Posts Tagged ‘The Obelisk’

Album of the day: The House of Capricorn – In the Devil’s Days

Posted on Sunday, October 30th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: Like last their debut in last year’s Sign of the Cloven Hoof, the second album from New Zealander doom foursome The House of Capricorn – titled In the Devil’s Days – is cumbersome. Surpassing that record’s 59 minutes with a full 72-plus, they stretch the limits of the CD format with their sophomore outing. Where the two to-date efforts differ, however, is in what The House of Capricorn do with that time.

The first album adhered far more strictly to a traditional doom aesthetic than does In the Devil’s Days (released via Swamps of One Tree Hill), which from its very beginnings in ‘All Hail to the Netherworld‘ couples cultish or semi-Satanic lyrical themes with a mid-to-late-‘90s Roadrunner Records influence (think Life of Agony and maybe even some groove-metal-era Machine Head, tonally) primarily showing up in the shades of Type O Negative green permeating that song and others like ‘To Carry the Lantern’, ‘Veils’ and, to a lesser extent, the closing title cut.

The House of Capricorn still get down with more genre-minded doom – 10-minute second track ‘Les Innocents’ is almost a direct port of the progression behind Black Sabbath’s ‘Black Sabbath’ – but even that is filtered through a style more the band’s own than what came through on the first record (it’s irrelevant to note, but Type O Negative covered that Sabbath track as well on the first Nativity in Black tribute and redid the lyrics for their The Least Worst of Type O Negative compilation).

Perhaps expectedly, In the Devil’s Days finds its greatest triumphs in the stretches most unique to the band. There’s a Euro-doom drama blended into ‘Veils’ and a Misfits punk bass line from Ami Holifield on ‘Coffins & Cloven Hooves’ that create an expectation of diversity in the material that the band well lives up to.

Continue reading: The Obelisk: REVIEW: The House of Capricorn, In the Devil’s Days
Courtesy of JJ Koczan / The Obelisk.

Tags: Album of the day, doom, In the Devil's Days, JJ Koczan, Occult Rock, Swamps Of One Tree Hill, The House of Capricorn, The Obelisk
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Album of the day: Russian Circles – Empros

Posted on Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: For their fourth album, Empros (first directly for Sargent House), the instrumental three-piece Russian Circles returned to producer Brandon Curtis of The Secret Machines, who also helmed 2009’s Geneva. The reasons why are fairly obvious: What the Chicago outfit was able to accomplish with Geneva ...read more

Album of the day: Nordic Nomadic – Worldwide Skyline

Posted on Friday, October 21st, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: Stepping somewhat outside his role as the frontman and guitarist for Toronto psychedelic pasture-izers Quest for Fire, Chad Ross is the sole figure behind the unsurprisingly more minimal Nordic Nomadic. He released a self-titled album under the moniker after starting the project in 2007 and ...read more

Album of the day: The House of Capricorn – Sign of the Cloven Hoof

Posted on Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: With one of the most beautiful cities in one of the world’s most beautiful regions as their backdrop, Auckland, New Zealand’s The House of Capricorn make their full-length debut with Sign of the Cloven Hoof (Swamps of One Tree Hill), and though it seems with ...read more

Album of the day: Black Cobra – Invernal

Posted on Thursday, September 29th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: They are among the upper echelon of today’s heavy live acts, but that has turned out to be the undoing of each successive full-length from near-nomadic Los Angeles duo Black Cobra: The inability to stand up to the high standard set by the live show. ...read more

Album of the day: Spirits of the Dead – The Great God Pan

Posted on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: The well-received Norwegian four-piece Spirits of the Dead released their self-titled debut in 2010 to what was – if the extensive collection of press quotes is anything to go by – considerable fanfare. The follow-up to said debut arrives in the form of The Great ...read more

Album of the day: Mars Red Sky – Mars Red Sky

Posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: Making their home in the rich dirt of France’s Bordeaux region, the trio Mars Red Sky specialize in gorgeously-toned and natural-sounding fuzz that comes on huge and overwhelming, but is rife also with engaging melody and psychedelic flourish. Guitarist Julien Pras (also Calc) is like ...read more

Album of the day: Blut – Grief and Incurable Pain

Posted on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: Apart from a sample at the beginning of the first of its two tracks that’s soon swallowed whole by a distortion tsunami and some screams peppered throughout both tracks, there is no discernible speech anywhere within the just under 70 minutes of Blut’s second full-length ...read more

The Obelisk : In Conversation With YOB’s Mike Scheidt

Posted on Thursday, July 21st, 2011

JJ Koczan of The Obelisk recently conducted an interview with Mike Scheidt of YOB, and it features questions focusing on the band’s second album for Profound Lore, called Atma, which will be released on Aug. 16,  and much more. The Obelisk: At this point, do you have something that’s a definitive ...read more

Album of the day: Backwoods Payback – Momantha

Posted on Saturday, July 16th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: It was kind of a surprise when Small Stone signed West Chester, Pennsylvania, riff mongers Backwoods Payback. Not that the band is undeserving. In the live arena, they stand up to anyone you want to put them against (including, regularly, formidable labelmates Lo-Pan), but their ...read more