Finally! The wait is over. The final 4 releases in what is now a nearly complete reissue collection of all 9 demos from mysterious Swiss black metal horde Paysage D'Hiver. By now, most folks are probably more familiar with Swiss sci-fi black metallers Darkspace, whose mainman Tobias Mockl, aka Wroth, was the sole force behind the frosty, grim, wintry Burzumic blur that was Paysage D'Hiver. Calling himself Wintherr in Paysage, over the course of nearly a decade, Mockl crafted 9 full length demos, and two split releases, each one a stunning landscape of frostbitten buzz and buried blasting beats, of shrieked vokills, and haunting windswept interludes, of creepy footsteps and crunching ice, of lilting blackened folk and of totally epic black metal mastery.
Paysage trafficked primarily in sprawling wintery epics, up to 20 minutes in length, rife with trancelike riffage, and long stretches of haunting ambience, the sort of black trance-inducing monotone mesmer that we can't seem to get enough of, although occasionally, Mockl would unleash something totally different, a record of Tangerine Dream like kraut synth drone ambience, or in the middle of a squall of furious black blasting, a strange lurching lumbering clean guitar lope, or long stretches of almost orchestral soundtrack like drift, but always the atmosphere was grim and cold and grey, the production blurred and buzzy and murky and lo-fi, but not shitty 4-track lo-fi, instead, that low fidelity was a part of the sound, just adding to the miserable freezing chill of the proceedings, casting a patina of dour despondency, evoking the shadow of dead trees and their skeletal branches, of epic expanses, buried in snow, inhospitable, barren, forlorn, of loneliness and sorrow, emptiness and death. Easily some of the most intense, otherworldly, creative and evocative black metal ever made, and one of our all time favorites for sure...
Winterkalte was originally released in 2001, and begins with the sounds of screaming winds, and strange footsteps, and various random sounds, in fact it almost sounds like field recordings, or lost tapes from some doomed winter expedition, finally recovered after years and years, the sound buzzy and lo-fi, finally the guitars come in, sharp and harsh and brittle, the drums a machinelike skitter, exploding into a super raw and ultra intense blast of frosty blackness, the vocals so distorted and lo-fi they almost sound like white noise, the blasting is relentless, and trancelike, until finally some synths drift in, adding some super creepy texture and melodic counterpoint, and then with about 7 minutes left, the buzz and blast drop out, leaving just acoustic guitar, over the same whipping wind, and the lonely crunch of footsteps in snow, which trudge right into the next track, a very Burzumy plodding trudge, the guitars thick and buzzy, the vocals again blasts of near white noise, the melodies haunting and mournful, the vibe super intense and dramatic, the swirling synths in the background adding even more gravitas to the already abject winter miserablism of the doom drenched black dirge.
The next track is nearly nothing but wind and wintery ambience, all but for a brief bit of haunting choral music right near the beginning, ghostly harmonies drifting spectrally over the sounds of winter. And so the mysterious personage trudges onward through the wind and snow and the black night, the ambience laced with tinkling distant melodies, before once again the song kicks in, a loping woozy riff, a galloping beat, and those whitenoise vox, all wrapped in a whirring blanket of soft noise and blurred hiss, only letting up occasionally, allowing in the wind, delicate crystalline melodies, and the percussive crunch and boom of distant mysterious goings on, but always lurching back into the blast and buzz. And so it goes, one more track, a blurred monochromatic blast of frozen blackness, gives way to the final movement, still more blasting and buzzing, shrieking and blackened flailing, furious and frenzied, again leaving space for frozen winds, and melancholy acoustic guitars, before the final squall of wintery buzz, finally finishing with acoustic guitars and ethereal synths, fading into the cold black night.
Incredible, and as essential as all of the Paysage records. And like the other reissues, Winterkalte comes packaged in a gorgeous A5 style oversized digibook, the front adorned with a cool painting of some bleak winterscape, while inside, a fold out booklet, featuring lyrics. The whole thing sealed in a black envelope, the band name and album title printed on the outside, black on black!
Pearls and Brass are a Nazareth, PA power trio, old schoolin' it for the rockers amongst ya. Apparently they've been doing this for, like, ten years now (this is their 2nd full-length) so it's not like they're jumping on some sort of stoner/garage bandwagon. Indeed, it sounds like they've been at it since 1969! This is definitely inspired by the likes of Cream, Mountain, GFR, um, maybe the original (Gary Moore) Skid Row, classic power trios like that from way back when. Which means if you dig current retro-rock combos like Dead Meadow or SF locals Parchman Farm and Genghis Khan, you need to add Pearls and Brass to that list.
Their songs are bouncy, riff happy numbers, stuffed with Iommi-ish solos, the guitar/bass/drums interplay rolling along a bumpy road, hinting also at the influence of more modern hyperkinetic postpunk/prog constructs like Hella. Mainly 'cause there's a lot of well practiced playing goin' on. But they keep a relaxed, stoner vibe happenin' in part 'cause of the lazy, laidback vocals that, well, sound to us a lot like Michael McDonald. Huh? It all works though. Truly, this rocks, choogles, boogies... all that good stuff... never letting up... well except that they also pull a page from Zep and get all folky and acoustic too on two cuts, though they end up sounding more like Devendra on those, really, also no bad thing. So we've gotta give this the thumbs up, we'd invite these dudes to play our backyard BBQ beerbash anytime (that is, if we had such events).
Also, a note for the irony-wary: at this point, is it even worth trying to parse the possibilities of ironic (or not) intent? I mean, this was recorded here in SF at Tim Green from The Fucking Champs Louder Studios, it's on hipster indie label Drag City, and the band presents themselves as backwoods, beer swilling burnouts. So you might wonder, are they? Whatever the case is, they're doing something right, the love of classic rock on all fronts here really can't be denied.
This one's for those of you who really dug The Indian Tower release by this Pennsylvanian power trio, reviewed here last list. That record was in fact their second album, after this self-titled debut from 2003, which was never widely distributed... it took the powerful indie rock hype machine called Drag City (just kidding) to clue us in to Pearls and Brass' existence. Digging the blend of '60s psychedelic blues rock worship and nimble mathiness that these guys dished out on their Drag City release (sometimes it's like a strange but unforced meeting of Cream or Cactus with Hella or The Fucking Champs, maybe) we went to see 'em play the other night, opening for The Champs as a matter of fact. Definitely impressive live, they ripped through a bunch of The Indian Tower and also did a song or two from this album, which they had with them for sale, so naturally we asked 'em to stop by the store on their way out of town the next day and sell us a few copies. The three guys pictured on the cover all have much longer hair now (and a bigger beard in the case of the drummer) and likewise The Indian Tower was definitely built on this album's foundation -- there's melodic acoustic moves, stoner blues, and plenty of kick ass hard rockin'. So if you enjoyed The Indian Tower you may well want one of these too! (Unless you're looking for the garagey Tim Green production job, as this one's a bit more conventionally polished, to match what's perhaps a slightly more typical "stoner rock" sound here, not quite as lost in time as The Indian Tower.)
Second full-length from this operatic black metal outfit featuring guitarist/vocalist Ihsahn of black metal overlords Emperor and his wife Ihriel (plus her brother Lord PZ and drummer Per Eriksen)... They construct dark convoluted castles with spires of gothic female vox and electronic ambience, and foundations of labyrinthine metal rifferama. More ridiculous than sublime, to be sure, but fans of Emperor will no doubt appreciate this, perhaps even those who might not have gotten into Peccatum's debut (as this is a lot less heavy on Ihriel's vocals than past efforts). The new AND improved Peccatum, we should say.
New ep from this Emperor side-project. Ihsahn, his wife, and his brother in law, making more absurd operatic pomp metal.
Ihsahn of Emperor, his wife and her brother collaborate on this ambitious attempt at grandiose black metal opera. Rather insane, once you get past the first quasi-lame track. Classical musical training in the service of Satan!
Drummer Aaron Levin and guitarist Eric Murray, both formerly of tongue-in-cheek (but over-the-top awesome) glam rockers Boyjazz, have banded together as a duo since that band's unfortunate dissolution to create another outlet for their "bow down, we're not worthy" level instrumental talents. Pegataur is the result (the name referring to a Pegasus + Centaur hybrid, a winged man-horse, of course). Their debut cd, Eternal Flight, is quite a treat for anyone who digs rippin', all-instrumental heavy metal. Technical and melodic and riffy - basically, imagine The Fucking Champs as a two-piece. If you like the Champs, you'll like this, maybe that's all we need to say!!
Any of you out there who perhaps found Boyjazz too jokey (you shoulda given them a chance anyway, what an entertaining band they were!), should have less of an issue with this, in fact, Pegataur not only shut up and play but really go off the deep end in terms of seriousness if you delve into their, um, mythology. The packaging, a large circular poster that folds up to hold the cd, inside a plastic sleeve, bears mysterious illustrations of supposed significance within the occult sciences, relating to their own research. We've gotta quote what their press release says about it: "Orbiting around the Pegataur seal are 11 sigils for the tracks and a 12th king sigil to bind and rule the album as a whole. Utilizing techniques employed by such famed Renaissance occultists as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim and Dr. John Dee, each song title and corresponding sigil were generated by custom software (written by guitarist Eric Murray) that correlates the musical structure of each track with the many esoteric traditions in which Pegataur is initiated. It is suggested that the neophyte concentrate on each sigil as the song plays while holding the song title firmly in their mind to further their studies." (Hmm, they don't say how you're supposed to do that whilst headbanging.) So, maybe their joking has just gotten even more nerdy and obscure. Or maybe there's something to all of this. Certainly this duo seriously seem to be channeling an unnatural abundance of heavy metal chops and catchiness through each one of these 11 rockin' songs, as if they've got some direct psychic link to a dimension of metallic wonderment and the devil's music just effortlessly, endlessly flows through the Pegataur boys and their instruments like magic.
Pegataur probably could have scored bagfuls of gold pieces (or weed) from The Sword or High On Fire in exchange for some of the best of these riffs and still had plenty of good ones left over. Likewise, their hella tricky metallic mathrock moments would likely garner applause from folks like Electro Quarterstaff and Girth. We've already compared 'em to the Champs, but you could also try to imagine Zebulon Pike, stripped down to one guitar and forced to condense their usual 20+ minute epics into the 3-minute pop song format.
From the pinch harmonic frenzies and chugging changes of "Lesser Bow Of The Herdsman" and "The Weeping Quiver" to the grinding distorted stoner riffage of "Lord Solomon's Eyes" and "Human Appetite" (among the 11, we could mention 'em all) this kicks ass utterly, with no vocals to get in the way, just tons of guitar shred in an indie Van Halen mode that might make Thee Speaking Canaries jealous. No joke!
Attention, all worshippers of WITCHCRAFT!! What we have here is the next best thing to new music from that more '70s than thou band of Swedish heavy prog downer doomsters, and huge AQ faves. It's the debut solo recording from Witchcraft frontman Magnus Pelander, a four song, 21 minute ep. If you're a real Witchcraft fan, you'll want this. Since Magnus is the prime mover in Witchcraft, and this highlights his distinctive, mellifluous voice as well as guitar playing and songwriting talents, it's one of those "solo" projects that doesn't sound too different from the main band.... except it's mostly acoustic! A few years back, one time when Witchcraft were playing in San Francisco, Magnus told us he had plans to team up with a friend of his back home, who's also his guitar teacher, to do an acoustic album. We'd been eagerly waiting ever since, and it seems that their project has finally borne fruit. Magnus plays 6 string acoustic guitar, electric as well, plus drums and percussion. And of course sings. Meanwhile, his friend Mike (first name only given here, he's shy or something) plays 6 and 12 steel string acoustic guitars, plus piano, bass, percussion, and handles the string arrangements.
AQ's Allan, actually, was lucky enough to get to see the duo's first ever performance, this year at the Roadburn festival in Holland. For him, it was definitely a highlight of the fest, though Magnus and Mike were frustrated by some technical difficulties during their set. Still, they rose to the occasion and delivered some of the most "musical" moments of the whole Roadburn experience. Let's put it this way: Magnus is no slouch on guitar, but this guy Mike was really phenomenal!
The glorious, intricate interplay of guitars Allan heard there is fully on display here, as is the manner in which Magnus bears his heart vocally and lyrically, these songs so personal and emotive, like a lot of the most moving Witchcraft tunes. Some of this has got that sad Sabbath "Solitude" vibe, though the ep starts out on the brighter side with "A Sinner's Child", featuring melodious whistling, and lovely female backing ah-ah-ah's, but also lyrics like "I am a sinner's child / you better wait a while / before you take my hand / can you see Satan smile?" keeping it well within the realm of something dark and occultic that Witchcraft themselves might do. "Hope", which begins just with voice and piano, getting even more intimate in feel than the first track, soon turns into even more of a showcase for this duo's impressive 6 and 12 string chops. They rip... acoustically. Track 3, "You Have Got No Friends To Turn To" is by far the heaviest offering here, Magnus busting out the electric guitar for some plodding riff stomp and amped-up psychedelic soloing, though the track is still adorned with plenty of acoustic filigree and hand percussion. Certainly another one that wouldn't be out of place on a Witchcraft album.
The last, and longest, track, "Stardust", is an achingly beautiful and melancholic ballad, Magus's singing starting off hushed, the strumming almost sacred, a string section gradually building up in the background, piano notes intertwined with the guitar lines, it gets pretty progged out and epic! Allan definitely remembers this one from Roadburn, even in the stripped down way they played it there.
This record recalls at moments the likes of Comus and Six Organs and Aztec Two-Step and even, unintentionally but awesomely, Tenacious D, just a teeny bit. Fellow Swedes Dungen and Bjorn Olsson would be other references. And while in our experience, most people into the whole current indie acid folk scene already do dig Witchcraft, those who haven't heard 'em might find this to be a particularly lush, gorgeous, somewhat mellowed out entree.
LIMITED IMPORT RELEASE, cd version limited to 500 copies. We have black vinyl, with nice thick sleeves.
For an instrumental metallic post rock combo, made up of pretty ordinary looking dudes, Pelican seem, at least compared to their peers, to spend a lot of time being filmed for dvds. Okay that may be a bit of an exaggeration, this is probably dvd number three, but three feels like a lot. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but visually, 4 dudes in jeans is not necessarily fodder for riveting visuals. With Pelican, and most bands, it has much to do with the energy of being there, the sweat and the blood, the physicality of the sound, the deafening volume. Seeing it on the screen isn't always the same. That said, we find ourselves digging Pelican live on dvd. A lot. Much of it has to do with the music, and Pelican just keep getting better, more expansive, more epic, and way less metal. Which in this case is a very good thing. Their vibe continues to draw heavily from nineties mathrock, the soaring melodies, the churning riffage, the complex arrangements, they're like Godspeed, if they released records on Touch And Go. And while their sound references much of what came before, it helps them standout from the way too crowded field of Neur-Isis clones.
So what you have here is a live set from London in 2005, as well as various performances from various locations over the last 3 or 4 years as well as various interview segments and a 'music video'. The London show looks and sounds the best, obviously it was meant to be recorded, and it's a scorcher, the sound thick and heavy, the band rocking out wildly, limbs flailing, head banging, the crowd bouncing and weaving, The songs sound as good as ever. And again, they sound less like a band that spends its time playing metal fests, and more like a band you'd see in some packed sweaty little rock club, who already sound like they should be playing somewhere bigger. They do plenty of favorites, but it's good to see them played live, given new life, and it's interesting to see the songs actually played. A whole different vibe than on headphones.
The other live stuff is good, but the sound varies wildly, as does the lighting, but it's all pretty cool. And the interview footage will convince you of what we already know from numerous Pelican visits to aQ, that besides being a pretty bad ass band, they're some of the nicest guys ever.
Also included is the video for "Autumn Into Summer", the song itself, dreamy and mathy and post rocky, only really getting slightly metal near the middle with some soaring guitar harmonies and double kick, but the video is awesome, animated, and haunting, intercut with home movies, and strange super 8 footage. In addition to that stuff, there's also a photo gallery with tons of photos from various shows and tours.
But even if you're not one for dvds, there's still a reason to pick this up. Included with the dvd is a 3" cd that contains both tracks from the recent super limited Pink Mammoth 10". The first is the title track, epic and majestic and major key, the guitars thick, a throaty roar, the drums simple and massive, heavy but pretty, a definite Jesu vibe for sure, the track occasionally blissing out into stretches of mathy nineties style indie rock, albeit way heavier and way radder. At moments things also veer into Fucking Champs territory, but for the most part we hear some gloriously bastardized and metallized version of Polvo or Pitchblende. The track ends with a super shimmery outro/coda, all swoopy and soft focus, super spare drumming, spacy FX and weird far away production... yet another argument for these guys being one of the finest purveyors of metallic post rock going. The second is a reworked and remixed blend of another couple old Pelican songs, courtesy of Mr. Prefuse 73. A fuzzy expanse of glitchy acoustic guitars, sounding like Oval mixing some super minimal folky prog track, a laid back dreamy electronic folk, that eventually builds until an almost funky rhythm kicks in, simple handclaps laid over glistening harmonics and lilting minor key guitars, more and more fuzzed out as it progresses, a blown out sheen not unlike everything was dipped in a pixelated Fennesz style gritty guitar wash.
The third track though is brand new, or at least previously unreleased as far as we know. It's another version of "Pink Mammoth", but this time Pelican is joined by the band These Arms Are Snakes, and while this version is quite similar to the original, it's much heavier, double drums, double everything, but also more blissy and washed out, with soaring vocals buried way down in the mix, the rhythm more loping, the sound way more blown out and in the red, but just as epic and dreamlike, if not more so.
As with all Hydra Head stuff, the packaging is amazing. Full color sleeve in a dvd case, thick matte paper full color oversized booklet, double disc holders, 3"cd mounted on top of the dvd, the whole thing housed in a matte slipcover, adorned with super complex blue on black amoeboid designs. Nice! ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 3/3 "s/t" (P-Vine) 2cd 42.00 ACID MOTHER'S TEMPLE "Festival Vol. 5" (Acid Mother's Temple) dvd 21.00 AHMED, MAHMOUD "Ere Mele Mele" (L'arome Productions) lp 16.98 AHMED, MAHMOUD & EITHER / ORCHESTRA "Tsedenia Gebre-Marqos" (Buda Musique) dvd 14.98 AHOUSEN "s/t" (PSF) cd 22.00 AKIYAMA, TETUZI & JOZEF VAN WISSEM "Hymn For A Fallen Angel" (Incuna Bulum) cd 17.98 ALTER EGO "Why Not?!" (Klang Elektronik) cd 16.98 ANAAL NATHRAKH "Hell Is Empty, And All The Devils Are Here" (Feto) cd 14.98 ARCADE AMBIANCE "'83" (GDG) cd-r 12.98 ARCADE AMBIANCE "'86" (GDG) cd-r 12.98 ASTATKE, MULATU "Ethio Jazz" (L'arome Productions) lp 16.98 AXA HOUR OF DARA BLEU "Clones Of Eros" (Fire Museum) cd 13.98 AXELROD, DAVID "Live: Royal Festival Hall" (Mochilla Films) dvd 28.00 BACH, SEBASTIAN "Angel Down" (Get Off My Bach) cd 13.98 BACHDENKEL "Lemmings" (Ork) cd 17.98 BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUS "Skullgrid" (Metal Blade) cd 12.98 BETTER BEATLES, THE "Mercy Beat" (Hook or Crook) cd 11.98 BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Seventh Ruined Hex" (Important) cd 14.98 BLACK COBRA "Feather And Stone" (At A Loss) cd 13.98 BOSMANN, KARL "Eskalation" (You Don't Have To Call It Music) lp 38.00 BOX "Studio 1" (Rune Grammofon) cd 17.98 BOXCUTTER "Glyphic" (Planet Mu) cd 14.98 BOY DIRT CAR "Spoken Answer To A Silent Question" (Aftermusic) cd 14.98 BRIDGEWATER, DEE DEE "Red Earth: A Malian Journey" (DDB Records) cd 16.98 BROTZMANN, PETER / PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE / MATS GUSTAFSSON "The Fat Is Gone" (Smalltown Superjazz) cd 16.98 BRYARS, GAVIN "The Marvellous Aphorisms Of Gavin Bryars: The Early Years" (Mode) cd 16.98 CHERRY, DON "Tibet" (Piccadilly) lp 12.98 COPE, JULIAN "You Gotta Problem" (Head Heritage) 2cd 27.00 DAS EFX "The Very Best Of (Greatest Hits)" (elektra) cd 12.98 DOWN "III: Over The Under" (Down Records) cd 17.98 ESHETE, ALEMAYEHU "Ethiopian Urban Modern Music Vol. 2" (L'arome Productions) lp 16.98 ESKIBOY "The Best Of Tunnel Vision" (Baked Goods) 2cd 22.00 FAUST "Od Serca Do Duszy" (Lumberton Trading Company) cd 24.00 FENNESZ "Transition" (Touch) 7" 8.98 FERN KNIGHT "Music For Witches And Alchemists" (Eclipse) lp 21.00 FOLK SPECTRE, THE "The Blackest Medicine" (Wodsist) lp 14.98 FOOD "Molecular Gastronomy" (Rune Grammofon) cd 17.98 GAZHEART (RITA ACKERMAN / DAVE NUSS) "s/t" (Locust) lp 23.00 GENDAI SOKKYO "s/t" (PSF) cd 22.00 GHOST "Overture; Live In Nippon Yusen Soko 2006" (Drag City) cd + dvd 17.98 GRUDZIEN, PETER "The Unicorn" (Subliminal Sounds) 2lp 39.00 GRUPO AMIGOS "Paloma Mensajera" (Guerssen) cd 22.00 GRUPPO D'IMPROVVISAZIONE "Nuova Consonanza" (Cherry Red) cd 17.98 GUSTAFSSON, MATS / PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE "Splatter" (Smalltown Superjazz) cd 14.98 HABIBIYYA, THE "If Man But Knew" (Sunbeam) 2lp 34.00 HALF MAKESHIFT "Final" (Small Doses) cd-r 7.98 HAVOHEJ "Dethrone the Son of God" (Hells Headbangers) cd 13.98 HEXLOVE "Knew Abloom (Life's Hood)" (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98 HEY WILLPOWER "P.D.A." (Tomlab) cd 15.98 HIGUCHI, HISATO "Butterfly Horse Street" (Family Vineyard) cd 14.98 HUMAN BEAST "Volume One" (Sunbeam) lp 24.00 HUMAN INSTINCT "Stoned Guitar" (Rockadrome) cd 14.98 IDA "Lovers Prayers" (Polyvinyl) cd/2lp 14.98/16.98 INCAPACITANTS "Burning Orange" (Pica Disk) cd 14.98 IRISH COFFEE "s/t" (Set) cd 25.00 ISUNGSET, TERJE "Iceman Is" (All Ice) cd JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER "Valley Of Fire" (Textile) cd 15.98 KLIMEK "Dedications" (Anticipata) cd 15.98 LANG, K.D. "Watershed" (Nonesuch) cd 16.98 LOIUS XIV "Slick Dogs And Ponies" (Pineapple / Atlantic) cd 13.98 MACHINEFABRIEK "Bijeen" (Kning Disk) cd 14.98 MASHAYEKHI, ALIREZA & ATA EBTEKAR (SOTE) "Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday And Today (1966-2006)" (Sub Rosa) cd 16.98 METABOLISMUS "Snowy Meadows / Somnia" (The Social Registry) 7" 6.98 MONO "The Sky Remains The Same As Ever" (Temporary Residence Ltd.) dvd 17.98 MONSTER MAGNET "4-Way Diablo" (SPV) cd 16.98 MOULD, BOB "District Line" (Anti) cd 16.98 MURPHY BLEND "First Loss" (Kuckuck) cd 15.98 NEMETH "Film" (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98 NERVE NET NOISE "Dark Garden" (Intransitive) cd 14.98 OCEAN, THE "Precambrian" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98 ONNA "Katawa" (PSF) cd 22.00 OPETH "The Roundhouse Tapes" (Peaceville) 2cd 16.98 OSCILLATION, THE "Out Of Phase" (DC Recordings) cd 25.00 PARTON, DOLLY "Mission Chapel Memories: 1971-1975" (Raven) cd 22.00 PATTIE BLINGH & THE AKEBULAN FIVE (AKA GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW) "Sagala" (Ramp) cd 14.98 PINCH "Underwater Dancehall" (Tectonic) 2cd 22.00 PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS "We Ride To Fight" (No Idea) cd 13.98 POLLARD, ROBERT "Superman was a Rocker" (Needmore Songs) cd 10.98 PROTEST THE HERO "Fortress" (Vagrant) cd 14.98 RADAR BROTHERS "Auditorium" (Merge) cd 14.98 RANDALL OF NAZARETH "s/t" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/15.98 REED, LOU / ZEITKRATZER "Metal Machine Music" (Asphodel) cd+dvd 17.98 REID, STEVE ENSEMBLE "Daxaar" (Domino) cd 15.98 REITZEL, BRIAN "30 Days Of Night OST" (Ipecac) cd 16.98 RELIGIOUS KNIVES "It's After Dark" (Troubleman) cd 13.98 RIGGS, DAX "We Sing Of Only Blood Or Love" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98 RIMPOCHE, BOKAR "Sacred Chants & Tibetan Rituals From The Monestary Of Mirik" (Sub Rosa) cd 15.98 ROBEDOOR "Rancor Keeper" (Release the Bats) cd 15.98 ROBIN WILLIAMS ON FIRE "Jungle Gym Of Crucifixes" (Deathbomb Arc) 7" 5.98 ROCHE, JEAN C. "Rossignols: A Nocturne of Nightingales" (Fremeaux & Associes) cd 15.98 ROOT "Daemon Viam Invenient" (Shindy) cd 15.98 ROSETTA "Cleansing Undertones Of Wake/Lift" (Translation Loss) cd 9.98 ROSETTA "Wake / Lift" (Translation Loss) cd 13.98 SIMONETTI, ENRICO & GOBLIN "Gamma" (Cherry Red) cd 17.98 SINCLAIR, JOHN "Guitar Army: Rock & Revolution With MC5 And The White Panther Party" (Process) book+cd 22.95 SKEPTA "Greatest Hits" (Boy Better Know) cd 21.00 SKULL DEFEKTS, THE "Open The Gates Of Mimer" (AA / Nosordo) cd 14.98 SKULL DEFEKTS, THE "The Sound Of Defekt Skulls" (Utech) cd 14.98 SORE THROAT "Death To Capitalist Halmshaw" (Area Death Productions) cd 14.98 SOUTH SATURN DELTA "Experience The Concreteness" (Cold Spring) cd 15.98 STRIBORG "Trepidation" (Displeased) cd 14.98 SUN RA "Disco 3000" (Artyard) 2cd 33.00 SUN RA "Some Blues... But Not That Kind Of Blues" (Atavistic) cd 15.98 SUPER FURRY ANIMALS "Hey Venus!" (Rough Trade) cd 13.98 SWIRNOFF, PRESTON "Maariv" (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98 SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS "Astilbe Rubra" (Small Doses) cd-r 7.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "Dislocation" (Jinya) cd 17.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "Inanimate" (Jinya) cd 17.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "Mass Hysterism" (Jinya) cd 17.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "Shibito" (Jinya) cd 17.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI NEW DIRECTION UNIT "April Is The Cruellest Month" (Jinya) cd 24.00 TAU EMERALD "Travellers Two" (Important Records) cd 14.98 TEMPLE OF BON MATIN "Flower Footed Ghost" (Ruby Red Editora) cd 16.98 TENNISCOATS "Tan-Tan Therapy" (Hapna) cd 16.98 THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS "Here Come the 123s" (Disney Sound) cd 17.98 TURBONEGRO "Retox" (Cooking Vinyl) cd 14.98 V/A "10 Tons Heavy" (Planet Mu) 2cd 13.98 V/A "Asian Flashback: Underground Music From Asia" (PSF) cd 22.00 V/A "Dr. Boogie Presents: Rarities From The Bob Hite Vaults" (Sub Rosa) cd 15.98 V/A "Garden Of Forking Paths" (Important Records) cd 14.98 V/A "Golden State Funk" (BGP Records) cd 19.98 V/A "Greasy Truckers Party" (EMI) 3cd 38.00 V/A "Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs And Folk Tunes From Tuva" (Dust To Digital) cd 15.98 V/A "Messthetics #104: D.I.Y. '77-81 South Wales" (Hyped To Death) cd 14.98 V/A "Messthetics #105: D.I.Y. 77-81 Scotland I" (Hyped To Death) cd 13.98 V/A "Pillows & Prayers" (Cherry Red) 3cd+dvd 42.00 V/A "Realistic Patterns" (Psychic Circle) cd 17.98 V/A "Runeology 3" (Rune Grammofon) cd 9.98 V/A "Smashits" (Shitkatapult) cd 16.98 V/A "Welsh Rare Beat 2" (Finders Keepers) cd/lp 23.00/30.00 V/A "You Got Yours!: East Bay Garage 1965-1967" (Big Beat Records) cd 19.98 VEEDEE "Glimpses Of Another World" (Criminal IQ) 7" 5.98 VERDUNKELN "Einblick In Den Qualenfall" (Van) cd 13.98 VETIVER "You May Be Blue" (Gong) 12" 8.98 VILE CHERUBS "The Man Who Has No Eats Has No Sweats" (Afterburn) cd 13.98 WANDERING MIDGET, THE "I Am The Gate" (Eyes Like Snow) cd 15.98 WEISMAN, KURT "Spiritual Sci-Fi" (Important Records) cd 14.98 WHITE MICE "Excreamantraintraveinanus" (Blossoming Noise) cd 14.98 WILLITS, CHRISTOPHER + RYUICHI SAKAMOTO "Ocean Fire" (12K) cd 14.98 WOELV "Tout Seul Dans La Foret En Plein Jour, Avez-Vous Peur?" (K Records) cd 14.98 WYATT, ROBERT "Comicopera" (Domino) cd 15.98 YEASAYER "All Hour Cymbals" (Are We Free) cd 14.98 YEH, C. SPENCER "Violin, Objects" (Tone Filth) lp 17.98 YOSHIMIO "Yunnan Colorfree" (Shock City) cd+dvd 50.00 YOUNG, NEIL "Chrome Dreams II" (Reprise) cd 17.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
It's been a while (three years!) since we've heard from these instru-metallers, this being their first record since their Southern Lord debut What We All Come To Need, from back in 2009, a record which find them sounding less heavy, and more melodic, which seemed like a strange twist considering they were now on what many consider to be a proper metal label. But that shift continues here, with the opening track, which immediately moves even further from the Neur-Isis crush of old Pelican, and drapes vibe like melodies over shimmering low end buzz, peppering the proceedings with bits of static and a strange pulsing synth like rumble, it's pretty awesome actually, very cinematic and hauntingly melodic. But this is Pelican after all, who can, rock with the best of them, and do so on the second track, which explodes out of the gate with a seriously killer riff, that sounds somewhere between old school noise rock and super melodic classic rock, like Thin Lizzy via the Hellacopters with hints of some old Touch And Go band, the song sounding like it could burst into a proper full on rock song at any second, like the vocalist is gonna come bounding in, but instead, they draw it out, the guitars adding melody, the drums uncharacteristically flashy in places, but it works, might just be our favorite Pelican jam yet, capturing the mesmer of their old sound but sort of cranking it up. There's plenty of variation too, the middle section gets all darkly psychedelic and a little dubby, but before long they return to that riffy crunch and it kills. "Parasite Colony" is a bit more brooding and loping, a low slung bass driving a slithery main riff, building to some seriously muscly crunch, before the final track, "Taraxis", which seems to bookend the ep, similar in style to the opener, tangled almost Appalachian guitar, over thick swells of distorted buzz, squiggly feedbacky melodies, urgent strum, all over a simple stripped down looped rhythm, before blissing out into some moody deserty smolder, only to get seriously metal for the last few minutes, a churning sludgey pound, all super dirty sounding crumblingly distorted guitars, all wreathed in feedback, those acoustic guitars still strumming away beneath the din. Killer stuff, the band definitely pushing their sound in new and exciting directions, and making us hope we don't have to wait another 3 years for more!
Chicago instru-metallers Pelican are back, with the full-length follow up to their brilliant "Untitled" debut ep. Like that disc, this is almost the perfect blend of heaviness (METAL heaviness, to be precise) and post-rock. There's prettiness and precision, darkness and dynamics. From slow and powerful downer grooves to mellow melodic interludes to rapidly riffing, sheer super heavy metal, could Pelican do it any better? There's even one track where they've got a guy playing the singing saw. It's freakin' beautiful. Influenced by epic black metal, academic minimalist throb, psychedelic Floydian rock, and the post-rock of their hometown (among much else) these guys have shaped their band into contenders for the avant-stoner throne, positioning themselves somewhere between Mogwai and Melvins, with some flashes of Morbid Angel. Or, imagine the Growing's The Sky's Run Into the Sea album (AQ Record of the Week back in September you'll recall) as performed by The Fucking Champs! It has the oceanic warmth of Growing's droning heaviness lashed to some more mathy, metallic constructions. Our customers who love all things heavy (Isis, Boris, Gore, 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Dead Meadow, etc.) and who have a soft spot for spacier, sleepier stuff too should dig these six tracks for sure!
In the overcrowded world of metallic post rock, or post metal, or whatever the heck you want to call it, there seem to be two forces constantly battling it out, Pelican and Isis. But it's hardly a battle, as both bands are friends, share a label, and share a sound too. And the interesting thing is they both seem to be developing in a similar fashion. Each band, in their own way, and at their own pace, seems to be phasing metal out of their sound. Not completely. But where Isis once sounded a LOT like Neurosis, they now sound much more like a post rock band with metal bits here and there. Expansive and epic and only heavy to balance their ultra melodic side. And while Pelican seemed to be on a serious metal bender there for a while, this new record, while indeed rife with metallic moments, finds them at their post rockiest, and we have to say it suits them.
From the opening track, with its loping minor key math rock intro, to it's downtuned metal chug middle, to a killer harmony guitar / double kick bridge, the band never go all out metal, even if it might sound like it on the surface. Sure, we're loving the occasional flurry of maniacal kick drum, and the occasional Fucking Champs like Carcass riffery, but it never completely transforms the sound into pure metal. Metal plated maybe, but regardless, it sounds amazing!
Pelican nowadays sound like the very heaviest band you loved in the nineties, come back to life, supercharged and metallized. We hear lots of Slint, Bastro, Polvo, Shellac, Don Caballero, June Of 44 and bands like that, in the riffs, the arrangements, the melodies, which is fine with us. In fact, a lot of City Of Echoes sounds like a heavier Explosions In The Sky, who obviously owe a great debt to the loud-quiet-loud math rockers of days gone by. Sure it's metal enough to hit the spot for that sensitive metalhead in need of a melodic instru-metal fix, and yeah it may be heavy, and it may be metallic, but c'mon, this is indie rock, a kick ass, heavy as fuck indie rock maybe, but still...
While they last, we have the limited Japanese import Daymare double disc version of City Of Echoes, much like the fancy version of Jesu's Conqueror we carry instead of the domestic Hydra Head version. Ultra deluxe packaging, gorgeous design, thick 6 panel digipak, spot varnish gloss on matte finish, Japanese obi, Japanese liner notes, but most importantly, a bonus dvd of the band performing live at the Knitting Factory in L.A., playing mostly new songs but a few Pelican classics like "March To The Sea". The dvd looks great, sounds great, and unlike some past performances we've seen, the band are on fire -- they've always sounded great, but they didn't always move that much, but here the band are super active on stage, jumping around, swaying, head banging, which makes it way more intense and fun to watch. And it's cool to see the new songs played live too...
Ephemeral is the first new music from instrumental post rockers Pelican since they switched from Hydrahead to Southern Lord. Definitely an interesting development, as Pelican was definitely one of the bands that defined the Hydra Head sound. But heck, listening to these three tracks it's obvious they sound right at home on SL.
The side long first track is immediately recognizably Pelican, if anything the sound is a bit heavier, a little meaner sounding, there's definitely a Champs vibe, with lots of guitar trills and plenty of low slung chug, the weird thing is that unlike past Pelican efforts, this one in particular really does seem to scream out for some vocals. Any minute we expect some voice to just start howling or bellowing. We're imagining Wino, but there is that feel, a weird bit of tension, which works instrumentally for sure, but still had us hankering. But it's a killer jam, the drums especially, dense and wild, some intricate of kilter double kick action, plenty of mathy pound, and when the band lock into that main groove, it's like a massive black bulldozer made out of drums and amps and guitars.
The title track on the flipside is anything BUT ephemeral, sounding like an extension of the A side, but with even MORE chug, and a distinctly doomy vibe, even a bit of grunge. We could totally picture Mark Arm swooping in to sing a verse. And the record finishes off with a bad ass Earth cover, the band joined by Earth mainman Dylan Carlson, and while not too far removed from the original, it's definitely heavier, and darker, a little noisier, with seriously beefed up guitars, and a much more muscled rhythm, but retaining the same gorgeous, and ominous windswept vibe conjured up by Earth on the original.
