The masters of Finnish caveman black metal are back with another unholy slab of primitive nastiness. If you've followed us and our reviews for any length of time, you will be well-versed in our near-universal praise of RFR's discography, and Ageless Powers Arise delivers the goods. The goods, of course, being some of the heaviest, rawest, and weirdest black-doom-psych ferocity in the whole world, sounding something like Aluk Todolo after a lobotomy. For old and new RFR fans alike, this is a necessary listen.
Finnish experimental black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, might be one of our favorite groups going right now. We've raved wildly about every one of their records so far, and then there's RfR electronic offshoot Will Over Matter, who we dig just as much. And it's not surprising, Ride For Revenge don't traffic in grim black buzz, they're not sonically similar to classic Norwegian black metal, or Swedish, or French - if anything, they're much more in the tradition of all the WTF? music we love from Finland, from Circle to Keukhot, Dead Reptile Shrine to Circle Of Ouroborus, their music is murky and dirgey, mathy and rhythmic, repetitive and hypnotic, and if you thought their records proper were fucked up and far out, this new double cd of singles and comp tracks and live jams will blow your mind.
The first track alone is worth the price of admission, RfR getting all Will Over Matter, and unfurling a 21 minute electronic/black buzz hybrid, the first 6 minutes of which, is just weird squelches and bleeps and bloops, with some creepy voice intoning over the top. And when the riffing finally comes in, the song doesn't explode into metallic gallop, or burst into furious blasting, instead, that riff, just sort of buzzes in the background, while the bleeping and squelchy blooping continue, the whole thing a sort of damaged black buzz kosmische or something. And then at about 9 minutes in, another guitar (or is that a synth?) comes in, all thick and crumbling and corrosive, drums too, plodding and spare, and again, no blasting or galloping, now it's just a woozy, murky creep, still spaced out and cosmic, but now buzzy and blurry lumbering, and then vocals come in, raspy and sinister, over a bed of what is essentially blackened power electronics, the vocals mutating gradually, until they sound robotic and alien, a little like Cylons from the old Battlestar Galactica!!! What the fuck? And that's just part one. Part two of the 32+ opening jam, finds the band slipping back into a field of blooping FX and electronics, that again, are eventually subsumed by some damaged drumming, and crumbling distorted guitar buzz, noisy and chaotic and fucking demented. This time, the sound does get fast and buzzy, but it's a loping, stumbling blackened mess, that eventually resolves in a tangle of buzzing, glitched out electronics. Phew! Only two other tracks on the first disc, but they're lengthy WTF? workouts. One's an old track from 2009, that is freaked out NOISE, sounding very Japanese, or Japanoise. Total skree and screech, howl and throb, feedback, and gristly grinding crunch, howled vokills, some seriously brutal blacknoise. The other's a 20 minute epic, recorded in 2013, the same time as those first two tracks, this one ditching the electronics, and unfurling a murky rumbling ambience, which soon turns into some weirdly dubbed out black dirge murk, sounding a bit like Aluk Todolo, a sort of black-kraut hypno-rock, totally mesmerizing, and if those first two tracks didn't make it worth it for you, this one definitely will...
The second disc is much more 'metal', the first few tracks live, the band sounding a bit more conventional, but only a bit, the sound distorted and blown out and lo-fi, but still tranced out and minimal, very much in the vein of Aluk Todolo, some dirge-y occult rock, with some sick, howled vox, loping, lumbering, minimal black murk, that veers from churning almost-doom, to stumbling metallic frenzy and back again, with at least one guitar doing nothing but spraying thick crumbling black drones over the proceedings, either that or the riffs, just blur into blackened smears, either way, it's plenty tripped out and hypnotic. There's a few awesome demo tracks, super brittle and muddy, with weirdly clean guitar riffing, distant drumming, rumbling vokill rasps, all smeared into some minimal black metal murk. There are some other rarities, a fantastic 10 minute ambient creepfest, all grinding low end, mumbled vox, pipe fight percussion, spare and SUPER creepy, laced with some electronic flecked guitar buzz, and some seriously tripped out production, and a second track, that's cut from the same cloth, but then adds a shit ton of furious blackened guitar-noise to the proceedings, not to mention some super fucking creepy vocals, making it sound like some blackened bastard offspring of Whitehouse and Suicide! Then finally, more old demos, these the most metal of the bunch, epic riffing, simple drumming, the first of the three almost sounding like 'true' metal, old school lo-fi crusty filthy blackness, raw and fierce and pretty fucking rad.
Finland's weirdo minimalist black metallers Ride For Revenge might just be in the running for most aQ Records Of The Week, especially if you count RfR electronic offshoot Will Over Matter, and even moreso if you consider the fact that even if we didn't make one of their records a ROTW, we thought about it, and likely wanted to, and probably didn't for some non musical reason, like having to get them from Finland, or ordering a bunch and selling most of them before we even get a chance to review/list it, and really, in retrospect, not sure why we didn't just institute permanent/perpetual Record Of The Week status on these guys. What we're getting at, is even though this is NOT a Record Of The Week this time around, it basically IS. And will always be, cuz if any band demanded the slavish worship of the aQ crew it's these guys, who manage to take a genre we already love, and transform it into something that barely sounds like that genre at all, and yet somehow makes us love it even more.
This latest batch of jams is another black-dirge / noise-rock wallop, this trio delivering some ultra primitive heaviness, with some of the sickest, grittiest, gnarliest guitar buzz ever, not to mention thick, organ dissolving low end, and chaotic, shambolic, caveman drumming of the highest order, all wound up into extended dirges that play like krautrock melted down into a brew as black as pitch, then reconstituted with some sort of ancient black magic, the resulting lumbering sonic ritualism is as mesmerizing as it is terrifying, the sound in constant flux, whether it's stumbling black metal primitivism, doom-ed tarpit creep, psychedelic blacknoize, or wild, thrashing metal-punk, it all bleeds into one massive, epic, demonic sonic sprawl, in fact, so much so that song titles, and even song breaks seem superfluous, nobody's gonna grab this and think to themselves, let's throw on "The Fog Is Green And Pungent" (okay full disclosure, we actually did!), no this is a fully immersive experience, this is the sort of black bog filth you're meant to luxuriate in, to get lost in, to let wash over you, and pull you under, just surrender, let the churning molasses riffage and pounding dirge-drummage ooze into your every orifice, and transform you from the inside out, headphones on, you become a shambling, blackened acolyte to these mysterious priest of blacknoise/occult rock ritualism, and suddenly it's transcendent, the sound becomes shape, the shape becomes divine, the underworld rises up and swallows the surface dwellers whole, and the soundtrack to this apocalypse becomes, a gnarled, filth encrusted thing of grim black beauty, and we honor this epochal convergence, by sacrificing ourselves, and as our souls wither and die, we become one with these ancient spirits, approaching the black gates of the netherworld, we all join together, a hulking black shape, horned and fiery, and for eternity, we Ride For Revenge!!!!
We talk a lot about how weird Finland is, so before we go any further, let us apologize to the majority of Finland who to be fair are probably not weird at all. Now that we've got that out of the way, HOLY SHIT! Is there no end to the amazing and damaged and demented music coming out of Finland. We're beginning to think not.
The latest evidence comes in the form of the brand new full length from Ride For Revenge, who we first heard a while back on a split with fellow countrymen Torturium, their half of the split a downtuned black trudge, like Winter or diSEMBOWELMENT but with that impossible to describe Finnish something that transforms everything into some special sort of what-the-fuck. Creepy synths, plodding drums, grinding guitar and harsh vocals, not exactly black metal, not in the traditional sense at least, but most definitely metal.
On King Of Snakes however, the band have gotten even weirder, and distinctly less metal, but no less heavy. Supposedly there are guitars, but to our ears it just sounds like just drums and lots and lots of bass. Each song a plodding doomic lurch, the drums pounding out a simple rhythm, the riff repeating over and over, most songs with just a single part, very mesmerizing and hypnotic. Like a caveman Circle or a guitarless Gore, these guys just bash out endlessly cycling looped low end and killer crushing doom drum pound. The vocals are a super affected gurgling growl, not in the death metal sense, instead, super dramatic, intoning unspeakable evils, a rumbling demonic baritone, peppered with the occasional super delay drenched goat metal grunt.
Some tracks also have cool creepy keyboards as well, that add all sort of mood and texture, and it's not cheesy metal synth either, it's all strange analog buzz, a sort of krautrocky blur draped over the endlessly pounding groove.
Ride For Revenge are another one of those black metal bands, who seem to be black metal more out of pedigree than sound, but even though this doesn't sound like metal, it is most definitely black. It sounds a bit like Godheadsilo jamming with Finnish alchemical dronelords Tiermes, with the occasional injection of Hawkwinded FX and SUNN-drenched rumble, mysterious and murky swaths of throbbing low end thrum wrapped around the drums like some evil warlock's cloak.
Imagine if Amphetamine Reptile was a black metal label... then these guys would be Halo Of Flies... Most definitely one of our new favorite 'black metal' records...
The thing about Finnish black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, is that really, they are hardly even black metal. Hell, hardly metal at all. Instead, they always seemed to traffic in a mysterious low slung, sludgy abstract blackened rhythmic minimalism that reminded us of Circle and Aluk Todolo way more than Darkthrone or Beherit. And then there's RfR offshoot Will Over Matter, who take that same sort of abstract rhythmic weirdness and harness it to primitive electronics, and have created a sort of tripped out blackened power electronics. So of course we were super excited for a new Ride For Revenge, and were expecting another disc of twisted rhythmic churn, or something similar, but what we were not expecting was THIS. After a truly strange intro, which is essentially just a Speak & Spell toy emitting all those 8bit bleeps and bloops and wreathed in echo and delay, which had us imagining maybe RfR had moved toward Will Over Matter sonically, but then when the first song proper kicked in, we were blown away. Metal. And we mean METAL. Dirgey and sludgey and super distorted. Right out of the gate, the band erupt into some seriously corrosive blasts of full on blast beat-ed GRIND, in between which, the band churn and lumber, the guitars filthy and crumbling with blackened distortion, the vocals a glass gargling gurgle, the drums a simple dirgey pound, so we were prepared for the ban's return to full on primitive blackness, but then out of nowhere, in swoop all manner of weird warbly synths, and tolling bells, the whole song transformed into some sort of woozy avant buzz drenched doomic dirge, it's pretty ruling.
But then by track two, it's right back to the primitive bash and pound, the distortion even more blown out and in the red, the band sounding a bit like a blackened Brainbombs, which is not at all a bad thing, the songs peppered with ridiculous twisted drug addled guitar leads, super effected crooned gothic vox, some totally fucked up and freaked out Butthole Surfers style vocal garble, cool thick layered harmonies, that add a sort of warped majesty to some of the tracks, and at least one blast of weird bellowed, strident sermonizing beneath a cloud of in-the-red white noise skree.
There are a couple tracks that strip away some of the crumble and buzz, and harken back to the more purely rhythmic RfR of old, but those moments are brief, the band quickly slipping back into their woozy sea sick doom-sludge churn, but even then, pretty much every stretch of seemingly pure raw blackened doomic primitivism, is in fact seriously fucked up, whether that fucked upness is in your face, or buried way below the surface, it's there, and it keeps Under The Eye firmly rooted in whatever fucked Finnish tradition RfR oozes from...
The long awaited return of Finnish black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, and when we say weird, we do in fact mean WEIRD. We sort of forget about these guys when we're going on about the most fucked and damaged black metal ever, and maybe that's because their sound ends up being SO fucked up and freaky that it almost ceases being black metal entirely, instead, they seem to traffic in some sort of bass and drums, downtuned doom dirge, a series of hypnotic loops, locked riffs, all completely fractured and crumbling and confusional.
In the review of the last RfR record, King Of Snakes, we mentioned Amphetamine Reptile, and Halo Of Flies, Winter and diSEMBOWLEMENT, Gore and Circle. On Wisdom Of The Few, they continue on in that same baffling blackened trajectory resulting in a sound that off the top of our heads sounds a little like Om and Faxed Head. Right. Most metalheads we'd imagine will not be pleased, as this is seriously wacked, more textural and rhythmic than riffy and buzzy, it again sounds mostly like just bass and drums, but that's once you make it past the lurching, stumbling, guitar intro, streaks of feedback are all tangled up with a strangled reverb drenched guitar, playing out some sort of fractured atonal riff, the entire thing peppered with bits of hiss and glitch, before finally exploding into the lo-fi dirgery of the title track. A super murky muddy looped riff, pounding drums, rumbling low end, and some croaked demonic gurgles, the sound is super in the red, the drum fills peg the needles, but it still manages to sound muddy and subterranean. The drums and bass (or extremely downtuned guitar) locked into a mantra-like loop, the cymbals super hot, a relentless crash and sizzle, again reminding us of a blackened super minimal Gore. But things get even weirder. The clouds of hiss and glitch from the opening track return, and suddenly the sound is not metal so much as some sort of abstract doomy drone. A bass riff pounded out over and over and over, while around it, static crumbles and buzzes, sheets of feedback drift off in the distance, the 'groove' is peppered with little squalls of scrape and crunch, all underpinning a creepy spoken vocal.
The next track is even weirder (or perhaps just as weird), the drums wrapped in weird warped FX, pounding out a simple propulsive beat, wrapped in flanger and phaser, sounding super space-y while all around it, the gurgling demonic vocalist grunts and gurgles, over another totally mesmerizing black groove. Let's not describe the next track as weirder than the one before, cuz it's gonna seem ridiculous after a while, needless to say, it's weird in a different, equally twisted way. A deep whirring rumbling low end, a skittery almost funky krautrock beat, a heavily accented voice speaking ominously and dramatically, the voice switching from speaker to speaker, the drums shifting and subtly speeding up and slowing down, the rumbling drone-y buzz, occasionally revving up, then revving back down. Fucked up for sure, but so creepy and cool.
"Morning Won't Bring A Twinkling Star" is the longest track here, and manages to merge many of RfR's disparate elements into one epic sprawling blackened rhythmscape, a loping drum beat, a woozy seasick bassline, the drums distorted and motorik, the vocals reverbed and haunting, before slipping into a long stretch of warped low end warble and high end sine wave shimmer, before lurching back into blackened action. The record finishes off with a brief soundscape, equal parts distorted crunch, moaning feedback, downtuned flutter, minimal whirring synth, thick doomy buzz and FX drenched warble.
Woah. It's like dipping your head into a garbage disposal grinding up muddy murky chunks of Darkthrone, Aluk Todolo, Gore, Faxed Head, Circle, Urfaust, Geronimo and Lightning Bolt at 16rpm, a utterly demented and genius mix of freaked out, lobotomized black sound, a total mind melting, speaker shredding, ear punishing, minimal post black metal mind fuck. SO FUCKING AWESOME!
ATTENTION FINNISH MUSIC FREAKS!!! It isn't all forest folk and hypnotic space rock over there you know. Finland has some serious metal bands as amazing, as heavy and as fucked up as anyplace else, maybe even more so. Just off the top of our heads, Dead Reptile Shrine! Maybe the weirdest black metal band ever, Reverend Bizarre, amazing classic doom, and let's see... Horna, Thergothon, Circle Of Ouroborus, Spiritus Mortis, Stumm, Wyrd, Vultyr, Trollheim's Grott, Uncreation's Dawn, we could go on and on and on...
So here we have a split from two Finnish black metal one man bands, one name you might recognize, the other you might not, but both are equally amazing.
It takes a very special band to share a split with the mighty and mighty demented Dead Reptile Shrine, but Torturium were up to the job, as evidenced on their recent split with DRC reviewed right here a few months back. Here they continue on their damaged and convoluted journey through some off kilter black thrash buzzscape. Midtempo and completely blown out, guitars are thick snarling beasts, flaying the flesh fron your skin, while some of the most anguished vocals EVER soar and shriek, the drums a murky thud, everything chaotic and crazed. Blasting and buzzing relentlessly, the whole thing threatening to come hunhinged and fly into sharp jagged pieces. Fucked up and furious and so great.
Torturium shares the split with fellow counryman Ride For Revenge, who with a name like that you might expect some classic thrash, but this is anything but. Muddy downtuned guitars, harsh vocals and simple pounding drums, all woven into some sort of murky dirgey black doom. Midtempo rhythms, drums WAY up in the mix, everything sort of droney and hypnotic, tons of reverb, weird swaths of creepy clean guitar, everything cloudy and indistinct, a super old school production liek Winter or diSEMBOWELMENT, fuzzy and relentlessly, trudging through thick FX drenched drifts of black buzz and weird whorls of creepy haunted house synth. So cool and so weird. Definitely a new favorite, and another notch in Finland's holster, or bedpost, or whatver. SO RECOMMENDED!!!
Ah, nothing like a glacially slooooooooow blast of ultra mega doooooooooooooom to calm the nerves, at least that's the way it seems to work around the mail order department for the boys (and girls!) who work back in "the Tombs" of AQ. Rigor Sardonicous - one of our all-time favorite "apocalyptic doom" bands - sent a package recently containing their latest CD, "Risus Ex Mortuus" along with some stickers and a hat...we all fought over the hat a bit, but Andee doesn't like to mess up his "drummer hair" and Jason already sports a bitchin' Rigor Sardonicous glow-in-the-dark print T-shirt, so Allan scored the new lid. Besides, we see him wearing that hunter's orange/camo cap a bit too often lately and - where were we - oh yeah - Risus Ex Mortuus!!!
Once again, Rigor Sardonicous is back, and on this CD we get a bunch of re-recorded versions of early tracks from long out-of-print releases, an unreleased track, and even a Kiss cover! You haven't heard "God Of Thunder" until you've heard it Rigor-ized, a thick syrupy sludge-y Sunn-y crawl, with the vocals belched out in impossible guttural grunts. The CD even somehow sports some beautiful "Rigor Sardonicous" Old English script printed on the UNDERSIDE of the CD - SICK !!!
Also back again is the signature drum machine (who has occupied the throne since 1991) and the return of 'the most evil cymbal in the world', tha clanged-out trash can lid of a cymbal that we have been totally obsessed with and completely transfixed by since we first heard RS. It's like nothing you've ever heard in the realms of dark murky doomy sludge-pyre music (except on the other RS records obviously). It is back and better (and louder) than ever - way out in front where it constantly rears its ugly head again and again, crashing forth with a clanging clattery crash, before quickly fading back into the sludge. Sounds like Sunn 0))) playing Moss covers at the bottom of a giant sewer pipe while someone drops metal garbage cans from above... a strange kind of beautiful.
Mr. drum machine also seems to be taking it up a notch rhythmically with more blast beats, faster and louder, while somehow not actually making the music sound any faster, just weirder and heavier. And there's no mistaking the downtuned, strings-so-slack-they-touch-the-floor, buzzed-out slow sludge rumbling roar coming from the guitar. Like the sound of low-flying aircraft "strumming" overhead power lines... And again those vocals, spread all over the proceedings like some viscous black paste, a subsonic curdle / gurgle that is hardly human. If you close your eyes, you can't help but picture some goo spewing giant lizard ready to consume you whole, or some creepy Hellraiser / Pinhead style hellbeast declaring your doooom. WE LOVE IT.
The AQ dark lords, sit upon their throne of skulls, surrounded by fire and burning flesh, demons swooping through the murky skies, the earth trembling, the ground littered with the dead, gazing cooly at the scorched landscape that stretches forever in all directions, before looking to the sky and letting out a blood curdling cry of "MORE EVIL CYMBAL !!!"
(The band claim that these are indeed actual cd's, although, we're pretty sure they're cd-r's, but who the hell cares, you can't go wrong for $10.98, and you can't print bitchin' olde English band logos on the playing side of a real cd... or can you?)
This band name may have elicited a few snickers around these parts, but there is nothing funny about Sweden's Rimfrost. Any and all smiles were quickly wiped from the offending faces once the play button was pushed. No record in recent memory has resulted in so much spontaneous headbanging amongst the AQ metalheads. While ostensibly a black metal band, the vibe and sound on A Frozen World Unknown is way more death metal, and while we're sometimes down on the death metal, none of us would hesitate to jump all over a kick ass slab of ultra brutal death metal. And goddamn if this isn't just that. This record is so amazing. Heavy and chuggy, fast and incredibly LOUD, the drums are insane, the riffing is incredible with plenty of pick squeals and downtuned buzz, but the songs are so totally catchy, and weirdly groovy. Super convoluted stop start arrangements, but not complex for complex sake, those parts actually make sense in the context of the rest of the song and somehow manage to be just as catchy as the rest of the track. Strangely epic and anthemic, a bit melodic, but ultimately just intense and furious and fucking awesome. Absolutely one of our favorite new metal records, death, black or otherwise...
