post-metal

by Cosmo Lee If in 2008, you asked me to hear an instrumental NeurIsis band with a drum machine, I would sooner have asked to be shot in the face. Luckily, I gave Memoirs (Poison Tree, 2008) a chance. It’s gorgeous and suspends my cynicism about the NeurIsis sound. Admittedly, it’s unoriginal. Later Isis is […]

by Cosmo Lee Having seen Watain live tonight – an enjoyable but predictable experience – and listening to Altar of Plagues right now, I’m convinced that black metal’s balance of power has tipped away from Scandinavia. There’s no resulting epicenter – the Internet is leveling regional idiosyncrasies with the force of a trillion downloads – […]

by Cosmo Lee Trinacria is a collaboration between 3/5 of Enslaved – everyone but the rhythm section – and Fe-Mail, a noise duo comprised of Maja Ratkje and Hild Sofie Tafjord. (The former is a prolific composer and performer whose 2002 album Voice was co-produced by noise terrorists Jazzkammer.) The project began as a concert […]

by Cosmo Lee It’s rare that a voice comes along on MySpace that’s truly unique. Precedents exist for the UK’s Asbestoscape – the cinematic sweep of Mogwai, the hoover synths of drum ‘n’ bass, the glitchy drums of electronic music five years ago (Tipper comes to mind). But this one-man act is identifiable within seconds […]

by Jess Blumensheid Mouth of the Architect make quite the comeback with Quietly (Translation Loss, 2008). After their recent mixed-up demise, this Dayton, Ohio getup returns with original guitarist/frontman Alex Vernon, who oiled the post-metal machine of 2004’s Time and Withering, still their heaviest album. Over time and constant lineup rearrangements, MOTA’s playful keyboards and […]

This week is 20 Buck Spin week at Invisible Oranges. The Olympia-via-Bay Area label/distro is Dave Adelson, who has curated an impressive discography starting with SPIN001 in 2005, a reissue of Black Boned Angel’s debut EP, on up to the crushing new record from Coffins (SPIN020). From doom to black metal to flat-out weirdness, 20 […]

Word has been trickling out – K.Angylus, of the husband-and-wife duo The Angelic Process, passed away in late April. No official cause of death has been announced. The final Angelic Process record was the mammoth Weighing Souls With Sand, which ironically was about coping with a spouse’s death. Last year, Angylus suffered a hand injury […]

Photo by Myriam Santos-Kayda A reader comment on yesterday’s Wrnlrd review got me thinking about how American metal has largely omitted American traditional music. Europe has loads of “folk metal” (which often seems to be just racist folk music), Brazil has/had Sepultura, Taiwan has Chthonic with their erhu. A few American counterparts come to mind […]

Nadja seem to have emptied their hard drive onto CD’s, sent them out, and gotten signed to 10 labels simultaneously. By the end of 2008, they will have put out 15 releases in two years. That’s too much. But it’s about right if you consider each album as a song. Make one long ambient fuzzfest, […]

After being doused in NeurIsis/instru-metal/post-metal the past few years, I took a break from the genre for a while. Upon hearing Chicago’s Angel Eyes, I realize my problem has been not with the message, but the messengers. This is exactly how this stuff should be done – smart, emotional, directed; none of this “eight minute […]