Been a little while since we've heard from either of these legendary black metal hordes, one French, one German, but who share much in common sonically, and if you're anything like us, you probably saw the names Katharsis and Antaeus on the same record and already decided this was essential and hurled it into your cart, and you know what? You would be RIGHT. Two new killer blasts of frenzied and gloriously fucked up blackness, both bands offer up something slightly different, but still plenty in keeping with their sound respective sounds.
Up first is Katharsis, or at least that's the side we listened to first, and it DESTROYS!! A blurred expanse of relentlessly buzzing guitars and buried blast beats all murky and muted, a swirling sort of blackness, hovering beneath a creepy deep voice, intoning, testifying, speaking in tongues (?) before the band explodes into a super fast, ultra furious squall of swirling buzzing black metal fury, the vocals really loud and way up in the mix, gargling and growling and slipping into wild falsetto shrieks, doused in reverb and delay, there is also some super surprising poppiness that surfaces during the bridge, super melodic bits all tangled up with the thrashing flailing buzz beneath it, as well as some awesome crazed super shredding guitar leads. Definitely weird, but still completely amazing. Dying for a full length more than ever.
Antaeus have been MIA even longer than Katharsis, and their track, while still pretty ruling, sounds like it could be a demo, or rehearsal, or outtake, but because of that, it gives the song a seriously fucked up and freaked out vibe. After a mysterious blackened industrial drone intro, the band launches into a super fast, almost looped sounding blast, the drums sounds like a machine, except for the strange flurry of fills, the guitars super brittle and buzzy and backed off in the mix, the flurries of lightning fast kick drums are WAY up in the mix, along with the vocals, so much so that it almost sounds like just vocals and drums, with a backdrop of swirling distant buzz. Not as epic and crushing as their records proper, but still plenty heavy and buzzy and black.
Housed in a beautiful printed heavy cardstock sleeve, inside there's a fold out poster sized insert with artwork and liner notes, and the record itself is pressed on some of the thickest vinyl EVER.
ALREADY OUT OF PRINT, so these are the last copies we'll likely be able to get!
Full length number two from this Canadian combo, and like on their oddly titled debut, Through The Cervix Of Hawaah, Antediluvian continue to hone their warped, damaged and demented blackened death metal, and based on the opening track here, have succeeded in sounding even more fantastically fucked up this time around. Their death metal still bordering on a mutant strain of black metal, the sound here sees the group moving sonically closer to outfits like Wold or Portal, a grinding, dense, chaotic churn of frenzied riffage, wild mathed out drumming, monstrous gurgling vocals, and dense blackened atmospheres.
The aforementioned opener begins with what sounds like chanting, some old liturgical music, only to erupt seconds later into a dense, dizzying tangle of downtuned blackened metallic churn, a furious, frenetic tangle of sounds and parts, it's so wild and woolly and there's so much going on, it's nearly impossible to imagine this being actually composed, and to think of this as a song, as much as pure black sound, cuz the sound of it is more than enough to have us utterly mesmerized, a sort of blacknoise rendered in progged out chaotic death metal form. There are moments of doomy dirgery, and crusty thrashing, but it all seems to be woven into a bigger, more fractured and fucked up whole. We described the group's debut as being some of "thee most gnarled and twisted blackened heaviness" we'd heard, but that honor now seems to describe this new one even more, as it takes everything we loved about that first record, and pushes it even further, a dizzying. An utterly exhausting, exhilarating listen, total blackened tech-metal doom-death genius for sure, and like the first record, another roiling, churning, dizzying, mathed out blackdeath blowout. Fans of diSEMBOWELMENT, Wold, Winter, Abyssal, Gevurah and other weirdo death metal, rejoice!
It's kinda tough to pin down these Canadian black/death metal crushers, their sound straddles a bunch of different metal subgenres, whether it's grim blasting blackness, or furious downtuned death, or even weird crusty gloomy mathiness, they weave all of those into a sick, primitive, raw heaviness that definitely pushes all of our buttons, regardless of classification. To these ears they're definitely closer to black metal than anything, most of the tracks are progged out super complex blasts of furious frenzied riffing and blasting drum pummel, the vocals though are distinctly death metal, an impossibly deep demonic gurgle croak, but, this is not all tranced out blackness, the band are super dynamic, the songs super intricate, dizzying so at times, with stuttering start/stop arrangements giving way to churning slo-mo ultra doom creeps, which give way to furious blurred blasts, all of which speaks to the band's death metal roots. Ultimately who really cares what we call it, the important thing is that this is some of thee most gnarled and twisted blackened heaviness that we've heard in ages, and amidst these squalls of detuned death and blown out blackness, lurk some crazy catchy riffs, and some surprising melodies, all blurred into a roiling, churning, dizzying, mathed out blackdeath blowout. Another Profound Lore winner.
We couldn't resist. What better time than now to list one of Allan and Andee's favorite metal records?
Metalheads argue a lot. Which band is heavier. Which singer was the best. Who painted what album cover. Which bands are true metal. And one argument that rages on (at least around here) is which Anthrax singer was/is the best. While Allan and I both agree that current Anthrax throat John Bush (former Armored Saint frontman) is a great vocalist, we also both agree that he isn't very good in Anthrax. Allan tends to lean toward Neil Turbin, who sang on the first two, more decidedly thrash albums, and those records definitely contain some of Anthrax's finest moments. But it was Joey Belladonna who took Anthrax to the next level. His super high pitched wail added some melody to their thrash and opened a lot of people's ears to heavy music. And 'Spreading The Disease' is definitely the best of the Belladonna-era, pre baggy shorts and post 'new yawk hawdcoah'. Super heavy and surprisingly catchy, this record has stood the test of time far better than most eighties metal. A speed metal classic, highly recommended.
Another warehouse find, a small handful of this killer split, 6 songs, in less than 15 minutes, you probably know what that means, GRIND! And killer grind to boot, two bands the grindheads around here love, but for whatever reason have never made it onto the aQ list. Which is a bummer, cuz both groups most definitely destroy.
Antigama, who are from Poland and would later find a home on metal behemoth Relapse, start things off with a blast, a whirlwind of frantic riffing, and avalanche of octopoidal drumming, and some seriously sick vokills, a furious slab of frenetic fast core, mathy and intricate, with a killer lumbering doomy breakdown midway through the track's 90 seconds.
"Gift" is more of a grinding chunk of hardcore, furious and blasting, still heavy and intense for sure, but it's Antigama's final track that makes this whole record worth owning, a super intricate ultra dynamic 2 minute workout, that flits from lightning speed blast, to stop start chug, to a stretch of twisted harmonics and strange percussion, before lurching into full on black hole crush, only to finish off with some impossibly proggy grind metal mathiness.
Antigama are teamed up here with some Americans, Southerners to be exact, hailing from Virginia, a veritable grind hotbed, they offer up their own unique brand of grind that sounds more like a grindcore Black Flag, with gnarled atonal riffage, midtempo rhythms, yowled vox, which eventually explode into some serious face melting grindage, continually slipping back and forth, and that's just the first track. The final track "Phantom" is a dizzying bass heavy doom grind mash up, that almost sounds like the Melvins or Man Is The Bastard gone grind, but before you get to that, you get DoF's own mini masterpiece, a twisted bit of full on grind prog called "Memoranda" complete with synths, faux strings, weird tribal drumming, strange percussion, chant like vocals, and a surprising amount of groove, sounding almost like Ruins side project Hundred Sights Of Koenji.
Forgot how good (and weird this was). Too bad we only have a tiny handful. Needless to say, well worth grabbing before it's gone.
