[ aquarius records

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Like last year's comeback album "Uprising", the new disc from these Swedes hits hard. Death n' roll, baby. Their death metal roots (these guys were the most brutal deathsters back in the day, on albums like "Left Hand Path") combined with their most rockin' of

RealAudio clip: I For An Eye
RealAudio clip: Fractures

Formerly the undisputed lords of Swedish death metal, over the past few years Entombed's career has taken many turns: first these freaks invented "death n' roll", then lost drummer Nicke Andersen to stardom in the Hellacopters, and even went alt-rock with the unwelcome album "Same Difference", and now it's time for the big comeback! Well, it's not a return to the ravaging death grind of their classic "Left Hand Path" but it's a nasty, greasy, f**ckin' heavy noisy rock-metal juggernaut anyway, enough to get them on the cover of Terrorizer magazine and "Album of the Month" status therein. Damn good indeed. Includes cover of a Deadhorse song!

We've long been fans of Japanese rockers Envy, since they were furious hardcore thrashers, but over the last few records, they have been going through a pretty serious transformation, trading in much of their fury and aggression for deep introspection, their punk rock for post rock, and it definitely suits them. This latest ep, a split with the mighty Jesu, finds the band taking their sound even farther out, almost as if the songs were written specifically for Jesu. The first track is the perfect example, we actually weren't paying attention, and almost assumed it was in fact a Jesu track, the spoken Japanese vocals being the only giveaway. Beginning as a slow drift, the drums programmed, a nervous electronic skitter, before the band explode into some sort of droneblissdirge, distorted guitars, a thick wall of sound, laced with dreamy melancholy strings, Jesu fans who have been hankering for something else similar to get into might have just found their match! The second song starts out all moody and meandering and post rocky, spidery guitar melodies, simple jangle, a bit maudlin and melancholy, the vocals breathless and buried, all very Slinty, a little Mogwai, well, actually a lot of Mogwai, some Explosions In The Sky, until with about a minute left the band explode in a frenzy of heaviness, a nearly hardcore blow out, but strangely, still cozied up to the drifty dreaminess of the first half of the song, like someone snuck in and added strings to some Converge jam, the results are truly unique and pretty kick ass. The third song is almost the biggest surprise of the bunch, a big crunchy guitar super catchy indie rock jam. The only thing keeping it from being all over the credits of every teen movie is the growling monstrous barking vocals, but beyond that, the song is glistening and soaring, hooky with a total old school pop punk chorus, albeit dowsed in crunch distorted guitars. A bit schizophrenic perhaps, but has us dying to hear the next Envy full length. Lookout Explosions, these guys are definitely about to steal your post rock thunder, and in the process get it all tangled up with some indie rock and dronemetal to boot! Jesu fans are a pretty loyal bunch, so most of you don't even need to know what this sounds like, and probably could care less about the band sharing this split, but what the heck, for those of you who are interested or are new to the slowly expanding Jesu universe, these two tracks, are a bit of a departure, but enough like 'classic' Jesu to hit the spot. The first track begins with a skittery lo-fi breakbeat, super old school, takes a few minutes but eventually crumbling distorted guitars tumble into the picture, and soaring fuzzy dirgepop melodies, the vocals breathy and eighties, a lot New Order, and barring the super obtuse song structure, this first track wouldn't sound at all out of place on the most recent M83 record. Very new wave-y, dreamy and melancholy, but with some definitely strange sonic shit going on, soaring high end streaks, the rhythms getting all chopped up and stuttery, some pulsing buzzing synths. It's not until halfway through that the guitars kick in, and they don't soar majestically, instead they're sort of simple and repetitive, and they're soon pushed to the background by the various other sounds, layer after layer of warm fuzzy swirls, until the end, when the drums drop out and the guitar unfurls lazily in a sea of static and crumbling sonic grit, a warm sun baked lo-fi fade out. Cool stuff. Definitely not the same old Jesu which is precisely what keeps it interesting, and makes every record a bit of a surprise. The second track, and the record closer, begins with deep synthy bass, and glistening sonic twinkles, another slowed down stripped down breakbeat, skittering along beneath drone-y synthesizers, and softly effected vocals, once again channeling classic eighties dream pop. Until once again the track explodes into a murky blow out, the drums now a furious blast, the guitars woozy and super distorted, almost like Jesu speed metal, but never losing it's prismatic dreamlike bliss. Great stuff from both bands. And while we're dying for more Envy, the more Jesu's sound slips ever closer to the eighties, the more we want the next split to be with sonic brethren M83. Or heck, at the very least Jesu should cover some New Order or Smiths...

MPEG stream: Conclusion Of Existence
MPEG stream: Hard To Reach

MPEG stream: Vector, Third Movement
RealAudio clip: New Disorder

Woah. The "what the fuck?!" meter is going off the scale here. Ephel Duath -- no, we don't know what that name means exactly -- are from Italy and this is their second album. They're a black metal band. So far, so good, so what. Then take a listen. THIS is black metal?? More like metalcore (the screaming vocals), prog (the schitzo song structures), and/or jazz (the horns, the drumming). Let's talk about the drummer -- the dude's a jazz drummer pushing 50, who never played a metal "date" before. Well, he shows up quite a few metal drummers with this performance. And, to backtrack, yes we said horns. Total Miles Davis In A Silent Way trumpet, y'know... Then there's also everything from prettily melodic sensitive male vocals to skittering electronic beats to funk bass to ambient synth drone to, oh yeah, epic symphonic black metal thrown in. Could be a mess, yet somehow, somehow, it works, for us anyway. They just have a knack for mixing all these ingredients just right so that the results stick in your ear. Call 'em songs, even though they don't sound much like most songs out there. So, if your listening diet contains some or better yet all of the following, you're pretty much meant to buy this Ephel Duath disc: Arcturus, Naked City, Maudlin Of The Well, Mr. Bungle, Melt Banana, Yakuza, Neurosis, Sigh, Dillinger Escape Plan, Radiohead, Opeth, Emperor... Yeah, Opeth with jazzy trumpet and more of an ADD, John Zorn styled songwriting approach, that might be a good shorthand description of this Ephel Duath thingie.

MPEG stream: Labyrinthine
MPEG stream: Praha

Along with the new Gnaw reviewed below, there's another despairing dose of heaviness from the Seventh Rule camp this list, the debut of Portland, Oregon's Ephemeros, a band playing "funeral doom metal" to strict perfection. They definitely know what they're doing, Ephemeros featuring members or ex-members of such bands as Graves At Sea and Uzala, among others. The two word review would be thus: UTTERLY CRUSHING. To elaborate further, this disc is super slow and dirgey, deceptively simple but well-crafted, the guitars generating moments of morose melodic beauty, the guttural vokills a sorrowful, anguished roar. Ephemeros employ effective loud-soft dynamics that see utterly crushing (there's those two words again) riffs obliterating, over and over, all before them - all life, all hope. Those in the mood for this sort of thing will appreciate just how good Ephemeros is. They really nail it, being more musical than you'd expect at first, their performance also very convincing on an emotional level as well. The disc contains three long songs clocking in at 40 minutes total - and they may as well be ONE long song, but it never gets boring. Bravo. For fans of other excellent Seventh Rule sludge like Atriarch, Stoneburner and Batillus. Also, such like-minded doomlords as Samothrace and Thou.

MPEG stream: All Hail Corrosion
MPEG stream: Stillborn Workhorse

First proper release from this French blackmetal horde, released on a new black metal label run by the guy who runs Turgid Animal, home to Skullflower and various other noiseniks. But this is not some noise / black metal hybrid, no Epidemia Mortaliis are grim and true and raw, and as with most black buzzers, owe much to their mighty Scandinavian forbears, but the cool thing about EM is they have their own distinct and slightly skewed take on black metal, which results in a sound both buzzing and brutal, but also stumbling and weirdly lo-fi. The newest demo, has the band slipping from frenzied blast, to loping dirge, and back again, the vocals hysterical and over the top, the drums super loud in the mix, the arrangements convoluted and complex, the guitars mournful and thick, but sort of low in the mix, which gives the songs a sort of off kilter, damaged vibe, the drum fills and the cymbals drowning out the rest of the musicians when ever they kick in, but the riffing is awesome, weirdly woozy, also adding their own seasick vibe to the proceedings, and there is some really fucked up stop start parts, that sound almost like black math rock. It's not full on fucked up enough to appeal to the folks only into damaged freaked out blackness, but it is plenty weird enough to keep it from sounding like every other BM band. The second half, which is the older demo, has weirdly enough a much better production, the guitars way higher in the mix, the songs too are much faster and more furious, the guitars wild and dense and layered, but the band still does all kinds of cool weird shit, slipping some Ved Buens Ende sort of mathiness into their black buzz, and the guitars again, all over the place, buzzing, sliding slippery and tangled, crunchy and crumbling, the vocals too, even more freaked out than on the newer demo, thick with distortion and reverb, a howling hellish falsetto, another layer of creepiness over an already creepy buzzscape. Definitely wild and weird enough to appeal to the black metal crowd into insane tortured vox. Much more melody on the older demo too, but woven subtly into the band's grim black assault. Nice droning haunting intros and outros on both demos, some backwards weirdness and some dense dark ambience. Definitely kicked our ass right away, but every listen has us digging this more and more...

MPEG stream: Profane
MPEG stream: Epidemia Mortaliis
MPEG stream: A Shadow Face Of Reality

We first discovered Epileptinomicon years ago, when some mysterious cd-r's showed up in the mail, all handmade, with very little info, but how could we not be intrigued by a band called Epileptinomicon? So we threw it on and were totally blown away, dark, and droney, heavy and dense, spaced out and psychedelic, a little krautrocky, lo-fi, but definitely well crafted, some seriously blackened ambient dronemusic for sure. So we tried to get in touch with this Epileptinomicon, but had no luck, emailed went unreturned, no trace on the web, Google searches turned up two mentions on the aQuarius site. So we assumed the worst, and gave up. The at last year's aQuarius / WFMU South By Southwest showcase, who should show up, but none other than Epileptinomicon, so we hung out, agreed to keep in touch, and arranged for us to order a bunch of records for the shop. Well, then what do you know? The mysterious Epileptinomicon disappears again, no word, no sign, no nothing. But finally, the connection has been made, via of all people, recent aQ thrash faves Speedwolf, who live in the same town as E-con, and are weirdly enough touring together with 'em, so we now have a limited selection of two different Epileptinomicon cd-r's the first one, titled II, that we initially heard years ago, and a more recent tour disc, both of them awesome. And unfortunately, both extremely limited... Changeling House Summer is the more recent of the two E-con discs, and shows a whole new side to what we remember as more of a drone / doom / ambient sound, that stuff is still present, loads of low end, thick rumbles, and dense shimmers, but there seems to be more of a focus on rhythm, from simple minimal pulses, to strange skeletal skitters. Reminding us of current synth drone outfits like Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds, Pulse Emitter, Emaciator and the like, but more slow and low and blackened. "Changeling House" is sprawling field of murky drones, and muted melodies, that seems to be peppered with bits of glitch and crackle, until those glitches and crackles coalesce into a strange rhythm, brittle and almost techno like, the sound reminding us of a much more raw, blackened Chain Reaction, the 'beat' looped and hypnotic, over a churning sea of crumbling distortion, and swirling fragmented melodies. Some sort of murky alien dancemusic perhaps, or more accurately, some minimal rhythmic space doom. The pulses spread further and further out, the background noise grows considerable smoother, and suddenly, the track has returned to its initial dronestate, where it hovers before blinking out. "Summer House" is more obviously recorded live, and begins with a scraped rhythm, and what sounds like a fucked up human beatbox, before both are joined by thick throbbing bass, so dense and blown out it nearly swallows the rest of the sounds whole. And so it remains for the remainder of the track, that rhythm locked solid, looped endlessly, while all around it the low end rumbles grow more and more aggressive, as well as bursts of crackle and hiss, muted feedback squeals, all in a never ending tangle, constantly shifting and mutating, before dissipating in a burst of super distorted buzz. Finally, there's the 22 minute closer "Perfect Hell", another sprawling expanse of whirling layered low end, grinding guitar buzz, shards of feedback, but with much more melody this time, a glacial tarpit dirge, but infused with all manner of subtle melody. The second half of the track finds an extra element introduced, a groaning, creaking drone, wreathed in effects, that slips from hushed rumble to strangely gnarled slow motion squiggle, underpinned by a glitch driven rhythm, subtle, simple, and weirdly haunting. CRAZY LIMITED, we got a bunch of these, but not sure how long they'll last, in cool hand stamped xerox sleeves, the discs themselves also stamped.

MPEG stream: Changeling House
MPEG stream: Summer House

We first discovered Epileptinomicon years ago, when some mysterious cd-r's showed up in the mail, all handmade, with very little info, but how could we not be intrigued by a band called Epileptinomicon? So we threw it on and were totally blown away, dark, and droney, heavy and dense, spaced out and psychedelic, a little krautrocky, lo-fi, but definitely well crafted, some seriously blackened ambient dronemusic for sure. So we tried to get in touch with this Epileptinomicon, but had no luck, emailed went unreturned, no trace on the web, Google searches turned up two mentions on the aQuarius site. So we assumed the worst, and gave up. The at last year's aQuarius / WFMU South By Southwest showcase, who should show up, but none other than Epileptinomicon, so we hung out, agreed to keep in touch, and arranged for us to order a bunch of records for the shop. Well, then what do you know? The mysterious Epileptinomicon disappears again, no word, no sign, no nothing. But finally, the connection has been made, via of all people, recent aQ thrash faves Speedwolf, who live in the same town as E-con, and are weirdly enough touring together with 'em, so we now have a limited selection of two different Epileptinomicon cd-r's the first one, titled II, that we initially heard years ago, and a more recent tour disc, both of them awesome. And unfortunately, both extremely limited... II was the very same disc that just showed up in the mail, the one that originally got us so psyched on these guys (this guy), it ended up getting played all the time in the shop, and even on Andee's radio show, after a loooong while, it was weird to return to this, in some ways if felt like we had already listed it, when in fact, we never got enough to review until now. The sound here is a sort of abstract minimal drone drift, with a bit of lo-fi dub going on. Slow smeared tones, layered over one another, a strange muted pulse way off in the distance, all beneath slow wheezing barely there melodies, and a strange reverbed dubby little percussive thump, that seems in its own way to drive the whole track. Headphones help, an immersive sound world, of drift and shimmer and throb, ambient for sure, space-y as well, but weirdly (and very subtly) propulsive. The sound is murky and muddy and muted, until about halfway through when a shimmering crystalline guitar surfaces, a simple strummed chord that is dosed in delay, sent echoing into the ether, adding a distinctly pop element to what was otherwise something black and bare, and only minimally melodic. The second track, the 17 minute "Lunar Menagerie", begins again as a hushed, stuttery underwater sounding bass pulse, and for the first 7 or 8 minutes remains underwater, or perhaps it's meant to emulate the sounds on the surface of the moon, either way, it's a gloriously rumbly, soft swirling sea of tangled synaptic misfires and heartbeat pulses, launched into the cosmos and allowed to reflect and refract starlight into gorgeous prismatic pulses. The second half of the track gets way more psychedelic, with a guitar unleashing strange squalls of swirling notes, wailing streaks of high end sound, like some classic psych rock guitar solo, removed from its track, untangled and unfurled into the weightlessness of space, where it floats and tumbles, spinning out bits of melody and warmly textured fragments, and inadvertently channeling other psych drone explorers like Expo 70. Gorgeous stuff. As me mentioned, EXTREMELY LIMITED, two versions, one in a hand made paper sleeve, the other in a dvd style case, they're both essentially the same, it's random which one you'll get, and odds are we'll be out of both before you know it.

