For even the most dedicated fans, keeping up with Boris can be damn near impossible; it often feels as if every other month the band hits us with a new release to dive into, typically in a completely different style than whatever came before. Regardless of the challenges it often presents, I try to check out as much of their output as I can, and I was excited to hear that they would be releasing their new album W via Sacred Bones Records, the label that brought us John Carpenter’s excellent Lost Themes Trilogy. What would it sound like? What wild new stylistic directions would they take their music in this time around?
As I alluded to above, one of the many wonderful things about Boris is that you never know which version of Boris you’re going to get from album to album, and for W the chameleonic Japanese trio have largely stepped away from the crushing drone/doom and sludgy punk of recent releases such as Dear and No to present us with one of their most ambient and atmospheric collections of songs to date. The album sees guitarist Wata handling the bulk of the vocals and her delicate voice works perfectly with the dreamy minimalism of tracks such as “Icelina” and “Beyond Good and Evil”. Boris blends elements of shoegaze, ambient and noise to create surreal soundscapes more suited for hallucinating than headbanging.
In fact, only traditionally heavy moment comes in the form of “The Fallen,” a four minute and thirty second sludge/slugfest that is perfectly placed at the center of the album; whereas many heavy bands will place a mellow track or interlude in the middle of an album to break up the heaviness, Boris flip the script by placing a heavy track in the middle of W to break up the mellowness. It’s a friendly reminder that Boris can still be ridiculously heavy whenever the hell they feel like it and adds yet another surprising facet to the album; just when you think you have all the answers, Boris changes the questions.
While frequent collaborator/legendary psych rock guitarist Michio Kurihara (Ghost, White Heaven, The Stars) is conspicuously absent from W, it’s still pretty far out; much of this can be attributed to the fact that whether they’re conjuring up Earth-shaking drone/doom, throwing down on some heavy rock, or indulging in noise and ambient sounds, Boris have a knack for creating albums that are beyond immersive. I took the liberty of listening to this shit after indulging in some of my favorite “smoky treats” and I felt like I was swimming in pure sound for a little over forty minutes, which ain’t no bad thing. Listening to W while altered probably won’t melt your brain (that’s what Earthless’ new album is for), but it does make for an extremely pleasant trip.
Boris’ discography is so vast and so diverse that trying to determine where exactly W ranks within it is about as far from an easy task as it gets. I can however say with great certainty that the album grows on me a little more every time I listen to it and it’s very rapidly becoming go-to album to listen to after smoking a fatty in 2022. The direction of W may disappoint fans of Boris’ heavier/doomier material, but those that also appreciate their wildly experimental side will find a great deal to enjoy here.
My introduction to Southern California’s Lord Time was 2013’s Drink My Tears, an hour-long mind-fucking odyssey to the outer fringes of black metal, noise and experimental music which ended up being one of my favorite albums released that year. Since then, the one-man project has only gotten darker, harsher and weirder, as evidenced by the utterly warped Mandatory Human Livestock Reduction, released earlier this year on sole member Andorkappen’s own Universal Consciousness.
Darkness comes in many forms. A band doesn’t necessarily have to scream about Satan or pile on the distortion in order to take listeners to pitch-black places. Subtle Cruelties, the debut album from West Coast duo Barren Harvest, is an exquisite example of this. A collaboration between Jessica Way of Worm Ouroboros and Atriarch’s Lenny Smith, Barren Harvest’s sound is rooted in the subtle tones and textures of ambient and neofolk, yet somehow manages to be darker and more sorrowful than even the most depressive of black metal bands.
As a reviewer, tons of releases come across my desk every year, but few of them actually make me stop and say “Wow, this album is really something.” Burial Hex’s The Hierophant is just such an album; its seamless mixture of disparate tones and textures is simply unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. Please believe it when I say this is not another case of music journalist hyperbole, this is simply one of the most stunningly unique, beautiful and unsettling recordings ever to ravage my unworthy ears.
It’s been a little while since we last heard from Sygil Records, in fact it’s been just over a year since I reviewed one of their releases (Charnel House’s excellent Black Blood). I’m pleased to say that after an all-too-lengthy silence, the label is back with yet another recording that challenges our perceptions of what dark and heavy music can be. That recording is Soon, the debut full length from Bloomington, Indiana’s Bad Psychic.
When I think of noise, I tend to think of it as the apex of extremity; pure sound so harsh it’s going to melt my brain and cause it to come oozing out of my ears. Granted, my introduction to the genre was the ultra-abrasive works of Relapse-era Merzbow (Venereology, Pulse Demon, etc) and Masonna (Inner Mind Mystique); ungodly endurance tests which I later came to appreciate for their ability to make even the most abrasive extreme metal seem like child’s play. Noise certainly has the power to obliterate, but I’ve come to learn that it also has the power to soothe, as evidenced by Crowhurst’s Everyone is Guilty.
Longtime readers of THKD know that I’m typically not big on live recordings. But, I am big on Sol y Nieve; the upstart Idaho-based label has already released two of this year’s finest slabs of black metal in the form of Nemorensis’ The Lady in the Lake and Hellebore’s Anouof Thwo, so if they deem a live release to be worthy of the same treatment, then I’ll sure as hell give it a listen. I’m glad I did, because Sun Splitter’s Live on WFMU is a sonic nightmare of ultra-corrosive industrial metal that’s more than managed to win me over in spite of my admitted prejudice towards live material.
In recent months, I have come to know Los Angeles, California’s Lord Time as one of the most challenging and idiosyncratic artists in American black metal. Sole member Andorkappen has crafted a distinctive, enthralling vision that’s thoroughly black, yet at times is only tethered to black metal by the thinnest of threads, incorporating elements of drone, ambient and noise to create dense musical tapestries that are nightmarish, surreal and at times abstract to the point where music transforms into pure, free-form sound exploration. Lord Time’s second album, Black Hole at the End of the Tunnel (henceforth referred to as BHATEOTT) was originally issued on cassette back in 2011, but now sees a vinyl re-release via Andorkappen’s own Universal Consciousness label.
When I first started thinking about how to approach THKD’s year end shenanigans for 2013, I tried to come up with ideas for different types of lists that would get away from the traditional top albums countdown. Turns out I’m more scatterbrained than creative, because what I ended up with was a bunch of stuff that really didn’t fit together or adhere to any sort of unifying theme. Instead of giving up on the idea, I decided to gather a few of these things together under one banner even though it didn’t make any sense whatsoever, just for the sheer joy of it, in addition to a more traditional year end list. So here it is, the second year end “bonus list” prior to the top metal albums countdown, which will be published on 12/13/13; THKD’s top 10 random-ass things I enjoyed in 2013. Continue reading “THKD’s top 10 Random-ass things I enjoyed in 2013”
Hopefully you chosen few that read THKD haven’t yet tired of my constant praising of Indiana’s Sygil Records, a label that cultivates the finest in left-of-center doom, black metal, noise and beyond. Sygil sent me a pretty sizable care package crammed with their releases a while back, and given that I’m constantly being bombarded with new music from all angles, it has naturally taken me quite some time to give each of them the attention they deserve. After tackling two releases from the mighty Charnel House (here and here), as well as the sadly defunct Avakr, I decided to turn my attention to Agakus, a mysterious entity that creates some truly harrowing dark ambient/noise on IV III II I. Continue reading “Agakus – IV III II I (Sygil Records, 2012)”
My first exposure to the mysterious Indiana duo known as Charnel House came earlier this year in the form of Contagion, an older album from the band that was sent my way as part of a package containing various releases from the great Sygil Records. Contagion was an instant standout, which is really saying something considering the high level of quality that runs through Sygil’s catalog; the album is a maelstrom of black metal/ambient/noise/doom that sounds like nothing else out there in spite of incorporating these familiar influences. I had hoped to hear more from them in the future, not realizing that their new album would be showing up on my doorstep just a few months later in the form of the awesome Black Blood. Continue reading “Charnel House – Black Blood (Sygil Records, 2013)”
It feels like it’s been forever since we last heard from The Sun Through a Telescope, but in reality it was just last year that the ultra-demented Canadian drone/metal entity unleashed the fascinatingly bizarre Summer Darkyard EP across a variety of outlets; you might even recall that I interviewed TSTAT mastermind Lee Neutron extensively following its release. The YouTube clip above is for “Mr. Yawning Infinity Chasm/Superinfinity,” the first taste of TSTAT’s forthcoming new full length I Die Smiling, to be released digitally via Bandcamp, as well as on cassette through Dwyer Records and on CD through Mutants of the Monster Records.
