How are Rygg's vocals on the whole album? I'm quite fed up with his contemporary slick style that you hear on "Magic Hollow", but I suppose not all songs are as calm as that one (have downloaded the originals that they offered on facebook). Have they retained any of the rawness that you normally expect from psych-rock or is it just flowers and naked love-children?

His vocals on Magic Hollow are representative of the whole album. I like the way he sings but each to their own. There is no rawness here, at least to my ears. The album is quite mellow, but also energetic and atmospheric.

Lugubrum - Albino de Congo

Now here is a band I cannot quite figure out. I appreciate some of what I am hearing but there are also very odd parts at play. I was surprised to see learn that they have not been reviewed here, considering a total of nine albums.

I also recently listened to the first releases by Windham Hell. Ambivalent again.

I am listening to Enslaved and Vulture Industries as a warmup for Hellfest. Anyone else going?

OCCULTATION - Three and Seven.

It's pretty funny that when the drummer from Negative Plane started his solo project FUNEREAL PRESENCE, it sounds like... a lo-fi Negative Plane without a proper vocalist, and some 70's hard rock riffs. Then when Nameless Void, guitarist & frontman of NP, started OCCULTATION with his girlfriend on bass/vocals (I think) and another drummer, it sounds like... Negative Plane with a whole bunch of gothic rock & slightly less complicated drums! I can't place who the vocalist sounds like, but but she's got this ceremonial, gothic and pretty deep timbre/feeling. It's not Liv Kristine goth fairytale bullshit, more like "hm, wasn't she in Christian Death or sth?"

Though you'd might expect the NP guys to use their side-projects for something a bit more unique, I don't think it's a problem that they work in 90% of the same vein as their main band. Since Negative Plane's two albums are ABSOLUTELY FUCKING AMAZING, I don't mind a few more similar releases. But even if OCCULTATION is a proper band, which they absolutely seem to be (playing live etc), it'll be hard to see them as anything more than "that dude from Negative Plane & his girlfriend's band". Even the drummer V.B, who obviously isn't Bestial Devotion, plays in the same vein as him. It's difficult to efficiently talking about this band without mentioning NP - Peccatum for example were a lot further away from Emperor in every sense, but does anyone see that band as anything more than "Ihsahn's side-project"? And they even use the same organ & tubular bells!!!

And since they've got one of the most interesting metal guitarists to come out of the metal scene since, I don't know a long time indeed, all attempts to classify them next to retro trend bullshit like JESS & THE ANCIENT ONES will fall short. Like Negative Plane - or rather, as Nameless Void - this music sounds old, is inspired by the old, but carries it forward. There's more Castlevania than Blue Öyster Cult going on here. Castlevania & Bauhaus. I'm in love even before I've heard the last song.

Beastmilk - Use Your Deluge

So, Kvohst's participation in a band looks like a Seal of Quality by now. I am not quite sure how to label Beastmilk but this EP is tasty and I want to hear more of it. A full album, for instance.

Deathspell Omega - Drought

Yet another great EP. The title is fitting, considering some of the Dry Desert Western Guitar found here. I did not know what to expect but I was surprised none the less, and pleasently so. The level of quality remains as high as previously.

Gothic rock. That's what I'd call it, grounding for a lot of misunderstanding I'm sure!


np: Krzyzstof Penderecki - Te Deum. uuuh... heavy stuff.

Forgotten Silence - La Grande Bouffe

I was expecting a lot more from this guys...

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