I’ve moved out of London, though I still work there, so we do still manage to jam. But there’s also a lot of voice notes—playing a bass riff, singing a vocal line. We’ll end up with a library of stuff, and me and Angus will go through them and say “shit” or “not shit.” For this album specifically, does the finished project resemble the thing that you envisaged when you were putting it all together? Some elements of it are different. But once we got who we wanted to record it in mind and said to them, “We like what you did with this,” we knew it would sound heavy and massive and I think got pretty close to the thing that I envisaged. Because of the team we had, I knew it was going to sound fucking alive and organic. Do you feel like this album is a step forward for Urne? Yeah, I think so. On the last album, there were four or five good songs and three really good ones that were us at our best. We focused on those, which were the best of what we do. We knew it was going to be heavy after writing two songs, so we stayed on this especially intense sound. Honestly, it really feels like a step forward; the technical passages, songwriting, production, vocals, drums, riffs are all much better than the last album. So how did Joe Duplantier get in contact with you? Joe reached out and told us that he liked what we were doing. We had a little conversation, and I asked if we could use his studio to track drums. Joe doesn’t produce many bands, but he said he was interested. Fast forward 10 months, and we’re walking through New York City saying, “I can’t believe this has happened to us.”. It still seems surreal, even though we talk and have done shows with them. What kind of producer was he? Did he want to help shape the songs, or did he focus more on the technical side? He didn’t touch the songs; he wanted to build a sound. He wanted to give us an atmosphere and a personality. He wanted to try weird things: add bits of percussion, try out loads of tones. All the drums were done live in the room with us playing with the aim of keeping everything as real and as authentic as possible. Even though it sounds so massive, I also think it has an energy where you feel like you're sat in between three guys going mad playing technical metal. I think he smashed it. In as little or as much detail as you want, can you talk a bit about the background to some of the themes that you’re looking at on this album? It’s a personal one. When we started writing it, illnesses were affecting members of all our families. In my immediate family, two people have the same terminal illness, and one has recently passed. The album deals with getting told you’re about to go through several tough years that will inevitably end with sadness. It’s about the whole process from when you find out, to the song “Peace,” which represents the moment someone passes. Compared to anything I’ve done before, this is the most direct I’ve been in terms of lyrics. I didn’t feel pressured when writing them or in the studio, but every time we release a song, I’m feeling the pressure. There’s a starkness to the album’s aesthetic; the roomy production, the cold artwork. It’s hallowed. I interpreted that as a representation of what you must be going through. We were struggling with the artwork, but I had that image saved somewhere. I kept looking at it, and the color was what I felt and saw when I listened to the album. I have the vinyl here, and it makes me feel like, as a metal person, I want to know what's inside it. It feels powerful, and I like to think that we wrote something as powerful as the artwork. Urne seem to move fast; are you already imagining what comes next for your band? Yep. I can’t write anything for the next album until this one’s out, although myself and Angus did come up with one song by mistake a few months ago. We always have conversations when we go out for a pint about what we want the new one to sound like and what we can touch on that we haven't already. We used to play more prog-y stuff. I think that’s something that Urne hasn't touched on yet, although we need to do it naturally and organically. I used to have strict rules, but now I just think “whatever happens, happens.”...
A Feast On Sorrow is out today via Candlelight Records.Pyrkagion Visit Gomorrah on Debut EP (Interview + Early Stream)
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This is quite a bit different from your other projects. How'd Pyrkagion come to be? As much as I'd like to say it was some kind of divine revelation, it was really just that Dylan and I had been hanging out through work for a while, and talking black metal always seemed to happen. We shared bands and ideas with each other. At the same time, as bassists, we had a shared desire to play and compose for guitar, and kept talking about wanting to collaborate on something. At one point we ended up seeing Gevurah (the Canadian black metal band) perform live in Seattle, and the intensity of their performance and composition made us realize this was something that we wanted to strive to attain, and were potentially capable of tapping into with enough discipline. At the same time, Brennan and I had been in contact on and off for a while after other bands we were in had toured together, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to collaborate on something new for everyone. From there, we composed the material and passed it around, adding and altering elements until it felt right. The band coalesced in 2019—How did the pandemic affect your work? Did you feel like forced time off changed the sound of this record, or did it just delay its release? I think it both helped and hindered the material—These songs had very long gestations due to their complex nature and my own obsessive compositional tendencies. They underwent multiple major revisions during the time we found ourselves with, and they're certainly better off for it, but at the same time it was difficult to actually functionally record them during the pandemic, so there was a bit of unfortunate delay there. But there is a good amount of additional material that was written during that time and will hopefully not take another four years to see the light of day. "Katechon" seems to allude to the end times. What concepts underpin this release? Everything I've been involved with (Hissing especially) has lyrically remained secular, and I felt like this was a good opportunity to delve into the religious. Pyrkagion is thematically centered around a fire element (unsurprising if you translate the name, which means "conflagration") and much of this material and some forthcoming material was inspired by an evocative painting of Sodom and Gomorrah by Lucas van Leyden—the idea of merciless divine judgment, sinners in the hands of an angry god, etc. The eschatological elements you're referring to are thematically tied to this. It's a fascinating perspective to write from. This particular record cycles around the dual themes of absolute judgment and absolute freedom, and the extremes of the fraught relationship between man and divinity. The two songs are written from the perspective of different characters, one of whom is a servant of God who condemns the rest of mankind for their shortcomings, and one of whom declares himself the only living God and creates a dionysian nightmare on Earth. (These are) different kinds of fanaticism, but linked through the unity and transformation offered by a monotheistic divinity. Note that I personally have no religious opinions one way or the other that I care to mention publicly; I just found these to be interesting characters and ideas to inhabit for this music. Black metal has gone in lots of different directions in recent years, with bands exploring more genre fusion and melody. What sounds in black metal did you feel were "lay(ing) dormant," and how did you weave those into this EP? I think this refers to a certain freedom and disinterest in self-awareness that we found in a lot of the European bands we referenced in these songs—bands that exist in their own little worlds and just do whatever the hell they feel like rather than side-eyeing their peers to make sure they're staying in the right lines. It's just boring. American black metal tends to have a conservativeness that results in either a lot of the same thing we've heard, or neurotically going off the deep end in the other direction, pursuing genre fusion for the sake of it. That stuff has no soul to me; it just felt like a funny idea someone had and decided to see through. For this material, we drew from Naglfar, Secrets of the Moon, Dødheimsgard, etc.—bands who do whatever the hell they want but still have a rich understanding of the spirit of black metal even if the practice is more exploratory. We have things like the synth and bass break in "Red Rays" that serve as extensions of the ideas present in the song even though they're shifting gears a bit. What was the process of pivoting from bass to guitar like for you? It sounds like there's a full rhythm section here, so was this more of a process of trading off? There's a mental shift required. The songs were built as rudimentary skeletons with just one guitar track and drums, and then the bass would usually be added after the fact, which was new for me. I play the majority of the rhythm guitar on the recording, as well as all of the bass, and Dylan handled most of the guitar leads (although we do trade off occasionally). The Katechon and the Unending Fire is wrapped in big, cavernous production—how'd this sound come together after recording? Everything was self-recorded, but we owe the polish on the sound to Dylan Haseltine (Suffering Hour), who mixed the record. Regarding the previous question about elements dormant in black metal, we specifically requested a full, low-end heavy mix that smeared some of the guitar elements together while retaining massive and clear drum sound. We wanted it to feel like it was swallowing you whole, rather than the traditional clear Darkthrone highs-focused black metal sound you hear on so many records. Nothing against that style; it was just a personal aesthetic preference for these songs. What's next for Pyrkagion? Will you be playing these songs live anytime soon? I'm not ruling out live shows, but it has to feel right. The sound is too big for just the three of us to pull off live, so there'd have to be some things we'd have to figure out, and I'm more focused on completing the two-plus upcoming releases for the project, so that if we do play live, there's more material to pull from....
