Drone Metal

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    John 3:16 – Visions of The Hereafter – Visions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory (2012)

    cover

    Delivering over 50 minutes of stylish music, today we have John 3:16 and his latest release “Visions of The Hereafter – Visions of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory”. Competing for the longest album name ever, this one-man outfit that morphs between every release continues with his traditional cinematic approach to music delivering nine tracks of brilliant sound layers that evoke emotions and transport the listener to different realms.

    Opening with the atmospheric “The Ninth Circle”, this album sets a very somber and martial mood very early. This track is quite enigmatic and keeps the listener on edge to what’s coming next. Immediately after, we have another momentum builder with some minor Drone influences that keeps the atmosphere evolving. “Throne of God / Angel of The Lord” also features some nice Post-Rock stokes that help paint this song.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Taurus – Life (2012)

    cover

    Running the birthday of one of our staff members, the Psychedelic Doom duo of Taurus has chosen July 5th to release their very weird and not quite cohesive debut release. “Life” presents us with two tracks that spawn 35 minutes into a downward spiral trip into total chaotic weirdness. Just picture two people getting high out of their mind and banging at some instruments trying to play Doom Metal, once you have that idea in your head, make it a bit worse and you have “Life”.

    We are huge fans of experimental music and there are quite a few bands that are pushing the boundaries of Doom Metal (one of our favorite styles of Metal), but Taurus seems to set that back like 10 years with their childish and amateurish release. We are quite frankly shocked that they managed to tour with Agalloch, maybe they have some super awesome live show, because musically we can’t really hear why.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    The Horn – Volume Ten (2012)

    cover

    With a very interesting thematically concept revolving around setting the Egyptian book of the dead through some very disturbing music, the one man project The Horn delivers “Volume Ten”. Claiming to play “Pure Ancient Occult Egyptian Space Metal”, this musician delivers 14 tracks of brutal and weird music that are not for everybody, but some might enjoy due to its combination of Black Metal with Noise and Ambient/Drone elements.

    When it comes to originality we must say that we haven’t quite heard anything as disruptive as The Horn in this “Volume Ten” release. Unleashing a wall of sound in the intro “The Portal Opens”, the truly decadent reality of The Horn’s musical destruction is first felt on “Spell 165”. With a raw-as-fuck approach to Metal, this track is a beast when it comes to raw brutality and devastation. Some industrial elements are made present in the hypnotic “Spell 124”, making this band quite unpredictable at first glance.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Silent Carrion – Andras (2012)

    cover

    Usually one-man bands are a big hit or miss, they can either be awesome because the person behind them is a musical virtuoso and can’t stand playing around with other retards, or they are just terrible because they are the public inner ramblings of a child that could not play music. Silent Carrion falls somewhat in the middle of these two categories. “Andras” delivers eight tracks of weird Ambient / Drone / Noise music that is interestingly creative and disturbing, but very often poorly executed (in our opinion).

    The opener “Mountain (An Invocation)” creates a very eerie and weird atmosphere that if it wasn’t for the bad sounding programmed drums, it would be an excellent song. With “Mist” things get a bit more intense and the creepy factor is still in play with some more ‘intense’ drums. We often wonder how can somebody thing this programmed drums sound good when they are not well polished. Take for example the legendary Diabolos Rising, their programmed drums sounded amazing.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Malasangre – Lux Deerit Soli (2012)

    cover

    Delivering a crushing 72 minute release divided in two songs, today we have Italy’s Malasangre and their thick mixture of Drone/Funeral Doom Metal with some hints of Black Metal screams. In such an ambitious release the band brings you down to a dark and cavernous world where light goes to die. This music is what I would take into a caving expedition and freak the shit out of everybody there.

    Opening with the hypnotic “Sa Ta”, the album’s first half delivers a slow and painful ride down the bowels of hell. The riffs are sparse but crushing, the screams are as demonic as you can get, and the overall atmosphere is very nicely constructed to create a feeling of despair. The Doom riffing is excellent and very well developed through this song, making it not as linear as many bands do when constructing a 30+ minute song.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Monarch – Omens (2012)

    cover

    Hailing from France, today we have an album that is so thick and monolithic that will rattle your speakers and make your neighbors call the cops on you. Monarch’s sixth full-length release “Omens” delivers 36 minutes of crushing Drone/Sludge Metal that is definitely not for the weak. With only three tracks in this release, the band delivers a very long and devastating compositions that will surely have any Drone/Sludge/Doom fan raving about for a very long time.

    Opening with the 13 minute behemoth “Blood Seeres”, the band’s distorted guitars will surely catch your attention (with feedback and everything). But it is probably the vocals, courtesy of Emilie Bresson, that will be the most disturbing element of this track. Emilie’s screams are just too raw and brutal to even begin to describe. The guitars are tune way low, just like the doctor ordered for a release in these genres, courtesy of Shiran Kaïdine of Year of No Light fame.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Aun / Habsyll – Split (2010)

    cover

    In the Aun / Habsyll split album we find a perfect example of why buying split releases is not always a good idea. Aun, hailing from Canada, crusher their listeners with their monumental Noise/Drone Doom music, and on the other side French Habysll bored us to death with their (luckly) single track in this release.

    Noise/Drone Doom is an acquired taste and it’s sometimes hard to differentiate the true genius from the plain terrible. In this release, you can easily do that since Aun propose more with their music and have enthralling passages that kept me engaged. On the other hand, Habsyll used one cord and some tribal drums to bore us to sleep.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    1349 - Revelations of the Black Flame (2009)

    cover

    I’m pretty sure this album will cause plenty of controversy since 1349 have been releasing brutally amazing Black Metal albums since their conception, and now they hit back with a very ‘weird’ experimentation album.

    1394 tries to experiment with Ambient, Black Metal and even some Drone stuff here and there, and they sound…. very different. I gave this album plenty of listens before I wrote this review since my original reaction was to be repulsed by it, but the again, I always think that bands should experiment and do different things instead of releasing the same album over an over.

Pages

Recent Image Galleries