A few more words on poppunk...

The celebration will take no end in my house, since my newfound love for poppunk has begun to blossom. I will sort of pick up where I left off in the last post on this topic, in that I will present you with the brilliant record We are still alive by Latterman. For a detailed description of the bands sound, read the stuff I wrote about Iron chic. Its some of the same people, and its got the same Long Island sound, and also the same amount of sheer genius.

I simply cant praise this record enough, and its been getting ridiculous amounts of airtime lately. There is not much to say except, get it. Now. And dont be a lowlife with no sense of aesthetics and just sit there wanking to your mp3's. Get off your ass and buy the physical record, and support this amazing band already.

Latterman - We are still alive

Secondly; have you ever (and I know you all have) wondered what it would sound like, if your favorite sludgeband like, say Thou or EyeHateGod played poppunk? As I stated, I am perfectly aware that several hundreds of you have lost many a good nights sleep, contemplating this question. Rest easy, the answer is finally here, and it is: Unfun.

This unique Vancouver band has all the musical makings of a good poppunk band, but they play it like theyre playing dirty, gritty sludge. This means downtuned guitars and raspy, almost pissed off whiskeyvocals. Easily the most innovative band I have come across in the genre.

Unfun - Sick outside view

Lastly, totally off topic, I bring you the superb Nude Beach, by way of IfYouMakeIt.com. This site has their debut full lenght for free and legal download. If you have a softspot for great garagerock, that smells like summer, lukewarm beers and organic pot-joints, this is place. This record is so good its almost stupid! Get it now, and when you listened to it, order it!

http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/album/nude-beach/self-titled/

On forgotten 7''es

You all know them. Those 7''es that someone once gave you, that you liked, but never really really liked, and as such filed in the end of your collection where you dont come that often. Well Grouper's 7'' He knows, he knows, he knows was one of those for me. A friend, who knows Liz Harris (aka Grouper) personally once gave me this record, and though I liked it, it never really caught me. Thus it just sat there for a good while, untill someday, I dug it out, for whatever reason, and became interested to see what else there were in her discography, apart from the three songs on the 7''. What I found blew me away.

Grouper made quite a few records, so what I'll share with you here, is simply the one that is most to my liking. It should be said however, that everything I've heard by her so far, is pretty good.

The record in question is called Dragging a dead dear up a hill, and was made in 2008. Musically Grouper deals in variations of drone. But not bassheavy, hour-long drones, meant exclusively to destroy you speakers with subsonic terror. Instead we are dealing with beautiful, dreamy and sometimes almost delicate and fragile songs, with Liz Harris vocals and her guitar lapping against each other, like waves upon the beach. The music gives me an impression of lying just below the surface of a body of water, and beholding the world sliding by me, in slow motion. I cant recommend this record highly enough.

As always, if you like it, go and find it somewhere, and buy it. Good artists are worth supporting.

A few words on poppunk

Poppunk was THE genre that eventually lead me to hardcore punk, grindcore, powerviolence, slugde, doom, death metal, black metal and all those other genres that I now love. One might also say that "In the beginning, there was Satanic Surfers".

My gripe with this genre is, that since I first got into it, in the mid-nineties, it hasnt really done a lot for me. That is to say, that a lot of the "new" bands popping up, never really reached the level of my old heroes, that got me into punk in the first place. The bands Im talking about here are Satanic Surfers (first and foremost!), Propagandhi, Millencolin, NOFX, No use for a name, Bad Religion and so on.

Almost none of the bands that followed these could quite measure up, in my opinion, and thus I started to focus more on other genres, that were still able to produce new acts that could catch and hold my attention. However, a few years back, good friends set me on to a handfull of bands that could easily match my teenage heroes. It is bands from this bunch, bands that hold that particular sound and drive that I'll present in this post.

Initially I'll present the first band that really reached me in the same way that the early Satanic Surfers did, namely Iron chic. I first caught wind of their self titled demo from 2008 when it was repressed not to long ago. Five songs that instantly floored me, had me craving more, and had me waiting like an anxious teenagegirl for Justin Biebers... uhm... next single.

Iron Chic features members of the now defunct (and amazing) Latterman, and just like Latterman we are dealing in full on anthemic, sing-along poppunk, with a strong (read STRONG) sense for writing good songs.

Well, the follow up did in fact come out last year, and instantly made my top ten records of 2010 list. Not Like This, picks up the thread from the demo, and perfects the sound even more. A brilliant record packed, back-to-back with "hits". Not one song lagging in quality. Not one song seeming like its just there as filling. A masterpiece, pure and simple.

Fast forward to about a week ago. The same good friend that put me on to Iron Chic, points me in the direction of the band Boilerman. A fairly new act, they only have a five song demotape out, and just now, a four song 7''. In a genre that is packed with excess, both in musical terms and in terms of how many crappy bands there are, Boilerman is the antithesis of all this. On the 7'' Bright young things, three of the songs only just ticks past the one minute mark. This is no-bullshit-poppunk, with a great energy and just enough attitude to keep things interesting.

Included in this package is both the demotape and the 7''.

Go on. You know you want to. And when youre done with this, go listen to The Dopamines, Wax Phantom, Latterman and The Dents.

Eerieness in swedish

Not much to say this time around.

The topic of the day, is the brilliant swedish band Ättestupa, and a nifty little package containing the following amazing releases:

Untitled - 2008
1867 - 2009
Begraven mot norr - 2010
Mitt blod, min kropp - 2010

The music is extremely hard to pin down, but the elements that comprise Ättestupa draws upon genres as diverse as; noise, black metal, krautrock, funeralfolk, drone and power electronics.

In fact the meaning of the name of the band offers a better insight into whats going on. Apparently, in midieval Scandinavia, when people got to old to make a valuable contribution in the fields, or to the general upkeep of the household, they would venture to the top of a steep cliff (called a Ättestupa) and jump off, thus sparring the rest of the household the burden of having to provide for them, now that they were no longer able to pull their own weight. (That is the longest sentence on the internet).

Either way, heres a few closing facts:

- Begraven mot norr is one of 2010's best releases!

- In the year 1867 the winter in sweden lasted until late june, causing the harvest to fail massively, and leading directly to death, starvation and mass emigration from Sweden.

- Mitt blod, min kropp is Ättestupa's side of a split they did with the swedish power electronics act Alfarmania.

- Dont, DONT listen to this music, if you are depressed, or on some sort of mind altering drugs. There may be no coming back to reality.

American black metal part V: The Dopesmoker(s) of ambient black metal

Its time, once again, to examine the rich undergrowth of the black metal scene, stemming from the US. As the title hints at, what I have dug out of the cave this time, is ambient black metals equivalent of Sleep's legendary Dopesmoker album. In fact, there's two of them, namely the two albums Rain and The hunt, by Cascadia's Fauna.

As the attentive reader will undoubtly know, Cascadia is an area that also gave much inspiration to the mighty Wolves in the throne room, wich can be found elsewhere in this blog. Having stated as much, I think its safe to say that fans of the aforementioned band will also find something interresting in Fauna.

Like Wolves in the throne room, Fauna can also be described as eco-centric in that they deal with the sorrow and desloation, the pristine beauty and kill or be killed ethics of nature.

Both records have only one track on them, but the tracks tick in at (and this is where the Dopesmoker comparrison comes up) 1 hour, 3 minuttes and 18 seconds (Rain), and 1 hour, 19 minuttes and 57 seconds (The hunt). Thus, it should be clear that this is not the kind of record that you just put on and listen superficially to. Rain for example, kicks off with a six minutte field recording of rain falling in the forest. After this, it changes into an acoustic part, with eerily sung clean vocals, and after about 22 minuttes launches itself into pure black metal mayhem.

The hunt is equally mastodontic in its size, but unlike Rain, it is divided into seven sections (the record is still one track though). The sections, titles, and sectionlenghts are as follows:

1. The Door 05:43
2. Hunger 08:33
3. Setting Out 11:23
4. The Scent 17:32
5. Nocturne 04:45
6. Tracking 09:07
7. The Kill... Fulfillment 14:44

Enough said.

Rain - 2006:
















The hunt - 2007:

Japan vs. Australia

Im back to offer unto you all two records that have gotten a lot of time on the stereo here lately.

First up is Japan's Razors Edge and their record Thrashing goes lovely. Believe me when I say that this record is cut from sheer awesomeness of the kind that is only made in Japan. I mean, who else thinks of mixing straight up, fast-as-fuck japaneese thrash with vocal harmonies that reminds you of poppunk and an all-round, very melodic feel? So, you ask, does it work? YES!!! Its fucking fantastic!



















The next record is quite a different treat, but a treat none the less. Those of you familiar with the brilliant Australian death metal band Portal, will be glad to know that Impetuous Ritual is made up of two members of this groundbreaking band. As such, the style is very similar to Portal. Thus, what we are dealing with is fuzzy, distorted, demons-from-beyond-is-coming-to-devour-all-humanity-in-a-very-painful-and-transdimensional-way kind of sounding deathmetal. The record is called Relentless execution of ceremonial excrescence, and its every bit as brainmelting as the name implies.



















Ps. Fun fact: Both theese recordcovers are fucking amazing!

Metal Punk / Shameless self-promovation

Even though I don't have much internet-capacity to upload stuff at the time, I here give you the demo tape from my own band, Scavenger Brats.



Influenced by Venom, Slayer, Kreator, Exodus, Sacred Grace, Black Flag, Discharge, Black Sabbath, Cirith Ungol, Darkthrone, Dio, Destroyer 666, Void, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Mercyful Fate, Minor Threat, Bones Brigade, Angel Witch, early Metallica, Bomberegn, and many other bands, we like to think it's a good mix between thrash-, heavy- speed metal and punk/hardcore.

I included scans of the cover and booklet, kindly done by our friend at www.thefatpunk.dk

Anyway, give it a listen!

HAIL TO THE GOAT/DOWNLOAD