Stream from the Heavens
| Stream from the Heavens | ||||
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| Thergothon studio album | ||||
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Publication |
June 15, 1994 |
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admission |
October to November 1992 |
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| Label (s) | Avant-garde music | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
6th |
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running time |
40:48 |
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| occupation |
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Markus Patrikainen |
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Stream from the Heavens is the first and only album by the Finnish band Thergothon . It is considered to be one of the most important releases for the creation of Funeral Doom and in retrospect is referred to as the first full-fledged album in the genre.
Emergence
The band composed the music and wrote the lyrics according to the liner notes from 1990 until the end of the recordings. These took place in 1992. October-November and was by the otherwise unknown Markus Patrikainen producing accompanied. In an interview conducted years after the album was released, Sirkiä indicated that he wrote the lyrics based on the Cthulhu myth alone.
After Thergothon had recorded the demo tape Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth in November 1991, the band began to revise two pieces of the demo and record new pieces in autumn 1992. The revised and the new material of the band was characterized by non-metallic influences like Gothic Rock , Dark Ambient and Progressive Rock and, compared to the demo, a further reduced pace. An impression that was confirmed by Niko Sirkiä. When asked about Thergothon's influences that led to the sound of Stream from the Heavens , he replied:
“Probably either from the Doors or Black Sabbath . Or the gothic punk bands we were fascinated by at the time, or Pink Floyd . Those were the things that inspired us, not the millions of death metal bands that were around back then. "
Guitarist Sjöroos added that the band playfully experimented with the tempo of the pieces and spontaneously tried to play "as slowly as possible". After the musicians liked the result, the band arranged new and written music at the set tempo. According to Sirkiä, the goal was to create a hideous sound and atmosphere, "as if the songs were freezing on the spot."
With Paradise Lost and Cathedral , Sirkiä is referring to pioneers in their own development, which, however, did not go far enough for the musicians, especially with reducing the tempo. In retrospect, however, more significant than the musical influence seemed to him to be the search for ways of expressing an existential fear in late adolescence, which he regarded as universal . He describes the music as "a suitable way to express and drive out the negative emotions that [the band members] were experiencing." As further influences, he refers to musical groups such as Bathory , Black Sabbath , Tiamat , Mana Mana and the already mentioned Paradise Lost and Cathedral. The texts also refer continuously to HP Lovecraft . However, Sirkiä names the atmosphere as the central goal of the music. All other aspects are only intended to support the desired atmosphere. Despite the completion of the recording process and the completed graphic design of the album without any difficulties, it was not published for a long time. Different reviews indicate problems with the contractual partner as the cause of the long-term delay. After completing the recordings and before the album was released, the group decided to split up. Sirkiä described the dissolution as a consequence of the impression that he had completed the project. Elsewhere he spoke of the fact that the group was growing weary of metal within the period of albumen formation.
Album information
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The album, first released in 1994, contains six separate pieces that have a total playing time of 40:48 minutes. The album was re-released several times. The singer and keyboardist Sirkiä took over the graphic preparation of the accompanying material. In addition to Sirkiä, the band consisted of the guitarist Ruotsalainen and the drummer and singer Jori Sjöroos at the time of recording.
publication
On June 15, 1994, Stream from the Heavens appeared on the Italian independent label Avantgarde Music , which had emerged from the black metal label Obscure Plasma Records, as the first release under the new label name. It contained six pieces with a total playing time of 40:48 minutes. No changes were made to this extent of the album in later editions. Additional bonus material was not added either.
Re-releases were released in 2000 on CD via Avantgarde Music, via Paniac Records in 2004 as LP, via Peaceville Records in 2009 as CD and download, and in 2014 as LP, in 2013 via Seventh Rule Recordings as LP and via Metal Star and Fono Ltd. in 2018 as a limited CD in a mediabook cover.
layout
The design of the album and the booklets were done by Sirkiä himself. K. Sirkiä was named as the photographer of the cover picture, a low-lying sunrise or sunset with a hardly identifiable monolithic tower protruding into the right picture space. Oscar Strik gave the picture an "ominous" charisma for the webzine Doom-Metal.com review. In the booklet, in addition to the information about the recording, the lyrics are printed in calligraphic font in white on a black background.
style
The music presented on Stream from the Heavens is described by reviewers as viscous, monolithic and lava-like. Instrumentally, the band reduced the sound to a heavy, distorted, but very slow guitar playing, a dark sounding and equally slow drums and an occasional organ sound interspersed in the background. The extremely slow and powerful riffing and the transported feeling of depression are named as striking elements . The album pairs “Heaviness” with “Monotony” and surrounds itself with a “depressive-desperate, sometimes even destructive aura.” The vocals clearly mix dark growling , which is sometimes described as the “coldest growl ever heard”, with a second one performing voice, which rather “surrenders to an oppressive pitch.” The occasional use of the keyboard gives the pieces additional depth and hides subtle melodies.
perception
The Stream from the Heavens , which initially received little attention , developed after its first release into a classic of the entire Doom Metal spectrum and the album that is valued as the influential invention of Funeral Doom by critics, genre chronicles and musicians alike.
reception
After the first release, the album was mainly discussed in fanzines , where it was highly praised. In the professional international music and scene press, however, Stream from the Heavens was barely noticed. In retrospect, the album was classified as underrated at the time.
