When the winds of death and disease travel over the face of the Earth and the last of mankind hides inside filth-ridden sanctuaries, the murderous soundtrack of demise will be Gruntsplatter. This album is a masterful piece of work. Invading immediately with scornful feedback which deems that those who venture any further will be subject to vivid images of darkness and dismay. The Aberrant Laboratory draws no boundaries and holds nothing back as this entity envelops you in a spacescape ambience while thick and massive swarms of frequencies fall into a moldering distorted drone. At one point you hear a devilish circus type organ playing in the atmospheric static. Other times the wash of white noise titanically emerges and collapses down like a avalanche of rotting bodies suffocating all that’s in its path. Pulsating textures mixing with a wall of hostile feedback, metallic screams and spaced out keyboard melodies fundamentally draw back the curtain to reveal the horror that waits inside. Thundering waves of black sooty distortion and bleak depths of death ambience crush the elements of the foundation that divides noise and dark ambience. This album does exactly that. A merciless eeriness dwells within The Aberrant Laboratory. Inducing visions of horrifying medical atrocities and ancient secrets of disease ravaged wastelands, cut into the mind with twisted surgical brilliance. This year alone I have yet to come across an album with this much intrigue, power, and talent. I have always looked forward to hearing what Gruntsplatter is going to unleash, and there is nothing like The Aberrant Laboratory. An amazing approach to utilizing mixtures of high end and low-end feedback, creeping keyboards, and moments of malevolent beauty. By taking both noise and dark ambience and formulating a festering diabolical design, Gruntsplatter lets loose an album upon humanity that is easily the best of the year. – K
DARK VINYL
Gruntsplatter – The Aberrant Laboratory
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a CommentYoko Sato – Searching For My Recording Engineer
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
This is a CDR release featuring three guitar noise improvisations, and one of guitar and voice all recorded on the same day. The first is rather noisy and busy, but due to the amount of reverb applied, and the droning elements that come through it isn’t harsh or grating. The second piece embraces the power of the whammy bar, and isn’t as effected with delay and reverb as the previous one, but instead is quite raw. That ultimately leaves this sounding more or less like a roomful of beginners trying to play guitar with mittens on. It is noisy and chaotic and jumbled, but it doesn’t have any real tangible core to it that draws you in. The third piece, brings back the more atmospheric elements and combines it with an erratic pseudo structure, as a female voice wails and screams in the middle of the mix. It’s got a twisted and haunted feel to it that works pretty well. The fourth and final track is more in line with the second piece, stripped down with not a lot to grab on to. So half of this I liked the other half seemed unnecessary, would have made a nice 7″. – Scott
PUBLIC EYESORE
Gnostic – Hatewar 666
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
This is black metal from Texas featuring ex-Thornspawn members. I can’t stand Thornspawn and this isn’t any better. It sounds like a rehearsal. I don’t understand why music like this is released on CD. With such a dry and raw production it seems more appropriate this be released on a cassette or vinyl. The brutal parts work well and are surely the stronger point of Gnostic but, with little variation, tend to become boring for these ears. The more melodic parts seem to fail – “Imperial Gnostic Domination” being an exception as the first riff reminds me of Godless North. The vocals sound amateur and almost held back at times. You can feel the spit on your face from how dry the rasp is. The drumming is very fast and tight. I’m sure these guys enjoy what they do. I don’t. After listening to this in its entirety, I couldn’t help but grab Bloodhammer’s “Abbedissan Saatanalliset Houreet”. I’d recommend that album over this any day for stripped-down and raw black metal. Decide for yourself though. I’m lost on this one. – TRA
INFERNUS REX
Evocation – S/T
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
“A Wind Has Risen” begins the album as a solo bass melody. Distant winds howl and sweep across your face as the cold begins to numb your senses. In all but a minute (and 8 seconds), you question the validity of your life. You mourn those before you and those who will come after you. You lust for the soil to consume your lifeless corpse. When all but the slightest glimmer of hope is left you are struck with the opening chords of “Through the Darkened Peril”. You convulse and the deepest fears within you are now manifest in a puddle of vomit as you uncontrollably revel in all its glorious putrescence. Your blood thaws from its frozen state but what deems you worthy of life now? Was this just another attempt at understanding why those you love die? What deems you worthy of life? As you lose all this blood I feel very little remorse. You always wanted this… so please, stop trying to get out of it. You’re stressing your arteries… Trust me, I can see them all. It’s disgusting. You’re disgusting. I confess, after all, the sight of blood makes me nauseous. Alas, blood fiends, this is the purest form of death metal. This band was one of the many who slipped through the cracks (God Macabre anyone?) during the rising infatuation with, specifically, Swedish death metal. We are privileged to have these recordings today as they truly set the standard for real death metal 14 years after being put to tape. All the youthful flair and excitement of the golden age of death metal is preserved in these anthems. Executed with incredible tightness and awareness of what riffing, passion, and energy can do to differentiate the elite from the imitators. Not unlike “An Evil Shade of Grey” in its transitions between the trademarks of death metal riffing, this album touches upon every nuance all the while maintaining a true feeling of what this genre is about. Like a plague falling from the sky – a disease to end all life it falls through the atmosphere killing birds in flight and infecting the earth with a feeling worse than anything you could have ever imagined. The first seconds of “Through the Darkened Peril” open with drums firing away in true Dismember fashion as menacing chords are patiently held before menacing into a riff Unleashed wished they could have wrote. The vocals introduce themselves to the ears with sincere, energetic, and thoughtful placement within a song. All this just an introduction to the sheer brilliance that lies throughout this album. “The Ancient Gate” is a perfect example of how Evocation introduces a riff and transitions quickly leaving you begging to hear it again until you are bombarded with a completely different riff that leaves you in splendorous, jaw-dropping awe. A perfect clear and raw production to these songs adds greatly to the atonal melody adorning these riffs. The solo at 4:20 of “Where the Headstones Shine” comes forth like an excavated body impossibly inhaling a second breath of life in a foreign era while, 17 seconds later, it kills itself in tribute to one of Evocation’s many mournful and simple acoustic interludes. One couldn’t possibly begin to describe the magic of this collection of songs. Words seem to lose meaning when describing something greater than what they can convey alone. Recently Evocation has reunited, begun playing the old tunes live and, as of May, have been recording their debut album (this release being a collection of the two demos from ’91 and ’92). We can only hope they continue with the same passion they had in their youth. In any case, buy this release. If you are a death metal fiend, your collection is incomplete without it. If you are new to the ancient art of authentic death metal, this would be a great place to start. Until the new album surfaces, let us hold high the horns of death and praise Evocation for delivering giving us some of the best death metal in existence. – TRA
MERCILESS RECORDS
Eviscerate – Shadows Out Of Time
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
This is an incredible band. Starting out playing old Metallica covers in 1996 to writing original songs, Eviscerate has come along way. The fathomless time shifts and abrupt changes in the song structure is compelling. There’s a lot that reminds me of Witchery and even old In Flames (around the time of Whoracle not the new crap).But I digress. That’s not a bad thing by no means as far as I’m concerned. Eviscerate blends witching vocals with Extol like clean vocals that function very well together. Power Metal riffs that gallop like a black cavalry backed by crucial drumming shines through. Intermingling guitar harmonics with interchangeable wide spread tempo transitions. The creative guitar solos, and clean sound work well for a band that just signed a deal with On Dead Sound. Professional sound quality is very predominant in what you hear on “Shadows Out Of Time”. Slipping from Power Metal to a vibrant calming (dare I say it) Metallica-sque type break in songs like Stolen Heartbeats to crafty guitar work on Invasion take me back to my early days of Metal. I really dig this band, with the history behind them and four demos that can still be obtained (through downloading them) on their web-site and a well rounded line-up that hasn’t changed at all, I feel that Eviscerate has built quite a future for themselves. – K
SELF RELEASE
www.eviscerate.it
Dying Fetus – War Of Attrition
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
