Lantlôs - Melting Sun (2014)

Although I had become decreasingly fond of Lantlôs over the course of Herbst's first three albums, Melting Sun is one of those records that offers me affirmation as to why I often stick with bands when I think they might have something hidden in there which has yet to surface. Granted, the last one I experienced (Agape) was more or less a creative coma of dull ideas. This project was by and large surfing on the trending wave of shoegaze oriented black metal expatriates, with nothing more to show for it than meeting the laws of supply & demand, to the point that Neige of the tragically overrated Alcest himself was involved, but it seems that after nearly a decade of gestation, Lantlôs has at long last settled into a comfort zone and begun to produce some quality assurance.

Disclaimer: this is so barely metal that I'd sooner just categorize it with the post, indie and space rock waves of the mid 90s, the black-tinted riffing progressions now a thing of the past, though you might pick out a few tremolo picked guitars or drudging chords which can frankly belong to a number of rock genres. But that's quite alright, because like its title hints, it provides this fulfilling, warm cycle of emotions which brings to mind Chicago abandon-rock darlings Hum from when they had a few singles 15-ish years ago, or perhaps more recognizably a few drop of Smashing Pumpkins' massive alterna-rock bleeding through. Solar flare drifts of brighter guitars careen across the vacuum of weighted chords, thick and juicy bass-lines pumping fresh blood through the glacial rhythmic veins which supply Melting Sun's circulation. Most of these tunes require a little patience for the payoff. Not to the point that they're truly time-consuming, and Herbst reins in the experience at around 40 minutes, but he takes his time in delivering the most heightened and passionate passages above the sailing, soothing strains of ambiance, progg-ish low-end lumps of bass and dreary yet uplifting vocals.

His voice is not exactly memorable, per se, but I think it fits the spaciousness of the music through some of the sustained passages; also helps 'ground' the songwriting aspirations with an everyman quality that sounds like any of your random middle aged neighbors going out to pick up the morning paper and then stopping to ponder a cloud, rainbow or some other unspeakable phenomena of the natural world. Gentler, ambient clean guitar passages and swelling backdrops ("Golden Mind" being a prime example) help round out some of the harder hitting, bulky guitar progressions, and Melting Sun never abandons its central ebb and flow of calm and crushing contrasts, star-tides radiated through the cosmos and soaked into the skins of the living. I would not deem this a massive stylistic departure from any of the previous records I've heard, but it seems handling all the instruments/vocals himself has resulted in more consistent, catchy fare that borders on poignancy, and while it's nothing intensely intellectual or amazing, I enjoyed listening to it...and coming from an individual who though the prior works were middling at best, I hope that means something.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/lantlos

Germ - Grief (2013)

One of Australian metal's most distinct and diverse personalities, Tim Yatras (here known as Germ of Germ) has worn more hats than one might rightfully fit on a single rack, and yet shown some style with each. Generally a power/heavy metal drummer in the past, his exploration of the black metal spectrum gifted us with Austere, and inevitably this project Germ, on which he performs all the instruments while revisiting the wailing, Varg-like rasps he tormented us with in that prior group. Yet what makes Germ a truly compelling creative outlet is not necessarily its black metal roots, but how its dreamy shoegazer rock progressions and somber electronics are meshed in to plot course over an emotionally draining, vivid landscape. This isn't entirely unique, I'll grant, since other groups like Lifelover, Alcest, Katatonia and ColdWorld have wrestled with similar aesthetics, but all similarities are usually felt strictly in the vocal style and chord patterns, and there's something just so bright and 'warm' about what Germ translates through his guitars and synthesizers that it really resonates.

