Record number two from this Portland black/doom horde, which finds their sound moving in a surprising new direction. The first record was classic blackened doom, loooooong songs, depressive and mournful, sonically similar to outfits like Yob, Atavist, Cough, and other masters of the slo-mo doom-ed creep, but on Ritual Of Passing they seem to have an almost death rock thing going on, the sound way more punk, the songs shorter, choppy and churning, the vocals the biggest change of all, a snarly yowl, a good match for the music certainly bit well removed from the vocals on the first record, harsh AND clean. And we have to say we're digging it a lot.
It's kind of exciting to hear these guys attempt such a weird hybrid: black metal, doom, noise rock, goth, deathrock, it's all sorta tangled up into something pretty original sounding.
The opening track "Parasite" kind covers all the bases, starting out all classic doom, creepy and funereal, but then instead of erupting into full on doooooom, the sound instead explodes into a chugging, swaggery, gloomy noise/death rock dirge, with cool minor key guitar melodies, pounding double kick drumming, a shouted, super catchy chorus, which the more we listen to, the more removed from metal it seems. Then there's the wild psychedelic black noise progged out chaotic outro. Pretty badass we have to say. And while the other tracks do tend more toward proper doom, those elements from the first track definitely find their way into the rest of the record, the vocals especially, which sound even cooler, when paired with woozy, dirgey doom, and soaring almost black metal guitars, and in places, the vocals get all croony and dramatic, the music following suit, slipping into a sort of churning post punk minimalism, and on one track, where the sound slooooows waaay doooooown, more of a weird goth-doom ballad, before exploding back into another stretch of weirdly mathy, metallic post punk, noise rock crush.
Fans of the first record might be a bit thrown off, but we're digging this one WAY more than we ever did the first one, precisely cuz it's so different, and so far removed from the doom / death sound that's been done to, well, death!
We've long been fans of Canadian doom/drone/dirge outfit Aun. They shared a split with French ultra doomlords Habsyll (who also released a record on Andee's tUMULt label) and we made their most recent record, VII, a Record Of The Week a while back. Which makes perfect sense, as they traffic in a perfect blend of electronic dronemusic, abstract blackened buzz and downtuned glacial sludge that we just can't seem to get enough of. VII was peppered with black metalisms as well, and featured drumming from Voivod's Away, transforming Aun's drones into something way more metal, but on Black Pyramid, Aun move away from overtly metallic soundmaking, and instead focus on creating a collection of epically abject dronescapes, that capture the same sort of intensity and soul crushing heaviness, but using a distinctly different palette. And the results are incredible. Dark, and dreary, depressive and hauntingly beautiful.
Each track here is a miniature epic, a bleak sprawl of smoldering sounds, deep shimming low end drifts beneath hazy fragmented melodies, everything blurred and smeared into slow shifting clouds of grim ambience, the tracks peppered with mysterious bits of random percussion, scrapes, creaks, chimes and buried rhythms.
The sound occasionally blossoms into thick buzzing sheets of crumbling distortion, smoldering swaths of blown out thrum, or gorgeously dreamy streaks of shoegazey melody, but just as quickly settles back down into pulsing electronic swirls, or murky expanses of blackened drift.
The record closes with the 9+ minute "Shining", which finds Aun taking that hushed minimal shimmer, and tethering it to a strange skeletal rhythm, a sort of disembodied techno throb, but more brittle and trebly, as the black swells beneath roil and churn, until eventually, thick throbbing droned out guitars, wreathed in swirling fuzz, are driven forward by a new, more propulsive, loping, lurching rhythm, the sound growing more and more intense and distorted, before finishing in a final squall of swirling FX and washed out distortion. So good. And while way less metal than the previous record, it's most definitely just as heavy, and dark, and intense.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!
We tracked this down for those of you who really liked the first band on that recent Tokyo Flashback 5 compilation, or who, failing that, end up intrigued by the following description... We're talking about a Japanese trio called Aural Fit. We'd never heard of 'em before, but we were impressed by their cut "Behind 20, Beyond 20k" on that comp, which we described as "a very heavy, doomy, dirgey track that fans of Boris and Earth will dig, cacophonic and dense". Turns out they'd recently released a full-length cd entitled Livestock that's equally dirgey. Five tracks, 33'36" of unrelentingly creepy, cavernous, noisy, plodding improv psych. This is the dark, moody, hypnotic, rumbling music of rock n' roll void-dwellers, with crashing drums, harsh blasts of feedback guitar, and anguished vocals buried in the mix. Chances are they're fans of Fushitsusha and Skullflower...
(We've actually only got 11 copies of this, hopefully we can get some more, but please be patient if we run out.)
NB. the band put this out themselves, so Slant Eye Archives is their own label, something that anyone offended by the name might want to know!
Last list we reviewed a dvd from a 'group' called Author & Punisher, a one man industrial doom band, whose sole member, Tristan Shone, designed and fabricated an incredible array of massive sound generators: a 300 pound spinning metal disc, a huge hydraulic handled chain driven (and seriously physical) drum machine, a motorized handled bass generator, a headgear with a multi mic'd mask, to transform vocals into different sounds and rhythms... We were mesmerized by the footage, the sound was amazing, heavy and crushing, totally intense, but watching this guy, physically create and trigger the sounds, is what sealed the deal, an brutal and exhausting 'performance', a sweat soaked, instrumental work out, way more interesting than the legion of boring floorcore laptoppers and effects jockeys. That said, most of us tend to not re-watch videos, whereas records we'll spin over and over again. So we figured it would definitely be worthwhile to track down a proper record from A&P, and here it is.
The title says it all, Drone Machines, not to mention the front cover image of A&P maestro Shone, hunched over the huge spinning metal disc. So if you picked up the dvd, you know what sort of crushing sonic punishment you're in for, and if you missed out on that dvd completely somehow, then this is your chance to get introduced to A&P's churning, chugging, pummeling low end industrial doom crush.
Purely sonically, these sounds could have been played by a band, or created on a computer, but just realizing that it's one guy, and his army of sound generators, definitely adds something to the listening experience. Plus there's also plenty of weird sonic manipulation that could NOT be played by a band, thick bass tones slow down like someone pressing their finger down on a record while it's playing, that would be that massive disc, the booming percussion, involves a slamming of the huge chain driven hydraulic handle, hearing this, picturing that, makes it sound that much heavier, but screw it, taken on music alone, the sound of Drone Machines is classic post industrial metal crunch, but twisted and a little warped, a more robotic and machine-like Godflesh maybe, the tone and timbre definitely owes much to Broadrick's industrial beast. But then the record will offer up some weird buzzing almost synthy sounding bass, and weird high end tangles, strange haunting melodies swirling around, a totally tripped out psychedelic swirl, and we're in some far out sonic sci-fi universe, before it gives way to another stretch of lurching lumbering Teutonic pound. The vocals, when there are vocals, are gruff and howled, again harkening back to Broadrick, and add some serious menace to the already sonically menacing proceedings.
The best parts for us are the parts where the sound sources become obvious, or at least where you can tell something weird and special is going on, the swooping low end, constantly changing pitch, the various sounds becoming clipped or cut off, the grinding rumbling low end speeding up then slowing down, it makes the whole experience that much more warped and tripped out and psychedelic. The music becomes more than a chunk of industrial metal, it becomes a heaving metallic monster MADE from industrial metal, the various gears and servos emitting strange buzzes and whirrs, its thunderous footsteps the booming beat, the speaker rattling low end it's guttural growl, and the howling vox, the man that commands this beast, and instructs it to do his bidding, a futuristic steampunk, post industrial robotic doom metal dirge, that we just can't get enough of!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We really weren't sure what to expect from a band called Author & Punisher, or why they would merit a dvd (actually dvd-r) release. The label sent us a clip from the dvd, and we immediately understood. Author & Punisher is a guy called Tristan Shone, an engineer/artist who fabricates incredible noise making machines, huge metal MACHINES, gorgeous in their construction, a massive 300 pound rotating disc, a strange handheld chain driven slider, a control panel with big airplane like controllers, all of which do more than look impressive, they control sounds. HEAVY SOUNDS. The massive disc spins, and Shone, using both hands, changes the speed of the disc and thus the tone of the bass; the handle, with the chain, slides along two metal cylinders, and controls the rhythms, a super primitive, yet ultra advanced drum controller. The handles control yet MORE low end, with motors built into the handles so when Shone is pulling the levers, to trigger the bass, the harder he pulls, the more the levers resist, in order to FEEL the bass. And the thing is, it doesn't just LOOK cool, it sounds amazing, like some sort of SUNNO))) / Godflesh dirge, but more alien, the way the bass can be controlled, stuttering, slowing down almost like a turntable, and the rhythms, crushing and massive, when Shone locks into a groove, it out-heavies even the heaviest of proper-instrumented bands. Not to mention, that after seeing this guy with the giant disc and the weird tank-like chained handle, regular old guitars and amps, will just look and sound wimpy in comparison. It's hard to describe just how amazing this stuff is to see and hear, but if you're anything like us, you'll watch 30 seconds of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blXgFQxpTkc
and be totally sold. So goddamn incredible. And it's not just the machines and the sound they make, it's that Shone uses them like a one-man band to make doom-drone pieces as good as any from our favorite full bands in the genre.
There's a chance, A&P might be coming to San Francisco, in which case you can expect some serious sonic Author & Punisher punishment right here in the shop, but until then, grab one of these while you can. Limited to 50 copies. Each one numbered, we have a dozen or so, they come in super swank dvd styled, printed chipboard fold over sleeves, with printed vellum inserts (and if for some reason dvds aren't your thing, we'll be getting some A&P cds one of these days as well!).
It's difficult to review records by Author & Punisher, cuz as longtime readers of the aQ list know, the music is only part of the equation. A&P is in fact Tristan Shone, who builds some of the most beautiful musical 'instruments' we've ever seen. Instruments that look more like pieces of art, or the guts of some super advanced aircraft, massive steel drums, weird science fiction style triggers attached to tracks, that slide along steel strips like some futuristic weapon. He sings through a mask that looks a little like that weird mouthpiece Bane wears in the Batman movies. And the act of making this music is extremely physical. Watching Shone play, he's spinning that massive metal drum, and slamming those weird triggers, sliding pieces of steel into other pieces of steel, there are huge dials and knobs, and chains, and cords, it's like he's in the cockpit of some alien spaceship, the act of flying said spaceship just so happens to produce the music of Author & Punisher, at least, that's how we envision it. And it's these gorgeous machines that while integral to the sound are inherently not present on the record. So if you've never seen the machines, or seen A&P play, then it's all about the music. Thankfully, the music is fucking awesome. Granted, it's a lot better listening to this stuff, and imagining those huge machines grinding away and spewing out these sounds, but even sans the visuals, this stuff kills. At times it's like an even more blown out, more machine like Godflesh. Although this time around, there's a lot more melody, which gives some parts a sort of dark gloomy rock vibe. We hear a little Deftones weirdly enough, and some of the post Godflesh outfits (Jesu, JK Flesh), there's definitely a serious dub vibe going on too, the vocals doused in effects, and looped and layered, the drums too, pretty dubby, and the bass, holy shit, the low end on this A&P record is unlike anything you've ever heard, like the rib cage rattling wobble of dubstep, but times ten, even more blown out and cranked up, noisy and thick, subsonic, corrosive and caustic. The sound will be heavy and churning, when suddenly, the bass drops, and it's like someone snuck in and spun your bass knob to ten. And cranked up the volume too. We can vouch for the extreme bassiness. We were lucky enough to host an Author & Punisher instore a while back, and one song in, our upstairs neighbors came rushing downstairs to see what the hell was going on, as EVERYTHING in their apartments was shaking and vibrating and sliding off shelves. THAT part of the A&P sound is pretty accurately represented here, the sound MASSIVE, and thick, and dense, and utterly CRUSHING.
