#213 Binah - Hallucinating in Resurrecture

I've heard many people extolling the merits of young bands like Binah and Horrendous, and the picture they paint is one of excellent, and very old-school sounding bands. I always do my best to have a listen to the bands who are making waves, and in due course, I'll be examining both the aforementioned acts. Today is Binah's turn, for one reason; I happen to have their debut, and so far, only, album, sitting on the shelf, ready to spin.

After a brief intro track, Hallucinating in Resurrecture bursts into life in the form of "Morbid Obumbration". The opening chord makes it sound a bit like the world is about to end, which, in extreme-metal circles, is very high praise indeed. This may sound confusing if, say, you're unfamiliar with extreme metal, but if that is the case, to paraphrase Samwise Gamgee "by rights [you] shouldn't even be here". The whole album has truly magnificently abrasive tone; the sound of tectonic plates grinding together and mountains being crushed upwards from the sea floor really makes the album have a truly apocalyptic tone, and I don't exaggerate when I say that, perhaps dueling for first place with Black Breath, this is the heaviest tone I've heard all year. Of course, it's what you do with the tone which counts, and it's safe to say that Binah must have had a few plans up their sleeve while they wrote this album. Crushing riffs are apparent from the onset, which, above and beyond being heavy, carry a noticeably dark, perhaps slightly occult feel, which is accentuated well by the sinister, but also at times beautiful, lead guitar, which gives the album as a very prominent atmosphere as well as a crushing backbone of rhythm, and roaring, monstrous vocals which really give the impression of a soundscape from an accursed eldritch temple. 

In terms of intensity, this album is certainly near the top of it's class; the kind of album which makes the silence which commences when the last song ends feel almost shocking and suffocating after the barrage of guitar which came before it. The first time I listened to the album, it seemed to shoot past at lightning speed, and I couldn't remember much of it. On subsequent occasions, I hasten to say, it has got better and better; more of the hefty riffs become embedded in my mind, and there are plenty of those to choose from; there are, I'd estimate, at least a couple of "that's a tasty riff" moments per song, and they come in all shapes and sizes; head-imploding doomy riffs, and ones which race past like rabid shrapnel, in the vain of bands like Hail of Bullets, and every tempo in-between. The album is, without question, one for the riff-lovers, whilst at the same time, not being one-dimensional in the slightest; It may be a solid, and mainly old-school album, but its worth being open-minded to the fact that old-school death metal is far from an exhausted style, and Binah seem to be taking it in their own direction, whilst at the same time respecting the hallmarks of the style; Rumbling riffs, mixed tempos, and blast-beats used sparingly, which, if anything, makes them have more impact in the songs which they do appear, which is the way I've always enjoyed blast-beats the most.

Binah, so it seems, are a band I would urge anyone whose into old-school death metal to investigate; powerful, memorable, riff-laden, and with a hint of beauty, they come close to fitting all of the criteria I like to hear in death-metal. In the coming years, I feel they are going to be a band who make their presence felt, and I look forward to seeing it happen.

This is an 8/10, easily.

Links:
Binah on Facebook
Binah on Metal Archives

#212 Enslaved - Riitiir

Riitiir is the first Enslaved full-length album to come out in the time that I've been aware of the band, and, as such, I'm not sure if the sheer level of anticipation is something which always greets their releases, or if this album made especially noteworthy waves within metal circles. All I know is that a lot of the metal community at large held very high expectations for the album; expectations of nothing but the best. Fortunately, Enslaved are the kind of band who can deliver just that. The best. 

It really took me a degree of thought about where to begin with this review, which is something which doesn't usually happen - I just charge in to it and salvage some semantic meaning later on. With Riitiir though, it was more of a puzzle. I'll spit out my initial reaction; This album is very, very good. Most, if not all, of its aspects seem to be somehow just right; the blend of black-metal, while considerably less than some of the bands progressive albums, is still utterly present, and blends wonderfully into the unique sound which the band have crafted for themselves over the years; the ever-strong harsh vocals continue the lullaby of clean vocals, smoother and better deployed than ever, really giving the songs a reeling, often melancholy feel, but also a soaring elegance, which is boosted to even greater heights by the complex, slightly percussive riff style which the band have been exhibiting on the last couple of albums. One of the things I notice, in comparison to Axioma Ethica Odini, the previous album, is that on Riitiir, Enslaved seem to have opted to increase the epic and atmospheric elements in the music, and Axioma Ethica Odini itself was an epic and atmospheric record, with reverb laden guitar work and subtle but truly complimenting synth. Riitiir puts these aspects up a gear however, with each and every song on the album sounding profound and extremely powerful; The moments like the slow, crushing riff after the intro to "Thoughts like Hammers" really carry an immense musical presence, whilst subtler sections deliver a lot of genuine beauty, with some fantastic tremolos and beautiful lead work, with a silken tone and richness which just strikes a chord with me immediately, pardon the pun.

Riitiir is strikingly, appreciably well-written. There,as far as my taste tells me, at least, not a hint of filler anywhere on the record; I'm even struggling to pick a favorite song. Sure, perhaps this means that the album can't really have a flagship, leading single in a strong sense, but that pales into insignificance when you consider that the most likely cause of this is that the album is uniformly good from start through to finish, on the kind of musical journey that only Enslaved could craft to sound quite the way that Riitiir does. As I see it, or rather, as a friend of mine put it, which I proceeded to steal and paraphrase quite frequently, there are two kinds of progressive music in the world; there is progressive the genre, and progressive the spirit. The former is paradoxical; bands professing to "progressive-metal", as a rule, sound amusingly similar these days. The latter, however, is where the good stuff is - bands doing unique and genuinely progressive things. It's immediately clear to see that Enslaved are one of the latter - Truly unique and fascinatingly so; The last few albums have been similar in style, but all sufficiently different to be very exciting, and Riitiir seems to be another link in this chain. It's almost a dilemma whether, when I weigh it up in my head, this album is better than Axioma Ethica Odini or not. The easy way around this, which I will proceed to take, is to say that Enslaved have made an incredible album. again. 

It's hard to say what I like most about the album; The thoughtfulness? the depth? the beauty? All of those elements are profoundly present. It makes me realise, the thing I like most isn't any individual element of the music; it's the way that Enslaved manage to blend them all together, a craft at which they are second to none. Indeed, this album has as much variety as any of it's predecessors. Maybe more. It always takes time for an album to settle from being "The new album" to being simply itself. I'm curious to see what insight the months give me into the album that I've yet to discover.

I've not given an album 10/10 in a long time. Enslaved have earned it.

Links:
Enslaved Official Site
Enslaved on Facebook
Enslaved on Myspace
Enslaved on Metal Archives

#211 Only a Shadow Remains - Premeditated

I feel a bit guilty really. I think the person behind death-metal project "Only a Shadow Remains" asked me to review the projects previous release almost a year ago, and after numerous "maybe I'll do it next" style statements to myself, it turns out I'd still not gotten around to it, when, lo and behold, someone asked me to review "their new death metal album", and it turned out to be the same project. First and foremost, I'd like to say sorry for not getting round to it the first time, and secondly, I hope to produce a more detailed and thoughtful review than I would have done a year ago, to make up for it.

"Premeditated" is the second full-length release by Only Shadows Remain, and is overtly of the death-metal persuasion. A short concept album, with the delightfully twisted premise, as the creator puts it "[...] around the idea of my wife being a serial killer.", rendering the album thematically inclusive of many of the traditional themes of death-metal. The album holds a lot of this true in terms of sound, too; Whilst noticeably modern in terms of production, which, might I add, is very tastefully-polished for the work of one man who was, during the process was in  "[a] barracks room while being stationed overseas", which makes the effort which went to create the album all the more admirable. I digress. The music on the album has a fairly old-school vibe, with chunky, but not excessively brutal riffs, which are chiefly memorable. There's a hint of the more modern, twisted and technical styles of death-metal incorporated too, which I find gives the album a very appreciable balance between the old and the new. A strong sense of groove pervades in many places, leading to a level of catchiness and often makes the music more energetic and invigorating, which is often something which I struggle to pick up from straight, no-frills death metal. The album manages to feel consistently fresh too, in their compactness; as often happens with one-man projects, the songs are rather on the short side, but instead of detracting from the album's quality, it means that the songs don't drag on for longer than they need to; their length is perfectly correlated to their content.

As well as being inclusive of many of death-metal's favoured playing styles, the album also journeys widely through the tempos, with slower, crushing pieces, and faster, near-rabid sounding songs like "Torture-Murder" which has a lot in common, in it's crunchy, solid guitar, with the faster songs of bands like Hail of Bullets - the slower songs also remind me of such, with a similar relentless swagger and murky, brooding energy, like thunder-clouds on the horizon. While not exactly innovative or unique, in the sense that the music certainly doesn't take death-metal anywhere particularly new, the album as a whole has a really solid feel; It's undeniably a good death-metal album, with a consistency, flow and attention to detail which highlights it definitely the product of effort, a labour of love; I get the sense that the person who made the album really, genuinely cares about it's quality, as a good musician, or any kind of craftsman, should. The riffs are reassuringly robust and enjoyable to listen to, and the solid, presumably programmed (programmed really well, might I add) drums give the album a notably tough, heavy, percussion section, with really honest sounding drums, especially considering their artificiality. It's probably simplest to describe the album as a sturdy, well-crafted and reliable death metal album. One of the most coherent and cohesive underground albums I've listened to in a long time.


I should probably have reviewed an "Only a Shadow Remains" album a long time ago, because, quite frankly, I really enjoyed this one. Incidentally, the proceeds if you were to buy the album go to charity, so, if you want to be a good person, and get some death-metal to show for it, you can't go wrong with this release. Anyway, a short burst of death metal, and a thoroughly enjoyable album.

I'm giving this 8/10.

Links:
Only a Shadow Remains on Bandcamp
Only a Shadow Remains on Facebook