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

ALBUM REVIEW: Friendship. "Undercurrent"

By: Eeli Helin

Album Type: Full-length

Date Released: 14/06/19

Label: Southern Lord Recordings,
Daymare Recordings

”Undercurrent” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Demise

2. Vertigo

3. Punishment

4. Lack

5. Abandon

6. Fiend

7. Plague

8. Garbage

9. Wrecker

10. Hatred

The Review:

Japan's Friendship ground their way to peoples consciousness with their 2017's debut LP ”Hatred”, that saw the seemingly unknown band deliver a unique hybrid of grindcore, powerviolence and sludge that left everyone wondering what it was that so violently and suddenly hit them. Released digitally and on CD by Daymare Recordings and on vinyl by Southern Lord Recordings, they now return with their highly anticipated second full-length titled ”Undercurrent”. The vicious blend of the aforementioned styles has been taken to a higher and more ruthless level, guaranteed to make your ears bleed and slap your blank, music police faces profoundly throughout its duration.

The album starts with a longer drone/feedback intro until starting an inextinguishable fire on "Vertigo". The track itself is a promise of an excellent album, wavering through d-beat passages and blast beats into a colossal breakdown and back to where it started. The following burst titled "Punishment" delivers what it states. The track, and the whole album for that matter, is punishing and unrelenting to the point of being exhausting. This is where the shorter running time comes to play, since shorter albums like this are easier to manage and you won't get that listeners fatigue at any point. From the beginning, Friendship's influences are quite apparent, but whereas the previous album lacked originality to a certain extent, "Undercurrent" makes up for that, providing a strong bedrock for the band to build on.

The exquisite, self-dependent writing is mostly distinct towards the latter part of the album. Tracks like "Fiend", "Plague" and "Wrecker" stuff more filth in a few minutes than a lot of bands do throughout their entire albums. There's a lot of variety and well placed hooks all around, which makes Friendship stand out as an interesting act that will certainly give you your money's worth. That being said, this album will fly over the heads of those who are not familiar with this type of aggressive, constantly pummeling execution. Others are born to it, others will never tolerate it, but if you keep an open mind, it is rewarding as hell when material like this comes along the way. While the band is still young, finding their own voice so early on is really exciting and interesting, and erects high expectations for whatever it is that they'll do next.

The only pothole they trip on a few times on "Undercurrent", is the repetition of similar song structures. Gladly this doesn't dominate the feeling of the entire album, you won't get the vibe of having the same song on repeat for ten times. These few dips and bends are overshadowed by the sheer brutality and suprisingly concrete, honest emotion, yet by the end you might have hoped that they would have explored themselves a bit further than they did. I don't find it necessary to get too much into it, but perhaps some slower and muddier tracks along the way could've made a significant change to the albums musical narration. Yes, there is slower, monumental riffs throughout, but they tend to lead up to the same, fast-paced conclusion from time to time.

Not to leave with a negative statement, "Undercurrent" is an album that every grindcore/powerviolence aficionado should check out as soon as possible. Highly akin to the kinds of Full of Hell and Nails, Friendship are bound to become a house hold name in the scene as their predecessors. They've already managed to generate a good amount of buzz within the last few years, and now on "Undercurrent" they prove themselves to be hungrier than ever. Having the support of the previously mentioned notable labels, there's no telling to where Friendship will head off to from here.

”Undercurrent” is available HERE

Band info: bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: Lumbar, "The First And Last Days Of Unwelcome" Reissue

By: Matt Fitton

Album Type: Full Length

Originally Released: 12/11/2013 
Resissue: 11/01/2019

Label: Southern Lord Recordings | 
Argonauta Records | Anima Recordings

 

“The First and Last Days of Unwelcome” is just a big ol' stick of Doom. If you cut it in half it would not only thank you, but it would actually say 'D-O-O-M' in giant letters down the middle. Killer riffs slower than the expansion of the sun, soaking wet with amp fuzz down tuned to -11. Harrowing and perfect in every single way”

“The First and Last Days of Unwelcome” CD//CS//DD//LP track listing:

1. Day One (05:04)

2. Day Two (02:58)

3. Day Three (02:24)

4. Day Four (02:26)

5. Day Five (02:07)

6. Day Six (05:02)

7. Day Seven (04:45)

The Review:

Lumbar is a Doom expression by three friends from the US Northwest, all of them fairly revered within their sonic circles. A project that consists of Yob's Mike Scheidt, Tad Doyle from Brothers of the Sonic Cloth and Aaron Edge (of one time Himsa). 'The First and Last Days of Unwelcome' is not only a cosmic event of grand proportions (i.e. VERY good), it also serves as a one-off snap shot of a place and time.

Lumbar has unfortunately been sidelined to just a studio project, due to the fact that Edge (who played all the music on the recording) has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and would be unable to play a musical instrument live as a consequence. Sad as this may be, it appears that you cannot keep a good man down and Edge is already formulating a new heavy endeavour in Portland for which he will be providing the vocals. We do, of course, wish him the absolute best. A good way to do this is to convey just how great this album truly is.

'The First and Last Days of Unwelcome' is seven tracks long, and numbered as days. I wish this album actually did last a week, but bucking recent Doom and Sludge trends the 7 tracks amount to 24 minutes of bite-size gold. As much as this noise fiend loves a marathon, I also like more done with less. And there is so much on offer here.

'Day One' is instant satisfaction. Scheidt's classic holler is pure Doom delight, and the music keeps up too. Beautifully morose waves of fuzz wash over you, and you realise that you're in riff country, where the real flavour lives. The bass wobbles, and the drums crash, both of them in a death grip. As if anything else was expected at all.

'Day Two' is another sullen delight. The atmospherics in the background are faint yet intricate, and when the heavy rolls in it does not disappoint. Pretty much void of any hope or light, and you would not want it any other way.

'Day Four' is just rolling crush to begin, like a rolling pin from the left hand of death. And then it becomes all wistful and echoing at the mid-point, which is tremendous. You constantly forget about the relative brevity of these tracks, due to the sheer variation that is on display at times.

Best in show goes to 'Day Six', for just being a big ol' stick of Doom. If you cut it in half it would not only thank you, but it would actually say 'D-O-O-M' in giant letters down the middle. Killer riffs slower than the expansion of the sun, soaking wet with amp fuzz down tuned to -11. Harrowing and perfect in every single way. Edge really outdid himself throughout this thing, and it serves as a fitting testament to his playing if he never manages to commit another Lumbar recording to tape.

This is real Album of the Year contender stuff  and 'The First and Last Days of Unwelcome' could not be more of a welcome spectacle.

“The First and Last Days of Unwelcome” is available digitally & on cassette  here. LP & CD is available here

Band info: Facebook

REVIEW: The Secret, "Lux Tenebris" EP

By: Chris Bull

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 31/08/2018

Label: Southern Lord Recordings

“Lux Tenebris” is absolutely terrifying in its delivery and atmosphere, by the time the slower riff of “Cupio Dissolvi’ cascades into the ether, you’ll begin to wonder whether you’ve listened to an EP or been sacrificed to a dark entity.

“Lux Tenebris” DD//LP track listing:

1). Vertigo

2). The Sorrowful Void

3). Cupio Dissolvi

The Review:

Italians The Secret are a band that are difficult to pigeonhole. Equal parts blackened hardcore, sludgy crust and nihilistic grind, with a pinch of apocalyptic doom for good measure, they seem to get heavier...and indeed better, with each new release. So it comes as no surprise that ‘Lux Tenebris’ the new 3 track EP is a maelstrom of hell fire and fury.

From the slow build of 'Vertigo' with its evil melodies penetrating the methodical black magic ceremony within, it switches gears as it struggles to contain the raging beast that is 'The Sorrowful Void'. Absolutely terrifying in its delivery and atmosphere, the track takes no prisoners and the blastbeat halfway through is almost a respite from the oppressive nature of the music.

