Moloken - The Titan Above Us

 

Imagine: darkness.
Utter, complete, mindnumbing darkness.
It's quite difficult, is it not?
Personally, I end up with a feeling rather than pictures in my imagination, feelings of being small. Insignificant. Exposed.
At least if I imagine that utter darkness with no hope of light, no hope of dawn on the horizon.
Perhaps this is what we call Black November in Sweden?

This is the third post in a series of five, celebrating the darkness that is the Swedish month of November with fitting music to accompany the darkness. All posts are made by Chief Rebel Angel, as guestposts, and the general idea is simple.
1) Find music that is fitting for this month
2) Create a mix so that the music presented is varied and from different subgenres of metal.
3) Present music that might not be so videly spread in a post

Today, we are going up north in Sweden, to the city of Umeå.
I've lived there. Made my military service there, lived in the student homes there (hey Ålidhem, for thos of you who know the city!) but never actually studied - and worked there.
I have strange memories from that city.
It was a great time, and I was happy and a bit crazy - and still I cannot think foundly of Umeå, due to the rivalry with the citys ice hockey team from my team. That kind of clouds my judgement, and the funny thing is that I know it is silly - but still can't do anything about it!
Musically though, Umeå is a great city.
Having spawned the likes of REFUSED and MESHUGGAH, the  scene is very much alive and vital.
Todays tune comes from MOLOKEN, and it is a very suitable record for this time of year.
It is also a record that gives me that same feeling as when I imagine complete and utter darkness.
I feel... small.
Insignificant.

The music is epic, a bit monotone and cruschingly heavy. MOLOKEN means "dejected" in english, and sums up the bands sound in a good way.
It goes without saying - this is a record that fits perfect in to the small three-step idea of the posts for november. The tune is the first off the album, an album that hit the stores in 2011.
This is "The Titan Above Us"!



The band is working on new material, and for those of you that live in Sweden and have just been shuffling around Sweden as support to NAGLFAR on a club tour. They will also be a part of the Gothenbourg Sticky Fingers-festival Scorched Tundra in december (together with AGE OF WOE, SKITSYSTEM, KONGH and TRUCK FIGHTERS).
"Rural" is the MOLOKENs second full length album, and it is an album you should pick up imidiately if this sort of sludge/doom-metal is to your liking.
After all - this is more or less the perfect soundtrack to the November darkness....

More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Moloken Web

Listen to ”Moloken - The Titan Above Us " on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Mastodon - Iron Tusk

Imagine that you are stranded on a deserted island.
On it, there is this lounge with a great stereo, a comfortable couch, all placed in the shade.
With trembling hands you try the stereo, and as in a miracle - it actually works!
The only catch is - all you can find is a box with three records in it.
You have no way of getting more, and these three records will be you company until you die of starvation in a few weeks time. As a grant from higher/lower powers, you get to choose the three records.
Wich.
Records.
Do.
You.
Choose?

That eternal "desert island"-question is part of todays ramblings.
The other part is the fact that I would answer that question completely different depending on the time in my life - simply because I have a knack for falling completely and totally in love with new great records. Often, a bit more so than what is probably healthy.
This, I belive, is something I share with others - and I think that both Stones (perhaps especially him, maybe that is why his pile of records that he has bought and just do not seem to get around to just keeps growing?) and Thetania has a bit of that personality as well.
In the first Rebel Angel Rambling, I revealed that my top 5 favourite albums of all time are:
BLACK SABBATH "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
DIO "The Last In Line"
QUEENSRYCHE "Operation: Mindcrime"
PARADISE LOST "Draconian Times"
OPETH "Ghost Reveries"
...and they dominate my "Most Played" on iTunes - but, nevertheless, I would probably just grab one of them if I got the question from the beginning of this post.
Instead, I would add some of my own favourites at the moment.
This year, 2013, is turning out to be a solid music year.
I fell completely and a bit surprisingly in love with SOILWORK "The Living Infinite" earlier this year (did not think they would be able to pull it off, making a double album that has no dead moments at all), as well as a bit less surprisingly with the third and excellent KONGH-album "Sole Creation".
The third album that obsessed me - and the one that is currently taking all the airtime from me - is this one:

Vancouverbased ANCIIENTS plays music that rings familiar if you like acts like BARONESS, MASTODON, OPETH and KYLESA - but it is very much an album that stands on it's own and cannot be called a copy. It has that special magic touch that makes you want to listen again and again...and again. In fact, I've missed a few deadlines when it comes to reviews of other albums just beacause I could not face listening to anything else than "Heart Of Oak" from ANCIIENTS....but don't tell anyone.
After all, as Homer Simpson said: "Remember son, it's only cheating if you get caught", and as those deadlines were not written in blood I think it is fine. Some records just had to wait a week or two to get their albumreview published.

