De Magia Veterum - The Deification (2012)

Band: De Magia Veterum
Country: Drachten, Netherlands
Style: Progressive Black Metal
Label: Transcendental Creations

Because Mories is obviously a busy guy who manages to constantly reinvent whatever project he's working with, we have another project from probably his most tangible metal project. I think De Magia Veterum is great and last year's album, The Divine Antithesis, was a real piece of work. Other than his main gig in Gnaw Their Tongues, I'm used to a few years in between major releases from his other projects, so I was rather surprised when I got a copy of this.
In the past, this project from Mories has been used as a sort of vehicle for black metal pushed into the realms of extreme dissonance and chaos, but this album is perhaps the most frustrating thing he's released under this name thus far. The songs jump between interesting and progressive riffs and outright guitar dissonance, with some black metal tremolo parts connecting the two. The guitars are just all over the place and are more than a little overwhelming especially combined with the bass which pops out numerous times in all of these tracks, providing even more strangeness to the chaos the guitars bring. At times it reminds me a lot of mid-period Blut Aus Nord, but faster, while other times it sounds closer to what Krallice might sound like on crack. There are also a couple of spots that are quite comparable to Mories' more orchestral-based dark ambient work with Gnaw Their Tongues. Then there's the whole Dillinger Escape Plan-esque spastic and frenetic compositional style where the entire piece jumps around so much to the point where you have a hard time latching onto anything before it changes again. The whole thing is delivered at this hysterical level of intensity and rarely relents to allow you the opportunity to get a breath in. Take into account the sheer amount of noise and distortion covering this thing and you have, easily, one of the most intense and brain-scrambling albums to be released this year. I dare anyone to listen to this once and tell me that they understand it. I'm on my fourth listen (at the time of this writing) and I'm still only picking out bits and pieces of what's actually happening.
It's quite the disorienting piece that will more than likely confound as many as it will amaze. I don't think it's up there with The Divine Antithesis but it's a more amped up sort of record than that one was. If you like really dissonant and crazy sounding black metal, this is the album for you.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Passage, Evoked In Poison, Shall Not Take Form

Seirom - 1973 (2012)

Band: Seirom
Country: Drachten, Netherlands
Style: Post-Black Metal/Space Ambient
Label: Aurora Borealis

Last year when I first heard about this new project from Mories called Seirom, I was actually really surprised. For a guy who pumps out as much hate and filth as Mories, Seirom was surprisingly beautiful - last year's Seiromistkrieg EP wound up in my top 10 EPs of the year. Originally I had heard that an album from this project was going to be released on Handmade Birds records but is now released by Aurora Borealis, not that that makes a huge difference, I'm glad to have a full-length regardless.
I have to say that I've been surprised by something on this double-album at some point during every single listen I've had with it. Despite Seiromistkrieg demonstrating some great post-black metal, that is not what you'll find on the vast majority of this album. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of tracks that call back to that sound, but there's also just as much that calls upon that distorted ambiance that the later Forest EP showcased. Now, I never really thought that the distorted ambiance was all that special, it wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't a side that I needed an entire album full of tracks to show me how Mories could work with it. It's well done and it's certainly a sound that I wouldn't mistake for anyone else, but after two or three tracks I just found my attention drifting elsewhere. I will say that despite my somewhat lack of interest in these more ambient tracks, they always had a sound that was very beautiful and calming despite being covered in copious amounts of distortion and noise. I found this project at its most enjoyable when the music had more of that aggressive post-rock sort of performance, with the buzzing guitars and pounding drums that just drove the song forward. The bass on these songs is also quite worthy of note as well because of how thick and loud it is in the mix. The song that manages to accomplish not only use these traits but actually expand on them is easily Never Want to Feel That Way Again, which perfectly melds that buzzing noise and distortion with a driving post-rock melody that just gets better as it progresses. At this point I'm sure you think that these two styles would be enough for a double-album, right, well guess what, there's something else on here as well.
This was probably the section that surprised me the most, but there's this weird darkwave kind of vibe on a bunch of tracks on here. Now, I've never had a problem with darkwave, I actually like the style, but I didn't think that Mories would ever experiment with that style in the context that he is on here. Whenever I hear one of these more darkwave-esque tracks, it sort of sounds like a continuation or an evolution of where Mories' It Only Gets Worse project would have wound up. I say that because those tracks have synth parts that call back to the sort of witch house ones used in that collaboration and the female vocals that are used on top of it only drive that sound home. It's quite odd for the synths to be so up-front and in your face considering how abrasive and brutal a project like Aderlating is with its synth choices. This on the other hand is quite beautiful and pretty sounding. It's a very obvious change of pace from the assault of the aural senses that Mories has become known for and instead takes to calming the listener with this album. With that being said, I do feel that this album is too long, being just over an hour and a half, it can prove to be a rather exhausting album to sit through from start to finish. It's a little too schizophrenic for its own good and changes style so much that it does feel a tad unfocused.
It's a decent release that shows a lot of promise but for now still seems too uncertain of itself and where it exactly wants to go. Like I said above, I tended to prefer the more post-rock styled tracks, but the ambient and darkwave ones are by no means bad. I do recommend this to all fans of Mories' other work as well as fans of more experimental forms of ambient and post-rock.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: 1973, November, Never Want to Feel That Way Again, For Black Hearts

