BIG|BRAVE - nature morte (2023)

The Canadian trio of BIG|BRAVE is certainly already the icon of this kind of slow but extremely expressive kind of post-metal music. Their new album, nature morte, may be around their peak performance that should touch to the sole anyone listening.

According to the Bandcamp account, the music here is composed of "distorted and textural drones, austere bombast, and Wattie’s heart-rending voice". The abrupt, bullet shot-like bursts of noise with the relative silence between them, make one of the most unnerving kind of music ever. Especially that there's no half measures here: it's either extremely loud and heavy or worryingly idle. But this is nothing compared to Robin Wattie's vocals that are THE most emotional and desperate-sounding ones out there. The amount of feeling they express and project on the listeners is fathomless. The vocals and the music combined create one of the most poignant stories in the modern music, probably on par with Lingua Ignota's depressive poetry. 

nature morte costs 10 USD.

Check: carvers, farriers and knaves

Country: Canada

Genre: drone metal

Label: Thrill Jockey Records.

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:spotify:

FVNERALS - Let the Earth Be Silent (2023)

One of the best drone metal music projects at the moment, FVNERALS, released their third album called Let the Earth Be Silent. And this is a model example of a discography that delivers every time anything new sees the light of the day. Although, in this case, it's more about the darkness of the night.

The new album's theme is as bleak and depressive as it could be expected form the duo: they comment on the way the humanity impacts environment in the worst possible way, leading straight to the extinction event for countless species. FVNERALS turn "the emptiness of the void and the depth of the abyss" that was left in the place where many beings thrived, "into sound". There's no doubt that the band have all the tools necessary to deliver such a dark theme. Their drone metal soundscapes are heavier than the skies in autumn and don't get lighter even for a second of the album's run. There's not much of the metal-like anger and desperation, it is more about the bleak reality that everything is already lost. This dark, dark music is further enriched by the tribal elements and cold, emotionless vocals that appear from time to time in this blizzard of drones.

The duo is part of the impressive lineup of this year's Roadburn and it's one of the main reasons I'd go there.

Let the Earth Be Silent costs 6.99 USD.

Check: Barren

Country: UK

Genre: drone metal

Label: Prophecy Productions

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:spotify:

YRRE - Luhlae x The Witch (2022)

When talking about Swiss music this year, I am excitingly waiting for E-L-R's sophomore album. But there is something else that proved to be as compelling and gloomy. YRRE's debut album Luhlae x The Witch is a soundtrack of fear and noise disguised as modern drone post-metal album and I love it.

This very special album is "an adaption of a ciné-concert composed to the movie ‘The VVitch'" by Robert Eggers and was created for the festival 2300 Plan 9 les Etranges Nuits du Cinéma and performed for the first time at Bikini Test in La Chaux-de-Fonds under the name Luhlae x The Witch (thus the title of the album of course). The movie itself grew up to be an icon of ambitious horror genre and the original music by Mark Korven is masterpiece on its own. This album seems to be an interpretation of the movie through post-rock and post-metal sounds. There won't be any surprise when revealed that the album is particularly dark and heavy. It achieves that with very modern post-rock/metal means though.

While the band describe themselves as dark ambient noise, there's way too much of the guitars and drums and other effects. It is, yes, soaked in noise which makes the angry and desperate post-metal vocals that sound in the backgrounds even more poignant. And in general, the feeling of horror is very well tangible in every second of this fantastic release. There's quality of sound, there's inspiring noise, there's captivating ambiance. Fantastic.

Luhlae x The Witch costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Uhtceare

Country: Switzerland

Genre: noise post-metal

Label: Hummus Records

:bandcamp:

:instagram:

:spotify:

Hope Drone - Husk (2021)

The Australian band Hope Drone works as a collective for some time now (10 years!), but recently they found they needed some change in their sound and this change (make their music and their name more fitting together) is something that turned me back to them with their new album Husk being a really solid take on offstream metal.

As far as I remember, the band's previous releases didn't quite strike a chord with me "Strange times call for new perspectives and the chaos of the last few years has given rise to our new release where we set out to experiment" - this change of sound involves putting more focus on bass and drums at the expense of guitars and vocals that got transferred more into the backgrounds. This made their music more ambient/drone metal with its hazy atmosphere and soundscape-like values. And even that the pace of drums is usually very much black metal, the general impression left by their music is the massiveness and weight. The album consists of four tracks only, but they are long enough and written in such a way to slowly develop and impress the audience with heavy and satisfying finishes (so well-done in Existere) and leave it wanting even more.

Husk costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Existere

Country: Australia

Genre: drone metal

Label: Moment of Collapse Records

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:spotify:

Greenwald Lads Club - It Is Safe Now (2021)

Best known from being a vocalist of the post-punk/surf rock band Syndrom Paryski, Wojtek Filipowicz has just surprised his fans with a so-much-different solo album. The EP called It Is Safe Now shows a huge turn from the lively and positive rock'n'roll-like music of Syndrom... and focuses on dark and heavy ambient sounds that are only a thin wall from turning into drone metal-like madness.

The EP shows music born from the artist's pandemic time's explorations of "the atmospheric electronic music". This epic notes reflect the concept behind the album: a post-apocalyptic vision of the world without humans, with crumbling buildings and nature reclaiming the centres of the cities. When you take this under consideration, the album's title shows so much of the modern social anxiety and nihilism towards the humanity's fate. This is also very much tangible in the album's music, it's nervous and bleak atmosphere. 

The artist admits to inspirations from Boris' music and you can hear it well in the album's turns toward the airy, diluted black metal that stems from the synth and ambient backgrounds, blossoms for a while and comes back to the subtle noise of the rest of the album (as it is in the title track It Is Safe Now). However, most of the release is set in the noisier, synthier kind of ambient. There's some irregular beats but they die very quickly, there's some drums and melodies but, just like the human civilization, they seem to be bound to fall. Everything ends with a beautiful but also kind of scary soundscape.

It Is Safe Now costs 2.5 EUR (10 PLN).

Check: It Is Safe Now

Country: Poland

Genre: post-metal ambient

Label: Opus Elefantum

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:spotify: