Archive for February, 2011
Album of the day: Evoken & Beneath the Frozen Soil – Split CD
Posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011
Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: Some bands you just know are going to be unrelenting, and that’s certainly the case with long-running New Jersey mega-doomers Evoken. Their last outing saw them reissue their first demo in the form of Shades of Night Descending on Displeased Records, and now they follow that with four new tracks on a split with Swedish outfit Beneath the Frozen Soil on the I Hate imprint that also released their excellent 2007 full-length, A Caress of the Void.
Beneath the Frozen Soil were also last heard from in terms of new material in ’07, when they released a split with Long Island, NY, sludgers Negative Reaction. Maybe they just have something for the East Coast, but either way, the pairing with Evoken makes more sense sonically, as Beneath the Frozen Soil are closer to them in sound and overall feel. What that means as regards listening is that the split is consistent in terms of flow, and if you’ve ever heard anything from either of these two bands, you already know the extremely oppressive nature of their output.
Evoken are positively volatile. Their six-piece lineup (which, near as I can tell, sometimes includes founding guitarist Nick Orlando and sometimes doesn’t) is brutally heavy and agonizingly slow, topped with the unearthly growls of guitarist John Paradiso, who only veers from the guttural to embark on the occasional echoed whisper (see the closing movement of ‘Omniscient’) or dramatic spoken part (‘The Pleistocene Epoch’). If all of their albums weren’t over an hour long, I’d be tempted to call Evoken’s four-track contribution to the Beneath the Frozen Soil split full-length at over 42 minutes; in any case, they’re certainly not lacking in conveyance of aural hopelessness.
Drummer / founder Vince Verkay makes the most of his nearly 20 years of experience in the band, easily taking on the task of grounding the 13-minute ‘The Pleistocene Epoch’ – which would confound many – and knowing when to step back and give the guitars room, as on ‘Vestigial Fears.’ Keyboardist Don Zaros provides some respite from the crushing sounds, but between the guitars (Chris Molinari makes three), Verkay’s morose pacing and the added thickness of Dave Wagner’s pace, Evoken are near-lethal in their miserable cohesion. They finish cold (of course) on ‘Vestigial Fears’ and close their portion with ‘Into the Primal Shrine’, – their only cut under 10 minutes at 7:21 – which is instrumental but for a few non-verbal growls from Paradiso spread across the earlier moments.
Continue reading: The Obelisk » Blog Archive » Evoken and Beneath the Frozen Soil Split CD: How Slow Can You Go?.
Tags: Album of the day, Beneath the Frozen Soil, doom, Evoken, I Hate Records, JJ Koczan, The Obelisk
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Album of the day: Bang – Bullets
Posted on Sunday, February 27th, 2011
Praise for Bang‘s Bullets (The First Four Albums Plus…) from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: All right! We’re happy to report that Rise Above Relics is back in business, with an impressive new batch of proto-metal reissues including albums by Steel Mill and Necromandus… gotta get ‘em all reviewed, but we’re ...read more
Album of the day: Graveyard – Hisingen Blues
Posted on Saturday, February 26th, 2011
Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: Following the release of their self-titled debut on Tee-Pee in 2008, the groundswell around Swedish retro rockers Graveyard has been remarkable. The Gothenburg four-piece, born from the same roots as Witchcraft in the band Norrsken, tapped a direct line to the soft spot in everyone’s ...read more
Dead Meadow Frontman Jason Simon Releases Good Hope Road Video (Spinner)
Posted on Friday, February 25th, 2011
Jason Simon, the lead singer and guitarist of psych band Dead Meadow, would like to show you his softer side with his new video for ‘Good Hope Road.’ The music takes inspiration from folksters like Bert Jansch, Leonard Cohen, Sandy Bull and Townes Van Zandt — slow and steady and ...read more
Album of the day: Arbouretum – The Gathering
Posted on Friday, February 25th, 2011
Lovingly pinched from AllMusic: Baltimore’s Arbouretum are singular on the stoner psych-rock scene. Due in large part to the vision of lyricist, frontman, and lead guitarist Dave Heumann, their sound is simultaneously sprawling, devastatingly heavy, sludgy, meandering, and mysterious. The Gathering showcases a lineup change showcasing keyboardist Matthew Pierce. Paradoxically, ...read more
Hexvessel: Invocation Summoning Video & “I Am The Ritual” (Stereogum)
Posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Mat “Kvohst” McNerney provides the acrobatic lead vocals for the excellent avant / experimental industrial-leaning Norwegian black metal crew Dødheimsgard as well as the very differently forward-thinking (and also amazing) UK black metal band Code. He takes another turn with his stripped down “psychedelic occult folk” solo project Hexvessel. The ...read more
Album of the day: Oskoreien – Oskoreien
Posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Lovingly pinched from Lurker: With all instruments, arrangements, production and mixing handled by one isolated soul, Oskoreien is essentially the solo black metal vehicle perfected. All accoutrements associated with one-manbands have been virtually excommunicated from Oskoreien’s self-titled debut album. The wafer thin guitars and pots-n-pans drumming of the swathes of ...read more
Album of the day: The Psychic Paramount – II
Posted on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Lovingly pinched from Dusted Magazine: Way back in 1994, author Simon Reynolds coined the term “post-rock” when writing for The Wire. The spreading of that coinage proceeded to drive countless enervated trios and quartets to substitute pretention for fire, which resulted in college dorm rooms stacked with CDs bearing testimony ...read more
Roadburn Festival 2011: David V. D’Andrea’s Ludicra Poster
Posted on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
We’re proud to unveil David V. D’Andrea‘s third installment of his Roadburn series: the Ludicra poster. David comments: “Ludicra has not only been my favorite San Francisco metal band since 1998, they’ve been my personal friends and a mutual inspiration for many people in the Bay Area scene. I am ...read more
Album of the day: Sungrazer – Sungrazer
Posted on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: I had been looking forward to hearing the self-titled debut from Dutch rockers Sungrazer for a while before it showed up. The album, which was originally released by the band before they got picked up for CD / vinyl issue through Germany’s Elektrohasch Schallplatten, is ...read more
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