Zero Credibility

Got small pack from Eternal Pride today which includes the following releases: rather old album by Of the Wand and The Moon – “Sonnenheim”.  I listen to this act rather frequently, especially in the autumn or grey summer days. Very calm voice and music of this danish neo folk project create cozy atmosphere.  I still remember his concert here, it was really awesome. I hope will Kim visit us again this autumn.

Next is Nordvargr - “Untitled Navigations I”. This is new album from the dark Nordvargr, this time it’s dark cosmic sounds very much like on Interstellar album. Nothing could be said about that, only that Nordvargr rached absolute heights in dark ambient music productions, and slaves of him will obtain this CD anyway.

Körperwelten - “Avatars of Rape and Rage” is the collaboration between Nordvargr and Leech of Navicon Torture Technoligies. This one is very grim noise album, together with trademark brutal sadistic art within the digipak, music shred the ears with proper NTT method, add here dark ambient backgroud and you’ll get the idea. Very nice album.

Also received rather big package from the Southern Lord label. Here’s the deal. Boris – “Pink” and “Smile”. This is japanese heavy rock project. The music varies from the very slow and harsh doom, to rather fast doom of japanese flavor. I’m not sure if I liked fast tracks, maybe I have to listen to them more, but slow ones are really properly done. I’ve bought Boris because I liked their cooperation with SUNN on Altar album. But these two are of a different kind. Well maybe I have to grow up more to fully comprehend them.

Earth – “Hex..”. This is good old Earth which discography I’m slowly gathering. The CD’s inlay has alot of old photos of the old american life such as Indians, cowboys, etc. This adds to the atmosphere of the album – slow epic rock, which brings images of vast american prairies and nature. Gotta get Earth’s albums that they released on Sub Pop records, as I almost gathered everything from Southern Lord.

Abruptum – “Evil Genius”. This is very old album from the swedish masters of true evil Abruptum that was re-issued on Southern Lord last year. I wanted to get this CD while ago and now finally got it. Well the music on CD is absolute darkness and chaos. This is one might call it – trie satanic music. Sometimes I’m in the mood to listen to the moans and noises of this proper kind. I also like that this project has its measure of black humour.

SUNN O))) – “The GrimmRobe demos”. Contiuing gathering old SUNN’ albums. This one is one of my faves – solid with 4 tracks of epic proportions. The sound is so heavy my headphones are ready to blast away. One of the gems in SUNN O))) discography, the last one I really need is “Oracle” album, but it was released in limited edition, so it’s almost impossible to get it these days.

SUNN O))) – “Monoliths & Dimensions”. This is very fresh album of the band released the end of May. For me this is the best dronedoom album ever at the moment. Here SUNN reached another step in the genre one might think has rached the dead end while ago. The music is very heavy, multilayered and dark. There’s also usage of classic string and brass, but there’s slight hint of them being used. Their sound is utilised in proper heavy way so they just add the depths to the music. Atila Csihar is also presented there in somewhat even stronger way than ever. His voise is so close and deep and heavy, almost like the guitars. Top notch album! Recommended to anyone who likes heavy music.

I’ve returned from the nice trip to Suzdal yesterday. This is small town 185km from Moscow filled with Russian history. First mention about it is dated 11th century. This is church-monastery town, there’s so much churches that whenever you look you’d see some random church head. Actually there’s nothing more to see apart from these religious buildings and castles. Crowds of tourists from all over the world roam its streets and enjoy russian foods in quite a big number of restaurants. Weather was also merciful to us, it was contrast hot sunny and heavy rainy weather but generally it was pretty warm – proper russian mid-summer. Enjoy some pics.

Just thought that I’ll post about current events in WoW where I spend all my spare time. The guild I’m in have cleared Ulduar month ago, and now we’re doing hard modes of the bosses. I’m really glad to see Blizzard is improving the game constantly. These new hard modes of the bosses are properly designed replay value of the game. You can improve yourself constantly till the next major content patch and there’s no boring farming. Hardmodes are really hard and they designed to keep guilds busy for a longtime. Also Blizzard constantly tunes the encounters so they’re really fun to play. If you want relaxed raid, you just kill the boss normally, but if you want some wipefest night, you can enable hard mode and wipe till you drop but if you manage to defeat him afterall, you get additional hi quality items. This new approach gives second life to the game and raiding especially.

