Following up on their debut album from
February of last year, the New Zealander quartet of Planet Of The
Dead have made quick turn-around to bring us this sophomore LP.
Filled with references to sci-fi hallmarks like Alien,
Dune, and RoboCop
in the track titles and lyrics, with asteroid-drifting art for the
album cover, the band makes no bones about their inspirations and pop
culture fondnesses.
Opening
with “Gom Jabbar”, the band takes a few moments for spaceship
engine noise feedback to set an atmosphere before crashing into full
sludge banger mode. Confident guitar crunch and flavorful bass-lines
join the cymbal-heavy percussion and deep growls from the vocalist,
coming together as a tight sludge package. The rest of the album
doesn’t drift far from that initial MO, but each song does get some
tweaks to help it stand out. For semi-title-track “Pilgrim”, for
instance, there’s more of a groove focus, while “Nostromo” gets
some slowed breaks, “The Sprawl” lets in some tasty soloing, and
so on.
For
those looking for sludge with overt sci-fi flavoring, news of PotD’s
continued output should come as welcome news. The band’s willingness
to switch to doomier slowness for breakdowns serves the spacy
settings well, and a scattering of opening samples from the
referenced movies add an extra touch of fun. With all the color
pressings of their previous album already sold out (and one of the
special pressings for this one already in the same boat), you’ll want
to act fast if you prefer your sludge on wax. Whether the band keeps
up their annual schedule, or spaces the next one out a bit more,
they’re certainly becoming big players in a niche sub-genre.
~
Gabriel
For
Fans Of; Gallileous, giant gutter from outer space, Space God
Ritual, Tides of Sulfur, Voidlurker
Following up on their debut album from
February of last year, the New Zealander quartet of Planet Of The
Dead have made quick turn-around to bring us this sophomore LP.
Filled with references to sci-fi hallmarks like Alien,
Dune, and RoboCop
in the track titles and lyrics, with asteroid-drifting art for the
album cover, the band makes no bones about their inspirations and pop
culture fondnesses.
Opening
with “Gom Jabbar”, the band takes a few moments for spaceship
engine noise feedback to set an atmosphere before crashing into full
sludge banger mode. Confident guitar crunch and flavorful bass-lines
join the cymbal-heavy percussion and deep growls from the vocalist,
coming together as a tight sludge package. The rest of the album
doesn’t drift far from that initial MO, but each song does get some
tweaks to help it stand out. For semi-title-track “Pilgrim”, for
instance, there’s more of a groove focus, while “Nostromo” gets
some slowed breaks, “The Sprawl” lets in some tasty soloing, and
so on.
For
those looking for sludge with overt sci-fi flavoring, news of PotD’s
continued output should come as welcome news. The band’s willingness
to switch to doomier slowness for breakdowns serves the spacy
settings well, and a scattering of opening samples from the
referenced movies add an extra touch of fun. With all the color
pressings of their previous album already sold out (and one of the
special pressings for this one already in the same boat), you’ll want
to act fast if you prefer your sludge on wax. Whether the band keeps
up their annual schedule, or spaces the next one out a bit more,
they’re certainly becoming big players in a niche sub-genre.
~
Gabriel
For
Fans Of; Gallileous, giant gutter from outer space, Space God
Ritual, Tides of Sulfur, Voidlurker
It’s been a while since we last heard
from the NOLA-based group of SpaceMetal; their last LP, Shroud,
dropped back in 2018, and it’s been fairly quiet on their digital
front since then. Now, thankfully, the group has returned with
another batch of songs, this time in honestly-titled EP form, to
reassure the world that their heaviness is alive and well.
First
of the EP’s four tracks is “Stare”, an eight-minute cruiser which
plays around with acoustic guitar and spoken-word vocals for an intro
before diving into the deep bass and big-body riffs which make up its
majority. With a wizard standing at the center of the lyrics, the
band keeps a friendly vibe going through the crunch of the tunes, and
the strong flow makes the eight minutes fly by. “Cry” follows,
working a twistier main riff loaded with earworm hooks. Playing with
rhythm change-ups and brandishing big guitar chords, the band manages
to make this song feel just as full (if not more so) as the
eight-minute track, despite running three minutes shorter.
