Barabbas – La mort appelle tous les vivants (2022) / 85%

Barabbas – La mort appelle tous les vivants (2022) / 85%

The Baguette Doom Series pt. XXIV: Death is calling, will you answer the call?

Despite being one of the top dogs of French doom metal, Barabbas are still somewhat of a well kept secret. Their second album released in 2022 by the excellent young label Sleeping Church is a great showcase of their particular niche. The living or the dead shouldn’t sleep on them, they’re worth the time.

Weaponized by two extremely tight guitarists, their sound is as heavy as it can get but they’re not satisfied with the sole fact of being thunderous. The inclusion of feelsy leads like on Le cimetière des rêves brisés can remind of the melodic side of doom/death for example. It’s a good way to show that they’re not shackled by the limits of doom/stoner and exist as their own entity. Furthermore, the experience of Thomas Bastide who spent more than a decade with the defunct cult Parisian progressive doom band Northwinds (Baguette Doom series #2) probably helped Barabbas expand their sound forward. They’re more than just bread and butter doom, I’d at least say that they added the jambon to the baguette sandwich. A song such as the epic Mon crâne est une crypte (et j’y suis emmuré) has layers and layers of atmosphere and isn’t overshadowed by the heavy riffs.

Fueled by somber lyrics about life, death and religion, their identity definitely benefits from such themes. Their lyrics (all in French) explore harsh topics through the lens of nihilism, dark humor and pessimism. Given that France’s historical background is so rich in moments of darkness, it’s interesting to base your identity around something of the sort. They’re very good at evocating some good old classic French fin de siècle sentiment and they’re not doing it in a cheesy pseudo avant garde way like Pensées Nocturnes.

Luckily they’re able to provide an appropriate musical skeleton to the structure. It’s a long but garnished album with more than enough meat on the bones. We’re served seven songs of about eight minutes sandwiched (baguetted?) by short moody pieces and it’s not monotonous or overly repetitive. Still, it’s close to one hour and it could still benefit from some editing. As I’m getting older, I’m more and more grumpy about albums lasting too long. I’m firmly in the philosophy school that forty minutes is the sweet spot, even for doom metal!

To lead their church as a mad priest, Saint Rodolphe is a powerhouse and charismatic presence. His vocals are powerful, tough and touched by necroticism. He’s not unlike Nathaniel of fellow French doomsters Dionysiaque but without the harsh, somber crypt extreme influences.

Ultimately, La mort appelle tous les vivants (Death calls all the living) is a potent album full of mighty riffs and entrancing priestly vocals. I’ll answer their call and die, I don’t give a damn. Bandcamp

The Baguette Doom Series XIX and XX - Le Strasbourg Spécial with Monoatomic God - Astronaut Witch Bootcamp (2020) & Dionysiaque - Dionysiaque (2018)

 

Monoatomic God - Astronaut Witch Bootcamp (2020) / 75%

The Baguette Doom Series pt. XIX: Strasbourg I

The oddly named quartet impressed the hell out of me when I was working on the undying Band Queue of the Metal Archives and I knew I had to tackle their debut release for my Baguette Doom series. The band guided by the powerful vocals of Laetitia Convertini (great Astérix name!) was able to bring three condensed, strong but atmospheric nuggets of groovy doom/stoner on Astronaut Witch Bootcamp.

While probably inspired by the spacey themes and name of Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard (or maybe a stoner metal name generator, who knows?), the French band doesn’t mess around with long psychedelic movements and approaches things differently. There’s still some cosmic touches here and there such as the synths on “Effroyable Sphère” or “Funeral Orbiter” but the songs are mid-paced and dynamic with riff driven tempos. In spirit, I was reminded of High Priest of Saturn but without the Om/Sleep worshiping. I’m surely mistaking here but the mix of ethereal female vocals with a psychedelic doom vibe reminded me of the Norwegian band. Monoatomic God incorporates strong 70s vibes in their blend too (Deep Purple, Rush?) with modern stoner sensibilities and it works pretty damn well. Sure, proto-metal plus stoner isn’t new (Spiritual Beggars, The Sword) but I felt their formula was fresh and somewhat exciting, especially for a debut extended play. Don’t expect something like Windhand or even Blackwater Holylight either, it’s not that sort of trance inducing doom/stoner with dreamy, fey vocals. We’re in groovy tight doom territories, the energy, the type of riffing and the vocal delivery reminds me of Castle as well and that’s certainly a good thing.

