Fretboard brainiac Mick Barr (of Orthrelm, Crom-Tech, Quix*o*tic, and Octis) is back with a new album from his solo manifestation Octis (and is also now living here in San Francisco, playing in the Flying Luttenbachers). Ocrilim is one 33 minute track of squiggly quasi-metallic guitar and drum machine. Electro-shock therapy too expensive? Try this! A tinny drone jabbed and jarred with manic outbursts of hyper spazz guitar, with which the drum machine can barely keep up. It's, in a word, maddening. And of course we love it.
The Profound Lore label begins what we hope will be an extensive reissue campaign, focusing on some of the more obscure members of the Twilight Black Circle, a tightly knit USBM scene/collective based in Southern California, similar in sound/spirit to the legendary French Black Legions (Mutiilation, Vlad Tepes, etc.), which counts bands like Dolorvotre, Volahn, Blue Hummingbird On The Left, Ashdautas, Arizmenda and others among its members. Odz Manouk, named for a character in Armenian mythology, is a one man band who like many of his Black Twilight Circle brethren, traffics in a furious, raw, almost primitive black metal, but one that takes that primitivism, and somehow manages to create something epic and massive and sonically dense. The primitivism here is not the sort of lo-fi practice space tinniness that so many legendary kvlt outfits spew, the sound here is massive, chaotic, gnarled, dense, thick, black and bristling with energy. The arrangements are twisted and droned out, repetitive riffs, blasting programmed beats that are as motorik as they are brutal, with multiple layers of guitars in constant motion, each track a weird swirling blur, the drums buried in the mix (minus the occasional strange bit of percussion that seems to surface here and there), the tracks shifting constantly from smeared frenzied white noise blowout, to old-Deathspell like churning crush, to loping Burzumic buzz, rife with plenty of surprising melody, little bits of mournful melancholia tucked within heaving slabs of buzzing blackness, a dizzying tangle of dissonance and repetition, of texture and tension, on the surface, raw and black, but closer listening reveals all manner of blackened mystery, long stretches of droney murk, atonal angular melody, weird buried clean vocal harmonies, pulsing almost electronic sounding rhythms, bleary synth shimmers, hazy washed out atmospheres, demonik vokills that growl, mewl and screech in equal measure, all woven into some seriously dense and dark and fantastically fucked up black metal savagery.
This cd reissue contains OM's 2010 demo and tacks on OM's tracks from the split with Tukaaria (whose reissue is reviewed elsewhere on this week's list)...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, housed in a super swank oversized A5 book style digipak!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A long overdue review of this insane and brutal chunk of Swedish UNblack metal. We've had this in stock for ages and� wait! What? Swedish? Yeah, you heard correctly, you thick the Christian unblack metal movement was only happening right here in the US of A. Nope there are Christian black metal bands all over the world. It just so happens that the hub of all things UNblack is stateside, E.E.E., who have been unleashing a never ending torrent of gloriously fucked up and totally demented UNblackness with no end in sight.
So Offerblod share not only an ideology with their US brethren, but also a truly fucked up sound. Hard to describe. It's definitely lo-fi, outrageously so, but it's also blown out, super distorted, in the red, some tracks are so muddy and murky, the riffs sound like a underwater rumble, the drums barely able to penetrate the muted buzz, other tracks are super brittle and high end, the cymbal wash a cloud of high end hiss, swallowing up all the sounds around it. The combination of Offerblod's raw primitive black buzz, and the insanely erratic, but totally crucial-to-their-fucked-sound production, makes this one of the coolest, weirdest and definitely one of our favorite black metal records of the year.
Fans of Bone Awl, Akitsa, Ash Pool, Ancestors and other practitioners of ultra buzzy raw blackness will definitely dig! Packaged in a plain black digipak, with pasted on front cover image and printed black and white insert.
This latest batch of tapes from local label Merz Tapes finds the label expanding and rebranding, now known as Merzbild, and no longer limiting themselves to cassettes. It is however this most recent batch of cassettes we're here to discuss. In this case, it's the first release (and apparently part on of a trilogy!) from Ogham, a duo made up of Kevin Gan Yuen of Sutekh Hexen, and Thomas Martin Ekelund of Trepaneringsritualen. The project is named for an early medieval alphabet, which according to the label is "known for obscuring runic inscription", and the sounds here reveal themselves to be equally obscure and obfuscated. Two sidelong sprawls, crumbling expanses of black ambience spread out over a landscape of murky and clatter, all blurred into heaving subterranean transmissions, greyed out and pocked with moaning metals and reverberating overtones, dripping water and a constant ambient thrum gives the whole thing a sort of post apocalyptic field recording vibe, the soundtrack to a lone figure, trudging through a desolate wasteland, ominous and cinematic, shot through with subtle streaks of melody, and wreathed in crackle and static that ebbs and flows, all seeming to drift in a bleary haze of abstract shimmer and soft clouds of gentle black noise.
The flipside is a much darker dronier affair, as if that same lone figure has chose to wander deeper beneath the ruins of a lost city, the hum of some mysterious machine at the center of the planet, revving up for some seismic event, the hum blossoming into a rib cage rattling drone, layered and corrosive, a black blur that threatens to swallow up the surrounding sounds, but which is soon joined by some unlikely percussion, a slow-mo cascade of tinkling delicate melodies, which are soon lost as that low end rumble explodes into a huge squall of swirling murk, a blown out blur that is surprisingly textured and nuanced, hiding chantlike vocals and strange muted melodies beneath the roiling, churning blackdrone surface, simultaneously crushing, and weirdly hypnotic.
Super sweet packaging, printed silver-on-black tapes, reflective silver and black J-card.
Over the top, '70s worshipping B-movie sci-fi stoner rock? Yes indeedy. You gotta give 'em props for this. Whacked out heavies Ogre from up in Maine - who we already liked for their riff rockin' retro-proto-doom-metal on such previous albums as Dawn Of The Proto-man and Seven Hells - have upped the ante with this new release, totally progging it up with a concept album consisting of just one long song (that's right, one track, but it's over 37 minutes long)! Although it's programmed as one track on the cd, it consists of eleven seamlessly segueing parts, including "II: End-Days", "IV: Queen Of Gasoline", "VIII: Battle At Doom Capital", and "XI: Dawn Of The Proto-man". To be sure, after a few listens, we're still not quite ready or able to summarize the narrative here, but we get the idea that it has something to do with a post-apocalyptic scenario involving environmental catastrophy, gasoline rationing and rampaging dog-men? It's all very Flash Gordon, campy and comic book-y (hence the Kirby-esqe cover artwork) with an underground comix '70s Heavy Metal magazine vibe.
Musically, at various points, and for various reasons, this reminds us of King Crimson, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Queen, Jesus Christ Superstar, and, let's see, Steamhammer's Speech (at about the 27 minute mark). Among other things... The storytelling aspect also might appeal to fans of Hammers Of Misfortune's The Bastard and Slough Feg's Traveller (which also features dog-men), though Ogre isn't at all power metal.
Vocally, Ogre are as always eccentric and expressive, the singer sounding sorta Ozzy-ish, but really dramatic, rising into unhinged screams. He's a bit Mike Patton-y, too (circa The Real Thing?). Once again, we have to say that the vocals here will make it or break it for a lot of folks. Well, that and the whole uber-prog concept deal. Yup, Plague Of The Planet is a love it or hate it proposition for sure. We happen to love it, and say kudos to them for going for it like this. And there's no question that the rollicking riffage on offer is gonna be a positive for anybody who likes, you know, heavy music. (Heavy this is, several members of Ogre also now having joined the new lineup of cult doomsters Blood Farmers by the way.)
This was originally released last year on the Japanese stoner/doom label Leaf Hound, who have unfortunately since folded. Thankfully, Shadow Kingdom in the USA has picked up this disc for domestic reissue.
