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Posts mit dem Label Monovoth werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Posts mit dem Label Monovoth werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen

2026-08-02

MONOVOTH - To Live In the Breath of Worship

Diesmal nicht wie die ersten beiden Alben auf Kassette (also kein Futter für meine spezielle Rubrik hier), aber immerhin nach Monaten überhaupt endlich auf physischem Tonträger zu haben, macht das neueste Werk von Monovoth genau dort weiter, wo "Pleroma Mortem Est" aufhörte - die Zeichen stehen also auf exzellenten Funeral Doom!


MONOVOTH - To Live In the Breath of Worship (CD) (2026)

Obwohl offiziell nach wie vor als Soloprojekt des argentinischen Multiinstrumentalisten Lucas Wyssbrod geführt, sind Monovoth auf "To Live In The Breath Of Worship" faktisch zumindest ein Duo, hat Drummer Martin Visconti doch einen kongenialen Anteil am Gelingen dieses Albums. Desweiteren reichen diverse Gastgitarristen einander die Axt, während auf zwei der vornehmlich instrumentalen sechs Tracks auch die düsteren Organe der Gastsänger Andrew Notsch bzw. Martin Passaro zu hören sind.

Bewährter Dreh- und Angelpunkt von Wyssbrods Musik bleibt zerschmetternde Todtraurigkeit, ausgedrückt im Wechselspiel großartiger Riffs so schwer wie zwei Meter frischer Erde über deinem Sarg und Leadgitarrenmeldodien von elementarer sakraler Schönheit.

Wie schon auf dem Vorgängeralbum werden die Grenzen des Subgenres Funeral Doom zwar ausgelotet, aber niemals wirklich verlassen, selbst wenn sich schwarzmetallische Tonfolgen einschleichen, wenn das Schlagzeug in "To Drown In The Tears Of God" antizyklisch schnell prügelt (ein perfektionierter Trick seit dem selbstbetitelten Debüt) oder man im Finale von "Beg & Burn" mit einem nietenbesetzten Stiefel schon die Schwelle zur reinen New Wave of British Heavy Metal überschritten hat.

Ich möchte schreiben, dass dieses Album mich uneingeschränkt in dunkles Verzücken versetzt, muss allerdings ehrlich gesagt zugeben, dass man die letzten zehn Minuten, die statt Doom Metal nur noch dröhnende Dark-Ambient-Klangkulisse sind, nicht unbedingt in jedem Durchlauf mitnehmen muss.

Bis dahin jedoch - und das ist immerhin eine absolut ausreichende  Dreiviertelstunde - herrschen Monovoth mit unentrinnbarer Begräbnisallherrlichkeit, die "To Live In The Breath Of Worship" zu einem meiner liebsten Metalalben des laufenden Jahres macht.  






2024-07-01

MIDYEAR TOP 15: my favorite albums of 2024 (so far)

Same procedure as every July: Here's a spontanous selection of my fifteen favorite albums of the year so far. No distinction between studio and live releases - and only stuff which I have on vinyl, CD or cassette. Expect some of these to appear again in my more elaborated list at the end of the year - but don't be surprised if they're in a different order or some have disappeared!

The order ultimately doesn't matter anyway, because even if this list was twice as long, I would still highly recommend every single album on it! 


  1. FULL EARTH



  2. KAMASI WASHINGTON



  3. SLIFT
    Ilion



  4. SEAN ONO LENNON
  5. AGUSA
  6. LOUSIE LEMÓN



  7. DOOL


  8. SOLAR TEMPLE & DEAD NEANDERTHALS



  9. NICK HUDSON


  10. CARPET



  11. IVAN THE TOLERABLE TRIO



  12. MONOVOTH



  13. ZAÄAR



  14. TUSKS






2024-04-30

Veil of Stuff feat. FULL EARTH, KALI MALONE, LOUISE LEMÓN and MONOVOTH


Four are full again! So here's my most recent bunch of releases which I've written about over on Veil of Sound:




KALI MALONE - All Life Long (CD) (2024)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

After "Does Spring Hide Its Joy" the American composer and organist residing in Sweden once again choses not to operate below the dimension of FOREVER and releases a huge statement of experimental  Modern Classical music. "All Life Long" combines three different kinds of songs: pipe organ pieces (performed by Malone herself or together with Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley on either the same or two different instruments), brass compositions for trumpet, French horn and trombones and choir chants.

The arrangements are minimalist and droning, the pace is glacial. You can almost watch the seasons change before your eyes while you're listening to this album. But there's a deeply rooted emotional vibrancy which keeps you invested in the beauty of its simplicity. As slow as it unfolds (or even seemingly stays in one place) - every tone and texture here is placed with care and purpose.

Music, which reflects a mostly unspoken part of the human experience in relation to the flow of time. An expression of the inexpressible.










LOUISE LEMÓN - Lifetime of Tears (LP) (2024)

Rejoice, finally! The Swedish Queen of Death Gospel is back with a new album! Smooth, dramatic, dark and light. Simple and catchy, deep and poetic. Louise Lemón sings the love funeral Blues.

