[ aquarius records

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Showing results 2001 through 2050 of 5570.

Croce is the newest collection of distorted, dark psychedelic, industrial cabaret from this Italian boy/girl duo, who, after a series of ever darkening releases, have arrived at this, a concept record about the cross, and yeah, it's THAT cross (Croce in Italian), with one side of the record sonically representing the suffering and sacrifice, the flipside reflecting what comes after, the end of said suffering, resurrection, or perhaps oblivion. The sounds are shadowy, the atmospheres muddy and murky, from which spring unexpected blurts of impossibly catchy noise pop, approaching at times something almost operatic, like some twisted psychedelic musical detailing the trials and tribulation of the crucifixion, with male and female vox intertwined over distorted blasts of guitar crunch, anchored by stuttering homebuilt percussion, a sound both textural and nuanced, but also noisy and chaotic, that chaos carefully sculpted into jagged shards of fragmented pop, and that pop oven into a dramatic, almost theatrical songsuite. At points, the songs can seem to gradually lose cohesion, the lumbering and loping angular grooves (d)evolving into wild psychedelic squalls, or alternately stripped down to just the skeletal essence of the song, while the duo proceed to add layer upon layer, rhythm upon rhythm, working their way up to another blast of glorious cacophony. That percussion is a driving force throughout, whether it's swirling billows or rubberband twang and big booted thump, or sinewy pulses, wound up into tense, and intense low slung swaggers, all beneath cascades of wild junkyard crumble and soaring devotional vox, sung/spoken intonations over bell-like clang and the almost tuned sounding metallic sproings of reverberating springs. The first side finishes up with "In Solitude", an appropriately dour slab of murky miserablism that sounds like a slow sonic death, the hazy, nocturnal sound gradually fading, retreating further into the shadows, loping, lumbering creeps, soft chordal swirls beneath strange metallic rhythms, too slow to be motorik, but a similarly hypnotic vibe, albeit more sort of druggy and slo-mo, a haunting moody dirge that dissolves into that ineffable space that exists between the record's second side, the netherworld, the afterlife, Purgatory even, an endless expanse of nothingness, from which few return. But Father Murphy erupt from this Stygian blackness, with the second half of Croce, meant to be the light, to the A side's dark, and yet the opener is still somehow strangely doomy, a field of metallic shimmer, and more junkyard percussion, strung together into a spare framework, over which dramatic male vocals soar, the female vocals responding like some demonic Greek chorus, but true to the theme, the vibe grows strangely warm, an otherworldly glow, nearly sundappled in places, you can almost hear the rays of light breaking through the grey cloud filled skies. But really, these two have a strange idea of 'light', with "All The People Yelling Fire" seemingly still cloaked in shadow, a lumbering cacophony of rhythmic crashes and metallic pounds, not to mention some elephant like bleats, moaning horns suspended in a field of distant drones, very ominous and sinister, but before you know it, it's right back to the clatter and clang, leading directly into the penultimate "We Walk By Faith", a harrowing hymn, both droney and almost liturgical, with throat singing like vocalizations, wound around long, softly undulating tones, modern minimalism by way of some ancient ritual, the music evoking flickering firelight, dancing shadows, primitive worship to the cosmos, driven by muted thumps and buried beats, another one of those rickety rhythms surfacing from beneath the murk, a swampy, apocalyptic psychedelia, melted down into a viscous sonic crawl. The finale, "They Won't Hurt You", is all majestic pipe organ, a stirring and stately court music, lush and lovely and epic, the sound of rebirth, redemptive and ultimately restorative, a return from the beyond, arisen from the grave, ascended into the heavens, the sounds drifting upwards, beyond the galaxy, the universe, into the unknowable infinity.

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Full length number three from these Cascadian black metallers, who always seem to exist in the shadow of their more popular brethren in Wolves In The Throne Room, and while both groups are sonically similar, Fauna definitely have their own take on the whole Pagan / Cascadian black metal thing. Avifauna is three long tracks (the shortest 17:02, the longest 29:23) separated by a couple brief interludes, the record beginning with the sound of the Cascadian forest, all birdsong in insect chitter, in fact the music doesn't even start until 90 seconds in, and even then, it's just acoustic guitar, and soon after, cello, and deep, dramatic crooned vox, a sort of haunting Pagan folk, that explodes at about the 8 minute mark into some dense, blasting blackness, thick insectoid buzz, yowled feral vokills, wild drumming, the whole thing epic and majestic and super melodic, eventually slowing down into a dirgey, doomy lope, before settling back into that foresty folk that opened up the proceedings, this time with some strange percussion, the sound slowly enveloped by more black buzz, the sound expanding into a sort of slomo Godspeed style finale, blackened and psychedelic and epic. The second track follows a similar pattern, opening with acoustic guitars and strings, the vocals this time a raspy growl, the vibe still haunting and hypnotic, and again, the song bursts into a furious black frenzy, way more dense and chaotic than the opener, more roiling and minor key, with a break in the middle for some loping post rock, all clean guitar, before slipping right back into distorted, gnarled heaviness, this time more midtempo, hypnotic and heady, before a surprisingly super melodic, and almost poppy coda, male/female vocal harmonies over soaring melodies, majestic and melancholic. After a final interlude, all hushed shimmer and subterranean ambience, the album finishes off with "The Harpy", a whirring blackened buzz, beneath minor key guitar strum, the buzz slowly building, fragmenting into angular riffage, accompanied by anguished vox, the sound quickly slipping back into folkiness, all swirling soft strings and that acoustic guitar, before another burst of blackness, buzzing and frenzied, the sound lurching from blazing blast, to roiling buzzing dirge and back again, eventually the drums dropping out completely, leaving just a gorgeous hypnotic expanse of layered guitar buzz and blurred psychedelic riffage. Tranced out and mesmerizing. Fans of Wolves In The Throne Room who have yet to check these guys out, now's the time to right that wrong. And anyone who dug the last two Fauna's, are gonna no doubt dig this one too! 200 gram black vinyl, housed in a heavy matte laminated gatefold sleeve with spot varnishing.

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Hailing from the same Cascadian forest that Wolves In The Throne Room call home, come the mysteriously monickered Fauna, with their 2006 demo, Rain, available on cd for the first time. Much like WITTR, these guys traffic in a sort of naturalistic black metal, focusing on rain, the earth, the forest, the spirits, nature in general, creating a sound that is meant to evoke massive forests looming overhead, of flora and of course fauna, snow glowing blow beneath the moonlight, branches glistening and glimmering in the falling rain, the record begins with what could very well be the sound of the forest, a field recording of wind, and insects, leaves and footsteps, running water... until finally a lone guitar begins its funereal fugue, minor key, loping and lugubrious, a bit mournful and melancholy. Eventually the guitars grow more intense, strummed instead of picked, a deep voice emerges, a rich, mournful croon, and so it goes, a dark brooding forest folk, lush with reverb and delay, the guitars intense and dramatic, very reminiscent of Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, when suddenly, the track explodes and the band is blowing out a frenzied blast of furious black metal buzz, mesmerizing, trancelike, repetitive, the riffs totally blown out and drenched in distortion, the drums a relentless blast, which goes on for minutes, before the track shifts again, and the band lurch into a sort of lumbering blackened doom, super dynamic with lots of space, weirdly hypnotic and circular sounding, just a dark tangle of distorted guitar, until the drums join in again. But instead of blasting, the track slips into more of a woozy dirge, thick and warm and dense, for just a two piece, these guys can create a seriously expansive sound, after a few minutes, they explode back into frenzied motion, the blast even faster than before, so distorted and blown out it's almost like a blackened blur, the vocals a harsh bellow, the blast gradually breaking down again, until the duo are back to that hauntingly melodic doom-ic lurch, before finishing off in a blast of staticky buzz, leaving just a smear of warm soft chords, which slowly and dreamily drift into the darkness beyond. One of the two members of Fauna also plays in pagan doom folk outfit Alethes, which makes perfect sense in the context of Rain, and the influence of their WITTR neighbors can definitely be heard throughout, but Fauna definitely make that sound their own, mixing long stretches of doomy folkiness with intensive blasts of blackened fury, and peppering the proceedings with bits of sprawling doom, and shimmery ambience, to create their own sonic representation of the forest they call home. Gorgeous packaging too, black on black origami style fold over cardstock sleeve, with a simple booklet featuring just the lyrics and no other info. Cool.

