Music Quickies

Quick and dirty reviews. Sometimes formed after the 1st listen, sometimes after 10 years. Reader discretion is advised.

Some really good shit – Converge, J.A. Mäki, Haraamo, Hebosagil, Liturqy, Mount Eerie, Oneothrix Point Never, Negură Bunget, Linkopii, Martolea

Good music that’s been on the block lately. Last weeks have had an influx of really memorable tracks from a diverse landscape of genres and sounds.

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Coil (Bloodmoon I, 2021)

Chaotic hardcore group turned doom. Converge has flirted with doom on all their latest albums but now they did what some doom lovers dared to dream of, go all in. Coil is probably the most easily approachable track with astounding tension and soundworld.

On first listens of the beginning trinity of Bloodmoon I was almost on a fanatical religious zeal. Unfortunately the latter side of the album never reaches the aggressiveness of old Converge and lacks quite a lot of diversity. When Converge albums used to be fast paced with occasional slowness, now the album is about 90 % slowness and even the faster bits are mostly mid tempo. Good stuff nevertheless and hopefully a sign of things to come with more versatility abound on Bloodmoon II.

J.A. Mäki – Hauta meren äärellä (AAVAA, 2019)

J.A. Mäki is better known as the singer of the best Finnish live band and one of my all time favourites Radiopuhelimet. I can’t believe it took me over 2 years to check out his solo project. Hauta meren äärellä includes naturefeels and calm death atmospherics. Exquisitely gleaming humming background scenery and gripping lyrics. It is rare for a song to create such a nature experience.

Haraamo – Menettämisestä (Aikamatkustaja, 2021)

Sci-fi Finnish indiepoprock retrowave melancholics, with a bit of hardcore shouting. Didn’t realize someone could make stuff like this. This is no gimmick either, the album is a very strong debut.

Hebosagil – Tämä on nähty (2021)

Hang on with me for one more Finnish track. Hebosagil from the Finnish capital of noisy obscurerock, Oulu. What a killer track, Hebosagil is a master of all major trades, weirdness, heaviness and pop hooks. Can’t wait for them to release the new album Yössä (25.2.2022). I hope it will also have longer tracks and not just pop hook brilliance that Tämä on Nähty kindly provides.

Two copied recommendations from Hebosagil’s playlist

Liturqy – GOD OF LOVE (H.A.Q.Q., 2019)

Almost definitely one of the weirdest black metal bands you’ve heard. Chaotic, wall of sound, abrubt pauses, yet perky and melodic. Big kicks on first listen.

Mount Eerie – Waves (Ocean Roar, 2012)

Ever thought that rushing and roaring sound walls could sound incredibly beautiful? Well they can.

Oneothrix Point Never – Long Road Home (Magic Oneothrix Point Never, 2021)

Ever thought that glitching experimental electronic music can actually be quite pop and still good? Well it can. There is some magic in Oneothrix Point Never. No one else really crafts sounds like this and the cover art is at par with the music.

Negură Bunget – Toacă Din Cer (Zău, 2021)

Toacă (the Romanian version of a semantron, a percussion instrument often made of wood that is knocked on with hammers by Eastern Orthodox monks to summon others to prayer). Din Cer seems to mean “from the heaven” or “from the sky” (Google translated).

This posthumous Negură Bunget release is a fine eulogy. Their main man Negru passed already in 2017 but had recorded drum tracks and percussions for the third part of their “Transylvanian trilogy”. The tracks were otherwise completely unfinished but luckily rest of the band members finished this work some years later. Posthumous releases are often met with too much praise but in this case i feel Zău was met with too LITTLE praise. For me it’s their best release since Vîrstele pămîntului (2010), topping also the new Dordeduh release (Dordeduh consists of ex-Negură Bunget members).

Toacă Din Cer might be the best Negură Bunget track ever. It is grippingly emotive with chanting vocals, soul penetrating melodic riffs and angelic haunting backgrounds. I only wish the lyrics were available somewhere. The last piece from the heavens indeed.