Northumbria - Northumbria (2012)

Band: Northumbria
Country: Toronto, Canada
Style: Ambient Metal
Label: TQA

Ambient metal is a tag I can't say I've seen all too often, though when I have it's been in the context of more atmospheric metal groups like Katatonia or Nadja. When I saw this I assumed that it would be pretty much along those lines, which I don't think is a total stretch, but I was so wrong. This was far different than what I expected coming into it.
Duo Jim Field and Dorian Williamson certainly took an approach to crafting music that I certainly didn't expect. In the past, whenever I had heard someone mention offhand that a group could be called "ambient metal", it'd always mean, they were a metal band, but had atmospheric sections or were just more atmosphere-laden than your typical band, that's not the case on here. The duo in question here craft dense layers of glimmering ambiance through reverberating chords and droning feedback. Recorded in a church, the entire thing just sounds massive and feels like a constant ascent to a higher plane, in some respects anyway. Each track starts from the ground and builds up to something far more magnificent and beautiful, transforming the harshness of the distortion into something lush and spacious, as the noise just cascades over you and becomes a new entity all it's own. What's great is that even as the album moves along, there never appears to be a moment that is rehashed or redone, to the extent that the ear-piercing nature of the distortion that opens up Lux Luna is never repeated on other tracks (thankfully), and that really made each individual track stand on their own. Though it only struck me during this very listen while I'm writing this review, the album is paced actually very well to boot. The album moves from that extremely harsh and brutal opener towards something very soothing and melancholic, almost minimalistic in some spots, during its closer.
This is somewhat of a dual-natured album though, in the sense that those tracks which feature distortion tend to favor washes of noise to create this view of chaos and destruction while a track like Threnody for example is a purely clean track that is just an astounding piece of sonic architecture. Taking the formula I talked about above and translating it into a more ambient setting. Ambient in the sense that a track like the aforementioned Threnody is much closer to the likes of Stars of The Lid or Tim Hecker than opener Lux Luna is. The album is essentially the most balanced and true to form translation of ambient and metal coming together I've ever heard. I liked the mention of Sigur Rós in another review as well because they are a more comparable group to what this duo is carving out. Just as Sigur Rós are called "post-rock", their connection with rock is more in the fact that they use guitars, drums, and bass, IE. a rock band set up, more than the group actually playing rock. Northumbria craft majestic soundscapes out of both shimmering clean tones and harsh distorted ones but don't ever really take a particularly "metal" sound at any point on this album. Windhorse in particular is a very Sigur Rós-esque track that brought to mind several of my favorite tracks from the aforementioned band.
Hopefully if you haven't already checked this album out you'll do so now because it is one of those albums that really comes in and surprises you and surpasses any and all expectations you had for it. Now don't mistake that for me saying this is perfect, there are certainly flaws on here, but it is certainly a keeper. Fans of ambient and drone music will certainly dig this, but if you happen to be partial to the more ambient side of black metal or extremely slow sides of doom, I think you'll get just as much out of it.
Overall Score: 8.5
Highlights: Threnody, Black Sea of Trees

