[ aquarius records

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Finally someone has seen fit to re-press and re-release all the amazing early French black metal, precursors to everything we now hold grim and true and cult. Mutiilation, Belketre, Togeist, Vlad Tepes and more. Vlad Tepes, might be the most legendary (outside of Mutiilation who seem to be the only one of those bands to still be playing / recording) perhaps due to the scarcity of recordings or maybe the ridiculous monies fetched by originals on eBay. But the music is as vital and brutal as ever, even a cursory listen reveals plenty of sonic similarities to current BM bigwigs Xasthur, Leviathan, Nachtmystium and the like. Thick swaths of blackened buzz abound, but all wrapped around mournful minor key riffing and all sorts of fingerpicked melancholy melodies. There's also some serious eighties true metal worship going on, with some almost NWOBHM sounding riffs and LEADS, you sure won't here most modern black metal bands letting loose way up on the fret board. But it suits the shound, a sloppy, ultra distorted, buzz drenched blurry black metal, recorded white hot, loud vocals (that's sometimes seriously freaked out, swerving from growl to rasp to falsetto screech and back again), loud drums, all wrapped in thick distorto guitar, oozing the sort of evil that most bands spend their entire careers trying to manufacture. As it says in the liner notes: "This is Cletic and Barbarian Black Metal ruled by the voice of the Black Legions Spirits." This reissue includes the ultra rare War Funeral March ep as well as an even more rare 1993 rehearsal tape.

MPEG stream: War Funeral March
MPEG stream: From The Celtic Moonfrost

Finally someone has seen fit to re-press and re-release all the amazing early French black metal, precursors to everything we now hold grim and true and cult. Mutiilation, Belketre, Togeist, Vlad Tepes and more. This is a reissue of an ultra rare split released originally in 1995. The is definitely the best sounding Vlad Tepes recording we've heard, nice and thick and heavy, a buzzing swarm of black metal fury, but there still are plenty of lo-fi-isms and some weird mixing (really loud drums), but here the strange mix actually works in the band's favor, with the guitars at the forefront, huge serpentine riffs, sometimes churning out an almost NWOBHM sound, but more often buzzing and twisting and giving the whole thing a very drone-y washed out feel, definitely looking forward to modern black metal outifts who would stretch their riffs into extended, near drone-like hypno-BM. Vlad Tepes are teamed up here with their way more obscure black metal countrymen Belketre, who are so buzz soaked and so fast and so blown out that their blazing buzzing black metal becomes a superdistorted white hot smear of prickly fuzz guitar, lightning fast blasts, and a thick fog of low end rumble, all tangled up in a swirling streak of chaotic mayhem. Ther are brief stretches of midtempo swoon, with seasick rhythms and clean guitar melodies, but they are quickly subsumed and obliterated by burts of face melting blackend blur. Belketre are quite possibly our favorite new (old) black metal discovery.

MPEG stream: Massacre Song From The Devastated Lands
MPEG stream: Night Of Sadness

A heavy one here! Vog, from Virginia, and not to be confused with the similarly heavy Yob, are a brute of a band, cranking out distorto sludge epics comparable to the ugly best of Eyehategod, Today Is The Day, and the Melvins. The seven lengthy songs on this debut cd are graced with intense, sometimes clean vocals -- usually effected, though, and layered with deathly screams (this singing really helping Vog to remind us of the late great Acid Bath). These guys REALLY know what they're doing, if you're a fan of any of the bands name-checked in this review you should definitely check out Vog. We were impressed. We got this from Shifty along with that new Hey Colossus Project:Death cd we listed a couple weeks back, and if anything, this is probably even better than the HC.

MPEG stream: Transcending The Bullshit
MPEG stream: Like The Sky Above

We just got in a whole batch of new releases from Starlight Temple Society, home to Velvet Cacoon, Clair Cassis, Lonesummer and others, and Canadian one man black metal horde Void Of Reveries sounds right at home, an epic slab of blasting depressive atmospheric blackness, the sound murky and washed out and heavily reverbed, the drums simple and solid, the guitars a blurred black mass, the vocals, anguished and dripping with effects. The end result is something less grim and buzz, than sort of shoegazey and drifty and softly smeared, give it a moodier less metal vibe, which is not at all a bad thing. Our pals at the Chronic Youth blog posit that VoR sounds like a nineties screamo band gone black metal. Which makes sense, it's got the same sort of depressive, super emotional, gut wrenching urgency, but to these ears if that's true, it sound more like an Orchid 7" slowed way down, to a doomy blackened crawl, and then when the band does crank the tempo, they somehow manage to speed that Orchid record back up, but without shifting the pitch, so it becomes a gloriously blurred sprawl of black blur and super emotional buzz and blast. Raw and minimal, lots of frantic distorted buzz, but also plenty of spidery clean guitars, and hushed ambient interludes, the perfect balance between grim miserable buzz, and dark contemplative shimmer. We dig! LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!!

MPEG stream: As A Seed In The Orchard
MPEG stream: Our Neverending Summer
MPEG stream: Seventh Dream Of Fading Away

Debut from this French black metal supergroup, featuring members of Ataraxie, Hyadningar, Funeralium, Mhonos and others, who here have come together to conjure up a heady strain of avant psychedelic blackness. Present are the usual BM tropes of course - blasting beats, buzzing insectoid riffing, harsh demonic vokills - but all of that stuff is reimagined and recontextualized into something much more abstract, a swirling, psychedelic blackened mesmer, those blasting relentless beats suspended in field of crystalline minor key guitar melodies and black ambient swirls, everything wreathed in a smeary black buzz. And even in full on blast/buzz mode, instead of sounding blown out and super distorted, the sound is more smeary and indistinct, washed out and weirdly hazy, the vibe much more droned out and trancelike than brutal and black, transforming here and there into Voivod like black prog, and often slipping into distinctly un-black-metal-like sprawls of clean guitar shimmer, mesmerizing Slint like post rock lope. The group do occasionally explode into a more punkish pound, but the bulk of the record is spent drifting through strangely ethereal black clouds of blurred buzz, minimal post metal Ved Buens Ende style dirgery, and hauntingly atmopsheric psychedelic black minimalism, culminating in the stunningly gorgeous ambient closer, all whirling processed murk, muted melancholic melodies, lush layered shimmer, and chiming bell like melodies. So good!

MPEG stream: Chao Ab Chao
MPEG stream: Fighting The Silence
MPEG stream: Symmetrichaos
MPEG stream: Timelesss Nothingness

As much as we love Voivod, and were excited to hear this, their 2nd and last album with Piggy post-humously on guitar, we're ultimately happy that it will be the last. Don't want too many not-that-Voivod-sounding Voivod albums cluttering up their legendary discography, and this is one of those, punky and poppy, sounding as much like Nirvana as Vovoid in spots. Not bad, but no Nothingface in other words. If you liked Katorz, or the self-titled one done when Piggy was still alive, you'll probably dig what they're up to here as well.

Been putting this one off, just 'cause it's tough to give a so-so review to something that we really really wish we could say was great, the final hurrah of a once-amazing band. Katorz is the record that Vovoid was working on when guitarist Piggy passed away, and they've finished it in tribute to him. Sadly, it's not a posthumous Nothingface or Dimension Hatross... instead, it's got the punky sound of their previous, self-titled album with some flashes of old school Vovoid sci-fi weirdness... so if you liked that one, give this a shot. But for most of us, Katorz is ultimately disappointing. Too bad.

Digipak import version (domestic release on Metal Blade later this year, supposedly) of Canadian metal legends Voivod's first ever live album, recorded at the Dynamo Open Air festival and the more intimate CBGB's. The current trio (Away, Piggy, and Eric) play mostly songs from recent discs like "Negatron" as well as some old classics from Voivod's '80s thrash days, finishing up with a suitably raw cover of Venom's "In League With Satan". Voivod, as you all should know, is one of the best metal bands EVER. Over the years they have created much in the way of science fictional psychedelic insanity. Heavy, dissonant, and complex (but still at times quite melodic and catchy) music that owes as much to Pink Floyd (whom they often cover, but not here), King Crimson and the Alice Cooper Band as it does to Venom and Slayer. Oh yeah, and let's not forget the Die Kruezen influence. This live disc is long-overdue and although it doesn't include many of my personal favorite Voivod tunes (and it would have to be a box set to do so!), it's a decent selection of their twisted robo-thrash (including all-time classic "Tribal Convictions") and captures the energy of the band in action (as this writer witnessed not long ago when they opened for Neurosis at the Great American). Anyway, Voivod rules and Voivod lives!

Single sided sided / etched 7" of pretty righteous new song from upcoming new post-Piggy Voivod opus!!

One of the aQ metallers (that would be Allan), and a friend of his, who's played in some serious SF metal bands over the years, have this thing where they often text "VOIVOD!!!" to each other, in all-caps like that, when they're stoked about something or want to express the affirmative (this stems from repeated viewings of a Voivod dvd release from a few years ago, wherein a voice shouted "VOIVOD!!!" as you selected each chapter on the menu screen). Well, if anything to arrive at aQuarius this week deserves a hearty VOIVOD!!! this is it, of course - the brand new album from the brand new version of the famed French-Canadian sci-fi thrash/prog metal masters. The band's previous two studio albums psychically existed under a rather morbid cloud, as Voivod's founding guitarist and riff master Piggy had passed away in 2005, but (somewhat remarkably) remained as their guitarist, participating posthumously via a vast catalog of guitar parts he'd recorded on his hard drive before he died. Of course all Voivod fans wanted to hear Piggy playing - even from beyond the grave - but it made those albums (2006's Katorz and 2009's Infini) seem less the work of an ongoing, active band, than bittersweet memorials, no matter how good they were (and they certainly had their moments, especially the latter one). Each of those releases seemed like part of a slow, sad goodbye. But then, thankfully deciding that Voivod must again live, really live, the surviving Voivodians, including erstwhile bassist Blacky (who last recorded with the band on 1991's Angel Rat), recruited a new guitarist to replace the late Piggy - and they chose wisely. New guitarist Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain (ex-Martyr) already has proved, via last year's ripping live album Warriors Of Ice, that he can play their older material, and now here on the long awaited Target Earth, demonstrates he can do justice to Piggy's legacy in contributing to new Voivod songs too. We doubt any Voivod fan would not agree that Chewy fits perfectly into the Voivod mechanism, you'll see. Thus revitalized, the post-Piggy Voivod simply kills it on this new album. Alienating and energetic, full of tension and aggression, it's a collection of very Voivodian compositions, off-kilter and complex - yet catchy. Heck if it doesn't sound like it could have come out directly following their late '80s classics Dimension Hatross and Nothingface. Definitely the best thing they've done in years, making us forget the alt/pop/punk/grunge stylings of the albums they did with Jason from Metallica, though we shan't get into a debate about the merits of the industrial flavored E-Force era albums (sorry, we're already getting a bit into the weeds here for those of you who are not major Voivod fanatics). Suffice to say, Target Earth (hmm, didn't they know that was already the title of a Screamer album?) is replete with all the Voivod-isms you desire: the heavy, herky-jerky riffs and rhythms, the confusional time changes, the delirious dissonant sci-fi post punk atmospherics, the mega-advanced drumming of Away*, the thick angular blower bass lines of Blacky, the melodic, yet gruff and ragged (moreso than ever) droning vocals of Snake� that's all here, and so are the SONGS, they're good too! And Chewy, he sure does Piggy proud. Definitely call it a comeback - so look out Vektor, your grandpappas are back, and mean business! VOIVOD!!!! *And his cover art too, of course, here in a slightly cartoonish style (and garish color scheme) very much like the one he did for the Orthrelm/Behold The Arctopus split cd a while back�

MPEG stream: Target Earth
MPEG stream: Mechanical Mind
MPEG stream: Warchaic

Ok, maybe this is weird to admit, but you know how sometimes you get to thinking about your own inevitable death? And all the things you'd miss about being alive? Well, I (Allan) can remember back in 1993 having such morbid thoughts, and specifically thinking how one major bummer about being dead would be that I'd never ever get to listen to THIS particular album again. I mean, it's not like I was thinking that The Outer Limits by Canadian cult metallers Voivod was, like, a reason to live, it didn't prevent me from trying suicide or anything dramatic like that. But it was something that, when contemplating my own mortality, I knew I'd miss. Considering my endless spinning of this when it came out, maybe that's no surprise. The riffs, the lyrics, the artwork, there was a lot to obsess over here! Now, 15 years later, it's finally been reissued. And so of course I've got to recommend it, maybe you won't like it as much as I did (and still do) but do you really want to go to your grave without ever finding out? It's the Voivod album that followed their somewhat controversial leftfield stab at college radio alt-metal Angel Rat (1991), and for this Voivod fan turned out to be exactly what I wanted to hear from them, becoming my favorite Voivod ever next to their to their previous masterpiece Nothingface (1989), putting their psych, punk, and prog influences - from Pink Floyd to Iggy Pop - together in a practically perfect package. It took the avant-thrash complexities of Nothingface and mixed 'em with the more accessible, trippy melodicism of Angel Rat, making for a polished, technically brilliant album of individually memorable songs. Can't really even pick favorites among 'em, every one of the nine tracks here is so great, from the soaring, storming opener "Fix My Heart" to the the creepy "Le Pont Noir" to the album's 17-minute epic sci-fi centerpiece "Jack Luminous" (PROG!) to the groovy dark rocker "Wrong-Way Street". They also do another great Pink Floyd cover (after Nothingface's version of "Astronomy Domine"), this time powering up "The Nile Song". The whole album has a majestically moody, ominous, vaguely sinister vibe, especially so when you pay attention to the narrative of such songs as "The Lost Machine" (one of the heavier numbers here, which could have appeared on Nothingface for sure, as could have the punkishly frantic "We Are Not Alone"). And, at the same time, these songs are all super catchy - in a quirky Voivod way, sometimes, or just plain catchy a la classic '70s rock like Alice Cooper. The Outer Limits sees Voivod perfecting their ability to totally rock out whist remaining spacey and psychedelic, with lyrics to match, with both "Time Warp" and "Moonbeam Rider" being great examples of this. Well, I could go on and on, talk about Snake's unique, compelling vocals and Piggy's stellar guitar playing and all, but instead let's leave it at that, for old Voivod fans and curious noobs! I will mention drummer Away's artwork - he provides evocative illustrations for each song in the cd booklet. Not only are they done in a cool, retro sci-fi style, but they, like the his cover drawing, are all in 3-D. And this numbered, limited edition, digipacked, digitally remastered, gold disk (whew!) reissue does indeed come with lil' red and blue 3-D glasses with which to properly view and appreciate Away's art!

