The player keeps spinning and it seems like metal remains the main focus of my growing tape collection. But metal also is a very wide field...
MIZMOR - Wit's End (2022)
Ever since the epic video for its title track premiered during Roadburn Redux last April (and disappeared again afterwards) I've eagerly awaited this new EP from Mizmor. And since I already own all other studio albums on beautiful cassette editions, the choice of media couldn't have been easier.
Mastermind A.L.N.'s solo project / occasional live band has of course always delivered greatness, but the song alone is just the icing on the cake, even on top of "Yodh" and "Cairn". These fifteen minutes of painful longing for a world that believes in science, packed in a blackened, crawling threnody of funeral doom is just one of the greatest offerings this genre (and I'm speaking of doom metal as a whole) has ever given us. It's a masterpiece.
The B side "Paradolia" is almost equally as long, yet a lot more experimental. Based on an older composition from 2011, this very clerical and ambient remix(?) / reimagination (?) strays from the usual sludgy metal guitar heaviness and is all about atmospheric droning and layering waves and noises around each other. Maybe this track is to Mizmor what Justin K. Broadrick's Final is to Godflesh.
Surely not for every doom metal fan, but I thoroughly enjoy this expertly crafted foray into abstraction. It's also the perfect transition into the next album in this chronicle, which is all about drowning you in transcendent dizziness...
Mastermind A.L.N.'s solo project / occasional live band has of course always delivered greatness, but the song alone is just the icing on the cake, even on top of "Yodh" and "Cairn". These fifteen minutes of painful longing for a world that believes in science, packed in a blackened, crawling threnody of funeral doom is just one of the greatest offerings this genre (and I'm speaking of doom metal as a whole) has ever given us. It's a masterpiece.
The B side "Paradolia" is almost equally as long, yet a lot more experimental. Based on an older composition from 2011, this very clerical and ambient remix(?) / reimagination (?) strays from the usual sludgy metal guitar heaviness and is all about atmospheric droning and layering waves and noises around each other. Maybe this track is to Mizmor what Justin K. Broadrick's Final is to Godflesh.
Surely not for every doom metal fan, but I thoroughly enjoy this expertly crafted foray into abstraction. It's also the perfect transition into the next album in this chronicle, which is all about drowning you in transcendent dizziness...
BORIS - W (2022)
The busy discography of the Japanese trio Boris, which spans over more than two decades now, is quite intimidating if you want to pick a point to start, even if you don't count the numerous collaborations with other artists like Merzbow or Sunn O))). I've risked an ear here and there, yet haven't really immersed myself deep into the catalogue. So my personal window on the multi-faceted heavy music group is still quite narrow and possibly random, but from my record collection I can say that so far my favorite Boris has been female lead vocals Boris with guitarist Wata in the spotlight, as on their heavy alternative pop record "Attention Please!" oder the "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits V3" single.
And since the recent "W" (companion to the 2020 release "NO") is all about her again and basically represents the whole manifoldness of Boris in a nutshell, yet everything drenched in shoegaze and the sometimes already uncomfortable comfort of eery ASMR, it's no wonder that I just want to wrap myself into this wonderful blanket of noises and silences like a baby. There's a depth and intention behind the way Boris are handling this kind of sound and atmosphere, which makes the majority of anything post rock or metal seem bland and blank. The few more abrasive moments like the instrumental sludge metal banger "The Fallen" or the abrupt ending of "Old Projector" make sure that you don't completely dissolve into a hazy state of being half awake and half-asleep. Which is good, because there really is no need to dream your own shit using this as a soundtrack. "W" in itself is dream enough.
And since the recent "W" (companion to the 2020 release "NO") is all about her again and basically represents the whole manifoldness of Boris in a nutshell, yet everything drenched in shoegaze and the sometimes already uncomfortable comfort of eery ASMR, it's no wonder that I just want to wrap myself into this wonderful blanket of noises and silences like a baby. There's a depth and intention behind the way Boris are handling this kind of sound and atmosphere, which makes the majority of anything post rock or metal seem bland and blank. The few more abrasive moments like the instrumental sludge metal banger "The Fallen" or the abrupt ending of "Old Projector" make sure that you don't completely dissolve into a hazy state of being half awake and half-asleep. Which is good, because there really is no need to dream your own shit using this as a soundtrack. "W" in itself is dream enough.
SO HIDEOUS - None But A Pure Heart Can Sing (2021)
At last here's the by far most wild and heterogenic mix of styles in this bunch. I've heard that some fans dislike that the band didn't change the name, because they are not really a black metal band incorporating outside influences anymore. So what? That's the description of every second black metal project today. In fact I could easily with a lot less metal in general on this album. Not that the metal is bad, not at all. But the most interesting passages on "None But A Pure Heart Can Sing" are actually mostly those, when you almost think that the New Yorkers So Hideous are originally coming from "the outside" - as in jazz, chamber orchestra, brass, strings and all, western soundtrack, piano music -, and the post hardcore, prog metal and blackgaze is what's added on top.
So yes, I'm already sugesting a direction to go in the future, while I still immensly enjoy this album. There are a couple of instances, which are a bit much for me, like the whole last track "From Now (Til The Time We're Still)" with its shameless schmaltz which even Mono or Dream Theater would only utilize in their most borderline moments.
But maybe at that point it's just me being too spoiled by the truly great klezmerish bits in the relentless high speed thunderstorm "Motorik Visage" before. This is certainly a very New York band and a fitting neighbour to the adventureous likes of Imperial Triumphant and Kayo Dot.
So yes, I'm already sugesting a direction to go in the future, while I still immensly enjoy this album. There are a couple of instances, which are a bit much for me, like the whole last track "From Now (Til The Time We're Still)" with its shameless schmaltz which even Mono or Dream Theater would only utilize in their most borderline moments.
But maybe at that point it's just me being too spoiled by the truly great klezmerish bits in the relentless high speed thunderstorm "Motorik Visage" before. This is certainly a very New York band and a fitting neighbour to the adventureous likes of Imperial Triumphant and Kayo Dot.
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