Triptykon's Melana Chasmata

I’m a year late posting a review of this album, but it’s something I need to do.  I realized while perusing through this blog that I never wrote anything about Triptykon’s first album, either, which was one of the best albums released in 2010 (maybe the best – I still have a lot of trouble deciding which album was #1 that year), so I’ll try to make up for it here. 

I can't understate the influence Thomas Gabriel Fisher has had on me. And I know I'm hardly alone. Few bands have crafted a legacy as enduring as the mighty Celtic Frost, and few bands have ever evolved to the degree that Celtic Frost did between Morbid Tales and Monotheist. Morbid Tales embraced a radical style of experimentation in speed and groove that is widely credited as preeminently pioneering extreme metal (black metal in particular). To Mega Therion threw down the gauntlet not only on all the bands intent on gimmicking Sabbath style doom, but on all bands that dared to call themselves "heavy." How many albums have we heard that are thrash/doom? Into The Pandemonium, which, though great in its own right, demonstrated experimentation greater in extent than that of even To Mega Therion (yes, even hip-hop seeped its way in), but had neither the direction or energy of Morbid Tales or To Mega Therion. I think this album sent Celtic Frost in a direction that ultimately wrecked the band and propelled them into the dreaded 20 years that followed the release of Into The Pandemonium that I'd rather not talk about, because, you know, one has been over the Cold Lake fiasco time and time again and honestly it's just not worth going into anymore.

With that said, the linear evolution of the band left long and lasting lines of influence and ideas, and nested nearly all forms of crude, violent, crushing, aggressive (it’s hard to characterize Celtic Frost with just a few adjectives) music under one banner. With Monotheist, Celtic Frost discarded all the failed experiments, trimmed the fat, extrapolated the elements that originally made them so unique, and crafted an album that throned them once again on a precipice of excellence that few bands ever approach, and they did it by reinventing themselves with a style of music that to my knowledge didn't exist before 2006.  Doom metal had existed in various forms since 1970, but Monotheist birthed a different animal altogether.  It was as immense an album as I’ve ever heard, devastating in impact and awe inspiring in magnitude. I'm not sure there's any other instance in metal, or in music for that matter, of a band reemerging with such a vengeance after 20 years of mediocrity to nullify all doubt and lay claim to, in one word, greatness.

Celtic Frost's legacy was cemented when they broke up after the release of Monotheist. Few bands throw in the towel, or ride off into the sunset depending on the way you look at it, after dropping the best album of their career. The Beatles managed to do it with Abby Road, and Simon and Garfunkel did it with Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Bolt Thrower might’ve done it with Those Once Loyal.  Not taking into account single album artists, like Thergothon, Winter, Black Math Horseman, etc., because the real claim to abnormality, and thus distinction, is the production of something spectacular after the passage of so much time.  This is what few bands seem to be able to do.  It's far more common for bands to reach levels of excellence early on in their careers, that they find impossible to replicate after the passage of so much time, and in turn we see bands dilute their discographies with mediocre releases or worse.

In 2008 Thomas Gabriel Fisher and V. Santura formed Triptykon after the disbandment of Celtic Frost due to, and I'll quote Fisher, "the irresolvable, severe erosion of the personal basis so urgently required to collaborate within a band so unique, volatile, and ambitious." And in 2010 Triptykon released album #1: Eparistera Daimones, and to everyone's delight, and perhaps astonishment (considering the company in question had never released two albums in a row that sounded the same), it picked up more or less right where Monotheist left off. It continued in the direction of latter day Celtic Frost, being an aggressive, crushingly heavy slab of doom/death/extreme whatever it is. And Monotheist set a pretty high standard for heaviness, so the fact that Triptykon's debut was even comparable came as a joy to fans that yearned for more Monotheist style extreme metal. And it was apparent pretty quick. Eparistera Daimones' opener, "Goetia," was as devastating as any album opener I've ever heard. I think Fisher realized after Monotheist that he held the recipe for something truly special, and was determined to see it manifest again in a new form.  And with the creation of Triptykon he had unlimited creative license to do just that.

