Vuyvr – Eiskalt

February 2013 • Blastbeat Mailmurder / Throatruiner Records

Time to get excited about a new black metal album! It's always a bit surprising when I hear something like this that is really traditional and old-school in sound, but still manages to sound fresh and interesting. That's what we're getting from Vuyvr, a new band from Switzerland whose debut is one of the more compelling black metal albums I've heard recently.

The main thing I like about Eiskalt is its depth. On the surface, you have the standard blasting-plus-raw-tremolo guitars, old-Darkthrone style (more or less). But dig a little deeper, listen a little closer, and there's a huge variety of rhythms and styles hidden in here that keep things going that you don't even notice unless you're looking for them. The occasional punk-ish drum pattern; thrashy, crunching riffs; slower sections that build up to a nice solid song ending.

Even though I can totally get into more artsy, "pretentious" stuff on its own merits, there are times when albums like this are exactly what I want. There's no frills, no gimmicks, but the songwriting is incredibly compelling and there are tons of moments where it's easy to just get lost in the atmosphere and groove along. Sure, Eiskalt is technically nothing new, but I'll happily take a finely-crafted version of an old genre if it sounds good. And this one sure does.

7

Boris – Präparat

March 6, 2013 • Daymare Recordings

Normally I'd be one to jump all over a new Boris album (as happened a couple years ago), but I've been really struggling with Präparat. It's been out a few months now and after a handful of listens I'm still finding it tough to get a good handle on it, and I'm finding myself more disappointed with it than anything else.

My main issue is that it's such a disjointed affair—the first few tracks alone jump from post-rock to sludgy alt-rock to noise to shoegaze. This kind of internal inconsistency makes it really tough to get through to as a whole. Each track jolts the listener with something unexpected, and while that's sometimes a good thing, here it's not executed well at all.

Even that aside, the songs themselves simply aren't really that good. It's especially disappointing because I know Boris can do better; every one of the three albums they put out just two years ago was better than this. Even the more "traditional" rockers like "Method of Error" and "Bataille sucre"—probably the two best tracks—feel like they don't really have any purpose, as if they were just thrown together without any sense of quality control.

I guess Präparat isn't horrible; there are a few decent tracks here and there, but it's probably one of the last canon Boris albums I'd ever want to listen to. Even after at least four listens (probably a lot more), everything about it just feels empty and kind of pointless. I hope the band hasn't totally lost their focus and can come back to their senses with something solid in the future. But until then, I'll just be sticking with their older stuff.

5

Kylesa, Blood Ceremony, White Hills, Lazer/Wulf

June 8, 2013 • Ace of Cups, Columbus, Ohio

My fourth trip to Ace of Cups; I think they've become my favorite venue in the area, not only for the good selection of bands, but also because they now have waffle fries.

Lazer/Wulf

This isn't the only time I've enjoyed the first band of the night more than any other (spoiler alert), but it's certainly a rare occasion. Despite their silly name, Lazer/Wulf turned out to be an incredible band. The played some long mostly-instrumental sludgy-math-metal pieces, a style that falls somewhere between Mastodon and Battles. While a blatant disregard for time signatures and conventional rhythm seems like risky business at this sort of show, their music was interesting and engaging 100% of the way through. Great stage presence, as well; these guys have real technical skill and played brilliantly.
7 • Best Guitar Face Award

White Hills

I'd like to give White Hills the benefit of the doubt and say that Lazer/Wulf was just a hard act to follow, but man is it hard to find much good to say about these guys. They play some sort of psych rock, but it's boiled down to extremely simple and repetitive songs (and I mean that—just playing one note over and over is barely a song) with lots of fuzz distortion and reverb. Nothing original, nothing new, nothing that hasn't been done before forty years ago. The band seemed more concerned about their appearance and stage gimmicks. Give me a break.
4 • Most Irritating Smoke Machines Award

