All Will Gather To The Shores - Deity Of Ruin

And now for the new release.

All Will Gather To The Shores have crafted something far more abrasive and far more interesting with Deity Of Ruin. Sounds and effects blare and fade, intermixed with distinct and heavily distorted harsh vocals on this release much like they did on the previous. Everything feels more refined, and from beginning to end, Deity Of Ruin feels like a grand escapade towards an abstract land or cosmic goal. Ironically the track titled "Journey" happens to be one of the best on here.

The rattling, jarring opener "Captivity" sets things in motion as Deity Of Ruin begins sculpting its sonic landscape from whale bones and the ashes of modernity. "Machine" is interesting in that it features subtle drumwork and even a few fills along with All Will Gather To The Shores' fuzzy, low guitars. The blaring high register notes are the sounds I would imagine the earth would make as humanity scars its landscape with mines and refineries. Some tracks, like these two, are less subtle than those on Their Bodies Clutter The Sea. The distant roaring of "Journey," and the electric guitar-driven "Ashore" are both similar to the openers in this regard.

As the more subtle, dark ambient track "Mist" gives way to the comparatively lighthearted "Relief," the sonic landscape appears to be reaching completion. The general picture of Deity Of Ruin has already been established by the end of "Relief," whose guitar keeps building in decibels as it goes. "Journey" follows up and sets the action in motion aboard the decrepit world stage. Soft, clean guitarwork dotted with a very light post rock sound guides the listener over crevasses, empty valleys, vast oceans, and tortured cities. The vocals on this track are fantastic, subdued and distant in the mix, and a subtle reminder of all that is wrong with the planet Deity Of Ruin has built. They trail off, fade in, and eventually the distorted, gated guitar brings the world to its knees in a calamitous finale.

"Island" is far more quiet and introspective, guided almost entirely by acoustic guitars. It makes for a nice follow up to "Journey" before the catchy drone riffing of "Ashore." The vocals on "Ashore" are raspy and almost black metallish, contrasting from the primal, world-roar of "Journey." Granted they're all heavily distorted so it makes little difference, but just something I noticed. "Beyond" closes the album out with distant sounds of gulls and waves, returning the world to the water in which it was born.

There are numerous instances on Deity Of Ruin which grant it the added tag of doom along with ambient, drone, and psychedelic noise. The riffing is distorted, fuzzy, heavy, and some of it is constant enough to put it in the drone doom realm. The use of strings is honestly what makes this such an interesting release for me, and the atmosphere that All Will Gather To The Shores create on Deity Of Ruin is stark on multiple levels.

Deity Of Ruin makes me think again about Herakleitos, impermanence, and post modernity. Any album that makes me contemplate...things is good in my books.

8.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Captivity
2. Machine
3. Mist
4. Relief
5. Journey
6. lsland
7. Ashore
8. Beyond

Bandcamp

All Will Gather To The Shores - Their Bodies Clutter The Sea

I'm going to cover both of Russian act All Will Gather To The Shores' releases. This is their first release, Their Bodies Clutter The Sea.

Drone and ambient work well with psychedelic. The visual aspect of psychedelic has always been the main draw, and as I'm finding out now, the main draw for drone, ambient, and noise. Unlike most purely electronic or synthetic ambient or drone, All Will Gather To The Shores utilize subtle and limited strings and extremely distorted, low-mixed vocals. The latter pop up infrequently, and on this release only on "Gale" and "Calm." "Gale" is appropriately the least soothing with its noisy, distorted looping and dissonant chord transitions. As a concept it serves quite nicely, although it isn't the most compelling track.

Follow up tracks "Hope" and "Despair" are two sides of the same coin with "Hope" being guided by relatively peaceful string sounds. It's nice coming from "Gale" but since the track is barely over a minute "Despair" slowly kicks in, which is surprisingly less melancholy than the name. It's a lackadaisical track, like basking on the sun-baked deck of a ship left adrift after a monstrous storm. "Calm," the longest and most acutely developed track on the album is much more solemn in its development. The soft strings kick in before the vocals do - as harsh and distorted as ever - until they fade to light guitars and a droning outro.

The guitar tone is of note on Their Bodies Clutter The Sea. It's doomy, heavy, and distorted, and the higher register notes sound like the audio interpretation of sun rays beating down onto sunburnt backs. In a way, Their Bodies Clutter The Sea almost evokes a desert image in that regard.

A solid, but slightly underdeveloped taster of the sound that would await on Deity Of Ruin.

6.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Gale
2. Hope
3. Despair
4. Calm

Bandcamp

The Flight Of Sleipnir - Saga

The Flight Of Sleipnir are still out near the Rockies releasing sublime stoner folkdoom. Essence Of Nine and Lore were both great releases that merged catchy, dense riffing, folk beauty, and a Scandinavian aesthetic to create fun and immersive listens. Saga is a direct continuation of their now well-established sound.

One thing that I definitely respect about this duo is their use of keyboards. They're not explosive, over the top, or anything like that. They usually play a single chord buried in the mix before fading and repeating in drone fashion (see: "Heavy Rest The Chains Of The Damned"). It's subtle enough to keep them from being intrusive and it adds another layer of texture to The Flight Of Sleipnir's music. Like the keyboards though, the vocals are low in the mix as well and personally I think it works quite well. Clean vocals are quiet yet coherent enough to add poetic beauty, and the throaty blackened rasping echoes like calls to mother nature in a vast fjord.

Saga fits pretty well in The Flight Of Sleipnir's. Unlike some bands who try to repetitively release the same album however, these guys' add a bit of unique flavor. Lore felt a little unpolished with its denser mix, and Essence Of Nine took that sound and added more complex riffs and rhythms as well as more acoustic passages. Saga feels more subdued than both of them, at least in terms of their mainstay in the fuzzy guitar tone. David Csicsely's snare still sounds as great as ever. "Harrowing Desperation" is a good example of that and the mellowed guitar-plus-effects add a lot to the track. I always liked the long, drone-like outro lead of "Reverence" as well. Not that they haven't had these qualities on their previous releases, but it took me until now to really put my finger on them.

The Flight Of Sleipnir's albums are something you have to listen to in their entirety to appreciate despite having a few standout, hook-based tracks on each (looking at you, "Of Words and Ravens"). They're solid active listening experiences and great passive listening ones. If the interlacing of acoustic guitars with electrified doom and a light folk atmosphere appeals to you, then there's no doubt that you'll enjoy all of their releases. Saga is no different, and I guess that's why I'm having trouble writing about it since I've covered their other output already - but that's definitely not a bad thing.

7.75 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Prologue
2. Reaffirmation
3. Reverence
4. Harrowing Desperation
5. Heavy Rest The Chains Of The Damned
6. Judgment
7. Dmise Carries With It a Song
8. The Mountain
9. Hour Of Cessation
!0. Remission
11. Beneath Red Skies
12. Epilogue

Bandcamp

Behold! The Monolith - Defender, Redeemist

Behold! The Monolith's sophomore effort was one of my favorite albums from 2012. I generally thought the year was shit though, so if you read my list you probably weren't too impressed. However if you enjoy stoner doom and passive listening music, this album is great and holds up very well to multiple spins.

I garnered a few conclusions about Behold! The Monolith's brand of stoner doom from their debut:

1. They like to play slow, jamming tunes
2. Mid-range, nearly monotone rasping can be sufficiently entertaining

3. Multiple listens allow the listener to appreciate the nuanced songwriting

I came to these conclusions again on Defender, Redeemist, yet I came to every conclusion faster and more readily. Behold! The Monolith had successfully amplified their debut's successful formula and created a beast of a stoner doom jam-fest. Defender, Redeemist became one of my most played albums of 2012 because of that. From bombastic intro "The Guardian's Procession" to the slow dregs of "Redeemist" and "Bull Colossi," every track is resonating with powerful riffing and grooves. "Witch Hunt Supreme" in particular is chock-full of headbangable, classic doom grooves.

I'm a big proponent of the completely fantastical lyrical thematic in stoner doom. It reeks of pure creativity, even if at time that creativity is a bit stigmatized by the whole 'stoner' aesthetic. I guess that only makes sense considering the music though. Behold! The Monolith like to use this theme to their advantage and thus you get belted lyrics like "Fear me son of the red priest fire for eyes / sent down from the cosmos / paid with untold lives / demonic wave from the sky" It's simple, it rhymes, and best of all it's colorful. I really appreciate that Behold! The Monolith try to inject a bit of personality into the songwriting process. It shows through in the end and makes the album more compelling.

