Drone

Megaton Leviathan – Mage Review

By Huck N Roll on October 29, 2018 in 2018, American Metal, Blood Music, Doom Metal, Drone, Reviews, Shoegaze, Ambient Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Shoegaze, 26 comments

“Unless you’re a polar bear, six straight weeks of below average temperatures will destroy your spirit. Rather than hunting for fun, uplifting, Record o’ the Month-caliber albums, you will find yourself dredging the promo bin for anything bitter and morose. Thus I stumbled across Megaton Leviathan, a band specializing in all things doom, drone, and shoegaze. Mage is mastermind Andrew James Costa Reuscher and his ever-changing band’s third album, and if the promo blurb is remotely accurate, its “borderline narcotic compositions” should be just what I need to push me even further into early winter doldrums.” How much does a gaze weigh?

Author & Punisher – Beastland review

By Kronos on October 5, 2018 in 2018, American Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Industrial Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Doom Metal, Drone, Industrial Metal, 87 comments

“The appeal of Shone’s work, to me, has never been in its horizontal structure but in its exploration of novel pathways to create sound and the ways that Shone pieces novel noises together to act as riffs and melodies that produce memorable—dare I say catchy—music. How he produces a sound that’s so thoroughly chained to the physicality of its own creation. How he uses actual weight, in the form of a prison-like array of custom-fabricated instruments, to produce what, when we experience it, we call ‘heavy.'” Building the machine.

Adversvm – Aion Sitra Ahra Review

By Grymm on May 9, 2018 in 2018, Doom Metal, Drone, German Metal, Iron Bonehead Productions, Reviews, Doom Metal, Drone, Funeral Doom, 31 comments

“Okay, stop me if you’ve heard this one before: lofty, esoteric song titles and album names, a promo picture of a single dude who looks like one of the choir guys from Batushka and goes by just his initials, and very little-to-no-internet presence at all, so looking for much information on the “band” in question, other than the fact that Adversvm is a German one-man act, is an exercise in futility… all these things would have you screaming, “Fuck, not another one-man black metal band.” And I would sympathize with you completely if it was accurate. You see, though, Adversvm is a one-man funeral doom band hoping to make a name for himself in a steadily-growing genre.” One slow man.

Lusca – Broken Colossus Review

By Saunders on May 2, 2018 in 2018, Experimental Metal, German Metal, Industrial Metal, Musical Tragedies Entertainment, Reviews, Drone, Industrial Metal, Noise, Sludge, 29 comments

“I consider myself to be pretty open-minded when it comes to music, and metal, in particular. Sure, I can be a cynical, judgmental prick and easily fall back on old favorites and genre staples to satisfy my listening urges, but generally, I give things a shot and like to occasionally deviate outside my comfort zone. Thankfully the reviewing game provides ample opportunity to divulge in the unfamiliar and uncomfortable, so the powers above assigned the mysterious Lusca for my listening pleasure and subsequent dissection.” Be careful what you wish for, kids.

Autokrator – Hammer of the Heretics Review

By Kronos on April 14, 2018 in 2018, Death Metal, Drone, French Metal, Krucyator Productions, Reviews, Death Metal, Drone, 37 comments

“Autokrator and I go way back. Pursuant to my crucifixion of their unlistenable debut, one of the band members wrung me out over my continuing jabs at the group and, I assume, made sure that this august publication would never catch wind of their sophomore release. According to the wishes of both parties, I neither listened to nor reviewed the effort. So it was with both surprise and unease that I pulled their third LP, Hammer of the Heretics, from the promo bin. And wouldn’t you know? Everything that made me hate Autokrator has disappeared.” Beef resolved.

Among The Rocks And Roots – Raga Review

By Roquentin on March 5, 2018 in 2018, American Metal, Avante Garde, Doom Metal, Drone, Noise, PTP, Reviews, Doom Metal, Drone, Noise, Noise Metal, Sludge Metal, 44 comments

“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.

Insect Ark – Marrow Hymns Review

By Kronos on March 2, 2018 in 2018, American Metal, Avante Garde, Doom Metal, Drone, Profound Lore Records, Reviews, Drone, 0 comments

“Insect Ark’s debut, Portal/Well saw a warm, if not enthusiastic, welcome at AMG by our staff’s very own card-carrying Illuminati member. Such is Roquentin‘s power that the one-woman, drone-doom project didn’t blow up despite its extreme catchiness and party-ready bangers. Never one to allow the powers that be (other than myself) to dictate a band’s future, it was with great curiosity that I reached into the murky waters of the promo pond to retrieve Marrow Hymns, a sophomore effort which sees founding bassist/multi-instrumentalist Dana Schechter joined by drummer and synth-wrangler Ashley Spungin. At forty-four minutes, it’s hardly a marathon, yet the staid oddness of the whole thing proves to lengthen the listening experience.” Swarm drone.

Yhdarl – Loss Review

By Kronos on January 12, 2018 in 2018, Belgian Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, I Voidhanger Records, Reviews, Black Metal, Drone, 33 comments

“Pulling off a long song — be it a ten-minute black metal piece or an hour-plus funeral doom opus — takes very deliberate pacing. Great drone and doom bands know this and know how to pull the listener rather than push them. If the song moves too fast, it can seem to lose structure, but if it moves too slowly, it can stagnate and sour the listener to its next idea. One has to have the pacing and space to keep themselves involved.” The long lurch into oblivion.

Morbid Evils – Deceases Review

By Akerblogger on August 29, 2017 in 2017, Drone, Finnish Metal, Reviews, Svart Records, Drone, 10 comments

“Tantalizingly labeled as being a grind-drone hybrid, Morbid Evils — a side project of Rotten Sound vocalist and guitarist Keijo Niinimaa — doesn’t play by the rules. That’s not to say that the feelings these two extreme sub-genres stir up aren’t present. The suffocating and oppressive atmospherics found both in the gargantuan monotone sound of drone and the stifling chaos of grindcore are an ever-present force here, shifting with the force of planet sized icebergs. The name of the game is oppression and the aim of the game is to hammer the brain into a pulp.” Morbid and evil is no way to go through life, son.

Hell – Hell Review

By Grymm on August 11, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Reviews, Sentient Ruin Laboratories, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, 50 comments

“Hell isn’t a unique topic in the realms of heavy metal. Whether it’s scalding hot or freezing cold, overpopulated with sinners or barren like a desert filled with tumbleweeds and rattlesnakes, Satan’s home and permanent tourist hot-spot has been covered to death and undeath too many times to count. Many metal bands, from Black Sabbath to the kvltest of tr00 black metal, weaved so many tales of that realm that it’s become old hat now. M.S.W., the sole member of Salem, Oregon’s Hell, knows this.” Going down.