The Katechon and the Unending Fire releases August 18th via Cestrum Nocturnum Recordings.Oathbreaker
Pyrkagion
Pyrkagion Visit Gomorrah on Debut EP (Interview + Early Stream)
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This is quite a bit different from your other projects. How'd Pyrkagion come to be? As much as I'd like to say it was some kind of divine revelation, it was really just that Dylan and I had been hanging out through work for a while, and talking black metal always seemed to happen. We shared bands and ideas with each other. At the same time, as bassists, we had a shared desire to play and compose for guitar, and kept talking about wanting to collaborate on something. At one point we ended up seeing Gevurah (the Canadian black metal band) perform live in Seattle, and the intensity of their performance and composition made us realize this was something that we wanted to strive to attain, and were potentially capable of tapping into with enough discipline. At the same time, Brennan and I had been in contact on and off for a while after other bands we were in had toured together, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to collaborate on something new for everyone. From there, we composed the material and passed it around, adding and altering elements until it felt right. The band coalesced in 2019—How did the pandemic affect your work? Did you feel like forced time off changed the sound of this record, or did it just delay its release? I think it both helped and hindered the material—These songs had very long gestations due to their complex nature and my own obsessive compositional tendencies. They underwent multiple major revisions during the time we found ourselves with, and they're certainly better off for it, but at the same time it was difficult to actually functionally record them during the pandemic, so there was a bit of unfortunate delay there. But there is a good amount of additional material that was written during that time and will hopefully not take another four years to see the light of day. "Katechon" seems to allude to the end times. What concepts underpin this release? Everything I've been involved with (Hissing especially) has lyrically remained secular, and I felt like this was a good opportunity to delve into the religious. Pyrkagion is thematically centered around a fire element (unsurprising if you translate the name, which means "conflagration") and much of this material and some forthcoming material was inspired by an evocative painting of Sodom and Gomorrah by Lucas van Leyden—the idea of merciless divine judgment, sinners in the hands of an angry god, etc. The eschatological elements you're referring to are thematically tied to this. It's a fascinating perspective to write from. This particular record cycles around the dual themes of absolute judgment and absolute freedom, and the extremes of the fraught relationship between man and divinity. The two songs are written from the perspective of different characters, one of whom is a servant of God who condemns the rest of mankind for their shortcomings, and one of whom declares himself the only living God and creates a dionysian nightmare on Earth. (These are) different kinds of fanaticism, but linked through the unity and transformation offered by a monotheistic divinity. Note that I personally have no religious opinions one way or the other that I care to mention publicly; I just found these to be interesting characters and ideas to inhabit for this music. Black metal has gone in lots of different directions in recent years, with bands exploring more genre fusion and melody. What sounds in black metal did you feel were "lay(ing) dormant," and how did you weave those into this EP? I think this refers to a certain freedom and disinterest in self-awareness that we found in a lot of the European bands we referenced in these songs—bands that exist in their own little worlds and just do whatever the hell they feel like rather than side-eyeing their peers to make sure they're staying in the right lines. It's just boring. American black metal tends to have a conservativeness that results in either a lot of the same thing we've heard, or neurotically going off the deep end in the other direction, pursuing genre fusion for the sake of it. That stuff has no soul to me; it just felt like a funny idea someone had and decided to see through. For this material, we drew from Naglfar, Secrets of the Moon, Dødheimsgard, etc.—bands who do whatever the hell they want but still have a rich understanding of the spirit of black metal even if the practice is more exploratory. We have things like the synth and bass break in "Red Rays" that serve as extensions of the ideas present in the song even though they're shifting gears a bit. What was the process of pivoting from bass to guitar like for you? It sounds like there's a full rhythm section here, so was this more of a process of trading off? There's a mental shift required. The songs were built as rudimentary skeletons with just one guitar track and drums, and then the bass would usually be added after the fact, which was new for me. I play the majority of the rhythm guitar on the recording, as well as all of the bass, and Dylan handled most of the guitar leads (although we do trade off occasionally). The Katechon and the Unending Fire is wrapped in big, cavernous production—how'd this sound come together after recording? Everything was self-recorded, but we owe the polish on the sound to Dylan Haseltine (Suffering Hour), who mixed the record. Regarding the previous question about elements dormant in black metal, we specifically requested a full, low-end heavy mix that smeared some of the guitar elements together while retaining massive and clear drum sound. We wanted it to feel like it was swallowing you whole, rather than the traditional clear Darkthrone highs-focused black metal sound you hear on so many records. Nothing against that style; it was just a personal aesthetic preference for these songs. What's next for Pyrkagion? Will you be playing these songs live anytime soon? I'm not ruling out live shows, but it has to feel right. The sound is too big for just the three of us to pull off live, so there'd have to be some things we'd have to figure out, and I'm more focused on completing the two-plus upcoming releases for the project, so that if we do play live, there's more material to pull from....
The Katechon and the Unending Fire releases August 18th via Cestrum Nocturnum Recordins.Pyrkagion Visit Gomorrah on Debut EP (Interview + Early Stream)
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This is quite a bit different from your other projects. How'd Pyrkagion come to be? As much as I'd like to say it was some kind of divine revelation, it was really just that Dylan and I had been hanging out through work for a while, and talking black metal always seemed to happen. We shared bands and ideas with each other. At the same time, as bassists, we had a shared desire to play and compose for guitar, and kept talking about wanting to collaborate on something. At one point we ended up seeing Gevurah (the Canadian black metal band) perform live in Seattle, and the intensity of their performance and composition made us realize this was something that we wanted to strive to attain, and were potentially capable of tapping into with enough discipline. At the same time, Brennan and I had been in contact on and off for a while after other bands we were in had toured together, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to collaborate on something new for everyone. From there, we composed the material and passed it around, adding and altering elements until it felt right. The band coalesced in 2019—How did the pandemic affect your work? Did you feel like forced time off changed the sound of this record, or did it just delay its release? I think it both helped and hindered the material—These songs had very long gestations due to their complex nature and my own obsessive compositional tendencies. They underwent multiple major revisions during the time we found ourselves with, and they're certainly better off for it, but at the same time it was difficult to actually functionally record them during the pandemic, so there was a bit of unfortunate delay there. But there is a good amount of additional material that was written during that time and will hopefully not take another four years to see the light of day. "Katechon" seems to allude to the end times. What concepts underpin this release? Everything I've been involved with (Hissing especially) has lyrically remained secular, and I felt like this was a good opportunity to delve into the religious. Pyrkagion is thematically centered around a fire element (unsurprising if you translate the name, which means "conflagration") and much of this material and some forthcoming material was inspired by an evocative painting of Sodom and Gomorrah by Lucas van Leyden—the idea of merciless divine judgment, sinners in the hands of an angry god, etc. The eschatological elements you're referring to are thematically tied to this. It's a fascinating perspective to write from. This particular record cycles around the dual themes of absolute judgment and absolute freedom, and the extremes of the fraught relationship between man and divinity. The two songs are written from the perspective of different characters, one of whom is a servant of God who condemns the rest of mankind for their shortcomings, and one of whom declares himself the only living God and creates a dionysian nightmare on Earth. (These are) different kinds of fanaticism, but linked through the unity and transformation offered by a monotheistic divinity. Note that I personally have no religious opinions one way or the other that I care to mention publicly; I just found these to be interesting characters and ideas to inhabit for this music. Black metal has gone in lots of different directions in recent years, with bands exploring more genre fusion and melody. What sounds in black metal did you feel were "lay(ing) dormant," and how did you weave those into this EP? I think this refers to a certain freedom and disinterest in self-awareness that we found in a lot of the European bands we referenced in these songs—bands that exist in their own little worlds and just do whatever the hell they feel like rather than side-eyeing their peers to make sure they're staying in the right lines. It's just boring. American black metal tends to have a conservativeness that results in either a lot of the same thing we've heard, or neurotically going off the deep end in the other direction, pursuing genre fusion for the sake of it. That stuff has no soul to me; it just felt like a funny idea someone had and decided to see through. For this material, we drew from Naglfar, Secrets of the Moon, Dødheimsgard, etc.—bands who do whatever the hell they want but still have a rich understanding of the spirit of black metal even if the practice is more exploratory. We have things like the synth and bass break in "Red Rays" that serve as extensions of the ideas present in the song even though they're shifting gears a bit. What was the process of pivoting from bass to guitar like for you? It sounds like there's a full rhythm section here, so was this more of a process of trading off? There's a mental shift required. The songs were built as rudimentary skeletons with just one guitar track and drums, and then the bass would usually be added after the fact, which was new for me. I play the majority of the rhythm guitar on the recording, as well as all of the bass, and Dylan handled most of the guitar leads (although we do trade off occasionally). The Katechon and the Unending Fire is wrapped in big, cavernous production—how'd this sound come together after recording? Everything was self-recorded, but we owe the polish on the sound to Dylan Haseltine (Suffering Hour), who mixed the record. Regarding the previous question about elements dormant in black metal, we specifically requested a full, low-end heavy mix that smeared some of the guitar elements together while retaining massive and clear drum sound. We wanted it to feel like it was swallowing you whole, rather than the traditional clear Darkthrone highs-focused black metal sound you hear on so many records. Nothing against that style; it was just a personal aesthetic preference for these songs. What's next for Pyrkagion? Will you be playing these songs live anytime soon? I'm not ruling out live shows, but it has to feel right. The sound is too big for just the three of us to pull off live, so there'd have to be some things we'd have to figure out, and I'm more focused on completing the two-plus upcoming releases for the project, so that if we do play live, there's more material to pull from....
