Portland’s Aldebaran have had quite the prolific career thus far, in what has been a fairly short amount of time. Having formed in 2004 Aldebaran have consistently produced some of the most intoxicating and downtrodden funeral death doom this side of diSEMBOWELMENT and Asunder, yet they have only released one full length in their time together. Besides the many splits the band have to their name and a lauded EP from last year (Buried Beneath Aeons), Aldebaran now stand on the precipice of a new release. Embracing The Lightless Depths is wondrously majestic and the two twenty five minute plus tracks committed to this record are surrounded by three graceful passages which envelope the album in a sheen of mystical splendour.

Sweet and gently struck notes usher the melancholic dawn of Embracing The Lightless Depths, slowly giving way to distorted and electricity-laden strikes of guitar. “Occultation of Hali’s Gates” hits deeply with an embedded gloom, lacing the record with a knowledge of the deep-seated despair to come. Pouring into “Forever In The Dream Of Death” seamlessly, Aldebaran waste no time in pulling the atmosphere through shades of dusk and misery. Measured and processional beats cut the air, thick with dense and deliberate funereal tones. The almost fathomless vocal hits with crashing precision, striking in the hollows of the soul and each instrumental element is given space to coil and surround with a monolithic power. Moments of calm permeate the twilight offsetting the moving and commanding builds to exaltation. Rolling drum beats pound with an almost militaristic essence before sliding back to make room for husky breaths of doom.

Aldebaran take flashes of peaceful magnificence and counter them with depth and a sensation of hypnotic beauty. Horror lies veiled in echoing caverns of bass and subterranean roars and shadowy whispers. Embracing The Lightless Depths is a journey into the abyssal yawning pits of a vast universe. Aldebaran’s affecting and altogether destructive force is consistently compelling; the extended running time of each track holds natural progression and sublimely concealed chaos bleeds through the snarls of sludge and dirt during “Sentinel Of A Sunless Abyss.” Segueing into the final instrumental piece, “Occultation Of Dim Carcosa,” Embracing The Lightless Depths closes on a droning and soft pulse. Reminiscent of the opening work, the tender breeze of grief works through the tranquility opposing the depressive strength of the two colossal tracks.

In a cosmic sense, Aldebaran is one of the brightest stars in the known sky. Here the aptly named band burns through celestial clouds of devastation and ruin, seizing each lamentable instant and crushing with a potent authority.

Embrace the lightless depths.

Pre-order from Profound Lore Records.

Occasionally a band will come along that’s just too darn difficult to categorise. Is it thrash? Is it hardcore? Is it punk? Does it even count if there’s no bass? Who the heck cares when it’s this damn fun.

The BDDM call the south of London home and are two dudes out to have a good time – making music together along the way. It’s kinda cute in a BFF bromance kinda way. Enjoying delights such as copious amounts of beer, trashy 80′s cinema and being as loud as humanly possible, The BDDM are in the process of recording their debut album. Having self released a demo (which you can stream/download via SoundCloud) called Badd Wyzyrdz last year, the duo are currently being ridiculous via the format of video which you can check out below. Huzzah!

If you wanna find out more, click this link to head on over to the Facebook page where you can find pictures and even new tracks. One’s called “Fuckerpunch.” That’s right. Now you have no reason not to click.

Hitman:

Gliding into conscious minds with 2010’s four track demo The Disruption Writ, Ides of Gemini have added to the core of the band – Sera Timms (bass/vocals) and J.Bennett (guitar/backing vocals) – by introducing drummer Kelly Johnston to provide a somewhat martial tone to proceedings. Reworking the tracks found on the aforementioned cassette, the band has turned the processed beats of old into a fully rounded and slyly dangerous entity with debut full length Constantinople.

Using moments of peace to imbue Constantinople with an undercurrent of doom, Ides of Gemini use shades of light and dark to construct a full length of blissful and dreamy folk-tinged occult rock. Sera Timms breathes life into Constantinople, a record that is reminiscent of The Devil’s Blood and Worm Ouroborus in its vocal style, her voice carrying waves of destruction in the depths and judgment in the highs. “Slain in Spirit” and the military beat that sits within slithers with a mystical essence, the band utilsing the space in the track to conjure a terrific trance-like state whilst burning with a seductive power.

Sonically minimal, Constantinople is dynamic in its use of gentle progression and the occasionally massive crunching guitar tone adds a hidden weight to the funeralistic shades evoked by this three-piece. Soft rolling beats permeate “One to Oneness” whilst Timms voice is laced with a power to invoke from beyond this reality, menacing in a sweetly delicate manner. Dirty bass lines spill on “Reaping Golden,” sauntering through the initial stages of the track before giving way to the martial kicks of the drum and flashes of fragmented guitar lines. The simple mix of instruments and voice gives Ides of Gemini a strangely apocalyptic tone. The end of the known world will not come in crashes of sound and fury but with whispers of unnerving strength. Constantinople is an album of sighs and esoteric nightmares, lulling with enigmatic subtleties and supernatural wonder.