Celephaïs - Tir n'a n'Og - EP (2012)

Band: Celephaïs
Country: Wählen, Germany
Style: Post-Black Metal/Neo-Folk
Label: Independent

Last year I reviewed Celephaïs' debut, Becoming The Deceased, which was a really strong piece of work. Honestly, I had sort of forgotten about the project until this release came along. Someone just happened to send me a message that this was out and was interested in seeing a review for it, once I knew it was released, I knew it was going to show up on here.
Right from the get go, the main formula that this project had used on its debut has been shifted and that did catch me off-guard on first listen. The full-length was unabashedly a black metal album with nods to post-rock groups like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions In The Sky, and it actually did that style really well, but this release takes a slightly less traditional approach to that. This EP is actually quite heavily dominated by acoustic guitar led sections that, while they certainly still owe quite a lot to post-rock, draw from neo-folk as well. Wisdom is a completely acoustic track (with some nice ambient guitars thrown into the background for effect), but works well at carving a nice open atmosphere. It's a nice introduction since the title-track is a more epic affair, and demonstrates the less dark atmosphere that this EP happens to dwell in. It's a very soothing sort of atmosphere, almost calming in a sense, but not in a bad way, the black metal elements have not been removed entirely from the project's sound and still have their moments to shine on here, but, as a whole, this release is much less oppressive than the debut. One could say that the metal sections in question aren't even that close to black metal, with the ideas apparently coming more from post-rock and more melodic forms of metal. I sort of wish that the black metal element was a bit stronger, but I can't honestly say it would have benefitted either of these songs, just a personal preference.
I think it's a nice little release that shows the potential and range that this project actually possesses. I don't know if it's going to blow anyone away in its blending of genres, but it's a step closer to an original sound for this project. If you're interested in post-black metal, post-rock, or even neo-folk, I'd give this the thumbs up for you to look into.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: Tir n'a n'Og

Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (2012)

Band: Converge
Country: Salem, Massachusetts
Style: Hardcore/Post-Hardcore
Label: Deathwish/Epitaph/Epic

Chances are that if you dig hardcore in any sense, you're already a Converge fan. Since metalcore has pretty much gone to shit in the last couple of years, it seems like it takes older groups to really do the genre tag right. Metallic hardcore, post-hardcore, hardcore punk, whatever you want to call it, Converge take the cake in my book.
It never ceases to amaze me how well revered Converge are. They're a band who've been making aggressive, quite spastic, metallic hardcore for over two decades now and always sound fresh and authentic. No matter what record of theirs I put on, each has its own distinct flavor and attitude to it that makes it a unique picture, and yet there are plenty of tropes that can be found on each and every one of their records. I can't think of any other band in this genre or any of its surrounding genres that have maintained a sound that is so aggressive and confrontation for anywhere near as long as these guys have without mellowing out in some form or bringing new blood for rather uninspired reincarnations of their past glory. Converge always sounded pumped and ready to go, embracing just enough outside influence to allow all their songs to stand apart and not blend together. Whether that influence happens to be grindcore and death metal or stoner rock and folk/acoustic music always comes through, but never in an ironic or sneering kind of way.
For this record, the band have opted for a more direct and far less collaborative style than 2009's Axe to Fall record. I'd say that there's a more punk flavor at work on here than I've heard from the band in a while, the songs just sound extremely stripped down, nothing but the four band members playing these songs, which for me gave the record a much more naturalistic sort of vibe, in the sense that in just feels very bare-bones but so full of life and vigor. It is not contrived sounding in any regard. I think that this has just as much to do with the songwriting as much as Kurt Ballou's always stellar production job. It's nice and noisy but crystal clear and heavy as balls when it needs to be. I honestly think he's a genius and the Devin Townsend or Steven Wilson of his genre (hardcore/grindcore/death metal/etc.) because I can't think of a record he's recorded that doesn't sound good. This album is not as noisy as the last couple, which I think just comes from this being a less metallic and grinding record and more along the lines of something post-hardcore and hardcore punk, so more noise just doesn't find a place.
This coming from someone who could listen to Converge just blast away for an entire album and still come out satisfied, I think it's great that the band is constantly expanding the scope of their style and filtering new stylistic tendencies through their already trademark sound. Yes, there's plenty of hard-hitting and thrashy hardcore tracks on here, but I actually think that some of the longer tracks stand out the most. Whether it's the post-hardcore vibe on opener Aimless Arrow, the post-metal ideas that weave their way into Choral Blue, or the more ambient sounds that litter the interlude Precipice, the band keeps themselves grounded, never straying too far outside of their own comfort zone but making each and every experiment work. Along with that, every track contains its own unique set of ideas and not one track, NOT ONE, sounds like another, even the faster and more typical songs sound very distinct from each other. As always the guitar riffs are loud, proud, spastic, and catchy, the drumming is all over the place - in a good way, and the bass proves to have just as big a role in the band as guitars do, driving home several hooks throughout the album, none more so than on closer Predatory Glow. Bannon sounds just as pissed as ever, though delivering strangely more spoken word vocals than on the last couple records.
I have yet to hear a Converge record that I don't like or enjoy for something, and this is no exception. It's a great piece of work that is less metallic and more direct, but still enjoyable as all hell. Definitely check this out if you're at all a fan of hardcore, intense metal genres (you decide what those are), or if you just haven't listened to Converge yet.
Overall Score: 9
Highlights: Trespasses, Glacial Pace, Choral Blue, All We Love We Leave Behind

