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!

Ufomammut, Usnea + Tunguska Mammoth and Show of Bedlam, May 17th 2015 @Bar Le Ritz PDB in Montréal

On this warm Sunday evening, the metal fans of Montréal and its surrounding all met on Jean-Talon boulevard for a night of doom of epic proportions. It was my second evening in a row at this cool venue after the excellent gig of Chilean psychedelic rockers Follakzoid but this time, it was jam packed. The Farnham and Trou du Diable beers were cold as ice and managed to put everyone in a good mood. Even though it would had been nice to get Sons of Otis on the lineup (they played the Toronto gig the night before), we got two legit Montréal based openers.

Show of Bedlam are one of the favorite local opener for metal gigs in Montréal these days, I've seen them several times including a great performance back in March when they opened for Enslaved and Yob but it's always cool to see them again. Their debut full length (initially released in 2012) was recently reissued by PRC so I grabbed a copy (5 bucks!). The band is working on a new album and their live performances got tighter and better than before, their blend of stoner, sludge, doom, noise or post-hardcore is interesting, intense and original. It's like a mix of Neurosis and Swans! Paulina's stage antics are always frivolous, spastic and insane, she's a pretty cool frontwoman. They always use some strange projections (including some grinding teeth or weird nature images) and this is really adding another layer to their live presentation. Kudos to the many promoters putting them on their bills, they're always worth it.

8 /10

Check them out: Facebook

Tunguska Mammoth were the second local openers and their name was more than adequate to be on this bill! I've seen them before so I know what to expect. The quartet plays a form of stoner/sludge with semi harsh vocals. They mix Mastodon and High On Fire into a coherent and catchy mix and are somewhat similar to bands like Red Fang. They played a new composition and it sounded better than their debut album, a bit more original too. I think they rely a bit too much on simple riff progression to unnecessarily stretch some of their songs but overall, it's enjoyable and groovy enough to keep the ball rolling. It's not a style I really dig these days but it's well done and there's not a lot of Montréal bands playing these styles so they're definitely an appreciable bonus when they open for international bands.

6,5/10 

Check them out: Mammothbook

Usnea from Portland, Oregon is currently touring North America with Ufomammut and they were an appropriate choice since they're crushingly heavy. Their blend of funeral doom, doom/stoner, doom/deathwith some slight black metal overtones (especially in the vocals) is quite good and even though they're all over the place musically, their long compositions work fine. The band also slight psych and spacey influences and it gives them an entrancing atmosphere. Their dual vocal approach is also quite fun, Justin Cory (guitars) handles the high, screeching black metal ones while Joel Williams (bass) handles the deep, cavernous ones typically used by funeral doom bands. Excellent band.

8/10

Usnea on Facebook

Picture taken on Ufomammut's Facebook page.

Ufomammut were the definite “pièce de résistance” of the evening. I've been following these guys for a while and I was anxious to see them for their first Montréal gig. The band played Victoriaville (the FIMAV festival) last year as their sole North American gig and being a broke soul, I couldn't attend this show. I was expecting the band to be truly heavy but damn, they exceeded my expectations. The Italian trio are masters of psychedelic doom/stoner, they're the real deal. Massive riffs, an elephantine bass tone, slow but thundering drums and buried but fuzzy and hallucinatory vocals.

Bands often use a projector as a way to add something to their performance, the aforementioned Show of Bedlam do it and I really liked The Ocean's videos. Ufomammut, on the other hand, integrates the projector so effortlessly that it's like a fourth member. The band is also a visual art collective under the name Malleus (they handle all their artwork) and it shows. They have a perfect control on how they present themselves and that's yet another proof that they're a terrific band. During their ninety minutes set (??? I've lost track of time, to be fair), they used a wide variety of psychedelic visualizations ranging from stalactites to mysterious priests and intense volcanic flames. It's really well done and fits their heavier than thou music like a glove.

The trio played their whole new album “Ecate”, it was enjoyable and mesmerizing. They have a pretty good discography without any truly flawed albums but it's fun to hear a veteran band play their new material so convincingly. They came back from a short break after the album and played some older material like Stigma from “Idolum”. I'm not quite of the other trackssure since I was completely out of energy near the end, they really drained me in the best way possible.

Ufomammut were one of the most spectacular bands I've ever seen, this set goes directly in my top five of all time. I doubt I'll see a heavier band this year.







11/10

Ufofacebook

Since I don't have a great camera and can't call myself a great photograph, you can use these two wonderful articles.

