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  • YOB – The Sight Of The Other Shore

    Forced to undergo intestinal surgery after a life threatening medical emergency last year, it’s no small miracle that YOB’s MIKE SCHEIDT has not only survived, but persisted to bring us one the band’s best albums to date in the shape of ‘Our Raw Heart’. KEZ WHELAN caught up with the frontman in ISSUE 22 to reflect on the experience and the band’s past, present and future…

    It’s been a tough year for Yob guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt, to say the least. After enjoying widespread acclaim and some of their biggest and most successful tours yet in the wake of 2014’s ‘Clearing The Path To Ascend’, a record already considered classic in certain quarters, disaster struck in November 2016 when Mike was diagnosed with acute diverticulitis, a permanent and potentially fatal intestinal disease, and was rushed into emergency surgery in January 2017 following a major flare up.
    “The future of the band was uncertain,” Mike recalls. “If I had ended up with a permanent colostomy, touring would have been done. I hadn’t sung in five months, and in the healing from my abdominal surgeries, we didn’t know how my voice would fair. Plus I had to survive both surgeries, and a MRSA infection I acquired in the hospital which had attached to a shingles outbreak due to my immune system being compromised. Life was more groundless than it had ever been.”After nine gruelling days in hospital, Mike was discharged and, thankfully, made a fairly miraculous recovery, but coming this close to the brink of death is an experience that has shifted his perspective in many ways.

    “Some are small shifts and some are huge ones. One big shift is time is not a given. I know for certain this form will pass as all forms do, and I want to make the most of the time I have left – cliché and obvious maybe, but all the same very real to me. While working on the album, we felt lucky to be recording new music, with an increased sense of joy in doing it. We’ve always had that feeling to some degree, but this time had more current, and a different flavour to it. Words aren’t adequate.”
    A testament to both music’s great healing power and Mike’s sheer determination, Yob wasted no time in resuming work on their seventh album, ‘Our Raw Heart’, even before the frontman was fully back on his feet.

    “We had small pieces of new music written, and one full song before I became ill. Everything I had musically came into clear focus post my first surgery, and the rest of the album unfolded in short order. While working on it, each day I had a mindset that wherever I was in the process, there were no guarantees I was going to survive long enough to finish the album, record etc. So each writing session had to be an arrival in itself, playing guitar seated, often by myself, feeling both lucky and grateful in each moment for the fact of just playing, no certain future. That situation has never not been the truth, really, but at the time the truth of that reality was acute.”

    This willingness to live in the moment has had a powerful impact on ‘Our Raw Heart’, manifesting itself not only in pensive, starkly beautiful moments like ‘Beauty In Falling Leaves’ and the title track, but also some of the band’s most triumphant, direct and visceral material to date, like ‘Original Face’ and the burly, impossibly heavy chug of ‘The Screen’. Taken as a whole, the result is a powerful, life-affirming opus that’s arguably even more diverse, well-realised and emotionally affecting than its lauded predecessor.
    “The album more or less shaped itself,” Mike says with trademark humility. “I would say my hope towards the new album is that it emits a sense of exploration and freedom that has its roots in some new perspective, and miracles, really. The support and love that was shared with me when I fell ill is nothing short of astonishing. I hope this album’s music emotes the gratitude I feel for the gift I received, it couldn’t have happened otherwise. Aaron [Rieseberg, bass], Travis [Foster, drums] and I had a great time working on these songs together, and we pushed each other to try new things.”

    Mike has returned his role as frontman with renewed vigour and passion for his craft, explaining how he’s been hunkering down on his music theory and trying to expand his vocal range.

