2013 Chronicle (Year in review) part 6 - Best of May 2013

May 1 - Geezer (Gage EP)

May 2 - Ten Foot Wizard (ST)

May 3 - Procession (To Reap Heavens Apart)

May 7 - APE MACHINE (Mangled By the Machine) - By this point in the year, the Ripple Music machine was really rolling and it was impossible not to get mangled by it.  If this album was just a hefty stoner record of no inconsiderable girth, it would be notable simply for how good it is.  But that it was recorded in a single take, front to back with no pauses between songs, makes it an essential listen.  Original review here.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "Gun You Down" and "Angry Man".  Rating 5/5

May 10 - MAGISTER TEMPLI (Lucifer Leviathan Logos) - Old school metal combined with doom and occult / esoteric references set the foundation for this Norwegian quintet.  This was one of the more satisfying and memorable albums of the style released in 2013.  Anyway, it`s hard to go wrong with that mix of influences, Magister Templi concocted a killer potion indeed here.  Original review here.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "Master of the Temple" and "The Innsmouth Look".  Rating 4/5

May 10 - SHALLOW GRAVE (ST) - This Auckland quartet released one of the most addictive albums of the year.  It was brutal, sludgy and doomy with droney passages which played out like time spent tied to a chair in a shed or basement waiting for the next round of torture to begin.  This album is a rare combination of dark and aggressive.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "Chemical Fog" and "Nameless Chants".  Rating 4.5/5

May 12 - MAMMOTH STORM (Demo 2013) - This apocalyptically heavy trio must have emerged from deep inside a snow filled caldera.  One day Mammoth Storm and Salem's Pot are going to tickle fight to see who is Sweden's heaviest band.  All us mortals the world over will be destroyed in their convulsive jocularity.  No happy endings here, just mass.  Original review here.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "Volcanic Winter" and "Ancient Apocalypse".  Rating 5/5

May 14 - KADAVAR (Abra Kadavar) - German retro rockin' trio Kadavar's rise was a meteoric one.  Within the space of a single year the band went from one that few outside their home territory knew about to releasing a six song album with polyrhythmic structures to being signed by Nuclear Blast and releasing a streamlined straight up hard rock record and becoming everybody's favorite buzz band.  Original review here.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "Fire" and "Doomsday Machine".  Rating 4.5/5

May 14 - UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS (Mind Control) - UK quartet Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats (named after a band former Cactus vocalist Rusty Day formed shortly before his murder) came out of their shell this year, conducting interviews and releasing promo group shots at the behest of their new label Rise Above Records.  They also made their live debut at the Roadburn Festival (!!! [that's some venue for a debut performance]) and later toured the UK with no lesser personages than Black Sabbath themselves.  Most importantly they released their third album and all-important follow-up to 2011's terrific 'Blood Lust' which had scored the band significant underground buzz.  As always of course, opinions were split on the creative success of the record with the majority falling victim to the album's deadly charisma.  Original review here.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "Mt. Abraxas" and "Mind Crawler".  Rating 4.5/5

May 15 - CULTURA TRES (Rezando Al Miedo) - South American sludge heroes Cultura Tres had a great year, signing to Devouter Records in late 2012, then successfully touring Europe shortly before releasing this terrific album.  Hooky, heavy & haunting, the album took Alice in Chains style harmonies and dragged them through the sludge.  'Rezando al Miedo' was one if the great albums and one of the great creative leaps forward for any band this year.  Original review here.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "La Ley Del Dolor" and "Hole In Your Head".  Rating 4.5/5

May 15 - Kings Destroy (A Time of Hunting)

May 17 - Evangelist (Doominicanes)

May 21 - A Pale Horse Named Death (Lay My Soul To Waste)

May 21 - ROTE MARE (The Invocation & The Kingdom) - It's not easy hearing someone pour their guts out on record but when the net results are an airtight split and a stellar pair of full-length albums it becomes a little easier to handle.  Sifting through the entrails reveals gem upon gem and any stretching of creativity expands to new heights, never thinning out.  Traditional doom never sounded so passionate.  Original review here.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "Suicidal Slayer" and "The Thief".  Rating 4.5/5

