![Eye of Solitude/Marche Funèbre – Collapse/Darkness [split] Review](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eye-of-Solitude-Marche-Funebre-Collapse-Darkness-01-768x702.jpg)
Chocolate and peanut butter. Cheese and crackers. One-person black metal and January. Some things just naturally pair up beautifully together. What normally doesn’t pair up too well? Funeral doom and brevity. So imagine my shock when I got assigned a two-song, 30-minute EP featuring two of the scene’s leading exports, UK’s Eye of Solitude and Belgium’s Marche Funèbre, and finding out that the EP’s just a hair over a lunch break long!” Doom comes fast on a Monday.
“Following the sudden death of former drummer Adrian Guerra, bassist Dylan Desmond and drummer/organist Jesse Shreibman wrestled with shock and despair, as well as doubt over the future of Bell Witch. Their conclusion that “if [they] were going to go on, it had to be something remarkable” is evident throughout Mirror Reaper. Pulling off an 84-minute single track opus is about as remarkable as it gets.” C’mon Mary….
“Like labelmates Graves at Sea and Lycus, and fellow American’s Bell Witch and Samothrace, Usnea live life in the slow(er) lane. Their brand of doom features a rotating spit of tasty off-shoots: funeral doom, black metal, sludge, and progressive metal all permeate through the five dense and atmospheric tracks of Portals into Futility, the band’s third full-length. A vague and ethereal science-fiction concept runs through the album, too. I’ve deduced this not from the lyrics but from the reading list supplied by the band: the works of Gene Wolfe, Ursula Le Guin, Carl Sagan, Margaret Atwood, Philip K. Dick, and Frank Herbert are expected to be cosmically crumbled into this curious concoction.” Sci-ops.
“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.
![Mizmor – Yodh [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Mizmor-Yodh-768x768.jpg)
“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.
“I know that ectoplasm is an actual thing. Wikipedia tells me it’s ‘the more viscous, clear outer layer of the cytoplasm in amoeboid cells.’ But it also has its paranormal applications: that which is left behind by ghouls and ghosts and has been utilized by classic comedy (‘He slimed me’). Unfortunately for Poland’s Suffer Yourself, it’s this latter use to which I default.” Gunk in the trunk.
“Sometimes the right setting is everything for a metal album. Fortunately for myself, through a pretty atypical series of life events I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy several records in environments that bring out their absolute best. I’ve listened to Ahab while snuggled below decks on a three-masted barque sailing in the North Atlantic, I’ve listened to Wolves in the Throne Room while hiking the lush forests of the Pacific Northwest, I’ve listened to Baroness while cruising through the humid towns of southeastern America, and I’ve listened to The Acacia Strain while cleaning my toilet. But Æ.Thy.Rift, the third album from Australian one-man black metal project Ill Omen, isn’t one of those albums that just benefits from a proper listening environment – it demands one.” So…give it up!
“diSEMBOWELMENT left quite a mark with their one-and-only album, 1993’s brilliant Transcendence into the Peripheral, before disbanding later that year. In the ensuing decades since, many doom/death hybrids have come and gone and few have come close to attaining the lofty heights ascended by the sadly-missed Australians. So, when bassist (now guitarist) Matthew Skarajew and drummer Paul Mazziotta would regroup as d.USK in 2011 playing the old classics with new members, I was excited to check out a band that I missed after they had called it a day.” They’re back, but is it bowely enough?
“Tempest was one of those remarkable underground metal debuts which developed sufficient hype to breach the upper echelon of popular online publications despite its apparent lack of commercial appeal. The oppressive funeral doom, courtesy of the plucking, hitting and growling gents over at Lycus, was positively received by Pitchfork, Decibel and theneedledrop, ultimately garnering a Relapse record deal. Some of us didn’t quite get Lycus before. So did we get on the hype train yet or what?
“Once again, it’s that awesome moment when you’re given a band whose name isn’t exactly search engine-friendly. Joining the ranks of Voices, Satan, Hell, and Tomb of Finland, we have… Un. Not the easiest name to google for a band.” When naming sessions go awry.