    “I’ve been taking voice lessons from Wolf Carr – who’s currently located in Seattle and offers Skype lessons as well as in person lessons – off and on since 2012, and I can’t recommend him highly enough. As I was building my voice back up, I found myself exploring new resonant places within my head and chest because I couldn’t bear down too much on my diaphragm out of fear of risking a hernia at the incision sites. As I became stronger, those new resonant places merged with my previous style and have become something new for me. As for studying music theory, for the most part I’ve been adding some new scales and chord progressions as well as studying bouzouki. I’ve been learning scales that fit GDAD tuning so I can morph in the moment and change keys and flavours as it strikes me. It’s been a blast.”
    Whilst Mike was always something of a powerhouse vocalist, you can really hear the benefits of the extra work he’s put in, with his voice soaring to ever more expressive peaks on songs like ‘In Reverie’ and the aforementioned ‘Beauty In Falling Leaves’, a song that seems to have been born from a similar place to ‘Clearing The Path To Ascend’s much beloved final track, ‘Marrow’, with the original idea germinating from Mike’s acoustic solo work.
    “I’d say ‘Beauty…’, ‘Our Raw Heart’, and even songs like ‘The Great Cessation’ are informed by acoustic work. I tend to avoid talking about what certain songs mean to me, in print,” he continues. “If I talk about them, my take in that moment may get frozen in time for the person reading the interview. Talking about what songs ‘mean’ for me is like dissecting a frog. We can get to its guts and understand it better (maybe), but the creature doesn’t survive. I want a listener to have their own original experience with a tune, therefore I don’t want to colour it with rhetoric. One on one talking with someone about a particular song is different, and in that case sometimes I get to hear how the music strikes them independent of my story around it. That I love.
    “I know what they mean to me, and in a way my lyrics are looking into a mirror, revealing both my strengths and my blind spots,” he continues. “What they mean to me changes over time. They’re very personal, but I don’t need to ‘own’ their ‘meaning’. Another’s take on what they mean to them is best served without my commentary. I will say I have changed in some significant ways in the last year, and I have a different outlook on how I want to spend the rest of my time and attention in this form. It’s a largely joyous feeling. My depression is still there, sometimes louder than other times, but I see it from a different place than before.”

    It’s interesting that Mike brings up ‘The Great Cessation’; originally released back in 2009 on Profound Lore, the album was reissued via Relapse on CD and vinyl last year, leading to Yob officially signing a deal with the label for ‘Our Raw Heart’. The impact this classic record has had since its arrival almost a decade ago has only escalated with time, and with the band recently casting their minds back to the past with this reissue, it’s tempting to wax lyrical about the album’s influence on their future too, though Mike isn’t so sure.
    “It’s hard for me to be objective about previous albums,” he admits. “When I listen to them (which is not often), I’m reminded each album was the best we had in us at the time. We’ve kept those songs from ‘The Great Cessation’ in rotation, and they’ve grown with us as we have grown as a band. The music from ‘The Great Cessation’ still feels very good to play live. That album was our first album after having taken a three [or] four year break from being a band, it was our first album with Aaron Rieseberg, and it came when doors were opening for bands like ours. It was a very exciting time. We like change, and change our surroundings often, change labels, etc. We also roll with what’s happening and feels right. That is how this reissue and new art came to be.”

    Mike seems very pleased with this particular change too, brimming with enthusiasm for his new label home.
    “I’ve been listening to Relapse albums since, I don’t know, ’91? The Suffocation ‘Human Waste’ EP, Disrupt, Macabre, Morgion, Human Remains, Neurosis, High On Fire, Nile, Today Is The Day, Benümb, and many more have been of influence and enjoyment. I don’t know how many Relapse albums I own, but it’s not a modest number. Relapse has been great to us, and we’re excited for the future.”

    And it’s a future that’s looking much brighter now than it did this time last year, with Relapse’s backing, one of their finest records to date and (most importantly) Mike’s improving health being huge causes for celebration in the Yob camp. The trio are looking forward to getting back on the road too, with Mike recalling the rush of emotion he felt when stepping out on stage after successfully overcoming his surgery.

