Lantlôs - "Melting Sun I: Azure Chimes" (New Single)

And here it is. After more than two years of silence, Lantlôs presented us with a new recording, the first single from the upcoming album Melting Sun, due out on May 2. Far cleaner, sweeter, shoegazier than the band’s previous work, I’m guessing it will please fans of Alcest. Moreover, the band has already warned that there won’t be any screaming or blast beats. So, the trve-evil-grim black metal dudes will just have to go look elsewhere for their sacrificial tunes.  

Nebelschwaden - Summertime Depression (demo stream)

Here’s your prescription for today, the demo “Summertime Depression” from the Germans Nebelschwaden, an appropriate soundtrack for the gray, smothering summer days awaiting us. Check out their Bandcamp, where you can download the demo and toss them a couple of coins, so the guys can gather some funds to present us with a full length. 

Diane Cluck - Sara (new video)

Diane Cluck is probably my favourite contemporary american folk singer. Her composition is brilliant, her voice is superb and her lyrics are fascinating as well. What stands out from her specifically, for me, is her unconventional sense of melody and how it all seems to flow so naturally, so easily.

Here is her first official video, just posted earlier today. Check it out and check out her website as well.

Besta - John Carpenter

Let's just get this out of the way: I don't listen to hardcore. Or death metal, brutal, technical - let's just say it's a rare day where you find me at home listening to anything that's more energetic than my soon-to-be-emptied coffee mug.

THAT BEING SAID, I love myself a good hardcore concert. Or death, brutal... you understand where I'm gettting at here. If it's grindy specifically, when it's well executed, it's a sight to behold: the minutia of the instrumental work, the physically demanding performance, the sheer explosive violence of the band and spectators. Some people don't like mosh pits but I can't help but marvel at their chaotic beauty, the rage burst coupled with the comraderie of moshers.

The violent core of the grind performance may appear antithetical to its philosophy of mutual understanding and respect, but I believe them to be complementary. The strain of moshing is only matched by the exhaustion of the band itself, and in concert the bond between them and the public is blended in through that act of submission to physical exhaustion. It's through this deliverance that one becomes equal, that one is stripped of the falsary of everyday social interactions. After all, let's not forget that the rage outbursts of a mosh pit may be spawned by deeply rooted frustration and piled up anger, rendering the whole experience a sort of liberating ritual.

One of the best portuguese acts that I came across recently (in my experience, which is limited to live performances) is by the band Besta (literally means Beast), and I'm sharing their latest work below. The band seems to be on full throttle, with the very recent addition of ex-EAK lead singer Paulo Rui - who is also a great performer. The next Besta release is surely something to look for - on stage and maybe even at home.

Laster - Wijsgeer & Narreman (demo stream & free download)

As you have probably noticed by now, we in The Brainlesser are consistently doing our best to make your days worse. So here’s your dose of depressant for today: Lastre’s 2012 demo Wijsgeer & Narreman, which is available as a free download at their Bandcamp. They claim to play “obscure dance music” and as you’ll realise, they are a very promising band in the black metal scene. Peace and love.   

   

Rawest among the Raw: Ildjarn

I cannot emphasize enough how fucking mad I am about Ildjarn. I guess it’s just one of those bands you either love or hate. Despite being widely acknowledged as a seminal entity in the embryonic years of the so-called second wave of black metal in Norway, counting with the support of eminent personas such as Emperor’s Insahn and Samoth as session musicians, Ildjarn is frowned upon by many even amongst the hardcore fans of the scene. The reason for this is that, notwithstanding the crudeness that characterized the initial age of Norwegian black metal, it soon became much more sophisticated, with a lot more stress being laid on technical aspects of the music, insertion of orchestral arrangements and so on. It’s safe to say that Ildjarn progressed in the opposite direction, not giving a rat’s arse about sophistication. It remained as a straightforward, minimalistic, raw, ravenous, unrelentingly rabid act, safeguarding the umbilical cord uniting black metal and punk, allied with the more precarious production I’ve ever heard. Compared against Ildjarn, old school raw black metal bands like Beherit, Blasphemy, Black Witchery, Von or Archgoat resemble mere choirboys. However, the characteristics of Ildjarn’s direct, uncompromising approach towards black metal that I’m praising here as virtues, are dismissed by many as defects. That’s what I meant by saying that either you love Ildjarn or despise it; there’s no middle term. I’m not implying that Ildjarn’s music can only be grasped by a (usually self-proclaimed) “elite” or anything of the sort. In fact, I don’t blame you if you twist your nose is disgust after a three-minutes “song” with continuous blast beat and comprised of only one note (yes, one freaking note!), as in the opening track of the full length Strength and Anger. Don’t get me wrong: if you don’t like it, I completely get you. I doubt, however, that you’ll ever understand why I love it. And I’ll be equally unable to explain why I do.

