Category: Ambient

The Round Up Tapes // Submission Edition Volume VIX

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A Sea of Dead Trees – Garmonbozia

A Sea of Dead Trees is a vehicle for pain and depression; the voice with which sole member Robert Heath channels their deepest thoughts and anxieties, hopeless nights and endless days which merge into one blurry passage of unknown time. Heath does not shy away from the intensity of depression and the intrusive thoughts that can enter the mind as though a voice from another dimension. Here, A Sea of Dead Trees winds haunting and oftentimes soft vocals into songs that would otherwise have been instrumental narratives of a life lost to pain.

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The Round Up Tapes // Submission Edition Volume VI

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Burden – Burden

Burden

There is something quite charming about Burden and their atmospheric and doomed black metal. It could be the intriguing use of accordion which gives the music that rustic, old world aura that many medieval style bands lean towards. It could be the spooky synthesisers that add dimension and soaring notes to songs that are otherwise dark and doomy and it could also be the rough production that shows that this is a band still finding their way and trying to make their music heard is more important that it sounding shiny and clean. It all adds up to a record that is a captivating debut and one that shows enough promise to keep you engaged. 

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The Round Up Tapes // Submission Edition Volume V

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Dawnwalker – Ages

The rich, grandiose opening of “Melekh” sets Ages on a journey of discovery as the initial steps of the record move in rising waves of sound that ushers in visons of dark clouds stretching across the horizon to bring forth a storm. Of course, there is a calm that precedes the tumult and “The Wheel” does much to settle the nerves for what the future may bring with its gentle progressive melodies and beautiful clean vocal lines. However, as the song progresses through its eleven-minute runtime, the vocals become darker and jagged and the music turns into a foreboding weight. This is a theme which runs throughout the record and enables Dawnwalker to structure their songs as singular narratives that speak of change and memories lost to time, while the record contains an overarching story that pays homage to long forgotten rites and the descent of the world into darkness.

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The Round Up Tapes // Volume XXIII

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Annihilus – Ghanima

Annihilus are, for all intents and purposes, a black metal band, however this project from Luca Cimarusti takes in much more than the usual traits of the genre to create an interesting debut with Ghanima. With influences ranging from Frank Herbert’s Dune to grunge and noise rock, Annihilus is much more than the sum of its parts. Opening on “Epilogue,” Ghanima sets out its manifesto and overloaded, fuzzy vocals that Cimarusti screeches out from behind guitars that hold melody but only if you’re actively searching for it in amongst the debris of the noise.

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Roadburn Festival 2020 // In Isolation // Vol. III

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Roadburn Festival is somewhat of a new experience, for me, having attended in 2017-2019. However, it is full of extremely fond memories and experiences and many that I still think about today. I am a worse photographer than I am writer, but I like these photographs a lot. I created some playlists for listening to in lieu of going this year – Vol. I is here and Vol. II here, and last year I also wrote quite a big two part review of the Festival – Vol. I is here and Vol. II here.

Roadburn 2017

Amenra Roadburn 2017
Mysticum Roadburn 2017
Pallbearer Roadburn 2017
Schammasch Roadburn 2017
Warning Roadburn 2017
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Roadburn Festival 2020 // In Isolation // Vol. II

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By now, it’s clear that many spring and summer events are cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting our planet. One such event is Roadburn Festival which takes place every April in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

The festival is best known for bringing excellent music to a dedicated audience and this year they really pushed themselves and their curators to convoke an interesting line-up. Artists would collaborate, albums would be debuted and newly commissioned works would be premiered. It is a shame that the 2020 edition is now postponed, in as much of its entirety as possible, until 2021 but there is still much that can be done to support the artists who will be losing income over these coming months from missing shows and being unable to ship merchandise to some parts of the world. The health of the world hangs in the balance and this is the only sensible and reasonable action that can be taken.

