As a true and passionate music nerd, of course I dig almost anything, as long as it is obscure enough. A good example is the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, performing "electronica" that is perhaps better characterized as "organica" as all the intruments are made of vegetables.
Another very good example is The County Medical Examiners and their album Olidous operettas. Here is the breakdown on this outfit: musically we are dealing with straight up, all out Carcass-worship from beginning to goresoaked end. The twist is in the fact that the members of this band actually are county medical examiners by profession and education. As such, the members are listed with their professional titles; Dr. Morton Fairbanks MD, Dr. Jack Putnam MD, and Dr. Guy Radcliffe, MD., Ph.D. The obscurity continues upon noting that Dr. Guy Radcliffe, is more than 60 years of age and isnt even remotely into grind, goregrind or deathmetal, but just joined the project for fun. As such, the band has never played any live shows.
Being all doctors and loving Carcass (at least Dr. Morton Fairbanks and Dr. Jack Putnam) obviusly, all the songs are lengthy, chants ornated with latin terms about autopsy and the medical treatment of corpses.
To underline the point about the obscurity, the link will not, as usual be a picture of the cover of the record (anyone into Carcass will hardly be surprised if I say that is a collage of real more or less cut up corpses), but a picture of the band, with Dr. Guy Radcliffe in the middle.
I hereby challenge anyone to dig up a band as obscure as this!
The County Medical Examiners: Dr. Morton Fairbanks, MD. - Vocals, Guitar Dr. Jack Putnam, MD. - Vocals, Drums Dr. Guy Radcliffe, MD., Ph.D. - Vocals, Bass
Just a quick post this time to celebrate a band that I litteraly came across just minutes ago, namely Altar of plagues from Ireland. On this phenomenal record entitled "White tomb" we are dealing with blackmetal of the sort that bands like Weakling and the mighty Wolves in the throne room have perfected.
4 epic, haunting tunes, ticking in at just over 50 minutes. But where for example Wolves in the throne room induced images of standing atop a mountain, overlooking vast forrests, waterfalls and centuries aged trees, Altar of plagues have the feel of wandering the streets of a vast metropolis after the nuclear holocaust. A metropolis, now left a barren, scarred necropolis. This people, is amazing!
From just the initial listen, this record has already made my top 10 of 2009! The top 10 of 2009 will be posted sometime in december.
Now get around to listening to this amazing band that will be in Copenhagen in april, after their show on Roadburn 2010.
I offer unto ye, oh mightiest grey homogenous blob, of internet users, an (un)healthy dose of crazy japanese grind/thrash/powerviolence/fastcore.
First up, yet another great comp in the Barbaric Thrash series from 625 Thrashcore, namely Japan Thrash Revolution. As the title indicates, we are dealing with all asian bands dealing in the aforementioned genres. Bands on this comp include: World Downfall, Mind Of Asian, Low Vision, Cheap Skate, Conga Fury, Circle X, and Brutal Terrorism among many others.
Secondly, I bring you the amazing, crazy-ass Tokyo skate-thrashers Breakfast, and their Classic Six Packs, compiling their first demotape, the Eat Rice EP and the Second EP. Like always, what we have on our hands is quircky, full-on skate-thrash with the usual japanese feel. Amazing!
In order to celebrate that the Weak Minds - s/t 7'' is gonna be coming in my door soon, I figured that I'd post it here. Weak Minds rip off your ballsack with 16 shredding tunes of good old powerviolence, done the Gulf Coast way, that all you kids love. Its fucking amazing. There, I said it. And if this doesnt do anything for you, heres some bonus info to boot: Rahi of the new age indie-pop band Insect Warfare does guest vocals...
Also, I bring you the Max Ward/The Scrotums split. Yes yes, MW is indeed named after the one and only godfather of fast'n'blast. I guess that the name is a bit over the top, but I can very much dig the 625 worship going on in their songs and lyrics. The other side of the split is The Scrotums who, despite lacking a decent name brings to the chopping block, fast-as-fuck posi-powerviolence/fastcore. Both bands do a decent job, but have details about them that makes them deserve the attention of this blog.
Lastly, one of the absolutely best bands in the whole fuckin genre: IN DISGUST! Here is a video of a split set they did with moderately good Godstomper for a radiostation. INfuckingDISGUST is all I have to say about that!
"You live to grind, you live to fast, you live to shred and forever blast" Now fuck off!
So, this is a post to celebrate the sheer awesomeness of the band of crazy individuals known collectively as Graf Orlock. Named after the vampire in the alltime classic vampiremovie Nosferatu, the band brings to the stage, full-on, teeth to the curb, grinding hardcore, lathed to the brink with a shitload (read: A SHITLOAD) of movie-quotes.
A good example is the song "Days of high adventure" from the newest of their records, Destination time today. The song kicks off with a quote that goes like this:
"What is best in life?" "To crush your enemies, have them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!"
5 scenepoints if you can figure out where its from.
Also, the song "The dream left behind" contains the theme from Jurrasic Park.
Here is the bands three records "Destination time today", "Destination time tomorrow" and "Destination time yesterday".
Stating the obvious I STRONGLY recommend that you track down these releases on vinyl, both to support the artist, but also because of the amazing packaging. For example, the 10'' Destination time tomorrow has a pop-out-of-stomach alien that springs out when you open the packaging. A-MA-ZING!
Let me say it like it is, there is certain bands that you should keep your hands off, in terms of playing covers. Your crappy deathmetal band should stay away from doing Carcass, Slayer or At The Gates covers. Unless you are indeed one of the aforementioned bands. As such, At The Gates covering Slayer makes more sense...
The same logic applies for blackmetal bands covering Darkthrone and so forth...
This said, some bands are able to lift the burden of covering extremely influential bands in their own "genre". This, my friends, is one of them. I bring you four Black Sabbath covers by the one and only Thou, as presented on their "Through empires of the eternal void" 12''.
Allright. Just decided to post this, cause I talked to Requiem about it yesterday. Apparently not to many people know of this record, wich is really a shame since it is a classic among bands from Copenhagen.
We are dealing with All I see - "Once you've fallen in love". I'll keep it short. We are talking high energy screamo (ish stuff), with amazing political and outspokenly anarchist lyrics. Members went on to play in: Children of fall, Music Mafia and Obstacles.
Since I can find no pictures of the cover online, I'll use this random picture:
After taking a long and irrational pause from Perpetual Vomit im back and ready to write and share music with fellow noise geeks worldwide! Because of my long time of absence on this blog i present as an humble excuse my Assuck interview i made about a few months ago. The interview are meant to be a headliner of a zine im hoping to make with help from the two other writers from this blog but that project might take a while and i want to share the interview so here it is:
Among the many grindbands of past and present Assuck still have an most original and inventive sound. Anticapital (1992) and Misery Index (1997) stands as two mighty monuments in the confusing maze of grindcore. These two full lengths are filled with an classic death metal approach meets old school Napalm Death. Think Repulsion and Napalm Deaths lovechild. Besides having that special sound i admire the most in grindcore (besides Discordance Axis and Gridlink) i was amazed when i first read the lyrics of Anticapital. Behind the growling rage there´s words written of the finest quality. One could say that is dosent matter when you cant understand the words anyway but i disagree. I think writing intellegent and insightful songs is an important factor that often tends to be forgotten. This is certainly not the case of Assuck. Paul Pavlovich sang for Assuck from the founding of the band in 1987 until 1994 when he quit the band and began to focus on visual art and design. Anyways the interview:
The start of Assuck: How old were you at the time and how did it begin?
We all went to the same high school. Steve and I became friends because we had a common taste in music. There was a lot of tape trading between us and a small group of friends. We exchanged ideas about what type of band we wanted to be in. Our first attempt at music was a hardcore band in the vein of Septic Death. Steve didn’t play guitar at this point. He was writing lyrics and fronted the band as the singer. I was trying to play the bass and realized I wasn’t very good at it. Steve and I were eventually introduced to Rob who already had a reputation as a skilled drummer. Steve wanted to play guitar and I had no business playing a musical instrument. We discussed a project where Steve would play guitar and I would take over on vocals. Our main objective for the band to be as fast and as heavy as possible. All this activity was taking place before the term “Grindcore” was a part of any of our vocabulary. Everything was either ‘metal’ ‘trash’ or ‘punk’. Then we heard ‘Scum’ by Napalm Death and our ideas fell into place.
Hailing from Florida, did you guys come from background of music?
None of us were formally trained if that’s what you mean? I think Rob may have taken drum lessons before he started playing with Steve. When we first started practicing and writing songs there were immediate results. You could tell Rob had been playing for a while and he was comfortable behind a drum kit. Steve was entirely self taught as a guitar player. It seemed second nature to him. He got good very quickly. Even his song writing skills improved by leaps and bounds. I, on the other hand was always clumsy playing an instrument. My focus was writing lyrics, drawing, design work etc. I was lucky you didn’t need any particular vocal talent to be in a grindcore band. All you needed was a bit of anger and some motivation.
What were Assucks musical inspirations?
We were interested in a bunch of different music. Obviously the underground music that was coming out of Europe and the UK made a huge impression. I was listening to bands like Celtic Frost, Winter, Fear of God. Then I started getting into punk bands like Crass, Discharge and Rudimentary Peni. I also really liked the Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. While Steve and Rob were into tech-metal like Watchtower and Cynic.
Any local bands inspired your music and did there exist a hardcore scene in Florida at the time??
There was a 5-6 year period where the Florida music scene was massive and very active. It was hard not to be influenced by it. There were great bands who we supported and got the opportunity to play with from all over the state. In Tampa there was a very tight-knit Hardcore and Death Metal scene that were getting a lot of attention. Everyone was recording at Morrissound Studios and the producer Scott Burns was so busy we wondered if he ever got any sleep. We were fortunate to be introduced us to a bunch of really good people. We found our closest allies and the people we related to all came from a much smaller punk and hardcore scene that existed at the same time the Death Metal scene was exploding. Then, for some reason, everybody toned down, left town, or just flat out stopped.
I know you played at Slap-A-Ham’s Fiesta Grande at Gilman 924, did Assuck have a connection to the power-violence phenomenon and the bands involved in this?
We were honored to play the first Fiesta Grande festival. We use to frequently correspond with Chris Dodge. He asked us to contribute a song to the first Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh! 7 inch comp. It was through that experience with Chris that we decided to plan our first west coast tour. All the bands that played that night were brilliant. It was an amazing experience and that show continues to be one of the more memorable Assuck shows for me personally. As for the ‘Power Violence’ phenomenon Assuck didn’t have any formal connections to it besides being huge supporters of bands like Crossed Out and No Comment. Back then the term ‘Power-Violence’ wasn’t frequently used to describe a genre of music. I remember Man Is The Bastard using it to describe there own music. These days ‘Power Violence’ is huge with a bunch of great bands at its core.
An aspect of Assuck that always have kept myself close to the band have been the lyrics.
I will dare to call them existential and poetic in many ways, what were your influences as the writer?
My first attempts at writing lyrics were crude and under-developed. It gradually got better over time and the more serious we became as a band the more serious I took the writing process. My main influence and the source of song ideas was simply the condition that politics imposes on the world, and how I saw myself and other people in that corrupt environment. The writers I care about most and never grow tired of are: Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, Emma Goldman, George Orwell, and the anti-war poet Wilfred Owen.
I know the guitarist of Assuck took over the vocals at some point, when did you leave the band and why?
I parted ways with the band in 1994 the year I graduated college. The plans Steve and Rob had for Assuck no longer corresponded with my own personal objectives. I had shifted my attention to visual art around that time and I didn’t think my role in the band was working anymore. I felt like I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish with Assuck. We released records we were proud of. We toured and met a lot of great people. It was an incredibly creative time for all of us. In retrospect I think I picked a good time to split because everything I heard about the way the band broke apart in the end sounded like a nightmare. So Im glad I got out when I did.
Do you still have a connection with former band members?
With Steve and Rob...sadly, no. I am still close friends with Pete Jay who was Assuck’s first Bass Player.
And I get an e-mail every once in a while from Steve Kasiba who is a good friend and replaced Pete on bass.
Do you feel Assuck have a legacy of some kind?
‘Legacy’ sounds like such an over-blown word... I’ll put it to you like this: I never thought there would be a continued interest in the band 15 years after the fact. People still like the music and respond positively to what we did and that means a lot to me. All I wanted to do while I had my opportunity was to share ideas, express some thoughts about life and the politics of living in an unstable world. My intentions were humble. Anything said about the band beyond that is flattering.
You have been involved in other musical projects since Assuck among others the band Cattle Press from Hydra Head Records. Are you in bands at the present time?
I lived in New York for a short time and while I was living there my dear friend Javier Villegas who was playing bass for Cattle Press at the time asked me if I wanted to take over the vocals. I practiced with them several times and because of personal issues I had to return to Florida. So my involvement with Cattle Press was cut short. I am currently working with a group of friends on a gloomy and crushing project called EXITSECT. It’s heavily influenced by Amebix, Winter, Swans...etc. We have a few songs in the works and hope to have a full length record done by the end of the year. If your interested in checking out the first song “Embrace of the Pale Rope” its posted online at this address: www.myspace.com/exitsect
You studied and have been involved with art for quite some time. What kind of art have you been focused on?
Music, Art and Art History have been at the center of my life for a long time. I make a living as a graphic designer. I also work on illustration projects and get opportunities to show my personal work which consists of paintings and prints. I’m interested in contemporary work but lately I’ve been obsessed and research German Expressionism and sculpture from the 1920’s and the work of Kurt Schwitters. Also, the darker work Francisco Goya is what currently interests me.
What are your favorite authors?
Besides the authors I listed in your previous question. I really enjoy the work of Christopher Hitchens (especially his writing on religion), Karl Marx now more than ever, Janna Levin who wrote a great book called ‘A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines’ about The lives of Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing. The Serbian author Momo Kapor, Writings on the Paris Commune by Mikhail Bakunin, and Peter Kropotkin. I’ll be happy to go on...I think you get the idea.
Well not much left, thank you for the interview and the time you have given to this.
Last but not least, any last words?
Thanks Gustav...and regards to all of you who continue to listen.
Hello, its been some time since i posted anything, but a show last night with RAMMING SPEED and GRUK (both from the states) made me want to share their music with you.
GRUK was, until yesterday, completely unknown to me. They play fastcore with oldschool punky parts and a killer live attitude. Their singer has an insane voice and looks crazy as fuck when on stage (or floor, in this case). Apart from playing mighty music, they are really nice people. This is their album called "Waiting For the Rapture..."
RAMMING SPEED features members from BONES BRIGADE and BACKSTABBERS INC. (which for me is a guarantee) and play thrash/punk/grind complete with guitar solos and all. After hearing thede dudes, i think Municipal Waste should go home and learn to play faster. Their live appearance is wild and energetic with cool vibes and lotsa fun, and the dudes are very talkative and genuine. damn im sorry that i didn't have the money to buy the "Top of the dude chain" t-shirt. This is their new album called "Brainwrecked". Sorry to EL MILO for abusing his link, but im too lazy to upload it myself.Now enjoy this while opening beers with your eyebrows and jumping around the room. HAIL TO THE GOAT! arrrrrrgggghhhh
Okay kids, its time to break out your worn out copy of HP Lovecrafts "At the mountains of madness", cause this here is for you.
On todays menu, is the fabulous release "I, mountain" by Andrew Curtis-Brignell, otherwisely known as Caïna. What we are dealing with here is an installment in the "Lovecraft-series", released by the label God-Is-Myth. Blackmetal/shoegazer wunderkind Caïna has created an instrumental intrepertation of the short-story "At the mountains of madness". It consists of one 20.50 minute long track, devided into ten parts, in relation to the story.
Now, read the story, have the track ready in your mp3-or-what-ever-player, and listen to it as soon as you have read it, while the story is still vivid in your memory.
I am doing this post to celebrate the delivery I got yesterday containing no less than 9 superb releases from 625 Records, all on vinyl of course. Thus, I felt that I had to share some of the absolute highlights of this online-shopping-heist of mine, with you all.
What follows here is a good selection of the most amazing records of the bunch:
Knucke Scraper - "Max isnt the bastard": Great Gulf Coast Powerviolence with members playing also in shredding bands such as: Insect Warfare, Hatred Surge, Pretty Little Flower, 50/50 and Machine Gun Romantics. Need I really say more? Huh? Huh?! Do I?! DO I???!!!!..... No Dice - "Suffer": Thrashy hardcore with great intensity and a ferocious pace! A long out of print release, wich can be now attained only by buying 625's "Bay Area Thrash III" compilation. Hostile Takeover - "Fucking up and fallin hard": Fastcore with one foot in the youthcrew camp and the pedal to the metal, full speed ahead! Deadfall - "Comrades": Gritty, pissed off and political fastcore, by the punx for the punx! Jellyroll Rockheads - "Wake up, music": Quirky, japaneese skatethrash/fastcore, not unlike Breakfast, BBQ Chickens and Razors Edge. In other words, really good. This is their complete discography.
I feel the need to share with you all my recent growing obsession with the completely fuckin' amazing american band In Disgust from San Jose, California.
