This album does not deal with the heroic warriors from Snake Island (got it?), but it is a new effort by a solo-outfit of Olga Kann, called Cryo Depth. I have been extremely impressed and overwhelmed before by her creations Alarm Call 1986 (dealing with the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl) or Monolith (FYI: both have been reviewed by undersigned; in case of interest, click on the link below). So, I was quite enthralled when she did finish a new recording, called The Haunted Stories.
Witch Haus In The Forest is a collaborative effort by two international acts, i.e. one from Belgium and one from Chile. Marc Ceulemans aka Brainquake is a very productive Electronic / Noise / Experimental musician from Belgian soil, active since last century and responsible for numerous releases, amongst which different splits / collabs (with e.g. Brazilian Noise project Ferra-Reto [related to Nailed Nazarene Industries] or Italy’s HNW outfit Rapace).
It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life (Joseph Campbell).
I am almost ashamed to admit, but I had not heard of Saarkoth before. However, this formation started more than five years ago (2016), being formed in the Staffordshire area (UK), initially as a trio. After a nameless demo, the band – back then still as a trio – recorded and independently released their debut Jera, and in early 2020 Saarkoth, now as duo since their bass player left, returned with a lengthy one-track hymn, called Follow The Cult (also without assistance of any label).
Act Of Entropy is a project by Pan, a dedicated Underground musician and promotor, and his partner (in crime) (who prefers to remain sort of anonymous). The project was formed four years ago or so, and exist ‘to explore the boundaries of what we can do’. The duo did record a hand full of releases in the past (i.e. demonstrational recordings and stuff), and about one year ago they did digitally release the Abyssal Esurience EP. Even-though it was finished and published one year ago (and a couple of days), I still want it to bring to mind.
Normally I do not delve deep into Metalcore-oriented stuff. Concreteweb (undersigned included, as being the sole reviewer) however tries to be open-minded, as long as the content is worth being treated. Well, earlier this year a band from Kortrijk, Flanders, Belgium, Europe, Earth, Universe, sort of asked me about my opinion of their new album Weight Of The World. And you know, since I was (and still am) surprised the positive way by that release, I have no reason not to write down my thoughts on that album.
In a philosophic way – and hey, I am not trying to set up any discussion about it – but mankind’s ‘inner self’ is always like a travel into one’s identity, a quest to discover your own raison d’être, a confrontation with monstrous entities, nothing else but caused by your own thoughts, ideas, beliefs, opinions, and so on. Are there any supernatural powers – gods or deities, if you want – to enlighten the path we’re crawling on to reach the end? Is our inner self, being a ‘dungeon’, able to trespass the limitations, to cross the borders of our personal expectations and conversances?
[last year I came in touch with Jakub from Voidfire, yet due to circumstances, I did not have the time yet to write a review on the sole full-length album by his band Voidfire; with some delay, but here are my thoughts on that debut…]
It was purely coincidentally that I came in touch with some friendly guy called André and a new project he started, called Landstrykar. …doesn’t matter how we ‘met’, but I was truly intrigued by what I heard. I’ll start with a small introduction.
Well, you know, I do not mind -not ever- to listen to stuff that lacks of originality. I just have a few conditions: please do not act like a cheap copycat, please respect the scene (which does not mean that you cannot reinterpret narrow-minded borders, of course), and please convince me.
And that’s exactly what this German act does: playing uncompromising, no-nonsense Death / Thrash material in the vein of ‘the old school’ (whatever this might mean this time), yet without becoming some cheap ‘tribute’ band whatever.
