This is the first we've heard from this Midwestern outfit, whose sound is a dark, psychedelic shoegaze stoner pop, rife with heavy guitars, clean crooned vocals, and warm whirring organs, the songs simple and heartfelt, but disarmingly so, the A side offering up some washed out woozy jangle and warm muted crunch, and some seriously anthemic choruses, before suddenly exploding into a furious frenzied squall of wild psychguitar heaviness, and blissed out shoegaze heaviness. The flipside is more of a dark brooder, reminding us of a poppier, less slowcore True Widow, the instrumental passages are heavy and heady, tranced out and hypnotic, and the B side spends plenty of time chugging and churning hypnotically, the drum heavy, guitar swirled outro is a gorgeous chunk of spacey heaviness that we would have liked to see stretch out another ten or 15 minutes. We also have LT's split lp with another Midwestern outfit called Men Of Fortune, which we'll review next time, or check the 'in stock not yet reviewed' if you can't wait...
We reviewed the first 7" from Midwestern slowcore rockers Lark's Tongue last list, and at the time mentioned we also got a copy of their split with another Midwestern outfit, which is this right here, and like that 7" LT display a sort of laidback dark jangle minimalism that had us comparing them to another aQ fave, True Widow, but as we mentioned in that review, they're not nearly so dour and dark and a good bit more rocking, with a distinctly nineties vibe, the three tracks here letting the band stretch out, which definitely suits their sound, which is lush, and expansive, a little bit brooding, hauntingly psychedelic, this time with cool swoonsome background vocals, some seriously crunchy guitars, and world weary vocals, the songs laced with long stretches of droned out psych jam smolder, reminding us of Dead Meadow, sort of burnt out, sun dappled, hazy heaviness, which is even more evident on "Black Sue", which sounds like stoner rock slowed down to a moody crawl, again the song wreathed in smoldering guitars, and dreamy reverby effects. The final track slows things down even further, and the band builds up to an explosive, but still slo-mo finale, all dirgey drumming, and swirling clouds of guitarnoise, and dreamy laconic vocals that give the sound a Red Red Meat vibe too, which is most definitely not a bad thing.
We had never heard of Men Of Fortune before, but immediately out of the gate their sound is heavier, and dirgier, still psychedelic, a Midwestern noise rock, stop and start guitar churn, super dynamic, but soon, the sound blisses out, and in come super dramatic vocals, changing the tenor of the song big time, the vibe suddenly sort of gloomy and gothic, but when fused to the noise rock heft, makes for something pretty excellent. The other three songs also fuse noisy, stoner rock heaviness, and big riff crunch, even some weird electronics, to crooned dramatic gloominess, and sprawling gothic psychedelia.
Includes a download coupon!
We've been meaning to review something from this SF duo for a while now, the mysteriously monickered Z.V.H. and V.J.C, who make up the equally mysterious Lascoviec (formerly Angkor Vat). But their demos disappeared before we had the chance, and we've yet to receive the forthcoming split with Hungarian black metal masters Marblebog, but thankfully, Dark Hidden Productions has compiled their first two demos, Gesamkunstwerk and Gunshots Ring Out Over Vinland Streets, both originally released in 2006, onto one cd, and added a few bonus tracks to sweeten the deal.
Lascoviec traffic in droning, hypnotic, trance like black metal buzz, the guitars long washed out streaks, the vocals a distorted croak, often sounding like another layer of static, the melodies are melancholy and sorrowful, some tracks have programmed drums, pounding away machine like under a buzzy blurry blanket of epic majestic chordal whir, others are harsh and chaotic, with the drums lost int he mix, leaving just a thick undulating sheet of acid riffing and tortured vokills. There are plenty of clean guitars, and tranquil folky interludes, but just as many grinding ultra raw blackened dirges, the guitars thick and viscous, the vocals more of a animalistic hiss, the drums a buried throb, here and there dreamy washes of synth surface, but far from being tranquil, they're fuzzy and distorted, and slightly ominous, with a definite Tim Hecker or Philip Jeck vibe. Elsewhere the band craft weird sort of new wave sounding reverbed guitar jam, but still subtly creepy and haunting. Swirls of strings build ominous tension before exploding into super sharp jagged shards of weirdly blown out clean guitar riffing over relentless blastbeats.
And that's sort of what's so amazing about these guys, their sound varies so dramatically, from record to record, but even from song to song, sort of like the EEE stuff, the texture and the production are as critical as the songs and the riff, some are muted and murky and bassy and lo fi, others are sharp and angular, the guitars sonically are all over the place, sometimes soft and subtle, sometimes downtuned and sludgy, sometimes buzzy and brittle, the drums more often than not are buried WAY down in the mix, but that just makes the songs sound freer, as if they could fall apart or drift away at any moment.
Grim and gorgeous, twisted and intense, dramatic and a bit fucked up, long sheets of buzzed out bliss butted up against short sharp raw blasts of true blurred blackness, often getting all tangled up within the same song. What's not to like, this is some seriously amazing shit. Buzzy and black enough for the grimmest of warriors, but tripped out enough for folks into freaky outsider blackness.
Fair warning: Lasoviec are on Dark Hidden Productions, a label with dubious political leanings, and with definite ties to the Pagan Front, the hub for all things NSBM, aka National Socialist Black Metal. Although the band seem to be more concerned with themes cosmic and spiritual, nature and mythology, there are definite racist implications, the link is undeniable, so regardless of the band's stance, the label's is clear, and thus, another instance where the listener has to decide if the music trumps the possible unpleasant politics.
Frostwinds Of The Apocalypse is the latest full length from SF black metal duo Lascowiec, and is introduced by a strangely martial bit of medieval sounding synth and drum machine driven fanfare, which sounds more like it should be the beginning of some power metal record, but instead ushers in another blast of frenzied grim black buzz from these aQ faves, the sound lo-fi, warm and washed out, the guitars a dense insectoid swirl, the drums buried in the mix, more a pulse than a blast, and the vocals a deep demonic rasp. The sound furious, epic, majestic, melodic. Minus the vocals, the sound is super tranced out and mesmerizing, almost shoegazey in places, as is the second track, the vocals here echo-drenched and weirdly psychedelic, the tempo slowed down, making the sound even more trancey, the blown out buzz utterly mesmerizing, the overall effect less headbanging and more hypnotic. And while most of the record is spent it black buzz mode, there are of course random bits of non metallic sound, the most interesting being the epic 6+ minute sort of title track closer, which essentially sounds like a black metal song proper, but played on a clean guitar with no distortion, wreathed in echo and reverb, the result surprisingly lovely, still totally recognizable as black metal, but in a wholly different form, one that's darkly dreamlike, and has us hankering for a whole record of stuff like this! As always, essential Bay Area USBM!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We've been trying to get our hands on enough of these to list for ages, a killer 3 way split of obscure strangely melodic blackness, released on Hungarian label Turanian Honour, featuring long time aQ faves Marblebog, Bay Area depressive black metal duo Lascowiec and Verzivatar, another Hungarian horde we had never heard until now.
Lascowiec, whose killer demo compilation we raved about a while back (which we still have a small handful left), returns with four more tracks of washed out black beauty, darkly depressive and beautifully buzzy, the music of Lascowiec is a blurred and smeared minor key mystery, remove the distorted vokill croak, and you'd be left with a deep swirling shoegazey bit of soft focus buzz. The riffs are muted and muddy, lo-fi but still lush, locked into trancelike loops, woozy and warbly and hypnotic, about as pretty as black metal can sound without ceasing to be black or metal. Spidery tangled little melodies, wreathed in otherworldly effects, distorted but not harsh or jagged, more smoothed out and blissy, the vocals the grimmest element, but for the most part, it's the music that carries Lascowiec, gorgeously mournful, and hauntingly lovely buzzy blackness.
Marblebog offer up two songs, epic and majestic, melodic too, but with some super twisted way UP in the mix vocals, that transform an otherwise loping mysterious minor key dirge into something creeped out and harrowing. The main melody is gorgeous, almost power metal sounding, albeit slowed down and draped over a monotonous doomy drum plod, but those vocals, the perfect blend of harsh and hellish, brooding and pretty. Their second track is another strange blend, this time the guitars and drums are buried beneath thick swirling keyboards, and some fucked up demonic gurgled croaking vocals. Again, the effect is the same, a sort of woozy softly buzzing prettiness transformed into a fractured, Burzumic, off kilter depressive black dirge.
Finally Verzivatar deliver two tracks of fierce and frantic blasting blackness, but like the other two bands on the split, their sound is marked by an unlikely melodiousness, the riffs, frenetic and buzzy are also soaring and majestic, the vocals here too are weird, but less black metal, or really metal at all, more like a raspy punkish howl, or a strangled mewl. Gives Verzivatar a sort of crusty punkish vibe, reminding us a bit of French faerical black metal punks Nuit Noire. Definitely need to hear more from these guys.
All three bands offer up some seriously gorgeous melodic grimness, some surprisingly blissed out black metal buzz, unfortunately this is LIMITED TO 666 COPIES, and has been out for a while, so not sure we can get more. Each one is hand numbered, with a big full color booklet, liner notes, lyrics and the works.
This Dutch grind band boast one of the sickest singers EVER, in terms of lower-than-low guttural grunting ability. He's inhuman. And hilarious. So we love 'em for his "singing" (which in our review of the Dutch Assault comp they appeared on some years back, we said was a "rumbling drone instrument unto itself"), but the music is equally demented and distorted.
Here's a vinyl reissue of this band's debut cd from 1998. Definitely for fans of early goregrind style Carcass - which these guys definitely were! Twenty-six tracks here, with titles like "Entangled In Septic Gore", "Malignant Haemorrhage" and "Disembowlment Of Scattered Gastric Pieces" (just to cite some of the nicer ones!), you ought to know what you're getting into. Recommended wax for all perverted goregrind freaks. Don't worry we won't tell.
