REVIEW: Bloodmoon & Trapped Within Burning Machinery - "Split"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Split

Date Released: 01/10/2017

Label: Midnite Collective |

Black Voodoo Records

“Bloodmoon | Trapped Within Burning Machinery” CD//CS//DD//LP track listing:

1. Bloodmoon, "Nothing is Special, Nobody Cares"

2. Trapped Within Burning Machinery, "Abysswalker"

The Review:

Literally hundreds of seven-inch singles come out every month. Extreme music acts in particular are quite prolific at this. So, why should another disc create any ripple at all?

In the doom landscape, Bloodmoon and Trapped Within Burning Machinery are perhaps two of the most emerging bands to enter the scene. In the case of Bloodmoon, whose doom metal is blended with some progressive and black metal influences, and Trapped Within Burning Machinery, they of doom with flashes of atmospheric metal and funeral doom, their sounds are rather divergent from one another yet oddly aligned in many respects. Both groups have received much praise for their work. It stands to reason that a double-barrel split like this – with the crews doing 11- and 17-minute cuts respectively – may keep expectant fans happy for the moment, if not hyped for future output.

When Bloodmoon debuted a few years ago with the divine “Orenda”, the California group received a lot of attention for its superlative progressive metal. It only ripened with 2013's “Voidbound”, soaking far deeper into the well of doom metal for music you do not hear every day. On the new split, Bloodmoon re-ups that doom faithfulness, along with paying homage to its progressive pedigree. “Nothing Is Special, Nobody Cares” is through this lens a strong return. Its pessimistic theme masks an optimistic one: that Bloodmoon is committed not to fame, but to doing the best music possible on its own terms. That idea is articulated often by bands, but you feel it here. You catch a more liberated group that delivers a song with its best musicianship yet. The production is well mixed, the guitars are technical without being mathcore-ish, and the rhythm section here provides a rich soundscape.

As you can guess, Trapped Within Burning Machinery has a high bar to reach. Fortunately enough, the group, known for its big concept recordings – 2015's “The Filth Element” was a tale based on the film, after all – is up for the challenge.

The California act's song, “Abysswalker,” offers more concept. It is based on the video game series Dark Souls. If you have never played the Dark Souls franchise, it is a fantasy in which the protagonist is, in so many words, a zombie cursed to resurrect again and again. An abysswalker are those who wield a special ability to walk into a plane of existence most cannot. The Abyss is occupied by darkwraiths, whose harness the Dark Soul within humanity. It is a gigantic theme for a song, just as is the Dark Souls universe.

If you are familiar with the Dark Souls mythology, it is a plus. However, the music is dazzlingly sharp all by itself. The guitars are immense. The vocals are monstrous, summoning imagery of darkwraiths and fearsomeness. Trapped Within Burning Machinery has long been a group that fully commits to a concept, like an esteemed actor throws her- or himself into a role. You get that turned up to 10 on "Abysswalker." The mood is dank with solitude. With the final notes, it is like you are pulled into the Abyss itself.

“Bloodmoon | Trapped Within Burning Machinery” is available here (CD//CS) and here (vinyl)

Band info: twbm || bloodmoon

Ancient Altar - 'Dead Earth' (Album Review)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 01/09/2015

Label: Black Voodoo Records |

Midnite Collective

Ancient Altar’s combination of crushing doom and stirring melody packs a weighty emotional punch that few bands can match. “Dead Earth” is a devastating album which deserves to gain them a legion of devoted followers.

‘Dead Earth’ CS//LP//DD track listing:

1. Leader, Liar

2. Albion

3. Dead Earth

4. Void

Ancient Altar is

Barry Kavener | guitar and vocals

Scott Carlson | bass and vocals

Jesse Boldt | guitar

Etay Levy | drums

The Review:

A mere two years into their existence, Los Angeles quartet Ancient Altar are already delivering their second LP. I’m not familiar with their debut but “Dead Earth” is the kind of accomplished record some bands strive for years to produce.

There are only four tracks here but the band cover some serious ground over the album’s duration. Monstrous 13 minute opener, “Leader, Liar”, draws the listener in with hypnotic bass drone, swirling cymbals and the distant peal of a gong. The calm is soon broken by a menacing guitar line reminiscent of Kylesa heralding the thunderous arrival of the rhythm section. Tension builds and breaks in the form of a classic Sabbath-worshipping riff. The band then launch their full sludge onslaught, complete with agonised, howling vocals. This track begins proceedings in such commanding fashion that it could threaten to overshadow the rest of the album. Luckily, Ancient Altar have enough up their sleeve to keep raising the stakes to the very end.

The title track ploughs a similar furrow to “Leader, Liar” moving from the albums slowest grooves to an unexpected high octane, face-melting gallop before descending once more into glorious torpor. The band really raise the stakes with “Albion”. Here Ancient Altar take the hard riffing that has served them well elsewhere and fuse it to a deep melodic undertone to powerful effect. The introduction of haunting clean vocals alongside tortured growls bring to a mind a dirtier, sludgier Pallbearer. Subtle deployment of organ casts a woozy psychedelic haze over the darkness, enhancing the air of despair.

