On life today…. On the pallor that thought brings….

Mar 29 • International News, News, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 5105 Views • No Comments on On life today…. On the pallor that thought brings….

Deckard Cain’s musings on life today..

The beauty that is Rivendell – as depicted by Alan Lee

We are constantly being forced to become less human. Our daily jobs and designated preoccupations keep us tethered to one single sphere of thought. Business models that keep us all worked up while at the same time don’t let us think for ourselves. Each of us, are in a way, guided into little cubicles bordered by one’s status and moral position in society. A small barb wired enclosure where all our bare minimum needs are force fed and constantly kept goal-deluded. Done so, that we may live our lives bereft of freedom and no marked self improvement. The very essence of man, the will to dream, is hung, drawn and quartered by the vagaries of modern life.

The helplessness these thoughts and realizations give birth to, leave me quite saddened at times. It leads to a constant yearning for something thoroughly unbridled, something that is pure and from the heart, at the least imbibed. That something that yet lies, untarnished by the grasp of modernity. A yearning for unconditional catharsis..Release..

And for time and again metal has answered that call. Here are 3 bands you ought to hear and reflect over.

1. Witchfyre

Witchfyre is instant throwback. ‘Banshee’ opens doors to a time when all the maidens and priests were at their prime. A time that witnessed the ominous growth of heavy metal, and a people yet to be bewitched and transfixed by it. Witchfyre delivers by keeping adulteration of the old guard to a bare minimum. They have this good bit of Digital Detractor era Vicious Rumors in them. Thoroughly enjoyable! The Witchfyre track comes off their latest release which is an MCD titled Legends, Rites & Witchcraft released via Inferno Records.

2. Dirge

Now to turn down that fun factor .

Upholding the French reputation of being distinct and quirky from their peers, Dirge takes Times of Grace era Neurosis and bedaubs it in sticky doom. The kind of doom that has hardly any peaks and valleys but stretches flat and expansive into the far beyond. Dirge is signed to the eclectic Debumur Morti roster and the track Venus Claws comes off their 6^th LP titled Hyperion.

3. Spectral Lore

Fellow The Slumbering Ent writer Jayaprakash Satyamurthy gave a brief insight into the resurgent Greek black metal scene in his last review. One man outfit Spectral Lore is further proof of the ascension in quality (which was never low to begin with) the scene is witnessing at the moment. The band’s single, aptly titled ‘A Rider in the Lands of An Infinite Dreamscape’, is a song of epic proportions. A hymn that is multifarious in atmosphere and sparingly espouse the marginally beatific nature of Bathory’s Hammerheart and folk laden glory of a Wintersun record. 12 minutes has never felt this short. Indeed it does make you ride down into Asa Bay.

Spectral Lore‘s track comes off the album III released via the surging I,Voidhanger Records.