Metalligatorr's Funereal Favorites
Lorn - Arrayed Claws
Genre: Black Metal
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Year: 2017
Good cover art sets the stage for an album and, in the best of cases, embodies its sound. It can often be the first impression a listener gets before a single note is played and I certainly got an impression of great unease looking at Arrayed Claws' art for the first time. Opener "Disharmonic Feticism" takes no prisoners in trying to prove me right. The song hits the ground running with a lot of blazing riffs proving that this is black metal with teeth, but the true nature of the album starts showing at the middle of the track. A repeating dissonant riff starts building a lot of tension before fading out slowly and ending on something that could have been a track off Angelo Badalamenti's soundtrack to Twin Peaks. It's a truly odd moment that always strikes me as a perfect example of how to use contrast in music.
The rest of the album follows suit with a dissonant intensity that often makes me grit my teeth subconsciously when I'm not paying attention. Many bands use dissonance to try to provoke unease but I find that few albums are as successful or go quite as far as this work. There are a lot of smaller background sounds and riffs that cut through the surprisingly soft production like a scalpel. The closest comparison I can think of is how An Isolated Mind's debut used microtonal noise to rattle its listeners. Beneath the dissonance lies a succinct second wave black metal album that brings the riffs and always switches things up just as it's about to become too repetitive. Near the end, "Süt-aq-Köl" introduces a section where the rumbling bass and a somehow melodic dissonant lead takes turn leading the song before "Aus Nebel Turm" end things on a loud, mysterious and mournful synth led song. The ideas present on this album are fascinating and while I wouldn't call this a desert island record I think it deserves more attention than the slim pickings it's gotten. The band themselves seems to have fallen off the face of the earth so who knows if we'll hear anything from them again. I just know that I've been spinning this now and then since it released and that I'll keep doing it.
Rating: 7/10
Loss - Horizonless
Genre: Funeral Doom Metal
Label: Profound Lore Records
Year: 2017
Fun Doom is a challenging genre for me. I think I've only ever found two, maybe three albums I love in the genre and this is one of them. Horizonless sweats a mournful atmosphere from its every pore, as is usual for the genre. What sets it apart, however, is a knack for knowing when to develop and/or speed up a song. Opener "The Joy of All Who Sorrow" showcases this right out of the gate with a simple riff that evokes the starry sky of the album cover. It goes through moments of quiet and uproar, relying on an almost Goth-inspired bass line to carry it before it erupts after a whopping eight minute build in a huge moment of shouted vocals, screams and increasing speed. It's a fascinating start to a fascinating album.
Dispersed throughout the album are interludes that are spent building up atmosphere. Usually skeptical about these, here I instead think they help build up the atmosphere and vary the content so that the proper songs do not blend together. This is not to say that the songs sound the same but they all carry the same tone. "Naught" starts out with a somber piano led melody before developing into a slow guitar driven affair that sounds like a cry for help. The title track breaks out in a moment of folksy clean singing that recalls Agalloch, of all possible influences. Closer "When Death is All" showcases some surprisingly somber Americana-like moments translated into doomy guitar playing.
All of this album is heavy and downtrodden but it knows when to switch things up. What I'm trying to get at here is that there are a lot of ideas that makes this album work for me. The emotional melodies and surprisingly good bass plying that often cuts through the gloom have stayed with me since the album released in 2017. These guys seem to take their time between albums and if it is because they reach this kind of result, I'll be there in a heartbeat next time they release something.
Rating: (strong) 8/10
Scuttlegoats Sempiternal Selections
Infester - To The Depths, In Degradation
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Moribund Records
Year: 1994
Note: In writing this review I discovered that since I last checked, Metal Archives has changed the lyrical themes of Infester from something like "abstract themes, politics, philosophy, psychology, gore, sexuality" to "Gore, Occultism, Misogyny, Rape, Racism/White supremacy". The latter is by far more representative, however I was not aware of any White Supremacist connection. The lyric that seems to raise this point is "Repulsive Ebony Flesh" from "Braded Into Palsy", which is about mutilation during sexual intercourse. However I have also discovered that a swastika is visible on the bands picture on Metal Archives, positioned in a pentagram. I do not know if this is a case of stupid young people being needlessly edgy (an Alcest situation) or if the band are actual Nazis. I recommend coming to your own conclusions.
