Friday, August 25, 2017

Howling Giant - Black Hole Space Wizard II

Howling Giant Black Hole Space Wizard II (Independent)

Howling Giant may be passed over to you as a stoner rock band or something of the ilk, but they’re far too experimental and avant garde in nature to be narrowed into a small definitive genre. Their first album in the Black Hole Space Wizard chronology was some of the heaviest and most enchanting music I heard last year. Well they’re back for Part II.

Fuzz. Acid. Rock. Space. Doom. Stoner. Post-Post-Post Hawkwind. I don't care what you call it, this album is so mood lifting. Props to them for following up on the first chapter with an awesome force of astral boogie.
‘Henry Tate’ is a fitting first strike. It prepares the listener for what is on the horizon without overindulging. Within its first minute, the album begins to sound like a sojourn into the stars. Beginning an album with an instrumental is a pretty risky move, but Howling Giant did well to make sure that this track lays the foundation for Black Hole Space Wizard II. Whatever inspired this tune, it’s a real jammer and my face may have been melted off in the aftermath.


‘The Pioneer’ is a track that I kept coming back to. It has a really cool vibe, and it’s definitely here where one can start to see some of the Hawkwind influences sinking in. This is definitely a genuine rock band. They are out there in space conceptually, but in a literal sense, they remain solid rockers doing rock & roll things.


‘Visions’ would leave one wondering just what exactly these guys are on over in the studio. This isn’t necessarily a suggestion toward drug use, but esoterically in mind and spirit, they’re really on a special wavelength that delivers something incredible when combined into a creative force. Some parallels may be drawn to Explosions In The Sky, for their ability to work within multiple octaves and design melodies that reach incredibly ambient heights. Just as this song reaches its zenith, it tumbles back down into an eclectic rush of melody and awe inspiring brilliance that will level you. Unbelievably, the song drifts into “Forest Speaks’ in such a way that one might not even notice that they’re on the next track until the second instrumental is almost finished.


The crescendo lands at ‘Circle of Druids.’


A warped sample of someone speaking echoes into the air as the song starts. “Take this firefly, traveler, and let it guide you. But be warned, do not stray from its light,” the astral voices warns. The lyrics are seeping into the spirit smoothly, elevated by the titanic riffs of this Nashville group sequestered between sweeping vistas of mountains, hills, and small communities dotting the countryside along Tennessee. Surely, somewhere in that terrestrial wonderland that is Tennessee’s earthly panorama, Howling Giant emerged with their firefly burning brightly in the void.


If you are not ready to land, then you will play this album back again. Black Hole Space Wizard II is available now, and you can check out the album or order it on bandcamp!

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Crown of Wallachia - Demo

Crown of Wallachia Demo Independent


Although one track alone is only a small offering to go off of, if this sample is any indication of the talent and composition behind Crown of Wallachia, then there is an unstoppable fury pulsing behind them. The band is a brainchild of an enigmatic resident of Oregon, who creates with guest musicians playing leads in the studio. As far as independent and individually run black metal projects go, Crown of Wallachia's quality is as pure as it is ambitious.


The band is a conceptual homage to the Wallachian lord who fought to keep the borders of Christianity in Europe with an edge of ruthlessness that will be forever remembered in the West. Count Vlad Tepes the Impaler was nothing if not an unleashed warrior with no limits, and that’s the spirit that the demo conveys.


The demo is superbly produced, and the machine gun instrumentation is captured wonderfully across the track. There are certainly no experimental or over the top elements in this song, but the purity of second generational black metal is utterly evident; raw rapid tempo music that channels all the maddening energies of the twisting nether. One could certainly picture a montage of Vlad Tepes reducing all of his enemies to pulps of human flesh and blood.



Woodhawk - Beyond The Sun

Woodhawk
Beyond The Sun (Independent)





Woodhawk provides an exciting and fundamentally rockin’ voyage through thick waves of sonically juicy grooves and jams that take off into radically trippy melodies. Unearthed under fuzz and down tuned walls of audible shock waves is the heart and soul of old school bluesy jams. The songwriting on this album could best be described as magical. From track to track, Woodhawk provides something righteous and undeniably contagious. Layers upon layers of musical talent open up a panorama of sounds traveling lucidly around each riff and hook. The bones holding Beyond The Sun up are funky, eclectic, and driving around an ensemble which includes organs and synths; Beyond The Sun isn’t just a rock album, it’s art with an astral supercharge.


Beyond The Sun was released in April 2017, and you can check them out on their bandcamp!



Pagan Altar - The Room of Shadows

Pagan Altar
The Room of Shadows (Temple of Mystery)



Pagan Altar may never receive the accolades commercially successful bands have, but if they did, how would that alter the spirit of their legacy?

The status of an underground cult legacy for a band can be revered or affect the perception with utter disdain as if the weight of something utterly pretentious burdens the very mention of a band on that level. However, Pagan Altar’s genuine appeal results in something far more charming than simple elitism.

For decades, their music has resonated in circles as if a myth passed along toward anyone fortunate enough to stumble upon the revelations of classic songs like “Armageddon”, something so heavy and mystical that it can not be described without emphasis on how real it is. Whether enchanting fans with epic melodic sojourns like “Reincarnation”, or shorter thematic rock head bangers like “The Night Rider,” Pagan Altar are in a class of their own.