I believe I’ve mentioned here before how much I don’t give a fuck about technicality in my music. Of course, I can appreciate a proper display of good musicianship, but I simply don’t see it as a sine qua non requirement to make appealing music. There are people able to compose intense artistic pieces with just a couple of heavily distorted guitars and a lousy drum kit installed in a damp basement, while not rarely the results of six expert musicians gathered in a state-of-the-art studio recording technically intricate black metal just make me yawn.

Ildjarn’s material can be organized into two different sets (of the prolific Ildjarn’s discography, I’m taking here only the full lengths into consideration): first, the black metal albums released during the 1990’s (Ildjarn, Forest Poetry, Strenght and Anger); secondly, the ambient albums (Landscapes, Hardangervidda). I also advise you to check out their split with Hate Forest, Those Once Mighty Fallen, released in 2013, which contains several previously unreleased tracks from both these legendary bands. In reality, I was somewhat surprised with Ildjarn’s section of the split since, albeit not eschewing the roughness idiosyncratic to their music, it has a doubtlessly superior production. When trying to figure out which tracks or albums I should stream here in The Brainlesser, I beat my head against a wall, for I can’t say I have a favourite from this band. Even though Hardangervidda is a rather good album, the black metal trilogy is definitely more deserving of our attention. May it introduce you into this fabulous classic of 1990’s black metal.

Ildjarn (1995)



Strength and Anger (1996)



Forest Poetry (1996)

Chelsea Wolfe + King Dude - Be Free (song stream)

Yo so a couple songs from this collab are streaming. Not much to add about it, both Chelsea Wolfe and King Dude were shared previously on this blog and the words on the Pitchfork link should keep you entertained.

I really like it too.

Check out the stream for Be Free @ Pitchfork and the aditional Bed on Fire here. Check out the previous split by these two here.

Black Howling - “Alma…Uma Floresta de Dor”

Today I’ll leave you with some black metal from my home country Portugal. Black Howling could be generally described as the Portuguese correspondent to Hypothermia (in fact, they’ve released a split with the latter some years ago). I find them to be quite good, the only reproachable thing is, in my opinion, the “national-romanticist” lyrical approach they have embarked upon in the last two full lengths (Melancholy of a Pagan Bucolic Spirit and This Rain Is the Weeping of Forefathers), to the detriment of the introspective thematic present in their one-track album Alma…Uma Floresta de Dor (2007), which I share below. Even though I’m nonetheless quite fond of the last albums, I’m of the opinion that the “national-pagan-nostalgic” themes they imprint on their lyrics come into clear contradiction with the individual-oriented depressive tone the music conveys. I think that bands of this specific subgenre of black metal should either embrace modernity and the socially atomized egotistical urban decay that comes along with it or, in case they still prefer to heed the call from the past, they should follow the example of the Portuguese doom/black metal entity Defuntos, who recall the austere and bitter human existence of yesteryears in rural Portugal, devoid of any embellishments or nationalistic idealizations. In any case, Black Howling’s second full length Alma…Uma Floresta de Dor came out before that phase and it is my personal favourite from this duet, so I hope you unjoy it as much as I do.