MPEG stream: The Lost Machine
MPEG stream: Le Pont Noir
MPEG stream: Time Warp

The far out French-Canadian sci-fi metal institution Voivod, legendary geniuses at both raw punkish thrash and advanced psychedelic prog, recently brought us an excellent live album, Warriors Of Ice, their first recording without the presence of late, great guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour - although of course he'd had a hand in writing the songs, all old Voivod classics. It gave us reason to look forward to their future (studio) endeavors with Piggy's replacement, Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain. Looking in the other direction, though, we've got this blast from the ancient past, featuring their original lineup of Piggy, Snake, Blacky, and Away. Alternative Tentacles, as if to celebrate the continuing legacy of Voivod, have just done an official reissue, on cd and vinyl, of one of the band's earliest demo tapes. As the title indicates, the year was 1984. Dystopian thrash was the primal order of the day. Light years from the technical and melodic extremes that they would eventually achieve - yet of course utterly "extreme" in its own right, and definitely already imbued with Voivod's trademark strangeness. This release consists of 15 tracks, including such destined-to-be-well-known headbangers as "Voivod", "War And Pain", "Blower", "Suck Your Bone", "Nuclear War", and "Iron Gang", amongst others you'll recognize from Voivod's first few albums. Plus, they do a couple of cool covers that indicate Voivod aligned themselves with the "black metal" bands of their day: "Evil" by Mercyful Fate, and "Buried Alive" and "Bursting Out" by Venom! Also, worth the price of admission for any Voivod fanatic, there's the otherwise unreleased (except on other demos) track "Condemned To The Gallows", very cool and very Voivod, dunno why they never recorded it for any of their albums proper. Sonically, the production is actually not that bad, it really sounds pretty darn good for a DIY demo done so many years ago!! No complaints there. Nor with the material, needless to say, it's killer stuff, as anyone into early 'Vod would expect - though you may be at bit surprised at Snake's harsh vocal style here, much sicker and screechier than what you may be used to, interesting indeed. We can only hope that Alt Tentacles will follow up this historically significant release with a reissue of the Voivod's debut demo, the one that preceded this, 1983's Anachronism tape, which consisted mostly of covers by the likes of Judas Priest, Motorhead, Budgie, and various NWOBHM acts... we'd love to hear that too!

MPEG stream: Condemned To The Gallows
MPEG stream: Black City
MPEG stream: Evil

Early 'vod -- their 1984 debut -- gets the deluxe reissue treatment. Rather than the techy, progged-out insanity of later, genius-era Voivod, what you get here is raw and primal stuff, an '80s Armageddon of metal so molten it's begun to melt right through such fundamental concepts as songwriting and singing, from this Canadian institution in their formative frenzies, inspired by Venom and Celtic Frost and Metallica... Sci-fi in theory but noisy and brutal in practice! It's a long way to the intricacies of Dimension Hatross or the Floydian psych experiments of Nothingface, but it's still a blast. We said deluxe, and what that means is that on disc one, you get the original album remastered plus three tracks from their first show in '83 and three from their sessions for the Metal Massacre 5 comp. Then there's a second disc comprising their Morgoth Invasion live demo tape from '84. And, you also get a third "enhanced" disc to shove in your computer, containing biography, pics, a videoclip, lyrics, more of Away's awesome art, screensavers, all that sort of thing. Sweet.

MPEG stream: Iron Gang
MPEG stream: Blower (live)

We're not usually that into "live" albums. BUT, this is Voivod, the French-Canadian sci-fi prog-thrash metal geniuses. And even though founding guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour sadly succumbed to colon cancer a few years ago, the remaining three original members (Away, Blacky, and Snake) along with new guitarist Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain, prove with this release that Voivod yet lives. Seriously, it's the kind of ripping live recording that makes you really, really wish you'd been at the show (which was in front of a rabid Quebec crowd), but still glad you get to hear what it sounded like on your own stereo at home. So energetic and vital, wow. The last two Voivod albums - Katorz and Infin - were bittersweet affairs, constructed using guitar parts recorded by Piggy before his demise, posthumously turned into finished songs by the surviving members of the band, the results often too grunge or even pop-punk sounding to really fit our notion of Voivod-ness, though they had their moments. But Warriors Of Ice, with tracks spanning much of the band's career, is once again the Voivod we know and love - and in fact makes us want to go back and reevaluate those last two albums, 'cause you know what? The two songs from Infini heard here, "Global Warning" and "Treasure Chase", are sounding damn good and fierce, even alongside the many Voivod classics included in this set, like "The Unknown Knows" and "Tribal Convictions"! They do everything here from the early raw thrash attacks of "Voivod", "Nuclear War", and "Ripping Headaches" (but, oddly, not "Warriors Of Ice"), to their later alt-metal prog of "The Prow" and "Panorama", closing with a version of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine", as originally covered on Nothingface. Of course, with such a lengthy and varied discography from which to draw, material from some albums gets ignored entirely - there's nothing from Negatron or Phobos, which is ok (and no surprise, since Snake didn't sing on those albums), and nothing from the 2003 self-titled album or Katorz, which is ok too, but we'd have liked to have had some songs from The Outer Limits, darn it. But their other albums are all represented... and heck we're just happy to get to have this at all, sounding so good, and we think all Voivod fans will agree. New guitarist Chewy (from tech metallers Martyr, he's also played in Gorguts and Cryptopsy) has some big shoes to fill and definitely pulls it off. Piggy would be proud. In addition to making us eager to once again see 'em live, this gives us lots of hope for the new studio album to be recorded with this new, reborn Voivod lineup. Voivod's always been about the future, and now it seems that they once again have one!!!

MPEG stream: Voivod (live)
MPEG stream: Global Warning (live)
MPEG stream: Nothingface (live)

Long-running Canadian sci-fi metal masters Voivod, legends in their own time, are back after a several year hiatus with this new album and a new bassist: none other than ex-Metallica four-stringer Jason Newsted! "Jasonic" not only joined Voivod but also pretty much sponsored this album, recording it at his own studio and arranging the record deal too. But the bigger deal here is that this self-titled disc marks the return of original Voivod vocalist Snake! His French-Canadian inflections and Iggy Pop aspirations were an integral part of Voivod's classics, so we were extra excited about the prospect of this release...unfortunately, once heard, of the Voivod fanatics here at Aquarius, both Cup and Andee were ultimately disappointed and give it the thumbs down. They just found it too straight-forward and poppy, almost MTV pop-punk in sound. But Allan has faith in the 'Vod, and the ears to hear their trademark weirdnesses while enjoying the big catchy heavy rock songs on offer. If MTV pop-punk really sounds like this (he wouldn't know, not having cable) then bring it on! Still, you're warned. Of prior Voivod albums, this most closely compares to the controversial college-rock-radio styled "Angel Rat" from 1991, rather than "Dimension Hatross" or "Nothingface", their acknowledged masterpieces. So it's definitely not the first Voivod record we'd recommend, but if you're a fan you might just want to check it out, especially if you liked the rockier, least psychedelic or prog cuts on "Angel Rat" and "Outer Limits". And they'll still be the best band at Ozzfest for sure!! By the way, for those keeping score, this record might not be the best Voivod ever but boy is it better than that new Metallica. Between these two former eighties thrash acts, Jason sure made the right choice.