Rimfrost is either a totally grim and kvlt name for a black metal band, or a sort of goofy, possibly questionable one. These guys are from Sweden though, so odds are the rims there are indeed frosty. And the sound? Frosty as well. Super dense and heavy and punishing, a sort of Viking black metal but without all the folk, this is thrashing blackness of the highest order. Fans of classic Enslaved, old Immortal, you know, that classic Scandinavian sound, which is obviously what these guys are shooting for, and they pretty much nail it. No synths, no acoustic guitars (okay, well, maybe a few), no pretty fluttery interludes (only one, or two), instead, these guys pepper their blasting panzer attack with some super dynamic stop start arrangements, plenty of weirdly mathy bits, some incredibly drumming, the sound MASSIVE and so epic. Riffs gnarled and explosive, the rhythms galloping and relentless, blazing double kicks, the guitars chugging and crunchy, the vocals a demonic croak, the songs themselves, epic and majestic, the tempo often pounding and midtempo, but Rimfrost mix it up, exploding into a full on black frenzy here and there, or sometimes slowing down to a doomic lumber. There are melodies and hooks too, usually subtle, but sometimes brought to the fore for a moment of almost NWOBHM sounding radness, before blasting black into the (g)rim frost. Excellent.
A few lists back we reviewed a tape by the oddly monikered Funeral Fornication, who trafficked in some pretty epic black metal buzz. But apparently, Jaron Evil, the man behind Funeral Fornication, suffered some sort of brain injury, that rendered him unable to play guitar, so while he recovered, he endeavored to create this, a sprawling, and equally, yet differently epic collection of Tolkien themed black ambience and neo-folk, and while at first we were expecting something super cheesy, it's actually pretty cool and weird. Field recorded forest sounds, gristly, lo-fi synth swirl, lush swells of droned out black ambience, dramatic piano stabs, faux strings, swirling FX, some of the tracks pastoral and blessed out ("The Second Age"), others more sinister and cinematic ("The Secret Stairs"). There are still moments of black buzz, like the second half of "Nine Riders", which unfurls a furious blast beat, harsh vokills and insectoid riffing, spread out beneath a layer of cosmic synth swirl, making for a strange, and quite cool juxtaposition. But for the most part, the tape is made up mostly of synthy ambience, ominous drones, mysterious sound design, and epic faux soundtracks to some Lord Of Rings style otherworld. Fantastical and fantastic.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!!
Mysterious ep of ritualistic black metal from this German duo. Sorath, "visionaire and heralder" and Aer, "moulder of ritual ambience", whip up a strange black metal brew, some tracks are long slow stretches of roiling ambience, which give way to harsh slow motion doomic dirge, howled vocals, and lurching tarpit riffage, before suddenly exploding into blasts of Nordic style buzz, with stumbling double kick drumming, insectoid riffing, and strangled cries, all tangled into a murky black swirl. Others, are raw bursts of pounding midtempo riffage, simple metallic stomps, grim and frosty. A weird blend of classic Norwegian style black metal Mayhem and a more necro primitive black blast that totally slays in its own murky muddied lo-fi way...
Emerging from the pit of tentacled screams is local death merchant Ritual Chamber and his first full-length, following up a very promising demo released back in 2013. Dario Derna, the sole member of Ritual Chamber, cut his teeth in a number of other metal projects, including the buzzing blackness of Krohm, and as a keyboard player in the rain-soaked funeral doom band Evoken. And, although Evoken and Ritual Chamber share few musical similarities, both projects share and obsession with murky, atmospheric grimness. Obscurations is a deep, twisted pit of rain-soaked misery, a maze of death metal riffage that stands toe-to-toe with the glut of fantastic death metal of late: Abyssal, Chthe'ilist, Disma, Aevangelist, and Funerabrum (for which Derna drummed). Atmospheric, ugly, heavy, and somehow all done by one person. Nasty stuff.
We'd be exceedingly remiss (in our duty to Satan) if we were never to list the most recent record from long-running Czech "black metal" (or "dark heavy metal") practitioners Root. Their eighth full-length studio album, 2007's Daemon Viam Invenient begins with an acoustic prologue, after which Root then launch into the storming "Human", an auspicious beginning to this fully epic and idiosyncratic collection of ripping tracks. Band mainstay, vocalist Big Boss (bedecked with face paint that makes his bald head look like a badly cracked egg) is in fine form, mixing up rasping croaks and whispers with almost-operatic bellowing that's melodic, yet deep and gruff. On that aforementioned intro, he even sings quite softly & sensitively, sounding a bit like a shaky Leonard Cohen with a Czech accent! Likewise, Root's music shifts gears continuously, moody moments swept aside by catchy riffs, choppy chunky rhythms, swarms of shred guitar soloing, and prominent basslines. Imagine a modernized version of '80s evil like Bathory and Mercyful Fate competing with the WTF? factor of a band like Sigh. And, as always with Root, there's an unholy dose of Eastern European eccentricity at play here too. Or, maybe the baroque bizarreness is all them. Fans, who have learned to expect the unexpected (and extreme) from these guys, should be satisfied.
Ultra limited, insanely deluxe quadruple lp box set from the greatest weirdo black metal band to ever come out of the Czech Republic. Fronted by the truly iconic Big Boss, with his evil black face paint and booming low voiced delivery, he howls dramatically over fierce black riffing and weirdly romantic keyboards, a buzzing blackness reminiscent of Venom or Bathory, but WAY weirder. Definitely one of Andee and Allan's all time favorite black metal bands. This box set contains all of Root's demo tapes from the late 1980's plus various bonus live recordings taken from the Death Metal Session Festival vol. 2 (Prague 1988). Also included is a massive 32 page 12" x 12" booklet containing tons of photos from the band's early days, flyers, newspaper clippings, interviews, fanzine articles, and lots more. 4 lps in two deluxe gatefold jackets, an XL Root t-shirt, a big poster, all housed in a custom made box printed in red, black and metallic silver, sealed with a vellum obi with a foil-stamped logo. Holy crap, this is amazing. You have to see it to believe it. Definitely one of the most extravagant packages we've ever seen. And c'mon, it's ROOT!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The Czech Republic's Root are one of the most talented, original, and eccentric black metal outfits around. Slowly we in the West are getting clued in to their stuff. Here's two of their earlier efforts remastered and repackaged as a double cd: 1991's relatively raw "Hell Symphony" and 1995's more advanced and melodic "Kargeras". Also included: some live bonus tracks recorded in 2000.
Damn, the new Root! Weird black metal from Czech just gets weirder. They're set apart from all others by their sense of drama, and by vocalist/mainman Big Boss and his deep voiced delivery. And the unbridled dementia they bring to their very metal, very odd songwriting and arrangments. Originals they most certainly are, combining killer blackened riffage with romantic keyboards and parts that sound a bit Jesus Lizardy though they might not be aware of it. One of the most striking tracks, "The Last Gate (The Story Of Demons)", uses tribal drumming and overlapping vocal chants to approximate the sounds of demonic possession or worship (or something), making Root sound like Sepultura's Roots (until insane chipmunk voices like those on the last Sigh album kick in!). Wow.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Root is Czech black metal band, led by vocalist/visionary Big Boss. They've been around for a long time now, developing from rather primitive and fucked up black metal to the likes of this album: classical-leaning heavy metal opera weirdness. As fucked up as their earlier stuff but so much more advanced. Really amazing and strange, with Big Boss' sub-baritone vocal stylings being only the first of the many eccentricities on display here. Recommended.
