Hessian - Bachelor of Black Arts (2014)

Had history gone a little differently, and the NWOBHM of the late 70s/early 80s was actually the New Wave of New England Heavy Metal, Hessian might have been one of the forerunner bands. A four piece Maine outfit, fully cognizant of the pure nostalgia they channel, stitching together elements of Diamond Head, Angel Witch, Thin Lizzy, Budgie, Rainbow, and Sabbath, with what is damn likely my favorite local record of 2014, at least that I've heard so far. Bachelor of Black Arts has struck on the StormSpell imprint kind of like a lightning bolt striking an airbrushed van, pimped out in scenes of psychedelic sorcery, diabolic congress, trafficking with the dead and the damned by candlelight. Raw heavy metal that evokes the scent of old denim, gasoline and cigarettes, the crush of old 70s concert billets underfoot and the urge to throw horns like horseshoes. This record feels so real that I was shocked the band members weren't at least in their 50s...

What's more, Hessian have the novelty of utilizing a male/female vocalist/guitarist duo who do their best to surpass their own limitations by laying those flaws bare, grafting together suave harmonies and rustic sincerity. They also don't shy away with a little 'narrative', like screams or gloomier male whispers that shadow Salli Wason's lines. The guitars cruise along with lo-fi, slightly filthed out rhythms in that old British tradition, primitive melodies glazing the shuffle and charge of classic, grainy radio rock riff progressions which shift seamlessly into leads; minimal enough that the vocals take charge and so noisy in execution that the album constantly feels like a rehearsal taping with little regard to polish or overproduction. The drums have that live hiss to the crashes, and box-like kicks and snares which sound like the kit cost $100 from a mail-in catalog in the 60s. You think I'm saying that like it's an insult but believe me: totally the opposite. The bass-lines bounce along haphazardly, following the general note placements of the guitars but curving off enough on their own to feel like they're not falling asleep at the wheel.

Every once in awhile Hessian will rattle out some really generic chord progression that has simply been played out so many times that it could have been cooked a little further, and that's a value issue, since it reeks of a lapse into laziness; but in general I think that, for a band so intent on touching its roots, and yours, they do a damn fine job of coming off as imaginative, and not just another soulless clone of the specter of the past. Like they want to take this style and really open it up, run with it, lace it with variation, color and spunk, which goes really nicely with lyrics rooted in fantasy, mysticism and cult horror. The acoustic folk/rock sequences are very well integrated amidst the dirty, thundering riffs to give the music a bit of a Coven feel, only they extend this outward into a more malign aesthetic than coming across like a troupe of hippy Mansonites that want to shoot acid while they shoot your live-ins with bullets...no, these are necromancers weaving a far more prolonged, tragic fate from you from their obsidian towers, and while Bachelor of Black Arts isn't quite a masterpiece of a debut, it's nonetheless magical. Saving throw failed, mother fuckers, this one got me good.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/hessianhighcommand?ref=ts

Black Chalice - Submission DEMO (2012)

I'm often at a loss as to what constitutes a demo recording or an 'official' album, especially in the metal underground, where the latter can often prove just as important or substantial as the former. In the case of the Submission demo by Black Chalice, it probably has something to do with the studio process and the original intentions for the material. This is actually a considerably longer work than the Obsidian album I covered, and recorded the year before. Strangely enough, it offers some of the added variation I felt could have strengthened that work, but at the same time it's a little less consistent overall, and there were a few points at which I felt myself nodding out. I guess this better deserves the brand of 'death/doom' than Obsidian, because the growls here reign supreme, and it definitely possesses a more mournful, crushing, funeral pall, but texturally I also felt it a little dryer, less saturated with the imagination of that album.

Submission opens with a four-minute instrumental constructed from clean, sad, scintillating guitars that eventually builds into a union of chords and single picked melodies, and then beyond that comes the really heavy stuff. There's still a combination of drudging, filthy chords and melodies, but the former feel a little more gratingly tuned, and the latter seem slightly less tethered to the bottom line. The drums are really underwhelming here, faint beats that barely support the huge, ugly riffs canvased above them, though they pick up steam in the bridge of "Regret" when they start hammering away. The guttural vocals take on a maudlin, almost monotonous drift as they would in many recordings of this field, and they don't really distinguish themselves as being particularly weighted or brutal. "Submission" itself features more clean guitars, and some of the submissive, clean vocals that are commonplace on Obsidian, but it also has a pretty weak transition and then picks up into what is basically an admixture of driving, older Katatonia-style guitars. I found "Cornea" more to my liking, though the rhythm guitar distortion seems to clip a little and nearly bust out of its own recording.