All in all, Monoatomic God delivers the goods on their debut EP, it’s hard rockin’ doom/stoner with strong melodies, catchy and well delivered vocals and a legit familiar but enjoyable spacey atmosphere. I’m stoked to hear more from them.

Monoatomic God on Bandcamp

Dionysiaque – Dionysiaque (2018) / 85%

The Baguette Doom Series pt. XIX: Strasbourg II

Probably named after the philosophical ideas (from Nietzsche) rather than a reference to Dionysos, the god of wine, Dionysiaque are one hell of a band and they're much too sad to be about parties and celebrations. Their first release comes off as a strong foray into traditional doom territories with overt dark atmospheres. Like some other French bands like Barabbas, they’re able to create a fairly unique take on a genre that’s too often at ease with worshiping the greats.

While their riffs are very good and the two guitars do bring an extra oomph to their compositions, their moods are perhaps the best thing about them. They have this occult, crypt feel akin to the best style of black metal. Some riffs (check out “Doctor Kerjentsev”) can almost bring us back to the proto extreme metal days (see Mortuary Drape, Celtic Frost) in their execution. The first two tracks (about four minutes each) are mid paced goodness while the third brings us something more solemn and slower but still full of fucking heavy riffs. The vocals of Nathaniel Colas are extremely good and fits the intent of the band like a glove. He alternates between some madmen cavernous clean chanting and some more putrid harsher tones. He sounds like he’s underground while the rest of the band is vanquishing the undead in the graveyard. I'm not asking for much more in life.

I don’t usually like cover songs but Dionysiaque picked an interesting one from an obscure 70s English band called Tractor. The hard rockin’ vibes fits their style well and it’s a cool ending for the demo, it's full of catchiness while having a quasi goth rock vibe, very nice. I’m pretty sure their debut full length will propel them to the doom metal Mount Olympus. Essential demo.

Dionysiaques on Bandcamp

Basic Instinct – Late Bloom (2020) / 75%

From Coast to Coast: West


A duo of reviews featuring recent bands featuring women from the two coasts of Canada.

If you’re frustrated that Chelsea Wolfe still hasn’t released a “damn this is definitely metal through and through” album, this Canadian duo from British Colombia could satisfy your urges. On the twenty-three minutes extended play, the duo composed of Joy (drums) and Carly (guitars, vocals) explores heaviness through psychedelia and alternates between soft and heavy introspection.

The core of the duo’s music is some sort of heavy sludge/doom/stoner with dynamic drums and fairly catchy yet simple guitar riffs. The drumming of Joy has this martial quality in the droney sludge of opener “Feast”, she’s really good and precise and makes the duo sound fuller. That same track also has some blackened elements in both the tremolos and the guitars. We’re in Cascadian territory after all, the specter of Wolves in the Throne Room is always close by. The presence of Carly’s harsh vocals alongside her clean ethereal ones are giving that soft versus heavy dichotomy and it could recall SubRosa (rest in peace) and their penchant for emotional mood swings through songs. 

With that said, the clean chanting on the second track is the highlight of the EP for me, it gives some sort of quasi medieval feel to the modern ugliness of sludge. The singer is really damn good and she brings forth a lot of different auras through the diverse range of her vocals. From stoner intonations (“Prey”) to psych sludge or crust (the short execution of “Payne’s Grey”). The compositions are also diverse, ranging from hypnotic but short and sweet sludge bursting into more extreme territories. I think they could let the songs breathe more though, some of the most expansive tracks could benefit from being longer, maybe a tad slower too. “Water”, the closer could had been twice the length in my opinion...but yes, I always like river-esque numbers.

The six songs release demonstrates that the young project is made up of two women able to accomplish the sound they wanted, it’s dynamic, it has the DIY approach I like so much in metal and has fairly strong songwriting. Based on the limited information I’ve gathered about them, half of the project moved away from their initial area so I hope this doesn’t mean the end for Basic Instinct as they’re pretty damn interesting.

Bandcamp

Caronte – Wolves of Thelema (2019) / 88%

Sleazy & Occult Cultists

I discovered the Italian quintet with this album and I’m glad I did. I think I brushed them off as another insipid doom/stoner band at first and I couldn’t be more wrong. Caronte approaches doom from many interesting avenues and always goes for the jugular with their passionate darkened take.

Mixing the larger than life Elvis memorial presence of Glenn Danzig with the English romanticism of Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost, their lead singer Dorian Bones (“Big sunglasses, cool band” - Fenriz) drives the band to another echelon. His gruff clean vocals intertwined momentarily with some harsher moments are reminiscent of Alan Averill (Primordial) at times too. It’s epic and uncompromising. He sounds like a high priest leading a procession and you know it will end up bloody as hell. They’re the doom equivalent of Luciferian unorthodox black metal, it’s good to know that you can always count on the Italians to be the most blasphemous. It must be the influence of the Vatican.

Taking cues from the now death occult rock movement and in particular from The Devil’s Blood (perhaps the best band from that whole wave, to be fair), the Italians focus on the esoteric and the dark magicks to great results. Spiritually closed to Black Oath, the best modern Italian traditional doom band, Caronte aren’t static in their doom explorations. From blackened doom to aggressive post-punky rock (it has some Beastmilk vibes), they’re happy to provide a plethora of different paints to their doomed palette. It’s mostly black though, let’s be honest. Like the golden chimera (part Lion, part dragon, part goat etc), it’s a multifaceted entity taking the strongest features of every creatures. I do think they’re a bit unfocused at times though but I do admire their willingness to navigate a lot of diverse seas.

The duel guitars provide an interesting atmosphere and considering they’re a live band too, it’s necessary to deliver the complexity of their mood swings. They’re musically intense and their eight songs are packed to the brim. They’re a band that got tighter and tighter in the songwriting department throughout the years. 2014’s Church of Shamanic Goetia had ten minutes songs and was one hour long. It seems they’re over that formula with Wolves of Thelema. They got less into stoner metal too while retaining their shamanic preaching and strong riffs.

If you like your metal dark, esoteric and with a blasphemous sleazy attitude, Caronte are your dudes.

Check 'em out on Ván Records' Bandcamp. If someone buys me the die hard wooden box version, I'd be very happy. Thanks!

Québec Dank Kush Special with Lochness and Marécages

There’s some sort of doom/stoner movement going on in Québec right now with a small scene resurging from the dank abyss to create weed fueled riffs. The doom/stoner vibe from the province was mostly due to Max Tremblay from The Death Wheelers, Strange Broue and Marécages. Tremblay also runs Brouemaster Visual Decay and provides art for many bands, even international ones like Haunt or Idle Hands. He, of course, did the art for both Lochness and Marécages. I like his art, always colourful but also always pretty grim and dark, it’s full of contrasts!

Lochness – Black Smokers (2019)

First Puff - 83%

Lochness, now, eh! The Montréal trio plays slow, thundering doom/stoner with a definite aquatic feel. Composed of Alban Bachand and Mathias two tattoo artists from the Ligne Verte shop (awesome spot!) and Tony Ross from  Aiauasca (also into tattoos!), the power trio really surprised me with the quality of this release. Compared to most doom/stoner, it’s not overlong and it has a distinctive and interesting identity other than the commonly used “blaze it 420” one. Lochness are all about the pressuriezed heaviness of the deep sea and how foreign and alien that mysterious part of the world is. The album starts with a long seven minutes instrumental track that really shows the colours of what the band is all about. They’re not heavily focused on vocals usually (Ross handles both the drums and the vox) and they also dig the use of samples. When there’s vocals, they’re unhinged and they feel like they’re underwater (check out “Alien Deep”), it’s oddly fitting.

The guitars of Fortier are loud and strong and like American traditional tattooing, it’s bold and there to stay as Black Sabbath foretold. Their songwriting is quite loose and natural, their songs are long but busy with riffs. It’s never boring or overly slow and “atmospheric”. They do like repetitiveness though but they’re good enough to achieve a form of riff hypnosis.

All in all, Lochness delivers a compact thirty-five minutes opus full of huge tones. I’m usually bored by most stoner/doom but they had enough originality to distinguish themselves from the pack. I’ll go swim in the Lochness, I hope I’ll see you there.

