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It Came from BandCamp Volume 1

Diamond in the Rough and a Little Coal

By Rip MitchellPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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When doing three hundred and sixty-five albums in three hundred and sixty-five-day challenge I have heard a lot of odd things on the old Bandcamp. So I started to think, hey some of these are pretty good! But not a lot of these get much exposure, so I am starting monthly list and micro-review of a few of my favorite three or four finds from the dredges of Bandcamp!

Seeing that it is October and there for a month of spookiness this months fair is most of the blackened verity if not just the downright weird! This month fair include the works of Master Bood Record avant-guard ambient noise/ambient from Finland, Murena Blacked Sludge metal from Russia, Relm of wolves blackgaze from Hungry and Lunaar black metal from Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

Master Boot Record—'Virus. DOS'

This was a very interesting one, to say the least, but hey Bloodmusic has not lead me wrong so far so let us see if that continues! To start off on this record I never thought I would hear chiptune music used is such a dark yet experimental way, so huge up there for uniqueness. There are some harsher moments on this that sounds right out of an arcade machine with a broken audio port alongside the progressive electronica samples and loops that make this an interesting listen if your ears crave something different. Overall from the music to the packaging, even the Bandcamp page itself is just fun and a refreshing change to all the sad stuff I normally find on there!

Quick rating: B-

Not really my thing, but it was enjoyable enough for a few listens or good background music, would love to see what happens next!

Check it out here for yourself!

Murena—'Extinguish'

These guys came out of nowhere and blew my mind so hard that I might have hit the buy album a bit too aggressively! Murena is a blackened Sludge/Thrash band from Moscow, Russia and if that genre sounds like it doesn’t work together I was thinking the same of it till I hit play. This sound they have is very raw and it even borders on death’n’roll at times, it is a very fast-paced album that hits you right away with black metal thrashing fury! I also noticed after saying raw in no way does this sound underproduced in fact it sounds professional and I could see these guys on a decent label for their next album.

Quick rating: A

Breathtakingly good for an indie release and this album will be on my top thirty of the year for sure!

Check it out here for yourself!

Realm of Wolves—'Shores Of Nothingness'

A pretty low fi affair with the tradition of “gaze” music of having the vocals mixed down very low in the mix. It is a pretty sounding album with shimmering guitars both from electric and the acoustic giving it a very good almost happy feel to the album. It is only three songs and clocks in under fifteen minutes, but it flys by either way as if on a musical cloud of happy tremolo picking and choral backing vocals and synths. All of this added with a seemingly angry old man off in the distant whispering curses of ill omen as you float, it really gives off the vibe that the vocalist is almost envious of the listener's melodic journey while he bathes in his own hell

Quick rating: B

This album is very pretty, but overall very short I see they have more work coming out later this year and look forward to where that goes. This moment in time, I want more and don’t have it, so you get a B while I wait for the extra credit to get the A.

Check it out here for yourself!

Lunaar—'Among the Dead Stars'

This is some flat out no-frills low fi black metal! Sounds like it was recorded in some old abandoned cathedral with one microphone. Which I know most people who like this genre actually love, so good on them for that! They really wear their influences on their sleeves but do the genre justices. In a world of a million black metal subgenres, it is nice to see there are still new bands out there in the bread and butter type of black metal out there keeping it going. For what it is the guitar tone is solid and the drums in the background sound right at home slightly faded in the back. The bass was either not present or was at least not turned on in the mixing process as I can all but not hear it, vocals are dissonant and work really well in context soaked in reverb. This is a real quick hitter two song ep with no-nonsense, they get in to say what they want to say and get out in under fifteen minutes.

Quick rating: C+

Good for what it is but I have heard this band before

Check it out here for yourself!

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About the Creator

Rip Mitchell

Lead singer of the band Vesuvian, lover of the metals, horror movies and grower of beards!

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