• Best of 2019
  • Monthly Missive
  • Columns
    • A Gift to Artwork
    • Cool People Column
    • Death’s Door
    • Doomsday
    • Editors’ Picks
    • Genre Genesis
    • Grind My Gears
    • Into the Pit
    • Kvlt Kolvmn
    • Post Rock Post
    • Rotten to the Core
    • Unmetal Monthly
  • Genres
    • Metal
      • Black Metal
      • Death Metal
      • Doom Metal
      • Grindcore
      • Metalcore
      • Post-Metal
      • Progressive Metal
      • Stoner Metal
      • Sludge Metal
      • Thrash Metal
      • Trad Metal
    • Rock
      • Art Rock
      • Hardcore
      • Indie Rock
      • Math Rock
      • Post-Rock
      • Progressive Rock
      • Psych Rock
      • Punk
      • Shoegaze
      • Stoner Rock
      • Synthwave
    • Classical
    • Electronic
    • Folk
    • Hip-Hop
    • Jazz
    • Pop
    • R&B
  • Reviews
  • Listen To This!
  • Podcast
  • Store
  • Contact
Search
Heavy Blog Is Heavy logo
  • Best of 2019
    Featured
    • Heavy Blog’s Top 50 Albums of 2019

      Heavy Blog
      December 17, 2019
      Best of 2019
    Recent
    • Metal Journalism’s Top 50 Albums of 2019

      Nick Cusworth
      February 18, 2020
    • Heavy Blog Yearbook // Our Favourite Articles of 2019

      Karlo Doroc
      December 26, 2019
    • A Gift To Artwork // 2019 In Review

      Karlo Doroc
      December 24, 2019
    • Disco Loadout: 2019 In Review

      Simon Clark
      December 23, 2019
    • Heavy Blog Guest List – Bent Knee

      Nick Cusworth
      December 23, 2019
    • Discoveries // 2019

      Simon Handmaker
      December 20, 2019
  • Monthly Missive
    Random
    • Monthly Missive // October 2020

      Heavy Blog
      October 5, 2020
      Monthly Missive
    Recent
    • Monthly Missive // January 2021

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 4, 2021
    • Monthly Missive // December 2020

      Heavy Blog
      December 7, 2020
    • Monthly Missive // November 2020

      Heavy Blog
      November 9, 2020
    • Monthly Missive // September 2020

      Heavy Blog
      September 2, 2020
  • Columns

    Recent

    • Rotten to the Core // January 2021

      Calder Dougherty
      January 4, 2021
      Columns, Rotten to the Core
    • Death’s Door // January 2021

      Scott Murphy
      January 4, 2021
      Death's Door
    • Into the Pit // 2020 Stragglers

      Joshua Bulleid
      January 4, 2021
      Into the Pit
    • Post Rock Post // January 2021

      Nick Cusworth
      January 4, 2021
      Post Rock Post
    • Kvlt Kolvmn // January 2021

      Jonathan Adams
      January 4, 2021
      Kvlt Kolvmn
    • Editors’ Picks // January 2021

      Heavy Blog
      January 4, 2021
      Editors' Picks
    • A Gift to Artwork
    • Cool People Column
    • Death’s Door
    • Doomsday
    • Editors’ Picks
    • Genre Genesis
    • Grind My Gears
    • Into the Pit
    • Kvlt Kolvmn
    • Post Rock Post
    • Rotten to the Core
    • Unmetal Monthly
  • Genres
    • Metal
      • Black Metal
      • Death Metal
      • Doom Metal
      • Grindcore
      • Metalcore
      • Post-Metal
      • Progressive Metal
      • Stoner Metal
      • Sludge Metal
      • Thrash Metal
      • Trad Metal
    • Rock
      • Art Rock
      • Hardcore
      • Indie Rock
      • Math Rock
      • Post-Rock
      • Progressive Rock
      • Psych Rock
      • Punk
      • Shoegaze
      • Stoner Rock
      • Synthwave
    • Classical
    • Electronic
    • Folk
    • Hip-Hop
    • Jazz
    • Pop
    • R&B
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • Atramentus - Stygian

      Simon Handmaker
      September 2, 2020
      Reviews
    Recent
    • Dawnwalker – Ages

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 4, 2021
    • Deftones – Black Stallion

      Joshua Bulleid
      December 16, 2020
    • Wytch Hazel – III: Pentecost

      Pete Williams
      December 7, 2020
    • Tombs – Under Sullen Skies

      Pete Williams
      December 7, 2020
    • Aesop Rock – Spirit World Field Guide

      Eden Kupermintz
      December 7, 2020
    • Deluge – Ægo Templo

      Eden Kupermintz
      December 7, 2020
  • Listen To This!
    Featured
    • Hey! Listen to Let Us Prey!

      Joshua Bulleid
      July 28, 2020
      Listen To This!
    Recent
    • What We’re Really Listening To – 1/15/21

      Scott Murphy
      January 15, 2021
    • Release Day Roundup – 1/15/21

      Scott Murphy
      January 15, 2021
    • Release Day Roundup – 1/1/21 & 1/8/21

      Scott Murphy
      January 8, 2021
    • What We’re Really Listening To – 12/25/20

      Scott Murphy
      December 25, 2020
    • Release Day Roundup – 12/25/20

      Scott Murphy
      December 25, 2020
    • Release Day Roundup – 12/18/20

      Scott Murphy
      December 18, 2020
  • Podcast
  • Store
  • Contact
Home
Reviews

Bolt Gun – Man Is Wolf to Man

Scott Murphy
November 13, 2017
Reviews

“What is it, a temple? What’s it called?”
“Nothing. It’s by the village, behind the reservation.”
“Will they let me in?”
“No.”
“What do I need to do to get in?”
“You have to pray.”
“Knock on the wall?”
“Knock and repeat the words.”
“What words?”
“‘Let me out of here.’ You say it many times.”
“Is that it?”
“That’s it. We have only one prayer.”

