Weekly album: Alcest - Kodama

Alcest - Kodama

2016 / Blackgaze, shoegaze, dream pop

1. Kodama

2. Eclosion

3. Je suis d'ailleurs

4. Untouched

5. Oiseaux de proie

6. Onyx

7. Notre sang et nos pensées

tp5170: I was simply delighted when it became clear that Kodama was not going to be a continuation to the band's previous album, Shelter. Not that Shelter was a bad album, but stripping the music entirely of black metal elements was an innovation that didn't really work for me. 

Style wise Kodama instead continues right from where 'Les voyages de l'âme' left it and it works absolutely beautifully. Though, I have to admit that even I was slightly shocked about the lack of surprises on the first spin, but at the same time this was exactly what I was hoping for - a glorious return to the older sound and that's just what Kodama has to offer.

It doesn't really change the formulae of the older albums, but it makes up for the lack of innovation with superior execution. It's the little things here and there that tighten the album as a whole and make Kodama one of the band's more enjoyable releases.

Orostider: Alcest, the dreamy blackgazers of France managed to cause quite an uproar with their previous album 'Shelter' by disregarding the previously present black metal elements. Even though I am not as fond of 'Shelter' as I am of the first three albums, I did enjoy it, but hearing the news about the return of the black metal elements made me happy. Spinning 'Kodama' for the first time felt quite anxious due to my high expectations.

'Shelter' leaned more towards the dream pop and shoegaze sides of Alcest and many feared that the cold shrieks of Neige were long lost. The first track is once again free of the shrieks as seems to be the pattern. 'Souveniers d'un Autre Monde' lacked the shrieks completely, but both 'Écailles de Lune' and 'Les Voyages De L'Âme' started to have shrieks after the first song. Not sure if this is intentional, but it seems to work quite well. The vocals in general are just an instrument among the others, but on Alcest's albums the usage of vocals as another instrument seems to be distinct. This is not an awful thing at all in my opinion, because Neige's vocals, both clean and harsh, are top quality as usual. 

The rest of the album doesn't really surprise me, which actually was sort of a disappointment. 'Shelter' was enjoyable due to its freshness among Alcest's discography and I hoped for something unexpected from 'Kodama.' Black metal influenced shoegaze and dream pop was what Alcest did in the past and now they have returned to it. Once again, this is not a bad thing, but 'Kodama' fails to convince me that it offers something new. It's a solid album and it can easily be compared to 'Les Voyages De L'Âme' and some people would definitely choose 'Kodama' as the winner. 

Steering clear of making such decisions is what I do, but I can say this: 'Kodama' is a wonderful addition to the discography of Alcest and I will probably spin it several times like I've done with the rest of the albums. Despite the fact that it is a damn good album, it still could have given something more: something new. I'm also glad that Alcest returned to blackgaze because they seem to know the drill, but I would also be happy if they released another album with different material. 

Favourite track: 'Eclosion'

btcarey: This was my first Alcest album so it was pretty cool to get a feel for the band from a completely outside perspective.  “Kodama” was a pleasant break from my normal listening agenda and I must say the calm, relaxed mood of the album was a nice change. While Alcest is generally classified as blackgaze I really don’t see the similarities with the blackgaze bands I’m familiar with (which is pretty few). “Kodama” is a peaceful, smooth piece of work that many people from an even non-metal background could really dig. This being said, there are a few moments where you can recognize Alcest’s alleged black metal roots. Screeched vocals occasionally seep into the music but are done with such a subtle grace that it feels completely natural in this tranquil atmosphere. With a light drum mix and plenty of echo the album is a hypnotizing piece that can make for some excellent background music on a calm night.

Favorite Track: “Eclosion”

Weekly album: Kalmankantaja - Waldeinsamkeit

Kalmankantaja - Waldeinsamkeit

2016 / Atmospheric black metal, black metal

1. Hautamaa

2. Maailmankaski

3. Kalman kivinen kohtu

4. Vaeltaja

5. Waldeinsamkeit

btcarey:  I just recently found out about Kalmankantaja when I was checking if Wyrd (one of my Finnish favorites) had released anything recently. To my surprise, I came across a split from a couple months ago that I had completely missed. Kalmankantaja did an excellent job on it and I figured if the guys from Wyrd thought highly enough of the band to do a split release, then they must be worth checking out. As I dug a bit deeper I quickly found out that these guys were powerhouses! Over the course of about 5 years, Kalmankantaja had already released 9 studio albums and a slew of EPs and splits. As they say, “quantity isn’t necessarily quality” but in Kalmankantaja’s case I am thoroughly impressed by what I’ve heard.

