The Black Hours Review

The Black Hours is the newest release by trashed-out and blacked-out metal band, Katahdin, slaying from the western parts of thrashed-out and blacked-out New England. And this time, they brought some friends along for the ride!

Katahdin & In Human Form & Aoi - The Black Hours (2011)

Along with Katahdin on this "cohesive onslaught" (I like that a lot) is the choir metal/medieval folk rock act, Aoi from Brooklyn (no less) and Progressive black metal band from Massachusetts, In Human Form.

...

This three way dance comes with a lot of unique looks into the depths of where metal has gone, can go and where the northeast is capable of taking it. The fact that Aoi sandwiched the two other bands was a pretty clever tool as it set up the album for what's to come and let you breath before the unrelenting storm of guitars, screams and double basses comes after you in the case of both Katahdin and In Human Form. Aoi kicks off the album with a church choir of a tune before In Human Form steps up to the shredding metaphorical plate and plays about 18 minutes of raw in your face progressive blackened death metal. The unpolished sound of IHF really takes on a life of its own and is actually quite impressive. A mere 10 minutes into IHF's two songs (tracks 2 and 3) I realized how much these guys remind me of Portland's progressive black metal/death metal band, Waranimal! I'm no booker but those guys could seriously have one hell of a show together! Some kind of beach party from hell theme would definitely be in order! Throw Maine's Folk metal enthusiasts Falls or Rauros in there and the rest of the bands on The Black Hours and we would have ourselves quite the ungodly event!

The album wouldn't be complete though without Katahdin, who like In Human Form, are ushered in by Aoi, starting with a chanted chorus leading into a medieval fairgrounds anthem. Aoi settles down and in comes Katahdin like a metal bat out of metal hell, relentlessly exploiting the meaning of  thrashy black metal for 13 and a half minutes. With walls of sound thicker than blood and machine gun blasting, Katahdin's three tracks (tracks 5-7) are sure to make your head spin. Hopefully even bleed. The album soon after caps off at track 8 ("Todos Los Santos") by Aoi who play one more medieval jig before calling it good.

All three of the northeastern bands on The Black Hours come with a different approach at metal and/or folk and it surely makes for quite a listen. I'm not a big folk metal fan, but that's okay because this really isn't even folk metal... it's medieval folk rock in between black metal and New England folklore. And that my friends, is something I want to listen to.

Official page (for Brooklyn's finest medieval band, Aoi)
Bandcamp (Katahdin)
Facebooks (Katadin, In Human Form, Aoi)
Last.fm (Katahdin)
Last.fm (In Human Form)

Monday VI

It's music. Here's some Monday.

King Guava - King Guava (2010)

Mathy/twinkly emo with a banjo and grass. Vox remind me of Native/The Exploration/Victor! Fix the Sun.

Definitely an interesting blend.

Last.fm

Looshin / Connor Hattersley - Strong Soul High Split EP (2011)

For the life of me I can not remember where I found this. It's just been a tab on my computer all week.

Oh well. I've been listening to Strong Soul High a lot and it sounds really nice and sad to me. Every song kind of has a different style and could branch off into its own thing. The first track is a nice acoustic guitar piece, the second track starts out like an Adam Gnade song, the third track is a bone chilling atmospheric ambient jam, the fourth track sounds a lot like Hardy Morris of Dead Confederate (and the face on Deerhunter's record, Microcastles), the fifth track is a mega somber acoustic instrumental piece and the sixth song is a nice little demo perfect for any indie folk fan.

I'm guessing the first half is Looshin (a young musician from York) and the second is Connor Hattersley, (also a solo musician, not sure if he's also young or from York) but it isn't very clear.

Last.fm (both cats)

Thunderstorms - The Last Level EP (2011)

One man instrumental twinkly emo/punk from Ottawa. It's instrumental because he can't sing (not that should matter with a genre like "twinkle daddie"). I find it enjoyable known the less.

Last two tracks are super fun.

The Self Titled EP is also pretty well done but I don't think it has as much kick as this first release. I'm going to keep listening though and see if that opinion changes.

Last.fm

Autolatry - The Hill (2010)

Here's some more blackened death metal that tells of brutal tales of New England's illustrious history. A little more straight forward than fellow Connecticut heavy band Katahdin.

I'm not a huge death or black metal fan but if I was craving either, I would go for anything that represents New England and its illustrious history!

Props to Karl Chamberlain (vocals) for informing of this!

Last.fm 

Palmkite - Palmkite Demo (2009)

More twinkle for your toes.

Oh I know you. You're the kind of girl who'd love to be the kind of girl who fell in love with the thrill of uncertainty.


Last.fm

Katahdin - Pamola

Katahdin is a blackened death metal band from New England. They shred and trash about mythological creatures from New England's past including and I'm guessing not limited to, Maine's storm spirit, Pamola! 

Katahdin - Pamola (2010)

Yes. I did find these guys while looking for fellow New Englanders, Pamola who I just posted (so I thought it would a nice theme).

At first, I thought this three piecer of a band would be playing some woodsy, from the mountains type black metal like Falls of Rauros (Maine's Black metal/pegan/folk metal band) but that was not the case. These guys lay on the death metal with the blaring double bass, growling mad vox, chainsaws for guitars and (even though I can't hear what it's about) sweet ass historic New England lyrics.  The band still has some black metal elements though; their song Noreaster (those lame bad ass snow storms we get up here or the blizzard type ice cream you can get from Reds south of P-town) is a good example of this in my opinion. 

Also: Even though both the name of the band and the album is named after things from Maine, none of these guys actually reside in Maine. They're from Connecticut. 

Oh well. That's still New England... I guess...