METAL MANIACS (AUGUST 2007)
Chet W. Scott is a rare breed. He is a true artist. Over the past years he's carved a niche for himself within the experimental music scene with his works of Pagan Ritual ambience & Folk, RUHR HUNTER & The ELEMENTAL CHRYSALIS. His work is varied, heartfelt & unique, as soothing as it is abrasive at times, & if nothing else, always memorable. Scott's latest project BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL focuses on the primal & thunderous qualities of Nature, qualities that can also be found within Doom & Black Metal. The record boasts the pounding of ceremonial drumbeats, the plod of Burzumesque Black Metal & the lilting melodies of reverb soaked guitars. You will find as much Godspeed you! Black Emperor here as you will Thergothon; as much beauty as filth & as much conventional musicianship/song writing as astute experimentation. This is hardly the most groundbreaking album ever made, nor the best. But it flaunts heart, honesty & a passion for the world around us-not the mundane world with which we each experience on a daily basis, but the world of quiet, lonely trees only gazed upon once or twice a year by human eyes; the hidden, secret places most do not know exist & few will ever see. This is surely worthy of your ears!
METAL REVIEW
A brief lesson in metal reviewers' hyperbole: if you are faced with a really protracted and atmospheric doom-type album, just break out the words "draining," "suffocating" and "trudging" and people will probably think that you know what you're talking about. These adjectives have about as much meaning left to them in the review context as "brutal" in a death metal review or "epic" in a power metal review; in short, they're heavily over-applied. Sometimes, though, bands do in fact merit such lugubrious descriptions, and Blood of the Black Owl is one of them. Though not an immediately enjoyable experience for anyone—and likely not an enjoyable experience ever for most—this disc's blend of protracted, atmospheric doom and West Coast black metal is capable of sucking the very energy out of even the most drug-addled doom fiend.
Hailing from the shitty-weathered climes of Washington State (where else?) and, to everyone's extreme surprise, just one performer—one Chet W. Scott, Blood of the Black Owl make it they're (his? The debate rages on!) Personal mission to craft a transcendently abusive brand of doom metal. This shit doesn't get off on bludgeoning or crushing the listener, mind you; the modus operandi here is to gradually choke the life out of the victim/fan with lengthy, droning song structures and stolidly glacial beats. I'm reminded of the idiosyncratic drone/doom of Celestiial, complete with occasional folksy instrumentation and hokey forest obsession, except viewed through Leviathan's lens of suicidal psychedelica freakoutness. Of course, song-by-song analysis is useless here; each track is a lengthy (10 minutes on average) ordeal of fuzzy, droning guitars, distant filtered moans, and occasional tribal drum or ocarina interjections. The resulting noise isn't so much heavy as it is a heavily atmospheric journey into whatever wooded hinterlands your mind can summon; needless to say, a hefty degree of imagination is requisite.
So is this self-titled effort appropriately "draining?" You bet your ass. This shit will put you in an unresponsive trance when you least expect it—like while driving your car at night, so please folks, don't pop this in your Dodge's changer—and that's the sign of high-quality craftsmanship for this kind of album. You all know full well at this point whether Blood of the Black Owl will strike you as an awesome psychic forest crawl or just plain boring—let your knowledge of your own taste guide you here.
RATE YOUR MUSIC
The first few listens to Blood of the Black Owl I kept having flashbacks - aural, not visual - during the first song, "Kills in Timber". After racking my brain over it as I am wont to do in my advancing age, I figured out it was a combination of Conifer's "Turning Sand Into Glass" and Dont Look Back's "Farewell to the Bright Side" (not sound-alike but...), weighty post-metal dirges encapsulating diverse post-rock structures. Such a solid combination, with few exposed seams, that the wolves howling towards the end of the song seem apt and not at all cheesy. I didn't have similar flashbacks with any of the other songs but the description remains applicable: meaty bombast with strangely subtle turns of sonic phrasing, shards and strands of harmony and terse melody weaved in and out of an apocalyptic mood, still beautiful in the way that uninhabited wilderness is beautiful; the troll/troglodyte black metal vocals barely distinguishable - and definitely uncomprehendable, except in primal feel - behind grinding guitar fog and downtrodden fuzz, the rhythm barely above somnolent. All this without losing a sense of communication: deep, dark, unspoken...stuff; not evil, nor even fearful, but bringing one face-to-something with existence beyond flesh and blood. Chilling, and yet also gorgeously mesmerizing.
On a side note: though this is not metal, it is 'metallic-esque' (my word, my guilt) music like this that always restores my faith in metal and metal-like tunes. My relationship with metal has been like the bumper sticker: "Jesus, save me from your followers"; I respect and enjoy what is at the heart of the form, but have trouble with the culture surrounding it. Great albums like Blood of the Black Owl allow me to strip away all the images of face-paint and posturing and general machismo and just open up my motor neurons to its raw, tough impact; blistered buzz straight to soft tissue. For that alone it is commendable.
TERRORIZER (ISSUE #160)
BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL'S self titled debut starts out rather misleading, as the first track, "Kills In Timber" firmly sets expectations for a slow-paced ride through harsh Dark Throne territory. Sole member Chet W. Scott must enjoy surprises, because thats what you get as soon as the following "The Thunderous Hooves of Two goats in the Sky" slithers in, the sound of the rain & the spooky atmosphere enveloping & consuming you. When least expected, some dirty, gritty guitar starts to permeate through this gloom, settling into a repeating, hypnotic riff. The album see-saws like this throughout, impressively seamless in it's transitions & changing dynamics, offering it's fair share of pitch black highlights after a few listens, the most fascinating one being the tribal horror of "Uwwalo". Negura Bunget for the spiritual approach & Orthodox for the ritualistic feel are two good comparisons, but B.O.T.B.O. is promisingly original. Excellent! (7.5)
REVOLVER (JUNE 2007)
One man soundscaper Chet W. Scott makes the precarious leap from the queasy folk drone of the ELEMENTAL CHRYSALIS & RUHR HUNTER to the unhinged black shriek & oozing funeral doom of BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL -& does it with preternatural aplomb. The Hellhammer-ish death march of opener "Kills in Timber" sets the bleak, bare bones tone, which continues through 10-minute plus epics like the Sleep meets Dark Throne gut-spiller "The Thunderous Hooves of Two Goats in the Sky" & malingering closer "A Coven of Vultures." The result is a sublimely miserable debut. (3.5 out of 5 stars)
THRASHER MAGAZINE (ISSUE #320 JUNE 2007)
Not to compare to their label mate CELESTIIAL, this is as or more monstrous in terms of floating my doomantra. Black Owl is any undertaker's friend, slow & bleak funeralism, but sounds more like tribal processions for woodland mammals to bury their dead. Crushing, hypnotic, & atypical.
OAKEN THRONE #5 (Summer 2007)
B.O.T.B.O. is the latest sonic incarnation of Chet W. Scott (RUHR HUNTER/ELEMENTAL CHRYSALIS). Featuring over 70 minutes, B.O.T.B.O. attempts to capture Nature's darker & more primal aspects. To accomplish this, which he does, Scott uses voice, baritone guitars, drums, thunder gong & brass tubular bells, organ, young ox horn, an antique celestaphone & black clay ocarinas as well environmental "field" recordings & spoken samples. The haunting atmosphere of B.O.T.B.O. is somber, almost reverent, with pacing at a rate akin to non-catalyzed decomposition. Blackened doom provides the easiest description, but B.O.T.B.O. encompasses so much more as Scott's experimentation adds layers that would not exist with just guitar & vocal effects. Unlike others, Scott achieves a "natural" suffocating feeling without over-amplification or other such effects. "Uwwalo" takes a decided ritual tone switching from slow electric grind to subdued rhythmic tribal drumming before fading out. Here the Shaman works, the acrid smoke swirls & visions appear only to disappear from the mind's eye. Scott's vocal delivery, more tones than actual words are barely human-sounding at times, floats disembodied through the sonic fog to eerie effect. an impressive release B.O.T.B.O. takes the "rite of passage" idea to an entirely new, & real level. It must be said that although Scott finds influence in Nature's darker aspects, at it's core, B.O.T.B.O. celebrates beauty & the awe resulting from it's mystery.
