The time has come to
call 2014 to a close. It may not seem like a lot, but 2014 was my first year
really diving into writing and I do have quite a bit to show for it. For my
blog here – this was its first full year online - I wrote three really great
essays. The TSIDMZ album Ungern von Sternberg Khan essay kicked the year off really strong and I
got to meet a lot of new people because of it. Afterwards came my Allerseelen Pedra CD essay which I am very proud of, seeing as how many
of the songs on it are now getting re-releases and more attention as they
rightly deserve. I’d like to think that just maybe, I played a tiny role in
that. And finally my Changes portion of the Changes / Andrew King split album, as my on going Terra Fria
retrospective tries to take shape. Like the Allerseelen essay, I like to think
I really spotlighted a forgotten album.
I’ll confess to have
bitten off more than I can chew, and I am writing three essays simultaneously
for publications here: Ex Libris
by Verney 1826, Blood is the Food of the Gods by MARS and Ride the Tiger by Changes. My hope is to complete these as
early as possible in 2015. The bibliography I am consulting for these CDs is vast, so writing
them will be challenging, but in the end I think very academic. I am hoping to
learn a lot from these essays too.
Outside of my Heilige
Tod blog, I just got published in a true academic anthology. I wrote an essay
called “Permission to Kill: Exploring Italy’s 1960s Eurospy Phenomenon, Impact
and Legacy” that was included in the book James Bond and Popular Culture:
Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy published by McFarland. I have now experienced
the feeling of getting published and I am bloodthirsty for more. I also had an
academic review published in the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics about the
book Drawn of Dangerous: Italian Comics of the 1970s and 1980s. More information about my essay can be found at
my official website at https://sites.google.com/site/vnvdiak/italian-eurospy-films and my review can be previewed here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21504857.2014.984875#.VJOaXlLkMA
.
So to end this blog for
2014, I’ll take a cue from many other pop culture webzines and blogs by
highlighting this past year. Many music-oriented websites offer a “best of
for a year, which can most certainly be fun, so I’ll follow suit with this article, but I’m going to do things slightly differently for this….
for a year, which can most certainly be fun, so I’ll follow suit with this article, but I’m going to do things slightly differently for this….
Heilige Tod – 2014
Music In Review
In 2014, no different
than any other year, I bought a lot of music. I’d like to homage all the
releases that were actually released in 2014 in this review and highlight
something positive for each one. In the end I’ll spotlight what I feel were the
best three releases of 2014.
However, there are some
things that need to be illuminated. As stated, I bought (or in some cases was
gifted) a lot of music in 2014, and many of them were albums released years
prior. Although I can’t include them as part of this line up, I do want to give
praise to them since they were truly amazing albums and I discovered new bands
and new friends with them:
Andrew King – Deus Ignotus (2011)
AWEN – The Bells
Before Dawn (2010)
Changes – A Ripple in
Time (2013)
Changes – Ride the
Tiger (2013)
David E. Williams – Trust
No Scaffold Built of This Bone
(2013)
Har Belex – Time Does
not Forgive (2013)
Honey Ltd. – The
Complete LHI Recordings (2013)
Verney 1826 – Ex
Libris (2013)
These by far are my
favourite acquisitions from prior years procured this year and I want to
acknowledge their greatness. I also must note I just ordered AWEN’s Grim
King of the Ghosts, which will
not make it in time for this article, but if The Bells Before Dawn is any indication, I know it will be amazing.
For albums, vinyls, EPs,
etc. actually released in 2014, I have twenty one. This includes releases
outside the genre this blog focuses on – including technical death metal, adult
pop, EBM, etc. If I excluded such releases, I’d probably only have 10 releases
and that simply isn’t substantial enough for an article here.
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All of my CDs/Records/Cassettes from 2014 |
For the twenty one
releases, I’ll group into broad genre categories. Within each category, I’ll
name the release and highlight positives aspects or particular songs from each
I like. Finally, I’ll end the article with my top three favourite releases of
2014 from that pool of 21. I know Heilgie Tod is still really new, lacking a
real body of work and ergo it hasn’t quite established itself as a credible
resource for music quite yet, but I do hope this recap does its duty to
highlight and give some accolades to the releases of 2014.
Black Ambient,
Black Metal, Dungeon Synth, Tech Metal
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Guardians of the Rings, autographed by Alex (Uruk-Hai), Jaron (Ringbearer) and Elliott (Onyx) |
Guardians of the
Rings is an ambitious 2 disc set
showcasing 4 bands from the black ambient, black metal, and dungeon-synth
genres: Uruk-Hai, Onyx, Ringbearer, and Black Jade, united under a Tolkien
theme.
Uruk-Hai is the veteran
band of the four, bringing some marquee value to this 4-way split album.
Uruk-Hai has perfected the Tolkien black ambient/black metal sound for years,
and their 4 songs on this split showcase the formula perfectly. “Ring of Water”
is one of the standout tracks, with a nice magical, crystalline feel to it, but
“Gothmog” brings up the more cavernous and adventurous sound. Great music to
run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign to.
Black Jade is a band I
was not familiar with, so the songs here where my first exposure to the
project. The male vocals are not 100% my thing, being the growling vocals
common in black metal, but the presence of some bit-pop/chiptune elements and
female vocals on “Awake!” are an expected but awesome surprise. The music
itself is really nice, bordering on adventure metal, but the black metal vocals
will definitely win that crowd over.
The Canadian Ringbearer
project, headed by Jaron Evil of Archspire and Funeral Fornication, is present
and continues to evolve their Tolkien sound that they began to showcase on
their album The Way is Shut.
Ringbearer also brings four tracks to the album, with some great production
values, with “The People of Numenor” being the best of the lot with a grandiose
sound with “Shards of Narsil” being their second best track.
Onyx is the newcomer
band to the scene, having just started in 2013, flirting with a dungeon-synth
sound. The songs a bit more minimal than the other three bands, emulating some
of classic video game soundtracks of which the project draws much inspiration
from. For example, I’m really drawn to “Leaves on the Forest Floor”, it has a
hypnotic quality to it that sounds like temple music from a JRPG (I am thinking
Raja’s Temple from Phantasy Star IV).
Legend of the Master Ring also
sounds like epic fantasy music with a hint of video game RPG touches to it, and
comes off sounding well executed.
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Onyx - III and Warcraft |
Aside from appearing on
Guardians of the Rings, Onyx also had two other albums released on Cassette, III and Warcraft. Warcraft I want to underscore because, not only does it overtly contain the
video game themes I eluded to above, but it also has photography on the
cassette sleeve done by my girlfriend Michele, and both Jaron Evil and I appear
on the song “Kalimdor”. I was a nice opportunity to write some Warcraft inspired lyrics and do them spoken word style
for this release, and the end result sounds really cool. I’m really proud and
grateful to be asked to contribute and keep hoping Onyx finds more and more
success.
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Archspire - The Lucid Collective |
Jaron Evil from Ringbear
is actually involved in a more mainstream project, the technical death metal
band Archspire. I had never dove into the world of technical death metal, but
after listening to this album and a few others of a similar ilk (listening to
Suffocation’s Effigy of the Forgotten off YouTube), the genre is intense! The vocals are of the growling
variety, much like black metal, so not 100% my thing, but the music proper of The
Lucid Collective, is insane. The
music is very fast and almost video game sounding. The drums sound like machine
guns going off. Vocal non-withstanding, I really dig the music, and the song
“Join Us Beyond” being my favourite track off the album. The album definitely
makes me want to check out even more technical death metal bands.
Neofolk and Dark Folk
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Backsaddling, autographed by Lloyd James |
Lloyd James’ Naevus
project was strong this year, with a few concert appearances and released,
including this beautiful 7” vinyl, Backsaddling. Naevus releases always stand out due to
their artwork, done by Lloyd himself in an abstract and fun style. The 7”
gatefold sleave with lyrics and pictures, this was a well to do effort. The
vinyl has 4 tracks, and fans of Lloyd’s spoken word pieces on Kirlian Camera’s Black
Summer Choirs will love the
opening track “Up a Hill”. However the two best tracks are “Aria/Acqua” and
“Ego” which highlight Lloyd’s trademark serious voice but with accompanying
neofolk-pop music that Naevus has perfected over the years.
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Blood is the Food of the Gods, autographed by Marcus S. |
Blood is the Food of
the Gods is one of the MARS
releases in 2014 and it’s epic. Think of the sounds of the American act Lux
Interna, but make the words more repetitive/ritualistic and way less etheral
and a more darker edge, and you’ll have Blood is the Food of the Gods. Effort was put into packaging for this release
– a nice digipack with custom artwork from the artist Nadine and plenty of
lyrics to follow along. This album will be covered more extensively in a future
article on this blog, but I wanted to highlight my favourite song off of it,
“The Cyclic Law”. This song is dark, brooding and epic – it recalls
“Electricity” by Blood Axis in its powerful delivery.
