Deep Blue at Myspace

If there’s one continent mysteriously underrepresented in the metal world, it’s Antarctica. It should be a metal paradise – cold, brutal, isolated, and so mythic. Hell, if you go down there to have a jam session, your sound waves will cause all sorts of mayhem – you’ll crack ice, cause avalanches, and scare polar bears. On the other hand, Deep Blue apparently want a haven from the restrictive drug laws of the rest of the world. I mean, who doesn’t want to smoke doobies with their friends in a bleak, primordial world?

I don’t know if Deep Blue aspire to much more than that. Antarctic Abyss is a short little album, comprised of two 13-minute songs. You know the drill – fuzzy guitars playing slow, psychedelic riffs throughout. The riffs are gigantic, lasting 45 seconds before they start repeating. And they’re kind of cool, but neither of the main riffs is cool enough to merit 13 minutes of devotion. They might be saved by some interesting accompaniment, be it sweet solos or brutal lyrics, but instead we only get the occasional wah-laden guitar flourish and lyrics about how damn cold it is. They’re lucky ‘deep’ kind of rhymes with ‘freeze’, or they’d have nothing to say at all.

Now, when I’m getting blazed, I like a little stoner metal, but I’d rather hear fast, fancy riffs that would send the average stoney baloney running for the hills. But the bands I do like (Sleep, Bongripper, Earth, etc) are repetitive, yet still keep me intrigued throughout. This gets a lot of comparisons to Sleep, but it ain’t the real thing.

Forest Silence at Myspace

Forests. Silence. Winter. Philosophy. Of. Never before have those five words been arranged so fittingly. This album is all about winter. Summer ain’t got shit on winter, bitch. Winter’s got frostbitten motherfuckers all up in your PIECE. Winter’s the fucking bomb. Winter’s ice cold, motherfucker. You don’t fuck with winter. The guy who made this, you know his name? That’s right, motherfucker. Winter.

These are some of the coldest 35 minutes ever recorded. Every song feels like the Grinch pushing your head under a bath of crushed ice. The album marches along to a suffocating drum beat, accompanied by endless tremello picking and the occasional ethereal synth interlude to break any monotony. Winter’s vocals are nothing remarkable, but they’re right for the job. A crackled, distant growl, he sounds like he’s got a sore throat from spending all winter in silent philosophical forests.

If there’s a problem with this album, which there is because I just started the sentence with “If there’s a problem with this album”, it’s that it’s all a little samey. Each track does a tremendous job of sounding distant and cold and all, but that’s it. There’s emotion throughout, but it’s nothing beyond “woah guys, sure is cold eh?”. Not that that’s really such an issue, since there’s only five tracks anyway and they’re all enjoyable enough despite being very similar to one another.

But yeah, anyway. This album is good and I would recommend it. The atmosphere is tremendous. It does a really brilliant job of sounding nice and cold and frostbitten without being intimidatingly raw. The synth really enhances the music without making it sound gay, which is an achievement. Check it out.

(Click Album Cover for Preview Tracks)
Coldworker at Myspace

So in 2005, Anders Jakobson began writing demos for what could eventually become the first Coldworker album, “The Contaminated Void.” Once “The Contaminated Void” was released, it was clear that Anders wasn’t really done with Nasum. “The Contaminated Void” was full of sheer brutality, speed, technicality, and fury but on their newest record, “Rotting Paradise,” Coldworker actually slowed down a bit, think Zyklon’s “Disintegrate” when compared to “World Ov Worms”, and full of groove.

“Rotting Paradise” at times reminds me a bit of Arch Enemy at times due to the solos and the melody now present in “Rotting Paradise” but the brutality and the speed is still pure Coldworker. The album is a huge step up because it shows a side of “Death/Grind” that hasn’t been seen in a long time, not since Carcass’ “Heartwork.” This is really a great album and one that will really play well live when Coldworker performs. So look for this album and look for them on tour and prepare to come out bruised!