Got something here for fans of Jex Thoth, the No Neck Blues Band, AND weird religious cults... there's probably some overlap there, we imagine! The Ajna Offensive, best known for black metal releases by the likes of Deathspell Omega and Funeral Mist, and also that fancy Bobby Beausoleil box set not long ago, now bring us the Sabbath Assembly, singing "glorious songs of praise to Lucifer, Satan, Christ, and Jehovah". Huh? These are indeed REAL hymns, and all from one church. Some would say, cult. The explanation: ever heard of the Process Church Of The Final Judgment? This is their music, "reProcessed" by a contemporary psychedelic (super)group of underground musicians, including Jex Thoth of, um, Jex Thoth on vocals, David "Xtian" Nuss (NNCK, Angelblood, Under Satan's Sun), and Randall Dunn (Master Musicians Of Bukkake)!�So you can expect this will be ominous and esoteric.
The subject of a recent Feral House book, the Process Church was a '70s phenomenon, of course, a kind of apocalyptic Jesus-freak cult with radical political dimensions. We're told they wore black cloaks (always cool) and had German shepherds (really?). We first heard of 'em years ago thanks to George Clinton's band Funkadelic, who for a while in the early '70s were, if not followers, at least supporters of the Process Church, who presumably had a chapter in Detroit. Several Funkadelic lps feature Process Church teachings (propaganda?) on the sleeves. The music of the Sabbath Assembly doesn't sound much like Funkadelic, though. Not quite that funky! Nor are they metal as you might assume from the label... it's actually often pretty, mellow stuff, presumably sounding close to what the Process Church folks themselves sounded like when singing the Lord's (or Lucifer's?) praises back in the day, these hymns very hippie sounding, churchy and folky, but also garagey, with twangy guitar and groovy organ, building into throbbing rhythmic psych workouts. It even gets a bit jazzy in spots ("The Power That Is Love"). Still, while this isn't heavy in the guitar dep't the way Jex Thoth's regular band is, it is definitely "heavy" in terms of subject matter. Jex is the perfect vocalist for this, her dramatic, devotional delivery at once both innocent and intense, sincere and sinister. Her exaltations and exhortations rise from a delicate whisper to commanding, demanding heights, sometimes unaccompanied, at others, with backing vocals reinforcing the message.
Be warned, this ain't Sunday school. When Jex asks "will you serve the will of God?", it seems like you had darn well better answer (yes!). Dunno if the Process Church is still around (haven't read the book yet) but if they are, there's a good chance this record might recruit some converts... And at least, it's certainly making us curious to read that book. Creepy, yes, and quite catchy too, we can understand why these folks were drawn to reinterpreting these songs. Though of course curious about what the original source material was (lyrics? vintage recordings?). Perhaps it says somewhere inside the lp packaging, we haven't checked for liner notes as yet. This was produced in association with Feral House, so it would seem the Sabbath Assembly had access to whatever inside archival info there was on the Process Church's musical activities.
As "religious" recordings go, this is what we dig! For fans of Jex of course, and Yahowah 13, Family Jams, Sounds Of Ascension, and other "cult" audio... recommended! For now, vinyl-only, 180 gram, gold-colored. There will also be a compact disc version, out later this month sometime.
Now this was a surprise. Two former members of Bay Area stoner sludge metal heroes Sleep (not the guy who's now in High On Fire) venture back into the rock n' roll arena with a new band called The Sabians that we have to admit we really hadn't heard many good things about (we'd been told they were terrible live). And, upon hearing this, their debut album, I can kinda understand the naysayers... Number 1, this sure *doesn't* sound like Sleep (it IS heavy, but very different -- High On Fire sounds MUCH more like Sleep for sure) and number 2, it's, well, weird. Just read the sticker on the album cover: "the Sabians' sound is a combination of punk, folk, metal, and chant." What? So we were a bit apprehensive ourselves. But, the truth is, this is kinda cool, and, yeah, weird! Stoner/Sleep fans will have to admit that even track one has its moments of Sabbathian rifferama but it also reminds us of The Pogues! (That's the folk bit.) As the album progesses, it remains dark and dynamic and different, with the sounds of acoustic strum, metal guitar, and even falling rain welded together into earnest, anthemic songs with polished production courtesy Alex Newport. Definitely the one thing you have to get used to is the vocals (a clearly-enunciating Michael Stipe? no, that's not it. A wimpier James Hetfield with a fake European accent?) but if you do, you might really like this. Really, one of the weirdest things about this band is how melodic they are! They actually kinda sound like a hypothetical catchy, radio-friendly Neurosis -- or an art-rock Metallica. But if Tool could get big (another band these guys remind us of) then maybe The Sabians will someday be heard on Live105 too. Anyway, kudos to these guys for trying to do something different and original, and more-or-less succeeding.
This hard-to-categorize, paradoxical Bay Area bunch are back with their second album of doubtlessly avant-garde and original yet at the same time almost totally mainstream rock/metal. The Sabians feature former members of seminal SF doomsters Sleep, the guys who *didn't* go the expected stoner rock route a la the ex-Sleeper who formed the popular High On Fire. Nope, though The Sabians are still a heavy proposition, they've pretty much nixed the overt Sabbath worship in favor of a much more modern, melodic mixture of Tool (lots o' Tool) and Metallica, with maybe some hints of an Irish/Pogues thing. Dark, rockin', heavy, hummable, and a bit weird. If you liked their debut from last year, this too will def float yr boat. Still haven't heard 'em on the radio, but if they keep at it, who knows?
It's tough enough keeping up with just John Zorn's output (which, we haven't been, even) let alone keeping up with every last thing he puts out on his label Tzadik. We'd like to, but we can't. Fortunately, though, we did (eventually) take notice of this release, which actually came out at the beginning of last year (see what we mean?. We gave it a listen maybe 'cause of the high concept: JEWISH METAL. Well why not? There's been Satanic metal, and Christian metal, and Saft's project surely isn't the first instance of Jewish metal, there's bands from Israel of course, and heck KISS was probably the first Jewish metal band, though of course they didn't make it the whole concept like it is here! Eclectic and intense, Black Shabbis is a dark, devastating disc of shreddtastic songs, or sometimes sheer doomy drone-dirgery, with overt Judeocentric themes. Furthermore, this is metal done by downtown NYC avant garde types, which makes it all the more interesting and improv-y in parts.
Longtime Zorn associate Saft, whose past recordings for Tzadik include a piano trio tribute to Bob Dylan, is not only a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist (here playing guitar, bass, organ, Mellotron, Optigan, and synth), but was also apparently something of a metalhead growing up, or so we must assume (as this is billed as a "back to his roots" recording). He, and the lineup he's pulled together to play this stuff (which includes Trevor Dunn from Mr. Bungle/Fantomas/Secret Chiefs 3), certainly display hella metallic chops, this is HEAVY. The 13+ minute "Kielce" sounds like Khanate, plus machine guns! Other tracks are thrashier, or more melodic, or stoner/bluesy, or neo-classical... this disc part Krallice, part Hammers Of Misfortune, part SUNNO))) or Aun, with Slayer and of course Sabbath lurking in the shadows. Quite a mix, but it works, and is nothing if not unique amongst today's avant-metal acts. Being on Tzadik probably limited its metal cred/exposure, but this isn't just for Tzadik/Zorn fans, or those interested in "Jewish" music. While it makes sense Zorn would put this out, it's almost too bad it wasn't on Profound Lore or Southern Lord, instead! And then we could have had multiple limited edition colored vinyl die hard editions by now...
