The Rock Blogger

Svarte Greiner . Knive . 2006. 4 stars .

This is a spine chilling dark-ambient album from Norway that strives to create a disturbing cinematic experience. Strange rustling, creaks, unsettling drones and haunting choral vocals make subtle exchanges in the black spaces of this record, creating an enveloping atmosphere that has been described as ‘acoustic doom’.

Like avant-garde contemporaries Set Fire to Flames and Northaunt, Svarte Greiner’s disc is difficult to get into but immensely rewarding once you let it slowly seep in under your skin. While there are some meandering sections that just sound like someone clumsily dropping a microphone repeatedly, the later numbers are completely absorbing, as the ghostly, wordless vocals glide across the primal percussion and field recordings. The more refined numbers like "The Black Dress" sound like lost tracks form a David Lynch movie, drawing you into moaning corridors and passageways with no clear direction or aim. All that leads you along is an inescapable sense of dread and unease, the fear of the unknown.

Despite the album’s unevenness, the later half of Knive is engrossing enough to deserve an attentive listen. The level of detail in these soundscapes will be sure to fascinate, as each creeping synth line, shimmering chime and estranged clang pulls you towards a deeper psychic plane. Organic and ethereal, the sounds of Knive will be etched in mind for some time.

Urfaust. Drei Rituale Jenseits Des Kosmos. 2008. 4 stars.

Urfaust is a maniacal black metal band from Holland that incorporates noise rock and doom elements into their swirling, disturbing compositions. This recent EP features three long untiled tracks that waver between hypnotic drones, terrifying screeches and some stunningly operatic vocals that give this a baroque edge. The level of experimentation here is impressive and pushes their sound into dark ambient passages. Intense and expressive, Drei Rituale is one of the more unique contributions to the genre and serves as an adequate introduction to a challenging band.

Urfaust - Drei Rituale jenseits des Kosmos - Samples

Esmerine . Aurora . 2005. 4 stars .

Esmerine is one of the lesser known projects to come out from the Godspeed/Silver Mt. Zion umbrella, playing sorrowful instrumentals centered around Becky Foon’s cello. She is joined by multi-instrumentalist Bruce Cawdron, whose graceful piano melodies and unusual percussion work gives their collaboration an experimental edge.

If you are familiar with Godspeed You Black Emperor or any of their many side projects, you’ll appreciate Esmerine’s subdued but cinematic flavor, opting out of lyrics and familiar song structures to play heartbreaking requiems that occasionally weave into unexpected places. Aurora, the duo’s second outing, features both brooding epics (the 16 minute "Histories Repeating as One Thousand Hearts Mend") and succinct recitals (like the remarkable "Why She Swallows Bullets and Stones").

While the music takes a generally somnambulist tone, its beauty is undeniable, as each swooning moan of the cello aches with sensitivity. The amount of emotion being poured into these movements, no matter how slowly it reveals itself, is certainly humbling. The album’s more moody and disturbing moments have enormous gravity to them, casting down an atmosphere of tension and despair rivaling the most expressionistic horror films. Its delicate parts also have a lyrical weight, displaying Esmerine’s subtle sense of melody and pacing. Sure, some of the sparser portions of this disc are rather abstract, perhaps a little too slow moving as well, but its overall impression is a lasting one. Fans of post-rock are sure to be pleased by this, even with the complete absence of guitars and regular drumming, as its dark compositions are full of intense drama. A criminally overlooked band and album.

“Why She Swallows Bullets and Stones”

Nadja . Desire in Uneasiness . 2008. 3.5 stars .

Yet another LP from Toronto’s prolific drone doom masters. Desire in Uneasiness is a noticeably more organic sounding record with fluid rolling drums cascading against earth-shaking waves of noise. All five songs are long instrumentals that revel in a relaxed, spacey atmosphere, making this an ideal album to simply sit back and vegetate to. The hypnotic drones, driven along by the swirling percussion, are crushingly heavy but also show the duo’s newfound restraint, as they pare back their more chaotic tendencies to produce something more transcendent.

Nadja’s style is certainly progressing, with fuller compositions and more refined production fleshing out a sound that is both powerful and entrancing. While the material on Desire in Uneasiness isn’t as substantial as the unfurling funeral processions of Esoteric or the astral projections of Jesu, it still places Nadja as one of the premier acts of the contemporary doom metal scene. They are certainly making strides in the development of their sound and more creative breakthroughs are on the horizon.

Nadja Live at Lee’s Palace Toronto.

Northaunt. The Ominous Silence . 2001. 4.5 stars .

Yet another brilliant and obscure record from Norway, Northaunt’s The Ominous Silence features chilling dark-ambient passages complete with sparse piano work and haunting field recordings from nature. Northaunt takes cues from black metal, chamber rock and the avant-garde to create a compelling listening experience that weaves between starkly beautiful melodies and menacing samples, pulling you into the black recesses of the unknown.

