While it may have been a bit of a misstep to release a metal record based on Moby Dick and with a big ol' whale on the cover in the long black shadow cast by Mastodon's Leviathan record, it would be even more of a mistake to pass up this Ahab record based solely on that. Obviously a lot of though went into the sound and the artwork and the execution, and if anything, we actually like this record more than the Mastodon.
So if you can get past the whole Mastodon thing, you're in for some massive and fantastically epic slow motion doom. This German outfit is CLASSIC doom, well not quite like Sabbath and Candlemass, but not the filthy slow motion grungy grimey dirgey sludge sort of doom either, this is epic and majestic, slow and sorrowful, occasionally loping with bursts of wild kick drums, more often trudging along glacially, a funereally death march through the pouring rain, knee deep in black sonic murk, but with a surprising amount of dynamics, stops and starts, some super hooky riffs, mournful guitar melodies, massive downtuned chugs that sometime morph into mathy metal workouts. Vocals that rumble and groan, a huge guttural gurgle, the whole thing impossible heavy and aggressive, but strangely pretty. Definitely reminds us of old Cathedral, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, that sort of thing. Like classic heavy doom metal slowed waaaaay down and made somehow even heavier. As much as we love extreme doom, the slower and the sludgier the better, it's actually nice to hear some extremely dark depressive doom with some actual melodies, and some memorable riffs, heck even some songs. We'd forgotten how good stuff like this sounds. One of our favorite new TRUE DOOM records for sure.
An awesome 4 band pile up, the state of modern black noise, or blackened noise rock, or whatever the fuck you want to call it. This stuff is fierce and heavy and demented and so great. From the same label that brought us the primitive black metal of Malkuth (reviewed elsewhere on this list), the raw black fury of Bone Awl, those killer Akitsa reissues and a recent MB reissue, comes this killer 4 band anvil to the head. Up first is the Vegas Martyrs, featuring Hospital head honcho and Prurient mastermind Dom Fernow, and just like the recently reviewed lp, it's another gloriously blown out and beautiful slab of blackened pop flecked noise rock. In the red and on the verge of destroying your speakers, VM offer up a killer Maiden-like riff over super distorted drums, garbled FX drenched vocals, super hypnotic and repetitive, all wrapped up in a crumbling stereo killing production, finishing off with several minutes of glitchy grinding murky noise...
Up next is Air Conditioning, who sculpt their noise into something sorta pretty, huge swaths of blown out buzz over blurred buried melodies, layer upon layer upon layer, all shifting and shimmering, it almost sounds like a super charged noiserock Tim Hecker. Abrasive but surprisingly lovely. Up third is The New Flesh, show kick out the jams, ultra lo-fi style, a noisy practice space sounding garage rock sludge jam, all downtuned guitars, distorted trash can drums, and a weirdly deep voiced vocalist, who occasionally let's loose with a glass gargling screech. Dirgey, grimey, almost like some long lost Swans rehearsal tape. Finally, finishing things up are the Coughs, who weave some strange drone-y dirge with skronky sax and buzzy bass, fuzz guitar, all in short sharp bursts, creating a weirdly spacious plod, looped and cyclical, until the wild female vocals come in, and suddenly the Coughs sound like they're channeling old school Riot Grrl through new school noise. Out of nowhere comes a blast of spastic drum freakout before returning to that gorgeously relentless sludge-y pulse...
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES. Packaged in a thick black on green paper sleeve, printed inside and out, pressed on clear green vinyl.
We had first heard about this local SF duo via various blogs, hyping them to high heaven, as the next big name to watch out for in the ever expanding world of 'shoegaze black metal', but from the very beginning, their sound was at the most tangentially black, the blackness implied in their gorgeous hazy, blown out, blissy shoegazey gloom pop sound. And even at their most buzzy, their songs still oozed pathos and passion and more importantly, melody, and moodiness, this new one is no different, if anything, it's their best sounding records yet, but also maybe their heaviest, but that heaviness is again tempered by a masterful command of melancholia and minor key melody. The opening title track should tell you all you need to know. Beginning with a slow progression of crumblingly distorted chords, sprawled beneath a female spoken word, everything hazy and reverby, we'd honestly have been happy if that's all it did, but then when the song proper kicks in, it's not with a bang, but a strange oozing melty drift, the programmed (?) drums spare and skeletal, multiple guitars winding around each other, spidery melodies and fuzzy strum, all beneath the vocals which are breathy and wistful, and just on the edge of sinking below the surface of the dreamily gauzy mix. But hold on, near the end of the song, the guitars slowly build to something more frenzied, the drums following suit, blossoming into something more Godspeed like, but then into a proper double kick blast, but as mentioned above, the sounds themselves continue to soar and swirl.
But it's not all cotton candy guitarchords and prismatic dreampop buzz. The second track gets all post punky, with yelped swaggery vocals over more powerful drums, the guitars though, still a bit soft focus and fuzzy, and then in swoop more layers, and some oooohing and aaahing background vox, the drums flitting into blast beat mode occasionally, but really barring the strident vocal yowl, this would still be pretty dreamy and shoegazey. Which is right where the sound ends up on the third track, channeling Swervedriver and Spacemen 3 through something more urgent, the vibe post punk death rock, like a super charged Joy Division, given a slightly metallic makeover, the vocals slipping back into something more poppy, Airs delicately balancing urgent gloom punk churn, epic emo, and shoegaze dream pop, and not just on that track, throughout the whole record, and we presume, their whole career.
There's definitely a sonic thread holding these songs together, but they definitely shift pretty dramatically over the course of Adore. "Missing" is a wistful dirge of a distortion doused ballad, a creeping tempo, lots of guitar buzz and rumble, but the vocals, super emotive and heartfelt, the main melody wistful, a potent combination of sonic heft and dream pop delicacy. Which is followed by "Adrift", another stripped down sprawl of psychedelic downer pop, multiple vocal lines intertwined, lots of swirling sheets of feedback, thick swaths of buzzing riffage, but all blurred and smeared into something much more dreamlike, building again to a soaring majestic Godspeed like coda, swirling and noisy and chaotic, but still lush and lovely.
The rest of the record plays out similarly, a churning, driving, nineties style blast of heavy shoegaze pop, that's a dead ringer for pretty much everything we listened to and obsessed over in our twenties, but maybe supercharged a bit, gives way to some noisy, mathy, post punk, frenetic and a little bit jagged, and with a cool bombastic stop start breakdown, but still swathed in shoegazey shimmer, and finally finishing off with a short burst of what sounds like shoegaze screamo, which if it wasn't a genre already, it is now, or really should be, cuz that last two minute blast, will most definitely leave you wanting more. Tripped out, heavy, psychedelic, gloomy shoegaze blackened buzz pop bliss of the highest order.
While not necessarily recommended for black metal folks, if your BM tastes rung more towards Alcest, Amesoeurs, Les Discrets, Deafheaven, Hypomanie, Lonesummer, Lifelover, then this could very well be your new jam. And really anyone into broody, blissy shoegaziness of all stripes, Tied To The Branches to Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine to Foreign Cinema, Moonbell to Grave Babies, will definitely dig this big time.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!!
Pounding Finnish black metal hell. Super heavy. But also simple and melodic, with swirling keyboard textures and vocals alternating between harsh screeching and clean sort-of-chanting. (Courtesy of the singer from Amorphis, apparently relishing this
Second album from these Finns, equally blackend and pounding as the first.
Tyhjyys (whatever that means?) is this Finnish black metal band's third album. Getting no argument from Ajattara's fans at AQ, they haven't strayed from their successful formula of dark, midtempo, heaviness -- adorned with eerie keys and underpined by pounding drums. And they still 'sing' in Finnish. Although a crushing proposition overall, some melody emerges amid the guitar riffs and vocal rasps. It's bouncy death march music for industrial goblins.
