Ouch, my feelings. Thou Shalt, the second album from The Answer Lies In The Black Void, is an atmospheric doom album that creates emotional music built on low, heavy repetitive riffs, heaps of distortion but with haunting, cathartic vocals and the avant-garde take inspired by the duo who founded the band.
Thou Shalt follows the debut Forlorn where Martina Horváth (Thy Catafalque) and Jason Köhnen (Celestial Season) first created the elemental music of The Answer Lies In The Black Void, where the musical force is introspective but expansive, so on Thou Shalt they continue to explore the fringes of the doom sound, experimenting with post-metal vistas, extreme metal dissonance, orchestral waves and Eastern flavours on Ataraxia.
I was a little lost for words when I first listened to this album as songs such as To Kill The Father are aimed at hitting a deeper part of you than just your ears. Though initially the crushing riffs and squealing solos will excite the bloodstream it’s the vocals of Martina that will put you in mind of Darkher, or Draconian, ethereal and waif-like on In Obsidian Clouds but also operatic and impassioned on Shadow Work, which is inspired by Carl Jung, as is the whole album.
For the more experimental ‘other’ bands Thou Shalt takes a much more well-worn atmospheric doom path, only an instrumental such as Virgin Fire hints at those more experimental junctures. Still Thou Shalt is music that is designed to make you feel as it washes over you, causing a steady nod to the head. 7/10
The Cyclist Conspiracy - Mashallah Plan (Subsound Records) [Rich Piva]
A group of ten Sebian musicians make up the collective The Cyclist Conspiracy, and their debut album, Mashallah Plan, is something to behold. There is a lot here, including a ton of psychedelic leanings, an experimental and even world music vibe, and a unique approach to what people would call rock music.
Vocally, the first two tracks are pretty much female chanting, which may be tough for some, but it is partnered with some killer psych rock with some stoner leanings. I specifically love the guitar work on Virility which absolutely rips. If people can get past the chanting, they will love this song. The Blood Of The Lamb has an almost church like feel to the vocals, and why do I hear Pinball Wizard vibes to go along with it?
The Cyclist Conspiracy - Mashallah Plan (Subsound Records) [Rich Piva]
A group of ten Sebian musicians make up the collective The Cyclist Conspiracy, and their debut album, Mashallah Plan, is something to behold. There is a lot here, including a ton of psychedelic leanings, an experimental and even world music vibe, and a unique approach to what people would call rock music.
Vocally, the first two tracks are pretty much female chanting, which may be tough for some, but it is partnered with some killer psych rock with some stoner leanings. I specifically love the guitar work on Virility which absolutely rips. If people can get past the chanting, they will love this song. The Blood Of The Lamb has an almost church like feel to the vocals, and why do I hear Pinball Wizard vibes to go along with it?
Musically these guys tear it up, but my challenge continues to go back to the vocals. I mean they are beautiful, but I am not sure I am able to connect it back to the music, but it certainly is unique. The track four short interlude brings us to Deneb, a nine-minute instrumental with a world music vibe, especially in the guitar work, but has a nice heaviness to it as well. More world vibes hit you with Holy Maps Of Axum, where the chanting returns to double down on that feeling. The closer combines all the vibes from Mashallah Plan including the chanting, but this time male voices, the world music feel, and some killer psych guitar work.
This is one album I have listened to five times, but I think I need about five more to get a true feeling about Mashallah Plan. I could go anywhere between a five and an eight. Separately, the music and the vocals are amazing, but I am just having trouble with the combined effort. The Cyclist Conspiracy seems like a band that you need to spend a lot of time with before you make any judgements, but there is a lot of potential here to really shine though as an act to be reckoned with. 7/10
Sloth - Sloth (Swamp Records) [Rich Piva]
A stoner/doom band named Sloth was inevitable, so here we are with the debut full length from the Los Angeles, California four piece whose bass player is named The High Priest Of The Oak. Not relevant but entertaining. These guys play fuzzy stoner/doom with occult and 70s proto leanings and mention bands like Electric Wizard in their bio, and you certainly get that. I get a lot of more recent bands like Black Spell, Crooked Whispers, Fulanno, and 1782. So, with a name like Sloth you have certain expectations, and some of those are met, but while I thought this album was going to plod along like its namesake, the band does know how to rock and bring the 70s fuzzy heavy along with their slow placed stoner doom for some pretty cool results.
Right off the bat, the thing that will determine if you are going to hang with Sloth (ha) is if you can deal with the vocals. Now usually when I bring this up it is more of the Cookie Monster or the demon from hell type vocals (see Crooked Whispers) I am referencing, but his is different. I am not sure I have a good comparison, but it is kind of high, kind of nasally, but clear as you can understand all the evil he is spewing in the lyrics. For some this will be a turn off. It took me three or four listens, but I now dig it, as it is unique and works well with the slow fuzz that Sloth is dragging along.
