Vasaeleth - Adorned & Iridescent EP (2010)

It's a curious thing to return to that leading edge of the cavernous death metal conglomeration so prevalent at the turn of the 20-teens, and Vasaeleth's Crypt Born & Tethered to Ruin was an effort I was somewhat fond of when it dropped in 2010 through Profound Lore. Adorned & Iridescent was a 7" 'preview' of sorts for that album, put out by Satanic Skinhead Propaganda and Blood Harvest Records, with two of the album tracks and a B-side which is, in retrospect, probably the only reason to check this out. This might lack that morbid, distinct color artwork by Antichrist Kramer that they used on their later releases, but the contrast of the band's superb logo against the black/white cemetery photo is still quite pleasing.

Adorned & Iridescent, like its full-length sibling, is essentially a paean to Incantation's earlier material, Immolation's debut and the churning, raw miasma of horror cultivated through the first few Autopsy albums, only this is seen through the lens of younger individuals who wanted to take those subterranean aesthetics and lavish them with a turbulent but modern, reverberating production which might lend it a better sense of 'setting'...if your setting is six feet beneath a sepulcher. You've got the roiling, tremolo picked guitars which feel like someone stirring your intestines with a ladle, with a few bridges towards death/doom territory with morbid, plodding chord progressions or even a few harmonics for eeriness. The guttural vocals are more like some caustic underground gas being blown across the ceiling of the caverns, than anything distinctive or easy to pick out from the music, and this is where that Craig Pillard influence comes in. The drums, on the other hand, seem sternly black metallic in focus, blasting nihilism which combined with the low end-ness of the whole recording almost grants it a coldness like the vast space between celestial bodies...

The riffs are alright, but occasionally they'll throw in a dissonance or unexpected left-hook chord which helps justify the largely predictable patterns they were producing (at least for anyone who had been around death metal in the late 80s/90s). What struck me about Vasaeleth was just the overall feeling you get when listening...some of the music is kid's stuff in terms of songwriting, but it most certainly felt like the raw breath of aeons being blown into your ears when you place it in context with what the duo of Antinom and O.A. were attempting to achieve. Unfortunately, for the EP itself, its little more than a footnote, since "Figures of Chained Spirits" and the title cut are better placed in among their six neighbors on Crypt Born.... "Unmanifest" has a more black metal current in the drums and chord choices, but I've also had that impression elsewhere in their catalog, and it's pretty flush with the two A-side tracks. At any rate, this was retroactively consigned to oblivion when the album dropped several weeks later, and it's ultimately useless to do much other than look at or listen to the third tune, decent if not mandatory; but it would not have been an unworthy introduction in 2010 if you couldn't grab a copy of Crypt Born, which just sounds better in general.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (call forth your name which mine becomes)

https://www.facebook.com/Vasaeleth

Abomnium - Solace for the Condemned (2014)

When I first checked out this one-man Dutch band's second album Coffinships, I was really hoping to get into it. The reviews I read had raved about it, and I dug how Sapient had taken the old Irish story behind the title and placed it into a science-fiction milieu, not to mention the amazing cover artwork. Alas, what I actually found on the disc was a mix of (mostly) black and death metal with a lot of uninspired, predictable riffs that seemed to go nowhere of any import. There was an appreciable level of variation there, and the production was really great, loud and clear...which might have led a lot of listeners to enjoy it more than they otherwise would have, but I just couldn't get over the bland rhythm guitar patterns which often toiled in redundant, conservative note structures which would have already felt tired in the mid 90s, nevermind 2013...

So as I sit here listening through its successor, Solace for the Condemned, I have to say that things have not heavily improved, but the overall impression is one slightly better than Coffinships. The tunes are still build around these huge swaths of bog standard riffs with simple chord patterns crested off by higher, ringing guitars that generally only alternate between a few notes. Ideally these would all be a smokescreen for more involved progressions that appear in their midst and totally stick on the ears, but that just doesn't seem to happen often enough to matter. He switches it up quite a lot, with a lot of death metal subtext and then even some slower, swaggering black & roll lik ethe tune "Jad Al Juaza" which places a Nile or Melechesh-like riff pattern into a near-hypnotic, ritualistic sway like you'd find on Satyricon's Now, Diabolical or Age of Nero. There's also a lot of war-like momentum to the drumming which seems to me like a mixture of late 80s/90s Bathory and the faster material of Primordial. Sad and solemn, funereal tremolo picked melodies often emerge, as do comparable, lower end death metal passages, so Sapient really likes to walk the line between the two genres, only neither is convincing enough on its own to compensate in union.