Eparistera Daimones was special. And Melana Chasmata is special. Melana Chasmata is also a continuation in the same direction, and the third album cooked with the Monotheist recipe, only tweeked a little. We have Santura's vocals to compliment Fisher's, which is an amazing addition considering the two go so well together. Fisher has the tyrannical, dark, twisted, barking voice and Santura has the raspy voice. They go hand in hand and add depth to the music. We also have more focus on guitar tone and less focus on riffs. The purpose of Triptykon's guitars are to establish tone and crush, whereas Monotheist was, while equally crushing, more riff filled. The riffs that are present on Melana Chasmata are catchy and heavy as hell. What I like most about this album is that, like its predecessor, it cannot be described by one, two, or maybe even three genres. It's not just pulverizing doom (although there's plenty of doom for doom lovers), because there are occasional bursts of traumatically brutal speed. It's not just death metal or black metal although there are stamps of both throughout.  Fisher is adept at taking all the vile tones of the different metal genres and throwing them together to create a unique package.

This album seems a little more personal than the last, too. There are very sorrowful harmonies, very mournful melodies, and it's even more emotionally depressing than either Monotheist or Eparistera Daimones, lyrically as well as musically, and maybe that's because the subject matter is a little less about Satan and dying gods coming into human flesh and more about how Fisher will never see his children smile and "Emily" - whoever she is. Fisher might've reached somewhere even deeper within himself to extract the content for this album. I don't know who Emily is, if she's a friend of Fisher's or someone he used to know or someone he never knew, but he chants her name over and over in "In The Sleep of Death" and the song is written as though he's crying out to her.

Emily, why don't you speak to me?
Can't you see, I'm not sleeping
Emily, why don't you reveal yourself?
Can't you feel my yearning
Emily, the rays of the golden sun
Touch your tender skin, your frozen skin
Emily, this gentle morning chill
Silenced a voice within, your voice within
Emily, you were the blood in my veins
Emily, why did you abandon me?
Emily, how long may this dismal moment last?
Here in this world was your life
Emily, how can I find serenity?
This is the very ground you walked upon

Then there’s the strange gothic poem he wrote that is “Waiting,” which is soft and creepy rather than brutal, and which some complain is filler music that serves as a weak closer.  But damn if I don’t like it.  I can listen to Simone Vollenweider’s chorus “dying” and “we are the same” for hours.  She has a haunting voice and her vocals add even further depth and levels of melancholy to the music (I’m glad Fisher has always been attracted to female vocals, yet heedful enough not to overuse them).  I wouldn’t want this album to end any other way.  The listener turns off the stereo looking inward, wondering what’s coming.  It has an effect similar to “Winter (Requiem)” on Monotheist, where there’s an ambiance that’s calming but brooding at the same time.   

These tracks are far cries from the prayer to Lord Satan that was "Goetia," or the call to worship that was "Synagoga Satanae," but the music doesn’t miss a beat. This album is as beautiful as it is ugly. It's very melancholic, dark, nihilistic. Writing music is Fisher's outlet the way writing books is Stephen King's. He'll keep doing it because it's his lifeline. If he stops there will be nothing left to keep him going. And as long as he's writing, I'll be listening. 

Ordog's Remorse

In Hungarian mythology, Ördög is a demonic creature that personifies the dark and evil aspects of the world, much like what Satan personifies in the Christian world. And that's definitely what Ordog (the band) tries to personify with their music. Ordog's biggest influence is life itself, as insignificant as it is. Aleksi Martikainen, Ordog's lead vocalist, said "my biggest influences are my own dark and twisted mind, and memories full of distress and misfortune." I think its safe to say misanthropy plays a critical role in Ordog's songwriting process, and is an integral part of their music.

Ordog hails from Finland - a cesspool for awesome music.

This is Ordog's third release. Crow and the Storm in 2006, and Life is too Short for Learning to Live in 2008 are its two predecessors. This is by far their longest release to date; at one hour and nine minutes in length, it beats their next longest release by twenty-three minutes.

In 2011 Mournful Congregation's The Book Of Kings had its brilliant moments, but overall I couldn't help dreading the enormous assemblies that laid before me, especially the title track. Ordog's Remorse doesn't have that problem, even though it's an enormous assembly itself, and because there's not that feeling of dread I feel it's a better album as a whole. There are a few select parts of The Book of Kings that will just knock you dead, but there was also a lot of "meh" on it as well. This record, while still containing a certain amount of "meh" (as almost any doom record will), is chock-full of deep riffs and rich atmosphere. There are many more minutes of material I'll be listening to over and over in the future on this record. It would certainly be out of place to call this symphonic doom, but there are keyboards and pianos present. Keyboards appear on "Shadowland" and "Boneyard Horizon" (which have two of the most memorable keyboard parts), not to play any prominent melody or anything, but to just put a floor on the atmosphere. A memorable piano part is played on "Betrayed," throughout the last half of the song. These things are never the sole focus of attention, or even the primary focus of attention, but they add a really nice, uncommon, layer to Ordog's doom. Contrasted with the slow, heavy riffing, it makes for some really emotional doom in a really unusual way.

The eerie keyboards and the hellish atmosphere will cause listeners to lose grasp on the world around them and drift into a much darker place. "Boneyard Horizon" embodies absolute loss of hope and positivity. The weight of pain, suffering, depression, and remorse seeps into the psyche and leaves the listener devoid of anything that might have once been uplifting.

"Meant to be an End" provides some relief with its soft melodies and brief piano passages, but only for 2:57 before it fades out and brings an end to this seventy minute pillar of remorse and despair. 
 

Originally written for my 2011 End-of-Year List on MetalSetLists.com and as a review for Sputnik Music:
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/52150/Ordog-Remorse/

Primordial, Vektor, While Heaven Wept, and Cormorant Concert Review

Primordial, Vektor, While Heaven Wept, and Cormorant on Thursday, September 13, 2012 at Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte, NC

It would be hard to ask for a better four band performance than what I saw last night. These were four bands with different styles, different approaches to music, different influences, and different personalities, but they all meshed together incredibly well. Despite the variance of each performance in regards to the others, and all the contrasting styles of music being played, all these bands seemed to belong with one another.

I'm going to start by saying that there's a review over on Metal Archives for Metazoa entitled "A Life Changing Release." There's one passage that reads:

"This album is what I believe all modern metal bands should strive to create. It is an album that wears its influences proudly, but still forges its seal into the material, all the while creating something truly magical. This is a life changing album, and an effort that makes you excited about a young band's future. I will be watching these guys for the rest of their careers, and if this album is any indication, they will be making some of the best metal in a long time."

This was obviously written before Dwellings came out, and Dwellings sort of stamped a seal of approval on the last sentence of this passage. I still don't know which album I like more, to be honest, or which album is better, but I'm not sure anything will top the first time I really sat down and listened to Metazoa. From the first notes on "Scavengers Feast" to the final acoustic melody on "Voices of the Mountain," it was a very special experience... my best Cormorant moment. And at that point I had virtually no hope Cormarant would ever make it this far east, so I could actually hear them live, and nor did I expect them to, but they did. And so did Vektor. And less than two hours from where I live nonetheless. There was no way I was missing this show. Even though I had to get up early the next morning to give a presentation in state & local politics about Wilkes County funding a water intake project at the dam which will eventually pipe water to the two towns in the county so the towns won't have to draw water out of rivers and spend tons of money running it through water treatment plants, there was no way I was missing this show.

I rode to Charlotte with a friend after she got off work and she got me in for free. She's grown to know the management at Tremont, and they treat her and her guests like royalty. Free drinks, free pizza, free admission... I've been to some venues where I was treated like shit, but this definitely wasn't one of them. She sat back at the bar the entire evening and watched from a distance, too tired to really enjoy the brilliance that was emanating from the stage between 8:30 and 1:00am. I however...

...Walked up to the stage just as Nemesis finished, so I'll have to exclude them from this review, because I didn't see them. Ten minutes after I walked in, or thereabout, Cormorant took the stage. Their set was:

Scavengers Feast
Unearthly Dreamings
Junta

Now, keep in mind all these sets, excepting Primordial's, were abbreviated because Vektor was added to the line-up for this one night. This is a Primordial/While Heaven Wept/Cormorant tour. Vektor intersected them for this one night, so Cormorant definitely played a shorter set than they otherwise would have. But if they had to play three songs, I couldn't be more satisfied with these three. Of anything off Metazoa to hear, Scavengers Feast would be my number one choice. It's the first Cormorant song I ever heard, and it's burned further into the back of my mind than any other Cormorant song. So that's the perfect opener. And if I had to pick one song to hear off Dwellings it would be Unearthly Dreamings (followed closely by Funambulist), so I was completely satisfied with those two. But then Junta . I wasn't expecting Junta, but GOD YES. Awesome song. If I remember right they started it off by tapping some symbols before a bass came in, and eventually it led into the actual song. It was kind of like an improvised intro. Maybe they had a little extra time to play with but couldn't play another song if they wanted to play Junta, so they improvised an intro? No sound sample at the 2:30 mark, and no sound sample during the intro of Unearthly Dreamings, but no biggie. Cormorant nailed it... very emotional music live. The guitar tone was dead on. At times Cormorant plays music you just start swaying to. It hits you down deep, which is the difference between good music and great music. A part of me wishes they could have played longer, but another part of me knows that a longer Cormorant set would've meant no Vektor. But actually...

While Heaven Wept played before Vektor. They played:

Vast Oceans Lachrymose
The Furthest Shore
The Drowning Years
Soulsadness
Vessel

I came to this show to see Cormorant and Vektor. I was unfamiliar with While Heaven Wept and Primordial coming in, but While Heaven Wept was absolutely spectacular. I had no idea... what I've been missing out on all these years. Or maybe they're just this incredible live? I got this set from a friend of theirs who obviously knew the band's material, so I'm fairly confident it's accurate. While Heaven Wept played some of the most trance-inducing stuff I've ever heard live. The Furthest Shore, all fifteen minutes of it, was incredible. That guitar solo that went on and on and on in The Furthest Shore blew my mind. If you're like me and haven't listened to this band, see them live. They won't disappoint you. Now I'm going to take the time to actually listen to their music, and hopefully I'm not let down comparing it to the awesomeness that they are live. Their vocalist embodied everything that's right about music. Heart, passion, emotion, energy, strength... he absolutely killed it. He spent as much time on his knees as his feet. And he's obviously talented too. When I wasn't watching him, my eyes were transfixed on the lead guitarist, who was also a pleasure to watch. After While Heaven Wept, next up was...

Vektor. And they played:

Cosmic Cortex
Black Future
Tetrastructural Minds
Dark Nebula
DNA
Asteroid

Vektor is kind of like Cormorant in that they've put out two full-lengths, both of which are fantastic albums. Both Black Future and Outer Isolation are brilliant. If I had to choose a favorite between the two, it would probably be Outer Isolation, and they played the best two songs off that album last night. Vektor's set was another winning set. It's nice to see bands play what you'd like them to. I've got to say, Vektor brought as much energy live as any band I've ever seen. The energy radiated from the stage throughout their set. I tried to give up headbanging a long time ago, but it's fucking hard when you're standing four feet from Vektor. These guys really brought it, like they always do from what I've heard. Awesome tone/sound, utter mastery of their material, great stage presence, awesome looking equipment (including the sparkling pink drum kit)... when you watch Vektor it's like you're in the early 1980's witnessing the beginning of the thrash movement (not that I would know from experience, but still...), that's what it feels like. It just feels so real. There's no new age thrash band that can do what Vektor did last night. At least not that I know of. All the solos were dead on. Not one second after that choppy guitar part kicked in at the 2:08 mark of Cosmic Cortex a pit erupted. A girl standing right in front of me with her boyfriend looked back at me with bewilderment in her eyes... with a "god, shit just got real quick" kind of look. Cormorant's guitarist was standing right in front of me during the first part of their set too, trying to avoid the madness in the center of the crowd. I can definitely understand the people saying Vektor's giving "performance of the year" type performances on this tour. Again, I wish this show had started about two hours earlier so all these bands could've played more. Around 11:30 or 11:45pm I'm guessing...

Primordial took the stage, and their set:

No Grave Deep Enough
Gods to the Godless
As Rome Burns
Lain with the Wolf
The Golden Spiral
The Mouth of Judas
Heathen Tribes
Bloodied Yet Unbowed
Gallows Hymn
The Coffin Ships
Empire Falls

And I'm not sure about this set. This is what it's been though, and I know their last song was Empire Falls. If anyone knows otherwise, let me know and I'll change it. Like I said, I don't know this band's material at all; I came into the show unfamiliar with them. But like While Heaven Wept, oh can they can perform live. Their lead singer was the best front man of the night. He did everything While Heaven Wept's vocalist did except longer. I was pretty tired by this point, so I watched at least half of Primordial's set with my friend back at the bar. Which was kind of a bummer, but I'd seen the bands I went to see. I got to watch the members of Cormorant, Vektor and While Heaven Wept come out of the backstage room in a single file line, all wearing corpse paint, storm through the crowd to the center of the stage and riot. There was a great atmosphere to this show. All the bands got along really well and supported and talked to each other. The drummer of Vektor was wearing a Cormorant shirt by the end of the evening. Of all the bands, I saw Primordial the least, but I didn't exactly hang around after the show. We left during Empire Falls to beat the crowd out.

Maryland Deathfest Concert Review

Absu, Eyehategod, Agalloch, and Autopsy concert on May 14, 2012 at the Sonar in Baltimore, Maryland


Absu Setlist:

1. Abzu
2. Feis Mor Tir Na N'og (Across the North Sea to Visnech)
3. Earth Ripper
4. Swords and Leather
5. Tara (intro)
6. Pillars of Mercy
7. Manannán
8. Never Blow Out the Eastern Candle


Eyehategod Setlist:

1. Run it Into the Ground
2. 30$ Bag
3. Sister Fucker (pt 1)
4. The Concussion Machine Process
5. Dixie Whiskey
6. White Nigger
7. Jack Ass in the Will of God
8. Serving Time in the Middle of Nowhere
9. Methamphetamine


Agalloch Setlist:

1. Dead Winter Days
2. She Painted Fire Across the Skyline, pt 1
3. Hallways of Enchanted Ebony
4. I Am the Wooden Doors
5. Of Stone, Wind and Pillor
6. You Were But a Ghost in my Arms
7. The Lodge (Dismantled)


Autopsy Setlist:

1. Hand of Darkness
2. Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay
3. In the Grip of Winter
4. Severed Survival
5. Gasping For Air
6. Slaughterday
7. Maggot Holes
8. Born Undead
9. Always About to Die
10. Seeds of the Doomed
11. Deed
12. Mauled to Death
13. Voices


This was the first time Agalloch ever played You Were But A Ghost in my Arms live.  What they played sounded great, but what a disappointing set. They got very little crowd reaction save at the end of songs / the times the crowd thought the songs were over. Neglecting to play a single song off Ashes or Morrow is a horrible idea, but if they do neglect to, they should at least play either In The Shadow of Our Pale Companion or The Hawthorne Passage.  It would've been a great show for someone who had seen Agalloch live a few times before and wanted some rarities.  For a first time goer, it was bothersome.    

