Downfall of Gaia - Aeon Unveils the Thrones of Decay (Album Review)

Album Type: Full-length

Date Released: 7/11/2014

Label: Metal Blade Records

‘Aeon Unveils the Thrones of Decay’ CD//LP//DD track listing:

01. Darkness Inflames These Sapphire Eyes (09:38)

02. Carved Into Shadows (10:21)

03. Ascending The Throne (02:38)

04. Of Stillness And Solitude (08:14)

05. To Carry Myself To The Grave (08:57)

06. Whispers Of Aeon (11:50)

07. Excavated (08:35)

Bio:

Founded in 2008 and having undergone several changes on drums, the quartet is now comprised of Dominik Goncalves dos Reis (guitar and vocals), Peter Wolff (guitar and vocals), Anton Lisovoj (bass and vocals) and Michael Kadnar (drums), who are respectively located in Berlin, Hamburg, and New York City. Although the group's roots lie within the crust punk scene, they have become more closely associated with a sound that rather corresponds to the impact of an avalanche made from black earth, rock, and dirty sludge, while their lyrics poetically describe the dark side of living

In their early days, they released one demo, which was heavily influenced by d-beat, in addition to a split tape with French band Kazan in advance to a tour EP in 2009. Their debut album "Epos" followed in 2010, which was realized with the help of several DIY-labels.

The band's connection to the DIY and punk scenes eventually led to a split LP with In The Hearts Of Emperors on Alerta Antifascista, one of the most important punk labels in Germany, as well as Moment Of Collapse and Shove Records.

The band never intended to stagnate, and naturally their sound underwent significant changes. Downfall of Gaia drifted away from fast crust punk, which influenced their early work, towards longer and much slower material that became the more massive and doom and sludge.

In 2012, this new sound was heard on their second album, their first for legendary label Metal Blade Records, titled "Suffocating In The Swarm Of Cranes," which more than satisfied what fans of infinite heaviness longed for, and made its appearance in annual end-of-the-year and best-of lists among critics and editors.

Downfall of Gaia is:

Dominik Goncalves dos Reis | Vocals, Guitar

Peter Wolff | Vocals, Guitar

Anton Lisovoj| Vocals, Bass

Michael Kadnar | Drums

Review:

Sometimes an album just doesn’t click the way you’d like it to. It might have all the attributes, make all the right choices on paper, and each of its smartly-written, well-crafted songs might be performed with a strong execution and a perfectly-tailored production; but it just doesn’t resonate. To be honest, I’m at a loss to try and come up with anything more than just a gut feeling and a description as to where my brain goes when I listen to this album and nothing connects like it should. But that’s really all I can take away from ‘Aeon Unveils the Thrones of Decay’ each and every time I listen to it.

In 2012, ‘Suffocating in the Swarm of Cranes’ felt like Downfall of Gaia were a band on the verge of something even more meaningful. That record on its own was plenty potent, featuring a thick mixture of post metal & black metal done in a way that felt separate enough from the Wolves in the Throne Room and the Deafheavens of the world, to blaze their own trail; one that might parallel those other bands, but never truly intersect with them style-wise.

While it’s true that ‘Aeon Unveils the Thrones of Decay’ still keeps them easily recognizable and distinguishable from the other bands dealing with similar components, that on its own isn’t enough this time around. The black metal aspect of this album is more hammering and ugly than on ‘Suffocating in the Swarm of Cranes’, and it’s done to varying degrees of effectiveness throughout the album. That mean, ugly streak is something that could be attributed to the overall production of the album. The drums are a bit more dry and harsh. The guitars have a more biting and coarse tone. The vocals are often saturated with distortion and a reverb you might expect to hear from someone screaming while trapped in a small tin shack. The vocals in general often remind me of a deeper-voiced Steve Austin of Today is the Day on ‘In the Eyes of God’ in that respect.

The album is not without its highpoints. Halfway into “Of Stillness and Solitude”, things break down into a glorious half-time march guided by thunderous drumming, with a powerful octaved guitar riff so self-assured you can’t help but buy into the moment. From that moment on the rest of the song showcases the best of the album’s overall theme of blast-centric black metal and melodic tremolo guitar leads during the tempo breaks. Sadly, it feels like one of the only points where the formula succeeds completely. As someone who very much enjoyed ‘Suffocating in the Swarm of Cranes’, I can’t help but feel like throwing the playbook out the window and throwing caution to the wind on the next album might be the route to go.

