[ aquarius records

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 951 through 1000 of 5570.

This is one of the coolest, weirdest takes on the metalcore sound we've heard. Broken Promises are from Belgium, and their sound is equal parts full on metalcore mayhem, and dynamic restraint (read: space). The first song is epic, with a repeating, muted

RealAudio clip: Preparation: The Ultimate Drug
RealAudio clip: Self-Destruction: The Reason I Hit Myself

We got this crazy message via email one day: "I am one of Paul Kersey's neighbor's kids. He told my dad to let him come over and jam with us from time to time. Last night we made some more songs. He scared us some, because he said now was the time to have the songs listened to. So then we recorded all our songs on to my computer. Please play them in the record store. Mr. Kersey said for me to find out where the songs can be played to creeps." So of course we emailed and said "Right here!". Plenty of creeps here who want to hear some crazy rock noise from a band called Bronson, or maybe Bronson Wastes Creeps, we're not sure. So the discs showed up, and feature a picture of Charles Bronson on the cover pointing a gun at the camera, but the barrel of the gun is a microphone. And the songs are called things like "What Do You Do When Your Son Is A Creep", "Punk Rock Creeps", "Streets Without Creeps", you get it. For those who don't know, Paul Kersey is the character Bronson plays in Death Wish, and thus, the sound of Bronson (Wastes Creeps), is a sort of filthy punky Stooges-y jam, chaotic stumbling drumming, guitars wrapped in distortion and phaser, chunky riffing, sort of a not as intense Brainbombs maybe, a bit of space rock, but over the top of those jams, Paul Kersey spits a stream of obscenities, an endless monologue about various weird shit, even some atonal karaoke style singing. Some of the tracks are just Kersey blathering on and on over a field of random samples, lots of creep bashing, goofy and dumb, but just wacked enough that weirdo music freaks will go nuts for this. Definitely something you might here on WFMU at 3am, which obviously means recommended, but only for the sort of folks into weird goofy shit, and who are up listening to freeform radio in the middle of the night. You know who you are.

MPEG stream: Beaurocratic Rat Fuck
MPEG stream: Streets Without Creeps

Second release from this mysterious one man black metal band from Texas. The debut Brown Jenkins record, Dagonite, was a bit of a sleeper hit around here. It took people a while to warm up the very unmetal name (although as we mentioned it is from a Lovecraft story) and the strange murky blurred sound. Not everybody though, the weirdo black metal obsessives here were all over Angel Eyes in a heartbeat. How could we not be, a black metal band that trafficked in a strange woozy ethereal murk, whose songs didn't buzz so much as ooze, the riffs slippery and slithery, the bliss out factor pretty high for something this grim and heavy. We were a bit surprised to see a new record show up so hot on the heels of the first, but we're psyched. We had just about played that first one down to a little plastic nub. So here's record number two, and damn if the murk of the original doesn't sound a little bit buzzier this time around. But somehow even still, it manages to merge the murk of Dagonite with a more Burzumy buzz, and the result is another record that manages to sound both true, grim and black, but unlike almost any other black metal record you've heard. The tempos are slow, midtempo bordering on doom. The sound is depressive and dark, minor key and miserable, the guitar parts are languorous and arpeggiated, the chords pulled apart into cascades of notes, each one wreathed in that strange murky buzz, the drums pound away, but they almost don't enter into the equation as they're so buried in the mix. The vocals a haunting howled wooly mammoth bellow bordering on death metal gurgle. When the tracks do speed up, they transform into some drone-y hypnotic post rock, the guitar parts blurred into near static streaks of fuzz, but they quickly slip back into some sort of plodding doomic trudge or mesmerizing slow motion lurch. The sticker on the front of the cd compares Angel Eyes to a cross between Jesu and Bathory, while someone else says Hellhammer/Burzum crossed with Swans/Earth. And there are definitely elements of those matchups, we also hear some twisted blackened post rock a la Deathspell's Kenose, but none of that accounts for the twisted Ginn-ish riffs, the off kilter atonal melodies, that totally unique buzzy murk, to us it sounds more like Morbid Angel, played at 16 rpm, broadcast through busted 1000 watt speakers, heard through a pair of earmuffs, but that's just the sonic element, the songs too are pretty unique, and those DO sound pretty Swans-y, from seasick sway to relentless pound, to lugubrious crawl, stopping, starting, speeding up, slowing down, each track some sort of blown out, extended riffdrone post punk, black metal doom jam, and once again we can't get enough.

MPEG stream: Black Procession
MPEG stream: Angel Eyes

Brown Jenkins sounds like a pretty unlikely name for a black metal band, until you realize it's from an HP Lovecraft story. And the cover is sort of an unlikely image for a black metal record as well, just two hands playing a guitar, against a field of black. But then Dagonite is a very unlikely sounding black metal record. This one man band from Texas, manages to weave an incredibly drone-y doomy black web, no furious buzzing or relentless blasting. Instead, it's murky and woozy, warbly and dissonant, heavy on the drone and the atmosphere, there are barely any vocals and when they do surface, they are more moans and howls than actual vocals, just another layer of blacknoise. The tempos go from mid, to total doom, but are more complicated than normal, with a bit of mathiness to them, a definite post rock vibe, sometimes the black fog dissipates, allowing the riffs to lock in and actually sort of groove, but even then, it's weirdly haunting and ominous, and not really rocking, more sort of lurching and seasick. Sometimes Brown Jenkins sounds like Velvet Cacoon slowed waaaay down, at other times they sound like a damaged druggy Ved Buens Ende, lots of loping arpeggiated melodies, and woozy riffage, but even when they're referencing other bands, they sound totally unique, a weird dark, drugged out fucked up black heaviness, as creepy and atmospheric as it is pummeling and relentless. Some sort of blackened slowcore, or post-doom blackness, fuck, who knows what to call it, but whatever it is, it's awesome. One of our favorite black metal (or whatever) records of last year (yeah, we're just getting around to reviewing it now) which will totally whet your appetite for their new record, which should be coming out soon! Can't wait.

MPEG stream: Blessed
MPEG stream: Dagonite

Full length number three from this mysterious Texan one man band, whose blend of Burzumic black metal and blown out distortion drenched shoegaze has made this a longtime favorite around here. And even though the record opens with the most overtly metal track we've heard from this guy in ages, with its bellowed demonic vox and angular riffage, it still manages to be super warm and lush and in-the-red, with the guitars SO distorted they seem on the verge of crumbling. And that feel and vibe becomes even more pronounced as the record proceeds, slow, pounding, woozy weeping expanses of mournful melody, washed out guitar fuzz, loping basslines, with some seriously gorgeous poppy moments, like the strange looping bridge on "Ashes In Her Mouth", with its spidery little repeating motif, or the almost Alcest / Amesoeurs sounding main riff of "Lifetaker", the whole record is weirdly pretty, and melancholy, it's the black metal equivalent of looking at the world on a rainy day through a window streaked with water, the rivulets, distorting everything, making shapes twist and blur, smearing forms into one another, adding a surreal quality to everything, gauzy, fuzzy, indistinct, the tone of the guitars, so dripping with distortion, evokes the same sort of soft focus feel, even though the notes and vocals and songs are still plenty black and quite METAL. The mood is mournful, but not despondent, more like the sun struggling to shine trough pitch black clouds, the minor key melodies so intense and emotional, draped over simple driving rhythms, not blast beats here, and those guitars, to a certain degree, the defining sound of Brown Jenkins, even at its grimmest and meanest and most brutal, those guitars can't help but sound warm, washing over you, dragging you into whatever lurks below. So good. Definitely one of those rare BM records that manages to be simultaneously intense and heavy and seriously grim, but also dreamlike, mesmerizing and so so hypnotic. For the buzz obsessed, this makes some serious transcendent late night drifting off music...