The
title track opens up the EP’s second half, ratcheting up the
psychedelic traces with some echoing vocal effects and more sedate
guitar work. The drums get to come out a bit more in this one,
flexing on the cymbal emphasis and experimenting with the fills
mid-measure. Lastly, “The Seed” holds on to the psych touches
while bringing back the acoustic guitar from the very start of the
EP, providing a nice cohering element while wrapping things up. All
in all, while it runs just under half an hour, there’s enough depth
to the songs to let listeners dive right down while it plays, and
come out feeling not just that their time and attention was
well-spent, but that there’s more to be heard next time they spin it.
Grab it for yourself once it releases June 26th, or just head over
to the BandCamp now to stream it ahead of time.
~
Gabriel
For
Fans Of; Attalla, Dead Hand, Tar Pit, Wizard Cult, Wizard Smoke
It’s been a while since we last heard
from the NOLA-based group of SpaceMetal; their last LP, Shroud,
dropped back in 2018, and it’s been fairly quiet on their digital
front since then. Now, thankfully, the group has returned with
another batch of songs, this time in honestly-titled EP form, to
reassure the world that their heaviness is alive and well.
First
of the EP’s four tracks is “Stare”, an eight-minute cruiser which
plays around with acoustic guitar and spoken-word vocals for an intro
before diving into the deep bass and big-body riffs which make up its
majority. With a wizard standing at the center of the lyrics, the
band keeps a friendly vibe going through the crunch of the tunes, and
the strong flow makes the eight minutes fly by. “Cry” follows,
working a twistier main riff loaded with earworm hooks. Playing with
rhythm change-ups and brandishing big guitar chords, the band manages
to make this song feel just as full (if not more so) as the
eight-minute track, despite running three minutes shorter.
The
title track opens up the EP’s second half, ratcheting up the
psychedelic traces with some echoing vocal effects and more sedate
guitar work. The drums get to come out a bit more in this one,
flexing on the cymbal emphasis and experimenting with the fills
mid-measure. Lastly, “The Seed” holds on to the psych touches
while bringing back the acoustic guitar from the very start of the
EP, providing a nice cohering element while wrapping things up. All
in all, while it runs just under half an hour, there’s enough depth
to the songs to let listeners dive right down while it plays, and
come out feeling not just that their time and attention was
well-spent, but that there’s more to be heard next time they spin it.
Grab it for yourself once it releases June 26th, or just head over
to the BandCamp now to stream it ahead of time.
~
Gabriel
For
Fans Of; Attalla, Dead Hand, Tar Pit, Wizard Cult, Wizard Smoke
If you dive into the archive section of this site, something I strongly recommend you to do as there is a lot to read there, you can already find three interviews I did with Eternal Champion in the past. The first one was published right after the band released their demo, while I spoke to the guys again when they did the split release with Gatekeeper back in 2015. The last time I hooked up with the band was of course when the put out their debut album, the mighty “The Armor Of Ire” was hot off the press back in the autumn of 2016. Like always, singer Jason Tarpey is the one answering my questions. Looking back at “The Armor Of Ire” with a bit of distance to it, is he more satisfied with it now compared to when you had it finished, or is it perhaps the other way around?
– I probably feel the same about it as I did then. I love the songs on that album and Arthur (Rizk) has always known what he is doing as a producer and so we are still very satisfied with “The Armor Of Ire”. It’s hard to think in terms of less or more because it’s difficult to remember exactly how I felt four or five years ago but I remember being surprised I could even pull it off back then, I’m still surprised.
Since the release of the debut album, there have been a couple of digital/tape only releases, in form of “Parallel Of Death” and “Terminus Est”. The first one featured cover versions of songs by Legend and Mystic Force while “Terminus Est” was very different in approach, containing two instrumental songs. What were the purpose of these recordings, and why do you think it makes sense to release “Terminus Est” as a work by Eternal Champion?
