BURNING SAVIOURS - Unholy Tales From The North

Burning Saviours new album is a bit heavier than some of the last few singles the band released over the past couple years and were collected on the album 'Boken Om Förbannelsen'. This is a much doomier effort overall which I like and is a good marriage of dark riffs with classic 70's rock ideas. The sound here is not entirely unlike a Mountain Witch or a Noctum, dark retro rock. I can already tell that this is going to be something I go back to repeatedly. You can listen to "Your Love Hurts Like Fire" on the soundcloud player below (Ironically the chorus to that song popped up just as I was typing the title!). It's a good 'un and I imagine that many music critics will have this one somewhere in their top end-of-year-lists. Those who can remember the January albums anyway. There always seems to be a bias in those list towards albums that came out later in the year. There are several reasons for this ... anyway, Burning Saviours, 'Unholy Tales From the North'. It's going to be out on Transubstans Records, January 28. You're going to love it. Dark retro stoner jams with a doomy touch. Pre-order your copy at this location. My one and only gripe here is that 7 songs and 28 minutes feels like a glorified EP, but you know how I am. I pig out on music all day long. I want more of this!

NOTE: The last two albums that the band released are the only ones I've heard, though 'Unholy Tales From the North' is their fifth. I can say nothing about the band's overall journey or what long term fans might expect to hear. But to my relatively fresh ears, I find this album to be excellent.

HORRIBLE MONDAYS - Anima Morte

You may have read about my adventures on reddit in the Gypsy Wizard [et al] feature. Well that little hour or so of spelunking continues to net results. The previously uncharted territory unearthed there is seemingly endless, as is usually the case in musical explorations. One of the names on Thatool's seminal occult rock list is Anima Morte. They've been around for a while but I'd never had the occasion to hear them until now. There aren't many bands that sounds like them. They takes the Goblin-worship one step further than most: rather than recording tunes that sounds like lost gems of the film score superstars, Anima Morte take the Goblin blueprint and blaze their own trail. That is, progressive rock with a horror-inspired cinematic scope.

There are similar bands out there, metal and prog bands at least partially indebted to Goblin, Blizaro is always number one in my mind in that category as they are arguably my favorite current 'band' (in quotations because it's mostly the work of one man, John Gallow), then there's BlackQueen and Midnight Zombie Alligator among the most memorable. But Anima Morte isn't really a metal band at all, although they maintain a hard and dark edge. It would be fair to label this "dark prog".

I like the moods here. Anima Morte are more interested in atmosphere than melody so the results are more 'Dawn of the Dead' than 'Suspiria' (I don't mean to pigeonhole Anima Morte here, but I can't resist the Goblin comparisons). This emphasis creates a truly cinematic experience for the listener. That's not to say they've done away with melody completely, just that their interest lies in the "story" they're trying to evoke.

Take a taste:


If you like the flavor, you might want to order yourself a CD or vinyl by ordering at the Transubstans Records online store. And you can always grab up a digital copy from iTunes.