Lochness on Bandcamp

Marécages - Marais Juana - Une Ode Cannabique (2019)

Second Puff - 4x20=80%

Speaking of Marécages (swamps), their debut EP is literally a brick made of frozen weed. Max Tremblay (The Death Wheelers, Strange Broue) is joined by Seb Dallaire and Christian Labrecque (AKA Crock 0))) haha) both known from grind bands like Fistfuck and Mesrine and together, they had a lot of fun on this release. The artwork is striking and amusing, it’s just a really big frog that would eat if you were small enough. Frogs and toads eat everything, they’re like me at an all you can eat sushi restaurant.

Their song titles are full of portmanteaus like “Cannabysse” and their lyrics are all in French (always happy to see that), it’s massively fun. The opening song “Marais Juana” is also exactly 4:20, hopefully on purpose. Their metal is aggressive, not too dissimilar to the Hochelaga approach of Dopethrone in a way. It’s dirty sludge/stoner/doom with a really thicc groovy bass, riffs made of rusty steel and bludgeoning drumming played by a madman who hasn’t slept in weeks. Their vocals are, of course, harsh as hell and sounds like a resin infested worm in the best way possible. The use of samples about weed and horror movies is also on point, I personally liked the one about krokodil a lot!

The EP is tight and goes hard. It sounds like a big toad rumbling in a swamp looking for some tasty worms and flies. It doesn’t sound like they’re on weed... Well maybe marijuana laced with cocaine, acid and PCP...

Marécages on Bandcamp

Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - Y Proffwyd Dwyll (2016) / 85%

Carl's Sagan Deep Fried Burrito

“What a fucking stupid name” is quite possibly what almost everyone would say if I mention the subject of this review and I mean, I can’t blame them even if they’d be wrong. I see it more as a parody of those super boring “dank” weed themed stoner bands who are trying to write the next Dopesmoker while working night shifts at a suburban convenient store. That welsh band is much more than that and their second release that can be googletranslated to “The Proof of Fraud” or “the False Prophet” based on what MA says is an austral voyage to an unknown and probably better not to be discovered aural plane.

Compared to their debut album, they decided to extend the tracklist to six numbers instead of having one long half an hour song, it’s a wise decision since it’s a bit more listenable that way. MWWB are a hard band to classify, I think it could be summarized as “psychedelic doom metal” and we could call it a day...

Oh you’re still here? Sure, I’ll continue. Well, the first element that really came to my mind with that band is the dichotomy between the vocals of Jessica Ball and the immense riffs displayed by the two guitarists. Ball’s voice is soft, feminine and melodic while the guitars are thundering and massive. This is The Gathering - Mandylion era or SubRosa maximized with a lot of vitamins and protein powder, probably some Red Bull mixed Vodka too. It’s big and it’s like me after I drank too much energy drink and I’m crashing down, it’s quite slow, heavy and hypnotized.

The songs, all between six and ten minutes, are dense with otherworldly effects that are really wrapping the normal metal instrumentation in a special vibe. It’s like if you deep fry a meat lover burrito in duck fat, it’s a bit too much at times and it can overwhelm your senses but it’s consistently tasty. With their spacey prowess and their desire to be unequivocally uncompromising, I guess we could call them the doom metal Mithras.

All in All, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard are good at putting the doom/stoner tropes in the garbage, putting the garbage can on fire and throwing it into a star gate where it can come back with a symbiotic entity who’s actually chill as fuck and just likes to blaze it while watching old Carl Sagan documentaries.

Vokonis – Olde One Ascending (2016) / 90%

They do love their craft!

This is without a doubt one of the finest doom albums of 2016. Despite that fact, it took me a while to gather my thoughts and do a review. This challenge is a perfect opportunity to do just that. To me, this album is more satisfying than the entire Sleep discography. I know, this is perhaps hyperbolic but eh, this is great stuff, guys!

The power trio from Sweden sounds like a ton of brick on steroids. Those guys probably eat six to eight eggs a day to maintain their heaviness. I mean, to appeal to the ancient ones, you need to be convincing cultists or they will not answer your dark prayers. Vokonis' prayers are repetitive but highly effective. It’s perhaps their only weakness but they were wise enough to keep the album relatively short for doom/stoner standards. This is mostly the fault of Ohlsson’s vocals, they’re a bit redundant and samey but they do not lack power, no sir. I really love when he goes all in and screams the hell out of those bonkers lyrics (check out the huge closer “Hazmat the Ashen Rider”.) That said, this small default certainly adds another layer of psychedelic stoner to their sound.

Like Conan (the British band, not the character), their main appeal is the power of their sound. The production is an absolute gem and adds ten thousand pounds of pure steel on everything. The guitars, the clear highlight of the record, are Jabba-esque. The leads are also pretty good (like the one minute solo on “Olde One”) as they expand the sound towards proggy fields. Still, a good tone is nothing without good riffs and they deliver on that front too. The lush six to eight minutes songs are never boring and are constantly offering the olde gods something worthwhile.

They're not a slow band either, they maintain a steady mid-paced speed throughout the record as they alternate between groovy as fuck riffs and trance inducing leads. Their doom is simply fun and rewarding.

Sure, what Vokonis plays isn’t the most original style but they do it with verve and talent. Perhaps not as adventurous as a band like Elder, they’re nevertheless as talented and worth hearing.

Spirit Division - No Rapture (2016) / 84%

When the Doom Explodes

Indianapolis is not exactly Baltimore as far as doom metal is concerned but the Midwestern city still offered great offering to the gods of slow thundering metal with The Gates of Slumber and Apostle of Solitude. There’s some newcomers following in their footsteps like Void King, the demented black/sludge/doom of Coffinworm and those three guys I’m covering today.

I wanted to tackle their solid debut when it was released last year but it never happened, luckily their sophomore release is as good. While a bit on the short side (thirty minutes should be an EP if we’re talking about doom), the album managed to hit all the right notes with me. The trio is apt at tempo changes as they alternates between the mid-paced jam packed washing machine might (opener “Whispers in the Embers”) and their fast paced fifty ton garbage truck approach (“When the Sun Explodes”). Spirit Division are able to vary their formula without going overboard with often superfluous lengthy numbers. Indeed, all the tracks except the opener and the closer are all below the four minutes mark, their spirit of concision is one of their strengths. They do unleash a relatively short epic at the end of the album with “Wendigo” and it’s perhaps my highlight of the record.

The musicianship is rock solid too, the bass playing of singer Chris Latta is loud and thick, the soloing and riffing of Stephen Hoffman (now out of the band, their lineup has always been unstable unfortunately) are massive and possess the necessary heaviness to keep us hooked. Latta’s vocals are deep, powerful and like the music, they have this manly blues attitude mixed with the operatic side of epic doom metal.

They’re a band with a lot of potential but I feel the best is to come, their sound can still be expanded and improved even if I really liked this album. They don’t wear their infleunces on their sleeves either, even if you can guess that Pentagram is important for them, their sound is fresh, heavy and definitely needs more attention. At times, it’s almost like you’re listening to a way heavier version of Clutch and that’s pretty damn awesome.

Spirit Division on Bandcamp

Originally published on The Metal Observer

Metal Bounty Hunter : Volume 8 – Sunmask Special

Metal Bounty Hunter : Volume 8 – Sunmask Special

Sunmask is a new Canadian label specialising mostly in doom metal and I’d like to offer my support by reviewing a bunch of their releases. I’ve already covered Sea Witch, Strange Broue and their excellent Shooting Guns/Zaum split but there’s many cool new stuff to check out. My country is producing some excellent bands and it’s a blast to see them released on analog formats (tapes and vinyl discs) by a legit label.

Check out the Facebook page to stay up to date: Sunmask

Lüger – The Lethal Tape (2016) / 84%

This Montréal quartet recently played live with The Death Wheelers (featured below) but I had to fucking this gig because I’m basically a boring dude. I really like this release, they mix a bunch of stuff and they do it very well. The tape starts with this introduction called “Red Magick” which sets the tone for the whole thing with its horrific and undead samples. Lüger are sort of a super heavy horror rock band who just mess around with the styles with ease and fun. Combine stoner metal, huge doom riffing, dirty heavy metal and you have their sound. It can differ from songs to songs, like “Lycanthropia” almost recalls Orange Goblin while “Snakebait” sounds like a doom version of Mötley Crüe and Motörhead.



