It happens every year, the dreaded year end lists sprout their ugly little heads in every corner of media. Just waiting to spark heated comments and douchebaggery by those Cheetos caked and Red Bull jacked internet phleebs. They are inescapable. Everyone clamors to let you know how cool, enlightened, or kvlt they are and just how stupid the author is for their choices and omissions. It may sound as if i'm being bitter, not so much. More empathetic than anything. On one hand I give it to the authors. "This is one of, if not the best record I've heard all year, but John Q public probably won't like it, so I wont include it on my list." Said no one ever. It's their choice not yours, get over it. On the other hand it goes to the commenters. They just want their voice to be heard too. Albeit in a rather rude and inarticulate manner. Never the less, they should most certainly have the ability to share their likes and dislikes with others. Where the fuck am I going with all this...I have no idea. I see both sides of the coin here. I'm ranting for the sake of ranting i guess. Bottom line is that I still find it fascinating and strange that matter of opinion, no matter how insignificant the topic may be, sparks such emotions.
So I have been going back and forth with the idea of doing my own top whatever for weeks now and finally decided to suck it up and write it up for you. Before I do that, I want to take a minute to mention a few of the outstanding records that won't be appearing on this list. Torche - Harmonicraft, another slam dunk by Brooke's and company. Neurosis-Honor Through Decay, as always these masters of endtyme music crush the soul. Deftones-Koi No Yokan, easily the best sounding album these lads have ever recorded. I have omitted these fine showings simply for the fact that they dominate year end lists every time they put out a record.(rightfully so!) I felt I wanted to showcase some material that may have not received the same level accolades and deserves too. I have listed my top 15 albums of 2012 below they are not "ranked" so to speak.
I spent a bunch of time doing a write up for this record, but then I realized that not only did I not like what I had written, but I was doing III a disservice. III is the closing chapter of the Hell trilogy. This is one of the best bands on the planet right now and their evolution over the course of their three full lengths is something to behold. Get it.
Having completely shit the bed last month due to the phenomena know as retail hell, posting new music for this sight has become a priority. And since it's December, consider them little electronic presents for your ear holes.
First up is the Swedish outfit This Gift Is A Curse (see what I did there). I've wanted to post these guys for awhile, but for one reason or another they fell through the cracks. Unleashing an amalgam of noise that could best be described as Botch and Knut hangin' with some Norwegian church burners, This Gift Is A Curse is no joke. Bitter, intense, oppressive, and impossibly heavy is the name of the game here. Their interplay between straight up blackened hardcore rage and their more Swans/Godflesh-y moments is really pretty stellar. While all bludgeoning, it's that shift that makes all the dynamics and mood on I The Guiltbearer so compelling. I can see this band making some serious waves on this side of the Atlantic. Get familiar. Do it.
It's true, we are. Personally, I started a new job and the added responsibility I've taken on has left me with less free time to listen to new tunes and write blog posts...that and I've been getting far too drunk every opportunity I have. Oops. Not sure what Rob's deal is (other than the fact that he's a butt). Right before our recent break we were actually talking about redoubling our efforts here. We fucked up. Anyway, we'll do our best to get back on it and at least crank out a handful of posts every month.
The Sum of All Fossils was one of my absolute favorites of 2011. It's nearly a year later and I'm still having a ridiculously hard time trying to choose between it and Mitochondrion's Parasignosis to crown with album of the year honors. Regardless, they're both in the top 5 death metal records I've heard in the last decade and I'm jazzed this is finally being released on the only format that matters through Australopithecus Records. 300 copies are being pressed, 50 on 180gm black, 50 on maroon and 200 on white. A limited edition t-shirt to celebrate the vinyl release is also available for pre-order. TSOAF is a challenging record and not just in terms of technicality (though it is that). It's challenging in that it completely defies pigeonholing and the listener's expectations at every turn. Swirling technical death metal riffs that would sound at home on a Mitochondrion or Portal record butt up against Am Rep style noise rock bits. The Godflesh-esque industrial stomp of the rhythm hammers throughout. The entire record is sprinkeled with ambient parts, grindcore sections and completely triumphal riffs. Even the vocals are hard to pin down, being alternately death metal growls and shouted noise rock fare. I know it sounds like a complete hodgepodge, but what makes this album so great is that Flourishing don't just manage to "pull it off", they make it sound as if combining the influences that make up their sound is completely natural and we were just too blind to see it. Fans of Gorguts, Human Remains, Pyrrhon or even Am Rep style bands with at least a tangential interest in metal should definitely check this out, it's a completely unique record.
Death Grips is a bit of a turn for this site, but for those of you who know me, it's right in my wheel house of weird. I was turned on to this crew earlier this year through a review of a live show in which references to Dalek and Oxbow were thrown around. Color me intrigued. Add to that Hella's Zach Hill's involvment, yes please! The Money Store was my first listen and I was not disappointed. Glitchy, claustrophobic, incredibly raw, and beyond confrontational, Death Grips create not so much a piece of music as they do a manifesto at 120-160bpm. With Stefan "MC Ride" Burrnett's delivery, it's easy to see the comparisons to Oxbow's Eugene Robinson and hip hop luminary Saul Williams. Simply unhinged, unencumbered, and potentially dangerous.
So needless to say, I was more than stoked when the band themselves leaked their new album NO LOVE DEEP WEB. "Claiming" that their label, Epic..yeah they're signed to Epic Records, pushed back the release to an undisclosed date, the crew reacted. Blasting it all over the interwebs, posting full streams on youtube and multiple file sharing site, Death Grips made sure everyone knew that zero fucks are given! Whether you choose to believe that this was a defiant act or a well orchestrated campaign to build up their fan base, (Epic has made no statement regarding leak nor have they tried to take down any of their posts) it worked. Having listened to this album several times now, I can say with the utmost certainty, NO LOVE DEEP WEB is no easy listen. It is just as raw, abrasive, and challenging as their previous work. The "recorded in a bedroom" aesthetic makes this knife fight of an album sound almost intimate at the same time. I also love how this band, to me, are like the hip hop equivalent of a black metal band. No concern for the outside world or any particular trend, bucking conformity to capture the purest form of their very specific world view. They are wholly not concerned with what any one thinks.
