My Silent Wake-There Was Death

Minotauro Records
2018

Formed in 2005 from the remains of Ashen Mortality, My Silent Wake is one of the UK's best death/doom bands. Since the very beginning the group has been lead by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Ian Arkley (Seventh Angel, Century Sleeper). Although the background members have come and gone, Ian's vision has kept My Silent Wake not only alive, but consistently evolving and thus improving. Now in it's thirteenth year of existence, My Silent Wake Over has a huge back catalog to it's name. Not only are there multiple full-length recordings, but there are numerous EPs and singles, several compilations, a promo DVD, and two splits! Recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered by Greg Chandler (Esoteric) at Priory studios, "There Was Death" is the tenth full-length album by My Silent Wake. It is the follow-up to 2017's "Invitation to Imperfection". While I choose not to cover that particular album for a variety of reasons (one of which was because it is largely a instrumental release) I did review 2015's "Damnatio Memoriae". At the time I called it "My Silent Wake's strongest release to date".With a release date of February 16th, 2018, "There Was Death" is every bit as good as "Damnatio Memoriae" was. What's more, "There Was Death" is packed with some of My Silent Wake's heaviest material to date! At this point in the game My Silent Wake has developed a unmistakable sound. Anyone that has been following this incredible band for awhile has no doubt picked up on that fact. With "There Was Death" that distinct, somewhat (slowed down) doom rock meets (sorrowful) goth rock sound is still present. As cool as it is that side of the band serves as the album's foundation. With producer Greg Chandler providing keys and some extreme vocals (well, it's more like he is growling into the mic and/or screaming, but it is still epic!) and Ian (vocals/guitars) looking to push the boundaries as far as they will go(!), the one hour long "There Was Death" finds My Silent Wake armed to the teeth for what will be very primitive, hand to hand, combat. The conflict isn't physical though. Like numerous other albums, "There Was Death" deals with spiritual issues (lyrically) while the actually music smothers you under it's mighty weight. At their heaviest/most savage and with some of the best material to date at their disposal, the members of My Silent Wake have gifted the metal community some impeccable music. Longtime fans of My Silent Wake should love this well-crafted disc of  formidable death/doom. For anyone new to the group, My Silent Wake is simply doing what they do best: improving upon perfection. As always this is stellar death/doom from a musical mastermind that is known as Ian Arkley. It's a complex and sometimes challenging band that has taken England by storm along with much of the U.S. With albums like "There Was Death" the world should be won over, but only time will time as far as that wish of mine goes.

Tor Marrock-Destroy The Soul

Black Vulture Records
2013

Cellar Metal? That's a new one. But, that is exactly how West Wales' one and only Tor Marrock refers to their sound and on "Destroy The Soul" (their second full-length LP since first forming in 2005) it's sort of hard to argue against such an apt description! By combining modern metal with eighties rock and a fist-full of heavy metal's greatest hits (Doom, Black Metal, Thrash, Death Metal, Gothic Metal, Dark Metal and even Traditional Metal) this UK-based power trio gives off a ghoulish, almost otherworldly vibe and then seals the deal with strong songwriting and (even better) a devilish vocal delivery! Said deadly vocals come courtesy of Tor Marrock himself and with the front-man also handling guitars (with bass and drum duties falling on Tarran and Forseen respectively) "Destroy The Soul" is arguably one of the better UK underground gems to emerge from the darkness in some while! Tor Marrock captures the essence of utter despair while drawing the listener ever closer with it's respective spin! "Destroy The Soul" is at times a bit of an oddity while still remaining fairly consistent and (strangely) familiar. How any band can simultaneously bring to mind Samhain, Pentagram, Christian Death, Paradise Lost, Slayer, The Cure and Depeche Mode in one song is beyond me. What's even more of a mystery is how they managed to do all of that and make it sound so fucking fantastic! Tor (the man and myth!) and his cohorts pull it all off like a beast! "Destroy The Soul' was one of the best albums of 2013 and let it seems as if it passed just about everyone by like a thief in the night! If you can track this sleeper down then by all means necessary do it!


https://www.facebook.com/pages/TOR-MARROCK/161843921361

Interview with Ian Arkley

Photo courteous of Pete Skilton

Recently I had the absolute pleasure of talking with multi-instrumentalist Ian Arkley about his band My Silent Wake and let me just say that when it comes to the death/doom scene there are few bands that have intrigued me as much as this UK act has! My Silent Wake (https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Silent-Wake/417459134777) has been active since 2005 and since day one it has been lead by veteran musician/founder/gentleman Ian Arkley. For My Silent Wake (often times abbreviated as simply MSW) their strength lies in the emotional and spiritual depth of their lyrics and the almost effortless manor in which they can blend subtle melodic passages into songs which (more often then not) border on furious, nail biting metallic death! We're talking about a drop-dead, doom-laden death metal onslaught here and nothing short of it so it's not like MSW's music is for the faint at heart! And yet in Ian's talented hands the music in question, brilliantly worked out so that it reflects many different shades of suffering (as all good death/doom bands should!), is not all death, darkness and despair (or, if you will, brutal metal!). In fact, MSW crafts it's music so that often times individual tracks are filled with smooth interludes, tempting melodies and pieces that hint at a musician whose appreciation for classical music runs almost as deep as his appreciation for the likes of Black Sabbath! All of which ends up making this outfit that much more interesting and, frankly-speaking, it helps them stand amongst their peers! My Silent Wake deserves more recognition, a bigger audience for sure given the bold way this outfit goes about delivering adventurous music. Especially as the adventurous music this UK-based act delivers is real, emotional in a raw way that really tugs at your insides! It reflects the tragic balance of light and darkness in a world that we've made for ourselves (having only ourselves to now blame!) that seems to teeter back and forth at an ever increasing, alarming rate! If you have yet to experience this act for yourself then what are you waiting for?  Head over to the group's Facebook page (after reading this interview over of course!) and go from there. For now though read on as we discover together just what makes MSW so special....

Andy-My Silent Wake, how did it all come about?
 
Ian-The band started in 2005 straight after the demise of my former band Ashen Mortality. 3 of us from the last line-up of that band started to work on new songs and unused Ashen Mortality songs, and within a few months we had recorded our debut album 'Shadow of Sorrow'. We had been quickly signed to Bombworks records after they heard our initial 2 song demo. There were a few changes in the line-up and in the various instruments played by band members as we got ready to gig after the release of our second album 'The Anatomy of Melancholy'. We were unable to gig for the first two years as our drummer at the time (Jasen) had damaged his wrist. Steve, the engineer from the studio we recorded at was also a drummer and started playing with us and soon joined the band officially. Jasen switched to doing joint vocals with me. His vocals are the more black metal sounding ones. Kate switched from keys to bass and Andi from bass to rhythm guitar for gigging purposes and this arrangement stuck, with Kate also providing keys and some vocals on the recordings. Other members have come and gone, but another musician we had early on was Alan, who played bass on our early acoustic songs. All a bit complicated! The line-up has been through a lot of changes in the nine years we have been together.

Andy- Is there a new full-length release in the works for 2014?
 
Ian-We are doing a special re-release of our fourth album 'Et Lux Perpetua' entitled 'And Everlasting Light'. This will feature two new short tracks and different mixes of most of the songs from Et Lux. The whole thing has been newly mastered and sounds great. This will be vinyl only, at least for now and will be released on Fragile Branch and House of Ashes (the label we recently signed to). We are set to record our new album in Sept this year for a release next year and have an album's worth of ambient songs we would like to release. Next year we hope to do some form of compilation to celebrate 10 years in existence.

Andy-You've had a long and varied career now. When did you first know that music was calling you to you?
 
Ian-I loved music from an early age. The first song I liked was 'Mull of Kintyre' by Wings in the seventies. My Mom has a recording of me singing this with a toy guitar when I was very young. Soon after this I got into Led Zeppelin and later Black Sabbath as well as other metal, rock and goth bands. As soon as I realized that forming a band was a possibility, I jumped at the chance. I was late teens by this time, even though I had dabbled with playing guitar and songwriting prior to this.


Andy-The first time I ever heard your work was when you were with Seventh Angel. To this day I look at "The Torment" as one of Christian metal's best albums! I'd imagine that there was no way back then that you could have foreseen just how far you'd come!

Ian- That's great that you have heard that. I still think it was a decent album, but don't like the lyrics. When I formed Ashen Mortality I tried to get away from being tagged a Christian band and am still trying to get free of that tag! I was very young at the time (20 or 21) and didn't know much about life, coming from a fairly sheltered background. I am very pleased that various labels have seen fit to release the music my bands have been making. I love recording and gigging and hope I can keep doing this for a while yet.

Andy-As someone soon to be 41 I understand what you mean when you say that at 20 or 21 you didn't know much about life as you came from a fairly sheltered background. My upbringing was similarly in line with what you likely went through. Still, from a musical standpoint, "The Torment" is way more creative then anything I would have dared to try at that young of an age! It's easy to see that music has always played a huge role in your life Ian!
Ian-Thanks! I think I have always enjoyed a lot of different styles from folk and classical up to black metal, so the influences from all of that comes over in the music. With MSW we always said we would play what we wanted and not be restricted, but even in Seventh Angel days we used doom and medieval elements and the band was never just a thrash band.


