Black metal has been a genre of scorching emotive outbursts. The music is fast and abrasive; the singing is akin to the sounds a tortured demon might make. It is a dark and creepy section of the metal genre. Bands like Emperor, Xasthur, Dimmu Borgir, and others bring a sense of doom and destruction to their music. Another aspect that is usually felt when listening to this style of music is despair. Soaring guitars strike out melodies that seem to evoke plaintive, introspective feelings as opposed to the cathartic, anger management treatments usually associated with this stye of music. No band, that could be considered “black metal,” has done this greater than Alcest. A French band made up of one man, Neige, Alcest has structured beautiful songs around the combination of two almost completely separate genres of music.

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As a music enthusiast, I have always been a fan of the album. The album is a definitive statement: a reflection of a time or place in an artist’s life. Every album is, in essence, a ‘concept album’: The songs it is comprised of are given greater meaning based on their placement. They are inescapably linked to the atmosphere they inhabit. I frequently find myself creating a narrative around similar lyrical or musical themes which give an extra dimension to the music. My preferences make it difficult for me to champion a compilation but They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave by Carissa’s Wierd has really won me over.

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I was introduced to Quantic at an interesting time. I was so heavily steeped in the modern day folk bands that I started forgetting there was anything else out there.

With artists like Iron & Wine and Sufjan Stevens monopolizing my stereo, I wasn’t too hip to other new music. My friend brought “Bomb in a Trumpet Factory” to my attention, and I was hooked.

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Image is something that is taken into account no matter what kind of music you are creating these days. Even the absence of an image is an image of it’s own. Every genre of music, whether it be popular music or indie music, develops an image that suites the scene and the people within it. Sometimes the artists will create their own image, as was often done in the indie scene, or some executive of a record label will decide what image is the best to sell the product, as is with popular music. What popular music has done, and what Chris stated in his Justin Beiber review, is taken the meaning out of the art, which in effect diminishes the power of the art, and the level with which it effects those who listen.

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The internet has revolutionized the process of discovering bands: no longer does the interested party need to travel from store to store, diving through unpacked boxes for a hidden treasure; no longer does one need to hunt down a rare early EP that they read about in a magazine band biography. As you well know, the modern consumer just need push a button and before they know it they have the entire discography of a band on their computer. Most all music lovers, including myself, have participated in this process but I have grown fairly disenchanted with it. I miss my younger years which were consumed by the hunger and the hunt for new sounds. There was a legitimate thrill to finding something that seemed unique which is often absent in the contemporary development of the download. With all this constant exposure to new bands and sounds, not much sounds distinctive anymore. Perch Patchwork, the debut LP by Maps & Atlases, suffers from this saturation of sound. It is a perfectly enjoyable and well-crafted record but the sounds are too familiar: lessening their potential impact.

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