All you really need to know about these Oakland sludge/doom merchants is what is being played, and what bands the various members hail from. So, howabout Graves At Sea, Brainoil and Pig Heart Transplant for a heavy low ended pedigree? And what exactly is employed to create this gloriously grim racket? "Overdriven string corrosion, ambient texture and documentation", "battering ram and subsonic transmissions", "low end frequency discharge, vocal disruption and auditory experimentation" and of course "battery acid, bellows and blasphemy". So yeah, you know where these crushers are coming from. Crushing, punishing doom infused sludge, laced with thick black drones and buzzing abject industrial ambience, all blurred into a massive heaving blackened brutal sonic beast.
Beginning with some sort of alien soundscape, until huge sheets of white noise take over, you're not sure if you hear the sounds of a guitar or maybe just overwhelming electronic wind-like sounds, all strange and buzzing and creepy.
Finally, weird little bits of abstract keyboard buzz and drift before the band kicks in. And WHAM, super heavy and sludgey, like black tar heroin, but also Eyehategod groovy; Khanate vokills that almost exude a black metal vibe. Lots of negative space to make things tense and uncomfortable. A second singer bellows in his best Neurosis voice, the perfect foil for the other more high pitched yowl, all tangled up with a cool. but weirdly sour guitar lick, giving the track a much more twisted vibe.
The record slips from crushing doom, to dense blackened rumble and back again, inserting angelic choral vocals, strange blurred electronics, super intense subsonic feedback, the bass thick and gritty and dirty, the sound here, when the band is rocking, is not at all that far removed from Burning Witch or Zoroaster, but the band pepper their sludgy crush with gorgeous black drone interludes, which makes this more of an EP, only one of epic doom-ic proportions, which renders it an EP that just so happens to stretch out to 50 minutes. Bad ass.
Uh, wow! And WTF!? That's what we thought as soon as we got a good look at these, the other day when Tyler from Ajna dropped 'em off at the store. Is this for real? This late 2011 release from the Ajna affiliated, vinyl-only cult metal reissue label Unseen Forces seems tailor made to be of immense aQuarius interest. First off, we, and many of you, are pretty into the whole Father Yod / Ya Ho Wa 13 / Source Family communal '70s psych rock thing. Pretty much everybody here at aQ owns one of those Japanese 13cd God & Hair box sets of Ya Ho Wa recordings, and we just this week hosted an instore event promoting the Source Family documentary currently screening in the SF Film Festival.
Also, several of us at aQ (and again, many of you) are keen on obscure '80s old school metal, the more outrageous and over the top, the better.
And somehow, unbelievably but awesomely, THE LAW brings those two obsessions together!!
You see, the guys in The Law were members of Source Family, followers of Father Yod. Bassist Peter Tobin and singer/lead guitarist Troy Duke at least, had played and recorded with Ya Ho Wa 13. But by the early '80s, they were transitioning from being long haired hippies to being long haired heshers! Gotta change with the times, man. Having formed a garage (more like barn, cuz they lived on a cattle ranch) band, The Law (= Love And Wisdom), in 1979, they decided to make the big step of moving from Hawaii (where the Source Family had been based since the late '70s, and Father Yod had sadly perished in his fatal hang gliding accident) back to LA, now a hotbed of heavy metal activity in the year of 1983! But they brought their interest in esoteric, psychedelic spirituality along with them, into the realm of the heavier-than-thou, glammed-up, Decline Of Western Civilization Part II, Sunset Strip scene, where they rubbed shoulders with the likes of Motley Crue. Theirs was sleazy hard rock with a mystic message, though, all right!!
Though that unusual backstory (and the picture of the band on the back of the lp, all done up in macho tight leather and studded belts) would probably have been enough to convince us to buy this, it was listening to the songs on this lp that made us decide, heck, all that AND they totally rule, in the hot rockin' department? Ok, Record Of The Week time.
These ten songs include hit single in an alternate universe "Chill The Wine", theme song "Here Comes The Law", and several with either "Baby" or "Love" in their titles, like the dirgey (mostly) ballad "Baby I'm A Mystery", the lyrics to which include the advice: "Sweet child of the fire, the only way to go is higher, higher, higher...". These songs feature plodding riffage, wailing psych guitar solos, commanding vox, low budget sound FX, and (we're just guessing here) an exploding drummer a la Spinal Tap.
Unseen Forces' ringleader Dennis Dread sez this slab of "vintage volcanic rock" is for fans of "The Rods, Oz, Blue Cheer, and Buffalo"... sure! And we'd say Dwarr, Cirth Ungol, and Iron Butterfly, too! There's paradoxically party-hardy outsidery-ness to this, The Law bringing in '60s influences (they do "Wild Thing"), astral influences, whatever, so that while it's not quite Ya Ho Wa 13 in spandex, it's sure not your usual corporate Sunset Strip LA '80s hair metal.
The power trio's sole, independently released, lp came out in 1983, and failed to become a commercial success despite (or because of) its eccentric charms, but it did eventually become a collectable rarity. This reissue probably will too!
Remastered and reissued with the cooperation of The Law's original members, also with help from Source Family historian Isis Aquarian. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl and lovingly packaged. Includes liner notes and lyrics insert. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! And the label is almost out of 'em, so these may well be the last copies we'll be able to procure. But we still had to make it Record Of The Week, nonetheless. How could we not? None escape The Law!!
It all started with Poison Drinker, Josh Lay's last full length, a noise record that managed to be both noisy and melodic, harsh and pummeling, but also weirdly listenable, and kinda pretty. We're pretty particular when it comes to noise records, so for that record to kick our asses so hard, something special was definitely going on, which was confirmed with the super limited Worm Terrain cassette. Now we've got Lay's first proper cd full length, and while definitely still noisy, it's even more removed from traditional 'noise music'. Sure there are several serious bursts of harsh grinding NOISE, but here, those parts almost sound more black metal, with distorted hellish vox, over swirling sheets of sound. But those moments are actually few and far between. The first half of the title track is all synthy and sci-fi, droney and abstract, a looped electronic soundscape that eventually does splinter into some blackened noise, but the second track pulls the sound back from the edge, weird angular riffs buried beneath a sea of glitches and trills, that riff is the anchor of the song, chugging away relentlessly beneath a endlessly churning and ever shifting field of glitched out hiss, and some more of those sinister vokills.
But as the record progresses, it gets less and less noisy, and more and more abstract and a tiny bit prettier. Track three is a high end sprawl of looped glistening skree and throbbing rhythmic bass pulses, minimal vokillizing, a swirling sea of streaked trebly blur, and then the final track, which is perhaps still technically noisy, but that noise is blunted, muted, dulled, like some churning blackened sonic sea, a throbbing industrial dronescape, a little Wolf Eyes, but way less abject, and weirdly a little bit warmer sounding, still ominous and buzzy, but again, strangely soothing and almost serene.
With a name like Lazarus Blackstar, we were sort of expecting something a bit more polished, it definitely has a nu-metal or modern rock ring to it, but holy shit, nothing could be further from the truth. LB are purveyors of some of the crustiest, filthiest, heaviest sludge doom we've heard in ages. Featuring a who's who of British sludge / punk / crust / metal royalty (including at least one member of the legendary Sore Throat) these guys are broooootal. Massive, thick downtuned chug, crushing drum pound, a vocalist who sounds like he's spitting out vital organs with every anguished guttural roar, definitely hearing some Eyehategod, Grief, Bongzilla and that sort of thing, but the band bring some weirdness, like in the opening track, when after trudging through some seriously glacial black tar buzz, a guitar line soars from beneath the murk, tracing out a weirdly warm and buzzy and almost major key melody over the lurching lumber below. "Son Of Sorrow" slows it down even more, veering into some serious Bunkur / Moss / Monarch territory, before launching into an Electric Wizardly, almost stonery groove. The closer "Victim Of The Clergy", superimposes some demonic growling over a haunting hymn, the hammer falls and the song erupts in a slow negative trudge, the vocals this time punkish and yelped. There are some fucked up samples, some weird ambient percussion, like the sound of water dripping, or echoey footsteps, but the riff and the drums pound away, relentlessly, as various voices hover over the top, finally dropping out and finishing with a priest offering absolution. Heavy as fuck. Definitely need to track down the full lengths....
The crazed, genre-scrambling grindcore of Germany's Le Scrawl is, as threatened, back! This new 13-song, 16-minute cdep will either bring a big smile to your face or confuse and annoy you utterly. Imagine Napalm Death teamed up with Uz Jsme Doma. That is, political punk metal all fucked up with horns and a weird sense of humor. Keyboards and flugelhorn aren't normally part of an underground grind band's arsenal, but Le Scrawl aren't normal... Metal nerds should note that this was recorded by Harris Johns, whose previous credits include numerous Sodom albums as well as Voivod, Helloween, Coroner, Tankard, Pestilence, Saint Vitus, Therion, S.A.D.O., and more. But this definitely must have been a unique session for Johns! Scrawl are one of the original wacky grind outfits, and they sure know how to mix up the gruff and the smooth. Metal riff one moment, lounge groove the next. And having just seen 'em live on a rare US tour, I have to say I was amazed at their deadpan delivery of their complex and, well, silly material. Oh yeah, if you don't like ska...well just wait 5 seconds...every five seconds.
Ignore the "Le", that's just a silly way to differentiate this Scrawl from the '90s US indie rock girl group. And they are VERY different. "Le" Scrawl is a schizoid grind band straight out of the German peace punk underground, doing the rapid-fire genre-mash thing. They belong in the same record bin with the likes of Naked City, Exit 13, People, Mexican Power Authority, Spazztic Blurr, Alboth!, Boredoms, and Anal Cunt (whose Seth Putnam guests vocalizes on one song here). If you're thinking that's a very '90s list of mostly avantgarde/novelty grind bands well, yes, this Scrawl stuff was recorded between 1990-1999. And we'd all but forgotten this band until the excellent Oakland label Life Is Abuse (purveyors of metallic weirdness like Tarantula Hawk and Ludicra) took it upon themselves to put together this cd, the complete Scrawl discography on one disc, essentially a deluxe, expanded version of Scrawl's "Q" album originally issued in 1995 by Germany's Ecocentric Records. Expanded in that you get the original disc's 24 tracks plus *another* 42 songs (!!) including their self-titled 1993 album, live stuff, singles, demos, and incongrous covers (De La Soul, The Exploited, Terrorizer, Chic, and the Mission Impossible theme!).
