I’m happy to be back home after almost five days away, but I’m less than happy that today is a fucking Monday. I thought I’d celebrate the wretched occasion by throwing some miscellaneous things your way that I saw and heard after I got home late yesterday. I’ve packaged these items together because they’re… what’s the word I’m looking for?… let’s just say they’re out of the ordinary.
CHATALHÜYÜK
The last time I came across music billed as caveman death metal, it was Norway’s Goat the Head. They have been sadly missing in action for the last three years, but until they see fit to rouse themselves into a new burst of creative activity, I will have to content myself with Chatalhüyük. They have labeled their music “Neolithic metal” and they sing of such Stone Age things as big wood spirits and pterorhs stealing their krohi.
I’m not sure what a krohi is, unless it’s a Neolithic youngling. I’m pretty sure a pterorh is a pterodactyl, even though they became extinct about 60 million years before the Stone Age began and the Neolithic came at the very end of the Stone Age. But hey, if you’re willing to contemplate the concept of Neolithic death metal, then why not krohi-stealing pterodactyls?
Even though Chatalhüyük embrace the primitive and the primal in their music, they’ve got some skilled cavemen in their ranks; the band is composed of members of two Russian bands we’ve praised here before: Grailight and Kartikeya. They’re at work on a debut album entitled U, and so far they’ve released two songs for streaming: “Pterorhs Stole Our Krohi”, which arrived last week, and “Big Wood Spirit”, which debuted in January.
There’s not a lot of nuance in this music, but if you’re in the mood to have your skull beaten into fragments by primitive stone implements — and who isn’t? — this will do nicely. It’s a mix of utterly brutish death metal riffs, catchy jungle rhythms, roof-collapsing breakdowns, and a bit of blackened shrieking, tremolo bursts, and blast beats to go along with the howls and gurgling.
https://www.facebook.com/Chatalhuyuk
PATÁX
Jorge Pérez was a mostly self-taught drummer and percussionist until graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music. He went on to put his talents to good use by assembling a band of both fellow Spaniards and Americans named Patáx. It’s not a metal band — their music is a mix of flamenco, Latin jazz, funk, and contemporary fusion. The reason I’m including them here is because of a video that my comrade Andy Synn discovered. I know why it caught his eye — same reason that photo up there caught yours: Shapely butts.
As you’re about to see, Jorge is damned good with his hands, though something tells me they didn’t use these instruments at the Berklee College of Music. Unfortunately, no blast beats. On the other hand, I don’t think these skins were triggered.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking all those hand drums bums belong to women. But are you sure?
https://www.facebook.com/bandapatax/
TERRA DEEP
Terra Deep is a one-man project of Oregonian Matt Edwards, who I know about because he was at one time a member of a band named Arkhum that we’ve written about quite a lot in the past. Terra Deep’s latest release is a three-song, 35-minute album named Inamorata, which is a “name your price” download at Bandcamp. So far I’ve only listened to one of the three songs, the nearly 12-minute closing track: “For This I Would Kill. For This I Would Die.”
If you can guess where this song goes, you need to go to Vegas with me. Parts of it are raw, scathing black metal. Parts of it are mesmerizing, beautifully executed acoustic guitar instrumentals against a lush background of synthesized strings. Parts of it rip, parts of it soar, parts of it are a study in aching melancholy. It’s a richly textured piece that’s worth every bit of those 12 minutes. Very curious to find out what the other two songs are like.
http://terradeep.bandcamp.com/album/inamorata
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Terra-Deep/163159573697006
PATÁX
Yes, I’m a mind reader: I know you want more bottom percussion. In this video Señor Pérez uses some other body parts besides those gluteal bongos. The skins start moving on their own at the end, too.
17 Responses to “SEEN AND HEARD: CHATALHÜYÜK, PATÁX, TERRA DEEP”
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Inamorata is definitely a keeper for me. It has pretty much all the elements I look for in atmospheric black metal, including the cover art. I especially like the sections with clean vocals. To me they have a Woods of Ypres/Thrawsunblat sort of feel to them.
I also notice both albums are mixed and mastered by S. Parker. Could that be Sanford?
