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

In the interest of all things obscure part V

This will be a short one, simply because it falls into the category of "more funny than actually good". The light this time shines upon a group of swedes playing easy listening pop covers of classic metal and rocks biggest hits.

The band is called Hellsongs, and on this record, you will find the following songs:

Seek and destroy (Metallica)
Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
Breaking the law (Judas Priest)
Run to the hills (Iron Maiden)
Jump (Van Halen)
Orgasmatron (Motörhead)

Hardcore metalfans will propably call this blasphemy, and it propably is, but I ask you this; are you really a metalhead if you fear a little blasphemy?!

Be prepared to strain your ears to hear the resemblance (apart from the lyrics) with the original songs. As I said, this falls into the "more funny than actually good" category. It may not even be funny, but at least it is obscure, thus fitting the criteria of this series.

In the interest of all things obscure part IV

Its time to answer the question that we have all asked ourselves at some point in our lives; if animals could play music, what would the play? Fear not, the answer has been bestowed upon us by group of germans, collectively known as Attack Of The Mad Axeman.

The narrative of this band is as follows; the mad axeman has destroyed the forest, leaving the animals with no other option in way of retaliation but to play frantic, agressive grindcore (obviously!!). Thus, the band consists of the following members:

Procyon Loctor (guitar and vocals)
Helix Pomatia (drums)
Emys Orbicularis (vocals)
Apis Melifera (bass)

Those proficient in latin and biological terms will know that this means that the drums are being played by a snail...

Seriously, there is not much more to say than what can be seen in the following live video:



I leave you with their record Grind the enimal (yes, its spelled with an "e" for some reason...). A final funfact is the respective thank you and fuck you lists.

The thank you list includes the following:
Animal Collective, Cat Stevens, Dinosaur Jr, Gorilla Angreb, Iron Monkey, Jesus Lizard, The Beatles, Snoop Dog, Red Sparowes, Schreaching Weasel, The Eagles, Whitesnake, and Wolfbrigade among others.

The fuck you list thus includes:
Anna drinks dogpiss, Birdflesh, Captain Beefheart, Dog eat dog, Minus the bear, Pet Shop Boys, and Pig Destroyer.

You get the idea, now grab it and grind the fuck out (and be nice to animals, lest they destroy you with grindcore!)

My all-time favorite records part I

...and now for something completely different. I have long had the idea of creating a series of posts, celebrating those very special records, that you just know, from the first listen, are something other than just another "good record". Those records, where not one song seems out of place, or lacks quality, and that you continually return to, no matter how much other music you stumble upon and fall in love with. Those records that you just flip over and start over again, as soon as it has run out.

Having thus established the criteria for the selection, its time to present my first entry, and an artist that I can not praise enough, neither musically, nor as a person, namely Jason Anderson and his masterpiece of a record called "The hopeful and the unafraid".

Having seen Jason play live two times, I can say without faltering, that his performances is the most punk thing I ever saw, in that he manages to do what so many punk and hardcorebands strive for. He breaks the barrier between the spectacle and the audience, uniting the two parts into a singing, dancing, flailing crowd of people, singing along to songs they are just hearing for the first time in their lives.

He is one hell of a storyteller, wich is shown clearly on many of the songs on the record, especially the magnificent opening track "El Paso". Musically we are dealing with folk with a distinct diy quality to the songwriting and the performance.

I could use multiple pages praising Jason and this record in particular, but let me leave you with this:

- The first time I heard "El Paso", my eyes teared up, spontaniously.
- Jason's performances mirrors his incredible personality. I can honestly say, that I never met anyone as sympathetic, genuine and thoroughly nice as him.
- If you EVER get the chance to see Jason play live, TAKE IT! And say hi from me, if im not there with you.



















In conclusion, I'd like to share a live performance of one of his best songs ever "So long". To some, the message in this song will propably come across as cheesy, but think about it, and tell me that he's wrong. And watch as he gets the whole crowd to sing along. I fucking love this guy!!!

In the interest of all things obscure part III

Its time once again to get downright obscure. This time, the light shines upon a japanese band called Birushanah and their record 赤い闇. Theres not really a lot to say about this, but here's the deal.

We are dealing in sludge/doom with a former members of noted japanese bands such as YOB and Corrupted. The twist (and you all know by now that theres always a twist in these posts), is that they incorporate traditional japanese music into the mix. This makes for a very strange, and unquestionably unique sound.

Thats the words, now eat your mushrooms and go listen to it.

In the interest of all things obscure part II

Have you ever seen a procession of Hare Krishna's in your neighbourhood? You know, those happy-happy-go-lucky dudes, dancing around in their orange robes, singing and smiling so hard it looks like their heads are about to split in half? Yeah?! Well, these guys couldnt be farther from that stereotype.

