From avant jazz to avant metal, if you do not have Trinacria’s Travel Now Journey Infinitely, then you are missing out on something unique and spectacular. Trinacria was originally a composition by Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved and Maja S. K. Ratkje and Hils Sofie Tafjord, commissioned by Rikskonsertene for a concert series. It is a pleasant cacophony of metal, doom, and industry.
I personally think it is stands out in the because it has quite a mix of music on it. Part I: Turn-Away is colossally doom. Iver Sandøy’s blast beats and the sound effects add volume and weight to Part II: The Silence. Grutle’s vocals on are perfectly grim as always. I think the highlight of the album for me is Part IV: Endless Roads. A 10:00 minute doom masterpiece!
Fenriz of Darkthrone fame has put out a mix tape of some bad ass metal! It is available for download at Vice magazine.
I started the comp by thinking of some acts that should definitely be on there. Then I mulled it over for a week. I then sat down to structure it, and I had several darlings to kill and new ones to include. I am not making a ONE STYLE comp here, like ‘occult thrash’ or something. I chose numbers mostly from bands that are/were old and rough and soulfully sounding, but thrash is one of the most intense genres, so it sort of HAS TO be varied WHEN I MAKE 78+ minutes here! I was thinking of dropping three of the songs to make it more like a hit parade, but one needs some ups and downs in life, ha ha. Better to leave the mix untampered with. So it is sort of a whole labyrinth of songs, a world to get lost in. I also start with two tracks that have a really underground sound, so I will lose all posers that try to listen to the mix.
The show began with Austin doom maestros the Roller. They are sonic wall of sound! So loud that only thing coming through the PA was the drums and vocals. If you have not seen them yet you got to check them out.
I didn’t know what to expect when A Storm of Light took the stage, but when they began to play I was in awe. Haling from Brooklyn, New York, A Storm of Light consist of Josh Graham, visual artist for Neurosis and formally of Red Sparrows, Domenic Seita [bass, vocals], formerly of Tombs and Asea, and Andy Rice [drums, percussion] formerly of Sinking Ships. They played a mix of songs off there debut LP And We Wept the Black Ocean Within and off of the new split EP that they did with Nadja called Primitive North.
First off the light show in the background was incredible (of coarse). You can’t beat hammer-head sharks. Halfway through the set Will Lindsay from Wolves in the Throne Room joined them onstage for the song “Mass”. The only bad thing about the show was the dude that was trippen balls in front of my who was seeing “bears”. I think he meant beers but it sounded like bears to me.
Despite that distraction, I felt I was on a higher plane of consciousness by the end of their set .
Wolves took the stage and were epic! Starting off with the 18 minute monster of a song “I Will Lay Down My Bones Among The Rocks And Stones” from the Album Two Hunters.
For those who have not heard or seen Wolves in the Throne Room yet, you are missing out on something special. After an Earth First rendezvous in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, Nathan Weaver was inspired to create a band that merged a Cascadian eco-spiritual awareness with the misanthropic Norwegian eruptions of the 90’s 1. So, after moving to a farmstead that his brother Aaron and his girlfriend work, the brothers began to create the sonic wave of eco-black metal. If you have not seen the video I posted of an interview with Aaron by Hardtimes.ca yet, I would highly recommend it.
The current line-up of WiTTR also includes former Middian bassist Will Lindsay. Will started off as there touring bassist and moved to guitar after Rick Dahlen left the band.
The WiTTR set was a good mix of songs from older releases and from their new album Black Cascade. Black Cascade is definitely a little more stripped down and raw than their last album but that, for me, is it’s appeal. There are no words to describe it so I will not. But I did film a little bit of the first song so you could get a little taste for yourselves.
If there such thing as a spiritual experience, I think I had one that night. I can wait for next month when WiTTR will be Austin with Nachtmystium and Pentagram.
Victhor The Viking | 
12 20th, 2009| 
