Dissonant Hymns Records released the album Father Of Serpents by US band Diabology. The band is made up of Jesse Bergen (lead vocals, guitars, bass), Jack Kleinman (guitars, bass *tracks 5 and 9*) and Matthew Morales (drums, backing vocals), with them describing their music as thrash, though I think that is a far too simplistic summarisation.
I’m not an expert on metal, though musically, I know what is good when I hear it. I’ve really struggled to do this review, not because Diabology are awful, far from that, but rather I’m probably limited by what I have listened to. The heaviest, metal music in my collection is possibly Amorphis and Sentenced .
These guys are young, I mean really young and yet they are excellent at what they do. The music pours out of them, talented and charismatic, while you can hear hints of other influences within. This is my advice… if you like thrash music then you should listen to it, if you like most metal then you should definitely have a listen. It is focused, raw and has no compromise.
Down in the crypt, somewhere in the United Kingdom, someone cobbled together a monstrous label called We Are Horror Records, knitting and stapling punk, deathrock and psychobilly. Their first abomination is the compilation, Horror Punk’s Not Dead! Vol 1. with a whole 27 tracks to give you the heebie jeebies and this unholy of unholies was given life on Halloween.
“The reasons behind this compilation are clear! To pay homage to the “Punk-o-Rama” series, and to showcase the best modern Horror Punk, Death Rock, and Psychobilly bands in the world! To quote 5¢ Freakshow.. “We may be freaks, but we are not alone…” The Horror is here!” (Dan P., creator and host of the Horrorpunk’s Not Dead! podcast.)
So much choice here. There is the soulful harmonics of Silent Horror with “Astrofiends“, the utterly oi oi stylings of Damage 66 and their ever so eloquent track “Fuck You (If You’re Not Bruce Campbell)” which is honestly a sentiment I can completely get down with. You can bounce around to the delightful rock’n’roll psychos, 5 Cent Freakshow with their self titled track, listen to the goth-a-billy sweet lads, Evelyn’s Casket and their ode to checking out of life, “Evelyn“, maybe suffer some electrifying goth rock at “The Asylum” from TheDeathtones or be mesmerised by the cover of The Dickies song, “Killer Klowns From Outer Space” by Ghosts On Tape.
Get your hatchet face on because this thing is bubbling with talent and oozing with tracks to murder for, as you party with your fiends in the nearest and dearest graveyard. There is also the delightful intro to the compilation which you really should have a listen to. Like most serial killer bad guys in the horror movies, I am going to have to stop, though luckily I didn’t need to be stabbed, incinerated or buried in a well. But I will be back, because as the title says, Horror Punk Is Not Dead! Vol 1, which means………you children of the night better be ready for some more juicy horror punk.
From County Cork, in Ireland, we have the darkwave act, Arctic Lights with their new single “Belong“, released on November the 4th. Liam O’Callaghan (vocals, guitar) and Edward Butt (bass guitar)are the duo that are the nucleus of Arctic Lights, with Max Mac joining them on drums.
Low vocals greet your ears with acoustic accompaniment of a guitar, though all this is an illusion as the electronics break through. There is a sonic component, a see saw between vocals, synths and guitar that is quite mesmerising.
Darkwave with that shoegaze wall of sound and the sublime singing that creates a wonderfully textured track about the very human desire to be apart of a relationship of some description. Come and “Belong” with Arctic Lights.
What do you get when you cross Australian with German avant-garde music, on a UK label? Possible insanity, Concentration and the label Avon Terror Corps. What the actual fucking fuck have I gotten myself into? Just reading the Bandcamp bio is leaving me feeling slightly unhinged. Well played as that just increases my curiosity of the latest release, Aren’t You Gonna Introduce Me To Your Friend?.
Oh well yes, of course there is a starting track called “Who Wants To Fuck Me“, with no question mark. The creeping electronic and deluded sax make for a cathartic oddity. The party goers get their demonic funk on while the sax mournfully lusts.
“Grün Im Gesicht” is your sexy wake up call in a gutter of that strip club you visited last night and still can’t think straight enough to find your keys but you did still dream you were in a bordello song and dance routine.
Fancy a walk on the electric sidewalk of life? “Sailin” rolls on a swell of hip, semi enthusiasm, so put on your boating shoes and get on down to the psychedelic cruise ship. We seem to be idyllically lost at sea, drenched in the washed up dreams of a mariner.
A supreme mellow vibe starts”Gehäutete Bräute“, with disembodied vocals that start off angelic, but soon show the angel might have been getting into the spirits a bit too much. It builds into both something painful and calamitous simultaneously, with the drunken angel having a grand time.
One might feel a little seedy and blue on a “Diet Of Worms” with that angry voice buzzing in your ear, his dissatisfaction with the general world like a bee in constant motion. The sax warbles in and out of dimensions and eventually gets to drink a pina colada in the rays of a dying bogan sun.
Five songs would normally denote an EP but with the length (and girth) of such sizeable tracks, they are able to give you a full payload. They are wacky and wild plus the questionable bird on the front…. judging you. Everyone needs a judgemental bird eyeing them off, while listening to an album covering genres such as avant-garde, experimental and smut. Concentration, an aural enema for your ears, you lucky bastards.
