Recommendation: Lethvm - This Fall Shall Cease

Band: Lethvm
Album: This Fall Shall Cease
Label: dunk! Records, A Thousand Arms Records
Year: 2017







Tracklist
01. Impetius
02. Wandering At Dawn
03. The Last Grave
04. Winter's Journey
05. The Shades Of Minerva
06. An Encounter With The Sun
07. Ejla
Streaming / Buy

Lêtum, i, n : Dead, defund, erosion, ruined, destruction.

Belgian band formed in 2015 evolves in a heavy and torn atmosphere, between devastation and candor. The four members draw their influences in the darkness of life by inserting beauty, rage and melancholy.

For fans of Amenra.

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Buy: dunk! Records | A Thousand Arms Records

Album: Necrodancer - Void

Band: Necrodancer
Album: Void
Label: Throatruiner Records
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. The Necrodancer
02. The Seizure
03. The Hunter
04. The Turning
05. The Crusade
06. The Divide
07. The Inquisition
08. The Calling
09. The Trial
10. The Battlefield
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Franco-belgian squad Necrodancer doesn't waste time with warning shots and directly introduce themselves to the world with "Void", their debut album. Formed in 2016 between Paris and Liège by members hailing from various corners of the heavy music realm (Verdun, Daggers, Death Mercedes, Radio Maquis…) the band establishes with "Void" an already personal, hard-to pin sound. Drawing as much from swampy noise rock as from the punkier edge of later-era Darkthrone, these self-proclaimed funeral grungers are as comfortable with surprisingly catchy melodic hooks as with remorseless crust assaults. Recorded and mixed by Amaury Sauvé (Birds In Row, Plebeian Grandstand, Death Engine) then mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Okkultokrati, Nails, Full Of Hell) for maximum damages, Necrodancer's firepower will be hard to ignore.

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Buy Throatruiner Records (EU) | Lost Pilgrims Records (EU) | Deathwish Inc. (US)

Video: Amenra - A Solitary Reign

Recommendation: Thot - Fleuve

Band: Thot
Album: Fleuve
Label: Weyrd Son Records
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. Icauna
02. Odra
03. Vltava
04. Rhone
05. Rhein
06. Duna
07. Volga
08. Samara
09. Bosphore
10. Now's The Only Time I Know (Fever Ray Cover - Bonus track)
Streaming / Buy

“The river that everything drags is known as violent, but nobody calls violent the margins that arrest her.”

This quote from Bertolt Brecht is the best way to portray "Fleuve", the devastating new album of belgian outfit Thot. After a decade of challenging its music across several albums, EPs, videos, alternative versions, remixes and european tours, the gang lead by Grégoire Fray is going to bring a breath of fresh air in the industrial-rock and post-rock genres. Produced by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna) and engineered in live circumstances, "Fleuve" features 9 songs built around a powerful drums/bass/guitar trio, on which passionate vocals, heavy synths, clarinet laments and bulgarian choirs melt together perfectly. Thereby, "Fleuve" is a luminous ode to the european continent and its cultural history, to nature’s immuable inspiration, to women and transcendance.

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Recommendation: Amenra - Mass VI

Band: Amenra
Album: Mass VI
Label: Neurot Recordings, Consouling Sounds
Year: 2017







Tracklist
01. Children Of The Eye
02. Edelkroone
03. Plus Près De Toi
04. Spijt
05. A Solitary Reign
06. Diaken
Streaming / Buy

Amenra was formed in 1999 in the West Flanders city of Kortrijk. The band was founded by vocalist Colin H. van Eeckhout and lead guitarist Mathieu Vandekerckhove. The two had been in the hardcore punk band Spineless and wanted to create music with more "heart and soul".The group released their debut studio album Mass I in 2003. Van Eeckhout suggested in 2017 that each Mass is created out of necessity to reflect on a certain experience or phase in the band members' lives and thus they never know which album will be their last. He also described 2005's Mass III as a "keystone moment of [Amenra's] existence" at which they "found direction". The band's next "turning point" came when they joined Neurot Records along side Consouling Sounds to release Mass VI. The label was founded by Neurosis; a band that has been influential in Amenra's style and career.

