A little while ago, via the request-a-review thread, mixed into a steady stream of lackluster demos, forgettable nobodies, and occasional highlights, I listened to Bound By Entrails "The Stars Bode You Farewell", the third album from an Alaskan band that released their own stuff as well as some other bands through their frontman's record label. At first, the album was a bit puzzling - it had so much going on that I wasn't sure what to think. I listened to it regularly for a few weeks, attempting to find the words to review it, and noticing more and more great things in the incredibly complex music. It was quite difficult to review, as comparisons to other bands didn't do the band justice, and perhaps it took a very long time to fully realize that I was hearing a virtually unheard of masterpiece. After 20+ listens through the 64 minute album, countless hours of writing and re-writing and re-working the review, I had someone proofread it, made a few last changes, and submitted it before falling asleep after staying up a few hours later than I intended while listening to it over and over and adjusting my words to be more precise. My review states my thoughts as well as I could:
http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/B ... Zodijackyl

Essentially, the band started out playing fancy black metal, doing a great job at something very similar to their apparent influences like Emperor and Enslaved. This album is where they matured - their evolution took a huge leap between albums, something like Emperor did, or maturing like Opeth in their prime, but carving their own path and sound, not copying the evolution of others. This album is progressive, with complex yet cohesive song structures, and retains the original edge that they brought to their earlier symphonic black metal sound. It is an impressive blend of styles and evolution of them, and I highly recommend listening to this album, and listening again. It is exceptional.

Very great and thanks for the recommendation, Zodi. This band has enormous potential! The last song is very epic.

Bought.

You know what?! This is actually interesting and has some great musical chops. Can't say it's highly original as it doesn't deviate much from the Prometheus/solo phase of Ihsahn with a few nods to later Enslaved, more so than anything Opeth to me, but it's the way they mix things that's pretty cool. The album has too many elements to get it all in one sitting but I'm probably going to give this album a few more "spins". The fact that it can be streamed in its entirety through their Bandcamp page also helps.

I just paid a dollar for the DL, where are they selling the physical release - just in case I like it?

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. I haven't listened to it yet -- but if I dig it, I don't want to be stuck with downloading it.

Found these guys awhile back looking for Alaskan black metal. Great band indeed though I havent listened to the new album. Ill check it out.

The guys told me that the CD is in the pressing stage as we speak. If you buy the download, you get 20% off the physical copy later.

As for the album.... I'm pretty much at a loss for words. It's just incredible.

Wow I have to check this out

I found the same thing on the first listen, but felt that it was less accurate the more I listened to it. It took some time - I got the digital promo copy in May - but it gets better with each listen.

Precisely my thoughts on this thing. Word for word. I might not be exactly a black metal enthusiast, but this sounds interesting enough so as to warrant my attention. Not big on the production job for the moment though.

I'm pretty sure I met some of the guys from this band in Chicago a couple months back... we were eating at Kuma's before heading to the Bottom Lounge to go see enslaved and Alcest and a couple other bands I've since forgotten about since, someone at our table let a stereotypical movie fart rip and a guy sitting across from us goes "nice, I have an ear for that" and started talkin with us and said he was in an Alaskan black metal band and handed me a copy of the oath to forbear, and the burden of inheritance. Small world. I wasn't overly impressed with it, but it had a pretty good early Emperor sound to it, It's been a while since I dug up that cd though.. May have to re-listen to it before work today now.

I'm pretty sure I met some of the guys from this band in Chicago a couple months back... we were eating at Kuma's before heading to the Bottom Lounge to go see enslaved and Alcest and a couple other bands I've since forgotten about since, someone at our table let a stereotypical movie fart rip and a guy sitting across from us goes "nice, I have an ear for that" and started talkin with us and said he was in an Alaskan black metal band and handed me a copy of the oath to forbear, and the burden of inheritance. Small world. I wasn't overly impressed with it, but it had a pretty good early Emperor sound to it, It's been a while since I dug up that cd though.. May have to re-listen to it before work today now.

After about a dozen listens of my own, I have to say I'm pretty obsessed with the album. I actually found it fairly accessible and highly enjoyable upon first listen, and it really only needed more time to let the longer tracks sink in. I would rank it as the front runner for album of the year as of now, which is quite a feat.

