[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 1201 through 1250 of 1354.

MPEG stream: Rube Yelp
MPEG stream: Six Feet Down

It doesn't get much more breezy and subtly seductive then this one sided 12" by Rubies, with their pal Feist lending her sultry voice to the cause. We've been really anxious to hear Rubies, fronted by Simone Rubi who we always loved in her old band Call & Response. Much like her Call & Response cohort Daniel Judd who is now making some of the smartest and most satisfying electronic music around as Sorcerer, Rubies seems to also have a nice dreamy dance vibe going on. A little more subdued and mellow then the rest of the Italians Do It Better camp, this still fits perfectly on this label that's been doing an amazing job of creating a new legion of disco inspired sounds for this generation. While we wish there was another track on the 'b' side, the almost nine minutes of "I Feel Electric" as remixed by TieDye has been hitting the spot for summertime dancin' with glasses overflowing with bubbly, and fresh strawberries in hand. So sweet and flowing.

Discos Mariposa is quickly becoming one of our new favorite reissue labels alongside Japan's EM Records. Last list we told you about the Alceu Valenca & Geraldo Azevedo record we had fallen in love with and this time out there are two more that we can't seem to keep our ears off of. Paulo E Bagunca A Tropa Maldita (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and this record from Rubinho & Maura Assumpcao. Recorded in 1972 and until now a pretty impossible to find rarity, this Rio De Janeiro duo play totally seductive & dreamy bossa-samba-psychedelic pop. With a nod toward California dreamy west-coast introspection and that irresistible laid back sound that folks in Brazil always got so right. The cover picture of the two of them naked peeking out from within the branches of a tree in some enchanted forest gives you a pretty good indication of the sensual sounds contained within. You might remember their song from the Brazilian edition of the Love Peace & Poetry series, but unlike lots of rediscovered lost 'classics' with one or two good songs, this is an album that perfect from start to finish.

MPEG stream: Sozinho Nao Estou
MPEG stream: A Montanha

Before summer starts to fade away we wanted to make sure to list this colorful, breezy, and tastefully eclectic pop album from New Zealand's The Ruby Suns. Packed with songs that are perfect for those long drives on a summer night, they tap into that carefree classy spirit that bands like The Aislers Set used to capture so perfectly. There's also plenty of Beach Boys harmonic glory and hints of soft psychedelia that on many songs finds the 'Suns sounding like the super sweet and cuddly version of Panda Bear.

MPEG stream: Oh, Mojave
MPEG stream: There Are Birds

MPEG stream: Swan And The Minotaur (Troubled Man)
MPEG stream: Naked Ruby
MPEG stream: Ventriloquist

When we first heard this record, we were so blown away, and before we had a chance to dig WAY in, we took to describing it to other folks as the 'free jazz Endtroducing'. Like DJ Shadow's legendary hip hop classic, but here constructed from jazz records instead of funk and soul and psych. But closer listening and a glance at the liner notes revealed that Fuga is so much more, as the process of creating it is almost as interesting as the music itself. The basic framework was constructed by sampling bits and pieces from records, just how you would imagine, but then that framework was presented to musicians who then played the main chords and melodies, improvising and adding and interpreting. Live drums were added, the whole thing tweaked with and arranged, then those sounds were pressed onto vinyl, and the resulting vinyl records are what was finally used to arrange, sequence, scratch and put together the final product (similar to the way Portishead would record themselves, and press vinyl so they could 'scratch' their songs live). The result is a warm, abstract, fuzzy avant garde free jazz record. Or something. While the presence of vinyl and scratching and referencing DJ Shadow would lead you to think this was some sort of hip hop record, it's really not. Maybe in the way it was constructed, but Fuga tends to flip back and forth between scrabbbly, drone-y, dense assemblages of jazzy sound and chaotic plunderphonic free-jazz. The first two tracks pretty much lay the framework for the whole record. The opening track is an abstract ambient soundscape, warm swells of sound underpin clattery percussion, rumbling drones, buzzing synths, all very muted and minimal, an expansive stretch of darkness, peppered with tribal percussion, way-in-the-background fretless bass, eventually the whole thing morphs into a funky jazzy workout, but only briefly, before it fades into a manic percussive shuffle, which perfectly slips into the second track "Harder Than Hard, Softer Than Soft", the first half a seamless collage of drums and nothing but drums. It definitely sounds like a live drummer tearing it up, hard to detect how it was assembled via various slabs of vinyl, eventually it warps into a strangely funky, fuzzy synth workout which again finally slips back into just drums. The rest of the record is a bit like a freaked out version of Don Cherry's Orient, but all chopped up and layered and twisted and smeared into drones, stretched into strange shapes, funky horns, shuffling tribal percussion, chant like vocals, warm washes of organ, groovy vibes, scrabbly guitar, mournful strings and fluttery flutes, all woven deftly into a gorgeously dense and abstract sort of jazz. Wow.

MPEG stream: Tension And Release (The Journey To Fuga)
MPEG stream: Harder Than Hard, Softer Than Soft (The Line Between Yin And Yang)
MPEG stream: Too Fresh For Words

MPEG stream: It's Happening
MPEG stream: You Blew It

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

SORRY. WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. For some reason these are incredibly limited, so they've been a bit tough to get, so we're going to list a few at a time as we can get them. Ahhh, the trombone, not the most common of jazz instruments, but one of the most versatile and powerful, "the voice of God" according to one 19th century composer, and to our ears one of the strangest and coolest. Roswell Rudd may very well be one of the better known masters of the jazz trombone, as well as one of the few white players in the sixties free jazz scene. Having done time with a handful of big jazz names (including Cecil Taylor) this is a reissue of Rudd's first record as a band leader. Featuring Rudd on trombone,�John Tchicai on Alto Saxophone, Finn Von Eyben on double bass and Louis Moholo on drums, these five tracks smolder and smoke, it's free, but not chaotic and skronky, instead, the sounds here sort of drift and intertwine, these pieces smolder, dark and brooding, murky and subterranean sounding, the drums are a constant skitter, a dense tangle of impossibly free rhythms, the bass wrapped around the drums like a warm blanket, Rudd's trombone and Tchicai's sax are slippery slithering snakes one moment, then wisps of smoke the next, occasionally turning sharp and jagged, but usually slipping back into the shadows. A dark dreamy blend of�marching band music, traditional African music, New Orleans jazz, and random avant free drone clatter and shuffle, with long stretches sounding like they came straight off some lost Avarus or No Neck record. So mysterious and beautiful. HIGHLY recommended.� Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!