The vocals of Jimmy Target (also in a rock & roll/stoner rock band called Jimmy Target and the Triggers) are just fueled by alcohol and hookers. Like the music, it’s captivating by its dirtiness but also how smart and well thought out it sounds. I can’t wait for a full length from these guys.

Lüger on Bandcamp

The Death Wheelers – Mind Blowing Trip (2015-2016)

Witchstone – Summon the End (2016)

Split released on tapes or vinyl by Sunmask

84%

The Death Wheelers is Max Tremblay’s counterpart project to Strange Broue. While his other band plays huge doom/stoner vocals hugely inspired by Electric Wisard and the likes, this project is purely instrumental and like a bunch of Hells Angels high on satanic cocaine, it rocks hard. The songs are short burners with huge, thick bass lines and heavy as fuck doom riffs. There’s also many B movie (or just cult ones like Easy Rider on “Freewheelin’”) samples opening the tracks giving the Death Wheelers a welcoming nostalgic and vintage feel. There’s this fun atmosphere, perfect for driving at night and it’s almost as good as Karma to Burn, which are the masters of instrumental stoner metal in my opinion.

Actually released last year, the then sold out EP is now part of this split release with Witchstone and their two new tracks. I wanted to review their first full length released in 2014 so tackling this split is a pretty good opportunity to write about them. The quartet from Calgary is widely different than The Death Wheelers in the way they doom their metal. The two long pieces are full of old school horror doom influences with both venomous sludgey vocals and clean ones, super cool psychedelic guitar solos and slow riffs. The mix of harsh vocals and a musical background based mostly on doom/rock isn’t quite dichotomic (check out Black Magick SS for rock with harsh vox!), it really fits the occult mood they’re going for. Both songs are really damn good, they’re able to be atmospheric without forgetting to write compelling riffs.

This is a good split even though both bands don’t really fit together quite well. I think it should had been marketed differently but that’s just me! Anyhow, both sides are pretty damn solid examples of how good the Canadian doom/stoner/whatever scene is.

Witchstone on Bandcamp
The Death Wheelers on Bandcamp

Longhouse – Earth From Water (2015-2016) / 79%
Re-issue on CD by Sunmask

This trio from the Canadian capital of Ottawa plays top notch heavy sludge metal. The cover art inspired by the world turtle mythology really caught my eye, it’s pretty gorgeous and fits the quasi atmospheric side of the band well. They include some sad traditionnal doom melodies from time to time such as on “Gehenna Gate” and some progressiveness, especially in the well composed and modern guitar melodies. There’s also some heavy metal here, the epic instrumental banger “Phrygian Doom” sounds a bit like something Iron Maiden would do nowadays

The vocals of Josh Cayer are high pitched nasty groovy growls, not too different from what we’re used to from the sludge world but they’re effective and not overly present or tiresome. Longhouse, the type of habitations the Iroquois native people used, evidently use this background as their main inspiration and more bands should write about this spiritual and often dark subject matter. Alongside bands like Monobrow or Norilsk, they’re one of the finest doom bands from the greater Ottawa area.

Bandcamp

The Weir – Calmess of Resolve (2015-2016) / 75%

Re-issue on vinyl by Sunmask

This band from Calgary plays slow, crushing atmospheric sludge akin to what Cult of Luna used to do. It’s heavy, extended numbers full of despair and feelings. While it’s nothing original and new for the experimented listener, they’re a fine band who’s able to develop those long songs correctly. The fourteen minutes instrumental title track is especially strong with the way it’s built and executed. The other songs have your typical harsh vocals but they’re sort of buried underneath the somewhat blurry mix.

Post metal, atmospheric sludge or whatever is a genre strong on building heavy and emotional crescendos and The Weir are good at them. While it’s a decent album, it’s possibly just not memorable enough for me to revisit it often. I guess they’re good enough to open for Neurosis when they’ll tour Alberta.

