Metal Riot

SubRosa, Kayo Dot, Lord Mantis, KEN mode, Botanist, and Lazer/Wulf have also been confirmed for the 20th edition of Roadburn Festival 

Wolvhammer are leaders of the pack because of consistent quality, even more so than quantity. That is not a penis joke. Clawing Into Black Sun has the attention to minor details yet larger surrender to the music that makes it one of the top black metal releases in recent daze. Now the band have announced tour dates with Mortals and you should be frothin’ at the mouth, rockers.

Click HERE for dates.

Wolvhammer have made an incredible record with Clawing Into Black Sun. What I love about it is that the band doesn’t sound like they are really pushing the envelope, but on purpose.They know the sound they want, a sort of American black metal sound with some extra dissonance and grime thrown in, fairly traditional. The thing that elevates it is these songs are very memorable, nearly catchy. I don’t mean that this is some mall black metal crap, rather that on their 3rd LP the Wolvhammer boys have refined their focus to a feral point. Even if you zone out to this album while doing something else, you are not gonna turn it off. And suddenly a riff or snarling vocal will reach out of the blackness and grab you by the throat.

The title track and finale is gonna be my starting point, because While the whole record is really good (especially the riveting march of “Death Division”), the title track is simply anthemic. The diry guitar of Jeff Wilson (of Abigail Williams fame) boils the oil in your veins while the rhythm section charge like armored direwolves killing nazis somewhere in hell. The riffing is just so powerful and tight. “Slaves To The Grime” is not some weird, slightly altered Skid Row homage, but a mid tempo roaring number that could almost, oddly, pass for an Amon Amarth song with Celtic Frost grunts and a vocal that says “I’m living in a fucking garbage heeeaaaappp”! So yeah, it fucking really rules. And the slamming, lamb slaughtering slow solo section is bonkers bat shit head thumping awesome. There is major walls closing in stuff going on here. I hope these guys have nice moms who call them every once in awhile.

The nearly 8 minute “A Light That Doesn’t Yield” is not just a title that vaguely reminds me of all the shitty drivers I saw today who nearly killed me, but rather a moaning and spacious abyssal drift that would make Enslaved proud. This song is like an elegy for all pain, slipping with strong will and fortitude through agony and into realization that they can’t take your soul from you, any god, devil or person, unless you let them. It’s an epic fucking song.

Cover art by Stavros of The Atlas Moth (and band mate of Wilson’s in Chrome Waves) handles the cover art on one of the most satisfying and recommended releases I will throw your way this year.

Space noise gods The Atlas Moth return with The Old Believer on the always superb profound lore stable. I will always love this band for being so unique and doing their own thing. Any Moth release you are bound to get some very tripped out and introspective shit paired with raw black metal howls and a growing emphasis on semi-melodic sung passages that call to mind early Hammers Of Misfortune. It’s a striking blend of indie, sludge and psyche-doom that spirals out of the third eye like cloudy thoughts releasing first drops of rain before a deluge.”Collider” and lead off track “Jet Black Passenger” build on the loneliness of An Ache For The Distance while the band overall just sounds more pro than ever (but not at the expense of their edge). If anything they are refining what they do while still just as cool as they were out the gate on the raw and chemical doused 2009 LP A Glorified piece Of Blue Sky (still perhaps my favorite, if only because you always remember falling in love with a band’s first album you were exposed to with fondness.)

The Old Believer cover art looks like a cross between American Horror Story and a Jarboe release, and the music inside is just as affecting as the visuals. The ominous yet inspired “The Sea Beyond” speaks of seas full of alien, crystal entities. The whole record seems to yearn for lost or yet to be found knowledge. ‘Sacred Vine” opens with sparse drums before one of the most thrilling passages from the band yet thumps down on your skull. The best thing  about these guys is they make use of practically every frequency of the guitar at their disposal. Similar to The Ocean’s recent gem Pelagial, you get high pitched droning and hypnotic shimmering sections, mid tempo chug that is way smarter than metalcore tropes and a sense of real movement. Close your eyes and you are sure to have your imagination sparked, images dancing on the back of your eyelids. you wont even need ayahuasca to feel impelled to search within for growth. Hearing music like this and artists working hard to evolve, at least for me, makes me want to create incessantly myself. The halls of inspiration open wide and invite participation.

Click HERE for more and to hear “Collider”.

Everyone’s favorite North American nature enthusiasts/dark matter gods Agalloch have finished work on the full length follow up to already classic 2012 release Marrow Of The Spirit. Then again, pretty much everything Agalloch do is instant classic status because they are just that fuckin’ good.

If you aren’t sufficiently pumped already, perhaps this tidbit from the official Profound Lore press release will wet your appetite:

“Captured by legendary producer/engineer Billy Anderson at Cloud City Studios in Portland, Oregon (and mixed by Anderson likewise at Everything Hz), The Serpent & The Sphere represents the most glorious sounding AGALLOCH album to date. Making a guest appearance is guitarist Nathanaël Larochette of Canadian neo-folk band Musk Ox who wrote and provided the album’s acoustic interludes”

Just in case you aren’t metal fans and somehow wandered into a dark forest that led to a site called Metal Riot, well…Billy Anderson is the man! Agalloch’s first song from the record is “Celestial Effigy” (great title) and continues the forward thinking yet earthy and rooted in grand traditions of black metal sound the band has popularized. These guys somehow get better and better. I never thought they’d top Ashes Against the Grain but they just keep delivering. Faustian Echoes was like their version of The Decline by NOFX.

For tracklisting and to hear “Celestial Effigy” click Here. I am gonna start to cry now.