Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genre: Progressive Black Metal
Label: Southern Lord

Pushing black metal into further left field regions, while keeping it firmly rooted in it’s origins can’t be an easy feat. But Wolves in the Throne Room seem to do it just fine, perhaps even making it an easy feat after three albums and two demos before Celestial Lineage.
Musically, this album is beyond what many people would call black metal. WITTR are taking cues, it seems, from Isis (whose own Aaron Turner makes chanting appearances on “Subterranean Initiation” and “Permanent Changes in Consciousness”), Xasthur, Leviathan, and even touches of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Junius with some classic American rock leanings, as well as Darkthrone, Celtic Frost, Emperor, and even Dimmu Borgir at times.

The artwork for Celestial Lineage is amazing. Photographs, presumably taken near Calliope, depict a peaceful, beautiful rural setting, with Nathan and Aaron in the distance in a falling-down forest on the back cover. The sleeves for the records are equally photographed, featuring mountains, forest, and a deforested area as well. The vinyl itself for both records is some of the blackest I’ve ever seen, the sheen on it is magical, and at 180gm the platters have a good weight.
In all, it really meshes together, the physical beauty of the records and the auditory beauty that is on the records.

“Thuja Magus Imperium” is in many ways a classy black metal song. It starts off ambient-infused and has Jessika Kenney singing wonderful vocals, then Nathan takes over with his blackened lungs and riffs. A wonderful solo happens in it, which in the notes is called the “Black Acid Solo” (a perfect name for it), and it’s performed by Milky Burgess. The main riffs are reminiscent of slower Darkthrone, with a very haunting quality to it that brings Emperor’s Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk to mind.
“Permanent Changes in Consciousness” is very much an ambient track, with wind and meditative chanting being the main sounds. There is a wonderful underlayer of percussion and windchime-esque sounds. Lovely, but far too short for such a great ambient gem.
“Subterranean Initiation” starts off fast and hard, keeping the wind sounds but turning them into a gale rather than a breeze. If the more cinematic elements of modern Dimmu Borgir were performed by Celtic Frost, this song might result. Very strong riff structure that moves you along, rather than allowing you to come with it, is combined with beautiful keys. All of this gets stripped away for a short time, however, and we are left with only a bare guitar momentarily, and the song slows right down for about a minute, only to return to it’s Celtic Borgir beginnings. Faith Coloccia does additional chants on this song, with Timb Harris writing and performing the “uprooting string arrangements”.
“Rainbow Illness” is another instrumental, led primarily by keys and possible field recordings. Really good, but again, too short.
“Woodland Cathedral” seems to be the baby of Jessika Kenney, with her taking control of choral vocal performance, arrangement, lyrics, and organ. The woman is amazing, her voice strong and uplifting, while her organ work really brings you down to earth. This is almost in no way a black metal song, other than the undertones of guitar, bass, and drums, which slowly come closer to the fore, which makes it even more of a black metal song, to me. This song really reminds me of parts of the Treasure album by Cocteau Twins.
“Astral Blood” starts off as a total second wave black metal song, with riffing and drumming sounding like a drier Darkthrone, until the keys kick in at least. Then it becomes all Wolves in the Throne Room. Thick vintage tone comes from their amps, and analog synths bubble up; no longer is this dry. Wet with emotion, “Astral Blood” may well be my favorite song on the album. I love the harp/wind section by Zeynep Okyu Yilmaz at the 4ish-minute mark. It’s just so moving, it’s hard to concentrate on anything else. Honestly, this whole song is like that. It definitely pulls at the heartstrings.
“Prayer of Transformation” picks up on the ending of “Astral Blood”, then morphs into it’s own lumbering beast. The entire song moves at a slow pace, bringing a doomy flavor to the occult lyrics. The synths are just brilliant, and what I think is more field recordings make quiet undercurrents throughout. There is nothing extreme about this song, except Nathan’s vocals, but the whole is extremely moving. I could sleep to this, and perhaps have the most pleasant dreams of bringing the dead back to golden life. The ending is great, with the keys and guitars coming up into a crescendo, then dropping off into ambiance for about a minute.

This is where, as the final record begins to click the fact that it is over, you turn off your record player, take off the record, put it back into its sleeve, and put the first one on the turntable again, and take the spiritual and emotional journey once, or even twice more. I could listen to this album, and only this album, for days. It is spellbinding and gorgeous. Beautiful. Perfect.
10 out of 10.

Wolves in the Throne Room on Facebook.

We have been blessed with a massive offering from the gods! For the first time ever the debut recordings of drone purveyours Earth are available in one concise, beautifully documented capsule. A Beaurocratic Desire For Extra Capsular Extraction contains the entire 1990 Smegma Studios sessions which are the debut recordings from Earth.

Previously available scattered via the Extra Capsular Extractions EP and Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars CD, this essential collection contains every note from the infamous first Earth recording sessions. All 7 tracks have been carefully remastered by Mell Dettmer. It is actually questionable what mastering if any was done on the original tracks so we entrusted the task into the very capable hands of Mell who has mastered all the other Earth releases via Southern Lord. Bearing exclusive artwork by Simon Fowler and package design via Stephen O’Malley, the end result is a burly, mammoth and crushing audio experience that makes this collection a must have even for the diehards that own previous versions of these recordings.

Earth was founded by Dylan Carlson circa 1989, and in its infant stages contained several different members including Slim Moon (Kill Rock Stars label), Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, sunn 0))), High on Fire) and even Dylan’s close friend Kurt Kobain. Unbeknownst to Mr. Carlson at the time was that his seemingly simplistic experimentation with heavy music would literally spawn an entire genre, style and sound borrowing from his musical theories. This collection of the very first recordings is an important insight into understanding the birth of this sound; a foreshadowing of the thunder to come.

Track Listing:
1. A Bureaucratic Desire for Revenge, part 1 7:22
2. A Bureaucratic Desire for Revenge, part 2 6:38
3. Ouroboros Is Broken 18:19
4. Geometry of Murder 7:22
5. German Dental Work 5:20
6. Divine and Bright 3:02
7. Dissolution 1 7:11

Trieste, Italy’s crushing quartet The Secret are set to drop their upcoming Solve Et Coagula full-length via Southern Lord Recordings this September 28th.

The twelve hellish hymns embodied in Solve Et Coagula were captured by Kurt Ballou (Trap Them, Converge, Cursed) in his infamous Godcity Studios, resulting in cavernous, earthmoving tonal supremacy. Each song preaches of loss of faith in all forms of religion and politics and a vile outlook on humanity as a whole. The album runs rampant with dismantling breakdowns, gargantuan, swelling riffage and jackhammer blastbeats, all empowered by the most shredding vocal attack.

While surely reminiscent of Converge, Cursed and labelmates Black Breath, The Secret integrate as much influence from filthy politi-crust acts, as well as psychotic metalcore into Solve Et Coagula’s metallic surge. But no matter how you try to compare or categorize this highly lethal Italian export, the end result is certain; this is the sound of humanity’s failure and defeat, embodied as pure aural rage.

The Secret have previously unleashed two full-length releases on now defunct Goodfellow Records (2004’s Luce and 2008’s Disintoxication), and have undergone countless lineup changes and setbacks over the past few years. The current lineup is inarguably the most devastating and concise to date, making Solve Et Coagula their most lethal assault yet.

Tracklisting:
1. Cross Builder
2. Death Alive
3. Double Slaughter
4. Where It Ends
5. Antitalian
6. Weatherman
7. Pleasure In Self Destruction
8. Eve Of The Last Day
9. Pursuit Of Discomfort
10. Bell Of Urgency
11. War Desire
12. 1968

The Secret on MySpace.

Sludge bastards Weedeater have announced several new headlining shows throughout the Midwest and Southeastern US this September. Kicking things off in their home state, the band will devastate the crowd at Raleigh, North Carolina’s Hopscotch Festival on September 11th, also with Public Enemy, Tortoise, Kylesa, U.S. Christmas, Harvey Milk and tons more. Weedeater will be dropping plenty of new material from the upcoming album on these shows, which will lead directly up to the recording of Jason…the Dragon with Steve Albini, finally.

Weedeater have been pushed to their limits over the past twelve months. While it’s been a year of heavy and successful touring for the band, it was also a year of catastrophic physical injury to this seemingly invincible trio. Leading off with Dixie Dave Collins’ shotgun accident which spawned the brutal “Nine Toe Tour” earlier this year, and continuing shortly after that with drummer Keko tearing his meniscus after returning from said tour and requiring surgery. Both of those accidents prevented the group’s two previously scheduled meetings with Albini. The group’s latest installment of injury includes guitarist Shep breaking his pinkie finger while on tour in Europe this July alongside Black Cobra and Saviours. Luckily, Shep can still riff with his cast so the European tour and the recording session were spared.

These accidents have forced the band to push the recording for their now hard-earned upcoming full-length back several times now. Initially scheduled to take place in January of this year, then again in April, the trio will now step into Albini’s Electrical Audio Studio this September 15-19 to hammer out their mammoth 4th full-length Jason… The Dragon, their 2nd release for Southern Lord Recordings.

Weedeater’s 3rd Time’s A Charm Tour:
9/11/2010 Hopscotch Music Fest – Raleigh, NC w/ Public Enemy, Kylesa, U.S. Christmas
9/12/2010 The Hideaway – Johnson City, TN
9/13/2010 Southgate House – Newport, KY
9/20/2010 High Noon Saloon – Madison, WI
9/21/2010 Reggie’s Rock Club – Chicago, IL
9/22/2010 FuBar – St. Louis, MO
9/23/2010 The Muse – Nashville, TN w/ Black Tusk

Genres: Crust, Hardcore, Speed Metal
Label: Southern Lord

A nice little EP here in Razor to Oblivion. It’s fast, hard, and heavy as fuck. In your face type of hardcore crossed with an almost Motörhead-meets-Bathory sound. It’s no wonder why crust punk scenesters are loving this band and the vinyl version sold out almost immediately.
Favourite track of the four is “Fatal Error”.
8 out of 10.

Black Breath on MySpace.