Transcript
Speaker: Oh, fuck. Damn it. We'll leave that in. Anyway, hey everybody, welcome to the second episode of the Hauntology Review Cast, which is a new little show we're doing where we just pick three albums um and review them. So we've got...
Speaker: Myself, Alan from Pull the Strings, Psygnosis, and other things, and Adrian and Sean, who are both in the band Witness, which I didn't mention last time, but is a great band you should listen to.
Speaker: So welcome, guys. Let's ah continue the bullshit and see if anybody has anything to flame us about in the comments. Do people still say flame? i don't think so. I don't know.
Speaker: That's very early We haven't made too many comments, so don't know. Let us know if you think our picks suck, if you like our picks, if we're wrong about what we say.
Speaker: yeah please do. We encourage we encouraged it. so else I also just posted a poll to the channel that you can go answer if you see this. um I'm asking whether you guys would like to see a couple things from us horror movie reviews and or music related tier lists. So if you haven't have a preference for that, go vote on that little poll.
Speaker: But anyways, um, let's just go ahead and get started with it today. I think we're going with Sean's pick first, which was, let's see. L altered. The Holocausto is the band and the album is just it. Is that, is that right?
Speaker: and I think so. Yeah.
Speaker: i mean that's what what i would say uh yeah they're a four piece i believe from spain and it's an all instrumental album um it's so usually whenever i listen to instrumental albums i
Speaker: I don't love instrumental typically. Um, but this one, there's not a second that goes by that. I think that like, Oh, I wish that there was vocals to this, which is typical for me to think.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And yeah, they just, the the whole album, which has absolutely ridiculously long song titles. Yeah. What are these names? Yeah. But holy shit.
Speaker: Yeah. I'm fan of that. i I know you like that, Adrian. i love You're all about breaking rules. I definitely, I like it too, but I just, it's, it's, yeah, it's definitely.
Speaker: Are these all straight from the Bible? and That's a good question. I have no idea. It seems like it. i think they did a good job. but they They did put like one, two, three. So like, it's easy.
Speaker: Yeah, there's Roman numerals. So you still see like, this is the first song. So it could be like easier. short But the song titles are like a paragraph, which is interesting. Yeah, it says it's the...
Speaker: it's the This holy work is entirely inspired and dedicated to the image of the Holy Spirit and then it goes on to talk about that a little bit. But yeah, it's just, I really don't have whole hell of lot to say about it because it's instrumental. I mean, I don't,
Speaker: But I just... ah It's one of the most impactful instrumental albums I've ever listened to. Before this, I would say that like Astrosaur, i really like them.
Speaker: um Russian Circles is also pretty good. And I can't think of the name right now, but Adrian, you really like them. ah What's the band?
Speaker: ah Godspeed, You Black Emperor. Yeah, Godspeed, You Black Emperor. That's another one. But this is definitely a little bit more... for lack of a better word, like put together than, than that and a little bit more accessible, I would say, but it's, yeah, it's, it's so good. And I just really, I wanted to know what you guys thought about it and I wanted to show you guys it. So, yeah,
Speaker: yeah uh i i loved it uh heavy post rock with like kind of like doom influences in it um really well done uh production sounds good uh it's i i love uh i love the whole package of it i love like i said love the the long um song titles the and kind of like contrasted by the short album name It looks like the merch they got, it looks killer too.
Speaker: it so yeah, I really dug this one. I'm a big fan of post rock and ah post rock on the heavier side. it i tend to favor. So I thought it was very well done. I gave it a couple of listens through.
Speaker: yeah i was, I was very impressed by this one. Yeah. Um, yeah, Yeah, I mean, like I said, you know what the fuck are the song names? But it's cool. I appreciate you know doing whatever you want to do with the formatting of an album and whatnot.
Speaker: They're clearly trying to put forth an aesthetic here of Christian. It's like a Christian aesthetic, I would say, and but that's that's definitely not the most common thing in metal, so that's cool, post-rock.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: um I just want to mention, I don't know like the reference for the band name, but I would just hope that they're using the general definition of Holocaust, not the historical event. But um I don't know.
Speaker: I would like to know where the what the name means, where it comes from. But yeah, this is a nice, meaty sounding band. um The drums are mixed nicely. I can hear, of course, I'm immediately talking about the mix. This is just me.
