Funeral Rain Press Corps

French vanguard Alcest, responsible for the influential Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde and its masterful follow-up Écailles De Lune, are set to tour North America once again beginning later this month. Opening as direct support for Enslaved, Alcest begin the 19-date trek on September 23rd in Springfield, Virginia and conclude it on October 14th in West Hollywood, California, extensively traveling through Canada in between. Ghost were originally slated to be among the tour package, but unfortunately had to drop off recently due to visa complications. Here are the confirmed dates/venues:

September 23 – Springfield, VA @ Jaxx
September 24 – Millvale, PA @ Mr. Small’s Theatre
September 25 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
September 26 – Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East
September 27 – Québec City, QC @ Impérial
September 29 – Montreal, QC @ Café Campus
September 30 – Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
October 1 – Columbus, OH @ Outland Live
October 2 – Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
October 3 – St. Paul, MN @ Station 4
October 5 – Winnipeg, MB @ WECC
October 6 – Regina, SK @ The Exchange
October 7 – Edmonton, AB @ The Starlite Room
October 8 – Calgary, AB @ Dickens
October 10 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
October 11 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
October 12 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
October 13 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
October 14 – West Hollywood, CA @ Troubadour

As announced earlier, Alcest have revealed the title to their third album as Les voyages de l’âme (English: “The journeys of the soul“). The record is tentatively scheduled for early 2012 release through Prophecy Productions, with further release news to announced shortly. Alcest are widely credited with bringing in a dreamier, more shoegazing element into extreme metal the past few years, influencing many others to follow in their wake. Surely, Les voyages de l’âme will be yet another monumental release for the band, cemeting their modern legendry that much more.

Genres: Doom, Progressive, Sludge
Label: Relapse

The first album in four years from these Arkansas gents yields a set of mixed results. And all of them are good. There is some seriously bone crushing and ear damaging music held within Rest, and with songs that breach the sixteen minute mark, you better be bringing your attention span to this headbanging contest. On the other hand though, there are some seriously mind expanding (but still ear damaging) parts to Rest. For example, “The Culling”, the sixteen-minute-plus song I mentioned, features some gorgeous acoustic/electric riffage that enables one to space out and relax before the storm renews itself. The same goes for “It Was Only A Dream”, the final track.

If you are a fan of Rwake’s other work, then this is a definite must for you to get. If you’re interested in listening to some proggy doom, then you should get your hands on this album.

8 out of 10.

Rwake on Facebook.

Genres: Doom, Melodic Death Metal
Label: The End Records

Chicago’s masters of gloom return once again with eight tracks of dark, death-tinged metal that I just can’t stop listening to.
Head crushing heaviness meets heart wrenching emotion. Cathartic and depressing at the same time, Aphotic was obviously written in the very Temple of the Riff itself. Or perhaps the Novembers Doom rehearsal area. Whichever.
Some of the songs were actually written with more input from the new bassist Mike Feldman, which gives the bass a very different room to breathe in for this album, and with Paul’s voice seeming to be at it’s strongest ever, Novembers Doom look ready to finally take the throne that they deserve.
My favorite tracks are “Buried”, “Six Sides”, “Harvest Scythe”, and the female vocal filled, almost gothic acoustic track “What Could Have Been”.
9 out of 10.

Novembers Doom on Facebook.

Genre: Gothic Metal, Doom

Label: Napalm Records

Ah, Draconian. When referring to a law or the application therefor of, it means to be extremely harsh and/or outdated. But when referring to the Swedish gothic doom band, this is most certainly not the case! I wonder if there is an actual correlation between the name they chose and their music? Maybe they sing in the language of the dragons?

As soon as things start moving along, I’m instantly reminded of Battlelore. A tired and overdone comparison I’m sure, but an accurate one at that (Yes, I know that Draconian predates their Finnish label mates by about five years, but I heard Battlelore first so the comparison stands further). Opening track The Drowning Age is a behemoth of steel thorns and rows and rows of severed heads on pikes! Every time I hear the line, “Let’s bring our Gods to the gallows; a new moon will shine on you!” I get the goosebumps!  (Plus, any song that mentions the Chimera is insta-win in my book since it’s my daughter’s name.)

If there’s one thing that Draconian does right in A Rose For The Apocalypse, it’s the darkly romantic mood it casts in both the lyrical and instrumental senses. Elysian Night is an excellent example of this with it’s slow tempo, melodic female vocals (also the best song to just sit and groove on her singing as well) and expertly sectioned synths. The later is something that most bands of this kind of genre tend to overuse or turn into a gimmick. Thankfully, Draconian does not.

However, what they do overuse is they same basic song structure for just about every song on the album. If you don’t mind your gothic doom a little on the repetitive side (and how can you not since it’s another pitfall that these type of bands fall into) then this won’t bug you in the slightest.

Overall: A Rose For The Apocalypse is an extremely enjoyable album. From the depths of the nightmare evoking growls to height of the ethereal lyrics, Draconian drinks from the chalice of awesome!  …even if none of them sound like Sean Connery. (BOOM! Dragonheart reference!)

9/10

Draconian Official

Draconian On Facebook

Draconian On MySpace

Genre: Stoner Metal
Label: Napalm Records

After being fired by Roadrunner Records for firing their singer, these instrumental stoner metal innovators found a fair amount of notoriety. But then without Roadrunner or a singer, they moved onto Spitfire then Napalm and have since (or so it seems) found even more ways to create moving, instrumental metal.
Riff after riff is churned out on V, and not a single one is wasted or filler. Each song (still only titled with a number) is a perfect desert jewel that shines brightly with it’s own strange, sometimes psychedelic light. They could all easily feature vocals, as all have verses, choruses, and bridges. But thankfully all but three have such a distraction from the awesome tone.
I’m especially particular to Rich Mullins’ bass tone and technique. Very classic sounding, but still his own.
The songs “The Cynic”, “Jimmy Dean”, and “Never Say Die” are the ones with a singer, a man by the name of Daniel Davies, also from the band Year Long Disaster. His voice is perfect for K2B’s reverb drenched music, and is a highlight of the album.
And yes, “Never Say Die” is a Black Sabbath cover, and it’s a fucking killer rendition. Faster, with a very different energy. The man sounds nothing like Ozzy (who does, really?) but he definitely owns this song, making it a Karma to Burn track more than a Black Sabbath cover.
V kicks ass.
7.5 out of 10.

Karma to Burn on Facebook.