Time to look at your own contributions to Metal Month III now, as for the first time this year I listen to your advice when you say
I'm going to do these in the order I received them, however where someone has suggested more than one album, I will only do one, and then come back to their selection when I have addressed the recs of everyone else who put ideas forward. And the first one, as ever, to come up with something for me to listen to (and you can be sure it was not just one album, but we'll get to his others later) was
Frownland, whose first choice is this:
Ecate --- Ufomammut --- 2015 (Neurot Recordings)
Suggested by Frownland
Haven't heard a thing from these guys, but given that we're talking about Frownland here I expect weirdness! An Italian stoner/sludge metal band, this is their eighth album in a career spanning fifteen years. First track is just short of ten minutes, and it's not the only one, though in fairness there are only six tracks in all. Very spacey, very progressive/electronic --- I'm interested. Hard guitar biting through now in the fourth minute, getting heavier, no vocals yet. Intensity really ramping up now as we approach the end, and I suppose then this must be an instrumental? Pretty good opener and didn't seem like ten minutes. Oh, how odd: there are some sort of wailed vocals just there before the end.
That seems to continue on to the second track, as “Plouton” is much harder and more aggressive, and again has those vocals that are just almost out of earshot, or at least decipherability. Good heavy guitar and a much shorter track, then that leads into another long one, another ten-minuter in fact, with basically slow, focussed percussion and a feedback guitar with some whispered vocals. Very much bass-driven with some audiotrack going and the vocals now grumbling in the background. Okay, now “Temple” sounds very like “Chaosecret” to me; I'm sure there are differences, they're just not apparent enough for me to see them. It's all a little heavy and buzzy and reminds me in some ways of the rambling, wandering nature of a certain album I'll be talking about some time later, has to do with not being awake, hint hint...
The progressive, ambient style that initially impressed me at the beginning of the album returns for “Revelation”, the shortest track at just four minutes, and a nice change from the somewhat pounding, ponderous guitar and drums combination, but the album then ends on one more ten-minute composition, “Daemons”, which brings them roaring back. I still can't really say I've heard any proper vocals I could identify as such; there have been sounds, moans, chants, wails, but nothing I could really make out so to a degree this album could almost be said to be an instrumental one. Nice outro on the organ.
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
1. Somnium
2. Plouton
3. Chaosecret
4. Temple
5. Revelation
6. Daemons
Not the worst thing I've ever heard, but a bit samey for most of the tracks, with a few changes here and there. Not enough individuality, and the vocals, if they were indeed vocals, were impossible to make out. Not quite down my alley, but not totally off my radar either.