MPEG stream: Old Stuff
MPEG stream: Sweet Smells

I had this friend in high school named Davey. He was one of my first weird 'punk' friends. He eventually got expelled for distributing a very funny anti-faculty newsletter, and eventually drifted off and disappeared. But one of the first things he did after we met was to was make me a tape, with Red Lorry Yellow Lorry on one side, and Rudimentary Peni on the other. At the time, I remember being a bit underwhelemed since at the time my taste was still definitely safely in the top 40. But eventually Rudimentary Peni would become a favorite (especially after discovering the manaically precise artwork of head Peni Nick Blinko that graced all of their album covers) and open me up to all sorts of metal and punk and crust. So here we are 20 years later, and Rudimentary Peni are still plugging away, as dark and crusty as ever, and maybe even a bit heavier to boot. This 12 track EP is a creepy, claustrophobic missive of fuzzy guitar, hypnotic and repetitive riffing, gloomy atmosphere, pounding rhythms, cryptic and ultra personal lyrics, and of course Blinko's immediately recognizable artwork. Always worth the several years wait between albums. Probably takes Blinko that long to just draw the covers!

MPEG stream: One And All
MPEG stream: Suffer
MPEG stream: In Crematorium Flame

We're slowly working our way through the Rudimentary Peni catalog, as all of their confusingly brilliant releases gets reissued, and as much as we love all of em, Cacophony is one of our faves, a super bizarre concept record originally released in 1989, not really sure exactly what the concept is, but it must be something demented, cuz as weird as the other RP records are, this might be the weirdest, sonically, it's got all the warped death rock weirdness and twisted post punk crush we love, sinewy basslines, jagged angular guitars, the super distinctive caterwaul of frontman Nick Blinko, but it seems like even the most straight ahead songs eventually devolve into total WTF weirdness. "Nightgaunts" is less than a minute, but fuses garbled deep voiced speaking in tongues with frantic almost metal guitars, burbly basslines, and some frantic hyper punk rock pound, while "the Horrors In the Museum" starts off with a weird spoken word bit, before launching into one of the poppiest RP jams ever, bass driven and super melodic, peppered with some creepy crawly vocals and a noisy psychedelic sort-of-bridge, only to break down about half way through, into a free form noisescape, clouds of crumbling guitar distortion, disembodied riffage, noodly bass runs, and a wild tangle of bizarre voices, sung and spoken, high and low, a demonic choir of sorts, the song continuing to devolve to the very end. And so it goes, some tracks are snarly and swaggery and mean as fuck ("The Only Child"), others are wild and psychedelic and oozing all sorts of wild warped guitar noise, as well as still more bizarre vox ("Architectonic And Dominant"), and others are classic UK post punk, all Joy Division bass and rad angular guitar crunch ("The Evil Clergymen"), we could go on but just trust us, this is 30 tracks, 43 minutes of genius outsider creepy downer death rock noise punk that's equal parts drug addled what-the-fuck weirdness, impossibly hook filled poppiness, twisted over the top art-rock, metallic riffing, punk rock pound, and just tons of confusing non-musical sounds, including lots of voices, to the point where it sounds like a play is going on while RP perform, the production pretty twisted as well, it's not hard to imagine Cacophony as some sort of death rock musical, being performed at a creepy abandoned theater, the full moon lighting the stage through the crumbling remains of the roof, the band garishly costumed and performing for a crowd of ghosts and shadows, wraiths and demons. Total art damaged post punk genius! And as always, adorned with Nick Blinko's maniacally intricate hand drawn artwork.

MPEG stream: Nightgaunts
MPEG stream: The Horrors In The Museum
MPEG stream: The Only Child
MPEG stream: Architectonic And Dominant
MPEG stream: The Evil Clergyman

Easily one of our favorite post punk / death rock groups EVER. Tense and angular, angry and ominous, sinister and sinuous, dark and gothic, every song here a stone cold gloom punk classic, the bass thick and almost new wavey, the guitars jagged, fuzzy and distorted, raw riffage and driving drum pound, all in support of the twisted vocals of Nick Blinko, whose distinctive vocals are only rivaled by his even more distinctive artwork, which adorns the cover (and the cover of all their records), a dizzyingly meticulous black and white horrorscape, that perfectly captures the world of nightmarish, anxiety ridden terror that lurks within the grooves of Death Church, and presumably within Blinko's mind as well, which is probably what resulted in several stints in mental institutions. Even all these years later, Rudimentary Peni sound so good, their music so relevant, and whether consciously or not, aped by far too many modern bands to count, powerful and personal, depressive and kicking-against-the-pricks pissed off, and catchy as fuck, this record has lost none of its twisted black energy in the nearly twenty years since it was first released.

MPEG stream: 1/4 Dead
MPEG stream: Blissful Myth
MPEG stream: The Psycho Squat
MPEG stream: Rotten To The Core
MPEG stream: Pig In A Blanket
MPEG stream: Alice Crucifies The Paedophiles

Let's just start by saying WE LOVE RUDIMENTARY PENI. Easily one of our favorite punk rock groups EVER. Murky and muddy and furious and freaked out. If you somehow don't already own Death Church or Cacophony, you must go try to track them down immediately. Those two records are as near flawless as something fucked up and punk rock and gloomy and demented can actually get without ceasing to be all those things. Much has been written about Peni frontman Nick Blinko, who has spent most of his adult life in and out of asylums, and who is responsible for the band's super striking album covers, super intricate pen and ink drawings, which must take forever, and could only have been drawn by someone either truly inspired, truly demented or both. And somehow, those drawings perfectly and impossibly reflect the music on the inside. Where the drawings are incredibly detailed and complex to the point of mania, the music is stripped down and repetitive, often with just one or two parts, the vocals often just a few lines repeated over and over. Listening to No More Pain, the first RP record in almost 4 years, we were struck by how much all of the super raw and stripped down primitive black metal sounds like Rudimentary Peni. Akitsa, Bone Awl, Ancestors, Ildjarn, plenty of D-beat stuff, slow it down to a more garagey punk rock pound and it's uncanny. In fact, the mind boggles at a black metal Peni, imagining these tracks sped up and blackened, wow. Anyway, this is classic Peni, 10 songs, less than 20 minutes, simple, stomping riff heavy crusty punk, the drums pounding away, the riffs repetitive and mesmerizing, the vocals growled and howled and crooned, the lyrics mantra-like, the songs weirdly catchy too, almost poppy, but just 'off' enough to remain dark and mysterious and intense. The only true weirdness is a very unexpected cover of Pachelbel's Canon, which to be honest, sounds pretty good, the guitars all warped and twisted, but it almost sounds too happy, but everything is slightly off enough, and just a little bit cracked that is manages to sound just a bit demented, which we can only suppose is the point.