A bunch of pics and a microreview in French on Voir

Beautiful black and white pictures by Myriam Francoeur

2 pictures, credit goes to Amarilys Way:

Vita of Ufommamut

Urlo, Ufomammut

Trust Your Heart– Trust Your Heart (2015) / 0%

Turd Fannyback Christian Metal

Oh god (appropriate use of that word considering what I review), this is truly something else... After releasing a bunch of awful black metal albums under the name Animae Capronii, Cesare Sannino decided to change the name of his project to Trust Your Heart. After album titles like Jesus Is My Hope When I Am Hopeless , Heavenly Unblack Metal or Please Forgive Me Oh Lord, he probably wanted to completely remove the black metal aesthetics from his music. Sort of weird when he already had a heavy/power metal band under his own name and released four full lengths till 2010 but I guess they weren't about JESUS!

Cesare might seem like a troll but I'm 100% certain he's as legit as these old grand-mothers I see leaving the church when I go get some beer at the convenience store near my place. I mean, he's from Italy, a country widely known for its catholic roots. I like to believe that people are serious about their art, if we can call this album “art”, that is. Anyhow, the album isn't bad because it's about Christianity, I like a lot of doom metal about Jesus and Warlord freaking rocks, it's bad because the music is simply awful manure.

“Jesus christ is the light, the word of god incarnated”

Trust Your Heart is like a very bad B series movie, you know like these Chinese movies by Godfrey Ho that you watch with your friends to have fun and laugh at how bad they are? It's so bad it's good, it made me laugh a lot and it was fun to share the experience with others. The music is heavy metal, I guess? It's hard to say because it sounds like it's totally unfinished. The programmed drums are bad, they sound like a little wooden stick punching some cardboard and the guitars are often replaced with a twenty bucks keyboard/keytar found in a pawn shop. It's sterile, under-produced (self produced, of course) “metal” with really unusual (in a bad, autistic way) melodies. He even tries to include some black metal like this cover of this (probably awful) British unblack metal at the end. It doesn't even fit with the rest of the album, it's just there at the end, finishing the turd.

He tried to mix some music genres to create an “epic” atmosphere like many legendary and competent Italian bands did before him (think of Dark Quarterer or Adramelch) but he simply isn't talented enough to pull it off. It's cheap casio music that will be played at his local church by an embarrassed priest. I'd be embarrassed to actually release something with the kind of vocals present on this album, they're so whiny, weak and so annoyingly obnoxious. He sounds like the worst singers who did auditions for TV shows like The Voice that you can find on the Internet. He's like an Italian William Hung but it's even funnier since he's taking himself seriously.

With song titles like “Dark Thoughts in my Head” and “Too Many Visions of the Apocalypse”, you know you're in for a trip into putrid cheese territories. The dude can't write semi coherent lyrics to save the life of Jesus, I know it's not his first language and Italians aren't exactly well known for the quality of their English but come on now. It's middle school level stuff written by a dude wearing a fannyback.

The dude behind Trust Your Dream is so amateurish that he can't find anyone to join his projects and since that's the case, he has to do everything on his own but he barely has any skills whatsoever so his music isn't worth anything.

Indeed, it's a free download (well, at least it's free 'cause no one should have to pay for this crap) is in 128 kbs, I feel that a better bit rate would probably ruin the experience altogether. The shitty quality fits the awfulness of the music, like mustard and ketchup on a hot dog, it's the best experience you can get for choosing to listen to something like that. Like hot dogs, it's surely bad for you but you'll at least enjoy it. Nevertheless, unlike processed meat, this will never leave my body, it will forever be in my head like Christ is in heart, I guess?

Check out his blog and download his album for free, you'll laugh!

Why? - L'Uomo Appeso (1995) / 74%

Italian penile thrashy avant garde metal

Why I am reviewing this?  Well, it deserves to be since it's underrated stuff and I hope I'll help giving them a tiny bit of exposure through my review. The Italian quartet managed to stay alive for six years releasing four demos during their existence and outside of Alexandro Naitina who's in the excellent post metal band The End of Six Thousand Years, the musicians kept quiet. It's kind of a shame since they were pretty damn interesting, they need a re-release of their material as soon as possible!

L'Uomo Appeso (the hanging man) is their fourth and latest demo and it's perhaps the one with the largest avant garde/alternative metal influences in their discography. To my knowledge, all their lyrics are in Italian but this is the only one with all the titles in this romantic languages. The singer is pretty unorthodox, maybe akin to Faith No More's Mike Patton. It's a clean & fast paced delivery with some spoken vocals influences. He's not quite my style of vocalists for thrash but he fits the Voivodian approach the band was aiming for. Combined with the poetic but weird for metal language, he's probably one of the reasons this band never made it big but eh, he's probably as good as Snake! (Snake is obviously the weakest part of the Quebecois proggers.)

There's a huge funk influence in their sound, quite apparent in the song “La Giostra”, there's these groovy keys intertwined with the heavy bass presence but sadly the low production (still their best) wasn't truly able to transpose their vision as much as they wanted to. Their sound also has some post punk elements thrown in the mix making the avant garde tag warranted since even if it's fairly technical, it's not spastic thrash but rather weird, fucked up and fun stuff. This is almost not metal in some places, the guitars are often buried by the bass and the vocal declarations and the fact there's only one guitarist left in the lineup compared to their other demos probably influenced the metallic amount of this one.

The structure of the demo is quite strong, it's starting and ending with nice instrumental songs, the compositions are mostly on the short side and the rhythm is fast paced. I'm not quite sure I would be able to withstand a long release of these guys, thirty minutes is even perhaps too much for me, it's a bit grating at times due to the vocals and it's not easy to get into.

Nonetheless, Why? is a very fun band, perhaps underwhelming in some places but that's probably due to the release being a demo, getting a do it yourself production wasn't as easy twenty years ago. Out of old school thrash, avant garde meta or Voivod albums to check out? Listen to these Italians.

I have three of their demos that you can guys can download here: On my Dropbox

Focus Indulgens – Hic Sunt Leones (2011) / 90%

Cannelloni & Manicotti Doom pt. V: I'm no cynic

Italy has always been one of the most renowned country for progressive rock with bands like Area, Museo Rosenbach or Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. Paul Chain definitely did a lot to preserve the heritage with all his weird experimental albums, but Focus Indulgens, a project apparently started by the father of two of the members in the early 90s truly understood they had a purpose in life. They're keeping alive two legacies, the one of their dads (doom!) and the golden days of prog from the 70s!

Carlo Castellani and Edoardo Natalini (drums, vocals) two dudes near my age embraced the calling and crafted a great doom record but they added more to the pasta recipe this time around.

Indeed, compared to their decent but unspectacular debut, Hic Sunt Leones is much much much more progressive and weird. It's more rich and intensely out there than the safe traditional doom of their previous album. The Past hinted to a proggier future but with only one year between them, it was a fast transition! Certainly one I'm grateful for though! Led by Castellani who plays the flute, the organ, the piano plus the usual instruments like the electric guitar or the bass. He also sings so you can say he has his hands full here but it's all done wonderfully. The other guitarist, the third member of the unit, adds some nice harmonica parts here and there. I've always liked this instrument ever since I've been born as my father is a big Bob Dylan and Neil Young fan and he transmitted his passion to his son. I remember being surprised by Ozzy Osbourne's mouth solo in the seminal song “The Wizard” found on Sabbath's debut. I always wanted to hear more metal musicians use this small but interesting instrument and it's always a joy when I find some examples.

The band is still freaking metal though, they're just mixing more progressive and psychedelic rock in their sound. There's some soft parts here and there so it's not a complete and spastic mix of influences but rather a good flowing diverse album. “Figlio Di Cagna” (I thought it sounded poetic but it means “son of a whore”, oh well!) has one of the best riff I've heard recently and with its nine minutes, the song explores many facets of their sound ranging from soft, early Genesis influenced keys to hard hittin' dark themed doom metal that is mid-paced and groovy.

The lengthier closer “Vinsanto” is one hell of a prog rock conclusion, quarter of a hour of uber rich music encompassing everything I like about Focus Indulgens. Compared to progressive/doom bands like Revelation, they're not subtle at all with big hints at symphonic heavy prog and big bands with sophisticated songwriting. Their vocals are quite enjoyable too, they have this clean, high and kind of melodic edge while retaining some grittiness. Sure, the lyrics are completely in Italian but I think it's giving some eccentricity to the content, not that the musical content wasn't itself already fucked up. The production on the vox changes from song to song, sometimes it can be kind of buried underneath the warm instrumental layers but it can be at the forefront in other moments, it adds to the varied atmospheres the album has. Perhaps due to the language similarity (Italian and Spanish), Carlo reminds me of Mago De Oz's releases with Jose Andrëa (Finisterra amongst others.)

Immensely rich, I can't see a prog or a curious doom fan disliking Hic Sunt Leones is a great record with everything I ask for in my music. Cool solos, long fun songs, surprises (that fucking flute is awesome!), a worthy bass present. All this combined to create an emotional album supported by ultra talented musicians.

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