[ aquarius records

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Wow! Back to the DOOM for these jolly British gents, no more of the tongue-in-cheek discofied retro '70s rock pastiche that, well, sucked, and rendered the majority of their output over the last decade (excepting their mighty debut) pretty much worthless. It's

RealAudio clip: Whores To Oblivion
RealAudio clip: Astral Queen

Ok, raise your hands, everybody into Electric Wizard and Moss and Sleep and Reverend Bizarre and Om and, uh, Solar Anus, do you all have a copy of Cathedral's 1990 debut album Forest Of Equilibrium in your doom collection?? If not, total doom-foul. You must rectify that immediately, we decree. And now's the time, 'cause Earache has just reissued this all-time doom classic with not only an entire out of print ep tacked on as bonus tracks, but also with an extra dvd disc featuring a 40 minute documentary shot in 2009, about the band's early daze... which means folks who DO already have the original might want to consider the upgrade. Now, as we've said before, British band Cathedral's debut was one of the saddest, heaviest slabs of doom ever heard, magically melding slowed-down Sabbath riffage, depressed prog-folk flutes, and ex-Napalm Death throat Lee Dorrian's gravelly vocals. It belongs in any doom metal top 20, maybe top 10, we would argue. And the band never made a better record, though the four song Soul Sacrifice ep that immediately followed this was also pretty fine (and that's what's included here as bonus tracks!). From the morose, molasses-slow strains of album's opening, the acoustic guitar and flute intro entitled "Picture Of Beauty And Innocence" that leads into the majestically crushing "Commiserating The Celebration", the unique quality of Forest Of Equilibrium's take on classic, epic doom metal is evident. Early Cathedral's gruff gothic exhalations and chugging downtuned doomic riffs is something quite special to behold, preferably sitting on a pillow or lying prone on the floor, perhaps wreathed in pot smoke, directly in front of a very loud set of speakers. There's something warm-blanket soothing about it, the utter sobbing misery expressed somehow comforting. These guys never made a secret of their heavy progressive, proto metal, psychedelic '70s influences (proudly listing obscure bands known only to bearded record collectors and aging hippies in their cd booklets' thanks lists at great length) but unlike Witchcraft, for instance, Cathedral didn't attempt to emulate those bands exactly, rather they incorporated certain elements of '70s prog (like the occasional flute!) into their much heavier-than-thou Sabbath/Candlemass derived sludge metal, going to an epic extreme (at the time) hitherto unmatched of sheer glacial-paced melancholia. Remember, frontman Lee Dorrian's former band Napalm Death was one of the FASTEST bands ever, so his next band Cathedral had to be the SLOWEST, the equivalent of grindcore at 16rpm. With of course ultra-long songs (the first track clocking in at over 11 minutes). The Soul Sacrifice ep did see the band speeding up a bit, and Lee letting loose with a few Ozzy-derived "All right!" exclamations, which led eventually to the slightly too much tongue in cheek let's boogie '70s kitsch stoner rock that characterized the middle period of their long career. But never fear, that came later, Forest Of Equilibrium is deadly serious, utterly doomed and despairing. And oh so beautiful. For those who have the original, some further notes on the extra stuff included here: Soul Sacrifice ep includes an extended version of the title track, also on Forest, plus three others: "Autumn Twilight", "Frozen Rapture", and "Golden Blood (Flooding)", all of which could have fit in perfectly well on the album itself style-wise, though the production is a bit different sounding. Then, the bonus dvd documentary about the formation of the band and the making of Forest Of Equilibrium is going to be quite interesting to fans. It even includes an interview with the artist responsible for all of Cathedral's fantastical cover art, and concludes with the music video for the track "Ebony Tears".

MPEG stream: Ebony Tears
MPEG stream: Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain
MPEG stream: Golden Blood (Flooding)

These leading British doom eccentrics doom it up in their usual unique style on this, their eighth long-player. The Garden Of Unearthly Delights sees Cathedral happily (yup, happy doom!) doing just what they want, secure in the knowledge that they've reached a stage in their career where they have fans who love 'em for just being themselves. In other words, their '70s prog obessions are waaaay to the fore here, resulting in the disc's grand finale, a tricky five-hour opus (well, not quite that long, it's more like half an hour) called "The Garden". And we must say they do a better job of it this time than they did some years ago on the equally epic ep-track "Voyage Of The Homeless Sapien". Back then they bit off a bit more than they could chew, now they're up to the task. It helps having a guest female singer with a sweet voice to duet with Lee Dorrian's characteristic gravelly gargle. There's about a million parts to it, bits echoing Led Zeppelin at one moment, Magma at another, etc. etc. But besides that utter progfest, there's plenty of other crushing tracks here to provide Cathedral fans with more in the way of straightforward Sabbathy rifforama (and other surprises), just like you'd expect from these guys. We also have to mention the hidden bonus track on which Lee runs down a list of all their favorite obscure '70s prog/kraut/psych bands, while the band does some heavy vamping behind him! Blast Furnace, Cosmic Dealer, Irish Coffee, Supersister, Icecross, Paternoster, Nosferatu, Hairy Chapter, and a bunch more all get name-checked. Gotta love that. Sorry, we don't have the import digipack anymore with the scratch-and-sniff apple smelling cd, just the regular jewel case edition.

MPEG stream: Tree Of Life And Death
MPEG stream: North Berwick Witch Trials

The UK's Cathedral, a band who first appeared back at the dawn of the nineties, should be well known to a lot of AQ customer types for their undisputed significance to the doom metal scene. Back when they first started dooming it up, doom metal wasn't exactly the happening subgenre it is today, and they were one of the proud few carrying on so blatantly the Black Sabbath tradition. While contemporaries Eyehategod (and before them, Saint Vitus) adapted a slowed-down version of the Sabbath sound and went in a more punk, feedback filled direction with it, Cathedral took Sabbath, slowed it down even more, but also progged it up (flute!) to make at least one majestic, melancholic masterpiece of slo-mo sludge, Forest Of Equilibrium, their debut full length. After that, their long career to date has seen 'em pass through a more commercial, stoner rockin' phase (with unfortunate extra lashings of '70s disco kitsch), several albums worth of that, after which they got a bit more serious and heavied it up for a couple comeback discs (Endtyme in particular) that sounded something like their earlier stuff, before again allowing their innate British silliness (and love of indulgent '70s progressive rock) to take over for the wonderfully WTF? album The Garden Of Unearthly Delights in 2005. At that point, it became clear that Cathedral had been around long enough to get to do indeed whatever the fuck they liked, and what they liked, and still like, is that aforementioned '70s prog! So now, five years later we have their newest opus, and in grand prog tradition it's a double album, that's right, two discs all a-sprawl with progged-out quasi doom eccentricity unlike ANYTHING else (not even Solar Anus). Aptly titled, The Guessing Game. Disc one (dis) eases us into things with an intro instrumental entitled "Immaculate Misconception", all Hammer Horror Hammond organ, malevolent and pounding, heralding (along with the sounds of a crying baby) this latest Cathedral conundrum, the remaining tracks confusionally consisting of, among other things, herky jerky bits, sudden metal riff-storms, folky motifs, cowbell rockin', and characteristically curious vocals from the gruff gargley throat of mainman Lee Dorrian - probably the weak link here for some, his singing never really being Cathedral's strong suit anyway. No offense meant, he's the heart and soul of Cathedral as well as the excellent Rise Above label, but we'd imagine he doesn't ever win any karaoke contests. However, what you ALSO always get with Cathedral are heavy as heck guitars, and yes their axes are still wielded weightily and have THAT tone (recently borrowed by hotly tipped Finnish doomdeath act Hooded Menace, fellow fans of the '70s Spanish "Blind Dead" movies). And, in addition, they unfurl wild psych solos in quite satisfying fashion. So, amidst everything else, purist doom fans should enjoy the heaviosity of such cuts as "Painting In The Dark" and "Death Of An Anarchist", though they'll also have to deal with the headspinning circusy prog with which this album is rife, especially on tracks like "Funeral Of Dreams". Not to mention the almost post-punk-funk of "Cats, Incense, Candles & Wine"!! That'd be the first disc's most weird-ass one, wrapping up with acoustic guitar and whistling, believe it or not. Works for us, though. Forgetting that it's Cathedral you're listening to (not hard) might help, though that realization also adds to the insanity. While we needn't go through it in detail, disc two is equally out there of course, another idiosyncratic melange, full of Sabbathisms and silliness, with surprises (?) ranging from King Crimson-y dramatics to to grinding doompunk to Goblin inspired hairy wah-funk. They get their groove on, all right, sometimes to taste-defying effect... Also we gotta mention the final track, "Journey Into Jade", with lyrics that recount Cathedral's own history/discography, discussing each album of theirs in turn! Even Darkthrone has never done that, yet. Though less open-minded listeners might not hear the forest (of equilibrium) for the trees, devoted Cathedral fans (those who like ALL their stuff, even the most outre) shouldn't be disappointed, and non-doom, non-metal prog peeps might want to give this a spin as well.

MPEG stream: Painting In The Dark
MPEG stream: Cats, Incense, Candles & Wine
MPEG stream: La Noche Del Buque Maldito (Aka Ghost Ship Of The Blind Dead)
MPEG stream: The Running Man

Doomsters, have ye heard the news? UK misery merchants Cathedral, one of doom and stoner metal's A-list acts, have decided it's time to hang it up. They're done with being doomed, after 23 years in the biz. But they also apparently didn't want 2010's The Guessing Game to be their epitaph. That double disc album, one of the weirdest and most indulgently prog-damaged in the whole Cathedral canon (all good things, we think, though!) isn't the last thing for which they wish to be remembered. So, for a final bow, they've come out with album number ten, their self-proclaimed swansong: The Last Spire. And it is definitely less eccentric and experimental than The Guessing Game, more representational of Cathedral across the years - super sludgey Sabbathy heaviosity, some prog twists, NWOBHM-riff-rockin parts, and an overall grim and gloomy vibe, albeit with some hidden humor - the doleful intro track, "Entrance To Hell", makes use of a classic Monty Python & The Holy Grail line: "Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!" but in such a way that it's actually pretty creepy and atmospheric (and it turns out the reference wasn't intentional AT ALL, according to an interview we read, the Cathedral guys got the idea from some '70s prog record and didn't realize 'til it was too late that everyone was gonna think Monty Python, whoops!). There's even a song named after critically acclaimed Profound Lore doom act Pallbearer (what? oh, nothing to do with them? ok, sorry). That one, at twelve minutes the disc's longest song (but not by much!), complete with acoustic interlude, pretty much brings it all together, "Pallbearer" also boasting some guest female vocals from the singer for the next-big-thing in the female-fronted occult rock scene, Purson. Likewise, The Last Spire seems to have the best of Cathedral's characteristics, from the slow and low doooooom of their Forest Of Equilibrium debut to their latter day psych/prog explorations, without (fortunately) really any of the "stoner-disco" shenanigans they thought were clever once upon a time. In other words, it's Cathedral as most fans will be happy to remember 'em, utterly heavy and still a bit strange and psychedelic. So now frontman Lee Dorrian can concentrate on running his excellent Rise Above label, the rest of the band can carry on with whatever their other projects or hobbies may be (collecting cuckoo clocks? gardening? vinyl digging? graverobbing?) and the world will have just a little less doom in it. In this case, a sad thing. RIP Cathedral, but at least this slipcased cd is a suitable send-off. Rather ironic that Cathedral's last ever album would come out before Black Sabbath's (due in June), we have a strong feeling that this one's likely to be the better of the two, too.

MPEG stream: Pallbearer
MPEG stream: Cathedral Of The Damned
MPEG stream: An Observation

Cathedral. No, don't think light and airy, magnificent house of God. Think massive, weighty, and ancient -- lair of gargoyles, temple to superstition. Despite debuting with one of the heaviest slabs of doom metal heard in 1990 ("Forest Of Equilibrium", which melded slowed-down Sabbath riffage, depressed prog-folk flutes, and gravelly vocals), the blokes in Cathedral soon took a tongue-in-cheek "stoner rock disco" detour for most of their career, only to regain their relevance with last year's seriously doomy comeback "Endtyme". Now, "VIIth Coming" fortunately demonstrates that "Endtyme" was only a new beginning for the band. Straight out of the gate, opener "Phoenix Rising" gives notice that these guys mean business, that business is good, and that their business is, as you may have guessed, killing. The next cut, "Resisting The Ghost", is even faster (for them) and more furious. They still do slow, though, as the following track "Skullflower" demonstrates. It's monolithic '70s riffing and ultra-heavy doom groove all the way, pretty much the formula for the whole album. Sure, the keyboards and spoken-singing of "Aphrodite's Winter" come as a departure, but Cathedral for the most part walk the straight and narrow (left-hand) path here, avoiding the overt silliness and intentional kitsch of past Cathedral travesties. Compared to "Endtyme", this does swing Sabbath-like a bit more, but without reverting to taking the piss like they did for so many years. No, they're now taking seriously their own talent for achieving atmospheres of heaviness and despair (even whilst rockin' the cowbell). Thank you Cathedral, for making it possible for an old fan to like you once again!

RealAudio clip: Resisting The Ghost
RealAudio clip: Black Robed Avenger

Buzzing and drony primitive keyboard-flecked black metal from right here in the U.S. Released on The Black Hand (Rage of Achilles imprint). Really raw and hypnotic. Lots of midtempo, chugging riffs and haunting Burzum-y keyboards that occasionally evolve into

Hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Catholicon spent roughly 15 years cranking out their own blend of blackened brutality before calling it quits last year. The band definitely existed within the realm of black metal, but that's only part of the equation. Not surprisingly, given their origins, you get a nice healthy dose of misanthropic hardcore sludge, Southern style, as well as some early Earache styled death and grind. And there's more, like plenty of spaced out synths and a dark electronic influence at times, none of which gets in the way of Catholicon's blasphemous metallic fury. So basically, there is nothing NOT to like here. Of Ages Past serves as a nice summary for this prolific band, and the bonus audio dvd collects all the band's demos as well as some live recordings, unreleased tracks, and rehearsal tapes. The musicianship is spot on, everyone slays, but thankfully no one ever tries to grandstand. Instead, the band sounds like a dangerous metal machine intent on total destruction. At times, they're super burly and doomy sounding with vocals ranging from death metal barks to black metal shrieking. Everything is downtuned and sludgy sounding but often performed in the manner of early Carcass or Bolt Thrower, or maybe even Discharge if they gave it all up to Satan, but with a definite American vibe. The winding riffs are lumbering and hypnotic, and there are even some surprises, like in "Land Beyond The Stars", where an almost Middle Eastern sounding synth melody gives you an idea of what Omar Souleyman might sound like if he had been influenced by Burzum. Haha, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but you get the point: the band wasn't afraid to go at it by their own rules. Obviously, this is a good thing. Throughout it all, Catholicon just fucking rocks and will keep you headbanging into the next morning for sure. Highly recommended.

MPEG stream: Blood Ink For The Book Of Life
MPEG stream: Land Beyond The Stars
MPEG stream: Revel In The Ashes

San Diego's masters of Carcass worship finally see their awesome debut lp get the digital treatment. Fast and furious, super technical, but kind of sloppy at the same time, Cattle Decapitation take their love of Carcass and all things gore and treat us to

RealAudio clip: Cloned For Carrion
RealAudio clip: Parasitic Infestation

The majority of you won't make it past the name of the band, Cattle Decapitation. Or the album title. Nor will most of you make it past the insane Wes Benscoter cover art, a very blase looking cow shitting out bloody offal and human remains, illustrating the "Humanure" concept. But that's okay, 'cause then you're not the sort of folks Cattle Decapitiation want hanging around. They're looking for folks with a deep love of violence and gore and classic death metal. So if you fit the bill, then by all means pick this sick puppy up. Blasting classic death metal with insanely squiggly leads and inhuman grunting vocals. Definitely their tightest and best record yet. A little more complicated and weird than past efforts, but not so weird that it'll put off the Morbid Angel / Deicide crowd. Definitely recommended!

MPEG stream: Humanure
MPEG stream: Reduced To Paste

The latest from one of our favorite death metal outfits, who with every record, continue to both get better (and more fast and furious) and way more twisted, stretching way out beyond the usual death metal tropes, which is no surprise to us, as frontman Travis Ryan is a longtime aQ customer and has weird and wonderfully varied tastes, which seems to be seeping into their sound more and more. Cattle Decapitation's death metal is about as fast and brutal as it gets, as in utterly inhuman, the speed and dexterity, the intricate arrangements, the furious shredding, and the jaw dropping drumming, all blur into a face melting heaviness, that somehow manages to be melodic at the same time, slipping into serious power metal territory here and there, and some kick ass classic metalisms once in a while, but for the most part grinding away frenziedly, every song rife with insane stop/starts, and all sorts of whatthefuck moments, whether it's the aforementioned power metal melodies, or the child's choir in one song (or maybe it's just processed vox, but still), rad stretches of heavily flanged grooviness (yep!), burst of chugging downtuned ultradoom, but the way that stuff is woven into their relentless onslaught, it's sort of mind blowing. This is like prog at 300rpm, a million parts, changes every few seconds, did we mention the clean heavy metal vocals, so weird, and so cool, and there's even a whole track, a stripped down brooding psychedelic drift, that's all strummed guitars, clean vocals, swirling drones, field recordings, the vibe is almost Alice In Chains / Deftones, and we love those bands so it's super rad to hear this darkly emotive slow jam, between two extended blasts of neck snapping tech metal crush. And that vibe actually extends to the other tracks that feature Ryan's clean vox. And his impossibly guttural bellow sometimes slips into a black metal shriek, which again gives the whole sound a different vibe. Every time we listen to this, we're reminded how goddamn good these guys are, and at this point, if you were only gonna listen to one modern death metal band, we'd have to say it should absolutely be these guys, and Monolith Of Inhumanity is definitely their best, and most ambitious record yet. And even if death metal is not normally your bag, this shit is so fucking amazing, it might just change your mind.

