Vargr - Northern Black Supremacy

by Cosmo Lee

One of Buddhism's most famous koans is "If you meet the Buddha, kill him." It seems counterintuitive, but it makes sense in Buddhism, which posits that the Buddha nature is inside all of us. In Buddhism, the way to enlightenment is to eliminate all desire. (Of course, this raises the paradox of the desire to eliminate desire as an impediment to enlightenment. Many texts already discuss Buddhism's paradox of desire, so I'll let that issue lie as not fatal to this discussion.) The Buddha in the road would be an external, and thus false, embodiment of the Buddha nature. In other words, we should not desire to find internal truth in external manifestations of it.

Mord
Bring Forth the Ways of Old

That nothing external should be one's master is a powerful assertion. (Again, never mind the logical contradiction that a command to disregard authority acts like one itself.) It negates patriotism, religion, hierarchy, and the like. It also squares with certain notions of individualism offered under the guise of Satanism (which would properly then not be called Satanism, a term under the Judeo-Christian framework). And, more pertinently, it applies to metal.

Vargr is the black metal project of Henrik "Lord Nordvargr" Björkk, of legendary death industrial (or black industrial or industrial noise or whatever you want to call it) outfit Mz.412, whose Burning the Temple of God used a certain photo of a burning church as its cover two years before Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind's book Lords of Chaos did. The project's catchphrase is "True Black Nekronoise Metal," which is ludicrous, as a misspelled, made-up name with so many adjectives can hardly be "true" to anything. Indeed, the artwork invokes so many black metal/Satanic cliches - 666, upside-down crosses, pentagram, Baphomet head - that it seems like a put-on.

Yet Northern Black Supremacy (20 Buck Spin, 2007) is "true black metal" precisely by not being "true black metal." If "true black metal," whatever that is, is transgressive and individualistic, then hewing to finite notions of it betrays its very essence. Here, Lord Nordvargr goes through black metal motions - minor chords, howling rasps, lo-fi production. But he can't keep his true self/selves contained. Jet engine noise pours out of his Mz.412 side; more subdued dark ambience spills from his Nordvargr guise (see last year's fine The Betrayal of Light on tUMULt). Vocal snippets float throughout like a shortwave radio scanning a killer's psyche. "Bring Forth the Ways of Old" isn't "black metal" in the conventional sense; it's a noise workout. But the way its flames sear the edges of the frequency spectrum feels exactly like black metal's best.

Buy:
The End
20 Buck Spin

Metal dance remixes

by Cosmo Lee

The music at my gym is mostly horrible Hi-NRG dance fare. I have made multiple complaints, to little avail. As a result, I have probably been subjected to more dance versions of pop songs than any other human alive, including "Total Eclipse of the Heart," Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," Skee-Lo's "I Wish," Extreme's "More Than Words," and Celine Dion's song from The Titanic. Screw waterboarding and Deicide - as torture, this stuff would be infinitely more effective.

Poison (Alice Cooper)
Poison (Groove Coverage)

Nothing, however, could have prepared me for the most surreal remix of all (by a German group called Groove Coverage (a name which doesn't even make sense - it sounds like a football defensive scheme)). The moment is firmly etched in my mind. I was on the stair machine. Second one from the left. Doing the stairs. Doing the stairs. Over the speakers I hear, "Your cruel...device...your blood...like ice..." NOOOOOOOOOOOO. No effing way. Alice Cooper got a dance remix??? I nearly fell off the stair machine.

Even worse is the dance version of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train," by Gyr-8 Productions (yet another terrible name). Whenever I hear those arpeggiated synths at 0:19, a small part of me dies. Incredibly, this remix gets even worse. First come some "Macarena" synths. Then it goes into two different Italo house piano themes, dragging Randy Rhoads' riff along like a vestigial appendage. It's truly repulsive - which is why I can't stop listening to it. Goddamn, does it make me laugh. I can't see anyone ever dancing to it or even listening to it seriously. Maybe it's showed up in an aerobics class or two.

Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)
Crazy Train (Gyr-8 Productions)

CYT / Hostis / Drastus - From the Womb of Ferocious

In late 2006 and early 2007, John Darnielle wrote "Thirty Short Poems About My Favorite Black Metal Band." Of his fans, I'd guess that 90% know him for his indie rock band The Mountain Goats, while 10% know him for his writing on metal, including his cryptically amusing "South Pole Dispatch" column which ends each issue of Decibel. Collectively, "Thirty Short Poems" is the greatest piece of band fan mail that I've ever read. I have included links to all 30 because I insist that you read them all. They are indeed short, taking about 10-30 seconds each to read. However, they are uproariously funny; nearly each one made me laugh out loud. They are also incredibly tender and profound. Ultimately, they are as obsessive and imaginative as the object of their affection, Drastus.

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Drastus is a French one-man black metal band; he also runs the label Flamme Noire. While I don't share Darnielle's fanatical devotion to Drastus (10 poems in, you'd think he was about to propose marriage), I do appreciate his work. In the poems, Darnielle touches upon how hard it is to find. This is sort of true; his three releases all have very limited pressings. However, I have seen them come and go in various distros, as well as on eBay. Drastus is just one of those names you have to keep an eye out for. Over time, I have found his 2006 EP Taphos and From the Womb of Ferocious, his 2005 split with Hostis (his girlfriend) and CYT (his black metal band with her). The latter comes in an A5 sleeve, and Darnielle's ninth poem addresses the difficulty of storing such an object. I agree; A5 sleeves are a pain in the ass. I have a few - they're all by black metal bands (the "artistic" aspect, etc.) - and I banish them to a box where I try to ignore them.

