“This record… Oh dear; this record is the therapy we all needed”
Ritual. If there was a single word that could describe the process of listening through either of Amenra’s works, that would absolutely have to be ritual.
Part I: The ritual starts with healing (Ogentroost – a small plant that is used for its healing properties). The process is slow, heavy and shattering, exactly what makes Amenra so special. We are introduced to the healer (Caro Tanghe) for the first time.
Part II: Death in bloom (Da Dood In Bloei) – The attempt to heal fails and is followed by a lamentful eulogy. Ambient, haunted, eerie. The healer announces the passing of the sick (Colin H. van Eeckhout).
Part III: The companions (De Evenmens) – The fellow man himself, he proceeds to make a post-mortem speech – a farewell of sorts ( Ik neem afscheid, van dit stervend lichaam, dit stervend hart. De dagen zwart ~ I say goodbye to this dying body, this dying heart. The black days). Pain, sorrow, regret, anger. All are expressed as the soul departs the soulless body.
Part IV: The flash (Het gloren) – The soul having well gone away from its mortal connection, takes the long journey towards the dawn. Highly symbolical lyrics. A long monologue of the sick, that is slowly climaxing towards a quarrel, a fight between him and the healer.
Part V: Forever (Voor Immer) – The big fight is followed by a long, slow, final farewell. Full of ambience, melancholy and melodies that are fitting to the atmosphere built in this scenery.
Amenra’s music has always been eclectic and Amenra’s lyrics has always felt like an integral part of the orchestration, it is in a sense like body and soul, creating a whole result.
Impeccable production and sound. Special mention to Tim De Gieter (recording) and Frank Arkright (mastering) for contributing to the ritual.
Super special mention to Oathbreaker’s Caro Tenghe, who with her equally haunting or scorching voice, contributes immensely to the ritual.
This ritual is not a sequel of the standard Mass (I-VI) series, as its mystical symbolism has a different direction than before. Amenra’s 7th long-awaited record is as expected; another masterpiece by the Church of Ra collective.
Amenra are Mathieu J. Vandekerckhove, Colin H. Van Eeckhout, Bjorn J. Lebon, Lennart Bossu, and Tim De Gieter.
these are my favorite releases of 2020! I totally recommend each of the following albums & in case you like any of the following albums, please do not forget to show your love by supporting the artists, especially in that troublesome and gig-less period.
Let’s dive into it!
#10. Ulcerate – Stare Into Death And Be Still
Origin: Auckland, New Zealand Genre: Death metal Release date: 24 April 2020 Label: Debemur Morti Productions
#9. Paradise Lost – Obsidian
Origin: Halifax, United Kingdom Genre: Death-doom, gothic metal Release date: 15 May 2020 Label: Nuclear Blast
Hello humans. Hope you’re all alive and well. Wearing your little masks and protecting yourselves as well as the people around you.
What’s better than ending this beautiful (sic) rotation around our star with a nice, hot, warm, ol’ cup of “Gamma’s-music-treats”?! As is customary, company management kindly obliged me to draft a top 10 of sorts, including my favourite festive cooking/baking recipes for the holidays. In the end, yours truly managed to draft neither a top 10, nor quite the recipe list I was instructed. So kudos for me – Yay!
Honourable mentions:
Bring Me The Horizon : Post Human | Survival Horror – https://www.bmthofficial.com/# – These guys are the most famous band from Sheffield (screw you Arctic Monkeys) and a guilty pleasure of mine. Cool release, somewhat back to their roots.
Zeal & Ardor – Wake of a Nation– https://zealandardor.bandcamp.com/album/wake-of-a-nation-ep – After their previous stellar releases, they released Wake of a Nation as an EP and I immediately got hooked. A much needed fresh point of view to the spectrum of aggressive sound. Check them out if you already haven’t.
Advent Varic – Tumulus – https://adventvaric.bandcamp.com/album/tumulus-2 – Well. This is an EP. About 35 mins long. It is maybe one song. Broken in half. To switch sides. Sounds like Sleep if they grew up in Norway in the early 90s. Truly a masterpiece.
The Ocean Collective – Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic – https://theocean.bandcamp.com/album/phanerozoic-ii-mesozoic-cenozoic – I have been waiting for this moment all year. This was the easiest choice of the list. Perfect release. After about 3 months of non-stop playtime, this is indisputably the record of the year according to the usually infallible opinion of your truly.
