Liste des groupes Metal Expérimental Thrones Alraune

Welly, welly, well.
Thrones.
What a wierd band.

In the last while (maybe the last three weeks at the time of writing this review) I've been getting into the odd experimental genre, no doubt triggered by me picking up a Sunn O))) record a while back. I've been getting into everything from the pop experimental stuff, like Sufjan Stephens, right town to the nitty-gritty sludge sound of Thrones.

Arluane is Thrones' first full-length release, and boy is this one weird. I still haven't heard much of Thrones' stuff, and I'm not a long-time sludge metal listener, but this is a deeply unsettling, atmospheric sludge album, to say the least. There is a lot of sludging, doomy goodness all over the place, and it doesn't take long for the album to hit a note that induces a lot of hypnosis. Strange sounds, distorted voices, spaces in the album of near-silence are all the things that create a surreal soundscape.

Now, it is hard to talk about individual songs with this release because of how wierd the track listing is, because although 6 songs are listed, only 5 tracks are on the CD. The way I figure it, Ursa Minor and Buio Omega have been combined to make track 2, but it's still pretty confusing. Before I started playing the album, I had already heard the song Ted Williams off it, which is a long, slow paced ominous 12 minute song with new layers slowly being introduced and filling the sound. I was ready for a quiet, relaxing, if not somewhat creepy album, but that first song scared the crap outta me when it came on. Wierd yelps and power-metal vocals blast out of your speakers, effectively getting me on edge right from the get-go. The sparratic series of vocals ebb away, and are replaced with deep, downtuned bass, and ominous whisper vocals.

From there, the album moves into bass and guitar-dominated songs. It's pretty quiet and low-key for the most part, with tentative drums quietly hitting the cymbals and whatnot. The songs have slow, winding progressions, most of the time moving at a crawl, dragging out a buildup. Each song has its own unique vibe and feel to it, doing its own little thing to push the song along. For example, the creepy-as-fuck laughter in the middle of the song Buio Omega, or the keyboards in Ted Williams. It's all a deeply unsettling ride.

There is one little song, Mercuric, that seems to come out of nowhere. It dives into a quick drumroll, a catchy guitar/bass riff, and it's accompanied by the odd sperratic vocalization. And as quickly as it starts, it's gone, and the last stretch of the album opens up.

I've already mentioned the song Ted Williams, so I'll move on to the 21-minute finale: Googander. Easily the most ambitious song on the album, it's easy to tell right away that the whole album was building to this song. There's a lot more going on in this one, from digital beeps and sound clips to the low-end, dirty, sludgy riffs that would make Electric Wizard proud. Vocals come in, some of them clean, most of them heavily distorted, with synthesized reverb to boot. There's a lot of variety in those vocals. Howls, growls, croaks, shouts... It's all so wierd, so surreal, but so addictive. Not only that, but it's really unpredictable. After being assaulted with a bunch of different voices layered on top of one another, you're hit with... distorted bells and chimes? It's like walking into a shopping mall during the Christmas season while wasted. The song continues much in this unpredictable way, setting up odd contrasts and sound effects amidst everything. There are several more dramatic changes like this, changes that will disorient you and mess with your mind... it's out of this world. The song trails away, leaving you with a silence that seems very bizarre and out-of-place after listening to Googander.

So, Arluane is a good album for what it is. It's a long-winded, eerie journey in the darker parts of experimental sludge, alien and unsettling... a highly ambitious debut for Thrones. Naturally, this sort of thing is not for everyone, and if you don't like experimental music, this is not for you. I also wouldn't recommend this to someone who is new to the genre. If you are interested in this sort of thing, start with something more conventional, like Electric Wizard or Sleep. Then check out some of Thrones' stuff. You can't go wrong with some Sunn O))) either. If you are into experimental music already, Arluane is probably perfect for you. If you're at all interested in this album, I recommend you listen to the song Ted Williams (it's on youtube under the name Mercuric). It's probably the most accsessible song on Arluane, and if you don't like it you probably wouldn't like the rest of the album. As for me, I think this album is quite enjoyable. Good to play in the dark with your eyes closed.