I've been discovering so much new metal recently that I decided to just talk about all of them in one post instead of individually reviewing them.
As I mentioned in my last post, I've recently been getting into the doom band Sunn O))) as well as a few other bands. After hearing a slew of Sunn O))) material in the past few weeks, i've still decided that the essential is still BLACK ONE. But all their releases seem to have something to draw me in. I haven't listened to WHITE 1 yet in depth, I've just skimmed it, and it sounds like it's worth diving into. I've already listened to WHITE 2 twice, and it's a good one, it's worth it just for the last track "Decay2". I have the Japanese 3-CD edition of this, and apparently, the 2nd and 3rd disc was originally released on Archive as a double disc set that was only sold at shows. Some people were reportedly paying 100 bucks for the original. Well, sadly, it's not that interesting actually, but Sunn O))) freaks would probably burn me at the stake for saying so. Anyway, enough about Sunn O))). I talked about them enough in my last post.
Let's move on to KHANATE, which features Stephen O'Malley from Sunn O))) on guitar, James Plotkin (Atomsmasher) on bass and electronics, Alan Dubin (O.L.D., Burning Witch) and Tim Wyskida (unknown to me until now). I think I like this band MORE than Sunn O))). This shit gets right under your skin and makes for quite a disturbing, uncomfortable listening experience. The vocals of Alan Dubin remind of an extremely pissed off Bon Scott (old AC/DC) spit through an assortment of effects to make it sound like a possessed, melting robot. The music itself is painfully slow and brutal, swallowing you in its' vast abyss of darkness and insanity. The closest thing to this I've heard to this kind of brutality is SWANS - Cop/Young God era or HENRY ROLLINS' Hard Volume. FOETUS - Thaw also comes to mind, so if you're into any of those albums, you'll love this. This is an entirely different beast of the doom genre, pretty much as far away from formula as you could get. These are not really "songs" in the conventional sense, but torture experiments that test the patience of even the most forgiving human beings. I've only got 2 of their CD's, I picked up THINGS VIRAL first, then their 1st self-titled CD. It's hard to pick which one I like better, but I think I'd have to say their first has been getting more play than THINGS VIRAL. I have yet to pick up their "EP" titled CAPTURE AND RELEASE (2 songs almost clocking in at 40 minutes is an EP!!??). The Japanese pressing includes a DVD, so I'm looking forward to getting that. I have the Japanese pressings of the 1ST and THINGS VIRAL and they both include a bonus disc with lots of alternate versions of tunes from both albums. So if you're sick and tired of the so-called "Nu-Metal" you might want to try these guys out. Buy it and throw a party, see how long it takes for the party to split after slapping this on.
The next release I'm gonna briefly review the new BORIS/MERZBOW live collaboration titled DOCK DREAM. This is not the 1st time these 2 giants have collaborated. There have been a number of releases as well as performances, most notably and recently, the brilliant SUN BAKED SNOW CAVE. I'm not gonna say much about this. Of course it's good, but is is it necessary? Hmmmm. Disc 1 is my personal favorite out of the 2 discs, containing more of their longer, more darker material mostly, with an awesome 35-minute version of FEEDBACKER, one of my favorite BORIS pieces. The 2nd disc contains more of their more shorter, rockin' out balls to the wall tracks off PINK, AKUMA NO UTA, another long track, from DRONEVIL and some other short ones. The choice of material is good, but I actually prefer the live material from the ARCHIVE series. Merzbow adds his sound nicely, not overdoing it. BORIS fans will be all over this of course, and likely there'll be about 10 different versions of it before the year closes out. The artwork and package, by Shizu (who I don't know) and Fangsanalsatan respectively is really amazing. This IS a good solid live album by 2 legends of noise/psych and I'm sure it will not disappoint fans of either band.
The Next CD is a split from 2 well-know doom bands, GOATSNAKE and BURNING WITCH (featuring Alan Dubin from KHANATE). This is actually getting pretty pretty hard to find, so I was lucky to find it. Burning Witch only put out a few 12" EP's, and couple splits, including this one with GOATSNAKE, the other split with ASVA, who I haven't checked out yet. but want to. Well, even though there are only 2 tracks on this split by Burning Witch, Dubin's vocals are pretty different than KHANATE. He uses more of a shrieky type voice with this band, whereas his vocals with KHANATE are far more angry and scary, with more effects and variation. The 2 tracks on here don't disappoint though, they're chunky as hell. The other 2 tracks by GOATSNAKE are good too, but i prefer the intensity and slightly more uncomfortable feeling of Burning Witch. GOATSNAKE sound very much like ST. VITUS, and it's not surprising since one of the tracks is actually a St. Vitus cover song. Definitely worth picking up, but not worth the collector prices it's going for on ebay, which are anywhere from 30 bucks to 100 bucks.
On to the last band and CD I'll mention in this post. CULT OF LUNA's Somewhere along the highway. My friend recommended this to me a few weeks ago, so I decided to take a chance on it and pick it up after reading a few reviews of it. I gotta say, it's pretty amazing stuff. It really reminds of a cross between GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR and OLD MAN GLOOM, mixed with some other doom and prog rock influences. Apparently it was recorded in some fuckin' barn in the middle of nowhere in 7 days. It wasn't at all what i was expecting. Coming from Sweden, I was expecting it to be a much darker affair, washed in black metal synth and too much reverb, and overly silly vocals, but what i got was a beautiful, hypnotic affair with many surprises and just plain excellent songwriting, tight compositions with the right blend of heaviness and melody. Maybe this could quite possibly be a doom version of Dream Theater. Yes, it's that good, and I'm sure repeated listens will reap even more rewards. Not sure who this LUNA dude is though... I just like the music.
I've been discovering so much new metal recently that I decided to just talk about all of them in one post instead of individually reviewing them.
As I mentioned in my last post, I've recently been getting into the doom band Sunn O))) as well as a few other bands. After hearing a slew of Sunn O))) material in the past few weeks, i've still decided that the essential is still BLACK ONE. But all their releases seem to have something to draw me in. I haven't listened to WHITE 1 yet in depth, I've just skimmed it, and it sounds like it's worth diving into. I've already listened to WHITE 2 twice, and it's a good one, it's worth it just for the last track "Decay2". I have the Japanese 3-CD edition of this, and apparently, the 2nd and 3rd disc was originally released on Archive as a double disc set that was only sold at shows. Some people were reportedly paying 100 bucks for the original. Well, sadly, it's not that interesting actually, but Sunn O))) freaks would probably burn me at the stake for saying so. Anyway, enough about Sunn O))). I talked about them enough in my last post.
Let's move on to KHANATE, which features Stephen O'Malley from Sunn O))) on guitar, James Plotkin (Atomsmasher) on bass and electronics, Alan Dubin (O.L.D., Burning Witch) and Tim Wyskida (unknown to me until now). I think I like this band MORE than Sunn O))). This shit gets right under your skin and makes for quite a disturbing, uncomfortable listening experience. The vocals of Alan Dubin remind of an extremely pissed off Bon Scott (old AC/DC) spit through an assortment of effects to make it sound like a possessed, melting robot. The music itself is painfully slow and brutal, swallowing you in its' vast abyss of darkness and insanity. The closest thing to this I've heard to this kind of brutality is SWANS - Cop/Young God era or HENRY ROLLINS' Hard Volume. FOETUS - Thaw also comes to mind, so if you're into any of those albums, you'll love this. This is an entirely different beast of the doom genre, pretty much as far away from formula as you could get. These are not really "songs" in the conventional sense, but torture experiments that test the patience of even the most forgiving human beings. I've only got 2 of their CD's, I picked up THINGS VIRAL first, then their 1st self-titled CD. It's hard to pick which one I like better, but I think I'd have to say their first has been getting more play than THINGS VIRAL. I have yet to pick up their "EP" titled CAPTURE AND RELEASE (2 songs almost clocking in at 40 minutes is an EP!!??). The Japanese pressing includes a DVD, so I'm looking forward to getting that. I have the Japanese pressings of the 1ST and THINGS VIRAL and they both include a bonus disc with lots of alternate versions of tunes from both albums. So if you're sick and tired of the so-called "Nu-Metal" you might want to try these guys out. Buy it and throw a party, see how long it takes for the party to split after slapping this on.
The next release I'm gonna briefly review the new BORIS/MERZBOW live collaboration titled DOCK DREAM. This is not the 1st time these 2 giants have collaborated. There have been a number of releases as well as performances, most notably and recently, the brilliant SUN BAKED SNOW CAVE. I'm not gonna say much about this. Of course it's good, but is is it necessary? Hmmmm. Disc 1 is my personal favorite out of the 2 discs, containing more of their longer, more darker material mostly, with an awesome 35-minute version of FEEDBACKER, one of my favorite BORIS pieces. The 2nd disc contains more of their more shorter, rockin' out balls to the wall tracks off PINK, AKUMA NO UTA, another long track, from DRONEVIL and some other short ones. The choice of material is good, but I actually prefer the live material from the ARCHIVE series. Merzbow adds his sound nicely, not overdoing it. BORIS fans will be all over this of course, and likely there'll be about 10 different versions of it before the year closes out. The artwork and package, by Shizu (who I don't know) and Fangsanalsatan respectively is really amazing. This IS a good solid live album by 2 legends of noise/psych and I'm sure it will not disappoint fans of either band.
The Next CD is a split from 2 well-know doom bands, GOATSNAKE and BURNING WITCH (featuring Alan Dubin from KHANATE). This is actually getting pretty pretty hard to find, so I was lucky to find it. Burning Witch only put out a few 12" EP's, and couple splits, including this one with GOATSNAKE, the other split with ASVA, who I haven't checked out yet. but want to. Well, even though there are only 2 tracks on this split by Burning Witch, Dubin's vocals are pretty different than KHANATE. He uses more of a shrieky type voice with this band, whereas his vocals with KHANATE are far more angry and scary, with more effects and variation. The 2 tracks on here don't disappoint though, they're chunky as hell. The other 2 tracks by GOATSNAKE are good too, but i prefer the intensity and slightly more uncomfortable feeling of Burning Witch. GOATSNAKE sound very much like ST. VITUS, and it's not surprising since one of the tracks is actually a St. Vitus cover song. Definitely worth picking up, but not worth the collector prices it's going for on ebay, which are anywhere from 30 bucks to 100 bucks.
On to the last band and CD I'll mention in this post. CULT OF LUNA's Somewhere along the highway. My friend recommended this to me a few weeks ago, so I decided to take a chance on it and pick it up after reading a few reviews of it. I gotta say, it's pretty amazing stuff. It really reminds of a cross between GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR and OLD MAN GLOOM, mixed with some other doom and prog rock influences. Apparently it was recorded in some fuckin' barn in the middle of nowhere in 7 days. It wasn't at all what i was expecting. Coming from Sweden, I was expecting it to be a much darker affair, washed in black metal synth and too much reverb, and overly silly vocals, but what i got was a beautiful, hypnotic affair with many surprises and just plain excellent songwriting, tight compositions with the right blend of heaviness and melody. Maybe this could quite possibly be a doom version of Dream Theater. Yes, it's that good, and I'm sure repeated listens will reap even more rewards. Not sure who this LUNA dude is though... I just like the music.
