Total slice and dice, chop and loop, skitter and stutter, bleep and bloop, head spinning, dancefloor destroying, 8-bit, video game. electro pop sonic mayhem, not that you'd be able to tell from the first couple tracks, a gently swirling bit of dreamy shimmer, with muted buried rhythms, slowly building to a poppy playful bit of processed skitter, that almost sounds like a Hello Kitty version of Venetian Snares. The same sort of rhythmic drill and bass, but way cuter and poppier, lots of video game sounds, little snippets of voices, bits of glitch and crunch, for all it's density and complexity, it's also pretty dang hooky, reminding us a lot of Aphex Twin's classic "Girl / Boy".
The rest of the record is a non stop barrage of hyperspeed jungle beats, buzzing synths, woozy warped melodies, twisted samples, big beats, pounding techno rhythms, bits of throbbing dubstep, tangled electronic squiggles, all wound into super fun, and funky, booty shaking, rib cage rattling, high energy electro spazz groove. The record finishes the way it began, all washed out and dreamy, electronic ambient pop drift and shimmer, but between those two tranquil bookends, is a nonstop Technicolor explosion of tangled and twisted freaked out sounds and spastic beats!!
We listed another record by this French one man band a few lists back, sold out of them in a flash, so when we restocked, we managed to get the remaining copies of this second release, Towards The Surface, we got less than a dozen though, and once they're gone they are GONE for good, as it's out of print.
We mentioned in that other review that Fragment. (the period IS part of the name) was mining a sound not all that removed from Jesu and Nadja, but listening to this now, it's really driving home just how much this stuff sounds EXACTLY like Jesu, it's almost criminal actually, but hell, if you're hankering for some heavy blissed out dreamy chugging shoegazey post metal, and can't wait for the next Jesu record, then heck, grab one of these.
The sound is of course fantastic, epic and majestic and bleary eyed, a little bit more mellow and laid back than Jesu proper, but quite similar in most other respects, the industrial pound, the layered warm guitar shimmer, the muted metallic chug, the mumbled sad boy vocals, all woven into a gorgeously blown out drone drenched epic dream metal drift. Listening to it again right now, and it sounds so fantastic, it just also happens to sound so fantastically like Jesu.
Cool packaging too, a cd sized dvd case with the full color artwork on a narrow strip along the center of the case, leaving the rest of the case transparent and the disc revealed.
Killer debut from this French one man post rock outfit, whose sound definitely leans toward Jesu and Nadja and that sort of fuzz drenched dirginess. From the first few second of the opening track, the 'band' launches into a blissed out hazy drift, programmed drums pound out a hypnotic beat, the guitars swirl, wreathed in thick crumbling fuzz, and then the vocals, holy cow, they sort of seal the deal as far as Jesu-ness is concerned, a dead ringer for Justin Broadrick's reverb drenched soft croon.
If anything, imagine a more laid back, driftier dreamier Jesu, which sounds like a very good thing, and it is. The songs to get chunky and riffy launching into stretches of muscled metallic pound, and just as often the sound slips into super minimal drones, whether it's synths or guitars, it's difficult to tell, but the end result is the same, warm fuzzy rumbles and blissed out murky whir. Then the drums kick in, then the vocals, and the sound is squarely back in Jesu / Nadja territory.
Folks looking for something totally original, that they've never ever heard before, might fight Fragment a little frustrating, but for anyone who loves THAT sound, the blissed out shoegazey metallic post rock shimmer of Jesu, or the distorted drenched dream doom of Nadja, and wants more more more, and might even like that sound even more if it were softer and prettier, well then Fragment will definitely hit the spot.
A perfect collection of late night drifting-off soft metallic drift. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Probably the last copies we'll be able to get...
A friend of ours was telling us all about Frail, and the way he described it, we knew it was something we had to hear. Imagine a band that sounded exactly like the Cure, but with harsh black metal vokills!! Listening to it now he wasn't that far off the mark. This is some seriously strange stuff. Not heavy at all really, jangly, poppy, a little gothy and depressive, minor key, the drums simple and solid, soaring synths, guitar and bass locked into moody grooves, a little bit eighties new wave, all the while the vocalist howls his harsh demonic screech over the top, which turns it into something completely, well, fucked up really. But kind of genius. The music at times reminds us of Alcest or Amesoeurs but with all the metal removed, pretty and lilting and melancholy, drifting and jangling beneath those hellish howls. Not sure what else to say, if you're anything like us, you already added this to your cart, and it's going to fast become one of your favorite new records. Definitely an acquired taste, but then all the best tastes are...
Absolutely one of Andee's new favorite black metal recordings!!
All right! Just in time for summer, some hot rockin' action outta Sweden! This is an aptly titled debut of catchy, classic hard rock / metal in the grand tradition of AC/DC, with a dash of Van Halen - updated with a bit of a heavier sound. Free Fall was formed by the ex-guitarist from popular garage psych act The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, in cahoots with a few other hotshot musicians (in Sweden, there's lots), including the drummer from International Noise Conspiracy, and, crucially, a previously unknown vocalist named Kim Fransson whose sandpapered pipes convincingly conjure positive comparisons to the likes of AC/DC's Bon Scott and Humble Pie's Steve Marriott - when Fransson sings "I'm the king of rock and roll" on the album's title track, his voice sells it, despite the fact that we've never heard him or them before.
There's a wild abandon to this, the guitar solos in particular, and in addition we dig how Free Fall have a formula and do it well - but also stick to that formula only as much as they wanna, allowing for some originality and surprises. The track "Attila" ferinstance, slows things down and establishes an interestingly moody vibe, still appropriately within the context of this band's '70s inspired hard rock concept, being a heartfelt semi-ballad with lashings of sinister riffery.
They cite The Who as a big influence and that's heard here, on eponymous track "Free Fall" for sure, along with the aforementioned AC/DC, VH, UFO, Montrose, Nazareth, etc. Unlike some other bands trying to capture the same sort of retro rock magic, Free Fall really do deliver - possibly the secret to their success is that these are garage/punk dudes, not metallers, so they're kinda coming at these sounds on the same trajectory as musicians back in the day.
In a just, rockin' world, these guys would be huge. Heck maybe they will be, and Fransson's line will be proved no idle boast. Recommended if you're ready to rock.
The metalheads around aQ, it seems, will always have a soft spot for stoner rock. There's just something about it that always does the trick, the Sabbathy grooves, the thick Kyuss-y sunbaked guitars, the wailing vox, that combination of heaviness and groove is pretty irresistible, but like any genre, there are way more mediocre groups than killer outfits, and in a genre that to some degree is derivative by its very nature, that makes it even harder for a band to sound original, or to at least cop from other bands and in some way make that sound their own. And as avid readers of the aQ list no doubt know by now, we have a serious thing for Freedom Hawk, whose self titled record was a runaway hit around here, one of Andee's favorite records of that year, and even though Allan tried to fight it for some reason, eventually he relented too and admitted he dug 'em too. We then had to track down their other record, the equally kick ass Sunlight - and now, after playing those to death, comes their brand new record Holding On, which as you might imagine, and as we desperately hoped, everything we loved about those other two records are present in full effect: massive riffing, wild shredding leads, killer grooves, pounding drums, epic jams, and those wailing Ozzy like vocals, sounding more like classic Ozzy than Ozzy himself has for years, and the songs, heavy, psychedelic, groovy, spaced out, slipping easily from smoldering dirges to galloping blasts of metallic heaviness, and ruling equally at both. Just check out the samples, and be prepared to dig them so much, that if you haven't already, you'll probably end up needing the other two records as well.
