A Death Cinematic - Your Fate Twisting, Epic In Its Crushing Moments EP (2011)

Band: A Death Cinematic
Country: Detroit, Michigan
Style: Ambient/Drone
Label: Independent

A Death Cinematic is a project that I've been meaning to check out for several months now, but haven't really gotten around to it. Luckily enough, I got an email with this new EP from the man himself which gave me the opportunity to finally check it out. Being composed of mainly guitar, I'm interested in what types of sounds are created through this, as well as various other works.
This three song EP brings something I didn't really expect to the table. What I expected to hear were sounds more akin to that of post-rock and ambient music, but what's on here is not only much darker, but much more droney. The title-track, Your Fate Twisting, Epic In Its Crushing Moments, is an epic twenty-two minute piece that kind of circles around a basic idea for it's entire length with some subtle changes occurring throughout. It's decent, I like the idea for it, but I found that it was a bit too long for my personal taste, and some of the notes came off as being a bit too harsh, or distorted, for my own personal taste and kind of just ruined the atmosphere for me. By comparison, I felt that In The Tumbling Dawn Light, Their Eyes Fall Frozen Through The Mist and Rain made much more effective use of it's time with more atmospheric elements proved to be a much better and enjoyable piece.
This three song EP proved to be a much different experience than I thought it would be, but it didn't really convince me of anything. I can safely say that I enjoyed only about half of this, with the interlude being pretty inconsequential for the most part. Check it out if you like drone music, but I'd say go for the full-lengths first.
Overall Score: 6
Highlights: In The Tumbling Dawn Light, Their Eyes Fall Frozen Through The Mist and Rain

Laura Weixelbaum - Gebet Zu Der Schwarzen Sonne (2011)

Band: Laura Weixelbaum
Country: Vac, Hungry
Style: Experimental/Avant-Garde
Label: Mask of T he Slave/Valse Sinistre

Being compared to someone like Diamonda Galas is quite a compliment but puts immense pressure on an artist. Though I've never really been a fan of her work, I can certainly see how others would and I would put her in the same league as someone like Jarboe. Laura Weizelbaum's album had a lot to live up to with a comparison like that being tagged along with it.
The reason I mention artists like Diamonda Galas and Jarboe above has to do with the fact that both of them can definitely be heard in how Laura presents herself on here. The a capella nature of the album coupled with the almost tribal sounds and beats bring a familiar hint of both vocalists. Though I've never been a fan of Galas and I can't say I've listened to enough of Jarboe's solo work to really get a handle on everything she's done, I can say that this is more chaotic sounding than their work. As far as I can tell, most of this album is done a capella and it leads to a very strange and avant-garde sound, with Des Todes Ewigkeit Chanson, for example, opening the album with shrill screams, tribal-esque chanting, machine-gun fire used as percussion, the occasional warped and distorted electronic, and spoken word providing most of the sound. The fact that some tracks feature Laura almost breaking down and sobbing, I can only imagine how much emotion she put into this.
With sounds like that being the norm found on here, you might imagine it being quite the difficult listen, but if fact, it's quite meditative. Even during it's most intense moments, I didn't find that it became harsh or brutal in the least, outside of screaming vocals that is. Though it's probably obvious at this point, but this isn't an album to put on if you want to hear "songs," these are more like contained rituals, if you will, sounding like weird chants to foreign religious rituals from groups of monks, or whatever branch you want to attach this to. It's the type of album where if you can't handle a lot of emotion, you'll probably detest this with a passion, tracks like Zuruck Nach Walhalla and Bitte Geh Nicht Fort pretty much exemplify it; but if you like music that's more about a mood and creating atmospheres you might get a lot out of this.
This is an odd one because there wasn't really a moment on this album where I really enjoyed it, but there wasn't a moment that I disliked what I was hearing. It's like some really crazy world music, but with voices instead of additional instrumentation. Check this out if you want to hear some weird stuff, that's really all I could suggest.
Overall Score: 7
Highlights: Zuruck Nach Walhalla, Omnes Morimur, Der Kohlschwarze Engel

Formication - The Eyes of Erodern Riviema (2011)

Band: Formication
Country: Nottingham, UK
Style: Experimental/Industrial
Label: Small Doses

