Saturday, December 18, 2010

Moonreich – Loi Martiale (De Tenebrarum Principio 2011)


All I can say to start this off is the initial response from when I got this sucker yesterday and that’s simply put, “Holy Shit!!!!”

Melodic, cryptic, raw, belligerent, nihilistic, French black metal that is as classic in sound as it somehow fresh and exhilarating. There’s a definite sense of early Emperor, Immortal, But Aus Nord minus the symphonic/pagan elements in this shredding and buzzing skeleton that is the very cold black heart of black metal. You can even feel the saliva swishing in the gnarled teeth of the vicious vocals so expect an evocative and engaging experience with this one and a definite must have for old schoolers.

Official release date: 24January2011

http://www.myspace.com/moonreichmusic

Friday, December 17, 2010

Solitude Prodcutions Winter 2010 Releases featured below

Below are 4 reviews of some amazing stuff from this Russian label. The release dates are shown and the links for audio samples and artist contact:
http://www.myspace.com/solitudeprod
http://www.solitude-prod.com/

Who Dies in Siberian Slush – Bitterness of the Years that are Lost (30November2010 release)



This is the first official full-length of this Russian funeral doom band, and featuring a full line-up instead of the solo/one-man show that it has been previously. The best way to describe this one aside from the accurate album title is to say that it was a fitting soundtrack to the weird old Swedish movie “The Virgin Spring” , the one where the rich farmers daughter gets raped and beaten to death on her way to take the virgin candles to the church miles away and then the three brothers that did the deed wind up on the farm as lodgers, only to meet a violent death rather quickly when the parent figure out who they really are. Tragic and suspenseful is what this release is and yet another one for this genre that could easily be a one-note style but instead shows experimentation and variation with labels like this one scouring the Earth to find the unique sounds that it does. The sense of bitterness and struggle is strongly present and many can feel it with each epic track.

Septic Mind – The Beginning (30November2010 release)


3 very epic, mind-bending atmospheric funeral doom tracks by this Russian band that bring an all encompassing sensory experience to the listener. Each track is about 20 minutes in length and comes over you like a full-blown narrative, it’s really incredible!!!!! If this one doesn’t give you chills and thrills, then there’s something wrong with you!!!!

Helllight - …And then, the Light of Consciousness Became Hell (20December2010 release)


This one, a Brazillian death doom/funeral doom act stood out among others with the way it sounded like this majestic, Bathory (Nordland, Blood on Ice, Hammerheart) like mixture with amazingly haunting clean vocals that howl like a banshee on a blood moon night set against this really cryptic and cinematic funereal soundtrack. There’s something deeply pagan here as tracks like “Beneath the Light of the Moon” really bring in the feel of victory and tragedy. I’m a huge funeral doom fanatic but have to say that alongside Astral Sleep, I’ve never heard a band in that genre or any other exactly like this one to draw comparisons so expect melodic,epic, and devastatingly heavy funeral metal that will appeal to fans of black, death, pagan, epic metal and doom alike. I’m dead serious about the Bathory comparison!!!!!

A must hear for fans of: Bathory (Viking era), Atlantean Kodex, Astral Sleep, Evoken

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

DOTDR interview Finnish sludge/Doom act Horse Latitudes


I’m always up for finding the obscure and heavy and Finland seems to be an endless source of exactly that. I’m a HUGE fan of the Finnish avant-garde bands like: Anguished, Ride for Revenge, Skull Fuck, Irritate; and the crazy Dutch act Urfaust that fits in with these guys really well. Although not a black metal band, these guys are black and heavy like cooling molten lava drips and the sludgy black steaming textures seen after a volcano eruption is the perfect visual to go with this black sludge/doom metals sound. These guys found me and already with an impressive demo that created some demand they now have a full length that is really incredible as well. Definitely check out the links toward the end of the interview to sample this stuff.


DOTDR: You guys are about to release your first full length, Gathering, in October and has some success with your demo selling out already this year, so tell us about Horse Latitudes?

Horse Latitudes: Horse Latitudes are a Finnish three piece regressive doom band, Heidi and Vellu on basses, Harri on drums and vocals.

DOTDR: You guys have been receiving a lot of praise in the underground, how long have you been active and how did HL come into being?

