Zero Credibility

Finally received a little bit of new music yesterday. And this is the heaviest doom/sludge metal possible. Of course all 3 CDs are from my fave Rise Above Records, where else all heavy music lives? First CD is Unearthly Trance – “In The Red”. It’s very interesting kind of doom. Proper heaviness and high vocals. Quite unusual for american band to produce something of this kind. But this album goes along with typical Electric Wizard album in heaviness and pace. Recommended.

Second CD is  Electric Wizard with the same name. This is the first proper album of the band. They show their true 70s atmosphere together with heavy riffs. Since it’s first one it has that special feel that first albums of the bands have. A bit different from the rest of the releases yet attractive.

And third one is a compilation of Pre-electric Wizard releases from years 1989-1994 consisting of bands like Thy Grief Eternal, Eternal and Lord of Putrefaction. This one is the most interesting CD as it shows absolutely unusual side of Jus Osborn. When Eternal sounds a bit closer to Electric Wizard, Thy Grief Eternal and Lord of Putrefaction are pure heaviness and doom. These several tracks blew my head off. Finally I found something as heavy as I wanted all these times. Yet it’s not just one slow rhythm there, it changes pace and feel and all in all really delightful music. Also Jus’ vocals are surprisingly different and it totally doesn’t sound like him, but still very growly, especially on Lord of Putrefaction part. Highly recommended for Electric Wizard fans who still didn’t get this remaster for some reason.

I was too busy (lazy) to update. No real news in music side of my life. Large package I ordered still on its way resting in the customs. So I’m listening to the old stuff. I’m converting all my collection to FLAC bit by bit, so I can leave CDs alone and play everything from the comfy playlists via Foobar player either at home or at work. When starting writing this update I had no idea what to write, but now it occured to me it’s the end of the 2009 and it is time to say what albums I liked most during this year:

• SUNN O))) – “Monliths & Dimensions” – This is the main album of the year for me. It completely devastated my mind. The massiveness of the riffs is immense. The band moved much further with this release as from guitar sound as from vocal part. They now use female choir and classic instruments on some tracks. This all makes their music even more multidimensional and interesting. Can’t wait to hear their new works.
• Moss – “Tomb of the blind drugged” – This is the best album in drone doom genre. Very heavy and monotonous. It’s what I was looking for ages.
• Satyricon – “The age of Nero” – First, I was kinda sceptical regarding this album, but after my friend told me that I definitely have to try it out, I did. And you know what, I was hooked instantly! As usual, very technical work, but not banal and downgraded, it’s severe and cruel like northern wind. Glad to see Satyricon evolves.
• King Diamond – “Give me your soul…please” – This came out as surprise for me because I quit being Kind Diamond fan like 15-20 years ago and after listening to this album I fell in love. King reached new awesome heighs using his vocals, music is quite interesting and I’m still humming it walking on the streets. Very well done!
• Lustmord “Other” and remixes – This is the main bunch of dark ambient (and dub!) releases of the year. Brian went further remixing his “Other” album making two follow ups “The Dark Places of the Earth” and “Beyond” as well as making dub remix “Other Dub”. All bunch is quite stylish and continues proper Lustmord trend – darkest and spacey ambient (and dub!).

Cold autumn brings typical grim moods therefore i’m getting alot of metal these days. I stopped to be King Diamond fan back in the early 90s. The albums after “The Eye” seemed kinda boring to me so I quit my long standing fandom for the King. But it took like 17 years for King Diamond to attract my attention again. His last album “Give Me Your Soul…Please” turned to be quite nice. It’s dynamic and has interesting themes and King’s vocals are top notch there. So I’m glad he and his band don’t stand in one place and actually do new interesting things.

Finally I’ve got new Moss album “Tombs of the Blind Drugged”. I tried to buy it from Rise Above directly, but the package didn’t came after the month of waiting, so I ordered it via other channels. But it was worth waiting, this album is even more dark and slow and epic than previous works of the band. They’re my current faves in dronedoom area.

Enslaved – “Isa”. I’m still continuing gathering last Enslaved albums, and think i’ll stop now. This is the last album of the band that attracted my attention. As expected it’s pure masterpiece of this oldest viking metal band. The title track “Isa” is my fave there, but the rest of the album is also good and breathe cold from the norwegian mountains.

After the long pondering I finally decided to buy latest Satyricon album “The Age of Hero”. This is indeed very nice album: very cruel and perfectly performed black metal of the high quality. Of course it’s not as properly grim as their first 2 albums, but its technical level is so great that I couldn’t resist. Satyricon for me are the most technically advanced black metal band, it’s like Nine Inch Nails in alternative genre. I’m now pondering to buy their “Now, Diabolical” CD because it’s as good as this one.

The last two albums not actually metal ones, but from the monsters of dark ambient. Nordvargr – “Evolution” is good pack of dark ambient and microsound music from the master of evil sound. First CD is mostly proper dark ambient and second is sound experiments with cuts&clicks and glitches. Very nice production and quality of sound there. As usual, Nordvargr doesn’t disappoint his faithful fans here.

The last visit to Lustmord site surprised me by the new release. [BEYOND] – is the new pack of extended remixes of the album [OTHER]. I like that Brian is quite productive lately, even his last two releases are actually remixes of one album. These remixes are quite nice actually, and quite different from the source album, so one coul dconsider them as a separate works. All in all dark ambient is quite narrow genre, so little altering of one track might significantly change it. This album is not exception, so as soon as I saw it’s released I ordered it and put my greedy hands on it 2 weeks later.

