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This year, in an attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we're trying something new and novel around these parts. Namely, we're gonna actually publish the little one-off reviews that were previously (and arbitrarily) deemed too short for publication. In that spirit, here's a mini-review of an EP from 2020.
Written by: Blackie Skulless
Anything that calls itself “black ‘n roll” is going to have my attention immediately. A recent spike in blackened traditional metal that seems to stick with the NWOBHM riffs under a harsh and dark haze offers all sorts of interesting ideas. But New Jersey’s The Gauntlet rides almost entirely on slower, steady riffing that hooks the ear every time. War And Guilt is their sole release (outside of some splits), a twenty-two minute EP from 2020 with solid proportions. Looking at the art work, you would never expect this, as I didn’t. Something that screams generic party thrash turning out to actually be music this compelling caught me off guard. In a way, the entire tape works as one massive song, in the sense that each of the five tracks weave into each other, using the same trick for every execution. Shifts in speed and tone help break this up some. Small licks like the bridge in “Damnation Calls With Haste” certainly add some life before the solo and resolution, and those rumbling drums under the bass in “Old Lord” will shake your insides. War And Guilt displays a pretty impressive ear for gradual layering across the board. The harsh, stagnant shrieks somewhat mask the tweaks in patterns, allowing haunting, Bathory-like rhythms to make their way in. As you can imagine, it does feel a bit same-y at times due to the fact that it’s mostly a one trick pony. Don’t go into this expecting the tag to be too literal, The Gauntlet isn’t going to be Van Halen or Blue Oyster Cult under shrieking vocals. But for what we’re given, it scratches the itch every time. The Gauntlet -War and Guilt was released August 26th, 2020. Find it here!
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Written by: The Voiceless Apparition
Welcome back, my friends! I had stated in my previous post that I would do a review of this album, so here we are. For those who haven't yet read my interview with Mark Tierney, I'll keep this short and simple. This album is twenty eight years in the making. Enchantment were an unfortunately little known name in the early '90s British metal scene, but with the passing of time, things change. My first introduction to this band was about 6 years ago when I bought an original pressing of their debut album Dance the Marble Naked on CD. I was in love with their melodic yet crushing display of death and doom metal, so this is a really special album for me. So as you can see, I was very excited to see that they unexpectedly reformed to work on this album in question. The results are what we will now be hearing with Cold Soul Embrace. The first taste we received of the album was last year's "As Greed as the Eye Beholds," which in turn is the opening track of the album. Almost immediately, you know you are in good hands. Everything about this song is dripping with atmosphere and melancholy: the opening morose melody, the crawling drums, and the gut-wrenching vocals. "A Swanlike Duet" starts out with some beautiful clean guitars before launching into some surprisingly rockin' riffs, but even with that in mind it is still a rather heavy affair. It's catchy and all, but never loses any bite.
Every Friday, a wagon arrives at the Sleeping Village’s crumbling gates, stuffed to the brim with our sustenance. Today is the day we must offload all this new music, and so, in the process, we thought it would be worthwhile to share some of our choice picks from this veritable mass of fresh meat. This is what we’ll be--and have been--listening to today here at the Village HQ. We hope you join us in doing so!
On the docket for today, June 24th, 2022: PAGANIZER, Horned Wolf, Tabahi, and 10,000 Years
Written by: The Administrator
Long before our eventual love for the brutality and extremity of the far reaches of the metalverse, we slumbering scribes were infatuated with the more primordial stuff. A certain affinity for the fuzz-laden riff-centric rock of olde abounds, and so when the opportunity arose to premiere a track from Brooklyn's Grandpa Jack, we leapt at the chance. This power trio is dropping a new album--entitled Grits--on July 29th via Lost Moon Records. Today's song in question, the stellar "Once Bitten," serves as the debut single. It's a killer track, as ye shall soon witness, and certainly whets my appetite for the remainder of the album's bounty. But! Before my self-indulgent chatter inevitably scares you off: please check out "Once Bitten" below! We'll meet ye on the other side. 
Written by: The Administrator
Our council of shadowy and ink-splattered scribes have decreed the following: Wednesdays are for epic progressive opuses. Or at least...that's what this Wednesday is for. Next week may very well deliver something entirely different, but that's to be expected. We're a fickle crew, after all. In any case, today is for epic progressive opuses. Thankfully, Dallas' own Onward We March was kind enough to approach us with a track for premiere, and what a track it is: a 17-minute-and-change odyssey through the necromantic gates of Hades. "Nekromanteion" is a track that bears the weight of its breadth quite well, delivering both in terms of narrative intrigue and gloriously engaging composition. Without further ado, check out "Nekromanteion" below! Sink into its expansive environs. As always, we'll meet ye on the other side.
The Sleeping Village has been around for a few years now, and during that time, a lot of reviews have unceremoniously disappeared into the dark confines of our archives, destined to never see the light of the front page again. Music appreciation, however, is a timeless affair, and in that spirit, here is a review retrieved from the depths.
Written by: The Voiceless Apparition
34 years?! It's crazy to say that Paradise Lost have been a band for 34 years. The masters of doom and melancholy have been going steady ever since their inception with no break-ups or hiatuses in between. After a brief wait, Paradise Lost return with their 16th opus Obsidian, the follow-up to the masterful Medusa. Said album was a slight return to their original death/doom roots, albeit with a modern context...but enough about the past. Obsidian is split into three different and distinct styles. You have the more death/doom-leaning tracks, the more gothic rock/metal-based tracks, and a subtler bridging between the two styles. It feels like a natural progression from the last album, with many of the trademarks we all love and adore about Paradise Lost, but with many twists and turns along the way. Welcome to the world of Obsidian. FRESH MEAT FRIDAY: June 17th, 2022 Feat. Void Witch, Trocar, Valley of the Sun, and Inexorum6/17/2022
Every Friday, a wagon arrives at the Sleeping Village’s crumbling gates, stuffed to the brim with our sustenance. Today is the day we must offload all this new music, and so, in the process, we thought it would be worthwhile to share some of our choice picks from this veritable mass of fresh meat. This is what we’ll be--and have been--listening to today here at the Village HQ. We hope you join us in doing so!