The Ominous Silence is exceptional for its painstaking attention to detail, as each drone, gargling vocal and effect is used subtly to create a mysterious soundscape. While the majority of the tracks here run long, they are still driven by underlying melodies so their efforts don’t become too outstretched and abstracted. Such a curious and unsettling work like The Ominous Silence demonstrates the evocative power of dark ambient and calls your attention to the quiet happenings around you. Every drop of rain, gust of wind and thundering storm is part of a wild, puzzling concert and Northaunt act as a medium for it. Powerful, if not often disturbing, material from one of the most underwritten genres.

A Funeral Inside

Suffocate for Fuck Sake . Blazing Fires and Helicopters on the Front Page of the Newspaper. There’s a War Going On and I’m Marching in Heavy Boots . 2008. 4.5 stars.

Blazing Fires is a daring, if not downright suicidal, album from Sweden’s post-hardcore newcomers Suffocate for Fuck Sake. Gorgeous instrumentals, complete with sorrowful piano keys, shimmery post-rock guitars and strings frame a dark narrative of depression and redemption, as told by an institutionalized young woman. Just as Matthew Good’s Hospital Music expressed the toils of mental illness with dramatic shifts in mood and song phrasing, SFFS plot a winding trajectory for their tortured protagonist that goes to remarkable extremes. From the cold spoken word performances to fiery screamo fits of rage, this album is an emotional roller coaster.

The band’s uncompromising vision, in all its swings and dives, is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, SFFS have pushed the boundaries of their genre, invoking post-rock song structures and avant-garde experimentation to head into territory roamed by the likes of Godspeed You Black Emperor. And just as Godspeed’s ambition was stark naked, SFFS may too drive many away with long song durations, unusual and extensive use of dialog samples and the general insularities that come from making a concept album. If you are not willing to listen to this in its hour-plus entirety, then there is simply no point in putting it on. It’s ready-made for intense introspection, to be taken in as a unified artistic experience. For all its difficulties though, Blazing Fires is highly original and compelling, plunging into a tragic saga that will, if given the chance, tug at your heart and imagination.

Sigur Ros. Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust . 2008. 3.5 stars .

Iceland’s Sigur Ros have become synonymous with 21st century post-rock and for good reason. Initially stirring their brooding, neo-classical travels in the same icy gloom as innovators Godspeed You Black Emperor, Labradford etc, Sigur Ros added a strange endearing twist - soothing, choir-like vocals that lent their drama an air of hope and innocence, emotions the underground shunned and forgot. As a result, Sigur Ros, with all their E.T.-like charm, came out of the darkness and into popular consciousness, eventually lending tunes to apocalyptic films like Children of Men and Vanilla Sky . Deservedly, their breakthrough album Ágætis byrjun has been deemed as essential as Radiohead’s Kid A or My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless , as it carved out a sound that was harrowing, innovative and heartbreakingly beautiful. After such a strong impression on the world’s stage, pressure on the band surmounted. Where would they go next?

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Various Artists. Inland Empire OST . 2007.

This is a guest review by Tyson Stewart

Sound has always been important in the work of David Lynch. More than any other contemporary filmmaker, he has used it to express the ineffable, the mysterious, emptiness, and chaos of life. The roars in Blue Velvet during rough sex. The explosions as Cage lights up in Wild at Heart. The stinging wall of gas, formless and unpredictable, as Henry visits the X family in Eraserhead. By fully exposing the arbitrary links between forms and concepts, Lynch’s brand of estrangement operates as a kind of Barthesian mythologist.

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Ascend . Ample Fire Within . 2008. Southern Lord . 3.5 stars .

Gritty, plodding drone metal from Greg Anderson (Sunn) and Gentry Densley (Iceburn). Experimental and expansive, Ample Fire Within features the powerful, drawn out riffs that made early Earth and Sunn O))) records so compelling, and adds psychedelic elements to take the sound to new directions. The use of loose percussion, synth touches, brass and Eastern instruments gives Ascend a transcendental quality without becoming too detached from the swelling doom rhythm at its core.

As is expected from a Southern Lord release, Ascend’s debut is uncompromising and inventive despite its flaws. What detracts from the experience are the gravelly, Tom Waits inspired vocals that dominate "Divine", shredding an otherwise free-from composition with a forced and distracting performance. While this misguided effort only permeates on one track, there are only 5 songs here, so it pulls you away from the album’s impressive cohesion.

The following "Vog" and "Dark Matter" are stunning recoveries however, as they strike a successful balance between thick, sludgy metal and a more mitigated vocal delivery. The closing "Dark Matter" in particular demonstrates the potential this genre has for meditative and hypnotic experiences, as the duo take time and care in crafting an absorbing journey, winding and contracting across dark astral planes. With stellar, patient musicianship and meticulous attention to detail, Ascend reveals itself as a noble experiment that overcomes some missteps to take its place among metal’s more heady brood. If you’ve liked anything from Southern Lord (Sunn O))), Sleep, OM, Boris, etc), you’ll probably appreciate this.

I had a feeling this was coming, but I had no idea it would be so soon! From the Sigur Ros’ website :

Sigur rós will release their fifth lp "með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" june 23rd worldwide (june 24th in north america). the album will be available to pre-order on sigurros.com on june 2nd and a live stream of the album will be available on june 9th for those who have pre-ordered.

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