Ranging from blistering powerviolence, to crushing sludgy parts, spiced up with the most bloodcurling vocals and a over all original take on the genre this band makes for a refreshing break from the sometimes kind of generic sound, otherwise produced by the bands in this genre. Notice especially the release called "Reality choke".
This neat little package includes the following releases:
In Disgust - Demo 2006 In Disgust - Reality choke In Disgust/Sidetracked - split
They also have a split 7'' out with Godstomper.
If you dont like this, I dont like you! Also, you have a retarded taste in music.
Let me say it like it is. Metallic moshy hardcore doesnt come any better than this. The now defunct band Takaru from San Francisco brought forward the most intense, brutal, honest, and political hardcore, laced with shitloads of metal-feel, that I ever heard. I had the distinct pleasure of catching them twice when they toured Europe. Awesome band, and really nice people.
If this shit doesnt put you in a mood to start a circlepit, nothing will. Here we go:
First up is their brilliant full lenght called "There can be only none".
Secondly is their last release ever, the self-titled 7''.
This shit could turn a home for the elderly into the sickest moshpit you ever saw!
Fun fact: this band features Seth from Funeral Diner on bass. Who ever said that emokids cant be brutal as fuck, eh?!
So, here is a small post to celebrate that yesterday, I FINALLY got hold of a record that I have wanted for a good while. It took me ten (!!) pages of search results from Google before finally finding a distro that still had it, were able to ship to Denmark, and had a decent enough understanding of english to actually understand my myriad of questions.
Anyways, here it is Warzone Womyn/The endless blockade split. My main reason for wanting this masterpiece was the WW side. The endless blockade crack out two tracks, one looooong (almost 18 min.) noise track called "Island" and the traditional "The endless blockade" track. Good stuff. WW however bring to the table some of the most effecient, punishing powerviolence I have ever stumbled upon! 12 tracks that sounds like front teeth cracking against the curb. A-MA-ZING!!!
Warzone Womyn/The endless blockade - split: I also felt that I should include the Warzone Womyn demotape that I found online. If anyone is able to track down a copy of this, I will pay insane sums for it (like my soul.......or something...).
Warzone Womyn - Demo tape: As far as I understand, this, and the tracks they have on the "Trapped in a scene" comp is the only stuff this amazing band released. "Trapped in a scene" can be found elsewhere in this blog. Go get it, it holds many amazing bands!
Lastly, here is a video of Warzone Womyn playing some songs live. Now go fuck shit up!
It's been a while since my last post in here, but I realized I have to keep up with Marco! So here's 4 discs of powerviolence for y'all, yo.
Click the picture above each text for the corresponding download!
Rorschach were a New Jersey-based band that existed from 1989 to 1993. They are one of the first bands of the first powerviolence wave. Their sound is somewhat like Man Is The Bastard, except i personally find this band more aggresive. If this doesn't bring anything to your mind, then hurry up and download this. It's their discography by the way.
The next one up is destructive grinding powerviolence with lightning fast riffs and howled vocals all played at breakneck speed aswell as deadly slow. This is the second album California Love, i think. They have two members of Look Back And Laugh. Lyrics are misantropic as fuck. This one is for the nihilists!
Next disc. Bla bla. Pre-INFEST. bla bla bla. Pre-MAN IS THE BASTARD. Go get it!
The next disc is a sampler form TO LIVE A LIE records (released in 2008). This three year sampler mixes "top of the pop" with "never heard of them", which is great. bla bla bla. FINAL DRAFT, P.L.F., BLOODY PHOENIX, MAGRUDERGRIND, MESERINE, PROLETAR, UNHOLY GRAVE, FxPxÖx, AGATHOCLES, XBRAINIAX, GODSTOMPER. bla bla bla
Im back, this time to bring you two records of Australia's finest death metal band; Portal. In my humble opinion this is one of the most original and unique death metal acts that I have ever heard. Portal's music create surreal worlds that holds a quality not unlike that found in such films as Fritz Lang’s M, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Murnau’s Nosferatu, and Salvador Dali’s Un Chien Andalou. Picture a twisted, subterranean, and warped sound of one of Lovecraft's deities with the catacombic power of the earth itself, and the unforgiving rawness of a reality unbound by the laws of this world, and this is just a glimpse of where Portal dwell on a musical level. These guys score easy points in my book by having lyrics that are strongly influenced by the writings of Lovecraft. a clear example of this can be found in th song "Sunken" from the Seepia record:
"Inconceivable evil, Seeped down from the stars He is sunken, Drowned dead and deep City of antiquity, Darkly curtained halls Wealth of Aeons behind them
Magical and obscure Preparation science
Shall proceed from The Ocean depths
And with the Aeon-old Stench of the Sea... Astound a reeling universe, Man reduced to mere cattle, Before the Earth Is cleared off"
There is a free beer at tomorrows Shitcomet/Livores Of Earth show for anyone who can guess who/what this song is about.
