It took a few albums but I really wanted to have a proper listen to this band as soon as I clapped eyes on their name. Blood Of The Black owl sounds like a fantastic title from a 70s’ movie, either a Giallo in the tradition of having an animal named in the title or something revolving around an ancient Red Indian curse. In fact as I listened to this for the first time it did strike me as musically having a fair bit in common with the second of these ideas. After all it is called ‘A Banishing Ritual’ and secondly there are many sounds within that do remind of the rituals of the Native Americans as they are politically correctly referred to today.
America is fast becoming a hotbed for bands that play a style pitched somewhere between black metal and doom. I am quite tempted to describe it as blackened post doom and many of the practitioners have a strong ecological slant. Snapping on the heels of Wolves In The Throne Room and Agalloch the two most well known there are a host of others such as the mysterious Fauna, In Gowan Ring and L'acephale, specifically bands coming from the Cascadian region (Pacific Northwest region of North America). They are all well worth exploring and if you have not already dipped into things Blood Of The Black Owl could be a good starting point.
This is basically one 41 minute track and the band’s third album and it really is a journey from beginning to end, perhaps akin to the musical equivalent of a peyote trip. Apparently it is so personal to the musicians that they at one time considered it too close to the heart to release for public consumption. On pressing play there is a sinister throbbing which gradually builds up around the listener. With what sounds like a tambourine quietly in the background this has a mesmerising feel to it which can be taken in a ritualistic and even shamanic sense. This snakes out like a nest of rattlers shaking their tales and infuses a mystic state which is heady as a flute comes in and breathes extra life to the rite. When guitar and drum come in you are snapped back in part to the modern world realising that you are listening to something contemporary. The two worlds mix together in an organic stew, a 70’s sounding keyboard quietly weaves in the background and voices can be heard perhaps casting spells around them too. Vocals do eventually howl in and there is a definite black metal emphasis on things, in fact I am reminded of Xasthur more than anything here but the music which is by now glistening around them is a completely different affair.
This album was not dissimilar than I had preconceived ideas of it sounding and it certainly did not disappoint. If anything it has made me want to go and listen to what came before it and other bands I have not heard from Cascadian America.
http://www.myspace.com/bloodoftheblackowl