The production and mixing job on Defender, Redeemist is comparable to the debut, with chunky guitars dominating mid-ranged vocals and a fat bass tone. There's significantly less 'building' song dynamics on here too, which is a huge plus for me. Even the thirteen-minute "Cast on the Black Tormentor Guided by the Southern Cross" is completely devoid of useless filler.

If you enjoyed the debut or you're just looking for some fun, easy-listening, deliberately paced and executed stoner doom, then Defender, Redeemist should be right up your alley. There's no ridiculously named tracks on this one though.

8.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1. Guardian's Procession

2. Halv King
3. Desolizator
4. Redeemist

5. We Are The Worm

6. Witch Hunt Supreme
7. Cast On The Black Lamentor Guided By The Southern Cross
8. Bull Colossi

Bandcamp

Behold! The Monolith - Behold! The Monolith

I'll get back to my inbox soon enough. For now...

Behold! The Monolith are an absolutely ridiculous stoner doom metal outfit with an emphasis on jamming out delectable riffs and grooves. Their album art is silly, their song titles are sillier. Some self-proclaimed scrupulous individuals make arguments against such direct, fun music because of the aesthetic of entertainment when compared to that of art. These people are soul-sucking sycophantical pieces of shit.

Perhaps the above generalization was a bit strong. I just never understood the use of that argument as a valid reason to hate everything that a particular medium has to offer. People love to make that argument against stoner or psychedelic metal too, and even stupider individuals proclaim that Electric Wizard are a bunch of image-obsessed teenagers - see Metal-Archives. Anyway rant over - here's a review.

Over the multitude of times I've sat through Behold! The Monolith's self-titled, I've come to the conclusion that they don't write catchy music. There are no ridiculous hooks, no catchy chorales, the vocals have an odd mid-ranged timbre to them, and there's plenty of droning riffs that aren't immediately impressive. These elements combine to create a solid release. It's just not the individual pieces that make it strong.

Unified the album stands perfectly fine as both active and passive listening material. Occasionally I'll find myself getting into the album when I don't even realize it's currently playing. "Battlestagg" and "Elders" are more traditional 'rocking' stoner doom songs with a load of groove and a pinch of improvisation. This is my favorite element of Behold! The Monolith's music. They sound like a bunch of guys just trying to have fun playing music, jamming out tunes that have a bit more to them than meets the ear. I'm not too fond of the building song dynamic on "Phantasmata / Waking Life" and the slow decline at the end of "Battle For Balls Deep," though.

Guitar tone is hugely important in stoner doom and while it is nice and chunky here, I'm not sure that I wouldn't mind a bit more massive, say Boss-FZ2 sound. The production and mixing are also solid. Every instrument is audible, vocals aren't at the top and there's plenty of bass to go around.

Behold! The Monolith have a nice idea here and they certainly improve upon themselves on their 2012 release.

7.75 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Battlestagg
2. Battle For Balls Deep
3. Elders
4. Phantasmata / Waking Life
5. Guardians of the Abyss / Primal Extenuation / Rise of the Brohemoth

Bandcamp

Devil - Gather The Sinners

Revivalism is a plague upon extreme music. Pop-structured "classic" heavy metal with fuzzed-out doom riffs is the current lovechild of labelheads everywhere thanks to Ghost (now Ghost B.C.). I find this movement to be largely redundant and pointless. Nonetheless it exists and therefore someone out there must be discovering this kind of music for the first time. Maybe they just haven't gotten bored yet. It's baffling either way since this kind of music has limited depth.

Devil is a Norwegian band playing Sabbathian-style doom rock not too distant from the more poppy Ghost B.C., but without all the synthesizer bullshit. These guys like to keep things down-to-earth. Thus their music is heavier and fuzzier, and it tends to stick to metal's roots which is by all means fine as far as crafting a simple doom or heavy metal album goes. Honestly the lack of synthesizer was the only thing I needed to be assured of to give Gather The Sinners a chance. After all not all revival acts are bad right?

The structuring of the tracks on Gather The Sinners ranges from doom to pop, with some tracks ("Darkest Days," "Southern Sun") being spurred on by hooks and choruses. They do work and are largely appealing in the same way that they were thirty of forty years ago. It's nothing new, but where Devil do succeed is in keeping that thirty or forty year old feel alive. Gritty vocals mixed with the aforementioned fuzzy guitars merge to create a portal to a bygone era.

Primitive in it's composition and execution, Gather The Sinners is interesting for that reason alone. The album is nothing new or particularly interesting, but it's filled with memorable slow-to-mid-paced riffs that are headbangable. "They Pale" opens with a solo yet maintains the chorale groove with a cowbell, "Ladies Of Night" has a bouncy bassline that carries a similar groove, and the more vocally driven "Darkest Day" is led on by the high-hat. All of the tracks on Gather The Sinners are about maintaining a groove, and Joakim Trangsrud's vocals serve to embellish that groove with some melody. His hoarse voice is pretty archetypal, but it fits. The supporting vocals and interplay are both nice touches as well.

While nothing original, Gather The Sinners is at least notable for not sounding like outright synth pop-rock. The result is quick gratification: the occasional choral hook will get stuck in your head, but listening to the album has diminishing returns as hooks tend to tire fast.

6.25 out of 10 

Tracklisting:
1. Coffin Regatta
2. Beyond The Gate
3. They Pale
4. Legacy
5. Restless Wanderer
6. Untitled
7. Ladies Of the Night
8. Darkest Day
9. Mother Shipton Pt. I
10. Mother Shipton Pt. II
11. Demons On Wheels
12. Southern Sun

Listen // Buy

Rorcal - Világvége

Life's been hectic again and I'm as busy as ever. I'm back (hopefully not briefly) to send tremors through your soul with some thick, sludgy material drenched in the blackest bile: Rorcal's Világvége.

I hadn't heard of Rorcal prior to the release of Világvége, and after doing some research I expected them to be more typical sounding than they are here. Where doom would find it easy enough to trod through a mire at the pace of a happy sightseer, Rorcal's brand of doom is slowly sinking into the black muck and grasping at anything it can in a frenzied gambit for survival. The result is a powerful listen that flows like a river of mud above the listener's head. Világvége is coherent, emotive, and engaging from start to finish.

After briefly listening to Rorcal's previous output, longtime fans will find the opening of Világvége strikingly similar to that of the single track full-length Heliogabalus. A voluminous crash cymbal opens the chasm through which a river of black runs. Black metal elements are pervasive on Világvége but not to the point of dominating the heavy doom undertow. The riffs reflect this, often crawling along with the occasional right interval before hovering on a memorable tremolo riff that puts a big chunk of second-wave black metal to shame. "II" and "VII" are prime examples with the former having an aggressive black metal sound and the latter feeling beautifully estranged. It works in context with the rest of the album too, which is by and far Világvége's biggest boon. Each track really feels like it's in the right place. The music as well as the atmosphere and emotion of the album flow perfectly with the arrangement.

Floaty and darkly whimsical at times, Világvége isn't afraid to send you crashing back down into the bowels of the earth. "IV" is a great example of this, and it serves as the crack which lets the hammerblow tear the world asunder on "VI," by far the most vitriolic and disgusted track on the album. Appropriately the album builds up to this moment in increments, even adding an operatic sample to the end of a few of the preluding tracks ("V," and the cataclysmic chanting on "VII" which is sonically the second part of "IV", all three prelude "VI"). Anyway the desired effect is achieved in a nihilistic bombardment of hatred and negativity that can't be shrugged off by the thickest of souls.

The production and mixing are fine despite some minor complaints about the black metal aesthetic. It fits wonderfully. Dissonant chords and the occasional bright interval help Rorcal's musical cause throughout Világvége. While the riffs are interesting despite at times being simple, it's the percussion that really shines. Ron Lahvani utilizes great fills, militaristic snare raps, and has a general freeform use of his kit that adds fury where it's needed. Other times he's laid back and plays very sparse beats. His range is deserving of some serious applause. The whole damn album is. Though I guess I'd have to say "VIII" makes for an underwhelming, feedback-laden closer and on first listen Világvége does seem slow to start, it's still an excellent release that is compelling as a complete album.

I still want to give this a listen in the numerical order of the track titles. Dunno where I'd put "D" though.

8.75 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. I
2. D
3. II
4. V
5. IV
6. VII
7. VI
8. VIII

Bandcamp

Primitive Man - Scorn

Hate is one of the most frustratingly hackneyed words thrown around every day by everyone to describe a multitude of negative feelings towards pretty much anything. Everyone does it, myself included. When associated with music, people point to the punk scene. Powerviolence, grindcore, and hybrid genres like sludge bear the brunt of this vacuous word. Occasionally you see it tossed around to describe metal as well, although for the most part most metal tends to be emotionally exploratory, often looking at things from an outside or distanced perspective as opposed to the in-your-face perspective of say hardcore.

