Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genres: Black Metal, Shoegaze
Label: Prophecy Productions

This is one fucking gorgeous sounding album of French blackened shoegaze. It definitely reminds me of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless with a definitely more heavy approach.
Lyrics are beautifully done in French, sometimes screamed and sometimes sung, and the songs themselves are fairly lengthy and full of melancholic emotion. From what I’ve been able to read, Neige wrote the concept to be about someone who leaves this world to go to another, “…Like a passage to another reality, another state of existence….”
It’s an easy review folks. It’s a killer album that’s full of complexities that bend the mind.
8 out of 10.

Alcest on MySpace.

Genres: Doom, Progressive Black Metal
Label: Ván Records

My first exposure to this German band, which is the solo project of Nagelfar’s drummer Alexander von Meilenwald, Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite is astounding. I honestly wish I could have first heard TRoB when they were first introduced to the world, but this, the third full length, is a good introduction itself.
It’s some of the most progressive black metal I’ve heard, absolutely forward thinking and taking many of the traditional conventions that have become somewhat cliché in black metal today and throwing them onto their faces. The fact that there is an (un)healthy amount of doom inside of this as well is a huge plus for me. And with songs reaching lengths of 12 minutes and 28 seconds (“Mount Sinai Moloch”), and not becoming a boring suckfest, I’m pretty much in my glory.
9 out of 10.

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Independent

Finnish black metal with a bit of a rocky influence, Astride Over the Grave is a wicked demo.
The guitars and bass are touched by Bathory, the drums have a very snappy snare going on, and the whole comes together into a very cohesive slab of evil black metal.
My only major qualm is Raivo, the vocalist. His voice is great most of the time, and the way he uses it is awesome all of the time, but the sound of it occasionally grates on me. I should note, however, that Raivo is no longer in the band, replaced by Raato, so I wonder what they will sound like now. The minor qualm I have is the demo’s length – it’s only five songs. I wish it were longer.
In all, this is a very promising look into a band I think can become quite well known in Finnish black metal circles, and I hope to hell they can become known outside of their home country more too. I also hope they send me their next release too.
7.5 out of 10.

Graveborne on MySpace.