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Record number two from these Cascadian black metallers, originally released in 2007, now remastered and partially re-recorded, replacing the original electronic drums with live drumming, and dividing the original hour plus epic into more manageable song length tracks, while still playing out as one single sprawling black metal naturescape. Not sure what the deal is with these guys, they've obviously been around since 2006, when their debut Rain was originally released, but since 2007, we've heard nothing new, only the eventual re-release of their first two records. Not that we're complaining, well, okay, maybe we're complaining a little, but only cuz we want more, and are dying to hear what these guys sound like circa NOW. But The Hunt will hold us over for now, like Rain before it, an expansive blackened collage of murky blasting blackness, and slow creeping ambient dronemusic, often lumped in with their Cascadian brethren Wolves In The Throne Room, and while there are definitely similarities, they tread markedly different sonic paths. WITTR channel the majestic blackness of SF legends Weakling, taking that sound and infusing it with their own naturalistic take on BM, adding female vocals, folky acoustic guitars, and plenty of polish, while Fauna seem to lurk in the shadows, with a sound more immediate and intimate, almost feral sounding at times, the drone element key to their sound, the black blasts are trancelike and mesmerizing, the ambient stretches expansive and haunting, the sound even here, gussied up and remastered, still sounds more DIY and punk than Wolves, and it suits them, the ferocity of the forest primeval, mixed with the mysterious tranquility of the endless night. The Hunt is a blackened journey, a moonlit creep, ominous and drifting like some black fog, giving way to explosive fury, passionate howling and blasting metal, that slips into woozy melodic doominess, as easily as crushing grim blackness, in fact much of the heaviness on display leans toward a more melodic melancholia, spidery minor key guitars weaving together stretches of foresty folk and blasts of frenzied riffage, sometimes locking into dynamic doomish mathiness, but just as easily transforming that into churning gnarled black metal pound. The final two parts here might be Fauna's finest moment, a dizzying tangle of stop start riffing, tense and dramatic, giving way to the moody final movement, a dirgey drift, with soaring vocals buried beneath the crumbling minor key distortion, melodic and mournful, peppered with furious blown out blasts, laced with acoustic guitars, finally fading out leaving just the sounds of the forest. Swank packaging too, black on black origami style cardstock sleeve, with a printed black on black cardstock insert.

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The furious fivesome from Coalinga are finally back, dispelling rumors of suicide pacts or abductions, with nine tracks of venomous (not to mention completely retarded) death metal. For those familiar or unfamiliar with their past work, Chiropractic

RealAudio clip: Rest Stop Cleaning
RealAudio clip: Chiropractic

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

SORRY. Everyone's favorite deformed "desk metallers" return with a new album sure to whip all Bungle-worshippers into a noisy metallic frenzy.

More "handicapped" "metal" for Bungle/Caroliner fans, recorded on the Head's Japan tour.

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MPEG stream: Taking Cassandra To The End Of The World Party

As a music obsessive, it's inevitable that you spend some time fantasizing about the perfect musical match ups. Most of them could never happen, or maybe should never happen, others wouldn't sound as good as one might hope, but some have in fact taken place (SUNNO))) and Boris) and far surpassed our expectations. Which brings us to this, a collaboration between Canadian dream doom duo Nadja, and Dutch one man guitarmy Dirk Serries. These two powerhouses have met up once before, as part of that super limited Conspiracy Records anniversary series, and the sound here is quite similar, hovering somewhere between the colossal crush we know both are capable of, and a surprisingly dreamy drift. Four lengthy tracks, each more sound than song, but that's exactly as it should be. The opener takes the blown out vacuum cleaner buzz of Total or Skullflower and smears it into soft edged swells, an almost static, barely undulating wall of whirring warmth, which quickly dissipates, leaving just a muted minimal shimmer. The second track is more of the same, a massive pulsing rumble smeared with wispy swaths of fuzzy distortion, but with a bit of percussion added, an industrial clang and thump buried way down in the mix, while above the roiling guitars are draped spidery streaks of coruscating feedback, a sort of Skullflower / SUNNO))) style mashup. Blissful and blown out, but at the same time dark and strangely ominous. Track three is the anomaly here, the 'quiet' number, a sort of spacious drift, with tons of room sound, simple drumming way down in the mix all Dead C style, some ghostly melodies, and haunting snippets of clean guitar surfacing here and there and what sounds like seasick organs warbly and wavering. So haunting and pretty. And finally, the closer, which begins with some slightly atonal Nitsch style drones, a wash of what sounds like moaning horns but must be guitars, tense and intense, drawn out for what seems like forever, when suddenly a wall of crumbling distorted guitars drop from the sky like it's raining anvils, a plodding drum beat underpinning the now suddenly caustic riffage, a gorgeously blown out slab of impossibly heavy, and simultaneously strangely lovely, ultra dooooooooom.

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The latest epic slab of atmospheric black metal from this Northern California black metal duo begins with a warm bit of swoonsome, softly pulsing synth swirl, before the band launch into the first of two sidelong tracks, and immediately, the sound here is harder, and harsher, and heavier, the vibe is definitely atmospheric, but much more grim and buzzy, the two immediately locked into a hazy galloping expanse of majestic melodic blackness, droned out and trancelike, hypnotic and mesmerizing, sounding like it could (and maybe should) go on forever and ever, until the sound suddenly and gloriously ruptures, the song exploding into a gout of gnarled mathy chaos, before slipping right back into the trancey buzz. The sound does eventually shift, the guitars soaring, fast picked melodies all tangled up with the relentless drum pound, eventually the song settling into a woozy, moody, buzz free creep, just mournful guitars wrapped around melodic bass, and a plodding almost doomy dirge. The band slowly build adding layer after layer, eventually returning to a furious tranced out buzz once again, but here the guitars seem slippery, the riffs even more tangled, the sound warped and even more chaotic, the black buzz slipping into almost white noise territory before finally collapsing into a long stretch of muted, murky grumbling grey drones. The B side starts off distinctly more doomy, thick, reverbed minor key chords drift over a simple, slo-mo drum trudge, atmospheric, ominous, haunting, it's only a minute or two before this track too explodes in a frenzy of musical violence, an avalanche of blackened chaos, careening riffs, buried howls, splattery drumming, the various elements eventually coalesce into something more solidly black and buzzy, but before too much time has passed, the band transform it into some strange black doom, the chords tarpit slow, but the drums still blasting away, the vocals a beastly gurgle, before once again letting the buzzing blackness overtake them. This track, like the first side, is constantly shifting, from more clean shimmery ambience, to some gorgeously melodic churning guitardrone, that sounds like BM riffs blurred into hypnotic muddy swirls, and like the A side, this track finishes with a long stretch of minimal drift, this time, hazy synths, minimal percussion and haunting cinematic piano stabs, creepy, and harrowingly beautiful. LIMITED TO 750 COPIES, pressed on thick vinyl, and housed in super heavy jackets.

