Andreas Kisser was different when he joined Sepultura back in 1987. Whereas his bandmates where strictly focused on death metal, Andreas had a variety of influences in a variety of genres. It undeniably had a fundamental impact on the musical evolution of the band (and his career).

If you have a desire for beautiful airy and ethereal music with haunting yet angelic vocals, look no further than this Julee Cruise album, “Floating into the Night“. The name Julee Cruise first came into my consciousness during a binge session of the hauntingly strange David Lynch TV show “Twin Peaks“. I’d always been immensely fond of the sound track used for the show. Lynch enforced haunting (and sometimes disturbing) elements for all his projects (just see “Eraserhead“) and Twin Peaks was no exception. I admire him for sticking so passionately to his creative guns and never faltering, no matter how psychotic people made him out to be. Always using the genius of Angelo Badalamenti for his sound tracks has yielded some amazing music. (Badalamenti was the very first dark dose contribution).

If you’ve read my previous posts, you know that I have a vulnerability for culturally inspired metal music. As Finland’s Amorphis sought more than just a boxed in metal career, they aligned their sound with ’70s progressive rock bands as they sailed into uncharted territories inspired by their Finnish heritage.

What I do know is a friend of mine gave me a couple songs from Linda Perhacs about two years ago. He knew I was into dark music and out of the blue, he sent me the songs and said, “[Mike] Åkerfeldt worships this album.” It was no surprise when I learned shortly thereafter that “Parallelograms” was an intensely sought after old-of-print vinyl many have paid several hundred dollars for. The music is haunting dark folk and at times veers into the psychedelic. One song, “Hey, who really cares?” sounds so similar to Paatos it’s downright disturbing.

The very thing I enjoy so much about Sweden’s Diabolical Masquerade is the same thing often turns others off. Anyone who has heard this one man project (although Dan Swanö has played a significant role as well) would not object when calling Diabolical Masquerade bizarre. It is this strange idiosyncrasy that makes this band so unique. Just by being a black metal band boxes yourself in pretty tight to a suffocatingly narrow realm of influence. The result is of course endless pools of bands who sound nearly identical. You can have your best of breed (ie. old Dissection, Emperor) but the vast majority are just an anonymous mass without much personality. Diabolical Masquerade has a personality alright, albeit a schizophrenic one.

My history with The Gathering is an odd one. I was 19 and exploring Europe by myself. It was an adventure that fundamentally changed me. The experiences and situations I was exposed to during this two month voyage altered and strengthened me for life. One such experience was hearing The Gathering being played in a bar while I was in The Netherlands. I was blown away that a metal band I considered “underground” was quite mainstream in their native country. Another such experience was attending Roskilde Festival in Roskilde Denmark in 1997. I witnessed many incredible performances during the week long festival. While one of the highlights was certainly “discovering” Saturnus, I was also moved by The Gathering. They performed in a large tent in front of tens of thousands of people. I remember smoke floating through the vast tent they were performing in. I remember being squished up against a seemingly endless hoard of people. I remember being intoxicated (as I was throughout the entire week). Overall I remember being moved by what I was seeing and hearing. Shortly after the festival, I picked up their latest CD at the time, “Nighttime Birds“.

After many delays due to other pressing issues in life I get to present todays dark dose with the first post with an image. It seems these pressing issues in life cause stress which accumulates with age, leading often times to an exhausted mind and body. In order to recharge and recover from this cycle, something soothing is in order. My admiration for the music of Norway’s Bel Canto began five years ago when I was in desperate need for private contemplative music to sooth the mind. A friend recommended the album “Shimmering Warm & Bright” and I knew right away he’d given me something special.

Finland has no shortage of metal bands that mix melodies, clean and death vocals and most often prominent use of keyboards. In fact, one way I used to determine if a band of this style was from Finland or Sweden was the extent to which keyboards were used. The more keyboards, the more likely it’s Finnish was my rule of thumb.

Tight playing in a minimalistic vein has already earned him comparisons to the likes of legendary Nick Drake and Mark Kozelek with only one full-length record (and some EP’s). Jose González has earned it by crafting his style around a sophisticated less-is-more type of approach. By gently strumming & plucking his acoustic guitar and singing in that genuine voice, borderline whispered voice at times, he’s achieved a uniqueness that doesn’t add up to his collegues or influences.

How would I start putting words to a band that I owe a huge part of my musical formation to? Google Sepultura’s “Beneath the Remains” and surely you will run across “one of the absolute greatest death/thrash metal albums of all time” over and over again. Everything on the album is killer from the attention to detail in crafting the songs to Michael Whelan’s artwork.