The Katechon and the Unending Fire releases August 18th via Cestrum Nocturnum Recordins.Pyrkagion Visit Gomorrah on Debut EP (Interview + Early Stream)
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This is quite a bit different from your other projects. How'd Pyrkagion come to be? As much as I'd like to say it was some kind of divine revelation, it was really just that Dylan and I had been hanging out through work for a while, and talking black metal always seemed to happen. We shared bands and ideas with each other. At the same time, as bassists, we had a shared desire to play and compose for guitar, and kept talking about wanting to collaborate on something. At one point we ended up seeing Gevurah (the Canadian black metal band) perform live in Seattle, and the intensity of their performance and composition made us realize this was something that we wanted to strive to attain, and were potentially capable of tapping into with enough discipline. At the same time, Brennan and I had been in contact on and off for a while after other bands we were in had toured together, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to collaborate on something new for everyone. From there, we composed the material and passed it around, adding and altering elements until it felt right. The band coalesced in 2019—How did the pandemic affect your work? Did you feel like forced time off changed the sound of this record, or did it just delay its release? I think it both helped and hindered the material—These songs had very long gestations due to their complex nature and my own obsessive compositional tendencies. They underwent multiple major revisions during the time we found ourselves with, and they're certainly better off for it, but at the same time it was difficult to actually functionally record them during the pandemic, so there was a bit of unfortunate delay there. But there is a good amount of additional material that was written during that time and will hopefully not take another four years to see the light of day. "Katechon" seems to allude to the end times. What concepts underpin this release? Everything I've been involved with (Hissing especially) has lyrically remained secular, and I felt like this was a good opportunity to delve into the religious. Pyrkagion is thematically centered around a fire element (unsurprising if you translate the name, which means "conflagration") and much of this material and some forthcoming material was inspired by an evocative painting of Sodom and Gomorrah by Lucas van Leyden—the idea of merciless divine judgment, sinners in the hands of an angry god, etc. The eschatological elements you're referring to are thematically tied to this. It's a fascinating perspective to write from. This particular record cycles around the dual themes of absolute judgment and absolute freedom, and the extremes of the fraught relationship between man and divinity. The two songs are written from the perspective of different characters, one of whom is a servant of God who condemns the rest of mankind for their shortcomings, and one of whom declares himself the only living God and creates a dionysian nightmare on Earth. (These are) different kinds of fanaticism, but linked through the unity and transformation offered by a monotheistic divinity. Note that I personally have no religious opinions one way or the other that I care to mention publicly; I just found these to be interesting characters and ideas to inhabit for this music. Black metal has gone in lots of different directions in recent years, with bands exploring more genre fusion and melody. What sounds in black metal did you feel were "lay(ing) dormant," and how did you weave those into this EP? I think this refers to a certain freedom and disinterest in self-awareness that we found in a lot of the European bands we referenced in these songs—bands that exist in their own little worlds and just do whatever the hell they feel like rather than side-eyeing their peers to make sure they're staying in the right lines. It's just boring. American black metal tends to have a conservativeness that results in either a lot of the same thing we've heard, or neurotically going off the deep end in the other direction, pursuing genre fusion for the sake of it. That stuff has no soul to me; it just felt like a funny idea someone had and decided to see through. For this material, we drew from Naglfar, Secrets of the Moon, Dødheimsgard, etc.—bands who do whatever the hell they want but still have a rich understanding of the spirit of black metal even if the practice is more exploratory. We have things like the synth and bass break in "Red Rays" that serve as extensions of the ideas present in the song even though they're shifting gears a bit. What was the process of pivoting from bass to guitar like for you? It sounds like there's a full rhythm section here, so was this more of a process of trading off? There's a mental shift required. The songs were built as rudimentary skeletons with just one guitar track and drums, and then the bass would usually be added after the fact, which was new for me. I play the majority of the rhythm guitar on the recording, as well as all of the bass, and Dylan handled most of the guitar leads (although we do trade off occasionally). The Katechon and the Unending Fire is wrapped in big, cavernous production—how'd this sound come together after recording? Everything was self-recorded, but we owe the polish on the sound to Dylan Haseltine (Suffering Hour), who mixed the record. Regarding the previous question about elements dormant in black metal, we specifically requested a full, low-end heavy mix that smeared some of the guitar elements together while retaining massive and clear drum sound. We wanted it to feel like it was swallowing you whole, rather than the traditional clear Darkthrone highs-focused black metal sound you hear on so many records. Nothing against that style; it was just a personal aesthetic preference for these songs. What's next for Pyrkagion? Will you be playing these songs live anytime soon? I'm not ruling out live shows, but it has to feel right. The sound is too big for just the three of us to pull off live, so there'd have to be some things we'd have to figure out, and I'm more focused on completing the two-plus upcoming releases for the project, so that if we do play live, there's more material to pull from....