I had liked the first album, Wish, released the year before this, but there was the impression that he'd only begun to carve out this realm; Grief being the natural refinement and gradual evolution which might still not be the magnum opus, but takes a step closer to that honor. There are essentially three narratives flowing through this, the first being the dreamy, driving patterns of the chords which alternate between the traditional tremolo picking passages and a 90s alternative post-punk tinge; while not unpredictable, they've got this unusual sheen to them applied through both the tone and texture, and the melodic lead licks that seem to erupt through the shining rhythms on a fairly consistent basis. Then you've got a harder edge through the percussion patterns, and the dying animal vocals which are responsible for the greatest contrast against the relative beauty of the compositions. Lastly, there are the threads of ambiance ("Intro") and IDM/beats ("Departure") which are generally confined to shorter tracks, though Germ also takes some more substantial risks here like the piano piece "How Can I?" with him using cleaner vocals and adopting minimalistic beats that propel steadily to the tune's climax. He also does well to divvy up the harsher moments between a lush, languid pace ("I Can See It in the Stars") and roiling tempests ("It's Over...").

It's all awash in a clean but not despairingly plastique/polished production which gives me a comparable psychic impression to both the last record and Austere's Lay Like Ashes...that is to say steady and pressing waves of sadness on a summery seascape, or golden corn or wheat fields as far as the eye can see. Genuine emptiness would not seem to have to be a negative thing here, since the aural colors painted are not those of what you'd normally expect from the latest grimnauts on scene. These songs are like knowing that life and the world will go on despite your own personal sphere of suffering, and there's a beauty both overt and elusive to the style that I don't tend to experience with a lot of the bordering-on-boredom blackgaze I've heard. It deserves to be experienced for that reason alone, but its also formidable in how it presents the listener with a sense of cohesive variation, wonders unexpected buried in its heart, a Gemini of joy and agony. Germ has not yet reached the apex of its inclinations, but if this sense of individuality and quality persists, it will remain a pleasure to follow the project towards each stage of its escalation.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (I kept my broken bow)
 
https://www.facebook.com/germofficial

Hypomanie - Calm Down, You Weren't Set On Fire (2012)

If you had asked me some few years ago if I could ever stomach a 45 minute instrumental blackgaze album, I can't promise that I would have answered in the affirmative. However, Hypomanie's third full-length effort Calm Down, You Weren't Set On Fire had me in its throes before even the first track subsided. That this is a Dutch solo project, all instruments performed by a single individual known by the abbreviation 'S.' (for Selwin), is nothing short of impressive, but more compelling by far is the album's ability to overcome the due predictability of its components to become this desperate, beautiful and hypnotic tapestry of guitars and drums that feels as if An Autumn for Crippled Children had jammed out with Explosions in the Sky.

I've no past memory of the previous Hypomanie records Sehnsucht or A City in Mono, but it seems that the project has followed a similar course to many in its niche: firm, raw black metal roots that evolved into a more accessible, melodic medium without sacrificing the appreciably lo fi atmosphere we often equate with the underground legends. In fact, beyond the production values, it would be quite difficult to classify any of this album as 'black metal'. Usually there is a layering of guitars with some gorgeous, keening melodic line being joined by a less evocative, more heavily saturated rhythm track. Great examples would be "19 Stars and the Sweet Smell of Cinnamon" or "If Only the Seas Were Merciful", but the technique is used everywhere as S. alternates it with cleaner calms redolent of shimmery 90s alt-rock or shoegaze music like The Cure, Lush or the Cocteau Twins (quite heavily showcased in "Alissa Loves Perfume" and "Lullabye for Ian") The percussion is also a treat, with simple beats ranging from the driving desperation of emotional torment to a more playful temperance.

If there were any complaints, I think they'd be the usual suspects involving excess repetition in some of the guitar lines, and perhaps a lack of variation that bounces back and forth between only two climes. Certain songs here like "You Never Listened to the Birds" are even more raw and grating than others, but they still thrive off the same wailing impetus. The riff progressions are often quite easy to predict in advance, so rarely does this spin off into the unexpected, and yet they're still pretty immortal. I was not put off by the 8-10 minute length of most of the songs, nor the lack of vocals, and that speaks volumes of the ability to grab the listener by the ears within the first few measures and then draw he or she into it for the distance. Calm Down... has its limitations, and not everyone will be invested in its jubilant emotional outbursts, but those seeking a chic aural backdrop against which to ponder the happy and sad shifts of their lives could find far worse foci.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/hypomanie

Lantlôs - Agape (2011)