Production-wise this is still somewhat impressive. Robust rhythm guitars and thinner melodies, all perfectly clear without excess, polished sterility. The vocals feel more or less like a footnote of underwhelming, hazy growls and rasps that disappear all too easily into even the least compelling guitars on the album, but the percussion at least drives a hard bargain between the pummeling kicks and higher end tinniness. There is indeed a functional degree of variety here, with the greyer, slower, moody moments of sparsely picked, slightly dissonant upper strings offering a contrast from the driving majority, but the overall timbre of the album started to blend together for me by around the 6th or 7th track, and being that I wasn't having the greatest time to begin with, it was often a struggle to pay much attention. Had the material been either 1) more complex or 2) more subtle and nuanced, then it might prove more memorable, and it's still impressive that one guy can put so much of this together, with no alternate perspectives to dilute his vision...yet by the end, Abomnium seemed to elude my interest once more.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

http://www.abomnium.com/

Bombs of Hades - Atomic Temples (2014)

Bombs of Hades continue to eke out their own little corner of crusty, D-beat, Entombed worshiping heaven with their third full-length Atomic Temples. These guys have always had a bit more of an indie, punk/grind feeling to them which didn't always match up with their choice in cover aesthetics...in this case, the ghastly, enigmatic landscape present through the artwork doesn't really precipitate what you can expect from most of the tunes here. A few atmospheric, evil pieces drawn more directly from their Swedish death metal forebears, to be sure, but the rest is grooving, death rock & roll with loads of the expected drum beats and riff choices which don't deviate widely from the typical tropes of this niche.

You might indeed consider this the 'Wolverine Blues' of the Bombs' career, in that they seem to be risking a few more chances with the groovier, chunkier bluesy curvature of riffs like those found in "And Your Flesh Still Burns", which shuffle about with that irreverent swagger the foremost Swedes of the style explored a little TOO deeply on their mid and later 90s output. The guitar tone here is voluptuous, moist and nasty in tandem; kind of like my choice in significant others, only like with those, there is an occasional desire here to thwart my ears from what they're spitting into them, due to the nagging feeling that they're a bit redundant and I've heard it all before. But to these guys' credit, every time a track was about to lose me, then they'd almost balance it off with something more creepy and atmospheric. Example: "Palace of Decay", which opens with these morbid, fuzzy melodies that resonate over the boggy din of the cover. Unfortunately, even that tunes erupts into an all too standard riffing pattern which is just the same d-beat chord accompaniment with a few slightly deviate chord patterns that you've heard 6,000 in this modern wave of old school soundalikes...

Where the Bombs go into straight death/thrash metal picking, like in "Omens" which seems like Slayer or Possessed squeezed through a Stockholm filter, the music becomes more incinerating and exciting in turns and I almost wish they'd release a total fucking tyrant of a death metal record and stop fiddling around in the same Disfear/Discharge/Skitsystem territory that so many of these nowadays Entombed-core bands have trodden to death. Hell, with a little more emphasis on the riff patterns, these guys might even approach a level which could rival Bloodbath or Demonical or any of several other quality bands in a field of so much detritus, but Atomic Temples is only half firing at best, with L-G Petrov-like raving barks and guitar progressions that would only seem fresh to me if I hadn't already been listening to this shit for 24-25 years. There is promise here, that I do not doubt, and fans of Entrails, Feral, Entombed (Clandestine on), or the more rockin' Desultory and Vermin records might wanna take note of this. However, even though they achieve a nice momentum here in the 38 minutes they've allotted, and might seem 'cooler' than a lot of other bands doing the same thing (more attitude and street/cemetery cred), it's still the same thing, and I just didn't find enough to hold my interest for more than a few spins, besides maybe the sexy guitar tone.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.bombsofhades.com/

Chiral - Abisso EP (2014)

Though Abisso is unquestionably competent for a single man project, this EP came with a bit of disparity between the earlier tracks that I didn't think represented putting its better feet forward; said feet being the band's contrast of blazing melodic death metal circa the Swedish school of the mid 90s with acoustic and piano breaks that give it a little bit of a meandering, Opeth feeling compacted into tracks that won't take you the length of an entire commute to feel out. This is a self-released work by an Italian known as Chiral (also the name of the band), and might spell out some bright potential for the future, but I didn't feel like the tremolo riffing patterns that make up much of the EP's more desperate, surging moments were all that distinct or memorable even a short time after the roughly 20 minute experience had ended.

The tunes move between slow and fast, with the doom-like sequences comprise of sparser note patterns and carnal growls, and then the blast beats taking on a fairly typical structure with strings of notes that too rarely surprise or spin into a direction the listener won't expect; that is if you've heard this strain of black metal at any time in the past 20 years. The massive rasp this guy spits over the guitars is often a little too over the top, and once in awhile he'll inject a deeper, sewer-like growl that appears briefly. The the rhythm guitar tones are much thinner but dirty enough that it captures the Scandinavian aesthetic it so desires. The melodies fused into the chords are the general uplifting sort, with individual tremolo lines bleed along predictably. The exception is where he'll burst into this more interesting, almost symphonic/melodic metal hybrid like in "Atto II: Abisso" that features some more technical lead work, an exhibition that this guy does really have some proficiency, he just has yet to really master the songwriting necessary to take those to the next level. In fact, I would not have minded if he shredded just a little more over the remainder of the music...

Bass lines are audible, but take a back seat to the other goings on, and the cleaner sequences here feel like they were included more for variation and contrast rather than offering much interesting on their own; as if to lend emotional to music that doesn't itself leave too much of an impression. But I feel like the biggest gripe I had here was how the first tune really failed to set up the remainder...it crawls at a slow pace after some samples of a storm, and almost feels like Chiral is going to stride a massive atmospheric black metal path akin to Summoning, with the pianos and screams wailing on the edge of perception. After that it just breaks into some fairly standard melodic black metal (circa Old Man's Child, Sacramentum and Dissection in the 90s) with requisite blasting and I think it might have felt more consistent with one or the other. It's not that he doesn't shift into slower passages later in the EP, but for some reason that first track almost sounded to me like a different band than the rest. At any rate, this is a really new project, most of the writing was initiated this very year, so you can't exactly approach it with major expectations...and if Chiral can accomplish this in just a few months, what will he do when he has more longevity to work with?

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/ChiralItaly?fref=ts

Children of Technology - Future Decay (2014)

This is a band I've always wanted to like a lot more than I do. The post-nuclear streetpunk get ups, the great artwork, the viciousness they exude from every radioactive pore...Children of Technology are like the likely villains from some giallo low budget, obscure knockoff of The Road Warrior and they have the musical hooks to sound the part, too...so why don't they fully capitalize on them? The answer is that they often write songs with too obvious punk chord progressions where a bit more spit, venom, and thrash would really do the trick. Don't get me wrong, their modus operati is one of punk and 80s speed metal fused into a fun time with perhaps a little bit of a pessimist message about our shared tomorrows (informed by more than a few cult bands, books and films), but where the songs are so huge on raw energy, they're conversely so low on memorable riffing that I feel let down. Their proper 2010 full-length debut It's Time to Face the Doomsday was good stuff, the best I've heard from them, but even there it fell shy of excellence due to the simple fact that they're not writing up to the potential of their image.

Future Decay goes louder and huger in scope, with a seemingly broader sound budget that gives the bass and rhythm guitars a lot of momentum, while DeathLörd Astwülf's half-growl/half-bark is just as petulant as ever. Never forget your umlauts, kids. As for musical influence, this is still heavily centered on the 'splatter-punk' sort of crossover that bands like Corrosion of Conformity, Cryptic Slaughter and The Accüsed (what'd I say about umlauts?), but there is far less muted thrash style picking in the riff selections. In fact, tunes like "Future Decay" and "Blackout" incorporate a total tough nut NYHC aesthetic that reminded me heavily of bands like Sick of It All, Killing Time, Cro-Mags or the first Crumbuckers record. Brazen, bold chords that are meant to represent a circle kick or a curb stomp to the listener, but unfortunately here the patterns seem redundant with those that have come before in three decades of that medium. That said, they're not exactly a one-trick pony with that style, since the bass lines show some obvious Lemmy influence and they also pitch in a few squiggling, nasty speed metal licks the likes of which you usually hear by a lot of blackened speed thrash metal bands like Deathhammer, Antichrist, Cruel Force, and so forth, which pair up pretty well with that pissed off/constipated vocal timbre.

