Showing posts with label Atmospheric. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atmospheric. Show all posts

Sunday, 29 January 2023

The Bastards Diesel "A Liminal Release" EP Review

 


  Let this serve as an introduction/commendation of the very interesting solo project The Bastards Diesel,stepped in the nuances of Experimental Sludge/Noise/Doom with a penchant for creating an audio/visual assualt on the senses with the absolutely fantastic debut release A Liminal Release.

  The bass heavy intro on opening track Thoughts Lost In The Ether sets a very bleak and dirge like tone added by the lo-fi miserably scrawled vocals, you can literally feel the nastiness and filthiness with every moving second,the repitive riff running throughout just pounds home the atmosphere, the lo-fi crushing heaviness of That Cold Feeling has subtle hints of Funeral Doom while still maintaining that bleak and nasty atmosphere,there's also the added elements of some fantastic guitar leads permeating in the background and epic drum fills executed with razor sharp precision.

  This is a great start of what's to come from The Bastards Diesel,the atmosphere created throughout paints a picture of Bleak,Nasty and Epic Soundscapes desigend to assualt the senses and leave you coming back for more,in all A Liminal Release is the perfect introduction for what we can expect from The Bastards Diesel in the future.

Thursday, 17 November 2022

Superstatic "Glimmering Veil" Album Review


   Wanted to give this ridiculously overlooked album some much needed exposure and adoration, Superstatic is the side project of Rustam of the Russian Folk/Black/Doom outfit Rakoth, this is a completely different sort of entity to what Rakoth are all about with a sound stepped in the throes and misery of  90's inspired Death/Doom and subtle hints and odes to Funeral Doom luminaries such as Evoken,Esoteric and Skepticism,this is explored with magnificient abundance on the brilliant Glimmering Veil.




   Instantly there's a noticable theme with the opening track I Have No Mouth, and I Must Speak the unfathomable horrors that are about to unfold,you get the feeling with the musical structure that less is more with crushingly heavy riffs while making evrything about the atmosphere of the music,even a drum fill or simple riff adds an extremely dramatic yet bleak aura throughout this opus, Mutabor offers some really 90's inspired Death/Doom passages,this is possibly the only track on the album that has a plethora of Riffs but the focus on atmosphere is still prevelant even the presence of those whispering vocals create a foreboding darkness yet at the same time give an essence of something beautiful that lays beneath all the horrors, the darkness gets alot more noticable on House Dagoth the minimalistic tendencies within the album get used to devastating effect throuhgout this track combined with the intermittent chants in the background create an extremely haunting atmosphere.


   The Atmosphere is pushed to another level with the brilliant Edge those female chants at the start give a whole different element to proceedings and creates an extremely Ethereal yet dark ambience,again with get those whispering style vocals which have became that little bit nastier,not mentioned is the fantastic epic structure which is beautifully melancholic and adds alot of depth to the music, I Am The Doorway has a very strange type of electronic/keyboard parts that give off a really eerie atmosphere before going full on into some My Dying Bride type homage were things get that extra bit darker and heavier, The Rose Garden opens up with a beautifully arranged piano piece with a brief ochestral voice then suddenly that foreboding darkness and heaviness returns to hauntingly creep and crawl like a despicable entity lurking in the shadows ready to strike at any given moment, we go into the truly epic closing track Remember Citadel there's some sort of intermittent tranmissions that sounds like a computer programme or AI intertwined with slow building riffs and extremely taut drum sections and electronic parts, the brief heavy guitar parts and nasty growls push the whole horror inspired elements into an inevitable moment where the horrors have finally come to envelop you within a web of unescapable despair and tragedy finally consuming every fibre of your being.

   Superstatic have created a Death/Doom Opus of epic proportions, this is a really well executed and concisely created masterpiece with elements of Funeral Doom mixed with some 90's inspired Death/Doom throw in extremely dramatic and horror driven madness combined with an atmosphere that's beautiful,tragic and melancholic also created with a less is more ethos ,you're not likely to hear something as innovative and taut as Glimmering Veil in the near future.

Thursday, 15 September 2022

Fornoth "The Ferryman And The Lock Keeper" Single Review

   
 Fornoth are a pretty unique band,early in their career they played a style were people compared them to Amon Amarth,there may be similar elements to their sound but they also inject a rather unique Folk element associated with The Sea,all done with an extremely epic atmosphere,fresh off winning Metal 2 The  Masses Ireland and performing at Bloodstock Festival the band entered the studio to record the two track promo single The Ferryman and The Lock Keeper.

  Straight off we're treated to a spoken word/narrative dialog with the title track The Ferryman And The Lock Keeper, there's a very foreboding tone with this intro, the instrumentation at the start has an almost psychedelic atmosphere,after almost two minutes in the track bursts into epic riffing and nasty snarling vocals before going back into that narrative style which eventually starts to sound treacherous when you hear "what if i were to turn this Ferry into a Pyre" things start to sound even more despairing and all hope is lost,this creates an absolutely fantastic atmosphere with the song; The second track Stranger To The Sea has a somewhat melancholic atmosphere like a burial/funeral at sea is about to take place,there's a short folkish vocal arrangement that starts out with a really deep undertone then you hear numerous voices which creates a beautiful and harmonious atmosphere,then throughout the rest of the song different instruments start surfacing until they all slowly fade out.
 
 Fornoth have seemed to expand their sound into broader horizons creating a treacherous and melancholic atmosphere combined with epic song structures and all the melodic nuances that they're known for, i for one i'm curious to hear future output to see if they further develop this sound,it also sounds like the band put an awful lot of work and effort to create these epic passages,this can only be commended and praised to oblivion and long may it continue.