Zex isn't the only exciting release in the 'Z' section this week! We've also got the new album from longtime aQ faves, Zebulon Pike, instrumental post-metallers extraordinare from St. Paul, Minnesota. Zebulon Pike seem to be one of those bands that we love and think should be bigger than they are, but never seem to hear about except via our own reviews (another example: Combat Astronomy). It's been four years since this quartet's previous opus, Space Is The Corpse Of Time. That one we made a Record Of The Week (so they SHOULD have gotten huge, right?!?) and even in that review we were apologizing for having pretty much exhausted all our superlatives in our previous hyperbolic raves about the band's other albums. So once again we have to fall back on the old standby - if you are a Zebulon Pike fan, you already KNOW you want this; if you aren't, well what part of super heavy epic progressive spacey post rock instrumental metal do you not like??? These guys are the masters!
This new disc features four new, and also of course quite long, tracks. Well, actually the last one, billed as an epilogue, is actually short, a mere two and a half minute ripper, but the others make up for it length-wise, especially the penultimate one, "A Fragile Portal", 18+ minutes long, which is also a ripper (in parts), and furthermore gets extra-fancy with the addition of two saxophones and a contrabass, sparingly deployed - but that arty chamber rock element doesn't stop it from being ultra-lumberingly-heavy, don't you worry, and neither does the eerie lullaby music box chiming part about six minutes in.
As always, anybody with any ZP experience knows to expect perfectly executed, exquisitely crafted, compositions combining minimalist repetition, sheer thundering riffage, complex shifting song structures, super tight instrumental interplay, exciting dynamics, and massive amounts of majestic feeling. Once again, Zebulon Pike compare favorably with a bunch of other big aQ faves... "The White Leopardess" sounds like Stinking Lizaveta on steroids; while opener "Nostalgia (For The Unreal)" immediately reminds us of The Fucking Champs when ZP's dual guitar harmonies arrive, but soon it's like The Champs playing atonal 20th Century classical. Mammatus, Pelican, Pharoah Overlord, Yob, Broughton's Rules and a bunch of others could be namechecked too, though really at this point ZP should be a band we could namecheck alone.
Grab this, strap your instru-metal heaviosity crash helmet on, crank it up, and get ready do some heavy duty loop-de-loops!
MPEG Stream: "The White Leopardess" [/audio/zebulonpikethewhite.m3u]
MPEG Stream: "A Fragile Portal" [/audio/zebulonpikeafragile.m3u] ----* ----* Also Relatively New In Stock, But Not Yet Reviewed : ----* A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS "Transfixiation" (Dead Oceans) cd/lp 13.98/17.98
ABDU ALI "Best Of Abdu Ali" (Deathbomb Arc) cassette 6.98
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE AND THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O. "High On Heaven: Live In New Haven" (Safety Meeting) 3lp 38.00
AKATHARSIA "s/t" (Econo Jam) lp 19.98
AKATOMBO "Sometime, Never" (Hand-Held) cd 14.98
ALASTOR / TUNDRA "The Forbidden Fruit Of Purity" (Slava Satan / Total Human Collapse Movement) cd 14.98
AMBARCHI, OREN "Live Knots" (Pan) cd 17.98
ANTWON "Heavy Hearted In The Function" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
ART BLAKEY & THE JAZZ MESSENGERS "Mosaic" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
ASS "Live In New Jersey" (self-released) cassette 6.98
ATKINSON, FELICIA "A Readymade Ceremony" (Shelter Press) lp 23.00
AXIS: SOVA "Early Surf" (God?) lp 17.98
BAR STOOL WALKER (BRUCE ANDERSON) "Oh Hey Broadway" (no label) cd 7.98
BARROW WIGHT "Unfinished Tales" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98
BELLE & SEBASTIAN "Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance" (Matador) cd/2lp 14.98/31.00
BIRTH CONTROL "Operation" (Zyx) lp 21.00
BLACK SPIRITUALS "Live At Disjecta: High Vibration Resonance Vol. 1" (Tapeworm) cassette 8.98
BLACKSHAW, JAMES "Apologia" (Bladud Flies!) lp 23.00
BLACKWOLFGOAT "Drone Maintenance" (Small Stone) cd 13.98
BLAKULLA "s/t" (Mellotron) lp 29.00
BLANCO, MYKKI "Gay Dog Food" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
BOOTLEGS "s/t" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