Once again I will probably play these seductively melancholic heartbreak hymns until they bleed out of my ears and then some more. They are just so irresistable. 








FULL EARTH - Cloud Sculptors (clear vinyl 2LP) (2024)
Kanaan +, the Norwegian power trio bulking up with two extra members to a collection of huge compositions by drummer Ingvald. Enormous riffs, hypnotically swirling and pulsating organs, mellotron and synths. Just a giant, unfathomable roller of Psychedelic Rock goodness with Classical inspirations. This double album continues to blow me away.

What else can you wish for? To experience this primal dance of the elements live? Well, I just had that at Roadburn and it was a blast. Look out for my upcoming live report!









MONOVOTH - Pleroma Mortem Est (MC) (2024)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

And last but not least her's a Funeral Doomjà vu. I not only reviewed Monovoth's second album on Veil of Sound, but also already featured it in my cassette craze chronicles. So even though this is worth repeated praise, please go to one (or both) of those places to read me go on about how great this is!







2024-03-31

cassette craze chronicles XXXIII feat. AIDAN BAKER, AVI C. ENGEL, MAIRU and MONOVOTH


Cassettes, cassettes, cassettes, ca...? Wait. Something feels weird, I don't know...

Well, let's just - sloooowly - get started with a serious statement of Doom:







MONOVOTH - Pleroma Mortem Est (2024)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

After playing with several adjacent influences on the rather Avantgarde self-titled debut, Lucas Wyssbrod's solo project Monovoth now dedicates itself fully to pure Funeral Doom in a flavour close to Bell Witch. Albeit not being equally colossal in size "Pleroma Mortem Est" breathes a similar air of cosmic magnitude with heaviness and beauty seemingly not made for our limited mortal perception.

It's just that brand of the genre I totally love to let myself fall into. The cassette format enhances the impression of a forever returning cyclic nature just by "Grata Mors" and "Somnia", the respective first tracks  of both sides beginning with deliberately similar intros, which can make it hard to determine where you are at first. In the end it doesn't matter, because from this album's perspective the listeners' little matters are just small insignificant specks on specks of stardust anyway.








MAIRU - Sol Cultus (2023)

Sometimes huge and aggressive Post Metal can feel a little stale and tiring, but this band just has that certain it, which captures me. I just have difficulties putting this tape into my play... Ok, now I get it! Something felt strangely off about this cassette since the moment I opened the package from Trepanation Recordings. My dear Dan, you sent me the wrong format! No worries, that's not a biggie actually, CDs are fine and both have the same price, so this doesn't bother me.

It disqualifies the release from being featured here however, so I have to stop this mini review at this point and carry on with the two *checks twice* actual tapes which I recently got from Cruel Nature Records... 








AIDAN BAKER - Everything Is Like Always Until It Is Not (2024)

After Monovoth already taught us that most of all is Death Aidan Bakern continues our philosophy lecture with the observation that "Everything Is Like Always Until It Is Not".

With each of its eight tracks named after one word of the album title, this is an album which undergoes an according subtle dramatic change during its runtime. It starts as if the typical sound of Aidan's band Nadja had been reimagined in a relaxing Ambient Doom Jazz setting, with synth and flowing guitars meandering in slow waves above smooth bass lines and half deliberately-amateurish / half Smooth Jazz drumming.

There is a monotonous undertone lurking somewhere in the background, which in the beginning is providing a sense of comfort. During the second half however it grows to an ominous Drone, which takes over more and more of the sonic space, making it more and more uncomfortable until with "Not" the album ends in an openly contorted reflection of its beginning.

No doubt, mister Baker knows what he's doing with this fearless exploration of (un)easy listening. And Cruel Nature Records know how to pack and design a tape release. Perfect concept and execution all around!









AVI C. ENGEL - Too Many Souls (2024)

I didn't hate it, but partly I felt a little lukewarm about Avi C. (formerly Clara) Engel's last album "Sanguinaria". "Too Many Souls" however is a different beast. Not that the general approach of Engel's music would have changed - that's not something anyone would seriously expect I guess. They still cultivate an intimate, very DIY kind of acoustic singer/songwriter sound, based in equal parts on Folk, Classical, Alternative and in lack of a better term Experimental influences.

The seven tracks of this new album - including a wonderful cover of the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger", which joins versions by Oceans Of Slumber and Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter in my collection - all just find the right tone of introspective, but still interesting and listenable brooding. Among the minimal arrangements of guitar, percussions and occasional melodica, which carry Avi's soothing vocals, especially the gudok, a lute-related Slavic string instrument, is the emotionally captivating star of the show.

A beautiful, poetic album with the same nice (even though not necessarily most convenient) cardboard packaging as seen with Aidan Baker's cassette, including Engel's own artwork and a great looking shell.






2023-08-13

cassette craze chronicles XXVII feat. CEREMENTED, MONOVOTH, SPIRALIST, TERMINAL and THECODONTION


Ok, these tapes were all supposed to be in the last part of the cassette craze chronicles already, but then a bunch of other stuff became more relevant at the time due to certain festivals they were connected with. But finally here we go with three 2022 and 2023 releases from Trepanation Recordings and one split cassette by Xenoglossy Productions!







