🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #SeekAndDestroy

Ludicra:
🎵 Stagnant Pond

#Ludicra

https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/stagnant-pond

https://open.spotify.com/track/3PJf1jf0hqwqPtziCTBxDK

Grayceon – Then the Darkness Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

Novelty in the metalsphere exists in many folds, whether it be the marrying of virtuosity and familiar structures or the exploration of foreign sounds and textures in a rock/metal context.1 Grayceon, for the better part of the past twenty years, has lingered in the latter path from 2007’s self-titled debut to this newest grand work, Then the Darkness, finding value in the riffy and amp-driven space between emotive, layered electric cello work. Trading a traditional, handheld four-stringed pulse for a classical, stand-up, sullen expression, Grayceon’s Jackie Perez Gratz (Giant Squid, ex-Ludicra) has led this San Francisco-based troupe through waxing journeys of post-inflected, prog-minded heavy metal grandeur with a bowed breath of fresh air time and time again. And now, with Then the Darkness, Grayceon looks to double down on their signature sound—a culmination of frustrations in fancy form.

Possessing both the prowess to open Then the Darkness with a blistering cry (“Thousand Year Storm”) and approach its close with a near lullaby (“(Untitled)”), Gratz and Grayceon continue to find a necessary diversity in their growing body of work. And in the capable engineering hands of trusted partner Jack Shirley,2 Gratz’s lilting vocal lure against counterpoint chamber-influenced swings find an increasing warmth against thick, finger-picked guitar runs and long-drawn crescendos. Time has weathered Gratz’s voice into a full crackle and alto croon that reflects the kind of mystical incantation that you might hear in latter-day Sabbath Assembly, as well as providing room for growth in harsh screeching accompaniment reminiscent of the minstrel Jekyll and Hyde performances of early Ludicra. Yet Grayceon remains in their own element first, even weaving moments of self-referential melodies throughout the back half of Then the Darkness to root deeply the recurring nature of the traumas each of their works explore.

As an exercise in textural excellence, though, Then the Darkness would struggle to entertain through its mammoth eighty-minute sermon if not backed by its aching heart narrative. With themes revolving around the complex nature of evolving relationships—between parent and child, between friends, between partners, between society and its most downtrodden—Gratz navigates each sorrowful tune with a warbling pathos that reads full and earnest in its many cracks. And while this downcast reading flows through much of the journey, the long fadeout from “Mahsa” to instrumental segue “Then the Darkness” renders most of the C-side (“Then…” through “Song of the Snake”) far more placid and buried than the lively bounce that “Holding Lines” provides to the closing chapters. It’s hard to escape the “what if” in terms of what could happen in a more streamlined experience—despite the high quality of Grayceon’s strongest offerings, the slightest dip or departure feels like a missed opportunity where their other works to date have chosen a lighter load.

However, Grayceon’s mastery of studio play emboldens simple structures with deft attacks to fuel the craveability of Then the Darkness. With the ebb and flow of a jam session, quicker cuts fill the air with rockin’ riffs, tight rhythms, urgent melodies, and a classic, volume-driven tone (“One Third,” “3 Points of Light,” “Holding Lines”). And while it’s up front harmonic excess in plucked guitar ascensions that collide with sliding bow tension pepper these tracks with short-term pleasure, it’s the subtle double-punched lines and diverging, hard-panned cello-guitar fill flickers that stimulate an urge to devour all nooks of sound available. And as buttery-yet-jagged riffage finds a crooked home between layered cello stabs (“Thousand Year Storm”) and slithering, off-kilter refrains (“Song of the Snake”), each cut in careful construction escalates to crescendos coordinated in explosive and sullen moods. The longest track, “Mahsa,” cranks all of these techniques to keep each recursion along a gentle climb rather than a flat stroll.

If providing an audience with a plate too full to finish was the goal, Then the Darkness has more than fulfilled the task. From humble roots as a scrappy power trio to this newest incarnation as presence-demanding storytellers, Grayceon’s path of human travail has brought about a gargantuan work that demands attention and dedication. In its four-sided tale, Then the Darkness strikes with an undeniable, hook-laden melancholy when its fire burns brightest. In isolation, no track falters. And though a waning intensity keeps it from being a masterpiece, Grayceon offers enough top-shelf material to make a long service worthwhile.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Translation Loss Records | Bandcamp
Websites: grayceon.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/grayceon
Releases Worldwide: July 25th, 2025

#2025 #35 #AmericanMetal #GiantSquid #Grayceon #Jul25 #Ludicra #PostMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SabbathAssembly #ThenTheDarkness #TranslationLossRecords

Drouth – The Teeth of Time Review

By Dear Hollow

There are bands that check all the boxes from a quick gander at the promo. Yeah, sure it’s black metal, but the name Drouth is just fun to say.1 The title The Teeth of Time is just tantalizingly terrific. That cover is appropriately terrifying and unique. Don’t expect me to listen to the advance track – I’m on it, hoss. The problem is that such behavior led me to an average score of 2.3 in 2022, when I dedicated myself entirely to the blackened arts. What can I say? The dark blacky whacky looks cool as hell so much of the time. That being said, will Drouth be a bounty of rewards beneath its shimmer or is it just a whitewashed tomb?

Drouth is a black metal band from Portland, formed in 2014. Born from the ashes of Contempt and featuring caliber from acts like Vermin Womb, Ursa, Cormorant, and Black Queen, they have released a plethora of blackened breeds, impressing with their range but lacking identity: debut Knives, Labyrinths, Mirrors fully immersed itself into the mellow meloblack pond while follow-up Excerpts from a Dread Liturgy laid an icy finger upon death-doom’s more weighty moods. In this way, while firmly entrenched in the former, Drouth engages in a more feral and unhinged approach reminiscent of other American black metal acts like Mo’ynoq or Anicon, shredding tremolo and layered melodic overlays colliding in an overwhelming and tastefully concocted experience.

Drouth manages to strike a fine balance: layers of melody and a pristine production. The Teeth of Time’s foundation of rabid tremolo, bouncing around with an energy and fire, is complemented by an unhinged percussion performance that utterly rips into the next dimension. The sound drips with iciness that recalls Immortal but without the bogged-down drama. The diminished chord progression that everyone and his kvlt dog uses appears only sporadically (“Through a Glass, Darkly,” “Exult, Ye Flagellant”), replaced by a yearning melody that feels desperate and vicious in equal measure. Muscular riffage bolsters this approach with a death metal-inspired weight that kicks things into high gear while emerging from the fray in moments of clarity (“False Grail,” “Through a Glass…”), while melodies are unique in their sounding both haunting and heart-wrenching (“Hurl Your Thunderbolt Even Unto Death,” title track, “Through a Glass…”). The production and mixing are clear and clean, offering a rawness drenched in reverb without losing the individual elements – the drum production in particular is organic and relentless in equal measure.

While the majority of the album focuses on unhinged melodic second-wave shenanigans, there are moments of experimentation that are scattered into the latter half. Closer “Exult, Ye Flagellants” is perhaps the best example. While generally aligning with the American black metal template, the doom flavors of Excerpts from a Dread Liturgy appear most prominently in a dreary and mysterious dirge, only hinted at in earlier tracks (“False Grail”). The passage of flaying dissonance halfway through (vaguely hinted at in “Through a Glass…”), a layered haunted plucking that recalls microtonal acts like Victory Over the Sun, is a tad out of place but nonetheless impressive. Guest vocals provided by Ails and former Ludicra alum Laurie Sue Shanaman and Christy Cather in the title track, “Hurl Your Thunderbolt…,” and “False Grail” inject a dose of fiery energy, while Dead to a Dying World and Isenordal violist Eva Aldridge adds a somber dimension to “False Grail” and “Through a Glass, Darkly.”

One thing that Drouth does very well is make black metal sound pretty decent – good, even. Even though it takes repeated spins to unearth its treasures beneath the feral attack of layered melodies and muscular riffs, and the bass sometimes gets lost in the buzz of second-wave, The Teeth of Time is solid as fuck. Offering five tracks in a reasonable forty-one minutes, you have time to ponder but plenty of time to be thrashed about. While Drouth has experimented in prior releases, I hope the sound on The Teeth of Time is here to stay. Drouth offers bounty aplenty beneath its appealing exterior: get bitten or bite me.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Eternal Warfare Records
Websites: drouth.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/drouthpdx
Releases Worldwide: May 16th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Ails #AmericanMetal #Anicon #BlackMetal #BlackQueen #Contempt #Cormorant #DeadToADyingWorld #Drouth #EternalWarfareRecords #Immortal #Isenordal #Ludicra #May25 #MelodicBlackMetal #MoYnoq #Review #Reviews #TheTeethOfTime #URSA #VerminWomb #VictoryOverTheSun

For #MusicWomenWednesday, the mighty #Ails!

Formed by Laurie Shanahan and Christy Cather (singer and guitarist of the dearly departed #Ludicra), my only wish is that they’d make another album. 🖤🙏

#BlackMetal #MelodicBlackMetal

https://ailsmetal.bandcamp.com/track/the-echoes-waned

Since they’re on the brink of playing the last show of this sporadic reunion year, i.e. their last show EVER, I’m compelled to offer #Ludicra for #BlackMetalMonday.

Genre-stretching, women-led, imo one of the best bands this country has ever produced. 🖤

https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-tenant

Just ran into this beautiful piece from 2011 about the break up of Ludicra, who were not my favorite band at the time solely because I hadn’t heard of them yet. 🖤

https://www.invisibleoranges.com/thank-you-ludicra/

#ludicra #sanfrancisco #blackmetal