_________________________________________________________________________
| . . | . | . | . | . | | . | . | , |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | > | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | ` | ' | | | ' | | ` | ' | ' |
___|___|___|___|_______|_______|___|___|_______|___|_______|_______|_______|___
\______________________________________|______________________________________/
/ \
| Artist..: Yfel |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| Album...: Beneath the Mountain's Vigil |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| Genre...: Black Metal | Label...: Fiadh Productions |
| Year....: 2023 | |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| R.date..: 2023-12-21 | S.date..: 2023-12-22 |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| Source..: WEB (24bit) | Encoder.: libFLAC |
| Bitrate.: 1751kbps avg. | F.Rate..: 44.1kHz |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| http://play.qobuz.com/album/abcok13p8ni1b |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| Disc 1 / 1 |
| -------- |
| |
| 01. All Fleas Carry the Souls of Men 8:40 |
| 02. Battle of Blair Mountain 10:04 |
| 03. Protectors of the Tomb 6:30 |
| 04. The Father's Path 7:24 |
| 05. Eyes of the Moon 7:47 |
| |
| |
| --------------------- |
| (531.14MB) 00:40:25 |
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
| One of my favorite movies of all time is Matewan, the 1987 historical |
| drama directed by John Sayles. The film depicts the struggle of the coal |
| miners of Matewan, West Virginia as they form a union, go on strike, and |
| ultimately take up arms against the brutal tactics and hired goons of the |
| Stone Mountain Coal Company. The cast list is a whoÆs who of great |
| character actors: Chris Cooper in his first screen role, David Strathairn, |
| James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Kevin Tighe, a teenaged Will Oldham. The |
| legendary Haskell WexlerÆs cinematography was never better, and SaylesÆ |
| sharp-edged, leftist politics are front and center in every scene. Matewan |
| is also a great music film, with a dobro-heavy score by Mason Daring and |
| four songs by Hazel Dickens, the West Virginia bluegrass singer whose |
| protest songs made her a folk-world star in the Æ60s and Æ70s. |
| DickensÆ presence in Matewan isnÆt a hollow gesture. Sayles is explicitly |
| invoking and adding to the age-old history of music in social movements, |
| especially labor movements. A decade before Matewan, Dickens contributed |
| music to Barbara KoppleÆs searing coal-country documentary, Harlan County |
| USA. One of her songs for that film is called ôBlack Lung,ö after the |
| disease that killed her brother. The personal, the political, and the |
| purely practical all mingle in coal minersÆ music, and the Matewan |
| soundtrack understands that. Dickens understood that better than anybody. |
| Her songs for Matewan, from the defiant ôFire In The Holeö to the |
| devastating ôHills Of Galilee,ö may technically be film music, but theyÆre |
| also etched into labor history. |
| |
| On August 25, 1921, barely a year after the events of Matewan, the Battle |
| of Blair Mountain broke out in neighboring Logan County, West Virginia. |
| Ten thousand union miners marched against a coalition of coal mine |
| operators, strikebreakers, and private militiamen. ItÆs still the largest |
| and bloodiest labor uprising in American history, and President Warren G. |
| Harding eventually deployed the US Army to West Virginia to quell the last |
| flames of insurrection. A little over a century later, Columbus, OhioÆs |
| Yfel have immortalized the minersÆ struggle in ôBattle Of Blair Mountain,ö |
| a towering, 10-minute firestorm of epic, atmospheric black metal. Hazel |
| Dickens probably wouldnÆt know what to make of all the blastbeats and |
| screaming, but sheÆd sure as hell be proud of YfelÆs intent. |
| |
| ôBattle Of Blair Mountainö is the highlight of Beneath The MountainÆs |
| Vigil, YfelÆs first full-length, and it functions like an old union song. |
| Its lyrics, written by guitarist Ryan Atkins, are bracingly direct and |
| unburdened by metaphorical language. (ThereÆs even a direct reference to |
| Matewan.) In true labor-anthem fashion, it calls back to an old event to |
| help illuminate a way into an uncertain future. The fist of corporate |
| greed that came down on the Blair Mountain miners is still coming down on |
| Amazon warehouse workers and Starbucks baristas. You can almost hear the |
| songÆs final verse being chanted on a picket line: ôTogether we stand |
| united and strong/ Against those who would do us wrong.ö |
| |
| Atkins lives in Columbus now, but he grew up in rural Ohio just across the |
| West Virginia border, and coal mining runs in his family. Beneath The |
| MountainÆs Vigil is consequently fixated on coal as a lyrical subject. |
