Servants Of The Mist - Suicide Sex Pact

With Suicide Sex Pact, Tampa’s Servants Of The Mist have released a half hour of devastating doom that’s just as fatal as its title.

First track 'Absence' opens with a slurred sample of creepy Christian classic ‘Jesus Loves Me‘, also recently used by dearly-departed UK doom fiends Ishmael on their track ‘Buried With Fingers Crossed’; whether it’s being sung by a children’s choir or a drunken depressive, the effect is just as chilling. Why do those weak enough to need the Christian crutch take comfort from lines like "Little ones to him belong – they are weak, but he is strong"?

I will never grasp the complicit surrender of self to a fictional character just to give people an excuse for their pathetic, weak-minded actions. That docile servitude, indoctrinated since birth as the sampled song proves, has been exploited to nefarious ends for millenia by now, and is still given free reign to continue. Baffling.

The sample draws to a close, replaced by the piercing feedback that has been a genre staple ever since a group of New Orleans miscreants first started to Hate God back in the late ’80s. Guttural growls over distortion and feedback is not a new formula by any means, but the Servants choke the life out of it regardless. What sets them apart is that they sound truly miserable, and by the time the track lumbers to an end you’ll have felt every damn ounce of their weight upon your shoulders. I think that depressive atmosphere is what attracts me to this particular strain of heavy; there’s no better soundtrack to wallowing in your bad decisions, and realising that life is a disappointment.

With this release, Servants Of The Mist may not be reinventing the wheel, but they do give it a few more screeching spins on its rusted axle. Highly recommended if you like your doom despondent, and your samples unsettling.

Read my full review of this release over at The Sleeping Shaman...

Lazarus Blackstar / Black Shape Of Nexus split

I've been a fan of Bradford's bleakest, Lazarus Blackstar, ever since stumbling upon their debut album Revelations many years back. Their maniacal fusion of sludge and noise on that release absolutely sickened me, since at the time I hadn't even heard Eyehategod or Unsane yet, and I guess you could say that Lazarus Blackstar were one of my gateways into the uglier side of heavy music.

It's been with great interest that I've followed them from their earlier material with Paul Catten's demented howl, through to last year's excellent Hymns For The Cursed with new vocalist Mik Hell's fearsome growls.

When they released a split 12" with Glasgow's Headless Kross earlier this year, featuring guest vocals from none other than Alicia Morgan (of NYC legends 13), they really established themselves as one of Britain's foulest exponents of gut-churning doom.

This latest slab of filth, a split 12" with Mannheim's Black Shape Of Nexus via Alerta Antifascista Records, will hopefully turn more people on to both of these excellent bands, and have the current crop of weak UK 'doom' bands cowering behind their Dopesmoker reissues. I'm looking at you, Black Bong Goat Witch Whateverthefuck.

Black Shape Of Nexus begin their side with the monumental 'Honor Found In Delay', a not-so-subtle nod to Neurosis, who are obviously a big influence here. The slow build of the riff is soon joined by vocalist Malte Seidel's hoarse bellow, which coincidentally reminds me in some places of former Blackstar vocalist Paul Catten. Around the halfway point of the track, things switch up to a ominous, bass-heavy rumble, strains of feedback weaving throughout. There's not much in the way of variation, but the sheer propulsive power of the track is perhaps their sole intention. Who needs variety when you've got sheer driving force?

Their second contribution, 'Always And Only', is another sterling example of bass-led riffage, Stefan Kuhn's prowling groove locking the whole thing down. For a band with 6 members, they all sound remarkably focused on creating a solid, unified rhythm, instead of veering off indulging each member's individual whims. Though I've never made it to Mannheim, I have spent a lot of time in industrial Germany, and B•Son really do produce a fitting soundtrack to the endless sprawl of purely practical architecture, miles and miles of red brick and steelworks... their sound is as lean and effective as German engineering itself.

Lazarus Blackstar open with 'Command And Control', the guitars of Lee Baines and Izak Gloom possessing a slightly more mournful edge than usual, and Mik Hell's growl even lower and more demented than ever. This track is probably the most out-and-out 'doom' thing they've recorded so far, it has that perfect degree of despair set to a sound heavier than the weight of 6ft of gravedirt on a casket lid.

Closing out their side with 'Whispering Through Broken Teeth', a track just as nasty and unpleasant as it's title, which doesn't so much have riffs as it has audio maelstroms, sucking you down into the murky depths below. Again they eschew the sludgier, more noise-oriented material of their beginnings, in favour of a tar-black strain of doom, even incorporating the sound of a mellotron, and chanted, semi-clean vocals. If this stylistic shift is more than just idle experimentation, and further material in this vein is handled as excellently as it is here, I'm so goddamn excited to hear more from them in the coming year. Here's to hopelessness.

