We definitely weren't expecting this from the Zeal label, who in the past have brought us the dark country of Timesbold, the folky pop of Isbells, and of course multiple records from apocalyptic folk one man band Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat. While we were expecting something dark, maybe folky, what we got from these Belgians was a wild slab of sludgey, mathy, experimental noise rock, that KILLS. They had us by the first track, which sorta sounds like Refused's "New Noise" recorded onto a shitty old cassette tape, and played back at 16rpm, the riff is similar, and the shrieked vocals, not to mention the mathy main riff, but here it's all dirgey, and detuned, a lumbering noise rock doomsludge churn, laced with all sorts of weird sounds and effects that give it a sort of avant element. And that Refused comparison definitely surfaces throughout, the band perfectly capable of whipping up that sort of frenzied post punk, but more often than not, choosing to twist it all up into something much more fucked and confusional.
It's a relentless barrage of twisted noisiness, from the driving, distorted groove of "Louis" (all the songs bear people's proper names), with its tense synths, and jumbled, progged out breakdowns, to the drum heavy psychedelic bombast of "Judith", which flits from Melvins-like downtuned heaviness, to little melodic flutters and back again. "Henri" is a killer too, all crumbling distortion, and fierce heavy crunch, not to mention some rad progged out melodies, super swaggery and intense, but then part way through the song collapses into a series of warped audio experiments, rife with sound effects and weird voices, sounding a bit like classic Butthole Surfers, fused to something much more rocking and heavy. "Eva" also fuses tribal drumming and warbly synths to grinding mathed out noise rock and lumbering downtuned doomsludge weirdness. The vocals are shrieky and unhinged one second, murky and processed and garbled the next, occasionally bellowed monstrously, sometimes mewled disturbingly. The songs are dense with multiple parts, ever shifting sounds, the mood consistently dark, but the vibe in constant flux, harrowingly heavy one second, droned out and hauntingly hushed the next, with most tracks a wild schizophrenic sonic chaos, all held together by some warped ineffable logic, known only to the band, which makes for some unnerving, and fantastically unsettling listening. Check out the closer, which sounds like some long lost Tool track slowed way down, and transformed into some sort of psychotic psychedelic drone ballad, that eventually erupts into a final stretch of whatthefuck heaviness.
Holy shit is this amazing. Our new favorite warped, weirdo, heavy rock / noise rock / outsider metal jam for sure!
Disturbing, verrrrry disturbing.
You might expect that something from Circle and Pharoah Overlord members going under the names Krypt (Jussi) and Rudimentor (Janne) might be sorta metallic (especially after that Krypt Axeripper ep reviewed last list). This silver-on-black screenprinted package certainly looks dark and evil: the illegible logo, the band photo (long hair, spiked armbands), the song titles -- there's just two of them, "Transylvanian Error" (17:45) and "Ultimate Sword" (16.34). And the album title is a nod to Jussi's favorite '80s "metal" act, Jesters Of Destiny.
But we also know to expect the unexpected from our Finnish friends. So while this IS dark and evil, there's not a metal riff in sight. Rather, this duo utilize percussion, voice and effects to create a psychologically sick, rhythmically fucked drone-zone. The two long tracks are black, bottomless abysses both, caverns echoing with monstrous processed vokills and clattering pipe-fights, awash in a dense, drifting electronic miasma.
The label press info references Z'ev (the percussion), Faust (the weirdness), Wolf Eyes (the noise), Darkthrone (the evil) and we hear all that for sure. We'd further compare Rakhim's improvised blackness to black metal experimentalists (and AQ ROTWer's) Abruptum, with some of the screaming sounding like the insane-asylum inmates from a Staalagh record! Maybe like Staalagh on a broken boombox, being played the the corner of a room where spaced-out Circle side project Dr. Kettu are jamming with the Black Boned Angel.
Actually, last year we reviewed an expensive Qbico import LP by Rakhim (weirdly enough, we still have a few copies, if you act fast...) and ever since experiencing the mesmerizing psychedelic murkiness of that debut we've been wanting to hear more.
Disturbing, yes. But we like being disturbed like this!!
This hitherto unknown Russian black metal band has quickly gained some converts here at Aquarius with this disc. Of course, we're suckers for folky, flute-heavy pagan forest metal! You might laugh at the jig-dancing potential of this disc, and sure, we like it
The Swedish contingent of the New Wave Of Old School Heavy Metal sure is picking up steam, and being picked up by the Metal Blade label, who've recently signed such slayin' Swedes as In Solitude, Portrait, Ghost, and now RAM. As you may recall, we were big fans of RAM's previous, import-only album, Lightbringer, from 2009, and thus eagerly anticipated this, their domestic Metal Blade debut. And we were NOT disappointed.
The album starts off with its title track, a pensively pretty, eerily plodding synth-laced instrumental that proves RAM are not bound to any formulaic "true metal" aesthetic limitations, 'cause here they really sound a lot like, say, Zombi!!
That unusual intro tune past, the album launches into galloping metal mode proper with "Comes From The Mouth Beyond", a surefire stormer that will get heads banging and fists waving within seconds, while also over the course of its 6+ minutes demonstrating that RAM have depth and sophistication and melodic chops that belie this disc's simple, generic title of Death.
RAM's vocalist/mastermind/graphic artist Oscar Carlquist is is capable of shrieking into the stratosphere (reminding us of the dude from Metal Church back in the day), as well as singing in a lower range with more restraint though no less passion. He's got a raspy edge to his voice that also brings to mind the singer from power metal's finest, Blind Guardian. Meanwhile, his band kicks out the catchy riffs and glorious guitar harmonies with plenty of power... damn they're good. This is now their third full-length album, and they're clearly at the top of their game.
RAM have the rare knack among bands in their retro-minded genre of coming across as fresh and vital while simultaneously being obviously & joyfully inspired by ye olde '80s greats like Mercyful Fate, Iron Maiden, Dio, Armored Saint, and Judas Priest. Instantly classic stuff. There's even a doom-laden power ballad of sorts here, in the form of "Frozen", also the longest song on the album.
Easily one of the best traditional (but original) heavy metal efforts of the year so far (though we expect it will face some stiff competition soon when the new Christian Mistress comes out). RAM gets the horns up all right. Recommended!!
Been wanting to list this for a while, one of Allan's top "true metal" faves of 2009, now finally available via domestic distribution channels at a non-import price! We first became fans of RAM thanks to the inclusion of their track "Sudden Impact" on the excellent Earache comp Heavy Metal Killers a year or two ago. This is their second full-length, the first RAM we've been able to track down for the store. And it's quite a piece of work. While they're definitely inspired by a lot of '80s metal, and have recorded covers of songs by the likes Black Sabbath and Venom, RAM tend towards a more original, less overtly retro sound than some of their peers - like, for instance, fellow Swedes Enforcer, the slaying second album from whom we highlighted on our last list. As good as Enforcer is at energetically and enjoyably emulating their favorite '80s speed metal masters, RAM manage to do them one better by putting their old school melodic metal chops in service of something a bit more serious, and darker, and dare we say artistic. While we haven't delved deeply into all the lyrics, we get the idea that RAM's songs have a bit more to 'em than the usual metal cliches, they seem to be opining on occultic or philosophical concepts worth of the more erudite of black metal weirdoes, "religious" ones like Deathspell Omega. Or maybe it's just the stylish and meticulous glyphic art and graphic design, done by RAM's expressive vocalist, and evident visionary, Oscar Carlquist, that gives us this notion of unique genius. Well, the bottom line is the music, and there we're mighty impressed even without reference to the cd booklet (which, by the way, informs us that "this album is dedicated to the glory of the relentless truth").
Including a strikingly eerie and intense, mostly instrumental intro entitled "Crushing The Dwarf Of Ignorance", and similar outro "Prelude To Death" (both featuring text written and recited by Mexican poet Adelaida Caballero), you get ten tracks of varied and powerful metal, surging forth with stellar production values, super heavy, sometimes quite speedy, boasting vocals that soar high, but remain vicious, atmospheres arcane, and raging riffs that are worthy, oh so worthy of your headbanging attention. They do justice to the legacy of such assumed influences as Mercyful Fate and Manowar, Iron Maiden and Metal Church, yet while successfully striving to be their own (and more modern) band entirely. And without succumbing to any of the cheese endemic to the genre, they pump out pure power metal majesty, with tracks like the nine-minute epic "Suomussalmi (The Few Of Iron)" reminding us quite favorably of the melodic bombast of an old AQ fave, Blind Guardian. There's lots to capture one's imagination here, while also, as we said, causing heads to bang.
In a word, RAM rule!
We've been geeking out on, I mean rockin' out to, a bunch of the '70s and '80s hard rock/heavy metal reissues coming out on the UK's Rock Candy label... Plasmatics, Armored Saint, Billy Squier, Ted Nugent, Riot, a whole bunch of old favorites, done up all deluxe with nice packaging and copious liner notes. We've reviewed a few already. Here's another we like a lot.
First-time-on-cd for this 1978 album, the second and last from one-hit wonders Ram Jam. That one hit was their high octane cover of Leadbelly's "Black Betty" from their first album (do yourself a favor and look up the video on Youtube!!). So what has Portrait Of An Artist As A Young Ram got to offer? Well, though it didn't produce any hits, it's the better of their two records by far. With a revamped line-up, Ram Jam's hybrid bubblegum / biker blues roots are a thing of the past, the band now a lean, mean, polished, hard n' heavy rock outfit that fans of other, more popular commercial late '70s American rockers like Aerosmith, KISS, Foreigner, and Starz should dig... though at the time they apparently didn't, this record sales-wise spelling the end of Ram Jam's career. Dunno why, people must just not have heard it, as it's quite the party platter, full of kick ass lead guitar, powerful vocals, and energetic, catchy tuneage that would sound great blasting from your souped-up Camaro or custom-painted van...
But now here's a chance to hear this again (for the first time, if you're like us!) and give Ram Jam's swansong its due! Recommended to all rockers.
You know something is fishy when limited cd-r's start getting reissued as... LIMITED CD-R'S!!! What the heck?! Once makes sense, nothing wrong with a limited cd-r, but reissuing an out of print cd-r on cd-r AGAIN just makes us wonder why the heck it wasn't a real cd in the first place. Especially if it's so good that it requires multiple reissues. That said, at least we can be thankful that this gorgeous gem is still available at all. Originally released in 2004 on Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label Jozepha is a practically perfect suite of songs, glistening and delicate, sweet and melancholy, steel string acoustic guitars, simple slide, even some subtle harmonica, lovely melodies drifting and intertwining, meandering lazily, soft sunlight filtered through the leaves and branches overhead, a cool breeze. A little bit country, a little bit pop, but mostly a totally timeless, dreamy instrumental journey with no particular destination, just floating along like big soft clouds, warm chords swirling like autumn leaves, simple melodies, dropping one note at a time, like raindrops on a sunny day. Quite possibly the sweetest, dreamiest, driftiest, swooniest record we've heard in ages. And frustratingly, this is again EXTREMELY LIMITED. Comes packaged quite smartly in an exquisitely embroidered sleeve!
For some reason, we've never actually reviewed any records by UK doom/sludge combo Ramesses, a band featuring two former Electric Wizards, but who will remain most infamous around these parts for one of THEE most disastrous, and thus inadvertently brilliant and amazing, performances we have ever witnessed. It was an Electric Wizard show in fact, when the Ramesses guys were still members (we later joked that it could have been THAT show that was the beginning of the end for that incarnation of EW), a complete drug addled sonic meltdown, with a drummer barely able to play, until it was time to stop (when EW's guitarist Jus Osborn stormed off the stage), at which point said drummer chose to continue playing, all on his own. Woozy and warped and constantly on the verge of collapse, at the time it was sort of appalling, but in retrospect, that sort of complete chaos and demented sonic mayhem seems pretty appealing, and while we may not have reviewed any of the Ramesses records, the metalheads around here (at least some of them) do dig these guys a lot. They're like a murkier, muddier, less catchy, less epic, more sludgey, dirge-y Electric Wizard, which totally makes sense. Cut from the same cloth as the 'Wizard, but with less emphasis on Sabbathy riffage, hooks and melodies, and of course those wailing refrains, and more on grim abject atmosphere and pure doom-ic energy, which these guys, and this new record, has in spades.
The music is a churning downtuned crusty filthy ultra doom, the rhythms drag and creep, the melodies moan hauntingly, the vocals ooze from gurgly growl to keening plaintive wail, the songs lumbering doom metal trudges, that are often so low and sludgey, the guitars sound like they're melting, the sound weirdly muddy and lo-fi, crumbling distortion, all wreathed in a blackly psychedelic haze, some of the tracks all droney and tranced out, cyclical and hypnotic, while others are almost punk, in their blackened doom ferocity. Barring occasional forays in spidery melody and clean guitar drift, the majority of Possessed By The Rise Of Majik find these guys trawling the dankest recesses of the doom-ed underworld, spinning sticky black webs of dark and druggy, bleak and blackened dooooooooooom. Fans of Electric Wizard should definitely give these guys a try, but anyone into filthy, plodding, psychedelic slow and low heaviness, this is the shit. From the same label that brought us the last Bong!