May 24 - Steak (Corned Beef Colossus)

May 24 - Vidunder (ST)

May 27 - BLOOD CEREMONY (The Eldritch Dark) - Canadian quartet Blood Ceremony's much anticipated third album came out of left field with a folk / doom tidal wave of top notch storytelling with more than ample memorable moments to match.  A decidedly more colorful record than their previous effort 'Living With The Ancients', 'The Eldritch Dark' has been a mainstay in my Top 10 records of the year since its release.  Original review here.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "Goodbye Gemini" and "Witchwood".  Rating 4.5/5

May 28 - Age of Taurus (Desperate Souls of Tortured Times)

May 28 - ALICE IN CHAINS (The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here) - Alice in Chains's second album since their 2009 resurrection was simply more of what you've come to expect from the grungy legends.  It's a great album, full of hooks and harmonies, big metal poses and faux cowboy ballads.  The thing I like about it most is that it exists.  Original review here.  Get it here.  Highlights include: "Stone" and "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here".  Rating 4.5/5

May 30 - Witches of God (The Blood of Others)


Best Album From April 2013:
'The Eldritch Dark' by BLOOD CEREMONY

Best Song From April 2013:
"Mind Crawler" by UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS

PARANOID Thoughts:

And the award for record label of the year goes to: Rise Above Records.  Forget that the label is currently embroiled in a minor controversy with all-world label signees Electric Wizard, 2013 ought to be remembered for the consistently high quality of the label's output.  Everything the label released was awesome and each album that came out seemed to be better than the last.  Any one of the albums listed below would have been at or near the top of any other label's best releases list for the year, the fact that label head honcho Lee Dorrian managed to rush them all out the door in the space of a single year makes you wonder whether the anti-trust lawyers won't be coming after him some day soon.

Top 10 Rise Above Records released albums from 2013:
1). Iron Man - 'South of the Earth'
2). Blood Ceremony - 'The Eldritch Dark'
3). Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - 'Mind Control'
4). Horisont - 'Time Warriors'
5). Cathedral - 'The Last Spire'
6). Moss - 'Horrible Night'
7). Church of Misery - 'Thy Kingdom Scum'
8). Age of Taurus - 'Desperate Souls of Tortured Times'
9). The Hidden Masters - 'Of This & Other Worlds'
10). Purson - 'The Circle & the Blue Door'
Last year's winner: Small Stone Records.

Rote Mare - The Invocation & The Kingdom (album reviews)

Cover artwork by Sean Wiskin (guitars)

I don't know how or where Phil Howlett, the original member and leader of the band came up with the name Rote Mare, but it sounds to me like a recurring nightmare, committed to memory, beat for beat, moment for moment.  That's as good a description of the band's spot-on traditional doom sound as one could come up with.  Moody, downtuned devil's third riffs and plodding drums with pleading, hopeless vocals just about sum it up and hit the nail right on the head of this beloved genre.  If slow, monumental doom is your bag, then say hello to 'The Invocation'.  If galloping and graceful doom, powerful and sleek like a panther is more your bag, shake hands with 'The Kingdom'.  Either way, you won't be disappointed, but I warn you, if you listen to them both at once ... it's almost too big a dose for the system to take and you'll get addicted right away.

The Invocation and The Kingdom are albums that are available separately but go together like green eggs and ham.  The covers connect and they were both recorded and released at once so, for all intents and purposes, this is a double album and that's how I'll be referring to it from now on.  All told this ostensible double album provides over two full hours of darkness.  Even then, played back to back, it's still not enough.  I crave more and more from this band due to my recently acquired drowning addiction.  Turning over pillows and couch cushions digging for loose change so that I can hear more.  Checking the dumpsters.  You hear a deep wail in the background and seek its source hoping to find the Rote Mare only to discover it's electrical and ambient hum from a neighboring building generator.  Shaking out the toaster, running in circles, pulling my hair out until it's all I can think about, more, MORE!  Luckily, Rote Mare does have more.  In fact, they have hours and hours of music available on their bandcamp page (see player below) and their own website with which to feed yours and my new found addiction.

Officially, these two albums represent the band's second and third full-length efforts, respectively, but as I touched on, Phil Howlett has been writing and recording voraciously for the better part of a decade as Rote Mare and the full line-up has been recording with him for nearly half that time so the band may be new to many, but they already have an established and mature sound which is explored brilliantly in two parts with 'The Invocation' covering the Rote Mare's slower more menacing side and 'The Kingdom' running on some more quick-firing cylinders, but also exploring the slower territory as well.

'The Invocation' begins with opening track "The Kingdom", just as 'The Kingdom' album ends with album closer "The Invocation", a tongue in cheek reference to the ambitious nature of this project that is neither a true double album nor features a concept or narrative thread in any way.  Nor in fact did Rote Mare intend on releasing this overwhelming helping of doom all in one sitting.  The material was recorded while the band had the opportunity with the intention of releasing a single album and having a glut of material at the ready for any single and / or split releases that might crop up in the future.  Enthusiasm and conviction took care of those plans however as the decision was made to just get it all out at once.  Well, those feelings are well founded.  As was touched upon earlier, by far the slowest songs or more accurately, more somber moods of the bunch are found on 'The Invocation'. Songs like "The Stones of Blood" and especially "Nothing" grind listeners down like pepper in a shaker within their often morose vibes.  The latter track establishes its presence as the album's centerpiece with its 14 minute dirge which brings out the often discussed "goth-tinge" in Howlett's vocals.  It suits the mood of the song hand in glove.

'The Kingdom' is mostly made up of six tracks cut from the cloth of classic traditional doom in all its greasy riff chugging glory.  The album is perhaps exemplified by "The Thief" with its stalker's pace although "Shameless" sticks in the mind also with its memorably pleading refrain, "Suffers no guilt!".  "Suicidal Slayer" springs across the speakers like an annihilation wave and gallops all over the listener, a relatively quick burst at six minutes in length that just may be the best song of the whole bunch.

The main crux of the two albums comprises 11 songs altogether, but there are 14 tracks here with a pair of covers, one for each album.  'The Invocation' features "Holocaust" by 70s "should-have-been-huge-stars-but-were-criminally-ignored" legends Big Star while 'The Kingdom' has "Destroyer" by "tore-congress-a-new-one-when-they-were-supposed-to-be-just-dumb-rockers-who-couldn't-think-and-couldn't-speak" Twisted Sister.  Due to permission issues the songs are available on the CD versions of these albums only and are not available on the bandcamp download.  Both CDs can be purchased as a combo for 15 Australian dollars from the band's website.  Some confusion enters the mix by the inclusion of a bonus track at the end of 'The Invocation' called "Eternal Winter".  It's an older song, originally recorded by the newly minted Rote Mare lineup back in 2009 (Rote Mare started as Phil Howlett's solo project back in 2005 or thereabouts).  It's not clear whether this is a download only bonus track or if it's available on the CD version of the album as well.  It's also not clear whether or not this is a brand new recording, but it is of excellent sound quality as is everything else on this double album.

I can already tell that this is something that I'll be going back to for a long, long time to come.  Rote Mare also has a recent split with Dire Fate which I have coming in the mail along with the two albums featured here today.  It was released just a couple months before these two.  The download of Rote Mare's half of the split from the band's own bandcamp page has a bonus three demos as well.  This is the band that keeps on giving.

Highlights include: "The Serpent" and "The Thief"

Rating: 4.5/5

Total Run Time: 1:06:07

Phil Howlett - Guitar, Vocals
Ben Dodunski - Drums
Sean Wiskin - Guitar
Jess Erceg - Bass

From: Adelaide, Australia

Genre: Traditional Doom Metal

Reminds me of: Cathedral, Echo and the Bunnymen (vocals), The Gates of Slumber, Paradise Lost

Release Date: May 21, 2013

Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: Hook up an old portable TV to a tombstone with jumper cables ...

Rote Mare facebook

Total Run Time: 1:04:58

** Very special thanks to Steph LS from Temple of Perdition for recommending Rote Mare.