Dahakara - Lone Aeon

Dahakara is an experimental black metal band from Turkey. Or something like that, I'm still not quite sure. Electronic beats and bloops, sounds that look like they came from the nebula on the cover, MIDI guitars; they all converge to create something that, while not great enough to love, is so blatantly off the wall that it actually enhances the listening experience. The songs aren't long at all, but while that keeps things from getting stale too quickly, it also prevents most of the songs from realizing themselves fully.

Among the Rotting Trees - The Cold, Misty Morning

My word, what a terrifyingly bad album cover. The logo, the title text, the photo itself. Ick. Fortunately, this Polish instrumental black metal project composes better music than their album artwork design talents. AtRT plays atmospheric black metal of the long and rather repetitive variety, without vocals. While not being a derivative of the Burzum school of hypnotic black metal, this does suck you in via its repetitive passages and well thought out melodic composition. The only real issue I have is some of the riff transitions can jar you out of your listening trance rather harshly, if that's what they were going for I don't know. Also the production on the drum programming could be a little better, but to be honest with atmospheric bm I would just rather it be there and decently mixed, and not to sound like it did on the original mix of "Dawnland" (that might be my one terrible, wish I could fucking correct that shit back in time, mistake). All in all, if you like the style, give it a shot.

Basalte - Vestige

French Canada, I love and hate you so much. You have given us such wonderful things like Montreal, with its numerous bars (of both the standard and titty variety). We also must give thanks for that sloppy heart attack known as poutine. However, you are also responsible for the worst tourists I have ever encountered, including the actual French. Waves of classe-moyenne blanche Québécois clog the streets of Southern Maine, driving like a retarded southerners trying to traverse London in a giant SUV, looking for tacky shirts that state the place they visited in neon, and abusing sales people when they can't understand rapid-fire French (and these salespeople can barely converse in English for the most part, cut 'em a little slack). Despite you exporting the worst portion of your population for their vacations (which is basically the same thing America has done to the rest of the world), I still love you, French Canada. You have given me slutty young women on vacation with their obtuse parents, you have given me Malveillance, you have given me Metal Noir Québécois, and now you give me Basalte.

Basalte don't really fit alongside the rest of the Metal Noir Québécois scene. Yes, all the lyrics are in French and they seem to have a decent amount of pride in their culture. Musically they are along the Atmospheric black metal tip, but with loads of progressive undertones throughout. What sounds like improv jazzy runs come to life in the middle of powerful tremolo picked riffs, but manage to do so in completely natural ways, never sounding like it was thrown on as an afterthought or to just be in there. The composition and performance is solid and unwavering. My only gripe is the sound of the guitars. It seems that they are lacking the extra gain needed to cut in black metal. However this gripe is not even that big of a deal to me, I have done the same thing with some of my recordings and love some bands who use low wattage tube amps to play black metal. It just feels that this recording could use that extra "oomph".

I think this is a great first release overall, and one definitely worth picking up. And these dudes can come visit me in Maine any time, first Timmys on me, but leave the speedos at home.

Numenorean - Demo 2014

New day, new band. Numenorean comes out of the gate from Calgary, Canada. On this first demo, they unleash well composed and executed atmospheric black metal of the more woodsy variety. Agalloch would be a really good template to base their sound on. Just add hints of Falls of Rauros and Alda, and you are basically there. The one fault I'd find with this release is that it's way too good to just be a demo, it sets up expectations, ones that I really hope they can exceed with their coming full length. Highly recommended if you are into the sound.