[ aquarius records

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We got a handful of super limited-run shirts from SF eco-terrorist, drum and dulcimer, one man black metal band Botanist, featuring the super striking cover art from his third album, Doom In Bloom, M.S. Waldron's depiction of the demon Azalea. It features the Botanist logo on the back. Printed on American Apparel shirts, black with a white print. Limited to 100 shirts total!

Hot on the heels of last week's listing of the new double cd release on tUMULt from Bay Area hypersonic one man black metal band Mastery, comes something even stranger. Yet another mysterious one man black metal horde (and another double disc), rising from the fertile SFBM underground. The scene that gave us Leviathan, Draugar, Crebain, Pale Chalice, Sutekh Hexen, Dead As Dreams, Dispirit, Horn Of Dagoth, Pandiscordian Necrogenesis, Amocoma, Elk, Necrite, Palace Of Worms, and more, has now spawned the oddly monikered Botanist, an odd moniker only until you realize that all the songs here are about plants and flowers, and all of the artwork following suit, old faded images of strange and wondrous flora and fauna, but that's not nearly the strangest thing about Botanist. Nope, the strangest thing would be the fact that there are NO guitars, and there is NO bass, just drums, vocals, and HAMMERED DULCIMER. That's right, eerie and esoteric, buzzing and baffling, drum and dulcimer driven black eco-terrorist black metal. And as strange as that may sound, the SOUND is even stranger, the dulcimer a particularly haunting and strangely melodic instrument, the typical black metal riffs replaced by maniacal dulcimer melodies, repeated motifs, flurries of cyclical notes, the sound buzzy and brutal in it's own way, with an almost old-timey feel to the sound, the drums mathy and intricate, often sounding strangely like a demonic drumline, the vocals a hellish raspy croak, but it's the dulcimer that drives the sound of Botanist, a distinctive metallic buzz that's eerily creepy and darkly cinematic, with many of these tracks sounding like they could be some alternate soundtrack for a lost seventies giallo or some super surreal art film. The tracks are mostly short sharp blasts of metallic buzz, the dulcimer alternatingly offering up dense overtone-rich clouds of frenzied tangled melody, but just as often, unfurling stretches of haunting atonal shimmer, occasionally spacing way out, and weaving sprawling dreadscapes of minor key tension and slow build terror, the sound of the dulcimer so strange, sometimes evoking old pianos in ghost town saloons, other times impossibly melodic, with the songs on the verge of pure poppiness, or as poppy as something as twisted and confusional like this can be. The sound of Botanist is definitely black metal, in form, in structure, in intent, in spirit, even to a degree in sound, but it's also something wholly other, the relation between the rhythms and the melodic component of the dulcimer's haunting buzz and chiming metallic tone hard to quantify, and obviously even harder to accurately describe, then there's the dulcimer's traditional station as a folky Appalachian instrument, it all adds to the crazy, confusional appeal of Botanist's warped sonic world, one that manages to be both heavy and buzzy and blackened, but also haunting and hypnotic and strangely soundtracky, a swirling, hazy, chaotic sound, densely melodic, relentlessly rhythmic, fantastically fucked up and bafflingly brilliant. The discs are housed in super swank full color mini-lp gatefold style Stoughton jackets, with a thick booklet of lyrics, the jacket and booklet both printed to look like an antique botanist's field journal. ENTER THE VERDANT REALM!!

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The return of Botanist, the SF eco-terrorist black metal one man band, whose curious weapons of war are pretty much just drums, voice, and hammered dulcimer! Sound strange, and it most certainly is, and black metal fans have definitely been divided, too weird, and no nearly metal enough for some, perfectly twisted and mesmerizingly oddball for others. We, like many of you, definitely fall into the latter camp, our own Andee having released Botanist's double disc debut, a sprawling collection of short sharp bursts of brittle steel string buzz and furious blasts, but as you may have gleaned from the title of Botanist's third record, some things have changed this time around. Most notably, the tempos are slowed way down, the tonal palette too is much more varied, the sound surprisingly lush, and describing some of the sounds here as simply doom, would definitely be selling short the twisted innovation and warped songcraft on display here. Just check out the record opener "Quoth Azalea, The Demon (Rhododendoom II)", a swampy, dirgey, slithery creep, that reminds us more of groups like Woven Hand or Der Blutharsch, where the dulcimer manages to sound almost like a piano at times, and the melody is so wistful and melancholy, if it weren't for the raspy vokills, this could be some dark apocalyptic folk ballad. And so goes the rest of the record, unfurling darkly and dramatically, from loping doomy dirge, to creepy slo-mo deathmarch, to strangely propulsive almost post rock, much of this record sounding like something, that sans vox, could be on Temporary Residence, brooding, slow building, majestic and epic, all shot through with a healthy helping of drone, the steel string buzz creating mesmerizing layers of subtly shifting overtones, and woozily tangled melodies. Some of the tracks have a distinctly cabaret vibe as well, but even then, the sound tends to return to something more stately, trudging through thick fields of chiming notes and shimmering buzz, the vocals often buried, but sometimes a demonic croak, and strangely enough, the vocals tend to be at their most demonic, when the music is at its most lovely, which makes for a potent, and fantastically confusional combination. Fans of the first record will definitely not be disappointed, but folks into brooding slow build post rock, and dark drone driven doom folk, should give a listen as well. As a bonus, also included is a second disc, called Allies, which finds friends of the Botanist creating their own tracks using drum tracks from the Doom In Bloom sessions. The sounds and songs vary sonically quite a bit, there's strange staticky hushed ambient drift, crushing sludgey slo-mo doom, blown out, soaring hazy mid tempo black metal buzz (courtesy of the Botanist's other band, Ophidian Forest), some corrosive noise too, but there's a clutch of tracks that might surprise folks, the witchy, doomy female vocal driven Bestiary and the pop flecked almost Opeth-y melodic metal of Lotus Thief, but probably our favorite reworking comes from Arborist, whose version starts off as a sort of lumbering, lo-fi bit of screamo-y slo-mo creep, which explodes into a super psychedelic blast of woozy heaviness, the riffs and melodies slipping and sliding and seeming to melt before your very ears. Definitely hope the Arborist and the Botanist do more together in the future (which seems likely, as the Arborist actually records all the Botanist records)... And if three records is still not enough Botanist for you (it's not for us!), fear not! There are already at least three, if not more, full lengths on deck. We can't wait!

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Full length number FOUR from this local eco-terroristic, drum and dulcimer driven black metal one band band, whose first two records were released as a pair on our very own Andee's tUMULt label. At the time, as much as we loved Botanist's unique and warped take on black metal, we must admit we were a bit surprised when Botanist sort of blew up, making all sorts of year end top ten lists, even popping up on Pitchfork and NPR. We sort of assumed it was too weird to have much appeal, but it seems if anything, that weirdness only made Botanist more appealing to non-metalheads, and in another surprise twist, brought out the open minded experimental streak we had just assumed most metalheads might be missing. But it's easy to see why people dig Botanist. Heck Andee dug his stuff enough to put it out. Botanist's music is dark and twisted, droned out and buzzy, weirdly melodic, super trance-y and hypnotic, it's really barely black metal, the blasting drums and the croaked squashed spider vocals really being the only truly black metal elements, even the metallic buzz of the dulcimer, aping the sort of fast picked BM riffing, ended up sounding like something wholly other. Botanist's third record, on the Total Rust label, found him slowing things down, and creating his own version of doom, which like his take on black metal was appropriately and fantastically skewed. Which brings us to IV, the fourth Botanist full length in two years, and once again, a whole sonic shift has taken place, this one more difficult to quantify, it's not black metal, and not doom, and this time around, we're tempted to say it's not even really metal. Actually not at all. When we first heard it, we were struck by how melodic it was, almost shoegazey, the dulcimer strangely recorded, to turn the brittle buzz of the early records into something washed out and gloriously distorted, single strings ring out like prismatic chordal swirls, and the more rapid passages blur into blissed out streaks of hazy blurred dreaminess. In fact, minus the vocals, Botanist IV sounds more like some experimental shoegaze pop band, even the blast beats seem to have been ditched in favor of more midtempo rhythms, and then those are mostly buried in the mix, beneath clouds of reverberant overtones, of whorls of FX drenched metallic chords, that all seem to sprawl like cloud of metallic shimmer, laced with keening melodies, the whole thing surprisingly sun dappled and prismatic, if we didn't know the grim story behind the lyrics of IV, we'd assume the theme was one of redemption and rebirth, or in keeping with the Botanist's themes, IV plays out like the soundtrack to post-human earth, once the human race has been eradicated, and the world is a lush nirvana, where nothing but plants grow, allowed to spread out endlessly, and reach forever heavenward. And heck, even with the vocals, it's hard to disguise the lush melodic elements that pretty much entirely define the sound of IV. Considering the sort of surprising widespread appeal the first few records had, we can only imagine this one might just be the real big breakthrough record for Botanist, it's so catchy and melodic, so pretty and lushly layered, that it's hard to imagine that even some of the more metal averse folks wouldn't or couldn't be won over. We even suggested to the Botanist himself that he should release an instrumental version, imagining the pure psychedelic shoegaze sonic bliss that would result, but for now, IV's glorious mix of lush sonic bliss and grim verdant vokills is more than enough.

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Another mysterious missive from the verdant realm, which can only mean one thing, the return of THE BOTANIST, our local eco-terrorist drum and dulcimer black metal band, who in fact, have actually expanded into a proper band, and have been playing shows throughout the US recently, which we have witnessed and are pretty incredible. We can also say, that in some ways, they're even better than the records. Odds are you've likely never heard dueling hammered dulcimers, amplified and projected at great volume, accompanied by blasting drums and wheezing sruti box. But ultimately hearing the strange metallic tones of the dulcimers are extreme volume, it's kind of transcendent. That's not to take away from the records at all, this new one, the fifth in three years (and that's not counting a split with Palace Of Worms, or the fact that they/he skipped number five for some reason), is another fantastic , psychedelic, bizarre and beautiful assemblage of sounds, most of which at this point are really only tangentially black metal. Vokill rasps, check. Furious blast beats, check. But beyond that, Botanist tend to explore some other sonic world entirely, one that's droney and atmospheric, minimal and MAXimal at the same time, the melodies of the dulcimers, no matter how much they're meant to emulate blackened riffing, sound way more alien, and abstract, in some ways it reminds us of the just intonation black metal of Jute Gyte, but the furious flurries of notes, the harmonics and the overtones, all blend into one glorious, constantly shifting organic field of sound, that's utterly mesmerizing and totally immersive, as if all the other elements are just window dressing for these thick, hypnotic, psychedelic swirls of sound. And very much like on IV: Mandragora, the songwriting seems to continue to follow a similar path, one that gets less and less black with every release, with many of the tracks here downright melodic and lovely, sans the harsh vokills, they sound more like Mono or Mogwai, epic and majestic, sun dappled and hopefully, burnished with some inner light, the melodies glowing, the sound emotional and lush, prismatic and heart wrenching. And yeah, sure there are moments more grim, but those just offer shadow, to the rest of Flora's sonic light.

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Our favorite local one man arboreal black metal band returns with a brief split to tide us over until the impending release of both V and VI, in the seemingly (and thankfully) unending barrage of material oozing up from the verdant realm. And like the last few Botanist releases, the tracks here find the sound drifting every further away from the black metal that, only barely, defined the sound of those recordings. Minus the vokills, the three tracks here are super melodic, a little bit blissy and shoegazey, and sound like some avant post rock you might find on Temporary Residence. Even with blast beats and a healthy heaping of buzz, the tracks here soar and chime, you can almost envision some wistful sad boy vox and suddenly, this is total teenage mixtape material, which is not a bad thing at all. And when the blacker elements are woven in, it becomes something truly strange and wonderful, and just further demonstrates, why the rest of the world, particularly the non metal portion, have been flipping out over this stuff. Palace Of Worms on the other hand, is something all together more metallic and grim, their opening track a creepy doomy sprawl, all woozy minor key melodies, haunting ambience, the sound slowly building to something much more epic and majestic, a black buzz, but one that's muted and swaddled in swoonsome synths, giving the sound a sort of washed out and sun dappled quality, which makes it a good match for Botanist. But those moments of wispiness, are more than made up for by some more intense, growly, metallic black buzz, the sound deftly balance between the two, songs flitting from grinding downtuned churn, to synthy shimmer, to crystalline post-metal drift and back again. Great great stuff from both bands, and some seriously awesome cover art to boot!

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Final missive from AQ faves, the mighty Botch. A wicked math-metal machine spitting out super heavy but surprisingly melodic and complex metalcore. As good if not better than Coalesce and Converge but criminally underappreciated. Maybe that's why they're calling it quits. Must be tough making music this amazing and not being HUGE. Every song is an epic, with earth shaking bass rumble, keening high-end guitar melodies, lots of chugging riffs, stop/start rhythms, pounding drums and one of the fiercest roars around. WAY RECOMMENDED!

Reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day, this was the final record from these aQ beloved math metal crushers. This new version comes pressed at 45rpm on nice thick vinyl and housed in a heavy full color jacket, an almost exact reproduction of the original, here's our brief review from way back in 2002: Final missive from these aQ faves, the mighty Botch. A wicked math-metal machine spitting out super heavy but surprisingly melodic and complex metalcore. As good if not better than Coalesce and Converge but criminally underappreciated. Maybe that's why they're calling it quits. Must be tough making music this amazing and not being HUGE. Every song is an epic, with earth shaking bass rumble, keening high-end guitar melodies, lots of chugging riffs, stop/start rhythms, pounding drums and one of the fiercest roars around. WAY RECOMMENDED!

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Weird and heavy metalcore in the tradition of Coalesce, Isis, Cave-In and other Hydrahead bands. Completely amazing. Maybe even better than the new Coalesce, just for the, uh, weirdness of some of this.

The hard-rocking midwestern all-female, uh, hard rock outfit Bottom steps up with debut cd release on Man's Ruin. Heavy, with elements of '90s noise/grunge rock and '70s style swagger. Kinda aggro.

There's all sorts of metal. Death metal, speed metal, doom metal, power metal, thrash metal, grind metal, tech metal, umm... emo metal, grunge metal, peat metal. Woah! Hold on there. What the fuck is 'peat metal'? Well to be honest, we're not entirely sure. But very much like the 'brown metal' of Lugubrum, there is only one true practitioner of the mysterious black art of 'peat metal' and that would be the strangely named Dutch black metal outfit Botulistum. And while 'peat metal' seems to be some strange subset of black metal, it definitely falls squarely into that batch of black metal we often describe as damaged, demented, bizarre, freaked out, fucked up, definite 'outsider'. You know, Dead Reptile Shrine, Benighted Leams, Furze, Rehtaf Ruo, Spektr, Urfaust and all their black brethren. Strangely enough, one of the fellas in Botulistum also does time in aQ faves Urfaust and he and his partner are also in bizarre black metal outfit Fluisterwoud. And it sounds like it. This re-release features one live 30 minute track recorded at their last show in Belgium in 2004 and originally released as a super limited (to 200) edition and also includes a bonus track called "Mergzuigende Veenpulker", from Acts Of Excrement Terrorism”On The Holy Trinity a split with more of their black metal countrymen, Domini Inferni. The sound is definitely black, but it's so murky and psychedelic and confusional, it almost sounds like a black metal Butthole Surfers. Processed vocals, howls and grunts and squeals and shrieks, echo and careen wildly from speaker to speaker, weird riffs, angular and jagged, everything drenched in reverb and room sound, the drums a tribal splatter, the sound of the crowd almost as loud as the band. It's like if Abruptum were from Texas and smoked tons of weed. Or maybe it's actually peat these guys are smoking. The bonus track is like the live track only a little more structured, a huge slab of druggy delirium minus the crowd sounds and with the addition of a ridiculous drum machine, the snares programmed so fast it almost sounds like a mosquito buzzing, but still a glorious blackened sludgy swirl of fucked up guitars and bizarre vocals. This is truly some seriously noisy and fucked up drugged out weirdness. As much for black metalheads as it is for folks into the the Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, Violent Students, and other sludgy drug drenched mayhem. Awesome.

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Ohio metal/punk combo, busy making the devil-sign with their hands held high, however with their tongues firmly in their cheeks... But while the vocals betray their punk lineage, the riffs and licks are truly the devil's music. Hot rockin' Flying V worship, that should go down well with fans of Motorhead, Drunkhorse, Lost Goat...in fact, this kicks the ass of The Hellacopters and their ilk, 'cause of the metal element here, however silly it might be. Includes their earlier vinyl-only "The Rage Of It All" lp as bonus tracks. Smart people making dumb metal sometimes doesn't work out so well, but we like this despite the irony.