“Waldeinsamkeit” has stood out to me the most so far and since it’s one of their more recent releases (early 2016, already a full length album, EP, and split old) I figured it would be a good choice to talk about. First off the band delves deeply into the atmospheric side of black metal. The guitar parts are mostly repetitive tremolo riffs (with plenty of echo), but do a good job of providing nice melodies to accompany the raspy vocals. One of my favorite aspects of the instrumentation was the synth. Mostly composed of two tones, one of which, very thin and bright, reminding me of wind chimes on a blustery fall day. The other tone was a much more ghostly, dark, background noise that just enveloped the music. Together, these two phrasings made an incredibly vivid atmosphere.

I would easily recommend Kalmankantaja to any fan of atmospheric or even pagan black metal. Fans of bands like Wyrd or Urfaust should also check these guys out.

Favorite Tracks: “Vaeltaja”, “Kalman Kivinen Kohtu”

Orostider: Kalmankantaja wasn't familiar to me even by their name before they were added to Steelfest 2017 line-up. While browsing through their Metallum page, I noticed their tendency to do splits quite frequently and it isn't common to release more than one album in a year so I had to dig into their info a bit more. 'Waldeinsamkeit' is the first Kalmankantaja album released in 2016 and they've already released another one this year. In 2014 Kalmankantaja released four albums which is a lot. This made me think of a chance that they are compensating quality with quantity, but we'll see about it. 

Kalmankantaja's black metal leans towards the more atmospheric and moody side of the scene. The positive side is that they are executing their style quite well and the quantity compensation I feared is inaudible. The problem is, however, the lack of creativity. The album itself is quite decent slab of black metal and there isn't really enough atmospheric black metal written in Finnish, but the music itself doesn't stand out from the rest of the scene. It might be just me, but in my opinion the amount of mediocre black metal has been growing a lot past ten years and it's really hard for a black metal band to offer anything new. So the imperfections of Kalmankantaja aren't actually theirs only, but the whole scene's.

The songs follow the common guidelines of atmospheric black metal. Simple repetitive riffs combined to slow beats and adding echo and reverb to the stack. I'm not saying that the combination is faulty or anything, but I'm hoping for something more even though 'Waldeinsamkeit' could be above average quality overall. The hollow synths used in 'Kalman kivinen kohtu' were a fine addition but I was disappointed of their overall scarcity. The synths are heavily present in the last instrumental track 'Waldeinsamkeit', but the track just proves that the cold and eerie synths should've been used more. 

Even though 'Waldeinsamkeit' doesn't really bring anything new to the table I can easily recommend it to people who are into black metal. The album is probably the most enjoyable if this kind of black metal isn't too familiar already. 

Favourite tracks: 'Kalman kivinen kohtu', 'Waldeinsamkeit'

tp5170: Waldeinsamkeit is what I'd call a pretty competent atmospheric black metal album. It's really entertaining stuff, even if it felt to me like they seriously should have pressed harder with the black metal elements on the instrumental side. It's not a major issue really, but the cleanness of it just hinders my enjoyment a bit.

Another thing about the album is that it gets maybe a bit repetitive at some points, and this is something I thought I'd never say about a atmospheric black metal album because we are probably talking about one if not the most repetitive sub genres of black metal, but they just kept using some of the same tricks throughout the album annoyingly often.

Minor complaints aside, the album sounded surprisingly good and the vocals are absolutely spot on for the album's atmosphere. Even if it's a lot cleaner sounding, Waldeinsamkeit reminds quite bit of Wyrd which is not a bad thing at all in this case.

I don't really know how this compares to other albums of Kalmankantaja, but I wouldn't find it surprising if this was one of their better albums.

Favourite track: 'Hautamaa'

Weekly album: Soul Gutter - Soul Gutter

Soul Gutter - Soul Gutter

2016 / Dark hardcore, Blackened hardcore

1. Idols of Rot

2. Pariah

3. Terra Nullius

4. The Parting

5. Martyr

6. Cloak and Dagger

tp5170: I have to admit that I was slightly skeptical about towards this album because grincore releases just are not typically my thing, but after giving this album some time and thought I think it might actually be an exception.

Soul Gutter is still definitely grindcore in essence, but it's clearly heavily influenced by at least black metal. The resulting sound is pretty grim despite being fast and the atmosphere is tense throughout the whole album. I really dig what they are trying to do here even if the grind influences still sound a bit strange to me, and it actually took me a couple of spins just to get used to those in the first place. The grind stuff aside I think there is some rather interesting influences to be found here.

 Overall I think it's not a bad piece of work and it feels surprisingly honed, and while it's not quite there as far my preferences go as someone who mainly listens to black metal, I already know it's still entertaining enough for me to return to it sooner or later. 

btcarey: Soul Gutter’s debut, self-titled EP is an upside down cross between ferocious death metal and some sinister black metal, with a little bit of Grind-glue to hold it all together. If done properly this mix of genres is my ultimate form of music and Soul Gutter hit the nail on the head. The songwriting on their EP is incredibly mature for band that just released their first EP and feels like they’ve been perfecting their sound for years. This being said, it’s still hard to feel out what the band can really do, since there’s only about 22 minutes of released material to evaluate. Whether the band just got lucky or has serious potential, Soul Gutter has seriously peaked my curiosity and I will be looking forward to their future releases.

Favorite Songs: “Terra Nullius”

Weekly album: Samael - Ceremony of Opposites

Samael - Ceremony of Opposites

1994 / Black metal

1. Black Trip

2. Celebration of the Fourth

3. Son of Earth

4. 'Till We Meet Again

5. Mask of the Death

6. Baphomet's Throne

7. Flagellation

8. Crown

9. To Our Martyrs

10. Ceremony of Opposites

Orostider: Switzerland isn't home to a large black metal scene, but Swiss black metal bands have played a large role in the global black metal scene. Celtic Frost and Hellhammer paved the way during the 80's and while the rest of the European scene focused on the rawer execution of black metal, Samael started to forge something that would be known as their unique sound.

'Worship Him', the first Samael album, was released in 1991 and even though it isn't mentioned often, it actually offers quite a slab of black metal of the era. The next album 'Blood Ritual' had an increased amount of death metal elements and should be seen as blackened death metal album. 'Blood Ritual' may be my lesser favourite of these two, but it had some signs of what was still coming.

'Ceremony of Opposites' is seen as the Samael album where they found their unique industrial black metal sound. Whereas the rest of the scene kept the tempos high, Samael found their calling in massive slower pace songs that feature both black and death metal riffs. The material shouldn't be thought to be even near to bestial black metal, which was the dominant form of blackened death metal in the early 90's. One could think that 'Ceremony of Opposites' is bashed due to its unorthodoxy, but instead of getting dirt thrown on it, it's almost considered a classic. An underrated classic for sure.

The album may not be what second wave black metal purists seek, but that doesn't explain the lack of credit. Vorph's vocals itself separate Samael from other black metal bands of the era. Not to mention their electronic era, which didn't suck and the utter heaviness of their songs. 

I would recommend this album to almost anyone into heavier forms of metal, but I seriously recommend listening to their whole discography to actually realize the way Samael kept refining their sound.

Favourite song: 'Baphomet's Throne'

tp5170: I got originally acquainted with Samael through their later releases and it was only much later when I discovered that they had started out as black metal band. In the end it turned out that that their black metal albums are also kind of great, and it really amazes me how little praise those releases get considering how solid all of those actually are and how early they were released - we are talking about the period when the whole genre barely existed. 

But out of those original three black metal albums, I think it's the 'Ceremony of Opposites' that stands out the most. It offers a straightforward, but polished BM experience (it was after all released in 1994 so this shouldn't really surprise anyone), but what's special about it is that you can find for the first time some of those elements that later became the trademark of the band. If you have ever listened to Samael's later albums you'll know exactly what I am talking about and if you haven't then you probably should. In my eyes 'Ceremony of Opposites' goes highly recommended for every fan of BM or Samael.

Favourite song: 'Crown'

btcarey: Samael’s 1994 release “Ceremony of Opposites” showcases the band’s distinct take on black metal, proving that speed is not essential in making a good album in the genre. While several bands from this era were doing something similar, “Ceremony of Opposites” is probably one of the heaviest examples I’ve ever heard. I expect this is due to the influences from the relatively seasoned death metal genre of that era. When bands from the early black metal scene in Norway, like Darkthrone, were dumping their death metal roots, Samael honed them into a much heavier form of the budding genre (while maintaining a bit of production value as well). This can be seen in many aspects of “Ceremony of Opposites”, whether it’s the very riff-oriented songwriting or the quasi-death metal barked vocals found in albums like God Dethroned’s “Toxic Touch”.

This is a perfect album from people who like a bit heavier black metal album or a bit blacker death metal album. All in all this is a good listen and easily worth a few spins.

