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

Grales - Demo 2019 / 75%

Dirty Montréal 514 Series: Part I


Some steps to do before checking this band:

• A) Order a poutine. Don’t forget that if it’s not cheese curds, it’s not poutine and you should probably reconsider your life if you don’t mind shredded cheddar on your poutine. If you’re in the city, I’d suggest Poutineville.
• B) Put some wool socks, it’s winter for fuck’s sake.
• C) Cancel your psychiatrist appointments???????

That new quintet from Montréal will fill your bathtub with a year worth of filth. Unleashing three five minutes songs of thundering sludge/doom, Grales takes you by the hand and shows you how dejected and depressing their city can be. That period between autumn and winter where the ground is getting dirty and the snow can’t decide if it wants to stay or just melts into small putrid lakes of icy water is what that band sounds like. I mean that in a self-loathing but positive way, of course.

The guitars are thick (thicc?) and sounds like you’re constantly falling into brown snow because there’s a thin layer of ice beneath it. The bass is huge too (as it should be) and the drumming is varied, well executed and made me lose my mind from time to time. The vocals are also insane, they have the right amount of viscosity and poison to automatically provide you with the number of a weed dealer who’s probably gonna try to sell you meth too.

Grales gets hypnotic too. The start of “Cult of Domination” reminds me of the psychedelic elements that Ufomammut are known for. Considering they’re a quintet, they’re really able to keep things constantly filled to the brim and this helps when you want to create intriguing and inspired atmospheres. Two guitars are definitely efficient at giving you a big, loud and fully realized sound.

Despite keeping their compositions to a standard length, they’re able to explore some different rhythms and tempos. They’re also quite good at keeping things airy and they know how to stay pertinent without bludgeoning the listener with a constant volley of vocals.

They think of themselves as antifascist sludge and in a tense metal scenes where some people are too tolerant and friendly towards racism and white supremacy, it’s always nice to know that some members of the metal scene won’t stand for that kind of behaviour.

“You won't get your 'ethnostate'
Your obedient wife with a smiling face
You won't get your 'rightful place'
As the master caste of the fucking 'master race' “

Well said, dudes.

Tape release by the excellent Québec label From the Urn (Lochness, Marécage, Grand Morne...)

Bandcamp

Allfather - And All Will Be Desolation (2018) / 81%

My father is proud that I review metal

I was sold right away when I first heard of this British quintet. Their look, their political stance (anti nazism, antifascism etc) and their blistering sound were good selling points. The main aspect that really made me go bonkers is that fact that they’re basically what happened when you really slow down Nails. “Suum Cuique” from Abandon All Life made me cum buckets and I was salivating at a whole album of that stuff.

Allfather is indeed tough guy slowed down beatdown but they’re guys who want to beat down white supremacists and they support trans equality. The kind of tough guys I want to actually support, you know. Not thinly veiled right wing metalloids. Still, their lyrics are full of dark images and putrid realities. The Brits mix a lot of things in their sound, from American sludge to mid-era Entombed (think Morning Star) to modern doomy/crust. You know the genre that a lot of bands play nowadays, a scene where the hardcore and the metal divisions are really blurred. It’s not a bad approach at all.

Their songs are heavy dirges, sometimes slow, sometimes mid-paced but almost condensed and compact. The opener “Black Triangle” starts with a quasi ethnic guitar introduction before delivering the good and the eleven minute closer “Lampedusa” offers a Crowbar-ish vocal performance armed with an epic song structure full of snappy heavy riffs and an a prehistoric elephantine drumming. The riffs are varying in quality, sometimes it’s fucking incredible like on those previously mentioned opener and closer but the middle of the album is a tad weaker. That’s the q-tip method and it’s often used in music. I can’t blame them. All in all, it’s a pretty solid essay by those cool Englishmen and alongside Dawn Ray’d, they represent left wing metal in the UK. Full support.

Bandcamp

Un - Sentiment (2018) / 82%

Ruins & Flowers

The American west coast (Portland, Seattle etc...) sure has a distinct sound, call it Cascadian or whatever, it’s unimportant in the end. What matters is that most of those bands are pretty damn good and interesting. Acts like Lycus, Alderaban, Ash Borer, Usnea or Bell Witch put a lot of atmosphere in their extreme metal and they help the creation of a potent sound.

