ALBUM REVIEW: Sinistro - "Sangue Cassia"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full length

Date Released: 05/01/ 2018

Label: Season Of Mist

Think a heavier Massive Attack, a dash of post-rock, a helping of menace and a blend of orchestration that makes it really an interesting listen.  This is exceptional stuff for a band you may not hear lots about, but they’re definitely worth your time.

"Sangue Cassia" CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Cosmos Controle

2. Lotus

3. Petalas

4. Vento Sul

5. Abismo

6. Nuvem

7. Gardenia

8. Cravo Carne

The Review:

Most people have heard of Cirque De Soleil, the French-Canadian aerial troupe that has evolved from a hipster, no-animal circus into an entertainment powerhouse in Las Vegas casinos, Beatles and Michael Jackson-themed acrobatic arena tours and worldwide television. Even if you have never attended, you have probably heard of Cirque's elaborate stunts and interpretative dance. It caters to the culturally curious, while staying relatively accessible to the suburbs. Its performances are punctuated by a rich score, one that melds influences from world music, contemporary rock and pop and live instrumentation in a fashion aimed at pulling together its often quirky tales. If you are familiar with Cirque's soundtrack, hearing Sinistro is probably one of the few times you'll be brought back to that mental space of being inside one of the act's big tops.

Such a comparison is a compliment and not a put down. Cirque has a fine attention to detail and effortlessly sets up a scene in a way most musicians struggle with. "Sangue Cassia" is an intelligent and infinitely listenable album. However, the comparison may also serve as fair warning to you, generous listener. If you read the standard descriptions of Sinistro as doom or a rock/metal derivative, you will soon learn the five-piece is not. It shares an atmospheric or tonal quality of doom, possibly – most strongly on cuts like "Cosmos Controle" and "Cravo Carne" – yet it's not that really. It is instead a dash of post-rock, a helping of menace and a blend of orchestration that makes it really an interesting listen. Think a heavier Massive Attack. You may not like it if Morbid Angel or Tombs are your jams, though.

The Portuguese band has been around a minute – 2012 to be exact – but it seemed to take off in 2013, when it added vocalist Patricia Andrade. Andrade brings to Sinistro a particular beauty to the double-guitar stylings of Rick Chain and Ricardo Matias. You will soon discover her range is formidable; songs like "Lotus" and "Vento Sul" are an outstanding showcase for what Andrade does best, using her strong voice to draw the emotion out of Sinistro's heady blend of an experience, creatively supported by Paulo Lafaia on drums and Fernando Matias on bass and synths.

"Sangue Cassia" is at its greatest when his forceful guitars show out on tracks such as "Petalas" or "Abismo." Andrade is commanding with her singing (it's clean, by the way), while the bass and drums foment the energy. A post-rock song like "Nuvem" matches Andrade's ethereal vocals with droning rhythm and guitars. The noise influence on "Gardenia" has underlying hints of paradoxical subtlety. Overall, across these divergent selections, is an aesthetic that has a distinctly symphonic flair. It's not the Carach Angren kind of symphonic, but it has a 'big' feel. Exceptional stuff for a band you may not hear lots about, and worth your time.

"Sangue Cassia" is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Carach Angren, "Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten"

By: Ernesto Aguilar


Album Type: Full length
Date Released: 16/06/2017
Label: Season of Mist

If you had hopes Carach Angren could dig that hole back in your heart that their previous full-length could not, you will certainly not walk away disappointed.  The overall composition is simply superlative.

 

"Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten" CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Opening

2. Charlie

3. Blood Queen

4. Charles Francis Coghlan

5. Song For the Dead

6. In De Naam Van De Duivel

7. Pitch Black Box

8. The Possession Process

9. Three Times Thunder Strikes

The Review:

Black metal has many signifiers. The harsh thunder of the music itself. Lyrical themes oriented around the darkest corners of our imaginations. A vocal style that is unmistakable. Lost in this cacophony – and to history for some – is a cornerstone of what we regard as black metal, a flair for the presentation.

Consider the classic black metal image in your mind’s eye. Performers like Venom, Bathory and, of course, Mercyful Fate surely spring out first. Their fidelity to the visual even before the ascendance of music visuals made them infamous. Today, with all manner of indie and international horror films engulfing what would otherwise be our wildest mental pictures, not as much black metal is as adept at setting the blackened altar as back in the days of the founders. That assertion could be heresy to some devotees. Still, many black metal bands are gifted at carrying on the story just inside the fearless, and feared, basement of a house that metal music built.

Dutch black metal trio Carach Angren offer their fifth release, "Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten," amid much anticipation, not to mention high expectations. The multilingual act is lauded worldwide for its symphonic brand of black metal musicianship. Although its 2015 recording, "This is No Fairytale," was regarded by critics as a disappointment, the band’s body of work is enthralling. Blistering guitars, an ominous build, delicate violins and a dash of piano have long been part of the canon. It was nevertheless unclear if this nine-song release would return Carach Angren to form.