While I encourage all to experience Death Grips, I don't expect everybody to like this immediately. Admittedly, with each of their releases, it's taken me a few spins to really get into. But once you find yourself in their head space, you'll find it difficult to leave.
Sickness Will Pass is one of my absolute favorites of 2012. You can read me gushing about it here. So I'm ridiculously stoked that it's finally coming out on the preferred format. Unfortunately pre-orders opened on the same day as ticket sales for Maryland Deathfest, so my bank account hates me right now. Two variants are available for pre-order, red and black marble (limited to 100) and a standard weight black unlimited variant. There is also a super reasonably priced pre-order bundle that comes with a red and black marble LP and a shirt (pictured below). Go to Seventh Rule and buy this fucking thing. Right. Fucking. Now.
The Flenser is currently taking pre-orders for a 12" split between Bay Area black metal/shoegaze/pos-rockers Deafheaven and Bosse-de-Nage, done in partnership with Deathwish Inc. This is Deafheaven's first release since their strong debut LP on Deathwish last year. For Bosse-de-Nage this split comes right on the heels of their newest full-length, III, one of my personal favorites this year. The Flenser is offering a purple marble with black variant limited to 200 copies exclusive to The Flenser webstore, as well as a standard black. It would appear that the Flenser exclusive variant is already more than half sold out at this point, so grab it quick. Deathwish will also be offering an exclusive variant, details to be announced later.
I love it when I stumble on to shit like this! A drunken night rummaging through the interwebs looking for something to jam on led me to this little lovely. This right here is prime, grade-a, cellar dwelling fuzzed fucked filth. This sublime cluster fuck of blackend crust doom punk and closet production comes courtesy of New Hampshire trio Ramlord. First off, sweet fucking name fellas! Secondly, sweet fucking riffs! Their din is reminiscent of acts like From Ashes Rise, Tragedy/His Hero Is Gone (especially in the vocal department), Disrupt, Perth Express, Noothgrush and even some Buzzov*en. My first listen was in the form of there new split with Dallas Texas' Cara Neir. A single 10 minute track of sheer disgust and brute force. Starting off with a dire two minute plus doomed out death march, Affliction of Clairvoyance erupts in a ferocious d-beat maelstrom just to bring it back to a crawl. Then amping it up again into a torrential black metal inspired crescendo . It's pretty awesome. Then came the four song 7 minute piss in the eye of their split with Condensed Flesh. Released last year, this side of Ramlord sees them deliver the the good in no frills all thrills fashion. It's crusty as fuck and straight to the point. It too is pretty awesome. The only fault that I can find with these recording lies within Affliction. While I love the grime the production (or lack there of) provides, the drum sound on this track bothers me at times. I gotta say that the snare sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a well. Oh well. See what I did there.. Even with that one minor criticism, Ramlord are one hell of a band. I will be watching these guys closely.
The internet went fucking bananas this week when it found out Godspeed You! Black Emperor was selling their first new record in a decade at their Boston show and Constellation confirmed it's existence by opening up pre-orders. I too was among those going bananas on the interhole. Godspeed You! Black Emperor is one of my favorite bands of all time and in the top five bands I've ever seen live. I couldn't fucking wait to hear this record. Luckily we live an an age of instant gratification and I didn't have to wait long. A mere hour after I found out this record existed, a vinyl rip was making its way around the web. In my excitement I almost posted it before even hearing it, but decided to give it a few listens to try and digest it a bit first so I wasn't tossing something up on the blog that I hadn't vetted. In retrospect I'm an idiot for even entertaining the thought that GY!BE might release something less than stellar.
ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND! features two songs, each of which runs just under 20 minutes and two drones of 6 and 8 minutes respectively. To be honest (and I'm sure this isn't a totally unpopular opinion) GY!BE's drones have never done much for me and these two are no exception. I don't mind some of the field recordings and other things they have done in the past while transitioning into and out of movements, but the standalone drone tracks are somewhat tedious. I get that they're there for atmospheric purposes, but drone has never floated my boat. The two actual songs however? If my ears could ejaculate, they would be doing so right now. Godspeed's approach to songwriting has not changed in the past decade, they still opt for the mood setting -> crescendo -> climax -> diminuendo and/or seemingly random part format. I may be jumping the gun here, but "Mladic" might be one of my new favorite Godspeed songs. After the usual formalities, the song builds into a guitar and drum driven section that reminds me quite a bit of Burning Off Impurities era Grails in it's Sabbath meets the Middle East vibe. It eventually moves into what is quite possibly my favorite section on the record, a classic Efrim weepy guitar line segues into a big swells of shoegazy guitar that will having you rocking back and forth in your chair until the bottom simply drops out. "We Drift Like Worried Fire" is another winner. A pensive opening section builds meticulously under blooms of fuzzy guitar, falls by the wayside and is replaced by volleys of tremolo picking. The song also features what is undeniably the most "poppy" movement in Godspeed You! Black Emperors' history, albeit rather brief.
This album is a complete and very welcome surprise. One of my top records of 2012. Welcome back you magnificent bastards. Now, if you could give the guys in Fugazi a call and get them do a new record this could be the best year for new music ever.
I know I'm in a slump when my queue of albums to listen to balloons to over 300...it's well beyond that right now. Time to get my ass in gear and listen to some new music, but first here's one from the archives.
This album sounds like shit. It's one of the least dynamic albums I've ever heard. Everything is ridiculously loud and pushed to the front of the "mix." It's super abrasive and over the course of it's 47 minutes, this album will fatigue your ears. I think that's one of the reasons why I rank it among the best black metal albums of the 2000's.
