Mother Country Music Loving, Part four.

This will be my fourth(duh!) part of writing about bands from Iceland. If you'd like to catch up here is Number One, Number Two and Number Three.

Ask The Slave, 2010

Ask the Slave, is an Avant-Garde metal band. I first heard of them and heard them when I attended Eistnaflug in 2008. The little I do remember from my alcohol induced haze was that I really enjoyed their music. Someone had remarked that they were the Icelandic version of Faith No More, I personally after listening to them would say that they are more akin to Mr. Bungle. There are a lot of genre lumped together into one song, lots of rhythms shifts and melody changes, but most of those don't sound out of place or forced. Valurs vocal does sound like he went to the Mike Patton school of Vocal Tormenting. He's easily the most versatile singer to come from Iceland. But everything he does regarding the singing is for the betterment of the song. Which is the wonderful thing about this band, while Valur could/would/should be the stand-out member, but he isn't. They all function like a well oiled machine, if one of the other instruments would be taken of the songs it would fall to pieces. So far there are two albums, "Kiss Your Chora" and  "The Order of Things" out and one B-Side collection called "The King of Prunes", with a new LP, called "Good People, Bad Things" which is meant to be out next year. And yes I am looking forward to it. They also make some excellent music video's for example the song "Sleep Now" which sounds like a lovely ballad up until you watch the video and realise how creepy it actually is. It is one of those instances where the video makes a good song great.
Both their albums while being all over the place manage to suck you in and keep your interest throughout. And I personally am looking forward to the day when they open up for Mr. Bungle and Mike Patton walks on the stage then drops the mike stating he can't keep up.

Dr. Spock

Dr Spock, is a very unusual rock. Again we are looking at the Avant-Garde section of things. Most of all it is plain and simple good fun rock and roll or in their own words "Heavy Metal Cabaret with a dash of Surf-Porn Cartoon Funky Polka". By all accounts their concerts are once in a lifetime experience. Which doesn't really surprise me, in their ranks they've got the gruff voice from HAM, who continues barking orders and sounding like he's cursing the entire world. In the most jovial manner of course. It is very chaotic music that is on display, but at the same time even with my rather low-fi laptop speakers I feel like dancing like a mad cow and thrash my living room, the song "Sons of Ecuador" being the perfect example of this manic musical genius that is going on. But as far as I can see nothing new has appeared since 2008, which is a crying shame. But even with a short life they've left a long lasting legacy and much like HAM their reputation seems to be growing with their absence. And if only they had actually got into Eurovision with their song. It would have been perfect. But Ottar Proppee finally did manage to perform on the big stage in 2014.

Börn

Börn, now there is a certain amount of nepotism going on here in the sense that I probably wouldn't have given this band a chance if it didn't include family members. But to be clear I don't write blogs  about a band that I don't like. It just so happens that this band includes my youngest sister on vocals and her boyfriend on the drums. They have been playing together in various forms of punk bands. The earliest incarnation that I know of was Tentacles of Doom, which then got changed into Norn, but they had to reconsider their name choices when it turned out that there is a black metal band in Iceland using the same name. So here we've ended up with Börn. And unfortunately I giggle probably way more then I should when I type in the url of their BandCamp site. On the whole I'm not a big fan of the punk scene. Never have been though of course like other genre's there are always bands that manage to captivate my attention. Börn being one of them. What this album reminds me mostly of are the first two albums by Killing Joke. There is this almost joyous tribalism running throughout this smog of despair. It all sounds exceptionally simple, all the instruments seem to be geared towards being rhythmic and, well, dancable. Alexandra barks out her lyrics with pure unbristled ferocious commanding singing, all about self-reliance, equality and independence. On this album she sounds like she could and should command armies. It would be great to see them and It Hurts To Be Dead play at the same gig.