– They are just some things to do on the side while we work on our day to day tasks and careers and original song writing. We wouldn’t put a cover song on a full length album but like every other band we think it’s really fun to do covers, so why not put out a little cassette. It’s not an actual record it’s just to another element of the band to pay respects to our influences and give the fans something to chew on while we write new material. As for “Terminus Est”, it isn’t obvious to some people why a heavy metal band would put out a release with no guitars on it, it’s because we don’t give a shit what anyone thinks about it, we will do anything to build the atmosphere between releases and that “Terminus Est” tape is a cinematic piece of synth music, epic and melancholy like most of our music. Already I’m getting the urge to do another EP or something, I’m still feeling very creative but definitely don’t feel like putting together a whole LP yet.
People are often speaking about the “difficult second album”, sometimes caused by the fact that a band often has a lot of time to work on material for the debut album and usually a lot less time for the follow up. Did this or other factors make “Ravening Iron” a more difficult album to create than the debut?
– Not to sound cocky, but it’s going to, that’s just not a problem with us. We wouldn’t put out a minute of music that we don’t feel is really strong, so if we’re putting it out that means we think it’s at least as good as “The Armor Of Ire” if not better. It was pretty obvious when these songs started to come together that the new album was going to be a beast and by the time we got to recording vocals I was feeling very confident in the songs.
Has songwriting been a continuing process since “The Armor Of Ire” was released, or are the songs on this album, apart from the re-recording of “War At The Edge Of The End”, a result of a more compact period of time devoted to creating new songs?
-Yeah we didn’t do much songwriting the first two years after “The Armor Of Ire” was released, we were traveling around doing weekend gigs and really enjoying the fruits of our labor with no pressure to rush back in the studio. We started writing songs in earnest in 2018, then mostly in 2019 we finished it.
When you re-did “The Last King Of Pictdom” for “The Armor Of Ire”, Jason told me it was mainly because he wasn’t fully satisfied with his performance the first time around. Is this one of the reasons why you have made a new version of “War At The Edge Of The End” for this new album? Are there other reasons as well?
– Yes I was less happy with my performance on “The Last King Of Pictdom” on the demo but with “War at the Edge of the End” we thought the whole song could use some beefing up while retaining it’s unique, “weird” atmosphere. That’s basically the thought behind redoing it.
With the debut being such a success, how did you balance the potential wish of recreating some of that success by penning songs in the same style against the desire to create something else than just “The Armor Of Ire Pt 2”?
– That style of epic metal on “Armor Of Ire” just is our style, so we knew there wouldn’t be a huge difference in the songs on “Ravening Iron”. We leaned into our strengths and did what comes natural while making sure we weren’t repeating ourselves. The goal is to not stray too far from the path but to still push ourselves creatively, that’s why this new album for all its similarities is a more complex album.
This new album, like its predecessor clocks in at around the 35 minute mark. A coincidence, or do you feel that between 35 and 40 minutes is the perfect playing time for an Eternal Champion-album? If so, why – especially in a genre where many bands go for long compositions?
– It’s a perfect amount of time for an LP, many of our favorite albums are 35 minutes so it seems instinctual to us. I don’t know why bands starting recording such long albums, if you’re Blind Guardian I understand, but we’re definitely not Blind Guardian. And the reason why is the genre, and the industry, even the fans don’t factor into our decision making when writing an album.
Some people, myself included has pointed out some similarities between the title track of the debut album and the title track on the new album. Not only are they title songs, they’re also the second song on their respective albums. All coincidence, or is there perhaps a connection between the tracks, or at least at thought behind it?
– Yeah I think it come down to our tastes when sequencing an album, it’s still the same as back in 2016, we still feel we should put on the hardest song first, then follow it up with something a bit more juxtaposed after it, something melancholy and fast as is the case with both title tracks. There are actually a couple more callbacks to “The Armor of Ire” on the new album, we hope the listener has fun finding them.
If I ask you to be completely honest, do you think you have created a song that is better than “I Am The Hammer” this time?
– Ha-ha! I can always count on Europeans to be upfront. Yes of course, again every minute of our music has to go through our fine-mesh filter, so we think “Sing a Last Song of Valdese”, and “The Armor of Ire” and every song on the new album is as good as “I Am the Hammer”. We love that song, it’s one of our babies but trust me there’s only one of those and we’d be fools to do something as transparent as milking it and writing another song that sounds like “I Am The Hammer”, we’ll let other bands chase that dream..