Martolea – Răsăritul Lunii (Noaptea dihăniilor, 2010)

Martolea is a pretty unknown side project of a Negură Bunget. Much more stripped of instrumental layers. It has a lot of the same aesthetics present but executed almost solely with band instruments. Flute is one of the unexpected prime instruments. Pretty good.

Linkopii – 2005 (Lanteet, 2020)

Bare with me for one more Finnish rock track. Linkopii who I don’t know where they are from but considering I found them through Hebosagil their heart must be from the capital of Finnish obscurely gripping rock, Oulu. In all honesty, apparently Linkopii was formed in Helsinki and previously some of the members have lived in Jyväskylä.

At surface they may come off as one of your typical indie rock bands, but on further peek there’s much more. A lot of strong elements and a pretty original setup. Good songwriting, strong guitar lines with a bit of 70s aesthetics a la Jukka Nousiainen, suomirock, punk and some bursts of psychedelic rock and weirdness. Sure, sometimes they are annoyingly bright and positive, but when a band has multiple sides, not each of them has to be of your liking. 2005, which is my prime cut has strong lyrics too.

I didn’t even mention the touches that remind of Risto. The second track of the album Anniina could be the counterpart of Risto classic: Rakkaani, mennään Aasiaan.

The judging metalhead in me really tried to like them less but I can’t.

Great underappreciated albums – Anti, Adramelech, DIRTYCREED, The Moth Gatherer

Short reviews of a few albums I’ve listened in the past year that I think deserve a lot more recognizion. Including The Moth Gatherer – A Bright Celestial Light (post-metal), Anti – The Insignificance of Life (depressive black metal), Adramelech – Pure Doom Blood (oldschool Finnish death metal) and DIRTYCREED – Bleeding Isle (neofolk).

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Anti – The Insignificance of Life (2006)

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Thick hypnotic depressive black metal. Landscape in Minor may be one of the pinnacles of the whole genre. Unlike bands like Xasthur who have jewels but a huge amount of crap, Anti only released one album that is throughoutly solid.

Full album in youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E36jyxh4cdw

8+/10

Adramelech – Pure Doom Blood (1999)

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Adramelech, A-grade Finnish oldschool death metal band was always good but lived in the shade of its more known counterparts like Demigod, Convulse and Demilich. Probably because it took them until 1996 to release their first length album.

Demilich was technical and a bit silly, Convulse and Demigod dark oldschool death metal. Adramelech is a cross between pitch black oldschool Finnish death and a fair amount of technicality without the silliness. The backbone is the groove of drummer Jarkko Rantanen and lead guitar work. The drums have something similar to Ken Owen of Carcass who also was quite a strange death metal drummer. Abomination 459 and Centuries of Murder are usually my choices when picking up individual tracks.

Neither Psychostasia (1996) or Pure Doom Blood (1999) are flawless but I personally find them more varied, groovy and melodic than what Convulse and Demigod ever did.

P.S. Pure Doom was finally re-released in 2018 and is available as a physical and digital copy.

8/10

Listen or buy a digital album from bandcamp: https://narex.bandcamp.com/album/pure-blood-doom

DIRTYCREED – Bleeding Isle (2017)

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Chinese one man neofolk band finds a sweet atmospheric spot. Vocals are very limited dark whispering with broken English but it does not break the spell. If in doubt just listen to magical melodies on The Architect or Riverside. It’s hard to find something more beautiful than the main theme of The Architect. DIRTYCREED is just bursting with talent, a lot of stylish piano and violin arrangements with lush soundscapes.

The entirety is a bit overlong and starts to repeat itself but Bleeding Isle has scattered brilliant themes throughout. The near perfect acoustic guitar sound helps a ton too. The album is a grower, there’s a ton of layered melodies. Bleeding Isle is not a simple man and a guitar album that one would come to expect. It will for sure last time very well and might easily grow to be even better with time.

Listen or buy a digital album from bandcamp: https://pestproductions.bandcamp.com/album/bleeding-isle

8/10

The Moth Gatherer – A Bright Celestial Light (2013)

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First impression of Swedish outfit The Moth Gatherer will forever be Cult of Luna. Even though The Moth Gatherer are an undeniably similar band, they skipped the early undynamic hardcore-sludge phase and went straight into the good bits. It’s refreshing to see apprentices taking notes and fine-tuning the craft of their idols. Dynamic, varied most of the best post-metal characteristics, including slow atmospheric sections that naturally lead to heavy riffs and memorable melodies are present.

There’s variation and pure groove in the riffs. Just listen to The Road of Gravel and Skulls or the crushing end of The Womb, The Woe, The Woman. Both tracks introduce a great riff in the beginning, and then do a whole lot in the middle section. Like wander in cinematic noir landscapes bringing in mind Callisto, there’s also a bit of gentle chord picking, small electronic parts and ominous riffing to end with a juiced up beginning riff.

The tracks usually lead to an end pinnacle, but The Moth Gatherer is still not as much as a build up band as some of its counterparts like Isis. There’s an ever present wave motion in the compositions that I’ve very much come to like in post-metal. Who needs choruses anyway?

P.S. Don’t try to search them from The Metal Archives, somehow they are not listed as metal. Probably because their 2015 album The Earth is the Sky and 2017 EP The Comfortable Low are post rockish. Great releases nevertheless. The Moth Gatherer has an extremely solid discography including a 2019 release Esoteric Oppression.

9/10

Jpegmafia — Veteran – Music quickies

ap,550x550,12x12,1,transparent,t.u7Experimental noise hip-hop

Beats are more more noisy and artsy and a lot less accessible than on Black Ben Carson (2016) or The 2nd Amendment (2016). Melodic elements are more buried but there’s a constant barrage of sounds, noises and snippets popping up. A conscious decision seems to have been made to pursue an unpleasant atmosphere, the album only rewards with multiple listens. Earlier albums were playful while still having build-up, instead of being short snippets. Especially middle part of album seems incoherent. Personally I prefer the longer arrangements more.

The beginning trinity plus beautiful Panic Emoji, trap Rainbow Six are some good Jpegmafia. Baby I’m Bleeding deserves the laziest sampling of the year award, it is repeating a ~0.5 second randomly cut section for almost all its length. It’s been listened over 3 million times in Spotify? WTF!? Are unpleasant beats a thing now? Quite nice if that is so. It is also a single track, I guess that commercial suicide failed pretty badly.

https://genius.com/albums/Jpegmafia/Veteran is a treasure trove, when I dag into it, the album spiraled upwards immediately. It really is required to read the lyrics and dig into the background material at least for a non-native English speaker. That being said, a lot of the references are still really hard to get for a foreigner. This is not the kind of album one would expect from an army veteran!

8-/10

Sol Invictus — Necropolis – Music Quickies

sol invictus - necropolis.jpgA step up from the last album Once Upon a Time (2014), Necropolis sounds inspired. It is sprinkled with a ton of material, short, catchy, annoying, contemplative, experimental sounds, straight-forward neofolk…

See Them is pure luscious magic with great female vocals, bringing in mind The Blade (1997) era. The Last Man is one of the many ingenious traditional ballads Sol Invictus has utilized. When I visited London after listening the album I could not get the track out of my mind. I went as far as visiting some of the places that are sung. And I thought I had gotten bored of all these “London this and London that” lyrics.

If this indeed is the last album of Sol Invictus’s career, Necropolis is a good way to go out with the candle still burning bright… I really hope that even if Sol Invictus is resting in the Necropolis, we will see Tony Wakeford solo albums in the future.

8/10

Ultha — The Inextricable Wandering – Music Quickies

Ultha-Album-1Atmospheric black metal

There’s a lot of shining material but a bit too much inextricable musical wandering in the tracks. If Ultha could slightly condense their output, the entity would be better.