Ides of Gemini are deadly; allow yourself to be swept along in the swells of euphoric disaster that flow from this haunting trio.

Constantinople is released May 29th on Neurot Recordings.

Wreck and Reference forged a unique sound on last years Black Cassette, a release that deconstructed the expectations of electronic music and infused the noise-heavy palette with touches of doom progression and an aura of distress. The processed beats of Black Cassette weave into No Youth, coiling and swirling around new ideas and forms and falling on those familiar electronic flourishes. Wreck and Reference push the boundaries of genre definition even further with this record, incorporating varying vocal approaches, abstract language and an ever-present level of intense despondency.

Dealing with opposing forces, No Youth bursts with energy and languid textures almost simultaneously. Spoken words pieces interact with the countering noises beneath them. “Stage Collapse” and “Edifice of Silt” are gently articulated missives sitting over flares of programmed drum lines, the words seeping into the cracks left by the sadness ravaged “Nausea,” the black metal howls of “The Solstitial,” or “Cannot” and it’s deft fusion of two styles.

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Spilling forth a droning electronic atmosphere, Kentucky resident (for this is the project of one man, Crow) Wheels Within Wheels twist and push the doom of “Your Body, Your Blood” deep into the subconscious. Here one twenty minute track is contributed to this split with Merkaba (another Kentucky based band) which is now available for pre-order from Flenser Records on a very lovingly crafted cassette. It’s somewhat of a family affair, the layout being done by Austin Lunn of Panopticon (and a colleague of Crow from ritualistic doom band Seidr) and the close knit feeling of the Kentucky scene is vastly apparent.

The Wheels Within Wheels side of this split, “Your Body, Your Blood” comes in waves of distinction. Beginning with a fuzzed out and dreamy tone, a melancholic veil is draped over the initial steps of the track and an almost funereal pace sits hidden behind in the drum strikes and cymbal crashes. Shimmering guitar sweeps in giving a touch of sadness and gentle sorrow before it…..stops. Unnerving and deeply resonant electronic buzzing cuts in and the track transforms into a haunting noise driven piece. Crow experiments with textures and layers of creeping gloom and whilst it’s not as downright terrifying as say, Gnaw Their Tongues or T.O.M.B. the absolute inhuman nature of what is heard is enough to fuel nightmares. Tripped out screams rip through the dusk building and building until the burst into the next section. Wheels Within Wheels is a darkly ambient project, multiple influences and sounds stake their claim throughout this one track alone and this final part picks up where the beginning left off. Taking the despondency of the first minutes and adding lo-fi vocals giving an aura of longing and loss, Crow has produced a sound driven narrative with “Your Body, Your Blood.” It’s for no-one to assume what this story could be, but the intensity of the middle section offset by the sweetness of the start and the slowcore fuzz of the end is telling in itself. Extraordinary.
Wanna know more about it? Hit the jump.
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Having been off the musical radar since 2009’s What We All Come To Need, Chicago’s Pelican burst back into hearts with the grace filled Ataraxia/Taraxis. This four track EP flits between massively weighty bass-heavy tones and sweet uplifting progressions, the instrumental four-piece delving into empty landscapes and hopeful desire. Produced by Sanford Parker (currently playing with Minsk and Twilight amongst many others, as well as having a list of producing credits as long as your arm), Ataraxia/Taraxis is a sublime addition to what has been a fairly prolific career for a band formed only ten or so years ago.

Beginning the EP with the truly momentous “Ataraxia,” Bryan Herweg’s bass fuzzes in and out of space created by a lightly picked acoustic guitar line. A wall of feedback is thrown up gradually, little touches of electronic splendor echoing behind the deft guitar work of Trevor de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec. It’s a tad unsettling at first, the strokes conjuring a truly wicked tone. And then we are launched almost immediately into “Lathe Biosas.” Pelican create distinct sections – intriguingly heavy moments consumed with a huge bass sound, stabbing guitar strikes giving an angular feel to proceedings and Larry Herweg’s crashing cymbals filtering through the tides of aural pleasure.

“Parasite Colony” kicks with a deep and doomy atmosphere, that absolutely huge bass seeping through and driving the feeling of utter desolation evoked by the minimal and deserted cover art. Crunching and pulsing with sound this track is the storm before “Taraxis,” the closing track. Almost country-like in it’s swagger the acoustic guitar rears again, seemingly a little more restrained this time around but no less powerful in the emotions rendered. Building to a sludge-filled and ultimately crushing crescendo, electronic guitar forges the way for the final minute or so before crashing out suddenly into silence.

Pelican have created a work of contrast with Ataraxia/Taraxis, they are a band able to dance with delicate structures yet envelope with pure sound. Quite stunning indeed.

The incubation period of Germ has been one of many, many years. First conceived by sole member Tim Yatras way back in 2003, time and space and a number of incredibly important bands (Austere, Woods of Desolation and Grey Waters amongst the acts Tim has been a part of) construed to leave Germ as naught but a dream – a wish, as it were. Music attributed to Germ appeared in the long years between the inception of the project and the fully realised debut album we hear today, Wish and it’s perfectly acceptable to say that this maddening wait was completely worth it

Wish is a terrifically intriguing record, blending genres and breaking rules with hardly a glance back at the devastation left in it’s wake. The core of the record is black metal and any follower of the career of Tim Yatras will immediately pick up on the distinct sounds and nuances found within this album. Yet Wish is so much more than that; it’s a rock album, a dance record, a sorrow tinged masterpiece – and when those electronic beats kick there’s a huge sense of wonder and marvel. Germ is bringing black metal into a whole new realm, yet Yatras is somehow still keeping to the ideas and aesthetics that audiences can grasp hold of and relate to. Those blinding blasts on the drum kit and the quite fantastical nature of the shrieking vocal used is enough to ground Wish in the genre of harshness and despair. But…there’s those electro-beats…..

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Having been making music together for a decade, Canadian duo Mares of Thrace – Stef MacKichan (a jazz-trained drummer) and Thérèse Lanz (baritone guitar, vocals, electonics) – are constantly evolving their sound and found themselves with significantly less members each time a new project was forged. It’s at this point, with second full length release The Pilgrimage, that Mares of Thrace find themselves with a record of true intensity, blinding in it’s fury and depth.

With the only instruments being drum, that deep and dirty baritone guitar and Lanz’s frenzy laden vocal, Mares of Thrace have an dynamic sound on their hands. Buzzing waves cut through the heavy atmosphere, punctuating these ten tracks with a sludgy undercurrent of doom.

A darkly rich tone permeates opening track “Act 1: David Glimpses Bathsheba,” courtesy of that against the grain use of baritone guitar. You’ll find no bass here; the only stringed instrument is used to incredible effect and the sound is full, stretching into the unfathomable abyss of depth created by this two piece and their assault on the senses.

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Career Suicide is the upcoming full length from grind as fuck outfit Wageslave. Available on vinyl only via mystery label Cult of Melancholia later this year, Wageslave have put two pre-production tracks up on their bandcamp page for your consumption.

Previously having released a self-titled EP back in 2010, the band have been a little quiet of late – but that’s all to change if these two tracks are anything to go by. Full of contempt, spite and pure vitriol, Career Suicide looks to be extremely and intensely relevant to the current state of the world. It’s terrifying in the outright ferocity found within the words spat forth by vocalist Justin Moore, punishing with decrees of venom and hate.

Pulsing with malevolence, Wageslave hammer their diatribe into minds with supreme blasts and technical guitar work. Riffs burrow into the skull, taking root along with the debates raging in the lyrical content, Moore screaming himself into oblivion. Take note, Wageslave will destroy. It is only a matter of time.

Career Suicide LP artwork by THM

The track above, along with “A Tale Of Privatized Healthcare” will see a tape release in mid-April as a split with Organ Grindr.

The demo release from mysterious black metal project Obolus made, quite possibly, every year end list going for one of the “best” demos of last year. And rightly so, the mix of pure bleak rage and terribly grim atmosphere was astounding to hear in a tape that was meant as a demonstration of what this outfit could do. Praise the dark lord that new music has followed so quickly. Currently available to download for the grand price of ZERO money over on Flenser Records bandcamp page (for a limited time only) before going to press on vinyl, Lament is a gloriously bleak five track EP.

Artwork by Byran Proteau – Natvres Mortes Illvstration

Punctuated with soft and serene moments, such as the entirely instrumental “Reflection,” Lament is a work of opposing tones. Relentlessly despondent, whether that’s in the harsher tones of “Hatred” or in the beautifully gloom laden “Grievance,” the depths of despair are never far away from the quieter passages. There’s a beautiful theme that is carried throughout this work, the lonely sound of water; either as rainfall or as part of a larger body, that ties the tracks together and truly echoes the sentiments within.

The clash between styles is jarring – when Obolus is harsh, damn, Obolus is harsh. Raw in sound and in vocal style, disparate screams echo over the furious drum work and soaring guitar lines. It hardly seems like the same band that was heard on the sorrow tinged track “Reflection,” but the melancholy beauty is there to be found in the darker refrains of “Desolation” and “Hatred.” It’s in the gorgeous sweeping lines that suddenly burst through the jagged call of guitar, the weight of sadness that sits atop each track individually, growing heavier as the work progresses. Magnificent in scope and subject, Lament is the sound of a band finding a sound, one of desperation and misanthropic tendencies. Obolus is a project to be noticed, the blissed-out dreamlike-gaze sound of Lament is to be completely lost inside. Quite spectacular.