“Another day, another album called Loss. While some crews take up this tragic mantle with sobriety and melody, Osiah’s content pummeling you with big “djunz” time and I guess the “loss” is, like, a loss of goddamn peace and quiet. This is a band I inherited from the Spongey One who simply didn’t have the time to devote to deathcore. Shocker, I know.” Identity loss.
“I have history with Devil Sold His Soul, but not all of it good, especially when we parted on poor terms: I got fed up with Empire of Light’s excessive vocals and didn’t give EP Belong ╪ Betray a fair chance. Loss, the first release in seven years, hits differently: it chronicles seven years of grief and personal loss from its creators. Is it the labor of love it was intended to be?” Devil in the details.
“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.
“And with a mighty cold flourish, twenty-seventeen makes her exit! While it’s not been a bad year by any means, it has been a more demanding year than I expected, with fewer opportunity for music listening and writing. Regulars to AMG may have noticed, going back a few months now, that I’ve pretty much been absent from the Reviews section of the site.” Come back or your creepy doll collection meets Mr. Shreddy.
The mob wanted lists, and lists they were given. It was the best of times. It was the blurst of times.
“Winter is coming, and not just in Westeros. As the days grow shorter and the coats grow thicker, a somber feeling draws across us all, blanketing anticipatory holiday cheer. Seasonal Affective Disorder (with its hilarious acronym SAD) strikes its yearly blow, and the call of morose doom metal like Hallatar and Loss is stronger than ever. But frankly, in this melancholic time of the year, it’s nice to have a band around who don’t give a flying iota about the dark short days ahead. The Atomic Bitchwax is that band in body, mind and spirit.” Screw your winter!
“There’s an olde Klingon proverb to the effect that Record(s) o’ the Month posts are best served late (and with cheap beer, but we’re on a budget). As we at AMG have a healthy collective respect for Klingon traditions, we do what we can to live up to their br00tal warrior code. May was exceptional for metal releases and there were a bunch of top-flight albums vying for monthly lordship. And as usual, the fractious staff did not see eye-to-eye on who should reign supreme.” Dochvetlh vIneH!
“It’s been said that “when the gods want to punish you, they answer your prayers.” I first came upon Loss and their brand of unrelenting funeral death-doom back in 2011 when Steel matched wits against the almighty Despond. Prior to this, I’d never been exposed to anything that sounded so grudgingly drawn out or so full of crushing personal failure. It mesmerized me! Not the funeral doom genre itself, but rather the arresting approach specifically promulgated by Loss. It’s been six years since Despond, and lo and behold, Loss are gifting us with a new experience aptly titled Horizonless.” Feel the pain of Loss.
“Here’s something to think about… If Darkthrone’s Transilvanian Hunger released today, would it make the same impression it made back in 1994? More importantly, would it get the same reception nowadays that it got in the past?” No chance.
“From Vardan to Valdur, the jump doesn’t seem huge from a naming perspective, but in terms of what the two bands offer, the chasm couldn’t be wider. Hailing from a small mountain town in the beating heart of the Sierra Mountains where the Death Valley desert meets Mt. Whitney, Valdur drew its first rattling breath back in 2005 with a short independently released demo. What I can tell you is that if you go all fanboy over Bathory’s The Return… then Pathetic Scum could be the return you’ve been waiting for.” American Bathory? That sounds like a great movie title.
