Woke up to the soothing strands of #Khanate this morning. https://khanate.bandcamp.com/album/to-be-cruel

Followed by the soothing strands of #Fionn https://fionnband.bandcamp.com/album/scum

Nice combo.

#Music

Mrs. Frighthouse – Solitude Over Control Review

By Dear Hollow

How much noise is too much? I used to believe you could never have too much noise, with bands like Theatruum and La Torture des Ténèbres weaponizing it for respectively vicious and otherworldly approaches. Then bands like Ulveblod and the infamous Ordeal & Triumph collaboration happened – and I lost my naivety. Ultimately, as we will see with duo Mrs. Frighthouse, diving into the noise genre offers a low ceiling and an equally low floor. Some of the worst music I’ve reviewed has had the “noise” tag attached to it, while some of the most okayest music I’ve reviewed also has noise attached to it – previously mentioned acts being controversial exceptions. It’s either the worst thing you’ve heard or okay. Mrs. Frighthouse is a light, er, fright in a sea of noise – for better or worse.

Glasgow-based Mrs. Frighthouse consists of wife and wife duo Carys and Luna Frighthouse, known as Mrs. and Mrs. on stage. Featuring an unflinching lyrical attack on misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia, and a musical approach as venomous, it recalls the likes of early Lingua Ignota, Couch Slut, and Julie Christmas. What hooked me was its mastering by Khanate bassist James Plotkin – anything that reminds of the menacing crawl that the drone legends conjure was a perk. However, like any noise album that focuses on ugliness and discordance, the audience is limited, the replay value is near null, and its strengths are a novelty in many ways. Featuring manic vocals both harsh and operatic to contrast with the suffocating noise, Mrs. Frighthouse wins points for charisma, but Solitude Over Control is still very much a noise album.

To my relief, Mrs. Frighthouse utilizes opaqueness and density to its benefit, avoiding the painful awkwardness of Läjä Äijälä & Albert Witchfinder’s trainwreck of a collaboration. Plotkin’s services are put to good use, as the backbone of sound is suffocating and all-encompassing in a way that recalls drone’s colossal density, an expanse of ominous tones upon which Mrs. and Mrs. traverse with their vocal journeys. Throw in some haunting ritualistic drumming patterns and minor organ trills, Mrs. Frighthouse crafts horrific soundscapes using an expert blend of clarity, melody, and discordance to match their surprisingly dynamic foray into noise. This is no Oscillotron – Mrs. Frighthouse knows how to write songs. While at first glance the sea of noise is a constant hum, those willing to delve beneath the surface will find smart songwriting aplenty.

The contrast between clarity and density is a clear priority in Solitude Over Control – which ends up being its most controversial element. From the aggressive industrial pulse paired with thick waves of noise easy to get lost in (“DIY Exorcism,” “White Plaster Rooms”) to more subtle crawling pieces with screeching soprano trills that feel strangely confrontational (“Seagulls” part 1 and 2, “Let My Spit Be Poison”), while creeping melodic motifs are warped and bastardized by the static (“Our Culture Without Autonomy,” “My Body is a Crime Scene”), Mrs. Frighthouse is a tour-de-force of metallic aggression without a riff in sight. Solitude Over Control wears its themes on its sleeves in sometimes awkward forthrightness, as both Mrs.’s spew vitriol over the misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia witnessed and experienced, matching the aggression and viciousness of the music. The closing title track is worthy of mention, because its slow-burning crescendo is a maddening and horrifying end to a maddening and horrifying album – a nerve-frying culmination of Mrs. Frighthouse’s best and worst.

Almost everything about Solitude Over Control feels intentional, but holy shit, is it unflinching and uncomfortable. Mrs. Frighthouse’s two vocals are insanely charismatic in their blend of shrieks, growls, operatic belts, whispers, and shouts, propelling the movement of the noise as it emerges and disappears in the sea of noise. Plotkin’s mastering adds a suffocating and claustrophobic quality that adds to the menace and aggression. Some tracks you’ll find yourself getting lost in the swaths of noise and industrial harshness, others you’ll find yourself blushing in the awkward stark clarity of the vocals. Mrs. Frighthouse offers a better noise album than most and is closer to the ceiling, but due to the divisiveness of the style and the starkness of some of the minimalist pieces, the reception will be mixed. Noise fans rejoice, all others steer clear.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Release
Websites: mrsfrighthouse.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/mrsfrighthouse
Releases Worldwide: September 26th, 2025

#25 #2025 #CouchSlut #Drone #Industrial #JulieChristmas #Khanate #LaTortureDesTénèbres #LäjäÄijäläAlbertWitchfinder #LinguaIgnota #MrsFrighthouse #Noise #Oscillotron #Review #Reviews #ScottishMetal #SelfRelease #Sep25 #SolitudeOverControl #Theatruum #Ulveblod

Old Year – No Dissent Review

By Tyme

Amidst the tenebrous shadows of Boise, Idaho’s underground metal scene, death-doom dronesters Old Year first formed as a duo in 2017 and were content from the outset to operate in secret, as a rumor, a cathartic side-project contained behind closed doors. Until 2021, that is, when Old Year grew from a duo to a trio comprised of founding guitarist/vocalist Robert Taylor Roark, drummer Jered Veeneman, and newcomer bassist Skyler Rezendes, and saw fit to emerge from their post-pandemic dungeons of self-isolated slumber to unleash dark arts on stages across the Boise underground. UK record label Apocalyptic Witchcraft took note of Old Year’s eleven-minute eponymous single in 2023, then signed the three-piece to a deal, resulting in the band’s forthcoming debut full-length, No Dissent. Does Old Year have what it takes to make a ripple in the ichorous pool of their chosen genre, or will they drown in the quick sands of missed opportunity?

Old Year’s droning form of doom metal is big, and No Dissent leaves little room to argue the point. Rezendes’ massive, tectonic bass lines shift under Roark’s squealy guitar feedback, distortedly sustained chords, and morosely haunting leads, conjuring an atmosphere that fans of Khanate, Evoken or Hell might appreciate (“Rotting Illusion”). Veeneman’s drums, monstrous and restrained, serve as the twisted backbone that keeps the rest of the band from getting too far ahead of themselves, expertly managing the funereal tempos, while Roark’s guttural roars, a mix of Incantation’s John McEntee and Bolt Thrower’s Karl Willetts, resound cavernously over the whole cacophonous affair, just this side of discernible. Tried and true death doom tropes are adhered to, boundaries left unstretched as Old Year seem less intent to innovate than devastate.

What drew me to Old Year is the result of something I refer to as the Jute Gyte effect, and not because Old Year share much of anything in common with Adam Kalmbach’s atonal dissonant metal project either. But because, while sumping the promo pit for something to snag, I was listening to a few minutes of No Dissent’s advance track, “Mechanical Birth,” and what I heard, though initially dismissed, refused to leave my mind, demanding I return to it. Which is precisely how I ended up falling for Jute Gyte’s Perdurance, and why I ended up pulling Old Year out of the murky waters. It just so happens that “Mechanical Birth,” with its eleven-plus minutes of relentless, pulsing death doom decimation, encapsulates every weapon at Old Year’s disposal and executes it all at a high level, making it an album highlight.

With a compact run-time of thirty-six minutes, No Dissent is an appetizer of the drone doom genre. While this personally nonpluses me, there may be purists, especially those of the funeral variety, who rabble over No Dissent’s length, shouting, ‘Why it’s barely an EP!’ And though I appreciate the bite-sized nature of Old Year’s debut, the album itself, wrapped in production that, though loud, complements what No Dissent is trying to do, consists of four separate tracks that, when taken as a whole, flow more like one continuous thirty-six-minute song, each one beginning and ending in very similar waves of screechy feedback. This undulation, combined with the simplistic construction of each song’s core, does wrap No Dissent in a drone that belies the album’s intent. There is nothing here that moves the genre forward in any way, at least not in ways that bands like Hellish Form are pushing things, perhaps rendering No Dissent too short, sweet, and simple for some.

For the interested yet uninitiated, Old Year’s No Dissent wouldn’t be a bad place from which to launch your journey into the death doom drone world. Its short run time and solid, albeit overly simple, representation of the genre could serve as training wheels, guiding you to bigger and more complex adventures. No Dissent didn’t blow my socks off, but I can see myself returning to it because it’s big, powerful, and doesn’t demand hours of my time. For now, I recommend you try plumbing its depths as well, and know that I will be scanning the horizon to see what Old Year does next.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Apocalyptic Witchcraft
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 24th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #ApocalypticWitchcraft #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Drone #Evoken #Hell #Khanate #NoDissent #Oct25 #OldYear #Review

Khanate Announce First U.S. Tour Dates Since 2005

#dates #khanate #metal #tour

[neues Album] #InsectArk veröffentlicht am 07.07.2024 „Raw Blood Singing“.
YouTube-Clip zu ‚The Frozen Lake‘: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j922tGhKLEU

🔗 https://gloomr.de/#1418

#Swans #Khanate #BlindIdiotGod #NeuesAlbum

#Todolist für morgen: Abklären, welche #Khanate Alben noch fehlen und die neu erschienenen #vinyl #Reissues ordern.

#Metal

#TheWire: Top 50 Releases of 2023

#YoLaTengo / #PhilipJeck & #ChrisWatson / #DariusJones / #Khanate / #MatanaRoberts / ...

https://www.yearendlists.com/2023/wire-top-50-releases-of-2023