ALTARS OF GRIEF - Iris review

ALTARS OF GRIEF - Iris

Hypnotic Dirge Records




So with a name like ALTARS OF GRIEF I was pretty sure what I was getting myself into with this release. Now if that wasn't a total giveaway then there's the song titles for example liker "Isolation", "Desolation", "Voices of Winter", etc. This band is also from Saskatchewan, Canada aka: the Yuke. Years ago I spent two years in Alaska so I know about the extreme cold and cabin fever. The only thing missing here is a bottle of bourbon and a loaded shotgun.


This happens to be the second full length from these depressive doomsters. ALTARS OF GRIEF are a fairly new act but wasted no time in sharing their depression and sadness with the rest of their great nation. They started out in 2013 and self released their debut full length This Shameful Burden a year later. After that they did a split release with a symphonic black metal act. Rumor has it that after listening to ALTARS OF GRIEF's two tracks the other band killed themselves. OK I'm just kidding.


To be honest I'm just a happy person also heartless. I don't get grief and sadness as others do. My friends still talk about the time I cut into a funeral procession on my way to the store on a beer run. Sure I beeped the horn at the slow fuckers. Then when I finally passed them and got side by side with the chauffeur driving the hearse. I gave the guy the finger and sped passed em. It's not like he was going to chase me down. Now despite my cold heartless personality I occasionally enjoy some depressive doom. Holy shit I write about various genres of metal.


Which brings me to the specific point. The sub genre of depressive doom is a fairly easy sound to convey on listeners. I won't name drop but seriously there are a few decent artists who do a great job at it. Mainly because they make it interesting. And that's what ALTARS OF GRIEF do a hundred fold. This release is a non stop agony of desperation which you hold onto with a death grip till it ends.


They pulse the melodic clean vocals with an equal amount of harsh painfully affirmation of aggro screams. The song signatures are a mixed bag of aggressive riff based doom, melodic moments of atmospheric contemplation and finally blackened filth ridden harshness. In the eternal end ALTARS OF GRIEF leave you wanting more. 



https://www.hypnoticdirgerecords.com/

https://altarsofgrief.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/altarsofgrief/timeline

OBITUS – Slaves Of The Vast Machine review

OBITUS – Slaves Of The Vast Machine

Hypnotic Dirge Records




So who's up for a forty five minute one song black metal album? Oh you the hipster dude in the back of the room with the beard and glasses? OK but before I get into this album there's more to the story. First off OBITUS are a two piece act from Sweden. The band consists of Anders Ahlback who performs all the instruments and Johan Huldtgren who does vocals. This is my first time hearing them which is not a negative on either of our parts. But anyways the band has been around since 2000 but their releases have been few and far between. This is their second full length and it's an adventurous one.


Slaves Of The Vast Machine is definitely a grandiose undertaking by OBITUS and that's just by viewing their previous output which really doesn't show a progression to this point in their career. I mean after listening to this a few times, which has taken up plenty of my time this week, I come away with thinking "What if MARDUK did a one song album?" When this band is in total brutal mode, add to that chaotic as well, they do remind me of their fellow blackened countrymen which I do like. 


Now of course there are tempo changes within the forty five minute time that give the listener a quick break. I look upon those moments as bastions of rhythmic dirge, kinda like BERGRAVEN. But frankly I like when the assault carries onward and the harsh vocals are sung in a way that consumes you. Slaves of the Vast Machine is a black metal opus and probably the epitome of greatness when it comes to Swedish black metal in 2017.


https://www.hypnoticdirgerecords.com/

https://hypnoticdirgerecords.bandcamp.com/album/slaves-of-the-vast-machine