“Earlier this year, Sumac collaborated with the Japenese artist Keiji Haino. Haino’s abstract, free-form approach to music heavily influenced Love in Shadow. What you’ll find, when you open this Pandora’s post-metal box, is an hour of music split into four massive slabs. Structures, pre-rehearsed music is stitched together with passages of improvisation, recorded over five days in a single room, and carefully merged by Kurt Ballou. The goal: “Finding comfort in the negative spaces within each track’s borderland.”” Spaced jam.
Post-Metal
Potmos Hetoimos – Vox Medusae Review
“The typical pitfall of pseudo-experimental metal bands is their tendency towards buffoonish self-aggrandizement and the accompanying insistence on pompous philosophical themes. Often drawing inspiration from edgy, coincidentally anti-humanistic philosophies and providing a “thinking man’s take” on black metal, they immerse themselves in childish interpretations of nihilism and neoreactionary doctrines. The similarly arty and bombastically theatrical Potmos Hetoimos, the long-standing one-man progressive sludge project of Baltimorean Matt Matheson, is an antipode of such acts.” Humanistic is as humanism does.
The Crotals – Horde Review
“As Angry Metal Guy’s resident post-metal aficionado, I’ve been bombarded with more of the cresting-and-climaxing heavy stuff than a crab-walking man-cat can possibly handle. Epic-length songs featuring more build-ups than a pro-wrestling pay-per-view? Check. Thundering drums? Check. Cascading riffs and bass work that doesn’t teem with melody so much as it just levels you into (and sometimes through) the ground? Check and mate.” Post-Crotal glow.
Kraków – minus Review
“Once again the torch is passed. Madam X, bless her black, soulless heart, has declined the opportunity to talk to us about Kraków, a band whose last two albums she reviewed with wildly different results. So it falls to the Huckster, known for enjoying music just slightly askew, and also known to have a bit of a Neurosis hard-on, to take up the cause here and see if the latest from Bergen, Norway’s morose post-metallers is a success like Amaran, their last album, or disappointing like Diin, their sophomore effort.” Unleash the Kraków.
Ancestors – Suspended in Reflections Review
“Sometimes when bands have lengthy breaks between albums, it’s easy to forget them. Case in point: Ancestors, whom I had forgotten all about until Suspended in Reflections showed up in our August list. A quick dig through my music library showed me why the name was familiar: their 2012 album, In Dreams and Time, was one of my favorites of the year, a truly stellar piece of art that, had I been reviewing back in those days, would have been a front-runner for Record o’ the Month.” Respect your Ancestors.
Decline of the I – Escape Review
“Henri Laborit was a French neurobiologist who studied brain activities, including the brain patterns of rats when they’re met with undue aggression. In doing so, he developed chlorpromazine, a powerful antipsychotic used to treat severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, helping to change the tide of mental illness forever. However, due to being at odds with fellow researchers at the time, he felt that his recognitions were viewed as just a footnote compared to those of his peers, and he was said to have died a bitter man in 1995. France’s Decline of the I, led by main man and multi-instrumentalist A (Merrimack, Sektarism, The Order of Apollyon), formed to release a trilogy based on Laborit’s life and works.” Metal health.
Talons – We All Know Review
“Talons’ newest effort ending up here might seem like a mistake, or at least a con by a reviewer with a well-documented soft spot for math rock. The band don’t quite fit the cavities made for them; with idiosyncratic instrumentation and twice as many members as the usual English math-/post-rock outfit, they probably can’t even cram onto the stages used by their peers. At the same time, despite obvious heaviness and impressive technicality, the group seems to be largely ignored by metal lovers that might be better poised to appreciate a six-piece with two full-time fiddlers. We All Know might be the album to finally win us over.” Math rock is hard.
Spaceslug – Eye the Tide Review
“Okay, I’ve got a question: do stoner rock bands write and play high, or do they just cater to those in the world who like to listen to their music while drifting in a haze of smoke? I don’t know any bands of this particular style personally, so I can’t ask them. I do remember Keith Richards once saying, ‘Don’t play high until you can play sober.’ Or maybe it was Jaco Pastorius. Or Jimi Hendrix. Or Thelonius Monk. Or Charlie Parker. Augh, I don’t know! Regardless, it’s a question I have whenever I listen to a stoner metal album, and today’s entry from Polish band Spaceslug is no exception.” Space Slug, motherf_cker.
Khôrada – Salt Review
“It’s probably fair to say that Agalloch and Giant Squid went out with differing degrees of success on the recording front. Both issued their final albums in 2014, with Agalloch’s The Serpent and the Sphere garnering mixed opinions, while Giant Squid’s Minoans opus was a fine conceptual piece that stands among their stronger releases. With the dust settled on two stellar careers, can the ex-Agalloch collective of Don Anderson, Jason Walton and prolific drummer Aesop Dekker combine successfully with former Giant Squid and current Squalus frontman/guitarist Aaron Gregory?” Salve for loss or salt in the wound?
Mountaineer – Passages Review
“Passages follows last year’s debut, Sirens and Slumber, and Mountaineer themselves follow Secrets of the Sky, the former band of guitarist Clayton Bartholomew — a band that L. Saunders loved a few years ago. This all raised two questions: first, will I love Passages as much as L. Saunders loved Pathway two years ago, and second, will my streak of quality June releases come to a satisfying conclusion?” Hucky endings.