Stripping away the lightning speed drums and very much favouring a mid paced plod, or a funeral march, Estonia’s Vanad Varjud experiment with some of black metal’s more avant-garde elements throughout their 2016 release ‘Dismal Grandeur In Nocturnal Aura’. Although they are billed as “ambient”, fans of genuine ambient music will certainly want to give this a wide berth. Judging by the four compositions featured on this release, the band don’t always seem to understand what ambient truly means. Most of the supposed ambient moments seem to be either just slow, or hastily composed oddness with a jarring noise for accompaniment.
Tag Archives: goth
SONS OF PROVIDENCE – A Conscious End To Suffering
Looking at the minimalist artwork and bleak choice of title, you’d be forgiven for thinking this 2015 release from Arizona’s Sons of Provedence would be a doom metal affair, but straight up doom metal it very much is not. For this release, the three piece band twist in all manner of directions, from chunky metal, electronica and goth sounds, through stuff that sounds almost Nick Cave esque… While the music can change wildly from track to track – and often within those tracks – the overarching theme of the album is exceptionally dark.
NOVACROW – Black Syrup EP
The love child of Black Moth, Kenny Hickey and Godsmack, Liverpool-based Novacrow make some impressive noises on their debut EP. A combination of gothy image, horror schlock and post grungey, stoner-ish riffs come together in fine form. With guitarist Jonyx knowing that a riff can often hit the mark – especially if winning over a live crowd – he firmly leads the way and exploits some enormous grooves on four of these five songs, while front woman Kitty S. compliments the heavy sounds with a full-bodied vocal performance that’s accessible and clean, while still retaining a sense of attitude to match the riffs.
KRASSEVILLE – Nous Somme Faux
If members of a black metal band embarked on a project that sounded like a film soundtrack and then also channelled various bits of early 80s goth and Nick Cave, that would be a bit of a jumble, but a fairly cool one nonetheless. Such a rambling bag of ideas is the closest approximation of describing the sounds with which French band Krasseville fill their 2015 release ‘Nous Somme Faux’. It’s avant-garde for sure, yet at the same time, it’s also strangely listenable.
MY LIFE’S DESPAIR – Invoked With Passion & Pain
Having roots that stretch back as far 1994, My Life’s Despair is a doom and goth metal band centred around drummer/multi-instrumentalist Larshus. Although he spent a decade working with other underground bands somewhere between hatching his original idea for the project and the time of its actual fruition, it’s easy to hear that a lot of thought went into making things more theatrical than your average doom metal band. ‘Invoked With Passion and Pain’ is My Life’s Despair’s first full length and is a surprisingly enjoyable affair with some of the musical ideas showing a defiant sense of grandiosity that befits the album title. Provided, that is, you’re happy to overlook the demo quality of the production, the thin drum sounds (possibly programmed) and just concentrate on the actual material. This is one of those albums whereby it is best not to look at what it is, necessarily, but rather more what the band were aiming for.