Track one of The Room of Shadows, “Rising of The Dead”, is a promise that Pagan Altar’s sacred spirit will conclude in a triumph of truth that leaves these doom metal’s pioneers to a better part of history. The death of Terry Jones certainly finished the band, but we have the luxury of this entire album, which was recorded prior to the vocalist's unfortunate loss to cancer in 2015. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” moves with a goliath of NWOBHM power fusing pure 70s rock melodies and ferocious punk energy, and crescendos with “Danse Macabre”, a subtle soothing trippy jam wonderfully placed bombastic tempo changes driven by simple classic rock beats. Vocally, Terry Jones is weaving a final spell that will mark his indelible spot as a fortune teller and keeper of tales. Whatever path his spirit may have gone to, his status in this world is cemented as folk legend.

Altar’s strengths can be seen with some credence as more than just a metal band, but a coming of age result from the 70s rock explosions. Heavy metal, acid rock, proto punk, folk, and even bits of arena rock filter through the incredibly dynamic guitar playing of Alan Jones. Andy Green’s drumming is so hypnotic that you might miss how essential these beats are to controlling the majesty swirling all around him, like an axis of pure thundering rock & roll gypsy power.


Sentiments of prophecy throughout the tomes of Altar’s pages are certainly part of their endearing legend; however, Terry’s son Alan claims that the lyrics to this album were all finished more than a decade before the vocalist passed away. The hymns of this masterpiece are certainly empowering and intriguing stories that ride on into the sunset with the voice Terry Jones left behind one final time. As the singer dances around a whirlwind of harmonies and thick grooves, his essence remains in arcana with the power of a sorcerer, not unlike the band’s iconic mascot. Unquestionably, The Room of Shadows is the final Pagan Altar album that anyone could ask for, and the chilling finale of “After Forever” will leave you wanting more every time.

Release date: August 24th, 2017 via Temple of Mystery.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Venom Inc. - Ave'

Venom Inc.
Ave’
(Nuclear Blast)

Venom's legacy exists as a pillar that hoists up the metal community going as far back as 1981. Without compromise, they fostered an abundance of style and imagery that have now become permanently intertwined throughout our hessian culture.
However, more than the looks and Satanic themes, Venom thoroughly inspired metal with riffs and hooks that are now essential to speed metal and black n' roll's format.
Ave' may be one of the most anticipated and decisive comeback albums of 2017. Ave' sustains the heart and soul that powered Venom's ferocious music and takes the band into new terrain. Without question, Mantas and Abbadon maintain the creative forefront that drove Venom's energy. Ave' is a wall of 11 pummeling tracks that incorporate the spirit of Venom Inc's feral performance talent and undying zeal.

Ave’ honors Venom’s old strengths without failing to push forward as Venom Inc., which is an undeniably strong feat of the album. Although some may insist that Ave’ ventures off of a traditional path toward styles and tones that are not purely ‘80s, it’s not an overwhelming problem, given that the song structure is utterly Mantas and Abbadon in all forms with merely minor tonal adjustments via modern technology. The tracks are characteristically Venom through and through, wish some vision toward the future to allow for necessary creative growth.

Ave' was released on August 11th and is available via Nuclear Blast.

Low Flying Hawks - Genkaku

Low Flying Hawks
Genkaku
Magnetic Eye Records


Low Flying Hawks are slipping into the sludge and unweaving riff after riff of fuzz induced harmony on Genkaku. The album creeps like a leviathan of doom and groove with moments of eye opening clarity that dip into spiritual awakening across every song. Magnetic Eye Records are releasing a treasure for doom gaze in the later half of this decade.
Lyrically the songwriting is really able to capture what feelings the music is reflecting, and you may catch that minutes into the first track "Smile". As the world turns in on itself in a tragedy of realities that would seem more fitting in a nightmarish dream, one must survive beat after harrowing beat, and I think that the band captured that in the opening track.
The drumming provided by Dale Crover (The Melvins) tops off what Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle) implements with serene melody; the musical gifts of each member come out naturally, soaking the listener into a vortex of adhesive music that does not easily let go. The same hypnotic brilliant composition that Dunn delivers in Mr. Bungle (with tracks like "Slowy Growing Deaf" and "Vanity Fair") is evident throughout the album.
Sulky but potent blues, Genkaku is pure noir overlapped by the modern ambiance of sonic technology. The music is a scathing and kinetic powerhouse made by two of the most respected artists in the community.
Dunn teases with vocal Low homages to Mr. Bungle sporadically throughout the track, but nowhere more evident than "Twilight."
"Sinister Waves" sends Genkaku off with an ominous conclusion. Wherever Low Flying Hawks fly off to, at the end of this track they close the book on an album that is fruitful with enchanting and ghostly harmonics. In its final waves, Genkaku lays melancholy notes of righteousness that will ripple through your head for quite some time. Genkaku comes out on August 23rd, which is exactly my birthday, and if you catch this in time and want to hook me up upon reading this self-gratuitous plug, then this doom goblin would be eternally grateful.