Inverloch emerged in the wake of early 90s death/doom outfit diSEMBOWLMENT and the subsequent 21st century live tribute/reincarnation d.USK. Their thunderous opening statement came three years ago with the Relapse Records-released Dusk | Subside, a three track, 22 minute collection of pulverizing dirge and uneasy atmospheres. As they prepare to support US doom giants Yob in Melbourne on August 21, we spend a couple of minutes with Inverloch’s bassist Chris Jordon and guitarist Matt Skarajew and find out what’s new.
Describe your music in five words or less. Chris Jordon: Heavy, atmospheric, death doom.
What’s going on in the world of Inverloch? CJ: We’ve recently finished recording the follow up to Dusk/Subside; audio is mixed, currently being mastered. Artwork is being finalised. This will be released via Relapse Records.
There are a few killer shows on the horizon for us. In August we are honoured to be opening for Yob in Melbourne, late September we are looking forward to playing again at Black Conjuration in Adelaide, as well as opening for the legendary Boltthrower in Melbourne. Keep an eye out on our Facebook page for more updates.
What motivates you to make music? Matt Skarajew: It’s very hard to quantify — I honestly thought at this age the desire to make this kind of music would have passed by, but I still hear new ideas in my head, and I get a buzz hearing the songs take shape and develop in the studio. Realizing the songs as a group amplifies the enjoyment, then hearing of the pleasure you have created for listeners takes it to another level again — and that is a very motivating force.
What have been the high and low points of your musical experiences so far? CJ: Low point: Pulling out of Maryland Death Fest XIII in the US. It wasn’t a decision that was taken lightly, but unfortunately it was one that had to be made. MS: High points: Definitely Roadburn & Europe in 2012, our new record is very satisfying, and the opportunities we get to take our music to new places.
What music are you listening to at the moment? MS: Of late — mostly The Skull album For Those Which Are Asleep. Alternatively, lots of very dark, a-rhythmic ambience. CJ: Evoken has seen a lot of rotations lately. The first two Asphyx albums. Thergothon. A lot of classic doom/death.
If you were stranded on a desert island, which member of the band would get eaten first? CJ: Haha, you’re asking the wrong guy — if things were that dire then we’re all doomed!
Here’s an opportunity to bitch about something, whether music related or not. What really pisses you off? MS: Extremist view-points pushed onto others… that annoys me.
You’re putting together your perfect gig featuring Australian artists. Who would you get to play and where? Feel free to include acts/DJs/bands/venues that no longer exist. CJ: List is too long! So many killer bands in the scene. In no particular order: Mournful Congregation, Stargazer, Portal, Impetuous Ritual, Grave Upheaval, Whitehorse, Cemetary Urn, Ignivomous, Eskhaton, Contaminated. Abominator… I’ve been blessed to play with some of the above already, some it’s yet to happen! Not sure what venue? The (olde) Arthouse certainly holds a special place. So many killer shows resonated through those walls.
Inverloch join Whitehorse in support of Yob at Max Watt’s (formerly Hi-Fi) in Melbourne on August 21. Tickets on sale now through lifeisnoise.com.
Before they support YOB on August 19, we spend a minute with Perth heavy quartet Dirac Sea and find out what’s new.
Describe your music in five words or less.
A glass case of emotion
What’s going on in the world of Dirac Sea?
Getting our first release ready, solidifying more gigs and perfecting our craft.
What motivates you to make music?
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what motivates us, but there is a unanimous feeling of enjoyment within the band when we do make music.
What have been the high and low points of your musical experiences so far?
The high and low point are one in the same as it entails our initial second guitarist departing the band, which also allowed us to hone in and define our sound.
What music are you listening to at the moment?
For a definitive list, we’d be here all day, so one from each would be Abandon, Amenra, Explosions in the Sky, Neurosis and anything that makes your spine tingle.
If you were stranded on a desert island, which member of the band would get eaten first?
Mike, ’cause he’s already dead inside.
Here’s an opportunity to bitch about something, whether music related or not. What really pisses you off?
The heart-wrenching and never-ending drop off of quality that is The Simpsons.
You’re putting together your perfect gig featuring Australian artists. Who would you get to play and where? Feel free to include acts/DJs/bands/venues that no longer exist.
Fourteen Nights at Sea, Mournful Congregation, Beyond Terror Beyond Grace, Arterial Hemorrhage, Drowning Horse, The Filth, Drohtnung, Woods of Desolation and Clagg, all playing at… The Castle.
Dirac Sea join Alzabo in support of doom lords YOB at their first ever Australian show at The Rosemount Hotel on Wednesday, August 19. Tickets on sale now through lifeisnoise.com.
Before they support Yob in Sydney at the Manning Bar on August 22, we spend a couple of minutes with Thorax and find out what’s new.
Describe your music in five words or less.
Dark power from beyond time.
What’s going on in the world of Thorax?
We have just released our debut LP through excellent Sydney label One Brick Today. People seem to dig it, which is gratifying! In other news we are working jobs, looking after children, eating food, drinking drinks, living life… and in between all these things trying to play a bunch of shows! We are playing Adelaide/Melbourne in mid-August, and Byron Bay/Brisbane in late August.
What motivates you to make music?
The Great Old Ones. They speak to us. They speak through us. We bear the joy of their darkness. Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!
What have been the high and low points of your musical experiences so far?
I think the high point is just the continued experience of making something out of nothing with some good friends. The low point is lugging Lachie’s Orange amp to gigs.
What music are you listening to at the moment?
Right at this moment I am listening to the clacking of keyboards and the unsteady thump of my own pulse in my ears. And I’m humming the theme song to “Diff’rent Strokes”. The last record I listened to was Glow by Chris Abrahams.
If you were stranded on a desert island, which member of the band would get eaten first?
Probably Lachie… he has a mouth-watering rump.
Here’s an opportunity to bitch about something, whether music related or not. What really pisses you off?
Forced closure of Indigenous communities is a good start. Violence against women and LGBT persons. Refugee detention centres. The rise of blinkered patriotism in the wake of heavily spun terrorist threats. Lockout laws. Nationalism. The state of the environment under the ceaseless onslaught of capitalism. THE HUMAN SPECIES.