Absu was killer.  Their blackened thrash sounded great live.  Never Blow Out The Eastern Candle was incredible.

Autopsy got cut off.  There were some sound issues; they actually played Voices after the Sonar cut the PA off.  The vocals sounded amazing.  I didn't stay for the whole set because I was dog tired.    

Loss' Despond

Pain is something dreaded by nearly every human being. We do all we can to avoid it and forget it and remove it from our lives. We do everything possible to exist without it, yet, ultimately, it's something humanity will never rid itself of. Loss' debut embodies the notion that, as Carl Jung would say, pain is ever present, and as much a part of life as the dance of shadow and light, and that it's something we hate, deny, and fear in ourselves. Loss has just chosen to deal with it and express it. To quote the band, "Life isn't worth living 99% of the time," and that's what Loss tries to convey with their music. And they've succeeded to an impressive extent. The despair this band projects is so authentic it's scary. It's the work of musicians who've truly been there. And it's this that makes it so genuine.

Doom metal has grown on me a lot this past year. A large percentage of albums on this list have been doom albums of some sort or another. But this one is truly exceptional. Despond is one of the most emotionally stirring albums of the year, and the only album even close to expressing such deep depression and misanthropy that burns its way to the heart of the psyche. Novembers Doom, Tombs, The Atlas Moth, etc., have all released doom albums hailed by many metal critics as the best of the year. None of those compare to this. In 2004 Loss released a demo, Life Without Hope...Death Without Reason, which spread fast and caused quite a buzz in the underground. Seven years later, Loss debuts their first album, Despond. Two of the tracks on this album are actually re-recordings of two of the tracks on the demo. These include "Conceptual Funeralism Unto the Final Act (of Being)," and "Cut Up, Depressed And Alone."

This album features ultra heavy bass and guitars, and sparse but steady drums. It's slow, it's melodic, it's tormented. The vocals are anguishing. "Silent and Completely Overcome" features guest vocalist Brett Campbell, from Pallbearer (who's set to release a debut in January), who provides the only clean vocals on the album, and man, they're fantastic. This track is my favorite on the album. "I do not remember depression such as this" will echo in your mind long after it's over. This song also features a brief intermittent section of black metal at 6:10 (when the tempo actually peaks above a crawl) before converting back to megadoom at 6:38, when a crushingly heavy and painfully slow riff finishes out the song. Loss doesn't only include elements of death into their doom, but black as well. The atmosphere throughout the whole thing is super intense.

There are piano-led interludes ("Despond"), which add to the gothic sound of the album. "The Irreparable Act" closes the album with clean guitars, synthesizers, and a monologue in a manner that, despite the lack of heaviness, is just as haunting and depressing as the rest of the album. There's strange eerie guitar work (such as what we hear at 0:35 in "An Ill Body Seats my Sinking Sight" and what we hear at 0:03 in "Silent and Completely Overcome"). One of the most impressive aspects of this album is the way each song is distinguishable. Each song is recognizable. You can tell one song from another. There's very little "meandering," which just isn't the case with 95% of funeral doom. Creating a funeral doom album that's a truly memorable complete body of work isn't an easy task. Loss has done it. This is the metal album of the year. 

HIGHLIGHTS: "Open Veins to a Curtain Closed," "Cut up Depressed and Alone," "Conceptual Funeralism Unto The Final Act (Of Being)," "Silent and Completely Overcome,"
"The Irreparable Act"

The band stated in an interview that they won't stop writing music until they've created the perfect funeral doom atmosphere. And they made it sound like this album is basically just a preliminary glimpse of what's to come. That aside, I have a hard time believing they'll ever top this record. 


Originally written for my 2011 End-of-Year List on MetalSetLists.com