It is with great pleasure that I finally get to announce the release of Stahlhartes Gehäuse. This release brings into fruition the labors of the active live action formation of L’Acéphale. When Tim from Parasitic Records introduced the idea of releasing the Book of Lies ep, the development of a full band followed suit. Stahlhartes Gehäuse is the first selection of songs recorded after the ep as a full band. The title of this release is based on a term associated with the notable Sociologist Max Weber. The Cd release of this album also features a re-mastered version of the Book of Lies ep as a bonus “hidden” 4th track.
The Cd is housed in a deluxe 6 panel Digipack with artwork by Garrett Price and Markus Wolff. It also includes lush 24 page booklet with lyrics and text about the various tracks.
Stahlhartes Gehäuse together with the upcoming release Malefeasance soon available from Aurora Borealis records represent the continued development of the sonic threads that were first developed in the demo Mord Und Totschlag. Together they represent the next step forward for L’Acéphale.
New in-depth L'Acephale interview by Drengskap about Stahlhartes Gehäuse and upcoming Malefeasance cd/dlp on Aurora Borealis:
http://www.heathenharvest.com/article.php?story=20090502214317584
Fenriz from DARKTHRONE made a recent, humbling, blog in response to receiving a copy of Stahlhartes Gehäuse:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=123087153&blogId=484815295
Radical Matters has also recently made available an extensive revision of one of the songs from Malefeasance, Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted available as a free download: http://www.radicalmatters.com/asp/web_editions.asp
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
First review from: AQUARIUS RECORDS - New Arrivals # 319
L'ACEPHALE "Stahlhartes Gehause" (Parasitic) cd
It's taken two years, but L'Acephale have finally returned. This Northwestern black metal horde, whose debut was a massive hit around here, after it mysteriously showed up one day, has risen from the murk once again, dragging an army of decaying flesh with them, hidden from view in the Cascadian forests, the then proceeded to conjure up all manner of sounds and spirits, capturing them only to flay them alive, spread them out beneath a black sun, guts and all, carefully and meticulously crafting the sonic abomination that is this, their second blackened gospel. Another disturbing hybrid of militaristic martial folk, and furious blasting raw blackness, four songs, long songs, the shortest 12 minutes, the longest nearly 25, the opening, a haunting bit of sampled vocals, militaristic percussion, dense drones, haunting chorales, that goes on for nearly six minutes, building the tension, sprawling out like some black military slowly moving machine like toward their next conquest, until finally, the band explode into action, a black cloud of furious buzzing riffage, blasting beats, grunting growling vocals, all wound up into a woozy dizzyingly blasting bit of lurching blackened metal. And then out of nowhere, the buzz and blast drop away, leaving some dark folk, soft strumming, crooned dramatic vocals, moaning violin, the sound definitely reminiscent of Der Blutharsch or Death In June (or perhaps Blood Axis or Waldteufel, seeing as Markus Wolff, one of the drummers, plays in both), gorgeous and languid and darkly haunting, until the rest of the band joins in, splattering the tranquility with chaotic blasts of wild drumming, and more frenetic riffing, finally dropping out, leaving just the sound of wind, and a woman, singing some sort of folks song. Really intense and mysterious. And that's just the first song!
The other three tracks are just as dense and tangled, with sampled soundtracks, to convoluted Deathspell style blackness, laced with haunting acoustic guitars, the band locking into some seriously intense bursts of mathy buzz, languid stretches of string laced dark ambient folk, simple strum, and mournful melodies, soaring epic sounding black doom, majestic and mighty, super chaotic black psychedelia whipped into a frenzy and wrapped around a women's chorus, like some fucked up black metal opera, deep lumbering minimal drones, sprawling out endlessly, beneath strange bits of creak and groan, and deep intoned voices, some sort of incantation, creepy bits of piano parlor music, all wrapped up in, and surrounded by, jagged shards of grim frosty blackened buzz.
A seriously twisted and magickal collection of ritualistik black art, a litany of musical blasphemies, as lovely and mysterious as they are hellish and haunting. A black covenent scrawled in flesh and blood, and rendered in pure audial evil.
Incredible packaging, 6 panel digipak, with a massive booklet, which tons of diagrams, photos, lyrics, liner notes, as well as text about the meaning behind each song.
www.aquariusrecords.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment