Raventale – Morphine Dead Gardens

#FOR FANS OF: Funeral Doom

An Ukrainian band which I have come to adore, these have been mostly focused around the genres of black and doom metal so far. To my delight, they announced their decision to make a Funeral Doom record earlier this year. That word is like honey to me, so I spammed their bandcamp site for something to listen to. In September the links worked, and I was finally able to enjoy the full album. And what an album it is. Where Red Moon Architect excels as to include intricate melodies into their works, Raventale proves with this release that they are just as able. The album kicks off with a deep, saturated growl, together with a slow, throbbing guitar based melody. The vocals are clear, and follows the melody nicely. The overall sound is enchanting, with it’s constant guitar tremolo piercing my ears. There’s no room to breathe during the barrage of growls and drums. After near ten minutes, a small crack appears in the scenery, and the mood lightens a bit. I’m surprised as I look at the time, since I feel I only just sat down with this record. A proof of Astaroth’s masterful songwriting. It takes quite an effort and skill to write music like this, both in terms of lenght and heaviness, but I am overwhelmed by the quality of this release. “Lorn And Deserted” brings back some of my most cherished memories from Colosseum’s legendary Funeral Doom trilogy. Masterful symphonic orchestrations of a journey into darkness and futility. The synth’s piano sound is perfectly matching the guitar, and the deep guttoral vocals serves as an underlining of it all. A recurring movement makes this track in particular stand out as the most memorable one from the album. During the remainer of 'Morphine Dead Gardens', we are treated with epic long riffs, great drumming sections, even more stellar growls and of course, all in a varied sort of way. It’s hard to say exactly what is so good about this album: is it all the miniscule moments where they play around with varied tempo, changes in vocal styles or which intruments gets the spotlight? I’m not sure, I’m just grateful that someone has made such a fantastic album for my listening pleasure. The closing track opens like a lamenting epilogue, with long guitar notes scattered across a backdrop of drums and synth. As it moves foreard, it slowly transforms into another being. A huge creature, roaring with its giant mouth. It is like a mammoth that moves steadily in the direction it pleases. It seems that nothing can stop it on its destructive path through the remainder of the album. I am left with a sense of bittersweet joy; I am awe struck by the experience, and saddened by the fact that it is over. Sure, Funeral Doom is not an easy genre to appreciate, and a lot of artists doesn’t make a good enough effort to keep me interested over the course of an entire album. This is not the case with 'Morphine Dead Gardens', as it it full of all the little surprises and differences that makes the genre something unique. From the spoken words section of “This Forsaken Place”, via the Osmium level riffs on “Morphine Gardens” to the slowly roaring machine in “As An Empty Shell”, everything seems in its right place. A well polished experience, with an amazing sound fidelity. (Ole Grung)

(Ashen Dominion - 2019)
Score: 90

https://raventale.bandcamp.com/album/morphine-dead-gardens

Nuitville - When The Darkness Falls

#PER CHI AMA: Blackgaze, Alcest

Dalla regione di Donetsk, ecco arrivare Tristan Nuit, polistrumentista ucraino, mente ed esecutore dei Nuitville. La band debutta per la Ashen Dominion con un breve EP di tre pezzi, 'When The Darkness Falls', proponendo un interessante concentrato di blackgaze e black atmosferico. Il risultato dell'opening nonchè title-track, ci fa ben sperare, visto che le melodie malinconiche ben si amalgamano con delle voci che si manifestano sia nella classica forma scream che pulita, mostrando più o meno vistosamente, una serie di punti di contatto con i maestri Alcest. Ottime melodie quindi con un imponente tremolo picking a supporto del drumming, con fortissimi sentori shoegaze che ci riconducono appunto alla band di Neige e soci. Se la seconda "Cold Water" si presenta un po' meno fluida a livello vocale, è sempre la componente melodica a farla da padrona e a convincermi della bontà di questo progetto. L'amore viscerale per Neige si manifesta poi con la conclusiva "Recueillement", una cover degli Amesoeurs, una delle band in cui l'artista francese ha militato nella sua carriera. Il brano? Un tributo dovuto al blackgaze dell'ensemble francese, ben eseguito ma non proprio indispensabile. Bene, capito ora di che pasta è fatto Mr. Nuit, gradiremo una prova più consistente per certificare i buoni sentori di questa opera prima. (Francesco Scarci)