Primitive Man know that while hate can be a legitimate feeling, they needed a stronger word if they wanted to title their music appropriately. Scorn is the one they chose to christen this vile beast, and holy fuck does it sound pissed off.

I went into this album expecting abrasive sludge with the occasional hardcore elements, but I got something much more oppressive. Scorn feels more akin to a funeral doom album thematically. Replace the empty void of death with an oil-coated ocean of bodies set to ignite and you'd have a pretty apt comparison. The second title track "Scorn" comes on, that writhing mass of flesh is set ablaze with flames of hate.

The 11-minute opener is an album highlight. One thing that grabbed me right away was the filthy bass tone and the barked vocals by Ethan McCarthy. There's something primal and furious about them that allows them to resonate so deeply within me as a listener. "Scorn" builds at a drunken pace, and the riffs are equally slow to match its plodding nature. The guitarwork is deliberate, littered with feedback, and thick with gain. Other than the minor tempo change in the middle of the track where some hardcore elements pop up, "Scorn" wallows in its own disgust and by the end all you hear is McCarthy vomiting up his own disdain into a storm of feedback. It's beautiful, really.

So entrancing is this vitriolic, negative atmosphere that it really colors the whole album and drags you down with it. At times you feel like the music shouldn't be as oppressive as it is, but the atmosphere makes it suffocatingly so. Even the heavily hardcore driven track "Stretched Thin" feels parched of all positive energy. There's a few semi-harsh noise tracks interspersed through the album ("I Can't Forget" and "Black Smoke"), but for the most part Scorn tends to play its tune to that started by its title track.

The gratuitous and downright sexy bass tone and playing by Zach Harlan helps further the all-encompassing mire-of-negativity feel. Slower tracks like "Antietam" and "Rags" all use this to their advantage. The guitar tends to find itself playing dissonant melodies, and at times is surprisingly layered (the brutalizing end of "Antietam" comes to mind). Drums are generally simple and drive the primary pulse of the tracks, but there are occasional fills and cymbal embellishments that make your ears perk up, usually when the tracks delve more into noise. The production and mixing is also stellar if a bit bass heavy. Something I never mind as you should know by now.

While I can see the noise, high gain guitar, and singularly pissed expression putting some people off of Scorn, for me it only made getting dragged into the mire it creates even better. Check out these guys' grind band too, Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest fire.

9.0 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Scorn
2. Rags
3. I Can't Forget
4. Antietam
5. Black Smoke
6. Stretched Thin
7. Astral Sleep

Bandcamp

The Flight Of Sleipnir - Lore

More unfinished reviews. Get excited.

If I had to compare The Flight Of Sleipnir to any band, it would be early Bergtatt-era Ulver with plenty of stoner doom and very minor sludge elements. Their sophomore release Lore is much more interesting than Kvelertak's debut, but that might be because the more 'Americanized' stoner doom sound appeals to me more than half-baked hardcore and sludge sprinkled with black metal. These Colorado doomsters do incorporate the same ethereal folk elements you're used to hearing from Garm and gang into their sound. They even have the whole Scandinavian mythology thematic going for them too, although it is a bit less genuine than their sound.

Much to my surprise on Lore the folk elements and clean vocalwork are what stand out the most. The distorted guitarwork is mostly standard, mid-paced doom fare. The acoustic guitar interplay with the thicker, fuzzed-out chugging makes for a compelling atmosphere that the clean vocals compliment perfectly. I'm not sure whether drummer and guitarist David Csicsely or guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist Clayton Cushman is the primary clean singer, but they both have some coinciding lines and are both excellent at what they do. I know it's a rarity for me to appreciate clean vocals in metal, but The Flight Of Sleipnir keep it low-key enough to maintain their integrity. Then again the vocals are mixed low in general, but I don't mind. Keeps the music sounding distant, like the roaring of thunder in a great fjord.

More on that acoustic guitarwork -- it's beautiful in all the right ways. The acoustic segments are haunting yet not overly cheesy like The Mantle-era Agalloch, organic without sounding forced, and intricate enough to remain interesting. "Fenrisulfr" and "The End Begun" is their peak on the album, with the former being more haunting and the latter being more flowery. There's an abrupt change in tone with "No Man Will Spare Another," as the closing part is the most aggressive I've ever heard The Flight Of Sleipnir. There's even guttural lows hidden in the mix, although that might just be an effect added as a separate layer. The closer "Let Us Drink Till We Die" is aptly morose and melancholic and features female (backing?) vocals.