Weekly album: Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

2016 / Synthwave

1. Neo Tokyo

2. Weapons for Children

3. Death Squad

4. Femme Fatale (Feat. Highway Superstar)

5. Venger (Feat. Greta Link)

6. Disco Inferno

7. She Moves Like A Knife

8. Sentient (Feat. Hayley Stewart)

9. Diabolus Ex Machina

10. Assault

11.  The Cult of 2112

12. Soult At Zero (Feat. Astronoid)

13. The Uncanny Valley

tp5170: To be frank I have never been the biggest fan of how most Pertubator’s albums are structured with the lengthy song intros and the stuff going on between the tracks. I mean some times those things have their own charm and so on, but at the same time more often those also make the albums a bit annoying to follow by creating unnecessary breaks between the songs. And this brings me to my point – there is none of that on nonsense on ‘The Uncanny Valley’, and I dig it. While this might be pretty trivial thing for most people, I found myself simply enjoying this album probably more than any other Perturbator album on the first spin because of its straightforwardness.

All in all ‘The Uncanny Valley’ represents the same style and quality I would have expected from Perturbator - meaning it’s pretty darn solid, and in my opinion it’s even capable of competing in quality with the best releases of Perturbator.

Orostider: If there currently are certain genres that are hot and gaining ground, synthwave is one of them. The crawl out of underground started to be notable after Kavinsky's Nightcall was featured in the 2011 movie 'Drive.' After 2011 the popularity of the genre has risen quite a bit. Video games and movies, such as Hotline Miami and Kung Fury increased the heat and on top of them Blood Music started to do some serious work in synthwave scene. All of this combined and probably more have caused the 'synthwave boom' to gain it's current form. The brand new 'Stranger Things' series is also helping with the next wave of John Carpenter and 80's action flicks influenced synth madness.

I myself got familiar with synthwave in 2011 through Kavinsky's EPs and I've been following the scene grow ever since. Perturbator got my attention after releasing 'Terror 404' and managed to impress me almost instantly. His early and current releases are quite similar in a way, but there's a clear movement towards darker, heavier sounds and topics. The cheerier 'miami vice' tunes have been present in every release and add variation quite well. 'The Uncanny Valley' is a clear continuum to 'Dangerous Days' both music- and theme-wise.

Perturbator's grim synthwave, or as some people say darkwave, has a distinct sound which separates him from the rest of the seemingly endless sea of synthwave artists. The formulae he has found have turned out to produce two absolutely solid albums, even though their overall sound is terrifyingly similar. If the next Perturbator album has something completely new I'm eternally glad, but I wouldn't mind third album using these patterns. One could think that 80's influenced electro could be monotonous. To some point the statement is correct and considering the absolutely massive amount of artists, it's quite hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Perturbator is definitely the wheat.

'The Uncanny Valley' includes the good old and safe darkwave, but the sudden bass lines and even one whole song with obvious jazz influences result in an album that isn't completely predictable. Certain things are predictable, but that's one of the ideas of the genre. If a listener is already familiar with lighter themed synthwave, the 'heaviness' and gloominess of Perturbator might actually be surprising. But nothing's better than getting caught off guard. 

This album isn't a drastic exception in Perturbator discography, but it shows that he still has unrevealed aces up his sleeve. And even though I sort of dislike synthwave's mainstream attention, I'm glad that the artists receive what they deserve. The thing I'm the most happy with is the fact that synthwave phenomenon has helped close-minded metalheads to realize that there's a lot more than metal music out there. 

If synthwave is still unknown to anyone, my recommendation is to start with either this album or the previous one, 'Darkest Days' and then move on to other albums and artists.

Favourite tracks: 'Disco Inferno', 'She Moves Like A Knife', 'Sentient'

btcarey:  I’ll start off by saying that Synthwave is a completely foreign genre to me. One that I didn’t even know existed until about a year ago, and since, have only heard the name mentioned randomly. For those of you like me, who have little to no concept of what “Sythwave” actually is, I’ll give you the beginner’s tutorial. Synthwave is a form of modern(ish) electronic music that pays homage to retro 80’s soundtracks and culture. The music is usually centered on the synthesizer and, other than the occasional sample, is often purely instrumental. Unlike techno or dubstep, synthwave’s focus isn’t completely based on rhythm or melodies (although they are important); it’s the atmosphere that plays a key role in the music, giving the listener a much more immersive experience.

Now that we all know what synthwave is, we can talk about this week’s album, Perturbator’s “The Uncanny Valley” (which just so happens to be sythwave). In all honestly the album blew me away. I’ve been listening to “The Uncanny Valley” as well as the rest of Perturbator’s discography all week and I love it. This being said, I’m not entirely sure, if it’s Perturbator, more specifically “The Uncanny Valley”, that I love or the synthwave genre in general.

Due to my meager background, I really don’t have anything to compare with (besides the soundtrack to Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon), resulting in the possibility that I’m giving the album more credit than it deserves. Whether or not this is true, “The Uncanny Valley” is a very approach album, and great for noobs like me. Plus, it was apparently good enough to get me hooked, so I think you should all go give it a listen.