2014-11-07

Music Reviews : Wrekmeister Harmonies – Then It All Came Down (2014)


 
Music Reviews : Wrekmeister Harmonies – Then It All Came Down (2014)

This one track LP from Wrekmeister Harmonies, including many guests (Riley Walker, Chris Brokaw, Wrest, Lydia Lane Stout, Chanel Pease, Kate Spelling, Indian, Mark Solotroff) , feels like an album its creator wanted the listener to continuously get wrapped into its more than half an hour long diatribe.

Passing through different stages of independent music with some more recognizable traits like the black metal presence or the female emule of The Microphones. WH named themself after the cult Hungarian film Wreckmeister Harmonies from Bela Tarr and their music is repeats the formulaic of Mulholland Drive by David Lynch. In the DVD release of Lynch’s film, it doesn’t have chapters and the viewer is forced to watch it from start to beginning. It is a deliberate decision from its director.

To continue with the analogy with Mulholland Drive, which is an ode to Hollywood, films, studios, the star system, Then It All Came Down is also a visit into music and its many genres. A cacophonous chorus of sounds and emotions. A musical piece that takes many listens to fully appreciate and get its surprising circumvolutions. At times only a little buzz is present compared to the total chaos of screaming and doom drumming.

With patience, the listener gets the reward for the wait. Like drone or noise music there are no comparable and the better judge for this album is the listener himself who will appreciate to different levels the blend of the obvious and many influences of Wrekmeister Harmonies.

As the author of those lines, my point of view is that I am greatly surprise by my first encounter with this collective and the mix of genres and sounds was a great experience for myself. There are some heavy riffs while some moments reflect a unexpected sensibility and a depth that few musicians would be eager to explore. For me, it is a nice discovery and an album that will accompany me at work in moments of profound concentration for a long time.
8.4

2014-11-05

Music Review : Wolves In The Throne Room – Celestite (2014)





Music Review : Wolves In The Throne Room – Celestite (2014)

This companion piece to Celestial Lineage, the near-masterpiece from these Washington state black metallers stating that they are not playing black metal but are obviously inspired by Ulver and Burzum’s decadent yet beautiful mastery challenge of BM while saying their biggest influence is Neurosis. Living on a farm and praising a return to organic form and life, the members of WITTR have recorded two of the best American black metal records to date; the aforementioned Celestial Lineage and Two Hunters.

Their recent release is an instrumental exploration of esoteric textures and sonorities that reminds of interesting interludes in Burzum and Ulver’s most notorious albums. An entire opus solely concentrated on ambiance and musical odyssey is pretty ballsy. With all the ambition that WITTR enters in this territory, an artist like M83 would have killed it. But here, WITTR misses the mark and should have released this album under another name just to separate the band from the experimentalists. Just like Sunn O))), who explores many alleys with other musicians they sign with their co-artists. WITTR did an okay job with a difficult task. It feels like a challenge the wolf could not chew by himself. Maybe a collab with a more experimented drone/noise music artist could have helped them raise the bar.

With Initiation at Neudeg Alm, there are glimpses of hope and a nice sound that opens the mystery angle that black metal and instrumental music share. It doesn’t need to be raised to epic scales.

Celestite is not a complete disaster but don’t get into this and wait for black metal or even metal. It is interesting for fans of the band to follow this new direction but it could have been more transitional or even a part of a double album with Celestial Lineage more than a piece of itself. Sometimes an artist has to get it out of his system to continue its evolution and get to stronger levels. Let’s hope it was the case here. Because Wolves In The Throne Room still has many promising records in the belly.
6.5

2014-11-04

Music Review : Alcest – Shelter (2014)


 
Music Review : Alcest – Shelter (2014)

Alcest takes his origins in black metal but slowly evolved into a shoegaze act playing on My Bloody Valentine’s field more than Burzum’s. The album Shelter is an entire dedication to trippy rock and shoegaze. Since Deafheaven’s Sunbather, which was a perfected version of BM and shoegaze in 2013, many BM bands have crossed the lined of purist kvlt BM.

Alcest is now far from its BM roots but still in a territory of its own. At first it is a bit surprising to find a bleak comparison other than the aforementioned bands. But I would reference Katatonia and its latest entries of rock infused with darker landscapes. It is the atmosphere and feeling as a whole that still makes this a somber record that could entice fans of the early Alcest.

It is an interesting record for its whole texture but its monotony and lack of flavour is too heavy in the balance compared with its ambition that is limited by the change of style that Alcest has occured. It is a grey album that transpire a melancholy and a spleen that is not elevated by its music and lacks in overall tenure and a monochrome structure that sinks slowly the record from song to song.

It is an entry into a genre that is difficult to master and a miss that could not be a hit but a lesson that experiences are permitted and an average album doesn’t sink a band but a series could.  

6.1
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