MPEG stream: The Carbon Stampede
MPEG stream: Dead Set On Suicide
MPEG stream: Your Disposal
MPEG stream: The Monolith
MPEG stream: Kingdom Of Tyrants

MPEG stream: The Gardeners Of Eden
MPEG stream: A Body Farm
MPEG stream: We Are Horrible People

Hot on the heels of Cattle Decap's first full length getting its cd release earlier this year (on Three One G, the San Diego based label run by Justin Pearson of The Locust) comes this, their Metal Blade Records debut... and the heavy duty mayhem and cannibalistic carnage continues unabated. Features former Locust drummer David Astor and present Locust drummer (former guitarist) Gabe Serbian. As grinding death metal goes, this is just peachy: awesomely guttural phlegm-filled vocals, squealing rollercoaster guitars, pounding drums, completely energetic, adrenalized and convolutedly catchy songwriting (in the paradoxically monotonous 4/4 way that works for so much death metal). Gross, gore-filled ditties like "I Eat Your Skin", "Colonic Villus Biopsy Performed On The Gastro-intestinally Incapable", and "Hypogastric Combustion By C-4 Plastique" might merge into a boring blur for some, but fans of the form will find their inner 14-year old fully satiated.

RealAudio clip: Testicular Manslaughter
RealAudio clip: I Eat Your Skin
RealAudio clip: Writhe In Putressence

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

SORRY. Three-way split release, the second in this intentionally odd series on Toyo Records. SoCal grindsters Cattle Decaptitation start it off, followed by Nebraska spazzcore freaks Armatron. Finally, the disc is anchored with the approx. 20-minute long "Il Ritorno" from our very own Andee's new post- A Minor Forest band, here dubbed Ticwar 1 (making their first recorded appearance). After the fast/fun assaults of Cattle Decap. and Armatron, the Ticwar track seems (even more) glacially slow and immense. Their lengthy "Il Ritorno" composition touches upon lovely post-rock guitar strum, before lumbering into massive Sabbath / Monster Magnet inspired stoner rock riffing, the groove disrupted by Lesser-style digital glitch fuckery. Eventually it winds down into a gorgeous drone-coda. Experimental stoner rock? Post-metal? Can't wait to hear more (Andee? nudge, nudge). So, quite recommended.

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

SORRY. Okay, they may not have a non-human vocalist, but they do have a gross animal name, and gross animal artwork and they do support animal rights, so we can't really think of another band more suited to take on the pitbull grindcore of Caninus than San Diego's Cattle Decapitation. For those of you unfamiliar with Caninus, imagine a furious grinding metalcore band, with two pitbulls on vocals. 'Cause that's exactly what this is, for real. Seems daft maybe but it works, Budgie and Basil growl and bark and make some seriously pants-shittingly scary sounds, way scarier than any death metal vocalist grunting and burping out his vocals. Maybe it's also just knowing that these two vocalists could literally rip you to shreds! Caninus's canine fronted death metal grind is matched perfectly by the new and improved Cattle Decapitation, whose new drummer and steady intake of black metal (especially Leviathan) has turned their death metal into an ultra technical blackened grind metal, impossibly complex and so so brutal. Packaged in the most amazing die cut sleeve we've seen in a long time. Cartoonish and creepy and sick! Cool colored vinyl too!

Another quality release from Hydrahead, this time from Cattle Press whose brutal post-hardcore metal recalls the likes of Coalesce, Today Is The Day, and even the heavier elements of Refused. Cattle Press combine blazing grind with slower, heavier moments.

Some seriously kick ass true metal from the great white North, a Canadian modern true doom / speed metal hybrid fronted by none other than Annick Giroux, who most definitely knows a thing or two about metal, not only did she edit the awesome Hellbent For Cooking heavy metal cookbook, but she's also responsible for the legendary Canadian metal zine Morbid Tales! Cauchemar perfectly captures the mood and vibe of classic seventies and eighties metal, equal parts NWOBHM riffery, witchy occult speed metal a la Acid and the epic true doom of groups like Pagan Altar. There's even a little Motorhead in there. The riffs are killer, the guitars loud and thick, the drumming powerful, the bass thick and slithery, but it's Giroux's vocals that really make this, sung all in French, haunting and powerful, reminding us of groups like The Devil's Blood and Jex Thoth, in fact ANYone that digs those groups should check this out for sure. But the thing is, the music here is so much more classic metal sounding. The opener is pitch perfect eighties speed metal, laced with plenty of doominess, epic and majestic and heavy as hell, while the second track slows it down for some seriously doom-ed crush, with a swirling psychedelic bridge, Giroux's vocals bewitching and demonic, the whole record sort of slips back and forth between pounding riffery, and plodding dirge, the vocals and overall seventies foresty vibe makes the whole record sound way more psychedelic than most new metal, definitely tapping into the classic Sabbath sound, and making this the sort of band that should appeal equally to the true metal massive, but also dabblers looking for tripped out psychedelic heaviness...

MPEG stream: Le Voile D'Isis
MPEG stream: Magie Rouge

Finally delivering on the immense promise of their 2010 debut ep, Cauchemar have arisen once again from their cold Canadian tomb to deliver their debut full length, and it's just as wild eyed, witchy and (most importantly) HEAVY as we could have hoped for. For those uninitiated, Cauchemar play a fist-pumping brand of doomy true metal, but what sets them apart from the legion of other traditional metal revivalists is the genuine sense of mystery (and mysticism!) to their music. This is in no small part due to vocalist Annick Giroux, who aQ-ers might know better as the mastermind behind the Hellbent For Cooking heavy metal cookbook, and whose trance-like haunting croon lends an unearthly gloom to the proceedings. Her voice is soaked with an appropriately heavy dose of reverb, making it sound as though its being delivered directly from some forgotten stone crypt somewhere, while the lyrics (sung entirely in French!) add a certain elegant menace. None of this is to take away from the other three fellas in the band of course. Musically, Cauchemar often recall the kind of doomy British heavy metal that bands like Pagan Altar and Witchfinder General perfected in the late '70s and early '80s, while their faster moments harken back to the proto speed metal sound of bands like Acid. The melodies are simple and catchy but also carry a certain gothic atmosphere that brings to mind things like ruined medieval castles, misty moors and dank lightless dungeons. The occasional addition of pipe organ adds a certain theatrical flare one might expect from some of the more horror-tinged Italian doom bands as well. Fans of the newer wave of female fronted witch rock bands like Purson, The Devil's Blood or Blood Ceremony would do well to check this out too. Just don't call it occult rock! It's true occult heavy metal, with an emphasis on the METAL.

Dunno if Darkthrone's Fenriz is into Cauldron or not, but we're gonna quote him here anyway: CANADIAN METAL!! Yes, the Cauldron boys are back, with the eagerly awaited Burning Fortune. As fans of the band, or anyone taking a glance at the cover image (demonic woman emerging from sports car) might guess, it's another slice of awesomely, unapologetically '80s styled retro-metal from this Toronto based trio, now consisting of Jason Decay on bass and vocals, Ian Chains on guitar, and new drummer Chris Steve. We loved Cauldron's Earache debut a couple years back, Chained To The Nite, and this is a perfect sequel. Massively melodic, whilst being moderately menacing. Nostalgic, yet fresh and energetic. Once again, catchy stuff that absolutely does not shy away from metal's former glories in the pop arena. That's what we like so much about Cauldron - they're just about the only one, among the many current "new school of old school" metal acts, who aren't too cool to take non-ironic inspiration from the best of the long-gone glammy "hair metal" brigades, while keeping it hard and heavy at the same time. Nobody else sounds like this anymore. Sure, it can be a bit cheesy but that's how they wanna be, and that doesn't preclude 'em from conveying some real emotion. And, like they did last time with their version of Black 'N Blue's "Chains Around Heaven", they add to their old school cred with another cool cover, this time of a song by obscure Detroit horror metallers Halloween. Admittedly, if you were to spin this and then immediately follow it with, say, some vintage Kick Axe, Helix, or Sword (just to mention a few '80s bands also from Canada), Cauldron might not quite measure up, but they come close, the main issue being that Jason Decay can't exactly hang with the likes of those classics in the vocals dep't, though his are decent enough here. And headbangers should certainly be satisfied with the shreddin' guitars (check out Ian Chains' solo spot "Unchained Assault"), along with some substantial bursts of speed now and then ("Rapid City", ferinstance). Also cool: for some reason, Earache has continued the tradition of putting out Cauldron albums at a bargain price, this one's only $8.98, about what a cassette or lp of this would have cost if it had actually been released back in the '80s, like it sounds!