The Katechon and the Unending Fire releases August 18th via Cestrum Nocturnum Recordings.Pyrkagion Visit Gomorrah on Debut EP (Interview + Early Stream)
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This is quite a bit different from your other projects. How'd Pyrkagion come to be? As much as I'd like to say it was some kind of divine revelation, it was really just that Dylan and I had been hanging out through work for a while, and talking black metal always seemed to happen. We shared bands and ideas with each other. At the same time, as bassists, we had a shared desire to play and compose for guitar, and kept talking about wanting to collaborate on something. At one point we ended up seeing Gevurah (the Canadian black metal band) perform live in Seattle, and the intensity of their performance and composition made us realize this was something that we wanted to strive to attain, and were potentially capable of tapping into with enough discipline. At the same time, Brennan and I had been in contact on and off for a while after other bands we were in had toured together, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to collaborate on something new for everyone. From there, we composed the material and passed it around, adding and altering elements until it felt right. The band coalesced in 2019—How did the pandemic affect your work? Did you feel like forced time off changed the sound of this record, or did it just delay its release? I think it both helped and hindered the material—These songs had very long gestations due to their complex nature and my own obsessive compositional tendencies. They underwent multiple major revisions during the time we found ourselves with, and they're certainly better off for it, but at the same time it was difficult to actually functionally record them during the pandemic, so there was a bit of unfortunate delay there. But there is a good amount of additional material that was written during that time and will hopefully not take another four years to see the light of day. "Katechon" seems to allude to the end times. What concepts underpin this release? Everything I've been involved with (Hissing especially) has lyrically remained secular, and I felt like this was a good opportunity to delve into the religious. Pyrkagion is thematically centered around a fire element (unsurprising if you translate the name, which means "conflagration") and much of this material and some forthcoming material was inspired by an evocative painting of Sodom and Gomorrah by Lucas van Leyden—the idea of merciless divine judgment, sinners in the hands of an angry god, etc. The eschatological elements you're referring to are thematically tied to this. It's a fascinating perspective to write from. This particular record cycles around the dual themes of absolute judgment and absolute freedom, and the extremes of the fraught relationship between man and divinity. The two songs are written from the perspective of different characters, one of whom is a servant of God who condemns the rest of mankind for their shortcomings, and one of whom declares himself the only living God and creates a dionysian nightmare on Earth. (These are) different kinds of fanaticism, but linked through the unity and transformation offered by a monotheistic divinity. Note that I personally have no religious opinions one way or the other that I care to mention publicly; I just found these to be interesting characters and ideas to inhabit for this music. Black metal has gone in lots of different directions in recent years, with bands exploring more genre fusion and melody. What sounds in black metal did you feel were "lay(ing) dormant," and how did you weave those into this EP? I think this refers to a certain freedom and disinterest in self-awareness that we found in a lot of the European bands we referenced in these songs—bands that exist in their own little worlds and just do whatever the hell they feel like rather than side-eyeing their peers to make sure they're staying in the right lines. It's just boring. American black metal tends to have a conservativeness that results in either a lot of the same thing we've heard, or neurotically going off the deep end in the other direction, pursuing genre fusion for the sake of it. That stuff has no soul to me; it just felt like a funny idea someone had and decided to see through. For this material, we drew from Naglfar, Secrets of the Moon, Dødheimsgard, etc.—bands who do whatever the hell they want but still have a rich understanding of the spirit of black metal even if the practice is more exploratory. We have things like the synth and bass break in "Red Rays" that serve as extensions of the ideas present in the song even though they're shifting gears a bit. What was the process of pivoting from bass to guitar like for you? It sounds like there's a full rhythm section here, so was this more of a process of trading off? There's a mental shift required. The songs were built as rudimentary skeletons with just one guitar track and drums, and then the bass would usually be added after the fact, which was new for me. I play the majority of the rhythm guitar on the recording, as well as all of the bass, and Dylan handled most of the guitar leads (although we do trade off occasionally). The Katechon and the Unending Fire is wrapped in big, cavernous production—how'd this sound come together after recording? Everything was self-recorded, but we owe the polish on the sound to Dylan Haseltine (Suffering Hour), who mixed the record. Regarding the previous question about elements dormant in black metal, we specifically requested a full, low-end heavy mix that smeared some of the guitar elements together while retaining massive and clear drum sound. We wanted it to feel like it was swallowing you whole, rather than the traditional clear Darkthrone highs-focused black metal sound you hear on so many records. Nothing against that style; it was just a personal aesthetic preference for these songs. What's next for Pyrkagion? Will you be playing these songs live anytime soon? I'm not ruling out live shows, but it has to feel right. The sound is too big for just the three of us to pull off live, so there'd have to be some things we'd have to figure out, and I'm more focused on completing the two-plus upcoming releases for the project, so that if we do play live, there's more material to pull from....
The Katechon and the Unending Fire releases August 18th via Cestrum Nocturnum Recordings.Upcoming Metal Releases: 8/13/2023-8/19/2023
Upcoming Releases
Horrendous -- Ontological Mysterium | Season of Mist | Death Metal | United States (Pennsylvania) The heavy hitting death metal band are absolutely crushing on this recent record, out through Season of Mist. If you like your death metal to hold nothing back, you'll want to hear this record whether you're new to the band or not.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Ringworm -- Seeing Through Fire | Nuclear Blast | Thrash Metal + Hardcore | United States (Ohio) Come catch a faceful of metallic hardcore shrapnel courtesy of Ringworm's latest album, Seeing Through Fire. As its title suggests, the record is a scorching salvo of eleven thrashy and supremely pissed off tracks that will either have you banging your head or headbutting the next person who looks at you sideways.--Alex Chan
...
Invultation -- Feral Legion | Sentient Ruin | Black Metal + Death Metal | United States (Ohio) The lupine horde fast approaches for another bestial black metal assault, and our meagre forces cannot withstand the barbaric butchery that awaits. Soon, the peace will be broken by the din of war drums skinned with human vellum, the grinding advance of their terrible siege engines, the bloodthirsty roars of ravenous berserkers, and the sickening scrape of claws raking through plate mail.--Alex Chan
...
Spirit Adrift -- Ghost at the Gallows | Century Media Records | Heavy Metal | United States (Texas) The latest from Spirit Adrift, Ghost At The Gallows, perfectly synthesizes their mix of indie rock and proggy metal and infuses it with their signature Western style. While it's a predictable direction for the band, it's executed incredibly well, and each song is catchier than the last.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Godthrymm -- Distortions | Profound Lore Records | Doom Metal | United Kingdom Epic doom has never been as dark and eerie as it is on Distortions, the latest record from Godthyrmm. While all of their records have been dark, heavy, and brooding, this album layers in even more heaviness and despair to the already-grim formula. A great jumping off point for new fans of the band, and an album that progresses their sound strongly as well.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree -- Aion | Magnetic Eye Records | Psychedelic Doom Metal | Germany Without getting too abstract, Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree push doom metal from the rigid confines that thrive off of distortion and into the liminal space between states of matter. The reverb-soaked vocals and loose song structures are only tethered to the physical realm by gruff - not punishing - riffs. Resultingly, the entire affair returns to those riffs as a payoff for trekking through its ethereal passages.--Colin Dempsey
...
Movements -- Ruckus! | Fearless Records | Post-hardcore + Alternative Rock | United States (California) It's never been completely clear whether Movements are post hardcore, emo, or something in between. They brazenly flirt with heavier post hardcore and radio rock on the same album, and it works for them. This record focuses on what they do best, their sad and dynamic moments that pack a punch. Definitely worth a listen.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Sanguine Glacialis -- Maladaptive Daydreaming | Independent | Melodic Death Metal | Canada (Quebec) Sanguine Glacialis oscillate between high-concept, female-fronted gothic metal and melodic death metal in a manner that I was expecting to rub me the wrong way but, fortunately, justifies its lofty vision. It's over-the-top but not undeservedly so.--Colin Dempsey
...
Nocte Obducta -- Karwoche (Die Sonne der Toten pulsiert) | Supreme Chaos Records | Black Metal | Germany 30 years in their existence and Nocte Obducta are still paving new ground for themselves. Karwoche (Die Sonne der Toten pulsiert) isn't as challenging as their previous records, instead retooling how the group approaches atmosphere ("Balder") and basement-dwelling black metal ("Drei gemeuchelte Sommer"). It's rougher and more raw though still directed by the band's studied hand.--Colin Dempsey
...
Ysbrydnos -- Altar Of Moss Vol.1 - Amidst A Forgotten Glade | Repose Records | Raw Black Metal + Ambient | Wales Pairing ambient and black metal is well-trodden ground, but Ysbrydnos' interpretation is rooted in Welsh forests, a distinction that explains the project's murky overtones. It's less about frozen plains or sprawling national parks as it is dingy and moist foliage, which is a welcome switch-up.--Colin Dempsey
...
Blight House -- Blight the Way | Nefarious Industries | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States While Blight House's over-the-top grossness and demented approach to death/grind certainly make Blight the Way stand out, it would just be a gimmick were it not for the extremely solid metal underpinning it. Filthy grooves and filthier riffs frame Blight House's depraved venture into the edge cases of humanity and cryptozoology fever dreams.--Ted Nubel
...
Something is Waiting -- Absolutely | Learning Curve Records | Noise Rock + Sludge | United States (Chicago, IL) Slimmed down to a three-piece configuration, Something Is Waiting has refined their sarcastic, glam-infused noise rock (termed by the band as 'nu roll', which certainly fits) into a larger-than-life vehicle of sardonic riff delivery. Absolutely feels like a concept album focusing on a near-dystopian future of strip malls and reality TV, a concrete hyper-commercialized hellscape that can only be captured in the language of sleazy, sludgy glam rock. It's one part caustic groove and one part biting satire.--Ted Nubel
...