Thanks for the kind words so far guys! I am the drummer for BBE (well, we're not active anymore, so *was* the drummer), and it's pretty cool seeing this reaction thus far! I did have a feeling that this album was going to have a polarizing effect, or what I like to call the "Type O Negative effect"- people will really enjoy it, or they really won't enjoy it. I can't really see a middle ground on this....lol. I look forward to more feedback!

Yeah, it's definitely one of those albums that seems better on the second spin.

aw, says you guys are active on here..when'd you guys take a break?

Think I'm the odd man out on this one. Only 2 spins through but I'm not jizzing over this like you guys seem to be. It is a superb effort and at times, its excellent, but I'm not going higher than an 80-85% at this point and time. We'll see if it really begins to sink in and take hold after another listen or two.

Officially, almost a year ago now. BBE is active in the sense that we're finally getting this album out (you've no idea what all was involved to make this happen...no need to go into detail, just usual band drama stuff..lol), but since the main mastermind behind the band moved back to the states, (Wisconsin), our last lead guitarist is back in California, previous lead guitarist is in Seattle, etc etc etc...lol...we're not going to be performing anytime soon. The only way BBE will continue on is if our main man gets things rolling again in WI. He is in long driving distance of his first band mates from Iowa, so who knows! But chances are, this album will be the last one released as "Bound By Entrails".

And hey, MazeOfTorment, 80-85% is still a damn good rating in my book. Hahaha! I'm just happy that people have taken to it the way they have, going as far as THIS thread that has been pretty active. I appreciate the honesty, but I will say this: Definitely give it some more run throughs..there's a lot of content on that album, enough so where even I was surprised with the end result!

Okay. I'm an extremely jaded person. I've heard a shitload of music, ranging from zeuhl to ambient to death metal, and easily get bored as a result. It takes a lot to impress me, these days. But I can safely say that I share MD and Zodi's enthusiasm towards The Stars Bode You Farewell. It's not the most original music I've heard -- but goddamn, is it amazing. Unlike other proggy black metal bands, where I can usually tell what they're going to be doing next, this album's constantly keeping me on my toes, which I appreciate.

I look forward to buying the physical release.

I agree with you on that album, the earlier ones are good but not their best. TSBYF is really impressive, check it out.



After two spins, I was interested to hear it more, but I didn't realize how much I would end up liking the album. Writing a review and struggling to find the right words made me realize that I couldn't find anything negative to say about it.



Thanks for making such a great album, I really enjoyed it!

oops...double post

I suppose since our drummer spoke up, I'll do so as well. First of all, I really appreciate the time that all of you have taken to listen to this album. It means a lot to us as a band considering everything that we went through to get this album finished. We put our entire heart and our souls into this album with no regard for any boundaries of genres or prescriptions of expectations. I knew that this album would not necessarily be a good suit for everyone, but hope that there would be a few that would enjoy it


I moved to Wisconsin last year in August. At that point, all of the music for the album had been recorded, all that was left were a few songs of lyrics/vocals. I've finished those parts up over the last year. I think any type of break could be considered a "soul-searching" moment for me as I had to take a step back from everything to truly appreciate all that we had done, and bring some of that reflection into the lyrical concepts. As Tyler mentioned, we could be considered "active" because we are still promoting the album and the band.

As far as a BBE in the future...probably not. A wise mentor of mine once said: "what separates a good artist from a truly great artist is the ability to step back and say when it is finished. " It is tough to do. But I see that as a musical unit we have grown beyond what BBE was ever meant to be and we no longer fit within the confines of the genre we went for or the image that we originally conveyed. Though BBE was born in the Midwest, it grew up in Alaska. And that is where the band belongs. And throughout our revolving door of 11 band members throughout time, I think it is time to let it go. This entire idea is reflected in the lyrics of "Ghosts of Our Former Selves"



You know, sir, I appreciate the honesty. I never thought that everyone would like this album. When we wrote these songs, I knew there would be some that wouldn't like it. But as Tyler mentioned, I'd take an 80% any day.


Good memory! That was me with the original BBE drummer. What a fucking excellent show that ended up being as well. And whoever shit their pants at your table, that was pretty impressive. ha! That was my first time ever to Kuma's and it was great. I now recommend that place to everyone I know that heads to Chicago.

