«Cavern Apothecary»
(Anthropic Records)
There's a hallucinatory aura emanating from the forty minutes of «Cavern Apothecary», as if Nachtmystium's misanthropy got overlaid with YOB's psychedelia not far from a bonfire lit by a less pine-scented, more damp version of Wolves In The Throne Room. Hivelords touch plenty of bases here, transitioning seamlessly between psychedelic doom, sludge and occasionally some tremolo-picked black metal on acid, with the longest cut «The Growing Overwhelm» being the highlight and displaying all their mighty through its 11-minute duration. Deliberately eschewing any type of rules or structure in favor of hypnotic atmospherics, Hivelords have grown from the rather amorphous first two EPs into something altogether more malevolent and abominable throughout, aided by the borderline despair ever present on Kevin North's reverb-drenched vocals. There may not be a lot of replay potential on such an unstructured, hook-impaired effort, yet «Cavern Apothecary» does the blackened sludge/doom thing very well and hints at even better works to come. [PA]
MALTHUSIAN
«Demo MMXIII»
(Invictus Productions)
While above ground Ireland keeps struggling to come out of recession, something very dark must be lurking under its green pastures. Inspired by the theme of overpopulation outpacing resource production leading society to an ugly collapse, Malthusian unites members of other domestic acts such as (now deceased) Altar Of Plagues, Mourning Beloveth, Wreck Of The Hesperus and On Pain Of Death in order to spawn what guitarist AC describes as a "pernicious, hallucinogenic, black death doom" entity. How further into the pits of hell can you really go would be an appropriate question, though, especially in an era where bands like Ulcerate, Mitochondrion or even Grave Miasma keep pushing the envelope of mouldy, rotten blackened death metal. Boasting an horrifying sense of impending doom from the initial ghastly hiss, «Demo MMXIII» is equally menacing both in the slower sections that bookend it and in the otherworldly, Portal-esque barrage of sound emanated for much of its duration. The thought of Mother Nature taking hold is sometimes idyllic but as far as Malthusian are concerned, it's an unpleasantly ugly and destructive affair. [PA]
(Anthropic Records)
There's a hallucinatory aura emanating from the forty minutes of «Cavern Apothecary», as if Nachtmystium's misanthropy got overlaid with YOB's psychedelia not far from a bonfire lit by a less pine-scented, more damp version of Wolves In The Throne Room. Hivelords touch plenty of bases here, transitioning seamlessly between psychedelic doom, sludge and occasionally some tremolo-picked black metal on acid, with the longest cut «The Growing Overwhelm» being the highlight and displaying all their mighty through its 11-minute duration. Deliberately eschewing any type of rules or structure in favor of hypnotic atmospherics, Hivelords have grown from the rather amorphous first two EPs into something altogether more malevolent and abominable throughout, aided by the borderline despair ever present on Kevin North's reverb-drenched vocals. There may not be a lot of replay potential on such an unstructured, hook-impaired effort, yet «Cavern Apothecary» does the blackened sludge/doom thing very well and hints at even better works to come. [PA]
MALTHUSIAN
«Demo MMXIII»
(Invictus Productions)
No comments:
Post a Comment