CATHEDRAL Tower Of Silence video

CATHEDRAL Tower Of Silence video Play this video

The final music video off the final album of UK doom legends Cathedral's career, The Last Spire, out April 29th on RISE ABOVE Records. Directed by UK based Paraffin City Productions, Inspired by classic cult British Film Institutions such as Amicus and Hammer House of Horror, "Tower of Silence" was shot on location during the [...]

Reviews

CD Review: YOB Atma

YOB-Atma

What the fuck is going on in Oregon?  Some of the most forward thinking yet hazy, cerebral and generally unhappy music of recent years – Agalloch, Wolves in the Throne Room, Yob – has emerged, drunk on small batch craft brew, out of those fog shrouded hills to lay a vicious beating on our collective synapses.  Surely the Black Flag/Sabbath-worshiping heritage of neighboring Washington state has rubbed off over the years, but in the past decade cities like Portland, Eugene and Salem have staked a legit claim for Oregon being the new center of musical creativity on the West Coast (LA's resurgence of indie rock being their only real competition, Seattle still largely reeling from their grunge hangover).

(more…)

Reviews

CD Review: AGALLOCH – Marrow of the Spirit

Marrow of the Spirit

by James Zalucky

When it comes to creativity, few bands can match the power and brilliance of  AGALLOCH. Over the course of their career they've taken folk, black metal, doom metal, and several other elements to craft a truly unique sound. When you hear one of their songs, you know who you're listening to. Therefore, it was with much excitement that I agreed to review their latest album, Marrow of the Spirit.

With water flowing and birds chirping in the background, the album opens with the cello tune, They Escaped the Weight of Darkness. AGALLOCH has always had something of the melancholy to their music, but this opener is nothing short of pure distilled despair, a theme that runs through the entire album. Guest musician Jackie Perez Gratz plays a melody so somber that it could easily fit the soundtrack to a funeral. I’d be surprised if you can get through the song without a frown on your face. (more…)

Reviews

CD Review: Black Math Horseman, Wyllt

By: Navjot Kaur Sobti

Now, I’m not usually a chick who has the patience to get through most doom metal, unless it’s my bedtime, snooze-inducing soundtrack to abysmally sweet dreams. When I picked up Black Math Horseman’s 2010-released Wyllt, however, let’s just say I got a wake-up call from a genre I’d otherwise have remained all too casual to dismiss.

The slow layering of instruments – first, primitive drum beats, with soft but emotive melody is enough to make the listener comfortable and open to what he/she is listening to, and gradually open up their senses to the melancholy and solitude that the progression invokes thereafter (“A Barren Cause”). With vocals that are melodic, through and through, we get a fresh listening that’s reminiscent of the Osma-style encountered in such Thorr’s Hammer’s tunes as “Norg.”

Despite the familiarity of certain aspects of this record, it’s clear this Los Angeles-based four piece is not afraid to venture out of their comfort zone (of the slow-tempoed doom metal track), with the faster-paced, rock n’ roll laced “Origin of Savagery.” Though the vocals are a bit indiscernible to me (I’d have to look up the lyrics to understand what she is saying), ironic considering my slowly acquired ability to dig out real words from some seriously un-human sounding death to the grimiest black metal vocals, her voice is beyond just uncelestially beautiful enough to keep me ear-to-ear with the lyrics (be they English, or her own incarnate of this already nonsensical language).

Steering their way through the barricades of the doom and psychedelic metal underground (who knew those eras could be so harmoniously fused, without the cheese or the balding hippies), Black Math Horseman ain’t foolin’: having recently shared a tour with Shrinebuilder (feat. Members of Om, NEUROSIS, the Melvins, St. Vitus, and Sleep), and having been set to play what would have been the unholy Roadburn Festival (had those damn Volcanoes not cast their evil eye over the already wicked metal disciples who’d originally been booked to cast the European continent afire).

If you’re into that fusion of all things dark, trippy, and straight-out doom, this is a band that’ll meet your fill.