Drastus - Tumor Reptatus
CYT - Ar Brezel Santez

But the music on Womb is impossible to ignore. Drastus does the split's best tracks; one is straightforward, ass-kicking black metal, while the other features strange, almost gothic singing over an industrial soundscape. Hostis turns in two tracks of menacing dark ambient, while CYT proffers solid black metal with incredibly deft drumming. I am doing a terrible job of description; Darnielle's poems are really all you need. With fans like this, who needs music critics?

Buy:
Ashen
Goatowarex
God Is Myth

Spektr - Mescalyne

Judging from their sound, Spektr refer to the drug and not the Mescalyne Islands in Vanuatu. On 2006's The Near Death Experience (which I wrote about here), this shadowy French duo rammed together dark ambient and black metal with jarring jump cuts. It was an intriguingly disruptive, Burroughsian take on an aesthetic that favors drones, trance states, and other continuums. The Mescalyne EP (Debemur Morti, 2007) is likewise cinematic and hallucinatory, but it isn't so disjointed. This is due to more cohesive drum programming that seems to have an electronic music influence, particularly drum 'n' bass. That's a strange influence to have these days, but Spektr are all about the strange. Mescalyne's four tracks feel like one, yielding a surprisingly cohesive, compact 23 minutes.

Mescalyne

Mescalyne is available from Moribund, Relapse, and The End.

Fight Amp, Avenger of Blood, Brutus, and more

Fight Amp

At Pitchfork, I've reviewed Fight Amp, a '90s AmRep throwback whom I suspect has a Danzig fetish. The recording is tough; the guy-girl vocals are tougher. At All Music Guide, I've reviewed Avenger of Blood (German thrash from Las Vegas), Barbara (artful Israeli sickness), Bilk (Croatian drum 'n' bass 'n' rock), Brutus (Caesar-slaying Dutch death metal), Cypher 7 (Bill Laswell-helmed IDM/dub), Last Chance to Reason (Maine calculus-core), The Phantom Family Halo (retro with a capital R), Primordial (the pride of Ireland), PureH (electronic desolation), Ratos de Porão (the pride of Brazil), and Shinjuku Thief (a soundtrack to Kafka's The Trial). You can also disregard this list and window-shop in the sidebar.

Fight Amp - Bound and Hagged
Avenger of Blood - Death Brigade

No U-Turn - Torque

The connection between drum 'n' bass and metal is somewhat well-documented. Simon Reynolds and Ian Christe have both pointed out that the preeminent dnb label is named Metalheadz. In Sound of the Beast, Christe likened the No U-Turn label to Death, Voivod, and Celtic Frost (he also astutely observed that the cover of the 1997 compilation Torque was like a cyborg version of Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance). I personally wouldn't make such comparisons (Voivod's futurism is/was much quirkier than dnb's), but spiritual connections definitely exist. Metal favors midrange, while dnb favors bass - and distortion brings them together.

Trace & Nico - Squadron (excerpt)
Trace & Nico - Damn Son (excerpt)

"Darkside" drum 'n' bass existed before No U-Turn, but Torque was its point of no return. Sampling stabs from old techno records, overlaying dissonant strings, and, most importantly, running synth basslines through distortion pedals, No U-Turn put aggression ahead of the dancefloor. Like other dnb, their tunes had chopped-up Amen breaks. But they were lumbering and malevolent, often dropping in without warning. Before Torque, the label experimented with these elements, often with a dub reggae/gangsta rap vibe. However, Torque crystallized the sound into a hard, gleaming whole. Its vinyl pressing was steely and loud, turning dancefloors into war zones.

Amazingly, one guy was responsible for this sound. Nico Sykes engineered most, if not all, the seminal No U-Turn records, with a rotating cast of collaborators. (For what little press exists on the label, see here). In the No U-Turn stable, DJ Trace earned his reputation for singularly monolithic basslines. Ragged stabs strafe "Squadron," as its low end erupts from the bowels of hell; it's one of the most evil sounds I've ever heard. "Damn Son" samples Raekwon ("Damn son, you bleedin' son, bad son") over a massive, menacing rumble. Dnb went on to rather overt metal homages (e.g., Nightbreed's "Pack of Wolves" and Kemal & Rob Data's remix of Pantera's "Fucking Hostile"), but their dark genesis lay in Torque.

Torque is available for download at beatport.com.

Fenriz on techno

Speaking of Darkthrone and black metal documentaries, Until the Light Takes Us will supposedly come out this year. Details so far are shadowy, but YouTube has a hilarious excerpt starring Fenriz. In a phone interview with a metal publication, he affirms his love for house and techno, specifically Monika Kruse. The silence on the other end is side-splitting. (I happen to like Kruse and her Terminal M label, though in recent years she's fallen to the same minimal virus that's crippled most of techno). Few things make me happier than open-minded metalheads pissing off close-minded ones.