Who would have though that guys from Gorgoroth were capable of coming up with something like this? Sure it's dark and heavy. But it's not really that evil. It's more sort of spacey and groovy. Two words you never thought you'd hear in the same sentence as Gorgoroth. But here you go. This is the stoner doom side project of Gorgoroth's King Ov Hell, and it's pretty awesome actually. You just have to sort of pretend this has nothing to do with Gorgoroth, otherwise it just doesn't compute. Think Sabbath (the vocals get really Ozzy at some points) for sure, but the sound is more modern groovy stoner doom, huge riffs, lurching loping rhythms, killer leads and wailing vocals, definitely brought to mind late era, post-Messiah Candlemass (think From The 13th Sun) but the interesting thing is how much a lot of this sounds like dark grungy moperock a la Alice In Chains, or like a more metalized Agents Of Oblivion (but not so metal as to be Acid Bath). It's actually what makes this record so cool. It's definitely metal, but it's so dark and haunting and moody. Like some mad scientist took the genes of Deadboy And The Elephantmen, Black Sabbath, Alice In Chains and old Monster Magnet and created these four guys in some underground laboratory. Sounds good huh? Well, that's cuz it is. Heavy and groovy, dark and moody, sludgey and stonery. We like this more and more every time we listen to it.
Finally the 'forgotten' Saint Vitus album, C.O.D. (which stands for Children Of Doom, not Cash On Delivery, nor Care Of The Devil) gets its due with this first ever reissue, complete with bonus tracks. When this album originally came out, back in 1992, it was almost the end of the line for the veteran LA doom squad. Their '80s SST era, touring with Black Flag, long past, Saint Vitus, forever born too late, soldiered on. This was their sixth full-length album, and the only one to feature vocalist Christian Linderson, who was drafted in to replace previous frontman Scott "Wino" Weinrich after he jumped ship for greener pastures - his other band, The Obsessed, was signed to a major label! (For about five seconds�).
Linderson, also known as "Lord Chritus", was best known at the time for fronting cult Swedish doomsters Count Raven, and went on post-Vitus to sing in such bands as Terra Firma, Lord Vicar, and Goatess. His melancholy Ozzy-esque wail was of course a good choice for Vitus, though he sure had big boots to fill, and despite his abilities can't help but rank third amongst Vitus's trio of terrific vocalists (Scott Reagers #1!!!!). Not his fault though that Reagers and Wino were both so godly, and Linderson does a fine job here. Likewise, the music is prime Vitus, being ultra heavy and psychedelic garage punk Sabbath dirge rockers with lots of fuzz and muzz, guitarist Dave Chandler's wild and noisy leads cutting crazily through the cobwebs of these horror-stricken songs. The production, courtesy of (fun fact!) none other than Don Dokken, who was a childhood friend of Vitus drummer Armando Acosta, is somewhat more modern and clean sounding than had previously been the Vitus norm, but music this slow and low just can't be glammed up. And Don sure didn't stint on the bass frequencies.
While C.O.D. is probably nobody's absolute top Vitus fave, its ghoulish Jack-O-Lantern grins and grimaces are not to be neglected either, so true doonheads should consider the remastered reissue of this underrated record quite welcome - as are the two rare bonus tracks now included, "To Breed A Solider" and "The Chameleon".
Doom. Vinyl. Die Healing. Need we go on?? Doom metal fans, probably all you need to know is that this album by LA godfathers of doom Saint Vitus, never before on vinyl, and long out of print on cd, is now here. However, we will go on...
Nobody could have guessed it back in 1995, when this album was first released, but 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty good year for ol' Saint Vitus. Not just one reunion show, but an extensive, well-attended tour! Vinyl reissues of their SST era records (we've got some in stock, getting more soon)! And this, a lovingly crafted vinyl version (first time on wax!!) for what was their 7th and final full-length studio album before calling it quits! We also hear rumors of a NEW album being made. However, as much as we'll be excited to hear it, there's no way they can top THIS.
While it might have been their final record, a last hurrah, hardly noticed by an uncaring world, it was also one of their best ever. For one thing, it marked the brief return of their original and best vocalist, the amazing Scott Reagers. Apologies to Wino, who's fronting the band for their current reunion... Some will differ, Wino certainly has his fans, we like him a lot too, Born Too Late and Mournful Cries are great albums, but let's just say there's no other singer quite like Scotty Reagers. Vitus was lucky to have had him in the first place, and lucky to have had him back for this. His dramatic and dynamic delivery, gloomy and ghoulish, yet classic castle-metal through and through, keeps us spellbound. Guitarist Dave Chandler steps up with some great sludgy slo-mo Sabbathy riffs (of course) and wah wah'd out, psychedelic punk soloing (of course). The atmosphere is sooooo despairing. Opener "Dark World", later covered by Reverend Bizarre, is a classic, what a riff! But that's just the beginning... "One Mind", "Let The End Begin", "The Sloth", "Return Of The Zombie", heck all the tracks are awesome, any Vitus fan should agree. The entire album harks back to the feeling of their first few records in the mid '80s, really as if Reagers had never left the band. And again his singing is crucial here, over the top wailing with a wretched, grotesque edge to it. Emotive and eccentric. Perfect for the plodding, fuzz-filled creepy-crawls that fill this pestilent platter. He might be singing about sloths and zombies (he IS singing about sloths and zombies) but damn does it sound sincere and MEANINGFUL - ignore him at your peril. Drop the needle on this and learn what it is to be doomed!!
While we should also list the abovementioned SST reissues, many of them must-haves too, this seemed even more exciting 'cause so few folks ever got the chance to get it, the cds were imports and it was one of the last releases on the label (Hellhound) before it folded. And like we said, there never ever was vinyl. Now there is, and fairly deluxe vinyl at that, complete with embossing on the cover for the Vitus logo. And yeah, of course it's limited... even if it wasn't, though, you gotta get it, we'd just be telling you to buy two of 'em!!
'Reunion' albums are a tough row to hoe for most bands. For every rare success (such as Van Halen's recent A Different Kind Of Truth, in our opinion; also the new P.i.L. is pretty good too, by the way), there's gotta be dozens embarrassing, useless, legacy-tarnishing failures (like, The Weirdness by The Stooges, ugh). And we know there's folks who'd argue with us about that Van Halen one... And even the good reunions still mainly just make you wanna listen to the band's 'actual' albums, right? So it's tough. But at the same time, who doesn't want to hear their favorite old band get back together and show the young 'uns how it's done? You can always hope.
Doom metal vets Saint Vitus take up the reunion challenge here, with their first album since 1990's V to feature popular frontman and stoner rock icon Wino at the mic. And while fans of Vitus and Wino won't be disappointed, we're not freaking out over it, either. Make no mistake, this definitely has the classic Vitus SOUND down, with the bellbottomed burnout heaviness we crave, distinguished by guitarist Dave Chandler's acid punk guitar-gnarl, and Wino's weathered croon. But, that's part of the problem... Wino's been a busy guy in recent years, in several different outfits, and solo too, so suddenly hearing him sing again in Saint Vitus, isn't quite so special as we want it to be. It's almost 'just another Wino album', not that we don't like those, but still. Also, while Vitus once were post Sabbath pioneers of doom, back in the day, when there were only like 5 or 6 doom metal bands in the world, now they're but one of many. So, you gotta judge this on the songs, and/or the riffs. Which are ok, if not the best Vitus ever wrote, with "Bleeding Ground" probably most worthy of their past SST-era glories.
And 2 of the 7 tracks on this relatively short, and oddly titled album (it's a drug thing, we don't understand) are instrumental filler - one a rather nice, but out-of-place acoustic number by Wino, the other an album-ending noisy feedback fest from Chandler called "Withdrawal" that's very Vitus-y, but still not a song. So, just 5 actual new songs, quite heavy and doomy and slooooow, but also, unavoidably, having a bit of a rehashed feel to 'em.
