VALENTINE’S Day offerings from two very different suitors are made tomorrow with new releases from both Aidan Moffat and The Massacre Cave, Eigg’s only thrash metal band.
Named after a deadly clan dispute on the island in the 16th century, The Massacre Cave have been rocking Eigg with their thunderous rhythms and lightning quick guitars since brothers Ben and Joe Cormack formed the band, recruiting drummer Peter Colquhoun and bass player Jodie Bremaneson, around 15 years ago.
New record Godlust is, according to the band, “the greatest metal album the Small Isles has ever produced”, and comes just a week before fellow islander Johnny Lynch aka Pictish Trail releases his new Thumb World album (see main feature).
READ MORE: Pictish Trail and the new album made in solitude that everyone needs to hear
“We’re like the Blur and Oasis of Eigg, trying to bring out albums at the same time,” says Joe, who is currently lending his nimble fingers to Pictish Trail’s cracking live band.
Lynch returns the favour on ferocious album track Tetramethrin.
“We invited him to scream on Tetramethrin with the hope it’d ruin his voice and career,” Joe continues, tongue-in-cheek. “Unfortunately after a week of gargling honey, lemon and delicious booze he got his heavenly voice back.”
The songwriter and his vocalist/artist brother Ben produced the album, which was then mastered by Alan Douches, a Grammy award-winning engineer who’s previously lent his magic to the American metalcore veterans Converge and hefty earth-tremblers Mastodon.
“I think if you’re listening out for it, the Hebridean influence is quite obvious in our music,” notes Ben. “Take away the distortion from the guitars and you can probably do a Strip The Willow to most of the riffs.”
Meanwhile, in contrast to The Massacre Cave’s passionate frenzy are the seductive, after-hours vibes of Aux Pieds De La Nuit, the new record from Aidan Moffat (above) under his new Nyx Nott guise.
An alluring collection which glides through chilled electronica, humming ambient and smoky jazz, its hushed tones are not an affectation: Moffat worked on it while his family slept.
“I don’t sleep very well and I’m very much a nighthawk, so the music I made was naturally nocturnal,” says Moffat, noting how he originally planned to release the record, the title of which translates to At The Feet Of The Night, anonymously.
“I tried to think of a convincing, exotic name that suited the nocturnal themes of the album,” he continues. “Nyx and Nott are two mythical goddesses of night, Nyx from the Greek and Nott from old Norse.”
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Though admired for his lyricism and spoken word turns, Moffat’s new record is instrumental, like the five records made by previous alter ego L. Pierre.
“For me, making instrumental music is like working with your favourite tool missing,” Moffat says. “It’s more of a challenge and a bit more risky. It relies more on instinct than songwriting does, or at least it does for me. It requires a bit more trust in yourself when there’s no-one to bounce ideas off – in that way, these sorts of records are probably more personal than those with my voice.”
The Massacre Cave:
February 15, Arisaig Hotel, Inverness-shire. Tel: 01687 450 210.
Feb 22, The Flying Duck, Glasgow, 7pm, £7, £5 students.
Tickets: bit.ly/MassacreCaveLaunch
Godlust is released tomorrow via themassacrecave.bigcartel.com and themassacrecave.bandcamp.com
Aux Pieds De La Nuit by Nyx Nott is out tomorrow via Melodic Records. www.melodic.co.uk
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