Super thick sleeves, fancy Stephen O'Malley cover art. And probably wicked limited.
SUPER LIMITED!!! Pelican fans snap to attention! Fans of sludgy downtuned dirge do not dawdle. We got a small batch of these limited edition Pelican live DVD's and we will most likely not be able to get more ever again. Four epic tracks of Pelican's gorgeously massive instrumental pummel, videotaped live in 2003 in Chicago, shot from the crowd, a bit dark (dark enough that you barely see the drummer) but it sounds soooo good and if you've never seen Pelican before, it's cool to watch four regular looking dudes conjure up a seriously massive slab of metallic post-rock brutality. It's almost like being right there in the sweaty crowd, ears ringing, head banging! Packaged in a slimline jewelcase with new artwork from Seldon Hunt.
Oh man, if this record was only a full length, and not an EP, it would have been record of the week for sure! Even so, it's a pretty hefty EP clocking in at 33 minutes, especially when you consider it's only two songs! And not only is it quite possibly the best Pelican song so far, with a completely unforgettable, loping seasick main riff, relentless double kick drumming, totally heavy and MASSIVE, occasionally slipping into indie rock, with deliriously jangle-and-chime drenched melodies that eventually becomes a dreamy acoustic coda complete with flute, but the second track is a JK Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) remix that ends up sounding like the best Jesu track yet, all My Bloody Valentine blissed out with fuzzy backward melodies, industrial machinellike rhythms and epic alien arrangements.
People have been asking for this slab of beautiful heaviness forever, and for the longest time, we were beginning to think that its existence was just a hipster vinyl collector nerd urban legend, but whaddaya know, at least a year after we first heard about this two song vinyl only ep, it shows up, and of course as is par for the course with Pelican, knocks our fuckin' socks off.
Two tracks, both apparently reworked versions of older Pelican numbers, the A side is a killer, the title track, epic and majestic and major key, the guitars thick, a throaty roar, the drums simple and massive, heavy but pretty, a definite Jesu vibe for sure, the track occasionally blissing out into stretches of mathy nineties style indie rock, albeit way heavier and way radder. At moments things also veer into Fucking Champs territory, but for the most part we hear some gloriously bastardized and metallized version of Polvo or Pitchblende. The track ends with a super shimmery outro/coda, all swoopy and soft focus, super spare drumming, spacy FX and weird far away production... yet another argument for these guys being one of the finest purveyors of metallic post rock going.
The other side is a reworked and remixed blend of another couple old Pelican songs, courtesy of Mr. Prefuse 73. A fuzzy expanse of glitchy acoustic guitars, sounding like Oval mixing some super minimal folky prog track, a laid back dreamy electronic folk, that eventually builds until an almost funky rhythm kicks in, simple handclaps laid over glistening harmonics and lilting minor key guitars, more and more fuzzed out as it progresses, a blown out sheen not unlike everything was dipped in a pixelated Fennesz style gritty guitar wash...
Gorgeously packaged as always, thick sleeve, printed inner sleeve, heavy vinyl, in a variety of swirled colors... And yeah LIMITED like crazy...
This album prompted a discussion here about how there's the post rock bands that throw in some heavy, riffy metal bits to make things weirder and more interesting (and maybe so they don't seem quite so wimpy). And there's also the metal bands that write some pretty, quiet post rock parts also to be weird and interesting (and so as not to seem like total Neanderthals). In both cases, when things work out well, the results are a band that sounds not like, uh, wimpy Neanderthals but rather like intelligent and sensitive types who also possess crushing might. Pretty much every boy's ideal, eh? And Chicago instrumental heavies (and big AQ faves) Pelican are a great example of this, even though -- especially with this new album -- we can't quite decide if they're a metal band first post rock band second or the other way around. The very first track on The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw, "Last Day Of Winter", is seemingly more on the post rock side, all simmering moodiness and storm-yet-to-be-unleashed power. It IS big and loud but not really metal. Eventually the album offers up some truly uber metal moments, though, yes. Pelican's vaunted heaviness remains. But things are overall at least equally dreamy...dreamy and layered and melodically mathy, with post rock dynamics that dip into quiet, relaxed territory as much as they charge into heavy rock battle. Track four, for instance, is ALL gentle acoustic string-strum, with hints also of glitchy electronic crackle. We were prepared for this by their warm-up ep March Into The Sea (the title track of which is reprised here in edited form) wherein those acoustic guitars were added to Pelican's sonic palette. Pelican's vast, riff-ravaged landscape now has little lovely flowers growing, and expands to even further horizons. Funnily enough, "March Into The Sea" itself also offers some of the most metal (fast, furious) passages on here. Whatever you call it, the music of Pelican is (and always has been) totally mesmerizing and epic. Even if this album makes us think that it's almost like Pelican are turning into Kinski. Who aren't metal even though they are sometimes quite heavy. And who we also like a lot after all.
Ok, enough about all this post rock vs. metal stuff (though we will say that the presence of an extensive "thanks" list argues for Pelican indeed being a metal band at heart). What's important is that anyone into massive sonics of riff-shifting symphonic complexity OR blissful simplicity, should bow down to the juggernaut genius of Pelican's lastest opus...now that sounds fairly metal, don't it? Mention should also be made of the really quite lovely cd packaging here -- the cd booklet's got a translucent vellum cover and some cool interior artwork. Recommended!
Four massive tracks of instrumental heaviness here, folks. Chicago's Pelican debut with this untitled document of dirge (actually this Hydra Head version is a reissue of their self-released debut from last year). Teetering on the cusp betwixt being a melodically melancholic and rhythmically clever post-rock band and being a punishing doom metal behemoth, Pelican don't let down either side. This is HEAVY. Epic, intense, and always interesting. Slow, trancey sludge riffs and chugging rhythms are interlaced with kinda pretty melodies and sudden tempo shifts. The result is a LOUD, almost psychedelic listen that should be very satisfying to fans of similarly droney and heavy outfits like 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Boris, Pharoah Overlord... Gore and the Melvins and Harvey Milk too.
Pelican are the kind of band that plays shows with Isis and High On Fire, and reference La Monte Young and Ash Ra Temple in interviews...i.e. our kinda band! Kudos to Hydra Head for picking 'em up, and we look forward to their upcoming full-length on that label.
MPEG Download: "Pulse" [/audio/pelicanpulse.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Pulse" [/audio/pelicanpulse.m3u]
We were all kinda wondering what would happen with Pelican's first record for Southern Lord, after leaving Hydra Head. Would it be more metal? More black metal? More evil? Would it be more ANYTHING? Well, the answer is yeah, it is -more- a lot of things, but weirdly enough, at least to these ears, Pelican moved in the opposite direction, more melodic, more catchy, more hooky, LESS metal, and the weird thing is, in some ways it makes the music much more lyrical, which helps when you're an instrumental band, but still, here and there it does just the opposite, the sounds seemingly screaming for vocals, thankfully, those moments are few and far between, which leaves another bad ass chunk of heavy instrumental post rock. And few do it as well as Pelican. One thing we noticed this time around is a lot more grunge, some of the riffs, the changes, sound like they could have been lifted right off some classic Sub Pop 7", and Lord knows there ain't nothing wrong with that. Makes it sound heavier too. The guitars sound amazing, thick and crunchy, the melodies pretty catchy, some subtle Sabbath-isms here and there, some serious grooves (in a cool, heavy, UNgroovy way), and the drumming sounds better than ever, solid, tight, with just the right amount of swing, and there seems to be a lot more pretty parts, more space, letting the songs breathe, and sprawl, and open up, which in turn of course makes the heavier parts sound that much heavier. The band tackled an Earth cover on the Ephemeral 12", and it sounded great, so it makes sense that we're hearing some of that same epic sweeping twang, albeit more subtly on some of the songs here.
The cool thing about Pelican these days, is that they just sound like Pelican. Sure they inhabit a scene where there's plenty of sonic overlap, but these guys are just so good, and they've really turned into ace songwriters, which is critical when you're writing all instrumentals.
So yeah, if you already dig these guys, or love heavy rock, or metallic post rock or any of that sort of stuff, odds are this will totally hit the spot, and we were gonna say that if you didn't like Pelican already, then this probably wouldn't change your mind, but the more we listen to it, the more we're beginning to think it just might!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
It's been a little while since we've heard from the boys in Pelican, due in no small part to a seemingly endless world tour. They show up in the shop so much, we sometimes think they must have relocated to SF. And this is not exactly a 'new' record, in fact, it's a different version of a song that has already surfaced once a while back on a now out of print 10", "Pink Mammoth", Pelican's 'hit', or about as close as a heavy metallic instrumental post rock band will ever come to a hit, but it's a killer song, and here it gets redone a little with help from Pelican pals These Arms Are Snakes.
It's hard to tell just how different it is without doing a side by side comparison, but on first listen it does sound a bit more washed out and droney, the sound a tad thicker, and more guitar-y, which is obviously because of the various extra players. But it hardly matters, if you haven't heard this song before, you must, and if you have, you probably already dig it and definitely won't mind hearing a slightly different version. Soaring, epic, heavy without actually being metal, the guitars crunchy but clean, the drums busy but restrained, and then there's the hook, that pops up a few minutes in, and seals the deal. There seem to be plenty of extra guitars, getting all tangled up into warm swirls of layered harmonies, and every time that hook resurfaces it's fucking magic!
The flip side finds These Arms Are Snakes redoing one of their songs with the various members of Pelican along for the ride. Loping and mathy, chiming guitar harmonics over a crumbling distorted main riff, the vocals going from weary indie drawl to snarling growly wail, all over a churning motorik rhythm. The vocal harmonies and stripped down rhythmic lope, lock into these dark grooves that totally remind us of late great San Diego trio Three Mile Pilot. Cool stuff for sure.
The vinyl packaging, as with all Hydra Head stuff, is over the top. A blue on blue printed 10" gatefold, incredibly thick, with a third layer of reflective clear ink over the top, and the text in white on top of that. Pressed on thick black vinyl. And probably limited too. The cd packaging ain't so shabby either, blue and pink and clear inks on a brown cardstock, screen printed fold over origami style sleeve, also most likely very limited...
Legendary doomsters Pentagram have followed a bizarre and convoluted "career-path" to say the least. Though they've been around for at least 30 years (!) they've put out more stuff in the last four years than they did in their first decade, we're pretty sure, including both new albums and archival releases. The Pentagram cult grows. So here's another entry in their catalog, something from the vaults that's really for the true fans, being a 1978 live show from a club called The Keg in DC. So don't expect perfect sound -- yet it's not as bad as you might think either. The vocals are mixed a little low, but that's better than the opposite extreme that you often get from soundboard recordings. What's particularily interesting is that this comes from a period of Pentagram's history when they had boasted two guitarists, long since gone from the band, though you will hear the drumming of a young (18 year old) Joe Hasselvander, who probably never thought that he and singer Bobby Liebling would still be Pentagram in 2003! Tracks include Penta-classics like "20 Buck Spin" and "Review Your Choices". Diehard Pentagram heads will be familar with all these songs, but these versions are definitely different in parts. Plus, the live energy is quite exciting (making up for whatever this lacks in sonic fidelity). Tacked on at the end are the singles tracks recorded by this lineup, studio cuts of "When The Screams Come" and "Living In A Rams Head" different from the ones found on either First Days Here (their 1972-76 collection) or their later albums. All in all, nicely done: hardcore 'ram fans won't be disappointed.
Your Pentagram collection ain't complete if you don't have this! Here's the recent digipack reissue of the legendary DC-area doomsters' third album, originally released on Peaceville in 1994.
It's kind of the "forgotten" Pentagram disc, coming a few years after their two '80s classics, but also quite a while before what might be termed the 21st century Pentagram renaissance, that's seen several new albums on Black Widow, a couple amazing archival releases on Relapse (First Daze Here and First Daze Here Too!!) and even a Pentagram cover band popping up here in San Francisco (the cleverly-named Parallelogram, featuring John Cobbett of Hammers of Misfortune).