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Novemthree's Renewing |
Novemthree’s Renewing is a curio of a release, as this is a re-release
from 2012 and the project was taken monies for it years ago to have it come out
– a Kickstarter without the Kickstarter. I had nearly forgotten about this
release until it randomly arrived in the mail. The packing is unique, a thick
paperstock with pockets to hold the CD, a cool patch and an insert. The music
is of the forest-folk variety, along the In Gowan Ring style, with natural
noises present, such as chirping birds. “Autumn Procession” is a good song that
recalls the original Wicker Man
and has a ritualistic feeling to it. The best song though is “Sing of Beauty”
which has the best vocal delivery and a good folk sound.
Neoclassical and
Military Pop
![]() |
Ordo Fratrum Minorum - signed by Lionel to both my girlfriend and I |
Hot on the heels of
Verney 1826’s elegant album Ex Libris last year, (stay tuned to this blog for a write up on its literary
tropes), comes a single, Ordo Fratrum Minorum – The Remixes, probably the most humbling and serious CD I
received this year. The song, “Ordo Fratrum Minorum” is about the Polish friar
Maximilian Kolbe, who while imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp,
volunteered to take the place of a prisoner that was being sent to be starved.
This song is Verney 1826’s tribute to the self sacrificing priest, and this
single has many remixes of the song from such popular acts as MARS, Schattenspiel,
and The Victim’s Ball. The “Dave Foreman Remix” gives the song a dancy quality,
while the female vocals on the “Starchasm Version” give it a new age, almost
Enigma-like sound.
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The Lupi Gladius album, also autographed to me |
Lupi Gladius, a side
project of many members of the Italian electro-band Hidden Place, releases
their official debut album proper with Veritas, and showcases a much better sound than they
presented on their prior EP, Lucania. The album is less “minimal-military” pop and instead has a higher
production value and more complex sounds and more instruments, such as
accordions and violins. This has parallels to that of Derniere Volonte, which
went from a minimal-military pop to the more robust outfit it is now. One of my
favourite tracks is “Nel Vento”, which trades the martial sounds for a neofolk
sound, and adds the lush vocals of Sara Lux in a guest appearance.
Eurasian Artists
Association
![]() |
Barbarossa Umtrunk and Sonnenkind |
While I do not agree
with the politics, philosophies or the various anti-Western/Zionism/globalism/democracy/etc-etc.
of the Eurasian Artists Association, the movement has generated some talented
and noteworthy artists and releases. For 2014 I got copies of La Fosse De
Babel by the French martial
project Barbarossa Umtrunk and Eulenspiegels Wiederkehr by the German folk project Sonnenkind. Umtrunk
brings their heavy martial might combined with their trademark usage of
political speeches and rallies. The haunting rhythm and beautiful female vocals
of “In Bashar We Trust” makes this the best song on this album, with “Syria”
and its samples of protesters a close second. On the opposite side of the
spectrum, Sonnenkind brings a more romantic approach to the neofolk scene. The
majority of the songs on their album sound both serene and wistful, with “Goldener
Herbst” and “Der Wunsch Des Alten” being my favourites off the album.
Die Neue Runde
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The limited edition version of Fahl's The Halls of the Dead |
The Eurasian Artists
were not the only collective hard at work in 2014, as the German Die Neue Runde
collective saw two new releases as well. Scene staple Sagittarius released an
extremely limited CD called Fragmente IV: Abraxas. This release was to commemorate a rare live
performance of Sagittarius on August 30th in Leipzig this past
summer. The other DNR project, Fahl, released their second album The Halls
of the Dead in both limited and
unlimited version on Lichterklang. Fahl unfortunately went the Der Blutharsch
route, and didn’t give any of their tracks titles. The album is a well done in
the spoken word style, with ominious, dark and brooding ambient soundscapes in
the background. However, the greatest event to happen with the relation to the
DNR circle is the return of Marcel P. to music making. Marcel, who has been
somewhat out of commission for a while now, has been making a triumphant comeback
with his presence on both of these albums.
Electronic, EBM,
Pop
![]() |
Lost Inside a Dream dedicated to me by Miss Kitty |
There are two newcomers
to the music scene within these genres, Shaena Stabler with her Stay EP and Miss Kitty with her Lost Inside a
Dream EP.
For Miss Kitty, this EP
is not only her debut release, but also the debut release of the new S.P.Q.R.
