[ aquarius records

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Showing results 1401 through 1450 of 5570.

Third in this series, where two Season of Mist bands (in this case Cultus Sanguine from Italy and French black metallers Seth) contribute a couple new sonsgs, cover a song by the other band, and both do a cover version of some other band's song. In this case, a Depeche Mode track!

This six-song ep is the latest cd offering from Las Vegas metalcore act Curlupanddie. Screaming, crushing metalcore a la Converge, Coalesce and old Cave In. A buncha crazy kids who we can always count on for great, A Minor Forest-esque song titles (e.g. "I Don't Give A Shit If I'm In Outer Darkness, I'll Make Friends") and swank graphic design along with their superior metalcore. This disc sports fake Chris Ware artwork (though Chris Ware does gets thanked, so maybe he approved of the, uh, emulation?), which is a bit puzzling. Much like the drum machine weirdness on the disc's final track... Like we said, crazy kids. MPEG Download: "I Hate Almost Every Person I Come In Contact With" [/audio/curlupanddieihate.mp3] MPEG Stream: "I Hate Almost Every Person I Come In Contact With" [/audio/curlupanddieihate.m3u]

MPEG stream: I Hate Almost Every Person I Come In Contact With
MPEG stream: Utah: The Whoopie Cushion Of America

Dom Fernow (Ash Pool, Vegas Martyrs, Prurient, Cold Cave) of Hospital Productions insisted that this record from mysterious USBM outfit Curved Blade was totally aQ worthy, and boy was he right. A stumbling damaged chunk of plodding, lumbering outsider death-obsessed doom flecked black metal grimnity. The guitars are warbly and warped, the drums are loose and chaotic, the keyboards add a twisted droned out vibe, the vocals are barely vocals, more an inhuman moan, the tracks plod along, always seemingly on the verge of total collapse, constantly shifting tempos, giving the record a seriously twisted seasick feel, and when the band do attempt to blast, or even just up the tempo, they sound like they're struggling desperately to keep it together, only making it sound that much more primitive and raw and fucked up. It's super short, one track split over two sides, but it's everything you could want in some mysterious weirdo black metal record, it's twisted and damaged, repetitive and droney, murky and atmospheric, buzz drenched and grim, and totally and brilliantly bizarre.

The third cd long-player to come from these local sharp-dressed rock and roll revivalists about town, The Cuts. Yay! Every time we've seen 'em play, they've been great -- but just a little bit different from the last time. At one gig they'll come across all Cars-y, keyboards to the fore. The next, it's guitar-heavy rawkin' with an early '70s Alice Cooper vibe. Ya never know quite what to expect, except that they're always impressive and a real authentic rock n' roll good time. Just like this album. We dug albums one and two, but number three might be the best yet. It's like some amazing power pop band from the early '70s that you somehow never heard of, whose album just got reissued and makes you go, wow, they just don't make 'em like they used to. But they do, and The Cuts are doin' it. From Here On Out sees them honing their craft (and they ARE careful craftsmen, with so much attention to songwritiing, arrangement, and performance), doing their influences proud, from '60s garage to west coast ballroom psych to new wave pop. There's out-and-out guitar rock action here as well as lovely, pretty pop moves too, with vocal harmonies and all. Recommended.

MPEG stream: Demons
MPEG stream: Lemonade

Record number two from the new project of Chris Spencer of late great NYC nineties noise rockers the Unsane, and while the sound of The Cutthroats 9 is maybe a bit less metal, it still retains much of the negative sonic energy of Unsane. Skull caving riffage, thick, corrosive bass buzz, pounding drums, and maybe most notably, some bad ass slide guitar (peep the cover photo, a close up of said slide guitar happening) which adds a definite distinctive sound, CT9's down tuned grooves laced with slippery melodies, the band locked into explosive churning heaviness, Spencer's slide guitar woven throughout, adding some surprising melody to the proceedings, a nice balance to the unhinged ferocity that oozes from pretty much every other part of the record, with Spencer's throaty bellow, cracking into more unhinged near-shriekiness on tracks like "Trouble", which sound essentially, like a groovier, more melodic Unsane, which is most definitely not a bad thing at all. The AmRep noise rock vibe is pretty huge too, hugely beholden to that label, and that era, fans of eighties and nineties pig fuck heaviness will dig this stuff like crazy, but then the band whip out a track like "Dissension", where the slide is right up front, and suddenly it almost sounds like a more metal Raging Slab, sort of, cuz really, the blood that adorned most of the Unsane records seems to still flow through Spencer's veins, and thus through his amp, dripping all over these jams as well, so fans of Spencer's old outfit will feel right at home, but really, any one whole likes it heavy and groovy, step right up... Includes a download code too!

MPEG stream: Speak
MPEG stream: Trouble
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BACK IN STOCK!!! First release from the oddly named Cvbe Ov Falsehood, the new project from one of the guys in aQ faves Servile Sect, and like that group, whose connection to black metal is tenuous at best, CoF deliver some seriously avant blackness, to sidelong 15 minute tracks that combine drifting drones, with symphonic fragments, layered strings, pizzicato melodies, churning blurred riffage, swirling psychedelic FX, what sounds like field recordings, the first track/side begins with what sounds like an orchestra tuning up, while in the background, the earth begins to rumble and the crust of the earth collapses into subterranean caverns. But that tectonic/Teutonic rumble, is soon smoothed out into a glorious bit of black drone drift, laced with all manner of subtle sonic fluctuations, buried industrial rhythms, the whole thing coalescing into a sort of murky kraut-psych, wreathed in dense black ambience. Soon the sound is wreathed in hiss and static, a cloud of swirling sibilant shimmer, that gradually becomes more and more caustic, before transforming into a strange staticky rhythm, churning machinelike to the end of the side. The flipside begins with the sounds of a gamelan (we think), lush, lustrous, resonant tones, ringing out, the sky filled with the ripples of subtle overtones, mysterious samples surface from the murk, the low end becomes more active, a strangely muted melody, pulsing, super distorted, over another barely there industrial rhythm, the result a pulsing sprawl of blackened kosmische, that gradually becomes more and more abstract and tranquil, before beginning another slow build, beginning with a burbling thrum, laced with cricket like chitter, and distant keening melodies, all draped in a black sonic gauze, suddenly erupting into some serious caustic crunch, grinding and corrosive, but somehow also weirdly melodic and psychedelic, the burst brief, soon settling back into a final stretch of deep tones, and hushed ambient dronemusic. Gorgeous packaging too. A clear tape in a black and white J-card adorned with black and white space diagrams, the whole tape then housed in a black on black embossed, textured cardstock slipcover. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Some of which include a Tarot card!

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Tech death.