NO HOPE FOR EXISTENCE: Bell Witch

For someone who doesn't shut the fuck up about doom metal and anything concerning doom metal I'm sure not one to be caught listening to recent doom that often. I don't do it out of spite, though, and I surely do try to avoid the sort of hipster attitude towards the genre that dismisses roughly 98% of what comes out as boring and crappy. Yet I can't but feel that a great deal of the things that come out under the "doom" label are... kinda dull? I mean a quick bandcamp browse through the recent releases for "doom" shows a bunch of bands that, well, just don't sound doomy at all to me. And the great many others around are variations on the stoner musicality that range from metal to punk to rock to pop.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't mean that these bands are bad or anything along those lines - quite the contrary, I've praised the stoner field plenty times in this blog before, as I did with experimental, weird but ultimately interesting projects. And I'm perfectly aware that labels are silly and ultimately vague or pointless. But a guy needs his apocalyptic fix and there's only so much drone I can get through before I start craving a little musicality, a little sentimentality, the destructive hopelessness of Corrupted or the depressive (borderline emo, to tell the truth) reflexivity of Warning.

Or maybe I'm just making excuses for failing to notice Bell Witch's Longing as it came out and giving it all this time to finally listen to it. And I'm to blame for that too: it's not like I didn't know they existed, or that I've never had the chance to sit down and press play on the bandcamp stream. They had excellent reviews and were featured in the recurrent tops that plague e-media because it seems people just can't get enough of those. I had every reason and opportunity to stop and listen to the album but I didn't; it drifted down the stream like so many other flavour of the month bands ("no, seriously, this stoner band is different from the other 72, I promise!") because I forgot to put on my smart goggles for once.

Self-punishment and snark aside, Bell Witch are certainly not to be dismissed. The debut Longing is a sure step forward from their demo (you can find both at the bandcamp below) and is an honor to the bleak and the destroyed; an ode to our final days, to plunging face-first into the oblivion. It's a two-piece slow, minimalist, heavy and intense doom album that should be right up the alley of funeral doom fans, especially in the vein of Corrupted's introspective minimalism. Serve loud and with good wine, or whatever is your drug of choice.

Mayhem - Psywar

To celebrate The Brainlesser's magnificent new layout (and the opening of our Facebook page), here's a little treat for ya all: an advance track from Mayhem's forthcoming single "Psywar", due out in April 25.

Thy Light

The Brazilian act Thy Light may not be a novelty for die-hard fans of black metal in the vein of Make a Change…Kill Yourself or Austere, but assuming that most of the individuals who waste their time reading this stinky blog aren’t necessarily acquainted with black metal tainted with depressive traits, here goes a small introduction to the band. 

The first time I got in touch with Thy Light was back in 2007 when a friend of mine lent me their demo tape Suici.De.Pression. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the demo, not only in terms of composition but also production-wise. There was none of that raspy guitar-buzz, grating vocals and annoying background noise typical of many underground black metal tapes which, regardless of the musicians’ craftsmanship, leave us with a headache and sore ears after a few of minutes listening to them. I like filthy raw black metal as much as the next guy but no harm can be done from properly recorded and produced extreme music, especially if it incorporates sorrowful, gentle melodies as in Thy Light. And the thing about the demo is that, despite being designated as such, it is so mature and consistently composed that it could easily be labeled as an album. In fact, I think it is way better than many subpar “DSBM” full lengths that have been issued by numerous bands over the years. 

After I heard the tape I was all like “shit, when does the album come out?” Well, I had to wait seven years, but it was fucking worth it. In No Morrow Shall Dawn, released last year, Thy Light explores the path pre-established in the demo: melodic, forlorn black metal, underpinned by mid or low tempo beats and heavily reliant on keyboards. It reflects nonetheless one step beyond its predecessor, with many more rhythmical variations and musical diversity, sophisticated guitar lines, an organic, heartfelt vocal performance and the guest appearance of a former member of Austere. All this is done while not completely discarding the somewhat monotonous flow inherent to this type of music.

Anyway, here are their two releases, so you may assess them by yourself. Unjoy. 

The Ruins of Beverast – Between Bronze Walls

In default of a better thematic, I leave you today with one my favourite songs by the black/doomsters The Ruins of Beverast: the opening track from their first album Unlock the Shrine, when the band’s black metal element still prevailed over the doom one.