-Konstantin Lopushansky, Posetitel Muzeya (Visitor of a Museum)

…

Composing an album with the backdrop of other media is a daunting task. As we discussed earlier this year with our review of Ehnahre‘s Theodore Roethke-referencing album The Marrow, it’s difficult to create music that accurately conveys the emotional context of the source material while also extrapolating enough to create a unique voice that can stand on its own. This is particularly true for albums that reference movies and similarly complex texts; whereas a novel or poem contains just text to decode, films contain several more elements that need to be interpreted, most challenging of which is the pre-existing music already linked to the visuals and script. In these types of situation, it’s a smarter bet to draw inspiration from a film while pursuing a larger thematic ideal, which is exactly how Bolt Gun succeed on their colossal, one-track album Man Is Wolf to Man. By drawing influence from a myriad of sources that bolster a stated pursuit—particularly Soviet and Ukrainian filmmaker/writer Konstantin Lopushansky’s dystopian film Posetitel Muzeya (Visitor of a Museum) as well as works by Soviet filmmakers/writers Andrei Tarkovsky and Krzysztof Kieślowski—the band realizes the grandiosity of this endeavor with an excellent display of thematic metal aimed at capturing the “existential horror of Stalinist Russia.”

While the band includes black metal among their genre descriptors, it’s a huge relief to hear that they avoided the stereotypical route of creating an Eastern European BM record that relies on the standard “bite of winter” approach. Across it’s 55-minute, single-track run time (cut into two parts), Man Is Wolf to Man achieves so much more than frosty feelings of blizzards and evergreens. The quartet truly do capture the essence of the internal strife that befell those crushed by the thumb of the Soviet regime; instead of composing just a sonic outline of a gulag, Bolt Gun have truly honed in on the emotions of a novel like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It’s a dense and desolate listen marked by suffocating “post-” textures and upholstered with elements of ambient, drone, black metal and funeral doom.

Though not one of the band’s stated influence, it’s near impossible to complete even a partial listen of Man Is Wolf to Man and not draw parallels to Neurosis‘s expansive playbook. Bolt Gun export the essence of the post-metal legends’ multifaceted approach to songcraft, while adding in the metallic edges and atmospheric flourishes of bands like Evoken, Pallbearer and Wolves in the Throne Room. The band carefully kneads and proofs these elements over the course of the album’s run time, creating a well-balanced whole that never tears despite the extended run time and single-track structure.

It’s a bold risk that pays off, as the track retains its interest through constant, steady evolution. What begins as a swirl of morose, ambient post-rock slowly spreads out gorgeous ripples within its stormy sea, eventually exploding into a blackened, doom-laden cry into the godless firmament. Andrew Trevenen’s vocals draw from the heavier traits of funeral doom growls, and the additional vocal contributions of guitarist Jonathan Carroll make for some explosive moments of shrieks and bellows that accent crashing percussion and massive, somber riffing. After a brief respite, the second half of the album beings with a synth-laden soundscape that again follows a path of steady evolution. The band’s first stop on this journey is through a steady post-rock tangent akin to Mogwai‘s approach on Come On Die Young, followed by the most violent, noisy passage on the entire record. Everything about the metallic outro of the first half is bolstered on the album’s proper finale, and the band’s black metal influences help make this climax a truly stirring display of measured aggression.

The resulting journey is one defined by true existential dread and desolation that encapsulates the strife suffered by citizens of the Soviet Union throughout its existence. Rather than defining Man Is Wolf to Man solely by their textual influences, Bolt Gun have excelled by instead taking the essences of fiction and reality and splicing them with their musical proficients. Listeners are rewarded with an album that feels equally rooted in the sci-fi dystopias envisioned by the aforementioned filmmakers as well as all too real historical experiences. The album is a truly massive listen on par with Bell Witch‘s Mirror Reaper, and while it requires a dedicated, patient set of ears to be enjoyed, the experience will pay off in dividends long before the final note rings.

[bandcamp video=276807939 width=560 height=435 bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

…

Man Is Wolf to Man is available 11/14 via Art As Catharsis.

Comments

ambientAtmospheric Black MetalBell Witchblack metalBolt Gundoomdoom metalDroneEhnahreEvokenfuneral doomfuneral doom metalMogwaiNeurosisNoisePallbearerpost metalpost-rockWolves in the Throne Room

About The Author

Scott Murphy

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger - something better - pushing right back." - Albert Camus

Related Posts

  • Dawnwalker – Ages

    Eden Kupermintz
    January 4, 2021
  • Deftones – Black Stallion

    Joshua Bulleid
    December 16, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Patreon

Ko-fi

Podcast

All the Heavy Lifting

Latest Reviews

  • Dawnwalker – Ages

    Eden Kupermintz
    January 4, 2021
    Here's an age-old truth: fragile beauty is something that is aesthetically magnetic. The idea of the weakness, the flee... Read More...
  • Deftones – Black Stallion

    Joshua Bulleid
    December 16, 2020
    White Pony (2000) was the record that first introduced electronics into Deftones's sound. It is therefore suitable that ... Read More...
  • Wytch Hazel – III: Pentecost

    Pete Williams
    December 7, 2020
    With the continuing wave of traditional heavy metal just plowing us all over, I’ve come to realize there’s a kind of an... Read More...
  • Tombs – Under Sullen Skies

    Pete Williams
    December 7, 2020
    When we get band promos, we typically receive a few things. Of course we get the album, but we also get a lot of promot... Read More...