This disc has quickly become one of Andee and Allan's most played. After getting over the initial surprise of absolutely *loving* a super commercial MTV style heavy rock band, one can enjoy what is in our opinion a totally great record. Definitely hyper produced, too heavy to be totally mainstream "alternative", but too poppy to be a metal record, it just pushes all the right buttons. Sounding a bit like a more metallic Smashing Pumpkins, or a smoother, non-rap Rage Against the Machine, but with what sounds like GEDDY LEE FROM RUSH ON VOCALS!!. So great. Totally kick ass, totally catchy. It's a crying shame that these guys are major-label also-rans when they are as good or even better than the above mentioned bands. The sound, the look (hottie alt-hunk lead vocalist with dyed red hair and no shirt!) -- they should be huge. Must be the totally stupid album cover. Maybe a guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.

RealAudio clip: Violet High
RealAudio clip: Supergod

First we've heard from this one man kraut-drone combo from Torronto, but we figured we'd probably dig it based on the list of influences (Taj Mahal Travellers, Fripp & Eno, Ash Ra Tempel, Cluster, Manuel Gottsching) and the fact that the music was self-described as "fuzz worship, drones, hails to Big Muff and Dirge Electronics" and it definitely lived up to the promise of all that. From the first few moments of the first track, Cyclopean Wall unfurl a black, caustic, viscous sprawl of rumbling, crumbling distortion, blurred and buzzy, undulating and softly churning beneath spidery guitar melodies, drifting weightless over the roiling neat-metallic churn. And while those above mentioned influences definitely apply, we also hear plenty of SUNO))), Expo '70, even another obscure aQ fave, the Hills Have Amps. But Cyclopean Wall is not all downtuned dirgery, the sound opens way up on the second track, into something much more pastoral, all lush, lustrous chordal swells, and soft focus melodies, with a brief build mid song into something again nearly metallic, before settling right back into that dreamy drift. The flipside offers up variations on the same sonic theme, with one track that buries the melodies beneath a thick layer of gristly static and blackened haze, sounding a bit like some lo-fi Skaters / Tim Hecker hybrid, while the other is the most darkly delicate of the bunch, a hazy slow burn that unfurls languorously, all somnambulant shimmer and gauzy twilit ambience. Super limited, just 50 copies, dubbed onto different colored tapes, each one labeled by hand.

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How can a country with a population as small as Australia produce so much heaviness?? Grey Daturas, Whitehorse, Fire Witch and now Dad They Broke Me, who just might be the heaviest of the bunch. Seriously blown out, black-hole-heavy doom dirge sludge, lurching, lumbering, pummeling, pounding, guitars thick and corrosive and black as pitch, tuned WAY down, the drums a crashing, rib cage rattling battery, the vocals, bile spewing demonic shrieks and guttural monstrous bellows, the songs dense and intricate, mathy and metal, proggy and convoluted, lots of stuttery start stop, bursts of feedback, churning chugging riffage, long stretches of rumbling buzz, think Eyehategod, Unsane, Khanate, Corrupted, Zeni Geva and the like, a glorious AmRep style noise rock / extreme doom / Southern sludge hybrid, but way more filthy and crusty and droned out and hypnotically brutal and bleak, with occasional bursts of murky muddy grind, and total tranced out downtuned dirgery, easily one of the meanest, heaviest discs in recent memory, and most definitely a new favorite amongst the aQ heavies. LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, housed in a folded cardstock sleeve, with a sticker cover front and back, a printed insert, each one hand numbered.

MPEG stream: Sutured
MPEG stream: Swine Filth Hate God
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Doth our ears deceive us? Have we been hurtled screaming backwards across the astral plane to the mythical hard rock glory age? To a time spoken of only in forgotten whispers and ancient half recalled prophecy?? An age mortal man knows only as... 1978??? Well, if track 6 on this mystical Swedish rocker of an album is anything to go by, which is LITERALLY called "1978" and references the album titles of at least 11 classic hard rock lp that came out that same year (sample line: "We wanted blood, and we got it for sure / Alive and dangerous, coming back for more!"), then yeah I think it's safe to say aQ HQ has been transformed into some sort of space-time hopping heavy metal Tardis. But let's back up a bit here. Who are these Nordic axe warriors, striding forth from the mists in their flared jeans and denim shirts embroidered with moons and stars (we assume anyway)? Well, surprisingly The Dagger is a Swedish death metal supergroup of sorts! Featuring past and present members of such grave gurgling stalwarts as Grave, Dismember and Nifelheim. But instead of decrepit blast beats & grinding death dirges, this album is chockfull of the kind of late '70s / early '80s hard rockin' heavy metal that we absolutely eat up here at aQuarius. It's pretty heavy on the homage to be sure, but it's done so well and with such genuine joy and enthusiasm that we don't mind one bit. Not to mention The Dagger's reference points build on a hard rock legacy that seldom gets its due from modern bands. As much we love doom metal around here, we'll be the first to admit it can be sort of hard to get excited about a band regurgitating the same Black Sabbath riffs and Ozzy aping vox unless it's done really exceptionally well. But when a band like The Dagger shows up instead sounding almost exactly like some sort of mash up of NWOBHM, early Scorpions, '80s Sabbath, solo Dio and especially '70s Deep Purple/Rainbow (there's even a song called "Skygazer"... hmm... more than a little similar to Rainbow's "Stargazer", eh?!), we're gonna immediately stand up and take notice! This is thing is bursting with Blackmore-ian minstrel harmonies and Uli-esque mystical swaying grooves. Vocalist Jani Kataja is almost a dead ringer for Ian Gillan (which is no small feat!), his strained, bluesy wail lending the songs a serious timeless world weariness, even at the most up tempo of times of which there are plenty. There's swirling Hammond organ, there's talk of "dark gypsy women", there's boogie-woogie numbers, there's Judas Priest style fist pumpers, there's crumbling doomy groovers, hell there's even a Quartz cover, "Mainline Riders"! In short, it's a rusted cauldron bubbling over with everything great about '70s dragon rock. Is it terribly original? Maybe not. But are you gonna find another band that sounds like The Dagger any time soon? Not from this decade you ain't. Recommended.

MPEG stream: Ahead Of You All
MPEG stream: Ballad Of An Old Man
MPEG stream: 1978

Second album from this Southern crust and doom metal outfit. Huge and droning and hypnotic and heavy and pretty weird, with a female vocalist that adds some surprising warmth and depth to the usually all too typical cookie monster metal vocals. Wicked cover art by Pushead (Metallica, Aerosmith, Septic Death, etc.)

Okay, odds are most aQ list readers aren't gonna be interested in this. But in the spirit of aQuarius, and the sort of open mindedness we try to engender here, hopefully a few folks will give this a chance, cuz it's actually pretty great. The math sounds bizarre and it most definitely is, take two parts Fallout Boy, two parts Anthrax, and one part Every Time I Die (literally, it's members of those bands!), and this is what you get, a bombastic blast of super heavy, ultra melodic, catchy as hell classic eighties style hard rocking heaviness. Big riffs, wild leads, pounding drummage, some super epic clean vocals, classic metal guitar harmonies, all wound into super hooky heavy jams that kick tons of ass. "We've Got A Situation Here" is THEE one here, a pretty much perfect pop song rendered in shades of chug and crunch and wail and blast and pound. The guitars crunchy and heavy, the vocals throaty and what you might expect from the dude from ETID, but with a chorus most bands would kill for, not to mention some seriously heavy breakdowns, one in particular that seriously swings and sounds almost like Pantera or Down. And the rest of the songs are pretty much just as good, born from a shared love of Thin Lizzy, it's got that kind of classic rock vibe, some songs sounding a little like Kiss, others more like Queens Of The Stoneage or Foo Fighters, but the Damned Things, definitely temper their poppiness with some serious heaviness, and some killer songs. Scoff if you must, but some of us (mostly Andee) have been listening to this like crazy!

MPEG stream: We've Got A Situation Here
MPEG stream: Handbook For The Recently Deceased
MPEG stream: Bad Blood

It's not really all that much fun writing a review of this new Danava album. What's fun is listening to it, turned up loud... and maybe getting buzzed on a substance of choice whilst doing so. Whoo-hoo! Granted, that's the case with lots of albums, classics like say Deep Purple In Rock or Alice Cooper's Love It To Death. The kind that require, nay inspire, such behavior. Those, though, weren't just released, but this was, so all the more an occasion for drunken loud listening. They don't make 'em like this all that often anymore, so kudos to Kemado for bringing us the real deal (ironic, isn't it). Though its exactly what we've come to expect from Portland psych-prog-stoner rockers Danava, and are happy to hear once again. Since the time we checked in with these boys, they've undergone some lineup changes. They now rock to the beat of a different drummer, for one thing. And the guy who only played synths is gone now... but in his stead, way better yet, they've added a 2nd guitarist for extra twin axe attackin', so that's a win. The bassist and the singin' lead guitarist are the same, and that's what really matters in this band, those dudes. They slay. Needless (at this point) to say, this new album is a killer, replete from the very get-go with rollicking, riff-rockin' badassery. These new Danava jams are seriously being kicked, way out. And they're, y'know, real songs too, with real vocals and everythin', like it's back in 1973 or so and they've got something to prove, those twin guitars givin' with the glorious harmonies (think Thin Lizzy, on the song "I Am The Skull" here especially). They sound like old time Pentagram too, but galloping like they wuz in the Preakness. The Preakness of freakness. Danava are doin' it, here. They're gonna out rock, out prog, out psych, out retro-proto-metal all comers. Speedy and sinuous, no doubt a bit of stress on all the wrists and necks involved in the making of this music. And there's still the usual embellishments of spacey synthy FX sprinkled about, even with that one guy gone. It's all almost a bit overwhelming, which is why it's nice that the very last track, the instrumental "Dying Into The Light" winds things up on a calming, eerily pretty note. Whew... And, it should be noted that they further pay tribute to their '70s forebears by covering a song, "The Last Goodbye", by obscure UK blooze bashers Slowbone, not that you'd think it wasn't one of their own. So, yep, getting ripped and listening to these guys rip (rollercoaster style, like they do) is of course way better than writing or reading this review. The response should be obvious. We, or well at least one of us anyway, is gonna kick back and crank this right now. You, should buy a copy and do the same as soon as you can. By the way, all that drink/drug stuff is meant metaphorically, for all we know the guys in Danava, and their intended listening audience, are super straight edge, not stoners, let alone beer drinkers and hell raisers - though we doubt it.

MPEG stream: Shoot Straight With A Crooked Gun
MPEG stream: The Last Goodbye
MPEG stream: I Am The Skull

We first heard this Portland stoner-prog-metal combo on the Invaders comp of happenin' heavy psych metal that the Kemado label put out a few months ago. Their track was one of the several highlights there. Went to go see 'em when they played here with Parchman Farm not long ago, too, and the Danava boys SLAYED, shredded, and (incidentally) were all really skinny. Awesome band. Basically a rippin' power trio with extra (and to be honest, seemingly unnecessary) keyboard electronics action. So we're looking forward to their upcoming full length debut due later this year on Kemado, who made the wise decision to sign these guys. As a teaser to that, here's a single-sided limited-edition 12" vinyl release featuring an epic track entitled "Quiet Babies Astray In A Manger".

A rockin' return (of course!) from Portland's finest, the mighty Danava. Retro stoner rock melodic metallic garage prog psych heaviness. Whew that's a mouthful. What did we say about 'em when reviewing their recent 7"? "A band whose ripping '70s style metallic power trio action is augmented by a dusting of trippy space rock synthesizer soundz from fourth member Rockwell." The deal with Danava is that, bottom line, they rip. Metal or indie or retro or hipster or whatever, we don't really care, we just know that they obviously love the same sort of '70s prog excess we dig (a la Sabbath's Sabotage), with flamboyant keyboard flourishes (check out the last minute of "Where Beauty And Terror Dance" ferinstance), write actual songs, sing 'em too, and totally kick ass live. Maybe that's not much to ask from a band, but these days, such real deal rock n' roll acts are few and far between. Likewise with kick ass albums like this one. Who else might we cite? Birds Of Avalon are one of 'em. Also recent Danava tour mates Witchcraft. And Oakland's Drunk Horse (imagine them in cahoots with SF's Crime In Choir perhaps, to approach the boogie prog shred you get with Danava). Unonou brings fans another seven songs sprung from the bulging collective Danava forehead, in the manner to which we have become accustomed. Which means, they feature virtuosic guitar (and bass) solo action, frenzied drumming, Ozzish vocals (very much so, up to and including some snippets of the lyrics), and the aforementioned eccentric electronic embellishments. Plus, this time 'round, there's a frickin' horn section throwing down in several songs! The album ends with the 13+ minute "Mind Gone Separate Ways", wherein the band manage to kick out the jams whilst making melodic space rock fusion, wow. Yep Unonou has got its share of sinister moodiness and spaceouts but consists mostly of REALLY energetic rollercoaster, uh, rippage (to use that term once more). Danava's '70s era references/influences would seem to include proggy Black Sabbath, early Blue Oyster Cult, lashings of Gobin (like the disco-ish groove that starts off "The Emerald Snow Of Sleep"), very early Alice Cooper, maybe even Jobraith... If that sounds good to you, get this, and definitely don't miss 'em live whenever that chance presents itself. (Vinyl coming soon, btw.)

MPEG stream: Where Beauty And Terror Dance
MPEG stream: Spinning Temple Shifting

Yay, two new songs from Portland's finest melodic heavy psych rockers Danava, a band whose ripping '70s style metallic power trio action is augmented by a dusting of trippy space rock synthesizer soundz from fourth member Rockwell... Just saw 'em recently opening for Witchcraft, one of the only bands around that's capable of giving us as much of a rock n' roll thrill as these guys. On this seven inch (which includes a coupon enabling a free download of mp3 versions of these tracks) you get the title cut "Where Beauty & Terror Dance", and on the flip, their cover of "Jericho" by fuzzblasted English psychedelic proto-metallers Stray, originally from that band's 1971 album Suicide. All right!

A few months back, we listed a one-sided, one-song 12" vinyl record that was a teaser for this, the debut album from Portland, Oregon's magnificent Danava, an eagerly awaited release 'round here for sure. And so we'll pretty much recap a bunch of what we said in the review of that 12", which featured their epic tune "Quiet Babies Astray In A Manger", also found on this disc: we first heard this stoner-garage-prog-metal combo on the Invaders comp of happenin' hipster heavy psych metal that the Kemado label released earlier this year. Their track was one of several highlights on that collection. We went to go see 'em when they played in Oakland with Parchman Farm not too long ago, and even more recently in The City when they were supposed to be opening for Witchcraft, and in both instances the Danava boys SLAYED, shredded, and (incidentally to the music) were all really skinny. Awesome band. Basically a rollicking, rippin' power trio with extra psychedelic embellishments from keyboards and electronics. If we were a label, we'd have signed 'em in an instant, and that's what Kemado wisely did some time ago. This resultant product comes close to capturing the excitement of their live show, while revealing other aspects we didn't hear whilst headbanging. It's got a reworking of their killer tune "By The Mark" from the Invaders comp, plus the aforementioned 12" track, and three others that are equally masterful, like "Eyes In Disguise" (hearing a hint of Black Sabbath in the vocal line on that one). When the fleet-fingered guitarist gets goin', and when the drummer and bassist lock in, Danava build to pure, amped up, enthused rocka rolla ecstasy and almost could just as well be a totally instrumental band and get away with it, but they have the bonus of actual decent singing capability and vocal hooks as well. Recommended if you like to rock.

MPEG stream: Maudie Shook
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THEE most epic, grandiose, operatic, regal, majestic, bombastic, portentous power / doom metal this side of Sweden's mighty Candlemass, quite possibly comes from the island of Puerto Rico, in the form of this band, called Dantesco. We haven't listed anything by them before, but we've actually been fans of 'em for a while (well, Allan and Andee anyway, as this particular style of metal isn't admittedly to everyone's taste). So we were excited to get this new disc, their third proper album, not surprisingly released seven years after the band's inception, which comes to us via the excellent Stormspell label, who specialize in anything obscure and '80s (or that sounds that way) in the metal realm. See also Immaculate, reviewed this list, and also recent releases by Noctum and DarkBlack. The big deal with Dantesco is pretty much their singer, Erico La Bestia, who possesses a powerful and versatile voice, capable of deep somber recitations, as well as fists-clenched screaming in his upper range (which is up there!). We'd guess he's a tenor, not quite sure, but he sure sounds operatic, and regardless of whether he's singing in English or Spanish (on this album, 2 of the 8 tracks are in Spanish) we find both his voice and vocal stylings quite compelling. The man was clearly BORN to sing in a band like this, lucky for the other dudes in Dantesco. If such a thing as epic doom metal didn't exist, they'd have had to invent it for him. Not that the rest of the band are chopped liver. The crunching, lead weight riffage provides a solid base for La Bestia's histrionics, and certainly the spiraling, intricate soloing of the guitarists also grabs our attention. It's all part of the vast and elaborate architecture, the castle walls and cathedral spires, conjured by Dantesco's music, which ultimately conveys much emotion and a great deal of gravitas. And is of course very very metal. To underscore that point, the disc ends with a slaying Savatage cover, "The Dungeons Are Calling", and it's evident that Erico relishes doing that sudden "aaaaah!!" thing that was Savatage singer Jon Oliva's trademark. Also of course this is for fans of the aforementioned Candlemass, as well as the likes of Solitude Aeternus, Doomsword, Mercyful Fate, Powers Court, Warlord, Cirith Ungol, etc. As with other Stormspell releases, this is a limited, numbered edition. FYI they've also just put out a self-titled Dantesco disc, consisting of the band's demos from seven years ago.

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Recently we highlighted the new album from Puerto Rico's most epic doomy operatic metal band, Dantesco, Seven Years Of Battle. Simultaneously released with that, Stormspell has also brought out this raging disc of demos from their very first year of battle, back in 2004. They were as over the top and impressive then as they are now. Plus bonus tracks, including two more covers rather revealing of their obscure epic influences: "Queen In Black" originally by Swedish cult Sorcerer (whose album has recently been reissued, and we'll probably be listing soon!) and "Deliver Us From Evil" by the legendary Warlord, which by itself would be enough to get the true metal heads here at AQ to buy this, though we'd be buying it anyway since we're Dantesco fans already! For those, like us, who can't get enough of the EPIC! (Or the unintentional visual hilarity of this otherwise quite serious -sounding- band's band photos...) As with other Stormspell releases, this is a limited, numbered edition...

MPEG stream: Cronicas De La Muerte Negra
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

The return of our favorite Medieval, Middle Ages, and plague obsessed ambient atmospheric dronescapers Dark Ages, who just so happens to be a member of Ukrainian black metal Hordes Drudkh and Hate Forest. No buzzing blackness here, instead Dark Ages is a sonic trip through, well, through the Dark Ages. Another Bosch / Breughel style painting on the cover, this time skeletons on horses, pulling a wagon full of skulls, driving through a town square littered with corpses and robed skeletons. The song titles are also appropriately grim: "Ships Full Of Blackened Corpses", "Rats", "Dead Desolate Villages", "The Doors With Scarlet Crosses" and of course "Black Death". The sound this time around is even darker and scarier. This is ambient music, sure, but it's also a sonic travelogue, a weary wander through the plague ravaged villages of Middle Europe. The sky is choked with black smoke and the stench of burning flesh. Corpses lay stacked like firewood. Dead children litter the ground like leaves fallen from trees. The few survivors, walk zombie like, an endless death march with no destination other than the grave. The music is sounds JUST LIKE THAT. It's totally evocative and ultra creepy. Thick washes of keyboard drones, chiming minor key melodies repeated mantra like, a deep churning dark ambience underpinning the melancholy ambience, stabs of atonal harpsichord add jagged shards of horror here and there. Long stretches of super dramatic cinematic shimmer definitely recall Goblin and Zombi, some tracks are super murky minimal rumbles, with the melodies muted and buried under a thick crumbling wash of mumbled whirs and swirling low end, others are majestic and grand, fanfares for the dead and dying. They're all quite grim, a bit black, super intense, and surprisingly emotional. Sonically, Dark Ages almost sounds like a super dismal, way blacker Dead Can Dance, or like Tangerine Dream or Popol Vuh covering Skepticism. Or even like some long lost Jacula album. So gorgeously dark and creepy. Recommended!

MPEG stream: Ships Full Of Blackened Corpses
MPEG stream: Rats
MPEG stream: Blessed Be The Waters Of The Avignon River

Behold the final chapter (after Twilight Of Europe, A Chronicle Of The Plague and The Tractatus De Hereticis Et Sortilegiis) in this long running series of releases from the appropriately monikered Dark Ages, a Ukrainian duo made up of members past and present of Drudkh, Blood Of Kingu, Hate Forest and Old Silver Key, who specialize in a virulent strain of medieval dark ambience, each record brilliantly captivating in its sonic representation of the middle ages, of crumbling cities, and a plague ridden populace, each record rife with brooding, haunting atmospheres and melancholic melodies, slow shifting synthscapes, swoonsome strings, all layered and textured, cinematic and darkly mysterious. This latest might be the prettiest of them all. Although you might not have thought so, considering that once again, the cover is adorned with some horrific Bosch / Breughel style art, and the record is called Rabble, Whores, Usurers, and the song titles include: "Leprosy", "Deformity", "Malice", "Depravity" and "Sin". And while the sound of Rabble is in fact lovely, it remains sinister, and ominous, moody and brooding. The opener "Leprosy" is all lush layered shimmer, chanted vocals, a haunting chorale, laced with tinkling chimes, of dramatic strings, what sounds like muted horns, a miserablist fanfare of sorts, you can almost imagine an imaginary camera panning across a wideshot of a post plague village, burned houses, piles or rubble, charred corpses, beggars in the street, emaciated beasts wandering throughout, the sky choked with ash, the sound evoking a sort of melancholy, a feeling of loss, and of hopelessness, those dramatic strings growing more and more feverish, the song growing more and more tense. Every time we play this in the store, someone comes up to see what it is, and always seems to find it hard to believe that it's a concept record about the dark ages. The rest of the record is equally stunning. "Chastity" is a lush landscape of crystalline shimmer, weirdly processed into something strangely rhythmic, with ethereal female vocals, and even a pulsing beat, "Avarice" is a grim sprawl of dense rumbles, and music box like melodies, "Deformity" is super dramatic, all swirling organs, total seventies horror score, while "Malice" might be the most overly medieval of the bunch, martial snares, deep vocal chants, moody strings, clouds of cymbal shimmer. "Depravity" is a hushed, subterranean sounding creep, long droned out tones, strange percussive scrapes and mysterious synth melodies, a murky blackened psychedelia, which leads into the closer, "Sin", which is the most minimal of the bunch, a slow, softly smoldering synthscape, a little bit kosmische, a little bit black ambient, drifting vocal like tones, transform the second half into something almost liturgical, darkly lovely and hauntingly austere.

MPEG stream: Leprosy
MPEG stream: Chastity
MPEG stream: Avarice

SPECIAL SALE PRICE! Even though this split release is from a few years back, it really couldn't be more timely. Two groups, two songs from each, both dedicated to the loss of their countrymen. Up first is Dark Ages, the medieval dark ambient project of Roman Saenko (Hate Forest, Drudkh, Blood Of Kingu, etc.), who hails from the Ukraine, which is, as we write, in political and social turmoil, so these two haunting elegies are even more moving. Unlike past Dark Ages recordings, that conjured up visions of ruined villages, and crumbled cathedrals, the first track here is achingly melancholic, brooding and moody, and truly haunting, soft swirls of string like synths, drift beneath delicate piano, the sound laced with delicate percussion, the sound cinematic and darkly sweeping, the sort of heartbreaking instrumental you would expect in the denouement of some bittersweet drama. The second track though slips back into the Dark Ages of old, unfurling a gristled expanse of crackle and deep chordal thrum, strange industrial percussion, and tranced out synth drones, but over the top, more aching melodies, strings this time, like some gypsy folk troubadours, playing for their fallen, the static almost like the sound of rain. So so lovely. Dark ages share the split with a duo from Ireland, with the mouthful moniker From The Bogs Of Aughiska, and whose sound, while ambient, is a much different beast, murky and muffled, thick, rib cage rattling tones, smeared into tectonic rumbles, rife with buried shadows of melodies, a rich, churning thrum, peppered sporadically with scraping, groaning tones, and what sounds like mutated slowbuzz guitars, transformed into grinding hums, the whole thing is closer to SUNNO))) or Phurpa or Mohammad. The second From The Bogs track cranks everything up, building a wall of sound, that seems to be constructed from white noise, but that white noise has been blackened and curdled, a suffocating grey wash of sound, laced with subtle slivers of melancholy melody, softly swirling and darkly psychedelic, there's a brief bit of sampled voices, and then the sound seems to blackly blossom into more sinister noisiness, still murky, but with some grim black heft, that at the very last minute, seems to peel back, and reveal a little bit of choral dreaminess beneath the roiling black surface.

MPEG stream: Requiem On That Black Autumn
MPEG stream: Mass Starvation

NOW ALSO ON VINYL! Not sure what most devout Buddhists would think of this band, but we suppose if they're into heavy psychedelic Finnish space sludge drone trips, they'd like it! And the name Dark Buddha Rising isn't that bad of a shorthand description of the band's sound, really, in a way. There's definitely an ominous ceremonial vibe here, with trance-inducing ritualistic percussion and mumbling monkish chant amidst the slabular riff repetition. Is Yoga Doom a genre yet? These guys could teach a class in that for sure, heck they'd be at the top of that zoned-out heap, alongside aQ faves Nibiriu, whom this music reminds us of a lot. Speaking of esoteric Italian psychonauts, this reminds us of UFOmammut as well. With just two long tracks, "Eso" and "Exo", each a vinyl side in length, you know this Dark Buddha takes some time to rise, that's what it's all about, that process, that practice, that spaciousness, an exploration of the whole calmness/crushingness spectrum. The first of the two tracks is a slow, slow build from vaporous drone on into eons of tumbling tribal rhythm and throbbing riff stumble accompanied by occasional, worshipful chants and screams of supplication - and more drone, waves and waves of it. The second similarly starts off quiet and blissful but gets into the action (of scaling the holy headbanging mountain) with less preamble, powering up the morose megaton throbulation earlier on, with some jazzy drumming around the edges (shades of Bohren), getting more massive and mesmeric as it goes, eventually approaching the lift off potential of the late, great Tarantula Hawk, with riff detonations on the SUNNO)))-scale. Earthshaking sonic ritual in other words, and our only disappointment is that after about 24 minutes, this sweaty yoga mat magic carpet ride to the dark side of the sun ends rather more abruptly than what we expected (endlessness???).

MPEG stream: Eso
MPEG stream: Exo

Latest blast of psychedelic avant doom from this Floridian boy/girl duo, apparently often referred to as the doom metal White Stripes, based we assume entirely on the boy guitarist / girl drummer lineup, cuz sonically this is miles away from the Stripes' bluesy stomp. Instead, these two whip up a swirling, noisy, progged out, psychedelic sort of doom, which really is only classified as doom, because of the downtuned chugging, and slow-ish tempos. But the songs here are not slo-mo sludgefests, or funereal drags, these songs are furious tangles of wild guitar freakouts, of twisted effects drenched melody, of howled vitriolic vokills, of crashing chaotic drummage, and yeah, there are certainly stretches of plodding doomic crush, but even there things are not strictly doomy, the guitars sound warped and woozy, effects everywhere, the ambience seeming to melt in some sort of lysergic haze, the duo transformed into a lurching, lumbering doom-ed deity, sonically smiting all who stand in their way. The guitars constantly flit from crunchy distorted metallic buzz, to effects drenched warble, to slippery spidery squiggle, the drums following suit, the arrangements and structures seeming to continuously mutate, flecked in various places with chanted chorale like vocals, pulsing new wave synths, thick low end rumbles, even programmed drums, "To Hide Is To Die" sounds almost like a metal version of the current John Carpenter / Goblin worship, and has us sort of hankering for a whole record of metalwave retro-giallo-doom. But the next track slips right back into the duo's gnarled prog-psych-doom, before finally finishing things off with a super strange chunk of piano driven ultra distorted dirge, haunting, and cinematic, everything blown out and warped, harsh vox draped over the top, a pounding, minor key miserablist abstract doom lament, the perfect finish to a fucking killer record, that's fast becoming one of our new faves... Features guest spots by all sorts of underground metal luminaries including Mike Scheidt from YOB, Blake Judd from Nachtmystium, Nate Hall from U.S. Christmas, and Parker Sanford from Minsk, who also recorded the record.

MPEG stream: Surrender To All Life Beyond Form
MPEG stream: Stare Into Absence
MPEG stream: Create An Impulse

Old school (NWOBHM) style metal from this young British band!

Not new recordings but a blast from the past from these black metal stalwarts. The Dark Funeral tracks date from 1994 and the Infernal tracks are from a couple years ago. And as with a lot of black metal, you'd be hard pressed to tell where DF's side stops and Infernal's starts, but I guess that's why they're sharing this split cd, a shared love of blazing, raw old school black metal. Oh, that a venomous hatred for Christianity and all of mankind. EVIL!

RealAudio clip: Open The Gates
RealAudio clip: Requiem (The Coming Age Of Satan)

AQ buddy Ian Christe is DARK NOERD, who so far has only made one recorded appearance, on the awesome 'Gummo' soundtrack. When Christe is not writing a comprehensive history of heavy metal or DJing, he's making black metal electronica unlike anything you've ever heard. This 12" splits its time pretty evenly between straight up drum 'n bass ala Photek and noisy black metal. On a couple

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

SORRY. Another back room discovery, a record from a couple years back, released on unblack label E.E.E., a 2006 ep from these Indiana based (un?) black metallers, who mix dark, raw and grim riffage, with strange twisted black ambience, grinding processed glitchscapes and haunting sinister drones. Five tracks, 25 minutes, after a sprawling graveyard fog intro, all moonlit creep and gnarled bleak rumble, the band explode into "Mists Of Darkness", some super raw heaviness, blasting and chaotic and blown out, primitive and frosty for sure, but imbued with plenty of ominous mystery and warped ambience. A long stretch of acoustic guitar post rock, all spidery jangle and skeletal drift, gives way to another burst of pounding, grunted blackcrush. "Burn The Twilight" begins with some ethereal looped guitar that grows more and more tangled and squiggly, before finally splintering into another squall of jagged black shards, and stumbling primitive blackness. "Nox Noctis" starts out Slinty, before getting all folky and softly psychedelic, the drums giving it a sort of spacey post rock vibe, the track slips subtly back and forth between the two until some dark minimal piano enters the picture, only to get swallowed up by some swirling turbulent black drones, that final track sprawling and slowly decaying, fragmented melodies and bits of piano, surfacing and the then drifting off into the ether. Fans of all things E.E.E. and mysterious dark metal and experimental ambient blackness will DIG DIG DIG. And this is out of print, these are the last 7 or 8 copies, so snag one while you can!

MPEG stream: Mists Of Darkness
MPEG stream: Burn The Twilight

Odd and obscure '80s heavy metal alert!! If that got your attention, you may remember that not too long ago we reviewed a disc by a band called Black Hole, '80s Italian metallers who were all spaced-out and psychedelic, like some strange mix of Jacula and Voivod. In that review, we made mention of one of their contemporaries, a band by the name of Dark Quarterer, whose debut album from 1985 is to be found on this slipcased cd reissue. We were pretty stoked to find a supplier for these and grabbed a bunch 'cause we figure anything that both Allan and Andee and Andee's fiancee Heather all instantly fell in love with, is something that at least a select few AQ customers are gonna dig too. Why did A, A and H all fall for DQ? Well Dark Quarterer just push all our eccentric, ancient metal buttons. To us, the low-budget, fidelity-impared production is part of their charm (what are those drums made of? cardboard?), the English-almost-as-a-second-language vocal stylings as well (without looking at the lyric sheet you'll have some trouble puzzling out what he's singing about -- his pronunciation is, let's say, creative). And the name "Dark Quarterer" curiously great too. But what's most important (and the reason why they indeed do have a cult following to this day) is that they wrote some awesomely epic and undeniably catchy metal songs. While Black Hole's favorite band must have been Black Sabbath, we're pretty sure Dark Quarterer were inspired by the grandiose he-man metal of Manowar. But it's Manowar-worship laced with the influence of Goblin and Yes and other proggy weirdness, as befits a band from the prog-crazy land of Italy. Andee even detects some hints of our beloved Comus in the title track, though we should stress that Dark Quarterer are very, very metal. Bizarre and poverty-stricken, yep, but metal through and through, with heaps of heroic vocals and majestic riffage to put some starch in your shorts (or loin cloth?). Not terribly unlike another eccentric '80s metal fave 'round here, Manilla Road.

MPEG stream: Red Hot Gloves
MPEG stream: Dark Quarterer

As always, gotta give it up for the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. We mention that fecund scene upon occasion, usually in context of saying some current metal band has NWOBHM influences. So it's nice now and then to get a reissue of an actual NWOBHM cult classic to review. In this case, from 1981, the debut album by Dark Star, a band best known for their track "Lady Of Mars", which appears here. That's how we got into Dark Star, hearing that song, it's been on a lot of comps (starting with Metal For Muthas Vol. II), really a brilliant example of anthemic, super catchy, fists-clenched, heavy metal grandeur - and it's a love song too. A few years back Andee took a trip to Japan, the land where albums like this get reissued on compact disc long before they do over here, if ever, and scored copies of this for both himself and Allan (as you can imagine, there was a BIG and potentially expensive list of '80s metal rarities he had to look for, this was towards the top though). Turns out, while "Lady Of Mars" is an obvious stand out, the whole record is a killer piece of melodic hard rockin' British metal, with '70s influences (not so strange considering it was barely the '80s), notably UFO and Thin Lizzy - the majestic "Lady Love", another stand out, certainly has some of the bright galloping glory of classic Lizzy. With heavy guitar riffs, strong soaring vocals, and plenty of hooks, Dark Star deliver the NWOBHM goods. It's mostly mid paced, and there's some mellow moments... it seems they've got a romantic side, they even have a number called "Rock 'n' Romancin'" (not included here, sadly) and we mentioned that "Lady Of Mars" is a love song already, right? But, as on the Riot-ish "Rock 'n' Romancin'", the rock comes first, and Dark Star rocks out as only a band who would also do an appropriately kickass song called "Rock Bringer" can (which IS included here). So, now this album has at last been reissued here in the States, so of course we had to list it. Unfortunately, this version omits the bonus tracks from singles that were on that Japanese reish. Dunno how deep you want your NWOBHM collection to go, but this is a good 'un to get. Worth it for "Lady Of Mars" but also worth it for more than just "Lady Of Mars"!

MPEG stream: Kaptain Amerika
MPEG stream: Lady Of Mars

This Portland-based band's debut album, The Sellsword, was a bit of a hit around here last year, in part 'cause their twin guitar harmony metal sounded a heck of a lot like that of AQ-faves The Fucking Champs. Unlike The Champs, though, they aren't all-instrumental, they've got a singer belting it out in classic high-pitched fashion over their galloping riffage, sweet! The full-length was limited to 500 copies, and is now out of print, but the band are back with a 5-song follow-up, also limited to 500 numbered copies. This new DarkBlack is definitely less "epic power metal", more NWOBHM-ish rock n' roll, but still undeniably Champsy in parts (the chuggery of "Golden Idol" ferinstance) though perhaps not quite so Champsy as before. Not that they've backed off on the guitars, nosiree, you want hot guitar-on-guitar action, you got it here. Shreddin' solos and soaring harmonies galore, definitely their raison d'etre, outshining the decent-but-unexceptional vocals, a ragged whine at times that lacks the power to truly compete with the axes. Yep, it's the guitars that butter the bread in this band. Anyone into authentic old school metal revivalism oughtta get a kick out of DarkBlack's garagey '70s sounding sincerity and impressive chops, and these five songs come at a bargain price as well. All of 'em deliver the goods, from the catchy opener "Doom Herald" through to the speedy closer "Broken Oath", with the hectic energetic title track standing out as one of our faves, full of twisty changes and triumphant lead work. At ep-length, it's easy to spin this again and again and discerning headbangers should do so forthwith.

MPEG stream: Doom Herald
MPEG stream: Midnight Wraith

Even if we hadn't already heard, and liked (though not listed) this Portland, Oregon true metal trio's earlier ep The Barbarian's Hammer, we'd have been curious about this, their debut full-length, 'cause it bears a blurb on the front recommending this "if you dig early Lord Weird Slough Feg and Thin Lizzy"! Dunno what about DarkBlack other than their Maiden-y twin guitar attack makes 'em cite Slough Feg in particular (early or otherwise) but whatever, it's true anyone into Slough Feg's typical epic dual axe action and ought to check this out, though really they don't sound TOO much alike. Probably it's just that DarkBlack are fans of Slough Feg, though we'll guess they grew up listening to Maiden albums, not Slough Feg ones, unless they're even younger than we think. Actually, if we were writing the blurb, we'd have suggested it say "if you dig The Fucking Champs, but wonder what they'd sound like if they really went for it and got a real wailing higher-pitched heavy metal singer"! Just listen to the guitars at beginning of "Icy Tomb Of Time"... that sounds SO MUCH like The Champs, it coulda fooled us! There's nine songs here, all about ancient epic battle fantasy concepts it seems. And they're a real rollercoaster of rippage, with galloping rhythms, shredding leads, and of course those great dual guitar harmonies. DarkBlack's music is heavy and hectic, tightly wound, choppy but fluid too, giving the singer something slaying over which to soar. Bracingly triumphant and underground, DarkBlack are another "throwback" '80s-ish power metal band that sounds fully alive and kickass right NOW. So, for fans of Slough Feg, sure, not so much Thin Lizzy really but Iron Maiden yeah, and The Champs like we said, plus Bible Of The Devil, The Sword (but less stoner, more shreddy), Cauldron, Enforcer, and of course all sorts of classic NWOBHM stuff. Limited to 500 numbered copies, going fast...

MPEG stream: Sword Of The Morning
MPEG stream: Icy Tomb Of Time
MPEG stream: The Sellsword

Seems to me like every hardcore kid in America must have gotten an In Flames songbook for Christmas, cause more and more US metalcore is sounding remarkably like Swedish melodic blackened, death metal. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Now that In Flames have their eyes on the nu-metal prize and wear matching white denim outfits and prance around on MTV lip sync-ing to sing-along choruses and playing cookie cutter "MTV metal" someone had to step up to the plate. Darkest Hour are one of the few metalcore bands that are truly capable of writing actual songs and crafting honest to goodness hooks with super catchy melodies and totally original parts. They still destroy. Thick guitars and howled vocals. Super complex song structures and crazy drumming. It's all HEAVY AS FUCK! But amidst all the chaos and pummelling brutality are the kind of hooks that stick with you the way a pop song does. I find myself humming Darkest Hour riffs all the time lately and that's pretty strange. Although maybe it shouldn't be. One of our favorite new metalcore records, and it may just be catchy enough for you brave pop fans. But probably not.

MPEG stream: The Sadist Nation
MPEG stream: Pay Phones and Pills

Geez, we knew these punks were popular but had no idea how popular. They get a whole DVD documentary? Well I guess they were on Ozzfest! This dvd is definitely for the fans, so little need here to explain who DC's Darkest Hour are to those who don't know (in a phrase: brutally rippin' Maidenesque metalcore). If you're a fan, you should enjoy all the tour stories, behind-the-music interviews, crazy live footage (from totally pro-shot concerts to archival home vids, including their first ever show in '95) found on this action-packed "thrashography". Aside from their trademark full-bore live action, you'll be entertained by the drunken, beefy Ozzfest fan who insists on having the entire band autograph his white t-shirt with black markers, which they do with a great deal of enthusiasm. Then there's the life-size cardboard cut-out of George Bush that haunts them throughout their 2001 tour... Yeah Darkest Hour seem like fun guys, so more power to 'em.

There sure seems to be a lot of mediocre metalcore bands around these days, metalcore is the pop punk of this decade. Every kid is mixing in some heartfelt emotion with their pounding metallic pummel. Thankfully Darkest Hour is not one of them. These guys have been chuggin' along since 1995, believe it or not. In 2003 they released Hidden Hands Of A Sadist Nation which was a dark and brutal masterpiece that channelled the Swedish style of the late 90's through a modern metal aesthetic. The follow-up is this here disc and is called Undoing Ruin and their label has done them no favors touting it as "the next Ride the Lightning" or "the next Slaughter of the Soul". Not really fair to US or THEM. Time, as always, is the only way to tell� What Undoing Ruin brings is this: lots of back and forth chunka-chunkage, some dry-throated screaming, lots of mid-tempo Mastodon-like drumming with loads of little fills and splashes, some killer melodic twin dive-bomber leads whipping wildly back and forth but always in control. For all you metal "purists" out there who would never dare listen to a "Victory Band" or some crappy metalcore band, do yourself a favor, swallow your pride and check these guys out! If Darkest Hour were on Relapse odds are they would be way better positioned to hit their target audience: metalheads. that said, they don't seem to be doing such a bad job turning little punks onto some very heavy metal! There are even some brief acoustic breaks and cool little melodic bits sprinkled here and there, but it's not long before the pummeling onslaught renews. Reminds us of former metallic greats like Beyond Possession, the Accused, there's even some serious Slayer Reign In Blood / Meshuggah style fretboard dynamics goin' on. You gotta love that. There is NOTHING emo or screamo or even hardcore about this release despite the label affiliation. Darkest Hour just keep getting better and better, tighter and heavier, and the proof is in the epic /melodic / power / thrash / core of Undoing Ruin.

MPEG stream: This Will Outlive Us
MPEG stream: Tranquil

Usually, you pretty much know what you're in for when a band proclaims boldly right there on the sleeve, that they perform "Pagan Black Metal Art Exclusively!" And then when you take into account the fact that Darkestrah just so happens to include the drummer from Nargaroth, well then you know for sure you're in for some glorious buzzing, stumbling, midtempo blackness. And indeed, Embrace Of Memory is rife with fuzzy tranced out riffs, super repetitive drone-y arrangements, pounding drums, subtle layers of synth, and howled vocals. Definitely plenty of nods to Nargaroth, but you can also hear hints of avant black metallers Forgotten Woods and early Enslaved. Incredibly catcy melodies are somehow snuck into super buzzy black riffs, the tempos shift from sea sick waltzes, to not quite blasting blastbeats, to pouding dirges, but always mesmerizing and hypnotic, droned out and almost blissy, while managing to still be heavy and brutal. Two other interesting things that make Darkestrah stand out: one, the vocalist is a woman, although she looks just like one of the guys in the heavily coprsepainted photo, and her harsh demonic howl does not sound all that feminine, but for an almost exclusively male genre, it's pretty dang exciting, and she does have one serious set of glass gargling, bile spewing pipes. And two, Darkestrah just might be the only band we've ever heard who hail from Kyrgyzstan! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

MPEG stream: Black Cathedral
MPEG stream: Sign Of War

Being one of only three black metal bands hailing from�Kyrgyzstan according to the online authority Encyclopaedia Metallum, and featuring a female vocalist, must make Darkestrah one of the most unique BM outfits going, but on first listen, neither of those attributes are all that readily apparent. Certainly, the harsh strangled demonic howling vocals did not immediately strike us as particularly feminine, and the glorious hypnotic buzz didn't seem all that region specific, but the more, and closer you listen, the more those elements do seem important, keeping Darkestrah from sounding like just another bunch of boring buzzing blackness... One half hour plus epic, separated into movements, beginning with�the gentle sound of a burbling brook, the fuzzy white noise like ebb and flow of waves crashing on the sea shore, until those tranquil sounds are�joined by distant keening guitars, a long drawn out buzz, that eventually solidifies into a gorgeous melancholic riff, draped over simple midtempo drumming, intense and epic and blown out, eventually exploding into a black burst of raw grimness, but never losing that melancholic vibe. Repetitive and hypnotic, with killer drumming and furious guitar buzz, until all of a sudden in come cellos, and then the song is transformed into a sweeping Godspeed like expanse of beautiful blackness... About halfway through, the sound of the surf returns, soon overtaken by tribal drumming, Viking like riffing, a bit of chanting, eventually bursting into some seriously Burzumic pound, with more soaring riffage and really intense unlikely mathy arrangements, eventually stretching out into a long form static buzz, while over the top strings soar and flutes flutter, again transforming the song into a swoonsome black lament, eventually fading out into just the sound of wind and sea....

MPEG stream: Epos (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Epos (excerpt 2)

Latest release from one of the strangest and most unique black metal bands around. How many groups, black metal or otherwise can you think of that hail from the tiny country of Kyrgyzstan? We actually couldn't think of any, although apparently there are at least three black metal bands. How many grim buzzing BM outfits can you think of fronted by a female? Not many we'd bet. Or how many black metal bands incorporate traditional Middle Eastern instruments into their sound? Again, the answer is not a whole lot. So thus we have Darkestrah, a female fronted black metal trio from Kyrgyzstan who we've raved about in the past, but who seem to only get better and better with each record. The production this time around is amazing, so thick and heavy and polished, but without losing any of the ferocity. The songs are multi part epics, slipping from woozy midtempo dirge to blackened blast, frontwoman Kriegtalith's vokills a harsh demonik shriek, the songs rife with melodies and hooks, managing to be both blasting and brutal, but catchy and epic. The coolest part though is how the band mix in traditional folk instruments and vocal techniques from Kyrgyzstan into the songs. While much of that is used as intros, gorgeous stretches of plaintive mournful throat singing and deep shimmery rage like strum, those instruments and sounds also surface within tracks, fluttering woodwinds hovering over churning black buzz, strange lilting folky melodies wound into otherwise straight ahead blasts. It turns the record into something much more haunting and mysterious and so unique. So easy to get lost in the buzzing drones and Middle Eastern melodies... The Great Silk Road is quickly becoming one of our most listened to new BM records...

MPEG stream: The Silk Road
MPEG stream: Inner Voice

Yet another warehouse find, discovered a tiny handful of this, the last full length from one from Bulgarian blackened doom metallers Darkflight, whose sound is a killer mix of dirgey doom, soaring symphonic majesty, and haunting melodic ambience, the songs super dense and extremely heavy, but even at their heaviest, they ooze melancholy, the guitars unfurling melancholic melodies, and tangling up in minor key harmonies, while the riffs churn and the drums pound, all wreathed in soaring strings and swirling shimmer, with occasional acoustic guitar and brief stretches of hushed thrum. But for the most part, these tracks, trudge and lumber, super emotional and darkly moving doom-ed heaviness, that reminds us of Shape Of Despair or Skepticism, but often ends up sounding more like a doom metal Alcest or a more metal Nadja. Only have 3 or 4 copies of this left, not sure if we can get more once they're gone...

MPEG stream: Indifferent
MPEG stream: Dissolving Into Nothingness

Four song, 20 minute ep of blistering black metal from the frosty environs of...North Carolina. At least that's *North* Carolina. Darkmoon vocalist/guitarist Jon Vesano has recently joined America's reigning kings of death metal, NILE, so that ought to get some folks into this band, folks who perhaps overlooked their previous, excellent album "Seas of Unrest".

[ aquarius records — Metal ]