If you crank Rammer's oh-so-positively named 2nd full-length album (and the cd booklet specifically recommends that listeners "fucking crank it"), you'll hear some maniac shouting himself raw on such subjects as butchers, Russia, and radiation, above a metallic din of amps to 11 and drumming to 12. If you know what's what, you'll quickly suss out that these Canadian hessians are young guns with old school obsessions. The collection of '80s thrash metal cassettes used as a background graphic in the cd booklet is another tip off. Throw in influences from death metal and metalcore, and a steady liquid diet of Molsons, and you've got a headbanging force to be reckoned with, Toronto's Rammer definitely having graduated with honors from the votech program for raging retro metalology at that aforementioned old school. Likely classmates of theirs would include Skeletonwitch, Goathorn, Boulder, Defleshed, and Early Man, all of these bands having taken classes from teachers like Slayer, Destruction, and Nuclear Assault. Thus these 11 songs are fully strapped with vicious chugging riffage, sore-throat vox, intense drum battery and (their forte) ripping guitar solos from Rammer's two axe-meisters. Simple pleasures perhaps, but nothing to scoff at if you're metallically inclined! Weirdly, this band has got some sort of indie-cred (Blue Fog ain't a metal label) but don't worry, this isn't ironic hipster metal (unlike, perhaps, at least one of the bands mentioned above, no not Slayer). Or if it is, the "real metallers" might as well pack it in, they've been outclassed by supposed poseurs!!
But no band of poseurs could be so metal as to follow in the glorious tradition of writing a song with the same name as the band ("Rammer") AND making it be about some sort of totally rad, ravening murderous monster, another glorious tradition...
No we're not kidding -- we love Rammstein! Here's the new album from these scary German industrial/metal dudes. Fire! Fire! It's surprising that they're as popular in this country as they are, considering that they sing in German. But I guess their theatrics and heavier-than-nu-metal are a universal language... Ridiculous but great.
Another entry in the NEW WAVE OF FINNISH HEAVY METAL, aka NWOFHM, comes modern Finnish thrashers Ranger, who not unsurprisingly, don't sound modern at all, and in fact, even though the label describes them as thrash, a lot of the time, they almost sound more like classic eighties true metal, the title track opens with the sort of epic harmonized guitar majesty, you just don't hear anymore, and then the band launches into some ridiculously over the top drumming, a barrage of pick slides, and BAM, chugging riffage, blasting beats, soaring divebomb leads. At this point, the sound is definitely thrash, we're hearing lots of early Anthrax for sure, even a little Slayer too, but Ranger are way poppier, the grunted sung/spoken vox punctuated with wild falsetto wails, the eighties vibe is huge, the drums all reverbed and boomy, the song flitting from lightning fast punked out thrash, to chugging classic metal and back again, and then of course some wild soloing, dueling epic shreddery, for folks our age, this is like musical manna from heaven (or hell?). And as yet always, especially with Finnish bands, and from the Ektro camp in particular, we're faced with the nagging possibility, that these guys could be taking the piss. But really, even if they are, they're so good, it hardly even matters, total eighties heavy metal radness, that really sounds like it could be from back in the day. The serious metal majesty and fierce metallic fury balanced by plenty of hooks and some serious poppiness, as well as some serious goofiness (but then what great metal bands didn't have some of that? Venom anyone?). The vocal delivery is awesome and ridiculous, more spoken than sung, but delivered like a true metal warrior, you can almost imagine both his hands holding up the invisible oranges, and of course lots of trilled 'r's, and let's not forget the sound effects, like the revved car engine when the vocalist sings the line "V8 engine screams!!"
But fuck it, metalheads who treasure the golden age of metal (that's the eighties btw) and can't get enough of that sound, this is about as good, and ridiculous, and amazing as it gets. Especially what might be the most epic track here, the closer "Knights Of Darkness" (featuring the aforementioned revving engine sound effects), a galloping tour-de-force, with some amazing harmonized guitars, killer shredding leads, and a vocal performance, that had us once again, thinking it could be Mika from Circle in metal drag. So goddamn great. Death to all but metal!
You want a shock to your skull? You could slam your head into the wall, or hit it with a hammer... or, better yet (and more entertaining), just slap on this 7" by Finnish ragers RANGER, whose song "Shock Skull" is a ripping onslaught of underground thrash madness, in the style of '80s Slayer, Metallica and other masters of nasty speed metal Satan worship. Distorted guitars, pounding drums, shrieking vocals, widdly solos, yeeeaaaah!! It's a fine follow up to their Knights Of Darkness 12" from last year, again released on Ektro label's vinyl imprint Full Contact, so it's got the Circle seal of approval - though Ranger are as far as we know are a REAL metal band, not the more conceptual kind like the so many "NWOFHM" side projects of those Circle guys. The flipside, "Omen Of Doom", is another neckbreaker. All in all, seven inches of old school shreddin', slaying stuff with a ton of youthful energy to it.
Limited to 1000 copies, colored vinyl (500 blue and 500 green, they're sealed so we aren't sure what each one we have is).
Issue number 4 of this unique metal zine, or should we even call it a zine? It's more of a microzine, or a broadsheet, each short issue devoted to just one band and one band only. Written, edited, and published by John Mincemoyer, one half of the team behind the late great underground metal mag Oaken Throne, the idea behind Rape & Honey is to celebrate/investigate one crucial (and sometimes obscure) band, in DEPTH. Previously R&H has covered Weapon, Funeral Mist, and Razor Of Occam. Now for #4, they've turned their attentions to a particular AQ fave, up and coming sci-fi thrashers VEKTOR!!! Just read our rave reviews of Vektor's two (temporarily out of print, soon to be resurrected by Vektor's new label, Earache, we have on good authority) albums elsewhere on our site if you need to know why Mincemoyer might be so into this band. Or read this! Ideal either for Vektor fans who want to learn more about 'em, or for those who trust R&H to point 'em to cool bands they should check out (and trust US, you should check out Vektor).
So, you a lengthy interview with a very voluble David DiSanto, guitarist/vocalist of Vektor. Also there's a half-page acetate insert with Mincemoyer's review of Vektor's Outer Isolation album (why on acetate, we don't know, maybe for people who have an overhead projector). The interview is pretty thorough, informative, and (like Vektor) entertaining. It concludes with some interesting insight into what Vektor think about all the Voivod comparisons (unavoidable, considering their logo). And it's presented with a nice layout job by the guy from Gnaw Their Tongues, featuring lots of colorful vintage artwork from science fiction pulps, in keeping with Vektor's sci-fi obsession. 12 pages, packaged in a resealable plastic sleeve, accentuating the concept that R&H is for collectors, fans who value both music and the written word.
