Hard to believe, but this is indeed a RAP record from one of the drummers of BURMESE! But Burmese fans aren't necessarily Schaffer's demographic, as there are no hellish howls, or gut ripping low end, of head crushing percussive onslaught, just some bumping bass, casio-ish drum beats, and a whine-y white boy flow. But it's the lyrics that keep the Burmese flame burning. Metal, Satan, mayhem, rock and roll and assorted other punk rock debauchery spit in a sing songy, un-funky flow. Fans of Steven Schultz's I Forgot To Get A Rap Name record should definitely check this out!
Most amazing metal record. Traditional Brazilian percussion, didgeridoo, throat singing. Extremely powerful. Faith No More doesn't even come close.
"Surreal Metal Dementia" as they call it, might not be an American Psychiatric Association approved diagnosis but it isn't a bad description of this American black metal band's somewhat unusual take on the genre. Rather than ape the droning, raw and primitive spikes n' corpsepaint stuff that seems to inspire so many USBM acts, these guys' condition seems related to a more, uh, advanced style of Norse metal, symptomatic of "666 International" Dodheimsgard and "Declaration of War" Mayhem for instance. That is, they throw lots of left-field electronik experimentation into their already choppy brew of black metal chaos. If you like stuttering sci-fi synth bleepage and think that would go well with twisting-turning song structures at 100 mph, then you might do well to check this out. This nine-track album is maybe kinda short at just 25 minutes, but they sure do cram a lot in!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
All-instrumental Sabbathy stoner metal from Philly, pretending to be a soundtrack to a '70s biker flick. Didn't fool us but it's still pretty good riffy instrumental Sabbathy stoner metal all the same.
It might be a bit obvious, but it'll get our point across: take a look at this album's cover, an evocative image of a Neolithic stone circle out on a mystic moor somewhere, the stones jutting up into a darkened, dusky red sky. Now imagine the amid the stones also a circle of Orange amps/cabinets, cranking twin guitar jams in a '70s psych/metal style... add a bassist and a drummer who makes a point of also being credited with "cowbell", and you're perhaps getting close to an idea of what Serpent Throne's The Battle Of Old Crow sounds like.
Released by Vessel (best known as the label who previously brought us that fantastic archival release by '70s Pentagram alter ego Bedemon, a few years back), this is the 2nd full-length from these Philadelphia instru-metallists (featuring one of the guitarists from sludge-doom act Otesanek), following 2007's Ride Satan Ride. The concept for -that- album was that it was a reissue of a long-lost soundtrack to an obscure '70s biker film. And it almost could have been, but we think Serpent Throne could have gone further with the idea, like having a repeating "theme" motif throughout the album, interspersing the tracks with made up fake movie dialogue and sound effects, or including a mellow acoustic ballad "hit single" that would have played during the imaginary film's love scene... stuff like that would have made it more like the soundtracks to actual films like Psychomania and Stone. But it was a cool debut anyway, that we should have reviewed but didn't, so we're making sure not to sleep on this one too. The Battle Of Old Crow scraps the movie soundtrack concept and just provides the riffy instrumental rockin', without pretense. Which we could describe as sounding like a stoner rock Fucking Champs, maybe. Or a shut-up-n-play-yer-guitar version of The Sword. In other words, heavy and badass in the guitar dep't. Of which there's two here, guitars that is, bringing the stirring harmonies, trippy leads, and fat riffs. Heck, it's got "guitariness" on par with AQ faves Slough Feg and Hammers of Misfortune. Fans of Earthless ought to dig this too, though the songs here are just that, songs, more concise and less jammy than Earthless's extended improvs. Another fitting comparison would be to fellow Philly instrumental act Stinking Lizaveta, if they were just a bit more overtly on the retro/stoner tip. The '70s heaviness of bands like Sabbath, Scorpions (both cited on the cover sticker blurb), Wishbone Ash, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple and the like is the obvious inspiration here, and Serpent Throne have definitely learned their lessons well.
While not having a singer can sometimes be a good thing (since any given vocalist's voice, not to mention lyrics, can be so subjective a pleasure, or not), the question that usually gets asked about something like this is, well, is it boring? We'd say, no, definitely not. Not if you like tasty guitar and authentically '70s sounding bellbottomed riffage! In that case, having no singer is a plus, since there's no vocals to get in the way of the guitarists doing their thing. Which they do quite well indeed! The rhythm section is pretty tight too.