MPEG stream: No More Pain
MPEG stream: Eyes Of The Dead
MPEG stream: Prayer For The Unborn

As we mentioned in our review of Rudimentary Peni's recent Death Church, RP are maybe one of our favorite death rock outfits ever, and we were psyched to discover that their whole catalog is getting reissued, on vinyl, and apparently again on cd. We raved about Death Church a little while back, the group's 1983 debut, but now we leap all the way to the end, at least the end of the first era to the oddly named Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric, the group's final full length from 1995, a concept record conceived of while singer/guitarist Nick Blinko was in a mental hospital, the title, and the concept based on Blinko's delusions of being the titular pope. And while all the RP records are pretty twisted, this one definitely feels like the most warped, not just the music, which is often weirdly carnivalesque (check out opener "Pogo Pope", with its woozy riff, and mush mouthed nonsense vocalizing), but there's also a loop of Blinko muttering something in Latin (we think) which starts off the record, and plays continuously throughout, so you can hear it between songs, during all the quiet parts, and even during lots of the more rocking sections. It adds a pretty weird almost psychedelic vibe to the already twisted proceedings. And while that first that track sets the bar pretty high, it doesn't get any less weird. The core sound remains similar to past records, low slung bass, jagged slashing guitars, wild chaotic drumming, and of course Blinko's distinctive vocals, even more unhinged here than usual, the songs too, some definitely look back to past records, but a lot are bouncier, and more repetitive sounding, and the vocals follow suit, often repeating the same phrase over and over, or holding notes for ages, droning out in some weird ritualistic incantation. That said, for all its weirdness, maybe BECAUSE of it, Pope Adrian still rules, and remains an all time favorite, as does everything in RP's catalog, all of which will eventually be getting reissued again. Fuck yeah!

MPEG stream: Pogo Pope
MPEG stream: The Pope With No Name
MPEG stream: Hadrianich Relique
MPEG stream: Il Papus Puss

Brand new record from this Singaporean (!) black metal horde, who make a music they refer to as "vedic metal", and whose whole career has been spent honoring Hindu philosophies and teachings. Brahmavidya: Immortal I is the third and final part of a trilogy, but fear not, we missed out on the first two parts, and it in no way hinders the listener's enjoyment of part three. Rudra's sound is equal parts classic melodic metal and buzzing blasting blackness, but they also infuse classic Eastern melodies into their sound, which gives the music a seriously spiritual vibe. Not to mention the occasional chanted clean vocals as well as traditional instruments, bells and horns, etc. They also have plenty of wild shredding leads, a rarity in black metal, but here, they're as memorable and melodic as any other element. The sound is lush and heavy and epic, tight and technical, mathy and a little progressive, it seems like these guys should be way more popular, apparently they play festivals in other parts of the world, but most metalheads in the US have never heard of em, which is strange, it's a sound that seems like it would go over really well here, super technical, ultra heavy, high concept, fans of groups like Nile, Absu, and other ancient religion obsessed metal outfits should flip for these guys, and anyone into a blackened metal that's not so grim and raw, and is instead epic and expansive and a little experimental and super melodic might get a little obsessed. As it is, we're thinking we better track down the first two parts of the trilogy, cuz this one has been getting played to death. So yeah, if you're after some catchy blackened heaviness, you probably couldn't do much better than this.

MPEG stream: Now, Therefore...
MPEG stream: Illusory Enlightenment
MPEG stream: Ravenous Theories Of Deception

People have been giving me an enormous amount of grief about my love of top 40 MTV hip hop and my disdain for most underground shit (read: most, not ALL), but I could care less. Until all those playas can spit out stuff this good, beats this sick, rhymes

RealAudio clip: They Ain't Ready
RealAudio clip: Dirrty
RealAudio clip: U, Me + She

A quiet composer of the remnant, forgotten sounds of the everyday, Mathieu Ruhlmann has crafted a small if impressive body of work that parallels the soundart of Loren Chasse, Richard Chartier, Steve Roden, and even the likes of Luc Ferrari minus all the sex talk. This Star Teaches Bending is a sober album that was constructed during the final six months before Ruhlmann's mother succumbed to a rare lung disease to which there was no available cure. The title itself is a reference to one of the final painting by Paul Klee, who had also suffered from a protracted illness with no known treatment at that time. Ruhlmann's pace is slow and deliberate in his compositional placement of his variable scratches and squigglings, which he's collected through contact microphones investigating the medical equipment that surround his dying mother with voltage bursts, tactile abrasions, and blankly humming electricity being much of what he gathers, although there is what sounds like a racoon rummaging about in one of the tracks. In the hands of a Joe Colley or a Francisco Meirino, these sources would exist in volatile crucible of psychological tension, but Ruhlmann frames his work with an existential resignation about the finality of his mother's inevitable fate. It's not easy for sure, but there is an underlying poetry of loneliness, sorrow, and grief found within. Nicely packaged in a die-cut sleeve with a professionally printed insert and a pro-duplicated cd-r.

MPEG stream: Wrstwhile Cannibal Man-Eater
MPEG stream: The Hour Before One Night
MPEG stream: Whence? Where? Whither

This is the latest disc of dark ritualistic drone music from Ruhr Hunter, aka Chet Scott, the man who runs the Glass Throat label, who in the past have brought us amazing music from Beneath The Lake And Elemental Chrysalis as well as his own Ruhr Hunter. A handful of copies of this disc (made for friends of the band only) came packaged in a box filled with ocean stones, dirt, pebbles, crow feathers, mink bones & teeth, insects, branches & White Birch bark collected from the forests of Maine, a box of death, and earth, sky and water, transition and rebirth, symbols for the musical world of Ruhr Hunter. Sounds born of nature. A true forest folk music, dark ritualistic soundscapes, primal, tribal, shamanic. Lovely and dreamlike. The sound of wind in leaves, the sound of rain falling through trees, rendered in swirls of acoustic guitar, distant shimmering drones, hushed whispered vocals, as well as actual sounds of the wild, animals, and nature, woven into Ruhr Hunter's dense sonic tapestry. A moody and melancholy missive from the heart of a dark forest, a mysterious figure cloaked in a constantly shifting swirl of low end rumble, sits before a black cauldron suspended above a crackling fire, shadows dance wildly on the canopy above, into the pot the figure places a Jewelled Antler, a Dead Raven, blades of grass, a handful of Lichens, a pine cone and a Wooden Wand, a glorious sound drifts from the murky brew, like tendrils of smoke, drifting heavenward, tangled up in the branches overhead, shifting amongst the shadows, filling our ears with a soft warm otherworldly fire. As with everything on Glass Throat, breathtaking packaging. An oversized brown textured six panel sleeve with the text and imagery embossed in a darker brown, the cover, the instantly recognizable Ruhr Hunter raven talon logo. So nice.