How much do we love Oaken Throne magazine? It is easily one of, if not THE, best metal magazines going. Considering how many we sell, you all must agree. But what's a writer to do when the magazine he writes for comes out so infrequently? Well start a new magazine of course. But if you're John Mincemoyer, one half of the team that produces Oaken Throne, you don't just start any old magazine, you come up with something weird, and cool, ad gorgeously designed, and pretty much unlike any other magazine you've ever seen, thus we have the first issue of Rape & Honey, and besides being named after one of the best Ministry records ever, it also just so happens to have a pretty odd concept. First off, it's a microzine, and is all of three (3) pages. Second of all, the entire thing is about ONE band. Just one. And it consists of ONE review, and ONE interview with said band. Cool. For the first issue, Mincemoyer focuses on blackened thrashers Razor Of Occam and their record Homage To Martyrs. We had never heard of Razor Of Occam, but it hardly matters, the review is great, the interview is super interesting, as much about philosophy and lyrical content as it is about music and metal, even more so, and of course, gorgeously laid out, an oversized cardstock gatefold, with a full color cover, inside there's a vellum envelope, with a letter and introduction from Mincemoyer, also a review of the RoO record, printed in full color on a mini transparency, all sealed up in a plastic bag. Cool stuff for sure. Definitely might hold you over until the next Oaken Throne, or at least the next Rape & Honey which will feature Funeral Mist!
Finally, a new issue of Rape & Honey, the miniature metal magazine, that has taken the place of the now deceased Oaken Throne, easily one of the best metal periodicals ever. But when OT was retired, John Mincemoyer, one half of the Oaken Throne editorial team, decided he still wanted to do printed zine, but with a twist, that twist being that each issue is focused on a single band. Lovingly laid out, gorgeously designed and printed, well written and extremely interesting, Rape & Honey is almost like lengthy articles pulled from a magazine and transformed into their own slime volume, and like many of our favorite mags, it almost doesn't matter who it's about, it's great reading, and more often than not, you'll be dying to hear the band after reading all about their history, their beliefs, and most importantly their music.
The first issue focused on the relatively obscure black thrash outfit Razor Of Occam, issue two was all about aQ faves Funeral Mist, and now along comes #3, this time it's all about Weapon, whose Drakonian Paradigm record we raved about not too long back. Bangladesh via Canada, a killer mix of grim blackness and classic metal, with wild solos, loads of harmony guitars, actual melodies, weird production, extreme stereo panning, you can read our review on the aQ site, but you should also grab one of these and dig in. Besides all the interesting stuff in the article, the presentation is superb, this time it's up to 12 pages (not long before it becomes a proper magazine perhaps?), full color, with a super nice center spread, and as always, there are some inserts, a Rape & Honey postcard, and Ajna Offensive ad/insert, and a small printed transparency with Mincemoyer's review of Drakonian Paradigm!
If you read Terrorizer, and Decibel, and used to read Oaken Throne, then there's no reason you shouldn't be reading Rape & Honey!
Oaken Throne is dead. Sad but true, that beloved magazine chronicling all things black and grim, dark and sonically adventurous, has been laid to rest, a labor of love for sure, but it got to the point where no amount of love could sustain the amount of labor that went into producing each issue. So sad. We still have copies of the last few issues, so do grab them while you can, and while OT is gone, one half of the team behind OT, John Mincemoyer, is forging ahead with his own idiosyncratic magazine, Rape & Honey. Not so much a magazine as a broadsheet, it's a handful of pages, each issue focused on a single band, we still have a few copies of issue one, which was all about Razor Of Occam, but this second issue, expanded to nearly twice the size of number 1, might be of even more interest to most of the aQ faithful, being as its focus is on longtime aQ favs, the mighty Funeral Mist.
You can read our rants and ravings about Funeral Mist elsewhere on the aQ site, we gushed about pretty much every FM release, even going so far as to make Maranatha our Record Of The Week a while back. But Rape & Honey Takes you even deeper, incorporating interviews, background, history, reviews, musings, plus Mincemoyer is an excellent writer, and Funderal Mist are indeed fascinating subjects. 8 pages, 8 1/2" by 11", full color, plenty of illustrations, with two printed full color inserts, as well as a Mincemoyer penned Funeral Mist review printed on a cool colored transparency. A great read, and a killer object de' metal art, WAY recommended, to fans of the band of course, but also folks who read Terrorizer and Oakan Throne and Decibel and the like, plus it's super cheap! Skip a cup of coffee and read all about one of our favorite bands...
Yet another depressing and doomy export from our beloved Finland. Man, these people must be so miserable. How else could a single nation produce so much depressing music? This time around it's the Rapture, who musically, bear an uncanny resemblance to AQ favorites Katatonia. And for those of you unfamiliar with that sound, it's a bit like a metal Cure; dark and droning, melodic and hypnotic, but heavy! The Rapture take their obvious Katatonia influence, and rough it up, adding screaming, shrieking, growling black metal vocals, instead of the more melodic Katatonia croon. Really fucking great.
Gloomy, gothy melodic metal from Finland's Rapture (not to be confused with NYC's The Rapture!), who are kind of a Katatonia clone band. Nothing wrong with that, though, you can't have too much doomy yet catchy Nordic misery wethinks. This is quite good. Compared to recent Katatonia, Rapture perhaps remain MORE "metal" (though both bands are quite heavy): Rapture's vocalist still does the RAWRRRAAHH death-metal growling thing along with some more melodic, clean singing, and you can hear some Metallica and In Flames in there along with that hypnotic Katatonia downer-groove and Cure vibe. (If, after reading this, you're wondering who the heck Katatonia are, please find their reviews on our website and check 'em out...once you've become a fan, come back for the Rapture cds!)
Emaciated. Fractious. Toxic. Violent. Raspberry Bulbs is the blackened punk outfit that Marco del Rio conceived after dissolving the cult black metal duo Bone Awl in 2010 or thereabouts. The raw-nerve energy of Raspberry Bulbs is a continuation of Bone Awl's brand of D-beat primitivism, but with some downright catchy riffs and pop-hook chops replacing the black metal. Over three albums, Raspberry Bulbs has perfected that formula - one that could be cranked out on a single worn-torn guitar and knuckle-busting drum kit. Even as Raspberry Bulbs has swollen from a sole venture for del Rio to a formidable five-piece, the riffs have a crust-punk urgency that's completely in the moment and full of wild-eyed rage.
Raspberry Bulb's 2013 album Deformed Worship caught many people off guard, coming out on the boutique publishing house of paranoiac electronica, Blackest Ever Black. Despite the aesthetic differences, the malaise and the claustrophobia and the tension of Black Rain, Cut Hands, and Raime find easy parallels in the jackbooted punk stomp of Raspberry Bulbs. It also makes a hell of a lot of sense that Dominic Fernow / Prurient released the first (and dare we say, slightly undercooked) first album from Raspberry Bulbs. So there's the connection for you. Privacy picks up right where Deformed Worship left off as an antisocial, bad-seed punk brother to Christian Death's Only Theatre Of Pain, starving the skeletal riffs into a acid batteries of ravenous angst and eschewing the goth miserablism in favor of a throat-ripped snarl. The guitars sound like they've been strung with razor wire and hot-wired into Crime's pawn shop amps. With the multiplicity of guitarists, Raspberry Bulbs just sounds louder, snottier, and meaner. Fucking awesome, we gotta say.
Metal Blade brings us the blazing attack of Boston's Ravage, and boy do they sound like they belong on Metal Blade - circa 1987 maybe. Total '80s style metal a la Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, extra-energetic and self-consciously classic.
They've apparently been around for a while (formed in 1995) but this is only their second studio album. Otherwise their discography, according to the Metal Archives site on the internet, consists entirely of limited edition live albums (5 of them!! Including, apparently, a mostly instrumental one called Yes, We Have No Lead Singer, 'cause he got lost on the way to the show!) plus a few eps and demo tapes and whatnot. So it's cool that Metal Blade picked 'em up, odd too because Metal Blade has already released plenty of albums by bands that sound a lot like this in the '90s (Wardog anyone?) and they never did that well outside of Germany anyway. Maybe they thought it was time to try again.
We can recommend this, at any rate, it's a good one if you're in the mood for some surefire headbanging action. And, it's got a Repka painting of a giant radioactive spider laying waste to a city on the cover. More importantly, perhaps, this also boasts the vocals of one Al Ravage, who possesses a great shrieky voice, sorta Dickinsonian. Perfect for this heavy and speedy metal, loaded with catchy riffage, some of it recalling Euro power metallers like Gamma Ray and Iron Fire for sure, but also the NWOBHM and American acts like Metal Church and Metallica back in the day. And we're definitely reminded of Judas Priest's maybe-most-metal offering, Painkiller. Possibly 'cause Ravage cover "The Nightcrawler" from that album here. And their own song "The Shredder" could easily have been on Painkiller too. No bad thing, that..
Back in 2004, this underground Australian epic metal band put out a pretty cool self-released cd, called Choose The Dark. But it seemed nobody really knew or cared about them, back then. Nearly ten years later, probably nobody still does, these guys aren't exactly on the radar of anyone not super geeked out about cult, epic, true doom metal. Yet somehow, for this, their long-awaited (?) second album, they scored a deal with big time US metal label Metal Blade! Well good for them. Perhaps pacts with the devil do pay off. Or the time was just right. Who knows? Not that they don't deserve it - this is a pretty rad album for those into, like we said, cult, epic, true doom metal, which would include quite a few aQ customers!
This disc, which includes a couple songs from their debut (redone?), totals twelve tracks, full of fuzzy, rollicking riffage in ye olde heavy metal mode, solos shredding, the production definitely NOT slick or high-budget, in fact, it's kinda weird and lo-fi but works for this, for us. Key to Raven Black Night's peculiar sort of magic is their singer, "The White Knight", who belts it out superbly, his ballsy and slightly bizarre vocals wailing in the upper register, kinda reminding us of Bruce Dickinson, or Ian Gillan circa Sabbath's Born Again - not a bad thing!! Messiah from Candlemass would be another good comparison, probably even a better one. Raven Black Night do kinda sound like a weird hybrid of Candlemass and Manilla Road - again, not a bad thing.
One bad thing, though, is that they chose to do a cover of infamous Black Sabbath piano ballad "Changes" for some reason. That's a song that even a lot of hardcore Sabbath fans loathe, so it's pretty nervy of RBN to cover it, we'll give 'em that, but even if you like the song they don't do much with it. (If you wanna hear a good cover of "Changes", go check out the ultra-heavy interpretation Fudge Tunnel did years ago.) So be warned about that, and it's not the only slow and ballady-song here, they do a few originals along those lines as well, but we like those a lot better, they're more "Planet Caravan" than "Changes", spacey and sorta psychedelic.
RBN are at their best though when boisterously galloping along like riders of doom, The White Knight's battle cries ringing forth, on slaying tracks like "Fire In Your Eyes" and "Morbid Gladiator". All in all, they manage to be both rockin' and doomy and just have damn cool weird epic heavy metal vibe to 'em. Glad they didn't give up after that first album so long ago, but kept working diligently on their arcane sorcery in a secret tower somewhere so we'd get to hear this eccentric second strike!
Like the Depths tape we reviewed on the last list, this is another blast of true underground grimness, Ravendawn however is in fact two Iowa teenagers who reviewed this slab of sonic sickness way back in 1997, and which has never been released until now. And it's a doozy, especially if you like your black metal raw and primitive, and like your fidelity fucked up. This is total practice space / basement / subterranean cavern sound, the guitars a muddy insectoid blur, the vocals a super distorted rasp, the drums total cardboard trashcan lid pound and bash, but all woven together into some seriously fierce black heaviness. And some tracks manage to be weirdly atmospheric dialing back the buzz, letting the guitars weave weirdly tense minor key drones, the drums loping and spaced out, the result sort of cinematic and trancelike, surprisingly progressive for the time certainly, and the weirdness/coolness is only enhanced by the warped recording, cuz when the blown out blasting drum damage swoops in toward the end of the track, that combined with the weirdly woozy psychedelic atmosphere makes for some seriously tripped out sonic radness.
Ravendawn do a pretty great job of fusing those too sounds/vibes, they're at their best when it's a dizzying concoction that can't seem to decide between atmospheric and psychedelic or grim buzzing and black, usually opting for both simultaneously, which results in something fucked up and weirdly original, but still plenty raw and grim and true to keep the metalheads satisfied. Fans of other Universal Consciousness stuff will definitely dig (Harassor, Moonknight, Wrath Of The Weak), and again, if you dug that Depths tape, this one will most likely hit the spot too.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each one hand numbered, the covers letter pressed on super thick textured cardstock.
New project from Killjoy (of Necrophagist), Dan Lilker (Brutal Truth, S.O.D., etc.) and Chris Reifert (Autopsy). Heavy and weird, sloppy and noisy and according to the onesheet, 'horrifying' thrash metal.
Um, seriously folks? We've had this Razor reissue sitting sadly ignored in our metal vinyl bin for several months now. What's up with you 'bangers? Well maybe a raging mailorder customer will step up and grab this slice of Canadian speed metal history, the 1984 debut 12" ep from these north of the border thrashers, featuring Dave Carlo on axes and "Sheepdog" McLaren on lungs. True, the best of the seven trax here were rerecorded for their first full-length, Executioner's Song, a year later, so if you've got that maybe you don't need this. But it IS a historical document, with a great cover graphic (if you can't tell, it's a close up of Carlo playing the guitar using a razor blade as a pick), and it's a hard to beat slab of "Fast And Loud" "Hot Metal" (those are two of the song titles) for anyone in the mood for some old school rippage.
"The Surgeon General warns that this album contains Heavy Metal music, that might weld your mind together if played at low volume. To reduce the risk of mind damage play at FULL VOLUME."
Primitive proto-metal reissue alert here, folks! Reaction were a heavy, hairy power trio bashing out boogie-blooze-based hard rock. Technically, Reaction could be considered a krautrock group, we suppose, since they did hail from Germany and this rare record originally came out back in 1972. But it's nothing cosmic nor proggy that's for sure. No flutes, no synths, no motorik beats. Instead it's just loud and lumbering and riffy and mean (well with a bit of poppiness at times, those lumbering riffs being fairly catchy after all).
Yer basic, raw, fuzz filled rockin' good times, the nine tracks here taking the likes of Cream and Cactus to the next (lower) level, more wasted, more fuzz, more cowbell! (There's plenty of the latter on the awesomely titled "The Funeral March Of A Marionette".)
Some of the obscure and not-so-sophisticated heavy psych acts of era we'd compare 'em to include Moses, Blues Addicts, Road, Toad, and Speed Glue & Shinki, plus fellow "krautrockers" like Tiger B. Smith, Blackwater Park, and Hairy Chapter (their first album Eyes anyway). Like we said, in the vein of Cream and Cactus, moreso than Can or Kraftwerk! Nothin' wrong with that though, when you wanna rock.
Been eagerly awaiting this!! The 2nd coming of this strange band and their rather outsider-y epic true metal. The hermetic duo of JH Halberd and Czar, have indeed built upon their realm, expanded their empire, brought forth further examples of their special sound, one that's triumphant (heck they even use trumpet!) and weird and raw and curiously poppy. Realmbuilder, while certainly under the sway of such cult '80s fantasy metal acts as Manilla Road, Brocas Helm and Cirith Ungol (along with sharing the same literary inspirations like Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith), aspire to actualize a unique vision of their own. And for us, their stirring striving is quite effective, as well as eccentric!
The album begins with an anthem to a mythic highwayman, wherein the basic building blocks of Realmbuilder's sound are made apparent: catchy old school heavy metal riffing, accompanying somewhat amateurish but expressive clean vocals that are far from the usual sort of polished power metal wail (and become quite glorious when both band members harmonize together). The oddity of the vocals will be the most make or break thing regarding your reaction to this band; we love 'em. And the choruses are quickly skull-lodged, with lyrics that usually contain commands: "Yield or perish!" "Swing your pick axe!" "Pull the wagon!"...
Another significant Realmbuilder trait: psychedelic soloing (courtesy session guitarist Brian Koenig) that adds to the emotional impact of these songs rather than being mere shred.
Realmbuilder's compositions tend to be filled with an energetic choppiness, but just as often possess a more solemn, droned out vibe... as, especially, on the album's spacey, dreamy final epic, with the suitably lengthy title "The Stars Disappeared From The Sky When We Uncovered The Bones Of The First Gods". It's a strange sort of pop indeed.
Again, probably to be appreciated by fans of the likes of early Manilla Road, Max Planck, the long forgotten but utterly genius Coven, and the lordliest weirdest of Slough Feg. Also you could certainly consider this to be the even more DIY cousin of Dawnbringer, whose new one is reviewed elsewhere this list.
Oh, and once again, we love the Crystal Logic of the cover painting, by Czar...
Everything about this screams "Cult!!". Cult in the "epic true metal" style of Manilla Road, that is. But even doomier than those eccentric '80s metal masters, who are most definitely one of Realmbuilder's major influences. This band has that obscure, underground vibe for sure, as it should 'cause that's what it is, just two guys obsessed with a certain sort of metal and the imaginative realms of fantasy and history that that sort of metal evokes, those guys being one Czar (also of weird black metallers Charnel Valley), who sings and plays drums, and one J.H. Halberd, who takes care of rhythm guitar, bass, and keyboards, as well as harmony backing vocals, and on one track, trumpet! (Lead guitars are handled by a session axeman from the prog metal band Luna Mortis).
Now released by I Hate Records on compact disc after a limited edition vinyl issuance last year, Realmbuilder's debut album Summon The Stone Throwers really creates an unusual, ancient atmosphere, quite convincingly as if they're relating warriors' tales of long-lost ages. From the primitively painted album cover (featuring a mystic castle, wind-blown adventurer, and malevolently skulking wolf-creature all garishly rendered in sunset purples, yellows, and greens) which gives us a flashback to the cover to Manilla Road's Crystal Logic, it's obvious that Realmbuilder are for a select audience only, those with an innate feeling for the raw, doomy, almost psychedelic heavy metal on offer here. Melancholic, melodic, and above all majestic, the seven tracks here comprise chunky spiralling guitar riffs, expressive/depressive vocals, glorious guitar soloing, wordless oh-oh-oh choruses, effective chant-like repetition of the evocative lyrics (we love hearing the words "silver ziggurat" and "colossal glaciers" being sung over and over in the respective songs of those same names). The clean vocals are somewhat nasal and really not-so-metal, comparable maybe to Snake from Voivod and the guy from super obscure '80s Detroit doomsters Coven. And that really helps set this apart, and add to its strangeness and sense of sincerity.
There's much lumbering riffage and galloping rhythms and clashing of swords... with, also, weird quasi-poppy parts that sneak in amidst the grim bombast, which we think might actually cause this to appeal to fans of Steel Mammoth and other "NWOFHM" acts! Though, as we said, this comes across as serious and sincere. So most likely for fans of the aforementioned Manilla Road, and Coven if you've ever heard 'em... Other bands whose fans might dig this, for various reasons, include fellow I Hate recording artists The Wounded Kings, Doomsword, Dark Quarterer, Reverend Bizarre, The Gates Of Slumber, Slough Feg, Cirith Ungol, Manowar, Hyborian Steel, Ironsword, Ophthalamia, Cloven Hoof, Helvetes Port, even Dwarr and some moments of the more recent Darkthrones, just to throw a few names out there that may or may not be helpful without further explanation... Really, though, despite their obvious inspirations (they cite several bands, some of the above among them, before whom they "genuflect") Realmbuilder is ultimately its own unique thing.
