Here we are again…to make metal lovers happy and to make the haters’ lives a little rougher, YES! Today we talk about the brand new Finnish Sludge-Doom metal from Inverse Records, the band Earthblood and their second EP arriving on April 18th 2024, “Witchburner“.
These guys look like clocks working because it’s only been a short time since we heard about the first EP “Primal Fury” being released, around mid-September 2023, and not that I’m a huge fan of EP’s, but a band producing is better than one bankrupt band, right?Right! and here is another fusion of Thrash and Death elements sprinkled with personality, not bad, and if what we want is new blood bubbling into the scene, then here are the guys listed for this year’s Bloodfest alongside names like Kaunis Kuolematon, Aeonian Sorrow, Corpsessed, and my favorites from Voidfallen and As the Sun falls, really not bad. Sounding a bit dirty and with an “invoked” cover, “Witchburner” has three tracks, the title of the album, full of weight and acceleration, “Sons of Heavy Rain“, corpulent, dense and with screaming guitars and “Swamp Hammer” which puts us back on track with a terrifying, well-played doom, no-frills, thanks. Look at Finland representing well in the genre! Delight! I have to say, I’m looking forward to a full-length from these guys…that’s all I can say for now. They sound good, without compromises or frills, fair sound, but I want to hear a little more. For now “Witchburner” is highly recommended, as is its sound without compromise, listen!
“Alt for Norge!”…as Jorn’s version song would say among so many other exaltations to dear Norway…here we are back to my beloved icy home and its multi-faceted wonders ready to be discovered to talk about our best men, today specifically about the Norwegian multi-instrumentalist MICHAEL KRUMINS and his debut solo album INFINITY, which was be released via MSK Records on March 24, 2023.
Michael Krumins photo by Vicky Athanassopoulou
But if on the one hand we are here to talk about new releases directly from the Nordic lands then on the other hand the question that remains is “Who is Michael Krumins?” and here is another one of those fantastic discoveries from these ends of the planet, Michael is a multi-instrumentalist born in the small and “mechanical” Moss, having shared his childhood in Vennesla, but who decided to live music in its purest essence, reaching the world in all directions and dedicating himself completely to this sound universe without imposing borders. Michael over the years has transformed experience gained into diversity and the vast knowledge gained from a master’s degree in music, tours across Europe and America and a multitude of captivating and experimental projects from Europe to Africa that brought it all to a musician with a resume so complete that a brief introduction becomes a complex explanation and just a brief overview of what INFINITY contains. But before I continue talking about this vertiginous album I want to remind you, dear readers, don’t be fooled by the serene image of this peaceful musician, Krumins is a machine, a machine producing music. In addition to having a brilliant musical and experimental journey, he is also one of the ingenious hands alongside the gothic metal band Sirenia and the power of the strings of the progressive rockers Green Carnation, so believe me, this album brings much more than music, but also life and experiences, flavors and smells, memories and culture, and a multitude of influences that at one time or another reach the listener, INFINITY is a generous piece of Krumins epitome and his legacy and arrives on the 2023 release menu in a promising way.
Now let’s move on to the album as if we were sitting at the table with a good wine being tasted for the first time, with a simple cover art created in partnership with the photographer Kostas Giokas and seven captivating tracks Krumins delivers to the public a delicious sound web with little more 43 minutes long, published and released on all digital platforms as well as on CD and vinyl, the vinyl with a worthy metal direct mastering. Composed in its entirety by Krumins and practically played in its entirety by even though, only the percussion was played by Californian Larry Salzman, INFINITY was recorded at MD studio in Athens, mixed in Dolby atmos by Christer Cederberg and mastered by Morgan Nicolaysen.
