Written by: The Administrator
The Red Beard Wall experience has been--and always will be, I suspect--a deliberately jarring one, even for those who know to expect the immeasurable enthusiasm and bombast on display. This project's modus operandi is one of gloriously violent dynamics: every track is a sonic gladiatorial extravaganza. Unhinged screams, post-hardcore cleans, bouncy percussion, 90's-style alternative aggression, and thicc-ass sludgy stoner riffs meet head-on in the arena. However, rather than unleashing their pugilistic wrath upon each other, they somehow harness their unharness-able collective power, subsequently raining blood and thunder on the audience. Frankly, it's quite the sight to behold. On the appropriately entitled 3, I am happy to report that human wrecking ball (and nicest man alive) Aaron Wall delivers his best performance yet--which says something, if you happen to recall my praise of 2019's The Fight Needs Us All. Much like his prior work, this album succeeds because it capitalizes so well on Aaron's bright and earnest personality.
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Written by: The Administrator
Speaking exclusively from an admittedly shallow well of experience, there are few genres as situational as deathcore. Am I actively engaged in an a high-intensity workout? If so, deathcore is an appropriate soundtrack. Am I doing anything other than slangin' iron and sweating bullets? Deathcore is more than likely buried underneath a veritable mountain of genres I would rather spend my time with. Given this implicit bias, I have spent a lot of time listening to Osiah's latest while strutting around in the cobwebb'd cellar confines of my home gym. To their credit, however, this album has slowly started to escape the typical listening environments. The ability to hold interest outside of the usual arena is a pretty notable quality.
Every Friday, a wagon arrives at the Sleeping Village’s crumbling gates, stuffed to the brim with our sustenance for the following week. Today is the day we must offload all this week's new and noteworthy 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 this week at the Village HQ. We hope you join us in doing so!
As today is Bandcamp Friday, alongside our standard mini-reviews, we've added a bunch o' releases at the bottom that you should check out (and purchase, if yer so inclined.) If ye missed it, check out our merch roundup here! On the docket for today, May 7th, 2021: Dread Maw, Herzschlager, Kataan, Book of Wyrms, Empty Throne, Osiah, Chronic Lethargy, Cainhurst, Eliot Vernon, Desolation Plains, and Nehushtan 
Every Friday, a wagon arrives at the Sleeping Village’s rusted palisade, stuffed to the brim with musical sustenance. Typically, today is the day we must offload this week's new and noteworthy music, but this morning, we're shaking it up a bit by turning our focus on the merch. Fear not: a music portion cometh. As today is Bandcamp Friday, instead of our typical four mini-reviews, here's some cool merch released today that we recommend you check out (and purchase, if yer so inclined!) Music reviews to follow! On the docket for today, May 7th, 2021: Body Void, Almost Honest, Order of the Wolf, Hidden Mothers, and Fuzznaut To assess Gojira's latest offering, two Village-dwellers took up the pen, making for a rare double review 'round these parts. Enjoy! - Ed.  Written by: Izzy
I think for many metalheads, Gojira is a very nostalgic name. I personally got into them very early on in my exploration of extreme metal and they have remained a band I look to very fondly, even if in recent years they’ve departed from their death metal roots and taken a more accessible, straightforward prog/groove/alt metal sound. I still think the material put forth on their previous two excursions, L’Enfant Sauvage and Magma, while not their best, still had their own appeal that kept me returning to them. But there was a palpable feeling that as they stripped away their extreme metal leanings and got softer and included more clean(ish) singing, they’d eventually morph into just another mediocre alt metal band, and I feel this concept has reached its logical conclusion with Fortitude, having scrubbed away almost any remnants of death metal in their sound and leaning harder and harder on creating hooks and choruses rather than the vast odysseys of From Mars to Sirius and The Way of All Flesh. I think we’ve reached a point where I truly can’t find a reason to look forward to a new Gojira album after this. 
Written by: Blackie Skulless
Much like with thrash metal, death metal from South America always seems to have a higher level of scorching energy from it, reflective of the climate. Fossilization is one of those words that just emulates decay and abrasion, especially when you picture it happening to a human. The band’s music certainly holds a candle to that! Hot off the press is their debut EP He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten, a force I absolutely reckon with. Loading itself with five grueling tracks to nearly touch a full-length outing, Fossilization takes the death metal genre to crushing extremes. Guitar passages specialize in tremolos and explosive overlays of fuming leads that cast horrifying images of ash, decay, and shattering bone fractals. Though you’d expect cavernous vocals to go under this, they’re a bit more prominent than I expected. Naturally, things give way to hints of doom and black metal alike, depending where you fall on the disc. 
Written by: The Administrator
Typically, familiarity with a musician's past work will flavor an audience's reception to said musicians new endeavor. However, due to a certain inability on my part to absorb press kits details prior to imbibing, I listened to this absolute beast of an EP many, many times before realizing that the roster is chock full o' recognizable extreme metal talent. Featuring current and former members of *checks notes* Possessed, Abbath, Decrepit Birth, The Kennedy Veil, Black Crown Initiate, and Angerot, this quartet of blackened death thrashers evidently know their way around the ol' block. It shows. Glossolalia is a riveting three-track, and, needless to say, a very strong first outing. It is explosive, tastefully frenetic, and varied enough to avoid being pigeonholed according to the tenets of their prior work. Let's dive in, shall we? 
Written by: Blackie Skulless
Philadelphia based heavy metallers Blazon Rite seem to have struck up a little love with their debut EP last year. Coming in fast with an epic edge lightly painted atop a traditional mass, they’ve cooked up a full-length to follow. Endless Halls Of Golden Totem captures a solid image of this style, boasting lyrics focusing on fantastical and mystical characters with some narrative angles. Though common for this style, Blazon Rite packed some memorable punches. If Savatage were a bit slower overall and used lower-pitched vocals more often, you’d be pretty damn close to what Blazon Rite are all about. Their epic nature casts a pretty spotless atmosphere, dialing in plenty of synthesizers as a side. The writing style is impressive, as they can take this and smoothly mold their swift passages and slower ones together while fitting in solos for the foreground and background. Transitions in general are one of their biggest strengths. 
Written by: Izzy
Black metal since its very inception has excelled in creating metals darkest and coldest soundscapes, influenced as much by the frozen winds of Norway as by the raw and satanic thrash and death metal that preceded it. I think few bands have truly captured that purest essence of chilling lo-fi atmosphere as effectively as Paysage d’Hiver. Wintherr’s music is instantly recognizable even amongst a vast sea of similar raw black metal bands who still follow in the footsteps of the OG Nordic scene. This distinct but simplistic approach of evil, foreboding chords, dark ambient and dungeon synths, and his iconic distorted vocals manages to always deliver something I enjoy.
Today's review is brought to us by Erin Palmer, who you may know as the sole member of both raw black metal outfit Dread Maw and black metal/black n' roll entity Rage of Devils. This is Erin's second guest post here at the Village--a fact for which we are eternally grateful. Enjoy! - Ed.
Guest post written by: Erin Palmer
As I've mentioned before, my favorite bands are the ones that make music where I can't quite conceive of actual people creating it. The best metal, to me, is inhuman, music that seems like a force of nature rather than something played with instruments. Enter Febris Manea. Febris Manea are a raw black metal band from the United States, originally based in California but now residing in Salt Lake City. The artist, known only as D.O., stated in an interview that the project was created to express feelings he couldn't otherwise “without serious social or legal repercussions,” and...yeah, that checks out. This is not black metal for the uninitiated. This is the pure, uncut form of the genre. Their most recent release, Through Pale Opulence Thy Reign is Doomed, begins with an ominous, horror movie-style intro, and then immediately strikes the listener in the face with a howling, swirling wall of guitars and unhinged screams. Throughout the album, the soundscape D.O. creates with his music is so rough and nasty as to almost verge on harsh noise at points. Everything blends together in a riptide of deranged sound that constantly washes over you, threatening to pull you under. |
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We provide thoughtful reviews of music that is heavy, gloomy...and loud enough to wake us from slumber. Written by a highfalutin peasantry!
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