Borracho -- Blurring the Lines of Reality | Kozmik Artifactz | Stoner Rock + Metal | United States (Washington, D.C.) Incensed, yet inebriated stoner rock - honed by years of practice, Borracho turn their focus toward some of today's current turmoil on their newest record, although also keeping the fuzzy grooves locked down. We've got a track-by-track from the band coming later this week.--Ted Nubel
...
Occult Blood -- The Room in the Ground | Independent | Black Metal | United States (Eugene, OR) Murky black metal that evokes thoughts of disturbed graves and incomplete rituals.--Ted Nubel
...
Upcoming Metal Releases: 8/13/2023-8/19/2023
Upcoming Releases
Horrendous -- Ontological Mysterium | Season of Mist | Death Metal | United States (Pennsylvania) The heavy hitting death metal band are absolutely crushing on this recent record, out through Season of Mist. If you like your death metal to hold nothing back, you'll want to hear this record whether you're new to the band or not.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Ringworm -- Seeing Through Fire | Nuclear Blast | Thrash Metal + Hardcore | United States (Ohio) Come catch a faceful of metallic hardcore shrapnel courtesy of Ringworm's latest album, Seeing Through Fire. As its title suggests, the record is a scorching salvo of eleven thrashy and supremely pissed off tracks that will either have you banging your head or headbutting the next person who looks at you sideways.--Alex Chan
...
Invultation -- Feral Legion | Sentient Ruin | Black Metal + Death Metal | United States (Ohio) The lupine horde fast approaches for another bestial black metal assault, and our meagre forces cannot withstand the barbaric butchery that awaits. Soon, the peace will be broken by the din of war drums skinned with human vellum, the grinding advance of their terrible siege engines, the bloodthirsty roars of ravenous berserkers, and the sickening scrape of claws raking through plate mail.--Alex Chan
...
Spirit Adrift -- Ghost at the Gallows | Century Media Records | Heavy Metal | United States (Texas) The latest from Spirit Adrift, Ghost At The Gallows, perfectly synthesizes their mix of indie rock and proggy metal and infuses it with their signature Western style. While it's a predictable direction for the band, it's executed incredibly well, and each song is catchier than the last.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Godthrymm -- Distortions | Profound Lore Records | Doom Metal | United Kingdom Epic doom has never been as dark and eerie as it is on Distortions, the latest record from Godthyrmm. While all of their records have been dark, heavy, and brooding, this album layers in even more heaviness and despair to the already-grim formula. A great jumping off point for new fans of the band, and an album that progresses their sound strongly as well.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree -- Aion | Magnetic Eye Records | Psychedelic Doom Metal | Germany Without getting too abstract, Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree push doom metal from the rigid confines that thrive off of distortion and into the liminal space between states of matter. The reverb-soaked vocals and loose song structures are only tethered to the physical realm by gruff - not punishing - riffs. Resultingly, the entire affair returns to those riffs as a payoff for trekking through its ethereal passages.--Colin Dempsey
...
Movements -- Ruckus! | Fearless Records | Post-hardcore + Alternative Rock | United States (California) It's never been completely clear whether Movements are post hardcore, emo, or something in between. They brazenly flirt with heavier post hardcore and radio rock on the same album, and it works for them. This record focuses on what they do best, their sad and dynamic moments that pack a punch. Definitely worth a listen.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Sanguine Glacialis -- Maladaptive Daydreaming | Independent | Melodic Death Metal | Canada (Quebec) Sanguine Glacialis oscillate between high-concept, female-fronted gothic metal and melodic death metal in a manner that I was expecting to rub me the wrong way but, fortunately, justifies its lofty vision. It's over-the-top but not undeservedly so.--Colin Dempsey
...
Nocte Obducta -- Karwoche (Die Sonne der Toten pulsiert) | Supreme Chaos Records | Black Metal | Germany 30 years in their existence and Nocte Obducta are still paving new ground for themselves. Karwoche (Die Sonne der Toten pulsiert) isn't as challenging as their previous records, instead retooling how the group approaches atmosphere ("Balder") and basement-dwelling black metal ("Drei gemeuchelte Sommer"). It's rougher and more raw though still directed by the band's studied hand.--Colin Dempsey
...
Ysbrydnos -- Altar Of Moss Vol.1 - Amidst A Forgotten Glade | Repose Records | Raw Black Metal + Ambient | Wales Pairing ambient and black metal is well-trodden ground, but Ysbrydnos' interpretation is rooted in Welsh forests, a distinction that explains the project's murky overtones. It's less about frozen plains or sprawling national parks as it is dingy and moist foliage, which is a welcome switch-up.--Colin Dempsey
...
Blight House -- Blight the Way | Nefarious Industries | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States While Blight House's over-the-top grossness and demented approach to death/grind certainly make Blight the Way stand out, it would just be a gimmick were it not for the extremely solid metal underpinning it. Filthy grooves and filthier riffs frame Blight House's depraved venture into the edge cases of humanity and cryptozoology fever dreams.--Ted Nubel
...
Something is Waiting -- Absolutely | Learning Curve Records | Noise Rock + Sludge | United States (Chicago, IL) Slimmed down to a three-piece configuration, Something Is Waiting has refined their sarcastic, glam-infused noise rock (termed by the band as 'nu roll', which certainly fits) into a larger-than-life vehicle of sardonic riff delivery. Absolutely feels like a concept album focusing on a near-dystopian future of strip malls and reality TV, a concrete hyper-commercialized hellscape that can only be captured in the language of sleazy, sludgy glam rock. It's one part caustic groove and one part biting satire.--Ted Nubel
...
Borracho -- Blurring the Lines of Reality | Kozmik Artifactz | Stoner Rock + Metal | United States (Washington, D.C.) Incensed, yet inebriated stoner rock - honed by years of practice, Borracho turn their focus toward some of today's current turmoil on their newest record, although also keeping the fuzzy grooves locked down. We've got a track-by-track from the band coming later this week.--Ted Nubel
...
Occult Blood -- The Room in the Ground | Independent | Black Metal | United States (Eugene, OR) Murky black metal that evokes thoughts of disturbed graves and incomplete rituals.--Ted Nubel
...
Upcoming Metal Releases: 8/13/2023-8/19/2023
Upcoming Releases
Horrendous -- Ontological Mysterium | Season of Mist | Death Metal | United States (Pennsylvania) The heavy hitting death metal band are absolutely crushing on this recent record, out through Season of Mist. If you like your death metal to hold nothing back, you'll want to hear this record whether you're new to the band or not.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Ringworm -- Seeing Through Fire | Nuclear Blast | Thrash Metal + Hardcore | United States (Ohio) Come catch a faceful of metallic hardcore shrapnel courtesy of Ringworm's latest album, Seeing Through Fire. As its title suggests, the record is a scorching salvo of eleven thrashy and supremely pissed off tracks that will either have you banging your head or headbutting the next person who looks at you sideways.--Alex Chan
...
Invultation -- Feral Legion | Sentient Ruin | Black Metal + Death Metal | United States (Ohio) The lupine horde fast approaches for another bestial black metal assault, and our meagre forces cannot withstand the barbaric butchery that awaits. Soon, the peace will be broken by the din of war drums skinned with human vellum, the grinding advance of their terrible siege engines, the bloodthirsty roars of ravenous berserkers, and the sickening scrape of claws raking through plate mail.--Alex Chan
...
Spirit Adrift -- Ghost at the Gallows | Century Media Records | Heavy Metal | United States (Texas) The latest from Spirit Adrift, Ghost At The Gallows, perfectly synthesizes their mix of indie rock and proggy metal and infuses it with their signature Western style. While it's a predictable direction for the band, it's executed incredibly well, and each song is catchier than the last.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Godthrymm -- Distortions | Profound Lore Records | Doom Metal | United Kingdom Epic doom has never been as dark and eerie as it is on Distortions, the latest record from Godthyrmm. While all of their records have been dark, heavy, and brooding, this album layers in even more heaviness and despair to the already-grim formula. A great jumping off point for new fans of the band, and an album that progresses their sound strongly as well.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree -- Aion | Magnetic Eye Records | Psychedelic Doom Metal | Germany Without getting too abstract, Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree push doom metal from the rigid confines that thrive off of distortion and into the liminal space between states of matter. The reverb-soaked vocals and loose song structures are only tethered to the physical realm by gruff - not punishing - riffs. Resultingly, the entire affair returns to those riffs as a payoff for trekking through its ethereal passages.--Colin Dempsey
...
Movements -- Ruckus! | Fearless Records | Post-hardcore + Alternative Rock | United States (California) It's never been completely clear whether Movements are post hardcore, emo, or something in between. They brazenly flirt with heavier post hardcore and radio rock on the same album, and it works for them. This record focuses on what they do best, their sad and dynamic moments that pack a punch. Definitely worth a listen.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Sanguine Glacialis -- Maladaptive Daydreaming | Independent | Melodic Death Metal | Canada (Quebec) Sanguine Glacialis oscillate between high-concept, female-fronted gothic metal and melodic death metal in a manner that I was expecting to rub me the wrong way but, fortunately, justifies its lofty vision. It's over-the-top but not undeservedly so.--Colin Dempsey
...
Nocte Obducta -- Karwoche (Die Sonne der Toten pulsiert) | Supreme Chaos Records | Black Metal | Germany 30 years in their existence and Nocte Obducta are still paving new ground for themselves. Karwoche (Die Sonne der Toten pulsiert) isn't as challenging as their previous records, instead retooling how the group approaches atmosphere ("Balder") and basement-dwelling black metal ("Drei gemeuchelte Sommer"). It's rougher and more raw though still directed by the band's studied hand.--Colin Dempsey
...
Ysbrydnos -- Altar Of Moss Vol.1 - Amidst A Forgotten Glade | Repose Records | Raw Black Metal + Ambient | Wales Pairing ambient and black metal is well-trodden ground, but Ysbrydnos' interpretation is rooted in Welsh forests, a distinction that explains the project's murky overtones. It's less about frozen plains or sprawling national parks as it is dingy and moist foliage, which is a welcome switch-up.--Colin Dempsey
...
Blight House -- Blight the Way | Nefarious Industries | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States While Blight House's over-the-top grossness and demented approach to death/grind certainly make Blight the Way stand out, it would just be a gimmick were it not for the extremely solid metal underpinning it. Filthy grooves and filthier riffs frame Blight House's depraved venture into the edge cases of humanity and cryptozoology fever dreams.--Ted Nubel
...
Something is Waiting -- Absolutely | Learning Curve Records | Noise Rock + Sludge | United States (Chicago, IL) Slimmed down to a three-piece configuration, Something Is Waiting has refined their sarcastic, glam-infused noise rock (termed by the band as 'nu roll', which certainly fits) into a larger-than-life vehicle of sardonic riff delivery. Absolutely feels like a concept album focusing on a near-dystopian future of strip malls and reality TV, a concrete hyper-commercialized hellscape that can only be captured in the language of sleazy, sludgy glam rock. It's one part caustic groove and one part biting satire.--Ted Nubel
...
Borracho -- Blurring the Lines of Reality | Kozmik Artifactz | Stoner Rock + Metal | United States (Washington, D.C.) Incensed, yet inebriated stoner rock - honed by years of practice, Borracho turn their focus toward some of today's current turmoil on their newest record, although also keeping the fuzzy grooves locked down. We've got a track-by-track from the band coming later this week.--Ted Nubel
...
Occult Blood -- The Room in the Ground | Independent | Black Metal | United States (Eugene, OR) Murky black metal that evokes thoughts of disturbed graves and incomplete rituals.--Ted Nubel
...
Upcoming Metal Releases: 8/13/2023-8/19/2023
Upcoming Releases
Horrendous -- Ontological Mysterium | Season of Mist | Death Metal | United States (Pennsylvania) The heavy hitting death metal band are absolutely crushing on this recent record, out through Season of Mist. If you like your death metal to hold nothing back, you'll want to hear this record whether you're new to the band or not.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Ringworm -- Seeing Through Fire | Nuclear Blast | Thrash Metal + Hardcore | United States (Ohio) Come catch a faceful of metallic hardcore shrapnel courtesy of Ringworm's latest album, Seeing Through Fire. As its title suggests, the record is a scorching salvo of eleven thrashy and supremely pissed off tracks that will either have you banging your head or headbutting the next person who looks at you sideways.--Alex Chan
...
Invultation -- Feral Legion | Sentient Ruin | Black Metal + Death Metal | United States (Ohio) The lupine horde fast approaches for another bestial black metal assault, and our meagre forces cannot withstand the barbaric butchery that awaits. Soon, the peace will be broken by the din of war drums skinned with human vellum, the grinding advance of their terrible siege engines, the bloodthirsty roars of ravenous berserkers, and the sickening scrape of claws raking through plate mail.--Alex Chan
...
Spirit Adrift -- Ghost at the Gallows | Century Media Records | Heavy Metal | United States (Texas) The latest from Spirit Adrift, Ghost At The Gallows, perfectly synthesizes their mix of indie rock and proggy metal and infuses it with their signature Western style. While it's a predictable direction for the band, it's executed incredibly well, and each song is catchier than the last.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Godthrymm -- Distortions | Profound Lore Records | Doom Metal | United Kingdom Epic doom has never been as dark and eerie as it is on Distortions, the latest record from Godthyrmm. While all of their records have been dark, heavy, and brooding, this album layers in even more heaviness and despair to the already-grim formula. A great jumping off point for new fans of the band, and an album that progresses their sound strongly as well.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree -- Aion | Magnetic Eye Records | Psychedelic Doom Metal | Germany Without getting too abstract, Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree push doom metal from the rigid confines that thrive off of distortion and into the liminal space between states of matter. The reverb-soaked vocals and loose song structures are only tethered to the physical realm by gruff - not punishing - riffs. Resultingly, the entire affair returns to those riffs as a payoff for trekking through its ethereal passages.--Colin Dempsey
...
Movements -- Ruckus! | Fearless Records | Post-hardcore + Alternative Rock | United States (California) It's never been completely clear whether Movements are post hardcore, emo, or something in between. They brazenly flirt with heavier post hardcore and radio rock on the same album, and it works for them. This record focuses on what they do best, their sad and dynamic moments that pack a punch. Definitely worth a listen.--Addison Herron-Wheeler
...
Sanguine Glacialis -- Maladaptive Daydreaming | Independent | Melodic Death Metal | Canada (Quebec) Sanguine Glacialis oscillate between high-concept, female-fronted gothic metal and melodic death metal in a manner that I was expecting to rub me the wrong way but, fortunately, justifies its lofty vision. It's over-the-top but not undeservedly so.--Colin Dempsey
...
Nocte Obducta -- Karwoche (Die Sonne der Toten pulsiert) | Supreme Chaos Records | Black Metal | Germany 30 years in their existence and Nocte Obducta are still paving new ground for themselves. Karwoche (Die Sonne der Toten pulsiert) isn't as challenging as their previous records, instead retooling how the group approaches atmosphere ("Balder") and basement-dwelling black metal ("Drei gemeuchelte Sommer"). It's rougher and more raw though still directed by the band's studied hand.--Colin Dempsey
...
Ysbrydnos -- Altar Of Moss Vol.1 - Amidst A Forgotten Glade | Repose Records | Raw Black Metal + Ambient | Wales Pairing ambient and black metal is well-trodden ground, but Ysbrydnos' interpretation is rooted in Welsh forests, a distinction that explains the project's murky overtones. It's less about frozen plains or sprawling national parks as it is dingy and moist foliage, which is a welcome switch-up.--Colin Dempsey
...
Blight House -- Blight the Way | Nefarious Industries | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States While Blight House's over-the-top grossness and demented approach to death/grind certainly make Blight the Way stand out, it would just be a gimmick were it not for the extremely solid metal underpinning it. Filthy grooves and filthier riffs frame Blight House's depraved venture into the edge cases of humanity and cryptozoology fever dreams.--Ted Nubel
...
