Funeral Rain Press Corps

Candlelight Records today confirms October 26 as the North American release date for The Isolationist, the new album from Krieg. Recorded at Volume Studios in Chicago, the nearly hour-long album will challenge the listener with its primitive yet complex sound. It is Krieg‘s sixth full-length recording, and the first since 2006’s Blue Miasma.

Working with producer Sanford Parker (Nachtmystium, Pelican, Yakuza), The Isolationist finds Krieg further experimenting with sound. The rage and dissonance fans have come to expect from the New Jersey band emerges even more frenzied making the journey through this album far more intense than on previous efforts. Vocalist Imperial admits, “The Isolationist presents Krieg at it’s most evolved yet primal state thus far in fifteen years of causing problems for people’s hearing. It is my ugliest and most personal child, going deep into the darkest places in my own history on earth. I’m a fucked up wreck, and this record shows that.”

The Isolationist features performances from guitarist Joseph Van Fossen (Noctuary), bassist Wrest (Leviathan), and drummer Chris Grigg (Woe). “It was an intense process, considering everyone only had a few days in and out due to their own hellish schedules. I was fortunate to work with dedicated artists who each brought their own identity to the project and a good understanding behind the meaning of the record.”

Krieg has been an integral part of the American black metal scene since forming in 1995. In addition to their full-length albums, including 2003’s acclaimed The Black House (which Terrorizer Magazine noted it as “one of the ten most important American black metal records”), Krieg has recorded and released numerous demos, split and live recordings. Fans tally more than 40 individual items as part of the band’s creative efforts. In addition to Krieg, vocalist Imperial has several other band projects including N.i.l., Apothecary.Sound.Lodge and his doom band March Into the Sea. He is also a member of Twilight which features members of Nachtmystium, Leviathan, The Atlas Moth, Isis, Minsk and more.

The Isolationist Track Listing:
1. No Future
2. Photographs from an Asylum
3. All Paths to God
4. Ambergeist
5. Depakote
6. Religion III
7. Blue of Noon
8. Decaying Inhalations
9. An the Stars Fell On
10. Remission
11. Dead Windows

Krieg on MySpace.

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Wow! Double consonants ist krieg!

Interesting enough, I took a Rorschach Test that looked an awful lot like this album cover…  I still have fully recovered from the electroshock therapy… Anyway, on to the bitter, biting cold of All Shall Fall (FUN FACT: After I wrote that opening paragraph, my computer FROZE! No joke!)

Ah. The immortal sound of… Immortal! Grim. Indifferent. Menacing. Three thorn riddled branches stemming from the same gnarled, ages old tree. Three mighty, evil barbarians that bring a plague of unrelenting black metal to the forefront of sterile genre. Ironically renewing the fire with an old-school dose of what they do best! All Shall Fall is the next logical step after Sons Of Northern Darkness; well produced, aggressive where it needs to be, epic at all times and completely unforgiving (I’ve heard some go as far to say “Sons pt 2”, but I think that‘s a bit much). It’s classic Immortal! What more do you really need to know?

Overall: All Shall Fall is easily my number two album of Immortal’s. Sure this review is a little late in the game but hey, at least it’s here. Past the Gates to Blashyrkh and get your hands on All Shall Fall!

9/10

Immortal On MySpace

Also Posted On E-MetalSpace

Genre: Progressive Black Metal
Label: Southern Lord

Reformed with a mostly new line-up, featuring Blake Judd from shithot black metal band Nachtmystium, Twilight return to the scene.
A true supergroup of black metal, and mostly from very different styles of black metal, progressive metal, and doom, Twilight is more than the sum of its parts. Because these are all guys that are very knowledgeable as to what they are doing, and considering this was written as a truly collaborative effort, unlike the Twilight debut, this is a much stronger album too.
The music takes at times more rock structures, but with very blackened overtones. I think this comes not from black metal thinking but the progressive thinking of the FOUR guitarists (Blakemystium, Wrest, Aaron Turner from Isis, and Stavros Giannopolous from The Atlas Moth) and the vocals are throat destroying and amazing. I honestly do not know how N. Imperial does such work. The drums and bass are done by Wrest himself, and are done amazingly.
All told, Monument to End Time is a gorgeous piece of work, and truly is genre defining and breaking at the same time. If you don’t get it, you’re missing the fuck out.
10 out of 10.

Twilight on Southern Lord.