The BAZ Underground ABC – III

This young article is growing and it’s a way to show to you some bands, that sometimes pass thru us and we never have the change to listen to.

For today the chosen letter was T, so let us see how creative our team of writers got this week.

Band: Torpor

T is for… Torpor

London, England’s Torpor are a sludge metal band I discovered via their excellent Sludgelord Records release from last year “Rhetoric of the Image”. The band now comprising the three founding members Lauren Mason (bass), Jon Taylor (guitar/ vocals), Simon Mason (drums) were for sometime a four piece with the addition of Nats Spada on lead vocals. You can enjoy her more hardcore-infused approach on the band’s debut full-lengh “From Nothing Comes Everything”. read more

As a three piece the band have gone in a more atmospheric direction, though a constant is the crushing heaviness, via some great pounding percussion and savage guitar tones. Always centered around brutal, lumbering heaviness you’ll discover that the latest album offers some interesting contrast with a couple of more eerily minimal tracks, while the debut is more relentlessly battering. Also worth mentioning (though the band seem to want to forget it) is the band’s debut EP, which you can download for free here from bandcamp. You can hear in the early stages they were still working out their sound, but I thoroughly enjoy everything they’ve done and it’s interesting to hear how their sound has developed. If you like sludge metal you need to get on board with Torpor. Tom

Band: Thy Light

Thy Light for me is a place I go where no words are necessary. The atmosphere is introspective, sometimes brutal, straight forward truth in the lyrics. An honest expression of the unspoken. Is one member only, Paolo Bruno from Limeira, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Genre is depressive black metal, but transcending, allowing for a freedom from the stresses of the world.
First demo was “Suici.De.pression” (2007), the intro, “Introduction to My End”, full of piano notes, that lift, leading you to more desire to hear more. “In my Last Mourning” so atmospheric. The vocals are piercing, full of emotion, aching with haunting whispers and screams, carrying onto beautiful black metal riffs. “A Crawling Worm in a World of Lies”, grabs on with the atmospheric. Guitar riffs, with the extended vocal, so hard to describe what this music invokes. The instruments reach heights then fall to crashing lows, but done in a way that makes the listener want to keep listening until the last note and riff of the track. read more

“I am the Bitter Taste of Gall” a continuation of the skill of how a guitar can speak with more tortured vocals peppering the atmosphere created in this track. “…and I finally Reach My End” is final track of the demo, strong touches of nature, the storming rain falling as background to the instrumental. Some fading, ghostly vocals and more of the storming wind in this.

First full album, “No Morrow Shall Dawn” (2013), first track is a richly introspective instrumental entitled “Suici.De.spair”. Following is “Wanderer of Solitude”. Hard for me to describe, this is one of my favorite tracks, it hits all the notes of pain, love, hurt, bitterness, regret and tenacity to live on despite of it. The vocals say more. Next is “No Morrow Shall Dawn”, so layered. “Corredor Seco” again, with the haunting instrumentation. Quieter sounding, this is put on your headphones, and close off the rest of the world music. Lastly, “The Bridge”, another masterpiece. I think if ever you need to just feel, without words or expression, than this track takes you there. All together beautiful, depressive black metal expression. Give this a try if you haven’t already. Metal Marie

Band: Thergothon

Have you ever had the sensation when you trip over where, as your body hurtles out of control toward the ground, time seems to slow, almost grinding to a halt just before you close your eyes and impact the cold hard soil? Well if you’re familiar with this phenomenon, this is similar to what you may experience listening to Thergothon, the Finnish trio and celebrated pioneers of the funeral doom sub-genre. Thergothon had a very brief but noteworthy career, forming in 1990, parting ways in 1993 and releasing just one demo “Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth” and one full length album “Stream from the Heavens”. Their sound is earthy, gritty, frigid, and thick with a suffocating atmosphere, but most prominently, everything moves about as fast as geologic time. Each track progresses at the pace of a growing mountain and is so incredibly heavy and lumbering that the overall experience is like being slowly crushed between two tectonic plates. read more

Thergothon reportedly started their short career as a run of the mill death metal band but quickly became more progressive and actively sought to create something unique. They offer dynamic variations in tone which are intriguing and even slightly unusual. The synth is mournful and at times resembles a church organ with a tinge of 1950’s horror, which only highlights the low guttural vocals. The vocals are quite special with varying styles of delivery, but the long, sustained growling notes are truly impressive. The guitars are creeping, often flanged and droning, while the drums maintain the hulking momentum. I can only imagine how unorthodox Thergothon’s slow tempossounded in the early 1990’s. Even today, many metalheads find this sub-genre hard to digest.

To me, the true beauty of funeral doom is in the rich atmospheres and the deconstruction of the sound, which makes each note feel important and well-considered. All components are slow, stretched and very deliberate and I find this less chaotic or frenzied style of metal bracing and highly immersive. So, if you’ve ever been curious about funeral doom, why not slow things down for a minute, kick back, unwind andwiden your horizons with some soul crushing tunes from Thergothon. Proua Metallist

Band: The True Endless

Starting in 1997 as Endless by M. and Soulfucker and changing the name in 1999 to The True Endless this band, now split up ’cause M. (Rest in piece brother) died in 2017 and a very good band was lost. But why did I choosed this band? read more

Very simple. The band was (still) good and with this arcicle I have a chance to show you a very good band and in my opinion, was a band that never had full respect in the underground. And also, cause I already knew M. before and I interview him (when BAZ was on paper and that time me doing everything)… To end this reco, I will leave you here the link to download or see the complete interview I made back in October 2013. The Key Keeper 666

BAZ Altar Zine #4