Here's one of the latest two releases from Japan's super stoner Leaf Hound label (home to the likes of Church Of Misery and Sonic Flower). Orange Sunshine (also reviewed this list) are Dutch, and these guys, Ogre, are Americans (hailing from Portland, Maine to be precise). Leaf Hound apparently appreciated the promise of Ogre's self-released debut from a few years ago and made a good bet in putting out this even better sophomore effort. The guitars are thick and heavy, the rhythms rollicking. This is a heavy duty, '70s influenced steamroller stoner riff-rock righteousness. Damn. We can't imagine too many objections to this from those who love kick ass retro-proto-metal... except that the wildly expressive vocals might take some getting used to. They can be slightly pinched and definitely over-the-top, like a camp(ier) version of Ozzy Osbourne, sometimes breaking into a twang or dipping into a growl, but we think that works just great and personality-wise gives these guys just a bit more of lock on the "weird" which we're pretty sure is OK with them.
Clearly, their influences are doom metal classics like Sabbath and Saint Vitus, with hints of cult acts like Manilla Road and Blood Farmers (whose Eli Brown mastered this album). And a dash of Monster Magnet too. That means loads of psychedelic metal heaviness, played with a rabid sense of abandon but also plenty of sure-handed finesse. We're loving it. What else to say? Well we should also mention that they do a killer cover of Pentagram's "Review Your Choices". And that the track "Sperm Whale" includes a full-on drum solo. And oh yeah, Andee's especially thrilled that Ogre wrote a song here based on his favorite "adult" sci-fi novel, The Gas by Charles Platt, a notoriously violent and pornographic book first published in 1968. Sweet. Now that's rock and roll.
These outrageous '70s-sounding stoner rockers from up in Maine are back at last, after like a six year absence, with an excellent new opus of their over the top, hard riffing retro-rock. As we had expected, it's a doomy, proggy concoction, lots of Sabbath goin' on (the wailing, nasal vocals sound a bit like Mike Patton doing an Ozzy impression). Ogre don't hold anything back, this is a wild ride of unabashed old school heaviness with a theatrical flair, and lots of fuzz and wah.
Lyrically, the songs concern themselves with a range of subjects: the science-fantasy works of Roger Zelazny, Greek myth, the French and Indian Wars, drugs, madness. And then there's one mellow instrumental named after an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module.
Of further note, the song "Soulless Woman" is a cover, originally by an even more obscure band also named Ogre, who were actually from the '70s, and its sure seems to be a lost garage psych classic, giving this album a bit of a detour into more of an Uncle Acid or Satan's Satyrs direction, not that they were too far removed to begin with.
Italian import, on the label best known as the home of cult doomster Paul Chain. Gatefold miniature-lp style jacket.
After a self released 7", and a split single with recent Record Of The Weekers, weirdo biker metal ne'er-do-wells Satans Satyrs, Canadian noise rockers / metal punks Ohmwar deliver their first full length, and it's sonically quite surprising, super polished and all over the sonic map, taking the Maiden / Motorhead / Speedwolf sound of their 7" and infusing it with a surprising amount of poppiness, crafting a record that manages to be heavy, and punky, but also impossibly catchy, the opening track begins with some chiming Sonic Youth like guitars, and thick fuzzy bass, before eventually erupting into something more punked out, and that's not even mentioning the strange almost reggae sounding outro (!)...
The second track starts off crazy poppy too, with some almost NWOBHM sounding guitar harmonies, which blur into feedback drenched tones wrapped around some galloping punk rock crush, peppered with little blurts of tangled progginess. And it really doesn't settle into a single sound for the rest of the record, although in not settling, they seem to be defining their own super distinctive sound, a dizzying hybrid of post punk poppiness, mathy metal, and fierce punk rock stomp. Tracks like "Blithe Reaction To An Unfortunate Life", begins all slow burn majesty, and almost Godspeed like slow build, before transforming into a strange (at least for metal/punk) bloopy guitar melody, draped over another galloping rhythms and some thick, rumbling bass buzz, the guitars then splintering into atonal/angular shards of keening high end, the sort of sound that at a slower tempo, minus the gruff vox, could easily end up being some twisted avant art rock, and even in its punkier incarnation, much of that art rockiness remains, and then mid song, there's a killer little guitar lick/melody, that will stick in your head like crazy. And so it goes, most of the songs clocking in around the two minute mark, but these guys cramming as much as they can into those two minutes, with almost every song offering up some sort of unlikely sonic surprise, transforming, what could have been straight ahead metallic punk, into a way more twisted and progressive record, pop punk collides with chugging metal, nineties style math rock bleeds into pounding hard rocking, Refused sounding anthemic post-hardcore mixes with straight up heavy pop, all wound up into something pretty goddamn great.
Awesomely over the top, black and white Nick Blinko style cover art, but Blinko by way of Bosch, a twisted punk rock underworld of mouse headed hipsters, people with exposed spines, astronauts on rafts drifting across lakes of blood, insects on swings, man eating fish, alien swamp sound systems, wheelbarrows full of teddy bear skeletons, creepy cave eyes and more. Includes a massive glossy, fold out poster/lyric sheet, with more of that gloriously gruesome and garish artwork.
Italian desert-style stoner rock, produced by Michael Davis from the MC5!
One of Andee and Allan's favorite black metal records ever. So grim and buzzy, but so completely and utterly baffling and beautiful.
We never thought the day would come, but the return of Old Forest is nigh!!! The first release from these UK black metal anti-legends in 7 years! Their first record, Into The Old Forest is an all time aQ weirdo black metal fave. And their second unreleased record, None More Black, was meant to finally see the light of day via tUMULt, but instead, will be released by the original label later this year. And when the world hears that one, well, Old Forest just may rightfully reclaim their crown as masters of genius fucked up grimness for sure.
The real surprise though is the band surfacing from whatever dark hellish abyss they retreated to nearly a decade ago. With a new full length in the works, but also this three part ep collection, focusing on the myths and legends of the Sussex countryside from which these guys hail.
Sonically very little has changed. The sound is still murky and buzzy, the guitars thick and blurred, plenty of keyboards, pummeling drums. Lots of atmosphere, and haunting ambience, the vocals a demonic croak, the songs ranging from blasting and black, to creepy midtempo dirge. Haunting baritone monklike chants drift in and out, field recordings of crickets and birds, wind and rustling branches, the songs are packed with super memorable riffs, sing songy "woooo, ooooh" sort of call and response vocals, double kick blasting away, even during some of the more mellow bits, the songs lurch and pound woozily, peppered with incredibly catchy and unlikely little keyboard figures, the band occasionally launching into some furious blasting, but just as often slipping back into a fuzzy dirge or midtempo pound.
And everything, no matter how true or grim, is infused with the cracked black sensibilities of Old Forest, much like countrymen Meads Of Asphodel (who may have one times shared members with Old Forest), not taking it too seriously, but at the same time taking it all deathly seriously. Dark and buzzy, spaced out and psychedelic, heavy and black, but also slightly cracked and definitely warped. And this is only part one�
LIMITED TO ONLY 222 COPIES. Each packaged in a mini 3" jewel case, with super striking red and black artwork, and liner notes and lyrics.
Hocus Corpus really threw us for an unexpected loop! This sure ain't the Old Grandad of, errr, old! The most noticeable revamp of this veteran Bay Area metal band is in the vocals department. They're incorporating multiple styles that range from very Voivod-y to British goth to the good ol' death metally growl we expect from 'em. We think fans of this band will like this though.
Everyone's favorite simian enamored post-metal/post-doom/post-opposable thumbs heavy dirge titans (featuring members of Isis, Converge and Cave In, no less!) have returned from the caves and the treetops to deliver another bewildering slab of mysterious noise-flecked sonic sludge. Only this time it's two slabs. And they both look almost identical. And they both have the same name. That's right - The return of Old Man Gloom is heralded by a cloud of listener-confounding confusion that can only be described as "Circle-esque." Oh, and did we mention there was also a pre-release "leaked" version that went out to zines & blogs that was actually different from both of these? Yeesh, our heads hurt. But we have to admit it's refreshing to see a band with a bit of a sense of humor in a genre that has a history of taking itself perhaps a little too seriously. But there sure ain't anything funny about either of these album. Blown out noisescapes, like unnerving ethereal ancient transmissions from long dead alien civilization give way to staggering rhythmic doom, peppered with indiscernible static mutterings & world-breaking howls. Whistling feedback pleads hypnotically with swaths of ghostly reverb. The drums plod and roll enormously, like a slow motion avalanche unfolding over a millennia. It's alternately punishing, trance inducing, serene & unsettling - and sometimes it's all of those things at the same time. The ambient passages (of which there are plenty over both discs) lure the listener into a drunken state of ominous hazy hypnosis, which only serves to make those heavy sections all the more overwhelming and landscape flattening. A musical experience as aggressive, punishing & cold as it is mysterious, distant & alluring. A high evolution in instinctual primitivism! A fight-or-flight pummeling recommended to heavy-leaning, spaced-out bipeds everywhere...
Note: same review here for both discs, 'cause why would you not buy both? In fact, you'd better not try and order just one 'cause we're likely to send you the wrong one accidentally. And, FYI, vinyl versions on Sige arriving soon too.
Everyone's favorite simian enamored post-metal/post-doom/post-opposable thumbs heavy dirge titans (featuring members of Isis, Converge and Cave In, no less!) have returned from the caves and the treetops to deliver another bewildering slab of mysterious noise-flecked sonic sludge. Only this time it's two slabs. And they both look almost identical. And they both have the same name. That's right - The return of Old Man Gloom is heralded by a cloud of listener-confounding confusion that can only be described as "Circle-esque." Oh, and did we mention there was also a pre-release "leaked" version that went out to zines & blogs that was actually different from both of these? Yeesh, our heads hurt. But we have to admit it's refreshing to see a band with a bit of a sense of humor in a genre that has a history of taking itself perhaps a little too seriously. But there sure ain't anything funny about either of these album. Blown out noisescapes, like unnerving ethereal ancient transmissions from long dead alien civilization give way to staggering rhythmic doom, peppered with indiscernible static mutterings & world-breaking howls. Whistling feedback pleads hypnotically with swaths of ghostly reverb. The drums plod and roll enormously, like a slow motion avalanche unfolding over a millennia. It's alternately punishing, trance inducing, serene & unsettling - and sometimes it's all of those things at the same time. The ambient passages (of which there are plenty over both discs) lure the listener into a drunken state of ominous hazy hypnosis, which only serves to make those heavy sections all the more overwhelming and landscape flattening. A musical experience as aggressive, punishing & cold as it is mysterious, distant & alluring. A high evolution in instinctual primitivism! A fight-or-flight pummeling recommended to heavy-leaning, spaced-out bipeds everywhere...
Note: same review here for both discs, 'cause why would you not buy both? In fact, you'd better not try and order just one 'cause we're likely to send you the wrong one accidentally. And, FYI, vinyl versions on Sige arriving soon too.
Best band ever?!?! How could they not be? Crushing dirge metal! Check. Drones drones drones! Check. And MONKEYS!!!! Double check. Holy crap! That should be enough right there for chrissakes! Well then, how about "Features members of Isis, Cave In and Converge"! Anyway, all of us here at AQ have been waiting anxiously for the return of the Simian Alien Defense League aka Old Man Gloom and their totally unique blend of pulverising downtuned heaviosity and as well as their surprisingly deft hand at minimal dronology. Two great tastes for sure. Did we mention their obsession with monkeys?
Totally epic and intense Neurosis like metallic sludge, occasional thrashing post-punk rock fury, all imbued with weirdly emotional minor key melodies, and always returning to some sort of dark and rumbling, dreamy and shimmering dronescape, before bursting into another spate of crushing metallic fury. On Christmas, OMG expand their musical palette even further with gorgeously hypnotic steel string guitars, even more bizarre found sounds, and a much richer, and way more dense sonic arsenal for constructing the extensive ambient passages. The biggest surprise is the track "Volcano", an almost Interpol style sort of post punk new wave workout that is dotted with bursts of gut wrenching guitars and crushing drums! The final track is the epic 16 minute "Christmas Eve, Parts I, II and III", an extended and expanded version of a track that was on their recent Christmas Eve 3" cd, a massive meandering acoustic folk dirge-drone, with epic majestic sonic swells underpinning strummed steel string guitars and half mumbled / half sung vocals, while all sorts of random sonic debris and swirling melodies drift in and out of the haze and occasional waves of slow motion distortion creep over the proceedings like a black fog. So fucking intense, and so so so good.
This all time aQ favorite, originally a cute little 3" cd, was recently resurrected and pressed onto vinyl for this year's Black Friday "Record Store Day", but as is the way with those things, got delayed and delayed, and only just recently showed up here. Needless to say, if you don't already own this, or have been dying for it on vinyl, this may be your only chance. And for those of you who like us, dream about the day OMG return to rule, this just might tide you over until then. Here's our (slightly revised) review from when we first listed it way back in 2004:
Our favorite primate-obsessed doom metal drone outfit finally return! Old Man Gloom are back with a three inch ep (now 12" lp) to hold us over until their next epic. The centerpiece is the two part "Christmas Eve". The first part is all dreamy drone-y acoustic guitar strum and mournful electric guitar melodies over an ominous rumble that becomes a thick sheet of amps-gone-wild before dissolving into misty ambience again. Part two starts off just like part one but is quickly transformed into a hyper distorted, black hole dirge, with earth crushing downtuned guitars and chanted vocals sounding not unlike Alice In Chains slowed down and run through a bank of distortion pedals (which is definitely a good thing). The rest of the tracks are random bits of OMG ephemera: a thirty second blast of shrieking downtuned metallic grind, two tracks entitled Masami's Music Box I and II, presumably Masami Akita aka Merzbow contributing two thirty second bursts of uncharacteristically sweet melody and ambient hum, and a bonus track, a Mr. Big cover that is so stupid that it's funny (sort of), but has such an amazing ending (why hasn't anyone done this before, but more importantly, how the fuck did they do it) that it would be unfair for us to deprive you of discovering it for yourself. Just don't complain to us when you finally hear it. There is nothing wrong. It's just the OMG Simian Alien Defense League fucking with your mind! Resistance is futile!
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. In heavy swank cardstock sleeves, printed in yellow and blue, with all new artwork!
Our favorite primate-obsessed doom metal drone outfit finally return! Old Man Gloom are back with a three inch ep to hold us over until their next epic. The centerpiece is the two part Christmas Eve. The first part is all dreamy drone-y acoustic guitar strum and mournful electric guitar melodies over an ominous rumble that becomes a thick sheet of amps-gone-wild before dissolving into misty ambience again. Part two starts off just like part one but is quickly transformed into a hyper distorted, black hole dirge, with earth crushing downtuned guitars and chanted vocals sounding not unlike Alice In Chains slowed down and run through a bank of distortion pedals (which is definitely a good thing). The rest of the tracks are random bits of OMG ephemera: a thirty second blast of shrieking downtuned metallic grind, two tracks entitled Masami's Music Box I and II, presumably Masami Akita aka Merzbow contributing two thirty second bursts of uncharacteristically sweet melody and ambient hum, and a bonus track, an Extreme cover (Extreme the band, not extreme the sound) that is so stupid that it's funny (sort of), but has such an amazing ending (why hasn't anyone done this before, but more importantly, how the fuck did they do it) that it would be unfair for us to deprive you of discovering it for yourself. Just don't complain to us when you finally hear it. There is nothing wrong. It's just the OMG Simian Alien Defense League fucking with your mind! Resistance is futile!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Awesome. Simply awesome. Subtitled "A Sound Wave Replication Dissertation On Alien Simian Technology in 13 Chapters", Old Man Gloom's album is a schizophonic album with ultra-heavy post-hardcore/grinding metal in the tradition of Cave-In or Cavity interspersed with deep dronological investigations that could have easily been an Organum or Jonathan Coleclough record. Hydrahead couldn't make this fit with the rest of their catalogue, but released it on their Tortuga subsidiary. Drones, metal, and monkeys... everything that Andee could ask for in an album.
