Showing posts with label crust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crust. Show all posts

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Thenn-Threshing the Golden Fields EP (2012)

Thenn is named after a geographical location and a tribe in George R.R. Martin's epic Song of Ice and Fire series. The geographical location is an icebound valley far to the north of The Wall, which guards the realm of humans against the Others (read the books, I don't have time to explain). The tribe is a group of savage, Bronze Age folk similar to the Picts or maybe the Celts, who wear bronze scale armor and worship their king, the Magnar, as a god.

Got that? Good, 'cause it tells you a lot you need to know about the music Thenn plays. That would, of course, be heavy black metal with a singer who sounds like a cannibalistic Orc or, well, Thenn. Brooding guitar sludge and downtuned bridges alternate with soaring solos flying on the wings of dragons, and all the while, that Orc is gnashing his teeth in anticipation of human flesh. Thenn's songs are more dynamic than a lot of the stuff I hear from this genre: the songs have distinct sections, and although they run into each other, that's the point, isn't it? Thenn does a great job of tapering their raging verses off into false stops, only to come charging back with blastbeats and epic, swooping guitar misery. Here comes the Magnar of Thenn again!

Wallow in frigid lakes of gushing blood HERE.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Cease to Exist-Heptaparaparshinokh EP (2012)

I first found out about the DIY hardcore scene (as opposed to being into punk as a historical genre of music) when I was 17 or so. One of the first LPs I bought after I started going to basement shows was Deathreat's "The Severing of the Last Barred Window." I can still remember the amused look on the woman behind the recordstore register's face as she rang up my eager young friends and I. "Oh, yeah. Deathreat. I'm a little too old for them now." Of course, being 17 year old kids, we thought this was preposterous-how could one EVER be too old for a hardcore band?!?

Much the same thought crosses my mind with Cease to Exist's EP. It's not bad: fans of His Hero is Gone, especially their first 7", will enjoy it. Brooding, downtuned guitars, spastic drum pummeling, and harsh, scratchy, growled vocals sprawl over the six tracks. I would have a lot of fun catching them at a basement show, and they actually remind me of some band I saw in Olympia last time I was there, which sounded like From Ashes Rise. I just think I'm pushing the maximum age limit as far as "ability to enjoy this on a visceral level" goes.

Check out CeasetoExist on facebook here. Download the EP here.