Archive for June, 2011

Album Of The Day: Ramesses – Possessed By The Rise of Magik (2011)

Posted on Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from Don’t Count On It Reviews: It was three years between Ramesses‘ debut full-length, Misanthropic Alchemy, and their second album Take This Curse, now we have a third full-length, just over a year later. I was actually quite surprised when I found out about Possessed By The Rise of Magik, because I didn’t know the band was working on a new album. Having two members of the great Electric Wizard in their ranks really just makes me wonder why these guys aren’t as well known.

The first thing that caught my attention on this record was the production. If you prefer more clean sounding doom metal records, you might be disappointed by the sound that appears on here. The album honestly sounds like that cover art-work, like it was recorded in a basement somewhere, it’s a very reverb-y album with a lot of space and atmosphere, but it also sounds very confined and small, with everything sort of bouncing off of walls and back at each other. I find that the production on the vocals, especially, is rather off-putting, and at times even annoying, with how digital they end up sounding.

Musically, I’d say that this is definitely some of the band’s most doom metal sounding material yet, a lot of tracks don’t deviate and go into new realms as much as their last disc did, so it is a much more consistent album. I don’t want to give the impression that the band have abandoned all of their experiments, a track like Duel really brought to mind black metal for the atmosphere that song utilized. Songs like Sol Nocivo and Safety In Numbness really stick to that traditional doom metal sound, heavy, distorted bass, slow-grooving drums, drugged out vocals, and sluggish guitar lines but with all the right intent on their part to write a good song.

Continue reading: Don’t Count On It Reviews: Ramesses – Possessed By The Rise of Magik (2011).

Tags: Album of the day, Don't Count On It Reviews, doom, Possessed by the Rise of Magik, Ramesses, Ritual Productions
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Album of the day: Black Oath – The Third Aeon

Posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Praise for Black Oath’s The Third Aeon from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Doom metal bands aren’t exactly uncommon these days – which is a good thing, as we can remember when there were only like five or six of them, really! – but we know that I Hate Records can be ...read more

Album of the day: Faces of Bayon – Heart of the Fire

Posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: Proffering doomed desolation with just an edge of riff worship and plenty of tonal brutality, Massachusetts trio Faces of Bayon leave a huge impression with their debut full-length, Heart of the Fire (Ragnarok Records). The Fitchburg outfit formed in 2008, recorded all of Heart of ...read more

Album of the day: Autopsy – Macabre Eternal

Posted on Monday, June 13th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from: OneMetal.com: Legends. I’d like to leave it there, frankly – if you know anything at all about death metal, you’re more than aware of how essential Autopsy are to the entire scene – but Phil won’t let me write reviews containing only one word, the bully. So, ...read more

Monday Song: Hank III – Long Hauls and Close Calls (Hellbilly version)

Posted on Monday, June 13th, 2011

Every Monday morning we’ll post a kick-ass song to get your week going!

Album of the day: Locrian / Horseback – New Dominions (12″)

Posted on Sunday, June 12th, 2011

Loving pinched from The Sleeping Shaman: I’m always personally excited to hear anything new from Locrian OR Horseback, so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to THIS. The avant-drone equivalent of a particularly stellar issue of ‘Marvel Team-Up’ from heavy hitters Locrian and one-man stealth unit Horseback ...read more

Album of the day: In Solitude – The World. The Flesh. The Devil.

Posted on Saturday, June 11th, 2011

Praise for In Solitude‘s The World. The Flesh. The Devil. from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Last time we highlighted the 2nd album from Mercyful Fate / King Diamond (and Satan) lovin’ Swedish true metallers, Portrait. Now this week we’ve got another sophomore album from ANOTHER Swedish heavy metal act on ...read more

Album of the day: Hank III – Hillbilly Joker

Posted on Friday, June 10th, 2011

Here’s a gem released earlier this year that we neglected to share with our beloved Roadburn readers. Please excuse the oversight! Blame it on festival fever… Lovingly pinched from Nashville Country Music | Examiner.com: Curb Records finally released the long awaited Hank III album, Hillbilly Joker. The album was submitted ...read more

Album of the day: Deafheaven – Roads To Judah

Posted on Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from CVLT Nation: Roads to Judah is the debut album from San Francisco based band Deafheaven. In 2010 the band released a demo as a limited cassette and digitally through bandcamp. After receiving positive reviews from various blogs, the band was picked up by renowned label Deathwish Inc. ...read more

Album of the day: Gnod – Ingnodwetrust

Posted on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Praise for  Gnod‘s Ingnodwetrust from Scott’s Music Reviews: The UK drone psych rockers are back with a new full length record. The Middlesex split LP was released earlier this year and I reviewed that already but this is something quite different. The A side is one long track called Tony’s ...read more