Tag Archive: Botanist

Botanist’s IV: Mandragora Now Available

Filed Under: Audio, General News, New music

Feb.14, 2013

Botanist - IV

Botanist has got to be one of the more unique and interesting bands in black metal. Instead of guitars, this one man project uses a hammered dulcimer to create the disturbing sounds found throughout the discography thus far. Luckily, this avant garde act isn’t just wearing his gimmick into the ground by releasing the same record time after time; the newly released Botanist album IV: Mandragora features more doom/post-black metal influence with greater emphasis on melody which makes for a surprisingly catchy experience once you get past the band’s abrasive sound. Suffice it to say though, you’re likely to not have this listening experience elsewhere in 2013.

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Tags: Botanist

Avant-Garde Metal Week: Playlist of the Day — Day Five: WTF?

Filed Under: Listen To This!

Dec.07, 2012

We’ve looked at a lot of different sounds that can come out of the realm of avant-garde, but we’ve decided to end our week-long ode to unorthodox music by going all-out weird. There’s a certain novelty to music that is either so flamboyantly odd or harsh and structureless (or both!) that it’s almost alienating. This is music you probably won’t want to listen to unless you’ve got headphones on — or really open-minded friends, and lets be honest, we don’t have many of those:

Carnival in Coal – Don’t By Happy, Worry (2001)

Mr. Bungle – Squeeze Me Macaroni (1991)

Pin-Up Went Down – Vaginaal Nathrakh (2010)

The Meads of Asphodel – Apocalypse of Lazarus (2010)

Botanist – A Rose From The Dead (2011)

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – The Donkey Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens The Discussion (2004)

Ulver – Vowels (2003)

Smohalla – Oracle Rogue (2011)

Stagnant Waters – Algae (2012)

Lou Reed & Metallica – Frustration (2011)

- JR

Tags: Botanist, Carnival in Coal, Lou Reed & Metallica, Mr. Bungle, Pin-Up Went Down, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Smohalla, Stagnant Waters., The Meads of Asphodel, Ulver

Botanist Releases Track Off Upcoming Album!

Filed Under: New music, Upcoming releases

Apr.13, 2012

I’m not entirely sure how many people are stoked about the upcoming release by one-man avant-garde black metal artist Otrebor, better known as Botanist. He released the absolutely spectacular double album I: The Suicide Tree/II: A Rose From the Dead in the middle of last year, and the damn thing was so good it was #5 on my top 21 list of last year.

Well, turns out fans won’t have to wait much longer to hear the new album! MeadMeatMetal have premiered a track from the upcoming album III: Doom in Bloom, entitled ‘Quoth Azalea, the Demon (Rhododendoom II)‘. The track marks a complete 180-degree turn in terms of sound. He has switched from the black metal used in I/II to a type of doom. The strange instrumentation remains (hammered dulcimer, drumset, vocals), but other than that, it’s almost a different band.

However, don’t let that stop you from listening if you were a fan of the last album. It is the best song he has ever released. The track is hauntingly emotional, brilliantly arranged, and sounds absolutely perfect in terms of production quality. The track is also a touch over thirteen minutes long, which is a drastic change over the previous releases, where the longest track was in the five minute range. Something that some people may love is that the vocals have changed drastically. Gone are the croaky vocals, and in its place are reverberated whispered vocals that augment the track greatly.

I’m not sure when there will be a release date for the album, but you can bet your ass I’ll be all over it when it releases.

- GR

Tags: Botanist, I: The Suicide Tree, II: A Rose From the Dead, III: Doom in Bloom, Otrebor

Farewell, 2011: DeusExMachina’s Top 21 List

Filed Under: Lists!

Dec.28, 2011

2011 was an absolutely absurd year for not only metal, but music in general. Such marvelous records from the best names in music. But no doubt that you know this, so lets not waste time, eh?

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Botanist – I: The Suicide Tree/II: A Rose From the Dead

Filed Under: Reviews

Dec.02, 2011

Botanist

I: The Suicide Tree
II: A Rose From the Dead

1. Dracocephalum
2. Invoke the Throne of Veltheimi
3. Helleborous Niger
4. Whorl
5. Forgotten in Nepenthes
6. Aldrovanda Ascendant
7. Chaining the Catechin
8. Dionaea Muscipula
9. Clematopsis
10. Rhododendoom
11. Gorechid
12. Cerbera Odollam
13. Bromeliad
14. Lepidoptera
15. Euonymous in Darkness
16. Dactylorhiza Elata
17. Glycyrrhiza
18. Convolvulus Althaeoides
19. Dioscoria
20. Megaskepasma
21. In The Hall Of Chamaerops
22. Quercus Lamellosa
23. Echinocereus
24. Sparaxis Of Perdition
25. Feast Of Saussurea
26. Wings Of Antichrys
27. Monstera’s Lair
28. Chiranthodendron
29. Koeleria
30. Sanguinaria
31. Dodecatheon
32. Summon Xanthostemon
33. Asclepias Curassavica
34. Strelitzia Reginae
35. Trillium Recurvatum
36. Cypripedium
37. Nephrolepsis
38. Abrus Precatorius
39. A Rose From the Dead
40. [untitled]

[06/24/11]
[tUMULT]

Black metal. You either love it or you hate it. However, the thing about black metal is that it’s remarkably consistent. You know what you’re going to get before you get it. You know which bands do anger and violence, or beautiful and symphonic, or a combination of both. Black metal is black metal, right? Wrong. Meet Botanist, a one-man black metal project by a man who goes by the alias of The Botanist. Allow me to read you what it says on the sticker on the front of the album: “Forty tracks of eerie and esoteric, buzzing and baffling, drum and dulcimer driven eco-terrorist black metal.” Yes, you read that correctly. The main instrument of this album is a hammered dulcimer. There are no guitars and no bass. A hammered dulcimer, a drumset that is equipped with a marching snare as well as a concert snare and the usual drumset fixtures, and The Botanist’s creepy, eerie voice are all that is featured on this record.

Before I get into the bulk of this review, allow me to warn you. This will be the weirdest, strangest, all-out perplexing album you will hear all year. It definitely takes some getting used to, but once you’re accustomed to the sound, you’ll find out quickly if you’ll like it or not. This is definitely unlike anything that you or I have ever heard.
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Tags: A Rose From the Dead, Botanist, Inquisition, Mayhem, The Suicide Tree