Closer ‘Cupio Dissolvi’ is probably the blackest and nastiest the band have ever sounded; the tremolo riffs, blasts and d-beats create a magnanimous and utterly filthy piece of music that stands out among this year’s releases. By the time the slower riff cascades into the ether, you’ll begin to wonder whether you’ve listened to an EP or been sacrificed to a dark entity.

“Lux Tenebris” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Eagle Twin, "The Thundering Heard"

By: John Reppion

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 30/03/2018

Label: Southern Lord Recordings

“The Thundering Heard” is a dense and rich record; full of aural and textual interest. It’s a record that makes you think, makes you imagine.  It is a visceral, heavy, epic Riff Monster of a record with horns of flame and hooves of stone.

“The Thundering Heard” CD//LP//DD track listing:

1). Quanah Un Rama 

2). Elk Wolfv Hymn

3). Heavy Hoof

4). Antlers of Lightning  

The Review:

“Longhorn running ‘cross the dead salt sea / Mountains rising up like beasts with horns like trees / Antlers reaching high, like a forest… On fire!”

“The Thundering Herd (Songs of Hoof and Horn)" is Eagle Twin's third full-length album, following on from 2012's "The Feather Tipped the Serpent's Scale" and 2009's "The Unkindness of Crows". Like its predecessors “The Thundering Heard " deftly blends crushing, yet hypnotic riffs and beats, with American literary Folk Horror. Which is pretty impressive for a two-piece, really.

“Quanah Un Rama” (a fittingly bicornuous title based on Hellboy's Enochian name "Anung un Rama”, and Quanah Parker, Comanche war leader of the "Antelope" people…possibly) opens with a harmonic drone from vocalist/guitarist Gentry Densely’s throat. At once bestial and like some primal religious vocalisation, this inhuman sound underpins much of the record. Then a Big Fat Riff kicks in. And it is Massive. Truly earth moving. The guitar sounds (right across the record) are just… wow. More Om than Sleep, but with all the groove and swagger of the latter. The track jams on and on moving from part to part, texture to texture, but the same narrative remains throughout; every progression is a natural and necessary, and another chapter of the same story. When Densely chants “Come now / Thunder / Come now / Thunder cloud” over Tyler Smith's tribal tom-work, it sounds like a genuine summoning. You will believe that the sky above the studio was black that day.

“Elk Wolfv Hymn” swells in dreamily, yet ominously. We huddle close to the wilderness campfire for another folk-tale of stags and vultures and trees, of mountains and antlers and wolves. And in that same magical way Earth managed with “The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skul”l, there’s something so incredibly American about the actual sound of the music itself. The wild, untamed, real America where bears and mountain lions and alligators think nothing of cracking and crunching the bones of humans to get to the marrow within. And crow keeps watch all the while.

“The Heavy Hoof clips / The Heavy Hoof clops / And the Heavy Hoof stamps on your grave”. Another massive riff. Another tom thumping groove. Another absolute belter of a tune, which seems to threaten to evolve into the heaviest version of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” you could possibly imagine at one point. But that doesn't happen.

“Antlers of Lightening” begins as pure Sabbath Doom: lumbering, tritone laden heaviness with proclamations of the terror to come in the form of the lightning antlered one. Again through, as the music evolves, the guitar becomes more frenetic, and everything builds and builds and builds, we get an idea of the emerging narrative. We hear the destruction wrought by the electo-horned deity, and the fate of those who dared to try to stop it. About ten minutes in it seems for one moment like we're going to get an actual “Children of the Grave” style chug-a-chug-a-chug-chug breakout riff. Instead things slow back down and jam out until we reach the bitter-sweet outro of the album. A gentle but melacholic ending, like a cold dawn breaking.

“The Thundering Heard” is a dense and rich record; full of aural and textual interest. It’s a record that makes you think, makes you imagine. It very much brought Algernon Blackwood’s Weird Fiction tales The Wendigo and The Willows to my mind; tales of the wilderness and the things which walked there long before man ever did. All that said, “The Thundering Heard" is not some deep-thinking, post-something, soundtrack to an unmade movie. It’s a visceral, heavy, epic Riff Monster with horns of flame and hooves of stone. 