I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about checking out Wreck and Reference when I first heard about them. As deep an appreciation as I have for forward-thinking heavy music, I still have at least one foot (or maybe just a toe?) stuck in the old school, which means a metal band that doesn’t wield a single guitar of any kind throws up a huge red flag. I know, I know, it seems silly and more than a tad close minded, but hey, we all have our hang-ups; at the end of the day, I’m a guitar guy, a fucking RIFF guy, so I’m bound to approach a band like Wreck and Reference, who lack the one instrument that is in my opinion the foundation of heavy metal as the Gods (Iommi, Mustaine, Warrior, Quorthon, etc) intended it, with extreme caution. Continue reading “Wreck and Reference – Youth (Flenser, 2012)”
When Salem’s King Night was released in September of 2010, there was so much bullshit surrounding the band that it was difficult to give the album a fair assessment. People claiming that Salem was at the forefront of a “next big thing” genre alternately referred to by a parade of ridiculous tags including but not limited to drag, witch house and rape gaze (my personal favorite), the band literally getting booed off stage during a live set at SXSW, and at least one interview where the band came off as complete fucktards all served to detract from what really mattered: the goddamn music. Continue reading “Dreams in the Witch House: Assessing Salem’s King Night two years later.”
Way back when I first started talking about Bandcamp, I highlighted a selection of stellar bands that were using the site as a platform to promote their music. One of those bands was The Sun Through a Telescope, a one-man drone/doom/experimental outfit creating eerie, unsettling tunes emanating from somewhere within Canada’s frozen wastes. I was recently contacted by TSTAT mastermind, drone overlord and all-around awesome dude Lee Neutron regarding TSTAT’s new EP, the excellent Summer Darkyard, which is out now digitally via Handshake Inc, Grindcore Karaoke and of course plain ol’ Bandcamp. Intrigued by his latest release, I decided the time was ripe to harass Neutron for some answers via e-mail, and the following interrogation transpired. Continue reading “Interview: The Sun Through a Telescope”
Before Satyricon was playing at fashion shows and striving to create the perfect arena rock album for androids, main man Satyr Wongraven ran a label called Moonfog Productions. Between 1999 and 2001, this label unleashed three black metal albums that did a great deal towards paving the road for the trajectory of the genre over the course of the next ten years (and beyond). I refer to these albums as “The Moonfog Trilogy”. For those unfamiliar, these three albums are:
I’m not sure if it was by coincidence or by design that Moonfog featured the trifecta of Norway’s (then)cutting-edge black metal bands. Satyricon being on the label was obviously a given, but the fact that Satyr wisely aligned his own project with Thorns and Dodheimsgard (DHG) made the label appear as a united front of sleek, futuristic black metal bands. Of course, we mustn’t forget that Darkthrone was also on Moonfog at the time, sticking out like a sore thumb. I’ve always theorized that the inexplicably panned Plaguewielder was Darkthrone’s twisted attempt at the “Moonfog sound”, but that’s a whole other post unto itself.