Enjoy, or dont, but beware, this music demands something of the listeners ears and minds alike. It is not your everyday easy-listening old school death metal. Sharpen your ears, your mind, light the ceremonial bonfire, crank up Portal, read the unholy text from the black book, and watch as the total worldwrecking, omnipotent, crawling chaos unfolds!
Its time to look towards Spain for two amazing sludge bands, namely Hongo and Moho. Both dabble in dirty as fuck sludge that is equally agressive, ambient, beautiful and downright fuckin filthy. Two amazing records from two bands that should be held at high esteem by anyone priding themselves with liking sludge/stoner/doom and the likes. I think they share members in some way too, though I could be wrong. Also, the singer from Hongo delivers his vocals in a way that is similar to the classic powerviolence band Infest.
Moho - 20 Uñas
Hongo - Formas de vida que se precipitan hacia su destruccion
Also, I feel the need to share with you an amazing split between two bands that I have spent time praising in this very blog before, namely Asunder and Graves At Sea. As I said, I have used up enough space ranting about the sheer awesomeness of these two bands, so if you want to know more, fint the post entitled "Crushing slow demise"...
Amazing. Japanese. Thrash. About. Skateboarding. 625 Records. GO!!!
Breakfast - 3rd & Army
More. Fuckin. Awesome. Japanese. Skatethrash. 625 Records. Must. Stop. Writing. In. Stupid. Manner.
Lie - s/t
And in the end a small treat for you all. A 7'' by a little band called Needles, featuring members of other little bands such as: Limp Wrist, Los Crudos, Look back and laugh, Talk is poison, and California Love... If this hasnt in any way caught your interest, you are officially a musical imbecile. Go kill yourself (while listening to Needles and being ashamed of yourself)!
This time 'round I'll bring you a post with a few of the highlights, spawned in the aftermath of the american black metal super-group Twilight. I have chosen to focus on three distinct releases. It is notable though, that each of these bands deserve a closer look, and that it is recommendable to look into their other releases, if your interrest is sparked by this.
First up is Lurker of chalice - s/t. This is one of the soloprojects of Wrest who also does Leviathan. A record that reeks of damp crypts, musty graveyards and darkened night skies. On this release, it will become apparent to the attentive listener that Wrest has taken a distinct part of the Twilight sound with him into this project. It ranges from full-on black metal, to droning, creeping doomy songs. This is the only official release by Lurker of chalice, apart from two demos. An eerie masterpiece, hands down.Secondly, another distinct soloproject formed from the ashes of Twilight, namely the one and only Xasthur and the record "Subliminal genocide". Xasthur is the brainchild of Twilight's Malefic, who has also done guest apperances on stage with bands such as Nachtmystium and Sunn O))). Xasthurs lyrics deal mostly with three themes, suicide, depression, and astral projection. Just like the easily recognizable, distorted vocals, the music itself is tormented and full of suffering. Like Lurker of chalice, the distinct Twilight sound is present here as well. Not a record to be listened to if you are in a depressed mood! If you have the mental stamina though, listen to it at night, in pitch black darkness, on a pair of headphones. Its a trip into unknown depths of the human psyche... Lastly we have Nachtmystium - Instinct: decay. Nachtmystium is not, like Lurker of chalice and Xasthur, an soloproject, but rather a full band, featuring Azentrius, also formerly of Twilight. Nachtmystium stands out from the other two records in this post, not only in that it is a full bands, but also in that the musical focus is not what has otherwisely been coined as "depressive black metal". Nachtmystium though, has been described many a time as "psychedelic black metal". Listening to this record, it becomes apparent, why it has been dubbed as such. It has a very distinct sound, not heard often in black metal circles. One that is hard to put into exact words, so give it a listen, and you might catch my drift.
Just prepared a bunch of speedy gems for you here, so lets get right to it.
First up is the near legendary band Bones Brigade. This is the name that the skateboard manufacturer took its name from (or so I've been told). Pro-skater Steve Caballero apparently used to play in this band. Either way, we are talking full-on skatethrash here, with lyrics about skateboarding (duh!) and shitloads of flashy guitarsolos (fuck yeah!!!). An amazing album! Next is the number one "I dont give a fuck"thrashband from the US, Brody's Militia, with the album The Appalachian Twelve Gauge Massacre. Pissed off, pissed on, aggressive thrash, with a distinct smell of bourbon on its breath. Not for the overly P.C. or the faint of heart. Really good! Next is the band with grindcores uncrowned master of vocals; Joe Horvath. Circle Of Dead Children is propably my alltime favorite grindcore band, and this is, in my opinion, their best album to date, Human harvest. Just lean back and listen to the sounds that Joe Horvath is able to produce with his throat! Fuck!! And there is no vocal processing done on this record, mind you. He must have made some sort of pact with Satan to be able to sing like that. Someone pass me Satans direct phonenumber A.S.A.P.!!!! Lastly is two splits with the amazing start-stop'ish powerviolence band xbrainiax. This shit is off the map! Fairly young guys blasting away like there was no tomorrow. Take a deep breath before playing this stuff, cause you wont have time to breathe once the blasting mayhem starts. This is their 7'' splits with No Comply and Dead Radical. If you dont enjoy this, please swallow your own tounge.
I have been planning to share some comics with you all. To read these, you have to get the program Cdisplay by clicking here. Then install it. After that, you download the .rar-file with the comic you want and extract it. Then you open the Cdisplay-zip-files with Cdisplay! easy business.
The first thing i's like to share is the DMZ comic by Brian Wood. Imagine if manhatten had become a war zone, the no-mans land which nobody is able to claim. the inhabitants have to try and live on in any way possible.
The plot is exciting and has a big underlying political theme. Some of the drawings causes my jaw to drop... There's no excuse for not getting this.
We return, once again, to the postmodern wasteland that is the United States to glance upon one of the darkest of the black pearls, to ever be unearthed from the deep forrests of Olympia.
This is, unquestionably, my all time favorite blackmetal band, and one of my all time favorite bands as a whole; Wolves In The Throne Room. What I offer onto you here is nothing less than five releases of almost unparalleled intensity, ferocity and beauty, ranging form blasting, driven blackmetal in the vein of early Burzum, to ambient parts bringing an otherworldly quality into the mix. The releases will follow in chronological order.
We begin with "Diadem of 12 stars". The first song I ever heard by this band was "Face in a nighttime mirror part II", and it instantly had me hooked. Love at first listen if you will, nothing less. A brilliant record, teeming with the immense forces of nature and the mysticism of the wild. This is the record that truely opened my eyes to the american blackmetal scene. Their next record was "Two hunters". Picking up where "Diadem of 12 stars" left off, its opens with an instrumental track that sets the mood just right. The first time I heard the third track "Cleansing", with the clean bit, sung by a woman in the intro, and the way they shift from this bit into the acctual song, my jaw instantly dropped to the floor. Please note that the version uploaded here is the vinyl version of "Two hunters", as it contains not four, but five tracks, the extra track called "To reveal". This record is split into two seperate links due to its lenght. The "Live at Roadburn 2008" record captures the Wolves at their performance at the 2008 Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland. It contains three songs, namely "Vastness & sorrow" and I will lay my body down among the rocks and roots" from "Two hunters", as well as "Face in a nighttime mirror part I" from "Diadem of 12 stars". The "Malevolent grain" EP, finds the Wolves doing a 12'' with one song on each side. Here they have bridged the experiments from the first two full lenghts with a woman singing in a clean voice, with the sheer frenzy of the songs that blaze forward like a forrestfire. It contains one song with Jamie Myers on vocals, and no screaming what so ever. The other song is the Wolves as we know them, as the aforementioned cleansing forrestfire. Lastly is their brand spankin new release "Black cascade". There isnt much to say about this record, apart from the fact that the band continues to improve and develop their specific style on what is, in my humble opinion, yet another masterpiece. As with "Two hunters" I have had to split it into two parts. Let me leave you with one closing remark: this is one of only a handfull of bands, that I have never heard anything less than amazing from. As such they are worthy of being one of the few bands that I simply cannot see ever doing anything that isnt good.
But turn off the lights in your dingy appartment, light twenty black candles, and listen to these songs with your headphones turned almost all the way up, and dream yourself away to the deep forrests of a world from before our so-called civilization destroyed the purity of nature.
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