DECIBEL (ISSUE #31 MAY 2007)
Formerly known as SVART UGLE, BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL swoop down from Seattle to give Wolves in the Throne Room a run for the title of Washington State's grimmest. The one-man labor of blackness of one Mr. Chet W. Scott, B.O.T.B.O. conjures a kind of a croaking doom from terminal freeze-dried monotony-like Sunn0))) with a drum machine, nature sound effects & a small army of dying Sand people in the background. Which is to say we'd probably fucking love this if the songs were about half as long. (7 out of 10)
DEAF SPARROW
Great funeral doom release by one man band Blood of the Black Owl. This is the type of doom that doesn't really crawl but sprints with mastodonic weight, crushing everything in sight and leveling nature the thickness of paper thin objects. Once, it's over and done with only two things are for sure; you'll be wearing a winter jacket and will be sporting a very fashionable rope around your neck. Jeez, it's freezing out here. And suddenly I can see my breath in the shape of spirit-like smoke coming out of my mouth. Blood of the Black Owl is the work of one-man orchestra Chet W. Scott, who outshines Prince, Jon Paul Jones, Stewart Copeland, Mike Oldfield and even Stevie Wonder in the multi-instrumentalist camp performing the bulk of the record. His talents include, but are not exclusive to, vocals (mostly old, necro and buried in the mix), guitars (slow, usually one to two notes), drums (plenty of blast beats for a doom act), organ (give the record a nice aura of impending depression), horns, tubular bells and even include the outside recreational activity of "environmental recordings", which I assume includes walking in the woods of Washington state and pushing Rec on a tape player while shutting the fuck up. I also assume that that's how we got the ultra spooky owl call on the stupendously titled "The Thunderous Hooves of Two Goats in the Sky".
But seriously, locked at one speed may just be the best approach for Scott, as it allows for the songs to reach a point of comfortability. Now, that may not be the objective of any doom act but Blood of the Black Owl's music takes its time stirring your insides. How? Ten minutes of a single riff and drumbeat usually do the trick. Obviously, there is plenty going on around this single beat; mostly eerie nature sounds, blunt organ work and animal's callings which enhance the experience. It would be faking it if I said that this record is not powerful and well-crafted. Those are two undeniable qualities. Still, some of the songs are so on the long side the record goes past its boiling point and simmers for much longer. This work is fiery, but in the end there's just smoke...3.5 out of 5!
SEA OF TRANQUILITY
Chet W Scott's (he of Ruhr Hunter fame) latest musical venture Blood Of The Black Owl (formerly known as Svart Ugle) is a potent, doom laden, shamanistic journey through the woods of America's Pacific Northwest. The spirit of nature is alive and well on this disc as Scott incorporates environmental recordings and a rather eclectic assortment of musical instruments (Ox horn, celestaphone and ocarina) and combines it with his deep respect for the primal elements of classic black and doom metal. The music alone stands on it's own just for it's crushing power and heaviness but when you factor in the natural elements, it transcends the boundaries of metal and ventures into territory that is seldom traveled in the genre. Scott's voice and lyrics, if there are indeed any, are pretty much completely intelligible but I was completely transfixed by the mysterious mental imagery that the music conveyed to really care that about it that much. The whole album plays out like one massive dirge and at 70 mins it may be a bit hard to swallow all in one listen, but it's not supposed to be an easy listen and often many of the best albums aren't. However once it's weaved it's way into your brain, it doesn't take long to come to the realization that Blood of The Black Owl is a very unique and challenging record and one that leaves a lasting imprint on your subconscious. The music is one man's personal offering, forged out of his own blood and sweat. Highly recommended!
WORM GEAR
Love it. Love it so much I'm wearing the T-shirt. I only wish that my reviewers copy came with the three-song demo. But then, Blood of the Black Owl's debut is a full 70-minute crushfest, so I can't really complain. As if Chet Scott's output as Ruhr Hunter weren't impressive enough, the debut disc of Blood of the Black Owl places him in the top tier of one-man projects. In two genres full of boys with effects pedals and tortured vocals, Scott reminds metal and noise fans not to settle for the typical masturbatory fare we've been so inundated with. Slow buzzing riffs combine with rumbling atmosphere to create a transcendent piece that can be neither described as black or doom. Elements of both are present, complementing each other. The crushing despair of doom and the bleakness of black metal birth an audial black hole. Void metal, perhaps? But then, nomenclature is beside the point here. What matters is that every track can stand alone as an abyssic opus, yet the cohesion of the seven tracks is unmistakable. Bindrune Recordings is by no means a prolific label, but each release is so singularly stellar that one can be sure that if Marty signed 'em, it's essential listening.
MAXIMUM METAL
Is it possible to be extreme without the hyper speed blast beats, pummeling double bass, lightening fast guitar riffs, and throat-piercing vokills? Absolutely, just check out the debut release from Seattle, Washington's Blood Of The Black Owl. This one-man wrecking crew, headed by Chet Scott takes extreme to all new heights by incorporating the minimalist sounds of early Celtic Frost and Darkthrone, the grimly toned guitars of Obituary, and the ambient textures of Ruhr Hunter to create a devastating blend of blackened doom metal. Clocking in at around 70 minutes, Blood Of The Black Owl packs a massive wall of sound into the 7 songs within. The first song, Kills In Timber, mixes early Celtic Frost and Panzerfaust-era Darkthrone to create an epic 10 minute hymn that will surely pulsate your speakers into the ground. By adding the massive guitar tone of Obituary, Chet is able to achieve maximum heaviness. The second song, The Thunderous Hooves Of Two Goats In The Sky, starts off with an evil ambience, as if you are alone in the cold dark woods, surrounded by horrific entities of evil. As the howls fade and the music begins, we are taken on another doomed journey into forever darkness - backed by faint screams and cold keyboard works. The third and longest song on the CD, Drinking The Blood Of A Lion, starts off with a simple acoustic passage and whispering howls, before morphing into buzzing guitars and slow, doom drum beats. At around the 9:00 minute mark, this song opens up to one of the most evil moments on the CD by incorporating hate-filled keyboards to all the blackness. The fourth song, Like A Coffin Chasing A Womb, His Chariot Becomes A Southern Bloodstorm, continues the doom with a bleak acoustic guitars like those found on a Deathspell Omega CD. By the middle of the song, traces of early Type O Negative can be found with just the drums and keyboards taking center stage. The next song, Uwwalo, is unique in that the first half of this near 9:00 song is doom oriented, while the latter half is more ambient in nature. The sixth song, Hammer Comes Crashing Down, is another minimalist masterpiece with occasional screams and yells, as if a lost journeyman in a mountainside forest is being attacked by the beasts of nature. The final song, A Coven Of Vultures, is another 13 minute song, and the second with actual vocals. An ultra heavy doom track with vokills that sound as if they were recorded in a coffin buried 6 feet underground. From the 8 minute mark on, be prepared for an evil blend of ambient doom and eerie instrument work, as Blood Of The Black Owl refuses to let the listener escape with a feeling of calmness.
Although probably not for everyone, Blood Of The Black Owl will definitely catch the attention of fans of black metal, doom metal, and ambient music. By combining these three elements, they have created a new standard in blackened doom metal. So, if you are up for the challenge of escaping to a cold, evil place for 70 minutes, let Blood Of The Black Owl take you there. (4.5 out of 5 stars)
TRANSCENDING THE MUNDANE
This one-man band from the Seattle, Washington area does have a pretty damn cool name. Otherwise, he goes by his given name of Chet W. Scott, an unusual move these days. This album has good precedent - being released on the small Bindrune label, which has released quality stuff from Miserys Omen, Celestiial and Shroud of Despondency.
It seems that the Pacific Northwest is the place to go in the U.S. to find the sort of pagan ritual nature-boy metal regularly practiced in Europe. It is the home of Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room, among others. They are joined by Blood of the Black Owl, another act that seeks to lose you in a dark, fearsome forest. However, this act's pathway through the woods is carved with droning doom that at first listen, seems more similar to "stoner" drone bands like Sunn O))) but when the field recordings and ambient sections kick in, reveals a deeper atmosphere.
However, this is a tough album to slog through. These are long, repetitive tracks broken into three or four movements. "Kills in Timber" starts out with a seemingly endless repetition of an off-key St. Vitus style doom riff. About the time I was thinking "enough already", the tracks breaks for some ambience and then a chorus of howling wolves takes the song in another direction. This actually works very well and further uses of forest sounds and oddball instruments like ox horn, tubular bells, gong, and black clay ocarina help break the monotony and keep the atmosphere up. "Drinking the Blood of a Lion" has some more melodic and emotive guitar work that breaks away from the suffocating drone. Later on, some tribal elements show up. By the time of closing dirge, "A Coven of Vultures", it's quite a relief when it trails off into throat singing, ritual drumming and the strumming of a Celestaphone. The vocals are usually mixed way back but occasionally come up front with a big scream. The monotonous groan reminds me a little of Attila's vocals on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanis.
This album is like the artsy post-rock of Jesu as played by a pagan black metal band. It's an album where those seeking a certain atmosphere will love it, but the average metal fan will find it unbearably boring. While I appreciate the bleak atmosphere and ritualistic mood this music produces, I have to admit that it's hard to sit through this entire album due to the simplicity and repetition. I give it credit for the achievement of mood and would recommend fans of drone and ritualistic black metal give it a chance.
MAELSTROM ZINE
Let's call it "heathen meditative music" for lack of a better term. No, Blood of the Black Owl's debut isn't silent and pointless plinking on the keyboards and percussion, just the opposite. What Chet W. Scott has used are some highly unusual instruments — first and foremost, a baritone guitar. The other instruments are just as interesting — just naming them should be enough: thunder gong, brass tubular bells, organ, young ox horn, antique celestaphone and black clay ocarina.
With so many words going just into describing the Seattle-based, one-man band's arsenal of weapons, describing the music itself is fairly simple. It's slow, dark and primitive. The poor baritone guitar has gained popularity by being used in bands too bad to be mentioned here, but on Blood of the Black Owl, it proves itself as a perfect brush for painting landscapes with cloudy night skies and distant mountain tops. The sustain is tremendous, the distorted sound is unique, and there's no need for either a bass guitar or a regular guitar, whose high-pitched notes would only bring distraction.
Then, there are the drums. Obviously, with one snare beat every four seconds, it could have been funeral doom — were it not for the baritone guitar's sound and the fact that it is not even beginning to lose volume between the snare hits. The vocal intrusions are minimal and the atmosphere has nothing to do with funerals and sorrow — it's more about self-search and introspection. There are some ritualistic passages accompanied by the sounds of nature, but the way the album flows, it all merges into one unique and shamanic 70-minute experience.
If there are any objections, it would be the way the songs present themselves — not really commanding attention but rather needing full concentration. To the majority, Blood of the Black Owl will just sound like some slow riffs repeated over and over; but for the rest, it will be very personal. This writer would propose that, in spite of the Nordic song titles, the atmosphere and the riffs themselves actually bring out images of a Native American wandering through the hills in search of a vision, but with Blood of the Black Owl it is really not about the destination. It is about the journey. (7.6/10)
THE METAL-OBSERVER
I thought it was going to be a Viking Metal band...or perhaps some Metalcore band that has yet again stolen a much cooler name that should never belong to one of them, I'm looking at you INVOCATION OF NEHEK. I looked at the artwork, and Doom came into my mind, and sure enough, I was right (as always really...). BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL was formed awhile back under the name SVART UGLE, and by awhile I mean about three years ago, both bands were one man operations by the Seattle native Chet W. Scott.
This album was misleading on several levels, first off the artwork, already mentioned, made the music seem much different than it is. Second, the label itself was Black/Doom Metal, which in itself is misleading. Finally, the first track is so much different than everything that follows. "Kills In Timber" is some good, mid paced Rock Out Black Metal in the vein of KHOLD, slower JUDAS ISCARIOT, some LEVIATHAN and a tad bit of BERSERK thrown in to make one delicious Scuzz Stew. After "Kills In Timber" I was extremely excited to hear the next tracks, as I really liked the style which this self-titled album was going.
Alas, "The Thunderous Hooves Of Two Goats In The Sky" greeted me with a bit of a Rock sensation but quickly progressed into something much more sinister, something Ritual/Funeral/Doom sinister. This album looses speed and picks up atmosphere so fast that right when you're dragged into the filth of the first track, everything else pulls you back up and slowly rips your mind out with their icy, dead and decaying hands.
Hmm...that may sound different than the music is, but BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL rips out one's mind differently than let's say, CRYPTOPSY or FUNERAL MIST would, but instead Mr. Scott chooses weapons similar to venom soaked daggers, where as the aforementioned bands would use axes or claymores. Scott's weapons do little damage at first, maybe a small cut or a quick slice, but over time devour your mind, paralyze your body and consume all the sanity that you so desperately cling onto. This is some mind numbing Doom to say the least.
"Drinking The Blood Of A Lion" is the beginning of this Lovecraftian descent into hell, so slow and malicious the song itself resembles something that could only be spawned from the mind of the great writer. The piano accents the crushing force as the drums stay static and powerful, this is the perfect sound for BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL and Scott found his niche here. The following song "Like a Coffin Chasing A Womb, His Chariot Becomes A Southern Bloodstorm" is quite simply, breathtaking. The organs are so well placed they become one with the riffs, and the melting of all these sounds creates an impenetrable wall of sound rivaled only by Oregon Doom Peddlers ROANOKE, which proves how strong this band is. "Uwwalo" is probably the best representation of BotBO's sound, the lack of vocals, the tribal drums and the disturbing force behind it all... this song give me chills every time I listen to it.
I would like to explain all of these songs, but it would take up too much time and space, and like I mentioned in my CELESTIIAL review, this type of music is all about atmosphere, so really, explaining would do nothing, as words aren't necessarily the best tools to elaborate the atmosphere created by "Blood Of The Black Owl". BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL have created an album that transports, and damn it, I miss that in my music. There are fields, filled with dead bovine, strewn about as crows pick at the eyes of the dead, massive mountains, caverns with horrible creatures lurking inside and the awesome force of nature presents herself as the mighty goddess she is, extracting with utmost prejudice, her long waited revenge. If Mr. Scott set out to create music to bring about images of the forces of nature...then Good Lord did he ever succeed. Recommended highly...if you're man enough.
HEATHEN HARVEST
There aren't many words to describe this release. This is not a bad thing, for many of the words I want to use simply have not yet been invented. Blood of the Black Owl's first effort, a self-titled release on Binerune Recordings, is a unique mixture of black and doom metal that really stands alone in its world. This self-titled release finds us walking through a trance-like state, which isn't really surprising considering Blood of the Black Owl is made up of one man: none other than the ritual mastermind himself, Chet W. Scott (Ruhr Hunter, The Elemental Chrysalis). While the nature of Blood of the Black Owl is obviously more destructive and baleful than his other works, it still continues on this trancing path.
One of the bands that first comes to mind, though not too overtly similar in a musical medium, is Romania's own black metal children Negura Bunget. Blood of the Black Owl is not just music, but a highly spiritual form of expression through Chet's own person belief systems. Just as Negura Bunget puts forth their spirituality in a truly unique way via the black metal medium, so does Blood of the Black Owl. Standing alone in a currently declining and deteriorating genre hybrid, Chet really shows through this release that there is still room for improvement in every aspect of blackened doom. Though drudging and repetitive, the scenery painted in one's own mind is consistently changing and evolving as wedrift through the long 7 tracks found here. We find ourselves reuniting with nature in a dark, almost mad point of our existence. Perhaps this is the true spirit of Blood of the Black Owl.
There is so much to be said here that just cannot be expressed in words. This is one of those releases that many want to hear but fear they never will because there aren't enough innovative artists left in the world. Too many just want to follow the paths laid out for them by the musicians they loved when becoming ones themselves. Chet pulls away from this for the sake of spiritual expression and experimentation. We see nothing but birth within Blood of the Black Owl, like a dark wolf pup of a new breed crawling out from its mother for the first time, evolved and ready to share its genes and continue the evolution when the time is right. This is, hopefully, where blackened doom metal is heading.
DOOM-METAL.COM
This selftitled debut album of Blood of the Black Owl is the brainchild of Chet Scott, the man behind the Glass Throat label, and the excellent ritual ambient project Ruhr Hunter. While this album is quite original, it's also kind of a tough nut to crack, and I'll tell you why.
First of all, it's quite a long album that mixes a couple of different styles. The opening track "Kills in timber" is a mid-tempo cruncher with raw, fuzzy guitars and a slight early black metal feel to it. It ends nicely with some samples of wolves providing the 'vokills'. The second track continues this style, but the rest of the album is more in the direction of funeral doom, albeit with the same fuzzy sound. Tracks like "Like a coffin chasing the womb, his chariot becomes a southern bloodstorm" - what a title! - display structure and sound similar to Hierophant, Evoken, and perhaps a bit of label mate Celestiial.
To complicate things, the album also incorporates dark atmospheric passages with tribal percussion, which of course remind one of Ruhr Hunter. Now, all these musical elements together make this a varied, original and interesting album. It expresses a raw set of emotions, and evokes a dirty, yet natural atmosphere.
At the same time, it doesn't work for me entirely. Perhaps it's the production and guitar sound, which isn't really my thing. Maybe the repetitiveness in some riffs, or the tempo - though that hasn't stopped me from liking similar albums. Or perhaps the combination of the varied elements doesn't work seamlessly yet. Somehow, I think this album should have been better, based on the great potential of the individual elements, and Chet's obvious talent in his other projects.
Don't get me wrong, this may well please fans of blackish, raw doom, and one is recommended to check this out. Let's just say I expect there to be room for great improvement. When it's there, this will be one heck of a doom project.
IMPERIUMI.NET
Shamanic funeral doom sludge? Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Blood of the Black Owl is not far off from that description. Undulating, mantra-inducing layers of thick guitar churns and almost black metal atmosphere make for a moody elixir. There are elements taken from nature that are distinctly felt in this project's music, headed by Chet W. Scott, bordering on a ritualistic feel. Fans of Sunn O))) to Neurosis and everyone in between might find some interest in Blood of the Black Owl. After all, this is more atmosphere music than anything. Very original and daring in itself, Blood of the Black Owl will appeal to those with discerning tastes, but will be lost on the masses. For those restless midsummer solstice nights when little carnivorous pests are ripping chunks out of your sorry hide up in Lapland and sleep is the last thing on your mind, this slab would be a fitting soundtrack to losing your mind. Pretty insane shit.
MIDWEST METAL MAGAZINE
As ludicrous as the name may be, Blood of the Black Owl are not the most terrible band in the entire history of humanity. Not to say they're excellent, but they do have something to offer. While they're not really trying anything new, since droning doom has been done before, (and better, I may add), what BotBO commit to tape isn't bad. The tape itself may be sub-par, as the album sounds like it was recorded in one take by a producer whose hands were kept far away from any soundboard, but the material is solid doom metal, in the vein of a blackened Sleep. However, because of the album's very nature, it is very hard to really pay attention to the music being played. Instead, it often fades into the background, where it is left to linger, occasionally grabbing interest for a fleeting moment. In short, Blood of the Black Owl may be a band worth listening to, but do not operate heavy machinery, drive, or do anything that requires consciousness to be done while doing so.
UNRESTRAINED
If any record in 2007 is going to dazzle you, weigh you down and make you paranoid, then this is the album. An atmospheric ride of black, doom and powerful expression, both sonically and spiritually, this 70-minute opus is a classic in the making. This album needs to be heard to understand the power it conveys. Unique in every sense of the word.
VAMPIRE MAGAZINE
Okay, a self-purchase here (and a sense of duty) so we'll have to make do with a quick and relatively short review to disclose the brilliance of this self-titled debut album, unleashed by Bindrune Recordings, a sub-label of Crionic Mind. Blood of the Black Owl is every bit as intriguing as the rather mystical moniker suggests and this release is by far and away the best thing I've heard so far in 2007.
Rumbling out of the depressive US heartland of Seattle, BotBO peddles an amazingly authentic form of shamanic, trance-inducing black grime, transporting the listener to another realm with some of the most riveting enchantment ever committed to disc. Cloaked in rustic browns, melding black metal and funereal doom with meditative, ritualistic ambiences, these seven invocations represent a haunting highway to heathen fulfilment. With a total running time in excess of 70 minutes, 'Blood of the Black Owl' is spellbindingly epic.
Classify this as shamanic black metal, pure and simple. It's like nothing you've ever heard before and is also indescribably good; it's what Blut Aus Nord might sound like if they were preoccupied with nature and woodland mysteries rather than urban nightmares. But you need to take this trip for yourself because I'm sure it'll mean different things to different people. In the ear of the beholder...
Buy with complete confidence that Blood of the Black Owl is arguably the most relevant band in the extreme music underworld right now.
METAL-ARCHIVES (A PERSONAL REVIEW)
This CD was mocking me. Seems like everywhere online I was looking (either in distros or metal news sites) I saw some reference to this CD, so eventually I bought it. After the second track finished I knew I had spent my money well.
Blood of the Black Owl is essentially the brainchild of Chet W. Scott (I think he is the owner of glass throat records but I could be wrong) and from what I've read about this album, it is some kind of underground hit not only in the states but in Europe as well. Hype usually kills just about anything for me, however this is one of the rare occasions where I can agree with the mob, in saying that this is truly something unique and worth a good listen. Fans of atmospheric black metal, funeral doom and drone can all find something in this they can absorb and get into to.
Atmospherically it is a breath of fresh air, considering all the gloomy stuff I've herd as well as all the shitty Agalloch worshiping bands I've herd. Imagine oneself in some woods late at night, twigs and branches in your way, your probably lost, everything is quiet then suddenly you look up and you see an owl which is watching you. Haunting isn't it? The whole album is pretty much like that expect with the occasional tribal stuff that does by no means hinder the mood.
Vocals are pretty scarce, every now and again you hear something sounding like them but in general they are either absent or buried. "Hammer comes Crashing Down" has some nice spoken word parts as well. However if the music is atmospheric in nature, usually vocals are rare so the absence didn't bother me to much.
The drumming has some letdown moments; the intros for "Uwwalo" and "Kills in Timber" have essentially the exact same robotic drumming into. Some tracks however get a nice tribal feel to them which is usually centered on drums not being pounded with sticks, but done with padded mallets to produce a small somber sound. Besides drums the percussion department has a couple of other things put in there, "A coven of vultures" has some bells and chimes used and a gong makes a cameo somewhere in here. Chet tries to use the other instruments to create a blend of nature and metal which at times works but also has a nasty habit of leaving a blank void whenever there absent.
