Sabbath Assembly – Quaternity

Apr 21 • International News, News, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 2525 Views

Jayaprakash Satyamurthy reviews the new album from Sabbath Assembly titled Quaternity, released via Svart Records.

Satan has all the best tunes. Jehovah, too.

There’s this thrilling point of intersection between doom, folk, retro hard rock and the occult. It is a territory explored by Hexvessel, Uncle Acid & The Dead Beats, Blood Ceremony and perhaps most authentic of all, Sabbath Assembly. Initially formed as collaboration between experimentalist Dave Nuss and doom priestess Jex Thoth, the band’s mission was to record the hymns of a mystical sect called the Process Church of the Final Judgement. Their first album was a heady collation, music with a distinctly ritualistic, hymn-like bent, gorgeous vocals and strange, spiritual lyrics. I was disappointed when Jex parted ways with the Assembly, but pleased when Jamie Myers, whose vocals defined some of my favorite Hammers of Misfortune songs stepped in. Their second album ‘Ye Are Gods’ was possibly even more of a triumph.  Now, three albums in and running out of material from the Process Church’s hymn book, the band looks to be spreading its wings musically while lyrically dwelling on the same topics, basically a strange take on Christian myth.

The results carry on with the wonderful mix of classic Fairport Convention-esque folk blended with the neofolk of bands like Sol Invictus, and a trace of dense doom metal as well. The album opens with two tracks of sublime beauty – ‘Let Us Who Mystically Represent’ with Myers’ crooning voice evoking medieval plainsong over minimal instrumentation and the gorgeous ‘The Burning Cross Of Christ’ where electric guitars add a wash of soaring melody over their acoustic brethren. Myers’ vocal delivery is captivating as she delivers some very powerful lyrics: ‘Plagued by gunshots all around/The girl, wounded, goes down/Bleeds her love into the trees/Soaks the roots, her tears on fallen leaves/Rise, o children of the dead/The spawn of blood now smoke in the air’. A simple, effective string backing adds to the power of this song, serene on the surface but with deep currents coursing beneath. ‘Jehovah On Death’ rides on alternating male and female voices which remind me of the magical exchanges between Myers and Mike Scalzi on ‘The Locust Years’. An air of subtle menace, of zeal poised on a razor’s edge sets this track apart from the previous ones, and it is interesting that some of the most bloody and vengeful lyrics here are taken straight from The Bible.

I was listening to this album late at night on my headphones, drifting in and out of sleep and I woke up in a state of confusion, even terror, during the next song. There’s no shortage of songs invoking the devil in modern music, but ‘I Satan’ is the single most entrancing and unnerving example of its kind outside of the works of Diamanda Galas. Myers is evil incarnate, declaring ‘I, Satan, stand for war, I glory in war/Man in battle, struggling with death/Man venting his wrath/I scorn the weak-willed victims of war’ over a dense, uneasy swirl of sluggish distorted guitar, like an oil slick spreading over the clean, acoustic waters of the album thus far. The guitars, by the way, continue to be handled by Kevin Hufnagel who also played on Gorguts’ 2013 comeback, ‘Coloured Sands’.

‘Lucifer’ is the first Process Church composition on this album. It’s the perfect counterpoint to the darkness and threat of the previous track, coming across as an ardent hymn of devotion to the former archangel. Finally, another Process Church composition, augmented by Sabbath Assembly, closes out the album. At 18 minutes in length, with serene acoustic arrangements and spoken word interludes, this is less a conventional song – although there are great melodies and great singing – than it is a meditation piece or a ritual aid. It’s uncertain how many times the average listener will want to return to this track, but if you are in the mood for an all-enveloping mystical musical trip, this song will do the trick.

While the Process Church material holds up, this is obviously a transitional time for Sabbath Assembly. I could care less for whether or not they accurately reflect the teachings of the Process Church, but the 4 originals on this album show that Sabbath Assembly is amply capable of carrying on as a valid musical entity on their own material. Now if they could rope Scalzi in for a duet on the next one…

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Stream the entire album below:

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Unholy Grave – Grindcrew Warheads

Apr 21 • International News, News, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 3463 Views

Mohammad Kabeer reviews the new live album from Unholy Graves, released via Give Praise Records.

Japan has a very  rich extreme music scene, from some of the brutal  death metal out there like Vomit Remnants, Gorevent and Disconformity to  eerie black metal like SSORC  and  Gallhammer to even some really warped out noise, experimental stuff like the Boredoms  and Merzbow as well. But the main genre we are going to talk about here is grind,  and that is not far behind as well, with awesome bands like Gate, Brob, Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation and Go-Zen, but the band that Japan is most known  throughout the globe is Unholy Grave. Although I wouldn’t really call myself a fan of this band, I have always enjoyed their releases, and I am indeed honored to review their live album, which is also my first live album review.

This live album features twenty songs, which were recorded from the band’s 2007 show at the Showcase theatre, California. Although not as raw as some of the releases which I have heard, they still sound true to their signature sound. The  guitar tone here is slightly on the harsher side, but still pretty normal, however the bass guitar when played with distortion sounds pretty raw and plays an important role in maintaining their sound. Hardcore fans might be disappointed by the sound here but their performance is nothing short of top notch! They play a very tight set that is as energetic as an album. Hell I was headbanging in my room and my neck was getting sore. That only happens to me in concerts!! This album really made me feel as if I was right there in front of them. The only flaw I guess this album would  have is that at certains points during their performance you can hear  some glitches and the sound dips a little, but these are very minor, and they aren’t something that hinders the entire experience.

So on the whole I think this is a pretty good album that fans may or may not enjoy, but I definitely had a good time. In fact I think I’ll go back and listen to it again!

Stream the entire album below:

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