FEN release the dark monumental track ‘Wracked’ as the final single taken from the East Anglians’ forthcoming album Monuments to Absence, which is chalked up for release on July 7, 2023.
FEN comment on ‘Wracked’: “There are days when one is struck by a sense of such overwhelming black despair that it strikes almost as a physical force”, mastermind Frank “The Watcher” Allain writes. “We are literally wracked with sorrow, so overcome with the deepest sadness that it hits like a blow – staggering one backwards, grinding us to a halt. At such moments, one can only wait for the wave to subside, to retreat into the dark, yawning chasm of one’s own mind; and hope that the storm will pass as swiftly as possible. ‘Wracked’ speaks of those days.”
XASTHUR unveil the next sinister single, ‘A Future to Fear II’, taken from the forthcoming double-album Inevitably Dark, which is set up for release on June 23, 2023. The stylistically highly diverse American outfit instigated by multi-instrumentalist Scott Conner has created a kaleidoscopic double-album that is ranging from acid folk to black metal.
A visualizer of the eerie track ‘A Future to Fear II’ is available here:
AA
There is hardly a more fitting title for the new XASTHUR compositions than "Inevitably Dark". Darkness is the element that holds all the tracks together despite the fact that they are expressed in a multitude of genres, which even includes black metal. This time. Be warned: this album is neither meant as a return to black metal of mastermind Scott Conner, even though he does this time, nor a guarantee that it will happen again next time – although, he might. Maybe.
This monolith of musical darkness that is balefully towering in the shape of a monumental XASTHUR double album has been made from sonic granite. Like the intrusive igneous type of rock, it is coarse-grained, composed from different minerals that have formed from magma erupting to the surface from infernal depths, and has a high content of metal oxides that do not always show at a superficial glance.
Instead of quartz, alkali feldspar, and other types of rock, Conner has used black metal, dark ambient, acid folk, doomgrass, and other genres to express what he has seen and felt, as well as a way to find his own sound or style at a point in time – for example when he was without a steady home and often living in hotels or cars. His insights into the underbelly of the American dream are reflected in the lyrics of "Inevitably Dark", which are there even though there is no singing on the album. Conner is taking a look into the minds of the mentally ill. The puzzle of people that he encountered on the road and that might be homeless because they are ill, or whose minds shattered when they lost their homes.
Documenting what he has heard and seen, Conner recorded all the tracks of "Inevitably Dark" live and by himself, which might make it sound coarse to modern ears, but it is just the grit and stain of unfiltered reality. His way is the old hard way of a live sound and not the fake glitter of a perfectly polished product. XASTHUR are sounding exactly as the mastermind has envisioned his album to be: real.
FEN release the epic and constantly shape-shifting track ‘Truth Is Futility’ as the second single taken from the East Anglians’ forthcoming album Monuments to Absence, which is slated for release on July 7, 2023.
Fen comment on ‘Truth Is Futility’: “The title says it all: the quest for truth is a futile one and even when presented with self-evident realities, our species will violently reject anything that contradicts enshrined dogma and the fragile beliefs to which many desperately nail their sense of identity to", mastermind Frank “The Watcher” Allain muses. “History has shown time and again that the purveyors of knowledge, the seekers of understanding, and those who challenge conventional wisdom are persecuted and stigmatised. At the very core of most of us lurks the kernel of one actual truth that many of us dare not even admit to ourselves: we do not desire to know the fundamental truths of ourselves and our world. We do not want our cosseted egos and comfortable safety blankets to be disturbed in any way – even by the revelations of enlightenment. Against such cemented defence, what is real truth if nothing but futility? Musically, this song is a true Fen ‘journey’. We feel that ‘Truth Is Futility’ embodies the balance of intensity, encroaching despair, and the primordial roar of rage that can be the only genuine reaction to such hopelessness.”
Today I did something that was pretty alien to me: I took a break. Having dropped the car at the garage for a service, I walked some four miles back into town, and with another mile and half to get me back home, I stopped in at a pub and sat on the first floor with a pint, just looking out of the window watching people drift by on the street below. There were some interesting tunes being aired through the hidden speakers, from early New Order to The Jesus and Mary Chain. At some point, Dum Dum Girls’ cover of ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’ came on and not for the first time in recent months, began to reflect on The Smiths, since I recently offloaded my entire vinyl collection of their works. It wasn’t just that I need the money – and the £800 I raised was certainly useful – but this was an act of purging. That Morrissey is a monumental cunt had certainly been bugging me for some time, but then I have many records by people who have long been known to be monumental cunts and I haven’t felt the compulsion to jettison their junk. No, his cuntdom was just the tipper after I came to the conclusion that these records no longer spoke to me and hadn’t been played much since I left my teens, and the death of our monarch, which led to the obvious song gaining ubiquity on my social media feeds simply left me weary.
