CD

A warm, dark and subtle but complex drone experience awaits…

The Polish horde Aryman was formed at the very beginning of this century, but initially it was a band without name, without an aim (besides playing Black Metal!), without any official and professional recording or release. I guess it was in 2006 when main members Nefarius and Non Serviam decided to baptise their sonic brainchild as Aryman.

When Maëror Tri decided to split up almost two decades ago (and still my tears haven’t completely gone yet), two of the members, Stefan and Martin (aka Baraka[H] and Glit[s]ch), decided to continue their collaboration under the moniker of Troum. ‘troum’ is an old-Germanic word for ‘dream’ (Traum in modern German), and they did choose this moniker specifically to focus on the experiences of the past, knowing that there will never be a return.

~~With pleasure I present you a new review for the small yet unique French label Distant Voices. They’re ‘small’ in the meaning that they do release only a handful of albums each year. Quality prevailing on quantity must be their motto, and that also returns in the artistic totality of each release. It goes, of course, for the sonic result of each project involved (and every album that gets released by this label), but every single release is handmade and hand-numbered. Therefor all releases are strictly limited, with no repress possible afterwards.

~~With Hallucinations, Haiku Funeral have their fourth album, and the second for Aesthetic Death. The former release on their current label was Nightmare Painting, released in early Spring 2015. For the interested ones: the review on that album was published on June 7th 2015; you will find there some additional biographical information. The whole was written, composed and performed by the central duo of William Kopecky (bass, voices, lyrics) and Dimitar Dimitrov (vocals, programming, keyboards, guitars), with assistance of David Lillkvist on percussions / drums.

~~Swedish act Siniestro, once formed as Graverape Ritual, return with Revelations In Mayhem, about two years after the Oppression Of The Sunlight EP (the review I did for that one was published on November 11th 2014; you can enter the band’s or label’s name in the ‘search’-tab to find out more about the band / label), and four years after Against The Rotten Music Industry (which actually was released under the former band’s moniker, Graverape Ritual).

~~“Let the Dark Light guide you and keep you eternally.
Black Metal is more than just Music.”

Henrik ‘Nordvargr’ Björkk is quite a busy musician, especially within the worlds of Industrial / Ambient / Drone / Noise. I can sum up quite an impressive list of projects he is, or was, involved with, but that would not exactly create a surplus. I’ll just mention some of the best known: MZ.412, Folkstorm, Toroidh, Körperwelten, All Hail The Transcending Ghost, Pouppée Fabrikk, Nordvargr / Drakh, amongst many others (for some of them I did write a chronicle in the past, in case you’re interested).

~~Tino Thiele and Jens Roder joined forces under the Wulfgar banner, being named after the barbarian warrior from Icewind Dale, created by American SF / fantasy novelist / author Robert A. Salvatore. They are not to be mistaken for the Swedish (Death Metal) band, for your information! This Brandenburg-based duo did record the Heidenwahn album after quite a long period of silence; the last album (Jens wasn’t part of the project yet) was released in 2008, so for the ‘fans’ is might have been quite a period of impatience and uncertainness.

~~Mark ‘Hellcommander Vargblood’ Azzopardi is a (talented) musician from Malta. He was involved with acts such as legendary X-Vandals (for sure one of the oldest bands ever from those Mediterranean islands, once formed as Vandals), Hell Rats and Martyrium. However, he is the very same guy behind mighty Draugûl, one of the several superb projects on Pesttanz Klangschmiede. I wrote two reviews for this solo-outfit in the past, and in a near future I will write one on the third full length album too – but that’s not relevant right now. Just stay attentive.