If ennui were a muse, then surely Lantlôs were suckled to its cunt throughout the production of their third album, Agape, which is little more than a dissertation on how to lack even a shred of inspiration or riffing ability. This German-French collaboration was hardly one to write home about on their last two full-lengths, but there they have surpassed themselves to reach the summit of banal shoegazing post black metal which is wrought of such worthless characteristics that it stuns me anyone could enjoy it. Don't get me wrong: I listen to some Sonic Youth, Joy Division, Hum, My Bloody Valentine and so forth, and even a few of the sludgier post-metal acts that have also inspired this one (I hear a tinge of Neurosis and Isis, at the very least). I have no problem with bands exploring this avenue of sound. But Agape is as dry as a desert. Not emotionally draining, nor emotionally incandescent, nor really much of emotional anything. It's like watching a snail crawl across your boot, and feeling no impetus to either help it along or hasten its passage to the mollusk afterlife...

I wish I could blame Neige for this one, but really there doesn't seem to be anything he could do to fix it. For most of the proceedings, he drones along with the same vapid black rasp you hear in hundreds of other sludge and post-black outfits. There are points at which he goes into a cleaner vocal, and when this happens it's at a lower pitch, not the dreamier style he attempts on some of the Alcest material. Sure, none of the vocals here are even the slightest bit memorable, but had they at least been graced with a solid musical undercurrent, they would suffice. No, the fault here lies entirely with the writing of the music, which attempts to contrast itself between fits of tremendously derivative, uninspired riffing and tranquil, soothing passages where clean guitars pluck along with a lightness that equivocates to how much impact they have upon the listener. About the best I could say for the guitars on this album is that they clearly demonstrate a shift between cold, desolate minimalism and warmer, full-bodied streams of dissonance, but it's not praise when the note progressions are so void of musical value.

For instance, let's examine the first track, and the most swollen: "Intrauterin" opens with two minutes of swelling, ambient feedback before collapsing into this droning, dull riff which anchors itself on a bottom end chord and then some wailing, bending inanity. Then at about 4 and a half minutes in it changes completely to this transitive, clean passage with twinkling little acoustic stars and softly droning background tones in a higher pitch. I bring this up because it's possibly the one point on the promo that I did not want to delete. Neige applies some lower vocals to this in a fairly barren fixation, and then the highly predictable segue into slow tremolo shoegaze riff arrives on queue, with Neige picking up the intensity to his standard, grisly rasp. I feel like I just spent about 50 seconds wading in mediocre weightlessness and 9 more in the most boring aural environs imaginable, only vaguely adequate even as background noise.

Unfortunately, this is not just a one-off fluke. Agape does not improve the deeper you get into its infertile valleys. "Bliss" is a far heavier track in general with a steady substrate of simple chords smothered in harsh vocals and an empty melodic sheen, but despite its own breakdown toward tranquility it is 100% forgettable. "Bloody Lips and Paper Skin" has some appreciable backing ambiance, yet the first two minutes sound like a Sonic Youth sound check, if Thurston Moore plugged in and strummed the most unassuming series of notes and chords available, and the bass heavy, Hum-like core of the song is sadly no more climactic. "You Feel Like Memories" is the obligatory instrumental, and this one is all spacious, minimal clean guitars with a steady pump of bass and tinny percussion that drive it along to its aimless end. The finale, "Eribo - I Collect the Stars" is all big shining, crashing nothingness that fades out with a distorted bass drone, but I'll admit that the mid point with the melodic, bluesy arching 'lead' is probably one of the highlights, even if nothing is really happening...

And that is Agape in a nutshell. Nothing happens. Nothing of interest, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out this was all improvisational, because most musicians I know can write more involved music than this in their sleep, regardless of their genre of expertise. I guess the point of such a thing as this album is to revel in its own misery, flirt with its own broad swath of emptiness, but in this case, nothing is rewarded to the listener, not even in a negative sense. Even at it's most climactic peaks of harried, atonal energy, the album seems as horizontal as a board. .Neon and their s/t debut at least showed a few signs of potential, but this feels as if all hope were truly lost, and that the musicians were just going to plug in and play whatever comes to mind without any concern for lasting quality. Hell, next to this album, other related acts like Alcest and Heretoir sound like virtual cornucopias of passion. Not the worst album I've heard, but certainly one of the biggest bummers of this year. Come on, snap out of it! You lot can do better than this.