MPEG stream: Antlers In The Fog, To Will The Spirit Of Transit
MPEG stream: An Owl's Gift

Chet Scott's dark ambient project Ruhr Hunter takes its name from the case studies of a German serial killer from the 1950s named Joachim Kroll who had been dubbed the "Ruhr Hunter" by the local authorities due to a concentration of his crimes taking place along the Ruhr River. Such fascinations with transgressive themes and Scott's calls for human cleansing (even if it may be metaphoric) lend themselves for placing Ruhr Hunter in the true-crime pulp elements of industrial culture as well as a giving him the obvious crossover appeal with black metal mythology. Yet, this does little to embody the rich instrumentation that Scott puts into Ruhr Hunter, as those gaping Lustmordian drones so common within the dark ambient oeuvre are matched with smatterings of extended song fragments with acoustic guitars, ghostly harmonicas, tubular bells, delicate piano melodies, and a number of handcrafted stringed instruments. As good if not better than the atavistic, pseudo-pagan ambient works of Tribes of Neurot.

RealAudio clip: Wounded By My Own Blade
RealAudio clip: The Sower and The Sown

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

SORRY. This came out about a year ago but chances are you never saw it--we only managed to get some recently. Ruin (not to be confused with Japan's Ruins, plural) were a Philadelphia hardcore band from the eighties, and this is basically their entire output, on one cd (from master tapes miraculously salvaged from a sidewalk sale!). Way ahead of their time, Ruin mixed the hc mosh parts up with psychedelic rock (they do an amazing cover of "White Rabbit") and eastern mysticism (they all were Buddhists). In addition to Jefferson Airplane, the disc also includes covers of the Rolling Stones, and a couple Leonard Cohen tunes, along with classic Ruin originals "Alter", "Proof", and many others. Highly recommended.

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

SORRY. Kathleen Hanna, former member of now defunct Bikini Kill breaks out with her own solo album, wherein she makes all the music and vocals. New to her sound is an emphasis on loops and manufactured beats.

Aquarius customers probably know this band already, the famed hardcore progrock bass/drum duo from Tokyo led by drummer extraordinare Tatsuya Yoshida. They're big favorites of several AQ-staffers, being one of Allan and Jeff's favorite bands ever! This new Skin Graft cd collects (as its title suggests) tracks from the first six years of the Ruins career, which, as great as the Ruins still are today, may have been their best era. There's the happy, hectic (Hella-like, to reference another two-piece we've recently raved about) really early stuff from when Hideki Kawamoto was the Ruins' bassist, and then more massive, majestic material from later on with bassist Kazuyoshi Kimoto and then Ryuichi Masuda (yep, Yoshida is currently playing with bassist number four). About half of these tracks are from long-out-of-print Japanese releases, while (the second) half of the disc pulls from the Ruins' two Shimmy Disc albums, which are also more-or-less out of print as well (the reason we say 'more-or-less' is kinda complicated, ask Allan if you care). And the tracks selected (by Yoshida, who also remixed and remastered 'em) do make for a good "best of" -- we'd have picked many of the same tracks ourselves. (Though Yoshida should have included "Power Shift" from "Burning Stone"! oh well). Ok, this part of the review is for fellow Ruins fanatics: basically, you don't need this ONLY if you already have the "Burning Stone", "Stonehenge" (the original Shimmy version with the bonus tracks that is), "Ruins III" (aka "Infect"), and "Ruins II & 19 Numbers" cds. Otherwise you definitely need this!! Not to mention, these tracks are remastered, and you probably don't have the track "Cambodia" from the "NG II" comp... And if you've got the rare "Early Works" Ruins cd, don't worry, none of those recordings are on here. Everybody else -- this is a great collection that we'd highly recommend as a starting place for your Ruins experience, although you'll eventually want to hunt down their out of print cds too, to hear the entire albums. Essentially, essential.

RealAudio clip: Sanctuary
RealAudio clip: Human Being
RealAudio clip: Dadaism
RealAudio clip: Grubandgo

The single's title comes from some actual ruins, one of them "stone ships" the Vikings built, so appopriately it's a Swedish 7" import release by AQ-fave Japanese prog-core duo Ruins. Six songs, recorded in '97 and '99 in Tokyo. These are studio recordings, not live. Here's the track listing: Snare, Laiptchig, Dagad, Korromda Deimm, Nivaftopoftz, Jallamjikko. It's all the sort of crazy stuff you'd expect from these guys. Further description is probably unnecessary as this is limited to just 300 copies -- we got a dozen, and that's probably it, so act fast, Ruins fans!

Not to be confused with Japanese prog duo Ruins, these guys are from Germany, and traffic in classic old school thrashing blackness, channeling the greats like Bathory and Sodom and even Darkthrone. On first listen, we just took Ruins for another bunch of retro thrashers, which technically they are, but we left the record playing, and the more it played, the deeper we got into it, the more obsessed we became. We're not always that into old school thrash, our tastes run more to the black and droney, or the fucked up and frenzied, but there's something about these guys that has all the metalheads around here in a bit of a froth. The riffs of course destroy, buzzy and crushing, the production massive and in-the-red, the vocals are insane, a glass gargling bile spewing demonic rasp that pretty much seals the deal. Tons of distortion and reverb, the songs simple and stripped down, raw and relentless, it takes all our self control to reign in fits of spontaneous head banging when this disc is playing. The crazy thing is Ruins is a one man band. We're used to one man bedroom black metal, but listening to this we envision three long haired guys all holding up chains and upside down crosses, scowling at the camera, bullet belts massive spikes, leather jackets, in a graveyard or some forest or something, pretty insane that something this furious and blown out and thrashy is just one guy, but hell, kudos to him. Not sure what else to say, this rules, total punked up greasy, filthy thrashy blackened metal genius, give the sound samples a few listens, once you're hooked, you'll be hard pressed to pry this thing out of your cd player. Includes Ruins' first two demos, from 2006 and 2007, as well as a bunch of previously unreleased bonus tracks. METAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MPEG stream: Bloodstorms Of Hell
MPEG stream: Blasphemy Reigns
MPEG stream: Castle Of Nocturnal Evil
MPEG stream: Total Perversion

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

SORRY. Allan's favorite album ever? Yes, also this one.

