ALTAR OF PLAGUES is an Irish black metal/post metal three piece consisting of members J. O' Ceallaigh (guitars,vocals,synth), D. Condon (bass,vocals) and B. English (percussion).
They play a very clean, yet dense atmospheric style of black metal, often with songs spanning past the ten minute mark. Like many other black metal groups, their lyrical matter is dominated by natural themes, and much like their American cohorts WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, their debut White Tomb is about the conservation of Earth, and their homeland of Ireland.
Altar of Plagues have released two EP's Through the Cracks in the Earth (2007), Sol (2008), and the critically acclaimed debut LP White tomb (2009). Fans of Ambient or Atmospheric black metal may enjoy this due to their lush texturing, and epic approach to songwriting, which may also appeal to fans of Post metal and sludge due to the repition of chord progressions, cleaner production, and the use of more sludgey style of vocals. Recommended to fans of both genres.
Altar Of Plagues on Myspace
"This is Louisiana.
It is not even the hottest part of the day and there is already a heat index of 108 degrees, it’s miserable. Right across the street from my house is a gun shop. I can hear someone shooting off a handgun behind it. We are well within the city limits and not one mile from the front gate of a military post. No one cares about the legality or the repercussions, if there are any at all. The giant pines behind my house only stay alive in this heat due to the massive amounts of moisture in the ground which heats up in the summer and never truly let you cool off. The populace is as apathetic as the nature is brutal. I am not sure if there is any other band out there that captures the sound of this unique state more than Thou. Eyehategod may capture Southern hatred and NOLA’s scummy underbelly, but Thou provides the soundtrack to an entire state that is rife with corruption and routinely beaten down by Mama Earth. Humans hurt her by spilling oil into her waters and she will inevitably kick our ass with a hurricane or two, and the ever-prolific Thou puts out another excellent release and plays on.
Summit is Thou’s third full-length, but they have about 20 or so releases when you include their splits, 7”s and one offs. This month is the three-year anniversary of their first tour demo. That’s 20 releases in three years. And not ONE bad release. I can’t say that about any other band. The amount of music they put out is staggering, but what is utterly stunning is the fact that they continue to progress. I remember hearing Thou for the first time. It was shortly after their first full-length, Tyrant, was released. I had been looking for a band like Burning Witch and had discovered Graves At Sea, and somehow I discovered Thou as well. I was floored. They had an incredible sound where they had created a monster out of doom and sludge and forced it to wade through the molasses thick mire of the swamps with a gun to its head.
This is Louisiana.
Then came the splits and eventually their second release, Peasant. Their sound continued to evolve, they never strayed from their punk rock DIY roots, they’ve never even signed to a label. Instead they work with about five. They never compromise. They continue on their way, doing their own thing. They put out splits with locals and bands they like. They tour when they can, and their shows are always amazing. The energy coming off of them, especially vocalist Bryan Funck, is the epitome of intensity.
Thou starts of this latest venture with an arpeggio that leads into…. blast beats. Seriously. Oh and the best part? They fit in perfectly. My jaw dropped and I actually said, “Oh man!” when I heard it. The song is called “By Endurance, We Conquer”, and it may now be my favorite song of theirs, replacing the perfectly titled “Their Hooves Carve Craters In The Earth” from the 2008 EP, Malfeasance – Retribution. It’s that good. The blast beat leads into that wall of guitars they are becoming famous for. Throughout the album there is a common sound of these haunting and beautiful melodies intertwined with this nasty sludgy chug.
The second song seems to set more of the theme though. The track is entitled “Grissecon”, and it draws up all these images of a brutal nature. I picture glaciers thawing and drowning cities spliced together with time lapse photography of vegetation taking over a decaying corpse until it is one with the ground. This leads into the perfectly titled “Prometheus”. As usual, we got pissed off at nature for keeping us in check and then here comes this demigod with the gift of fire and we go and scorch Mama Earth’s skin and kill her gifts of animals and vegetation. Sounds about right. Prometheus also has this really cool Neurosis-sounding riff throughout and a melody that sounds like it would fit in one of Earth’s more recent Ennio Morricone-sounding releases. This is followed with “Another World Is Inevitable” (which ties in well to my theories of nature vs. humanity) and it may be the most interesting song on the album. It starts off with this unique-sounding industrial death march, almost like it could be some weird type of dirge. Once again the nature imagery pops into my head, but this song is different. It’s about 10 minutes, and it’s this build up the whole time. Slowing down to recharge itself every couple minutes, but by the end it is a total eargasm of sound. Funck’s broken glass gargled with gasoline vocals blend seamlessly with the music as it grows more and more furious. I’ve seen Thou a handful of times and this is the song I really want to see performed. If the previous song is “Prometheus”, then this is the results from the fire that he brought. Of course another world is inevitable, this one just burnt to nothing. And damn, it’s beautiful.
The only song under eight minutes is “Summit Revisited”. It harkens back to “Reprise” from Thou’s split with Salome. It’s a beautiful instrumental piece that sounds like it was also written by Emily McWilliams. It would fit in perfectly with any orchestra and I really hope that Thou continues to include pieces like this in their music. This song introduces the final song on the album, “Voices In The Wilderness.” By now you’re senses are pretty worked, having only received a slight break with the instrumental piece. The song starts off a little odd, you know it’s building to something, and then it introduces this great stoned out doom riff. It sounds like a Southern classic rock riff in a weird way, but slowed down a bit, almost like if it was recorded to be played on wax at 45 rpm but instead it is getting played at 33; it’s pretty neat. This bleeds over into the end of the album which is just an acoustic guitar, a piano and humming. It slowly fades out and you’re just kind of left there with your thoughts.
They have raised the bar quite high for any other band out there doing this sort of sound and it is always interesting to see how Thou adds new elements such as pianos or blast beats and yet they seem like they were always meant to be there. You hear something new and it catches your attention, but never once do you wonder why they thought to put it in there. Truly a refreshing band that puts out excellent releases time and time again and has an excellent ethos about them." - Review of "Summit" by Luke Physioc
Thou website
The corrupt pillars of this world we know are trembling and ready to fall. So far removed from the natural balance of things, we wait for the final push before it all crashes to the earth. Again, as we were, we shall once again be naught but part of the cycle.
Velnias on Myspace
"Überchrist is a new group featuring Hawks drummer Shane Patrick, Hollow Stars/former Deerhunter guitarist/vocalist Colin Mee and bassist Greg Knap playing melodic, old-school black metal." - Chad Radford / Creative Loafing
Überchrist on Myspace
$6 in adv, $8 DOS, 21+
Doors @ 9 pm
Advance tickets available @ Ticket Alternative, Criminal Records,
Decatur CD, Fantasyland Records and the following CD Warehouse locations: Buford, Duluth, Kennesaw, Lawrenceville and Roswell.
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