Some reviews which our CD’s have gotten thus far.
More reviews from our artists’ releases coming on this page soon as we collect them!
Review for 4 way split (between TOMB, Amorte, Panther Modern and Black Albatross) from AVANT-GARDE METAL.COM : (click me i am a url for the review)
Finally it arrives: the debut release from Esto Perpetua Records a new black/noise/experimental label out of New Brunswick,USA. It is founded by a individual of profound insight and bizarre talents, Saqib Malik (Sifr, Corpsepyre).
It is four way split between some of the bands on the label. I had heard 2 of the mentioned bands, T.O.M.B and Black Albatross, already and was expecting great things. I was not dissapointed.
Things start off on a suitably ferocious note with T.O.M.B and the industro-black blast of "Spiritual Dominance". Raw vocals over a fast yet dirge-like backdrop of noisy guitars and strange drum sounds (is it a drum machine or a guy with a hammer and auto parts ?). The second track "Rekindle the Essence of Death" is where the slow motion decay of the band makes greatest impact. Tribal beats and morose chords clang together with the bile of the vocals to great and trance inducing effect. But this is not a complacent trance as very eerie choir like noises in the background keep the proceeding on this side of edgy. Its like the soundtrack to bio-mechanical sacrifice to a decaying cyborg god.The 3rd track is closer to more typical noise fare with loud echoey drums and vocals making up the over-amplified wall of noise. The last T.O.M.B track ends on a calmer (illbient ?) moment of industrial regression.
This leads to what is undoubtedly the highlights of the CD, the two offerings from Black Albatross. These 2 tracks build on the debut album The Green Wall, and end up being something anyone who claims to be into any kind of experimental metal must hear. The first is brain-altering cover of "Freezing Moon". To say that the song goes places is an understatement. From the recognizable intro riffing (albeit in hypnotizing almost industrial setting)to the wall-of-noise climaxes (which threaten to overhelm the listener) this touches nerves and is sure to be a point of contention amongst the kvlt brigade. I found myself coming back to this awesome interpretation again and again. The second track is a original that shows the dichomy of Black Albatross : machine like rhythms and very odd noises (maybe some guitars?) leading tot he wall of noise hyper blast. The most disquieting bit is the last part of the song with the very odd-frequencied noise that causes a very eerie and negative feeling in the listener. A good metaphor would be David Lynch doing indsutrial black metal.
Panther Modern is the closest thing on this release to noise artists. But even here, there is sense of structure, as the minimal frequencies phase in and out canceling or resonating each other to create new periodic cycles. Mostly it sounds like it was composed using bad cables, cheap amps and the joys of feedback. These are the 2 tracks that I wimped out on, being the closet traditionalist at heart.
Amorte continued the more experimental theme but was way more interesting and the two tracks probably scared the shit out of my neighbors. It has calm moments of speech samples and stream of consciousness in sea of ambient noise which gets ripped apart by distorted screams that are pure waves of nihilistic fury. The odd vocalizations elevate this to the stratosphere and the technique keeps it there.
The production on all 4 sections compliments the dark and oppressive nature of the music but does not ever go to incoherent extremes (though it pretty much touches all other extremes).
So all in all,this is a great release showing some of the dark edges of the land where black metal and noise meet. 3 of the 4 bands here have something I found invigoratingly original, and even the one I will not come back to often (Panther Modern)is merely due to my in ability in understanding more open ended noise.
But mark my words: the label is headed for legendary status. Hand numbered 666 copies only, so get ordering directly from the label site.
Suleiman
Review for Black Albatross’ Ether album ( In POLISH!) from Atmosphere Magazine ( here is the url for the review)
if you know this language and would like to translate this review for us, please do so! email us at blackalbatross@gmail.com
Czasami żałuję, że nie zostałem psychologiem. Może wybór tego zawodu pozwoliłby mi wgryźć się w psychikę szalonych muzycznych twórców. W razie stwierdzenia namacalnego zagrożenia, jeden telefon na ulicę Babińskiego w Krakowie i osadzamy delikwenta w ośrodku dla zagubionych umysłowo... Uratowałbym tym na pewno kilka ludzkich istnień, kto wie, co taki jeden albo drugi wariat może zrobić normalnemu obywatelowi spacerującemu spokojnie po ulicy? BLACK ALBATROSS czyli, jak mniemam, Czarny Albatros to projekt psychodeliczny, czy jak wolicie, eksperymentalny. Nie wiem, czy ten Albatros odnosi się do organizacji chroniącej prawa zwierząt, czy co? Wiem natomiast jedno, nie jest to muzyka dla mnie. Nie jestem Salvadorem Dali ani Albertem Einsteinem, nie wiem i nie chcę wiedzieć, co ktoś w „Ether” widzi lub słyszy. Dla mnie osobiście to bełkot naćpanego popaprańca. Jeśli macie zamiar siupać amfę i podniecać się swoimi wizjami przy dźwiękach BLACK ALBATROSS, to proszę bardzo. [Sabian]
TOMB: MACABRE NOIZE ROYALE (TODESTRIEB RECORDS UK, SUMMER 2008) ( LINK )
“Holy Fuck!” That’s all I could say after listening to this album for the first time. After flipping through the latest batch of CD’s Heathen Harvest sent me I was immediately drawn to the striking cover art of this album, and after reading the press release info that was included I was instantly throwing it into my stereo. This is the first full-length album by T.O.M.B. (Total Occultic Mechanical Blasphemy), taking just under five years to record. How it was recorded though is where it really starts to get interesting. Several illegal spots were chosen (Bethlehem Steel Works, Eden Hall Church, Laurel Hill Cemetery, and Lambertville High School), all of which have nefarious histories of death, arson, and destruction. Large steel rods were brought to these spots and used to beat out the pounding rhythms and ambient sounds that worm their way through the extremely lo-fi and layered black metal found through out the album. Check out this video to check out some of what went on in during the recordings. It seems like one man is behind the ideas and direction of the album, bringing in a slew of musicians to flesh out the “songs“.