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Streaming: We Stood Like Kings - USA 1982

Band: We Stood Like Kings
Album: USA 1982
Label: Kapitän Platte
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. Holy Ghosts
02. Four Corners
03. Nuages
04. Heat Haze
05. 33 Eleven
06. Grand Illusion
07. Night Owl
08. Machines
09. Eldoradosis
10. I Like That
11. Atlas Centaur
Streaming / Buy

Neoclassical post-rockers We Stood Like Kings saw the light of day in 2011. Half a decade and 120 shows all over Europe later, this 4-piece piano-based band hailing from Brussels has become a reference act in live soundtracks to silent cinema. You get the picture: We Stood Like Kings isn’t a band like any other. Since 2012 and with the utmost dedication, they breathe new life into well-chosen masterworks of the seventh art. 

Three projects have shaped We Stood Like Kings’ story so far. Together, these form a vibrant trilogy portraying two empires already lost – BERLIN 1927, USSR 1926 – and a third one – USA 1982 – that seems to be running headlong towards its own destruction. 

We Stood Like Kings will do anything to challenge the expected and successfully mix modern instrumental rock music with the treasures of yesterday’s cinema. Every release is another opportunity for We Stood Like Kings to design new ways of blending their musical universe – now refined and textural, then epic and intense – with images of breathtaking beauty. 

New perspectives unfold as universes meet. 

Signed to the small high-standard German label Kapitän Platte – known for their releases of Ef, Immanu El, The Hirsch Effekt –, We Stood Like Kings already recorded three full-length albums both on vinyl and CD.

Lovers of instrumental rock and silent cinema, beware!

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Video: Amenra - Children Of The Eye

Recommendation: Wyatt E. - Exile To Beyn Neharot

Band: Wyatt E.
Album: Exile To Beyn Neharot
Label: Self Released
Year: 2017








Tracklist
01. Nebuchadnezzar II
02. Ode To Ishtar
Streaming / Buy

Imagine yourself listening to post-metal  / doom in the desert. That's what Wyatt E. managed to create. A combination of instrumental post-metal with elements of doom, drone and oriental.

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Album: If Anything Happens To The Cat - Mångata

Band: If Anything Happens To The Cat
Album: Mångata
Label: Self Released
Year: 2017







Tracklist
01. Lakesides, Endless
02. Raven Steals The Light
03. Echo Park
04. Beijing Fury
05. Five Lion Mountain
06. Out And Into the Vast
07. Seren
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Mångata is Swedish for the road-like projection of the moon in the water. Mångata is also the name of our second album. The album is loosely based around the concept of water. Each song harks back to an experience or story revolving around bodies of water. Stylistically we took a different approach than on our first album ‘Sun Drunk Moon’ focusing more on beefing up our sound, producing a more technical yet more melodically layered record.

Mångata contains 44 minutes of new music, spread over 7 songs. The album was recorded at Much Luv studio during the hottest days of summer 2016 with help of producer/engineer Tim De Gieter and was mastered by Swedish producer and Cult of Luna-drummer Magnus Lindberg at Redmount Studios. - IAHTTC

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Video: Brutus - Horde II

Streaming: Empusae feat. Colin H. Van Eeckhout - Lueur

Band: Empusae feat. Colin H. Van Eeckhout
Album: Lueur
Label: Consouling Sounds
Year: 2017







Tracklist
01. Guiding Light
02. Retinae Tenebrae
Streaming / Buy

With the complexity of the music, it may surprise you to find that Empusae is actually a project created by a single man, Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe. Empusae exercises a surreal science of structure that throbs and pulsates in an almost obsessive manner. The music is almost suggestive of a mechanical assembly line in its clock work clunks and clangs. It builds into a tense, yet haunting soundscape and rivets itself into the memory and refuses to be forgotten.

On "Lueur", Colin H. Van Eeckhout (CHVE, Amenra, Kingdom, Absent In Body, Sembler Deah, Harlowe) joined Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe with his variety from clear (CHVE, Amenra's Afterlife) to hardcore vocals (Amenra), in a more church/ritual like approach.