Sure, you might be vegetarian or vegan. You might be sxe. You might be really good to animals. You might even be good to your fellow humans and go out of your way to be an allround nice person.....youre still not good enough for these guys.

In the 1990's, hardcore (mainly in the US) experienced a huge influx of people with various spiritual ideas, who infused these into the music. This gave birth among others to bands and labels like the christian Strongarm and Solid State Records. Of course, the Krishnas also had to have a go.

108 was formed in 1991 by Vic DiCara, also known as Vraja Kishor Das, a devotee of Krishna. The band took its name after the number of prayerbeads on the Japa Mala. After the band split, Vraja Kishor Das moved to India to become a monk.

Musically, you ask? Pissed off (read: PISSED OFF!!!), simple hardcore very much in the vein of the early 90'ies sound.Oh yeah, and theres some Krishna-chanting somewhere in the mix sometimes. Next time you see your local Krishnas dancing down the street, imagine them breaking out instruments and playing their asses off with 108 covers!

The birth of the thunder-pop!

Im posting this to celebrate what I think is a truly genious recording. A true masterpiece, in my humble opinion.

I bring you Floor - s/t. For those of you that is unfamiliar with this band, it is worth mentioning that it features key members that would go on to form the mighty Torche, wich would progress with, and evolve the sound put forth by Floor.

Musically we are dealing with heavy-as-fuck (were talking we're-tuning-our-instruments-so-low-that-the-strings-almost-fall-off-heavy-as-fuck) stoney rock, with a sound so unique that its not enough to charachterize it only as stoner, nor fitting enough to classify it as doom or sludge. Hence, many has dubbed Floor and Torche as thunder-pop, stoner-pop and such.

This record is overflowing with musical goodies and several thunderous riffs, that makes you feel
like you're in the middle of an avalanche. A-ma-zing!

Token of Death

After too much time on pause, this should mark my return to this blog as active again. Marco has kept the engine running, but he is to be alone no more!

An epic line-up tonight at Dödsmaskinen/Dortheavej 61 (Love Potion, Night Fever, Moonless, and acccording to rumors, an ASBEST reunion show) made me want to post another great k-town hardcore group.
DEATH TOKEN!

Death token play fast, no bullshit, japanese-inspired hardcore, with nods to thrashcore, and even sludge/black metal sometimes.

members:
vocals/guitar - Tue (ex-Snipers, ex-Asbest)
Bass - Kasper (ex-Hul, ex-No Hope for the Kids)
Drums - Steffen (ex-Broken Hallux)

This incomplete discography include the 12" Funeral music for k-town hardcore, their Walking Dead Life 7", and their 7" split with Kyklooppien Sukupuutto.
I haven't been able to find their 4-track-attack 7", and since my lp player with usb is broken, you'll have to wait for that one. Or, if you have it, please hook me up.

Punish and enjoy!

666 DEATH TOKEN 666

RepoMan Records.

I just finished a succesful quest to the land of milk, honey, and delicious vinyl; namely Copenhagens best recordstore RepoMan Records. And as always when returning from a great record-heist, I must share my findings with you all, so without further mumbo-jumbo, here's the loot:

Cult Ritual - s/t 12'' and Cult Ritual - 2ndEP 7'':
Its only a few days ago that I was made aware of the existence of this amazing band. Cult Ritual plays uncompromising, straight-for-the-throat, gritty-as-fuck hardcore punk. It comes across as one of the few bands that can convey the feeling of "everything is going to shit, so lets do crystal-meth through our asses and play like theres no yesterday"! The 12'' finished up with a 12:10 minutes long, spaced out acidious track entitled "Cancer money". Very rough, very original, very very good, and very much released by Youth Attack!




Gasp - Drome trile of puzzle zoo people 12'':
Apparently cited to have been a huge influence for a petit band called The endless blockade, Gasp and the toungetwisting record "Drome trile of puzzle zoo people", was among the first bands to use ambient and noisy elements in their metallic sounding powerviolence. Also using tape-loops and such, puts them right up there, not far from Man is the bastard. That in it self should be enough to tickle the curiousity of most of this blogs readers. Oh, and its released on Slap A Ham.



Man is the bastard - Abundance of guns 7'':
Im not even gonna bother to introduce this band. If you dont know them, youre missing out on one of the most essential bands of powerviolence. Keywords include; homemade speakers, noise, brutality, supreme originality and homemade speakers. I mostly included this release to brag about owning it, so I guess Im just a consumerist whore. I loose...

Oh yeah, and I also picked up an Insect Warfare - Information Economy bootleg 7''.

In the interest of all things obscure...

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

Tunes to haunt the desolate post-nuclear urban wasteland

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.

F****** crazy japanese!!!

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!

Weak minds, scrotums and Max fuckin Ward...

...confused?!

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!

Grind and b-movies go hand in hand.

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!

Here you go kids:

Destination time today:


















Destination time tomorrow:















Destination time yesterday: