Black Lava – The Savage Winds of Wisdom 9/10
Melbourne heralds of extreme metal Black Lava follow up their debut album Soul Furnace with The Savage Winds of Wisdom. It’s an album that takes everything off the debut and makes it heavier, darker, and blacker yet retains its energy.
Contains an enviable line-up of enigmatic vocalist Rob Watkins, guitarist Ben Boyle, drummer Dan Presland, and bassist Nick Rackham where previous outfits such as A Million Dead Birds Laughing, Vipassi, Aphotic Dawn, Ne Obliviscaris, and Blackhelm the musicianship is excellent as it you it would demand. The vocals are a chameleon of aggression, able to move with the dynamics and the attitude of the music that on The Savage Winds of Wisdom adds some blackened death metal to an already heavy maelstrom that also includes some up-tempo beats and touches of thrash. The length of time between releases has allowed the music to grow and develop, from the technical apocalypse of opener ‘’ Colour of Death’’ through to the power of ‘’Pagan Dust ‘’ the subtleties of ‘’ Sanguis Lupus’’ and the might of rock n roll infused ‘’ “Ironclad Sarcophagus”. It is a subterranean journey where death metal and doom sludge are combined with some inspired ideas and structures that elevate them out of the genre.
The Savage Winds of Wisdom is an album that epitomizes modern extreme music where the vocals dominate the mix and the solos are forsaken for a continually rhythmic dynamic that allows little respite but lots of experimentation. Mature, more extreme yet also incredibly listenable the decay is tangible and the atmosphere thick and cloying. Black Lava has created a genre pushing release that takes the forms of extreme music and twists them into something new.
A Thousand Reasons – Fragments 8.5/10
The creation of Simone "Zimon" Sut, A Thousand Reasons is a Technological noise infused solo project that began in 2009 alongside the artist the artists other metal/gothic projects His fifth release Fragments is a release of collaborations that is pure experimentalism, electronica, tinged with industrial and noise , that defies the convention of traditional dark ambience
From the hidden darkness that lurks within Genesis (Reborn) To the subliminal beauty that is ‘’Like Leaves From the Sky’’ conjuring images rays of light through a rain soak forest, A thousand Reasons is a project that is able to nimbly traverse the ambient soundscape without being repetitive or self-indulgent. They are the Purest emotions, sometimes brief other lengthy, riddled with beauty at others a dystopian nightmare of sound that pierces the sense as ‘Evolutionary’’ attests to complete with an unhinged solo. Its partner “Evolutionary ‘’Embryonic’’ is a lurking industrial creation that harness unique synth touches to give it life. ‘’Dark Fate Prediction” is a malevolent creation that at first tugs on the senses before it inexorably pulls you into its depths with patience and subtlety with “Dark Fate’’ its inevitable conclusion, inescapable and all consuming.
Fragments is a complete work that draws on both the cosmos and nature to create a divers pallet of musical emotion and thought that at times is undefinable yet is shrouded in depth and recognizable processes that is restless and ever evolving . Introspective and atmospheric Fragments reflect both the positive and the negative to create a unique listening experience.
Wurgilnõ – Krijtland 8/10
Consanguineus is the creator and guide through the conceptual that is Krijtland. It is a celebration of the Limburg landscape with all its history, myths, and legends. Delivered in the native Dutch language ad infused with local traditions
Drawing in the purity of black metal, its bleakness and inhospitability. The vocals are cavernous and filled with the rich history of the region alternating between both harshness and spoken word over the eight tracks. They are authentic and unapologetic ‘’1928’’ delivers both is spades with its retelling of witch trial and prosecution of Entgen Luijten alongside an ever evolving riff and mid-tempo double kicks that drive the tale home. Musically Krijtland is an atmospheric offering riddled with keyboard sections and traditional moments. Its slightly slower pace allows tracks’’ Voor de eeuwigheid gehangen’’ and ‘’ De lijdensweg van Entgen Luijten’’ allow the depth and intention of the music to be felt with its dynamics and tempo changes. The bursts of speed are swift and violent, the atmosphere ever present, cloying in its intensity and inescapable sense of tension.
Wurgilnõ is a project that takes the defined traditions of nineties Scandinavian black metal and celebrates them in a pure fashion that also expands on its bleakness. The factual conceits add depth and nuance to create a music journey that is part soundtrack , history lesson and complete furious metal explosion ‘’ Kop op het blok’’ is the promise of black metal delivered. Krijtland is an immense and complete immersive experience
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