Wings Of An Angel – Princess Of The Nile Returning From Manhunt In Honor Of Her Particular Religion Of Peace (2016)

It's absolutely impossible to keep up with albums from both Scott Lawlor and Wings Of An Angel. These musicians nearly release a new album every month or so, and that means there are literal dozens of albums from each. Wings Of An Angel actually offer their entire discography (which is nearing a hundred albums) for a name your own price equivalent, but you should first know what you're getting into with this kind of music. Of the many albums, he particularly chose to submit this one and I'm not really sure how much of these tracks I could stand for a long period of time. But keep reading, as this dark cloud does have an intriguing silver lining. The beginning of the record began with an almost unbearable and excruciating noise that felt far worse than nails scratching on a chalkboard. It took an awful lot of willpower to make it through, and there were times where I just had to completely tune it all out to preserve my sanity. You have to understand that these pieces are very long, most of them ranging in the double digits and one in particular being a half an hour.

Fortunately, the record eased up as I went on (and yes, I listened to this disc from beginning to end) and by the time I reached the third of four tracks, (the song titles are ridiculously long, so let's just call it the third track) I was starting to hear something of an intriguing sound pattern. I mean, this record can carve your soul. It is downright painful to listen to and not meant for the squeamish. If this is the sound of terror, as horrifying and pungent as such a thing can be – well, Wings Of Angel have done a fantastic job capturing that. There are people who might succumb to madness if left alone with this kind of music for too long. You might even be able to turn a sane and relatively normal person into a raving lunatic after long periods of exposure to these albums (if they are similar, I do not know) and I'm not kidding. Obviously the composer works very hard on these pieces and I don't want to shame his art here as I wouldn't like it very much if mine was torn to pieces either; but I will say that it makes for a very taxing listen to which only those with a cast-iron stomach would be able to endure without issue.

Hence, there is a silver lining in the only real track that I liked here, but felt was phenomenal – namely the finale entitled, “In A Typically Histrionic Despair Attack, She Joined Circus Training For Sexually Vulnerable Clowns” which rounds out to a mesmerizing and wholly deep meditative atmosphere. The artist here in question does consider himself a magician and most likely seems to delve into that of chaos. The music here must then be an extension of his own emotions, whether they are that of severe trauma or meditative tranquility. In any case, the finale for this recording consists of what I might consider to be one of the most relaxing and overall uplifiting pieces I've heard outside of my personal atmosphere collection. I am hoping there are more pieces like this within the artist's lengthy discography and I will enjoy using this music for the doctor recommended meditation that I was asked to undergo regarding my severe anxiety regarding the world and society at large.

"What begins as utter insanity ends with the most lulling and unexpected feeling that I could have ever foreseen from a disc of this nature." I'm quite sure he'll add that quote into the Bandcamp along with the many others sampled there, of which John Zorn is mentioned, but I don't really think you can speak about these kinds of approaches if you don't thow it to people like Zorn, Roach and several others who've made this music what it is. Quite obviously the chaos in the beginning is not very indicative of Zorn's work, but that isn't to say that he wasn't an influence.

Oddly enough, what is actually more interesting to me than the piece itself, is the title. When I first saw it, I kept thinking that it translates roughly to “Isis or what we should say ISIL/Daesh and of course, Islam which is referred to it's followers as a religion of peace.” Alan Moore always called them “Mohammedans” and they've of course been fighting the same wars since man was a thing. Yes, it's been that long. Even more peculiar was the fact that I happened upon a man practicing Zoroastrianism. Apparently that is also coming back. So I'm waiting on people to start anointing graves with menstrual blood again as they worship the Venus of Willendorf. Let's just go all the way fucking back, why don't we? Obviously, seeing a man (here in the US, actually) seriously practicing Zoroastrianism (he apparently came into an occult group asking for some sort of way to increase the size of his member, which is how I happened upon him – but that isn't important) in this day and age was something I thought was profound, as it literally predates both Christianity and Islam by a vast number of years. In any case, mankind is certainly changing for some odd and unknowable reason, by which I find myself kind of stumped on. In this day and age, I wouldn't be surprised if the news over in the Nordic regions started reporting frost giants. I'd simply sip my coffee and watch as they over powered our frail human armies and played basketball with their rolled up tanks. Slam Dunk!

In all honesty though, you should really give this one a listen as I find it quite disagreeable and agreeable to my senses at the same fucking time. It literally is a bizarre sense of balanced chaos, by which I am a bit curious to further discover. But I only have ninety-three more albums on this list to go, which you can also check out when you give the artist's Bandcamp page a view. Just make sure that you search for “Wings Of An Angel” and not “On The Wings Of An Angel” where you will find that ridiculous Sarah Mclachlan track which played repeatedly on oversaturated and unbearably long ASPCA commercials. I've heard that most of those animals are sent off to China anyway, and if that concerns you, then you should probably get your pets spayed and neutered as the great Bob Barker recommended. Blam!