The other reason why I rank it so highly is that it's an absolute blasterpiece and a total riff-fest. The production perfectly compliments the music in this case, it's slightly over three quarters of an hour of unchecked aggression and this aggression will stand, man. It's got tremolo picked riffs and blastbeats until the cows come home and gnarly high pitched wails abound. Behexen aren't really interested subtlety or mood-setting on this record. No, they're more interested in grabbing you by the hair and holding your face to a belt sander whirring at 3400 rotations per minute until the air is filled with a fine mist of blood and bone dust. If that sounds like the type of thing you would enjoy, you should definitely check this record out (I'm looking at you, James).
Oh, and bonus points for one of the best black metal album covers ever.
Column Of Heaven's intent is clear. Violence. Comprised of member of the defunct The Endless Blockade, C.O.H picks up right were the latter left off. An unhinged power violence assault, unfettered by any need for extraneous song structures. It's just ball out. Mission From God is the musical equivalent of a deadly weapon. Razor sharp in execution and hits as hard as blunt force trauma. And while all the bash and stab is happening,C.O.H. keep their listeners even more disorientated and unsettled with the addition of noise and electronics. It's a familiar element that Endless used to great but much more sparing effect. This 17 minute, 11 track slab of vitriol is not to be missed. Like this album, I'm keeping this review short and sweet. The end.
Every once in a while I feel the need to delve deep into the past. Mainly to see if records I used to love still hold up today. My latest foray led me back to this gem. I'm not sure if I really grasped OLD when I was initially introduced to them back in the day, but I knew I liked it a lot. And by god it is still way ahead of the curve! For the uninitiated, OLD aka Old Lady Drivers was the brainchild of James Plotkin. You may know him from such musical mastery's as Khlyst, Jodis, Phantomsmasher, remix and mastering maestro, oh and KHANATE! James formed OLD out of the ashes of his original grindcore act Regurgitate (yep, them too!) in 1987. Having a desire to move in a more experimental direction Mr. Plotkin recruited Alan Dubin (yep, that one!) and OLD was born. With Alan on vocals and James on guitar and programming they released Old Lady Drivers in 1988. Their tongue in cheek proto-digi-grind wasn't too far from what Regurgitate had been doing. It wasn't until the release of their second album Lo Flux Tube that OLD took a big left turn on to the"avant" highway. Did I mention John Zorn plays sax on this album? Infusing way more electronics than it's predecessor, Lo Flux Tube was a quantum leap forward. To describe the sound produced by these guys would be an exercise in futility. Complex, challenging, grinding, and unsettling , are just few choice words that come to mind upon listening. One thing is sure, Lo Flux is superbly weird. Like the Melvins, OLD were years ahead of the curve. While tonally its a wee bit dated, Compositionally this album sounds as fresh and forward think as anything out there now.
I had an incredibly difficult time trying to figure out how to express my thoughts on Planks. After giving Funeral Mouth (their third and most recent offering) a couple of spins, I was sure that this record was something special. The only problem is how do I describe a band like this and do them justice. Well, I'm just gonna go for it. Planks' sound, on the surface, is steeped in familiar territory. The post-metal/post-whatever tag immediately jumps out, but there's so much more. Hailing from Germany, Planks have been refining their assault on listeners for a while now. Rooted in D-beat hardcore initially, Funeral Mouth finds them incorporating a more sinister aesthetic in to their already somber songcraft, which ain't a bad thing. Their Facebook page states " if Darkthrone jammed together with Isis covering Cure songs". That's not a bad description, but not all encompassing or fair to the band. First off, unlike Isis, Planks knows how to write a riff. Secondly, they do not over stay their welcome with any one particular part. Everything sounds exactly as long as it should be. Thirdly, Darkthrone, while they have my utmost respect, cant touch these guys! I have no complaints about the Cure comparison. There is, overall, a real sense of urgency and threat in this music as well as beauty. And just when you think you got 'em pegged, the crusty comes roaring back, over a strait up black metal part no less. I cant find anything that confirms it, but I swear that's Dwid from Integrity singing on "Weak and Shapeless". All of this together make for a truly awesome listening experience. What makes Planks stand apart is, they have managed to take the familiar and craft it in to something wholly original. Year end contender here.
Many years ago Rob introduced me to a band out of Salt Lake City, Utah called Iceburn. Iceburn (later known as the Iceburn Collective) began as a hardcore band with progressive rock, metallic, jazz and even some classical elements. Iceburn's music constantly evolved throughout their career. Much of their later output had more in common with Ornette Coleman than it did with their Revelation Records peers. Iceburn went through approximately a billion lineup changes, but the driving force and sole constant member was guitarist/vocalist Gentry Densley. You may also be familiar with that name from Ascend, Densley's doom project with Greg Anderson. In 2007 Densley founded Eagle Twin with drummer Tyler Smith. Eagle Twin flew under my radar until last year when I finally heard The Unkindness of Crows. It's a fine album, but holy shitballs, The Feather Tipped The Serpent's Scale is like a Gatling gun turning those unkind crows into chunks of carrion and blood mist. Densley's tone is pretty much unrivaled in doom metal these days. His riffs and the grooves he creates with Smith could go toe-to-to with Sleep, Goatsnake and Yob at their absolute best. I will say I've never been big on this style of vocals in doom, but everything else is so goddamn righteous I'm more than willing to give them a pass. Strong contender for album of the year.
Defying all of Pat's expectations, I have returned! To the two people who actually read this blog regularly, you have my most sincere apologies. It seems I was stricken with a severe case of apathecrastination. I nearly lost the battle folks. As the mountain of releases piled higher, my resolve sunk even lower. Alas I was able to break free from my self imposed exile and string enough words together to form somewhat coherent sentences. So on with the show.