Words by: Daniel Jackson

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

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SELVA - Life Habitual (Album Review and Exclusive Album Stream)

Album Type: Album

Date Released: 27^th October 2014

Label: Argonauta Records

Life Habitual – Track Listing

1 - [I]

2 - ENCLOSURE

3 - LIFE HABITUAL

4 - PERSISTENT

5 - [/]

6 - EXISTENCE

7 – GLOAMING

Bio

Founded in late 2013 by Tommy (drums), Gino (bass/voice) and Ale (guitar/voice), who have previously been in other different hardcore bands, ['selvə] are authors of a stunning work made of blackened atmospheres and abrasive sonorities, with a meshing of themes and motifs that goes from post-hardcore and screamo to black and post metal to instrumental post rock, a fascinating experience in murk and tension. Mixed and mastered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Loma Prieta, among others) at Atomic Garden Studio (San Francisco), “Life Habitual” is a blasting debut which will appeal to fans of CELESTE, RUSSIAN CIRCLES and ALCEST

Members

Tommy – Drums

Gino – Bass/Vox

Ale – Vox/Guitar

Review:

Selva are another hotly tipped band to come from Italy. Obviously our good pals Argonauta Records are involved yet again in releasing their excellent debut album – Life Habitual. A stirring mix of Post-Black Metal, Screamo and Post-Rock vibes. Sure a million bands have done this style of music before but none with this much confidence on a debut album.

Comparisons to bands such as the ones listed in the Bio only tell a small part of the Selva story as Life Habitual is a dark brooding musical odyssey waiting to drown you in a vengeful sea of anger and fury. Selva are pissed off through out the album. Sure there are moments of calm and peace but Selva live mainly in the darkness. It's more Post-Metal than anything else as Selva blast there way through 38 minutes of brutal riffs. The vocals of Ale and Gino carry extra weight with the heavy riffs on show. 2^nd track – Enclosure is where the band impress the most with their haunting and almost hypnotic music weaving a spell so early on. From then on the album impresses even more with each passing second as Selva play like a band possessed with more emotionally charged songs to impress you with.

Life Habitual is an album that demands your full attention as Selva include many different noises and effects you may miss first time round. Especially on some of the album's later tracks such as Existence and Gloaming. The last 16 minutes of the album are dedicated to those final two tracks and it's where Selva show their brilliant musical talents for everyone to see. The dark despairing and violent riffs come crashing all around you and it will devour your very soul. It's bleak, dark, angry but also very beautifully played in scope that will leave you begging for more.

Life Habitual is an excellent debut album if you're a fan of Post-Metal with a dark and twisted edge. Italian Metal has another great band to call upon. Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Gero and Barbara at Argonauta Records for sending a promo to review. Life Habitual will be available to buy on CD/DD on Monday October 27^th 2014.

The kind folks at Argonauta Records have an exclusive stream for the album for you all to hear.

Release show info here:

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Bastard Sapling - Instinct Is Forever (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 26/8/2014

Label: Gilead Media/Forcefield Records

                      

“Instinct is Forever” CD/LP track listing:

01. My Spine Will Be My Noose
02. Subterranean Rivers Of Blood
03. The Opal Chamber
04. Elder
05. The Killer Is In Us All
06. Splintering Ouroboros
07. Lantern At The End Of Time [feat. Dorthia Cottrell]
08. Every Life Thrown To The Eclipse
09. Forbidden Sorrow

Bio:

After recording and releasing 2010’s V: A Sepulcher To Swallow The Sea 7” via Tension Head and 2012’s critically acclaimed Dragged From Our Restless Trance LP via Forcefield Records, Bastard Sapling has ventured to push their creation further into the shattered abyss. After spending years crafting new material, they put their songs in the capable hands of Kevin Bernsten (Triac, Mutilation Rites, Ilsa) at Developing Nations in Baltimore, MD. Simultaneously starker and more serene than their previous efforts, Instinct Is Forever is a step forward in terms of Bastard Sapling’s traditional Scandinavian influences being warped by their own geography and a new experimental approach. The new double LP to be co-released by Forcefield Records and Gilead Media on Agust 26, 2014. Armed with guest appearances by Windhand’s Dorthia Cottrell, Evoken's Don Zaros, and Inter Arma’s TJ Childers, Instinct Is Forever is sure to make a serious impact on North America’s contribution to the medium.
 

Bastard Sapling coalesced in the summer of 2007 along the fertile banks of the James River in Richmond, VA, led by recent transplants Drew Goldy and Gregory Ernst (better known to most as“Elway"). After a handful of practices the two formed a musical bond and an undeniably shared vision for the project. Several months of songwriting later, the two progenitors began practicing with their friend Mike Paparo,vocalist of the local metal outfit Inter Arma, in early 2008. Shortly thereafter the three members found an organic fit by bringing fellow Inter Arma guitarist Steven Russell into the fold.  Current bassist Trey Dalton cemented the lineup by admirably filling in for their 2010 US Tour on short notice, and they’ve been steadily pushing their aggression forward ever since.

Review:

America loves to gorge itself. For much of the last several years a common meal has been post black metal and bands that blend hardcore and black metal influences together. A lot of those bands are excellent, and just because a style picks up popularity and gets greater coverage from bigger websites doesn’t mean it’s without merit. On the other side of the coin, it can and eventually will wear thin and people will begin to turn on it. It doesn’t seem like we’ve quite reached that point yet with American black metal as of yet, but it feels like we might be getting close. For everyone who got excited (like me) about Young and in the Way’s new album, there’s someone else who wonders when a higher percentage of American black metal bands won’t be influenced by Discharge or Weakling or My Bloody Valentine.

