Al Ard - Al Ard

Band: Al Ard
Title: Al Ard
Label: code666
Release Date: 22 June 2018
Country: Italy
Format reviewed: High quality digital promo

OK, this is interesting. As I have pointed out in some of my previous reviews, hybrid genres have never attracted me. However now I have the tough task to review the debut album of an industrial black metal band, born in 2011 in Sicily, Italy. Furthermore the band is not just industrial and black, but also integrates drum’n’bass and dirty dubstep elements. The trio claims they have been influenced by such acts like Dodheimsgard, Red Harvest, MZ412, Brighter Death Now, Aborym and DiabolicuM, Emperor, Satyricon and Diabolos Rising. Have I intrigued you already?

I little bit of a detour. Maybe the first clearly differentiating industrial black metal I heard was Diabolos Rising’s Blood, Vampirism and Sadism, in late 1995. By that time I had on tapes Abruptum’s In Umbra Malitiae Ambulabo, in Aeternum in Triumpho Tenebrarum, as well as Beherit’s H418ov21.C. Prior to them, it all was either industrial or black metal on the market. With the time, especially in the second half of the 90’s, I witnessed the rise of electronic music, d’n’b, ambient, and mixing it with all types of metal. This was also popular in the soundtracks of the movies (horror, drugs, killings…) and in the videogames (shooters and rally). To be honest these mixtures of metal and electronics (let’s for the sake of this review use this word in order to encompass the usage of machines) have never been of my preference.

Al Ard’s debut is good. It is excellent for a soundtrack of another Blade movie series, or for a high speed drive on a countryside/seaside road at hot summer night. It is an album of burning, extreme sounds consisting of 8 tracks of dark colours. Some of them are really into the black metal fury, others are in pure electronic, d’n’b and ambient mood, and third are pure disturbing noise. I really imagine blinking neon lamps in underground tunnels and corridors with white tiles, bathed in blood…

At the end of the day the album was enjoyable and actually it went comparably easy for me, despite of the experimental patterns and noise fuse at times. I must admit that the samples and the electronic background nicely complete the heavy parts in those tracks which combine both, creating a atmosphere from a nightmare - visual and emotional. The various non-metal rhythms and styles fit well, and the pure electronic tracks are even more enjoyable.

On and on Al Ard could be appreciated by all the heavy fans, nevertheless they are into industrial or black metal only. The combination here is good. Now push play to this record and create the apocalypse - go kill vampires and zombies. 6.5/10 Count Vlad

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Lychgate - Contagion In Nine Steps

Band: Lychgate
Title: Contagion In Nine Steps
Label: Blood Music
Release Date: 30 March 2018
Country: United Kingdom
Format reviewed: FLAC

This is one of those records which just happens to you. It finds you. Like a summer storm on a sunny day outside, like a momentary experience of a deja vu. Like a dream within a dream. Like a dark matter crossing the infinite.  And that’s the main reason that the present review wasn’t easy to write at all. At the end of the day I decided just to play the record and to write down everything I was feeling while listening. No special preparation, no notes, just lines pushed by all the emotions.

Lychgate’s music is like an ambivalent paradox, a multidimensional question,  a constant throw and pushes into finding the right decision for the key combination. A dichotomy of breathing black and white. An attraction of opposites. It is a labyrinth into the space, a quest, like a lifetime searching for the answers to the eternal questions. Imagine moving into endless corridors of space station, running, wandering and wondering, sometimes even finding a fields without gravitation, so you are just floating in the air...

OK, enough with the science fiction and the metaphysics and metaphors. However, this is not that much possible when reviewing “Contagion in Nine Steps”.  Lychagate simply delivers an astonishing effort. “The album is inspired by Stanslav Lem’s book “The Invincible” and all the historical and philosophical sources on the idea of swarm behaviour in crowds and civilisations from the era of Plato to Le Bon and the modern era.” And even though I am not into Lem’s science fiction heritage and characters, I would say I really found “Contagion in Nine Steps” very contagious and addictive. This third record of the English band from London certainly requires special mood and state of mind. Just because these 42 minutes, wrapped in 6 special forms of own life, deserve serious attention and imagination. “Contagion…” is an album that can’t be just played. It must be listened to carefully, several times, and then experienced. “What’s the style?”, you may ask. Well, it is space avant-garde, black, doom. There are from clean to aggressive growling vocals presented, drowning into choir or operatic passages, heavy guitars and melodic solos. An organ playing from the in a solemn hall of the corner of your cosmic sleep, a piano and a mellotron. The music is a roller coaster taking you up to the stars and drowning you suddenly down into black space holes – that much variations, layers, textures and imaginations.