Verdict: Fail [3/10]

http://www.lantlos.com/

Old Silver Key - Tales of Wanderings (2011)

On paper, a collaboration between the membership of the Ukraine's Drukdh and prolific French artisan Neige (he of Alcest, Lantlôs and numerous other projects) seems a natural fit. Both specialize in nature worship, depression, and drifting compositions with a lot of wall of sound guitar styling and subtle twists of melody. The two also share a cross-section of admirers, carving a large chunk out of that swath of solemn and modern shoegazing populace who have turned their sights upon the permutations of the black metal genre into the terrain of post-rock, indie rock, or what have you. Well, the time has arrive, and Old Silver Key is that very collaboration; Tales of Wanderings the anticipated debut through Season of Mist.

Let me preface the rest of this review by stating that Tales of Wanderings is not by any stretch of the imagination a metal album. So those expecting a black metal coupling of the two parties had best be prepared for something exponentially lighter on the ears and spirit. There might be a few tremolo picked passages here or there redolent of the genre, akin to Enslaved's excellent Vertebrae or perhaps the German band Island, but these are marginal at best. Old Silver Key is instead another chance for Neige to flex his 'soft side', far softer even than Alcest, while it simultaneously allows Roman, Thurios and crew to delve even further along the course they had started with some of their recent fare (Microcosmos, Handful of Stars). Unfortunately, while it does have a few moments of appreciable bliss and escape, some tranquil sparks of variation that allow the listener to feel he or she is walking on air, Tales of Wanderings falls well short of either of its progenitor's mainstays in terms of quality.

In fact, this is for the most part a lame and tired pastiche of indie/emo rock cliches without the strong songwriting to support it. Granted, I'm not an Alcest fan to begin with, but I've enjoyed a number of Drudkh's past releases (Blood In Our Wells in particular), and I'm a bit disappointed to see their ideas wearing thin. Yet as jaded, pedestrian and unmemorable as most of the music on this album seems, it is the vocals which drive it over the edge towards irritation. Neige has never impressed me in this field, at least not with his clean tones, but with Tales of Wanderings he has completed his transformation into any-random-hip-kid-singing-the-adolescent-blues-at-any-random-coffee-shop-anywhere, only with English as a secondary language. His performances on tracks like "November Nights Insomnia" is naught more than dreadful, wall-gazing tripe, with no real range to it, no captivating melody, and it does the reasonably well produced music no service whatsoever.

There are particular points at which he shifts to his more graceful, higher pitch (as in "Burnt Letters"), reminiscent of Alcest's 'climactic' build-ups, but these are only superior in so much that his voice drifts off into the background, overtaken by the melodic drift of chords. How this man has developed such a following with such a wimpy, deadbeat intonation is beyond my ability to comprehend, but the fact is that Tales of Wanderings would have worked out better as an instrumental record, with another singer, or with Neige snarling the entire time to provide a strange contrast with the light-headed music. If you think this guy is a great singer, then I've got an open-air banana grove in Antarctica to sell you. Mind you, this does not excuse the music itself, much of which is derivative shoegaze rock 101 in nature, with slightly distorted streams of chords playing against soft mute streams that themselves occasionally break into chords in predictable Gothic rock fashion, but without Neige, even this might have functioned as passable elevator music.

I didn't loathe the album entirely. I'll give some credit for the snowflake-like bass lines that dust the guitars in "About Which an Old House Dreams". As limp wristed as some of the songs come off, Old Silver Key manages to somehow elude the burden of utter stagnation and monotony through their willingness to mess with tempos. Hell, "Cold Spring" even has an arguable blast beat running through its depths. Where the pianos and ambient sequences appear, they provide a flawless integration, a natural balance. The production, too, is bright and fitting. It really let's the listener feel the expanse of each guitar pattern, but then, this is pretty much the standard for a form of rock whose spiritual ancestors include Toad the Wet Sprocket, Gin Blossoms and other 90s alt radio. But at least with those bands, you had singers who were striving for those huge #1 hit single chorus parts. With Old Silver Key, it just seems like an afterthought. 'Hey, we've written some pretty chill music, let's phone in some mellow vocals and show everyone the hearts on our sleeves'. And I'm afraid, at least this time out, that this particular handful of stars have not aligned properly.

