Altar of Betelgeuze - Darkness Sustains the Silence - Album Review

Altar of Betelgeuze is a Death/Doom/Stoner Metal Band from Finland.

The band members are:

Matias Nastolin (bass, death vocals, spoken word)
Olli "Otu" Suurmunne (guitar, clean vocals)
Juho Kareoja (guitar)
Aleksi Olkkola (drums)

Prepare yourself for the coming of 'Darkness Sustains the Silence', the debut full-length album by Finland's Altar of Betelgeuze. Have your record player ready and your front door open wide, your eager and darkly-clothed body mounted inside of it, and try (though this is not your main concern) not to scare the living shit out of your mail carrier when you snatch the LP from his suspicious and quivering hands.

Strong guitars start us off during "Epitaph" and there isn't an ant's crumb of a doubt in my mind that I am about to enjoy a very impressive body of work. It has got an instrumental sort of doom-laden Iron Maiden vibe to start us off; a very classic and infallible choice of introduction. I didn't know what turn the album was going to take once it broke into A World Without End, and then bam, hello, low, slow bass and drums of doom, how I welcome thee to my humble ears. Growling vocals are introduced and some truly evil-sounding spoken word paired with a quicker beat and this is when I realized I wasn't just being served a plate of doom-cakes, but a seven course meal consisting of every genre I love paired together with finesse.

Some damn catchy, quicker riffs come into play in Spiral of Decay. in addition to the death/doom styled vocals we are also introduced to cleanly sung vocals with a stoner vibe, paired with none other than stoner-doom riffs. My head was really banging once I hit this track.

Steamroller gives us some colossal doom to start and keeps it going with a clobbering base line throughout and more of those uniquely excellent, clean vocals. Vocally this song gives me a serious Goatsnake vibe, which I never would have expected from the beginning of the album and I am totally ok with this. "What do you say? i'm a one eyed man, i'm a one-eyed battering ram, i'm a full fledged steam roller…" Yeah, remember that, because it will be stuck in your head for days and you will like it.

Smoldering Clouds Above Orion is one of two epic-length tracks on this album. By this time i'm starting to realize just how perfectly each song is titled. Each track truly feels like it's name throughout it's entirety. We are now getting a desert rock, almost Egyptian atmosphere thrown in. Oh, wait, more scintillating death growls, blast beats. Egyptian death/doom, riffs soaring like a sacred ibis across the sky. Also being brought back into the mix is more of that gratifying baseline which transcends heavy genres and can only be described as Thorr bringing the mighty hammer, Mjolnir, repeatedly down upon your head. I mean really, if you aren't head-banging to this, I think you might need a metal health inspection.

The Approaching Storm, again, a very appropriate name for one of the more punishingly slow doom songs on the album. It ain't no funeral, but my it is fucking nice as hell on a frigid winter day. I would dare say that with the use of repeated baselines and certain other parts throughout the album that we could say there's a little drone thrown into this already rich and rare delicacy of a musical dish. With the following track, Out of Control, we get more of that stellar guitar work in the beginning and some almost thrashy guitar parts. Another track combining flawlessly the growling and clean vocals with spoken word thrown in at the end, haunting and black.

Now we come to Darkness Sustains the Silence, the gargantuan title track. It runs at the heaviness and speed of one-billion sloths in slow motion. For the first few minutes you may fall into slumber and dream a tantalizingly bleak dream as you throw your head back, before you awake, thrusting it forward again. We have more spoken word, clean vocals sparring off with quick and intense riffs, instruments becoming blackened, layers added to the sound, a dazzling guitar solo towards the end. Yet another special touch that just brings this album to the ranks of perfection is that we are given ten seconds of silence to end the track, once again feeling every bit in the image of it's title and giving us a quiet moment in the dark to let this album sink into our skulls.

Darkness Sustains the Silence is an elite, genre-transcending elixir that I feel certain will end up on quite a few lists upon it's release in 2014.This album offers a little something for everyone; death, doom, stoner, classic, drone, black metal… I'm going to go ahead and steal inspiration from the term "super-group" and call this "super-genre" (and how appropriate, being that Betelgeuse itself is a superGIANT). The band has managed to blend all of these styles together flawlessly and with absolute confidence throughout the album. No detail was left unnoticed, and each member completely dominates their part. It is absolutely delectable from beginning to end.

Written by Heather Stubbs

I agree with Heather's review of this excellent album. A thunderous album which will cause a sitr once it's released in early 2014. My advice - Buy it straight away!!!

Thanks to Raul at Memento Mori Records for sending us a promo to review. Darkness Sustains the Silence will be available to buy from Jan 1st 2014.

Check The Band From Links Below:

Facebook

BandCamp

WARD - S/T Album Review

 

Ward are a Finnish Doom/Sludge/Post-Metal band from Finland

The band members are:

J. Vastinesluoma
M. Saastamoinen
T. Lepistö
J. Pitkänen
A. Murtonen

Upon first listening to the self-titled EP soon to be released by Finland doom outfit, Ward, my belief that some albums give you no choice but to listen to them in another dimension, being neither here nor there, was solidified with greatest absolution. This four track album will transport from your living room to a brutal sea of sludge at once solemn and vehement.

Anonymous Caller opens the album with delicate fuzz and hints of bass, building anticipation for the inevitable eruption of slow-heavy that any lover of doom will find irresistible. After lying in the wake of a behemoth of sound for almost five minutes, we are briefly caressed by a melodic, instrumental passage eluding to elements of post-metal to be heard throughout the album. Guitars, drums, and vocals then pick up quite a bit from the original pace for a final blast before the second epic track begins.

In Denial is quite the suitable name for a track with a harrowing, orchestral introduction nearly three minutes in length. By this time, one becomes well aware, and pleased, that Ward has mastered the art of weaving in and out of heaviness and softness while managing to encompass one unfaltering mood perfectly on each facet. Rhythmic elements of the first track are then revisited with solid vocals and a few catchy new riffs thrown in before ending in a subdued fashion, familiar to its beginning.

Riisutto jumps right in without relent, carrying on much of the same sound from previous tracks. Five minutes in, just when I began to fear that such a promising album might become redundant, a sludge battle cry if I ever heard one sends forth an avalanche of riffs and the album takes on a new, more intricate texture from here on out; this includes a blackened variation in the vocals in the last two minutes of the song, which I welcomed with my skull-ridden arms wide open.

Self Made Hell is what I would consider the monumental track of the album. An absolute culmination of the goodness we have thus far been spoon-fed piece by piece. After opening with a soft guitar solo, a mountain of epic doom rises as high as the tempestuous sky I see now outside my window. I couldn't imagine a day more drearily perfect for reviewing such a fine specimen as this. Self Made Hell takes a new direction than the previous tracks, putting the emphasis on the vocals throughout its entirety; they take on a new clarity and you can truly feel the bleak emotion, which has been simmering throughout, now boil over into the darkest crevices of the mind.

I am completely satisfied right now; crushed beneath this small but mighty boulder of sludgy post-metal-tinted doom.

Throughout the entirety of their album Ward holds nothing back but somehow still continues to give more with each passing minute. They build on song structure by introducing subtle new elements in each track, creating an album that is flowing and cohesive; consistent yet never redundant, grim, beautiful, and heavy as the devil's balls.

Though I do often while listening to an album appreciate being clobbered for over an hour with a relentless hammer of doom, I also enjoy being cradled with some atmospheric misanthropy and desolation in between and this album gives me approximately thirty-six minutes of just that combination. The sludge-ridden and at times blackened vocals are clear and almighty throughout, taking their turn to convey a certain sepulchral emotion. At choice moments, when the lyrical themes are quite apparent, they will not only force you to abandon all hope but will leave your innards shuddering. I hope you don't like a dash of sugar in your coffee or a glimmer of hope in your riffs of ruination because Ward's cup o’ joe is served only one way, and that way is fucking black.

Drink up. You won't regret it.

Ward's self-titled EP will be released December 15th, 2013.

In the meantime, you may listen to the epic fourth track, Self Made Hell, on their bandcamp:

http://wardofdoom.bandcamp.com/

For fans of: Isis, Neurosis, Intronaut, Callisto

Written by Heather Stubbs