THE SLOW DEATH - Siege review

 

THE SLOW DEATH - Siege 

Transcending Obscurity Records

What we have here true believers in the realm of death doom is an Australian super group of sorts. A bunch of these musicians play in or have played in bands I'm quite familiar with. For example there's drummer Yonn McLaughlin who's in NAZXUL and PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS. One of their vocalists (she also does keyboards), Mandy Andresen, was in MURKRAT. I was a huge fan of her vocal style back in 2008 when their self titled debut came out. Now I know where she went.

So when I said that Mandy Andresen is one of this band's vocalists then you figured out the obvious. Mandy sings the clean vocals and their male vocalist, Gamaliel, does the growls. But hey it's death doom with Mandy adding some airy keyboard melody which carries along the rhythms as a backdrop. The heavy handed guitars are the staple throughout. Add to that a suffocating atmosphere which is to a point haunting as well as dream inducing. 

Trust me on that one, I had my eyes closed during the song "Pestilence" and I saw trails of Hell behind my eyelids. I guess the safe bet here is that if you're into MOURNFUL CONGREGATION, which this band's guitarist Stuart Prickett use to perform with, then you'll like this. Siege is four songs spanning over an hour's time. But every second I hear Mandy Andresen vocals is worth it. 

https://tometal.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://theslowdeathband.bandcamp.com/album/siege-atmospheric-death-doom-metal

NAZXUL – Irkalla review

 

NAZXUL – Irkalla

Seance Records

Well I have a lot to say about this Australian black metal band but I'll try to condense it all. And "condense" will be a reoccurring theme here. I got into NAZXUL quite a few years ago. Basically I got their Iconoclast full length from 2009. I liked it enough to go back and get their debut Totem which came out in 1995. So yeah there's a pattern being a long stint between releases. So this new one is over a decade from their last one. 

Now it's not that the members of NAZXUL need all of that time to write and record an album. Basically their band members are involved in a whole bunch of other projects / acts. I'm into one of those acts called PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS who create great black metal as well as being also on the Seance Records label. 

Now when I first originally checked this album out a while back I pushed it aside. Later on I gave it another chance. Then listened to their older stuff to compare. And here I am today. Listening to this is a bummer. Irkalla is basically a one song album that lasts for thirty plus minutes but is cut into four parts. Sound-wise it's like a blackened symphony of the macabre. 

Musically this one has a wall of symphonic black metal sound which is cool for a while but never really breaks stride except for a stop and repeat moment. This really runs throughout the album except for "Inferno" which is a good three and a half minute cut reminiscent of their past efforts. The vocals are held in the back of the cave whether they're sung or whispered. There's plenty of that epic echo atmospheric style being played as well. 

All in all as anyone who's noticed on this blog I don't want to be cruel to the artists who produce this music. To me it's average from what this band has done before. I mean it has it's merits if you want to hear symphonic blackened noise for a background to your daily chores. I mean I do have laundry to put away but this didn't even inspire me to do that. But hey great album cover.

http://www.seancerecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://seancerecords.bandcamp.com/album/irkalla