Finally re-visited this cool city. Last time I been there was like 20 years ago and it doesn’t actually counts as I been there only 1 full day and didn’t see much. I liked SPB really much as it has its special atmosphere despite crowds of tourists all over the place. If to deviate a bit from the main tourist routes you might end up in the silent streets and squares. Early spring was also merciful with sunny and warm weather. We got to see Peterhof’s infamous fountain complex as well. Gonna return to this awesome city one day to see more.

I’ve got heavy package from the Rise Above Records recently. Since I’m now official fan of stoner doom, UK’s Electric Wizard are my icon now. I gathered almost full discography now, the cds I’ve got are their early releases. “Let Us Prey”, “Come my Fanatics”, “We Live”, where earlier stuff is more low-fi and psychodelic and later stuff is more heavy. This is the band one must listen at full folume to blow his (her) head off, heaivest riffs possible, mad lyrics and overal oppressive atmosphere is what general doom fan would dig.

And another CD is by Acid King – “The Early Years”, american stoner doom band which I found on the internet digging for more doom. They are pretty good as well, along with proper heaviness of music there’s nice female vocals, not those vocals you might have assumed, but somehwat brutal and ragged. This exact CD is a collection of their early works released by japanese label “Leaf Hound”. It’s kinda hard to get their albums I must say, alot of distros do not have them, but this is what makes hunting for proper music more interesting. So, I’m yet to get their two main full lengths “III” and “Bussy Woods”.

Pun intended though. This is the beginning of april here, but cold winds, filled with snow blow mercilessly for several days already. No sign of warm and sunny weather. This is the perfect time to receive package from Cold Spring and another lables of this kind.

First CD is Sistrenatus - “Sensitive Distrurbance”. This is quite various sounding piece. From pure noise to some rhythmic and pounding sounds. It feels a bit different from the previous album Division One. The music is more mature and interesting, still cold and merciless.

Satori - “Contempus Mundi”. This is dark ambient of a good type. Nothing special about it. Just another dark ambient album.

Nadja / Atavist / Satori – “Infernal procession … and then everything dies”. This is a split of 3 nice acts. 2 of them are very slow doom. Good autmn induced release. Suits this cold spring very well. It also going to serve me during the hot summer do cool me down ;)

Aghast – “Hexerei Im Zwielicht Der Finsternis”. If you’re old enough and were into early most cruel and proper black metal, you’d probable be filled with nostalgia when you see the cover art of this cd. Yes this is that old weird ritual whitch music. Performed by the two dark ladies, this dark ritual hex music still causes shivers down my spine. I’m glad it’s reissued so I finally can throw out cassette and mp3 files. Kudos to Eternal Pride for this.

Lustmord – “The dark places of the Earth”. This is the mutated “Other” album. And mutated into something which I kinda expected from Lustmord for the last several years. For me it reminds Heresy album very much, where Heresi being my fave one of Brian’s work. So for all the Lustmord lovers out there this one should cause good nostalgic feel. Add here modern music making technology and more powerful basses.

Circular – “Shaping the unknown”. This is fine Loki foundation release. Complex ambient by the member of Fjernlys project. For some reason I don’t dig Fjernlys, but this one is very nice. It kinda reminds Inade by the complex structure but it’s less dark, still interesting to listen to. This is one of those kinds of ambient where it is not boring.

Wolfskin – “O Ajuntar Das Sombras”. This is one of my fave dark ambient projects. I like it for primal darkness it brings, that’s because the sound comes from the dark abyss here. At least it causes such feeling for me. Previous album – Campos De Matança was even more dark though.

My Dying Bride – “For Lies I Sire”. Finally, my fave MDB have released their new album. I pre-ordered it and got several days ago. Well, what can I say, MDB still are top notch doom musicians out there. They still push it forward, making very quality music. The music is very heavy as emotionally as atmospherically. Everything is done properly there, from the vocals to lyrics. I’m glad to hear violin is back, it’s now more sinister and heavy, if you can say so about violin. All in all, fine new album!

