I'm not particularly well versed in
folk music and what's in my record collection is all stuff from this
side of the Atlantic. So, I had a little trepidation about snagging a
copy of The Grey Malkin, unsure as to how much I'd like contemporary British folk.
It turns out that fear was completely unfounded; The Hare and The
Moon is fucking incredible. Dark, doomy, and vaguely psychedelic, I'm
loving everything about this album. The ghostly female vocals are the
icing on the cake, creating a completely forlorn and haunting
ambiance. This is one of those releases that no amount of my babbling
will do it justice, you've got to hear it for yourself. Highly recommended.
You get used to split albums having
each artist's tracks grouped by themselves, so to hear them
juxtaposed like they are on Astral Dream of Nature's Ashes shakes
you up a bit. Add to this i AM esper is guitar driven drone,
while Synkretismos Mutare crafts bass & beat heavy soundscapes and you've
got the recipe for some interesting sonic interplay. Top notch drone
from two impressive acts, presented in a way that keeps you on your
toes...Why haven't you snagged a copy yet?
So, I can't really decide if I'm on
board or not with Obscurer. A single track that is broken down into
three movements, Shining Arbors is a strange beast. Wailing
theremins, undulating electronics, distant guitars, and spectral
vocalizations mingle together to create an album in a constant state
of flux. Where Obscurer is going, who knows? You're just along for
the ride. There's no way to just passively listen to this, as it
demands your undivided attention. Like I said, I'm not sure about
Shining Arbors, but if you like things a little more unusual, it'll
be right up your alley.
Occult Vomit – Anti-Human Devotion
c90
Playing “black n' roll,” Occult
Vomit is raw, blackened thrash style stuff, with the addition of
southern fried, 70's rock guitar riffs and a lot of that buzzsaw bass sound. I'm honestly less than impressed with Anti-Human
Devotion, but maybe I'm just not kvlt enough. It's not terrible or
anything, but the album starts to drag and the songs begin to sound
interchangeable with one another. It is what it is, and if you're a
fanatic for thrash-y black metal, you'll dig it.
Panopticon – Kentucky lp x2
Wait...Appalachian black metal? Yeap,
thou it's not quite what you might be expecting. Kentucky is split
pretty evenly between tracks of atmospheric black metal and
bluegrass. So, if you were hoping for banjos and fiddles in your
black metal, you're out of luck. About as folksy as the black metal
stuff gets is the inclusion of some flute action. I actually found
myself liking bluegrass songs the best, though the black metal tracks
were highly enjoyable as well. Honestly, this isn't an album for
everybody. In fact, I suspect many people will actively dislike it,
but whatever, I can't get enough of it.
Twin Polygamists/Pacific Mausoleum – Split c8
This little
split kicks off with a sidelong burner of mechanized drone and
rhythmic pulsations from Twin Polygamists. It's dark and menacing
with kind of a space-y feel, like the soundtrack to exploring a
mysteriously abandoned spaceship adrift in the Kuiper belt. On the
flip Pacific Mausoleum lets loose with a track of soft,
rumbling electronics that suddenly morphs into low frequency squeals.
Not bad, but it doesn't really stack up against the Twin Polygamists
track.
A Beard of Snails
A Beard of Snails
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