I've been a fan of Ryan Lipynsky for quite some time. Having had the pleasure of working at Tower records for a considerable amount of time, I was inundated with with promos regularly. Unearthly Trance was one that slid across my desk and it floored me. Ever since I've followed Mr. Lipynsky's career closely. He doesn't make bad records. From Unearthly's off kilter doom to The Howling Wind's maniacal black metal, and Pollution's experimental take on hardcore, Ryan has proven himself a indispensable part of the extreme music community. Following the demise of Unearthly Trance earlier this year, we were all left wondering if there would be another to fill the void. Well we have an answer. Serpentine Path. Not only is all of Unearthly Trance in it, but so is Tim Bagshaw, founding member of Electric Wizard and Ramesses! Update: Stephen Flam of Winter has now been added as their second guitarist! That's a whole lot of awesome. Serpentine Path deliver the goods. This is straight-a-head death doom at its max. Tim Bagshaw's monolithic riffs repeat in hypnotic fashion creating their own gravitational field while Ryan's vocals drag you to the depths of the abyss, crushing song after crushing song. This is an all meat and potatoes release, nothing wasted on frilly little garnishes, just the fucking heavy thank you. Listen loud. Listen now.
Rob keeps telling me that a) he's not dead and b) he's going to post something eventually. I don't believe him on either account.
Trondheim, Norway's Psudoku is the brainchild of Papirmøllen, who is also the man behind the anarcho-grindcore assault that is Parlamentarisk Sodomi (who happen to have cartoon dicks on most of their record covers, but I digress). However, unlike the hardcore-rooted Parlamentarisk Sodomi, Psudoku isn't so much rooted in anything, more like blasting through intergalactic space at a pace approaching the speed of light. There's only one thing I've ever heard that sounds even remotely similar to Space Grind and that is East West Blast Test. Yeah, when I compare a band to one featuring two of my musical idols (Dave Witte and Chris Dodge) that's a pretty gnarly endorsement. If you've heard the East West Blast Test records you should have some idea what to expect, completely weird, avant-garde, perhaps even jazz-influence grindcore. But, no offence to two of my favorite musicians, this album blows both of theirs out of the water. Why? The goddamn riffs. I don't want to call the guitar work on this album "riffage" or "shredding" as either would be an insult. The guitar work on this album is riff-craft. It's a fucking work of art. It's some of the most precise grindcore riffing I've heard since The Inalienable Dreamless. Oh, and Scott Hull should watch out, because Papirmøllen is looking to usurp the throne as the best drum programmer in grind.
One of my favorite grindcore records ever. Don't sleep on it.
Run For Cover Records just opened up pre-orders for a split release between two of the finer shoegazey bands in the States right now, both of whom are coming off strong full-length debuts. Each band does two brand new tracks. Limited to 500 total copies on 2x7" with a gatefold jacket and an etched d-side, 200 on white/black a-side/b-side split and 300 on white/black 2/3 split (not entirely what 2/3 split means, I guess it's not a half/half deal like a usual two color split?). Do it up.
I'm parting with some of my vinyl collection, including some color variants of this album. I've listened to it 5 times already this evening making sure they're all fit to sell, so I figured, why the fuck not post it?
Fifteen Counts of Arson is one of my favorite albums of all time and I objectively believe that it's one of the greatest punk rock albums ever recorded...and it's not even my favorite His Hero Is Gone record, Monuments To Thieves holds that distinction. The order in which I rank those two will surely be objected to by some, but I think that just about all of their fans can agree that His Hero Is Gone managed quite a feat in having produced not one, but two all time greats of the genre. Pardon me if I get a little too self-involved with this one, His Hero Is Gone was one of the most important bands in my musical evolution.
I was 13 years old when this record came out, though I don't think I heard it until the following year (1998). At that point I was starting to move beyond punk rock and hardcore staples like the Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains and Black Flag. Bands like Discharge, Crucifix and Crass had given me an ethos to go along with my (just barely) teenage angst. But 1998 would prove a huge year for me musically. I would hear two bands that expanded my palate and completely changed the way I listened to music. One was Botch, though that's a story for another time, the other was His Hero Is Gone.
I imagine I must have downloaded it from the FTP site that some guys who posted on a message board I frequented ran, as that's where much of my music discovery happened in those early days of file sharing. Somehow I came into possession of a few MP3s, including "Professional Mindfuckers," "Sterile Fortress" and "Epidemic." I know that the phrase "blew my mind" is overused, but that's exactly what happened, my mind was fucking blown.
It was dark. Darker than Discharge or Rudimentary Peni (who I also loved at the time) and certainly had none of the levity of the latter. It was fast. I had heard some fast hardcore, but I had never been exposed to a blast beat before this record. It was slow. Sludge would later become my genre of choice, but this was my first exposure to the grimy stomp that's part and parcel of the genre. But most of all, it was heavy. Not the type of heavy that a bunch of meatheads would stomp around to at a hardcore show, but the kind of heavy that made you want to throw up the claw and bang your fucking head. It's almost solely responsible for sending me barreling down a musical path I might not have stumbled across otherwise and almost fifteen years later, Fifteen Counts of Arson remains one of my favorite albums of all time.
Those of you desperate to get your grubby little hands on the now out of print Complete And Total Midnight compilation rejoice! Complete And Total Hell contains all of Midnight's pre-Satanic Royalty material from the previous compilation, plus the Farewell To Hell 10" which the previous compilation did not. However, the unreleased track "Death Sentence" was not included on this repackaged version, it also does not include the 7" of The Spits covers. Available on grey and black vinyl, no pressing info is available at this time. Snag one from Hell's Headbangers now or pay outrageous eBay prices later, your choice.
Gilead Media just opened up pre-orders for two releases involving three of the finest black metal bands the United States has to offer, all three of whom went completely sickhouse on our asses at Gilead Media Fest. See our post about it here.
First up is Empyrean by Mutilation Rites. As I said when I posted their I Am Legion EP a few months ago, I'm fairly confident that Mutilation Rites is the best black metal band in the United States currently. Empyrean fits right in with the Devoid and I Am Legion EPs released earlier this year by Forcefield Records and Gilead Media. This might be the first time that any band has ever had multiple releases make my end of year list. These dudes are on a fucking roll. Pressed on 180gm black vinyl in a Stoughton tip-on jacket.
Next is the Bargest/False split. I've somehow managed to avoid hearing this despite the fact that it's been up on Bandcamp for a few weeks now. Gonna have to fix that ASAP. However, I'm entirely sure both bands will knock it out of the fucking park. This is the first release for each band since their respectively self-titled vinyl debuts of last year, both of which were issued on Gilead Media. 800 copies pressed on 180gm black vinyl in a nice thick jacket and a poster.
Sorry metal dudes, I know I've been disappointing you with my output recently. I mean seriously, punk rock? Screamo? Fucking indie rock? Two metal records in the last month and a half. Well, don't you worry because I mean to put a stop to that...some other time. Here's a hardcore record! Petition Rob to do more than one post a month if you don't like it.
At some point in the past year I decided to do some weeding of my record collection. Most of what I got rid of was anarcho-punk I hadn't listened to since I was 15, but during that process I rediscovered a number of things I had absolutely adored, but had neglected in more recent years. One of those things was the hardcore scene in Cleveland, Ohio from the mid-90's through early 2000's. It started out with H100s who played thrashy hardcore that paid equal homage to Poison Idea and bands from the 80's Japanese scene such as Gauze, Lip Cream and G.I.S.M. When H100s split up the members formed two bands, Gordon Solie Motherfuckers and 9 Shocks Terror, who were, in my opinion, the penultimate band from that wave of Clevo hardcore.
H100s were already infamous in the Ohio hardcore scene, in their short history they were seemingly incapable of playing a show that didn't end up in a small scale riot and a trashed club. 9 Shocks Terror proudly grabbed the baton from H100s and ran with it across the country and beyond. They were spastic. They were confrontational. They like fireworks. They gave zero fucks. A quick Google search will turn up stories and even some video of their hijinks, but more important than any of that silliness is the fact that they fucking ripped.
After two 7"s and a split, 9 Shocks Terror released what I believe to be their magnum opus Zen And The Art Of Beating Your Ass on Japan's Devour Records (also the home of some of Discordance Axis' early work). I've never heard the Devour version, but apparently it sounded like complete shit and the original mix and a new master was re-released by Havoc just a few years later (which is what you'll find linked to below). While 9 Shocks never really departed from the sound of H100s (obviously, they did name themselves after a Lip Cream album), they most definitely refined it. Zen leaves behind the sloppiness of H100s for some tight, focused, straight ahead thrashing hardcore. Sandwiched between razor sharp riffs are scorching leads and even a few quick and to the point guitar solos. 9 Shocks Terror didn't have any fucking time for breakdowns and mosh riffs and that's just the way I like it.
Well, after a highly productive (for us) month of June, we're on our way to our least productive month since we started this thing. We're officially bad at this again! It's gonna be alright though, because White Lung are about to rock your goddamn socks off, regardless of whether you're wearing shoes or not.
Hailing from the home of the one and only Narduwar (that would be Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) White Lung play a noisy, rollicking brand of punk rock quite unlike anything I've heard in a long time, or possibly ever. They're far from your average 4-chord punk rock band. Guitarist Kenneth McCorkell's hand scurries around the fretboard like a chipmunk seeking refuge from a hawk circling overhead. Sorry is executed at the breakneck pace of Morris era Black Flag. Guitar-wise, think Greg Ginn and his signature dissonant guitar squelches...on speed, with flourishes of melodious jangly indie rock played far too fast for wimpy indie kids to enjoy. White Lung's rhythm section could easily fill in for Hot Snakes should the masters of chugging garage punk find themselves in a bind and while I certainly wouldn't call White Lung d-beat, the drumming rarely breaks from the Discharge mold. Sounds pretty boss, right? It is.
White Lung should appeal to fans of Bikini Kill and the Riot Grrrl scene, frantic surf-punk a la Night Birds and perhaps to more adventurous fans of the Screaming Females. Sorry will undoubtedly make an appearance on my end of 2012 list.
So there was a moment I had in high school, at a friends house, lets say there were substances involved. Anywhoo, at some point in the evening my buddy Billy throws a record on. I start to notice that every note is syncing up with the television, every note screams as if it is a journey unto itself. Next thing I know I'm cruise at a million miles an hour through the universe and back. Mind blown. That was my first foray into the genre known as Psychedelia and the band was Hawkwind. Love 'em or hate 'em, you can deny the impact Hawkwind have had on music and musicians alike. They gave us Lemmy for christ sake! Had he done the right kind of drugs Motorhead may never have happen! Hawkwind Triad is a three part tribute from Neurot Records. Oh, and it rules pretty freakin' hard. Featuring Steve Von Till's folk rock space odyssey Harvestman, North Carolina's own U.S. Christmas, and the Sanford Parker lead Minsk, ...Triad offers some rather beefy, and incredible, versions of Hawkwind classics. Personal favorite added below! Had this been what I heard oh so many years ago I may have had a slightly different experience! Turn down the lights, throw on Planet Earth on Blu-Ray, and turn this sucker up loud!
Look at that name. LOOK AT IT. Say it out loud. Feel the way it rolls off the tongue. Did you just chortle? I did the first time I said it out loud too. Not sure I need to do a big writeup on this one, with a name like that you should have a pretty good idea of what you're getting yourself into. Big, riffy, groove-laden, instrumental stoner doom following in the footsteps of the masters. You either love this style of music or it does absolutely nothing for you. Personally, I think this happens to be one of the finest exemplars of the genre since Bongzilla's Gateway.
Haven't done one of these in a while! A year or so removed from their split with Dropdead, Converge teams up with another bunch of old dudes band with a long, storied history, Napalm Death. I will say I wasn't quite as keen on Napalm Death's most recent effort as many, but I'll be picking this up regardless because a) it's Converge b) Converge do a fucking ENTOMBED cover (Wolverine Blues) with guest vocals from Tompa Lindberg and c) the Deathwish exclusive vinyl looks fucking sweet. I wish Converge had chosen to do something off of Left Hand Path, since doing a straightforward death metal song would have been more outside their wheelhouse, but I'm excited regardless. Available from Kingsroad on yellow and pink vinyl and from Deathwish on randomly colored swirly "vinyl bong" vinyl, which is a pretty boss manufacturing technique used by Gotta Groove Records. No pressing info is available at this time.
In my opinion, Meneguar was one of the most unsung bands of the last decade. While not necessarily a devotee, I listen to my fair share of indie rock and I've never heard another band that played said style of music with such unbridled passion. I'm not talking about in a live setting, unfortunately I never had the pleasure of seeing a Meneguar show. I'm talking about on tape. To me a show will always be the preferred way to experience music and albums should strive to capture the electricity that makes seeing music live so exciting. That is exactly why I consider I Was Born At Night to be a masterpiece, it sounds like the band was having just as much fun tracking these songs as they did when playing them live. This EP was initially released by Magic Bullet and was one of the label's early forays into music outside of the extreme. It's odd to think that if I weren't a fan of Majority Rule and Texbook Traitors I never would have heard this band.
Trying to encapsulate Meneguar in a paragraph or two is a pretty daunting task. I think that's due to the fact that they manage to remind me of the best aspects of a number of bands while not actually sounding anything like those bands. Take Weezer for instance. The Blue Album is littered with wonderful sing-along choruses. Menegar take it a step further. The chorus to every single song on this album demands that you sing-along. Give it two listens and try your hardest not to, I dare you. Their rhythm section pounds like Weezer did every now and again, but really that's where the comparison ends. The energy and enthusiasm with which they play reminds me of pop punk in the vein of The Ramones or Dillinger Four and the plentiful booty shakin' bass lines are reminiscent of the latter in particular. However, Meneguar isn't a pop punk band. I hear the Chuck Berry influenced garage rock of Hot Snakes. I can spot the dancy indie beat of Q and Not U. I hear the echoes of jangly guitar-driven indie rock bands from the 90's like Jawbox. While that last one might be the best overall comparison, the hammer is still pretty fucking far from the nail's head.
Whatever they sounded like, I was always nonplussed as to why Meneguar never attained the status of a band like Minus The Bear, who, while Menegar were producing two of the best indie rock releases of the decade, were beginning a backslide that sent them down into the mire with a million other terrible indie bands (there was a brief pause with Planet of Ice). Please come back Meneguar, I miss you.
The Proposition is one of the best modern westerns ever made. Not only
was it written by, but also features an amazing score by none other than Nick
Cave. Why is this important to this post you ask? Salowe Visions. Dark and foreboding, reverb tinged
twang convey a sense of longing and deep isolation before building into an
ultimately triumphant crescendo, much like the first two acts of The
Proposition. And then came violence. Fiery Serpents. Blasting
forth with such brutality, I can feel its sweat and rage bearing down on me, as
if the song itself had been riding with Guy
Pearce through the Australian Outback. Again, why is this
important? With in these two songs Deathspell Omega have captured a cinematic
vision so potent that it encapsulated an entire movie in my head in a mere
eight minutes. There are still four other tracks on this E.P. Their ability to
so completely evolve a piece of music is a true testament to their mastery. You
as the listener are right there along for the journey they are unraveling in
three to four minute vignettes. Some bands can’t do that in twenty! Drought is
by far the most concise of Deathsell Omega's Recorded output. There are
still unbridled amounts of ballistic, incomprehensibly executed riffs on
this behemoth, so don't you worry! Scorpions & Drought right
through to the last chord on The Crackled Book Of Life, are
just as strong, if not stronger, than the first two tracks. Drought is
yet another epic masterpiece of forward thinking, awe inspiring, and most
importantly, terrifying black metal.
*I know it may come as a surprise to most of
you that I'd post about Deathspell Omega. Having only name checked them in
40-60% of the entries on this site, I felt that they needed more exposure than
what we were already giving them! So thank you for bearing with me on this
one folks.
Migration by Buried At Sea is my favorite doom record of all time, regardless of subgenre. That might seem like an odd choice to many, but I've never heard an album as unrelenting and suffocatingly heavy. I'd go so far as to call it the heaviest album of all time (and those of you who know me know that I tend to do so without the slightest provocation). Growing up a punk kid who loved powerviolence I didn't know people made music that slow and heavy or that I could possibly enjoy it so much. I remember staring agape at the car stereo after hearing that titanic crash at the beginning of Migration for the first time. The closest analogy I can come up with is when, suddenly, a gigantic chunk of glacier breaks off and slams into the ocean with a roar. Since Buried At Sea is no longer with us, I always keep my ear to their grave, anxiously listening for bands down there nibbling at their sodden corpse. At times Batillus reaches Buried At Sea levels of trudging hugeness, but they've got their own sound and are on their own path that only on occasion winds its way through that corner of the graveyard. For the past few years I've been keeping an eye on Portland's Stoneburner who feature guitarist Jason Depew formerly of...you guessed it...Buried At Sea. Thus, I've been eagerly awaiting the release of Sickness Will Pass for a number of months now.
Does it deliver? Boy, does it ever. Don't think that, based on the above, Stoneburner is a Buried At Sea clone. Far from it (though I could get down with that, I like plenty of Discharge clones). Like Migration, Sickness Will Pass starts out with a thunder clap and immediately hits some of the same lows (and I mean that in the best way possible). This album is vicious. If Eyehategod is a PCPed-out first timer stabbing wildly and making a mess of things, Stoneburner are a seasoned vet, knifing you methodically while staring you in the eyes with a completely flattened affect. But as I said, this isn't Migration Pt. 2. Soneburner has plenty of tricks up their sleeves in the form of bluesy southern sludge riffs, Yob-esque pedal driven bits, guitar solos, up tempo sections and double bass.
This album is tremendous and in addition to capturing a spot amongst my favorites of the year it's made me completely reevaluate some of the notions I had about Buried At Sea. Being the most visible member and the member whose other projects I was most familiar with, I had always attributed much of Buried At Sea's sound to Sanford Parker. Sickness Will Pass changes all that. The tones, the riffs and the malevolence I now see were the work of one Jason Depew and he's back with another absolutely killer piece of doom history.
Not sure how I missed that this reissue was happening. The original pressing of this Whirr EP (they were known as Whirl at the time) was fraught with issues. I know that a number of people who ordered it from the UK based label it was released on never received their records. I opted not to order it from them based on that fact, so I've been semi-actively looking for a copy at a reasonable price on Discogs for a year now. I go to the Discogs homepage today and voila! a reissue. Comes with all new artwork and two bonus demo tracks. 595 copies pressed, 325 on clear with splatter (ugh, I know, splatter vinyl is fucking lame) and 270 on green/white swirl, which is supposedly exclusive to the Graveface Record Club (also lame). Oh well, at least I'll be able to own one of my favorite EPs in recent memory on vinyl at last
Listening to Guidelines (see post below) got me all hot and bothered for some more chaotic screamo. I mentioned Textbook Traitors when I posted the Guidelines EP and immediately realized Textbook Traitors is one of the reasons I started this blog. Not them in particular, but bands of their ilk. Bands who in their time were completely overlooked. Granted, when this EP came out the screamo wave was just about to crest and when that wave broke it spilled out a slew of shitty bands, so Textbook Traitors were mostly lost in the wash, drown out by the pounding of the shitty surf. OK, I think that's enough water and poo allusions for one post.
Textbook Traitors were a screamo band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who released a grand total of 33 minutes of music in their all too brief career. The drummer went on to join Get Rad (had I known this when I saw Get Rad at Gilead Media Fest I would have gotten all fanboy on that guy). Other than that, I can't seem to find any info on the band's previous or more current endeavors. However, all you really need to know is that if you have even a passing interest in the genre, this EP contains 15 of the finest minutes of screamo you will ever hear. Unlike many of their peers, Textbook Traitors eschewed the quiet/loud dynamic for the most part in favor of an all out aural assault unlike anything I'd heard before or I've heard since. Eardrum shredding shrieks, grindcore pacing, blast beats and frenetic, dissonant, shrill guitar caterwauling make this one of the most grating listens ever and nearly a decade after my initial listen, I still can't get enough of it. This is a masterpiece of the genre, up there with Chaos Is Me by Orchid and Document # 5 and Document #7 by Pg. 99. Absolutely essential.
Digital Physical (CD)
Unfortunately, this hot mess was never released on vinyl. Start talking about it incessantly and maybe we can get Magic Bullet to give this thing the vinyl treatment it deserves.
Whoa! This is some rad shit! I can’t say I really listen to
much screamo anymore, when nearly all of the progenitors of the genre and the second
wave bands went the way of the dodo so did my interest. I peek in every once in
a while to see what the haps are, but these days every band I hear seems to be
a Pg. 99 clone doing the quiet/loud thing over and over and over and over
again. That’s cool, I’d rather listen to Pg. 99. They all seem to have become
so concerned with the pretty, quiet parts and crafting the most epic build that
they completely forget the payoff; the violent, unhinged, sounds like it’s
going to go spiraling out of control at any second, bordering on grindcore bits
of screamo songs that I absolutely adore. You know, like what Orchid and Textbook
Traitors excelled at. Call it “emoviolence” if you’re one of those people. It’s
those delightful tidbits where Guidelines shine. Sure, there are still the
melodic sections and the quiet/loud dynamic, that’s part and parcel of the
genre, but what is truly remarkable is how these New Jersey gents manage to
transition into and even combine the chaotic elements of screamo with the
melodic. Listening to this brings me back to a whole different era of punk rock
music, but also gives me hope for the future. Thanks, Guidelines.
Like my compatriot Pat, my tastes in black metal do not ride the rails of convention. Ajuna is not your typical black metal band and therefore perfect for me. Even calling what they do on these albums black metal is almost a misnomer. Asides from the vocals and stylistic flourishes they share more with bands like Slint, Jesus Lizard, and 90's alternative than they do Mayhem or Emperor. The eight songs that comprise Incomplete Circles Becoming Dead Ends & Perpetual State of Disbelieve run the gamut of AmRep / Touch and Go sounds. Jangly, not overly distorted, but dangerous guitar, thunderous Henry Bogdan / David Wm. Sims bass tone, and propulsive drummimg. Yeah you read that right, second post featuring a black metal band where you can hear the bass. The rhythm section in Ajuna drive the hell out of these songs. Absolutely stellar shit here! This band has been on repeat for quite a while now and probably will for the foreseeable future.
Included in the download is their brand new demo Death In The Shape Of Winter. Having listen to it, I can say they have definitely taken a turn for the heavier in the last year. That's not a bad thing at all, but a lot of the AmRepiness that make the first albums so charming and interesting is lost a little bit. I am in no way knocking these songs, hell the video I included is from Death..., they're just different.
I had the hardest time trying to sum up Dweller on the Threshold. Here you have a band that takes their moniker from a Van Morrison song, crafting songs that would fit easily on records ranging from Cave In, Converge, Pygmy Lush, Boris, Isis, Bright Eyes and Wilco. While the the majority of S/T lay on the quieter, reverb drenched side of life, Dweller... can bring the almighty riff. When they do, it is to devastating effect. Upon first listen I was totally taken aback when the charging rhino of Crumbling House erupted from my speakers. After being lulled in to a sense of tranquil melencholia after the first two tracks, it was a shock to say the least. It's as if they decided to reverse engineer the quiet loud quiet dynamic so prevalent in music today. Whatever their particular path, it works! Not to say Dweller... doesn't mix the two, That Drone and Canto 894 are an excellent example of that. They just seem to want to keep their chocolate out of their peanut butter... you know what I mean. So if I had to wrap it up in a nice little package for you i'd sum it up like this: Jeff Tweedy starting an all star post-metal band with Ken Andrews, Wata, Aaron Harris, And Nate Newton. Yeah, it's rad!