We went kinda nuts for the first record from these Pacific Northwestern psychedelic shoegaze doom drifters, who were friends of some other aQ faves, Megaton Leviathan (which is how we found out about them in the first place), both groups seems to be sort of doom metal, but each takes that doom and makes it their own, in both cases, rendering it less metal and more sort of blissed out and almost shoegazy, a sort of soft doom psych, or maybe psychedelic doomgaze, regardless of what you call it, we were super psyched to have the band show up at aQ out of the blue, and drop off a brand new record!
Fans of the first one will not be disappointed, but might need some time to adjust to a few things, the sound is still spacey, and psychedelic, heavy and doom, but if anything, it's a whole lot poppier, the opener kicks off with the sort of sound that if all the pieces fell together perfectly, it wouldn't be hard to imagine these guys playing with Queens Of The Stone Age or Alice In Chains! Not that they sound like those bands (but here they sorta do), but they have the same sort of heavy psychedelic hard rocking vibe, with actual singing, soaring choruses, they'd be like "that weird, noisy, tripped out band" that played with so and so. Which is usually the band we end up digging the most anyway. And we have to say, we're loving this, heavy and hooky, like Nadja crossed with Mastodon, but with some Hydrahead style noise rock heft. Hard to explain, but it's one case, where we're happy to sacrifice some of the blown out trippiness for some actual heavy rocking. But fear not, these guys haven't sold out, the second track is a slithery, piano laced near ambient doomfolk creep, all strummed steel strings, deep chantlike vocals, swirling atmospheres, creepy piano melodies, dark and ominous and dramatically brooding. And then we come to "Altars Before The Unsees", and suddenly we're thinking, maybe these guys DID sell out! Only kidding, but it does push the sound of the opening track even further, brooding, stripped down, synths over clean guitars, driving drums, chugging and churning, but measured and muted, it's almost like a meaner, more lo-fi, more experimental and noisy Tool, which is not a bad thing at all, but again, positions these guys at a place where there days of touring in a van, and silkscreening self released cd-rs might be limited, cuz tracks like this definitely have the potential for some serious crossover, and these guys pull it off, without losing what it is that made us dig em in the first place. But it is seriously catchy, and hooky, and it's just a great goddamn song. As is 19 minute closer "Leviathan Smiles", a dark moody brooder as well, but super slow and spare, lots of space, a drowsy softly psychedelic dirge, and again, the raspy voices doomfolk gradually builds into some epic heavy psychedelic rock, that sounds like it might be right at home on a label like Neurot, especially when it explodes partway through into some swirling soaring guitar skree, and chugging mathed out psych metal, but only to slip right back into more loping strummy drift, the last stretch of which almost sounds like some lost Nirvana B side, which is never a bad thing. Killer stuff, a definitely stylistic shift for sure, but one that was definitely hinted at on their first record, and one we're digging BIG time!
The packaging is super DIY fancy, at least the cd-r version, a printed cd-r in a jewel case tray, accompanied by a printed booklet (it's essentially like a cd, minus the case, and the tray card), all housed in a super cool, hand screened sewn canvas pouch, silver ink on black, super striking. And while the tape packaging is no great shakes, Antikythera makes up for it by tacking on a whole extra side of dark ambient atmospheric bonus material, NOT on the cd-r, and as you might imagine, both the cd-r AND the tapes are pretty limited, and when we run out, we won't be able to get more 'til the band is back from tour (when we'll also hopefully get more of their 1st album) so grab one quick!
Another outfit from the Pacific Northwest, trafficking in a sort of psychedelic doomy drift, who are friends of aQ faves Megaton Leviathan, which makes sense, the two groups occupying a similar space, but each most definitely carving out their own distinct sonic niche.
The first track here is a slowly swirling sprawl of pulled apart riffs and layered chordal crunch, crumbling distortion, and softly shimmering textures, starting out almost formless, but gradually coalescing into a churning slo-mo dirge, that manages to infuse its metallic creep with plenty of melodic jangle, the sounds chiming and keening, almost like a more riffy Sunroof!, it's not until nearly the end of the track before the drums kick in, and when they do, it's not so much propulsive or rhythmic as it is abstract and textural, the billowing clouds of psychedelic buzz wrapped around this skeletal doom drum dirge, the sound never really darkening, instead, remaining sort of blissed out, the guitars becoming more jagged and riffy, but the whole thing remaining pretty drifty.
The second track is where things get properly doomy, or as properly doomy as these guys get, the sound immediately exploding into a woozy, lumbering creep, replete with thick buzzing distortion, deep dramatic sung/spoken vox, and plenty of melody, tranced out and mesmeric, sounding a bit like OM with LOTS of guitars, a slow burn psych-doom epic, that slithers swaggers and gradually builds to soaring squalls of tangled psych guitar freakout, slipping from metallic dirge, to parts almost poppy and back again, hooks galore, but buried beneath the crumbling buzz, the song laced with occasional bursts of mathed out chaos, and often locking into tarpit hypno-rock grooves, the whole thing totally epic and majestic, but more psych than doom, more noise/post rock than metal, but with enough of doom AND metal to keep metalheads satisfied. That said, while these guys are self professed psychedelic doom gazers, we could easily imagine folks discovering this from a whole different angle, instead of psychedelic doom, something more like heavy, doomy psych. Maybe there's not much difference, but to our ears, this definitely falls further in the realm of heavy psych, the doominess just adding some serious heft.
Case in point, the 14 minute closer "An Unnatural Light", which takes a sort of Sabbathy almost stoner doom riff, and stretches it way out, repeating it over and over, the track totally tranced out, that riff, all clean guitar, swathed in clouds of cymbal shimmer, and squiggly swirls of psych guitar filigree. It's almost 5 minutes before the song really kicks in, and even then, the guitars remain clean, and almost jangly, a little bit angular, wreathed in FX, the bass sinewy and super melodic, the vocals slipping from deep monk-like chant, to full on wail. Then a few minutes later, the distortion swoops in, and finally, it begins to sound truly metallic, churning, heaving heaviness, but somehow, still sort of warped and tripped out. There's a long stretch where the guitar drops out, leaving mostly bass and drums, which reminds us a lot of Three Mile Pilot, dark and post rocky, from there on out, it's a slow build to an FX drenched, blown out psych guitar finale, all swirls of heavily flanged riffage and pounding dense drumming.
Way recommended for fans of Megaton Leviathan obviously, but really, anyone into heavy psych and psychedelic doom will flip for sure!
North Carolina's kings of southern sludge, and the South's answer to GG Allin (due mostly to lead singer Jeff Clayton's penchant for violence, to himself and the crowd) return with a collection of covers culled from a handful of splits and compilations.
For being a band that's scary as shit to see live, and who may be the only practitioner of the long lost art of GG Allin style entertainment (one show had the singer leap from the PA onto a table covered with tacks, and all shows have him ending up covered in blood), Antiseen sure sound wimpier and wimpier with every record. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, just kind of weird.
The return of our favorite classic hard rocking, shit kicking, wild eyed Southern rock band. Okay so, there's not a whole lot of them left, but that's exactly why we gotta love the ones we got. There's Raging Slab of course. Our love for them is eternal. There's new kids on the block, Black Stone Cherry, who are cool, but get a little close to mainstream MTV Nickelback territory. Then there's Antler. Who we originally thought were indie rock kids taking the piss. But their debut was just too fucking good. And too fucking genuine to be anything but. Allan and Andee saw them live at CMJ, in front of a slightly confused crowd, who were obviously unprepared to the cowboy boots, the cowboy hats, the Southern boogie, the twang and the killer classic Southern rock that was exactly what we were there to see.