The Lone Rangers

I was going to write another Usual Locations article, which I decided to change as I started noticing that all of them essentially were one-man projects. So with a quick rewrite it has become the Lone Rangers. There are a lot of articles about one man bands bandying about, mainly centred on Black Metal. An interesting documentary has been made exploring the idea of one man black metal projects. One WikiHow you can also get a guide on how to start your own Lone Ranger. The great thing about one man bands from the the one man's perspective is that it gives them a complete control, but the problem for the listener, often not always, is that the instrumentalists rely an awful lot on drum machines and synths, both that can be used for extremely good effect and can be done really really well, but more often then not it comes across as half-hearted shit that should have stayed in the mix longer. My personal favourite would be Thy Catafalque who I've written about previously, though I'm not too sure on it's One Man stand, even if it is Tamas Katai's brainchild. Well here is a choice selection of one man projects of varying quality, mainly from Very Good to Great.

Ars Moriendi
La Singuliere Noirceur D'un Astre

First in line is a French one man band called Ars Moriendi. In the recent years there seems to have been a bit of an explosion of good quality metal bands coming from France. Gojira, Hacride and Alcest being probably the top of the pile. Though I should probably also mention Grorr and Psygnosis who are very interesting to listen to. Ars Moriendi is manned by a multi-instrumentalist named Notre Amertume. Though whether that's his real name I have no idea. He's been steadily releasing albums since 2001. But the only album I have heard is 'La Singuliere Noirceur d'un Astre', The music on show here could be defined broadly as Black Metal. It is very experimental in nature, symphonic and atmospheric, with horror movie samples used as start. There is a fair bit of ambience used that could at first be construed to be just some padding in order to make the songs sound longer. So far I am very impressed with the instrumentation, a lot of thought has gone into what goes where, even the synths don't sound out of place and provide the necessary symphonic oomph the he needs. There is a lot of buzzsaw guitars on display, but that is then punctuated with some classic metal guitars and bookended with acoustic guitars as well. His singing veers from screeching, gutturals and whispers. All in French. The language of love is not on display or at least it is not showing it's intimate side here. It's all rough and edges, with side drip of evil going on. This is pretty much how I imagine Vincent Cassel if he was bathed in blood of thousand virgins screaming for the devil to forsake him while covering songs by early Enslaved. He isn't breaking any new ground here, but it all does sound good if some times a little generic in black metal terms, though the breakdown that happens in De l'intouchable Mort is pretty nifty. The bass playing on here is really something else to listen to, it's not often you get to hear such clear bass playing in Black Metal. None of the songs go below the 8 minute mark so there is quite a bit to digest, but all in all pretty good. I'll happily put this on and enjoy the screaming of French Horror.

Wulf

Neurotech hails from Slovenia. I knew Slovenia existed, but as far as I'm aware I had never heard any music from there let alone metal music. I was introduced to this by Blacksmith Biologist and boy am I grateful. Lately I had been listening to a lot of Samael, who play a sort of symphonic techno metal with lots of rather uplifting lyrics to boot. The focus is on synths with programmed drums and rough baritone singing with droning guitars. The only thing that Neurotech doesn't do, as much, is the uplifting bit. The music would be very fitting for a cyberpunk apocalyptic Mad Max style future. Neurotech is one guy, who likes to be called Wulf but his real name is Andrej Vovk. Well that's at least according to the Holy Book of Armaments. To be honest there is a lot more symphonic elements going on here then Samael have tried to incorporate. Being the clever dick that I am, I decided to listen to the albums chronologically, which has really paid off. The earlier albums like Transhuman and  Antagonist  have a lot more rawness to them, though maybe raw isn't the best description. But at the same time there is a certain clinical coldness to them.  Antagonist is probably a bit more party-oriented which makes the similarities to Samael even more evident. Whereas Blue Screen Planet and The Elysian Symphony seem more, well, sophisticated. There is a lot of symphonic elements at play in those two and so far they've become my favourite of his work.

