Vaiya - :W i n t e r m o o n: (2011)

Another release from my mate behind the project Vaiya.

W i n t e r m o o n: was recorded leading up to and, as a celebration of, the Winter Solstice here in the Southern Hemisphere.

It is an ode to the life winter brings us. It feeds our scorched earth and dry bodies. It brings forth a time of flourishing abundance to our lands.

This song is an offering to the spirit of winter. The moon, the cold, the rain, the long nights and loving warmth.

A limited edition of 30 CDr's are available, packaged in high quality, hand numbered paper envelopes with insert and a photo print from a recent trip into the Alpine region of Victoria.

:V a i y a M M X I:

- quote here

Vaiya is a favourite project of mine, an amazing Southern Hemisphere interpretation of Cascadian sensibilities. The melodic acoustic parts in this release (building up to the heavier parts), much like the previous (Merkstave), remind me of what I like about Fauna, and brings me to a place away from the depravity, the destruction, away from the soulless void that is the metropolis. It's an invitation to be connected to something... real.

A definite reccommendation for any fan of Cascadian-sytle BM.

Purchase here (also for free download)

Album Name: :W i n t e r m o o n:

Band: Vaiya

Genre: Ambient Black Metal

Year: 2011

Country: Australia

Track Listing:

1.	:W i n t e r m o o n:
Total playing time		18:45

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Nekrasov (+ Moon, Nekros Manteia, Aderlating) - Discography (incomplete)

A friend's project:

Nekrasov, from Australia.

 

Nekrasov is really a formation of that without aim – of that which comes from the deep black void. For me, personally, it comes through these energies; noise black metal etc. There should be no ‘boundaries’ for such a massive beast. I started doing this so long ago within a very private environment without any intention of release – no one was really doing anything like it and it was something I wanted to listen to! Hahaha. I have been involved in so many bands over the past twenty years, each ‘aiming’ for a style, vision etc. but Nekrasov is a personal beast, encompassing the end of vision, thought, spirit etc.. – and at this point in life that’s where I am most obsessed.

Personally, I have always resonated with both energies – and, when I got into black metal all those years ago, it was considered ‘noise’ – personally I do not see much difference when it comes to attitude or ‘feel’ – of course it depends what you are listening to and how to are relating to it. The great thing about being this feces producing machine (body) and mind etc is that there is no boundary when you choose to create without the aforementioned things considered. To be utterly honest about it, it’s just what I do – it just comes out this way without a forced notion of being this or that – if anything I have really nothing to do with scenes anymore and I do not mean this as an aversion or bitter withdrawal, I just follow my own realm and hopefully provide something unique in the endless pit of mediocre trend ‘empires’.

- Quote here.


Nekrasov is a harsh BM project with strong noise elements, which dictate me describing the overall sound as harsh. It's pretty interesting stuff. Neither painfully lo-fi, nor overly produced hipster-sytle BM, Nekrasov is without a doubt an auditory assault on the senses. Certainly not for the faint of heart, this music may seem difficult to listen to for some (those not into BM, or into more... gentle BM). However, I feel there is a good balance here between raw/BM/ambient/noise, the noise giving it the thrust that keeps you on your toes, and the variations in the BM keep you from getting lost in some sort of drone narcolepsy.

To be fair though, I don't think I'm covering the entire scope of their music. They have a multitude of releases, all with their own nature, which varying to differing degrees from release to release. So the description above has a stronger tendency towards the release of which I have listened to thus far which I have taken a liking to: Perishable Things EP.

Also, Last.fm has this band as being quite similar to Murmuüre of France. And I'm happy to share some more obscure/unconventional BM on this blog, or at least something not so Cascadian, or even prehispanic.

Great stuff, and definitely check out if you looking for something from the dark side. Haha.


Nekrasov @ bandcamp (Perishable Thing EP available for free download)
Nekrasov Official


[Please note, this incomplete discography is thus, because it is missing the Nekrasov / Humiliation split, and In Solitude And Darkness, The Last Step Is Made full-length.]