MPEG stream: All Or Nothing
MPEG stream: Miss You To Death
MPEG stream: Breaking Through

Wooooohoooooyeaaaaaaahhhhhhh! This Canadian, old school (yet "Young And Hungry") metal trio of Jason Decay (bass/vocals), Ian Chains (guitar) and Steel Rider (drums), unleash their debut full length! The sticker on the front of this actually says "for fans of Dokken, Queensryche and Diamond Head". Wow, that's a bold move, putting Dokken on there. Diamond Head is currently considered cool of course but Dokken and Queensryche might fall into the too much information category for many of today's black/death/doom/thrash metallers. Of course, one can assume they must be referring to early Dokken and really early Queensryche, which is all right as far as we're concerned. While Cauldron celebrates a certain sort of '80s cheese - the cheesecake album cover ferinstance - it's heavy metal, not poofy hair metal. (The band pictures confirm that these guys don't use hairspray, though it does look like they are familiar with the use of conditioner.) Nor is it an ironic pisstake, though we would hope that nobody would spell night "nite" in their album title without tongue slightly in cheek! Cauldron's inspirations certainly come from the galloping NWOBHM stuff (Angel Witch!), their U.S. progeny Metallica circa Kill 'Em All, as well as the better/grittier side of Sunset Strip glam a la Ratt and W.A.S.P., and arena Ozzy circa The Ultimate Sin, so this disc has got a refreshing, unabashed pop sheen and sensibility, but there's no ballads, nothing like that. Their quick riffing songs�about such subjects as being "Bound To The Stake" (presumably after a "Witch Trial" though that's the not the order in which they appear on the album) or "Chained Up In Chains" (the best redundant title ever, and also the song they contributed to Earache's Heavy Metal Killers comp reviewed here a couple lists back) are more like fist in the air metal, that's both melodic and ballsy, a killer combo of speedy slayage and catchy choruses. Another good song title is "Fermenting Enchantress"! They've got self-aware wit and style enough to appeal to the indie-hipster-metal crowd (a la Early Man, Dead Child, The Sword) whilst maintaining true metal cred, which also derives from the band's previous, doomier incarnation as Goat Horn. And, indeed, they do have some hard rockin' hair metal cred too, since, in keeping with the chains theme, they wrap up this album with a cover of a song called "Chains Around Heaven" originally by LA glam also-rans Black 'N Blue circa 1984. (Andee is so STOKED.) Any unfounded doubts that Cauldron aren't the real deal dissipate with that irony-proof move. We just wonder why they didn't cover Dokken's "Unchain The Night" too... maybe 'cause they don't actually sound like Dokken anyway. What's left to say? Buy this, and turn it up LOUD! Soon you'll have lyrics like "chained up in chains, in the moonlight" stuck in your banging head, and be lovin' it! While they last, we have the deluxe slipcased edition of this, which comes with an extra bonus disc containing two songs, taken from Cauldron's out of print indie ep Into The Cauldron. One of which, "Restless", might be our favorite song of theirs, so lucky for you it's on here.

MPEG stream: Young And Hungry
MPEG stream: Conjure The Mass
MPEG stream: Chained Up In Chains

All the headbangers at aQuarius have been waiting for this, the 3rd album from Toronto hesher trio Cauldron. Loved their others, and this one's no different. In fact, these Canucks are nothing if not consistent, once again delivering damn catchy '80s inspired metal that's heavier and tuffer sounding than most MTV hair metal bands back in the day, but still with a bit of that good old glammy, melodic, pop vibe. Rockin' like Dokken in other words, and yet still matching the very menacing metal mood of the album's cover painting, bleak and gloomy. If you liked their other albums, you'll like this one too - and for newbies, why not start here? As always, Cauldron have a knack for coming up with riffs and choruses that immediately stick in your head like you've headbanged to 'em many times before, with the only real weak link being the workmanlike vox of bassist/frontman Jason Decay, not a lot of power there, definitely not "tuff", but we're used to 'em, and anyway by now his singing is a recognizable, distinctive part of the whole Cauldron "sound" that we can't help but respond to, all part of this band's unique charm, the major portion of which is being non-ironically stuck in, like, 1985. Heck, we appreciate how they put so much effort into writing truly "pop" heavy metal songs despite the fact that they stand very little chance of winding up on the radio, being about 30 years too late for that. Thus, Cauldron are in a way a more honest and respectable band than some of their '80s antecedents, being obviously motivated only by their sincere love of that style of metal rather than any mercenary hopes of commercial success and material gain (and hookers and blow). Underground status, maybe, but arena-sized stardom, never. Too bad! But they do have their fans, us among 'em. Long may they rule the nite!!

MPEG stream: Nitebreaker
MPEG stream: Endless Ways
MPEG stream: Fight For Day

The genre of "pirate metal" (yes, there is such a thing) gets a bad rap, perhaps deservedly so. Maybe it was ok back in the day when Running Wild was the only band, um, running wild with it. But modern "pirate metal" acts like Alestorm and Swashbuckle, while good for a chuckle, are just too silly. You can't help but imagine 'em in frilly shirts and eyepatches, maybe a stuffed parrot on the shoulder or a fake hook on the hand. About as mean and scary as National Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arrr! However, underground Australian black/doom/death act Cauldron Black Ram, featuring a couple members of funeral doomsters Mournful Congregation, are more like what REAL, truly bloodthirsty buccaneers would have listened to, if they were into metal on the Spanish Main. Churning, rumbling riffage, punishing battery, blower bass, guttural vokills, truly vicious rockin' heaviness indeed! And, yes, CBR have a pirate theme, but their lyrics seem more derived from the creepy occult myths that pirates might have believed in, speaking of drownings and disembowelments, cannibals and caverns. The pirates of Cauldron Black Ram's fevered imaginings are like the ones from John Carpenter's The Fog, ghosts and ghouls back from a watery grave. Wicked (sea)sick.

MPEG stream: Fork Through Pitch
MPEG stream: Maw
MPEG stream: Bats

We often talk about the pun as title, or the pun as name of your store. And how it's important that it is actually clever, and makes sense. There's a laundromat down the street from AQ called the Wash Quarters. We get it, headquarters, but you do your wash there, but it doesn't work. There's another laundromat in the neighborhood called the Washing Well! Now, that works, washing sounds like wishing. Same thing with local eyeglass emporium the Frame And Eye. Also sort of clever, I spelled eye, the whole thing like the King And I, but it just doesn't work. Now if they sold jewelry and were called The RING and I, or if they sold random crap and were called the THING and I... maybe it has something to do with rhyming. Anyway, this brings us to the debut from Portugal's Cavalar, titled As A Metal Of Fact. Well, you see what we're talking about. Remember the band TT Quick from the '80s and their record METAL Of Honor? Right. Exactly. Anyway, let's forgive these guys since English is not their first language, and besides, apparently most English speakers seem to enjoy names like the Wash Quarters and The Frame And Eye anyway. But the intent is clear. This is METAL, and the sort of true metal that is played with honor and pride. Actually, Cavalar fall a little more (heck, a lot more) on the Sabbath worshipping stoner rock side of things, which is no bad thing at all. We love Sabbath, and we love bands who sound like Sabbath. But Cavalar sound so much like the Sabs it's downright uncanny. A lot of it has to do with the vocals. in the pantheon of Ozzy-a-like vocalists, this guy's right up there with Steve Hennessey from sHeavy, sounding more like Ozzy than Wino, Magus of Witchcraft and Bobby Liebling of Pentagram all. We often wonder if these vocalists purposefully try to sound like Ozzy, but if that's the case, why do they end up in bands that sound so much like Sabbath? Probably the more likely scenario is that those kind of vocals work best in a heavy stoner Sabbathy rock band, thus they are quickly snapped up by bands looking for the perfect vocalist. So as long as you're not put off by some blatant Sabbath worship, then hell this record is a killer. Huge riffs, amazing drumming, groovy and doomy and catchy, and the vocals, a soaring Ozzy-like whine that fits like a glove. The one negative, bands like this should NEVER actually cover a Sabbath song (Cavalar cover "Hole In the Sky") because then it becomes painfully obvious just how much you owe to Sabbath, that your singer really isn't Ozzy, and demonstrates a little too clearly how fucking untouchable Black Sabbath really are. Regardless, fans of sHeavy, Witchcraft, Burning Saviours and the rest of the Sabbath minions will most definitely want to add this to their stoner doom arsenal.