Record number two finds the band in fine form. Still channeling Lynrd Skynrd, the Allman Brothers, the Outlaws, Blackfoot, but adding some extra stomp, some more crunchy guitar, but staying true to their Southern rock roots. It's perplexing why these guys were on Indie meta label Tortuga and are now part of Small Stone's stoner rock stable. These guys should be HUGE. On some major label. Playing stadiums, touring the Midwest and the South, showing rednecks worldwide that real Southern rock and roll is not dead. These guys should be wrapped in Confederate flags and showered with whiskey and weed, a harem of pretty little trailer trash girls, a private jet with a big set of antlers painted on the tail. That's what this sounds like. Kids who were 15 and 16 when Skynrd's Pronounced... came out, were getting high, getting drunk, and blasting shit like this in their Dad's pick up, parking by the lake and trying to get to second base with their second cousin.
Maybe one of these days, some label bigwig will figure out what the hell is going on, wine and dine these motherfuckers, hustle them into some penthouse office, ply them with booze and drugs, have them sign in blood on the dotted line, shove them in a tour bus and set them free to rule the rock and roll world like the boogie born Southern Rock scions they truly are!
We've listed this before, but it's finally available again after what seemed like an eternity. The fans clamored for more, and they will have more.
Anton Maiden is a 19 year old from Sweden who loves Iron Maiden, and to prove it, he steals computer midi files of his favorite Maiden tunes, and sings tunelessly, but energetically over them karaoke style. Like I need to tell you that this is absolutley fucking brilliant.
So if you missed out on this the first time, or you just want to upgrade your xeroxed cover for the new improved color copied cover, go for it.
Plus, it's no longer a cd-r, this is Anton Maiden in all his aluminum glory.
Ok, you've seen the documentary by now, haven't you? Anvil: The Story Of Anvil (we blogged about it, c'mon... plus it was huge, all over VH-1 and everyplace). And if so, you know you now need some Anvil in your collection - if you didn't have it already, like us longtime Anvil fans.
This one is about our favorite. No, it doesn't have "Metal On Metal" on it (that's on the album Metal On Metal, naturally), but after watching the movie you've heard THAT song like 1,000 times on the soundtrack and don't need to hear it again for a while anyway. Forged In Fire has a lot of other Anvil gems on it, however, including the crushing title track, "Motormount", "Winged Assassins" and "Hard Times - Fast Ladies" among others. Also the unfortunately titled "Butter-Bust Jerky", hmm, which is as heavy as it is sleazy.
While in the movie Anvil might seem like delusional, washed up, emotionally fragile (though still quite scrappy and charismatic) old rocker dudes way past their sell-by date, THIS early material will help to confirm why thrashers like Metallica used to look up to these Canadians as being the fastest and fiercest of underground metal bands in the land. The back of the album proudly proclaims: "If it's too loud, you're too old. Get the hell out cause you've been told". Obviously they had no idea they'd still be headbanging in 2009! And with a surprise second wind thanks to a fantastic documentary film, that's like a combo of Some Kind Of Monster, The Wrestler, and of course Spinal Tap.
It's funny, right after we first saw the Anvil movie, we tried to get copies of the NEW album, the one they're working on in the documentary, to sell here. Y'know, just to support 'em. We contacted the band directly, they were nice but wanted WAY too much money per cd. We'd have to have sold 'em for like $25 each. So, we said forget it, and anyway we'd rather stock their classic '80s albums - but couldn't, 'cause those weren't available at all in the States, either... but now with the success of the movie, we noticed our regular, non-metal suppliers carrying 'em! Cool. So here you go, Anvil's Forged In Fire, it's their third album, from 1983, and the apex of their musical career if you ask us.
Here it is, the record you've been waiting for - that is, if you saw the surprisingly well-received documentary "Anvil: The Story Of Anvil", wherein the long-suffering Canadian thrash band go through emotional and financial hell, and endure misadventures of Spinal Tap proportions, to record this, their 13th album if you didn't figure that out from the title. In the movie, it's the album they hope will put them back in the big leagues (where the were for about 15 minutes, maybe, back in the early '80s). And in the movie, it's obvious to everyone but them that going to the UK to record with a big name (and expensive) producer, the same one who recorded their early classic Metal On Metal in 1982, is NOT going to guarantee them the major label deal and rock star status they desire and (desperately believe they) deserve. But, it does leave you curious to hear the results.
After we saw the movie the first time last year, we (like everyone else who sees it) were overwhelmed with sympathy (pity?) for these never-say-die, 50-something kids still trying to make it big. Plus we already liked Anvil anyway. So we contacted the band via their website and tried to order their self-released This Is Thirteen album for AQ, figuring we should do our part for the cause. Unfortunately, it turned out the band wanted WAY too much money for 'em, we'd have had to sell 'em for like $25. So we had to pass. But now, thanks to the success of the quite excellent movie (go see it if you haven't already, even if you don't care about metal, trust us, it's great), it turns out that this is the lucky 13th album of Anvil's career after all, now getting a wider release. They've gotten more press in the last year or so than they had over the last two decades probably. Thanks to the film, Anvil is now touring regularly (double billed with the movie, at times, in fact) and apparently were finally able to quit their day jobs! We almost thought they would want to make a whole new album now with songs explicitly referencing the themes of the documentary - never giving up, following your dreams, believing in your friends and family, rockin' out, and being beaten down by harsh reality (not necessarily in that order). But now we realize those things ARE actually what these songs are about. Titles here include "Worry", "Should'a Would'a Could'a" and "Flying Blind" after all. "Ready To Fight" is another one, and in the movie guys did fight (each other) a lot too, though they always made up in the end. Furthermore, this IS very much an Anvil album, and the movie was called Anvil: The Story Of Anvil after all.
If you've heard any of Anvil's other records you know what to expect here. Straightforward '80s speed (and not so speedy) metal. Lots of shredding guitar solos, powerhouse drumming, catchy riffage, and singer/guitarist Lips' unique gravelly caterwaul, which can convey a lot of emotion at times (he's an emotional dude, you know if you've seen the movie). Basically, a headbanging good time, not unlike a hyper caffeinated Motorhead (if we had to describe this to someone unfamiliar with most metal).
The opening, title track is certainly quite heavy, a lumbering behemoth, though some might find it a little boring at over six minutes long. It showcases the powerful production job that the band were so proud of, however. The album then picks up speed up pretty quickly, with "Bombs Away" assaulting the ears in thrashy fashion, clocking in, as do most of the tracks here, at closer to 3 minutes. There's 13 songs (of course) plus one bonus - for this domestic VH1 Classic label release, they've added an extra track, and not just any track, it's "Thumb Hang", the wonderfully juvenile, Inquisition-themed, previously unrecorded early Anvil tune that was demoed a cappella by Lips in a scene in the movie, now done properly by the whole band! One of our faves here, with a memorable build up and killer galloping middle section.
While we can't say this is as good as Metal On Metal or Forged In Fire, it's no disgrace to their legacy either. Recommended to those who already have all dozen previous Anvil albums (of course). Or even just a couple Anvil albums. And to those who love the movie. And to those who just want to rock. The feel-good throwback metal album of the year!
Not to be confused with Anvil! Though, right now, maybe they'd like to be. This Bay Area metal band, is another from the '80s that had even less success than those now famous Canucks. Much less. Back in the day, Anvil Chorus never managed to get signed, and released only demos and singles, never an album - until now. It wasn't 'cause they weren't good, in fact, they were commonly known as "the Bay Area's best unsigned metal band". It was more due to mere bad luck. And maybe 'cause their music crossed too many genre lines, from NWOBHM power, to party time LA pop metal, to progressive wank, to speed metal tech. Who knows. But it's cool that they got back together, got back in the studio, and FINALLY have released their debut album, via the Rockadrome label (who've been blessing us with some awesome proto-metal reissues lately, you should recall). Anyone who digs '80s metal ought to check this out. There's certainly plenty of shred. And don't worry, most of these songs are ones demoed back in the day thus and have that "only in the '80s" authenticity to 'em, although they're newly recorded.
Criticisms? Well, Anvil Chorus do have a tendency to a bit of cheesiness, mainly due to overuse of keyboards, that's their weak spot taste-wise. And they've probably only grown in "adulthood", towards such prog-metal pitfalls, also evinced by the awful album cover. Cheesy, yeah. Still, even their cheese can be kinda enjoyable, so this is just a warning to those who can't handle a whiff of it. Their song "European" for instance, might be too poppy for some, but it's ultimately pretty good, a classy track, though we prefer it when they're killing us with the equally classy "Deadly Weapons"! Anyway, among the 12 songs here there's lots to make folks into heavy, riffy, rippin' bands like Riot, Armored Saint, and Metal Church happy... along with pleasing the Queensryche fans that their cheesier prog side indulges. So check it out, it's some Bay Area heavy metal history come back to life (they even played a show the other night!). Oh, and making amends for the cover art, the cd booklet includes lyrics, vintage photos of the band in action in the '80s, and a band history/appreciation by local metal celeb Ron Quintana.
Weirdo black metal obsessives no doubt remember Italian band Leaden, whose awesomely titled album, Monotonous Foghorns of Molesting Department, we raved about a while back. Not only were the songs called things like "Black Apartment Of Depression" and "When Out Seems To Vanish", but the music was a stumbling confusional mix of blackened doomy slowcore and lurching murky black fuzz, that managed to be more droney and hypnotic than blasting and buzzing, but so weird and unique that we just couldn't get enough of it.
So when we discovered the guy from Leaden had another band, we knew we had to track it down. This isn't that new, but it's the firs time we've managed to get enough to list. And while it doesn't really sound much like Leaden, it is just as weird, but in a whole different, maybe even more brilliantly fucked up way.
My Frozen Dream Slept Too Eternally is only 4 songs, but they're all long, and there's so much packed into each. It would be worth it even if it was just one song, the opener, "Strongest Nocturnal Silence" is the black metal gloom pop what-the-fuck jam of the year. Of any year. Beginning with a simple doomy, almost Sabbathy riff, the drums join in, simple and stripped down, and then the vocals, holy shit. Somewhere between the Ethel Merman like warble of Urfaust and a doped up Axl Rose. A raspy harsh falsetto croon, draped over a warm thick doomy black groove that is equal parts black metal, slowcore and slooowed way down punk rock. The end result is something haunting and creepy and off kilter and amazingly moody and evocative. When the track shifts to the 'chorus', it's a hook that will stick in your head forever, the lurching riff, the anguished vocals. And we're only 5 minutes in. The track shifts gears and suddenly it's just a guitar, unfurling a mournful melody, the notes dripping in effects, drifting over space-y Tangerine Dream style synths, until a distorted guitar comes back in adding a layer of woozy swirling riffage, then the track builds and builds, the guitars getting more psychedelic and frenzied, the synths more dramatic and tense, and suddenly it's some sort of spaced out epic, Godspeed versus Hawkwind by way of Abruptum and Urfaust, the vocals come back in, and finally, the track explodes into a blast of about as black as it gets here, minor key doom-ed black metal, rife with super movie melodies, that minus the vocals and some of the buzz, could be some sort of dark post rock record.
Wow. Like we said, that song alone would be worth the price of admission, but there are three more long ones to go, and they hardly tread the same ground.
The next track starts off all churning downtuned chug underpinned by stumbling double kick, an almost Khold style groove, with some strange murky synthesizers than transform the track into something much more moody and unhinged, the vocals adding their own bit of anguished mystery, the track veering all over the place, the synths shifting the mood from punkish pound to swirling dizzying doom psych and back again. The next track is another punkish jam, with those disembodied keyboards that make this sound like Burzum covering Khold covering Nuit Noire. Shifting repeatedly from loping melancholy dirge to blurred buzz to lumbering moody dirge.
The final track is total blackened post rock. The guitars tangled and minor key, a swirling layer of ghostly keyboard over the whole thing, the vocals, a raspy mournful howl, the melodies constantly shifting and swirling, the song slipping into post punk groove, then dirgey doom metal pound, then black metal blast, but always twisted up by those vocals, and the off kilter keyboards, and the thing is, it may be damaged and demented, but beyond simply being 'bizarre', the sound is intense and emotional, epic and melancholic, dark and weirdly beautiful, while still managing to be heavy, buzzy, totally freaked out, fucked up and so fantastic.
The return of French black metallers Aosoth, with what many are proclaiming to be black metal record of the year. And we have to say we're ready to agree. Obviously, as long time aQ list readers no doubt already know, we love French black metal, as probably do many of you. Deathspell, Blut Aus Nord, Diamatregon, Antaeus, Hell Militia, Otargos, Peste Noire, Spektr, S.V.E.S.T., Mutiilation, Wolok, and of course Aosoth belong to that elite group. This is record number three, originally a side project of Antaeus vocalist MkM, who seems to have maybe been downgraded here, as only the other two guys get their pix in the booklet, while MkM is credited with "audio propaganda", which we can only assume are vocals, and the vocals here are appropriately fierce and fucked up and awesome, and are no doubt still delivered by MkM.
But it's the music that's mindblowing, impossibly relentless, insanely heavy, gnarled and ultra complex, taking the sort of avant blackness of Deathspell, and rendering it in a form much more raw and low fidelity. The riffs are black tangles, the drums insane blasts of lightning fast pound, the atmosphere is super creepy and murky, the melodies soar, the arrangements epic and majestic, but the sound is just this side of lo-fi, the sound managing to be dense and heavy, without being slick and polished, instead, the sound is feral and RAW, and it's a strange combination, the raw lo-fi sound, and this seriously complex avant garde blackness, the tracks slipping from old school black buzz blast, to soaring epic majesty, to total mathed out confusional chaos, all super twisted and psychedelic, just take the extended breakdown on "II", which is a head spinning swirl of constant drum fill and swirling interlocking manic melody, a blurred cloud of frantic heaviness that is so tense and intense, that when it does finally switch, it seemingly takes a few seconds to readjust.
There are plenty of strange interludes, buzzing black ambience, haunting pianos, hazy stretches of guitardrone, hushed expanses of hushed shimmer, but this is the kind of record that is already inherently twisted, those non-metal extras only add to the atmosphere, in fact, in a way, it's those parts that offer a brief respite from the actual music's hellish black weirdness, the core sound a grinding, buzzing dense black tangle, occasionally slipping into something woozy and doomy, lumbering and creeping, a haunting bit of depressive darkness, but inevitably those parts explode into flurries of wildly chaotic drum damage and fucked up and fractured riffage. But for all this perceived weirdness, the sound is not 'weird', all of those strange elements are deftly woven into an incredible suite of grim black metallic mastery, creating a series of songs that manage to be heavy, haunting, brutal and black, fucked up and totally fucking incredible. Black metal record of the year? Could be...
- MPEG stream: I
- MPEG stream: II
- MPEG stream: III
It's been quite some time since we've heard from French black metal lords (and lady) Antaeus. Fortunately, the always amazing Norma Evangelium Diaboli label has given us a split 7" with Antaeus and Germany's Katharsis, reviewed elsewhere on this list. But what has the band been up to since their last full length, 2006's Blood Libels? Well, we're not entirely sure. But our blackened hearts have been aching for Antaeus' incomprehensibly heavy blend of thick riffage, terrifying vocals and truly astounding drumming. And that, dear friends, is where Aosoth steps in.
The new-ish (they've been around since 2002 but only released a couple of splits) project of Antaeus vocalist MkM, with the awesomely monickered Bestial Satanic T handling all the instruments and production work, Aosoth effortlessly steps into the top tier of current black metal bands with their first full length. The sound is not too far removed from that of Antaeus, but Aosoth is its own beast indeed. These songs won't be mistaken for anything but black metal, but they are at times quite thrashy and, dare we say, "catchy" throughout the majority of the record. Production wise, this will make you realize that no matter how many black metal bands are capable of producing awesome work with limited means/musical talent, some guys are just a cut above the rest. Who, other than someone truly devoted to darkness, can write riffs this devastating? It's clear that these guys are anything but amateur black metal weekend warriors.
Things kick off with the two part "Aura of Pills", the name of which gives you a pretty clear idea of the strain of mental instability these true black metallers have embraced to further their deviance within modern society. Part I begins with shimmering cathedral-like ambience before snapping into a burley, hyperspeed D-Beat with thick swells of guitar and uber-metal pinch harmonics. Part II is a bit more plodding, but no less heavy, making nice use of the devil's tritone as the vocals bark out pure vitriol, before culminating in a squiggly (maybe not the best word to describe something so evil...) guitar solo. The somewhat hilariously titled "Here to Serve" offers another uncompromising blend of sheer brutality as does the final track, "Prophet's Curse", where MkM's treated vocals gurgle below a queasy, arpeggiated guitar riff as things head into a midtempo dirge that is probably a pretty good indication of what it would be like to die in combat... in a GOOD way.
This album came as quite a surprise, because honestly, we weren't really expecting it to kick our asses this hard. The unknown status of Antaeus is a little easier to stomach when we know the members are up to something as truly worthwhile and unrelenting as this.
First record from Swedish depressive black metal trio, Apati (Apathy we assume), who travel a well worn path, one most recently and fantastically tread by their countrymen Lifelover, but who manage to take that sound and do their own thing with it. To be fair, that 'thing' is most definitely not that far removed from Lifelover, although we do hear plenty of other sonically similar groups like Hypothermia and Happy Days, and other outfits who are melding melodic blackened pop with harsh shrieking vocals and black atmospherics. Also worth mentioning is Katatonia, who seem to have inadvertently created the template for the modern wave of depressive black metal, strip the hellish shrieks away, introduce some deep crooning vocals, and you'd have some seriously dark and catchy blackened doom pop. Which should give you an idea of what's going on with Apati, the music is mournful and melodic, epic and grandiose, the drums sound programmed, but they're simple and there more as a framework, allowing the guitars to loop into mesmerizing riffscapes, most of the tracks only have one or two parts, more about repetition and mood than songsmithery. The vocals are really the only thing that keep Apati at all tethered to black metal, they shriek maniacally, frenzied, hysterical, anguished, wailed dramatically, easily the most metal element besides the buzzy guitars, but the guitar buzz is less harsh and hellish and more melodic and poppy.
Apati also offer up plenty of haunting instrumental interludes (which is probably another reason they get slagged off for being Lifelover copies), dark chamber music, looping piano figures, the sound of storms, disembodied voices, sampled dialogue, all draped over hazy, gauzy stretches of dreamy shimmer, or murky ambience. Where Lifelover are seriously demented and fucked up and damaged, Apati don't concern themselves more with creating beautiful music, the juxtaposition is certainly odd, and is what make them what they are, but it's not willfully far out, it seems more like an aesthetic choice, the harsh vocals, adding to the dread and drama of the melancholy music underneath.
We're pretty partial to this new breed of depressive black metal, most of our favorite BM has elements of pop anyway, this more like a dark rock band infusing their sound with elements of black metal, whatever you call it, gloom pop, dark metal, depressive dirge pop, black pop, it hardly matters, this stuff is awesome, moody, melodic, hypnotic and heavy, and heck, it will definitely tide us over until the next Lifelover record, or even the next Apati record. RECOMMENDED!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
All the way from Green Bay, Wisconsin, comes this blackened doom metal horde, and we just discovered a small clutch (3 actually), of this, their self released 2001 ep, 4 tracks of moody, atmospheric midtempo doomy blackness, programmed beats, swirling keyboards, bellowed gruff vokills that switch to occasional crooned clean vox, all laid over tangled buzzing riffage, and blurred into hazy surprisingly beautiful buzz and blast and pound and crunch, the tracks slipping from frenzied blast, to lumbering dirge to woozy moody waltz and back again, the pretty parts reminding us a bit of older Katatonia, which is not at all a bad thing.
ONLY 3 COPIES!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We listed this back on #108, when it first came out as an import (we were stocking the Canadian version, thanks to our friends at Scratch Records in Vancouver who ordered 'em for us and smuggled 'em down here) but it's taken over a year for this to get a
We've been huge fans of this Finnish all-cello quartet for a while now, and how could we not be? Their first record was of them sawing away at all Metallica covers! Their second record was almost all covers too, not just Metallica, but Sepultura and Faith No More. It's not all that surprising that these pseudo classical instrumental versions of metal songs worked so well (sometimes better than the originals), especially considering the epic Wagnerian quality of a lot of metal, especially Metallica.
On their third record though, Apocalyptica have almost completely abandoned their metal/Metallica covers (except for a couple bonus tracks) in favor of originals, and the result is probably their best record yet. They have obviously learned all they can from the masters (classical and metal), and have struck out on their own, to create something new, certainly not conventionally metal, but not classical either. Definitely 'heavy' though! The four cellists (here augmented by double bass and all sorts of percussion) craft explosive and complex, super intense epics, fusing classical movements with traditional song structures, bizarre techniques with impeccable chops, all delivered with decidedly un-classical aggression, making for a record way heavier and better than anything Metallica themselves have done in the last few years. Not bad for a bunch of cellists!
This new US edition is a little different than the import -- the bonus tracks are the same (two Metallica covers plus their version of Grieg's "Hall Of The Mountain King"), but they've also included a new version of their song "Path" that adds vocals from the woman from the band Guano Apes (who I guess are popular in Europe), and there's also a cd-rom video included for that same cut. While it's neat to see them flailing away at their cellos in the stylish video, if you already have the import it's not enough to make you trade it in for this version. But if you *don't* have the import (and we know quite a few of you missed out), now's your chance to pick up this awesome album!
(Oh, quick note to the people who write press sheets for Spitfire: "Hall Of The Mountain King" is NOT a Savatage cover, guys!)
Tracks from the first Apocalyptica album were prominently featured in the recent film Your Friends and Neighbors as this cello quartet performed blistering versions of Metallica songs. Their second album is a far more advanced affair as the quartet was granted a larger budget for recording. Not just Metallica is represented as we are treated to renditions of tunes by Sepultura, Faith No More, and Pantera, as well as two quite excellent self-penned Apocalyptica tracks of completely intense metal riffs played exclusively on cellos! Very highly recommended by all who work here.
The title really says it all, doesn't it? From Finland. Their version of "Enter Sandman" blows Pat Boone's out of the water. And then there's "Master of Puppets," "Creeping Death," "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," etc.
Fourth album from everyone's favorite Finnish Metallica coverin' cello quartet! Of course, they don't do any Metallica covers on this new one, as they've long since established themselves as more than just a tribute act (though, at the sold-out show they played in San Francisco this year with openers Hammers of Misfortune, they did indeed include a healthy helping of Metallica numbers in their set -- if they hadn't there woulda been a riot! Why d'you think it was sold out, after all? Metallica!). Like their previous album, Cult, this one consists of originals -- shredding, cello-metal instrumental originals. And like on Cult, the cello quartet is augmented by a drummer -- on several songs his name is Dave Lombardo of Slayer/Fantomas fame! He's not the only special celebrity guest, either. One of the bonus tracks features vocals from Nina Hagen. But the real stars of the show remain the cellos, even if Apocalyptica is sounding more and more like a metal band with cellos rather than a cello band with metal. That there's one in flames on the cover is an obvious but apt visual summation of Apocalyptica's special something. Casual fans can make do with their debut Plays Metallica By Four Cellos but how can you be just a casual fan of this classical music/metal hybrid??
Here's a new one from this Italian one man black metal band, the awesomely (and confusionally) titled Death Grows Into Sperm, with it's equally confusional cover, featuring some sort of demonic sperm/skull hybrid.
For a self described practitioner of "harsh impudent black metal", much of DGIS is surprisingly melodic and lush, especially the opening two part epic (and the closing two parter, but more on that in a second), the intro is all clean guitars, and swirling swells and proggy synths, when the track proper kicks in, the guitars soar majestically, the tempo more doomy and midtempo than black and thrashing, still heavy on the melody, until about 4 minutes in, when some frantic riffing surfaces, and the sound explodes into some seriously bleak and blasting blackness. But even, then the sound is infused with melody, a subtle poppiness, that manages to make the fury and force stick in your head.
The sound shifts quite a bit too, from Nordic style classic black metal, to more traditional eighties style heavy metal riffing, those elements woven together by serpentine guitar leads, and those aforementioned melodies. The middle chunk of the record is much more traditionally grim and black, buzzy and blasting, still rife with bits of melody and unlikely arrangements, until the final two part closing songsuite, which mirrors the opening, creating a super lush and intricate blackened prog epic, lots of spidery clean guitars, droned out buzz, some black blasts for sure, but way heavier on the melody and the atmosphere, especially the second part, which spends the majority of its 8 minutes blurring and swirling and drifting like some Tim Hecker-ish bit of gauzy atmospheric ambience, interrupted briefly by a bit of super melodic heavy riffing, but otherwise left to whir and chime and float and finally fade out.
Grim, black, majestic, epic and melodic, and way recommended for folks who dig that sort of thing. Which we're guessing is a whole lot of you.
Full length number two from these Midwestern true doomlords, who hail from the very metal state of Indiana, featuring former Gates Of Slumber drummer Chuck Brown (who sings and plays guitar here), and who do indeed traffic in TROO DOOM! By now you should know what that means, huge distorted Sabbathy riffs, slow doomy grooves, big crushing drums, clean soaring dramatic vocals, epic and soulful, with occasional stretches of more subdued shimmery clean guitar drift, mournful guitar harmonies, as well as brief blasts of almost all out thrashing, but those moments are indeed brief, the majority of the record is spent in full doom groove mode, lurching, lumbering, pounding, heavy and majestic, the sound definitely softened by the VERY melodic vocals, but it also makes their sound pretty unique. Emo doom, maybe?
And like the last record, AoS really like to do covers, and they sure can pick em. Last time they did Sabbath's "Electric Funeral", and while it was killer, it also did what great covers often inadvertently do, outshine the band's originals. So this time around the band run into the same problem, they slay on absolutely killer covers of The Obsessed, the Misfits and Born Against for fuck's sake! And all three RULE, but end up sounding WAY better than anything on the record. We were joking that you should buy this awesome 3 song covers ep, which comes with a bonus album of all originals, and if you're really feeling these covers, you can track down the European version, which features DIFFERENT bonus tracks, Thin Lizzy, Celtic Frost and a different Misfits jam.
Either way, good stuff, but you may find your self returning to the covers more than the record proper, especially the Born Against cover which destroys. And we won't even go into the atrocious cover photo featuring what looks like a jock on a date with a fifty year old European mom, the two of them having decided to engage in an extremely unlikely suicide pact... WTF? Well these guys like to be different, anyway. What other true doom band would have someone wearing a Neutral Milk Hotel t-shirt in their band photo, either?
If you've already guessed from the band name and album title that this is old school DOOM METAL, you'd be correct. What could be more doom than the idea of "Sincere Misery"?? Doom, depression, misery, of course. Sincerity, that's also a hallmark of the truest doom, from Ozzy's earliest croakings with Black Sabbath... he always sounded so sincere, that was a big part of his charisma. Later on, the prayerful likes of Trouble held the same sort of feeling...
So, with this debut, these guys are part of the grand tradition, that's for sure. Cleanly-sung vocal lamentations, soaring o'er CRUNCHY, crawling riffs, sheer epick heaviness in copious quantities, basically. With a variety of interestin' twists here and there to give Apostle Of Solitude their own identity, such as the sampled spoken narrative of some Depression-era old timer over the wide-open-spaces jamming of "This Dustbowl Earth", like a psychedelic Americana. And when comes solo time, they really shine. As achingly gorgeous as doom'd metallic guitarwork can be, yet sharp and fierce too. Perfectly complimenting the glacial gloominess of the band's pained plodding, which reaches its peak on the massive "Warbird", stretched out to over 14 minutes. File alongside the slow and low likes of Solitude Aeturnus, Reverend Bizarre, and home-staters Gates Of Slumber (for whom their guitarist/vocalist played drums, once upon a time).
Oh and we've gotta mention the hidden bonus track, a cover of Sabbath's "Electric Funeral". We think doom bands should resist the urge to cover Sabbath songs, but we're sure for obvious reasons it's an overpowering urge, so we don't blame 'em. At least AoS had the sense to make it an unlisted track at the end of the album. Why do we think doom bands shouldn't cover Sabbath? Well, we ALREADY know you like Sabbath, right? And you're not gonna improve upon the original, nor sound different enough to be interesting from the novelty angle. And now you've gone and ensured that the best song on your album is a cover. Whoops. However, hardly a serious complaint, and true doom fans will enjoy not only AoS's reverent cover of "Electric Funeral" but the whole album for sure. So, TDFs, get this, and also don't miss the new one from Finland's The Wandering Midget, from the same label, reviewed this list too!
We're big fans of weirdo French psych rock outfit ANO, but it's taken us a while to list their latest, maybe 'cause at first it kinda threw us for a bit of a loop, upping the 'whatthefuck' vibe we mentioned in our review of their previous outing for Tee Pee, while still providing major doses of the spacey, fuzzy, Hawkwind/Heads/White Hills style rockin' we love about 'em. Not really sure what the problem for us was, except that every time we'd put this on and settle down to write a review, we'd seriously start spacing out and getting all dazed and confused and not know exactly what to say, which is probably as good a recommendation as any for this album!!!
Apparently they used to record their music in a medieval Parisian cave (?) but for this album they decamped to an ancient chateau in the countryside or somesuch. Perhaps it's the change in venue that has made for a more varied and atmospheric, dare we say mature, record. They've mellowed out a bit here, with more in the way of dreamily quiet/creepy acoustic parts, hushed and melodic - but it's still totally freaky and strange, and never fear they DO kick out the distortodelic garage rock jams too. Ferinstance track three, "Turn On Your Mind" - a drug-gobbling throbber in the vein of Pink Floyd meets The Stooges (which kinda equals Hawkwind). That one also confused us 'cause of how familiar it sounded - aha, it's actually a song reprised from their previous album, Third, where it was simply titled "Turn On". Huh, maybe they were so high they forgot they already recorded it once? Great track in any case so no complaint. But weird.
