Xasthur - Portal of Sorrow (2010)

It was probably inevitable that a musician so disenchanted with the status quo, so at odds with the living as Malefic (Scott Conner) would choose a finite period in which to vent his opaque nightmares to the audio obsessed, and thus the fact that he has stamped Portal of Sorrow as the final Xasthur full-length of that particular entity was not a surprise. Judging from the general quality of his prior efforts, which ranged from sobering and curious to downright suicidally indulgent, I could only have hoped that this belabored swan song would channel the same hazy, wondrous specters as prior issues. Sadly, this is not the case, and despite its variation and interesting atmospheric motifs, Portal of Sorrow is perhaps the least engrossing of his albums, though the 14 tracks do conceal a few priority gems.

The sultry, sickening despair is inaugurated with the roiling clean guitars of the instrumental title track, flecked with twisted ambiance and funeral organs that provide an early burial for this once prolific cellar dweller. "Broken Glass Christening" cycles back to familiar territory, the ghostlike strains of disgusting, repressed black metal painted with Malefic's tortured screaming, low piano keys central in the mix while ethereal, feminine choirs half-haunt the landscape. "Shrine of Failure" continues the grim portrait with aimless shredded guitars over echoing spoken words and coiled dissonance, and while this is sort of piece is not a great distance from his major works like the stunning All Reflections Drained, it just lacks anything truly gripping. The female vocals return for "Stream of Subconsciousness", one of the album's most accessible pieces, and it works rather well with the sad guitar lines and mumble jumbled vitriol in the background, proving that not all hope is lost as we mine deeper into the wealth of tracks.

"Karma/Death" is another winner, a fibrous, writhing serpent of fuzzy melodic glaze, and I also enjoyed the more ambient driven "Horizon of Plastic Caskets", or the funeral black doom of "This Abyss Holds the Mirror" with its more guttural vocal qualities, but there are a number of forgettable shorter instrumental segments like "Mesmerized by Misery" or the lush but empty tranquility of "Mourning Tomorrow" that serve to break the woeful climate. Of the later tracks, "Released from This Earth" is notable for the scarce balance of the pianos, eerie female vocals and thick, oozing bass, "The Darkest Light" being a very familiar approach for Xasthur that could be found on a number of the albums, but in all there seems an inconsistency, a disconnect to the usual disconnect which makes Conner's albums so engrossing.

There are plenty who won't bat an eyelid at the disappearance of this project, as Conner has long suffered and thrived in a love/hate relationship with black metal fans of all edicts, but I feel like he's made the right decision. Personally, I've slowly developed a fondness for a number of the Xasthur works, but I'm not sure where else there would be to go for this particular entity, and I can hear in Portal of Sorrow exactly why Malefic has become so disenchanted with this path. This is not the worst of albums to leave us on, and to be accurate it's got most of the oppressive characteristics common to his releases, but it just doesn't feel quite so dark. It's almost as if the album itself were exhausted, just trying to sluggishly gesture itself through an hour's playtime, and I never felt as lost in labyrinthine caverns of regret as I did in past years listening through his music. That's not to imply this is 'happy', because it is truly not, but I turn towards this man's music to feel drugged, shaken and truly fucked, not drugged, vapid dulled, and Portal of Sorrow is just too often guilty of the latter.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://xasthur.mercurous.net/

Xasthur & Striborg - Split EP (2007)

As hard as I might try, I can think of no two other artists within the bleak, black metal underground that could possibly complement one another like the impressive, depressionist Xasthur and the lord of forgotten trails across the Aussie nightscape Striborg. Thus, their limited edition vinyl split EP from 2007 is no mere eventuality, but a clash of the titans of obscura, each performing a track exclusive to the 1000 copies that will not disappoint those who have come to appreciate their impenetrable grimness. Neither of these artists is even bordering on the accessible, nor do they perform any of the more technical minded black metal that some would demand, instead relying on their innate abilities to channel the very core of darkness into their simple and atmospheric compositions.

