It’s no secret. Everybody knows that Finland houses an impressive list of great Doom-acts, whether it be within the Traditional / Classic Doom current, the Epic Doom, Doom-Death, Funeral Doom, or the Doom-Doomer-Doomiest Doom one. And one of the best known and, to some, most impressive projects out there is this one, My Shameful.
With exception of Hallucination, Necrolepsy and mighty Barzak (they changed their name in mean time), I think I have never heard of any Bangladesh-based Metal-band before. Don’t worry; it’s not that Bangladesh houses such a huge scene. But one cannot deny the qualities of the few bands that (seem to) dwell out there. Brings me to this band, Morbidity, also from the capital of Dhaka, debuting with Revealed From Ashes on mighty Memento Mori.
Deviator are a project from Ukraine around Dmitry ‘Lord Hastner’ Kundelski. As from 2007, there were quite some releases (demos, some contributions to splits, some singles / EPs, and two full lengths; compilations and this specific album not included). A couple of months ago, I wrote a review for the compilation To Forgotten Path – Triumph Of The Will, published on October 11th 2014, released via Pesttanz Klangschmiede. But the last ‘real’ full length release dates from 2012, actually.
In quite an impressive series of majestic albums, Germany’s Castellum Stoufenburc release a fantastic four-way split, consisting of (new) hymns by all projects involved (three compositions each), as well as some collaborative compositions. Great Aural Art once again, but the visual aspect is at least as impressive (once again done by Cold Sun Arts). One sad remark, however: the limitation to 200 copies only; as a matter of fact, that’s a sad thing for you, for I have mine ;-) (indeed, undersigned did add a smiley…)…
2014 was truly a year that did put the Doom-Sludge scene on the highest step. There were so many releases, including lots of disappointments, but amongst them also tens of fabulous ones; something we didn’t experience since this genre was sort of ‘born’. We have to make sure that this trend does not overrule itself, but as for now, I think there is no silly overcrowding.
Why you’d call a CD with Christmas songs Ragnarok Juletide is a mystery to me. A Juletide – correct writing should be Yuletide by the way being a pre-Christian festival associated with Winter solstice, so the only link is that the period is around the time we Christians celebrate Christmas, and Ragnarok – correct spelling should be Ragnarök being a series of future events in Norse Mythology, including a great battle during which a fair number of important Norse gods, likeThor, Odin and Loki die.
Line up:
Jarvis Leatherby - Vocals, Bass
Brent Woodward - Guitar
Dustin Squires – Drums
Gag isn’t the guy behind this label only (Vomit Bucket Productions, for your information, will focus on his own projects only as from now on), but he’s the same dude who plays in Vomitous Discharge (review on the split with No One Gets Out Alive: see January 24th 2015), Sewage Cocktail, Splattered Nachos or The People’s Noise Project (review on Man! I Feel Like Noise! … coming soon).
This album is available in two formats, on is an EP CD, containing five tracks, the other one is a 10 track full CD.. On the EP are 5 unreleased songs, of which three are covers (‘Defenders Of Creation’ by Warrior, ‘A World Without Heroes’ by Kiss and finally ‘Out In The Cold’ by Judas Priest. The longer version contains some special mixed versions as well as 2 additional cover songs.
One of the most satisfying 2014-discoveries for undersigned was the roster of Germany’s Castellum Stoufenburc, a label named after the Staufenburg Castle aka Feste Stauf. It’s not a new label, though still very young, but they sort of fill a hiatus I underwent for quite some time.