Verdict: Fail [4.25/10]

Alcest - Le Secret EP (2004; 2011 reissue)

With all the hype surrounding Alcest and its creator Neige (no fault of his own), you'd think the man was on to some sort of messianic formula to invigorate the whole of underground music internationally. In truth, this is very far from the case, and I suspect that at least some fraction of his audience is simply mind blown by a lack of exposure to Alcest's primary influence: the dreamy, ponderous sensitivity of shoegaze. You see, the 90s were pregnant to burst with bands like Lush, Catherine Wheel, Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain, not to mention a whole host of college 'alternative' rock (The Cure, etc), many of which have threads to what this Frenchmen is writing. Bands like Denmark's Mew continue to broadcast wonders of this style in new directions like prog rock, but Alcest channels it towards his own personal past within the black metal genre. He is not alone in doing so, but clearly he's the most popular.

Le Secret was the first official release from the project, and Neige has recently re-recorded the material for release through Prophecy Productions. It makes sense, since many of the drooling come-lately fans are likely not to own the original. Thankfully, this re-issue includes both versions, so one can simply compare and contrast between them. The differences are more than just tonal upgrades, though, there have been ever so slight tweaks in the structure of the songs, but not so much that devotees of the older recordings should flip their wigs in anxiety. A few seconds snipped or added here, a riff altered there, and presto. Personally, if forced to choose, I would probably run with the prototypes, since they carry a more desolate nature to them that seems marginally more authentic. However, the re-recordings certainly bring them flush with the Alcest sophomore album Écailles de Lune released last year, and the updated cover art is appreciable.

As for the actual quality of the tracks themselves, I fear I am in opposition to the blessed whole. Pressing aside the absurd concept of a young boy's adventures in Fairyland, which is the actual inspiration behind Neige's lyrics for this project, the two tracks seem to drone on endlessly via their sugary ministrations. Granted, there are a number of moments peppered throughout in which the mix of clean, cloud touched vocals really comes together with the streaming melody of the guitars, but they breed ennui more often than revelation, and when deconstructed, they have little, individually, to offer. Aside from it's shining, repetitious escalation, "Le Secret" itself has painfully few riffs that hold up to scrutiny when disembarked from their environs, and thus I feel like the 13+ minutes are just an endless ebb and flow of half-baked post-black majesty that are quickly squeezed into the corner of my imagination and then forgotten; a pretentious if passionate miasma void of twists and turns, surprises or subtle delights. The shimmering of a rock candy, sweet to the tongue, that I would never wish to finish, and the cyclic intro/outro of reverbed acoustics does nothing to strengthen it.

"Elevation" fares slightly better, though it also suffers from the needless excess as its precursor. I fancied the angelic intro sequence, and was satisfied that Neige through in some snarling as the lifestream of crashing chords arrived. I also found the bass lines intricate and amusing, but after about 5 minutes of this, all attention was lost. There is simply nothing compelling harbored in its depths, and it sputters along like the diminishing returns of an oil tank with a major leak. Yes, I realize the popular pastime is to lie strewn about some grassy knoll absorbed in the melancholy of missing childhoods and puffy clouds, and I've done this numerous times to the recent M83 record, but I have never felt availed by any of the purported, hypnotic effluvia of Alcest. For a work of pure ambiance or narrative grandeur, I'd be more than willing to accept such swollen excursions, but this is neither. Oh, I 'get it', I get it just fine, and I'm the last person that would accuse Neige of lacking creative compulsion in his efforts. Nonetheless, I find Le Secret to be about as mundane as music can get without become actively dopey or offensive.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

http://www.alcest-music.com/

Heretoir - Heretoir (2011)

The last release from the French duo Heretoir that I heard was the 2009 EP .Existenz., a dreamy and drifting piece of darkness that wandered the twilight of perdition, but didn't exactly leave the most lasting of impressions. For their s/t full-length debut, they've found an apt home in Northern Silence Productions, and I am satisfied that the band has managed to maintain their root genre (black metal) while incorporating about the same level of shoegazing, post rock aesthetics that characterized the earlier tracks. Heretoir is tortured, hugely atmospheric and depressing with just the faintest trace of hope hidden somewhere in the subtext, and while it's not the most perfect escape imaginable, it's 50 minutes of more than adequate melancholy.

