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

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

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.

Black Tusk - Set The Dial

Black Tusk Day - Part Deux!

2011's Set The Dial popped up barely a year after Taste The Sin. That always worries me. When a band releases albums frequently, there's a high probability that they're either Azgorh of Drowning The Light or awful. Fans of Black Tusk should hope that the one-year album cycle doesn't become the norm for these Georgian "swamp metallers."

Set The Dial is clearly hurt by this. It doesn't have the mixing goodness of it's predecessor either. I feel like Black Tusk must've been rushed in the studio or something because although most these songs are pretty typical, some feel as though they're rudimentary recordings. Opener "Bring Me Darkness" is a substandard track that I often forget is even on the album. I usually just start it at "Ender of All" because I can actually get into the infectious stoner grooves on that track. "Carved in Stone" is another fun track with some interesting drumming that collapses into a doom-filled wasteland just in time for the title track, "Set the Dial to Your Doom." Sadly the title track is pretty forgettable, as are both of the instrumentals "Brewing The Storm" (the intro) and "Resistor."

The last three tracks on the album are a bit more entertaining. "This Time Is Divine" has some cool harmonics and "Crossroads and Thunder" is catchy hardcore sludge to the bone. Shame the rest of the album wasn't nearly as good as the last few tracks. I feel like had Black Tusk been given (or decided on) more time to develop Set The Dial, it would've turned out easily as well as its predecessor. Maybe it was because they had a three album record deal with Relapse and wanted to get the fuck out. Who knows.

5.75 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Brewing the Storm
2.	Bring me Darkness
3.	Ender of All
4.	Mass Devotion
5.	Carved in Stone
6.	Set the Dial to Your Doom
7.	Resistor
8.	This Time is Divine
9.	Growing Horns
10.	Crossroads and Thunder

Black Tusk - Taste The Sin

Black Tusk Day only comes once a year. On this day the amount of sludge you listen to is a prediction of how long winter (or summer if you're in the southern hemisphere) will last, where the more sludge you listen to indicates a shorter season. I played Taste The Sin and Set The Dial a few times each last night so I figure they're both due for some review. Since winter here feels like it hasn't even started yet I guess my sludge levels must be through the roof.

Taste The Sin didn't agree with me when I first bought it back in October 2010. The lite-fuzz guitar tone and hardcore beats reminiscent of Kylesa aren't exactly on the top of my favorite sounds list. As I listened to the album it grew on me. There's a lot of fun in the oversimplified riffing, audible mixing, and stoner-themed lyrical content.

Black Tusk describes themselves as "swamp metal." Like other tags such as "pagan metal" and "epic metal" this is retarded and tells me nothing about their music, or does it? The album does have that really musky, almost hazy atmosphere to it, but I really hate when bands try to vaguely describe their own music with words like that. It's usually a marketing ploy or a way to get signed. Anyway my hypocritical bitching aside, there are some really sweet tracks on here. "Red Eyes, Black Skies" and the hardcore-influenced "Way Of The Horse And Bow" are fun tracks, while some of the later tracks are geared more towards stoner metal. The trio of tracks "The Take Off," "The Ride," and "The Crash" are all very hardcore-influenced sludge with some doom-esque breaks. Nothing on Taste The Sin feels heavy enough to be classified as doom metal outright though.

Some of the mid-album tracks do drag a bit just because they don't do enough to distinguish themselves. "Twist The Knife" is pretty forgettable, and personally I don't give a shit about the intro either. However the mixing is what makes Taste the Sin such an engaging listen. The drums, bass, guitar, and multiple vocal pitches are all perfectly audible. As I mentioned there's also a lot of hardcore-influence on here that ranges from simple four-chord punk riffing to d-beats. That might be a turnoff for some people and it certainly was for me, but I gave it enough time to grow and now I'm liking it.

7.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Embrace the Madness
2.	Snake Charmer
3.	Red Eyes, Black Skies
4.	Way of Horse and Bow
5.	Unleash the Wrath
6.	Twist the Knife
7.	Redline
8.	The Take Off
9.	The Ride
10.	The Crash