Merzbow

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.

Läjä Äijälä & Albert Witchfinder – Ordeal and Triumph Review

By Dear Hollow on March 10, 2023 in Reviews, Drone, Electronic, Noise, 57 comments

“Läjä Äijälä and Albert Witchfinder are both veterans to the Finnish music scene, the former best known for his time with punk band Terveet Kädet, while the latter is renowned as vocalist/bassist of Reverend Bizarre – although their collaboration has nothing to do with either. Like 2021 debut Centuries of Youth, Ordeal and Triumph offers three tracks and an hour of a polarizing blend of power electronics, industrial, analog noise, dark ambient, and spoken word.” Enter the Ordeal.

Misanthur – Ephemeris Review

By Dear Hollow on November 11, 2021 in Reviews, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Gothic Metal, Industrial Metal, Post-Metal, Progressive Metal, Shoegaze, 9 comments

“Misanthur was listed as “trance ambient noise” in the cold boundaries of the promo dump and just plain black metal on other sites. Truthfully, both are true. What this Polish duo offers is a hyper-atmospheric breed of black metal with heavy electronic and industrial flourishes, not unlike a blackened version of C R O W N’s latest, The End of All Things.” Kitchen sink-core.

Alexander – I Review

By Carcharodon on April 12, 2021 in Reviews, 27 comments

“Every now and again, even I stumble across an album that I struggle to overwrite and, in this case, that is because a terrible mistake was made. I picked up I, the debt by Canadian-German duo Alexander after spotting it, alone and unattended in the promo sump, sporting a funeral doom tag. Only it didn’t say funeral doom, it said funeral drone, something I realized only after the No Takesie Backsie policy had kicked in.” Strong policies, harsh consequences.

Ulveblod – Omnia Mors Aequat Review

By Dear Hollow on April 7, 2020 in 2020, Ambient, Black Metal, ConSouling Sounds, Drone, Dutch Metal, Industrial Metal, Noise, Reviews, Black Metal, Industrial Metal, Noise, 28 comments

“I wanted a black metal/noise hybrid. I figured it was the trvest style out there: the ultimate form of pitch-black atmosphere that could conjure abstractness and bleakness to new heights. While there have been plenty of artists that have tried, like Enbilulugugal, Gnaw Their Tongues, and Abruptum, success has been limited, so I wished upon a star for noisy black metal.” Cut off your noise to spite your face.

Dodenbezweerder – Vrees De Toorn Van De Wezens Verscholen Achter Majestueuze Vleugels Review

By Dear Hollow on March 23, 2020 in 2020, Ambient, Ambient Metal, Black Metal, Drone, Dutch Metal, Iron Bonehead Productions, Noise, Reviews, Black Metal, Noise, 18 comments

“For those of you acquainted with the Dutch black metal scene, this is another project from Maurice “Mories” de Jong, whose sadistic tendrils puppeteer acts like Gnaw Their Tongues, De Magia Veterum, and Obscuring Veil, to name only a few. He and an anonymous member released three demos and an EP in 2019 under the moniker Dodenbezweerder, which attempts to fuse the sprawl and evocation of ambient black with the edge and claustrophobia of raw black.” Noise as a weapon.

Catatonic Effigy – Putrid Tendency Review

By Roquentin on December 15, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Australian Metal, Avante Garde, Death Metal, Drone, Experimental Metal, Iluso Records, Noise, Post-metal, Reviews, Death Metal, Drone, Experimental Metal, Noise, Post-Metal, 25 comments

“Imagine, for a second, what could and would happen if musicians with backgrounds in free jazz, free improvisation, and modern composition became metalheads. What sort of music would they then make? Perhaps they would attempt a take on death metal, deconstructing the genre’s elements, perverting them, and piecing them back together into maddening soundscapes. A fantasy befitting of phase-shifted thinking and playing mechanisms. With their debut Putrid Tendency, Catatonic Effigy give flesh to this feverish reverie.” Choose the sound of the Destructor.

Boris with Merzbow – Gensho Review

By Roquentin on March 17, 2016 in Avante Garde, Doom Metal, Drone, Japanese Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Noise Metal, Shoegaze, 15 comments

“To write about Gensho, the latest in a 15 years long series of collaborations between illustrious Japanese experimental metal, rock, and everything in-between trio Boris and legendary noise musician Merzbow (alias Masami Akita), is to write about three different records: a Boris shoegaze-cum-drone meditation, a Merzbow harsh noise attack, and a mammothian combination of the two.” What’s with guys who like drone and writing run on sentences, anyway?