It begins with one of its brief instrumentals, "The Escape - Part I", a beautiful flight of spacious, fulfilling ambiance, thrumming distant bass lines and piano strikes, before the power of "Fatigue" sweeps forward through a simple yet effective, crashing melody. Surprisingly, it's not long before they escalate into a blast beat, and the vocals cycle through the tortured screams reminiscent of Burzum and Weakling to a more soothing balance of cleans. A track like this could go south very quickly if it was swathed in excess repetitious, but the Frenchmen do a superb job at shifting the rhythms back and forth so the listener doesn't develop an edge of ennui, just a spike of sorrow piercing the faintly beating heart. "Retreat to Hibernate" continues to diversify the content, its beautiful clean guitar intro creating 3 minutes of oblique paradise before the electric chords come crashing forward to separate the soul and flesh.

"0" is another quality intro, with swelling guitar feedback and a pair of vocal samples entwined, somehow connecting the drifting apparition of the music back to humanity, and then there is a straight blast into "Weltschmerz", shimmering with disdain and collapse. "Graue Bauten" is sure to get any fan of Lifelover and Alcest in a daze, its thick mournful melody bisected with clean passages, and the same could be said for the 7 minutes of "To Follow the Sun", which is easily the gem on the latter half of this record. The namesake "Heretoir" is another striking piece, about 6 minutes of smooth howling and bled out bliss that pauses for a 'hidden' track of ringing guitars and more of Eklatanz' wandering vocals.

Obviously this is not a band stacked with riffs, their intricacy lies completely in the flow of the minimal presentation and oozing, lush darkness captured by the slight shifts in chords and the varied vocal tones. As such, there can be a moment or so where the attention span does drift away from what's being played out in these moon-bathed gardens of gray, but Heretoir's content is mixed enough in tempo and climate that it maintains an almost consistent hypnosis. It's not as empty and directionless to me as their countrymen Alcest, or the latest from Sweden's Svarti Loghin. There is a tangible if understated structure here that relies far more on core talent than fashionable boredom. Heretoir could be better, but this is an effective album that's already traveled several strides ahead of their prior output.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/heretoir

Heretoir - .Existenz EP (2009)

Black metal and shoegazing, two of my favorite subjects. If any band is described as blending the two, I will instantly perk up. To be honest, it's not as uncommon as you might think, a great many of the 'artsier' black metal bands across the world make use of shoegazing aesthetics within both their imagery and composition (Agalloch, Drudkh, Wolves in the Throne Room are all just a few that immediately spring to mind). Heretoir is a the project of Ekletanz who performs all the instruments/programming, and while I feel the material on this EP heavily favors the moody/depressing black metal side more than any indie rock or shoegazer rock elements, they are certainly to be found.

.Existenz is an EP that essentially revamps the previous demo of the same name, with an added track. The six tracks (one is 'hidden') are just over 25 minutes long and despite the slowish nature of the riffs, you never become bored. Ekletanz makes it simple to immerse yourself into his world, a world of fading and streaking city lights, sorrows and regrets. "Erwachen im Dunkel" concocts a dark but euphoric image through its unerrant sense of melodic repetition. "Ein Schrei in die Nacht" picks up the pace with some scathing, tormented snarls and blasting, though the melodic patterns remain intact. "Verblasst" is an acoustic short with some distorted whispers. "Ausgebert" is a lilting, emotional piece with a black crust behind its streaming textures, often broken by piercing cries of despair. "Weltenwander" is basically a black metal snarl spoken word piece over acoustic guitars. The closing piano piece (the 'hidden' track) is quite nice and a fulfilling closure to this journey.

