Season Of Mist

The Post / Sludge genre is permanently growing, and for sure the French scene is one of the most prominent ones worldwide. One of my most beloved acts from France is Dirge, hailing from Paris, and active for almost twenty-five years. In the earliest years, the band brought some kind of industrialised and psych-grinding Metal (also quite ‘popular’ in their home country), yet throughout the years they evolved a lot. Dirge recorded and released six albums in the meantime, but the last one, Hyperion (*), was released four and a half years ago.

There are quite some interesting acts within the French (Funeral) Doom / Doom-Death scene, and one of my preferred ones for sure is this one: Monolithe.

I’d like to start this review with an excerpt from the bio. “Music is an obscure and ambiguous discipline, whose forms reflect in full light the mysteries of the soul. As most of the art forms, it deals with the paradox of the materialization of thoughts, feelings and beliefs. It reveals what is hidden, dives deep in the depths of mind, and brings back its ghosts to the surface for everyone to see.”

I’ve always been impressed by bands and projects that involve Matron Thorn: Crowhurst, Benighted In Sodom, Midwinter Storm, Andacht and, especially, mighty Ævangelist. And hurray, recently he started a new project, called Death Fetishist.

If I’m not mistaken – and since I’m a smart guy the chance is almost nihil – ‘Arkona’ is the name of a cape on the Rügen island, nowadays in Germany (Baltic Sea, close to Poland), where the Slavic fortress Jaromarsburg was built. Like many castles, it has been a source of inspiration for many Metal bands. Behemoth’s first recordings, for example (at the time that they did still play ‘real’ Black Metal), referred to that era / area, but there are quite some bands named after that specific historical place too.

~~Pénitence Onirique is born from an ancestral and powerful bicephalous mystical appearance…

“forget your world and open your souls because the great procession comes.”

V.I.T.R.I.O.L. is taking us for an initiatory journey to the meaning of death…

…and so on…

Almost one year after the fabulous demo-tape På Förtvivlans Krön (see update November 10^th 2014), Sweden’s devastating army Svärta return with six (mainly lengthy; i.e. in between four and nine minutes) new epics in order to continue their up-marching sonic terror. Be grateful, dear listener, because that former release was quite impressive (I gave it a 90/100-score).

I had never heard of this band before, South-Korean based act Madmans Esprit. The bio included, kindly provided by A Sad Sadness Song (which actually is a sub-division of Aeternitas Tenebrarum Musicae Fundamentum aka ATMF), files this band’s stuff as Schizophrenic Dark-Black Metal, so I was quite virginal in mind when I listened to the album Nacht for the first time. The devirgination (aka defloration), however, was quite painful and horrific…

About one decade ago, Nicholas Onfray (think also: Black Moon, Ruined Sanctuary, Horns, The Last Knell etc.) formed the outfit Animus Mortis. He joined forces with vocalist Sid, and as a duo they recorded the demonstrational recording, called Desolate Landscapes.

Well well well, I thought this Italian band did split up a couple of years ago, but apparently it wasn’t but a temporary break. That’s fantastic news, but the best thing is: Absentia Lunae return with a new full length studio recording!