The very first outing from this avant-metalcore simian-obsessed supergroop, originally released on cd by Hydra Head subsidiary Tortuga back in the Y2K, now (once again) reissued on vinyl! We've reviewed a lot of OMG offerings since then, including the recent, two-part Ape Of God effort, and even recently hosted a screening of a documentary all about OMG, so hopefully you're as into OMG as we are, and thus we won't elaborate much on what we originally wrote way back on list #92 about this debut:
Awesome. Simply awesome. Subtitled "A Sound Wave Replication Dissertation On Alien Simian Technology in 13 Chapters", this is a schizophonic album with ultra-heavy post-hardcore/grinding metal in the tradition of Cave-In or Cavity interspersed with deep dronological investigations that could have easily been from an Organum or Jonathan Coleclough record. Drones, metal, and monkeys... everything that anyone (especially Andee here!) could ask for in an album.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Awesome. Simply awesome. Subtitled "A Sound Wave Replication Dissertation On Alien Simian Technology in 13 Chapters", Old Man Gloom's album is a schizophonic album with ultra-heavy post-hardcore/grinding metal in the tradition of Cave-In or Cavity interspersed with deep dronological investigations that could have easily been an Organum or Jonathan Coleclough record. Hydrahead couldn't make this fit with the rest of their catalogue, but released it on their Tortuga subsidiary. Drones, metal, and monkeys... everything that Andee could ask for in an album.
If you've seen the documentary Blood, Sweat + Vinyl, about the Hydra Head, Neurot and Constellation labels, and all the various bands that call those labels home, you'll see our very own Andee publicly profess his undying love for mysterious simian drone metal combo Old Man Gloom. And he's most definitely not alone. For a band that started off as a joke (or at least not as a serious or 'proper' band), OMG quickly became an obsession for lots of metalheads, heck even (and maybe especially) for non metalheads. Their sound a killer concoction of grinding downtuned dirge metal and all manner of experimental drone music, equal parts rocking out and spacing out, even the heaviest jams constantly disrupted by the bands experimental streak, or even more often their twisted sense of humor. And no this is not some joke band, although they can sometimes be funny, and their obsession with monkeys borders on the pathological (but then so does ours, thus another reason we love them), but it's that weirdness and funniness, when wedded to some killer songwriting and some seriously bad ass musicianship (courtesy of members of Isis, Converge, Cave In, Zozobra, etc.) that makes these guys so utterly ruling. And to a degree, the freedom of not taking your band all that seriously definitely makes it more likely that you'll have fun, do whatever the fuck you want, and in the process come up with some mind melting, ear drum shredding shit.
But it's been more than 8 years since the last OMG record, so the question is, getting these guys back together again, after all that time, everyone older and wiser, and maybe, heaven forbid, returning to OMG as a proper band, do these musical representatives of the Simian Alien Defense League still got it in them? Thankfully the answer seems to be yes. The sound maybe a bit more modern, but not that far removed from the last OMG missive, starting off with a long stretch of rumbling drones, before some brittle blackened riffage ushers in some crushing downtuned bombast, howled vox, pounding drums, the whole thing wreathed in what sounds like a guitar that keeps shorting out, glitchy and constantly dropping out, which only gives the proceedings a bit of a Faxed Head vibe, which is NEVER a bad thing. The sound shifts to some churning chug, before splintering into a starfield of prismatic effects, processed vox and all manner of blurred sonic shimmer. And we're only about ten minutes in!
And so it goes, the heavy parts utterly crushing, the melodic parts crazy catchy, sounding a bit like Torche, that sort of hook heavy sludge pop, and the sounds and songs constantly seeming to malfunction, or implode, or buckle, or crumble, guitars become sheets of static, drums stumble and invert, guitars slip into backwards swoops, low end rumbles thrum and shimmer beneath twangy clean guitars, only to be buried beneath an avalanche of almost symphonic heaviness, only to constantly slip into a grind metal stutter, there's even a gothy steel string acoustic apocalyptic folk jam, that is actually pretty great, and it too rife with all sort of fucked and fractured sounds and production. And finally the record finishes off with the 14 minute "Shuddering Earth", which opens with a blast of super melodic math metal, before slipping into some dark dolorous drift, tons of space, streaked with static, and anguished vox, gradually building to a Harvey Milk like sludgedoom ballad, all about to crack vocals, churning chug, and woozy melodies, but even then, we're only halfway through. A field of minimal crackle/static turns into a sheet of near Merzbow electronic noise, the sounds gradually intensifying, before unexpectedly transforming into a bit of hazy, shoegazy, noise drenched prettiness, that ends in a gorgeous squall of psychedelic high end skree. Fuck yeah! Here's hoping this is not just a one off reunion, cuz even after all these years, we still sorta find ourselves digging OMG more than any of the members' other bands. WAY recommended for sure, and essential listening by order of the Simian Alien Defense League!
With the "Use Your Illusion"-style simultaneous release of these two new discs on HydraHead sublabel Tortuga, Boston's Old Man Gloom have vaulted to the forefront of the so-called "noisecore" scene, at least in our estimation. We were already big fans of
With the "Use Your Illusion"-style simultaneous release of these two new discs on HydraHead sublabel Tortuga, Boston's Old Man Gloom have vaulted to the forefront of the so-called "noisecore" scene, at least in our estimation. We were already big fans of
Now available on ultra deluxe vinyl with some spiffy new artwork but only for a little while cuz as always, these are SUPER LIMITED. Here's what we had to say about the cd:
With the "Use Your Illusion"-style simultaneous release of this here record (Seminar III) and it's critical sonic counterpart Seminar II, Boston's Old Man Gloom have vaulted to the forefront of the so-called "noisecore" scene, at least in our estimation. We were already big fans of their under-hyped "Meditation in B" debut, and now we're confident that they'll be gaining the recognition they deserve. OMG have much in common with fellow avant-metalcore acts Neurosis, (old) Cave In, and Coalesce, but draw equally from the non-'core likes of Skullflower and Organum to achieve their dark, powerful, intelligent sound, which incorporates metal aggression, post-rock dynamics and dronological experimentation. "Seminar III" is just one long track, and also utterly lays waste to all. Their psychedelic, metallic attack captures the bludgeoning atmosphere of the best Godflesh recordings, while also recalling the esoteric likes of Gore, Engine Kid, and even our own Andee's new band Ticwar! Fucking essential!
Fourth album by evil-looking bald-headed Norwegian black metal dude Galder and his various creepy cohorts (no session musicians this time). Mid-tempo, keyboard-heavy melodic blackness in the standard vein. Pretty good, though, as all OMC releases have been, due to Galder's ability to come up with some excellent riffs.
The second of two new releases from the always kick ass UK label Paradigms. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the debut from black doom crust heavies Bosnia, and here we have the debut from UK doomsludge duo Old Mayor, just guitar and drums, these two whip up a fierce frenzy, that the label compares to both Burning Witch and Slint, which makes sense, the band slips easily from moody post rockisms, into full on blackened metal meltdowns, the vocals, howled and harsh and hateful, the guitars unfurling soaring mournful melodies, and thick corrosive chords, the band lurching through reverb drenched fields of downtuned chug, gorgeous crystalline harmonics, pounding drummage, before turning on a dime and stretching out into some long languid shimmer, that actually reminds us more of Engine Kid than Slint, before exploding again into a pounding minor key dirge metal blowout.
Here and there things slooooow waaaay doooown and the band do get all Khanate, the guitars ringing out, the drums a sporadic plod, but those stretches of slow motion heaviness are perfectly balanced by the hushed post rockisms, and the sheer epic melodiousness of even the most crushing brutal parts. The recording is really strange too, turning the stripped down minimal instrumentation into something almost orchestral, the guitars are thick, massive, dense, the drums LOUD and way up in the mix, both alternatingly wound tight, or sparring dizzily. And when the band lock in tight, the song is transformed into something else entirely, woozy waltzy post doom math sludge bliss.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Warehouse find! The 2006 debut full length from these Norwegian 'symphonic' UNblack death metallers, released on the EEE label, and like much of the stuff on EEE, so much more twisted and fractured and fucked up than the description above hints at, the 'symphonic' element is a swirl of synths, and choral voices, blurred into haunting smears, the music though, more like WOLD than proper death metal, the drums programmed, yet still stumbling, the riffing SUPER blown out, the distortion crumbling, the vocals an ultra processed bellow, the sound so in-the-red and so completely fried, that instead of sounding heavy, it begins to sound washed out and nearly psychedelic, a dizzying blackened swirl of crumbling chaos, peppered with brief bits of hazy shimmer and dreamlike drift, that only make the violent churn and buzz drenched stutter, that much more intense and bizarre, especially, when the two are mixed (which is most of the time), a backdrop of warbly melodic thrum and sweet synthy shimmer, barely audible beneath a garbled grind of cacophonous crumbling crunch. AWESOME.
This is OUT OF PRINT. We have 3 copies and then this is gone for good...
It's been four years since we last heard any new material from Russia's mighty Old Wainds, and while our ravenous hunger was slightly satiated by the recent domestic reissues of their Religion of Spiritual Violence and Scalding Coldness albums, we were going crazy wondering what the band was up to. Now, as spring rolls in, the Wainds prolong winter a bit longer by unleashing their furious fourth record, Death Nord Kult. In accordance with the band's reputation, the album mirrors the frozen climate of their homeland in a way that only the truest of the true could produce. It is cold, harsh, and completely relentless. Pretty much all the ingredients you want in a black metal record.
This band captivated us from day one, based on an ability to bring to mind many of black metal's greats while still managing to sound unlike anything else. They possess a sound that is not "weird" or "avant garde", but one that remains striking nonetheless, and while their earliest material sounds totally bizarre and not of this world, due in large part to the atrocious/awesome lo-fi recording quality, Scalding Coldness was an absolute black metal masterpiece, merging super thick guitars and titanic low tuned drums with a keen attention to structure that seemed to link the songs together as one gigantic movement. Death Nord Kult is the logical progression, finding the band now a duo, along with "permanent session drummer" Izbor of the similarly asskicking NAV, and the overall sound is thrashier and more immediate than before. Sonically, it is the band's thickest and most polished (not Cradle of Filth polished, don't worry) album to date. The fairly straightforward production pretty much gives you the feeling of being in a room with the band as they lay waste. With a more substantial presence in the mix than on past releases, the drums pound ferociously, while strained, guttural vocals croak over dense walls of seasick riffs. Saving a few brief moments of murky ambience, the album continues with this manic intensity right to the end. The riffs are hypnotic and full of melancholy, and the throat shredding Russian vocals provide a strange, uncomfortable feeling that could as easily come from another planet as Hyperborean Russia. Indeed, this band's foreignness is definitely one of the coolest things about them, and while many black metal bands go to cartoonish extremes to prove how evil they are, Old Wainds lyrical themes, here thankfully translated, focus on what they know: bleak, unforgiving wilderness. Like the lone figure crossing the frozen terrain on the cover, Old Wainds are able to masterfully convey a sense of isolation and hopelessness under the crushing power of nature. In a world of petty scene politics and half-assed posers, they are as real as it gets.
Establishing the mood of the album with opener "Storm-Whip", Old Wainds launch into a lightspeed assault that quickly switches to a midtempo gallop with crunchy, muted riffing and queasy thrashing moments. "Cruel Black Dead" features classic thrash riffs that are played with such speed and fury that they unlock strange harmonic tones as occasional dual vocals create the awesome chantlike effect (which, call us crazy, at times sounds almost like Tuvan throat singing) utilized heavily on Scalding Coldness. "Bloodstained" is a bit like being forced to endure the most unpleasant rollercoaster ride of your life, throwing you around like a ragdoll over the band's punishing attack, stopping for a few seconds before heading into one of the best metal moments of the year, a midtempo breakdown that gradually builds in intensity with insect riffing, noticeable clean bass (whoa, actual bass presence on a black metal record!), HUGE drumming and tortured demon howls. It's moments like this where you realize how absolutely unstoppable this band is, a notion that is carried on in "Born on the Freezing Dark", an impossibly fast trip through the desolate Russian wilderness with Old Wainds as your nefarious guides, churning out thick layers of puke-sounding guitar riffs (think Craft) over unbelievable drumming.
Once again, these Russians have effortlessly showed us how things are done. Though the staunchly underground Old Wainds may not be the first band to come to mind for many metalheads, they should be. They're one of the best, something that is only further reinforced by the unqualified triumph that is Death Nord Kult. Those lucky enough to hear Old Wainds will no doubt realize that when you write songs this devastating, your status is secure: you're ETERNAL.
As of the writing of this review, it's the day after Christmas, and as is befitting such a holiday, this list is HEAVY on the black metal, our little way of helping those black hearted souls and accursed spirits out there celebrate in their own demonic way. But what that also means, is we were down near metalled out. There's only so many ways you can describe something that is black and buzzing and grim and brutal and frosty and kvlt....
But the second we threw this one, none of that mattered. This was the only black metal there was, virtually erasing all that came before, a sound so powerful and unique and YES, black and buzzing, that we were immediately reinvigorated and filled with sinister black glee. If glee can in fact be either sinister or black.
Since we first reviewed Old Wainds a while back, people have been obsessed, and as we mentioned in the other reviews, OW are one of the few bands that virtually ALL other black metal bands seem to worship. Whatever it is abut these mysterious Russians, they've tapped into something magical that no one can seem to get enough of. For a brief period we had all the Old Wainds records, but gradually it become harder and harder to get them back in stock. Until now. Finally a US label has taken up the mantle and embarked on a comprehensive OW reissue program, elsewhere on this list you'll find the mind blowing Scalding Coldness, reissued, and WAY cheaper, and almost more exciting than that, this record right here, their first full length from back in 2001, Religion Of Spiritual Violence, was the only one we had never been able to get. So for a lot of you, this will be the first time you'll get a chance to complete (or begin!) your Old Wainds collection, and needless to say for fans of all things buzzing and black, this is IT.
It's really hard to put into words exactly what makes Old Wainds different than the hordes of other BM outfits, they definitely have an old school Darkthrone vibe, sort of punky, but they're just as likely to explode into a burst of impossibly fast blasting blackness a la Immortal or something. The vocals are super strange, less a demonic howl and more a sort of evil croak, and the lyrics are in Russian which makes it even cooler. But the music, while no doubt indebted to other BM bands, manages to sound like nothing else. Swirling chaotic riffing, strange mathy drumming, the cymbals super loud in the mix for some reason, as are the vocals, almost like the buzzing guitars are just a sheet of fuzzy blackness, a backdrop for the satanic invective and the barrage of crashing cymbals.
This is indeed grim and harsh stuff, whether churning along in a midtempo Burzumic pound or spraying black fury within a flailing blast, the sound is just so NOT normal, on the surface it sounds like 'black metal', but it's twisted, cracked, infused with a harrowing anger, with a utterly bleak worldview, with a unfailing misanthropy, which leaches into the sounds, and beyond all that, as with any black metal that demands repeated listening, there's tons of stuff going on, including a ton of hooks, sure they're bent and blackened and buried beneath layers of grit and grim and buzz, but they seep out, some of these riffs are as catchy as any pop song.
Just listen to the sound samples, read the other reviews for more about the band, their records, their sound, but odds are, like us, you'll be forever in thrall to the grim black majesty of Old Wainds, a convert to their Religion Of Spiritual Violence.
We love Old Wainds. So does Leviathan, Xasthur, Crebain, Draugar, Nachtmystium, and every other black metalhead we know. And as we mentioned before, there is really no better way to discover amazing bands than by discovering who your favorite bands' favorite bands are. Knowing that, Russia's Old Wainds are truly the black metal elite. Very few bands with such limited distribution, no official releases in the United States, and records that end up on eBay more than in shops have managed to make as huge an impression as these guys. And rightfully so. This is absolutely some of the most glorious buzzing blackness we have ever heard. And finally, we've managed to track down three of the four proper Old Wainds releases!! We got a whole bunch but we have a feeling they won't last long, and we're not sure how long it will take before we can get more (or even if we'll be able to at all). Before now we had been been on a never ending quest to track down every single recorded second of music these guys have spewed forth. So much so that one aQuarius employee who shall remain nameless (ahem...Andee) spent an embarassing sum on one of these discs on eBay!! But for now, you are spared that same fate. We have a bunch of copies of Old Wainds' second full length Where The Snows Are Never Gone, the split with fellow countrymen Nav, and this, their most recent release, Scalding Coldness! Which we also managed to get on vinyl!!!
So what is it about Old Wainds that has the grim hordes all in a tizzy? And why is Scalding Coldness one of the best black metal records of all time? Hard to explain exactly. If you were standing right here, we'd just play it for you. And it would only be a matter of seconds before you understood. And you can go ahead and listen to the sound samples, it should have the same effect, but we might as well try to put into words what it is that's so amazing about these guys and this disc.
With any metal, it's all about the riffs, black metal maybe moreso, because with black metal, it's pretty much entirely about the riff, no matter how buzzy the sound is, how evil and atmospheric the music is, without killer riffs you are NOTHING. Needless to say, Old Wainds whip up some of the catchiest buzziest riffs around. Swirling, snarling, dense and slightly off kilter, definitely in the great Norwegian tradition but with their own unique twist. Crunchy and insectoid, with strange little trills and unlikely chugs, haunting arpeggiated chords... The vocals too, guttural and growly, but not really shrieked or grunted, it's about as close to actual singing as black metal vocals can get. Still harsh and hateful, but more sort of gruff and raspy. And then the songs, epic and majestic, almost cinematic at points, but at the same time grim and frosty, buzzing dronescapes of bleak blackness, infused with a surprising amount of melody. And then there's the weird stuff, the chantlike vocals, the guitar leads that surface here and there, the strange pulsing ambient interludes, the weird breakdowns, ultra dramatic intros with bizarre drumming... but none of those things define the band, they are just part and parcel of Old Wainds' twisted black universe. The perfect blend of Xasthur, Immortal, Leviathan and Darkthrone. Sort of. Take your favorite bits from each of those bands and then smear in some desolate Russian winters, and twist it all up into some black shape that while sort of familiar is unlike anything you've ever heard before. And you'll be getting close.
Absolutely essential.
In the AQ black metal hall of the elite, atop a mountain wreathed in fire, beneath a sky as black as pitch sit the black metal elite, Satyricon, Emperor, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal and the rest, but it's looking like someone just might have to scoot over and make room for Old Wainds at the table...
Finally, full length number two (of three) from Russian black metal legends Old Wainds. We're still trying to restock their most recent, 2005's Scalding Coldness, but for now,�Where The Snows Are Never Gone is probably more grim frosty bleak blackness than you can handle. But that shouldn't deter you from trying.�
Originally recorded back in 1997 and released on cassette, reissued on cd in 2003, only finding its way to AQ in 2007,�Where The Snows Are Never Gone is another epic frostbitten slab of relentless black buzz. It's easy to hear why Old Wainds is the black metaller's black metal band. Wrest from Leviathan, Ancalagon from Crebain, Hildolf from Draugar, pretty much every BM misanthrope we know counts Old Wainds as one of, if not their absolute, favorite metal bands.�
Old Wainds are not damaged or demented, lo-fi or fucked, this is epic and majestic, the riffs are amazing, the drums a skull caving bombast, the production is massive, a swirling buzz that could swallow you whole. It's hard to know what else to say about these guys that we haven't already said over and over and over. To read more of our Old Wainds raving see any of the other OW reviews on the AQ site...
Needless to say, if you're already a fan and don't yet have this, BUY THIS NOW. If you've yet to discover the hellish joys of Old Wainds, this is as good a place to start as any, in fact it just may be our favorite of the bunch.�
More in line with the primitive thrashing buzz of bands like Darkthrone and Beherit, this is fast and blown out and black, relentless and furious, frosty and so so so grim. The vocals are a Popeye like croak (not all that far removed from Immortal's Abbath) and the tracks are peppered with strange explosions and sonic drop outs, the guitars go from lightning buzz to chugging crunch, the drums sounds like they're being fired out of a gun. Minus a couple intros, this record does not ever let up, even for one second. Until...
The final track, which is absolutely gorgeous, definitely the prettiest thing Old Wainds has ever recorded. An endlessly loping minor key midtempo groove, arpeggiated guitar, a sort of sea sick rhythm, motorik drumming, the guitar a warm glistening buzz, vocals a chanted moan, repetitive and so utterly dreamy (in a grim, cvlt, black way of course), until the very end where the song seems to buckle and the band stumble back into action obliterating any traces of loveliness in an explosion of brutal black fury.�
As with every single Old Wainds recording, totally essential.�
We once mentioned that the best way to discover the most amazing music in any genre, is to check out what other musicians are listening to. Never has that been more true than with black metal. A genre predicated on bands' underground status or level of grimness, how cult or frosty they are. Which means, some of the best bands aren't often heard outside of tiny circles, many times just other bands and close friends. Limited tape releases, cd-r's, demos. You have to be super tenacious to really be on top of the latest greatest grim horde from Bolivia or Paraguay who only have a single cassette release, and it was limited to 10 copies, each one doused in the band's blood.
Such is the case, although not quite so dramatically with Russia's Old Wainds. Ask any of the BM elite. Ask Wrest from Leviathan, Ancalagon the Black from Crebain, Hildolf from Draugar, Azentrius from Nachtmystium, and any one else you can pull from their blackened crypts, who their favorite black metal band is, and odds are all or most of them will tell you Old Wainds. And we might have to concur. The frustrating thing is most of the Old Wainds discs are only available on eBay at totally exorbitant prices. But you know what, it's completely worth it. Old Wainds play some of the most primal, furious, gloriously buzzy black metal we have ever heard. Although it might be better to start here, with this normally priced cd reissue of the bands Withers Of The Wainds demo.
Each track a blast of cold black winter winds, swirls of murky buzzing riffage, thrashing drums, and super insane vocals, that are strangely processed / affected so they sound like some strange death rattle, drenched in reverb, like the battle cry of some pterodactyl / rattlesnake hybrid. So completely alien and harshly harrowing. But perfect for the bleak buzzing blackened landscapes below. Killer riffs (you can pretty much boil ALL metal down to their main component, the riff), a murky production that swaths everything in a gauzy black veil, and those insane over the top vocals, all whipped into an impossibly furious black attack.
Absolutely and utterly essential black metal. We'll do our best to track down the rest of the Old Wainds discs that are available (not many? none?), and we'll wait patiently for the out of print ones to be reissued (or reissue them ourselves, if Andee can get in touch with the band), but for now, hails to Arma Diaboli for reissuing this disc and saving us all $50, and allowing us the opportunity to finally bask in the unearthly black glow of Old Wainds!!
We've long been shrieking and demonically howling the praises of Russian black metal horde Old Wainds, but until recently, we had been unable to track down any of their releases. One of their old demos was re-released (Withers Of The Wainds) which was much easier to get, and then slowly but surely we managed to track down the rest of their releases. We reviewed the godlike Scalding Coldness a few lists back (we're still waiting for our restock, thanks for being patient) and this time we've got a killer split, between Old Wainds and their fellow countrymen (and Old Wainds offshoot) Nav. We reviewed the full length lp from Nav a while back but were unable to get their cd (we're still trying) so for lots of folks this may be your first chance to hear Nav.