Their humorous, herky-jerky musical juxtapositions plus their totally grim punk political lyrix (that you can't understand anyway 'cause they're all gruff and screamy) equals weird, radical, action-oriented artcore. Imagine the quirky European chamber prog of a group like Etron Fou Leloublan colliding with the 20-second blast beat grindcore of a Napalm Death, or Mr. Bungle gone crusty punk, or, when the horn section kicks in, some sort of ADD Fishbone/Uz Jsme Doma hybrid playing in the midst of a Drop Dead practice session. The booklet -- chock full of photos, flyers, and discographical information -- has a 2002 note from main man Mario Anders, promising some new (Le) Scrawl material coming soon! Yikes!
Some may scoff at the idea of our black metal cassette grab bag. A random selection of wonderful blackened obscurities, all grim and mysterious, abstract and kvlt, offered in bunched of 3, 6,10 or 20. You never know what you'll get, but invariably, every grab bag offers up at least one remarkable gem, one instant classic, and usually more than that. In fact, a close look at some of last year's best of lists, reveals at least a handful of tapes from the grab bags in folks' top tens, which is tough to argue with.
One of the tapes, in one of those grab bags was from this band right here, Leaden, from Italy, who we were immediately smitten with, if one can actually be 'smitten' by something this creepy and bizarre and haunting and confusional. But we were, and still are.
Leaden, with their mysterious logo, the band name in a very classical looking cursive, the amazing album title: Monotonous Foghorns Of Molesting Department, song titles like "Black Apartment Of Depression", "I'm The Filth" and "When Out Seems To Vanish", it seems just too good, like the music couldn't possibly live up to the mystery and magic promised by the packaging, but if anything, the music is stranger, and darker, murkier and WAY more mysterious.
On the surface, Leaden are purveyors of doomy suicidal black metal, but their sound, and their songs bear only a passing resemblance to their brothers in abject buzz.
From the first few seconds of the opening track, a skipping delicate piano figure, peppered with stuttery bursts of static (and no it's not your cd player), the record immediately reveals itself as well out of the ordinary. Even when the band join in, the sound is not heavy and buzzy, instead it's washed out and muddy, weary and worn, the guitars a fuzzy gauzy blur, the drums muted thumps, the vocals harsh, but again smeared into something less jagged and more drone-y and monotonous, the whole vibe dark and dejected, the bass surprisingly active, pulsing and throbbing beneath the streaks of guitar buzz, almost like some sort of Burzum / Joy Division hybrid. At some points, the song stumbles to an even slower doom-ed pace, the guitars transformed into keening soaring tones, while the bass rumbles beneath, the drums even more skeletal. And that song pretty much defines Leaden's sound, the rest of the record following suit. It's definitely black metal, but only barely, instead, it sounds like some sort of blackened goth, or doomy slowcore, all the elements are definitely there, the riffs, the pounding drums, the harsh vocals, but the way they're recorded, arranged, the production, the ambience, the mood, it's all very dark and depressive, but with a distinct doom-pop element running through all of it. Strip away much of the buzz, and you might be hearing something more like Bedhead, or maybe Codeine, it's that sort of timeless musical misery, just rendered in shades of black, and degrees of buzz.
In fact almost every song at one point or another, shifts into some gothy groove, all simple propulsive drumming and doo-doo-doo-doo basslines, drifting above a swirling morass of reverbed guitars and disembodied riffs and croaked growls, and imbued with a surprising amount of pop, not hooks per se, but the melodies are indeed catchy, in their own grim way. Somehow heavy enough to still be black metal, but muted and murky and lilting and drone-y enough become some sort of black buzz pop, some slowcoredoom, a gorgeous moody melancholy collection of dreamy drone-y doompop drift.
Last year we listed the cd reissue of an album called Growers Of Mushroom by England's Leaf Hound. Their Zeppish moves and overt druggy allusions have made that sole record of theirs from 1971 a sought-after classic for those into the stonery proto-metal of the era. The album's big hit (among connoisseurs of '70s heavy rock, if not in the singles charts of the day) was a hard-riffing song called "Freelance Fiend". So, here it is on vinyl, as re-recorded live in 2005 by the band's new lineup! That's right, and if you saw our review of that Growers Of Mushroom reissue, you'll remember that it included a brand new bonus track, meaning they were back in business. Original Leaf Hound vocalist Pete French, still in possession of wailin' pipes, hooked up with some youngsters to continue Leaf Hound's legacy in the present day. And as wary as we are of "reunions" (can you even call this that?), there's really no reason why Pete and the 'new' Leaf Hound shouldn't make music again, particularily with current '70s-sounding bands like Witchcraft to encourage them.
"Freelance Fiend" remains a killer track, and on the flip there's that new song from the cd reish, "Too Many Rock 'n Roll Times", also recorded live and now pressed to wax. And it's a pretty decent addition to the Leaf Hound songbook, we have to say... now we're wondering if there's more to come? Maybe even a -second- Leaf Hound album? Apparently so. We can only imagine how excited Rise Above would be to get to release that, as doing this 7" was probably already a big thrill for them. Limited to 500 copies.
Along with the likes of Captain Beyond, Bang, Dust, and Sir Lord Baltimore, the UK's Leaf Hound are one of the obscure '70s proto-metal acts often cited in the annals of stoner rock history. Heck they're called Leaf Hound and their (only) album is titled Growers Of Mushroom! Can't get much more stoner rock than that. Originally released in (you guessed it) 1971, Leaf Hound's album was a showcase for the powerful pipes of vocalist Pete French (who later spent stints at the mic for both Atomic Rooster and Cactus) and the heavy-duty hard rock riffage of guitarist Mick Halls (who, along with French, previously was a member of the Brunning Sunflower Blues Band and Black Cat Bones). And really Growers Of Mushroom is worth it to all '70s metal fans for the fierce "Freelance Fiend" that leads off the album. That track's a screamin' classic. If the whole album rocked as hard it'd be hard to beat as the heaviest thing from '71. But, while some other cuts on here approach a "Freelance Fiend" level of metal mania, such as "Stagnant Pool" (which sounds like anything but), there's some mellower material to be found as well, wherein French shows off his soulful side. But Led Zeppelin fans won't mind such bluesy workouts as "Drowned My Life In Fear", either. And Zep fans were probably just who Leaf Hound were hoping to hook when they recorded this record way back when. Too bad this was pretty much it for Leaf Hound (more on that in a sec), but their legacy lives on. A lot of AQ customers probably know that there's even a doom/stoner rock label in Japan named after this band! So, we're happy to have this swank 2005 Repertoire cd reish, remastered and complete with lyrics and liner notes in a nice digipack. And it's got three bonus tracks. Two non-album cuts (one wimpy, one pretty good) from back in the day, and a brand NEW track as well. Yep, that's right. Pete French has hooked up with some young 'uns to form a new, revitalized Leaf Hound, who've been gigging anew -- they even played a show with spiritual descendents Witchcraft! Normally we'd cringe at the thought of sullying the reissue of a cult album from 30+ years ago with a "bonus" track recorded recently, but the new Leaf Hound's "Too Many Rock 'n Roll Times" ain't that bad. The guy can still sing and it sounds like Leaf Hound, so why not?
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Remember back when Metallica didn't suck? In fact, they sort of ruled. Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, And Justice For All. All untouchable. STILL. And remember how they would pull out these obscure covers (at least to some of us), songs by Diamond Head and Blitzkrieg, that somehow sounded LIKE Metallica, but even better. Well Portland heavies Lebanon sound a lot like that. The whole Metallica-covering-classic-NWOBHM sound. Thrashing and heavy, but totally catchy and melodic, think Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Witchfinder General, Motorhead, Venom, but supercharged and modernized, hence the Metallica-covers thing. Born of crusty d-beaters From Ashes Rise (sonic compatriots of PDX outfits Tragedy, Warcry, etc.), Lebanon are all big riffs, and killer leads, throat shredding (but still melodic) vox, lots of pick slides and classic metal sounding licks, a little bit punkish, but more traditional eighties metal, and surprisingly good. So much so that these songs could very well be mistaken for actual jams from back in the day. Tall praise, but holy shit, we just can't stop listening to this. We need a full length SOON.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES.
MeteorCity have been KILLING lately, so many amazing releases, Freedom Hawk, Village Of Dead Roads, Egypt, Ararat, Flood, WhiteBuzz (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list) and now these guys, the weirdly named Leeches Of Lore, who just might be the weirdest Southern style stoner rock band EVER. And in fact, they're only barely stoner rock, hey're definitely heavy, and definitely rock. More metal in fact, but their sound is all over the place, especially Southern / classic rock. The record opens with a thrashing pounding metallic jam with full on old school Metallica style riffing, super high Ozzy-ish vocals, seriously fierce. As is the next track, although it gets a little bit stonery, with some bad ass stop start riffing, like a hyped up super charged Deep Purple or Thin Lizzy or something, but then all of sudden the band busts out with a stange acoustic interlude, all steel string guitar, and soulful twang flecked croon, only to slowly mutate into some sort of Southern rock, evntually building back to the original riffing that started the song.
And that seems to be where the band are coming from, they have a distinctly Western sounding almost country thing going on, and then a full on super heavy classic stoner rock side, and they're not at all shy abut flitting back and forth, or cramming the two sounds together. "Cenozoic Death Waltz" is almost entirely an old timey country waltz, but then the metal guitars come in, and it turns into something else, a sort of classic hard rock, and then those high vocals come in, and the band is full on heavy metal parking lot, crusing down the highway, drinking beer, heavy metal RAWK.
The mellower twangier parts can sound like Lynrd Skynrd, the Eagles, the Outlaws, but the band always end up transforming that sound into something way heavier and more metallic.
The title track is like their "Freebird" or "Green Grass And High Tides Forever", with its slow country build, chugging riffs giving way to a seriously dense bit of psychedelic heaviness, a little mathy, and a lot proggy, so good.
The whole record is basically a bad ass Southern rock, stoner metal hybrid, with plenty of little oddball bits mixed in, like the last two songs, the croony almost acapella "Western Skies" and the minute plus closer "Why, Toe-Bot?", a short sharp blast of metallic madness that sounds quite a bit like Nitro, and yeah, THAT Nitro.
Another killer from MeteorCity...
Legend were an awesome, if obscure NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, pronounced n'wobim) band that never got a major label deal (in the liner notes, mention is made of the band watching helplessly as mediocre London bands got signed while bands like themselves from other parts of Britain are ignored -- well, maybe they should have moved to London!! ever think of that, guys?). But, their lack of success really was a bit unfair, as a listen to this double cd, containing their entire output -- two LPs, a 4 song ep, and a demo, spanning the years '81 through '83 -- shows them to be a damn fine heavy metal act indeed! Heavy, catchy stuff with much frantic axe action and folky, somewhat Ozzy-ish vox. That, plus doomy, politically themed lyrics, various songwriting eccentricities (occasional acoustic guitars, folk melodies, lengthy instrumental riff-outs, some prog-pop moves on their second LP), and a charmingly lo-fi production make 'em come across kinda like Angel Witch meets Manilla Road. In other words, pretty cool and very cult. Twenty years on, they've lived up to their name! And interestingly, in this day and age of black metal 'evilness', it's interesting to remember that metal is not necessarily PRO-war and violence (even if it's *about* war and violence). Indeed, along with bands like Megadeth, Nuclear Assault and Anthrax, Legend spoke out against the dangerous arms race and superpower militarism of the Cold War era. Now with today's worries about WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), Legend demonstrate continued relevance. Heck, they even do a catchy little number entitled "Anthrax Attack".
Legend. They picked a good band name - an obscure legend, but legend nonetheless, in the annals of early, epic prog/metal. We first heard of 'em years ago when local true metal eccentrics The Lord Weird Slough Feg covered one of the songs from this record, a track called "The Wizard's Vengeance" - you can find Slough Feg's version, always a live fave, on their second album, Twilight Of The Idols (recently reissued in a 3cd 'box set' by Metal Blade). And the rollicking "The Wizard's Vengeance" is indeed one of the highlights here, it's a real ripper, both energetic and dramatic, but Slough Feg could have easily picked other tracks from this lp that they also could have made their own. That's because From The Fjords, this Connecticut band's only ever release, an ultra-rare private pressing from 1979, is a pioneering early example of progressive epic metal, similar in many ways to the sound that Manilla Road was developing around the same time - and thus also a forerunner to what Slough Feg sometimes sounds like too.
Legend maybe shouldn't even be considered a 'real' metal band, more like a hard rocking prog outfit, often quite majestic and moody, compositionally complex & indulgent. The vocals are perhaps one of Legend's most idiosyncratic elements, being super clean and clear, with some vibrato, capable of conveying intensity and emotion, but also kind of laidback and spacey at the same time, the lyrics mostly mystical, their sincere nerdy/hippie vibe definitely not very metal. On the other hand, like we said, Legend can rock pretty hard, having, most importantly, lotsa great riffs! So that tips 'em a bit more over into metal territory. And the singer does let out a scream once in a while. Their songs' titles and subject matter are also often very metal: "The Destroyer", "Against The Gods", "From The Fjords" (about Viking raiders, naturally). Musically, though, while they may have been listening to the heavy metal of the day, they also must have been big into prog and fusion too - Return To Forever as well as Rush, no doubt. Legend were a power trio and all three members possessed plenty of instrumental chops - the guitar, bass and drums each showing off whenever they can, with complex flourishes. You won't be surprised (and hopefully will be pleased) to find an elaborate drum solo breakdown in the midst of "The Iron Horse", ferinstance (the lengthiest of the two all-instrumental cuts on here).
Lest Legend seem too serious (and only inadvertently silly, with some of their non-ironic mythological/fantasy lyrics), there's deliberate comic relief with "R.A.R.Z.", a tongue-in-cheek track about how they're ready to sell out and become rock stars if they could only get a break. Good thing it's obvious from that song that they knew that wasn't ever gonna happen, and lucky for us too since they were clearly so much better at making a decidedly noncommercial, bizarrely weird and wonderful DIY prog/metal hybrid destined only for well-deserved cult status, that gives the sense of coming from an ancient time, as if we were centuries removed from 1979.
This long-awaited vinyl reissue, which includes a lyric sheet insert, is a European import, limited to just 400 copies worldwide; we got all the copies we're likely to ever get. Someday, perhaps, there will also be a cd reissue of this collector's item on the Vintage/Rockadrome label, but they've been promising it for a while, so we'll see. In the meantime, vinyl types into mystic-proto-epic-prog-metal better grab this now. This would have been a great one for the in-between list we did last week of "heavy ripping freaky prog" stuff!!
RIP guitarist/vocalist Kevin Nugent (died 1983).
Dig this killer blast of blackened slo-mo industrial death metal, from these Italians by way of Japan. We were pretty much sold already, they're called Legion Of Andromeda, they have song titles like "Cosmo Hammer", "Overlord Of Thunder" and "Fist Of The Galaxy", and the cover's a grim black on black band logo, a giant axehammer, and goddamn if the music doesn't live up to all the nonmusical promise. Four tracks of minimal, reductionist blackdeath brutality, almost like a black death version of Dutch instrumetallers Gore, each track mostly a single riff, hell, at times it sounds like a single chord, chugging hypnotically, driven by a programmed robotic rhythm, occasionally shifting into a sort-of-chorus, but really it's just a noisier version of THAT ONE riff. All the while, some seriously throat shredding demon grunt, grindcore style belched vokills, gurgle and growl over the top. Total knuckle dragging blackened bliss out of the highest order. Opener "Cosmo Hammer" is definitely the dirgiest of the bunch, just total slo-mo headbanging chug and churn that could (and should, and sort of DOES) go on forever. "Overlord Of Thunder", stretches out a bit, but just a bit, with a kick ass main riff, that's sort of like a stoner rock riff but way more blackened, the distortion crumbling and blown out, and while it seems like it's setting things up for some proper black buzz and blast, it's NOT, instead, LoA just lock it down, loop that riff, and unfurl a tranced out sprawl of motorik riffage, that in different hands could probably be a Pharaoh Overlord song, but here, becomes some sort of blackdeath musical mantra, modern minimalism by way of hair spinning, amp worshipping neanderthals and we LOVE it. And so it goes, the other two tracks delivering still more of that monstrously monotonous riffing, head caving, soul shearing, one-riff, drone-dirge heaviness that is totally mesmerizing, absolute hypno-death, industrial, black buzz trance out genius.
And yeah, it's a REAL cd, and it's only five bux, and it totally fucking RULES.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
All right folks (specifically, psych lovers and/or Japanophiles)... here's a literal "warehouse find", copies of a long out of print cd that we ourselves discovered during a visit to one of our suppliers, recently! It was worth all the dust-induced sneezing to find, too. Fans of Japanese uber heavies Zeni Geva might know the name, as Leningrad Blues Machine was the heavy, shambolic psych outfit led by KK Null's guitar partner in ZG, Tabata Mitsuru (who was also an early member of the Boredoms as well). Bass player Hayashi Naoto also was in UFO or Die, FYI. This blown-out blues explosion of a debut was originally released via Null's Nux Org label in 1993, but the songs on this disc were actually recorded much earlier, as it consists of material from two shows at Egg Plant, Osaka in November of 1987 and February of '88, plus a couple tracks recorded to 8-track in Kyoto's Queer studio, 1987. There's nine tracks total, although the song "Russian Asshole" appears THREE TIMES in different renditions. That's brilliant, we think. Evidently it can be considered the Leningrad Blues Machine's "theme song". And it's a good 'un, a great example of the distortodelic, fuzz and feedback filled garage stomp at which they slay, in the tradition of near contemporaries The Heads, fellow countrymen High Rise, or spiritual forefathers Blue Cheer, whose classic cover of "Summertime Blues" is in fact sampled and looped as the intro to LBM's own "Bad Blossom" here! Speaking of ye olde influences, "Woodstock Monster" definitely channels some Stooges and MC5. But in 1988, stuff like that wasn't exactly off-handedly "retro" the same way we'd think about it today - it was just weird! LBM are also way more chaotic and noisy than a really retro band woulda been back then. You can also hear that they were on the same path as certain Seattle bands around the same time, or a few years later... this is Japanese proto-grunge, from a year or so before Mudhoney's earliest singles hit the racks. In LBM's case, it's grunge with grim grandeur, when you hear the melancholic majesty of tracks like "Roman Castevet" and other lugubrious epics here, which also bring to mind the more recent generation of downer "Tokyo Flashback" acts like Up-Tight, Miminokoto, and LSD-march.
Recommended to fans of The Heads, Mudhoney, Zeni Geva, people who think some Russians are assholes, etc. Grab it quick, we really only found a few, and then that's it, they're gone... though we do think that LGM themselves are possibly still active, sometimes, even now. And probably playing some of the same songs. For sure, "Russian Asshole"!
From the album cover -- an oddly staged photo featuring four long haired dudes with peculiar, only-in the-seventies fashion sense (high top Converse sneakers or bare feet, tube socks, floral print shirt and white vest and pants, bathrobe, shorts, little red hat...) relaxing at a cafe table -- you wouldn't necessarily guess that this is as heavy as it is. But it is. Though this first (and best) album by Spanish hard rockers Leno dates from 1979, it definitely sounds a few years older than that. Total early '70s heavy proto-metal in sound (which means that if you come into the store looking for it, you'll find it in our new "heavy '70s proto metal" section that lives in our "vintage psych rock" rack) for fans of all that stuff like Dust, Toad, Bang, Buffalo, Budgie, Blues Creation, Socrates Drank The Conium, etc. Wild, riffy stuff with tough, rough wailing (Spanish-language) vocals and lots and lots of *killer* guitar that gets almost Sabbathy in spots. Man, we love finding obscure stuff like this that sounds so classic the second you put it on. Pretty darn kick ass.