Dommedagssalme. Now I'll have to admit to having close connections with this project. No it is not mine. He is the godfather to my youngest child. His name is John Marshall and he has been involved in the black metal scene, albeit very very very underground, for quite some time. First being part of a duo called Circumscriber, which then morphed into Contra Ignem Fatuum, but since 2004 he's been releasing on a infrequently periodically basis as Dommedagssalme. The music itself has been described as Depressive Black Metal, a title that John doesn't agree with. Though I can see why people want to label it as Depressive. It is all very hard listen. But not without rewards. There is a lot of distortion going on, it's bloody hard to understand what the hell he's singing about, the drums are droning, the keyboards provide a constant ambience, there is so much fuzz and buzz on the guitars it's like a chainsaw going through a ever multiplying featherfilled pillows. But, you (well me that is) feel a certain cathartic feeling when the songs are over. I personally always feel like there's a load that's been lifted off my shoulders and I somehow feel happier about the world. The vocals sound like they are sung from the fifth circle of hell. The one item that is possibly missing are interludes with the sound of footsteps in snow. The last album came out in 2012 and was called Division which only contains two songs. Those two songs are to be fair over 20 minutes long each. But his confidence in songwriting and all around maturity is best on show on that one. There is more going on, more breaths being taken with some interludes between fuzzfilled riffs. There are more technicalities on show, the vocals are slightly more audible yet still incomprehensible. The production is really rather good as well. Most of the time, this wouldn't be my cup of tea (I tend to drink coffee), but I had to listen to his work and I am glad that I have. It still isn't my cup of tea, but I can certainly appreciate John's work without it I probably wouldn't feel as relaxed.

Usual Locations Part Two: Xanthochroid

Xanthochroid are a band who, according to the Holy Book of Armaments, have been around since 2005 but somehow managed to go without publishing a full album until last year. What they had been up to form inception to THAT album seems to have consisted of rehearsing a lot. Because their debut album does not sound like a debut album. On any level. For those who've been hungry of full blown epic orchestral Black Metal (that does not involve Dani Filth) since Emperor should have their thirst and hunger quenched and satisfied with this album. So far they've done one demo, one EP and one LP. I haven't heard the demo, though I would love to, but the EP is classy as classiful classy thing. But the album, have I mentioned already how effing good the album is? No, and did I mentioned that it's called Blessed He With Boils, because it is.

I first came across these guys when I was just browsing through a dark port filled with filth and metal bands where I have no business being at. To be honest I just noticed "USA" and "EPIC BLACK METAL", those together would usually put me off. I'm not a huge fan of black metal let alone EPIC BLACK METAL. But the cover I have to say was really really nice. Real piece of art. Most of the time black metal tends to be wrapped around frost and tundras, but these guys decided to go for swamps and bog.

So I thought I'd check them out and all the reviews I read were positive. Very positive indeed. So I thought I'd just listen. And it just absolutely blew me away. Musically it is great, but it wasn't just that. It was the scope they were going for and the grandeur! Both of which they achieved on a level that I had not really heard of since Emperor's Prometheus. What did or didn't help was how similar Ihsahns and Sam Meadors vocals are. Especially when he goes full In The Nightside Eclipse style. Musically they draw inspiration from Opeth, Emperor and Cradle of Filth. They take plenty of story telling tips(without the voice-over) from Bal-Sagoth. On their Bandcamp site they wrote:

We spent nearly a year in the studio; writing, recording, re-writing, re-recording every element of this album.
Not to mention the many years before that we spent writing the actual material; making sure every note served its purpose, every line complemented its counterpart, and every lyric fit properly with our story, because we wanted to create something special.

Well the plan worked. They definitely delivered on their promise because this is a tight package of evil black nuances that few bands are able to do. The ability of going from sombre acoustic to blistering blast beat black metal without losing momentum is just phenomenal. Yes there are moments which feel like they are slightly overstepping their talent boundaries but every time that happens they pull it off, with gusto and without too much pretense.