When I got this album, I knew nothing about the band or what they sounded like, but it looked interesting. I don't really look into the whole industrial scene all that often, thus, I don't really know a lot about it, but I do enjoy neo-classical music, both of which I've seen attached to this duo. With all that being said, I had to approach this with an open mind.
Like I just mentioned above, I'm not all that big into industrial music, I know very little about it actually, so what I'm hearing on here might be totally unoriginal in the grand scheme of things, but what I heard was really weird and different. Unlike the groups and projects that I had heard before, this was much more minimal, abstract, and dark. Lots of drones, weird noises, synthetic and manipulated voices are common throughout the disc, and thus made for a very surreal soundscape. The addition of noise as the album progresses actually adds to the odd abstraction that this album creates.
In all honesty though, and this is totally a personal problem, I just couldn't get into the sound of the album, it felt so one-dimensional to me. I was like looking at a brick wall, I just couldn't see around or through it and so it was like no matter what changes occurred, nothing really felt different. I Had A Plastic Head That Melted for example just felt so tiring to listen to, it wasn't boring, but it was just hard to get through. Granted, this whole album isn't taxing, but with only a few tracks really feeling like they go places, this album just wore on me very quickly. While I know that there will be others who will enjoy this album more than I did, I should say that this is a difficult album, and one that even after several listens, didn't really grow on me all that much, unfortunately. I found this album worked best when I used it as background music, but that's just me.
So, by the end of this I was exhausted, which is a shame because like I said it's a cool album, I just couldn't get into it. Pretty much every problem I have with it is just something I could see other people not minding all that much. If you like experimental industrial music, I still recommend checking this out.
Overall Score: 5
Highlights: Solus Air and The Dream of The Heart Star, The Chase to Jacob's Ladder At Easter, Silver

Capa - The Road Is A Grey Tape (2011)

Band: Capa
Country: Chalfont, Pennsylvania
Style: Ambient/Post-Rock
Label: Ivory Antler

I don't get a whole lot of requests from people, but if someone is nice enough about it I'll at least look into it. When I got a request for this, I checked it out, cause I had never heard of Capa before, and was actually surprised by it. This four track release should definitely please some of the more experimental readers here.
While this is primarily a site for reviewing metal music, I am always looking for other styles of music to listen to, one of my favorites is finding new post-rock. That's where this record fits in, it dwells within that post-rock side that is very dreamy and ambient based, though it does venture into the heavier post-metal side on November 16, Regret. Though, calling the heavier bits "metal" might be a bit of a stretch, because they aren't really metal riffs or pounding chords, more like distorted post-rock builds. It's an interesting record, and I do enjoy it because it's short and it gets it's point across very quickly and is entertaining throughout. Personally, I enjoyed the more post-rock-ish bits more than the heavier sections, but that's just me.
Overall, this is a strong debut from a project with tons of potential in them. I would love to see how this project develops itself in the future and may hopefully release a longer album as well. Check it out if you like post-rock/post-metal sort of stuff, it really cool stuff.
Overall Score: 7
Highlights: October 1, The Travel

Arizmenda - Without Circumference Nor Center (2011)

Band: Arizmenda
Country: California
Style: Black Metal
Label: Crepusculo Negro

The Black Twilight Circle is kind of a touchy thing right now, what with a lot of the bands being good but the services of them being quite bad. I guess some people don't like waiting months to get something they ordered from the label, but I guess I'm just lucky that I actually got everything I ordered from them. When it comes to this band, they were, looking back, the first of the group that I had found and liked.
When looking to see what people thought of this album, from those I considered to be either friends or good writers, I found response to be pretty mixed, with people claiming the music was good, but the production and vocals had gone down hill. After listening, cause I've had this for a little while, I couldn't really agree more with those statements. To focus on the production aspect first, this is definitely more bass-heavy, with a lot of the treble in the mix kind of being drowned out by all this low-end noise. In all honesty, I'd like to think that I'm a tolerable and patient person, but all this low-end got annoying real fast on here. I'm also well aware of how crappy the mixes on Crepuscule Negro are, but seriously, what went on in a track like Riders of The Pale Horse... Crucifixion of The Worm when they were mixing it, the bass just moves up and down throughout the song while certain guitar parts are just put at the very front while the main riffing is still behind it.
When it comes to the whole concept of this being more of a ritual than a show, or rather album in this case, I can definitely see where they're coming from. While this is definitely not as atmospheric at the debut, this does still have plenty of atmosphere, but it's in a much more chaotic manner. The guitar playing is actually well played on here, which makes it all the more disappointing because it can get lost behind all the low-end on here. The second half of this album has some nice guitar parts, Virginity Without Breath... Touch Me and Swallowing Seas of Dirac... Smashing Vessels Spilling Thought in particular. As for the vocals, I certainly agree that they are nowhere near as good as on the debut, favoring a tortured moan and bellow in favor of the tried and true screams of the past.
For all it's flaws and poor mixing, I still feel that there's some really good stuff on here. I already know a lot of people have had just as much trouble with the production as I have for this, at times it did start to give me a migraine. If you're into black metal that's pretty raw and atmosphere, I suggest you look into this band.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: Tear You Out From Within... Tear You Out With My Sin, Swallowing Seas of Dirac... Smashing Vessels Spilling Thought