A few words about the band first. It has been almost a decade since MNRV was born under the scorching sun of Kalamata, Southern Greece. Their sound is unique: Punk rage, post-hardcore riffage, screeching vox, sincere lyrics.
Their latest work In Public is going to be released towards the last days of 2020 (Dec. 20) and is a self-produced, 8-track record.
It starts with the self-titled song In Public and the identity of the band become apparent instantly. A crafty mixture of hardcore & post, but with a fresh experimental approach and critical words, MNRV are shouting: “at loss for words and thoughts, when faced with do’s and dont’s” and all of us listening are looking for a wall to smash.
While Clandestine is a mathcore masterpiece (a system that favors the few, while keeping the masses starved, global scale class war, atrocities that can’t go on), Κατήφορος (Downhill) sounds like the death ‘n’ roll anthem of the year (we know of price, but not of value). Rigid Mass is pure class, pure hardore punk, with some of the most timely lyrical works around (the serpent’s eggs already hatched and thousands feed on life’s carcass). Modern Love is one of the best pieces of this record – screaming at the modern approach of daily life (so critical to feel connected to be part of the whole). Urban Development needs no analysis. The intro is addicting and those dissonant harmonies shrivel through your brain leaving only the primal urge to dance around like a maniac. Saturday Night Cure is by far the most danceable song of the record, while For My Friends is an excellent outro in fact it’s not because it leaves us wanting more dancing around and kicking teeth with some of the best vocals of the entire record (through self-awareness comes evolution a grand step into disillusion) and some really addicting guitar melodies.
The production is really clean and meticulous, and the band sounds indescribably compact. Special mentions to Kostas Ragiadakos for mixing and mastering.
Overall, the record is a fine specimen of musical craft, and lyrically quite heavy on the socio-political aspect which is a fucking big plus for all of us here at Tzertzelos. Minerva Superduty have this amazing skill to convey their rage using their art as a tool and this work is MNRV saying a big ‘FUCK YOU’ to how wretched today’s society has become.
Favourite tracks: Clandestine, Κατήφορος, Modern Love, Saturday Night Cure.
“Your savior’s soul is consumed by guilt Your faith in him won’t be saving you” – The Ocean Collective
However gloom, it is not an understatement to claim that this year has been shitty so far and that it would require a miraculous change of tides to swift that, even barely, into the spectrum of even “okay”-ness.
And in the midst of it all, a global-pandemic of great proportions that is followed by a global economic recess of epic proportions, going in parallel with a continuous ecological distaster of gargantuan proportions, it is an objectively bad time for artists to share their work, without being able to exhibit at the same time.
Thankfully, the Ocean collective did not care too much about it and released their work Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic, hopefully only a few months before we get lucky enough to see them perform live – winter tour announced a few weeks back. This (slightly) Tool-esque masterpiece (primarily – but also with Gojir-esque and Neurosis-esque influences, often seen as some sort of tribute) is regarded as a natural continuation of their paleontology-based approach after 2018’s Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic, and is their eighth full-length record overall.
More than that, the Ocean continue their religio-socio-political criticism toward the world’s approach to reality (climate crisis). After their Jung-ian-based analysis of the subconscious (Pelagial) and their exploration of Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence (PI:P), PII:M|C describes the analogy between the journey facing an extinction event (Triassic-Jurassic) and humankind’s pompous inability to prevent another.
Lyrically, the record is based on the following notion: The apex predator of then (dinosaurs) used to be invincible, until a non-preventable extinction event wipes them off the face of the Earth (asteroid). In an analogous manner, the apex predator of now (humankind) is unable to prevent the next extinction event (climate crisis?), all under the scope of the main theme of PI:P self-similarity and Nietzsche’s eternal return.
There are some small easter-eggs here and there, such as a couple of references to Lars Von Trier’s film Melancholia (Melancholia has arrive, Antares was a lie), where the rogue planet of the same name inevitably collides with the Earth.
Naturally, the walk through the record’s parts, is in exact accordance with the geological epochs that they are named after and not only that, but this accordance is extended into the mood of the whole record: the poetic-filthy heaviness of Jurassic being reshaped into restlessness of Palaeocene, and the peace of Eocene and Oligocene, being transformed into the volcanic riffs of Miocene | Pliocene.
