The moment you begin listening to an Omega Massif album, there’s not a heavier, darker moment occurring anywhere else in the world; it was true of their 2006 debut EP Kalt, it was true of their 2007 debut full-length Geisterstadt, and now the same can be said for their latest album, Karpatia. Knowing the kind of power Omega Massif is capable of harnessing, I feared putting the headphones anywhere near their desired mark lest my skull succumb to the inevitable decibel rape and cave in upon first riff impact. To say the German instrumental band is crushing is an understatement. Many will label ‘em drone sludge, post-metal, or atmospheric doom, but each of those are just rusty links in the thick chain tied to the ten ton anchor that is their sound, which rests in the deepest part of the ocean’s black crevices, a place still and breathless, a place untouched by humanity. Whether drenched in feedback, antagonizing you with its gentler, swelling passages, or unleashing a resounding and brutal assault of monolithic proportions, Karpatia is stone cold terror. You might want to think about finding a happy place with strong walls before you drop the needle on this one, man.
A babbling brook; chirping birds; the slow, mournful lament of a cello. Thus, Agalloch’s latest wintry tour is revealed to us, drawn in running watercolours of black and grey. Marrow of the Spirit, just the band’s fourth full-length in 13 years and first since 2006′s Ashes Against the Grain, thrives on a cold and desolate atmosphere the band has come to make distinctly their own through a hybrid of progressive folk and black metal, meaning songs like “Into the Painted Grey,” “The Watcher’s Monolith,” and “Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires” sound like wolves carefully devouring frost-bitten corpses while the album’s grand opus, the 17-and-a-half minute “Black Lake Nidstång” and its closer “To Drown,” swirl around you in whispers of smoke from a pit of dying embers, the former eventually roaring back to life, the latter succumbing to its inevitable extinction. Marrow of the Spirit is incredibly rich and powerful in scope, weaving chilling intricacies with brutal ferocity for a devotedly earthly sound no doubt enhanced by its analog recording. Not just an impressive album by Agalloch standards, but an impressive album by any standards.
Listen to “The Watcher’s Monolith” from Marrow of the Spirit!
As you might expect, France’s Year of No Light sound like they hail from a land of icy repute and not the wine-rich Bordeaux region, what with their penchant for vile, sunless riffs and cold, callous fits of melancholic metal. And what goes on in this dark place where the golden rays of heaven’s fire refuse to shine? Well, terrible things, naturally, which is why the music that emerges from the fog and shadows is as black as a raven’s beak and as haunting as an asylum graveyard. I have no doubt that it takes an immortal kind of effort (or a pact with the Anti-Christ) to conjure up this kind of desolate dirge, which explains why Ausserwelt is just the second full-length release from Year of No Light in their near 10-year career (alongside a demo and a slew of splits).
Omega Massif
Agalloch
Year of No Light