Vesper
User

Soundoffs 2
Album Ratings 810
Objectivity 90%

Last Active 05-24-12 4:55 am
Joined 09-30-10

Review Comments 3,085

 Lists
06.07.12 Concert Review 6/6 ♦05.04.12 Gilead Media Music Festival Recap ♦
12.31.11 Vespertine 201110.08.11 Badges Of Honor
08.25.11 New York Is The Place To Be. ♦05.08.11 Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Vespertine 2011

Do you like Phil Collins?
30Submotion Orchestra
Finest Hour

Overall, this was a nice, relaxing listen, but I wasn't utterly taken by it initially, as pleasant as their jazzy, dubbed electronic sound is. The terrific title track, however, brought me back to this repeatedly, and the album has grown on me, as a result.
29James Blake
Enough Thunder

I could not stop listening to his piano cover of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" for days, but that aside, this is a solid release from this prolific dubstep artist. And I stress the word artist.
28Alpinist/Masakari
Split

I didn't always listen to hardcore this year, but when I did, I listened to this. A fine example of hardcore at its furious best.
27Fyrnask
Bluostar

Just very satisfying black metal. You can almost feel the hair sprouting from your eye sockets. Or stabbing into them, whatever.
26Ulcerate
The Destroyers of All

I wanted to like this more, but it rather sagged in the middle for me. The rest of the death metal ruled hard enough to get it a spot on my list, so shush. m/
25Cruciamentum
Engulfed in Desolation

Aw, yeah, a slab of last minute death metal to crush its way onto my list. Nothing groundbreaking, but thoroughly gratifying.
24Kate Bush
50 Words for Snow

It's Kate Bush doing her art pop thing, what more do ya want?
23Ulver
Wars of the Roses

Ulver do what Ulver want. Ulver don't give a fuck what you think about their art rock. But I like it.
22Flourishing
The Sum of All Fossils

This caught my attention immediately from the opening track with this album's rather eccentric mix of sludgy tech death metal and industrial. The first half is better than the latter, but they're definitely a band to watch.
21Ayr
Eternal Sustain

Another enjoyable black metal release that got a lot of play from me. The last track, "Lifted by the Light From My Breath", is resplendent and, indeed, uplifting.
20 Ashdautas/Bone Awl
Split

The last release from the now defunct Ashdautas (although Arizmenda is pretty much the same band) don't disappoint with their offering of a coiling, discordant black metal maelstrom characteristic of the Black Twilight Circle's more manic acts. The Bone Awl side isn't as compelling as Ashdautas's side and doesn't hold my interest as much, but it's still decent and an improvement on their previous work. 100 copies of the first press sold out in one minute, lol.
19Encoffination
O Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres

Encoffination is death/doom metal is this album is Encoffination. Therefore, rules.
18Circle of Ouroborus
Eleven Fingers

Their mix of post-punk, black metal, and ambient easily makes for one of the quirkier black metal bands out there, and it works.
17Leucosis
Pulling Down the Sky

Dynamic atmospheric black metal based on a tragic, horrifying back story makes for an engaging album.
16Swarms
Old Raves End

Yea, this is pretty good electronica.
15Corrupted
Garten Der Unbewusstheit

Corrupted do something a bit different, but it's still a delicious, heavy serving of sludgy drone. One day, I was on a bus out of New York City, and it began to rain. I was listening to this, and it was perfect.
14Lee Noble
No Becoming

Lo-fi, ambient drone for when you ride the subway by yourself. Hazy, sometimes creepy, and always magnificent.
13Antediluvian
Through the Cervix of Hawaah

Crawling black/death metal the way these Canadians (thanks, Wiz!) know best, recalling Incantation and Portal. This visceral style of death metal makes me tingle from dem riffs. (That came out oddly sexual, but whatever. Not exactly untrue.)
12The Haunting Presence
The Haunting Presence

Get your face ripped off in four tracks, ten minutes. Twisting and ferocious, it's death metal to summon demons, which, if you ever see them live, seems quite likely. I may also have a massive crush on the vocalist/guitarist. (Their tape single was also fantastic, but I didn't want to put a two-track single on here, so I'll stick it with this release. Another two tracks and five minutes of faceripping awesomeness.)
11Ash Borer
Ash Borer

I prefer their tour recording of "Rest, You Are Lightning", but the other two tracks certainly make up for it. Ash Borer give me a sense of journeying with them through their swiftly undulating current of black metal, which is nothing short of exhilarating.
10Various Artists
Odour of Dust and Rot

Opening with a menacingly buzzing riff that just builds and builds, "Enslave Every Star" kicks this off to a great start. Despite being a compilation of various Rhinocervs acts, this manages to remain a cohesive album. Spacey and discordant black metal, interspersed with sonorous chants and wails, Rhinocervs produce a sense of recurring expansion and contraction in their work, which neatly evokes their ritualistic and celestial aesthetic themes.
9Ruin Lust
Demo 2011

I first heard these guys open for Ash Borer, and they are one hell of a live band with overwhelming energy. The drums are beastly, as one might expect from the drummer of Fell Voices taking a shot at death metal, and accompany well-crafted, memorable riffs. The last track played for days in my head after I heard it. This deserves to be up here if only for how many times I've listened to it.
8Drowning the Light/Circle of Ouroborus
Moonflares

Only repeat band on here, but goddamn, am I a sucker for their sound. Drowning the Light provide a more traditional, quite melodic black metal complement to CoO's ambient post-punk leanings, which are particularly melancholic here. (The wonderfully apocalyptic cover art might look familiar to fans of Lustmord, since both bands lifted it from John Martin, haha.)
7Sutekh Hexen
Luciform

Noisy black metal that hits the spot. Layered with crackling dissonance, this is what I imagine it would sound like to be dragged to hell. Energetic, demonic guitar lines careen in and out of the fuzz and drive you headlong into its caliginous wall of sound.
6Grouper
A I A

Dreamy ambient drone infused with a profound aura of estrangement. A sci-fi film montage plays in my head when I listen to this, mostly involving Hugh Jackman in a bubble and Sam Rockwell on the moon. Just incredibly evocative while maintaining a serene restraint throughout the album that perfectly reflects its sense of detached alienation.
5Loss
Despond

Funeral doom done right without becoming cloying or tedious. Just a palpable woe that worms its way into you and stays there.
4Arizmenda
Without Circumference Nor Center

Probably my favorite BTC act, Arizmenda don't disappoint with their distinctive brand of frenzied black metal, pierced with unearthly howls and weird, atonal, winding guitars. Seeing these guys live is a headtrip.
3Fell Voices
Untitled

I want to book this band for my wedding. That's how much I love them. Anyway, now that I have that out of the way... although their Untitled is not on par with their self-titled, they remain a consistently superb black metal outfit with their almost meditative use of repetition and meticulously structured songs.
2Wreck and Reference
Black Cassette

Lo-fi electronic doom to knock yo pants off. Exceptional pacing throughout the album, cacophonous, thrilling crescendos topped off with unique vocals to make for a truly emotive album. What's not to love?
1Tim Hecker
Ravedeath, 1972

Beautiful and utterly absorbing every single time. Hecker's measured piano work meshes wonderfully with the layers of desolate ambient drone to keep me coming back for a singularly distinctive experience. This album transports me.
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