Roadburn Festival Poster by Douwe Dijkstra Illustration
Roadburn Festival Poster by Douwe Dijkstra Illustration

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Roadburn Festival 2020 // In Isolation // Vol. I

Cheryl2 Comments

By now, it’s clear that many spring and summer events are cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting our planet. One such event is Roadburn Festival which takes place every April in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

The festival is best known for bringing excellent music to a dedicated audience and this year they really pushed themselves and their curators to convoke an interesting line-up. Artists would collaborate, albums would be debuted and newly commissioned works would be premiered. It is a shame that the 2020 edition is now postponed, in as much of its entirety as possible, until 2021 but there is still much that can be done to support the artists who will be losing income over these coming months from missing shows and being unable to ship merchandise to some parts of the world. The health of the world hangs in the balance and this is the only sensible and reasonable action that can be taken.

Roadburn Festival Poster by Douwe Dijkstra Illustration
Roadburn Festival Poster by Douwe Dijkstra Illustration

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The Round Up Tapes // Volume XXI

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AARA – En Ergô Einai

Switzerland’s black metal scene may be small but it has outgrown the spectres of its past to produce quality black metal that looks to the future. With AARA, the country has a project that takes the core elements of black metal and pushes the composition and emotional clarity to its peak. En Ergô Einai is a masterful display of musical knowledge – classical elements, ecclesiastical tones, synthesised projections, harsh shrieks – that all come together to create a work that belies the relative newness of the band. It speaks of a band who are completely in sync and after only two years as a project it is impressive that such fully realised works are already being made. Although, with just how small the local scene is, it wouldn’t be surprising if the people behind the band were already established in other known acts (those in the band prefer to use pseudonyms and cover their faces with extravagant, Venetian masks).

“Arkanum” is a deliciously rich opening with Vindsval of Blut Aus Nord contributing guitars in the initial moments and creating a base that feeds into the bands textures beautifully – these first steps are the calm before the storm and when “Arkanum” reveals its full self it is in a whirlwind of sound.  The melodic channels of the album are divine and each song is laden with clear harmonics that give the listener something tangible to hold onto, something to guide them on the pathway towards revelation.

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The Round Up Tapes // Submission Edition Volume IV

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The Fifth Alliance – The Depth of the Darkness

The Fifth Alliance hail from The Netherlands and their sound is one of blackened edges – black metal, doom and sludge all feature – and this amalgation of influences makes for an intriguing and harrowing journey into darkness. Silvia Saunders vocals range from gorgeous, mournful cleans to deep, guttural roars and it’s this stark contrast that gives The Fifth Alliance a stunning lead over others in the post-black metal genre. Opening the album is “Black,” a song which begins on slow, deliberate strikes of guitar and simple drum patterns before Silvia’s voice winds through the instrumentation on soft, haunting clean lines that evokes melancholy. Slowly, the song starts to build towards something more monolithic and the drums pound a more urgent beat and guitars ramp up their own tension behind the serenity of the vocals. Of course, such peace is not built to last and soon the song flips its MO entirely, becoming a blackened and raging act of defiance. Vocals are switched to harsh shouts and the black metal influences are given space over the doomier initial steps of the song.

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The Round Up Tapes // Volume XIX

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Andavald – Undir skyggðarhaldi

The black metal scene in Iceland has been thriving for many years and where many projects from the volcanic country are proving their worth with second full lengths and touring the world, Andavald have been slowly curating their sound and biding their time before unleashing their debut upon an unsuspecting scene. Undir skyggðarhaldi is the culmination of years of work with Andavald forming around 2014 but waiting until 2019 to release their music. Their debut is more moderately paced than, say, Sinmara’s work, but it’s no less impactful for it; instead the band use moments of doomed rhythm and slow, drawn out screams to create their darkness. Speed is not of the essence here and for Andavald it is the building of terror, the procession towards finality and the beauty found within the pitch black cosmos that serves Undir skyggðarhaldi the most.

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