Though tired and have little time to do something apart from work these days. Our company is on the edge of the crevasse before the release. There’s closed beta stage now. So we’re all sweating and working saturdays and all that nice crunch time game development madness is happening right now. So, this post is about nothing, just telling that I’m trying ot survive this hard winter and return to normal life closer to the spring.

Today I  continue tradition of this post. This year was quite cool in terms of new music. I submerged to the new (for me) stoner doom genre. And I’m still enjoying old metal music. Industrial kinda withered for me lately, but blame lack of noise/industrial shows which should keep the spirit. So, here are a few of the releases that will be remembered/played by me for the long time.

• Electric Wizard – “Dopethrone” – The band that renewed my views on the doom metal and rock in general. Actually I like all their albums. Yes I worship them.
• Antlers Mulm – “Withered Sparks” – Original sound and atmosphere. Experience you’ll never forget.
• Earth – “Hibernaculum” – Entire year have passed under the slow rhythms of Earth
• SUNN O))) – “Black One” – This album started it all.

As you can see, this entire year was under the sign of slo-mo. Not sure why but this stoner metal moves me a lot recently. Especially the Electric Wizard band. They properly mixed uber heavy riffs with chtonic atmosphere, this mix is just for my soul. Good old industrial music is on background now. Everything changes which isn’t bad. We’ll see what 2009 brings.

Actually I had to post this quite some time ago but just was kind of busy with crunches at work and extensive WoW raiding at home. So here it goes, since my last update alot have changed. I’ve changed the guild, bought WotLK and finished it. Meaning, my new guild have killed all possible bosses in the new expansion 10th December. That’s actually two weeks ago. Yes, we’re pretty hardcore these days and progress with fast pace through the content. As for the content itself, Northrend is a very well designed place in terms of landscapes and quests quality. It feels better than Outland, probably because it’s in Azeroth and everything feels at home. Outland was too alien I guess ;) The main raid dungeon Naxxramas is kinda easy for us, but I think it’s good because I was tired of Sunwell Plateau’s cruelty. We storm through it in a fun and relaxed pace and I like it. Though, there is encounter in the expansion which I consider is the best in the game – the fight with Malygos. Very well designed and complex fight introducing new things like flying on the platforms and on the drakes. Awesome  done fight. I hope there will be something no less interesting in the Ulduar when it ships. This week my guild is relaxing due to x-mas celebrations and prepares for future victories doing achievements in heroic 5 man instances in lazy mode. So, generally speaking my WoW life is in some quiet mode these days which is good because I can now sleep more and try playing other games :)

Finally received neat package from UK’s Rise Above Records. Along with Cathedral t-shirt there are 4 yummy doom pieces. I got to know new bands and whole underground camp of sludge/stoner doom bands. I.e. I have a vast area to explore now since this genre was always attractive to me and it seems it finally grew to the state of proper doom. As you might know I’m still fan of the oldskool doom bands like My Dying Bride, Type O Negative. But recently (last 10 years) the new genre was forming in the underground. The brightest stars are SUNN O))) and Electric Wizard bands. SUNN O))) is of more drony appearance while Electric Wizard is more funky, but still uber heavy. That heavy, so I know no better metal band in terms of heaviness at the moment. The proper stuff! First cd I’ve got is Electic Wizard “Dopethrone”. This is the album from which I got to know this band. Devastating riffs and atmosphere instantly hooked me, so I’m now official worshipper. Second CD is “Witchcult Today”. Same stuff as on “Dopethrone”, but it’s more monotonous and more painful I think.

Next CD is Moss “Sub Templum”. This one is very heavy drony doom. It’s like dark ambient meets black metal and doom. Can you imagine this grim mix? You will not be able to until you listen to Moss. The darkness of this music is what my soul requires exactly.

4th CD is Serpentcult – “Weight of Light”. This one is more rock side doom. But still very heavy stuff. The main thing that makes it different is female vocals which suits the music very well. Imagine Electric Wizard with female vox. This is Serpentcult. All in all, Rise Above records requires special attention now, as long as whole bunch of other UK and ametican independent labels who issue stuff like this. For me, tired of industrial/noise music, this stuff is like fresh wind. I like its heaviness, rhythmics, vocals and general satanic – chtonic atmosphere. Seems like doom metal takes new turn in its development.