MPEG stream: Facing Up
MPEG stream: Invisible Planet

Another ritual from the Black Twilight Circle, the mysterious and prolific cult of Southern California black metallers. Volahn is the work of Eduardo Ramirez, who does everything except for the drumming, and plays in (at least) two other BTC projects. There are certainly "traditional" black metal elements present here - nods to classic '80s, first wave Norwegian, Ulver-esque folk, and the more twisted elements of French black metal abound. The French connection is especially relevant here, given the Black Twilight Circle's clear structural similarity to the infamous Les Legions Noires. However, comparisons to other bands and scenes shouldn't be taken too seriously - Ramirez's riffing, song structure, and lyrics stand out as some of the most unique in black metal today, especially in the U.S. Aq'Ab'Al works as a sort of black metal lingua franca to communicate Volahn's spiritual and esoteric message: genocide of Central American native peoples, anti-colonialism, pre-Hispanic gods, and, of course, evil and death. Where one might normally find endless references to Satan, Ramirez instead directs his hails towards vengeful and violent Mayan gods - a refreshing change of pace in the otherwise predictable and stale world of black metal lyrics. The production, too, is a refreshing change of pace, a crystal clear and organic sounding recording that brings the whole record to life. The context and thematic elements of the record is important, sure, but at the end of the day, this is just a great black metal record. It has riffs, it has atmosphere, and and it's evil. What more do you want? Both cd and lp come in a beautiful packaging that houses the lyrics in both Spanish and translated to English, and the lp comes in a nice gatefold sleeve and poster.

MPEG stream: Najtir Ichik
MPEG stream: Bonampak
MPEG stream: Koyopa

The sinewy, scary sounds of The Jesus Lizard, Melvins, Rapeman? All sorta rolled into one?? Yes, that's the kind of punch that this new German trio packs. And they're not shy about it. If you have a soft spot for that style of post-HC noise-rockin' heaviness, with whipcrack rhythms, angular guitars and rubbery bass brawniness, backing up some wretchedly angsty vox, you'll get a kick out of Volt. Indeed, they'll be kicking you in that soft spot with a steel-toed boot! The noise-rock scene that apparently inspired Volt may have peaked way back in the early '90s but these kids (along with Noxagt) are bringing it back with a vengeance. This debut album exhibits an energetic, precise, metallic attack that grabbed us as soon as we heard it, and almost didn't believe it. Then we were like, cool!

MPEG stream: Griffel
MPEG stream: Stativ

Homebuilt kinda Lightning Boltish noiserock!

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

SORRY. It's been long enough since we've had anything new from this mysterious one man black metal band, that probably most of you out there have no idea who VO are, and thus, would very likely appreciate the Voltaic Omen origin story, so here it is, one more time... It all began with two unidentified mp3's sent via email, no message, no anything, just two HUGE files. We were wondering if there was something wrong with our email, and then POW. Two songs, identified only by title, but nothing about what they were, the name of the band, where they came from. Our first impulse was to just trash 'em, but we thought what the heck? And holy shit were we immediately floored. Exactly the sort of buzzing warped blackness we love around these parts, lo-fi, tripped out, druggy, heavy, space-y, we had to figure out who the heck this band was and how to get MORE!! After a few emails back and forth, we discovered this filthy black chaos was the work of a one man band from the Northwest called Voltaic Omen, a little more digging revealed than not only did that one man have the most bad ass corpse paint, but his corpsepainted visage was an integral part of one of the VO logos, one of the best black metal logos ever by the way. So we were smitten, if one can be smitten by something as grim and fucked up and blown out as Voltaic Omen, and thus, ever since, we've done our best to track down every single goddamn thing we could get our hands on, which so far, has been a handful of tapes and cd-r's. To which we can now add this one, another chunk of twisted WTF outsider blackness, which if it's even possible, might be the weirdest thing we've heard from him yet. Opening with a weird sort of orchestral fanfare, all bells and horns, and strings, weirdly warbly, and growing more and more atonal as it goes, speeding up too, before disappearing beneath a blast of weird mid-tempo lo-fi black buzz, lurching rhythm, belched vokills, wild shredding leads, stumbling and chaotic, the vocals echo drenched and WAY up in the mix, especially the weird goat grunts, which get all dubbed out and black out all the other sounds, before fading right back into the churning chug. The leads too, sore over the top, it's the twisted mix, that makes this as weird as it is. Dizzying and druggy and seriously demented, the two relatively short sides here delivering more than enough to overload your feeble brain, from galloping punked out blackness, beneath bellowed monster vox, wreathed in relentless metallic shred, to murky almost D-beat sounding pound, muddy and washed out, blurry and black, to weird soundscapes of samples and sinister pitch shifted laughter, chugging downtuned riffage, and more squiggly leads, to wild grinding over the top black buzz dementia, crooned demon vocals, over insectoid guitars, and loping drum pound, the whole thing twisted all up into some of the weirdest black metal you'll ever hear. WAY recommended for fans of twisted, outsider black metal, including such WTF geniuses as Benighted Leams, Goat Thrower, Furze, Necrofrost, Vondur, etc... EXTREMELY LIMITED!!! As in 20 or 25 copies maybe, which means these are likely the last copies ever...

MPEG stream: Side One (excerpt)
MPEG stream: Side Two (excerpt)

We told the story of Volataic Omen when we reviewed the Supreme Satanic Substorm cd-r a while back, but it definitely bears repeating: It all began with two unidentified mp3's sent via email, no message, no anything, just to HUGE files. We were wondering if there was something wrong with our email, and then POW. Two songs, identified only by title, but nothing about what they were, the name of the band, where they came from. Our first impulse was to just trash em, but we thought what the heck? And holy shit were we immediately floored. Exactly the sort of buzzing warped blackness we love around these parts, lo-fi, tripped out, druggy, heavy, space-y, we had to figure out who the heck this band was and how to get MORE!! After a few emails back and forth, we discovered this filthy black chaos was the work of a one man band from the Northwest called Voltaic Omen, a little more digging revealed than not only did that one man have the most bad ass corpse paint, but his corpsepainted visage was an integral part of one of the VO logos, one of the best black metal logos ever by the way. So we were smitten, if one can be smitten by something as grim and fucked up and blown out as Voltaic Omen, there is a tUMULt release in the works, and at the rate this guys kicks out tracks, there's bound to be an avalanche of grim blackness down the line, but for now, you gotta grab one of these filthy little gems while you can, this one is LIMITED TO 25 COPIES, and we got them ALL, but these are gonna fly outta here, so grimlords be quick. Oh right, what's the fuss about this Voltaic Omen stuff anyway? More of that fractured fucked up lo-fi stumbling buzzy black weirdness we can't ever seem to get enough of. Damaged drum machines blast over woozy washed out black buzz, the vocals are insane, moaning and screeching, even though the drums are blasting, the music is slow and sludgey and lurching and lumbering, a weird, dizzyingly off kilter sonic squall. One of the tracks here begins all punk rock, but then gets all oompah, still shrieky and buzzy and bizarre, but wrapped around a weird 1-2-1-2-1-2 sort of rhythm, but flip it over, and things get all doomy and filthy and abject and blown the fuck out. So goddamn good. You like Furze, Striborg, Lonesummer, Amocoma, Anwech, Wrnlrd, Jabladav, Xasthur, Draugar, Vorak, Necrofrost? You probably like Volatic Omen. Way recommended and WAY LIMITED. And for those folks who want to get WAY into VO, we have a couple other releases, 2 tapes and a 3"cd-r, which we only got a very few copies of, but they're cheap if you want em, just ask, cuz as far as we're concerned you should get as much Voltaic Omen as you can handle...

