Pensées Nocturnes - Grand Guignol Orchestra (2019)

Frenchmen Pensées Nocturnes have long been thinking beyond the bounds of traditional black metal, but their latest, 6th album Grand Guignol Orchestra trades in a bit of the Romantic flourish of prior efforts for a more intense, abrasive experience which certainly rises up to the packaging displayed before you. Yes, this is essentially a circus-like black metal record, digging up a middle ground between Peste Noire and Mr. Bungle, and every bit as disturbing as that idea implies. The freakish cover clowns and the excellent graphic design put together between the band and Les Acteurs de L'ombre is an excellent vehicle for the themes explored, and I feel as if the album is far more committed to this warped, canvased sound than prior effort like Arcturus' Las Masquerade Infernale.

Now, to be clear, this is not an album I heavily enjoyed, but rather one I appreciated for its aesthetic aspirations. This is truly calamitous, unapologetic black metal that has been thoroughly kneaded with horns and other instrumentation that casts a mid-20th century, back alley carnival shadow...a place that would allure you with its glowing lights and euphoric festivities, but not one you'd want to bring your kids to for fear they would be devoured by its attractions. Trumpets, bass lines, organs, various levels of distorted guitars, tuba tones, all manner of whirring and whizzing percussion and a vocal range that is cast through morbid rasps and howls, and cleaner, boisterous tones much like a circus caller or a ringleader attempting to stir up his audience. There is so much flying at you through these tracks that they can become a whirling labyrinth of confusion, a magic mirror-house of torture. And it takes a particular level of skill to arrange all this, to be able to successfully supplant the traditional instrumentation of this metal niche so evenly with the other instruments, above a constant rhythmic battery that is very impressive with the strutting, grooving bass guitars and drum kit.

No, there is no lack of effort herein, and in general I very much dug the carnival parts like the thumping segues in "Comptine à boire" or the frightening freakshow nostalgia evinced through the opening crawl of "Triste sade", but when it comes to the metal content, it almost loses itself to the rest of the experience. Which is sort of the point, I'll grant you, but it wouldn't have hurt to have a few really catchy guitar lines vomited forth that could compete with the great horns and the unwavering, schizophrenic vocal performance. Occasionally the album becomes just too calamitous and 'extreme', like a Naked City record on a post-black, spazzcore bender, and while the intensity is cool, I wish the music itself stuck to the memory a little more. However, Grand Guignol Orchestra is such a damn cool, visionary sort of album, so conceptually successful that I'd be remiss not to recommend it highly to those seeking something on the outside, a bevy of childhood nightmares given flesh through an abusive, murderous adult musical palette. Something wicked this way fucking comes, with a painted smile and a bloody, spiked bludgeon. A ticket could be your last.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/PNRecords/

Nachtreich/Spectral Lore - The Quivering Lights (2015)

Usually you have me at 'Spectral Lore', but The Quivering Lights split has done the favor of also introducing me to another talented act, Germany's neoclassical black metal mash-up Nachtreich, who have produced a few full-lengths in the past that for some reason I have not previously experienced. Probably because there is an almost labyrinthine number of Nacht- (night-) bands and I get too easily lost amongst them, but after hearing the material here I'll have no problem retaining the duo's sound in my memory. Their eloquent melancholy manifests early on the piano/violin duet of the intro piece "Lights", which later erupts with a few distorted chords to hint at the forthcoming study in contrasts that will define this collaboration in full, but I should add that theirs is a heavy emphasis on the classical instrumentation, with the metallic pieces serving as an emotional discharge or even a diversion.

This also leads to a slight snag in the recording, since the violin and pianos seem so clear and bright as they wander their own course, but when the more primitive black metal rasps and chords come in they seem a little more muddled. That's not to say it was a deal breaker, because really Nachtreich is using the added texture of the electric guitar and vocal as an icing to what they're already best at. The music definitely takes on a theatrical climax, like you're watching some foreign film with a classical score and it just begins to swell, only here in a more misanthropic direction. The composition is not necessarily 'minimalistic', but they use quite simplistic chord motifs to forward that choking sadness, which is hard not to feel moved by even if you're already feeling a sense of familiarity to the notes on exhibit; almost like a Kronos Quartet threaded with tints of raw black circa Burzum, I feel that the Germans might find an audience with fans of stuff like the recent Quebecois recordings by Gris or Sombre Forets, though the music is a little less sweeping and more grounded. They have three pieces on this split, and I have to say the pure, atmospheric instrumental "Greyness" was my choice.

What's even more interesting about this release, though, is how once again Spectral Lore rises to 'meet' the partner on their level, providing most of the more metallic components of the 46 minutes, but also interlacing these with the pianos and such that Nachtreich excels in. Ayloss is no stranger to incorporating all manner of ambient and classics influences and instruments on his records like III and Sentinel, but here he does so in a way that complements the other act's compositional choices. You will certainly encounter his penchant for blissful, interesting tremolo picked melodies and then that sheen of ambiance and vocal variation that he continues to hone, but he too errs on the side of 'raw' when it comes to how the rhythm guitar chords are balanced against the other instruments. All three of his tracks are really on point here, but "Vanishing" was my pick of the three, and 11 and a half minute beast with eerie acoustic/ambient guitars and strings that gradually evolves into this airy monument to drifting black metal with speech-like vocals being barked off in the background, and then a flux between these sorts of elements and the great clean guitars. His final piece "Reflection" is more New Age ambient classical guitar than anything, but it's as worthy a closer as Nachtreich's barren, absorbing intro.

The Quivering Lights could hardly be considered 'colorful' in its stylistic choices...much like the black & white toned cover art it gives me the impression of some nature-inspired sort of chamber music in which the corners are haunted by wraiths and shadows. Though I'm not sure which leaves a more gloomy impression, the black metal edge or the pianos and strings... At any rate, this is 100% mood music, and it might not be a mood I'm as often called to as I was on Sol, Spectral Lore's split with Mare Cognitum, but nevertheless both of the acts really commit, and intermingle seamlessly without eschewing their individual identities. And that, my friends, is far more effort you'll hear in a split recording than so many 'you take this side, I'll take that' recordings that feel like meaningless advertisements more than collaborations that breathe organic life into their creation.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nachtreich-Official/134636053320790?sk=wall
http://spectrallore.bandcamp.com/

Goatcraft - The Blasphemer (2014)

If, like myself, you were a black metaller throughout the middle of the 90s, then you would likely have come across a number of side projects or tangential enterprises from various scene musicians that abandoned the harsher instrumentation to forage bleak, occult experiences through the mediums of neo-classical interpretation or, more modernly the fields of ambient/martial recording or dungeon synth. Labels like Red Stream and Full Moon Productions (among numerous others) were not averse to snapping up some of the more curious of these, whether they were haunting solo vehicles or full-fledged orchestral maneuvers, and these sorts of albums eventually collided with the fandom of industrual/dark ambient imprints like Cold Meat Industries or darker Gothic ventures and provided the extreme metalhead or misanthropist with an escape from his/her normal listening, that is unless he/she was as well-versed in classical/folk music as Scandinavian black metal.

I bring this up, because this has been a field slightly lacking over the last decade, or rather it's practice has become more of it's 'own thing' and pushed to the periphery, since there's just so much of the raw and heavy stuff around that it takes an eternity to explore it to the edge and beyond. Enter Goatcraft, a Texan one man act which seeks to once again corral such edgy aural voyeurs into believing in something beyond the standard fuselages of fuzz and ferocity into a more ancient source that, if The Blasphemer is any indicator, is far from disappeared on any map. Judging by the wave of praise I've seen from this recording, it has surely been one of the more 'noticed' jaunts of its type in some years, and after listening through this, I can understand all the praise, since it's an extremely consistent measure of escapism that thrust my imagination straight back into eras of grandeur and antiquity many centuries before I was even born. To an extent, there is some degree of minimalistic composition redolent of the ambient records Varg Vikernes has released through Burzum (the last few of which have become progressively more boring), but The Blasphemer strikes just the right balance of New Age and classical aesthetics that so morbidly swell it with potential.

Essentially, Lonegoat's attack is with a piano and a synthesizer, nothing else is needed to embark on such ritualistic mantras of darkness. Haunted phrases of chords or solitary notes are imbued with glittering, dust like cathedral-spire radiance that feel like bells tolling a soul to Hell for all damnation. A spectral haze of simmering ambiance is misted along the backdrop like the morning vapors rolling off a river into some mourning, plague-stricken village and there are numerous layers of dark, resonating piano keys which feel like some grand horror opera being performed from the top of a black tower, cascading down the spiral stone steps into an empty courtyard below. As ominous as I am making this sound, it's actually quite surprisingly vivacious and busy at times, there's nothing lazy or exceedingly repetitious anywhere and only once or twice does he move away from a concise track length to something more bloated, and even then he will pack a composition with enough performance and raw talent to evict any possible repercussion of lazy self-pandering, useless weight or indulgence (the entire experience is just under an hour, where he could have easily padded it out to fill an entire compact disc).

The Blasphemer is also entirely raw, and his piano sweeps really bounce off the room in which you are listening through it. It doesn't feel highly digitized or processed like a Castlevania soundtrack, for example, and I'm sure this could transfer immediately to any live setting. The music isn't always immensely catchy, nor does it really evade centuries of classical piano tradition, after all it's highly inspired by William Blake's art and archaic soundtrack qualities; but as mood music it is so highly committed. Invested. And, for me, was rewarding enough that I'd recommend it, whether as a score you could impose over a silent horror film or just something to experience with a glass of whine during the onset of a thunderstorm, where the streaks of lightning splay out like visual accompaniment to Lonegoat's key-hammering. It's a rare thing to even attempt such a sound in the 21st century, even rarer to eschew the sheet-music and write it for yourself, so you can bet Goatcraft is something worth keeping your eyes on...for I have a feeling the man hasn't even written us his masterpiece quite yet. Just powerful, gorgeously packaged music for when a rasp, guttural or blast beat just hasn't proven malevolent or magnificent enough.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://goatcraft.net/

Thousand Leaves - Daydream (2009)

Thousand Leaves are another of those Japanese acts cropping up in recent years who perform instrumental power/shred metal based in all the fine traditions of Yngwie Malmsteen and about a thousand other influences hearkening back to the 70s and 80s (perhaps the best known would be Iron Attack), when the guitar itself was god, and the riff was only the vehicle to create a suitable atmosphere for the solo and melodies. They also adorn their album covers with pictures of cute anime lolita girls, almost clip art (perhaps rejecting from a manga, perhaps not) usually wielding a guitar, and while it may seem unprofessional and tiresome, to me it's a case of 'so where have you been my entire life?'. Like Iron Attack, Thousand Leaves is somewhat prolific, having released four albums this year already...

The thing that strikes me is just how good these guys are at writing the sort of instrumental shred metal that was so prevalent in the 80s on the Shrapnel roster, etc, and injecting it with that urban 80s cheese feel of Japanese anime like Bubblegum Crisis and the like. So you can imagine it is heaven for the autothrall, and heaven it is, as I enjoyed just about every track on this, from the Dragonforce-frenzy of "I Speed at Night Story" to the fighting game/shmup power of "Skies and Dreams", to the jamming, moody "Super Mon-Petit" with its ripping urban nightstalker blues, and back to the super shredding meets pretty piano of "Necromancy". I also really loved the very video game feeling of "Musica Fantasma", with its synthesizer violins and native Japanese, quirky feel. "Scar of the Dark" features vocals and a guest from Iron Attack.

I really admire the creativity of an artist like Thousand Leaves, which affirms the long Japanese tradition of taking honest influences, as diverse as they may seem, mashing them together, and then making them work, even if only for the few gaijin dreamers like myself who actually get it. If you've ever wanted to hear an amalgam of 80s guitar shred, power metal, VGM, anime tunes and pop, you've come to the right place.

Highlights: I Speed at Night Story, Super Mon-Petit, Necromancy, Musica Fantasma

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://pocky.real-sound.net/Thousand_Leaves/index.html