For all the avant weirdness and grim black heaviness we dig around aQ, we somehow find ourselves constantly returning to this lately. In fact, the second this week's list is finished and sent off, and there's no reviewing left to be done (at least for another couple days), odds are this is probably the record we're gonna throw on, which says a whole lot. Hooky and heavy, with actual songs that will get lodged in your head like crazy, the sort of hard rocking heaviness you wanna blast at ear splitting volume with the top down, and the sun dipping below the horizon, as you blast down the interstate.
Stoner record of the year without a doubt. But it might even make it out of the stoner rock ghetto and onto some top tens proper, you never know...
Freedom Hawk's most recent full length was a surprise hit around here, a surprise to everyone BUT Andee, who was lobbying all along for it to be Record Of The Week. But plenty of folks still got the message loud and clear, and we sold a ton, which really should come as no surprise considering how heavy and groovy and hooky and stonery and kick ass that record was. Here's how we described it for anyone who missed it:
"Huge sun baked riffs, throbbing fuzz bass, crashing drums, and howled Ozzy like vox, and most importantly some seriously catchy songs. Think a killer mix of vintage Kyuss, early Queens Of The Stone Age and classic Ozzy."
Sound good huh? That's cuz it is. And this one is just as good, if anything, the Ozzy vocals are even MORE Ozzy, in fact, reviews online described this record as the "record Ozzy SHOULD have made", which is sort of true. It's Sabbathy, melodic and heavy, definitely catchy, and those vocals, wailing and classic. It's really hard to know what else to say about these guys, we're all raved out after reviewing the self-titled full length, but needless to say, if you dug that one, you probably want this one too, and if you somehow didn't catch on until now, grab this, dig it, like crazy, and then get the other one too.
It's pretty much irresistible, massive riffing, wailing vox, killer harmonies, wild drumming, insanely catchy songs, cool fucked up arrangements, hooks all over the place, GUITAR SOLOS! Not to mention one song that's a surprisingly spaced out experimental almost dub reggae sounding slow burn space groove, like their very own "Planet Caravan" or something. And be sure to stick around for the hidden extra track (or not), a fucked up and way drugged out, very goofy 'funk'(?) jam...
These guys are definitely one of our favorite new discoveries, and both Freedom Hawk records have been on non stop heavy rotation for the last few months, and that shows no sign of letting up anytime soon...
We have to admit, when we first got this in, there were some Freedom Rock jokes, "Is that Freedom Hawk? Well, TURN IT UP", but that lasted precisely until we threw it on the stereo, at which point "Is that Freedom Hawk? Well, TURN IT UP" stopped being a joke and became a COMMAND, something we found ourselves thinking if not saying every time someone put it on in the store. Easily the heaviest, hookiest, grooviest slab of stoner rock / hard rock / classic metal we've heard all year. Huge sun baked riffs, throbbing fuzz bass, crashing drums, and howled Ozzy like vox, and most importantly some seriously catchy songs. Think a killer mix of vintage Kyuss, early Queens Of The Stone Age and classic Ozzy. It's stoner rock for sure, it is after all on the stoner rock centric Meteor City label, but it's so METAL, and so so poppy and catchy, and yeah heavy, totally rocking, very likely to induce headbanging, or at the very least air guitaring. One or two folks here thought maybe it was too derivative, and hell these guys do plunder and purloin, but they were quickly won over by the sound, the songs, and how these guys OWN their influences. Even the folks less inclined toward this sort of stuff, we've caught throwing this on when they though no one was listening.
At first we thought this was just a fun record, a sort of guilty pleasure even, but fuck it, this RULES, a killer hard rock / stoner metal record, well crafted, the playing bad ass, the sound warm and crunchy, the songs so catchy, guaranteed to stick in your head like crazy. We could go on and on, and usually do, but the true test is really how much we end up listening to something, and how often it gets played in the store, and if that's really the case, well, then this might just end up being one of THEE records of 2009 (in fact it even made it onto one aQuarian's top 10!!)...
Eric Friesen is one of those guys who takes the "classical music was the heavy metal of the 1700s" idea seriously. He's best known (to a small cult following) as one of the two guitarists in the underground black metal band Windham Hell, who hail from the
Eric Friesen is one of those guys who takes the "classical music was the heavy metal of the 1700s" idea seriously. He's best known (to a small cult following) as one of the two guitarists in the underground black metal band Windham Hell, who hail from the
There's been lots of talk about heartbreak around these parts, and the best break up records, and that sort of thing. Windy thinks the new Built To Spill record is the perfect break up record, all bittersweet and caustic, but light and hopeful at the same time.
Two long out of print albums filthy furious black buzz, now available again, on a single cd.
Dirty, necrotic black metal outta Birmingham, England from the man behind exalted British black metal band Anaal Nathrakh! Guitar, bass, drums, backing vocals, and the recording were all handled by multi-talented metal fiend Mick "Irrumator" Kenny, who in addition to being the mastermind responsible for Anaal Nathrakh, also does time in�Mistress, and runs Necrodeath Recording Studio. Sounds like one of them one-man bands so prevalent in black metal, eh? Not so fast. Actually, Frost is a trio, rounded out by The Fog (lead vocals and "foggifications") and The Shid (vocals and "necrochoir"). Dunno how they do things live, or if they do...anyway, if you like the doomy distorted screaming power of old school Scandinavian black metal, that's what Mick and crew traffic in, and what Cursed again is packed with. Mayhem and Darkthrone all the way. As "necro" as Mick's main band Anaal Nathrakh is, this goes further with that ancient feeling. Less blasting, more 'banging. These guys know that a black metal called Frost had better be good -- good n' frosty -- and they don't fail!
Talking To God is Frost's remarkably catchy, almost melodic 2nd album. Still super-necro, totally fierce and heavy, yet not without a covert pop component. Or at least, it gets as pop as any album with song titles like "Filthy Black Shit" can be. Crushing doom-stortion, trebly guitar leads, brutal drumming, weird textures and vocal parts, all surging along to some grand and magnificent end with that rare "I'm gonna listen to that again now that it's over" x-factor. Impressive.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A remarkably catchy, almost melodic 2nd album from this Anaal Nathrakh side project! Frost's brand of black metal is super-necro, totally fierce and heavy yet not without a covert pop component. Or at least, it gets as pop as any album with song titles like "Filthy Black Shit" can be. Crushing doom-stortion, trebly guitar leads, brutal drumming, weird textures and vocal parts, all surging along to some grand and magnificent end with that rare "I'm gonna listen to that again now that it's over" x-factor. Impressive.
Yes, this is indeed the same black metal Frost that's the side project of Irrumator (aka Mick) from UK noisemongers Anaal Nathrakh and Mistress. Southern Lord, assuredly fans of Frost's excellent albums Cursed Again and Talking To God, have slapped four new Frost songs onto a lil' 3" cd (which comes packaged in an all-black, regular 5" cd jewel case). Oh happy, necro day!
This wee disc contains the filthy, savage sounds of buzzing guitars, a drum kit being beaten to death, and plenty of fully amped and atmospheric fingers-slammed-in-thee-piano-lid-keyboards (with resultant blood-curdling vocal screams!). Irrumator and Co. do not hold back -- they've only got 17 minutes but they make 'em about as black metal a 17 minutes as ever have been!
A few months ago, we reviewed I am Providence, Frostmoon Eclipse's entry in God Is Myth's series of 3"cd-r tributes to H.P. Lovecraft (we have a very few copies left!) but way before that ep, this Italian horde's most recent full length dropped, and we're only finally getting to it now.
Another Face Of Hell, their fourth full length in 13 years, finds the band continuing their gradual development into something much more than a buzzing black metal band, incorporating long acoustic guitar passages, more midtempos, LOTS of melody, in fact, a lot of the time they sound more like a dark rock band with blackened tendencies, than an all out black metal group. Some tracks are gloomy and gothy and depressive, loping tempos and grunted vocals, wrapped around haunting minor key melodies, others are all acoustic guitar and drums, some, the vocals a wraith like rasp, the sound almost more like the Swans or some other doom dirge outfit, but then, the band will explode with a full on furious old school black metal attack, all insectoid riffing and blinding blast beats.
Frostmoon Eclipse is probably losing favor with the grim hordes, as their sound progresses, and that's definitely the right word, as the sound is getting more and more progressive, but who cares, as a band, they sound better than ever. They're still blackened and buzzy, but the songs are killer, and catchy, the guitar parts, the riffs, the melodies, all manage to be super catchy without losing any of their power. The closest comparison we can come up with, and we've mentioned this before, is Opeth. The balance between melody and heaviness, between electric and acoustic. But of course, Frostmoon have their own distinct take on that mix, less complex and prog, yet much more black, and at the same time much more ROCK. Frostmoon once again offer up a killer mix of brutal black intensity, folky flutter, brooding dark doom, and classic heavy rock. Excellent!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another amazing release from Greek black metal label ISO666. Frostmoon Eclipse play bleak, blazing fast, epic black metal ala Mayhem and Emperor, but before you can yawn and emit that same-old-thing sigh, FE break it down into some serious indie rock
Yet another entry in God Is Myth's ongoing series of 3"cd-r homages to horror author H.P. Lovecraft, who is obviously one of the main sources for metal band names, song titles and lyrical themes. Get rid of Lovecraft and Tolkien and suddenly metal bands would have names like Sunshine and Tigerlilly and would sing songs about picnics and rowboats. But fear not, until some mischievous soul with a time machine gets some crazy ideas, all is well in metal.
Past installments have come from a pretty disparate selection of black metal and black ambient outfits: Caina, Harvist, LVTHN, Sapthuran, Smohalla, and now Frostmoon Eclipse.
Although we've only ever listed one Frostmoon record, we've long been big fans, their blend of classic Norwegian style black metal, a la Mayhem, Emperor with dark moody rock, a brooding gothic groove, the result is a strangely catchy, but still fiercely heavy blackened metallic rock. With long stretches of acoustic guitar, simple drumming and almost flamenco style melodies, they definitely remind us of Opeth as well. But FE manage to take their influences and distill something distinctly their own. The strange thing is, we almost prefer the band when they are all acoustic, which much of this ep ends up being, evoking all sorts of melancholic emotions, with just steel strings and a hushed whispered vocal. That said, these guys can crush, and the blasts of heaviness are indeed intense and blackened, blending perfectly with the folky flutter and dark ambient drift surrounding it.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES. Already sold out and out of print. We got nearly a quarter of those, but like past installments these will no doubt disappear quick. Packaged in a normal slimline cd case, with black and white covers and a sepia printed cardstock insert with a photo and a brief biography of Lovecraft.
We've been trying to track down records by this Canadian black metal horde for ages, but with no luck, when suddenly we got an email from a label that just happened to be run by the Frozen Shadows guy. And not only was the label amazing, focusing on grim frosty black metal from Quebec (see Sombres Forets reviewed elsewhere on this list), they also had copies of this, the most recent Frozen Shadows full length, which also comes with their first demo as a bonus disc!
So what is it exactly, that had us so keen to track down music from this band? Hard to put into words, but seconds into the first track you'll see exactly why. A furious frosty blast of blackness, the Canadian Blizzard Beasts for sure, a perfect blend of classic Norwegian black metal and a more sort of raw buzz. Drums way up in the mix, so blast beats are thick clouds of noxious rhythm, the guitars thick and icy, the vocals a demonic rasp, but FS have their own angle, some cool midtempo bits, with thick swirls of keyboard and haunting clean guitars, stretches of dirgey pummel, but for the most part, Frozen Shadows blaze furiously through fields of grim buzz and icy blur.
And as weird as it may seem, the bonus disc might be even better. Recorded way back in 1996 and it sounds like it. Just as grim and frosty as the new disc, but even more fast and furious, the relentless buzz and freakishly fast blasts, haunting chantlike vocals, a buzzy lo-fi production that manages to still be thick and heavy, everything just a little bit more raw and Nordic sounding. In fact, on first listen you'd be hard pressed to not think this was some classic slab of Norwegian blackness.
Two amazing blizzardy blasts that should most definitely satisfy your grim frost fix.
"Fuckin' feel good party metal. Smoking pot and surfing and skating and hanging out in the parking lot of the local 7-11, drinking beer, scamming on chicks, no future: just our friends, babes, and ALL SUMMER LONG!!! 'California Crossing' is right. This is the
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
As rock heroes, Fu Manchu are hopelessly overrated, but these high-concept stoners still provide some decent summertime fun if you can get past the weak vocals. This disc is enhanced with some cd-rom videos and stuff, but unfortunately is not enhanced by their uninspired Devo cover. Buy it if you must, but also be sure to visit our new "Classic Rock" section and pick up a copy of of Nazareth's "Hair Of The Dog" or AC/DC's "For Those About To Rock". Then you'll be all right, yeah.
This is the band that we all just assumed would be our all time favorite, simply based on the fact that they're called FUCK... I'M DEAD. Is that not the best band name ever? Don't answer that. It's a rhetorical question. And anyway, the answer is YES, it is the
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The one, the only, the...fucking...Champs! After three years, finally we get their second album (called "IV" on account of the couple of cassette releases that preceded "III"). Ok. Here's the run down, for those who do and who don't know the Champs (and to know them is to love them): they're a trio, they have two guitarists very interested in harmonies, but no bassist, they have song titles like "These Glyphs Are Dusty" and "Thor Is Like Immortal", they play metal but pass it off as indie rock in order to be popular (hey, they're on Fucking Drag City), and they are primarily an instrumental band. Oh, and they have lots of self-imposed problems with their name, always worried about being confused with those "Tequila" oldsters. This time, they're the FUCKING Champs (I prefer: The C'fuckin'hamps myself), but you've probably run across that amazing "III" record by C4AMP5, it's the same band of course. So, how's the new album? Well, it rules. It's a lot shorter than "III" (which was a double LP for goshsakes) at 38 minutes, and pretty much each and every one of those minutes is packed with Thin Lizzy/Maiden/Metallica/Van Halen lovin' genius. There's a lot less of the techno keyboard interludes that they did on "III", this has its gentle moments but none of that Trans Am-ish stuff. (Although it is on current heavy rotation in Windy's 1980 Firebird Trans Am, hey! ) It's also a bit poppier, on the whole. And in another brilliant move the Champs make you wait until the very last song ("Extra Man") to hear vocals. Drummer Tim Soete's vocals and the catchiness of the tune are certainly manifestations of their Thin Lizzy worship, but, being the Champs, even this vocal cut has a lot of instrumental sections, including a lengthy bit in the middle that seems dropped in from a hypothetical black metal math rock record. You'll be playing it over and over again, along with the rest of the disc. The Champs are probably the best (=least boring) post-rock band in the world, 'cause they're in fact a METAL band.
(And let's face it guys, if you're not metal, then you're a novelty act...but if one indie rock kid gets into Thin Lizzy or Carcass 'cause of The Champs, then more power to 'em!) Recommended, if you hadn't guessed! The perfect back-to-school rock soundtrack.
Fuckin' fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuckin' A. These guys rule. Yeah, the name change was stupid, but this, their second album for Drag City as The "Fucking" Champs *does* make you think such basic, expletive-laden, fists in the air, devil-horn sign waving thoughts. Fuck yeah! The Fucking Champs. Indeed. And even if Drag City (as a part of the "joke" presumably) won't let it be known that The Champs play METAL (or maybe it's the band's idea to keep that a 'secret' on their press material, preferring the term "total music"), they are a -for real- metal band. A weird one, and a great one. Now, I do worry for The Champs' sake that their instrumental math-metal virtuosity is enjoyed mainly as a novelty by their legions of ironic indie-rock fans...and if so, how many of these fans are going to be interested in "VI", "VII" and "VIII" when they come out? 'Cause "V", their latest, sees these lads go from strength to strength without significantly altering or diluting their vision. If you already love the Champs, you'll love "V" for sure, it's a lot like "IV" but without the one song with vocals found on that album (c'mon Tim Soete, sing!!). Also there's more fusion and classical moves on here -- one song is listed as copyright 1723 J.S. Bach ("Air On A G-String", which IS Johan's original title, although we were suspicious).
Indeed, within their distinctive sound, variety abounds on "V", from "I Am The Album Cover" which channels the techno-blues rockisms of late-period ZZ Top, to the Frippertronics-ish-isms elsewhere. There's also a bit of electronic tunesmithery that's so much better than anything they did in their collaboration with Trans Am. But that's no big stretch for this band, and for the most part "V" is heavy, rockin' Champs-at-their-best stuff, the trio dealing out rapid, tense riffing, no-denying-it's-metal-lic sheets of sound, and hard hitting drum filigree left right and center. Familiar faves previously only heard live and on old demo cassettes also appear. Melody and math and metal intertwine wonderfully over the fifteen tracks found here, and it's so good it's no joke. No more of a joke than, say, Hammers of Misfortune is (think about it).
That's the deal with the Champs. There's nothing inherently funny about their music (in fact, without vocals/lyrics, they're LESS funny than many of their influences, like Carcass and Metallica). Maybe that's why they like that "total music" tag. 'Cause at the end of the day, they make this music, and you listen to it, for the sake of the music alone, not for some post-hip, ironic, spoof-on-metal hilarity. I mean, a few of the song titles are amusing, but you also know they kind of mean stuff like "Hats Off To Music". No joking here, really. (But we do have to ask Josh Smith about The Guitar That Was Made Of Water that he has listed in his vast equipment array, among other things...)
Anyway, in sum: another winner from one of our all-time favorite bands!!
You can always rely on The Fucking Champs. Even after a several-year recording/touring hiatus, during which time drummer Tim Soete and guitarist Tim Green had to face a major lineup change -- replacing founding member guitarist Josh Smith (now in mod garage trio The Makes Nice) with Trans Am's Phil Manley -- they've come back to follow up 2002's V with the boldly titled VI and it's like they've never been gone. True they kept their hand in with 2004's Fucking Am album. But still, it's nice to have them back and doing what they do best, which is making Fucking Champs music. Phil fills Josh's shoes with aplomb, fitting in with the two Tims like the old friend and excellent musician that he is. So no problem there.
With renewed fire, VI demonstrates that the Champs really have created a sound unique unto themselves. Say what you will about ironic hipster metal irony gimmickry (no vocals, no bass, nerdy humor), the truth is that you know the Champs when you hear 'em. Sure it's easy to spot the influence of their childhood metal heroes (Metallica, Maiden, Lizzy, Carcass...) but what they really sound like is The Fucking Champs. And not too many bands can claim that they sound most like themselves. And that it's such a damn good sound!! Their majestic harmonies ascend to heaven borne on shafts of light, their chunky "dahdahdah" riffs require immediate and incessant headbanging, their sleek melodies always catch the ear, and their mathy arrangements dizzy and dazzle. Whether in the long run they were smart or not to market themselves mainly to the indie-rock crowd rather than the metal underground remains to be seen. Some might argue that they've painted themselves into a corner, but it's a corner we love to visit!!
Leading of with indeed very Champsy "The Loge" (already heard on Kemado's Invaders compilation btw), VI runs the gamut of Champsy treats and tricks. There's uptempo party rockers that are actually gorgeous prog epics in disguise ("A Forgotten Chapter In The History Of Ideas"), a few gently spacey keyboardy interludes ("Insomnia", "The Crystal Behind You"), even some lovely, lush quasi-Zep folkiness ("Dolores Park"). And of course plenty more powerful, Champsy compositions showcasing fretboard acrobatics, precision drum battery and stop on a dime tightness. About the only thing long-time Champs fans (like us) are going to find disappointing about this record is that, well, we were hoping Tim Soete would step out from behind his drum kit and SING at least one song here, we love his voice. But he doesn't. Oh well maybe next time he'll go for it and give us another "Extra Man" or "Summer Knights". Instead, Neil Hamburger's voice appears somewhere on here...
By the way, stay tuned at the end of the cd for the "hidden" track of chopped up studio chatter / repetitive riff collage. Brought a smile to our faces, might have been even funnier if they whould have started the record off with it!!
If we were to describe this band as sounding halfway between The Fucking Champs and The Ocean, you'd probably think were were, uhh, fucking with you. We're not though! It's kind of true. These boys have heavy guitars, brooding angst and fiery aggression to spare, and they're getting some of it out of their system... and into yours! Metallic post punk that will for sure satisfy the throngs of dirty rockers who are into corrosive, spazzy, dynamic angular art rock as well, as this comes complete with boy girl vocals, some new wave fuzz, bits of blown out surf rock, some droney krautrock, all scuffed up, roughed up and wrapped in a dark scuzzy sheen. Cool stuff!
More '70s collector cock-rock rediscovered and reissued by the maniacs at Monster. If you like Truth & Janey, JPT Scare Band, Ultra, Winterhawk, here's another gem from the past. 1980 actually. Full Moon rocked Pennsylvania clubs and bars with Thin
Merzbow, Merzbow, Merzbow. We love the ultra-prolific king of Japanese noise as much as the next person - maybe even more, since several of us here own the 50-cd Merzbox! But, it's almost impossible to keep up - and also, when you've already got at least 50 cds of Merzbow's noise, do you really need any more? However, we do still get intrigued whenever Merzbow goes and collaborates with (or remixes) some other artist, like a rock or metal band. Maybe 'cause we like our Merzbow rhythmic, as in, with drumming. Also a little bit of, uh, music, in the mix tends to make the noise parts even MORE effective and interesting in our opinion. So this new release on Profound Lore caught our ears - East Coast metalcore band Full Of Hell teaming up with Masami "Merzbow" Akita for not one but two cd's worth of intense destructo mayhem. The blasting drum battery, filthy riffage and throat-shredded vokills are all par for the course with Full Of Hell, but the presence of Merzbow's mad noise skillz tips the scales further into the extreme and avantgarde! More "power electronics" feedback, more hellish drone and distortion, more abstract abjection. It sounds as if the pit is feasting upon itself, as FoH's fierce metal core breaks loose from its moorings and plunges into the abyss, accompanied by what sounds like 1,000 vacuum cleaners in a windtunnel, that sort of thing. Of the two discs, there's one that's presented as the "main course" with printed lyrics in the digipack, that one seems more like Full Of Hell doin' their usual thing, with a (powerful) side of Merzbow - and also, some free jazz style horns on a few of the tracks!! The other disc, entitled Sister Fawn, seems intended as a bonus, and finds FoH and Merzbow more fully enmeshed, blurring the lines a bit more, the noise to the fore with beats and demented vocals in the background. Noisefreaks can go straight to that one, the metalheads should start with the first disc...
One of several new tapes on this week's list from local label Acephale Winter Productions, and another group new to us despite, as the title explains, having been around for a more than a decade, this tape being a sort of best of from this Canadian horde. And seeing as it's a best of, drawn from multiple releases, spread out over years, the sound, and sound quality varies greatly, but we have to say, we're digging pretty much all of it. The opener is furious drum machine driven slab of epic black metal, with a distinctly post-BM vibe, soaring and epic, with chiming guitars, the production lush and HEAVY, some cool weird breakdowns too with woozy, fretless sounding bass, and strange percussion, some foresty folk here and there, but for the most part, it's just epic and majestic, frosty, wintry black buzz. But the second track is totally different, way more lo-fi, and super symphonic, gnarled black buzz, and crumbling distortion wedded, to majestic orchestral pomp, with some classic metal chug, more weird bass, and some serious shreddery, we almost like this even more than the first track. And FF continues to confound, the third track sounding like a slightly more lo-fi Dimmu Borgir, retaining that symphonic sound, but adding dramatic spoken word, swirling synths, the results are pretty fantastic. From there on out, it seems like we're digging deep, with some tracks sounding like demos, super lo-fi, but with the same aspirations of metallic grandeur, which translates pretty well, even with the obvious recording limitations, the band also delving into blackened doom, as well as some sonic surprises like "Riding In The North", that seems to channel Borknagar, plenty of midtempo black buzz, but with dramatic piano, and some gothy crooned clean vocals, before the tape finishes off with two blasts of frosty black grimnity, one with some almost Queen sounding harmonized leads!! Killer stuff, that will definitely have us tracking down some of FF's full lengths!
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!! Guessing these won't be around for long...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Only recently did we finally get enough of these to list, and we've been trying since we listed Funeral Mist's more recent album, Salvation, WAY back on list #203. Even so, we only managed to get a handful so if when we run out be prepared to wait for us to get more.
For those of you whose black metal addled brains can barely remember all the way back to list #203 of last year, Funeral Mist's Salvation was quite possibly THE best black metal release of 2004, and one of our favorite BM records ever! Let's have a quick look at a bit of that review:
"It's been forever since we saw a record this beautiful and frightening looking, and so weird but utterly heavy sounding. This is definitely black metal. Appropriately buzzing and grim, with fuzzed out riffs and blasting rhythms and death rattle shrieks, but unlike most other black metal records, this is HEAVY. No, we mean H E A V Y."
And thus we went on and on about how unlike most black metal bands, where heaviness is sacrificed for speed and buzz, Funeral Mist manage to be fast and at the same time ultra heavy. Dense and completely pummeling. And beyond that, the songs are linked by and laced with bizarre suffocatingly intense ambient interludes, rife with unrecognizable samples, screams of terror, strange snippets of fifties orchestra music, thunder, lightning, droning rumble and smears of blacknoise, like the sound of hell, and Devilry is quite similar. In fact it might be even more intense, if that's possible. Devilry is from way back in 1998, and the sound is a little bit more raw, the production is a little bit more blown out, but the sound is very much the same, a frighteningly intense blast of Norwegian style black metal, with plenty of doomy melodic breakdowns, but the majority of Devilry is spent in full on blast mode, buzzed out guitars, impossibly heavy AND fast drumming, and super complex catchy songs. Hard to really put into words why this band kicks our asses so hard, their sound is just so visceral, and again SO HEAVY, the buzz is definitely still in full effect at all times, but the drums are hit so hard (there's even a sort of black metal drum solo!!) and the whole thing is just so LOUD and not at all lo-fi like so much of the black metal we love. A blackened upside down cross to the face, and we love it!
Also included is the Havoc Demo from 1996, which is a lot more lo-fi than Devilry, like a foetal version of what they would soon become, but even in their demo form, these songs leave practically all other BM in the dust, fuzzy and buzzy, tons of super bizarre affected vocals, strange production fuckery, killer riffs all tucked beneath Funeral Mist's warm black wings. SO FUCKING GREAT!!
This has to be one of the most anticipated black metal releases of the year, especially around here considering how much we LOVED the last Funeral Mist, Salvation, which managed to be blazing fast and technical but at the same time super heavy and well produced, none of the heft sacrificed for speed or buzz. Most definitely giving Deathspell Omega and Katharsis some serious competition. But Funeral Mist sort of dropped off the map, with mainman Arioch dedicating all his time to his other band, Marduk.
The with very little warning, word got out that there was a new Funeral Mist, and almost as quickly people started weighing in, most proclaiming Marantha to be shit, many bandying about words like 'nu-metal' to describe their sound, comparing them to Dimmu Borgir and Cradle Of Filth. Which more than anything had us dying to hear it.
We're happy to report, that while there's definitely a serious sea change in FM's sound, and they're definitely experimenting A LOT, they still destroy, and anyone who loved Salvation will most likely find much to dig here. Take record opener "Sword Of Faith": after some strange field recordings, a man screaming "It's the plague, it's the blood of Jesus!", tolling bells, strange beastly grunts, the band explodes into a burst of frenzied buzzing that to these ears sounds as good as anything on Salvation. Plenty of warped Deathspell style riffage, furious lightning fast drumming, some soaring Nordic style melody, the vocals seems to be the main difference, much louder in the mix, much gruntier and howly, less black metal shriek more guttural and almost hardcore sounding, the music around it sways and swells, slipping from doomy plod to insane lightspeed riffing, the band locked into intense mathmetal workouts, the whole sound dizzying and nearly overwhelming, the vocals getting a bit pirate-y here and there, but that just adds to the madness, if the whole record sounded like this, no one would be complaining, or at the very least they'd complain that the band hadn't progressed, but then comes "White Stone" and all bets are off.
Hard to even explain, the track begins with some tinny distorted riff, which gives way to a lurching dramatic doom, that sounds more Birthday Party or Swans than black metal, but then the guitars and the kick drum lock into a strange muted pulse, chugging away over near constant amp buzz, the vocals are WAY present, loud in the mix, backed up by weird chanting, the overall feel is gothic, almost industrial, but it's weird and twisted and black enough that it pretty much seals the deal for us. This record rules. Any black metal record that has the true grim hordes in an uproar must be doing something right.
But that bit of weirdness only lasts 4 minutes, and we're immediately thrust back into some seriously swirling sonic chaos called "Jesus Saves!", everything frantic and on the verge of total collapse, the vocals bizarre, almost Popeye-esque at times, growling over brief stretches of tranquility, sometimes slipping into hysterical howls, at one point the guitars actually get LOUDER, as in the sound of the whole record is suddenly bumped up making for some really strange dynamics, before the band slip back into some sort of brittle riffing, doomy drumming distant chanting and those monstrous growly vocals, and then inexplicably, the metal fades out, letting the last 3 minutes of the song play out as some strange almost looped sounding folk.
Minus that one track, it's really hard to see what people have been complaining about. This is some seriously twisted and heavy shit, the arrangements much more varied for sure, the vocals most definitely bizarre, but the music is just mindblowing, the riffs killer, with some awesomely fucked production, like during "A New Light" when the tape seems to melt leaving just the vocals, doused in some weird effects, making them sound like some sort of processed synth, before the song explodes again, only to slip into a weird plodding midtempo a few moments later, the drums beneath an angelic sounding choir while the vocals grunt and groan. Then there's "Blessed Curse", at nearly 12 minutes, all midtempo pound, and soaring minor key guitars, and trombone or trumpet part way through, making the band sound a bit like a blackened Beyond Dawn, the effect is awesome, haunting, ghostly, makes it seem less weird that Arioch's other band Marduk does a pretty killer Woven Hand cover. We can only imagine it sounds a little like this.
The last three songs offer up more of the same, that freaked out furious tangled blackness, rife with all sorts of what-the-fuck parts, some really bizarre almost Eastern pop sounding vocals dropped right into a swirl of black riffing, long stretches of gloomy almost new wave sounding trudge, Swans like riffing, tortured vocals, lots of creepy atmospherics, all culminating in a strange orchestral outro, timpani's and horns, dramatic and mysterious like some strange Bernard Hermann score.
Fuck the haters. The more we listen to this, the better it gets, and the weirder it gets, not just the riffs, but some of the fucked up parts and the weird effects have gotten stuck in out heads, this is some awesomely progressive, damaged and demented blackened genius, once we got into it, and sort of let it all sink in, we found ourselves practically unable to listen to anything else, so we're hereby declaring this as a contender for black metal record of the year. You have been warned.
One of our ALL TIME favorite black metal records finally repressed and available again!
It originally took us a good long while to get enough copies of Salvation so we could review it on the AQ list, and while we were super psyched to finally be able to turn every one on to this amazing disc, we were also a little freaked out, since suddenly we were faced with the prospect of trying to put into words just what it is that is so amazing about this record. And what it is we decided, is EVERYTHING, from the art to the songs to the production, just everything. It's been forever since we saw a record this beautiful and frightening looking, and so weird but utterly heavy sounding.
This is definitely black metal. Appropriately buzzing and grim, with fuzzed out riffs and blasting rhythms and death rattle shrieks, but unlike most other black metal records, this is HEAVY. No, we mean H E A V Y. We often joke about the majority of metal records that speed does NOT necessarily equal heaviness. Never has. In fact it's almost always the opposite. The faster you go, the more brittle the sonic palette, and from a drumming standpoint the softer you hit the drums (until you're forced to compensate with triggers). That's why a massive downtuned riff and a pounding caveman drummer is so completely and utterly heavy. And that's why most black metal is washed out and buzzy and droney, but that's definitely part of the appeal, so fast that everything becomes a hypnotic blur. But when a band comes along and manages to be lightning fast but still crush, with ultra dense guitars and HUGE drums and ridiculously hellish howls, well, it's hard not to be blown away. And of course the record also manages to be catchy (not 'pop' catchy, but surprisingly memorable riffs and parts you'll actually find stuck in your head!) And if that wasn't enough, the whole record rife with ambient interludes and ends up being a complex and harrowing journey through some hellish musical wasteland, Sure, the metal is heavy and the playing is furious and intense, but the production is so weird and creative (especially for a black metal record) and the songs (and the whole record) are peppered with all sorts of unlikely flourishes, that add all sort of bleak weirdness, and quasi-religious creepiness, and make Salvation one of the most chillingly grim and darkly evocative records we've ever heard. From strange lilting choral pieces, to haunting drifting old-timey ambience, to quasi religious chanting. It's all woven seamlessly together and along with the artwork, evokes some Lovecraftian otherworld, all rainy and dark and washed out in miserable greys, and where everything is dead or dying, and every step could be your last. The cover depicts one of the band members crucified next to to eviscerated malformed babies, also crucified, in an alcove in some satanic church. The rest of the booklet is equally as striking (and fucked up) as if Stephen O'Malley and Joel Peter Witkin got together to try and design the most beautiful, most dementedly damaged and disturbing black metal artwork ever. Crowns of thorns, grim reapers, malnourished and emaciated dead bodies, hooded skulls and dark riders, multi limbed and Siamese babies and fetuses, all beautifully laid out amongst lyrics and text printed in ancient-scroll style almost illegible olde English script. The whole booklet is muted black and white, fuzzy and washed out, and again evocative of your innermost fears and a truly horrible place (and sound). In fact the whole package is like some dusty artifact of ancient evil, discovered buried a mile beneath the earth, and since being brought to the surface has caused unspeakable evil and the tragic deaths of everyone who comes near it. Certain damnation to anyone who gazes upon it or lets the hellish sounds within reach of their ears. Too bad we can't stop listening to it....
