Location:Chicago, IL Subgenre: Progressive Black Metal Given metal’s obsession with technique, it seems a little strange that the genre’s instrumental lexicon is more or less static these days. Then again, most of the low-hanging fruit has already been plucked; metal’s been around for 40-odd years, and virtuoso musicians have been pushing its technical boundaries for […]
Category Archives: News
The Needle Drop Mention
Chicago metal outfit Surachai takes the tremolo picking and blast beats of black metal, and intensifies them with great interplay, an atomspheric recording, and anthemic melodies. The band is pretty ambitious when it comes to song lengths as well, breaching the 15-minute mark on the opening track of their new album, Embraced. I could see […]
Prog Metal Zone New Release Mention
Progressive Ambient Black Metal (third album by the ambitious experimental ambient/drone metal project of Chicago’s Surachai Sutthisasanakul who usually does everything himself but this time has some great guest collaborators. This music is some of the most powerful and hypnoptic stuff we’ve ever heard.) – Prog Metal Zone
Noise Seeker Thought Otherwise
When I recently heard the name Surachai, I immediately thought it could be some kind of a stoner/doom band. The human brain makes these weird associations sometimes and mine just threw me the Snailking demo cover in front of my eyes, for no logical reason whatsoever. So, to my surprise, this is nothing like what […]
CVLT Nation Streaming Embraced
It’s what you are not going to hear on the new SURACHAI album Embraced that makes it special. You will not hear formulaic black metal; instead you will hear music that incorporates many different genres in an organic way to create something original and engaging! – CVLT Nation
No Clean Singing Streams Surrender + Review
Embraced sounds richer than your average bedroom black metal record. Surachai layers samples with guitar and various electronic effects to create an almost symphonic atmosphere. That mix is perfected by some of the most intricate black metal drumming I’ve heard since Cobalt’s Gin, courtesy of guest drummer Charlie Werber of Guzzlemug. That percussion absolutely makes […]
Invisible Oranges Reviews Embraced
Also they are streaming Sentinel, the second track on Embraced. Unusual creative processes such as Surachai’s have produced genius-level black metal, but they’ve also given us the kind of irritating pomposity that Velvet Cacoon’s “dieselharp†hoax skewered so artfully in the mid-aughts. Embraced fortunately avoids the latter. The compositions wriggle through transparently American contortions, but […]
Surachai – Embraced
My next album, Embraced, is scheduled to be released digitally (April 23rd) on Bandcamp and on 180 gram gatefold vinyl (Shipping mid-May). This is the first time I’ve worked with a band and the result is pleasantly extreme. Embraced will be released through Bandcamp. The album is currently available digitally. Vinyl orders go out mid […]
Axes to Grind Reviews Embraced
There are pieces of industrial noise, electronic intros and bridges, ambience and atmospheric passages throughout Embraced. The USBM fingerprint is very evident, with fast, sustaining high-end guitar work setting the tempo, blasting drum beats erupting with consistency, and desolate blackened cries. Perhaps the most underrated part of this album are the vocals, they are pretty […]
Embraced Test Pressing – Approved
Approved the Embraced test pressings today, hope you do too. Mastering was performed by Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities and Lacquering was performed by Roger Seibel of SAE Mastering. Because of the queue, it’ll be out in a couple months…