The last track, "Wain" seems to come from a separate recording session and has a more repressed quality about it. Melodic vocals, groovier riffs and a bass-heavy, Sabbath like substance to some of the riffing in the bridge. Perhaps an attempt to make inroads to a more antiquated style of doom metal, but it does seem a little out of place with the rest of the material, and sloppily constructed so that the riffs don't exactly flow into one another in a meaningful way. That said, I actually did enjoy the project of Patrick using his clean vocal style over this more psychedelic riffing aesthetic, I only wish he were louder. Lyric-wise, Submission was quite good as the other Black Chalice material, especially the song "Regret" where I really enjoyed the closing line: When will we be sorry? We will be sorry. Still very personal and deep, wrist-cutting and depressing, but perhaps a bit more image-laden. Ultimately, I think this was a work borne of experimental intentions more so than Obsidian, but some of the songs drudge on a little much without many ideas of note, and "Wain" just didn't fit for me. Not without a few moments, but I simply felt more rewarded by the experience of Obsidian.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10] (feeling the light burn out)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Chalice/394750917213235

Black Chalice - Obsidian (2012)

What hit me the hardest about Obsidian is just how abrupt the album begins, especially for a death/doom record. No lengthy, pretentious acoustic passages to kick off the experience, no treacherously slow build into the solemn and crushing riffs. This one just dumps a bucket of sorrow directly over your noggin through a miasma of churning, burly doom metal progressions, haunting and tonal clean vocals that hover below the loud swell of the chords, and a foundation of dreamy atmospherics that seem as if they could only been inspired by a dreary, overcast New England coastline. Or at least that's how I'll imagine it, since Black Chalice is the work of one Patrick A. Hasson of Maine, who some underground pundits might recognize from his black metal oriented projects Auspicium and Avulse.

But even more important, this album got me nostalgic for what must be my favorite doom metal epoch, the 90s, when the strong presence of the British scene was joined by an emergent Swedish wave of Gothic-tinted bands. For instance, some of the emboldened chord patterns here recall the first two Lake of Tears records, but then Patrick is constantly splaying out resonant melodies beneath them that remind me of Paradise Lost (circa Icon). Granted, this is marginally more solemn and funereal in disposition than those albums, to the point that it might even appeal to fans of stuff like Evoken, but this guy clearly dug out the roots of the genre and avoids the droning, endless excess that the style has often fallen into, even on the longer pieces "Heliocentric" and "Obsidian" that make up about 21 minutes of content between them. Some might balk at the stiffness of the drum programming, or the oft calamitous resonance of the production in general, but this tape is nothing if not consistently eloquent and oppressive in equal turns.

Naturally, he gives himself more space to explore in the wider tunes, like "Obsidian" where the drums drop to a sparse cadence, the drudging bass-lines rumble beneath a glaze of harmonies; or "Heliocentric" where he produces these warm, climactic fusions of the grainy rhythm guitars and melodies. But most of the material is based on the same, steady formula of dirty chords and drifting vocals. The singing is strangely subdued, and this might also prove a turnoff for those accustomed to the vocals being on top, but in reality this just gives them the substance of another instrument in the mix. He doesn't exclusively stick with this one style, capable of belting out the dirgelike gutturals most equate with the genre, but it certainly feels more drugged, numbing and ultimately unique. I did feel at times like the album might have benefited from further variation, perhaps some vocal-only passages or tempo shifts, but as it stands, four tracks in 33 minutes isn't quite enough to wear out its welcome by turning the same few tricks repeatedly.

All in all, a fairly unique style here that rewarded me with the escapism I seek of it. The lyrics are personal and cautionary as opposed to poetic and image-heavy; dealing largely with depression, alcoholism and the confines of the human condition, but at the same time their humble. Patrick isn't speaking to you through some pretentious haze of Gothic grandeur, but more on a person-to-person level, and it helps to ground the epic quality of the music, to 'reel it in' if you will. You know, I just had to make a fisherman joke because I'm an asshole, and because there's just something so contemplatively coastal about this...lighthouse doom...a walk on the rocks, breakers spraying your toes with cold, salty tears. Obsidian isn't perfection by any means, but it IS an experience, and there's not a lot more I could ask for in a niche of metal that I sometimes find to be the antithesis of compelling. Recommended for your next gray afternoon.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (I long to trace my veins)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Chalice/394750917213235

Bothildir - For What Once Was... (2006)

Bothildir is a project involving the drummer/vocalist Adroth, who also works in various other New England black metal projects like Shadar Logoth and the more recent, impressive Infera Bruo, but unlike those groups, this is music he has written, performed and recorded entirely on his own. To that extent, For What Once Was... does suffer from a few of the problems that plague a lot of one man, bedroom/basement black metal outings. The production has a few crippling obstacles, especially in the guitar tone, that I found difficult to hurdle, and the music itself doesn't feel quite as distinct as some of the later work he's involved with. That said, For What Once Was... is not entirely lacking in creativity; and considering this was an earlier manifestation of the man's talents, and not put out through a label or dealt a large budget, expectations should not run through the roof to begin with.

