Drone

Sektarism – La Mort de L’Infidele Review

By Grymm on May 19, 2017 in 2017, Doom Metal, Drone, French Metal, Reviews, Zanjeer Zani Productions, Doom Metal, 31 comments

“As anyone who knows me well enough can attest, I function in strange ways. I enjoy my iced coffee in the wintertime. In the summertime, though, when everyone is either at the beach or cruising down the highway of their choice, I prefer to shutter myself in my house, grab a beer, and listen to either Kyuss or funeral doom. Strange, I know, but there’s something to be said about taking it easy on days where it’s overly sunny and hot as balls outside. So imagine my delight when I discovered La Mort de L’Infidele by France’s Sektarism in the promo bin, just waiting for me to engage in enough summertime sadness to make Lana Del Ray blush.” There ain’t no cure for the summertime blues.

PH – Eternal Hayden Review

By Huck N Roll on March 14, 2017 in 2017, Ambient Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Finnish Metal, Post-metal, Reviews, Svart Records, Ambient Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Post-Metal, 10 comments

“Last week I reviewed an album called Eternal Rituals for the Accretion of Light. This week, my album of choice is called Eternal Hayden. Both albums are post-metal. Both bands — Junius and PH — have done trilogies of albums, and these Eternal albums are their fourth.” What did we say about triple albums?

Mizmor – Yodh [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]

By Roquentin on December 24, 2016 in 2016, American Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Gilead Media, Reviews, Things You Might Have Missed 2016, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, 25 comments

“Even before hearing a single note from Portland, Oregon’s one-man blackened doom psalmist Mizmor (מזמור), the striking cover art of Yodh—a reproduction of an artwork by Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński—tells us everything we need to know. The two faces in a desolate dystopian landscape, robbed of their distinguishing features and reduced to mute, expressionless monoliths, speak to our subconscious selves.” Woe to the world, the doom has come.

Gnaw Their Tongues – Hymns for the Broken, Swollen and Silent Review

By Lord Lucan on December 10, 2016 in 2016, Black Metal, ConSouling Sounds, Drone, Dutch Metal, Noise, Reviews, Black Metal, Noise, 11 comments

“Whenever I see bands like Slayer and Motörhead emblazoned across shirts for sale in fashionable high street clothing stores, I always have a little internal conflict with myself. On the one hand, I feel I ought to be enthusiastic about anything that introduces people to the world of heavy music. On the other, a childish part of me kind of likes metal being a bit of a secret society.” Join the club but prepare for hazing.

Mortualia – Wild, Wild Misery Review

By Lord Lucan on December 1, 2016 in 2016, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Finnish Metal, Moribund Records, Reviews, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, 19 comments

“Here’s a sage piece of life advice you can have for free: always carefully check what you’ve typed into your Google search bar before hitting ‘enter.’ I recently fell foul of this little rule while researching ‘depressive suicidal black metal’ (or ‘DSBM’) for the purposes of writing this review. Unless you’re feeling particularly brave, you’ll just have to take my word for it that while DSBM and BDSM might look similar, they are definitely not the same thing. I learned this the hard way.” Are we still doing phrasing?

Urfaust – Empty Space Meditation Review

By Roquentin on October 30, 2016 in 2016, Ambient Metal, Black Metal, Drone, Dutch Metal, Reviews, Van Records, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, Drone, 14 comments

“‘…the universe is a flaw in the purity of non-being.’ It’s this thought by French poet and philosopher Paul Valéry that sprung into my mind while listening and re-listening to the latest record by Dutch ambient black metal duo Urfaust. Their style was always born out of a sense of desolation and isolation, a tribute to emptiness, owing equally to dark ambient and metal.” Of being and ambience.

Sink – Ark of Contempt and Anger Review

By Madam X on June 20, 2016 in 2016, Drone, Finnish Metal, Non-Metal Metal Things, Not Metal, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Svart Records, Drone, Non-metal Metal Things, Not Metal, Progressive Rock, 45 comments

“Just like death and taxes, you can count on Svart Records to artfully bestow the weird and the wonderful. Ark of Contempt and Anger’s promo blurb begins by saying that ‘Sink have once again created an oddly compelling and strangely enchanting album that is truly in a league of its own.’ Add to that, Sink promises rich and complex compositions woven with enigmatic lyrics, and I’ll admit I had a hard time resisting this.” Plus there’s a cute dog on the cover!

Concert Review: Sunn O))), Sun-Ray Cinema, Jacksonville, Florida – April 7, 2016

By Grymm on April 24, 2016 in Ambient Metal, American Metal, Blog Posts, Drone, Live Reviews, Reviews, 21 comments

“Growing up in New England, very rarely did I miss a concert. Any and all big-name metal bands that came around, I would be there, no questions asked. However, having lived in Jacksonville, Florida for the last five years, there’s been a major dearth of quality metal concerts in my newly-adopted hometown. So when a co-worker of mine told me that the legendary Sunn O))) were playing here in Jacksonville as part of a tour to support last year’s Kannon, I thought he was absolutely full of shit.” Turns out that shit was about to get real.

Alkerdeel – Lede Review

By Roquentin on April 12, 2016 in 2016, Belgian Metal, Black Metal, ConSouling Sounds, Drone, Reviews, Black Metal, 30 comments

“Harsh and fairly abstract genres such as drone, noise, and left-field black metal are conceptually subtle, fragile things that require a careful balancing act to pull off properly. There are two ways that successful bands do this. One group of musicians immerses itself fully into the abyss of extremes, slowing down tempos to the point of near immobility and amplifying texture beyond thresholds of painful saturation (Sunn O)))). The other group carefully crafts concoctions that are ultimately dynamic in their repetitiveness and cohesive in their chaos (Aluk Todolo). Belgian four piece Alkerdeel belong to the latter.”This high-wire act is about to get real.

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?