This Friday, Bandcamp is holding their third annual Juneteenth fundraiser, where they donate 100% of their cut of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Win/win! On the docket for today, June 17th, 2022: Void Witch, Trocar, Valley of the Sun, and Inexorum
Written by: The Voiceless Apparition
Death, doom, and sorrow. The three words that best describe the death/doom metal powerhouse known as Temple of Void. For those of you who don't know who Temple of Void are, I'd highly suggest you rectify that because you won't be disappointed. Over the span of 9 years, this stellar band has been pushing the boundaries of death/doom, blending in elements of post rock, shoegaze, and much more into their sound. Their previous album The World that Was was viewed by many as a pinnacle of modern death/doom, and I certainly agree. There's a lot of hype and eyes on them, especially after signing to Relapse Records. So let's find out if they've reached new heights, or missed the mark.
This year, in an attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we're trying something new and novel around these parts. Namely, we're gonna actually publish the little one-off reviews that were previously (and arbitrarily) deemed too short for publication. In that spirit, here's a mini-review of an excellent cover track.
Written by: The Administrator
Holy shit, I really dropped the ball on this one. The mighty Mothman and the Thunderbirds releases a certifiably sick cover track and I don't react for, like, nine months? Better late than never, I suppose, but this is pretty embarrassing. In any case. While I'm not a huge CKY fan per se, no one amongst us can deny the sheer catchiness of their debut single. Indeed, "96 Quite Bitter Beings" contains, somewhat devilishly, one of the singlemost infectious riffs of all time. Stack it up against any of the common suspects, I don't give a damn. Listen to the OG intro once and it is stuck in your head for the better part of a decade, bopping around with wild and persistent abandon. Rather than letting a righteous earworm die, Alex Parkinson takes that very same riff and dives right in, unleashing it once more in all its jubilant glory. This track has bounce and pep, and with production in the capable hands of Egor Lappo, the guitar is crisp as ever-living fuck. From a production standpoint, this sounds significantly more polished than the (excellent) Into the Hollow. Despite my affection for the band's sludgy origins, I love how fresh and clean this cover sounds on the first half, where it does not deviate particularly far from the original track. That said, the back end quickly floods over into increasingly metallic environs, with rolling drums and a general stompiness that utterly craters CKY's milder vibes across the bridge. Regardless of whether or not you hold "96 Quite Bitter Beings" in the the same nostalgic shrine dedicated to MTV/Pro Skater aesthetic of the very early aughts, this cover is worth your while. Mothman and the Thunderbirds has improved on the original solely by benefit of intriguing and climatic composition, and the stellar musicianship and production don't hurt either. As an homage and a reinvention, it is excellent. Check it out here! Mothman and the Thunderbirds - 96 Quite Bitter Beings was released Sept. 28th, 2021
This year, in an attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we're trying something new and novel around these parts. Namely, we're gonna actually publish the little one-off reviews that were previously (and arbitrarily) deemed too short for publication. In that spirit, here's a mini-review of a sweet, sweet bandcamp find.
Written by: The Administrator
People are always rattling on about the sophistication and the benefits of Spotify's discoverability algorithms, but I'm gonna be real for a second: if you are willing to put on a good pair of boots and go wading through bandcamp genres tags, you're inevitably gonna find some damn good shit. Case in point: today's album in question. I wanted some dirty stoner metal to sooth my troubled soul, and after a brief period of sifting, Electric Cult's appropriately entitled Fuzzeremony fell into my waiting arms. Sometimes it's simply that easy. On their second outing, Mexico's Electric Cult nail a delightful balance between scuzzy and fuzzy. Fuzzeremony consists of three tracks proper and a atmospheric intro, and across the album's swampy expanse, sasquatchian riffs and alternately melodramatic clean and throaty vocals plod a treacherous path through the murky mire. The doomy riffage is simple but catchy as all hell, and the rhythm section holds it down with a solid (and occasionally raucous) presence. The vocal refrains are relentlessly earwormy--take the wonderful chorus of standout track "Warlocks Of The Mangrove," which lends significant credence to the track's 6:46 runtime. The same catchy quality can be applied to closer "Rotting Beneath The Sun," which remarkably feels far shorter than its sizable girth might suggest. While the aforementioned tracks are highly memorable and maintain an energetic sense of momentum, "Temple Of The Crow" is slightly less successful in this regard. The riffs are hefty and the vocals aren't too shabby either, but the number of ideas presented simply aren't enough to carry the track for the entire length without distractions taking root. That said, the sheer quality of the bookending tracks lends Fuzzeremony, as a whole, a high degree of replayability. I've had this thing on repeat for the better part of two hours, and at this rate it has sufficiently oozed its way into my brain. In short? This particular bandcamp foray has been quite the success--Electric Cult hath been uncovered, and their prior EPs await my immediate attention. If you're in the mood for some stoner doom, you could certainly worship at a lesser altar. Electric Cult - Fuzzeremony was released April 30th, 2022 via The Swamp Records, Satan Monolithic Records, and Ruidoteka Records |
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