Nocturno Culto - The Misanthrope (DVD)

The Misanthrope (Peaceville, 2007) is very much misnamed. No teenagers in corpsepaint here - Darkthrone's Nocturno Culto is quite the social creature. He goes ice fishing with his buddies; he goes camping with REI (or in Europe, probably Jack Wolfskin) endorsee Fenriz; he hangs out with an old guy named Knut; he shoots live footage of Gallhammer and Aura Noir; he plays board games with Aura Noir. This is a paean to community, not misanthropy.

Necroposers

Don't expect a Darkthrone documentary. Devoid of commentary and narrative, this DVD is basically a home video. We see beautiful shots of the Norwegian landscape, clips of Darkthrone rehearsal with Fenriz, artsy footage of Nocturno smoking, and baffling first person shots of cross-country skiing. The latter recall the video game Doom, in which your weaponless hand waves slowly in front of you. Footage of dragging around a coffin goes unexplained. Random jump cuts and cheesy visual effects abound. A cinematic masterpiece this is not.

Yet it's still watchable; a home video by Darkthrone is more interesting than most of our sad lives. The Gallhammer footage is awesome and too brief. Fenriz busts out with some trademark one-liners. Darkthrone in their death metal days appear in killer vintage live footage. There's that classic "toxic piss" scene I could swear I've seen in some black metal documentary. It's fascinating to see a way of life so different from the typical urban rat race. Those who live outside Scandinavia will get the most out of this.

Nocturno's soundtrack is truly ambient - pensive chords, hints of riffs, electronic noodlings. For background music, it's pleasant enough, and comes on a CD along with the DVD. At the moment, black metal documentaries are in vogue; thankfully, this isn't another one. It's just a bunch of snapshots with a-day-in-the-life appeal.

The Misanthrope is available in Europe from Peaceville, and in the US from Relapse, Amazon, and The End.

Eeltionnath - Self-Titled

Indiana's Eeltionnath comes billed as black metal, but this one-man act is much closer to power electronics/noise. Some blackened textures crop up, but this EP is mostly swathed in digital distortion. I'm not a fan of digital distortion, and it took me a while to fight past it here. But once I did, I discovered intriguing angles and melodies. MZ412 comes to mind a bit, and occasional electronic beats recall Skinny Puppy side project Download.

Rise of the Black Hoard
Destroy Thy Satan

Eeltionnath is Thaniel Ion Lee, one of the more interesting artists I've come across. His bio states, "My work is about my life as a person with a disability." Lee has arthrogryposis, which has left him with no biceps and no kneecaps, limited use of fingers and one arm, and the inability to straighten his hands and legs. However, Lee has been more productive than most able-bodied people, amassing a portfolio of painting, photography, and digital art that's been exhibited across the States. He also runs Artist Black Music, "a label specializing in drone, noise, post-rock, and experimental music."

The label's mission is "to release sound that is both damaged and beautiful." This EP isn't on the label, but it fulfills this mission. Most noise music is, well, noise to me, but Lee sneaks in lush pads reminiscent of Vangelis' work for Bladerunner. He juxtaposes them with harshly edited and effected vocals, as well as slightly techno-esque beats. However, a dense digital cocoon both unifies and obscures these elements. Unpack this exterior, and you'll find a very active mind inside.

This EP is available for free download here until March 20.

V/A - My Own Wolf (A Tribute to Ulver)

Speaking of Ulver, Aspherical Asphyxia Productions (say that two times fast), a Russian imprint, has released a two-disc tribute to Ulver - free for download. (The physical version is due out May 15, 2008.) I am normally not big on tribute records. But this one interests me, since the objet d'affection is Ulver, whose material seems especially malleable (see the remix compilation 1993-2003: 1st Decade in the Machines).

Ulver - Wolf and Hatred
Asmodée - Wolf and Hatred

This project is huge: 26 tracks totaling over two and a half hours, with artists from Russia, Finland, France, Ukraine, Australia, Israel, Germany, Latvia, US, Canada, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and Brazil (see lineup here). I am not familiar with most of the musicians (Joey Hopkins Midget Factory???). Some, however, I recognize on the cutting edge - France's Smohalla and Sael (France, as far as I'm concerned, is metal's cutting edge at the moment), Zweizz (ex-Dødheimsgard), Aidan Baker of Nadja.

Breakdown of albums covered: Perdition City and Kveldssanger at the top, followed by Nattens Madrigal. Perdition City makes sense - as Ulver's most electronic album, it's ripe for "remixing." Ironically, so is Kveldssanger, but because it's all-acoustic. From there, it's a grab bag, with some interesting choices - two tracks from the Vargnatt demo, two out of the three tracks of the Silencing the Singing EP.

Ulver - Catalept
Joey Hopkins Midget Factory - Catalept

The reinterpretations here are fascinating. Panacea Enterpainment turns the winsome melodies of "Porn Piece or the Scars of Cold Kisses" into beautifully blown-out, distorted ambience a la The Angelic Process. Aidan Baker's take on "Eitttlane" is a likewise massive, moving ambient sculpture. Jääportit morphs "Gnosis" into an 11-minute monster of menacing atmospheres, rolling beats, and female vocals; it's much, much stronger than the original.

