That's what I love about December: You have already selected your TOP something albums of the year and just finalize the ranking with little write-ups - and then you get a delivery like this from I, Voidhanger Records, where each and every item would deserve a place or at least a shoutout in such a list as well.
But [SPOILER ALERT!] at least one of these albums already has a reserved seat high up in my TOP 22 anyway.
And then there's of course that situation with the joint release from I, Voidhanger and Utech Records, which opens this little review collection:
NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM - Finis Gloriae Mundi (CD) (2022)
You could argue that this live album already sits on spot 3 of my
TOP 7 live albums of 2022, at least its tracklist, because on paper this recording from September 2021 in Nijmegen exactly equals the one on
"Set Chaos To The Heart Of The Moon - Live At Roadburn 2021". So isn't it kind of redundant then? Definitely not! Ok, I get that a more casual fan would be content with just one of these albums - and the previous one has the bonus of also containing a fantastic live video on DVD. So yes, this isn't the most mandatory purchase ever. But it's a damn awesome one!
You cannot expect me to give you a detailed in-depth comparison between these over one hour long chunks of boundless monumentalism, but I can say for sure that the overall feeling is different in a way which I haven't quite deciphered yet. Obviously the track lengths vary a lot, with some pieces being shorter, some longer, which indicates where the most improvisation takes place. And while all the Psych and Jazz and Eastern tradional influence is as present as ever, the production of "Finis Gloriae Mundi" somehow feels rawer and leans more to the Drone and Doom Metal side of the Belgian collective. It's a mostly rather subtle difference which could as well originate in the form of the day, and I couldn't for the life of me decide which one is
better - but you know that noone would complain if seven more recordings of
John Coltrane performing "A Love Supreme" would appear out of the blue.
So in that spirit more
Neptunian Maximalism is always more amazing
Neptunian Maximalism, right? I just love this stuff.
FORLESEN - Black Terrain (CD) (2022)
Come now and let it all go...
I HAVE ALREADY REVIEWED THIS ALBUM A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO OVER ON VEILOFSOUND.COM. And as you might have noticed when I'm writing about the same album again, it's sometimes a little bit - don't let me say tedious... but well, sometimes I either more or less just copy from myself or I simply translate the old review into German with some extensions and additional pictures of my own physical copy. In this case however the second run gives me the chance to admit that I am not really happy with my initial text anymore.
But don't get me wrong: Even though it doesn't have many citable upshots or witticisms I still think it's a decent read and from my point of view still an accurate description of what awaits you on this album.
I'm just not sure if my declaration of
Forlesen being
"the most memorable substitute for the dearly missed SubRosa you could wish for" really was that helpful. Even though there's a very obvious other contender for that title out there, who released a great debut (which will be covered by me too), I still stand by that opinion. But I have the feeling that making "Black Terrain" part of a race/contest in that way just takes away from
Forlesen's many very own strengths and the simple fact that they created a vast Doom masterpiece here, which will stand the test of time without any need to get into the ring to fight other artists.
Just mentioning the DNA of
Botanist,
Kayo Dot and
Lotus Thief, which comes with the past and present activities of the band members and then going from there without distracting references would have been a better strategy to structure the write-up. But in hindsight you always know better.
Go now and let it all come...
Needless to say getting to spin the CD without the distraction of a computer screen or (in the car) traffic in front of me for the first time, but now actually reading the lyrics, helped me a lot to appreciate the full grandeur of "Black Terrain". I already loved how this album is segmented rather in movements than in songs. Themes may be reprised, but nothing ever repeats. There's always a stylistic and emotional change of pace with each new chapter. And this change doesn't seem to be informed by obligations of fulfilling genre quota:
Guys, we need 20% more melodic Funeral Doom, at least a minute more Ambient and must cut back some of the Black Metal vocals in favor of Bezaelith's voice, so we don't scare away the stockholders!
No, the movements, no matter if they are introduced slowly in long build-ups or start with a sudden jump scare, always go hand in hand with the huge evocative narration. Together the parts flow as an apocalyptic, sometimes harsh, sometimes painfully beautiful epos. Not that I could actually retell a story here, but this soundtrack in four up to almost twenty minutes long parts is meant to let you create an endless gallery of your own moving pictures anyway. And the resulting phantasmagoric movie is among the most magnificent any (Blackened Ambient Psychedelic Funeral Drone...) Doom album has ever stirred in me. In a just world
Forlesen's "Black Terrain" would be destined to become a towering classic!
You know at which festival I want this album to be performed in full. One can dream so shortly before Christmas, right?
And like the straw becomes a flame
These chasms open up in the mundane
And the abyss that gazes back's
Greatest horror is that it is sane.
SKYTHALA - Boreal Despair (CD) (2022)
Phew, with six tracks of over nine and a half minutes average length, this is yet another huge colossus of an album. And similarly as special as Forlesen. But while some Doom or semi-acoustic passages here and there could be part of both works, the sonic concept SkyThala are presenting on "Boreal Despair" as a whole is completely different.
The metal side of the album can mostly be described as apocalyptic Deathened Black Metal with very few elements of the aforementioned Doom and maybe... Blackened Thrash (think Vektor!) in it. The other side, which is constantly directly interwoven with it just below the edge of total chaotic overkill and which sometimes even takes the sole lead is Stravinskyan Modern Classical music. And the symphonic / organ arrangements are among the already in themselves darkest and most ambitious I've ever heard within an extreme metal context. The sound here is just spectacularly determined, well integrated and specific.
While I mostly appreciate it, when successful Symphonic / Metal fusions forgo the guitar hero showing off, SkyThala are allowed to burst into some bragging six-string witchery, because it is not only so coherent with the Classical influence, but it also brings me back to good old Nocturnus, who used to run into those wild leads at the end of a riff in a similar way. A lot of this album actually reminds me of them, just minus the bold sci-fi keyboards and plus SkyThala's own special ingredients.
And except for that one part in "At Dawn They Walk", which takes me out of the flow just by uncannily reminding me of Leonard Rosenman's "Lord of the Rings" soundtrack (the old Ralph Bakshi adaptation!) and a couple if instances where listening too much to individual instruments instead of the whole reveals some bits, which would sound cheesy isolated, this is an incredibly overwhelming wave of atmospheric brutality.
Any album of the year list featuring "Boreal Despair" definitely has my respect and approval. It's an outstanding release.
While I'm not the biggest fan of glossy surfaces (less reflections and finger prints on matt, it mostly even feels better) and some typo and colour choices could be a little more concerned with readability, the
I, Voidanger CD digipaks so far all looked good and had decent cover artworks.
One however stands out, not only because of its digipak's upright format, which I've seen the label using for
-S- and
Esoctrilihum releases before. Seeing the combination of album title and artwork was one of those
WTF! instances where I really hoped the music would justify the purchase for me.
ZOS - The Whole Of The Body I Call ZOS (CD) (2022)
Well, if the title track / opener of this album did one thing, then it was amplifying that
WTF! impression I had from the artwork. What happens after the atmospheric intro especially in terms of production choices just completely escapes any palpable comparison for me. Seemingly low-fi and blurry in an ultra obscure and hardly listenable way, but somehow at the same time just so bold and intriguing that it still was enough for me to decide that this had to go into my basket.
I have no clue what this is and where it is going, but hell I will listen to this!
And now I'm in fact listening and I am both dissappointed and relieved. Dissappointed that the Polish Post Black Metal band isn't that ballsy to just keep the brainmeltingly abrasive abstractionism of the first track going for the whole record. A lot more relieved though that they are actually not a one-trick pony and that the whole of the album is a very diverse journey. Most of its playing time could be labelled as Blackened Doom, even delving into droning, improvisational psychedelica, which frames the - for a metallic context - weirdly hollow guitars and unusually natural drums in a much more conclusive fashion.
Meanwhile a strange yet captivating atmosphere of occultism drenches this complete "phonomachy" (as the band itself calls it) in bloody fog, making "The Whole Of The Body I Call ZOS" for sure the most enigmatic CD of this haul.
Thou who exists in all erogenousnesses
By the power of meanings
Arising from these forms
I make
The talismans that speak the secret
Leitmotif
of desire
We evoke thee!