MPEG stream: Breathless
MPEG stream: Ashes In Her Mouth
MPEG stream: Lifetaker

Latest entry in God Is Myth's ongoing series of 3"cd-r homages to horror author H.P. Lovecraft, and this one was really a no-brainer, inevitable considering the mysteriously monickered Brown Jenkins in fact took his name from a Lovecraft story (as did about a million other bands, but Brown Jenkins is one of the stranger ones) and whose music is obviously influenced by Lovecraft's writing. And according to the liner notes, Brown Jenkins is also influenced by Joy Division, Burzum, Bethlehem, Voivod, Godflesh, Possessed, Morbid Angel, Slayer, Merzbow, Gang Of Four, etc. Sounds like our kind of metal band. And BJ is in fact our kind of metal band, as we've gone on and on about in past reviews of Brown Jenkins full lengths, all of those disparate influences wound into a dark and gloomy blackened metal, that hardly adheres to the strict tenets of BM, instead, stretching them to their limits, incorporating blissed out drones, odd off kilter chords, strange melodies, as well as shades of pop, new wave and goth, but all wound into something distinctly, if not traditionally, BLACK METAL. So here, Umesh, aka Brown Jenkins, gets to honor the man who plays such an important part in his music. The sounds here are not particularly Lovecraftian, the lyrics are though, the music itself is twisted and angular, obtuse chords, mid tempos, the guitar not so much buzzing as thick and layered with lots of finger picking, melodies and chords shifting, more loping than blasting, the Voivod influence is especially prevalent here, tightly wound, almost new wavish at points but more sort of dark and moody, washed out, black metal for sure, but more mathy than buzzy. The closing track sounds like a black metal Codeine, a moping slowcore wrapped in jagged shards of black metal guitar, a descending melody, melancholy and minor key, before slipping into something more propulsive but no less 'downer'. Like the full lengths, this is challenging off kilter stuff, especially for the grim black hordes, but it's most certainly buzzy and black enough to push all those black metal buttons, while remaining melodic and moody enough to fit on that mixtape right between Codeine and Seam. LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES. Already sold out and out of print. We got only TWENTY, we tried to get more, but that's all they would let us have, and like past installments these for sure disappear quick. Packaged in a normal slimline cd case, with black and white covers, liner notes and lyrics, and a sepia printed cardstock insert with a photo and a brief biography of Lovecraft.

MPEG stream: Broken
MPEG stream: Second Silence

Found a little handful of these tucked away in the closet, way out of print, last copies ever of this chunk of heavy noisy weirdness... A greatest hits of sorts from these Wisconsin noisemakers. After several outrageously limited self released albums, mostly given to friends over the course of 4 years, this psycho redneck power electronic duo have remained almost totally unheard until now. You did see the words power electronics above, so you know this ain't gonna be no easy listening, in fact, this is some seriously difficult listening, but surprisingly enough not in a harsh noise sort of way, this isn't just a continuous wall of Merzbowian white noise, the sounds here are surprisingly listenable, warped and cracked and damaged and fucked up, but for the iron eared, surprisingly pleasant. Jagged shards of fractured synths, chopped into strange rhythms, radio broadcasts buried in effects, loops colliding and overlapping, dense clouds of detuned instruments, amp buzz and tape hiss, howled distorted vox, some almost songs, tons of melting tones, babies crying over throbbing low end rumbles, thick billowing sheets of pulsating distorted crunch, tangled melodies so dense and blurred they become one huge squirming amorphous lump, distorted percussion, damaged tape player rehearsal tapes, and whatever the hell else these guys could come up with, all pulled apart, and jammed back together into heaping piles of thick droning, fucked up free form percussive and FX laden noise. Definitely cool stuff, and for folks averse to truly harsh noise, Bruce Carkiss might just be your entree into a filthy, grimy, crusty soundworld you only dreamed about.

MPEG stream: Track 1
MPEG stream: Track 5

Mexican drug-lords playing metal? Ok, nobody believes that anymore. But will you believe that there's members of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir on here? Well, apparently that's drummer Nick Barker. Anyhow, the mysterious metal might-be-Mexican supergroup known as Brujeria have a new record.

Greatest hits record from the only metal band made up of Mexican drug lords on the run. Or not. This band of extreme metal bandits may or may not contain members of Faith No More, Fear Factory, Cradle of Filth, and Dimmu Borgir. But they most definitely spit

RealAudio clip: Machetazos
RealAudio clip: Brujo Cirujano
RealAudio clip: Marijuana

Another strange sonic missive from this mysterious (black? doom?) metal outfit, whose first record was a big hit around here, the strangely monickered Uterine Acid Swishes, a confusional sprawl of clean post rock guitar jangle, downtuned noise drenched doomic dirgery and grim blasting blackness, all wound up into a seriously twisted chunk of outsider blackdoom metal weirdness. Like Uterine Acid Swishes, Last Living Dream is made up of three ultra long songs, the shortest about 15 minutes, the longest nearly 27 minutes, and that half hour jam just so happens to be the opener, and begins with some spidery skeletal guitar (some slide guitar too it sounds like), a little piano, all wreathed in echo and reverb, melancholy and minor key, before the sound of birds leads us into the song proper, and explosive blast of frenzied riffing, pounding drum damage, and some seriously gurgled demonic growls, the melodies insectoid and buzzing, the track slipping from blown out and dense to more muted and melodic, but fierce at all time, lurching from frantic blast, to midtempo pound and back again. Dizzying and chaotic. About 7 minutes in, the track peels back in a chorus of shrieks, leaving some atonal clean guitars to drift over the echoey drum crunch and guttural vocal bellows, the vibe sort of twisted and poppy, but still blackened, leading into another blown out blast of black buzz, before finally stumbling into a funereal ultradoom plod, the distorted guitars dissipating, leaving just weirdly recorded drums, distant jangle and those vokills, only to burst into another wave of pounding fury, and finally unfurling with a weird abstract post rock jangle meander. "Where Ghosts Go To Die (The Swamp)" is almost like a second part of the first song, a pounding churning blackness, laced with mesmerizing melody, the drums boomy and low fidelity, their strange sound only adding to the already strange vibe, this track too slipping from relentless blasting, to lumbering sonic death march, to cool tangled midtempo mathiness, with plenty of chug and grind and pound, finishing off with some creepy classical piano, before finally slipping into the final number, "Through A Tunnel Of Trees", swirling winds, strange percussion, spidery guitars, a tangled haunted ambience, almost militaristic sounding with those drums, the heaviness creeping in, a super sludgey doomy drift, the vocals and guitars spreading out in a black fog, over the pounding drums, minor key melodies drifting up from the deep, a few bursts of black blast and a few twisted bits of blurred fuzzed out guitar churn later, the track shifts gears and settles in a spaced out, Hypothermia like outro, all booming drums and chiming, crunchy guitars. The whole thing more polished and songy than the last record, but no less grim, twisted and doomy... black, bleak and HEAVY.

MPEG stream: Misshapen White Hand
MPEG stream: Where Ghosts Go To Die (The Swamp)

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

SORRY.

Another mysterious metal missive from the fringes, a record recommended to us by our customer Logan, from the strangely monickered Brulvahnatu, and an even more strangely titled album, Uterine Acid Swishes. We weren't exactly sure what to expect, even after we threw this on, the opening is all chiming reverbed jangle guitar, we knew it was metal, but beyond that we were ready to be surprised, and surprised we were, the band kicks in and it's all epic majestic and melodic, haunting melodies over doomic crunch, and then the band switch gears again, and we're off, buzzing, blasting, a flurry of muddy, murky, frenzied riffing, the low end monstrous, wrapped around everything like a black cloud, the vocals a deep monstrous growl, the sound some warped black metal / funeral doom hybrid, slipping from spare, skeletal slo-mo melodic drift, to classic sounding melodic metal, to fierce grim buzz and back again, and that's just in the first song. The tracks are looooooong, none shorter than 17 minutes, the longest a whopping 26 minutes. The other two tracks tread similar ground, although "Autopsy In Mourning" gets WAY doomy, crushing, and heavy, before stumbling into a more stripped down murky plod, super moody and mournful and miserable, building to a chaotic climax, before lurching back into a sludgey death march. The final nearly 30 minute track "Suffer Long", begins with just piano (or maybe it's dulcimer), haunting and melancholy, a funereal creep, with cool tangled guitar leads over the top, eventually launching into a lumbering doomic crush, and over the next half hour, the song drifts from weird sample laced dronedoomdirge, to pounding almost classic sounding doom, to abstract ambience, to churning riffage, ultra doom obsessives will be in heaven (or is it hell?!). Killer stuff, and according to the back cover there are 7 more releases in the Brulvahnatu series, all released in the last 3 years, so if this pushes your black doom buttons, there's plenty more where this came from!

MPEG stream: Cleaning Your Womb
MPEG stream: Autopsy In Mourning

They may have taken a twelve year break, but East Coast grinders Brutal Truth sound as good as they ever have, 2009's reunion record Evolution Through Revolution found the band sounding like they had never left, their weed fueled hypergrind in full effect, a band of old men who essentially put pretty much every other grind outfit to shame. And two years later the band still kill. So the fact that End Time rules, and is crazy catchy, and super fucking weird, is thus really not a huge surprise, certainly not as big a surprise as was that reunion record, but we can still revel in BT's twisted avant grind, maybe more twisted now than ever. The record starts off very much like their classic Need To Control, quite possibly our favorite grind record EVER, with a longish downtuned doom/death metal dirge, all thick buzzing riffage, mathy drumming, cool harmonics and weird feedback, and Kevin Sharp's distinctive vocals, slipping from guttural growl to wild shriek, the track laced with some seriously twisted riffage, some crazy blown out effects and electronics, the whole thing collapsing near the end, leading right into "Simple Math" with BT immediately demonstrating their total grind dominance with 90 seconds of churning, frenzied grind metal fury, intricate and heavy as fuck, but somehow, still weirdly catchy. Their (now, not so) new guitarist definitely proves himself once again of keeping up with his BT bandmates unfurling some of the most twisted riffage yet, most of the songs short and sharp, frenzied and furious, there's also the requisite 5 second Napalm Death style micro blast, there are samples peppering various tracks, with some of the jams sounding like super charged classic punk rock, others slipping back into the crusty dirgery of the album opener, and still others, insanely melodic. AQ weirdo noise faves Winters In Osaka even show up on a track adding some fractured electronics to the proceedings, and the thing with these Brutal Truth guys, as we mentioned before, they make even the ugliest sounds and fucked up songs stick in your head like crazy, we still don't know how they do it, but we've found ourselves humming some of these riffs days later. The record closes with a slo-mo doom/death metal dirge similar to the first track, which leads directly into the 15+ minute experiment that is "Control Room" with super lo-fi drumming, beneath streaks of feedback, lots of noise, and gnarled effects, disembodies voices, some stretches of proper grind, but for the most part, this is like some fucked up metallic noise metal Necks, the drums loose and wild and chaotic, the swirl of sound in constant flux, totally bizarre, but in its own way, weirdly listenable, sort of haunting and hypnotic, and a kick ass what the fuck finish to this modern avant grind masterpiece.

MPEG stream: Malice
MPEG stream: Simple Math
MPEG stream: End Time
MPEG stream: Swift And Violent (Swift Version)
MPEG stream: Sweet Dreams

Oh how we love Brutal Truth, and oh how psyched we were to hear about their return. At this point, it's probably more out of the ordinary for a band to NOT get back together, but Brutal Truth were actually one of the few bands we always wished would reunite, and obviously we were not alone. So how does Evolution Through Revolution stack up to say, Extreme Conditions, or Sounds Of The Animal Kingdom, or even Need To Control, quite possibly our favorite grind record EVER? Well, we're happy to report, as cliched as it sounds, it's like they never left, this is some furious, grinding, hyperspeed metal mayhem, so dense and insanely chaotic and kick ass, and the riffs RULE, usually with bands this fast and fucked the riffs don't matter, but like Discordance Axis, you'll find these jams lodged in your head like crazy. How can music like this be so catchy? It speaks volumes about these guys, it's like they just threw a bunch of instruments into a magic metal blender and out spewed glorious glorious grind. This is not a proper full band reunion, there's a new guitarist, but it hardly matters, he destroys, definitely holding his own, and of course Rich Hoak's drumming is inhuman and octopoidal and impossibly relentless. And Kevin Sharp, who the fuck knows how that guy even has a voice left after all these years, and it's still AWESOME to behold, not just a brittle shriek, he's got a killer guttural yowl that peels paint. And the band definitely mix it up, slowing it down here and there, getting all doomy on a few tracks, getting seriously BLACK FLAG here and there (check out "Detached", a dead ringer for Rollins era Flag, rife with wild guitar Ginn-isms), a bunch of the songs are seriously poppy, others are harsh and hateful and offer up no melody at all, hell, they even do a Minutemen cover. We're trying not to gush, but c'mon! Not only has one of our favorite bands EVER finally returned, but this is no half assed walk down memory lane, this record SLAYS, a total fucking full on grind masterpiece.

MPEG stream: Sugar Daddy
MPEG stream: Turmoil
MPEG stream: Evolution Through Revolution
MPEG stream: Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs
MPEG stream: Grind Fidelity

How a band perpetually stoned, can be this fast and chaotic and tight is anyone's guess. Brutal Truth were probably the most brutal and creative metal/grind band ever. Recording tons of split 7's and 10's and several full lengths, ranging from not-produced-at-all lo-fi hardcore to mega-produced monstrous grinding metal. After a somewhat amicable breakup, this posthumous collection is their last release: 56 tracks, mostly live (which is where they really shined) plus a bunch of covers (Boredoms, Sabbath, Sun Ra). Blindingly fast, skull-crushingly heavy. Too bad they're gone.

If we had to pick a single grindcore record, as our all time favorite, it would most likely have to be this one right here, the second record from NY weed fueled grinders Brutal Truth, 1994's Need To Control, but this is no ordinary grind record, instead this is a sprawling, epic, convoluted, complicated, ambitious masterpiece. By the time Need To Control was released, the band were already pretty legendary, masters of gnarled grinding heaviness, but Need To Control was the band's first record with a serious budget behind it, their label Earache had just inked a distribution deal with Columbia, which meant the band had time, and money, which translated into a chance to stretch the boundaries of grindcore, and stretch they did, infusing their chaotic fury with lumbering downtuned doom, super complex arrangements, even didgeridoo(!)... The record opens with the very UNgrind "Collapse", a lurching, churning slab of doomic crush, laced with the sounds of bubbling bongs, all manner of industrial clatter, laced over the mesmerizing almost looped sounding riffage, and then to top it off, a ridiculously catchy, almost poppy chorus, the soaring melody, and shrieked vokills unable to disguise the crazy hookiness. A bold way to begin a record for sure, but Brutal Truth never really shied away from the unexpected, especially here. Hot on the heels of that sludgey sprawl comes the furious freakout of "Black Door Mine", a blast of super intense, ultra complex avant grind a la Discordance Axis, impossibly tangled riffage, insane drumming, all wound into buzzing blasting impossibly dense and mathy grind metal workouts. "Turn Face" is more of the same, after a low slung gloomy bass buzz intro, the track explodes into another flurry of face melting freakage, but somehow this one manages to be crazy catchy as well, winding in weird little hooks, turning it into one of the rare blasts of grind that you'll find permanently stuck in your head, not to mention more ridiculously frantic drumming. Then comes "Godplayer", notable for its didgeridoo, which more often than not is a BIG didgeri-DON'T, but for these guys it's the perfect sound, a low buzzing rumble, that not only compliments their already low buzzing sound, but also sounds a little bit like the musical version of a bong (which we can't imagine was lost on these guys). And from there on out, the band continue to craft a seriously twisted bit of avant grind, mixing in long stretches of strange industrial noise, effects drenched drones, bits of doomy plod, often slipping in whole tracks of lurch and lumber, like the opener, and the equally crushing, slow and heavy "Ordinary Madness", which on most grind record would stick out, but here, manage to merge seamlessly with the blaze and buzz that comes before and after, they even do a killer Germs cover, clocking in at less than a minute, but fitting into rest of the record pretty much perfectly, and the whole record is just fucking genius, heavy, complex, catchy, proggy, mathy, metal, we mentioned it might be our favorite grind record ever, well, it's also one of our favorite metal records ever, PERIOD. When Need To Control was originally released, there was also a 5 record vinyl boxset, that contained the whole record spread out over 5 pieces of wax, a 5", 6", 7", 8" and a 9", besides the cool concept, that vinyl version also included a bunch of bonus tracks, including some killer covers, most of which are included here (sorry completists, there are still a couple tracks on the vinyl box that got left off the reissue, grrr). They do Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" as "Wish You Were Here... Wish You'd Go Away", starting it off almost straight, in fact, covering almost the whole track, complete with clean vocals and everything, before turning it inside out for the second half, a garbled lo-fi grind freakout mess. They also do a pretty bad ass cover of Celtic Frost's "Dethroned Emperor", plus there's a couple jams that sound like they could have been part of the record proper, before finishing off with the twisted deconstructed grind noise freakout of "Head Cheese". Which again, really hammers home what it is that makes these guys, and this record in particular, so special, sure they were grind masters, but they also obviously loved classic metal, and doom, and noise, and punk rock, and avant garde weirdness, all of which found their way into the Brutal Truth sound, not just in the specifically bizarre and UNgrind tracks, but in their blasting grinding heaviness as well, the riffs, and arrangements, and vocals, and everything, infused with some twisted idea of what their music should sound like, which is why it sounds like nothing else. A classic... if you, say, are a fan of avant-heavy faves The Body or other similarly boundary-pushing metal acts today, and you don't already have this, get it!!