MPEG stream: IIIrd Bridge
MPEG stream: Lunar Menagerie

Hey, cool! A reissue of the third, and we think probably best, album from these hard rockin' krautrockers (krauty hard rockers?), originally released on US label Billingsgate in 1974 (and recorded on the South Side of Chicago, while they were on tour in the States). The band were of course German, but vocalist/guitarist Cliff Jackson was a Brit. So, some internationally-connected krautrock here. It's also krautrock on the proto-metal side of things, for fans of the progressive heaviness of Captain Beyond, Lucifer's Friend, Leaf Hound, Toad, Cargo, and suchlike. And while Epitaph's choogle is not always super dooper heavy, 'cause they have a sweetly melodic popsyke side to 'em too, it's definitely (twin) guitar oriented, the two lead players getting a bit Allmans-y here, also reminding us of Wishbone Ash. Good stuff, often quite mesmerizing, when the guitars get to chiming and intertwinin', as they so often do on tracks like the rollicking, ripping "Tequila Shuffle", the Zep-leaning "Woman", and album-ending nine minute heavy riffing prog workout "Fresh Air". This reissue is nicely packaged, and features a bunch of previously unreleased bonus tracks: 3 from 1976's 'The Lost Tapes', and 4 live one from a year 2000 reunion concert, including a drum solo!

MPEG stream: Reflexion
MPEG stream: Big City
MPEG stream: Tequila Shuffle

Tight, technical black metal from this American band. I think they hail from the not-so-frosty forests of Alabama or some such unlikely place. This is the second album for The End and it successfully earns them a place at the head of the US of A's black metal battalions, being as it's so dark, fast, chunky, chaotic, majestic, brutal and very very metal.

RealAudio clip: Crimson and Steel
RealAudio clip: The Last To Fall

Magic with a K, audial indulgence describes Equimanthorn's Second Sephira Cella. It's sonick Sumerian mystery from several necromantically exalted members of the Texas occult metal act Absu, including Emperor Proscriptor Magikus, whose absurd genius has been trumpeted here before. Is Equimanthorn also an "act"? Or it in fact something more serious? Whatever it is, it's certainly NOT a black metal album. No metal on here at all, actually. It's all quite atmospheric (but musical), creepy, ritualistic material... The resemblance to, say, Absu is all in the lyrickal text, the ancient sorceries evoked and invoked. Ridiculous it (probably) is, but at least these adepts have done their homework. You can argue with them about the significance of the Sixth Throne Of Asaru or the Rule Of Utukagaba but I'll stay out of it. Professing a belief in supernatural arts or not, the sheer sonics should seduce many a listener. Divided among the three members of Equimanthorn (Proscriptor, Equitant, and Ekimmu Abstractum), the tracks here are all deep and dark ritual soundtracks, resplendent with droning synths, 'unseen voices', mellotron, 'six-fold bows', and varieties of exotic Eastern instrumentation. We're reminded of such diverse artists as Goblin, Laszlo Hortobagyi, and a host of World Serpents... The music and its meaning are well matched. Equimanthorn is at ease with obscure, occult Esoterica in a way that, say, The Secret Chiefs 3 would like us to think they are but never will be. Advanced, impressive, and -- regardless of any reality-altering aspects -- excellent, candlelit entertainment.

We had never heard these guys before, but we've been digging this a LOT, another black metal band from Australia (released on the same label as the new Pestilential Shadows, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), their sound definitely beholden to the classic Scandinavian sound, certainly hints of Emperor and Mayhem abound, as well as Marduk and Dark Funeral, that sort of classic black metal, that few bands can pull off, and even fewer with this sort of power and grim black energy, the band spending much of their time chugging and churning instead of blasting, those more midtempo stretches super intense and moody, the riffs gnarled and twisted and a little bit Deathspell-y for sure, but when the band do explode into a blast, it's dense and furious and heavy as fuck, the guitars an insectoid buzz, the drums furious and impossibly fast, the band careening wildly, the sound dissonant and sinister, the balance between blasting raging fury and moody melodic crush near perfect, with hints of classic metal, lots of cool droned out heaviness, but all woven into what is essentially a modern slab of classic black metal. And most definitely a new favorite with the metalheads around here...

MPEG stream: Enthroning The Harbinger Of Death
MPEG stream: Pillar Of Fallen Flesh
MPEG stream: Night's Black Angel

Two old doooooom favorites at last back in stock after a loooooong time! And at a way cheaper price. We've long been obsessed with bands like Skepticism, Earth, Burzum, Benighted Leams; all bands so "fucked" and/or with such a singular "vision" that they transcend the metal genre. And from the second we first heard Esoteric we knew they belonged on that list. Self-described as "dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical and barbaric doom", who are we to argue? Two double cds of ultra depressive, dirgey, near ambient drones. Each a murky morass of slow motion riffs, amphibious guitar solos and tortured cries. But also strangely beautiful, at times recalling the lugubrious soundscapes of Labradford or Magnog. Metal for the drone set, perhaps? Plus you gotta love any band that merits a "fuck you" on Electric Wizard's special thanks list! These guys are the ultimate doomlords, brutally uncommercial, with an unapologetically ultra-positive drug stance, and an apparent disinterest in allowing anyone to buy their music, at least in the early stages, but a band this uncompromisingly crushing and confusionally kick ass couldn't remain a secret forever. And if you still need a reason to pick up BOTH of these double discs, Epistemological Despondency and The Pernicious Enigma, which in our minds can be considered a sprawling single 4 part dooooooom epic, just have a gander at the liner notes to Epistemological Despondency: "FUCK OFF AND DIE: Society, the monarchy, the pigs (fucking bastards), politicians, the government, all holy denominations and followers of the 'right-hand path'. Moralistic bastards, the legal system, all oppressors and authority. All of the ignorant, narrow-minded, stupid humans who follow authorities without questioning. Love. All 'pretend' Satanists, who give the ignorant lease to ridicule 'true' Satanism. All bands who are 'out to put what the people like'. All the sad cunts who have turned underground music into pop-music full of cliches. All psychic vampires and scrounging wankers. All perpetrators of censorship. Those that use drugs, Satanism or music as a scapegoat in order to hide the true cause of their actions--you are as weak as the christians, you cannot fight for yourselves, so you cower in renunciation. To those who would interfere with us, beware!". FUCK YEAH!

MPEG stream: The Noise Of Depression

Birmingham's self described 'dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical, and barbaric doom' band return with three tracks, clocking in at almost 45 minutes, of the most brutal doom we've ever heard. Even better than their two previous double cds, because now the production, always their one shortcoming, finally matches the sheer power and intensity of their epic doomscapes. Walls of inpenetrable low-end dissolve into slow motion, spaced out, dire and tortured dirges. Utterly Breathtaking.

We don't haul out the multiple 'o's as often as we used to. Seems like doom bands these days inspire in us just the usual 'double o', but for the return of aQ beloved psychedelic drug doom combo Esoteric, we might as well unleash the torrent of o's these guys have so earned. Cuz the sound of Esoteric remains delightfully and unequivocally pure, twisted, psychedelic dooooooooooooooooooooooooooom. And unlike most bands, who's overall weirdness dulls as they progress as a band, or whose sounds stops being so twisted as the band either become better players, or get better at recording, it seems exactly the opposite has happened to Esoteric. Paragon Of Dissonance is easily their best sounding record, the production is huge, the guitars thick, everything lush and crystal clear, which would normally seem not so good, we like our doom murky and muddy and washed out, but as we've established, Esoteric are no ordinary doom combo. And beyond the sound, it's yet another double disc, Esoteric's preferred doomic delivery method, and one that suits their ridiculously sprawling doom-prog epics. The record opens with some dense chugging, wreathed in swirling high end guitar skree, some furious double kick drumming, the guitars growing more agitated, the sounds more frantic, and then suddenly the sounds start swinging wildly from speaker to speaker, ear to ear in headphones, and blam, we're fully immersed in Esoteric's drugged out doomworld, and it is good. So good. Seven tracks, ninety minutes, of droney, doomy creep, of lurching slo-mo lumber, the sound managing to be totally tripped out and bizarre, but simultaneously strangely melodic, the traces of epic true classic doom loom large in Esoteric's world for sure, but they do their damndest to twist it all up, stretching riffs way out, dousing vocals in crazy effects, dubbing out EVERYTHING, adding weird bits of acoustic guitar, unlikely percussion, and of course that production, all over the map, thick and dense, blurry and brittle, one track here even sounds almost like a doomier Three Mile Pilot, but sort of fusion-y, which sounds bad written, but sonically is totally brilliant, especially as it leads into some seriously pounding epic metal, that is barely even doomy. But fear not, these flights of sonic non-doom fancy, are surrounded on all sides by sludgey tarpit doooooooom, however, those weird bits do pop up more than you might think, there's the super fuzzy, almost poppy opening of "Non Being", which is equal parts gloom pop and indie rock, and doom, doom too, then there's plenty of loping post rockisms in "Disconsolate", and all manner of noise rock, classic metal and who knows what else throughout, but c'mon, it's Esoteric, who do what they damn well please, and who over the years, have fashioned a twisted, idiosyncratic doom, that at this point sounds like absolutely nobody else but them. And is in fact so fucked up, we're often surprised they're as popular as they are, but for us, and quite possibly you, and our (and your!) love of all things sonically warped and twisted and bizarre and baffling, Esoteric are the true doooooooooooooooomlords!

MPEG stream: Abandonment
MPEG stream: Loss Of Will
MPEG stream: Cipher

There was once The Pernicious Enigma. There was also Epistomological Despondency. Soon after there was Metamorphogenesis. And now, finally, there is the Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum. What the f**k are we talking about you might be wondering? Just the UK's ultimate doom band ESOTERIC. And we do mean ultimate. And we most certainly mean doom. Esoteric started off as a totally drug addled, musically damaged, slow motion, psych-doom band, releasing epic double cds, with 15+ minute tracks of almost-ambient, not-quite-metal abstract dirges. Steeped in pseudo spiritualityand packaged in retardedly trippy black and white geometric art, early Esoteric was an ultra lo-fi attempt at classic doom, but filtered through the band's massive intake of drugs, extreme hate for humanity, and their obvious love of effects, the result -was- truly amazing, but in that Benighted Leams, it's-so-retarded-it's-the-best-thing-ever way. Move forward a few years to 1999's Metamorphogenesis, and this self described "dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical, and barbaric doom" outfit had finally hit their stride, with improved songwriting, and more importantly a newly massive and crushingly heavy production that we had all been hoping and waiting for. The result was easily the best Esoteric to date. Still psychedelic and weird, but so heavy and dark. And now after 5 years, we have the Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum, a record that is so good, it's sort of hard to know how to describe it without resorting to hyperbole. But what can you do? This just may quite possibly be the greatest funereal doom record we have ever heard. Seriously. Thergothon? Skepticism? This outdoes them all. Hard to believe but it's true. The production is so massive. This is the way doom was meant to be. Slow and suffocating, crushing and overwhelming. But it's not just the sound. Esoteric have written some amazing songs. You may think dynamics have no place in doom, but this record is rife with them. Four tracks, fifty minues, an epic journey, bleak and soul stirring, and musically complex. Just cause it's slow doesn't mean it's gotta be simple. Melodies? Some moments on this record are so melodic and so achingly mournful, they could almost make you cry. That is if they weren't falling into mile wide black hole riffs, and being crushed by two ton sledgehammer drumming. Not sure what else to say. There hasn't been a metal record, doom or otherwise, that sounded this good, or that had such emotional resonance in forever. Best metal record this year so far hands down says Andee. And maybe one of the best doom records EVER!

MPEG stream: The Blood Of The Eyes
MPEG stream: Grey Day

While formerly Esoteric was about the most bongloaded experimental sludge metal you could find, perhaps more stoned and bizarre than countrymen Electric Wizard, this new album sounds a bit different, like maybe on different drugs, Esoteric finding some crystal shit to inject in their collective boiling bloodstream that renders them a genius doom-death metal machine, technically and aesthetically uber-achievers. On this, the band's first album since 2004's Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum, they again move further from the drug-addled "retardation" (which we loved of course) of their early weirdness, and add another brick to the wall of ultimate doommastery that they already built on Subconscious. And yet, they're still pretty darn weird, as befits their name. Even if way more My Dying Bride or Paradise Lost than before, with that romantic, gothic, doom-death kind of vibe, one that (on the romantic side) even reminds us of fucked up black metallers Eikenskaden or Mystic Forest... With its long passages of ambient spooky spaceiness, and sheer heaviness, The Maniacal Vale also makes us think of a more metallic version of Aussie arty riff merchants Dumb & The Ugly, more metallic due to the awesomely wretched, bestial vokills ensconced within gorgeously noodly neo-classical electric guitar shred. The Esoteric equation includes minor key melody, classical chamber music chops, echoey psychedelic darkness, sizzling drone FX, and much in the way of massive, crushing, METAL. And this just get more crazed as it gets more deathmetally. Like on disc one's final track, the speedy "Caucus of Mind", wherein you're being chased by utter grunting cookie monster vocals (perhaps even the cookie monster itself) down a hall of mirrors / wind tunnel hybrid, architecture that exists in some extra-dimensional space. Where death metal brutality and doomic drone both tug heartstrings and excite the grey matter simultaneously, thereby proving some obscure theory of quantum physics. Is heaviness a wave or a particle? Maybe a very LARGE particle. Experimental, emotional, extreme. ESOTERIC. And oh yeah, you noticed where we said "disc one"? That's right, this IS Esoteric, and after the mere single-cd anomalies of Metamorphogenesis and Subconscious..., they're at last back to the sprawling double disc format of their first two op-art-adorned opi, The Pernicious Enigma and Epistomological Despondency.

MPEG stream: Circle
MPEG stream: Beneath This Face

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Eternal is the band that eventually became Electric Wizard. In 1991, they were a crusty bunch of metalheads spitting out a blurry blast of Earache style industrial sludge, but a couple years later, with a new name, a new love of mind altering chemicals, and the discovery of the all important GROOVE, Eternal was born, and the sound on this never before released EP is only a hop skip and a drunken stumble from the sound of Electric Wizard. The doom and sludge is tempered here with a huge heaping pile of Hawkwindish swirling psychedelia and that oft purloined Sabbathy groove that pretty much defined Electric Wizard and the stoner rock movement that followed. Four tracks (one's a Sabbath cover!) including a sidelong track that would later become an Electric Wizard track. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

Fresh from the "Wizard's Convention" show/dvd release wherein they appeared alongside Boris, Green Machine and Church Of Misery, now Japanese stoner metal throwbacks Eternal Elysium have a new album out (import only) on the label that did that DVD, also home to those other bands. Eternal Elysium certainly fits right into such company, maybe coming closest to Boris and CoM at their most seventies n' psychedelic. Song titles like "Reefer Happiness" and "Twilight High" should give you some idea of their focus, stoner stuff somewhere between Sabbath and Soundgarden. They're fairly eclectic though, so you never know totally what to expect...acoustic interludes, spacey jams, riffy rockers, and more, from the tripped-out to the totally heavy. The album ends with the sprawling sixteen-minute-plus monster "Green Song", which some of you have already heard since it was used on that Jamnation disc we listed not long ago!

MPEG stream: Twilight High
MPEG stream: Reefer Happiness

Here's the second Meteor City full-length from these Japanese stoner rockers. HEAVY, '70s influenced psychedelic metal drawing on Sabbath (of course), as well as Japanese bands of that era like Flower Travellin' Band. But Eternal Elysium aren't that simple to

RealAudio clip: Schizy
RealAudio clip: Feel The Beat

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

SORRY. Easily a shoo-in for heavy metal/stoner rock album of the month! The long-awaited domestic debut by this cult Japanese band of longhaired 70's Black Sabbath freaks. Although they actually sound less like the Sabs than fellow Sabs-worshippers Trouble. Some other influences that come through the pot haze include the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (this disc includes their cover of "Innocent Exile" from Meteor City's Iron Maiden tribute), '70s Japanese heavy psych bands like Blues Creation and Flower Travellin' Band, Thin Lizzy, Saint Vitus, Kyuss, and other heavies. Meaning, in addition to sheer psychedelic doom riffage (a la another Japanese band, Church of Misery) they really can write *songs* in the classic sense--one listen to, arguably, the album's highlight, "Easy Goin'" and you'll know. We didn't think they made 'em like that anymore. And stay tuned for the 'bonus track', an unlisted 15 minutes of improv hippie folk drone in the tradition of Japan's Taj Mahal Travellers. Very recommended indeed!!

RealAudio clip: Easygoin'

When we ordered this Japanese import, we were like, a split release between Japanese psychedelic stoner/doom rockers Eternal Elysium and San Francisco's own metalcore two-piece Black Cobra? Gotta get that! When it showed up, we were surprised to discover that the entire Black Cobra half had exactly the same tracks as those found on their recent full-length Feather And Stone, which we've already reviewed and raved about. Whoops. So... some of you already have that. However, if you want to get it again, you'll also get 23 minutes of Eternal Elysium material that only appears here. More likely, this is a good call for those who haven't yet picked up the Black Cobra album and also like (or think they might like) EE. Or simply for EE fans who don't mind getting the Black Cobra stuff as well (why would you?) as a bonus. Even at the import price, it's still 2 for the price of 2 (or 1.5 more like it) on one handy disc, not too shabby of a deal, really. So, let's say somethin' about the music for those ignorant of EE and/or BC: Eternal Elysium always has us a little confused. Strange band. Sometimes they're straight up Sabbath-meets-grunge complete with vocals hinting at Alice In Chains or Soundgarden... and then there's the NWOBHM influences... and the groovy retro-sixties stuff... that's all here, plus of course random weirdness like the brief track "Golden Seaweed", with sped-up chipmunk voices. They try hard to make a stoner drug thing you wouldn't understand, but certainly something that fans of Boris, Solar Anus, and Church Of Misery should check into, to rock out to. As to the BC half, here's what we said about Feathers And Stone before: Two man heavy riff-machine Black Cobra return with another pummeling release... Picking up right where Bestial left off, Feather And Stone shreds from the start. Brutally punishing circular riffs, heavy as all hell doomy moments, throat ripping screams, and incredibly hard hitting and precise drums. The fact that this massive sound comes from two fellas is pretty damn amazing. The album has all kinds of peaks and valleys. Amidst the constant time signature shifting, and brain-burning riff heavitude, there are a couple of beautifully dark intros and outros thrown in, giving the album a very balanced feeling. But it's mostly just crushingly heavy and ripping. If you can imagine a heavier, much more misanthropic Karp, that's kind of what they remind us of. Feather And Stone is a must for anybody needing a little taste of thrashing triumphant, sometimes doomy and dark, sometimes fast and techy, but always heavy and punk as fuck ROCK music... For fans of Cavity, Karp, Floor, Torche, and things that kill shit! (Note though that unlike the domestic edition of the BC album, there's no cd-rom live footage included.)

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MPEG stream: Five Daggers
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MPEG stream: The Return Of Frozen Wind
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Rad! Eternal Tapestry, Portland's badass psych super-group, take a step back in time and offer up this heavy duty reissue of a 2007 classic, Altar of Grass. And wow, what a stony trip it is! On this cd-r we find the band jamming with their old bass player, Bob Jones, and without their newly added sax player, but needless to say, the boys still knew how to kick out a lysergic dose of head-trippy, fuzzed out amplifier destruction. Ooooozing walls of blasting fuzz guitar, head-nodding grooves covered in tar and filth, not too be missed by any fan of the group's whirlwind brand of in-the-red punk psych. These pacific North Westerners don't fool around, the riffs are heavy with a dash of Hawkwind flavor, the drums are relentless and thrashing, and its all woven together into a hypnotic wash that sounds more like three proto-metal bands jamming in the same room, very sweet. A nice document of the early E-Tap sound, a bit more free and loose then the newer stuff, but much more raw and spaced-the-heck out!�Really killer stuff, not sure how limited these are, but they ARE limited, and chances are we won't get more, so be quick!�On the same Greek label that brought us the killer black metal of Bohemian Grove also reviewed this list, by the way!

MPEG stream: Ancient Temple Light
MPEG stream: Woodland Spirit

We're slowly working our way through the blackened back catalog of the mighty Supernal label. They've been responsible for some of our all time favorite black metal weirdness (Benighted Leams, Fleurety, Meads Of Asphodel) as well as some seriously intense grim blackness (Drudkh, Hate Forest) and all sorts of gorgeous ambient dronemusick as well (M87, Dark Ages, Fall Of The Grey Winged One). Ethereal Woods falls somewhere between the first two. They are definitely bizarre, strange arrangements, weird production, seriously unique sound, but at the same time they definitely have a traditional black thrash going on in there as well. Ethereal Woods are some sort of Eco-black metal band from the UK, their unique brand of buzzing loping blackened thrash is rife with "dreamy mysticism and sylvan sensibilities", which is also represented in their song titles, band name, lyrics and the legend across the back of the cd stating: "Ethereal Woods support the campaign to protect rural England!" And what better way to do that than by unleashing a strange black musical concoction equal parts fuzzed out guitars, simple spacey riffing, mournful arpeggiated melodies, bizarre growled vocals way up in the mix and lots and lots of dizzying circus-y keyboards swirling and warbling and whirring. While they do occasionally bust out some series black blasts, they tend to sort of hover between doomy dirge and sort-of-groovy midtempos, sounding sometimes like a more blackened, more moody and miserable Khold. The rhythms have a sort of seasick waltz feel to them, very hypnotic, and while the guitars buzz blackly, more often they just sort of drone beneath dreamy sad sounding melodies, with the keyboards drifting like black clouds, giving the proceedings a strangely epic slant. Quite cool, and as you might expect from Supernal, pretty weird too...

MPEG stream: The Withered Oak
MPEG stream: A Prophecy Of War
MPEG stream: The Honour In The Stars

We've always been pretty into Ethereal Woods and their twisted strain of eco-black metal. But regardless of their political agenda or lyrical themes, their root sound was something much more raw and immediate, a sort of blackened thrash, not super furious and fast, and not really super fucked up, more sort of pounding and loping and midtempo, but EW most definitely do have their specific peculiarities (are there any bands on Supernal who don't?), and that stuff is fully evident here. "Approaching The Castle By Night" begins all moody and minor key, a sort of brooding intro before the band launch into some seriously heavy thrashing black metal. A bit chaotic, and fiercely furious, the drums wild and off kilter, the vocals weirdly sung / grunted, complete with a cool crunchy chugging breakdown, until the band whip out the synths and head heavenward with a stretch of swirling waltzy epic pomp, the drums suddenly a shuffle the guitars strumming beneath the soaring synths, and then back again, as if that was just some Mr. Hyde shit, it won't happen again. But oh it will. Again and again, and that's precisely what makes this record, and Ethereal Woods more than just some British black thrash outfit. "Le Plesannz En Mary" begins with another surprisingly melodic intro, some post rocky blissy guitars over tangled tribal drumming, and then some super dramatic Goblin-y synths, before slipping back into something a bit more black metal. But even then the arrangements are fractured and not at all typical, a bit mathy, and a bit fucked up. Then there's "An Elizabethan Fantasy", that begins like some warped power pop jam, before settling into a more blackly dour groove, but never quite shedding that strange hooky intro. The drums here are especially strange, stuttery and hiccuppy and skittery. And once the song really gets rolling, there are all sorts of strange dynamic stops and starts, a really damaged sort of lurching post doom or something. And so it goes for the rest of the record, plenty of weirdly poppy blackness, lots of warped keyboards, those gruff growly vocals draped over soaring epic guitars, and tangled up with strange stumbling drums, culminating in what might just be our favorite track, "Woodnymph", a sprawling 10 minute epic, whose main refrain is a ridiculously catchy ascending reach-for-the-heavens sort of majestic riff, paired with really abstract drumming, and a killer Sabbathy groove in-between, but that's only the beginning, over the next 10 minutes the track shifts from blissed out shoegazy doom, to lumbering crunchy chug, the total furious black thrash, and finally back to that awesome opening riff. Way recommended, but only for those who like their black metal warped and twisted and poppy and pretty much not that black at all...

MPEG stream: Approaching The Castle By Night
MPEG stream: Le Plesannz En Marys
MPEG stream: An Elizabethan Fantasy

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: Nocturnal Illusions
MPEG stream: Landscapes From The Past

On the same label as the more spaced out free-form black jazz ambience of Hodag (reviewed elsewhere on this list), Ettrick on the surface seems like they must be a way more metal proposition, the record's called Infinite Horned Abomination for chrissakes! And their logo is of the spiky illegible classic metal style, but in fact, this is way more of a sputtery skronky free jazz, with wild horns and chaotic bursts of sputtering drum splatter. Each half of this duo handles both sax and drums, each player safely ensconced in their own channel, sometimes it's two horns, sometimes it's horn and drums, sometimes all drums, a dizzying barrage coming scattershot from both the left and right channels, as if there were some sort of free jazz monkeys screaming and beating their chests wildly in each channel, pelting the listener with sonic stones and hurling great handfuls of free jazz dung! Intense and aggressive and furiously freaked out. You might think you're tough, jazz sissy, and we're happy to let you have a go, but this stuff is dangerous, and sharp, and sort of scary, so stand back and let the more highly decorated free jazz warriors step forward, unless you're feeling particularly brave today... LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Each disc packaged in a cool hand screened cardboard sleeve.

MPEG stream: Before The Semantic
MPEG stream: Village Of Necromposition

**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

More metalcore. We just can't get enough. And this is most definitely the next contender for best metalcore record ever. So heavy and weird and catchy. And by now you know we especially love the metalcore when it's generously dappled with huge chunks of goopy, heart-on-your-sleeve, mix-tape, lonely-boy, bittersweet and broken-hearted E M O! There's plenty of downtuned chugging, and blazing blast beats, half-time, moshed out breakdowns, wickedly complex, stop-on-a-dime metallic crunch, pummelling percussive tumult and squealing feedback drenched harmonies. And Evergreen Terrace do completely destroy. This is seriously one of the best metalcore records EVER. But where they really prove their mettle is in the melodic breakdowns... the EMO. They're just so catchy and bittersweet, tiny pockets of perfect pop, like a little bit of Sunny Day Real Estate dropped in the thick of an At The Gates record. So fucking great. Make sure and stick it out until after the final song, 'cause there's a hidden track, a wickedly metallized Depeche Mode cover. Which is so good it just makes me long for a metal band that could actually write songs like that instead of covering em. Until then, who wants to start a crushingly heavy metal band called Violator, that just plays Depeche Mode's Violater album start to finish. Get in touch.

MPEG stream: Understanding The Fear That Lies Within
MPEG stream: No Donnie, These Men Are Nihilist

Okay, I know how fun it is to play covers. How could it not be? You get to actually play those songs you air guitar-ed to as a child or danced along with in the mirror. You dreamed about this day and now it's finally here. That said, sometimes recorded covers leave you a bit cold, either wanting to hear the originals, or in the case of Evergreen Terrace, wishing that there was actually an extreme metal band that really sounds like this all the time -- that writes -real- songs. Not just chugging riffy chaotic craziness (not that we don't love that stuff) but songs with actual verses, and choruses and hooks, without losing any of the ferocity. But as far as covers records go this one is pretty frigging awesome. The band's age (younger than us) is evident in some of the song choices, but they all end up sounding great. Highlights: Michael Sembello's "Maniac" (you know, the theme from Flashdance) gets turned into a thrashing monster. Smashing Pumpkins' "Zero" sounds a lot like the original but with WAY more firepower. Tears For Fears' "Mad World" (recently redone on the Donnie Darko soundtrack), becomes a ferocious chugging epic, with a massive half time mosh underneath that oh so familiar chorus. Not sure how many of you remember the song "Stars" by the band Hum, but it was an uncharacteristically complex song that somehow found itself all over MTV for a while, with massive pauses, and bizarre stop/starts and heavy riffs, tailor made for a metalcore overhaul. Sounds like it could be an Evergreen Terrace original. And then there's a pretty kick ass version of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday"! Fun and funny, but you'll still find yourself singing/thrashing along. The rest of the record is filled out with songs by Sponge, Operation Ivy, the Offspring, NOFX and one original. Good stuff and definitely a fun stopgap until the new record. But still, where is THAT band, heavy as fuck, crushing and totally brutal, with songs like we heard on the radio when we were kids and that stick in your head for years? If it doesn't exist, it sure as hell oughtta! This record sort shows that it could be done...

MPEG stream: Mad World
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MPEG stream: Apocalypse Now And Then
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More amazing New York metalcore. Every Time I die play ultra heavy metal (very little 'core to be found here) with weird time signatures and off kilter rhythms. While their sound is similar to their contemporaries (Deadguy, Kiss It Goodbye, Coalesce) they

RealAudio clip: Emergency Broadcast Syndrome
RealAudio clip: Jimmy Tango's Method

Sometime in the late eighties, John McBain, member of mighty space rockers Monster Magnet, frontman of psychedelic groovers Wellwater Conspiracy, and (not so) secret weapon of local space-psych explorers Carlton Melton, birthed this brilliant, sonic abomination. A dizzyingly tripped out sprawl of oozing, churning, abstract drone-noise-psych, In The Name Of All That Is Unholy sounds like classic psych rock, slowly unravelling, revealing all manner of crumbling sonic detritus within. The multiple movements shifting from plodding doomy creep, to tranced out pulsating dronemusic, to wild, blurred space shred, with sounds in constant flux, pitch shifts and tonal warbles, everything off kilter but somehow hanging together as some sort of drug addled, heart-of-the-sun, damaged cosmic epic. To us, the heavier moments sound a bit like Philip Jeck or John Oswald constructing a Greyfolded style collaged megamix from old Butthole Surfers records, all smeared into hazy indistinct lopes and lumbers, the melodies distorted and processed, almost like some sort of acid fueled fever dream, the music melting before your very ears. The opening track in particular is reminiscent of the Butthole's "Jimi" (from Hairway To Steven), albeit slowed way down and stretched out into even more twisted brainmelt dirgery. But the deeper you get into the record, the more abstract and weirdly blissed out it becomes. Moments of extremely mesmerizing tranquility coexist alongside murky power electronics, and full on kosmische shimmer, the whole middle section is basically some sort of WTF? soundtrack for an alien planetarium show. You can almost hear the bizarre shapes and prismatic colors warping and curdling, before blossoming into a hyper-delirious barrage of flickering, fluttering, fractured melodies, all tangled up into a thick, layered stretch of hypnotic, undulating sonic mesmer. But those sounds eventually rupture, and splinter, and lock into stuttering looped hiccups, all wrapped in more of those super distorted psychedelic leads, and underpinned by what sounds like growling beasts, locked into a skipping-record style riffage, delivered as some sort of mind-control metallic mantra. A mantra that quickly (d)evolves into more Jeck-like repletion, albeit a distorto-psych variant, the chug and churn slipping beneath a murky industrial pulse, before exploding again even more blown out, growly and buzzy, before a blast of uber-distorted, FX drenched guitarnoise, and some robotic/alien/monster vocals dissolve into a final squall of crumbling crunch and decaying distortion. Truly some next level outsider, sampler-damaged psychedelia, that should of course appeal to fans of McBain's other groups, as well as like minded psychedelic noise makers, but also folks into wilder strains of electronic psych-noise weirdness (Our Love Will Destroy The World, Astral Social Club, etc.) will find much to dig here as well. Originally released on cassette, now the full Evil Acidhead experience is available again, thanks to Agitated, on both on cd and swank double lp. The vinyl version comes on colored wax and also includes both a cd copy of the record and an 'eye-searing' poster!

MPEG stream: Part I: Invocation
MPEG stream: Part IV: Acceptance
MPEG stream: Looped In The Temple Of Yeti

To begin with, there's already something special about bands from New Zealand, whether they're making eccentric indie pop or droned-out experimental noise, we like ourselves a lot of NZ music! So this band Evil Ocean, from Auckland, already has that going for them. But then add in the fact that they're flat-out obsessed with music from another of our favorite locales, Finland, specifically what our friends in Circle like to call NWOFHM, and what do you get? A really, really awesome and unclassifiable album indeed. Krauty confusional garagey distorted DIY doom metal new wave soundtrack music? Maybe we can call it NWONZHM?? Apart from several interludes of eerie, abstract weirdness, the disc mostly consists of some fairly blown-out, rockin' songs, which are ALSO weird as all heck though. These tracks are full of thick fuzz guitar, churning riffage riding the rinky-dink ticky-tock of the manic, machine-sounding percussion. Other ingredients include dramatic female vocals and gnarlier, sneering male vox (rising into a falsetto at times), plenty of effects and sci-fi synth sounds everywhere, tons o' fuzz (we mentioned that already), spooky suspenseful bits, metallic gallop, industrial clank, seasick keyboards, and more... There's ritualistic stuff that sounds like Sylvester Anfang, propulsive parts a la Circle, and heads-down Hawkwindy hypno-rock. The mood can get genuinely intense and disturbing, yet Evil Oceans also obviously display a bizarre, even nerdy sense of humor, heck there's a track here called "Rise Of The Administration Daleks", complete with hysterical Dalek voices... but also Spaghetti Western whistling... what does it all mean?? It's art, or arty (several of the members are apparently successful painters) but most importantly it rocks in a quite entertaining WTF? fashion. Recommended to anyone into so-called NWOFHM stuff (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Steel Mammoth, etc.), also White Hills, Brain Donor, and other gritty post-Stooges space rockers and post-punk derelicts. Released on pro-printed cd-r, packaged in a in a full-color ecopak with photos and artwork celebrating both the epic New Zealand landscape, and Charles Darwin.

MPEG stream: Rise Of The Administration Daleks
MPEG stream: I Foresee
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Depressive doom death from New Jersey. Where else? Well they kinda sound like they're from Finland, actually, the land of funereal doom acts like Skepticism, Rapture, and Shape Of Despair. But these guys have been on the scene for a long time and are probably inspired by such older bands such as Long Island's Winter and of course the primitive godfathers of the extreme doom/death scene, Hellhammer. Though, the keyboard-laden dirges of Evoken demonstrate a more sophisticated form of grim brutality, one that generates its own notion of beauty, with gutteral vocals, eerie atmospheres, slow-motion riffs and minor-key melodies. Lamentations of misery drawn out to (hopefully) cathartic extremes. It's been four years since Evoken unleashed their masterful Quietus album, and in that time they haven't gotten any happier, that's for sure. Antithesis of Light stops the clock with 71 endless minutes comprising seven sorrowful songs of massive mournful metal. It's perhaps the doomiest, deathliest lower-depths trudge we've heard since the last Runemagick disc.

MPEG stream: In Solitary Ruin
MPEG stream: Pavor Nocturnus

Full length number five from these Jersey doomlords, who continue to trudge through blackened landscape of downtuned dirgery and funereal creep, everything wreathed in shadow, rendered in shades of black and grey, but the opening track on Atra Mors definitely reminds us why we dig these guys so much, opening with a sky full of swirling winds, which are soon joined by choral voices and spare tribal drumming, the guitars creep in, those choral voices blurring into a shimmery ethereal haze, the vibe almost shoegazey, the vocals join in, a thick reverbed bellow, the drums too, an echo drenched pound, the vibe still washed out and gauzy, it's not until nearly 5 minutes in, that the track slips into a weird lurching slo-mo chug, laced with haunting chiming melodies, swirling synths, the sound still weirdly drifty and atmospheric, until finally, the track explodes into something much more metal, reminding us of the death metal / doom metal hybrid of diSEMBOWELMENT, wedding relentless double kicks and wild qualls of guitar shred to thick tarpit creep and surprisingly mathy arrangements, all blurred into an epic slab of heaving progged out ultra doom, that KILLS. And so it goes, the rest of the record engaging in similarly tripped out deep doom exploration, flitting from pounding almost death metal dirgery, to creepy cinematic piano driven chamber music, from swirly blackdoom psychedelia to FX heavy mathmetal churn, and from haunting twang flecked string laden shimmer to classic true doom crush.

MPEG stream: Atra Mors
MPEG stream: Descent Into Chaotic Dream
MPEG stream: Into Aphotic Devastation

Not sure why one of our distributors described Evoken as 'doom for morons', especially considering how much completely stupid metal they actually distribute. In fact, this record is really great, like super-slow motion death metal. Huge and dark, droning

This is one grim throng indeed (not thong!). No long songs, no fucked up weirdness, no insane vocals, no retarded riffage, as much as we love all that stuff, we also love intense blasts of frenzied blackened fury. Blast beats so fast they sound like drum rolls, riffing so buzzy and intense it almost sounds like white noise. Vocals buried in the mix, just another layer of buzz and hum, short sharp bursts of super intense blackness. Grim. True. Kvlt. That's what you get with the grim throng that is Exalted. A relentless barrage of brutal thrashing old school raw black metal. But just because it's not outwardly weird, doesn't mean there isn't strange stuff going under beneath the surface. Plenty of convoluted arrangements, angular atonal riffage, super dynamic arrangements, strange stretches of blown out ambience, where just the blast beat stutters beneath streaks off feedback, there's even some cowbell in there if you listen close. But if you're looking for ultra weird or fucked up this is probably not for you. On the other hand, if you like it raw and black and heavy, and are looking for something old school but a little twisted, Exalted are just interesting and off kilter enough to keep this from being just another batch of retro black thrash, instead offering up a roiling black mass of sound and fury, that we've been listening to like crazy since it first came in!

MPEG stream: Blood Magick
MPEG stream: And The Cinders Tell The Tale

Latest from these local death/thrash favorites, one of the Bay Area's current big time underground metal exports. Gory Carcass-lovin' metal as you'd expect. Divebomb guitars, teeth-gnashing drums, it's the sort of stuff headbangers and hairtwirlers can't help but like. Nothing new, nothing surprising, but fast and furious and executed to perfection.

MPEG stream: Waxwork

Second, and even better, album from these Bay Area Carcass-worshippers. Gory death metal done the old school-way. Nothing novel, but very well done.

It's frustrating sometimes that lots of our all time favorite records came out well before the aQuarius list was established. We occasionally pick old favorites, like Rein Sanction, Archers Of Loaf, Hardship Post, Green River, stuff that's still available, and review them on the list. Cuz as far as we're concerned, released dates and the concept of 'new music' are pretty much useless. All records are new and exciting to someone who has never heard them. But often times those old favorites are long gone and out of print. So when one of those records does finally get reissued, we jump at the chance to be able celebrate and share that amazing music via the list. Which brings us to this double disc reissue from weirdo eco-radical doom drug grinders Exit-13. A band we have loved for EVER (so much so, Allan even interviewed them for the first issue of his old fanzine, years and years ago), Exit-13 were only loosely a grind band, sure they were fast and furious, guitars buzzed, songs were short and complex, the vocals a monstrous gurgle, the lyrics way political, all about the environment, vegetarianism, etc.� But for a grind band, they sure spent a lot of time spewing huge gory gouts of buzzing doomic plod, as well as incorporating convoluted jazz weirdness, freaked out psychedelic leads, thrashing punk rock, bizarre interludes with croony vocals, skittery rhythms, and noodly guitar jams, bits of angular retard-funk, Black Flag-ish gnarled riffing as well as confusional cut ups, dizzying collages of chopped and recontextualized vocals, Jello Biafra, bits of Jeopardy music, the theme from Underdog, Led Zep pastiche and whatever else they felt like tossing in there. The best way we can describe it is John Zorn meets diSEMBOWELMENT meets Brutal Truth. The original discs came with stickers that summed up the Exit-13 sound pretty succinctly: "Mind warping philosophically contemplative environmental brain food from Pennsylvania's unique smoking grind rock extremists" (from Don't Spare The Green Love) and "An 80 minute head explosion of absolutely unique sonic intelligence from Pennsylvania's environmental grind rock hedonists. This band smokes, bud!" (from Ethos Musick) Hard to argue with that� So, High Life collects almost everything the band has ever recorded (minus the ep of '20s and '30s cover songs, all about reefer, sung by the Pain Teens' Bliss Blood): their one proper full length, as well as all of their various singles, eps and splits (previously released as Don't Spare The Green Love). And by now, you've probably realized these guys were all about the pot. The songs buzz by in dense clouds of bong smoke, lots of samples about marijuana, lyrics about legalizing hemp and pot. The back of the booklet even features a huge pot leaf and the "Stop the madness - Legalize Marijuana" legend. But that's only one of their causes, a quick look through the lyrics, reveals a seriously 'green' agenda, environmentalism, vegetarianism, there's even a whole track that's just a snippet of the Phil Donahue show, on which he interviews members of Earth First! But none of that would mean anything if this band didn't completely slay. And thankfully they do. Heavy and fucked, weird, but weirdly catchy, buzzing and blasting, then pounding and chugging. Furious blasts of blown out lightning fast grind are butted up against lurching doom sludge, peppered with super fucked up free jazz breakdowns. Guitars are serpentine, jagged and angular, the drums go from pound to blast beat and back the vocals harsh and gurgly, there are bits of weirdly classic rock sounding jams, over sound samples, electronics and Goblin-like keyboards... "Anthropocentric Ecocidal Conundrum" begins with an insistent folky strum over chirping birds and burbling brook, until the guttural death metal vocals kick in and the drums, then it's some sort of metallic death metal folk freakout, finally morphing into some gnarled convoluted math grind jam. Elsewhere, cool creepy acoustic guitars drift over moaning synths, and splattery drums, super cinematic and haunting on "Only Protest Gives A Hope Of Life". There is plenty of weirdness. Damaged is a descriptor that constantly springs to mind, as does demented, and most certainly fucked. Silly too. But at it's core, this is heavy, heady stuff. Brutal but musical, fierce and fractured, forward thinking and seriously far out. The second disc is the older stuff, and is at once more furious and thrashing, much more grind, but also has lots more sound samples, songs dotted with all sorts of film snippets, voices, bits of dialogue all tangled up with the growling harsh vocals. "Spare The Wrench Surrender The Earth" is half funeral doom, before launching into a more grinding blast of punk rock. The stuff from the first 7" is almost like old school goregrind, with impossible gurgling loooooow vocals, the guitars a furious blur, the drums a furious splatter. Then there's "Fingernails" hinting at the weirdness to come, with its fake horns, and frog-like croaking super effected vocals, and that classic funeral march melody mixed into the chaotic rrroooaaar. Any fan of heavy music, be it black, thrash, grind, doom, or sludge should be able to get into these guys. And they're just weird enough to maybe also appeal to the less metal inclined looking for something freaked out and heavy. An interesting note: like any self-respecting grind band, Exit-13 made a regular practice of releasing records with different versions of the same songs, so the song "Disemboweling Party" appears three different times, while seven other tracks appear twice. But in most cases, the various versions, while not totally different, are varied enough to keep it interesting, even if it's just that one is super hot and in the red, and one is super muddy and lo-fi, or even just that different samples were used. Our only complaint, is that this is only sort of the complete Exit-13, 'cause they left off the extended, potentially-speaker-damaging noisedrone jams that closed out both their records, the 28 minute "An Electronic Fugue For The Imminent Demise of Planet Earth" from Ethos Musick and the 21 minute "Snakes And Alligators" from the Just A Few More Hits ep. Most of us wouldn't have minded paying a few extra bucks for a third disc, and ruined speakers, but what can you do? Killer packaging, all the original photos, images, lyrics, quotes and propaganda reproduced in a huge booklet.

MPEG stream: Societally Provoked Genocidal Contemplation
MPEG stream: Ethos Musick
MPEG stream: Facilitate The Emancipation Of Your Mummified Mentality
MPEG stream: Legalize Hemp Now!
MPEG stream: Oral Fixation

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