It's been a while since we've heard from these Italian atmospheric epic post-prog, math-metal heavies, who in the past have shared a split with psychedelic doomlords and countrymen Ufomammut, and who gave us the stunning Earthen record we raved about a while back, and if anything since then, it seems like everything we dug about these guys has been further honed, their sound still a swirling, chugging, dense and driving, sprawling epic instru-metal, but just, MORE. More mathy, more psychedelic, more proggy, in fact, where most bands like this deliver a handful of lengthy mega-epics, allowing the songs to continually morph and cycle through the millions of parts, Lento cram their metal prog majesty into short, regular song lengths, the longest barely cracking 4 minutes, a few brief two minute blasts, but with most hovering around the 3 minute pop song mark. But there's no way any of these tracks will be mistaken for pop songs, sure, some are dangerously catchy, but for the most part, each song is a dizzying collision of multiple parts, constantly shifting textures, flitting from moody brood, to howling metallic fury, to fluttery folky drift, to loping post rock drift, to hushed jazzy shuffle, to churning almost blackness, to soaring Godspeed worthy, keyboard wreathed swirl and soar, and really, in lesser hands it all might feel like too much, like a band cramming way too many parts into way too little song, but somehow Lento make it feel strangely natural. It's a wild ride for sure, and one that is pretty sonically dizzying, but the songs all feel linked sonically, some sort of prog-math songsuite, and while their Earthen record had a bit of a churning industrial feel, we likened it to Godflesh, and Jesu, as well as more obvious comparisons like Isis and Nadja, the sound here is way more varied, and organic, more math rock and noise rock, with hints of power metal and post rock and spaced out psych and whatever else these weirdos want to mix into their strange sonic brew.
We hear lots of Isis and Nadja still, but plenty of Dutch instrumental metal legends Gore too, as well as LOTS of longtime obscuro aQ faves Fuehler, definitely some shades of the Fucking Champs, the aforementioned power metallisms in places, the mathy chug of Meshuggah for sure, but for the most part, Anxiety Despair Languish is just a fantastically forward thinking, wildly progressive, sonically heavy rock record that RULES, and should have metalheads (and heck adventurous non metalheads) of all stripes losing their shit big time.
The vinyl version is 180 gram and includes a download code.
When we got the Supernaturals Vol.1 cd that teamed up Italy's UFOmammut and Lento (or Lent0?) we knew who UFOmammut were. The snailkings of psychedelic heavy sludge stoner metal awesomeness, a perfect hybrid of Electric Wizard's drugged-out doom and Hawkwind's even spacier, uh, spaciness. Big fans of UFOmammut we already were. But who were this Lento?? Now we have that band's out-on-their-own debut, and now we know. Lento are Italy's all-instrumental answer to Isis. They're Italy's masters of sinister, atmospheric, super-heavy post rock chugga chugga. The seven tracks of Earthen are divided between full-on, blown-out, heavy-riffing clobber and more restrained, near-ambient dronology, usually dynamically within the same song, though there's several tracks given over entirely to the latter, as on "Emersion Of The Islands" a drone-piece with crackling sferic-like sounds... It's a majestic, metallic post-rock soundtrack to a trudging trip across the cratered surface of some airless planetoid, an epic slog under unknown stars, bathed in space radiation, amidst the ruined remains of ancient alien technology... Or at least that's what we're getting from all their drone and grit and feedback, crashing cymbals, and monolithic riffage. Though Earthen's theme, as expressed in the song titles and artwork, appears actually to be more "Subterrestrial" than extra-terrestrial.
First off & obviously we'd recommend this to fans of their pals UFOmammut... the rigid, mechanical Godflesh-like elements that we've detected in UFOmammut's music are more prominent here, with some isolationist Lustmord ambience thrown in as well. Certainly check out Lento if you're into Godflesh (and Justin Broadrick's Jesu too), Isis, Nadja, Dumb & The Ugly, Hyatari... and of course if you liked that Supernaturals Vol.1 disc. This, and UFOmammut's new one Idolum also reviewed this list, are both fine follow-ups to that.
Similar to that new UFOmammut, this "regular" edition of Earthen is packaged in one of those newfangled rounded-corner jewel cases. There is (or was) a special limited edition of Earthen, too, with arty inserts and all, but we got precisely one of those 'cause they cost so damn much. If you're interested, ask, we might still have it... $49! Otherwise, this $19.98 edition is recommended!
Latest from these French post black metal shoegazers, who seem forever doomed to live in the shadow of their countrymen Alcest and Amesoeurs, which makes sense, cuz most folks might in fact have a little trouble telling them apart. It's a shame though, because removed from the whole 'post black metal' equation (like really, all three of these band should be at this point), Les Discrets are masterful practitioners of fuzzed out, distortion drenched shoegaze dreampop heaviness. While they have essentially given up any pretense of being a black metal band of any stripe, their are some hints of blackness here, mostly in the occasional atonal riffage, and the brief stretch of guitar buzz and blast beat, but if anything, they definitely have more in common with the soaring dramatic metallic gloom pop of Katatonia, or the shoegaze blissiness of 4AD and Creation. There's plenty of buzz and pound, big soaring guitars, epic riffage, but even at their heaviest, Les Discrets are still a pop band, which is really what makes this stuff so great, every song here, gorgeously melancholic, epic and hook filled, maybe not necessarily in the classic verse chorus verse sense, but their knack for unforgettable melodies, for lush enveloping textures, for hypnorock mesmer, are unmatched, and yeah, we'll say it, even by their more famous countrymen. And when they slow it down, LD are capable of great beauty, of hushed crystalline mystery that sounds even more dramatic in the midst of a sprawling progged out black pop shoegaze epic. And all that said, of the three flagship post BM shoegaze combos, at this point we'd have to say LD might be out favorites. It could be simply because this is new, and these songs are fresh, but we're thinking it's much more than that.
The easiest way to describe Les Discrets is thus: anyone who loves Alcest or Amesouers, is gonna love these guys too. Which makes perfect sense, they're French, their sound is a blissed out shoegazey post-black metal pop, and heck they even share members with Alcest.
But unlike Alcest, whom these guys shared a split release with not too long ago, Les Discrets have pretty much eliminated all and any blackness from their sound. Only the barest traces, only shadowy vestiges remain, no harsh vocals, no blast beats, no frenzied riffing, no Les Discrets is like an even more poppy blissed out Alcest, all jangle and chime and soar and shimmer. And as we mentioned in the Alcest review elsewhere on this week's list, these guys are inexplicably beloved by black metallers. With Alcest it makes a bit more sense, as there is actually some blackness, but the blackness in Les Discrets has been infused with sunlight, transforming black into bursts of greys and blues, hazy and gauzy, a sound more akin to Katatonia really, majestic and epic and heartfelt and emotional, still heavy for sure, even a little mathy, but more than anything, lush and dreamy and shimmery, shoegazey and softly fuzzy, lots of clean guitars, acoustic jangle, crooned vocals, warm whirling effects, all mixed into the woozy distorted crunch and softly blown out buzz, the result, while not remotely black metal, is turning out to be one of our favorite shoegaze gloom pop records ever!
Everyone's favorite, um, "lesbros" from up north in the Cascadian woods are back, three years after their last effort, with a new album of epic heaviosity. And we do mean epic - perhaps it should come as no surprise since Lesbian's previous two albums were full of pretty darn long songs with lots of parts, but here they REALLY decided to go for it and do the one long song thing - there's just one track on this disc, and it's 44 minutes long. Not as groundbreaking as when Sleep did it way back when on Jerusalem, but like we said, it makes sense for 'em. Why write several 15 or 20 minute long songs when you can just cram everything into one non-stop barrage?
With that much time to kill, Lesbian opt for (as always, actually) a kitchen sink approach, mixing together a wide variety of metal styles: stoner-doom-sludge, post-rock/post-metal, black metal, and more... There's parts here that remind us of everything from Neurosis to Agalloch to Mercyful Fate! Also, there's "less metal" moments that bear some resemblance to their colleagues, the Master Musicians Of Bukkake (whose Randall Dunn produced this, and whose Timba Harris arranged the strings here), as well as the forest-y pagan ambience of stuff found on the Glass Throat label from the same neck of the woods too.
While we couldn't possibly give a comprehensive, blow-by-blow account of this lengthy composition, let's mention a few of the high points. Forestelevision opens ominously, like some sort of soundtracky black metal, lots of eerie / arty atmosphere, but a few minutes in gets a lot more sludgey, with heavier riffs and vokills. At about 10 minutes in, you'll find a fantastic folk-riffed segment, like a collaboration between Swedish '70s psych act Trad Gras Och Stenar and Neurosis!
By the 20 minute mark, Lesbian have worked themselves into a bit of a frenzy, getting all hectic and mathy, with lots of effects and a great deal of effort on the part of the drummer. This crazy chaotic section goes for a while, then at around 32 minutes or so they need to take a breather and so the song suddenly gets all mellow and moody, delicate and even kind of pretty. Lesbian could be mistaken for a ordinary, instrumental postrock band at that point - but not for long, because soon they launch into a triumphant metallic gallop (or maybe it's just a trot, but it's glorious) crowned with completely unexpected high pitched shrieking King Diamond style heavy metal vocals! WTF?! Rad!! If we weren't convinced we needed this already, we are now. They chug along like that for a while, while we make involuntary devil horn hand gestures. Not sure why they waited, like, 36 minutes to bust into this part, maybe it took the singer that long to get up his courage... This more metal than thou section proves to be the album's heroic climax, stretching out in an almost psychedelic fashion however, before it at last comes to the end. The End. And guess what? The excitement of that last section really makes us want to hit "play" again right away and take the whole trip all over again - so that's a recommendation!
Of course it also makes us want to go listen to some of our other favorite "one long song" cd metal cds, like Crimson by Edge Of Sanity and Key To The Gates Of Apocalpyses by Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra...
Digipak cd or double lp gatefold vinyl, the latter of which actually messes with the integrity of our review by adding on an exclusive bonus "outro" track!
Black Metal. No, wait. Sludge-doom. Wait, no, it's post-rock. Huh? Seattle's Lesbian (who do themselves no favors with their dumb name, although they used to be called Lesbian Witch, not sure if that's better or worse) are, to us, pleasingly confusional and compelling when given a listen, their extended, epic songs -- 4 tracks in 1 hour here, folks -- veering from sheer metallic violence to moody melody to shoegazing stoner space-outs... it's like Wolves In The Throne Room one moment, Pelican or Isis the next. And it's great. Definitely another "heavy" winner from the eccentric Holy Mountain label, fresh from their successes with the likes of Om and Mammatus, two other question-mark-metal bands with heady, hypnotic abilities.
Their throat-torn vocals and the weighty riffage argue for Lesbian's status as metallers, while the many passages of quiet blissfulness reveal a surprisingly sensitive side, just as emotionally effective, each opposed aspect of their music enhancing the power and beauty of the other via Lesbian's devastating dynamics and psychedelic synergy. Recommended!
Er, we've never been sure that Lesbian was such a good name for this all-dude band from up north Seattle way. Unfortunately not an easily Googleable choice either, if you're just trying to find the band. But in its seeming inappropriateness, it does at least represent the "not quite what you expected" nature of their sound. And we HAVE always liked 'em; their debut for Holy Mountain, Power Hor, was a bit of a heavy fave here when it came out in 2007, we compared it to both Pelican and Wolves In The Throne Room! Now moved over to the Important imprint (they have good taste in labels, and vice versa), Lesbian present a solid follow-up in the form of Stratospheria Cubensis. Giving off a serious, melancholic vibe, this new opus, resplendent in Seldon Hunt artwork, should meet all your epic prog-doom-stoner-psych-metal needs quite handily.
The disc starts off with a great song, with a great title: "Poisonous Witchball", full of proggy angular riffs, and very metal ones too. It's the shortest song on the album, but still manages to fit in a great number of shifts and surprises, foreshadowing what's in store on the rest of the disc, which consists of looooong songs, five of 'em, that shortest one a relatively brief 8'28", the others in the double digits, up to 22'31", which gives them plenty of space to stretch out and psychedelicize... rather than go track by track, let's just say you get a smorgasbord of avant-metal mayhem and majesty, with repetitive sludge-bludgeon, speedy attacks, postrock soft-loud dynamics, sharp shredding guitar shards of quirky math metal, mammoth doom riffage, shoegazing melodic pretty parts, and more. It flows, though, how it flows. From ripping it up like Darkthrone one minute to crushing like Conifer or Samothrace another, there's no false steps, and no boring (but many beautiful) moments. We note that the "Lesbros" thanks list does not omit drugs, and likewise *your* thanks list should not omit Lesbian!
We've mentioned it before, but it definitely bears repeating. It's always good to print the speed a record is meant to be played at. If your band is slow and sludgey, droney and dirgey, then odds are it will sound good at both 45 -and- 33, and if you're like us, you'll probably think it sounds better slower, dirgier, heavier, so we're gonna review this split at 33, cuz it sounded better that way. If it was meant to be played at 45, well, everything we're about to say, only slightly higher pitched and a bit faster.
Lesbian are from Seattle and feature a bunch of dudes who have done time in other heavy bands, most notably Asva. They released an awesome album on Holy Mountain a year or two ago. And here, they offer up one track of classic sounding doom, at least at first, soaring minor key guitars, wrapped around crushing drums, harsh demonic vox, strangely haunting and pretty, but as the song develops it gets weirder and weirder, introducing some blasting double kick, some old school eighties style chug complete with guitar harmonies, and some streaks of blurred almost-black metal. Like Khanate meets Iron Maiden, but weirder, and even cooler than that already sounds.
The flipside is a new track from Ocean, from Maine, not to be confused with THE Ocean from Germany, the sound here is brooding post rocky metal, a simple strum, all murky and Godspeedy, slow building, before exploding into a churning low slung sludge, that at 33 is thick and viscous, but maybe slightly less so at 45. Heavy and murky and pummeling, before giving way to a pretty droned out abstract outro.
Packaged in sturdy full color sleeves, pressed on thick opaque yellow vinyl, and most likely limited.
Another heavy one from this great label.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A while back we came across a demo tape by this New York band, who play an excellent sort of math-core metal, and whose members eventually formed one of the recent (and since replaced) Today Is The Day line-ups (the one that recorded the punishing "In The Eyes Of God") and went on to found AQ-fave metallers Mastodon!. Now, finally that demo and a bunch of other equally hard-to-find (and equally heavy and chaotic) stuff by the band makes it to compact disc, two of 'em in fact.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
These warnings are beginning to sound like mantras: THIS IS VERY LIMITED. THIS WILL MOST LIKELY ALREADY BE OUT OF PRINT BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS. WE GOT THE LAST 50 COPIES AND WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET MORE!! LIMITED LIMITED LIMITED!!! But like all good mantras, it pays to heed the sage advice contained within, and in this case the advice would be pick one of these up quick like before they're gone for good. A Silhouette In Splinters is the long in the works "ambient" record from Leviathan, released on Canadian label Profound Lore, lp only, pressed on thick red vinyl and as you may have surmised EXTREMELY LIMITED. Part of what makes Leviathan records so powerful and mesmerizing is Wrest's mastery of mood and ambience, so here he gets to explore an entire album of bleak and depressive atmospheres. But this is not pure ambient music, its ambience is only obvious when compared to the dense complex sound world of other Leviathan releases. This is not static ambience, not in the least, these are actual songs, not just creepy swooshings and simple drones. Silhouette is like an entire record made up of the best black metal intros ever, but here, each one is fleshed out into actual musical narratives. Skeletal guitar figures, drift and shimmer darkly over ominous swells of mournful minor key lament. What little percussion there is, hovers ghostlike beneath a wash of blackened swirl. The entire record is wrapped in a foggy cloak of starlit skies and murky underground passages. A haunting soundtrack to misery and horror, death and dying.
First off, this is indeed a CASSETTE. Second of all this is EXTREMELY LIMITED. Extremely. Originally intended to be released along with the most recent issue of Oaken Throne Magazine, due to some unforseen manufacturing delays, Demos - 2000 is now available all on its own. And for a tiny piece of plastic this tape packs a mighty blackened wallop. Culled from the same material as Leviathan's debut 2cd Verrater (now out of print), these early demos are just as dark and bleak and weird and amazing as his subsequent releases. Maybe a little murkier, a little more buzzy and lo-fi, but hell, this is a BLACK METAL TAPE after all!!! Limited to 500 copies, of which we got the last handful. There is a forthcoming cd of demos on Moribund, but these tracks are -exclusive- to this cassette, unless of course you're one of the lucky few with a secret stash of early Leviathan tapes and cd-r's. But since you're probably not, odds are YOU NEED THIS!! AS with all things Leviathan, absolutely essential black metal listening!
Now available on vinyl for a super limited time. Only 500 copies made so act fast (and be aware that the vinyl contains 2 less tracks than the cd)!
Everyone wants a glimpse into the blackened Leviathan vaults, containing the legendary 20 or so cd-r's and cassettes recorded and released during the years 2000-2002, early demos that played more like full-on proper albums, hell they WERE full-on albums, highlights of which were released as the two disc Verrater (soon to be repressed!) on tUMULt a few years back. But Wrest from Leviathan has made it clear that those were then, and averaging a new release every few months, including full lengths and splits, is now. Well, that is, except for this. Probably your only chance, outside Verrater, to hear where it all began. Howl Mockery At The Cross is an essential shard of the mysterious obscured blackened history of Leviathan, and while sonically a bit rougher than the more recent records, it's still a dark and twisting, buzzing and howling serpentine trip through the black, bleak and brutal sonic world of Wrest and Leviathan. Some of these tracks were actually first choices to be included on Verrater, but at the time Wrest had planned on re-recording them. But with each new record, and after a few aborted attempts, the idea of going back to old songs seemed less and less appealing. So this is now the only place to hear those amazing tracks. Lots of that blackened buzz we love so much, but as with all Leviathan records, there are plenty of distinctly un-BM parts all over the place: dense mathrockisms, blissed out droning breakdowns, sludgy doom, bizarre times signatures, impossibly complex drumming, mournful minor key melodies, that immediately recognizable heavily affected demonic howl, all twisted into a gorgeously dark and demented, moody and murky blackened squall. Even includes a Death In June cover, properly drenched in buzz and blackness, so much so that it sounds like it could have been penned by Wrest himself. Striking metallic silver cover with the Leviathan upside down cross and dripping moon logo.
We talk about 'long awaited' releases all the time, records we hear about well before their actual release date, forcing us to wait and wait and wait, but few records have been as eagerly anticipated, or generated so many emails from customers as this, the latest from SF black metal behemoth Leviathan. Especially considering the rumors circulating that this may indeed be the final recording from Wrest and his one man band, Leviathan. If it is indeed a swansong, it's hard to imagine a more fitting or more powerful farewell-and-fuck-off.
Even being a huge fan and voracious devourer of black metal, we would be hard pressed to tell lots of BM bands apart. It's the nature of the beast in some ways. But the second we threw this on, even if we hadn't known what was playing, there's no mistaking the sound of Leviathan, the guitar tone, those demonic croaked vocals, the dizzying lush black buzzscapes, the convoluted song structures, the weird mathy rhythms and the incredible riffs.
Massive Conspiracy is not a huge departure from the sound of Tentacles Of Whorror, if anything, it just takes all the elements of that record and pushes them just that much further out. The sound is a bit more dense, more epic, the drumming is amazing (especially after the switch from electronic drums to real drums) the compositions more sprawling and expansive in scope. Which is saying a lot since past Leviathan records were pretty dang epic and sprawling already.
The sheer hatred of the titles is certainly expressed in the music as well, this is some scathing, hateful furious sound.
