[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 151 through 200 of 2079.

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Moniek Darge is a Belgian composer, performer, and artist with quite an extensive history, but she's probably one who hasn't really gained much of an audience outside of the European academic circles. That's a shame, as she's done some amazing, wild, and engaging work over the years. She runs the Logos Foundation, which is something of a thinktank for experimental practices with plenty of high-brow theory coating their post-Fluxus happenings, many of which seem to involve a whole lot of nudity! Throughout the three decades of work through the Logos Foundation, Darge has been involved in building strange variations on music boxes, various robots & automatons, and pneumatic devices that must have been an influence on Yoshi Wada's post-bagpipe installation pieces. On the compositional side for Darge's, there's a unique hybridization of musique concrete practices, avant-garde vocalization, and a dystopic / mystical realization of minimalism. Beginning in 2006, Darge embarked on the first of several journey to the Isle of Crete, working with local artists, presenting intermedia events, and composing the three extended pieces on this album. While one idea purported through the sound work was to conjure the mystical atmospheres of an ancient cult and its utopian principles, Darge's work here, as it typically has been, is haunting, eerie, and disarming. Deep moaning vocals open the first piece, emerging as a lugubrious chorale of intertwining ululations and eerie utterances. A melancholy drone, maybe from a harmonium, settles into the background while Darge, brings recordings of cicadas and variously untuned bells into the mix. It's not unlike Fursaxa or Christina Carter as reinterpreted by Luc Ferrari. The second piece is dominate by an impressive display of field recording prowess of the whipping winds around one of the mountains on Crete, with various clanks, metal creaking, and bells breaking up a recurring narrative of spoken texts. The final piece is a collage of aquatic tumblings, more cicadas, and more swirls of wind with an interest in the sound ecology of the island, rather than the narrative properties mentioned above. This compelling album has been released on Kye, the label run by Graham Lambkin from The Shadow Ring. Now, there's a nice endorsement!

MPEG stream: Magnesia
MPEG stream: Anemos
MPEG stream: East Crete

Wes Anderson movie soundtracks are always cool. And this one's got the Bollywood angle as well. 'Nuff said.

Here's a nice reissue of this English fuzz-filled psych rarity from '72, considered by collectors to be a bit of a holy grail, since they only made 50 copies of the original! And while THAT may have a lot to do with why this is blurbed as "one of THEE greatest guitar-heavy psych records in the world" by the Machu Picchu label, it's definitely a contender for one of the RAREST pretty great ones. So thank Machu Picchu for making it available again, this time officially licensed from the band, something most previous versions probably weren't. You may have heard their track "Maypole" way back when, on the British installment of the Love, Peace & Poetry series. We likened 'em to Blue Cheer-ish acid rock in our review of that comp, but Cream would have been a better comparison. And actually that track's rather gentle compared to some of the truly fuzzed out onslaughts on here, fuzzy though it is. And by the way, remember the Wicked Lady reissues we recently reviewed? Well axeman Martin Weaver from Wicked Lady joined up with the Dark right before this was recorded, so that's his fuzz you're hearing, which should give you some indication of what this sounds like. A more sophisticated, proggier Wicked Lady perhaps, a Wicked Lady with more in the way of "songs" rather than freakout jams, though this gets bluesy/jammy at times too. While Dark aren't as, uh, dark as their name suggests, having a light side too, no heavy psych/fuzz fan will be disappointed, they're right in there with the likes of Wicked Lady, T2, May Blitz, Human Beast, NSU, Clear Blue Sky, Arzachel, and other heavy fuzzy but still sorta poppy UK psych outfits of the era, and that's good company. This reissue has been remastered and restored by His Name Is Alive guy Warren Defever, and features a band history written by the Dark's Steve Giles. Also included are lyrics and rare photos. The packaging is a digipack for the cd, or a tip-on gatefold jacket for the vinyl.

MPEG stream: Maypole
MPEG stream: R.C.8
MPEG stream: Zero Time

The return of our favorite Medieval, Middle Ages, and plague obsessed ambient atmospheric dronescapers Dark Ages, who just so happens to be a member of Ukrainian black metal Hordes Drudkh and Hate Forest. No buzzing blackness here, instead Dark Ages is a sonic trip through, well, through the Dark Ages. Another Bosch / Breughel style painting on the cover, this time skeletons on horses, pulling a wagon full of skulls, driving through a town square littered with corpses and robed skeletons. The song titles are also appropriately grim: "Ships Full Of Blackened Corpses", "Rats", "Dead Desolate Villages", "The Doors With Scarlet Crosses" and of course "Black Death". The sound this time around is even darker and scarier. This is ambient music, sure, but it's also a sonic travelogue, a weary wander through the plague ravaged villages of Middle Europe. The sky is choked with black smoke and the stench of burning flesh. Corpses lay stacked like firewood. Dead children litter the ground like leaves fallen from trees. The few survivors, walk zombie like, an endless death march with no destination other than the grave. The music is sounds JUST LIKE THAT. It's totally evocative and ultra creepy. Thick washes of keyboard drones, chiming minor key melodies repeated mantra like, a deep churning dark ambience underpinning the melancholy ambience, stabs of atonal harpsichord add jagged shards of horror here and there. Long stretches of super dramatic cinematic shimmer definitely recall Goblin and Zombi, some tracks are super murky minimal rumbles, with the melodies muted and buried under a thick crumbling wash of mumbled whirs and swirling low end, others are majestic and grand, fanfares for the dead and dying. They're all quite grim, a bit black, super intense, and surprisingly emotional. Sonically, Dark Ages almost sounds like a super dismal, way blacker Dead Can Dance, or like Tangerine Dream or Popol Vuh covering Skepticism. Or even like some long lost Jacula album. So gorgeously dark and creepy. Recommended!

MPEG stream: Ships Full Of Blackened Corpses
MPEG stream: Rats
MPEG stream: Blessed Be The Waters Of The Avignon River

Behold the final chapter (after Twilight Of Europe, A Chronicle Of The Plague and The Tractatus De Hereticis Et Sortilegiis) in this long running series of releases from the appropriately monikered Dark Ages, a Ukrainian duo made up of members past and present of Drudkh, Blood Of Kingu, Hate Forest and Old Silver Key, who specialize in a virulent strain of medieval dark ambience, each record brilliantly captivating in its sonic representation of the middle ages, of crumbling cities, and a plague ridden populace, each record rife with brooding, haunting atmospheres and melancholic melodies, slow shifting synthscapes, swoonsome strings, all layered and textured, cinematic and darkly mysterious. This latest might be the prettiest of them all. Although you might not have thought so, considering that once again, the cover is adorned with some horrific Bosch / Breughel style art, and the record is called Rabble, Whores, Usurers, and the song titles include: "Leprosy", "Deformity", "Malice", "Depravity" and "Sin". And while the sound of Rabble is in fact lovely, it remains sinister, and ominous, moody and brooding. The opener "Leprosy" is all lush layered shimmer, chanted vocals, a haunting chorale, laced with tinkling chimes, of dramatic strings, what sounds like muted horns, a miserablist fanfare of sorts, you can almost imagine an imaginary camera panning across a wideshot of a post plague village, burned houses, piles or rubble, charred corpses, beggars in the street, emaciated beasts wandering throughout, the sky choked with ash, the sound evoking a sort of melancholy, a feeling of loss, and of hopelessness, those dramatic strings growing more and more feverish, the song growing more and more tense. Every time we play this in the store, someone comes up to see what it is, and always seems to find it hard to believe that it's a concept record about the dark ages. The rest of the record is equally stunning. "Chastity" is a lush landscape of crystalline shimmer, weirdly processed into something strangely rhythmic, with ethereal female vocals, and even a pulsing beat, "Avarice" is a grim sprawl of dense rumbles, and music box like melodies, "Deformity" is super dramatic, all swirling organs, total seventies horror score, while "Malice" might be the most overly medieval of the bunch, martial snares, deep vocal chants, moody strings, clouds of cymbal shimmer. "Depravity" is a hushed, subterranean sounding creep, long droned out tones, strange percussive scrapes and mysterious synth melodies, a murky blackened psychedelia, which leads into the closer, "Sin", which is the most minimal of the bunch, a slow, softly smoldering synthscape, a little bit kosmische, a little bit black ambient, drifting vocal like tones, transform the second half into something almost liturgical, darkly lovely and hauntingly austere.

