DOOM CHART - Top 25 Albums for 02/14/15

Top 25 Albums

#). artist - album title

1. Pombagira - Flesh Throne Press***
2. Kabbalah - Primitve Stone EP
3. Alucarda - Raw Howls
4. Crowned in Earth - Metempsychosis
5. Evil Spirit - Caulron Messiah††
6. Strange Broue - Various EP's
7. Zoltan - Tombs of the Blind Dead EP*
8. Hands of Orlac - Figli Del Crepuscolo†††
9. Occultation - Earthbound EP
10. Goat Wizard - Self-Titled
11. John Carpenter - Lost Themes*
12. Phantomass - Self-Titled
13. Misty Grey - Grey Mist
14. Patrick Bruss - The Gorgon's Gallery
15. Widow & Children - Self-Titled
16. Spectral Haze - I.E.V.: Transmutated Nebula Remains*
17. Galleon - Self-Titled
18. Lord of Doubts - Into the Occult†
19. Burning Saviours - Unholy Tales from the North*
20. Orb - Womb**
21. Doomraiser - Reverse
22. Ooze [ИЛ] - Black Swamp [Чёрная Топь]**
23. Shepherd - Stereolithic Riffalocalypse
24. Obrero - The Infinite Corridors of Time
25. Maze of Roots - Two Chapters**

*Album available on itunes
** Streaming only
*** Pre-order only
† Available on cassette only
†† Available on vinyl and cassette only
††† Available on vinyl only

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ALBUM Spotlight on:

STRANGE BROUE – ‘Kult-Aid’

If you've never listened to the Jonestown death tape, it's arguably the most disturbing recording ever made. It explicitly describes Rev. Jim Jones instructing his followers to kill themselves. The instructions are complete with quick and ready-made hows and whys when some stray followers begin questioning whether they can go through with it. And then he starts talking about the children. All the while the congregation laments, wails and moans in the background, the volume and urgency rising and falling but sounding unmistakably damned. If you're easily disturbed, you don't want to listen to this thing.

Strange Broue's latest two-song offering makes use of it. Matter of fact a clip from it is the first thing you hear on second track "Kult-Aid". When the music does get going, it may be the best song Strange Broue has offered up yet. Then again, it may just be a psychological reaction to the relief you feel when the Jonestown clip ends. I wouldn't put it past the Broue. After all, Jim Jones was notorious for the psychological manipulation of his followers, all cults do this. Strange Broue tortures the ears momentarily with a disturbing clip, then relieves that stress with a nice big heavy riff. It's like a reverse Clockwork Orange technique to get the listener to join the Strange Broue kult. And it's impossible to resist.

Something tells me Strange Broue has been planning this for some time. The very name of the band brings to mind the cyanide-laced purple kool-aid Jones served his followers, now that you mention it. This EP is a recruitment tool, there can no longer be any doubt. Strange Broue remains for the moment a one-man band. I know the band leader's name is Max, but if it turns out that 'Max' is an abbreviated form of the name 'Marshall Applewhite' then I'm out, I mean I'm running and not looking back.

But until such time as that information is revealed I'll continue to monitor the progress of the Strange Broue kult. There are now 10 songs up on bandcamp on six different one and two song releases and they're all excellent. I threw a brief overview of the music in January which you can find at this location. You'll probably want to grab these while you can because there will be a time, it might a year from now, it might be five or 10 years from now, but these early demos will become cherished rarities the way Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats 'Vol. 1' is now.

