The Slumbering Ent

These dreams of dread, I sprout, All souls so weak, they rout. These gnarled roots of mine, they bind, All souls of so feeble, a mind.

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Tag Archives: post metal

Heavy Prescription: Kaleikr, Ewigkeit, The Moth Gatherer

January 14, 2019 by deckard cain in Heavy Prescription and tagged Black Metal, Death metal, doom metal, ewigkeit, kaleikr, post metal, the moth gatherer | Leave a comment

2018…. It’s a year. It’s a year where valves broke, meters bust, and scars were laid afresh. It’s a year where anguish scaled the void, filling it, making it home. Nary did a ray of hope pass, nor did shadows not congregate. I’d want to go on like this. Laying descriptors after descriptors to suggest my current state of being. Let’s say it. It was a sad year.

Hope then is a slippery slope isn’t it? All these years of listening to metal haven’t really elevated my mood really. I’d even thought of taking up the outsider’s jeer “How do you listen to such depressing music all the time?”. Maybe it’s just subjective. The familiar personal.

And yet…A really long ‘yet’.. If I may place hope in a tiny little cradle, maybe and just maybe, Metal can be its proverbial nudge. Maybe I’m just reiterating metal’s constant dialogue with all things ‘power’. That transgression of the mundane. Oh well…

Here’s to 2019 and the eternal hope for hope! These are some of the tracks that really held my attention.

“stay awhile and listen” – deckard cain

Artwork by Metstazis

1 – Kaleikr – The Descent

This’d be a stretch. I reckon people who’ve read Alan Moore’s ‘V for Vendetta’(forget the movie) remembers the ‘The Vicious Cabaret’. A chapter that is grandiose, intricate and let’s admit, a mindfuck. Transcendent too. That’s what Iceland’s Kaleikr does. Weaving death and black metal into a heady mix that reminds of the theatricality of say Akercocke, but far different from them in style.

Kaleikr’s Heart of Lead releases on February 15th through Debemur Morti Productions.

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NVRVD – Coma

May 16, 2013 by deckard cain in Reviews and tagged hardcore, Hummus Records, Mohammad Kabeer, post metal | Leave a comment

Mohammad Kabeer reviews the new album from NVRVD titled Coma, released via Hummus Records.

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Tracklist

01. Oberhoe
02. Impartial Eyes
03. We are
04. An Echo to your unbeliefs
05. No Heaven
06. Niederohe

Hello again! I had not been well for quite some time , but here I am again reviewing another hardcore album, this one comes all the way from  the land  of Teutonic  thrash ,  but if you think  I am going to review some  Kreator worshipping  band   than  you  are  far from right .The band in question is NVRVD and the  genre that they  play  is  actually   one whose ancestors  helped give rise  to the birth  of Thrash in general.

NVRVD is a three piece from Bielfeled, Germany consisting of Stefan Braumschmidt (Bass, vocals) Lukas Heier (Drums, Sound) and   Christian Braumschmidt (Guitar, Vocals). Although the band’s  music  can be described  as  Modern Hardcore , the band  does its best to be more than just that with songs like  Oborhoe  in which  the band uses  haunting  wails  accompanied by very  slow , sinister  bass  which  is very reminiscent of  the sluggish forms  of powerviolence , whereas the  second track , Impartial Eyes  takes a slight melodic  turn  with  twangy , a little overdriven, slightly  black metallish  guitars and to top it all. And to add to it there  are two  interesting post metal songs here as well,  especially  An Echo to your Unbelief’s  which has a very 70’s  spy movie  feel to it . But honestly all of this is good  but where the band really excels is when  it  comes to  just going full speed  ahead  and knocking the listeners dead  with some crushing guitar chugs  accompanied by some very complex yet intricately carved dissonance which just  go all over the place like a screw ball ,accompanied by some really simple yet  powerful drumming.

So the final verdict? Although this band isn’t particularly doing anything  which hasn’t  been done before, they  have managed to come up with a pretty good ep which is good for what it is, and in general, their craft is much more direct, more impactful  than their  contemporaries.

 

 

Redwood Hill – Descender

April 23, 2013 by deckard cain in Reviews and tagged Black Metal, Bloated Veins, post metal, Redwood Hill | 2 Comments

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Tracklist:
1. Aten
2. Dybbuk
3. Tristesse
4. Poseidon
5. Croatoan
6. September

*Released via Bloated Veins

A marriage of restraint and despair

As metal, as a genre broadens its horizons with the word experimentation thrown about rather too freely, a small portion of it chooses ‘restraint’ as their path ahead. In a way this rids the genre of one of its more primal elements, the deep rooted proclivity to aggression. Yes doom, sludge and stoner does come under this rather broad yet small terminology and yet they show more in common with the metal aesthetic than this relatively newer offspring.  The art of restraint and the beauty that lies within, is best emulated in the genre that is post-metal. Heralded by Neurosis in the late 90s the genre has now gained household status. Together with Isis, they seem to have garnered worldwide attention with their brand of musical restraint which has been rather inanely dubbed ‘thinking man’s metal’. What with their cryptic yet thought provoking lyricism, it really does not seem far off. Unfortunately like anything new what follows is a wave after wave of insipid stereotypes paying homage at the same altar. But like the preacher and the preached, the bands and their influences, markedly differ in execution. Mediocrity sets in and holds ground.