Un (one in French) released their debut full length back in 2015 and I thought it was an impressive slab of slow stuff. Sentiment, their sophomore album improves their formula ever further. Funeral doom is a hard style to mess around, its primary components make it hard for its disciples to truly distinguish itself. They’re like those black cultists preaching at the altar of the olde godes like Esoteric or Thergothon. While Un aren’t iconoclasts or genre revolutionaries, they did enough to separate themselves from the pack. 

Funeral doom is often seasoned with death metal or even black metal (see Nortt) but using the American blend of sludge (high in trans fat, see Crowbar) was definitely a good idea. It doesn’t make a super huge difference in the final result but it’s a bit more exciting than your run of the mill funeral doom band. The growls of front-man Monte Mccleery (probably also a cowboy with that name) are deep and ultimately quite traditional but what sets them apart is their guitars. You obviously have those slow, crunchy riffs but the band lets itself loose with those big joyful melodic leads like at the end of the title track. It’s borderline post metal at times but it’s never unfocused.

Just like the artwork where ruins are meeting a meadow of colorful flowers, darkness meets light. The inclusion of female vocals on “Pools of Reflection” did wonders for their atmosphere as well. Un’s strength relies on the small details and their propension for melody and beautiful guitar leads.

Un on Facebook

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%

Get them on Bandcamp
Check it out on Facebook

Rookscare – Ecotone (2016) / 86%

Psych-hick

Rookscare from West Virginia are one of those bands with an interest in melding many different genres to make a new identity for themselves. I can say they managed to do exactly that with this excellent extended play. Ecotone, the zone between two ecosystems fits the wide array of genres they use but also links their southern, rural roots to their theme.

Their Metal Archives doesn’t do justice to what they play but I guess it fits the band since we can’t put an essay in there. They’re sludge in the same sense than Acid Bath or Melvins are sludge as the genre is only a part of their whole conceptual scheme. Rookscare incorporates swampy acoustic passages, progressive black metal, heavy and even trad doom at times. All of this is surrounded by a constant attention to subtle details and a thick layer of psychedelia. The vocal approach also reflects this uncompromising kitchen sink formula, from clean to harsh, they’re always interesting and hostile.

The EP opens with the extensive title track and it’s followed by another long piece before delivering the sludgey, bass heavy to the point closer of “Brother James”. It’s an album full of contrasts but the mood remains constantly depressive and uneasy. It’s like if three hicks were hunting a bunch of jocks from the east coast with axes, sawed-off shotguns while smoking really potent weed out of heavy iron pipes.

Bandcamp

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.

Haggatha – V (2017) / 87%

Death on the Fraser River

This quartet from Vancouver evolves in the depressive side of loud metal and they're excellent at making you feel uneasy in a totally enjoyable way. V, their third full length (but 5This quartet from Vancouver evolves in the depressive side of loud metal and they're excellent at making you feel uneasy in a totally enjoyable way. V, their third full length (but 5th release) hits all the right notes with its six numbers full of dread and hatred.

Haggatha is a band with an impressive songwriting who manages to fill their tracks with a wide array of super loud and roaring riffs. Unlike some sludge/doom bands that we can encounter in the scene right now, they don't waste any time and they deliver a relatively brief but rewarding album. A lack of edition and a tendency to fill the hardware (see Windhand and their seventy minutes records) are too common and it's refreshing to hear a band not interested in filling their material with filler. Their previous album had a long seventeen minutes track as its second side but V is more balanced with tracks between four and eight minutes. Let's just say that there's no disposable moments to be found here! I discovered the band with their new album but their formula was clearly established in the past and they're just working on the details to push their songs to the next level. What I can say, is despite not being an audiophile connoisseur, the mix and production of V is stronger and fits the sound of the band like a bloody glove.

Sure, Haggatha are not pushing the boundaries of sludge into unknown territories like Cult of Luna or Kylesa did but that's perfectly fine. Being original for the sake of getting a "best new music" review on Pitchfork is trying too hard anyway. They're instead going for an Eyehategod sound but rather than taking too much heroin, they prefer bong hits. This makes them slower and heavier! Outside of the riffs, their main distinctive characteristic would be the two vocalists, they both do harsh vocals but one prefers the high pitched ones and the other the deeper sort. The two approaches are adding a cool and versatile side to the band. Rest assured, there's no happy sides to Haggatha, it's all about being miserable and broken and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Bone chilling and tremendous riffy as fuck sludge/doom is what you're getting with Haggatha. It's a fitting start to 2017, it will not help you in these dire times but it certainly fits the new world atmosphere. th release) hits all the right notes with its six numbers full of dread and misery.

Bandcamp

Inter Arma – Paradise Gallows (2016) / 89%

The International Armada of Southern Post-Metal

After the impressive one-song extended play The Cavern released two years ago, Inter Arma doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. They’re one of the best american metal bands of their generation and their third full length will only solidify their status as a genre bending and untamable epic beast.

The first noticeable aspects of an album are always the artwork and the title and there’s a clear newfound identity found in the cover art of Paradise Gallows. Compared to Sundown or Sky Burial, it’s full of colours and could almost fit an indie rock band but the scene illustrated is bleak and ultimately fits the sound of Inter Arma. Compared to its artistic rendition, this album is far from being a shipwreck. It’s probably more the large rocky island in the background which is known for leading ships to their demise. Just like the crew of a well-managed ship, the songs on Paradise Gallows are fairly diverse but they learned to work well together to maintain the deck and ride the sea like no one else.

While somewhat sunnier than Sky Burial and overall perhaps softer, it’s still pretty heavy at times. The big Southern melting pot is the basis of their identity. They mix this depressive but warm and dirty sludge sound with healthy doses of black/death metal recalling the elusive Bölzer full of cavernous vocals but they keep things mid-paced or hellishly slow. Songs like the nine minutes “Transfiguration” bring forth the gloomy atmosphere while never losing the focus on tight and riff based metal. I guess we could say that their approach seems all over the place, right?

Maybe... but wait, there’s more! The combination of the massive Neurosis-like riffs with hints of funeral doom/death works quite well. The integration of psychedelic elements also feels natural (listen to the droney but catchy “The Summer Drones”) and there’s a slight nautical aspect to their compositions. It feels like you’re on the Atlantic, near the state of Virginia while listening to the darkest Nick Cave albums but your buddy suddenly plays his Eyehategod mix-tape on his boombox.

“Potomac” (speaking of said nautical feel) is this gorgeous instrumental song full of clean proggy guitar leads and piano and it’s a soft interlude before we’re served two extended heavy numbers.They’re all over the place with their styles of riffing and melodies but they’re surprisingly able to have a clear and solid direction while battling the intense waves made by the aggressive kraken.

Mike Paparo’s presence is outstanding in its richness and diversity. From the harsh yet deep black metal growls to the Mastodon-esque rough delivery of “Violent Constellations”, he’s a gifted metal singer. He’s also great at other styles including the tragically romantic vocals neo-folk of acoustic closer “Where the Earth Meets the Sky” and this sort of entrancing quasi spoken word (check out “Primordial Wounds”).

The guitars of Dalton and Russell range from megalodonian to intricate and psychedelic. This album is long (71 minutes) but it’s always inventive and spectacular. Their weaving of calmness and bludgeoning intensity has reached its peak on Paradise Gallows and the evolution of their sound since their 2010 debut has been an enjoyable process to follow. This is a great album.

Inter Arma on Facebook
I can't wait to see them Saturday in Montréal.

Mountain Dust, Zaum & Chronolith @Turbo Haus, September 30th 2016

Mountain Dust, Zaum & Chronolith @Turbo Haus, September 30th 2016

To end this warm month of September, I had to choose between three interesting gigs happening on the same evening. It wasn't an easy decision to make since I'm a big fan of Toronto's Demontage who were opening for DBC at the Piranha Bar and the Red Bull Academy drone gig seemed pretty attractive as well. In the end, I went with the style of music closer to my earth, doom metal. After a long commute to the south west of Montréal, I arrived in time to see the first band on the bill.