The ends of the last two tracks (We Only Speak in Darkness & I’m Afraid to Follow You There) are good examples of Ultha’s blissful high peaks after slow build-ups. With Knives to Your Heart is a great constantly pacing, very memorable 10 minute track. The Aviarist is the fiercest affair with a ton of battering tremolo melodies. The Inextricable Wandering is still a slight step up from Converging Sins (2016) even though there’s no one masterful track like The Night Took Her Right Before My Eyes.

The Inextricable Wandering is a solid entity even with its 66 minute length. It keeps the interest up surprisingly well as the best bits have been placed evenly. Very much looking forward the next evolution of this lot!

8/10

A Forest of Stars — Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes – Music quickies

255819-400x_center_centeravant-garde black metal / atmospheric black metal

A Forest of Stars have for a few albums had a very solid footing in the ever-changing grounds of avant-garde where black metal is just one of the elements. It is kind of like atmospheric black metal yes, there’s double-bass and plenty of tremolo, but oh so much other textures as well. Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes listens a lot like a poem with dramatic spoken word, crazy whirlwind-fast or almost cried vocals. The lyrics are rich and constantly puzzling.

As satisfying as Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes is, some clearer vocal arrangements or lyrics that are more approachable would have been welcome additions. That being said, there’s something about music that makes one feel dumb that I enjoy. The madness and fierce and tasty bits in the compositions make up for whatever the album lacks in approachability.

The mellow sections often take a long time, making the album challenging but relaxing. This is black metal suitable for afternoon tea. But when A Forest of Stars are not mellowing about, the compositions are rich with plenty of surprises. There’s frenzied pummeling, symphonic keyboards, electronic bridges, quality female vocals and most importantly dramatic violin melodies! They really can use the violin in their favour.

Even if one would go so far to classify the lyrics as poetic art bullshit it is impossible to question the effectiveness of Precipice Pirouette or Decomposing Deity Dance Hall. Shut up and get in the ground! He said to himself knowingly.

8/10

Ancestors – Suspended in Reflections & King Goat – Debt of Aeons – Dazzling Double Doom Quickie

Ancestors – Suspended in Reflections

Ancestors-Suspended-in-Reflections-coverIt is not Ancestor, the Pre-Kalmah band but a plural Ancestors, an US doom band. Suspended in Reflections must be the prettiest album of the year. While it’s definitely not very extreme, it is unquestionably a doom record. Dazzlingly melodic and spacey, quite upbeat but still sadly solemn.

Ancestors song-writing department realized the godly chorus of Gone and repeat it thematically perfectly in the next track Through a Window. The Warm Glow is a perfect title to describe the sensation of the last track, this time there’s also some attitude in the vocals. One could ask, is this pop doom metal (yeah I just made up that genre), have they gone too far with the softness? However it may be to some, Suspended in Reflections is palpably damn well performed. It pulls some of my strings remarkably.

If only the lyrics where somewhere to be found or bought. Bands, add the digital booklets in Bandcamp and tell the customers please. Thanks. I will buy. A lot.

9/10

King Goat – Debt of Aeons

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It took a whole of 2 seconds for me to get the first goosebumps. Rapture‘s psychedelic jam is irresistible. King Goat is not supremely original but the riffs are always good and sometimes excellent. Compositions are not boring, the vocalist has a slightly mean and really well-sung output, reminds a bit Primordial’s Nemtheanga. Musically there’s something similar to The Wounded Kings.

King Goat is at their best when they slow down and let things mildly psychedelicate themselves and the riffs grow and alter from original setups. Alterations between heavier and quieter sections are nearly always excellent and delightfully common. The album breathes a lot. If only the melodic centerpiece of the title track Debt of Aeons had lasted longer. Still, it builds a mighty tension to the rest of the track. A very worthy title track

King Goat has had a good start in building themselves a solid discography, Debt of Aeons is their 2nd album, marginally better than Conduit (2016) (8/10 in my 2016 top list).

P.S. Conduit is a prime example on how to build a good album entity, 41 minutes with 26 minutes of solid leftover songs as bonus tracks. Instead of jamming them into 41 minute solid entity, making it too long, they were releases separately. Musicians, take note.

8/10

Haken – The Good Doctor

Is this a good single or what! Haken’s last three releases Affinity (2016), Restoration (2014) and The Mountain (2013) are among the very best progressive metal/rock releases of the 2000s. Haken is about to release a new album Vector October 26th. First single The Good Doctor really ups the expectations.

 

Riff driven, memorable melodies, funky bass groove… Haken is a multifaceted band but I’m glad they are embracing their riff driven metal side. The musical theatrics of Crystallised and Cockroach King, occasional worship of Dream Theater or 80s prog rock of Affinity is not on the forefront. Rhythmic mid-part reminds quite a lot of one of their killer tracks In Memoriam from The Mountain. It’s still pretty damn neat. The way it flows seamlessly back to now heavier double-kicking bridge that leads to chorus really makes sparks fly inside my mind.

Two of the best progressive metal bands at the moment are Haken and Vektor. Therefore I do not think it is coincidence that Hakens new album will be named Vector. The title of Vektor’s next album is still unannounced, but I bet it will be called Hacen!

Like Summer 2018 Music to Your Ears playlist + Music Quickies

Like usual in the summertime I have not looked out for that much new music but focused on… Just summer I guess. I dunno where it went. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been new tracks on my playlist. Not all of the chosen music is summery, in fact most isn’t. Instead of idiotic hip summer music, the playlist has plain really fucking good tracks.

Metals of summer 2018

-6122529-1411671592-2798At The Gates published their new album To Drink From The Night Itself in 2018. It’s a pretty good effort with some memorable tracks (To Drink From The Night Itself, In Nameless Sleep, The Mirror Black) but most of all it made me retry their previous album At War With Reality (2014). Somehow I had skipped it altogether and it proved to be a mistake, it’s an extremely solid melodic death metal album that only loses a bit of punch by the end. And I don’t get excited about melodic death metal easily. Circular Ruins has a grandiose last half, great chorus, lovely guitar harmonies and fierce vocals (even the Crawling Chaos from H.P. Lovecraft gets a mention), what’s not to like.

Slugdge-Esoteric-Malacology-e1519751375282Slugdge – Spectral Burrows. Esoteric Malacology is probably my favourite album of 2018 so far. Cosmic progressive death metal with a gimmicky lyric theme, that does not reflect to the overall quality of the music. How the hell a band that sings about snails makes lyrics and music this good.


R-10663576-1501951371-9132.jpegMagoth – Requiem Deus (Anti Terrestrial Black Metal, 2017). So, there’s these rare songs that starts with a chorus. Really untypical but you find them sometimes. Requiem Deus is one of those but on top of that, the chorus is instrumental! That’s even rarer I guess! The basis is a strong as shit tremolo melody. I bet a lot of black metal bands could have composed this tremolo but how the track is arranged brings so much more power to it.

R-12160526-1529516094-5694.jpegCraft‘s 2018 album White Noise and Black Metal does not seem to be as strong as Void (2011), but Void was ridiculously good. Cosmic Sphere Falls is right there among the best tracks of Craft’s career. Summer and black metal baby.

102919-awakeningAsunojokei – Spring of Passion (Awakening, 2018). Combining black metal, post-hardcore and Japanese anime music melodies. How can it not fail? Asunojokei’s compositions sound so logical that on paper they sound much more weird than what they actually sound!