If I am correct, Blake Ibanez, who played on the first album, doesn’t play on this new one. Is he still a member of Eternal Champion? If so, why isn’t he performing on the album?
– Yes while we were putting this album together and recording it, Blake was busy writing and demoing the new Power Trip record, which as you know has been put in limbo due to the death of Riley Gale. So the timing was terrible for him on this album and it has turned into a nightmare since the loss of our close friends and bandmates. The door is open for him to come back in an active roll at any time and he knows that.
Did you look for a similar type of production to the one you had on “The Armor Of Ire”, or were you looking for something a bit more different this time around?
– Yeah we wanted something similar to what Arthur did the frost time around, but since 2016 he has probably worked on more than 300 records in some respect, so he has grown a producer, John has learned a lot as was even able to track himself a lot during his guitar-tracking and so everyone is more competent at what they do now. We wanted the same sound as “The Armor Of Ire”, but maybe even kicked up a notch, which is what Arthur did in my opinion.
I have understood that Arthur is an important member in Eternal Champion. What was his role in getting this album together?
– Yes Arthur is integral to the band, truly without him there is no band. He writes the bulk of the music, plays drums, guitar, synth along with John Powers, engineers, produces, mixes and masters our stuff, so yeah this time around he was more important than ever. A true musical genius and I’m not just saying that because he’s my best friend, he’s a fucking genius.
You once described the recording process of the debut as a bit “chaotic”, with Arthur playing many instruments. Still performing drums, guitars and synth, at least I noticed that Arthur didn’t play any bass this time around, does this mean that that the recording was less chaotic compared to the one of the debut album?
– The chaos at that time had to do with getting all the material together for “Armor”, and maybe a result of not making peace yet with Arthur playing drums and tracking guitars, and even bass at the time. We still had Carlos in the band which gave us three guitar players and that was too many cooks in the kitchen and only added to the chaos. But it was not that bad, I actually remember it fondly. Now things are much smoother, everyone has made peace with their role and this time around everyone seemed to really enjoy working on the album.
It seems like the lyrics to many of the songs are based on characters from the fantasy world Arginor from the book “The Godblade” which is soon to be released. How was the experience of working on lyrics and this book simultaneously? Do you feel it added to the quality of both the lyrics as well as the book?
Jason – Yes working on both the book and the album at the same time was boon to both the music and my writing. The words were pouring out of me, honestly I’ve never felt more creative and it hasn’t really stopped, I’ve continued to write and feel like working on new music already which is new for me. Doing the book helped me put more into the lyrics, more feeling, more emotion, more detail. I’m glad for it.
Writing this book, was it more time consuming and demanding than what you thought, or was it easier than you pictured it to be?
– It was definitely time-consuming. I don’t’ know if this is true for most writers but I need to take the day off to get any writing done. I need to sit in my office with the lights out all day and night and write. Because if I have my normal day of blacksmithing and lifting weights/running that’s about 10 hours of hard labor and my brain is tired after that so no writing can get done. So to get the book done I had to take days off from the forge and shut myself in my “cave” to get it done. It wasn’t hard to write though, I actually enjoyed it and found it to be a worthy challenge I would like to take up again.
You have started a new label called Sword Worship. Why have you decided to do things yourself in North-America instead of working with a label? Will Sword Worship be only for Eternal Champion-stuff, or will you sign other acts to the label?
Jason- Yes there isn’t much need for us to be on an American label these days, we can handle selling the albums and getting it to stores that want it over here we only need help outside the country. And we also own our music so we have as much control as possible. We’re control freaks. We will probably release another band eventually, we might have something cool in the works right now.
While Bong-Ra is best known for decades
of work in the breakcore style, back in 2016, the one-man band
experimented with doom metal, on the two-track Palestina
release. Half a decade later, musician Jason Köhnen is taking a
deeper run at the style, bringing together about half an hour’s worth
of material across four songs.
Opening
with “Kheper – Pharoah’s Serpent” (sic), the album’s ten-minute
opener operates with delicate female vocals over kicks of drums,
long-reverbed waves of bass, crashes of cymbals, and squeals of
feedback. Though most of the song takes a dirge-like tempo, there
are outbreaks of drum frenetics, which add to the overall feel of
churning currents moving deep beneath the surface. “Amun –
Hidden Chambers” follows, taking its seven minutes to operate in
much the same arrangement, but with some drifting piano and increased
drum activity spurring things on, and the female vocals swapped out
for some male groaning.
