Okay then, time to roll up my sleeves, gird my lions (no I
don't mean loins: have you not met Ben and Jerry?)
grit my teeth and head into the maelstrom again, hoping to the metal gods that I don't end up having to listen to any more grindcore. Yeah, it's time for our second visit of the month to
Enter password: password entered. Password accepted. Engage Random Selection Function: Random Selection Function Engaged. Processing... processing ... please wait ... processing... Band found!
Well, at least it isn't grindcore! These guys hailed from Russia --- and I don't mean the USSR, for anyone as old as me, as they have only been around since 2010, although they were known as Prostan from 2008 to 2010, so technically they've been in existence six years. Still, that's pretty young for any metal band, and as a consequence they only have the one album. Can I find it? Well let's see. Spotify: negative. Grooveshark: negative. YouTube: negative. No luck then, though I did find one video of them, playing oddly enough under the name Miliard...
So we'll have to go again. Enter details etc and what have we got this time?
Already split up over twenty years, and with one demo to their name --- with the picture of it showing a cassette tape! --- Ah, I'm just not even going to bother looking. Next!
You know, that's mighty weird! Not only are this band split up, not only do they have demos and nothing more to their name but they formed in the same year as Endless Dawn, despite being American and therefore thousands of miles apart. What else have they in common? Yeah, they're no good to me. Mind you, with their two demos entitled “Gloating over corpses” (Oh! You heartless gloater! --- Blackadder joke) and “Slaughtered for food”, I don't think I'm missing too much. Push Random button to engage...
Another American band, another Black Metal band. What is it with my luck? Why can't I get a single progressive, power or symphonic metal band, or even a good ol' thrash or speed metal band? I ALWAYS get bloody extreme metal! Well, by the rules I set this is my last chance. If these guys --- who have three EPs, and therefore the largest output of the four choices I've hit up here --- can't be located then it's over for this week. Where's my shotgun and hunting dog? Oh no! Jerry is after him! DOWN! BAD lion! Down!
Don't you glare at
me like that... um .... good lion ... easy now ...
Right, now that I'm safely locked in my Panic Room we can get down to business. Although there is no sign of this band anywhere on my usual sites, I have managed to find about seventy percent of their second EP on YouTube, so we'll have to go with that.
Well first of all they're Black Metal, so hooray for that I don't think. I also get the feeling, from what I see of them, that they're not going to be leaning anywhere towards the more atmospheric, ambient side of the scale. I think brutal and nasty and savage are words I could probably rely on here. As I say, they have three EPs but no albums, but appear still to be active. They're also a he, as in, they're a one-man band, where one Marius Koslowski does, apparently, “everything”. Whether this means (just!) guitar, bass and drums or whether he throws in keys and other instruments I don't know. Is he another Panopticon? Can we expect ambient passages among screamed or growled vocals, or will this just be a blinding, hammering, exhausting guitar-led dash to the finish line, with added snarls to go?
There's little real information on him, other than the bands he's played in or been part of previously, where mostly he seemed to handle guitar, keyboards in some and also bass, and that he's from Tampa in Florida, so maybe he and Austin Lunn could growl to each other across the states. The last of his EPs came out in 2011, with nothing since, so I don't know whether he's working on an album, or even another EP, but here's what I can find out about him.
Band name: Mondhaurn
Nationality: American
Subgenre: Black Metal
Born: 2009
Status: Active
Albums: None, but three Eps:
“Demonizing passions” (2009),
“Maze of desolation” (2010) and
“Cursed blessings” (2011)
Live albums: None
Collections/Anthologies/Boxsets: None
Lineup: Marius Koslowski (“Everything")
F
He can't be a superstar at any rate: of his three EPs, two of them were limited to a pressing of 33 and 66 copies respectively; whether this is all he could afford or that was all the discs he had I don't know. It doesn't mention how many copies, if any, the third one was restricted to, but somehow I don't think you're going to find him playing Giants' Arena or Madison Square Gardens any time soon. But should be be regarded as an undiscovered gem, or is he just another guy messing about in his garage/basement/bedroom, making music and running off copies for his friends? The fact that he's here at all, on
EM would indicate that he has some sort of following, but then again, you never know. I guess I'll have to make my own mind up.