| Beyond ôBlair Mountain,ö thereÆs ôProtectors Of The Tomb,ö a song about |
| the companies who have tried to blow up old mountaintop cemeteries to get |
| at the coal underneath them. Coal put a lot of the men in those cemeteries |
| in their graves in the first place; for the captains of industry, that |
| apparently wasnÆt enough. ôThe FatherÆs Pathö is a devastating song about |
| the younger generation of miners making what feels like the only choice |
| available to them: ôSent into the caverns/ One thousand feet below/ ItÆs |
| what we know.ö |
| |
| Yfel started in 2021 as an offshoot of the melodic death metal band Gates |
| To The Abyss, but they donÆt sound anything like them. Early in the |
| pandemic, Atkins, co-guitarist Drew Staggs, and drummer Chaz Frazer |
| started coming up with ideas that seemed to stretch beyond the scope of |
| Gates. They found themselves writing parts that were less about individual |
| riffs and more about creating an outsize atmosphere. Songs started getting |
| longer. The new music seemed to demand a new, more serious lyrical focus û |
| Gates had been a Lord Of The Rings-themed band û and the idea of exploited |
| labor and land in Appalachia soon emerged. YfelÆs self-produced debut EP, |
| 2021Æs Personification Of Chaos, was a promising opening salvo that hinted |
| at the ideas that now appear fully formed on Beneath The MountainÆs Vigil. |
| |
| Atmospheric black metal is all about the sense of scale. If you want to |
| get deep into the subgenre weeds, that sense of scale is what separates it |
| from whatÆs become known as blackgaze. ThereÆs a certain emotional |
| intimacy to Alcest, Deafheaven, and bands that have followed in their |
| wake. ThatÆs not what Yfel are about. Their songs are mountains scraping |
| the heavens. The five tracks on Beneath The MountainÆs Vigil average eight |
| minutes apiece, and Yfel use that time to build out musical suites that |
| feel truly enormous. The emotions of the album arenÆt dialed into |
| one-on-one connection; theyÆre about their own sheer immensity. ThereÆs a |
| risk of chilly remoteness to that approach, and lesser atmospheric bands |
| end up making black metal wallpaper. Yfel have already figured out how to |
| avoid that trap. As huge as Beneath The MountainÆs Vigil feels, its focus |
| on coal country lends it a specificity that helps drive the songs home. |
| |
| Yfel donÆt venture too far outside of the tried-and-true formula for this |
| style of music. They donÆt really need to. The tremolo-picked riffs, |
| mournful melodies, acoustic breaks, wind-tunnel drumming, and throaty |
| howls of classic black metal suit their purposes well. Within the confines |
| of that style, they find frequent opportunities for ecstatic expression. |
| One such moment is the acoustic guitar line on ôAll Fleas Carry The Souls |
| Of Menö that arrives to escort the icy main riff out of the song. |
| (Darkthrone pull off a similar move on ôIn The Shadow Of The Horns,ö |
| possibly the greatest black metal song of all time, and that passage on |
| ôFleasö feels like a deliberate nod.) Later, on ôThe FatherÆs Path,ö a |
| clean vocal part cuts through the haze of riffs, reorienting the song |
| around its doleful melody. Chaz Frazer, the albumÆs quiet MVP, peppers his |
| blasting drum patterns with lively fills that keep the band on their toes. |
| Beneath The MountainÆs VigilÆs songs are all long and true to genre, but |
| theyÆre not monolithic or, heaven forbid, boring. |
| |
| The epic sound works to reinforce the albumÆs strong thematic center. Yfel |
| make the struggle of the coal miner û and the laborer, more generally û |
| sound like the most urgent, important fight in the world. Black metal is a |
| powerful sound thatÆs been co-opted by plenty of knuckleheads over the |
| years. Beneath The MountainÆs Vigil refuses to be apolitical (or worse). |
| Instead, itÆs an urgent rallying cry for what YfelÆs kindred spirits in |
| Ashenspire would call ôthe Great Many.ö Fans of PanopticonÆs 2012 |
| bluegrass-and-black-metal masterpiece Kentucky will likely hear echoes of |
| that album in what Yfel are doing here. (Vigil was mixed and mastered by |
| Spenser Morris, who has been PanopticonÆs go-to engineer for years.) Both |
| albums use the vast scale of atmospheric black metal to revive the |
| union-song tradition and shine a light on the oft-forgotten plight of the |
| coal miner. But the line goes back to Hazel Dickens, and to Woody Guthrie |
| before her, and even further back, to any working person who has ever sung |
| out for what they deserve. What Yfel achieve on Beneath The MountainÆs |
| Vigil isnÆt new. ItÆs merely the latest chapter in an ancient, hallowed |
| tradition. |
\_____________________________________________________________________________/
ixxu!imp