You’re putting together your perfect gig featuring Australian artists. Who would you get to play and where? Feel free to include acts/DJs/bands/venues that no longer exist.
OK, it would be a festival at Midnight Star, headlined by the ghost of Rowland S Howard. The rest of the lineup would be Nunchukka Superfly, Dead, Unit 11:74, X, Brain Resin, Agents of Abhorrence, Us Mob, the Bee Gees, The Drones, Price of Silence, Flycop, Subversion, S.M.U.T., Lawnsmell, Lentil Soup, True Radical Miracle, Navel Graveyard and Scum System Kill. And about a hundred more bands, too many to list here. The festival would run for a whole year with free beer, single malt whiskey and tofu burgers.… And nangs at the bar.
Thorax join Sumeru in support of doom lords Yob on August 22 at the Manning Bar in Sydney. Tickets on sale now through lifeisnoise.com.
Over the course of 19 years of activity, Yob’s star has patiently and steadfastly ascended to the spiritual peak where doom metal’s pantheon resides. Each of their seven studio albums has represented the band evolving progressively into an artistic demiurge, consistently surpassing the boundaries of their fans’ collective imagination. The anticipation preceding their most recent album, 2014’s Clearing the Path to Ascend, was fervent. Upon its release, it resounded as a powerful clarion from the hidden peaks of the underground, converting some of even the staunchest non-believers and ringing across great distances to the ears of explorers of more mainstream tastes, without even the slightest hint of deviation or prostration before such petrified senses of “palatability”.
If anything, Clearing… saw YOB come forth with its most powerful and sincere expression of doom metal yet, wrought from a fraught voyage through personal upheaval experienced by founder, frontman and guitarist Mike Scheidt as the songs came to life. Yob’s most recent album exemplified their combination of stealthily evolving motifs of tremendous heaviness with a reflective, meditative soul. With all of its deserved accolades, the album continues to carry Yob onwards to new opportunities, not least of which being their imminent first headlining tour of Australia. In anticipation of this event that shall no doubt split this southern land asunder, I called Mike to talk about this great band and the spirit that drives it.
THE BLACK CAPTAIN: You must be really pleased with the reception Clearing the Path… has received. In addition to those new fans you gain, something apparent to me about the long-time fans of Yob is “fanaticism”. I’m curious about how that level of devotion and respect makes you feel. It might seem like something obvious to ask, but it’s not something I’ve always found people to be comfortable with, when they are the object of such intense emotional focus.
MIKE SCHEIDT: Oh, we feel really lucky… and grateful. I think any band that’s trying to write music that feels good to them, when somebody hears it and you feel like they appreciate it or dig it, that’s a wonderful thing to be able to share with someone else. Over the years it has grown and more and more people are getting into what we are doing and we feel a lot of different things about it… definitely humbled and excited. We feel very fortunate and don’t take it for granted.
BC: To see that happening with a band, just like Neurosis, who are so committed to their vision and writing from a really pure place, with integrity, is inspiring. And that kind of explains why Neurot Recordings is such a natural place for you guys to be. One aspect of doom metal that some might find strange or contradictory, but that I’ve always been fascinated and obsessed with, is that I personally find something really triumphant and uplifting in it, even those parts that are expressing something really emotionally devastating. There’s something victorious, in the context of the way life is in the world today, to hear creativity expressed with that purity and sincerity I just mentioned. How does writing doom affect your sense of your place in the world, and how does hearing something really powerfully melancholic affect you?
MS: Sometimes it feels like… maybe it’s because of the pace… the emotion of it feels really concentrated. There are not a lot of riffs and things going by every second that you’ll get overwhelmed by. You are lost in this crux of heavy, often pretty evolved moments that take a while to get to their payoff. I think, as a result, there is a certain sense of if it’s powerful, then it’s really powerful, particularly gigantic. If there’s a sense of triumph, it’s that triumph of standing on top of a mountain and really taking it all in, where you’re not really in a hurry to get back down to the bottom. I think with that pace comes something like distance, an extra bit of essence, I guess. It’s kind of hard to put in to words; but, that’s how I feel about it.
BC: There’s that feeling of reflection, taking the time as you say. It’s really quite rare and in contrast to the pace and the “soul” of the world around us today, generally speaking. There’s something quite valuable about that.
MS: Well, you know, I think whatever style a band is playing in the great ones are great. Whether it be death metal, black metal, doom metal, whatever it is, each style has its challenges musically. I think one of the challenges of doom metal is that you don’t have those things blurring by you very quickly. And there are a lot of very good bands, technically good bands in terms of musicianship, they aren’t maybe necessarily the great bands, but their technicality is so good that you can kind of get away with a lot. I think with doom you can sense the falseness of a riff pretty quickly, because there’s not a lot going on around it. Whether it be Neurosis or Wino or Sleep, I think you really have to mean it in order for it to work. If it’s style over substance, it can still be good but it’s not going to have that “grab you by the heart” feeling.
BC: There are a lot of people into music on the fringe that adopt this position of cynicism, perhaps understandably, when the mainstream press start writing about their darlings. One could either say past examples have given them a right to be wary, or that they’re just being precious. What are your feelings when extreme and experimental music starts getting that broader recognition like you guys have received? Does the potentially temporary nature of this kind of attention ever concern you, particularly considering that you could say everything is temporary anyway?
MS: Well… we’ve had an experience on the periphery where very few people knew about us or cared about what we did… upwards to now where a lot more people on the periphery care about what we’re doing. And kind of everything in between. If we’re at the center of our process as an artist and being a band, really as long as we’re intact and stay true to why it is that we create then the stuff that goes on outside of that is not something that we’re dependent on, although definitely grateful for. So, I don’t mean to belittle the fact that more and more people are into it. To me, it’s not surprising, and I’m not really talking about YOB here but just extreme music in general here… but it’s music that has just existed for its own sake and it’s really been its own audience. Its gauge by which most people get into it has been over authenticity, sincerity, musicianship, and talent, also heart.
Is it causing those particular feelings that the style is aiming for? It’s really gauged on how honest and sincere and true it is. And I don’t mean true-with-a-v (trve), because maybe that’s where you get cases where there’s a lot of image and posturing that I think can certainly add something to a band that’s great, but won’t make a mediocre band great. You have to come by it honestly. So, I think there’s a lot of danger sometimes from just looking at things from the outside and then trying to top it or emulate it.
There’s a reason why the great bands are great, and why there’s such thing as a genre-tag. Before the genre-tag there are the originators, these people who just dug into their hearts. Sure, they had their influences but they brought something out that was different and fresh and captured the imagination. As far as these conversations, how deep they are, how people look… are beards in, are beards out… this colour, that colour… blah blah blah… That, to me, it gets a little tedious, you know. It feels a bit like high school and that we’re all missing the point. I’ll say that and I’m sure I’ll attract some quacks who will say that I’m old and tired and paying attention to the wrong stuff. Except, it’s just not important. What’s important is just pouring everything you’ve got into the music. And it’s just pouring from the bands that you love.
BC: Like you said, you can hear it from the great bands. I think, also, that you can sense that they have a more eclectic and open appreciation of music. It’s more about a spirit in which music is written than a particular style.
MS: Yeah, and then from there… I mean, there’s Portal, of course. They’re fucking amazing, Portal! You know, it has everything. Incredible musicians. But their presentation is theatrical and dramatic and dark and sinister. I mean, it’s perfect! It’s perfect from top to bottom. I’m not one to say… you know, I love spikes and leather as much as the next guy. But you’ve got to have substance with it, too. And that’s a clear example that it works.
BC: You’ve been touring pretty solidly since Clearing the Path… came out, with some very interesting and mouthwatering lineups. I saw Enslaved when they played here (in Perth) a couple of years ago and they just absolutely blew my mind with the energy and proficiency that they performed with. I was wondering how that experience was for you, touring the US with them and how the crowd was for you. A lot of people might think you’re two very different bands, but I think looking on a deeper level there’s more of a connection there than is immediately apparent.
MS: We definitely learned a lot from them. They really are elder statesmen and have a level of originality that is beyond question, really. Their internal locus of control, being in charge of what they create, is very strong. Maybe sometimes that has been hard on their fans, as a result, because they change. But they change in a way where I’ve been on the ride since day one to the present. I just love everything that they do. They’re great on stage and off. They have this amazing sense of humour but they’re serious about what they do, this balance that really is something else. It’s wisdom as much as anything. In fact, it reminds me quite a lot of hanging out with the Neurosis guys, to be honest. There’s that level of depth to their beliefs in their spirit as well as in their families and their lifestyles, which are incredible. They genuinely really dig YOB and asked us to support them on their tour. It’s always interesting to go out with a new band for the first time, especially a much bigger band, a legendary band. You always don’t know what it’s going to be like and it was just a pleasure from beginning to end. It was really wonderful.
BC: Awesome. It has been quite inspiring to observe how open, and thoroughly so, you have been about dealing with depression. If you talk about paradigms, it’s even more remarkable for a male in a heavy metal band to be doing that. I’m sure a lot of your fans who deal with the same issues, myself included, would say that it’s a vital contribution to make.
MS: Oh, thank you. It’s not the easiest thing to talk about. You definitely kind of paint a target on your chest, and people do sling their bows and hurl their arrows, as a result. I have definitely had fallouts, as a result. But, you know, you have to walk in your own shoes. And it’s quite a process to be able to do that.
BC: I’d imagine one of the best things about broader recognition is you might start getting touring opportunities that weren’t present before, coming to play in Australia being one of them. Do you know how much time you’re going to be able to spend here outside of touring? Do you get much time when you’re on tour to take a place in and get something from being in a different culture?
MS: No, not as much as we would like. Often, it’s just about being in transit, various rest stops, getting through a town, maybe get a minute to walk around there. But then you’re usually whisked off to the next thing. That could be a bummer because you don’t get to see some of the amazing things that each town might hold. But at the same time, for people who are like… if you’re a regular tourist or maybe you’ll have a couple of friends where you’re going, get to see some of those tourist things or get to savour something more off the grid… they don’t get to have our experience. Our experience is that we get to come into a town and be amongst a culture that we are a part of, part of that global culture of metal, heavy music, of musicianship and of people who love music in general. We’re a part of that community, but not a part of that culture personally in, say, Perth or Adelaide or Melbourne, yet. We get to come into that town and have a very intimate experience with a chunk of people who are cut from the same cloth and get to share something that other people maybe won’t get to experience. To me, it really comes down to being able to connect with these people and share those things that we have in common, that strength. There are so many things that are cool about this that not being able to see or do those other things end up being a very minor bummer.
Yob play Australia for the first time on the following dates:
August 19 — Rosemount Hotel, Perth August 20 — Enigma Bar, Adelaide August 21 — Max Watt’s (formerly The Hi-Fi), Melbourne August 22 — Manning Bar, Sydney August 23 — Crowbar, Brisbane
Tickets on sale now through lifeisnoise.com, Oztix and venue outlets.
If you’re a Perth music fan, you’ve probably seen the two men from Alzabo before. Maybe you watched Steve Summerlin holding down the rhythm with Mink Mussel Creek or Whalehammer or Felicity Groomin sometime in the last eight years. Or maybe you watched Nick Odell leave bystanders dumbfounded as he channelled subterranean nightmares with Cease at the Hydey, the Rosemount or atop the DNA Tower in King’s Park. Alzabo lean more towards Cease, carving meditative yet gargantuan slices of droning doom. Before they support Yob at the Rosemount on August 19, we spend a minute with Alzabo and find out what’s new.
Describe your music in five words or less.
Sludge-chunk instrumental dance music.
What’s going on in the world of Alzabo?
We’ve been quite busy lately. Playing a few shows & trying to nail down the set. Hoping to record soon.
What motivates you to make music?
Steve amd I have been friends for years but we’ve never really played together properly and it’s just a really fun time! There is no pressure to do anything other than try to make the loudest and heaviest noise we possibly can. It’s very exciting actually.
What have been the high and low points of your musical experiences so far?
Alzabo is a relatively new project for us. We’ve only being playing together since February this year and it’s been all good. So no low points. The high point… maybe using all of Steve’s ridiculous amount of amps at The Rosemount a couple of months ago! He has a fucking huge set-up and it took a Ford Transit van just to transport his gear. CRUSHING! That and blowing the sound on stage at Mojo’s was pretty funny.
What music are you listening to at the moment?
Heaps of stuff. Listening to Godheadsilo a lot again, amazing fucking band. HTRK, Les Rallizes Denudes. Always YOB. Actually, Rage Against The Machine is in the car at present. The Battle Of Los Angeles! Great album!
If you were stranded on a desert island, which member of the band would get eaten first?
Steve would eat me as soon as he got a chance to. Bastard.
Here’s an opportunity to bitch about something, whether music related or not. What really pisses you off?
That Australia should be leading the world in so many ways, when in fact we seem to be going fucking backwards! I have a young family and there are some INSANE decisions being made at the moment that make me question if I want them to grow up here. That sucks. Perhaps a good first step for Perth would be voting in Mike O’Hanlon for mayor in October!
You’re putting together your perfect gig featuring Australian artists. Who would you get to play and where? Feel free to include acts/DJs/bands/venues that no longer exist.
Let’s go back in time to a house party at Tanya’s place, when the acid is good and the fires are burning. Mink Mussel Creek, Frozen Ocean and Eddy Current Suppression Ring. BOOM. Maybe a CEASE reunion? Good times, good times.
Alzabo join Dirac Sea in support of doom lords YOB at their first ever Australian show at The Rosemount Hotel on Wednesday, August 19. Tickets on sale now through lifeisnoise.com.
Life is Noise director and host of RTRFM’s Out to Lunch on Thursdays Dave Cutbush counts down his best releases of the year.
10. MAGIC MOUNTAIN BAND – Wilderman
Melbourne’s Magic Mountain band unveiled a gem of a debut earlier in 2014 and their polished release built on their strong live reputation. Sparse Hammond-laden instrumentals are captured beautifully on Wilderman. Aggressive and rhythmic in parts and serene and delicate in others, this is my favourite Australian release of 2014. Fans of Earth or Dirty Three will love this, but Magic Mountain Band have their own unique take on a widescreen Australian instrumental sound.
9. SUN KIL MOON – Benji
It is hard to mention Sun Kil Moon or indeed its driving force Mark Kozelek without mentioning the continued (and mostly one-sided) arguments with The War on Drugs and various commentaries on fans and critics. Sometimes it is difficult to work out whether he is genuinely having fun or is serious about his critiques. Either way it has got the music media a-talking and can’t have hurt his public profile. Any publicity…
But if you put aside all the trash-talking, Kozelek has been a songwriting powerhouse for 25 years. Through his solo work and his bands Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon, Kozelek has consistently written some of the best bent Americana and, alongside the likes of Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy) and Bill Callahan, has kept alive a quality and consistency of US country-folk that is at the forefront of songwriters on a global scale.
Benji is a thoughtful social commentary both on the level of the songwriter’s personal experience and those of US society as a whole. This is a great album, a personal album and an album that grows with further listening. Kozelek may have a questionable public persona, but through the vehicle of Sun Kil Moon he has stories to tell and beautiful music to make. Hopefully he will stick to what he is very good at and leave the stupid staging to the likes of Kanye.
8. PALLBEARER – Foundations of Burden
Ironically Pallbearer hail from Little Rock. Let’s just let that hang in the air for a moment…
The second album from these US metal merchants, like their incredible first effort Sorrow and Extinction, builds on the great breadth and diversity of the every burgeoning Sabbath-inspired doom scene.
Crushingly slow riffs build on a powerhouse rhythm section and Ozzy inspired vocals. It is sometimes pretty hard to fathom how this is a band with only two releases.
A top shelf heavy release for 2014. Who knows what they will do next.
7. APHEX TWIN – Syro
After a hell of a long wait, Richard D. James is back with another strange amalgam of electronics, noise, techno, jungle and noise. And whilst it isn’t a crazy splatter fest like previous albums, Syro should keep fans both old and new happy. Aphex Twin once again keeps a groove going where you think it is going to fall apart. Equal parts disturbing and delighting, this is my favourite electronic album of the year.
6. BECK – Morning Phase
Every time Beck puts out an album it seems to be in my top albums of the year. Morning Phase is just another in a long list of incredible albums from an American songwriter at the top of his game. Although it has been compared with Sea Change, I prefer this album. From the crisp production to the perfect instrumentation, Beck rarely puts out anything less than amazing. Let’s hope the phase continues on into the evening and beyond.
5. ELECTRIC WIZARD – Time to Die
The Wizard returns.
Undisputed leaders of UK doom, Electric Wizard are back and whilst they are not really breaking any new ground here, they have put out another great record with Time to Die. The big difference for me is the drumming. The return of Mark Greening makes a huge change.
But the old themes of drugs, death, Satan are still there and mark it typical of their craft.
Why change the formula when you have already killed it?
Praise!
4. TY SEGALL – Manipulator
The modern psych pop-rock master keeps pumping out the records. Will he ever stop?
Actually, it seems like Ty did take a little more time over Manipulator. But he really is frantically pumping out the psych rock pop wizardry.
For mine the track Feel is Ty Segall at his best: a great pop song, with just enough 60s sensibility without being totally deritative, catchy as hell and crunchy like a stale gingerbread biscuit. His falsetto vocals and monster lead breaks just add the perfect amount of icing.
Somehow I think that although this is a cracking listen, we have only just heard the beginning of a truly brilliant musical career. Here’s to next year’s top albums. He will surely resurface.
3. TINARIWEN – Emmaar
Tinariwen
Blues
Desert
Rhythms
War
Sublime
Unison
Emmaar
2. YOB – Clearing the Path to Ascend
As Alan Watts says at the start of Clearing the Path to Ascend, it is indeed “time to wake up”. And I think much of the world has woken up to the incredible power and beauty of YOB.
This album is grand without being overblown, dark without being depressing, and powerful whilst still being beautiful.
I have really tried to punish myself to the point of getting sick of it, I simply cannot.
It contains the driving song of the year in ‘Nothing to Win’ which perfectly contrasts with the mournful closer ‘Marrow’.
In any other year this would have been my album of the year. This is a doom-laden slice of perfection. An album that should make this band very well known – even to those who would regularly not touch this kind of music on a regular basis.
I love it.
1. SWANS – To Be Kind
SWANS must have made the most spectacular return to music in recent history. Since reforming in 2009 they have released three incredible albums and the latest, To Be Kind, sees them at the very pinnacle of their existence as a band.
Once again like a cult they are lead by Michael Gira on a dark American Gothic journey, one that takes nothing without necessity.
To Be Kind is a wagon laden with essential provisions only. The repetition only disturbs us more… and more and more and more than we could possibly feel. It is psychosis, it is crushing, and on and more and then release…. only to be rolled over again and again until you mind and body and existence have been shattered and trodden on and obliterated. It is revolting and appealing and confronting and compelling. It is SWANS and they have destroyed you.
You are amazed… and alive.
Dave Cutbush is the director of Life is Noise and the host of RTRFM’s Out to Lunch on Thursdays from 12-3PM (+8 GMT).
10. HAIL SPIRIT NOIR – Oi Magoi Oi Magoi is a strange and clever creature. The melding of black metal with early ‘70s psychedelia, prog rock, and touches of Hammer horror kitsch has a more natural and less forced quality than the debut. The result is something slippery that’s quite difficult to nail down, yet quite fun to try. The band has produced something distinctive from the bulk of heavy music around today, and certainly from the more typical sound of Greek heavy metal. With ironing out the odd kink, Hail Spirit Noir could go on to be a special cult favourite amongst heavy music fans. Not quite sure it’s worth the 666 Euros as listed on Bandcamp, but good on them for trying!
9. KAYO DOT – Coffins On Io A tortured and thoughtful sci-fi noir hybrid of suave neuromanticism, 80s darkwave, and frenetic prog rock, Coffins on Io is an outstanding work by a daring and divisive musical treasure. It demands being listened to in its entirety, continuously revealing details and emotions within the densely packed compositions with each play. Even with their best record yet, it is simply too much to expect near unanimous love. Thankfully for those who are exhilarated by music that keeps the listener on their toes, it’s not in Kayo Dot’s nature to seek out those types of dreams. The ones they share with us are far, far superior.
8. OCCULTATION – Silence In the Ancestral House The New York trio mixes apparent influences from Mercyful Fate, Black Sabbath, NWOBHM, and just an edge of goth on this theatrical gem released through Profound Lore. Nameless Void from Negative Plane supplies riffs that tick all the boxes for any heavy metallurgist, driven on by the solid drumming of Viveca Butler. Annu Lilja puts in an amazing vocal performance alongside her wonderful bass grooves, elevating the band’s sound into an epic haunting occult rock gem. Produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou, Silence In the Ancestral House is is chock full of great moments for fans of old school metal with a few twists.
7. FVNERALS – The Light Swoon at the brilliant production and elegant compositions of gloomy yet multi-faceted post-rock on this debut LP from Brighton’s Fvnerals. The expansive sound created by hypnotic synths, guitars that drift between deliberate dirge-like mantras and shimmering jangly strums, and down-tempo drumming is crowned spectacularly by the haunting, sensuous surrender to despair of vocalist Tiffany. Together, the three musicians have swept well beyond the suggested potential of their EP. Their capacity for deep, meditative mood of such moreish grimness is impressive. A bright future beckons for these souls calling from the shadows.
6. INTER ARMA – The Cavern Is this the most metal thing that has ever happened? Just under 46 minutes of riffs, all from the top shelf and surpassing pretty much anything else Inter Arma have tried their hand at before (which is really saying something)… The Cavern is a masterpiece that never once feels tired and overdrawn at any point across its epic journey. Engaging from start to finish, the moment you start to make a sarcastic Spinal Tap dig you are slapped hard in the face mid-sentence by another mind-blowing progression, with the opus continuously evolving into something better as it blazes away. The musicianship is breathtaking, full of surprises and soaring melodies amidst the whirring savagery. If you’ve yet to explore this, plan to set the required time aside and be thoroughly rewarded.
5. PALLBEARER – Foundations of Burden Wearing their hearts on their riffs, there is smoothness to Pallbearer’s doom that avoids the sense of pastiche that is so pervasive in metal. Whilst their debut was certainly a great effort,Foundations… sends Pallbearer hurtling into the echelon of heavy divinity. Pallbearer’s gift for crafting layers of melody to achieve their intensity on Foundations of Burden will leave you speechless. The songs are free from the staple production values of a heavy record. It’s not that it hasn’t been done before, just so rarely this well. “The Ghost I Used To Be” and ‘The Watcher In the Dark’ are magnificent highlights, showcasing the immensely pleasing irony of just how elevating doom metal can be for the spirit.
4. BEHEMOTH – The Satanist It seems Behemoth are a love/hate proposition. For those who decry an independent music reviewer praising such polished, slick production and a record that took Satanic death metal into the upper regions of the American charts for the first time ever, I say nick off and have a pow-wow with the Poles who want to jail the band, the Russians who deported them, and all the other gatekeepers. The Satanist is pure excellence, driven by shameless ambition, total lack of self-consciousness, and intense tribulation Nergal has experienced over recent years. The pride taken in the band’s work shows clearly in its outstanding, bar-setting production for death metal. A landmark work in the genre, and one that will create even more expectation at their next step… which Behemoth will gladly meet head on.
3. YOB – Clearing the Path to Ascend
And now, reaching the point where virtually nothing separates the albums on this list going forward, YOB’s Clearing the Path to Ascend was virtually undisputed amongst aficionados of independent heavy music as one of the best albums of the year. Crowned by a song bound for a timeless regard in the world of heavy music, “Marrow”, the rest of the album gradually emerges from the blinding supernova of the closer across multiple listens to burn slowly into the mind as one of the most outstanding albums made in heavy metal history. Scheidt can make it seem as though drawing upon an utterly deadly riff is as easy as breathing for him, and is quite happy to let you have it methodically and relentlessly over a period of time where other bands would have played twenty different ones. This is doom deep in a trance. YOB is meditative. YOB is introspective, and deeply moving in its sincerity. On this record, YOB is godlike.
2. MERKABAH – Moloch Somewhere in the Abyss, there’s a room packed with the souls who lost their way searching for a volatile sound blended from the extremities and sanity-proofed experiments on the fringes of jazz, hardcore, post-rock, and psychedelia. They stand transfixed by a sense of imminent disintegration, engulfed by volatile transmissions of psychosis, spread outwards upon a incendiary command of sound and vision by the five demonic vectors that make up the perfection through chaos that is Merkabah. The band’s Moloch is a pitiless and unforgiving pleasure, provocative and asphyxiating in its brilliance. Within the tremendous invention and intensity of the songs, there is the deep sense that, at their peak performance, Merkabah must be an incredible live band. I have half the mind to travel all the way to the bristling cauldron of exceptional music these days that is Poland simply to find out. Without question, this release from way back in March was one of the most unique and captivating albums of 2014.
1. RAISON D’ETRE – Mise en Abyme For those who know the man’s work, it’s pretty much a given that anything Peter Andersson releases under his project Raison d’Etreis going to be bloody brilliant. After a 5 year break between releases, Andersson produced not only the best album of 2014, but the best of Raison d’Etre’s catalogue across the 22 years of its recorded existence. Mise en Abyme is the singularity, effortlessly sucking you into the deepest recesses of your psyche. Four tracks, adding up to just a skerrick under an hour, provide the ideal soundtrack for witnessing the abandonment of reason that characterizes our times, the anthem for the stench of humanity as it wantonly destroys itself and everything it comes into contact with through ingrained hagiographic values of greed and self-importance. The drones and ambient frameworks are filled with incredible detail, transporting the listener inwards with the purpose of introspection and self-discovery. Whether it is peace or panic,Mise en Abyme will show you things about yourself you may never have known were inside you. This is a supreme soundtrack for being placed within the abyss (the translation of the album’s title), befitting a year when elements within humanity too often showed their bottomless capacity for sinking into decrepitude.
Check back later in the week as the rest of our writers’ count down the best releases of the year.
10. YOB — Clearing the Path to Ascend Clearing the Path to Ascend is not easy going. From just before the five minute mark of album opener ‘In Our Blood’, things really kick in as the Oregon band slow drip doom into our ears. With vocals that swing between the hauntingly beautiful and the brutal, coupled with merciless and punishing instrumentation, Clearing the Path to Ascend is a four-track, hour-long journey into dark territory. The record briefly picks up the pace a bit on the second track, ‘Nothing To Win’, before ‘Unmask The Spectre’ and ‘Marrow’ settle things back down to get the listener ready for more slow-pummelling. YOB throw enough diversity and moments of respite onto the record to keep your attention and stop things getting too monotonous, but Clearing the Path to Ascend is overwhelmingly a loud, brutal and brilliant ride.
9. REAL ESTATE — Atlas Real Estate’s Atlas is a summer album that’s perfect for winter. There’s enough of everything you know and love from Real Estate to make this record a perfect companion to a sunny day (reverby, cutting lead guitars and playful, pretty instrumentation), but there’s enough of a hint of melancholy, both lyrically and musically, to make Atlas perfect for a winter night with a scotch by the fireplace. While not quite up there with Days, there’s no doubt that Atlas represents a maturation of Real Estate’s sound to something that, despite sounding simple and effortless, is a complex and dense work.
8. SILVER MT. ZION — Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything In case you didn’t know what you were getting into with Silver Mt Zion, the band has helpfully named their latest record to remove any impressions this might have been a quiet folk release or something like that. Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything is a cacophonous and beautiful mess.
The album begins with a recording of Efrim Menuck and Jessica Moss’ child (“We live on the island called Montreal and we make a lot of noise, because we love each other”) that could be an introduction to Fuck Off Get Free… or, equally, a summation of the bands’ worldview. Musically at least, there’s a feeling of celebration and joy, albeit mixed in with heavy doses of the usual Silver Mt Zion protest and anger and depressing song titles. ‘What We Loved Was Not Enough’ forms the centre of the album, telling the story of apocalypse, self-destruction, riot, war and poverty. Nestled in all that mayhem, however, is a little sliver of optimism — the hope that our children will be strong and selfless enough to live like we couldn’t.
7. BILL CALLAHAN — Have Fun with God I may be bending the rules ever so slightly in putting this record in here, in that Have Fun with God is a dub version of last year’s Dream River. However, as I somehow overlooked Dream River in 2013, I’m partly using this as an opportunity to make up for it.
On Have Fun with God, Callahan’s voice takes less of a front-seat to the instrumentation, augmented with buckets of echo and reverb. It’s an interesting experiment on Callahan’s part, and the songs on Dream River generally work well in this new format. Have Fun with God manages to be both bleak and uplifting at the same time, while maintaining the late-night-listening feel of its predecessor. Somehow sounding unrelentingly sparse, even with additional effects, Have Fun with God is a welcome addition to Callahan’s catalogue.
6. PIXIES — Indie Cindy Terrible title and a lack of Kim Deal aside, the first Pixies’ record since 1991 is a welcome return. From the opening track, ‘What Goes Boom’, it’s clear that Indie Cindy might occasionally be a little bit Pixies-by-numbers, but after 13 years it’s just nice to have new Pixies material. Tracks like ‘Blue Eyed Hexe’ and ‘Bagboy’ are right up there with the band’s best work; Frank Black’s voice swings between nonchalant cool to piercing scream as well as ever, Dave Lovering remains one of my favourite understated drummers in rock, and Joey Santiago’s guitar still gives me goosebumps. The hooks are still there, the tunes are still there… what’s not to love?
5. THE WAR ON DRUGS — Lost in the Dream Lost in the Dream is another effortlessly dreamy walk into Americana from The War on Drugs. The Philadelphia outfit stick to what they do best — pounding freight-train drums and conspicuous nods to Springsteen, mixed with liberal doses of reverb and psych meanderings. Tracks like ‘Under The Pressure’, ‘An Ocean In Between The Waves’ and ‘In Reverse’ continue the tradition of excellent War on Drugs road trip songs, while ‘Suffering’ and the title track give a taste of the band in ballad mode.
It’s heartening to see a band that has been slogging away for a while now start to get the traction that Lost in the Dream appears to have received. It’s certainly well deserved.
4. SWANS — To Be Kind Michael Gira is a without a doubt the scariest human being on the planet. Swans at their loudest and heaviest are a terrifying beast, but it’s the quiet moments of To Be Kind in which Gira seems to be at his sneering, menacing worst. Boasting more than a hint of the industrialism of Einstürzende Neubauten, this is a record I would regularly put on as background music, only to find I’d that I’d either stopped whatever I was doing and that an hour had passed in the blink of the eye. There are certainly worse ways to spend a couple of hours.
Additional mention of the cover art, which is either the best or the worst album artwork of 2014.
3. SHELLAC — Dude Incredible Dude Incredible simply gets the job done. Clocking in at just over half an hour, the record is Shellac stripped of anything that might be considered superfluous, leaving less a record and more a precise, surgical airstrike. From the prowling bass of ‘Riding Bikes’ to the snarl of ‘All the Surveyors’, Dude Incredible manages to pack real menace into an austere half hour. Nothing is overused and nothing is overdone (both in terms of songwriting or production), a fact that won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows Shellac and Albini’s form. Key tracks include: ‘Dude Incredible’, ‘All the Surveyors’, and ‘Gary’.
2. PARQUET COURTS — Sunbathing Animal This record followed me around all year, whether it was the solid month where I basically listened to nothing else, the fact that most people in my life were obsessed by it, or seeing the cover art on a 10-metre-high mural — Sunbathing Animal was inescapable. It seemed to have wormed its way into all corners of my existence, so the high rating of Sunbathing Animal might be due to some kind of musical Stockholm Syndrome as well as the fact that it’s a brilliant record.
All the usual suspects are here in terms of a detached, super-hip influence: Modern Lovers, Pavement, Velvet Underground, etc, but there’s enough originality and personality on this record to make it more than the sum of its parts. The selling point of Parquet Courts is that perfect Malkmus-style “loose but still in total control” balance between technical ability and sloppy noise. Having said that, the quieter moments on Sunbathing Animal (‘Dear Ramona’, ‘Raw Milk’) are certainly worth a listen as well.
Highlights include: “What Color is Blood”, “Bodies Made Of”, “Black and White” and “Instant Disassembly”.
Note: They put out two records this year, but I haven’t spent enough time with Content Nausea to include it here so Sunbathing Animal it is for spot number two.
1. HARMONY — Carpetbombing I knew this was my number one record of 2014 from the first time it entered my earholes. Combine ragged guitar with soaring crescendos and breathtaking harmonies, nuanced songwriting and stark-but-beautiful production, and you’ve got one hell of an album. It’s a distinctly Australian-sounding record, in the same difficult-to-explain way that The Drones sound Australian beyond merely the accents.
I could throw around adjectives all day, however to put it simply: Carpetbombing nails the balance between the beauty and trauma of being alive and condenses it into 43 minutes of music that demands to be played loud and with total attention.
Our staff count down the best records of 2014 — from the heavy to the hallowed and everything in between.
10. TINARIWEN — Emmaar
Even though the songs are sung in their native tongue, Tinariwen’s epic desert blues transcends barriers of language and culture. It helps that the Malian band’s brand of rock — a label that does little justice to Tinariwen’s diverse and often spiritual aesthetic, but feels more appropriate than any other term in Western music criticism — bursts with flourishes of familiarity, from Hendrix to Dylan. Emmaar feels like a bridge between worlds, a fact best exemplified by its opening gambit ‘Toumast Tincha’, a riff-filled odyssey that’s equal parts intriguing and recognizable, grooving and introspective. Emmaar is the perfect soundtrack to journeys unknown. — Matthew Tomich
9. VOYAGER — V
Excellent songs and production. These guys have finally found a sound that bridges the melodic and the heavy. Pop structures and anthems that deserve to shouted along too at massive European festivals. — Scott Bishop
8. SUN KIL MOON — Benji
Though Mark Kozelek’s year has been marked by petty feuds and pettier insult songs, he was also responsible for one of the most moving and honest records of the year in Benji, an ode to the minutiae of contemporary life that spans from San Francisco to Ohio to Newtown and back. There’s as much darkness as there is light in Benji, though it’s more poignant moments are the most heart-wrenching like opening track ‘Carissa’, where Kozelek uses his guitar and voice to make sense of the accidental death of his cousin in and give her life poetry. Rarely does an album feel like it’s being written and played right in front of you, the stories unfolding in real time as Kozelek seemingly finds the words as he goes to narrate the lives of those around him. Worth countless repeat listens. — Matthew Tomich
7. TOMBS — Savage Gold
Post-metal with more than a dash of black, Savage Gold is dissonant, haunting, extreme – and one of the surprise releases of the year. See also their excellent cover of Bowie’s ‘Heroes’. — Scott Williams
6. SHELLAC — Dude Incredible
Dude Incredible simply gets the job done. Clocking in at just over half an hour, the record is Shellac stripped of anything that might be considered superfluous, leaving less a record and more a precise, surgical airstrike. From the prowling bass of ‘Riding Bikes’ to the snarl of ‘All the Surveyors’, Dude Incredible manages to pack real menace into an austere half hour. Nothing is overused and nothing is overdone (both in terms of songwriting or production), a fact that won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows Shellac and Albini’s form. — Jack Midalia
5. ICEAGE — Plowing into the Field of Love
Plowing Into The Field of Love is everything people love about Iceage and a whole lot more. The songs still wallow the in same bleak mirth Iceage bathe in, but the dense, nihilistic moods are now littered with the sounds of folk and an undeniable country swagger, which might sound odd to some fans but by damn you wouldn’t have it any other way. This whole album is like a punch in the guts, but it’s the sort of punch you’re grateful for, the one where once you’ve managed to start taking in oxygen again and you reach out and gladly ask for another. It’s bold, aggressive, mangled and so perfectly enjoyable, an example of a band leering ten feet above their contemporaries. — Jack Payet
4. SWANS — To Be Kind
Michael Gira is a without a doubt the scariest human being on the planet. Swans at their loudest and heaviest are a terrifying beast, but it’s the quiet moments of To Be Kind in which Gira seems to be at his sneering, menacing worst. Boasting more than a hint of the industrialism of Einstürzende Neubauten, this is a record I would regularly put on as background music, only to find I’d that I’d either stopped whatever I was doing and that an hour had passed in the blink of the eye. There are certainly worse ways to spend a couple of hours. Additional mention of the cover art, which is either the best or the worst album artwork of 2014. — Jack Midalia
3. THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT — Z2
Devin has to be admired, not just for the great music on this album but for the projects he takes on in general, the majority of which are born from his bizarre and brilliant mind. Z2 is a double album (condensed down from 50 songs originally), the first part being a typical DTP “pop metal” album taking elements from Epicloud and Addicted, though it feels more mature. The second half is a War of the Worlds-style rock opera featuring the return of Ziltoid (Devin’s alter ego, a coffee-loving alien hell bent on world domination) similar in musical style to the first Ziltoid album but with a bigger scope and budget. The Ziltoid tale will also be taken to the musical theatre stage next year at the Royal Albert Hall for a show that sold out within weeks. — Scott Williams
2. ELECTRIC WIZARD — Time to Die
It took me a while to come around to Time to Die, especially since vocalist Jus Oborn sounds like he’s singing down the corridor, but it’s the heavy/slow DOOMY riff fest that you want and desire from The Wizard. — Scott Bishop
1. YOB — Clearing the Path to Ascend
YOB’s Clearing the Path to Ascend was virtually undisputed amongst aficionados of independent heavy music as one of the best albums of the year. Crowned by a song bound for a timeless regard in the world of heavy music, ‘Marrow’, the rest of the album gradually emerges from the blinding supernova of the closer across multiple listens to burn slowly into the mind as one of the most outstanding albums made in heavy metal history. Scheidt can make it seem as though drawing upon an utterly deadly riff is as easy as breathing for him, and is quite happy to let you have it methodically and relentlessly over a period of time where other bands would have played twenty different ones. This is doom deep in a trance. YOB is meditative. YOB is introspective, and deeply moving in its sincerity. On this record, YOB is godlike. — The Black Captain
Check back over the next two weeks as we reveal our individual writers’ top 10 records of 2014.
Overthink it, and it can be quite a daunting thing to write about YOB. Indie press is so overwhelmed with deification of the band, particularly of founder Mike Scheidt. The sense of expectation preceding the Oregonians’ latest release (and first through the esteemed Neurot Recordings) was of a similar fervent nature and hyperbolic intensity perhaps most recently experienced around Deafheaven’s Sunbather. Those who know YOB already had the new album on a pedestal when one track (officially) made its way out for us to hear. For those uninitiated, there is the task of cutting through the hype that fertilises internal cries of “overrated!!!” before a record even begins playing. Responding to Clearing the Path to Ascend is something best done after time, clearing away the surrounding noise and becoming sincerely immersed, coming to honest conclusions unfettered by the waves of consensus from the most devout amongst Those With Beards. YOB is meditative. Forget first impressions.
YOB’s previous work is certainly very impressive and challenging, characterised by gargantuan tracts of mantra-like psychedelic doom that have proven deeply moving for the most patient and thoughtful listeners. Scheidt can make it seem as though drawing upon an utterly deadly riff is as easy as breathing for him, and is quite happy to let you have it methodically and relentlessly across a period of time where other bands would have played twenty different ones. This is doom deep in a trance. It’s not explicitly derivative or referential to the structural rules of rock music that built the foundations of doom. The partnership of the band with Neurot Recordings understandably reflects shared values with the label’s figureheads, that of meeting increasingly high self-imposed standards and of “honouring” the music the band writes with their best effort each time they set out. YOB had quite the job ahead of them with Clearing the Path to Ascend.
The new album begins with a call to awaken, as was uttered with the final line of the preceding album’s opener. Practising what they preach, ‘In Our Blood’ brings with it an immediately apparent improvement in sound, if I may be permitted to say so. After channeling a bit of mid-70s Alex Lifeson, the doom explodes, with Scheidt’s wonderfully (well-established) distinct guitar tone that bit fuller and even more dynamic. The drums are particularly nurtured with a fatness that wasn’t quite there on Atma. ‘Nothing to Win’ lifts the intensity from the processional and morose to something more frantic, proving that YOB may write some of the doomiest stuff around but are not restricted by the crown devotees bestow upon them. ‘Unmask the Spectre’ builds itself around haunting, dreamlike clean guitars, evolving with nasty despondent heaviness and half-step menace like Euronymous on a boatload of opium. These songs exhibit a breathtaking unity amongst the trio of musicians, truly playing as one, certainly honouring the previously shaped soul of YOB through patiently crafted mantras and a deep emotional focus.
But it is with the finale, ‘Marrow’, where YOB finally exceed all they have crafted beforehand and fashion the jewel in their crown that fans will have hoped for. There is something fresh unleashed in the emotion YOB express here. Rising from the choking black smoke is a spirit of golden consuming fire, of purest bittersweet elevation. Scheidt’s vocals performance is at its most supreme, as though freed from flesh to manage an otherworldly quality I am sure he has dreamed of. It is YOB’s masterpiece.
To reductively say YOB are the “most influential” doom metal band around today is probably neither fair on the band nor an accurate appraisal of the creatively thriving genre itself. The band are about to embark on a tour along with Pallbearer, providing a clear and obvious examples of just how diverse a genre doom is today. There is certainly much discussion about which of the two bands have released the best album of 2014. For those lucky enough to attend, there will be no better opportunity to decide.
Inverloch emerged in the wake of early 90s death/doom outfit diSEMBOWLMENT and the subsequent 21st century live tribute/reincarnation d.USK. Their thunderous opening statement came three years ago with the Relapse Records-released Dusk | Subside, a three track, 22 minute collection of pulverizing dirge and uneasy atmospheres. As they prepare to support US doom giants Yob in Melbourne on August 21, we spend a couple of minutes with Inverloch’s bassist Chris Jordon and guitarist Matt Skarajew and find out what’s new.