Perhaps most intriguing is where the artists inject metal where there wasn't any before. The acoustic "Utreise" gets reworked twice - both times as melodic doom. Joey Hopkins Midget Factory reshapes the Bernard Herrmann-meets-RZA hip-hop of "Catalept" into a lush Tim Burton fantasy, complete with brief metallic guitars.

Ulver - Utreise
Avathar - Utreise
Bosque - Utreise

Not all the covers are revelatory, and there are a few downright clunkers. But smoothing the ride is the logical sequencing - weird stuff first, then straight black metal, then electronic bits leading to ambience, and so on. This release works on a stand-alone basis, but also sheds light on its source material. As a covers project, it's an absolute success. I can't believe the label is giving it away for free.

Download disc 1 here; disc 2 here; see here for the full list of download links and mirrors. If you like Ulver in any way, there is no reason why you shouldn't grab this.

Prurient & Kevin Drumm - All Are Guests in the House of the Lord

Famed experimental musician Kevin Drumm and Dominick Fernow in his Prurient guise collaborate on the abstract, layered, and hostile All Are Guests in the House of the Lord (Hospital Productions, 2007). I can't tell who's doing what, but it sounds like Fernow on vocals, which are evidently his first-ever intelligible ones. His spoken word goes through processing such as pitch-shifting and distortion. Plastikman's Closer has much of the same atmosphere.

First Memory of Pain
On This Slab

The vocals are portentous and somewhat pretentious, a grown-up version of the Snake Mountain microphone in He-Man (see original TV ad here). But they absolutely work, since the underlying textures move in response to them. These jams are dynamic, ranging from hovering synth ambience to all-out digital distortion attack. Symphonic soundbites and found sounds flit around in some of the best micro-sampling I've heard in years. Minimal techno has really turned me off to micro-sampling, over-using and cheapening it, but here the samples are actually emotional, like flashbacks of childhood memories. Perhaps this ties in to the vague theme of decaying imperial youth in Fernow's "libretto" (see text here).

Drumm and Fernow could easily have pounded out some hellishly abrasive aural enema. Instead, they've made something deeper and more open to interpretation - and thus ultimately more menacing.

All Are Guests in the House of the Lord is available from Hospital Productions, Reckless Records, Weirdo Records, and Mimaroglu.

MGR - Wavering on the Cresting Heft

MGR (aka Mustard Gas and Roses, from Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five) is guitarist Mike Gallagher of Isis. His Nova Lux was my #1 bedtime soundtrack last year, so I was excited to hear Wavering on the Cresting Heft (Conspiracy, 2007). The title is awkward but apt. His dark ambient project has left the domain of repose; it does not require standing up (that's his day job's duty), but it now demands sitting and listening closely.

Equilibrium
The Night Splits, Wide and Open

This is due to greater definition, starting with the fact that songs now have titles (Nova Lux had only Roman numerals). Evidently, the methodology is unchanged. Most sounds come from Gallagher's guitar and effects (SF's Capricollis Quartet adds understated strings to one track). But while the bed tracks are still atmospheric washes, Gallagher lets his guitar sound more like a guitar. He unspools delicate clean tones, heavy fuzz, and reverbed, tremolo-picked lines. These gestures naturally recall Isis; they also evoke Neurosis' mellower moments, particularly The Eye of Every Storm.

Before, these elements were skeletal in MGR. Here, Gallagher works them into chord progressions and climaxes. The album title suggests these tracks potentially tipping forward into full-fledged Isis songs. But they don't; they remain taut. This is partly due to harmonic minor tonalities, especially in the plaintive, keening finale of "The Night Splits, Wide and Open." The raised seventh rubbing against the root is more urgent than Isis' usual natural harmonic minor, whose flatted seventh is cooler, more distant. The result is menacing yet vulnerable, and quite rewarding.

Wavering on the Cresting Heft is available digitally from Conspiracy, and physically in Europe from Conspiracy and in the US from Amazon.

Horchata - Coleoid

Not just a tasty drink, Horchata is Michael Palace, a scientist at the University of New Hampshire's Complex Systems Research Center. His music dovetails with his work, which studies "necromass" (dead wood) in the Amazon rainforest. There, he makes field recordings, which he utilizes in his music. Environmental and ecological themes run through his music; recently, he provided the soundtrack for Out of Balance, a documentary film about ExxonMobil and climate change.

Manus (excerpt)
Tentacular (excerpt)

Coleoids are sea-dwelling invertebrates classed as cephalopods. In Palace's words, Coleoid (Afe, 2007) "focuses on the extreme depths in the oceans that these creatures can withstand and the alien-like world of darkness and pressure." Thus, this album is abyssal but polychromatic. Of its four long tracks, "Manus" is my favorite, as it explores a minor chord from seemingly every possible 3-D angle. "Tentacular" goes fathoms deep, conjuring up groaning bulkheads and glimpses of enormous creatures. This album's m.o. is slow but constant movement, with shimmering morphing into booming.

Assured, often fearsome, yet sometimes oddly soothing, Coleoid has been in heavy rotation for me. It's available as a limited edition of 100 in a tasty A5 sleeve from Afe's mail order.