The first track “The Inauguration” sounds almost like power electronics with deep sub-pulsing bass and field recording ambience laying the foundation for some throat-slitting vocals. Instantly you are thrown from the electronics heavy first track, into the pure black metal filth of the second song “Immitis”. While there are some more “normal” sounding black metal songs through out the album, rest assured that each one of them is full of filthy noise, heavily effected vocals, and a lo-fi “room ambience” production quality.
The guitars are heavy, straight forward, noisy as fuck, and just a little sloppy. The drumming is tight and lightning fast (no triggers here!). Songs like the sixth track “Fog Ritual” are my favorites. These combine the field recording aspects, power electronics like noise, and some unique bass heavy, doom laden black metal (is that a fucking amen beat I hear!?!). All in all this is a really unique band with a wide variety of ideas offered in the span of just 40 minutes. Always an unrelenting atmosphere, and full of hate. Highly recommended!
- A.Q., Heathen Harvest
Interview with Saquib M Malik (one of the owners/operators of EP records) on the Pakistani metal site METAL SEINEN(click to go there)
the url for the interview is http://metalseinen.com/blog/archives/331
What drove you to start Esto Perpetua Records and who is the brains behind it?
I started esto perpetua records for a number of reasons. The first and most important was that every label I had worked with (through Black Albatross and T.O.M.B.) was simply inadequate. . . release dates were always getting pushed back, there were a shitload of empty words and promises, we were not actually being promoted or anything, it was a waste of time and effort. It is useless to ally yourself with someone who does not know how to help you. The one label that has not disappointed, Todestrieb Records in the UK (for T.O.M.B.) is an excellent label and in fact works as a distributor for Esto Perpetua in the UK and vice versa. Also, at war with false noise from Scotland is an awesome label who have stuck behind my other project Panther Modern and released a bunch of stuff from us.
So, because most labels I had worked with were pathetic, I said fuck it, I am going to start my own fucking label! Another reason I started Esto Perpetua Records was that I wanted to be able to control every single aspect of my work, especially the art and how it is produced… I also wanted to be in a position to help put out music from other bands and bands I like. I really wanted to put out Pakistani bands in the U.S… People in the U.S. think Pakistan has no metal… they have a strange reaction when you tell them Pakistan has extreme metal and some really talented bands. So that was another part of it… to spread (either as a distributor or as a full label) Pakistani extreme metal bands out here… I consider all my projects to be Pakistani and when people ask where it is from, that’s what I say. And it kills them! I like that feeling.
I was also driven to start this label by the prospect of it being a home for every medium of madness… I am also a film maker (I produced that TOMB-black crypt worship video for example) and I work with spray paint/stencils and do logo design… so, aside from music, Esto Perpetua puts out art in the form of prints, photographs, and posters , is in the process of putting together some fucking sick films, and also printed text i.e. books.
So in the end it was really a combination of all these different factors and the opportunity to spread my infection and shove it down people’s throats that made me start this label… The brains behind it are myself and my two band members from T.O.M.B. and Panther Modern, Brian Zimmerman and J. Gannon.
What problems did you face while you were working on the label? Was it difficult, being in the US, a foreign country and all?
Problems? Hundreds, thousands! Above, below, to the right, the left…Everything has been a problem… Starting and operating this label sucks your life away… the inexhaustible supply of problems that the world presents is too much… The decision to have complete artistic control over every aspect of this label has meant that everything has to be perfect. The first difficulties were teaching myself everything that was pre-requisite to the job. This involved learning and creating (every aspect of) web design as far as designing a website and maintaining it. It involved registering the company and going through the entire associated legal processes involved. It involved getting our CDs into actual stores here in the U.S., talking to distributors, promoting these releases, talking to magazines, being at shows, talking to bands, being an accountant, and fifty million other things… the list is endless… So the difficulties were learning how to run and maintain the label, and these were all very new to me, seeing as to that in school my education has focused on biochemistry and scientific research. So as you can imagine trying to figure out how to run a business like this has been a really big change from what I know about the world!
And problems that were BECAUSE I am in the U.S? Well, I am 5000 miles from home and so I am really homesick. I am in a foreign fucking country. It is obviously something that is very, very difficult. But at the same time, a lot of things are easier to get done here than they would be in Pakistan… in some ways there is more infrastructure at the disposal of the entrepreneur and that makes life easier!
