Funeral Rain Press Corps

Ah, Shaytan Productions. You’ve been so patient with me over these past couple of months. You see, I’ve been sitting on this review for about three months now and I’m FINALLY getting around to listening to it. I don’t know why, either. It’s destructive Italian black metal with some English and German lyrics with an Egyptian theme… *whew*

With that being said, there are a lot of other things that I could say about this offering. A LOT of things. But instead, I’ll sum it all up with this simple statement: HOLY FUCKING SHIT THERE’S A LOT OF AWESOME STUFF GOING ON IN THIS EP!!!  …Ok, you’ll probably need more than that to go on, won’t you?

First off, let’s talk about those vocals. Fucking killer! Quintessential black metal vocals that range from typical shrieks to tortured throaty screams! Every bit of which is used very effectively to tell various stories about mummification, purification and the end of the world! The guitar in this is more on the minimal side of things, but is once again, used very effectively. The riffs are tuned way down low, giving us that earth rumbling, “the end is nigh” sort of feeling. During the course of Awaiting The Golden Age, I had to keep checking the sky to make sure that it was really falling or turning blood fucking red! And now, the background meat of this EP: the synths and the like. Whenever there is programming in my black metal, I tend to get a little iffy about it. “Ewww.” I think. But solo honcho Hell-IO-Kabbalus managed to make what should of been a tinny, unattractive offering into a powerhouse of auditory awesome with orchestral stings, xylophones and various strings populating this twenty one minute EP. Somehow, H-I-K made Mantra For The End Of Times feel much longer in the process as well. Not that it really matters though. You’ll probably do like I did and just keep it on repeat for a day or two, looking for and find new things to love about it many times over.

Simply epic. Every note.

Overall: This is one of those releases that you just cannot in good conscience, let people not know about and can’t seem to recommend enough. I implore you good readers (at least, those of you who even kinda like black metal), track down this EP and snatch it up! You won’t regret it!

10/10

Kalki Avatara On MySpace

Genre: Ambient, Industrial, Experimental

Label: Malignant Records

And here we are again with another collection of new, re-released and previously unreleased music. This time, it’s from The Swedish Ironic Commando known as Negru Voda. Oh… and did I mention that there is THREE DISCS WORTH of music in Vald De Luxe? This is going to be an endurance trial that could end in ambient madness, isn’t it?

Three Hours Later…

…I think I jizzed a little.

Negru Voda’s four years in the making, Vald De Luxe is easily the most diverse sounding ambient album I’ve ever laid my ears on! There’s a ton of distorted vocals, lots of mild static, soft feedback in some spots that EXPLOEDES on you if you’re not ready for it, wrenches hitting pipes, mothers slapping babies, a kitchen sink and a partrige in a pare tree! I think it goes without saying at this point but, Vald De Luxe is DENSE! One of the reasons might be due to the fact that this collection is split up into different albums.

Disc 1: Vald De Luxe – This disc houses the newest material that is, in my opinion, the strongest material of the three. Lots of light and airy tracks that are laid in contrast next to some pretty fucking heavy tracks! Most noticeably, Infected By Remix which is a remixed version of the gut-ripping V:28 song, Infected By Life (if you don‘t know who V:28 is, do yourself a favor and check them out!).

Disc 2: Dark Territory – An appropriately named disc if there ever was one! Originally released in 1998 to the tune of five hundred copies, Dark Territory is a down and dirty mixture of industrial and dark ambient. Dark Territory transports you to an Eraserhead-ish land of rubble, mutants and black and white industrial areas. It’s literally the stuff of nightmares.

Disc 3: Whispers From The Silent Shaft – This one is the most diverse in terms of release type. Most of the tracks come from different periods in the artist’s career, so there’s a schizophrenic element to this disc with certain styles clashing. Yes, clashing. But not ever really breaking the flow at all. And what’s this? A live track to take us out with? How thoughtful!

Overall: Vald De Luxe is a monster of a release! Each of these three discs would of done great standing on their individual merit, so you know that a release with all three (if you can, play them back-to-back-to-back) is going to send you through a damn wall!

10/10

Negru Voda On MySpace

Genre: Dark Ambient, Experimental
Label: Malignant Records

I was wondering how long it would take before I’d run into something from Malignant Records that didn’t do much for me. Ok, that isn’t quite true or fair. Wolfskin (featuring Last Industrial Estate) does a terrific job at creating depressing noises and setting up a more than enjoyable ambience for the listener to, say, study trigonometry or fall asleep to. But as for just plain sitting and stoning out to, I’m not all that sure.