The record begins with some strange static, hissing drone-like buzz, ominous ambience beneath it, a haunting melody, then Wrest's howl and the record explodes in a flurry of rapid fire riffing and relentless blasting, but only briefly, the song immediately switches gear into a lurching lope, then right back into the blast. The song is peppered with super dense squalls of high end buzz, streaks of ultradistorted skree, while beneath all sorts of murky melodies lurk, almost like some old 78 was left playing in the background, giving the track an incredible creepy vibe, the last half of the song wraps itself around a slithery downtuned staccato riff, a gorgeously grim dirge that pounds its way to a burst of black chaos at the finish.
The second track is all whirring synths, loping drums, and Wrest's gurgling growl, a weird skeletal ambient dirge that is soon swallowed up by keening high end guitars, crunching downtuned churn, and some super freaky almost operatic vocals, the middle of the song is all full speed freaked out intensity, before again, the song locks into a super riffy groove, much like the opener, before finishing off in another black blaze.
The rest of the record follows suit, weaving super elaborate soundscapes of black metal buzz, and moody mathy meandering, dense black ambience, and swirling low end drones, the tracks rife with parts and bridges and confusional changes, all masterfully wound up into dense convoluted blackened, that while on their own are strange enough, are also peppered will all manner of sonic weirdness, be it slippery peals of woozy, dizzying melody, garbled vocal fragments, soaring harmony guitar melodies, super obtuse dynamics,
All culminating in the final two tracks. "Vulgar Asceticism" is definitely the most fucked, and maybe most amazing song Wrest has ever recorded. Even the opening, with its muted riffing and murky bass throb, staccato riff, and weird Greg Ginn-ish scrape and grind, before the song takes off. And the main riff is super warbly, almost sounding like he's playing with a slide, the notes wavering and detuning, only to be yanked back in line, and then bent way out of tune again, the result a blurry seasick lurch, exacerbated by the dynamics, the riffs often slipping into strange start stop stutters, until the song reaches it's middle stretch, the bass and drums locked into a relentless midtempo blast, while layers of guitars, and various riffs slip and slide, waver and warble, a super dizzy expanse of funhouse mirror blackness that is as fucked up and far out as it is amazing and masterful.
The closer, "Noisome Ash Crown" is an appropriately somber end to Massive Conspiracy, maybe even Leviathan itself. The whole first half a funereal crawl, a bleak grim landscape of whirring thick black ambience, and strange squalls of processed vocals, squiggles of distorted guitar, the drums a solid framework for the drifting abyss above. A strange washed out, gauzy black ambient bridge, gives way to a crushing almost industrial dirge, the melodies majestic and sorrowful, the vocals harrowing and harsh, the drums furiously flailing before transforming into muted little tangles, the rest of the song following suit, a dark minor key outro that gives way to the same black static that started the record.
The first limited pressing comes in a red digipak, featuring some seriously twisted original artwork from Wrest on the cover. Inside lurks a 12 page full color booklet, with more freaky drawings, lyrics and no liner notes.
NB. this officially comes out on Tuesday (3/25) so we can't sell any in the store 'til then, but of course mailorder folks can go ahead and order it now, to get in the mailorder queue...
Back in 2011 when we reviewed Leviathan's last full length, True Traitor, True Whore, we called it one of the meanest, darkest, heaviest Leviathan albums yet. We don't want to get lazy with our reviews but we'll just go ahead and repeat that line for Scar Sighted: THIS is one of the meanest, darkest, heaviest Leviathan records yet. Anyone who reads our lists or follows extreme metal in any way is surely familiar with most of the Jef Whitehead discography, right? Tons of demos, EPs, and splits, a few full lengths, some controversy, but always dedicated to making some of the most heavy, crushing, bleak, twisted black metal in the U.S. and perhaps the world. Scar Sighted is a absolutely massive record - both in sound and atmosphere. When it's not crushing you with absolute freight-train force from the riffs, its somber, bleak atmosphere takes over, reminding us of our favorite Whitehead side project, Lurker of Chalice. The first track, "The Smoke of Their Torment", is maybe the most death metal sounding Leviathan track ever recorded. Pitch-shifted growls over chunky, chuggy riffs, but still an atmosphere and twisted approach that makes it so uniquely Leviathan. Like Deathspell Omega covering Incantation (or the other way around?). From there, the album, somehow, only gets better, twisting and turning through labyrinthian riffs, rain-soaked doom trudges, and industrial wastelands. The climax of the album is surely the title track; nearly seven minutes of slow, wall of sound madness before the blast beats come back and the song falls apart into a somber outro. Seriously, going through these tracks one-by-one won't even do it justice!
Comes in a beautiful oversized cardboard cd box with tons of Whitehead's twisted artwork, as if you needed another reason to buy this. Whether you buy one metal album or hundred this year, this one is not to be missed. No-shit contender for black metal album of the year.
Now on limited edition import double vinyl (blood red vinyl too!) -- with a vinyl-only BONUS TRACK! What we said when the cd version came out:
Summer may just have begun here in San Francisco, but with the release of this new album from local one-man black metal act Leviathan, it sure seems like winter time (plus you all know what Mark Twain said about summer in San Francisco anyway). Brrr. The frosty riffs and blood freezing atmospheres are warmed only by the blasting drums... But you know what, Leviathan hardly needs our attempts at cliched black metal hyperbole to stand proud amid the clutter of corpse-painted pretenders. Leave aside all that and listen: this is keenly crafted, weirdly artful, utterly uncompromising metal. From mathy mayhem to slow, doomy dirge, Leviathan displays unfettered creativity, immense musical skill, and intense emotional involvement in his art (those being dark emotions, if you have to ask). In the evolution of Leviathan, this brings in a torrent of old-school riffage (i.e. Celtic Frost and Slayer) and wired-for-Destruction song constructs while also slowing down more than even before to bathe in ambient weirdness and melody. Vocally, Leviathan's exhalations are like exhumations, the bringing forth of seemingly wordless death (though in fact, Leviathan has lyrics and they're so interestingly twisted). More proof, if any was needed, why Leviathan is in absolute fact one of not only our favorite black metal acts (enough so that Andee released the debut Verratter on his tUMULt label) but also considered so by many others across the globe. And is that some amazing Comus-ish cover art or what? Its stark, disturbed violence and eccentricity perfectly captures this album's whorror.
Summer may just have begun here in San Francisco, but with the release of this new album from local one-man black metal act Leviathan, it sure seems like winter time (plus you all know what Mark Twain said about summer in San Francisco anyway). Brrr. The frosty riffs and blood freezing atmospheres are warmed only by the blasting drums... But you know what, Leviathan hardly needs our attempts at cliched black metal hyperbole to stand proud amid the clutter of corpse-painted pretenders. Leave aside all that and listen: this is keenly crafted, weirdly artful, utterly uncompromising metal. From mathy mayhem to slow, doomy dirge, Leviathan displays unfettered creativity, immense musical skill, and intense emotional involvement in his art (those being dark emotions, if you have to ask). In the evolution of Leviathan, this brings in a torrent of old-school riffage (i.e. Celtic Frost and Slayer) and wired-for-Destruction song constructs while also slowing down more than even before to bathe in ambient weirdness and melody. Vocally, Leviathan's exhalations are like exhumations, the bringing forth of seemingly wordless death (though in fact, Leviathan has lyrics and they're so interestingly twisted). More proof, if any was needed, why Leviathan is in absolute fact one of not only our favorite black metal acts (enough so that Andee released the debut Verratter on his tUMULt label) but also considered so by many others across the globe. And is that some amazing Comus-ish cover art or what? It's by Dan Higgs of Lungfish, and its stark, disturbed violence and eccentricity perfectly captures this album's whorror.
Before everybody has a big ol' black metal meltdown, this is NOT a brand new Leviathan record (although there is a new one coming soon). This is in fact the Leviathan half of the recent split with Sapthuran released on Battle Kommand Records a little while back. However, it is the first (and only) time these songs will be available all by themselves, and on vinyl! And what a gorgeous slab of vinyl it is. A brand new painting by Wrest, the man behind Leviathan, adorns the cover, and it is truly gorgeous and horrifying, some sort of shadowy horned thing, a nice thick sleeve with the text printed in reflective gloss over the image. Very striking. The vinyl is either half red / half green, or half green / half black, and no you can't specify which color you want. It's random. Which means DO NOT ASK for a specific color, you will get whichever one gets grabbed at random, and of course, it's super limited, so only one per customer. So now that that's all out of the way we can explain just why you absolutely NEED this record:
The mighty Wrest and his black metal behemoth Leviathan resurfaces once again, and once again Wrest does not disappoint. In fact if anything (and if it's even possible at this point) the Leviathan material on The Blind Wound is even more fucked up and out there than ever. That Leviathan sound is present and in full effect, a blurry swirling buzz of crazy riffs, impossible drumming, those insane vocals, and completely bizarre song structures, almost proggy at points, never hesitating to stop and start, stutter through some improbably complex series of time signatures or bliss out into some strange ambient soundscape. And as if Wrest's compositional style and playing weren't unique enough, every track is rife with all manner of weird parts, bizarre sounds and fucked up sonic detritus. From strange tripped out drone-ambience, angular almost Greg Ginnish guitar freakouts, impossibly tortured and affected vocals that go from guttural rumble to hellish howl, to creepy otherworldly keyboard like backgrounds, to sludgy almost doomlike breakdowns to full on krautrock / mathrock workouts, albeit slathered in plenty of buzz and fuzz. The final track finishes things off in a completely unexpected way, with a warm and fuzzy slow motion smear of gauzy muted My Bloody Valentine / M83 guitars and simple blown out drumming. As always, amazing!
A long while back we reviewed a split cd by SF black metal legend Leviathan and the Bathory worshipping Polish horde Iuvenes. As much as we may have dug the Iuvenes stuff, the Leviathan material was the real reason we all tuned in. So now Viva Hate have gone and taken just Wrest's half of the split and released it on vinyl (this is either the second or third, and supposedly final pressing), with all new art, printed inner sleeves, and pressed on INSANELY thick clear vinyl. Here's what we had to say about this stuff first time around:
Finally a little more Leviathan to hold us over until his next forthcoming full length, Tentacles of Whorror! This time around it's a split with European old schoolers Iuvenes who traffic in buzzy blurry black metal, Bathory style. But let's not kid ourselves, Leviathan is why we're here and Wrest does not disappoint. Grinding suffocating swarms of buzzing guitars, ultra creepy, deeply depressing ambience, completely and brilliantly fucked drumming, haunting Burzum-y keyboards, and that inhuman bowels-of-hell rasp that occasionally erupts into an utterly terrifying demonic shriek. But it's the songs, the songs are just so fucking good. So many black metal bands make all the right sounds, but can't actually write real songs. Wrest continues to explore and push the boundaries of black metal with Leviathan, exploring distinctly non-black metal sounds and ideas, but manages to stay grim and true the whole time. The songs here are punishing and crushingly dense, disturbing and evil as fuck, but days later, you'll find these riffs stuck in your head like a crown of thorns! Essential!
Wrest and his one-man-black-metal-band Leviathan return, with the corpses of Christians and poseurs littering the bleak landscape evoked by his sonic barrage of inhuman vokills, majestic riffing, and punishing drums. Pure misanthropic musical mayhem. Surely you remember Leviathan -- Andee put out the debut double cd Verrater on tUMULt only nine months ago, and that's been a very successful release. But Verrater was only the tip of the blackened iceberg that is Wrest/Leviathan's ability and need to make intelligent and emotional extreme rock music. Hence, this suicidal statement spawned so soon. At AQ, we fancy ourselves connoisseurs of this kind of stuff, and believe us -- this guy is good (and evil)!! What we mean is, as raw as it gets, there's some intense talent on display here. Lots of San Francisco bands have gotten hyped recently, but here's one that really deserves worship. Chaotically complex, pitilessly crafted tracks like the nine-minute long "Sardoniscorn" somehow maintain this music's one-foot-in-the-grave old school spikes n' corpsepaint directive while simultaneously getting totally arty and out there with epic, prog, avant-garde elements. Doomy drone, weird downtempo percussive interludes, atonal piano, ambient psychedelia, extreme vocal unpleasantness, lots of distortion and feedback. Yes! So it's no surprise that tUMULt and Aquarius (and our customers) weren't the only entities to appreciate the grim genius of Leviathan, as Wrest's project has now been signed to multi-album deals with two black metal specialists, Moribund in the States and Drakkar over in Europe, this album being the first fruit of that deal. We even recently discovered that none other than pagan pop star and psych/krautrock maniac Julian Cope is a big Leviathan fan, recommending Verrater on his website! So, this is another one for both black metal freaks (who will find this worthy of keeping company with your Burzum, Satyricon, Immortal, etc. records) as well as any other adventurous music-lovers unafraid of dabbling in the weird and wretched...
For a while it seemed like West Coast one man black metal horde Leviathan was no more. More and more disillusioned with the modern black metal scene, an ongoing dispute with his label, a seemingly constant battle with personal demons (which no doubt inspired the sounds of Leviathan), 2008's Massive Conspiracy Against All Life was seemingly to be Leviathan's swan song, and it was a pretty epic finish to an already epic career. Then it seemed the whole world was talking about Leviathan again, or specifically the man behind Leviathan, Wrest, aka Jef Whitehead, but the focus wasn't musical, it was personal, as Whitehead was involved in a high profile series of disturbing allegations, which for now remain unresolved, legally and otherwise, and definitely had many fans writing Leviathan off completely. And as if testament to the fact that demons drive the music of Leviathan, this recent experience, and its ongoing ramifications, seemingly inspired Leviathan to start back up, and to record again, creating art from pain, and ultimately making one of the meanest, darkest, heaviest Leviathan records yet, no doubt reflecting the anger and confusion that has consumed Whithead's life over this last year. One need look no further than the album title, or the track titles, it's definitely not subtle, but then black metal never really was. And if singing about Satan was considered grim and kvlt, we can only imagine what folks will make of True Traitor, True Whore, where as the subject matter is indeed grim, the spirit hateful and brutal, TTTW is a musical venting like no one has seen before. Sure the histories of rock music, and metal music are littered with angry missives to ex-lovers, to enemies, hell, even to friends, but rarely has that anger been so fully rendered as pure black sound.
And while much of what we loved about Leviathan remains, we had mentioned in a previous review that while we might have trouble telling much black metal apart, Leviathan was, and seemingly always will be immediately recognizable, but, a lot has changed, in the last three years, that disillusionment with black metal has resulted in much of TTTW moving away from the black buzz, and the production too, handled by Sanford Parker, who also had a hand in Nachtmystium's transformation into something much more psychedelic than black, but the opening track, "True Whorror", at least for the first two minutes, are definitely as grim and black and buzzy as ever, Whitehead's demonic croak in full effect, the guitars insectoid and wildly frenzied, plenty of gnarled atonal melody, and some wild chaotic drumming, but then at about two minutes, we get our first hint of what is to come, a lilting surprisingly melodic bridge, with some cool almost sitar sounding guitars, some strange industrial sounds in the background, a weird creepy sample, and then it's back to the buzz and blast, but the sound flits constantly from grim to melodic, from frantic and twisted, to woozy and almost psychedelic.
"Her Circle Is The Noose" is almost like nineties post rock, blackened, with weird reverbed vox, plenty of clean layered guitars, loping rhythm, the main riff, more of a haunting arpeggiated melody, the Slint vibe is huge, it's not until about 3 minutes in, that the song launches into a blurry blast, but the guitars spitting out wild upper register skree, only to slip right back into that blackened post rock lope. "Brought Up To This Bottom" is a bit more black, but it's also even more tripped out, with some strange sonar like pings, a super dynamic stop/start arrangement, the sound definitely much more lush and psychedelic than past releases, the recording epic and massive, with some of the sounds so in-the-red they seem to be crumbling from the speakers, the drums sounding better than ever, definitely the most live, reminding us at times of Don Caballero's Damon Che. "Contrary Pulse", is all echoey and reverby and strangely murky, a washed out droney chunk of hypnorock, that occasionally splinters into something more black and buzzy, but even then, the sound is much less about buzz and blast, and when the song is creeping and droning, the vibe is weirdly industrial and seriously sinister.
A couple old tracks from the early demos (and later compiled on the tUMULt double disc Verrater) get redone here, the first is "Shed This Skin", which works surprisingly well in this new context, and benefits from the modern overhaul / reinterpretation, Whitehead's cool sinister croon, and with an added lushness that was only hinted at on the original, not to mention more clean guitars, and a way more psychedelic vibe. "Every Orifice Yawning Her Price", is another one that bucks black metal convention, minus Whitehead's inhuman howl, the music is weirdly post rocky, and almost sea shanty-ish, with some cool bits of warm psychedelic clean guitar swirl, as well as a cool tripped out, droney second half, where the drums continue to pound away, beneath a wild tangle of spidery melody and garbled vox, as well as thick chordal swells that swirl and pulse. Which leads right into the way more metal "Harlot Rises [Mesmerized Again]", that adds some Kiss-like flange to the drums to great effect, and after a pounding almost doomy into, switches gear, and becomes almost poppy, still blackened and post rocky, but definitely with a pop vibe. And this track might be the weirdest of all, splintering partway through into a sort of spaced out breakdown, that shifts from twisted dramatic synth/drum workouts to woozy psych trip-out, and a seriously dreamy droney outro.
Finally, the record finishes off with another old demo track, "Blood Red And True", which was definitely one of our favorite classic Leviathan jams, and like "Shed This Skin", ends up sounding amazing in its new form, the guitars impossibly thick and chunky, the vocals sick as ever, a churning chugging blackened melodic doom, the heavy parts epic and majestic, the tripped out parts, way more psychedelic, layered and lysergic, the sound impossibly lush and evocative, about as close to soaring epic Godspeed style post rock as Leviathan has ever gotten, a super dramatic finish for sure.
Yet again, Whitehead continues to push the limits of black metal with Leviathan, even moreso now that he seems to have abandoned any bonds to the scene that claimed him, and while this is definitely the most bitter and angry Leviathan record yet, it's also probably the strangest, and most progressive, and our favorite in a while, managing to keep the true core of Leviathan's sound while moving well past the tired tropes of the grim and the black, and here's hoping that this is not the last we hear from Leviathan.
Packaged in a super striking digipak, with reflective ink printing, and cyrillic style type.
Those of you who live in San Francisco may have seen or even bought some of the many self released casettes by the mysterious one man black metal band called Leviathan. Or some of you may have seen Andee or Allan sporting their Leviathan shirts, or you may have even seen Wrest, the man behind Leviathan lurking around AQ...regardless, Leviathan is the latest and certainly one of the greatest of the Bay Area black metal bands (Ludicra, Sangre Amado, the godlike Weakling [also on tUMULt], etc...) who seem to exist in some sort of vacuum here while elsewhere, band after unoriginal band keep getting signed to huge labels and hyped to death even though most of them suck.
For this release Andee and Wrest went through the 13 full length Leviathan cassettes/cd-r's (as of today that number has leapt to 15!) Leviathan had recorded since 1998 to compile a good overview. But they couldn't whittle it down enough so one disc became two, with the first disc being the newer stuff, and disc two being the older, raw-er material.
Verrater is pure, primitive, cult, home recorded evil. Two discs, twenty two tracks, one hundred and forty three minutes of buzzing, howling, pummelling, black metal. Think Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, that sort of thing, but with all sorts of weird twists and sonic surprises. Yes, Leviathan is grimmer than grim metal that the frost & forest lords of Norway should bow down to, but it's also pure expression unfettered by genre restraints, although informed and inspired by them. Like Weakling, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Caacrinolas, Ludicra, Potentiam, Enslaved, and some other AQ-championed black metal acts, this is not just one for fans of black metal only! It's dark, weird, noisy, disturbing art embodying one man's vision that should be heard by anyone into avantgarde, experimental, psycically and physically powerful rock music. From blasting howling fury to moody ambient blackness to off kilter weirdness to droning riffery to soul crushing heaviness. What's truly remarkable is that one man, playing all the instruments himself, and recording at home, can evoke such strong emotions and invoke such musical demons. Original, evil, hateful, misanthropic, bizarre and truly black metal.
