Drone Metal

Den – Iron Desert Review

Den – Iron Desert Review

“Think about running a marathon. Through the desert. On one leg. With gastroenteritis. And no map. This is how difficult it is to forge a unique and compelling sound in the saturated world of metal. Bands generally either go super heavy, or adopt a hybrid sound of some kind. But when you have bands like An Autumn for Crippled Children combining dream-pop with black metal, and Devourment making music so dense it almost absorbs light, what is a band to do? Well, if they have the balls, they could try to do both. Enter Den, a band that wants to offer you a joint, then smash it unceremoniously through your skull after two tokes.” Heavy sand.

Entrail – Eater of Starlight Review

Entrail – Eater of Starlight Review

“When I furtively snatched Entrail’s new album Eater of Starlight from the promo pit, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. Given that Entrail recently played a show alongside Vouna, whose latest material was recorded entirely at Wolves in the Throne Room’s studio (Owl Lodge), and, like me, resides in the gloom-shrouded Pacific Northwest, I was easily intrigued. Choosing to review her new album was a no-brainer. Looking back, I am convinced that going in blind was the best possible way to be introduced to the one-woman experimental drone project of Christine Anderson.” Morbid entrails.

Black Cilice – Transfixion of Spirits Review

Black Cilice – Transfixion of Spirits Review

“When I tell people I listen to black metal because I find it ‘relaxing,’ I’m often met by bemused stares. How could such ferocious, pummeling music, in any shape or form, be relaxing, they ask? Yet it is precisely the cacophony of noise and shrieking that allows, if only for a few blissful minutes, my overactive brain to rest. Much like children with hyperactivity, who take a stimulant to focus their restless minds, the anxiety, sadness, and worry that constantly swirl around in my brain are temporarily and gloriously cocooned in the chaos of furious blast beats and thunderous riffs that only the most extreme music can provide.” Lo-fi hi-five.

Nameless Void – Nameless Void Review

Nameless Void – Nameless Void Review

“With a name and origin as mysterious as the chilling introduction of their eponymous debut EP, Nameless Void is the astral black metal duo of SN (music) and RM (vocals). Based on their description, Nameless Void draws similarities to noise/dark ambient black metal bands like Gnaw their Tongues and the terror noise-metal of Vessel of Iniquity.” I’ve been through the void on a horse with no name.

Sunn O))) – Life Metal Review

Sunn O))) – Life Metal Review

Sunn O))) is not well received around these parts. When AMG’s distinguished editors and contributors were given the opportunity to review these droning doomsters, it was met with such reactions as GardensTale‘s verbal bitch-slap “I’d rather stick my hand in a blender” or Mark Z.‘s sick burn “Can I just review my washing machine running for two hours instead?” Love ’em or hate ’em, we can all agree on one universal idea about drone: it can be boring as fuck.” O)))) Boy.

Waste of Space Orchestra – Syntheosis Review

Waste of Space Orchestra – Syntheosis Review

“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.

Gnaw Their Tongues & Crowhurst: Burning Ad Infinitum: A Collaboration Review

Gnaw Their Tongues & Crowhurst: Burning Ad Infinitum: A Collaboration Review

“In many ways, this collaboration makes perfect sense. The lo-fi, chaotic-noise aesthetic of Gnaw Their Tongues is a very natural direction for the experimental drone of Crowhurst to wander off to, and vice versa. Given the prolific nature of Gnaw Their Tongues’s Maurice de Jong and Crowhurst mastermind Jay Gambit, it’s also pretty much par for the course that these two noise mongers eventually crossed paths and left some tracks in their wake.” Gnawed and miserable.

Among The Rocks And Roots – Raga Review

Among The Rocks And Roots – Raga Review

“Music as ‘just entertainment’ is a solipsistic and fairly recent notion. Throughout the history of humankind, various forms of music have instead been tightly woven into the communities that birthed them, shaping and steering social bonds. Even if this fact has been conveniently hidden in the deepest crevices of our collective memories, helped by capitalism’s commodification of art, music as a concept outside the ludic and academically autotelic still exists in the cultures of indigenous people like the Tuvans. Their shamans perform songs primarily to heal and such music becomes a bridge between the spiritual and the physical. Richmond duo Among The Rocks And Roots are one of those rare contemporary groups which successfully tap into that subliminal, metaphysical source and simultaneously reach somewhere beyond their own ids.” Id Rock.

Opium Warlords – Droner Review

Opium Warlords – Droner Review

“With so many bands coming out of Finland, I’m starting to wonder if there’s a single sub-genre of metal unrepresented. Today’s platter is the fourth full-length from one-Finn drone project Opium Warlords. Masterminded by Albert Witchfinder (Azrael Rising, Spiritus Mortis), the album promises a vision of humanity scraping primitive survival from the husk of nuclear apocalypse, set to a soundtrack of bluesy minimalism. Or at least, that’s the ambitious byline the label tries to sell.” Some things sell themselves.