(Ashen Dominion - 2019)
Voto: 67

https://ashen-dominion.bandcamp.com/album/nuitville-when-the-darkness-falls

Ulvegr - Vargkult

#FOR FANS OF: Pagan Black Metal, Drudkh

Curt cutting riffs viciously recycle across a range of jagged rocks and sharp turns. Gnarled and angular arboreal veins lie exposed in mimicry of Hate Forest while a flourishing and vibrant canopy slightly alludes to Drudkh's lively influence. Odalv and Helg of Ulvegr elaborate on the ever-imposing and shrilly slashing Ukrainian black metal style with the quintessential string shriek, yet prefer to minimize their impact on the forest by producing a raw and organic sound that attempts not to interfere with the chaos of nature.

Rather than harmoniously flow through each transition in 'Vargkult', Ulvegr directly injects each new guitar into its mix with tight changes that leave no room for error as each twist of the treble forms rugged pointed angles. Opening the album with an avalanche of words carefully selected from a black metal thesaurus, “Rune Ice Frozen Hatred” compliments its syllabic spew with the delirium of viciously recycling reeling stabbing strings deeply into the ear as gnarled and barked vocals attempt to claw through the center. The title of this opening track is the sort of syllabic spurge expected to proliferate in only two places: Japanese comic books and underground black metal, and I don't see any pointy hair on these two black clad brooders. Corpse-painted even into the depths of his protruding beard, one member of Ulvegr looks like a tired alcoholic parody of Gaahl regally posing with his dejected companion as they wonder if they'll be able to afford another can of paint from the local hardware store with the proceeds from this latest album or if they'll need to go Geisha Facial and break out the bird poop bucket again. Common in the raw black metal style, the background of this literal and sonic cascade is maintained by an ever energetic and uncompromising cavalcade of percussive snaps that atonally clang through the song in total disregard to the glorious harmonic charge sweeping overhead. Ulvegr is a band that gives little ground to its audience, instead preferring to arm itself against the mob with an unbreakable sonic assault.

Though bass may be starkly absent in the recording of “Rune Ice Frozen Hatred”, it is an immediate and apparent addition throughout the rest of 'Vargkult' as the rhythm guitar endures a stark change of tone and the fidelity somewhat improves. Simple, brutal, and unrelenting, Ulvegr imparts the grim intensity of tree worshiping, goat sacrificing, tourist luring forest folk that, unlike their banjo playing counterparts across the Ocean, honor an ancient and untamed land awash with generations of blood. While the squealing opening track sears itself into the ear, a more dulcet and clouded sound settles over the land in “Cold Graves Breathing Beast”, filling the atmosphere with snow while sapping the Sun of its heat as the drumming calmly chisels away with the cymbal above a cascade that finds faster footing the further into the ground it penetrates. Searching for pockets of heat in this uninhabitable hellscape, the putridity unearthed in this excavation is impossible to ignore but the shovels must continue their trench work nonetheless. Awesome blast beating in “Death is Our Law” rallies a flagging riff into a second wind that charges forth to litter the field with corpses as another aptly titled song, “Cutting off Your Throat”, elaborates on the midpoint cycling of these frantic, horrified, and simply savory riffs, even going so far as to attempt to harmonize across artillery hellfire with a barely audible additional guitar near the end of the song.

As another major change of recording quality announces the closing track, “We Remember the Blood”, the relentless simplicity grinds mental grist as much as Ulvegr unleashes its furious, hardheaded, and straightforward krieg with such zeal that its potency is not lost to the formulaic reality that “All the Sheep to the Slaughter” may as well be “Rune Ice Frozen Hatred” or “Cutting Off Your Throat” again. Furiously flaying the listener in preparation for an unceremonious execution, Ulvegr elucidates on the irreverence and stripped-down indignity of the mass grave covering 'Vargkult' in the brutal way that shows that the spray of a machine gun makes the same sound no matter who stands in front of it. (Five_Nails)

(Ashen Dominion - 2018)
Score: 75

https://ulvegr.bandcamp.com/album/vargkult