Friday, December 16, 2011

"Settlements and Burial Chambers" GREG(O)RIAN


From UK, formed in Winter 2008, GREG(O)RIAN have released early this year their 2nd album entitled "Settlements & Burial Chambers" and this derserves a real spot. Sometimes things are curious, indeed I still wonder why this band's name is so confidential, sure their style is particular but they should definitely get more exposure.
This trio, consisting in Iain (guit/voc), Tom (bass/voc) and Alan (drums/sounds), displays one of the most oustanding blend of all the dark and extreme genres of music that can ever exist : drone/sludge/doom/ grinding noise/ambient/black/metal/gothic.... This could make you think about something pretty hard to get into, which is NOT the case, even if naturally people who are exclusively into melodic and removed rythms should pass their way... 
Through their own vision of extreme music, an identic DIY approach, a pronounced taste for heavy and monolothically slow structures, GREG(O)RIAN present similarities with other English bands like THE WOUNDED KINGS, UNDERSMILE, POMBAGIRA or ALUNAH, these bands are all DOOMED to death and have a real original and positive attitude one towards each others and the scene in general, the artistic creation is of course the most important but the human factor too and they understood it  all.
 This said, GREG(O)RIAN push things further in droney and noisy developments, all envelopped in a very oppressive and frightening atmosphere, something with a nihilistic and ritualistic edge that sometimes remind me the excellence of bands like SLEEP CHAMBER or for the ambient edge some old goodies from the early golden days of COLD MEAD INDUSTRY rds (think about IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES, BRIGHTER DEATH NOW, ARCHON SATANI...), someone younger would give certainly more actual references on that point but that's mine, I still like to listen this kind of ambient/ritualistic stuff but just from the early 90's and in fact I feel it cool to discover with GREG(O)RIAN a new reference that moreover is basically DOOM in its reflexion !!! 
I'm deeply convinced that many actual bands take influences in that period that created the basis of the various extreme scenes of today, so, sorry, I'm gonna continue with another one :  DISEMBOWELMENT ! yes, just on one precise point though but the alternance of slow funeral parts with fast grinding ones remind the aussie cult act, awesomely reinforced by this ambient and sadistically possessed aura.
The abum contains 3 songs for about 43 minutes, first song "Deep" and the title track "Settlements..." have my preference with surprising contrasts, from droney riffs with haunting choirs to grinding blackened parts with possessed vocals, while the other song "Hymn to Pan" is more classically Drone material -SUNN O))) is cited as main influence-, a style which ordinary I hardly get into when it's not mixed with other elements but this one goes better than usual even if obviously not as rich and catchy as both other songs...
Well, if you need some new darkened and extreme sensations while keeping most of the usual elements that you enjoy in (funeral) DOOM stuf, you should try now to discover this hidden little treasuree that is GREG(O)RIAN, and this is a free download, so WTF are you still doing here reading that shit ???!!!


https://www.facebook.com/Gregoriandoom?ref=ts
http://gregoriandoom.bandcamp.com/
http://www.mrsvee.co.uk/audvee57/register.php

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