[ aquarius records

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

Showing results 1951 through 2000 of 5570.

Latest from these Danish headbangers and it's more of the same. Which is not a bad thing 'cause they do it so well. Blazing fast death metal with growled/howled vocals and little black metal bits here and there. Insane double-kick drumming with buzzing riffs and roared vocals. Intense and heavy and recommended.

RealAudio clip: Berzerker Legions

Another warped export from the weird and wonderful wilds of Finland, this one in the form of psychedelic sludgelords EXO, who are a three piece, two bass players and a drummer, and thus deliver a punishing wall of sound, all dense low end dirgey, this churning dual-bassed low end onslaught held together by some dense drum pound. And as you might imagine, with two basses, and being mostly instrumental, EXO, traffic in a sort of tranced out riff repetition minimalism that's hypnotic, cyclical, and churning. When the vocals do surface, they're some sort of garbled underwater demonic burblings, which adds a sort of blackened, demonic vibe to the proceedings. Otherwise, the music itself is equal parts OM, Godheadsilo, the Melvins, that sort of murky, super distorted sludge, but more econo, minimal not maximal. Think Dutch instru-metal outfit Gore, and you're definitely in the ballpark. It's psychedelic and spacey at times, but for the most part, EXO are masters of the downtuned, low end doom-dirge trance, the coolest moments being when the two basses deviate, one going high, the other low, sometimes obviously, as if one was playing some sort of lead, but more often, just creating strange harmonies, octaves, thirds, whatever, but the result is a gorgeous headfucking dissonance, that suits EXO's lumbering, monolithic pummel. Fans of all thing slow and low, check this out for sure.

MPEG stream: Mata Tahti
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There's something about Finnish black metal that just kills us. Always. Every time. Horna obviously, but also Clandestine Blaze, Vordr, Ride For Revenge, Circle Of Ouroborus, Behexen, Satanic Warmaster, Jumalhamara... and as you can tell by that list, none of those bands really sound like any of the others, but still, they all somehow manage to sound distinctly Finnish. However, within that expansive Finnish BM sound there is most definitely a distinct subset, one that is particularly grim and frosty and buzzy and blasting, furious and frenetic, which is where Exordium comes in. Their s/t cd from a while back got short shrift here for some reason, but we did flip for their tracks on the Crushing The Holy Trinity comp. It may have been the first time we had heard them, and we described their sound thusly: "Super white hot hyperdistorted buzz guitar, lightning fast blast beats, killer riffs, the whole thing blown out and recorded so hot the speakers can barely handle it!" Which pretty much still applies, if anything the sound has just gotten more refined, tighter, more polished, but without losing any of their grimnity. Think maybe a little old Satyricon, a bit of early Immortal, some Beherit for sure, but all wound up and revved up and supercharged, even introducing a bit of Khold like groove here and there. Pure buzzing blackened Northern darkness just the way we like it.

MPEG stream: Nocturnal King
MPEG stream: Waste Confession

Killer raw grim black metal from Finland. That truly glorious black buzz that fills our black shrivelled hearts with joy. You might remember their tracks from the amazing Crushing The Holy Trinity compilation a while back. Essential!

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From the same label that brought you the godly Hatebeak ep, comes another crucial vinyl platter in the 7" format. While that band had perhaps the best vocals ever committed to wax (by a parrot), this Richmond, VA group features possibly the coolest packaging design for a 7" EVER with a die-cut wrist-slashing fold-over cover you're just gonna have to see up close to fully appreciate. The nice surprise though is, contrary to most bands that expel such energy in the presentation of their music -- the songs are fully ripping too. Think evil devastating metalcore like a possibly even more aggressive Converge, with serpentine odd-time guitar riffs crashing upon blasting drums. This band has (or had, it's hard to tell from their site) personnel from fellow Virginia hardcore and metal bands Cripus Attucks and ex-Enemy Soil alums The Index and the combination of all styles from grind and metal to straight-up hardcore mix brilliantly on four solid tracks. Get this or die!

Have had a couple of these in stock for a while now, but never listed 'em. Decided it might be a good idea, since those of you looking for Chinese thrash metal that sounds a lot like Slayer ought to be stoked. They even have a song that's called "slaaaaaayer!!!" (yeah with six 'a's, three exclamation points, and a lower case 's'). That's what it's called in English, though the lyrics are in Chinese). Explosicum hail from Nanchang, China, and share a member with No Colours recording artists Be Persecuted ("the first Chinese black metal band"). In addition to Slayer, it's a cinch that this old school thrash is influenced by Overkill and Bay Area bands like Exodus. Conflict is the band's first and so far only album, enough for us but definitely a decent dose of blazing battery, widdly guitar, and shrieking vokill aggravation, proving once again that thrash (and metal) is a universal language...

MPEG stream: On The Road Of Death
MPEG stream: slaaaaaayer!!!

The last Extinction record, long sold out before we were able to get any copies for the store, was one of those bleak ambient non-metal metal records. Slow motion expanses of utter abject black dirgedrone doom. A tarpit sludge full of smears of black guitar and demonic shrieks. Think Abruptum, Stalaggh, Emit and other like minded black ambient artists. So that's sort of what we were expecting when we managed to get this new Extinction. And the opening track had us convinced we were right. A chaotic stumbling storm of angular guitars, huge crumbling downtuned riffs, howled and moaned vocals, huge rhythmic pounds, super demented and damaged sounding. We were prepared to settle back for a whole record of similar sounding black bliss. But the second track knocked us flat, exploding into a lurching minor key stumble, with strange arpeggiated guitars, thrashing drums, raspy black vocals, but all of those typically black metal elements are set in a swirling black morass of blown out, super saturated black sonic clouds. So dense and blurry and fuzzed out it's sometimes impossible to pick out individual instruments, just a massive fiery be-spiked and bloodied blur. The rest of the record barrels along like that, some epic hooved black metal beast, huge bat wings flung behind it, teeth crusted with the blood of the vanquished, an ultra thick onslaught of pure demonic black energy. We haven't heard a black metal so distorted and so dangerously close to collapsing into utter and complete noise since Gorgoroth's The Destroyer. And that is mighty praise indeed. The final track revisits the opener's sonic black pit of teeth gnashing and shrieking souls, another abstract swirl of deconstructed black chaos with collapsing riffs and slowly rotting melodies. So fucking great.

MPEG stream: The Fusion Of Blood And Fire
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Crushing and totally heavy new record from these good-old-days pioneers of grind. I mean these guys have been around as long as Napalm Death and Carcass and have never gotten nearly the recognition think they deserve. They were definitly more on the crusty

RealAudio clip: Being And Nothing
RealAudio clip: Man Made Hell

Celebrating a decade of their doomier/uglier/more fucked up than thou sludgy, Sabbathy metalcore, New Orleans favorites EyeHateGod serve up their first offical live album. Includes four previously unreleased demo tracks (1990), four live-in-the-studio tracks from a 1990 radio show, and eight live songs recorded on their 2000 European tour. Live albums are not always essential purchases, even for devoted fans (like we are of EHG), but this one definitely captures the band's particular (peculiar) genius. And if you didn't already know who it was, you could mistake portions of this for a Brainbombs record, with EHG's trademark solid state feedback filling in for the trumpet sounds (at least I did, for a moment, when it was playing in the store. But then, for a second I also thought it was Abruptum or something, as the vocals are much more akin to a black metal croak). But the damaged Sabbathy swing is unmistakable, and the feedback sound IS EHG.