BOOTLEGS "W.C. Monster" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
BROADCAST "Haha Sound" (Warp) lp 27.00
BROADCAST "Tender Buttons" (Warp) lp 25.00
BROADCAST & THE FOCUS GROUP "Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age" (Warp) lp 25.00
BROTHERS OF THE SONIC CLOTH "s/t" (Neurot Recordings) cd 14.98
BROTZMANN, PETER / JIM O'ROURKE / KEIJI HAINO "Two City Blues" (Trost) lp 24.00
BROWNOUT "Brownout Presents: Brown Sabbath" (Ubiquity) cd 15.98
BUTLER, WILL "Policy" (Merge) lp 17.98
CARAGNANO, ANNA / DONATO DOZZY "Sintetizzatrice" (Spectrum Spools) lp 22.00
CARIBOU VIBRATION ENSEMBLE "CVE Live 2011" (self-released) lp 36.00
CARTER, DEAN "Call Of The Wild" (Big Beat) lp 23.00
CHAIN, PAUL "Live Tape 2" (Minotauro) cassette 9.98
CHAIN, PAUL "Live Tape 3" (Minotauro) cassette 9.98
CHAIN, PAUL "Unreleased Vol. 2" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
CHAIN, PAUL "Whited Sepulchres" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
CHAIN, PAUL VIOLET THEATRE "Opera 4th" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
CHERRY, DON "Complete Communion" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
CLENT, DJ "Last Bus To Lake Park" (Duck N' Cover) 2lp 24.00
CLOAK "Succumb" (Transylvanian Tapes) cassette 4.98
CODE III "Planet Of Man" (Wah Wah Records) lp 35.00
COLE LODGE "RNB" (Death Records) cassette 4.98
COLLINS, LYN "Think (About It)" (Get On Down) lp+7" 35.00
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS "Repetition Reinforcement" (Diagonal) 12" 17.98
COSMIC DEALER "Crystallization" (Pseudonym) 2lp 38.00
CRAVING ANGEL "Dark Horse" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
CRYPT VAPOR "Erotik Maniac" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98
DAMON & NAOMI "Fortune" (20/20/20) lp 15.98
DECEMBERISTS, THE "What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World" (Capitol Records) cd/2lp 14.98/26.00
DECERF, JEAN-PIERRE "Space Oddities 1975-1979" (Born Bad) lp 21.00
DEFYANCE "Amaranthine" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
DEFYANCE "Time Lost" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
DEFYANCE "Voices Within" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
DENGUE FEVER "The Deepest Lake" (Tuk Tuk) cd/lp 15.98/15.98
DESTRUCTION UNIT "Live In San Francisco" (Castle Face) cd/lp 13.98/15.98
DEVIL CHILDE "s/t" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
DINOSAUR JR "Bug: Live At The 9:30 Club" (Outer Battery) lp 21.00
DISSOLVE "s/t" (Painter Man) 12"/cassette 11.98/4.98
DRAKE, NICK "Family Tree" (Sunbeam) 2lp 34.00
DUAL ACTION "Back In" (Bed Of Nails) 12" 17.98
DURTHANG "Passage Beyond The Cold Vales Of Desolation" (War Against Yourself) cd 14.98
EARTH JERKS "File #06" (Computer Tapes) cd-r 4.98
ELFMILK "Relocation" (Independent Recordings) lp 13.98
ENGLISH, LAWRENCE "Viento" (Taiga) lp 26.00
EX-CULT "Cigarette Machine" (Castle Face) lp 15.98
FATHER JOHN MISTY "I Love You, Honeybear" (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
FATHER YOD & THE SPIRIT OF '76 "Kohoutek" (Drag City) lp 22.00
FEEDTIME "Flatiron" (Sub Pop) 7" 5.98
FF "Ffeeling" (300 Mics) lp/lp+blotter paper 17.98/24.00
FUNHOUSE "The Way Things Will Be" (Minotauro) cd 14.98
FURY, THE "Sex" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
GORGUTS "...And Then Comes Lividity Vol 1" (War On Music) lp 21.00
GORGUTS "...And Then Comes Lividity Vol 2" (War On Music) lp 23.00
GORGUTS "...And Then Comes Lividity Vol 3" (War On Music) lp+7" 28.00
GREEN, GRANT "Street Of Dreams" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
GRIM FUNERAL "Abdication Under Funeral Dirge" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
GUNN, STEVE & THE BLACK TWIG PICKERS "Seasonal Hire" (Thrill Jockey) lp 19.98
GURU GURU "UFO" (Zyx) lp 21.00
HENRY BLACKER "Hungry Dogs Will Eat Dirty Puddings" (Riot Season) lp 16.98
HILL, ANDREW "Black Fire" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
HOLDERLIN "Holderlins Traum" (Zyx) lp 21.00
HORNWOOD FELL "s/t" (Avantgarde Music / Burma Music) cd 14.98
HOUND "Out Of Time" (SRA) lp 17.98
HUTCHERSON, BOBBY "Total Eclipse" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
IMPERIOUS RITUAL "Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambiguity" (Profound Lore) 2lp 34.00
IRON MAIDEN "Piece Of Mind" (Sanctuary) lp 25.00
IRON MAIDEN "Powerslave" (Sanctuary) lp 25.00