Neurosis - Honor Found In Decay (2012)

Band: Neurosis
Country: Oakland, California
Style: Post-Metal/Psychedelic Rock
Label: Neurot

Pretty much if you listen to post-metal, you know the name Neurosis. Along with Isis, they helped to pioneer and popularize the style amongst the metal world and push forward with their uncompromising vision for constant experimentation is what has led them to be such the respected group they have become. Being the group's first new release (of new material) in five years, this has become quite the little hot bed for activity in the review world.
So, in the five years we've had to wait for Neurosis to regroup and create music again, we've had solo releases from both Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly and Josh Graham has released some very good music with A Storm of Light, but ultimately, no matter how much any fan enjoyed those albums, I think there was always that thought in the back of their heads that they wished it was just another Neurosis record. That's not to undermine any of the albums they released either solo or ASoL, because they are very good, but I'm sure the love for Neurosis comes first for a lot more people. But back to this record. The progression for the band in the recent decade has seemed more like a slow climb towards the top of a mountain. I don't think one could say that there was ever a decrease in quality in any of the band's material but from The Sun That Never Sets onwards, to me, it felt like the band just wasn't all that interested in pumping out heavy and hard-hitting tracks any longer (which is something the band have said in interviews) and began to focus more on creating psychedelic and moody jams. Honestly, that's become the band's strength, while groups like Isis and Cult of Luna continued to evolve through songwriting and progressive ideas and various other groups just started ripping of the bigger ones, Neurosis had already moved on from heavy and started to focus more on texture and experimentation.
I know it might not be the most popular opinion, but in comparison to the band's other material, I thought that Given to The Rising was a bit too unfocused for my taste. It was still a very good album, but it didn't seem as consistent as a record like its predecessor The Eye of Every Storm had been. I wasn't really sure how to feel about this during my first listen, I mean I liked it, but it felt... different. Sonically it wasn't overly dense or heavy, and felt sort of barren and dusty, and kind of reminded me of the vibe that I get when listening to Kelly's solo material. Obviously, all Neurosis material is subject to several listens before understanding comes to the listener, and this one is no exception to that rule, and as was the case with most of their material, it did grow on me with more listens. In the end it actually reminded me a bit more of the aforementioned The Eye of Every Storm, but not quite as dark. I would actually say that album is more layered and textured as well. This is a very stark and open sounding album, very psychedelic but not filled to the brim with sound. It's almost the frankness and the minimal use of texture that gives it that psychedelic mood. I have to say that while the band are known for being quite heavy, this record never struck me as being so. Yes, there is certainly distortion on here, but it felt more weighty than heavy, like if you stripped away the distortion on the guitars, they would more than likely carry a similar effect they do now. The distortion is used as an effect to enhance the power of the instruments, but if you stripped that away all the electricity, I do believe these songs would still work as acoustic pieces.
Possibly the thing that surprised me the most while listening through this was how varied the tracks were on a sort of melodic level. Now of course, Neurosis have never been a band whose focus was ever directed at melody, but it's in there no matter how much they choose to experiment and maneuver around it. But there were just some really interesting melodic choices on here, My Heart For Deliverance is almost uplifting in its melody choice while Bleeding The Pigs is stern and very morose. Each track has its own distinct characteristics and personality, but is still very much united under a similar sun. Neurosis have never been about making albums filled with songs, it always seemed to me like it was more about the album instead of the songs, the vision of the entire end result rather than the individual pieces that make it up. Every song works to fit inside that vision be they dark and brooding or more up-tempo and aggressive.
It seems somewhat fitting that after five years filled with side ventures and focusing more on their own personal lives that a new record from Neurosis would come across as some of their most emotional material to date. Full of songs that range from uplifting to being very melancholic, it is one of the group's most accomplished pieces to date. Definitely a must for all fans of rock and metal music - though I'd recommend Neurosis to anyone if that says anything.
Overall Score: 9
Highlights: At The Well, My Heart For Deliverance