MPEG stream: Rush
MPEG stream: Deadman
MPEG stream: New Empire

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

SORRY. Listen up nerds!! So, a few weeks back we reviewed a compilation tape called the "Cave Evil Radio Mix", that was created as the soundtrack to this truly bizarre "Necro-Demonic dungeon crawl" fantasy boardgame, in which the players take on the role of evil Necromancers, vying for domination in a dank subterranean necropolis, invoking creatures, excavating tunnels, collecting resources (metals, gore, and shadowflame) and battling the other Necromancers & their hordes to control The Pit at the center of the board. Last Necromancer standing wins. Be warned, it's not an EASY game, there are a LOT of rules (the entertainingly written and illustrated rulebook is over 40 pages long) so this isn't for folks who find anything more advanced than Monopoly challenging. It's more complex than Settlers Of Catan too (though way cooler to deal in metals, gore, and shadowflame rather than sheep, wood, and bricks...). You kinda have to be a real gamer to get with this. But if you are, and like fantasy-horror concepts and creepy artwork (amazing stuff mainly by Fort Thunder comic book artist Mat Brinkman, also by Commode Minstrels In Bullface, and others), then this might be up your alley! For you hardcore gamers out there, we'd say Cave Evil is like a MUCH more complex (and totally black metallized) version of the classic game Wiz-War. You draw cards (spells, weapons, monsters, events), move your Necromancer and the 'squads' of minions he controls, and attempt to defeat the other Necromancers before the even-more-evil-than-thou denizen of The Pit awakens and murders you all. The game is a limited edition, DIY production (but really nicely done!), and it's more or less out of print but we were lucky enough to get a few extra copies of it from Commode Mistrels In Bullface. We also recently finally got a chance to actually PLAY the game. And now we know that not only does it look amazing, but it's a lot of fun as well. Actually, a really good game, deserving of the high score the users of BoardGameGeek have given it (7.9 out of 10). We were learning, so it took a few hours to play, like, ten turns, and we didn't come close to actually finishing the game, but are looking forward to our next session. Allan is still talking about how his Black Wizard managed to escape certain death when attacked by an Undead Dragon by using his special ability to split into two Mini Black Wizards so that one of them could run away... An ability that we thought might have been inspired by the Emperor song "I Am The Black Wizards". For more info, check out www.caveevil.com, there's even a short trailer there showing what life's like in the cave, for real. You'll also find a more thorough (and also positive) playtest review of the game via the folks at The Comics Journal, at http://www.tcj.com/reviews/cave-evil/, which also shows lots of the cool black/white/grey artwork found on each card in the game, and the gameboard and tiles and game box itself.

We always wondered if East Coast metallic noise rockers Cave In were named after legendary slowcore outfit Codeine's ultra heavy jam "Cave In", and now we know! More on that in a second. This collection gathers up a handful of unreleased jams and rarities from these post/metal/prog heavies, who over the course of their now lengthy career, have probably managed to alienate every single one of their fans, except maybe us. Starting out as a crushing downtuned noise metal juggernaut, the band gradually morphed into epic bombastic Radiohead style arena rock, and then inexplicably back again, and these days seem to hover somewhere between the two. And while that may have confused lots of folks, we frankly love BOTH those sounds, the heavy and the poppy, and we're pretty into a mix of the two. So we were psyched for this, as it gathers up a handful of tracks, some as early as Until Your Heart Stops, some later on toward the Jupiter record, not to mention some seriously bad ass covers. The first two tracks are classic Cave In, epic and proggy, metallic and complex, the liner notes even describe "Mr. Co-Dexterity" as being a song they never played live cuz it has more riffs than any other Cave In song. Hell yeah! Next up is their Bad Brains cover, and weirdly enough they chose to cover one of BB's straight up reggae songs, and as hard as it might be to believe, they totally own it, transforming it into something closer to a heavier Radiohead (which is basically later period Cave In anyway), before letting the song sprawl into a super tripped out and psychedelic workout, all tribal rhythms, twisted guitar weirdness, loads of effects and electronics everywhere, dirgey and droney and bad ass. The flipside starts off with their cover of the Cure's "Plainsong", which is again turned into something more heavy and psychedelic, the melodies super effected and swirly, the vocals appropriately deep and dramatic, with big BIG drums. They also tackle Black Sabbath's "N.I.B.", but totally reinvent it, and the result sounds more like Pink Floyd than Sabbath, shimmery and spacey, the only recognizable bit is the bassline. There's one more original, an alternate demo version of one of the songs from Jupiter, solidly in their Radiohead period, big bombastic stadium pop, but still proggy and metallic, and finally, the band pay homage to their namesakes, the mighty Codeine, and they tackle Codeine's "Cave In", and while we might have expected them to metal it up (as mentioned before, we dream of a FULL ON doom metal version of "Cave In"), they instead do it all pretty and acoustic-y, gorgeously hi-fi, with thick rumbling bass, stripped down and almost dream poppy, definitely a nice version, and the liner notes explain that the band did indeed name themselves after that song, and sent a copy of their debut to Codeine, but never heard back! Totally essential collection for fans of Cave In, any or all eras, super limited, pressed on white vinyl, in old school bootleg style jackets.

Boston metalcore band Cave In was once described as being a mixture of Slayer and Radiohead. And usually the Radiohead part was just 'cause of some weird proggy electronic leanings, but the Slayer tag was the more accurate one. But now, with "Jupiter", they've gone and morphed themselves into a pop band. Seriously. And they're damn good at it. Amazingly, they still tour with the likes of Neurosis and Dillinger Escape Plan, playing their new, art-pop material exclusively! And the kids like it! Ornate, lengthy songs complete with falsetto vocals, and amazingly catchy melodies. Previously, we've enthused over Muse and Justin Clayton, as Radiohead clone bands par excellance, but this might just take the cake. But unlike the Radiohead clones, Cave-In don't seem so much like they're copying Radiohead, more like they're contemporaries, albeit way heavier and way more rocking. We're just so blown away by this band's transformation and metal-forged skill at creating this stuff. Perfect proggy pop, mixed with healthy doses of Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Yes, etc. Fans of the old Cave In might be a bit disoriented, but give it a chance. Heavy doesn't always mean distorted guitars and satanic growling. So recommended.

RealAudio clip: In The Stream of Commerce

Super limited ep from AQ faves Cave In. Having fully shed their metalcore skin, and become what can be best described as the heavy metal Radiohead, this ep moves even further to the proggy pop side of things. Four tracks from the their recent Jupiter record, one, very slightly reworked, and three radically different 'piano versions'. And obviously, the piano versions are the reason to

RealAudio clip: Innuendo And Out (Piano)
RealAudio clip: New Moon (Piano)

Ahhh Cave in. How we loved you. And then hated you. And then loved you again. And then hated... Oh crap, who can keep track. Took us a while to check out this release just 'cause we were worried about what we'd hear. Starting life as a churning dontuned metalcore juggernaut, these guys were one of the first Hydra Head bands to toally blow our minds. We described their debut Until Your Heart Stops as Slayer meets Radiohead, which might be pushing it. They were more sort of like Coalesce or Deadguy, but they weren't afraid to explore melodies or ambience, often forgoing metallic crunch altogether in search of something new. As they progressed, they began to move away from their metalcore roots, letting the Radiohead side of their personality come to the fore, and fuck it, we loved it. Dreamy swoonsome pop, with big hooks, soaring falsetto vocals. Who could argue with a way heavier Radiohead? This new direction found them courted by major labels, eventually landing on RCA and releasing a record that was pretty much polished pop. They were obviously going for it. Why the hell not. No point in getting there and then just giving MTV and commercial radio the middle finger. So while Jupiter was pretty cool, it wasn't much more. But as with many bands who make it to the big time, Cave In realized it wasn't for them, so they came back into the fold, rejoining the Hydra Head roster, and began to sort of tentatively dip their toes back in the metal pool. Thus we have Perfect Pitch Black. Which is actually pretty close to perfect. They have returned to being a heavy band. Huge chugging riffs, proggy Tool-like drumming, howled demonic vocals, but all that pop time was not for naught, no, no matter how hard they tried to metallize, some of that pop came back with them, which is precisely what makes PPB so cool. A track will weave wildly from churning mosh worthy metalcore, to an epic melodic chorus, to a full on fuzz pop bridge before returning to head crushing metallic crunch. Sort of how Dove and Torche took simple Nirvana-esque pop, and melded it with downtuned sludge, Cave In take epic, grandiose pop -- Radiohead, Muse, Sigur Ros, Tool, that sort of thing, but set it in a dangerously and precariously metal context. And the results are amazing. Cave In somehow manage to make those two disparate sides of their sound fit abso-fucking-lutely perfectly together. Heavy, proggy, poppy, catchy, so good. Another record, that if there was any justice in the world, would be all over the radio and MTV (or whatever channel it is that actually still plays videos). Jason told us he hated Cave In now, so we threw this on, and he immmediately started bugging us to know what was playing. We wouldn't tell him what it was until he admitted that he was totally digging it. Which he did. And he couldn't believe it was Cave In. But we could. We never really stopped liking them, but we most definitely love their perfect pop way more when it's drenched metallic crush and pummel!