DOOM CHART: Top 25 Albums of 02/07/15

Top 25 Albums

#). artist - album title

1. Alucarda - Raw Howls
2. Crowned in Earth - Metempsychosis
3. Zoltan - Tombs of the Blind Dead EP*
4. Occultation - Earthbound EP
5. Kabbalah - Primitve Stone EP
6. Pombagira - Flesh Throne Press***
7. Goat Wizard - Self-Titled
8. Strange Broue - Various EP's
9. Phantomass - Self-Titled
10. Hands of Orlac - Figli Del Crepuscolo**
11. Widow & Children - Self-Titled
12. Patrick Bruss - The Gorgon's Gallery
13. Spectral Haze - I.E.V.: Transmutated Nebula Remains*
14. Galleon - Self-Titled
15. Burning Saviours - Unholy Tales from the North*
16. Evil Spirit - Caulron Messiah**
17. Misty Grey - Grey Mist
18. Orb - Womb**
19. Ooze [ИЛ] - Black Swamp [Чёрная Топь]**
20. John Carpenter - Lost Themes*
21. Cryptrip - The Great Magmatic Leviathan
22. Maze of Roots - Two Chapters**
23. Howling Black Soul - Self-Titled
24. Doomraiser - Reverse
25. Stone Cadaver - E.P.

*Album available on itunes
** Streaming only
*** Pre-order

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ALBUM Spotlight on:

POMBAGIRA – ‘Flesh Throne Press’

Photo by Vic Singh [image source]

Pombagira's sixth album won't be released by Svart Records for another month and a half, so maybe it's a bit early to start the hype train rolling. But if this confusing and poorly-worded early review from The Sludgelord is any indication, that train's already picking up speed. Okay, full disclosure: I wrote the article linked above and I meant every poorly chosen word of it ... but I might have a few words left in the bag, so bear with me.

'Flesh Throne Press' is Pombagira's second double album, the first was their May 2008 debut 'The Crooked Path'. The band has evolved remarkably in the ensuing seven years. The debut threw heavy slabs of doomy riffs and gruff heavy metal vocals atop an aggressive attack. As ambitious as a 5-song double album debut truly is, one could pigeonhole that band into the stoner doom category. The new album is miles away from what nearly anybody else, anywhere is doing. The closest band I can think of in terms of similarity or resemblance is the incredible Aleph Null who use considerably more traditional structures and ideas.

As heavy as Pombagira was in their infancy, banging and crashing, they are now leagues heavier, deeper and darker both sonically and emotionally.

'Iconoclast Dream' [image source]

Of course, the evolution started much earlier, arguably on the band's fourth album 'Iconoclast Dream', a 42-minute single track that heralded the coming direction. That unbelievably heavy guitar tone was already in place, the band was discovering a moodier approach but the ideas present in the piece were still very much couched in the trappings of stoner metal. Nothing wrong with that approach, but Pombagira seem to have left it behind like an old mate that just won't grow up on their two subsequent releases, including this new one.

When comparing 'Iconoclast Dream' to 'Flesh Throne Press', it becomes apparent that much of the mood Pombagira projects as a band comes from drummer Carolyn Hamilton-Giles. Guitar snobs make note, the drums are a real instrument. Carolyn has traded heavy impact for a slightly muted approach making for a more overall psychedelic / shoegaze-y direction for the band. She's not invisible back there, but she invisibly weaves a blanket of order on what could otherwise be a chaotic affair. She uses tom patterns in lieu of crashing beats where appropriate, and her performance runs the gamut of power and subtlety. Her presence is absolutely essential to holding the ideas, mood and textures of the album together, by not calling attention to herself, the mind focuses on the deep modulating guitar tones creating a semi-hypnotic state for the listener.

So there you have it, if you've checked out the Sludgelord link then you get a double review for a double album. 'Flesh Throne Press' is 13 songs and 86 minutes long and will be released on double CD and double LP by Svart Records on March 23, 2015.

PODCAST - ep005 - Black Machines

This week's doom podcast is a great one. I've got new unreleased tracks from Doomraiser, Pombagira and one from Bretus that I don't think people have heard yet. Also brand new stuff from Heavydeath, Maze of Roots and Crowned in Earth. Then we finish things off with an oldie but a goodie from early doom legends Cirith Ungol.

1.Mirror of Pain by DOOMRAISER
2.The Curse of Innsmouth by BRETUS
3.DEMO IX "The Last Sunrise" (3 tracks in 1 file) by HEAVYDEATH
4.Amdusias by MAZE OF ROOTS
5.Morning Light by CROWNED IN EARTH
6.Flesh Throne Press by POMBAGIRA
7.Black Machine by CIRITH UNGOL

Ep005 - Black Machines by Lucas Klaukien on Mixcloud