The Italians do not shy away from some atmospherics here, which balance out some of the blander riffs so that they don't ultimately feel as generic as they might have. Cleaner, deep vocals will soar over the thrust of some punk riff into the leather 'n' spikes city night atmosphere, and the intro with the pianos and throbbing ambient backdrop definitely conjures up an 80s cheese/horror film vibe which I was silently praying would be captured throughout more of the album. That's just not the case, though, and while there is admittedly some variation between the tunes so they don't all bleed together into one indistinct, monotonous heap, I feel like they just never go far enough with them. When they toss the odd muted thrash/core breakdown or even a part that hinges on death/thrash, it's just too banal sounding and never involves anything intricate or unique. The French band Zoldier Noiz, who toil around in this same pulp dystopian wheelhouse, do a slightly more interesting job of taking a fairly typical riff set and then owning it, putting a slight dissonant spin on it which feels fresher. And that's the thing: Children of Technology has an absolute shit kicker of a concept running here (and they always have), but too many of these retro theme bands settle for less when it comes to writing the music...

Don't settle for looking cool and trashing the bar. Burn the whole motherfucking street down in a frenzy! Write music that sounds like a swarm of giant mutant hornets on motorcycles, not just what-Exploited-riff-can-I-paraphrase-next! Have you not heard Animosity, Killing Technology, Life of Dreams or Rrröööaaarrr (umlauts!!!)? Those albums did what this one wants to, 27-30 years ago, and they sounded a lot more genuinely fucked up, brilliant and nasty doing it. Future Decay isn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, the production itself is superior to the music. But let's face it...Mel Gibson would kick this thing's ass before the opening title, where the first Children of Technology album might have at least made it a few more scenes before being run over.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/COTofficial

The Order of the Solar Temple - s/t (2014)

Don't be put off by the first track on this - "Fallout Woman" - which feels like a weird amalgamation of The Doors, Cream, The Cult and even a little of Mike Patton in the vocal sustain until the higher pitched screaming erupts. It's mildly representative of the rest of the album, and an entertaining tune in of itself, but what I really reacted to so strongly about The Order of the Solar Temple's eponymous debut is how it successfully re-brands NWOBHM-era riffing into a unique, psychedelic haze. Granted, we've heard a hundred bands reaching back into the 60s and 70s proto-occult prog rock field these past few years to attempt to rekindle those treasured ley lines of black magick, swords and sorcery, and hippie free lust...but so rarely do they sound the same...Ghost does not = Hail Spirit Noir does not = Blizaro does not = The Devil's Blood does not = Tame Impala. Yeah, the topical matter might feel samey, but I for one enjoy the feeling of revivification, compositional refreshment, new voices putting their own spin on their perceived notions of the rock of decades past...rose-scented, rose-colored nostalgic vibrations.

Vancouver triad Order of the Solar Temple adds yet another timbre into this choir, and a welcome one, incredibly varied and consistent in turns. Vocals shift between a Morrison-like drug den haze, to cheesy metal screams, to a strong mid-range redolent of the big BBs (Biff Byford, and in particular Blaze fucking Bayley) of English lore. Riffing progressions fall well within the span of the later 70s to about 1982, we're talking bands like Budgie, Angel Witch and Nightwing more so than Priest or Sabbath, but everything is fair game on this record. Pumping, shuffling, classy hard rock patterns are threaded with bluesy tail-licks and glistening, teary little leads and harmonies that eschew pretentious technicality to de-age the listener about 40 years, which in some cases will transform he or she into a pre-fetus, ready to have all of this wonderful rock impressed upon their being as they are squirted into existence. Once in awhile they'll be a lower end groove which borders on bad-ass (as heard in the midst of the track "Jervas Dudley"), but in general, beyond the experimental touches, like the unique use of instruments such as the Jew's harp, Mellotron and photo-theremin; or the more lavish, gradually orchestrated sequences (intro to "Aeon of Horus", for example), this is some pretty huge sounding retro heavy metal with an open-ended, airy production that is sheer bliss in the car speakers on a summery afternoon.

