Sigh - Graveward

Artist: Sigh
Album: Graveward
Release date: April 13, 2015
Label: Candlelight Records
Genre: Weird-ass black metal. Wouldn't call it avant-garde though.








WHAT THIS IS ABOUT
Sigh are a Japanese band. And you've got to love the way Japanese musicians put three or four completely unrelated Western styles in a giant blender and drink the result with glee in their eyes. Formally they do play black metal, but they make heavy use of synths and vocoders and they have a saxophonist. The result is surprising - not particularly heavy, with a lot of guitar work, guest vocalists and symphonic ideas thrown here and there. Sigh have this thing where they name their releseas to form the band's name, so this starts with G, the previous one was In Somniphobia and the next one will most likely begin with H (they've done it twice already).

WHAT IT DOES RIGHT
If you think Devin Townsend is crazy, wait till you hear The Tombfiller. It's at least as insane as Ziltoid and with three times the stylistic variations. The whole record has a strong symphonic vibe, which combined with the occasional clean vocals (courtesy of Dr. Mikannibal, who as the name suggests is a girl) gives a bit of a Dimmu-Borgir-when-they-were-good vibe. Of course, then you have tracks such as The Molesters of My Soul which flaunts crunching beats in the vein of Meshuggah and vocoder creativity on par with Kanye's (check The Message for another taste of that). Why is there a tzigan violin part in Out of the Grave? I have no clue, but it sounds great. Every keyboard part is amazing and mind-boggling, and the John Zorn-ian sax doesn't hurt either. There's power metal-style guitar work, too.

WHAT IT DOES WRONG
Absolutely nothing. Disagree, and you're a heretic.

VERDICT
One of the most entertaining releases of the year. There's about a thousand different things going on at the same time, and it still sounds like black metal. There is no excuse for not listening to this album. Go!

Voivotus - Oma Randa

Artist: Voivotus
Album: Oma Randa
Release date: April 12, 2015
Label: Independent
Genre: Blackgaze with a noise twist









WHAT THIS IS ABOUT
One man project from Russia. We seem to be getting a lot of these lately. Second album - no idea how the first one was, but it's on bandcamp, so check it out. Obviously unsigned. The coolest thing, I feel, is that Vladimir Klimov-Lehtinen was born and lives in Karelia (on the border between Russia and Finland, north of St. Petersburg), and he chose to make music in Karelian. Always nice to have some glocalization.

WHAT IT DOES RIGHT
It's one of the rarest instances of a balanced mix between shoegazing and black metal, which is a feat in itself; but then Voivotus goes out of his way to throw in a ton of noise sections, with the same creative care of a sampling artist. He's got imagination and he's bold enough to put it into practice. Most of the times he goes for strident rather than oversaturated - definitely refreshing. It's not mind-numbingly savage as the best noise music on the market, because it's compensated by the aforementioned atmospheric touches. A great overall balance between three different styles with a lot to offer, essentially. Nägimižih is the one track where everything blends together perfectly, while Pädemätöi GiperPoreja does noise well and Tähtiyö is a nice piece of black metal.

WHAT IT DOES WRONG
If you ask me, it doesn't make much sense to have three songs under three minutes and one over twentytwo, but power to the artist. That song, Vuottamini Vei Aikua, is the only moment where you can feel that the intention did not materialize into coherent music. You basically nod along and say "yeah, I get it, it's supposed to be this and that", but it's just not there.
Aside from that, the only real drawback to this album is the sound: it's not deep nor clear enough to effectively deliver the chaos at the center of Voivodus' blend of styles. Studio issues can usually be worked out with the right changes, so nothing to worry about.

VERDICT
I'd love it if every artist in the atmospheric black metal scene started doing the same thing as Voivotus does. There's a sense of innate bravery in this album, a feeling that Voivodus comes from a lot of different inspirations which somehow work together. This kind of experimental approach is what the scene desperately needs right now.

