October has brought along more than a few heavy hitters and though I’d love to cover all of them, I just won’t be able to do so due to time constraints and working a thankless day job.
Hexivoid comes first on the list with Disdain From A Burning Cosmos, which I would describe as a dissonant, slightly melodic and rather technical journey through the stars. I think that the record suffers a bit from how raw it is and with a crisper production, I would find myself a bit more entranced. Make no mistake however, as there is clearly an effort made here and it feels very much in the same arena as Krallice or Deathspell Omega. The vocals feel like nonsensical screams at times with no real sense of purpose other than to be another instrument; but at least the disc manages to get it’s point across. Many of the songs sound a bit similar except with minor excursions here and there, but the album’s closer and title track ends the whole thing on an unexpectedly calming note. It’s a fun album, but I feel that the rawness of some sections hold it down a bit.
Next I have Fvneral Fvkk here with Carnal Confessions, which I am assuming is an EP due to it’s twenty minute playing time. After a short introduction, we’re welcomed by “Chapel Of Abuse” where earth-shatteringly slow tempos adorn with bountiful melody lines, following the palette of what good doom should be. Though I enjoy the vocal performance, I feel that I was spoiled by a smattering of harsh vocal here and that doesn’t appear throughout the rest of the album. These days I find that I’m too hyped up on caffeine to really get into slower music, and the pace on this one can be a tad too slow for me. However, I can definitely see where the melody section on this album shines. “Alone With The Cross” shows the band picking things up a little, as the added distortion gives the material a bit of flavor. Again, I’d like to hear some harsh vocals in areas as the frontman proves he’s capable of it in one short section of the album, and it is a very unique rasp if I do say so myself. I think a good mixture of death and doom would pick things up a bit here as I found this record just a tad bit slow. However, I think that’s the whole point. Damn you, coffee and Dr. Pepper.
This month I also have two releases here from Shroud Of Despondency and things have changed quite a bit since I’ve covered them last. The band is now just a one man project and frankly, there’s nothing here that shows me it can’t be done well with just one member. Obviously there’s passion here and that’s showcased with their previous album Cull and Befouled By The Sacred: Love Is A Callous.
First we will start with Cull, which focuses more on black metal, though contains the obvious bells and whistles that Shroud have been known for and keeps the experience unique. “Instincts Of Falling Stars” is pretty straight-forward, but “Brother Born With Broken Bones” rolls into disco black metal which culminates in blackened thrash. That tops off with a speedy guitar solo and further exemplifies the kind of out of the box thinking that Shroud are known for. “Poisoned Soil” throws some death metal elements into the mix, along with an even crazier solo than before. There’s even a small touch of prog at the end. Both parts of “Cull” are strictly rooted in black metal, but also feature screaming solos. There’s also an emphasis on thrash to be had here, which works in the band’s favor and actually reminds me a little bit of proto-black metal, like Venom and Bathory. This album feels like eighties black metal shaking hands with nineties black metal and that works pretty well in retrospect. Obviously, riff melodies are a large focus here and that’s something that I feel should be a larger focus in most bands these days. But if you’ve seen LouderSound’s Spotify totals, you see what people are listening to these days and I can assure you that aside from the greats, (Queen is in the top spot) the same stuff that the radio has forced upon rock and metal listeners for years is still just as popular as it was before, even now that people have a choice. As for the rest of the album, “Caving Grounds” and closer “I, Beast Of Prey” certainly continue the onslaught. Sure, the disc is a bit raw; but I don’t think that people will complain all that much, especially considering the amount of effort that has gone into designing these structures. The result is a killer black metal album with notable touches that take it a step above several of the black metal clones I find on a daily basis.
Next we have Befouled By The Sacred: Love Is A Callous, which is a completely different kind of album. I say that because opener “A Callous Distance” is a death/doom track replete with gothic organs. That mood also changes with “Aphotic Conditions” as blaring death metal slowly mixes in with tiny bits of piano and some symphonic effects. This album is more groove-influenced and feels a bit more punishing than Cull, but that makes sense as they are two completely different sides of the band. However, I’m feeling classic death metal here and I’m almost apt to dig that a bit more as I will admittedly say that I’ve been burned out on black metal over the years. The next couple of tracks seem like a mix of black and death, though death is more prominent. One interesting thing I’ve noticed album this album is that with the lengthier cuts like “Abundant and Nullified” and “The Metamorphosis” is that closer to the end of these pieces, the mood changes and either offers more guitar acrobatics or utilizes a piano. Both songs start out relatively heavy, but they change course a bit further down the road and that’s fine. However, the most interesting use of atmosphere here would be on the finale, “Cracked Hull” where I would consider the fact that every possible facet available to Shroud was utilized. There’s a little bit of everything here and it’s a wonderful closing note to the material.
All in all, I think that Cull and Befouled By The Sacred: Love Is A Callous are both solid albums with a lot of hard work put into each. They also deliver the classic sounds of black and death metal to listeners, complete with a couple of extra bells and whistles that work to showcase the continued uniqueness of this band.
Chaos Over Cosmos also sent me their self-titled debut and I found that to be rather interesting just in the amount of technical melodies that are washing over me. This is definitely apparent on instrumental closer “Asimov” where you can gleam the Animals As Leaders and Beyond Creation influence, among several others I’m quite sure. Harsh vocal utterances are also utilized, with decent enough cleans, but the main point of this album is definitely in it’s composition. There’s a whole world to be unearthed in the guitar acrobatics alone and I feel that this project certainly has something to offer the world.
There’s a Boris album that I’m supposed to review as well and it’s their first in several years, titled Love & Evol. There’s just one small problem I have with this album, being the nearly devoted fan of Boris that I have been for the past decade or so – I actually can’t get into it. Trust me folks, I’ve tried. I know that Boris are a a highly experimental band and I’ve championed that. Though I feel that so much of the drone influence was utilized here that I completely lost sight of the whole concept. “Away From You” is a real standout song, but after that I find that “Coma” made me feel like I was in one (though I am not sure if that was the intended effect) while “Evol” had it’s moments. It’s beginning tribalisms were very intriguing and it morphed into something altogether different. “Uzume” sounds like it came from “The Thing That Solomon Overlooked” and that’s fine, but Boris’s drone years were never my personal favorite. “Love” lost me completely, no matter how much I want to get into it. It sounds like a very twisted, trippy kind of thing and feels uneasy. Again, maybe that was the goal, but I feel like this might work in another context, like illustrating a piece of media. “In The Pain(t)” feels a bit dreamlike, while closer “Shadow Of Skull” comes off as a monolithic mixture of doom and drone. It feels like it could also fit in with “The Thing That Solomon Overlooked” so fans of that material will actually find something to enjoy here. If you didn’t like the Solomon stuff all that much like myself, Love & Evol probably won’t appeal to you as much as Pink or Heavy Rocks would, but I know for sure that there are a lot of people who wanted Boris to go back to this kind of sound and I think it’s great that they’ve decided to give them what they want. As for me, I’ll simply wait for their next outing. After all, Boris have given me more than enough great music as it is and I feel it would be ill mannered to make a complaint over one recording.