Leech (+ The Funeral Pyre & Thou) - Discography

And now let's look at some of the more famous (well, some more than others), early Cascadian BM bands.

First, I want to present the "heathen primitivists", Leech from Oregon.

To discover the politics of this band, you need not go far. The release, Against Leviathan!, is a great example.

Against His-Story, Against Leviathan! is a 1983 book by Fredy Perlman, for which he is best known. It is a personal critical perspective on contemporary civilization and society. The work defined anarcho-primitivism for the first time, and was a major source of inspiration for anti-civilization perspectives in contemporary anarchism, most notably on the thought of philosopher John Zerzan.

- From Wikipedia.


And....

The packaging is a 12-page zine
detailing the band's anarcho-primitivist sentiments, with the booklet
essentially serving as a primer.

-  From Metal-Archives.com (article - "Leech - Against Leviathan!")






Musically speaking, Leech adhere to a more traditional lo-fi sound. So they deviate a bit from your standard Cascadian BM, not so atmospheric, different sound of production. At the same time however, their sound differs greatly from release to release. The comment that appears to be repeated in this vein, is that from release to release, due to the differences in sound, it almost sounds like a different band.  I am not a huge listener of them, but I certainly did enjoy their last release, the split with Thou. Certainly this post will get me listening to them more.

Can't find a myspace (or official website) for these guys. Guess they don't like technology ;)

Album Name: Ten Black Hymns
Band: Leech
Genre: Blackened Folk/Doom Metal
Year: 2005
Country:
Track Listing:

1.	Hymn 1	02:58
2.	Hymn 2	03:19
3.	Hymn 3	03:38
4.	Hymn 4	02:42
5.	Hymn 5	06:09
6.	Hymn 6 (Instrumental)	02:24
7.	Hymn 7	02:24
8.	Hymn 8	06:05
9.	Hymn 9	05:12
10.	Hymn 10 (Instrumental)	02:42
Total playing time		37:46

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Album Name: Ten Black Hymns
Band: The Funeral Pyre/Leech
Genre: Melodic Death, Black Metal/Blackened Folk,Doom Metal
Year: 2006
Country:
Track Listing:

The Funeral Pyre
1.	The Last Breath of Man	07:42
Leech
2.	The Greatest Burden	03:24
3.	On the Eve of Battle	03:54
Total playing time		15:36

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Album Name: Against Leviathan!
Band: Leech
Genre: Blackened Folk/Doom Metal
Year: 2005
Country:
Track Listing:

1.	At Once, Our Home Was Overcome By a Roar Which Tore Through Our Hearts, Silencing the Wind and the Quiet Songs of the Birds; We Realised What We Had Lost, and Began to Call to Her.	11:40
2.	Chained to the Ghost of a Lie, We Blindly Stumble Toward Our Death, Stopping Occasionally to Kick (But Never Question) the Rotted Carcass At Our Feet Which Slows Our Pace.	09:29
3.	True History of Mankind (Live)	06:17
4.	A Long Forgotten Path (Live)	06:04
5.	I Saw a Hole in the Man, Deep Like a Hunger He Will Never Fill...	02:21
Total playing time		35:51

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Album Name: Ten Black Hymns
Band: Thou/Leech
Genre: Sludge, Drone, Doom Metal/Blackened Folk, Doom Metal
Year: 2008
Country:
Track Listing:

Thou
1.	Unmasked	02:03
2.	Here I Stand Head in Hand	08:03
3.	Rats and Mice and Swarms of Lice	06:07
4.	The Defeatist's Lament	02:52
Leech
5.	Untitled	20:43
Total playing time		39:45

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Unfortunately, couldn't find this demo, but it appears that stuff appears on other releases mostly.

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

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

1. Écru

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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.