Bandcamp

Metal Bounty Hunter: Volume 6

Yellow Eyes – Sick with Bloom (2015) / 79%
Gilead Media
"Behind Yellow Eyes" - Fred Durst

New York is definitely a hot bed for “hipster” black metal with Krallice at the forefront (sup Colin Marston) and Yellow Eyes fits the scene. While I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of dissonant black metal, I do appreciate the genre and I don’t think it’s the worst thing to ever happen to the underground. While not as discordant and “technical” as Krallice, Yellow Eyes do share a lot of similarities with them in the way they compose their songs and riffs. Their six compositions are all somewhat on the long side with loads of well written riffs and buried yet enjoyable typical screams. While not an atmospheric band per se, tracks like “The Mangrove, The Preserver” explores a more natural territory than most of their counterparts without turning too much into hippie/tree lovers like Wolves in the Throne Room or Skagos. Nonetheless, the excellent closer “Ice in the Spring” certain has this forest feel with its ethereal outro full of cicadas and subtle acoustic guitar

Band members Will and Sam Skarstad (no, it’s not a Viking metal band) self produced the album and they were able to retain this vivid raw sound and it was for the best, really. I can’t wait to see these guys in Montréal when they’ll play with Forn.

Facebook page

Add caption

Witchthroat Serpent – Sang-dragon (2016) / 54%

Deadlight Entertainment

The Baguette Doom Series pt. XVI: Cloning

The big trend in doom metal right is to sound like Electric Wizard. This French trio is quite good at it, perhaps too good even. The main problem of this scene is the fixation on the SOUND and the AMPS. I mean it’s one of the reasons it’s getting more and more popular with the non traditional metal crowds. It’s LOUD music. If you know your doom, you’ll get nothing new with Witchthroat Serpent, even their name is inspired by the used, unoriginal tropes of the genre. What you’re getting here is the standard doom/stoner clean vocals (not as buried as usual) with heavy, mid-paced to slow riffing and efficient bluesy solos. I mean, it’s not bad at all, it’s even pretty good sometimes (“Into the Black Wood”) but it’s just mundane. There’s too many bands playing this style and the scene is saturated. Be an innovator, not a follower. If you can’t wait for the next EW album, check this out.

Altarage – NIHL (2016) / 93%
Iron Bonehead/Doomentia Records/Sentient Ruin Laboratories

Basque annihilation

I really liked Altarage’s debut demo (both tracks reappear here) released last year and I was expecting something great for their debut full length, I’m far from disappointed. This is perhaps the heaviest and most insane album of the year, it’s mindblowing good. It’s primitive death/black metal with a strong war metal attitude, they’re usually in an insane crushing vibe but they can deliver on the occult atmospheric side as well (such as the debut of “Graehence”). As expected, the drumming is super fast, the guitars are so loud and heavy that their sound just creates a loud but totally blissful and enjoyable mess. Sure, it’s repetitive but so is life, death is the only solution and these guys certainly kill everything they encounter.

Think of Adversarial but add some grind intensity, a more vicious attitude and an additional thickness and you wouldn’t be too far from what Altarage plays. Their music and pummeling guitars are so intense that NIHL becomes some sort of trance experience that will nail you to your chair Nightmarish music that would make our ancestors kill themselves out of fear. All hail nihilism, the Earth is doomed anyway.

FACEBOOK

Geryon – The Wound and the Bow (2016) / 83%

Profound Lore Records

Bass n' drums abstract exploration

This band formed by the rhythm section of Krallice (yes, them again) is quite interesting. It’s some sort of bass and drums exploration into cacophonous experimental death metal. They’re like Neoandertals if the Estonian band wasn’t terrible and hilarious. The bass playing of McMaster is perfect in all its dissonant glory, as a novice (if I can call myself a novice at all) bass player, it’s fun to hear the instrument at the forefront. Compared to what I’ve heard from the debut, this is more experimental and less than trying to play death metal without guitars. The drumming of Weinstein is jazzy and full of subtleties, he really shows how good he is on the closer “Dioscuri” and its long extended instrumental moments. There’s not a lot of vocals but when McMaster sings, it’s deep vitriolic harsh vox with a sludgey feel. It's meditative, entrancing material with a simple and uncomplicated yet technical approach, I think the cover art done by the bassist/vocalist is a good representation of how abstract the whole thing is.

