Reviews written by: Jesse

Reviews

Striborg - Sin Nanna Still Haunts

Even the rare artist must evolve and Sin Nanna shows himself capable. He has always plundered the depths of buzzed distortion and melancholia, but his last two albums, ‘Perceiving the World with Hate,’ and now, this new one, ‘Southwest Passage,’ seem to drift toward a new island of sound – one of rock-like riffs and upbeats buried under his signatu...

28/10/2009

Striborg – Perceiving The World With Hate

<div>I have listened to every Striborg album. In fact, I have written each review on Sin Nanna that has been published here @ BRUTALISM. I AM a fan. The album reviewed here, Perceiving the World with Hate, is his strangest. Not in a weird way, but in its emphasis on the ethereal and the atmospheric. Even the opening guitars as lightly picked and di...

26/06/2009

Paths Of Possession - The End Of The Hour

Paths of Possession is not my favorite band ever and THE END OF THE HOUR is certainly not on my “regularly played” list, but the band is not all negative. The release is just not my personal style. The CD opens with very straight riffs and the accompanying guitar leads layer lightly on top. It sounds to me like Paths of Possession read a book or so...

26/02/2009

Meliah Rage - The Deep And Dreamless Sleep

Meliah rage has recently released what I think is their third full-length CD, The Deep And Dreamless Sleep. They are from New England and claim to filter bands such as Riot, Megadeth, and AC/DC. I am not a big fan of any of these bands really and Meliah Rage does not encourage me to listen further. They are a metal band but are not that creative. T...

26/02/2009

Sapremia - With Winter Comes Despair

This Southern New Jersey, USA band, Sapremia, has recently released their WITH WINTER COMES DESPAIR on Open Grave Records and the result is solid, not grand, but solid. The first track, “Open Grave” (appropriate since they are on Open Grave Records, ok, jokes aside), features some actual old school guitar licks on top of thundering beats and a grea...

26/02/2009

Striborg - Mysterious Semblance

Sin Nanna does enjoy keyboard work and I have to admit I am sometimes mesmerized by the plodding nature of his sound. He is patient and feels no need to play along with the conventions of black metal even though I believe that underneath all that slowness is a hacking speedy black metaler trying to burst out (applaud if you get the reference). Ther...

26/02/2009

Pencil Lead Syringe - Suffocated and Embalmed

The Intro to Pencil Lead Syringe’s new CD Suffocated and Embalmed ,is very coincidentally entitled “Intro” and it is a grand one. It opens this collection of sick sick death grind tracks the best way I have heard. There is a quiet ambient industrial background while beeps that sound like electronic on/off switches alternate amidst a soft layer of s...

26/02/2009

Striborg - Trepidation

This effort by Striborg, AKA Sin Nanna, is one for the metal books. It fires the hinges off the bathroom shower door and screams at your vulnerable naked body with its opening motif that so harks to Alfred Hicthcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho. The second track, aptly named “Journey of a Misanthrope,” etches this idea in further detail by providing a fo...

26/02/2009

Striborg - Atumnal Melancholy

I have not heard every single Striborg album, but I have heard and/or own most of them. I believe that AUTUMNAL MELANCHOLY might be the best release thus far by our solitary friend of Tasmania, Sin Nanna. But how do I explains the statement about one such musician who has pretty much created the genre of ambient depressive black metal (if those are...

26/02/2009

Striborg - Black Desolate Winter/Depressive Hibernation

Sin Nanna is about to re-issue a few older LPs on CD that put two albums together. The move is not new for him, but the organization of these is so cool in contrast to his newest release of new material (FORBODING SILENCE) as that album has so many innovative elements compared to his other work and the comparisons between the two albums on each of...

26/02/2009

Striborg - The Forboding Silence

Sin Nanna has asked a lot of his listeners over the years because he understands that real musical and artistic challenges can not be written off with a few words or platitudes. His newest release, FORBODING SILENCE, released on Displeased Records is no different and in fact stands as a challenge to his own persona as doom-metal artist or whatever...

26/02/2009

The Furor - Assault By Fire

The Australian band The Furor has released their new project, a 3 track Demo EP called ASSAULT BY FIRE. The Furor is not releasing this album as an EP really. They have released it as a precursor to a 3rd full-length due out later in the year. The date is not known according to any information I have received or have had access to. ASSAULT BY FIRE...

26/02/2009