Ohio punk rockers turned metalheads shed more of their punk rock skin and emerge a bright and bloody hard rockin' butterfly! Hard to tell if this is 'irony rock' or not, but it hardly matters. This is high kicking, devil sign, Budweiser tallboys, T-top camaros, 7-11 parking lot, ass kicking, drug gulping, friday night party metallic rock and roll. Think Hellacopters, Drunk Horse, Grand Funk Railroad, Motorhead and this time around: AC/DC, with the simple stomping 4/4 rhythms and the snake-y noodly riffs. Meathead metal 'n' roll that's mindless and fun as hell!!

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It may seem like we've been dragging this out, as ALL the first four '70s albums by pioneering Japanese heavy metal popsters Bow Wow were reissued at the same time over a year ago, but we've just been reviewing 'em one at a time every few months it seems. Well that avoids Bow Wow overkill, right? As it happens, a lot of folks already bought all four together from us after we listed the first, but we still figure we should get around to reviewing 'em all individually. 'Cause we totally dig Bow Wow. Ripping, energetic hard rock action, from a young Japanese band that brought together psychedelic proto-metal (with a big Hendrix influence), glammy bubblegum pop elements (The Sweet must have been another inspiration), and a burgeoning heaviness that matched what was starting to happen in England and America, to forge some fun, frenzied boogie-metal with its own quirky charm, that on Charge also definitely expanded into bombastic, balladic power pomp rock territory, as on album-ender "Behind The Mask". Once again, this disc is supercharged with the guitar heroics of shredder Kyoji Yamamoto, who solos most impressively, wailing away on such tracks as "Must Say 'Adieu'" like he's the Japanese counterpart to Uli Jon Roth of the Scorpions (another big Hendrix fan, and probably himself an influence on Yamamoto too). Melody is another strong aspect here, they even offer up a gentle acoustic ballad in "Fallen Leaves". But don't worry about 'em wimping out, that track is in fact followed by a song simply titled "Heavy"! And it is, in a lumbering yet soaring kind of way. Charge originally came out in 1977, it was Bow Wow's third album, following the self-titled debut from '76 and Signal Fire from earlier in '77 (both previously reviewed by us). Like the others reissued by Rock Candy, it's been remastered and comes packaged with new liner notes in the cd booklet. Next up: 1978's Super Live...

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Last list we had the Sabbathy Japanese proto-metal reissue from Blues Creation, circa '71. Now, moving a few years further into the Seventies, we present: Bow Wow! Ok, the name might not sound that heavy. But they are. Much to Andee and Allan's excitement, the UK label Rock Candy has recently reissued the first four albums by '70s Japanese metal band Bow Wow (not to be confused with '80s new wavers Bow Wow Wow, or Bow Wow the rapper). We'd like to review 'em all eventually, but thought we'd start with this one, their 2nd, originally released in 1977. After all, it's got a song on it called "Rainbow Of Sabbath", so you know its gonna be good! Better be! And indeed, they are definitely influenced by Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Scorpions, and other classic contemporaries from the West. The ten tracks here are packed with uptempo, flashy hard rockers. There's lumbering riffs ("Silver Lightning"), one affecting power ballad ("Still"), and plenty of ripping guitar pyrotechnics from axe hero Kyoji Yamamoto, particularly on the instrumental title track. Some of his solo six string freakouts are positively psychedelic (he was a big Hendrix fan), as are the effects that they use on the drums here! Bow Wow aren't from early enough in the '70s to be proto-metal, of course, but we could call 'em proto-NWOBHM, maybe. Though it's some young American bands of the day that they most remind us of, like Riot, Starz, and Van Halen (both Yamamoto and Eddie Van H. are known for their hammer-on technique). This album is just bursting with electric energy, and it's not hard to believe what the liner notes here say about it being a big fave of Metallica in their formative days. Those liner notes, by the way, based on a recent interview with Yamamoto himself, are interesting and in depth, typical of Rock Candy's deluxe reissue treatment. Highly recommended rock from the land of the Rising Sun! Get this, and if there's enough interest then we'd be stoked to also import and review their self-titled debut ('76), Charge ('77), and Super Live ('78), all also awesome.

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If you're a regular reader of the AQ list, by now you know all about Bow Wow, those exuberant Japanese heavy metal rock 'n' rollers. Part poppy bubblegum boogie glam, part classic '70s hard rockin' (a la Rainbow, Sabbath, Scorpions, Aerosmith), part heavy Hendrix-inspired psych... and most of all, young, energetic, and talented; their newfangled metallisms corresponding to Western contemporaries Van Halen in foreshadowing the '80s metal explosion. Previously, over the past year or so, we've reviewed three of the four '70s Bow Wow reissues done by the UK's Rock Candy label: 1976's self-titled debut, 1977's Signal Fire, and Charge, also from '77. Now at last we wrap up this Bow Wow series with number four, Super Live from 1978. As the title implies, it's a live album. And let's just say, Bow Wow were indeed a super live band, pulling out all the stops here in front of a rabid, screaming Japanese audience ("the cheering of the young girls you hear brings back very fond memories," Bow Wow's guitar whiz Kyoji Yamamoto is quoted as saying in the cd booklet). There's 10 tracks here, featuring mostly but not entirely songs from their studio efforts up to that point, good rockin' picks like "Jet Jive" and "Get On Our Train", often embellished upon and expanded a bit in the live context. Yes, there's a drum solo (about halfway through the lengthy wailin' instrumental "Explosion"). And for their big finale, they do a raucous cover of "Summertime Blues"! We reviewed this last because it's chronologically the last of the reissues, also 'cause we figured folks would want the studio albums first... but, on the other hand, if you haven't yet picked up any of the Bow Wow reissues and wanted just ONE to get into the Bow Wow experience, this would be a good choice for sure, kind of a greatest hits that also highlights this band's forte, that being the sheer energy and excitement of 'em performance-wise, which is quite commanding. Once again, a nicely done reissue, remastered, with detailed, illustrated liner notes in the cd booklet. Here's hoping that Rock Candy will next get the rights to reissue some of Bow Wow's best stuff from the '80s, like Asian Volcano and Warning From Stardust...

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If you recall, we highlighted this Japanese Seventies (proto-)metal band's second album, Signal Fire, sometime last fall, and promised more to come. Well it took a while, but here's a review of another remastered, reissue by Bow Wow! This time we're highlighting the band's self-titled debut, from 1976. We'd mentioned that shredding lead guitarist Kyoji Yamamoto was a big Jimi Hendrix fan, and you can hear that here, they even pay Jimi explicit tribute on the nearly ten minute "James In My Casket", part heavy riffing psych-out, part power ballad, and certainly one of this album's standout tracks, sounding almost like something that Far East Family Band or Far Out might have done, earlier in the '70s. Or Deep Purple, definitely. Early Scorpions are likely another inspiration. There's also a song here called "Foxy Lady", which is NOT the Jimi Hendrix composition, oddly enough! That's one that displays the poppier, almost bubblegum side to the teenaged Bow Wow's initial sound (they weren't really metal yet, more of a rock n' roll rave up meets proto-metal, pop rockin' proposition). But even a lightweight boogie number like that is redeemed by Yamamoto's guitar prowess, and elsewhere they take the boogie to ultra energetic, metallized extremes, with speedy scorchers like "Hearts On Fire" and "Volume On". Fun stuff, influenced by, besides Hendrix, we'd assume The Sweet! You want wailing vocals and even more wailing guitar? You got it! Yamamoto was on his way to becoming a Japanese Eddie Van Halen, or maybe Eddie was the American Yamamoto... This has been given the typically enthusiastic Rock Candy reissue treatment (they've even added a rising sun motif to their logo on the spine), with extensive liner notes in the illustrated cd booklet - though we'd take issue with the writer's contention that Bow Wow was innovative, he doesn't give enough credit (any) to the likes of Flower Travellin' Band and Blues Creation as previous Japanese hard rock groups also on par with their Western contemporaries. But then again, maybe those bands never opened for Aerosmith like Bow Wow did. And for the moment, we also have copies Signal Fire back in stock, as well as the yet to be reviewed Charge and Super Live, those being the other entertaining '70s Bow Wow albums reissued by Rock Candy... who we're hoping will get their hands on some of Bow Wow's '80s output as well.