MMXIV label ran by Lionel Verney of Verney 1826 and Sven Phalanx of
Schattenspiel. Lost Inside a Dream
highlights prior released material that Miss Kitty had appeared on, tracks for
both Schattenspiel and Verney 1826, such as the masterfully composed dark-pop
song “Good Morning Sick World” which had originally appeared on the
Schattenspiel album Aus Dem Dunkel…
However for new and exclusive tracks, “Seelenschmerz” takes the prize as a
great club-friendly track that is good for boot stomping and butt shaking. It
wish my wish that both Miss Kitty and this new label find even more success in
2015.
Tourdeforce is a project
by Chris R. from the Italian duo Porta Vittoria. While PV focuses on their
particular brand of Mediterranean-pop, Tourdeforce takes a more electronic
approach, with forays into synthpop and futurepop. Their album, Jedem Das
Seine, has some incredible
catchy and dancy numbers, such as “History is Written by the Winners”. On
“Adolf Hitler Platz”, Lisa P., also from Porta Vittoria, makes an appearance
and adds an emotive, feminine charm to the song. The best song on the album is
“Human Geometries”, which has a great BPM and is a frequent song I listen to
while jogging. Of special note for this album, I am listed as a music
consultant in the credits (I only did spelling and grammar checking!), but I am
very humbled to be included and it is a personal highlight for sure.
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Tourdeforce and Perturbator |
The French dark-synth
project Perturbator has really taken off and I totally caught that train. Their
album Dangerous Days is
nearly perfect. The cover artwork captures perfectly what many horror films of
the 80s that flirted with occult-computers (Evilspeak anyone?) tried to do. The imagery is both
techno-denomic and sexy, but it pales in comparison to the music which is
superb, which is a great blend of dark-synth and 80ies inspired underground
techno. Another way to put it, this is the album that synth musicians in the
80s, if given today’s technology and know-how, would’ve have aspired to make.
Noise and Sounds
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Orlandini's Annullamento |
Valerio Orlandini is an
Italian music composer that flirts with noise, industrial and ambient noises. I
had first come across his music via his appearance on the TSIDMZ album Ungern
von Sternberg Khan, which he allowed me to ask him questions for. He released a
limited number of physical copies of his Annullamento album in the spring time which I plucked up. The
songs are very much in the vein harsh-ambient vein, and there are rhythmic
charms on tracks such as “Rituale Della Nascite” and my favourite track which
sounds like the backgound of a spooky video game, “Crasi Di Corpi”
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Nylon Crimes surrounded by artifacts from my personal collection |
Another Italian act is
Macelleria Mobile Di Mezzanotte (aka MMM), who released the vinyl album Nylon
Crimes this year. Nylon
Crimes is their homage to
various Italian noise acts of the 1990s, with covers of bands such as Atrax
Morgue and Sado Vision. The sexy stocking clad legs on the cover drew me to the
release, but the presence of Lisa P. from Porta Vittoria on the track “High
Heels Inside my Throat” solidified my desire to procure the album. The success
of this album surely must have promoted Dwight Holly of MMM to start his own
label, Signora Ward records, which focuses on hard and brutal noise combined
with the imagery of stockings and nylons – an endeavor I whole heartily
support!
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Lacrimae Mundi, autographed by Miljenko Rajakovic. |
The best release of this genre in
2014, hands down, is Lacrimae Mundi by the Croatian band Tehôm. I had heard of this album from my friend Thor
who had written the linear notes to the album’s digipack. Because of his
involvement, I decided to get a copy of the album directly from Miljenko
himself, and I am glad I did. The cover art is spooky and ominious and matches
the music well. This is dark and atompshereic ambient at its finest – the
linear notes, the sounds, and the imagery all go hand in hand for a surreal
aurual experience. The music is unnerving, and songs like “Modality of Cosmic
Matter” gives one goosebumps just listening to it.
Top Three Albums
of 2014
Those were the twenty
one albums of 2014, so of that lot, what do I consider my top three picks of
this past year? This is hard, since each album (as shown above) is meritable in
their own right, but also over the past year(s) I’ve made friends with many of
these folks, so I must make sure not to let that affect my judgment. With that
in consideration, what follows is my top 3 releases of this past year, three
releases I want to underscore and give praise and accolades to.
#3 – Sagittarius – Fragment IV: Abraxas
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Fragment IV: Abraxas |
Cornelius Walder’s Sagittarius project is one of the
hardest working projects in the neofolk/neoclassical scene and Fragment IV:
Abraxas is testament to the project’s
longevity. The CD may not contain an album’s worth of material, but it’s a
welcome release to bridge the gap between Sagittarius’ last album The
Kingdom Come in 2012, and their upcoming
spoken word album Diaspora in 2015.