With a solid mix, great acoustic - electric interplay, and a more atmospheric take on stoner doom, The Flight Of Sleipnir's Lore is a great release. I wish the doom elements were more along the lines of those present on their third release, Essence Of Nine though.

7.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Legends
2. Of Words And Ravens
3. Asgardreid
4. Fenrisulfr
5. The End Begun
6. Black Swans
7. No Man Will Spare Another
8. Winter Nocturne
9. Let Us Drink Till We Die

Bandcamp

Chelsea Wolfe - The Grime And The Glow

Last year I reviewed Chelsea Wolfe's Apokalypsis. I thought it was a good release that kept my attention with surprisingly bearable female leads and its dark atmosphere. I recently refound my love for it so I decided to check out her previous release and 2010 debut, The Grime And The Glow.

It's similar in some ways, and different in many to Apokalypsis.

Sugarcoating a turd is pointless and I'll tell you right up front the production on The Grime And The Glow is shit. I'd go so far as to say the production is the top reason this album wasn't so well-received, and it gave her the 'noise' tag. I don't even mind noise rock or noise-influenced music (Ghola represent!) but The Grime And The Glow feels very inconsistent. Tracks like the "The Whys" are very lo-fi and it does have a novelty to it, but that novelty wears off about thirty seconds into the song. The mixing is weak on here too. "Fangs," has a bass sound that literally makes me cringe, and that's one of the better written tracks with a relatively 'decent' production compared to the rest of the album.

The songwriting on here isn't half as bad though, and Chelsea Wolfe does display a competence in writing decent doom-and-folk influenced rock. "Bounce House Demons" would later become the track "Demons" from Apokalypsis, and "Moses" would become my favorite Chelsea Wolfe track thanks to the redux. "Noorus" is a bending track that sports some very key-warping when the layered grooving takes a break. The Grime And The Glow is a very subtle album, although I'm not sure if that's a byproduct of the production or the songwriting. The grooves don't directly 'stick,' but they're noticeable, making the album bearable if not memorable.

Wolfe's great, woeful vocalwork is here in a less refined state. "Halfsleeper" is in my opinion her vocal apex on this album with its beautiful simplicity. Her voice harmonizes with itself to create a haunting, funeral atmosphere. This contrasts pretty actively with the bouncy opener, "Advice & Vices," which is surprisingly more upbeat and catchy. Like the majority of the album, it sounds like the whole master recording of this track fell into a vat of reverb and didn't quite make it out the same. The bonus tracks on The Grime And The Glow are listenable but that's about it. You won't be remembering them anytime soon.

Shame her debut wasn't as strong, but I guess it paved the way for Apokalypsis.

4.25 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1. Advice & Vices
2. Cousins Of The Antichrist
3. Moses
4. Deep Talks
5. Fang
6. Benjamin
7. The Whys
8. Noorus
9. Halfsleeper
10. Bounce House Demons
11. Widow
12. Gene Wilder (Bonus track)
13. Move (Bonus track)
14. You Are My Sunshine (Bonus track)

Buy

Encoffination - O' Hell, Shine In Thy White Sepulchres

Fuck this week. Still. At least it's finally snowing.

Doom is a great form of metal. It embodies all the 'darker' and 'muted' emotions, ranging from fear to despair. Death on the other hand embodies all of the more vibrant mindstates like rage, intensity, and passion. Combine the two and you get a frolicking gloom that expands to encompass all that you know. Riffs swirl to convoke demons or consecrate corrupted mausoleums, while ceremonious drumming brings horrors forth from dimensions far beyond human understanding. The sound is massive and thunderous like the roar of a behemoth crawling through the darkness. That's what listening to Incantation or Funebrarum is like, and it's the sound Encoffination wishes they had.

They do an alright job of mimicking the style on O' Hell, Shine In Thy White Sepulchres though. As an album I've put off reviewing for quite awhile, I feel like it's had ample time to grow on me. Initially I found the cavernous riffing to be a bit trite and uninspired, but now I just find them boring. The funeral procession begins strong with the entrance of the corpse on "Rites Of Ceremonial Embalm'ment," but the embalmer clearly had no idea what he was doing because the corpse continues to decay on later tracks, leaving nothing but the empty shell of a sound. There are some great uses of bells to administer a healthy dose of atmosphere on tracks like "Elegant In Their Funebrial Cloaks, Arisen," and the chants on "Pall Of Unrequited Blood" give way to some of the best riffs and grooves on the album. However for the most part, this is a funeral you'll want to get through quick and easy.

That won't happen since the pacing is as slow is molasses on O' Hell. With tempos set to 'off' tracks like "Washed And Buried" and "Ritual Until Blood" crawl along like watching bacteria rot out a skull. It's not a pretty sight, and it's not very fun to listen to either. Riffs are droning-level boring and make you want them over with quickly. The production is also relatively bassy if just fitting for this style of death doom. I can definitely give the album a definitive nod in the atmosphere department though - it just goes to show that atmosphere can't make an album.

6.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Sacrum Profanum Processionali
2.	Rites of Ceremonial Embalm’ment
3.	Ritual Until Blood
4.	Elegant in Their Funebrial Cloaks, Arisen
5.	Crypt of His Communal Devourment
6.	Washed and Buried
7.	Pall of Unrequited Blood
8.	Annunciation of the Viscera

Asphyx - Deathhammer

Another quickie to celebrate as I just finished my paper: Asphyx's Deathhammer.

Asphyx is a longstanding death metal band from the Netherlands that produced the classic Last One On Earth. Despite being signed to Century Media, the production on Deathhammer seems adequate if a bit compressed. The doomier elements of Asphyx's sound are expressed on tracks like "Minefield" and "As the Magma Mammoth Kisses" and the more Swedish death metal-sounding tracks like "Of Days When Blades Turned Blunt" and the title track are fun, simple old-school romps. Deathhammer does have the modern death metal sound underneath all the effects though, which is kind of alienating for older fans. If you liked the sound on Sonne Adam's Transformation and the typical Swedish death metal sound, then you'll probably like this. However if you're expecting the next great death metal release or even an outstanding throwback album, you're not going to find it here.

7.25 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Into the Timewastes
2.	Deathhammer
3.	Minefield
4.	Of Days When Blades Turned Blunt
5.	Der Landser
6.	Reign of the Brute
7.	The Flood
8.	We Doom You to Death
9.	Vespa Crabro
10.	As the Magma Mammoth Rises
11.	Death the Brutal Way [7" Version, 2008]
12.	Os Abysmi Vel Daath [Celtic Frost cover, 7" 2008]

Elder - Dead Roots Stirring

Settled back into school. Took a few days off from doing anything to accomplish that goal, except I devoured a few newer releases: Elder's Dead Roots Stirring being one of the better ones.

This album is everything the newest Yob wishes it could be. Freeflowing, expansive, and somewhat impulsive, this album takes the stoner/doom mold and combines it with '70s jammy goodness. In fact it basically sounds like a very highly organized and cohesive jam session. Now you might be like "that's what music is you idiot" but Dead Roots Stirring features the "jam" sound in how it's organized and put together rather than as a byproduct of it. Here there's plenty of freeform tracks chock full of catchy riffs that all work together to create a sonic stream that ebbs and flows with no real end in sight. Sounds vague I know, but it'll make sense to you after you listen to the album. Even moreso if you take some hallucinogens prior to doing so.

The riffs are mostly blues-based with Elder's Sabbathian influences. The songs sometimes enter more acoustic and almost folksy passages like that on "III," however "Gemini" and the title track are both killer riff-o-rama. The latter half of the former is like a constant lead while the latter is a bit heavier and significantly more bluesy. The song length is upwards of ten minutes for each track and not a single second is wasted on pretentious silence or self-indulgent "ambience." Well maybe "III" as a transition track is a bit dull, but "The End" is a fun, bass-filled track. "Knot" is a bit of a standout because it's by far the fastest song on the album and it does a great job concluding it as well.

Dead Roots Stirring also has an absolutely swampy production. I mean that as a compliment. The guitars are heavy, the bass is adequate, and the drums don't sound fake. Despite being a doom release the higher register notes are the primary focus throughout the album, and it works well with the production. There's a lot of variety in the riffs and with all those wild, acid-infused songstructures and this one's a huge go for me.