Andy-When can we expect to see "And Everlasting Light"? As someone who collects vinyl I will be looking to buy this one for my personal collection!
 
Ian-I really hope it will be released by late summer. The masters are ready, we are awaiting artwork and then we can press ahead with it. Our last vinyl came out last year as a result of some very kind and generous friends and fans contributing to our Kickstarter project. We do love vinyl, but postage is so expensive these days it almost doubles the price people have to pay to order it.

Andy- So, 2015 will mark 10 years together as a band for My Silent Wake? Does it feel like it's been that long to you or has it all been a blur?

Ian-In some ways it does, when I look back to the very first things we did, but the time has gone quickly as it does as you get older. The good thing is that we have managed to release a lot in that time and have had a fairly steady run of gigs. We all work so we couldn't have a hectic gig schedule but it is enough to keep things going.

Andy-Speaking of steady gigs, does My Silent Wake ever make it here to the states? If so how often as My Silent Wake comes across as a band which must be experienced live!
 
Ian-No we have never played a gig over there, even though we were signed to a US label. We would love to play there but I think the costs would be prohibitive. We have played as far afield as Norway and The Czech Republic and we have done plenty of other European gigs.
 
Andy-Alright, we have a new vinyl release in the works and an album slated for 2015. Are there any other projects that you'd like to touch on?
Ian-I mentioned the ambient album. This is something quite different to anything we have done before except maybe the song 'A Photograph' on Anatomy. We hope that we can find a label that will be interested in this and hope to get a really nice package together. If this doesn't happen, we will at least make the tracks downloadable. I am not sure as yet what the compilation or compilations will be like, but hopefully we will be able to do a double album or a metal one and an acoustic one to do the back catalog justice.

Andy-Where's home for you these days Ian?

Ian-I live near Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset and have lived here for 16 years. I am originally from the West Midlands. I live in a small town called Worle and the sea and woods are very close and I can get to work and to the motorway easily, so I am very happy living here.
Andy-Are there any local bands that you'd like to spread some love to?
 
Ian-Our bassist Addam has a band called Striga and also plays in the band Leppe, which are both great bands. He has helped out a cool doom band called Husk. We have been friends and fans of The Drowning from South Wales for years. Probably a lot more I should mention but just woke up!

Andy-When you're not on the road or in the studio what does downtime look like for you? Any hobbies of note?

Ian-I work as a freight train driver and I enjoy railways and model railways in general. I like a lot of comedy and films and enjoy reading - mainly The Fortean Times or occasionally books. I like photography a lot too.

Andy- Wow, it sounds as if you plan a lot on your plate outside of music! That's cool though. As we wrap up our talk today is there anything else you'd like to touch on?

Ian-Just to say thanks for the interview and support for MSW!

Andy-Thank you Ian for talking with us and you can rest assured that I will be throwing my support behind My Silent Wake!

Psychotic Gardening-Hymnosis

Self-Release/Independent Recording
2014

Due to be released tomorrow (May 13th, 2014), "Hymnosis" makes it four full-length albums for Winnipeg, Manitoba's Psychotic Gardening. Having first been assembled in the mid-nineties by vocalist/guitarist Chuck Labossiere (at the time a member of Immortal Possession) this one-time solo project has slowly grown into it's own. A unrelenting side-effect of heavy metal that has run amok, unrestricted by the barriers that are meant to keep everything in check (whether, as in the case of Psychotic Gardening, it's doom or death, groove or goth) this metallic freak of nature is pure, unfiltered fury and we, the heavy metal community at large, are all the better for it! Currently featuring a superb line-up of Labossiere (guitars, vocals and keyboards), (second) vocalist Chris "Gillshammer" Gillis (Mnemonic Void, Reign of Terror), guitarist Andrew Wiens (Aberration, ex-Children of Tragedy), bassist Mike "Junior" Jannsen (Eyam, Kaluza, ex-Damascus) and drummer Matt Penner this uncompromising (Canadian) monster of metal fury is as extreme as they come! And no, we're not even talking about the lyrical content* of "Hymnosis" here!  Joined by a couple of guests like Will "Willishammer" Janssen (additional keyboards on "Journey to the Sun"), Into Eternity's Tim Roth and Broken Hope's Chuck Wepfer (two guitarists, both of whom play on the band's choice Death cover, "Open Casket"), Manitoba's Psychotic Gardening manhandles their instruments, striking the listener with deadly blows to the head via the eardrums! With roots that seemingly point to not only old-school death metal, post-Pentagram doom metal and hardened thrash, but traditional heavy metal and the previously mentioned groove and goth (yes, truly all of that morphs together here on "Hymnosis" in a killer way!) Psychotic Gardening have a real raging vibe about them and any attempt to downplay the utter brute-force of this 41 minute platter would be ill-advised! This could prove to be one of 2014's most dangerous releases as it has mean look at it and it's bark is as dangerous as it's trap-jaw bite! It would be disastrous if this album was overlooked by the metal community at large as Psychotic Gardening's "Hymnosis" is METAL
and it strikes all the right cords! For Chuck Labossiere a release like this one has to be rewarding as it's build upon a solid foundation of THICK metal riffs and SICK solos that will stand tall against the inevitable wave of piss-poor imitators! Get on board with this lot while you still can folks as this (fully-armed battle) ship is going to be causing some major waves soon enough as they bring the hammer down on the competition !