Relisting this in case you missed it on our mystery themed in-between list last week (we gave it a new, expanded write-up just for that). "Japanese duo on John Zorn's domestic label." Good grief, is that ALL we wrote about this when we first listed it way back when (1995)?? Might as well say that the Beatles were "a British quartet on London-based label Parlophone". There's a lot more to the story. First off, bass and drums two piece Ruins are/were probably our favorite crazy underground Japanese band, next to the Boredoms. Drummer/mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida is a musical genius, and if you've been paying attention to our site over the years you're read our raves about many, many of his various albums and projects, from Ruins to Koenjiyyakei to Korekyojinn to Zubi Zuva... etc., etc. Hyderomastgroningem (that's a mouthful!) was the first Ruins disc to come out on Tzadik. It features bassist Ryuichi Masuda, who also played on their out of print classic Burning Stone (1992), and may in fact be the only Masuda-era Ruins disc still in print, as well as being the last one that he appeared on (Ruins has had several bassists over the years, all of them amazing, but Masuda was our fave). There's 20 tracks here of the Ruins' complex, heavy, stripped down Magma-inspired prog madness, some continuing the catchiness of Burning Stone and earlier works, others getting more imrov-like and experimental and noisy... super distorted bass, faux-operatic (and nonsensical) vocals, Yoshida's usual octopoidal drumming, repetitive rhythmic bludgeon... it's all here, along with unique touches to this album, like a track where Masuda plays a radio, for instance.

MPEG stream: Pig Brag Crack
MPEG stream: Gravestone
MPEG stream: Memories Of Zworrisdeh
MPEG stream: Del Fanci Kant

Yo, all fans of spazzed-out mathrock madness! Here's drummer/vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida and bassist/vocalist Sasaki Hisashi (joined by local guest vocalist Wong Lei on the one final improvisational track) captured live in full, frantic action on August 13th, 2000, and released on Hong Kong label Noise Asia which has also recently graced us with discs by Otomo Yoshihide and the Keiji Haino/Tatsuya Yoshida duo. The 19 tracks here mostly draw from Ruins' most recent albums, with nine songs from "Pallaschtom" and two from "Vrresto". Plus, there's a few new and/or impromptu tunes (with titles like "I Ate Yu Bing This Morning" and "Eating 7 Kinds Of Chang Fen Was Too Much") as well as some old favorites like "Hyderomastogroningem" and "Del Fanci Kant". Oh, and of course this also features their now obligatory insane progressive rock and classical music medleys (which are fun, but I always wonder if it's pandering for a band with Ruins' accomplishments to resort to what is basically gimmickery...what the hell though, such jaw-dropping entertainment can't be argued with). Nicely recorded, "Live In Guang Zhou - China" is a fine addition to the vast Ruins discography. We can't say it's essential (being their second -- or third, if you count the Enterruption cassette -- live record within less than two years) but it's darn good, and both fans and novices alike will find it suitably mind-boggling. If you ARE a novice, look elsewhere on our website for more info about Ruins, Japan's drum/bass heavy progcore dervishes.

RealAudio clip: Shi Zai Guang Zhou
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If you've never been fortunate enough to see these marvels of Japanese musical technology perform in person, you'll be extra blown away by this new live document. The Ruins are a super heavy and hyperkinetic bass and drums duo from Tokyo, who over the past

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A collection of tracks culled from live shows in Japan in 1997. This cassette-only release is 46 minutes long, limited to 100 handnumbered copies, and comes w/a button and one of 6 color postcards featuring photos taken by Ruins dude Tatsuya Yoshida himself. First come, first served.

Ruins fans! Here's a vinyl version of the now out of print cassette previously released by SF label Enterruption. The dynamic drums/bass duo of Tatsuya Yoshida and Sasaki Hisashi kick out the jams live in Japan and France, back in fall 1997. Selected and mixed by Yoshida, there are sixteen cuts, including "Hyderomasgroningem", "Plexus", "Snare", "Pontemcorary Music #1", and their much-loved progressive rock medley. Limited to 500 (there were only 100 of the cassettes).

At last, back in print! This Ruins album from 2000 had been unavailable for a while, but Skin Graft, recognizing the severity of the situation, has stepped in to address that problem. For those who don't know, the Ruins are a Japanese duo on bass and drums who since 1985 or so have played a pretty unique form of hyper-kinetic hardcore prog rock with schizoid changes, influenced by weird French progsters Magma -- and themselves influencing stuff like John Zorn's Naked City. Here's our original review of this, with a few additional notes tacked on at the end: Mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida (drums) and his current sidekick Hishashi Sasaki (6-string bass, MIDI) kick out the jams yet again on this, the Ruins' upteenth (15th?) cd. Beware their percussive frenzies, sizzling bass guitar acrobatics, and bizarre vocals (with lyrics in their own improvised language, that seems to mean something to them, even though they don't). With "Pallaschtom" the Ruins have really settled into a tight, mind-bogglingly complex compositional style, that's perhaps not as catchy as some of their past classics, but is still definitely insane and amazing, and incorporates some new, what you might call "post-rock" influences (i.e. there's moments on here that sound more like a Storm & Stress record than your usual Ruins stuff). And, it's also true that they are further in danger of garnering official "novelty act" status, especially with their newfound penchant for cover-song medleys: for instance, this disc ends with a track of 26 classical music themes (well-known tunes by Beethoven, Satie, Musorgsky, Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Vivaldi, etc.) run through in a little over one minute! Exhausting, and entertaining! Novelty act or not, they're still one of our favorite bands. Since then, there's been a few live Ruins albums released and one newer, more multi-dimensional studio disc (Tzomborgha) that we thought was superior to Pallaschtom, though that's not to say that any self respecting Ruins fan should be able to live without Pallaschtom in their collection! Also, Sasaki isn't in the band anymore, either. A further note: this Skin Graft reish adds two more medleys (Hard Rock and Prog Rock) as bonus tracks.

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Back in print! And a "Special Edition" to boot, meaning Skin Graft have made some slight changes to the artwork and, more importantly, tacked on five previously unheard bonus tracks! That makes for 25 tracks in total of frantic riff-packed precision prog punk on this collection of unreleased studio (4 and 8 track recordings) and live material from one of Japan's most amazing bands, the heavy & hyper drum/bass duo led by Tatsuya Yoshida. Originally released in 1997, this disc featured four songs with former bassist Ryuichi Masuda, while the rest heralded the debut of then-new six-string bass man Sasaki Hisashi (since departed, from Ruins that is). The live tracks also have guests from Boredoms/Omoide Hatoba, Tipographica (a saxophonist, for maximum jazz-Ruins dementia) and other bands, jamming on some of the Ruins' "greatest hits", including such favorites as "Hyderomastgroningem", "Burning Stone", "Dhaskrive", "Del Fanci Kant," and "Infect" (that one particularly enhanced with some intense synth keyboard action). The studio material includes some songs originally written as far back as 1988 but never before recorded, all super killer stuff to say the least! We should mention the track "Still Life", a good portion of which almost sounds like something by Italy's Sinistri, it's so abrupt and sparse. Fittingly, the disc ends with their now notorious prog-rock medley, referencing dozens of obscure riffs -- from King Crimson, Yes, Gong, Goblin, Rush, ELP, Samla Mamas Manna, PFM, Caravan, Area, Magma (of course), and many more -- in a lightning-fast fury. Recommended for all Ruins fanatics of course, probably even if you already have the old version, thanks to the bonus tracks...