Anyway, like we've said in the past, a true measure of a band, is who is listening to them, especially when it's other bands, so when we say Old Wainds is EVERYBODY'S favorite (and we're talking Crebain, Leviathan, Xasthur, Nachtmystium, Andee!!) that's pretty high praise indeed.
And not at all unwarranted. Old Wainds are the Blizzard Beasts of the East. A howling buzzing blast of frosty fury, so intense and relentless, a completely epic black buzz, but with incredible riffs, amazing arrangements and some seriously intense vocals. Not as bizarre as they were on the Withers Of The Wainds demo, but much harsher and hellish than on Scalding Coldness. Through The Chaos To Eternal Winter (Old Wainds' half of the split) is 18 minutes of unbridled brutality, black beauty, so gloriously heavy, recorded way back in 1999, this sounds as heavy and intense as most of the bands peddling their black metal wares today. Three blasts of buzzing black brilliance, the fourth a haunting ambient folk drift, complete with dirgey downtuned guitar and disembodied minor key piano, and harsh reverb drenched vocals.
Perfectly matched, and in some ways maybe even better than the Wainds (gasp!), are Nav, the project of Old Wainds drummer Izbor and featuring at least one other Old Waind in its ranks. The sound is similar, grim and frosty, but somehow the buzz is bigger, thicker, with even less melody than Old Wainds, and more blast, the vocals are distorted and buried in the mix, the songs are peppered with bursts of lurching midtempo Burzumic buzz, but Nav spend most of their time buzzing along at hyperspeed, the blackened buzz so thick and relentless, it becomes a fuzzy drone, mesmerizingly blurry and blown out. the drums so fast they are like another layer of sonic fuzz. But it's not just buzz, the riffs are killer, the melodies are there, and are catchy as hell, just completely suffocated by the icy black buzzing of the relentless guitars and nonstop blasting beats. The final track begins with some reverb drenched acoustic guitar, quite lovely and dreamlike, before being engulfed by a strangely melodic and dramatic minor key black blast, almost like a black metal Godspeed, epic and keening and oddly enough, really really pretty.
Absolutely essential, as with all things Old Wainds (and Nav for that matter)...
That crude & spooky, black & white linocut (?) cover art looks like some cult black metal cassette or floorcore noisepsych lp from nowadays. But it actually heralds an album of '80s Italian underground metal weirdness, which is basically one of those obscure microgenres that we here at Aquarius might just be getting a bit obsessed with (other examples: Scandinavian skweee, field recordings of frogs, Sheffield black psychedelia, singing saw music, and the New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal). Well, at any rate we're into a few weird '80s underground Italian metal bands, previously having written about Black Hole and Dark Quarterer... We'd put Flames Of Hell in there too but they were from Iceland, not Italy, though somehow seem like they'd belong. There's also the likes of Death SS and Bulldozer, and going way back Jacula, but it's Old Yron that we should be talking about right now!
That's the band responsible for this record, originally released in quite limited fashion in 1989, though it sounds somewhat older than that (Old Yron actually having their beginnings back in 1974). Six tracks suffused with traditional metallic atmosphere and amateur charm. Being Italian, it's got a classically influenced, proggy bent to it, but that's filtered through an extremely budget DIY production, enhanced perhaps by what may be the crackle of the vinyl from which this (fully legit however) cd reissue was probably transferred.
Old Yron deliver the goods in the form of high pitched screams and Yngwiesque guitar shred, on such songs as "Old Yron", "Crazy Lady", and "Strange Vision"... strange vision indeed, as OY seem to be all about taking their mundane existence and finding something dreamlike and weird about it, particularly involving women if at all possible, in which case they are voluntarily "Slave To Dream"! Speaking of women, their regular singer's histrionic, operatic stylings are joined by the atypical "jazzy" singing of a guest female vocalist on "Window In The Dark" which is probably our favorite track here, for sheer eccentricity.
The album ends with the Paganini inspired instrumental "Up-Start", which sets us up for this cd's two bonus tracks, modern (circa 2003) recordings of classical guitar by OY mainman Antonio "Tony" Ferrari. While much slicker than the original Old Yron album itself, they can be seen as a progression from it, and/or perhaps can be considered a palate cleanser after all the very metal, lo-fi, yet cultured wailing of the album proper.
The cd booklet includes thorough liner notes by Ferrari, presented in both English and Italian. Thanks for Shadow Kingdom for digging this up, how they discovered it we don't know, but it's a unique find and we're glad to have it, it'll certainly serve as our '80s Italian underground metal weirdness fix for a little while!
Valley King does it again, digging up another retro rock treasure from right here in our own backyard, two tracks of heavy psychedelic blues from Older Sun, who lay down a seriously sweet blast of classic hard rock, a la Mountain, Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, Montrose, Kiss, you get the drift, bit riffs, big hooks, actual vocals, soulful and pretty fucking bad ass, rad shredding leads. The A side "Bad Man" is all seventies anthem, and sounds like it could have been your go-to jam for getting baked in the parking lot of the local 7-11, or for blasting in your parents' car, after sneaking out, picking up your girlfriend and driving around all night. The B-side adds some Van Halen to the mix, starting out all bass heavy swagger and chugging riffage, but when the vox kick in, we get into some almost ZZ Top territory, and another impossibly catchy chorus. Older Sun are band out of time for sure, they may be 'retro rock' now, but if it was 1975, these guys would be ruling the arenas, and playing and partying with with the best of them. Awesome.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!! Eye popping, laser-eyed idol cover art by psychedelic rock art master Alan Forbes.
From our pal Mike at the amazing Sleeping Giant Glossolalia comes this latest blast of gnarled metallic guitar heavy whatthefuck from long time aQ fave Mick Barr (Krallice, Ocrilim, Octis, Orthrelm, Crom-Tech) who in Oldest, is teamed up with Brooks Headley (Born Against, Universal Order Of Armageddon), who besides being a rad drummer, is now a fairly well known pastry chef! However, as curious as we would be to hear/see Headley's pastries combined with Barr's axe-work, it is in his role as drummer, that he completes the Oldest duo, which Barr describes as sounding like Voivod meets Darkthrone, but which in fact sounds a lot like Barr's late great Crom-Tech combo. A wild mathy tech metal grindpunk noise-prog blowout that finds the duo unleashing frenzied stretches of tranced out guitars, frantic riffing, the melodies angular and atonal, the drumming dense and complex, the arrangements fractured and fucked up, the vocals a punkish shriek. Intricate and heavy, dizzying and chaotic, the songs super fluid, droney, cyclical and near static one second, lurching stop/start stutter the next, slipping occasionally into chugging classic metal mode or soaring blackened buzz, but always returning to that distinctive twisted technical grinding math/meth metal crush that Barr seems to have a lock on. Fucking awesome. And not even really out until next month, so for now, an aQ exclusive!
A lot of OM related dub on this week's list, elsewhere you'll find a review of the latest dub single from OM mastermind (and former Sleep bass slinger) Al Cisneros, and here we've got a track from OM's most recent full length, Advaitic Songs, stretched way out, spread out over two sides of a 12", and then dubbed the fuck out! You'd have to be deaf to not here the dub influence in OM, even when they're engaged in churning metallic crush, their sound always had a dubbiness to it, lots of space, a definitely groove, but here, that sounds is allowed to flourish into something purely dub, but unlike Cisneros; singles, this dubbed out version of OM, seems to take less inspiration from classic Jamaican dub, and more from the eighties, On-U Sound style digi-dub, and it sounds great, in fact, once again, even though these are remixes, we find ourselves wishing there was a band who sounded exactly like this dubby doomy dreaminess.
The sound here is all looped programmed rhythms, vocals clipped, and chopped, doused in echo, and sent swirling into the ether, same with the snare cracks, each crack unleashing a sky full of sonic ripples, but the swoonsome darkly dramatic strings from the original remain, giving the sound a much more moody and mesmeric vibe, the B side adds some Tikiman like toasting (new OM member Robert Lowe? Cisneros himself?) while the track oozes and slithers, a downtempo groove that ends up reminding us of Muslimgauze and African Head Charge in equal measure. Fucking awesome. Here's hoping wither the whole record gets a dub makeover, OR, that the next OM record ends up being a pure, straight up dub record. Here's hoping!
We fully expected to dig this new Om record. After all, we've been fans of the band since their debut
hit back in 2004. Since then, Al Cisneros' ultra heavy bass vibrations and one of a kind stoned vocal delivery have remained pretty constant, and the main changes in the course of Om's history have revolved around two very distinct yet quite different drummers; while original skinsman Chris Hakius carried Om into territory that might well be viewed as the next step in the saga he and Cisneros developed in Sleep, current drummer Emil Amos (also of Grails and Holy Sons) brought a new, less overtly heavy approach that seemed to suit Om just as perfectly, and things have taken on a more meditative quality since his arrival. Still, some people like to joke that Om's variations on a theme have deviated little since Variations On A Theme. With that, we humbly admit that the greatness of Om's latest record, 9 years into their existence, has pretty much knocked us on our asses and led some of us to conclude that it is the best thing we've heard from them yet.
While there will be no mistaking who this is, there are in fact some of the biggest surprises on an Om record so far. Perhaps the most notable of these surprises come in the form of Robert AA Lowe, he of the 90 Day Men and Lichens, who has become a full fledged member of Om since the completion of Advaitic Songs. Indeed, Om sound more invigorated (but not *too* invigorated, for obvious reasons we would imagine) and more willing to venture into new mysterious realms. Along with additional contributions from Amber Asylum alum Jackie Perez Gratz (cello) and Lorraine Rath (flute), Advaitic Songs is by far the most diverse of Om's albums, bringing to mind everything from the Taj Mahal Travellers to Alice Coltrane to hints of early Pink Floyd and all manner of dubbed out atmospheres, while never abandoning the formula we've all come to love. In other words, shit DOES get heavy and rifftastic, but not before the introduction of female chanted vocals (which sound at times like a significantly less crazed/terrifying Elizabeth Clare Prophet, and yes, we mean that in a good way) and tamboura that open the album on the majestic "Addis". This track really absorbs you into the sound of the album and billows out steadily, with the vibe carrying on into "State Of Non Return" until the band abruptly shifts into one of the heaviest, most stoned out jams of Om's existence. And to return to the subject of drumming, kudos to Amos for his completely amazing work on this track. All we could do was bob our heads and let out a hearty "fuck yeah". Fuck yeah for sure. Interestingly, the track is monolithically heavy but still adheres to some sense of discipline and restraint. Quite simply, not many people could pull this off with these results. "Gethsemane" begins with a super heavy tamboura drone before some clean sounding Middle Eastern influenced bass and strings merge with a heavily focused drum pound with nice use of the ride. When Al's vocals come in, it sounds, well, how do we say this? Like a better version of Om. It's just so great, familiar but also exotic and surprising. "Sinai" begins as another heavy drone and makes brilliant use of distorted field recordings of some religious ceremony (sorry to be so non-specific) before ultra crisp drumming and bubbling bass create a foundation for the cello and tamboura to hover above. It's another great one to get lost in. "Haqq al-Yaqin" brings the album to its conclusion, with the memorable cello work giving the song a distinct feel and some typically awesome Cisneros vocal work. Instead of building to some predictable moment of catharsis where things get all heavy and everyone rocks out all "passionately", the song retains its focus and rides out with some beautiful acoustic guitar work before fading with some cool tabla rhythms. Wow.
At this point it's fair to say that Om are masters of their craft, and their desire to explore new worlds is made completely clear here. No one can touch them. We were going to make this a Record Of The Week, but our suppliers didn't have quite as many of the cds as we wanted in stock this week, so we had to demote it to Highlight status instead. Still, we encourage everyone to snap this one up.
Second live record from this post-Sleep duo, this one a live recreation of their 2006 Conference Of The Birds album, recorded live in New York last year, giving most people their first earful of new drummer Emil Amos, courtesy of epic post rockers the Grails, replacing long time Om drummer Chris Hakius, who was also in Sleep with Om bassist and vocalist Al Cisneros.
The drum switch is pretty dramatic, where Hakius was a bruiser, who pounded his kit, Amos is much more refined and restrained, jazzier for sure, his parts busier and skittery than the Hakius' Conference originals.
"At Giza" is a low slow rumble, mantra like and haunting, doomy for sure, but more abstract than crushing, the bass rubbery and almost clean, unfurling slow motion grooves, the drums a stripped down shuffle, the vocals reverbed and clean and way up in the mix, everything hushed and hypnotic. It's not until nearly 3/4 of the way through that the distortion kicks in and the band let loose, and that Sleep pedigree becomes apparent. And while in some ways, Amos's drumming makes the sound less obviously 'heavy', it also pushed it in new, almost proggy directions, adding more complexity and counterpoint, and things get seriously frenzied and frenetic, with a distinctly Ruins-worthy coda.
The flip side, "Flight Of The Eagle", is not that far removed from the original, minus the slightly different drumming style, the sound is still plenty sludgy, droney, groovy, druggy, hypnotic and HEAVY.
Thick diecut jackets, the printed inside sleeve visible through the diecut, pressed on ultra heavy vinyl. And yeah, most definitely limited.
This killer slab of tranced out heaviness, now back print on vinyl, as a picture disc this time! Here's our review of Conference Of Birds when we first reviewed it waaaaaay back in 2006:
OM....OM... OM . . . O M . . . .
Their debut last year, Variations On A Theme, was heralded by many as the second coming of Sabbathy stoner/doom legends Sleep. No surprise, considering that Om consists of two thirds of Sleep, and pretty much sounds like two thirds of Sleep too. Same low-end bass (Al Cisneros), thundering drums (Chris Hakius), and druggy, chant-like vocals (Al again, stepping up to the mic). All that's missing is the guitar (Sleep guitarist Matt Pike is busy with High On Fire right now). We gave that album the thumbs up, won over by the psychedelic trance-like heaviness of their jams and their mantrically soothing yet (to us) unintentionally amusing singing, which made us giggle 'cause it just never let up, delivering endless deadpan lyrics of cosmic hippy nonsense in a zoned-out monotone. We don't want to say it was so bad it was good, 'cause it really wasn't bad, but there was some of that kind of bad/good alchemy going on. And we ended up lovin' it.
And of course, the resemblance to old faves Sleep helped too.
Now Al and Chris are back with the second Om opus. It's simultaneously a heckuva lot like their debut but even better somehow. Productionwise, yes. And also perhaps 'cause while the two-piece line-up on Variations sounded like Sleep without the guitar, and maybe (heck, definitely) would have been even better with a guitarist, now they've made that lack of guitar seem more the ways things should be, by getting more and more hushed and spacious and minimal here, thereby making it seem like just bass and drums is enough, not like something's missing. They've made a virtue out of a necessity, realizing that by really adopting a "less is more" aesthetic they'd be playing to their strength. And it works. Listen to it straight through (you'll want to... it's two tracks, about 33 minutes) and you'll find it quite floatational, even without chemical assistance. This riff-repetitive spaceout drone dirge drug is all you need. And Al's lyrics remain occultic, obtuse and slightly absurd, giving this the effect of a hypnosis tape meant to help build your vocabulary (along with heightening your consciousness). He uses such everyday words as "clesiast", "epison", "aurican", "tunnement", and "agurate". It's heavy rock that requires a heavy dictionary to decipher!
So if you liked the first OM, you'll love this. And if you weren't sure before, definitely check this one out. As with their first album, file with Sleep's Jerusalem, Electric Wizard's Supercoven, and UFOmammut's Godlike Snake.
OM....OM... OM . . . O M . . . .
