Staring at the Apocalypse

Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough

Profound Lore, 2009

Related Posts: | Krallice | Byla | Indricothere |

Shrinebuilder

Neurot Recordings, 2009

Myspace | We Burn Through the Night - Scott Kelly's Blog

There are moments [as they are and as we configure them] strung together amidst all of our other moments of slow growing awareness, when the tectonic shifting of who we think we are gets overcome and overwhelmed by who we really are. And IF we are lucky, it happens without too much bloodshed.

It births, it dies, it lives without bloodshed for the rare and sainted few.

For the rest of us it happens to us [and not for us]. And it is accompanied by a quickening purpose and transcendent understanding of our goddamned place in space: we build our places of worship up on high for a reason, and SHRINEBUILDER - created by Al Cisneros, (OM, Sleep) Scott "Wino" Weinrich (St. Vitus, The Hidden Hand), Dale Crover (Melvins) and Scott Kelly (Neurosis) - shares the season and the reason: because it is closer to the gods.

So it was that the calling was answered as simply as a phone call could have been and was made. Cisneros called Weinrich, Kelly, and later Crover and decided, in full-blown ex nihilo fashion to make some music beyond the summed parts of all what had been done before and in doing so rediscover why it had been done in the first place. Beyond the parts, beyond beyond, and here descriptors that you will read every OTHER place but that go without saying here...crushing, killing and heavy, heavy, heavy...seem somehow too much and not enough.

It is Wagnerian. It is Iommic. It is simply: SHRINEBUILDER.

Now Manson [Charles, not Marilyn] once said to us, "there are only two ways to get to the cross...you get dragged...or you go along."

And here, in the spirit of the contrary, is a third: SHRINEBUILDER.

You're goddamned right.

-Eugene S. Robinson

Download *Now, this is the whole album, True Doom Rock, GET IT NOW!*

Feliz Día de Muertos: Pyramids with Nadja

Hydra Head Records, 2009

Across four extended soundscapes, psychedelic Denton post-metallers Pyramids team with seemingly everywhere/highly collaborative Toronto duo Nadja to create expansive ambient dirges that feel both fragile and heavy. You get the blast beats and wraithlike black metal vocalism of Pyramids' gorgeous self-titled debut on the airily pummeling "The Sound of Ice and Grass" and for sections of the highly triumphant closer "An Angel Was Heard To Cry Over The City Of Rome," but elsewhere the Texas quartet meld with Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff to create something entirely new: A spacious, darkly illuminated naturalist drone. The collection includes well-chosen guest spots from Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil bassist Simon Raymonde, Albin Julius of Der Blutharsch, and Mineral's Chris Simpson. The Mineral/Gloria Record frontman provides haunted vocals for "Another War". Co-Produced and engineered by Colin Marston and mixed by James Plotkin.

- From Stereogum

Staring at the Apocalypse

Search

Remains of Humanity

Horsemen of Apocalypse

Followers

Follow Me!

Blogroll