They definitely didn't embarrass themselves here, these 34 and a half minutes of blown out old school doom are just the fix any fan of Vitus and/or Wino wants, but we can't help but feel that the band's *former* final album, 1994's excellent Die Healing, itself at the time a reunion effort (with original lead singer Scott Reagers), would have been a better last testament.
Doing a service to the doom community at large, Southern Lord follows up their reissue last year of the long out of print Saint Vitus album V (originally released on the German label Hellhound) with another reissue of an equally long-gone Hellhound release, the Saint Vitus live album, aptly titled Live. Recorded on their second European tour in the fall of '89, this includes live renditions of such classics as "Born Too Late", "Dying Inside", "Look Behind You", and "Clear Windowpane", as performed by the Vitus MK II lineup that featured Scott "Wino" Weinrich (of The Obsessed, later of Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand and Place Of Skulls) on vocals. Southern Lord's deluxe re-packaging preserves the original's awesome cover photo (one that makes Wino look like one scary dude, and guitarist Dave Chandler like a really insane hippy freak) and adds a swank 32 page booklet of previously unseen photos (note Chandler's sweat-drenced Dinosaur T-shirt in several of the pics). There's also a short paragraph of new liner notes by Chandler as well, who, always the wise-ass punk, observes that "the print on CD sleeves is always too fucking small to read, so what's the point?"
Basically if you're a Saint Vitus or Wino fan it's hard to see how you wouldn't want this! If you're not already into these guys, it'll certainly provide you with a handy collection of some of Vitus' best tunes, but we're not expecting to sell many of these to the Vitus-ignorant. This is for the fans, old and new. People who'll dig the between song stage banter, and truly appreciate the extended guitar jamming portions sometimes added to their tunes in the live setting. Yessir, this is a hour+ of ponderous riffage and wah-crazed soloing, warts and all, as only Vitus could muster. All hail.
The cult Buried By Time And Dust label brings us an official release of this live recording by these doom metal legends in their prime, on tour with SST labelmates Black Flag back in 1984!! Featuring the classic original Vitus lineup of SoCal hippie punk wasteoids: guitarist Dave Chandler, bassist Mark Adams, drummer Armando Acosta (RIP) and vocalist Scott Reagers, doing songs from their first few early albums and eps (some of which hadn't been released yet), this was recorded on December 20th, 1984 in London, Ontario, Canada. They bring the acidhead, hippie punk, alcoholic DOOM with "White Magic/Black Magic", "Zombie Hunger", "War Is Our Destiny", "Hallow's Victim", "Saint Vitus" and three more classics.
Now, sometimes, live recordings are not always the greatest, but we knew this was a worthy one, as the audio comes from a videotape bootleg we've seen and heard previously. The sound is good, and more importantly, Scott Reagers' vocals are AMAZING. We already considered him one of the all-time great (but totally underrated) metal singers, but that he could pull it off live (and under less than ideal circumstances, we imagine) is damn impressive. His banshee vocals just like they do in the studio, full-on with all the range and dynamics, wow!
This vinyl document comes with cool cartoony cover art featuring a pit-full of Vitus fans moshing it up, although if you've seen the video from this show you know that the audience during the Vitus portion was bit smaller - with Henry Rollins himself being the most prominent headbanging fan in the room, pretty much all alone front row and center. 'Cause those were the days when punk and metal didn't always mix, and Vitus's psychedelic style of metal wasn't always appreciated by the hardcore kids! However, it's hard to imagine why not now since they RULED. As you can hear here.
Includes lyric sheet insert (backed with a typewritten Vitus band bio from SST's publicity department, circa 1984), the lp pressed on thick white vinyl.
"Welcome to darkness!!" It's a red letter DOOM day here at Aquarius, with the arrival of this long awaited reissue! For some reason, SST had never before released these essential Saint Vitus records on compact disc. Now they're here, officially together on one cd, the LA doom legends' 2nd full length album Hallow's Victim and subsequent 12" ep The Walking Dead, both first unleashed back in 1985! Plus, a bonus track!!
There were other great underground metal bands in the '80s who practiced what doom messiahs Black Sabbath preached: Trouble, Candlemass, Witchfinder General, Pentagram... But it was LA's Saint Vitus who took the Sabbath sound to even further extremes. They were heavier, slower, doomier than anyone else. Psychedelic, wasted, DOOM. Both of these essential doom documents boast the unique vocal presence of Vitus' original singer, Scott Reagers. As we've no doubt mentioned in other reviews, it's been a subject of some debate 'round here about who was the best Vitus vocalist, Reagers or his replacement, Scott "Wino" Weinrich. Whatever your preference, we'd hope you agree that Reagers was pretty AMAZING, his dynamic, dramatic banshee wailings somehow like an unholy hybrid of both Ozzy and Dio! But way more twisted, wretched, and over the top than even that would sound. And although the recent Vitus reunion lineup is with Wino, when we saw 'em, Wino made a point of paying tribute to Reagers, talking about how awed he was to have to try and fill his shoes back in the day. (Man, we wished we'd been at the show in LA, where Reagers did show up on stage to sing a few songs!).
Containing classic tracks like "White Stallions", "War Is Our Destiny", and "Mystic Lady", we can't recommend disc this highly enough to any traditional doom fan who doesn't have this stuff! Druggy frizzy fuzzy punk rock burn out Black Sabbath worship doesn't get much better (maybe Vitus's self-titled debut from '84 edges this out). While guitarist Dave Chandler is technically a mess, he sure had a knack for writing a riff, and his demented wah-happy soloing makes up in sheer psychedelic chutzpah what it lacks in chops. Drummer Armando Acosta and bassist Scott Adams revel in the slow and low, respectively (though Vitus do crank up the speed at plenty of spots on this disc, actually). And then there's the mournful cries of Reagers on the mic, delivering the goods, proving that a scuzzy band of stoners from LA playing the '80s hardcore punk rock circuit might just have had the best metal vocalist of all time EVER... well that's what some of us here think, anyway. Hear for yourself.
The bonus track happens to one of our favorite songs in the Vitus catalog, "Look Behind You". This is the original recording of that tune, as sung by Reagers, taken from SST's 1986 Blasting Concept Vol.II compilation (it was later redone with Wino on the Thirsty And Miserable ep in '87).
Of all the classic "doom metal" pioneers who kept the spirit of Black Sabbath alive in the '80s -- Trouble, Witchfinder General, Candlemass, Pentagram -- the most significant to me (Allan) by far is LA's Saint Vitus. Perhaps 'cause they recorded for seminal punk label SST, their influence was broad. In some way, you can thank Saint Vitus for side two of Black Flag's My War, for the Melvins, for SUNNO)))... "Stoner rock" owes them too. These guys were proudly retro '70s longhairs when it definitely wasn't cool, and for that they will forever be badasses. I pretty much like *all* of their albums, many of which aren't in print anymore. But this one, 1989's V (their 5th LP, natch) has just been reissued by the powers-that-be-doomed at Southern Lord. It's certainly classic Vitus, their final release with vocalist Scott "Wino" Weinrich before he split to reform The Obsessed for a brief and unsurprisingly ill-fated major label stint. And it was the first Vitus LP not to come out on SST. Instead it was released by the now long-defunct German doom specialists Hellhound. So, in the States, it was a hard to find import, and little publicized. For these reasons, V acquired quite a mystique -- some fans going so far as to consider it their best. I can't exactly agree with that -- for one thing, V is marred by perhaps the worst 2 minutes in Vitus' career ("When Emotion Dies", a sensitive acoustic number featuring Wino dueting with a female vocalist -- that ain't what Saint Vitus is all about!) -- but elsewhere on this slab you'll find some essential heaviness, from the psychedelic powerhouse opener "Living Backwards" to the wrenching, rocking "I Bleed Black" to the massive melancholy dirge of "Patra (Petra)" and the epic, shivering "Jack Frost". As well, tracks like "Angry Man" and "Ice Monkey" provide uptempo inklings of stoner rock to come... So, a prime Vitus platter that anyone with records by Electric Wizard/High On Fire/Spirit Caravan etc. ought to also own. And, there's more: Southern Lord have unearthed a video of Wino's first-ever performance fronting Vitus, shot by Larry Lally at the Palm Springs Community Center on May 16th 1986. It's included it on the cd as a bonus Quicktime file! It looks kind of like black and white '50s TV footage, but it's great to see and hear this vintage Vitus show, the band tearing through five classics including "Clear Windowpane" and "Saint Vitus".
If we didn't tell you that Salem's Pot was a heavy, stonery, very Electric Wizard-y psychedelic doom metal outfit from Sweden, the band name kinda shoulda already given you a good idea of what they might sound like - and also an idea of their sense of humor. Yep, they like puns - an earlier album was called Sweeden... geddit? S-WEED-en. Heck, the title of this new disc could possibly be a pun too; we don't know Swedish so we can't be sure. But anyway please don't let the pot-themed punning dissuade you, Salem's Pot aren't just some bogus toker jokers, no, they really ARE damn heavy and occultishly effective at the slow, low, Sabbathy psychedelic sludge thing.
There's three looong tracks here, "Creep Purple" (egad, another pun!), "Dr. Death", and "Nothing Hill", and they're all creepy, crawly, brainwrecking doomfests with wasted, wailing vocals (Ozzy-ish but super distorted) and hypnotically lumbering grooves. Yep, if you wanna call it Electric Wizard worship, well, sure, and it's done damn well. But they have their own weirdly woozy angle on this sound, really. The heavier-than-thou guitar riffage and plodding percussion is augmented with droning organ and, at one point, even some sinister, warbly accordion!! Going back to the guitars, gnarly feedbacky soloing is another essential element of their sound. Yeah, we like how Salem's Pot really accentuate the creepy vibes - it's a 3am hazy Satanic drug thing you wouldn't understand, quite compelling and almost (almost) serious sounding, puns aside.
So of course recommended big time for fans of Electric Wizard, but also to for fans of Uncle Acid, Blood Farmers, Satan's Satyrs, Monster Magnet, Windhand, The Wounded Kings, Sourvein, fellow Easy Riders HORNSS, and all others into witches and weed�
FYI, there's vinyl, we had some but sold out and are waiting for a restock (or repress?) soon...
Record number two from this grim doom sludge trio, named of course for the stepdaughter of King Herod, in the Bible, who was the one that requested John The Baptist's severed head on a platter, a fitting name certainly for the aural horrors these three deal in, and one of the three just so happens to be vocalist Katherine Katz, who also does time in genius grind outfit Agoraphobic Nosebleed.
Her time in AnB must have rubbed off on her main group, cuz things aren't nearly as slow and sludgey as we remember. That said, opening track "The Message" might have you thinking otherwise, a slow building sludgescape, all twisted electronics, and spare downtuned chug, we were prepared for some serious Moss/Monarch/Bunkur sort of dirgery, but then after about three minutes of abstract avant doom, the track kicks in proper, and the band unfurl something practically midtempo, a weirdly lumbering groove that is thick, and heavy, and awesomely brutal, with Kat's insanely harsh bellowed and screeched vokills. The 'verses' are way more stripped down, leaving lots of space for Kat's vox to be the focal point, draped over simple plodding drums and occasional chug, but then the song veers back into that more propulsive doomy groove. It's not as slow and sludgey maybe, but this is still some seriously brutal stuff.
And there are still more sonic surprises in store, the title track is downright mathy, with still more sludgey groove, and some killer start stop dynamics, sounding more like some Harvey Milk / Khanate hybrid. Which actually sort of describes the whole record, it's like they fused that sort of abject shrieking minimal doom, to something more 'rocking', cuz this is actually seriously rocking, way more than the last record, and it definitely suits them. The riffs are gnarled and blackened, the drums are crushing, and intricate, those vocals are incredible, slipping easily from Dubin-ish shriek to Cannibal Corpse like bellow, and instead of relying on mood and ambience, like a lot of doom/sludge outfits, these songs are definitely composed, and are complicated, and occasionally weirdly catchy.
We figured the 17+ minute "An Accident Of History" might be the album's centerpiece, and it still could be, although instead of more churning heaviness, it's a weird abstract drone piece, all static and hiss, shortwave radio, twisted feedback, bizarre samples, disembodied voices, glitched out electronics, malfunctioning effects, a pretty fantastic bit of audio experimentation, that somehow sounds like it belongs, dropped right there in the midst of Salome's complex math sludge heaviness. Awesome.
Housed in super striking embossed black & white, six panel digipak packaging.
For the Biblically impaired out there, Salome was the stepdaughter of King Herod, ruler of Galilee, and her infamy comes from the fact that she was convinced by her mother Herodias to seduce her stepfather (euwww) with an eye to getting him to promise her anything she wished. And what she wished was the head of John The Baptist on a platter. Why? Because John condemned the marriage of Herodias and Herod. Harsh.
Thus Herod did her bidding, and she was able to present John's severed head on a platter, to her satisfied mother. One of the most gruesome Biblical moments for sure (although only one among MANY), that has oft been the subject of paintings and plays. But that sort of cold hearted brutality, that sort of gleefully grim bloodshed, how would that play out sonically? Well, perhaps a bit like Virginia's Salome, a female fronted slow motion sludge juggernaut, whose sound falls somewhere between Eyehategod, Khanate and Monarch. Four long songs, each a gloriously filth encrusted, downtuned dirge, with frontwoman Kat's vocals a raspy wraithlike shriek, that is at times a dead ringer for Khanate's Alan Dubin. The music, while definitely sludgey and pummeling is rife with surprising melody, even some of the slowest heaviest parts sound more like 16 rpm Sabbath than the more static and sludgey dronedirgedoom that's all the rage. But the band definitely mix it up, some lo-fi jangle here and there, some classic UK doom sounding mournful melody, some incredibly lugubrious chug and churn, some rocking parts that have a bit of a Melvins feel, all stretched out into slow slithery spaced out ultradooooooom.
The record closes with the 21 minute "Onward Destroyer", which while incredibly heavy and sooooo slooooow, manages to be weirdly pretty, with clean guitar melodies drifting in between the rest of the song's abstract spacious plod, almost like a funereal doom Low. Some awesome sheets of Eyehategod style feedback, with the band eventually kicking it up a notch, and -almost- rocking, a midtempo doomic groove, more harsh hellish vox, and an amazing stretch of feedback that sounds almost orchestral before the band pound out a sludgey groovy slow motion finale.
Monarch, Moss, Eyehategod, Khanate, Thou, Corrupted, Bunkur, if that sounds like your ideal playlist, then this is pretty much a no brainer. But for folks into troo classic doom more than this extreme modern variant, Salome might just be the perfect gateway to whet your appetite for something more black and more grim, and with a few more o's. Doooooooooooooooooooooooooom........
Both the cd and the lp are limited to 500 copies. The lp is already out of print, so when those are gone, that's it, but the cds should be around a bit longer, although probably not much.
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.
For fans of the heavy, it has been a pretty good year! Cough, Thou, Trees, The Wounded Kings, Asva, et. al. And it just seems to keep getting better and better. Here's one of our latest slow, low, doooooomed-out faves, brought to us by the ever-reliable, ultra-heavy 20 Buck Spin label. Samothrace offer up 4 long tracks of mournful, slo-mo sludge on their debut full length Life's Trade. This not-so-merry band of black stone wielders hail from Lawrence, Kansas but recorded this in Chicago with producer Sanford Parker (Pelican, Buried At Sea, Indian, Minsk, Rwake, Nachtmystium... he knows his heaviness!). They're not the first band to employ emotive loud-soft dynamics, post-rock style, but they do it quite well, and it sounds fantastic, this whole album exuding utter dismal despair. And, hopefully, provoking some form of catharsis. Everything - the guttural vokills, the effects-blanketed guitars - are weary, weeping, wailing lamentations echoing across the Midwestern prairie, finding common cause with our favorite funereal doom from Finland, British doomdeath of the '90s like My Dying Bride, and fellow sludge lords like Atavist and Ocean. Not bad company to keep, if not clinically depressed.
Sometimes it seems that bands move too far away from metal and get into some kinda mediocre, boring post-rock middleground. Like -- fuck, dude, where's the metal? However, Samothrace manages to stay heavy even while incorporating other elements. The thing is, it's not metal with something else thrown in, they take other things and make them metal. At times it's quite pretty and melodic. It's like His Hero is Gone (Fifteen Counts of Arson era) mating with the gorgeous new works by Earth. There's many long, exquisite stretches of mellowed out beauty, calm and quiet, to lull the listener before being bulldozered by fat fuzzed riffage in a more metallic, stoner mode, which sometimes flows into some sweet, Iommi-envious soloing. Samothrace's loping lethargy and mopey melody is such that even at its most crushing, the band's music still seems suffused with the sunset's psychedelic twilight rays, or perhaps radiates its own comforting warmth, somehow. If that speaks to you, grab a copy, spark one, and turn it up. You'll want this one loud. Recommended.
Four years on since their 20 Buck Spin debut Life's Trade, and these formerly Midwestern, now Northwestern postrockish doomlords (and lady) aren't any happier. Nor are they any faster or poppier, quite the opposite. Instead of the four long songs found on their previous opus, now on this album we're presented with but two. Of course, they fill up the whole compact disc (or both sides of the vinyl), clocking in at 14:19 and 20:29. And they're as heavy and slow as they are long - although, first track "When We Emerged" barrels along at a fairly decent place, in parts, before concluding with an extended feedback/drone/distortion fadeout.
Our review of Life's Trade was particularly evocative, we think, at one point where we said: "Samothrace's loping lethargy and mopey melody is such that even at its most crushing, the band's music still seems suffused with the sunset's psychedelic twilight rays, or perhaps radiates its own comforting warmth, somehow". So we'll repeat that sentiment here, it applies to this one too. Again, Samothrace somehow mold a thing of beauty from ugliness and misery. Anguished, throat-torn, seemingly wordless vokillizations find sustaining strength in the band's own massive slo-mo groove, perfect for spaced-out headbanging. Amidst the sludge, the guitar soloing gets kinda classic, majestic. At its most glorious, we're thinking Thin Lizzy at 16rpm or something. Heavily recommended heaviness, especially for fans of the likes of Yob and Elder!
Huge groovy Swedish stoner sludge. Warm fuzzy guitars, crashing drums and soaring vocals. On UK label Rage of Achilles.
Oakland's more metal than thou (but still sorta punk) Saviours are back to the attack with this new album, their fourth, another wicked rager like 2009's Accelerated Living, once more produced by Trans Am's Phil Manley, and again on the Kemado label. Hesher, hipster, whatever, this is METAL and your soon to be bangin' head will be proof of that. So, poseur patrol, but down your pitchforks (and Pitchfork readers, time to switch to stronger stuff than PBR).
This time 'round, rather than ripping right into it, Saviours actually start things off slow and low, in something of a stoner/sludge mode, with the lumbering, 7+ minute "The Eye Obscene". Electric Wizard fans might want to break out their bongs for this one. But, while the album surely stays sludgey, the sonics thick, pretty soon Saviours are chuggin' along more aggro, metallic, thrashed out avenues, eventually channelling the classic likes of Judas Priest and Motorhead with the souped up rocka rolla of "Crete'n" and "God's End" ferinstance.
Once again it's the glorious, galloping guitars that rule the record (though that drummer of theirs deserves a hand too), the quasi-melodic vocals however hopelessly hollerin' away without nearly as much effort put in, it would seem. But the guitars, damn they're whipping out the shredding solos and sweet harmonies aplenty. If you dug Accelerated Living as much as we did, you'll be into Death's Procession too, it's cut from the same (denim) cloth but with extra doom-trudge heaviosity added in. Fans of High On Fire, The Sword, Early Man, and Bible Of The Devil, this is for you (though, as much as we like Saviours, we don't understand why Bible Of The Devil aren't at least as popular!).
FYI, the vinyl version came and went, hopefully we'll get more soon...
What do you get when you cross one part Nadja and one part Bloody Panda? Well, pretty much what you might expect, a collection of sprawling epic doomic dirgescapes, that slip from spaced out and psychedelic to blackened and buzz drenched, blissed out and ethereal one second, suffocating and crushing the next, most often in the same song.
"Crepuscular" begins all spidery guitars and distant atmospheric shimmer, but it's not long before that Nadja style metalgaze creep blots out the sun, resulting in a sort of washed out, grinding slo-mo dirge that really does sound quite Nadja like, which shouldn't be surprising as both members of Nadja show up here, resulting in something more like Nadja with an extra guitarist, which we're not complaining about AT ALL. It's a gorgeously thick and corrosive and fantastically heady avant metal drift, drum machine driven, give it a sort of Godflesh vibe, but way more blissed out, droney and trancey and totally hypnotic, the sort of dreamdirge heaviness that's so easy to get lost in. That heaviness does get dialed back for a brief spell midsong, during which the trio weave a lust shimmerscape of glistening effects and deem rumbling swells, only to work their way back to an even more blown out dirge.
The title track finds the core Scythling duo of Aidan Baker and Josh Rothernberger joined by vocalist Rebecca Fasanello and Michael Tambouro on hammered dulcimer, which had us expecting something darkly delicate, which the opening few minutes are, but Fasanello's vocals are a demonic shriek, that in places transforms into a witchy croon, and the dulcimer, we were expecting some sort of Botanist like percussive shimmer, but instead, they seem to just add to the general din, adding streaks of metallic shimmer, but for the most part, it's a gloriously slow moving cloud of blackened dirgery, the drums skittery and abstract, a droned out blurscape that manages to sound both grim and black, and spaced out and psychedelic simultaneously.
The final track "Gloaming" introduces another guest vocalist, as well as someone credited with "violet ray", the track starting out haunting and minimal, weird disembodied melodies over distant pianos, all smeared into a hazy abstract drift, a crumbling low end drone gradually surfacing underneath, underpinning what sound more like the Caretaker or Tim Hecker, eventually that low end splinters into a cloud of caustic crumbling heaviness, but the track remains a drifty amorphous crawl, moaning foghorn like melodies, shimmery guitar buzz and tinkling melodies eventually fight back the onslaught, the track unwinding to its end as some sort of blackened chamber music, the doomic creep wreathed in clouds of abstract metallic shimmer.