Another weird one we also gotta mention is their plodding, guttural cover of "Roller Coaster", a classic track from Roky Erickson & The 13th Floor Elevators. This ANO version is a bizarre take on the original, making it their own, which is quite a statement, since the Elevators were THEE first and most 'sincere' psychedelic rock band. We guess that Elevators lyricist and psychedelic guru Tommy Hall would most likely approve of ANO and their implied taking up of the torch, as dedicated modern-day acid rockers (and now on this album, also sorta acid folksters).
So, Spiritus Mundi is another strange & compelling trip into the collective inner-mind obsessions of these French psychonauts, and should appeal to fans of both the Elevators and La Ira De Dios, the Groundhogs and GR & The Full-Blown Expansion, the Pink Fairies and Psychic Ills, amongst others old and new exploring those druggy, dark dimensions.
It makes sense that French psychedelic space rock heavies Aqua Nebula Oscillator would find their way to Tee Pee, it's a pretty perfect fit, and it's about time too, cuz we've been trying to track down records by these folks for ages with very little success! As you may have surmised, Third is indeed ANO's third full length, but for most folks, quite possibly their first exposure to this group's sound, a sound which will be super familiar to fans of the current crop of psych-space wranglers their sound falling closest to the Heads or White Hills we think, a heady concoction equal parts epic shredding extended Hawkwind freakouts and churning riffy Stooges-y swagger. The sound is raw and a little lo-fi, but at the same time, thick and layered and noisy and HEAVY, just check out the opener "Riot", with its creepy minor key intro, that had us imagining Italian occult metallers Death SS or something, but then the band kick in, and it's all woozy and druggy, with wavery guitars, wild octopoidal drumming, killer shredding leads, trippy deep, effected vocals, more spoken than sung, the track slipping into a feverish freaked out blast of pounding heaviness, that could go on forever but winds up after only 4 minutes.
"Turn On" cranks up the 'Stooges' side of their sound, reminding us a bit of Soggy, the rad obscure eighties French band we're pretty obsessed with, although here sort of cranked and super charged, the track exploding into another frenzy of shredding psychedelic freakout, which again, could have stretched out forever, but instead clocks in at two and a half minutes.
Needless to say, fans of shredding, droned out psychedelic space rock heaviness, we might have just found your new favorite band, just tweaked and warped enough to give the sound a seriously whatthefuck vibe, but never veering too far from totally tranced out hypno-rock heavy psych mesmer, the tracks laced with sitar like buzz, weird samples, even weirder vocals, buried melodies and even some hooks here and there, but for the most part, if you're into Acid Mothers Temple, White Hills, The Heads, Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Mugstar, Great Society Mind Destroyers, Plastic Crimewave Sound, Lumerians, Telescopes and the like, then you need this NOW.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!! ----* ----* Highlights : ----*
Weird and wonderful one here, folks. And it's for folky folks, though it's got a HEAVY pedigree. A lot of you are fans, like us, of South American stoner rock cosmonauts Los Natas, so you'll sort of (but not really) know what to expect here, Ararat being Los Natas guitarist Sergio Chotsourian's solo side project, and it is psychedelic like the most darkly psychedelic of Los Natas' output, coming closest perhaps to the proggy spaciness of Los Natas' two Toba-Trance discs for Circle's Ektro label, but is even more abstract and stripped down, not actually rock at all, often all-acoustic, "New Weird Argentina" maybe we'd call it! Ararat could be some kind of haunted, campfire krautrock, more like a field recording than the finished product of a studio session (even if the studio is called Death, which is where this was in fact recorded).
It starts off with "Gitanoss", an quietly epic almost 14 minutes of moody late-night strum, ambient hum, echoes, drifting melody, hazy organ drone, ritual percussion, backwards effects... quite a trip, as is this whole disc, Chotsourian climbing his personal Holy Mountain here (Mount Ararat!), it seems, this album a musical sketchbook of his ascent, of sorts.
Track two turns out to be a reprise of "Dos Horses", the album-ender of most recent Los Natas disc, Nuevo Orden De La Libertad, this alternate version not that far removed from the acoustic guitar/piano interplay of the original (Chotsourian just must be very proud of this particular composition, and it is quite nice). Next, there's the spooky "El Carrusel", all billowing fuzz and tinkling bell, like Stephen Wray Lobdell's Davis Redford Triad doing the soundtrack for a John Carpenter film!
While that one got heavy, the next is not, the pretty "Little Grissy" being under a minute of guitar and guitar only, Chotsourian giving a delicate demonstration of his chops for the Takoma crowd, leading into the hushed and melodic "Ganar-Perder", which to us sounds like Ghost's Masaki Batoh reinterpreting "Planet Caravan" or something (it too is a version of a song from Nuevo Orden De La Libertad, but in this case much altered, extended and acoustic). That's followed by the delicate Spanish guitar and atmospheric creaky crackle of the nearly 12 minute long "Magia Negra", one that Sir Richard Bishop fans should enjoy.
Only finale "Castro" is a "real" rock song, sounding like a band (Los Natas, or even Circle), with proper drums, and amps fully cranked, with vocals that Circle's Mika Ratto might think were his own, and even this one stays freaky and uncommitted, 'til it ends with the clatter of abandoned drumsticks, electricity flickering, Chotsourian and his mysterious band wandering away into the desert night.
We always say Boris fans should check out Los Natas. And Boris fans should check this out too, but we think Ararat is also for folks into Six Organs Of Admittance, James Blackshaw, Jozef Van Wissem, Feathers, Steven R. Smith and other Jewelled Antler stuff, all that whole post-Fahey psychfolk scene, with the astral Argentinean/Amerindian/Armenian/Appalachian vibes here flowing as ominous, minimalist mesmer, intimate and entrancing...
We were always huge fans of Arch Enemy, the death metal band of Mike Ammott (formerly of the mighty Carnage and the even mightier Carcass, and currently with stoner rockers Spiritual Beggars) until their last record 'Burning Bridges', where they dropped the
We have the limited double disc version (and as it's limited, not sure how long we will) that features a bonus disc of unreleased/rare tracks including a Judas Priest cover, an Iron Maiden cover, and a EUROPE cover (?!?!?), a bunch of Japanese only bonus tracks and a video, all with Arch Enemy's original (male) vocalist. Disc one also features a video clip as well as a bonus track.
Sometimes metal is about more than just the music. Especially black metal. The sound, the look, the attitude, the lyrics, the artwork, the spikes, the corpsepaint, the upside down cross / pentagram / triple six logo, the pen and ink renderings of demons fucking angels, the bullet belts, the blood splattered band members, the Satanic pseudonymns, all contribute to turning this heavy metal record into a dark Satanic ritual, a musical invocation -- it's dramatic and theatrical and over the top and fucking killer. This picture disc is a reissue of a 1993 ep by legendary Finnish black metallers, Archgoat. Blood Desecrator, Lord Angelslayer and Ritual Butcherer spew forth a vomitous smear of black thrash, galloping and blasting furiously through the dark fields of the underworld. Having never heard Archgoat before, we have to admit we listened to the whole record on 33, amazed by how sludgy the sound was and the impossibly guttural vocals, but a quick spin on 45 made it clear that it was maybe not actually meant to be played at 33... but the power is in your hands! A killer black thrash classic at 45, a bizarre slab of black sludge at 33! Either way this stuff is heavy and EVIL. Cool picture disc too, one side is the band logo, band photos, surrounded by a bullet belt, the other side is an amazingly amateur drawing of a goat headed demon fucking an angel on some sort of altar. Includes an insert detailing the history of the band and a full color poster.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!!!
We've long been fans of Swedish one man black metal band Arckanum. Even those who haven't heard his music, probably remember the 'band' photos, which always featured a cloaked creature with a deformed troll-like face, huge hook nose, and carrying a massive staff. Some folks were put off by this bit of theatricality, probably giving them visions of the much cheesier Mortiis. But then they were missing out. This Swede kicked out the classic black metal jams, nothing avant, or experimental really, barring the occasional ambient interlude, but just pure raw grim blackness. With a lo-fi production and a great crusty black sound, Arckanum released 3 full lengths in the late nineties, and since then, it's been nothing but a handful of splits and eps. So we were pretty excited for the first Arckanum full length in ten years, and we were not disappointed.
The sound, at its core is similar to the classic Arckanum sound, but the production is massive, the guitars thick and monstrous, the drums pounding and brutal, the whole vibe is much more sleek and streamlined and 'produced', but thankfully manages to retain most of its grimness and blackness, although now the music is imbued with a power never present before, and if anything, dare we say it, a new found groove.
We've heard this record compared to discs by Craft and Inquisition, among others, but we can't help hearing a little Khold, which as far as we're concerned is actually a good thing. Take the album opener, after a creeped out drone-y intro, and a swirl of guitar buzz and cymbal sizzle, the song launches into a furious blast, which sounds punkier and crustier that we remember, and again, groovier. It has much to do with the chord progression, as on the surface this is still all blasting beats and buzzing guitars, but then the deal is sealed with the bridge, where the guitars and drums lock into a weird droney, almost poppy part that sounds like it could have come from a Torche song! And that vibe, those melodies, those subtle touches are present throughout, even at its most intense and furious, the band easily will slip in a subtle, yet impossibly catchy hook or phrase, almost like they don't even know they're doing it, some mysterious musical force manifesting itself, hidden among the black brambles and jagged harsh heaviness. Then there's a track like "Rokulfargnyr", which is primarily a strange clipped staccato guitar chug, the drums locked in, peppered with dynamics, but it almost sounds like some sort of fractured math rock. Even when the song kicks in for real, the stop start guitar, the super technical drumming, eventually gives way to more soaring melodic buzzing blackness. "Nakjeptir" is all eighties groove and chug, laced with cool stretches of black dissonance. "Eksortna" is just guitar, distorted and melodic, unfurling a stately court-of-the-king style melody,
while closer "Formala" is classic blackened doom, very spacious and sprawling, with some weird drumming, a killer main riff, and an outro of demonic murmurs and buzzing distorted rumbles.
This disc has been getting crazy play around here, and has had us revisiting the older records as well, which sound even better than we remember. Lots of folks we know have been talking about Antikosmos as BM record of the year, and while we still have other contenders to consider, we're definitely inclined to agree that this could very well crack the top ten. Maybe even the top five...
Latest from this Swedish one man black metal band, and the fourth in a seemingly sonically connected tetralogy, beginning with the godlike Antikosmos from 2008, continuing with 2009's oddly named but nearly as good PPPPPPPPPPP (those really should be runes, not 'P's), and then last year's Sviga Lae, which we were never able to get a hold of, unfortunately. Helvitismyrkr, while perhaps not nearly as good as Antikosmos, definitely ranks up there with the other three, and the more we listen to this, the more it seeps into our soul, and the better it sounds.
On PPPPPPPPPPP, it seemed like the only big change from Antikosmos was that the sound was getting more polished, but the sound here is appropriately raw, still punky and thrashy, shot through with bits of classic metal, NWOBHM, and of course first wave classic Scandinavian style BM, with soaring frantic riffage, and epic arrangements, but like on the other Arckanum's, the sound shifts constantly, from doomy dirge to black blast to midtempo lope, with lots of strange breakdowns and stop/start arrangements, and guitar solos, yep, one of the few black metal bands that has leads, and they're pretty killer, occasionally just mirroring the melody, but often totally shredding.
The opening track here, "Helvitt", gives a pretty good taste of Arckanum circa 2011, with all of the above mentioned elements in full effect, and all woven into a buzzing, blasting, soaring, pounding chunk of blackness that manages to be surprisingly catchy to boot.
The classic /traditional metal elements play a big part here, and there seems to be a definite shift even further away from the grim black buzz of the early years, with much of this edging ever closer to 'rock' than 'metal', but it definitely suits the songs, more melodic, more memorable, with a handful of the songs slipping into slow almost ballady prettiness, still heavy, just moody and melodic, while others just creeping along ominously, like the nearly psychedelic closing track, but those moments seem to often be perfectly bookended by more furious frenzied sounds.
We're digging this a lot, and guessing it should definitely appeal to fans of the more rock sound of the recent Glorior Belli which we raved about a list or two back, while still remaining just black enough for the true grim hordes...
Last year's killer Antikosmos was probably one of the best black metal records of 2008, and here we are only a year later with a brand new Arckanum, and once again, this too is poised to be one of this year's best. From its unpronouncable all p'd title (meant to be runes we think), to it's scrawled heavy metal binder cover art, to the amazing raw melodic blackness within, we'd have to agree, gonna be tough to top PPPPPPPPPPP.
Very little has changed since Antikosmos, but then why change what is already working so well, the sound is pretty polished for sure, and still a bit punky, but here maybe even more melodic and stripped down. There are still plenty of blown out black blasts, lots of twisted dissonant riffage, but there's some serious poppiness going on, as well as some surprisingly killer leads, super melodic and a bit NWOBHM, the overall vibe epic and majestic, and a bit crusty, yet even when things are black as pitch, the sound is still infused with a fair amount of melody. Not really all that raw and grim, instead super rocking and so so melodic, the vocals as always are howled and punkish which helps things from getting too clean, but the production is so slick, and these songs are so good, it seems inevitable that things would veer toward the less grim and kvlt side of the black metal spectrum.
Perhaps we're painting to un-grim a picture, PPPPPPPPPPP is still plenty black and buzzy and blasting, but there's no way to ignore how catchy and melodic and classic metal sounding much of this is, and we're not complaining, it sounds awesome, and we've been playing this over and over, just didn't want to scare off all you troo grim metalheads, cuz it would be a shame to let any sort of dopey grim metal pride get in the way of digging into a record this rad...
Arcturus was a "black metal" supergroup featuring members of Ulver, Mayhem, Covenant, Borknagar, and Ved Buens Ende. They've broken up, but rumors abounded about a remix album still to come. Of course, the last Arcturus record, La Masquerade Infernale, was so bizarre for a metal record (containing Weill-esque cabaret music, drum 'n bass, trip hop, industrial, etc.) that it already seemed like someone had taken a "regular" Arcturus record and remixed it. So imagine someone taking said record (already sounding remixed), and remixing *that*. Well, here you go. Arcturus break down their already decidedly unmetal sound even further, adding more beats and stretching out their industrial soundscapes. Techstep, gangsta rap (!), classical string ensemble sounds, etc.--it's insane. One of our customers who bought this emailed to say "listen to track 7--now I've heard *everything*!" A good companion to the strange new Ulver double cd (reviewed here last time), and even better methinks. What's really interesting is thinking of someone, a drum n' bass fan for instance, first encountering Arcturus with this record, and then moving backwards through their catalog to the rawer, actually metal blackness of their earlier works and related bands! Will that happen, and what will they think?
