#dronemetal — Public Fediverse posts

Black Aleph – Apsides Review

By Dear Hollow

Black Aleph is a sonic experiment devoted to ritual. Debut Apsides, while short, is nothing short of perplexing in its evasion of genre trappings, ultimately making some form of drone metal with folk instruments, imbued with post-metal’s metamorphic crescendos. However, the value lies behind these descriptors, with a distinct ritualistic heart beating beneath as its Middle Eastern modal traditions guide the movements—a divine and otherworldly experience. Don’t misunderstand, Apsides will still crush you, but just as much in its serenity as its dense guitar riffs—the weight it conjures is a suggestion and anticipation of punishment rather than a rod brandished. The result is haunting and unique, but brimming with more potential than it capitalizes upon.

Black Aleph is a trio from Australia, its Sydney- and Melbourne-based members comprised other acts from the country’s weirder underground offerings. Aside from respective solo offerings, guitar and effects wizard Lachlan Dale hails from maqam-centric acts like Hashshashin and the Arya Ensemble,1 cellist Peter Hollo lends his eerie drones in post-rock/electronic collectives like Tangents, Haunts, and FourPlay String Quartet, and dar player/setarist Timothy Johannessen plays in the folk-inclined Mehr Ensemble. Johannessen and Dale’s respective roots in Arabic, Iranian, and Persian folk music pronounce the motifs that Black Aleph utilizes. The trio has been compared to renowned experimental acts like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Justin Broadrick, and Jesu, while associated with members of We Lost the Sea and Sunn O))). However, Black Aleph plays more in line with Hashshashin or countrymates Omahara in the blurring of drone and folk, ever-punishing and ever-organic.

Black Aleph deals in a style that balances weight, tension, and melody. Just as in Godspeed’s Lift Your Skinny Fists…, chord progressions throughout Apsides are layered with tension, bated breath between dissonance and harmony. While layered with ominous droning doom riffs (“Descent,” “Precession”), the crescendos within its micro-movements prove the most intriguing. Whether it be its dancing and complex rhythms (“Return”), climbing arpeggios (the “Ambit” duo), or gradual uses of volume and curious motifs (“Separation,” “Return”) the best uses of the percussive daf are utilized in quieter moments, creating a pulsing undercurrent of mystery and frailty rather than the punishing drums they pretend to be in the more droning cuts. These more gentle movements gradually increase in girth with post-rock intention, erupting in satisfying droning climaxes (“Ambit II (Aphelion),” “Return”). While droning guitars are relatively straightforward, their acoustic instruments—setar, daf, cello, and violin2—provide Black Aleph an easy and effective bridge between droning metal and folk motifs, as the songs are constructed safely and neatly.

Black Aleph’s voiceless music creates a greater impetus to focus on the songwriting, and unfortunately, Apsides suffers from moments of directionless meandering and awkwardly curtailed movements. In general, the lack of vocals is a critique depending on the listener. In a manner of songwriting, however, the best crescendo occurs in “Ambit II (Aphelion)” and no track following lives up to this peak, although others attempt to scale it (“Separation,” “Return”). While noodling occurs throughout (i.e. “Ambit I (Ascension)”), it overwhelms the moments of climax, leading tracks plummeting to the ground, especially in the limp closer “Occultation,” whose wonky rhythms and skronky setar rob the guitars of needed weight. Most frustrating with Black Aleph is that, although each track is neatly composed and competently executed, the album at large feels too short and abrupt. Apisdes’ thirty-minute runtime feels too short like Black Aleph missed the chance to adequately flesh out their ideas when eschewing drone metal’s tendency towards lengthy offerings.

Apsides offers a unique sound, hindered by its own ambition. Although the songs are too short and performances can be shortsighted, Black Aleph has an endlessly intriguing premise and unique execution. Ritualistic rhythms, Middle Eastern motifs, droning riffs, and otherworldly drive collide in an album that largely succeeds. It’s good that I want to hear more of Black Aleph, because I think their next album will be better than Apsides.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: blackaleph.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/blackaleph
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024

Show 2 footnotes

1. Alongside running labels Art As Catharsis and Worlds Within Worlds. ↩
2. Courtesy of guest Natalya Bing. ↩

#2024 #30 #Apsides #AryaEnsemble #AustralianMetal #BlackAleph #DoomMetal #Drone #DroneMetal #Folk #FourPlayStringQuartet #GodspeedYouBlackEmperor #Hashshashin #Haunts #Jesu #JustinBroadrick #MehrEnsemble #Noise #Oct24 #Omahara #PostRock #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleased #SunnO_ #Tangents #WeLostTheSea

Big|Brave- A Chaos of Flowers Review

By Dear Hollow

In respect to last year’s excellent Nature Morte, A Chaos of Flowers feels like fallout. While tracks like “Carvers, Ferriers, and Knaves” and “The Fable of Trusting” offered tension and devastation in ways that set brute force at just another place at the crooked wooden table, Big|Brave offer an even more subdued album – a direct response to its predecessor, and an even more spiritual successor to their collaboration with The Body, Leaving None But Small Birds. Americana is a specter that haunts every movement of A Chaos of Flowers, leaving a trail of footprints through crunchy leaves as metamorphic rain falls upon tired Appalachia. In short, Big|Brave offers a place, humid and cold, rooted in founding members Robin Wattie and Matthieu Ball’s acoustic folk-oriented beginnings.

The Montreal trio has always offered what they coin “massive minimalism,” and A Chaos of Flowers represents its most minimalist offering. Big|Brave does away with earthshaking, mountainous compositions of drone riffs in favor of an evocative, simmering, and otherworldly experience. In ways that recall Portal’s dichotomy of Avow and Hagbulbia, A Chaos of Flower’s vibe is more about feeling than punishment, channeling the poetry of renowned thinkers and writers as well as original lyrics, portraying the struggle of life in Robin Wattie’s tormented wails and whispery croons. A retraction of its predecessor’s punishment, A Chaos of Flowers finds Big|Brave acknowledging its folk roots in a subdued noisy palette that is nonetheless meditative and populated by voices of whispering pines.

Big|Brave does not intend punishment. Each track features minimal percussion, driven by swaths of noise and gentle guitar. Original lyrics find themselves in only “Canon: In Canon” and “Quotidian: Solemnity,” the other tracks featuring poetry from Emily Dickinson, E. Pauline Johnson, Renee Vivien, and other female writers from traditionally marginalized communities. In the past, although Wattie’s vocals have always featured their own spotlight, listeners could simply focus on the mountainous riffs – A Chaos of Flowers is rawer, more subdued, and focused on storytelling through the lens of the marginalized. The emphasis on poetry and prose contrasts the trio’s more upfront lyrics that have dominated past albums, in that it confronts uncomfortable experiences and existential contemplation rather than explicit calls for change. Big|Brave attacks listeners with its words, not its riffs.

Bluesy folk and Americana dominate the chord progressions, while gentle guitar in “Moonset” and “Canon: In Canon” guide the proceedings. Beneath the crushing noise of “Not Speaking of the Ways” and “I Felt a Funeral” lies the remains of a southern rock song, lamented in the shades of the pines, while the spidery leads of “Chanson Pour Mon Ombre” and “Theft” lend themselves to the fingers of atmosphere atop drone’s calloused hands. Big|Brave excels in creating a place, piece by piece, with Wattie’s vocals the guide to surviving the Appalachian winter. A Chaos of Flowers feels like the light on the icy grass blades after the first hard frost of spring that was Nature Morte, chilling and more disconcerting than the knowledge of the cold. Distortion taints the light throughout, as “I Felt a Funeral” and “Theft” offer plaintive vulnerability twisted under hopeless lyrics.

Big|Brave submit an odd release with A Chaos of Flowers, as its existence relies on its predecessor – nuclear winter after the war of many casualties. As such, it does not do well to stand alone, and interlude “A Song for Marie, Part III” feels unnecessary while some tracks don’t feel cohesive with the whole. However, it’s composed intelligently, as the two original pieces are the closest to the trio’s avant-drone sound as we get, serving as respective climaxes to the meditation of the surrounding poetry. Somehow, like Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter’s stripped-down debut last year, Big|Brave’s vulnerability feels even more stark than its riff-dominated past. Its existence relies on another recording, so it likely won’t make many lists this year, but it serves as an intriguing companion piece to one of last year’s best offerings. A challenging book of poetry to proudly display on your shelves.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: n/a | Format Reviewed: STREAM
Label: Thrill Jockey Records
Websites: bigbrave.ca | facebook.com/bigbravemusic
Releases Worldwide: April 19th, 2024

