Auroch - Stranger Aeons (2010)

Full Length, Self-released/Independant
March 12th, 2010

Genre: Death Metal
Region: Canada

Death metal from the west coast of Canada with a Lovecraftian flare. This one will be a little contentious based on vocals alone. I saw Auroch last night along with Nuclearhammer, Adversarial, Sortilegia, and Into Oblivion at Skull Fucking Metal Fest III and I was impressed by their set.

Where some people may get turned off is the vocals. Half the time they're traditional raspy death growls and then occasionally they swing into clean vocals resembling early Pantera (high pitched screams) or maybe a little bit on the power metal side of things. If you can get past that aspect then you'll hear some pretty fast, catchy, technical guitar work with some serious early Kataklysm influence (always a plus), chaotic Slayer-esque solos, and wicked blast beats and kicks. Get a taste here.


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Omega Massif - Karpatia (2011)

Full Length, Denovali
September, 2011

Genre: Atmospheric Sludge/Post-Metal
Region: Germany

Been waiting for this: Omega Massif's new album Karpatia. I find Omega Massif to be the most captivating of the ever growing instrumental bands out there. Geisterstadt was a sludge monolith and continues to leave me speechless with it's massive crushing riffs soaked in reverb, creeping atmospheric clean moments, loads of feedback and pounding bass . Karpatia doesn't differ much in this regard and continues to showcase atmosphere through great writing. Big droning riffs that hypnotize will flood your ears until the closer.

If you want to hear either album Denovali has tracks up for both, order info, etc. Fans of post-metal that have not listened to these German sludge juggernauts should not hesitate here.

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The Flowers of St. Francis - Volume 1 (2011)

Full Length, Enemies List Home Recordings
August, 2011



Genre: Drone/Noise/Ambient/Folk
Region: USA

"The Flowers of Saint Francis are confessional, spontaneous, and moving compositions by Tim Macuga. They are collections of aphasic, four-track rabbit hole confessionals... home recordings of the home recordist debating the relationship between mysticism and madness.

They are the private scribblings of Tim Macuga."

Tim is the second half of Have a Nice Life, and what we have here is the first of a series of tapes released by ELHR. The excerpt above should tell you what you need to know, there's 2 big tracks here and if you need a genre then this is close to drone/ambient with folk elements as well as the ethereal sound that the boys from ELHR are known for; similar to Natural Snow Buildings if anything. More psychedelic and less depressive than the other projects Tim is involved with.

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Amenra - Mass II: Sermons (2005)

EP, Consoling Sounds/Independent
January, 2005



Genre: Atmospheric Sludge
Region: Belgium

Amenra are absolutely amazing and one of my favorite bands. Passion, agony and trudging darkness permeate everything they create. They signed to Neurot Recordings after touring with Neurosis not long ago which makes me smile, and soon their next album "Mass V" is going to be released. Amenra also recently repressed Mass IIII and Mass II: Sermons on vinyl and because of all this I thought I'd throw this up with the track list of the 2008/2011 reissue (with varying quality, unfortunately).

As with all their releases Amenra create a powerful and oppressive atmosphere on this EP. There are five tracks here: two of which that were not originally on the first pressing and one that appears on Mass III (track one, From Birth To Grave). Track two is from a four-way split and is on the short side with a spoken passage. Track five is Ritual II which is ten minutes long and resembles their Afterlives EP in that is largely quiet and acoustic with clean vocals for the first four minutes, and then explodes into extended versions of the final few heavy riffs heard on the original version of Ritual — slower, like they do in truly epic live shows such as this.

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Aethyrvorous - Aethyrvorous (2009)

Demo, Self-released/Independent
2009



Genre: Death Metal
Region: Australia

I've heard rumors of this bands demise but I don't know if they're accurate. It would be a shame if true because there's some excellent material to be heard here.

