my lava helmet is leaking oxygen. ALRIGHT, so i grew up listening to punk rock because of skateboarding. i started skateboarding in the late 80s and early 90s and during that time it went hand-in-hand with bands like Dinosaur Jr., Minor Threat, the Descendants, and Dead Milkmen just to name a few. later on i started realizing that my relatively small Midwestern city (Louisville, KY) was a hotbed of great punk rock & indie bands like Slint, Rodan, Endpoint, the Rachel's, Shipping News, Will Oldham, and i could go on. also during this time i was practicing the violin between 4 to 6 hours a day and falling in love with composers like Nicolo Paganini, Vivaldi, Shostakovich, J.S. Bach, Sibelius, and Sarasate. When i started playing the violin i didn't think that the classical world and the rock world could be combined. Later, i would break away from playing pre-written music written by dead composers and start composing new music with rock musicians instead of oboe and tuba players.
Since coming here I've taken an interest in your primitive tinkerings at musical profundity. it's pretty much molten lava & a 100% cholesterol-based diet in my parallel reality so music is a rare delight for me. My very first album review will be Mount Eerie's "Wind's Poem"! Mount Eerie is centered around Phil Elverum, who was in the Olympia-based band, The Microphones. i ordered Sauna (his latest album) and Wind's Poem from my local music store a few weeks ago. because Phil Elverum puts his music out on his own record label, PW Elverum & Sun, it can take a little longer than usual to arrive. i've heard he has a very DIY operation out of his home. my first exposure to Mount Eerie was through his "No Microphone" album, which is great and highly recommended.
Wind's Poem is an album partially inspired by black metal. I think "inspired-by" is an important distinction to note. This isn't traditional black metal by any means. Elverum did mention two black metal bands in an interview about Wind's Poem; Xasthur and Burzum. Although, the two aforementioned bands are very different stylistically. Xasthur is funeral doom and Burzum is classic, shitty (imho) Norwegian black metal. If there's one thing Elverum is known for, it is creating interesting walls of sound. As a result, there are tracks on Wind's Poem that revel in creating insane towers of black sonic omnipotence! 4 tracks in particular stand out: Wind's Dark Poem, the Hidden Stone, Mouth of Sky, and Lost Wisdom Pt. 2. Every single one of them a winner. I own this album on both MP3 and vinyl. the audible difference between the two formats is stunning. There are more traditional Mount Eerie songs on the album that give it a dynamic feel without overstimulating the listener. This album caused me to take a closer look at the black metal genre. i've been rewarded a thousand-fold for doing so. a couple bands in this vein worth checking out are Deafheaven, Ash Borer, Panopticon (a Louisville guy), Vestiges, Fall of Efrafa, and Mayhem. It is now that i will introduce my music ranking system (which is very simple). I give 1 out of 5 Lava Helmets with 5 obviously being the highest. Wind's Poem receives FIVE LAVA HELMETS! Yay!