The New Orleans dirge masters return! After their recent singles compilation, this rejuvenated doomcore band has mananged to put together a new album, their fourth, and first in years! And it's good old ugly Southern Sabbathy swingin' stoner sludge metal with lots of lyrical/throat brutality, just like they more-or-less invented back on "In The Name of Suffering" in '92. Not to be fucked with.

We've referenced these drugged and ugly New Orleans masters of sludge-core in tons of reviews, as they're one of the ur-bands that established the rituals practiced by anyone heavy and feedback laden, like Moss, Bunkur, Boris, Dot [.], Cavity, Corrupted, Khanate, Iron Monkey, Grief, Wellington, Acid Bath, Garadama, etc. So we were so psyched to discover that EHG's first three discs were getting the deluxe reissue treatment. Elsewhere on this list we review In The Name Of Suffering, most people's fave EHG record, their third, Take As Needed For Pain, Andee's favorite, and this, Dopesick, their third, and part three of final EHG's godlike sludge trilogy. They would continue to make records, great records in fact, but the first three remain untouchable to this day. In The Name Of Suffering was a hateful, feedback drenched trawl through a world of sludge, creeping and slithering, uncompromisingly brutal and crushingly heavy. Pretty much defining the sound of ALL sludge to come. With record number 2, Take As Needed For Pain, they added a little bit of that NOLA groove (you know, Down, Superjoint Ritual, Acid Bath, Crowbar, Soilent Green, Goatwhore, etc.) to their sound, making their plodding shrieking sludge a tiny bit more melodic and dare we say, catchy at moments. But take that with a grain of salt, melodic and catchy for a band like Eyehategod is still about a million times more caustic and corrosive than almost any other -heavy- band. So with Dopesick, the groove factor is cranked up a little bit more, making Eyehategod here sound like the scariest, heaviest, druggiest, sludgiest stoner rock band EVER. But again, EHG in stoner rock mode, still outsludges them all, a groove flecked avalanche of slow motion ultradoom, screeching feedback, shrieking throat ripping vocals, blackhole downtuned guitars, all churning in a black sea of sludgemetal tar, lurching, and trudging and so fucking awesome! Three bonus tracks: two alternate versions and one the appropriately titled "Dopesick Jam", an epic, lengthy freaked out psychedelic slab of glorious drugsludgedoom! Includes revised artwork and new liner notes from EHG frontman Mike Williams.

MPEG stream: My Name Is God (I Hate You)
MPEG stream: Ruptured Heart Theory

We've referenced these drugged and ugly New Orleans masters of sludge-core in tons of reviews, as they're one of the ur-bands that established the rituals practiced by anything heavy and feedback laden, like Cavity, Corrupted, Khanate, Iron Monkey, Grief, So it's about time we listed our favorite EHG album, their dark and dirgey debut "In The Name Of Suffering", first released in 1990 on the French Intellectual Convulsion label, later re-issued domestically by Century Media, with the original's gross medical cover pictures prudently tucked inside. When this came out, EHG immediately joined the Melvins, Skullflower, and Hellhammer in the pantheon of the heaviest, most fucked up bands ever. Misanthropic metallic misery, complete with samples of Charles Manson's wisdom. Later EHG albums are good too, but this one was never surpassed. If you are one of Aquarius' "doom" customers and you don't have this disc, we urge you, in the name of suffering, get it!

RealAudio clip: Shinobi
RealAudio clip: Hit A Girl

We're not gonna get into how the "Southern Nihilism" message of misery preached by NOLA's EYEHATEGOD has perhaps been made all too real for all too many by the disaster of Hurricane Katrina and its messed up aftermath that nature and man (and perhaps the entity incorporated into the band's name?) visited upon their hometown and surrounding Gulf Coast region. Geez. "End-Time" message indeed. Fortunately, you can't keep a good doom band down, however far into the filth they've fallen, as the long-running, long-suffering EHG has proven time and time again, always breaking up, going to jail, playing their last ever gig or releasing their last ever disc but then eventually getting back on (or should we say off?) the horse again and coming back with some more Sabbathy sludgecore for us to enjoy... Last year we listed what was supposed to be their swansong single and now here they are raising their collective ugly head again with this cd. True, it's not a full studio album, though it seems one's in the works (or was, before Katrina). Hope it still is when they get back to what passes for normal for them down in Louisiana. Meanwhile, we have the disc at hand. It's in fact the third one they've released that falls into the category of being a collection of rarities as opposed to an "actual" album. But EHG fans take what they can get. What you get here is some fairly crucial EHG stuff -- an old comp track, their song from the Gummo soundtrack (hey just like Absu!), a couple of live-in-Japan cuts, tracks taken from various split singles that EHG shared with the Cripple Bastards, Soilent Green, and A.C. (the latter track a "Sabbath Jam" from the Sabs tribute 7" series Hydra Head was doing). Plus three new songs in demo form, slated for their aforementioned upcoming full-length when/if that ever happens. These cuts are definitely worthy EHG material, especially fuzzed out and psychedelic and of course sludgy and Sabbathy. This is pretty much something you'd want if you're a fan -- and you should be, if you like the heavy stuff that we sell the heck out of here at AQ. For one thing, there'd be no Khanate if it wasn't for EHG! After Hellhammer in the early '80s, it was pretty much these guys and Corrupted who pioneered the doomy "sludge-core" sound, y'know.

MPEG stream: I Am The Gestapo
MPEG stream: 36 Beers And A Ball Of String

New Orleans' sultans of sludge come back with this compilation of singles and alternate takes. Rumors of their demise are highly exaggerated, it turns out, and EYEHATEGOD fans can rejoice that this is no swansong from these pioneers of super slow, ugly, dopesick dirge. And boy do these tracks sound better on cd than they did on the old vinyl!

We've referenced these drugged and ugly New Orleans masters of sludge-core in tons of reviews, as they're one of the ur-bands that established the rituals practiced by anyone heavy and feedback laden, like Moss, Bunkur, Boris, Dot [.], Cavity, Corrupted, Khanate, Iron Monkey, Grief, Wellington, Acid Bath, Garadama, etc. So we were so psyched to discover that EHG's first three discs were getting the deluxe reissue treatment. Elsewhere on this list we review In The Name Of Suffering, most people's fave EHG record, their third, Dopesick, and this one, Andee's favorite Eyehategod record, Take As Needed For Pain. Their debut was a hateful, feedback drenched trawl through a world of sludge, creeping and slithering, uncompromisingly brutal and crushingly heavy. Pretty much defining the sound of ALL sludge to come. With Take As Needed For Pain, they added a little bit of that NOLA groove (you know, Down, Superjoint Ritual, Acid Bath, Crowbar, Soilent Green, Goatwhore, etc.) to their sound, making their plodding shrieking sludge, a tiny bit more melodic and dare we say, catchy at moments. But take that with a grain of salt, melodic and catchy for a band like Eyehategod is still about a million times more caustic and corrosive than almost any other -heavy- band. It's really strange to revisit these EHG records and realize how many bands these days sound EXACTLY LIKE EYEHATEGOD!!! It's almost criminal. Sort of similar to the way SUNNO))) were basically an Earth tribute band, it's almost like EVERY one of the new breed of sludge bands is in fact an Eyehategod tribute band. But hey, who's complaining, it's a dark and disturbing sound we can never seem to get enough of. And as long as EHG are getting the props they deserve, then hell, bring on the sludge!!! Fans of ANY of the above mentioned bands who do not own this, are required by ALL THAT IS UNHOLY to pick this up immediately!!!!!! As far as bonus tracks, Take As Needed For Pain is probably the best of bunch, 3 tracks from the long out of print Ruptured Heart Theory 7", a track from the also long OOP split 7" with 13, and two tracks from another long gone 7", another split with fellow sludge mavens 13. Includes revised artwork and new liner notes from EHG frontman Mike Williams.

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NOW ALSO HERE TO LIST ON CD! Minus a few singles and compilations, it's been FOURTEEN YEARS since we last heard from stoner sludge legends Eyehategod, and all it takes is a couple seconds of the first song with its instantly recognizable solid state feedback skree to get those warm, sonic junkie fuzzies, but after a few seconds, like a sonic fuck-you, instead of a return to doomy, stoner sludge glory, and unfurling some sort of epic, slo-mo Sabbath riff, the band explode into some furiously thrashing metal punk, frenzied and vitriolic, certainly Eyehategod in spirit, and they're no stranger to ripping it up, but for the first record in ages, it's a pretty bad ass move. But fear not, they're quickly back to their old, sludgier tricks, and quickly slip right back into the drug addled dirgery of old, churning downtuned heaviness, lurching, slithery, swampy brutality, throat shredding, glass gargling vokills, the songs dense and almost proggy, "Trying To Crack The Hard Dollar" displaying bordering on prog-sludge, while the awesomely titled "Robitussin And Rejection" lays down some seriously cough syrup thick riffage, bloody, oozing sonics that pour from the speakers like some viscous black tar sound, the track lurching into something a bit more frantic, but always slipping right back into that black hole tarpit groove these guys still do better than pretty much anyone else...

MPEG stream: Agitation! Propaganda!
MPEG stream: Trying To Crack The Hard Dollar
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Last ever (again?) recording from New Orleans sludge masters Eyehategod. "I Am The Gestapo" is a typical (i.e. really good!) slab of their hateful, feedback-filled, crushing, churning doomcore. On the flip, this split release is shared by Italian grindcore maniacs Cripple Bastards, whose sludgier-than-usual, deathly track "Self-Zeroing" is well worthy of being teamed to EHG's supposed swansong on the A-side.

Awesome local black metal zine from the folks in Bone Awl. This is seriously grim, cult, underground shit. The name of the zine alone should give you your first clue, an acronym for Fall To Your Knees Pissing. Oof. Loads of amazing interviews, bleak and nihilistic and bizarre, including tons of bands you've never heard but probably need to! Bands featured include Pest (from Germany), Ashdautus, Goatlord, Nuit Noire, Vpaahsalbrox, Finnish black metallers Dead Reptile Shrine (the weirdest black metal band ever, whose records are out of print, but we are trying desperately to track down, even if it means re-releasing it ourselves!), Tudor from the Czech Republic, a bunch of record reviews and even a cool little Goatlord photocopied poster style insert!

Those of you into obscure '70s heavy rock - or cult '80s metal for that matter - ought to be interested in this new album from the power trio Falcon. It's their second record, following a self titled debut in 2004. That one featured a cover of Bang's "Redman", and also a cameo vocal performance by Bobby Liebling of Pentagram, on a song dedicated to the memory of Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott... and that should give you an idea of where Falcon is coming from, in terms of influences/atmosphere. Capturing the spirit of the '70s proto-metal that we dig so much here at AQ too. Bang! Pentagram! 'Lizzy! c'mon!! Some other obvious selling points in Falcon's favor has to do with who's who in the band. They've got Greg Lindstrom from '80s epic doomsters Cirith Ungol on bass and Darin McCloskey of stoner metal act Pale Divine on drums. The third, crucial part of the trio is vocalist/guitarist Perry Grayson, who used to play in a much more technical power metal band called Destiny's End but gave that up to concentrate on his true love (well, next to the weird pulp fiction of H.P. Lovecraft), full on '70s-sounding downer rock. He's one of those guys with the crazy record collection full of vintage vinyl proto-metal platters, trying to bring it all back to life a la Magnus from Witchcraft. And being a badass guitar player with heavy friends makes it look easy, with Falcon now on to their second album, this one, so let's tell y'all some more about it... Die Wontcha - love the title, love the cover art, which we can only guess was probably lifted from an old issue of Weird Tales or something like that - features ten tracks of groovy, rockin', bellbottomed '70s heaviness worship. Nine are Falcon originals, the tenth a killer cover of "Leader" by Aussie proto-metallers Buffalo (you'll find the original on their 1972 album Dead Forever, the reissue of which is reviewed elsewhere on our site). Since Perry recently relocated from LA to Australia, it's even more appropriate they do a Buffalo song. And boy howdy does it fit in with their own material. The disc starts off with Lindstrom's lament for Scottish Formula 1 race car driver Jimmy Clark, who died in a tragic crash back in '68. It's totally the sort of thing a band like this back in the '70s would have written... almost a modern-day folk song. Definitely very Thin Lizzyish, with Perry's slightly gruff, deep voiced vocals, melodic minor key guitar leads, and classic, loping, hummable riffage. For those more into fantasy subjects, a couple tracks later Falcon's got "The King Of Elfland's Daughter", inspired by a poem by Irish fantasist Lord Dunsany. It too has a lot of Lizzyish licks... Everywhere, Falcon's fuzzed out guitar and fat riffs scream '70s, as do the lyrics, Perry dropping lines like "back in the days of yore/hippie to the core" and "hit the stage with heavy rockin' band/tour the world kickin' out the jams/turn the amps up loud/stun the crowd". Yep, that's rock n' roll like they used to do, and Falcon bring it. But maybe the best expression of Falcon's mission is found in the lyrics to the disc's final track, penned by Lindstrom, entitled "Show You All" - which is all about going to a big show by some currently popular so-called rock band and unavoidably thinking they could do much, much better, Perry singing: "I want to jump on stage/and show you how all to play". That's kinda cocky, but we're sure some of you will share Falcon's sentiments, folks we'd recommend this to who also enjoy such quality, ripping n' riffy bands with retro-rawk '70s influences as Witchcraft, Burning Saviours, Bible Of The Devil, Slough Feg, Danava, Drunk Horse, etc... By the way, although we never listed it before, we do have a just a few copies of Falcon's equally rad s/t album in stock as well, the one with the Bobby L. cameo. We figured since we were highlighting this, some folks might want to pick that one up too, so we got some from the band. They're a little cheaper, 'cause the copies we have of that are pro duped cd-rs, not actual cds, FYI. They still have the same cool metallic foil stamped covers of the original cd version, though. And *this* disc is indeed a real cd, not a cd-r.

MPEG stream: Jimmy Clark
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1st album from these retro-proto-metal-doomin' throwbacks, featuring guest vocals on one cut by Bobby L. from Pentagram!!! NOTE: the ones we have are cd-rs, not real cds. The packaging is the same as the original cd version, but the band ran out of disc so had cd-rs made to use up the overrun of covers they had on hand...

Ahhhhhhhh!!! Blood! Dragons! Bards!! Kings!! Longswords!!! Squires!!! Potions!!! SOLOS!!!! Yeesh, sorry. It's so rare that we get to hear actual good power metal around these parts that we sort of lose our minds and just start yelling nerd words whenever it happens. And man oh man, does "good power metal" not even start to do this album justice. Sweden's heroic spellcasters of mystical folk/power metal have returned with their eighth studio album, and after what has by many considered to be a pretty lengthy dry spell for this band (many had written them off right around their third album) Black Moon Rising is a serious return to form, utilizing the sing-song catchiness of the best power metal without any of that airy-fairy ruffly sleeved nonsense that tends to get hauled along as unwanted baggage (although a quick Google image search reveals these guys definitely do own some ruffly shirts). Instead musically Black Moon Rising sounds more like some cross between the precision killing-machine heavy metal of Painkiller-era Judas Priest and the jaunty epic medieval songsmithery of Nightfall-era Blind Guardian. It's a record absolutely chock full of awesome riffs (especially for those of us still mourning the dissolution of the glorious Mithotyn from whom this band was spawned!), pummeling drums (there are even a few blastbeats in there!) and most importantly: genuinely great songs. Plus there's Falconer's secret weapon, vocalist Mathias Blad, whose patient worldweary croon adds a certain theatrical gravitas to the record, sounding more like something from Chess The Musical than some candy-coated Stratovarius record or Journey cover band. Needless to say, anyone the slightest bit interested in power metal needs to hear this, but even those into meatier heavy metal like Grand Magus, Manowar or Doomsword should have no problem getting to this. Awesome stuff indeed!

MPEG stream: Locust Swarm
MPEG stream: Black Moon Rising
MPEG stream: At The Jester's Ball

Falconer's self-titled debut from last year was one of the "true metal" sensations around AQ at the time (that is, for Andee and Allan anyway, and I think we're getting Windy into 'em now too). The band's folk-derived melodicism and sheer heavy metal might

RealAudio clip: The Clarion Call
RealAudio clip: Busted To The Floor

No, the title isn't referring to the techno sort of Grime! This is the fourth album from the Swedish power-metal troupe, who if they DJed would certainly play tracks by Metal Church, Yngwie's Rising Force, and Judas Priest, not Dizzee Rascal. If you know who they are, by now you're either a fan of Falconer mainman Stefan Weinerhall's distinctive guitar work and '80s inspired, storm-the-castle-style of metal songsmithery, or this just isn't your sort of thing. But if you haven't heard 'em before and do think you might be interested, we'd suggest checking out one of their other albums, their self-titled debut perhaps, or follow-up Chapters From A Vale Forlorn, before this one. Fans, though, will find that Grime Vs. Grandeur's got all the usual Falconer sing-along theatrics and folky bits. Weinerhall's guitar playing -- his medieval riffs and melodies -- remains individual and recognizable, something quite unusual in a genre that's often so, uh, generic. He's to be applauded for that. The wailing vocalist -- the kind of Euro power-metal belter who can (and does) rhyme "rose" with "overdose" -- isn't so distinctive, but he gets the job done though. Overall, what we've got here is another Falconer album, and you probably know if you need one or not. Cheesy? Definitely, sure. And this could be their cheesiest. But they're still a better band than many in this genre, for some of us (Allan and Andee) quite the guilty pleasure.

MPEG stream: Purgatory Time
MPEG stream: Child Of The Wild

Andee hopped off the Falconer longboat/bus here, but Allan's still along for the Viking power metal ride. With their original, best vocalist back on the mic, it's another folky Falconer opus.

Falconer's third is another solid power metal album from the medieval-minded Stefan Weinerhall (ex-Mithotyn) and company. And it's really a more ambitious effort than their others, as it's a concept album based on some rather obscure (to us) history, telling a complex and detailed story of political scheming for the Swedish throne circa 1290! As always, we're big fans of Weinerhall's triumpant songwriting and distinctive heavy metal guitar tone, but just a little disappointed that Falconer now has a new singer. Actually, though, he's not too different from the original guy so I'm sure we'll get used to him.

MPEG stream: The Coronation

Mithotyn, AQ's fave "Viking" black metallers after Enslaved, are sadly gone. Their last album, the magnificent (and silly) "Gathered Round The Oaken Table" was the perfect epic Norse sing-a-long disc, merging blackened-folk-metal riffing with

RealAudio clip: Upon The Grave Of Guilt
RealAudio clip: Heresy In Disguise

This was an unexpected surprise. We ordered a bunch of these just on the strength of it being a new release on Supernal, the label that brought us the mighty Benighted Leams, as well as Meads Of Asphodel, Drudkh, Dark Ages, Hate Forest, we could go on. So we threw this on expecting some sort of demented damaged grim black metal, but instead discovered that this was in fact a colossal slab of hellishly heavy deathdoomdronedirge! It takes a lot for us to get SUPER excited about another doom dirge record, it's a lot more than just tuning your guitar down and letting it go, and in fact this is not so much the sonic analogue of groups like Sunn 0))) or Noisegate or Earth, instead, FOTGWO takes the same elements and turns them into something much more fierce, much more aggressive, and somehow much heavier. Three songs, one hour, of crumbling super distorted dronescapes, a suffocating avalanche of slow motion sound, waves of impossibly distorted guitar spread out like a viscous black sea, while huge simple pounding beats drop through the murk occasionally, like empty steel containers being dropped from a crane onto concrete. A dark sort of industrial droneworld, ominous and foreboding. The centerpiece of the record though is the 40+ minute title track, in which the crumbling crush of the opening salvo is pushed to the background, a distant din of swirl and churn, a rough sea of vicious distorted guitar and roiling low end, while in the foreground, abstract melodies are played out by soft swells of clean guitar and what sounds like chimes or bells. So strangely dark and lovely, so beautiful yet pants shittingly frightening. The track wavers between delicate ambient drone and a twisting tangle of low end guitar that sounds like the revving of a million motorcycles slowed waaaaaay down. The final track is a ravaged wasteland of industrial pummel, ominous tolling bells and creepy haunting drifts of mournful melody beneath some of the meanest grinding buzz and reverberating crunch we've ever heard. Fall Of The Grey Winged One have definitely pushed the whole doomic dirge sound to a completely new level, existing in a dark and dangerous, skull splittingly brutal sonic world, where no others dare to tread. Strange purple and black, 3-D geometric artwork, that barely hints at the gorgeous malevolence inside.

MPEG stream: Hate Me
MPEG stream: Aeons Of Dreams

Another plush, ploddering platter for all you doominoids out there... it's the furthering of Fall Of The Idols from Finland, members in good standing of the "Circle Of True Doom" founded by Reverend Bizarre (R.I.P.). A sophomore set consisting of seven downer dirges, slow and slumbersome, lumberingly lethargic - and also quite lovely, if classy, classic doom is yr thing. The Seance is a fine followup to Womb Of The Earth, their previous effort on I Hate Records. As before, the cleanly-sung, sometimes sort of chantlike vocals are a large part of this band's gloomy glory, emboldened by massive, majestic marble riffage and anthemic melody. So deep it is to weep. Imagine a mix betwixt Pentagram and Katatonia, that's the sorrowfully Sabbathy spirit this seance has channelled. The relatively uptempo trudge of track three, "At The Birth Of The Human Shadow", makes it stand out as the rocker of this batch, with the other songs all even more of a smoothly slo-mo, gothic grind taken to an exhausted, exalted extreme. Well done.

MPEG stream: Nosophoros
MPEG stream: The Conqueror Worm

Here's another heavy one from a label that all doom-heads should pay attention to, Sweden's oh-so-positive I Hate Records, who recently brought us the latest from Burning Saviours and Gates Of Slumber, among others. Finland's wonderfully gloomy Fall Of The Idols play slow and lumbering, classic doom with tons of feeling. This debut album of theirs is a downer trip all right, supremely mournful, sunken into depression, like old Candlemass on Quaaludes. It's melancholic and miserable, and somehow melodically peaceful too. The plodding, repetitive guitar riffs and martial drumming (punctuating stretches of spacey quietude), along with the molasses-thick production, help produce this band's hypnotic aura of doom, but what's most crucial are the wretchedly, wrenchingly emotive vocals. The singer reminds us of Pentagram's Bobby Liebling just a bit, but deeper, dronier, and more chant-like, singing of such things as "when heart dies and soul is torn" and "drifting through the blizzard, wondering how lonely you've become"... In addition, the occasional use of acoustic guitars and uptempo attacks of metallic chug, vary the album nicely. But overall, with this one, you're simply doomed, doomed, doomed. For fans of fellow Finns Reverend Bizarre, and also early Cathedral, early Trouble, and maybe even CoC's Blind... A class act.

MPEG stream: Sown Are The Seeds Of Doom
MPEG stream: Atonement For The One

Latest full length (#3) from this US black metal band, who hail from deep in the woods of Maine, and whose lyrical focus seems to be nature, and man's eternal struggle to find his place in it. In fact, according to Encyclopedia Metallium, the band describe their music as "North Appalachian Heathen Black Folk Metal" and firmly believe in "returning the world to a pre-Christian time", and they include a quote in the liner notes from Henry David Thoureau from his The Maine Woods. And sonically, it's probably just what you might imagine, epic and sprawling and melodic, the songs majestic and multi-parted, the guitars buzzy and blackened, but just as likely to unfurl glorious spiraling melodies, to soar and shimmer, the band building their expansive folk metalscapes gradually, the slow build adding a post rock element to the sound that only makes it that much more epic. One thing they do that's super distinctive is occasionally during the folky acoustic bits, is to have the drummer play crazy beats, it's a strange, but very appealing hybrid, flurries of double kick blast beats beneath otherwise darkly contemplative folk music. But the core of their sound is epic black buzz, and these guys definitely are masters, weaving all manner of mournful melody into these gorgeous expanses of minor key black buzz, just check out "Banished" about 4 minutes in, the song shifts and becomes impossibly catchy and melodic, the harmonized leads so perfect, and most of the tracks feature some sort of lead guitar, which definitely adds a super melodic element to the otherwise often quite grim and black proceedings. For a folk metal band, FoR do seem to keep their metal and folk separate for the most part, leaving the acoustic guitars and folky flutter, for intros and interludes, they do occasionally deftly weave some of that folkiness into their black buzz, but unlike lots of cheesy folk metal bands, FoR make that hybrid just add more power and energy and emotion to the sound, nothing cheesy about it at all. There are definitely shades of Seidr, Drudkh, Agalloch, Wolves In The Throne Room, Wodensthrone and other nature minded black metal hordes, but FoR definitely make this sound their own, an epic powerful melodic sonic majesty that few bands could hope to match. WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: Earth's Old Timid Grace
MPEG stream: Banished
MPEG stream: Silence

First we've heard from this American black metal outfit, and it's a doozy, two 12+ minute tracks of epic, progged out, subtly symphonic, synth laden black buzz, that melds classic old school Scandinavian style BM with more modern post black metalisms, fans of groups like Ash Borer, Fell Voices and even Wolves In The Throne Room will find much to dig here. The first side, "Sleepmaker", is a tangled furious relentless sprawl of black metal, liberally infused with distinctly un-black metal like melodies, giving some of the parts a post rock vibe, but the buzz and blast really never lets up, keeping even the post rockier bits plenty blackened, the sound soaring and epic, slipping easily from gnarled churn to frantic majestic blast and back again. There are LOTS of parts, weird psychedelic mathy workouts, woozy tripped out almost folky interludes, there even seems to be some piano in there (in addition to the swirling synths that seem to subtly underpin the whole record), and some grinding blackened noise rock, but all woven into something definitely black metal, which we would imagine where the band name comes in, beating true grim black metalheads to the punch by already declaring themselves False. But this stuff is anything but... The second track/side starts out more waltzy, but quickly slips back into a similarly gnarled black expanse, the vibe somehow even more epic than the A side, the haunting descending melodies, the weirdly epic arrangements, all very trance like and mesmerizing, there's also some chugging dirgey doom / sludge (which makes sense as this was released on the label run by Louisiana heavies Thou), but those creeping tarpit crawls quickly splinter into frenzied mathed out black metal tangles, and then sometimes soaring swirling atmospheric post black metal blowouts. Another group to add to the ever expanding pantheon of elite USBM bands pushing the boundaries of the sound, while remaining true to the music's heritage. 180 gram lp, in super thick, super striking jackets, with a cool printed insert with lyrics.

MPEG stream: The Key Of Passing Suffering
MPEG stream: Sleepmaker

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

SORRY.

A couple lists back we reviewed the most recent full length from Northwestern black metal one man band Eldrig, whose sound was, and continues to be essentially a super epic, ultra majestic power metallized take on black metal. And it's a sound we can't seem to get enough of. But Eldrig is in fact the solo project one one half of this band right here Fanisk, whose third full length just arrived, their first in TEN years. And very much like 2003's Noontide, full length number three continues to meld grim black buzz, to soaring melodic symphonic heaviness, incorporating all manner of folkiness and psychedelia, some passages downright experimental, but somehow sonically in keeping with the whole, just check out the strange orchestral cinematic breakdown in "Departure Rose Garden", and the way the strange energy of that interlude bleeds right into the black buzz of the song proper. While not quite as melodic or overtly 'power metal' sounding as Eldrig, it's easy to draw comparisons between the two groups, as many parts here could easily have ended up on an Eldrig record. But Fanisk is definitely its own beast, and is obviously a collaboration, but listening to the first track here, it's dizzying how dense and lush and elaborate the music here is, and it becomes plain to see why it took ten years to complete these three tracks. From furious frantic blasting blackness, to soaring black buzz majesty, to dense tangled mathy progginess, some parts downright poppy, others as grim as it gets, often falling somewhere gloriously right in between. The are cool ambient parts that almost sound new agey, pizzicato stings that remind us of that song "sail away sail away sail away', but in this context sound more dramatic than cheesy, and others that pair clean emotional vocals with soaring slow build Godspeed like post rock arrangements for a sound even MORE epic. There are cool stretches of Tangerine Dream like synth swirl, and others that seem to be just the sound of surf or wind, or at least a sort of blurred static simulating such. The arrangements don't balk at going from lightning fast blast, to churning doomy plod, to midtempo post rock like lope and back again, and somehow, there's some overarching logic that ties it all together into what is a seriously epic sonic undertaking. While some of this may be too melodic for the troo grim hordes, we'd be hard pressed to think of any metalhead who wouldn't be totally blown away by Fanisk's atmospheric black metal epics, and we had sort of forgotten how fucking incredible these guys were. In a review online we saw someone mention that this should give My Bloody Valentine's mbv record a run for its money as comeback of the year, and we'd definitely have to agree!