Super catchy, southern tinged stoner rock from Canada. This is Sea of Green's second record and is a huge leap ahead of its predecessor. Great production (same guy who produced Deep Purple and Nazareth) and super catchy songs. Sounds a bit like Kyuss if
Sea of Tombs are a heavy psychedelic instrumental bass/drums/guitar trio from Chicago. They have some membership ties to Lake of Dracula, Jaks, and Clikitat Ikatowi, although that's kinda irrelevant to whether anyone would like this or not. What is relevant:
One of two new releases on this week's list from the German doom metal label The Church Within, the other being by extremely Sabbath-styled San Francisco doomsters Orchid, this one is also significantly Sabbathy, although in much more of an original way. Their singer definitely sounds a lot like Ozzy, he's the guy from another (amazing) band with a new record we'll hopefully be reviewing soon, called Hour Of 13. Not sure how he ended up in Seamount, or how they work things regarding live performances, since he's American, living in Connecticut, but the rest of the band is in fact German, based in Bavaria. In any case, we like his vocals, which on opener "Out Of The Dark" gives Seamount not only a Sabbath vibe, but maybe more of a solo '80s Ozzy feel, a la Diary Of A Madman or Bark At The Moon! Meanwhile, as long as we're making comparisons, another band Seamount sometimes remind us of is Monster Magnet. Turns out the singer can do a good Wyndorf drawl too, check out the lumbering "Together Wear The Cross". And heck, Monster Magnet meets Ozzy sounds damn good to us! Stoner metal nirvana really.
But it doesn't stop there, 'cause actually the songs we've mentioned are just the first two on the disc, over the course of this 13 track, 75 minute (!) album, Seamount touch upon plenty of other classic, doomic, metallic sounds, from The Obsessed (big time) to the NWOBHM, synthesizing all the above influences into something into what is indeed, all told, a signature "Seamount" sound, super heavy but also totally rockin', full of thick, catchy riffs, twin guitar power, tight playing, gloomy melody, some quiet moody parts, and other occasional surprises. This isn't their first album either, which now we want to hear! Impressive to say the least, as is the packaging, a nice gatefold miniature LP style sleeve, with lovely 28 page booklet, with evocative artwork to illustrate each and every one of the songs.
We had never heard anything from these Italian blackgrind crustmetal crushers before, but holy shit is their Southern Lord debut a seriously fierce and ferocious slab of extreme brutality, crushing post metal sludge, insanely frantic metallic hardcore, blasting black metal buzz, crusty feedback drenched filth, gnarled downtuned grind all woven into a little over 34 minutes of skull caving, spine wrenching, ear destroying heaviness.
The killer 'dripping black goat' Justin Bartlett cover art is the perfect visual accompaniment for Solve Et Coagula, although we did actually assume these guys were gonna be buzzing blasting true black metal, but the truth was better than we would have hoped for.
The record opens with a long stretch of layered guitar buzz, droned out and hypnotic, tense and intense, gradually building, howled hellish vox buried just under the surface, like a blackened Sunroof! almost, or some Neurosis intro music, and then when the band kicks in, that's just what it sounds like, a plodding doomic lumber, epic and majestic, a sort of Neur-Isis-y post metal trudge, the vocals harsh, over tangled guitars, and then the song REALLY kicks in and gets even heavier, a massive churning chunk of post metal doom sludge, which barely prepares you for the next the next 8 tracks, averaging less than 2 minutes each, of furious blasting metallic pummel, grinding frenzied crunch giving way to crushing d-beat blast, giving way to squalls of punkmetal chaos, occasionally slipping back into something more sludgey, but never for long, always exploding again into caustic bursts of throat shredding vokills, impossibly dense drumming, super distorted guitars, and gnarled mathy arrangements.
Until "Eve Of The Last Day", mirroring the opening track, with its soaring guitar buzz, its spaced out drum pound, a majestic epic, that finally slips into a seriously crushing chug heavy dirge. "War Desire" is the record's last bit of punk metal crunch, before the twisted finale, simple titled "1968", super mathy and complex, lots of lurching start stop arrangements, the guitars super tangled, before splintering into an awesomely psychedelic breakdown, all swirling FX freakout and abstract drum crush, the middle portion gets a bit melodic, and if possible, somehow even heavier, a lumbering, lurching groove, that spaces out into a tribal droney slow burn outro, eventually leaving just streaks of feedback, blurred high end drones, and a mysterious sampled voice.
So fucking awesome. Heavy music obsessives of all stripes (black, doom, post, crust) should for sure check this out...
It might be a bit obvious, but it'll get our point across: take a look at this album's cover, an evocative image of a Neolithic stone circle out on a mystic moor somewhere, the stones jutting up into a darkened, dusky red sky. Now imagine the amid the stones also a circle of Orange amps/cabinets, cranking twin guitar jams in a '70s psych/metal style... add a bassist and a drummer who makes a point of also being credited with "cowbell", and you're perhaps getting close to an idea of what Serpent Throne's The Battle Of Old Crow sounds like.
Released by Vessel (best known as the label who previously brought us that fantastic archival release by '70s Pentagram alter ego Bedemon, a few years back), this is the 2nd full-length from these Philadelphia instru-metallists (featuring one of the guitarists from sludge-doom act Otesanek), following 2007's Ride Satan Ride. The concept for -that- album was that it was a reissue of a long-lost soundtrack to an obscure '70s biker film. And it almost could have been, but we think Serpent Throne could have gone further with the idea, like having a repeating "theme" motif throughout the album, interspersing the tracks with made up fake movie dialogue and sound effects, or including a mellow acoustic ballad "hit single" that would have played during the imaginary film's love scene... stuff like that would have made it more like the soundtracks to actual films like Psychomania and Stone. But it was a cool debut anyway, that we should have reviewed but didn't, so we're making sure not to sleep on this one too. The Battle Of Old Crow scraps the movie soundtrack concept and just provides the riffy instrumental rockin', without pretense. Which we could describe as sounding like a stoner rock Fucking Champs, maybe. Or a shut-up-n-play-yer-guitar version of The Sword. In other words, heavy and badass in the guitar dep't. Of which there's two here, guitars that is, bringing the stirring harmonies, trippy leads, and fat riffs. Heck, it's got "guitariness" on par with AQ faves Slough Feg and Hammers of Misfortune. Fans of Earthless ought to dig this too, though the songs here are just that, songs, more concise and less jammy than Earthless's extended improvs. Another fitting comparison would be to fellow Philly instrumental act Stinking Lizaveta, if they were just a bit more overtly on the retro/stoner tip. The '70s heaviness of bands like Sabbath, Scorpions (both cited on the cover sticker blurb), Wishbone Ash, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple and the like is the obvious inspiration here, and Serpent Throne have definitely learned their lessons well.
While not having a singer can sometimes be a good thing (since any given vocalist's voice, not to mention lyrics, can be so subjective a pleasure, or not), the question that usually gets asked about something like this is, well, is it boring? We'd say, no, definitely not. Not if you like tasty guitar and authentically '70s sounding bellbottomed riffage! In that case, having no singer is a plus, since there's no vocals to get in the way of the guitarists doing their thing. Which they do quite well indeed! The rhythm section is pretty tight too.
While often, the solution (or purpose) of some bands doing the instrumental thing is to get ultra-techy and complex, to grab attention that way, Serpent Throne take a different tack, writing songs that are just that, memorable songs, vocals or no. Sure, there's moments where you wouldn't mind your favorite '70s metal vocalist stepping up to the mic. But Serpent Throne's catchy riffs and purely instrumental interplay is plenty enough most of the time - powerful, mesmerizing and melodic. Recommended.