For years now we've been singing the praises of these weirdo Czech black metallers, fronted by the enigmatic Big Boss, a big guy with some crazy evil panda face make up and a super unique bellow. Their sound, at least in the beginning, raw and grim like classic Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, but often slowed down, more midtempo, lumbering and lurching, sometimes blasting chaotically, but more often than not, fantastically plodding, the guitars super raw, the sound lo-fi, but perfectly suited to Root occultic and cult-y sounding metal, and the truly strange vocals of Big Boss just sealing the deal, from froglike croak, to demonic croak, to raspy croon, to multitracked, almost Butthole Surfers sounding alien drawl, there's just something so mysterious and magical about these guys. Easily one of our all time favorites.
Revelation, originally recorded in 1990, is a re-recording of their Zjevni debut, with all the lyrics redone in English. And while it's been 20+ years, The Revelation still sounds just as good, and haunting, and heavy as ever. Sure it's black metal, but this is more old school classic metal, with black elements. It's more witchy and doomy and creepy and atmospheric and dirgey, which only makes the fast bits sound that much more fast, the chugging guitars and way-up-in-the-mix double kick drumming. And all the heavy parts are balanced by the multiple song intros, acoustic guitars, analog synths, weird bits of percussion, swirling atmospheres, Big Boss's strange almost liturgical sounding spoken word, each intro a little mysterious sonic ritual designed to evoke some ancient atmosphere, perfect to conjure up the next blast of stumbling buzz drenched blackness. Totally cult and totally genius.
Includes new liner notes...
A double cd reissue (w/ bonus tracks) of two albums (from 1990 & 1992, newly remastered) by this cult Czech black metal band. Not as advanced as their latest release "The Book", but definitely unique and full of interesting music. For fans of fellow Czech weirdos Master's Hammer and strange black metal in general.
The first we heard from weirdo Italian blackened industrial noiseniks Rotorvator was via a collaboration with one man black metal band Rhuith, the two groups a perfect match up, each with their own peculiar take on black metal, with Rotorvator seemingly the weirder of the two, adding some tortured, twisted WTF-ness to Rhuith's sound, and if there was ever any doubt, this new full length most definitely goes a long way to demonstrating that Rotorvator are indeed masters of seriously damaged outsider avant industrial black metal weirdness. Or something. For a thumbnail descriptor, "damaged outsider avant industrial black metal weirdness" definitely works, the sound here all over the map, and not just the black metal map either, noise, industrial, psychedelia, electronica, it's all tangled up into a wild, warped, ever shifting, sonic sprawl, machine like rhythms, underpin dreamy almost shoegazey guitar buzz, howled demonic vokills, gnarled and dissonant, the sound slipping into a churning buzz drenched blackness, before exploding into a weird galloping blast, that sounds like some demented robotic black metal, the song slipping from blackened lope, to dense noise drenched howl, to furious blasting crush, to tranced out guitardrone. And that's just the first song.
After that the sound shifts into a weirdly ominous, sort of cinematic drift, all weird hand clappy rhythms, minor key guitar, skeletal drumming, weird high end guitar skree, more howled vokills, the vibe sort of droney and dirgey and psychedelic, a little bit electronic too, laced with pulses and pulsations, at one point interrupted by a blast of white noise static, and weird moaning voices, before slipping right back into it. The follow up is some spaced out minimal electronic skitter, some carnivalesque looped mesmer, that gives way to some super lo-fi black buzz, again, programmed beats drive the furious riffing, which is muted and muffled, the vocals WAY up in the mix, the song stuttering and lurching, the sounds panned super hard so they swoop from speaker to speaker, druggy and dizzying.
The sound shifts dramatically at that point into some seriously pretty heaviness, some blown out shoegazey dirginess, that could have gone one of two ways, and of course, it's Rotorvator, so instead of staying melodic and darkly lovely, it splinters into some noisy, churning, screeching blackness, but that stuff is draped over the pretty melodic guitar buzz, and it's a killer combo. The next track is more of the same, all swoonsome soaring synths and shoegazey black buzz, sounding a bit like a black metal M83, before crumbling into a gnarled lumbering creep, but again, even then, it's weirdly pretty, haunting and harrowing, but still pretty, with some seriously metallic riffing, some robotic drum pound, swirls of dense effects, and some gorgeous melodies, culminating in a weird final stretch of processed vox, ticking clock drum machine rhythm, and gristly swirls if staticky buzz. And finally, the record finishes with a dark, twang flecked dirge, drifting through clouds of melting FX, echo drenched guitar clang, pounding rhythms, swirling strings, haunting and like much of the record weirdly pretty.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!!! Housed in a DVD style case, with full color artwork/insert, and inside a set of heavy cardstock, two sided, printed cards, bound by a silkscreened black on black obi.
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.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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...
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.
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.
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.
This ultra-heavy, occultic doom/death outfit from Sweden have fashioned themselves into a cult of their own, steadily releasing limited album after limited album to a ensorcelled fanbase of Runemagick worshippers. With Dawn Of The End, the trio of Nicklas, Emma and Daniel have returned to their studio (cavern? lair? tower?) to perform and record another eight rites and rituals of sludge-riffed, dirge-tempoed Runemagick... hear and heed the call of their necromantical spells! Combining both grim atmosphere and raging brutality, portions of Dawn Of The End even sound to us like a death-metal version of Om.
Includes the track "Chthonic Temple Smoke" from their recent split with fellow Swedish doomsters Ocean Chief (which we never listed, as we unable to get enough... though we might still have a spare copy or two in stock if you ask).
Non-shrinkwrapped, digipack release, limited to 1000 copies.
If previous exposures haven't already summoned sufficient demons for your nefarious purposes, here's another disc of epic occultic dirge doom death from these Swedish masters of the arcane arts, sure to conjure some Hellish servitors. Heavy and haunting, the atmospheric sludge of tracks like "Invocation Of The Doom Runes" and "Black Magick Sorceress" should send all posers hiding under their beds. Limited to 999 numbered copies in digipack (which includes two bonus tracks).
This Swedish band has been rumbling along for untold eons now (well, it's actually been probably just six years or so, but their music seems more ancient than that). Their doomy tarpit dirge and sludgy trudge conjure prehistoric visions, and their lyrical bent towards the occult also sets them in a cosmic, not human, time frame. But their true ancestors aren't dinosaurs and demons, they are bands such as Hellhammer/Celtic Frost from the '80s and the death metallers of the '90s. Sounding as if it was recorded by torchlight, Runemagick's latest is a 73 minute death knell tolling of Hell's bells, with unrelenting riffage, drums beating like black leather wings, and some sort of eternal, underlying bass drone that's always just under the surface. These unlucky thirteen tracks often seep and segue into one another, making invocations unbroken and epic. It's super heavy stuff with death metal vox, weird atmospheres and arcane inspirations, tough to catagorize exactly (experimental doom death? how about "Monolithic Death", the title of the first track here?) but something we think the doomiest subset of AQ customers should like. Imagine some sort of cross between Corrupted and Candlemass, ordinary death metal slowed down and ritualized...
