Posts Tagged ‘Lurker’

Album of the day: Monarch – Omens

Posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2012

Lovingly pinched from Lurker: Witchcraft, in all of its manifestations, has a strong appeal for visual and music artists given its implicit mysticism and strong lore, evoking those primal, vague memories of forests, torched wood, pale sand and shadowy creatures of the night. Man alone against Nature, attempting to explain and conjure the forces beyond him, devised all sorts of rituals and elements to portray and mimic those natural elements through drawings, rituals and music, later passed via word of mouth and written word through generations, following a tradition of power, awe and knowledge.

Tied to this tradition, women have been one of the most common elements in the pagan lore, and likewise the media representations of it. Look no further than the likes of Jinx Dawson (from Coven), or movies like Antichrist or The Blair Witch Project, which in one way or another reinforced the idea that women are most capable of channeling the mystical forces of nature, and as unforgiving as the latter is, subvert it into others, negatively or positively.

Monarch have always had an implicit element of mysticism which they owe mostly to the subgenre as a whole, but since Sabbath Noir it seems like they’ve decided to take a step further in the symbolic, ritualistic realm of witchcraft manifested visually and lyrically through their vocalist (Emilie Bresson), and shape the mournful, anguished vibe from their previous efforts into a living sonic presence, summoned by torture.

Take the spiteful bride abandoned on a rocky altar in ‘Winter Bride’ (from their album Die Tonight), the cavernous shrieks at moonlight on Sabbath Noir and the unsettling, tormented moans broken by ritualistic percussion of Sortilège, and you’ll have a mental image of what Monarch conjured in Omens.

Continue reading: Monarch – Omens | LURKER.

Tags: Album of the day, At A Loss Recordings, Emilie Bresson, Lurker, Monarch, Omens, sludge
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Album of the day: Asva – Presences of Absences

Posted on Monday, January 16th, 2012

Lovingly pinched from Lurker: Constant progression has been the implicit premise behind Stuart Dahlquist’s brainchild since its beginning, back when it was barely transitioning from Burning Witch’s ashes. The metal roots were definitely there, but even at that point (with the Caprichos / Rift Cannon Dreams split) there was something ...read more

Album of the day: Ural Umbo – Delusion of Hope

Posted on Monday, January 9th, 2012

Lovingly pinched from Lurker: Like a spectral entity resurfacing from the murky depths of the Pacific Ocean to prey under a new form, Ural Umbo has sought to reinvent itself. By applying a heavier, coarser sound to their sparse, haunting melodies, Delusion of Hope creates a whole new experience that ...read more

Album of the day: Hateful Abandon – Move

Posted on Friday, December 23rd, 2011

As we move towards the end of 2011, here’s a worthy record that we overlooked the first time around earlier this year. Lovingly pinched from Lurker: Our daily lives are awash in seas of egoistic, materialistic, ideologic-less whisperings. We are slowly but surely destroying the earth. Religious fundamentalists are sharpening ...read more

Album of the day: A Death Cinematic – Your Fate Twisting Epic, In Its Crushing Moments

Posted on Sunday, September 11th, 2011

Lovinglyly pinched from Lurker: Over the years, Lurker has had the privilege of speaking with many artists we’ve come to admire. Cult legends and complete upstarts have both contributed at length to these musty columns, giving personal insights into the deepest inner workings of their art. But among them, one ...read more

Album of the day: Botanist – I The Suicide Tree / II A Rose From The Dead

Posted on Monday, September 5th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from Lurker: Botanist sounds and reads as an insect choir to the noblest aspects of garden couture. A menagerie of luminescent hymns that consistently veers toward the edge of insanity. Picture spindled-legged beings hanging on precipice cliffs of rose thorns, guzzling nectar, imbibing wares and decorating the quaint ...read more

Lurker’s Guide To: Progressive Rock

Posted on Monday, July 18th, 2011

Antiquated connotations surround the term, yet the words themselves suggest an inexorable march towards attaining some sort of artistic recognition for a style of music regularly associated with troublesome teenagers. Through pomp, pretence and prodigious talent, the pioneers of this maligned strain of rock achieved incredible heights of creativity. But ...read more

Album of the day: Disma – Towards the Megalith

Posted on Sunday, July 17th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from Lurker: We all arrive at genres with certain preconceptions. My approach to Death Metal is founded in a deep-seeded apathy. I had a minor fling with the old school death metal revival that reared its ugly head on the back of bands like Teitanblood and Cruciamentum. The ...read more

Album of the day: Servile Sect – Trvth

Posted on Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

Lovingly pinched from Lurker: Servile Sect is, inevitably, birthed from some genre-specific formula of influence and the parallels are, at times, easy to draw. What elevates their music above and beyond the coils of compartmentalization and inhibited thought is not easy to isolate. Trvth is a monument in its own ...read more

Album of the day: Heinali & Matt Finney – Dreamcatcher (Digital Download)

Posted on Monday, May 16th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from Lurker: Distances of thousands of miles are clearly no obstacle for our favourite ambient duo. In fact, it could be argued that it’s a blessing for the prolific Heinali & Matt Finney. Heinali grinds away the hours holed up in his bedroom studio in darkest Ukraine, pumping ...read more