This time around Shone seems to have honed everything he was going for on past records. The production is huge, the bass is punishing, the arrangements are dense and intricate, the sound is equal parts dubbed out and electronic, super dynamic too, with long stretches of more skittery minimalism, the heaving slabs of skull smashing heaviness more spaced out, plenty of gothy and gloomy passages, the vocals slipping easily from effects heavy clean croon, to demonic distorted bellow, the beats flit from skittery to devastating pound and back again, the overall sound is more textural, more fully realized, heavy, and rhythmic, mesmerizing and seriously fucking brutal. Anyone into Godflesh, Necro Deathmort, JK Flesh, old Digital Hardcore, heavy dub, blown out beatscapery, and of course alien robotic metal-dub, this shit is unbeatable!
Cool small world aQ crossover postscript: Longtime readers of the aQ list are no doubt familiar with the comic Wuvable Oaf, we've reviewed several issues, and raved about it like crazy, our very own Andee even appeared in one issue, as did aQ, lots of big hairy dudes, cats, strange sex and plenty of METAL. Anyway, one of the imaginary bands featured in the comic, Ejaculoid, who is in fact a 'real' imaginary band (featuring some aQ beloved hardcore luminaries!), were given the 'real' remix treatment by a handful of actual real bands, one of which was Author & Punisher, whose Ejaculoid remix is included here!
As much as we love us some ultra doom, some seriously sick slowness, you know, that doooooom, that is so glacial, that the songs begin to crumble and ooze into viscous black pools. We do. But sometimes we just want our doom to ROCK. Sounds contrary but it's been known to happen. Doom can be slow and low and still rock. Take B.Son for example. Whose particular brand of doomic energy is drawn from bands like Harvey Milk, Karp, The Melvins, godheadSilo, more a sort of downtuned propulsive sludge with doom elements, than pure doom. But goddamn if it isn't just as brutal and heck, doomy...
Thick ropy buzzbass, pounding destructo drums, throaty howls, grinding guitars, all lurching and swaying like some drugged and demented superrock doombeast, all filtered through a bit of grinding screamo and some buzzed out metallic blackness.�
There are moments of blisssed� out post rockiness, and weird laid back grooves, stretched out near ambience and dense little mathy jams, but those moments just serve to keep the doomed sludge rock fury from becoming too much.�
Produced by James Plotkin. Spiffy black and gold sleeves... This seems to already be out of print as well, so this batch could very well be the last we see of these...
We only have a handful of these in stock, and pretty sure this is already out of print at the label. We got them ages ago, but the covers were damaged in shipping, so we had been waiting for more covers, and when we finally did get more, they somehow ended up in a box in the back, until we found them a few days ago.
So lucky day for the doomlords, as this is another crushing slab of blackened ultra doom from German heavyweights, B.Son or Black Shape Of Nexus, teamed up with the new to us Crowskin.
B.Son operate somewhere between the spare spacious plod of Fleshpress, and the blood curdling speaker torture of Bunkur. It's slow, and thick, and viscous and harsh, and downtuned and HEAVY, but there's tons of space, the guitars are weirdly clean-ish, the arrangements are abstract, minus the vocals this could be some strange doom-ed post rock, but with the hellish howls, it is transformed into an oozing sprawl of glacial crush, of lumbering Teutonic lurch, shot through with some surprisingly pretty melodies, and some subtle sonic shading. There's a new full length out now too, which this has us dying to hear...
Crowskin are also from Germany, and are also somewhat doomy, but unlike the tarpit trudge of B.Son, Crowskin, are a bit more propulsive, a little more mathy, and a little more crusty / punky, but even more outwardly brutal, with long stretches of loping prettiness, moody atmospherics, which inevitably lead into massive churning swirls of distortion doused crustdoom, but they also have these strange parts, where a super clean guitar unfurls a haunting melody, WAY up in the mix, louder than everything else, making for something really off kilter and twisted sounding. Like Neurosis via Moss, Crowskin lumber monstrously through extended sprawls of buzzy drones and roiling low end crush.
A pretty lethal one two punch for the doom freeks out there. Too bad we only have 15 copies or so, and as mentioned above, it's very likely these will be the last copies ever...
Gorgeous, slightly oversized, super striking fold over cardstock sleeves, a few have barely bent corners (compliments of the post office), but these are the last copies we'll see, so we're all gonna just have to live with it, thankfully, the bends are very minimal and thus barely noticeable to all but the most anal of record nerds...
add to cart [/images/addtocart.gif]/af4105.html Space rock gone classical? Yes! It's a drugs and flutes thing you wouldn't understand. We got turned on to these guys by our friends in Circle. This band from Finland started as a standard-issue jamming stoner space rock outfit, doing the heavily effected, free form freakout thing. Not quite so damaged as countrymen Doktor Kettu or Avarus, but close. But, perhaps tiring of the more untrained approach, one long dark Arctic winter they spent woodshedding, studying up on their classical chops. And they also drafted in some drop-outs from the local conservatory of music to help out. Now they make their debut as Bachwind, doing, among other things, a monster magnetized adaptation (a very loose adaptation) of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier 1: Prelude & Fugue No. 2 (BWV 847) of 1738, with an instrumental lineup that includes both fuzz bass and viola, analog synth and harpsichord. It's Avarus meets Apocalyptica, basically. Recommended, of course.
Okay drug rock freeks, space rock explorers, doomlords, sludge demons, prog obsessives, metal maniacs, stoner dudes, noise nerds, and basically most of the other folks who read this here aQ list, Bad Acid is the magazine for you. And calling Bad Acid a magazine is a bit of a misnomer. It's more of a multimedia spacemetaldoomprogsludgenoise experience. You think we're exaggerating? A seventy minute dvd, an ELEVEN HOUR mp3 audio disc, a nearly two hour long label sampler, AND a 60 page booklet/magazine packed with liner notes, articles and interviews.
Packed with SO many aQ favorites, but just as many new bands we'd never heard, a bunch who could very well turn into new favorites. We've barely scratched the surface, since if we spent 14 hours on each review, the list would be, oh, about 5 items long. But from what we've heard / seen / watched so far, this latest issue of Bad Acid is pretty essential.
The dvd first, a series of music videos, film excerpts and slide shows, we were mostly excited about the scenes from an Antonius Rex movie, Antonius Rex being the dude from JACULA!! Tripped out and satanic and appropriately what-the-fuck. Some killer live footage of doom mongers Ogre, a killer art gallery slide show from the Malleus artist collective, featuring an awesome soundtrack from Morkobot, a Northwinds video, and then some more obscure stuff, Manatees tour video, Wicked Minds video, King Suffy Generator video, Lento live footage and tons more. All woven together by some super creepy animated menus.
Then there's the cd-r, featuring 11 hours of mp3's from Moss, Danava, White Hills, Barbara, Hey Colossus, Orange Sunshine, Capricorns, Khlyst, Acid King, Heresi, Raw Radar War, Fire Witch, Taint, Orange Goblin, Shinjuku Thief, Litmus and those are just the bands we know and already dig. 57 bands total, 102 tracks, tons of new bands to check out and discover. Also included is a label sampler focusing on the Bone Structure cd-r label, whose releases run the gamut from raw black metal, to buzzing industrial noise, to black ambient to grinding industrial weirdness. We actually have some BS stuff on the way, to be reviewed on the list soon, but this is a killer way to check out tons of stuff on the label.
And then there's the actual magazine component, with notes on each of the bands on the cd-r, a feature on each of the bands on the dvd, tons of info about Bone Structure and the bands on the label, as well as interviews with Fire Witch, Taint, Orange Goblin, and probably most exciting of all Alan Dubin, formerly of Khanate, talking about his new band Gnaw, which features folks from Burning Witch, Thorr's Hammer, Atavist, Enos Slaughter and Ike Yard(!). Man, we can't wait to hear that.
All of the above packaged in a standard dvd style case, with killer cover art from the Malleus Rock Art Lab. A bit pricey due to the weak dollar and the expensive overseas shipping, but pretty well worth it.
Yet another incredible collection of far out sights and sounds from the folks at Bad Acid. Everything from sludge to doom to psych to stoner rock to noise to weird jazz to fractured electronics to post rock and pretty much every stop in between. Rumor is that Bad Acid might be shifting to a monthly release schedule, which is certainly fine with us, but considering how much stuff is jammed into each Tab, we have no idea how these guys will be able to pull it off. But here's hoping, cuz not only is every issue loaded with tons of mp3s and videos and live performances from bands we already love, but also included are tons of bands we'd never even heard of before, many of which end up being be big time favorites.
This time around, the audio compilation includes tracks from Gnod, Harvey Milk, Oxbow, Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg, Moss, 5ive, Berkowitz Lake & Dahmer, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Zu, Btong, Skull Defekts, Burmese, Cadaver Eyes, Pendo, L'Otracina, Enablers, Outrageous Cherry, Millions, Kenji Siratori, A Fashionable Disease, and that's just the bands we know, there are FORTY FIVE other bands!!! The dvd features Bay Area stoner stalwarts Acid King, as well as a whole mess of mostly new to us bands, offering up promo videos, live sets as well as animation and other visual weirdness. There's also a label sampler included on the disc, and then there's still the printed magazine! A thick dvd sized booklet, overflowing with interviews and articles and features and reviews, with most of the bands featured on the dvd as well all the notes for the artists included on the dvd (both the audio and video portion). Easily one of the most amazing resources for tripped out weird underground and independent music, and for discovering new bands, or even for actually finally hearing bands you'd always wondered about, it's a big ol' earful, and an eyeful, so best to set aside some serious listening / reading time, and just dive in. After all, since they might be bumping up their schedule, you might only have the next 30 days to make it through all this Bad Acid before you have Tab 9 to contend with...