The EP starts off with an intro track, piano keys played
by Cornelius’ cat Satako. It’s an amusing track, giving smiles to cat lovers
like myself. The rest of the EP however is pure piano-driven bliss, the
neoclassical sound that Sagittarius has honed and perfected. The piano-cello
combination on “Im Morgen-taun” is a slower, sombre piece while the following
track, “Runde Wolke Treibt Im Blauen”, picks up speed with a more lush sounding
piano. It’s easily the best track on the EP.
“Invticus” is a reading of imfamous William Ernest Henley
poem, with precise, powerful spoken words that still flows with a rhythm with
the music. It’s a great interpreation of the poem, and my hope deep down is
that Sagittarius someday will do a reading of a different William Ernest Henley
poem (and my favourite of his), “Villon’s Straight Tip to All Cross Coves”. The
EP finishes off with an excellent piano instrumental called “Rites of Love”.
This EP, not only is a testament of Sagittaruis, but also
(as stated above), to the resolve of Marcel P., one of the biggest, but rarely
awknowledged, pillars of the neofolk scene. I hope this EP is a triumph to
both.
#2 – Shaena Stabler –
Stay
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Stay autographed by Shaena |
Catching me completely
off guard as this EP is way outside my genre, Stay by Shaena Stabler is an extremely guilty
pleasure that I happened upon this year. I had discovered Shaena quite by
accident on Facebook, as a mutual friend had liked her music (a note to all the
folks out there who need more proof that social media is a good way to get your
music out). I took a random chance to watch/listen to her music video for “Run
Away” and was immediately smitten. Her debut was just released in September
this year, which I plucked up immediately. I was hooked on the adult-pop sounds
of her EP, which were both emotive and catchy, with my favourite song being
“Children of the Night”, but “Stay” and “Run Away” being contenders for my
second favourite track.
I would go on to see
Shaena perform twice over the next few months at the Hotel Café in LA and at
the Mozambique in Laguna, and it was refreshing to be able to go to a concert
without some negative foible happening, as my last concert had been to see ROME
perform in Riverside in the boiling basement under a Yoga studio. The
production values of the EP are no doubt due to the presence of Ken Caillat,
known for his work with Fleedwood Mac, an important note since Stevie Nicks has
an influence on Shaena.
It may not be neofolk or
industrial, but it’s a damn fine release and I am looking forward to Shaena’s
sophomore release. We all have guilty pleasures, and I am not ashamed to say
this one is mine.
#1 – MARS – MARS
Presents the Trail
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The Trail, autographed by Marcus S. |
2014 was a prolific year
for MARS, with the release of their Blood is the Food of the Gods album, numerous concert appearances, their remix
on the Verney 1826 Ordo Fratrum Minorum single, and finally this concept album, MARS Presents: The Trail.
The Trail is quite simply phenomenal. The packaging is a
hardcover digipack with original artwork from the artist Nadine and photos of
Marcus and Oli. The lyrical songs are decent, with the best vocal track being
their rendition of the traditional song “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”. However the
true powerhouse of this album are the numerous instrumental, non-vocal tracks:
“Salt Lake”, “the Scavengers”, “Redemption”, “Sand Creek”, The Plains”, “Canyon
Passage”, “One Knot of Grass” and “Blood Meridian III”.
The presence of all the
instrumentals is elaborated in the linear notes for the album, that The
Trail was born out of the idea
of creating a soundtrack to the Cormac McCarthy book Blood Meridian, with numerous influences from spaghetti
westerns, in particular the music of Ennio Morricone. If capturing these sounds
was the intent, it was not only succeeded in spades, but went above in beyond.
To me, the album recalls the many, many nights I spent playing the video game Red
Dead Redemption, and the many
hours spent ingame on horse back wandering the countryside. The full night sky,
the coyotes, the Joshua Trees; the game was extremely submersive, and in a true
videogame fashion, I as the player am submerged. The Trail, though it draws its cinema tropes, actually
succeeds in this endeavor as well. Alone with my headphones on listening to The
Trail, I am just as submerged in
the created western world. Both Read Dead Redemption and The Trail succeed at making the player/listener their own
protagonist in a neo-noir-western setting.
Neo-noir-western is an
apt term to describe the sounds of The Trail. The ritual sounds from MARS’ previous album, Blood
is the Food of the Gods, is
present, but subdued. The western sounds here are not the classic cowboys and
Indians of the John Wayne era, but of a darker, brooding variety. These are the
feelings one would get watching the noir-western Unforgiven or the more contemporary neo-noir-western No
Country For Old Men, also by
McCarthy.
This isn’t just an
album. It’s also a collector’s item, a journey and an experience.