End of River Rock Reviews

I would like to thank everyone that has followed this blog over the brief course of its existence and want to apologize for my abrupt absence while officially announcing its end. I am carrying on my writing as a contributor of Heathen Harvest Periodical.

http://heathenharvest.org/2015/01/17/exclusive-premiering-a-new-revisited-version-of-warrior-by-anilah-and-wardruna/

http://heathenharvest.org/2014/12/07/wychdoktor-totem/

http://heathenharvest.org/2014/12/16/heathen-harvests-best-of-2014/

Wychdoktor - Totem

Totem is the new full length release by Wychdoktor.



Wychdoktor has created a deep, dark cinematic album of ritualistic and tribal ambient noise with the release of Totem. The fourteen tracks glue together cohesively and diversely, telling a vivid atmospheric story. Totem is isolating and otherworldly, drawing the listener into a nightmarish hallucination that ends with some sense of relief. A journey worth experiencing.

Beastwars Review

This New Zealand based four-piece doom and sludge metal band has released two albums since May, 2011, the self-titled Beastwars and the followup Blood Becomes Fire.



Inspired by apocalyptic visions of a not to distant future, Beastwars commands a masterful awareness of "heavy" fusion music. Catchy old school rock and punk grooves meld with ultra heavy blues metal styled riffing. The vocal delivery is raw and impassioned, which really helps in capturing the primal feel that the band is going for. The songwriting demonstrates signs of influence from alternative music of the 90's as well as a suggested influence from Black Sabbath, showing adept diversity in composition techniques. From the debut album, Iron Wolf is a good example of these characteristics as the song leans at times more towards a somber ballad then builds rhythmically later on. The album opener, Damn The Sky, however throws the listeners into a powerful guttural chug that sets a clear tone for the entire work. Cthulhu is perhaps the most developed piece on this album, as Beastwars begins to really show their progressive and atmospheric tendencies that they explore further in their second release. Though we should not ignore the devastating album closer, Empire, which emphatically states that Beastwars will be back from more.



Picking up where they left off, Blood Becomes Fire opens with Dune, another powerful guttural song that chugs along and provokes constant movement from the listener. The lyrics "shake your soul" become audible at the end of the track, implying what is in store for the journey that their music is taking both themselves and the audience on. It feels as if on this album that Beastwars had a lot more room to flex their muscles, musically speaking, thus creating more composed and dynamic songs that hint towards post-rock/metal tendencies while retaining their inclination towards producing primordial ooze. With this we are able to witness a truly monolithic display of emotion and contemplation. A contemplation ever hinting towards physical deletion. Realms throws the listener into a primal cathartic sway with half whispered vocals weaving a narrative around the listener about the state of human existence, while growing again into that familiar shamanic influenced half shout, half blues rock wailing vocal tone. The following track, Riverman, again demonstrates Beastwars depth of songwriting and personality by building a thought provoking blues and jazz flavored verse into explosively pulverizing chorus waves. Caul of Time is perhaps the track that best acts as a microcosm for describing what Beastwars is about, a sincere proclamation of end times as seen in the signs with a groove that cannot be denied. Blood Becomes Fire continues on in an epic fashion culminating with the shoegaze fueled dissonance of The Sleeper, perhaps Beastwars most beautiful, uplifting, and articulate song; beckoning the soul to awaken.

Noctivagant - The Sleep of Reason

The Sleep of Reason is an 8 track EP released in 2013 by the Russian atmospheric black metal duo, Noctivagant.



This is a cold yet elegant album lush with hypnotic and melodic layering. Noctivagant pay as much attention to ambiance and atmosphere as they do to slowly and carefully moving their isolation and despair driven compositions progressively along. A soothing sadness pervades The Sleep of Reason, one that seeps into the listeners being and provides an escape to another world, a world of desolate frost covered beauty.

people-eaters - Disincarnate

Disincarnate is the 8 track EP by the ritual ambient project, people-eaters.



This album takes place on the peripherals of the senses. It tantalizes with a disturbed presence and undulation that provokes visions of things some may find better left unseen. Listen in the dark, with headphones.

Ian Haygreen

Ian Haygreen is an experimental electronic musician based out of Halstead, UK that specializes in making atmospheric dark ambient music.





Ian utilizes a deliberate and paced approached to songwriting with these two tracks by heavily emphasizing the atmosphere and setting of the music with noise sampling and synthetic ambiance while adding melodic touches of neoclassical piano stylings. Storm and Myrkur are perceptive, emotional and thought provoking compositions.

Draugurinn - Móðuharðindin

Dark/Ritual Ambient released in 2012.



Draugurinn conjures up visions of a foggy forest-scape which is inhabited by a mysterious entity of a dark demeanor. A shamanic trip into the underworld awaits.

Godflesh - Decline and Fall

Godflesh releases their first album since 2001 with, Decline and Fall.



A crisp, in your face, and well mixed EP. Godflesh packs lots of punch with various old-school rock, metal, and punk tendencies that culminate into a dark, futuristic, and industrialized aesthetic on Decline and Fall. This album is a refreshing take on alternative rock music with more traditional and less experimental song structures, giving perhaps a glimpse at the possible revival of genuine "popular" alternative music as well as Godflesh's upcoming full length due in September.

Hologram_ - geometrical keys

New album by Hologram_.



Geometrical keys is a groove, texture, and movement laden electronic fusion album that highlights the use of dubstep influenced IDM and cinematic ambient. Hologram_ frequently makes use of noise, spoken word, and neo-classical melodies to create and narrate a darkened futuristic landscape that which is populated by frenzied and aggressive industrialized dance beats.

Novemthree - Renewing Review

Here is a review or more like a narrative commentary of Novemthree's, Renewing.

Mystical acoustic guitars greet the listener as they gain awareness within that twilight space, the hypnagogic in-between. Gently they are escorted above a tree covered landscape, flying and free. Entrancing drums and rattles work to elevate while a melodious layering of vocals and various other instruments guide the listener, as if a dreamer, back safely to the ground; inviting them to fall asleep again with the solemn earth, with the rustling dead leaves. With that, Soil Binds Breath and Bone, for it is on the breath that the physical meets the spiritual and so too does the dreamer fall back to sleep.

Sunlight begins to creep into perception, edging on that ever elusive awakening. Rejuvenating and full of life, this bright, benevolent, and purifying light washes away confusion and delusion, the mental cob webs that are cast by the metaphysical boxes of the ever imposing modern man. Now a trance builds slowly, propelled by a yearning for that which has been lost during life proceeded by a restless fall into the deep drone of decay, the Autumnal Procession. Whimsical and enchanting, a flute entices, while drums steady and vocals crescendo. An increasing sense of awareness comes over the dreamer and with that the knowledge of the impending and unstoppable change that is coming, the awakening. Through this revelation a dance breaks out, fed by a respect for the world around and a deep understanding of the death that is always rapidly approaching; this dance is carried off into yet another dreamscape, by astonishingly beautiful flute playing.

Death has arrived and with him the knowledge of necessity, decay, and rebirth. Upon alters rest the bones of time gone by, both of the dreamer’s and those remembered. Sing of Beauty; devastating and empowering, real and unreal, the song of life. A Long Shadow creeps, with this death and rebirth, come a harmony of self and depth of personality. A true understanding for that which is not commonly understood by modern man; grasping of a lost and ancient tongue of ancestral knowledge, one that speaks of the patterns and the cycles of that which is natural.

Now awake, The River Splits the Stone. The dreamer is purpose-filled and uplifted by the purity attained from cleansing the ego and growing, by eroding that internal blockage. Now, life peels away one mystery and trades it for yet another but the dreamer is better prepared, knowing it is best to travel light and speak with a kind tongue. Nevertheless the dreamer senses that the truth of reality will always be shrouded in mystery, which even with this new-found sense of self - life will remain still what it was in many ways before but now the dreamer may be comforted by a greater understanding of this life that is lived and the chaos that surrounds it.