For those of you out there who, like myself, felt a bit let down by or disappointed with Dying Fetus’ last effort “Stop At Nothing” lay your fears of a repeat to rest. “Stop At Nothing” was not a bad album by any means, but it just never felt quite right to me for some reason. “War of Attrition” finds this long running band back at the top of their game. The two main improvements over the last album seem to come in the areas of production and backing vocals. Perhaps there is an improvement in the drumming as well, but that could be the result of the improved production. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Dying Fetus, they sound like a mix of Suffocation, Napalm Death and Hatebreed but with a sound all their own that has been slowly honed over the years. The bizarre little fret noodling that they do is impressive enough in itself, but making it work so well within material that is so overall intense and brutal is perhaps even more impressive. It is also a testament to how well they are able to craft their songs. I honestly don’t know why more people don’t take this band more seriously or give them the respect that they are surely due. Based on the cover songs that they have done in the past I would say that they are coming from the right place, making music for the right reasons and believe one hundred percent in what they are doing. Not to mention the fact that they are damn good at it. – Lance Rogers
RELAPSE
Devilry – Muslim Genocide
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Here we have a nifty little CD-R promotional packet for a new Devilry seven-inch EP. I normally disagree with and/or flat out laugh my ass off at the B.S. printed in promotional packets, but in this case I would actually like to quote a line from one because I feel it is accurate and I completely agree with it, so here goes; “Devilry firmly upholds the tradition and legacy of extreme underground metal by crafting relentless, crushing, ripping violent death metal”. For those of you out there that are familiar with Devilry’s past works you can expect more of the same, but with a few minor changes. Sharper, more focused song-writing for example. Also, there has been a slight shift in the vocal delivery of Sir Holm from the more bizarre Mika Luttinen (Impaled Nazarene) style to a more refined Pete Helmkamp (Angel Corpse) style tongue-lashing. The Production has been upped several notches as well. The lyrics remain as intelligent as they are offensive, although the primary subject matter has changed to reflect the apparent theme of this EP. My only complaint in regard to the band Devilry is their apparent inability to get a full-length album recorded. Perhaps they just haven’t been offered a deal for one yet. If so, I for one certainly wish that some wise record label out there would scoop these guys up and give them the support they need to get a proper full-length record out. I believe that the strength of their back catalogue speaks for itself and that the release of “muslim genocide” only continues to add to that strength. – Lance Rogers
BREATH OF PESTILENCE
Devillock – These Graves
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
I was just telling Marty that I was slightly irritated because, “I have this pile of noise to review that just sounds like…. noise. Like any other noise.” Then I happened to pick this cd from the pile, put it in the player and now feel the distinct need to eat those words. These days, it seems like any kid with a computer and fruity loops considers him/herself a noise musician. Justin Meyers of Devillock distinguishes himself from the mediocre masses with the release These Graves, or, if one combines the track titles, “The Blood From,” “These Graves,” “Weigh Forever,” “On Rotten Creatures”. To me, the mark of a good noise, experimental, or ambient disc is the ability to make me uncomfortable. To take me out of the daily comfortable reality and make me feel fear, dread, hate, melancholy – this is the reason I listen to noise. These Graves combines drones, static, metallic screeching, and other (less discernible) sounds to create a solid, cohesive noise/ambient release. It won’t go down as one of my absolute favorite albums of all time, but at least it restored some of my faith in the genre. There’s definite potential here – I’d be interested to hear Devillock’s future efforts. – Christine Lett
PACrec/SNSE
Destiny – Synthetic Existence
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Adipocere always had specific tastes within avant-garde death metal. Destinity is a fine addition to their roster. The bizarre thing is that “Synthetic Existence” sounds past its prime. I heard this album eight years ago. So now the bashing begins? Hardly. This is a solid effort evoking a comfortable nostalgia. There was a time in the mid to late 90s when death metal bands were experimenting with the success of Dimmu Borgir and the like – incorporating keyboard passages within the traditionally complex nature of death metal riffing. The results were often pleasing when the bands failed at imitation instead finding their own trademarks and identities. The riffs on “Synthetic Existence” please the ear with a brutal, eerie, and varied technique. The solos are perfect because they’re neither brilliant nor boring. They do exactly what they need to do and move on like a warrior would tend to battle after the realization there was no consoling the dying. While the keyboards tend to distract the brutality they are welcomed in the sense that the listener has breaks between the extremes. Magus or the first Absu record had keyboards in some songs as kind of a haunting drape beneath the bludgeoning heaviness. Don’t mistake that kind of incorporation with Destinity. These keyboards tend to arpeggiate rather than provide a drone – again, very typical of the mid-90s bands who explored the commercial tendencies of black metal. The one aspect of Destinity that seems to be more modern is the occasional use of clean vocals, which remind me of Satariel’s “Lady Lust Lilith”. My only complaint is that the later half of the album begins to tire my ears with ideas that don’t seem as thought out as the first half. Luckily, they land on their feet with the albums last song and title track incorporating everything found in the album superbly. I look forward to hearing where they go with this style on the next album even if it’s another trip down memory lane. – TRA