8.75 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Gemini
2.	Dead Roots Stirring
3.	III
4.	The End
5.	Knot

Files are going to be tough to find. Most places are shutting down accounts and deleting content left and right to cover their asses after the US government decided to go ahead and force some sites to close or make appeals. It's a ridiculous situation if you ask me and despite the whole SOPA/PIPA thing falling flat on its face, there's quite a few other bills that threaten the internet (which is how a lot of great bands are found, heard about, and marketed -- through downloading both legal and "illegal") currently on the table as well. ACTA being the primary one people are dealing with at the moment...

So yeah no downloads for now because they're all down.

Yob - Atma

They'd have to change their name to Yob. 2011's Atma sounds like Black Sabbath tuned a bit lower and decided to play droning, long stoner metal riffs.

Stoner/Doom is the kind of music I usually find boring just because you can go all the way back to the mid-late '70s and still find tons of bands playing in this style. It's not exactly the most original music in the world, nor is it the most exhilarating by default. Oregon's Yob have been playing in this style for almost 15 years and I've never really given a shit for that reason. I've heard snippets from The Illusion Of Motion and some of their other releases, but this is the first time I've ever gone out of my way to procure some of their material.

And I'm not really disappointed. Not that excited either. Atma is fifty-five minutes of downtuned, fuzzy, drone-along guitars and scratchy, hard to place vocals. The vocals are actually my favorite part of the album and often switch between a high-pitched '70s doom style to a mid-ranged rasp. Vocalist Mike Scheidt even hits lows on the title track right before a sample of "his name is Atma" plays over some droning triplets. There's a few distorted cleans as well and not the annoying vocorder shit either.

"Before We Dreamed Of Two" is pretty cool. At least for the first half. As a sixteen minute song it's obviously got its moments, and the last six minutes drag like no other. They're slow, droning, almost ambient rock by this point and it serves as an intro to the next track "Upon the Sight of the Other Shore." The track features a solo and is probably the most dissonant on the album, which concludes with a melodic, noisy final track "Adrift in the Ocean" which is my favorite on the album. Each of the five songs on Atma is hit or miss though, and I often feel like sections of songs could be cut. The drone riffs aren't that special, nor are the doomy ones developed to the point that would make them unique. Is it worth a listen? Yes, but don't expect too much from these modern "legends." Atma is good at best.

7.0 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Prepare the Ground
2.	Atma
3.	Before We Dreamed of Two
4.	Upon the Sight of the Other Shore
5.	Adrift in the Ocean

Atwa

Skeletal Spectre - Occult Spawned Premonitions

Skeletal Spectre brought the October spirit just in time for Halloween with another cult-horror meets Swedish death metal release on the horror-obsessed label Razorback. Although Razorback recently lost most of their appeal as a record label (they lost most of their best like Ghoul and Revolting), Skeletal Spectre's newest delivers. Occult Spawned Premonitions is a bit more mature and fun than their chunky-as-fuck 2009 debut. That's not to say this album isn't chunky either, as the riffs are ridiculously dense and bassy, and once again they never reach past a slow-headbang in tempo.

Actually tolerable female vocals, headbanging, and simplistic fun describe Occult Spawned Premonitions pretty well. "Scalped" and "Master Of The Muck" set your neck in motion while "Raw Head & Bloody Bones" slows things down to a crawl, but that just means you're making less repetitive neck movements, not that they're stopping altogether. The mid-paced nature of Occult Spawned Premonitions leaves a bit of room to breath and keeps the atmosphere from being too doom-esque like that of Tomb Coven. Vanessa Nocera's vocals are surprisingly fitting, especially on tracks like the aforementioned "Scalped." They reach their peak prominence on "Untimely Tomb" though, and get a bit grating without treading into annoying territory.

The album is littered with hardcore influence, as is traditional Swedish death metal. "Screams from the Asylum" is the most obviously influenced with its D-beats. The bleeding over of the notorious Razorback sound is pretty apparent with the opening riff to the title track. It's relatively similar to Revolting's "The Devil Witch" from their 2011 release as well. I guess since Revolting is no longer on Razorback it doesn't matter, but it is something I noticed. Otherwise a worthwhile but somewhat forgettable cult-horror romp from a cult-horror themed record label.

7.0 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Scalped
2.	Master of the Muck
3.	Sekhmet Prowls the Azure Night
4.	Raw Head & Bloody Bones
5.	Untimely Tomb
6.	Screams from the Asylum
7.	Occult Spawned Premonitions
8.	Domain of the Fleshless Ones