Alaskan - The Weak &the Wounded (vinyl)

ALASKAN - The Weak and the Wounded
2010
Dwyer Records / Treaty Oak Collective / D7i Records / Désordre ordonné / Moment of Collapse Records / Shove Records

This is not a new album, but a release on vinyl of Alaskan's 2nd record, The Weak and the Wounded. While its length sits between an EP and an album (4 songs, about 30 minutes), the quality of its material is strong enough to make it an important step in the band's discography. This was recorded and mixed by Topon Das (Merdarahta, Fuck the Facts, Biipiigwan, Collider, etc), and remastered for vinyl quality.

The Weak and the Wounded was a bit more "hardcore" and more straightforward than the excellent follow up Adversity; Woe. Both music and lyrics are easily enjoyable, and would appeal to anyone interested by post-hardcore and sludge bands such as Buried Inside, Neurosis, Titan and Cult of Luna, to name a few. Its general atmosphere is enhanced with samples taken from the psychological movie Session 9.

Now, about the vinyl release, I should say that this is most welcome. Alaskan's music was made to be pressed on wax. The record was completely redesigned with a new artwork and layout, something simple but effective. The original cover was cleverly used on the rear record label, while lyrics and credits are printed on the back of the jacket. It also comes with beautiful coloured wax, as shown above.

As you might have noticed from the description above, The Weak and the Wounded should have enough distribution for you to be able to find it.

Download and streaming: alaskan.bandcamp.com/album/the-weak-and-the-wounded
Vinyls: http://d7irecords.com/

Monobrow - Bennington Triangle Blues

MONOBROW - Bennington Triangle Blues
2012
Indie

Bennington Triangle is an area in Vermont where a handful of unrelated people mysteriously disappeared over the years, eventually earning the area the nickname "Triangle of Doom". I'm not sure how it relates to Ottawa's Monobrow, but the story is pretty cool and I see it a perfect fit for a voiceless stoner band.

Bennington Triangle Blues is Monobrow's second full length album. Monobrow continues its journey where it left off with the self-titled first record: they present us with a mixture of stoner, retro and modern rock, classic doom, and blues, all certified 100% instrumental. This is delicious to my ears, but I recommend taking your time to devour it.

At some point, I was convinced they came out of a music academy, and I was surprise to learn that they are self-taught. There is a great dose of technicality behind their music, but it never becomes dry. Monobrow has this ability to bring the listener behind their instrument and trip with them, like bluesmen. While certain parts are focussed on one specific instrument, the music in general feels organic as if everything was composed by the 3 guys jamming together.

The mood of Monobrow is very distinct. This is a very lucid kind of stoner music, with a lot of light and a happy vibe that reminds me of Cave In.

If I am to do a breakdown of the songs, I'd say that "Starships, Holodecks and Chicken Soup" starts the album by displaying Monobrow's ability to play with riffs, bringing the listener somewhere it was not prepared to go. This is followed by "This is Herman Nelson", a good song where the band controls various levels of volume and tension. "Store High in Transit / Communing with the Infinite" didn't catch my attention at first, mostly because it is situated between two excellent songs, but after a few listen I can't ignore anymore its trippy-doomy feel. "Grommet" is the ultimate Doom anchor of the album. Tasty, very tasty. After a slow and surprisingly dark song, we see the light returns under the shape of "Mordrake's Revenge", a swing song that will catch everyone's attention live. When I heard the song "City of Angles", I surprised myselft headbanging and thinking for myself "Wow, this is how I like my Black Sabbath". This left turn leads us to "The Radio In Between...", a '70s prog rock track (think Rush) that exemplifies the work of Paul "Yogi" Granger and the Meatlocker Studio, who helped recording the album. Kudos also to Mike Bond for making this album stands out. Back to the track list, the album finishes with "Bennington Triangle Blues", an over 12-minutes song that resume the whole album and dig further into each of the directions explored earlier.

If this music is your cup of tea, you'll be served a pot. As I write these lines, Bennington Triangle Blues is being pressed on vinyl, as all music should be.

Check it out here: monobrowmanband.bandcamp.com/

Titan - Burn

TITAN - Burn
2012
Hypaethral

Here's something I've been looking for for a long time now: a full length from Toronto's Titan. The last EPs Scraps of a Feast (2010) and Colossus (2009) were excellent albums that I keep revisiting from time to time. From my perspective, they were both pointing into a very interesting direction: a sludgy avalanche, where hardcore meets heavy grounds, and slows down a bit to devastate everything in its path.

My expectations for Burn were very high, and my first impressions were that Burn didn't explore any new grounds, nor achieve the same lasting effect as the previous EPs. Therefore I had to give myself more time to absorb the new album.

Obviously, Titan has a lot of experience and knows exactly what they're doing. They've released a few EPs and splits, got distributed through React With Protest overseas and Hypaethral locally, toured a lot, and made a name for themselves on the underground scene. Musically, the band picks up where other bands such as Buried Inside left, and brings the best out of post-hardcore/sludge music.

After listening to Burn for many weeks, my appreciation is two-fold. On the one hand, I keep thinking that the 2012 album doesn't deliver anything that hasn't been offered through Scraps of a Feast or Colossus. It doesn't have much "layers", and everything is in your face, missing that epic monumental edge they flirted with on the previous EPs.

On the other hand, it feels really good to listen to a full length album of Titan. 1 intro and 9 songs very well crafted, no fillers (but no central song either), assembled to make a statement about Titan's credibility on the music scene. In other words, the strong focus throughout the album confirms that Titan is one of today's major act for the genre in Canada.

LPs and digital: http://hypaethralrecords.bandcamp.com/album/burn

Loviatar - Eternal Sons (EP)

LOVIATAR - Eternal Sons EP
2011
Indie

Although I review full albums from time to time, this blog is mostly intended to review EPs, especially canadian bands of the extended doom family. Here is a stellar one that falls right into these criteria.

This EP comes in a carefully assembled cardboard package, along with the lyrics. This CD is limited to 100 copies, but it's my general feeling that it's written "soon on vinyl" all over it. Fingers crossed.

A teaser to a promising album, Eternal Sons has two songs: Eternal Famine (5:50) and Sons of War (6:12). Epic titles for epic songs. Loviatar can't hide its influences from a variety of bands and styles as diverse as post-metal, crust metal and stoner/doom metal alike. The vibe is catchy, overwhelming, rich and addictive. Any High on Fire or Pentagram fan would get on his feet and follow the leader when JD (guitars and vocals) repeats "Arise! Sons of War." And if that style of music ain't your thing, the clean vocals and the excellent production should do the trick.

On that level, this is another production that came out of Pebble Studios (Produced by Bond) AND Yogi's Meatlocker. If that doesn't ring a bell read my Unavowed review below and you'll soon find out that some of the finest treasures come out of this cave.

So who is Loviatar? From a crowd point of view, they've been around and opening for the right bands in Ottawa and Montreal since 2010: Skeletonwitch, Barn Burner, Titan, The Great Sabatini, Blood Ceremony, Iron Man, Revelation, Collider, Alaskan, Red Fang, Mares of Thrace, Biipiigwan, etc... You get it.

Through these shows and the Eternal Sons teaser EP, Loviatar has created some expectations towards a future album. We want more guys.

www.loviatardoom.com