     

HOLY FEEDBACK, IT WILL FREE: Pressor's "Grave Full of Weed"

It's not exactly a well-kept secret that marijuana consumption breeds entire subcultures, spanning generations in history as well as giving birth to a great range of cultural - namely, artistic - expressions and lifestiles. From the hashish-infused rebetika music, through Jamaica's home-grown reggae strain all the way down to early 90's american west-coast hip-hop (and I would wager, across the hip-hop culture as a whole today, but I'm not sure), weed seems to appeal to the poor, the downtrodden, the politically conscious and the bohemian who love to bask in the buzz.

Now I'm not a marijuana smoker myself, but I've always been fascinated by the how weed culture (by which I mean, the sound and aesthetics that draw inspiration from weed and its high) made its way into metal, establishing its own niche and cult - as you do - and giving rise to a whole range of brutal, powerful music.

It made it into doom, of all places. It should not be surprising at a first glance, since doom has talked about drugs since its inception, but this brand of stoner doom takes the self-destructive, reflective ethos of classic doom and the subsequent derivates (funeral, gothic, etc) and adds a form of praise, the aggrandizement of weed and high-ness, as if being stoned is a form of ultimate salvation (or damnation, if decadence is your goal). It falls back on a superperformance in the lines of what I've mentioned earlier, but of a different kind, this time glorifying the high and a doomster lifestyle as the true sublime.

This is, of course, nothing new. From the slow spiritual journey of the Weed Priests travelling across the deserts of Israel to the three wizards crowned in weed atop the Dopethrone, stoner metal has some pretty fucking epic highlights. It also doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, the stellar performances of bands like Ufomammut and Conan laying down new paths of heavy, deep, insightful music; at the same time the culture has grown and fed the rebirth of more classic psychedelic and stoner rock through the acts of bands like Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats or The Samsara Blues Experiment.

There's a pride to the imagery and to the message that clearly stands out and I've taken Pressor's Grave Full of Weed as a prime example of the symbology, the music style and themes. The highly detailed album covered, sporting a deadbeat smoking his pipe on a coffin stuffed with weed - doom as fuck - accompanied by monsters evocative of european mythology - the demons, the fauns, the goblins and other beasts are common representations in stoner artwork. A well known example of this is the cover for Electric Wizard's album Funeralopolis, sporting a bong-smoking faun.

Grave Full of Weed is heavy as it should and rifftastic as it can. There's nothing extraordinary about Pressor but that's a good thing: they are really good at what they do and perfectly embody the particular set of stoner aesthetics that they are aiming for. If their aim is to praise the Stoned God above, then may His smoke blow down upon them, for they are blessed.

Alfahanne – Ormar av Satan

Alfahanne’s debut opus Alfapokalyps is out now. The expectations created by the advance tracks provided by the band and Dark Essence Records were met, since the album is fucking delicious. It feeds us with a delightful combination of black metal and good old fashioned rock’n’roll, a mixture which the band calls “alfapocalyptic rock”. I’ve listened to the album only once so far, so I haven’t digested it properly. Anyhow, here’s one of my favourites up to now, “Ormar av Satan”.  

Lament Cityscape - Live Projection (alternate video)

So a few days back I shared the live projection of Lament Cityscape and it seems fitting that I would share the alternate version that's also on their youtube. Remember to check out their official youtube for other videos, there's also a bandcamp and a regularly updated facebook page to boot. 

Neige et Noirceur – Future Torture

Quebec has a surprisingly vivid black metal scene. I’m not talking about the amount of bands from that specific region of Canada - since I have no data to elaborate on that – but the high quality of the extreme music produced there. And quality is what ultimately matters, right? When we speak of Quebecois black metal, heavy-weight names such as Sombres Fôrets, Forteresse or Gris come instantly to our minds. And now I got to know Neige et Noirceur, whose fourth full lenght, entitled Gouffre Onirique et Abîmes Cosmiques, is due out on the 28^th of March. Sepulchral Productions unleashed one advance track on Youtube, which is embedded in this post. Neige et Noirceur immediately caught my attention with their melodic, atmospheric brand of black metal, with growling vocals that sometimes remind us of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. I know nothing of the band besides the advance track unleashed by Sepulchral Productions, but now I definitely want to know a whole lot more.

Chelsea Wolfe's "Feral Love" official video

The official video for Chelsea Wolfe's track "Feral Love" from the album Pain is Beauty has been released yesterday. Directed by Mark Pellington, the clip consists of an excerpt from a longer film named Lone, due to be released later in this year. Here it is, ladies and gentlemen.

Alfahanne - Såld På Mörkret

We have a couple of days ahead of us until the much awaited release of Alfahanne’s debut “Alfapokalyps”. I can’t say much about the band, considering that I only know the track shared below, which will feature in the forthcoming full-length, besides their vocalist’s performance as a guest musician in Shining’s latest album, “8 ½ - Feberdrömmar i vaket tillstånd”. Therefore, as the unrepentant lazy bastard that I am, I’ll simply quote the words of their manager, Patricia Thomas:  

“With ALFAHANNE’s first full-length album “Alfapokalyps” set for release in less than a month, DARK ESSENCE RECORDS have today debuted the track “Såld På Mörkret” from the album.  “Alfapokalyps” was mastered by Tore Stjerna at the Necromorbus Studio and includes guest appearances from SHINING’s Niklas Kvarforth and HELHEIM’s V’gandr, as well as TAAKE’s Hoest, who features on the newly debuted track “Såld På Mörkret” which can be heard above and at http://soundcloud.com/dark-essence-records/alfahanne-s-ld-p-m-rkret.

Formed in Sweden in 2010 ALFAHANNE’s lineup includes musicians who have been on the Black Metal Scene since the early ‘90’s in bands such as VINTERLAND and early MAZE OF TORMENT, and who have come together to play what they call ”Alfapocalyptic Rock”. Playing a mixture of Black Metal, Classic Rock and Punk with some Goth influences, ALFAHANNE’s first release was the “Grym” split 7” with Sweden’s SHINING in 2013.

ALFAHANNE’s current lineup includes Pehr Skioldhammer on Vocals and Guitar, Fredrik Sööberg on Guitars, Niklas Åström on Drums and Jimmy Wiberg on Bass, and the band’s next live appearance will be on the 16th of April at the DARK ESSENCE RECORDS Club Night at the Inferno Festival in Oslo.  ALFAHANNE is also set to appear at the Tons of Rock Festival alongside SABATON, SEPULTURA and SOILWORK in June.

“Alfapokalyps”, will hit the streets on the 10th of February in both CD and vinyl versions, and is already available to pre-order from http://shop.karismarecords.no/ .  Tracklisting as follows:

1. Bättre Dar – guest vocals from Niklas Kvarforth (SHINING)

2. Ormar Af Satan

3. Såld På Mörkret – guest vocals from Hoest (TAAKE)

4. Dödskult

5. Rocken Dör

6. Syndarnas Flod

7. Alfa Hordes

8. Indiehora – guest vocals from V’gandr (HELHEIM, TAAKE)

9. Där Drömmarna Dör

10. Alla Ska Mé

More information aboutALFAHANNE can be found on the band’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/alfahanneofficial”.

Judging from the song made available by Dark Essence Records and the announced participation of well-known musicians in the black metal milieu like Niklas Kvarforth and Hoest, this release is very promising, to say the least. 

Lament Cityscape: Live Projection (video)

Lament Cityscape have the visual effects from their live shows up on youtube. It's great to watch while you sit back and enjoy their fantastic music. Check it out:

Stabat Mater

Today I bring you a slice of Finnish funeral doom metal: the title track of the 2009 self-titled album by Stabat Mater. The twisted mind behind Stabat Mater is Mikko Aspa, otherwise known for his work in Clandestine Blaze (one of the best Finnish black metal acts, in my opinion) or as a vocalist in Deathspell Omega, among other numerous projects.  Aspa is also the owner of Northern Heritage Records, which counts in its roster with top-notch bands like Mgła. While not being anything groundbreaking and in no way comparable with the fabulous compositional work Aspa performs in Clandestine Blaze, Stabat Mater’s album is a fairly good sample of decent funeral doom. May it infuse your heart with blissful hopelessness along this morose, slow procession towards our ultimate grave; a journey which many insist on calling “life”.

John Baizley & Katie Jones - If I Needed You (Townes Van Zandt cover)

Being portuguese, I often miss pretty obvious references to american music. That would be particularly true of folk music from any country - especially those whose culture is furthest away from mine, for both geographic and linguistic reasons - but the widespread of american culture often leaves us at the rest of the world with a sense of knowing, if just a little bit, what's going on at that side of the Atlantic.

So it was great to have been proven ignorant when I found out about country icon Townes Van Zandt through Neurot Recordings' first rendition of Songs Of Townes Van Zandt, featuring covers by Neurosis bandmembers Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till as well as doom pioneer Wino from St. Vitus. By now I've grown into a fan of Townes' music and persona, even drawing me further into the americana folk music that dodged the global exposition of regular american pop. I've dug a bit through the several youtube pages and blogs and found some pretty good, fascinating stuff. So I can only be pleased to hear of a second release in the series, this time featuring Mike Scheidt (YOB), John Baizley (Baroness), and Nate Hall. Though I kind of wish they wouldn't repeat songs already covered in the first album (such as this one).

This version of If I Needed You is nice, but certainly not too interesting when compared to the original. I liked Steve Von Till's version better. Still, the proposition is a good one and I hope other people do as I did and research a bit about Townes Van Zandt and his work.

Check out the song at Noisey through this link.

Track from Filii Nigrantium Infernalium’s latest album

Are you into black metal? Old school thrash metal? What about NWOBHM? I think I might have just the right band for you. Take look at this track from the latest album of Portugal’s Filii Nigrantium Infernalium, “Pornokrates: Deo Gratias” (2013), which I heard for the first time yesterday.

Filii Nigrantium Infernalium have been around since 1989 and they are one of the oldest black metal Portuguese bands still active, accompanied by their veteran comrades-in-arms Decayed. As a bonus, I’m also posting my personal favourite from these Pornotuguese whores of Satan, “Inverno… Trono Inverno”, which featured in their 1995 EP, “A Era do Abutre”.

Necro rock’n’roll to blow your brains out, motherfuckers!

We Stand in the Shadow of the Wolf: Forgotten Woods

In my last post I mentioned Strid and Burzum as the main shapers of a specific branch of black metal stained with depressive overtones. Today I noticed the grave iniquity committed through the omission of perhaps the most significant band for the genesis of this kind of music: Forgotten Woods. Back in the 90’s, while the majority of their fellow Norwegian black metaleers was more into blast beats, tremolo riffs, symphonic orchestrations, murders and arson, Forgotten Woods launched their debut album “As the Wolves Gather” (1994) through No Colours Records, where we can hear the distinctive characters of their music, with mid-paced rhythms, an overall bleak ambience and a certain rock’n’roll feeling to it. These features would be matured in their second album, “The Curse of Mankind” (1996), which is arguably their best one.

Be it as it may, I publicly strive to right my wrong by sharing the title track of their first album, a beautiful piece of lycophiliac music for sorrowful criminals and outcasts. For, paraphrasing Mark Rowlands, we all stand in the shadow of the wolf. 

Old Witch - Come Mourning Come (band spotlight)

I don't want to write reviews on albums, mostly because I have little to actually say most of the time, apart from the boring, adjective-infused babble of regular blog reviews. I find most of those incredibly stale and I don't really think myself as the one person who's up to the task of making something different, and interesting, for once.

Yet there is good shit that feeds the brain to some extent, such as this CVLT NATION thing, which does what you expect a review to do while begging people to toss some cash over to the band so they can push a future physical release. It's all for the greater good I know, and it prompted me to check out the band and maybe spotlight them in my own personal way.

This album is really good. If I had to describe it by comparison, I'd say it's like a more emotional Rorcal with less concern for overal composition and a few buckets of granite rubble thrown in for good measure. 

Trve to the core, the band sports its blackness with a sort of mocking pride: not much can be known about it, music titles are written in ye olde capslocke with an obvious turn to an exaggerated aesthetic of the grim and the trve. That's all the more obvious by the exaggeration both in the song titles (turns out leaves do fall in autumn!), the lyrics (still keeping with the capslock motif) and the very feature description for the band: 

Stooping in a rotting throne of dead oak, casting black thoughts to the stars, burning cold over the glacial wilderness, she reaches withered hands to the cold, eternal night, vast above the deep winter forest. We have spilled our lives an offering to old gods, this brooding vast land. Come, the funeralboats unfurl cruel sails to the north wind, seeking haven beyond the pillars of death....  

This is not to say that the band itself is fooling around. In fact there's quite a surprising ammount of detail as we explore the bandcamp: each song features its own unique artwork related to its theme and the lyrics, although sporting that exaggerated aesthetic, are well fitting and ingeniously written. The superperformance of black metal imagery appears to me more the arrogant pride of someone who knows that what they are doing is pretty fucking good. It's a sardonic dismissal of the public attitude towards the niche artistry of underground metal, very similar to the notable performance of norwegian black metal band Immortal:

The depths of true significance that underground metal hides beneath layers of distortion, bad recording quality and overall antisocial behaviour has been a known position of comfort from which artists shell themselves from the travestry of mainstream culture. Yet there are other inventive creators whose performance bridges the gap between the embrace of underground art and its inevitable caricature.

Either that or Old Witch are just taking the piss. Whatever it is, I'm ok with it, just as long as good music is being made.

Edit: Tiago pointed out that the photos they use at both their facebook page and their metal-archives page are taken from the movie Begotten, which I think reinforces my point.

A Blast from the Past: Strid

Despite their fall into oblivion among most of the current black metal milieu, Strid is a seminal act for this genre. Their 1993 demo “End of Life” and particularly their 1994 eponymous EP would establish the formative background for what years later began to be known as “depressive black metal”, together with Burzum’s “Filosofem”. Starting off as a clear-cut Norwegian black metal band named Malfeitor in 1991, already in the first demo under the designation of Strid, the above-mentioned “End of Life”, they commenced to pursue a musical path that distinguished them from most of the more renowned black metal projects of that time. A path that was definitely consolidated in the 1994 EP, presenting us with an atmospheric, melancholic and slow-paced brand of black metal, with shrieking, tormented vocals guiding us along this foggy journey to the farthest recesses of loneliness and misanthropy. Their song “Det Hviskes Blant Sorte Vinder” is one of the best pieces of music I’ve ever heard.

As far as I know, they are still active, regardless of the suicide of their bassist/vocalist Storm in 2001, counting with a Dødheimsgard’s member in their ranks presently. In 2007, they’ve put out a compilation with all Strid’s and Malfeitor’s material. I’d be utterly delighted in case they decided to release some new stuff, but I’m really not sure about the degree of their “activeness” by now.

That being said, I’m posting here their demo and EP. I sincerely hope it ruins your Sunday evening, at least to some extent.  Sit back and unjoy.

"End of Life" (demo 1993)

Strid (EP 1994)

Tracklist:
1.Det Hviskes Blant Sorte Vinder
2.Nattevandring

Josef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - The Sun of the Natural World is Pure Fire (video)

I don't know much of Josef Van Wissem's work apart from what's available online and I've missed him live when I had that chance, so I can't really put this particular song into context. I do know that he wrote this album, which I'm yet to hear, Jarmusch claiming that he's just there to paint the veritable sound landscapes that fill into Wissem's lute playing.

This resulting piece is amazing. Diego Barrera manages to sort of "add to the noise" in consonance with Wissem's lute and Jarmusch's guitar, the resulting juxtaposition of noise and image that enforces a troubling, but entrancing environment as we are driven, baffled, by the slight tones of a minimal song. 

This is what I need. I want to be shown imagery that I can explore; I want sound and image to not impose, but to lead me on, and swallow me whole in blissful noise.

Now I want that album more than ever.