Some super experimental low end doom drone minimalism from Brad Rose, who besides playing in The North Sea, Corsican Paintbrush, Jade Emperor also runs the insanely cool Digitalis label.
Up until now, most of what we've heard from Rose has been on the folky side of things, who knew he had this in him. A seriously grindingly dense churning buzzscape. Caustic and thick, huge slabs of heaving low end, layer upon layer of black hole heaviness. Dentist drill high end surfaces here and there, but overall, every track here is some sort of leap into sonic tar, struggling to breath or even hear, your ears clogged with crumbling back grit, your body pinned to the ground beneath wave after wave of slow motion blacknoise pummel.
You know if you need this. If you're into the slow, and low and HEAVY, you probably do. But this was LIMITED TO ONLY 72 COPIES. It's out of print. We have 15. Do the math.
Red cassette cases, red cassettes, cool full color sleeves on nice textured paper, each copy hand numbered.
You can tell a lot about a band by how they creatively they describe each member's role, what they play, and what they do, this is mostly applicable to metal bands, but avant Japanese grinders AKBK (featuring members of recent aQ faves, progressive space psychedelic death rockers King Goblin!) put most metalheads to shame with their liner notes, no 'drums' or 'vocals' here. Instead it's: 'Judas Preacher', 'Hard Puncher', 'Dirkschnoise', 'Anal Backfire' and 'Noise Gigolo'. And those aren't their 'rock names', those are the instruments they play, or at least the roles they fulfill in the band. And heck before we even get to the music, we might as well mention the amazing song titles: "Bug In Your God's Ear", "Have A Jail Lunch", "Let Me Eat Whales", "Sexual Response Of The Intact Male", "Give Back My Horse", and the super cool colorful abstract collaged artwork, and before we make our spiel about how amazing these guys are, and how twisted and gloriously fucked up and heavy this record is, have a look at the obi which features testimonies from a few metal, noise and grind luminaries: Rich Hoak of Brutal Truth, Tabata Mitsuru of Zeni Geva, Lasse Marhaug of Jazkamer, and Analtoshit of Butcher ABC, who describe AKBK as "a non-stop terrorist attack in the brain" and "like being crushed by a mountain" and as "a prog rock grind metal excursion", and Marhaug even wants AKBK to be played at his funeral!
But don't just trust those guys, take our word for it, this stuff is incredible, the core sound is definitely grind, with shrieked vocals, blasting chaotic drums, wild flailing gnarled guitars, and there's probably some bass in there too, buried under an avalanche of blown out crunch and howling ultra distorted chaos. But like Agoraphobic Nosebleed, AKBK twist everything up into super intense, ultra complex, and skull crushingly heavy prog-grind-metal weirdness, time signatures shifting constantly, riffs turned inside out, lurching start stop arrangements, super intricate tangles of melody wound around lumbering almost doomy dirges, which lead right into freaked out psychedelic math rock grind, and then back into some primitive D-beat pound, a furious stumbling confusional outsider grind juggernaut spitting swirls of atonal melody, insane blasts of woofer shredding double bass and pealing streaks of feedback drenched powerviolence. Yet the thing is, for all of this record's weirdness, it's not goofy at all, maybe the guys making this are funny guys with great senses of humor (the song titles and various non-musicial stuff seem to indicate that might be the case) but AKBK's music is anything but, this is some serious, and seriously devastating heaviness, furious and frantic, experimental and avant for sure, but essentially just a beautifully brutal chunk of twisted metallic grindcore. We imported these direct from the band in Japan, and only have a few on hand...
Akercocke has been touted as England's great black metal hope. A lot to live up to when you consider the UK has produced Venom, the fathers of black metal, and probably the most successful black metal band of all time, Cradle of Filth. Setting a course for
Celebratum is the debut release from this mysterious ritualistic dark ambient outfit, the sounds here comprised of remixed, reworked and remastered songs and sounds from three super rare tapes originally the group released in the mid nineties. Presented here, these bleak, blackened rituals offer up a surprisingly lush sonic palette, the usual industrial/ambient tropes are most certainly present, militaristic percussion, lots of drones, and ominous low end rumbles, but the band incorporate horns (or what sound like horns), in fact the opening/intro is a haunting bit of regal sonic pageantry, echo drenched voices intoning ominously over muted percussion, and mournful horns, shimmering strings, the result very dramatic and cinematic, which is sort of what we were expecting the whole record to sound like, but the sound here are even more intense, the first track proper, the near 19 minute "Nos Dominari Noctus: The Dominions Of The Night", takes that dramatic, cinematic sound, pushes the vocals to the fore, two voices speaking the same words but quite differently, over blurts of brass, churning rhythms, swirling black drones, the vocals becoming vokills as the track progresses, the vibe blackening, building to a near frenzy, before settling into a long stretch of murky rumbles, and sinister whispers, mysterious mumbling undertones, and darkly processed shapes and sounds, blurred into a sprawling, ominous, black ambient creep.
While much of the record plays out similarly, the sound is constantly shifting, a cloud of rainfall like hiss, drifts over a murky pulse, wreathed in a choir-like chorale, once again a backdrop for strange spoken vocals, mysterious incantations, that seem to slip from English into some unknown tongue and back again, the sounds drifting in and out, lush swells, bursts of crumbling noise, streaks of textured ambience, shards of melody, moaning and keening and rumbling and shimmering. Various bits of rhythm and percussion, offering a dark propulsion, from dirge-like throb, to strangely looped skitter, to warped, fractured anti-grooves, all woven into the bleak black fabric of Akhkaru's terrifying sonic rituals.
When I asked someone recently if they liked Akimbo, they responded with "Well, I like Karp." Not sure that's entirely fair, although Akimbo do definitely share some sonic similarities with the sadly defunct Karp. Howled vocals over simple but pulverizing riffing. However, Akimbo up the ante significantly, by having BIGGER riffs, LOUDER guitars, and WAY WEIRDER songs. Very proggy at points with lots of that dual guitar harmonizing, you know...that keening NEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEENEE before exploding back into a crushing downtuned pummel. And also unlike Karp there's some definite stoner rawk going on not to mention some sludgy doom. Makes sense that they're on the same label as doomsters Buried At Sea. We raved about the last Akimbo record, but this one is definitely even better. Imagine the crusty metallic crush of Neurosis or Isis, the post-rock-meets-metal of Dazzling Killmen, the churning repetitive chaotic crunch of Helmet, and the insane howling of the Jesus Lizard's David Yow and you'll get a rough idea of why this band kicks our asses so hard.
Those of you in need of some serious sonic sludge, some pummelling crushing metallic dirge, and who have maybe also been missing the Neurosis of old, should stop right here. Imagine Neurosis' Enemy Of The Sun or Souls At Zero filtered through hardcore kids in the Northwest, and augmented with furiously complex black metallisms, insane start/stop time signatures and shrieking metalcore crunch. Sound good? That's 'cause it is good. Really good.
