Seidr - "For Winter Fire" album

Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, this is the full-length debut from the duo of Austin Lunn (of extreme metal act Panopticon) and Wesley Crow. Equally befitting for fans of Mayhem or Mogwai,"For Winter Fire" contains 7 extended-length tracks of forward-thinking post-metal. Mixing sinister, distorted black/doom with more expansive textural instrumentation, "For Winter Fire" is a brilliant and far-reaching collection of sounds, simultaneously haunting and gentle in spots before unleashing a maelstrom of scalding grind. For example, the spacious and beautiful "A Vision From Hllidskjalf", reminds me of Ennio Morricone meets Explosions In The Sky at first, before exploding into a triumphant doom metal beast.

"On The Shoulders Of Gods" invokes Skin Chamber almost, with its aura of impenetrable lurch-and-grind. "Sweltering" brings in the sounds of a casual thunderstorm amidst Mono-style guitar swirl. "In The Ashes" is a solemn hymn, evoking images of a religious ceremony, while "A Gaze At The Stars" is a slow, churning Swans/Neurosis attack. The final cut, "Stream Keeper" begins akin to Icelandic atmospheric band Stafraenn Hakon (a good thing), before erupting into another slow-burn char-broiled doom metal monsterpiece. Seidr have created a rock-solid piece of work that transcends genre. Bravo. Perhaps I will be fortunate enough to see these lads live? (The Flenser)

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Necrite - "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" album

I like these Bay Area guys in that they take the typical black metal template and fuck with it, showing a musical depth beyond their years. "Sic Transit" is their debut, following years of demos and shows alongside such heavyweights as Watain and Enthroned. It's an unusual mix of stylings, from dark ambient to slow-burn to all-out black metal ferocity. "A Mass For The Harvest Of Death", for example, is a 16-minute doom ride, with crawling early SWANS-style tempos and gurgled vocals. It's a churning cauldron of pain and torture that eventually erupts into a blur of speed and fury. "Bereft Of Hope" also follows this template. The 27-minute title track is an epic of minimalist doombient madness, taking turns crossing between funereal textures and raving lunacy. The final track, "Worship The Sunn O))), does just that. It's a downtuned clot of bass rumble-drone straight out of the Sunn playbook. Perhaps not original, but at least they acknowledge the influence plainly. Necrite's debut is a strong and visionary showing, and I look forward to hearing where they go next. (The Flenser Records)

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