    “Words fail,” he beams. “It was a true joy, and also a bit scary as we didn’t know how my body would do. The first show we played, which was at Northwest Terror Fest, we played a solid set. I then hit the wall hard and had to sit in the van and lay down, honestly worried I’d just hurt myself and not sure how badly. Luckily I was ok and just needed rest, but I’ve found my body has some new limits. Over time I’ve gotten much stronger, but limits are still there. However, I get to work, so I’m very grateful. We’ll do a US tour and a European tour this year, along with some scattered dates here and there. Next year we’ll likely do the same, and also branch out to hit some places we have yet to play. The future is writing itself as we go, and we’re glad for it.”

    We are too, Mike, we are too.

    ‘Our Raw Heart is out now on Relapse
    www.YobIsLove.Bandcamp.com

     

    Photos by Jimmy Hubbard

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  • Lares – Towards Nothingness

    By Ulla Roschat. Towards Nothingness is the sophomore album of the four piece German Berlin based band Lares. The band founded in 2015 and this album follows up their first EP Mask of Discomfort from 2017. Towards Nothingness is 8 songs and about 36 minutes of Blackened Psychedelic Sludge/Doom, and it’s also an apocalyptic space trip.

    Artwork by Mariusz Lewandowski.

    Towards Nothingness is the sophomore album of the four piece German Berlin based band Lares. The band founded in 2015 and this album follows up their first EP Mask of Discomfort from 2017. Towards Nothingness is 8 songs and about 36 minutes of Blackened Psychedelic Sludge/Doom, and it’s also an apocalyptic space trip.

    The album starts with the track “It Burns” and yes it burns like the rocket that shoots you into space and into unknown realms, fueled by driving, hypnotic rhythms. A distorted, psychic buzz that keeps you trippin, and soaring harsh vocals with blackened ferocity. There are also a few moments on the album that create a sense of contemplative floating, like in the second track “Theiaphobic Ansia”, but they never feel like a soothing weightlessness or moments of serenity. With a sound damp and blurred with distortion and electronic effects they rather create an atmosphere of depressive bleakness and disorientation.

    And these first two tracks are a perfect introduction to the album. They showcase the album’s basic and omnipresent atmospheres.

    Yet each song has its own moods and defining elements that make them memorable. There’s the urgency of the ferocious vocals in “Cursed With Embodiment”, the somber, gloomy doom riffs and huge build up of “SN1987A Space Alteration Machine”, the loud-quiet dynamics and glorious propelling drumming in “Grey Haze” that keep spiraling deeper and deeper into the unknown. The dark and brooding ambience of “Oumuamua”, the gooey, bluesy riffs and the spacious sound of “Catacomb Eyes”, and, eventually, the droney, almost formless waves of noise of “Towards Nothingness”, that let you know you’ve reached your destination.

    This variety of nuances weaves a thick, expanding texture into the entire album and adds to its dramatic structure with waves of tension building the all encompassing structure. The highest peak of these waves is no doubt “SN1987A Space Alteration Machine”. This is the longest track of the album (9:21) and Lares don’t waste one second of it. Here they set space truly ablaze like a supernova with a sweeping, carefully layered build up creating a sublime, intense and monolithic atmosphere.

    It’s Lares’ ability to combine the fierceness of Black Metal, the abrasive filth of Sludge, the entrancing grip of Psychedelia, the gloomy heaviness of Doom and the thrilling dynamics of Post Metal in an exciting way, that makes Towards Nothingness an organic, cohesive unity and an extremely rewarding listening experience. And to make the sense of completeness even “completer”, once again, Mariusz Lewandowski perfectly captures the soul of the music with his cover artwork (like so many times before for Abigail Williams, Astral Altar, Bell Witch, Elder Druid, Eremit, Jupiterian… just to name a few). So I am hoping for a vinyl edition of Towards Nothingness, not only, but also, because of this great artwork.

  • Lares – Towards Nothingness

    By Ulla Roschat. Towards Nothingness is the sophomore album of the four piece German Berlin based band Lares. The band founded in 2015 and this album follows up their first EP Mask of Discomfort from 2017. Towards Nothingness is 8 songs and about 36 minutes of Blackened Psychedelic Sludge/Doom, and it’s also an apocalyptic space trip.

