Let’s all give Outer Battery Records a round of applause as they are doing music lovers all around the world a solid by re-releasing/re-pressing a bunch of stuff by the awesome and critically underrated Swervedriver. If you are not familiar with the band, they are my favourite of the so-called shoegaze bands and have elements of alt rock, grunge, and dream pop in their sound, but whatever you call it, you must call it awesome.
Last year they did the band’s album 99th Dream and now they are doing a first pressing on vinyl of Doremi Faso Latido, an album originally meant to be a companion to 99th Dream and previously only available in a 3 CD package with that release, now is given to us on wax in all of its lost album shoegaze wonderfulness glory. I had never heard this before, so to get new, yet old Swervedriver material as a big fan is so great, but this material is so strong it could even work as an introduction to this amazing band.
Songs like You’ve Sealed My Fate, Straight Thru Your Heart, and Butterfly are as strong as any of the songs on their other albums. Sea Foam is probably my favourite on here, given its chill yet urgent vibe that Swervedriver is all about. You get 11 songs on the new pressed vinyl, all of which are great and none are just leftovers that didn’t need to see the light of day. Swervedriver rules. If you don’t know, go listen to everything they have done, starting with Mezcal Head, but nothing is short of great that they have ever done. This goes for Doremi Faso Latido, which now becomes even more essential Swerverdriver listening. 8/10
Pneuma Hagion - From Beyond (Everlasting Spew Records) [Mark Young]
Sometimes you just want to press play and do nothing but soak in some of the thickest-sounding death metal committed to tape. If it was a meal, it would be a mixed grill. Large, meaty and something for everyone. Unless it has grilled tomato. That can get in the bin.
Pneuma Hagion - From Beyond (Everlasting Spew Records) [Mark Young]
Sometimes you just want to press play and do nothing but soak in some of the thickest-sounding death metal committed to tape. If it was a meal, it would be a mixed grill. Large, meaty and something for everyone. Unless it has grilled tomato. That can get in the bin.
The bio suggested something along the lines that this is a ‘relentless barrage of down tuned brutality’ and it is. None of the songs are above 3 minutes in length, it is an exercise in super-efficient song craft, where they say all they need to say without needlessly rehashing themselves. Did I mention its heavy? By the cringe its heavy, absolutely chock full of blast beats, dense riffs, and the guttural of guttural growls.
Harbinger Of Dissolution sets the tone for the 9 songs to come, and generally, they sit within that blueprint without departing too much. Perhaps conscious of that, Lurking Beyond Time And Space offers a move mid-paced groove until they get sick of it and change gear accordingly whilst Those Who Obey varies its attack, swinging between different measures and some insane harmonics, with a middle section that is insanely heavy.
What is important is using a quality set of earphones to listen to this. Without them, you miss out on the little nuances that are deployed within each song. On first listen it is very easy to dismiss this as 24-minute song, due to how it sounds in the car (commute to work, best place to get reviews formulated). Putting the earphones in means the experience opens up – the pinched harmonics on Aeon, the speed of the drums and the actual riff pattern comes through so well. There is a break-down on here that comes in and is just on fire and is followed by riff on top of riff. Its deadly stuff.
Like the album, it’s not a long review, but I hope to capture the main points you need to know. Its super heavy, but not like those doom albums where nothing happens for hours after hitting the guitar once. It’s fast, heavy and doesn’t like going slow. Even on the ones you could class as being slow, example All Worlds Enslaved, it still runs at a rate of knots, rumbling and crushing like a mountain slide caving in and covering all in its path. They don’t overstay their welcome – there aren’t any instrumental introductions (Thank you lads) and no acoustic into electric moments. And definitely no clean singing. Archon finishes as we began, that super thick sound punctuated by drums and growls. It is a rare beast – an album that promises and actually delivers on what it said. For that, it’s an 8/10
Satan's Satyrs - After Dark (Tee Pee Records) [Rich Piva]
Satan's Satyrs have been all about the dirty, filthy garage rock for a long time now, building up quite the cult following over the past fifteen years or so, with a time where the band broke up included, but that is all over now, as the band has their return to the fold record given to us by Tee Pee Records, called After Dark. Stealing a quote from the Tee Pee website, Satan’s Satyrs sounds like if you soaked Sabbath, Venom, The Stooges, and Blue Cheer in acid and acrimony. This is truly the perfect way to sum this band up, and it works for the nine new tracks on After Dark as well.
Quick Quiet Raid has Iggy written all over it, but if he also worshiped the Devil along with all of his other vices back in the day. Deadly Again is where you get the Sabbath meets Venom vibes, as it is riff filled sloppy goodness recorded in someone’s metal trailer. All 4s is more sloppy garage rock in the best sort of way, but garage rock with a very mean edge. I love the guitar work on this one as well as the tempo change that reminds me of the sludgier Black Flag stuff. Saltair Burns almost sounds like it is going in three directions at the same time, as if the band are playing three different songs at times, but it works so well. Some other highlights for me include the ripping opener, Hellin’ Like It Is, and What The Winds Brought which sounds like something off of an SST release from 1984. But if you dig anything on After Dark then all nine tracks are going to bring you some kind of joy.
Some will be turned off by production value and the sloppiness of it all, but to me, this is why this band is so great. Filthy, dangerous, caring for nothing or no one, Satan's Satyrs are back and After Dark is their message to the world to look out. 8/10
iNsCissorS - The Wordless God II (Fucking Your Creation Records) [Mark Young]
Ok, Sometimes you get releases that just defy categorisation. I have literally no idea how to describe this to you, I really don’t. It is so far out of my wheelhouse it could be on a different boat, waving like a mentalist who wants to play snooker on an invisible table (Fans of a certain BBC comedy will get that). I’m pretty sure that the Boss is having a mild laugh at my expense, given that my standard diet consists of death, extreme death, death-doom and a touch of 60’s beat-pop combos.
Described as Cinematic, Ambient and Ritual, it starts with Orbis Terrarum Requiem II and about and hour or so later with The Doll Maker. Orbis is all chimes and spoken passages and you expect some form of amplified instrument to come peeling through the fog of sound but no. Ritual 1 – Tisis is a grand, expansive thing, with choirs rising in unison, and Middle Eastern touches and it is actually quite soothing, akin to an aural reset switch.
The multi-instrumental approach continues along is cinematic path, each track possibly representing a new chapter in a tale started on iNsCissors earlier albums (this is number 5) and it shows that it isn’t just a maniac let loose with a home studio with access to strong prescription drugs, each track has a defined start and end, and makes a logical and organic journey to that end. No one track is the same, and some are undoubtably stretched further than they need to be, an example of this would be Nibankari (The Memorial Of The Shivering Earth) which truth be told is 10 minutes of gentle cymbals, organ sounds that just goes on forever. Others, such as Solis Spiritui are shorter and work better, despite the lack of substance on display.
In terms of a score, for someone (like me) this does nothing for me at all. I can see how some who love instrumental arrangements that are content to just plod along would go for this. I guess that if it had some pep to it, something to inject a little energy into it then I probably would have enjoyed it more than I did. 5/10
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