As one half of the infamous Funeral Doom Metal band Bell Witch, Dylan Desmond is a musician renowned for powerful and contemplative soundscapes and is no stranger for emotive music. Following from the band’s Patreon launch a couple of years ago, Desmond has since been prominently experimenting with Ambient, synth-led music in part made to accompany segments of films (as anyone who has seen Bell Witch live will attest to their use of visual artistry in their performances). A further result of this is this solo output Je Est Un Autre, with a moniker taken from quotes of surrealist poet Arthur Rimbaud which, unsurprisingly, is a deep thought-provoking piece. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Ambient
ALBUM REVIEW: Hiverlucide – Abandonne
It’s said that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes, but thanks to the anonymous Parisian duo of Void & Moon, we might soon want to add a third item. Abandonne (Self-Released), the duo’s second album as Hiverlucide, continues the pair’s run (whether as Hiverlucide, Non Serviam or Biollante) of having a new release every few months that’ll defy whatever expectations you might have. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Ghost Atlas – Dust of the Human Shape
It’s amazing the feelings that can be packed within an album. ERRA’s Jesse Cash pours himself into his personal project Ghost Atlas. Seven years have passed since the last album release and fans have been eagerly awaiting and anxious, nervous the project had been laid to rest. Finally those nerves can be quelled and doubts soothed; Ghost Atlas hit the bullseye with their second full-length album. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Blodet – Death Mother
Death Mother (Church Road Records) is the debut full-length from Sweden’s Blodet, and it arrives after the tragic death of their guitarist Rickie Paleski-Östland, who contributed to the writing of the album. In spite of the inevitably difficult process of getting the record finished, it is nevertheless described as “cathartic”, “mesmerising”, and “alluring” by the press release which also draws comparisons to Chelsea Wolfe, Cult of Luna, and Sonic Youth.
CONCERT REVIEW: Royal Thunder – Spotlights – Boozewa Live at Saint Vitus Bar
1-5-23, St Vitus, Brooklyn, NY
This was a hell of a show from start to finish and the best way I could have started the 2023 year if you want to quantize it that way. Boozewa (ˈbooze-ˌwä), features members of Backwoods Payback, hailing from West Chester, PA started the night off. Good lord, riffmas stayed late this year and treated Brooklyn with a healthy heaping of head-banging, fun time signatures, thick bass, and caveman drums.
ALBUM REVIEW: Daeva – Through Sheer Will and Black Magic
Through Sheer Will and Black Magic (20 Buck Spin) is the debut full-length release from Philadephia’s Daeva, a perhaps overdue followup to 2017’s Pulsing Dark Absorptions EP. The new record is a “fiery maelstrom of early demonic black metal and jagged edge thrash convulsions”, according to the press release, and the cover art is undeniably of the Hellish persuasion, depicting as it does in quasi-cartoon form a plethora of dragons, devil-beings and other assorted ghoulish creatures against a dramatic backdrop of moody skies and outlandish cliffs. It’s the type of album cover that could have been plucked straight out of the eighties and that could either be viewed as life-affirmingly nostalgic or snigger-inducingly ludicrous.
ALBUM REVIEW: Petbrick – Liminal
Petbrick are the brain-melting collaboration between metal legend Iggor Cavalera (Absent In Body / Cavalera Conspiracy / ex-Sepultura) and electronic noise maker Wayne Adams (Big Lad / Wasted Death). The unique collaboration has been perfected over the last few years in Adam’s London-based Bearbiteshorse Studio, so far yielding their debut album I in 2019, and a handful of EPs and split releases.
ALBUM REVIEW: The Ever Living – Artificial Devices
The contradictions of crafting an album using the very technologies and processes the band had previously railed against are but one small element of the complicated and interesting layers that make up Artificial Devices, the self-released second full-length composition of London duo Andrei Alan (guitars/bass/programming) and Chris Bevan Lee (keys/vocals/programming) collectively known as The Ever Living (I promised myself no Mumm-ra comments, but here I am in the intro… I can’t help it, every time I see the band name…).
ALBUM REVIEW: Sylvaine – Nova
Sylvaine is the pseudonym of Norway’s Kathrine Shepard, a classically trained composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. Since 2014 Shepard has been releasing albums as Sylvaine, of which Nova (Season of Mist) will be the fourth (not counting a 2020 split with Unreqvited).
ALBUM REVIEW: Eldovar – A Story Of Darkness And Light
Not content to just let the sludgy boi/spooky girl pairings have all the fun with multi-artist collaborations in Doom, A Story Of Darkness And Light (Stickman Records)features the coming together of Elder and Kadavar as Eldovar (I don’t know where that ‘o’ comes from either). The two groups certainly make for interesting bedfellows; while both are arguably rooted in Seventies Rock traditions, Elder has evolved to Heavy Prog splendor while Kadavar largely subsists on off-the-cuff Stoner Blues. However, their shared interest in various genre experiments as well as established track records of high quality material gives plenty of fertile ground for such a union.