    Artwork by Mariusz Lewandowski.

    Towards Nothingness is the sophomore album of the four piece German Berlin based band Lares. The band founded in 2015 and this album follows up their first EP Mask of Discomfort from 2017. Towards Nothingness is 8 songs and about 36 minutes of Blackened Psychedelic Sludge/Doom, and it’s also an apocalyptic space trip.

    The album starts with the track “It Burns” and yes it burns like the rocket that shoots you into space and into unknown realms, fueled by driving, hypnotic rhythms. A distorted, psychic buzz that keeps you trippin, and soaring harsh vocals with blackened ferocity. There are also a few moments on the album that create a sense of contemplative floating, like in the second track “Theiaphobic Ansia”, but they never feel like a soothing weightlessness or moments of serenity. With a sound damp and blurred with distortion and electronic effects they rather create an atmosphere of depressive bleakness and disorientation.

    And these first two tracks are a perfect introduction to the album. They showcase the album’s basic and omnipresent atmospheres.

    Yet each song has its own moods and defining elements that make them memorable. There’s the urgency of the ferocious vocals in “Cursed With Embodiment”, the somber, gloomy doom riffs and huge build up of “SN1987A Space Alteration Machine”, the loud-quiet dynamics and glorious propelling drumming in “Grey Haze” that keep spiraling deeper and deeper into the unknown. The dark and brooding ambience of “Oumuamua”, the gooey, bluesy riffs and the spacious sound of “Catacomb Eyes”, and, eventually, the droney, almost formless waves of noise of “Towards Nothingness”, that let you know you’ve reached your destination.

    This variety of nuances weaves a thick, expanding texture into the entire album and adds to its dramatic structure with waves of tension building the all encompassing structure. The highest peak of these waves is no doubt “SN1987A Space Alteration Machine”. This is the longest track of the album (9:21) and Lares don’t waste one second of it. Here they set space truly ablaze like a supernova with a sweeping, carefully layered build up creating a sublime, intense and monolithic atmosphere.

    It’s Lares’ ability to combine the fierceness of Black Metal, the abrasive filth of Sludge, the entrancing grip of Psychedelia, the gloomy heaviness of Doom and the thrilling dynamics of Post Metal in an exciting way, that makes Towards Nothingness an organic, cohesive unity and an extremely rewarding listening experience. And to make the sense of completeness even “completer”, once again, Mariusz Lewandowski perfectly captures the soul of the music with his cover artwork (like so many times before for Abigail Williams, Astral Altar, Bell Witch, Elder Druid, Eremit, Jupiterian… just to name a few). So I am hoping for a vinyl edition of Towards Nothingness, not only, but also, because of this great artwork.

  • Ars Magna Umbrae – Apotheosis

    By Bryan Camphire. The Great Art of Shadows. This is one possible translation of Ars Magna Umbrae. This Latin name may not easily roll off the tongue, but no matter. Listening to this music, it’s clear that the artist who created it is not interested in easy pleasures.
    By Bryan Camphire.

    Artwork by Dhomth

    The Great Art of Shadows. This is one possible translation of Ars Magna Umbrae. This Latin name may not easily roll off the tongue, but no matter. Listening to this music, it’s clear that the artist who created it is not interested in easy pleasures. The Great Art of Shadows could hardly be a more evocative and mysterious moniker. Apotheosis, the band’s third release, is also a fitting title as it is indeed a high point in the development of this compelling and carefully crafted body of work.

    Ars Magna Umbrae is a one person black metal entity hailing from Poland. The band’s previous release, Lunar Ascension, caught my attention as it was released by the venerable I, Voidhanger Records, an unmatched tastemaker dealing in present-day outer reaches of music. What shocked me about this artist then–and continues to do so now–is the uniqueness of the voice. There is a sophistication in the sense of melody and composition that becomes instantly recognizable and sounds like no other.