Something is Waiting -- Absolutely | Learning Curve Records | Noise Rock + Sludge | United States (Chicago, IL) Slimmed down to a three-piece configuration, Something Is Waiting has refined their sarcastic, glam-infused noise rock (termed by the band as 'nu roll', which certainly fits) into a larger-than-life vehicle of sardonic riff delivery. Absolutely feels like a concept album focusing on a near-dystopian future of strip malls and reality TV, a concrete hyper-commercialized hellscape that can only be captured in the language of sleazy, sludgy glam rock. It's one part caustic groove and one part biting satire.--Ted Nubel
...
Borracho -- Blurring the Lines of Reality | Kozmik Artifactz | Stoner Rock + Metal | United States (Washington, D.C.) Incensed, yet inebriated stoner rock - honed by years of practice, Borracho turn their focus toward some of today's current turmoil on their newest record, although also keeping the fuzzy grooves locked down. We've got a track-by-track from the band coming later this week.--Ted Nubel
...
Occult Blood -- The Room in the Ground | Independent | Black Metal | United States (Eugene, OR) Murky black metal that evokes thoughts of disturbed graves and incomplete rituals.--Ted Nubel
...
“The Rarity of Reason” Inspires After Earth’s Commanding Melodic Death Metal (Early Album Stream)
While After Earth's deft grasp of nostalgia-triggering melodic riffs is a strong initial selling point, their debut album The Rarity of Reason delivers an impressive amount of pure, muscular death metal–across eight tracks, the Swedish group reveals that what initially seems like a romp through catchy grooves is also pummeling, full-bore violence. While the album nails the very specific sounds of melodic death metal's past, After Earth is also poised to seize the present with an iron fist. Stream the album here in full before it drops on Friday.
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There's a clarity of production on The Rarity of Reason that decouples it from pure nostalgia worship, but it doesn't feel too glossy or overwrought. Instead, the clarity and punchy drums keep the band's tight chugs and explosive rhythmic shifts cleanly in focus, while still leaving room for sick melodic harmonies behind everything. It took numerous lineup shifts and last-minute changeups to get to this point, but After Earth's debut album reflects their searing, crystal-clear vision of melodic death metal.
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The Rarity of Reason releases August 18th independently via Bandcamp.
After Earth Tour Dates:
- 2023-09-07: Zalău, Romania - Rock'N'Roll Center
- 2023-09-08: Târgu Jiu, Romania - Piano Club
- 2023-09-09: Sofia, Bulgaria - The Pit
- 2023-09-10: Ruse, Bulgaria - Karaoke Star
- 2023-09-11: Galați, Romania - 90's Pub
- 2023-09-12: Cluj-Napoca, Romania - La Tevi
- 2023-09-13: Timișoara, Romania - Manufactura
- 2023-09-14: TBA, Hungary - TBA
- 2023-09-15: Veszprém, Hungary - Terem
- 2023-09-16: Prague, Czech Republic - Hospoda Brouk
- 2023-09-17: TBA, Czech Republic - TBA
- 2023-09-20: Kraków, Poland - Garage Pub
- 2023-09-21: Warsawa, Poland - Metal Cave
- 20233-09-22: Olsztyn, Poland - Pub Las
- 2023-09-23: Kaunas, Lithuania - Baras Galera
Subrosa
Nott – Hiraeth
Nott Craft Feelings of Discontent on “Hiraeth” (Early Album Stream)
Nott bring crushing death-doom from the Pacific Northwest by way of Romania and Alaska on their debut Hiraeth. The band’s relentless onslaught leaves no room for breaks, while the 7 tracks and nearly 40-minute runtime make for an intense listening experience. The tumultuous two-piece of Tyler Campbell (vocals/guitars) and Julia Geaman (drums) evoke the oppressive sounds of both Triptykon and Immolation, while the vocals shred with each successive decibel. They're able to conjure an uncomfortable atmosphere that becomes more real and fully realized with each successive pick scrape, bass drop and crushing set behind the battery.
The album’s title Hiraeth comes from Welsh, but lacks a direct translation leading Campbell to refer to it as “the longing for what once was, and what you cannot go back to”; a fitting name for an album such as this. Today we bring to you the full album streaming a few days ahead of its release; get the full frenzied treatment as it is intended: in one bruising take. This album is not for the faint of heart and is best experienced within the confines of a cold, dark basement.
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Hiraeth releases August 18th via Silent Pendulum Records.
“The Rarity of Reason” Inspires After Earth’s Commanding Melodic Death Metal (Early Album Stream)
While After Earth's deft grasp of nostalgia-triggering melodic riffs is a strong initial selling point, their debut album The Rarity of Reason delivers an impressive amount of pure, muscular death metal–across eight tracks, the Swedish group reveals that what initially seems like a romp through catchy grooves is also pummeling, full-bore violence. While the album nails the very specific sounds of melodic death metal's past, After Earth is also poised to seize the present with an iron fist. Stream the album here in full before it drops on Friday.
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There's a clarity of production on The Rarity of Reason that decouples it from pure nostalgia worship, but it doesn't feel too glossy or overwrought. Instead, the clarity and punchy drums keep the band's tight chugs and explosive rhythmic shifts cleanly in focus, while still leaving room for sick melodic harmonies behind everything. It took numerous lineup shifts and last-minute changeups to get to this point, but After Earth's debut album reflects their searing, crystal-clear vision of melodic death metal.
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The Rarity of Reason releases August 18th independently via Bandcamp.
After Earth Tour Dates:
- 2023-09-07: Zalău, Romania - Rock'N'Roll Center
- 2023-09-08: Târgu Jiu, Romania - Piano Club
- 2023-09-09: Sofia, Bulgaria - The Pit
- 2023-09-10: Ruse, Bulgaria - Karaoke Star
- 2023-09-11: Galați, Romania - 90's Pub
- 2023-09-12: Cluj-Napoca, Romania - La Tevi
- 2023-09-13: Timișoara, Romania - Manufactura
- 2023-09-14: TBA, Hungary - TBA
- 2023-09-15: Veszprém, Hungary - Terem
- 2023-09-16: Prague, Czech Republic - Hospoda Brouk
- 2023-09-17: TBA, Czech Republic - TBA
- 2023-09-20: Kraków, Poland - Garage Pub
- 2023-09-21: Warsawa, Poland - Metal Cave
- 20233-09-22: Olsztyn, Poland - Pub Las
- 2023-09-23: Kaunas, Lithuania - Baras Galera
“The Rarity of Reason” Inspires After Earth’s Commanding Melodic Death Metal (Early Album Stream)
While After Earth's deft grasp of nostalgia-triggering melodic riffs is a strong initial selling point, their debut album The Rarity of Reason delivers an impressive amount of pure, muscular death metal–across eight tracks, the Swedish group reveals that what initially seems like a romp through catchy grooves is also pummeling, full-bore violence. While the album nails the very specific sounds of melodic death metal's past, After Earth is also poised to seize the present with an iron fist. Stream the album here in full before it drops on Friday.
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There's a clarity of production on The Rarity of Reason that decouples it from pure nostalgia worship, but it doesn't feel too glossy or overwrought. Instead, the clarity and punchy drums keep the band's tight chugs and explosive rhythmic shifts cleanly in focus, while still leaving room for sick melodic harmonies behind everything. It took numerous lineup shifts and last-minute changeups to get to this point, but After Earth's debut album reflects their searing, crystal-clear vision of melodic death metal.
...
The Rarity of Reason releases August 18th independently via Bandcamp.
