Just when you thought the fine folks at 20 Buck Spin had already delivered their gnarly goods for the year with the absolutely crushing new Coffins album, along comes Life’s Trade, the debut recording of Midwestern doom mongers Samothrace. Easily one of the slowest, heaviest records to come down the pipe this year, Life’s Trade is separated from the pack not by its bludgeoning bulk, but by the subtle nuances that accompany its leaden trudge across your sound system.
Continue reading ‘Samothrace – Life’s Trade (20 Buck Spin 2008)’
In 2007 this Belarusian ensemble released their s/t album through Altr0ck and it was one of my favourites of that year and a great album overall. Their quirky style, inspired by classical composers such as Stravinsky and Ives to experimental and progressive rock groups such as Univers Zero has won me over and I was highly anticipating their next effort. Little did I know that it would turn out to be such a brilliant album, which shows a progression from their previous output, going into new direction, trying and experimenting with new routes and possibilities. Continue reading ‘Rational Diet – At Work (Altr0ck, 2008)’
This album can truly charm snakes
This four piece instrumental band from CT, USA has released so far two albums, of the heavy brand with several underlying elements such as a spacey and psychedelic atmosphere, stoner-rock elements (listen to the last track on Snakecharmer), fusion segments emphasized by the bewitching cello and an overall encompassing and enveloping sound that takes me away while listening to far away places, surrounded by mountains of crushing riffs and deep evoking rhythms and the alternating uplifting or mesmerizing string instrument playing. Continue reading ‘Cargo Cult Revival – Snakecharmer (Forgotten Empire, 2008)’
New Jersey based band that seem to not take life too seriously, or at least with much humour. This is also evident in their music, but listen carefully to realize how much effort, work and emotion has been put into it.
Crazy to a certain extent, Fun Machine “produces” music which is, well… fun! Continue reading ‘Fun Machine – Sonnenhuhn (BNS Sessions, 2009)’
With the proliferation of black metal across the four corners of the globe in recent years, it’s become increasingly difficult to find albums that capture the true grim atmosphere that initially made the genre so compelling. Real black metal has never been about being conventionally heavy, rather it is about creating an atmosphere of pure darkness and insidious evil. And while this notion may be lost on many of today’s corpsepaint-festooned Johnny-come-latelys, Germany’s Anael is the rare modern band that is able to generate the sort of spellbinding, utterly hypnotic grimness that all great black metal should be characterized by.
Continue reading ‘Anael – From Arcane Fires (Paragon Records, 2008)’
I have to admit, for a while there I was pretty well burnt out on grindcore. With fall getting ready to turn into winter, the speed-freak in me was starting to go into hibernation and I was preparing to spend the cold months listening to my usual seasonal diet of lethargic doom and frost-bitten black metal. That is, until I caught Willowtip Record’s War on Everything Tour back in September and witnessed Florida’s Maruta whip themselves into an absolute frenzy on stage. I bought a copy of their impressive debut album In Narcosis (which Willowtip would later send me a promo of) right there on the spot and briefly spoke with singer Mitchell Luna, hoping he would be interested in some coverage here in the realm of Dethroned Emperor. Months later, I finally got in touch with Mitchell and the resulting interrogation ensued via e-mail.
Continue reading ‘Dethroned Emperor #16′
Achenar is in fact Duncan Hemingway from Scotland who also started Earthen Records which issued this album, its first. An album in the works for a long time (over a decade according to the promotional info sheet), this is Achenar debut release.
Continue reading ‘Achenar – All Will Change (Earthen Records, 2008)’
This release is a recording of a live show from 2006 in Tel-Aviv (Israel) and features 14 tracks. The first 6 are improvisations by the Tatsuya Yoshida along with Igor Krutogolov (from Kruzenshtern and Parohod) and Assif Tsahar. The other 8 tracks are Tatsuya Yoshida playing alone and are his compositions/improvisations.
Continue reading ‘Tatsuya Yoshida with Igor Krutogolov and Assif Tsahar – Live In The Head (Auris Media, 2008)’
Just when you thought the fine folks at 20 Buck Spin had already delivered their gnarly goods for the year with the absolutely crushing new Coffins album, along comes Life’s Trade, the debut recording of Midwestern doom mongers Samothrace. Easily one of the slowest, heaviest records to come down the pipe this year, Life’s Trade is separated from the pack not by its bludgeoning bulk, but by the subtle nuances that accompany its leaden trudge across your sound system.