Light the candles, put on your best glass, dear readers, we start our tasting in the pulsating “Diamorphosis” with a mixed flavor of flamenco and Spanish culture fused with unique tones in a cheerful and lively trail that changes the atmosphere as well as the seasons of the year, and if we talk about atmosphere, then the atmospheric “Red Soul” takes its place next and leads the listener to slightly blackened lines and folkloric mixtures united with the progressive that is Krumins’ hallmark. At this point it is important to point out, Krumins made himself an adventurer through the world and through music, strongly connected by the Nutopia collective and overflowing with references from Arab, Balkan and Turkish genres, this musician are not afraid to be daring, traveling to the four corners of the earth and bringing the full baggage of cultures such as Tanzania and Mozambique, Krumins teases as he strums the lovely “Adio” where I can almost smell the sauces simmering in Tuscany, or the freshness of the gentle drizzle of my beloved Como, Italy.
INFINITY arrives at “Loneliness” with the delicacy that reminds me a lot of the lines of the dear musician Gustavo Santaolalla, icy strums and depressive melodies nailed to the crying guitar that send the listener to an infinity of sensations and for a second my mind is cut by curiosity about Krumins (giant musical growth, well, are we talking about a Norwegian, but in love with the world? Well, what a pleasant surprise!) and then for the comfort that tracks like “Transition” offer, almost as if snuggling the listener in a tight hug, simplicity that falls on “Stardust” too and puts the listener in a state of reflection so harmonious that I hope the album doesn’t come to an end, but, like everything that is good, this end is inevitable and we close our tasting at the last and tastiest gulp, the title track “Infinity” and the corpulence of its more than nine minutes is a spatial throw of shimmering atmospheres and ethereal sound. INFINITY proves itself in every detail, in every second, an extraordinarily rich and solid album, played in its entirety like a meticulously polished jewel and waiting to be discovered each time it is played.
Krumins should be really proud, we have a true masterpiece here!
Damn, time really flies! Who would have thought that the years would go by so fast? Or…are we all really too distracted these days? Not sure, after all, almost four years have passed since the release of “Solblót“, the debut album by the Danish project LOS, and here we are again talking about them…or him, rather, what I mean is, LOS is what we might call a “one man band” or “the do-it all“, with a little extra sporadic help. Maybe I’m wrong but I think that the last few years have thrown us into a loop of tragedies and events so intense that they have taken away our sense of time and space, but, putting everything aside now and looking forward, we can once again turn our ears to the creations of the genius multi-instrumentalist Søren Sol Koldsen-Zederkof and the brand new album “Galdrablót“, the new pupil under the name of LOS which will be officially released on the 10th of February. “Galdrablót” is an album being released independently on all streaming platforms and on vinyl with a limited edition of 300 copies, with eight tracks and just over thirty-four minutes in length.
For those who don’t know, Søren is one of those diamonds encrusted in the Scandinavian fjords, another one of those sound treasures that should have been part of a more stronger musical veins for a long time now and beyond the oceans, yet another versatile and multi-faceted musician who delivers to the public much more than quality songs but a complete work of art and sound, an experience inspired by wild elements as much as nature and the very human essence.
“Galdrablót” offers a kind of broader continuation to the debut album “Solblót, yet expanding the experimental panorama on voices and sounds from within to ritualism and shamanism to calmer and more meditative landscapes endowed with overtones and drone elements that travel through an improvised language inspired by Old Norse and Icelandic but without a direct meaning, thus opening an endless window for interpretation. LOS wants to reach everyone, or rather, sheltering everyone and their senses.
As many can imagine I am absolutely suspect when talking about LOS, this project headed the very few perfect albums in my conception that year (2019) and besides everything it nailed the hundredth place in my reviews still in times of Roadie Metal, besides everything it brings all the experience of Søren and his magical years of Krauka and his ancient and solid Viking Folk, so to sit down once more to listen to a new creation by LOS awakens in me a feeling of home and once again the certainty of something amazing ahead, it’s almost like taking a new book in your hands for the very first time and already being absolutely sure it will be wonderful, that’s what this project offers, not just an album but an immersive and complete sound experience. So ladies and gentlemen, sit down and relax, the “menu” is served!