 

We recommend that you listen to the album while reading the review.

 

Now we come to one such prospective humdrum all set to make your time uneventful yet again. Fortunately it is not to be. The Danes in Redwood Hill instill their brand of post metal with the harrowing tendencies of black metal. The blackened element seems to be more in line with the likes of Burzum, Xasthur, early Forgotten Tomb than compared to the likes of the acidic ferocity of say, Mayhem and Gorgoroth. Opener Aten and Dybukk are more straightforward post-metal, the latter being the more hard hitting, featuring a short clean vocal section where guitarist Toby utters in hushed innuendos :

“Like rocks into rivers,

Like trails in the dust”

One tends to feel a sense of strong conviction behind these verses, unlike their contemporaries. The blackened side of the band makes its presence felt on the track Tristesse where a foreboding clean guitar line sets the stage for the heart rending blackened assault that is to follow. The discernible change in the vocal style into the more raspy and abrasive one serves to be a perfect illustration of the fact. When Tristesse is about to completely overwhelm the listener with its suicidal connotations you are ushered in with the melodious intro of Poseidon which seems to have slipped its way into my ‘my personal favorite’ category with much ease. A tormenting melody permeates throughout the entire track all the while serving as a build up to the epic climax which features one of the catchiest lead lines heard in a bloody long while. A closer analysis of this part will make it clear that the drumming does not remain subdued as is staple throughout the genre. Andreas plays with a certain clinical restraint, adding in fills and rolls where it only matters and striking a perfect balance overall. The guitars and bass, in Toby, Brian and Jens populate the bleak setting with even bleaker elements, all the while never failing to eke out an emotive melody or two. Croatoan’s sludgy rhythm, closer September’s contrast of moderately uplifting(by strictly depressive standards) and arching dissonance further exemplifies the fact that how  good an album this is.

Innately depressive, both post- metal and black metal combine to deliver a thoroughly potent concoction in Descender. An interesting portrayal of everything forlorn that you must not miss.

Consciousness Removal Project – Tacit

February 27, 2013 by deckard cain in Reviews and tagged Consciousness Removal Project, post metal, post rock | Leave a comment

Today we have our own reviewer Raul Singh sharing his thoughts on the album ‘Tacit’ from the one manned post metal outfit, ‘Consciousness Removal Project’.

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Tracklist:
01. Colossus I: Legacy  02:21
02. Mercurial  07:36
03. Colossus II: Thrashing  06:55
04. Decay Practice  04:50
05. Colossus III: Deadlock 07:36
06. Colossus IV: null && void 04:52
07. Lost Mnemonics 03:36
08. The Unknown Known 10:13

This one is a one man project from Finland, and they have been in the scene for quite a while now. Its a shame that most of us haven’t been introduced to this band yet. And yes, they are freaking awesome !!! I had to get my hands on their previous releases before I could put this one down in words, and somehow I did (don’t ask, don’t tell 😛 ). Most of the post-rock/metal bands I’ve been listening to , try to put elements of symphony and shoegaze and mix them up bitterly to call themselves post bands, but not CRP ( I’m lazy!)). I can honestly say to all the post-rock/shoegaze listeners out there, that if you haven’t discovered this band yet, this will be something very, very different then what you’ve been listening to so far.

Tacit starts with a very jazzy intro, in the name of “Colossus I : Legacy”. I’ve always admired the use of Saxophone in post-rock, and CRP knows exactly how to impress me with transitions 😀 ! As you make your way though the album, you start to sense all the minute detailing they have put in the making of this album. Next up “Mercurial”, have some powerful post-metal riffs, and is a delighting composition indeed. It’s actually tough to make something post and not make it sound single toned, but to use the same single toned pitch and cast it into something this beautiful is an art unto itself. The blend of heavy as well as light riffage here, more than deserves acknowledgment. By the time I reached “Colossus II: Thrashing” it looked as if the album is basically about the “Colossus” story, and the rest are all fillers, and by fillers I don’t mean they are not as good as the rest, but they take the role of supporting acts of the branched story the album is trying to convey. “Decay Practice” on the other hand , is deficient of creativity, but then I guess it was not meant to hit home anyway.What follows, are the last 2 tracks of the Colossus series, and shit you not, this guy is a genius. They’ve been designed to deliver a blend of lineal atmospheric silence and heavily distorted riffs that will have the listener fall into an aural trance. “Lost Mnemonics” is a small track, composed to play the bridge between the end of the Colossus story by “null & void” and the end of album. Bright acoustics, dark piano…and well placed distorted sounds make up the
“The unknown known”. The last 10 minutes of this elegant, swift and deeply terrifying journey of music is as good as it gets.
Tacit is something that will require multiple listens to truly appreciate its ethereal beauty. And I won’t be ashamed to admit that this album was beyond my deciphering capabilities. Nonethless it still is an experience that is totally worth the length.

RATING : 4.5/5

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Stream and download the album from their bandcamp page.

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