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Video: Thot - Icauna

The Inquisition: 087.If Anything Happens To The Cat

1. How did you come up with the name of the band? 

Sad story alert! When Pieter, Wouter, and I started the band seven years ago, it was just the three of us writing songs in Wouter’s bedroom. He had a little kitten which was always jumping on our stuff while we were trying to write songs. When Wouter went for a holiday, he asked his housemates to take care of the cat and left a little note saying “if anything happens to the cat” together with his phone number. Unfortunately, while Wouter was on holiday the cat made her great escape, and was never found again. At that time, we were looking for a name. When we saw the little note on the blackboard, we unanimously decided to name the band after it. 

2. Do you have a standard procedure of creating a song? Do you just jam around or is there a main riff and the track is build up on it? 

Not really, it differs from song to song. Most of the time we start with a basic guitar idea and we see where it takes us during rehearsals. Afterwards, we’ll record demos to fine-tune the guitars. We do have some songs that initially started as a jam, and others which were almost completely written by only one of us, from start to finish. 

I think we’ve grown in this process as a band over the last couple years. In the beginning, we would all individually come up with our parts and that was that. Nowadays, we’re working as a collective and are thinking more in terms of what a specific part of a song needs to bring it to a higher level. On our upcoming album ‘Mångata’ we really focused on interweaving our sounds, producing a technical yet more melodically layered record. 

3. What are your influences and what kind of music do you hear when you are at home? 

We all have pretty different musical influences and backgrounds, ranging from Explosions in the Sky and Mono to Editors to Led Zeppelin to Sonic Youth or August Burns Red. Lately, we’ve also been inspired by more electronic synth based music, like Emancipator, Bonobo, Apparat, Arms and Sleepers and so forth. 

It’s actually a nice thing to have an eclectic background within the band, and to try to mix this into something interesting. I think and hope that you can hear this somewhat in our music. Both our first album ‘Sun Drunk Moon’ as ‘Mångata’ are rather diverse and not necessarily ‘traditional’ post-rock. 

4. Which is the one album you can't live without? 

Hard question, but if I have to choose one, it has to be ‘Give me beauty… Or give me death!’ by EF. It’s a flawless album from the first second to the last, truly breath-taking. 

5. What's the first record you've ever bought? 

I’m not sure, maybe ‘Californication’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers or ‘Follow the Leader’ by Korn? I still secretly like both albums. 

6. Name a band that you would like to share the stage or tour with? 

Personally, I’d choose Sigur Rós. Even though they grew to play bigger stages, they remained true to their own original sound, which is something I can appreciate. You’d probably get five different answers if you’d ask all of us though. 

7. Did the internet and specifically blogs help to spread your music around the world? Name a place (country) that you were surprised to know your music has reached to? 

Social networks and blogs are without a doubt the most important media to get our music heard outside of our home turf. I’m still surprised every time we get a message from someone on the other side of the world saying they like our music, especially in this day and age with the abundance of music out there.

The most surprising order we ever got online, was probably from Lahore in Pakistan. The fact we got invited to tour in China last year was the highlight of our career so far. 

8. Do you support the idea of Bandcamp where fans can decide the price or services like Spotify? 

Yes, all our music is available as a ‘name your price’-download on Bandcamp. I think it gives people a great opportunity to discover new music, and allows them to support the artists they like. 

Bandcamp is also my main channel to discover new music. I love how you listen to an album and then it stops playing, just like a vinyl or CD would. It’s finite, just like the artist imagined it. It’s not a continuous flow of music like most other streaming websites. 

9. Where do you see yourselves in 10 years? 

I have no idea to be honest. I hope we can keep growing as a band, that we can keep playing nice shows, visiting new places, releasing new music which we’re proud of. We’ll see where it takes us! 

10. Is the artwork of an album important nowadays in the digital era? 

Yes, it is very important. There are so many bands and releases nowadays. Artwork can add an extra dimension which complements the music in many ways. For our new album, we worked together with BAART art collective. They did a great job creating a cover that reflects the sound of our music. 

11. What is your favorite album cover? 

I always liked the artwork of …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. All their albums have a great design, but I especially like the cover of ‘Worlds Apart’. 

12. It seems that a lot of people are turning on vinyl again. Why do you think that is and which is your preferable media format? 

I prefer to buy vinyl as well. I guess people appreciate the little work of art a vinyl is. In an age where all information and music is so easily accessible, it’s nice to slow down for a bit and listen to music carefully. Vinyl is a great medium for this. That’s why I’m very happy that our new album Mångata, available in September, will also be released on vinyl. 

13. What's the most vivid story or moment as a band? 

That is without a doubt our China tour in October last year. We were invited to play five shows and travelled about 5000km in five days. It was such a great experience to play in some of the world’s biggest cities for entirely new crowds. People were so appreciative and generous, truly amazing;

If Anything Happens To The Cat currently funding their new album "Mångata" on Kickstarter. You can find more info about the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/255338050/if-anything-happens-to-the-cat-full-album-2-mangat

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Video Premiere: Cataya - Vis À Vis

We are honored to premiere the new video by Cataya. Track taken from the forthcoming split with Milanku later this year.

Video: Wiegedood - Ontzieling

Video: Scott Kelly, Colin H. van Eeckhout and Mathieu Vandekerckhove - Absent In Body

For the full version (19' minutes long) go here: https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/neurosis-scott-kelly-and-members-of-amenra-join-forces-as-absent-in-body

The Inquisition: 082.BARST

1. How did you came up with the name of the band?

In Dutch, BARST has several meanings. It means 'fuck you, I'll do what I want to do'. It also means 'crack', bursting through something. I finally burst through the dark, that was really how it felt when doing my solo thing. No more boundaries. Just hitting it hard, as hard as possible, and bursting through.

2. Do you have a standard procedure of creating a song? Do you just jam around or is there a main riff and the track is build up on it?

Gosh, that’s so hard to explain.  Sometimes I start off with a riff, playing it over and over like a mantra. I then come in a sort of hypnosis. I also work with loopers all the time. Creating layer over layer. Then I search some electronics sounds to make it sound thicker. But sometimes I start off with a rhythm, another time I will start with synths and arpeggiators. I think it is a very organic way of working.

3. What are your influences and what kind of music do you hear when you are at home?

I try to as eclectic as possible, soak in as much as I can. But you can say that Sonic Youth formed me as a guitar player. Stepping away from the classic guitar player path. Nowadays I don’t listen to Sonic youth as often as back in the days. I love their early work, till Daydream Nation. There or some really good songs and albums after that, but they didn’t touch me as hard as the earlier work. I also love the album ‘Hold’ by James Welburn. Last couple of weeks that album was on my turntable several times. It is the perfect album. It inspired me a lot when, working on ‘The Western Lands’. Next to that I am really into 65daysofstatic, And So I Watch You From Afar, GY!BE, Mogwai, it is an endless list.

4. How difficult was to cooperate with so many guests on your latest album?

In fact, it was not really that hard. Again, the process was very organic. On the other hand I had these guests in the back of my head the entire creative process. When I had a kind of skeleton for a piece, I asked them to listen, to do their thing and so they did. After that I worked and reworked it until it was perfect for me. But it was not hard at all. It was pure inspiration and fun.

5. Which is the one album you can't live without?

That’s an impossible question. Let’s say that today it will be ‘Sister’ by Sonic Youth, but I need the freedom to choose another one tomorrow. Life without music is unthinkable, so narrowing it down to just one, is just not possible.

6. What's the first record you've ever bought?

I think I bought two that day, I must have been 10, 11 years old. ‘4us’ by the Dutch band Doe Maar and Iron Maiden’s ‘Number Of The Beast’.

7. Name a band that you would like to share the stage or tour with?

Again, these limitations! Only one? I think first of all, it must be cool and fun be to hang around with the people, because being on tour is hard work and little sleep. So, when it becomes edgy, you need to be around good people. I would love to tour with Sal-Ocin from Empusae. I think that maybe the guys from Mogwai are rather chill people, that should be fun. Let’s rather make it a festival with Do Make Say Think, Amenra, Mogwai, Empusae, And So I watch You From Afar, Monnik, Eleanora, ESLLY, and so much more (smiley).