Turbo Haus on Facebook

Chronolith are a fairly new local band and based on their singer, they play some form of sludge. I guess they do but they're not your usual run-of-the-mill sludge band. The guitar is fairly inventive and sometimes inflicts ethnic influenced leads with a progressive precision and the bass was quite loud with a clean and heavy sound. They're not the dirty, heroin-addicted style of sludge, they belong to the psychedelic school that Kylesa used to teach at. On some of their songs, they had a violinist who added some richness to their sound and it wasn't too dissimilar from what SubRosa are offering us. The singer was pretty generic and didn't offer much as far as stage presence is concerned but maybe he wasn't feeling well that night. Anyhow, I liked their compositions and I'm looking forward to their studio releases.

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ZAUM: The duo from Moncton are about to release their second full length (once again on Sweden's I Hate Records) and they decided to do a short two dates Québec trip before going overseas to play a massive European tour. The metropolis was to first to host those two bearded gentlemen and they didn't disappoint. They opened with "Influence of the Magi" the first side of Eidolon, their new album, an extended twenty minutes track full of twists and turns before playing two older tracks. Zaum consists of drummer Chris Lewis and bassist/singer Kyle McDons and those two guys are able to convey an impressive sense of mighty power with their interesting formula. McDons is using a wide array of pedals and his abilities exceed the comprehension of mere mortals such as myself. He's also a sound engineer so he knows exactly what to do to make his project sound great. Decorated with their numerous personalized candles, the stage was blown to bits by the subtle yet captivating red lights emanating from underneath Lewis' drums and the whole setting really managed to give the necessary aura their middle-eastern influenced approach to doom metal needs. Thunderous, simple but not lo-fi, Zaum are all in and they always deliver the slow, tasteful goods.

Previous reviews of Zaum: Oracles (2014) and Himalaya To Mesopotamia (2015)

ZAUM on Facebook

Mountain Dust are perhaps Montréal's current best rock band and they closed the evening. I had to miss their album release gig so I really wanted to see them play their new songs live and it wasn’t disappointing. The quartet plays heavy rock with an amalgam of influences from diverse eras. You get the lap steel from the blues or country scene, the keys from the Deep Purple and the presence of guitarist/singer Brendan Mainville can recall everything from the grunge era to the early proto hard rock days of the 60s. Speaking of this decade, the band did a fantastic super heavy cover of The Doors’ “Waiting For the Sun”. The dudes are all coming from a metal or hardcore background so there’s this added heaviness to their vintage rock and it’s highly fun to hear and watch. It’s authentic without sounding like a pale copy of your dad’s record collection

Review of their debut album Nine Years

Mountain Dust on Facebook

Yautja – Songs of Descent (2014) / 96%

As powerful as Shea Weber's slapshot

This trio from Nashville is fucking insane. I've seen them live recently in Montréal when they toured with Magrudergrind and while I was familiar with this album beforehand, I really was flabbergasted with their stage presence. I've been spinning their debut full length since then and it's a marvelous tour de force full of turns and crossovers.

Their genre on the Archives doesn't come close to how vast their sound is but it's also difficult to pinpoint it effectively. Simply by looking at the three dudes, you could think that there's no cohesion to be found here but you'd be wrong. Their bassist was wearing an Aura Noir shirt and looked metal as fuck, their guitarist looked like he could play in Car Seat Headrest and their drummer would fit right at home at a Grateful Dead community worshiping acid. For some reason, the three dudes combined together simply works like a charm.

Sure, there's grind here but there's a lot of other stuff like mathcore, death metal, experimental and a big dose of sludge. It's almost like a southern appropriation of the US East Coast's hipsterism. In some ways, they're Tennessee's chaotic answer to Krallice or to early Mastodon, they have those odd rhythms while keeping the heaviness as an integral part of their identity. While there's an interesting variety of tempos, all of supreme quality, you never get lost with Yautja. They're taking you places that you wasn't quite sure were real. From the grind might of "Blinders" to the weird epic sludge of "Faith Resigned"(a song that sounds like Crowbar who suddenly became a forward thinking band), it's as a varied as you'll get for a grindcore band. They do feel like slowing things down quite often and it adds to the immense weight of the album, a song like "(Path to the Ground)" just messes around with a slow grind riff for ninety seconds but it doesn't affect the pace of Songs of Descent at all. The bass is thick and loud and the guitars are super interesting with the way it alternates between a super fast and crushing sound. Tyler Coburn has to be one of the best drummers I've ever seen live, the moustachioed gentleman is a beast on the kit. He's good at everything and also alternates between the blastbeats and a more traditional style. Supremely good musicianship.