MPEG stream: Leprosy
MPEG stream: Chastity
MPEG stream: Avarice

What would you expect from a band called Dark Ages? With cover art from some Hieronymous Bosch style painting depciting hell and misery and war and famine? With song titles like "Breath Of The Black Plague" and "Birth Of The Antichrist" and "Formulas Written In Blood"? A disc released on Supernal, the label that brought us Benighted Leams, Drudkh, Meads Of Asphodel, Hate Forest and the rest? What would you expect? Well, definitely not this. Dark Ages are not metal, are not even heavy actually, instead they offer up a series of dark ambient medieval dronescapes, beautifully creepy, dark and haunting and endlessly mesmerizing. There are definite sonic similarities to our favorite drone artists: Chalk, Coleclough, Mirror, Maeror Tri and the like, but Twilight Of Europe has a sort of looped hypnotic quality lending the sound a much more Jeck, Basinski vibe. But always cloaked in the tattered black cloak of the dark ages, a lonely sonic stroll through the ruins of a long gone Rennaisance Faire, a stroll that slowly shifts to an actual wander through a ruined post plague, European village, of grey stone walls, lit blue by the moonlight, casting shadows that dart and dance in the glow of torchlight, the blackened remains of fires long since burnt out, colorful tents faded by the sun now lay in ruined heaps, the stench of death and decay in the air. The sound is rich with resonant church organs, bells and buzzing strings, haunting chant like vocals all wrapped in gauzy fuzzy drones and subterranean rumbles, each track a dreamy repetition of a haunting, ghostly medieval loop. Over and over and over as you drift off, as the city around you crumbles and the sky above you darkens.

MPEG stream: Breath Of The Black Plague
MPEG stream: Birth Of The Antichrist
MPEG stream: Dungeons

SPECIAL SALE PRICE! Even though this split release is from a few years back, it really couldn't be more timely. Two groups, two songs from each, both dedicated to the loss of their countrymen. Up first is Dark Ages, the medieval dark ambient project of Roman Saenko (Hate Forest, Drudkh, Blood Of Kingu, etc.), who hails from the Ukraine, which is, as we write, in political and social turmoil, so these two haunting elegies are even more moving. Unlike past Dark Ages recordings, that conjured up visions of ruined villages, and crumbled cathedrals, the first track here is achingly melancholic, brooding and moody, and truly haunting, soft swirls of string like synths, drift beneath delicate piano, the sound laced with delicate percussion, the sound cinematic and darkly sweeping, the sort of heartbreaking instrumental you would expect in the denouement of some bittersweet drama. The second track though slips back into the Dark Ages of old, unfurling a gristled expanse of crackle and deep chordal thrum, strange industrial percussion, and tranced out synth drones, but over the top, more aching melodies, strings this time, like some gypsy folk troubadours, playing for their fallen, the static almost like the sound of rain. So so lovely. Dark ages share the split with a duo from Ireland, with the mouthful moniker From The Bogs Of Aughiska, and whose sound, while ambient, is a much different beast, murky and muffled, thick, rib cage rattling tones, smeared into tectonic rumbles, rife with buried shadows of melodies, a rich, churning thrum, peppered sporadically with scraping, groaning tones, and what sounds like mutated slowbuzz guitars, transformed into grinding hums, the whole thing is closer to SUNNO))) or Phurpa or Mohammad. The second From The Bogs track cranks everything up, building a wall of sound, that seems to be constructed from white noise, but that white noise has been blackened and curdled, a suffocating grey wash of sound, laced with subtle slivers of melancholy melody, softly swirling and darkly psychedelic, there's a brief bit of sampled voices, and then the sound seems to blackly blossom into more sinister noisiness, still murky, but with some grim black heft, that at the very last minute, seems to peel back, and reveal a little bit of choral dreaminess beneath the roiling black surface.

MPEG stream: Requiem On That Black Autumn
MPEG stream: Mass Starvation

Latest blast of psychedelic avant doom from this Floridian boy/girl duo, apparently often referred to as the doom metal White Stripes, based we assume entirely on the boy guitarist / girl drummer lineup, cuz sonically this is miles away from the Stripes' bluesy stomp. Instead, these two whip up a swirling, noisy, progged out, psychedelic sort of doom, which really is only classified as doom, because of the downtuned chugging, and slow-ish tempos. But the songs here are not slo-mo sludgefests, or funereal drags, these songs are furious tangles of wild guitar freakouts, of twisted effects drenched melody, of howled vitriolic vokills, of crashing chaotic drummage, and yeah, there are certainly stretches of plodding doomic crush, but even there things are not strictly doomy, the guitars sound warped and woozy, effects everywhere, the ambience seeming to melt in some sort of lysergic haze, the duo transformed into a lurching, lumbering doom-ed deity, sonically smiting all who stand in their way. The guitars constantly flit from crunchy distorted metallic buzz, to effects drenched warble, to slippery spidery squiggle, the drums following suit, the arrangements and structures seeming to continuously mutate, flecked in various places with chanted chorale like vocals, pulsing new wave synths, thick low end rumbles, even programmed drums, "To Hide Is To Die" sounds almost like a metal version of the current John Carpenter / Goblin worship, and has us sort of hankering for a whole record of metalwave retro-giallo-doom. But the next track slips right back into the duo's gnarled prog-psych-doom, before finally finishing things off with a super strange chunk of piano driven ultra distorted dirge, haunting, and cinematic, everything blown out and warped, harsh vox draped over the top, a pounding, minor key miserablist abstract doom lament, the perfect finish to a fucking killer record, that's fast becoming one of our new faves... Features guest spots by all sorts of underground metal luminaries including Mike Scheidt from YOB, Blake Judd from Nachtmystium, Nate Hall from U.S. Christmas, and Parker Sanford from Minsk, who also recorded the record.

MPEG stream: Surrender To All Life Beyond Form
MPEG stream: Stare Into Absence
MPEG stream: Create An Impulse

Hands In The Dark was the first single for Robin Crutchfield's Dark Day, originally released in 1979 on the Lust/Unlust sublabel Strike It From The Records. At that time, Crutchfield had recently parted ways with Arto Lindsay and Ikue Mori, with whom he had founded the legendary no wave trio DNA; and he envisioned Dark Day as being something of an inversion of the gender paradigm by employing women to play drums and guitar while he relegated himself to the synths. His idea didn't entirely work out exactly how he wanted throughout the entire history of Dark Day; but he was able to recruit Nina Canal (who later went on to found UT) and Nancy Arlen (from Mars... the no wave band, not the planet) for the earliest incarnation of the band whose line-up only managed this one single. The lead track is a quintessential no wave song with Canal's hard-plucked guitar tones and Arlen's weirdo percussive march of sporadic rhythmic splutters on the snare syncopated with the steady kick drum pulse; but all of this serves as a backdrop to the creepy synth and vocal melodies from Crutchfield. It was this melody that inspired the Chromatics to re-invent the song as a sultry, faux italian-disco number; and we'll give credit where credit is due, stating that both versions are totally rad. "Invisible Man" - the B side on the original single is found on the A side here, and follows the savant drum-pulse, bloody fingered guitar work, and Crutchfield's serpentine voice & synth arrangements. On this pressing from the esteemed Dark Entries, the flipside features the side to the Trapped 12" which had 6 short excerpts of reworked synth lines from the Exterminating Angel lp. So, with this release, Dark Entries has issued everything that was done by Dark Day in the early '80s. As with the other Dark Day albums, this is a necessary reissue!

MPEG stream: Hands In The Dark

R.L. Crutchfield is best known as one of the pioneers of no-wave in his band DNA as well as a forefather of cold-wave with his first few outings as Dark Day. What lots of people don't know is that Crutchfield has continued to make and release records under the radar without pause for the better part of three decades. His newer recordings, including Strange Clockwork, find him working in an almost miniature style. Short tracks that have a music box fragility but also incorporate sort of renaissance fair elements, all transformed into sonic stop motion experiments. Primitive sounding drum machine beats under electronics heavily influenced by baroque classical music. In many ways reminiscent of some of the more recent work of another electronic music pioneer, Wendy Carlos.

MPEG stream: Telegraph
MPEG stream: Floating Island
MPEG stream: Sleepwalking

So cool! And cold wavey. A wonderfully produced piece of vinyl to replace those crappy downloads which have been bouncing around the internet for the past five or six years. Dark Day was the project spearheaded by R.L. Crutchfield, who first worked with Arto Lindsay and Ikue Mori in the earliest incarnation of the seminal No Wave band DNA in the mid '70s. By 1979, Crutchfield was striking out on his own as Dark Day; and at first, this band was an intentional reversal of roles within the trad-rock band with two women playing guitars and drums and a man behind the keyboards. The ladies for that incarnation were Nancy Arlen of Mars and Nina Canal of Ut; and they managed a few gigs and one hell of a great single - "Hands In The Dark" - which appeared many years later on a Soul Jazz No Wave compilation and has been covered spectacularly by the Chromatics. Canal and Arlen weren't terribly interested in continuing in the project, leaving Crutchfield to find likeminded folks with whom to work. The second (and last) Dark Day record was recorded in 1982, with Crutchfield going into the studio with a bunch of cheap electronics and toy synthesizers with Bill Sack to flesh out the accompaniments on similar instruments. Their interlocking arpeggiations are punctuated with blooping electronics that are equal parts Trio and Kraftwerk with an underlying dread to the spiralling songs that detoured from Kraftwerk's utopian vision of man-machine hybrids and down a paranoid vision of man being at the mercy of his machines, no matter how innocent their intent. Dark Day's songs are insistent and catchy despite their utterly simple structures. "Metal Benders" and "Danger / Dance" are probably the closest thing to being 'hits' on the album as weird / anti-romantic variations of Young Marble Giants with whip crack rhythms and spectral pre-X-Files electronic whistling melodies. Coming out of the NYC No Wave scene helped craft Dark Day into a something other than neo-Romantic post-punk outfit with electronics. This was a wholly unique band, who never got the attention that many of their contemporaries. Kudos to Dark Entries once again on a splendid reissue!

MPEG stream: Window
MPEG stream: The Metal Benders
MPEG stream: Danger/Dancer
MPEG stream: Don't Bother

Synth punk at its best! Here is the long overdue reissue of Dark Day's homage to the Luis Bunuel film of the same name. Dark Day was the project spearheaded by R.L. Crutchfield who first worked with Arto Lindsay and Ikue Mori in the earliest incarnation of the seminal No Wave band DNA in the mid '70s. By 1979, Crutchfield was striking out on his own as Dark Day; and at first, this band was an intentional reversal of roles within the trad-rock band with two women playing guitars and drums and a man behind the keyboards. The ladies for that incarnation were Nancy Arlen of Mars and Nina Canal of Ut; and they managed a few gigs and one hell of a great single - "Hands In The Dark" - which appeared many years later on a Soul Jazz No Wave compilation and has been covered spectacularly by the Chromatics. Canal and Arlen weren't terribly interested in continuing in the project, leaving Crutchfield to find likeminded folks to work with. On Exterminating Angel (originally released in 1980 on the Lust/Unlust imprint Infidelity), Crutchfield recruited Phil Kline and Barry Friar to flesh out the Dark Day sound. At the time, Kline was an emerging composer who had worked with Glenn Branca and at least here, he styles himself after Mark Ribot or Arto Lindsay with his expressive shards and bends of guitar melody; and Friar follows the tom-heavy patter that Nancy Arlen brought to Dark Day on the "Hands In The Dark" single. But Dark Day is truly Crutchfield's vision, with his heavily syncopated synth chords, elliptical repetitions, and spiral staircase ascensions in lieu of the traditional verse-chorus song. Crutchfield preferred to keep a very restrictive use of synth tones and filters, all the while crafting a very claustrophobic, horror-laden atmosphere. The inventiveness of his minimalist melodies and twisted lullaby-like structures are all the more impressive, perhaps only matched by Young Marble Giants or Suicide. Motorik yet stumbling, Dark Day's songs are stark and bold in their poetry about freaks, suffocating anxiety, and the toxic life of contemporary society circa 1980. "Trapped" was a strange song to be the single for the album, as it's an epic, spiralling number with those ominous synths and siren-like blurts from a distant saxophone. Many of the other songs on the album were short and condensed, jabbing the grimly simple melodies deep into the ear-canal and then moving on. Like "Trapped" the album's finale - "No, Never, Nothing" - is another lengthy track, appropriating a Moroder like disco-syncopation to a sinister, nihilistic collage of texts taken from a children's book about raising unusual pets such as squirrels and chimpanzees. The more the song spins through it's punchy chords the creepier it becomes. Exterminating Angel is the high-point of Crutchfield's recorded works, and stands also as one of lost gems of the No Wave era. This should have been released long ago, so we have to commend Dark Entries once again for their reissue campaign.

MPEG stream: Chameleon
MPEG stream: Flightless Birds
MPEG stream: No, Never, Nothing

Look past the garish, whooah-I'm-trippin'-now psychedelic cover art of Dark Fog's Cosmic Tone and you'll find a quite moody and marvellous and, yes, psychedelic debut album from this Chicago-land band, who've loaded up on trippy guitar effects and super spaced-out vocals to produce this hypnotic 33 minute dose of stoner/psych shoegazer bliss. Some parts are hushed and mellow, others Deetroit drivin', chugging along with nods to Pink Floyd, Spacemen Three, and Hawkwind... we'd also compare these guys favorably to such contemporary comrades-in-arms as Pharaoh Overlord, Acid Mothers Temple, and Dead Meadow. It's heavy (in that "heavy, maaan" way that we differentiate from, like, doom metal heaviness, such as that practiced by labelmates Buried At Sea), with lot of fuzz and drone but definitely also has a lighter, melodic side that makes this swirling dark fog seem rather welcoming, more fragrant than miasmic, redolent of aromatic smoke and suffused with a gentle glow. Recommended.