“Precession
of the Equinoxes” leads into the second half of the album, still
more drum-driven than the preceding tracks, and more dramatic with
the impacts and contrasts. The female vocals return, though they’re
all but drowned out by the crashing percussion, and we actually get
something in the way of a riff from the down-tuned guitar presence.
Lastly, “Aton – Mind Machine” follows up on that by working a
distinct rhythm out of the elements in play, keeping the drums
relatively concrete while the other instruments swirl around them.
Intriguingly
atmospheric from start to finish, there’s no denying that this album
is the result of a musician wanting to push the boundaries, not just
with their own talents, but also with the musical style they’ve
chosen to play. Though there’s a lot to remind listeners of
Godflesh’s industrial doom, the more abstracted nature of Bong-Ra’s
approach leans things hard into funeral doom territory, with the
complementary Egyptian themes of the titles adding their own twist to
things. One of those albums to put on for the purpose of letting
yourself sink into the music.
~
Gabriel
For
Fans Of; Dirge, Godflesh, Fleshpress, Mudslide, Ommadon
While Bong-Ra is best known for decades
of work in the breakcore style, back in 2016, the one-man band
experimented with doom metal, on the two-track Palestina
release. Half a decade later, musician Jason Köhnen is taking a
deeper run at the style, bringing together about half an hour’s worth
of material across four songs.
Opening
with “Kheper – Pharoah’s Serpent” (sic), the album’s ten-minute
opener operates with delicate female vocals over kicks of drums,
long-reverbed waves of bass, crashes of cymbals, and squeals of
feedback. Though most of the song takes a dirge-like tempo, there
are outbreaks of drum frenetics, which add to the overall feel of
churning currents moving deep beneath the surface. “Amun –
Hidden Chambers” follows, taking its seven minutes to operate in
much the same arrangement, but with some drifting piano and increased
drum activity spurring things on, and the female vocals swapped out
for some male groaning.
“Precession
of the Equinoxes” leads into the second half of the album, still
more drum-driven than the preceding tracks, and more dramatic with
the impacts and contrasts. The female vocals return, though they’re
all but drowned out by the crashing percussion, and we actually get
something in the way of a riff from the down-tuned guitar presence.
Lastly, “Aton – Mind Machine” follows up on that by working a
distinct rhythm out of the elements in play, keeping the drums
relatively concrete while the other instruments swirl around them.
Intriguingly
atmospheric from start to finish, there’s no denying that this album
is the result of a musician wanting to push the boundaries, not just
with their own talents, but also with the musical style they’ve
chosen to play. Though there’s a lot to remind listeners of
Godflesh’s industrial doom, the more abstracted nature of Bong-Ra’s
approach leans things hard into funeral doom territory, with the
complementary Egyptian themes of the titles adding their own twist to
things. One of those albums to put on for the purpose of letting
yourself sink into the music.
~
Gabriel
For
Fans Of; Dirge, Godflesh, Fleshpress, Mudslide, Ommadon
Making their return about half a year
after the release of their first album, with a follow-up that’s about
twice as long as the debut, the French duo of Hermit’s Weedsom are
clearly aiming high and keeping their momentum up. Coming together
at just over an hour across its eight tracks, the album works with an
instrumental cocktail of heavy rock and prog metal, with some stoner
dabs to keep things warmly casual.
Leading off with “Wheel of Fortune”,
the band works a tight groove, spinning it out into elaborations,
riding those out, and circling back to the original riff with some
new twists to incorporate. Sharp guitar-work and tasty tones mesh
well with the hold-it-down and flare-it-up styles of the drums, which
pack plenty of punch in the mix. As the band continues through the
album, each song gets its own focus and flavor, from the moody sorrow
of “End of Cycle” to the inward-spiraling “Broken Chariot”,
the craggy menace of “Emperor’s Fall”, and on. Not a
disappointment to be heard among them, and the band keeps things
inventive from start to finish.