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Yep, that's a dumb name. Yep, that's a drum machine. Yep, Boyjazz actually DO kick ass. Seriously, ya wanna rock? We've got a band for you here! They're called, uh, Boyjazz. Ignore their dumb name and enjoy their dumb rawk. This'll give you a buzz quicker than quaffing a six pack of Pabst. Boyjazz are a duo, consisting of Sexmouth and Supertouch (Adam and Aaron to their moms). Sexmouth sings and plays guitar and bass. Supertouch handles the production and the drum programming (although live, oddly enough, he plays real drums, but prefers to program them on record, which actually sounds great). The deal here is fuzzed out, distorted ROCK. Metal, punk, stoner, cock-rock. Simple, catchy riffage with a definite glam vibe (both '70s and '80s varieties of glam). The likes of Grand Funk, T-Rex, Sabbath, Kiss, Crue, are all no doubt influences, and we'd say that this oughta appeal to fans of The Darkness, Drunkhorse, and Andrew W.K. Not only does Sexmouth manage to actually pull off the rawk vocalisms required, he writes lotsa great clever/dumb lyrics. Sample song titles: "You + Me = Fight" and "Tuff Luv". One song, "Swedish Dates", is all about how they're gonna go over and tour Scandinavia and show the Hives & co. a thing or two. Might even be a true story someday. With very few of the dozen songs on this disc even reaching the three minute mark, you know they're all about dealing out the short, sweet, swift ass-kicking your rock needs require. F'n recommended, for when you're in the mood to hear a singer yelling "yeah!" and "all right!"

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When this came out as a vinyl-only release earlier this year, back in May, we made it our very rockin' Record Of The Week. Now, we're happy to report that the band also has done a limited run of pro-printed cd-rs, for those of you lacking in turntable technology! Boyjazz? Boyjazz! The name should strike fear into the heart of all posers. Not because they weren't a joke band, cuz of course they were... but in spite of that, they kicked ass on most quote-unquote real metal/hard rock bands out there. Silly name, funny lyrics, tongue-in-cheek attitude and all, damn they rocked. Great songs, super showmanship, part wiseass LA hair metal parody, part party time garage glam rock ravers in their own right, the bombastic Boyjazz couldn't be denied. The musicians in Boyjazz were tight all right, virtuoso nerds in cock rock spandex disguise, but the band's not so secret weapon was charismatic frontman Adam "Sexmouth" Hobbs, who had few peers and less shame in the live arena - and acted as if arenas were indeed where they belonged! Or maybe you're too young to remember their 2004 album In The City Tonight? Or their US tour opening for The Fucking Champs and Zombi? Well, you're in luck, they're baaaack... sort of... with, at long last, the posthumous release of their final all analog studio recording, tracked back in 2006 but shelved 'til now. Maybe the world is finally ready. We are! It's clear from the title Unlimited Nights & Weekends that Boyjazz didn't get much more "serious" on their long lost sophomore outing, not that they needed to, or we expected 'em to. Though, they did do it with their five member full band lineup, not as duo-with-drum-machine like on In The City Tonight. So it's more what Boyjazz were like at their peak live, including the six string shred of geeky guitar hero Eric Murriguez, and the actual drumming of Aaron "Supertouch" Levin, with songs just as instantly catchy and kick ass as any on that earlier album. So many infectious riffs and great songs here, straight up. Tracks like "Woman Come To Man", "Woman In Love", "She's Got Gold", "Danger Danger", "Pocket Unicorn", heck ALL of 'em, are gonna be stuck in our heads for the foreseeable future, and that's just after a few spins, the almost-overly-enthusiastic backing vocal choruses generally sealing the deal. Turns out, a bunch actually were already stuck in our heads somewhere, as we immediately recognized several as longtime live faves from the band, so glad they got properly recorded for posterity! Like sleazy side 2 album-ender "Booze", usually their encore as we recall... Armed with these songs, Boyjazz could time travel back to the '80s and take on all comers on the Sunset Strip for sure, though some of the jokes in the lyrics might go over the heads of those in the audience. 'Tis totally over the top boogie rawk action, with wailing vox, clever lyrix, '70s glam riffrock stomp... Boyjazz has tongues firmly in cheek, yes, but they're nonetheless doing it right, asking no quarter and none given, willing to put up or shut up (they choose the former), their goofing and spoofing dangerously close to blowing doors on the real thing, like when they make Led Zeppelin their bitch on "Treat Steamin'" or send Judas Priest running hellbent for cover when they belt out "The Monsters Are Smarter". Even power pop new wave like The Knack gets the Boyjazz treatment via "Hot On The Phone". It's not rocket science, or maybe it is... Part T-Rex, part Tenacious D, part Turbonego; a little White Stripes, a lotta Whitesnake, Boyjazz almost make even Van Halen seem stiff & serious, uptight with stagefright. To sum up, we've got one word for you: Wooooah-whoooah-whooooah-oh-yeah! Super limited cd-r edition, in jewel case with full color art, professionally printed. They only only brought us a handful, though if we run out we might be able to get more from 'em in after the holidays.

MPEG stream: Woman Come To Man
MPEG stream: The Monsters Are Smarter
MPEG stream: Pocket Unicorn

This new mini-album's got 24 more minutes of mathematical musicality from the Minneapolis/Portland based Bozart. They're just a duo of guitar and drums, playing post rock instrumentals that sometimes totally remind us of AQ-faves The Fucking Champs, though this has got lotsa quiet parts, really chop-sy *and* beautiful, and is really not so metallic throughout as those Champs fucking are. Nor are Bozart as noisy and hectic and "extreme" as some other bands you might equate them with, formula-wise, like Lightning Bolt and Crom Tech/Orthrelm. No, if those bands are Slayer these guys are Opeth. The tracks on "The Steel Bridge" almost seem to alternate between the pretty proggy ones and the epic, heavier metal compositions. There's spacey psych shoegazer stuff, sometimes repetitive like Circle doing a guitar clinic. But then there's also total epic Champsiness as well. And let's not forget the all-guitar, no drums tour de force of track two. Metal that's not so evil, these men cry real tears. This third Bozart release is a fine one.

MPEG stream: Pucker Up
MPEG stream: Frost
MPEG stream: Damaging Winds

The return of these Pittsburgh heavies, the oddly named Br0wn Angel (yup, that's a zero), who deliver their swansong in the form of this epic and darkly melodic chunk of churning low-end heaviness, having recently called it a day. But what a note to go out on! And what a change from their self titled debut. That record (which is included here on the accompanying cd-r) was a sick and sinister chunk of superdistorted sludge, equal parts industrial pummel and droned out black crawl, with the band equally capable of kicking some seriously dense mathrock jams as they are churning, downtuned ultradoom. But the first track here, at least the first few minutes, displays a side of the band only hinted at on the first record. Starting with some mysterious field recordings, the band unfurl a thick sprawl of minor key buzz, and washed out melancholic heaviness, the title "You Can Find Heartbreak Anywhere" suits the sound perfectly, the vocals a weary croon, in a different context this would be some woozy dreamlike slowcore, but here, wreathed in thick, crumbling swaths of guitarnoise, squalls of feedback, and massive drum pound, it somehow makes it sound even that much more moody and malevolent. But then again, this is Br0wn Angel, so halfway through, the song splinters into a woozy start/stop, with squealing feedback, and harsh vokills, before again switching gears, and adding some chiming melodies to the proceedings, giving the sound a sort of ultra melodic Godflesh style industrial vibe, maybe Godflesh fused to Interpol, which sounds like a weird, but an AWESOME combo, especially the final salvo, where the vocals are belted out, and the song is transformed into something seriously dark and emotional. The rest of the record is equally progressive and emotional and WEIRD, the second track is a dense slab of math metal chug and churn, a definite AmRep thing going on, but much more abject and downtuned, and like that first track, the band deftly incorporate all sorts of unlikely melody and still more clean vox. From there on out, it's a constant battle between light and dark, noise and melody, the sort of sonic tension that makes for compelling heaviness, "Days Of Vagrancy" taking those massive drums, and wreathing them in woozy, heavily effected guitars, and thick caustic bass buzz, the result more atmospheric than brutal, at times reminding us of eternal aQ faves Geronimo, that sort of almost motorik pound and mesmerizing bassline, surrounding by swirling clouds of noise and FX. "Did You Ever Need Me" is some seriously heartfelt indie rock / post rock in industrialblacknoise's clothing, stripped of the huge drums and buzzing guitars, it might pass for pure indie rock, but but instead, the sonic heft and underpinning darkness elevate Br0wn Angel's sound to something much more intense, and emotionally resonant. The last two tracks offer up more of BA's new twisted industrial / metal / gloom pop hybrid, seems like exactly the sort of thing fans of Pinkish Black and Wreck And Reference would dig big time. Sad that this is the last we'll hear from these guys, but like we said, we couldn't have hoped for a better final missive. The lp includes a cd-r, that contains both the new record, AND the self titled debut, which we described thusly: Br0wn Angel (yeah, that's Br0wn with a zero) hail from Pittsburgh, and offer up a heaving helping of blown out, super industrial metallic crunch, some strange hybrid of Godflesh, Author & Punisher, Big Black, and Jesu, but they add all sorts of unlikely stuff that makes this SO much more than just wannabe Streetcleaner. The opening track alone should have metaldrone obsessives in a trance, it's a blackened doomdrone raga, that finds these guys weaving a sprawling landscape of crumbling, superdistorted guitar crunch, a bit like SUNNO))) but way more melodic, infusing this blackened crawl with chiming melodies, strangely melodic seeing as they're set amidst barren fields of crumble and pound, the sound thick, gristly, but warm, and thick, and then the vocals come in, and they're quite unexpected, a monk-like chant, transforming the song into something way more ritualistic and spiritual, and we can tell you, if that first song had been stretched out to fill up both sides, we would have been pleased as punch, but instead, the band do get way more metallic and propulsive, the sound thickening into a sort of slowed down tarpit Austerity Program, thick guitars, lots of harmonics, streaks of feedback, starts and stops, ultra dynamic, sheets of guitar skree over black industrial creeps and proto industrial metal pummel, which again would have been just fine, but these guys continue to twist and tangle up their sound, occasionally launching into full on progged out math rock, but just as often slipping into some sort of super sludge death march, the interesting part is how those two sides bleed into that plodding, industrial core, creating a fucked up hybrid that is all their own.

MPEG stream: You Can Find Heartbreak Anywhere
MPEG stream: Days Of Vagrancy
MPEG stream: Did You Ever Even Need Me

Br0wn Angel (yeah, that's Br0wn with a zero) hail from Pittsburgh, and offer up a heaving helping of blown out, super industrial metallic crunch, some strange hybrid of Godflesh, Author & Punisher, Big Black, and Jesu, but they add all sorts of unlikely stuff that makes this SO much more than just wannabe Streetcleaner. The opening track alone should have metaldrone obsessives in a trance, it's a blackened doomdrone raga, that finds these guys weaving a sprawling landscape of crumbling, superdistorted guitar crunch, a bit like SUNNO))) but way more melodic, infusing this blackened crawl with chiming melodies, strangely melodic seeing as they're set amidst barren fields of crumble and pound, the sound thick, gristly, but warm, and thick, and then the vocals come in, and they're quite unexpected, a monk-like chant, transforming the song into something way more ritualistic and spiritual, and we can tell you, if that first song had been stretched out to fill up both sides, we would have been pleased as punch, but instead, the band do get way more metallic and propulsive, the sound thickening into a sort of slowed down tarpit Austerity Program, thick guitars, lots of harmonics, streaks of feedback, starts and stops, ultra dynamic, sheets of guitar skree over black industrial creeps and proto industrial metal pummel, which again would have been just fine, but these guys continue to twist and tangle up their sound, occasionally launching into full on progged out math rock, but just as often slipping into some sort of super sludge death march, the interesting part is how those two sides bleed into that plodding, industrial core, creating a fucked up hybrid that is all their own. LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!! Packaged in super swank, metallic bronze silk screened covers, each on hand numbered, and each one with a random photograph insert.

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

SORRY. A few lists back, we reviewed the debut lp from Pittsburgh heavies Br0wn Angel (and yeah, that's brown with a zero, not an 'o'), a fantastic and fantastically heavy chunk of industrial metallic crunch, that reminded us of everyone from Swans to Godflesh to SUNNO))) to Jesu, a perfect blend of hazy washed out melody and lumbering Teutonic crush, rhythmic and ritualistic, even a little proggy/mathy at points. Well, the band got in touch with us, and sent us their VERY LAST copies of their first demo, the wonderfully titled Vomitter, and while the vibe is similar, the sound is definitely way more raw and lo-fi. The opening track is a surprisingly warm and dreamy bit of buzz drenched crumble, all glitchy and rapidly decaying, like the guys plugged their guitars directly into an old transistor radio with dying batteries, making it sound like some alien Appalachia, definitely reminding us of Amps For Christ, but the sound finally switches to something more in keeping with their lp, twisted shards of feedback, barely audible drum pummel, super distorted voices, the tape hiss and warped recording more prominent than the instruments themselves, the songs really only barely audible through the cloud of crunch and buzz and whir and rumble, the sound peaking, and those peaks becoming just another blown out rhythm. Not heavy so much as distorted to fucking high heaven, and in the process transformed into some sort of experimental textural rhythmic outsider drone-noise weirdness. They do an Arab On Radar cover too apparently, although you'd be hard pressed to tell. We're digging this a lot, and imagining, that it might not be nearly so amazing sans the noise and sonic detritus. Features members of the Microwaves and Creation Is Crucifixion, and is already out of print, we have the last 7 or 8 copies. Each one hand painted.

Good grief, "Drain'd Boner" would be a stupid title, of course, if it wasn't so brilliant, in this case. That clever play on words heralds the return of the Julian "Druid dude" Cope's heavier-than-thou, super-Stoogey "stupor groop" Brain Donor, also featuring members of Spiritualized releasing their inner cock rock axe demons. The resultant splooge comes close to Mainliner, High Rise, Acid Mothers Temple territory, especially on track two, the ten minute "Nagasaki Mushroom" which is a suitably apocalyptic, head nodding heavy guitar grind... meanwhile other tracks like the more uptempo "Where Do We Take U?" (some sort of Hawkwind meets UK post punk ditty) demonstrate the English origins of these pagan rockers. Definitely lots to love here for fans of drunken, droning punk-metal psychedelic sludge! Kinda like Vincent Black Shadow playing the SUNNO))) songbook. Nicely packaged, as well, in a slipcased jewelcase.

MPEG stream: Nagasaki Mushroom
MPEG stream: Just About Now
MPEG stream: Metsamor (First Place Of Metal)

Stooges. That's not what these guys are, but it's who they'd like to be! As in Iggy and the. They wanna be your dog and do a damn good job of it. A couple years ago we reviewed an import album and single from this band, the "stuporgroup" brainchild of psych rawk aficionado Julian Cope (of The Teardrop Explodes, now equally well known for his expertise in such subjects as krautrock and megalithic Europe), featuring Cope plus collaborators Thighpaulsandra (of Coil) and some pseudononymous guys from Spiritualized (Doggen and Kevlar). This domestically released cd compiles the key tracks from Brain Donor's 2001 Love Peace & Fuck album (the one we listed) and their Too Freud To Rock'n'roll, Too Jung To Die album from 2003. As we said before, they play propulsive, heavy Stooges-style punk rock (Iggyish vox, loads of distorted psychedelic/metal guitar skree), packing a lot of rock action into these tracks. Pure Detroit worship, done by guys who know what they're doing! With amps set to 11, titles like "My Pagan Ass" and the band done up in full glam regalia, it's hard to say this is more than dumb, good fun, but really that's enuff isn't it? Hopefully they'll follow up this release with a new album soon (supposedly being recorded here in San Francisco with members of Monoshock!)...otherwise we'll be left waiting for the next Mudhoney, or a Thee Hypnotics reunion, to get our Stoogey rock fix.

MPEG stream: My Pagan Ass
MPEG stream: Shaman U.F.O.