I strongly recommend “Contagion in Nine Steps” nevertheless you like or dislike Lem’s book. It is a record for all those who live an breath the mysteries in music. The explorers. Those who dare. Those who are not following the flock of sheep. It is for the connoisseurs only. 8/10 Count Vlad




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8/10 To Greatness and Glory
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TRAITOR Interview

New merciless and heavily devastating Teutonic storm is raging over the world! With three crushing albums so far, Traitor have the very responsible duty to carry on raising the mighty German thrash flag. They prove no wrong – Traitor are among the finest thrash acts from the past decade and we are more than sure – Teutonic thrash is in very safe hands!

I invited Andreas, one of the founding members of Traitor, also performing drums and vocals, for a friendly and very special punching chat, in order to share with us some inside information about the secrets of the Teutonic thrash. (And pelase make sure to check here the review of Traitor's brand new album, which my brother in arms UHF made for Blessed Altar ZIne)

- Hello Andreas, it is a real pleasure to have you here on Blessed Altar Zine! Busy times for you now?

- Hey Ho! Thank you for having us here. Not busier than usual. It got a little bit more administrational work, but its fun.

Photo by Martin Kubowski / KUBO Fotoart

- Who is the Traitor, what are his typical features and what are his sins so far? A fictional character from our two songs „Traitor“ and „Hell-Hammer“. His typical features are very evil. Just listen to the songs. His sins  are told there in all their evilness. 

- You have changed the band’s name several time before choosing Traitor...
- Yes. The ones before were silly and/or to complicated.

- The band is already in the echelons of the Teutonic thrash. With such musical heritage on this scene, how hard is to get there?

- If you are from a German-speaking country (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and if you play Thrash Metal, you are in the Teutonic Thrash scene! It´s not that hard, isn’t it? But you are right: the heritage is glorious. It's nearly impossible to compete with the heroes from the 80s. But we are not trying to compete. We just want to honour the time and the Bands from then. And we want to play the music we love.

- I guess your main influences are in the Teutonic thrash scene, right? Are there more bands or genres, or even types of music, that inspire you?

- We love all types of music. And for example, I am listening to all kinds of music I enjoy and like. There are days where I listen to Ice Cube, Slayer and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in one row. But the main influences are the great Bands from the 80s like Darkness, Assassin, Violent Force, Tankard and all the others.

- What has changed for you since “Thrash Command”?

- We got better and improved our playing.

- Is this the hard road to success?
- I would not call it hard. We had to make mistakes, we had to play bad shows and had to learn some lessons. But it was fun!

- You have a brand new record “Knee-Deep In The Dead”. Could you please tell us more about it? What does it mean for you?

- The writing and recording process was the most intense so far. Pure aggression and power. But we also focused on groove and variable vocals.  In my opinion it's our best record so far. 

- What is the initial response of the audience so far?

- The response of the press was not that good. But the response of our listeners was very good! 

- You had a special guest in “Xenomorph”...

- Yes. Gus Drax from Suicidal Angels.

- Since I saw the artwork of the album for the first time, I’ve always wanted to ask you about it. Whose head is the Predator carrying? Of course, I’m curious about “Venomizer” and “Thrash Command as well”!

- It's not meant to be the predator. It's our mascot, inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Predator movie. And he is holding the head of Duke Nukem. On the other artworks, it's also our mascot. Always in different outfits. 

- You have been always very critical in your lyrics pointing out all the venom spilling around. How dead is the society and the world, and how deep-knee are we in it? 

- Not really to be honest. I try to avoid political lyrics because it got some kind of trendy mainstream to do that. We got very negative reviews because of that. But I don’t want to write the 101st lyrics about Donald Trump, Refugees or the climate change. When I listen to music, I want to have fun. So our lyrics are fictional and entertaining. Not about things, making a bad mood. They are about things we love. About things that let you enter a different world. It's better to be for something than to be against something. 

Photo by Martin Kubowski / KUBO Fotoart

- You are going to play Wacken very soon. How do you feel about it, what are your expectations? 

- We are very excited and we hope to make a very special and unique experience.

- What are your plans after Wacken?

- Business as usual. 

- I know it is early, but have you thought about the next record already? Is it planned yet?

- We are celebrating our 10th anniversary next year. So you can expect something. Definitely!

- Can we expect any change stylistically or any compromises?

- No way!