Maze of desolation --- Mondhaurn --- 2010 (Svartgalgh Records)
As I say, this guy's music is not easy to track down --- and little wonder, considering how few copies of it got out to the public --- so I've only been able to find a total of four tracks from him, three of which appear on this EP, which is why I've chosen it out of the three. According to the tracklisting the EP opens with “Dawn of devastation”, which is one of the tracks I've been able to locate on YouTube. It's a fast guitar all right, but definitely some melody in there, almost thrash I would say, the drums as fast as if not faster than the axe. Then it sort of slows down a little into a hard and heavy riff reminiscent of the likes of Metallica or Slayer. The vocal when it comes in is not in fairness the worst I've heard. Yes, it's that scratchy, scary sort of growl-hiss that seems to permeate so much of Black Metal --- or at least, the little I've heard --- but I've experienced much worse.
The guitar work is very accomplished and technical, even if it is superfast most of the time. Don't hear any keyboards, never mind cellos or piccolos, so it's probably going to be the Unholy Quartet of guitar, bass, drums and vocals again, but that's ok: that's the format upon which Black Metal --- indeed, thrash, speed and many other subgenres --- is founded upon. Great solo there in the fourth minute, and while I would not of course be a fan of Marius's singing, it is mostly recognisable as such. The next track is “In the light of deception”, but I can't find that one so we move on to “Redemption through darkness”, which has a harder, more sort of marching guitar and is slower, though no less heavy, than the opener. I certainly wouldn't call it a cruncher by any means, but it pulls back the speed a decent amount.
Now it speeds up on the back of the hammering percussion, with guitar fusilades going off all over the place. Good decent solo there again in the last minute or so, and the vocal has fallen away as Marius concentrates on cranking out all the riffs he can from his guitar. Oddly enough it fades out. Hmm. And into what sounds like violin too, with dark thunder and wind noises. In a way it's possibly a pity that we don't have “Damnation”, the next track, as I wonder if that unexpected strings ending was leading into something similar for the fourth track? But we don't have it and so we close on “Kiss of the plague”.
Another fine heavy guitar intro with battering drums, then a big roaring growl from Marius before he gets into the vocal properly, snarling all over the place. There are no lyrics so I don't know what he's singing about, but maybe the Black Death? Or it could be that humanity is the plague? That's certainly a favourite subject among Black Metal bands. Then again, it could be about Judgement Day, or who knows what? I certainly couldn't determine it by listening to his singing, so we'll have to remain in ignorance I'm afraid. Nice almost power metal riff there in the third minute, and develops into a pretty fine and impressive solo. This track also fades out, which is odd given the power and anger in the song.
TRACKLISTING
1. Dawn of devastation
2. In the light of damnation
3. Redemption through darkness
4. Damnation
5. Kiss of the plague
I'm not for a moment suggesting that I'm getting into Black Metal, for who would believe that, least of all me? But for what it was, this album was not too bad. When I think back to the likes of Sauron, who kicked this whole section off (literally) a year or two ago, and some of the other bands I've had to suffer through in the name of randomness, this is by far not the worst band I've ever stumbled across in The Meat Grinder. Sure, I'm not gonig to be playing this while doing the dishes or when I'm out and about, and I wouldn't play it at the New Year's Eve party --- If I went to any New Year's Eve parties. Or any parties --- and in fact, there's probably a 99% chance I'll never even play it again. But if it happened to come on, I wouldn't immediately rush to shut it off.
And that, my friends, is about as much progress as you'll get from me in terms of Black Metal. But it's better than I used to be.
So, all things considered, and with the fact that even the vocals, though not my style, were not terrible, I think I can safely award this EP, possibly to my own surprise as much as anyone else's
So that's it for the second foray into the unknown during Metal Month II. Hey, here's a thing: do you notice how, when all the bands I picked were Black Metal, their logos were all kind of similar? All have that kind of spiky, spread-out-wings sort of thing going on. What's with that? Is it mandatory if you're in a Black Metal band to have your band logo in that format?
Before I leave, let me just try one more thing. I'm finished, and have found and reviewed the band I was looking for here, but just for the craic .... yeah, another Black Metal band! Looks like I'm doomed to forever walk the dark paths. Still, at least the scenery has a sort of savage beauty to it, and it beats going in to the office!
Hey,
anything beats going in to the office...