Produced by the guru Jens Bogren, the work done in PII:M|C is impeccable. Robin Staps and David Ramis Ahfeldt’s intertwined lines have evolved tremendously over the last records. Paul Seidel’s drumming is flourishing uncontrollably over amazing odd feels and apocalyptic blastbeats. The record’s numerous faux-orchestral keyboard passages are built with great craftsmanship from Peter Voigtmann, while it feels like Mattias Hagerstrand’s bass lines find more space (to absolutely shine) in comparison with previous releases. Lastly, the vocal performance by Loïc Rosetti is simply outstanding. He is showing immense versatility and class to sing anything that is required of him and delivers faultlessly.
Great guests from our favourites Tomas Liljedahl (BREACH) and Jonas Renkse (KATATONIA) (also in PI:P – 2018) are just complimenting the record ideally. Long-time collaborator Dalai Theofilopoulou once again recorded the amazing cello passages as well.
In case you haven’t picked that up yet, I am a huge fanboy of the band and I find it extremely challenging to be objective listening to a record I personally think is a masterpiece. Certainly a top candidate for the record of the year. Feel free to take everything that is written with a pinch of salt.
And suddenly, in the midst of the global pandemic/quarantine, Old Man Gloom released their record entitled SeminarIX: The Darkness of Being, 6 years after their previous release and the magnificent The Ape of God triplet – and their first release after the tragic loss of Caleb Scofield, back in 2018.
For the band enthusiasts, this should hardly be news, since the band actually prefer to indulge in similar behavior quite often. So we deem ourselves obliged to include a message from the band that complimented this release and gives a nice backstory to it, all of that in the very bottom of the present page.
This record is packed with emotion, apparent through the unusually amount of (magnificent) melody and harmony, given the previous work of the band. Throughout this musical trip, Old Man Gloom takes you to affecting ups and downs, periodically rotating around the concept of loss. Melodies intertwine with heaviness, anger disagrees with melancholy and the band stretch their talents to uncharted waters.
The introduction is written in the usual manner: Heavy, powerful music is complemented with roaring, throat slicing vocals (Hello Aaron Turner). The vibe shifts to “Canto De Santos”. Guitar strumming mixed with ambient noise (experiments that remain an integral part of this band’s art) are built into a full-on heaviness overload.
On the other side, “Death Rhymes” (collaborating with Faith Coloccia of Mamiffer) is the cornerstone around which the record stands and acts like a small time-out before the grand finale. “In Your Name” hits HARD, while the “Love Is Bravery” is drenched in despair and melancholy, a spectrum of emotions rarely observed for neither the band nor the genre in total.
Old Man Gloom made their name around heaviness, aggression and downtuned experimentation, only to squeeze melody into this work. An outcome that to the listener is most welcome. Yet another truly brilliant record from their side, this time a tribute of almost eulogical dimension to a lost friend. Brutally honest.
A berserk-ious dawn evolves into a savoury end, with enough ambience in between.
Favourite tracks: The Bleeding Sun, Death Rhymes, In Your Name, Love is Bravery.
Special shout-out to Aaron Turner for a GORGEOUS artwork and Profound Lore Records.
Message from the band:
“As we’re all locked down, and uncertain about what will shake out of all this bonkers shit, we at Old Man Gloom have decided to reverse Gloom you all. What is a reverse Gloom? Well, it’s pretty simple. Instead of playing a trick on everyone, we’re going to play a trick on ourselves, and unfortunately for Profound Lore, our record label. Here’s what was GOING to happen….We made two records. I know, it’s not a surprise, we usually do. Over the course of recording, we had so many plans with how to release it. There was the -let everyone preorder one record, then send them the other one without notice and release the other in stores only. There was – releasing one, then dropping the other 2 days later without any announcement at all. There was the idea that Aaron and I would make an entirely different record without the other guys knowing and releasing that on the same day to fool our own band. Eventually we settled on doing all the announcements for Seminar VIII: Light of Meaning, and then a week before its release, drop Seminar IX: Darkness of Being without announcement. A sort of PRE Glooming, if you will. It would’ve been a pleasant surprise for everyone in the lead up to the LoM release, and we get our trick. Well, since a few weeks ago when we made this plan, the world has drastically changed. We’re all confined to our cities, towns, and mostly our homes right now. Most of us can’t make a living, all of us in Gloom included, and we’re all just sitting and waiting for the tides to turn. Last week we spoke together and wondered if we could just send “Darkness of Being” out into the world now, to help bring a little light into this situational seclusion. All of us knew one sticking point could be Profound Lore, because our dear friend Chris is running a label, and not everyone exists like Old Man Gloom, most people have a plan and want to succeed on practical terms. We don’t. We just want to make each other laugh. It should have been very unsurprising that Chris was instantaneously IN for this plan. He’s never said NO to us, he’s been nothing but supportive of our bullshit from day one.
So here it is, truly our gift to you, and the whole world. Please enjoy what we’ve had an amazing time making. These records have taken the simple act of being a band and transcended into a bonding and healing process I never thought music or specifically Old Man Gloom could be. Almost every song has elements of our last two years without Caleb, and even the songs that aren’t directly related to him are embedded with the emotion and struggle for closure and healing that we’re all going to be in for a long time. This pandemic we’re all living through is creating so much distance between all of us. This is our way of bringing us all a little closer.
Please share, and listen, and talk, and respond. Tell us you love it, tell us you think it sucks, tell your friends that you like our old shit more, or that you wish it was an Old Man’s Child record. We don’t care, just put yourselves into the world through this.
We also ask that you preorder physical copies, or pay for digital in some way, if you can. Not for us, but for Profound Lore, who are always onboard to go against record label practicality to support our silliness, and whom we want to not lose money because of this baloney we cooked up.
“Time to shake our world, prepare to live” – Steve Brodsky “Final Defeat” – from “Light of Meaning”– Love,Santos, Steve, Aaron and Nate“
Advent Varic is a black/stoner/doom/sludge trio from Boston, Massachusetts. Quite easily, they grew on me, mainly because of their raw, honest sound.
They independently released their EPs Tumulus Part 1:The Beginning and Tumulus Part 2: The Ravaging earlier this month on their bandcamp page and since then I have been listening to them non-stop. They have a very unique approach to black sound, using traditional as well as unconventional means to achieve that. They manage to combine the speed, melancholy and screeching vocals of black metal, with the heaviness and riffage of stoner/sludge. Not quite fast and atechnical to be considered as traditional black metal, while not slow and downtuned enough to be a classical doom/sludge piece, Tumulus is created with creativity to expand the spectrum of slow-ish, heavy music.
It is a mystery whether a full record is on the works, but in spite of that, there is plenty of material and ear bleeding riffage to go crazy about on those 2 EPs.
For those of you who think that the black sound is slowly saturating, lacking an original and fresher approach, I could not suggest Advent Varic enough! I guarantee your jaws are going to drop.
A truly fascinating and brilliant work.
Favourite track: Well there is only 2 tracks in total, so every fucking minute of the approximately 36 of those BOTH OF THEM!
Physical copies are distributed by Interstellar Smoke Records!
Imagine Psychonaut as the outcome of the following (happy) accident: A ’70s hippy van crashing at full speed onto a metal post (or post-metal if you wish). The trio from Mechelen, Belgium, offer a novel approach to modern, hard sound by mixing the psychedelic element of the ’70s with doomy, heavy guitars and roaring vocals.
Their first full-record Unfold the God Man is a fine debut, although back in 2014 they released an EP entitled 24 trips Around the Sun and another one in 2016 entitled Ferocious Fellowman. What draws the immediate attention of the listener (among other things – technical abilities, production, etc) is the fact that they somehow manage imply all their musical influences, without losing their identity or their original approach – not even for a minute – a view which I am going to support next.
The record starts with All I saw as a Huge Monkey which has an amazing psy-post groove, but also a kind of djent-based approach on it. The Story of Enslavement offers the heaviest riff of the record according to yours truly. Kabuddah feels like an homage to Alice in Chains, especially with those vocal harmonics. The Fall of Conciousness and Halls of Amenti are a smoothie of Amenra-meets-Cult-of-Luna with a sprinkle of Gojira. Celestial Dictator and Nexus are pieces that Tool could have easily included in their last record. Their work finishes with Nothing is Conciousness, which I find to be a suiting closure (in its last couple of minutes, the song gives out a(n old, 1999) Opeth-esque feeling to it.
Throughout this record, there is a heavy, compact vibe around spirituality and – lyrically, themes such as religion and existentialism are debated. It is a fine product of musical craftsmanship.
