Lasse Marhaug - All Music At Once (2010)

I have been a fan of Lasse Marhaug's Blackened Electronics since the early XXIst Century, and he is a righteous dude. One of my favorite albums of his is All Music At Once (2010), which although being devoted to metals, it is also somewhat contemplative and reigned-in, with songs being the product of small-group or duo collaboration, with Lasse performing opposite some frequent collaborators. I was originally going to write about just one song, 'Blood Of The Beasts' with Jon Wesseltoft (guitar) and Maja Ratjke (vokills)because it is a monster living beneath your dungeon and posing it a serious existential threat. Maja Ratjke is one of my favorite vocalists making stuff in the now, and her work with Fe-Mail was some of my initial introduction to both her work and Lasse Marhaug's (as he produced and collaborated). Then, though, I thought about all the other wonderful songs, like 'Born Cold' which has this kind of sad Black Doom vibe, 'Feed The Earth And Master It''s loner isolationist drone ambience, 'Don't Buy Bread, Buy Dynamite' which features Kevin Drumm on electronics and French Horn from Hild Sofie Tafjord as well as guitar and 'performance' from Wesseltoft & Marhaug, and this song sounds like every food riot compiled and timestretched from the French Revolution to the 2008 Depression into 9.5 minutes of revolt. 'All Music At Once' is gtr/noise from Wesseltoft & Marhaug and it is a feedback grid decomposing and recomposing on top of itself, forever unstable yet volcanically alive. The last song, 'Moutain Of The Seven Vultures' is a stoner/mordor/dying anthem which actually drags itself to a peak, only to be eaten by birds just moments from the summit. This whole album is a tribute to listening to metal by yourself or with your friends in your living room and feeling the speakers push air and being both transported by and caved-in by the sheer noise and heaviness at hand. Lasse Marhaug's whole catalog is worth checking out, but this one is an especial favorite of mine, and I am glad I got to write a recommendation for it! Go Listen!