#2024 #35 #AChaosOfFlowers #Americana #Apr24 #BigBrave #CanadianMetal #DroneMetal #Folk #GothicAmericana #Noise #Portal #ReverendKristinMichaelHayter #Review #Reviews #TheBody

Big|Brave- A Chaos of Flowers Review

By Dear Hollow

In respect to last year’s excellent Nature Morte, A Chaos of Flowers feels like fallout. While tracks like “Carvers, Ferriers, and Knaves” and “The Fable of Trusting” offered tension and devastation in ways that set brute force at just another place at the crooked wooden table, Big|Brave offer an even more subdued album – a direct response to its predecessor, and an even more spiritual successor to their collaboration with The Body, Leaving None But Small Birds. Americana is a specter that haunts every movement of A Chaos of Flowers, leaving a trail of footprints through crunchy leaves as metamorphic rain falls upon tired Appalachia. In short, Big|Brave offers a place, humid and cold, rooted in founding members Robin Wattie and Matthieu Ball’s acoustic folk-oriented beginnings.

The Montreal trio has always offered what they coin “massive minimalism,” and A Chaos of Flowers represents its most minimalist offering. Big|Brave does away with earthshaking, mountainous compositions of drone riffs in favor of an evocative, simmering, and otherworldly experience. In ways that recall Portal’s dichotomy of Avow and Hagbulbia, A Chaos of Flower’s vibe is more about feeling than punishment, channeling the poetry of renowned thinkers and writers as well as original lyrics, portraying the struggle of life in Robin Wattie’s tormented wails and whispery croons. A retraction of its predecessor’s punishment, A Chaos of Flowers finds Big|Brave acknowledging its folk roots in a subdued noisy palette that is nonetheless meditative and populated by voices of whispering pines.

Big|Brave does not intend punishment. Each track features minimal percussion, driven by swaths of noise and gentle guitar. Original lyrics find themselves in only “Canon: In Canon” and “Quotidian: Solemnity,” the other tracks featuring poetry from Emily Dickinson, E. Pauline Johnson, Renee Vivien, and other female writers from traditionally marginalized communities. In the past, although Wattie’s vocals have always featured their own spotlight, listeners could simply focus on the mountainous riffs – A Chaos of Flowers is rawer, more subdued, and focused on storytelling through the lens of the marginalized. The emphasis on poetry and prose contrasts the trio’s more upfront lyrics that have dominated past albums, in that it confronts uncomfortable experiences and existential contemplation rather than explicit calls for change. Big|Brave attacks listeners with its words, not its riffs.

Bluesy folk and Americana dominate the chord progressions, while gentle guitar in “Moonset” and “Canon: In Canon” guide the proceedings. Beneath the crushing noise of “Not Speaking of the Ways” and “I Felt a Funeral” lies the remains of a southern rock song, lamented in the shades of the pines, while the spidery leads of “Chanson Pour Mon Ombre” and “Theft” lend themselves to the fingers of atmosphere atop drone’s calloused hands. Big|Brave excels in creating a place, piece by piece, with Wattie’s vocals the guide to surviving the Appalachian winter. A Chaos of Flowers feels like the light on the icy grass blades after the first hard frost of spring that was Nature Morte, chilling and more disconcerting than the knowledge of the cold. Distortion taints the light throughout, as “I Felt a Funeral” and “Theft” offer plaintive vulnerability twisted under hopeless lyrics.

Big|Brave submit an odd release with A Chaos of Flowers, as its existence relies on its predecessor – nuclear winter after the war of many casualties. As such, it does not do well to stand alone, and interlude “A Song for Marie, Part III” feels unnecessary while some tracks don’t feel cohesive with the whole. However, it’s composed intelligently, as the two original pieces are the closest to the trio’s avant-drone sound as we get, serving as respective climaxes to the meditation of the surrounding poetry. Somehow, like Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter’s stripped-down debut last year, Big|Brave’s vulnerability feels even more stark than its riff-dominated past. Its existence relies on another recording, so it likely won’t make many lists this year, but it serves as an intriguing companion piece to one of last year’s best offerings. A challenging book of poetry to proudly display on your shelves.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: n/a | Format Reviewed: STREAM
Label: Thrill Jockey Records
Websites: bigbrave.ca | facebook.com/bigbravemusic
Releases Worldwide: April 19th, 2024

#2024 #35 #AChaosOfFlowers #Americana #Apr24 #BigBrave #CanadianMetal #DroneMetal #Folk #GothicAmericana #Noise #Portal #ReverendKristinMichaelHayter #Review #Reviews #TheBody

Big|Brave- A Chaos of Flowers Review

By Dear Hollow

In respect to last year’s excellent Nature Morte, A Chaos of Flowers feels like fallout. While tracks like “Carvers, Ferriers, and Knaves” and “The Fable of Trusting” offered tension and devastation in ways that set brute force at just another place at the crooked wooden table, Big|Brave offer an even more subdued album – a direct response to its predecessor, and an even more spiritual successor to their collaboration with The Body, Leaving None But Small Birds. Americana is a specter that haunts every movement of A Chaos of Flowers, leaving a trail of footprints through crunchy leaves as metamorphic rain falls upon tired Appalachia. In short, Big|Brave offers a place, humid and cold, rooted in founding members Robin Wattie and Matthieu Ball’s acoustic folk-oriented beginnings.

The Montreal trio has always offered what they coin “massive minimalism,” and A Chaos of Flowers represents its most minimalist offering. Big|Brave does away with earthshaking, mountainous compositions of drone riffs in favor of an evocative, simmering, and otherworldly experience. In ways that recall Portal’s dichotomy of Avow and Hagbulbia, A Chaos of Flower’s vibe is more about feeling than punishment, channeling the poetry of renowned thinkers and writers as well as original lyrics, portraying the struggle of life in Robin Wattie’s tormented wails and whispery croons. A retraction of its predecessor’s punishment, A Chaos of Flowers finds Big|Brave acknowledging its folk roots in a subdued noisy palette that is nonetheless meditative and populated by voices of whispering pines.

Big|Brave does not intend punishment. Each track features minimal percussion, driven by swaths of noise and gentle guitar. Original lyrics find themselves in only “Canon: In Canon” and “Quotidian: Solemnity,” the other tracks featuring poetry from Emily Dickinson, E. Pauline Johnson, Renee Vivien, and other female writers from traditionally marginalized communities. In the past, although Wattie’s vocals have always featured their own spotlight, listeners could simply focus on the mountainous riffs – A Chaos of Flowers is rawer, more subdued, and focused on storytelling through the lens of the marginalized. The emphasis on poetry and prose contrasts the trio’s more upfront lyrics that have dominated past albums, in that it confronts uncomfortable experiences and existential contemplation rather than explicit calls for change. Big|Brave attacks listeners with its words, not its riffs.

Bluesy folk and Americana dominate the chord progressions, while gentle guitar in “Moonset” and “Canon: In Canon” guide the proceedings. Beneath the crushing noise of “Not Speaking of the Ways” and “I Felt a Funeral” lies the remains of a southern rock song, lamented in the shades of the pines, while the spidery leads of “Chanson Pour Mon Ombre” and “Theft” lend themselves to the fingers of atmosphere atop drone’s calloused hands. Big|Brave excels in creating a place, piece by piece, with Wattie’s vocals the guide to surviving the Appalachian winter. A Chaos of Flowers feels like the light on the icy grass blades after the first hard frost of spring that was Nature Morte, chilling and more disconcerting than the knowledge of the cold. Distortion taints the light throughout, as “I Felt a Funeral” and “Theft” offer plaintive vulnerability twisted under hopeless lyrics.

Big|Brave submit an odd release with A Chaos of Flowers, as its existence relies on its predecessor – nuclear winter after the war of many casualties. As such, it does not do well to stand alone, and interlude “A Song for Marie, Part III” feels unnecessary while some tracks don’t feel cohesive with the whole. However, it’s composed intelligently, as the two original pieces are the closest to the trio’s avant-drone sound as we get, serving as respective climaxes to the meditation of the surrounding poetry. Somehow, like Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter’s stripped-down debut last year, Big|Brave’s vulnerability feels even more stark than its riff-dominated past. Its existence relies on another recording, so it likely won’t make many lists this year, but it serves as an intriguing companion piece to one of last year’s best offerings. A challenging book of poetry to proudly display on your shelves.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: n/a | Format Reviewed: STREAM
Label: Thrill Jockey Records
Websites: bigbrave.ca | facebook.com/bigbravemusic
Releases Worldwide: April 19th, 2024

#2024 #35 #AChaosOfFlowers #Americana #Apr24 #BigBrave #CanadianMetal #DroneMetal #Folk #GothicAmericana #Noise #Portal #ReverendKristinMichaelHayter #Review #Reviews #TheBody