We'd been hearing about these guys for ages, a trio from Santa Cruz who were apparently mixing raw thrashing black buzz a la Bone Awl with sprawling epic arrangements, as in songs going on 20, sometimes 30 minutes. So here we have their debut full length, a two song lp, two tracks, each filling up an entire side, one nearly 19 minutes, the other more than 21 minutes, and right out of the gate they explode into a frenzy of blasting beats and blurred insectoid riffing, growled demonic vocalizing, but over the course of these songs, the band explore all sorts of variations, slipping into loping mathy post rock, soaring epic Norwegian style majesty, doomic d-beat pounding, lurching stop / start breakdowns, long stretches of ominous ambience, lumbering Burzumic crush, slow burning distortion drenched drift, all held together with consistent elements that lead one part to another, streaks of buzz, minimal mysterious guitar figures, the sound of rain, droning bits of serpentine guitar. It's more than just long songs created by glomming shorter songs together. These tracks are expertly arranged and composed, the move with mood and purpose, melodies disappear only to resurface later, parts shift and twist and become repurposed, there are refrains, but there are also parts that appear once and are gone. The B-side starts out like some sort of black drone record, heaving sheets of crumbling distorted buzz, woozy and wavery, before the band explodes into yet another flurry of soaring guitars and pounding rhythms, this time though it's all tension and no release, like the most dramatic part of some Godspeed epic translated into epic blackness, until the band finally slip into something more classically BM, but only just, this song/side too is a convoluted path, serpentine and impossible to predict, with some incredible surprisingly un-BM at times drumming, amazing catchy riffs, and the ambience this time relegated to near the end of the track, the furious blasting giving way to some haunting spectral drift, taking forever to fade out completely, instead, blasting at a barely audible level, just below the seemingly tranquil surface, eventually disappearing completely, leaving the track to wind down gently, with a languid, darkly pretty final few minutes. So awesome. Fell Voices are definitely a band folks into Weakling and Wolves In The Throne Room and Fauna and all that sort of sprawling epic blackness should check out. A new favorite of the black hordes around here for sure...

Yet ANOTHER self titled record from the Fell Voices / Ash Borer black metal axis, which makes it even more difficult to keep track of which is what, but this one IS subtitled 2008 demo, and as that would rightfully lead you to believe this is FV's 2008 demo, previously available only on cassette, on vinyl for the first time, and the packaging is swank and deluxe, but more on that in a second. This is FV's very first recording ever, and as such, demonstrates two things, one, a much more lo-fi sound quality, and two, an already fully formed sound, that the band would hone on subsequent records, the sound quality and recording fidelity improving as they went, that said, even with a more raw sound, these two tracks are incredible, the band already masters of the sidelong black metal epic, the A side beginning with a slow build, all chaotic drums over clan guitars, weird and woozy, the sound building and building, eventually coalescing into something more buzzy and blast, but even then the guitars remain super low in the mix, and SOUND clean still, which gives the sound a cool strange vibe, add in some bellowed demonic vox, some stretches of doomed out dirgery, all deep droning vox and tribal drumming, and then a crazy chaotic mathrock/noiserock outro. Lo-fi for sure, but still so epic and heavy and intense. The flipside is much more black metal sounding, but with some serious D-best sounding stretches, a little punky, but still plenty black and blasting, with cool droned out guitars, and a super stunning interlude that's all blurred drones and muted feedback, which leads directly into some spaced out psychedelic drift, before the band lurches back into the fray. PRESSED ON 180 GRAM VINYL!! Housed in thick sleeves, with a printed insert, LIMITED TO 367 COPIES!!

While ostensibly a black metal band, the UK's Fen, are so much more than that. In fact, take away the vocals, and in a blind taste test we would have been hard pressed to describe them as black metal at all. The sound is all loping rhythms, soaring chords, the sound majestic and epic, minor key and mathy. The first track sounds more like Isis or Pelican than it does Darkthrone or Deathspell. Well, actually, it does remind us a bit of Deathspell's most postrock moment, the genius Kenose. The band are described as 'atmospheric black metal / post rock' which would be a tad more accurate if you swapped the two descriptors. Even the riffs sound more like something off a Polvo or Pitchblende record, which is not a bad thing at all. In fact, we're a little bit obsessed with Fen. Another band whose sound is one we had always sort of wished for. Nineties math rock black metal! It's really uncanny listening to these three songs how often our ears catch a little Archers Of Loaf or Rodan or Don Cab or Bitch Magnet. And the thing is, the sound may be a bit heavier and more distorted, it's really only the vocals that turn this into black metal. If Fen were an instrumental band, they wouldn't sound all that out of place on Touch And Go. But they are heavy, and they are a bit black, and as if to prove it, the closer is the heaviest, and the least overtly mathy of the bunch. A plodding churning doomy chunk of loping blackened crush. And near the end of the 12+ minute track, the band even actually explode for the very first time into a furious blast beat, and finish off the track thrashing blackly, but even that brief burst is not enough to hide their true sonic soul, the whole track is rife with mathiness, with soaring majestic post rock-ness, just wrapped in a bit of blackness. None of this is meant to sound apologetic, not in the least, this is absolutely one of our favorite new records, metal, mathy or otherwise. We just wanted to give fair warning to the troo grim hordes out there, who might have been put off a bit by the dearth of true blackness. But for the rest of you, this comes highly recommended. If you ever dreamed about a black metal Polvo (and who didn't) or wished Deathspell had continued on their more post rock path, or if you just can't get enough of that metallic post rock, and maybe wouldn't mind if it sometimes got a bit blacker, well then this is definitely for you...

MPEG stream: Desolation Embraced
MPEG stream: The Gales Scream Of Loss

First proper full length from these UK black metallers, who we once described as a black metal Polvo! There are definitely still hints of that here, but the metal this time around is also more furious. With the ep, we stressed that maybe troo grim metalheads might not find a lot to like, as much of that record sounded more like Pelican or Isis than Darkthrone or Deathspell, and even here, the first track begins with some post rocky clean guitar, but almost immediately launches into a seriously blown out squall of blasting buzz. But then a few seconds later, the band slip back into that loping post rock, only to again, explode into epic blackness. The track flits back and forth, and part way through there's even some Katatonia like clean vocals, which adds a definite pop element, and hints at what's to come. So, it's at once heavier and more black than the ep, but still manages to incorporate plenty of post rock rhythms and math rock arrangements, which basically makes this a massive favorite around here, but also means this is probably not black or brootal enough for some metalheads. And since the opening track might just be the heaviest of the bunch, barring brief bursts here and there, this is the perfect record for the aQ metalhead, who when not enjoying true grimness, likes their black metal fucked up or freaked out or all shoegazey or all post rocky, which means odds are you'll dig this like crazy. Much of the record follows the same pattern as the opener, long loping instrumental passages with simple drumming and clean crystalline guitars, peppered with bursts of frenetic riffing and wild blasting beats, but there's also plenty of strange haunting folkiness, bits of rainy day sad boy indie jangle, subtly complex math rock rhythms, all perfectly blended with chunks of intense riffery and buzzing black metal fury. And the thing is, the metal this time around IS way more furious, if you stripped out all the clean guitars and croony vocals, this would be some seriously paint peeling blackness, but those parts sound even MORE aggressive and heavy when butted up to some shimmery drift, or some jangly poppiness. The closer is the other heavyweight here, nearly 12 minutes of roiling ultra heavy black metal, intense and frenzied, but still with plenty of loping midtempo grooves, occasional doom-ed out interludes, a brief flutteryfolky break, and a minor key string-ed outro, that manages to be super dramatic, and the perfect way for this strangely varied and super kick ass record to wind down. Packaged in a super striking 8 panel digipak, and damn if Fen don't have one of the coolest logos...

