Diamonds in the Rough: The Second Coming

May 17 • International News, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 4416 Views • No Comments on Diamonds in the Rough: The Second Coming

I bet the TV’s at your home have been going non-stop for the last three days complete with your ‘dummy’s guide to lame celebrations’ by both winners and losers on the streets. This is not me trying to be Mr.Apolitical, it is me trying to balance my sanity with the paranoia that seems to have engulfed the nation. Conducting an election is no minor feat and the Election Commission is the only people i care for at the moment. So lets stay at the middle ground shall we?

Lets do that with some new music. Now this post is about exhuming a series i used to run on my previous website and one where i asked my dear pal Herbert West to inject some of his special solution into. This was where i recommended(not that mine are of any great value to begin with) a few releases from a particular month of choice, that most likely may have missed your radar. But due several time constraints i do so in a very cursory manner. The success of the album thus depends entirely on the listener’s curiosity.

Now this particular edition looks into the month of May.

Artist : Cold Body Radiation

Album: A Clear Path

Label: Dusktone Records

You are likely to be put off by the lo-fi production initially, but if given time it’d be quick to seep in. What the music of Cold Body Radiation entails is a lo-fi approach to shoegazing that seem to stem from a very hazy black metal past. Its a rather uncommon approach, yet one that seems to have hit the sweet spot.
<a href="http://dusktone.bandcamp.com/album/cold-body-radiation-a-clear-path-dusk017cd">COLD BODY RADIATION ”A Clear Path” (Dusk017CD) by Dusktone</a>

Artist: Wormreich

Album: Wormcult Revelations

Label: Moribund Records

Stepping on the gas on this one. Do not squirm at the extent of sudden change of intensity. Wormreich unleashes a maelstrom of razor sharp riffs that cut and slice in different directions, acerbic yet bleeds precision. The song attached Revelation II Serpents of Choron develops with time and finally unveils its multiple weapon display kit in the latter half.

Artist: Karma to Burn

Album: Sons of Alpha Centauri & Karma to Burn Split

Label : H42 Records

Although this particular track was released in 2o13, the song comes off a brand new split. No vocals, still the stoner fruit punch that it packs you with is undeniably infectious.

Artist: Doomed

Album: Our Ruin Silhouettes

Label: Solitude Productions

Solitude Productions is turning out to be a quality doom label from Russia. The new record from the German Doomed will hopefully further their climb as a band and also indirectly the label. The track featured My Hand in Yours exudes melody with funeral barges in place to checking your brain for anything sweet. The constant oscillation between the despondence and well more of it, with neatly hewn melodies to guide its path is something i’ve been waiting for.

Artist: Harakiri for the Sky

Album: Aokigahara

Label: Art of Propaganda

3 parts post rock, 2 parts screamo and 1 part borderline black metal and you have Harakiri for the Sky. And ‘Mad World’ is probably the worst song title for a black metal band. But if you could imagine those genre barriers non-existent for a while and take it for a piece of music, then this’d click. Incredibly catchy without sliding over to the point of derision(the point of no-return).

Artist: Autumn’s Dawn

Album: S/T EP

Label: Eisenwald Tonschmiede

Lets wrap up this first edition (in a long while) of Diamonds in the Rough on a note that is depressing as much as it fleets beauty. Autumn’s Dawn a two man band, both of whom were ex-members of some of the well known names in the ascendant post-black metal genre like Germ, Woods of Desolation and from different genres like Bane of Isildur, Rise of Avernus etc.

This is bleak but steeped in melody sort of black metal that serves like a much needed warm cloth on a man in his last moments. Comfort that does not stop the eventuality.