Yes, goddamnit. Yes. I don't know about you, but all of this weird, dissonant, cacophonous and angular death and black metal that's coming out these days gets me all antsy in my pantsy. Deathspell Omega and Mitochondrion are two of my favorite bands on the planet right now and released my favorite albums of 2010 and 2011 respectively. Since I'm name dropping those two bands it shouldn't come as a surprise that Gateways will likely nab a high spot on my best of 2012 list. If you were to make a box and whisker plot with DsO as the lower extreme and Mitochondrion as the upper extreme, Azoic would fall somewhere in the interquartile range, between the median and the lower quartile (remember box and whisker plots? they ruled!). What makes this album even more impressive it that's it's the work of just two dudes, who based on the only picture of them that is on the internet look like they're 17. But who knows, maybe the delightfully mild Icelandic summers and hot springs keep inhabitants baby-faced into their 30's. Alright, enough inane rambling. Fans of the aforementioned bands, fans of Enslaved's more recent output and fans of modern black metal acts like Dodecahedron absolutely need to check this out. Highly recommended.
Holy fuck. I would love to say I slept on this band, but I really didn't. I downloaded a copy of this record sometime in 2010 and it just didn't grab me. As I said in the Gilead Media Fest review post, it might have been due to the extremely poor quality vinyl rip I had at the time (a much, much better rip is linked below) or maybe I just didn't give it a fair shake. Either way, now I see the light. The ugly, ugly light. Sludge isn't exactly a genre for the faint of heart or the causal music listener, but Hell are really on another level. I don't usually key in on vocals in metal music, it's a riff driven genre so that tends to be what I latch on to, but Hell I boasts some of the most torturous, inhuman vocals I've ever heard. Black metal dudes who think they're the bee's knees need to listen to this and have their egos stepped on a bit. But like I said, metal is riff driven music, so how 'bout them gits? Well, they're fucking huge. Imagine Thou at their most pummeling, like that riff in "Fucking Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean," but ALL OF THE TIME and you'll get the idea. Can't get enough of this record, listen to to goddamnit.
I've been hesitant to post this since I think you should be giving Gilead Media all of your money every paycheck and I don't want anybody to think that just downloading this (or any album) is acceptable, but I suppose that if you're like me you like to hear things before spending your grocery money on records. Mutilation Rites is the best black metal band in the United States right now. I'm not stating that as my opinion, I'm stating that as a fact. I Am Legion features three tracks from early Mutilation Rites demos that have been re-tooled and re-recorded with the new lineup. The result fucking rules. Despite hailing from one of the five boroughs, the widely acknowledged epicenter of much of the post-black or "hipster" black metal happening these days (fuck I hate the word hipster, but I'll save that rant for another time), Mutilation Rites share little in common with their Empire State brethren. On I Am Legion you'll find fairly traditional sounding black metal with touches of thrash and maybe a little crust thrown in the mix. Mutilation Rites aren't breaking down any genre barriers, pushing the black metal envelope or showing you what black metal could be, but rather are reminding you of just how goddamn good black metal can be. I should also note how much I enjoy the production on this album. Everything comes through nicely in the mix and you can even hear the...wait for it....wait for it...bass! I need me some low end. Tinny sounding guitars that sound like they were recorded in a trashcan pushed to the front of the mix bore me, so kudos to Mutilation Rites.
I had never heard of Black Clouds before I saw them open the DC date for the Alcest/Deafheaven tour. I'm not sure they really fit on that bill (actually, Auroboros, the other opener didn't exactly either), but I was way fucking impressed. Looking back on that show it was their set, not Alcest or Deafheaven, that left the greatest impression on me. Since then I've been looking forward to some recorded material and Everything Is Not Going To Be OK does not disappoint. I've been trying to think of bands with whom I can compare Black Clouds for the last week or so, but haven't found any of the comparisons to be satisfactory. But that might just be because I don't really listen to enough post-rock anymore. I think the best I can come up with would be a less mathy, more sinister The Cancer Conspiracy. Think post-rock with a little ambient thrown in the mix, but not of the triumphant, makes you feel like taking on the world variety, as you probably gathered from the album title.While the drumming and guitar are both totally excellent, what really stands out on this album is the bass. The bass tones aren't exactly standard fare for post-rock, it's more Godflesh than Explosions In The Sky, which I think plays a big part in why I enjoy this so much (referencing The Big Lebowski in a song title doesn't hurt either, he was a man who loved the outdoors...and bowling). I don't know how long these guys have been around, but for an initial release this is surprisingly well fleshed out and sounds much more like a band in their prime than one working to attain their own identity. Looking forward to hearing more from Black Clouds, hopefully in the near future.
Right now you can name your own price for Everything Is Not Going to Be OK over at bandcamp. Do it.
It's been a while folks. "I've been busy" gets thrown around in situations like this. Generally, it's to deflect from the fact that, in all likelihood, they're just being lazy pieces of shit. Yep, that last part sounds about right. So you have my apologies. Moving on. No Sir's e.p. Holy Land is a collection of noisy rotten punk violence. In other words, it's fantastic! Discharge full frontal assault and Graf Orlocks snotty unhinged delivery come to mind immediately while listening to Holy Land. Oh and with just a dash of Kiss It Goodbye for extra tension. Comprised of members from a bunch of Southern Californian bands I've never heard of, No Sir appears to be just a side project. I hope that changes. I'm still reeling from the overwhelmingly disappointing release of an album that Pat and I were eagerly awaiting. So stumbling across this caustic little ball of confrontation was very welcome indeed and has somewhat filled that void. Kudos boys.
Do you like the IDEA of progressive death metal but hate the fact that it usually entails incredibly cheesy guitar guitar solos, lame clean vocals, synth and other silly bullshit? Well, then Australia's StarGazer might just be the band for you. Featuring ex-members of Portal and a current member of Mournful Congregation, StarGazer play progressive death metal that harkens back to the days when "death metal" was the operative term in progressive death metal.Think Atheist, later era Death and (lame clean vocal having) Cynic with a touch of blackness and you should have a pretty good idea of what's in store for you. Not unnecessarily wanky or throw-as-many-riffs-together-as-possible-without-transitions sounding, which is a fucking achievement for a progressive death metal record these days. Highly recommended.
.jpg)
