DIRTY HOUSECLEANING #4 vs. FREQUENCY INTERRUPTION #0

I’m back. The house is still dirty. The mind + spirit are still stuck in the inky, iridescent depths, even after a momentary glimpse of serenity. “We’re Back, We’re Pissed” and all that. 

Verily, I promise thee that there’s plenty of madness brewing in the cauldron for this new year. But in the meantime, might as well clear the decks with some stuff that was written this past November for issue 050 of ZeroTolerance but which never ran. Well, it runs here, now:

BLAZE OF SORROW

ECHI

SUN & MOON

Really wish I had gotten this record in October – late September, even – because this is autumnal black metal to a T. Now it’s late November and I’m longing for the flickering fires and the wind wisping through the fallen leaves and the chill that creeps into the air but not enough to drive you into wintertime hibernation…thanks, Blaze of Sorrow. Well, it’s not their fault: Echi can take you there anytime. The band’s Italian, yet they nod to that side of English heritage BM that nods to Agalloch. The clean and acoustic-y bits are the best, and really make me long for October. Alas…

nathan t. birk 4/6

CHAOS ECHOES

TONE OF THINGS TO COME

DEBEMUR MORTI

Vinyl-only release from the usually dependable DMP, and that title’s a cocky one, innit. Because If this is anything to go by, that “Tone” is fuckin’ OTT gnarly, and practically unlistenable when ramrodded onto song-constructions as labyrinthine as the four central tracks which comprise this, averaging nearly nine minutes apiece. A lot of the time, it works: absolutely gutted in execution but quite often “hovering” in texture, a weight vs. weightlessness duality that actually doesn’t smack of late-Naughties DsO. Other times, there’s just too much dicking around, too many inversely-precious moments of padding out song-length and testing one’s patience. The mind wanders…and wonders what’s “To Come.”

nathan t. birk 3/6

DARKENHÖLD

ECHOES FROM THE STONE KEEPER

THOSE OPPOSED

Look up Darkenhöld on Metal-Archives.com and you’ll see that their lyrical conceit is solely listed as “castles.” Laugh all you want, but that’s enough to get me excited – and hey, look at that! Their logo incorporates a castle: nice. Both those weighty expectations (ha!) in mind, this French trio mostly deliver here. Although given to windswept bouts of speed, Darkenhöld tastefully stick to a more measured, reined-in gait. Subtly swathed in synths that are more medieval fog rather than gothic twinkle – more Stormblast, say, than Witchcraft – the sum effect’s like sulking through the castle’s keep(er) instead of flailing madly up its spires. Not quite NES-era Castlevania-level awesome yet, but getting there.

nathan t. birk 4/6

LUST FOR YOUTH

GROWING SEEDS

SACRED BONES

The kids of today…debate all you want their supposedly suspicious motives, but I gotta applaud their current interest in synthpop, coldwave, and all things vintage-electronic. Problem is, too few of ‘em have the SONGS despite having the sounds. Indeed, modern (hipster-approved) torchbearers Lust for Youth have lotsa Cool Sounds and even stumble upon a mystical atmosphere or two, but the vast majority of sophomore album Growing Seeds is simply a “cool sound” looped until they hit “stop” on their home-recording decks. Believe me, I’m rooting for ‘em – and in their defense, it took Cold Cave an album and a few singles to find brilliance – but in another, more accurate sense? Don’t believe the hype.

nathan t. birk 2.5/6

WITHER

NECROPOLIS

AURORA AUSTRALIS

The last time I checked in with Australia’s Wither was their self-titled MCD: fairly standard Burzumic black metal yet, uniquely, with strangely bluesy leads. I definitely dug it then and was expecting more of the same here…but man, have the years been kind to the duo. Still firmly rooted in BM, Wither go all sorts of idiosyncratic places on their debut LP – and, crucially, without making much of a we-try-harder fuss about it (hi, Ulver). The leads are still tastefully subdued, but now they’re atop a blackened schematic that incorporates deathrock and funer(e)al doom, the vocals ranging many approaches in kind but especially the vampy end of the clean tone, and all wrapped in a wonderfully warm analog production. Sleeper hit of the year here, folks.

nathan t. birk 5/6

WOODS OF INFINITY

SNART…

TOTAL HOLOCAUST

New single here from this millennium’s foremost purveyors of black metal perversity, and it really is a “single” in the true sense of the word: two songs, short ‘n’ sweet. Sadly, it appears that it’s also the band’s epitaph. As it stands, the two tracks here continue (end?) the demented-soap-opera melodrama of last year's Förlåt, but there’s also more than a whiff of their old folkloric whimsy/mania (“Mot Usquebaugh”) as well as their most nakedly Manilow moment (“Here Comes That Lonely Night”): quintessential Woods of Infinity, no more but certainly no less. As WOI’s final statement, however? Kinda underwhelming.

nathan t. birk 3.5/6