It may seem like a pretentious fest played by NY snobs but it’s actually highly emotional in the same sense that improvisational jazz can be, it’s metal that’s free of conventions, rigid ideas of what the “metaldom” should be and should like. It “transcends” labels and isn’t for the narrow minded. Post-black? Avant-garde? Experimental? Who cares, it’s intelligent and well played.

Facebook page

Metal Bounty Hunter: Volume 5

Karnon – Le temps sombre (2016) / 68%

Nah, it doesn’t sound like Agalloch

The Montréal quartet’s first release is a combination of modern melodic black metal, death metal, some progressive sludge/post-metal influences and metalcore. The most interesting thing about them is definitely the pagan theme explored throughout the French lyrics, it’s like a modern version of Belenos or just dudes like me who grew while reading Astérix comic books. I’d say this mythological angle is a welcome change from similar bands who generally have generic lyrics about life or something.

Musically, it’s not really my cup of tea. While I dig some of their influences (or used to, at least), the blend of sounds seems a bit artificial to me. At times, it’s like injecting the cold, mechanical sound of The Ocean to modern Immortal and while it’s mostly enjoyable and has well crafted riffs and guitar leads, it’s not something I’ll go back to. Also, I think that their shortest track “Vierge noire” with its Amon Amarth feel was more pertinent than the other, possibly more epic tracks.

The drumming is solid, the production and compositions are truly professional but Karnon is a band that’s developing its identity and should continue to do so. Nevertheless, if you dig melodic death/black with a pagan (non folk!) vibe, this is for you.

Bandcamp (pay what you can download)

Black Lung – See the Enemy (2016) / 76%

No bass, no problem

This trio from Maryland plays a vivid sort of psych doom/stoner with very groovy guitar riffs and buried, clean vocals. There’s some stoner bands who don’t have guitars and only rely on bass hooks (see Zaum) but Black Lung decided to go with two electric guitars instead. The rhythms are still infections since the instruments are downtuned as hell. “Crooked Fingers” basically sounds early Danzig turned psych stoner and it’s lovely. I haven’t heard their debut album but apparently it was softer and not metal like this one, nevertheless they still have some rock influences such as some balladesque parts of “Priestess”.

Their guitar tone is solid, they have sweet ass leads and the mix and mastering are well done but they lack a certain originality to distinguish themselves in this saturated doom/stoner world. If you like the genre and you’re always looking for another band to enjoy, check ‘em out, it’s fun stuff.

Bandcamp

Gargoyle – Reborn in Blasphemy (2016) / 74%

Lo-fi horror

"Have you heard the new Gargoyle?" asked my Swedish friend.

“The Japanese band?” I replied.

“Nah, this new Italian doom band”
“Ohhh ok”

And this is how I’ve discovered this quartet from Calabria, great story, right? Well, I can assure you that their music is a bit more interesting... Following in the footsteps of the horror doom masters Abysmal Grief, their music is occult dirges showing how dark and obscure the traditional doom genre can actually get.

The three songs are lo-fi doom with hints of blackened metal and distortion. The production is on more on the amateurish side than any doom I’ve heard this year but it fits the dark aura the songs go for quite well, I’d still would be curious to hear them with a solid production, one which could highlight their forces even more. Just find a larger cavern to record, guys. The vocals are somewhat harsh and were probably recorded in an underground cave or the small bathroom of one of their moms, there’s a lot of reverb and it fits the current occult black/death/doom movement. They don’t mess around with their compositions either, they’re kept relatively short and to the point, something that many of their peers don’t or just can’t do. Solid first release.

Bandcamp

Wretched Wizard – Empty Throne (2016) / 75%

Primitive Men

This young Ohioan duo just released their first album, a 19 minutes forray into aggresssive style shattering metal. On these eight songs, they go from hard hitting sludge to stoner/doom and metallic hardcore and they often do that on the same song. There’s a primitive, almost southern-ey influence as well as it’s not just heavy, it’s also atmospheric and some ideas could benefit from extraneous moments. I thought the short one minute interlude was cool but, yeah, it was only one minute.

I liked the loud production on the drums and guitars but the vocals are grating, not that they’re bad, the harsh growls are full of venom and spite as you could expect from a band like them but they’re much too predominant in the mix and frankly a bit hard to handle.

Bandcamp