MPEG stream: Anywhere
MPEG stream: Cosmic Dust

2nd album from these spaced-out, shoegazery Chicagoans. We recommended their debut, Cosmic Tone, last year and this one is equally stoned, maybe darker and yet more melodic too -- and has equally over the top, garish "psychedelic" cover art... though since they chose to call the album The Ultimate Cult of Psychedelic Psychosis we can't say that's a surprise, clearly they're not trying to be subtle about their avowed artistic program! Though we can compare 'em to the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, Boris, and Pharaoh Overlord in terms of freaked-out heaviness, we've also gotta come back to the indie-rock component as well, with gentle vocals drifting over or beneath slumbering lumbering swirling guitar/effects like Dead Meadow meets MBV, with a little Dinosaur Jr. in there too... quite a nice (sinister, murky) nod-scene indeed.

MPEG stream: Tomorrow
MPEG stream: Andromeda

Old school (NWOBHM) style metal from this young British band!

Not new recordings but a blast from the past from these black metal stalwarts. The Dark Funeral tracks date from 1994 and the Infernal tracks are from a couple years ago. And as with a lot of black metal, you'd be hard pressed to tell where DF's side stops and Infernal's starts, but I guess that's why they're sharing this split cd, a shared love of blazing, raw old school black metal. Oh, that a venomous hatred for Christianity and all of mankind. EVIL!

RealAudio clip: Open The Gates
RealAudio clip: Requiem (The Coming Age Of Satan)

To most folks, the name Stephen Cogle might not mean much, but to avid New Zealand music nerds like us (and maybe you), that name conjures up some of our favorite groups from that era/region, think Vacuum, The Victor Dimisich Band, the Terminals... Exactly. So Dark Matter is Cogle circa now, and while much of that old sound remains, here it's recast as something much more dignified and dramatic, a sort of gothic psych, via Christchurch style Flying Nun post punk. The label compares Dark Matter to the Chills, Television Personalities, the Scientists, Roxy Music, the last one especially, but we're also hearing plenty of Scott Walker, and other oddball crooners, the music is simple, yet lush, jangly guitars are wreathed in layers of string shimmer, slowly unfurling landscapes of brooding dark pop mesmer, with Cogle's dramatic vox over the top, and dramatic they are, we're almost reminded of those song-poem records, but instead of songs about aliens or cowboys, the subject matter here matches the musical gravitas, and even when the vocals fade out, the music left on its own is seriously stunning, check out the second half of "The Long Count", which is tense, and minor key, darkly lovely, mysterious, beholden to the classic NZ sound, but still plenty modern, and then when the vocals swoop back in, it's transformed into something bombastic and intense, harrowing and yet still lush and lovely. Strange dark post punk torch songs that should also appeal to fans of Nick Cave, Woven Hand, Crystal Stilts, King Dude, Swans and other purveyors of moody, dark songcraft, and these guys get compared to Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos (arguably our favorite NZ band EVER), even though the sonic connection seems to be more about mood and atmosphere than sound, which should be all the recommendation you need!

MPEG stream: Broken
MPEG stream: The Long Count
MPEG stream: Dark Matter

The Hermetic Drone is the first release from Dark Matter Halo, the most recent project of Monte Cimino, aQ pal, and head honcho of brooding twang flecked heavies Burial Tree, as well as the man behind BT ambient offshoot Time Spent. Dark Matter Halo has more in common with Time Spent, but pushes the sound even further into the kosmische drift, ditching all of the rhythmic elements that drove Time Spent, barring the subtle pulsations caused by the ever shifting overtones, these two lengthy tracks, sprawling expanses of dreamlike shimmer, lush layered tones infused with a warm energy, softly undulating chordal swells, wreathed in a soft halo of gauze-y blissed out blur. The first track, "A.M.", definitely has a sun dappled morning vibe, bleary slowly unfurling melodies, a time lapse exploration of tonal color, a grey landscape gradually taking on color, the tones here seeming to fill the sky with a prismatic palette of warm sonic hues, gorgeously mesmerizing and dreamily meditative. The second track, appropriately titled "P.M." reverse engineers the first, effortlessly conjuring up a world in hibernation, a sky full of darkened blue, casting lengthening shadows, a lush crystalline expanse of low tones, woven into a gloriously textured backdrop, for the glimmering, glistening ghostlike melodies that hover above, spectral streaks of somnambulant mesmer, gliding lazily toward the dark, a soundtrack for drifting off, a sonic gateway to what lays beyond the veil. So lovely.

MPEG stream: The Hermetic Drone A.M.
MPEG stream: The Hermetic Drone P.M.

A little while back we reviewed the first installment of The Hermetic Drone, which was the first release from Dark Matter Halo, the most recent project of aQ pal Monte Cimino, who is head honcho of brooding twang flecked heavies Burial Tree, as well as the man behind BT ambient offshoot Time Spent. That original cd-r has now been reissued as a proper cd, with a second volume/disc added on!!! Dark Matter Halo has more in common with Time Spent than the more rocking Burial Tree, but pushes the sound even further into the kosmische drift, ditching all of the rhythmic elements that drove Time Spent, barring the subtle pulsations caused by the ever shifting overtones, these two lengthy tracks, sprawling expanses of dreamlike shimmer, lush layered tones infused with a warm energy, softly undulating chordal swells, wreathed in a soft halo of gauze-y blissed out blur. The first track, "A.M.", definitely has a sun dappled morning vibe, bleary slowly unfurling melodies, a time lapse exploration of tonal color, a grey landscape gradually taking on color, the tones here seeming to fill the sky with a prismatic palette of warm sonic hues, gorgeously mesmerizing and dreamily meditative. The second track, appropriately titled "P.M." reverse engineers the first, effortlessly conjuring up a world in hibernation, a sky full of darkened blue, casting lengthening shadows, a lush crystalline expanse of low tones, woven into a gloriously textured backdrop, for the glimmering, glistening ghostlike melodies that hover above, spectral streaks of somnambulant mesmer, gliding lazily toward the dark, a soundtrack for drifting off, a sonic gateway to what lays beyond the veil. The second volume, more recently recorded, doesn't deviate too far from the template laid out by part one, the bulk of the new disc taken up by the sprawling cosmic transmission "Caravan To The Stars", clocking in at nearly 42 minutes, and making the most of all that time spent (ahem) weaving lush swells of softly pulsing chordal shimmer, and slowly swirling clouds of ethereal thrum, the first ten minutes passing like some time lapse film about the galaxy, a hazy dreamlike minimal drift, before some subtle tabla like percussion surfaces, giving the nebulous sonic mesmer some muted propulsion, like a heroin house Muslimgauze, soon the background sounds arc and soar, keening high end streaks, long tones undulating and pulsing, all the while, that motorik rhythm burbling just below the surface. The synths coalesce into string-like swoons, the vibe super cinematic, with a definite Eastern tinge, before all blurring into a much more subdued final movement, the last few minutes in particular, some seriously ominous black ambience, that manages to sound sinister, without losing any of its psychedelic dreaminess. The relatively shorter second track is dedicated to ambient electronic pioneer Pete Namlook, who died tragically earlier this year, the sound slowly unfurling diaphanous sheets of soft focus sound, seemingly time-lapse shifting overtones, buried melodies, the whole thing glimmering and glistening and shimmering, so so lovely.