MPEG stream: The World Is In Your Way
MPEG stream: Off To Ruin

The return of Cave In. Or maybe more accurately, ANOTHER return of Cave In. We might be some of the only folks who never stopped loving this band. From their crushing metallic early years, to their epic pop prog Radiohead style flirtation with major label years, to their return to indie label / heaviness, to Cave In front man Stephen Brodsky's curious but totally compelling jangly psych pop solo records, and now this, another return that sounds a lot like the under appreciated Perfect Pitch Black record from a while back, the band melding their two disparate sides, the poppy polished side, and the chugging metal side. And fuck if it doesn't still sound great. In fact, it's the sort of thing that could, or maybe SHOULD find it's way on to commercial radio. As the climate is way more accepting of metal, and heaviness in general, and Cave In have a sort of Muse only more metal thing going on, with the right push, as we've said before, these guys cold be huge. "Cayman Tongue" opens up with some soaring guitars, big stadium drums, and Brodsky's soaring croon, and some serious chug. We're definitely hearing some Muse, but with that distinct Cave In vibe and way with melodies, before it gets seriously crunchy and the gruff vocals come out, and things get mathy and gloriously chaotic, and then for MINUTES, the band get all spaced out and doomy, letting their guitars feedback and buzz, interrupting the tangled guitar gnarl every few seconds with a big metallic crush, before a seriously grinding intense Coalesce-style outro. "Retina Sees Rewind" has a killer main riff, all tangled Maiden-y squiggles and crunchy chug, wild psychedelic leads, and a chorus that sounds a bit like Torche meets Rush meets Queens Of The Stone Age. "The Redtrail" is all frantic punk rock with shrieked vox and tangled guitars, Greg Ginn-ish riffage and a total old school punk rock breakdown right in the middle. And "Air Escapes" finishes things off with another perfect blend of mathy metallic heaviness and quirky psych pop, Brodsky's nimble vocals draped over angular guitars and tribal drumming, that gets more and more Voivod-ish as the track progresses which is never a bad thing. We still love these guys, hard to understand why everyone doesn't. One of the few bands as adept at pummeling metal as they are at crafting epic arena pop, and the fact that they can somehow do both at once, only makes them that much more special. Incredible packaging as with most Hydra Head stuff, gorgeous metallic printing on the jacket and on the inside sleeve, pressed on ultra thick vinyl, and most likely very very limited.

Originally released as a cd back in 2001, Sacrifice Poles was a collection of 4-track instrumental demos, jams and audio experiments crafted during the recording of Cave In's Jupiter record. This vinyl reissue came and went in the blink of an eye, but we did manage to snag a few copies, as in less than 5, so for a handful of folks, here's your chance to nab one of these before they're gone. And it's pretty great, and weird, most of the tracks are pretty much proper Cave In songs, albeit instrumental, and sound like they could have eventually ended up on a proper Cave In record, others are more abstract, isolated guitar tracks, weird ambient interludes, plenty of synths, weird programmed drums, fans of the proggier side of Cave In who have never heard the Sacrifice Poles record, are in for a treat. Sucks that it's so limited, but these are in fact, the last copies we'll be able to get, so best grab one quick, before they're gone for good. Again. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES! Includes a download.

A fantastic burst of heavy pop from formerly metalcore band Cave In -- their last blast on Hydrahead as prelude to their eventual major label debut full-length. They're like a heavier Radiohead, less anguished and more into rocking. The melodies are epic and heartrending, the guitars are clean and bright, and the songwriting is excellent -- it's like you can trust them, they don't let you down with experimental bull that's best left to a Thom Yorke solo album or something. They continue to polish and refine their own developing sound, which ambles nearer pop with every release. And yet, the more 'produced', polished, or whatever that they get, the better they sound! The title track, I swear, sounds like Rufus Wainwright with bigger balls crossed with Queen. So good! Fans of the other heavy rock bands with pop leanings that're getting mainstream press -- like Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age -- should definitely give this a listen!

RealAudio clip: Come Into Your Own
RealAudio clip: Tides of Tomorrow

Brutal but occasionally beautiful metallic hardcore, for fans of Coalesce, Deadguy and that ilk. This has been described as a mixture of Slayer and Radiohead (!) and I can almost see why. Andee approved.

It's always difficult to know what to expect from these guys, every record seems to alienate their core fans. After years of being a caustic sludgey metallic behemoth, they abruptly switched gears and sounded like Radiohead style stadium rock. By the time everyone was used to that, they suddenly got heavy again, REALLY heavy. Then they tried a mix of the two. And the thing is, we love it all. These guys are incredible, whether it's a face melting blast of downtuned metallic sludge, or a soaring chunk of blissed out melodic bombast, few can beat these guys on either count. But what that DOES mean, is that with every record, it could go either way, heavy or hooky, crushing or catchy (although to be fair, all their records are heavy AND hooky, crushing AND catchy, but you know what we mean), and for whatever reason, we were guessing pop, even though they seem to have been heading heavy-ward lately, it seemed like the perfect time for them to confound again, and make another bid for mainstream success. But lo and behold, this shit is FIERCE, and fucking HEAVY, no pop pretense at all, harkening back to Until Your Heart Stops, right out of the gate, the record explodes, replete with harsh almost black metal vox, wrapped around super distorted guitars, and to be fair there's a cool melodic component, a good balance, that again could have these guys going either way, but then "Serpents" drops, and it's all out grind and crush and pummel and pound, Stephen Brodsky's vocals a glass gargling yowl, the guitars frenzied and frenetic, the drums crushing, but the whole thing laced with synths, adding a whole 'nother vibe to the sound, but not taking away from the heaviness in the least. But you can't completely take the pop out of the band, so throughout White Silence, and amidst all the downtuned bombast, there are plenty of killer pop-isms, "Sing My Loves" is total Torche style sludge pop, "Centered" wraps glitchy electronics and thick grinding guitars around some soaring clean vox, and some serious hooks, "Summit Fever" too is pure pop but in sludge metal clothing, might be THEE heavy jam of the year, and is where the record begins to sound to us more and more poppy, the poppiness seeming to blossom as the record progresses, even at its heaviest, somehow still exuding some sort of hookiness. "Heartbreaks, Earthquakes" harkens back to Brodsky's Beatles-esque solo records, and "Iron Decibels" defies its title by also being a chunk of super melodic jangly pop that again sounds like a Brodsky solo jam, and then finally, "Reanimation", is a gorgeously hazy bit of crooned acousticky drift with a bombastic almost Queen like crescendo, which of course leads to the obvious observation that the second half of the record is INDEED more poppy and less heavy, and after more listens, White Silence reveals itself as a pretty genius progression, from all out metallic onslaught, to hushed prettiness, each song an ever softening gradation, and as always, these guys are equally adept at both soft and hard, loud and quiet, pop and metal. And as always WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: White Silence
MPEG stream: Serpents
MPEG stream: Sing My Loves
MPEG stream: Vicious Circles

LIMITED TO 125 COPIES, each one hand numbered!

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

SORRY. There's a fancy, shiny die-cut Pushead artwork cover on this disc, thanks to it being on Pushead's label - that's the first thing you'd notice. Put it on, and the visuals are obliterated by the seriously heavy south Florida sludgecore the band kicks out, ala EYEHATEGOD meets early Corrosion of Conformity. This gets the Andee seal of approval.

They just don't make bands like Florida's Cavity anymore. Or I guess maybe they do, but now they just make 5 or six bands out of the ingredients that made up Cavity back in the day. Not to sound like an old man, but these days most bands have 'A SOUND' and they stick to it. Cavity on the other hand were pretty tough to pigeonhole. Sure they were heavy. And they were metal. But also punk. Sorta grindy too. They tended toward the sludge-y end of the sonic spectrum, but in the middle of some sub Sabbath dirge they'd explode into a furious thrashing grind only to immediately slow back down to some impossibly glacial Khanate like crawl, complete with tortured shrieks, and buzzing droneguitar. This record, originally recorded way back in 1997, sounds as fresh as it did a decade ago. Someone joked recently that super hyped duo No Age were punk rock for people who had never heard punk rock before. Which is not entirely fair to No Age as they are an awesome band, but there is some truth to the fact that lots of bands these days borrow pretty heavily from the past, without a lot of fans realizing it. No Age are kick ass and wild and fun, but they're not necessarily reinventing the wheel. That's also true with a lot of heavy bands these days. If Cavity were bunch of kids and Laid Insignificant was a super limited cd-r, or a one sided etched 12", labels would be lined up around the block to put something out by these guys, kids would be losing their shit. But just because this record is ten years old is no reason they still shouldn't. This is epic mindblowing heaviness. Furious and freaked out, sweaty and brutal and visceral. Elsewhere on this list Allan talks about Vincent Black Shadow in terms of sheer blown out sweat soaked pure rock and roll power. The same could be said about these guys, just leaning a little more toward the extreme side of the sonic spectrum. Back in the day, no band could touch Cavity live OR on record, and listening to them again, it seems like nothing has changed. The guitars are massive, the riffs incredible, heavy and melodic and thick as shit, the drums HUGE and pummeling, the songs super catchy, even when they're all tangled into buzzing blasts, or sprawled out in huge black oozing pools, the hooks remain intact. And vocalist Rene Barge has the wickedest raspy howl this side of Eyehategod. About as EMO as that kind of voice can get. Which also keeps these songs from turning into wanky riff fests. These are SONGS, dark and dense, complex and hypnotic, groovy and crushing, utterly headbangable for sure, certain to fill a pit in the blink of an eye, but at the same time, musical enough to be serious headphone bliss for the hard and heavy. Not sure what else to say. These guys ruled. And still rule. This just proves it all over again.

MPEG stream: Laid Insignificant
MPEG stream: The Woods
MPEG stream: 9 Fingers On The Spider

This is a pretty awesome collection of early singles and compilation tracks from Florida's Cavity, one of the original (and still one of the best) new-wave-of-metal-core� bands. Noisy and completely devastating. If you like stuff like Converge, Isis, Cave In,

From the state that gave us President George W. Bush's presidency and our first taste of anthrax panic, comes sludgemetal masters Cavity and their new album for Hydra Head. Just like their past efforts, the sweet smell of Sabbath is strong, mixed with the

RealAudio clip: Cult Exciter

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

SORRY. Second album of heaviness from these Florida sludge punk metallers, for fans of EYEHATEGOD, Deadguy, etc. Classy.

With this 1998 album, Cavity's Sabbath-fried sludge from the swamps of Florida really earned them their rightful place in the pantheon of heaviosity peopled by the likes of the Melvins, Eyehategod, Boris, and Electric Wizard. We liked 'em already, but this record stood above and beyond. Sheer HEAVY pummel, riff repetition chug fulla feedback and nasty vocals. There's quiet respites now and then, making the monster riffage even more monstrous. Definitely the kind of thing that just takes you over, relentless, submersive, and hypnotic. So, we can't believe we never listed this before! It was a HUGE fave among a bunch of us here when it came out on Man's Ruin a few years ago. It's been sadly out of print ever since that label folded, but now Hydrahead has stepped up and reissued a remixed version, complete with new artwork/design and what appear to be 2 new tracks (but, one's missing -- what happened to "Almost Blue"?). So apparently even if you have the Man's Ruin version, you've gotta buy Supercollider again. But this is one of those records you *would* buy again, it's that good! And if you don't have this already, and you like heaviness, GET IT. Cavity's best album (though their last one, On The Lam, was pretty great too). Thanks Hydra Head for giving us the chance to recommend this, again.

MPEG stream: Supercollider
MPEG stream: How Much Lost

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

SORRY. Six tracks in seventeen minutes from Japan's mysterious Cavo, who just happen to be labelmates of the amazing (and amazingly monickered) Bathtub Shitter, and feature a member of Corrupted! The first two tracks are a bit misleading, a hazy pagan ritual of gutteral almost-throat singing, temple bells and slow chants. Reminds us a bit of Ghost or Comus. But the ritual quickly grow in intensity until it's a chaotic swirl of tribal drums, shouted vocals, sludgy low end, repetitive riffs, and thick viscous ambience. Like a primitive mix of the Boredoms and Crash Worship. The tribal melee continues, interrupted briefly with one more ambient interlude, all low end rumble and groaning vocalisations, sounding like Keiji Haino with strep throat fronting Earth. Toward the end of the record the sludge coalesces into a weirdly catchy Viking style sing-a-long, lots of WOOOAH OOH OHHH's until things wind down in a truly creepy ritual of spoken female vocals, clapping, manic chanting, shouts, screams and whistles. Comus meets the Boredoms? The Wickerman performed by Corrupted? Boris covers the Incredible String Band? More amazing and baffling Japanese weirdness!

MPEG stream: Eti
MPEG stream: Olammo

Two new releases from the Glass Throat label on this week's list, elsewhere, the latest from longtime aQ faves Blood Of The Black Owl, and this one the first release from Cedar Spirits, a trio featuring the husband and wife team who run Glass Throat, Chet Scott (who is also BOTBO) and Rachel Boaz-Scott. The music is dark and reflective, laced with the very sounds of nature that seem to influence everything on the label. In fact the record opens with four minutes of field recordings, just the sound of a rushing river, water flowing over rocks, wind through the trees above, and when the music does come in, it's just the reverberant ringing of struck bowls, the tones ringing out and fading into the sounds of rushing water, although eventually the tones begin to sustain, creating a crystalline dronescape, laced with tinkling chimes, hushed and minimal and quite lovely. It's the perfect introduction to Cedar Spirit's nature folk, the record unwinding lazily, subtle steel guitar strum, chant-like vocals, all over the sounds of chirping birds, and a crackling fire, the sounds fading out leaving just those nature sounds, which are soon joined by some sort of horn, the result primitive and ritualistic, the music here simply the trio sonically communing with their surroundings. Fluttering flutes drift in, some minimal percussion, tranced out and darkly mesmerizing, it is the sound of these three performing sonic nature rituals, borrowing from seventies British folk, classic Americana, Native American folk songs, adding a bit of subtly metallic leanings to the proceedings, not so much in the form of actual metal, but more in the forms of deep dark drones, and ominous ambience, but those shadowy moments are in fact rare here, instead, the mood is mostly one of sunlight and spring, of rebirth and return to whence we came, some of the tracks here are downright jubilant, while others are tranquil and dreamily wistful, but even the songs themselves and their cyclical structures, seem to represent the spirit of the group, living in harmony with the surrounding world, creating something beautiful that works in harmony with the land and all who call it home, and letting that creation find its place in nature however brief, only to fade, and disappear, leaving everything as it was. Packaged in a super swank oversized, six panel deluxe screenprinted digipak style sleeve.

MPEG stream: River Of Purification
MPEG stream: Growth
MPEG stream: To You, I Give Myself
MPEG stream: Soar

Limited to 555 copies, each one hand numbered...

This is the debut full-length from Norwegian black metallers Celestial Bloodshed. Having only previously put out a demo and an ep, Cursed, Scarred and Forever Possessed (great title!) gives listeners outside of the utterly cvlt underground (who, like, don't live in Norway or trade obsessively over the internet) a chance to plumb their depths just a little deeper. Those lucky few already exposed to the charred sickness of these misanthropic underlords will recognize their place within the blackened realm ruled by bands like Burzum and Gorgoroth. Why do we mention those two bands specifically? Well, CB tend to go back and forth pretty solidly between both the more mid-paced buzzed out dirge of the former and the brutal blasts of the latter. At the same time, they've managed to incorporate some experimental soundscapery and some super cool and strange vocals, well beyond the usual black metal atmospherics. A gloriously grim, harsh and heavy collection of buzzing blackness, which will most definitely fit nicely in any serious metalhead's collection. Hail!

MPEG stream: Cursed, Scarred And Forever Possessed
MPEG stream: Truth Is Truth, Beyond The God

Celestial Sea is the unlikely collaboration between God Is Myth head honcho Todd Paulson, who is also responsible for Dormant, reviewed elsewhere on the aQ site, and Andrew Curtis-Brignell, of UK black metal one man band Caina. Not unlikely because of the folks involved, it's not hard to draw lines connecting Caina Dormant and God Is Myth, but more for the sound they produce. An epic cinematic post rock more influenced by folks like Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Isis and Mono than any black metal or even metal in particular. Granted the crossover between metal and post rock is pretty common these days with folks on both sides of the sonic divide borrowing freely from the folks opposite. And we're never ones to complain, we love both sounds, pummeling metallic crunch, and loping mathy instrumental jams, and the two together, well, you know where we stand. So here we Have Celestial Sea, a (perhaps) one off, that finds the duo getting super spacey for the opening 5 minutes, simple minor key guitar figures unfurling over long drawn out drones, ratcheting up the tension, creating a brooding post rock ambience, that to be honest, we'd be happy to hear continue for the length of the whole record. Instead, the band launch into the first proper song, soaring crystalline chords, breathless vocals, simple drumming, all swept up in a shimmering swell, building to a crescendo that instead of introducing crushing downtuned riffage, offers up some super proggy organs, but only for a moment, a few seconds later, the guitars drop, and the band is soaring majestically, and heavily through some epic major key chords, the drumming wilder and more chaotic, before blissing back out soon after. Track three, "William Bentley's Grave" is another slow burner, with a definite prog vibe, lots of glistening shimmer, finally exploding in another epic climax, not crushing or heavy, just expansive and cathartic. The closer, "Deep Inside The Cold" is the darkest of the bunch, and the most overtly heavy, sounding a bit like Opeth or Katatonia but more mathy and introspective. The guitars thick, ringing out, long passages of droning looped riffage, and finally the record's big payoff, high end guitars spiraling heavenward, the drums double time, a serious final blowout. Definitely for fans of rock both post and math, and of course metalheads not averse to some sonic subtlety and lots of pretty pretty melody LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, housed in a plain white sleeve with a paste on cover and a printed insert.

MPEG stream: Clouds
MPEG stream: As The Birds Fly South We Prepare Ourselves For The Impending Storm

There was a time where all you had to do was add umlauts to every vowel (heck how about a few consonants too?) to make your band name more evil. More mysterious. For glam rockers it simply meant changing s's to z's, BOYZ, TOYZ, NOYZE... oh and changing i's to y's, and double o's always helped... Bad Noose. But recently, there have been several examples of grim black and doom metal bands adding an extra 'i' for no apparent reason. When it was just French black metallers Mutiilation, we thought, okay, they're just French and little bit strange, or maybe it was a typo but they thought it was cool. We can dig that. But now with Minnesotan funereal doom lords Celestiial jumping on the double 'i' bandwagon, we're beginning to think something is going on. Something sinister. Er... siiniister we mean. Anyway, we'll just have to keep our eyes peeled for more of the evil double 'i' but in the meantime, Celestiial has more than just the 2 i's going for them. They also have a gaggle of o's. that's right. Celestiial are definitely one of those bands who have earned the multiple o'd doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom. They're in the tradition of bands like Skepticism, Thergothon, Disembowelment, Evoken, Winter and more modern practitioners of the ultradoom like Catacombs, Esoteric and the like, but Celestiial are no ordinary doom band, sure their songs are lengthy and glacial, guitars are nothing but black smears in a starless sky, the plodding drums are dropped reverently amidst a bleak and barren sonic landscape. Vocals growl and gurgle and float weightless like some dark wind. Celestiial's doom is even more spacey and blissed out than any of their influences. The guitars are thick and dense and tuned impossibly low, but they sound soft, like someone shaking out a huge black blanket and letting it settle over you, blocking out all light. The programmed drums are so dense with reverb, and the cymbals seem to sizzle endlessly, the percussion just turns into a wash of hiss and whir, that adds a strange fuzzy glow to the already murky and blissy sound. The other thing you can't help but notice, is the sound of nature, everywhere, in every song, crickets, wind blowing through the trees, frogs, whippoorwills, thunder, rain falling on leaves. You know how Skepticism sounds like it was recorded in a forest? This is like that too but it's not metaphorical, it really has forest sounds. It's almost like their is some black doom funeral procession, trudging through the forest, lit only by torchlight, the creatures of the night, gathered just outside the circle of fire. So intense and strangely serene, especially for a 'doom metal' record. And the thing is it's not just for effect. Celestiial are from Minnesota and are quite possibly the first reflective, isolationist, naturist doom band ever. From the band's website: "Celestiial was created to mirror mysticism in nature. Its heart lies not in its medium but in its dreams. It is a reflection of astral light shown upon the earth--sinking into its soil--waiting and dreaming. It wishes to be the pulse of woodlands and water. Nothing more? Understand that funeral doom isn't always slow for the sake of being slow. It is slower than the beat of the human heart. Its pulse is dead. The pulse of CELESTIIAL aims at being completely parallel to continual motion in everything of this earth. From the seasonal changes to representations of myth." Woah. But if you really listen, Celestiial's slow motion doom does sound perfectly at home amidst the sounds of nature. Like some living breathing shadowy doomic creature living among the insects and wild birds, lurking in tree tops and curled up upon soft piles of wet leaves. It's almost like a doom metal version of recent record of the week Osmose, by Ariel Kalma, but instead of synths and rainforests, it's doom and dark forests. And as if to further tie the music to the land, and the peoples of the land, Celestiial incorporate an unlikely selection of traditional instruments into their slow motion dirges, such as Celtic harp and Native American flutes. All of that, strange instrumentation, nature sounds, the two i's, combine to make this wonderfully weird, hauntingly mysterious and quite possibly one of the dreamiest and most blissed out doom records ever!

MPEG stream: Haunting Cries Beneath The Lake Where Our Queen Once Walked
MPEG stream: Lamentations In The Citadel Of God

Full length number two from this Minnesotan funeral doomlord, long anticipated around here considering how much we loved the last one, Desolate North, and this is another sprawling oozing missive from the dark forest, an epic chunk of woodland doom, similar to how the new wave of Cascadian black metal bands find inspiration from their surroundings, Celestiial look to the woods, the the water, the the world that surrounds them. The record opens with a dense swirl of black buzz, nearly motionless, a thick heady drone, laced with feedback, and grinding industrial grit, 4+ minutes of heaving whirling blacknoize, that gives way to a field recording of a trickling stream, complete with birdsong, wind, what could be thunder, the perfect introduction to the record's 30+ minute centerpiece, "Great Storms Carry My Sadness", a gorgeous, minor key, ultra doom lament, as slow and low as any of the other doom outfits, but somehow the sound is warmer, more lush, it manages to glow with some sort of warmth, while remaining appropriately dark and dense, the song plods along dreamily, and then fades out, leaving still more sounds of the forest, running water, birds chirping, all underpinned by deep barely there metallic shimmers, super haunting and otherworldly, like wandering through the forest at dusk, eventually the doom swoops back in, and if anything it's even prettier and more minimal than before the break. After a brief bit of lovely acoustic guitar, set to burbling brook and bird song, the record's other long track, another epic doom sprawl creeps into motion, laced with harp and hooting owls, another strange track in that it manages to be washed out and dreamlike, but also dark, and dense and heavy, but not like Bunkur or Moss, this is something way more ethereal, a hazy heaviness that leaves plenty of space for nature to intrude, birds and wind and rustling branches, all as much a part of the sound as guitar and drums and vocals. After another brief delicate bit of soft focus shimmer, of forest sounds and glistening acoustic guitar, the journey is over. Where Life Springs Eternal is that rare funereal doom record, a collection of songs that are as beautiful as they are heavy, and like the record that came before, easily some of the most blissful and dreamy doooooom you'll ever hear.

MPEG stream: Spell Over Still Water
MPEG stream: Great Storms Carry My Sadness

A high concept split lp from two aQ faves, two different bands, two different sounds, their bond being that of nature, both expressing their visions of the world around them, of their place, and our place amongst the living things that surround us, forests, plants, animals, insects, it's that natural force that infuses the music of both of these groups, and thus links them in such a way, that this shared 12" could almost be the work of a single entity. The first side features a single extended track from naturalist doomlords Celestiial, their track of course begins with the sounds of birds, of water and wind, insects, a forest at dusk most likely, before from below, rises deep ominous swells, rumbling drones, distant moaning melodies, a deep dark ambience that soon gives way to a big blown out doom, but, a very spacious, spare, airy sort of doom, not heavy as much as abstract, spaced out, the guitars not crumbling and downtuned, more like chiming and ringing out, somehow weirdly processed to make them seem like they are being stretched out, moaning and then fading out, before exploding in another burst, the drums and percussion sounds industrial, the vocals howled and buried in the mix, everything strangely harmonized, sounding a bit alien, near the end the drums speed up into an almost blast beat, but the music gets more and more melodic, minor key swells keeping time with the beat, unfurling a mournful melody, until the music fades out and the track finishes as it began with deep drones and the sounds of the forest. The flipside features a long three part track by Blood Of The Black Owl, who begin proceedings with a plodding, almost metallic dirge, but backed up by a haunting chiming high end jangle, as well as distant flute like melodies that sound distinctly Native American, the vocals howled and industrial sounding, a bit like Swans or Cop Shoot Cop. The second movement begins with birdsong, deep, slow rubbery dubbed out bass, soft ethereal reverbed vocals, very medieval sounding, until the track switches gears and transforms into something more post industrial sounding, a doomy plod but with haunting mysterious melodies. The side ends with a very tribal sort of ritualistic piece, all simple hand drums and shimmering lowend ambience, growled spoken word, very minimal and haunting, almost like some ancient rite, being captured on vinyl for the very first time. Gorgeously packaged. Incredibly thick vinyl, thick sleeves, full color inserts, and most likely quite limited...

[ aquarius records — Metal ]