8. Did the internet and specially the blogs helped to spread your music around the world? Name a place (country) that you were surprised to know your music has reached to?

Yes, for sure. But the backing of a great label like Consouling Sounds is primordial. Without people like them with ideas, vision and connections, internet will not get you far I think. It’s those people who make sure your music gets around. And after that, off course, internet spreads their word. It’s really fulfilling to see that my music id being bought from Japan to south America, Canada, Russia. It’s amazing when you think about it.

9. Do you support the idea of Bandcamp where fans can decide the price or services like Spotify?

Well, I just want my music to be heard really, I don’t care through what channel.

10. Where do you see yourself in 5 years. What's the next step for BARST?

I really can’t say, I don’t want to jinx it, and I really haven’t got a clue. I hope I will be making records and that I will be performing a lot.

11. Is the artwork of an album important nowadays in the digital era?

For sure, it is face of the album and we all remember faces. It also brings the element of recognition. When thinking of an album, I hear the music in my head and I see the cover before my eyes. In one way or another, the cover will also connect with the music. I’m so happy with the work Niels Verwijk did on ‘The Western Lands’, capturing the music, the concept, the everything. When you think about ‘The Western Lands’, I’m sure you see the cover before your eyes immediately.

12. What is your favourite album cover?

Damn, this really is the inquisition! Honestly, for the moment it is the cover of ‘The Western Lands’, it is just so perfect. Niels did such an amazing job there. But that’s just a very personal and emotional choice, I guess you can forgive me that.

13. It seems that a lot of people are turning on vinyl again. Why do you think that is and which is your preferable media format?

Oh, I am a vinyl kind off guy you know. I just love the concept. I love the physical item, I love to hold it in my hands. Open it. Put it on the turntable. Sit down, listen. Looking at the artwork while listening. Vinyl makes the listening experience kind off sacral.

14. What's the most vivid story or moment as an artist?

In the meantime I really played quite a lot of concerts, but I remember vividly one of the first solo concerts, when Mike and Nele from my label ‘Consouling Sounds’ were there and after the concert they came to me and told me they wanted me on their label. As an artist, to get that kind of recognition is everything. Another moment could be to see Mathieu Vandekerckhove, Amenra’s guitar player, in the audience while I was playing a show. Seeing him nodding his head with approval, yeah, those are good moments.

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Streaming: Barst - The Western Lands

Band: Barst
Album: The Western Lands
Label: Consouling Sounds
Year: 2016








Tracklist
01. Side A: The Treshold/The Rite/The Passage
02. Side B: The Western Lands/The Fields
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After having released the critically acclaimed three-way collab album with Treha Sektori and RM74, numerous cassettes, and a whole lot of live shows, BARST is finally ready to present his full length debut album “The Western Lands”. This is an obvious reference to William S. Burroughs. The fragmented, the transcendental and the viscerally unsettling of his work was taken as an inspiration point to build up the massive effort that is BARST’s debut full length. Moreover, the cut-up technique of Burroughs earlier work, where layer upon layer is fitted to build up a work of art, is exactly BARST’s modus operandi too. Cutting up sounds, and layering them from very subtle to incredibly huge is in BARST’s DNA.

To reach the massive sound achieved on the “The Western Lands”, he had the help of an amazing riches of musicians like Mike Armine (Rosetta), Dehn Sora (Treha Sektori, Sembler Deah, …), Karen Willems (Inwolves), Mathieu Mathlovsky(Mathlovsky), Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe (Empusae, Onus,…), An-Sofie De Meyer (FÄR), Tokyo Oyo and Herr Man. The album is one epic trip, encompassing ambient, drone, metal, shoegaze and electronica. “The Western Lands” captures a multitude of musical universes, and blends them seamlessly together in one of the most complete albums we have ever heard. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Tim De Gieter at Much Luv Studio. The artwork, which reflects the same inspiration, was expertly executed by Niels Verwijk.

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Video: CHVE - Charon

Video: Oathbreaker - Immortals