After 4 or so years since his last visit, Brighter Death Now finally managed to give a show in Moscow. Warmup for BDN was Misery. It’s my old friend who leads this project since the early 90s. This time it was very nice composition with ritual elements, with slow developent, proper climax and conclusion. As usual Misery delivers quality solid stuff you shouldn’t miss. A pity though that the club has shitty sound system so Misery’ performance was kinda quiet. BDN part was surprisingly rather loud, after Roger K. showed his disagreement with club’s volume policy. He performed with 2 people form Moscow bands, Anthesteria and Lamia Vox who actually produced noise. There were as classic tracks as new ones, with the touch of the aforementioned bands. All in all the show was quite good. Though, someone stole Roger’s giant banner with BDN symbol after the show… some people have no respect whatsoever. I’ve bought limited edition CD “Breaking Down Nihil” that was supposed to sell only on these shows in Russia, there’s program that Roger performed there. It’s limited to 150 copies as well.

Just received long awaited new stuff of Galerie Schallschutz. This time it’s DVD/CD release called “Cocoon”, featuring live recorded in Antwerp back in 2007 during Tesco Festival. Galerie Schallschutz makes quite rare releases, but they’re all very interesting, hence this one was much anticipated. And it turned to be really nice: conceptual live show of GS is something I didn’t expect, but here it is. The message behind GS is the conspiracy theory in action. The problems of modern society, government manipulating lives to satisfy its little interests. Good show and good music. As usual, quality release from my favourite german project.
Second CD is Isomer - “Face Toward The Sun”. This time Isomer went further to explore harsh sound. No more of that drone ambient which it used to be. Quite alot of noise tracks together with proper ambient makes it peculiar and not to be missed release.

This post was actually meant to be released month or two ago as I got this massive package in midsummer, but lack of time and general laziness prevented me to complete it. The main body of this package is a number of releases from german label Sonderübertragung!.

Llovespell albums “Symmetric Poetry”, “Signatures of Sympathy”, “Every song is a llovesong” and “Last breath before light”. This project is kinda close to Antlers Mulm, but it’s less experimental, but more melodic and musical. Electronic music with seldom female vocals to ease moods. Good for evening listening (as any other music I usually listen to ;).

High Tide Technology “At Night”. This is quite an experimental project for this label, but still, quiet electronics ambient music with a bit of light noises here and there. Nothing special but it adds to the label’s collection.

Sunday Strain “Red, Black and White” album is kind of different music from above mentioned, it’s kinda jazzy and features female vocals which makes me uneasy. I’m still not sure why did I buy this release, but from the other side, the collection wouldn’t be full without this release. Maybe I just have to grow up to understand it.

Antlers Mulm “Weihnachtsfunk 1&2″ and “Filth in Several Styles – Alternative Sparks”. First album is a reissue of long deleted cassette, and second is a collection of remixes on Antlers’ track “Filth in Several Styles” from the album “Of withered sparks” released on Loki. First CD feels undeveloped Antlers Mulm, the ideas aren’t polished yet, but you can feel general direction of the project. Second CD is quite various in sound and style. Some tracks are quite ambient, others are rhythmic or even featuring classic instruments. There are remixes by Llovespell, Fjernlys, First Law and High tide Technology.

For some reason I decided to gather last Enslaved albums, probably because I listen to metal alot last days.  Enslaved – “Ruun” was the first CD from the last ones I’ve bought. It’s quite different from the old Enslaved, more complex and interesting. I’m glad this band doesn’t stagnate and develops all the time.

It turned I listen to Abruptum very much lately, probably because I need proper grim music or probably Abruptum is one of those bands that sincerely deliver really pure chaos and evil. This is music without compromises. I’ve got two albums “Casus Luciferi” and “In Umbra Malitiae Ambulabo, In Aeternum In Triumpho Tenebraum”. First one is more late album, it’s more traditional in terms of song length and structure, but still, there are tracks like some Satanic marches or just some guitar noise, etc. Second album is 60 minutes of everlasting pain and darkness. This is classic album I listened to on cassette pack in 90s. Quite nostalgic for me and still quite evil.

Next pack of CDs came to me not so long ago, but I still managed to be too lazy to write about them. First one is much anticipated release from Inade – “The Incarnation of the Solar Architects”. As any of Inade release this one is the same vast darkness of space with layers of sounds that create awesome cosmic atomsphere of darkness and cold. Any Inade fun must have this CD as it’s next classic from the band.

Bad Sector “CMASA”. This is quite unusual Bad Sector release. Unusual just for one thing, he added piano to his radio wave music. The idea isn’t new, people from Raster Noton did that ages ago, but it’s still interesting to see Bad Sector’s special kind of noise with piano, recommended for BS fans.

Robert Rich/Lustmord “Stalker”. I wanted to get this release for like several years, and finally here it is. Well one might really consider it as a proper OST for the Stalker movie. Dark ambient from the inventors of the style cannot be bad, can it? I like that they included some sounds (speeches) from the actual movie to add atmosphere. Worked quite well.

S.E.T.I. – “Corona”. This is pure so called space ambient. Alot of source sounds came from the real astronomic laboratories, repocessed radio sounds from the stars sound really cool if to alter them properly. People in this project know what they’re doing so the music really sounds as if you’re part of the x-rays coming from some distant star.

Scripta Sensus – “Conscious And Unconscious Subjective Reactions…” This project was recommended to me by me friend. Well this is realyl some interesting neo-folk type of music with the hint of The Moon lay hidden beneath a Cloud. But comparing to TMLHBC this project is still raw but they really have potential, there are nice ideas. Hope their next album will be more mature.

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.