Album opener Arrival, is a strong enough track to lead off with, with it’s slow to start build and powerful wind-ish effect. I find it to be reminiscent of standing in an arid plain where a sandstorm buffering you from every direction for hours on end. And then we transition into track two of five, Metaphysical. Now, with a title like that, I figured that this was going to be an eight minute journey of self-exploration, or maybe something a little less intense like a slow waltz on my own gray matter. Turns out, we’re supposed to be content with a continued variation of Arrival. Ok… that’s fine I guess. Just don’t let it carry over into track three, Stonegates Of Silence.

…you got lucky. Track three juts out from the grown like a seventy story tall monolith, casting a menacing shadow over the rest of the tracks on this album. Both figuratively, with it’s pulsing blasts of intensity and ringing of what I can only imagine was a bell the size of a small planet and literally by clocking in at fifteen minutes and twenty-four seconds long! I can honestly say that this is the best of the five.

The last two tracks end up being a bit of a wash for me. The feel like wasted effort on the artists part and sounded like something I’ve heard before in previous submissions. But to be fair, if I heard Stonegates Of Silence before those other releases, then the score may have been a little high. I guess this was just the luck of the draw.

Overall: Honestly, this album’s only crime was being listened to after the likes of Derelict World and Astral Unity. Otherwise, I say that this is another solid album from the Bastion of the Bleak, Malignant Records.

8/10

Wolfskin On MySpace

Brooklyn kings of atmospheric doom, A Storm of Light, are gearing up for a short stint of U.S. tour dates next week that include performances with experimental metal/noise exhibitionists Today Is The Day and reunited stoner metallers Sleep before heading to Europe for a month’s worth of shows in October. Said guitarist/vocalist John Graham of the upcoming shows: “The next couple of months are going to be a lot of fun for us. We’re lucky enough to share the stage with the legendary Sleep, brutalists Today Is the Day, and then embark on our fourth European tour. Awesome!”

A Storm of Light U.S./Euro Tour Dates 2010

08/31/10 32st St Pub – Pittsburgh, PA w/ Today Is The Day
09/01/10 Ottobar – Baltimore, MD w/ Today Is The Day
09/03/10 Santos Party House – New York, NY w/ Today Is The Day
09/04/10 AS220 – Providence, RI w/ Today Is The Day
09/07/10 Starlight Ballroom – Philadelphia, PA w/ Sleep
09/08/10 Brooklyn Masonic Temple – Brooklyn, NY w/ Sleep, Lichens
10/01/10 Brudenell Social Club – Leeds, UK
10/02/10 Whelans – Dublin, Irelandw/ Stand Up Guy
10/03/10 The Spring And Airbrake – Belfast, Ireland w/ Stand Up Guy
10/04/10 Captain’s Rest – Glasgow, Scotland
10/05/10 The Croft – Bristol, UK
10/06/10 The Underworld – London, UK w/ Sedula, Sons Of Alpha Centauri
10/07/10 Nouveau Casino – Paris, France
10/08/10 Simplon – Groningen, Netherlands
10/09/10 013 – Tilburg, Netherlands
10/10/10 Juha West Matinee Show – Stuttgart, Germany
10/12/10 Rhiz – Vienna, Austria
10/13/10 Kset – Zagreb, Croatia
10/14/10 Randall – Bratislava, Slovakia
10/16/10 Firlej – Wroclaw, Poland
10/17/10 Powiekszenie – Warsaw, Poland
10/20/10 Nabaklab – Riga, Latvia
10/21/10 Nosturi – Helsinki, Finland
10/23/10 Garage – Oslo, Norway
10/24/10 Debaser – Stockholm, Sweden
10/25/10 Loppen – Copenhagen, Denmark
10/26/10 Hafenklang – Hamburg, Germany
10/27/10 Feierwerk – Munich, Germany
10/28/10 Spazio – Turin, Italy
10/29/10 Urban – Perugia, Italy
10/30/10 Init Club – Rome, Italy

A Storm of Light — guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Josh Graham (Neurosis visuals, Blood And Time, Battle Of Mice), bassist/vocalist Domenic Seita (formerly of Tombs and Asea) and guitarist/keyboardist Joel Hamilton (Book Of Knots, Battle Of Mice) — released their second full-length, entitled Forgive Us Our Trespasses via Neurot last October.

Genre: Experimental, Progressive Metal
Label: Supernaturalcat

A 45 minute long song split into five movements. Each movement gets a track on the CD. Interesting…
I’m really liking this. Very meditative, Tool-like qualities, with some heavy as hell Black Sabbath doom, and Rob Zombie sound effects in the background. It’s kind of hard to describe, I’ll be honest, but EVE is a kick ass album, and I definitely recommend it.
7.5 out of 10.

Ufomammut on MySpace.