Battle's Clarion

This band escaped my notice until recently. In the last few weeks I have seen many reviews touting this band as the best of American black metal. That seems lofty praise, but maybe not unwarranted. If not the best, definitely one of the better. One reviewer said "extremely dissonant and chaotic-more unlistenable than Darkthrone's Transylvanian Hunger" That got my attention, I LIKE that album. I've read things like "venomously spirited yet eerily haunting...insanely technical...drums played with tight control...vocals are a wailing acidic rasp -insanely out of control...tons of breakneck changes and not a whole lot of repetition." I can't disagree, what first came to mind when I turned it on was Voivod's Killing Technology. You would not confuse the two bands, but they share that feel of totally out of control unpredictability. I could describe the components of their music- noise samples incorporated into songs, technical and fast melodies, the use of vocals as an expressive instrument... sound familiar? They don't seem very original when described this way. A cross between old Emperor, Immortal and Satyricon with Immolation thrown in to liven things up.

Somehow their music is more than that, it works, I find I don't dismiss it to the background, but concentrate on the details. They have the chaotic complexity of Emperor but not the majestic flair. I find the songs too short. With this style of music I think they should be longer and these guys seem to have the abilities to pull it off. The vocals are a weak point for me. Not awful, but nothing unusual either, typical old-school black metal. He has the shriek down pat, he just needs a little versatility. I like the death metal influences, definitely adds an American feel to an otherwise Scandinavian styling. This Trio is fully corpse-painted and says the paint is a component of their dedication to this form of music. I don't need to see them to understand their dedication, but I think it adds to their presentation. Corpse paint is a big plus for this style of black metal. Lyrically I can't comment because my copy has no lyrics and there is no chance in hell of catching any words by listening. They say lyrically they are influenced by feelings of triumph, loss, camaraderie, betrayal ...and a hint of epic poetry. "So many bands write endless songs about blaspheming this, christ- hating that...it's so tedious and empty. We wanted to tell stories and get people to think about the message within those stories."

These guys formed in 1996 and this is their 2nd release. I can't comment on how they have progressed because I am not familiar with their first album, but I would recommend Battle's Clarion to all fans of old school black metal. Fans of the more accessible symphonic style should probably stay away, probably too chaotic for you. While not a perfect release, definitely noteworthy, and a band to keep an ear out for in the future.

Originally written for http://teethofthedivine.com

I had heard of Averse Sefira for a long time, I checked them out a while back, and I wasn't really enjoying what I heard to much at the time. I was at a record store recently with some of my friends, and I found "Battle's Clarion" in a used section for only 5 bucks! My friends recommended it to me, they told me I'd like it, so I bought it. I got home and put it in and let all of the songs run through. Let me just make one thing clear, I NEVER LIKED AVERSE SEFIRA UNTIL I LISTENED TO THIS ALBUM! "Battle's Clarion" completely blew me away. The riffs were perfect, the drums were fast just like I like them, although one of my main problems with Averse Sefira has always been there very complex song structure.

Averse Sefira is a VERY well-rounded band, but there structure of their songs takes some getting used to and was basically the reason why I gave up listening to them at first. A song will usually start off good, fast, and heavy, and then have all kinds of weird stops in between, and then proceed to go fast again and then back into something slower. On "Battle's Clarion" the song structure isn't AS complex and it's very easy to get hooked on; if you are not yet a fan of Averse Sefira or have had problems with getting into their music in the past like me, check this album out first, because it will definately make you appreciate their other releases when you go back to listen to them. Because of "Battle's Clarion" I am now a huge fan of Averse Sefira and if you ever come across this album at your local record store, don't think about it, BUY IT! You won't regret it.

In the center of the Earth, there is a grand Iron city enclosed in gloomy Flames, which is made of black metal! From there, you might hear the crackling of fire, Battle's Clarion, a second album of a US Black Metal band, AVERSE SEFIRA.

Based in the state of Texas, which is a hot pit, AVERSE SEFIRA hailed as one of the USBM elites, along with them are HAVOHEJ, KRIEG, KULT OV AZAZEL, JUDAS ISCARIOT, DEMONACY... Yes, we should notice this rising black star!

Battle's Clarion has coined seven songs, the first one is really a good case in point. There is much more you can expect from it than simply listening to the first track. Shot riffs mixed with complex changes, tight but intelligent drum work, out-of-control yet intemperate guitar and vocals, a flow of bass all over this well-arranged album... good-balanced production plus excellent cover design altogether make Battle's Clarion a worthy choice to every Black Metaller who into IMMORTAL / SATYRICON. These songs are carefully divided into three parts by two instrumental tracks: "Withering, the Storm..." and "The Thousand Aeon Stare", which have nothing to do with traditional folk-like guitar tracks, but cold Ambient interludes instead, which always reminds me of the darkness and atmosphere created by NEUROSIS.

AVERSE SEFIRA's debut album is Homecoming's March, released by their own label Arrogare Records in 1999. The main differences between it and the second one are not only the shortness of most songs, but also the new drummer known as The Carcass. A touch of Death Metal (ANGELCORPSE, REBAELLIUN) of Battle's Clarion may be his contribution more - he also plays drums in his own band called Death of Millions. I love this, in the same way I love the usage of almost unidentified logo. They use true Black Metal stuff like makeup, spikes and pseudonyms: bassist - Wrath Sathariel Diabolus, guitarist / vocalist - Sanguine Asmodel Nocturne, which I also consider as the right(left) thing. But I have been long time obsessed by Extreme Metal, since the most important part is the hidden ideology and music is only the veil. Wrath once told us, "We derive ideas mainly from the course of own lives - feelings of triumph, loss, camaraderie, betrayal... these elements are the foundation of our work. In conjunction with there, we also combine elements of black magick, Qubbalistic studies, and a hint of epic poetry for good measure." That’s why I think this album is not for every newcomer: it doesn't have trendy Gothic keyboards; it doesn't have those used up blasphemous words. Battle's Clarion is not Northern Light of AURORA BOREALIS either! It would be a hard experience for quite a number of fans to accept this album by once or twice listenings, however, they will be waken up and be impressed by its chaotic aversions and dark, blistering strength that never thought of!