Glad we weren't boring or predictable! Lol
In all honesty, this is a great comment to read. Thank you!

Another thing I've been impressed with, reading all these, is the fact nobody has picked one singular thing out, musically speaking. Usually someone's blown away by the drumming, but not the guitars, or love the vox, hate something else. Everyone seemingly has taken it all in as one cohesive piece..which is awesome. Despite what ppl think, if all of you guys even hated it, I'm still overall very proud of this album. Yes theres some things I wish I could have gone back and done a bit differently with my drums, but when I find myself air drumming to my own songs, I guess that means I did just fine. I too am anticipating getting my hands on a physical copy..the layout and especially that cover art that our former former lead guitarist (Christopher Hansson) did looks great. With the buzz this album has created, I do wish everyone could get back together to do a proper CD release show! Oh well...it is not to be I guess.

Heard a couple of tracks and wasn't overly impressed like the rest of you are, but I'll give it a few more spins to see if it sinks in!

Yeah dude, Im obviously biased, but you need to devote the time to listen to all of the tracks..every song has something different to offer. But Im ready for the ones who won't like it, so no worries either way.

A question to the band members replying here, which is always a great thing to see. Can you give out more details on the physical release? Things like if it's going to be self-released or done by a label, how limited is the print going to be, digipak/digifile or jewel case, and more importantly shipping costs to Europe for instance (I may just buy it even though the doctor ordered me to stop buying records! ).

Is it OK to answer these questions? I'd sure like to get some light shed on these subjects.

It sucks that relocation forces a band to end its course but that's how life is sadly. I'm giving the album another shot and I can in fact see why Zodi says there are many different aspects. As I said before it's a cool mishmash of different aspects and influences, like a weird collage, but the fact is that it seems to hold pretty well. It helps that I've been listening to Prometheus a bit in the past few months, and I do love the similarly epic keyboards presented in this album.

Can't say it's the best thing I've ever heard but it sure is a damn solid record.

PS: Do you guys use a real accordion or is it sampled? I'm curious because it's a popular folk instrument in my country.

The strength of the album as a cohesive piece is excellent, and that's something that took a while to set in. Some of the keyboard leads seemed to come out of nowhere, and I was wondering what the hell was going on with them the first time through. There's a lot going on, but it seems that the leading part of the music is traded off very effectively, and the other instruments are very capable of supporting, or joining in that. Everything seems very well balanced and it flows well.

As far as details on the cd itself, I only know it'll be early August (hopefully!!), but the pressing, type of packaging, and all that I'll leave for my band mate (posting under Runefire Records) to answer as he is taking care of all that.
As far as the accordion goes, it's real. The intro was recorded by one of our former guitarists, the performance done by a street performer in Stockholm, Sweden. The accordion at the end of 'Bemoaning..' , as well as the wood flute at the beginning of 'Ghosts...' , was done by our synth/multi instrumentalist extrordinaire Billy. If not for him joining BBE who knows what we would have done! Haha

Technically, this is being released on RuneFire Records, which is the label that we started specifically to release BBE material. We've released a few other bands in the past but as of now it is pretty much just a business entity specifically for this purpose. Distribution is mainly going to be an effort on our own. Of course, we would be plenty willing to release and distribute it through other labels as well!

We're starting out with a small run of 300 to start. It is in a 4 panel eco-wallet, similar to a digipak but with sleeves instead of a tray. We chose this method of delivery because I hate plastic. I'm the environmentalist of the band and stand pretty strong to my convictions about that stuff anymore. But, that's a whole different can of worms that we won't open, ha! Due to this light weight, the shipping costs are going to be very low, both stateside and international. There is talk of doing a vinyl run in the future, but we will play that one by ear at the moment. With the album coming in at 64 minutes, we would be forced to do a double LP and that is not an economical decision for us right now.

Accompanying the CD will be a sticker and a patch as well. We will not be printing the lyrics with the album, as they are freely available on MA, on lyricswiki, from our bandcamp page, etc, and also because we want to keep the prices lower by not adding an unnecessary page. We aren't capitalist hogs. These CDs are pretty cheap to make. Everyone knows that. We are going to be selling them at $8.00 ($6.40 for anyone who has downloaded the mp3 from our bandcamp page.) We'll be lucky to break even when all is said and done, but that is not what is important to us. We did this for the music, it's just an added bonus that people actually want to listen to it.