Album Name: Into the No-Mans-Sphere of the Ancient Days

Band: Nekrasov

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient

Year: 2007

Country: Australia

Track Listing:

1.	Freedom From Self-Joy	02:34
2.	Into the No-Mans-Sphere of the Ancient Days	03:35
3.	Ashes of the Lords in My Hand	13:02
4.	Eternal Black Mistress	03:14
5.	Allegory	03:34
6.	Toward the Black Pain of the Body's Core	04:06
7.	Barefoot, Ravenous	04:47
8.	Land is a Mount of Charred Limbs	04:30
Total playing time		39:47

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Album Name: The Form of Thought from Beast

Band: Nekrasov

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient

Year: 2008

Country: Australia

Track Listing:

1.	Debris; Soul As Dust	02:25
2.	Mountain Ash	04:53
3.	Today the Sun a Golden Illusion	03:17
4.	Dreams of Swallowing, Black Space Expansion	05:07
5.	Neti	02:52
6.	Continuum of the Beast	03:46
7.	And Then Seared That Heart	05:45
8.	The Form of Thought From Beast	20:30
Total playing time		48:35

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Album Name: The Haunting Resonance

Band: Nekrasov/Moon/Nekros Manteia

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal,Ambient/Black Metal/DSBM

Year: 2008

Country: Australia (all three)

Track Listing:

 

Nekrasov
1.	That Which Hunts...	15:18
Moon
2.	Forgotten Spirits	11:50
Nekros Manteia
3.	The Final Ghost	19:58
Total playing time		47:10

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Album Name: Tramp and Void

Band: Nekrasov

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient

Year: 2009

Country: Australia

Track Listing:
 

1.	Tramp and Void 1	11:40
2.	Tramp and Void 2	01:40
3.	Tramp and Void 3	02:31
4.	Tramp and Void 4	01:43
5.	Tramp and Void 5	05:50
Total playing time		23:24

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Album Name: Inner Stalker Metrics

Band: Nekrasov

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient

Year: 2009

Country: Australia

Track Listing:

1.	Inner Stalker Metrics	36:24
Total playing time		36:24

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 Track 1 (side A) by Nekrasov.
Tracks 2-4 (side B) by Aderlating.

- Quote Metal-archives.com ("Nekrasov - Nekrasov / Aderlating")

Album Name: Nekrasov/Aderlating

Band: Nekrasov/Aderlating

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal,Ambient/Black Metal,Noise,Experimental

Year: 2010

Country: Australia/Netherlands

Track Listing:

1.	Qualities of Being Futile and Valueless	24:42
2.	Chalic of Abalam	10:15
3.	Ritus Orgia Sanqin	06:24
4.	Dog Semen	06:23
Total playing time		47:44

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Album Name: On Certainty

Band: Nekrasov

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient

Year: 2010

Country: Australia

Track Listing:

1.	Belief	02:04
2.	Nothing in the World Can Convince	03:36
3.	Belief Part II	03:24
4.	Madness: Certainty	02:16
5.	Conviction: Millions of Fragmented Waste	00:50
6.	Nothing Within Can Convince	03:42
7.	...	02:56
Total playing time		18:48

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Album Name: Cognition of Splendid Oblivion

Band: Nekrasov

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient

Year: 2010

Country: Australia

Track Listing:

1.	Heresy, Heresy, Heresy Oh, Where Have You Gone?	05:52
2.	Psychic Epilepsy in the Butchery of Light	07:02
3.	Sadomasochistic Liberty Through Splendid Isolation	21:09
4.	Devotion of This Life Allied With Oblivion	02:38
5.	Calculated Deception; Possessed By Nothing!	06:34
6.	The Person and the Yawning Abyss	05:16
Total playing time		48:31

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Album Name: Perishable Things

Band: Nekrasov

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient

Year: 2010

Country: Australia

Track Listing:
 

1.	C.Z.V.M.	04:07
2.	Womb	04:13
3.	Dark At the End of Light	02:07
4.	O Fool!	04:06
Total playing time		14:33

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Album Name: Extinction

Band: Nekrasov

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient

Year: 2010

Country: Australia

Track Listing:
 

1.	We Are Just An Indifferent Interpretation of the Black Plague	03:03
2.	Disillusion	03:28
3.	Matter is the Bastard	08:51
4.	Void into Nonvoid	06:24
5.	Pre-Fetal Non-Mantra	11:14
6.	Chant the Name of God in a Thousand Languages Until All is Blood and Feces	03:27
7.	No Room for Liberation Found 'Here' Or 'Now'	07:43
8.	Extinction	16:46
Total playing time		01:00:56

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DR & Vaiya - Cast

So something else from Australia, not surprisingly, a split comprised of two side-projects of members of Encircling Sea.

 

Vaiya (Q, pron. [ˈvaɪja]), or Vaia (pron. [ˈvaɪ.a]) or Waia (pron. [ˈwaɪ.a]), also called Ekkaia, Eccaia or the Encircling Sea, is the dark sea that surrounds the world of Arda before the cataclysm at the end of the Second Age. Vaiya flows completely around the world, forming a sea below it and a form of air above it. Arda is described as floating on Vaiya, like a ship on a sea.
Ulmo the Lord of Waters dwells in Vaiya, below the roots of Arda. Vaiya is described as extremely cold: where its waters meet the waters of Belegaer in the northwest of Middle-earth a chasm of ice is formed, the Helcaraxë. Vaiya cannot support any ships except the boats of Ulmo: the ships of the Númenóreans that tried to sail on it sank, drowning the sailors.
The Sun passes through Vaiya on its way around the world, warming it as it passes. The next layer of "air", inside Vaiya, is Ilmen, and the last layer, closest to the surface, is Vista.
After Arda was made round Vaiya apparently disappeared, although it may have been changed into the upper atmosphere of the spherical world.

- Quote tolkiengateway.net ("Vaiya")



Vaiya is described as "Ritualistic Ambient Black Metal", and DR as "Nightmarish, Dark Ambient Soundscapes" (at the Encircling Sea website). On the RABM forums, the user behind the project Vaiya says this:

Vaiya is a solo project of ritualistic ambient black metal delving into the disconnection and sorrow of so called civilized living. 

It's very exciting to have some more BM projects like this springing up In Australia, to compliment the already established Encircling Sea. Still quite different in sound/recording, especially given these two acts are not bands in the same way Encircling Sea is.

I dig this stuff, especially Vaiya. The intro to Merkstave is this beautiful acoustic piece, making me think of the folk elements of Panopticon and Petrychor. Then it leads into ambient BM, with slightly raw-type vocals. Right up there with Encircling Sea.

Definitely worth checking out for any Cascadian (inspired) BM fan.


Bandcamp Official Website (Free download available)
Buy the split here

Album Name: Cast
Band: DR/Vaiya
Genre: Dark Ambient/Ambient Black Metal
Year: 2010
Country:
Track Listing:

DR
1.	The death of innocence, the birth of hatred for all God's creatures	13:56
Vaiya
2.	Merkstave	18:39
Total playing time		32:35

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Encircling Sea - I & Écru

And what better place to start this blog then my neck of the woods. There's no place like home, I guess. And also, I might as well reference Australia now, as I'm unsure it will pop up again anytime soon here.

In their words:

Melbourne, Australia based Ambient Black Metal/Doom in the vein of Fauna, Altar of Plagues, Skagos, Corrupted, Wolves In The Throne Room etc... 

I definitely agree with the comparison to Fauna. Though Fauna pushes boundaries (time-wise) with both their single song albums over 1 hour in length, whereas Encircling Sea holds back at around 48 minutes and 37 minutes. Generally, I'm not entirely into songs of such length, though I still do have a certain appreciation for both these bands. Especially live. And that point is even more important to me, geographically speaking, given that I don't live in Cascadia with it's thriving nature-inspired (in a slightly different way to the Euro scene I feel) BM scene. Being able to BM shows and not be afraid it's a bunch of racist fucks is a relief. And ontop of that, a band that musically is inspired by Cascadian BM makes it all the better. BM by the punks, maybe.

To the point: pretty good BM, not entirely my style, but good, and rad live. Any fan of Fauna should definitely check this out. Though, apparently Encircling Sea is a Lord of the Rings reference, which would (though I'm unsure of their lyrical content) give me the impression that their ecological stance may (at least somewhat) differ from Cascadian BM bands (not that they have a doctrine, but radical environmentalism is a strong trend), such as Fauna.

Album Name: I
Band: Encircling Sea
Genre: Sludge/Doom/Black Metal/Post-Rock
Year: 2009
Country: Australia
Track Listing:

1. I

				DOWNLOAD

Album Name: Écru
Band: Encircling Sea
Genre: Experimental Sludge/Doom/Black Metal
Year: 2010
Country: Australia
Track Listing:

1. Écru

DOWNLOAD

Though I'm totally into the freedom of sharing, buy it if you love it, and it's always good to support local independent artists.

I just noticed the artwork and artwork on the disc itself on Écru on another blog (LINK HERE). It's pretty amazing, and it may be unfair to make judgements of bands, such as this, purely on the references of their name (though I love LOTR).

Let's hope more stuff like this pops up in Australia in the future.