Akimbo are another one of those new breed of heavy bands, sort of straddling that line between heavy metal love and heavy metal parody. Whenever you have a bunch of young guys, kicking up a serious metallic skree you have to wonder if those guys truly have souls of metal or if they're just johnny come lately's who realize that maybe it's okay to play metal now. Especially when they mix distinct metallic elements and imagery with goofy over the top artwork and dorky song titles ("Rockness Monster", "Spooning With Disaster", "Ground Control To Major Bummer"). But the sound, while indeed metallic, owes much more to post rock and heavier indie bands -- Karp, Unwound, that sort of thing -- the overall vibe is still pretty metal, with some seriously metallic riffs, plenty of 'evil' artwork, an inscription that reads "Sharpen swords, polish the armor, it's feeding time", but metal or not, this is just a fucking kick ass blast of sludgy pummeling RAWK, big fuzzed out riffs, pounding drumming, throat shredding vocals, their sound incorporating Neurosis-y crustsludge, Unwound post rock and grooved out Kyuss-y stoner rock into one massive crushing black (w)hole! Definitely for all you folks who dig stuff like Buried At Sea, Conifer, Tides, Dazzling Killmen, Warhammer 48K, etc.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
There's a certain breed of rock band that just rocks. Or RAWKS. They're not punk or metal, emo or indie, they just kick boatloads of ass, destroy live, are fun and funny, wild, over the top, and their rock tends to transcend scene politics or genres. Cuz who doesn't love a rock band that RAWKS, right? Karp were probably the ultimate example. A band that were legendary, and rightfully so. A Karp show would be packed to the rafters with punks and metalheads and indie nerds, and white belted emo kids, and goths. It didn't matter, you could hole up in your bedroom and listen to whatever you wanted to the rest of the time, but Saturday night, when it was time to go out and get wild, Karp was the soundtrack.�
There have been a few bands since, who managed the same sort of RAWK magic, but none so deftly as perfectly as Akimbo. In the past, we played down the Karp comparisons with Akimbo, cuz they tended to be WAY heavier, and much more of an actual metal band, channeling Neurosis as much as if not significantly more than Karp, but on this latest slab of rock and roll fury, Akimbo have stripped down and rocked up, sounding less metal and more like some supercharged AC/DC, and it sounds fucking awesome.�
From top to bottom this is pure rock, a tour van with horns on the hood and a mast and sail mounted to the top, plowing through stormy seas on the cover, song titles like "Wizard Van Wizard", "Dungeon Bastard" and "Huge Muscles", but it's what inside that really counts (just like your mother always told you) and inside are some mega huge ultra shredding riffs, wild howled vocals, crazy catchy hooks, and some of the most bad ass drumming ever, just check out the proggy drum solo intro to�"Wizard Van Wizard"! Holy Shit. We have been rocking this disc like crazy since it came in. And for those of us who have seen them live, they most definitely deliver the goods there too. Maybe even more so.�
So for those of you who need your ROCK FIX, this is exactly what the 'doctor' ordered!
For all the black metal bands, trafficking in raw, primitive, crusty, blackened d-beat driven minimal metal, few can touch mighty Canadian BM horde Akitsa. Active for over a decade, every record from Akitsa is a grim black testament, an unholy writ, rendered in greys and blacks and blood reds, a sonic assault equal parts frosty blast and thrashing crush, but infused with stray elements of pop and drone and classic metal, those elements subverted and transformed and absorbed into the bands twisted take on classic black metal. Feral like punk, buzzy like black metal, doused in noise, Au Crepuscule De L'Esperance might be the weirdest Akitsa yet, which makes perfect sense as it's their first for Hospital, run by the man behind Prurient and Ash Pool among others.
Past Akitsa records were experimental, but subtly so, here the band digs deep, explores their sound in ways only hinted at before, so between bouts of blast and bash, there are long stretches of manipulated sound, of dark drones, and sculpted noise.
The record begins with a brief nearly 3 minute stretch of crumbling distortion, of hiss and glitch, a swirling cloud of corrosive noise, but wrapped around a strange haunting melody, the sort of thing you might hear on a Prurient disc, but not normally on black metal records. But here it sounds perfect, a caustic blown out blacknoise intro, leading right into still more weirdness, a hazy melodic dirge, weirdly loping drums, soaring majestic riffing, what sounds like organ, a mysterious minor key slow burn, the harsh vokills hardly distracting from this blurred melodies and almost regal sounding crush.
"Morsure" is really the first old school Akitsa jam, pounding, the guitars grinding and super distorted, the vocals a hellish bellow, the drums, a punkish pound, trancelike and repetitive, killer of course, but even more so set amidst all this fucked up far out experimentation.
Then there's tracks like "Loyaute", dirgey and almost groovy, sorta like some Stooges-y garage rock coated in filth and slowed down, again way melodic, but still fierce and with weirdly whined almost glammy sounding vox, and a killer main riff, which explodes into the blown out drone drenched chugscape of "Cercueil National", with it's howled vocals, and looped tranced out riffage.
The title track is another chunk of outsider black noise, or metal noise, totally in the red, meters pegged, layered drone, crumbling distortion, the various layers throbbing and pulsing, super hypnotic and noisy, but weirdly dreamy too, a sort of shoegazy melodic thrum, but super charged and blackened.
The rest of the record plays out like a more traditional Akitsa record, blasting, pounding, thrashing, simple and stripped down, but WAY distorted, until the final song, which sounds like a Japanese Brainbombs, or something, an insanely distorted riff, seemingly assembled from white noise, a lumbering drum plod, and some awesome croaked, almost throat singing style vocals, super creepy and fucked up and GENIUS.
We've been dying to list some Akitsa for ages, one of our favorite purveyors of ultra filthy, simple stripped down buzz drenched black metal. But their records have been impossible to come by for ages, other than for way too much on eBay. Recently however, NYC's Hospital Records came to the rescue, and reissued two of our favorites, Sang Nordique and this one, Goetie.
On the opening track, the sound is much like their Canadian brethren Malveillance, frosty and cold, fierce and fast, old school black metal. The riffs are blown out and buzz like swarms of tiny spiked insects, the drums, a seemingly relentless pound, the vocals a wild hysterical shriek. The D-beat influence is not so prevalent as in Malveillance, but the structure is quite similar, a single riff, pounded into submission, over and over and over, a blackbuzzmantra of the highest order. But Akitsa only spend a small amount of their time buzzing at breakneck speed. Much of the rest of the time they slow things way down, the high end buzz becoming murkier and more malevolent, complete with strange guitar harmonies, and croaked demonic vocals, resulting in what almost sounds like a black metal Brainbombs. And as with most of our favorite BM outfits, Akitsa are not at all afraid of melody, offering up some strangely lovely interludes where minor key melodies drift over loping drums and guitars jangle more than crunch, lots of melodic prettiness and droning shimmer.�
On the track "Les Ruines De La Modernite", things slow down to an absolute crawl, a sludgy lurching plod, but somehow, the chord progression and the melodies end up sounding super pretty. It's almost like some slowcore track given a black metal makeover. Like Codeine covering Immortal. And most of the slow tracks sound like that, like pretty and poppy painted pitch black.�
The intro and outro are also quite lovely, the intro a swaying repeated minor key guitar figure over a sea of static buzz, while above it all a voice croons hypnotically, while the outro is delicate and dreamy, like some soft focus eighties British pop music, simple chimes and a looped melody, all hovering over what sounds like something burning, a low level crackle and rumble. And everything in between is perfect, whether it's wild thrashing, slow plodding, mid tempo waltzes, whatever, every moment is infused with some super unlikely pop sensibilities and an arsenal of blackbuzz riffs to die for.
For metalheads like us, a new record from Canadian black metal duo Akitsa is a cause for serious celebration. They're a band that has remained mysterious, hewed to their own sonic blueprint, remaining willfully obstinate, and for the internet age, surprisingly off the radar for lots of folks, and it's all that, as well as their furious and fucked up sound, that has made them one of our favorite purveyors of raw black buzz. Grands Tyrans is their first full length in five years, and opener "Devoile" reminds us just why we love them so much, and just how much we missed their bleak, black threnodies. The guitars are simple and primitive, the sound raw and brittle, insectoid, occasionally splintering into weird scrabbling squiggles, a caveman approximation of leads perhaps, the drums almost a murky afterthought, more a pulse than a pound, all in support of the vokills, impossibly anguished and tortured, a hellish, primal screech, borderline hysterical, doused in reverb and drenched in echo, squeaking and cracking, wailing and shrieking.
But there's another side to Akitsa, which is displayed on track two, "Le Feu De L'abime", a knuckle dragging primitive punk dirge, all churning downtuned riffage and Neanderthal drum pound, the guitars that were so brittle moments earlier, now chunky and fuzzy, the vocals too, transformed, into a snarly, sneering yawp. And actually, there are several other sonic sides the group explores on the rest of Grands Tyrans: a hellish buzzing black metal death march on "Naufrage Contemporain", a grinding, rumbling soundscape of staticky drones and haunting synth melodies on "Les Flots De L'Enfer", creepy synthy cinematic doom on the title track, where the vocals transform yet again into some twisted Ozzy-ish croon, before revisiting some of the previous sounds, delivered in varying degrees of fucked up and fractured production, and with their own sonic mutations, like the weirdo new wave vocals on the super blown out "Je N'y Serai Pas" or sing songy, surprisingly melodic punk pound of "Chimeres", or the frenzied ultra-lo-fi blackened stomp of "Faucon".
Goddamn do we love this band!!! And it's so satisfying how amazingly confusional they remain after all these years. And how on a record that lurches from sound to sound, the production quality in constant flux, the vocals never the same twice, the guitar tone varying from meaty crunch to transistor radio tinniness, they can somehow craft these disparate sounds and songs into what is destined to be one of the best metal records (black and otherwise) of the year.
Super swank packaging, a black and white digipak with debossed, metallic silver printing and a booklet filled with lyrics and stunning shots of a grim Canadian winter.
Another long overdue reissue from these French Canadian masters of stripped down black buzz. We reviewed their amazing 2001 debut, Goetie, a few lists back, and now we've got Sang Nordique originally released in 2002, it's just as black and buzzy, offkilter and strange. And as hard as it is to believe, maybe even better than the debut, certainly weirder!
Beginning with a damaged super reverbed guitar intro, that sounds like some impossible cross between blackened surf music and a Morricone western score, featuring a gorgeously melancholy, super distorted guitar buzzing within a cloud of thick reverb, the band immediately launch into some gloriously relentless Darkthrone-ish pounding old school blackness, with looped riffage, killer blastbeats, and some super harsh hellish howls. But by the next track, they've switched gears, and are spitting out some weird sort of crusty punk rock, flecked with a little old school classic metal, sounding for the most part, minus the blackened vocals, like this could be Doom or Discharge or some missing D-beat band from the eighties. Track three, the title track, has them switching it up once again, with a strangely melodic midtempo groove, pounding out a garage-y sort of stomp, sounding not a little bit like the Brainbombs, filthy and blown out, in the red and dripping with crumbling distortion, lots of swagger and groove, but painted all sorts of black.�
The next two tracks are straight ahead D-beat black thrash, furiously frenzied blasts of buzz and howl, veering from full on black metal, to more of that sort of blackened crusty punk. But then things get super strange... The second to last track, "La Nature De Mon Pans", begins as a loping swinging dirge, all demonic howl, caveman pound, and some super stripped down riffing, until the -other- vocals come in, a monotone Jandekian drawl, a slightly atonal croon, that suddenly gives this a Circle Of Ouroborus vibe, and the track is transformed into a lurching demented, seasick downer slab of doomy crust pop, complete with soaring minor key lead guitar. Whatthefuck?!? So goddamn good! It had us almost wishing the whole record sounded like this.�
At least until the final track, a 10+ minute drone and buzzscape of rumbling low end glitches, distant reverbed drum pound and haunting vocals, like a black metal Whitehouse maybe, the whole track a grinding rumbling glacial dirge, with those creepy vocals drifting ghostlike over the machinelike murk. Another seriously amazing WTF moment on a record packed with 'em. Definitely one of our favorite weirdo black metal bands, and Sang Nordique is one of their best records for sure. We can hardly wait to get their most recent full length�La Grande Infamie (from 2006) reviewed and on the list! But until then, this should most certainly hold you over...
This long in the works split finally sees the light of day. Two sides of raw primitive blackness, one from Canadian outfit Akitsa, the other from Dominick Fernow's Ash Pool, just one of his many bands/guises/projects (Prurient, Cold Cave, Silent Servant, etc.)
Akitsa have long been favorites around here, purveyors of a particular strain of primitive, blackened, D-beat driven black metal crush we can't ever seem to get enough of here. And little has changed on these four tracks, filthy fuzzy riffage, harsh howling guttural rasping vokills, and of course pounding drums. One thing that has changed, at that at least seams a little lot more pronounced, is a serious poppiness, which is established pretty much immediately on the opening track here, which sans vox, almost sounds like some Ramones outtake, hooky and heavy and super melodic, weirdly catchy too, but with a churning punk metal 'chorus', and of course generally more blackened all around. The second disc finds Akista in full on trance out mode, what is essentially buzzing black metal, but here slowed down to a crawl, the guitars are still buzzing and frantic, but the drums (or drum?) is just a static pulsing throb, while the guitar soar and swirl hauntingly above it. Akitsa enter the final stretch of their side with another weirdly catchy punk pop jam in grim black metal clothing, right down to clean reverby vox, the sound, minus the extreme buzz, some weird cold wave post punk jam, that KILLS. Fans of Soror Dolorosa and Grave Babies and the like maybe have found their black metal jam. That leads directly into a bit of mournful blackbuzzscaping, swirling soaring insectoid guitars over reverby Morricone like twang, space and darkly psychedelic, and finally, a sprawling closer that's equal parts post punk, classic metal, and gloom pop dirgery, a super repetitive tranced out churn, that almost sounds like krautrock at times, or at least like a black metal Circle, but still all wreathed in gloriously crusty production, that makes it appropriately murky AND blown out.
Ash Pool start off with their own sort of weird pop / black metal hybrid, sounding like some mutant strain of very evil pop punk, a downright jaunty main melody and a galloping rhythm, but soon that splinters into full on furious chaotic black squall buzz, the drums relentless and dizzying, the vocals a raspy croak, the guitars swirling dervishes of sound, but then BAM, they slip right back into that opening poppiness, and so it goes back and forth, a seemingly impossibly hybrid, but it works, and sounds kind of amazing. All before a final black-psych blowout, replete with shredding head spinning guitar freakout. Most of the Ash Pool side remains firmly entrenched in pure grim black buzz territory, but throughout, they pepper the proceedings with super catchy melodies, lush textures, progged out arrangements, managing to keep things dense and brutal and furious, but also strangely catchy. And then they respond to that Akitsa track, by going full on black-pop gloom-buzz, clean vocals soaring over the mix, and again, minus the distortion, this would be some strange bit of dreamy downer pop, but when wedded to those frenetic guitars, it becomes a weirdly soaring sort of blackened postrock/post punk, before finally finishing off with a short blast of shrieking black crush.
Amazing stuff from both bands, fans absolutely NEED, newbies, this could be the record that finally turns you on to both Akitsa and Ash Pool, you won't be sorry!
It's no surprise that we like this a lot, as it's a collaboration bringing together some big aQ faves (and friends of ours), Aktor consisting of Jussi and Tomi from Finnish prog weirdos Circle, joined by American metal musician Chris "Professor" Black of Dawnbringer and High Spirits fame! Wow, what a great idea! Jussi, Tomi and the other Circle guys already can do no wrong, their unique brand of "NWOFHM" quasi-metal weirdness being hugely popular around here. Put Professor Black into the mix and you've got gold!
This debut 7" features two songs, about three and a half minutes each, of hook-laden, sadly majestic, melodic rockin' heaviness, definitely inspired by the '70s likes of Blue Oyster Cult (a reference made by the title of the A-side song), there's A LOT of synthesizer keyboards all over this, getting a little R2D2-ish with the sci-fi bleep and bloop.
Darkly poppy, rhythmically driving and suspenseful, with the keyboards and catchiness it's sorta like the recent Falcon (Ex-Circle) album, but much more metal and more prog too. And of course with a different, very distinctive vocalist - Professor Black's emotive, softly weathered voice always a pleasure to hear. Great existential lyrics too.
If you're already a fan of High Spirits or Dawnbringer, you'll be right on board with this, 'cause it basically sounds like the most melodic gallop of either of those bands given an extra dose of WTF? electronic action. As the label (i.e. Jussi) says: "Aktor plays Top 40 Heavy Metal with a delicious psychedelic flair". Meanwhile, if you're coming at this as a Circle/NWOFHM fan, well, the extra-proggy B-side has a "lalalala" part that's very Circle-ish...
And while it's unlikely we're gonna sell you on this import 7" if you're NOT already into one side or the other of the Aktor equation, any random BoC fans reading this, oughtta give the sound sample a listen!
We REALLY hope there's gonna be a full-length.
BACK IN STOCK!!!
Oh boy, the Aktor full-length is here!! We've been eagerly awaiting this ever since the 7" single Aktor teased us with in 2013. How could we not be super stoked? It's a team-up of a couple big aQ faves - you've got Jussi and Tomi from Finnish hypnorock weirdos Circle and associated 'NWOFHM' bands in cahoots with metal master Chris "Professor" Black of Dawnbringer/High Spirits fame, whoa. The Circle guys do the heavily pulsing, ridiculously synth-laden music, while Professor Black handles the vocals in his inimitable melodic and earnest style. It's metal, sorta, or hard rock at least, though we're sorta surprised German traditional metal label High Roller were the ones to release it (probably, they did 'cause High Spirits are on High Roller). It's just so quirkily POPPY, and sometimes strangely moody and non-metallic too - like, just check out the dissonant synth-funk fusion sounds slathered all over the track "Where Is Home", combined also with metal gallops and depressive sci-fi lyrics... WTF??? We wonder what High Roller thought when they heard that. Maybe it's sorta Voivod-y (circa Angel Rat or The Outer Limits), and of course, as with the preceding "I Am The Psychic Wars" single, Blue Oyster Cult is an obvious big influence - but as much '80s cheezoid synthesizer overload BoC as '70s black & white psychedelic BoC. We're talking Club Ninja, here. Club Ninja with Chick Corea sitting in, possibly. Yeah, and Club Ninja is nobody's idea of a great, or even good, BoC album, is it? Yet, it can be a guilty/ironic pleasure for sure (Allan owns a copy, and is gonna spin it right after finishing this review), and so is Aktor... especially since Aktor bring in their own strange slant, due to the proggy Circle-factor, and the natural sincerity of Professor Black's emotive vocal delivery, making for a delirious dose of urgently, angularly rocking WTF? poppiness, living up to the cool album art of melting skulls and floating eyeballs, with lyrics that are cryptically mystical and/or psychological, it seems, having sickness, mental and otherwise, as a frequent theme. They titled it Paranoia for a reason. Yet, ultimately, the music is bright and uplifting - the "motivational montage" vibe common to both High Spirits and the Falcon (Ex-Circle) album is in full effect. Fans of either should definitely check this out, especially if you're also into Steel Mammoth or other Circle "NWOFHM" side projects. We'd say, expectations are met, but also confounded and confused! There are probably a myriad ways this collab could have gone, and we could imagine one a little less campy in some respects... nah, maybe not!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Metalheads are definitely a weird bunch, their likes and dislikes, what is considered true and cult, versus stuff labeled poser or false metal. In some cases it's definitely cut and dried, but in others, there's really no rhyme or reason. For instance, take Depeche Mode. Almost every metalhead we've ever met, loves Depeche Mode. Why? There seems to be no metal connection, other than a sort of darkness or gothiness. Yet, DM remain a fast favorite, with more than a few metal bands covering songs by them as well. Which brings us to Alcest. For the life of us, we can't figure out why these guys are so beloved by black metallers, even the ones who go on about frosty grim kvlt hordes and generally listen to only extreme buzzing blackness, they all seem to love Alcest. Not that there's not plenty to love, it's just Alcest are barely metal at all. Sure there's some harsh vocals now and again, some distorted guitar, even some blast beats but that's about it as far as it goes metalwise. And the thing is, even when Alcest do dip into some blasting blackness, it's more shoegazey and dreamy and washed out and melodic, which speaks to why we love this band so much, their ability to create this glimmering blown out dreampop using tropes usually reserved for musics much more harsh and heavy.
This latest record finds the band perfecting their ever evolving formula, merging a sort of depressive melancholic black metal, with total blissed out shoegaze jangle pop. On Ecailles De Lune, even the heaviest moments are infused with an undeniable poppiness, a sort of ethereal dreaminess, that turns this into one of the least likely black metal records ever.
The band can be perfectly summed up sonically in the nearly 20 minute two part opening salvo, jangly guitars, hushed vocals, explode into a sort of prismatic shoegaze post pop, all big chords, pounding drums, everything wrapped in a soft psychedelic haze, crooned sad boy vocals, way down in the mix, slow builds to Godspeed like crescendos, angelic female background vocals, lush harmonies, spidery tendrils of minor key guitar, finally within the last minute of the first part, slipping into a buzzing blast, but as mentioned above, it's not so black and grim as if is epic and effulgent and soaring and majestic and beautiful. The second part opens with spare chiming guitars, before some almost actual black metal erupts, a woozy descending minor key melody that quickly shifts into something much more moody with harsh vocals showing up for the first time. It's frenzied and buzzy, but still more dreamy and druggy than black, and then just as quickly as it started, the blackness fades, leaving a loping rhythm, sweet chiming clean guitars, and then the rhythm drops out too, and the song plays out with just a soft tangle of reverby guitar notes and ethereal female vocals.
"Percees de Lumiere" begins all Lifelover-y, with swoonsome soaring shoegaze pop and harsh vox, only to splinter into prismatic dreampop partway through, dreamy female vocals over softly churning chords underneath, so nice.
"Solar Song" is some sort of Slowdive / Swervedriver / My Bloody Valentine hybrid, warm lush chords, soaring vocal harmonies, a killer main melody, total classic pop wreathed in layers of washed out fuzz and swirling sonic gauze, maybe the 'hit' here if there was gonna be one.
An 8+ minute closer might have you expecting a blasting metallic finale, but instead, we're treated to a smoldering sprawl of soft strummed, chiming gloom pop, no drums, just layers of glistening guitars, warm lush vocals, a slow burning chunk or rainy day post-metal dreamfolk balladry. woozy, washed out, hazy, dreamlike and utterly gorgeous.
While they last, we've got the limited digi-book packaging version of this fine album.
Long before melodic post black metal or blackened shoegaze metal, or whatever you want to call it, became the flavor of the month (a flavor we continue to find delicious by the way), Alcest's 2 song debut came out of nowhere and blew minds. Not just ours, although ours were indeed sufficiently blown, but the metal world at large, the BLACK metal world, notoriously averse to innovation, especially of the poppy and melodic variety, with pretty much everyone freaking out over this French one man band, whose sound was a blend of Slinty post rock, spidery, shimmery shoegaze, and buzzing black metal. Since then, hundreds of bands have taken on the mantle of blackened jangle buzz pop, from Amesoeurs to Les Discrets, Deafheaven to Lantlos, but few releases, even later Alcest records, have managed to capture the same energy and intensity as these 2 songs.
The opening track "Le Secret", began long stretches of crystalline reverbed guitars, that goes on and on, 3+ minutes before the song proper begins, but then the guitars come buzzing in, thick, and crumbling, wrapped around an impossibly poppy melody, and then the vocals drift in, vocals which we initially thought were female, hazy, and washed out, high and softly plaintive, the track slipping easily from pounding blast, to loping midtempo, but always warm and washed out, softly buzzy and so divinely dreamy. Black metal perhaps, but smooth out some of the metallisms and you'd have a Lovesliescrushing tune, strip away the distortion and it might sound like Cocteau Twins.
The second track might be even better. "Elevation" begins with another long intro, this one all woozy shimmery synths, and when the 'band' launches into it proper, it's definitely buzzy and blackened, but again, infused with impossibly catchy melodies, and the vocals here are more black metal rasp, but somehow, the combination works perfectly, the riffs seeming to grow ever more epic and majestic, the pounding beats, blurring into another layer of pulsing buzzing sound. The sound does shift, from folky, clean guitar interlude, to lumbering midtempo chug and churn, which is when Alcest is at 'their' most metal, but the song drifts back toward the soaring majesty of the first half, droned out and hypnotic, buzzy and melodic and just about as sweetly warm and lush as black metal can get.
Even six years later, after hearing a million different bands employ this same strategy, these two tracks sound so fresh, so impossibly heavy and simultaneously so infectiously hooky, total fuzzpop blackbuzz dreamgaze bliss.
For this long awaited reissue, both songs have been rerecorded, these new version accompanying the originals, the liner notes explaining that Alcest mainman Neige was always unhappy with the sound, and the two new versions do sound a bit different, not necessarily better, but in some ways more lush and warm, less brittle and buzzy, even a bit more expansive and rich, although the originals were pretty dang perfect to begin with. Hard to say which versions we like more, but the fact that very little was changed besides the actual recording quality, means it almost doesn't matter!
Really, what can we say at this point about French shoegaze / post black metallers Alcest, that hasn't already been said, by us, and pretty much everybody else? Alcest are pretty much the gold standard when it comes to soaring emotional melodic shoegaze black metal (along with Amesoeurs, but they're both fronted by the same guy anyway), and with every record they move further and further away from actual buzzing blackness, but at the same time, they keep getting better and better (production, arrangement, songwriting) and in the process, their ability to blend their dreamy jangle and black buzz far surpasses any of the other groups out there trying for the same effect. There's no jarring shift from crystalline shimmer, and hazy dreamy drift to blasting buzz, it's totally organic, and sure, in the process, perhaps the black and the buzz becomes muted and less, well, buzzy and black, but the strange thing is, no one is complaining. Even the grimmest of metalheads seems to love Alcest (and Amesoeurs). It's the Depeche Mode principle again, like Depeche Mode, all metalheads love Alcest. Not that we can blame them, what's not to love? Especially here, on what is arguably the group's masterpiece, so epic, and melodic, and sweeping and soaring, lush and textured, alternatingly heavy and majestic, dreamy and drifty, heavy on the post rock and the jangle, with the black metallisims making up a relatively small part of the sound, and when the band do get into some buzzy blackness, the infuse it with an impossible melodic sense, and the fact that the sound is so lush and the record is so well produced, it makes it sound heavier than most proper black metal bands, not brittle and buzzy, or chaotic and furious, but epic and crushing and MASSIVE. It can only really be a matter of time before non metalheads catch on. There's plenty here that would not sound at all out of place alongside Explosions In The Sky and Godspeed You Black Emperor and M83 and Mogwai and all the rest, and we wouldn't be at all surprised if this had come out on Temporary Residence, or even Matador. Maybe that's in the cards, but for now, we can all continue to bathe in Alcest's glorious sonic glow, while they still remain, at least tenuously, in the underground. At this point, this can't really be a contender for black metal record of the year, cuz it's finally just too far removed, but it's still so goddamn good, we're having a hard time imagining very many records this year, metal or otherwise, will top it.
Sweater not included.
We've been gushing over French black metal outfit Ameseours for a while now. Their amazing blend of buzzing blackness and indie jangle. Like nothing we'd heard really, but was exactly what we always wanted, nay needed to hear, just didn't know it. As we mentioned in our review of their record, various members of that group also do time in the much more black metal Peste Noire, whose most recent record FolkFuck Folie we also reviewed recently, and in both reviews we lamented the fact that we were never able to get the ep by yet another related band, the even less metal, more blissy Alcest. And while that 2 song disc does in fact seem to be out of print, this here is the brand new full length, and besides being amazing, and one of the prettiest records of the year, it's absolutely and entirely not the least bit metal. AT ALL.�
Which is in no way a bad thing, it's just perplexing that black metal folks have been touting this as one of the best metal records of the year, even ever. Much like Ameseours, Alcest is all about indie jangle, and blissed out shoegazey pop, but where Ameseours, mixes that sound with a more traditional buzz and blast, resulting in some strange blackened hybrid, a sort of indie jangle black metal, Alcest, jettison the metal entirely, leaving nothing but gorgeous, dramatic, epic, blissful pop perfection. And this is simply that, perfect pop. The guitars are still distorted and slightly heavy, and there is some double kick drum action, but that stuff is so wrapped up in dense smears of glistening chordal thrum and breathy emotional vocals, simple acoustic guitar picking and buzzing fuzzed out grooves, that it just sort of gets absorbed into Alcest's divine dreamy drift.�
We talked about Justin Broadrick channeling the spirit of early nineties shoegaze pop in Jesu, but Alcest sound like they were transported directly from that era, yanked from a field of similarly minded sonic explorers like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse, and the like. It almost seems pointless to mention anything about the band's black metal pedigree, since if you were going on sound alone, you would be hard pressed to not imagine this was some legendary college rock record from 1992, each track glorious and glistening, the guitars�soaring, epic and majestic, all�major key, a walls of sound, rich and thick and lustrous, the�bass mirroring the guitar, simple subtle harmonies, everything tangled into lilting bliss pop epics, while over the top drift�soft fuzzy vocals, both male and female, that almost even more than the music recall that specific musical era.
Absolutely the finest slab of blissed out, post My Bloody Valentine dreampop indie jangle drift we've heard in forever. Just listen to the sound samples and we think you'll be just as smitten as we are...�
This should have been a highlight, but check out the price. Oof! Apparently Northerh Silence pressed up 3000 cds, but Alcest's new label forced them to destroy ALL but 500. Not sure what the problem was, but they only allowed NS to keep the 500 in order to recoup some of the money already spent on the now destroyed cds. Thus, NO copies of this were sold wholesale, as the label needed to make as much money back as it could. Thus we got a handful. The label let us have 10, but they were expensive, and figure in the exchange rate, and the shipping, and well, there ya go. $39. It is fantastic though, many of you bought the lp version. This is the cd version. We have 10 copies, that's it. SOrry, but at least a handful of you will get a copy, even if you have to cough up nearly forty bones. Here's our review of the lp version when we first listed it:
Folks have been chomping at the bit for this one and now it's finally here. A collection of older demo material from French black metal horde Angmar and AQ faves, and current black-metal-bliss darlings Alcest. And after the most recent Alcest full length, the barely metal�Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, and with the first ep being out of print and unavailable, a new Alcest record, even if it's an -old- new record, is enough to get the AQ black metal faithful, all in a frenzy...
Angmar, who we have yet to feature on the AQ list but who we most definitely dig, offer up a handful of demos and rehearsals spanning the years 1998-2003. All the usual adjectives apply, this was long before the band streamlined their sound, so these tracks find the band raw and grim and frosty. Cold buzzing riffage, blast beats and some seriously creepy atmospheres. Every track a relentless burst of black fury, primitive and lo-fi, but all the more intense and blackened for it. The tracks are sprinkled with gorgeous bits of lilting folkiness, short stretches of dark ambience, one whole track of creepy shimmer, a gloomy piano / guitar duet, but it's the blasting buzz that define these guys, and they do it well, burning a black mark on the pale flesh of all that is holy with their beastly racket. Awesome stuff.�
But Alcest is really the reason everyone wants this so bad, and rightfully so. Neige might not be a household name, unless you live with a bunch of black metalheads in France, but it sure should be, and probably will be soon, as Neige is the man behind Alcest, the equally brilliant Ameseours, as well as a member of weirdo black buzzers Peste Noire. The Alcest lp half of this split double, is one sided and features a 2001 demo in its entirety. And for those of you whose only exposure to Alcest is�Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, you just might be shocked to discover that Alcest were indeed a real buzzing black metal outfit at one time. This demo definitely proves it. It also demonstrates, that even way back then, Neige had a melodic flair that could just not bee denied. The insane thing is that all of this music was written when Neige was all of 15 years old. Holy shit. What were we doing at 15? Definitely not composing legendary slabs of grim melodic black metal. But that's precisely what this is, an epic slab of buzzing blackness, run through with irresistible pop melodies, streaks of jangle and shoegazey bliss, but all merely as filigree for a seriously intense black metal buzz. Howled vocals, furious blasting rhythms, jagged black riffs, all woven into long stretches of midtempo moodiness, epic and minor key, and grim grim grim. But amazingly, without ever losing that mysterious melodiousness that would come to define Alcest's constantly evolving sound.
New album of unclassifiable, psychedelic death metal from this not-as-well-known-as-they-should-be Australian band. For fans of Neurosis and Voivod! Screechy Cradle of Filth parts meet outback tribal percussion jams, amidst heavy Entombed-style rockin'.
The latest addition to the ever expanding "Cascadian black metal" scene comes via Tacoma Washington's Alda (who apparently are not, as we had been hoping, named for Alan Alda). This is their 2009 debut, and delivers pretty much everything you'd want from a band like this or say, Wolves In the Throne Room, or Fauna, or Echtra, but give that sound their own twist. The record opens with a dark, haunting acoustic number, aching crooned vocals, spare finger picked guitars, the sound building to an urgent strum, the vocals too soaring dramatically, it's definitely effective in setting the mood, and leads directly into the slow, and distinctly melodic opening to the first proper metal track, "Fimbulwinter" - a plodding doomic death march, melancholic minor key guitar melodies, over simple plodding drums. We actually would have been perfectly happy had they kept it at this tempo, and unfurled a massive smoldering slo-mo blackened doom creep that filled up the whole rest of the record, but instead, they do eventually slip into some proper black riffing, and don't explode into a blast so much as a midtempo lope, an interesting choice for sure, giving the whole track a super laid back vibe, which is quickly scuttled when the guitar splinters into some super cool angular mathiness, and the harsh vokills swoop in. The song never fully explodes into blasting blackness, but in its own way, it sort of makes it less predictable and more interesting, the rest of the track rife with memorable melodies and shifting blackened textures.
But fear not, the following track finds the band in full black/buzz/blast mode, furious and frantic, at least for the first minute or so, the song soon shifts into something much more mathy and midtempo, before they lurch right back into it again. And so it goes, there's some cello that pops up here, giving the sound some moodiness, and the acoustic guitars return, giving the proceedings a bit of a neo-folk feel, and leading directly into the next track which finds the band again unfurling some midtempo melodic blackness.
It definitely seems obvious that Alda are more comfortable at a generally more midtempo clip, and it certainly suits them, the heavier slower parts get almost Neurosis-y, and the blasting parts add some definite dynamics, the vibe throughout moody and melancholy, and in its own way darkly psychedelic. While these guys might not be as epic and intense as WITTR, it also doesn't seem like that's what they're going for, their sound much slower and moodier, less majestic and more personal, and the neo-folk elements too are super distinctive, the cello is a nice touch as well. For fans of that 'Cascadian' sound, these guys definitely do it well. And there's a second Alda record too, released more recently, so curious to see how Alda have pushed their sound in the two years since they recorded this one. Regardless, we're digging this one a lot!
Ok, we know what you're thinking (maybe). Alice Cooper? Aquarius Record(s) Of The Week? Two of 'em?? If you're not familiar with these albums, you might be wondering... and while we know that many loyal AQ customers are of course extremely knowledgeable about all sorts of cool music, just as much or more so than any of us who work here, we also wouldn't be surprised if more than a few of you had never been exposed to these first two Alice Cooper albums before. Which is why we HAVE to list them and make them Records Of The Week!!�After being out of print for far too long, they've now been newly reissued on cd (in limited editions, see below for more about that), and we're excited to be able to tell you about 'em.
So, when most people think of Alice Cooper, what comes to mind? The big '70s shock rock act, up there with KISS, the guy who was the Marilyn Manson of the '70s, or maybe the regular on Hollywood Squares, or even the early '90s hairmetal Alice, of Wayne's World "we're not worthy" fame. Campy and kitschy and scholocky and alcoholic, with snakes and blood. All good things of course. But even if you are a fan of the Alice Cooper classics from the '70s, albums like Love It To Death, Killer and Billion Dollar Babies, the Alice Cooper Band's 1969 debut Pretties For You and its 1970 follow up Easy Action are often overlooked, and underrated. Originally released on Frank Zappa's Straight label (and whatever you might think of Frank Zappa, he had a good track record for releasing freaky music by other folks, Captain Beefheart ferinstance!) this early Alice Cooper stuff is NOT the heavy metal hard rock you might be expecting. That was a direction AC went in really only after moving from LA to Detroit and hooking up with producer Bob Ezrin. There's hints of heaviness, of course, but this is waaay more psychedelic and poppy and proggy. And weird. If you think you know what to expect, think again. You're in for a bizarre treat indeed. (Some Alice Cooper fans might not agree, but we hope most open minded AQ customers will!)
The front cover of Pretties For You has a painting that make it look like a Robert Wyatt record. And on the back cover, the band, posing in a gallery of strange modern sculptures, show off a visual style that makes 'em look something like a cross between Blue Cheer and Roxy Music. Intrigued? Throw the album on, and you're confronted with the first of this album's many non-sequiturs, the orchestral fanfare of "Titanic Overture", which segues into the why-be-normal, twisty-turny psych piece "10 Minutes Before The Worm" (actually only 1 minute, 40 seconds long). They weren't trying to ease anybody into their "thing" it seems. Better yet is track three, "Swing Low Sweet Cheerio", the album's first true pop gem, and still plenty weird. And that's what this is, a pop album, full of great pop songs, super Beatlesy, hummable stuff. But it's Beatlesy in a tripped out Sgt. Peppers way. And wait a second, Pretties For You? The Pretty Things' "SF Sorrow" might also have been an influence. There's a lot of quirky dynamics, theatrical art rock gestures, cryptic humor, wild psychedelic effects, screaming fuzz guitar, strange stops and starts... it can be off-putting at first, probably difficult listening for some, with as much in common with Amon Duul II or even Olivia Tremor Control as they do with Alice Cooper's later million-sellers. But, you like '60s garage psych right? Well early AC were really a Nuggetsy garage band (originally called The Earwigs, then The Spiders, and then The Nazz, finally settling on Alice Cooper following a legendary Ouija board session). Doing their thing on the Sunset Strip in LA, they gradually got nuttier and nuttier, more psychedelic and experimental. If AC hadn't gone on to such later success, we're certain this would be regarded by psych lovers as an obscure cult classic of late '60s freakdom, like 50 Foot Hose or West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band or something. Instead, it's the record that probably confuses average Alice Cooper fans, and isn't heard by anybody else, which we think is a shame...
Alice Cooper's swaggering second effort, Easy Action, is just a bit more straightforward, more of a "rock" album, proto-glam in fact, AC maybe trying to take on T-Rex? On it, with some wicked lyrics, Alice starts to develop his better known, "mentally ill" or "evil" sick humor persona, in a wittier way though than the cartoonishness that later took over in later years. His ever-so-slightly-raspy, steeped-in-decadence voice, of course, always had star power from the very beginning, but here he occasionally breaks out a snarl that never surfaced on Pretties, amidst more melodic crooning. And one of the tracks, the spasmodic tour de force "Still No Air", foreshadows Alice Cooper's later West Side Story obsession on School's Out.
And Easy Action proves to be still pretty darn trippy and weird, with plenty of progtastic twists, just like Pretties. Heck, "Lay Down And Die, Goodbye" is 7+ minutes of pretty much just sound FX laced freakishness. This album boasts several more glorious psychedelic pop gems like "Laughing At Me", the piano ballad "Beautiful Flyaway", and the very Beatlesy "Shoe Salesman", alongside the harder rockin' likes of "Return Of The Spiders"... Oooh so many good tunes. Compared to the debut, it's perhaps a more confident, slightly less confusional record, that set them up for major label success of their next album, another huge favorite of ours, Love It To Death, recorded with Ezrin after their relocation to Detroit - a move that made sense, considering they did have a lot in sonically common with The Amboy Dukes and even the MC5. You'll also hear parallels to very early Blue Oyster Cult and David Bowie... And (moreso on Pretties) an American version of Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett era mind you...) or even a more obtuse The Doors...
While Alice Cooper (both the man and the band) made a lot of classic music in their career(s), no other Alice Cooper records were ever quite as arty and bizarre, with the unique one foot in the psychedelic sixties mix of throbbing manic energy and melancholic moodiness that's found on Pretties For You and Easy Action. Are we going out on limb by making 'em Records Of The Week? Nope, what could be more AQ?? These have been favorites here for a long time, but rarely available. And Jim and Allan bonded over these back when they both first started working here years ago. Also, we know the guys in Harvey Milk will have to be stoked to find that their new album got ROTW honors alongside these two!
And by the way, we insist on filing these under A, not C. It's the Alice Cooper Band dammit. Alice himself didn't go solo 'til Welcome To My Nightmare in 1975. The original act, featuring guitarists Glen Buxton and Mike Bruce, bassist Denis Dunaway, and drummer Neil Smith, alongside the former Vincent Furnier on vocals and snake handling, deserves their due! One of the great American rock bands.
One final note: these reissues on this new Rhino "Encore" imprint are based around the (dumb) idea of doing releases that are only available for a limited time. It's like the way Disney puts out DVDs. So, all the more reason for us to shout from the rooftops about these two albums -- in six months, according to the label, these reissues will be out of print, again!! Argh. So get 'em while you can, if you don't already have them in your collection!! And buy a copy for a friend!
Here's a long lost gem of a concert film -- anybody remember concerts? We mean CONCERTS!! Full on pull out all the stops, real rock and roll show concerts!!
In 1973 the Alice Cooper Band were a hard-charging unit that packed just the right sort of killer riffs and creepy crawly sleaze that would make them one of the biggest tour draws that year, out-grossing Grand Funk and even the Rolling Stones (and we do mean out-GROSSING, um... sorry)! This "midnight movie" shows the band onstage plowing through the hits with plenty of power and tightness to spare. Alice wears the filthiest of stage outfits, at one point sporting a big dirty toothbrush chasing down and trying to 'brush' some leggy young ladies all dolled up like "female teeth"! Hmmm...
We probably oughta mention too, that this is not -just- a concert film, there IS a plotline to the film. Well, kinda.
Seems there is a German Film Director and Alice and his gang don't like the production and proceed to trash the set, and much hilarity and chaos and all out weirdness ensues. The film goes from a few minutes of this stilted storyline improv back to a few songs performed live, and then back again to the "acting". Lucky for us the DVD has a "play concert only" option so after viewing the movie in its entirety, you can just enjoy just the music, as the band fires up and totally delivers the goods to a very "saucer-eyed-for-some-reason" young audience who just eat it all up, the props, the theatrics, the power riffs and the chaotic insanity for which Alice "the Eighth Wonder of the World" Cooper was legendary.
Also included on this (the original cut) of the film is a new surround sound mix of the audio as well as some theatrical trailers that feature that guy who did all the stark & scary voice-overs from the horror thriller previews back in the day as well. Good to see you again, Alice! Close window [javascript: window.close()]
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Here's another $5 sale cd that, well, you must buy if you don't have it already. An utter classic - albeit one of the many classics that came out in 1971. Probably the original Alice Cooper band's best album, though that's a tough call. A lot of folks mistakenly think of this as their debut, 'cause it featured their first big hit, the anthemic "I'm Eighteen". But while it was the debut of Detroit-era Alice, it was actually the group's third album, following the two somewhat weirder and artier, more Sgt. Peppery poppy psych ones they did for Frank Zappa's Straight label before they moved to Detroit from LA (those being Pretties For You and Easy Action, the reissues of which we made Records Of The Week here!).
Love It To Death is plenty psychedelic too, and weird, but also really established the band's hard rock bona fides. They heavied up when they moved to the Motor City it seems, delving into high energy Detroit rock action in the vein of the MC5 on "Long Way To Go" amongst others here - heck "I'm Eighteen" could easily be a Stooges song. It's the record too where the Alice Cooper shock rock horror show image really came into focus for the first time. It includes such creepy cuts as "Black Juju" and "Ballad Of Dwight Fry", also their curious cover of Rolf Harris' catchy "Sun Arise" from the early '60s to end the album and demonstrate it's not all darkness. We'll also mention "Caught In A Dream", "Is It My Body" and "Hallowed Be Thy Name", but every song here is great. This album belongs in our 1971 top ten for sure, which is no mean feat!
Note: filed under A, not C: singer Alice hadn't gone solo yet, and the original band is called Alice Cooper, dammit!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The long overdue return of these Belgian musical miscreants, whose last release, the super limited tape and then not so limited cd Luizig, was a huge favorite around these parts, and why the hell not, a blown out blackened smear of in the red doom dirge weirdness, that we compared to folks like Ash Pool and Akitsa and Ancestors. But that had a lot more to do with the quality of the sound, the timbre and tone, the brutally lo-fi recording, the music itself was much more twisted and blurred and tangled and whatthefuck.
For this two song follow up, Alkerdeel change gears pretty dramatically, opening up with nearly 4 minutes of super spare stripped down doom. The guitar distorted, but surprisingly clean by Alkerdeel standards, the drums a simple funereal plod, until finally the vocals swoop in, a hellish shriek, WAY up in the mix, before just as quickly drifting off, leaving the same skeletal doom, but this time, the guitar explores a bit more, more melody, more sprawling ambience, and again, the vocals come in and the track shifts gear into a pounding lo-fi midtempo dirge, all buzzy guitar, stumbly drumming, growled howled vocals, even a stretch of buzzing blastbeat blackness, before fracturing into something more mathy and woozy and off kilter, and for the remainder of the track (a long one at 13 minutes) slipping from super dirgey atonal crawl, to furious frenzy of chaotic buzz, to blurred washed out blackness. Pretty awesome stuff. This time we might add to the above mentioned bands outfits like Moss and Bunkur and the like, much doomier this go round.
But then band go and follow up with an Ildjarn cover, total raw and primitive buzz drenched black metal d-beat pound. As crusty and punk rock as it is kvlt and grim, simple pounding drums, hypnotic almost looped sounding riffage, even a sort of double time more punk rock second half, the whole thing laced with perfectly yowled whiskey soaked crusty vokills.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! We managed to get the last 20, it's already out of print, so once these are gone, they are gone forever. Packaged in a cool mini 3" dvd style plastic clamshell case, full color insert, each one hand numbered of course.