This approach is perfected on colossal finale “Void”. An acoustic melody rises from the smoking pit of amp debris at the heart of the song which develops into a darkly melancholic climax. The band repeat the same chord sequence, each time adding more layers of distortion, raw lead guitar and interweaving harsh and clean vocals to wring maximum impact from every note.

Ancient Altar’s combination of crushing doom and stirring melody packs a weighty emotional punch that few bands can match. “Dead Earth” is a devastating album which deserves to gain them a legion of devoted followers.

‘Dead Earth’ is available here

FFO: Eyehategod, Pallbearer, Khemmis, Trapped Under Burning Machinery

Band info: bandcamp | facebook

Trapped Within Burning Machinery - The Filth Element (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: July 21st 2015

Label: Midnite Collective / Black Voodoo Records

The Filth Element - Track Listing:

1.Leeloo

2.Korben Dallas

3.Diva Plavalaguna

4.Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg

5.Mr. Shadow

6.The Divine Light

Band Members

Zak Esparza - Guitar/Vocals

Geoff Jones - Drums

Ernie Ballerz - Bass

Rob Trujillo - Guitar

Bio:

Trapped Within Burning Machinery began as a one-man sludge project in 2007 when Zak Esparza (lead guitar/vocalist) needed an extended outlet for the ideas and riffs plaguing his consciousness. After recording a few demos, Zak recruited close friend Geoff Jones to play drums and Juan Rodriguez to fill in on bass. The trio wrote and recorded their raw, powerful first demo, Evolutionary Transmitted Disease, and self-released it in the summer of 2009. In January 2011, the band entered the studio to record their first full-length album, The Putrid Stench of Decaying Self, this time with new bassist Ernie Ballerz and second guitarist Robert Trujillo. TWBM then released the album through Black Voodoo Records on October 5th, 2012. In early 2014, the band released a limited split tape with Long Beach's bass-and-drums sludge duo Pigeonwing.

After a period of extreme discontent with life in general during the Putrid Stench Of Decaying Self-era, TWBM wanted to continue with the same kind of dark subject matter but from shifting perspectives. So, with the addition of a third guitarist, James Inglett, they began writing music and thinking of lyric ideas. One day, guitarist Robert Trujillo got inspired and blurted out something involving "the blue lady from The Fifth Element.” They had all been huge fans of the movie, and after pondering on it, became obsessed with the idea of riffing off of themes from the movie. 

One song about the Diva Plavalaguna turned into an hour long, doom metal space opera and they submerged themselves into it. Using the characters in the story as hosts, they found that they could write from many different angles and bounce around stylistically without straying from the core sound of the band. The idea of an ancient being traveling to future Earth in hopes of saving it from the epitome of evil really spoke to them, because, as said by Zak Esparza, “We're fuckin’ nerds and the lessons of love and compassion in the story really round out the negativity we usually spew in our music.” They got to write songs from the perspectives of characters that don't have much too back story in this two-hour film, so it gave them some breathing room to do their own thing without being confined to some strict canon or lore.

Ultimately, the marriage of sludge and lore comes together to create The Filth Element, a more hopeful-sounding record than ever recorded before by TWBM, though the sludge is very much alive and well—and the dark places are never far from the theme at hand

Review:

This is the 2nd full length from a band of tarpit workers who excel in doom & sludge and live up to their brutal name. The album is based on "The Fifth Element" which is a science fiction tale about a supreme being who saves the earth with the help of an unlikely earthling. Each song on the album is dedicated to some of the characters (as well as entities:"Mr.Shadow"-the grand evil destroyer who grows in size when absorbing negative energy and "The Divine Light"-the combined power of the elements to eradicate the ultimate evil. This is where the similarity ends between them. The movie is colorful and entertaining with a cast of characters all involved in the destruction or deliverance of mankind. The album and it's songs are dirty and filthy, unlike the vibrant futuristic cast costumes and vivid fanfare associated with the movie.

This is a rewarding sonic experience that will at times paralyze in order to prepare transport, not unlike a cryogenic coma during flight to another dimension. You will hear grand riffs, shrieking feedback & goblin roars. You will hear subdued instrument work, earth tones and human pleads. You will hear plucking, shimmering, growling, pulsating, droning & pounding throughout this doom metal saga.

All these different sounds culminate in telling a story based on the universe being saved by an alien love. The science fiction epics of The Fifth Element, Alien and Blade Runner all share similar subject matter dealing with the destruction of mankind through mankind and the search for love, but the music on this album reminds me more of the bleak, technical, wet, slimy machine-Gigeresque landscape associated with Alien or Blade Runner.

This is headphone music. This is a constant storm with periods of tumultuous wind, lightning flash, and thunder claps mixed with quiet rainfall and rustling leaves all wrapped in sporadic heavy fog or mist.This is a special gift...a dark prophecy wrapped in a Harkonnen steam bath. According to the story, the "grand evil" only comes around every 5,000 years...I hope we don't have to wait that long for another old, yet futuristic, adaptation concept experience and fantastic human survival album masterpiece. I can't wait to get my hands on the double gatefold LP. Be thankful that music like this is being made again.

Words by Nick Palmisano

Thanks To Cat Jones at Southern Cross PR for promo. The Filth Element will be available to buy from Midnite Collective / Black Voodoo Records on DD/Vinyl from 21^st July 2015.

For More Information

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