Bottom line: the esoteric metallurgists here at AQ can't stop listening to this! As far as Allan is concerned, his favorite metal cd of the year, quite possibly. And although this is quite new, it still almost seems as if a relic from another time and place, like it should come with a papyrus scroll or better yet carved stone tablets, instead of a cd booklet (though the cd booklet it has, with thick, purple-printed paper, is quite nice). Join the cult and bow down before Realmbuilder!
Right up front, we'll go on record and say this is likely the best cd you'll EVER buy... that comes packaged in a diaper. Prove us wrong. We dare you. But until someone does, revel in awesomely monikered Rebel Wizard, another project by the mysterious madman behind Aussie blacknoise one man band Nekrasov. And unlike the Nekrasov record reviewed elsewhere on this list, where you'll find said man indulging his face melting, amp shredding, ear drum destroying harsh noise tendencies, Rebel Wizard goes just as far in the opposite direction, whipping up a frenzy of classic metal riffage, harmonized leads, galloping drumming, a hybrid of old school black metal and NWOBHM maybe? Hell, the diaper even displays the legend NWONM, scrawled in sharpie, alongside a drawing of what looks like a dead eyed stick figure metalhead. And yup, it stands for NEW WAVE OF NEGATIVE METAL!
It's just blackened enough, the vokills just harsh enough, to give this the negative edge, but the stretches without vocals, it could be some lost demo from some obscure UK band from the eighties. But this shit is so good, a band like that wouldn't stay obscure for long. Any metalhead worth his salt and with a halfway decent record collection while find these tracks push all their very metal buttons, eminently headbangable, super melodic, epic, majestic, but also plenty grim and fierce and fucking heavy. We won't go on at length, since we have less than 10 copies, and these are the very last of an extremely limited run of just 50 copies, needless to say, highly recommended, and for the few of you who will manage to nab one of these, you will not be sorry.
And yeah, these are in fact housed a (unused!) diaper, complete with polka dots, and little cute cuddly animal pictures, and those sticky tabs holding it shut. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES, each one numbered on the inside, each one hand adorned with the record title, the NWONM legend, and the aforementioned dead eyed skull thing. Also includes a printed insert with the track listing.
Not sure what you might expect from a band called Rectal Hygienics, but if you weren't expecting squalls of feedback, downtuned caveman riffage, buried drugged out vox, and blown out wasted heaviness, well then, you might be a bit disappointed. We however got exactly what we were expecting, and hoping for. Falling squarely somewhere between Brainbombs and Rusted Shut, late period Black Flag, and some mutant strain of slo-mo hardcore, these bruisers deliver some fucked up and fierce noise rock that lurches from psychedelic and freaked out jammage to pure Neanderthal churn, more often than not cramming those two together into something beastly and seriously bad ass. Easily one of our new favorite slabs of brain damaged brutality.
NOW ALSO HERE ON CD, with bonus trax!
Awesome obscure late sixties/early seventies British blues rock outfit's only album, originally released in 1970, newly reissued! Some of it's melodic acoustic folk psych with mellow, rustic vocals, while other tracks are more like lumbering, proto-metal blues, with heavy guitar riffs and really raw, rough vocals, kinda like Captain Beefheart singing for early Black Sabbath. There's some harmonica blowin' too along with the grungy guitars. Other reference points: Edgar Broughton Band, High Tide, The Doors, Fraction, Josephus...
This compact disc edition includes five bonus tracks, getting more Tull-soundin' but with violin instead of flute!
Probably best known for their song "Prehistoric Dog" and its hilarious video, that found the big bearded Red Fang folks, rocking out in their kitchen, drinking about a million cans of beer, and then fashioning the empty beer cans into chain mail, helmets and various weapons, with which they proceed to beat the living crap out of a troupe of L.A.R.P.-ers in the park. That's 'live action role players', but the L.A.R.P.-ers have the last laugh as they procure a magic sword and proceed to slay the members of Red Fang, tearing them limb from limb, head from torso, Monty Python style. And somehow, those visuals perfectly suited the sounds a sort of big riff, slow groove, Karp meets the Melvins stoner metal crush.
This new record finds the band taking that same sound and polishing it up a bit, adding some extra psychedelic filigree, a pretty slick, ultra heavy production, the songs more complex and epic, with a killer bout of dueling harmony guitars, but the Melvins vibe looms large, the vocals sounding especially Buzz-worthy.
But then the second track finds Red Fang getting seriously poppy, slipping into Torche / Floor territory, which to be honest, they maybe weren't all that far removed from in the first place, And that song "Wires" is pretty killer, hooks galore, more catchy psychedelic guitars, almost Queens Of The Stoneage sounding vox, and what sounds like some thick buzzing organ. And actually, much of the record plays out like some alternate, heavier, weirder QOTSA, and hell we're not complaining. Those jams definitely harken back to that Kyuss / QOTSA transition, where the difference between the two was negligible, and the songs were simultaneously catchy as hell, but crushingly heavy. We're also reminded of Open Hand, who for a while seemed destined to be the new QOTSA. But it's not all sweet pop and catchy hooks, not by a longshot, even at it's poppiest, the sound is still heavy, and those poppier numbers sit alongside some serious sonic reminders of their old, more feral sound, that whole Karp thing for sure, but updated with the sound of groups like Kylesa and Baroness, epic downtuned crush and pounding mathy pummel woven into epic stoner metal grooves, which just so happen to be catchy as fuck. Nice packaging too.
And in case you somehow never saw that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuRKRFjm-HA
Maybe you've already seen it. The best music video EVER. On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQiHORkdE_0
That's this band, Red Fang, doing this album's lead off cut "Prehistoric Dog". We won't spoil the video by telling you too much about it before you watch, let's just say it involves a most excellent mocking of LARPers (technically speaking, the LARPers look more like members of The Society for Creative Anachronism, but same dif pretty much).
After seeing that, how can you not need the Red Fang album? Which, as we expected is grungy, loud, heavy, shit kickin' and beer swillin' (as per the video). There's a moodier cut or two ("Humans Remain Human Remains" ferinstance) but mostly this is a walloping dose of balls out rockin' from this hairy bunch of stoner metal reprobates from Portland Oregon (who among 'em include ex-members of such bands as Last Of The Juanitas, All Night, Shiny Beast, Trumans Water, Bad Wizard, Party Time, and Facedowninshit). As raw and riffy as it gets, there's still hints of melody, even in the vocals, that are sometimes sung, sometimes screamed and shouted. Should appeal to fans of High On Fire lookin' for a good time, or Harvey Milk's Pleaser... Also, imagine a cross between Karp and Priestess, or a more punk and disorderly Burning Brides.