It's clear Aethyrvorous draws influence from the likes of old school monsters of death Incantation, fitting in well with the new wave of giants such as Witchrist, Impetuous Ritual, Ignivomous, Vasaeleth, Antediluvian, Mitochondrion, etc. Of course what this means is large amounts of churning, cavernous, dirty death metal with the stench of the occult permeating every dark riff. A very strong demo and maybe their only release.

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P.H.O.B.O.S. - Tectonics (2005)

Industrial Doom

256 kb/s

The Amenta meets doom, really harsh stuff. A tough nut to crack but it ends up being an enjoyable album in the end.

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Atriarch - Forever The End (2011)

Full Length, Seventh Rule Records
August 23, 2011



Genre: Sludge/Doom Metal
Region: USA

"Atriarch is a living entity comprised of four parts, offering catharsis through sonic ritual."

From the west coast of the USA and comprised of members from Graves At Sea, Trees, Final Conflict, and Get Hustle, Atriarch offer up four long tracks on their first release. They're labeled as Doom/Death Rock which would give one the impression of Death 'n Roll — what you hear is quite the opposite. This is slow, negative, lumbering and atmospheric. Atriarch have a sound that reminds me of a much slower A Storm of Light or Thou.

The vocals are impressive and a big part of the sound alternating between ritualistic Josh Graham-esque droning, doomy growls, and raspy and torturous screaming (ala Thou). There's a subtle gothic/symphonic element throughout with perfect use of keyboards that really drive the gloomy atmosphere up, along side solid drumming and big, muddy, droning, psychedelic riffs on bass and guitar. Well written, well paced and heavy in all respects. If you want a taste of Forever The End you can check it out in full here and here.

Fans of A Storm of Light, Dispirit, Thou, Buried At Sea, Trees, Anhedonist, Warning, Thrones, etc. will certainly enjoy this. In 320 (new links).

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Flourishing - The Sum of All Fossils (2011)

Full Length, The Path Less Traveled Records
August 2nd, 2011



Genre: Technical Death Metal
Region: USA

Taking a similar approach that Baring Teeth did with their recent release Atrophy, Flourishing look to From Wisdom To Hate/Obscura era Gorguts (and to some extent Ulcerate) to create a fairly interesting and unique tech death album. Though I've only spun Atrophy a few times this year I'm digging this on first listen a little more. Rather than pure Gorguts worship Flourishing manage to carve their own sound out of that template and create their own path with it (not that pure Gorguts worship isn't awesome when done right).

A lot of dissonant/angular riffs, vocals that shift between hoarse death growls (quite like Luc) and more clean and strained yelling, and fast drumming. Some of the slower moments have hints of Ulcerate with big bendy chords that create an atmospheric wall.

In 320. Definitely give this a listen if you like strange, angular death metal.

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Iniquity - The Hidden Lore (1998)

EP, Mighty Music
1998



Genre: Technical Death Metal
Region: Denmark

Two years after recording the painfully underrated monster that is Serenadium and despite a complete line-up change leaving none of the original members that recorded it, these four songs sound as if they came straight off that very record. It's bizarre and fantastic.

Admittedly the low end here isn't as destructive as Serenadium but the writing is still phenomenal. I would say this is better than both Grime and Five Across The Eyes (which are a little bland in comparison) just because it still retains that Serenadium feel and creativity — the doomy elements, strong and impressive writing, technicality with restraint, intense atmosphere. Possibly one of the best death metal EPs ever recorded.

In 320.

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Hive Destruction - Secretvm/Veritas (2011)

Full Length, Init Records
2011



Genre: Atmospheric Sludge/Post-Metal
Region: Belgium

Instrumental band formed by the ex-bassist of Amenra along with the current guitarist of Liar, this is their first album after a split with Amenra. The guitar tone is a little too thin at points for me but generally it's some heavy post-metal with electronic influences, lots of sampling, mid-paced heavy riffing, etc. Not necessarily ground-breaking but certainly enjoyable for people who like Lento, Empires, Supercontinent, Dirge, Rosetta, Light Bearer.

320 rip.

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