It is HOT and our ears need METAL! Drop your scorching riffs, your hot blast beats and your lyrics forged in the flames of hell.
Gladys Haelters
Alternate Endings
artist:Stories From The Lost
This post was meant to be published on the 21st of july, so that we could celebrate a Belgian band during our national holiday (oopsie)…
Stories of the Lost exists since 2011. The band has evolved throughout the years from an instrumental post-metalproject to a worthy and complete line-up that is definitely worth listening to, especially if you love post- and doommetal.
I got to know them via a slight detour. Friends from Ronse used to play in a band called “We Drive Demons”, because of circumstances and life things didn’t work out and they decided to stop their band. Eventually this resulted in some off them finding their way to “Growing Hors” and the others finding their way to “Stories of the Lost”.
Both bands are doing incredibly well, in the local scene. So a happy ending an an extra band that I got to know!
Alternate Endings is a good album to get to know them, and if you like their style and music, you should definitely have a browse through the rest of their discography.
Kenzo Staelens
Diamanti
artist:Temperance
Just like Wind Rose forging hot steel, from last month, I wanted to remain in Italy a little longer (it must have been really hot there this past month…, also yes fun fact, for this who didn’t know it yet, Wind Rose is Italian). I don’t actually have much to say about this band… It just started showing up one day in my recommendations.
To say something, I would like to mention that I got to know this band with the track “Of Jupiter And Moons” (not the track or album that I am presenting this month). From this I discovered several tracks from this band, but not from the album I am presenting. Eventually I settled on “Diamanti”.
For my favourite track I would pick “Pure Life Unfolds”. An extra fun fact about this album; It contains the namesake track 4 times, but in different languages, once in Italian, once in English, once in Spanish and once in French.
Maarten VanPraet
Nexus Polaris
artist:The Kovenant
Time for some 90;s Norse industrial metal!
The Kovenent I discovered, like so many other metalbands apparently, via the CKY films. Or the precursors to Jackass. There is much that can be said about Bam Margera, but he had me discovered a lot of amazing metal bands!
I made the choice for Nexus Polaris, with the bangers:
- The sulphur feast
- Bizarre cosmic industries
- Bringer of the sixth sun
In this album they make the switch from the traditional black- to more industrial metal. In the albums that follow this one, there is a much more melodic and industrial sound.
If you like their music, don’t limit yourself to this album alone, each of their albums has their pears (mannequin, acid theatre, mirror’s paradise, the Chasm, …) and surprising covers.
Pieter-Jan
Ótta
artist:Sólstafir
I first had a different album in mind, but eventually chose “Ótta” by Sólstafir.
Sólstafir is the band that awakened my love for going to concerts and gigs! A few years ago they had a tour together with Katatonia, and this was the first proper concert I attended. It was such an amazing and pleasant experience that ever since, I have been completely sold on concerts and gigs, especially the smaller events.
Sólstafir is also one of the first bands that I would consider myself to be a fan off, and I also have their entire discography on vinyl. Each of their albums are gems and amazing in their own right!
Ótta is the fifth album by Sólstafir, and even here they remain close to their Icelandic roots. The album follows the flows of an old form of timekeeping from Iceland. This divides the day into eight equal parts, and as such the album has eight tracks. The album starts from what would be midnight and runs throughout an entire day;
| nr | Title | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lágnætti | Midnight |
| 2 | Ótta | Dead of Night |
| 3 | Rismál | Dayrise |
| 4 | Dagmál | Morning |
| 5 | Miðdegi | Midday |
| 6 | Nón | Noon |
| 7 | Miðaftann | Mid Evening |
| 8 | Náttmál | Nighttime |
I wouldn’t label the album as “metal” per-se; it is a very atmospheric and somewhat etheric. It is also not really an album to be skipping around or to listen in pieces, just like you can’t skip around the day or time, you have to let it take its course.
All of this is masterfully presented in the music video for “Miðaftann”, completely monochrome, very open and wide shots, yet it gives a somewhat oppressive:
https://youtu.be/HQkGUzIiIc4?si=nSFJgYEbA200HSWP
There isn’t much more that I am able to say, the album speaks for itself!
My favourite track is Náttmál; The closing piece of the album and the final part of the day.