TenHornedBeast - The Sacred Truth

TenHornedBeast is the UK's Christopher Walton, who reshapes an interest in doom metal into something much less formatted. Evidently, earlier work leaned towards guitar, bass, and drums. Now, however, TenHornedBeast exemplifies a world where black metal, doom metal, drone, and noise aren't loci but merely reference points shading into each other.

Our Lady of the Lightning Bolt (excerpt)
In the Teeth of the Wolf (excerpt)

"Dark ambient" best describes The Sacred Truth (Cold Spring, 2007). The term is inadequate, though, as the record is full of shade, if not necessarily light. It's a rich collage of sounds and sources - harnessed feedback, screaming synthetic winds, found sounds, electrical ambience. Flange-esque throbbing arcs throughout. "Oppression Sacrament" mixes religious chants into its miasma; "Strength Through Fear" saws out trenchant, cello-esque lines.

At 22 and a half minutes, "In the Teeth of the Wolf" is the record's linchpin. It's Godflesh inverted - guitars imploded so their atmosphere faces out, militant percussion marching in the background, cymbals hissing in a sea of roiling drones. The mix is seamless; the effect is cinematic. Ridley Scott would kill to have this for a soundtrack. Imagine exploring a massive, abandoned spaceship that mysteriously crackles with electrical life - or death.

This is art as it should be - fierce, nuanced, with room for interpretation. It comes in a beautiful digipak with matte finish and laminated accents, and is available in Europe from Conspiracy, in the US from Malignant and Ominous Drone, and in the UK and the rest of the world from Cold Spring.

RIP Stylus

Behold...The Arctopus

As you may have heard, Stylus Magazine closes its doors today. However, the site's pages will stay up. My final review for Stylus is of Soilwork's new album (I also have a review of Jesu's Lifeline EP and a dual review of Behold...The Arctopus and Byla & Jarboe). This brings me full circle: my first review for Stylus two and a half years ago was of Soilwork's previous record. Since then, my Stylus portfolio has 116 full-length reviews, 19 features and interviews, and 8 Left Hand Path columns. In total, I've reviewed 226 albums for Stylus.

Aetherius Obscuritas - Víziók
Behold...The Arctopus - Canada
Byla & Jarboe - 10:58 (excerpt)

I never thought I'd do half as many. Writing on metal for an indie rock audience has been an uphill battle. I'm proud of some of my work, embarrassed by lots more, and glad for the chance to sharpen my chops. My fellow Left Hand Path writers Stewart Voegtlin and Todd DePalma are working on a new site, so keep your eyes peeled. Looking back at the old Left Hand Path columns is quite a trip.

Up at Metal Injection, I have reviews of Hungarian one-man black metal band Aetherius Obscuritas, deathcore outfit Whitechapel (my review is drawing an amusing amount of ire), and Paths of Possession, the other band of Cannibal Corpse's George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher.

I don't do this enough - big up the work of other writers. Phil Freeman (The Wire, Village Voice, etc.) has a humorous piece on Marduk for The High Hat. Julie Graf has done a nice interview with The Dillinger Escape Plan for Stylus. The tireless Adrien Begrand has two mammoth pieces for PopMatters, on Ulver and former Gathering singer Anneke van Giersbergen, and on The Heavy Metal Box by Rhino. If anyone has the knowledge and stamina to tackle a 4-disc set that purports to cover heavy metal's history, it's Begrand.

Pholde - Aperture of the Internal Surface

Afe Records is one of my happier discoveries this year. This Italian dark ambient/experimental label, run by Andrea Marutti, stands for both quantity and quality. Its discography is enormous, yet each release comes in awe-inspiring packaging - limited edition CD-R with pro-printed A5 sleeve and high quality artwork. For the past few months, I've listened to Afe releases almost every day, both as background and foreground music. There's no one Afe sound, but in plurality, Afe is slowly seeping under my skin.

Aperture of the Internal Surface (excerpt)
Manifested by the Occurrence (excerpt)

Pholde is Canada's Alan Bloor, who records harsher sounds as Knurl. Bloor is a trained musician, with experience in jazz bass and classical guitar. For Pholde, though, he drops tonality in favor of metallic timbres - metal the substance, not the genre. Imagine sticking your head inside a gigantic, 50 meter-wide cymbal as giants and dwarves run their hands around its surfaces, extracting every sound it can produce. One gets the sensation of falling into a bottomless foundry.

At two long tracks (31:31 and 14:13), Aperture of the Internal Surface forces reorientation of listening modes. One stops listening for songs and starts listening to sound. The waveforms reveal that the tracks have contours, though they're not obvious in such dilated timeframes. The title track is five slow crescendos; "Manifested by the Occurrence" is two long sections. Bloor recorded these tracks as single takes sans overdubs. It's a tribute to his skill with sound manipulation that I can listen to essentially 45 minutes of metallic cymbal sounds and enjoy every moment.

Aperture of the Internal Surface is available from Afe's mail order.

Pulsefear - Perichoresis

I often listen to dark ambient before I go to sleep. Sure, most dark ambient isn't exactly relaxing, but usually anything sustained and drumless sends me off to never, neverland. However, the first time I heard Pulsefear's Perichoresis (Profound Lore, 2007), I lay there not only awake, but stressed out, my heart racing, my body in a cold sweat - an apt response, given the artist's name.