Yautja is the name of the alien species in the Predator series and Nashville's NHL team is named... the Predators, not a coincidence! Like the invisible master hunter, the trio kills you with a combination of intelligence and pure aggression.

Yautja on Bandcamp

Bell Witch, Wrekmeister Harmonies & Welwitsch @Turbo Haus, Montréal, March 5th 2016

Before the end of my spring break, I had a dark rendervous at Turbo Haus for a slow metal evening. The two American west coast bands were accompanied by a local opener

Welwitsch (not even sure about the spelling as it wasn't clear on the event)

A new Montréal band with nothing released yet, this trio plays sludgey stoner/doom but do nothing to actually distinguish itself in the populated doom ocean. The drummer (a member of the black metal band Perchten, I think?) also handles the vocals but those weren't quite convincing, they're in the semi-harsh style that Matt Pike is known for but they lacked conviction and power. The guitar tone was huge and sounded really good and the compositions, while generic, are decent enough and for what I assume were one of their first gigs ever, they knew what they were doing. I'm happy Montréal's doom scene is starting to grow but I'd like some innovation, still they were a good opener.

Wrekmeister Harmonies

The collective formed by J.R. Robinson (guitar, vocals) appeared here as a quartet with the help of Bell Witch's two members on drums and bass and also a woman who handled the keys, some vocals and the violin. Most of their tracks are long crescendos starting with ambient, post, drone moments and finishing with heavy parts influenced by sludge, doom and the likes, the performance offered here wasn't different. For the first ten minutes or so, we were served some very atmospheric ambient with ethereal clean vocals( both male and female vocal chords were used), violin and some clean guitar playing. Things got heavier when the headlining guys joined as the rhythm section! Robinson looked like a madman (the alluring and gentle sort) with his grey beard and his mix of harsh and commanding vocals, he's a strong presence, that's for sure. The song (50 minutes or so?) seemed like a track they wrote for the tour since it's not from their latest album (Night of your Ascension). Even if it was a bit repetive at times and they could be tighter, it was highly entrancing, sombre music and the respectful crowd seemed really into them, it was profoundly quiet for the duration of their set. 

Bell Witch

I was a bit skeptical about how good can a funeral doom duo be live but the Seattle based project were convincing. The perfectly executed six strings bass antics of Dylan Desmond combined with the blistering heaviness of drummer's Jesse Shreibman really brought the experience to the next level. Their set comprised of three long movements such as the 22 minutes opener of Four Phantoms, their latest album, was intense and managed to suck my energy with how emotionally charged it was. Even if they're only 2 guys, there's a large amount of subtleties in their performance, from the intricate bass tapping to the non complex but totally intelligent drumming.

Drained, I rode the metro with the feeling that I've spent an happy evening listening to truly mesmerising music about death.

Xothogua – you wont reach shore (2013) / 75%

Canadian doom tape triptych part 3 : Montréal, QC

Xothogua were a pretty secretive Montréal band who broke up last year. I had the chance to see them two or three times including a very cool evening with Ensorcelor and Show of Bedlam (they shared the bassist at the time) where I got a tape of this recording. Their sound is quite original and I was sad to hear that the band ended before exploring it in more details.

The half hour release is divided between two fifteen minutes movements, both encompassing their multifaceted style mixing stoner metal, sludge, doom metal, crust, hardcore and post rock (???). It's highly atmospheric and features a wide variety of vocal styles. The ones of Devo, a woman, are full of spite and venom when she screams and she's also using clean vox (especially on “Washer at the Ford”) but there's also some male vocals here and there to emphasise certain moments. The calm, atmospheric parts are well done and quite introspective, it's a good representation of how their live performances were. It's loud, massive and doesn't mess around. It has the right amount of heavier parts intertwined with calm but still oppressing bits.

The production isn't quite good but it's nuanced and airy enough to fit their songs and give them a live feeling. It would had been cool to hear something done with a bit more cash thrown into it but it didn't seem like their thing anyway. Their sole full length is amateurish but that's not always a bad thing, it's interesting and has this crossover appeal between metal and hardcore. It's free (or pay what you can) on Bandcamp so support a dead band!

Xothogua on Bandcamp

The artwork is also pretty glorious!

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