Looking back over the years, it is quite easy to pinpoint a specific album to a specific point of time in my life, especially when something important or memorable happened.
On the Metalblog, the spring has had a specific series of article that takes a deeper look into that (you'll find it here, it's called "Besatt" (meaning "Possessed") and it is all in Swedish), and as I am currently writing the fall season of that series - a new post will be published every other Sunday - I cannot help wondering if I will ascosiate ANCIIENTS with this late summer, and perhaps the Rebel Angel Ramblings.
Quite possible.
Especially as I am at a happy place in my life right now.
Everything...flows.
That makes it especially weird, as I once discovered MASTODON "Leviathan", an album that reminds me very much of ANCIIENTS "Heart Of Oak", at a very dark time in my life.

The record was released more or less at the same time as I went through a quite dirty divorce, and as it turned out it became a big comfort and energy booster when I needed it the most.
The heavy and catchy riffing, the energy and drive in the music and the out-of-this-world-drumming will forever fill me with thoughts and feelings of hope,slightly tainted with a small bit of sorrow and dark memories.
As I could not find any good video from ANCIIENTS, I thought that it would be fitting to play MASTODON, once a definite record that would have been one of the three in my box.



The band is Troy Sanders (bass and vocals), Brett Hinds (guitar and vocals), Bill Keliher (guitar) and Brann Dailor (drums), and I'd like to say that this record was their big brake and transformed them from a promising band to superstars. They went on to create concept albums like "Blood Mountain", "Crack The Skye" with windling stories built into them, as well as the latest and more straight forward "The Hunter".
It has become one of my most-played bands, it it will be interesting to see if ANCIIENTS can walk that very same road.

So - my three records right now, on that deserted island:
ANCIIENTS "Heart Of Oak"
BLACK SABBATH "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
SOILWORK "The Living Infinite".

Tomorrow, it may very well be something completely different.
Wich ones are your three albums for the island?

More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Mastodon Web

Listen to ”Mastodon - Iron Tusk" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Kongh - Skymning

New week, which means a new album that will step up to the throne. This week will be the Swedish Doomsters Kongh!

The new album "Sole Creation" is a 4 song piece and clocks in around 45 minutes of Heavy Doomish Sludge Metal Riffage topped with of Psychedelica, Classic Rock and Proggressive Rock.

This is Kongh is new, even if you can hear some elements of the older Konghs creations. With "Sole Creations" has the band taken a major step in the development, one could refer to the cover, which is decorated with a giant, forest-dwelling gorilla, that comes out of a Swedish tarn and look threatening wickedly over the little insects who runs for life in the the thick forest. The band have taken their third long-player and spray painted it with all of the necessary ingredients to make a mastepiece, it has a more progressive and wider expanse of riffs, a bigger space of vocals, a excellent balance of the dark and hard elements. It’s a brilliant album that this duo have created.

I recommend this record with the utmost warmth.

Heaven for a Kongh fan!

The band consists of drummer Tomas Salonen, guitarist/bassist/vocalist David Johansson and bassist (live) Olle Hedenström

Todays tune "Skyming" is the last track and the longest piece. I could say that this is possibly the best track they have written so far, it combining everything that Kongh have done and spiced up with their newer more progressive, psychedelic elements, a true slow-burning masterpiece!




Sole Creation also include a guest appearance of John Doe from Craft. The album was recorded at Teknikkompaniet (Vetlanda, Sweden) by Peter Lundin; mixed and mastered by Magnus Lindberg of "Cult Of Luna".

Kongh’s front-man, David Johansson, commented:

“After a very long time of hard work, this album is finally ready for release. We couldn’t be more happy with the way it turned out and I really think it is the best Kongh material so far. For our old fans, I am pretty sure it will be well worth the wait and I also think it holds great potential to satisfy a bunch of new listeners. In my opinion, the album is more dynamic and has much more emphasis on melodies than our previous works. At the same time it maintains the harshness and it’s undoubtedly the heaviest slab of metal we’ve done as well.”

More info @

Official Kongh Web
Official Kongh Facebook
Official Kongh Bandcamp

Listen to "Kongh - Skymning" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!