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

SORRY. Ok, weirdo black metal obsessives, this is about as KVLT as it gets. Two songs, exclusive to this release, from reclusive, outsider black metal one man band Voltaic Omen, whose past releases we've gone nuts for in the past, not to mention a rumored eventual release on tUMULt, wrapped in textured linen like cloth, held together with a wax seal, the VO logo hand drawn on the cover, and LIMITED TO TEN COPIES. ONLY TEN COPIES!! Each one hand numbered. We've already sold a couple, still time to snag one of these, but trust us, if you want one, you better be quick...

It all began with two unidentified mp3's sent via email, no message, no anything, just to HUGE files. We were wondering if there was something wrong with our email, and then POW. Two songs, identified only by title, but nothing about what they were, the name of the band, where they came from. Our first impulse was to just trash em, but we thought what the heck? And holy shit were we immediately floored. Exactly the sort of buzzing warped blackness we love around these parts, lo-fi, tripped out, druggy, heavy, space-y, we had to figure out who the heck this band was and how to get MORE!! After a few emails back and forth, we discovered this filthy black chaos was the work of a one man band from the Northwest called Voltaic Omen, a little more digging revealed than not only did that one man have the most bad ass corpse paint, but his corpsepainted visage was an integral part of one of the VO logos, one of the best black metal logos ever by the way. VO was only too happy to send us more, the result being several weeks of mp3's and downloads and demos and cassettes and 3"cd-r's and often a new track every few days as they were hatched. It's almost like we won the fucked up demented lo-fi black metal lottery! But now it's time to share our good fortune with you. Not only will there hopefully be a compilation coming soon on Andee's own tUMULt label, but we have a brand new proper cd-r demo, called Supreme Satanic Substorm, and crammed with the swirling, stumbling, off kilter, fucked up and freaky black metal weirdness that had us so smitten in the first place. SSS starts out appropriately enough with Carl Sagan from Cosmos, his voice drenched in reverb, before the record stumbles into motion, a lugubrious tarpit blast, under some oozing riffage and bizarre echoey vocals, which suddenly switch gears into what sounds like some lo-fi noise pop jam gone black metal. And it only gets weirder from there, lumbering doomic blurred buzzscapes wrap around woozy minor key guitars, heaving strangled vokills drift over programmed beats, the vibe shifting from washed out Burzumy dirge, to total psychedelic outer space blackened skree, the third track "Blood Bound" is all growled vocals, over tinny high end swirls of guitar, and splattery blast beats, a sound less metal, and more sort of washed out grim bliss, then the low end kicks in and the track seems to ooze and sprawl and slip into even more chaos. Elsewhere, tracks drift into weird muted skitter, or are laced with dizzyingly out of tune synths, funhouse melodies, even some weirdly poppy jangle, but it always seems to collapse inward, into a swirling black cloud of gloriously outsider whatthefuck. This is not the sort of stuff for folks looking for super tight blazing black metal, or even Burzumic depressive blackness, no, Voltaic Omen is for the freaks, the folks who like their black metal as demented as it is black, who want their black metal records to sound like they were left on the dashboard of the car in a heatwave, the grooves all melting into one another, the result a warped, woozy, warbly weird as fuck ambient black space blow out. And even when it seems like he's going for classic black metal, a frenzied riff, flurries of double kick drum, soaring epic melodies, it only lasts for a few seconds, before it gets pulled apart, wrapped in a vocal that sounds like a dying foghorn, or sent tumbling through some spaced out stretch of demonic vox and whirring amp buzz, or pelted with off kilter D-beat drumming, or splintered into thick swirls of intense (but still twisted) black ambience, often slipping into abstract, almost funereal doom or even indescribable bursts of total blackspacepsychdrone freakout. As the above review demonstrates, this stuff is super hard to describe. But think Abruptum, Lugubrum, Vondur, Striborg, Necrofrost, that's the sort of damaged delirium Voltaic Omen explores. So now all of you loyal aQ weirdo black metal obsessives can add Voltaic Omen to your fucked up freaked out damaged and demented outsider lo-fi space drone black metal pantheon!

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It's been a while since we've heard from mysterious one man band Voltaic Omen, who we first discovered via a barrage of unlabeled emails packed with mp3's, and who, once tracked down, was more than happy to send us each new release as it was spawned, usually JUST for us, and in numbers that make most other limited releases seem bountiful. Well that definitely hasn't changed with this one, an email showed up saying "just sent you a box of the new tape, 23 copies, it's fucked, in fact it's called "You're Fucked". Needless to say we were pretty thrilled, especially considering the fact that when someone whose music is ALREADY totally fucked, proclaims a record to be 'totally fucked', well, it's gotta be good. And seriously fucked. which You're Fucked most definitely is. Another barrage of tripped out low fidelity buzz, wreathed in epic melodic swirl and druggy spaced out atmosphere, the songs lurching from epic majestic drum machine driven pound, to blurred flurries of tangled black buzz and garbled grunted gurgles, from almost punkish chunks of d-beat pound to dirgey psychedelic industrial dirgery, with all sorts of sonic weirdness, gloomy spidery melodies, hissy whispered vox, machinelike clatter, clouds of swirling black crunch, clean almost folky psych guitar, and dig even deeper, and it's easy to see VO has definitely progressed, with some of these tracks bordering on epic black prog, the drum programming (or maybe real drumming, hard to tell now), way more weirdly mathy, the arrangements too constantly shifting and transforming, and if that wasn't already rad enough, two covers this time around, Melvins and Nirvana. Hell yeah. LIMITED TO 23 COPIES!!!! Might be the only copies we can ever get so act fast...

Ahhhh, yes, more Voltaic Omen, the one man black metal weirdo from the Pacific Northwest, who has been blowing us away with recording after recording of fucked up and fractured lo-fi what-the-fuck blackness. And it just keeps getting better, and weirder! This time around Mr. VO is teamed up with a noisemaker called Fire Island, AK, who we'll get to in a second, but first, VO begins proceedings with a super creepy stretch of processed ambience, all haunting minor key melodies, backwards cymbals, fractured loops, mumbly speaking in tongues vocals, it may be black metal, but it also sounds a bit like some of the super far out Teenage Filmstars stuff. Then all of a sudden, the track kicks in, and it sounds like it's being broadcast from a speaker atop a pole, down the street, murky and muddy and lo-fi, but with a strange clattery, almost Muslimgauze sounding rhythm laid over the top, before slowing down and tripping out, and transforming into some sort of doomic black ritual, slow pounding percussion, groaned vocals, distant tarpit riffing, haunting minor key melody, super hypnotic. Fire Island, AK, who we'd never heard before, are way more of an experimental free noise outfit, exploring textures and tempos, patterns and layers, reverbed electronic squiggles wrap around bits of scrape and glitch, looped and repeating, gradually growing more dense and frantic, never quite attaining total Merzbowian overload, which is a good thing, even at its most impenetrable and chaotic, there still lurks some texture and rhythm, giving form and propulsion to could otherwise become pure noise. Cool stuff for sure. Buy this for the Voltaic Omen, stick around for the Fire Island. Definitely recommended. Cool full color inserts, photocopied insert, LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES, each one stickered and hand numbered!!

