“Good drone swallows you. Drone is not meant to invoke movement or adrenaline, but to evoke a mood or place. It sweeps away like the tides, not with rhythmic intensity but with mammoth weight, and dwells with you. A dybbuk is a Jewish mythological creature that sits on your chest while you sleep, and at its best this album attaches to you like a parasite. Wailing and gnashing of teeth echo across the fray, visceral and ritualistic, and as haunting as it is devastating. The place Catafalque takes you to is not the foot of great mountains or grey cityscapes, but a shadowy place that is as possessed as it is otherworldly.” Honing the droning.
Izah
Golden Core – Fimbultýr Review
“Celebrating cultural heritage is crucial. In a world living in the shadow of Christianity’s obliteration of “pagan” beliefs, the old creeds and rituals are rarer and rarer. As such, it’s imperative to preserve such practices and traditions, valuing their impact in generations past and their influence on future individuals. My family is descended from Vikings, which is pretty badass, but one thing led to another[1. Y’know, like a few burning monasteries, hundreds of years, a few continental migrations, and countless cultural shifts.] and they found themselves Lutheran farmers in North Dakota. Groups like Heilung and Wardruna are committed to preservation and renaissance of the old Norse rituals, and Norwegian/Icelandic duo Golden Core seek to channel this appreciation through new release Fimbultýr by blending American stoner doom and Norwegian black metal.” Uphold the olde.
Izah – Sistere Review
“Do you like post-metal? Do you like sludge? What about Rosetta? Soundclips of men with Scottish accents? Finally, do you have 72 minutes to kill? If, dear reader, you answered yes to three out of those five questions, then you would be obliged to take my hand as I journey through Izah’s gargantuan debut Sistere.” Ach, it’s like Scotchtoberfest around hea!