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We've only read the first half so far, but c'mon, it's Reign In Blood, one of the greatest thrash metal records ever. And music obsessives, you should already be reading this series, up close and intimate looks at not bands, but your favorite records, interviews with the bands, the fans, and all sorts of awesome behind the scenes drama! Anyway, Reign In Blood is still an amazing record two decades later, and metal bands are still finding influence there, some WAY more than others. This volume digs deep into maybe the most influential 29 minutes of metal EVER. Interviews with the bands, the producers, the engineers, the roadies, and most interestingly, the fans, a who's who of rock luminaries including: Tori Amos, Phil Anselmo, Page Hamilton of Helmet, Danzig, Jack Endino, Larry from Pelican, Angela from Arch Enemy, Kurt from Converge, Charlie from Anthrax, Sean from White Zombie, Matt from High On Fire, Gene Hoglan, rapper Ill Bill, Nergal from Behemoth, Buzz from the Melvins, Ripper Owens, Devin Townsend, Kat VonD, all the dudes from Mastodon, and tons more. So far a super fun read, most of the series is, we've probably read about half of 'em, but as soon as we finish this review, first thing we do when we get home is to finish reading about REIGN IN BLOOD!

Yeah, the band is called Fetus Eaters. And their particular brand of metallic grind is called vomitcore, which for a particular strain of weirdo music obsessives, is pretty much all it should take to get you interested in these musical misanthropes. And for those who might be put off, well, odds are this is not your cup of black bloody fetus laced tea. But for the rest of you, this is some primo grind-metal heaviness, replete with furious blast beats, wild shredding guitars, insectoid riffing, twisted effects heavy vocals, lots of warped production and processing, and yeah of course plenty of weird samples. Full length number five finds the band slightly more polished, but really only slightly, it's still raw and blown out, punk as fuck, super noisy, and downright psychedelic at times, most of the songs clocking in around the minute mark, which is more than enough to cram in loads of tangled shreddery and blasting headbanging crunch, with the occasional foray into lumbering doominess, face melting noise rock, and grim black buzz, but really, FE are grinders at heart, and a quick listen to "Fetal Sushi Delight" or "Embryonic Chow" of "I'll Snap Your Spine" makes that pretty clear. Not sure why we never listed anything by these guys before, cuz we're digging this big time. Anyone into the various strains of grind, from old school grind, to grinding death metal, to gore grind, to just flat out WTF grind weirdness, might find themselves surprisingly into 'vomitcore' all of a sudden, and fear not, we're right there with you. Pressed on bloody red vinyl, includes a printed insert/lyric sheet/poster.

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Grindcore.

It's always nice for us here to check out something that we got out of the blue, just sent to us, or dropped off, with no expectations, and then really really dig it. Dig it enough that we feel like if we didn't already have it, we'd have to go out and buy one. In fact many all thime AQ faves were discovered in just such a manner. And that's also the case with this Figure Of Merit cd. It's something that we'd never heard of before we got a copy in the mail (and the packaging didn't offer to many clues as to what to expect, either). What to make of song titles like "Arrow To The Sun" and "Blackhammer"? Could be metal, maybe. But then there's the not-so-scary title "Overhead Projector" as well. Though we did know it had to be some sort of metal 'cause of the record label it came from. So, it was up to the music to "do the talking" (as it should be). And Figure Of Merit's music turned out to be right up our alley. Heavy duty hardcore ugly rock noisy metal. Kinda like Cavity or Eyehategod with all their feedback intros, weighty riffage and churning, compelling rhythms. FoM's angsty, screamier vox put us in mind of something like the Jesus Lizard though, or maybe the Dazzling Killmen meets Unsane would be a better point of reference. But what especially makes Figure Of Merit a band of merit in our books is the exuberant, metallic majesty that many of their riffs possess. It's truly noble headbanging material, welded to the dirtiest of dirge-core extremes. So, Vatic from this Minneapolis four piece gets an AQ recommendation without doubt.

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Brand new full length album from Justin Broadrick's (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.) Final project, which in the past was a sort of solo guitar thing, or so we thought. On Afar, the eight numbered tracks are arrangements of processed loops, with nary a guitar in site. Which becomes harder to believe the further we get into the record. The sound here is dark and mesmerizing, each track a slow cycling soundscape, rife with shifting textures and pulsing almost-rhythms, the sounds super varied, but all woven together into one cohesive songsuite. Fans of Tim Hecker and Philip Jeck will dig bigtime, as well as guitar drone aficionados into stuff like Fear Falls Burning. Layers of crunch and buzz are locked into swelling, swaying hypnotic rhythms, the textures and timbre shifting gradually, the looped aspect not always immediately noticeable. Deep rumbles beneath softly processed whirs are woven into stretches of haunting cinematic shimmer, fading into swooping backwards melodies peppered with bits of glitch and crackle. Elsewhere slow burning 'guitar' sounds buzz explosively into epic and majestic sheets of buzzing woozy blur, before being scattered by dense tangles of reverberating metallic hum and rumbling low end way off in the distance. A few tracks definitely dip into Jeck territory with stuttery looped vocals and clipped samples and muted skitter, before finishing off with a hushed bit of whispery murmur. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. We get these direct from Broadrick's Avalanche label in the UK, so when we run out it might take a couple weeks to get more, assuming there are still some left. Nice thick picture disc in a thick PVC plastic sleeve.

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MPEG stream: Ruined

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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.

MPEG stream: Sphinktes: Le Rite Oublie
MPEG stream: Behind The Rotting Sun Of Human Desolation

A Finnish black metal band, all of whose music is about trolls. Hence the name! This is their sophomore release, their first disc was a concept album apparently about the war between the trolls and the Christians (!) and it was a big favorite of both of AQ's

RealAudio clip: Slaget vid Blodsalv

The first disc from these Finnish troll-metallers... Black metal polka at its best. Yup, polka. So great. This album tells the story of the (hitherto obscure) war between the Christians and the trolls.

This completely absurd yet amazingly fun Finnish band, whose members pretend they're TROLLS and play a mixture of black metal and the Finnish folk music called "humpa" (which sounds a heckuva lot like polka music) is back. And we have no choice but to raise a flagon of mead and join in another trollish hoe-down with them. Somewhat surprisingly, Finntroll's last three albums have all been minor hits here at Aquarius, not just among the usual staff suspects (Andee and Allan) but with our customers as well. We get mail-orders for Jaktens Tid and Visor Om Slutet on a fairly regular basis! And this new one, Nattfodd, will make a fine addition to anyone's collection of trollish music. Or maybe we should say your trollish music collection ain't complete without it. If you haven't heard 'em yet, imagine growling, grunting, tough sounding 'trolls' doing the vocals in a style not unlike many other black metal bands. Their music is quite heavy and metal as well but simultaneously gets so extremely jaunty and folky and keyboard-happy in the humpa-style that it's impossible not to be swept away. Maybe a good title for a future Finntroll disc would be Anthems To The Lawrence Welkin At Dusk? Listening to this, you'll soon be doing your own approximation of a trollish jig. And there's a few interludes of forest sound effects and indecipherable (to us) troll-talk to further set the scene. It's like Za Frumi meets Uz Jsme Doma meets Falconer meets Satyricon. Crazy Finns!