Been waiting for this one for a while! Kinda mysterious, really. Certain sources say that this supposedly came out in 2010, but it never seemed to materialize at any of our suppliers. Last year, a vinyl version was released (and we might still have like one copy left) and so we thought the cd was immediately impending too, and kept waiting for it, and waiting... finally, it's actually available!! And worth the wait, 'cause we LOVE the ripping instru-metal stoner rock heaviness that Philadelphia's Serpent Throne brings, as displayed on earlier albums The Battle Of Old Crow and fake '70s biker flick soundtrack Ride Satan Ride.
White Summer - Black Winter is again a tour-de-force of '70s sounding, twin guitar, heavy riff rockin' psychmetal, sans vocals. For being an instrumental band, they manage to make their songs SONGS, y'know, not just jams, though they DO go off, too. Total chugging doomed out glory, adorned with resounding, heartbreaking harmonies, with titles like "March Of The Druids", "Riff Forest", "Pagan Eclipse", and (the remarkably mellow) "Mushroom Cloud". Damn good, somewhere twixt The Fucking Champs, and Earthless (but like we said, less jammy), and real deal '70s stuff a la Wishbone Ash, early Scorpions, Thin Lizzy, and Poobah.
A few years back, we wrote A LOT about The Battle Of Old Crow, hopefully that enticed you to pick it up then, and you're as eager for this new one as we are. Or, if you're new to Serpent Throne, this one oughtta make you a fan, if you dig folks playing the heck out of their guitars, at Black Sabbath inspired levels of heaviness and riff-mastery (and why wouldn't you??). Folks into fellow Phillies Stinking Lizaveta should also like 'em, Zebulon Pike fans too. Recommended.
Solo album (and we mean SOLO), from the bassist for eccentric Spanish doomlords Orthodox. Avant-garde and experimental, this disc consists of improvised soundscapes of creaky string screech and droning, bowing rumble on acoustic double bass. It's all very dark and atmospheric, difficult listening at first, but then it gets kind of mesmeric, Serrato layering his bass textures into constructs of claustrophobic density. The penultimate track "Las Dos Caidas De Cuervo" adds horns and drums (all ALSO played by Serrato via the magic of overdubbing), for more of an overt free jazz (or "death jazz"?) approach.
Comes with liner notes from Serrato, commenting on each track with regards to this album's overarching "story" (a mythic concept about an unborn crow...) was well as citing specific musical inspirations including raw early '90s black metal, Hindemith, Xenakis, Ligeti, Black Sabbath, and fellow improvising bassist Simon H. Fell.
Orthodox fans looking for doom metal won't really find any here, not that it's not "doomy" in other ways. But if you like the more un-orthodox extremes of what Orthodox does, then check it out. By the way, Serrato also plays in the isolationist duo Jacob, whose disc on Utech we reviewed last year.
Killer three way split, two parts Japanese, one part USA. Essential for Sludge doom fanatics, as this features a brand new unreleased track from Japan's mighty, unsung doomlords Dot [.]. Maybe it's the weird spelling, maybe it's the paucity of available material, but Dot [.] are every bit as cool and weird and heavy as Boris or Corrupted and this track proves that once again. But the big surprise here are the two bands we have never heard of before. both amazing, one quite possibly our new favorite band!
Up first are Japanese black thrash outfit Sete Star Sept who spew forth 4 tracks of super downtuned, blackened thrashing grind metal insanity, super low cookie monster growls, furious riffing, massive blown out production, thick swaths of shrieking white noise. Like a killer old school UK crust band super charged and run through some cracked Japanese blackgrind filter. So cool.
But holy fuck, Watch Me Burn just totally and completely knocked us on our asses. So heavy, so weird, so utterly damaged and freaked out. Imagine the Boredoms circa Vision Creation New Sun, mixed with later tripped out trancier spacerock Solar Anus (even though they're American), then imagine that band playing some super schizophrenic what-the-fuck grindcore, with tons of totally unhinged studio weirdness, random snatches of Swedish death metal guitar leads, swirling drifts of acoustic guitar and garbled beats, bizarre ambient stretches peppered with hand drums and guttural vocalizations, abstract percussion super tripped out malfunctioning studio FX, occasional plodding processed death metal chug, super spastic drum machine, bits of slowed down doom groove, weird jangly guitars, super processed slabs of rhythmic interference, blinding super brief blasts of Merzbowian face melting grind and too much other confusional fucked up randomness to even begin describing. Like Soilent Green or Brutal Truth chopped up and reassembled by a very high jungle DJ with two broken turntables. So fucking amazing.
And finally Dot [.], who give us just what we need, an absolutely crushing slow motion stoned doom drone groovescape. Starting out more Church Of Misery than Corrupted, the band sways and swings before stumbling into a druggy glacial lurch, a sick Eyehategod dirge, that crawls and slithers, wrapped in thick peals of feedback, a harsh, rasped super demonic vocal over gloriously murky downtuned sludge. Absolutely essential.
We had never heard of these Baltimore heavies before their super limited Record Store Day 7", which sadly, we never got enough to review/list post RSD, but we were impressed enough to keep our eyes peeled for more, and now more has arrived, in the form of this bruiser, and like that 7", SSoS deliver a bludgeoning blast of blown out stoner sludge, crusty hardcore, and brutal blackened heaviness, opener "Ghost Plains" displays all three, starting out Eyehategod style, with gurgling basslines wreathed in a swirling cloud of feedback, before launching into some slithery, sludge-y downtuned creep, bellowed monster vox over thick tarpit riffage and caveman drum pound, eventually splintering into a full on blast of D-beat crust-punk, shrieked and furious, mathy and metallic, and a little bit blackened, only to wind down into some old school big riff classic sounding doom, before adding some frenzied double kick drumming, and some wild shrieked vokills. And while that seems like a dizzying mix, it somehow all gels, the band effortlessly slipping from metal to punk to sludge to doom and back again, some tracks like "Moths" lock into a woozy funeral doom-ic crawl, but before you know it have morphed into a sort of mathy metallic churn, and others are hateful ultra doom sprawls, that also eventually transform into something more dense and driving. Needless to say, absolutely essential for folks who like their metal blackened, crusty, sludgey, stonery, doomy, riffy, crushing, pummeling, downtuned and HEAVY AS FUCK. Includes a 32 minute bonus track that's a whole live show from 2012!
Sadly, rock has always been a bit of a boy's club. Sure most things are, but rock especially. And it only gets worse as you move toward the heavier and darker side of the sonic spectrum, metal, industrial, noise, women are few and far between. That's not to say there aren't woman making serious noise in those realms, there most definitely are, maybe none more fearsome than Sewer Goddess, aka Kristen Rose who traffics in some of the darkest, heaviest, filthiest sludge, blackened doom and abstract industrial we've heard, and whose particular brand of abject blackened noise is on full display here, a collection of various live performances over the years 2009-2010, and finds Rose, backed up by a full band, and engaging in some seriously harrowing soundmaking.
The opening track begins all thick bass buzz and keening feedback, soon industrial percussion emerges, and Rose's echo drenched wail, the bass buzz coalescing into sludgey dirgey riffage, while all around it guitars and samplers and effects fill the blackened sky with all manner of blackly psychedelic noise, the sound lumbers and lurches, before shifting gears in a flurry of horror movie shrieks, becoming more of a blackdrone, all layered hiss and skree and rumble, chaotic but weirdly hypnotic. The second track, the relatively brief "We Ate Their Eyes", introduces more of a groove, albeit just barely, more like a monstrous dirge, rhythmic and grimly propulsive, buried beneath an avalanche of shrieked vox and caustic low end crumble, before giving way to "Mother Agony" that channels Laibach and Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten into a Swans like creep, all hazy and washed out, the sound laced with streaks of high end, of sonar like pings, of gristly crunch and super distorted buzz, there's a definite Wolf Eyes vibe too, and then the vocals swoop back in, hysterical and terrifying, curdled with effects, it manages to be the most mesmerizingly hypnotic track here, while still retaining an unhinged mania.