It starts of with an orchestral intro piece dramatically named Aquatic Deathgate Existence that leads nicely into a full blown orchestral black metal title song. Into a nice melancholic ballad called Winter's End. Followed by the riff fest of Long Live Our Lifeless King. Oh just listen to the whole album, it is worth it if you like your black metal and you miss the times when Dimmu Burger did good albums.



This is one of the best concept albums I've had the pleasure of listening to. One with one of the most coherent story, with a HUGE background as well. You can easily hear that as well in that they use the same common musical thread on the entire album. In between they also use a choir to narrate the story, as well as bringing some welcome relief from the constant onslaught of brick-wall black metal. There is easily enough ideas and themes here that could be separated for 3-4 further albums. Sam Meadors vocals provide an excellent focal point for (what could have so easily been nothing but chaos) the listener. When he's not shrieking like a drunken banshee, he croons like nobodies business. The way he manages to switch from croaking to clean, un-vilified singing is mesmerizing. If he ever jacked in metal and wanted to go solo with some un-adultered rock, I think he would be able to make a handsome living. Of course the drummer not only provides the rhythm grounding for all this potential chaos he also mixed and produced this phenomenal piece of work. He manages to keep the music sounding huge and crisp, without it being sterile.

Now. I have not mentioned the EP, Incultus, that came out before. I wish I had come across it before the LP, but ah well it can't be helped now. Apparently the story and the world they created with the story is first set out here. It is here were we are first introduced to the brothers Thanos and Ereptor in the world Etymos. Their struggle against each other and eventual betrayal. What is interesting to hear on this album are the plethora of guest vocalists that sort of flesh out the story a bit better then they do on Blessed He With Boils. Natacha Nielsen did the album cover on here as well and it is again a album cover of desolate beauty. It sets the scene of what to expect really well and if I had been browsing through HMV (RIP) I would have bought both purely on the strength of the album covers. The music is definitely rawer on here and there's more done with black metal riffs, less orchestral work and the use of cookie monster growls also adds an extra effect. In a good way. 


The talent pool that is floating in this band has extremely deep and I'm quite happy to float in it when my headphones are attached.

Unusual Locations... Part Deux.

Well this is the second part of this series. This is where I talk about bands from what could be called unusual locations, but that quite frankly isn't enough though as they have to be good as well. Being novel is one thing, being good is something completely different.






The first project/band (and the inspiration for making this sequel blog) that I want to talk about comes from a tiny island that I had to look up, as I was sure that the last time I heard it's name mentioned was in a fantasy book. But no, there it is. Tiny teeny weeny island, the size of a walnut. The island is Aruba, and the project is The Isle Project. Apparently this is just one guy with his guitar, keyboard and computer. For anyone who's listened to say Animals As Leaders will recognise the style. The album is entirely instrumental with lots of effects being used, guitar pedals galore, synthesizers and computer magic on display. There is a lot of Tosin Abasi worship going on here, the good thing being it's not a straight of rip-off but a rather well played tribute. The album New Perspective is also sounds like it could have been used for a First Person Shooter, or possibly a Real Time Strategy a la original Command & Conquer. It is safe to say that this album has made a big enough impression on me to look forward to the next one.

Now with a country that has 1.2 billion people that there would be more famous bands springing out, but no the most famous musician that I'm aware of from India is Ravi Shankar. And he was dull. Way dull. But these next two acts are not. While they do both come under the Metal Genre, they are as different metal bands as you can get.

Bhayanak Maut have been playing and entertaining the Indian masses for 10 years. The first time I came across them was on one of Metal Hammers excellent Global Metal compilations, I'm going to have to dig up that album again because there were some excellent bands on show there. Apparently they started out as a sort of a joke band, which quickly, evolved into a working band with a joke to play. Not only that but a really good working band with their tongue firmly in their cheek. The name translates as "Terrible Death". Currently, at least according to themselves, they are the biggest metal band in India. If there is anything I could describe them as Groove Metal with Metalcore vocals. Which usually is  a bad thing in my books, but these guys to seem to pull it off. They've only released one full album but on the flip side they've done 3 EP's, my personal favourite being Malignant. I would love to see these guys in a live setting, as I can imagine it being a sweaty, neck breaking session of fun, filth and frolics.