JANVS "Nigredo" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
KALEVALA "People No Names" (Svart) lp 26.00
KEMO KEMOSS "Rejoice, No Survivors" (no label) cd 4.98
KID MILLIONS & JIM SAUTER "Fountain" (Family Vineyard) lp 15.98
KRITZLER, JIMI "Noise In My Head: Voices From The Ugly Australian Underground" (HoZac) book 49.99
LE STELLE DI MARIO SCHIFANO "s/t" (BDS) lp 17.98
LI XI "Meet Me Somewhere" (Sundowning) lp 18.98
LIVING EYES, THE "Living Large" (Agitated Records) lp 17.98
LOTUS THIEF "RERVM" (Svart) 2lp 34.00
LOW WORMWOOD "Lanzhou Lanzhou" (Maybe Mars) cd 12.98
M.D.C. "s/t" (Beer City) lp 15.98
MAGMA "Felicite Thosz" (Jazz Village) lp 22.00
MAIOVVI, ANTONI "Avrokosm" (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
MENACE RUINE "Venus Armata" (Sige) 2lp 26.00
MINGUS, CHARLES "Mingus Plays Piano: Spontaneous Compositions And Improvisations" (Supeior Viaduct) lp 23.00
MINGUS, CHARLES "The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady" (Superior Viaduct) lp 23.00
MISANTROPUS "s/t (violet)" (self-released) lp 21.00
MONK, THELONIOUS "Genius Of Modern Music Volume 1" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
MONK, THELONIOUS "Genius Of Modern Music Volume 2" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
NAHAR "The Strange Inconvenience" (Avantgarde Music / Sad Sun Music) cd 14.98
NAME, JACK "Weird Moons" (Castle Face) cd/lp 13.98/15.98
NKVD "Hakmarrja" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
NOCTURNAL POISONING "Doomgrass" (The End) cd 12.98
NUDITY "Astronomicon" (Iron Lung) lp 16.98
O'DWYER, AINE "Music For Church Cleaners Vol. 1 And II" (MIE) 2lp 30.00
OF MONTREAL "Aureate Gloom" (Polyvinyl) lp 17.98
OFDRYKKJA "A Life Worth Losing" (Avantgarde Music / War Against Yourself) cd 14.98
OGRE "Dawn Of The Proto-Man" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
OGRE "Seven Hells" (Minotauro) cd + dvd 17.98
OIL THIEF "Obsolencence & Monality" (Chondritic Sound) 2 x cassette 15.98
OLDER SUN "Bad Man b/w What You Need" (Valley King) 7" 9.98
ORB "Womb" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98
ORCUTT, BILL "Gerty Loves Pussy" (Palilalia) lp 16.98
PANDA BEAR "Meets The Grim Reaper" (Domino) cd 13.98
PEOPLE'S TEMPLE CHOIR "He's Able" (no label) cassette 6.98
PERFECT PUSSY "I Have Lost All Desire For Feeling" (Captured Tracks) 12" 16.98
PINES "The Field Journal" (Time Released Sound) 3" cd-r + booklet 30.00
POP GROUP, THE "Cabinet Of Curiosities" (Freaks R Us) lp 22.00
POP GROUP, THE "Citizen Zombie" (Freaks R Us) lp 31.00
POP, IGGY "American Caesar" (Plain Recordings) 2lp 31.00
POPULARE MECHANIK "Kollektion 03" (Bureau) cd/lp 19.98/27.00
PUBLIC ENEMY "Fear Of A Black Planet" (Def Jam) lp 34.00
PURE GROUND "Europa" (Chondritic Sound) cassette 8.98
PUSHUPS "Beast Jammz 2008" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
PYONGYANG HARDCORE RESISTANCE "II" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
PYRAMIDS "A Northern Meadow" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
RILEY, TERRY & ROBERTO CACCIAPAGLIA ENSEMBLE "In C: Performed Live At Aterforum, July 9, 1988" (Mirumir) 2lp 37.00
RODMAN-MELCHIOR, LETHA "Shimmering Ghost" (Siltbreeze) lp 15.98
ROLLINS, SONNY "Newk's Time" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
SANNITI, ALESSIO "s/t" (self-released) lp 21.00
SANULLIM "The Psychedelic Years 1977-1979" (Dounia) lp 25.00
SETH "s/t" (Minotauro) 2cd 17.98
SHORTER, WAYNE "Adam's Apple" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
SIGNOR BEN EDICK THE MOOR "El Negro" (Deathbomb Arc) cd 8.98
SIGUR ROS "Agaetis Byrjun" (XL) 2lp 27.00
SILVERFISH "Fat Axl" (Southern) lp 16.98
SIVYJ YAR "From The Dead Villages' Darkness" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SLEAFORD MODS "Chubbed Up" (Ipecac) cd 15.98
SMILES "s/t" (Death Records) cassette 4.98
SONMI451 "The Limbic System [Deluxe]" (Time Released Sound) cd 50.00
SONMI451 "The Limbic System [Regular]" (Time Released Sound) cd 14.98
SONNY AND THE SUNSETS "Talent Night" (Polyvinyl) lp 15.98
SORDIDE "La France A Peur" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SPEAKING CANARIES, THEE "Platter Base Must Be Constructed Of Moon-Rock" (Chunklet) lp 16.98
SPECTRE "Ruff Kutz" (Pan) 2lp 30.00
STONE ANGEL "s/t" (Acme) lp 24.00
STONEY & THE JAGGED EDGE "Chasing Rainbows" (Big Beat) lp 23.00
SUMAC "The Deal" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES "Calculations Of The Ancient" (Minotauri) cd 17.98