MPEG stream: Collapse
MPEG stream: Godplayer
MPEG stream: Bite The Hand
MPEG stream: Media Blitz
MPEG stream: Choice Of A New Generation
MPEG stream: Wish You Were Here... Wish You'd Go Away

NYC grindcore kings newest full-length. Features a Sun Ra cover (!) plus 20 so more blasts of metallic mayhem.

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

SORRY.

Daptone's The Budos Band has always been pretty fantastic, kicking out the killer instrumental '70s style Afro-Soul-Funk jams, super tight and groovy and quite authentic-sounding (even though they're from, like, modern-day NYC). We've dug all three of the ensemble's previous albums, but Burnt Offering (pointedly not titled Budos Band IV, even though it follows II and III) might be their best one yet. First, it's got some cool artwork of a Gandalf-lookin' wizard on the cover, a total stoner/psych image that looks like it should be on a Sleep album (or the side of a van). That art might clue you in that The Budos Band has been goin' through some changes... well, what's happened is that they've seriously heavied up their sound, the guitar parts are fuzzier and riffier, supposedly inspired by '70s heavy psych and proto-metal, like Black Sabbath and Pentagram!! They're still quite funky, though, so it's not a total extreme metamorphosis into doom metal or anything. We had kind of figured that meant this would sound like '70s Zambian garage-fuzzsters the Ngozi Family or Witch, but no, not exactly, 'cause what with their big horn section, they still sound like, well, themselves, but just with an additional edge of fuzzy, gritty guitar. Along with the hard-hitting rhythms, and spirited, darkly soulful brass, it's pretty darn cool. Think Fela Kuti gone super heavy psych, with a dark Ethiopiques vibe. Also, this new Budos Band sound reminds us of that awesome Italian 'library music' reissue by Blue Phantom, just a bit. Oh, and we halfway wonder if this transformation wasn't perhaps inspired by the success of Swedish Afro-fuzz voodoo psych sensations Goat?? Certainly Goat fans ought to dig this, too!! Super recommended. Digipack cd, or gatefold vinyl w/ download.

MPEG stream: The Sticks
MPEG stream: Aphasia
MPEG stream: Burnt Offering

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

SORRY.

Some of the AQ shoppin' stoner rock contingent ought to remember Buffalo, an honest to gosh band of Austrialian proto-metal pioneers from the early '70s. We used to stock a 2-fer-1 disc (can't get it anymore, dang) that collected their more Monster Magnet than Monster Magnet ever wuz albums Volcanic Rock ('73) and Want You For Your Body ('74). Missing that disc as we do, we were happy to find a few copies of this, a cd reissue of their prematurely tired-of-living debut from 1972. Dead Forever (nice title, they had a knack for that) was originally released on Vertigo, and at the time Buffalo were probably tipped as an Aussie version of Vertigo best sellers Black Sabbath. Close, no cigar, but what they're smoking has its charms anyhoo. This album's a graveyard of grinding dirgey yeah-yeah-yeah rockers, the kind that demand (as the back cover literally does) you to "play this LOUD". You've got to 'cause this band's lurching riffs and electric psychedelic blues bashings need all the help they can get since producers back then didn't yet know exactly what real metal required. True, this has a few quiet, balladic numbers on it (not bad ones either) but will be 'specially valued for trudging lead-foot boogie blooze proto-DOOM like you get with the album-closing title track coffin-nail-hammerer. For folks who also dig the similarly lost and wasted, stoned guitars and wailing vocals of such acts as Captain Beyond, Randy Holden, Juan de la Cruz, Toad, Leafhound, and Sir Lord Baltimore.

MPEG stream: Leader
MPEG stream: Pay My Dues

First off, this is the current, stoner rock Buffalo from Argentina, not the '70s stoner rock Buffalo from Australia. We reviewed this Buffalo's Temporada de Huracanes album a couple years ago, and also their more recent split with Astroqueen. Now they're back with an equally rockin', and equally Kyuss-y / Queens Of The Stone Age-y follow up. Yep, they might owe ol' Josh Homme a royalty check or two, but you can't fault 'em for doing what they do, really damn well. They've got big fuzzy guitars and big, desert rock melodies, that's for sure. Lots of moody / heavy dynamics. If you like their countrymen Los Natas, you should definitely give these guys a listen too. Imported on the slow boat from Argentina, so you gotta be patient if we run out...

MPEG stream: Una Casa
MPEG stream: Karma

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

SORRY.

We LOVE this band. You should love this band. How can you not, that is if you're lookin' for some proto-metal, psychedelic stoner '70s rawk action?? Buffalo is 100 percent the Real Deal. These Aussie rockers were basically what Monster Magnet (and all the other bands in the modern "stoner rock" scene) would have liked to be, doing it first and best back in the day. Once upon a time, we used to stock a 2-on-1 reissue of Buffalo's Volcanic Rock and Want You For Your Body albums (from '73 and '74, respectively) but that's been out of print for ages now. So we're super thrilled that the Aztec label from Down Under has brought Buffalo back into circulation, as part of a '70s reissue campaign featuring a bunch of other Aussie acts we're eager to check out, like Coloured Balls (reviews pending). Both of these Buffalo discs are authentically heavy '70s cock-rock from the band we've judged to be Australia's answer to, if not Black Sabbath, at least Grand Funk... no, better n' heavier than that. Sir Lord Baltimore, for sure. Did we say cock-rock? Hell, there's even a penis on the cover of Volcanic Rock! The lyrics are of the sort that amusingly confuse being sexist with being sexy (a la Spinal Tap), as in Want You's lead off track "I'm A Skirt Lifter, Not A Shirt Raiser", and they're delivered with much gusto and backed by some powerful guitar riffing that blows those stoner rock bands of today out of the (bong)water. Volcanic Rock is unstoppable, definitely an aptly titled album. Music for rolling Mad Max style on the highways across the Australian outback. Bonus tracks include the single versions of crucial cuts "Sunrise (Come My Way)" and "Shylock". Want You For You Body is equally awesome, and features the powerful "Dune Messiah". Killer vocals on that one and you can't get much more '70s than a song about Frank Herbert's popular sci-fi classic, short of writing songs about Tolkien! Bonus tracks include a live version of "United Nations". And the fact that you can't get both albums on one disc anymore is made up for by the presence of the aforementioned bonus tracks on each cd, digital remastering, thick booklets, and generally nice presentation in digipacks. So if you're a patron of our "proto-metal" section, into Blue Cheer and Bang and Leaf Hound and the like, you've gotta get Buffalo!!! Same deal if you're a fan of Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Heavy Rocks style Boris, etc... Highly recommended. [Also available, is the Aztec reish of Buffalo's debut Dead Forever, which we'll list next time!]

MPEG stream: I'm Coming On
MPEG stream: Dune Messiah

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

SORRY. Another recent release from the same Argentinian stoner rock label that brought us that weird-ass Dragonauta album we highlighted on our last list. If the Dragonauta is somewhat akin to the more "progressive" direction taken by their fellow countrymen Los Natas on recent albums, then Buffalo hews closer to early Los Natas -- that is, they are heavily into the "desert rock" cult of Kyuss. Catchy, heavy, groovy stuff with some definite Josh Homme worship in the guitar dep't. But Kyuss isn't their only influence, as the first track "Gracias" makes clear -- it's a recording of someone fumbling with a cassette deck, playing snippets of classics by everyone from Sabbath to ZZ Top to the Misfits. But Buffalo come closer to Kyuss -- or actually, Homme's even more successful, post-Kyuss outfit Queens Of The Stone Age -- than anything else. And they're damn good too. Whatever they lack in originality they make up for in energy and attitude and musical talent. Not to mention that taking after QOTSA requires some measure of eccentricity -- spacey prog keyboards, musique concrete elements, and acoustic folk jams do get incorporated into their stoner rock ass-kickery as well. Good stuff! Includes live video Quicktime clips as well. NB. not to be confused with the '70s Australian band Buffalo, though I'm surprised these guys weren't aware of those far-off forerunners to their sound.