From now on, hold your breath and throw yourself into “Galdrablót” from “Månesejd”, something that sounds like “he who waits” or “phases of the moon” to me, which leads us to practically the same path if we consider that patience is needed for both, and it is this lull necessary for patience that we savor at this point. “Månesejd” is a delicate intro track, packed with the splash of bells and Søren’s shamanic chants accompanied by “drums” and sighs. And if, on the one hand, the delicacy of that moment intoxicates the listener, then “Solfærd” and its solar journey takes us back to the horizon and a new dawn. A sense of ancestry invades the enclosure and the trail opens up space for an invasion of feelings and sensations, almost like a walk on a cold winter morning in the middle of the woods that I love so much in my dear Norway. I can only love LOS, the artistic work of this album has such a great power over the listener that it becomes inevitable to connect the music to feelings and memories, even about the past, obviously the listener needs to allow himself to experience it, but then the “door” unlocked and the experience started, it becomes increasingly difficult not to fully immerse yourself.
Søren has a very peculiar and unique way of composing, an example of this is “Ravnefjeld”, a track that even features the delicate vocals ofNanna Solveig Barslev in the background, one of the most recognized names in the Danish Folk, Viking and medieval scene. “Ravnefjeld” has a vibration and intensity very different from the previous ones, at times with vocal timbres very similar to Asian folk music, and since we are heading towards the mountains then “Jotunheim” completes the enchantment, and I like that, this “play” with languages and times, the doubt if we are talking here about the Jotunheim fjords or about the land of the giants of Norse mythology, remains at your discretion to identify, but like both definitions “Jotunheim” has an intense sound and the vocals advanced to a more imposing and serious tone marked by percussion. As I said from the beginning of this review “Galdrablót” is a more reflective album than its predecessor and the title track concretizes this idea, the little more than five minutes of the track embraces us with a tender and deep song of instrumental and scintillating atmospheres that momentarily move us away from the idea of ritual to the concept of ceremony, contact with everything above us, ancestry and mysticism. I believe this is one of the most beautiful moments of this release.
“Ofring” in turn is the second single released from “Galdrablót”, it won an official video more than a year ago and brings darker lines to this album. “Ofring”, sacrifice in the literal translation from Danish and Norwegian, means exactly that, an exemplification of “returning something back to nature and gods”, an offering in an obscure ritual wrapped in shamanic chants, and for the first time on this album I hear instruments differentiated and we gain a more blackened tone of LOS, the fruits never fall far, do they? Another fact that arouses my curiosity is the introduction of guitar and bass in a more expressive way in this track, which makes us understand that this project is like a box of surprises from which you can expect anything to come out, and believe me, from one way or another it will make sense.
Completing the album is “Krigskald” and its intonation to the people for battle, choruses superimposed on Søren’s voice, giving the track a touching magnitude and depth at the same time as a mixture of melancholy and simplicity. We close the album with “Disa” and all the ritualistic instrumentation that embraces us as a “see you later” from an album that is equivalent in importance both as a piece of history, is a faithful record of culture and traditions, as well as a kind of of sound therapy.
As I expected, Søren impressed me once again and LOS continues to be a unique gem worth discovering.
If you, like me, seek in an album more than the same, if you, like me, seek to find new sensations in music, then surrender to LOS and welcome to new horizons.
All music composed by Søren Sol Koldsen-Zederkof All instruments and vocals by Søren Sol Koldsen- Zederkof Guest vocals on Ravnefjeld by Nanna Solveig Barslev Recorded and mixed by Søren Sol Koldsen-Zederkof Mastered by Quentin Høegh Nicollet – Black Sun Audio Album cover art, painting and photography by Søren Sol Koldsen-Zederkof Layout and manufacturing By Støjfabrikken
A long hiatus and here we are again, sailors! The world continues to turn and we move forward navigating through the “multiverse of music” to brave the latest frontiers of releases, and today I resume my reviews with the Norwegians from Bergen ONCE AWAKE, and their eponymous album released independently on November 23, 2022, by the way, here’s the suggestion for contracting frontiers (A&R’s, come on!), these guys deserve a little more, don’t you think?
Maybe ONCE AWAKE is not a new name sounding to European ears, after all the guys performed at the very first Knotfest live streaming festival ‘Pulse Of The Maggots’ alongside some good ones like Orbit Culture and Vended, added to that is also the third album “Bridgeburner” released in 2020 which brought some international recognition, this all during the pandemic, but if we think a little more outside the box then there is a lot of information to provide yet, these astute lads have been spinning non-stop on the scene since the early 2000s in a frenetic mix of the wave of American bands with the epitome of Norwegian melodic death metal for which the country became embedded in the metal scene, and this is without a doubt one of those bands where structure is something formidable, yes, because while I still come across aspiring rock star dreaming of a fantasy career these guys here are down to earth and have a really strong sense of responsibility.
Hans, Frode, Ørjan and Andrè are a troupe that strive to deliver a good product to the listeners and take it seriously, everything is absolutely chewed up and available to the public and that’s great, on top of all that the band keeps so solid and united in these years, for me it sounds almost like a miracle among so many that change members every month. But, but, let’s put past aside for a bit and focus on the present, after all we are here to talk about the fourth album and “Once Awake” already arrived with beautiful and straight cover art on 11 tracks with a total of little more 45 minutes, and we’ll pause at this point to say, “My Deed” becomes a sharp can opener kicking off the album, and to top it off the band even released the official video, so don’t delay to check it out!
“My Deed” is a chunky track of dense guitars and frantic drums, the vocals may still be very core-line but mind you, we’re not talking about boys here, the vocal structure is intense and mature, all the instrumentation sounds crystal clear and the production sounds elaborate enough to make us look forward to discovering what we’re going to find next. I don’t need to spoil anyone, I recognize good work when I hear it and “Bury Your Soul” exposes this even more, another fast and explosive track, steeped between metalcore and a kind of “modern death” metal, ONCE AWAKE becomes alchemistic and plays with layers and elements, “Meet The Maker” just continues the course despite sounding more like a sequel than a new track and “Crown” doesn’t differ much from that. You see, ONCE AWAKE is the type of band with strong fists, as I said, well structured, although this I miss a little daring, we need to be honest, sometimes you need to go a little further.
I remember listening to a cover of P.O.D that ONCE AWAKE recorded not long ago, it made me remember how hybrid some bands can become and it makes us want to categorize them into just one genre, that’s where we end up getting lost, after all, at what point do alternative metal, nu metal, metalcore and melodic metal get so far apart when musicians put everything together in a blender and mix it up without caring? Follow for example “Ashes of an Enemy” or “Blinded to Remind” and try to define them! But most importantly, “Once Awake” is an honest and carefully composed album, heavy in proportion and full of quality, even if there’s not as much adrenaline or surprises along the way it still sounds certainly fair, the kind you can listen all day without disturbing. Everything is where it should be and you can hear every member and instrument clearly without difficulty. What I can conclude is that this band has been on the road for a long time and has followed a good path, maybe the next step? Have you ever heard that a diamond needs to be polished? It defines everything! Anyway don’t let these guys go unheard, they work hard, babe! They work hard!
Highlight for “Trudelutt” and “Sculpture“.
RATE: 8,5/10
RELEASE – November 23rd, 2022
TRACK LISTING 1. My Deed 2. Bury Your Soul 3. Meet the Maker 4. Crown 5. Ashes of an Enemy 6. Sculpture 7.B linded to Remind 8. Alive 9. Shadows Ascend 10. Trudelutt 11. 585 (Essen, Germany 2022 Live)