Just the other day we had someone come into the shop looking for ambient music on cassette� well, we do have lots of DRONES on cassette, but they're often the dark, dire, experimental kind, at the extreme end harsh and noisy, or at best still fairly grim and gritty. Which is great, but not quite what the customer was looking for. They wanted something more dreamy and blissed out, pretty and Eno-ish in its ambience. We did manage to find them a tape or two that fit the bill, but had this new Dark Matter Halo cassette been in stock then, it would have been absolutely perfect! Dark Matter Halo of course is the solo ambient drone project of our pal Monte (also of Burial Tree and Time Spent), and this is DMH's latest release, following closely on the double cd collection Hermetic Drone Vol. 1 & 2 we reviewed here a couple weeks back. This new opus was recorded using both digital and analog technology, a process influenced by Monte's work with another local dronester, Black Thread, who got Monte thinking in terms of ye olde 4-track cassette deck again. And of course it's been released on limited edition DAA cassette as well, though if you check out DMH's Bandcamp page for this release, you can also download a free bonus digital only track, just fyi. Side one, the title track, is all whispy and drifty and quite lovely, total waking-moments music, ethereal sounds to be heard at the dawn, of the dawn, of something wonderful. Introduced by some appropriate nature sounds, it then flows into gentle, cyclic synth washes, shimmering and warmly embracing, but light in touch, slowly moving along for over 22 blissful minutes. In a word, nice! Side two, "Under The Sky" (named for the Paul Bowles story) is equally lovely, but a bit darker in tone, denser and quietly "howlier" if that's a word (ok, it's not). The cyclic whoosh of the drones and tones woven into this piece build and build, and go on and on (over 24 minutes this time), still shimmering, but in more of a haunting way. Its prettiness is tempered by a unsettling, foreboding feeling. It'd be a great isolation tank track (for the brave psychonaut) or excellent for cinematic soundtrack purposes.

MPEG stream: To All With History
MPEG stream: Under The Sky

AQ buddy Ian Christe is DARK NOERD, who so far has only made one recorded appearance, on the awesome 'Gummo' soundtrack. When Christe is not writing a comprehensive history of heavy metal or DJing, he's making black metal electronica unlike anything you've ever heard. This 12" splits its time pretty evenly between straight up drum 'n bass ala Photek and noisy black metal. On a couple

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Another back room discovery, a record from a couple years back, released on unblack label E.E.E., a 2006 ep from these Indiana based (un?) black metallers, who mix dark, raw and grim riffage, with strange twisted black ambience, grinding processed glitchscapes and haunting sinister drones. Five tracks, 25 minutes, after a sprawling graveyard fog intro, all moonlit creep and gnarled bleak rumble, the band explode into "Mists Of Darkness", some super raw heaviness, blasting and chaotic and blown out, primitive and frosty for sure, but imbued with plenty of ominous mystery and warped ambience. A long stretch of acoustic guitar post rock, all spidery jangle and skeletal drift, gives way to another burst of pounding, grunted blackcrush. "Burn The Twilight" begins with some ethereal looped guitar that grows more and more tangled and squiggly, before finally splintering into another squall of jagged black shards, and stumbling primitive blackness. "Nox Noctis" starts out Slinty, before getting all folky and softly psychedelic, the drums giving it a sort of spacey post rock vibe, the track slips subtly back and forth between the two until some dark minimal piano enters the picture, only to get swallowed up by some swirling turbulent black drones, that final track sprawling and slowly decaying, fragmented melodies and bits of piano, surfacing and the then drifting off into the ether. Fans of all things E.E.E. and mysterious dark metal and experimental ambient blackness will DIG DIG DIG. And this is out of print, these are the last 7 or 8 copies, so snag one while you can!

MPEG stream: Mists Of Darkness
MPEG stream: Burn The Twilight

Odd and obscure '80s heavy metal alert!! If that got your attention, you may remember that not too long ago we reviewed a disc by a band called Black Hole, '80s Italian metallers who were all spaced-out and psychedelic, like some strange mix of Jacula and Voivod. In that review, we made mention of one of their contemporaries, a band by the name of Dark Quarterer, whose debut album from 1985 is to be found on this slipcased cd reissue. We were pretty stoked to find a supplier for these and grabbed a bunch 'cause we figure anything that both Allan and Andee and Andee's fiancee Heather all instantly fell in love with, is something that at least a select few AQ customers are gonna dig too. Why did A, A and H all fall for DQ? Well Dark Quarterer just push all our eccentric, ancient metal buttons. To us, the low-budget, fidelity-impared production is part of their charm (what are those drums made of? cardboard?), the English-almost-as-a-second-language vocal stylings as well (without looking at the lyric sheet you'll have some trouble puzzling out what he's singing about -- his pronunciation is, let's say, creative). And the name "Dark Quarterer" curiously great too. But what's most important (and the reason why they indeed do have a cult following to this day) is that they wrote some awesomely epic and undeniably catchy metal songs. While Black Hole's favorite band must have been Black Sabbath, we're pretty sure Dark Quarterer were inspired by the grandiose he-man metal of Manowar. But it's Manowar-worship laced with the influence of Goblin and Yes and other proggy weirdness, as befits a band from the prog-crazy land of Italy. Andee even detects some hints of our beloved Comus in the title track, though we should stress that Dark Quarterer are very, very metal. Bizarre and poverty-stricken, yep, but metal through and through, with heaps of heroic vocals and majestic riffage to put some starch in your shorts (or loin cloth?). Not terribly unlike another eccentric '80s metal fave 'round here, Manilla Road.

MPEG stream: Red Hot Gloves
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The Dark Revolution Collective was the first musical group formed by Kawabata Makoto, who has since earned considerable notoriety in the incredibly prolific Acid Mother's Temple. Recorded back in 1978, Kawabata with Tetsushi Kawagishi and Yasuo Iwaki had no While these recordings are not as good as the recent flurry of AMT activities, you should realise that the mean age of the Dark Revolution Collective at the time of this recording was 13!!! Some of the Acid Mothers Temple freaks here think it's worth it, yet also some of us think you could save your money and get Andee's upcoming tUMULt label AMT picture disc "41st Century Splendid Man" instead.

The self-titled debut cd by the oddly monikered Dark Side Of The Cop (aka Marco Panella) is a super sweet and buoyant affair. Despite his name's nod to Pink Floyd, this one man band certainly wears his Brian Wilson influences on his sleeves in many ways. For one thing he has one of those soft wistful boy singing voices that occasionally brings to mind the abovementioned Wilson or David Gates. The disc opens with what sounds like a somber procession of tin toy trains, and robots, but they're just the tip of Panella's own personal mini orchestra. Warm guitar and piano soon join the fray along with some softly prickly programmed rhythms. So nice.