- How do you see the thrash scene nowadays?

- Great! Its growing and it's going in the right direction. 

- Where the fans can find vinyls of your records? It seems they are already hard to find...:-))

- You can find them at our online store on www.traitor-band.de/shop. If they are out of stock, we will reissue them as soon as possible.

- Is there anything you would like to add or exclusively to share with Blessed Altar Zine readers?

- Hmmm… (thinking) …I never learned to play the drums. I just started to play. Sometimes I regret that. That's exclusive! ;-)

- Thank you very much for taking time for this interview despite of your busy schedule. It’s been a real pleasure! We are wishing you much success and you guys have our full support! Thrash’em all!

- Thank YOU for your support and the chance to share our thoughts and opinions with your readers. 

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Totalselfhatred - Solitude

Band: Totalselfhatred

Title: Solitude

Label: Osmose Productions

Release Date: 27 April 2018

Country: Finland

Format reviewed: CD quality digital promo

Depressive black metal has always been a strange territory for me. The hybrids usually are not strong enough as the main species, and either they must be really good and well developed, or they are just dropped off from the herd. Furthermore nowadays there is clear and obvious diffusion in the styles, genres and subgenera into tens sub-sub categories which are even hard to describe. Depression had been a field for the most sad and slow death-doom bands 20-25 years ago just when the second wave of black metal has been so popular. So it was either slow, sad and painful, or it’s been…total black. Let’s add funeral doom and post-black wave to all this. Oh well…It really needs to be cooked well!

I’m once more thinking and calculating: summer is definitely NOT the time to drown into this particular style, especially when I’m writing for a depressive black metal band coming from the cold depths of Heslinki! With a band’s name like this and form my experience with their previous release for sure I knew what to expect, but what the heck!  

“Perseverance through adversity, creation through destruction, strength through pain. After years of waiting, skulking and lying near-dormant, Totalselfhatred has returned to the fray. We are here to present you five songs of our own particular brand of melancholic desolation in an audial form. Turn off the lights, wallow in the sweetness of reclusive negativity and let yourself float freely in the soothing stream of emotion that our epitome of Solitude will provide"

This announcement says a lot about the album and the band. “Solitude” comes seven years after bands second release “Apocalypse in your heart” released in 2011. With 5 songs and total running time of 41 minutes, in “Solitude” Totalselfhatred deliver another solid dose of despair and pain giving us just a solid reason to cut our veins. Depression, emotional crush and absolutely no light in the end of the tunnel. So painful and beautiful at once

Musically the album is good. Shoegazing, black gazing, melancholy. With really fantastic (!) slower parts, clean or acoustic guitars passages, keys. However the slower to mid passages suddenly explode into hyper nihilistic crescendo blasts and lethal doses of pain and screaming vocals. Typically for the genre of course. Honestly this was my main problem - these particular parts of the songs and vocals. First of all the blasts - some mistakes in drumming rhythm were noticed, and really the music and the overall atmosphere do loose with that painful screams and harsh vocals. Of course with songs like Solitude, Cold Numbness, Hollow, Black infinity, there can’t be anything else but pure misanthropy and screams for help of hopelessness. 

At the end of the day I’m trying to convince myself about which half of the song parts will prevail in my judgement. The slow and gloomy desperation or the painful cut-knife black crescendos which for me are weathering the veins of this record. I leave it to everybody to find the answer for him self. 6/10 Count Vlad

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Dopethrone - Transcanadian Anger

Band: Dopethrone

Title: Transcanadian Anger

Label: Independent/Totem Cat Records

Release Date: 25 May 2018

Country: Canada

Format reviewed: FLAC

I’ve always thought that the Canadians were usually calm and nice people. However the title of the new track made me think this might not be the case. "Transcanadian Anger" is the name of the new full length album by Dopethrone, fifth since 2009 in their discography so far. Apparently all band's releases are everything else but neither calm nor nice. That said I'm definitely reconsidering my impression about Canada. (sorry, guys!)

Named after Electric Wizrad's 2000 album, and containing certain words-references in the band's name and song titles, one knows what to expect there. Actually yes and no. I really liked the definition on their FB page: “Dopethrone plays Slutch Metal. It's a foul Canadian mix of yellow snow, crackhead diarrhea, blood, tears and broken dreams”. Dopethrone are the hooligans in the party - cocky, bold, spitting curses, drinking beer, making fights and...offering a dose. Hated by the half on that party, but adored by the other half. 

