Sometimes I just crave for some good, honest, straight-forward Rock ‘n’ Roll, you know, the energetic, uncompromising neck-muscles-injuring stuff. Only very rarely I get aroused by new (or older) Hard Rock pur sang, yet once in a while a band can draw my attention with passion, pain and pleasure (oops, that rather sounds Emo / Goth / Ero). Anyway, here comes a swift, short, yet indispensable (haha) resume about a new yet savory new recording…
Kristof Bathory, active under this name as well as, currently or previously, being in, or behind, Dawn Of Ashes, Cryo Chamber Collaboration or Void Stasis, started a new project recently, called Bleak Haven. This review will focus on the first recording under that regime.
Short introduction: Vertebrae Fetish Totem is the name of one of the many projects that involves Jared Moran aka Plaguehammer. As close member within the Centipede Abyss community, it is not a miracle at all to see that this newest Vertebrae Fetish Totem album gets released by Centipede Abyss once more, just like the former releases (Cult, Alchemy and Rituals).
[shorter review, but a fairly required necessity for sure!]
[since I did promise to write a review once in a while for bands and / or projects and / or artists and / or labels and / or distributors (etc.) that I do adore (personally and / or musically), I will finish this older one, which I did prepare a while ago, but which never got finished. This one is for Bart, this one is for Mark, this one is for you!]
Bereavement ravages the mind, and time promises to blunt its strength. A pale wasteland may recover one day, but the guilt that comes with fading memories takes root instead. And here, time only strengthens it.
I admit that this is an album that was released almost four months ago, yet it is still worth reviewing, and this for three reasons: the excellent label involved (I have always appreciated the Cryo Chamber community), both acts involved (no further comment, at least not yet), and the superb sonic pleasure that characterizes this collaboration (see below). Futuristic Dereliction is like a doomed, dystopian soundtrack once more, offering a post-apocalyptic view though sonic excavations. I will keep it concise, yet thorough.
As we do all know, the Centipede Abyss community consists of bands with strong relationships in between the members. Okay, not all projects share musicians, yet many (most) of them are like an intra-familial gathering. With Zvylpwkua it is not different. This North-Atlantic outfit (I mean, the members hail from both the United Kingdom and the United States) still consists of Ionnonnisssz (involved as well with e.g.
The Abyss Of Purification is a work by four projects, each of them contributing with one (lengthy) aural ceremony. It is not their first collaboration, for they did gather forces two years earlier (I mean, before this specific release, at the end of August 2022), under the banner of The Abyss Of Illumination. It’s evident that all respectful and humble appreciation goes to the label, i.e. the Noctivagant family, and the acts involved.
Forme is a collaborative work by two of Italy’s most notorious Experimental / Industrial artists: Maurizio Bianchi aka M.B. (experimenting with sounds and noises for about forty-five years) and Raffaele Pezzella aka Sonologyst (a clever human organism with a multi-tentacled angle).
