Hell- III (2012)

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.

Try it.

Buy it:

Hell on bandcamp.

The cassette is already sold out. Vinyl is coming soon from Pesanta.

Vinyl Fetish: Stoneburner- Sickness Will Pass Pre-order

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.

Pre-order from Seventh Rule

Ramlord - Split Releases (2011/2012)

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. 

Bandcamp

Both of the cassette only splits are sold out, here's hoping for some vinyl releases soon!

Eagle Twin- The Feather Tipped The Serpent's Scale (2012)

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.

Try it.

Buy it:
LP/CD (Southern Lord)
Digital (Amazon)

Serpentine Path - S/T (2012)

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.

Try It

Buy It

Physical

Belzebong - Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves (2011)

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.

...proceeds the Weedian...

Buy it:
Vinyl (Discogs)
Digital

Stoneburner- Sickness Will Pass (2012)

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.

Try it.

Buy it.
Physical (CD)
Digital

No vinyl yet, but I will certainly be making a post about it when it becomes available.

Hell- Hell I (2009)

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.

Get it here.

Unfortunately, this is currently out of print and not available digitally other than the above vinyl rip.

Vinyl Fetish: Sleep- Dopesmoker 2xLP Reissue Pre-orders Are Go!

No need to introduce this. Here are the deets:

SLEEP LP PRESSING INFO:
Dopesmoker 180 gram Picture Disc double vinyl version= 1,000 pressed (only 500 available via Southern Lord mailorder. Band has the other 500)
Dopesmoker 180 gram Black double vinyl version = 1500 pressed
Dopesmoker 180 gram Green double vinyl version = 3500 pressed
Dopesmoker 180 gram Clear double vinyl version = 2000 pressed (*only available in Europe or when purchasing the 'ALL VERSIONS' package)

"For 2,000 of the vinyls (1500 black and 500 green) we had the artwork printed on holographic foil paper and then fabricated by Stoughton for their "old-style" tip on gatefold jackets. This was the bands vision as the best way to present the artwork. Due to the high expense of the paper we only did a portion of the pressing on this paper stock. After these have sold through we will have the "regular jackets" which are the ultra high quality Stoughton "old-style" tip on gatefold jackets and special parts of the art has a spot-uv gloss. The lungsmen and their space pod come to life!"

 Vinyls? Ugh. Southern Lord, get it together (grammatically).

(It's Southern Lord, so prepare to be raped by shipping fees)

Drop out of life with bong in hand... 

Vinyl Fetish: Thou/Mohoram Atta- Degradation of Human Life Test Pressing

I told Rob I wasn't going to post this, but I decided that if I went ahead and did so it might light a fire under his ass and he might actually order a copy rather than wait for weeks and complain to me about how he didn't get a copy when it sells out. I don't know how many test pressings Halo of Flies had for this release, but I doubt it was very many. "Shorties With MP40s" is one of my favorite Thou songs and easily their silliest song title. This also features Thou covering "Screaming At A Wall" by Minor Threat, the fastest thing they've done to date. Dude from Halo of Flies said he's going to write "a cute little note" for everyone that buys a copy and "maybe I’ll toss something else in as well."  Don't sleep on it.

Get it here.

Download the Thou half of the split here.

Vinyl Fetish: Coffinworm- The Great Bringer of Night Pre-order

Well, it appears that the mighty Coffinworm's 2009 demo The Great Bringer of Night will see a proper (read: vinyl) release via The Flenser. Two bonus tracks from the same recording session bring the total up to 5 songs. This might not be essential for some of you as the only song that didn't make it onto their absolutely crushing full length was "The Inner Caligula," but if you love this band as much as I do it's worth the 15 bucks for that song alone. Remastered by James Plotkin, limited to 120 copies on gold vinyl and 380 on black.

Get it here

Download the demo here

Vinyl Fetish: When Hell Comes Home Split 7" Series Vol. 1 Thou/Kowloon Walled City

Pretty stoked about this. I wasn't interested in enough of the records in this series to order a subscription, so I was worried about having to wait for the ones I did want to pop up on eBay/Discogs and shell out a ton of cash for them. Fortunately, Hell Comes Home has decided to to sell them individually. This split features Kowloon Walled City covering "July" by Low and the almighty Thou doing a cover of "4th of July" by Soundgarden. Rob and I have been jamming on the Thou cover non-stop for about a month now, it's so good. Haven't had a chance to listen to the KWC cover yet, but this one is worth it for Thou alone.

Get it here.

SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones (2011)

 Having largely overlooked this release when it came out, I found it due time to revisit this stunner. No Help For The Mighty Ones is an exceptional collection of songs. In Latin, SubRosa, is defined as "under the rose". In English, the term is used in reference to secrecy or confidentiality. Musically, this band has quite an aire of the mysterious. I can easily envision SubRosa as the soundtrack to some underground societies ritual. Shrouded figures gathered around, swaying in a joined trance-like state while vocalist Rebecca Vernon acts as the orator to the proceedings. While their approach is extremely straight forward, all the component in place make one pretty epic and captivating album. Thanks in part to their dual violinist attack. Yeah you read that right. While most bands have lead and rhythm guitarists, they have dueling violins. Their addition add an entirely different kind of heavy to this record. Beautiful, melancholy, heavy, and totally triumphant, No Help...has everything I love and look for in an album of this type. SubRosa- No Help For The Mighty Ones will most certainly be counted among some of my favorite records. This will be on serious rotation for a while.


                   


                          

Try it.

Buy it:

Physical
                                                                           Digital                                                                           

Vinyl Fetish: Yob - The Unreal Never Lived and The Illusion of Motion Review

I gleefully ordered both of these albums at a ridiculously high price ($35). Granted some of that glee was due to the fact that I ordered them on my phone after having been at the bar for 6 or so hours, but the overwhelming majority of it was because my two favorite Yob albums were finally being pressed on vinyl. A week plus a few days later when I finally sat down to listen to them however, I was somewhat less gleeful. No, they're not bottom barrel pressings with pixelated artwork that sound like garbage (though the "etching" on side D of The Illusion of Motion is pretty pathetic). They're bare minimum pressings by a label that unceremoniously dropped the band years ago. This price gouging pressing is simply about cashing in on the popularity boom Yob has enjoyed with the release of their last two albums. There was no passion or care or even any real effort put into pressing these albums. Yet, I bought them. I thought about spending the rest of this post hurling invective at the major label with a roster full of lowest common denominator dreck that put these out. Instead, I'm going to celebrate the fact that two of my favorite doom records got the vinyl treatment at last. Kind of.

Pallbearer- Sorrow and Extinction (2012)

For the most part, more traditional doom and I don't get along. That's partly due to the fact that I'm a sludge fanatic and partly because I got really bored of every band's vocalist trying to sound like Ozzy or Lee Dorrian or Matt Pike really quickly (and yes, I am aware the title of this blog is a pun on a Pentagram lyric, thank you). However, I heard the vocalist from Pallbearer's cameo on the incredible Despond album by Loss and was very impressed. I somehow missed Pallbearer's demo, so this was the first I've heard them and I must say, the hype is warranted. I could spend a few sentences comparing Pallbearer to bands that I don't particularly care for or listen to, but all you should really need to know is it's heavy and it's damn good. While comparisons to the funeral doom dirge of Loss aren't totally on the mark, Pallbearer has a sense of melody very similar to their southern brothers in said band. Definitely has potential to make my end of year 2012 list. 

Try it.

Buy it:

Physical

Digital