MPEG stream: Detroit (Prelude)
MPEG stream: Fool In The Hill

As always, gotta give it up for the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. We mention that fecund scene upon occasion, usually in context of saying some current metal band has NWOBHM influences. So it's nice now and then to get a reissue of an actual NWOBHM cult classic to review. In this case, from 1981, the debut album by Dark Star, a band best known for their track "Lady Of Mars", which appears here. That's how we got into Dark Star, hearing that song, it's been on a lot of comps (starting with Metal For Muthas Vol. II), really a brilliant example of anthemic, super catchy, fists-clenched, heavy metal grandeur - and it's a love song too. A few years back Andee took a trip to Japan, the land where albums like this get reissued on compact disc long before they do over here, if ever, and scored copies of this for both himself and Allan (as you can imagine, there was a BIG and potentially expensive list of '80s metal rarities he had to look for, this was towards the top though). Turns out, while "Lady Of Mars" is an obvious stand out, the whole record is a killer piece of melodic hard rockin' British metal, with '70s influences (not so strange considering it was barely the '80s), notably UFO and Thin Lizzy - the majestic "Lady Love", another stand out, certainly has some of the bright galloping glory of classic Lizzy. With heavy guitar riffs, strong soaring vocals, and plenty of hooks, Dark Star deliver the NWOBHM goods. It's mostly mid paced, and there's some mellow moments... it seems they've got a romantic side, they even have a number called "Rock 'n' Romancin'" (not included here, sadly) and we mentioned that "Lady Of Mars" is a love song already, right? But, as on the Riot-ish "Rock 'n' Romancin'", the rock comes first, and Dark Star rocks out as only a band who would also do an appropriately kickass song called "Rock Bringer" can (which IS included here). So, now this album has at last been reissued here in the States, so of course we had to list it. Unfortunately, this version omits the bonus tracks from singles that were on that Japanese reish. Dunno how deep you want your NWOBHM collection to go, but this is a good 'un to get. Worth it for "Lady Of Mars" but also worth it for more than just "Lady Of Mars"!

MPEG stream: Kaptain Amerika
MPEG stream: Lady Of Mars

Like all music nerds, we love to read record reviews, even of records we have no interest in hearing, in fact especially those. And we find ourselves turned on to (or off of) records all the time, based on what we've read about it. But generally, even if something gets a terrible review, we still need to hear it for ourselves, considering the fact that there are so many things we love, that lots of other folks didn't dig, or even get. But there are a select few, whose opinions hold great weight, and who with a thumbs up can have us scrambling to track down a record, or a thumbs down can have us not bothering to check something out, no matter how much everyone else seems to love it. A recent addition to that pantheon of reviewers, would no doubt be Jarred and Petey (we are obsessed: http://singintothecomputer.tumblr.com/), a 10/10 Stars!!!!!!!! from those guys and we're all over it. But for a longtime, the mighty Julian Cope, via his amazing Head Heritage website, has been a sort of all seeing mystic, well versed in the arcane arts of drone / metal / psych, and weirdly attuned to EXACTLY what we love. So knowing that Cope had flipped his lid for this, the debut from Dark Sunny Land, we were prepared to dig mightily, and were not disappointed. This Boston based one man outfit delivers a sort of dense psychedelic kraut-drone that balances somewhere right between the hushed guitarscapery of Stars Of The Lid, the abstract avant drift of Taj Mahal Travellers, and the soft noise blackened ambience of the best floorcore technicians. DSL weaves all of that into something heady and hypnotic, ritualistic and mesmeric, long tones blur into soft sheets of billowing feedback, synths and theremins drift and waver, melodies surface, and fragment before submerging beneath the softly undulating thrum, it's the sort of ambient dronemusic that's anything but tranquil and/or new agey, the sound here is dense and tense and rife with some sort of dark energy, while it may be hypnotic and mesmerizing, it's also intense and aggressive, moody and atmospheric, but sinister and shot through with a sort of impending doom, whereas a lot of this sort of music drifts and floats ethereally, the sound of Emanations For A Returning sounds more like the soundtrack to a black hole, to collapsing universes, the score to the scorched expanses of dead planets, to a mysterious blackness that lurks in the shadows, it manages to sound like all that, while being breathtaking beautiful at the same time. Obviously so recommended! LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, and housed in super striking silk screened sleeves!

MPEG stream: Emanations 2

We remember AQ pal John Gossard, from doom-mongers Asunder and defunct SF black metallers Weakling, talking about one of his favorite pastimes,�black metal tennis! It was tough to discern exactly what was involved, but we do know it included a couple rackets, LOTS of wine, and typically took place in the middle of the night. We can only assume, after some black metal tennis, those guys would unwind with some dark yoga, and we're not even gonna guess what that might entail, but judging from this disc from Northwestern drone psych fuzz groove ensemble Dark Yoga,�it most likely included an entire pharmacy of drugs, a suitcase full of FX, and amps and guitars galore. So yep, another winner from the Yarnlazer label (Acre, Valet, Ghosting, Bonecloud), a live recording from 20006 featuring a whole posse of�Portland noisemakers including�Yarnlazer head honcho Honey Owens (who also records as Valet). Dark Yoga is a sprawling psychedelic krautrock free fuzz jam,�simple throbbing basslines,�slowed down vocals, shimmering clouds of buzzing effects and swirling disembodied guitar fuzz,�blown out guitar leads, simple tribal drumming, propulsive and motorik, with long stretches of tinkling effervescence and spaced out ambience. The sound is super heavy on the Can, even down to some of the very (infrequent) Damo like vocals. Or imagine�No Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand Of The Man in full on psych jam mode, less tribal and clattery and more druggy and space-y and languidly rocking. There are some groovy stretches of fuzzy funk too, like some tarpit demonic dance jams, but even those parts are dense with fuzzy murk and spacepsych swirl.� Packaged in cool hand screened sleeves, so heavy with paint and intense smelling, that all you really need is to toss the sleeve into a paper bag while you're listening and huff your way into the perfect Dark Yoga mind space. Also contains a little full color metallic insert. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!

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This Portland-based band's debut album, The Sellsword, was a bit of a hit around here last year, in part 'cause their twin guitar harmony metal sounded a heck of a lot like that of AQ-faves The Fucking Champs. Unlike The Champs, though, they aren't all-instrumental, they've got a singer belting it out in classic high-pitched fashion over their galloping riffage, sweet! The full-length was limited to 500 copies, and is now out of print, but the band are back with a 5-song follow-up, also limited to 500 numbered copies. This new DarkBlack is definitely less "epic power metal", more NWOBHM-ish rock n' roll, but still undeniably Champsy in parts (the chuggery of "Golden Idol" ferinstance) though perhaps not quite so Champsy as before. Not that they've backed off on the guitars, nosiree, you want hot guitar-on-guitar action, you got it here. Shreddin' solos and soaring harmonies galore, definitely their raison d'etre, outshining the decent-but-unexceptional vocals, a ragged whine at times that lacks the power to truly compete with the axes. Yep, it's the guitars that butter the bread in this band. Anyone into authentic old school metal revivalism oughtta get a kick out of DarkBlack's garagey '70s sounding sincerity and impressive chops, and these five songs come at a bargain price as well. All of 'em deliver the goods, from the catchy opener "Doom Herald" through to the speedy closer "Broken Oath", with the hectic energetic title track standing out as one of our faves, full of twisty changes and triumphant lead work. At ep-length, it's easy to spin this again and again and discerning headbangers should do so forthwith.

MPEG stream: Doom Herald
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Even if we hadn't already heard, and liked (though not listed) this Portland, Oregon true metal trio's earlier ep The Barbarian's Hammer, we'd have been curious about this, their debut full-length, 'cause it bears a blurb on the front recommending this "if you dig early Lord Weird Slough Feg and Thin Lizzy"! Dunno what about DarkBlack other than their Maiden-y twin guitar attack makes 'em cite Slough Feg in particular (early or otherwise) but whatever, it's true anyone into Slough Feg's typical epic dual axe action and ought to check this out, though really they don't sound TOO much alike. Probably it's just that DarkBlack are fans of Slough Feg, though we'll guess they grew up listening to Maiden albums, not Slough Feg ones, unless they're even younger than we think. Actually, if we were writing the blurb, we'd have suggested it say "if you dig The Fucking Champs, but wonder what they'd sound like if they really went for it and got a real wailing higher-pitched heavy metal singer"! Just listen to the guitars at beginning of "Icy Tomb Of Time"... that sounds SO MUCH like The Champs, it coulda fooled us! There's nine songs here, all about ancient epic battle fantasy concepts it seems. And they're a real rollercoaster of rippage, with galloping rhythms, shredding leads, and of course those great dual guitar harmonies. DarkBlack's music is heavy and hectic, tightly wound, choppy but fluid too, giving the singer something slaying over which to soar. Bracingly triumphant and underground, DarkBlack are another "throwback" '80s-ish power metal band that sounds fully alive and kickass right NOW. So, for fans of Slough Feg, sure, not so much Thin Lizzy really but Iron Maiden yeah, and The Champs like we said, plus Bible Of The Devil, The Sword (but less stoner, more shreddy), Cauldron, Enforcer, and of course all sorts of classic NWOBHM stuff. Limited to 500 numbered copies, going fast...

MPEG stream: Sword Of The Morning
MPEG stream: Icy Tomb Of Time
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Nobody does suave, sleek, atmospheric electronic pop better then Air, so it's no surprise that this solo outing from one half of the French duo, hits the same spot pretty much dead on. Jean-Benoit Dunckel took time in between Air's follow up to Talkie Walkie and their work on Charlotte Gainsbourg's upcoming release to make his first solo record. This definitely leans toward the more song orientated pop leanings of Air. Still so lush, dreamy and sensual but with melodies and vocals that find their way into your head and don't ever go away. Catchy and inviting, this has bedtime romance written all over it. One of those great records to lounge around in the morning to, or to use as a secret weapon when you want to put the moves on that special someone. THE make-out record of 2006.

MPEG stream: Be My Friend
MPEG stream: Earth

If you're not scared of labels like Cherry Red, Creation, or Hut, then keep reading. And if you first heard those labels on college radio, then definitely keep reading. Darker My Love is an LA-based 4-piece that channels the energy of bands like The Stone Roses and very early Oasis. Sure, throw in some Supergrass. Absolutely summertime, windows down, driving along the coast, feel good music. The group's arrangements are thoughtful while remaining accessible and breezy. In particular we can't help but notice the vocal melodies, provided by guitarist Tim Presley and bassist Rob Barbatto. Interestingly, both artists are former members of The Fall. Also, drummer Andy Granelli was in both The Nerve Agents and The Distillers. Either way, if '90s pop, early '80s power pop, or any other kind of pop has an appeal, this is your summer record! Recommended.

MPEG stream: Pale Sun
MPEG stream: Talking Words

Seems to me like every hardcore kid in America must have gotten an In Flames songbook for Christmas, cause more and more US metalcore is sounding remarkably like Swedish melodic blackened, death metal. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Now that In Flames have their eyes on the nu-metal prize and wear matching white denim outfits and prance around on MTV lip sync-ing to sing-along choruses and playing cookie cutter "MTV metal" someone had to step up to the plate. Darkest Hour are one of the few metalcore bands that are truly capable of writing actual songs and crafting honest to goodness hooks with super catchy melodies and totally original parts. They still destroy. Thick guitars and howled vocals. Super complex song structures and crazy drumming. It's all HEAVY AS FUCK! But amidst all the chaos and pummelling brutality are the kind of hooks that stick with you the way a pop song does. I find myself humming Darkest Hour riffs all the time lately and that's pretty strange. Although maybe it shouldn't be. One of our favorite new metalcore records, and it may just be catchy enough for you brave pop fans. But probably not.

MPEG stream: The Sadist Nation
MPEG stream: Pay Phones and Pills

Geez, we knew these punks were popular but had no idea how popular. They get a whole DVD documentary? Well I guess they were on Ozzfest! This dvd is definitely for the fans, so little need here to explain who DC's Darkest Hour are to those who don't know (in a phrase: brutally rippin' Maidenesque metalcore). If you're a fan, you should enjoy all the tour stories, behind-the-music interviews, crazy live footage (from totally pro-shot concerts to archival home vids, including their first ever show in '95) found on this action-packed "thrashography". Aside from their trademark full-bore live action, you'll be entertained by the drunken, beefy Ozzfest fan who insists on having the entire band autograph his white t-shirt with black markers, which they do with a great deal of enthusiasm. Then there's the life-size cardboard cut-out of George Bush that haunts them throughout their 2001 tour... Yeah Darkest Hour seem like fun guys, so more power to 'em.

There sure seems to be a lot of mediocre metalcore bands around these days, metalcore is the pop punk of this decade. Every kid is mixing in some heartfelt emotion with their pounding metallic pummel. Thankfully Darkest Hour is not one of them. These guys have been chuggin' along since 1995, believe it or not. In 2003 they released Hidden Hands Of A Sadist Nation which was a dark and brutal masterpiece that channelled the Swedish style of the late 90's through a modern metal aesthetic. The follow-up is this here disc and is called Undoing Ruin and their label has done them no favors touting it as "the next Ride the Lightning" or "the next Slaughter of the Soul". Not really fair to US or THEM. Time, as always, is the only way to tell� What Undoing Ruin brings is this: lots of back and forth chunka-chunkage, some dry-throated screaming, lots of mid-tempo Mastodon-like drumming with loads of little fills and splashes, some killer melodic twin dive-bomber leads whipping wildly back and forth but always in control. For all you metal "purists" out there who would never dare listen to a "Victory Band" or some crappy metalcore band, do yourself a favor, swallow your pride and check these guys out! If Darkest Hour were on Relapse odds are they would be way better positioned to hit their target audience: metalheads. that said, they don't seem to be doing such a bad job turning little punks onto some very heavy metal! There are even some brief acoustic breaks and cool little melodic bits sprinkled here and there, but it's not long before the pummeling onslaught renews. Reminds us of former metallic greats like Beyond Possession, the Accused, there's even some serious Slayer Reign In Blood / Meshuggah style fretboard dynamics goin' on. You gotta love that. There is NOTHING emo or screamo or even hardcore about this release despite the label affiliation. Darkest Hour just keep getting better and better, tighter and heavier, and the proof is in the epic /melodic / power / thrash / core of Undoing Ruin.