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The second band from India that I want to mention is Amogh Symphony. Lets get this straight right now. It's not a symphony. It's not even close to being a symphony, but if the dude who runs it ever decided to make a symphony I'd buy a ticket the minute he announces it. Now according to the Holy Book of Armaments, this band is classified as Progressive Death Metal. Which well, I do suppose could be true, but without the vocals it's pretty hard to classify it as such. But instrumentally Vishal owes a lot to Cynic and Atheist, in the sense that there's quite a bit of jazzy elements that both of those bands love to incorporate in their act but first and foremost there's the prog. The first album 'Abolishing The Obsolete System' is very much a solo project as it's just him with his guitars and a computer, no vocals. He does use some synthesized vocals that probably came with whatever music program he mixed it in. (I do wish I had at least a 1/10 of his guitar playing talent.) There's flamenco playing, some BollyPop with occasional orchestral touches. With the second album, 'The Quantum Hack Code',  he managed to hire a drummer that could keep up with him. And generally uses the same tricks as the first album, that is not to say that he's repeating himself. Dear Gods no, just that he consolidates what he did in the first album and adds more extravagant flourishes.  The Quanttam Hack Code is meant to be a concept album with interludes in between telling a story on how humankind is about to be annihilated in the far far away future. I sort of imagine that this album would be great as a soundtrack to System Shock 2. 

Picture South-Africa... lions roaming the savannahs, sun, sand, beaches, Morgan  Freeman as Nelson Mandela... so when you come across bands from this sun-ripened country that not only play metal, but metal of the variety that is more associated with ice, frost-bitten desolation, grimness and hypothermia. Not just one, but two! That's right. Two Black Metal bands. From South Africa. First up Warthane, they hail from a town called Alberton, but have since emigrated to Sweden. Though I would have thought that Norway would have been a better fit, but what hey. They've been around since 2004 and so far published 1 EP and 2 full albums. The only album I've heard is called Black Divine which came out in 2011, and it on show there is plenty of desperate black metal going on with what can only be said thrash riffs thrown in and death metal vocals. Straight from the get go you have a song that represents everything that they want to accomplish, buzzsaw guitars, blastbeats, shrieking, with the occasional operatic female singer piping in whenever the song calls for beauty. There's the iddly widdly guitar solo's. The barks. The fast drums. Yes, if I had to have a guess I would have said that these guys used to live next to Ihsahn and grew up with Varg.

Sean Gouws does have some great singing/guitar playing chops and I do hope that this is not the last we hear from him or Warthane. Don't get me wrong, it would be easy to dismiss these guys as gimmicks on the basis of the genre and where they come from, but that would foolish at best, stupid at worst. While people who don't like Black Metal already won't find anything to enjoy on here, those who already spent their minds eye and ears wallowing around tundras in animal skins will find plenty to enjoy.

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Then we have Crow Black Sky. And they hail from Cape Town. Though they do come under the umbrella term of Black Metal, they are a completely different beast from Warthane. Crow Black Sky manage to invoke the sounds of Emperor, Dimmu Borgir and early Cradle of Filth very easily. Specially the latter two. Crow Black Sky have got this expansive sound going on with orchestral flourishes here and there, piano being exuberantly and expertly played, emotions building up and up and then crumbling down. There's even an instrumental power ballad! And for a debut album they've really gone all out on their sound. The sound that they also bring across is quite nautical in nature. The singer doesn't stray much from the black metal croaking. Then there's this Danish Blue Cheese-fest of a music video, that uses all the hallmarks of Black Metal Manowar, and I love it for exactly those reasons. For a self produced and a completely DIY project this has the hallmarks of professionally done album. It will be interesting to see what they will do next.

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