In the mid 90´s, Death Metal had already solidified into a small group of well defined movements and/or regional scenes. Most bands seemed to either emulate the american bands or the swedish ones, with Outliers coming from the UK or the Netherlands. Very few bands seemed to toot their own horn. Infester was one of them but if for youthful incompetence or for an actual desire to be unique, I cannot say. Ironically, Infester have the exact selection of elements that many contemporary throwback Death Metal bands now have. A distinct hardcore bent with a murky production and cavernous, often pitched down vocals, Infester are a weird artifact, almost more analog horror than band.
Generally, Infester draw as much from Incantation as they do Suffocation. Dirgelike tremolo sections are as common as are hardcore inspired stomping bits. In the latter, Infester will often approach a level of primitivism that makes me want to call them 'Proto Slam'. But Infester never drop the ball regarding atmosphere. Odd synths are often layered over the material, which gives it a primal feeling. The almost sacral feel contrasts and clashes with the primitive mauling and the album feels literally like what we are listening to is some kind of weird tape recording from a Death Metal crime scene. The production enhances this, of course. In fact, I find the production on To the Depths, In Degradation to be rather characteristic. As dirty as it is, it is actually quite underproduced and strangely dry for an album that feels so cavernous and big. Ultimately, Infester are the band that many a modern OSDM band would like to be - obscure and vile, a rejection of morality in musical form. Almost good enough to make you forget that the album is way too long at 54 minutes and that songs will blend together rather quickly...
Rating: 7/10.
Nyarlathotep - Slub Lorth in Eternal Rest
Genre: Funeral Doom / Death Metal
Label: Independent
Year: 2001
Funeral Doom is a genre that began in absolute obscurity. Fueled by finnish weirdos more than anything else, Funeral Doom has always managed to reject having a core interpretation to it. A scattered scene, it is no surprise that many of the early acts of the genre sound very different from each other. Nyarlathotep´s Demo Slub Lorth in Eternal Rest is their only release and it released early enough to not have access to easily googleable inspiration. Nyarlathoteps interpretation of Funeral Doom is much different from the mopey synths of the finnish scene or the violent funereal outbursts of a band like diSembowelment. In fact, there is so much variety on this 16 minute demo that it is quite hard to say where the band would have even gone had they released more material.
Opening track 'Raped Flesh Below the Tomb' is sluggishly slow with simple melodic lines layered on top - lines that seem to defy a clear definition and seem almost impossible to grasp in where they end or begin. Tracks 2 is somehow both more riff centric and death metal oriented but also has an unusual gothic feel to it. The ethereal synths layered over top of it create a post-punk feel that would still be somewhat unique today - but was unheard of in 2001. Track 3 'Black Granite Ruin' however approaches the avantgarde. Faster than the two preceding it, it has unusual rhythms, dissonances, tempo changes and often seemingly unrelated samples layered over top of it, culminating in something that would almost appear like something from the Shitty Flute YouTube channel were it not presented in this context. The obscurity of the Demo, again almost seeming more like a found object than a real album, certainly aids in the charme of these decisions which could easily backfire. Nyarlathotep is one of the most interesting demos of early Funeral Doom.
Rating: 8/10.
Animosity - Animal
Genre: Technical Deathcore
Label: Metal Blade
Year: 2007
At the end of the day, what does obscure mean? It is pretty hard to be defined, and while discussing the form and the definition of this writeup series, we weren´t quite sure where to draw the line. Animosity are certainly an edge case, as they would be very much well known to a specific kind of metalhead, albeit rather obscure to another. Being on Metal Blade could certainly disqualify Animosity from beign obscure but ultimately, I do believe that most readers of this blog probably wouldn´t think to check out a band like Animosity. Deathcore, be it technical or otherwise, seems to be the genre most despised by the metal purists, but it is a shame as there is lots to discover in Animosity and there really isn´t much to be found of the elements that are supposedly the bad aspects of Deathcore.
Animal is the bands last album and in many ways their greatest achievement. While the material never approaches insane speeds, it is undeniably rather technical and complex. The Material is percussive in nature almost always and doesn´t approach the higher register unless it really needs to. The band manages to keep up an insane groove at all times, despite often changing time signatures unexpectedly and despite rarely repeating material without any variation. Often sections will be repeated in the way that you least expect it, putting the emphasis on completely different beats or even fully transforming them rhythmically. Despite the ovious and noticeably technicality of the record, there is restraint and purpose in every writing decision. The album is very rhythm heavy and therefore lead sections will hit much harder than they usually would when they do make an appearance. The band doesn´t do this for a lack of skill - the solo in 'Plunder Incorporated' is brilliant - but it seems their technical approach isn´t about bragging but about maximalising the physical impact of the material.
Rating: 8/10.