It was only after the genre became more widespread that Stream from the Heavens became more an issue in the international metal press. So the album is ascribed high quality in and equally high importance for Doom Metal as a whole and the subgenre Funeral Doom in particular. The Decibel Magazine introduced it in 2014 in ninth place of the 100 top doom metal album of all time . The Deaf Forever, however, in the same year at number 34 on the list The 50 best Doom albums of all time and as part of the list of 20 essential Black / Death Doom albums . The album is also listed in various similar lists. The British Metal Hammer mentioned Stream from the Heavens under The 10 Essential Doom Metal Albums , the Webzine Loudwire under The Best Metal Albums of 40 Subgenres and at number 6 of the Top 25 Doom Metal Albums of All Time .
Meaning in the genre
Particularly in the genre retrospectives and listings, reference is made to Thergothon's pioneering work and genre definition through Stream from the Heavens .
In his work for the British magazine Metal Hammer, Christ Chantler puts the band and the album in relation to Winter , EyeHateGod , Disembowelment and Unholy in terms of its importance for the development of Doom Metal and its own genre . He judges that no other band has created more terrifying "than the non-Euclidean geometry of the Finnish pioneering band Thergothon, whose only album is an Ice Age lovecraft nightmare that still exudes its far-away mysticism." In his review written for Deaf Forever Volkmar Weber describes the album as "[t] he birth of Funeral Doom." Likewise, Scott Koerber formulated in his review of the album, which was written for Decibel Magazine, that it was a "landmark of Doom Metal" and inadvertently a "genre pioneer - and a tonal one." Blueprints for the then unnamed Funeral Doom. ”In the weekly Funeral Friday series written for the webzine Metal Injection, music journalist Cody Davis portrayed Thergothon as the starting point of the genre.
According to such assessments, reviewers cite the band and their album as the original and comparative work for publications in the genre that are currently being discussed. Accordingly, publications by Rigor Sardonicous , Mournful Congregation , Profetus , Beneath Oblivion , Woebegone Obscured , Ea. , Funeral Moth and more in relation to Thergothon and Stream from the Heavens .
Performers and musicians such as Kostas Panagiotou from Pantheist , Nortt , Sacha Dunable from Bereft , Jonathan Théry from Funeralium and Ataraxie , John del Russi from Hierophant and Catacombs or Nick Orlando from Evoken also refer to Thergothon as an inspiration and original band for the genre they belong to be associated with their music themselves.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Travis Bickle: EXTREME DOOM PART III: Niko Skorpio of Thergothon. We Wither, accessed October 25, 2019 .
- ^ A b c d Scott Koerber: Thergothon: Stream from the Heavens . In: Decibel . 2014, ISSN 1557-2137 , p. 37 .
- ^ Thergothon: Stream from the Heavens. Burning Shed, accessed October 25, 2019 .
- ↑ a b ta: Dark, Darker, Funeral Doom. (No longer available online.) Crossover agm, archived from the original on October 16, 2014 ; accessed on October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Alon Miasnikov: Niko Skorpio - Funeral's Patriarch. Metalist Magazine, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Oscar Strik: Thergothon: Stream from the Heavens. Doom-Metal.com, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d Gerrit aka Phantom Command: Thergothon: Stream from the Heavens. Terrorverlag, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ^ Arnstein H. Pettersen: Thergothon: Stream from the Heavens. Doom-Metal.com, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ^ A b Daniel: Thergothon: Stream from the Heavens. Metal Crypt, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Alexander: Thergothon: Stream from the Heavens. The Industrial Twilight, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Chris Chandler: The 10 Essential Doom Metal Albums. Metal Hammer, October 5, 2016, archived from the original on August 2, 2018 ; accessed on October 25, 2019 .
- ^ Eduardo Rivadavia: The Best Metal Albums from 40 Subgenres. Loudwire, accessed October 25, 2019 .
- ↑ Joe Divita: Top 25 Doom Metal Albums of All Time. Loudwire, accessed October 25, 2019 .
- ^ Volkmar Weber: Thergothon: Stream from the Heavens . In: Deaf Forever . November 2014, p. 32 .
- ^ A b Cody Davis: Funeral Doom Friday - Funeral Moth: transience. metal injection, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Cody Davis: Funeral Doom Friday: Travel Back to Mournful CONGREGATION's Tears From A Grieving Heart. metalinjection.net, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Ignacio Coluccio: RIGOR SARDONICUS - Apocalypsis Damnare - CD - Paragon Records - 2005. maelstromzine.com, accessed on October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Laurent Lignon: Profetus: Coronation of the Black Sun. doom-metal.com, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Beneath Oblivion. Doom-Metal.com, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Lord Doom: Woebegone Obscured: Deathstination. Angry Metal Guy, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Ea .: Au Ellai. brutalism. Retrieved October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Alfonso Perez: Xoresth: Vortex of Desolation. voices from the darkside, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Christian Hector: Interview with pantheist singer Kostas Panagiotou about Funeral Doom. Metal Hammer, April 1, 2011, accessed January 2, 2019 .
- ^ Nortt interview. metal.de, accessed on October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: “THE COLDEST ORCHESTRA” FROM BEREFT, PLUS SACHA DUNABLE'S FIVE FAVORITE DOOM METAL RECORDS! Metal Sucks, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Atsugi Hayashi / Jonathan Théry: Ataraxia: L'Être et la Nausée (press kit) . Ed .: Weird Truth Productions. S. 1 .
- ↑ Kostas Panagiotou: Hierophant Interview. Doom-Metal.com, accessed October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ EVOKEN INTERVIEW (2003) By Silenius and Gam. Nihilistic Holocaust, accessed October 25, 2019 .