MPEG stream: Departure Rose Golden
MPEG stream: Enantiodromia

Mike Patton's musical terror squad returns. Or should we say medical terror squad, judging by the graphics: photos taken from Max Aguilera-Hellweg's "The Sacred Heart" book of surgery pictures, images both clinically compelling and quite gory (the likes of "Irrigating Wound Before Closing" and "Organ Donation For Cornea Transplant" are not for the squeamish!). Drs. Patton, Lombardo, Osbourne and Dunn here perform an operation both physical and psychological, as befits those cd graphics. It's dark, grim chamber music for rock instruments and electronics. Some of this is almost-ambient, delicate and beautiful. Other parts are bombastic and spastic as you'd expect. Slayer drummer Lombardo exercises much restraint, but gets to roil and toil at times. Patton of course displays a range of vocals, including some truly sweet singing in fact. This hour-plus composition (expansive yet claustrophically, it's but one long track) almost seems like a DJ set constructed from the darkest, artiest LPs in Patton's collection. Indeed, Fantomas' list of acknowledgements gives some clues as to what this sounds like: Bohren & Der Club of Gore, Matmos, Nitsch, Messiaen, Komeda, stethoscopic heart recordings... We're also definitely reminded of Jonathan Bepler's scores for Matthew Barney's Cremaster films -- there's even a passage with buzzing insect sounds not unlike Lombardo's cut on the Cremaster 2 soundtrack.

MPEG stream: Excerpt 1
MPEG stream: Excerpt 2
MPEG stream: Excerpt 3

Animated, yes. Suspended, no -- except for the listener's disbelief, perhaps. Sheer carnivalesque carnage here, folks, just like you expect from these guys. After the relatively calm, droned-out ambience of their epic Delerium Cordia album from last year, for this release Fantomas now take us back to the Naked City/Melt-Banana inspired short sharp shock style they delivered on their self-titled debut in '99. There's 30 (!!!) tracks here, each one a violently freaked out, spastic collision of metal, electronics, cartoon music and avant-garde composition that likey adds another unexpected sonic ingredient to the mix. Utterly dizzying and complex, executed by pros. Seriously, you couldn't think of four guys more well-suited to the task: Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo, Buzz Osbourne and Trevor Dunn (past and present members of such notable noise-makers as Mr. Bungle, Melvins, Slayer, and Faith No More, as we're sure you're aware). I mean, they could have added John Zorn or Eye Yamataka or Brian Chippendale to the line-up but it would hardly be necessary, these four already have this stuff DOWN. And the brief Osbourne/Patton vocal duet in track ten is a special thrill. We're at a loss to provide much more in the way of description, it's something you just need to experience for yourself, if you're up for it. Definitely if you're into the genre of music that is ALL genres rolled into one, the Attention Defecit Disorder frenzies of Suspended Animation will provide utmost entertainment. And for the moment, we have the version of this that, for some reason we don't know but won't question, comes in limited-edition packaging incorporating a spiral-bound April 2004 calendar designed and illustrated by hip Japanese artist Yoshitmo Nara. Pretty cool! Too bad April is just about over. But it's not like you were gonna use it as a dayplanner anyway, just admire it for the art.

MPEG stream: 04/09/05 Saturday
MPEG stream: 04/13/05 Wednesday
RealAudio clip: 04/21/05 Thursday

Bay Area supergroup comprised of Mike Patton (Mr Bungle, Faith No More), Dave Lombardo (Slayer), Buzz Osbourne (Melvins), and Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle, various avant jazz outfits). On this, their second album, they pay tribute to the film scores they've long While the band manages to leave some of the flavor of each original piece intact, their objective seems to have been to sort of Bungle-ize each track (you know, lots of Patton screaming, overwhelming drama and sinister atmospheres), although a nod should definitely go to Lombardo, who uses lots of flavorful percussison -- woodblocks, chimes, bells, clicks, clocks and clacks -- that enhances the "period" tone of several of the pieces. It's a fine record (heck, it's the only worthy Morricone cover I've ever heard), just be aware that in order to get *into* this record, it's more important that you're into the signature Patton/Bungle manic sound than being familiar with the films or the soundtracks themselves.

RealAudio clip: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Morricone)
RealAudio clip: Rosemary's Baby (Komeda)

It a bit weird we've never listed any records by LA space rockers Farflung. They've been plugging away for almost 12 years, and A Wound In Eternity is in fact record number 12. At least one or two of us here have some old FF records in our collection, regardless, it's finally time to right this very wrong. Self proclaimed the heaviest and trippiest FF record yet, A Wound In Eternity is indeed both trippy and heavy, due possibly to the recent addition of various new members, their sound as always borrows heavily from Hawkwind, Monster Magnet, Kyuss, the usual heavies, but with their own distinct twist, and listening to this now, we're feeling a definite glam vibe, a bit of garagey-stomp, really catchy and hooky, but just the tone and the arrangement is sort of reminiscent of classic seventies glam, albeit super charged and a bit more drugged up and spaced out. Which is probably why we hear so much Monster Magnet in FF's sound, they have a similar over the top glamrock meets space metal crunch. Chunky riffs, propulsive rhythms, dramatic vocals, all wound up into a set-the-controls-for-the-heart-of-the-sun stoner psych space rock blowout. The tracks often burn slow, sometimes pounding away, other times drifting lazily through space, but most of them culminate in huge drone-y psychedelic freakout outros, everything wrapped in swirls of FX, the guitars blossoming like supernovas, the drums growing more and more chaotic. A few tracks have a definite Circle vibe going on too, the group locked into super mesmerizing looped hypnorock grooves, but even then, the band eventually looses themselves from gravity, drifting into the stratosphere, only to burn out in a blaze of blinding, deafening distorted effects drenched buzz... The lp version is ultra deluxe, and while they last, we have the super limited edition cd version, that comes in a fancy mini-lp style gatefold sleeve, and includes the same two bonus tracks that are on the lp.

MPEG stream: Unborn Planet
MPEG stream: Endless Drifting Wreck
MPEG stream: Possession

We never reviewed the debut from German black metal outfit Farsot, though we should have, and this new one is kicking our asses big time (in retalitation?). From the beginning of the first track, these guys unfurl something that manages to be furious and fierce, but also pretty weird and tripped out. Some classic riffing, super aggressive and intense, combined with some woozy wandering basslines, some deep crooned vox and some bizarre samples, eventually some more 'proper' black metal vokills come in, but somehow it doesn't make the sound any more black, instead the music shifts too, and the sound becomes way more melodic, rife with cool guitar licks and layered chant-like vocals, the song shifting from propulsive pound, to churning slow build chug, to epic cinematic soar, it's a weird combination for sure, and one that's pretty difficult to describe, but we're loving it. The sound is incredible, the production massive, the band sound huge, and fucking intense, and that's just the first song. The second track starts out all doomy and proggy, lurching start/stop arrangement and weird angular melodies, and even when the song kicks in proper, the guitars are weirdly droney and blurred into tranced out mesmer, creating a sound that's somewhere between grim blackness, and some sort of post black metal. There's also some clean guitar, and an ambient interlude, lots of melody, some cool slow burn psychedelia, all of which is why these guys get pegged as post black metal, which they most definitely are, but the connotations of that classification might obscure the fact of just how heavy and weird and still pretty black metal these guys really are. The more we listen to this, the more we're reminded of a WAY heavier and way more black metal Ved Buens Ende, if that makes any sense, the same sort of twisted take on BM, definitely cut from the same sonic cloth, but with their own unique modern twist on black metal, which just so happens to include plenty of classic metal riffing, all sorts of different clean vocals, lots of atmosphere, and mathy repetition, some loping meandering post rock rhythms, a bit of clean guitar jangle, some awesome abstract guitar drone drift, but ultimately, all woven into some seriously dense and dark metal. We dig A LOT.

MPEG stream: Like Flakes Of Rust
MPEG stream: Empyrean
MPEG stream: Perdition

We were gonna try, but we just can't do it... we can't... First release from this local band, and it's a doozy, heavy as fuck, chaotic and unhinged with a wild maniacal frontwoman, but, and it's a big BUT (pun most certainly intended)... Farticus? Maybe the worst band name ever. And that's coming from a store who has always championed Cream Abdul Babar!! Come on guys, you're dooming yourself to a life of local band-dom, of being perpetually a joke band, no matter how kick ass you are. And trust us, we know, we have spent time in bands with terrible names, embarrassing names, even scatological names, but somehow none quite as bad as Farticus. Plus, embracing the name, by having your logo be a shitting woman, all your song titles puerile and scatological and goofy, it definitely makes it hard to get to the music, but once you do, holy shit, these four songs are intense and brutal, tons of low end, the guitars chugging and churning, occasionally getting all twisted and warped, evoking prime era Butthole Surfers, the drums pounding and chaotic, and the vocals, shit, a wild banshee screech, sounding like a Riot Grrl all grown up ready to kick your ass. Reminds us a bit of classic SF weirdo rockers, Tragic Mulatto, in fact, if you can imagine the Buttholes, Tragic Mulatto, but with Unsane guitars, that's what this is all about. Apparently the live shows are insane, the vocalist mobbed by men AND woman, all grinding their faces into her pelvis, the band obviously are totally capable of destroying, so it's definitely worth it to try and make it past all the non musical stuff, the name, the song titles, the artwork on the cd, cuz once you strap on the headphones and close your eyes, this stuff will pummel you gloriously and utterly. At least in your iTunes you can change the band name and song titles and just enjoy the music. Reservedly recommended. If these guys revamped their aesthetic, and of course changed their name, they would be unstoppable.

MPEG stream: Vaginal Holocaust
MPEG stream: My Fishy Cooter

It's been a boom in outsider music these last few weeks at AQ, first it was the random rediscovery of Doug Hream Blunt's Gentle Persuasion, a fantastic and fantastically strange disc of breezy lo-fi outsider funk, that was dropped off by the man himself and required quite a bit of reconnoitering to track him down to get more (a continuing saga). And now there's this. A mysterious disc by a one man band known simply as Fastest, a cd-r that just showed up here one day, and none of us can remember how or when. In the mail? Dropped off? Spontaneous generation? It was just here one day, and we were mesmerized from the second we laid eyes on it. The cover is a huge blue owl against a blue background. The band name Fastest is written in big green letters, in a sort of cartoonish metal font, and superimposed right on the cover is a big barcode. The whole thing printed out on a home laser printer. The tray card folds all the way up around the side so there's an extra panel visible through the clear tray that boldly proclaims: "digital audio compact disc - state of the art phonorecord." The tray card features the ASCAP logo (ASCAP is the company that determines musician royalties) no less than three times, the logo is superimposed again on the back in a little white square, and at the top, blue text explains that the record was "Produced by Daemaeen Hephaestus Chastical". We were almost afraid to throw it on, because we were convinced that there was no way the music could live up to the cryptic promise of the packaging. We were wrong. The title track starts things off, and immediately you know this is like nothing you've ever heard... a flurry of lo-fi distorted programmed beats, that sound like they could have been lifted straight off that Vijaya Anand Dance Raja Dance Bollywood compilation on Luaka Bop from years back, but any resemblance to Bollywood ends there, as some strange atonal midi synth guitars swoop in, along with some woozy warbly bass, the strangely syncopated programmed beats sputtering wildly in the background, the song slipping into a moody drift, the vocals a strange ominously hushed whisper, that even remind us a bit of the slowed down mush mouthed rapping of Sensational, eventually there's a sort of chorus, the midi guitars buzzing, while a strange synth unfurls a twisted melody, and then there's the most brilliantly baffling break, a stop/start flurry of stuttering beats, and some more warped woozy melodies, eventually joined by a sort of midi guitar least, atonal and detuned, the whole thing sounding like it's melting before your ears, before finally returning to the 'chorus'. Holy shit. What just happened? What is this? How had we not heard this before? Very reminiscent in fact of those absurd midi guitar releases we raved about on lists past, all of them work of a single man, released under different names: Shevelreq, Xynfonica, Gluttony, Thursar. If you were as into those as we were, stop reading and buy this now. Everyone else, read on, and sink deeper into the glorious musical madness that is Fastest... The first song is so perfect, and perfectly demented, we dared not go on. We just kept listening to that one song over and over and over. Heck we wanted it to be OUR theme song. But eventually we knew we had to go on, and somehow, Fastest managed to confuse us again. And again. After some simulated jet engine sounds, "Jet Sound II" begins, but it's super melodic and all 8 bit sounding, and reminds us of music from The Legend Of Zelda, but those vocals, dark and ominous, weirdly offset the cheerful melodies and loping programmed rhythms. "Televise" begins with sample bells, and immediately returns us to The Legend Of Zelda, until the vocals come in, locked in tight with the main melody, making for some strange electronic lo-fi midi-pop mystery. "While You're Here" might be our other favorite (if we were forced to pick), with it's haunting melody, over minor key distorted finger picked guitar, tinkling chimes, very cinematic, again like some dramatic moment in a video game, but definitely dark and haunting, but of course, the song slips right back into some Zelda-y minimal 8 bit balladry, replete with those slightly ominous gruff vocals. "Million Lies" begins with some dramatic syncopated start/stop dynamics, before slipping into some pulsing electronic groove, but this time, the vocals are super distorted, and even more creepy, and the drums erupt into little flurries of rhythmic tangle. And so it goes, the sound drifting from Bollywood flecked 8 bit video game soundtrack songsmithery, to eighties style midi driven synthwave, and some hard to describe stops in between, culminating in the final three tracks, maybe the darkest and heaviest of the bunch. "Seasons Change" is all distorted bass, stereo panned so the buzz flits from ear to ear, the drums spastic and skittery, the vocals as grim and ominous as at any point, the melodies creepy and minor key, which leads right into "Alter Fate" all swirling synths and stuttery almost IDM sounding beats, the whole thing blurry and smeary, before slipping back into the dirgey synthy creep of the previous track, a sort of second movement, laced with more strange disembodied high end melodies over the tumbling drum fills and more gruff whispery vox, finally culminating in "The Wind", which begins with appropriately enough, swirling wind, distorted acoustic guitar, a gauzy patina of lo-fi buzz, before finally launching into a tense stretch of buzzing swirling electronic weirdness, the various chunks of low end fuzz and warped melodies, adding some serious pathos, growing ever more distorted and finally finishing in a blaze of super distorted programmed beats, chaotic and noisy and psychedelic, before winding down with more acoustic guitar. Absolutely baffling and disturbing brilliantly, total genius outsider mystery music, this is the sort of thing groups like Gary War and Ariel Pink are striving for, but just can't ever quite reach. Fantastically idiosyncratic, highly personal, and completely warped and cracked and demented and literally unlike anything you've heard. It's not hard to imagine this finding its way onto one of those incredible strange music comps or one of those Songs In The Key Of Z collection, it's certainly divisive, it's definitely too much for some folks, so be warned, this is strange strange stuff. But folks around here have become a bit obsessed, and can't seem to get enough. Which is good, cuz there are at least THREE other cd-r's. If you decide you need those too, just ask...