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

SORRY. Back in print! And a "Special Edition" to boot, meaning Skin Graft have made some slight changes to the artwork and, more importantly, tacked on five previously unheard bonus tracks! That makes for 25 tracks in total of frantic riff-packed precision prog punk on this collection of unreleased studio (4 and 8 track recordings) and live material from one of Japan's most amazing bands, the heavy & hyper drum/bass duo led by Tatsuya Yoshida. Originally released in 1997, this disc featured four songs with former bassist Ryuichi Masuda, while the rest heralded the debut of then-new six-string bass man Sasaki Hisashi (since departed, from Ruins that is). The live tracks also have guests from Boredoms/Omoide Hatoba, Tipographica (a saxophonist, for maximum jazz-Ruins dementia) and other bands, jamming on some of the Ruins' "greatest hits", including such favorites as "Hyderomastgroningem", "Burning Stone", "Dhaskrive", "Del Fanci Kant," and "Infect" (that one particularly enhanced with some intense synth keyboard action). The studio material includes some songs originally written as far back as 1988 but never before recorded, all super killer stuff to say the least! We should mention the track "Still Life", a good portion of which almost sounds like something by Italy's Sinistri, it's so abrupt and sparse. Fittingly, the disc ends with their now notorious prog-rock medley, referencing dozens of obscure riffs -- from King Crimson, Yes, Gong, Goblin, Rush, ELP, Samla Mamas Manna, PFM, Caravan, Area, Magma (of course), and many more -- in a lightning-fast fury. Recommended for all Ruins fanatics of course, probably even if you already have the old version, thanks to the bonus tracks...

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

SORRY. Allan's favorite album ever? Possibly. The domestic debut of Tokyo bass/drum duo Ruins, who when I (Allan) first heard 'em seemed like the unholy melding of the Boredoms and the Melvins. Essential heavy, energetic avant-rock genius.

Like the title implies, this is Japan's Ruins in full "symphonic prog rock mode", that is, the core duo of drums and bass are augmented by keyboards, additional vocals, etc. It's mostly old Ruins compositions (with the exception of one new track) getting reworked. The results venture more overtly into the 70's style symphonic prog rock territory from which the Ruins in the past have derived much inspiration but not sounded like. It can't be said that any of the new arrangements (complete with, of course, breathtaking playing) really improve upon the original versions, but they are still great fun to hear--especially if you're a fan into drummer Tatsuya Yoshida's Magma-oid side project Koenji-Hyyakei. Yep, this really shows their roots in the '70s extremes of bands like Magma and Area.

Wow. Probably the best album from this band in a long time. And they're always really good. Still, their last two studio albums (2000's "Pallaschtom" and 1998's "Vrresto"), although amazing musically, might have actually taken their insane technicality to an almost detrimental, one-dimensional extreme, when compared to more melodic and memorable earlier Ruins classics like "Burning Stone". But, with this new release, we're really excited about the Ruins again. It's got more ideas, more variety, more inventiveness, more surprises -- and of course, more of that insane technicality. Let's pause for a quick update for those not familiar with the band: Japan's Ruins are a drums and bass prog-core duo who play crazy, complex, heavy compositions and improvisations. Both members sing operatically in a made-up language, with one of 'em riffing and soloing w/ bass and effects to put most metal guitarists to shame and the other bashing the drums in an impossibly octopus-like fashion. Totally over the top masters of riff and timing they are. They worship French prog gods Magma, and are worshipped themselves equally and deservedly by fans and bands all over -- such as Mike Patton, who's just released "Tzomborgha" on his Ipecac label. And if you've never heard them before, this disc is in fact a great place to start (which is saying a lot). "Tzomborgha" features weird (for them, even!) vocal stylisms, psychedelic fusionscapes, truly melodic and pretty parts, improv spasticity, and even some spacey atmospheric jamming, as well as plenty of the shredding bass/drums workouts with rapidfire, mindboggling changes like you'd expect. Continuing a Ruins tradition, this disc concludes with not one but two of their infamous medleys, the subjects of which in some way sum up the Ruins' appeal: one is devoted to the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the other to Black Sabbath! The later is particularily amusing when they attempt to approximate (or parody) Ozzy's vocals... Earlier in the disc you'll also find two cover songs, one supposedly an Olivier Messiaen theme even though it sounds like a Ruins original, and the other the Shankar piece "Chittam Irangaayo", which is especially great. Indian classical music meets jazz meets the Ruins! Tempering their complexicore excesses with a show of some diverse musical interests (along with getting a heavier bass sound that harkens back to older Ruins albums/bassists) results in this disc being the most vital in-the-studio display of their genius since, say, "Hydromastgroningem" back in '95 or 1993's "Graviyaunosch". Yep, "Tzomborgha" is definitely impressive. Think about it. These guys have been around for, like, almost 20 years!! (I believe Ruins debuted in 1985.) They're at that point in their career where their last three releases before this consisted of two live albums and a best of! Isn't that like some Blue Oyster Cult shit? Most bands like that you could write off, yet here comes "Tzomborgha" to kick our asses. Awesome.

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RealAudio clip: Chittam Irangaayo
RealAudio clip: Tzomborgha

Attention Ruins fans! Attention fans of hyperkinetic bass and drums prog-rock insanity! (Them's one and the same, we're pretty sure.) Here's something for ya, which you may not have already and/or may need again. Previously only available as a French import (and Japanese edition in Japan), Chicago's Skin Graft label have now re-issued this 1998 Ruins album domestically, in a freshly remixed form. And there's two bonus tracks to boot! Previously we called this "demented", and a "showcase" for their style of "utter-insane-complexicore". We'll stand by those hyperbolic statements today as well. Vrresto and its follow-up Pallaschtom saw the Ruins go to the edge and beyond of acrobatic/athletic musical extremity, undeniably impressive (though, it must be said that we found their scaling back of the spasticity on 2002's Tzomborgha album to be a welcome move). Vrresto was the first proper album recorded by the line-up of founding drummer/mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida and (at the time) new six-string bassist Hisashi Sasaki (who despite the onslaught of Yoshida's octopoid drumming can hardly be said to play second fiddle in the band). Cool to have this back in print, just in time for Ruin's 20th (!!!) anniversary.

