Spectral Lore - Gnosis (EP/2015)

Lycinna is the belle of Gnosis and this was the reason of having my first introduction with Spectral Lore and I found this one as a good avant-garde-instrumental-ambient-atmospheric-post-black-metal "album". I might be biased in writing this review but honestly this is my cup of tea although, I shall maintain a balanced momentum here and won't over specified it. If you like atmospheric black metal/folk metal then this might become a good taste for you. 

Giving a conceptual instrumental album might be a tough thing but Ayloss did an inventive job in creating the atmosphere of this album. This is a 50 min EP which gives you chills for sure, only if you feel that atmosphere. Traditional Greek music influences the whole album and this is what allure me the most due to the similarity I felt with having an imagination of a nomad of the Northern coast of Pakistan playing a Bouzouki or Rubab in a cold frosty night. Gnosis have some of the most lead-esque rhythm guitar playing with a good use of Harmonic Minor and this is really good but overshadowed the whole album, there are the same oscillating rhythm patterns throughout this album but I think Ayloss wanted to have a connectivity, after all it depends upon the taste and nature of composition to balance the overall atmosphere of the album.

I want to link the third and the last instrumental in a comparative manner according to my understanding, Averroes (Ibne Rushd) was a philosopher and a polymath in Islamic history and considered as the one who spreads secular mindset, defended the rational reasoning and gave the actual meaning of Secularism back then which unfortunately still misunderstood as a synonym with Atheism which sounds ridiculous but this is what I personally observed. Aleppo is burning under the anti-Rushd mindset and that's why it is the epilogue of this album. Hence, "Averroes' Search" is actually for the revival of the forgotten "Aleppo".

Also at: 

The Most Horrible Way of Representing Beauty...

Uaral, the moment when I listened their sacred music I came to aware that life is more austere than death. The duo combined the real feelings, the real emotions and all the grief with their heart. This is soul touching music. In my opinion, unclassifiable. Uaral is love not lust. I seriously don't have words to describe the music. Something coming from the dark melancholy woods with swamps around the lake of tears and the mist around with a cold silence, nocturnal. The Chilean country-side and Uaral himself had inspired Aciago & Caudal so much that they inherited the mentor’s heritage in their veins and transformed in the form of their compositions.

"Sounds of Pain..." is the band's debut full-length. The lyrical theme mostly deals with sorrow, nature and experience of life with the use of classical Latin acoustic style guitar, flute and piano creates a mournful atmosphere. Much of the music in the album has a long passage of mixed instruments mainly acoustics and less vocals. The vocals are deep guttural growls creates a strong doom/death metal influence also Empyrium's Schwadorf style clean singing creates folk/atmospheric black metal environment. The songs also has laments, crying and all the bemoaning. I just lost in the chants, the whispering winds and the sound of rains. The sound varies with a non-linear song structure throughout the album.

This thing is a masterpiece. A perfect piece of depressive yet progressive music. Do read the interview of the duo on their un-official website. It sounds like souls are talking not humans. Bunch of thanks to the Iranian fans for making the website.

The epilogue is, listen this on a cold frosty night with full moon. You will be pleased. One of the best blend of doom/black/folk.

Visit: Uaral


Originally written for Death.fm

The best thing came after French Fries.....

The first interaction with Gojira was with "Love" and I was like WTF! Is this from the debut one? This thing is massive heavy. Progressive as well as technical death metal influence brought a brutal experimental package. The best thing is the non-linear composition of songs which is quite interesting, environmental friendly lyrical theme which is quite unusual yet impressive. The noticeable thing is the weird but heavy as fuck riffs but no solo at all so it is not the shredding enriched album (for those who thought some stuff similar to Necrophagist), technical drumming (Mario made his name big apart from being a painter), Bass is what many says the most under-dominant thing and has a usual effect parallel to support guitar and drums but here it is in the foreground. I hear less Joe's vocals and more chugg chugaga chugg! "Space Time". "Love" and "In the Forest" are the foreground images in this album. I feel an enormous nocturnal silence after listening these in headphones. "Lizard Skin" has gay style riffing but intro is good though. "Clone" is my favorite along with some other songs, simply a great opening track that overshadows the forthcoming tracks. "In the Forest" has a silence in between and after that a hidden track.

Overall, the album has an atmospheric thing rousing in between the compositions. Unique style, weird patterns and a blend of heavy alternate picking with pinch harmonics along with chugging like fuck along with kick-ass drumming and thick bass overcomes the cheesy growl/screamo. The beast thing comes after French Fries is Gojira.