All right doom / grind / stoner / sludge / heavy music obsessives, it's time for your now monthly (!) fix of extreme heaviness, in the form of the latest Tab of the Bad Acid audio/video zine, which is supposedly gonna be a monthly occurrence, which is definitely good for our ears, but makes keeping up a bit tough. But if you're into heavy sounds, then you're pretty much for sure gonna want one of these.
First there's a DVD, this time featuring a couple aQ faves, Mono, Le Ira De Dios and Blood Fountains, a few bands we'd heard of: The Atlas Moth, Seven That Spells, as well as a whole bunch of new-to-us artists: Das Bluul, El Thule, !Xazzaz! and more. And that's sort of what makes Bad Acid so awesome, a few favorites, but even more new discoveries.
Which is where the insane and epic audio compilation comes in. Check out this list: Circle, Cough, Skitliv, White Hills, Pelican, Weird Owl, Vincent Black Shadow, Poochlatz, Tusk, Grey Daturas, The Atlas Moth, Ufomammut, Sunroof!, Kemialliset Ystavat, Lords Of Bukkake, Atlas Sound, Eternal Elysium, and that's just the bands we've heard of. There are about 50 or 60 more!
Then there's a sample for the Murkhouse label, as well as an art gallery, and that's just the DVD.
There's also a huge printed magazine, with reviews of ALL the bands featured, plus interviews with Ancestors, White Hills and more. Not to mention the bad ass cover art. Housed in a dvd case, killer stuff, better grab one of these quick so you have time to digest all these heavy sights and sounds before it's time for Tab 10!!!!
Finally, Tab 7 of BAD ACID, the "warped outsider music bible", is here, covering pretty much everything we love, from postrock to shoegaze to doom to sludge to grind to ambient to electronic to punk to garage. A massive dose of sensory overload, sounds, images, text, music, videos, interviews, articles, from a ton of bands we know and love, as well as a ton more of which we've never heard.
The previous issue of Bad Acid was a huge hit around here, we could barely keep it in stock, even though it was crazy expensive because of the WEAK dollar and the overseas shipping. But the dollar is not so weak anymore, so this issue is WAY cheaper, but thankfully no less kick ass.
First up, there's a DVD-r, featuring interviews with the Melvins and Celtic Frost, videos from Phantomsmasher, Jacula (!!!!!!) among others, as well as live footage of Morkobot, Ramesses and Isis! Then there's a SEVENTEEN HOUR, ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN band mp3 audio cd-r, featuring tracks from Witchcraft, Otesanek, Coffins, Tenhornedbeast, Numinous Eye, Seven That Spells, Rahdunes, Stumm, Primordial Undermind, Saviours, Aldebaran, Lietterschpich, Journey To Ixtlan, Jamnation, Grave In The Sky, Ovo, Von Thronstahl, Tractor, Zodiacs, Wicked Minds, Gentlemans Pistols, South Saturn Delta, Eptileptinomicon (one of our favorite band names ever) and loads of others.
Finally there's 90 pages of full screen PDF sleeve notes, full color and super psychedelic, featuring lengthy interviews with Sons Of Otis, Ovo, Randy Holden / Blue Cheer, Rahdunes, Fuckbuttons, Helios Creed from Chrome, and Lazarus Blackstar among others! Good grief.
And just to get an idea of how sprawling and expansive and nearly overwhelming Bad Acid is, here's an abbreviated list of the hundred plus bands, new to us, some of which are bound to become new favorites: Resting Rooster, Total System Failure, High Watt Electrocutions, Spitting Off Tall Buildings, Tigrova Mast, The Black Pine, Ventura, Bang Lassi, Tetrix, Phononics, Baby Woodrose, St. Erik, Army Of Flying Robots, Vomm, A Horse Called War, Dyse, Invasion, The Deep Blue, Couldron, El Thule, Sailor Winters, Malachia, Sermoniser, Propane, Nosmaus, Dead.Circuit, Tetriori, Astra, Aftercare, Zone Six, Holy Calibre, Church Of Hed, Rise To Thunder, Cellardoor, Bikini Eyebolt, Motley Motion, Vibravoid, Space Shuttle Pilots, Oresund Space Collective, Forever Changing Concept, Stunt Cock, and again, more more more.
Packaged in a psychedelic dvd sized, 8 panel booklet, with some cool tripped out illustrations, and liner notes.
Total essential reading / viewing / listening for all heavy droney spaced out post kraut free noise jazz avant electronic outsider sound obsessives!
Sad sad news, UK underground heavy/spacey/metallic/psychedelic magazine/compilation Bad Acid is no more. Longtime readers of the aQ list have no doubt enjoyed an issue or two (or three or four) of this sprawling publication, a combination printed zine, and computerized PDF zine, complete with an audio component that usually clocks in at at least 12 hours, sometimes twice that. It's been 10 years, and Bad Acid editor Dave Gedge has a family, and kids, has been losing money (magazines, even ones as amazing as Bad Acid are most definitely a labor of love) and furthermore is a Buddhist, so in addition to simplifying his life, Gedge has simply been burnt out, which is why this final salvo is called The Burnout Issue. And this final issue is the only bit of silver lining, but WHAT a silver lining it is. This final issue is in fact, THREE issues, #10, #11 and #12, and while the printed part might be the most minimal yet, it's more than made up for by the contents of the 3 dvd-r's. This time, the magazine itself is more of an index, as it takes EIGHT pages, in tiny text, to list all the bands and songs and videos and interviews and articles.
As usual, it's split into sections, the first is the PDF magazine, accompanied by music from each band as well as a review of the band's most recent record. Some of the bands in the magazine this time around: Carlton Melton, Aluk Todolo, Bong, Plastic Crimewave Sound, Sylvester Anfang, Residual Echoes, White Hills, Der Blutharsch, GNOD, Jazzfinger, Grey Daturas, Hooded Menace, Necro Deathmort, The Gates Of Slumber, Flood, The Wounded Kings, Full Blown Expansion, Hey Colossus, Ancestral, Isis, Pelican, Scott Kelly of Neurosis, Sutcliffe Jugend, The Accused, Inade, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Atomic Bitchwax, Snail, The Twilight Sad, Ramesses, Ufomammut, Witchsorrow, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, Slomatics, Root, Nordvargr, Antonius Rex, Russian Circles, Centurions Ghost, Nebula, Freedom Hawk, Steve Von Till of Neurosis, Leeches Of Lore, Dianogah, Sardonis, Torche, Turzi, Ancestors, L'Acephale, and loads more, including TONS of bands we had never heard of.
The second section is the interviews, and features Meads Of Asphodel, Nadja, Expo 70, Centurions Ghost, Vincent Black Shadow, Gnaw, Unearthly Trance, At War With False Noise, Old Corpse Road, Alice Donut, and more! The next section features label profiles of Denovali, Rocket and Future Noise, featuring loads of recordings from lots of bands on each label.
Then there's a section of bonus audio, with still more tracks, including jams from Sundial, B*Tong, Disappears, Fire Witch, Realmbuilder, Jex Thoth, White Buzz, Rich Hoak, Loscil, Jonas Reinhardt, Fauna, Big City Orchestra, and once again, a whole mess of bands we've never heard.
There's also a bunch of videos, by Total Fucking Destruction, White Hills, Psychofagist and a bunch more, some short films as well, and finally, a section of bonus MP4's, featuring promo videos from Expo 70 and others, and more short films and live footage.
Phew! It's epic and sprawling, and is equal parts rad bands you know and new discoveries. Way recommended for anyone who likes music AT ALL. But definitely Bad Acid leans toward the heavy and the psychedelic and the left of center. So yeah, obviously WAY recommend, and while Bad Acid will continue on in a different, bloggier, form, it just won't be the same, so you best buy this final issue of Bad Acid and add it to that shelf of magazines you keep and treasure and reread...
Originally released (albeit only digitally) in 2005, Songs Of Flowers & Skin reveals a side of Aidan Baker we love, but only rarely get to see, and it's his slowcore side, channeling the spirit of groups like Codeine and Bedhead and Seam, creating dark, drifting slow motion pop songs, that creep and crawl and unfurl gorgeously and gradually. Like we said, those moments do surface in his discography, especially solo, where he seems more inclined to introspection and less to doomgaze, but this record offers up a whole disc of proper songs, slow, languorous, dark, haunting, melancholy songs, with singing and lyrics and proper rock band instrumentation, augmented by trumpet and violin, it's really quite lovely.
The record opens with "Skin Like Sand", a serpentine guitar figure wraps around simple minimal skeletal drumming, vocals are crooned softly, actually sung, but this IS Aidan Baker, so it's not nearly that simple, the track is laced with bits of glitch, streaks of crackle, and the vocals are strangely processed, so in the background, little vocal snippets echo the main voice, making it sound ghostly and dreamlike. The next few tracks get almost jazzy sounding, upping the tempo a bit, but keeping the mood dour and depressive, "Dance Dance Dance" is a smoky trumpet flecked ballad, all reverbed guitar and sizzling cymbals, "Second Selves" sounds almost Spanish, a little bit of a Morricone vibe, a regal almost march, the horns and strings, sweeping and dramatic, very cinematic, "Take Me Out Of My" is another skittery slow groove, that sounds almost like it could be American Music Club, if it weren't for the strange static and whirling organ drones.
Almost the entire second half of the disc is taken up by the nearly half hour long "Flowerskin" (although some of that is silence hiding a secret track, more on that in a second), begins as a slowly building driftscape of long tones, mysterious electronic glitches and truncated rhythms, before the song proper kicks in, another brooding meander, the glitch and crackle and hiss even more pronounced here, sometimes almost blotting out the song completely, there is an almost Nadja worthy climax, but it's more soft focus and subdued, a swirling cloud of warm washed out drones and tangled streaks of buzz, before sputtering out and leaving nothing but silence. Which is eventually supplanted by a gorgeously dark and melancholy dirge folk ballad, just acoustic guitar and vocals, hushed and haunting and quite beautiful.
Maybe not for the Nadja doombliss dronemetal obsessives, but fans of past AB solo outings, as well as anyone into dark, intimate, minimal slowcore and dark brooding doom pop, will definitely want to check this out.
Much like the Trinity cd we listed a while back, Trinitarian, finds the Canadian doomdronebliss duo Nadja offering up a whole lp of new material, including a solo piece by each member as well as a brand new massive sidelong dreamdirge.
Baker's contribution is a gorgeous expanse of breathless shimmer, all billowy and dreamlike, soft swirls of muted chimes and bell-like tones, woven into almost choral sounding passages, warm and hushed and reverent, but with a slightly ominous tinge that only grows more pronounced as the track progresses.
Buckareff balances Baker's more tranquil contribution, with a piece much more sinister, a deep, dark and creepy soundscape of crumbling distorted buzz and shimmering metallic whir, lots and lots of space creating a bottomless black ambience rife with minor key melodic fragments and undulating layers of textured drone. Intense and intensely haunting.