But on hearing this cover, I found myself thinking ‘but this is a great song’. And so, arriving home to find Spiritual Front’s cover of ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ in my inbox felt somewhat serendipitous.
Taken from their upcoming album of Smiths covers, The Queen is Not Dead, it’s a very straight cover that not only pays homage but great attention to detail in terms of the arrangement, mostly only adding swathes of strings near the end. And it, too, is – still – a great song. Although not all of The Smiths’ songs were great – the albums included a a lot of pap, like ‘Frankly, Mr Shankly’ – but it’s hard to fault their singles and the craft. Perhaps, then, it does come back to the issue being Morrissey, his cuntiness and his adenoidal tones which my wife always hated so – meaning that, ultimately, at least for me, it becomes a question of context, and hearing covers of the songs is preferable and less problematic than hearing the originals.
As the bio which accompanies the release details, ‘With The Smiths carved so deeply into the Romans’ collective heart that they had played full shows featuring the English rockers’ classic hymns in recent years, it was only a short step to record a full tribute album when taking a break from touring. Spiritual Front went about their task with the explicit aim to pay a respectful homage yet at the same time to stay away from cloning. Across the album’s fifteen tracks, which many consider sacred, the Italians stayed true to the original recordings, while pulling those songs closer to the sonic world of Spiritual Front for example by adding strings and horn parts.’
This, of course, is the ultimate pull of The Smiths: anyone who has endured those awkward teenage years as an outsider, who’s been sixteen, clumsy, and shy, will feel that connection to these songs. And for a band whose recent output, dubbed ‘nihilistic suicide pop’ has drawn comparisons with Nick Cave, Swans, and Scott Walker, it still makes sense that The Smiths would be there in the background.
But to hear the weathered, tattooed Simone Salvatori enunciating ‘ah-ho, la-la, ladadada’ – well, it does seem somehow incongruous. For all that, he pulls it off well, and while I’m on the fence with the video, it’s a solid cover that suggests the album will be worth hearing.
Austere are back. The Australians return with their third album – and they are as laconic and without any pretensions as when they went into extended hibernation after the release of their sophomore full-length To Lay like Old Ashes in 2009.
Entitled Corrosion of Hearts, the new tracks stay true to the path that Austere have carved for themselves out of solid black metal bedrock. The multi-layered and harsh yet often dreamlike guitar tapestries woven by Mitchell Keepin are complemented by the emotive drumming of Tim Yatras, who also contributes keyboard splashes and cinematic soundscapes. Both also contribute vocals that cover the full spectrum of their genre and range from throat-ripping growls via desolate screams to clear voices. In the typical manner of these Australians, their songs are still meandering, flowing streams of musical thought of epic proportions.
The sonic heritage of Austere is apparent. Their inspiration derives from the early Norse black metal scene and its depressive offspring, but also stretches further to the gentler and more emotional approach of blackgaze. Despite or maybe even because of the width of the influences, the Australians have found their own answers to the musical paradox inherent in this style, which is both fast and slow, aggressive and melancholic.
On Corrosion of Hearts, Austere ‘s brand of black metal has evolved into a more mature and defined form of expression, which is hardly surprising as both musicians were active in other bands during their hiatus. The duo also took more time to craft their new songs into exactly what they were supposed to sound like than before. With greater experience comes more determination.
As a taster, they’ve unveiled ‘A Ravenous Oblivion’.
Plant-based metal avant-gardists BOTANIST have seeded the new track ‘Epidendrum Nocturnum’, which is named after a ‘nocturnal’ species of the orchid family (common to South Florida but also growing in the Caribbean and all the way down to Brasil), as the second single taken from their forthcoming album VIII: Selenotrope. The album is planted for blooming on May 19, 2023.
Listen here:
BOTANIST comment: “For VIII: Selenotrope, I wanted to limit myself to only dulcimers, drums, bass and voice”, mastermind Otrebor explains. “For the voice, I decided to have an album without any screams or harsh vocals whatsoever, and instead to rely on the whispers that speak to the listener as messages in a dreamlike state. As the album progresses, melodic choirs are increasingly introduced. These choirs, which have progressed in form and presence since I started Botanist, see their biggest role ever on VIII: Selenotrope. The song ‘Epidendrum Nocturnum’ is one of the album’s darker pieces. Its churning main section gives way to a cathartic landscape in which whispered elements underpin melodic choral paeans to flora that bloom in moonlight.”
Plant-based metal avant-gardists BOTANIST have planted the new track ‘Angel’s Tumpet’, named after the highly toxic and hallucinogenic nightshade shrub as the first single taken from their forthcoming album VIII: Selenotrope, which has been sowed now in order to bloom on the release date May 19, 2023.
