Bands You Should Be Hearing Pt.I

I've realized that my inbox is flooded at this point with requests, and as much as I would like to, it's hard to filter most of the stuff there. I really would love to take some decent time to listen to all of the music people kindly send me, but I find that to be a very, almost, impossible task to do it in the very little spare time that I have. I know you guys would love a deep and full review of all your releases... but in the end it all comes down to use Forever Cursed as the messenger, the vehicle to your message out there, I just light the way and people will do the rest. So, without further bullshit, excuses, bla-bla-bla, here are some of releases/bands that caught my attention in the past few months.

I became aware of the Pennsylvania duo Capa since the "Shallow Towers"release, at this point many of you probably know them too. The band plays a more contemporary, avant-garde and technical style of black metal. I look at Capa's sound and I interpret it as "progressive metal with black metal influences" and not as simply "black metal" because it's not. Although I'm not the most avid fan of this style of over polished kind of production, "The Droves" turned out a very interesting listen and it's one of those releases that you will put on repeat for the next couple of hours or even days. The whole production behind it is very keen and the songs are pretty solid. Like I said, the percentage of black metal influence is strong on this one, although after lifting up Capa's cloak (Fact: "Capa" in portuguese means "cloak") and after dissecting their sound, it I also found some "djenty" and post-metal riffs that are thrown in the middle of the tracks. In the end the result is this very tragic, almost theatrical, if you look at it through this point of view, style of metal. What a nice surprise. Check them out below.

The Droves | Alternative DL Link

This next band crashed in a very mysterious and simple email with the just the Bandcamp link in it. The band is Home Is Gone (No, it's not a His Hero Is Gone covers band) from New York and they introduce us to "Triptych", that's right: a three song release that consist of this blasting, furious, industrial sounding black metal sound. Almost as a bastard child between Genghis Tron and Liturgy (wait..) and the result is, at least, interesting. Check them out below.

Home Is Gone

From Finland, Maze of Roots, a doom duo releasing their fifth Demo, well they've released two Demos last month, simply called "Chapter One" (or was it supposed to be Three?) and "Chapter Two", two chapters of what it seems a trilogy. Maze of Roots plays a very bleak, depressing, anguished and traditional style of doom metal, following the Finnish heritage of doom bands like Umbra Nihil and Majesty for example. I must confess I wasn't very impressed with their first Demos, I really didn't like the vocals at all but maybe it was just me back then. Here, Maze of Roots, successfully created some very nice tracks filled with a very gloomy and melancholic atmosphere. (Sorry I took so long Joel)

Chapter I | Chapter II

Next is Cepheide, a brand new band, formed this year, coming from France. The band describes their sound as raw cascadian black metal in the vein of bands like Ash Borer or Fell Voices. Indeed Cepheide's style of black metal drinks up in a insatiable way, the influence of the Cascadia style of bands. It's good to see bands like this coming out of Europe, the truth is that there aren't many bands playing this style here. So it's always good to witness the rise of bands Cepheide. In "De Silence et de Suie" (that was created under a very DIY spirit by the band itself) expect four great tracks of passionate, uncompromised, energetic and raw black metal. A great release by Cepheide. Bravo!

Cepheide

Idre, a trio from Oklahoma who quote names like Neurosis, Ennio Morricone, Swans, OM, and Khanate when describing their music. Interesting, no? It immediately makes me just go out and press "Play" as I forget what I was doing. This self titled album consists of 2 songs spanning over 40 minutes. The first track "Factorie" last almost half-hour and its melancholic tone reminds me a lot of the style of Across Tundras. The more we dig in, the more weird it gets, as more entangled we get in those slow and atmospheric layers. In the second track "Witch Trial" I really get the OM influence. The sound is Ok, I get their thing here but I'm not a big fan of the vocals. These guys are trying to do something different here but I believe that they still didn't reached it.. yet. I wasn't too excited with this released. Please Idre, prove me I was so wrong in a very near future. Take your own conclusions below. A CD and LP versions will be available later this summer.

Idre

Oh yes! Filthy, nasty, sickening sludge doom from Keeper. From what I've seen so far, these guys are escalating quickly with their "MMXIV" Demo. Formed by ex-Tiger Lily (whom I've talked about here on the blog some time ago) member, Keeper is the answer to every sludge/doom aficionado. You dig Thou? You dig Hell? You dig The Abominable Iron Sloth? You dig Old Witch? Then this band is for you. Just one word to describe this release: Crushing! Support these dudes. Tape out now on Grimoire Cassette Cvlture.

Keeper