The epic "Chained To The Cage Of Existence / A Lifeless Dreaming" seems to be the centerpiece here clocking in at 16+ minutes, and again begins as a blackened rumble, all buzz and blur, peppered with strange industrial clanks and clunks, before erupting into another grinding dirge, Rose's haunting deathlike vox adding a serious creep factor, the song a droned out rift, that seems like it might go on like that forever, until it splinters suddenly into a full on drum driven chunk of blackened noise metal crush, lurching, lumbering, shrieks and atonal riffage nestled amidst swells of black buzz and pounding rhythms and lots of feedback, before slipping right back into a sonic death march that continues until the end of the track, loping and minimal, laced with some cool metallic melodies, again slathered in feedback, and Rose's vox, that here remind us of the hysterical shrieks of black metal horde Bethlehem. And then finally, "Slavepiece" finishes things off, the most metal of the bunch, but sounding like it was recorded on a wax cylinder, the sound brittle and blown out, the band locked into a super in-the-red, feedback drenched riff heavy dirge, that sounds like an even more unhinged take on Brainbombs / No Balls. Fucking awesome, but most definitely only for the iron eared.
Fans of other blackened filth like Gnaw Their Tongues, Aderlating, Demonologists, Gorgontongue, and Hallowed Butchery as well as classic industrial / noise / blacknoise weirdness will be in heaven...
Elsewhere on this week's list (in fact, probably right above this review) you'll find the Disciples Of Shit cd, a collection of live recordings from blackened industrial noisescaper Sewer Goddess, aka Kristen Rose, a seriously brutal, but blackly beautiful collection of caustic live performances. Now that you know what Rose is capable of on stage, here's a glimpse of what she can do in the studio, and as you might expect, it's not to far removed, if anything, it's darker, heavier and LOUDER. But otherwise the same sort of droned out industrial crush, a bleak cinematic blackness that definitely reminds us of Gnaw Their Tongues, lots of industrial clank and clatter, a keening distant high end tone that seems to drift atop monstrous hissed vokills and streaks of blackened sound, the long stretches of buzz and crush infused with mysterious melodies.
The flipside is more riffy and dirgey, with some seriously creepy (and weirdly sexy) whispered vox, the buzz thick and corrosive, all tethered to a lurching mechanical rhythm, all within thick clouds of hiss and hum and whir, the vibe moody and murky and very soundtracky, but still bleak and menacing and seriously harrowing, shades of Wolf Eyes too, but the more we here from Sewer Goddess, the more we're beginning to think she really sounds like nobody else.
SUPER LIMITED, comes in a cool silkscreened jacket with a printed fold out insert.
Album number two from these Finnish doom merchants and man does it make me want to just end it all. This music is dismal and bleak and totally hopelessly perfect. So slow and miserable and heavy and dark. Take the lo-fi doom of Skepticism, and beef up the
Shape of Despair deftly mix haunting funereal dirges with ultra crushing doom, but add gentle folk melodies and subtle but soaring strings. This is the sort of stuff that should be on the soundtrack to the new Lord of the Rings. You can just imagine being lost and alone in the forest, just waiting to die. So good.
Wow, people must sure get depressed up in Finland, with that long winter and all. That would explain the strain of bands like Thergothon, Skepticism, and now Shape of Despair, that are so good at moulding melancholic funeral dirge doom metal. Basically, if you like the suicidal heavy dirge of Skepticism, and the ever-so-slightly melodic misery of fellow Scandinavians Katatonia, you'll like Shape of Despair.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Fifth album from these Sabbath worshipping Canucks. Their claim to fame is that their singer sounds EXACTLY like Ozzy. Ozzy at his most nasal perhaps, but definitely Ozzy. And they exploit that vocal similarity to the utmost, by writing the most Sabbathy songs they can (which they do quite well). And who's to blame 'em? And although the too-obvious Ozzyness of the vocalist might hold these guys back from being taken totally seriously on their own terms, this should be at least as popular as the equally awesome Early Man, who also have been known to sound a bit like Sabbath/Ozzy.
Not that this sounds quite like what you think it might. This is Sabbathy, but really uptempo Sabbath, rocking hard. Sheavy might be the only Sabbath-copyist band in existence to sound like they're specifically trying to emulate the Sabs circa Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die, the final two albums of the original Ozzy era in the late '70s. So no "War Pigs" or "Iron Man" re-writes here. The slowest and doomiest they get is the instrumental, "Moments Of Silence", whereas the rest of this is pretty darn rockin'. Actually, maybe it's more just Ozzy than Sabbath that they're going for here, as they also sound a lot like Blizzard of Ozz (Ozzy's band when he went solo in the early '80s) -- even if Sheavy's guitarist never quite tries to scale the heights of Randy Rhodes. Though he's no slouch, either, and contributes plenty of crunch along with some sweet soloing. So for those of you partial to the rock (and Ozzy's pinched whine), Sheavy's Republic? would be a good one to crank. Produced by Billy Anderson, by the way, for the sludge-obsessives amongst you keeping score.
Break out the Molson, 'cause Canadian Black Sabbath doppelgangers Sheavy are back with another (stoner) rockin' disc. The Sabbath comparison arises mainly from singer Steve Hennessey's uncanny vocal resemblance to the nasal tones of Ozzy Osbourne. Although Mr. Hennessey probably won't have his own reality TV show (on Much Music?) in thirty years, he really does sound a heck of a lot like the bat-bitin' one, circa Ozzy's early '80s solo heyday. Sheavy utilizes this seemingly-familiar voice to lead the listener into melodic and heavy (as per their name) territory more rockin' than doomy -- their take on the Sabbath/'70s vibe is closer to Fu Manchu than Electric Wizard: wailing guitars, plentiful hooks, driving grooves, even some "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" style keyboards. Definitely one any Ozzy/Sabbath freak has to check out, but also a recommended album for all into good ol' old fashioned hard rock/metal! Retro like we like it, with lots of sci-fi and car culture references for max kitsch value. How come these guys weren't on that Fubar soundtrack? A glaring omisson indeed.
Your first reaction to his Canadian band will be: "I can't believe it's not Black Sabbath!" In a blind test, their singer could not be distinguished from Ozzy Osbourne by a panel of experts--it seems the only difference is that the guy in sHeavy hasn't bitten the head off any live animal (yet). That, and his band's got some better tunes for him to sing than what Ozzy's been up to lately. Normally, something that's this much of a copy would deserve scorn, but they're so damn good at it that you have to love it. This came out last year as an import, and now here's the domestic version, adding a (non-bogus) bonus track.
Here's the second album from these promising German doomsters, and it's a concept album perhaps, at least in regard to the track titles: "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday" -- there's a song for every day of the week. But the album has eight tracks, which means its has to wind up with the thirteen plus minutes of "Doomsday", the eighth day in Shepherd's apocalyptic week. Musically, this is mid-tempo, rocked-out stoner/doom fare in the vein of Goatsnake or Spirit Caravan. They're definitely into the latter -- indeed, they've brought in none other than the legendary Scott "Wino" Weinrich as a special guest, playing guitar on three of the tracks here and singing on one of 'em as well (demonstrating that Shepherd's usual vocalist doesn't do Wino as well as the man himself). The ultra-dirgey "Doomsday" boasts a special guest as well of interest to many AQ-customers: sax and Rhodes are contributed by a member of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore!