Xasthur's piece is entitled "A Tortured Shallow Grave" and runs over 6 minutes, with charnel, gritty guitars that clang and wallop their haunted effigies below the simmering of synthesized flutes and organs. If ever you sought a soundtrack to an overcast, cold morning on which you sat upon a moor and daydreamed the ghosts of dead, muted lovers rising up to stare you into oblivion, I can think of nothing else I would so quickly recommend than Malefic's horrifying rasps morphed into this tapestry of guilt. Striborg's "The Epitome of Misanthropy" buzzes out of the speakers like a hellish wasp factory, conceived through absolutely disgusting vocals that feel as much feedback as actual pronunciation, and sloppy shifts in tempo that half endear me to its woes, and half threaten to drive me up the nearest wall. Still, the song (also over 6 minutes) picks up some good atmosphere within, as melodic undertones surge below the entropic wailing and somewhere, somehow, glory erupts within the turbulent deaths, a black promise.

You've got to struggle with the Striborg track a little more than Xasthur, which feels almost calm by comparison, but they both commit your sanity to the same depths, beyond the limit where the casual pop listener or even black metal fanatic can appreciate the happenings. If you haven't trained your ears to appreciate such disturbing sounds, and feel they won't fit into your limited panoramic view of extreme metal music, then your misgivings are unlikely to alter. But if you are a fan of these two gods of 'bedroom' black metal, I can see nothing but inverse paradise in your immediate futures.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://xasthur.net/
http://www.myspace.com/striborg1

Xasthur - All Reflections Drained (2009)

It never ceases to amaze me that my two favorite US black metal artists are essentially solo projects (with guest musicians). Scott Conner (aka Xasthur) has previously devastated me with albums such as Telepathic with the Deceased and Defective Epitaph, but I feel he has one upped himself with this latest opus, a brilliant foray into a realm of purely desolate guitar work and oppressive sewer-like atmosphere. All Reflections Drained needs to be heard to be believed, for few albums which make the effort turn out even a fraction as haunting as this.

"Dirge Forsaken" writhes with turbulent, subterranean desperation, as if your corpse were being carried through a sewage system towards the Underworld by black veiled, silent figures, a small fraction of your consciousness remaining to view the scene. A twisted pattern of guitar riffing repeats itself as other 'melodies' creep into the mix. "Maze of Oppression" features cascading walls of discord that create a hypnotic foundation for Conner's laid-back snarling. Disgusting and infectious. "Achieve Emptiness Part II" is like a nightmare reflection of post-rock or shoegazer rock within a doomy environs, highlighted by some sparse and well-placed samples. "Masquerade of Incisions" swells with chiming tones and horror film guitar jangle, and "Inner Sanctum Surveillance" creeps along like a bottom feeder through a rusted, submerged pipeline. The title track, which ends the album, is an epic exploration of haunting tones, samples and bleak ambience. About the only track I didn't care for on the album was "Damage Your Soul", but it's not out of place. The lyrics, where they exist, are sparse and crushing, never complex.

Halls and walls of consequence deem endless, where hope is the art of lying to yourself.
You're a lost fucking cause in a vicious circle of endless rape.
You've raped yourself in front of the mirrors I held before you –
running from a future and leaving a maze of scars.
As usual, the production of the record is desolate and oppressive, yet scintillating and 'glorious' when the songs demand. Vocals are held back into a pattern with the music, they never override the burden of the ghostlike mire of guitars that truly penetrates the soul. This is among the best material Xasthur has yet released, but I will warn listeners that it is not for the faint of heart. In fact, this is only 'black metal' in the loosest of senses. Conner is bent on exploring dark corners of the mind to which blackish metal is only the ticket booth. He has once again succeeded with flying...or shall I say the utter lack...of colors.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (I chisel your grave, written in life's defects)

http://www.xasthur.net/

Xasthur - Telepathic With the Deceased (2004)

While I took to Leviathan almost immediately, it took a little longer for Xasthur's work to grow on me. I mention the two together because, for myself, they represent the top of the crop as far as US black metal. Both serious minded artists with interesting vision and follow-through. It's no joke that they've found such widespread cult audiences. Neither is afraid to incorporate outside influence into their songwriting, whether that be, ambient, noise or rock, yet they both retain the core of what makes raw black metal so poignant.