MPEG stream: Fiskarens Fiende
MPEG stream: Marknadsvisan

Finally issue number two of Forgotten Path, one of the very few metal mags going that's focussed almost exclusively on the grim, the kvlt and the obskure. This long in the works issue features a handful of faves, as well as a whole mess of new-to-us groups that will no doubt require further investigation. 1349, Abigor, Skyforger, Angantyrm, Besatt, Blood Stained Dusk, Chthonic from Taiwan, Impiety, Hekel, Berserk, Fearbringer, should be enough for most metalheads, but then there's Pagan Heritage, Har Shatan, Paroxysmal Descent, Black Messiah, Argus Megere, Argharus, Niroth, Linvsnekad, Elhaz, Hellbox, Bloodthirst, Krater, Thygrim and more! Super thick, glossy cover, tons of reviews too (300+ of shows, records, festivals) and of course as with all things grim and kvlt, it's LIMITED, each copy hand numbered!

Sure there are plenty of metal magazines, Terrorizer, Decibel, Metal Maniacs, etc. But there are very few that focus on the true grim kvlt underground. Oaken Throne obviously, and now Forgotten Path, from Lithuania, which has both of its cloven hooves planted firmly South of Heaven. In this first issue, there are interviews with AQ faves Woodtemple, Finnish legends Horna, the slightly more mainstream Agalloch, as well as way more obscure groups like: Absonus Noctis, Imperium Dekadenz, Nae' Bliss, Mordhell Stutthof, Nocturnal Depression, as well as a bunch of bands we had never heard of including Forest Of Fog, Andaja, Aaskereia, Godless Cruelty, Nebular Mystic. In addition to all that, tons of demo reviews, album reviews, loads of killer photos, the whole thing nicely laid out, on thick glossy paper, slightly oversized we've had issue one for a while now, and we're still working our way through it. And as with all magazines like this, you know they're on to something, when we already have a list of new bands and records to track down. Can't wait for issue two!

It's raining Ormolycka releases this week! One of our favorite tape labels has sent us a massive box of tapes, restocking a bunch of old favorites that we can barely keep in stock they sell out so fast, and FIVE new releases, including this one, a mysterious outfit called Forgotten Pathways, the cover looking very metal, and the sound inside, well not metal, but still very 'metal'. A sprawling chunk of weird ambient synthscapery, medieval and moody, with swirling soaring synths, dark and dramatic, and primitive programmed drum machines, stumbling and lurching, warped and warbly, and plenty ominous, rife with bursts of thunder, and super creepy raspy whispered vox, and the occasional blast of twisted drum chaos, which sounds like suddenly multiple drumlines started playing on the drum machine. The sound ends up somewhere between Mortiis, creepy carnival music, Ukrainian medieval ambient soundscaper Dark Ages, weirdo local outsider genius Fastest and aQ faves and tUMULt recording artist Varghkoghargasmal. Sounds like a fucked combo and it is, but that's precisely what makes this so good. And so fantastically twisted. Fans of that whole weirdo synthguitar/outsider metal axis that we've raved about over the years (Shevelreq, Xynfonica, Gluttony, Thursar), will probably consider this essential, as might fans of primitive doom duo Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg and Lovecraftian ritualists Ungl'Unl'Rrlh'Chchch. Needless to say, on the Ormolycka whatthefuck scale, this definitely ranks way up there, and considering some of the warped genius craziness they put out, that's saying something for sure. WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: Darkened In Caverns Deep

Found just a few of these lurking in our closet, that we hadn't listed, though they've been here since 2007. It's this mournful but rockin' Italian band's most recent release, though, and if you're looking for some sheer blackened doomic metal this disc is still quite potent. 58 minutes, 5 songs of dark depressiveness that quite befits the name Forgotten Tomb, their songwriting taking a variety of twists and turns along the way. Sounding like a black n' roll Katatonia at the start, they then experiment with some more avant-garde Slint-y bits on other tracks, and also allow vocalist "Herr Morbid" to switch between the wretched raspings typical of black metal to a clean vocal style for some of these songs. Fans of Lifelover could do well to check this out, it's in a similar vein, perhaps deliberately so.

MPEG stream: Negative Megalomania
MPEG stream: Blood And Concrete

Originally purveyors of grim depressive blackness, their sound abject and hateful and suicidal, this Italian horde has gradually been moving toward a sound more melodic, and by extension more accessible, and on Under Saturn Retrograde, they seem to have moved about as far away from that early blackness as possible before becoming an altogether different band. Folks who don't dig melody or poppiness in black metal, will have no doubt given up on these guys a long time ago, but for the rest of us, this stuff is pretty great, the sound is thick, and heavy, a little bit gothic, seriously poppy, think Khold, Katatonia, Lifelover, Alcest, the band occasionally dipping into some buzzing blackness, but for the most part, crafting hooky blackened epics, the vocals still harsh and hellish, the riffs still gnarled and minor key, but all wound into sprawling depressive buzz drenched black pop jams, which lope along for the most part, but do occasionally explode into furious blasts or stutter through weirdly dynamic mathy arrangements. The title track is split into two movements, the first about as grim as it gets here, epic and intense, blasting and black, but then the second part is all acoustic guitar, martial snare, and a final burst over super melodic guitar harmonies, soaring and majestic. "You Can't Kill Who's Already Dead" sounds like the perfect fusing of Lifelover and Katatonia, while "Spectres Over Venice", is a killer pop flecked bit of churning blackened heaviness, before finishing off with some pure heavy pop, all super epic chords, tangled guitar harmonies and soaring clean vocals, a weird finish, to a record that while poppy is still pretty black metal, but not nearly as weird as FT's fairly straight forward, slightly blackened version of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog", which sounds pretty great actually, the guitars a little bit more blackened and minor key, the vokills appropriately harsh, some wild frenzied drumming, but otherwise pretty true to the original. We dig this a LOT, but can definitely understand how old fans would be disappointed, but anyone into the above mentioned bands, should definitely check this out.

MPEG stream: Reject Existence
MPEG stream: Shutter
MPEG stream: Downlift

Oh how we love the mighty Forgotten Woods, supreme Norwegian black metal weirdos! Their new record, Race Of Cain, reviewed recently, was a mind blower, and their three cd collection of older stuff is an all time AQ best seller. For those of you vinyl freaks who have been holding off, well you are finally in luck, Forgotten Woods'�As The Wolves Gather, their 1994 full length, and disc one in the�Baklengs Mot Stupet triple cd set, has finally been reissued as an lp! It's super limited of course, we got a handful but they won't last long. Here's a slightly altered version of our review of�As The Wolves Gather from the triple cd set: So...what's the big deal you ask, why are these Forgotten Woods so unforgettable? Well, first off, and at first listen, this will definitely appeal to the whole raw, old-school, Nordic forest black metal necrocrowd. Really good grim stuff in the unholy spirit of classic Darkthrone and Burzum, but with that extra kinda inept, Benighted Leamsish fuckedupedness to it that of course makes us love it all the more. And, additionally and importantly, there's also always a strange, unexpected sort of poppiness underlying everything. As a friend (who also likes this band, and is a member of Thuja, the Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, the Skygreen Leopards and a bunch of other Jewelled Antler acts) put it, "man it's good...completely inept, like they're barely pulling it off, total 13-year-old-metal-kid-in-the-basement drums." A classic, but a 'damaged' outsider BM classic as far as we're concerned, this is definitely raw and necro and kvlt and grim, buzzing and black, but it also struggles and stumbles, is blown out, lo-fi and weird as fuck. As with all Forgotten Woods, WAY recommended.��

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Never thought we'd be able to list this. Everytime we got it in, it would go too quickly, just flying out the door by word of mouth we guess. Clearly this '90s Norwegian black metal band has a cult following! Then we thought that this triple cd box had gone out of print. But thankfully No Colours just pressed up some more, and we think we scored enough copies to dare list it, even though the label may be out of it already. So...what's the big deal you ask, why are these Forgotten Woods so unforgettable? Well, first off, and at first listen, this will definitely appeal to the whole raw, old-school, Nordic forest black metal necrocrowd. Really good grim stuff in the unholy spirit of classic Darkthrone and Burzum, but with that extra kinda inept, Benighted Leamsish fuckedupedness to it that of course makes us love it all the more. And, additionally and importantly, there's also always a strange, unexpected sort of poppiness underlying everything, despite song titles like "Grip Of Frost" and "Dimension Of The Blackest Dark". As a friend (who also likes this band, and is a member of Thuja, the Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, the Skygreen Leopards and a bunch of other Jewelled Antler acts) put it, "man it's good...completely inept, like they're barely pulling it off, total 13-year-old-metal-kid-in-the-basement drums." That by itself would be enough to explain this band's appeal. But our sensibilities here at AQ are further stoked by the fact that the more you delve into these discs, the more you find yourself wondering just what the hell you're listening to...as Forgotten Woods mysteriously morphs by the third cd into something that sounds like jazz-inflected, naive indie-rock mopery, with clean jangly guitars that starts to sound like Felt or The Church or even Maher Shalal Hash Baz! Other tracks seem to echo The Cure, all slow and post-punkish... what a weird band! We can only wonder at what they thought they were doing, and wonder even more so at why they're so accepted by the grim black metal underground. So, even though this is a $25 import triple-disc set, it's the kind of black metal (like Benighted Leams, Xasthur, Lugubrum, Leviathan, Abruptum, Meads of Asphodel, Ved Buens Ende, and Sigh for example) that we have to recommend to all of our customers who are into (not-necessarily metal) weirdness. And in case you're wondering, this does collect the entirety of Forgotten Woods' output (three albums, plus one recorded under the name Joyless) from the years indicated in the title...

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MPEG stream: With Swans I'll Share My Thirst

For a band we had thought at one point to be dead and buried, Norway's legendary black metal weirdos Forgotten Woods have been pretty high profile lately, with an unexpected (and unexpectedly amazing) new album, a bunch of reissues, the ever popular 3cd box set�Baklengs Mot Stupet, and now this, the first time on cd for both FW's 1993 demos, the self titled Forgotten Woods and the follow up Through The Woods, both primo slabs of ultra grim and kvlt lo fidelity buzz.� It's easy to see, even in the early stages of the band, that they were one seriously cracked bunch, the sound not just lo-fi, but damaged and bizarre, the riffing is simple and old school, but super low in the mix, with the crashing thrashing pounding drums way more prominent, but not nearly as much as the croaked blackened growls, the strange Gollum-like growls, some seriously harsh and alien vocals, perfectly suited to the crumbling blackness in the background. Going from stumbling chaotic buzz, to lurching doomy pound, Forgotten Woods conjure up some seriously fucked up and freaked out black atmospheres... The self titled demo is the more brittle of the two, all high end hiss and soul shearing buzz, whereas Through The Woods ups the production values just a bit, and the sound is definitely heavier, but also murkier and muddier, which again suits their skewed vision. Also things seem to get way weirder (if that were even possible), hinting once again at the bizarre blackened beast they were soon to become, with angular atonal melodies, damaged off kilter leads and even weirder vocals, from shrieks to shouts, all tangled up into dense black squalls of sound.

MPEG stream: Winterly Battle Over Northland
MPEG stream: Inside The Witches Cave

We've long been obsessed with black metal weirdos Forgotten Woods. The three cd retrospective Baklengs Mot Stupet 1992-1996 has been a constant AQ bestseller, and for good reason. It's completely brilliant and baffling... read the review of that set and listen to the sound samples and if you don't already have it, think very seriously about remedying that situation. Well, as much as we love those old FW records, we always assumed the band was dead and gone, but out of the blue, came this brand new record, and if anything, it's even more damaged, fucked up, and impossibly brilliant than ever. Straight out of the gate, opening with a grinding distorted intro with damaged heavily affected spoken word samples, the band then launches into a super freaky lo-fi blackened, almost new wave sounding jam, an old school grungy riff, simple practice space drumming, with the vocals WAY up in the mix, growling and rasping, surrounded by streaks of damaged off kilter guitar freakout, and a super creepy repeated minor key guitar motif over the top, a weird sort of warped angular horror movie lick, repeated over and over, so intense and so completely bizarre. The next track finds the band in furious blackened blast mode, but even here, the mix renders the song a damaged blast of chaos, with the drums way too far up in the mix, stumbling and crashing all over the place, the fills like drums being hurled down a flight of stairs, the guitar, which began as a black buzz, begins to become more and more unhinged, gradually growing more angular and off kilter, warping into some sort of Greg Ginn black (metal) flag damage before slipping into the next song, a loping midtempo eighties metal style dirge, that halfway through not only suddenly changes tempo, but also changes recording quality, almost like someone just flipped a switch, or some other band just barged in and took over... Elsewhere the band settles into weird dirgey drift, with demented and damaged crooning, like Circle Of Ouroborus or Dead Reptile Shrine, some Burzum like keyboards, and lots of thrashing buzzing blackness. The strangest song by far (although it's all relative) is "The Principle And The Whip", a drifting minor key almost-ballad, with lilting folk guitars and dreamy wispy female vocals, that had the folkies around here perking up their ears asking what we were listening to? Complete with a Comus-y coda, all tribal hand drums, and urgent strumming. Actually, that song we just said was the weirdest, well, maybe we were a bit premature, cuz the last track, "Third Eye (New Creature)", a 12 minute whatthefuck of epic proportions pretty much knocked that one well out of the running. The first few minutes are pounding blackness, peppered with mournful minor key guitars and more of those growled demonic vocals, a sort of Brainbombs meets Turbonegro meets Darkthrone, when all of a sudden, the music drifts off leaving just a recording of a disturbing excerpt from a radio show (taken from TalkBack with Bob Larson), some strange discourse between a Christian and a virulent anti-Christian, with the two touching on lots of random weirdness, throwing Christians to the lions, Hitler, the Holocaust, history written in blood, fascism, homelessness, crack cocaine, AIDS, teenage pregnancies, Heaven, Hell... when all of a sudden, after like 10 minutes of this interview, the band lurch back into action, finishing off with a groovy garage-y fuzzed out Stooges-y stomp, with the lyric "Sieg Heil" repeated several times (which got them in a lot of trouble, for obvious reasons), presumably in response to the preceding interview... Woah.... like we said, baffling and brilliant... But not like we should be surprised that these guys are still capable of such far out-ness, after all they are responsible for some of favorite, fucked up and freaked out indie-rock-jangle-meets-stumbling-free-folk-meets-grim-black-buzz... well, actually come to think of it, calling it our 'favorite' is a little misleading since that would presume that there some other bands out there making this sort of glorious black chaos, and there sure as hell ain't...