The guitar work on here has similar ups and downs. The poisonous black metal drone riffs were something I never quite got into, not sure why but I guess the sharp tones don't do it for me. The first track gets some nice riffs but anything beyond that isn't really memorable. Usually it's the same pattern over and over, sometimes you're interrupted with drone feedback, but it's mostly your standard repetition. He says he uses a baritone guitar but I'm no musician (just a shitty vocalist) so if it's there it just blends into the haze.
Overall I think some of this was lost in production (he says he uses some horns and stuff but I don't remember hearing them anywhere). However production or not this is worth a listen just to see something unique, but at the same time your left wanting more. Seeing as this is a first release I can see the band's sound evolving over time. The atmosphere is good but with several elements buried musically it can't be backed up so it's like a pizza missing the toppings the core is there but the extra punch is missing...80% out of 100%
DEADTIDE.COM
When I first picked up the debut CD from Blood Of The Black Owl, Svart Ugle, the imagery and talk of ritualistic, blackened doom led me to kind of expect a Moss or Bunkur-style extravaganza of painful, drawn out and acid-etched doom: the aesthetic and production values of black metal with the most unpleasant and sludgiest of doom. Instead what I am presented with reminds me much more of the Swedish veterans Runemagick, of all people. Blood Of The Black Owl is its own beast, to be sure, and is blacker than Runemagick have ever gotten; but the style of riff- and song-writing bears a good resemblance, never really wallowing in its own sludge and mire, but instead chugging along, in an inexorable midpaced roll through the nearly pagan forests of America's Pacific Northwest.
So it makes an interesting listen—more interesting, anyway, than if it had been what I was expecting. At times the music does drag. A listener more predisposed than I to the ritualistic and mesmeric properties of BotBO's might even not mind the repetition inherent in a record like this, even; if you seek speedy, varied metal, look elsewhere. But Mr. Scott (Chet Scott, that is, the sole member of the group in question) does actually seem to know what he's doing: on tracks like "Uwwalo", he mixes in just a bit of chanted vocal, just a bit of... something else, as well—what is that, a bell, a plucked or bowed string? He creates an atmosphere, is what I'm saying—behind the simple, if not simplistic, song structure we find more than one layer of detailed substrata, shifting in delicate, seismic dances.
This kind of music, this self-consciously ritualistic music, presents the listener with an interesting burden. It demands your attention, when your attention, by any likelihood, is going to be most directly inclined to wander. It seems almost to guilt you into putting aside your things and listening. Does it have that right? Should we feel that we are failures if we cannot bring to bear the fullness of our attention for this record's sizable duration? Or, conversely, is it a failing of the music, that it is simply not interesting enough?
I'm not, right now, a fervent enough believer in this particular record to insist that if it is not listened to from start to end, without breaks, without a stray thought passing through the listener's mind, that it is therefore not listened to correctly. But I do not want that to imply that I do not believe in this music's power.
BLABBERMOUTH.NET
Describing BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL's self-titled debut as "blackened doom" is not inaccurate but does not tell the whole story. With plenty of the suffocating heaviness of funeral doom, yet not reaching the muddy bottom of an act like CATABOMBS, and mining some of the same accents and majestic slivers of ASUNDER, this one-man project from Chet W. Scott holds its own in a surprisingly expanding doom genre. Mr. Scott does more than lay down bass, drum, and guitar tracks, he also brings to the table instruments such as "thunder gong," tubular bells, organ, and a host of other unique instruments, not to mention what he terms "environmental recordings." Of course, few outside of diehard circles will fully comprehend (and may downright hate) this 70-minute journey into the abyss, but even a handful outside of the circle (given a chance to absorb it) should be able to at least appreciate the album's transcendental and mystical qualities.
Once the listener adjusts to the steam rolling pace and unholy howls (including the baying of wolves and falling rain), sinister leads, and droning agony of "Kills in Timber" and "The Thunderous Hooves of Two Goats in the Sky", the disc's holism begins to seep through the pores. It may be a lightly plucked string that chillingly rings out, deep, monkish chants, the clang of a bell, or one man's purging howl that takes hold. But what seemingly begins as a series of parts soon turns into a sometimes frightful, even unnerving, and often trance-inducing whole that separates the soul from the mortal body. Much like the impressive effort that is ASUNDER's "Works will come Undone", it is some of those same accents and the little things in general that bring to life the behemoth crawls and bottom-feeding blackness of the arrangements. Subtle, yet gripping, the bits and pieces of percussion — whether a basic tribal beat or the nuance of a bell struck in ritualistic fashion — that are not always immediately grasped the first time take on a life of their own with repeat listens. It is this kind of doom-based minimalism that is far more cerebral in feel than what may be caught by the casual listener.
BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL is both otherworldly and grounded in man's conception of nature and the earth. It is the balance struck that helps to separate the album from the herd. Maybe not a doom masterpiece (ASUNDER's latest is a bit better), but an accomplished album that is easily recommended for the discerning doom fan.
CHRONICLES OF CHAOS
Excluding the mythologies of Lovecraft and Tolkien, whose creations have been well exploited but not completely exhausted in every province of the metal kingdom, foreign appellations have become far less endearing and mysterious than they might have been a few years back. At least that's my view from here in the States, where naming one's group in the old Norse, German or Slavic language too often leads to misapplication, pretension and posturing regardless of family roots, translating into one fat stamp of: ¡Generic!
A suspiciously babel fished name usually betrays poor songwriting plus identity crisis. Unlike the South Americans or even the Engrish speaking Japanese, most wannabe polyglots unanimously pussy-out on singing a full song in bastard-tongue, and where's the "schadenfreude" in that?
Blood of the Black Owl first began under the awkward name Svart Ugle, but despite appearances released a promising three-track CD-R in 2005 before founder Chet Scott, a current resident of Seattle, bearded and deadly, also founder of Glass Throat Recordings as well as the long-running earth-ambient act Ruhr Hunter and, it may as well be said, a man of honor, set right this contrivance with a name befitting its central theme, now spelled out more directly. Or is it? The whole premise of the music, Scott says, was based on a dream he had of a burnt owl seeking shelter in the branches of dead wood. Expressing a like-vision in shades of folk, ambient and metal, _Black Owl_'s seven tracks are romantic reveries of heathen blood on heathen soil, perfectly sprung from the Northwest United States.
To that end, the album's energy is at once fearsome, propelled by mammoth baritone guitar riffs, punctuated by Tom Warrior-esque grunts or steadied by decaying refrains of stale, sickly import -– a gimping, fevered wandering that moves closer to the very dreams said to inspire it -- but also vicarious.
Sounds of thunder bleed into sustain while a perpetually humming organ pipes clouds of tension to substitute and blend with the outskirts at night; a noisome darkness filled with a lingering and unbroken presence so that you'd rather not know what exactly is humming and falling from out there in the trees. But Scott transgresses fog with horn and bough in hand. Dark woods and isolation feed emotions set free by low-end dirge, tubular bells, young-ox horn, ocarina and lonely drum, pursued by coyote howls and Scott's own incomprehensible mutterings. Song titles like "Drinking the Blood of a Lion" and "Like a Coffin Chasing a Womb, His Chariot Becomes a Southern Bloodstorm" as well as runic portraits of bone and earth seen on the cover (notice too the way the "bird" figure morphs into Mjolnir or Thor's Hammer) further amplify the talismanic arc interred on record.
Often broken into three to four movements per song (on average stretching seven minutes each) each track alternates between sloughed guitar chugging and mild ambient trances. There is no distinction of "primitivism" between the two, only amplification. And although the music has already been compared to drone, black and stoner metal, it lacks the typical rock-flavored riffing, monotonous non-structure and bleak atmosphere of each to justify that simple categorization or comparison. True enough, _Blood of the Black Owl_ is a long and strange album and sounds as if helmed by one man alone, but if anyone can be paired side by side here with Scott in acoustics, it's Justin Broadrick, not Malefic. "Drinking the Blood of a Lion", perhaps the most memorable song on the disc, creates foaming channels of guitar distortion through simple chord progressions, alternating leads under starry melodies and sounding similar to the first two Jesu albums, but without pandering to that audience; it seeks its own path and in its own way. Nor are the ambient or "shamanic" tie-ins indicative of any of one group or region by sound alone. These airy meditations recall an archaic and general romanticism of Native Indian and Buddhist rites as much as they do the icy North.
Are they "culturally accurate" demonstrations? Perhaps not, but I don't think they're meant to be. It is a dream acted out in a heavy wanderlust of emotion and a great step toward something fresh and defining.
HELLRIDE MUSIC
Bindrune Recordings seem to have a thing for the one man project. The last release I had come in contact from the label was Celestial's Desolate North which was a pretty cool atmospheric doom release. The album seemed to get mixed reviews all over the place but I dug it. It was heavy as a brick and cold as ice, with some nice flourishes of ambience and drone.
Blood of the Black Owl is the latest one man doom project to come from the Bindrune ranks and this record has really dug itself under my skin. The man in question here is Chet W. Scott and his music is the perfect soundtrack to a funeral march. This stuff is like an icy blast of black metal, slowed down to a swaying crawl; Saint Vitus-tinged doom riffs, swells of drone, atmospheric keyboards and pitch black moods all come together here. This is heavy, uncompromising stuff that is hypnotizing and epic in scope but with an emphasis on slightly fuzzed out frequencies and earth-moving doom.
The vocals are kept mostly in the background and serve as enhancement to the overall atmosphere but sometimes they come to the forefront with eerie chants and agonizing screams. The songs are incredibly slow but never monotonous, although if you are an ADD listener you are going to want to stay far away from this disc. The tracks all sort of lull you into a trance and keep you there with their pulsating heaviness. The keyboards that often back the main riffs are what add to the trance-inducing quality of the songs as they create beautiful melodies that back the doom drenched riffs.
The bar is set high from the very first track, "Kills in Timber" which is a down-trodden doom track that has elements of black metal laced within the lumbering drone. The riffs have a definite doom edge to them and kind of remind me of the subtle grooves that could be heard in some of the Saint Vitus material or even early to mid-period Celestial Season records (think mainly Solar Lovers). The vocals are groaned and screamed and the track manages to burrow itself deeper into your psyche with each passing minute. The song-writing is also mixed up carefully throughout to let many other elements shine through.
"Drinking the Blood of a Lion" has huge melodic washes throughout its instrumental blackened, doom/drone and the whole track never really veers into the realm of caustic heaviness. Chet flirts with some huge, moody doom riffs on "Like a Coffin Chasing the Womb, His Chariot becomes a Southern Bloodstorm" and the whole track evokes this undeniable feeling of sadness that will haunt even the most battle-hardened listener. "Uwwalo" is half a plodding, doom track and the other half a tribal tinged, ambient piece with haunting drum sounds and other effects that will definitely darken your mood a bit.
The record closes with the gut-wrenching duo of "Hammer comes Crashing Down" and "A Coven of Vultures" which are the albums two heaviest and most doomed out pieces in my opinion. Even with the sheer hopelessness of these closing tracks, Chet still finds time to work in chilling, mood enhancing parts that drone in the most ear-pleasing of manners.
It is melodic drone and not just noise for noise's sake which will make this album a welcome addition to those who like their drone a bit more moody and uplifting. This record is an epic piece of work with all of the tracks working well to compliment each other and enhance the overall experience. There isn't a bum track or complaint for me with this record. The sound quality was also far above my expectations as for a one man project this thing sounds really damn good but without a ton of overblown, studio sheen. The doom elements of this record sound threatening as hell but the melodic parts stand out and don't get lost in the mix.
Throw together Skepticism, Saint Vitus, Toadliquor, Celestial Season, Evoken, Celestiial and a black metal band and you will have the vaguest idea of what to expect with this record. It really doesn't sound a lot like that description overall but I feel that elements of all of the above bands and then some are incorporated into this eclectic mix. An awesome and intriguing doom record that will be a good listen for the open-minded fan of the genre.
FEAST OF HATE & FEAR
Blood of the Black Owl originally started as Svart Ugle (releasing a three song demo) in 2004, but soon opted for the name change. Even so, the solo artist behind BOTBO has been fiddling with music for some time, though not so much in the field of metal, as Chet W. Scott was better known for his experimental, neo-folk and pagan music projects Ruhr Hunter and The Elemental Chrysalis. The switch over doesn't mess with his musical credibility whatsoever, as I've always found the fundamentals of dirge and doom to be rather folky in their musical progressions, just seriously amplified. Anyhow, this self-titled album under a new moniker is a little over an hour, and packed with elements of his old sounds delightfully crashing into newer vehicles. What Blood of the Black Owl emits is a mostly funeral dirge, with some aspects of black metal (guitar play and vocals), all the while laced with field recordings (wolf calls, wind blowing, crickets) and pagan instruments (ox's horn, brass bells, clay ocarina, etc). The vocals are interestingly laid down, as there is hardly a word throughout, but instead we are creeped out to a mix of whispered hisses, howls of pain, and a throaty growl not unlike the Nepalese vocal meditations of Bonist monks - all of which I would think more black metalists would want to copy. Already mentioning that this is over an hour, at eight songs, you know these musical numbers are in epic lengths, ranging from seven to thirteen minutes and often traveling as slow as refrigerated syrup, yet holding my interests throughout. The future looks bright for this CW Scott project, but I'm sure he'll want to keep the music as dark as possible.
KEITH BOYD (SAN DIEGO REVIEWS)
As it turns out there is actually something new under the sun! This Pagan/Heathen Doom soaked Black Metal release is a wonderfully hybrid excursion into recombinant music forms that manages to sound threatening and welcoming at the same time.
BOTBO is apparently the nom-de-metal of one Chet W. Scott who hails from Seattle and who also happens to be the main man behind the blackened ambient group Ruhr Hunter. This one man project is a buzzing and warbling trip through a black and rainy forest at night. Although it has many well done signifiers of the "Sludge-Doom" genre (down tuned guitars, glacial tempos, reverb soaked vocals and murk) it manages to one up them with some nicely crafted thematic interludes and one song (Kills in Timber) featuring a pack of wolves on vocals! The power of this disc is in its committed and primal tone. It sounds like ritual music from some lost tribe of Heathen forest dwelling Orcs. There is the hazy scree of guitar buzz aplenty but the use of chants, gongs, organ washes and tubular bells raises this music above the mud like a bloody caveman fist against the Northern sky.
The packaging (once again done by Mr. Scott) is housed in the generic jewel case but the imagery is amazing. It encompasses Nordic runes and primal Northwest Indian totemic animals such as ravens into a very personal pictographic representation of the music and impulses behind it. The runes are once again a blend in that they include Thor's Hammer and a Thunderbird. Really it's just a beautifully done cover with powerful and mythological iconography that appeals to something deep within us.
The songs and interludes are all on the long side so be prepared to spend some time with this CD. It's not one that gives up its secrets easily. Given time the music will unfurl its black banner all around your senses and send your mind to ancient landscapes. This is a listening experience where you are allowed to suspend your disbelief for an hour or so. We're so pressed for time in this life. It's jump up in the morning and rush out to battle traffic and off to the job to work our asses off and rush to bolt down a meal and fight more traffic and rush to run errands and never, ever enough time. Check out Blood of the Black Owl for a break from all of that. I'm not saying its necessarily relaxing music. It's filled with its own tensions and black to grey color scheme. It does however slow you down a bit. It takes your mind on a trip. Never mind that the lyrics can't be heard or comprehended, never mind that it's hard to classify in a genre. Let a little uncertainty creep into your daily round and see if it doesn't bring relief or perhaps even a bit of inspiration.