SVARTRIT "I" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SVARTRIT "II" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SVARTRIT "III" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SWALLOWED "Lunarterial" (Dark Descent) cd 14.98
SWAMI JOHN REIS & THE BLIND SHAKE "Modern Surf Classics" (Swami) cd/lp 13.98/14.98
SWAY "s/t" cd 17.98
SWEET TORMENT "Hell / Ancient Pantheon" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98
SWERVEDRIVER "I Wasn't Born To Lose You" (Cobraside) cd 12.98
SYNT.TOFS "Radio Centraal 2008" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
TACTICS "The Re-Mastered Plan" (Minotauro) 2cd + dvd 32.00
TAYLOR, CECIL "Unit Structures" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
THE AVENGERS VI "Real Cool Hits" (Dionysus) lp 15.98
THEESATISFACTION "Earthee" (Sub Pop) lp 17.98
THOABATH "A String Detached" (self-released) cassette 3.98
TIARAS "s/t" (Mt. St. Mtn.) lp 15.98
TOMORROWILLBEWORSE "Down The Road Of Nothing" (Avantgarde Music / Bylec-Tum Productions) cd 14.98
TOO SHORT "Born To Mack" (Plain) lp 25.00
TORCHE "Restarter" (Relapse) cd/lp 14.98/23.00
TRAFFIC SOUND "A Bailar A Go Go" (Lion Productions / Repsychled) cd 15.98
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN "Veil The World" (Cold Spring) cd 15.98
TRITON WARRIOR "Satan's Train b/w Sealed In A Grave" (Supreme Echo) 7" 11.98
TRUE NEUTRAL CREW "#Monsanto" (Deathbomb Arc) cassette 6.98
TRUE NEUTRAL CREW "#Poppunk" (Deathbomb Arc) cassette 6.98
UNCLE SAM "Heaven Or Hollywood" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
UNION TRADE, THE "A Place Of Long Years" (Tricycle) cd/lp 9.98/19.98
V/A "Dance Mania: Ghetto Madness" (Strut) 2lp 29.00
V/A "Music of Tanzania" (Sublime Frequencies) 2lp 29.00
V/A "Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous" (Hammerheart) 2lp 26.00
V/A "Off The Beaten Tracks" (Grown Kids Radio) lp 19.98
V/A "Punk 45: Extermination Nights In The Sixth City" (Soul Jazz) 2lp 29.00
V/A "Spiritual Jazz 6: Vocals" (Jazzman) 2lp 28.00
V/A "Ultra High Frequencies: The Chicago Party" (Numero) 2lp 23.00
VANDROOGENBROECK, JOEL "Biomechanoid" (Aguirre) lp 28.00
VATICAN SHADOW "Death & Unity With God" (Modern Love) 2lp 26.00
VIET CONG "Viet Cong" (Jagjaguwar) cd 13.98
VOIVOD "Negatron + Phobos" (Hypnotic) 2lp 27.00
WAND "Golem" (In The Red) cd/lp 13.98/15.98
WEEPING RAT "Tar" (Handmade Birds) cd 10.98
WHIRR "Sway" (Graveface) cd/lp 14.98/16.98
WINTERFRONT "Northwinds" (Werewolf Promotion / Lower Silesian Stronghold) cd 14.98
XYZ "s/t" (Radical Elite) lp 16.98
ZERO DOWN "No Limit To Evil" (Minotauro) cd 12.98
All kinds of awesomeness here on this new Zebulon Pike album, their fourth, and the Minnesota instrumental math metal stoner doom post-rock space-rock (whew!) combo's first full-length in like three years. It's also their first ever to be released on (double lp gatefold) VINYL as well as compact disc. If you're already a big ZP fan like us, and we know lots of AQ customers are, then you're automatically super stoked at this news and we should just get outta the way and let you "add to cart" without further ado. But, we realize that (for some strange reason) not everybody in the whole world knows who ZP is or just why they're so great. So unfair (for them) and unfortunate (for all their potential fans), 'cause as we've said before, they should be HUGE... at least signed to Hydra Head (instead of their own label) and touring with bands like Baroness, hyped by all the cool magazines and blogs and whatnot. Not sure why that hasn't really happened yet, but if we have anything to say about it, someday it will.
Soooo... this album, being to our ears arguably their best yet, would be a great one to get into for the first time, for those who haven't yet been exposed to that special "Zebulon Pike radiation" we've referred to in the past. Not sure we can out-do any of our previous reviews in the hyperbole dep't., we've raved about 'em before for sure, and it will be hard for us to come up with anything better to say here, of course we'll pull out the old standby that they're kinda like Pelican meets The Fucking Champs, combining lumbering sub-bass heaviosity, surging melodicism, and stunning dual guitar harmonies - definitely a band playing music for music's sake ("Hats Off To Music" as the Champs would say, paraphrasing Led Zep's feelings about Roy Harper).
With spiralling leads and chugging riffage, ZP is definitely into metal, but also 20th century classical (Steve Reich?), and prog, that's more from whence their extended song structures arise - the five tracks here are mostly long, all the double digits except one. Crucial for an instrumental band, they not only come up with good riffs, but also concentrate on interesting, extreme sonic textures, getting into avant garde areas at times. Like, what's up with the crazy chorus of "wheee wheee wheee" sounds (somehow produced by the guitars, we assume) cacophonously closing track one, "Spectrum Threshold"? We don't know, but we like it. The drummer gets into the avant-action too, there's stretches of percussive soundscapes, dense drum storms and spacious skitter. You definitely don't miss there being a vocalist, this definitely keeps your attention, as long as the songs are, with twists and turns, first hypnotizing with crushing riff repetition, then plunging into a droning abstract celestial otherworld or a quiet jazzy pretty passage, like the tinkling music box midsection dropped into "Echoic Worlds" that sets you up for the heavy angular riffage set to surge forth immediately afterwards. And this album never bogs down, there's always a sense of strong, propulsive forward motion, even with the ambient detours.
Compared to earlier albums by these guys, we sense even more emphasis here on the '90s post rock part of the ZP equation. Lots of that loud/soft stuff a la Slint and Mogwai, but way more metal... some other bands that come to mind while listening to this, from moment to moment, include Don Caballero, Yob, Iceburn (circa Hephaestus, an underrated classic we'd love review someday, if it ever comes back into print!), Megaton Leviathan, forgotten AQ faves Fuehler, early Pharaoh Overlord, Isis, Boris, Conifer, Sardonis, and more... but they sound like ZP and only ZP at the end of the day.
One sign of a good album is that it immediately compels repeated plays from the sometimes jaded, overwhelmed listeners here at AQ, this one sure did and that's why we made it Record Of The Week. Space Is The Corpse Of Time is pushing our buttons for what we like in "this sort of thing" while also springing plenty of surprises.
So if you like your post rock to be heavy and sludgey, and you like your sludgey heavy rock to be instrumental, and you like your sludgey heavy instrumental post rock to be both super melodic and sonically adventurous, almost scientifically advanced, well heck then you sound like our sort of customer and we highly recommend this Zebulon Pike album to you! It's an epic feast of might and majesty and MUSIC.
FYI, if you get the vinyl, it comes with an mp3 download card. Obviously if you get the cd, you don't need that.
Swans. Godflesh. Big Black. Melvins. Eyehategod. Unsane. Zeni Geva. We're concerned here with the latter, who maybe aren't as well known as the first half dozen bands mentioned, but sure as heck belong in that illustrious company... and sound VERY much like some unholy, heavier-than-thou hybrid of all of 'em!! It's been a long time since we've had a new Zeni Geva album to write about... and no this isn't actually a new album. But we're still pretty excited. Every once in a while, we have the opportunity to list and review an old favorite. Something that's been out of print for longer even than we've been doing the Aquarius website and New Arrivals emails, that we'd never had the chance to stock and recommend before, that finally at long last gets a well-deserved reissue and is cause for much celebration 'round here. For instance, to name a couple of recent examples, Harvey Milk's My Love Is Higher Than Your Assessment Of What My Love Could Be. And Skullflower's IIIrd Gatekeeper. You'll note the examples we just cited are all on the "heavy" side... well that's 'cause what we're about to recommend here also pretty darn heavy. To say the least.
You may already be familiar with Japan's Zeni Geva, as they've been around for years and years. This cult "progressive hardcore" trio is the brainchild of guitarist Kazuyuki Kishino Null, also well-known for his "nullsonic" solo recordings. Definitely influenced by early Swans, KK Null started up the doomy and noisy ZG in about 1987. Previously he'd done time in Tokyo underground industrial noise-terrorists Absolut Null Punkt, and with prog act YBO2, which also featured drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, who of course later went on to lead the incredible Magmoid duo Ruins. Meanwhile, post-YBO2, Null formed the far more metallic* Zeni Geva. Null did draft Yoshida in to play drums on some early ZG material (wouldn't you?), and you'll here him here on about half of this disc's tracks, contributing his distinctive vocals as well to a couple songs. Ikuro Taketani (ex-Hanatarashi) plays drums on the other half. The lineup also includes Tabata Mitsuru (ex-Boredoms and Leningrad Blues Machine) on guitar. That's right, there's no bassist in Zeni Geva which is pretty incredible considering how hellishly heavy they are! And it's clear that ZG are something of a underground Japanese rock supergroup.
MMM was ZG's first cd release, coming out originally in 1990 on the UK's now long-gone Pathological label. It's a lumbering juggernaut fully blessed and bloated with everything we LOVE about Zeni Geva that would also be heard on later, Albini-produced releases like Total Castration and Desire For Agony: Utter headbanging, slo-mo, dirt-plowing destruction. Molasses thick riffs dripping from electric axes. Frenzied, technical bashing. Mathy post rock song structures. High-end guitar solo skree. Mean misanthropic attitude. Pounding repetition. Pounding repetition. Pounding repetition.... adorned with the aforementioned guitar soloing, providing a crashing, crushing soundscape to underscore the throaty proclamations of "Sweetheart!" or "War Pig!" or "Blackout!" from gruff vocalist/guitarist Null -- the lyrics to these tracks being little more than the song title shouted over and over with fervent anguish. Glorious stuff, massive and mesmeric.
From the first track, the 16 minute harrowing dirge-stomp "Slam King" that ends terrifyingly with waves of unaccompanied, effected vocals, to the last, the rhythmic and witchy "On Suicide", featuring lyrics borrowed from Bertold Brecht, this is scary, monolithic, artistic heaviness of the highest order.
Let's give a big thanks to Cold Spring for making this classic available once again (as part of a wave of Japanese releases including a new disc from noise legends CCCC). Though we don't see why Cold Spring felt the need to replace the original, much more colorful, and in our opinion, superior artwork, we are happy to note that they did make one major improvement. While the eight songs on the original disc were inexplicably presented as one loooong track with no separate-song indexing (annoying!) they're thankfully corrected that. Now you can skip right to "Guystick Bodie", or put "Skullfuck" on repeat. And in addition to the eight original tracks, they've added three previously unreleased bonus cuts as well! Devastating live versions of album cuts "War Pig" (a Zeni Geva song, not Sabbath's "War Pigs" plural) and "Skullfuck", along with "Dead Car, Sun Crash" (an early ZG number not included on the album proper), recorded in Tokyo circa 1988-89. Whee! Like we said, we're so stoked to get to list/review/recommend this!
*Though not metallic enough to be accepted by the online metal authority Encyclopedia Metallum it must be noted...
Two weeks ago, we highlighted the reissue of Zeni Geva's Maximum Money Monster, which was the first cd from this ultra-heavy Japanese noise-rock-prog behemoth. In the process of reviewing Maximum Money Monster, we realized we'd never written up anything about this band's killer 1991 album Total Castration, the Albini-produced follow-up to MMM. It's our favorite ZG album, one that we always try to stock, it just predates the AQ list so it never got its due herein. It hasn't been reissued or anything, but we checked with our supplier and they said they still had about 150 copies of the original pressing still sitting and gathering dust in their warehouse, even though the Public Bath label is long defunct. Quite possibly a lot of the folks who snapped up the MMM reissue after reading about it last list don't actually also have this one either, so we figure it's our civic duty to highlight this old fave as well, while we can still get our hands on 'em!
Basically everything we said in the review of MMM applies to Total Castration as well, starting with the litany of crucial bands that ZG must be mentioned alongside: Swans. Godflesh. Big Black. Melvins. Eyehategod. Unsane... i.e. HEAVY (but not necessarily metal) and scary sounds. What else would you expect from an album with a title like Total Castration?! That's also the name of one of the songs, as are these: "Shoot Me With Your Blood", "Bloodsex", "I Hate You", and "Bigman Death". Cheery stuff, eh? Lyrics pretty much consist of these happy concepts being throatily chanted over and over. Oh and there's also "Godflesh", maybe a nod to sonic contemporaries Justin Broadrick and crew.
On each of these thunderous songs, the trio of trio of Null (guitar/vo), Tabata (guitar), and Eito (drums/metals) crash, smash, and bash, Null's guttural, nihilistic exclamations backed up by the iron fist of Zeni Geva's heavier than thou noise rockin'. The guitars chug and squall, the drums hammer down relentlessly. Screams and shrieks wail from the pounding shitstorm of metallic distortion that Zeni Geva have crafted into a throbbing, hypnotic riff-fest -- damn good riffs, with stretches of relatively restrained but still scary atmosphere now and then to heighten the impact when they eventually (as they always do) come down heavy. Meanwhile the high end guitar wielded by Tabata often unfurls intricate, catchy licks and squiggly solos over the top of all this mayhem, to make these songs even more brain-invading and body-shaking. And Steve Albini's production is killer, natch. (He would later play guitar with these guys on a live album, All Right, You Little Bastards!, that's now next to impossible to find.)
Super, super recommended to anyone into heaviness, metal or otherwise. As crucial as the Melvins' Bullhead, Neurosis' Enemy Of The Sun, Skullflower's IIIrd Gatekeeper, Ruins' Stonehenge, Isis's Oceanic, Corrupted's Paso Inferior, Fudge Tunnel's Hate Songs In E Minor, Boris's Amplifier Worship... In other words, essential. If you missed this back in the early '90s, grab it. (By the way, Allan says the time he saw 'em on their US tour for this album was perhaps the best show he's ever been to.)