Gauze (excerpt)
Lighthouse pt. 1 (excerpt)

Pulsefear is the dark ambient project of Michael Blenkarn and Brooke Johnson, who are part of English industrial black metal outfit The Axis of Perdition. AoP has strong dark ambient tendencies, so this project isn't such a large leap (Blut Aus Nord is similarly binary in ethic, though not in sound). But while Axis snarls forth some of the most hostile ambient I've ever heard, Pulsefear is more subliminal.

The bio's namecheck of the Silent Hill video game is spot-on; indefinite atmospheres swirl around sans arcs over time, waxing and waning at will. The resulting soundscapes are off-kilter and unpredictable. Imagine musty, decaying dungeons crossed with Bladerunner (the smoky futurism, not the soundtrack) - the vibe is vaguely and distantly foreboding, but with an edge born of technology and sound design. Oddly, old drum 'n' bass comes to mind, like early Technical Itch or Modus Operandi-era Photek.

Evidently, "Perichoresis" is "the existence of multiple divine persons in one another, such as the Holy Trinity of Christianity." The term is fitting, of course, for a side project. But such multiplicity also applies to the sound - it's quite alive, with detail and movement, yet on a macroscopic level, it's a portrait of extremely slow death. Some of the best sci-fi combines the retro and the futuristic (e.g., City of Lost Children); this would make an appropriate soundtrack.

Perichoresis is available for not much from Profound Lore and The End. Those who invest in the digipak artifact will be rewarded with exquisite photographs of abandoned buildings by Melanie Rhys.

The Red Chord, Darkest Hour, Halford, etc.

The Red Chord

I'm moving from Berlin to San Francisco at the end of this month. This, combined with excessive travel (five trans-Atlantic crossings in six weeks, with five destination airports and way too much sleeping while sitting), has severely hampered my recent productivity.

The Red Chord - Tread on the Necks of Kings
Halford - Made in Hell
Year of No Light - Traversée

However, I've published a bit since my last update - dual reviews of Azalea City Penis Club/Robin Allender and Caina/Godheadscope at Stylus, as well as a review of Immolation and an interview with Year of No Light. At Metal Injection, I've reviewed The Red Chord, Darkest Hour, Halford, Mortuus, and Ion Dissonance, as well as a DVD of the Metalmania 2006 festival and a fine book by Keith Kahn-Harris.

Jesu - Silver (Original Beats)

Oddly, Adult Swim has posted a Jesu track in a free, downloadable mixtape called Warm & Scratchy. The track is the "Original Beats" version of "Silver" (originally available on the Silver EP's Japanese release), which is a little hard to believe. With mid-'90s beats and messy keyboards and basslines that don't gel with its melodies, it feels like a remix. At any rate, it makes an interesting comparison with the final version, which has much more heft and focus. Similarly, Jesu's MySpace has the "Original Mix" of "Wolves."

Silver (Original Beats)
Silver

Has anyone heard the Jesu split with Eluvium out on vinyl on Temporary Residence? The Jesu blog says "Hydra Head version to be announced soon..." Does that mean a CD release?

MGR - Nova Lux

Nova Lux (Neurot, 2006) was the album I listened to the most last year at bedtime (the runnerups being Blut Aus Nord's MoRT and Spektr's The Near Death Experience). MGR is the ambient project of guitarist Mike Gallagher of Isis. Though of course it doesn't rock like Isis, it's actually not that far removed; imagine the mellow, clean-toned parts of Isis dilated over long, beatless tracks.

I

Gallagher generates tones and washes mostly without a computer, using only guitar and pedals. Refreshingly, he often keeps a slight pulse and sketches out delicate but definite chord progressions. The result isn't as detailed as something computer-generated, though it's certainly more laidback. Skeletal yet dreamy, this album has near-infinite playability. It's available from Neurot.

Spektr - The Near Death Experience

Since sleep is the theme this week, I thought I'd revisit one of my favorite bedtime lullabies, The Near Death Experience (Candlelight, 2006). People have already written on it, but it was such a soundtrack to my subconscious last year that I'd have nightmares not mentioning it. Basically, it's a dark ambient record with grimy, bloody black metal spliced in seemingly randomly.

Whatever the Case May Be

Dimhymn is the only other act I've heard do this, though others probably do it also. This post-production aesthetic fascinates me - record the band rocking the fuck out, then toss it into the computer and mutilate it some more. Throw in movie soundbites and white noise, slather scary whooshing noises on top, and serve on a platter of dripping font goodness.

The CD has an awesome 12-minute video that syncs hallucinogenic, grainy footage of alternately mundane and horrific images with utter precision to the audio - in glorious black and white (this is a French film, after all). It alone is worth the price of the disc. You can find it at Candlelight. Me, I'm going to have sweet dreams tonight.

Sleep Research Facility - Deep Frieze

Cold Spring bills Deep Frieze (2007) as "dark ambient," which is sort of true; the nether regions of this release are often dimly-lit. But for the most part, this disc matches its cover - glacial and wintry. This isn't the tranquil beauty that Norwegian black metal fetishizes. It's the harsh indefiniteness of a Midwest winter, with temperatures biting and winds swirling all around.