    The high level of talent on display in the music of Ars Magna Umbrae is unmistakable. I’m of the opinion that heavy metal music is a realm toward which musical savants gravitate who would have, in former times, gravitated toward classical composition. Nowadays, composing classical music is no more likely to pay the bills than metal. Metal music affords unique opportunities for emotional expression. Black metal can be seen as an especially emotive sub-genre, one that venerates individuality and poise. Describing how imperative it was for black metal bands to be unique in the genre’s early formative years, Garm, aka Kristoffer Rygg, of Ulver put it thusly,

    “I think in those days that was a major criterion; to be a force to be counted on in the scene, you had to create your own thing. This latter-day perception that true black metal only sounds like Darkthrone is just fucking silly, it’s a lot of distortion on the original idea, which included stuff like Mercyful Fate, for crying out loud. The charisma of the music was really paramount.”
    Going into detail about the singularity of the music on Apotheosis, there are passages to be found within this release that are nothing short of jaw-dropping. One such moment arrives as the second riff on the second song, “She Who Splits The Earth”. A woozy 4/4 rhythm is stomped out as the guitars glissando up and down the fretboard with uncanny precision. The off-kilter feel is accomplished by the guitar cramming more notes into the phrase than seem to want to fit, almost as though it’s transposing some odd-metered tabla phrase into an otherwise aggressively head-banging riff. I feel like I’d have to hear it slowed down to even begin to make sense of it, yet it’s this smearing of my perception that makes the riff so intoxicating.

    Other Apotheosis highlights include: The wet gurgling vocals in the lumbering end section of “Mare Tenebrarum” (The Dark Sea), evocative of a pyroclastic flow belching skyward and scorching everything on which it lands. The asymmetrical opening section in “Of Divine Divergence” giving way to a sharp-taloned riff that shreds the listener to ribbons, ending in yet another inter-dimensional guitar glissando. The dueling guitars in the mid section of “Oracle of Luminous Dark”–one of which is played by G.G. of Cosmic Putrefaction–sounding like they’re acting out the scene depicted on the cover art for Dawn of Possession.

    Apotheosis ends with a number called, “Ignis in Tenebris” (Fire in the Dark). It starts off sounding like the amp was just turned on mid-phrase, as though the song was already unfolding before we arrived to witness it. It builds steadily ablaze with the energy of an all-encompassing darkness. Some time later, as the spell and the album is extinguished, the guitar mimics the dying sounds of smoldering flickering tongues.

    Ars Magna Umbrae is a force to be counted on. Apotheosis is their grand gesture. It’s a record of sweeping vision and charisma.

  • Ars Magna Umbrae – Apotheosis

    By Bryan Camphire. The Great Art of Shadows. This is one possible translation of Ars Magna Umbrae. This Latin name may not easily roll off the tongue, but no matter. Listening to this music, it’s clear that the artist who created it is not interested in easy pleasures.
    By Bryan Camphire.

    Artwork by Dhomth

    The Great Art of Shadows. This is one possible translation of Ars Magna Umbrae. This Latin name may not easily roll off the tongue, but no matter. Listening to this music, it’s clear that the artist who created it is not interested in easy pleasures. The Great Art of Shadows could hardly be a more evocative and mysterious moniker. Apotheosis, the band’s third release, is also a fitting title as it is indeed a high point in the development of this compelling and carefully crafted body of work.

    Ars Magna Umbrae is a one person black metal entity hailing from Poland. The band’s previous release, Lunar Ascension, caught my attention as it was released by the venerable I, Voidhanger Records, an unmatched tastemaker dealing in present-day outer reaches of music. What shocked me about this artist then–and continues to do so now–is the uniqueness of the voice. There is a sophistication in the sense of melody and composition that becomes instantly recognizable and sounds like no other.

