Loviatar - Widow's Flame (EP)

LOVIATAR - Widow's Flame EP
2012
Indie

Nested in the small post-hardcore/sludge/doom community of Ottawa, conveniently located mid-way through the Toronto-Montreal corridor where most touring bands travel, Loviatar is making a name for itself as an opening act.

Widow's Flame is the second EP from Loviatar. This time again the production is really good, being recorded at Pebbles Studio by Mike Bond, who also happens to play bass with the band. Interesting enough, Widow's Flame is the second in a series of short EPs released by Loviatar - the third one being expected somewhere in Spring 2013. Like Eternal Sons, the first one, it has a very simple design, with a focus on the clean minimalistic logo, and is housed in a cardboard packaging. This time again, the EP title is a play of words based on the two original songs found on the album, i.e. "Flametongue" and "Widow's Walk". Since these EPs are so short (this one is 11 minutes long), continuity between them contributes to defining the identity of Loviatar.

We find ourselves again in a world of fantasy, where post-metal meets doom, where the songs and texts are epic. The guitars, at the core of the music, have this great rock energy, but also give a lot of space to the other instruments. The bass and drum have this great complicity, and supports the songs with great mastery while staying in the back. The vocals, high and clean, are a gifted trademark of Loviatar, something many heavy and doom bands will envy.

On the other side, there is something I personally find clumsy with the pace of this EP. While the two original songs are excellent, they are accompanied by a cover of Leonard Cohen's "The Partisan". This is a good and interesting rendering, but from an outside perspective I'm questioning its place on the EP: given it has a total of only 11 minutes, and given that the first track is fast and the second is slow, it feels unnecessary to have a third song that brings a completely different direction. All in all, this may not be a big deal since all songs are good and will probably blend in, in the long run, with Loviatar's future discography.

With Widow's Flame, Loviatar is staying very close to what it offered us on Eternal Sons. They added a second guitar player, but so far it has more impact on the live aspect than anything else. Two new songs is not a lot when they are of average lenght, and this EP can't be considered as a landmark or a statement, but it is useful to generate an interest from the local scene.

I'll definitely keep an eye open to see what brings the third EP.

www.loviatardoom.com
http://loviatar.bandcamp.com/

Milanku - Pris à la gorge

MILANKU - Pris à la gorge
2012
D7I Records / Tokyo Jupiter Records / Replenish Records

Milanku is a four-piece band from Montreal. They started in 2006 and released a first album in 2008, Convalescence. More recently, they came out with their second opus, Pris à la gorge. I thought about writing a few words here not only because it's a great album, but also because it will be pressed this Spring on vinyl by none other than the excellent Washington label Replenish Records (Vestiges, Alda, Rituals). The artwork displayed here is the later version.

What is Milanku? The short answer would probably be a francophone post hardcore band. They deliver a quality product, both in terms of composition, texts and production, that helps them standing out immediately. Their music uses many post rock ingredients to express melancholy - especially the little guitar in the background and the minimalistic drumming, as found in "Hypomanie", "La nausée" or "Inhibition". At the same time, they have a clear hardcore and sludge edge, found in the harsh guitar-and-vocals attack of songs like "L'inclination", "Dopamine" or the wall of sound of "La Chute". This is highly melodic, but the melodies are built with repetition and layers of instruments, rather than being delivered easily from one single instrument. The arrangements found on Pris à la gorge are worth mentioning, as they are key to this feeling of being "grasped by the throat" (Pris à la gorge) and swallowed into darkness. For example, the very first song, "La Chute", starts with this very quiet atmosphere built by a clean guitar, a muffled background noise, and a few spoken words that express personal distress. Then, when the guitars kick in, we're completely submerged by a wave of intense melancholic pain. Further into the song, there is a quiet build-up that brings the listener closer into the music, before closing the trap and resuming the song with the same intensity as earlier.

The texts add something powerful to the melancholic feel of the music. Drenched in nostalgy, they either express pain in their hardcore delivery, or intimacy when spoken ("Antalgie", "La nausée").

The production is excellent and contributes to this masterwork. It is far from being raw, but it has a few dirty details left intentionally in the mix, for example: the end of certain chords (noticeable in the end of a few songs), the saturation of the vocals, or the granular distortion of the guitars. All the effects and the arrangements are perfectly blended, and the crystal clear drum-and-bass backbone leave all the space needed for the guitars to create these overwhelming atmospheres.

The first reference that comes to mind is Le Kraken. Not only the two bands started about the same time, but they also share the same vocalist, Guillaume Chamberland. While each other's music genre is not that far apart, there is a clear difference in direction between the two: Le Kraken's songs are shorter, more post-hardcore driven, while Milanku's songs are more complex, more melodic, and use a lot of clean guitars.

Impressive.

http://milanku.bandcamp.com
http://www.storenvy.com/stores/57506-desordre-ordonne
www.replenishrecords.com

Near Grey - Near Grey

NEAR GREY - Near Grey
2012
Indie

Big thick waves of monochromatic acrylic paint. The cover artwork for Montreal's Near Grey expresses perfectly what their music is about: something abstract, atmospheric, and voiceless. We enter the realm of sludge, we connect to an intangible country where musical textures counts more than any kind of groove. But there are no coldness, no evilness, and no negative weight. At the same time, we're nowhere near the light, the warm instruments or the happy radio vibe. The best descriptive could be "near grey", indeed.

The style has grown quite a bit since Neurosis and Isis made it popular. Near Grey plays a slower, instrumental version of sludge/post-metal, without getting too much into shoegaze or post-rock. They keep their distortion on as a background for their music, with only splashes of clean guitars here and there to give it some relief. A few feedbacks, a few keyboard atmosphere, and many guitar effects are additional tools used in the refined production.

This first offering of Near Grey is an EP. Three songs, ranging from 7 to 18 minutes, form the eponymous journey. Despite their duration, the songs never feel too long, nor repetitive; in fact, they progress naturally, taking a left turn on certain occasions, and they leave a lot of space for the guitars sound to die out. The pace of the album is an excellent breathing exercise, taking its time to reach various anonymous inscapes.

Recommended for fans of Three Steps to the Ocean, A Cold Dead Body, Omega Massif, Explosion in the Sky, etc.

http://neargrey.bandcamp.com/