ADIPOCERE
Delirium Tremens – Thrashing Warthogs
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
“Thrashing Warthogs” is as real as the crusted stains on the jean jacket of the guy who sold you your first nicklebag in school. These riffs are sharp and nasty. Stopping, starting, chugging, thrashing and constantly slapping you in the face like the bitch you are. These guys are so dedicated to the art of thrash metal that nothing you would normally cringe at a band like this in 2006 appears bothersome. For example, every member’s name begins with “Rowdy” (Rowdy Chambers, Rowdy Bad Bone, etc.) and the song “Death from Behind” with lyrics given “Princessor, Fucks like aggressor, Princessor, Death from behind (No further lyrics – too drunk to…)”. Everyone sounds seasoned and every instrument contributes a balanced sound. The drums sound exactly as they would in a beer-soaked basement. Huge hits and a perfect lo-fi snare sound. If you are a fan of real thrash or beer slugging metal I couldn’t discourage you from picking this up. None of your friends are going to tell you to “take this shit out”. If they do, they were never your real friends to begin with. – TRA
MERCILESS RECORDS
Deadbird – The Head and the Heart
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
This record has balls. I wouldn’t even think about throwing this into something as open as the word ‘metal’ can be. This is monolithic sludge rock with an atmosphere as thick as the pot smoke that their rehearsal space most likely endures daily. To describe the overall feeling is complicated but almost like the groove of Goatsnake mixed with spastic Eyehategod moments, Neurosis-esque tightness and occasionally some early Scandanavian death metal dual leads into heavy, powerful sludge riffing and serene acoustic passages throughout – but hardly that simple. Loud screaming Marshall cabinets dulled just right for an authentic vibe sit will beside the rumbling bass, intricate and thoughtful drumming and heartfelt blue-collar bellows from three of these four guys with abnormally large testicles. “The Head and the Heart” could be the worst record of the year had it not been recorded or played the way it was. Simple riffs, simple ideas put into a coherent and fluid skeleton of brilliant sound. Gather a group of experienced and passionate audiophile musicians who can be versatile within one style and you will always hear something great. Too often we forget what sound can do for a band (Pelican) as opposed to material – and this record takes both cakes. Pick this up in your dirty work clothes and set it beside your six-pack of ale on your way home to your filthy apartment. No doubt a must-have. – TRA
EARACHE/CODE:BREAKER
Crystalium – Diktat Omega
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
The promotional packet from the label describes this as “war black metal” but I do not find that to be a fitting description at all. When is the last time that a war metal band employed a keyboard player? Anyway, I view Crystalium as a more credulous version of mid-era Dimmu Borgir which is somewhat strange since they are from France, a country known for the much rawer, necro style black metal bands in more recent years. Crystalium is very good at what they do. The music is fairly diverse with haunting, sweeping melodies layered over some seriously pounding drum work with only the occasional mid-paced breakdown. Track four consists merely of a militant drum roll, some droning guitars and spoken passages. All of the track titles and lyrics are in French, which may turn some people off but I find it to be a plus when a band sings in their native tongue. It comes across so much more natural and convincing, plus I can think of a couple of Czech black metal bands that do this with an excellent result. The first three tracks seem to be the most well written, after which the songs begin to blur together a bit. The album closes with a non-metal track of sampled noise, which I could do without, especially on a black metal disc. If you are into the more commercial side of black metal but are looking for something a bit more pure and obscure Crystalium might be just what you are looking for. – Lance Rogers
OAKEN SHIELD
Crystalium – De Aeternitate Commando
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
I definitely wanted to hate this disc from its opening moments. As soon as track 1 (La valeur de la haine) hit, my eyes rolled back and I cringed. Another band who are trying to fill Dissections temporarily imprisoned shoes? So it would seem. But there’s one thing this band has that many of the lesser Swedish-style bands do not. It’s definitely not a decent drum sound (had to throw that in), but a solid songwriting chemistry. So while Crystalium may come across as the sum of their influences (Dissection, At the Gates, Naglfar, Marduk) they can still work in a very creepy atmosphere as evidenced on songs like “Au nom de la Rebellion”. Another strength for these guys is their ability to put together songs in excess of eight minutes while never really losing their momentum. Overall, this disc surprised me a bit, and I’d bet the farm that they could come out blasting with a highly creative follow-up LP. – Craig Schlanger
ADIPOCERE RECORDS
Crossover – Over the Cross
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a CommentIt’s apparent that bands need as much help as they can get in deciding what to call themselves. Have all the good names been taken? If Crossover is the best this band could come up with, it would seem so. This is a Greek band and “Over the Cross” is their 2nd release which features five songs mixing death and black metal; Rotting Christ and Varathron are the most notable influences in the guitar melodies (the 2nd track, ‘World Crescendo’, is more along the lines of Six Feet Under, amusingly enough). Based on this recording, Crossover doesn’t seem ready for a CD deal, especially since the powerless, screamed vocals need a lot of improvement. However, Deadsun has already signed them and released their first official CD, “Debauchery”, so apparently I’m wrong. It hardly matters though, as the CD will probably be forgotten in a year or two, along with hundreds upon hundreds of others. – Brian Woodworth
Council of the Fallen – Deciphering the Soul
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Here is a band whose debut CD unfortunately got very little attention. It was a good album and having Derek Roddy on drums only helped make it better. Now Tim Yeung is handling the drums and he does a great job of course. But there is a problem here. COTF has chosen to use clean vocals on parts of a few of the tracks (numbers three and six to be exact) and it sounds totally out of place. The first time I heard it I was actually laughing out loud during these parts. At the same time I was disappointed because other than that, Deciphering The Soul is a good album. There is some catchy, technical stuff on here and it’s pretty heavy for the most part. Also worth mentioning is that COTF got a good sound on this without being overproduced. The clean vocals (which are not really used that much) do add a strong contrast to the brutal vocals used most of the time. However I prefer my death metal to be as heavy as possible at all times, not just most of the time! I am now less likely to play this CD just to avoid hearing those parts. Well enough of my bitching. Maybe some of you aren’t quite as closed minded as me. There is still some good stuff present if you can overlook the clean vocals. – Jeff Savage
SEASON OF MIST
Control – The Means To an End
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Good lord how the times of grace have fallen and the age of unequivocal madness has begun. “The Means To An End” is a surgical disfigurement of Power Noise bliss. From the very beginning of the first track with the metallic screams from women to the horrific channeling of the power electronics Control straps you down to the operating table and begins to gut you in a delightful manner. Injections of power noise burst forth whirling in a static, high and low end arsenal of multi-textural balance. Corrosive layered vocal electric battery detonates like a jack hammer while white noise with snares of beauty travel inexorably through the nervous system of “The Means To An End.” Low end drones stray aimlessly as a rampart of noise, feedback, and layers upon layers of rue samples spray in a hate filled and yet stellar poise. A mental derailment of the sorts as “The Means To An End” continues its attack on to the senses with insectic throbs and pulses, distorted transmissions of screams, high pitch feedback leveling the mind as bass induced atmospheric perversions trample over amplifier revilement. Control is by far one of the eminent Power Electronic projects out there today. Mercilessly striking with a hatred and rage that is imbedded in its sound and complex body structure. Entwined through a coordination compound method of multiple textures and layers of pain staking introspection has paid off time and time again. There are many Power Electronic projects out there that get more credit for very little work or creativity. But what Control affixes into the foundation is amass of desirable work that has been laid out for us to experience. Time and patience is profoundly evident with the arousing cells of noise, textures, and endless levels of atmospherics that dwell within each and every release. So as the calming of the storm approaches and a sense of ease falls over you, listen very carefully. Deep down inside that peace rages a horrific design seeping up from the Earth to crush all that stands in its way. – K
EIBON RECORDS
Condoms Protect Real Love – Volume One.
