The Old Buried Memories

This is easily the very last thing one would ever expect to be released on Rusty Axe Records. Typically known as a purveyor of bizarre raw black metal, noise, and oldschool thrash, AXE-032 is an epic folk/black metal release right out of the Summoning camp; hardly the expected follow-up to V.A.C.K. and Godless CDs. This, of course, doesn't make it a thoughtless release; Giamon's music is very well-composed and a cut above your usual one-man folk/black project, and while all the kinks aren't necessarily worked out of the music, 'The Old Buried Memories' can be recommended essentially without reservation to any fans of the folk/black style.

Giamon's style of metal falls into a sort of post-Summoning territory, where the basis of their ambient metal style has the folk and black metal reincorporated into the whole so you get something with a very epic yet relaxed feeling that also has significantly more going on in it. The (programmed, I believe) drums occasionally get up to a brisk thrash beat, though the majority of the material is midpaced or slow, and the overall feel of the music tends to be relatively aggressive when it's not in folk mode, mostly owing to the rather howling, depressive-style vocal performance that transforms just about any word into some variation of "NNNYAAARGGHH!". Melodies tend towards that medieval folk style that you can't exactly place in any one nation in particular (though there is an odd Celtic riff near the beginning of 'The Essence'), and what it lacks in absolute character it makes up for in professionalism. Various guitar layers are incorporated very effectively, and actually some of the ideas seem unnecessarily compressed even in ten minute plus tracks. There's plenty of instances where I think a particular riff could have been repeated more, but I suppose it's always better for the band to be incorporating new, harmonious elements perhaps a bit too quickly rather than dragging tracks out unnecessarily.

It's actually remarkable that Giamon manages to craft such lengthy songs which really don't repeat their themes much and tend to evolve and stay exciting throughout. The music is composed in a surprisingly linear style, resulting in songs that end up in very different places than they begin, and the narrative structures and willingness to go on tangents and really just explore the space of the song is a great help to this release. I feel like it could be taken a step further; a lot of the material does sit in rather 'safe' folk/black territory even though it's definitely best when it's going odder places, but I can't complain too much since even the more static material is effective at generating atmosphere. My only other complaint really would be the production; there's too much midrange and the instruments tend to just sort of congeal together. There's not enough spiking highs or lows and overall it comes off a little flat and dull until you start listening to intricacies of the songs more.

Regardless of those minor issues, Giamon's debut EP is very much worth the time of folk/black or post-black fans. I'm interested in hearing if Giamon can work out some of the minor musical kinks and really come into its own on the next release, but until then, 'The Old Buried Memories' is a very worthwhile CD.