This is one album I have listened to five times, but I think I need about five more to get a true feeling about Mashallah Plan. I could go anywhere between a five and an eight. Separately, the music and the vocals are amazing, but I am just having trouble with the combined effort. The Cyclist Conspiracy seems like a band that you need to spend a lot of time with before you make any judgements, but there is a lot of potential here to really shine though as an act to be reckoned with. 7/10
Sloth - Sloth (Swamp Records) [Rich Piva]
A stoner/doom band named Sloth was inevitable, so here we are with the debut full length from the Los Angeles, California four piece whose bass player is named The High Priest Of The Oak. Not relevant but entertaining. These guys play fuzzy stoner/doom with occult and 70s proto leanings and mention bands like Electric Wizard in their bio, and you certainly get that. I get a lot of more recent bands like Black Spell, Crooked Whispers, Fulanno, and 1782. So, with a name like Sloth you have certain expectations, and some of those are met, but while I thought this album was going to plod along like its namesake, the band does know how to rock and bring the 70s fuzzy heavy along with their slow placed stoner doom for some pretty cool results.
Right off the bat, the thing that will determine if you are going to hang with Sloth (ha) is if you can deal with the vocals. Now usually when I bring this up it is more of the Cookie Monster or the demon from hell type vocals (see Crooked Whispers) I am referencing, but his is different. I am not sure I have a good comparison, but it is kind of high, kind of nasally, but clear as you can understand all the evil he is spewing in the lyrics. For some this will be a turn off. It took me three or four listens, but I now dig it, as it is unique and works well with the slow fuzz that Sloth is dragging along.
After the one-minute opening instrumental, you will get what I am talking about. Evil Hand has a slow, doomy riff and is trapped in a perpetual haze of smoke when suddenly the vocalist, Ariel Pang, morphs to the foreground with his sinister singing to partner with all that fuzz. The pace picks up a bit with Warlock’s Eye with more riffs and a nice fuzzy stoner gallop.
The production on Sloth works perfectly for the band’s underground 70s sound. This one definitely has the Electric Wizard vibes going strong, especially during the slowed down parts. Devil’s Gate is next, and this is another slow burner with some sped up parts, an instrumental with dark and heavy riffs and the occasional dialog that goes a few minutes too long, but I love the psych guitar work throughout.
An acoustic interlude brings us to more of the same with Beyond, eight minutes of more fuzzy stoner doom, with those vocals, executed well. The closer, Slow Burn, lives up to its name, maybe a bit too much, and is a microcosm of both the positives and negatives with Sloth.
I dig the vibe on Sloth’s self-titled debut, including their overall sound and production, and the fuzzy psych guitar work. The vocals will take a bit to get used to, it occasionally drags a bit, and there is not a lot of wandering off the same path, but if you like the 70s fuzzy stoner doom and bands that I mentioned above, you may want to hang with Sloth for a while. 7/10
Arborescence Of Wrath – Inferno (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Matt Bladen]
Death metal is ridiculous, but sometimes it’s so ridiculous that it almost feels like a parody. Arborescence Of Wrath’s new album Inferno often tips the scale into parody, it’s so vicious and bludgeoning from the first moment until the last that you could believe that it’s a Dethklok record. The drums never stop blasting, the guitars sound like buzzsaws and create a wall of noise that occasionally features dive bombs and widdling solos and the vocals are bowel churning, it’s not something you want to listen to if you feel like relaxing.
I dig the vibe on Sloth’s self-titled debut, including their overall sound and production, and the fuzzy psych guitar work. The vocals will take a bit to get used to, it occasionally drags a bit, and there is not a lot of wandering off the same path, but if you like the 70s fuzzy stoner doom and bands that I mentioned above, you may want to hang with Sloth for a while. 7/10
Arborescence Of Wrath – Inferno (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Matt Bladen]
Death metal is ridiculous, but sometimes it’s so ridiculous that it almost feels like a parody. Arborescence Of Wrath’s new album Inferno often tips the scale into parody, it’s so vicious and bludgeoning from the first moment until the last that you could believe that it’s a Dethklok record. The drums never stop blasting, the guitars sound like buzzsaws and create a wall of noise that occasionally features dive bombs and widdling solos and the vocals are bowel churning, it’s not something you want to listen to if you feel like relaxing.
With Jason Keyser of Origin on vocals, Simon Schilling of Marduk on drums, ex-Benighted man Charles Collette on bass and the savage riffs of Michel Beneventi and JP Battesti, Arborescence Of Wrath is as brutal as brutal death metal gets. There is at least some variation when they breakdown into a stomp on Temple Of Ashes or some melodic guitar solos appear but Inferno mainly rages as a wall of intense noise. There’s not much else to say other than it’s a force of nature that ends in an Immolation cover and it's fucking madness. 6/10
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