Instrumental rock? Soundtrack? Free jazz exploration? Whatever it is, Neverland is a journey, a journey through sound, that just crept out before the changing of the year. It comes courtesy of one of the most forward thinking bands around. You've probably heard the name Ulver before, I mean you only have to have been around the ArcTanGent crowd to know how influential this band are.
Influential and experienced as Neverland is their fourteenth record, again adopting a new sound different from what has come before. While the previous three records saw this electronic rock outfit born of black and post metal, taking song driven approach, here they have done away with any notions of structure and gone down a freer and more pastoral path.
Neverland is a dreamscape, three musicians employing their skills to create evocative soundscapes, the ambient, mostly instrumental record has been crafted to transport you to far off lands, the leadership of Kristoffer Rygg alongside Jørn H. Sværen and Ole Aleksander Halstensgård working without boundaries.
There's flashes of their early work on this album, it's full of dream pop wooziness, post-rock shimmers and a gamut of electronic music influences as long time band members Anders Møller (drums), Stian Westerhus (guitars/bass) and Sara Khorami (vocals/whispers) collaborate on this widescreen, cinematic new record from a band who have always been in a class of their own. 8/10
Zu - Ferrum Sidereum (House Of Mythology)
Content warning! Ferrum Sidereum is a monolith of a record that is about as experimental and Avant Garde as it can be. Translated from the Latin as "cosmic iron" it's a double record that is obsessed with sacred artefacts, the mystery and mythos surrounding them, influencing the, frankly, bonkers music Zu create.
If I had to describe it then I would say that Zu play a variant of jazz fusion which, combines heavily distorted bass and dissonant 12 string guitar from Massimo Pupillo almost fighting against the baritone sax of Luca T Mai, the layers of synth painting an ominous picture beneath which Paolo Mongardi's drumming hits hard in how obtuse it can become.
It's almost as if NiN were jamming some Van Der Graf Generator, still miserable in tone but with the virtuosity of progressive rock. It's also not for the impatient as Ferrum Sidereum is 80 minutes of music so you have to be locked in to get the most out of it but what would expect from band who have collaborated with Mike Patton and Ulver in the past.
If I had to describe it then I would say that Zu play a variant of jazz fusion which, combines heavily distorted bass and dissonant 12 string guitar from Massimo Pupillo almost fighting against the baritone sax of Luca T Mai, the layers of synth painting an ominous picture beneath which Paolo Mongardi's drumming hits hard in how obtuse it can become.
It's almost as if NiN were jamming some Van Der Graf Generator, still miserable in tone but with the virtuosity of progressive rock. It's also not for the impatient as Ferrum Sidereum is 80 minutes of music so you have to be locked in to get the most out of it but what would expect from band who have collaborated with Mike Patton and Ulver in the past.
Produced and mixed by three-time Grammy-wining engineer Marc Urselli, Ferrum Sidereum is an exercise in intensity and while there's plenty to love for fans of experimental music but I will say that it won't be for everyone. 7/10
Ellende - Zerfall (AOP Records)
The misanthropic realm of its creator L.G, the Graz Austria, based project Ellende return with sixth album Zerfall.
A record about "transformation of ruin into strength" which actually sounds quite upbeat for Ellende, Zerfall (translates to being shattered) is once again a black metal record where the acoustics/strings and atmospherics are just as important as the flurries of black metal dissonance.
It's bleak but it's also beautiful, the evolution of the band from a one man anonymous project into a full fledged live act where classical instrumentation is used to full effect has taken time but with five albums and three EP's, behind them, Zerfall has a powerful confidence of to it.
L.G knows what works and what is expected and with Zerfall he's shaped the atmospheric moments into a record that is more triumphant than anything previously, inspired by a tragic event, the act of rebuilding gives it a sense of catharsis, as the intense extreme metal, so often, is softened by an classical passage or solitary piano or even just melodic guitar solo.
Zeitenwende Teil parts I and II feature some guests with thrash/death band Norikum and pagan black metal act Firtan adding to this already dense record, but it's the creative mind of L.G, that makes Zerfall, and by extension Ellende, a must listen for fans of cinematic atmospheric black metal. 8/10
Uuhai - Human Herds (Napalm Records)
Throat singing and horse head fiddle, two elements that seem to be very on trend in the metal world at the moment. The mixture of Mongolian traditional music has opened up another avenue for folk metal bands to travel down and while acts such as The Hu have taken it Trans-Atlantic (or is that Trans-Pacific?) there are still bands to discover like Uuhai who have just dropped their debut album Human Herds.
An album inspired by the nature and history of their native Mongolia, the vocals are in their own language but you can hear the passion in the lyrics as they perform paeans to their homeland using the fiddles and throat singing that go back thousands of years while lamenting the constant destruction the human race are doing to the world as a whole.
Their music is catchy, more inside the rock sphere than the metal one, it dares you to sing along even if you can't understand the words, the music of this seven piece, gets you bouncing along to it, then you'll find yourself swaying and slow head banging to the slower rhythms such as the epic closer The Secret History Of The Mongols.
With standard rock instruments and the Mongolian ones in a harmonic unity, Uuhai will be the next Mongol band to captivate a western audience on the back of this debut album. 7/10
The misanthropic realm of its creator L.G, the Graz Austria, based project Ellende return with sixth album Zerfall.
A record about "transformation of ruin into strength" which actually sounds quite upbeat for Ellende, Zerfall (translates to being shattered) is once again a black metal record where the acoustics/strings and atmospherics are just as important as the flurries of black metal dissonance.
It's bleak but it's also beautiful, the evolution of the band from a one man anonymous project into a full fledged live act where classical instrumentation is used to full effect has taken time but with five albums and three EP's, behind them, Zerfall has a powerful confidence of to it.
L.G knows what works and what is expected and with Zerfall he's shaped the atmospheric moments into a record that is more triumphant than anything previously, inspired by a tragic event, the act of rebuilding gives it a sense of catharsis, as the intense extreme metal, so often, is softened by an classical passage or solitary piano or even just melodic guitar solo.
Zeitenwende Teil parts I and II feature some guests with thrash/death band Norikum and pagan black metal act Firtan adding to this already dense record, but it's the creative mind of L.G, that makes Zerfall, and by extension Ellende, a must listen for fans of cinematic atmospheric black metal. 8/10
Uuhai - Human Herds (Napalm Records)
Throat singing and horse head fiddle, two elements that seem to be very on trend in the metal world at the moment. The mixture of Mongolian traditional music has opened up another avenue for folk metal bands to travel down and while acts such as The Hu have taken it Trans-Atlantic (or is that Trans-Pacific?) there are still bands to discover like Uuhai who have just dropped their debut album Human Herds.
An album inspired by the nature and history of their native Mongolia, the vocals are in their own language but you can hear the passion in the lyrics as they perform paeans to their homeland using the fiddles and throat singing that go back thousands of years while lamenting the constant destruction the human race are doing to the world as a whole.
Their music is catchy, more inside the rock sphere than the metal one, it dares you to sing along even if you can't understand the words, the music of this seven piece, gets you bouncing along to it, then you'll find yourself swaying and slow head banging to the slower rhythms such as the epic closer The Secret History Of The Mongols.
With standard rock instruments and the Mongolian ones in a harmonic unity, Uuhai will be the next Mongol band to captivate a western audience on the back of this debut album. 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment