2014 Was Bleak Edition

November 14, 2014November 14, 2014 Cheryl1 Comment

This third edition of The Round Up Tapes features a couple of records I really enjoyed this year that are particularly bleak in sound and/or aesthetic. Because that’s the MO of this blog and who doesn’t like to feel bleak now and then?

Black Autumn – Losing The Sun

Black Autumn have been featured on Bleak Metal once before, when the wonderful The Advent October was released at the beginning of 2013. That EP was very much a favourite of last year and so when a full length arrived, excitement abounded. Losing The Sun follows its predecessor in that the melancholy rhythms and soft touches of light filter through the darkness of the sound, yet the record also steps up and forward in terms of the emotional response that is elicited from the listener.

“Losing The Sun” begins the album with huge, sweeping guitar movements that give way to M. Krall’s rasping voice and echoing passages that create a tangible sense of deep, mournful regret. The softer edges of this first track are soon ravaged by the harsh tones of “St Elm’s Fire” that signal its approach. Those hard moments are countered by sorrowful guitar lines that cascade into the song and lift it past just being a wallowing, sadness-filled pit of despair and instead into music that provokes and intrigues.

This one man project brings much to the black metal table in the music that is created as Black Autumn. Gorgeous instrumentation moves across the work as a whole with the piano sections in particular giving a stately grace to “From Whence We Came” and in turn the song breathes with a measured acceptance that the journey is full of pain and heartache. The electronic pulses of “The Distance” shows that much beauty can be found in utter desolation and Black Autumn is a project for which this adage rings wholly true.

Losing The Sun, along with the Black Autumn catalogue, can be found on bandcamp.

Idre – Idre

September 15, 2014September 15, 2014 CherylLeave a comment

Forming in Oklahoma City, Idre are a melancholic, earthy and hypnotic entity. The former trio (now duo for the time being due to bassist Andon Whitehorn recently taking his leave of the band) are a delicious entry into the atmospheric sphere and their sound is quite difficult to pin down. Taking in elements of doom, sludge, drone and noise, even a martial beat (Nicholas Wojcik) during second track “Witch Trial”, Idre travel the path towards oblivion in many different ways yet their gloomy aura is coherent and each passage moves deftly into the next without losing track of the core of the band.

Vocals are sparse but delightfully gothic in tone with guitarist Ryan Davis adding a new sphere of darkness to proceedings with the recordings on this two track full length taking on a somewhat doomed country feeling at times – think True Widow or Earth’s latest for comparisons – and the sprawling, sculpted landscapes of sound the record conjures are truly mesmerising.

Yob + Pallbearer and Bast // The Underworld, London 08/09/14

September 14, 2014March 17, 2019 CherylLeave a comment

Occasionally a live show comes along which proves to be utterly compulsory to attend. For those that miss out on said event, the jealously is all-consuming, for those who were lucky enough to grab a ticket early on, the glow of happiness is hard to ignore. One such show was Yob’s appearance in London along with the phenomenal Pallbearer (for many, the main draw) and local doomsters Bast at The Underworld in Camden.

Sunwølf – Beholden To Nothing and No One

June 22, 2014June 22, 2014 Cheryl1 Comment

The duo behind Sunwølf haven’t been creating music as this project for all too long, with their first record Beyond The Sun coming out less than two years ago, yet these two gents are far from strangers and their musical lineage goes back much further than 2012s initial offering.

Beholden To Nothing and No One is an incredibly dense record and the double disc format serves to separate the harsher, heavier tones of the band from the more ambient structures that they are capable. Each side has its own feel, language and sound and it’s truly astonishing that so much work has fallen from the minds of only two people. The record begins with the gorgeous “In The Darkened River I Found The Silence Loom” with Sunwølf incorporating vocals on their music for the first time.

Grey Widow – I

April 21, 2014April 21, 2014 CherylLeave a comment

Grey Widow have been around for barely a year (members have been/are in Dopefight, Parole and Evisorax) and their debut, I, is a record that belies that freshness – although the record itself is far from clean and pure. This monolithic beast of an album is slow, sludgy and disgustingly dark. It’s huge in tone and the UK quartet have created an album of complete misanthropic intensity and an experience that is harrowing, dirty and agonising.

2013. So black metal. Many doom. Such death metal. Wow.

December 30, 2013January 21, 2014 Cheryl3 Comments

2013 huh? It’s been……it’s not been great to tell the truth. It’s been tough. It’s been wonderful at times, that’s for sure but I’m pretty glad that it’s over and I’m hoping that 2014 brings something more than “fuck, what do I do now?” to the table.

I’ve done some really cool stuff this year. I covered my first big outdoor metal festival for Metal Hammer which was such fun and really great to experience. I’ve done a few smaller events and seen a lot of my favourite bands and made new connections with new faces and if you’d have told me even two years ago that this is what I’d be doing now, I would have punched you square in the jaw. I’ve come out of myself a lot these last few years and gained a lot of confidence in dealing with new and unfamiliar situations. It sounds silly, but I can walk into a pub alone and not be frightened that I don’t know anyone or I can’t find anyone and it’s because of dealing with so many new things that my brain can handle that.

Bleak Metal has gone on to new ventures and that’s incredible. I put on a rock show here and there and although it’s something I’ve always been interested in doing, I never thought that it’s something I could pull off. Huge thanks goes to Zac of Oblivionized for answering all my questions and letting me see how these things work and helping in more ways than I can put into words. The first show of 2014 is booked and I have plans for a lot of cool things in the coming twelve months, fingers crossed they can be organised.

I started to manage a band. What? We’re still not sure how it really works but Caïna is doing really well right now and for that reason I couldn’t include the incredible Litanies of Abjection.

Northumbria – Black Sea of Trees

October 5, 2013 Cheryl2 Comments

You may remember that a few months ago I posted a review of a lovely record by a band named Northumbria. If you don’t, click here and you can see it and enjoy it perhaps.

Northumbria have a music video streaming and the title of the track is “Black Sea of Trees”. It’s really wonderful and you’d be doing yourself a favour by checking it out. I have included it below so all you need to do is press play. Minimal effort ist krieg. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Nonsun – Good Old Evil

April 13, 2013April 15, 2013 CherylLeave a comment

Nonsun are a two-piece from Lviv in Ukraine and they deal in crushing tones of doomed out sludge and droned atmospheres of wondrous heaviness. Having emailed me way back in Janauary (sorry), Nonsun definitely piqued my interest and I’ve been meaning to get around to this for three months nearly. I am a terrible person and for that, I apologise.

Goatooth – Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Keys
Alpha – Drums

Ecocide – When Will It End?

January 10, 2013January 10, 2013 CherylLeave a comment

San Antonio based Ecocide have sadly split up (an event which occurred some time ago), but to continue their legacy Tofu Carnage Records are set to press a collection of previously unreleased material on vinyl. Four tracks of powerful and driven sludge make up this new compilation and show that Ecocide are certainly going to be hugely missed on the crust sludge scene. Blackened choruses showcase a knack for melody and deep growls of utter contempt permeate the oppressive atmosphere of When Will It End? with rage and outright disgust at the horrors of the modern world.

Their first and self titled LP was an important record in terms of message and action, and it’s a huge shame that Ecocide will no longer continue. Their history and legacy will live on though, through When Will It End? which is a huge and heavy work, and one that consistently reveals new layers of sound and tone through repeated listens.

Heidi – Violin and Vocals, Brian Gordon – Guitar, Nick – Guitar, Brian Slaughter – Bass, Elliott – Drums

1. Despair
2. Pain
3. When Will It End?
4. Barren

2012…it was the best of times….it was the blurst of times.

January 7, 2013January 12, 2013 CherylLeave a comment

This last year has been pretty great in terms of music, but also on a more personal note, 2012 was actually pretty decent. Good things happened and bad things certainly occurred, but 2012 was the year that I realised that I’d found what I wanted to do in life – and now starts the long, hard road to making that a reality. I’ve come across some incredible people in my writing life that have helped me out in more ways than they can ever know. By giving me chances, by allowing me to hear new records, to making sure that I get to see that all important band that I love, and for the people that might actually read the things that I put out there, thank you. This writing lark is a constant learning curve, and I don’t think it ever ends. I’m excited for 2013. I’m excited for the music that I’ve been lucky enough to already hear, I’m excited for the music I’m yet to hear. Despite the fact that my real life job might not exist in six, three maybe even one month, I can’t wait to see what happens in other aspects of my “career.”

Here’s a picture of Darkthrone hanging out to break up the seriousness. Oh, you guys!

Bleak Metal

None more bleak.

Category: Doom