The Nadja track takes up all of side 2, and begins with blissed out harmonized guitars, super spare drums, a digitally treated, slightly glitchy soft minimalism that drifts delicately until the inevitable crush, but this time the crush is not only massive, it's weirdly warped and warm and soft, processed and distorted making it sound a bit alien and otherworldly, almost more warm and washed out than heavy, a bit like a doom metal Galaxie 500, sun dappled and multihued, dreamy and ethereal, while somehow managing to remain incredibly heavy. The song grows slightly less blissy and more intense and ominous by the end of the side, but even then, the sound is still mysteriously transcendent.
LIMITED TO ONLY 200 COPIES!!! These are probably the only copies we'll ever get!
Dust, Captain Beyond, Toad, Pentagram, Highway Robbery, T2, Buffalo, Budgie, Blue Cheer, Lucifer's Friend...if these names mean anything to you, you're probably one of our customers who dig that heavy '70s acid rock proto-metal stuff. Whenever we find a reissue of another lost gem from the era we try to share it with you. So, here, at last, are discs by the legendary Bang, a trio from Florida (by way of Philly) circa '71-'73 who managed to crank out some Sabbath-like riffing to go with the very Ozzy-like vocals of lead singer and bassist Frank Ferrara!
Bang never got big -- although they did share stages with everyone from Alice Cooper to the Allman Brothers to Chuck Berry to Funkadelic to Black Sabbath themselves, apparently had a #1 hit in Hong Kong and at one point owned their own private plane! They released three albums in their career (for a US major label in fact) plus they recorded some singles and made an entire unreleased album as well. Their entire output has now been reissued on two cds, the first of which (this one) contains their self-titled debut, recorded in February of '72, as well as their follow-up sophomore album recorded that same year in November (groups back then didn't dilly dally with putting out one album every couple of years like today's bands).
As we said, Bang, especially on their first album, bore a remarkable resemblance to the Sabs, which was really unusual for their era, when bands were more likely to copy Zeppelin or Purple or just be stuck in the '60s. Kinda lo-fi, but quite heavy, "Bang" delievers doomy hard rock, with a kinda Comus-y Pagan slant, that also brings to mind the most powerful early King Crimson. Like most heavy bands of the period, Bang weren't cognizant of the "metal" concept, and probably saw themselves as a pop rock group -- a dark and pyschedelic pop rock group to be sure -- and so sometimes the hard riffing lets up to allow for some happier or more gentle fare, which is not always a bad thing anyway (this a phenomenon we discussed in our review of the Dust albums not long ago).
Bang's 2nd album was oddly presented as two distinct side-long mini-albums, each with its own 'front' cover. Side one (the heavier) being "Mother" with side two dubbed "Bow To The King". Both sides together were not as Sabbathy as the debut perhaps, but still excellent '70s proto-metal indeed.
Recorded in Hollywood, California in 1973, "Bang Music" was quite a bit more of your standard '70s rock/pop fare, not nearly as heavy as their earlier efforts. But it's nicely melodic and has a few rockin' tracks on it, like opener "Windfair".
Then we step back chronologically a couple of years for the conceptual "Death Of A Country", which was Bang's never-released first album, recorded in 1971 prior to their self-titled debut that came out the next year. With visions of societal corruption and ecological disaster, this album's doom-filled lyrics are certainly Sabbathian, although the music really doesn't get as apocalyptically heavy as what they came up with on "Bang". But still, a decent slab of downer psych-rock, more '60s hippie than '70s metal.
True heavy music connoisseurs really need this disc, though, for the two of the three "lost singles" included: the tracks "Slow Down" and "Feels Nice". They're the highlights here for sure. "Slow Down" woulda fit in well on their debut, while "Feels Nice" has more of Led Zep vibe.
Bang's slogan was always "Music Shot From Guns". Of the two cds reissues, it's the first ("Bang / Mother - Bow To The King") that's definitely using the higher caliber ordnance. But this one also gets off some good shots.
Note, unlike cd versions you might have seen before, these aren't bootlegs -- these reissues were done by the band themselves through their website. Initally they reissued 'em as cd-rs, but now they've done real cds, professionally printed. The cd booklets have the lyrics and credits, but we'd have liked some more art, photos, notes, etc. And as 2-on-1 releases, they've scrunched the cover art for two albums into each booklet's front panel, along with using some not-so-'70s Macintosh computer fonts. So, visually these could have been better, but oh well -- it's the music that matters. And much of Bang's music should definitely stoke those into early metal a la Black Sabbath and the aforementioned obscure greats.
All right! We're happy to report that Rise Above Relics is back in business, with an impressive new batch of proto-metal reissues including albums by Steel Mill and Necromandus... gotta get 'em all reviewed, but we're gonna start with a Bang. A box set of Bang, in fact. We've long stocked the self-released cd reissues of this early '70s American answer to Black Sabbath, but THIS is the definitive Bang reish for sure. Physically much nicer than those previous reissues, this handsome yellow box contains all 4 of Bang's full-lengths on 4 individual cds in mini-lp style gatefold sleeves, plus bonus material, and a thick (40 page) booklet stuffed with detailed liner notes and photos... and there's a Bang sticker too!
Essential for Bang fans, and that means all lovers of '70s heavy psych rock action. Here's a revamp of what we had to say about Bang before, when we reviewed each album:
Dust, Captain Beyond, Jerusalem, Toad, Pentagram, Highway Robbery, T2, Buffalo, Budgie, Blue Cheer, Lucifer's Friend...if these names mean anything to you, you're probably one of our customers who dig that heavy '70s acid rock proto-metal stuff. Whenever we find a reissue of another lost gem from the era we try to share it with you. So, here, at last... the legendary Bang, a trio from Florida (by way of Philly) circa '71-'73 who managed to crank out some Sabbath-like riffing to go with the very Ozzy-like vocals of lead singer and bassist Frank Ferrara!
Bang never got big - although they did share stages with everyone from Alice Cooper to the Allman Brothers to Chuck Berry to Funkadelic to Black Sabbath themselves, apparently had a #1 hit in Hong Kong and at one point owned their own private plane! They released three albums in their career (for a US major label in fact) plus they recorded some singles and made an entire unreleased album as well.
As we said, Bang, especially on their first self-titled album, recorded in February of '72, bore a remarkable resemblance to the Sabs, which was really unusual for their era, when heavy bands were more likely to copy Zeppelin or Purple or just be stuck in the '60s. Kinda lo-fi, but quite heavy, it delivers doomy hard rock, with a kinda Comus-y Pagan slant, that also brings to mind the most powerful early King Crimson. Like most heavy bands of the period, Bang weren't cognizant of the "metal" concept, and probably saw themselves as a pop rock group - a dark and psychedelic pop rock group to be sure - and so sometimes the hard riffing lets up to allow for some happier or more gentle fare, which is not always a bad thing anyway (this a phenomenon we discussed in our review of the Dust albums once upon a time).
Bang's second album, which followed later in '72 (groups back then didn't dilly dally with putting out one album every couple of years like today's bands) was oddly presented as two distinct side-long mini-albums, each with its own 'front' cover. Side one (the heavier) being "Mother" with side two dubbed "Bow To The King". Both sides together were not as Sabbathy as the debut perhaps, but still excellent '70s proto-metal indeed.
They then went to Hollywood in '73 to cut Bang Music, their third album. It's quite a bit more of your standard '70s rock/pop fare, not nearly as heavy as their earlier efforts. But it's nicely melodic and has a few rockin' tracks on it, like opener "Windfair".
Then we step back chronologically a couple of years for the conceptual Death Of A Country, which was Bang's never-released first album, recorded in 1971 prior to their self-titled debut. With visions of societal corruption and ecological disaster, this album's doom-filled lyrics are certainly Sabbathian, although the music really doesn't get as apocalyptically heavy as what they came up with on Bang. But still, a decent slab of downer psych-rock, more '60s hippie than '70s metal.
True heavy music connoisseurs really need this 4th disc, though, for the two of the three "lost singles" included: the tracks "Slow Down" and "Feels Nice". They're the highlights here for sure. "Slow Down" woulda fit in well on their debut, while "Feels Nice" has more of Led Zep vibe. As an additional bonus, Rise Above have included a half-hour radio interview.
Bang's slogan was always "Music Shot From Guns". Of their albums, it's the first two, Bang and Mother - Bow To The King, that definitely use the higher caliber ordnance. But the other two discs here also get off some good shots. And the whole package is a huge improvement over the band's previous official reissues that we stocked, not to mention the bootleg editions that have also circulated. More room for the art, better design, and the other goodies in the box.
One of the best unsung heavy rock acts ever, finally gets the box set they deserve. BANG!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This is the first we've heard from German ambient doomlords Bann, and the first release on the fledgling Grief Foundation label (already a well respected UK metal distro) and we're pretty smitten. This is epic and heavy stuff, with a slightly medieval flair. Three looooooong songs, the first, beginning with what sounds like some creepy Carpenter / Goblin horror movie score, until the drums gradually fade in and we're in Skepticism style doom land, and then finally the guitars kick in and we're in the midst of some seriously crushing medieval doom, a plodding swinging lurching dirge, that quickly segues into an almost Renn Faire sounding bridge, complete with fluttering flutes and sweeping keyboard swells and an awesomely ridiculous spurt of classical strings before resuming its glacial plod. Halfway through the guitars fade out leaving a swirl of whispery synths, delicately plucked acoustic guitars, hushed vocals, strange sound effects, all drifting ominously, before that folky medieval crush crashes back in. Simultaneously lilting and lovely, buzzing and brutal.�
The second track begins with a roaring fire, looped snippets of conversation that become more and more frenzied, grandiose King's court keyboards, finally enveloped by a gorgeous melancholy riff, that trudges along, beneath a sprinkling of pointilist piano, another break partway through reveals rain and thunder, whipping winds and strange reverbed German voices, a creepy cinematic interlude, that quicklygives way to that same loping melancholy dirge, the piano just making� it that much more emotional and dark. Very classic sounding, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, but with a demented medieval twist.�
The final track begins with melancholy folk guitar, warm swells of synthesized strings, soon joined by buzz drenched riffage, slow and droning, the whole track sounding quite a bit like classic Burzum, slowed down, and with weird witchy vocals and an epic Viking-style recurring melody, Gorgeously mournful and completely trance inducing.
Total epic�medieval ambient doom!!!
Now sure how we missed out on these guys, they're called Barn Burner, their first record as called Bangers, and had an amazingly goofy cover, and song titles like "Holy Smokes", "Beer Today Bong Tomorrow" and "Wizard Island", maybe we figured it would just be some stupid joke metal thing, but then for whatever reason we threw it on and were BLOWN AWAY. Heavy, riffy, hooky as fuck, with REAL singing, killer guitar harmonies, classic rock, meets classic metal, meets Southern rock meets stoner metal, with amazing songs, with crazy catchy choruses, bad ass riffs and shredding leads. As much as we love us some black buzz or dirgey sludge, it's easy to forget how much we love metal that ROCKS. And these guys rock. HARD.
So here we have record number two from Barn Burner (and we can definitely get the first one for you, just ask), appropriately titled Bangers II: Scum Of The Earth, with yet another even more ridiculous cover, more killer song titles, like "Dark Side Of The Barn", "Keg Stand And Deliver", "Quest For The Cube", and "Skid Marks The Spot", and yeah, a whole 'nother batch of shredding, rocking heaviness, killer riffs and wild solos, the sort of shit they just don't make anymore, and yeah, sure it may ultimately be beer drinking party metal, but sonically this stuff KILLS, easily one of our new favorite metal bands, we've been listening to both records nonstop, but this new one, is rapidly becoming a contender for metal record of the year. Hell yeah.
We recently got to see Barn Owl perform at the Thrill Jockey 15th anniversary celebration, alongside Wooden Shjips, Liturgy, Eternal Tapestry, Man Forever and Trans Am, and as always, they were amazing, performing in the shadows below a constantly shifting wall of visuals, dark swirling psychedelic visions, that seemed to mirror the sounds the group were conjuring from their instruments, guitars as always, but this time the guitars seemed to play second fiddle (sorry) to their banks of synths, and tables full of gear. As we've mentioned on recent records, the duo seem to have been consciously moving away from guitars, and toward a more predominantly synth based sound, being keenly aware, that they were running the risk of making the same record over and over again. Not that we'd complain, their dusky sort of twang flecked ambient creep was and is a beautiful listen, but the expanded sonic palette, and all those synths, gave the band a much more expansive sound, and instead of just treading the same ground, only with synths instead of guitars, Barn Owl actually set out to make something new and exciting, and not just the listener, but for themselves as well.
Back to that Thrill Jockey show, Barn Owl were unfurling thick swirling washed of sound, when all of a sudden, boom, a lumbering, thunderous beat rolled in, a cool pulsing murky drum machine rhythm that changed the tenor of their sound completely, and instead of drifting, they were sort of driving, the sound moving toward something a bit krautrockier, and a whole lot doomier. Sure they's played with drummers before, but this was something all together different. And on V, we get our first record glimpse of the duo's new sound, which they introduce gently, starting with the opener "Void Redux", which fills the sky with billows of chordal synth shimmer, laced with fragmented melodies, and slow shifting textures, while within, spaced out beats pulse and percolate, no specific rhythm, more adding texture, and a little motorik heft, those rhythms and rhythmic fragments drifting on the ethereal swells and ominous cinematic shimmer. A sort of blackened psychedelic new age space drift. Which is not a bad thing at all.
But fear not, the guitars have not been jettisoned completely, far from it. "The Long Shadow" sounds like Barn Owl of old, at least at first, but synths add some Arvo Part like chorales to the background, and underpin everything with deep chordal rumbles, even transforming into full on church organ at one point, the sound building gradually to a triumphant majestic coda, before devolving into a looped swirl of crumbling distortion and keening distant melodies.
Throughout the rest of the record, the band definitely flex their musical muscles, and seem to be referencing the old Barn Owl sound, rather then still embodying it, undulating tendrils of reverbed melody drift atop, thick, churning synth wash, the tracks occasionally exploding into full on psych noise chaos, but a measure chaos, that still reveals plenty of deft melodic and textural soundscaping, and when the rhythms do surface, it can sound like some sort of super space-y kosmische Muslimgauze, or like some abstract electronic shoegaze. After a brief bit of old Barn Owl guitar tangle fused to lush, prismatic new Barn Owl synth shimmer, somehow crating the perfect twang flecked synth doom dreaminess, the record finishes off with the sprawling minimal epic "The Opulent Decline", which begins as a barren landscape of synth squelch and dubbed out barely there rhythms, lots of echo and reverb, and lots and lots of space. Over the course of the song's 17+ minutes, the sound blossoms into huge billows of soft noise swirl, still driven by that slo-mo rhythmic pulse, the tempo is set to creep, the surrounding sounds following suit, oozing and melting, but then seemingly channeled heavenward, a gorgeous bit of kosmische kraut-gaze drone-doom bliss for sure.
While they last, both the cd and the lp versions include a bonus cd, called The Factory Session / Live At Berkeley Art Museum, which is an actual cd, NOT a cd-r and features 40 minutes of exclusive unreleased music, the first three tracks, experimental, raw, swirling synthscapes recorded right here in SF at the band's rehearsal space, and a final more guitar based track, huge billows of churning distorted echo drenched sound, taking full advantage of the cavernous space in which it was recorded, which of course was at the Berkeley Art Museum, back in 2010. We're one of the few places you can get it, and once these are gone, they're gone for good, and then we'll be shipping both cds and lps SANS the bonus disc. So act fast if you're after the bonus disc.
Barn Owl are no stranger to the drone. In fact, this Bay Area duo's sound is all about the drone, a deep, brooding, moody, twangy Earth-ish cinematic devotional doomdriftDRONE that we can't get enough of. But on this recent collaboration, the band explore another side of the drone, one less dark, and one more in keeping with the traditions of modern minimal dronemusic, teaming up with The Infinite String Ensemble (consisting of a fellow named The Norman Conquest on acoustic guitar, vocals, and Moog; Theresa Wong on cello; and Ellen Fullman, on the long string instrument), Barn Owl ditching their smokey twang flecked shimmer, and instead laying down lush layers of complimentary long form drones and extended tones.
For those who are unfamiliar with Ellen Fullman, she created the 'Long Stringed Instrument', which is exactly what it sounds like, although the name does not and all prepare you for the power of actually seeing it and hearing it. Essentially, she stretches long strings across large resonant spaces, the strings sometimes 50 feet or longer, and the players proceed to scrape, and bow and vibrate the strings, creating incredible sounds. And how perfect for Barn Owl to join in and add their own drone two cents.
The result is pretty fantastic, but again, well removed from the Barn Owl most folks are used to. In fact it almost would have made more sense to bill this as an Infinite String Ensemble, with special guests Barn Owl. Either way, the players here create four loooooong tracks of shimmery sun dappled dronemusic, long streaks of metallic buzz, lush and layered, lots of shifting textures and subtle overtones, all wrapped in softly burnished reverb, space-y and kosmische and hypnotic and heady, like Taj Mahal Travelers jamming with Organum, the tracks slipping from hushed and minimal, glimmering and crystalline, to smoldering and softly cacophonous, from dreamy hazy drift, to ritualistic ur-drone. Gorgeous.
And obviously absolutely recommended for all the drone fanatics out there, which we're guessing is a whole lot of you.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Cover art by Root Strata's Jefre Cantu-Ledesma.
Finally! The first two kick ass eps from these Georgia heavies combined into one killer full length (we always thought they sounded like they belonged together on the same record). So for all you metalheads who missed out the first time around (these eps have been out of print for a while), you got yourself another chance, don't blow it.
Man, Baroness just totally destroys. Three massive tracks of Electric Wizard meets the Fucking Champs metal stoner sludge crush. Some of the catchiest riffs we've heard in a while, from strange melodic finger tapping, to soaring Iron Maiden-esque melodies, to groovy southern stoner rock to pummeling detuned sludge to thrashing punk rock with howling throat shredding vocals -- typically all in the same song! The first track on First has an awesome stomping stop start riff with an insidiously catchy little melody, which ends up sounding like Carcass meets the Jesus Lizard. The second track is all Sabbathy sludge / doom with occasional bursts of rapid fire blasting punk rock. But it's all about the third track. A super epic, proggy complex metallic post rock workout, tons of parts, all of them worthy of their own song, super dynamic and totally catchy with Champs-ish breakdowns and weird bursts of abstract ambience. So fucking great!
Baroness' Second, while still heavy and stonery and crushing, seems to be tempering their heaviness with some serious post / math rock, which is just fine with us, think maybe Isis / Pelican majestic sludge metal meets Rodan / June Of 44 style moody post rock. However Baroness' sound still leans way toward the metal side of that equation. Plus, their songs continue to be really weird, rife with strange meters, complex arrangements, lots of slippery guitar harmonies, weird psychedelic wah guitar, spacey electronic burbling, some stretched out slow motion sludge, some intricate riffing and some of the most insane drumming we've ever heard.
The reissue features the original eps' killer artwork, kinda like Pushead doing '60s Fillmore poster art, courtesy of Baroness guitarist, John Baizley, and comes in a digipak with cool embossed metallic lettering housed in a slip cover.
Latest solo outing from one member of space-doom outronauts Bong, and like the Bong mothership, Basillica traffic in a murky, druggy, blackness, but where Bong is definitely rocking and have a sort of sitar-ed Hawkwind going, Basillica are way more free form and abstract, a sort of oozing lysergic black ambience, here a single track that sprawls like some thick slowly swirling cloud of rumbles and whirs, of muted melodies and cavernous chordal washes, at moments it sounds almost like a gamelan at 1rpm, a warped underwater warble, the melodies like strange shadow beasts struggling in vain to extricate themselves from the black sonic tarpit that is the core of Rotting Desert Queen And The Black Isolator Radar Strip.
And for a murky druggy bit of abstract ambience, there's definitely a lot going on here, wah guitars are effected until they barely resemble guitars at all, vibrating strings create ripples in the slowly pulsing sea of sound, occasionally shards of high end, or fragments of melodies break through, almost like a stray beam of sunlight, creating even more shadows, and causing the surrounding sounds to slowly swarm and swallow the sunlight whole.
Muddy and washed out, haunting and subterranean sounding, these sounds are also strangely soothing, as if you were floating in some underwater tributary, just below the surface, the water heated by the molten rock beneath, the black tide carrying you through all manner of caverns, the sound and light reflecting off the constantly undulating surface of the cavern walls, and then filtering through the swirling currents, becoming warped and warbly before finally settling in your fluid filled ears. Cool cool cool. Not to mention dark and heavy and druggily dreamy.
When it comes to heaviness - interesting heaviness - the Seventh Rule label is pretty dang reliable. This list we're getting caught up with some of their latest, with THREE new Seventh Rule releases reviewed. This one's the follow up to this NYC band's mammoth full-length debut Furnace, a hate-and-pain-fueled aQ fave back in 2011. Again Batillus punish the listener with mammoth industrialized sludge. It's total deathmarch of doom, uber-distorted noizerock churn that's equal parts Godflesh and Eyehategod, super blown out and often epic, their "blackened doom metal" sound strangely, rhythmically catchy and wide open to loud/soft post-rock-like experimentation, sometimes finding the desolate beauty amidst the ruins. The vokills and loosely-strung guitars vie for which can be harsher, while the machine-like (but not drum machine) percussion grabs you and maintains forward momentum down, down through the glorious, hellish realms of Batillus's sick sound. The lyrics deal in decay and despair and the music follows suit. The Sanford Parker production is the icing on this crushing cake. Nicely done, definitely recommended to all those who liked their earlier effort, or dig similarly antisocial, ultra-heavy doomcore (and doomed-out post-rock) a la The Body, Thou, Cough, Fleshpress, Kowloon Walled City (who turned us on to Batillus in the first place), etc., & also fellow Seventh Rulers Atriarch and Author & Punisher for sure!