With a name like Brain Drill, you can pretty much imagine what to expect. Which is what had some of us so flipped out over Brain Drill's debut Apocalyptic Feasting (which somehow didn't get reviewed here, but we could still order it for you though!), a furious ultra technical blast of insanely complex death metal, pretty much universally dissed for being more about parts and technical craziness than songs, but again, pretty sure that's what made it so appealing. Like a big budget version of aQ faves Necrophagist, Brain Drill cram about a million parts into every song, filling every nook and cranny with bursts of frenzied leads, tangled melodies, the songs stuttering and lurching and leaping from time signature to time signature. That said, we found that record to be weirdly catchy, despite what everyone was saying, they pretty much became our new favorite (technical) death metal band. So here we are, two years later, and Brain Drill return, and if anything, the songs are even more chaotic and over the top, the guitar playing is even more ridiculously INSANE, and the songs are again dizzyingly, head spinningly convoluted. This time around, the sound is way better, the production thicker and heavier, more leads all over the place, but much like the first record, it's an awesomely insane exercise in death metal excess, the whole record playing out like a single multi movement death metal epic, chugging and thrashing and grinding, crunch and squeal and pound and grunt and buzz, guitar squiggles everywhere, the drumming relentless and frantic, but again, they manage to make this stuff, as insane and UNmusical as it seems to some folks, sound downright catchy to these ears. The whole thing culminates in the epic 16 minute title track (when's the last time you heard a 16 minute death metal jam?) a sprawling, expansive, uber complex, hyper grind monstrosity, rife with some surprisingly melodic elements, those moments deftly tangled up in ever shifting squalls of jagged death metal crunch and buzz, before finally disappearing in a cloud of shimmery black ambience, buried vocals, murky melodies, a strangely haunting drifting outro to an otherwise exhausting mayhemic metal workout. So awesome.

MPEG stream: Obliteration Untold
MPEG stream: Beyond Bludgeoned
MPEG stream: Awaiting Imminent Destruction

Who would have thought that the joyous occasion of the first tUMULt 7" vinyl release would also bring such sadness and despair. But sadly it's true, the Brainbombs are no more. But thankfully, they've gone out with a bang. The bang being this grungy, scuzzy, pummelling 45 rpm, two song farewell kick in the face. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Sweden's Brainbombs, think prime Stooges, recorded in a smelly sweaty basement, on a boom box, amidst scattered porno mags, corpses, weapons and human excrement. While a whining vocalist spits up mysogynistic and misanthropic tales of hyper violence. Then add in the occasional bleat of a demented-jazz trumpet and some fucked up fuzzy blown-tweeter bass. So good. And these two tracks are some of the best Brianbombs material ever. The A side starts with a stuttery, super distorted beat before the sky collapses and you're buried in a pile of violently squirming barbed wire guitars, while a ghostly, sort-of-Eastern melody weaves surreptitiously through the melee. Track two trawls similarly dark territory, a 'Fun House'-ish dirge with a warbley trumpet melody desperately trying to keep from being sucked under by the muck and grime. While the Brainbombs may be dead, they have not entirely ruled out the possibility of more mayhem in the future. But for now, this is a suitably brutal and brilliant epitaph. On thick white vinyl. And we mean THICK. Maybe the thickest vinyl we've ever seen!! Seriously, it's like a ceramic salad plate or something! ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*

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

SORRY. Holy fuck! The return of the Brainbombs! We thought they were dead and gone, but thank the gods of misanthropic sludge, these Swedish masters of the vile, ultra-violent, vicious, grungy garage-sludge-jazz dirge have returned. Two short blasts of Stooges-ish fuzzed out and filthy garage rock, filtered through the misanthropic lyrical lens of Whitehouse and the sludgy sieve of the Melvins. Or something like that. Who cares? You know the Brainbombs rule and you know you need this record and you know we should be on our knees begging for mercy at the feet of one of the best bands ever!

We've raved about these damaged metal weirdos in the past, from their band name (with its constantly shifting spelling), to the always garish and usually puerile cover art, from the amazing song titles (always "Something OF Something Else") to the amazing warped take on classic metal, and that's not even mentioning the twisted lyrics and ridiculous vox. As we mentioned before in a past review, we first discovered these guys on a split with faux handicapped metal outcasts Faxed Head, which makes perfect sense, these guys seem like Faxed Head's more earnest, equally drug addled little brothers, and their half of that 7" consisted of nothing but metal song intros, repeated over and over and over. Twisted but genius. The lps are not so high concept, in fact if anything, they're extremely LOW concept. This lp is not a new one, in fact, it's a reissue of an early record, but even back then, all the Breathilizor parts were in place. Album name: "For The Ultimate Pain Of Medusa's Love a.k.a. Evil Grotokhan VI". Check. Cover art: a drawing by the infamous Mike Diana (of Boiled Angel infamy) of a snake headed, Old Crow drinking, satellite crashing (?), limb severing monster lady. Check. Song titles: "Baby Of Witch", "Graveyard Of Night", "Nuclear Of Power", "Sombrero Of Doom", "Dracula Of Hell", and of course "Something Of Something Pt. IV". Check. The music: total classic metal riffing, with harmonized lead guitars, occasional bursts of blasting thrash, but usually more sort of eighties style riffery, and the vocals, ridiculous and over the top, sorta raspy and metally but also goofy and almost cartoonish, ridiculous over the top lyrics, shit, what's not to love. Total classic weirdo whatthefuck outsider metal radness! Includes a printed insert with all the LYRICS!!!

These guys have to be the dumbest, most brilliantly demented and damaged metal band ever. Which we know, is saying a lot, cuz as a genre, you'd be hard pressed to find a more concentrated selection of dumbness and ridiculousness, but then there is Breathilizor, tangentially linked to Midwestern retardo punks Sockeye, these guys first came to our attention via a split single with the legendary, and legendarily silly Faxed Head, the Breathilizor side was basically an epic metal intro played over and over and over and over. Every time, just when you thought the song was about to kick in, they'd play the intro again. And again. Sounds annoying, and it sort of was, but it was also funny as fuck, and the thing was, the metal was AWESOME. It didn't even occur to us that they might still be a band, but the man behind black metal weirdos Cloak Of Displacement decided to put us in touch with them and are we ever glad they did. Apparently, they've released an lp, and a clutch of cd-r's, but this here, is their latest, the ridiculously titled Metal Dump Of Outer Space's Confusion AKA Hamburglar's Toast. And it rules. And it's totally dumb. Let us count the ways we love Breathilizor. One: They change the spelling of their name seemingly arbitrarily from Breathilizor to Breathilizer and back again, whenever. Two: Every song is called "Something OF Something Else". Every song. On every record. This time around it's "Creatures Of Prehistoric", "Pirate Ship Of U.F.O.", "Monster Of Loch Ness", Count Chocula Of Blood", "Demon Of Ice", "Ghost Of Cowboy", "Gnome Of Entrapment" and "SLC Of Death Metal". Three: The music rules. They lay down some killer classic sounding metal, chugging hooky riffs, wild leads, pounding drums, somewhere between slowed down death metal and classic New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Four: That classic timeless metal is balanced by totally goofy insane and ridiculous vocals, a whiney nasally Venom-y voice that more speaks than sings, cramming way too many words into each line, and spitting out some of the most ridiculous shit ever. Tales of monsters and demons and space and aliens and basically anything they think of. We could go on, but by now, you know if you need this or not. The dumb factor is through the roof, but goddamn it's funny, and the songs rule, and there are lyrics too so you can follow along, which only makes it that much funnier and stupidly brilliant.