(4 Tracks, Over 100:00)

7/10

Emanation - Temple Sleep Crystallization (2016)

Apparently, no one cares about this Spanish black metal act, which is a shame because they've got some real potential. Temple Sleep Crystallization is actually the band's sophomore album, even though the scribes at Metal Archives stopped with the demo. I guess if one guy hears a demo that he only half-likes, he pretty much says fuck all to the rest of the band's recordings. I couldn't find much coverage done on them either sans two black metal blogs, which will make this review yet another promotional step for them as they do deserve it. This record is one of the few experiences where I find it hard to tell if there are any actual vocal pieces. If you listen deeply to the album, you might be able to pull out something that might resemble vocals, but according to the information that I have here, that is definitely not the case. But it doesn't need to be either. The mastermind behind this project is CG Santos and he commands everything that you're hearing on the disc. I still can't tell you if there are vocals here, these might be samples mixed into the whole aura of the thing – it sounds like a mist. A swirling sort of mist, like a tornadic event if you will; but with a heavy backbone of blast beats. The blast beats sound like metal caught up in the storm, almost giving me a slight feel of metal mixed with classic industrial. Even noise elements appear on this record, which make it loom far away from the realms of metal as we'd expect.

Not all of the tracks are quite so heavy, like “Crystallization” which reminds me of the kind of material I'd get from Malignant Records. That's pretty cool in my opinion, because it shows just how far the artist is willing to go to create this soundscape. Sure, you can bang your head to it and enjoy it like a raw black metal album, but it's a bit whirly and twisted – it might even make you think. A man on the internet today just warned me that from listening to too many odd approaches like this, I can totally damage my psyche. If that's the case, Tower readers know that I'm already too far gone. I can understand the man's concern, and there might be (haven't checked myself) some factual evidence behind erratic sounds and the human mind, but I don't find myself losing it until I start staying up far later than any man should. (I am working to remedy that.) Getting back to the album, we'll find a mixture of both heavy things and rather subdued things, making for an experience that is just that – an experience. You don't really say, “Well, I liked this track because it had a good chorus, or a good riff.” It's more like, “Well, that was a bit odd.” At least give the band a chance if you're looking for some slightly different deviations from the normal metal soup. This to me is like when someone puts fruit in cereal for the first time and realizes that it's actually quite good. You don't think something like fruit would work well actually inside the bowl with the milk, but as soon as you've tried it, you realize that the process yielded better results than you would've hoped. I should add that some pieces veer closer to black metal, while others like “Bridges” tend to feel like they would work better with horror films. Yes, I'll admit that I felt a bit of a chill on the back of my neck with that one. Could it have made Blair Witch better? Probably not. Even the album's final cut, “Compulsion” makes me feel a bit awkward, with it's ghastly church organs and ghostly mist. This is usually the music that plays in films where evil triumphs, or demons rise from hell or something. Most people don't like to hear such an approach in real life, which might be why some of the reviewers over at Metal Archives refused to review it. The disc is just a bit freaky, and when the metal isn't playing, I feel as though there's something looking at me from behind my shoulders. Some say that there might be and I'm okay with that. But you might not be...

(8 Tracks, 47:00)

8/10

Konflict/Reek Of The Unzen Gas Fumes - Split (2016)

I've been waiting a long time to review this split, which actually came out sometime last year. The first act is a black/death/grind/noise/industrial act called Konflict from Sri Lanka. We know there are three members in the act, but have no idea as to who does what, or what bands they've been in prior to the act – nothing. Yet when you hear a band like this that mixes industrialism with fiery black metal riffs, thick drum abrasions and a sort of gurgling that sounds like they've captured a beast from the Necronomicon and gave it the fucking microphone (seriously, this thing sounds inhuman as hell, what are they up to in Sri Lanka?) you start to get a bit curious. The sound is obviously raw, but it seems to fit the absolutely heinous nature of the material, which is by far unlike anything I've ever heard. I'm telling you folks, if you put the fucking Cloverfield monster on the vocals, this is what it would sound like. This is beyond the normal gurgle... this is something, I just can't even fucking describe. Summon a literal demon from the abyss, give him a microphone and this is what you get. This is the kind of sound that would preachers shit their pants (Not sure if that includes Jesse Custer though) and convince religious congregations that the devil is real. The interesting thing about these demonic pieces is that they all have relatively intelligent titles. For instance, we've got “To Erase The Eelam Parasite” , “Decoding The Aryan Survival Cipher”, “Epignetic Hate Transmission” and others. Sometimes throughout the twenty-four minute EP we'll even get utterances that sound like they're on two different dimensional planes. What in the hell is going on over there? Sometimes we're even barreled over with torrents of noise. Huge mounds of atmospheric noise such as the album's opener “Aryan Cytoarchitecture and The Handle Of A Weapon Or Tool” or the aforementioned “Decoding The Aryan Survival Cipher.” I'm not sure if these guys play live, but they're definitely not the kind of act you hear everyday. I'm rather quite impressed and I hope that we'll get to hear more from this awesome trio in the future. Maybe somewhere deep within this thick monstrosity lies the future of grind itself. That remains to be seen.

