Nagaarum is quite an active solo-project by Gábor Tóth, whom you might know from bands such as In Vacuo, GuilThee or Sunseth Sphere. This project started in 2008 as an Industrial / Ambient outfit, but Nagaarum permanently evolved. In the near future I will write and publish a review on Homo Maleficus, the 2017-album, but first I’ll write some words about 2016’s D.I.M.
Tornio is a city in Finland, located at the border of Sweden (it’s like a sister-city of Sweden’s Haparanda), and at the very Northern shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. Tornio is also the location where Ordog hail from. The latter is a band that was formed at half of last decade, being named after the Hungarian word for ‘devil’. These Finnish doomsters did record and release a couple of demonstrational stuff, and five full lengths (without the compilation that covers the first demos).
With the band’s name, the album’s title, and the cover picture, I was afraid I would throw over soon. Fake Cats Project performing Russian Canon (I’m not sure, but I think it’s named after a classic composition once written by Igor Stravinsky), while seeing a clay cat with green-marbled eyes on a wooden hammock… No, this probably won’t do.
I had not heard of this guy before, but apparently James Batty is a multi-instrumentalist who lives and works in London. As from his youth, he’s fascinated by music and sound compositions, and he did some studies at the known Chetham School Of Music. During his studies, he was elected in a competition for the BBC, the Young Composer Competition, which he eventually did win. Throughout his career, he did quite some solo things, including improvisations, and he did work with a huge variety of famous musicians too. That, in short, is like a brief biography.
This is not a review on a new recording by German band Winterblood, you know, the one that gave pleasure (or irritation?) to the Black Metal scene with their 2013-album Herbstsehnsucht. That album was released via French label Le Crépuscule Du Soir Productions (at this moment having a break, apparently???), and the funny thing is that this very same label also released something from another act called Winterblood: Anelli, 2014.
~~Well, misanthropy and sarcasm often go hand in hand. I think that’s a good thing, because the extinction of humanity can be humorous, is it not?! This given can also be translated in a sonic concept, and that’s where Aliens vs Dinosaurs enters the conversation. What if an aliensaur would invade our world in order to end (human) life? Wouldn’t that be a fantastic nightmare with a bloody yet cool result, for Mater Terra would be saved from the sickness called ‘humanity’, and nature might reconquer its righteous throne? I’m in for some philosophical reflection…
Germany’s project Emerge did create quite some stuff in mean time (also under different monikers, like as part of the fabulous Martwa Natura-collaboration), and once in a while previously unreleased material finally gets the attention it deserves. That’s the case right here, with Hiding Place. It consists of some stuff that was recorded in September 2013 (if I am not mistaken, more stuff from those recording sessions were released under the Attenuation Circuit-banner, which is the project’s own label - cf.
Karmiciel Wszy is a Polish artist / sound composer that recently released a handful of material on labels such as BDTA, Cvlminis, Lighten Up Sounds or Jasień, as well as an album via the impressive Frozen Light label from the Russian Federation. The latter is called Torre Bert, which is actually the name of a non-official tracking station somewhere in Italy.
Abysmal Growls Of Despair are a very young yet extremely productive solo-project from Aimeric ‘Hangsvart’ Lerat, hailing from the south of France.
To celebrate their fifteenth year of existence, Quercus present us their third full length album, two years after Sfumato. This Czech act, with members from Umbrtka (vocalist Ondřej ‘Lord Morbivod’ Klášterka and multi-instrumentalist Lukáš Kudrna, with newly recruited keyboardist Marek ‘Markko’ Pišl), recorded this lengthy five-tracker over a period of almost one year.