Though the songs are actually quite diverse, the entire EP floats nicely and it's sure to catch the ears of many fans of the more adventurous bands out their cross-pollinating black metal with post-rock and ambient music. I grew somewhat bored with one or two of the pieces, but "Erwachen im Dunkel" and "Ausgebert" are quite good, and I hope these foreshadow more of what is to come from Heretoir in the future.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/heretoir

Tombs - Winter Hours (2009)

It may only be my first exposure to this New York outfit's elegant brutality, but it will not be my last. I have been converted within the confines of a single album, and this is my favorite yet of the new wave of bands whose name = simple noun + plural 's' (Battles, Reigns, Planks, Tides, Wolves, ad infinitum), a disturbing trend if forgettable in its best cases.

Winter Hours is a beautiful album which combines the angst vocals of the post-hardcore/metal surge with droning, shining walls of guitar chords to create simple but heartfelt and resonant power. "Gossamer" reeled me in immediately just like a fish gorged and content on a fat worm, it's thundering percussion laden heavily in the thick and ringing chords. "Golden Eyes" is like a juicy black metal anthem busting out into a sick old school Neurosis groove. "Beneath the Toxic Jungle" is as if Sonic Youth took up church burning. "The Great Silence" weaves its mystique through alternating sheens of wailing chords and driving black punk moored in distorted bass syrup. "Story of a Room" is a relaxing echo of chords which chimes in just at the right place in the album, giving you a brief respite from the band's heavier palate. "The Divide" resounds again like thunder in its drummer, and "Merrimack" is one of the best songs here with its flowing bass lines and spatial atmosphere. "Filled With Secrets" is again like a post-rock, sludge, black metal fusion, Mike Hill's vocals becoming a black/death snarl. The album ends with the crushing "Seven Stars the Angel of Death" and the tranquil "Old Dominion".

Though the delivery here is excellent, the album wouldn't hit its full stride without the wealth of tone created in its mix. The guitars and bass are simply exposive, you will find yourself immersed in numerous edges and layers. They manage to blend a lot of popular modern mediums of the extreme rock genre (sludge, post rock, etc) and fashion them into something clear in its influence yet flavorful and unique for its future. The album will hit stores soon, so pick one up. It's well worth the ride.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

http://www.myspace.com/tombsbklyn

The Radio Dept. - Lesser Matters (2003)

As far as random finds go, this one probably reigns supreme for me. Sweden's Radio Dept. play gorgeous indie pop steeped in a haze of youthful nostalgia and simplicity. Imagine a twee Cocteau Twins and you'll be going down the right path.

Their sound is ultimately one of mellow comfort. Electronic drums twitter and click softly alongside lightly fuzzed-out guitars and hushed, almost sotto voce singing. It's shoegaze without the heavy noise or minimal indie rock with an extra kiss from crackled lips. It has a calm beauty of its own, a peace that won't be found in many other bands.

Lyrically, Radio Dept. keep the mood with simple, sometimes childish themes about love and interactions. From waking up with someone you love to being lonely and afraid in your apartment, Lesser Matters keeps things cute and vaguely pertinent to life.

I saw you on bus 15
Heading north to take the train
Everyone looks the same
Still we have different names

If you consider yourself a fan of shoegaze, rock, or soft music in general, get this.

Verdict: Epic Win [5/5]

http://www.myspace.com/officialradiodept

Pyramids - Pyramids (2008)

Driven by indie longstanders The Autumns' mainman Matthew Kelly, Pyramids jumped into the scene this year with their self-titled debut. Part blissed-out shoegaze vocals and shimmering walls of texture, part blackened nightmare and unrelenting drums, Pyramids occupy an indie niche of metal that hasn't been particularly capitalized on.

Their sound is, as I like to think of it, that of heat-sickness. The dry, ethereal, perturbed sound evokes the discomforted agitation of sleepless summer nights. Surging, distant guitars fight through weightless waves of heatstroke. And, on another plane of awareness, drums pound like feet on the unyielding ground.

Is it a one-trick pony? Yeah, basically. Much like their now defunct soul-sisters The Angelic Process, Pyramids use heavy delay and glowing distortion to craft simple music into something far beyond the sum of the parts. In fact, if you found yourself enveloped by the caress of The Angelic Process, this will most likely do you some good. If you found yourself bored to tears, I'll go ahead and wager you'll feel the same here.

