“Horros is not a metal album, in spite of Virta’s signing with the weirder-and-weirder Svart Records. What the Finnish trio does well, however, is conjure a tension between pitch-black darkness and ethereal sanguinity, a balance sure to get metalheads drooling. At its heart an electroacoustic album that blends the synthetic and handmade that tastefully paints landscapes with sound, it’s perhaps not surprising that the act was proclaimed a “cornerstone of Finnish experimental music” by members of Finnish media following the release of their sophomore effort Hurmos. How does third full-length and first album in seven years Horros hold up?” The Horros….
Bohren & der Club of Gore
Bolt Gun – The Tower Revew
“The Tower feels like ascent. You’ll feel light as air, floating upon the ether in warm sunlight, only to crash to earth in plummeting gravity. While journeys are not uncommon across metal’s many weathered and storied expanses, Australia’s Bolt Gun offers a vertical trek. Its experimental fervor, blackened climaxes, and monolithic weight, and above all, the emphasis on atmosphere, offer scenic vistas and groveling earth alike, hurtling towards the summit and the zenith. Always majestic, as if in reverence to the colossal structure always in view, The Tower feels like a chronicle: a breathing, organic, but dense legend.” Climbing creativity.
The Lovecraft Sextet – Miserere Review
“No one does music like Jason Köhnen. His projects like Mansur, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, and Bong-Ra constantly push boundaries, and while my reception to his work has been largely mixed, The Lovecraft Sextet has stuck. Debut In Memoriam was a unique and visceral experience, somehow weaponizing dark ambient, black metal, jazz, and opera into six tracks with three disparate but compatible palettes.” Sax and tentacles.
Last Call at Nightowls – Ask the Dust Review
“There is something special about music created by artists who must collaborate with each other from afar rather than together in person. Take the short-lived yet beloved synth-pop duo, The Postal Service. Two artists, electronic musician and DJ Jimmy Tamborello of Los Angeles and Ben Gibbard, singer of the indie band Death Cab for Cutie, of Seattle decided to collaborate with each other undeterred by the distance between them. Jimmy and Ben overcame said distance by sending recordings back and forth via, no joke, the United States Postal Service. I find this mode of collaboration endearing, and I still hold The Postal Service’s one album Give Up near and dear to my heart. Dark ambient doom-jazz band Last Call at Nightowls followed the same formula The Postal Service employed to create their debut album Ask the Dust.” Suspicious package.
Joel Fausto & Illusion Orchestra – Inside the Throat of a Giant Insect Review
“To say the opening moments of Joel Fausto & Illusion Orchestra’s new album are jarring would be an understatement. With a title like Inside the Throat of a Giant Insect, how could it not be?” This place crawls.
BIG|BRAVE – Ardor Review
“Ardor, the third full-length by Montrealers BIG|BRAVE opens with a sustained, unending riff. As it reverberates eerily, it suggests that the trio picked up right where they left off with their sophomore release Au De La, veering even further into fields of textures and sparse instrumentation. Their signature sound is a combination of elements from multiple genres and idioms, from post-rock to drone, shaped into an experimental, caustic, and often hermetic concoction.” Bliss in the abyss.
Tchornobog – Tchornobog Review
“Tchornobog is Soroka’s attempt at infiltrating the extreme metal sect occupied by the likes of Portal and Abyssal; a brew of cavernous, cacophonous death metal, dripping with fringe-style elements that blur genre lines.” Gesundheit!
Insect Ark – Portal/Well Review
“Once upon a dark and glum time, also known as the beginning of the dank ‘90s, a bunch of enigmatic German misfits got together, formed a band called Bohren & der Club of Gore, and started playing music that was quite novel for its period.” The age of Jazz doom is upon us.