Blood Ceremony

While Blood Ceremony was a step up from the last set, they still weren't anything to write home about in my book. Their music is basically Black Sabbath with a bit of Jethro Tull mixed in, and literally nothing else. I suppose it would have been a neat and novel sound if it were still the '70s, but I'm pretty sure it's not. To me their songs were pretty safe and boring, rehashing the same riffs and lyrical material. And yes, maybe the flute is cool for a bit, but you do not need ten flute solos on every song.
5 • Highest Ratio of Songs About Witchcraft to Songs About Other Things Award

Kylesa

And Kylesa was... Kylesa. As usual with the headliner, there isn't a whole lot to say about their performance. I actually haven't listened to the band in a long time so I didn't quite remember what they sound like, which is apparently a bit more psychedelic than I remember. That could also have been from the muddy and disappointing mix, though they still rocked pretty hard, and the solid and heavy rhythm section held things together more than enough to make the show worthwhile. Full set (that's me in the front somewhere)
6 • Most Drummers After the Melvins Show Award

By the way (and I can't believe I still have to say this): Have some common courtesy when moving to a new place to stand at a show. I saw multiple people tonight walk up and stand right in front of someone else without even looking around. (I was a victim of this myself. Figures.) People want to watch the show, not have to deal with looking around your stupid head.

Eric Fourman – Seizures

April 4, 2013 • self-released

I was hoping this day would never come—the day I find an Eric Fourman album to be "just okay" instead of "amazing". I guess that goes to show how much I like his stuff, but at the same time I'm finding it difficult to find a lot to say about Seizures without sounding like I dislike it, when I don't. I'll try my best, though.

As usual, Seizures provides a collection of hefty ambient drone tracks, although this time around it's more drone and less "ambient", as Fourman's sound continues to go up in volume and down in subtlety. He hasn't deviated from the formula of ever-evolving, organic-sounding pieces, which still have that very uplifting-yet-somber aesthetic that keeps me coming back to these albums.

While on the whole Seizures is a fine album, it has a few missteps, like the slightly dull "Dry Mouth" and short "Thoughts of Death"—I shorter tracklengths do a disservice to ambient in general, but especially this sort where they need time to grow and evolve, but that's just me. Besides, the album also brings several strong pieces to make up for that, such as the powerful and grimy "Rapid Heart Beat" or the wide-open expansive sound of "Lost Touch with Reality", two tracks that definitely make this album worth listening to. (Or maybe I just like the distorted sound better; who knows?)

While it's a decent release, a lot of it seems to be treading the same old ground that we've had in just about every other album. And that's fine for truly quality titles like Cloudy, but Seizures unfortunately comes off as one of Fourman's weaker efforts. Again, that's not a bad thing, as it's still worth a listen, thought it's not particularly memorable in light of his other material. But don't let me dissuade you when it's (as always) a free download!

6

Mikrokristal – Hidden Way Between Some Rains

March 18, 2013 • Cold Tear Records

Like Sending Echoes, Hidden Way Between Some Rains was another pickup from the dub techno section of Bandcamp. While this album veers way more into the ambient side of techno rather than dub, its aesthetics and presentation still make for a pretty good album.

In fact this album and Sending Echoes share quite a few similarities in sound—beats that are solid but not too heavy, warm background synths, glitchy accents, and an echoing, ethereal atmosphere. Each song has a handful of airy melodies to carry it along, and the rhythms—while simple—can easily drive the music forward in an engaging (and even catchy) way; see "Bubbles" for a good example.

But where Hidden Way shines is its larger sonic diversity than similar techno albums. It also has its share of nice relaxing ambient-oriented tracks like "Kristaliniai Sapnai" and "Pingvinai Vakar" to break up the album a bit; this (to me) is a nice advantage over albums like Sending Echoes, which had a problem with album flow and pacing. Hidden Way avoids this, for the most part. Also standing out is the more organic-sounding, uplifting track "Forest Walk", reminding me of other "acoustic-electronic" artists like Bridges Buildings combined with Floex.

It's not the be-all and end-all for ambient techno based on what I've heard so far, but it is definitely enjoyable while it's on and I am always pleased to give this album a spin. While the Cold Tear giveaway is over and these albums aren't free anymore, they're definitely worth checking out—especially this one—for those less initiated to "normal" techno, like me.

7