Telepathic With the Deceased is the third full-length for Malefic, and bears the seal of excellence. He works well beyond the scope of his limitations: while many albums with such an obvious drum machine fall flat on their asses, he weaves such hypnotic, sobering grimness on this record that you are quick to listen past this shortcoming. The album provides nearly an hour of introspective sorrow. This is the sound of isolation, of regret, and desperation.

The haunting choral synth piece "Entrance Into Nothingness" resounds with searing ambient keys and a steady chugging noise, for nearly four minutes this repetetive nightmare is drilled straight into your subconscious as by some ectoplasmic osmosis. "Slaughtered Useless Beings in a Nihilistic Dream" breaks out the drum machine...battery, which is thankfully smothered in vicious, distant vocals, grim churning guitars and playful, almost psychedelic bassline. While highly repetetive, there's a beautiful breakdown after the 2:50 mark with truly mesmerizing guitars. "Abysmal Depths are Flooded" paints a downtrodden portrait through the jangly acoustics over the driving distortion, almost a Sonic Youth of black metal until the track opens up into its glorious black/doom core. "May Your Void Become as Deep as My Hate" again uses cleaner guitar tone over the streaming black miasma, though effected so as to reach up through the grates of whatever sub-dungeon Malefic has spawned from. The title track follows, an entrancing introduction of throbbing ambient synths and grating pianos that flows into nearly 10 minutes of epic horror. I really enjoyed the bass during the verses.

Come and see how easy, expendable it is for human life to be forgotten,
Haters of life are telepathic with the deceased.
Fragments of failure, some said it was art, for it only bears a meaning when all life is torn apart.
For all we are, are messengers of death and sacrificial hope, for we are a communion of the cataclysmic,
Inverting all oceans that shall drown into an eternal twilight (waves so high, once eclipsing the sun)
A funeral for those damned, is a funeral for the light.

"A Walk Beyond Utter Blackness" creates another troubled atmosphere, the fuzz of its droning rhythms casting an utmost sorrow, the blues of black metal, a perfect wristcutting opportunity. "Cursed Revelations" uses an almost goofy synth line behind its tortured snarls and slower broiling guitars to great effect; one of the reasons I enjoy Malefic's work is that he incorporates an almost abstract pop aesthetic into his songwriting. On paper that might sound strange...but listen and you can hear how it excels. "Drown Into Eternal Twilight" is one of the choice moments among so many fine songs...it creates an unforgettable wall of keening guitars, mystique-weaving acoustics and whispered sadness during its three minute stay. "Murdered Echoes of the Mind" is 10 minutes of stunning, glorious sorrow, again with the very basic synth lined creating a resounding, repetitious atmosphere. Near the conclusion the track breaks into a sadistic embolism of grimness. "Exit" closes the album with another synth/ambient piece, filtered pipe organs disappear like a funeral procession a half mile away.

Faith lies in a God never to be seen, as I'm slashing your throat, will you believe in me?

I should point out that this is a highly immersive voyage, well worth taking and no drugs required (though I can't imagine they'd hurt the experience). I've read a lot of criticism of Xasthur which is so much nonsense. His work is a window into what is far more than another overhyped bedroom black metaller, each of his albums is quite carefully plotted and tweaked to maximize its dread effect. Telepathic With the Deceased has only grown on me in time. It has lost nothing to repeated listens and it's more effective than a great deal of the black metal (or even doom metal) I hear. In a cultural landscape where metal musicians simply aren't reared or conditioned to produce such material, it is both refreshing and superbly crafted. Shy of perfection, perhaps, but nihilistic, supernatural, and truly dead.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (I will not be kind in the torture you desire)

http://www.xasthur.net/