Easily the world's most twisted outsider metal mashup. Damaged and demented aQ faves, Midwest metal militia Breathilizor (to read more about our undying love of Breathilizor, check out the review of their Metal Dump 7" elsewhere on the aQ website), teamed up here with the brilliantly monikered Doktor Bitch, who we know absolutely nothing about, but who somehow sound like Breathilizor's sick sonic soulmates. Before we get to the music, we sometimes like to take in all the visuals, all the non musical elements that help set the scene, and in this case, what a scene. Let's take the Breathilizor side first. The cover art is incredible, super glossy and full color, some sort of zombie holiday elf, horned and fanged, eating the brain and chewing on the spind of a soon to be deceased metalhead, all beneath the album title: Imperative Of The Electron Snake AKA Baffled By The Blood Moat, and their awesome, super slick new logo. Inside, there are band photos, assembled in the shape of an upside down cross, some of the band wearing corpsepaint, some regular dudes, and much mayhem and destruction evident. There's also the legend: "Breathilizor is a nun's laughter. A nun's laughter is Breathilizor." Hmmm. And then there are the song titles, as we mentioned in the review of their 7", the songs follow a strict title code of "SOMETHING ---OF--- SOMETHING ELSE", so this time around, it's "Troll Of Spinal Chord's Destruction" (guess that's a troll on the cover), "Mountain Of Manson", "Stevie Nicks Of Goat Head Metal", "Virus Of Hollywood Sequel", "Infirmities Of Metal", "Albatross Of Gossamer", "Softball League Of Satan" and "Something Of Something Part VII". And we won't even get into the lyrics, needless to say, they are insane and brilliant. On to the Doktor Bitch side, another glossy full color cover, this one featuring a brain fondling radioactive zombie, some Japanese characters in a square puddle of blood, and the band name in big 3D blood red letters. Inside over a photo of seamonsters beating each other with sticks, the band members are listed: Alozzamas, Necroponde and Pat Minotaur, as are the song titles: "Lavender Trainwreck", "Axial Rake/Radius Gash", "Have 'N A Relapse", "Vaguilla", "How Is That For Evil? (For Poopy)", "Super Fast Night Dump" and finally "You Chop My Head Off". There are liner notes to, most tellingly, thank you's sent out to "butt, eggs, ciggies and inmates". So after all that, what the hell does it sound like? And why do both sides/halves seem like they could be the same band? Well, that's cuz some of the Breathilizors are also in Doktor Bitch! So for those not familiar with Breathilizor, imagine some sort of classic chugging metal, a dizzying mix of Venom and Slayer, all tangled up with elements of doom and sludge, but focused mostly on riff heavy super rocking, and blasting thrashing heaviness, then of course there are the lyrics, delivered in a strange nasally drawl, a sort of underground outsider metal version of Jello Biafra maybe, jamming tons of words into small spaces, spinning far out yarns, and tales of the impossible, and the unknowable and the downright evil! Doktor Bitch, somehow take the Breathilizor sound, and fuck it even further up, wrapping it in sonic murk, and transforming it it into a grinding punky metallic noise rock, plenty of chugging riffage, but those riffs often collapse into tangled gnarled squalls of churning blackened metalnoize, before eventually returning to the riff. The vocals are grunted and gurgly, the sound chaotic and loose and frenzied, laced with the occasional bit of lead guitar, but mostly heavy on the downtuned low end, a muddy, blackened sludge drenched riff rock to counter Breathilizor's by-comparison classic (albeit fucked up and fractured) metal sound. Needless to say, if you like your heaviness damaged and demented and baffling and confusional and whatthefuck, then you just may have found you weirdo metal dream team match up.

Finally managed to get enough of these to list, the debut release from the oddly monikered Brennendes Gehirn, aka Matt Harries, who in his guise as BG, creates dense, stormy landscapes of sound, crumbling distorted atmospheres and murky buried melodies, squall of bristling chaotic blacknoise, and dark sprawls of haunting minimal drift. A mix of black ambience, post industrial, and electronic soundscaping, BG is the sort of thing that should appeal to fans of Tenhornedbeast, MZ412, Wolf Eyes, Wraiths, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Scorn and the like. Scorn seems like an odd one to include, but it's an occasional tendency toward a sort of beat driven sound that makes this truly unique, while the opening track follows a fairly standard slow build, from creeping drone-y dread to explosive roiling heaviness, the second track mixes it up, launching right into a blast of blaring howl and skree, but letting those sounds settle, and blur into each other, creating a sort of gauzy sonic patina beneath which melodies drift and unfurl, layers shift and transform, it's a drone, and a noisy one at that, but it's super active and constantly in motion, with the sort of momentum that this sort of sound usually lacks. "Annihilation (Awakens New Life)" is where it starts to get REALLY good, a looped sample of some sort of zither, over a simple hand drum rhythm, all over a dense undulating sprawl of crumbling superdistorted blackness, then some female vocals come in, are doused with effects, and the track lurches into motion, a sort of Muslimgauze via Merzbow, tripped out and heavy, but darkly rhythmic, the noise is peeled away, the drums skitter and shuffle, and then the noise returns TENfold, a massive cascade of churning almost metallic sounding riffage (although it sounds like some strange sample), before drifting off in a haze of blur and buzz. Then there's "Elegie Fur Clemens Scheitz", which is a fantastically grimy slab of downtempo loop-age, like Portishead looped and spinning at 16 rpm, super druggy and totally mesmerizing, the beat and groove surrounded on all sides by heaving barrages of noise, might be the coolest track here. But hang on for the epic 21 minute closer, that again sets a super abstract echo drenched beat down, in a wide open expanse of weird reverby emptiness, the beat never really gaining any sort of momentum, instead, the sounds seem to get more and more low fidelity, the track a slow smoldering ur-drone, constantly changing timbre, from murky and muddy, to bright and brittle, and finally to psychedelic cacophony. Interestingly enough, that 'beat' surfaces subtly throughout, as does a strange sampled voice (from Mullholland Drive), finishing off with some melancholic piano, and a surprising final burst of caustic noise. Beautifully packaged in hand stamped cardstock digpak style sleeves, released on Ordo Pestilentia, the label run by Wraiths, and most likely very very limited.

MPEG stream: Over Man And Beast His Flaming Sword
MPEG stream: Chorea Imagnativa Aestimative

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

SORRY. Digipak. Brimstone play melodic, Hammerfall-style metal with raspy black metal-style vocals.

Finally managed to snag a few copies of this recent retro-doom obscurity from last year, the debut album by a band masterminded by one Howie Bentley, the guitarist of an equally obscure power metal outfit from the '90s called Cauldron Born. Lyrically and atmospherically, it's inspired by classic Hammer horror films and Sheridan Le Fanu's gothic vampire novel Carmilla, along with an assortment of other weird fiction and poetry. Musically, it's all about chugging doom RIFFS, total Black Sabbath/Witchfinder General/Pagan Altar worship, heavy guitars thick with fuzz... Vocal duties are handled by Phil Swanson, whom AQ customers may know as the voice of Hour Of 13 and Seamount, among other stoner/doom acts. His depressive Ozzy-ish delivery fits the arcane, Sabbathy vibe quite well, this sounding something like a more "cult" Hour Of 13. Bentley himself takes over the mic for the album's last and most lengthy track, the 13 and a half minute "Karnstein Castle", and his much deeper voice, droning away, only increases the doom factor. Old school occult-metal obsessives should check this out while we've got 'em... Gotta mention the band photos, each band member pictured individually, out in the winter woods someplace. We find 'em amusing, in that it kinda looks like all three of the trio could be the same person in different stages of life...

MPEG stream: Carmilla
MPEG stream: A Meeting In The Woods
MPEG stream: Karnstein Castle

By now, most metalheads know all bout Encyclopedia Metallum, pretty much the ultimate online resource for all things metal. Need to know what member of some band is in another band, what year some demo was released, what a band's particular lyrical themes are, it really is pretty amazing. Like a heavy metal Wikipedia. But unlike Wikipedia, bands and entries have to be approved by the moderators before they make it onto Encyclopedia Metallum, and there are some rules. Which ends up producing some pretty heated and amusing flame wars, mostly by bands who were rejected for one reason or another, usually for not being metal enough! We stumbled on one such exchange regarding this record right here, but the strangely named Brobdingnagian. Who according to the Metallum head honchos were just not metal enough. Too noisy, too droney, to be honest, it all seems a bit arbitrary, cuz to our ears, this is pretty fucking black, and pretty goddamn heavy, and most definitely metal. That said, much of this ep is pent not blasting or buzzing, but droning, and rumbling, and crashing industrially, which as far as we're concerned is pretty excellent. Think Abruptum, Emit, that sort of thing, but injected with the occasional blast of furiously blasting blackness. The opening track begins with soft sheets of feedback, rumbling downtuned doom guitar, mysterious voices buried in the mix, the feedback creating truly creepy textures over the lumbering plod, before the band launch into a frenzied blown out super raw black metal freakout, buzzing guitars, harsh vox, blasting drums, eventually petering out leaving another long stretch of deep droning ambience. The second track is way more abstract, and a bit industrial, a harsher Wolf Eyes, tons of feedback and high end buzzing, a crunchy machine like rhythm, that sounds like trucks being dropped from a crane, clouds of hiss and glitch, almost like a lo-fi noise rock Khanate. The title track offers up another sprawling expanse of doomy minimalism, buried beneath a sea of glistening crackles and campfire buzz, thick corrosive rumbles, and more harsh hellish vocals, until the track stumbles back into another raw blast of super primitive black metal fury, and the closer is almost all lasting buzz, off kilter and freaked out, heavy and black, and be sure to stick around for the hidden bonus track, where the band take on a cover that should for sure prove their metal meddle.

MPEG stream: Smeared Face In The Ruins
MPEG stream: Harvester Of Disease

Man, is it just me (Allan) or is Brocas Helm the best band ever?? Don't answer that...I know the answer. They are. If true old school cult fantasy heavy metal rock and roll is your thing, you might even agree. We listed the reish of their 1984 debut Into Battle last list, now here's further proof of their mastery (or my insanity), 1347's, no, I mean, 1988's Black Death! It's been on cd before, but this new reissue is a superior version, adding five bonus tracks from their 1989 demo Helm's Deep and also a bonus mpeg video clip of "Prepare For Battle" being played live with (extra guitar craziness) at an unspecified date in the early '80s. They've been described as "Iron Maiden on acid" (by Martin Popoff) and that's a good call. Especially on this album, wherein Brocas Helm's mighty medieval metal is cloaked in a miasma of spaced-out psychedelic effects, a claustrophobic production courtesy of their own home studio "The Caverns Of Doom". Brocas Helm's frantic yet majestic songs claw through the mists, guitarist/vocalist Bobbie Wright's over the top guitar shred and faux-British enunciation always triumphant, forevermore... I'm serious. Maybe you have to see 'em to really understand. But they one of the best metal bands ever. If you don't believe me, just ask the guys in Slough Feg. Ok, maybe they're biased, since if they'd started 15 years before they did they'd BE Brocas Helm... but Brocas are gods. That is my faith, and Black Death a holy relic.

MPEG stream: Black Death
MPEG stream: The Chemist

At long last, two new tracks on wax from these San Francisco metal legends! If you're into '80s metal, you need to know about Brocas Helm. Their first album came out in '84, their second in '88, and we're still waiting for their third! But, despite their glacially slow pace of releases, this new single now exists. Melodic, rough edged vocals, lots and lots of guitar, bass and drums,

You'd half-expect to have to venture to a far off foreign land and besige the walls of a lofty, mist-enshrouded castle in order to obtain metal this "true", but the legendary Brocas Helm hail from here in San Francisco and bring these discs straight to us. It did, however, take them SIXTEEN years to release this, their third album, the long awaited follow-up to 1988's Black Death! That's right. And the wait was indeed worth it, for fans like myself anyway. After all, it's got some of my (Allan's) favorite metal songs *ever* on it, like "Time Of The Dark"! A simply classic galloping metal steed, of which there's a whole herd here. If you're lucky enough to live in SF and smart enough to go see these guys, you'll already be familiar with some of the songs on this disc (like that aforementioned favorite) -- likewise if you're a fan who possesses their last two rare 7" singles or decade-old demo tape. But there's also stuff here too I'd never heard before, all living up to the Brocas Helm standard of questing metal might. Although recorded, as always, in their home studio the Caverns of Thunder, this IS certainly their best sounding release...but being polished and tight and up-to-date is not what these guys are about anyway. They're on their own planet, where '80s metal reigns supreme but someone put drugs in the drinking water. Speaking of drinking,there's two songs about drinking on here: one's a not very PC, hopefully tongue-in-cheek tune called "Drink and Drive" (one of the lyrics goes: "Drink and drive/drink and drive/got mothers against me/but I'm still alive"). The other is a grandiose metal statement entitled "Drink The Blood Of The Priest"! Silly and/or Satanic, sure, but damn I like 'em. Anyway that should give you an idea of the sort of punkish eccentricity the Brocas Helm troops muster. I probably can't really convey how good these guys are, and how metal...they have years of experience, unconquerable enthusiasm, and basically just know how the heck to ROCK. This was self-released for reasons known only to the band, as there were no dearth of dedicated cult metal labels in Greece and Germany who'd have loved to put this out...no matter, though the self-release does LOOK self-released too, which perhaps gives it more of an appropriately '80s underground vibe anyway. Y'know, old Manowar, Cirith Ungol, Omen, Manilla Road. So as you might guess, this is probably ESSENTIAL for any fan of The Lord Weird Slough Feg. By some cosmic coincidence, they just happen to live in the same city, and had a lot of the same influences...and are equally insane. Really it's absurd how alike they sound (and though they're fans of one another, they both already sounded the way they did long before having a metal rendezvous here in SF). So any 'Feg fan ought to get this for sure. And here's hoping that we won't have to wait another 16 years for more from these guys (I might be too old for this by then!)...

MPEG stream: Ghost Story
MPEG stream: Defender Of The Crown
MPEG stream: Time Of The Dark

Brocas Helm! Brocas Helm!!! BROCAS HELM!!! That's the crowd chant that automatically sings in our brain as we behold this, a deluxe double vinyl collection of this cult San Francisco true metal band's several mighty demo tapes from over the years - thirty years! A labor of love on the part of the Buried By Time And Dust label, in honor of one of the best heavy metal bands ever to walk the Earth (so sez Allan, go read his other Brocas Helm reviews for further hyperbole!). NWOBHM-ish, triumphant, (literally) fantastic, old school metal mastery here. Eccentric medieval metal whose closest contemporary comparison would be (much younger) brothers-in-arms Slough Feg, so its very much recommended to fans of that band. "Iron Maiden on acid" also isn't far off the mark. What you get here is as follows - Side A: Into Battle demo (1983), Side B: Black Death demo (1987), Side C: Helms Deep demo (1989), Side D: Ghost Story EP (1994). There's 19 tracks in all, all of 'em killer, including the raw original versions of faves like "Ravenwreck", "Into the Ithilstone", and "Time Of The Dark". All but one of these songs later appeared on Brocas Helm's three full-length albums - Into Battle (1984), Black Death (1988), and Defender Of The Crown (2004) - and since these represent some of the best tracks on 'em, this double lp then functions sort of like a Brocas Helm "Best Of". It's obviously meant for those who are already dedicated fans of the band, but since their albums are now hard to come by, anyone who can dig some underground '80s heavy metal at its utmost in galloping, guitar shredding glory might just wanna pick this up. This LIMITED vinyl release comes with an 8 page booklet with full demo artwork, lyrics, pictures, old fliers, etc. plus a vintage gig poster reproduction. Brocas Helm! Brocas Helm!!! BROCAS HELM!!!

MPEG stream: Ravenwreck (demo)
MPEG stream: Beneath A Haunted Moon (demo)

YES! It's about time this was reissued! A cult metal fave, this debut record from San Francisco underground true metal masters Brocas Helm was originally released on LP by a label called First Strike back in 1984. The only cd edition of this was released in Germany long, long ago and is just as tough to find as the vinyl itself, not to mention that it was a budget release without even a track listing in the cd booklet, just a catalog of other cd reissues by various '80s contemporaries of Brocas Helm like Iron Angel, Trouble, Leatherwolf, Tokyo Blade, and Wendy O. Williams! Now, more than 20 years after its first appearance, here's a much more reverently presented cd reissue complete with five bonus tracks (from their 1983 Into Battle demo) and, better yet, a bonus live mpeg video of the band (with 2 guitar lineup) performing Allan's favorite Brocas Helm track, "Ravenwreck", live at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco in '83, in front of a crowd of raging 'bangers. About the only thing to complain about this reissue is that for some dumb reason they've put some new and not so great cover art on the front, with the album's original (and to be fair, also not so great) art only included inside the booklet, thumbnail sized...why?? But that hardly matters, what's important is that now a new generation of metal fans can hear why this band is mentioned alongside the legendary likes of Cirith Ungol and Manilla Road (if you're wondering who those bands are, well, just think Iron Maiden but way more obscure). Into Battle is a proud and powerful album of hyperkinetic epicks. It's fantasy metal that pounds beers and gobbles acid and loves to rock and roll, weaving in psychedelic elements as well. The songs are about wizards and warriors, but also with lyrics actually about guitars and amplifiers too! Definitely inspired by the NWOBHM and also '70s hard rock like Thin Lizzy, Van Halen, and Riot, Brocas Helm's debut might have catapulted them to commerical success in the '80s metal world if only more people had ever heard it... though the San Francisco Bay Area was a hotbed of metal activity, with Metallica, Exodus, Testament, and many others breaking big, Brocas was perhaps just too eccentric and medieval to make it. Fortunately they never gave up, so the brave and bold can STILL go see these guys play and slay here in San Francisco now and then. They've released two other albums since Into Battle, those being 1988's Black Death (also just reissued on Eat Metal, to be reviewed here next list) and after a sixteen year wait, 2004's Defender Of The Crown! All are brilliant, with Into Battle being both essential for fans and the obvious place to start if you're new to the band. With their galloping tunes, heroic vocals and guitar shred, Brocas Helm are metal incarnate. If you like their spiritual brothers (nephews?) Slough Feg, you'll like Brocas Helm!!

MPEG stream: Ravenwreck
MPEG stream: Into The Ithilstone

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

SORRY.

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

SORRY.

[ aquarius records — Metal ]