My Dying Bride - A Map of All Our Failures (2012)

Band: My Dying Bride
Country: Halifax, UK
Style: Gothic/Doom Metal
Label: Peaceville

I've been a My Dying Bride fan for as long as I've listened to doom metal (in other words, they're one of the first bands I listened to and enjoyed). It's only been a couple of years since me first getting into them but they've put out some of their most luke-warm material yet. Though I haven't had any bad experiences with any of their material, I keep awaiting a modern masterpiece from them.
In the past, I had always said that My Dying Bride were my favorite of the Peaceville three, but as of recently, I think I'd have to change that to Anathema, whose recent material has been far superior in quality. I'm not saying that MDB's recent output has been bad, but it hasn't exactly been stellar either, and unfortunately this album does nothing to help their status. I know that a lot of people were very disappointed by Evinta last year, which was a bunch of old material re-written for classical instruments and spoken word; but I didn't actually have too much of a problem with it. It was definitely over long, but the material itself was fine, more darkwave and modern classical than rock or metal, but that was perfectly acceptable. I guess a lot of people took that release a lot more seriously than I did because there were several reviews I read for that album that actively criticized the choice to even put that out even though I always thought of it more as a stop-gap than an actual full-length release. Then there was the hate on 2009's For Lies I Sire, which I know several people really didn't enjoy, but I actually thought was perfectly decent and had a few songs that I come back to quite often. This is a full-length, and like I just said, it really doesn't do much to help their current situation.
Unlike some of the releases that were put out in the 2000s which brought back some more of the death metal elements that the band had used in their earliest days, this album features very little of that. In the past, I really haven't had any problem with the band not using death metal on a release, I'm perfectly fine just listening to the more melodic doom the band play with Aaron Stainthorpe crooning or talking over the top of it, but this just fell short in too many spots for my liking. There are a couple of more aggressive death metal bursts on here, notably on opener Kneel Till Doomsday and A Tapestry Scorned, but honestly, and I feel terrible for saying this but, they sound bad. They sound really half-assed, especially on the vocal front, where Stainthorpe sounds like he just isn't even trying. That might be a fault on the mixing job because his vocals do sound quieter during his growls, but it's really debatable which it actually is. Also, and this might just be me, there were several tracks where it just felt like the band had two short songs and just spliced them together, because there will be a short space of silence followed by a riff that sounds like it came out of a completely different song and I'm left wondering why they would write a song like that. But I have to say, on the plus side, closer Abandoned As Christ is a good song. This is the sort of song that the seven before it needed to be like. It's very melancholic and has a really bleak melody and some of Stainthorpe's best vocals on the entire album on it. Even though his performance on this track in particular is rather minimal, he makes great use of his time and doesn't overstay his welcome, which is more than I could say for a couple of the other tracks on here.
In the end I just found this to be a rather disappointing effort from the band. I've honestly been able to put up with their decline in quality thus far because there's always been at least a couple of songs on an album that I found it redeeming for, but there are just too few on here to even say that about it. It's not bad, and I still recommend the band to anyone who hasn't already heard them, but I would recommend a different album to start with first.
Overall Score: 6
Highlights: The Poorest Waltz, Hail Odysseus, Abandoned As Christ