Ice Queen - I and II (2018)

Here's my take on the two releases of Ice Queen, the new project of Leeches of Lore's leader Steve Hammond. The debut was released back in March while the second was just unleashed earlier this week. The reviews are part of a new thematic series focused on "ice" related bands!

Ice Queen – Ice Queen (2018)

Ice Bucket Challenge I

I was saddened to hear of Leeches of Lore's recent termination but I was confident that their leader Steve Hammond would continue to produce top notch music and I wasn't wrong. Ice Queen, his new solo project, is basically a continuation of his former band with many twists and spins.

The first really noticeable element is the fact that it's pretty much a voluntarily raw project and it’s much heavier than what Leeches of Lore did on their latest albums. Hammond seems to be fine with just unleashing simple but efficient ideas with almost an approach similar to automatism. Motel of Infinitely, LoL’s swansong showed heavier tendencies but Ice Queen isn’t as eclectic and varied as its former identity. Hammond increased the noise, crust and thrash metal influences and decreased the duration of his songs. That direction made Ice Queen really intense, almost like a grindcore approach. The guitars are thick but sharp and the bass is loud and filling (check out “Burrowing”) and there’s hardly any time to rest except for the country ballad of “Black Water”, a stylistic influence much more prevalent in Leeches of Lore or Hammond’s other non-metal projects.

Ice Queen are hard to classify, really. The structures are quite simple but the coating has all kind of things to make it shiny and exciting. It’s like if you took NWOBHM heavy metal but added a bunch of iconoclastic thrash and Melvins-esque sludge to the formula. It’s just fun riffs with an identity and soaring fun vocals. Hammond can’t do no wrong as far as I’m concerned.

87%

Ice Queen – Ice Queen II (2018)

Ice Bucket Challenge II

The second release of Ice Queen expands where its predecessor left off and brings out some new things to the fold. While the debut showcased a brand new take of Hammond’s peculiar metal sound he spent a decade exploring with Leeches of Lore, II has some fun with the new sound.

Ice Queen is once again built upon a core of fast paced heavy metal with noise, hardcore and thrash elements but wait, there’s more! There’s layers of experimentation here such as the minimalistic dark ambient of “An Abandoned City” or the noise and voice effects of the closer “Quiet”. There’s also a bunch of metal experimentation such as the doom/death riffs of “The Witch King of Urbana” which are intertwined with eerie bits of electronica or the ghostly drone of “Dreams, Dreaming” and it all works. Hammond’s signature special move is that he’s able to assemble a wide array of styles together to form a solid, oozing mass capable of grasping your interest till you’ve heard the same twenty minutes album on repeat.

Regardless of the experimentation, there’s still some pretty metallic bangers like the thrashy/sludgey anthem of “Blizzard of Ants” with its harsh screams or the incisive Mastodon-esque “The Bunt”. All in all, Ice Queen II justifies its existence by exploring other themes than the debut. It would had been easy to release them as a “full length” album of forty minutes but I like that shorter format. It’s easy to focus on the different strengths of those to the point compositions and gather everything you can from them.

84%

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The Body/Full of Hell - One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache (2016) / 87%

"THAT'S NOT EVEN MUSIC, MAN!"

Two of today’s most belligerent forces of the underground got together to create this uneasy record. The young quartet from Maryland, Full of Hell, aren't afraid of experimenting and going all in when noise is concerned (see their collaboration with Merzbow) and Lee and Chip from The Body, two veterans of the "we'll do whatever the fuck we want" music academy, gave them the chance to go all in.

Throughout the ten songs, we're served abrasive and explosive music with a wide array of influences. Despite the numerous sounds of "One Day...", it's a coherent record with an overarching theme; nihilism... or a parody of nihilism. The Body are not to be taken too seriously most of the time and from what I've heard, their lyrical approach is based on some very dark humor.

The dirges found here are not letting go of your neck and heart for a bit more than forty minutes. The screeching vocals of Chip King (best name) and the deeper approach of Dylan Walker are perfect voices if you want to invoke total despair. The track "World Of Hope And No Pain" is a short summary of the vocal duality and it hits hard. The misery and pain found on those songs is personal but also universal, it speaks of suicide, depression but in a way devoid of emotional discharge and cheesiness. It's often more self-loathing than pure nihilism, in fact.