MPEG stream: Theme
MPEG stream: Televise
MPEG stream: Million Lies
MPEG stream: Seasons Change

**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

**SALE **SALE* *SALE** In Allan and Andee's quest to keep everyone up on some of the choice metal they may have missed out on (Kix anyone?), we bring you Fastway. Featuring guitarist Fast Eddie Clark from Motorhead and the Robert Plant like wail of David King (who later found success in the popular Pogues-ish band Flogging Molly, believe it or not!), Fastway struck a perfect balance between '80s hard rock/ pop and heavy '70s Sabbathy dirge. Some might remember their 'big' hit, "Say What You Will". Catchy and groovy and heavy! Also, the song "We Become One" contains the best riff, EVER, Andee insists. Allan, of course, scoffs - well, he loves the riff, but scoffs at Andee's hyperbole. Both agree, though, that this album rules!

MPEG stream: We Become One
MPEG stream: Heft
MPEG stream: Say What You Will

Last list we recommended an album of ethnic-improv jamming recorded in Morocco, circa 1991, by eccentric Canadian avant-garde instrumental trio FAT. That was one of two previously unreleased (and very different!) FAT albums from the early '90s that only just saw the light of day, and this is the other one - which, getting even more eccentric & avant-garde, doesn't actually even feature a single note of music played by anyone in FAT. Instead, it's an illicit, unauthorized 'remix' of a 1990 album by a then-popular Czech heavy metal band called Citron, the 24 track masters of which FAT somehow got their hands on while on a sojourn in Prague, and proceeded to completely fuck with, to the point where it sounds pulled apart and twisted inside out, Citron's cheesy metal processed into a very strange, unrecognizable soundscape, full of histrionic vocals soaring into echoing void-space, backing synth fills morphed into symphonic ambience, and stripped-down drums juxtaposed with random-seeming guitar licks. It's like the album itself took some very bad drug, with various elements oddly emphasized and effected, stuff sped up or slowed down, making for a delirious, utterly WTF? mix that's both creepy ('cause it's so insane-sounding) and amusing for the same reason, reminding us a little bit at times of what those 'shreds' videos on YouTube sound like, if you know what we're talking about. Certainly unique, and certainly weird.

MPEG stream: Uragan
MPEG stream: Hrabenky, Hrabata
MPEG stream: Cerveny Smich

Sometimes some good old fashioned 'rock math' is the best way to start a review... Imagine Rhode Island spazz-rock duo Lightning Bolt, via Japanese hyper-prog heavies Ruins, mix in a little Hella, maybe some Crom-Tech and some Flying Luttenbachers, and then filter it all through the cartoon music of Carl Stalling, but don't stop there, this drums/keyboard duo also lace their sprawling drum-synth duels with stretches of gorgeously creepy Carpenter-ish synth soundtrackery, and bizarre samples, sometimes locking into churning sprawls of krautish hypno-rock, and other times exploding into shards of what almost sounds like Venetian Snares style drill & bass. Thankfully, there's more to Fat32 than pointless ADD mathiness, with the songs displaying a surprising knack for melody and groove, and cleverly hiding proper songs amidst all the genre stutter and controlled chaos. That said, this is still the sort of head spinning, ultra acrobatic musicianship that makes Fat32 sound right at home on Web Of Mimicry, alongside outfits like Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, although sonically these guys do tend more toward the metal/punk side of the spectrum. Just check out the sample below for "Hard Drive", which might be the best of the bunch, a dizzying, super hypnotic blast of hyper rhythmic metallic pound, the Lightning Bolt vibe in full effect, but the keyboard gives Fat32 a much more expansive sonic palette, letting the keys somehow supply both the buzzing synth riffage, as well as blasts of 8-bit video game squiggles, all sort of effects and constantly morphing tangled melodies, the sound shifting frenetically from looped metallic mesmer to pounding chugging heaviness and back again. Then there's the epic 17 minute closer, which displays the group's Naked City like mastery of genre hopping, and the same sort of desire to cram it all into one song, and they pull it off, with most of the track pounding mathily, but they pepper it with squalls of psychedelic shimmer, bloopy video game goofiness, Pantera vocal samples (!), lumbering downtuned doominess, cheesy organ grinding polka, wide open stretches of abstract free noise drift, droned out textures and layers, super angular math-punk and plenty more. Fans of any or all of the above mentioned bands will dig for sure...

MPEG stream: Hard Drive
MPEG stream: Temper

This has actually been out for a while, and we've been meaning to review it, 'cause Father Befouled are a) pretty rad, and b) feature members of some other bands we know y'all like. Both dudes from doom-death duo Encoffination (Ghoat and Elektrokutioner) are in Father Befouled - with, as you know, Elektrokutioner also being integral to the recently reviewed likes of Decrepitaph and Wooden Stake, etc. Also, Chad Davis of Hour Of 13 and US Christmas, used to play drums in Father Befouled before Elektrokutioner joined (and after, sadly, the previous drummer committed suicide). If you're into elegantly filthy, old skool, downtempo death metal, you're probably already aware of Father Befouled. This is their 2nd full-length but they've done lots of splits and eps as well, and have made a name for themselves in the retro-death underground, worshiping such '90s gods as Incantation and, well, mostly Incantation. And that's ok with us 'cause we loved the slowed-down death metal sound of Incantation back in the day. This also reminds us of a slower, sludgier Morbid Angel, and not just 'cause of the album's title. The vertigo-inducing, feedback drenched lurchery of these songs, laced with sick, sea-sawing guitar licks, is the main reason those acts come to mind. It's got that dismal, blasphemous, ancient atmosphere all right. An onslaught of distortion and battery and guttural vokills that sounds like the smashing of holy idols, with guitars chunking and scraping as if they're being used to dig up and desecrate graves, that sort of thing. Seriously pummeling some of the time, but then also, alternately, slowly grinding through ultra-doomic interludes (like the middle part of "Christless Mass" for instance). Nice. Or not so nice. But you know what we mean. Recommended to Incantation and Encoffination and most other "-tion" fans for sure!

MPEG stream: Sacrilegeous Defilement of Deranged Salvation
MPEG stream: Idol Defamation
MPEG stream: Paradise of Desecrated Nothingness

[ aquarius records — Metal ]