It took underground metal act Naisian five years to follow up their ‘Monocle’ release, but 2018’s ‘Rejoinder’ EP was an amazing disc. In three songs, the band explored a whole world of doom, sludge and angry sounds, often doing more in short four minute bursts than some bands manage over the course of a whole side of vinyl.
Tag Archives: post metal
DIMWIND – The Futility Of Breathing
In 2022, Swedish post metal act Dimwind released what could only be described as a very ambitious recording. The fifteen minute ‘Window Passed’ was presented as half of a split release with black metallers Breaths, and basically acted like an effective CV. During its quarter of an hour, the track moved through heavy riffs in a post rock vein, teased with drone, and even exploded into passages of instrumental black metal. It should have been really challenging, but something within Dimwind’s soundtrack like state ensured that even their heaviest outbursts seemed very natural.
The Fierce And The Dead unleash new single ‘Golden Thread’
As a band, The Fierce And The Dead have never been shy of evolving. From their noisiest post rock origins, they slowly grew into a melodic juggernaut, mixing heavy grooves and progressive textures on their third album ‘The Euphoric’.
There’s growth and re-invention, and then there’s genre-fluid, which is certainly where the band found themselves during the writing and recording of their fourth LP. Fans got a taste of the “new” Fierce/Dead in May 2022 when the ‘Wonderful’ single appeared on Bandcamp and other streaming services. For the first time, the band shared something song-based with a strong vocal, and for many, that was the biggest change. However, things had also taken an unexpected turn musically with a world of post-punk riffs colliding with the prog-ish experimentation.
LILIUM SOVA – Tunnel Du Soir
Throughout their career of making alternative instrumental sounds, Swiss quartet Lilium Sova have never become musically stagnant. With each record, their art rock meets post metal has dug deeply into a world of musical freedoms. Whether working a grinding bass riff and atonal woodwind on a number worthy of Mike Patton’s Ipecac label (2012’s ‘2.00 AM Insomnia’), indulging in a sound that feels like a Mask of Bees demo reworked by Al Jourgensen (2008’s ‘Moose’) or even delving into the murky musical waters of sludge metal tempered by a strange blackgaze sheen (2016’s ‘Ofkaeling (Valley 6/6)’, their world of noise is never less than fascinating.
DAXMA – Unmarked Boxes
With their 2019 EP ‘Ruins Upon Ruins’, Daxma really put themselves on the map in terms of inventive metal. Presenting just two tracks across a sprawling twenty one minutes, the release weaved a musical tapestry that took a doomy core and dressed it with strong gothic and post metal undertones, allowing Jessica T’s haunting vocal style to really work its dark magic. On the self-penned ‘Minima Moralia’, the band showed a real gift for a sprawling arrangement, and on an unexpected cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’ – redressed as a gothic post metal tour de force, pulled across ten unmerciful minutes – they demonstrated a sense of fearlessness that seemed almost unparalleled. As far as covers go, it really shouldn’t have worked, but the fact that it did, more than proved that sheer audacity can pay off if a band has the right combination of talent and self belief.