Release: 21 January 2014
Formats: CD/LP/Digital
Chicago’s blackened noise nihilists return to scene with their 4th full length album ‘From All Purity’. On ‘From All Purity’ Indian take their infamously hateful aggression to new levels of despair. Now augmented with an even keener sense of harsh noise, all the trademark elements of Indian’s sound have been refined to reach new lows of powerful and punishing anguish. This is the opposite of easy listening.
Formed in 2003, the band's debut EP, God Slave, was a self-released mission statement, welcoming the band into the world like young, kicking, screaming giants. Following this release, Indian’s first three records – The Unquiet Sky, Slights and Abuse, and The Sycophant, respectively – were all issued through Portland, OR based metal label Seventh Rule Recordings. Each of these releases found the band gaining momentum and attracting followers, as well as performing shows with bands such as Wolves in the Throne Room, Locrian, and Agalloch.
After being signed to Relapse Records in 2010, Indian began to diligently craft their third full-length, knowing that, this time around, all eyes were on them. Not only did the band live up to their fans’ lofty expectations, but they also achieved a massive critical breakthrough. Guiltless was released in 2011 to rave reviews. The Chicagoist described the album as “a musical journey into the mouth of teeth-rattling metal madness,” while Metal Hammer simply called it “pretty much an essential album.”
Fans were also impressed, gathering to soak up the band’s feverish rays of doom on tour across the country. The band performed shows with High on Fire, Batillus, and Yob, translating their recorded sounds into a murky, devilish live show. Such performances confirmed Indian as one of the most exciting metal acts making music today, recalling an era in which the genre felt truly new, bursting with energy and untapped potential. Or, as Revolver puts it, “Nothing has sounded more genuinely evil and distressing in a long time.” All hail Indian.
RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE: Grief, Eyehategod, Buzzoven, Sunn0))), High On Fire, Khanate
Links:
Indian on FacebookIndian on BandcampCULTED - Oblique to All Paths
Release: 21 January 2014
Formats: CD/2xLP/Digital
Info/Bio:
CULTED’s story is a unique one: Since forming in 2007, the four band members have never actually been in the same room. Spread out over multiple countries and continents, they come together through the wonders of modern technology to create totally compelling top of the line doom. Michael Klassen (guitar/bass/percussion/noise), Matthew Friesen (guitar/bass/percussion/noise) and Kevin Stevenson (drums) all grew up in a small town in the middle of the Canadian prairies, while Daniel Jansson (vocals/ambience) makes his home in Gothenburg, Sweden.
After hearing Jansson’s Deadwood project, Klassen contacted him through his MySpace page to see if he'd be interested in collaborating on his and Friesen's other band, Of Human Bondage. While emailing back and forth, the guys discovered they had mutual interests in groups like Khanate, Sunn O))) and Electric Wizard and Jansson suggested they put together a whole new project of slow, blackened metal. By recording and sending files from different parts of the world, the band was able to assemble and unleash their first album, Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep, in 2009.
Now, the band is preparing to put forth their second full-length album, “Oblique To All Paths”. While CULTED’s writing and recording process may be unusual, and a story unto itself, it certainly should not overshadow what this band has accomplished---creating a bleak and epic masterpiece of dystopian doom. The album has received praise for its wide ranging vision and stunning execution, with The Obelisk noting its innovation and calling it “a work of darkly sublime genius”. All Music Guide asserts that the bleak, oppressive tones make "a fitting soundtrack for a post-apocalyptic landscape of ruin." Cinematic in its scope, ‘Oblique To All Paths’ is a beautifully haunting and grim piece of sprawling doom metal—the perfect soundtrack to a desolate, barren winter.
RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE: Winter, Unearthly Trance, Cough, Yob, Sunn0)))
Links:
Culted on FacebookCulted on Bandcamp
CULTED