Reissue of the reissue. Previously an actual black box, with 2 cds, now everything fitted onto one disc. When these two Naked City records originally came out, it was before aQuarius had started doing our "list". But then Tzadik reissued 'em in The Black Box back in 1996, and we had a chance to review them... but all we said was: "Stars John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Fred Frith, Joey Baron & Yamantaka Eye. For their re-issue, Zorn has packaged these two albums in a black box, presenting all of the original, controversial artwork in the liner notes. Zorn gives a bit of history behind the graphics for Naked City releases. The albums, one fast and furious, the other slow and brutal, are without equal. They demonstrate the most aggressive sides of these incredible musicians."
True that, but there's more that could be said! Perhaps we figured, at the time, that everyone must already know all about Zorn and Naked City and there was no point in any extensive description. But, nowadays, there's gotta be people reading this who haven't yet experienced the mindboggling, genre-jumping musical mastery of Naked City, especially as intensely expressed on Torture Garden, originally released as a 45rpm 12" on the Shimmy Disc label in 1989, and if you're one of those folks, you're in for a treat - as long as you dig the idea of a "jazz" band playing almost every style of music imaginable, from lounge to country to surf to grindcore, in jarringly short, sharp stop on dime bursts, with Eye from the Boredoms vocalizing over top like a gibbering demon, screaming along with Zorn's saxophone, performing songs with titles like "Thrash Jazz Assassin", "Speedball", "Jazz Snob Eat Shit", "New Jersey Scum Swamp", and "S&M Sniper"! It's like the cartoon music of Carl Stalling meets Napalm Death meets, well just about everything else in the realm of music. Utterly insane and influential (though it must be said, Napalm Death was a HUGE influence on this). It's how we first heard about the Boredoms, too!
Blew us all away the first time we heard it. 12, 17, 28, 43 second songs that had more and better riffs in 'em than some ten minute Metallica epics. Well maybe that's exaggerating. But you get the idea. Amazing. And definitely Naked City's most "metal", grindcore-iest moment. Utter mayhem, with Zorn and Co. cramming a crazy number of changes into each track. Videos of them performing reveal a reliance on sheet music, but we don't blame 'em. That almost makes it more insane.
On this disc, the 42 tracks of Torture Garden (the longest of which clocks in at 1'19", but most don't come anywhere near the minute-mark) are followed by the single, 31'38" track that comprised the entirety of the 1992 Naked City album Leng Tch'e, long out of print, the yin to Torture Garden's yang for sure. Leng Tch'e is like the Naked City version of Earth or the Melvins, one long sludge trudge, super heavy and doomic and nightmarish. Again, Eye's vocals vie with Zorn's saxophone in emulating the screams of the damned.
If we had to choose our favorite Zorn album from amid his VAST discography (The Big Gundown? Spy Vs. Spy? Spillane? Bar Kokhba? Absinthe? Execution Ground?) Torture Garden would get a lot of our votes... it's certainly one of the most "extreme", though an argument could be made for Leng Tch'e too. No wonder they both belong together here (which also has something to do with the original, controversial cover art, necessitating the "black box" treatment). Nice to have 'em back in print, for the uninitiated, and also for old fans like us who had almost forgotten how incredible this shit is.
FYI some of the Torture Garden tracks also appeared on cd on the self-titled Naked City disc on Nonesuch (1989) and the Avant-label release Grand Guignol (1992).
Zoroaster's monster debut ep from last year had us looking forward to more from this heavier-than-thou Georgia band, and Dog Magic is no disappointment, being another devastating display of brutal doom metal in the Eyehategod tradition, putting 'em up there within the ranks of such bands as Khanate and Graves At Sea. It's six songs, just under an hour, featuring several epics approaching the 15 minute mark, like the massive "Algebra Of Need".
Zoroaster takes doom to all of its extremes, from trance-inducing passages formed from nothing but distorted electronic drones, to bulldozering bursts of thrashing speed -- that's right, doom doesn't always have to be slow! Though plenty of this is, slow and sludgy and laced with all sorts of disturbing experimental textures. Zoroaster should provide not only your requisite doom fix this week but lots of good headphone listenin' for months to come, but be careful to have mercy on your ears and not to turn it up too loud or those headphones will clamp together and crush your skull just when you're trying to enjoy the electric organ solo in the middle of "Terminally Charged", or something...
Four albums in, and Georgia's Zoroaster have established themselves as more than just a band of bearded Southern boys with bad attitudes getting sludgy, Eyehategod style. They certainly started out that way, and we liked 'em then too, but quickly a penchant for spacier, more psychedelic exploration sent them off in a variety of interesting directions, mostly all of 'em still quite HEAVY though. Synth-drone, slowcore, stoner riffery, that's all part of their trip... dunno if we'd even really call them doom (or dooooOOOOoom) any more. They're just way "poppier", and spacier, and also more experimental than you might expect. There's mantric dirges here totally worthy of Om at their finest, other parts where they freak out like Acid Mothers Temple... or rock out like the good ol' Southern boys we mentioned that they indeed are. But it's just as "Eastern". Tracks like "Odyssey" sound like Buddhist monks zoned out on Hawkwind, with someone from a Tokyo Flashback act on lead guitar, or maybe Stephen Wray Lobdell... Sometimes these songs are storming, sometimes they're slow and languid (well, a lot of the time), no matter what though, Matador is an heavy-lidded yet uplifting listen, with an oxymoronically "urgently relaxed", stoned vibe generally absorbed via throbbing waves of synthesizer, low end guitar, leaden battery, and sometimes even a bit of (heavily effected) vocal melody.
Zoroaster are the "sludge" band we'd recommend to White Hills and Wooden Shjips fans. Likewise if you like UFOmammut, US Christmas, Litmus, Los Natas, Boris and even a bit of Baroness too...
This new one was produced by Sanford Parker, heaviness studio guru de jour for good reason. Probably, uh, "420 friendly" but you don't need any help to get a high from this, just turn it on up!
Anyone who has happened to catch Atlanta's Zoroaster in a live setting will more than likely mention the same few details: walls of multiple full stacked amplifiers, strobe lights with no apparent "off" switch, and three dudes bringing the DOOM like nobody's business. But most of all, massive, MASSIVE volume. And while Zoroaster effortlessly lay waste on stage, their albums manage to retain this monolithic heaviness while also revealing a method of songwriting that probably wouldn't be described as "nuanced", but nonetheless brings more than a few surprises. Unlike many doom bands, Zoroaster display a notable melodic presence, which makes for one hell of a combination with their metallic tendencies toward sloooooooooow, lumbering riffs, powerful caveman drumming, and vocals that sometimes venture into guttural black metal territory. Without fail, any time we put on a Zoroaster disc, someone in the store, be it aQ staffer or customer, will come up with a slightly confused look on their face and ask what we're listening to. After all, you could probably count on one hand the number of doom bands who manage to incorporate French horns and Theremins into the mix while still coming across as uncompromisingly heavy. Atmospherics are another staple of Zoroaster's psychedelicized approach, with strange bursts of oscillated fuckery worming into the mix but never taking over to the point of distraction. AND everyone in the band is credited with playing Moog, which is just fucking awesome...
On Voice of Saturn, the band's second full length, things start with a brief ambient intro that leads right into the first song, "Seeing the Dark". Rather than trying to explain "stoner rock" to someone, it might be more advantageous to simply put on a song like this, a plodding burst of fuzzed out heaviness that rocks ridiculously hard with gigantic guitars and sandpaper vocals. But then, in maybe the biggest what-the-fuck moment in Zoroaster's career, a simple repeated piano note takes over as everything else dwindles away before returning with cleanly hummed vocals for a beautifully mind-melting slowcore jam. Bravo guys. "Spirit Molecule" clocks in at a lengthy 13 minutes, allowing the band time to brew up a heavier than thou dirge with bits of otherworldly noise before heading into "Undying", an ominous downtempo groove accented by strange witchlike vocals that sound like they were beamed in from some unknown galaxy. "White Dwarf" is a decaying soundscape made up of white noise and underlying synth pulses that segues into the title track, where the band sparks up another doomed out blast of negative energy as the appropriate mantra of "Chaos" brings the song to its conclusion. "Lamen of the Master Therion" closes the album with a familiar sound that you quickly realize is the aforementioned beautifully mind-melting slowcore jam, the piano now accompanied by a strummed acoustic guitar! FUCK YES! Even after that, you can stick around a bit for the secret track, a cool drumcentric moment that we will not describe as "tribal".
Hopefully this new disc will bring Zoroaster to the attention of more people, since they are obviously choice candidates to the current throne of doom. Anyone digging Sleep, Electric Wizard, and UFOmammut will do themselves a real favor by picking up Voice of Saturn, and adventurous non-metalheads might find something to like as well. Needless to say, this one is coming to you highly recommended.
CHAOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!
Another entry in the slow, low, sludgemetal sweepstakes! (First prize, win a giant anvil dropped on your head! Second prize: a lifetime of depression! And for five runners up: rusted old guitar strings that once belonged to Tony Iommi!) These Georgia boys are all about total, trance-inducing heaviosity in the vein of Eyehategod, Bongzilla, Buried At Sea, old Melvins, and Om. Utter "dun dun dun dun dun" riff-mongering. Like certain strains of grim black metal, and modern minimalism, this is music that one can describe as "monotonous", but in a GOOD way. And the five tracks here (one of 'em an untitled, unlisted coda) are varied enough across this disc's approximate 33 minute running time to leave you wanting more. Released by Battle Kommand, who know quality darkness (Leviathan, Xasthur, Ruins of Beverast) and distributed by the equally discerning folks at Southern Lord, this is indeed a promising debut from Zoroaster. Oh, and there's a giant squid on the front cover, that's worth automatic mega bonus points in our book!