“Transcandian Anger” is sludgy, muddy and dark record and at the same time very lively and groovy. Crushing very low riffs, heavy bass line and grim vocals, whispering evil spells. Vik, Vincent and Shawn delivered very sticky 36 minutes record, with 8 tracks which you just play and leave going. “Planet Meth” is heavy as fk opener with catchy riff. In “Wrong Sabbath” things can’t go wrong, riffs are recognisable and heavy. “Killdozer” is catchy, groovy and enjoyable with its lively rhythm, and “Scuzzgasm” is slower and includes another solid riffs, reminding for Black Sabbath. “Tweak Jabber” is faster crusher again - “fail/repeat/you’re fucked/tough luck”. “Snort Dagger” is really dark and dragging-into-the-dope-swamp track. “Kingbilly Cush” is a grinning doom rhythm and blues track, really enjoyable. The album ends with “Miserablist” - another desperate track to worship the narcotic possession - “dragging you down, cannot crawl out, gonna die quick”. 

On and on Dopethorne are in their best form, comfort zones and territories with Transcanadian Anger. You know what is going on there - cannabis, murder, death. Sleazy and smashing riffs, nightmarish vocals. In my opinion it is among the best albums in the genre so far this year (and not only). It is a very addictive album actually. Like a fix, need it again and again. No way out! 7.5/10 Count Vlad

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VOLTAJE CADAVER Interview

Voltaje Cadáver is a five piece band from North Spain. Their music is carrying tons of gygawats power – heavy and blowing with a lot of heart and soul. At Blessed Altar Zine we have been much impressed by their debut album “Todos los colores de la oscuridad” which is out now (Please check the review for Blessed Altar Zine by my borther in arms UHF here), so we decided to invite the band for a short chat about everything that’s going on around them currently. Fidel (guitar) and Manu (voice) will be the ones sweating on our tough 1 million-dollar questions.

- Great that you accepted my invitation to have you for an interview on the Zine! Please present the Voltaje Cadáver and the members to our readers and give us a little background about the band.

- Voltaje Cadáver are Luis (bass), Oscar (guitar), Fidel (guitar) , Panchi (drums) and Manu (vocals). We are a band from the industrial city of Torrelavega in the north of Spain. We formed the group with the idea of reflecting our love for intense and aggressive music from a dark point of view. From the start,  we´ve been playing quite a few  gigs with some bands we love musically (Monarch,Okkultokrati, Adrift, Señor no,..) however, it's in 2018 when we released our first album. So, here we are.

- Voltaje Cadáver? - your tunes are so electric that they leave cadavers?  What about the name of the band?

- We chose the name because of how it sounds. We wanted it to be partially dark, partially aggressive and even with reminiscences to certain  legendary song, hahaha. We also tried to avoid clichés and search for a name with that "something special" in our language.

- Indeed, your music is dark and very heavy, and it is soaked with many nuances and influences. You call it mugre metal...

- Let's say it's a mixture of personal and collective influences coming from many sources and with which we try to make something that sounds coherent  and above all intense, more than relating ourselves to a specific tag.

- Right, so you love to experiment in search of the right intense, aggressive tone which moves you and has a soul?

- Precisely, so it sounds as powerful as possible but not being plain and having many nuances in different layers .  Adding certain doses of melody and playing around with the tempos. We are searching for something to remain in your head, dynamic and not loosing aggressiveness at the same time.

- How does the environment you live, work and play, impacts and provoques you to create that aggressive music?

- Well, it's the typical post-industrial landscape you may find in different places across Europe. It's ugly, grey, but it also has a certain identity that shapes you a little and links you to it. In a way that, if someone hasn't grown up in a place like that, they may have difficulty in getting it. Yeap, so what we feed on these contradictions and tensions a little. In addition, being a relatively small place, there's big tradition and passion for the most aggressive music (punk, hc, metal, plus rock in general). All that has obviously had an impact on us since we were kids.

- What are your main musical influences in the above respect? What kind of music do you like?

- Individually  really diverse, regarding our collective taste, rock and metal with a certain degree of heaviness and aggressiveness. There are some influences of some old school death metal bands, of the NWOBHM, doom, sludge. There are also some punk and HC bands, even prog rock. Our very own mixtape could mix  without problem Bolt Thrower with Judas Priest, Witchfinder General, Rush, Eyehategod, Candlemass, Trouble, Discharge, Bad Brains or Sodom, and of course Black Sabbath (all periods, all of them), just to give some examples.

- Your first album has been just released – “Todos colores de la oscuridad”. Tell us more about it. How are going to present it to us?