MPEG stream: This Will Outlive Us
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Usually, you pretty much know what you're in for when a band proclaims boldly right there on the sleeve, that they perform "Pagan Black Metal Art Exclusively!" And then when you take into account the fact that Darkestrah just so happens to include the drummer from Nargaroth, well then you know for sure you're in for some glorious buzzing, stumbling, midtempo blackness. And indeed, Embrace Of Memory is rife with fuzzy tranced out riffs, super repetitive drone-y arrangements, pounding drums, subtle layers of synth, and howled vocals. Definitely plenty of nods to Nargaroth, but you can also hear hints of avant black metallers Forgotten Woods and early Enslaved. Incredibly catcy melodies are somehow snuck into super buzzy black riffs, the tempos shift from sea sick waltzes, to not quite blasting blastbeats, to pouding dirges, but always mesmerizing and hypnotic, droned out and almost blissy, while managing to still be heavy and brutal. Two other interesting things that make Darkestrah stand out: one, the vocalist is a woman, although she looks just like one of the guys in the heavily coprsepainted photo, and her harsh demonic howl does not sound all that feminine, but for an almost exclusively male genre, it's pretty dang exciting, and she does have one serious set of glass gargling, bile spewing pipes. And two, Darkestrah just might be the only band we've ever heard who hail from Kyrgyzstan! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

MPEG stream: Black Cathedral
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Being one of only three black metal bands hailing from�Kyrgyzstan according to the online authority Encyclopaedia Metallum, and featuring a female vocalist, must make Darkestrah one of the most unique BM outfits going, but on first listen, neither of those attributes are all that readily apparent. Certainly, the harsh strangled demonic howling vocals did not immediately strike us as particularly feminine, and the glorious hypnotic buzz didn't seem all that region specific, but the more, and closer you listen, the more those elements do seem important, keeping Darkestrah from sounding like just another bunch of boring buzzing blackness... One half hour plus epic, separated into movements, beginning with�the gentle sound of a burbling brook, the fuzzy white noise like ebb and flow of waves crashing on the sea shore, until those tranquil sounds are�joined by distant keening guitars, a long drawn out buzz, that eventually solidifies into a gorgeous melancholic riff, draped over simple midtempo drumming, intense and epic and blown out, eventually exploding into a black burst of raw grimness, but never losing that melancholic vibe. Repetitive and hypnotic, with killer drumming and furious guitar buzz, until all of a sudden in come cellos, and then the song is transformed into a sweeping Godspeed like expanse of beautiful blackness... About halfway through, the sound of the surf returns, soon overtaken by tribal drumming, Viking like riffing, a bit of chanting, eventually bursting into some seriously Burzumic pound, with more soaring riffage and really intense unlikely mathy arrangements, eventually stretching out into a long form static buzz, while over the top strings soar and flutes flutter, again transforming the song into a swoonsome black lament, eventually fading out into just the sound of wind and sea....

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Latest release from one of the strangest and most unique black metal bands around. How many groups, black metal or otherwise can you think of that hail from the tiny country of Kyrgyzstan? We actually couldn't think of any, although apparently there are at least three black metal bands. How many grim buzzing BM outfits can you think of fronted by a female? Not many we'd bet. Or how many black metal bands incorporate traditional Middle Eastern instruments into their sound? Again, the answer is not a whole lot. So thus we have Darkestrah, a female fronted black metal trio from Kyrgyzstan who we've raved about in the past, but who seem to only get better and better with each record. The production this time around is amazing, so thick and heavy and polished, but without losing any of the ferocity. The songs are multi part epics, slipping from woozy midtempo dirge to blackened blast, frontwoman Kriegtalith's vokills a harsh demonik shriek, the songs rife with melodies and hooks, managing to be both blasting and brutal, but catchy and epic. The coolest part though is how the band mix in traditional folk instruments and vocal techniques from Kyrgyzstan into the songs. While much of that is used as intros, gorgeous stretches of plaintive mournful throat singing and deep shimmery rage like strum, those instruments and sounds also surface within tracks, fluttering woodwinds hovering over churning black buzz, strange lilting folky melodies wound into otherwise straight ahead blasts. It turns the record into something much more haunting and mysterious and so unique. So easy to get lost in the buzzing drones and Middle Eastern melodies... The Great Silk Road is quickly becoming one of our most listened to new BM records...

MPEG stream: The Silk Road
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Yet another warehouse find, discovered a tiny handful of this, the last full length from one from Bulgarian blackened doom metallers Darkflight, whose sound is a killer mix of dirgey doom, soaring symphonic majesty, and haunting melodic ambience, the songs super dense and extremely heavy, but even at their heaviest, they ooze melancholy, the guitars unfurling melancholic melodies, and tangling up in minor key harmonies, while the riffs churn and the drums pound, all wreathed in soaring strings and swirling shimmer, with occasional acoustic guitar and brief stretches of hushed thrum. But for the most part, these tracks, trudge and lumber, super emotional and darkly moving doom-ed heaviness, that reminds us of Shape Of Despair or Skepticism, but often ends up sounding more like a doom metal Alcest or a more metal Nadja. Only have 3 or 4 copies of this left, not sure if we can get more once they're gone...

MPEG stream: Indifferent
MPEG stream: Dissolving Into Nothingness

Four song, 20 minute ep of blistering black metal from the frosty environs of...North Carolina. At least that's *North* Carolina. Darkmoon vocalist/guitarist Jon Vesano has recently joined America's reigning kings of death metal, NILE, so that ought to get some folks into this band, folks who perhaps overlooked their previous, excellent album "Seas of Unrest".

"War metal" from North Carolina, basically an American take on Scandinavian black metal and pretty great.

This is a weird one. The record starts off with a melancholy, minor key piano intro but soon erupts into an atonal riff with some jazzy/spastic drumming beneath it. This eventually mutates into some sort-of-black-metal. You knew it was only a matter of time. Kids have been aping Slayer for years, but now it's black metal that has got the kids' attention. So here is some East coast hardcore kids playing black metal, but with all sorts of curious little details that make it distinctly -not- black metal. The spazzy overplaying drummer, who is heavy on the technique, but not so heavy on the, well the heavy. Also some fingerpicked melodies that sound almost radio ready, and some total shredding leads and harmony guitars ala Iron Maiden. Not to say this is bad 'cause it isn't. It's pretty fucking cool. They may have failed in trying to sound 'black metal', but in failing they ended up with something more original and definitely more interesting.

RealAudio clip: These Ghosts Forever
RealAudio clip: Under Eternity

We had sort of forgotten that we made Permission To Land by The Darkness our Record Of The Week back in 2003, it seemed like a bold choice at the time, but listening to it again now, holy shit, so goddamn good. About the best modern slab of super catchy, super heavy cock rock radness we've heard, and that voice, crazy. Even the second record, which we never reviewed, was darn near as good. Now after years and years, these guys are back with a new record, and goddamn if it isn't pretty fucking great. On first listen, there's nothing quite as immediately hit-worthy as "Get Your Hands Off My Woman", or "Love On The Rocks With No Ice", but from the first track, it really couldn't be anybody else. Especially when the music stops, and the vocalist belts out "SUCK MY COCK" in that unmistakable falsetto. The Darkness probably get filed under guilty pleasure by most folks, but we're here to say, there's nothing to feel guilty about AT ALL. Crazy catchy, equal parts eighties hair metal, NWOBHM and classic Queen (check out "Nothin's Gonna Stop Us"), killer guitar harmonies, shredding leads, hooks galore, that voice, the more we listen to this, the more we dig it. The real reason to pick this up, and worth the price of admission alone, is there insanely rad cover of Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", which sounds less like Radiohead and more like Iron Maiden, super heavy, minor key, majestic, epic, guitar harmonies, bombastic drumming, wailing vocals, another one of those rare covers, that's so good, it makes you wish that there were bands that actually sounded like THAT, Iron Maiden meets Radiohead, it's so good! So good in fact that we've found it difficult to stop paying JUST THAT TRACK, and listen to the rest of the record. Most definitely recommended, and easily our favorite cover in forever!

Dang it, The Darkness let us down with this second album, that continues their tongue-in-cheek cock rock program but just doesn't have the songs of the debut. Cheeky of them to record in Queen's old studio with Roy Thomas Baker producing but if you're gonna do that you'd better come up with the goods...

[ aquarius records catalogue — D ]