Yet, Be Forwarned is actually one of our favorite Pentagram albums, still featuring as it does the classic '80s line-up: Bobby Liebling (vocals), Victor Griffin (guitar) and Joe Hasselvander (drums), and Marty Swaney (bass). More importantly, it's got some great songs! Of course, there's a few Liebling compositions from way back in the '70s that those possessed of the First Daze Here comps might recognize (including the title track, a great version here of a track that Pentagram first put out on a single back in 1972), but also a bunch of tracks penned for this recording by Griffin and Hasselvander that surely are Pentagram classics by now too. Also, Bobby's at his Ozziest here, so if Sabbathy doom is your thing you can't miss this.
And now that Peaceville's gone and done nice reissues of these Pentagram albums, we're wondering when the heck Metal Blade's gonna do the same with the Trouble catalog?!
These two crucial Pentagram discs were reissued earlier this year and we figured we'd better (at long last) get 'em reviewed for our site, what with the immense popularity of Swedish retro-doomsters Witchcraft (seriously, we sell a TON of Witchcraft records and that's how it should be) and also their friends/countrymen/doppelgangers Burning Saviours, both of whom utterly absolutely obviously *worship* Pentagram. Black Sabbath too of course, but it's Pentagram who provide them with more of a "cult" thrill and inspiration -- Witchcraft has recorded several Pentagram covers, and Burning Saviors are even named after a Pentagram song.
Now, Pentagram's been around for a long time (almost as long as Sabbath) in various incarnations, and we've previously reviewed both collections of '70s era Pentagam material as well as their several recent albums. But the two records that really put 'em on the metal map were these, which date from the mid 1980s. Originally self-titled, Relentless was the band's debut full-length from 1985 (yep, about a full 15 years after they first formed!!) and 1987's Day Of Reckoning was their second. Both are classics of doom metal, up there with the other great '80s post-Sabbath doom LPs by Trouble, Candlemass, and Saint Vitus.
On these albums vocalist Bobby Liebling is at the height of his powers (he sounds kinda like Ozzy, but something about his voice and delivery indicates that maybe he's got even more first-hand knowledge of the dark side, like he's one of the evil creatures that Ozzy would just warn you about!) and current Place Of Skulls guitarist Victor Griffin riffs with the best of 'em. Drummer Joe Hasselvander and bassist Martin Swaney round out this era's Pentagram line-up. Penta-classic tracks found here include "Death Row", "Sign Of The Wolf (Pentagram)" and "20 Buck Spin" (on Relentless) and "When The Screams Come", "Burning Savior" and "Madman" (on Day Of Reckoning), among others. Both discs are great, buy the pair!
Reissued in digipacks, cd booklets replete with lyrics, photos, and brand new jive-talkin' liner notes by the still-kickin' Bobby L.
Maryland-based doom metallers Pentagram are on some kinda roll, following up their recently released and quite awesome album "Sub-Basement" (see the review on AQ-list 128) with this collection of stuff they recorded almost 30 years ago! Yep, they've been
"Starlady" ('76) -- why they didn't get signed on the strength of this potential single (a hit if I've ever heard one) I don't know. Or why KISS didn't buy the tune for their own use, that's perhaps even more of a mystery! (KISS's management was checking Pentagram out at the time, but no record deal resulted...)
"Forever My Queen" ('73) -- powerful doom metal that shows them at their Sabbath-like best (although, hearing this collection, you'll realize that Pentagram were equally into, and the equals of, other heavy contemporaries like Captain Beyond, Dust, and Blue Cheer).
"Last Days Here" ('74) -- it's like some Stones or "Raw Power"-era Stooges ballad, with Bobby doing his best Iggy impression.
"Be Forwarned" ('72) -- Pentagram re-recorded this epic, the A-side of first ever 7", on their 1994 "Be Forwarned" album, and when I first heard that version I knew it had to be an old song, 'cause it had such an authentic heavy psych vibe to it. So it's great to finally hear the original (more or less, see below).
"20 Buck Spin" ('73) -- again, the original version of a classic rockin' Pentagram track, covered recently by Pennsylvania doomsters Pale Divine.
All the tracks sound pretty great production-wise (except for the relatively lo-fi live rehearsal recording of "Last Days Here"), putting the previous Pentagram '70s rarities collection "Human Hurricane" to shame. Of course, Bobby did re-master and clean up these tracks in 2001. He also took the opportunity to add some vocals and guitar to "Be Forwarned", for reasons probably known only to him. There's also a few other questionable edits or fades only a Pentagram collector would notice. But such modern-day meddling doesn't detract in any way from the might of the music on offer. It's great stuff, and simply amazing to hear it sounding so good. Pentagram fans have a high tolerance for poor sound (witness the pretty much unlistenable live bootleg LPs that have been released) but this time, you get to *hear* the music as well as own the disc! Recommended to Pentagram fans (obviously) and ANYONE who likes good heavy '70s rock and roll!
It's a time of joy, and a time of doom. That's because in the space of just the past month or two we've gotten not one but now two awesome, unearthed releases of previously lost early '70s underground heaviness from a bunch of longhaired DC-area Blue Cheer fans who, if they'd only managed to get a record deal back then, might have gotten huge and now be known as the American Black Sabbath. Well they really are the American Black Sabbath anyway, but not as many people know it. We're talking about the legendary original lineup of Pentagram, and their even more obscure evil twin Bedemon.
Two lists back, we were freaking out over the long awaited release of that Bedemon album, upon which sometime Pentagram guitarist Randy Palmer's home recorded hymns of doom finally saw the light of day. We're still freaking out about it (just got more in, it's relisted this list), but now our frenzy is doubled. Yes, that amazing release wasn't enough, now here's First Daze Here Too, the follow-up to First Daze Here (natch) the AQ fave 2002 release that compiled a bunch of rare '70s era Pentagram recordings that were otherwise unavailable except perhaps with sub-par sound to rabid tape-traders. First Daze Here astounded us, being one of the best '70s heavy rock albums that never was we'd ever heard. Great songs, restored to sound better than fans has ever heard 'em. Incredibly, Relapse has now put together a solid -second- collection of unreleased vintage Penta-tracks from '72-'76. So many classics in their original form: "When The Screams Come", "Wheel Of Fortune", "Virgin Death", "Target", "Nightmare Gown", "Much Too Young To Know", an alternate version of "Be Forwarned", and more -- even their heavy take on the Stones' "Under My Thumb"! Sound quality varies, from tracks recorded for professional demo purposes to lower-fi rehearsal tapes, but fans will dig it all... though at 22 tracks total we'll admit that it's not all entirely the equal of the 100 percent killer first First Daze Here. This is more like 90 percent, yet it's not like we'd have wanted them to leave anything off. And in fact, we know that there's still more in the Pentagram vaults, so maybe we can look foward to a third volume someday...
Relapse have pulled out all the stops with this one, which after all these years Pentagram definitely deserve. It's a double disc (though actually we think all of it could have fit on one stuffed to the gills 80 minute cd) handsomely packaged with a huge thick booklet full of prevously unseen, sepia-toned band photos and text by original Pentagram drummer and keeper of the flame Geof O'Keefe, including track-by-track commentary... there's also notes from other former members as well. Doom on!
Now on vinyl, with a bonus 7" (a replication of their debut single from 1972, under the moniker Macabre) of tracks that appear on the vinyl/cd as well, though. This double LP is super limited and we have just one copy!! So, we can't imagine that it won't have already been bought by some major fan of the band by the time you're done reading this description, but here goes anyway:
Maryland-based doom metallers Pentagram are on some kinda roll, following up their awesome album "Sub-Basement" (see the review on AQ-list 128) with this collection of stuff they recorded almost 30 years ago! Yep, they've been around that long, although only vocalist/mastermind Bobby Liebling still remains from the lineup documented here, the *original* '70s Pentagram. Thus the subtitle: The Vintage Collection. Twelve tracks circa 1972-1976, mostly rare singles and unreleased demo tracks. Some of these songs were re-recorded for later Pentagram albums, but many haven't been (yet). Some of my favorite tracks from this album include:
"Starlady" ('76) -- why they didn't get signed on the strength of this potential single (a hit if I've ever heard one) I don't know. Or why KISS didn't buy the tune for their own use, that's perhaps even more of a mystery! (KISS's management was checking Pentagram out at the time, but no record deal resulted...)
"Forever My Queen" ('73) -- powerful doom metal that shows them at their Sabbath-like best (although, hearing this collection, you'll realize that Pentagram were equally into, and the equals of, other heavy contemporaries like Captain Beyond, Dust, and Blue Cheer).
"Last Days Here" ('74) -- it's like some Stones or "Raw Power"-era Stooges ballad, with Bobby doing his best Iggy impression.
"Be Forwarned" ('72) -- Pentagram re-recorded this epic, the A-side of first ever 7", on their 1994 "Be Forwarned" album, and when I first heard that version I knew it had to be an old song, 'cause it had such an authentic heavy psych vibe to it. So it's great to finally hear the original (more or less, see below).
"20 Buck Spin" ('73) -- again, the original version of a classic rockin' Pentagram track, covered recently by Pennsylvania doomsters Pale Divine.
All the tracks sound pretty great production-wise (except for the relatively lo-fi live rehearsal recording of "Last Days Here"), putting the previous Pentagram '70s rarities collection "Human Hurricane" to shame. Of course, Bobby did re-master and clean up these tracks in 2001. He also took the opportunity to add some vocals and guitar to "Be Forwarned", for reasons probably known only to him. There's also a few other questionable edits or fades only a Pentagram collector would notice. But such modern-day meddling doesn't detract in any way from the might of the music on offer. It's great stuff, and simply amazing to hear it sounding so good. Pentagram fans have a high tolerance for poor sound (witness the pretty much unlistenable live bootleg LPs that have been released) but this time, you get to *hear* the music as well as own it! Recommended to Pentagram fans (obviously) and ANYONE who likes good heavy '70s rock and roll! One of Relapse's best releases, ever.
Last Rites? Well yeah, most folks, if they had to bet, probably woulda predicted that wizened Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling would have been dead by now, of drug abuse if not old age. Certainly not living out a long overdue rock star dream of critical adulation, sold out shows, flashy clothes, and marriage to a shockingly young, stylish wife (with whom he just had a baby)! So the title is ironic, since the dude seems to have an unexpected new lease on life. Seriously, who woulda thunk it, that in the year 2011 (which still sounds like a futuristic date to us in it now, right?), ol' Bobby Liebling and his band Pentagram, who began way back in 1971, would still be going strong, stronger than ever in some ways? Bobby's even become a hipster fashion icon of sorts, too, thanks to his wife's blogging...
Not only is there a new Pentagram album (this one) but Bobby's also been touring, something some of us never thought we'd see happen (and now that we have, will never forget). Pentagram made two appearances in SF in the past year or two, the first what we thought was once-in-a-lifetime chance to see this seminal doom metal band, which surpassed all expectations and RULED, and the second a bit of trainwreck, featuring a woefully unprepared lead guitarist and some godawful blues jams. Both times, though, Bobby was all showman, surprising everybody with his Mick Jagger moves, strutting his stuff in expensive boots and skinny designer jeans. The crotch-grabbing and pelvic thrusting was a bit disconcerting, though, considering that from the neck up, the man looks to be about 90 years old, an ancient, frizzy haired, goggle-eyed Muppet. But considering that so much of Pentagram's lyrics/imagery is horror-related, that kinda works for him (and for the groupies??). We don't even think he acted like that back in the day, we've seen live Pentagram footage from the '80s where he's just hanging on the microphone stand, not shimmying across the stage like it's the T.A.M.I. show, or rolling around on the ground a la Iggy Pop.
So, what about this new album? Does it fulfill the promise of the first "comeback" show we saw, or fall down like the second? Well, glad to report it's indeed a worthy addition to the Pentagram discography! Bobby sounds pretty darn good here, belting it out with ghoulish gusto. And he's teamed up for the first time in years with guitarist Victor Griffin, who was Pentagram's riff master general on such classic albums as Relentless (1985), Day Of Reckoning (1987), and Be Forewarned (1994). Griffin wasn't yet back on board for the shows we saw here in SF, so that makes Last Rites even more of an exciting event.
As usual with Pentagram's albums, this one's a mix of new material and old songs from the '70s that they never recorded for a proper album before. Thus true Penta-fans will, for instance, recognize "Walk In The Blue Light" from the First Daze Here demos compilation, and they even do a couple songs by Stone Bunny (Bobby's pre-Pentagram band circa 1970). All very cool to hear in these new versions. But newly written tracks form the bulk of the album, and (also as usual) they perfectly continue the vintage Pentagram sound, heavy, Sabbathy, psychedelic... how could they not with Liebling singing and Griffin on guitar? They also mix in some slightly more modern sounding dirgery on tracks like "8". The only song that we really feel a bit 'meh' about is "American Dream", on which, for some reason, Liebling relinquishes the mic to Griffin, who sorta sounds like his ex-Palace Of Skulls bandmate Wino. So it sticks out as a Place Of Skulls-ish number, especially considering that the rhythm section here is also from Place Of Skulls. And that song's overtly political lyrics are not very Pentagram-y as far as we're concerned. But otherwise, this is all pure Pentagram magic, better than 2004's Show 'Em How and almost up there with the last two Liebling did with ex-bandmate Joe Hasselvander, 1999's Review Your Choices and 2001's Sub-Basement. Penta-fans, and all classic doom lovers, rejoice!
These two crucial Pentagram discs were reissued earlier this year and we figured we'd better (at long last) get 'em reviewed for our site, what with the immense popularity of Swedish retro-doomsters Witchcraft (seriously, we sell a TON of Witchcraft records and that's how it should be) and also their friends/countrymen/doppelgangers Burning Saviours, both of whom utterly absolutely obviously *worship* Pentagram. Black Sabbath too of course, but it's Pentagram who provide them with more of a "cult" thrill and inspiration -- Witchcraft has recorded several Pentagram covers, and Burning Saviors are even named after a Pentagram song.
Now, Pentagram's been around for a long time (almost as long as Sabbath) in various incarnations, and we've previously reviewed both collections of '70s era Pentagam material as well as their several recent albums. But the two records that really put 'em on the metal map were these, which date from the mid 1980s. Originally self-titled, Relentless was the band's debut full-length from 1985 (yep, about a full 15 years after they first formed!!) and 1987's Day Of Reckoning was their second. Both are classics of doom metal, up there with the other great '80s post-Sabbath doom LPs by Trouble, Candlemass, and Saint Vitus.
On these albums vocalist Bobby Liebling is at the height of his powers (he sounds kinda like Ozzy, but something about his voice and delivery indicates that maybe he's got even more first-hand knowledge of the dark side, like he's one of the evil creatures that Ozzy would just warn you about!) and current Place Of Skulls guitarist Victor Griffin riffs with the best of 'em. Drummer Joe Hasselvander and bassist Martin Swaney round out this era's Pentagram line-up. Penta-classic tracks found here include "Death Row", "Sign Of The Wolf (Pentagram)" and "20 Buck Spin" (on Relentless) and "When The Screams Come", "Burning Savior" and "Madman" (on Day Of Reckoning), among others. Both discs are great, buy the pair!
Reissued in digipacks, cd booklets replete with lyrics, photos, and brand new jive-talkin' liner notes by the still-kickin' Bobby L.
'70s semi-survivors Pentagram, one of the only truly O.G. doom metal outfits still somewhat extant, their legend only growing in recent years, more people getting into them, hordes of Witchcraft fans prominent among 'em. When Review Your Choices first came out in 1999, Pentagram were not quite as "hip" a band as they are now. So lots of folks who missed out before should be happy it's been reissued, along with its 2001 follow-up Sub-Basement, together the one-two-punch of a (temporarily) revitalized, turn-of-the-century Pentagram. Both albums now come in styley digipacks, with 2 bonus tracks each.
Here's our original review of Review Your Choices: The long-awaited new album from doom metal legend Bobby Liebling and his cult band Pentagram, one of the most ancient bands in the genre (not much younger than their lords Black Sabbath themselves). Indeed, about half of the tunes on this album were originally recorded as demo tracks back in the mid-'70s when Gene Simmons and KISS took an interest in the Pentagram boys and were trying, unsuccessfully, to get them signed to their Casablanca label. Both the old stuff (recently rerecorded of course) and the newly-written stuff on here resound with an authentic '70s/Sabbath vibe (right down to Bobby's vocals, which sound like Ozzy at his most demented and troglodytic!). Imagine taking records by the heavy likes of Saint Vitus, Trouble, and Blue Cheer and mixing them in a bowl with several boxes of Count Chocula (the cereal paid homage to in the booklet photo spread!) and a quart of way-past-its-expiration-date milk. That's the curdled, dark and soggy breakfast of champions served up by Pentagram on Review Your Choices. What a way to start your day, or perhaps to end it all.
Not much more to say other than, a classic, full of Pentagram necessities old and new. The killer, slide-y main riff on "Megalania". The cheerful insanity of "Gilla?". The old, old utter classic "Forever My Queen".... all of it, really! The bonus tracks are alternative takes of album tracks, and their production or lack thereof is pretty raw, but then again the album proper has its own "gluey" production eccentricities... either way these tracks sound plenty doomy!
Now, since the release of these two albums, Pentagram fans have been exposed to more of the band's original '70s recordings via the two First Daze Here comps that Relapse put out. If you have those, you'll certainly recognize many of the songs on Review Your Choices and Sub-Basement. But not only are these recordings of 'em quite worthy in their own right (some of these versions being our preferred ones for sure), these albums also contain plenty of circa-Y2K penned Pentagram material that's equally worthy.
If any band is a survival story, this one is. Each new Pentagram release is a minor miracle, if only because the reports we hear about the health of Pentagram mainmain/vocalist Bobby Liebling are always rather dire, to say the least. Yet Bobby has managed to get it together again to do another album, once more plumbing the depths of Pentagram's back catalog to properly record a bunch of unreleased '70s era Penta-classics (a couple of which fans will know from the First Daze Here demos collection). He's also penned a few new ones, in collaboration with members of his new band. Yes, Show 'Em How marks a significant line-up change in the 'ram squad. Now composed of members of doom stalwarts Internal Void and Penance, Pentagram is a full band again!
Both the old and the new material is heavy as heck, living up to the Pentagram name for sure. It's always great to hear Bobby sing, even at his most bizarre sounding (especially at his most bizarre sounding!). You get a dose of both Bobby-as-Ozzy, and Bobby as-nasally-gurgling-guy...as well as Bobby-as-Bobby. Despite how decrepit he looks in the booklet photos, on a good day he can still belt it out. If there's such a thing as survival of the doomiest then maybe we can count on more Pentagram records to come...
There's been a lot of activity lately from these semi-legendary lords of doom, surprising coming from a band that's been around for about thirty years and has dwindled down to only two members! But (thankfully for all fans of dark, doomy heavy metal)
While we're eagerly looking forward to the upcoming documentary movie, Last Days Here, about the last ditch whowouldathunkit rebound of doom legend, Bobby Liebling's drug-damaged life and career, there's also now this new live dvd of footage from his band Pentagram's recent tour to demonstrate that, yes indeed, the seemingly ancient frontman Bobby L and the 'Ram gang are BACK, miraculously in fine form, a bug-eyed Bobby strutting like the glammed-up, gramped-out Ozzy/Iggy hybid he (somewhat grotesquely, but amazingly) is. Featuring classic Pentagram trax like "Day Of Reckoning", "20 Buck Spin", "Sign Of The Wolf", "Relentless", "Forever My Queen", and the title track, amongst others. This was shot at the 2010 Maryland Deathfest, and crucially, features the return of guitarist Victor Griffin, the riffmaster on Pentagram's first 3 official albums, from which these songs are drawn. Also, on bass, Greg Turley (Place Of Skulls) and on drums, Gary Isom (Spirit Caravan). Nothing here by the way from the subsequently recorded Last Rites album that Metal Blade released in 2011, an excellent effort also featuring Griffin.
This is really not new at all, and we had been holding out for the cd import version for ages, but then realized we still had never gotten it in, and thus had never listed this record at all, even though we've had a stack of the Southern Lord vinyl edition sitting here all this time, and it is pretty awesome, so we just decided to list it anyway, import compact disc be damned, so here it is, better late than never, the debut from Pentemple, which for those of you who have somehow missed out on this, is essentially a SUNNO))) record, as it features the core duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, frequent SUNNO))) collaborators Oren Ambarchi and Attila Csihar, with the addition of the mysterious Sin Nanna of mighty one man black metal horde Striborg!
Needless to say, SUNNO))) fans will dig the shit out of this, two long 20+ minute tracks, each thick and slow and heavy and drone-y, the guitars not riffing so much as crawling like some black fog, and some seriously fucked up vox, feral mewling gives way to distant moaning, strange chanting tangled up with hellish shrieks and guttural growls, all draped over a constantly shifting blackened doomscape, it takes nearly seven minutes for the drums to kick in, but when they do, it changes the whole feel of the record, chaotic, abstract, very free, suddenly it sounds like free jazz SUNNO))), or SUNNO))) covering Coltrane or Ayler or something, whatever it is, it's really rad, a buzzing free form doom jazz that sprawls and oozes, splatter and hums, the two pieces are part of a bigger whole, by the second movement, it's all about the drums, now locked into a lurching stuttery rhythm, and the vocals, growing in intensity, the whole sound thickening and expanding, until the drums peter out, leaving 6 or 6 minutes of super thick, layered gristled and corrosive buzz, that manages to be super heavy but super hypnotic and dreamy at the same time before finishing off with a little melodic tangle at the end, still wreathed in hazy heaviness and a thick cloud of crumbling fuzz.
Killer packaging too, with the front cover image of the crowned goat hoof black on black and embossed so you can feel the grimness...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Killer ep from this one man US funeral avant doom outfit. The sound here veers wildly from tripped out doom-ed psychedelic experiments to moody post rocky instrumentalism to bizarre drum machine flecked drone plod, and yeah, finally to some buzz drenched bizarre doom. And bizarre it is. Of the four tracks here, only one is actually doom metal all the way through, and even then, it's fractured and fucked up and freaky as all get out. Makes sense that this was released on the same label that gave us a recent Gnaw Their Tongues release, as PiM are definitely another obtuse doom metal variant, and we LOVE it.
The opening track begins with some classical guitar, draped over distant cacophonies, and fluttery flute, glitched out electronic buzz, clouds of swirling effects, strange detuned melodies, thick slabs of corrosive buzz, anguished wails, before the second track kicks in and the band pound out a slow motion doom crawl, the distortion brittle and crumbling, the vocals in the red and hyper distorted, in fact, all the sounds are super blown out, and then near the end, some weird way up in the mix acoustic guitars drift in, as the doom pounds on beneath. Then comes a brief instrumental interlude, all gentle piano, simple guitar strum, and some obtuse, slightly out of tune slow motion leads, until the doom drops, and the song lurches woozily toward the final track, a warped dronescape, all whirring electronic low end, distorted voices transmitted beneath some rubbery bass, so detuned you can hear the strings rattling against the frets, and then out of nowhere, some super primitive drum machine surfaces, its stilted machinelike skitter, draped over the throbbing buzzing electronics below, so bizarre, and so brilliant.
We tried to order a bunch of these, but only managed to get a handful, limited to 100 copies, packaged in cool mini dvd sleeves, with full color artwork, each one hand numbered, last copies ever.
Latest blast of twisted druggy slo-mo heaviness from this Oakland outsider doomlord, whose sound seems to have reached some sort of bizarre apex with Confessions, the first song alone tells the tale, plonked funeral piano, all manner of sampled voices, the vocals a demonic shriek, the riffs blackened and buzzy, what sounds like crickets, beneath spidery minor key melodies, it's haunting and harrowing, almost like a more 'musical' Gnaw Their Tongues, the same sort of sprawling cinematic vibe, the sound weirdly industrial too, an ominous creep, that in places reminds us of Wolf Eyes.
And the whole record pretty much follow suit, like some twisted soundtrack, the sound a bleak, miserable drift through various horrifying tableaus, the voices croon, weep, howl, the piano seems to underpin it all, some mysterious bit of miserable melodicism, underpinning the grinding, buzzing blackness above, the sounds coalescing into riffs here and there, laced with spidery acoustic guitars, occasionally splintering into metallic shards, clattery and cacophony, blown out and blackened, all the while, strangely melodic, utterly haunting, definitely noisy, but muted and muddy, as if these sonic horrors were being viewed through a dirty blood smeared window, in a dilapidated old house, or through a crack in the wall of an old musty cellar. And it's almost as if all of these sounds, and all of this music, was fighting some unseen black force, an invisible hand reaching from the beyond, the music in a constant state of struggle, of anguish, the sound of a tortured soul, a sonic glimpse into the blackness that lurks beneath the everyday, a sound desperately clawing its way heavenward, while some grim force forever drags it right back down into the depths�
WAY recommended for fans of Gnaw Their Tongues, Bunkur, Celestiial, HQO, Loss, Monument Of Urns and other purveyors of bizarre bleak blackness.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!
Upon first glancing at The Undead Shall Rise, we just assumed it was, ya know, another metal record. That all changed within the first two seconds or so, and before long we realized we were being confronted by one of the most bizarre metal records we've heard in some time, and nothing could really prepare us for the utter weirdness pouring out of this record's filthy grooves, so weird in fact, that we weren't even sure what speed the record was supposed to be played at (it's 33, we decided). Closer inspection revealed that this is, in fact, a concept record about... ZOMBIES!!! YES!!! Conveniently separated into two movements, Before (Side A) and After (Side B, duh), the album plays out like a nightmarish piece of cinematic horror. Filthy, molten guitars, subsonic doom bass, and the kind of vocals that make small children cower in absolute terror weave a story of the post-Zombie apocalypse, while, not surprisingly given the theme, Italian-inspired synths swirl about like an inescapable disease ready to take you straight to hell. The intense demon croaks (or zombie croaks, more appropriately) are just about as uncomfortable and vile as you could ever hope for, and the heaps of creepy ambience and the overall spaciousness of the recording help to add a truly disconcerting vibe. While much of the record plays out as an abject, lumbering doomscape, there are other moments that almost bring to mind Neil Young's soundtrack to Dead Man. Obviously for a record about zombies to succeed, it needs to recall a certain loneliness and sense of despair - check. The record makes you feel like you have lost all sense of control as the zombies fuck shit up and make existence generally unpleasant. So, if that's your idea of a good time, you may have just found your favorite new record.
Limited to an insane 250 units, each copy of The Undead Shall Rise also comes with a hand scrawled note covered in movie blood, conveying the narrator's last moments before everything goes to shit.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Pretty much as soon as we heard this, we knew it was going to be Record Of The Week, and not just black metal record of the week. In the past, Peste Noire seems to have always been unfairly categorized as an Amesoeurs / Alcest sideproject (we plead guilty of that as well) due not only to the presence of Neige, the mastermind behind both Amesoeurs and Alcest, but the seemingly shared membership between all three bands, and while Neige did no doubt contribute much to Peste Noire's sound, it seems Peste Noire was much more the brainchild of only remaining original member, Famine, whose other main musical outlet is the almost equally twisted Valfunde, and as if to prove the validity of the above claim, has assembled an almost entirely new lineup (although Audrey from Amesoeurs contributes some vocals) and cobbled together the most damaged, most fucked up, most gloriously bizarre Peste Noire record yet. Which if you've heard any of the other records is definitely saying something!
The record is weirdly arranged, five proper songs, with 2 minute or shorter song fragments and interludes, some that play like proper songs themselves, only truncated, others that act as intros or just totally tweaked unhinged sound experiments, but somehow, songs and non-songs alike hold together beautifully, and bafflingly, the band having created some sort of crusty, blackened, melancholy, depressive French folk flecked classic metal.
The intro begins with sizzling shimmering cymbals, simple percussion, eventually joined by beautiful ethereal female vocals, as well as some raspy blackened not-really-harmony vocals, then the riff comes in, and damn if it isn't a riff from Star Wars, but super distorted and blown out, pounding, crusty, epic and majestic, the rasped vocals over a haunting military sounding speech. And then straight into the first 'proper' track, which begins as some sort of sea shanty like French folk song, but with the addition of some hellish black vokills, you can almost imagine a table full of French soldiers, and one dripping slimy otherworldy beast, all singing along, glasses raised to the sky. Then in comes a very classic sounding metal riff, but the guitars muted and woozy, the tempo lurching and seasick, all manner of different vocals, crooning, shrieking, howling, then an awesomely weird squiggly bit of low end, super tripped out and psychedelic but somehow subtle and buried in the mix. Guitars soar and sing and jangle, wrapped around equally dramatic vocals, a total French folk crust anthem.
The follow up track begins all dark acoustic guitars and birdsong, martial percussion, eventually exploding into a super buzzy distorted march, pounding away, midtemp and melancholy, before returning to a super gorgeous, hauntingly depressive gothic crust almost-ballad, blackened and distorted, but also post rocky and strangely emotional and moving.
The 'interludes' include some warped and warbly haunted house piano, doused in hiss and crackle, ghostly female vocals drifting amidst the warm whir, sinister laughter, squalls of maniacal shrieks, dueling male / female vocals, almost operatic, soon joined again by that monstrous blackened croak, warm woozy calliopes, soundtracky keyboards and the sound of storms, tons of reverb and delay, tape hiss and softly crumbling distortion, all creating perfect segues between loping depressive midtempo blackened post metal lurch, super blown out in the red almost D-beat pounding buzz, those vocals transforming from hellish howl to deep moan, there's even some wheezing harmonica, all leading up to the final track, "Soleils Couchants", which begins with birdsong again, and an awesomely angular and beautifully twisted guitar part, paired up with a gorgeous minor key harmony, before slipping into a moody downtuned creep, complete with weird frog like vocals, and a looped bit of beeps and chirps, total post-doom weirdness, literally like nothing you've ever heard, it sounds a little like that first part of the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride at Disneyland, where you're just floating through the dark bayou, lit only but slivers of moonlight and the flickering light of fireflies, it's like a soundtrack to that, swampy and doomy and mysterious, until the band launches into a strangely melodic black doom midtempo jam, the guitars minor key, multiple vocals merging into raspy otherworldly harmonies, before breaking down into a long stretch of just guitars and vocals, the guitars twisted and spidery but still melodic, the voices tortured but super passionate, yet again infusing the fucked up twisted blackness with pathos and emotion, keeping it from being weird for weird's sake, this is something else entirely. What sounds like a child's voice joins in, twisted around that hellish vokill, all draped over a gorgeously catchy riff, reminding us a bit of Katatonia or Lifelover, before spiraling and sprawling into a seriously melodic blackened post rock jam, and then finally returning to the doomy lurch that began the song some seven minutes earlier.
Peste Noire have (again) managed the seemingly impossible, creating a record both totally twisted and damaged, but also lovely and moving and melodic, a record that ranks up there in our pantheon of most bizarre and fucked up black metal records ever, while somehow appealing to even the not so metal inclined, a confusional mix of black and crust and pop and folk, all twisted and tangled up and forced through Peste Noire's cracked musical sensibilities, the result, a record fucked up and fantastical, and this review not withstanding, almost impossible to describe.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We have been totally obsessed with French black metallers Amesoeurs, from the second we first heard their debut ep (and only proper release), Ruines Humaines, absolutely one of our favorite black metal records ever, a disc of glistening, My Bloody Valentine like buzz rife with strangely melodic indie rock jangle and occasional female vocals, all wrapped in sonic spikes and buzzing guitars and blasting beats, a bliss pop disc in black metal clothing if there ever was one. In reviewing that disc we mentioned that there were various other related bands we were feverishly trying to track down, one was the even less metal, and more blissed out Alcest (whose debut cd is out of print, but whose brand new full length should be out soon) and the super demented, slightly more typically black metal Peste Noire. Now, when we say "slightly more typically black metal", it's all relative, by any other standards, and compared to any other BM bands, Peste Noire is anything but typical, but compared to the relative poppiness of Alcest and Amesoeurs, this stuff is as black as it gets.
We had been trying to track down their debut for ages, but since it took so long, a brand new full length dropped in the meantime, this disc right here, so we figured we oughta start with this and work our way back. We do have the first record in stock, and it's just as amazing and fucked up and freaked out and absolutely recommended as essential, so if you want this one, odds are you're gonna need that one too (so just ask), but just so you know what you're getting into, let's investigate the bizarre soundworld of France's Peste Noire....
The problem is, it's really hard to describe just what the heck Peste Noire sounds like. They are definitely black metal, but the arrangements are so bizarre, and often not very black, everything is fuzzy and off kilter and distorted, dizzying and haunting and creepy, stumbling and whatthefuck as often as heavy or buzzing.
Take the opening track, some sort of crumbling distorted soundscape, lots of fuzz and hiss, plenty of reverb and druggy murk, industrial percussion and washed out ambience, some super beautiful clean guitar, that fragments into fractured weirdness over which harsh blackened vocals howl and shriek, the guitars eventually growing more and more distorted and FX drenched, while all around swirl strange sounds and demonic voices. But then the second track kicks in and things settle down for the most part. A relentless black buzz, but not typical in any way, a sort of old school thrash, but all twisted and tangled, the guitars are all over the place, the background is a constant wash of fuzzy roar, while up front, the main riff is sharp and angular. The vocals are a hateful hissy howl, the drums a stumbling blast, but amidst all this chaos are bits of perfect poppiness, killer melodies, amazing (and unlikely grooves), super hooky and catchy, but in a way that seems impossible. Within three minutes, Peste Noire go from buzzy blast, to dreamy melodic drift to midtempo groove to lumbering doom, but always imbued with a strange pop sensibility and always wrapped in all manner of fucked up sounds and damaged production.
Some bands are obviously 'fucked', the drums a crumbling mess, the recording quality ultra shitty, the mix all over the map with LOUD drums or super inaudible guitars, we love that stuff, but Peste Noire is fucked in a completely different way, listening to this, you can tell these guys are amazing musicians, and have an absolutely solid idea of what they're trying to do, It's just that what they're trying to do would never occur to anyone in their right mind, Which is exactly what makes their music so compelling and so totally mind blowingly bizarre.
As with all music, metal in particular, it's all about the riffs, and thus the guitars, and the guitars here are fucking amazing, sometimes spun into crystalline melodies, delicate and sparkling, other times super dense downtuned buzz, occasionally weird and angular and super mathy, the quality of the guitar sound too is ridiculously varied, from clean and clear, to muddy and murky, often at the same time, and always in the same song. At some points it almost sounds like these guys were mad musical alchemists who took two different records and crammed them together creating some unholy sonic beast, poppy and catchy, but bleak and brutal and demented, an unnatural blackened buzzing freakshow of sound, but always as beautiful as it is fucked up.
The whole record is peppered with non musical weirdness too. The extended intro of "Maleicon", an extended rant in French, growled and spat out over a backdrop of moans and drones, or the brief "Extrait Radiophonique", which sounds like a crackly record of maniacal screams, tolling bells, and all sorts of slamming and banging, but somehow even those parts all essential to the demented and damaged vision that is FolkFuck Folie.
Definitely another contender for black metal record of the year!!
Includes a bonus track, an older track from a split with Finnish black metallers Horna (not out yet at the time of this list), which is way more black than the rest of the record, but is just as weird and amazing. Packaged with a huge booklet of lyrics, photos, liner notes, drawings and plenty of other strangeness.
A while back, it seemed like everyone, ourselves included, was totally obsessed with a French black metaller called Neige. Doesn't ring a bell? How about his shoegazey post-black metal outfit Alcest? Or his fuzzy black metal gone bliss pop combo Amesoeurs? His fracutured new wave black metal combo Valfunde? Or even his more 'traditional' black metal outfit Peste Noire? Yep, you got it now.
Been a while since we've heard from Neige, since then, he joined another 'dark metal' band, and he's also joined long time aQ faves Forgotten Woods. While that's pretty exciting, and we're always up for hearing more of what Neige has to offer. We also sort of wish he'd just cut down on the various side projects, so we wouldn't have to wait nearly as long for a new Amesoeurs, Alcest or Peste Noire record.
But while we wait patiently, we can now revisit the first Peste Noire full length, with the unwieldy title La Sanie Des Siecles - Panegyrique De La Degenerescence, finally reissued! We've been dying to list this, but until now we haven't been able to get enough. Above we call Peste Noire Neige's more traditional black metal group, but that designation is really relative, as the music of Peste Noire, while being black and buzzy and heavy and grim, is also totally tweaked, fractured and fucked up, rife with all manner of whatthefuck, from gorgeous sweeping melodies, to strange samples, so completely confusional arrangements, to bits of liturgical music mixed into the buzz, to some serious pop tendencies. But somehow it all works. That is if by works, you mean, constitutes one of the most awesomely fucked up lo-fi melodic outsider black metal records ever!! We raved about the latest Peste Noire a while back, the awesomely titled FolkFuck Folie, and everything we loved about that record (also just reissued) is present here as well, but if anything, all of those things are just, well, MORE. More fucked up, more freaked out, more melodic, more lo-fi.
Just take the opener, "Nous Sommes Fanes", begins with some record crackle, before the band lurches into a weird drunken waltz, sounding more like the Reeks And The Wrecks than any black metal. The guitars and drums swing woozily, the drums and cymbals super blown out, over the top, an ultra distorted guitar spins a web of damaged leads, before slipping into a strange moody post rocky drift, replete with big boomy reverb drenched chords. But then the second track kicks in, and we're back in more recognizable black metal territory, and even though it's buzzy and black, it is incredibly melodic, poppy almost, the melodies soaring and epic, the track is peppered with blasts of blasting grimness for sure, a bit of a crusty punk vibe all tangled up with the buzzing blackness, but even when the song is blasting blackly, close listening reveals all manner of melodic weirdness going on beneath the surface, and it doesn't stay below the surface for long, as the song shifts into loping minor key almost-dirge, before finish up how it started, with that strangely emotional super melodic soaring blackened buzz.
And so it goes, the band lurching from midtempo lope to roaring furious blast, to almost doomy plod, all strangely muddy and murky, the various parts twisted and gnarled into something totally unique. The guitars are incredibly varied, going from Ved Buens Ende like Slint-worship, to filthy Darkthrone-d crunch, to gorgeous almost folky finger picking, some serious moments of Opeth-y flutter peppered amidst the crusty blackness.
The second to last track "Dueil Angoisseus (Christine De Pisan, 1362-1431)" is all gorgeously bleak and buzzy, midtempo and melancholy, but then draped over the top is super clean, classical guitar, way up in the mix, that gives the track the strangest vibe, makes it sound strangely pretty. Finally, the disc finishes off with "Des Medecins Malades Et Des Saints Sequestres", which begins with a tangle of effects drenched hammer-ons, unfurling a haunting, off kilter melody, the drums a distant lo-fi pound, when the song kicks in, it's almost eighties metal, albeit filtered through a grim French black metal lens, but the riffing, so classic, and so cool sounding when cloaked in a filthy production and that demonic rasp. But this song too, shifts into some strange other space, and is suddenly
infused with what sounds like a wall of whirring organs, those hammer-ons return, and the song is some strange minor key doom pop epic, that flits back and forth between that eighties riffing, super distorted, and that sprawling metallic poppiness, before transforming into a blaze of super effected metallic chug, finishing off with a strange super distorted almost-jig (!), the drums huge and pounding, while the guitar plucks out a strange distorted melody, much like the opening track.
Needless to say (funny how we always say that after SAYing it for several thousand words), this is one of our favorite black metal records ever. Fucked up, but black and heavy, poppy and hook filled, but still grim and buzzy, if you loved FolkFuck Folie, you'll love this, if you dig Amesoeurs and Alcest but want to hear that sound dipped in filth and painted black, well then this will definitely do the trick. If this was brand new and had just come out, it would be, without a doubt, one of our records of the year (not just black metal either), but as it is, this is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL AND RECOMMENDED!
It seems like every time there's a new Peste Noire record we make it Record Of The Week. Which only seems strange until you actually hear it. And hear how fucked up and totally bafflingly brilliant it is. With every record Peste Noire seem to move further and further away from the grim black metal that birthed them, but to be fair, no one in Peste Noire has spent much time playing what anyone might consider 'typical' black metal, especially mainman Famine, now rechristened La Sale Famine De Valfunde, who used to play in Alcest. Though we should note he took extreme umbrage when we suggested that Alcest / Ameseours mainman Neige had anything to do with the music of Peste Noire, which is also surprising considering that one member of Alcest and one member of Ameseours are also members of Peste Noire and we assume do contribute musically. But really, none of that matters as much as the very very strange sounds these folks create, and the fact that metalheads still dig it. In fact, we're constantly perplexed by certain bands that for no good reason remain beloved to even the truest grimmest metalheads. To be fair, Peste Noire, for all their twisted sonic proclivities, are still masterful black metallers, it's just that those blasts of brilliant black metal are often separated by strange accordion driven French folk music or some twisted bit of confusional psychedelia. Which brings us to L'Ordure A L'Etat Pur, the latest, and yes, perhaps greatest from these French misanthropes. And as always, it only takes the first track, a shot across the bow, to reveal their true intentions, as twisted and unlikely as they may be.
The sound of wind and rain, of crashing surf, distant foghorns, underpinning some reverbed clean guitar, riffs ringing out over these sounds of the sea, a second guitar adds some melody, and there seems to be a wolf howling, or a voice imitating a wolf, there are tolling bells too, and the beginning of what sounds like it could be a jig, or some sort of gypsy folk, maniacal rambling vocals surface, the guitars growing more distorted, the sound tense and dramatic and growing moreso, before no not launching into furious black buzz, but instead some sort of shuffling post rocky groove, the vocals unhinged and maniacal, wrapped around a chugging riff, and some simple propulsive drumming, not so much metal as rock, and then the sound does erupt into a kind of blackness, soaring and droney but before full blackness is achieved, it returns to that sort of sea shanty that opened the proceedings, and the howling wolf returns. Some double kick drumming ups the ante, and finally, the song lurches into more metal territory, but again, more sort of blackened rock, like Khold than Darkthrone, with some seriously catchy riffs, and then, HORNS, moaning ominously, adding some cool texture, and giving the song a sort of "Tusk" vibe, until the metal peels away completely, leaving just horns and acoustic guitar, a sort of oompa oompa polka, with a trombone playing the main melody. Oh yeah, and some accordion. We're in full on French street music territory now, and then the metal guitars swoop back in, as do the vokills, but now they're playing a killer metallized version of that polka, with some strange trilled vocal harmonies and some weird droned out guitars, which suddenly stop, leaving just the sounds of what sounds like sword fighting, and the song shifts gears again, bursting into an almost ska sounding punkish sprawl, only to moments later shift again into a gnarled bit of noise rock, and it's right back into the oompa oompa metalized ska, the vocals transforming into a sort of goregrind gurgle, the music stopping briefly to reveal the sounds of a barnyard, all chickens and roosters, then when the music kicks back in, the vocals simulate the sounds of chickens, Famine singing variations of "Ba-kaaaw", before finishing off in a killer mathy tangle of dynamic chug and pound.
And that's just the first song. And fear not, we won't go through every song here part by part, although we could, and reading this without listening would make this new Peste Noire sound like thee most bizarre record EVER, and heck, maybe it is, but impossibly, it also sort of works, in a dizzying, whatthefuck sort of way.
The rest of the record does offer more surprises, as well as some more traditional black metal, but even at its most buzzy and blasty, the sound will splinter into some strange super distorted can-can, guitars will suddenly unfurl wild squiggles of high end, the sound suddenly devolving into a sort of effects heavy progged out swirl that then transforms into a pounding almost industrial crunch, wreathed in more moaning horns, or a fight will seem to break out in the middle of the song, shattering glass, sirens, all while the song continues to chug and churn, the sound slipping easily from dark, gnarled crusty pound to woozy meandery clean guitar post rock and then to glistening soaring sonic majesty, only to have a chorus of weirdly chanted vocals surface and totally change the vibe to more of a stein hoisting sing along. The blasting buzz here tends less toward the grim blur of classic black metal and more toward a sort of goofy gallop, but one that suits the band more than the other ever would, and amidst all this weirdness, PN can whip out a stretch of impossible beauty or extreme blackened bliss, the sort of parts you want to go on forever, but in the ADD world of Peste Noire, those moments are fleeting, and will soon be subsumed by some new, stranger sound. Elements of power metal abound, but like all of the other musics bastardized here, it becomes just another twisted / fractured facet of Peste Noire's bizarre musical universe. All culminating in the beautifully mournful slow core doom of closer "La Condi Hu", a creeping lament, heavy and distorted, but darkly melodic and melancholy, laced with clean hushed vocal harmonies, but then you couldn't have expected that to be all, in swoop some sad sad strings, some chugging guitars, building to a minor key bit of blackened post metal, and unlike the rest of the record, nothing gets super weird, the band remain heavy, the music tense and dramatic and emotional, continuing to build, the sound intense and moving, laced with mysterious proggy sections, cool female vocal harmonies, dense intricate drumming, there's even a cool wild sort-of-drum solo, with the drums spitting our an avalanche of beats, beneath spoken female vox, which leads right into a super gorgeous stretch of minor key, slithery bass driven heaviness, that any band would kill for, but these guys leave for last, letting the sound wind down, and displaying without a doubt, that there is some sort of method to Peste Noire's extreme and utter musical madness.
Ever since we listed the Amesoeurs record a while back (and actually even before) we've been trying to track down records by two related bands, the equally blissed out black bliss combo Alcest, and the much more primitive and black Peste Noire. While we've been unable to track down either cd, we did manage to get a bunch of copies of this brand new Peste Noire lp, one side featuring 4 songs from a rehearsal, the actual versions of which will be on the upcoming full length, while the B-side is a sidelong black buzz epic recorded a couple years ago.
Nothing about Amesoeurs will prepare you for Peste Noire. There is a similar melodic sensibility, but beyond that, it's a whole different beast. The four new tracks are killers, and for rehearsal tracks sound amazing, so much so that most bands would be pretty happy with the versions here, loud and heavy and recorded super hot. The forthcoming full length on which these songs will appear is to be titled Folkfuck Folie just for a brief glimpse into the twisted minds behind the music. Things begin with a weirdly majestic and martial intro, with complex drums and strange arrangements, almost like some medieval carnival music, before bursting into full on furious blackness, buzzy and relentless, but even in the blasting things are slightly off kilter, damaged and demented sounding, and very very melodic, mathy and complex, super harsh vocals over the top but they can hardly disguise how utterly hooky these songs are. In fact, after hearing Amesoeurs and Peste Noire and Alcest, it seems to be these guys' M.O., write killer pop songs, amazing hooks, unforgettable melodies, then try to disguise them as best they can as buzzing black metal. It never works completely, which is why this stuff is so remarkable. Some of the songs have tons of syncopated chug, giving the songs an almost proggy vibe, almost like some weird mix of Emperor and Voivod. Blooping bass, cascading sheets of guitar and gorgeous minor key melodies. Can't wait for the new record. If these are only sketches, we can hardly fathom how freaked out and amazing the actual songs are gonna be.
The B-side is an older recording and is much more rough and lo-fi, raw and blown out. Lots of reverb and effects, but still rife with plenty of surprising melodic breakdowns, impossible catchy and lovely for something this black and raw. It gets even weirder near the end, with a long stretch of scratchy record crackle and monklike chants, and then a super pretty laid back acoustic outro. So amazing. Everything these guys touch turns to black gold!
Packaged in a super striking black and white sleeve, band photos and liner notes on the back, including the legend 'Hooligan Black Metal' that seems to make almost no sense when paired with the music inside...
Vinyl only, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Okay black metal freeks and fanatics. We've all been going apeshit for everything and anything from the super tangled and inbred French micro-scene that spawned Alcest, Amesoeurs, Mortifera, Valfunde and of course Peste Noire, and we had been trying to track down enough of these double cassettes to finally list, and obviously we did, but odds are these will FLY out of here, and as we're not sure how limited these actually are, and how long it will take to get more, if indeed we can, please be prepared to maybe be disappointed, or very patient as we try to get more.
We reviewed Peste Noire's second full length FolkFuck Folie a while back, and the Lorraine rehearsal lp, both were amazing, stumbling chaotic, filthy fucked up blackness, and these two tapes are no different. If anything, they're more raw, and more gritty and blown out. Lo-fi and ultrablack. The first track is so fast it almost sounds like it was recorded at the wrong speed. But much like the records proper, the sound lurches from furious black blasts to stumbling midtempo buzz, to plodding almost-doom, but even on these early ultra lo-fi recordings, the mood and vibe is already in place, haunting and creepy, demented and freaked out, borderline psychedelic at times. Noisy as fuck, crumbling and super distorted, everything painted a washed out black, grime-y but at times weirdly melodic and blissy.
Collects pretty much all of Peste Noire's recordings outside of their 2 proper cds and the rehearsal lp (including their problematically titled 2001Aryan Supremecy demo, which seems out of character since according to Encyclopedia Metallum, their lyrical focus is on "Aesthetics of Evil, Medieval Demons and Decadent Poetry") including a couple unreleased bonus tracks. But probably, unless you're a crazy obsessed tape trader, you haven't heard any of this stuff anyway.
Needless to say, WAY recommended, and again, probably super limited, so act fast.
Cool packaging too, two cassettes, laid side by side in a small printed black cardboard box, with two inserts, old demo covers on one side, liner notes on the other.