The latest single from M73, has just been released, off the album Motor Romantik., on the record label, LÆBEL. “Vampire” has been given a lush video, care of Anna Tartaglia, exploring the visual concept that not all vampires live off blood but many are regular humans who feed off the power of controlling another person. As always the synth lines are stunning and John R Mirland completes the track with his vocals.
Seattle based Vance Latta is a musician of the darkwave persuasion whom previously released the EP, The Ravening. October the 27th marked the drop of his latest single, “Mysterious Places“.
No special effects or over production here and it is refreshing in a way. The synths are bright, while the drum machine keeps the score and Latta’s vocals caress the lyrics. Latta and the electronics delivering a stark and heart felt eulogy to another they love, who is caught up in religious zealotry. Definitely coldwave feels from this track, so support an upcoming talent and check out “Mysterious Places“.
When things go bump in the night, you are sure to get music to remind you not all is known or seen. October 31st or All Hallows Eve, saw the new EP, Avernus, be unleashed by In Tenebris, upon the world while the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest. This is the more ambient product of German electronic musician, Sebastian Sünkler, whom is better know for his power noise project, STAHLSCHLAG.
Something unnatural this way comes, in the form of an ancient “Relic“. The synths waver in high pitch warning and the clash of tones signal there is something that feeds on the darkness, an aberration has become unbound. Sinister electronic overtones, coalesce with slow rhythmic beats… a heartbeat from a demonic being, in the cathodic noise, casting a foreboding shadow for this is the “Dynastic Cult“.
The beginning of “Traits” is almost transcendental, though almost immediately drenched in a claustrophobic pall of dank noises. The ringing, instead of being enlightening, joins the overbearing build up of portent. The final track is “Iconoclast” and the beast waits, no longer in torpor, as the music oozes with sharp edges, stalking so that you can almost feel the fetid breath on the back of your neck, though nothing can be seen through the mists. How long do you have?
Avernus strikes a chord somewhere in your brain that stores your animal ability to sense danger. Something dark and threatening lurks within, nothing like us and with evil intent. The music conjures a myriad of feelings and visions, like a good horror movie, never showing you the monster but rather letting your imagination run away with the subtle suggestion simply in the tone or noises within each track. And each listen will reveal more than you previously heard. Sünkler’s famous crunch is bleeding through a little into this EP, giving the ambient tracks a rather delightful texture and most definitely increasing the menace.
Need an injection of gothic rock to perk up your dark soul? Then the debut track “DarkenedEyes” from st///ll might stoke the fires. The three members are scattered between the UK and Ireland but have the common love for the post-punk genre.
The drum machine starts pistoning away, joined by the chiming out guitar, before the Ian Curtis like vocals invade your concious. Then you are plunged into a sonic sweetness, due to the bass being there, ramping up the tension and dueling the lead guitar. It’s a bit like being transported back to the early 80s.
I think there is not only a love here for Joy Division but I can also hear Pink TurnsBlue, which is tangible in both the vocals and guitar. Given a chance, “Darkened Eyes” could easily become a gothic dance floor anthem. There is no excuse for not popping off to Bandcamp to secure this little beauty as it is name your price, for a seriously strong debut track from st///ll.
Today I added a new tag to my list. Industrial space music.…. I’m pretty chuffed about that. The reason behind the new tag is the debut EP from Perth ambient electronic/industrial project, Open Mirror, called Contact Void, out on Western Australian label, Lightarmour Editions. Grant Slee is the human component of OpenMirror, as they windup for the release of the full length album, Contact Mortis.
The three track EP starts with “Contact Void” with its vast tendrils of sound and synth wavering out into the reaches of unknown universe, amongst the stars, quasars and heavenly bodies. Expansive and glittering. Somewhere in the back of my head, “Oxygene Pt 4” by Jean-Michel Jarre is prickling at my concious, because it reminds me very much of the space sound scapes created by the electronic French genius. The next track is “Contact Void” revisited as the Liminal mix, longer than the original. Brusque, more drawn out, as if this wasn’t the shiny and smooth trip expected. There is hesitation in the music as it plucks up the courage to sail forth. Those brighter synths are there but also an underlying ground swell of harsh noise creeping into the rhythm. Maybe contact with aliens beings, in the transmissions.
Sequentially, the tracks keep getting longer, with “The Dead Hotline“, clocking in at 13 minutes and 40 seconds. This is the Signal Extended mix, a different concept in some ways as it is not space related. There is a sadness in the music and the harsh noise is making its presence felt now, like the static on the radio, unable to find a channel. The music is now a spirit box, a conduit for the voice of the dead. A very Australia voice asks the aether questions, with the hope of a rely.
Though one is Earth bound and the other about space, there is a common theme… discovering what is it, there in the dark, or rather who. Well played OpenMirror because not only is this EP thought provoking, it’s genuinely both fascinating to listen to and very enjoyable. So how will you ContactVoid?
This month we brought you the review of “RIP (Dead To Me)” by AILSHA and the 28th of October has seen the spooktacular release of the accompanying video. Electro goth pop about the modern inconvenience of ‘ghosting’, which means baby…. you are Dead To Me. Don’t say we never give you anything nice!
Onyx Music Reviews 