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Another one for the Ruins fans out there. Along with the amazing Koenji Hyakkei DVD that Magaibutsu also just put out, here's another live DVD, this time featuring Ruins themselves along with three other combos from the underground Tokyo prog rock scene. This certainly lives up to the "Let's Dance With Irregular Rhythms" title! All these bands were recorded one night last July at a club called FAB, shot with relatively static but pro camerawork and fine sound. Ruins do nine songs, some old, some new, in their inimitable frenzied, just-bass-and-drums way. They're kind of an anomaly here, in a way, 'cause their brand of prog is so uniquely stripped-down and heavy. Nothing else on here quite approaches their mania, but prog-fiends will still want to check out the others. There's the exotic-sounding Pochakaite Malko, a quartet featuring electric violin, bass, drums and keys. Quite melodic and flashy. Rather more fierce is the hard-hitting, spazzed out Aburadako. Their singer's got a slicked-back Mike Patton hairstyle and a deadpan delivery, standing motionless in front of his mic with a thousand-yard stare when not singing. Weird, and probably our favorite here next to Ruins. The fourth band on here is a large ensemble called Cicala-Mvta, that's a bit more of a circusy-sounding chamber rock thing, not unlike gypsy wedding music actually, with strings and horns as well as the usual rock instrumentation. Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins sits in as a second drummer!

Fans of the Japanese underground progcore "Zeuhl" two-piece Ruins have been waiting... and waiting... it's been a while since the last Ruins album. Probably 'cause mastermind (and drummer) Tatsuya Yoshida, busy with a million other projects, has apparently never found a suitable replacement for the other half of the duo, bassist number four Sasaki Hisashi having left after 2002's Tzomborgha. But now, he's decided, he doesn't need another bassist. He doesn't need anyone. That's right, he can simply (or rather, complexly) play all the parts his own self!!! Now, we'd not have thought it possible if we hadn't seen him perform solo before, octopoidally attacking drum kit, bass pedals, keyboard, headset microphone, guitar, etc. But he's a maniac, and he can do it. Sure, presumably this studio recording utilized overdubs (it must have) but we wouldn't be at all surprised if he's able to do pretty much the same thing live, Thrones style, somehow. So, here's the record. 23 tracks, about half of 'em brand new, utterly over the top compositions, the other half being "alone" versions of earlier Ruins tracks (including such old faves as "Grubandgo", "Cambodia", "Dharskrive", "Hyderomastgroningem", "Stonehenge", and "Sanctuary")... plus, as bonus tracks, two of the Ruins' now obligatory medleys - a "Prog Rock Medley" and "Hard Rock Medley", both gleefully ADD insane. Oh, and as another bonus, the surprisingly lovely & placid piano piece "Notturuno". So, we're not sure if Ruins Alone is the way Ruins will be from now on, or if he's still just waiting for the right bass player to turn up, but for now anyway, if you want Ruins, this is it. And Yoshida (of course) pulls it off! Pretty freaking amazing. Y'know how Ruins already sounded like way more than just 2 people? Same goes here, dude's a one man multitude. While hyper-spastic as always (doing it all by himself sure doesn't slow him down!), Ruins Alone IS a wee bit different sounding than most previous Ruins, in that instead of heavy 5-string bass you get shredding, sizzling keyboards, and that's what makes the many tracks here that are renditions of past Ruins numbers especially interesting to hear for those familiar with the originals. The sound is still quite heavy and fuzzy but also uniquely synth-y, it's like some sort of crazy new wave, Nintendo version of the Ruins here, retro-futuristic in a remarkably "now" sounding way. IF you're new to Ruins, you certainly could start with this, but we'd recommend checking out the proper duo recordings as well (Burning Stone, if you can find it!!). This as a taster, though, would help determine if you're crazy enough to become obsessed with this "band" or not. And longtime fans, YES you want this. More proof that Yoshida rules, even alone!Which we've known since his solo debut, Magaibutsu, back in 1991...

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It's been nearly 3 years since we've heard from German black metal horde Ruins Of Beverast, who are responsible for two of our favorite black metal records ever, Unlock The Shrine and Rain Upon The Impure, a group that was born out of the demise of another one of our all time BM faves, Nagelfar, whose Virus West record helped define black metal for us, and to this day is still one of those records that all others are compared to, and most, in the face of a record like Virus West, are left wanting. So with a build up like that, it's fairly obvious that a new Ruins of Beverast is kind of a big deal. Especially after three years. Thankfully, the brilliantly titled Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite, was more than worth the wait, another twisted amalgamation of lurching black doom, blasting frenzied black metal, and all sorts of other weirdness that is not so easily described. The tracks are long and packed with parts, the opening track pretty much sets the stage, beginning with some super dramatic midtempo doom beneath almost chanted clean vocals, before a cool fuzzy, processed guitar comes in, a weird pop element that sounds totally wrong, but at the same time right at home, before the track lurches to a halt, and the band lumber forth, a trudging black doom behemoth, laced with Filosofem like keyboards, sick guttural vox, weirdly meditative, and trancelike, shifting gears constantly like some sort of post black metal math rock outfit, finally finishing off how it started, more lurching woozy doom pop, more of those super melodic clean vocals, and another burst of that warped fuzz guitar melody. And that's just one track. The other tracks are separated by short interludes that range from blackened fragments of rumble and crunch, to haunting choral shimmer, to abstract free form drift, but those are seemingly woven into the whole, as if all of Foulest Semen was one continuous musical movement, "God's Ensanguined Bestiaries" is furious blackened thrash, those impossibly inhuman vocals riding atop frenzied riffage and lightning speed blasts, before the sound shifts dramatically, and that weird melodic fuzz guitar returns (sounding more like something you'd hear on a White Stripes record of all things), but the fact that it's tangled up in a chaotic jumble of crumbling filthy blackness, and haunting gothic doom, lots of moments here remind us of Norwegians Code as well, that same sort of blackened Interpol, or Metal Joy Division vibe infused into their grim black fury. "Mount Sinai Moloch" is even weirder, brittle doom guitars, pounding muffled industrial percussion, garbled alien vocals, spidery clean guitars, all very spacious and stretched out, but eventually, things do get more grim and blackly propulsive. The rest of the record is rife with stuff you'd never expect to find on a black metal record, be it bits of gorgeous gloomy dour pop, huge heaving slabs of almost orchestral sounding heaviness, soaring strings (or what sounds like strings), spaced out clouds of reverbed vocals, fractured electronics, moody buzz drenched slowcore, but all of those elements are seamlessly incorporated into the bands twisted black heaviness, a dizzying hybrid for sure, one that is hard to imagine would be appealing to your standard black metal / black doom fan, but for the rest of us, Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite is gloriously idiosyncratic, furious and fucked up, freaky and avant garde, blackened and doomic, but at the same time an incredible, and incredibly catchy (black / doom) metal record, and even though this technically came out last year, we still might have to offer this up as a contender for metal record of THIS year, black, doom, or otherwise...

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We were heartbroken after the dissolution of German black metal outfit Nagelfar (not to be confused with the Swedish e-less Naglfar). Their all time black metal masterpiece Virus West, has been a huge favorite of all the metal heads around these parts (and has just been reissued, and will be reviewed on the list soon!) but a few years after the death of Nagelfar, a new band was born out off the ashes, a strangely monickered beast called the Ruins Of Beverast. Purveyors of, in their own words, "oppressive black metal", and indeed, the sound of RoB was totally unlike the blazing Scandinavian style of buzzing black metal, instead, they offered up a sprawl of midtempo misery, as doom as much as black. And this, their second album continues on a similar sonic path. There is of course plenty of buzz, this is grim black metal after all, but RoB have a much more expansive vision. Out of the seven tracks, five clock in at around 15 minutes (the other two are brief ambient interludes of cavernous whir and crumbling subterranean drones) and find a grim black buzz stretched waaaaaaay out into long stretches of Burzumic doom. The guitars are thick and spacious, not just buzzy and compressed, the production is massive, each song is like a journey through some massive underworld, drifting through firelit caverns, along some viscous black river. The rhythms are loping, seasick waltzes, sometimes slowing down to glacial dirges, with arpeggiated chords spread out over thick backdrops of warm blurry buzz, howled vocals, simple pounding drums, all wrapped in huge swaths of reverb, making all the edges bleed together, turning buzzy black metal into fuzzed out doomdrone metal. The oppressive blackened crush lets up once in a while, allowing brief bits of shimmer to shine through, a weird post rocky slowcore crawl, some minor key jangly clean guitar, slow building Godspeed like ambience, bits of epic synth, always returning to the relentless buzzing dirge, allowing off course for brief flurries of furious blasting black metal, but those always seem to give way to still more slow and sorrowful blackdoom beauty.

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What are the odds of two different bands picking the same name? Pretty good we'd imagine, but what if that name was Nagelfar? A bit more unlikely we think. So you've got two metal bands, both calling themselves Nagelfar (each spelled slightly differently, one with an E, one without), we obviously just assumed that Nagelfar must be from Lord of The Rings, but as far as we can tell, it's not. In fact, a brief Google search tells us that Nagelfar is either german for enamel, or finger nail polish, or slang for having sex ("to fix with a nail", huh?) Anyway, we're getting off track. Of the two Nagelfar's, we were always partial to the one with the E (the 'good' Nagelfar, not to be confused with the Swedish E-less Naglfar), a German black metal horde responsible for one of the best BM records ever, Virus West. With the dissolution of Nagelfar came the formation of the even more mysterious Ruins Of Beverast and their self described "opressive black metal". Oppressive indeed, but most certainly depressive as well. And while this may indeed be black metal, it's as doomy as it is black, and as ambient as it is doomy. There's only a few tracks that are full on blazing buzzing black metal, and those most definitely sound quite a bit like Virus West, but the majority of Unlock The Shrine is slow and dirgey, droney and dark, midtempo Burzumic buzz, fuzzed out riffs over plodding sea sick rhythms, everything wrapped in swirling swaths of thick keyboard, all twisted into some strangely off kilter, relentlessly propulsive black metal dronerock. But that's just the basic framework, every song is rife with weird little elements, unlikely and very un- black metal sonic weirdness. A ridiculously catchy guitar melody dropped into a fierce black metal dirge, drifting abstract soundscapes punctuated by ominous almost cartoonish piano, industrial percussion and howling winds, even what sounds like gunshots and car alarms. All struggling in a churning sea of howling pounding guitar fuzz and suffocating blackened ambience. So gloriously bleak and beautifully miserable.

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

SORRY. This out of print AQ fave (soon to be reissued on cd) is resurrected in the analog form of a super limited deluxe gatefold double lp! What are the odds of two different bands picking the same name? Pretty good we'd imagine, but what if that name was Nagelfar? A bit more unlikely we think. So you've got two metal bands, both calling themselves Nagelfar (each spelled slightly differently, one with an E, one without), we obviously just assumed that Nagelfar must be from Lord of The Rings, but as far as we can tell, it's not. In fact, a brief Google search tells us that Nagelfar is either german for enamel, or finger nail polish, or slang for having sex ("to fix with a nail", huh?) Anyway, we're getting off track. Of the two Nagelfar's, we were always partial to the one with the E (the 'good' Nagelfar, not to be confused with the Swedish E-less Naglfar), a German black metal horde responsible for one of the best BM records ever, Virus West. With the dissolution of Nagelfar came the formation of the even more mysterious Ruins Of Beverast and their self described "oppressive black metal". Oppressive indeed, but most certainly depressive as well. And while this may indeed be black metal, it's as doomy as it is black, and as ambient as it is doomy. There's only a few tracks that are full on blazing buzzing black metal, and those most definitely sound quite a bit like Virus West, but the majority of Unlock The Shrine is slow and dirgey, droney and dark, midtempo Burzumic buzz, fuzzed out riffs over plodding sea sick rhythms, everything wrapped in swirling swaths of thick keyboard, all twisted into some strangely off kilter, relentlessly propulsive black metal dronerock. But that's just the basic framework, every song is rife with weird little elements, unlikely and very un- black metal sonic weirdness. A ridiculously catchy guitar melody dropped into a fierce black metal dirge, drifting abstract soundscapes punctuated by ominous almost cartoonish piano, industrial percussion and howling winds, even what sounds like gunshots and car alarms. All struggling in a churning sea of howling pounding guitar fuzz and suffocating blackened ambience. So gloriously bleak and beautifully miserable.

MPEG stream: Between Bronze Walls
MPEG stream: Euphoria When The Bombs Fell
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Demo tapes, now on cd. Occult '80s doom metal from Italy, super underground. Includes a track later covered on the first Paul Chain Violet Theatre album!!!

[ aquarius records catalogue — R ]