MONOVOTH - Monovoth (2022)

This is fucking sad! Seriously. This is so desperately sad, you don't think it can get any sadder. Just listen to "Servants", where the drums at some point lose patience and are like "Come on buddy, that sounds so sad, let's move! Let's blast! Don't be so miserable all the time!", but the guitar just goes "Thanks for trying man, but I'm so depressed, I just keep being slow and sad nonetheless." The brilliant result encapsules the spirit of the whole album.

Both said instruments are played by the same person, since Monovoth is a solo project (yet also including several guest musicians) by Lucas Wyssbrod, who has a very clear vision of what he wants, which is oppressing heaviness and relentless lugubriousness, both achieved by the means of Funeral Doom, Death, Drone and Post Metal. This is stuff which may require some Bell Witch afterwards to cheer you up, so you definitely should be in the right listening mood to handle this life-denying monstrosity of cosmic sorrow. Surely one of last year's Doom highlights!

The cover artwork is accordingly evil, comes with a cryptic OBI strip, yet especially the tape itself looks great.









SPIRALIST - Eternal Recurrence (2022)

Oh, what a coincidence! In a couple of days I'm going to see the Sun Ra Arkestra (hopefully this time with 99 years young band leader Marshall Allan) live again. Which musically has almost zero connections to last year's album by Spiralist. Its first song is just called "Sun Ra", that's it. Or is it? At least there's definitely some small Jazz influence hidden in the wild stylistic trajectory of "Eternal Recurrences". But that Jazz comes alongside brutal Hardcore, Prog Rock, Electronic Ambient, Industrial, Post Metal... Yeah, this reads as if I'm just randomly writing down genres. And maybe Spiralist are working just like that and throw dices each time they approach a new song section. For that however they sound surprisingly consistent.

Back when the Afro-Futuristic Arkestra started revolutionizing Jazz in the 1950's nothing about the sound of this band here would have seemed even imaginable. And even now their particular mash-up of ideas isn't easy to categorize. A good part of the four tracks sound like a much darker incarnation of Haken, but then the album also throws curveballs leading you far away from that comparison. (The twelve-minute instrumental track "The Unknown" is much much too straight for example and also the epic Post Doom title track points to an entirey different direction.)

Spiralist are gritty, creative and never wholly what you'd expect them to be - no matter from which angle you approach them. There's no doubt that they made a pretty great album though. It also has my favorite cover artwork of this bunch.










TERMINAL - R.A.T.S (2023)

The cover artwork which incited this whole Trepanation purchase (also including an epic Post Rock CD by Mountainscape) in the first place interestingly is the one which somehow doesn't translate into the MC format as successfully as the rest. As much as the psychologically dark painting is still one of the best covers of the ongoing year in itself, the presentation just weakens it. Which means the musical content has to save this release, I guess? Well, thankfully it does that with ease.

The Norwegian duo Terminal channels Godflesh through the lens of catchy Gothic / electronic Post Punk tunes and isn't afraid to throw other ingredients from all kinds of unlikely sources into the mix. Especially the chorus of "The Path", one of half of the album's songs featuring guest vocalist Pia Isaksen has been one of the most resilient occupants of my ear for months now.
But even though not all of the eight tracks are bangers like this, the unique atmosphere and sonic palette of "R.A.T.S." as a whole makes up for it. It may be too short to enter the race of becoming a classic some day and I can certainly hear potential for greater things to come in the future, but being what it is it already checks a lot of boxes, making it hard to resist for me. And why would I even want to resist? 










THECODONTION / CEREMENTED - Thecodontion / Ceremented (2023)

Yes, the proto history nerds from Italy are back. Once again Thecodontion make the weird fantasy of Mike Browning giving a school presentation about earlier geological eras to a Black Metal backdrop a reality. Their brand of Black Metal sounds pretty special, since it omits guitars and relies on two raunchy and wiry basses instead.
On this split album they are giving their primal sound a new elevating twist by adding a lot of prominent synths, which probably triggered me thinking of Browning's Nocturnus. The result is a little more "musical" (for lack of a better term), yet still remains a quite singular experience.

And then comes the third track "La Torre", which suddenly features clean Italian vocals and catchy New Wave Pop melodies. It's a cover of Eighties singer/songwriter Franco Battiato and features a line about super dinosaurs returning to Earth or something, so that's probably how they got the idea to include it. Most unexpected turn on any album I've heard for a while. I'm still not sure what to make out of it, but it for sure underlines the weirdness of this group, which seemingly isn't a duo anymore, but officially a quartet now.

The B-side features four tracks by the US Death Metal band Ceremented, who share the desinterest in guitars with Thecodontion, yet express it with a much sludgier bass sound. Musically this sits somewhere between nihilistic Winter Death Doom and the first Death Metal phase of Napalm Death, with a lot of pure filth and Noise vomited on top of it. Grimy stuff.

The packaging of this split tape is excellent. Ok, you wouldn't recognize any of the two bands' members from the photographs, but I applaud those for even being there, alongside readable credits and lyrics. This is how you do it!