MUSIQUE MACHINE
This is the first dark fruit of Chet Scott's (Ruhr Hunter, Elemental Chrysalis and Glass throat records) metal project. It's a inventive and surprising mix of Black metal, doom, darkly tuneful traditional metal elements, ritual air, traces of forest cinematics and dark ambience. All with Scott's very distinctive pagan and natural led themes.
He has managed to take formulary chugging and crawling riffs inbreed with grim atmosphere of black metal/doom, Adding layers of ritual air, dark forest spirit, throat singing, clear guitar work, animal sounds and samples to make a moss filled, oak tree bowed black prayer to the forest and metal in all it's dark forms.
Coming in just over 70 minutes running time, Scott fills the album with crawling crude riffs and barren chugs, growled and pained vocals that sound like the forest angry spirit, but it never becomes monotone like many black/ doom releases. Sure this is often bleak, painful and unforgiving, but Scott always add's interesting layers. Take the first track "Kills in timber", which launches it's self with a low down & dirt early Celtic Frost chug, before stopping midway for a moment of grim ambience, before coming back more melodic and adding in wolf cries to the grim metallic march. Or "Drinking the Blood of a Lion", which starts off with a bleak forest bound post rock air, with some wonderful emotive guitar work that leads into a rough 'n' ready Type O negative like doom chug. Scott using great bell like hits on the down swoop of each riff cycle, as he chants ominously and grimly over the top, before once more the clear melodic element appears over the riff chug. The album is topped off with the bleakest and grimiest track here "A Coven of vultures", which marries slow painful and melancholy riffling with almost pained Burzum like shriek. Though it does finish with a haunting and eerier refrane that mixes throat singing, ritual drumming with strange Celestaphone strumming and plucking.
Scott has made an album that's a fond celebration of dark and chugging metal craft, but that's also a work of great atmosphere, sound and darkly spiritual depth. You'll want to replay again and again.
LORDS OF METAL
Halfway through the opening track 'Kill The Timber' I was a bit disappointed by this release. It sounded boring, the riffs were out of key and with a heavy heart I listened to the rest of the album of Blood Of The Black Owl. But as soon as the howling wolves kick in, my enthusiasm grew and I listened with a more-more-more feeling to the CD.
All tracks are hugely interesting and filled with great riffs and a chilling atmosphere. Each song contains a surprising element to keep things interesting for the listener. Ranging from bottled anger, solemn frozen air and opened caskets, the mood is more than set in a devilish dark way. I must admit that the first song misled me but I am happy I listened on. Most songs meet the ten minute mark and the CD is may be a bit too much black funeral doom to be interesting for over seventy minutes. But for fans of Worship and the slower songs of Pest, I truly recommend this nearly suicidal record.
BLACK ANGEL PROMOTIONS
The world of One-Man bands is really coming to fruition it would seem. Here lately I can't go a month without getting a One-Man band cd of some sorts, it's normally Black Metal but it's starting to bleed over into other genres, too. Point being, the newest disc I have from a One-Man show is a Funeral Doom/Drone Metal cd from the band Blood Of The Black Owl.
The band's debut album is self-titled and frankly, boring as hell. The spooky and weird side of me wants to really like the work portrayed here, but the average length of the songs is ten minutes or less. And man, that's just way too long for me to listen to the same riff over and over and over again. I know this is very popular in this genre of music, but damned if I can get into it. Nothing really stands out and grabs my attention after awhile - it's just constant riffing over a slow moving back beat with nothing but howls, grunts and soundscapes to keep me occupied. None of this necessarily makes the cd bad, it's all in the eye of the beholder and you may think differently than I do, then again you may smoke alot of dope, too. Either way, if you dig the sounds of Sunno))) and Boris you may enjoy a little Blood Of The Black Owl.
THE AJNA OFFENSIVE
In true Pacific Northwest fashion Blood of the Black Owl offers up an intense, atmospheric, ritualized album with expansive songs and plenty of aural waves upon which to encounter the sacrificial elements of your Self.
DIGITAL METAL
While the Pacific Northwest has become renowned for its many one man, suicidal black metal projects, the scene is quickly becoming little more than Xasthur/Leviathan cloning with little or no deviation from the template laid down by Wrest and Malefic and I've been waiting for a person/band to add a little something different to the genre. Bindrune's last effort from Celestiial failed miserably, but apparently, that act is Chet W. Scott.
No pseudonym is necessary here as Chet's project, Blood of the Black Owl, finally delivers a take on doomy depressive black metal that deviates slightly from the suffocating psychosis of his peers. What we have here is still, disturbing and nervous doom gaited black metal, but with a tangible Stoner lean, especially in guitar tone. Now don't get me wrong, the first time I listened to Blood of the Black Owl with headphones on at bedtime, I had wretched nightmares (seriously), as the draining, lengthy tracks are still fraught with tense paranoia, but it's less clichéd and insidious and more organic.
The mournful drone of opener "Kills The Timber" immediately cements the stoner aspect of BotBO, but Chet's pained and often barely audible wails and moans remind you this is no Dazed and Confused trip, and the track's dramatic, howl laden turn at around the 7:20 mark is stifling and disturbing, like a trip gone bad. The wolves continue their haunting serenade for the start of "The Thunderous Hooves of Two Goats in the Sky" which continues the hazy delirium. Now, the 13-minute "Drinking the Blood of a Lion" and "Like a Coffin Chasing a Womb, His Chariot Becomes a Southern Bloodstorm" sees a tangibly more malevolent atmosphere prevail, sounding like the Disembowelment inspired tones that Azrael (the USBM act on Moribund) might ply. The atonal lope of "Uwwalo", slows things down even more and its mid song tribal break is downright haunting and "Hammer Comes Crashing Down" sees Chet become far more upfront with his strained wails amid the dramatic, almost Viking Bathory on barbiturates drone. Closer "A Coven of Vultures" (another 13 minute track), is a draining, droning affair that cements the albums laborious, dread inducing fog that left me feeling truly "icky".
Ultimately, Blood of the Black Owl's, 70 minute duration with its thicker guitars and hazy malevolence, ends up sounding like Malefic or Wrest tripping balls in the forest, but wont leave you open wristed and insane but red eyed and deliriously paranoid.
AQUARIUS RECORDS
The ritualist forest flecked dark ambience of the band Ruhr Hunter has always managed to somehow transcend its ambient classification and appeal to the metal crowd as much as to the ambient drone crowd. Not sure what it is, the foresty bent, the bold Teutonic iconography, the music's distinctly dark elements, or maybe folks could just tell that some metal was lurking within them thar dark drones...And as if we needed proof, along comes Blood Of The Black Owl, the buzzing black metal project of Chet Scott, the man behind Ruhr Hunter. And true to form, this is no run of the mill black metal band, Scott expands his baritone guitar / drums palette to include stuff like thunder gong and brass tubular bells, organ, young ox horn, antique celestaphone, environmental recordings and black clay ocarina. It's almost like a blackened metallicized Ruhr Hunter. The sound is an hypnotic, repetitive midtempo Burzumic buzz, often slowing down to a dirge like crawl, each track a relentless trudge through mud and swamp, thicket and forest, the riffs looping and cycling, mantra-like, the vocals a guttural growl one second, an anguished wail the next, in the background are howling wolves, birdsong, strange percussion, a truly mysterious black brew. Much of the record dips into dark ambience, and being that this is basically Ruhr Hunter, those passages are captivating, a dark dreamy ambient interludes underpinned in places by slow motion riffing, in others by chantlike vocals, and still others by throat singing, it's all very haunting and mournful, but this is NOT a RH record, so those brief passages are merely transitions, the songs themselves, the riffs and the melodies, weave their own dark magic, dismal and depressive, as doom as it is black, a mesmerizing fuzzy landscape of black riffs and simple pounding rhythms, gloriously bleak, strangely dreamlike, and most definitely imbued with the spirit of some ancient black forest.
