Caina – caina EP
[Universal Tongue, 2009]
genre : black metal, post-rock, drone, post-metal, shoegaze, ambient
EP review by Sovereign
Caïna is a one-man band, from Hampshire/Sussex. Stylistically, it draws from genres as disparate as black and post metal, drone, doom, shoegaze, neofolk and post-rock. I found them back to 2007 with their release Mourner. This Extended Play release is a representable sample of this man’s works. Nice atmospheric soundscapes and a black metal background. The first track climbs the quarters with a modern tickling post rock tone and reaches ambient soundscapes at the end. Second attempt starts with a spastic noisy sound and delivers a black metal growl with a post-metal and noisy drone doom guitar session. Heavy drones and distortions followed by black metal guitar speeds. It is an excellent atmospheric black cry that gives over suddenly and followed by a shoegaze continuant and atmospheric tone. “To Pluck the Night Up by its Skin” is reaching new black metal bands, that combine noise and black and produce an atmospheric post black sound. I think Caina is the only band that reminds me some sounds and attempts of Ulver. Huge rotation of line from black to post and dark ambient music shapes. The last track is a dark ambient myth, with electronica vibes and a rock rhythm section that ends to a huge noise-rock jam. Distorted drone guitars, growls and noises. There is a really dark atmospheric, heavy and very noisy. This guy can mix in an excellent way black and modern kind of metal with ambient and drone. It is worthwhile to try this release. I think it won’t disappoint anyone.
The album:
caina caina EP 2009 rapidshare
http://www.caina.150m.com/
http://www.myspace.com/cainaband
http://www.univtongue.blogspot.com/
http://break-yourself-on-rocks.blogspot.com/
Tracks:
1. The Approaching Chastisement 3:38
2. Drilling the Spire 7:06
3. To Pluck the Night Up by its Skin 8:19
4. You Worship the Wrong Carpenter 8:28
Sovereign
They still release their albums with the same name. Switchblade is the band, self titled are all their albums since 2001. So in order to individualize their albums, let’s call this one as the s/t ‘2009′ release. Slow motion aggressive metal, and that’s all. This is an album full of doom sludgy metal, dark and dirty music, fulfilled with extreme underground harsh vocals and blurred sound. Three extended tracks, distorted guitars, drone sounds and a shitty doom metal smell. Black, all black, the booklet, the attitude, the atmosphere is black… night, stoned and an atmosphere of dirty and dusty guitars. The band produces extreme doom metal diamonds and go with (I believe they are among the creators) the sound of Esoteric, Khanate, Moss, Arcana Coelestia, Leviathan, Mourning Beloveth, YOB and Minsk. This band is from Sweden, they are not the other one from Australia. Their death metal and grind roots are obvious in here but nowadays their speed is really disappeared. Slow, really slow stoned music. They are heavy as a big rock, too heavy to be lifted like a huge stone. Excellent modern doom metal and enviable sludge metal in slow motion attitude. Recommended to (extreme)doom, sludge and avant-garde metal fans. 
Noisy atmospheric black metal. Harsh background vocals, dark production, distortions and dark ambient atmospheres.
The English band’s new release is here to give us what we expected. High speed devilish sick black metal. They follow the same recipe as their previous albums. Barbaric speedy black metal couples followed by melodic death metal refrains. The result is fantastic. In vocals vitriol is just amazing, he just do any sound his throat can make. Shitty sick screams, growls, clean singing, I just love his vocals. In guitars we can hear unstoppable tireless ecstatic riffing. But the most amazing of all are the drums. The speed is just unbelievable. I don’t think there is a human being to play in that speeds live. He will last at most three minutes before he pass out. And I can see why they had Nicolas Barker as a drummer. The thing is that this album is great and not recommended to sensitive ears cause they‘ll surely bleed.
This is a Digitalis Limited 2008 release, but back then, it was in an audio cassette version and in a limited edition. This year it comes out in a vinyl release from Dekorder. Two ambient tracks, full of experimentalisms and noises. 40 minutes of trips and dark memories. Track No1 ‘Black Scripture’ is very atmospheric and really experimental, it is a great composition from the band and I think is my favorite. Dark and gloomy, noisy and a bit dreamy. This track is the ambient, chilly part of the vinyl. Track No 2 ‘Gilted Rose’ it isn’t so atmospheric like the previous one, but is more mysterious and really black and scary. There’s a distant black metal style evil vocal that appears to possess your mind. It is recommended to fans of drone, ambient, noise and maybe black metal. It is the dark and black metal part of the vinyl and it can contradict to great dark ambient and atmospheric black metal bands. Great try from the band. Check out the previous releases of them. 
A dark and cloudy release, a relaxing sound, an ambient music picture, all these together can result this album. The use of German language in the lyrics makes it darker to me and gives to it a folk and traditional dimension. Christoph Ziegler who is the guy behind this project, proves that his inspiration is abyssal or something like bottomless. 
After 8 years the Finnish band Arthemesia released a new album. That’s pretty much time to prepare a new album and the result is very good in deed. Their music is atmospheric black combined with dark and depressive melodies pretty easy for anyone to hear. The tempo is slow/mid except the last track ‘Liber Omega’. Vocals are harsh black and in some parts clean dark.
“Crawl Back In” is a Neurosis song from their 2001’s release ‘A Sun That Never Sets’, maybe the most ambiguous release of the band, but, in my opinion, their most atmospheric and psychedelic album. So this first element makes me to sympathy the band from the beginning (as they get influenced to name their band, from a favourite band like Neurosis). Martin from ‘Crawl Back In’ has sent to noiz their new EP, which they are going to release it for free (check myspace page), and to be honest I am very happy for that(he send us). The EP has 3 songs, 3 long-play songs, aggressive, hardcore and dark. The Swedish play an aggressive, hardcore and experimental post-metal. Their metal is influenced by Cult of Luna, Neurosis, Knut and Old Man Gloom, but they have something really dark and shitty inside their compositions. The vocals are excellent and fully experimental. Screams, black metal howls, brutal whines, death hoarseness and experimental squalls. Their rhythm is slow and doomy, and their music structure is scaled. The mix of all these kinds of vocals with the aggressive attitude and the huge riffs from the guitars makes the band really interesting; their sludge metal is quite modern and heavy. I think I will be a fan of them directly. 
Mara sends us their work and it is a pleasure for us to review it. Black post-metal compositions with dark ambient elements and many samples, it is a kind of depressive black metal with industrial influences. Vocals are black, reminding Leviathan. Production isn’t good but it doesn’t bother me because it gives to their music a cold and dry atmosphere. And don’t forget they have all the excuses for that, no label, no budget, first recording etc… These guys showing that they know how to use all sounds their instruments can create and how to manage samples. On the other hand they are lacking in the composition part. Seems like in this demo they try to cover the shortness of ideas with good sound management. Although I can recognize this as a good first recording attempt and these guys showing good potential. Recommended to ambient black metal fans.
Last year I have been impressed with the experimental live performance Sunn did in Norway (
Δε μπορώ να πιστέψω ότι ένας αμερικανός στρατιώτης από το Colorado,ο οποίος ήταν προσφάτως στον πόλεμο, μαζι με ένα τυπο από το Denver έγραψε αυτό το αριστούργημα. Φοβερές progressive black-death συνθέσεις με αρκετές δόσεις sludge και post metal. Black φωνητικά ως επί το πλείστον και dark καθαρά εκεί που πρέπει. Δε μπορώ να βρω κάτι κακό στον δίσκο. 
Πρόκειται για μια από τις καλύτερες κυκλοφορίες της χρονιάς. Οι ιρλανδοί post-blackαδες εδώ ζωγράφισαν. Η μελαγχολική διάθεση της μουσικής τους είναι εμφανής και διαχυτη σε ολο το δισκο. Black metal εναλλασσόμενο τέλεια με ambient, post, και doom μελωδίες, καθωτι ο drummer χρησιμοποιει synths αλλα και διαφορα samples. Οι συνθέσεις είναι καθηλωτικές και σε ταξιδεύουν. Στα φωνητικά κυριαρχούν τα black-death. Δε λείπουν βέβαια τα σημεία που αλλοτε θα σε κάνουν να χτυπιέσαι και άλλοτε να τρομάζεις μέσα από αργόσυρτες και σκοτεινες doom εκτελέσεις.
Οι Αυστραλοί Austere μ’ αυτή την κυκλοφορία μας δείχνουν πως μπορείς να κλάψεις ακούγοντας black. Σκοτεινό και δραματικό μέχρι τον πάτο. Φωνητικά ξεθαμμένα από In the woods στα πρώτα τους βήματα. Δε λείπουν βέβαια και τα καθαρά στα σημεία που χρειάζονται. Πρόκειται για black metal στην πολύ ελαφριά του μορφή μπλεγμένο με doom και ατμοσφαιρικούς ήχους που σημαίνει ότι άνετα μπορεί να συγκινήσει οποιονδήποτε ακροατή metal. Υπάρχει ένα θέμα γιατί σε όλα τα κομμάτια τους πραγματεύονται την ίδια μελωδία, αλλά οι εκτελέσεις είναι τόσο διαφορετικές που πραγματικά δε σε χαλάει καθόλου. Πολύ καλή δουλεία αξίζει με χίλια.
Οι Σουηδοί κυκλοφόρησαν το νέο τους ξέσπασμα Maranatha. Πρόκειται για έναν black metal δίσκο, εξαιρετικά βάρβαρο, με αρκετά ωστόσο σημεία όμορφης μελωδίας. 
Raw death metal or a more blackened style of death metal?
Fall of Efrafa play hardcore punk mixed with distorted extreme metal guitar riffs. This kind of music some people named crust. On the other hand FoE have really slow, doomy parts in their songs and they reach post-metal and sludge. This release is quite interesting and a great metal suggestion. Dusted vocals, slow metal riffs, noise guitars, heavy bass and dark drums. 
This band is a dirty heavy doom, drone and noise act. They experiment with the noise of the strings. This album is actually one song, more than one hour long, full of drones and noisy music. I can correlate them with OM, Nadja, Sunn 0))) and Earth, unlike these bands Bongripper have more melodic and pure metal parts. This music is totally stoned; amplifiers and boosters suffer a lot…
Experimental metal band. Nice music, great ideas, fresh sound and an amateur production that make the sound and the atmosphere better. I can define it as an atmospheric sludge. There is an ambience around the heavy sounds. I don’t have any other information. I think they are Spanish. 
Heavy metal, groovy rhythm, scream vocals, brutal attitude, stoner guitars, metal riffs, huge bass lines, punk atmosphere. This is a fantastic underground act from Canada. I don’t know why they are still unknown. This is a great album for headbangers!!!