Black Shape Of Nexus on Facebook | Bandcamp
Lazarus Blackstar on Facebook | Reverbnation

This review originally appeared at The Sleeping Shaman.

Temples Nights: A New UK Festival Worthy Of Worship

With such a vast array of festivals catering to connoisseurs of all things slow, fast, noisey, experimental and just plain heavy running all through the year, and all over the world, it's a great time to be a music fan. There's a veritable embarrassment of riches on offer for those who like it heavy, from internationally-renowned event such as Maryland Death Fest and Roadburn, to consistently excellent UK events like Damnation and All Tomorrow's Parties.
But this year one event has stood out from the pack.

Temples is the name on everyone's lips when talking about the 2014 festival circuit. From the instant intrigue upon hearing of the pedigree of the promoter, to the rabid proclamations of devotion upon the announcement of that first headliner, there has been a near-constant buzz among music fans from all over the UK and beyond, with ticket sales reported from many far-flung corners of the world.

As creator, director, promoter... well, basically the man behind Temples, Bristol-based DIY promoter Francis Mace has thrown all his experience into this massive undertaking. His hard work and dedication have clearly paid off, as the festival boasts three of the biggest names in modern metal; psycho-delic doom miscreants Electric Wizard, post-metal pioneers Neurosis and Maryland groove machine Clutch, as well as a whole host of other top-shelf bands, covering everything from d-beat to doom. Don't just take my word for it, look at the list of already confirmed bands: 

With yet more acts to be announced, and the excitement over Temples Festival already building to a frenzy, I spoke to Francis about that incredible lineup, Bristol becoming the new home of heavy, and more...

Read the interview over at The Sleeping Shaman

The inaugural edition of Temples Festival is set to take place in Bristol's Motion venue between Friday the 2nd and Sunday the 4th of May next year.

Weekend Tickets are on sale now from www.templesfestival.co.uk while Day Tickets are available exclusively through www.bristolticketshop.co.uk & www.gigantic.com.

http://www.templesfestival.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/TemplesFestival
http://twitter.com/templesfestival

Uncoffined - Ritual Death and Funeral Rites

DOOM METAL OF DEATH! That's the definition Uncoffined have (anti)christened their particular deadly strain of doom, and on their debut LP 'Ritual Death and Funeral Rites' that's exactly what they deliver. The death-doom genre has experienced something of a revival recently, what with genre-defining bands like Autopsy and Asphyx back together and churning out new slabs of filth with terrifying regularity, and prolific underground acts like Coffins and Hooded Menace seeing their latest albums released on Relapse, it's great to see such a relatively obscure sub-genre thriving.

Uncoffined are just one of many bands spreading the repulsive gospel of death-doom, but the morbid tales heard on 'Ritual Death and Funeral Rites' mark them as being one of the best. Don't hesitate to pick up this album, and doom yourself to death!

Read my full review at The Sleeping Shaman...

Wolvserpent - Perigaea Antahkarana

When Boise, Idaho duo Pussygutt reinvented themselves as Wolvserpent with the release of 2010's incredible debut album Blood Seed, it was more than just a mere change of monicker; it reflected their transition from sparse, abstract dronescapes towards a more structured, malevolent sound that put them within the wide-ranging classification of metal, albeit at the outer fringes.

The blackened doom they conjured with that album held me utterly captivated, so much so that it was the very first album that ever moved me to try to put into words what I felt for its haunting, otherwordly ambiance.

Listening to it again many times after my initial review, I don't think I'll ever adequately describe the feelings it evokes, nor the nightmarish worlds it creates within my mind.

When the Perigaea demo became available late last year it coincided with a dark, isolated period in my life, and quickly became my escapist soundtrack, a creepily comforting collection that I would retreat to time and time again. The band's assertion that the demo was only "the early stages and younger concepts" that would inform the finished work, and that it would be "an entirely different manifestation of the ideas heard on the demo" made me eager to hear where they would take what was already an accomplished recording and concept.

The culmination of a two-year writing and re-writing period, with the finished album recorded with renowned producer/engineer Mell Dettmer (Sunn 0))), Boris, Earth), the release of their sophomore album Perigaea Antahkarana is upon us.

Considering that Wolvserpent is comprised of only two members, Blake Green on guitar, vocals, and keys, and Brittany McConnell on drums, percussion and violin, the way they build up the various layers in each song without them sounding cluttered or over-thought is miraculous, and their use of loops and effects pedals to produce such a wide variety of sounds is especially impressive in a live environment.

At 81 minutes this is not the sort of album you'll throw on for some easy-listening, but if you're willing to dedicate yourself to it, to submit to an awakening of your atavistic instincts, it's one of the most rewarding immersive experiences that metal on the more avant-garde end of the spectrum can offer.

Read my full review over at The Sleeping Shaman...