This debut 10-song full-length incorporates the tracks from their previous self-released tour-only cd-r ep, all except for their cover of Dust's proto-metal classic "Suicide", darn it.
Relapse is really playing up the cyber-industrial-whatever aspect of Red Harvest but it's their least 'industrial' record so far. But, industrial it still is, with machine like beats occasionally overtaking their pounding, flesh and bones drummer, and ultra crisp and precise riffs, processed into expansive sheets of distorted roooaaaaaar. Somewhere between Neurosis, AQ faves Alchemist, Emperor and Machine Head. Not a bad combination at all. Furious death metal gives way to epic and funereal post apocalyptic dirges. Shrieking black metal is chopped and diced into industrial chugs and droning metalscapes. Melodies are stretched and distorted, electronic rhythms are assembled in a desolate wasteland of malfunctioning electronics, instrument buzz and distorted hiss until flesh ripping guitars come raining down like fiery hail from angry gods. One of the coolest metal records of the year so far.
We know you've all be waiting for us to weigh in on one of the burning issues of our time: just how terrible IS the Lou Reed / Metallica album? Is it terrible terrible, or maybe so bad it's good (but still terrible)? Or, perhaps, like The Wire, would we be all contrary and proclaim it to actually be brilliant, not terrible? Well... let's just say that actually writing a review of Lulu is difficult 'cause simply sitting through Lulu is difficult! Imagine a random rock band (Metallica) jamming on some generic stoner riffs they wrote in like 5 minutes, while Grandpa Simpson (Lou Reed) speak-sings disturbing/cryptic/asinine lyrics from the POV of an underage girl prostitute and whatnot over the top... and it's TWO freaking discs long!
Well, even opinion here at AQ is divided... just like when Morbid Angel's Illud Divinum Insanus came out. We DO like stuff that's "fucked up" after all, and certainly this is. And there's ways in which the "transgressiveness" of this might appeal to Oxbow fans, for sure (and we're Oxbow fans). But if you're a Metallica fan... well you're a glutton for punishment already anyway at this point, and this IS better than St. Anger (what isn't)? Is it possible that Lulu is Lou Reed's laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank joke on a clueless, desperate-to-be-artistic Metallica?
Maybe we should just cop out and say that Lulu stands outside of any conventional good/bad judgment. It's just...ludicrous. And not 'cause it's Lou Reed and Metallica, as a concept, per se. Actually, when we first heard about Lou Reed teaming up with Metallica, some of us thought it had potential. On paper. After all, Lou Reed had written songs for KISS before (on 1981's Music From The Elder) and look how that turned out. No, seriously, we dig that KISS album. And if Lou was good enough to write songs for KISS, he should be good enough to write songs for Metallica, heck they should have brought him in sooner. Or, another possibility, was that they would do a full-on noise album together, conducted by Reed: Metallica Machine Music, perhaps?! That could have been cool. Instead, we got this arty absurdity. Which, to be fair, does have its (unintentionally HILARIOUS) moments. For instance, "I Am The Table" (not the name of the song, but it should be, it's actually called "The View", after the TV talk show) is almost worth the price of admission, it's already a classic. Or, check out the very next song, "Pumping Blood", sample lyric from Reed: "Waggle my ass like a dark prostitute coagulating heart pumpin' blood... c'mon, James!"
Yes, he really says/sings that. Wow.
And if Reed's half-assed spoken word style, way-too-high-in-the-mix vox weren't ruinous enough, James Hetfield then sings backup throughout, in his usual heartfelt, gruff, rock dude croon. Singing stuff like the aforementioned, "I am the table!". The juxtaposition is, again, just so ridiculous. As is the entire album. We're not sure what's worse, when they try to do "songs" (like "Iced Honey") or when it's just Lars on the drums providing random backup for Reed's beat poetry.
Ok, it's not all laffs. Ferinstance, in the finale of the set, the whole second half of the epic 20 minute "Junior Dad" is just droning somber strings, and that's quite pretty, although that part doesn't appear to involve either the members of Metallica OR Lou Reed...
So, our "verdict": you should definitely hear this, a least a bit of it, for a laugh. But buy the thing? Well, we've got one copy, and expect to have it for a while. But please go ahead, buy it. We dare you. And when you're listening to it, try not to imagine this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRPzElP_eSI
This is record number three from these aQ faves, a metallic math rock duo whose sound is pretty much the perfect hybrid of all the heavy stuff we like, a sprawling, dizzying collection of tangled metallic, dirgey instrumental grooves, woozy post rock drift, strange almost operatic epicness, plenty of warped experimentation, lots of texture, and tranced out mesmer, although technically it's not a collection, as this is in fact a single song, spread out over both sides of the record, but as with any 29 minute song, it's essentially, a bunch of different parts, or even different songs woven into one single epic.
The A side starts off all droney and creepy, before the thick buzz bass and skittery drums come in, eventually exploding into a killer sprawl of almost stonery riffage, psychedelic and groovy, heavy as hell, we can almost picture wailing vocals over the top, but these guys are mostly instrumental, so instead, they continue to rock out sans vox, the vibe more trancey than rocking. As the song unwinds, things get way more mathy and complex, super dynamic, at times sounding like some impossible hybrid of Neurosis and the Fucking Champs, which is obviously not at all a bad thing. The last part of the A side is all loping post rock heaviness, super hypnotic and cyclical, before the guitars drop out completely, and the last 90 seconds are just drums.
The flipide starts off right where the A side ended, it is the same song after all, the solo drum fills, tribal and spaced out, building a framework of keening feedback, some piano (!), ominous and brooding, tinkling chimes, and then POW, the song explodes into some seriously crushing riffage, utterly crushing and eminently headbangable. The sound gets mathier, and then the vocals come in for the first time more sort of spoken word at first, and then a second vocal, which sounds like a processed female vox, and gives the sound a seriously psychedelic, almost dream poppy vibe, at least briefly, soon the song erupts into another stretch of chugging heaviness, and eventually explodes into a final sprawl of galloping double kick driven, riffy metal crush. Fucking awesome. No idea why these guys aren't more popular. Maybe third times the charm.
This comes with a download code too. But we thought we should mention, it's a 32 CHARACTER DOWNLOAD CODE!!!! Took us three tries to get it entered right, good grief! Pressed on lovely pale blue vinyl, with a full color printed cardstock insert.