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a CommentGood lord I have landed in the world of the obscure and the strange. Condoms Protect Real Love is a stylish balance of bizarre sex, hate filled noise and tainted industrialized beats. There was no info on this project and no label to look up so finding anything on this project was futile. I just was absorbed into this romping macrocosm of pornographic machine noise ambience. A crumbling filthiness of mercurial noise and mechanical loops. Static induced rambling eroding into a spastic pulsation of screaming and deviling narrative passages. Creeping distorted guitars, fuzz bass looping as a atmospheric static noise grapples between the two. As soon as “Volume One” began to head in one direction, it shifted into a high pitch bleeping, feedback and techno beat that just caught me off guard. Then rupturing back into this crazed rampage of noise once again. I really like the way the album swayed in and out of Noise Ambient and Noise. I found the compelling fixture of vocals and beats looped through out some of the songs inviting and at times a raping of the senses. A mental derailment as each song delved deeper and deeper into a perverse world of violent sexual ambivalence and dementedness. – K
Collapsar -S/T
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Since I basically get releases that Scott and Marty don’t want or don’t know what to do with, I ended up with this CD of progressive metalcore. Those two words separately are enough to turn me off to any release, so it’s good that I listened to the CD before I knew how it was classified. It would have been a real shame to offhandedly write this off as trendy, typical ‘today’-styled fake metal. It’s actually a good listen – intricate, intelligent, dense insanity. Each track is an instrumental opus dedicated to such esoteric concepts as robots, King Kong, and Godzilla. A good way to describe it is the perfect combination between high and low concept. On one hand, the music itself is so thick and technical and the instrumentation and musicianship so evolved that one would expect some pretentious lyrical meandering or the typical nonsensical gross-out fests offered by The Locust and their ilk. But no, the music is strong enough to stand on its own without confusing the concept with unnecessary words. On the low end, the tracks are named things like “Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla”, “King Kong Died for Your Sins”, and “Robot Wins”. Is it hipsters trying to be ironic? Probably, but at least they were gracious enough to spare me the hipster-prose. -Christine Lett
ESCAPE ARTIST
Coherent Liquid Form – S/T
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a CommentHere we have a debut MCD from 2001 featuring three studio tracks and one live track. I am not familiar with this band at all so I have no idea if they have done anything more recent, but I’m sure they have. They start things off with a sample of the deranged drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket, a classic in my eyes. Coherent Liquid Form shows some promise here by using a backbone of melodic death and branching off from it with some more experimental (for melodic death metal) elements in places. The vocals are a moist, raspy scream that remain a bit too consistent throughout these tracks. They are fine for the regular music, but when they break off into stranger parts I think the vocals should also change a bit to cater to the experimentation. You will need to turn up the volume a bit for the live track, which doesn’t really sound live, just low. I’d be somewhat curious to hear newer material from these guys. This MCD is available from the address below for $5.00 postage paid. – Lance Rogers
IMPERIAL ARCHIVES/MATT ANDERSON
P.O. Box 9915, Maplewood, MN 55109
Circle of Ouroborous – Shores
•January 3, 2009 • Leave a CommentIt is so incredibly rare that I hear something that completely paralyzes me. I had precautions from Patrick/Northern Sky that this was “different” and that it may take time to get used to or set in. The very second these vibrations reach your ear – they go past the thinking mind into the spirit, creating a home for itself within. How does one even begin to understand? I know that words cannot give any meaning for the energy “Shores” emits. If I were to even understand everything within it, I would have a hard time telling someone else what it really is about. Almost like describing the face of someone in a dream whom you had never met. It is ever-present during the listening but almost completely lost after it is over besides the general feeling it leaves you with. Maybe that is the secret to a recording, which truly embodies its own world. “Shores” incorporates so many styles within one very distinct, unique, and avant-garde style. One listener might hear black metal, another crust, old punk, or even rock. The vibrant nature of “Shores” is spread on a vast canvas with these elements and portrays any number of feelings within one steady mood. The vocals are spoken – never sung – and sometimes wailed. Only a few seconds of the entire listen expose a black rasping voice that sounds like nothing else in its context. The drums are very dry and dirty sounding but provide a perfect pulse for the trance effect. Try to imagine a less complex Ved Buens Ende “Written in Waters” mixed with Alcest’s “Le Secret” and the almost stoned performance of Sonic Youth’s “Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star”. Soak that in a warm, mid-range guitar tone that absorbs any room for silence between movements. This is so ahead of its time – I know that it will never do as well as it deserves to in today’s circles. It’s that good. This will be a CD in your collection in years to come where someone comes over and asks, “Who is Circle of Ouroborous”? To which you respond, “The very core of avant-garde.” – TRA
NORTHERN SKY PRODUCTIONS
Worm Gear 