Described by the label as "obscure, superstitious, cold, uninviting, archaic black metal", and really, who are we to argue. This two song blast of raw grim blackness is the solo project of the awesomely named Bestial Devotion, he of doomy, dramatic black metal weirdos Negative Plane. And really the sounds here are not all that far removed from the Plane, the black metal sounds at least, there seems to be a lot more weirdness lurking just below the surface.
After a creepy church organ intro, FP launch directly into some blurred murk, the guitars angular and atonal, the vox a hissed whisper, the drums buried, the sound heavy on the echo and reverb, giving everything a sort of psychedelic tripped out sound, the track grinding and churning until out of nowhere, some seriously twisted wild psychedelic leads swoop in, and lock into these almost looped sounding squalls, almost harmonies, it's hypnotic and heavy, and while WAY unexpected turns this into something so much more than metal. The flipside starts things off with some warbly clean guitar, sounding almost like a garage rock intro, before the track shifts into some haunting horror doom, lurching and lumbering, eventually building to a midtempo pound, with droned out riffage, creepy clean vox, almost chantlike, very occultic and ritualistic, laced with occasional dense black blasts, but for the most part, more atmospheric and psychedelic than black and blasting. The last few minutes the sound shifts into something way more dynamic and is assembled around some seriously doomy anguished wails, the sound roiling and witchy and grimly ominous, before finishing of with a weirdly melodic tangle of clean guitar.
Obviously Negative Plane fans NEED this. But anyone with even a passing interest in black psychedelia and obscure outsider black metal psych, would do well to check this out.
Housed in super heavy silkscreened black and white sleeves.
By now, avid readers of the AQ list should be well aware of German black metal horde Ruins of Beverast, responsible for one of our favorite black metal records EVER. Then of course there's Nagelfar, the band that came before RoB, who were responsible for another of the greatest black metal records of all time, Virus West. If that weren't enough, these guys also run an amazing record label, responsible for the RoB record, the Nagelfar reissue, the deluxe double lp version of the only release from SF's very own doomlords the Gault, and two brand new releases, the very Ruins Of Beverast-like debut from fellow Germans Kermania, a gorgeously epic chunk of moody melancholy black metal, and this: a soul shearing blast of super blazing Nordic style blackness from another German horde, Funeral Procession.
A fairly long running black metal institution at this point, having formed almost 12 years ago, this is strangely Funeral Procession's first full length, after a clutch of eps and demos, but it was well worth the wait. Fuzzy and blown out, mostly blasting, but with plenty of moody midtempo doomy breakdowns, killer shards of angular guitar, and loud distorted drums all making for strange interludes -- but when whipped into furious blasts, it's tough to beat. Epic and majestic, fast and buzzy, grim and black. It's easy to hear some Mayhem, some Emperor, some Immortal... the elite. And FP are channelling the frosty might of the BM elite through their own uniquely skewed German black filter, bits of creepy militaristic ambience, haunting keyboards, distorted vocals and crumbling soundscapes, moaning chantlike voices, but none of that stuff defines the sound, it's all merely moody window dressing for FP's relentlessly buzzing blast, each track a frosty forlorn squall of black buzz and jagged riffery, blasting beats and howled hellish vocals. Broken up by some depressive doomic plod, but for the most part fast and furious, and fucking great!
It's been a while since we've listed some seriously ultra sick, super abstract, funereal, hundred zeroed doooooooooooom (imagine 88 more zeroes), but here we go, the latest from French doom merchants Funeralium, via Israeli label Total Rust, who in the past gave us the epic classic doom of Mourning Dawn (who share members with Funeralium) and Midwestern doomlords Wraith Of The Ropes. And while this has everything you black hearted, cursed souled lovers of all things slow and low desire, the 1 mph drum plod, the guitar tuned so low, it's like some black sonic glacier, the vocals that sound like a slowed down demon puking his guts out. It's all here, you love Moss, Khanate, Planet Aids, Bunkur, Catacombs, Otesanek, Monarch, Monument Of Urns, Nihill, Whitehorse, Stumm... well, you might as well add Funeralium to the list. This is some devastatingly slow, crushingly brutal, ultra doom. BUT...
These guys add some of their own peculiar flavor, the hysterical hellish shrieks become downright melodic at times, strangely lovely in fact (in a horrible hellish way of course), and the guitars occasionally bliss out, clean, minor key chordal strum, still slow and spread out, the drums an occasional thud, the vocals a tortured howl, but all draped over lilting slowcore strum, making it sound like Galaxie 500 or Low covering Khanate or something, in fact, the whole first half of "Let People Die" sounds like some super sad, gorgeous chunk of creepy blackened slowcore, and the whole of record closer "Nearly The End", minus the black metal vocals, could be mistaken for some gloomy minor key late night goth moodiness, but those moments are of course balanced out by the rest of the record, a glorious black sprawl of head caving, soul splitting trudge and pummel.
By now we probably don't need to tell you know nuts we are for Finland. For whatever reason, the music that comes from Finland pretty much always blows our mind. And when it comes to black metal, hell, it's tough to think of a region the produces more bafflingly brilliant blackness. Aanal Beehemoth, Ride For Revenge, Will Over Matter, W.A.I.L., Jumalhamara, Circle Of Ouroborus, Horna, Dead Reptile Shrine, Beherit... Well, you can add Funerary Bell to that list, their debut full length, The Coven, another twisted black missive from Finland, and like many of their Finnish black metal brethren, classifying these guys as black metal, is a bit of a stretch, sure they blast and buzz with the best of them, but they spend just as much time, creeping, jangling, whispering, strumming, they're sorta tough to pin down.
Check out opener "Vision Of The Undead (World)", which is all clean guitar strum, whispered almost melodic vox, simple loping drums, and when the metal does kick in, it's more like classic old school eighties metal, chugging riffs, almost stadium rock sounding, minus the WAY up in the mix blasts of double kick, the song lurching from doomy (yet still melodic) plod to seasick sort-of waltz, back to that double kick laced power metal riffery. Right near the end the band do explode into a brief bit of blackened blasting, but then it's right back into melodic lope. And did we mention the bass, an instrument most often missing from most black metal, but here it's busy, offering up bloopy melodies and add a whole other dimension.
"Detachment" starts out similarly, all melodic and post rocky, then in swoops some Maiden-ish riffing, the vocals a growly grunt, and then there's that double kick again, at least twice as loud as the rest of the drum kit, adding some serious low end oomph.
And so it goes. Folks looking for grim buzz and frenzied blackened blast will be left wanting, but if you like your black metal to flit from crusty d-beat pound to synth laden swirly stumble, from melodic classic metal (via twisted Finnish blackness) to woozy harmonized guitar doom, and from almost indie jangle to melancholia Katatonia-esque melodic blackness, then this might just be your cup of demented druggy blackened Finnish tea!!
Fragments From The Aethyr is the latest blast of caustic cinematic black ambience from this Vancouver based audio alchemist, although it's the first FC record to get reviewed on the aQ list, which is strange, since this is the sort of dense black mesmer that many of you can't get enough of. With a sound that lurks somewhere betwixt Gnaw Their Tongues, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Tenhornedbeast, MZ412 and Wolf Eyes, this band weave gristly sprawls of feedback drenched buzz, and keening high end squalls of swirling black psychedelia, the sound driven by what sounds like a violin, but a violin possessed, wreathed in effects and sent spiraling into the ether, a weird sort of droned out black folk drift, that manages to be lilting and lovely, even while being face meltingly brutal. The sound slips into a long stretch of haunting hushed shimmer, laced with chiming minor key harmonics, and lush rumbling drones, and oozes through clouds of blackened sonic murk, growing quite minimal, and almost modern classical sounding, the violin to the fore, soaring above the abyss, a harrowing bit of minimal modernism that broods ominously, and blossoms blackly into a gorgeous blackdrone cinematic epic, that ends up being far too short, even at nearly twenty minutes, before finishing off with a dense sprawl of echo drenched ritualism, processed vox and heavily layered tones, dubbed out and smeared into hazy blurs and almost liturgical sounding chants, seriously sinister and gorgeously grim.
Fans of abject minimal blackness and any of the above mentioned purveyors of sick sonic miserablism, heed the call.
We were doing some Spring cleaning and discovered a little stash of these tucked away in a shadowy corner of the back room, a 2008 compilation from one of our favorite weirdo black metal hordes, Mexico's Funeral Moon, this compilation gathering up the group's In Communion With Satan ep, previously unreleased, and tacks on two also never before released live jams, recorded in Monterrey, Mexico in 1994.
For those who have yet to discover the twisted blackened glory that is Funereal Moon, just have a gander at what has to be THEE coolest corpsepaint we've seen, the inverted crosses over each eye, the pentagram on the forehead, the weird blackened old man lips, and strange demon veins, it's pretty striking, and was definitely what caught our attention when we first discovered these guys. But if you think the corpsepaint is weird, just wait til you get to the music. Funereal Moon Is Dead starts off with a tripped out intro, all woozy synths, and rumbling demonic vocal gurgles, all very nightmarish and carnivalesque, all set to a heartbeat like pulse, some seriously creeped out ritualistic sonic weirdness, some nightmarish cinematic black ambience, which leads directly into the first proper 'song', tolling bells and weird squiggly synths writhe and wriggle in a twisted tangle over stumbling programmed drum machine, and some creepy female spoken word, it actually sounds more like aQ outsider rock weirdo Fastest, a doomy synth heavy creep, the only signs of 'metal' are the super strange (and dramatically out of place) ultra distorted demonic vokills that surface about halfway through, and growl gutturally over the woozy druggy drift in the background. The final studio track is all crumbling buzzing synth drones, over which a deep vocal croaks and cackles, sounding a lot like aQ faves Ride For Revenge or Will Over Matter. Which is most definitely a good thing.
The actual metal doesn't happen until the live tracks, the sound appropriately lo-fi, the sound still all synthy and swirly, droned out and druggy, but here, the vocals are definitely raspy and black metal, the drums a pounding dirge, the riffs gnarled and downtuned, but the whole first track nearly swallowed up by some awesome thick low end pulsations, that transform any black metal into something much more psychedelic and tripped out. Finally, the record finishes off with a track that ends up sounding more meta than it was meant to, with the crowd sound cacophony almost as loud as the band, the band in full on buzzing black blast mode, but it's blurred into a twisted droned out thrum, that only occasionally transforms into a synth driven creepy black doom lope, and like the first live track, the whole thing seems to be wreathed in another pulsing low end throb. So weird, and so fucking awesome. Like all FM stuff, totally recommended, although very likely too weird/whatthefuck for more middle of the road metalheads...
LIMITED TO 666 COPIES, each one hand numbered, long out of print, we have about a dozen left and once they're gone these are gone for good.
The first thing you notice about Funereal Moon, a long running black metal horde from Mexico City, is main man Impure Ehiyeh's amazing corpsepaint, each eye in the center of a black upside down cross, a pentagram in the center of his forehead, his nostrils painted huge and animal like, the mouth outlined like a dripping bat, the whole face lined with cracks, making him appear as some 100 year old demonic black metal ghoul. Which suits the music, as their sound is totally unhinged, a raw, lo-fi, fucked up grim black metal that has more in common with a band like Necrofrost than any of the classic Scandinavian elite, which is most definitely a good thing. Murky, mysterious, stumbling, damaged, the guitars washed out and muted, the vocals a raspy croak, the drums solid and simple, the whole sound twisted and off kilter, the sounds panned dramatically from left to right, so sometimes the band swerves back and forth making the music totally dizzy and unhinged.
This collection gathers up 4 newish tracks from 2007, and 5 more tracks from a 1996 demo. The first four tracks are, as described above, woozy, and gloriously fucked up, long stretches of Abruptum-like ambience get all tangled up in blasting black weirdness, giving way to droning plodding black doom, finally turning into some strange sort of spaced out abstract psychedelia, growled vox over noodly reverbed guitars and swirling spaced out effects. Weird, and so cool.
It's the older stuff where it gets REALLY weird. The guitars impossibly processed and lo fidelity, pulsing like some strange electronic transmission, the vocals even more croak-like, doused in echo, it's an intro of sorts, but maybe our favorite track here. The next track is more straight ahead, but again the production is insane, the vocals louder than anything else, the drums and guitars tumbling and roiling way down in the mix only occasionally exploding to the surface. It's all very droney and hypnotic and textural. And somehow it only gets weirder, culminating in a seriously amazing and fucked up two song finish, first, the tripped out "The Lust", with its stumbling tribal drumming, its droning electronic buzz in place of guitars, and haunting female spoken words, while a voice growls and grunts demonically in the background, and another female moans in ecstasy! And finally the 11 minute "I Came From Darkness To Conquer", a woozy synth drone, with some troll like vocals over the top, what sounds like programmed drums and flute (?), the vocals get weirder and weirder, high pitched and alien one second, growled and cookie monster like the next, finally the drums drop out, and the record closes out with synthesized strings and an orchestra of growls and grunts and howls, easily one of the most seriously fucked up ambient black metal rituals ever.
If you read this far we shouldn't even have to say it, but yet another essential record to add to your collection of freaked out, far out, damaged and demented, confusional and inspired genius black metal what-the-fuck. Which means ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!