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Psychotic-Gardening/8376017862

*This band's fierily attack on religion, or more specifically Christianity, is boldly spelled out make no mistake of that!

The Inferna Sea-The Crypt Sessions

Self-Release/Independent
2013

Whatever hope that I had of covering this EP sooner was crushed when my computer flipped out and went all psycho on me. Could it be that it was scared of what awaited it when I wrote about The Infernal Sea's new 6-track EP? Quite possibly. Or maybe I just need to face the facts that's it's time that I finally look at getting a new computer. I think the answer is to be found somewhere in between. For you see it's all rather sinister how things went down when I first tried to do a write-up for "The Crypt Sessions". Here it was that "Into The Unknown" (the EP's last track which runs over 15 minutes long!) had just wrapped up and, before doing the write-up, I took a break to go refill my wine glass. When I returned to my computer I went to log on to my Google blogger account. Not so fast. First it went and froze up on me like it had been hit with a cold blast of winter's chill and the next thing I know every thing's going to hell! When I tried to do a write-up of the EP my computer reacted like it was possessed! An hour or so later I gave up, powered down the computer and decided to return to this EP another time. The whole ordeal was rather odd. If anything though it did mean that I would get to put aside time listen to the EP a second time to refresh my memory for this write-up. That was a good thing as I'm almost thinking that I prefer this 6-track EP over the band's full-length release (which I happened to really like!). It's a close race though kind of neck and neck. If you couldn't figure it out from the EP's title then this 6-track release was recorded at the Crypt rehearsal studios (hence the title!) in England. Simple enough. Or is it? As it is noted on The Infernal Sea's bandcamp page (link below) the recording took place "on a cold winters eve in Jan 2013".  That could have a lot to do with the overall chilly vibe this EP gives off (not to mention the way in which my computer froze up all to hell the first time around). Anyway, the band hit the studio with Christopher Majewicz handling production for this new release. Or, if you will, he just hit "record" as this EP was (essentially) recorded live with only a few overdubs taking place afterwards. That was "in order to capture the true sound of the group". The beautiful thing is that you do get the feeling that this is how The Infernal Seas sounds like when you see them life, but with benefit of a fairly smooth and clean recording and some extra "sound effects". It should be said then that if this is what the band sounds like live then don't walk, but RUN to their next show as these guys know how to throw down some simply nasty metal!  Of the six cuts presented here three tracks are pretty much sound effects tacked on to help with the overall feeling of dread. Otherwise the other three "real" songs are sick and nasty metal! They are more then effective at putting a chill down your spine. "Into The Unknown" is by far the longest, the most sinister and the most epic of the three "real" cuts. "Skinwalker" opens the EP up and is 5:00 minutes of almost raw, blackened thrash. As is "The Circle Closes". Both of these cuts flow out almost seamlessly, but give off this bone-chilling vibe. While the last album was somewhat black/death in nature there seems to be even more of this emphasis on chilling out while at the same time beating the crap out of their instruments! For you see with some primitive thrash riffs sandwiched between the overall death/black vibe of these songs you get this raw, gritty blast of mean metal. At the Crypt rehearsal studio it almost sounds as if the guys let down their hair (so to speak) and took aim at crafting simple, yet clearly well-thought out, old-school death/thrash. Somehow they pulled off a sound that is laid back and yet perfectly lethal. Its mid-paced metal, but there's plenty of crunchy riffs and gritty vocals to give this a ghoulish polishing.  It's different then their debut, but different can be good and this EP sure is good. Check out the links below for details.

Get the EP here:
http://theinfernalsea.bandcamp.com/album/the-crypt-sessions

 Review of "Call of the Augur", the band's 2012 debut album
 http://metalmark.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-infernal-sea-call-of-augur.html