There's a second disc of remakes by other Hydrahead artists that comes with the album, but, even barring my inherent dislike of remixes, there's not a lot to talk about here. It feels rather redundant to have offerings done by such groups as Nadja and Blut Aus Nord due to the similarities already present in the music. Oh well, I guess it was a nice thought, and it's not like it costed extra.

Verdict: Win [4/5] (metal ambience)

http://www.myspace.com/pyramidsmusic

Serena Maneesh - Serena Maneesh (2005)

I found this on a blog alongside the statement that it's the best shoegaze they'd heard since Slowdive's Souvlaki. Now, that's a big statement. Best thing in 12 years for a pretty big genre? So, while I was loading it up I went looking for more info and reviews of the band. It turns out that this album, in all cases that I found, is held pretty highly.

Sounds exciting, right? But wait, let's take a closer look. One review loves this for doing away with the thick atmosphere championed by shoegaze bands since the beginning. Wait, you like it for taking away the one thing that carries most of these bands through? And, listening to the beginning of the album, this is exactly how it feels - it's cleaned up, catchy, simple rock with breathy vocals and a tiny little bit of distortion stains left around the edges. Easily digestible "shoegaze" in a pouch, anyone? It actually does take me back to the early 90s, mostly due to the annoyingly simplistic guitars. I mean, the opening track's main riff has what, 3 whole notes to it? Thankfully they discovered the innovation of the "chorus" to vary things up a bit. The second song doesn't even have that much variety. This was okay back at the beginning when the style was still forming, especially when it was swathed in some lovingly gritty productions, but it's just irritating now. Shoegaze, in the classic sense, is really nothing more than a bit of a trick, relying on shimmery noise more than music complexity. Take away the first, but leave the last? No thanks. It's certainly decent, especially if you can block out the guitars, but this is nothing new to the table.

Thankfully, the quality shifts up a bit after the first four songs. Well, "Un Deux" is alright, but it doesn't even top the two minute mark. Anyways, "Beehiver II" heads firmly into simple (but appreciated) noise rock territory, followed up by "Her Name is Suicide", which has a nice low-key shimmer to it, focusing on muted female vocals, keys, and a bit of fuzz and crackle. The rest of the album seems to have a bit more texture to it while relegating the guitars away to the background where they belong, adding some desperately-needed depth to the proceedings. The aptly name track "Simplicity" is the only real blemish left, adding a bit of filler rubbish to reign the interest in.

Aside from lacking quality in song composition and worthwhile innovation, this album loses points for being too disparate. There is very little feeling to it, with styles ranging (but still trapped by banal MBV worship) from surf-tinged guitars to more typical, straight-forward rock numbers for no certain reason or emotional intent. There are some good ideas, especially after the first few songs, and I am interested to see what they do after this, but I really couldn't recommend this to anyone unless they really wanted something to toss into the ol' shoegaze playlist.

Verdict: Indifference (really, why is this so highly regarded?)

http://www.myspace.com/serenamaneesh

Lights Out Asia - Tanks and Recognizers (2007)

This album is pretty rad. I'm drawing a bit of a blank as far as accurate descriptions go, but the music here is a pretty blend of ambient shimmer, simple electronic beats, delayed guitar, and chill piano. It's one part Boards of Canada, one part pop-ambient, and a smidge of reminiscence. The sound is warm and endearing, evoking quiet introspection alongside pleasant memories.

There is a catch, however. In a few of the songs, slightly awkward singing that just misses the interesting mark show up to ruin the moment. Imagine sitting in the shade of a tree, thinking about some nice event from your childhood with your eyes closed. Pretty nice, right? Then your friend sneaks up on you and cock-slaps you in the face. Now, that would probably cause more discomfort in most of you than the vocals here do, but it has about the same effect. Ditch these as soon as possible, plz. Thankfully they usually show up at the ends of the songs, so you get a good amount of pleasure and can go ahead to the next one.

I dig this, I really do, but it would be so much more thoroughly enjoyable if there were no vocals.

Verdict: Win [4/5] (it's the blemishes that make things unique, right? Right?)