The track titles are all nice and
evocative, and loaded with Tarot references, complementing the
emotive performances of their songs while providing a sense of occult
mystery to the whole package. While some may have issues with taking
the whole album in one go (the shortest song is just two seconds
short of seven minutes), if you’ve got a spare hour to sit and soak
it in, you’ll find the time spent to be well rewarded. Here’s hoping
that some savvy label signs them up for a vinyl release of these
tunes; if they do, expect them to be snapped up fast. Even if this
doesn’t get a vinyl pressing anytime soon, get on over to the
BandCamp page and grab yourself a CD or download of the album, and
save it for a day when you’ve got time to savor some excellent music.
Making their return about half a year
after the release of their first album, with a follow-up that’s about
twice as long as the debut, the French duo of Hermit’s Weedsom are
clearly aiming high and keeping their momentum up. Coming together
at just over an hour across its eight tracks, the album works with an
instrumental cocktail of heavy rock and prog metal, with some stoner
dabs to keep things warmly casual.
Leading off with “Wheel of Fortune”,
the band works a tight groove, spinning it out into elaborations,
riding those out, and circling back to the original riff with some
new twists to incorporate. Sharp guitar-work and tasty tones mesh
well with the hold-it-down and flare-it-up styles of the drums, which
pack plenty of punch in the mix. As the band continues through the
album, each song gets its own focus and flavor, from the moody sorrow
of “End of Cycle” to the inward-spiraling “Broken Chariot”,
the craggy menace of “Emperor’s Fall”, and on. Not a
disappointment to be heard among them, and the band keeps things
inventive from start to finish.
The track titles are all nice and
evocative, and loaded with Tarot references, complementing the
emotive performances of their songs while providing a sense of occult
mystery to the whole package. While some may have issues with taking
the whole album in one go (the shortest song is just two seconds
short of seven minutes), if you’ve got a spare hour to sit and soak
it in, you’ll find the time spent to be well rewarded. Here’s hoping
that some savvy label signs them up for a vinyl release of these
tunes; if they do, expect them to be snapped up fast. Even if this
doesn’t get a vinyl pressing anytime soon, get on over to the
BandCamp page and grab yourself a CD or download of the album, and
save it for a day when you’ve got time to savor some excellent music.
This is the first album from a two-man
Dutch supergroup of dark music veterans. Bringing together Maurice
De Jong (probably best known for Gnaw Their Tongues, though there’s
at least a dozen other projects to his name) and Rene Aquarius
(likewise prolific, and half of Dead Neanderthals), this is billed as
an experiment in pushing the qualities of doom metal to extremes.
With the album coming together at just over half an hour in length,
it’s implicit that to meet that goal, these are going to be some
dense songs.
Opening track “Crypt within a Crypt”
gets things off to a suitable start, with an enveloping rumble of
fuzzy bass joined by low, guttural vocals. The song operates mostly
as an audio cocoon, shrouding the listener in morbid ambience, with
shredding guitar lines mixed down to become another textural
component in the murky din. “Of Suffering” continues in much the
same vein, though with some of the textures changed up, and a
different rhythm to the massive rumbling. The drums also get more
play in this song, though they’re suitably muffled, adding to the
subterranean feel.
“Suspended Animation” carries on
the oppressive atmosphere, with grinding guitar feedback elevated a
bit in clarity, and the vocals groaning with more fervor. There’s
also a shift into what amounts to a bass solo, with clanging piano
and drum counterpointing, for one of the more impactful passages in
the album. “Sacrificial Chalice” turns up the tempo of the
rumbling bass, making it a throbbing presence in the stereo field,
and “Cadaverous Odor” brings things to a close with a big riff
carrying it along.
While it’s not quite as confrontational
and unprecedented as the press releases might have it, there’s still
a lot to respect with the ends to which the duo have pushed this
music. It’s incredibly heavy, almost to a tangible degree (assuming
you’ve got your speakers turned up loud enough), and the grime is
virtually palpable. If you find yourself wanting to just sink into a
pit of auditory doom, this should punch your ticket.
~ Gabriel
For Fans Of; Cult Of
Occult, Evaporated Sores, Heavydeath, Leechfeast, Meth Drinker
