BLACK BONED ANGEL "Ashes" 3xCDR

Okay-let's take a stab at actually reviewing something. I've had this record for awhile and have listened to it many times, but it's become a favorite of mine so i thought i'd let everyone know about it. This is another nom de plume of the mighty Campbell Kneale, the persona behind the equally mighty Birchville Cat Motel and overall one of my favorite musicians in the world. About three years ago when Campbell first started the Black Boned Angel project i thought it was a little redundant, since there are so many bands doing the whole SUNN O))) drone doom thing (which i love-always have, even before Sunn existed), and also since a lot of what happens in Birchville is incredibly reminiscient of doom metal anyway, especially on recent releases. As i've said many times, anyone can do power drone-it just takes a special talent to do it well and captivatingly. So it was with great joy that i realized that Kneale can deliver the doomed goods. BBA has already amassed a large body of work-this new three CDR set is just the most recent, and it's fucking staggering. It demands to be listened to in one sitting and digested as a whole because the record stretches across such a massive drift of styles-separating it would take away from some of the majesty. Disc One starts off with a heavily distorted guitar hitting one massive open chord over and over, and it doesn't let up for over an hour. The guitar is joined by more guitars, droning on and growing ever louder, the distortion more and more fuzzy and grating and grainy, until the whole thing eventually collapses in on itself in a ridiculous supernova of desolate black hole power. This first disc is definetely the heaviest of the three as well as the most truly doomy. Disc Two stands in pretty stark contrast. The piece is much more open and drifting, and while certainly loud, there's a warm and inviting quality to the guitars that isn't present on most BBA material. Hear you get the trademarks of Campbell Kneale- high end drone skree, gorgeous brittle guitars that scar the roof of the sky and an overall feeling of quivery shimmering radiance. It's like a beautiful sort of nausea, like in some sort of bizarre world where vomiting was still gross but it felt really, really good. I was kind of surprised that this piece was included because it seems better suited to a Birchville release (in fact it reminds me ALOT of the recent collaboration with Anla Courtis), i guess that just reinforces my feelings that these two entities really are more or less the same project taken to their logical extremes. This piece is also much shorter than the first (although it's still a good 45 minutes or so!!) I think this piece was a live performance but it's hard to tell with Kneale, since everything he does is essentially live. Disc Three is a hybrid of the two, still not as punishing as disc one but definetely not as dreamy as disc two. This is an older recording that features drums (!!!) and pretty much goes down the path of damaged, epic sludge slowly washing over your ears like a wave of coagulated blood. It's a lot to take in at once but if you've got some drugs it'll go down a lot easier, and you might get closer to the penultimate point of doom metal understanding. Of course you should listen to this as loud as possible. I'm pretty sure this set is out of print now and probably won't be repressed, but here's some links to help you out. Kneale himself might have some copies left, and his label is full of other super cool records. Ave doom!

http://www.cpsip.co.nz/

http://www.20buckspin.com/

http://www.aquariusrecords.org/