We recently discovered the mysterious S.V.E.S.T., a bafflingly enigmatic black metal horde from France, who have been lurking in the shadows of giants, Mutiilation, Deathspell Omega, Antaeus, etc. not so quietly biding their time, concocting impossibly buzzy and blurry black epics. Each track a mind bending psychedelic swirl of furious tumultuous buzz and howl, every riff a blur repeated ad infinitum until it's an indistinct metal drone, vocals are thick swaths of agitated growl and shriek, another layer in an impossibly dense blacksoundscape. This is ultra grim, classic black metal buzz, but agitated into such a state that it's some impossibly chaotic monstrosity. There are melodies, and some sort of guitar leads, but they are just little smeared tangles in a giant prickly swirl of sound. Don't let the brief but jaunty folky intro fool you, after that it's all a head spinning, mind blowing, lo-fi blackened blur. The first two lengthy tracks are from the ultra rare Scarification Of Soul demo, while the last three tracks are from the equally rare Death to Macrocosm demo. And we though the first few tracks were blurry and confusingly black and blown out, the last few tracks take that same recipe, and add to the mix, an impossibly lo-fi, overblown speakers, degrading cassette tape production, that adds a whole 'nother layer of sonic crumble and speaker shredding distortion, everything even more obscured by fuzz and hiss and whir, turning Coagula into some strange drone metal soundscape. Amazing.
Talk about cult, S.V.E.S.T. seem to be a total mystery. Almost no information to be found anywhere about these guys. other than they are another one of those French black metal bands (Mutiilation, Deathspell Omega, Malicious Secrets, etc.) who are routinely spoken of in hushed worshipful whispers. And much like their countrymen, they are a total revelation. It's hard to do something totally new and original within the rigid framework of black metal and still remain TRUE, but S.V.E.S.T. pull it off in a big way.
We talk about black metal being drone-y and buzzy, so much so that in extreme cases, the result is more drone than metal, and that's never been more true than with S.V.E.S.T. Three lengthy epics, each a swirling lo-fi entropic buzzy black free for all. Riffs drift and spin, a dizzying concoction of fuzzed out white noise, blinding streaks of incendiary blackness, drums so fast and fuzzed out they just sound like blasts of static, melodies so murky and indistinct they sound more like Hecker or Jeck than anything traditionally black metal. So fast and chaotic and blurry and blackly psychedelic that they sound like some sort of black metal EVP, lost metal transmissions being broadcast through the ether and barely breaking through some staticky short wave broadcast. Fucking awesome!
Released In conjunction with the new Deathspell Omega ep (reviewed elsewhere on this list, and both are available together on a single lp, also on this list), Veritas Diaboli Manet In Aeternum heralds the return of an old favorite, French duo S.V.E.S.T., who strangely enough haven't released a proper record since 2003 (2005's Coagula compiled older demos), but within 30 seconds, we were totally reminded exactly why we loved these guys so much. And they're a perfect foil for Deathspell, their sound equally fractured and convoluted and fucked up, but where DSO go for something darker and moodier and more melodic, S.V.E.S.T. go in the other direction completely, spitting out frenzied swaths of blurred buzz and wild squalls of intense tangled blackness. These three tracks, are so awesome, we almost, and we're well aware of the sacrilege involved here, but we just might like them as much as, if not even more than the Deathspell half of the split.
Their sound is hard to describe. The first track opens with a dizzying swirl of squiggly guitars, woozy riffs, wild splattery drumming, that seems already like it's bordering on total meltdown, yet that's just the intro, and the band launch into a frenzied assault even more fucked up and dense, but pepper it with cool little melodies and parts that almost sound Viking, albeit buried beneath a roiling black blowout. The guitar does these cool little descending trills, the song lurches and stutters, the drums are relentless, mind blowingly fast and heavy and intricate, until part way through, the sound shifts, and there's a bit of doomy crawl, before leaping right back into the fray. Throughout, there are bursts of total drumming chaos, extra guitars howling and adding yet more layers of buzz. It's so thick and heavy and dense, it takes close listening to pick out all the amazing stuff going on beneath the buzzy black surface.
The second track continues on in much the same vein, with the guitars even more twisted and gnarled, the drums still relentlessly mathy and intricate, slipping from total chaotic black noise, to stumbling groove, to cool pounding dirge, the drums leaping out from the mix, the guitars thick and raw, but soaring majestically at the same time. The sound manages to be epic and classic and technical while also murky and lo-fi, the sounds all blurring together, a heaving mass of constantly shifting blown out blackness, still rife with all manner of tangled little melodies, and sweeping epic ambience.
The closer is short and sweet, the weirdest and creepiest of the bunch, beginning with a staccato machine gun burst of drums and riffage, before slipping into a swirling high end guitardrone, all woozy and overlapping, disembodied riffs and smeared melodies, dizzying and mesmerizing, growing more and more intense, the drums barely there, just those high end guitars glowing hotter and hotter, until finally, the drums kick in, and the track resolves in a totally twisted soaring post rock black metal what the fuck epic outro, that fades out WAY too soon. Holy shit. These guys need to deliver a full length ASAP. and we definitely don't want to wait another 6 years.
As mentioned above, S.V.E.S.T.'s three tracks are actually half of a split, released in conjunction with a new record from Deathspell Omega, reviewed elsewhere on this list, and equally as essential.
And again, vinyl folks, you are in luck, both the DSO material and the S.V.E.S.T. songs, while released as separate cds, are available together on a single lp!
Huh, we haven't really ever reviewed any Sabbat before... except for one crazy out of print triple 6" vinyl release, a long time ago. That's despite the fact that all the troo cvlt metalheads here at AQ have lots of Sabbat in their collections. We're talking about the Japanese Sabbat here, by the way, not the thrash '80s British one - though these guys are thrashy and '80s sounding too, and also totally black metal. Heck they did that triple six inch, after all! Can't get much more Satanic than that.
So, about time we reviewed something else by them. They've got a massive discography spanning the years, from way back in 1985 'til now, many full-length albums but also a bewildering array of eps and splits, with an unlikely preponderance of their releases being super limited edition LIVE recordings. Sometimes as many as nine in one year. Weird. Who do they think they are, Pearl Jam?
Anyway, at long last, this is a new studio recording, and while it's not presented in as quite a "cult" format as that aforementioned 3x6", it's still a fetish object of sorts, the packaging fiendishly glimmering and glittering, with the art and logo in metallic red ink on a white background. And even though it's a domestic US release, they've included a Japanese-style obi strip, nice. A band that gets this lavish attention, either definitely deserves it, or made a pact with the Devil, in this case, probably both!
So, for those who have yet to come to the Sabbat, let's explain what you're in for: total raw black metal mayhem, a la Venom and early Slayer, played with infectious enthusiasm by Japanese maniacs so old school and true that they make Darkthrone look like posers. With some NWOBHM elements (this band's Cronos, bassist/vocalist Gezol, is also a member of Metalucifer, after all) they display real heavy metal musical chops even amidst the thrashing, noisy chaos that these songs deliver with such high speed and seeming insanity.
