Cherd

Sludge is the word.

Ruin Lust – Choir of Babel Review

By Cherd on March 12, 2020 in 20 Buck Spin, 2020, American Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, 19 comments

“The few times I’ve run reconnaissance to the front lines of war metal—sometimes called bestial black metal—it hasn’t exactly inspired me to take up arms. On paper, the bastard child of grindcore and raw black metal sounds like fun, but the unrelenting frenetic assault often turns tedious for this reviewer. I don’t mind dense music, but I like it smart, and that’s not really war metal’s MO. “Then why are you reviewing a war metal album?” the insolent reader may ask. I’ll tell you, though you deserve no such courtesy.” Towers of noise.

Dwaal – Gospel of the Vile Review

By Cherd on March 5, 2020 in 2020, Dark Essence Records, Doom Metal, Norwegian Metal, Post-metal, Reviews, Sludge, Doom Metal, Post-Metal, Sludge, 5 comments

“Dwaal is made up of six full-time members, a lot for this genre, and they spring from the sludgy post landscape founded by Neurosis. A close contemporary in sound and style would be Amenra, with both bands adept at slow building tension, but there are moments, especially in closer “Descent,” that indicate they are very much down with Why Oh Bee (yeah you know me).” Sludge hammer.

Kvaen – The Funeral Pyre Review

By Cherd on February 26, 2020 in 2020, Black Lion Records, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Reviews, Speed Metal, Swedish Metal, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Speed Metal, 43 comments

“Kvaen is the solo project of Swedish musician Jakob Björnfot (The Duskfall), although he employs a number of guest musicians to flesh out his vision. With The Funeral Pyre, he joins acts like Sun of the Sleepless and Spectral Wound as artists who play throwback melodic black metal with such verve and venom that it sounds as fresh as when it first emerged from the primordial forests.” Higher, higher, feel the pyre!

Treurwilg – An End to Rumination Review

By Cherd on February 24, 2020 in 2020, Doom Metal, Dutch Metal, Post-metal, Reviews, Self-released, Doom Metal, Funeral Doom, Post-Metal, 18 comments

“Treurwilg draws from different doom metal traditions, particularly the strange bedfellows of post-metal and funeral doom. If Isis and Ahab were shipmates on an Oceanic journey, they’d make something like An End to Rumination.” Rumination with a view.

Turia – Degen van Licht Review

By Cherd on February 14, 2020 in 2020, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, Dutch Metal, Eisenwald Records, Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, 33 comments

“Hailing from the Netherlands, Turia describes Degen van Licht as “an ode to the ageless lure of the unyielding mountains, and an exploration of the sweltering warmth which encompasses these heights every summer.” That doesn’t sound much like the icy forest obsessed second wave, and neither does Degen van Licht” Hot mounds.

Goblinsmoker – A Throne In Haze, A World Ablaze Review

By Cherd on February 4, 2020 in 2020, British Metal, Doom Metal, English Metal, Reviews, Sludge, Sludge Metal, Sludgelord Records, Stoner Metal, Doom Metal, Sludge, 39 comments

“Goblinsmoker’s Toad King began a narrative arc about amphibious forest dwellers who are served by a goblin underclass. A Throne In Haze… is the second installment of the planned trilogy. While fun, this story is superfluous, since the lyrics are sparse and delivered in an unintelligible blackened rasp. A Throne In Haze... is a trim 26 minutes over three songs, and it’s all riffs, baby.” Let them eat riffs.

Big Scenic Nowhere – Vision Beyond Horizon Review

By Cherd on January 31, 2020 in American Metal, American Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Psych Sounds Records, Psychedelic Rock, Reviews, Stoner Metal, Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Metal, Stoner Rock, 28 comments

“I don’t think of desert rock as an especially active genre when it comes to innovation. Brant Bjork God knows it can be self referential to a fault, conjuring with each release the same core components of fuzzy, jammy riffs, psychedelic woo woo vibes, earth tones and a gritty dryness worthy of the California landscape that hatched it. The creative peak that launched its best known bands is easily a few decades in the rearview mirror, yet this old conversion van keeps driving the same dusty highways, pot smoke and 70’s rock worship rolling out it’s open windows.” Big empty.

Worm – Gloomlord Review

By Cherd on January 20, 2020 in 2020, American Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Iron Bonehead Productions, Reviews, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 10 comments

“It never bodes well when a writer with squatter’s rights to a promo doesn’t raise a fuss when you snatch it from them. I selected Floridian death-doom band Worm’s second album Gloomlord from our putrid promo pit without doing my due diligence to see if they had been covered on the site before. Turns out they have, and the good Dr. Wvrm wasn’t even a little sorry to see this one go to a different writer.” Worm turns.

Oberst – Paradise Review

By Cherd on January 13, 2020 in 2020, Hardcore, Indie Recordings, Metalcore, Norwegian Metal, Post-Hardcore, Post-metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Hardcore, Metalcore, Post-Hardcore, Post-Metal, Progressive Metal, 24 comments

“Back in the 90s, I was in a very famous TV show I was all about hardcore and early metalcore. As a matter of fact, I was straight edge, though not for the same reasons as other practitioners of that ethos. I was a good Christian boy who happened to like aggressive music, and the rise of Tooth and Nail Records and their sub-imprint Solid State meant I could have my cake and eat it too (that’s not to say I didn’t have dalliances with “secular” labels like Victory or Revelation). I left -core behind many years ago, as tends to happen as one ages, but last year I found myself drawn to a few newer bands with hardcore influences, and that got me nostalgic. Return to the core.

Creature – Contes Funèbres [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

By Cherd on January 5, 2020 in Avante Garde, Black Metal, French Metal, Progressive Metal, Self-released, Things You Might Have Missed, Things You Might Have Missed 2019, Black Metal, Progressive Metal, 35 comments

On Contes Funèbres, Fournier’s second as Creature, there are sounds and styles that can be found in our world, but they’ve been arranged by a mind that surely originates elsewhere. Yes, this is black metal at a foundational level, but there is so much synth prog, electronic trickery, odd vocals and anachronistic choral arrangements that calling it any one thing is pointless.” Creature features.