I'm sure we would all agree on the fact that it's quite hard or almost impossible nowadays to find a (extreme) Metal band that manages to do something original, even remotely personal. You can find more bands than ever, you can choose the exact sub-genre you want to listen to and find dozens of records within it, but listening to an album and having that feeling you could have twenty years ago each time a new album came out, that's another thing. Fortunately, from time to time you end up discovering a band like Howls of Ebb, and feel like you had traveled back in time to those old times when copy-cats were complicated to find despite the fact that everything was so purely primitive and raw.
I must admit I didn't pay much attention to Howls of Ebb first album when it was released back in 2014, probably due to that vast amount of records appearing every day, or maybe because the time I chose to listen to it wasn't the most suitable given their bizarre sound, although I remember thinking this band had a lot of potential after just one or two listens. And I didn't even check their following MLP, 'The Marrow Veil'. So when 'Cursus Impasse' was announced I decided it was a question of now or never, I had to spend some time giving the proper attention to this record and finally getting an opinion on their music, be it good or bad, or I simply forgot the band. I was quite fortunate to choose the first option, because this record is so far plain and simply (as well as easily) my favorite extreme Metal release of 2016 (at least when I'm writing this). They should already have some winning points due to the fact that one of the driving forces under this creature is Patrick Brown, who used to play in Nepenthe ('Ligeia' is still one of those items I'm proud to have in my collection), battle-brothers of Order from Chaos in Kansas, and the band where Alex Blume from Ares Kingdom started growling. And I need to say I still find some remains of that demented and psychotic way of playing Mr. Brown had in his first band, although Howls of Ebb is way more complex that Nepenthe. In fact, one of the most surprising things of this record is how well they manage that complexity in terms of atmosphere, feeling and aggression. The feeling that everything is straight and simple but having at the same time a second reading. As I commented above, 'Cursus Impasse' made me travel to that era when Death Metal was some sort of experimental style yet, when everyone wanted to be darker, rawer and more brutal and diabolic, when it reeked of mysticism and evil feeling. Because 'Cursus Impasse' is, above all, a Death Metal record, a savage one, which makes you immediately think about the first days of the genre, when it just came out of the deepest pits and unleashed darkness on earth through demons such as Morbid Angel, Necrovore, Incubus (Fl) or the Nocturnus demos. That raw aspect, that unpolished brutality, those demoniac riffs which are kind of simple and straight to the point but enormously twisted. The insane execution is here too. Although everything is build up in a way that could very well match the visions of more recent bands who, as well as Howls of Ebb, have managed to give the style a better rebirth than the ones who just decide to mimic their old heroes. Including influences from musical genre outside of the Metal sphere that they manage to incredibly adhere to their sound without contaminating it. Let's just say Howls of Ebb could be the savage brother of spawns such as Portal, Chaos Echoes, Antediluvian, Teitanblood or even (the latest) Gorguts (on certain technical details), after a night of partying under the spell of some old Kraut and Industrial bands. Because the Death Metal basis of their sound has a slight dose of cold and monotonous rhythmic, a very atmospheric approach (specially when they lower the tempo) and amazing details and arrangements, as could be the kind of tribal percussion on 'Cabals of Molder', a track which makes me think a lot about how Aluk Todolo use repetitions in order to imbue your brain with a perfect trance. Put the record on the turntable, spin the needle, look at the amazingly grotesque work Agostino Arrivabene did on the cover and drown into absolute madness. www.facebook.com/howlsofebb www.nwnprod.com
0 Comments
Having read great things about these guys in several online publications I checked them online just out of curiosity, and I was surprised to find something quite different from what I expected (for some reason, I thought this would be on a more melodic side of things). Although seeing this was released by Fallen Empire, I shouldn't have had many doubts about neither the music nor the quality of it. Adding to it that the bands line-up is composed of two expertised musicians such as Alex Poole (Chaos Moon, Esoterica and since some years ago member of Krieg) and D.G. (Misþyrming, Nadra), could I expect anything bad or minimally interesting?
What Skaphe offer us on 'Skáphe²', their second LP, is an absolute maelstrom of chaos, darkness and insanity under the form of six quite long tracks of fully reverb induced Black Metal which doesn't go very far from what the Iceland scene has been showing us in the last times, although on an even most demented side of things. This means some hybrid between the most chilling and psychotic side of Black Metal, next to some prominent doses of an inexorable brutality that comes straight from the most suffocating extremes of Death Metal. With a preference for fast paced/fully blasting progressions, but still having a few very slow and surrounding moments. Indeed, the atmosphere of this record is extremely suffocating (I need to insist on this because it's the best way to describe it) and trance/nightmare inducing, sometimes even brainmelting-like, and the mix of very chaotic and brutal riffing and drumming, with the already mentioned high dose of reverb, results in a constantly increasing ball of hatred and obscurity,which still manages to create a chilling and kind of sick ambiance thanks to the ripping melodies and mind-altering disharmonies, which are (very) inspired by none other than Deathspell Omega and Aosoth, but which makes me think about how Teitanblood could have sounded if they dwelved into these realms (especially on a vocal level). All this results (and this is the most interesting part of it) in making you loose the sense of orientation and leave your body behind without too many efforts, like your conscience had been stripped-off it and thrown into the sonic whirlwind they create, in large part thanks to a production which quite often makes you think they lost control of things, although you know very well how deliberate and conscious the decision of taking it to the extreme was. A very well crafted and intense experience. Not specially original, although exceptionally well written, executed and recorded. www.facebook.com/skaphebm skaphe.bandcamp.com www.fallenempirerecords.com
Four years ago, during a trip to London, I bought the second album of these Belgian gentlemen, entitled 'Morinde'. It was an (almost) completely blind acquisition (next to Necro Deathmort's 'The Colonial Script') after briefly reading some very positive commentaries about their music. And I must admit for once I did the right thing following others opinions. Their hybrid of super filthy Sludge/Doom and the rawest brand of Black Metal worked very well and managed to drown me into their terribly disgusting universe quite easily.
So just two months ago I accidentally discovered they had just released a new album, with an amazingly un-kvlt orange cover, which was handled again by Consouling Sounds (a label who has been supporting other bands from their country such as Amenra, Gnaw Their Tongues or Wiegedood, among others) and I felt forced to get it as soon as possible. First surprise, what they offer us on these 39 minutes divided between 5 different tracks is, without any doubt, the most intense, hypnotic and straight stuff they have recorded up to this date. In fact, the first time I played the vinyl I suddenly realized I had arrived to the end of the record and hadn't found too many references to Sludge or Doom, preferring in this occasion to take a closer approach to their pure Black Metal influences, with some hints of a small dose of occasional extra heaviness here and there. (Very) Big presence of the bass, with some amazingly progressive lines, chainsaw guitars with a very old-school vibe and a lot of blastbeats, next to a completely demented demon on the vocals. But do not be afraid, the filth is still there, the nauseous atmosphere too, and their trance-like way of capturing the listener remains untouched, just in a faster and more diabolical approach, somewhere in the middle of good old Von and the first Mayhem, depending on the balance between monotonous riffs and evil melodies, in order to tell you the bizarre story of the demon you can see farting on the cover across a swamp full of evil creatures, which is depicted in the inside of the gatefold in a series of vignettes like a comic (weird and very cool). Apart from the slight stylistic change, what makes 'Lede' as atmospheric, nasty and inmediately catchy as it is is the fact that they have managed to get an even more suitable production than the one they had on 'Morinde', Again, they chose to record it live (thou with a different guy this time, Frederik Segers) and, again, they sent it Tom Kvålsvoll, the Norwegian master of mastering (yeah, that's a lot of mastery), to capture every single detail and annoying noise of their offering to chaos so you and me can feel completely lacerated every time we spin this piece of vinyl. Something's happening in Belgium, Lugubrum are becoming better and better and Alkerdeel are their closest competitors. Someone should think about convincing them on doing a split record. consouling.be www.facebook.com/alkerdeel alkerdeel.bandcamp.com
|
About ...Gia Thanatos is a webzine dedicated to music for the apocalyptic times. No matter the scene or genre it comes from, and mainly chosen according to its author's taste. Archives
June 2018
Categories |