That insanity partially manifests this time via a focus on witches, there's no less than four songs here that factor "witch" into the title: "Witchflight", "Witch Hammers", "Witch's Torches", and the instrumental "Witch's Weed"! Don't ask why, or witch. Stereotypically Japanese with such obsessiveness, Sabbat are as over the top as ever on this new album.
While our other favorite Japanese black metal band, Sigh, took off in weird avant-garde directions from their Venom-worshipping beginnings, Sabbat stay true to the source, earning a special place in the pantheon of all-time underground black metal greats. Sabbatrinity is further testament to that.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. [/cat/japan29.html]
Debut full length from this Aussie Duo, who traffic in a primitive strain of old school thrashing blackness. Raw and ragged and loose, midpaced riffs and lurching drumming send these tracks galloping through eerie atmospheres, evoking the classic era of old school death metal, but definitely blackened, with a unique take on old school metal. Much of the record is spent thrashing and furiously bashing away, but then on tracks like "Victory Of Withdrawal", the band slow things way down, almost balladic, with shredding, super emotional leads, woozy, gloomy basslines, the sound moody and melancholy, underpinning gruff vokills, a weird combo but it makes for a weirdly powerful one, and when the song does finally kick into gear, it's not blasting or thrashing, it's a strange chugging, super melodic churn, that's downright groovy, accompanied by chiming distorted guitar melodies, pretty cool, and definitely weird, and not much like other metal you hear these days.
Even at it's most furious, these guys add lots of melody, and a hauntingly mournful mood to the proceedings, not to mention lots of classic metalisms, crazy catchy riffs and melodies pop up throughout, the middle portion of "A.J. Shout VC" is about as catchy as music like this gets! The sound too is odd, murky and sorta lo-fi, with clean crooned choruses popping up now and again, spidery guitars wrapped around woozy riffage, everything hazy and gauzey, reverby and echoey, which gives everything a strange feel, a little bit timeless, but also sorta psychedelic. The whole record seems to be a sonic struggle between fierce furious heaviness, and plodding melancholia, the sound seeming to constantly return to super melodic dirges, and achingly miserable melodies. Apparently, the whole record is a rumination on war, which then makes the melancholic musical thread that runs throughout make more sense. Definitely cool stuff. Maybe not brutal enough for some metalheads, but it's pretty atmospheric, with lots of killer riffs, and sprawling, progged out arrangements, woven into moody doomic dirges, and old school classic metal shreddery, all sort of washed out into a hazy psychedelic death metal that we're digging a lot.
We first came across the mysterious black metal entity Sadness Saturn a while back with their awesome split cassette with Utarm. Picking up where they (or maybe he?) left off, Sadness Saturn returns with She, a three song tape that manages to be both raging and strangely meditative. Soundwise, it's a bit like a slightly less bizarre Velvet Cacoon, and it will also make sense to reference experimental black metallers Servile Sect, with whom the Sadness Saturn mainman is also involved. On side 1, "Childhood And The Journey To Satan" plods with a steady drum pound framing some queasy sounding melodies as tortured vocals scream out under a thick blanket of fuzz. The melancholy sounds of guitars and keyboards creep out like a mist of beautiful negativity, accompanied by plain spoken female vocals that actually make this sound a bit like a black metal Cold Cave! The song "Like Ghosts In The Freezing Night" is particularly effective as the calm female voice speaks out above the super intense (yet drumless) black metal atmosphere lurking below the surface. The appropriately named "Dreamer" brings She to its beautiful conclusion, a loping and majestic piece of black metal ambience that is almost uplifting, sort of like if Klaus Schultz had been digging some Ulver. Sound good? You bet.
This handsomely packaged cassette is professionally presented to us by the awesome Japanese label Frozen Veins, and with only 100 copies out there, you are gonna want to act fast!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another year, another Salt. In fact it's been way more than a year, maybe almost two, but it's always well worth the wait. No one does zines any more, which is a huge same, loosed from the binds of relying on advertising, and someone else's money, a zine can cover anything, explore music, art, even wrestling, can opt for any layout, but the problem is, that without that monetary support, sometimes you are forced to wait years between issues, which is criminal. Especially with zines like Salt. Every time we review a Salt, we always end up sending out a request for somebody, ANYBODY, to get in touch with Sal mastermind Kevin, give him a bunch of money and set him up with a real magazine. All the other mags out there can breathe easy since that is probably unlikely to happen any time soon. But if it did. Decibel, Terrorizer, the Wire, Signal To Noise, your days would be numbered�
So issue 8, as is the pattern, is even better than 7, which was already kick ass. On the cover, a super striking drawing of Diamanda Galas, done by Kevin Salt himself, and inside, well hell, it's like a zine custom made for aQ. A Pharoah Sanders live review, a Suishou No Fune / RKF South By Southwest tour diary, an interview with comedy grind masters 7000 Dying Rats, an interview with aQ beloved dronescapers Hywl Nofio, Finland's masters of hypnorock and kings of the NWOFHM, Circle, a handful of record reviews, an interview with Malefic from Xasthur, an interview with the Clientele, and since Kevin is strangely fascinated with Professional Wrestling, there is an elegy for the now defunct ECW, including an interview with author, journalist and ECW expert John Lister, and finally, an interview with our very own Andee about tUMULt, a follow up of an original label spotlight in one of the earlier issues.
The mind boggles what this guy could do with a real magazine. Not that we really want anything to change with Salt. But we sure wouldn't mind if it came out every month. Heck, every week!
And for the first time, this issue comes bundled with a super limited, exclusive 3" cd-r from Hwyl Nofio. A fourteen minute track called "Christ Distort", another gorgeously sprawling expanse of metallic shimmer and blissed out buzz. Exclusive to this issue of Salt.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES. Each mag/cd hand numbered.
It's hard to believe it's been two years since the last issue of Salt, but we're willing to be patient, after all it is possibly our favorite zine going, and as in our reviews of every issue of Salt, we really can't heap enough praise on this kick ass DIY zine, and as always, lament the fact that it somehow remains a zine, it seems like by now, Salt should be up there with Terrorizer and Rock A Rolla and Decibel. But you know what, fuck it, we love Salt just the way it is, virtually unchanged since issue #1, still black and white, a little oversized, same style layout, most of the illustrations done by Kevin, the guy who pretty much IS Salt, and the stuff he chooses to focus on, as always is weird and wonderful, varied and unlikely. Always something we're super into, always something else we've never even heard of, and even the stuff that seems like it would be of little interest, ends up being a fantastic read, always the sign of a great magazine.
This issue is especially exciting as it contains perhaps the first interview EVER with aQ fave and tUMULt recording artist, the mysterious Korean teenage black metaller Pyha, talking about life in Korea, black metal, mandatory conscription, protest music and more.