The accordion on "Essence of Vagrance" is a real accordion, but that wasn't us. That was a homeless street performer that our lead guitarist Chris recorded on site in Stockholm, Sweden while he was visiting his family (with permission, of course). We felt that this man's struggles symbolically represent all of mankind's beautiful tragedies and that there is always something amazing even in the darkest of fucked up circumstances.

However, we do use a real accordion in a couple of our songs. I don't know if we ever give our "keyboardist" as much credit as he deserves. Billy is an instrumentalist. Yes, that was him with a real accordion. He bought one for Christmas and learned how to play it within a few days. He also learned how to play the Navajo flute for the opening of "Ghosts of Our Former Selves," and all of his piano takes are real time and unedited. He is a musical force to be reckoned with.

Relocation is a shitty way to end a band, but that is an unfortunate side effect of being in a band in Alaska. No one stays. Alaska is one of those places that people move to accomplish a selfish goal and then leave once they are done. It is a bummer for the people who do stay (like Tyler, our drummer). They just have to get used to losing folk all the time.



Ha! Yeah, Billy would come to rehearsal with an arsenal of keyboard parts. He would always try to layer about 5 or 6 parts together for every song. Working with this huge load of tracks was difficult and I had to make some tough cuts of some of his tracks. It was hard to decide which ones we could keep. Ultimately the goal was to keep it as coherent as possible, all things considered. He's pretty understanding to that though, and I think we left enough lead parts in there for him to showcase his abilities.

Thanks for the questions! We're always willing to answer anything about this.

Thanks Brett! Haha I knew you'd come through.

This does sound interesting, I will investigate asap!

I found out about this band when searching for black metal from Alaska. I really liked it, good job guys!

Keyboardist/Accordionist/Flutist/Bassist/Whateverist here. I just wanted to chime in and say I really appreciate all the kind and especially honest comments we've gotten here and elsewhere; I've always said I'd rather have many varying reviews than just a few good ones!!!

If all goes according to plan, Tyler (drummer) and I will be starting a project this fall when I'm finished taking tests for grad school and recording my current folk album on accordion/piano, but this time I'll be on guitar/vocals too since cheesehead Brett is too cool for the grim nordland. We'll check back in then, Odin knows this community isn't going anywhere

Love MA, these forums were an enormous influence on my musical taste as a wee lad and continue to be as a slightly-less-wee lad; I'm glad I could contribute to someone's musical enjoyment. \m/.

back to my eternal lurking...

edit: special thanks to Zodijackyl, your initiative has really brought a lot of humbling attention to this release!!!!

Glad to speak and spread the truth. I'll add this quote from the morning after I hit the "submit" button after making the final number of an endless number of adjustments to my review:



I am calling this a progressive masterpiece and the album of the year after having listened to Rush's "Clockwork Angels", an album which has an average score of 99% on the archives. I completely agree with those three reviews, but "The Stars Bode You Farewell" is simply on another level. This is exceptional and I can't believe that it isn't as discussed as Opeth, though I think it will eventually earn that honor.

love the band members showing up. Anyway, gonna check it out tonight.

Holy shit -- we've got an Entrails orgy in here.

Entrails are normally intertwined and have pieces sticking into each other, what makes you think that?

Had I not been completely sober that entire trip I wouldn't have had such stellar memory haha, the person who let that beef rip was our friend Raven. I think we ended up playing one of those tracks from that album on the radio show the following week. after thinking about it, I'm surprised there aren't more promising black metal acts emerging from the frost-bitten wastes of Alaska, you guys get hazard pay just for living up there after all... That show was pretty awesome but I think I'm more suited for death metal concerts. That was one of my first experiences at an all black-ish metal concert (Enslaved, Alcest, and some other bands I had no idea how they got on that bill) and it left a bad taste in my mouth. This thread has totally blown my mind though, the odds of meeting a guy from out of state before a random concert in Chicago is astronomical, much luck to you in your ongoing musical career dude. I'll plug you guys on our shitty little unkown FM station in the middle of nowhere in Illinois next week hahah.