homeland

My Reflection – Homeland (single, 2018) Out of the blue My Reflection published the best song of their career. Extremely symphonic melodic metal with a graceful music video that was shot in a time span of one year to portray Finnish nature and the seasons. The track celebrates the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence. Homeland should satisfy the fans of bands like Wintersun and Nightwish. The 2 minute intro already cuts the mustard and it warms my heart that the soaring female vocals are paired with strongly grunted, black metallish rasp and some good ol’ blast beating sections. I also just published a short article about the track: https://likemusictoyourears.com/2018/08/10/my-reflection-homeland-epic-symphonic-melodic-metal/

leprousLeprous – Stuck (Malina, 2017). Leprous gig in Tuska was among the best of the festival. The band looks like school boys and at best sounds like jazz musicians doing their impression of catchy progressive metal. The weird drumming style and lots of rhythmic hooks have drawn me quite in to their style. The last 1.5 minutes of rhythmics on Stuck are such a bliss.

doomedDoomed – Our Gifts (6 Anti-Odes to Life, 2018). Death/doom. Strong album that might lack a bit of high-points but the overall quality makes up for it. Especially The Doors and Our Gifts are high class atmospheric death-doom tracks. Strangely the tacit and slow instrumental Layers (Ode To Life) has been playing in my head after waking up, I guess it’s beautiful enough. As a satisfyingly logical detail, it is also the 7th track of the record!

Meshuggah_-_The_Violent_Sleep_of_Reason

Meshuggah – By The Ton (Violent Sleep of Reason, 2016). Another high point of Tuska 2018. The rhythmic majesty combined with the supreme light-show at times induced a catharsis. For example the title track of the record had a super satisfying effect of white lights going down on rhythm and speed with huge downward slides of one of the central riffs (first appearing at 0:34). By focusing on the lights they brought a completely new visual rhythm element to the show. By The Ton is still my favourite track of the record.

Electronics of summer 2018

a0487580087_10Slipdrive – Nova Byzantium a Thousand Spires of Light (River of Heaven OST, 2014). A complete random find from a soundtrack of a pen an paper roleplaying game I’ve never played and probably never will. The soundtrack is lovely sci-fi-game music-chillout-electro. Nova Byzantium and The Coming Renunciation seem to launch the listener straight into space.

42084Vector Lovers – Monologue (iPhonica, 2013). Music that sounds like you were on drugs. Sounds that seem to come from an other dimension in surprising relaxing symmetry. Such weird sensations and damn if I like it!

glanko orvotGlanko – Orvot (single, 2018). Glanko’s progressive sci-fi IDM or what the heck it is always activates my synapses. Chillout electronic track with really strong astral spacey vibes. Ideal for watching a spacestation move slowly with a small beam drive, multicoloured star rings and nebulas shining around it.

Finnish music of summer 2018 (sad list)

R-12137234-1529049213-7911.jpegPaperi T – Muutos (Kaikki on hyvin, 2018). My mainstream sin. The flow and sound of Paperi-T’s vocals and the cunning punning lyrics are a joy to listen. Even though his darker compositions and lyrics seem to be in the past, when Paperi-T is at his darkest that’s when I enjoy him the most. One of those lyricists that makes you want to google what the hell he is singing about but can also surprise with straight-forward lines and stories. New album is quite uneven but has a really good starting trinity.

My Reflection – Homeland – Epic symphonic melodic metal

Out of the blue My Reflection published the best song of their history. Extremely symphonic melodic metal with a graceful music video that was shot in a time span of one year to portray Finnish nature and the seasons. The track celebrates the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence.

Homeland should satisfy the fans of bands like Wintersun and Nightwish. The 2 minute intro already cuts the mustard and it warms my heart that the soaring female vocals are paired with strongly grunted, black metallish rasp and some good ol’ blast beating sections.

Before this My Reflection could have been called just another melodic female fronted metal band. They were established in 2007 but only their 2012 album Dreamland Drowning really showed their interest in playing around with the elements. It was a rather good effort, especially as this basic melodic metal album had a few instances of progressive deathcore in the midst. The compositions in general did not cut corners but had ambition and that did bring a few high points. After Dreamland Drowning, My Reflection published a few singles in Spotify that were considerably more poppy melodic metal.

My Reflection has been on hiatus for a few years, this majestic symphonic metal song could not have been more of a surprise!