Vinyl version also available, via Vendetta.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Latest from these Dutch stoner rock stalwarts. Sure, we like it 'cause our pal Guy Pinhas used to be in the band and co-wrote some of the stuff on this album, but even if Guy wasn't involved we'd still think this was pretty darn good, really. Heavy, rockin, and kinda weird and arty in spots. Modern psychedelia that's sorta like a cross between Wino's Spirit Caravan and something a little
DOOM HISTORY HERE FOLKS! And not just that, it's a fantastic album. Ok, you know something is up when almost EVERYONE here at AQ absolutely loves a doom metal album. Not just the regular metal heads (Andee, Allan, Jason, Lauren) but also Jim and Cup too. Indeed, Cup's two cents for this review is this: "fucking awesome!"
So what's all the fuss about Bedemon? Well some of you may be familiar with the band Pentagram from Maryland, who have about a 30+ year history, going on 40 in fact. Well Bedemon are essentially an obscure but very worthwhile footnote to Pentagram's history, being the "solo" recording project of original '70s Pentagram guitarist Randy Palmer, the majority of this recorded circa 1973-74 with a few tracks from a 1979 Bedemon session as well. They never played out, or even released any records. Bedemon were more of a practice room, basement-recording project that involved Palmer and friends, including the other members of Pentagram, most significantly the uniquely talented vocalist Bobby Liebling who sings on all of these cuts. It was just a way for Palmer to get his own songwriting down on tape, stuff that wasn't recorded by Pentagram. It's totally in the same vein as Pentagram though, if anything MORE dark and doomy than Pentagram's '70s output. Very heavy, and heavily Black Sabbath influenced, also with echoes of Blue Cheer, Randy Holden's Population II, and Iggy & The Stooges (the track "Time Bomb" is very Stoogey, in a way similiar to Pentagram's "Last Days Here"). And for '73, this is definitely about as heavy as it gets, Sabbath and Pentagram themselves excepted. There's so many great tracks on here, each one more sorrowful and wrought with doomful emotion than the next, all of 'em throbbing and (awesomely) distorted. Yes, the quality of these rehearsal tape recordings is downright grungey and murky, but in our opinion that isn't a distraction nor a detraction. In fact, it only makes this better, totally capturing that spirit and raw energy of jamming in the garage for your own enjoyment. And it also sounds doomier that way too. Hands down, Randy Palmer wrote some of the best Pentagram songs, and many of these are just as good. Some of his riffs absolutely lay to waste those of his contemporaries. Just imagine if Palmer had decided to promote his doom skills rather than keep them for the most part to himself. Holy shit. At least we have this, one of the best "lost" albums ever uncovered in the realm of heavy, underground music.
Sadly, Palmer died in a tragic car accident just a few years ago, so the official release of this material at long last is also something of a tribute to his memory. Some of this stuff has been bootlegged before, but this legit release has been done with the blessings of Randy's survivors and the input of the other Bedemon musicans. There's even a Wes Benscoter cover painting based on Palmer's own hand-sketched ideas, as well as lots of photos, a Bedemon history written by Palmer before he was killed, and some very fascinating, detailed, and heartfelt liner notes from fellow Bedemon/Pentagram bandmate Geof O'Keefe.
Essential to all true fans of Pentagram, and also to anyone into heavy '70s Sabbathy psychedelic garagey proto-metal!!
Pentagram fans, Trouble fans, The Obsessed fans, Black Sabbath fans, lend us your ears!! Underground old school occult metallers Bedemon are back, which is a minor miracle, considering that their main songwriter died over ten years ago�
We weren't expecting this to be as good as it is. But it's pretty great. Now, we all loved the other Bedemon cd we reviewed back in 2005, Child Of Darkness, the one that consisted of vintage lo-fi old demo / practice space recordings that this band did back in the '70s, 'cause as you may know, Bedemon was formed in '73 as a solo side project by then-Pentagram guitarist Randy Palmer - but Bedemon never released an album during Palmer's lifetime (he was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 2002). Those Child Of Darkness tracks had Pentagram vocalist Bobby Liebling on the mic, so they really sounded like long lost Pentagram songs, really good ones. And of course we thought that that posthumous collection was all we were ever going to hear from Bedemon, for obvious reasons. But then we heard that this was coming out, an album of hitherto unreleased Bedemon songs that Randy Palmer had been working on before he died, those recordings at last completed by the surviving members of the band, consisting of fellow former original Pentagram member Geof O'Keefe (drums/guitars), and Mike Matthews (bass), both of whom were on those basement Bedemon demos from the '70s, plus 'new' vocalist Crag Junghandel, replacing Liebling - and doing a good job of it, bringing a dramatic intensity to the role, kind of a Dio to Liebling's Ozzy if you will.
Hearing this, you can tell why these guys felt that they HAD to finish this album, in tribute to the true doom songwriting talent of their friend Palmer, whose songs are super Sabbathy for sure (some of this is very "Electric Funeral") but also have their own sinister vibe, one that's strangely funky at times too, even on a lumbering tune like 9+ minute "Godless", that one also an example of how some of the tracks are pretty long, sprawling and psychedelically jammy, with wild guitar soloing and some gloomy organ. The vibe here is dark and doomy, but also rockin', some passages replete with handclaps and cowbell. The atmosphere, the riffs, all of this is definitely what any Bedemon/Pentagram fan could wish for, much much better recorded than Child Of Darkness of course but still raw and powerful, and clearly still rooted in the '70s.
Rest In Peace, Randy Palmer, and keep on rockin' wherever you are.
Seattle doom duo Bell Witch have been lauded for being one of the heaviest doom outfits around, their sound achingly crushingly despondent, made all the more remarkable for the fact that they're just a duo of bass and drums. On the one hand, that makes sense, all low end, the perfect ingredients for dismal dirgery for sure, but the weird thing is, the most appealing part of this new record, and easily the most special, is the parts that are most definitely NOT metal at all. Not even not doom, we mean not METAL. On this, their debut full-length, the band have crafted an incredible hybrid of plodding miserablist ultra doom, and classic, minor key, slowcore, it's like Codeine crossed with Esoteric, or something.
Admittedly, the band do conjure up a pretty devastating sound, the bass super distorted and downright guitar like, churning and blown out, the drums a monstrous plod, the tracks laced with aching minor key melodies (also played on the bass we presume), the vocals an inhuman demonic rasp, perfectly suited to the group's death march trudge, but then, suddenly, the buzz and distortion peels away, leaving just a spare minimal rhythm, and soft warm chords, drifting in long expanses of soft focus shimmer, softly loping, a minor key slo-mo lament, made even more perfect by the clean crooned vox, emotional and heartfelt, hell, we probably would have dug this record just as much sans the crushing doom, but the two parts together, make this pretty spectacular.
"Rows (Of Endless Waves)" explodes right out of the gate, as a churning slab of downtuned extreme heaviness, bellowed howls, pounding drums, laced with demonic shrieks, the bass buzzing and blackened, but then suddenly, the sound begins to grow more melodic, even still in the heavy part, and then like the opener, the heaviness is gradually shed, and the song is reborn as a super spare stretch of haunting, softly strummed slow motion sad pop, sounding quite a bit like Low in fact, slightly heavier perhaps, but not much, and here, the heaviness creeps back in gradually, but without the track following, instead it seems to wrap its shadowy sonics around the dark dolorous sadcore, making it just that much darker and dolorous.
Almost the entirety of "Longing (The River Of Ash)", is spent in slowcore mode, the heaviness relegated to lazily crashing chords, but it's the sort of dark doom pop gem that could easily find its way on to some indie kids breakup mixtape. In fact in many ways, this is the kind of record that could very well open the doors to darker and heavier sounds.
For a heavy doom record, it's remarkable how much of the record is spent sounding not that heavy, or perhaps more 'emotionally' heavy, than sonically heavy. We'd almost classify this as some sort of slowcore/sadcore record with elements of doom, than the other way around. However you approach it, it's definitely one of the darkest, saddest, and most beautiful doom records we've heard in ages. Or if you'd rather, one of the doomiest, heaviest slowcore records. WAY recommended.
Latest in a long line of dopesmoke driven, Sabbath worshipping, downtuned stoner sludge heavies, these guys hail from Poland, and take their drug rock cues from all the usual suspects: Sleep (of course), Eyehategod, Electric Wizard, etc. It's all instrumental, so it's all about the riffs, and the riffs here are pretty goddamn great, dense, blackened, skull caving, slabs of thick, ugly, crumbling, distorted buzz and crunch, riding atop some of the sickest bass rumble around, the drums a Neanderthal pound driving the lurching dopesick creep, the slithery stoner swing and lumbering doomic plod laced with spidery melodies, and brief blasts of psychedelic wah wah guitars and woozy FX, the tempos are occasionally cranked up to a serious stonery groove, the band sounding like some lost Meteor City band, but Belzebong seem to always eventually slip back into a more woozy, warped, glacial tarpit trudge. The lack of vocals is made up for with some strange tripped out samples, and the tracks sprawl and ooze and stretch way out, to the point that they definitely seem less HEAVY, and more sort of tripped out and wasted... Definitely not reinventing the bong, but hell, folks who love their shit hard and heavy, low slung, blown out and burnt, this will definitely hit the spot.
Ahhh, how nice is it to see the name Beyond Dawn again? One of the great unsung heroes of the '90s Norwegian metal scene, Beyond Dawn never quite got the accolades they deserved . Maybe because even in their early heavier days they were a hard band to pin a genre to. Maybe because they were one of the first metal bands in Norway to abandon metal altogether for more experimental territory. Maybe because every record sounded so drastically different than the last. Maybe it's because they almost never played outside of their native country. Or maybe it's just because they had, like, A TON of trombone. Whatever the reason, a band who should have enjoyed a career as illustrious and respected as their countrymates Ulver (who the band played some of their earliest shows with in 1993) instead dissolved over a decade ago with the most cult of followings. But thankfully Duplicate Records has done all fans of heavy downer weirdness a great service in releasing this retrospective. But in classically unpredictable fashion, this isn't a greatest hits package so much as it is a two cd chronological collection of odds & sods: album demos, alternate mixes, outtakes and live recordings. Despite how that may sound, it works surprisingly well as an introduction to this band's surreal shadowy world, touching neatly on everything that made them interesting. Even in their earlier days of brooding gothic doom there was a touch the modern and avant garde, a somber and mournful dirge in the tradition of early Anathema complimented perfectly by Espen Ingierd's vocals, deep and commanding but strangely emotionless and distant, at times a dead ringer for Michael Gira. And like we mentioned earlier there's that trombone, which is never far away, and man, if Beyond Dawn don't make a good argument for the trombone being the saddest sounding instrument of all time (in fact this release inspired this topic of conversation in the store the other day: Why don't more metal bands use trombones???), but at the same time it lends a certain regal timeless quality to their music that really sets it apart. The second disc tackles the 2000's when the band left metal behind entirely, and began flirting with downtempo electronics, nocturnal dub, post punk and melancholy pop. While it's aesthetically a much quieter approach, it was no less emotionally captivating, engrossing and at times devastating. And while the band certainly evolved drastically as they progressed, this collection provides a nice way to follow the threads that ran through the band's sound, especially the general mood they always seemed to conjure up no matter what genres they were experimenting with: a sort of lonely distinguished elegance. Nocturnal and shimmering, depressive yet strangely proud, like putting on your best suit in preparation for the gallows. Highly recommended for fans of Vaura, Swans, Beastmilk, Ulver, and all things strange, sad and loud.
We're gonna do this review in 2 entirely separate parts:
FIRST, for folks already fans of this kickass Chicago-based old school metal squad (perhaps on account of our previous rave reviews), hell it's a new album from 'em, after four years a fine follow up to 2008's rulin' Freedom Metal - 'nuff said, you know you need it!
SECOND, if like a lot of folks, you're not familiar with the inexplicably underrated BOTD... well maybe you're into another band of shredders, from here in SF, The Saviours? They're pretty durn popular, and we love 'em too (their reviews on our site should attest to that), but we've always wondered why BOTD weren't at least as successful, 'cause, not to take anything away from The Saviours, BOTD are even better. Both bands play heavy, riffy '70s/'80s inspired, but sorta punked up metal, with tons o' twin guitar action - and with both bands, the vocals are the weak link. While the singing is superior in BOTD's case, let's say that their gravelly vocals still aren't the greatest, with more attitude than aptitude, but do get the job done. Besides, they sure do come up with catchy choruses, so that YOU can (and will) sing along, and see if you can do better! The backing vox whoah-oh-oh style stuff has become a BOTD hallmark all right, so they're doing the best with what they got.
But anyway, it's in the guitar dep't where these boys shine. And shine they do, here, there and everywhere. The guitarwork is jaunty and jubilant, with plenty of nods to what's gotta be one of their biggest influences, Thin Lizzy. Yep, as always, we're hearing a lotta Lizzy... NWOBHM too of course... and also some Led Zeppish funkiness on the track "Raw & Order". BOTD are the heirs to a lot of classic rock and metal moves that few bands today do as well as they do, or even do at all. Mention should also be made of the surprise horn section in the middle of "I Know What Is Right (In The Night)", nice!
The rough n' ready production job points up something else you should know about these guys - they're a great live band, go see 'em if you get the chance. Drunken air guitaring will be your fate... very likely too even if you just listen to this at home.
Recommended especially, as indicated, to fans of The Saviours and Thin Lizzy, also to fans of the likes of High Spirits, Gypsyhawk, Danava, and occasional partners-in-crime Slough Feg...
Like Zebulon Pike last list, here's another band recommended to us by our pals Hammers Of Misfortune, who played with 'em when on tour this past summer. Mike from Hammers lent me their new cd, and I agreed with him that it rocked and immediately wanted one and figured a few of you might want one too...so here it is! Chicago's Bible Of The Devil are a ass-kickin' garage-metal outfit, cranking out raw guitar riffage with raucous vocals. Influences probably include AC/DC, Alice Cooper and the NWOBHM. Both really heavy and kinda punk, these greasy long-hairs know what they're doing that's for sure. You don't possess a profanity-laced screech like their singer or engage in the twin axe action with which Bible Of The Devil's guitarists are adept without payin' some dues. Should stoke all the same urges as Motley Crue and Motorhead...we'd also cite the Hellacopters, Turbonegro, the Necros, and SF locals Night After Night and Drunkhorse as like minded acts whose fans ought to do some 'Bible study'.
We listed the latest album of dual Flying V action (Flying VV?) from Chicago's metal masters Bible Of The Devil last list. Here's another, new n' exclusive, kick ass track from them, "The Auld Dirt Road", on one side of this split 7" single they share with Virginia doomsters Valkyrie, who do a song called "False Dreams". Between 'em, BOTD and Valkyrie manage to turn this 7" inch into a shrine to all that's retro, rad, & rockin', with Bible leaning towards Thin Lizzy, and Valkyrie tilting towards Pentagram...
It's a limited edition release, naturally, on either red or blue colored vinyl (luck of the draw). We have but a handful.
After six releases as Monument Of Urns, whose blackened doom has long been a favorite with aQ metalheads, the mysterious man behind Urns returns with a new project, Bird Of Omen, meticulously packaged like the Urns releases in gorgeous hand screened printed vellum oversized sleeves, which led us to believe that Bird Of Omen would be a sonic continuation of the black dirgery of Urns, when in fact, BoO is something else entirely.
In fact before we get into it, we'd say that ANYone into Barn Owl, Earth and that sort of Morricone influenced dronefolk desert twang, should definitely check out Bird Of Omen, cuz that's definitely what BoO is all about. Some of the blackness and doominess of Urns is definitely present, but it's much more subtle, more in the ambience, and the vibe, cuz the vibe is definitely brooding and haunting, whipping winds, howling wolves, all over a distant drone, a rumbling low end, and subtly spacey shimmer, over which a guitar unfurls twangy tendrils of minor key guitar, the sound slightly distorted and blown out, so the low notes go into the red, and add a bit of distortion, the background low end droning ominously, and drifting in and our like some mysterious black sonic swell. And in fact, the more we listen to this, the more we can imagine how easy it would be to transform this into a Monument Of Urns record, and which also made us realize that minus the distortion, Bird Of Omen is not that far removed from Urns, the same sort of dismal miserablism, the same sort of brooding trudge, a lumbering slo-mo slither, but where Urns doused that in distorted guitars, here, those sounds are spare and unadorned, maybe wrapped in a bit of echo and delay, and in some weird way, the sound manages to be just as doomy. And the closing track, which might be our favorite, sounds a bit like Barn Owl mixed with Skepticism. The twang dialed way back, letting the murky low end drive the song, a grim black creep, surrounded by field recordings, voices, the sound of rain, and a final coda that hints at the doom that lurks in the background as the sound swells into a squall of detuned buzz and swirling feedback, before finally fading out, truly haunting and harrowing. So great!
As mentioned above, gorgeous packaging, a printed vellum outer sleeve over a screen printed inner sleeve, the 3"cd-r affixed to the inside.
Birds of Avalon, the name makes us think of some sort of jazz fusion band, or maybe a RenFaire folk outfit, don't it? Nope, neither is the case. So, whatta we got here? Well friends, put pure and simple, we've got some real deal, real catchy CLASSIC rock done really really well, featuring the married (!) guitar duo of Cheetie Kumar and Paul Siler, both formerly of AC/DCish R&B rockers the Cherry Valence from Raleigh, North Carolina. This new band of theirs is equally retro and even more proggily awesome than their old one. It's '70s style, yeah, in the vein of Led Zep, Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy and Southern stuff like the Allman Brothers. Should therefore also appeal to fans of current acts like Drunk Horse and Queens Of The Stone Age -- and, with the twin guitar harmonies that shine strong throughout this 11-tracker, moments could even be mistaken for the dual guitar heroics of Slough Feg. Though, you wouldn't call 'em metal. Meanwhile, the singer dude's vocals are expressive and melodic, he's possessed of soaring higher register pipes that will remind you at times of Robert Plant -- or even a non-ironic, less over-the-top version of that guy from The Darkness.
Thus armed, their songs range from full on riff rockin' heaviness to spacey, keyboard adorned psych -- always with those glorious guitar harmonies, and a more than competent pop component. A track like "Superpower" is typical of their energetic, guitar-driven '70ish verve, while we also dig on the mellower, moodier numbers like "Turn Gold" and "Instant Coma" that remind us of a heavy lidded Sabbath, a la "Planet Caravan".
More pop-minded fans of The Fucking Champs (pals of these guys by the way, as the Champs, and Drunk Horse too, always used to play shows with the Cherry Valence) who love it when the usually-instrumental Champs do one of their all-too rare vocal numbers, ought to really dig Birds Of Avalon. Oh, and they bring it live -- we've seen 'em and if they come through on tour, wherever you are, check 'em out. Our prediction: this debut will someday be considered a classic of retro-classic rock!
We've got pretty much an AQ-fave shoo-in here, this strange Japanese band combining crusty, doooooomy heaviness with wyrd folk ritual, like Corrupted (with whom they have some membership connection) combined with Ghost. This 40 minute album, featuring three tracks (a two minute into and then two much longer pieces), starts by building up the ancient, Asian folky ambience, adorned with mysterious Scooby Doo meets Ol' Dirty Bastard kung fu mumble, all of it very much darkly psychedelic, before it gets HEAVY at about 5 minutes into the 20+ minute track two, Birushanah suddenly kicking out the lurching, kinetic riffs/rhythms along with much more wretched, raspy vokills in the Khanate vein. Tricky tribalistic percussion conspires with sinuous, strangled guitars, stopping and starting and coming down hard, on the bizarre bulk of this creepy and crushing album. One whose eerie eccentricities, rooted in traditional Japanese music, we figure should appeal to a lot of you who dug that Quest For Blood release we made Record Of The Week recently!
Stoner rock's best known drummer, Mr. Brant Bjork (he's the former sticksman of both Kyuss and Fu Manchu) presents his second solo disc. In spite of the "and the Operators" part of the band name, this really IS a solo record, as Brant sings, drums, plays
"Ain't nothing gonna stop the rock tonight...I got rock tonight...feeling good it's so right...I got the rock tonight...ain't nothing gonna stop the rock tonight."
It's all knowingly dumb, good fun. I wasn't expecting much from this record, and as a result was pleasantly surprised and captivated by the catchy, summertime stuff Brant came up with here. The album closes with some dentist office funk to mellow you out after all the rock tonight.
We talk about stuff being heavy all the time. Stuff being crushing. Pummeling. Sludgy. We describe slow heavy music with words like tarpit, and lumbering, and plodding. Deep. Cavernous. Subterranean. We try desperately to evoke the sort of abject brutality that this music makes us feel, lets us hear. But the truth is, while all of those words do describe Black Boned Angel, they barely manage to capture just how slow and low, heavy and completely skullcrushing this new record is. In huge letters, printed on the inside of the sleeve, are the words "Transcendence Can Only Be Reached At Maximum Volume" and truer words were never spoken.
Black Boned Angel is the darkside of Mr. Campbell Kneale, better know for his long running blissdrone outfit Birchville Cat Motel. A fascination with metal, and a desire to reach the depths of utter heaviness, led Campbell from the droning path of BCM and into a world of black terror and skull peeling ferocity, a harrowing path of ear shredding, heart stopping, brain melting brutality. And it seems he has acclimated quite well thank you.
Bliss And Void Inseparable is the third installment in Kneale's insidious plan to create a record so massive, that it collapses all of time and space, sucking the entire solar system into an alternate universe the size of a pea. And he's almost succeeded. We will perpetually live in fear knowing that the next BBA record could be the one that destroys the world as we know it. For now, we will luxuriate in the massive soul shearing metallic doooooom that is BAVI. The record begins with massive plods, each one the footfall of a beast so large we can barely comprehend its mass, instead, when it steps down, shockwaves roll out in all directions, like a sonic boom caused by a million downtuned guitars, leaving an fifty foot deep impression in the earth, the compacted ground littered with skeletons and corpses, the dirt wet with blood. Over this occasional black hole plod is laid a white hot streak of upper echelon feedback, an endless stretch of high end reverberation. It's like some sort of Moss / Whitehouse mashup. But even then, the guitars grow, feeding off the darkness, the feedback fades and the strange plodding coheres into some sort of prehistoric riff, a groove so slow and low that it's like a black glacier sliding in slow motion across the desiccated earth. But BBA's hellish pit is not with out hope, not without light, or melody, chanting vocals hover right below the surface, barely audible under a gauzy veil of guitar crumble and amp rooooaaaarrr. At about the halfway point, ghostly piano is introduced, offering up minor key, slightly atonal melodies, adding color to BBA's black world. But also adding a creepy ominous edge. Like the soundtrack to thee sort of horror movie that leaves half the audience frightened to death. This funeral plod continues on until very near the end, where the low end drops out, leaving nothing but a snarled tangled web of feedback, a shimmering lattice of high end, which eventually fades into nothingness.
It's a bit hard to absorb, best to just lay back and let this snarling black beast have its way with you. You might survive, halo tarnished and soul a bit blackened, and if for some reason you don't this angel will carry you lovingly down into the depths.
SO RECOMMENDED!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We've never seen Black Boned Angel Perform live, but judging from the photo on the insert of this disc, the band might owe SUNNO))) some royalties, as the image features one of the Black Boned Angels (yep, now there are three) in a monk like robe, wielding an axe, but also poised to strike a drum! But fuck it, robes were a part of rituals long before SUNNO))), and BBA have their own ritualistic thing going on. Especially considering someone is simultaneously playing guitar AND drums.
The trio of BBA, now featuring not only main man Campbell Kneale on guitar, drums and tapes, and James Kirk on guitar and "amprifier worshippo" (?), but also now Jules Desmond on bass guitar, offer up the first recorded evidence we've heard of the three piece BBA on this here super limited TOUR ONLY cd-r, we got all the copies the band had left after their Australian tour, so once these are gone, that's it.
One single track, 34 minutes, beginning with nine minutes of washed out staticky buzz. For a minute there (actually for 9 minutes) we thought this might be it. One long buzz. Which would be fine, we love that stuff, but right around the 10 minute mark, the band kick into a slow motion doomy plod, the guitars thick and viscous, the drums a simple occasional plod (dude is also playing guitar!), the trio lurch and lumber, a woozy, spaced out tar pit dirge, the guitars throbbing and crumbling, eventually, blurring into a nearly static whirl of low end sound, an industrial soundscape of muted clatter and textured buzz, smeared into a slowly decaying outro.
Again, this is CRAZY LIMITED, pretty sure it's OUT OF PRINT, and thus these are most likely, the last copies ever...
We always sort of assumed Black Boned Angel, the alter ego of Birchville Cat Motel's Campbell Kneale, was just that, an alter ego, a one man exploration of things dark and drone-y and heavy, the sort of stuff that was maybe TOO day for his day gig in BCM. But here, on the latest BBA, Kneale has teamed up with fellow Kiwi noisemaker (and longtime aQ customer) James Kirk for something just a little bit different.
One single hour long song, that begins with all manner of barely there ambience, distant resonant rumbles, keening high end, fluttering chimes, super super minimal, tons of space. Eventually, the guitar comes in, but not crashing or exploding, instead, it comes in strumming dolefully, unfurling deep sorrowful chords, that are allowed to ring out, building a spaced out minor key melody that drifts in a melancholy haze. The sound is really quite pretty, some sort of post rock, minimal slowcore, think Dirty 3, or Low, but even slower and more abstract. And this goes on for nearly 30 minutes, lulling the listener into a soporific daze. But c'mon, this is BLACK BONED ANGEL, at about the halfway mark, the hammer falls, and the duo unleash a torrent of digitally processed distortion that buzzes and rumbles, all draped over a throbbing industrial crunch, until what sound like real drums join the fray, splattering out a spider web of disjointed beats beneath the nearly static undulating layer of undulating grinding buzz. When the buzz does shift, the chord change feels massive, the melody locking in tight, before slipping back into a metal-Niblock blur.
Eventually, the song ramps down, the guitars fade away leaving high end traces of what came before, keening streaks in the sky, shimmering lowend shadows underpinning coruscating arcs of distorted skree, eventually smoothing out into a soft, warm whirring blur that drifts off until the end.
Gorgeously packaged in a black on black digipak. Another winner from Kneale and his (for now) partner Kirk!
Birchville Cat Motel may be dead, only to be replaced by the quite similar sounding, but much more massive and electronic flecked Our Love Will Destroy The World. But thankfully, Black Boned Angel, the other long running musical project of Campbell Kneale, lives on, with not one, but TWO new releases this list. The other, a second collaboration with like-minded musical heavies Nadja, and this, the latest full length after last year's devastating The Endless Coming Into Life.
Verdun, named for the legendary battle presumably, is almost like an Endless Coming part two, dialing back the sheer heaviness and exploring space and dynamics, but in the process, somehow sounding so much heavier. Three long songs, all tracked as a single 52 minute epic, takes ages to get going, which is just fine, in doom as in life, it's not about the destination it's about the journey, and BBA's journey is a death march through burning fields and soot filled skies, but that's a few minutes away. A slow slow slow build, all barely there ambience, before some massive drums kick in, and then it's JUST drums, pounding away, in a spaced out vacuum, spare but punishing, and then THE RIFF, a massive one, the sort of riff, that once written, becomes a part of the writer, and soon after the listener. Sleep has a few, Sabbath has lots, now BBA has one, a slow, slithery crawl, a handful of notes spread way out into a dark descending minor key melody, the drums, just there to drive it home, as this is the sort of riff that needs nothing else, the sort of riff any metalhead could listen to looped over and over and over forever. About 12 minutes in, the tone changes, some high end shimmer sneaks in, sheets of feedback, the riff is pulled apart, various notes left to ring out, the drums a little more active, before everything drops out completely, leaving just a distant keening riff, left to moan and groan, to ring out, mournful and so so doomy, at about the half hour mark, the main riff returns, but this time it's been transformed into something strangely melodic, almost like power metal played at 16rpm, epic, but still so slooooooow, building ever building, eventually crumbling into a swirling bit of noise and crumbled buzz, and a gorgeous classical chorus, a choir of voices just below the churning distorted surface, totally epic and weirdly haunting, the sounds of warfare, guns and planes and explosions, surfacing from below the sprawling low end rumble, eventually taking over completely, the last few minutes a harrowing collage of death and destruction, of bombs and the cries of the dying.
Definitely a different beast than many of the older BBA records, which blended the kitchen sink drones of Birchville Cat Motel with a sort of abstract black doom element, Verdun is more of a proper metal record, although to be sure 'proper metal record' is really relative, since as metal as this is, it's also just as much an experimental doomdronedirge record, regardless, it is maybe the most fully realized Black Boned Angel record yet, not sure if it's THAT RIFF, or because Kneale just keeps getting better and better, or because it's a concept record, so it's essentially a suite of interconnected songs. It's actually probably a little of all three, although as you might have guessed, we're definitely leaning toward THAT RIFF.
Another matchup that had to happen eventually, it was only a matter of time. Campbell Kneale's Black Boned Angel, and Aidan Baker's Nadja. Two modern groups redefining doom metal. Filtering doom through their own dronedirge aesthetics, each with a distinctly unique take on doom, BBA's more of a glacial noise drenched dirge, Nadja's more of a blissed out metalgaze.
The two together though churn out what can only be described as epic grandiose doom pop. Or something like that. Soaring vocals, over thick churning crumbling distortion. It almost sounds like a sludge metal Queen, or a bit like recent Record Of The Week honorees Torche, or even Harvey Milk at their most dramatic and over the top.
The main riff is a slowed down classic rocker, turned sludgey and lugubrious but not losing any of its might or majesty. Guitars screech and soar and grind all around it, what sounds like a piano plinks along with the vocals, a sunshiney melody, but it's the vocals, that turn this into glorious sludgepop, a minor key lament, delivered in a plaintive wail, way down in the mix as well, but loud enough to totally carry the song, that main melody lodged in your head, forever!
Not really sure what else to say. If the math of Nadja + Black Boned Angel = Harvey Milk + Torche + Queen x loads of blown out distortion and sun baked buzz doesn't add up for you, you just might be reading the wrong list�
This is an ep teaser for the forthcoming full length from the same team on 20 Buck Spin, but fear not, this song, all 21+ minutes of it, is available only on this disc!!
Do you like riffs? Do you like heavy as fuck sludged out goodness that at times reaches cosmic proportions? Do you like the band Karp? If you answered yes to any of these, then the chances are good you will do real well with the latest sonic missive from the two headed metal machine known as Black Cobra, their first for Southern Lord. Chronomega is so chock full of subharmonic super low tuned guitars, pummeling war drums, and mean ass vocals that you probably won't even notice (or care) that there is no bass. This band is INSANELY heavy, and they truly understand the possibilities that a two man lineup can shoot for and achieve if they've got the right pedigree. Considering that these dudes have served time in Cavity and 16, you can bet your sweet ass they have that pedigree. The band manages to be both loose and precise, swinging and propulsive, and one could easily imagine Black Cobra at home somewhere in the center of the earth, or maybe in a giant cave. Their sound is brutal but also quite melodic at times, and it's pretty clear that these two know what the fuck they're doing. The results are strangely hypnotic, it's as if there is an ever present hum from the vibrations of the guitar strings as the drums carry things forward into the center of a volcano.
Obviously for fans of the aforementioned Karp (as well as Big Business), the Melvins, and maybe even the more thuggish elements of bands like Mastodon and Baroness. Get this now!