“The Thunder Heard” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Centuries - "The Lights of This Earth Are Blinding"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 26/01/2018

Label: Southern Lord Recordings

“The Lights Of This Earth Are Blinding” is a compelling release with a split personality,  like a cross betweeb Cursed with subtle hints of black metal and the crushing sound of “Remission” era Mastodon with a more direct punk aggression.

  

“The Lights of This Earth Are Blinding” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. The Lights of This Earth Are Blinding
2. Wooden Hands
3. Bygones
4. Soil
5. A Bow Across A String
6. The Climb
7. The Endless Descent
8. May Love Be With You Always
9. Fury
10. Nul Orietur

The Review:

Originally from Florida, the members of Centuries are now scattered far and wide between Pittsburgh, Nashville and even Manchester in the UK. Fortunately geography hasn’t got in the way of them making a great second LP in the form of “The Lights of This Earth Are Blinding”.

The record rips into life with the raging title track, a two and a half minute blast of crusty hardcore riddled with hard sludge riffing. This sets the tone for the first half of the LP which comes across like Cursed with subtle hints of black metal. The breakneck rush of “Bygones” is especially furious, bolstered by some pummelling blastbeats.

“The Climb” opens the second half of the album with a marked drop in tempo but maintains the same level of venom and bile. This track marks a shift in tone as the likes of “May Love Be With You Always” and “Nul Orietur” see Centuries metal leanings coming to the fore. This results in a crushing sound reminiscent of “Remission” era Mastodon but with a more direct punk aggression.

The biggest surprise here is “Fury” which begins as a dark acoustic lament that erupts into a grand finale. The sparse opening section of the song makes sense of the acoustic instrumental “Wooden Hands” which appears earlier in the album. On first listen this piece feels jarring after the explosive title track despite its moody restrained menace but further listening marks it out as a premonition of the heaviness to come.

“The Lights of This Earth Are Blinding” is a compelling release with a split personality. It will be interesting to see what path Centuries tread from here but whatever happens it is sure to be a heavy ride.

“The Lights of This Earth Are Blinding” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Agrimonia - "Awaken"

By: Chris Bull

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 26/01/2018

Label: Southern Lord Recordings

'Awaken' is a tour-de-force of genre hopping doom. It should see the band gain ground on their contemporaries and even surpass them.

“Awaken” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. A World Unseen
2. Astray
3. Foreshadowed
4. Awaken
5. Withering
6. The Sparrow

The Review:

Gothenburg's Agrimonia have always been a difficult band to pigeonhole; partly epic and expansive doom, partly crusty, blackened death metal, they seem content to don the cap of each of the aforementioned genres whenever the mood is befitting. It should come as no surprise then that 'Awaken', their 4th full length, slithers and writhes with venom and bile in tow.

Opening with the majestic 'A World Unseen', a track that owes as much to Primordial as it does Dissection, Agrimonia put as much into one nine minute epic as some bands do on entire albums. It's an opening statement that implies that further surprises lay ahead...and lay ahead they certainly do; from the Paradise Lost with blast beats of 'Astray' to the haunting melodic intro of 'Foreshadowed' and through its Dismember style death metalisms, there's very little for the casual listener not to enjoy!

The title track sits at the centre of the album and, despite its mesmerising melancholy, and the fact it is a 3 minute instrumental, seems oddly juxtaposed. 'Withering' gets back on track with 13 minutes of captivating death/doom before final track 'The Sparrow' weaves a sombre tapestry before triumphantly galloping headstrong towards the album's shimmering, sobering conclusion.

'Awaken' is a tour-de-force of genre hopping doom. It should see the band gain ground on their contemporaries and even surpass them. For this, you're going to need to pack spare clothes and snacks, for this musical journey is truly epic.

“Awaken” is available to preorder/buy here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Friendship - "Hatred"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 03/11/2017

Label: Southern Lord Records |

Daymare Recordings | Sentient Ruin

Laboratories

Over the course of twenty five crushing minutes, the band show they have honed their potent blend of crust, powerviolence, grind and sludge to deadly perfection. “Hatred” feels like burying your face in a bowl of razorblades while being kicked in the stomach.

“Hatred” CD//CS//DD//LP track listing:

1). Rejected

2). Regiside

3). Corrupt

4). Tortures

5). Compton

6). Grief

7). Life Sentence

8). Blue Berry

9). Execution

10). Dirtbags

11). El Chapo

12). Treason

The Review:

The dust has barely settled from my recent exposure to Friendship’s facemelting EP compilation. The Tokyo wrecking crew have wasted no time in releasing their debut LP “Hatred”, a relentless assault on the senses that cements their position as the current masters of all things short, fast and horrible.

Over the course of twenty five crushing minutes, the band show they have honed their potent blend of crust, powerviolence, grind and sludge to deadly perfection. There is a new found clarity and gut-churning heaviness to their bludgeoning onslaught. This has resulted in a marginally less raw and chaotic experience than before but still feels like burying your face in a bowl of razorblades while being kicked in the stomach.

“Rejected” and “Regicide” open the record in furious fashion like a warp-speed Iron Lung. Both tracks feature carefully deployed bursts of squealing feedback like a lead instrument, particularly powerful during the cacophonous climax of the latter. “Life Sentence” and “Blue Berry” find Friendship mixing in punishing, chug-heavy sludge riffs in amongst the high octane punk mayhem that bring an intoxicating air of hardcore brutality. The bands interest in the heavier and slower side of life is most evident in the monstrous “Corrupt”, a low tempo bruiser that bristles with Eyehategod/Noothgrush sludge attitude.

A re-recorded version of “Compton” from the band’s debut EP makes an appearance at the LPs mid-point. It is significantly burlier than its predecessor and encapsulates all that makes Friendship great in two minutes. Fret-mangling noise rock riffs lead to passages of exhilarating knuckle-dragging simplicity, a perfect balance of innovation and primal no-frills punk rock.

With “Hatred”, Friendship have delivered in style on the immense promise of their early work.

“Hatred” is available here

Band info: bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: Sect – “No Cure for Death”

By: Mark Tremblay

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 24/11/2017

Label: Southern Lord Recordings

Sect have set the standard for hardcore music and what it should aspire to in 2017. If you’re looking to heavy music with a message, look no further than “No Cure for Death”.

“No Cure for Death” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Open Grave

2. Day For Night

3. Crocodile Prayers

4. Reality’s Wake

5. Stripes

6. Liberal Arts

7. Born Razed

8. Transaction

9. Least Resistance

10. Avoidance Ritual

The Review:

The hardcore supergroup Sect follow up last year’s self-titled release with a more pissed off/dystopian blast-beat infested “No Cure for Death”. If you’re looking for the sonic equivalent to Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, this is the closest thing to it.

The one thing that immediately jumps out off of this record are the blast-beats.

This record is much more concise than its predecessor; nothing goes to waste, and no musical idea overstays its welcome. Even though none of the songs on this record hit the four minute mark, it is very clear that these songs have been carefully crafted for maximum effect and impact.

There are all sorts of riffs on this record. From the Siege-influenced “Stripes”, all the way to the Yautja-like “Reality’s Wake” there is something on here from all spectrums of heavy music. Even when bound to the tonal parameters of the Boss HM2, guitarists Scott Crouse and James Chang are able to employ such a wide range of feel and variety. Like any Chris Colohan record, however, the lyrics are the albums highlight.

Everything from society’s imminent demise with “Open Graves”, to commentary on the education system in “Liberal Arts”, there is not an aspect of North American culture and politics that is left untouched.

Sect have set the standard for hardcore music and what it should aspire to in 2017. If you’re looking to heavy music with a message, look no further than “No Cure for Death”.

“No Cure for Death” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook