Dark Buddha Rising

Megaton Leviathan – Magick Helmet Review

By Dear Hollow on December 16, 2023 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Noise, Psychedelic Rock, 19 comments

“Look, I love drone. I love getting lost in the swaths of noise and soundscapes that pervade its classics, as albums like Earth’s Earth 2, Sunn O)))’s Black One, and Boris’ Flood offer otherworldly and mammoth wilderness to explore. Riffs don’t offer adrenaline, but mountains instead, while vocals and percussion, if there are any, are the last semblance of humanity amid the utter saturation of sound. Its utter overwhelm of sound makes it controversial, its void of relatability offers little reprieve, and its slow depiction of devastation is hypnotic. All that to say, while I was maybe hoping for the next Holy Fawn with Megaton Leviathan’s talk of shoegaze, drone, and doom, I don’t know what the fuck to make of Magick Helmet.” All noise, no sword.

Catafalque – Dybbuk Review

By Dear Hollow on October 25, 2023 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Industrial Metal, Noise, 13 comments

“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.

Wolvennest – Temple Review

By Dear Hollow on March 5, 2021 in Reviews, Black Metal, Doom Metal, 26 comments

“Belgium is a weird place. Maybe it’s the chocolate or waffles, but any country that offers groups like Neptunian Maximalism, Emptiness, or Amenra & Co. needs to have its cholesterol checked. Spewing out bizarre organic atmosphere with haunting repetition, artists like these have strangely minimalist tendencies that end up feeling bigger than the individual parts suggest. While spanning a broad range of metallic subgenres, it comes across as otherworldly, surreal, and fiercely dark. To add their two cents to these Belgian shenanigans is Wolvennest.” Temple of Weird.

Five the Hierophant – Through Aureate Void Review

By Carcharodon on February 24, 2021 in Reviews, Ambient Metal, Drone, Post-Metal, 51 comments

“The last time I encountered a hierophant, I 4.5ed it and slotted into the highly respectable – to me, at least – second spot on my 2020 List. While I dared not hope that London’s Five the Hierophant could reach such heights, a small part of me hoped that this band, which has been plying its trade since 2014 and bills itself as a psychedelic fusion of black metal, jazz, post metal and ambient drone, might just share some DNA with my beloved Hierophant Violent.” Holding out for a Hierophant.

Doom_et_Al’s and Dear Hollow’s Top Ten(ish) of 2020

By Doom_et_Al on December 27, 2020 in 2020, Blog Posts, Lists, 114 comments

Doom_et_Al and Dear Hollow have their big boy lists. Did they use that great power responsibly?

Dark Buddha Rising – Mathreyata Review

By Dear Hollow on November 14, 2020 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, 25 comments

“Dark Buddha Rising is a Finnish band, formed in 2007 and packing six full-lengths and an EP under its belt. For a collective that channels drone, doom, and sludge (you’d be safe to throw some stoner doom in there too), their megalithic songwriting is surprisingly restrained, relying on simple bass riffs, distant vocals, and other instruments to communicate their psychedelic soundscape as it reaches a drone climax.” Buddha don’t play.

Convocation – Ashes Coalesce Review

By Ferrous Beuller on July 15, 2020 in Reviews, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 25 comments

“Yes, I still write here. In fact, nothing can draw me out of seclusion quite like the promise of some quality Finnish extremity. In 2018, I had the good fortune to cover Convocation, a newly established entity of funereal death-doom. Desolate Shrine mastermind L.L joined forces with Dark Buddha Rising vocalist M. Neuman to pour all of their grief into one bereft body of work, and the results were profound. Now, the universal wailing wall stands ready to receive yet another cascade of condemnation.” Ash kicking.

PH – Osiris Hayden Review

By Huck N Roll on November 13, 2019 in 2019, Drone, Finnish Metal, Industrial Metal, Psychedelic Rock, Reviews, Stoner Rock, Svart Records, Drone, Industrial Metal, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Rock, 18 comments

“This time around, PH are aiming for something “beyond the limits of modern psychedelia,” something that pulls influence from Gary Numan and Nine Inch Nails. And one of my psychedelic favorites from the past, Julian Cope, fully endorses these guys. This all makes me at least willing to dig in.” Needs more alkaline.

Waste of Space Orchestra – Syntheosis Review

By Roquentin on April 3, 2019 in 2019, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Experimental Metal, Finnish Metal, Reviews, Sludge Metal, Svart Records, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Experimental Metal, Sludge Metal, 134 comments

“A certain thespian poise dominates throughout Syntheosis, the piece originally commissioned for Roadburn Festival 2018 and then turned into a proper studio recording. Highly conceptual, Waste of Space Orchestra narrate a quite demented story somewhere between magical realism and occult horror. The album develops intently and purposefully, tracing the lines of an imagined ritual and its performers, three mysterious creatures that aim ‘to open a portal that will suck them into a different reality of brain-mutilating color storms and ego-diminishing audio violence.’” Waste not, want more.

Convocation – Scars Across [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]

By Ferrous Beuller on December 18, 2018 in 2018, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Everlasting Spew Records, Finnish Metal, Reviews, Things You Might Have Missed 2018, Death Doom, Death Metal, 28 comments

“In November of 2017, Finland’s Desolate Shrine released Deliverance From the Godless Void, an album so full of death and depth it would have been my AotY had it not released so late. While this year has furnished us with a selection of stirring doom albums, it still falls to Desolate Shrine mastermind L.L to concoct the most immersive and crushing of them all. Convocation is a project that balances L.L’s multi-instrumental talents with the vocals of M. Neuman of fellow Finns Dark Buddha Rising. The resulting debut, Scars Across, is a remorseless trek through tortured terrain that never departs from its impending pace.” Doom to the world.