Listen to ‘Angel’s Trumpet’ here:
AA
BOTANIST comment: “The notion of a ‘Selenotrope’, a plant that only blooms in moonlight, was in the mental vault since 2016, as were the drums that I had recorded for when the day came”, mastermind Otrebor writes. "The added solitude of the lockdown, in addition to the solitude that I normally prefer, was the conduit to entering this new place in the Verdant Realm. After I completed tracking, I sent the session to Dan Swanö, with whom I had already loved working for the Photosynthesis album. Dan felt that ‘Angel’s Trumpet’ was the album’s banger. So here it is to introduce you to the nocturnal floral world of VIII: Selenotrope.
AUSTERE have unveiled a sinister video for the epic opening track ‘Sullen’ as the first and only single taken from the black metal duo’s forthcoming new full-length Corrosion of Hearts. The band from Wollongong in Australia’s east coast state New South Wales will release their third album on April 28, 2023.
Watch the video here:
AA
AUSTERE comment: “The first single ‘Sullen’ is also the first track that we wrote for Corrosion of Hearts and it has an interesting background”, guitarist and singer Mitchell Keepin explains on behalf of the duo. “The main riff theme within the track was actually also the first song written for an album that we started working on directly after ‘To Lay Like Old Ashes’ was released, 13 years ago. For various reasons, that album never came to fruition. Yet the main riff, whilst slightly different at the time, survived. Although it carries a different feel to our previous work, it is a good starting point to pick up the pieces that were left behind so long ago when we decided to rebirth the band. Corrosion of Hearts, as an album, reflects the opportunity to write additional melodies that we didn’t have the time for during the recording of our previous album. This allowed us to deliver a bigger soundscape carried by epic melodies in an atmospheric way. it feels great to be able to expand further and venture into new waters. ‘Sullen’ is an important track for us as it was the catalyst for Austere to reigniting the flames that are burning within us.”
Following on from ‘For Horror Eats the Light’, Fvnerals bring more darkness for December with ‘Ashen Era’ from the forthcoming album Let the Earth Be Silent. And truly, it’s a monster, a sprawling seven-and-a-half-minute beast that behind dark, murky, atmospheric in a haunting, ethereal ambient sort of a way, before crushingly heavy guitars grind out colossal drone over thunderous percussion.
If it feels like the end of the world, that’s probably because that’s the intention. The band explain the song and is place in the album’s development thus: “Inspired by the deeply destructive nature and harmful presence of our species, ‘Ashen Era’ was the first song that we wrote for this album, which also established its foundation", singer and bass player Tiffany Ström reveals. “In our writing process, we used dissonant orchestral instrumentation coupled with eerie vocals to ritualistically build up from a chant of despair to a state of acceptance. It is moving from the overwhelming longing for annihilation as well as the anxiety and guilt of our existence, to finding beauty and peace in our own impending end.”
Pic: Anja Bergman
This anxiety is something that’s been increasingly difficult to ignore, and it’s not just me and the sense of impending apocalypse that I’ve had for half my life: everything seems to be accelerating exponentially – climate change, consumption, population growth. The last few weeks have seen myriad news pieces on people complaining that Christmas markets have never been so busy and that traffic gridlock is suddenly no longer a rush hour or bank holiday thing, but from eight in the morning to nine at night.
In the wake of the pandemic, and with floods and droughts and fuel shortages and spiralling prices as demand for everything exceeds demand, as I’ve written previously, it feels as if we’re not only heading towards but already living in all of the dystopian futures featured in books and movies. That more writers and musicians are articulating these same feelings is cold comfort.
If one thing is becoming clear now, it’s that we have left it too late, and have almost certainly sealed our own fate, and now it seems that all we can do is make peace with this, and search for the ‘beauty and peace in our own impending end.’ It isn’t easy, if it’s even achievable, accelerating toward the abyss. But with ‘Ashen Era’, Fvnerals provide the perfect soundtrack.
FVNERALS have released a video clip for the track ‘For Horror Eats the Light’, which is the first single taken from the dark doom duo’s forthcoming new album Let the Earth Be Silent, which has been scheduled for release on February 3, 2023.
FVNERALS comment: “The track ‘For Horror Eats the Light’ is a lament about giving up all sense of hope, embracing the absence of light and a forced return to barren lands through devastation”, guitarist Syd Scarlet explains. “The song is about contemplating our lives coming to an end while accepting that nothing can save us and nothing should. It was written to include several movements that each mirror an emotional stage. The title of the song was inspired by a quote from Thomas Ligotti: ‘Not even the solar brilliance of a summer day will harbor you from horror. For horror eats the light and digests it into darkness’.”
Tiffany Ström adds: “The video was created by Simona Noreik, an amazing artist with whom we had previously collaborated on our live visuals”, the singer and bass player writes. “Simona’s artistic vision really complemented the apocalyptic nature of our song perfectly and she managed to portray desolation, extinction and nothingness with grace.”
Aural Aggravation 