MPEG stream: One Day
MPEG stream: III. A Landmine Reprisal
MPEG stream: The Principle And The Whip

Before all you Forgotten Woods fanatics freak out the way we did when we first saw this, let us say that most of this disc IS included in the still available Baklengs Mot Stupet 1992-1996 triple cd set. But don't stop reading, there is definitely still a good reason to pick this up, even if you have the 3cd set. There are basically two possibilities for wanting to own this, a brand new reissue of Sjel Av Natten. Either you're a newbie, who wants to check out FW, but doesn't want to drop $25. Although we can pretty much guarantee, that once you wrap your ears around this you WILL want everything you can get your hands on. Or, you already own the set, but desperately need every bit of Forgotten Woods there ever was, and the fact that this disc contains two exclusive, unreleased FW jams is enough to send you scooting toward the buy button. For the newbie, let's explain the wonder and allure that is Forgotten Woods (we'll get to the extra tracks in a second): So...what's the big deal you ask, why are these Forgotten Woods so unforgettable? Well, first off, and at first listen, this will definitely appeal to the whole raw, old-school, Nordic forest black metal necrocrowd. Really good grim stuff in the unholy spirit of classic Darkthrone and Burzum, but with that extra kinda inept, Benighted Leamsish fuckedupedness to it that of course makes us love it all the more. And, additionally and importantly, there's also always a strange, unexpected sort of poppiness underlying everything. As a friend (who also likes this band, and is a member of Thuja, the Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, the Skygreen Leopards and a bunch of other Jewelled Antler acts) put it, "man it's good...completely inept, like they're barely pulling it off, total 13-year-old-metal-kid-in-the-basement drums." So, this is most definitely the kind of black metal (like Benighted Leams, Xasthur, Lugubrum, Leviathan, Abruptum, Meads of Asphodel, Ved Buens Ende, and Sigh for example) that we have to recommend to all of our customers who are into (not-necessarily metal) weirdness. So for the rest of you, the ones who already love and cherish their Forgotten Woods discs, there are indeed two unreleased tracks (three, if you count the weird 10 second spoken word outro), both incredibly raw, some sort of rehearsal or practice space recordings, but even in that form, maybe especially, they completely kick ass, heavy and stumblingly brutal, but with an incredible pop sensibility buried right below the surface. The second track has a definite Slinty Ved Buens Ende vibe, but both are amazing, proving that besides being grim and true, these guys, whether they realized it or not, were incredible songwriters as well. So recommended, as is the triple cd set (maybe even more so!).

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MPEG stream: Untitled 2

Finally, the last piece of the Forgotten Woods puzzle. We listed the amazing 3cd box Baklengs Mot Stupet 1992-1996 ages ago, and STILL we can barely keep it in stock. It collected most of the essential FW material, all of it mindblowing. Recently, one by one, the various releases included in the 3cd box have been getting reissued on vinyl. This, The Curse Of Mankind is the last one to hit wax, a bit prciey as the exchange rate sucks and overseas shipping on heavy heavy vinyl is steep, but it's a doozy. A massive double lp. If you're new to the wondrous and cracked black world of Forgotten Woods, then read on... Clearly this '90s Norwegian black metal band has a cult following! But just why are these Forgotten Woods so unforgettable? Well, first off, and at first listen, this will definitely appeal to the whole raw, old-school, Nordic forest black metal necrocrowd. Really good grim stuff in the unholy spirit of classic Darkthrone and Burzum, but with that extra kinda inept, Benighted Leamsish fuckedupedness to it that of course makes us love it all the more. And, additionally and importantly, there's also always a strange, unexpected sort of poppiness underlying everything, despite song titles like "Grip Of Frost" and "Dimension Of The Blackest Dark". As a friend (who also likes this band, and is a member of Thuja, the Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, the Skygreen Leopards and a bunch of other Jewelled Antler acts) put it, "man it's good...completely inept, like they're barely pulling it off, total 13-year-old-metal-kid-in-the-basement drums." That by itself would be enough to explain this band's appeal. But our sensibilities here at AQ are further stoked by the fact that the more you delve into these discs, the more you find yourself wondering just what the hell you're listening to...as Forgotten Woods mysteriously morphs by the third cd into something that sounds like jazz-inflected, naive indie-rock mopery, with clean jangly guitars that starts to sound like Felt or The Church or even Maher Shalal Hash Baz! Other tracks seem to echo The Cure, all slow and post-punkish... what a weird band! We can only wonder at what they thought they were doing, and wonder even more so at why they're so accepted by the grim black metal underground. It's the kind of black metal (like Benighted Leams, Xasthur, Lugubrum, Leviathan, Abruptum, Meads of Asphodel, Ved Buens Ende, and Sigh for example) that we have to recommend to all of our customers who are into (not-necessarily metal) weirdness.

Wow, well, we thought we'd heard every weird-ass variation on black metal possible... but we had never heard black metal with autotuned vocals before, until now. That's right, autotune, the computer program used and abused by all of today's worst pop stars (and many amusing YouTube videos). In this black metal context, it's pretty funny, and clever, if you're not too "troo" to get into this obscure Norwegian duo's blend of blasting grimnity and (artificially enhanced) soaring melody... And autotune's not the only unusual feature of Formloff's "black metal", other factors that make this disc surreal and subversive include an obvious affinity for both '70s prog (including lots of groovy-proggy organ), and the latest in emo-pop electronica. And more. They have a kitchen sink approach that really works, maybe because it combines the sudden mood/genre swings with plenty of melody. So, there's techno beats on here, alongside hysterical screaming vokills, buzzsaw guitars, spacey electronic textures, symphonic metal, and even a chorus of dogs barking on the track "Gregor Samsa I Las Vegas"... yet it's catchy too. Yeah, yeah, it sounds a bit silly on paper, and we don't mind silly, but actually it seems like Formloff -aren't- just joking around, or at least that's the feeling we get, though all the singing, autotuned or otherwise (there's all kinds of gruff growling and funny voices as well) is in Norwegian, so we can't judge from the lyrics what the heck is really going on. Maybe a good thing. We imagine they're pretty bizarre though. This is the Norwegian duo Formloff's debut (and thus far, only) full-length, from 2006, recorded when the band members were still in their teens. Apparently the label that put this out folded not long afterwards, so this release never really was properly distributed. We recently acquired some copies from a friend of the band who thought we might like it... and we do! Pretty amazing stuff, actually, musically and conceptually, and if you're into genre-splicing, mashed-up weirdness a la Mr. Bungle, as well as the Nordic black metal of Darkthrone and Enslaved, you should definitely check out Formloff! To further elaborate on the "for-fans-of" thing, we should mention Sigh's Gallow's Gallery, also Arcturus, Shining, various bands on Garm of Ulver's Jester label, latter-day Master's Hammer, and Pan-thy-monium if you remember them. Not surprisingly, the cd booklet graphics aren't your usual black metal style either, referencing generic 1950s conformist Leave It To Beaver domesticity instead of the usual corpse paint and burning churches. Huh. Well we're enjoying this, and certainly curious about what's next from Formloff, as we're told they've got a new album in the works as well...

MPEG stream: Sovjets Modifiserte
MPEG stream: Arild Menzonis' Traumatiske Liv
MPEG stream: Paralyserende Stove Fra Romstasjon 13

A brand new blast of grim frostbitten Canadian blackness from the masters of Metal Noir Quebecois, Forteresse. We were first struck by these guys when we saw the cover of their first record, an old yellowed photo of a young man cradling a violin, then once we threw the record on, it began with a crackly old recording of some sort of folky fiddle music. Whatthefuck, we were thinking, until the band launched into the first track, exploding in a frenzy of classic sounding nineties styled black metal buzz. That record was a tribute to the folk music and culture of the French part of North America apparently, but as we mentioned in the review of that disc, we never would have known it but for those brief bits of scratchy violin. This latest disc seems to be also steeped in some sort of mythology, the record cover, a very Burzum like black and grey drawing of some old farm house, of leafless winter trees and thick drifts of snow, they are Canadian after all. The songs separated into movements. The music inside is appropriately frosty and grim, barren and wintry, a distinct departure from the thick black buzz of their debut. Here, the sound is super brittle and high end, the tracks are super washed out, the buzzing guitars so smeared and blurred and mixed down that they sound almost like long static streaks of upper register drone, the drums way down in the mix, surfacing here and there in brief flurries of percussive mayhem, but just as often rendered a relentless muted throb, the vocals a harsh howl sprawled over the top. The result is amazing and totally mesmerizing, an intense blown out blackness, that is rife with soaring keening high end tones, shards of feedback, the riffs cyclical and repetitive. Our favorite track would have to be "Tenebras", where all of the above elements are made even more extreme, the riffing becomes some soaring looped ur-drone, super emotional majestic streaks of sound are woven into an almost static wall of throbbing high end, the drums more a distant splatter of subtle pulses, the vocals even more anguished, tangled up in the shimmering strands of sound, the result is something truly original and unlike any black metal we've heard. There must be some sort of keyboards happening too, the sound is thick and layered but it just sounds like long drawn out drones arranged into an alien orchestral black drift. WOW. The sound might have changed, but Forteresse have managed to somehow get both better and weirder, and thus remain still, one of our favorite of the current crop of buzzing black hordes.

MPEG stream: En Quete Du Souvenir
MPEG stream: Ancienne Voix

Another blast of�Metal Noir Quebecois from the great white North. And we're talking Canada of course, Quebec to be exact (duh). From the same label that brought us the depressive doom laden melancholia of Sombres Forets, and is run by the guys in Canadian black metal legends Frozen Shadows. In case you hadn't figured out�Metal Noir Quebecois, that's�Quebecois black metal! And this is some seriously grim and blasting nineties style frosty blackness for sure, the guitars are thick and massive, a dense black buzz, the drums are blasting, the riffs are killer, while other guitars wail and swoop beneath the main riffs, creating a tangled backdrop of haunting melodies and epic grandeur for the swirling relentless buzzing blackness above.� Supposedly, with�Metal Noir Quebecois, Forteresse are celebrating�the folkloric music and culture of the French part of North America, which is most noticeable (actually maybe ONLY noticeable) in the intros to some of the tracks, old scratchy recordings of traditional fiddle music (hence the old photo of a man cradling his fiddle on the cover), lots of crackle and hiss, the fiddle sawing out a sort of jig, or jaunty little folk tune, before being obliterated by the black wall of buzzing sound, very jarring, very bizarre, but somehow it works. And the metal itself, even without the strangely out of place fiddle intros, is some of the most glorious blasting buzz we've heard in ages. Definitely one of our new favorite black metal discs...

The grim masters of Metal Noir Quebecois return with this two song ep, hot on the heels of their full length we raved about a little while back. That record while being a primo slab of intense blackened buzz, was also notable for the song intros, old time scratchy recordings of solo violin, as the band is a tribute of sorts to the French folkloric music of North America (further referenced by the cover art, showing an old photo of a man cradling his fiddle). For this two song follow up, the fiddles are gone, but everything else remains the same, two intense blasts of furious, classic, epic, Norwegian style black metal, relentless, nearly unwavering blast beats, dense buzzing riffage, insane double kick flourishes, and majestic melodies soaring over the grim buzz. Super intense, and nearly static in tempo, both songs seem to have only two parts, the more buzzing frosty 'verses' and the epic triumphant 'choruses', the songs looping back and forth, repetitive and gloriously trance inducing. Pressed on thick vinyl, housed in a black and white, very Buzumic sleeve, and LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one hand numbered...

We somehow managed to miss out on Voluspa Part I, but fear not, you can join right in for part two, you haven't missed too much, and if you did it's easy enough to get caught up.� Fortid are from Iceland and offer up a dense, and epic sprawling prog black metal. With some Viking overtones, and lots of gorgeous ambience mixed in. There's plenty of buzzing guitar and harsh hellish howls for the truly black hearted, but these bursts of blackness are often accompanied by long drawn out piano flecked intros, or loping melancholy midtempo bridges, and more often than not super dramatic, near operatic crooning.� Opening with a drawn out tranquil soundscape, all glistening synths and warm washes of ambience, the band soon lurch into action, the guitars a fierce buzz, the vocals warm and almost chant like, the drums a blasting chaotic freakout, definitely programmed, but they sound real, sort of distorted, until they stumble through some inhuman fill, which they do a lot, and piano everywhere, even during the heaviest blasting buzz bits, the piano is there, offering up some haunting minor key melodic counterpoint. The sound is definitely Viking, with plenty of moody melancholy Katatonia sort of musical drama, sweeping and epic and sorrowful, but don't get the wrong idea, sure a lot of this is moody and gloomy and dramatic, but there are also stretches of furious black blasting, old school grim buzz, it's just that those moments are often butted up against something much more melodic or progressive. It makes for a pretty great mix, a very dynamic blackened musical journey for sure.� Recommended for all fans of progressive and avant black buzz, and this will probably hit the spot for anyone who typically digs stuff on No Colours...

MPEG stream: Odin's Sacrifice
MPEG stream: Baldur's Murder

We were pretty much already sold before hearing a single note from this new Bay Area metal horde, based almost entirely on the record cover, a super bad ass D&D style drawing of a compliment of orcs (we presume, nerds feel free to correct us), wielding axes, shrunken heads on pikes, weird bird dragon things, not to mention a hot naked human female, no doubt the spoils of whatever metal war these guys were waging, and they're called Fortress, the band logo like some stone hewn castle, and of course there's the description of the band on their website: "Fortress are ancient battle sorcerers, who, for one thousand sun cycles, have cheated death and dealt blistering heavy metal thunder upon the known and unknown worlds. They are also nerds." Both of which are true, they most certainly do rain down heavy metal thunder, the sounds classic metal riffery, harmonized guitar leads, the sound epic and supremely majestic! And they are also most definitely nerds, check out the song titles: "Goblin III", "Rad Racer", "Kevin Bacon", "Huxtability Verified" and of course opener "Jumanji", complete with the bellowed chorus: "Robin Williams, you're full of shit!". So yeah, already you can tell, these guys have tongue firmly in cheek, but their metal is no joke. With a slightly different cast these guys could find themselves sonically aligned with Slough Feg instead of Hot Fog, but hell, we digging this, inside jokes and all. The vocals might be the one thing that keep Fortress from being true metal masters, unlike the majestic metal croon of someone like Slough Feg's Mike Scalzi, the vocals in Fortress are more of a raspy punk rock bellow, which had us thinking of bands like Karp or Godheadsilo, but for folks who dig both classic metal and metallic punk, these guys definitely kill it, lacing their sonic epicry with the appropriate sound effects (thunder, rain, etc.), and mood music, and interludes, and even with the punkish bellow, and some straight up joke tracks, the second their sound soars into some majestic metal moments, all fist pumping, head banging, harmony guitars, or power metallized pummel, your metal heart would have to be dead for you not to dig it. 180 gram black vinyl with blood red splatter, the aforementioned killer cover art, and includes a digital download too!

MPEG stream: Jumanji
MPEG stream: Tough Tommy Thompson
MPEG stream: Goblin III

[ aquarius records — Metal ]