Roquentin

Howls of Ebb – Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows Review

By Roquentin on April 11, 2016 in 2016, American Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, I Voidhanger Records, Reviews, Death Metal, Experimental Metal, 41 comments

“There’s a lot of pent up anger and frustration going around these days. Whether that certain something bothering you is serious like the weather or banal as your governing politicians spewing hatred, it’s always nice to be able to turn to metal in search of some escapism. To find a way out. A portal to a safe space. A wonderful soundtrack for hollow and bitter soliloquies. You might think, at first, that San Francisco’s ex-trio, now duo, Howls of Ebb provide exactly that with their experimentally tinged blackened death adorned with dark and threatening atmospheres and hints of aggression.” And you would be extremely wrong.

Boris with Merzbow – Gensho Review

By Roquentin on March 17, 2016 in Avante Garde, Doom Metal, Drone, Japanese Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Noise Metal, Shoegaze, 15 comments

“To write about Gensho, the latest in a 15 years long series of collaborations between illustrious Japanese experimental metal, rock, and everything in-between trio Boris and legendary noise musician Merzbow (alias Masami Akita), is to write about three different records: a Boris shoegaze-cum-drone meditation, a Merzbow harsh noise attack, and a mammothian combination of the two.” What’s with guys who like drone and writing run on sentences, anyway?

Skáphe – Skáphe² Review

By Roquentin on March 11, 2016 in 2016, American Metal, Avante Garde, Black Metal, I Voidhanger Records, Reviews, Black Metal, 36 comments

“You’ve witnessed the scene. It’s a part of the furniture in many contemporary neo-neo-noir, ominously foreboding, condemningly pseudofuturist movies. Our heroic but morally ambiguous protagonist visits some sort of underground nightclub. People, presumably the filth of the city, dance spastically (yet provocatively) under stroboscopes, adorned by black leather and fetishized clothing. A mixture of disgust and temptation lingers while a red haze surrounds the entangled mess of bodies. It’s Hollywood’s typical portrayal of Hell on Earth, a mise-en-scène imbued with cheap symbolism. Imagine now a worthy metal accompaniment to such a spectacle in real life, deprived of all the fabricated fanciness, something that would eclipse phony visual cues and provide a truly infernal setting.” Or just recall the club scene in Blade II.

Pogavranjen – Jedva čekam da nikad ne umrem Review

By Roquentin on March 6, 2016 in 2016, Arachnophobia Records, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Croatian Metal, Reviews, Black Metal, 19 comments

“I don’t often get a chance to write about Croatian metal bands or, to be exact, I don’t often feel like writing about Croatian metal bands. There’s barely anything to call a “metal scene” in my homeland, with most acts birthed alone and lonely into a generic and photocopied existence, only to disappear in a flash of insignificance. Suffice to say that during the last 25 odd years since the country’s declaration of independence, there were only a few bands worth mentioning in the same breath with their international stylistic brethren (Ashes You Leave, Umor, Death of Folk, Infernal Tenebra). Imagine my elation, then, when something as good as Pogavranjen’s third LP, Jedva čekam da nikad ne umrem,[1. Looking Forward to Never Dying] came along. Curiously composed and competently played avant-garde black metal that is not merely the fruit of derivative rehashing? Yes, please!” We’ll take a double of that, with fries.

Ritual Chamber – Obscurations (To Feast on the Seraphim) Review

By Roquentin on February 25, 2016 in 2016, American Metal, Death Metal, Profound Lore Records, Reviews, Death Metal, 17 comments

“Simply put, Obscurations (To Feast on the Seraphim), the début by one-man band Ritual Chamber, is easily an archetype of how “evil” music should sound. Guitar riffs and growled vocals rise from a gutter filled with tortured souls, putrid bile drips from drum kicks and rumbling bass lines, and a general atmosphere of rot and despair fills each and every song. Cliché as it may seem, it’s dread incarnated.” Ready for some dread and breakfast?

Aluk Todolo – Voix Review

By Roquentin on February 3, 2016 in 2016, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Drone, French Metal, Reviews, The Ajna Offensive, Black Metal, Drone, 10 comments

“It was on a tepid spring night that I witnessed, for the first time, the show put on by three mysterious French shamans going by the name of Aluk Todolo. A psychedelic, trance-inducing “krautblack” assault washed over the audience, permeating and shaking each molecule and atom of their beings. An unforgettable experience.” Darkness, beauty and brutality.

Bombs of Hades – Death Mask Replica Review

By Roquentin on January 27, 2016 in 2016, Crust Punk, Death Metal, Reviews, Swedish Metal, War Anthem Records, Crust Punk, Death Metal, 8 comments

“First appearances can be and often are misleading. Take Death Mask Replica, for example, the fourth release by Swedish band Bombs of Hades. After noticing the Captain Beefheart-spoofing title and marveling at the tastefully grim and artsy cover, one might expect some kind of experimental blackened death metal in the vein of Chaos Echœs to be hidden within.” Of course, you’d be totally wrong and embarrass yourself.

Batushka – Litourgiya [Things You Might Have Missed 2015]

By Roquentin on January 15, 2016 in 2015, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Polish Metal, Witching Hour Productions, Black Metal, Doom Metal, 77 comments

“Still, even in 2015, when a mysterious black metal band crafts a record that mimics an Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy, it’s bound to raise some eyebrows. Especially when the songs are sung in Russian and the band members are Polish.” If that doesn’t pique the curiosity, you’re a person without curiosity to pique.

Lychgate – An Antidote for the Glass Pill [Things You Might Have Missed 2015]

By Roquentin on December 20, 2015 in 2015, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Blood Music, English Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2015, Black Metal, 15 comments

“I vividly remember my first encounter with black metal (Burzum), a music so dissonant and evil-sounding that it left twelve-year-old me completely bewildered and flabbergasted. In metal, it was rare and legendary extremes like Gorguts that came close. Until recently, that is, when my ears were graced by the insanity that is Lychgate’s An Antidote for the Glass Pill.” The weirdness is strong with this year’s TYMHM selections.

Sunn O))) – Kannon Review

By Roquentin on December 4, 2015 in 2015, American Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Reviews, Southern Lord, Doom Metal, Drone, Experimental Metal, 61 comments

“The music of American drone metal duo Sunn O))), even though structurally simplistic, is anything but easy to consume. The richness of their sound still pours through layered subtleties that require attentive listening lest they be drowned out by the incisively crumbling riffs.” It’s all about that riff, that riff, that riff.