One of the highlights for me are the drums. At times, both a drum machine and a real drum are playing at the same time (such as on "Bottled Urn") and it creates an interesting dichotomy of styles and aggression. Sometimes it feels like The Body are using the technical skills of Full of Hell to provide an expansive yet super tight musicianship for their relatively simple but insane compositions. If it wasn't mad enough, the inclusion of short samples of neurotic TV extracts adds another dimension to the whole thing. The last track "Abel" ends with an extended one and it's just creepy. Its brother song "Cain" almost sounds like if Radiohead was actually dangerous instead of catering to boring college kids.

The ability of creating such a wall of sound with so many elements comes from their skill in using a multipurpose blender. From industrial sludge metal, slow powerviolence, striking grindcore to brooding ambient, harsh noise and even some martial black metal, the collaboration just unleashes its venom track after track. Sure, it's not quite accessible and some people would say it's not really "musical" but it's an overwhelmingly great album and it succeeds at all its goals. It's making you feel like shit but at the same time, you enjoy it.

Local Sounds: Volume 7.0

Happy new year everyone. I’m back with the seventh volume of Local Sounds, a series showcasing the best non-metal music being made in Montréal and Québec. I have three excellent releases to talk about today.

Les Indiens – Shaman UFO (2016)

The Quebec City quartet impressed the hell out of me when I’ve seen them in Montréal (with Grand Morne and Gerbia) back in 2014 but I pretty much forgot to check their latest album until the first month of 2017 appeared. On this lush full length, the dudes created a super cool form of rock with extensive metal influences. With nods towards Kyuss, Sleep and (obviously) Black Sabbath, Les Indiens unleashed a wide array of heavy riffs with enjoyable but buried vocals (their lyrics are all in French.) Furthermore, they have this spacey vibe as demonstrated by the Shaman UFO interludes and the use of psych elements right from Flower Travellin' Band's handbook. The production is also top notch and their sound is a natural mix of modern feedback and vintage roots. Massive, fun and interesting, this is an album worth checking out for fans of loud and smart rock music.

Bandcamp







Security – Arid Land (2016)

The debut extended play from this duo (two members from Dernier Sex) is faithful to its geographical origin. Like Montréal's winters, it's cold but mysterious, lifeless but highly active like an undead corpse. Composed of four numbers, the EP combines lush industrial with loud but subtle drum machines, coldwave, ambient, noise rock and drone and it's highly addictive and evocative. The warm clean vocals of Anna Arrobas are providing a peculiar contrast with the icy instruments, they’re in the background giving us hope that winter is almost over. It’s stripped down music to its core and the relationship between the guitar and the bass of Élie B. Faubert is one of balance and complementarity. I was expecting something great after heir fantastic performance with Rakta right before the summer and this didn't disappoint at all.

Bandcamp









Atsuko Chiba – The Memory Empire (2016)


The Montreal quintet is definitely one of the most interesting bands we have. Released during a gig with the excellent Milanku back in December, this three songs extended play explores the many facets of Atsuko Chiba’s identity. From the Rage Against the Machine inspired hip-hop vocal attacks to the psychedelic synths and funky metallic moments. Their palette of sounds is as extensive as the one of The Mars Volta and it’s truly difficult to pinpoint everything they do and create. They’re able to move the listeners with their drawn-out instrumental movements such as the opening of closer “Damonsta Titillates” and they don't even rely on repetitiveness or the generic crescendo formula used by most post-rock bands.. Borrowing elements from many scenes, the band is an outsider who’s doing what it truly wants. They’re shaking genre conventions with heavy guitars, thunderous bass licks and progressive explosions and I love it.

Bandcamp

Primitive Man, Opium Lord, Powercup & Basalte, July 18th 2015 @ Bar le Ritz PDB, Montréal

On this very humid Saturday evening, the colourful Bar le Ritz PDB on Jean-Talon street in Montreal was the host of a special and varied evening organized by Extensive Enterprise. This place, formerly known as Il Motore is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to see gigs in Montreal since the sound is pretty good, the venue is just the right size and their choice of beer is excellent. Before the gig, I ordered myself a pint of the great Farnham IPA and met some buddies. Including the three gentlemen who were opening the night.

BASALTE is a newcomer to the scene and I really like what they play. I thought their debut album was quite solid (read my review: here) and their quality is easily transferred to the live setting. The trio doesn’t have any bass, only two guitarists and a drummer but it’s hardly a shortcoming for them. The three members all sing and this creates a cool contrast between the different styles used. Laurent, the drummer, is using a deeper, almost death metal influenced voice while the two guitar players intertwine between a sort of post hardcore/screamo influenced approach and a more traditional atmospheric black metal shout. Their first track was a new one and it was mixing their black metal roots with a lot of dissonant elements and a healthy dose of varied styles of hardcore. It’s refreshing and quite unique in the Quebecois metal universe. Their (too) short set was great and I can’t wait to see them again. Keep it up, guys!

8 volcanic rocks out of 10

POWERCUP is a local powerviolence/grindcore duo and they’re a fun bunch. They played a brief but enjoyable set (ten minutes with like ten songs?) and they kept making jokes about the city of Trois-Rivières (apparently they had friends from there in the crowd). The drums plus guitar duo played an energetic array of short songs full of catchy grind riffs and fast paced drums fills. Their non-metal grind approach is lovely and I’d take a thirty minutes set of their music anytime. They were perhaps more of a fit when I’ve seen them with Nasum and Brutal Truth some years ago since they were more in their element but they were a surprising addition to this lineup and in the end since all the other bands do include some forms of hardcore music in their formulas. They call their genre «renovation grindcore» since they have lyrics about house renovation and that’s a peculiar, hilarious theme befitting of their stage antics.

7,5 tasse de puissance out of 10

OPIUM LORD from England played an interesting blend of extreme music. They were quite solid, the slow sound of the more extreme side of doom metal felt right at home with the hardcore inspired sludge metal. They seemed too numerous for the music they play though, I don’t think they need two guitarists to make their point across.They had some more atmospheric moments but they’re not exactly Cult of Luna or Neurosis! Nonetheless, that’s a slight criticism, they had interesting tempo variations and their singer was a vicious and powerful beast at the mic. They were definitely a good touring companion for the headliner since they both share a liking for a hard hiting wall of sound approach.

7,5 «this sounds like the name of a stoner rock band into weed» out of 10

PRIMITIVE MAN, the headliner of the evening played a thunderous set completely full of nihilistic bass grooves and athletic yet pummeling drumming. The three piece completely obliterated the crowd with their blackened noisy sludge/doom metal. The members are in total harmony with each others, the guitars are acting as the older brother to the bass but together they crush during the slow (and very misanthropic) moments and they throw everything they got at your skull during the fast (often short and sporadic) moments. During these outbursts of aggressiveness, a small but dedicated part of the crowd went wild and created a moshpit. The drummer is the one who ties everything together and he’s rightfully placed in the middle. He’s not the fastest not the heaviest but boy, he’s impressive and moves so well. Their set wasn’t even more than a hour but it completely drains the energy out of your body.

Their music and their art are thoroughly linked since it’s all done by their frontman Ethan McCarthy and it’s brooding, dangerous and horrific, just like their music and I wouldn’t want it any other way. There’s just this peculiar feeling with the band that you don’t get with anyone else, from the mystical tattoos on Isidro Soto‘s (drums) body to the pictures of James Brown on their amps. They’re a band to experience live.

Their music just reeks of darkness and hatred for mankind and sometimes, it’s precisely what you need to end a Saturday night alongside some sweaty friends, cold beer(s) and a possible hangover with the obvious headache the next morning.

P.S., it’s fun when bands do have shirts for fat dudes like myself and their designs and prices are really cool, paying 25 dollars for a CD and a shirt is pretty rare (and rad) nowadays!

9 nihilistic dudes from Colorado out of 10

Extensive Enterprise has some of the best shows in Montreal, see you all at Sumac (edit: CANCELLED) and Thantifaxath who will destroy the same venue on August 2nd!


Originally published in French and English on Ondes Chocs: here's the link

RRROOOAAARRR DAY 1 - August 1st - Noothgrush/Iron Lung/Haymaker/Mammoth Grinder/Uniform/Ahna @Sala Rossa, Montréal

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