My guess is it’s Stephen Parker, who was a bandmate of Matt’s in Arkhum and is also based in Oregon.
That makes more sense.
Yep. It was Stephen.
Truly mesmerizing. Such high quality one does not find in a one man black metal band every day.
Chatalhuyuk is great, I’m looking forward to an album.
Chatalhüyük sounds pretty cool! i’m not often in the mood to have my skull beaten into fragments by primitive stone implements (you know, insurance deductibles and what not), but i’ll make an exception today.
Jorge Pérez stole my idea! LOL.
What an ass! He should be ass-shamed of himself.
Retched Monday indeed! Got a call on the way home from work (fucking day jobs!) from my wife that my house was robbed. My TV, PS3 (with all but one of my kids’ games), the center channel speaker, and my wife’s rings (wedding and engagement) and watch…gone.
I AM grateful that neither my wife nor kids were home and got hurt. Had any of them been home, maybe it would have deterred the robbers. Or maybe not. The hard part is the sense of violation. That will be hard to deal with. But the things stolen are just material things. They meant next to nothing to me (although my wife doesn’t exactly feel the same about her rings), as with age and the wisdom that comes with it, I’ve tried to place as little value on the material as possible.
I AM grateful however that the robbers did not touch two things: my music collection and the computer with which I can stream it. Losing those things would have been a tremendous blow. Some of my music collection, at this point, might be irreplaceable.
Sitting on the shelf where the PS3 games once sat sits a CD that got swapped out last night in favor of Sannhet’s “Known Flood” but didn’t make it to it’s proper home on the CD rack. It’s Neurosis’ “Given to the Rising.” Thank…whatever force in this universe… for small favors. Either the robbers no value in it, or they just have bad taste in music. Fucking dicks.
Thanks Islander for this small corner of the internet that I could threadjack and vent. I’m not sure readers anywhere else but here would understand my thoughts on this.
I am SO fucking sorry to hear about this, and I’m glad we provided a place where you felt like sharing what you’re feeling. When I was in high school, our house was robbed when my family was away on vacation. I lost nothing (I didn’t have much to lose anyway), but I can remember the depressed sense of violation my parents felt. As you say, I’m thankful for the small favors — undoubtedly the worthless pieces of shit who did that have no taste in music. If they had, they would have grabbed that Neurosis CD even though they couldn’t have turned it into money.
Patax is fecking brilliant. I wish I had that idea, along with many others (wheel, printing press, etc.), but mostly this idea.
I was just wondering how he gets his ‘models/instruments’ (for lack of a better word)? I imagine opening with “Hey, you mind if I drum on your ass and film it?” wouldn’t go down so well 😉 I’m guessing they’re friends… with benefits.
The drumheads on most of my friends would need to be tightened significantly before Jorge could work with them.
I’m really digging the Chatalhuyuk, I’ve listened to it a few times already, really like the feeling that its being pounded into my head with a rock tied to the end of a bone, but even though i like it, i cant help but giggle like a madman when the guy just starts bursting out in Pterodactyl screams, it’s just too funny not too, but it does give the music its unique flare.
But on another note, it doesn’t irk anyone else when bands come up with thematic lyrics and they consider themselves a new genre of music? The way a few bands do this just seems very pretentious to me, shit like Pirate, Viking, and now Neolithic metal, that’s not really a new genre of music, its just lyrical content based around a theme. It doesn’t (normally) make the music bad, its just that it feels like the’re making themselves out to be more than they really are.
I understand your point, but I don’t find Chatalhuyuk irksome because their theme strikes me as very UNpretentious — just fun-loving and kind of goofy. I know it’s not really a new genre of metal, but I do think it’s more than just affixing a label based on a lyrical theme; the music does seem to be a kind of fictionalized metal representation of primitive Stone Age atmosphere. Or maybe I’m just getting carried away by my imagination.
Yeah I see what you mean, and you’re not getting carried away I can see it too, I meant its just that the idea they’re pioneering a whole new thing kinda rubs me the wrong way.
But like you said, i can hear this playing while I’m hunting mammoths with pterorhs soaring overhead.