Bass-lines definitely cultivate the retro aesthetics further, simultaneously overt and subtle, grooves often closing the gaps between rock music and the excellent vocal R&B that our great-grandparents probably thought of as devil-spawned pap. The drums crash where they need to be, definitely busier than what you'd hear on a radio tune half a century past, reminiscent of how their fellow Canadians Blood Ceremony really lay into a groove. Leads in tunes like "Fallout Woman" also have a sporadic, improvised nature to them which you'd expect of some wailing blues busybody on tour in a dingy bar setting, and that all helps you down to get down! And that is what The Order of the Solar Temple is really all about: GETTING DOWN into the ritualistic corners of the imagination, making out or making love with a beautiful specter while a skull gazes on, wax from its cranial mounted candle sputtering down the cracks and gaps in the bone. If Anton LaVey had written Strange Days or Waiting for the Sun or Disraeli Gears while envisioning another Solar Temple in the future; it might sound a little something like this, and if you're not into that idea, well then please pack up your gear, leave the key on the kitchen table and forget we ever met on that seedy internet chat room that one fateful nite...because I don't wanna know you. I wanna hot shower away every trace of intimacy that we ever shared.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/theorderofthesolartemple

Gorgasm - Destined to Violate (2014)

Snatching a satisfactory brutal death metal album out of the ether has become an increasingly rare commodity for me in recent times, so it often falls to the old standbys to get it done; and in terms of a US field clogged and constipated with technical djent deathcore, I generally feel forced to rely on someone like Gorgasm, who have delivered in the past with their Masticate to Dominate album in 2003. It's been over a decade since that time, with one reasonable full-length in between, but Destined to Violate, if nothing else, does manage to capture some of that enthusiasm of the later 90s and the last decade. It has its flaws, many of which stem from its inherent redundancy in the wake of a hundred other albums, but I don't think anyone will question the Indiana quartet's jubilation for punishing aural exercises in misogyny and murder...

To be quite exact about how this disc sounds, it's sort of like the clinical death/thrashing aesthetics of Pestilence's legendary Mallevs Maleficarvum, with the requisite tremolo picked surgical implements, clad in the armored brutality of mid-90s Suffocation grooves and set upon a killing spree which is reminiscent of Cannibal Corpse's Corpsegrinder-era pummeling uptempo passages, in both the pure punctuality of the riffing and the guttural syllabic meter employed. The guitars eschew the polished and over-processed tones of many of the band's younger, more technical peers, for something that feels belligerent and mildly raw, only clear enough to capture all the considerable notes being spewed forth from the team of Damian Leski and Ryan Saylor. Riff structures run the gamut from banal and predictable breakdown brevity to surprisingly interesting muted melodic barrages (like the intro to "Corpsified") that really want you to remember them before they cede their respective tunes to a more average compositional strength. Drums have an airy, forceful kick sound which I enjoyed, and there are loads of fills flying around to keep even the less interesting riffs excitable, and once again the band errs on the side of the lesser polished than making them sound like a computer program.

You've still got horror samples inaugurating a number of the tracks, from all manner of slasher films (I think there was one from Identity but I could be wrong); a practice as old as this sub-genre, often targeted at 'whores', but I did not find a lot of them incredibly effective leading into riffs that were not among the record's best. Likewise, the gross-out song titles like "Funeral Gangbang", "Mouthful of Menstruation" and "Lubricated in Vomit" are squeamish enough, but not particularly yucky or eye catching for anyone who wants their death metal truly over the top. The bass playing is solid, but I do wish it had been a fraction louder since the mechanistic colon rupturing of the rhythm guitars seem to steal the attention away from anything loitering beneath them. At the same time, it's really those rapid, precise riffing patterns that are going to attract or repel the average brutalitarian, so it's probably best that they be hung out on display like the corpses of victims in some taxidermy lab. I've never found the Gorgasm vocals to be particularly distinct for their field, and that hasn't changed, with the guttural barking and belching adequate but never entirely convincing beyond its genre specific function.

Destined to Violate is largely a run and gun sort of record; it does feature a few pure, forgettable mosh motivator grooves, but for the most part it snaps along at a pace slightly too swift for your headbanging to follow without ingesting a lot of sugar (or drugs) in advance. Ultimately, a few moments stand out from the rest, but it's neither a step forward or backward from 2011's Orgy of Murder. Decent to sit...or survive through for a number of spins, and continuing to wield the flesh chewing chainsaws of the band's legacy, but I have to say it: a little innovation here or there, or just a broader net of variation in structure, would do better to catchy my ear. Gorgasm seems to sit too comfortably in that late 90s era where None So Vile was this massively inspirational work that rubbed off on hundreds of other bands, where they clearly have the talent to surpass themselves. Anyway, if you're a loyal fan of Lividity, Cannibal Corpse, Severe Torture, older Cryptopsy, Suffocation or Prostitute Disfigurement, you'll find this is chasing you right up your alley with a meat cleaver.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/AnalSkewer

Empatic - Ruined Landscape (2014)

I reviewed the first Empatic record, Gods of Thousand Souls, back in 2010, and that was a decent effort in terms of accessible death metal that doesn't quite reach the brutality level of their Polish countrymen like Vader or Behemoth, but nor does it subscribe to anything particular trendy or disingenuous either. Enjoyable, but nothing that's going to send you packing for a t-shirt and coffee mug bearing the band's brand. Ruined Landscape is a more pensive and better structured record in much the same vein as that one, on which the brighter moments shine oh so much more brightly, but the laborious, chugging tendencies don't always reveal the most creative or interesting riffs...in fact there are a couple guitar parts on here that just should have been sent to the scrapper because they come across like really lame groove metal or metalcore...

These are in evidence very early on, even in the first tune "Trauma" (funny enough, the name of another Polish band that this one occasionally bears semblance to) which sets up a really nice piano intro and features some spacious, sad melodies but resorts to some pretty basic 'core-like chugs in the bridge which are rounded out by Slayer-like note phrases which intend to make them sound more evil. This was a pretty common tactic employed by a lot of metalcore bands, for better or worse, and it just seems like the rest of Empatic's music here seems way beyond that. "Crimem Pessimum" has a mechanical, thrash-like groove in the intro which is unfortunately laid into completely with some samples that almost sound like Korn, and then a full on battery where the bass and drums just add meat to the same riff. I can pick out another dozen examples through the album, but you will sort of catch my drift from these two. Now, don't get me wrong: Ruined Landscape certainly has a lot more to it than the impression these passages leave me. Even in a few of these parts they've got a better sense of note selection than your guys playing the style, but I just felt a little inconsistency where they'd be playing this superior melodic death metal stuff (circa Hypocrisy) and then sputter into something less inspired and/or interesting.

Granted, not all of that is great, either, as in "Ambush" where it's basically paint by numbers Swedish styled melodeath like you'd hear American metalcore bands (Shadows Fall, All That Remains)  perform in the late 90s. On the other hand, they'll also transform this same sense of momentum into something more genuinely like a muscular modern thrash ("Valley of Shadows") where the riffs are way more effective with the grumbling guttural barks of the front man. All told, the production here is strong: punchy rhythm guitars, overt melodies that you don't need to strain your ears to hear, and snappy, consistent drumming and bass-lines that definitely feel like they'd help get the crowds into motion, but there's no nuance, no subtlety, and only a small selection of guitar progressions which come across as truly memorable. I guess if you can imagine a somewhat slower alternative to the Marco Aro-fronted albums by The Haunted, or another Swedish band called The Defaced, and you've got no aversion to tough guy 90s thrash and groove metal, Ruined Landscape is a solid and stubborn slab of credibility, but I would have preferred Empatic moving in a more distinctly death metal direction with more evil riffs and tremolo picking, which this does not.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.empatic.com/

Chaos Moon - Resurrection Extract (2014)

The fly-haloed, shambling revenant cuts a stark contrast against the chalky mountains and white sky behind it, and possibly an even greater heterogeneity to the actual musical content of Resurrection Extract itself, which is in a word: lovely. Not that the distinction comes without a price, for this is loveliness born only from a most twisted and disagreeable heart, pumping out staggering amounts of blood and suffering alongside its warmer emotional tsunami. I just feel I should put it out there: looking upon this album, and hearing it, are two entirely different things, and the one did not really prepare me for the other...the breaking waves of crescendo and nothingness in flux throughout the hour-long experience.

If you've run into Chaos Moon before, you'll know this is Alex Poole's brainchild, aka Esoterica, aka he-of-a-number-of-bands you might know...most recently, doing a sting with Neil and Krieg. The last time he gifted us with a full-length (or a pair of them) was in 2007: Languor into Echoes, Beyond, which was honestly worth a few listens. Resurrection Extract is a one man show, which is likely to be considered by many a part of the 'blackgaze' movement due to its heavy reliance on warm, melodic tremolo picked guitars that are sent aloft into the distance of the recording, arching progressions that serve as asymmetrical peaks beyond the gnarled, throat-rending vocals and mechanical batteries of drums. Usually there are numerous layers of harmonies, one lower and more dissonant to feed into the sense of desperation that so many of the melodies manifest. This does tend to run monotonous through large swaths of the albums, and one might accuse Esoterica of spending longer measures of time to reach the conclusions of riffing passages that many bands would gladly abbreviate, but then you wouldn't have the same sense of overwhelming immersion as you find here...

It's not all sameness, because numerous tracks are permeated with these drifting, ambient sequences where calm swells ("Dreams Scattered Over an Infinite Mirror") or ringing, cleaner guitar tones ("Asemic Weakness") grant some dissimilitude to the more tumultuous, wrenching moments in which the guitars and vocals are on full time suicide watch; and I can't exaggerate how critical those points are to preventing some level of ennui from setting in. To be fair, I think that's part of the intention to a record like this, but I did find the construction of much of this oeuvre redundant to what you hear in the first couple of songs, so it was a good thing to take a few breaks from that approach. Otherwise, you will not hear much complaining from my end, because even if it has a few traits which lack much individuality (the heavier rasps and occasional Burzum-esque shrieks), Resurrection Extract roils in genuine frustration, repugnant beauty and there are certainly songs here that will swallow you whole and then spit out the physical remains. Fans of other I, Voidhanger acts like Lorn, Spectral Lore and Midnight Odyssey should take heed of this, as well as the advocates of bands like An Autumn for Crippled Children, ColdWorld and Lantlos.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chaos-Moon/111626415515769

Vardan - Enjoy of Deep Sadness (2014)

Vardan is a multi-instrumentalist from Italy who writes and plays in a number of projects, this eponymous one being his most storied and, I'm guessing, personal in nature. The one man or 'bedroom' black metal field instantly evokes the Burzum-inspired aesthetics of solitude, sorrow and obscurity, and just looking upon the cover image of this seventh full-length album, Enjoy of Deep Sadness, there can really be no question about what this is going to sound like. I'm not saying there aren't solo artists who have forged new territory from this very same point of influence, but in general this vector of approach has become increasingly effete and redundant to the degree that it's almost diluted the value of this medium as a whole, and Enjoy of Deep Sadness doesn't exactly make a strong case for its revival or redemption.

It's a simplistic, slow moving voyage here, with three tracks clocking in at over 11 minutes each, and only possessing the most subtle of variations. Some would probably dub this 'depressive death metal', with a thread of melodic doom coursing through the additional note choices being picked above the din of the darker, dreary rhythm guitar; with very little willingness to vary up the tempos or try his hand at composing anything more labyrinthine or complex. But those brighter, tear-splashed guitars are actually the one component of this album that held it above a deeper well of mediocrity, they do occasionally conjure up a hazy, efficient sense of meandering sadness that gives the listener the impression he or she is drifting across the bleak landmarks projected by the cover photo. They're not all equally memorable and effective, but their dreamlike, reflective quality actually distracted me from the fact that not much else is really happening anywhere on this disc. And I'm sure that's more or less Vardan's goal here, but I just feel that it's been done so many times, so much better than these three particular tracks...

The length also didn't help them much, since there's just not a lot of direction, no ebb and tide of emotional, more like a level plain of sadness. I appreciate that Vardan alternated a few cleaner, weird, wavering vocal lines in with the very ordinary black metal rasp he generally pronounces, but they're not exactly soaring or moving themselves. The drums here are really stripped down to steady, slow and minimalist beats with some timid hi hat work or occasional cymbal splashes, par for the course I suppose for this sort of writing, yet I wouldn't have minded more of a surge with some compelling fills to break up the pacing monotony. The bass lines work well enough within their limited, eerie grooves, and some of the cleaner guitar tones do add a creepy level to the fields of sameness (as in the middle, title track), but it's just never interesting enough on the whole. In the end, I can't be too hard on the record, since it's not 'bad'. It plays out like a slow blade across the wrist, while reveling in the greyness that it so desperately seeks to escape. Working as intended; I just intend to explore my personal suffering elsewhere. But some fans of Burzum, Nyktalgia, Cry of Silence and slower Dodsferd might disagree with me, so they should check it out.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

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