There's also a killer interview with Alicia from legendary crust doom outfit 13 (which also featured Liz Buckingham, now in Electric Wizard). There's a feature on doomdrone juggernaut Korperschwache, an extensive and WAY in depth review of the Some Bizarre Album, an extensive guide to getting drunk on cheap vodkas, a feature on indie poppers Grandaddy, and a guide to their best B-sides, a lengthy interview with comic artist Carla Speed McNeil, and an interview with the man behind new label The Great Pop Supplement (he also once upon a time ran both Enraptured and Earworm!). All that for five bucks! This time around there are no record reviews, and less pieces, but as Kevin explains in the intro, that's so the interviews and features could be longer and more extensive. Which they absolutely are.
What more do you need to know? You love music. You love reading about music. You love underground music, and underground zines, if you haven't been reading Salt, you've been missing out big time...
These Satanic Swiss metallers' last full album before the the beginnings of their "techno" metamorphosis (a transition which first yielded the amazing Passage disc, before several disappointing follow-ups), reissued with the pre-Passage Rebellion ep added on. A
The band with history's most intriguing combination of band name and genre tag returns! Yes, it's Seattle's self proclaimed "deep space power violence" two-piece Same Sex Dictator, rearing its hideous two heads once more to inflict maximum eye-bulging agony and crushing, rib-splitting suffocation upon feeble fleshbags the world over! Open The Coffin is an album length cassette bursting with ideas - heaving and bubbling over with punishing d-beat hardcore aggression, lurching scorch-earth doom, rank agonized vocal howls, and lush alien synthesizers. The ritual pummel of tribal toms roll into a swaying drug-haze of a jam. Throbbing John Carpenter ambience gives way to grinding uptempo blackened punk. The martial shuffle of a militaristic snare crumbles under the weight of a limping minimal nausea-groove which builds into a riotous double bass flurry. And all the while, whether at their most furious or most ominously minimal, there is a constant undercurrent of murky dread, like the shadow of a leviathan beneath the waters, not to mention a wholly unhealthy dose of violent misanthropy. And with song titles like "Obviously Dead", "God Is Not Here" and "Run Into Knives" would you expect/want any less?? Of course not. Highly recommended for musical masochists everywhere.
First we've heard from this Dutch combo, even though it's their FIFTH full length, and judging from this new one, man have we been missing out. The first minute is an impossibly furious and fierce, almost blacknoise blowout, a flurry of blast beats wrapped in sheets of blurred buzz that ends up sounding almost like wild, experimental blackened freenoise, eventually, the sound settles into something a bit more traditionally black metal, but only just, Sammath's black metal retains that unhinged, chaotic vibe throughout, with pretty much every note here wound up in dense, dizzying tangles of death tinged blackness, the sound vicious, raw, harsh, hellish and noisy, reminding us at times of Gorgoroth's Destroyer record, at least in terms of pushing the actual sonics about as far as they can go. Closer listening reveals much going on below the surface, a churning morass of raw black metal fused to almost psychedelic sounding blackness, the group deftly (and subtly) adding melancholic melodies and lush textures to what is otherwise a gloriously grim and sonically punishing onslaught, the tracks continuously exploding into epic majesty before (d)evolving into more frenzied avant black buzz. AWESOME!
Another fucked and demented and mysterious metal record, this one from the East Coast of the United States via Australian label Goatowarex. We weren't able to find out too much about these guys, other than the description: "Pure fucking depraved death metal lacking political goals or other such human bullshit." All right then. This may be 'death metal' although it definitely sounds to us, at different points, more like black metal and doom metal than death metal, and in fact it's some sort of confusional blend of the three. Some tracks are blazing fast, a roaring murky buzz, others are a lurching slow motion dirge, they even open with their own version of Mayhem's "Voice Of A Tortured Skull". The sound is super cavernous and lo-fi, with tons of natural reverb drenching the thrashing blackness in a thick cloak of ambient buzz, like it was recorded in some musty murky cave. That opening cover is a creepy Abruptum-ish ambient drone, with thick buzzing guitars and creepy anguished voices, and all sorts of weird sounds, which gives way to a super blackthrash freakout with buzzing riffs and blown out drums, the whole thing so in the red that it almost sounds like some sort of Merzbow-metal. The rest of the record shifts back and forth between totally fried black thrash and creepy ambient midtempo plod, and it's the doomier stuff that is the weirdest, with strangely obtuse riffs, lots of space, and fucked up arrangements. Halfway through there's another haunting ambient track, all organs and buzzy guitars, almost like Devil Doll or some Satanic wedding march or something, before lurching back into some killer Darkthrone style blackness.
Probably most well known around these parts for sharing a split with SF black metal overlord Leviathan a while back, Sapthuran pretty much held their own, which in that sort of company is saying something for sure. Their most recent full length was pretty great as well, a gloriously buzzed out slab of Burzumic brutality, as blissed out and hypnotic as grim and fuzzy. And a logical choice to be a part of God Is Myth's ongoing series of 3" cd-r's paying tribute to the writer H.P. Lovecraft, who has probably had more of an affect on metal music than almost any other writer (minus J.R.R. Tolkein obviously).
This is volume four in the series. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, the second from Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist, the third from the strangely monickered LVTHN, pronounced Leviathan, but not to be confused with our own Leviathan and number four comes from this Kentuckian black horde.�
Three songs, a little under twenty minutes, thematically Lovecraftian, but sonically, much like the last Sapthuran full length. The guitars are a drone-y buzz, loping and looping, fuzzed out and hypnotic, very Burzumy for sure, the vocals a strangled demony growl, the drums a chaotic black blast, the whole thing swirled into a relentlessly mesmerizing, pounding black buzz that wraps it's spiky tendrils around you and pulls you into the bleak and black emptiness below.��
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 20 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.
Being on a split record with another band can be rough. If the other band sucks, your band gets dragged right down with them. If the other band is great, they can make the listener completely forget that your half of the split even exists. So imagine being a black metal band, a pretty darn good black metal band, and doing a split with the current king of USBM Leviathan. You can't pass it up. It's fucking Leviathan man! But talk about pressure. But heck, it's gotta say something that Sapthuran shared a split with Leviathan a while back, and not only did we not ignore them, but we actually dug their half of the split quite a bit. So much so that when we learned they had a new full length, we got a bunch for the store.
Not nearly as weird as Leviathan, Sapthuran traffic in a more sort of trance like Burzumy buzz, single riffs are repeated and looped into a mesmerizing black metal hypnorock. Vocals howl and shriek, drums pound and blast, but it's all about the riffs, dense and fuzzy, a thick blanket of buzz laid over everything. Almost like a black metal Circle or Gore. Not a whole lot of parts, in fact, often just one or two, but the riffs are so good, and they are recorded so hot and blown out. It's like dipping your head in a furnace of black flames. Probably the weirdest thing about Sapthuran is all the acoustic guitars. It seems like almost half the record is not metal at all, instead a sort of lilting dark folk, fingerpicked minor key melodies, simple strumming, often placed in dark soundscapes of ambient drone, or distant black buzz, or crackling campfires, or the sound of howling wind, or burbling streams and chirping birds. Pastoral and tranquil, but still dark and ominous, the perfect sonic counterpoint to the hypnotic buzzing blackness surrounding that fragile serenity on all sides and perpetually threatening to swallow it whole.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