Speaker: i'm I can hear that there was something in the signal chain that was less than ideal with the drums, like the preamps or the mics or something, but it's hard to record drums, so I'm not holding out against them whatsoever.
Speaker: It sounds great. Um, it's heavy and somber, uh, instrumentally. It kind of reminds me of like Pelican, the band from Chicago. Um, that's my closest reference point as far as a similar instrumental post-rock band.
Speaker: So that's a compliment. Cause I love Pelican. And, uh, The ones that stuck out to me were like the second and the sixth tracks. um And then also like the ambient metal section on the fourth one leading into like the the part where it comes back in heavy straight through to the end of that song was a really standout moment for me.
Speaker: um i really enjoyed that part. And I mean, other than the drums, the only criticism I can think of is that the lead guitar sounds a touch amateur and out of tune at times.
Speaker: But this kind of reflects the point of the band, in my opinion, because, you know, it's like we are imperfect and need a savior and all this stuff. So, I mean, that's kind of philosophically arrogant to say in the first place that the guitar means that. I don't think they meant that.
Speaker: But I'm just saying it makes sense to me in the context of what this is about, like that there'd be like imperfect and human elements to it. Right. So I actually appreciate that. It just kind of works for the album.
Speaker: ah but any You go ahead, Sean. Sorry, I just wanted to say, i just looked it up. ah It means, i think that it means the altar of burnt offerings. Okay. Yeah, I mean, Holocaust means passage of fire. um That's what i was assuming.
Speaker: That's what it was referencing. Yeah, I assume it's not talking about the Holocaust. It's an interesting and provocative name. i just Like I said, I'd like to know the the band's take on it, but Who knows?
Speaker: um But yeah, in all seriousness, I think it's um a really cool kind of post-rock album themed around something unique. And it's refreshing to see different walks of life represented in metal. you know So I like that. It's a beautiful album.
Speaker: And I will be picking it up eventually because I enjoyed it a lot. Yeah, i wanted to snag of the vinyl. i might um I don't think they have for this this album. but like Man, the tapes they made look killer too. It's all sold out.
Speaker: I'll have go on these dogs. Also, the only bad thing about it is the shipping prices are pretty crazy because I was looking that up too. yeah Definitely understand that.
Speaker: It's brutal.
Speaker: Yeah, great pick, man. Thanks. Yeah, we got, would it be, would be one for two so far with, with Sean. john
Speaker: No, I have to keep it tallied last one. was two It's just not my thing, but this one's my thing. And so I, I definitely wholeheartedly recommend this album to everybody. Um, is that all we had to say about it?
Speaker: That's all I got. All right. Cool. Well, ah my pick for this episode was the album Saturday Night December by Anticantamentum.
Speaker: Another interesting band name. um it It actually says on their band camp that it's a fake word, so there's no use trying to like figure it out, but it's a cool name.
Speaker: And it's like a one person black metal project by someone named Melpomene. um I found it. I found the project on a list of like ah transgender black metal artists worth checking out.
Speaker: And this was the one on that list that I really liked the most. um it's it's It's cool. it's Many of the tracks on this have like a furious, aggressive black metal sound.
Speaker: um which is convincing. like Sometimes I hear that and it's not genuine. It sounds like contrived. This doesn't. But at the same time, there's lots of moments on here that are atmospheric, shoegazy, um really beautiful stuff on here too.
Speaker: And even certain moments that are really dreadful, and just lathered in like existential dread. So lots of different emotions on here. And a few choice moments on this thing reminded me of the sound of like kind of post grunge or alt rock in a way, which is an interesting and surprising thing that I wasn't expecting when it doesn't take away from like the authenticity of the album. For me, it's just a cool influence to hear in black metal.
Speaker: It's, it's subtle, but I hear it in certain places. Um, yeah, I did read the English lyrics and the the lyrically, like there's themes of grieving the loss of a former self wrestling with forgiveness, finding one's way through the world alone, accepting your true nature, things like this.
Speaker: And, uh, it's a very personal record, you know, as, as you can tell. And it, that sucked me in emotionally. I like, I write lyrics like that too. You know, I write lyrics that are about personal struggles and,
Speaker: So it's it's a very therapeutic thing to do. and so um I always like when artists do that. um But yeah, as far as the sound of the record, the drum programming is great.
Speaker: It's very engaging. It's got cool tempo and time signature changes. ah The vocals are theyre pretty buried with a haunting tone that reminds me of a little bit of like Sean's vocals in a way, actually.
Speaker: um Just kind of like ah like a higher pitched kind of throaty scream, which is cool. And the i think the mix is perfect. like No notes from me. Everything works in favor of the songs.
Speaker: And I really can't pick a favorite track either because it's also just, honestly, I was listening to it you know again in preparation. It was like, holy fuck, these are all so good.
Speaker: What do you guys think about it?
Speaker: um Well, I dug the album. I think ah it was ah it had a lot it it felt like it pulled a lot of different influences that you don't generally see and black metal. ah like i some of like Some of the tracks kind of reminded me like the riffs and stuff reminded me of early Lamb of God.
Speaker: Yeah, that nice I heard that. That was pretty like interesting for me because like I had a lot of groove to it and stuff. i It was really unusual for black metal, and then it worked very well.
Speaker: I love the vocals, and I just love a lot of the building atmosphere. I know the band camp tags they say symphonic, but I yeah i hear more like atmospheric. I don't really feel the symphonic tag works well, but um very, very well done. Everything, like even the parts that kind of clash, I think it works well for the album.
Speaker: Yeah, there's just one one more note from me. There's this one part on the album where there's this like section of music that just stops abruptly and then it switches to something completely different. And it's like jarring, but it works so well. I don't hear things like that very often.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. I noticed that. thought I wasn't sure what happened when I first went through. Yeah. yeah the it was It was really well done. So I think it was fantastic.
Speaker: Hell yeah. Yeah. The one thing you said about the mix, um, this, this is definitely a good album to listen to through headphones, I think, because yeah it was definitely like took me and it just, it was, uh, the whole, the whole thing's awesome. And it's a, I mean, some of the songs are fairly long and they actually seem to go by pretty quickly to me. Um, yeah.
Speaker: And the guitar work is incredible. I think my favorite song off of it Track 3. And it, like, for some reason gives me anxiety. And I think it's the drums, but I don't really know. But ah it also, you know, there's ah also the sections that you guys were talking about that kind of, like, there's quite a few sections, I think, that, like,
Speaker: it kind of seems to take the same formula in some ways where the guitar will kind of just ring out a couple of times and then it'll go into something really pretty, which is, i mean, it works. and that's not, I'm not saying that that anything bad about that. I think it actually works really well.
Speaker: and yeah, I loved the whole thing. The only thing that I didn't like about it is whenever I bought it on Bandcamp, I think that it was ah originally, and this is a stupid thing to not like, but I don't think that those instrumental songs were there.
Speaker: And typically what I'll do is I'll like i'll go on Bandcamp and then I'll add a bunch of songs to a playlist and then I'll shuffle that playlist. And I just would rather hear it with the vocals, I guess. But that's that's the only bad thing that I have to say about it is they added the instrumental songs.
Speaker: right on I'm glad to hear that it like took you away to another place like it did for me. it's um yeah It's just an interesting combination of influences, which is what I like to hear in black metal. I don't really like to hear black metal that sounds generic, you know just like any genre, obviously, but black metal is one of those where it's so easy to mold into something unique because of what it what but you've listened to throughout your life. so I really appreciated that.
Speaker: Solid album. Everybody should pick it up. It sounded like they lost. ah I'm reading some of the band camp like that. They lost a lot of stuff in a fire. i And I guess this was able to be recovered, which. Yeah, did read that the the hard drive was recovered from a fire. So these songs were almost like scrapped.
Speaker: That's crazy. Yeah, that is pretty wild. Awesome. All right, guys, let's ah strap in because we got Ryan here. Adrian, what was your pick? Sheryl Ling, Motherfucker, I Am Both, Amen and Alleluia.
Speaker: ah Yeah. There's a lot to be said about it. It was one of the more bizarre albums. guess I guess it's one track. I don't know.
Speaker: Hour long. It's really weird. It it's it's really weird um
Speaker: It's definitely like unhinged. It if you has an improvised feel to it. um yeah it's It's very chaotic, and the vocalist just sounds like he's having a mental breakdown. ah i don't like it' i'm not even I'm not even sure how to like really classify it. It's obviously noise influence.
Speaker: Avant-garde, obviously. It's very experimental. um it's It's one of those things, like, i probably wouldn't recommend to a whole lot of people if you're not used to, like, especially, like, kind of noise rock in general, but...
Speaker: Even for Noise Rock, this seems a little bit out there. and it's it's a it's a if you I would recommend like if you want to listen to something that you've never really heard before, you're going on a long drive, you want to hear something crazy, throw this one on. This is this is a weird one. It is interesting that this is even sold on physical media. like They have CDs, and i just thought...
Speaker: I don't know, man. like Anywhere that I would play this that other people could hear it, I'd be a little afraid. But I mean, in your core, yeah, that's a perfect place. yeah
Speaker: Yeah, i don't like um I would recommend it to you guys, but I don't know. like My other friends that I work with, I don't know. This is for them. Definitely not.
Speaker: Yeah, this is fringe stuff for sure. yeah um Do you want to talk about it first, Sean? Yeah. Sure. First off, I'm really pissed off that I missed out on the CDs. Because that was the first thing that I checked whenever I listened to like the first 10 minutes. I was like, I have to have this. And then I was like, shit.
Speaker: But... This is it sounds like vignettes of a madman, but like, you know I don't know if you guys have ever listened to Listener, but spoken word type stuff. And it just sounds like, to me, it definitely sounds like Listener if you were to like, take a lot of...
Speaker: I don't know, maybe meth or something that makes them very paranoid and just started rambling to like, and another thing, like there's so many different instruments in this album that it's,
Speaker: like some of it's overwhelming. It's definitely not the easiest listen, but it's extremely rewarding. and definitely passed my dishes test, which is like, if I'm doing ah the first time I listened to it, I was doing the dishes.
Speaker: And if I can go through, an album and not want to skip a song which and you can't even skip a song with this but i didn't there wasn't one moment where i was like i want to listen to something different it was it was engaging in the strangest way the whole time because i just couldn't wait to hear what was next but there are some parts that like drag on for a while but then it'll go into like like I said, like vignettes, like small weird shit. That's just, it's, I've never heard anything like it. I'll say that. Yeah.
Speaker: That's, that's very true. Um, the first thing I wrote when I was making notes on this is this is something else. And then I wrote the voices are growing louder. but I mean, not to make light of schizophrenia, like I know plenty of people that that deal with that, but that this is a schizophrenic album.
Speaker: Um, on a serious note, it's so extraordinarily weird. Like the first thing that really had me scratching my head was one of the spoken word passages where the dude's like, I'm going to climb up your leg and pull down your gay little underwear. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Um, I mean, it's deranged and the noise layers are so unnerving. Um, I will say the band, like like the the the core band sounds great for what is certainly mostly improvisation, especially on the drums. um And like Sean said, there's so many instruments. Every instrument in existence shows up at some point on this thing, um which is crazy.
Speaker: There's a section that goes from honky-tonk piano to somber post-rock to abstract noise in a matter of 20 seconds, you know? Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, my favorite thing about it is when the vocalist shouts with vibrato. Like, I didn't know that was a thing that you could do. I thought you were going to say your favorite thing was the album cover.
Speaker: Yeah, the album cover. We've been joking about it as we've been preparing for this, but there's a large horse anus on it.
Speaker: Um, like Adrian said in the beginning, this is beyond any classifications. Um, you can call it noise rock. It's like some ah auditory medical experiment gone wrong, like under the supervision of some heretical sect of zealous maniacs. That's what it sounds like to me.
Speaker: I have no reference for it. and Like if this was what the human race left behind, I don't know if that would be a good or bad thing. Um, Um, but I like it, you know, I mean, it, it, it left me with a few, a few questions, which were, um I'll just read them.
Speaker: Is this what it is to be alive? Is this what it is to be dying every second? I wonder what motivates someone to leave this legacy behind.
Speaker: Well, the one thing you said about Zealous Maniacs, that should be on like a t-shirt or something for this band, because that was great poetic way to put that.