The next act we have on the split is Reek Of The Unzen Gas Fumes, which is a blackened grindcore act of complete insanity whose lyrics seem to be based on anti-Buddhism, sadism and radical Japanese nationalism according to Metal Archives. That third one's a real whammy, especially if you're a US citizen because of rather obvious reasons. From what I've researched, some of these right-wing (yes, they have right and left winged political movements in Japan as well) movements are tied directly to the yakuza, which doesn't surprise me. In any case, the approach the listener is getting here is one of force, fire and absolute insanity. It's not always as crazy as “Dehumanizing Cesspool For Future of Humanity” as “Doku” displays with it's weirdness and much slower tempo, but for the most part these guys feature an extremely raspy vocalist that melds with static in a way that he sounds like an angered television set. We do know that INHKR is behind the guitar, bass and drum programming and that 9300FGB is the vocalist, but no one knows what Warcrime Rapist does. At any rate, this an entirely interesting grindcore act with enough depth and originality to stand out among their peers. I realize that while I've mentioned it already, I need to reiterate that these guys are completely fucking insane as far as the performance is concerned and the complete polar opposite of what we're seeing portrayed as Japanese heavy music as far as the media is concerned.

This is the extremely heavy underground shit that you were looking for and you'll be extremely happy to have one of only 66 copies in print of this cassette only release. You'd also be extremely lucky. I'm going to give this the highest possible score I can give as I've heard nothing quite like it in the grindcore scene, but it was released quite a while ago and I can't spotlight it as I normally would have. Just take it as a sign that you need to find a way to get a hold of this split somehow. Some of the material from both of these bands is surprisingly available on Bandcamp, but this split cassette is limited and not even I have a copy of it, just a digital promo with a low bit-rate quality. Even so, that's enough for me to prove to you that these bands are fucking phenomenal in the grind scene and you've really got to hear them both for yourself. I tend to like Konflict more, but wouldn't turn down either act. The Grim Tower highly recommends this split EP, so definitely give it a listen. You'll find a way.

(18 Tracks, 46:00)

10/10

Ordem Satanica - Ventos De Odio (2016)

Coming back to this one, I think it's the kind of record that I only really enjoyed for the atmosphere. Basically these three dudes from Portugal decided to combine ridiculously raw black metal (and yeah, it's really tough to hear much of anything) with quite audible atmosphere that sounds better than anything you'll hear from the band on a musical level. Familiar tremolos along with muffled scowls and squeals, attempt to do battle with a drum kit that hasn't seen a single speck of mastering since they recorded all this on a four-track somewhere. I've recorded on one of those, so I know what they sound like and this is pretty damn awful. Friends don't let friends release albums recorded on a four or eight-track tape recorder. I've got demos that sound like this, but they'll never see the light of day, which is the same I can say for Ventos De Odio. You'll hear the ungodly hiss from the amps, the barely audible riffs and the overwhelming barrage of static. It's pretty fucking bad, folks. I don't care how raw you like your black metal, this is a record that really could have done with some fixing up. As I said, I've recorded shit like this too – which sounds exactly like this – but I'm not sharing that stuff with anyone for good reason. It sounds pretty fucking awful. Do I recommend this? No. I actually recommend taking all the atmosphere off the record and cutting and pasting it into one track. I have no idea why the atmosphere was recorded at such a clearer level than the music itself, and there's a possibility that it was even lifted from other sources. There are places where we look before we leap and we definitely want to make sure that we leap over this Ordem Satanica demo.

(2 Tracks, 35:00)

3/10

Piss Vortex - Future Cancer (2016)

I find it funny that while looking up some information on this act, I see “for booking or complaints, contact us.” Complaints? What kind of complaints could possibly arise from the sound of what seems a war in the underworld? These Dutch grinders released their record on the first of April, but Future Cancer is absolutely no joke. Between the fierce barrages of drums and guitars as well as the positively unruly vocals, the listener will feel as if they are being flattened by an oversized vice. These eleven minutes of mayhem will sound a lot longer than it actually is, yet it will feel like your eardrums are splitting apart, along with the rest of your world. I don't know if it's death, thrash, black, punk or prog, but I know that it has a little bit of all those things and makes for a sound that will wake anyone up from a sound sleep when played loudly enough. Piss Vortex make the kind of music that you'd be able to scare the shit out of people with, it's the kind of stuff that would jolt people awake and make them fiercely aggravated with you upon such a rude awakening. That being said, the disc does observe some lighter sections during it's final track, “Patterns Of Repetition.”

As you know, I'm not the biggest fan of most grind and find it a tough genre to get into, but there's something about the grind that these guys make that allows such a performance to stand out. They still aren't recognized by Metal Archives and I've no sane idea why, as there's enough chaos and metallic sensibility here to classify as such, but those guys have some very weird guidelines as to what classifies and you'd be debating until the cows came home, left again and then decided to come back home for the second time, before the crew over there came to some kind of agreement. Perhaps it's not true metal, but it is raucous, insane and the equivalent of madness. It's very hard to describe what is a tornado in a box, a hurricane in a box, a storm of blood and hellfire stuffed into a little eleven-minute box... but that's indeed what it is and I'd definitely give it a listen.

(6 Tracks, 11:00)

8/10