Violet Cold - Desperate Dreams

Artist: Violet Cold
Album: Desperate Dreams
Release date: April 11, 2015
Label: Independent
Genre: Atmospheric black metal









WHAT THIS IS ABOUT
One-man project from Azerbaijan. Name's Emin Guliyev. He's got wifi, we've got wifi, he makes music, we can listen to it. This is Violet Cold's first full-length album, although he released a ton of songs since 2014. Most of them aren't metal, which is by no means a bad thing. With Desperate Dreams he plays atmospheric black metal, unsurprisingly - his previous project, Void, erred only slightly more in favour of depressive black metal.

WHAT IT DOES RIGHT
Emin is eclectic, and you can feel it, particularly in his rhythmic ideas. It's not all blast beats and double strokes, there are electronic influences all over the place, so you can feel some echoes drum'n'bass in quieter sections and a lot of old school house when the tempo slows. I'm a big fan of the way he uses synths with a sharp electronic tune under heavy guitars - it's cool, it's more or less new, it works. The kind of sound Violet Cold excels at is a brand of epic and gloomy black metal, perfect for a laptop listening experience.

WHAT IT DOES WRONG
Guliyev is prone to over-layering: there are many instances where there is something extra needlessly going on in the background. Perhaps it's just me being used to a dryer sound, but I find it distracting. There's also the thing that the black metal factor in the Violet Cold equation is not particularly great. The idea behind the sound is pretty much perfect, and the electronic side is competently executed, it's just not a memorable metal album. What should, ideally, be carrying the songs (the guitar) simply fails to shine.

VERDICT
Still, it's a bit of fresh air. I can only be happy every time a musician takes a risk and tries something this heavy on the contaminations. If Violet Cold wants to choose a road and follow it to the end, then this is it. 95% of metal releases are dull ideas executed with care. This is a good idea with margins for improvement.

Ghost Bath - Moonlover

Artist: Ghost Bath
Title: Moonlover
Release date: April 10, 2015 (or March 13, it depends on where you are)
Label: Northern Silence Productions
Genre: Depressive Black Metal, except these guys seem kinda ok with their lives.







Unofficial stream, I think. If any rights holder says "not cool" I'll remove it. Just, try before you buy, you know? Anyway, you can buy the album HERE.

WHAT THIS IS ABOUT
They're from North Dakota, but claimed to be from China for a while. I'd do that too if I was from North Dakota. South Dakota is best Dakota. Their first album, Funeral, was well received, and they're published by Northern Silence, which is one of the best European (that's globalization, kids) labels specialized in gloomy, doomy, atmospheric black metal. It's a genre best described using $10 words, which I would do if I was writing in my first language (and that's globalization too). If you want to look cool in front of your friends, compare them to Deafheaven.

WHAT IT DOES RIGHT
They do the metal thing better than the atmospheric thing. Every time Ghost Bath make it louder and more intense, Moonlover shines. The Silver Flower Pt. 2 is one of the best recent songs in this genre, because it flows around you with heavy guitars. Likewise, Death and the Maiden does everything right, capturing an intangible feel that is more tormented than depressive. Even if it lacks the pagan feel so deeply rooted in depressive black metal classics, it's an album with its own niche, not afraid of sounding similar to other bands because Ghost Bath are so convinced of their quality that this personality is enough to make their music sound different. These guys have an identity, which is priceless.

WHAT IT DOES WRONG
The intro ties horribly with the first track. It drives me nuts. You want to do a cool intro, that's great, I love it. Make it so it flow right into the next song. Please. On a more serious note, I get it musically but it doesn't get me emotionally. It's well crafted, but it feels a bit empty, like all this crying and lamenting and screaming and shoegazing has no true purpose. Of course, we're not here to debate intentions, and there is no doubt that the results are quite impressive, except for some moments where it sounds like they fell asleep while arpeggio-ing.

VERDICT
I'm a sucker for fake backstories, and I wish they kept that going a little longer. Kinda hard to justify it when even Vice slams you for it, I get it. Right now, though, that aura of mystery is gone, and I can't help but picture four smelly dudes acting all emo in some basement. Which might be your thing, I don't know. Moonlover is a work of craft, more than art, and a damn good one when everything works the way it should. It's perhaps a little too well done for its own good, and it sounds sterile unless it's pushing with full force. The last two tracks are great, so listen to them and rejoice.