Speaker: yeah That's just what came to mind. It's ah the bands scene it's like a large group of people making this. and like I don't know how you convince that many people to make this. yeah On their band camp, it says music for farms. yeah Maybe they all live on like in like a commune or something. I don't know. I was going to get a group of people like hey, going to go ah on this schizophrenic rant and I want you to just play whatever you feel.
Speaker: it's It's nuts. um I don't even know how you would really approach making this kind of stuff. ah Yeah. Well, it see it seems from the outside like there's one main songwriter who wrote most of it and also plays most of the instruments.
Speaker: This dude's got a collection of every instrument in the entire world, I guess, and just decided to go crazy with them and and make this. No, it's... um Yeah, usually lot usually the most experimental stuff, like we've talked about this, it tends to come from more solo projects. you know the the The less people, the more you can kind of get away with without like other people trying to reel you in. But this is, I don't know.
Speaker: ah it's It's crazy that it's a group of people for this one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But that makes sense if it was one mostly one guy doing the writing. But yeah it's ah still just a trip of an album.
Speaker: now i was just take I would take walks and listen to it I'm like, what is going on? ah the um I think Sean mentioned this, where like just just excited for whatever would come next. That that was definitely like a feeling that I had throughout. and i think the last like six or ten minutes of the album are are more somber and quiet and like not so crazy.
Speaker: and I felt like that was that was a good resolution. It was pretty needed. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. This was a, there's one of the, the weird albums I've enjoyed for sure. yeah i don't know. why ah Like I like you're in hell and stuff like that. So like I was kind of already into this kind of unhinged noise rock, but this, this one is really, but well i mean, you got me into noise rock with, uh,
Speaker: no you didn't you didn't get me into Great Falls but Great Falls is what we first started talking about when were talking about noise rock yeah and that was kind of my introduction to it I had never gotten into like there's plenty of history from like Godflesh to like whatever I've never listened to most of it but um that was my frame of reference for this and this is so much like broader in scope than what Great Falls does not not not saying that either band does a better or worse job I'm just saying it's totally different yeah, man, this was crazy. Thank you for putting me through this.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, definitely. It really kind of just, I don't know if any, I don't, I don't know if people are going to enjoy this show that we're doing or not. I mean, it's definitely fun to do.
Speaker: Um, but just gets me excited for whatever you guys are going to come up with next. Like, I don't know, you know, like some weeks I might be just feeling like, I just want to review one of my favorite albums and it might be like a safe album, something that,
Speaker: There might not be an awful whole lot to say about, but just like the connects with me. Or other times it might be something crazy. So you never know. Yeah, I'm going to keep trying to pick weird ones because for ah two reasons. They'll keep it kind of exciting. And also just to kind of a lot of these are pretty underground.
Speaker: So like to help out just the smaller bands and stuff that are kind of trying to break the mold of what music can be, you know? Yeah. I mean, even if we review something pretty harshly, there's going to be people that are like, Oh, then that, then that's for me. And they'll still got to check it out.
Speaker: yeah So, I mean, there's really no, no harm. All all press is good press kind of thing.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. Well, guys, I think that's going to wrap us up for this episode today. appreciate you taking time to do it. And like I said, I look forward to more reviews in the future.
Speaker: What are we doing this monthly? Yeah, we'll shoot for monthly. Unless ah people want to see more, I guess we can try to do it more frequently.
Speaker: If you want to see it more than once a month, ah drop in the comments, share it, make sure this thing starts getting plays. Yeah, for real. We'll make it happen. But yeah. um And also shout out since you guys are both here and you're in witness shout out to everybody that checked out the the witness music video that got us a bunch of subscribers on YouTube. So I guess we'll be getting more eyes on this stuff than not because of that.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty sweet. Yeah. It's our most popular video. What is that at now? Like 3.3, 3.6 something. Nice.
Speaker: as i so was three point six thousand nice Yeah, Samara did a really good job with it. Yeah, shout out Samara Canned. i think that's how you say it.
Speaker: But excellent job on the music video.
Speaker: All right. Well, thanks, everybody, for stopping in and listening to our opinions that are you know only ours. you can You can disagree. Just leave a comment, and we'll we'll get back to you for sure. We like the conversation.
Speaker: And we'll see you next time on the podcast. um Subscribe to the feed on Spotify, Apple Music. Subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't. And we'll see you then.
