ALBUM REVIEW: Big|Brave, "Vital"

By: Josh McIntyre
 
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 23/04/2021
Label: Southern Lord Recordings

 
“Vital” CD//DD//LP track listing:
 
1). Abating the Incarnation of Matter
2). Half Breed
3). Wited, Still and All…
4). Of This Ilk
5). Vital
 
 
The Review:
 
Big|Brave creates music that consumes the listener. Their exploration of soundscapes (rather than notes) pulsing rhythms, and raw emotional vocals have captivated me since I first saw them opening for Sunn O))) back in 2016. The band is less than a decade old yet here we are with their fifth LP, “Vital”.
 
If we must give a genre description, I find Big|Brave to be more at home in the post-punk field than sludge metal, though they clearly cross paths in terms of the heavy drones. Their sound is somewhere between the pulsing aggression of early Swans and the creeping beauty of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. This has been consistent from the start but the band continuously experiments with their foundation.

“Vita”l continues this trend and is another lively display of what makes Big|Brave who they are. Huge, pulsing sounds (they don’t play many ‘chords’ in the traditional sense) followed by lingering trails of reverb are the standard. The use of negative space is just as crucial. Each track builds, gradually and slowly, until they dissipate. Of this Ilk, the fourth song, becomes one of the most aggressive of the band’s career halfway through. It absolutely pulverizes and then fades away like someone who has finished their point. It’s fairly comparable to an expressionistic painting, one that uses abstractions to show the ambiguity of simple existence.

These feelings are crucial here. Robin Wattie, our primary vocalist, sings and yells while these soundscapes waver around. Her performances are powerful and her lyrics, which regard her feelings and experiences being an ‘Other’ in a society dominated by a complex web in which whiteness and maleness are seen as standards (hence everything else is ‘Other’), put significant weight on “Vital” as a piece of artistic expression. There is such a strong sense of existential exploration on this record that one feels an obligation to listen again and to read the lyrics again, this next time just a little closer.

Big|Brave don’t just put out records that sound cool, even though they certainly do. Each one feels like an extension of the people who made them. They remind us that music is temporal and takes up space. It isn’t just about the notes that we play but how we play them. Big|Brave can pound drums, punch their guitars, scream, and devour us in waves of feedback before taking it all away. We are as vulnerable to their will as they are to their own. We, as people, are also both temporal and spacious. We are capable of being both fragile and powerful. The songs in “Vital” wander about their existence just as people similarly do. They speak of vulnerabilities, marginalization, strength, and endurance. We learn when we listen to each other.
 
“Vital” is available HERE

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

REVIEW: Rorcal & Earthflesh, "Witchcoven" [EP]

By: Josh McIntyre
 
Album Type: EP
Date Released:02/04/2021
Label: Hummus Records

“Witch Coven” CS//CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Altars of Nothingness
2). Happiness Sucks – So Do You

The Review:

 I am always impressed by Rorcal’s ability to be immaculately heavy. I mean it’s pure black bile smashing into your face with the weight of anvils. It melts your eyes and makes you feel smaller, more insignificant as an existential being. The guitars are huge, the drums are huge, the frequencies are huge, and the vocalist (who has one of the best tones in metal) roars like the meanest devil sent to drag you to Hell. Add in Earthflesh, their collaboration partner with this release, and the layers of noise make it sound like being forced into a meat grinder.

Speaking of Hell and devils, these two songs (both around 15 minutes) sound like occult rituals of the most frightening sort. The first song, “Altars of Nothingness”, begins with deep, choir-like vocals that certainly recall religious ceremonies before building up into a vile sludge fest. I’m normally one of those people who views religious and occult themed metal to be played out and cliche but somehow Rorcal and Earthflesh turn out something that really, truly sounds like the soundtrack to someone being set to flames. It isn’t just some band playing rock n’ roll songs about Satan, they manage to bring about an intensity that brings to mind the emotional state of someone in great pain who knows that all they have left in life is pure torment.

It feels as if the first track takes place on Earth, our living realm, while the second half takes place in a Hell-like dimension. Switching to blastbeats and buzzing guitars it sounds like the pure dread of someone falling to their doom, knowing that this is all they have left in life. As the song develops it continuously wavers between these faster parts and back to more doom sections. It feels natural as it flows and when the EP ends the quietness is quite apparent given the last half hour journey.

“Witch Coven” finds a brilliant balance between crushing atmosphere and riff to move the body (particularly the chugging section of the first track). Rorcal is truly at their best when throwing these juxtapositions together. The clean vocals and layers of sound from Earthflesh add to make this a special flavor of extreme music, one that is rich in mindfulness, a focus on emotive feel, and pure devastation.

“Witch Coven” is available HERE

Band info: Rorcal || Earthflesh

ALBUM REVIEW: Ad Nauseum, “Imperative Imperceptible Impulse”

By: Josh McIntyre

Album Type: Full Length 

Date Released: 12/02/2021 

Label: Avantgarde Music

 

“Imperative Imperceptible Impulse” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Sub Specie Aeternitatis 

2). Inexorably Ousted Sente

3). Coincidentia Oppositorum 

4). Imperative Imperceptible Impulse

5). Horror Vacui 

6). Human Interface to No God

The Review:

There’s weird music and then there’s this. Avant-garde is thrown around a lot to describe odd metered and dissonant death/black metal bands but Ad Nauseam truly deserves the title. I don’t think that consonance is even in the band’s musical lexicon. The riffs and rhythms swarm around, constantly shifting and melting into the brain. This wasn’t made to headbang to, this is a challenging musical experiment that demands detailed attention. In other words, this needs to be listened to multiple times to appreciate.

This album in particular is much dryer sounding than Ad Nauseam’s past works and comparable bands such as Ulcerate and Blut Aus Nord. This makes the constant array of clashing guitar notes and clanging bass all the more an assault. This physicality combined with the unpredictability of the rhythmic flow of each track honestly makes me feel anxious. It’s like being lost in a dark cave. You can’t see anything, you don’t know where you are, and every little sound frightens you.

It’s damn brilliant. This record is getting a lot of high marks and for good reason. While being clearly inspired by a certain school of experimental metal the band takes it to another level. The aggressive left/right panning of the two guitars that almost always play highly contrasting riffs might be the most notable factor here. At all times the brain is listening to at least two different patterns and the natural desire for some kind of melodic or rhythmic resolution is thrown out the window like a helpless, unwanted child. Still, in the midst of this chaos the band does provide for slower, quieter moments of slight relief, a factor that allows listeners to bear the journey in addition to being enjoyable in itself.

Ad Nauseum is far from the first death metal band to reference 20th century classical music or jazz but those influences, I suspect, give the greatest rise to the intense atmosphere and discomfort at display. At times I’m even reminded of the bleakest parts of works by The Caretaker, the ambient/sound collage artist that seeks to create the musical equivalent of the human mind deteriorating from dementia. It’s even comparable to the surreal horrors of Bosch’s depictions of Hell or the terrifying phenomena in a Junji Ito universe. If someone asks you what fear sounds like show them this album.

“Imperative Imperceptible Impulse” is available HERE

Band info: bandcamp || facebook