Obsidian Tongue

Maeskyyrn – Interlude Review

Maeskyyrn – Interlude Review

“I normally dislike interludes intensely – the recent, very good Tool album, for example, I recreated as a playlist minus the four interludes because they annoyed the crap out of me. So an album called Interlude, with three tracks actually titled “Interlude,” plus an “Introduction” and final track “The End,” put me somewhat on edge. Despite having really liked the advance tracks for Maeskyyrn’s Interlude, I was expecting to have to report that here is yet another really promising album ruined by bloat and plinky … well, interludes.” Interludes, man.

Obsidian Tongue – Volume III Review

Obsidian Tongue – Volume III Review

“It’s six years since this Maine duo dropped their sophomore effort, A Nest of Ravens in the Throat of Time, a time when we still linked to Myspace pages in reviews. How time flies! A Nest of Ravens was a great record, atmospheric black metal, sprawling, blisteringly heavy in places with folky elements too. Their debut, Volume I: Subradiant Architecture, wasn’t too shabby either. That Obsidian Tongue mainman and multi-instrumentalist Brendan Hayter did a brief stint in the much-missed Woods of Ypres and currently mans the bass for metal-infused folksters Thrawsunblat maybe gives some sense of where Obsidian Tongue are coming from.” Tongue on the third date.

Record(s) o’ the Month – July 2013

Record(s) o’ the Month – July 2013

For those of you unaware, July is always the slowest month for releases. This has to do with the fact that major labels basically shut down for the festival season, releasing live records and DVDs, but rarely new albums. In fact, I suspect that only shitty records get released during this period by most record labels; though that is entirely speculation. In any case, July tends to be a bit of a weak month and 2013 is a weak year, so that doesn’t say a lot for any possible Record o’ the Month right now. Still, that might be a bit misleading, as we had a few records that came out in July that were worth your time. One in particular blew away the competition…

Obsidian Tongue – A Nest of Ravens in the Throat of Time Review

Obsidian Tongue – A Nest of Ravens in the Throat of Time Review

“Say what you like about the U.S. black metal scene, they know how to make so much out of so little. The number of American bands taking black metal in its arguably most minimalistic form and taking it in much more ambitious directions with long and winding song structures is quite staggering. But when you consider the roots of the black metal scene in the US, and the opus that made arguably the biggest impact on it, it doesn’t seem so surprising that so many bands follow almost directly in the footsteps of Weakling’s widely acclaimed album, Dead as Dreams. Noctus traces the family tree of USBM and gives a little insight on how it influences the new opus from Obsidian Tongue. BTW, that name sounds like a fruity tropical drink that comes with a tiny umbrella.