Praise for Altar of Plagues‘ Mammal from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Record number two from these Irish heavies, who blend murky blasting black metal with slow build epic post rock, their songs sprawling epics that flit from frantic riffing to soaring churning majesty, guitars slipping easily from super distorted buzz to chiming jangle, and back again, the sounds alternatingly droney and trancelike, rhythmic and meandery. Altar of Plagues at their finest when they lock into a single part and the whole band hammer away, building tension, a dense repetitive sonic throb, the sound of the instruments blurred into a single epic swell, growing more and more intense, until finally splintering apart and resuming its frenetic buzz and pound.
The black metal here is definitely of the soaring, epic and transcendental variety, reminding us of Wolves In The Throne Room and other outfits of a similar sonic stripe, but AoP don’t shy away from ditching the heaviness for long stretches, instead weaving lush minimal drifts, the guitars clean and warm, the drums muted and subtly rhythmic, and again those prettier, calmer moments balance the heavier blacker passages. The cool thing being when the melodies from the mellow parts find their ways into the heavy bits, transforming chugging black riffs into something strangely pretty, and way more atmospheric.
All of the songs here are intense and lengthy sonic journeys, and to be fully appreciated, require close listening, parts by themselves don’t necessarily have the same impact on their own. You may experience a roiling bit of drum heavy churn, only to have a surprising melody overtake the menacing minor key vibe, other parts are all about the repetition, building into a trance inducing mesmer, a quick glance hardly registering, but letting yourself get lost in the sound makes all the difference. We saw these guys live, and for some reason it seemed a little bit boring, but then there are lots of distractions in a rock club, people talking drinking at the bar, all the sort of stuff that detracts from the sort of experience these guys strive to conjure, but strap on some headphones, close your eyes, and it’s a whole different story…
At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.
Tags: Album of the day, altar of plagues, Aquarius Records, black metal, Mammal, profound lore
This entry was posted on Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 at 3:08 am and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Nice review of the album..Plan to listen to it!