Can I submit a review to the WREK site?

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DeathfareDevil
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Can I submit a review to the WREK site?

Post by DeathfareDevil » Sat June 28th, 2008, 9:50 pm

I noticed the reviews section seems to have dried up at WREKage.org. If the site admin is interested, and if he or she will tell me how to do it, I can send along a review of Ihsahn's Angl -- something I wrote in a fit of ego-inflation.

Seriously, though, I even would like to write some other reviews if you guys can post them. Of course, this is contingent on whether or not you even like the way I write. Eheh.

For starters, here's the Ihsahn review, but I can e-mail it as a txt or doc file if need be. (And yes, it's wordy as fuck-all.)


Ihsahn - Angel
Nemosyne/Candlelight, 2008


In the wake of his profound solo debut The Adversary, surely one of the most orgiastic exercises of catharsis in metal history, Norwegian royal figure Ihsahn returns from his castle keep brandishing this potent, stylistically flawless weapon which both surpasses yet is somehow incomparable to its predecessor. Where that album treated the notion of "genre" as sustenance rather than final objective, and seemed to renew itself with every track, Angl has settled into a firmly progressive metal niche, something not unlike mid-period Fates Warning (think Parallels or A Deeper Shade of Gray). The songs, while not differing one from the other as severely as those on Adversary, more deeply explore the territory which lay beneath the byzantine structures of Emperor's final two offerings. Thus there is much heaviness, but the equally prominent moments of calm are woven into the harshness in that brilliant, Ihsahnian manner -- a talent which sets the compositional bar higher than any other metal band or musician is likely to reach anytime soon. Angl is one of the purest and starkest expressions of dark art to hit the mainstream of the scene in years.

First, the Easter eggs: joining the unbeatable duo that saw Spiral Architect's Asgeir Mickelson handle drums on The Adversary, that same band's Lars Norberg has entered with his widdly-widdlying basslines, turning the experience into an even more dynamic affair, the palette broadened by much low-frequency detail. And track number three, "Unhealer," finds the verses and half the bridge-and-chorus duets sung by none other than Opeth mastermind Mikael Akerfeldt. (I cannot accurately reproduce my glee at discovering this, at least not without resorting to a googol-length string of all-caps AOL-speak.) The bassist fixes what was the one weakness in The Adversary, and Akerfeldt's clean vocals lend a folksiness to an already warm ballad. Further, Lord Opeth's death metal voice shoots the song straight into the stratosphere, paired as it is with Ihsahn's gravelly testifying. (Perhaps such a cameo will be a permanent feature of Ihsahn's releases, as the inimitable Garm handled "Homecoming" last time out.)

For those who preferred the heavier and faster aspects of The Adversary, "Misanthrope" and "Malediction" will not disappoint, but, strong as these tracks may be, they are the least interesting on the disc. (Again I have to say that we're dealing with a very high bar.) This doesn't mean that the Arcturus-like breaks between the verses of the latter, not to mention the soloing, don't provide bags of awesomeness. The more exciting moments, however, come in the form of the anthemic microbursts within "Alchemist" and album highlight "Elevator." The latter situates Ihsahn's vocal grinding against a phantasmagorically undulating cascade of counterpointed guitars only to settle into one of the sunniest and most placid sequences the man has ever written -- complete with a soft chorus intoning, "I've come a long way, now." To say that this song travels and has direction is an understatement.

So too is the case with the superb "Scarab," a tune that effortlessly shifts its guitar work from a lumbering opening riff to an undistorted Opethian arpeggio (enhanced by glowing background string-bending) to a roaring Emperial crescendo, which even then heightens to a body-moving ostinato (and oh, the soloing here, too -- more of this, please!). There's an ensuing interlude that adds still more tension, but I'll try at this late point to limit my ejaculatory praise; suffice it to say that this track will leave no one unmoved.

The production is richer and looser than that of The Adversary, the songs tend to be more animated and fluid, and the performances are sterling. There's nothing to complain about here, so be sure to go buy one of the best albums of 2008.

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Post by Brian » Sun June 29th, 2008, 9:13 pm

Great review, I'll post it. What name would you like the review to be credited to (DeathfareDevil, your real name which I do not know, etc)?

But yeah if you want to write more reviews, feel free. You can email them to me at bpm at wrek dot org.

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Post by DeathfareDevil » Sun June 29th, 2008, 9:40 pm

My name is Jeremey, and it's fine to use that, and thanks! I actually wrote one for the new Nachtmystium, so unless someone else has "dibs" (if anyone else even writes reviews anymore), I'll send that one via e-mail.

Thanks again.
Last edited by DeathfareDevil on Wed July 2nd, 2008, 11:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by DeathfareDevil » Sun June 29th, 2008, 10:18 pm

Do I need to use HTML or something to break up the first line -- where the artist/album/label bleeds into the first line of the review? Will "<br"> commands work in this format?

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Post by DeathfareDevil » Sun June 29th, 2008, 10:32 pm

Haha, wow, either you read my mind or you work really fast. Thanks again!

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Post by DeathfareDevil » Fri July 4th, 2008, 4:23 pm

Brian wrote:Great review, I'll post it. What name would you like the review to be credited to (DeathfareDevil, your real name which I do not know, etc)?

But yeah if you want to write more reviews, feel free. You can email them to me at bpm at wrek dot org.

Did you get the Nachtmystium review? I e-mailed it, but 'm so medicated I probably sent it to the Pentagon or something. (If you've been busy with stuff that actually matters, I apologize for being persistent.)

I'll post it here too.


Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Pt.1
century Media, 2008

When a fan is told to expect the unexpected from a band whose past work sits in a genre obsessed with orthodoxy, he or she might be forgiven for succumbing to cynicism, even pessimism. Thus after Nachtmystium's hallucinatory, absorbing, and of course popular Instinct:Decay, when the rumors began that the next album would be ... a bit different, so too began the subterranean rumbling and grumbling. No one would fault a black metal band for experimenting; this is the twenty-first century and Transilvanian Hunger has been reheated (refrozen?) until it resembles nothing so much as a week-old microwaved burrito. But with Nachtmystium, who seemed just to be hitting their stride, news of a stylistic shift made many people, including this reviewer, nervous.

Upon the first few listens, I found Assassins to be a spotty affair. In fact my initial verdict was that four very good Nachtmystium songs had been forced into the midst of a swirling mess of paranoid prog-rock replication. Not only this, but the best song, the title track, seemed to have been ruined by an inexplicable additional two minutes of warbling, slobbering synth effects -- a misplaced coda that also managed to annihilate the album's momentum before even the third track. And at the CD's midpoint, a Pelican/Isis/pick your post-metal-band-oriented slow jam, while a nice concept, seemed once again to halt the forward motion, which had just struggled back to life after yet another synth instrumental located at track number four.

Then I realized I was going about this in exactly the wrong manner -- comparing Assassins to Instinct:Decay. Under those auspices, then yes, this new album is a disaster. Even judging this as a black metal album leads to uncertainty. For this is a modern METAL album, a diverse and inspired composition etched into the monolith of heavy, dark music. It speeds along in parts, plods predatorily in others, disintegrates then coagulates before your very eyes, over and over again, until at album's end you not only have no idea what just happened, but can't replay it fast enough.

It begins with a barely indirect quotation of Pink Floyd's "One of These Days", here transcribed into "One of These Nights", complete with a musical facsimile and a voice that growls, "One of these nights I'm going to fucking die." Interesting. Point taken. But not very promising, frankly. It is only with track number two, with its punkified chorus and absolutely mesmerizing first coda (not the synth crap), that Black Meddle begins roaring. (Incidentally, for those who found the final three minutes of last album's "A Seed for Suffering" as incendiary as did I, this particular departure will rekindle those flames -- though this time there's no soloing.) The production, deep and heavy and clear, turns the Nachtmystium sound into something newly defined and accessible, yet never makes repeated listens redundant. It's perfect, really, this presentation, and even though I'll never love Instinct:Decay any less, this new shape and format is very attractive.

For the remainder of the disc, things alternate rigidly between traditional black metal and, respectively, an atmospheric piano piece (surprisingly good and creepy, as these things go), the aforementioned metaldeadheaded jam, and, to close the album, a totally wacked out triptych entitled "Seasick," which sounds like early Genesis, King Crimson, and even more Floyd channeled through a bottle of Jack. It all works, somehow, even the saxophone that comes in during the middle section. And as a matter of fact, whatever drugs were used in the studio should've come with the CD. Also there are a few actual guitar solos, always nice to hear in metal these days.

As I said, this must be listened to as an album -- not a black metal album, not an Ajna Offensive album, and certainly not an album competing with the likes of Xasthur or Striborg. All of these other musical entities are good, having loads of value in the right places, but Assassins: Black Meddle Part One is ennervating, modern dark metal for a drowsing scene.

P.S.: I still think those two minutes of crap after the title track need to GO THE FUCK HOME.

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Post by Brian » Sat July 5th, 2008, 9:12 pm

Yeah, I got the review in. I'm just waiting on a few things before I post it. Sorry, I should have told you.

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Post by DeathfareDevil » Sat July 5th, 2008, 10:53 pm

Brian wrote:Yeah, I got the review in. I'm just waiting on a few things before I post it. Sorry, I should have told you.
First of all, no apologies necessary. I'm massively appreciative that you're posting my stuff.

Second, are you waiting on perhaps a contrasting review from someone else? That would be cool, and I wish more ppl would contribute to something like that.

Of course, I have a LOT of free time, being unemployed.

Thanks again.

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Post by DeathfareDevil » Sat July 12th, 2008, 10:25 pm

By the way, are there any "rules" I should know about re: writing a review that ends up on the WREK site? Or is the review section like the msg board where pretty much anything (within the realm of common sense) goes?

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Post by Mitch » Mon July 14th, 2008, 5:43 pm

Reviews don't get posted on the WREK site itself as far as I know, but on the WREKage site (I think you're just talking about this) we'll generally post a well-written review. Just don't endorse any products or political candidates. No real rules beyond that.

Thanks for contributing. I've tried to write reviews before (both good and bad) and they just turn out crappy.

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Post by DeathfareDevil » Mon July 14th, 2008, 10:00 pm

I meant to say WREKage. I just wasn't sure if there were any WREK policies that affected the WREKage site.

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Post by Brian » Mon July 14th, 2008, 10:59 pm

DeathfareDevil wrote:
Brian wrote:Yeah, I got the review in. I'm just waiting on a few things before I post it. Sorry, I should have told you.
First of all, no apologies necessary. I'm massively appreciative that you're posting my stuff.

Second, are you waiting on perhaps a contrasting review from someone else? That would be cool, and I wish more ppl would contribute to something like that.

Of course, I have a LOT of free time, being unemployed.

Thanks again.
Nah, not waiting on other reviews. Just stuff with the site. I'm trying to figure out how to upload images/podcasts to the webspace that Georgia Tech sets out for me. Right now the Ihsahn cover art is just linked from Metal-Archives, but that site is unreliable and goes down kind of often. I'd rather just upload it to my own space.

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Post by Brian » Fri August 8th, 2008, 4:11 pm

Alright so it took a while but I finally put the Nachtmystium review up. If you have any more feel free to send them my way.

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