79°S 83°W (excerpt)

But beneath the snowdrifts lies structure. These 10+ minute tracks have long, slow arcs, morphing through abstract, sometimes soothing tonalities. For such epic settings, the background and high end carry surprising detail. Occasionally the tones crystallize into a Fortress of Solitude; a distant, walkie-talkie voice interjects at one point.

I've tested this album in my own sleep research facility (i.e., bed), and it's wonderful for such purposes. However, it also sounds great cranked up. It's calming at times, and menacing at others - I've found no better audio representation of winter. Put on your gloves and pick up this icy slab at Cold Spring.

Rainfall / Umbra - Arboreal Eternity

Arboreal Eternity is a split featuring Florida's Rainfall on two cuts of black metal and Australia's Umbra on four tracks of dark ambience. Despite their frequent juxtaposition, the two styles don't fit together well here, though they share a lyrical affinity for nature themes.

Rainfall - Moonlight
Umbra - Drawn to Rotting Caverns

Rainfall's black metal is plodding, one-man business, with a harsh, raw recording. The riffs are somber and enjoyable, but there's no reason for them to carry on for nine and seven minutes. "Long" does not necessarily equal "hypnotic." The vocals are jarring, with powerless rasps that feel unnatural and affected. If you sing about casting yourself "into the fires of the astral plain," then sound like it!

Umbra's tracks fare better, though they're undercooked. They're truly "ambient" in that they don't command foreground attention. Instead, they rest on vaguely foreboding pads with occasional environmental sounds. Percussive sounds drop in at times, but instead of taking flight into, say, industrial territory, they inevitably yield to soft pads. A track called "Awakening of the Forest's Malevolence" should sound like the wrath of the Ents! There's potential here, especially in the processed vocals, so hopefully future efforts will be more challenging.

You can download the split for free here; a CD-R release is due out shortly on Greek label Daemonokratia Productions.

Godheadscope - Meristem

Godheadscope is Matt Rosin, who has a long, distinguished resume as collaborator with Dead Raven Choir and Wolfmangler. Rosin also has a prog/folk/chamber music project called Cindervoice. In other words, he's insanely talented. God Is Myth will release Godheadscope's A City Out of Sight in June, and the label says it's Arvo Pärt-meets-Corrupted, which isn't exactly true. That would sound like the end of the world; Godheadscope is much more intimate.

Meristem

But there's something to that comparison. Godheadscope's abstract noise/drone takes Godflesh's feedback and spiky harmonics as starting points, building fuzzed-out, trembling worlds where vocals surface occasionally and bass lines plod forlornly. While the midrange commands the most interest, the low end separates this project from likeminded ones, adding weight amid the synaptic fireworks. Track two of this three-song EP turns off the lights for delicate acoustic guitar and sporadic wind chimes. The juxtaposition isn't seamless - ACOOS is more coherent - but the underlying vision is obvious.

Meristem is unsigned; if you wish to rectify that or to acquire one of 2007's better half-hours, contact Godheadscope's MySpace.

Antigama, Throne of Katarsis, Get Thrashed, and more

Antigama

A bunch of new writing up - at Metal Injection, I've got reviews of Polish grinders Antigama, Norwegian black metal band Throne of Katarsis, and Los Angeles prog metallers Redemption, as well as interviews with Spanish band NahemaH and shredder Laura Christine from San Diego death metallers Warface.

Antigama - Neutral Balance
Naglfar - The Darkest Road
Stalaggh - Projekt Misanthropia (excerpt)

At Stylus, I've reviewed Rick Ernst's excellent documentary film, Get Thrashed: The History of Thrash Metal. I also have dual reviews of black metallers Naglfar/Nagelfar and the literally insane Diagnose: Lebensgefahr/Stalaggh. Stalaggh is hands down the scariest sound I've ever heard. Coil's Hellraiser themes, the original Omen soundtrack, Prussian Blue - all pale in comparison.

Wax Audio - Metal Mashups

Speaking of Sabbath, Professor Nicola Masciandaro of Brooklyn College-CUNY has published a gloss (.pdf file) on the song "Black Sabbath." In this case, "gloss" does not mean "a brief, often shitty explanation," but "a long-ass philosophical commentary." It's 18 pages, more than one for each line in the song! Honestly, most of it goes over my head (it literally took me hours to work through it; for some reason, the odd-numbered pages go down more easily), and no doubt I would fail Masciandaro's classes. However, he's no nigel hipster; he goes to academic conferences in full medieval finery, which of course is quite metal.

Whole Lotta Sabbath
Thunder Busters
Stayin' Alive in the Wall

And speaking of Sabbath and Maiden, Australian producer Wax Audio (aka Tom Compagnoni) has posted some great mashups for free download at his MySpace.

Normally, he deconstructs more political sounds (unsurprisingly, Negativland is in his Top 16). With these mashups, though, he's using pop, rock, and metal sources. I know mashups are so 2001, but some of these are extremely, extremely well-done. Some are not - avoid the Public Enemy/Iron Maiden one, which sounds like it would be interesting, but made me want to smash my computer into bits. Michael Jackson vs. Metallica also fared quite badly.

However, three were downright spectacular.

"Whole Lotta Sabbath" is perhaps the best mashup I've ever heard (next to Fugazi/Destiny's Child). It had me headbanging and throwing goats, no joke. Unbelievably, the sum is greater than its parts, "Whole Lotta Love" and "War Pigs." Sabbath may have been the first metal band, but I've always thought that "Whole Lotta Love" had the first metal riff ever - palm-muting + machine-gun articulation. This mashup creates a rather surreal supergroup with Page and Iommi as a guitar tandem. Lyrics are the only obstacles to complete cohesion. Ozzy's singing about how the war machine keeps turning, while Robert Plant's faking an orgasm. You can't win 'em all.

In "Thunder Busters," The Razor's Edge and Ray Parker, Jr. make for a cheeky but seamless union. Brilliant move layering the best one-handed riff of all time over, ahem, thundering syn drums. What stands out is the quality of the production, which isn't the "two radios at the same time" mess that mashups often are.

"Stayin' Alive in The Wall" isn't metal, but I had to include it because it's so damn good. This is an amazingly logical pairing. Both songs have very similar grooves - why didn't someone think of this earlier? "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" must be one of the strangest #1 singles of all time. I can't think of any occasion (school dance, wedding, bar mitzvah) where someone would request it from a DJ.

KLF vs. ENT

KLF is gonna rock you

I won't go into the history of The KLF, as many others have already done so. Suffice it to say that Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty were two strange guys with a brilliant knack for publicity. Their stunts included burning a million pounds (true) and allegedly doing sonic weapons research on cows (false).

But their crowning moment was their final performance, at the 1992 Brit Awards, the UK equivalent of the Grammys. The KLF had won "Best British group" and were to play a live version of their house anthem "3 A.M. Eternal." Wearing a kilt, leaning on a crutch, and firing machine gun blanks at the audience, Drummond showed up with Extreme Noise Terror in tow and bashed out a chaotic (and rather crappy) metal version of the tune. Later, the band delivered a sheep carcass to an industry afterparty. How black metal of them.

Below is a video of that performance, which holds more historical than aesthetic value. But first, the original (and perhaps more absurd) video for comparison:

The KLF - 3 A.M. Eternal



Extreme Noise Terror - 3 A.M. Eternal

Light of Shipwreck - From the Idle Cylinders

Sun Rise then Explode (excerpt)

Self-Released
2007



Light of Shipwreck is Ben Fleury-Steiner, who also runs the Gears of Sand label. From the Idle Cylinders layers processed electric guitars and vocals over programmed percussion, with occasional bass and acoustic guitar. For lack of a better word, the result could be called "ambient." It's a testament to this CD's quality that I've listened to it for almost four hours on repeat, and I haven't tired of it yet.

For a recording to do that, it must be both low-impact and abstract. In other words, it doesn't tell you how to react to it. It just is, and its openness to interpretation makes each listen a unique experience. But while this album doesn't hit you over the head, it's also not a chillout session. In fact, the percussion is rather lively, with full-kitted patterns building up to climaxes that feel like gusting winds. Bongos/congas sometimes enter the patterns, but the album avoids the "ethno techno" trap. We're dealing with pure dynamics here, with almost no genre referents.

I say almost, because electric guitars are recognizable as the sound sources. But aside from a few clean-toned parts, you won't hear gestures that signify "rock guitar" (i.e., attack). However, you'll hear results that do (i.e., sustain, release). In other words, you'll hear the feedback from the note, but not the original note itself - imagine James Plotkin processing live Hendrix recordings, with Aphex Twin programming drums underneath.

The album consists of three tracks ranging from 12 to almost 20 minutes in length. Each track is really a set of subpieces that enter and exit via audible crossfades. The effect is like a DJ mixing between very different records, and it's refreshingly unpredictable. Overall, though, the mood is psychedelic. With electric guitars distantly howling through reverbs, this album conjures up the desert in that "Bullet the Blue Sky"/"Mountain Song" sort of way.

From the Idle Cylinders will be coming out shortly on a label TBA. This is my first experience with Fleury-Steiner's music, but for sure it won't be my last.

Contagiion - Monolith

Twilight
The Apparition

Dungeons Deep
2006


Contagiion is a one-man dark ambient act from the States. His Monolith demo is nothing like its name; in fact, it's quite minimal-sounding. Even the most "ambient" of dark ambient projects usually have foreground intentions, but this demo is more like background music. That's not a dis; the sparseness is rather creepy. It's often scarier to hint at danger than to show it.

The soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway particularly comes to mind. Simple synth tones, low drones, and ominous whispers carry the first two tracks. The demo "peaks" with the short, eerie "Twilight" before receding to knocking noises, echoing snatches of vocals, and foggy samples of Gregorian-type chanting. The most recent track, "The Apparition," is the most layered one, suggesting an increase in technical skill over time.

However, I don't mind how the other tracks often present sounds one at a time, as the space between them is quite pregnant. I can totally imagine this as the score for the scene in Lost Highway when Patricia Arquette searches her house looking for an intruder. The artwork, too, is beautifully evocative. Extremely limited pressing of 10 (!) copies available at Dungeons Deep.

Nightbringer / Temple of Not - Rex Ex Ordine Throni

Nightbringer - Mors Philosphorum
Temple of Not - Temple of Not
(excerpt)