Back on topic. United under the banner of Moonfog, these three albums shared a sonic and visual aesthetic that completely fucked up and in some aspects outright rejected the established tenets of black metal as it was known at the time. There were no crude black and white corpsepaint-in-the-forest photos or Old English fonts to be found on these releases. The artwork was colorful, modern and clearly crafted by someone who knew a thing or two about graphic design. Black metal’s pagan terrorism tactics were eschewed by Moonfog in favor of visuals that evoked urban blight and the grim underbelly of our not-too-distant future. Satyr and Frost’s makeup on the cover of Rebel Extravaganza makes them look less like grave-robbing ghouls and more like some sort of STD-infested heroin-zombies lurking in the darkest gutters of major urban centers. 666 International‘s cover appears to be the aftermath of an attack by the aforementioned heroin-zombies, with its shadows and stainless steel and what appears to be a whole lot of blood being washed down the drain. To this day, I’m still not sure what exactly is going on with Thorns‘ album cover. To me it alternately looks like a giant alien entity raping the sun and an insect giving birth.
Thorns, 666 International and Rebel Extravaganza were just as forward-thinking musically as they were visually. Each album is unique, but they also share certain sonic characteristics. The production schemes are cold and clinical. The guitars are all treble, cutting through the mixes like surgical saws. On the surface, they’re nearly devoid of anything resembling emotion, but as the listener peels away the layers cyber-grime, the humanity trapped within begins to reveal itself, screaming to be freed from the twisted mass of mechanized torture.
666 International was the first of the three albums to be released (June 11th, 1999 according to Metal Archives) and marked a major stylistic shift for DHG. The traditional black metal of previous albums such as Monumental Possession completely disappeared in favor of a heavily industrialized take on the genre that hasn’t been equalled before or since. I often claim to not be a fan of industrial/black metal hybrids, and that is because 99.9% of the bands that have attempted to cross-pollinate the two styles have failed miserably. DHG on the other hand, mastered industrial black metal the first time out. 666 International is cold and mechanical yet grimy and frightening at the same time. The guitars are white noise and static, harnessed into form by bloody mechanical hands. Programmed-sounding beats dominate the musical landscape, sickeningly precise and repetitive. It is the soundtrack to mankind being rounded up and enslaved by an army of rogue machines. And yet there are distinctly human elements clawing their way up from the depths of the stainless steel sonic hell the album creates. Aldrahn’s extremely versatile vocals, and the occasional piano melodies that creep up remind you that 666 International is the work of people and not replicants. This is the sound of black metal’s willful primitivism being engulfed and subjugated by the technological age.
Satyricon’s Rebel Extravaganza might be an even more terrifying listen. In some spots the album is unbelievably caustic, in others it almost fully embraces the conventions of rock ‘n’ roll at its most pure. Amidst the the filth-grinding yet sterile atmosphere, the band trots out riffs and grooves that are unmistakably headbang-able, but they are surrounded on all sides by hard angles and cold, unforgiving atmospheres. This album is probably the most traditionally black metal-sounding of the three, but this is BM at it’s most gritty, urban and ultramodern, like if Satyr and Frost had scored the soundtrack to Blade Runner instead of Vangelis.
Rebel Extravaganza is also the most emotional of the three albums, but the only emotions on display are anger and hatred. This is an album forged of pure nihilism, of taking pleasure in the loss of humanity and giving oneself over to the technological/urban nightmare foretold by 666 International.
“This would be the way of the misanthrope
in order to create you must destroy
We would greet the nuclear morning mist
We would smile at all life dying”
-from “Prime Evil Renaissance”
The end of the world will not be some hellfire ‘n’ brimstone biblical apocalypse, it will be collapsing skyscrapers wrapped in a tangle of wires and circuitry, humanity choked by a cloud of radioactive vapor, our bodies converted into fossil fuels. Rebel Extravaganza is a celebration of that moment.
If Rebel Extravaganza and 666 International represent black metal’s (and by extension humanity’s) struggle against the onset of technology and urban sprawl, then Thorns represents the machine army’s victory march over the charred, broken bones of the human resistance as black smoke pours out giant factories, blotting out the sun for all eternity. This is an album of precision and discipline, as engineered by Thorns mastermind Snorre Ruch, who himself might be a visitor from the horrific future, so advanced and bizarre is his approach to guitar playing and composition. Although I’m not aware of any interviews that focus extensively on his six-string technique, I’d imagine it would be a fascinating interrogation. His use of dissonance and choice of notes that fit together in a manner that can best be described as uncomfortable, or maybe unsettling, has never been fully replicated, at least not to these ears. Even the most traditional of metallic moments sound utterly extraterrestrial in Ruch’s hands.
Thorns is Thorns the band’s first and so far only album. Ruch released several highly influential demos in the early ’90s before being sentenced to 8 years in prison as an accomplice to Varg Vikernes in the murder of Oystein Aarseth, but nothing (not even the Thorns vs Emperor split) could have prepared the scene for the highly advanced take on black metal that is Thorns. The recording delivered (and still does deliver) on everything Satyricon, DHG and ultimately black metal as a genre had promised up to that point (albeit via very non-traditional means), total inhumanity, total domination, total damnation, total death. The sound is so unnatural/synthetic/alien that it’s hard to fathom any flesh and blood whatsoever being involved in its creation.
Amidst Thorns‘ mechanized onslaught there is a peculiar eeriness to the proceedings, due in large part to the dark electronic influences that inform portions of the recording. There is something undeniably unnerving about the clanking industrial noises of “Shifting Channels”, the squealing synths that bubble under the surface of “Existence” and the moments of pitch black ambience that continually creep up. By adding these elements into the mix, Thorns amplifies and transforms black metal’s reliance on conjuring an atmosphere of sickening malevolence.
The most telling evidence that Thorns is indeed the culmination of this trio of Moonfog releases is the presence of both DHG’s Aldrahn and Satyricon’s Satyr Wongraven handling the vocals. As the narrators of the first two chapters, it is only fitting that they be present for the climax, and Thorns finds both men’s voices positively dripping with acidic venom. Their contributions give the three albums another level of continuity, creating a sinister narrative that spans across them. It is the most immediately recognizable tie that binds them all together.
Thorns, Satyricon and DHG weren’t the only Norwegian black metal bands experimenting with electronic/industrial atmospheres or trying to push the genre forward (see also: Mayhem’s largely misunderstood Grand Declaration of War), but these three albums are inextricably linked on so many levels that it is hard to ignore their collective impact. For me personally, listening to Thorns and Rebel Extravaganza (I didn’t discover DHG until much later) made me realize that black metal didn’t have to be recorded in the middle of the forest on a malfunctioning 4-track machine. These albums threw the true kvlt rulebook out the fucking window and then shot it to pieces with an AK-47 and lit the remains on fire. Although Thorns would fall off the radar and both Satyricon and DHG would never again reach the levels of sheer brilliance they’d attained, all three bands can rest assured that their place amongst the pantheon of black metal’s greatest innovators will forever remain secure thanks to these albums.
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Postscript:
Don’t bother going to the Moonfog records website, as it hasn’t been updated since May of 2007. However, if you do venture over there, you can see pictures of a sold out Thorns t-shirt that I would kill for under the mailorder section.
Last I heard, Snorre Ruch was creating ambient soundscapes for art installations as Thorns LTD. However, the band’s page on Shirts & Destroy claims that he is working on a new Thorns album w/ a re-tooled lineup. Here’s to hoping.
I’ve made much ado lately about what is and isn’t black metal. Going back and listening to Thorns, Rebel Extravaganza and 666 International in nearly constant rotation has reminded me of what black metal is really all about. Black metal is ultimately all about freedom. The only rule is that there are no rules.
THKD 