Bothildir was certainly going for a sound akin to those from the early through mid-90s classics circa Scandinavia, in particular you can hear some Immortal or Satyricon influence, maybe a dash of Burzum's evil tremolo picking. However, the synth tones he incorporates give the material a far more bombastic feel, something you'd expect more from the mug swilling pagan battle metal of a Bal-Sagoth, Equilibrium, Turisas, or perhaps even Summoning. Thus, the seriousness of the grimier riffs is in a charger like "Atrocities of Mankind" is counterbalanced by a more brazen, majestic, lighter tendency. There are a few pure orchestral/synthesizer pieces on the album, "The Misanthrope" and "Prelude: Beyond Majestic Mountains" which definitely have a bit of an earlier Nobuo Uematsu/Final Fantasy feel to their construction, and Ardroth experiments with a deeper, narrative clean tone on the title track, or a folksy Ulver like acoustic adjoined to creepy keys on the intro to "Dominion", one of the best moments of the album.

Hell, I think I even made out a Princess Mononoke sample (from the English dub) on that very song, and it featured one of the more hypnotic tremolo guitar progressions on the album in the verse. Another I enjoyed was "Entities of Putrid Cognizance", which has a dirtier, oblique mix to it but centers about these great, thrashing warlike guitars that weave well with the synthesizers that come in after a few measures. On the other hand, this song, and several others, certainly showcase one of the album's flaws: an inconsistent production between tracks that perhaps too overtly reveals an individuality that betrays the sum flow of the experience. Whether they were just recorded at different periods with different tones is understandable, but it lends the music a rather cobbled together feel. I also disliked the chugging guitar tone here, especially in the song "With Luciferian Pride" where it felt the most clunky grooving along, but really the mix of the guitars is lacking throughout.

Also, the decrepit rasping, while suited to the material, never really stood out to me, pretty average for the style and lacking of the venom and vitriol of its influences (Darkthrone, Satyricon and so forth). The overall impression I was left with was that, while I personally share a lot of Ardroth's tastes and inspirations, that the music itself never really broke the mold of so many others following this path. However, there are some strengths here which would be impossible to deny. The lyrics, at least those I've read for "Atrocities...", are decent and swollen with poignant imagery, if a bit haughty. Ardroth can write some pretty catchy, hypnotic guitar licks in what is generally a fairly stagnant niche ("Atrocities..." and "Dominion" in particular). The album also casts this palpable, balanced shadow of rustic scenery and glorious archaic warfare, so at the very least it succeeds in offering some escape to the listener, which is really the key.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (thundering crashes devoid of love)

http://www.myspace.com/bothildir

Falls of Rauros - The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood (2011)

Bindrune Recordings has become the de facto imprint for rustic and largely original sounds within the black and doom metal spectrums, from the more minimal and ritual (Blood of the Black Owl), to the Midwestern dalliances of Shroud of Despondency or Obsequiae; even spanning the ocean to the glorious traditional charge of British Wodensthrone. Falls of Rauros would not be the first time the label has visited the backwoods of New England, having released the full-length debut of New Hampshire's Cold Northern Vengeance a few years back. But they now expand this Northeastern grasp to the temperate mountains and forestry of beautiful Maine, with The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood, an effort appropriately nurtured into the North Appalachian climate and wilderness.

As this is a folk/black metal hybrid, acoustics play an important role, and to be truthful they also provide some of my favorite moments on the album. Brooding, lower ranged patterns are spiced up with sullen ambiance of the "Nonesuch River Chant" or the tempered grace of closer "The Cormorants Shiver on their Rocks", but they're also interspersed with longer pieces "Awaiting the Fire or Flood that Awakes It" or the primal river-flow of "Silence". These are fused with a powerfully produced wall of polished distortion and sailing, sorrowborn melodies that are at heart simple, but effective enough for the emotional needs of the listener; and a long, drawn vocal snarl that focuses on the quality of its internal pains rather than a quantity of syllabic throughput. The two centerpieces ("Banished", "Awaiting the Fire or Flood...") do suffer from a sense of bloat, but they're coherent enough and sequenced through enough mild shifts in tempo that one never becomes exceedingly bored when listening.

The album also sounds enormous, not hidden in the caverns or hollows of the landscape like a recluse, but straight in your face like a rush of autumn winds beating at the tree-line. There are numerous periods of errant despair contrasted with passionate swells, almost as if this record were an arboreal tide, a gray and green lattice of the Earth's sadness, wept out through the centuries of blood and loss. That said, I can't say that the metallic tracks here were exceedingly memorable or immersive enough that I'd continue to return to the album's coniferous eaves. I rather enjoyed the acoustics more than the distorted riffs, and though the vocals pulled their weight of lamentation, I felt that the writing (especially the longer tracks) was predictable and passable in spots. Nonetheless, this is still a decent record, obvious effort was expended in its creation, and fans of the Bindrune roster or the territorially opposite Cascadian black metal scene will find something rich and familiar here.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://fallsofrauros.blogspot.com/