Is your label strictly dedicated to metal?
No. We are actually working with a bunch of artists who at may seem like they have nothing to do with metal; mostly noise and ambient artists. In my personal opinion there are times when noise is more metal than metal itself. Also, there is a lot of metal we don’t want anything to do with, for example “folk” metal, “power” metal, and so on. Metal is still the most basic and fundamental philosophy I espouse here ( if you can call metal a philosophy/ I can). Black metal is the poison of choice at Esto Perpetua records.
Do you believe Esto Perpetua Records, among other such endeavors of yours, may serve as motivation for people in Pakistan?
Hahahahah. Not really. There is not much in it to be inspired by.
What is your relation with GMH Records?
Shaheryar Shaukat Popalzai is my good friend and GMH records is going to destroy Pakistan and young people’s minds. GMH is a very well thought out label that will rise to great heights… I am a huge supporter and as much as I can, I am lending my support to GMH records in their plan for world domination! This is something that I wanted to do when I was in Pakistan and even started to do it, but nothing ever officially saw the light of day (though there was a bunch of secret underground recordings I put out through my little label ‘grindwork productions’), So I am really happy that GMH is the first to really do this. A couple years ago Babar Shaikh was going to put out a CD full of Pakistani extreme metal, called “rise of the eastern blood,” which really excited me and which me and him spoke about around 100000000 million times… rise of the eastern blood ended up being dusk, an indian band, and a Bengali band (or so I heard)… I thought that was sort of sad, going from all Pakistani bands to that. So I am fucking excited and happy that GMH has begun and is going to put music out!!! I can not wait for the ‘underground chaos’ CD coming out! Its going to kick ass!
Esto Perpetua records will be a US distributor for GMH records and their releases will be available through us, and they will also be available in a number of metal specialty stores throughout the U.S.
Pakistani band, Reclamation, got featured on CNN and bands like Odyssey have finally put us on the world map. What is your take on the current scene in Pakistan?
I actually don’t really know Odyssey… or Reclamation… I just looked at the last.fm page of odyssey and see that I know half the members but I can not say I have heard their music…!
What do I think of the scene in Pakistan? I am not completely sure… I haven’t been there in a while or heard much out of it. What I have heard from friends in Lahore and Karachi is that there aren’t really a lot of shows going on and most bands are not especially active… Is this correct? I think the scene is good in that there are a lot of smart and talented musicians in it… yet it does not seem to really break out of Pakistan enough or in the right way… I think too many people are into progressive rock/metal and dream theatre and so its boring and the rest of the world doesn’t give a shit.
Bands in Pakistan tend to release singles instead of albums hence, things tend to be less cohesive compared to the scene in India. What would be your advise for the metal musicians in Pakistan?
Well writing an album is completely different from writing songs. Writing an album requires deep thought, time, patience, and it is very difficult. It is a much more engaging process than writing a new song for your next show. My advice to those who wish to write an album? Before you even pick up an instrument to make a sound, think, THINK, THINK, THINK… very deeply. About what you are trying to do or say… Don’t say, “we wanna write thrash metal like Sodom”, or “death metal like cannibal corpse”…. That’s dumb and I think half the underground metal bands in Pakistan are just blatantly ripping off other extreme metal bands they have heard… Stop being influenced by other music to a point where you are fucking unoriginal! And avoid reliance on technical complexity to make up for lack of compositional skill… take a deep toke… and step back and look at your work from a detached, absolutely objective point of view. And be fucking honest with yourself. If something is crap, its fucking crap. So throw it out and start over again.
Do you have any Pakistani bands in mind that you would like to see signed to your label?
Yes! Of course! Absolutely! FUCK YEAH! One of them is Utuk Xul (feat. Salman Mumtaz), another of them is DISEMBODIED (feat. Aneeq Zaman), BURZUKH (feat. Suleiman Akber), NOKTURNAL RUST (Karachi), SETH (from Lahore, remember them?! ) and then so many more… I would really like to somehow sign and release Babar Shaikh’s project Aufgang as well.
I really loved Autopsy Gothic, Nocturnal Rust, Dusk, etc. I am putting out Utuk Xul and Disembodied sometime later this year.
Any last words?
Yes: there is some awesome stuff coming out on Esto Perpetua in the coming weeks! On the next album out (FURY NOCTURNUS) , T.O.M.B. is actually doing a song using field recordings collected at the grave of the Mayhem guitarist Euronymous, and Hellhammer is playing drums on it. This will be released as a single aside from the album sometime in mid-late July. Also, T.O.M.B/black albatross vocalist J. Gannon is singing a couple of songs with Mayhem ( from De Mysteriis era) in New York city at the Fillmore on May 21st so if you have any readers in the U.S., come out and see it! And it will probably be uploaded on the EP website soon after that.
Other than that, thank you for asking me to do this interview and being interested in EP records! Our music will very soon be available in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad at least. If anyone knows how I could get this music somehow into Quetta as well, please feel free to contact me!