MPEG stream: Rio Arriba
MPEG stream: Pescando En La Marea

MPEG stream: Shylock
MPEG stream: Freedom

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

SORRY. Fans of the currently popular "stoner rock" contingent (Fu Manchu, Monster Magnet, Kyuss, that sort of thing) should definitely check out this 2-on-1 reissue of some authentic heavy '70s cock-rock, from Australia's answer to, if not Sabbath, at least Grand Funk...no, better than that. Did we say cock-rock? Hell, there's a penis on the cover. The lyrics are of the sort that confuse being sexist with being sexy, but are delivered with gusto and backed by some powerful riffing that could teach some 90's bands a thing or two for sure. If these dudes were around today, chances are they'd have a picture disc 10" out on Frank Kozik's Man's Ruin label...

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

SORRY. '70s heavy rock from Poughkeepsie...rockin'.

The new AC/DC album, Black Ice, wasn't half bad. No, not their best since Back In Black like some folks were claiming, but pretty decent. We might even have reviewed it, had they not decided to sell it only at Wal-Mart! However, we will review the next best (or maybe better!) thing, the new album from Swedish retro-metallers Bullet. We really dug their full-length debut Heading For The Top back in 200X, and when we reviewed it we mentioned how much they sounded like AC/DC (also like Accept, Judas Priest...and, in our ears, Pharaoh Overlord's #4). Raspy Brian Johnson meets Udo Dirkschneider vocals, stick-in-your-head choruses, hard rockin' riffs, sly sexual innuendo. Nothin' fancy, just kick ass rock n' roll with an '80s metal fixation. And Bite The Bullet is no different. But just as you don't go looking to an AC/DC album for something new, you get exactly what you want/expect from Bullet! These AC/DC-ish doppelganger headbangers know how to rock it, thanks we assume to the benefits of the massive secret Swedish government program that channels billions of kroner into genetic/musical scientific research devoted to ensuring Sweden's supremacy when it comes to metal, as evinced by how many freakin' cool Swedish bands we're always reviewing. One beer-chuggin' track after another, Bullet keeping the party raging throughout all 11 songs on this disc, from "Roadking" to "Rock Us Tonight" to "Wheels Keep On Turning" (well, minus one instrumental interlude, "City Of Sins")... You can buy lots of great music from our store, this week or any, but for things that will really get you goin' when you crank the volume to the max, you can't do much better than Bullet. Do we need to tell you to bite it?

MPEG stream: Pay The Price
MPEG stream: Dusk Til Dawn

We were thinking, there's got to be a bunch of aQ customers who got that last Pharaoh Overlord album, the 'NWOFHM' biker metal meets krautrock masterpiece Pharaoh Overlord #4, and not only really liked it (we know plenty of you did!) but also maybe weren't already into the METAL side of the Pharaoh Overlord #4 equation and then realized, "Hey, these metal riffs are pretty cool! I like this stuff!" And want to hear MORE. Now, we can't really come up with another album quite like PO#4 but what we can suggest is a honest-to-god metal record with riffage along those lines. Not all super-repetitive and hypnotically extended the way PO do it, but still simply, irresistably headbangin', and almost equally high-concept, obsessed with leather, spikes, sex, bikes, and metal itself. Check out a sampling of song titles: "Midnight Riders (Riding Free)", "Raise Hell", "Turn It Up Loud", and "Bang Your Head" (compare with the likes of "Ridin'" and "Demons In The Rising Sun" on PO#4). We're thinkin' all this 'cause Heading For The Top, the debut album by Swedish metallers Bullet crossed our path right about the same time that PO#4 was in heavy rotation 'round here, and we were struck by certain similarities. Both bands are heavily influenced by '80s metal stalwarts AC/DC, Judas Priest, and Accept. In fact, the singer for Bullet's glass-gargling screech bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Accept's camo-clad frontman, Udo Dirkschneider. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. If you know who Udo is, we could just say, hey, Bullet have made a great, greasy living tribute to that brand of '80s earthdog party metal and leave it at that. Come get it, metallians! But that might not be the case with most of our customers, sad to say. So for this review, we're gonna continue working the Pharaoh Overlord angle. It's true, if you dug the riffs on PO#4 we probably don't need to tell you about the '80s metal bands you probably also should hear. But the band Bullet is doing this here (well, Sweden) and now, and unlike the classic metal bands mentioned above, could probably really use your cd-buying dollars for beer money -- and they deserve 'em just as much if not more than the Pharaoh Overlord dudes as far as delivering the goods metal-wise goes! As metal as PO#4 was, we wouldn't quite call it REAL metal. But Bullet sure is. Catchy, stripped down, ready to rumble rock n' roll METAL like it used to be. And if they sound 'too much' like AC/DC to you, well, so does AC/DC themselves every time out and that's still cool, so why not these guys too? Ok, enough. We just dug this album and are hoping a handful of you, PO fans or not, will dig it too. Just doing our heavy metal duty!

MPEG stream: Midnight Riders (Riding Free)
MPEG stream: Rock Steady

Our proto-metal pick of the week! Bullet were an early '70s UK power trio led by guitarist/vocalist John DuCann, previously a member of The Attack, Andromeda, and Atomic Rooster. A while back, when we reviewed a reissue of Atomic Rooster's classic Death Walks Behind You, we talked about DuCann, calling his post 'Rooster band Hard Stuff "one of proto-metal's best kept secrets", and guess what? The existence of these recordings by Hard Stuff precursor Bullet were an even bigger secret... After being booted from Atomic Rooster (despite having written several of that band's biggest hits), DuCann formed this new group, Bullet (briefly before that called Daemon), with a fellow former 'Rooster, drummer Paul Hammond, along with bass player John Gustafson (ex-Quatermass), who could sing and write as well. The idea, it seems, was to play music even harder and darker than Atomic Rooster did... and the results were some high energy, riffy, rippin' stuff indeed, with song titles like "Sinister Minister" and "Hell: Demonic Possession". Distorted, fuzzed out jams for sure, but with a pop side to 'em too. They soon changed their name (for legal reasons) to Hard Stuff, and produced two excellent albums full of heavy-duty "hairy funk", Bulletproof (1972) and Bolex Dementia ('73), before a near-fatal car accident on the German autobahn involving 2/3rds of the band ended their career prematurely. But it turns out that while they were still called Bullet, back in 1970-'71, they'd privately demoed this rough disc-ful of music, now properly released for the first time (sort of, see below) after resting for decades in DuCann's vaults. Since, currently, there don't appear to be any reissues of the Hard Stuff albums available to us, this is the next best thing. Now, if you already have yourself some Hard Stuff, you might not need this...but you'll probably want it. Many of the best songs did wind up being re-recorded by HS for their debut, but there's also lots of other cool jammy tracks on here where you get to hear DuCann really go off on his guitar, plus it's certainly rad to hear the raw early versions of catchy Hard Stuff staples like "No Witch At All". There's 17 tracks total (well, 15 really, as two of 'em, "Door Opens" and "Door Closes" are both but brief sound FX), that remind us of other proto-metal faves like Dust, James Gang ("Taken Alive" in particular), Stray, Leaf Hound, and Granicus... The cd booklet contains extensive liner notes, in the form of an interview DuCann himself, getting in depth into the whole Bullet/Hard Stuff story. Though he doesn't have a lot to say about Daemon, who at one point had a singer named Al Shaw who perhaps appears here too. And FYI, this same material was once previously reissued on cd (a bootleg?) under the Daemon name by the Kissing Spell label.