The latest project from the mighty Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Total, Sunroof!, etc.) is not all that far removed from more recent Skullflower records in several ways. The first is the lineup, Voltigeurs is a duo of Bower and one of his newer SF bandmates, Samantha Davies, the second is the sound, which once again finds Bower exploring his own little dark corner of black metal, an admitted recent obsession for him. Much like the SF "black metal" discs (including the most recent, Malediction, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), Bower's black metal is a whole 'nother twisted noise slathered beast than what we're used to. Sure the sound is raw and grim and buzzy and heavy, but this blackness is more concerned with texture and tension, with drone and density, than proper riffage, no drums, so the songs don't blast or pound, even at their heaviest, they still drift, the guitars, possibly the thickest and crunchiest we've heard from Bower in ages, do seem to be unfurling some sort of black riffage, but here the blur and smear into thick clouds of FX drenched buzz, of howling feedback and string strangling crunch, Davies, who plays cello in Skullflower, must be doing terrible things to her cello here (assuming she hasn't switched to guitar), because it's nearly impossible to differentiate who's who and who's playing what in Voltigeurs' big glorious tangle of heaving fractured heaviness. It almost sounds like a symphony of black metal cassettes unspooling in zero gravity, a swirling mass of a million mobius strips of sound. The strange thing is, for being one of the heavies things we've heard from Bower, it also seems to be one of the loveliest, and most melodic. Not always mind you, but here and there, the furious fug clears, and reveals some woozy mournful soaring bit of melodic doominess, the opening of "Pearlescent Abyss" sounds like some lost early doom jam, slathered in noise and tape hiss and amp buzz, but still, the sound oozes with emotion and anguish. And those moments do surface throughout the record, giving Voltigeurs' noisiness a definite black doom vibe. There's also a distinctly dronedoomdirge feel to a lot of the songs, Bower's guitar more obviously a guitar, the sounds he's conjuring up more obviously riff based, SUNNO))), Fear Falls Burning, Vulture Club, it's like that sound but more feral, more fierce, less composed, more loose, more instinctual, and somehow more alive, a constantly expanding ball of buzzing smoldering abstract riffage, the sound organic and lush, while remaining fuzzy and abrasive and intensely heavy. The record finishes off with another bit of melodic mystery, the 9 minute "Condor", is a slow buzz drenched crawl, the guitars crumbling, wrapped around a lurching slow motion pulse, a dense blackened throb, but swirling throughout and within that main guitardrone, spidery tendrils of melody burn white hot, shards and streaks of warm shimmer, a lugubrious bit of glacial downtuned beauty. Voltigeurs debut full length seems like the perfect foil for the new Skullflower (maybe it was intended to be just that), it's like that other record's shadow, its less evil twin, where the other is noxious and corrosive, this one is effulgent and luminous, where the other is blackened and chaotic, this one seems to glow with some long buried beauty, it almost sounds like the two could be played simultaneously, to create some intense multi part, blacknoise dronedirge epic, but each, on its own, is fantastic, each one in its own way psychedelic and heavy, blackened and buzzy, but Voltigeurs might be the slightly prettier of the two, but still somehow manages to remain as heavy and as intense as any guitardrone record we've heard. WAY WAY recommended (As is the Skullflower!)!!

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Winner of the dumb/awesome band name of the week award! A "Volture" being kind of like an electric eel, except that it's a bird, who, uh, shocks its prey like the album title says. What kind of band would name themselves something like that? Well a '80s styled heavy metal band, of course. Indeed, the "Volture" concept is kind of an homage to the cover art of Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance, in a way. And Volture do a good job paying tribute, complete with wailing vocals (hitting some King Diamond-y falsetto highs), widdly guitar solos and rampaging riffage. There's six ripping, rockin' songs on this 22 minute ep, including "Night Walker" that originally appeared on a limited edition split 7" with Enforcer on Earache. And they do deliver the goods pretty darn convincingly. Not bad for what we assume was a "drink beer, think up a funny name/concept, and start a band" scenario! This band is actually a side project of highly popular retro-thrashers Municipal Waste (specifically, bassist Ryan Waste), and also features members of Cannabis Corpse and Twisted Tower Dire. On the same label that brought us Enforcer's debut, another band that would feel quite comfortable with song titles like "Heavy Metal Machine" and "Cheap Thrillz".

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Not to be confused with legendary Bay Area black metal horde Von, although Vom's sound does sonically link back to Sixx, the post Von, gothic deathrock combo we reviewed a while back. These grim Scots spew out a depressive, atmospheric, super distorted sort of gothic cold wave, the label suggests the sound falls somewhere between Scream-era Siouxsie And The Banshees, early X-Mal Deustchland and the first Killing Joke lp, which is definitely pretty right on, but for the aQ faithful, we might also throw out some recent list faves like Soror Dolorosa, the aforementioned Sixx, Ye Olde Maids, Second Decay, Factums, even Cold Cave, but imagine all those bands if they were way more heavy and harsh and hateful, raw and rough and intense, and you'd be getting closer to the sound of Vom. Pounding pummeling drums, grinding crunchy guitars, throbbing rumbling bass, howled vocals buried in the mix, hooks all over the place, but somewhat obscured by the bands furious deathrock onslaught, this stuff is gloomy and heavy and catchy and harrowing, and so goddamn good. Anyone into the recent wave of cold wave revivalists or goth rock wannabes, who found themselves hankering for something way harder and heavier, these guys might just be your new favorite band. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!

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We were pretty into Vom's Primitive Arts record from a while back, which we described as a "depressive, atmospheric, super distorted sort of gothic cold wave", and who we likened to groups like Soror Dolorosa, Sixx, Factums and Cold Cave, but whose particular version of sound was a much more raw and primitive beast, sort of crusty and filthy, from the production to the actual instrument sounds, even the atmosphere, it was as if a metal band or a noise band or somehow both, decided to make a gloom pop record, and failed spectacularly, and came up with something way meaner, weirder and more amazing. This brand new split teams Vom up with another group of sonically like minded Scots with the awesome name Gummy Stumps, each group taking a whole lp side. Vom offer up more of the same, their sound driving and darkly post punky, the guitars thick and jagged, the bass fuzzed out and super distorted, the drums almost like some weird strain of motorik krautpunk, the vocals an effects drenched bellow, the group locking into long stretches of buzzing, snarling, minor key hypnorock, that sound like a goth rock Circle, pounding away relentlessly, the guitars unfurling slippery slithery melodies, over churning riffage and gloomy gothic bombast. But it's an epic, so the band sort of cobble together a songsuite, equal parts crash and burn, drift and smolder, shimmer and creep, the sound managing to be surprisingly lush while retaining its raw power. At one point haunting soundtracky synths drift in and transform the sound completely, before the band works its way up into another psychedelic cold wave gloom punk blowout. These guys are so fucking good, it's a crime they're not more well known. With a name like Gummy Stumps, these guys had our hopes pretty high, and while they're not as grim or gloriously noisy, they're definitely a good match, their sound more of a Messthetics sort of post punk, all jagged angular guitar crunch, frenetic rhythms, and dueling call and response vocals. But again, like Vom's side, there's lots of space to fill, so the band stretch way out, slipping from murky psychedelic shimmer, to something that sounds like way more punk Arab Strap, to blown out drum heavy noise rock crunch, to surprisingly catchy punk pop and right back again to the angular post punkiness that started it all off. Housed in super swank silk screened covers, with printed insert, cool lyrics booklet, and we're guessing it's pretty dang limited too...

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Three notorious Chicago musicians, led by Flying Luttenbachers drummer Weasel Walter (also of Hatewave, Lake of Dracula, To Live And Shave In LA, etc. infamy), decide to record their tribute to the late legendary Japanese free jazz guitarist Masayuki Takayangi. Dunno if Masayuji would entirely have enjoyed this, as while his music was definitely noisy (noisier than what's on here, sometimes!) there was also a beauty and restraint that's not explored on this disc. Nor would we imagine that such song titles as "Endless Corridor Of Roasted Babies", "Give Me head 'Til You're Dead", or "Slitted Tit" would appeal to him. And the Masayuki Takayanagi connection/concept here seems to have become secondary to a black metal derived aesthetic, anyway: the three musicians are pictured in corpsepaint, with evil-sounding stage names (Jim O'Rourke is dubbed "Lycanthrovampyr"), and the last track, "Triumph of Death", is a Weasel semi-ambient solo piece that sounds more influenced by Burzum than Mr. Takayanagi. Regardless, fans of over-the-top drums/cello/guitar skree (or "infernal improvised music", as these guys put it) should dig this immensely. After the first 30 minutes of "For Jojo/Freebasing Styrofoam" some will be exhausted, but that's a mere warm-up for the rest of the disc. The back-cover motto "play loud and die" sums it up.

Okay, how bad ass is the name The Wandering Midget for a band name? Well, okay, maybe not BAD ASS, but what a great name. Freaky, weird, certainly might not have you imagining some awesome classic doom outfit, but that's precisely what The Wandering Midget are, classic true doom from Finland. So that's pretty much all pluses across the board, insane band name, true doom, and they're from Finland. And as if that weren't enough they have an amazing vocalist, who sounds like a weird super dramatic Ozzy doppelganger, the vocals so over the top they sound almost campy, yet they fit the music perfectly, especially when they slip into a menacing grrrrrowl. The sound is super live, the drums way up in the mix, the guitars thick and crunchy, the vocals WAY out in front, the riffs are killer too, that sort of slithery Sabbathy groove, mix in some Pentagram, some Electric Wizard, and you're in total druggy stoner doom heaven! All the tracks are pretty kick ass, but stick around for the nearly 18 minute closer "Wasteland Shrine", a super slow, lurching doom crawl, with some killer leads, and the vocalist wailing so dramatically, the main riff all killer slow motion Sabbath, complete with a weird ambient interlude part way through, the sounds of what can only be a dungeon, dripping water, footsteps, distant rumbles, the guitar slowly creeping up from the murk, all spidery and minimal, before the band kicks in and launches back into their doomy groove, a majestic lumbering jam overlaid with increasingly maniacal vocals, pounding away, through clouds of effects, until the very end.

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The return of The Wandering Midget!! Sounds like the title of some lost Tolkien novel, as it well should. The Wandering Midget are not in fact a 'he', but rather a 'they', and THEY are a group of true doomlords from Finland, who rule the riff and have an amazing vocalist who deftly straddles the line between classic doom wail, and over the top insanity. We reviewed the Midget's I Am The Gate ep a while back (we still have a few copies left), and ever since had been jonesing for more more more. And now we have it. The Serpent Coven. Nearly an hour of modern doom, troo doom, total Sabbath / Pentagram worship in the best possible way. Massive riffage, pounding drums, incredible grooves, some serious hooks. A bit like Electric Wizard, but not as sludge-y, much more classic sounding. And the vocals, holy shit, a bit of an Ozzy wail, but WAY more campy and over the top, definitely a make or break for most folks, but if you're anything like us, and you love Messiah from Candlemass, Scott Reagers of Saint Vitus, and other high end howlers, then Samual Wormlus (good name!) will fit pretty comfortably in your doom vocal pantheon. The thing about doom, is it's pretty easy to make, like drone music, simple minor key riffs, tuned way down, lugubrious tempos, and blammo! Wrap that in enough buzz and satanic imagery, and you're doom! But to make doom magical and mysterious is a whole 'nother thing. That requires some sort of alchemy, that is indeed rare, and that sort of power is possessed by a very few, but listening to The Serpent Coven, there is no doubt in our minds that The Wandering Midget is made up of such otherworldly alchemists. The Midget slip from churning Sabbathy groove, to super slowed down ultra doom, to spaced out doomic drift, all within the space of a single looooooong track, even mixing in some seriously unlikely elements (the strange prog / folk clean guitar into tangled psychedelic space rock middle section of "Bring Forth The Accused" being the perfect example), to create their own unique and seriously idiosyncratic take on a WAY overplayed genre. ALL HAIL THE WANDERING MIDGET, BOW BEFORE THESE MIGHTY DOOMLORDS FROM THE NORTH, AND DIG THEIR EPIC DOOOOOOOM!

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From a label known for supreme downer doom dirge comes this surprise debut by a group of happy, heavy, hot-rockin' throwbacks called The Want, from Jersey. Playing it in the store had amazed customers asking if this was an obscure '70s hard rock reissue. It's not just the tunage that's retro, but the production is authentic '70s sounding too. Amazing. Channelled directly from the likes of Zep, Budgie, Captain Beyond, Free... Great stuff, recommended (despite their violation of two of Allan's many pet peeves: an album title like "Greatest Hits vol. 5", and the unnecessary use of the Greek alphabet on the packaging).

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Battlecruiser is a new label from AQ pal Campbell Kneale who runs the impeccable NZ label Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. Battlecruiser is basically an outlet for a bunch of New Zealand noise guys to fufill their secret desire to be metal gods! Who can argue with that? Cool band names, distorted guitars, demonic vocals and all that good stuff! Metalheads might have to stretch their definition of 'metal' to really get into this stuff, but the rest of us, metal and unmetal alike will find lots of beautiful crushing far out noisy weirdness on these evil 'lil 3" cd-r's! Wardagger starts things off with backwards guitar ambience which gives way to pounding eighties style industrial punk/metal. Brittle guitars over simple machine like drums, throbbing and relentless. Like a more metal Swans or Cop Shoot Cop. Some extra sludgy bits and backward guitar fuckery adds to the weirdness.

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

SORRY.

We've been trying to get enough copies of anything on the amazing Sylvan Screams Analog label to review and list, but previous releases were so limited, that we were only able to get a couple. And while they're just as limited, we did now manage to get a handful of the two most recent releases, this one is super raw, primitive old school black metal, the label references Blazebirth Hall and Les Legions Noires, and it most definitely has that feel, the guitars swarm insect like, the drums skeletal, the bass inaudible, the vokills a buried rasp, like a lot of that stuff it's about emotion and energy, the feel and the vibe, and the vibe here is definitely grim and frostbitten, even though these guys (this guy?) hail from Georgia. They somehow manage to channel France and Scandinavia, into something equally kvlt, blown out and brittle, sounding like it was recorded in practice space, a forest, or a cave, the second track is a weird creepy dirge, all stumbling lumber, and frosty black buzz, the vocals in-the-red, the whole sound blurring into blacknoize before settling back into that death march creep, only to eventually explode into another blast of galloping black buzz. LIMITED TO 44 COPIES!!! Each one hand numbered.