    The high level of talent on display in the music of Ars Magna Umbrae is unmistakable. I’m of the opinion that heavy metal music is a realm toward which musical savants gravitate who would have, in former times, gravitated toward classical composition. Nowadays, composing classical music is no more likely to pay the bills than metal. Metal music affords unique opportunities for emotional expression. Black metal can be seen as an especially emotive sub-genre, one that venerates individuality and poise. Describing how imperative it was for black metal bands to be unique in the genre’s early formative years, Garm, aka Kristoffer Rygg, of Ulver put it thusly,

    “I think in those days that was a major criterion; to be a force to be counted on in the scene, you had to create your own thing. This latter-day perception that true black metal only sounds like Darkthrone is just fucking silly, it’s a lot of distortion on the original idea, which included stuff like Mercyful Fate, for crying out loud. The charisma of the music was really paramount.”
    Going into detail about the singularity of the music on Apotheosis, there are passages to be found within this release that are nothing short of jaw-dropping. One such moment arrives as the second riff on the second song, “She Who Splits The Earth”. A woozy 4/4 rhythm is stomped out as the guitars glissando up and down the fretboard with uncanny precision. The off-kilter feel is accomplished by the guitar cramming more notes into the phrase than seem to want to fit, almost as though it’s transposing some odd-metered tabla phrase into an otherwise aggressively head-banging riff. I feel like I’d have to hear it slowed down to even begin to make sense of it, yet it’s this smearing of my perception that makes the riff so intoxicating.

    Other Apotheosis highlights include: The wet gurgling vocals in the lumbering end section of “Mare Tenebrarum” (The Dark Sea), evocative of a pyroclastic flow belching skyward and scorching everything on which it lands. The asymmetrical opening section in “Of Divine Divergence” giving way to a sharp-taloned riff that shreds the listener to ribbons, ending in yet another inter-dimensional guitar glissando. The dueling guitars in the mid section of “Oracle of Luminous Dark”–one of which is played by G.G. of Cosmic Putrefaction–sounding like they’re acting out the scene depicted on the cover art for Dawn of Possession.

    Apotheosis ends with a number called, “Ignis in Tenebris” (Fire in the Dark). It starts off sounding like the amp was just turned on mid-phrase, as though the song was already unfolding before we arrived to witness it. It builds steadily ablaze with the energy of an all-encompassing darkness. Some time later, as the spell and the album is extinguished, the guitar mimics the dying sounds of smoldering flickering tongues.

    Ars Magna Umbrae is a force to be counted on. Apotheosis is their grand gesture. It’s a record of sweeping vision and charisma.

  • Bull Elephant – Created From Death

    By Calen Henry. Anonymous UK collective Bull Elephant’s sophomore album picks up where the debut left off and this time the band are less cagey about the subject matter, giving a pretty clear overview of Created From Death’s narrative.


    Anonymous UK collective Bull Elephant’s sophomore album picks up where the debut left off and this time the band are less cagey about the subject matter, giving a pretty clear overview of Created From Death‘s narrative.

    The album’s eight songs switch between the story of the eponymous Bull Elephant, now in human form, and the build up of tensions during World War II, both on conventional and unconventional fronts. The Cult of the Black Sun, self-professed descendants of a corrupted god, seek to re-enlist the bodies buried in mass graves as an unending undead army. To combat such unholy creations the creature goes “from beast to human to beast again“. From reborn human flesh, the essence of the creature known as Bull Elephant is transferred into the form of a great whale, and on that note the album ominously ends. They’ll have to go far to top Mastodon’s Leviathan for “battle whale concept album” but I’ll definitely be along for the ride.

    Just as the the story for Created from Death is a bit more succinct than Bull Elephant so is the music. This time around the band digs deeper into groovy doom-sludge, leaning more on the melodic “almost-a-scream” style of vocals and keeping the really heavy and really atmospheric sections for key story moments. The change makes for a more cohesive album than Bull Elephant. Created From Death flows better, has deeper grooves, and more memorable riffs but owes a great deal to the debut. The sequel wouldn’t work without the set up from the first album. Bull Elephant introduced the whole mythos, where Created From Death gets to dive right into the next chapter.

    The ridiculous multi-album concept (there’s clearly going to be at least one more part) may not be for everyone, but Bull Elephant deliver the goods, both in riffs and concept. Sign me up for album no. 3.