Music

Album Review: Istapp ‘Blekinge’

Published

14 years ago

June 12, 2010

Here’s a little bit about Istapp to get you to understand what kind of album I’m reviewing: These guys are from Sweden, their name translates to ‘icicle’ and they define their musical style as black metal. Okay, so let’s reword those three facts: A Swedish black metal band whose name is synonymous with winter and sharp, pointy objects. Yeah, I know EXACTLY what I’m getting into. If you’re into black metal, so should you. But how does this fare against all the other black metal releases that come out? Well, you know the drill! Check out after the jump!

The album starts off with ‘Vinterriket’ (which, if I’m correct, translates to ‘Winter Kingdom’), a track that, as heavy as it is, never lets go of melody. There is nothing exactly technically impressive or mind-boggling about any of the instrumentation but that’s what makes it so satisfying: You can just sit back, listen and enjoy. Immediately, I noticed how old-school this song sounded. Something about the production. Something about the composition. I can’t explain it, but it brings up a sense of nostalgia and is very comforting. It’s almost as if Istapp managed to record using old 90’s studio equipment and yet still got a solid sounding album out of the process. But I digress: ‘Vinterriket’ has great melodies, a solid hook and, if I were able to speak Swedish, I’d be singing along. The music is also very light-hearted (as much as a black metal song can be). This is something I noticed throughout the rest of the album: The music doesn’t sound evil or sound like it was meant to inspire fear and unease in the listener.

The production, as stated above, has a very old school feel to it. The guitars sound like they were recorded through old tube amps. You guitarists know the kind I’m talking about: The ones that become holy grails rather than paperweights. The bass sits very nicely in the mix and compliments the guitars perfectly. The drums sound perfectly fine but are nothing to exactly write home about. The vocals are well done as singer Mordechai von Renvaktar shifts from growling screams to clean, almost folk-esque chants. The additional elements (bells, strings, keys, etc…) are sparsely placed but are beautiful additions to the album.

It’s an absolute pleasure to hear music that reminds me of the old days of black metal but as much as I enjoy this album, it doesn’t exactly bring anything terribly original to the table. Still, I highly recommend this to fans of the black metal genre or for people who are looking to get a black metal album that doesn’t sound completely evil (musically).

4 out of 5 skulls

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

2 weeks ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…