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Well, "Columbodia, Missouri's" own Warhammer posse showed up not too long ago here at aQ enroute to all corners of the country and they stopped in long enough to rock the asses of the San Francisco scene in a wickedly intimate "bus show" (AQ pal and former A Minor Forest-er has a huge mobile venue, IN A BUS, with a stage, a solar powered generator and an engine that runs on vegetable oil!) and to hand us off a a big pile of their new self-released second cd entitled An Ethereal Oracle. By the looks and sounds of it, the title holds true to the old adage "what you see is what you get". That is if you can figure out what an ethereal oracle is -musically- speaking. While the mind-melting debut Uber Om was more of a big loud thud upside your melon, An Ethereal Oracle is more like some forbidden fruit. That something or someone, you've been warned about, you know it's dangerous, potentially deadly, but you just can't resist. It's the temptation of the darkside, the dangerous, you know you're in for it, you know you're done for, you just can't ever be sure when. Or how! The record starts off with a long scary radio broadcast track, you know, like one of those Emergency Broadcast System things warning you about "the big storm approaching", and just when you start feeling REALLY nervous, you start to get dizzy, everything becomes blurry, your head is spinning, your ears are ringing, you feel flush, you start to sweat, goosebumps, the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end, you try to resist, fight it off, but it's too much, you are completely under its spell. You let the jagged guitar lines, birds chirping in the distance, strange what-the-fuck acoustic folk fuckery, drugged out laid-back droned-out blissful warmness and full on red-line space jam experimental shredding pummelry drag you into the darkness. Before you know it, you're bruised and bloody, naked and tied up with broken guitar strings, ears ringing and bleeding, you have strange WH48K images burned into your flesh, laying atop a pile of bloodstained broken drumsticks, surrounded by a Stonehenge like circle of towering totem like amps, in front of which stand the mysterious members of Warhammer, smiling wickedly as they prepare to do it all over again. And that's only the first half of the cd! Limited to 500 intricately illustrated/hand printed/hand assembled copies, and we only have about 30 left of the ones we got. So act fast...

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MPEG stream: Five

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

SORRY. Debut cd from this Boston doom metal band (which we have been waiting for ever since we reviewed their "Priestess" 12" on list #99, which we still have in stock). In a word: heavy!! Devastatingly so. Compares well to very early Cathedral and Electric Wizard in that department. Indeed, they're going on tour with the Wizard! But their heaviness is moderated with occasional quiet parts -- piano, acoustic guitar, jazz bass interludes, all nice moves giving them an original sound, enhancing the heaviness when the electric guitars crush back to the fore, while also giving "As Heaven Turns To Ash" a bit of a psychedelic, '70s cosmic vibe. Highly recommended to those in the mood for doom! Our good customer John Botz liked the record so much that he emailed us this mini-essay about it, which we asked him if we could print since it expands nicely (and enthusiastically) upon the points made above: "Let me say up front that of all of the retro movements in recent memory, this stoner/doom metal thing has me scratching my head the most. Yes, I admit that I really enjoy some of this "new"/old stoner metal myself, esp. bands like Eternal Elysium, but as great as old Sabbath was, I think that even Ozzy, Tony, Bill, and Geezer themselves, have to shrugging a bit to the degree in which their sludgy sound has been deified at the turn of the millenium. The other thing about this "movement" that amazes me is how little resemblance a lot of this new doom bears to the original (but, then again, I guess every retro movement only resembles that which spawned it by no more than half, since anything taken out of time by a generation or more is bound to be somewhat removed from the times from whence it came), for example, the "original" retro Sabbathy tribute stoner band was Saint Vitus, which was already quite a bit slower than most vintage Sabbath. Also, many of these new doom bands use gravelly, deathmetalesque vocals (i.e. Burning Witch, who to me, suck beyond being good, if you know what I mean) which bear little resemblance to any circa 1970 vocals, let alone Ozzy's plaintive wail which, in addition to the sludgy guitars and bass heavy sound is what I associate with stoner/doom metal. All of that said, the new Warhorse is damn good, and may actually live up to most of the pre-release publicity! Warhorse's website claims that this apocalyptic doom metal includes some of the "most vicious (I originally typed "viscous," but I suppose you could say that, too) sounds ever put to vinyl...Crushing Bass with Obscenely Overdriven Guitar (yes, they capitalized those words) melted with intense psychedelic effects...bludgeoning doom mixed with soothing, trance-inducing interludes...(sounds like) death metal on quaaludes..." blah blah blah...you've heard it all before, only this album may deliver the goods better than any other that's tried to make such cocksure claims...no, really! Most of the myriad albums that try to emulate the dynamics of "Master of Reality" come off sounding weak to me, but all of the quiet "flowers and beads" interludes on this album are quite effective, and authentic-sounding, with an eastern flavor, like you really are walking into a c.1970 drug den with beads hanging in the doorway. And you gotta love titles like "Lysergic Communion." The vocals? Well, they're of the gravelly kind, but they're effectively recessed into the sound stage so that they are not obtrusive. Anyway, you guys may already know all of this stuff, but I just thought I'd let you know that this collection of doomy dirges may very well be the best I've heard in this new retro stoner/doom metal craze -- in fact (throat clear), okay, here I go (drum roll, please) giving hostages to fortune by making a hyperbolic claim: this could be the stoner/doom metal album to end all such albums."--John Botz

RealAudio clip: Lysergic Communion
RealAudio clip: Doom's Bride

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

SORRY. Super doomy psych-sludge metal from underground heroes WarHorse, in the stoned vein of Saint Vitus and High On Fire. Side One is the title track, which d/evolves into a jam. Side Two tackles an old Wargasm tune. Handsome sleeve as well.

Denver's hip hop punk rock retards the Warlock Pinchers, who flourished in the late '80s/early '90s, are either the stupidest band ever, or the most genius, probably the former, although we think it's some impossible/improbable mix of the two. You may have heard their classic anthem "Morrissey Rides A Cockhorse", a heady, hooky dose of borderline homophobic Smiths bashing, but like all of their jams, it's all in good (stupid) fun. Their proper albums are chuck full of big dumb beats, crunchy metal riffs, big dumb rapping, and irresistable choruses, they're one of those bands who practically everyone we know LOVES, which makes way less sense once you hear them. Bomb The Franklin Mint is tough to recommend to anyone but diehard fans, as it's a collection of early recordings, demos and practice sessions. That's not to say that this doesn't rule, it does, but it rules in a way that maybe only WP fans can really understand. Imagine very early Beastie Boys, but way more simplistic, the beats totally primitive, the guitar playing rudimentary, and the lyrics, alternatingly ridiculous, over the top, offensive and/or funny as fuck. And on these early jams, all that stuff is even more magnified, the sound even more raw and lo-fi and capital D dumb, but so fun and funny and infectious and fuck it, AWESOME. We'd probably recommend tracking down Deadly Kun Fu Action / Pinch A Loaf and Circusized Peanuts first, the proper records do in fact rule, big time, fucked up and funny and funky, but listening to this, even the demos and practice sessions sound pretty bad ass, but then we LOOOOOVE the Warlock Pinchers, so we're not exactly objective. So fans, buy this, you definitely want it, especially for the old stuff, the first tape, most of which we'd never heard, for the rest of you, give it a try, check out the sound samples, prepare yourself for some awesomely inane over the top lo-fi goofiness, and you never know, you just might end up as weirdly obsessed as we are... [Only one sound sample, per the band's request]

MPEG stream: We Got The Beast (Demo)

As it says in the cd booklet, Pure Unholy Black Metal! Indeed. Some seriously grim and frosty blackness from these legendary / infamous Finnish black metallers, totally kvlt, primitive and raw, recorded way back in 1998, murky and blown out, the production fucked and ever fluctuating, the drums way louder than everything, the guitars blurred and black and so buzzy they almost become black drones, but the atmosphere, fuck, this stuff is so dark and haunting and mesmerizing and mysterious, they seriously don't make music like this anymore, even the grimmest of the grim these days, can't conjure up the same sort of blackness, the same sort of hellish hateful ambience, and for all it's lo-fi-ness and sonic shortcomings, the 'sound' is untouchable, it's the sort of blackness we can never get enough of, total trance inducing drone drenched heaviness, that more than a decade later pretty much puts the rest of the black metal scene to shame...

MPEG stream: Black Metal Hell
MPEG stream: Once More Against The Light
MPEG stream: Witchcraft And Blood

[ aquarius records — Metal ]