This record is distributed through Pelagic Records and everyone knows we love everything about this label.
The elements above make Psychonaut such a relatable band and their work so easy to listen to – for a 70-minute long record this is quite an achievement!
Favourite tracks: Celestial Dictator, Kabuddah, The Story of Your Enslavement, Nexus.
The 14th day of February can be special for a lot of things (possibly). Until now, it was famous for being a date for an unnecessary outlet of consumerism, constructed by flower, condom and chocolate companies, masked under the excuse of Valentine’s day. But from 2020 on, this will be the date when Splid was released by Kvelertak!
The norwegian sextet have (finally) released their latest work, after going through a rough patch (kinda). They went through a bit of a lineup change, as they saw their (now former) lead singer Erlend Hjelvik leave the band due to personal reasons as well as their drummer Kjetil Gjermundrød, who quit music temporarily to receive treatment for an arm injury (something that was bothering him for years). For many bands this would be enough to bring a negative change to their sound. However, they found a worthy replacement in Mr. Ivar Nikolaisen (vocals), who has also offered guest vocals in the past in Blodtørst and Håvard Takle Ohr (drums). They have both already proven themselves made from similar mold: The danceable black ‘n’ roll music of Kvelertak remains fresher than ever!
The album is finely crafted and once again recorded by Kurt Balou in GodCity studios, who is proving to be a true master. In total, throughout the record there are fewer black elements (blastbeats, tremolo-picking), as opposed to more thrash elements (solos, 2 leads, vocals, downstrokes). Also, they offer their first english-sung songs, Crack of Doom featuring Mastodon’s Troy Sanders and Discord.
It is obvious that Kvelertak is a band that is not afraid to risk in order to evolve, a trait rare as well as criticized upon. This record is another fine specimen of great musicianship and creativity.
The first half of the record offer a heavy punch in the face (Rogaland, Crack of Doom, Discord, Bratebrann), while towards the end of the album the interest drops slightly, without missing on great moments (Fanden ta dette hull! is a great song. The first half offers a small homage to Thin Lizzy\Iron Maiden before it goes full-on ’80s thrash-metal BEAST MODE).
In conclusion, as it is no secret we have a soft spot for these Norwegian punks we liked this record and we hope you liked it too.
Favourite Tracks: Rogaland, Crack of Doom, Nekrosoft, Discord, Bratebrann, Fanden ta detter hull!
2019 was a year full of great releases in a variety of genres in the wide spectrum of the underground. As every year, somewhere towards the end or somewhere close to the start of the next year (in my case 🙂 ), it is a tradition to have each member of our crew to share their favorite releases. With the best of articles, we summarize some great albums of the previous year & directly recommend them to you. A great way to accumulate some really damn good releases.
Hereby, I present you my favorite releases for 2019. I hope you enjoy it!
#14. Mock the Mankind – Sorge Origin: Athens, Greece Genre: Doom Release date: 13 September 2019 Label: Independent
#13. King Gizzard & The Lizzard Wizard – INFEST THE RATS NEST Origin: Melbourne, Australia Genre: Stoner rock, psychedelic rock, thrash metal Release date: 16 August 2019 Label: Flightless, ATO
#12. Imha Tarikat – Kara Ihlas Origin: Germany Genre: Black metal Release date: 18 January 2019 Label: Vendetta Records
URL: Youtube Origin: Kolbotn, Norway Genre: Black metal, heavy metal Release date: 31 May 2019 Label: Peaceville
#10. Russian Circles – Blood Year Origin: Chicago, Illinois, U.S Genre: Post-metal, post-rock Release date: 2 August 2019 Label: Sargent House
#9. Pelican – Nighttime Stories Origin: Evanston, Illinois, U.S Genre: Post-metal Release date: 7 June 2019 Label: Southern Lord Recordings
#8. Body Void – You Will Know The Fear You Forced Upon Us EP Origin: San Fransisco, California, U.S Genre: Sludge/doom metal Release date: 15 March 2019 Label: Seeing Red Records
#7. Martyrdöd- Hexhammaren Origin: Sweden Genre: Crust-punk, hardcore punk, metal Release date: 24 May 2019 Label: Century Media
#6. Malignant Altar – RETRIBUTION OF JEALOUS GODS EP Origin: Houston, Texas, U.S Genre: Death metal, doom Release date: 22 March 2019 Label: Maggot Stomp