PLAGUE HAUS
This is the latest offering from Chet W. Scott, known to many as the man behind Ruhr Hunter. BOTBO (formally known as Svart Ugle) shares little with his ambient counterpart, but instead offers up a magnificent slab of blackened doom.
As always, I'm a bit antsy of one-man-metal projects preferring the dynamic of a proper band over the individual's perception. It can be a bit flat and lifeless... with a few exceptions, of course. But fear not, dear listener, this is some killer shite.
So much new metal spewing forth these days is just a caricature of itself. All these preconceived notions and nonsense rules of what is true and what is false. It's refreshing to hear something that's just about the fucking music. Just put it on and trance out. A good old fashioned Celtic Frost vs. Darkthrone wrestling match, a touch of ambience over droning guitar, sludge heavy bass lines and no-nonsense drum beats. It's just completely unpretentious doom. Even if Scott writes some of the longest song titles ever.
I've been cranking this out almost daily since it arrived. This is the 5th release from Marty "Worm" Rytkonen's Bindrune label. Definitely worth checking out.
HEX MAGAZINE
Consisting of seven tracks, this ambitious metal journey begins by delivering the listener to the heart of the storm immediately upon pressing 'play'. A broad range of instrumentation is woven through the heavy rhythm guitar in a unique and entrancing manner. The stark, raw vocals of the opening turn to echoing screams and cavernous growls, surrounded by doom tempo drums and meditative breaks of pure drone.
Some brave transitions are made, not only between the tracks themselves, but also ventured within. The overall sound is a seductive, ritualistic atmosphere. Hints of early, abstract Abruptum as well as nods to some of Fenriz's more dynamic projects rear their beast-like heads, but here we find a singular vision creating a stage all of it's own. The very subtle combination of throat singing, wolf howls, flutes, various samples, gongs and bells acheives a majestic, sexy effect. Perfect for an evening of red wine, raging fire and naked flesh on a wolf-skin rug. "Blood of the Black Owl is a recording which manages to take your to that very special place. The solo creator of this challenging epic, Chet W. Scott (Ruhr Hunter, Svart Ugle) has presented a number of various experimental, self released projects through his own Glass Throat Recordings, and this is an excellent introduction to that world.
METAL NIGHTMARE.COM
Less than thirty seconds into this, I knew I was going to like it a lot. BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL brings back the elusive black doom style, sounding a lot like DARKTHRONE's "Quintessence." That's right. The songs are mostly just a handful of riffs, played in repetition. It gets downright hypnotic at times. "Atmospheric" doesn't even begin to describe the dark feeling this album creates. By the third song, you'll swear you were trapped in a dank, musty, poorly lit dungeon and that something might be stalking you. A shoggoth, perhaps? I was just fine with that, up until "Hammer Comes Crashing Down"... The music, the shrieks... I'm not ashamed to say that I came damn close to befouling my undies. Remember when you were a kid and had nightmares? And your parents said there were no such things as monsters? They lied.
SMOTHER.NET
A one-man band Blood of the Black Owl recorded this album in Seattle and Chet W. Scott's creation is as rainy and melancholy as Seattle nights can be. Stirring guitar sludge rains in doom metal creations with lengthy opuses that ignite flames under the feet of the minions it serves. Dark metal from Bindrune Recordings that refuses to take prisoners.
DUST IN THE LUNG
Ok...wow! Old school to the fucking bone! This man knows how to weave the spirits of our Metal forefathers & give us something new. Blood of the Black Owl I beg you...Please perform live...I'll fly anywhere!!! Buy it now folks!
A TUNE A DAY
Thunderous and monumental black doom from the mysterious Blood of the Black Owl. The vocals on this are so tortured, the painfully heavy guitars, bass and drums, punishing the senses! Blood of the Black Owl has created a sound that is triumphant and ritualistic.
CORAZINE
Blood of the Black Owl is a blackened slab of funeral doom. A bleak, frigid landscape is created in the mind, one that throbs with ominous life and a huge sense of forbidding. Thick, thick guitar lines and slow, marching percussion form the miasma out of which arise the distant snarls of black metal style vox, as if heard through a dense cloud of manifested doom. An aural accomplishment and a treat for the grim minded.
ULTIMATE METAL
Surprise, surprise. Here we have yet another band touting itself as "primal", "destructive" and "unique". These newer bands being praised as metal's saviors are nothing more than a Flavor-of-the-Month. It is simply more fulfilling to turn to older milestones or stick with what certain legendary bands are releasing. This writer could continue with his sermon, but is there really any point, Faithful Reader?
So, here is where this writer tells you that, despite his preconceived notion that Blood of the Black Owl would be garbage, this album is truly "unique" and is the next logical step in metal? You would be half correct. Blood of the Black Owl does play a fairly fresh sounding mix of black metal, funeral doom and shamanistic ritual music. To simplify matters for the comparison Reader, imagine Skepticism upping the ante on the shamanistic feel to Stormcrowfleet and recruiting Varg Vikernes to play guitar, with Rob Darken behind the microphone.
Being a fan of funeral doom and black metal, this writer took to Blood of the Black Owl quite well. The songs never move beyond a mid-pace, with most of them staying true to the slow tempo of funeral doom. The opener, "Kills in Timber" is an exception, using great black metal riffs throughout most of the nine minutes. Easily the most interesting song here, the rest of the album fails to keep the same standard. A lot of times throughout the seventy plus minutes, this writer found himself losing interest. The album could have been cut down considerably and had a much more profound impact.
The one thing Blood of the Black Owl is doing that might one day make this writer a fan, is the inclusion of shamanistic passages. It does positively add another dimension to the music presented here. Unfortunately, it is similar to what Nile does with their Egyptian themes. Instead of including these shamanistic rituals into the metal passages, they are thrown to the end of the songs or in between the metal segments. If the band (which is actually one man) would learn to play to their strengths, which are decent black metal riffs ("Hammer Comes Crashing Down" and "Kills in Timber") and the Heathen meditations ("Uwwalo"), Blood of the Black Owl could carve out a special little niche for themselves.
As it stands, Blood of the Black Owl is a decent debut album that should appeal to funeral doom fanatics, as well as some black metal fans that do not suffer from attention deficit disorder. This writer hopes this band works out the kinks and soldiers on, because there is something unique to be heard here.
ABSOLUTE ZERO MEDIA
This is what you get from the masterful talents of Chet W. Scott from well known Ruhr Hunter and Glass Throat Recordings fame, when he decides its time to do a Doomy dark metal release. From my 1st listen as this is how I always like to review the Cds I dive into. This is a mix of one part Godflesh one part Neurosis then add elements of Eyehategod, Grief and Floor for good measure. At times a would say bands like Sunn0))), Thergothon and Dusk(USA) hold high reguards to what Mr. Scott is creating here. There is still a strong root in the heathen element of nature and the more analog warm sounds. The guitars are so full and heavy with an amazing fuzzy overtone, that just make the music all the more enjoyable. The vocals are minimalist but when they come through, they are more of a black metal feeling but more in a way like ancient wisdom or deinonychus. The drums and bass add a very industrial the Godflesh element to my ears. Bindrune has on hell of an amazing release here and this will well take them to the next level of labeldom. Thank you again Chet for you take on Doom metal as your is an amazing one bar none.