Hails to AVERSE SEFIRA! Hope they can tell us one or two longer stories more detailed next time!

Within little time the clouds had darkened and engulfed the clear blue sky. The lightning appeared like a long lost friend majestically illuminating the sky and momentarily revealing what to the naked eye looked like visions from a heavenly world. A storm can show us many secrets of the Cosmos in all their splendour. And too, the mind can be similar to the sky in that thoughts can suddenly manifest and overwhelm their bearer. This is no more obvious than when an individual’s mind awakens from its slumber and starts to discover itself outside the limits of social perceptions. A new realm appears as the lightning strikes through the clouds of battling thoughts and a new journey has begun. When the storm resides all is clear and much has been discovered.

One may conceive this album to depict great battles, the frightful wrath of nature as it shows why it is the ultimate system or even a nihilistic tirade against the strata of modern society, and in doing so be not too far from the truth. But, in the writer’s mind it takes on a metaphysical context that has far more to do with the mind that any of the above. It’s about the ordeals, conflicts and triumphs of the Self, as the individual rises out of nothingness and battles to stamp some meaning upon this realisation with his or her Will.

Where Antaeus were concerned with the relentless nihilistic nature of the storm at its height, Averse Sefira give us a panoramic view of the storm as a whole. At times the rage almost completely resides and we’re left with gently flowing streams of melody that aide us in reflecting what has just come to pass, like soft drizzle falling after a thunderstorm. But as it is seemingly over another flourish of lightning or another vociferous rumbling of thunder briefly disturbs the calmness. The beautiful dynamics of the drumming can be heard clearly, opting to forgo blasting in sections for a more eloquent style of marching war beats, changing precisely with the flowing nature of the guitar. We also find a feeling alienation from the storm itself, somewhat similar to the monumental work of Immortal - albeit lacking in ingenuity and a divine sense of melody – in that we view the storm as a process of the ages, not merely a singular unconnected occurrence. This is where we find the relation to the character development inside a person’s mind – the everlasting stretch of storm that unravels our inner beauty through outcome and experience and the reflections of these as the lightning softly drifts away so that our mind can piece together the puzzle. This is the success of “Battle’s Clarion” – the waves of chaos integrated subtly with the gracious calm of discovery.

For their second album, Averse Sefira took the fast melodic riffing (not gothenburg style melodic, but rather heavy riffs that have some melody), and made it far more chaotic (which is extremely fitting and obviously intentional since the album is, as the name would indicate, about battle). This album’s riffs use dissonance much more frequently, which helps to create that chaos. The high speed riffs definitely show a bit of a death metal influence, especially from bands like Massacra or early Morbid Angel.

Song structures here also aid in this chaos. Songs are literally about half the length (average song length is 3:53, however when the two stand alone interludes “Withering, the Storm…” and “The Thousand Aeon Stare” aren’t counted, the average song length is 4:29, which is slightly less than half of the average song length on Homecoming’s March, which is just over nine minutes), but contain about twice the riffs. Riffs are repeated much less, and change more frequently (this also stops the riff over-repetition of the previous album), but they flow well with each other. As with the previous album- don’t expect verse/chorus/bridge songwriting here.

With this emphasis on chaos, it would be easy to expect 35 minutes of pointless blasting. That’s not what you’ll get, though. It may be chaotic, but it’s still melodic, and not just “three chords played really fast”.

The drumming this time is done by a human (Carcass, from Death of Millions, who was also at one point a touring drummer for Immolation), and he does an excellent job. He can blast along when the album calls for it, but he has a sense of dynamics- usually relying on a mid-paced snare-high hat punctuated with quite competent fills, and an occasional run of double-bass.

Vocals here are fairly similar to the last album- a typical black metal shriek, similar to the vocals on Gorgoroth’s “Antichrist”, although without that “castrated duck” tone. When more experimental vocals are used, unlike on the last album, they succeed very well- on Deathymn, Lord Imperial (from Krieg) and MkM (from Antaeus) provide this sort of ghostly moaning background voice, which goes very well with the song. Also, there’s a few spots of well done dual-vocal interplay, and a cool echo effect is used in the first half of “The Nascent Ones (The Age of Geburah)”.

Production here is a much more “black metal” production than the one on the last album- a sort of “metallic”, thin guitar sound, similar to the one on Satyricon’s “Nemesis Divina”, drums fairly moderate in the mix, although it is a bit unusual (in a good way) in that the bass is somewhat separate from the guitars and more audible than on most BM albums.

Lyrically, it’s about one group of angels battling another for some sort of “hollow gain” (the lyrics are never more specific than that), and being destroyed.

As with the last album, Battle’s Clarion features several absolutely chilling, otherworldly ambient interludes, which the band refers to as “aversions” as either intros or outros for the songs. They are, however, used somewhat more tastefully here, and fit the songs a bit better. Also, there are two that are stand alone songs- “Withering, the Storm…” and “The Thousand Aeon Stare”, and have to be some of the creepiest sounds ever put on a disc. They definitely have a structure to their noise, however, which is an interesting effect.

As the title says, this is in my opinion easily the best black metal album of the last five years. If you don’t already have this, get it now.