Ipsissimus - The Way of Descent (2011)

Band: Ipsissimus
Country: New Haven, Connecticut
Style: Black Metal
Label: Metal Blade Records

Metal Blade Records, despite being one of the priogenetors of signing some of the biggest metal/deathcore acts in the last decade, have been signing some somewhat surprising bands as of late. It seems like they've been picking out a few black metal bands within the last few years, and not bad ones at that. This album is the debut of this trio, I don't have huge expectations, but I'm hoping that this is good.
I know that being a trio doesn't always lend itself to having the most full sounding sound, it can often feel like something's missing, or at least to me that's how it feels sometimes, and this album has that happening throughout it. I don't know if I'd go so far to call it a drawback or anything bad, it's just like something is missing. When the band are going full-bore, more traditional melodic black metal oriented, it sounds fine, but it's really when the guitar is trying to do more "progressive" things that it feels like there's nothing really connecting the guitar to what's happening with the drums and bass.
I feel like what these guys are doing in terms of a sound is well done and well executed with all of the above still holding true. This is melodic black metal with hints of more progressive elements thrown into the riffs here and there throughout, but what makes this better than perhaps a lot of other groups doing a similar style is that these guys hold true to the fact that having a good riff in a song is still important even when you're blasting, Monakhourgia/The Prince of Tyre for instance. While I'm not sure what the intention for it was, I can respect the use of more ambient sounds throughout the album, hear The Alchemist's Goatthrone, because it is different. I can also appreciate the use of, at least what appears to be, a concept running through the album with three tracks linking together as far as titles go.
I thought this was a pretty decent release, it's not great, still far from being an original band, but what's on here is good and they have ideas. I'm glad to see that while these guys aren't the most unique band, they might evolve into something a little different in the future, and they have a pretty big label backing them. If you like melodic black metal, or even death metal to an extent, check this out.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: Monakhourgia/The Prince of Tyre, The Third Secret of Fatima

Execration - Odes of The Occult (2011)

Band: Execration
Country: Oslo, Norway
Style: Death Metal
Label: Duplicate Records

My first encounter with Execration was with last year's "In Oslo We Rot" split with Lobotomized, Diskord, and Obliteration. The track they contributed was easily the best on there and got me interested in the band. I'm a little surprised to already have a new full-length, but I'm glad for it.
The influence from bands like Immolation and Suffocation can still be heard throughout this record, but it's clear that black metal has started to seep into the equation as well. I also have to say I was surprised that before listening to this, I saw the tag of progressive metal being attached to this, and while I was doubtful, I was surprised as to how true it actually was. This album has a lot of different dynamics and changes throughout, even within the course of a single song, hear Unction. Despite all of this, there's still a very old-school death metal core, like the aforementioned groups above, this is not super produced, it doesn't sound really layered, it sounds like a band playing really weird death metal songs. I especially love how the vocals are done in that old-school Pestilence or Autopsy style of vomitous shout.
In terms of progressive though, I feel the need to say that it isn't in the same vein as groups like Opeth or groups like Death, it's more like throwing a big bag of different death metal bands into a blender and the result it this. Little bits of Autopsy, Immolation, Incantation, and stuff like that, but also hints of stuff like early Darkthrone, early Katatonia or My Dying Bride, and a bit of Edge of Sanity thrown in as well make for a very potent combination that I personally really enjoy. There are bits that are doomy, parts that are more straightforward, sections that are a lot more technical, and sections that are just just more brutal and grinding, a little bit of everything, but it all works. Tracks like Soul Maggot, Obsession, and Left In Scorn are great places to really get a feel for what these guys are doing, but A Crutch For Consolation takes the cake for being the most all-encompassing track on here, with a little bit of everything in it's ten and a half minute length. In addition to the variation within the songs, these songs are also very memorable and, on certain tracks, catchy.
This is one of the best death metal albums I've heard all year, definitely an album I'm spinning a lot. I'm sure there are some who won't like it because it isn't super polished or "br00tal," but this is real death metal with personality and balls. I highly recommend this to anyone that likes death metal at all, definitely check this out.
Overall Score: 9.5
Highlights: Every Track Is A Highlight