For that second group; your answer is Bastard Sapling. ‘Instinct is Forever’ worships at the altar of mid 90s European black metal. I’d believe you if you told me they were a Swedish band recorded at Studio Abyss, and that will always appeal to me. If all of this sounds a bit one dimensional; don’t worry. They pull from a wide range of influences, all the while managing to sound new. The album explodes out of the gate with “My Spine Will Be My Noose”, which storms full speed ahead like prime mid-90s Marduk before settling into something more akin to 12/8 Immortal from the late 90s. As the album continues you’ll hear countless other points of reference: “Subterranean Rivers of Blood” has all the majestic fury of Dawn’s ‘Slaughtersun’. “The Opal Chamber” has the icy, vertigo-inducing melodic descent of Gorgoroth at their most reserved in the 90’s. They revisit some of that same “At the Heart Of Winter” style feel on “Lantern at the End of Time”, though it’s to a much grander effect. The opening riff of that song is one of the great black metal riffs of all time, and I say that without reservation.

So, why do I continue to point out similarities to other bands? Wouldn’t that make them seem derivative or lazy? Not in the slightest. My larger point is that Bastard Sapling is a brilliant example of just how far a band can evolve a genre’s sound while staying within the confines of relative orthodoxy. They’ve found a way to improve upon established styles through additional technicality, variety, emotional depth and imagination. Each song is its own journey, whether it soars with grace or burrows into the molten center of the earth. ‘Instinct is Forever’ rages, soothes, depresses, empowers and it covers plenty of territory in between. In fact, I would consider it a minor miracle that they’ve been able to weave such a multitude of elements from European black metal’s past into such a cohesive sound.

While there are certainly fleeting moments in ‘Instinct is Forever’ that sound a bit more American—the opening of “The Killer In Us All” being one such example—but the album is a phenomenal remedy for people who are in need of something outside of the new American black metal norm. What’s old can be new again, and the result, in the case of Bastard Sapling, is one of the top albums of the year.

Words by: Daniel Jackson

You can pick up this record here

For more information:

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Black Monolith - Passenger (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 29/4/2014

Label: All Black Recording Company

“Passenger” DD/LP track listing:

1). Intro/Void 07:10

2). Dead Hand 04:25

3). Adhere 08:18

4). Victims & Hangmen 03:13

5). Gold Watch 09:20

6). Eris 07:26

The Band:

Gary Bettencourt | Everything

Review:

If there's anything we aren't short of in heavy metal these days, it’s d-beat and black metal. In a way, Black Monolith is a dual citizen of both of these styles, since it’s rarely in both places at once. There are plenty of bands that throw Celtic Frost, Discharge, Darkthrone, Mayhem and so on into a transmitter pod and come out like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly; an ugly, mutated conglomeration of the original components. Black Monolith is different, in that rather than melting these pieces together to form a hybrid sound; each individual component is largely kept separate from the other. That isn't always the case, but that's how things play out more often than not.

After a brief intro, the meat of ‘Passenger’ begins with “Void”, which would understandably earn Black Monolith some comparisons to a band like Deafheaven; though perhaps it’s more ‘Roads to Judah’ than ‘Sunbather’.  It has those “post-black” and “USBM” hallmarks: wide-open riffs with big, tremolo-picked chords and plenty of atmosphere. While this overall idea and presentation is pretty common for current black metal, it’s definitely at the highest level as far as execution and conviction are concerned. Once we get to a break from the alternately blasting and double kick-heavy early minutes; we again hear Deafheaven’s influence in the form of heavily reverbed lead guitar gliding over the top of a post-black riff, though a very basic 4/4 rock beat carries the tempo nicely outside of the normal formula.

Now, let’s compare that with the next song, “Dead Hand”. Anyone who has heard the Celtic Frost worship at 4:08 of “In the Shadow of the Horns” from Darkthrone will find the opening riff of “Dead Hand” to be very familiar. In fact, it’s a little too similar for my blood, but it’s a stark contrast from the preceding song. The big chords and melancholy emotion are replaced with head banging Celtic Frost riffs. Again, it’s very familiar, but it’s played with a ton of conviction, so it isn't a huge issue for me. Some of that post-black atmosphere shows up again in the second half, but generally it’s always a sharp turn from one style to the other.

“Adhere” and “Victims & Hangmen” follow the same ‘atmospheric black metal to raging d-beat’ pattern as the first two songs, but things do take yet another turn with “Gold Watch”. Featuring a dissonant riff made of plucked, individual notes; it's the sort of thing you might be more likely to hear on an Akerocke album. It provides another dimension to Black Monolith's sound; one that I think should be employed more frequently down the road. “Eris”, the final song of the album begins as a beautifully droning wall of guitar and noise that seems to be a dreary but on-point conclusion, until it takes on a more hopeful and positive tone as the drums join in. It ends up sounding like the reflective closing moments of a very special episode of Dawson’s Creek; which seems like a bit of a strange note to end on. ‘Passenger’ does have its flaws, but the positive greatly outweighs what I would consider to be a couple of questionable choices otherwise.

Words by: Daniel Jackson

You can get the vinyl here and DD from the usual places

For more information:

http://blackmonolith.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/blackmonolithband