Horse Latitudes: Horse Latitudes came together in the summer 2009, when Vellu and Heidi came with an idea of a band together. Both played and wanted to play bass so the first idea was to make some serious low end stuff. To do riff (and why not also drone) based music with a minimal set of instruments. After a one jam session together Heidi had an idea of Harri playing drums. Harri, who had been playing guitar and singing in a few different kind of bands and projects, had been playing drums for about half a year in a thrashpunk band and had just become very interested in different kinds of slow, doomy and sludgy stuff, so he was delighted to be a part of the band.

First half a year was just diving into the different variations and possibilities these instruments provided and as the collective view of the band became more and more focused, the songs started to exude from our minds. First it was mostly instrumental stuff, but soon the lyrical dimension rose and became an important part of our music too.

We did our first gig in December 2009, and the demo was recorded from that starting point: the same three songs we played live with the addition of the final track “Healing Stones”, which is more like a primitive improvisation than a song. We made two little pressings (overall 150 copies) of the demo and during springtime, as we started to work on new material for the album that was planned with Aurora Borealis Records, we decided not to make any further pressings of the demo.

DOTDR: I’m partially biased as a bass player myself, but I really love the fact that you guys consist of two bassists and a drummer and feel that it really adds a uniqueness to your sound, not to forget the extra heaviness in the riffs.

Horse Latitudes: Like said above, it was the whole point of the band right from the beginning: reducing the number of different kinds of instruments while at the same time as concentrating on the essentials; crushing riffs and primitive vibration with the powerful beat.

It’s actually pretty hard to balance two instruments that deal in the low end of the sonic spectrum so that both are audible and recognizable from one another. While the basic configuration stays the same, our sound is constantly evolving. The quest for the perfect sound, or brown note if you will, continues..

DOTDR: Your sound is somewhere between epic sludge and classic doom, but it’s also really hard to make direct comparisons to anything specific. What did you guys aim for in sound? The classic doom styled vocals really add something special to the delivery in your tracks and might be enough to persuade stubborn folks who prefer pure doom over the stoner/sludge varieties.

Horse Latitudes: From the early point it was also clear that the vocals will be presenting the lyrical, somehow subtle, side of the music. If the instrumentations were adjusted to the most primitive and earthly oscillation, then the vocals alongside the lyrics are to reach for the symbolic side of being, making the connection and forming the relation between the rumbling cosmos and the shivering self. Reaching for the understanding, maybe. But of course, sometimes the vocals regress too and just combine to the droning base, fusing with the core of it all, but that’s all more or less necessary from this basis!

Our somewhat different musical backgrounds also helped shape our sound; while the punk influences may not be evident in compositions all the time, they’re definitely part of the overall aesthetics and work ethic. Even with our full length album, we strived for a live feel to the sound. The traditional doom elements are also a very natural part of our sound.

DOTDR: I honestly was leveled with shock when I first heard Gathering, it was classic but also fresh and just mature in sound and composition, so in closing is there anything else you’d like to say?

Horse Latitudes: Thanks for the support!


Band Contact/audio samples:
http://horselatitudes.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/horselatitudesmetal

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Evil Amidst - – Lords of the Nine (Self-Release 2010)



Honestly, this one just set me on fire from the first track…this is pure old school blackened death metal brutality and a bit of a Florida metal supergroup as well. Featuring: Xaphan (Kult of Azazel), Gio Gerace (Malevolent Creation, Upon Infliction, Wykked Wytch), Sean Tibbetts (Kamelot),Gus Rios (Malevolent Creation, Upon Infliction, Ressurection) and Lenny Wambrandt (Hate Plow); it’s no surpise that this beast shreds like it does and incinerates all matter within seconds from its heat of fury. This is yet another underground essential so fans of all of the bands mentioned above will HAVE to have this one. Seriously wicked old school talent that seeps from those old festering wounds like the vile indestructible puss that is black death metal!!!!!

Support the underground and revel in the strength of its bands like this one!!!!!
Band info/audio samples/contact:
http://www.myspace.com/evilamidstofficial
http://www.reverbnation.com/evilamidst

Toxaemia – Buried to Rise (Dark Descent Records 2010


Consider this your last nail in the coffin for 2010 and what better way to finish this corpse off than with the entire re-issue of all of one of the original Swedish Death metal scenes important bands. Consisting of demos, an EP and the full length Kaleidoscopic Lunacy, consider this one another completed chapter of must have death metal history worth digging up to throw yet another vulgar mass of noise on these so called holy days and also give the glory days another spin around!!!! Brutal, throbbing, crushing, and gutteral…Toxaemia will rot out your innards!!!!

Street date: December 15, 2010

A must have for old school death metal heads (Entombed, Obituary, Malevolent Creation, Immolation,etc.).