After Earth Tour Dates:
- 2023-09-07: Zalău, Romania - Rock'N'Roll Center
- 2023-09-08: Târgu Jiu, Romania - Piano Club
- 2023-09-09: Sofia, Bulgaria - The Pit
- 2023-09-10: Ruse, Bulgaria - Karaoke Star
- 2023-09-11: Galați, Romania - 90's Pub
- 2023-09-12: Cluj-Napoca, Romania - La Tevi
- 2023-09-13: Timișoara, Romania - Manufactura
- 2023-09-14: TBA, Hungary - TBA
- 2023-09-15: Veszprém, Hungary - Terem
- 2023-09-16: Prague, Czech Republic - Hospoda Brouk
- 2023-09-17: TBA, Czech Republic - TBA
- 2023-09-20: Kraków, Poland - Garage Pub
- 2023-09-21: Warsawa, Poland - Metal Cave
- 20233-09-22: Olsztyn, Poland - Pub Las
- 2023-09-23: Kaunas, Lithuania - Baras Galera
“The Rarity of Reason” Inspires After Earth’s Commanding Melodic Death Metal (Early Album Stream)
While After Earth's deft command of nostalgia-triggering melodic riffs is a strong initial selling point, their debut album The Rarity of Reason delivers an impressive amount of pure, muscular death metal–across eight tracks, the Swedish group reveals that what initially seems like a romp through catchy grooves is also pummeling, full-bore violence. While the album nails the very specific sounds of melodic death metal's past, After Earth is also poised to seize the present with an iron fist. Stream the album here in full before it drops on Friday.
…
…
There's a clarity of production on The Rarity of Reason that decouples it from pure nostalgia worship, but it doesn't feel too glossy or overwrought. Instead, the clarity and punchy drums keep the band's tight chugs and explosive rhythmic shifts cleanly in focus, while still leaving room for sick melodic harmonies behind everything. It took numerous lineup shifts and last-minute changeups to get to this point, but After Earth's debut album reflects their searing, crystal-clear vision of melodic death metal.
...
The Rarity of Reason releases August 18th independently via Bandcamp.
After Earth Tour Dates:
- 2023-09-07: Zalău, Romania - Rock'N'Roll Center
- 2023-09-08: Târgu Jiu, Romania - Piano Club
- 2023-09-09: Sofia, Bulgaria - The Pit
- 2023-09-10: Ruse, Bulgaria - Karaoke Star
- 2023-09-11: Galați, Romania - 90's Pub
- 2023-09-12: Cluj-Napoca, Romania - La Tevi
- 2023-09-13: Timișoara, Romania - Manufactura
- 2023-09-14: TBA, Hungary - TBA
- 2023-09-15: Veszprém, Hungary - Terem
- 2023-09-16: Prague, Czech Republic - Hospoda Brouk
- 2023-09-17: TBA, Czech Republic - TBA
- 2023-09-20: Kraków, Poland - Garage Pub
- 2023-09-21: Warsawa, Poland - Metal Cave
- 20233-09-22: Olsztyn, Poland - Pub Las
- 2023-09-23: Kaunas, Lithuania - Baras Galera
“The Rarity of Reason” Inspires After Earth’s Commanding Melodic Death Metal (Early Album Stream)
While After Earth's deft command of nostalgia-triggering melodic riffs is a strong initial selling point, their debut album The Rarity of Reason delivers an impressive amount of pure, muscular death metal–across eight tracks, the Swedish group reveals that what initially seems like a romp through catchy grooves is also pummeling, full-bore violence. While the album nails the very specific sounds of melodic death metal's past, After Earth is also poised to seize the present with an iron fist. Stream the album here in full before it drops on Friday.
…
…
There's a clarity of production on The Rarity of Reason that decouples it from pure nostalgia worship, but it doesn't feel too glossy or overwrought. Instead, the clarity and punchy drums keep the band's tight chugs and explosive rhythmic shifts cleanly in focus, while still leaving room for sick melodic harmonies behind everything. It took numerous lineup shifts and last-minute changeups to get to this point, but After Earth's debut album reflects their searing, crystal-clear vision of melodic death metal.
...
The Rarity of Reason releases August 18th independently via Bandcamp.
After Earth Tour Dates:
- 2023-09-07: Zalău, Romania - Rock'N'Roll Center
- 2023-09-08: Târgu Jiu, Romania - Piano Club
- 2023-09-09: Sofia, Bulgaria - The Pit
- 2023-09-10: Ruse, Bulgaria - Karaoke Star
- 2023-09-11: Galați, Romania - 90's Pub
- 2023-09-12: Cluj-Napoca, Romania - La Tevi
- 2023-09-13: Timișoara, Romania - Manufactura
- 2023-09-14: TBA, Hungary - TBA
- 2023-09-15: Veszprém, Hungary - Terem
- 2023-09-16: Prague, Czech Republic - Hospoda Brouk
- 2023-09-17: TBA, Czech Republic - TBA
- 2023-09-20: Kraków, Poland - Garage Pub
- 2023-09-21: Warsawa, Poland - Metal Cave
- 20233-09-22: Olsztyn, Poland - Pub Las
- 2023-09-23: Kaunas, Lithuania - Baras Galera
After Earth – The Rarity of Reason
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Nott Craft Feelings of Discontent on “Hiraeth” (Early Album Stream)
Nott bring crushing death-doom from the Pacific Northwest by way of Romania and Alaska on their debut Hiraeth. The band’s relentless onslaught leaves no room for breaks, while the 7 tracks and nearly 40-minute runtime make for an intense listening experience. The tumultuous two-piece of Tyler Campbell (vocals/guitars) and Julia Geaman (drums) evoke the oppressive sounds of both Triptykon and Immolation, while the vocals shred with each successive decibel. They're able to conjure an uncomfortable atmosphere that becomes more real and fully realized with each successive pick scrape, bass drop and crushing set behind the battery.
The album’s title Hiraeth comes from Welsh, but lacks a direct translation leading Campbell to refer to it as “the longing for what once was, and what you cannot go back to”; a fitting name for an album such as this. Today we bring to you the full album streaming a few days ahead of its release; get the full frenzied treatment as it is intended: in one bruising take. This album is not for the faint of heart and is best experienced within the confines of a cold, dark basement.
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Hiraeth releases August 18th via Silent Pendulum Records.
Nott Craft Feelings of Discontent on “Hiraeth” (Early Album Stream)
Nott bring crushing death-doom from the Pacific Northwest by way of Romania and Alaska on their debut Hiraeth. The band’s relentless onslaught leaves no room for breaks, while the 7 tracks and nearly 40-minute runtime make for an intense listening experience. The tumultuous two-piece of Tyler Campbell (vocals/guitars) and Julia Geaman (drums) evoke the oppressive sounds of both Triptykon and Immolation, while the vocals shred with each successive decibel. They're able to conjure an uncomfortable atmosphere that becomes more real and fully realized with each successive pick scrape, bass drop and crushing set behind the battery.
The album’s title Hiraeth comes from Welsh, but lacks a direct translation leading Campbell to refer to it as “the longing for what once was, and what you cannot go back to”; a fitting name for an album such as this. Today we bring to you the full album streaming a few days ahead of its release; get the full frenzied treatment as it is intended: in one bruising take. This album is not for the faint of heart and is best experienced within the confines of a cold, dark basement.
…
…
Hiraeth releases August 18th via Silent Pendulum Records.
Nott Craft Feelings of Discontent on “Hiraeth” (Early Album Stream)
Nott bring crushing death-doom from the Pacific Northwest by way of Romania and Alaska on their debut Hiraeth. The band’s relentless onslaught leaves no room for breaks, while the 7 tracks and nearly 40-minute runtime make for an intense listening experience. The tumultuous two-piece of Tyler Campbell (vocals/guitars) and Julia Geaman (drums) evoke the oppressive sounds of both Triptykon and Immolation, while the vocals shred with each successive decibel. They're able to conjure an uncomfortable atmosphere that becomes more real and fully realized with each successive pick scrape, bass drop and crushing set behind the battery.
The album’s title Hiraeth comes from Welsh, but lacks a direct translation leading Campbell to refer to it as “the longing for what once was, and what you cannot go back to”; a fitting name for an album such as this. Today we bring to you the full album streaming a few days ahead of its release; get the full frenzied treatment as it is intended: in one bruising take. This album is not for the faint of heart and is best experienced within the confines of a cold, dark basement.
…
…
Hiraeth releases August 18th via Silent Pendulum Records.
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All words by Julia Neuman.
Photos by Diana Lungu. View her portfolio here and follow her on Instagram at @winterfelled.
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