In addition its music, Carach Angren has cultivated a rabid following through their incredible music video presence, which combine crisp, quality visuals with crushing and often sublime music. No sleeveless t-shirts in an empty warehouse here. The group carries forward textured storytelling in the vein of some of the many greats. You can find online many terrifyingly dazzling visuals already for songs from "Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten," and they’ll be worth your search, if you do not mind a sleepless night or two.

Many of Carach Angren’s best music has been rooted in folklore and other tales. Such is the case with "Blood Queen," a sonic departure for the group though its themes of death, despair and infernal dealings appear in other cuts here. The specter of a Ouija board floats through the many stories here too, mostly as an usher to that aforementioned despair. It is the vehicle for a malevolent spirit in "Charlie" and reaches its zenith in the album’s closer, "Three Times Thunder Strikes." "Scrambling for matches/Determined to burn it to ashes/She threw the Ouija board to the flames and kneeled to pray/’I wish I never ever, ever listened to my friends’/’Who had said it would be fun to play’/’Now the one that follows me’/’A predator, and me its new prey.’

There’s so much than can be said about the performances, completely separate from the group’s imagery or lyricism. The overall composition is simply superlative. Guitar and drums are fierce as they are jarring on "In de Naam Van de Duivel" (“In the Name of the Devil" in Dutch, though the song is in English). The orchestral crests in "Song for the Dead" are haunting. If you had hopes Carach Angren could dig that hole back in your heart that its previous full-length could not, you will certainly not walk away disappointed.

"Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten" is available here:

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Carach Angren - ‘This Is No Fairytale’ (Album Review)

Album Type: Full-Length

Date Released: 23/02/2015

Label: Season of Mist

‘This Is No Fairytale’ CD//LP//DD track listing:

1. Once upon a Time...

2. There's No Place Like Home

3. When Crows Tick On Windows

4. Two Flies Flew Into A Black Sugar Cobweb

5. Dreaming Of A Nightmare In Eden

6. Possessed By A Craft Of Witchery

7. Killed and Served By The Devil

8. The Witch Perished In Flames

9. Tragedy Ever After

Carach Angren is:

Seregor | Vocals & guitars

Ardek | Orchestration & keyboards

Namtar | Drums

Review:

Carach Angren is a strange band. I’m not talking about their image or their subject matter, I’m talking about being a bit of an anomaly. They’re an anomaly because they are so good at technical performance, getting a fitting production for their albums, and all of the ancillary pieces an album would need to support great music; yet the songs are never above adequate. The only word I could use to sum up ‘This is No Fairytale’ and Carach Angren as a whole is “fine”. I’ve tried to narrow down the culprit for Carach Angren’s staggering “okayness”, and I believe the biggest issue is in compositional choices and in their instincts for when to swell their strings or go with a syncopated guitar/kick rhythm or anything else, for that matter. On a visceral level, the songs just come and go with no real impact, despite sounding exciting if someone were to describe to you what happens throughout each song. Carach Angren is a great band on paper, but underwhelming in practice.

If we take the example of “There’s No Place Like Home”, it’s a pretty good microcosm of the album’s broader problems. About thirty seconds in; we get a section with a blast beat, busy tremolo guitars and slightly-less-busy strings. The guitars and strings are both vying for attention at once, rather than one complimenting the other in more of a supporting role. After a brief retreat for a verse, the blasting section returns again, only this time vocalist/guitarist Seregor has a semi-rapid vocal line, and the rhythm sounds only marginally connected to everything else happening. He’s on-beat, but he’s also one of now three lead parts, all struggling to stick out from each other and none of them being able to craft a hook amongst all the other noise.

Once the song eases up again and settles into a syncopated rhythm, which takes the song into territory that should sound familiar to anyone who has heard Septicflesh, with timpani drums and deeper orchestra instruments working in sync rhythmically with the guitars and kick drum. Even though it brings another band to mind, it’s the perhaps the songs strongest moment, as there’s a focus that seems missing throughout the rest of the song, as well as a sizeable chunk of the album.

“There’s No Place Like Home” serves as a precedent for the rest of ‘This is No Fairytale’, and the outcome is an album where things are overly complex when they demand a degree of simplicity. Anorexia Nervosa worked while having speedier, intricate string parts because the guitar played more of a supporting role. Emperor worked because everything was composed to either play off each other or let one element shine at a given point. Too often, ‘This is No Fairytale’ sounds like a bunch of great individual performances that don’t coalesce as well as they should because they weren’t delivered with the other players in mind. Even then, Carach Angren are talented enough to make this passable, when the result would be disastrous for just about anyone else using the same approach.

Words by: Daniel Jackson

You can pick up a digital copy here and a CD/LP copy here.

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