Instrumental Doom bringers Cloud are back with a new release, which goes by he name of Indeterminate. I was a fan of the self titled EP, as you will see here, especially the triumph that was the track Grim Reefer so was eager to hear this new offering...
Indeterminate
Indeterminate opens with thunder and rain and resonant guitar. It's a reworking of 'Unpolished' from their incredible first EP and what a rework it is. The pitter patter of rain seems to slowly develop into drum before the heavyness smacks you in the face. But this isn't ur, it generates speed with an awesome riff making it impossible not to head bang like a lunatic. Stunningly fulfilling in heavyness, incredible ambience throughout and lovely blues laden solos, this is living up to everything I hoped it would be.
Relapse fades in, slow and heavy with before breaking into a chugging wall of distortion and hangover like fuzziness with a satisfying hint of groove make the track more and more listenable as it develops.
Desert Weed was a make or break moment for me. A track with lyrical content, provided by Gabriel Ravera of Mephistofeles. I love that Cloud, up till now, produced great instrumental music so was dubious about this. Any doubt was soon cast aside when hearing the Ozzy style tone of Ravera complemented by a well written track. Cloud are clearly not limited in their writing ability and Ravera puts in a performance that has made his band the next in my search list. The instrumental interlude comes in and transports me back to early Sabbath, before Ravera sees us out with his last contribution.
Otherworldly takes is back home to instrumental land, with a track that shows some development from the original EP with pleasing licks and touches which add an understated element to the track.
Yggdrasil, the last track, opens with bluesy, groovy intent which continues to a breakdown of epic proportions. It eventually builds its way back, layer by layer, to being the heavy blues groove that controls your ears so hypnotically at the beginning. It sees us out by becoming bludgeoningly slow and heavy, with some great drumming fills.
Conclusion
Another great effort from Cloud and if instrumental doom is your thing then this album is a must. Its shows a steady progression the self titled EP in terms of song writing and a nice, and more importantly not out of place, surprise with the vocal track. Another success for Cloud.
Headless Kross formed in Scotland in 2011.
They are a Psychedelic Doom band who use an unearthly vocal style along with a
satisfyingly fuzzy bass and heavy as a wrecking ball in your crotch guitar
sound. We’ve been sent their new Album, Projections I, the first part of a
pretty exciting trilogy of releases, all due out within the next 12 months, to
review. You’ll be able to get your filthy hands on this instalment on 18th November.
Now let’s not fuck around here, these guys have shared the
stage with the likes of Conan, Orange Goblin, Jucifer and Slomatics, and you don’t
get to do that if you’ve got nothing going on! They’ve already shattered a few
eardrums and expectations with their second full length album Volumes in 2015,
so many will be interested to see how Projections 1 fares.
Projections I
From the opening notes of Does Not Equal Time I’m enthralled.
Straight away it is heavy and sublimely Doom, with a neck cranking groove.
The distant scream vocal adds to the atmosphere as musically it chugs along,
satisfyingly low tempo and fuzzily. Then halfway through the speed is increased in a
hypnotising repetition of riff, where the drum beat is the only thing that
changes, adding an underlying intensity, then slowness, then intensity again.
The Drum work single handedly changes the mood of the track whilst everything
else stays the same and I find it so effective in terms of song writing. This
is a composition that draws you in and allows you to lose yourself, something only great Doom metal bands achieve.
Practical Mental Effects introduces itself with layers of
feedback and a gut-wrenching scream, an indication as to what you’re going to
hear vocally for the remainder of the song. It is so slow, it makes a sloth
look like Usain Bolt, but this adds to the intensity of the heaviness, a few
surprises are thrown in in terms of notes, which work well to peak your
attention. Again, Headless Kross show a propensity to create interesting sound,
when later in the track a spacey solo comes in creating a glorious few moments
that alone are worth the 8 minutes this track weighs in at.
In comes the frankly haunting introduction of Church Of The
Fifth Season. When the guitar riff comes in some of my uneasiness (like
watching a good horror) is lifted, it’s not deep and heavy like we’ve heard so
far, but more proggy, psychadelic and epic. Whilst the track does regain the
plodding heaviness this track shows more diversity in sound than the previous
two tracks. Nothing like keeping things interesting, it’s well placed on the album.
The Map Is Not The Territory has a bluesy, sludgy groove.
Sexton’s intense screamed vocal cuts through the proceedings like an eerie, devilish
augmentation. When the track starts chugging we get to enjoy some understated
blues lines, again making me appreciate the composers’ ability to add so much intrigue
with little touches, before the song fades out into a fuzz or bass and guitar,
which seems like a fitting end to this album.
Conclusion
This album is grim, abrasive, fascinating, joyous,
slooooooow, monolithically heavy and epic all at once. I’m already salivating
like a fat man waiting for pizza at the thought of what Projections 2 and 3 are
going to bring. But concentrating on this release, the tracks draw you in to
the point you’re fully involved in the music, captured in the sublime heaviness
and almost hypnotic vocal that you feel may possess your soul. I was genuinely shocked
when I sat down and looked at the timings of the songs, that not one of the
tracks is less than 8 minutes, such is the level you get involved when
listening.
Score 4/5
Headless Kross is:
Derek Sexton – Bass /Vocals
Tommy Duffin – Guitar
Jonny Montgomery -
Drums
The album will be available via their Bandcamp page, so you may as well visit now and Download their back catalogue.
After listening to the talents of Cloud, I've had a thirst for more atmospheric, heavy instrumental music.
Some stuff I've found sounded worse than that time you heard your folks shagging. Some of it has been pretty good but not quite exploring the heights I'd hoped for.
Into Orbit contacted me saying I could download their stuff, for free, from Bandcamp, so I thought I'd give it a listen. What do I have to lose other than time? (My precious, precious time)
What I can undoubtedly say is they hit the spot for me with their brand of epic, atmospheric sound scapes. Bringing together ambience and heavyness as though they should have always been married. This music takes you places.
Into Orbit are but two men, Paul Stewart on guitar and Ian Moir on drums. Their hometown is Wellington in New Zealand. Moir said "We've played in a few different bands together over the past 10 years, mostly metal stuff. This band came about when we decided to have a casual jam with just the two of us about three years ago. Paul had just bought himself a loop pedal, he was playing around with that and I was jamming along on the drums. It all felt pretty organic and songs just started kinda flowing out of the jams. We realised that, with Paul's loop pedal and plethora of other effects we could create a full band sound with just the two of us. We decided to stick to that because we were finding the creative process so smooth with the two of us and didn't want to jeopardise it by adding someone else"
Bringing together ambience and heavyness as though they should always have been married. This music takes you places
Style
Their music it is at times light, serene, full of resonance, warm and comforting, and in the same track it can become heavy, aggresive, dark and at time mechanical, deranged.
Within the compositions, there are well thought out layers of sound that keep you alert and involved in the music. Stewart uses effects to create broad soundscapes and Moir's drum work is at times inspired and always well performed. Their ability to compose thoughtful and interesting music completes the package.
They are not members of a particular scene in New Zealand, but this suits them. Drummer, Moir told me "New Zealand is a small place. There are some great bands, and there are scenes, but I'm not sure where we fit into it, and to be honest we don't want to be part of a scene, we just want to play with great and interesting, different bands. Some of our favorite local bands to play with over the past year have been really stylistically diverse, experimental, alt-rock, post-rock, punk, doom, funk, country-drone, extreme metal. Our fans seem to be really diverse, they don't come from one place musically".
And you can see why they are appreciated by a wide ranging audience. They identify themselves as experimental rock, which is quite fitting but theres a lot of rock ground covered, with metal, prog, ambient and drone all thrown in. So often you read bands associating themselves with an abundance of genres and when you listen you're scratching your head digging around for the metal element they said they had. For Into Orbit, the multitude of references is completely relevant.
"New Zealand is a small place...and there are scenes, but I'm not sure where we fit into it, and to be honest we don't want to be part of a scene, we just want to play with great and interesting, different bands".
Soundtrack
There was a great soundtrack released in 1984, written by Mark Knopfler, for a film called Cal. It was ever present in my household growing up thanks to the eclectic taste of my step father. Listening to Into Orbit envokes happy memories of listening to Cal in my youth. Whilst stylistically completely different, Into Orbit's compositions hold the same ability to paint a picture and portray an atmosphere through sound. Their music, especially the excellent album, Caverns, is like a soundtrack to an epic, unwritten film.
If you let it, it can make the imagination run wild. When listening I envisage floating over stunning rural scenes, and then epic battles full of passion and bloodlust. (can someone recommend a psychiatrist?)
There's songs that inspire thoughts of adventures and danger, one being the excellent Gilgamesh their newest track described bt the band as an "enigma" spawned from a jamming session.
When listening I envisage floating over stunning rural scenes, and then epic battles full of passion and bloodlust.
They take you on a journey while listening, but non of this is by design. Moir says, "The music tends to happen in the moment, before any thematic ideas come into it, I guess at that point it's about following an undefined 'feeling' of where the song is going. The themes come into it when a song is finished and we take a step back from it and think about song titles and artwork to fit the vibe, which explore those kinds of themes".
Live
I couldn't begin to envisage how Into Orbit came across live before learning about Stewart's loop pedal, Moir explains; " Paul's loop pedal is basically our 'third member'. Paul lays down the layers of guitar loops live on stage, and I do my best to stay in time with it! You might notice on our releases, that multiple guitar parts don't (come) in at once, but one layer at a time. I guess it's a limitation in being a loop pedal duo, but it's also helped define our style".
Whilst Moir describes the limitations of the loop pedal, as a listener you may feel it adds to the build up of the compositions, creating a progressive feel. The fact it is recorded in this manner must also add an authenticity to live performances that are played and built up in the same way.
New Albun
Into Orbit are working on a new album, hopefully to be released this year. When I asked about it's progress I was told, "6 months ago I would have said it was about 6 months away from completion, but we're constantly changing our minds about parts, and about which songs to include on the album. . . Our writing/arranging process involves a lot of experimentation, sometimes it takes a while to hit on something we're 100% happy with, and it's pretty hard to predict when we'll get to that point."
It's refreshing to know that putting out the right material, that which best reflects the band's development and direction is paramount over purely getting something out.
Whilst we eagerly await this release why don't you head to Bandcamp and download their back catalogue. Sit in a dark room, put on your headphones and enjoy a bit of impressive creativity and above all, amazing music.
I can not begin to tell you how happy I am to finally own this EP. Ever since happening across the track Grim Reefer months ago I've been sporadically trying to find a social media and sales outlet for this band.
It's not their fault, it's my own technological stupidity. After realising I could expand the info under the YouTube info and a bunch of links to everything I've ever wanted was there all along. Lesson learnt, I'd be embarrassed about it if I cared enough about technology.
So anyway, Cloud...
Who Are They?
They are Jeff "Trash" Hartwell on guitars, Josh Dower in Bass and Scott Rebarchek on crash symbol smashing duties. They are from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Style
Instrumental. Epic. Atmospheric. Stoner Doom Metal. And that is all that is required to be said.
Cloud EP
Today in art corner we have an album cover by Mark Paich, and lets face it, it fucking rocks.
The opening track, Cosmic Carousel, starts with a guitar intro that posseses all the eery resonance of a church organ and grand acoustics of being recorded in a religious building. We're then introduced to the fuzzy, angry riff that eventually paves the way for the heavy blues tone that takes control and drives the song. The leads, using a cleaner, more classic warm tone add a nice additional layer to the track. The track travels from atmospheric to balls out rock and back again, hitting truely epic status halfway through with almost tribal tom work and reverb laden guitar tone.
Unpolished is like a little bridge between the two main tracks on the EP. Again, full of atmosphere, all played over the sound of running water and rain. Its a swampy, not heavy but dark and moody, peice.
Then you get to hear the magnum opus of the EP. Grim Reefer. Everything is on point in this track. Incredible drum work, driving bass both overlayed by heavy but crisp guitar work. All the instruments do their part in creating epic soundscapes in this track. This is 7min 34 second of my life that felt like 1 minute, such is the power and draw of the music. You simply must hear this track.
I'm every bit as impressed with this EP as I hoped I would be, having finally found it.
If you can buy it ($6) buy it here, it's a must have in Doomers collection. You can also have a listen below, it's a little bit of genius;
These guys who have another recording on the way so give them a follow and see whats next.