- As a result of many years of collective work, with some changes in the group line-up, ups and downs and generally speaking ,it is a search of our own identity as a band. The final verdict about the outcome belongs to those who listen to the record because our perception is very subjective, it´s highly interfered by the whole experience of the journey. Regarding the content, it's the best or worst reflection of that search.

- How long did it take to record it? Give us more in-depth look on the the whole process, production and the people you worked with.

-It's been a long process with lots of involuntary halts due to personal reasons. Right now,we see it as the closure of a period and the beginning of another in which we want to reflect more who we are at the moment.

Pedro Setién carried out the recording at his home studio. He's a friend of the band who got involved and worked really hard in the recording because he likes the group and he was motivated to work in the project . We are really thankful for the unselfish job he's performed. He's saved us a big amount of money. We are a broke band, you know hahaha.

The reamp and mix were carried out at Drive Division Studios by Alex Pis. He's a local producer and tech who likes vintage sound without any additives. Thanks to him the record sounds rawer and natural and not as processed as records nowadays.

Finally, we worked with Audiosiege, with Brad Boatright. He's done the master for some tight records of YOB, Integrity, High  on Fire, Tau Cross...we admire his work as a musician and as a tech. He knew how to capture our essence and he got quite involved. He even told us he loved our record, nice guy!!

- Your lyrics are in Spanish...

- It's the language in which we usually express ourselves , so it's more natural for us than English. Therefore,  it is easier to communicate what we want to say with all its nuances. Although it's frequent that bands of our same like record in English, we always knew we wanted to sing in our mother tongue.Though, we´ve never had any problems listening to local bands singing in German, French or Italian...just to give some examples. 

- How many and how dark are all the colors of the darkness (transl. “Todos los colores de la oscuridad”)

- As many as the influences we gather in our music and as dark as the obscurity which covers this world.

- Is Voltaje Cadáver your only band or you play in other projects?

- Some of us play in other projects such as Wet Cactus (Stoner Psych), Becerro Negro, Butchers Left (Metal) or D.M.A (Crossover) which are orientated to other type of music styles. We are quite eager musically, so it's likely that in the future we'll plan some new ones.

- How is the Spanish heavy scene doing? How do you see it?

- We think the scene we follow and we are interested in does very well. There's a big number of bands doing very powerful and interesting stuff. Not only the most underground metal (doom, death, sludge..) but also HC Punk. There's a lot to discover around here and luckily, there are more and more  bands that tour Europe and have international underground recognition.

- What is the next step and the next big goal for Voltaje Cadáver?

- We live day to day, it isn't piece of cake with our lives and obligations. The first objective is to keep on pushing the band forward, keep on playing, recording and especially, feeling that we are a little closer to our musical expectations as a band. The band is a little like our very own therapy and our collective way to escape from tensions and the negative stuff that affect us. Rehearsing relaxingly, working on new tunes and having a beer together in the meantime it's already a success. From there onwards, everything is welcomed and celebrated. 

We'd like to make another record ( or more than one) that moves us and that shakes and moves  those people who listen to it. Do something truly special. That's possibly our biggest goal.

- Are we going to see you on tour soon? Plans for going outside Spain? Or for the time being only vino tinto, cerveza, tapas y paella? 

- It's difficult to think about touring, we aren't youngsters anymore and we have jobs, families... The usual limitations. Even though, we´d like to play as much as possible, especially outside Spain. That's another of our dreams. If we are lucky, in the near future we'll try make it come true, even partially....for now, we are thinking about starting touring after the summer. 

- By the way what your favourite Spanish dish you are going to recommend us?

- We are 5 guys with different eating habits, it's too difficult to choose one dish, but the most common is the tortilla de patata, it safes much lives when you are on the road.

- Muchísimas gracias para esta conversación! We’ll be looking closely for news and further steps by Voltaje Cadáver. Keep it heavy and wishing you much success with “Todos los colores de la oscuridad”!

Interview by Count Vlad

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UADA - Cult Of A Dying Sun

Band: UADA

Title: "Cult Of A Dying Sun"

Label: Eisenwald

Release Date: 25 May 2018

Country: USA

Format reviewed: FLAC

After the masterpiece debut “Devoid of Light” released in 2016, UADA (“haunted” from latin) put a rock solid base for something spectacular. That’s why the expectations about their following album were really high. Actually “Cult Of A Dying Sun” was expected with huge impatience by all the those who were already praised their previous effort.

And UADA didn’t disappoint us! Really, there is something magical in Oregon most recently and “Cult Of A Dying Sun” is a stunning record. So lively, with big soul and beating heart. Besides the amazing black metal riffs, the record includes some very melodic, let’s call them, not black meta riffs, which creates butterflies in the stomach. The intensive tempo doesn’t leave a second in calm, and the record goes from the beginning till the end in just a breath. 

And indeed, with 7 songs and total running time of 55 minutes “ Cult Of A Dying Sun” is a pure blast. It is absolutely inspired and absolutely inspiring. It carries the roots of the best melodic black metal acts from the middle of the 90s, but at the same time the band plays amazingly vivid own atmospheric and epic tunes. Of course there is a strong continuation in the line of the composing presented in "Devoid the light", but now everything sounds much more mature. It is the next step. The record sounds very contemporary, and for sure within 20 years it will be untouched again by the time. The songs seem long enough on first glimpse, but in reality they come and go, leaving absolute hunger to listen more and more of them. There is some pure hypnosis in all the spectacular melodies and all the variety of tempos. These are so distinctive and at the same time so sophomore, so complete. Atmospheric to the core, all the seven tracks bring that amazing magical feeling which only the music can deliver. I’m not going to dissect “The Purging Fire”, “Snakes & Vultures”, “Cult Of A Dying Sun”, “The Wanderer”, “Blood Sand Ash”, “Sphere (Imprisonment) and “Mirrors”. I can’t. They just must be heard, experienced, lived, felt. And again, and again. 

Along with few very strong releases in the previous couple of years, as well as so far in 2018, “Cult Of A Dying Sun” is a black metal record-example, a record which makes me believe that the genre hasn’t lost of its passion and still can bring the brightest flame in burning pyres under the majestic night skies, deep into the black woods. UADA have delivered another glorious gem; a record which will haunt you many days ahead.  It is among the AOTY contenders in the heaviest and darkest music for 2018. 10/10 Count Vlad

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Archelon – Tribe of Suns

Band: Archelon

Title: Tribe of Suns

Label: Sludgelord Records

Release Date: 4 May 2018

Country: United Kingdom

Format reviewed: CD-quality Digital Promo

Fast check with Wikipedia and I found that Archelon (from the Greek roots ἀρχε- arkhe- "chief" χελώνη and chelone "turtle", meaning "ruler turtle") is a genus of extinct sea turtles, the largest genus of sea turtles that has ever been documented, and the second-heaviest turtles documented.

Nowadays ARCHELON is a UK post/progressive/sludge band, and their music is just what their name says – gigantic flow into waters, a slow movement of super heavy body. It is like a dream under the waters of a deep sea, an experience of blue hallucination…

After two EPs and a compilation, “Tribe of Suns” is the band’s debut full-length album and it is coming really to crush. Really! Heavy, slow, with with clean guitar parts exploding to high vibrato and crescendo solos. Very emotional all the time, but no sun at all coming from these tribes of suns…With many peaks and downs, taking the listener to an in-depth journey to the well hidden or forgotten places of the soul. The artwork of the album is also something to have a thought on. It hides old secrets and invites to take the next step to unveil lost expectations…So much could be interpreted. Just like in all the tunes which the band deliver.

Not sure of this is a right comparison, but it might give some direction: I would describe Archelon’s music as a magic mix of current Neurosis meeting 95-99 Anathema. Well, well, well!

 “Tribe of Suns” contains 7 tracks resulting in 46 minutes of total playing time. The opener “Man is an artefact” is really sad, dark and slow and contains everything what I have described above about the album. “Tribe of Suns” is much more dynamic, faster, with enjoyable riff in the beginning, with middle ambient part, leading to the the place where to find the shaman of this tribe, ending heavily. “Jonah” “A dried ocean” “Destroyer” are just continuing the slow, ritualistic, muddy and torturous emotional line of the record, with highs leading to almost whispering ambient moments, and then bringing back the full heavy and painful feeling to present…”Hollow gloom” is what it says – a cavernous doomy track, taken from a distant psychedelic nightmare (check the screaming guitar!). The album ends with lighter guitar instrumental “River”, an unspoken sorrow, a sad silent promise for something which should have been…

I must admit, I was very impressed by Archelon’s “Tribe of Suns”. It might be right if I say that it is among the top albums released in May 2018, and for sure among the best doom/post/sludge albums of 2018. A mandatory for every fan of slow, heavy, dark, emotional music. Deep. That’s enough said. 8.5/10 Count Vlad

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8.5/10 To Greatness and Glory

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