9/10

Originally written for Death.fm

Review of compilation Kocytean by Katatonia

Katatonia is like a must have band in my playlist for many year. The post-Scandinavian blends with Canterbury inspired sound is the prominent  feature of this act. Well, I usually don't prefer to listen or even check compilation type stuffs until it has some new elements or remastered version but still when it comes to Katatonia, I seriously couldn't stay behind.
So, 'Kocytean' - pretty unusual name or seems like more esoteric or dwelling, derived from Greek mythology called 'the river of wailing' or some underwater thing. The compilation is limited to some 2000 copies and released as 12" vinyl. It contains 6 tracks, three tracks on each side of the record. This is a Record Store Day exclusive release that has been celebrated on April 19th. Starts with the artwork, the name says everything 'Travis Smith' who did artwork for Amorphis etc. While surfing the web I came across that Anders comments on how the idea came up behind the artwork “I had this scenario playing over and over in my head and together with my graphics shrink Travis Smith decided to convey them down into a series of four images where it takes you through struggle, despair, tranquility and hope”. - enough said. A mighty and sacred piece of art, the last image is very much similar to the art of their previous track 'Unfurl' which purely explains the image: 'Releasing the vapor into the lungs, letting the wings unfurl.'

Opens with 'Unfurl' - which appeared in 'July' EP 2007, perfectly combines the electro & post-melo sound together; a more atmospheric doomy style followed by "Sold Heart" was originally released on the EP "The Longest Year." Renkse's harmonized vocals is just amazing, used mostly clean guitar along with reverb in this song. Then we have 'Ashen' which appeared in 'Night Is The New Day' in 2009, a more electro-harmonic based vocal along with the combination of traditional clean and distorted guitar work but the tempo is not the same and variates in between.'Second' is from 'Dead End Kings' released back in 2012, one of my favorite track has a fairly slow tempo which upbrings with rhthm guitar, love the guitar work in this song, twinkling back in the whole song. The second last rack 'Code Against Code' is taken from my favorite album 'The Great Cold Distance' starts of with a delay-clean guitar, there is a drum interlude in the song and it has nearly the same pattern through out the song. The last rack is  'The Act of Darkening' taken from 'Dead End Kings' it has one depressive pattern from the start followed by acoustic strum and beats having some violin in behind; lovely track BTW soothing, calm and moderate. For Katatonia lovers and collectors, it is surely be a must have. :)

Review of 'Rewarded with Ingratitude / Infernal Hatred' split by In-Quest/Sarcastic Terror

 

Greek death metal? OSDM? Well I couldn't get enough of the Scandinavian & Florida based OSDM shits! I may have checked out many Greek death metal acts (which are mostly of the new-wave) but old-school; right now Dismaed's 1995 demo 'Messages from the Place of the Dead' and Decay's 1992 demo tape 'Ceremonial Torture'  and last but not the least there was a band called 'Nocturnal Death,' (I don't remember any release of them but still got to have their name because of  the grind masters 'Naplam Death') are coming in my mind & now here I have Sarcastic Terror's split with one of my good-name Belgian act 'In-Quest' to write about. I came across this split called 'Rewarded with Ingratitude / Infernal Hatred' back some years when I was giving a listen to the 'In-Quest' discogs. It was released in September 1995 and contains four tracks; one by 'In-Quest' called 'Rewarded with Ingratitude' which was also appeared in their demo 'Xylad Valox' released back in the same year & three by 'Sarcastic Terror' among two of them: 'Intro' & 'Putrescence' were appeared in their self-titled demo, released back in 1992 only 'The Last Act of Subsidence' by them was newly recorded.

I mainly reviewing 'Sarcastic Terror' so 'In-Quest' shall not be in here. Starts with the recording; it wasn't recorded precisely there's alot humming in the back, I don't know the format of release but still like the vintage style. OSDM is always remain the most in my playlist and for eveyone who loves the kvlt way should have this split. If you really tote Xysma or Baphomet sick shits then this split is for you. Guitar along with the blast-beats and the same vintage style of death metal, you still can't get enough of it. Unfortunately with no valid reason, the band soon gone hiatus and later split-up. It was their last recording and I haven't seen any of their personnel formed any other badn except for their guitarist who was in 'Nocturnal Death' and some other local underground bands.

In the last, when it comes to the favourite one so it would be ' Putrescense' although the song has a coherent pattern but still it does kick-ass headbanging stuff with crushing riffs and heavy blast-beats, ‘The Last Act of Subsidence’ is one sick track and heavy as fuck, I love the rhythm pattern also I want to add-in that this split acts as a main influence for brutal death metal due to the fade-up growls. In this split there is no neo-classical influenced solo as you can have in like Obituary's Cause Of Death or Dismember's Dreaming In Red. Highly recommended for a DM freak! not for the core-kind punks!