After parting ways with Hydra Head last year, Malefic, aka longtime West Coast USBM loner Scott Conner, self-released/wholesaled his final Xasthur album Portal Of Sorrow. (He’s said his next project will likely be non-metal.) I received a CDR from Portal collaborator Marissa Nadler a number of months ago, but the 14-song collection finally saw official release this month. On one hand, the melding of folk, bleak ambient, goth, and metal isn’t new, but the lo-fi, warping way Conner and Nadler go about it can be exciting and bracing. As mentioned in Haunting The Chapel’s Year-End Top 50, I ultimately liked the idea of the collaboration more than the album itself — I’m sort of obsessed with that kind of dark cross-pollination, a la Chelsea Wolfe’s Burzum cover or White Ring, etc. — but when Conner’s smashed-mirror atmospherics and strangulated raven howl collide just-so with Nadler’s otherworldly, dusky voice, it’s a stunner. A couple of those moments:
The “single”:
Portal Of Sorrow is out via Kemado. Keep up with Xasthur at his site.
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pretty cool, i kind of like that the drumming is a little crappy, endearing in a way, too much metal drumming is so complex it sounds like machines
Looking forward to Malefic’s new stuff
http://phantom-powers.blogspot.com/
for some reason i’ve never been able to fully appreciate Xasthur (or Leviathan for that matter)…maybe I should give this one a shot.
Brandon, I see the new Burzum in the frequent rotation section, which I assume means a column is forthcoming. Its leaked and I checked it out yesterday. AMAZING. I liked Belus just fine, but still considered Burzum to have peaked with Filosofem. Not any more…Fallen is just on a whole different level. Can’t wait to pick up the official release, love that album art too. But yeah, I really think its pretty incredible, definitely metal album of the (admittedly young) year so far. We all know the problems involved with praising Burzum, but this time he’s created a musical concept that I think isn’t really comparable to anything else I can think of.
Hey Matt– You are correct. Here goes: http://stereogum.com/631512/burzum-vanvidd-stereogum-premiere/franchises/haunting-the-chapel/