post-metal

Profile: Roger Kilburn of Bréag Naofa

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Breag Naofa
Bréag Naofa – pic courtesy of David Heinecke

Recently, Seattle’s Bréag Naofa released their EP Cearo via their Bandcamp page in digital and vinyl formats. And have since released II via Halo of Flies and, again, on their Bandcamp page. So, needless to say they’ve been busy but what they offer is an expansively dark version of post metal sprinkled with sludge and black metal. To dismiss it would be a grave error as the results of both Cearo and II are stunning and extremely well executed. We got the chance to ask Roger Kilburn (guitars) our set of Profile questions and he was kind enough to oblige with great answers. See for yourself after the jump.

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Second Circle: DRÅP and Timeworn

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Second Circle

In Dante’s Inferno, the second circle begins the proper punishment of Hell, a place where “no thing gleams.” It is reserved for those overcome with Lust, where carnal appetites hold sway over reason. In Nine Circles, it’s where we do shorter reviews of new (ish) albums that share a common theme.

Two bands, two sophomore albums.  It kind of feels like I’m about to introduce two gladiators into Thunderdome, but the truth is all I really want to do is expose you to some loud and angry music that will take a shitty day and maybe not make it better, but at least give you something to match the pounding of the pulse in your skull.  Sometimes we don’t want anything more than a voice to match our rage, a blast to pace our anger and a ground up dirty riff to sink our beaten down souls into.  And this edition of Second Circle has you covered with DRÅP and Timeworn, so lets throw down.   Continue reading →

Album Review: Kenoma – “The Tides Will Prevail”

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Music’s ability to convey feeling and expression is a given at this point.  Down-tune and play at the pace of a snail and you can convey the funeral melancholy of doom.  Rev it up with blasts and screams and your rage at the world or the local coffee shop is readily understood.  But music’s ability to convey experience isn’t as easily explored.  But just as the taste of a madeleine brought the memory of Proust’s childhood back to him, so can the combination of notes evoke specific times, places, and events in our lives.  It’s this focus on music as experience that Kenoma brings to their long awaited debut album, The Tides Will Prevail. Continue reading →

Sepulchral Saturday: Junius – “Eternal Rituals for the Accretion of Light”

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The relationship between music and darkness is as old as memory. Certainly the first humans to look up into the vastness of the night sky must have intoned some kind of hymns to the black, whether in abject fear or awe. The swirling dark is practically synonymous with metal — just check the number of band names with the word “Dark” or “Night” or “Black” in them. But true darkness lives in thought, in reflection and circumspection, and Junius have over the course of their recorded output gazed further and farther into the abyss, and Eternal Rituals for the Accretion of Light, their latest and concluding album in a conceptual trilogy is a dizzying ride through the human spirit as it confronts and moves past the specter of death. It’s also a hell of an album.   Continue reading →

Album Review: Autism – “Film Noir”

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Post rock, post metal, whatever — just get past it already. Good music is good music and I get the need to categorize and tag albums as we have to do this for a myriad of reasons, but it pegs an album before the listener truly gets a chance to experience the first note. Let second full length, Film Noir, from Lithuania’s Autism be the example of not reading a book, in this case tag, by its cover. Tagged post rock this album is seven tracks of throughly engaging and beautifully written movements of music. The commentary is dark but make no mistake, it enshrouds the listener in cascades of sounds and emotions that are unexpected but welcomed once immersed. Continue reading →