MPEG stream: No Witch At All
MPEG stream: The Orchestrator
MPEG stream: Time Gambler

What is wrong with the world today? The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, babies are coo-ing, breezes are blowing, waves are lapping, clouds are drifting happily across a bright blue sky, but all everybody wants to listen to is hateful evil grim brutal downtuned miserable soul crushing anguished slow motion funereal death drone ultra doom. Not that we're complaining, but it is curious. There's been recent renewed interest in slow motion metal masters Earth, as well as a growing obsession with self-admitted Earth worshippers Sunn 0))), the massive ambient-metal explorations of Japan's Corrupted, the stomping garage psych meets doom drone of the mighty Boris, and a constantly growing roster of similar sonic sickos: Esoteric, Khanate, Asva, Fleshpress, Dot [.], Marzuraan, Ox, Rigor Sardonicus, Sons Of Otis, UFOmammut, Skepticism, Whitehorse, Planet Aids and now Bunkur. We've been trying to track down this cd for ages, and somehow ended up listing and reviewing the Planet Aids cd, a Bunkur side project, before we had even received the Bunkur discs. Well, now they're here and you won't be sorry. This Dutch outfit traffics in massive, miserable, impossibly lugubrious doom metal. This is a single 65 minute track, drenched in reverb and crackling amp buzz, crumbling distorted guitars howled vocals, very loose and spread out, the riffs exist in huge expanses of SPACE, a blackened vacuum of buzz and echo and the occasional trailing off of a vocal growl or a slowly dissipating feedback vapor trial. The kicker here though, and the thing that makes Bunkur so weird (and cool) is the drumming, stumbling lo-fi tripped out rhythms, that drift from plodding caveman pound, to spacious barely there accents, but most surprisingly hover in some strange alternate world of dub. Yep, you heard us, DUB. The drums often demarcate wide open spaces with a strange dubbed out, instantly recognizable: BAP BAP Bap bap bap bp bp bp bp .... a single snare hit that repeats, stuttering into oblivion. Giving the whole thing a weird hellish doom-dub vibe. Like Khanate recording with Lee Perry maybe? Okay, maybe not quite as extreme as that, but the dub is definitely there, whether purposeful or not. And it's really cool. Fans of dismal doom death drone and all things slow and sick will find this absolutely essential. Packaged in super cryptic metallic grey and black packaging with extensive liner notes in a completely unreadable rune font!

MPEG stream: Bludgeon (excerpt)

It's been 5 years since the last Bunkur record, the appropriately titled Bludgeon, possibly one of the slowest, heaviest sickest doomdronedirge discs EVER. Corrupted, Esoteric, Khanate, Asva, Rigor Sardonicous, Skepticism, Fleshpress, all heavy and slow, but it always seemed like Bunkur managed to push that sound a little further. And if anything, record number 2 from these guys, titled Nullify, might have thrown down the gauntlet, creating a single, sprawling, 77 minute cloud of oozing slow motion black hate. Until Corrupted come through with their rumored triple disc single song, Nullify might just rank as the one to beat. That is if by beat, you meant create a doom record, that was impossibly slow, with instruments tuned insanely low, a sprawling skeletal song structure that is so spare and sparse it seems essentially structureless, with vocals that sound like you're vomiting up your internal organs, drums that sound like they're playing to some subterranean deathmarch, and basslines that aren't really lines at all, more like subsonic tones emanating from some bottomless pit. Cuz that's what it would take to out-doom these Dutch destroyers. But hell, why bother, better to just sit back, and let Bunkur's filthy black tide wash over you. Slow, and epic, not really 'heavy' as much as dense, dark, deep and dismal, in fact Nullify almost sounds more ritualistic and abstract than doomy, like a heavier blacker Abruptum, lots of rumbling and groaning and howling and creeping and oozing, here and there the band do lock into something more propulsive, and by that we mean like 4 or 5 bpm, the drums offering up some chaotic fills, the bass swelling and undulating, but just as quickly whatever forward momentum is generated is dispelled and the band grinds back to a near static rumble. In a weird way, this is almost a drone record, strangely soothing in fact, a blurred smeared expanse of rumbling buzzing low end, the vocals and grinding riffage, so low and filthy and downtuned, that they just sound like more layers sound, but strap on some headphones, and it's like being sucked into hell, a harrowing sonic journey through the deepest pits of the underworld, every crushing thrum like the soul shattering footstep of some massive demon, every streak of hiss like a fiery blast of hellbreath, intense and brutal, massive and mysterious, punishing and pummeling, a gorgeously grim expanse of ultra, mega, multiple o'd, beyond funereal, kvltish hell doooooooooooom. And thus, gets our highest, or perhaps lowest, recommendation.

MPEG stream: Nullify - Excerpt I
MPEG stream: Nullify - Excerpt II

We can only listen to so much music in our lifetimes. That's a sad fact, one we all have to come to terms with. Or not. But if you're like us, and if you're reading this, you probably are, then much of your life is spent trying to do just that. Listen to as much amazing music as possible. And at some point, like us, you realize that your biggest fear about dying, is that there will be so much music you won't get to hear, well then, that's when you up your game, and decide to make every moment count, and listen to music ALL THE TIME. But even then, there's only so much time in the day, and the night, and you have to eat, and work, and maybe watch TV, hang out with your significant other, and yeah, most of that stuff you can do WHILE you listen to music, but odds are some music is gonna slip by you, no matter how insanely obsessive you are. So now, take the music you already own and want to listen to, and add to that a constant influx of new music to check out, which is what happens here, and while we LOVE that, so much amazing new music and so many fantastic discoveries, it really can end up being too much. We get overwhelmed, and well, we miss out on some stuff, which is exactly what happened with World, by Aussie shoegaze noise rockers the Bunyip Moon. We were cleaning up, and organizing, and going through boxes and drawers, and discovered this cd, and threw it on, and were immediately blown the fuck away. Struck by all sorts of feelings, feeling bad for taking so long to give it a listen, feeling like we COULD have been listening to this already for ages, but mostly feeling like we had to get this reviewed so all you folks out there could add one more amazing record to the stack of music already waiting to be listened to. But here's where we suggest you bump the Bunyip Moon to the front of the queue, cuz holy shit is this great. And great in that way that makes what it sounds like actually pretty tough to describe. The vibe is sorts of nineties, shoegaze-y for sure, but with a bit of a gloomy feel, deep dramatic vocals buried in the mix to the point of being nearly inaudible, everything buried beneath super distorted and blown out, crumbling and hiss drenched fuzz and buzz and thrum, total blissed out heart-of-the-sun noise-gaze dreaminess, and the drums, wow, the drums are super distorted too, bursts of wild tribal rhythms that almost sounds like swarms of bees, each song a churning jangle flecked squall of noise drenched indie rock / noise rock, at times we hear Crystal Stilts, at times Loop, at others Bailter Space, even a little Dinosaur Jr., lots of NZ Flying Nun, at least the weirder, heavier stuff, and of course all the Australian bands we love, Celibate Rifles, the Scientists, Lubricated Goat, etc, but here those influences are blurred into something fuzzy and washed out and gloriously and blissfully noisy, this IS one of those records, where we're tempted to just have a single sentence review that says "BUY THIS! It's so great, it's all we want to listen to, it's fuzzy and poppy and noisy and psychedelic, and it's one of the best things we've heard in ages, and we've been listening to it non-stop to make up for all the time it languished unlistened to." And we definitely traffic in hyperbole in our reviews, but believe us that nothing in this review is hyperbolic, this band, and this record is so goddamn good, their sound is exactly what we want to listen to, it's the sort of band we wish we played in, it's damn near perfect, warm and fuzzy, noisy and dreamy, the production is bizarre, but bizarrely perfect, it's druggy and psychedelic, and seriously heavy, twisted and experimental, laced with loops and bizarre effects, for every bit of distorto crunch, there's some super melodic jangle, more often then not, the two mashed together, there are long stretches of brooding moodiness, extended hypno-rock epics, short bursts of furious noise pop, and sprawling near-Godspeed slow builds, and even some gloomy almost new wave, and it all sounds so goddamn good. If these guys had popped up on Slumberland they'd be HUGE right now. They should be, and if all is right in the universe, WILL be, cuz really, this is easily some of the best jangle pop / noise rock / shoegaze we've ever heard.

MPEG stream: Kill Everything
MPEG stream: Gravity Sux
MPEG stream: Black Hole
MPEG stream: Take Down The Crucifix

Second vinyl only offering from this low end subsonic super group, made up of Greg Anderson (SUNNO))), Southern Lord head honcho), Oren Ambarchi, and legendary black metal vocalist Attila Csihar (Mayhem, Tormentor, Aborym)� For this outing, Ambarchi and Anderson are credited with sub bass death throb, while Attila is responsible for undead voices. And that's pretty much what it sounds like, sub bass throbs with haunting undead vocals woven into the heaving roiling mass. There seem to be some guitars in there too, maybe some electronics, but it's hard to tell, it's all smeared into a single swirling blackened mass. When we first listened to it, we played it at 33 (which we're assuming now is NOT the right speed, so hard to tell sometimes), and we thought, wow, this is even slower and sludgier than ever, but once we figured out it was meant to be 45, the sound reverted back, closer to the sound of SUNNO))) or the older records of their forbears Earth. Slow motion riffage, glacial and thick, massive and blown out and super distorted, muffled and murky, a sluggish sprawl of caustic crumbling guitars, the vocals barely audible, a haunting raspy growl way down in the mix, often just sounding like another buzzing bassline, hum and fuzz, dense and intense, all melted down into a viscous black crawl. Occasionally, the random bits of riffage and low end rumble coalesce into truly gorgeous harmonies, lovely and chordal, like some blackened church organ, but for the most part, this is the sound of guitar tones allowed to ring out forever and beat against each other, the air filled with oscillating overtones and strange tonal colorations, all beneath a patina of thick black buzz. Amazing cover art as well, a gross out gutted worm picture disc, with a transparent skull and bugs insert on one side, and another sick silkscreened artwork overlay on the thick plastic sleeve, all courtesy of Mr. Seldon Hunt. Recorded live, in January of this year, in Holland. And of course, you had to know this part was coming: LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES!! And if it's anything like the other Burial Chamber record, it will sell out FAST.

Not to be confused with the recently listed Grave Temple cd we reviewed, The Burial Chamber Trio is basically exactly the same as Grave Temple, just swap out one SUNNO))) for another. So it's still Oren Ambarchi and Attila Csihar, but this time it's Southern (Over)Lord Greg Anderson instead Of Stephen O'Malley, and where as the Grave Temple was a cd, this is VINYL ONLY. And while in some ways there are sonic similarities, the sound of the Burial Chamber Trio is much more aligned with the sounds of the mothership (aka SUNNO)))) than Grave Temple. Two sidelong tracks, vocals, guitars, bass, and electronics, with Anderson trading in his axe for a bass guitar, Side A begins with swirling clouds of FX, electronics, weird processed vocals, before Ambarchi's guitars roll in, sounding not at all unlike SUNNO))), huge and buzzing, left to drone and rumble and pulse, a blackened mysterious slow motion riff, dripping and crumbling over the black abyss. Speaking of black, this wouldn't have sounded at all out of place on Black One, strangled vocals, the churning riffage, the black ambience, near the end of the side, everything erupts into a furious melee of processed guitarnoise, swooping electronics, damaged voices, everything hissing and whirring and rumbling and shrieking before fading out completely. The B side is much more tranquil, almost no vocals, even more SUNNO)))-like, the same basic ingredients as the first side, but more spread out and blissed out, the guitar a slow motion wall of sound, cutting a huge swath through a sea of buzz and drone, an endlessly hypnotic ur-drone, that ends up sounding more spacey and psychedelic but still plenty heavy... LIMITED TO 2000 COPIES. Vinyl only. Amazing black gloss on black matte artwork by Seldon Hunt.

Second album from these Swedish melodic metalheads. There's no Merzbow remix this time, but it's still great. Straddling the line between crushing metal core a la Coalesce or Converge, and high energy punk rock ala their fellow country men the Refused, Burst write super catchy songs, constructed from super complex, mathy post rock, death metal riffs reconstructed into hooky little melodies, acoustic breakdowns, super high energy rock and roll, stoner rock grooves, Neurosis-style apocalyptic dirges and a vocalist with a howl that sounds remarkably like Mudhoney's Mark Arm. Both Allan and Andee can't get enough of this band!

MPEG stream: Rain
MPEG stream: The Foe Sublime

Who would have thought? A new Burzum record, after his release from16 years in prison. Has it really been 16 years? And who would have thought the new Burzum would actually be really really great?! Certainly not us, especially after the last two stinkers, the made-in-jail, all-synth Daudi Baldrs and Hildskjalf. And the last one of those was more than 11 years ago! And let's not forget Varg's prison conversion, becoming a neo fascist, a Nazi, spouting white pride rhetoric, hell, this record was even originally titled "The White God", not to mention that he's in fact a convicted murderer and an arsonist. But it's always been like that with Burzum, and much of black metal, but in Burzum's case in particular, we try to not confuse/conflate the man with the music, and to be fair, for some that's not possible, no one could fault a person for not wanting to support a musician who espouses reprehensible views, and one way is by not listening to their music, and not buying their records. But as we've posited before, your record collection would begin to get pretty sparse, once you eliminated records made by assholes, and by people whose politics you disagreed with, but again, it's perfectly fair to do just that. But for those of you who can in fact separate the music from the musician, then Belus is a pretty serious and solid return to form. Not so much Filosefem as Det Som Engang Var and Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. The same guitar tone, the same epic riffage, the same raspy vokills, for someone who was not allowed a guitar for the last decade plus, it's pretty amazing that in the space of less than a year, he somehow managed to come up with this. Granted some of these tracks are older, but for the most part this is a brand new record, could be that it was formulated over the past decade, the result of all that pent up emotion, this fierce and furious chunk of black buzz, weirdly melodic in places, very trancelike all the way through, with lots of spoken word mixed into the frantic riffing and blasting beats... The record is at its strongest when it's the most Burzumic, blown out buzz, frenzied riffing over loping midtempo rhythms, the riffing surprisingly layered and complex, check out "Morgenroede" with the relentless main riff shifting from fast picking, to dizzyingly looped arpeggiation, making the whole song swoon and warble, before lurching back into a buzz drenched lumber. The closing track, "Belus' Tilbakeomst (Konklusjon)" is pretty incredible as well, super intense and droney and atmospheric, the riffing almost static, building all sorts of tension, layer upon layer, various notes and overtones ringing out, the playing frantic and frenzied, but with very little forward momentum, almost like some weird sort of black raga drone, rendered in black buzz. There's lots of that sort of unlikely innovation going on here, every time we play this in the store, people come to the counter to find out what the heck it is, and then they can't believe it's Burzum. Or, rather, they might very well have thought it was Burzum, but can't believe it's the NEW Burzum. It's too bad for Burzum, and for this record, that Belus will forever be saddled with so much non musical baggage, though it's his own damn fault, cuz once you dig through all the shit, get past all the politics, all the rumors and racist rhetoric, past all the expectations and the various scenesters and tastemakers, past the fact that he's really just a total fuckhead, if you can forget just for a second what led up to the creation of this record, Belus could very well end up being one of the best black metal records of the year. NB. There IS vinyl, or rather WAS, but the first pressing is sold out, and the copies we got are long gone, but eventually they'll do another pressing.

MPEG stream: II. Belus Doed
MPEG stream: III. Glemselens Elv
MPEG stream: IV. Kaimadalthas Nedstigning

The very first Burzum album, released in 1992, here coupled with the Aske ep released about a year later. This is seriously grim and brutal black metal. Super distorted, very inelegant stumbling buzzing, brooding black metal madness. Lots of folks consider this to be the ultimate Burzum record (the most 'true'). Perhaps because it is in fact the most immediate and openly furious, forgoing musical dexterity for a blast of pure and passionate hate. An all out attack on all things sacred. A gorgeously primitive and profane black metal document.

The first Burzum album recorded in prison. Not sure whether it was a conscious choice, or lack of access to instruments in prison, but the infamous Count Grishnack's Daudi Baldurs, finally released in 1997, utilized keyboards only. A classical / medieval / nordic concept album that sort of sounds a bit like "Peter and the Wolf" and lacks the unholy fuzz of his past recordings, but does manage to generate a wee bit of atmosphere and boasts some intense paintings on the sleeve, but ultimately not nearly as musically or emotionally charged as the more metal Burzum records. BE WARNED! THESE BURZUM LPS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED!! ONCE THESE ARE GONE, IT'S QUITE POSSIBLE THAT THEY'LL BE GONE FOR GOOD. IF IT ENDS UP WE CAN GET MORE, BE PREPARED TO WAIT PATIENTLY!

Record number two from Count Grishnackh, and here we begin to see the seeds of what is to come. The sound is still raw and primitive, all buzzsaw distortion and howled inhuman vocals. Midtempo and stumbling like a three legged hell hound. But now there is plenty of creepy synths, and occasional swaths of instrumental dark ambience. Fans of the classic Filosefem, will find this much to their liking as well, just as creepy and haunting, but much less refined and much more raw and brutal. BE WARNED! THESE BURZUM LPS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED!! ONCE THESE ARE GONE, IT'S QUITE POSSIBLE THAT THEY'LL BE GONE FOR GOOD. IF IT ENDS UP WE CAN GET MORE, BE PREPARED TO WAIT PATIENTLY!

By now everyone should know Burzum, if not the music then at least the name, for some it's because you've been true grim black metal warriors from back in the day, for others it was just from being a lookieloo intrigued by the Lords Of Chaos book and all the hype in the press about the murders and the church burnings. But let's not forget, or let an overhyped scene, a jailhouse conversion to neo-Naziism, and a spate of truly terrible Mortiis style ambient records distract us from the fact that Burzum created some of the most important music in the last decade, certainly black metal, but so strangely gorgeous and otherworldly that it transcended the genre, becoming a music that was accessible to all fans of bizarre and beautiful music, not just metalheads. Setting the standard by which we measure all other black metal for sure, a swirling near ambient buzz, riffs that are so hypnotic and reptetive and thick with distortion and amp buzz that they become metallic drones, like brutal buzzing lullabies, fuzzy indistinct swirls of guitar around pounding midtemp drums and delicate ambient synthesizers. Burzum's masterpiece is of course Filosefem, if you don't have that, stop reading now and pick that up. It's the perfect melding of primitive black buzz and ethereal ambience. Definitely one of the top 5 black metal records EVER. This here rarities collection is more for folks who already know the joys of Burzum's buzzing black abyss and have been dying for more more more. And since Burzum has pretty much turned into a complete tool, with a musical output directly reflecting that change, there's no place to go but back! The first three tracks here are the original version of the Aske ep, a howling, buzzing pounding black metal classic, simple and harsh but again strangely hypnotic. It's the next handful of tracks that really make this essential, first, rehearsals from 1991, four tracks of super blown out, ultra distorted blackness, so thick and buzzy, that the speakers sort of seem to bend and stretch, the sound quality alternates between brittle high end scree and muted overdriven bass heavy throb, which only makes the tracks sound that much more intense and HEAVY. Then, three unreleased tracks from 1993, classic Burzum, but as if recorded through a tin can and twine, lo lo lo fi for sure, but again, it just adds to the bleak and depressive ambience, easy to hear how Burzum's legacy was carried on by Xasthur, Weakling and the like after hearing these super raw tracks. The last three tracks are taken from various Burzum records, "My Journey To The Stars" from the first s/t record, "Lost Wisdom" from Det Som Engang Var, and finally the brilliant "Dunkelheit" from Filosefem, maybe the greatest track Burzum ever recorded. So heavy and sad and melancholy and brutally beautiful. This also happens to be one of those dual discs, so flip it over and you can watch the video for "Dunkelheit" (it's PAL, but all-region so your computer might play it ok), released years back as a VHS tape and long unavailable. The absolute perfect visual accompaniment to the songs bleak buzzing beauty.

MPEG stream: Lost Wisdom (demo)
MPEG stream: Spell Of Destruction (demo)
MPEG stream: Channelling The Power Of Souls Into A New God (demo)

Post-release-from-incarceration record number two from the infamous Burzum, aka Varg Vikernes, and just like Belus before it, this IS pretty goddamn great, most definitely harkening back to the good old days, as in: Filosefem / Aske / Det Som Engang Var. In our review of Belus, we went on at length about the man, his shitty politics, his questionable sanity, his storied history, his checkered past (and present), but odds are, most metalheads are getting tired of the whole "Vikernes is an asshole", "his music sucks cuz his politics suck" thing. If you do want to get into that or maybe aren't actually up on the whole Burzum controversy, well, check that review, or just do a Google search and you'll be all caught up. The funny thing about his previous disc Belus, besides it A) being really good, and B) being a proper black metal record, considering the two records Vikernes made in jail were super cheesy, all-synthesizer affairs (although supposedly, that owed to the fact that he wasn't allowed to have guitars in prison), was that it was SO much a Buzum record, that even the most casual fan hearing a snippet from Belus, would have immediately recognized it as Burzum, which is remarkable considering it had been exactly 14 years since the last proper Burzum black metal record. And in fact Allan here named that tune in about 5 notes when he heard it playing in the store - "this must be Burzum!" Not sure what that says about Burzum and Belus, a return to form, or a retrogression? Regardless, it sounded great, and we ended up digging it big time. Fallen, while in many ways a logical follow up, and again, hugely beholden to Burzum past, mixes things up a bit, so while still distinctly Burzum, it's also a bit weirder, and not so easy to peg. Opener "Jeg Faller" begins with a total classic Burzum riff, brittle and buzzy, droned out and repetitive, epic and majestic, the drumming buried in the mix, then that riff is matched up with some awesomely woozy minor key arpeggiations, and weirdest of all, some strange sea shanty style crooning, at first, it's a bit off putting, but a few listens and it sounds pretty perfect. And that's pretty much the template for the whole record, frantic classic Burzum style riffing, seasick waltzy midtempo melancholia, the usual guttural vokills, but interspersed with some monk like chanting (or some full on proper crooning, like the surprisingly heartfelt vocals on "Budstikken", there laid over some frantic blackened riffing, a weird but effective combo), all the songs laced with ominous bits of spoken word, the arrangements super simple, and spare, and the production not hugely heavy or buzzy, instead again, a bit brittle and cold, lo-fi, but in a good way, a vibe and atmosphere that definitely suits the songs, and the sound. The record finishes with a cool, minimal bit of ritualistic folkiness, all hand drums, strange percussion, detuned steel string strum, raspy wraith like whispers, and haunting mournful melodies. We're sure there will be much debate about the merits of Fallen, the failings of Vikernes, the usual black metal politics and of course the degree of trueness or grimness involved here, but fuck it, at this point we're happy to just dig a record for the music, and we dig the music on Fallen a whole lot...

MPEG stream: Jeg Faller
MPEG stream: Valen
MPEG stream: Budstikken

By now, unless you've been living underneath a VERY big rock, you know all about Count Grishnackh aka Burzum, Euronymous, Bard Faust, Mayhem, Emperor and all the killing and church burnings and suicides. If for some reason you don't know about all this stuff, go buy yourself a copy of The Lords Of Chaos, a book that covers all that stuff in great detail. The problem with all this drama, murder, satanism, whatever, you forget that the whole reason these guys knew each other, and the only reason any of us cared, was the music they made. And that music they made was black metal. A black metal that thanks to the decidedly non-musical drama, would soon make black metal a household name. So when folks ask us to recommend some classic black metal, we always recommend Satyricon's Nemesis Divina, Immortal's Battles In The North, Emperor's Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk, and of course Burzum's Filosefem. Filosefem, originally released in 1996 holds a special place in our outsider music hearts, as the first black metal record to turn the whole black metal formula completely upside down. Count Grishnackh was the only member and played all the instruments, even the drums, which gives the whole thing a weirdly damaged droning swing. A rhythm that would define the rhythmic sound of later black metal legends like Graveland and Woodtemple. The guitars are a thick suffocating buzz, razor sharp and totally blown out. And the vocals are an anguished wail, some sort of primeval demonic incantation. But where Burzum stands out most is the addition of a creepy synthesizers that hover in the background of several of the tracks, a haunting melody buried beneath the swirl of fuzz and ultradistortion. Unlike other BM bands, the keyboard isn't a huge wash of strings to add some sort of epic quality, these tracks are already epic enough, here the keyboards are much more spare, a simple minor key melody is picked out, almost childlike, hovering briefly, before the next note follows. Except for one blazing blast of a track, Filosefem is mostly midtempo, lurching and heaving, stumbling down dirt road into a smeared grey landscape. But as the record nears the last few tracks, the record changes, beginning with the nearly half hour long "Rundgang um die Transzendentale Saule der Singularitat", a track that eschews any hint of metal, stripping away the guitars, the drums, everything, and leaving just the synthesizer, as it unfurls a seemingly endless Aphex Twin like four note melody. Forlorn and strangely compelling. And in the context of the whole record, as emotionally devastating as anything we've heard. The final track "Gebrechlichkeit II", brings back the guitars, but makes them nearly static, an endlessly blurry vacuum cleaner like riff, slowly shifting, as another haunting melody drifts wraith like in the background. Definitely one of the most essential and unique metal records of all time. BE WARNED! THESE BURZUM LPS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED!! ONCE THESE ARE GONE, IT'S QUITE POSSIBLE THAT THEY'LL BE GONE FOR GOOD. IF IT ENDS UP WE CAN GET MORE, BE PREPARED TO WAIT PATIENTLY!

[ aquarius records — Metal ]