Wreaths "Demo"

Wreaths from San Antonio, Texas are a black metal band that with this Demo, introduces us to four themes of some really great and quite interesting style of black metal that can be really rabid and straightforward, as heard in the track "Nightmare Perpetual" to the most shoegaze/90's-style-emocore like we can hear with "From All Light". The band plays definitely black metal but also injects into it some really solid shoegaze influences. I'm pretty sure this won't matter to the most fundamentalist/close-minded fan of black metal but fuck.. I really liked this Demo from Wreaths. Quite refreshing and interesting. Check them out below.

Wreaths

Flagellant "Illumination"

Little is known about Germany's Flagellant, a one man band that began back in 2004 and has released so far, two demos and this latest EP "Illumination". Flagellant's sound is hard to describe since it embodies a lot of different sounds from where we dissect genres like drone, ambient, black metal, shoegaze or even post punk... it's hard to tell. In this new EP, the sound is so harsh and noisy that we can only distinguish the rhythm of the blasbeat through the muffled sound of the pedal from the drumkit. Flagellant presents a very thick wall of atmospheric and corroded kind of black metal sound that ended up by pleasing me a lot. It reminds me a bit of the atmosphere from Echtra's "A War For Wonder". The atmosphere created with these two themes is great and inspiring, sounding like nothing you have ever heard when it comes to this genre. Between that harsh wall of sound, the guitar draws some solos that end up by giving the songs a fairly solemn facet. The fact is that Flagellant is not for everyone. Only few minds will get into this. But that's why we are all different, right? "Illumination" EP will have its physical form by the hands of Negation Records, so all of you interested in this, send them an email, or contact Flagellant directly through Bandcamp. Enjoy.

For the Illuminated only

Anne "Dream Punx"

Here is a good revelation from last year. Portland's shoegazers Anne, who have released their debut album "Dream Punx" thru A389 Recording which houses names as Seven Sisters Of Sleep, Pulling Teeth, Weekend Nachos. It's good to see that this label had the courage to welcome a true shoegaze band (hold your horses... it's real shoegaze, not hardcoregaze or something like that) besides hardcore genres. These guys must have been closed in their rooms for months, just listening to The Cure's "Disintegration" and My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless". I like shoegaze, good shoegaze. And i must admit that Anne pulled it off really well. It's a very pleasant album to listen to, it just makes me wanna hear it over and over. Anne creates excellently somber, moody, slow-paced atmospheres that totally hit the spot. There's certainly a swirling "dreaminess" to the whole vibe, so I definitely get that aspect of it. Just expect a nice, chilled out ambiance, great songwriting… it's really, really good is the point I'm trying to make here. There have been a surprising number of incredibly solid bands exploring this style as of late, and I'm all for it. So if you're a big fan of this genre, or just a regular listener i suggest you give a try on this. Highly Recommended. Buy here.

listen | dried flowers on the window

Cemeteries "Speaking Horrors"

Now here is something out of hand from what i usually post here on FxC. Only by holding a name like this, Cemeteries, they sure deserve some highlight here. Don't you agree? Not always i'm in the mood for some metal. Cemeteries is a dream pop/shoegaze band from Buffalo formed by one man only, Kyle J. Reigle, who writes and records music under the name Cemeteries. "Speaking Horrors" is a sonic book compost of 10 ghost related tales. The sound of it reminds me a bit of Pygmy Lush, even the voice is, at some point, familiar. "Speaking Horrors" introduces lush soundscapes filled with dreamy vocals, reverb, and poppy guitar and piano riffs. A mix of folk, shoegaze, and electronic music Cemeteries is nothing if not pleasant to listen to. As the track "Watch the Skies or Walking Home On October 31st" starts, i get surrounded by a dream world of sound, surrounded by bedsheet ghosts. Lock up the doors and windows and turn the lights out.

listen | we only come out at night

Belong

Following the line left with the previous post i now bring you one of my favorite releases of this year, Belong, with their beautiful album "Common Era". This is the first album in five years from this experimental duo. Both the time invested, and the wait, have been well rewarded with this return. "Common Era" shows extraordinary progression from that first album of dense, scorched earth instrumentals, hints of a new direction having been revealed on the EP from 2008. The new material has such common pop elements as songs, vocals and drum machines, but the results could hardly be called conventional and are like little else happening on the current scene. Never heard anything like this.. it's not quite shoegaze, although the songs deliver a thick wall of sound, that is usual in that genre. The songs themselves are like radio transmissions received from another time and place, just as likely to be the future as the past, or even from a contemporary alternate universe. They are both passionate and dispassionate, grey yet technicolor, ghostly and palpable, distant yet immediate, grainy and focused. Upon listening these conceptual contradictions are dismissed with ease, as the recordings reveal that they fit all of these descriptors simultaneously, an extraordinary balancing act. Highly Recommended.

myspace | this is the new era