Southern Lord Records Round Up

Greg Anderson's Southern Lord Records has been exceptionally busy of late, releasing quite a large amount of material from a variety of artists new to the label. Well, new artists may be misleading considering that Gravetemple, Burial Chamber Trio and Magistral are one-off collaborations featuring the usual suspects (Stephen O'Malley, Greg Anderson, Attila Csihar amongst others). Yet several new artists have been introduced to the label, including, Glorior Belli, Om, Weedeater, Wolves In The Throne Room and Striborg. Most offer up no real surprises considering the history of the label and fit the bill of either being black metal, drone or 'stoner rock'. Being familiar with most of these artists, ive decided to look at Glorior Belli, Wolves In The Throne Room and Magistral, the three records that presented the greatest unknown quantity.

Glorior Belli - Manifesting the Raging Beast
The French black metal trio return with their second album, and first for Southern Lord. First impressions of this album are unsatisfying, its disappointingly straightforward for a black metal album. The production is sharp and clean, the musicianship is tight and varied and there are no overblown keyboard lines. Unfortunately this results in an album without a particular sound of its own, where even the vocals are forgettable. Solid, tight and much more listenable than most black metal, yet not bleak enough to be sucked into and reliant on too many familiar riffs. There are however some catchy and quite clever parts scattered around this record, usually when the band drop to a mid pace and actually show off. The solo at the end of final track 'Altered Verses' is overblown and all the better for it, while the more relaxed pace lets the drums breathe and we actually get some interesting fills. 'Manifesting the Raging Beast' is a decent album, and would be good listening for someone who likes the idea of well produced black metal, yet it would fall short for fans of say Xasthur or Striborg for the same reasons

6 / 1 0


Stephen O'Malley & Z'EV - Magistral
Another SOMA collaboration, adding to his list of recent joint outings including KTL (with Pita), Grave Temple (with Attila Csihar and Oren Ambarchi) and Aethenor (with Daniel O'Sullivan and Vincent de Roguin). While O'Malley is famous for his droning guitar work, Z'EV is a reknown experimental percussion artist. This was always going to be a challenging (bordering on pretentious) record which would stand or fall depending on how the two managed to work together, especially considering the usual lack of percussion in O'Malley's work. What we have ended up with is something initially impenetrable that with further listens reveals itself to be astonishingly atmospheric and clever. The breadth of sound is balanced perfectly, in that Z'EV provides the momentum and tension, with SOMA filling all of the available space with undulating, twisting noise. This record works entirely because of the percussion. Over the course of the record the percussion becomes more and more pronounced and never fails to catch the attention. O'Malley is flawless as usual, perfectly complimenting Z'EV, the only failing being that it does lack variety. 'Magistral' is an excellent collaboration, with considerable niche appeal i.e. fans of SOMA and Z'EV, as well as fans of ambient music in general.

7 / 1 0

Wolves In The Throne Room - Two Hunters
More black metal on Southern Lord, and straight off the back of releasing the vinyl edition of Wolves' last record 'Diadem of 12 Stars', their new album 'Two Hunters' comes onto SL first. First thing to catch the attention about this album is how long the tracks are, there are only four, three of them clocking in at around ten minutes, which is certainly sign of something a little different. 'Two Hunters' sounds different as well. 'Diadem of 12 Stars' was a fantastic, progressive and really quite melodic black metal record, and 'Two Hunters' builds on this considerably. With a more dense sound and a lot more variety and experimentation in structure and instrumentation, the album comes out as something very similar to post-rock, yet with the fury and despair that you would expect from black metal. 'Two Hunters' might not have the brutal edge of many black metal albums, but the epic and bleak picture that it paints is utterly compelling. Opening track 'Dia Artio' is elegant and un-metal, and works as a five minute introduction to the mood of the album, and really makes it clear that this is not going to be a stereotypical black metal album. Instead, 'Two Hunters' is an incredible album, while thoroughly black, more than enough new elements are introduced that don't seem contrived and don't clash.

9 / 1 0


Notes

• Wolves In The Throne Room look set to become a regular with Southern Lord, and have already toured with Sunn O))), Earth and Weedeater. Their current tour is (for the most part) with Jesu. A European tour would be much appreciated.
• The next major release on Southern Lord is the highly anticipated new record from Om. Entitled 'Pilgrimage', it will be Om's first double LP. SL recently issued a sample track online, and it can probably be summed as more of the same, only with more riffs and better production.

Links

• Southern Lord
• Glorior Belli
• Wolves In The Throne Room
  
• Stephen O'Malley