Can we talk for a second about how pretty Stansted is? I began listening to Bolt Gun’s third full-length The Tower on a rail replacement bus journey passing through it. You see, I thought it would be the perfect soundtrack to what I anticipated to be a brutalist post-industrial grey mulch of a town. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Stansted, bathed in the first morning rays of sunshine, looked more like rural New Zealand than like Luton. I almost expected David Arkenstone to stop the bus and set up shop inside. But hey, I wasn’t too disappointed when that didn’t happen, as The Tower did provide ample atmosphere to what was an unexpectedly picturesque leg of the journey.
I’m a huge Bohren & der Club of Gore fan. And a huge black metal fan. Have I ever felt the need to have the two combined? No – but mostly because I didn’t think it could ever possibly work out. I mean there have certainly been attempts. The lesser known Shining was on the right track at one point. Waste of Space Orchestra undoubtedly did some. A Forest Of Stars and Ashenspire have attempted it and somewhat successfully at that, but the concept has never been taken as far as Bolt Gun does in The Tower.
Now, as much as I like acid jazz, I mostly profoundly dislike regular jazz. So I’ll say what others might not. This album would have been equally as good had it not contained any jazztastic inclusions. I do think they’re rather inconsequential to the overall sound and emotional dynamic of the album, yet they do set it apart a great deal from other similar releases. Without the acid jazz it’s black metal. With the acidjazz, it’s still black metal.
Back when I first started listening to black metal, my first introduction to raw and atmospheric black metal, bordering on dark ambient or noise, was Vinterriket. I am still quite partial to the once-prolific German’s works, even though, with the exception of the genre transgressions, they were all quite same-y. To me, The Tower sounded very much like Der letzte Winter-era Vinterriket, with Bohren and industrial/sludge vocals thrown in. Pretty good combo, and, if I may say, a great travel album – particularly on a rainy day. However, it’s very much a single listen release. There’s little in there to warrant a second, and even less a third. Somehow, I ended up holding onto this album for a month, always hoping I’d give it a further listen, and then a further more. Yet, I was never in the mood for it.
(5.5/10 The Flâneur)
Leave a Reply