While often, the solution (or purpose) of some bands doing the instrumental thing is to get ultra-techy and complex, to grab attention that way, Serpent Throne take a different tack, writing songs that are just that, memorable songs, vocals or no. Sure, there's moments where you wouldn't mind your favorite '70s metal vocalist stepping up to the mic. But Serpent Throne's catchy riffs and purely instrumental interplay is plenty enough most of the time - powerful, mesmerizing and melodic. Recommended.
Been waiting for this one for a while! Kinda mysterious, really. Certain sources say that this supposedly came out in 2010, but it never seemed to materialize at any of our suppliers. Last year, a vinyl version was released (and we might still have like one copy left) and so we thought the cd was immediately impending too, and kept waiting for it, and waiting... finally, it's actually available!! And worth the wait, 'cause we LOVE the ripping instru-metal stoner rock heaviness that Philadelphia's Serpent Throne brings, as displayed on earlier albums The Battle Of Old Crow and fake '70s biker flick soundtrack Ride Satan Ride.
White Summer - Black Winter is again a tour-de-force of '70s sounding, twin guitar, heavy riff rockin' psychmetal, sans vocals. For being an instrumental band, they manage to make their songs SONGS, y'know, not just jams, though they DO go off, too. Total chugging doomed out glory, adorned with resounding, heartbreaking harmonies, with titles like "March Of The Druids", "Riff Forest", "Pagan Eclipse", and (the remarkably mellow) "Mushroom Cloud". Damn good, somewhere twixt The Fucking Champs, and Earthless (but like we said, less jammy), and real deal '70s stuff a la Wishbone Ash, early Scorpions, Thin Lizzy, and Poobah.
A few years back, we wrote A LOT about The Battle Of Old Crow, hopefully that enticed you to pick it up then, and you're as eager for this new one as we are. Or, if you're new to Serpent Throne, this one oughtta make you a fan, if you dig folks playing the heck out of their guitars, at Black Sabbath inspired levels of heaviness and riff-mastery (and why wouldn't you??). Folks into fellow Phillies Stinking Lizaveta should also like 'em, Zebulon Pike fans too. Recommended.
Had to get at least a couple of these and list it. First off, it's one of our pal Brian from WFMU's current faves (and if you've ever heard his radio show, you know he digs the weirdest shit, especially where metal is concerned). Secondly, the other day this was playing in the front of the store, and from the back office, we thought it was freakin' Diamanda Galas... except it was '80s metal, sort of. But the crazy vocals and lo-fi recording quality made it sound like something totally WTF? and avant garde instead.
So, who the heck sings like that? What IS this? Well, the singer wasn't Diamanda. Or even a woman. Serpent's Knight were in fact an eighties metal band from Seattle, and the first disc of this archival double cd set consists of demos circa '83 to '85, when their singer (with the insanely high voice, and, it should be added, an equally impressive mane of platinum blond hair!) was a guy by the name Warrel Dane, best known now as the frontman for currently popular power metal outfit Nevermore. But before Nevermore, he was in a (much better in our opinion) speed metal band called Sanctuary, who debuted in '87 with an album produced by Megadeth's Dave Mustaine. And before that, he sang for these guys, Serpent's Knight, who never made an album - though they provided Sanctuary with their best track "Battle Angels", and both bands also did covers of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. Serpent's Knight started off as a high school band doing Sabbath and Priest covers. Writing their own songs, they then moved into even more of a dark and evil-sounding Mercyful Fate influenced occult metal mode, finding a dude (Dane) who could out-screech even King Diamond himself!!
So check this out if you're into some extreme glass-shattering vocal histrionics, heavy metal or otherwise. And/or if you're already a fan of Sanctuary, or Nevermore. And of course if you're just an '80s metal nerd, like some of us! You'll love how the trebly, widdly guitars rip it up along with the vocals...
In addition to the material with Warrel Dane, there's also a couple tracks on disc one with someone named "Father Scorn" on vocals, who is also pretty bizarre. And then there's disc two, a 1989 demo from later lineup of Serpent's Knight, with a Mark G on vox. With songs like, um, "Sick Bloody Cunt" it seems they were trying for a PMRC-baiting, shock rock angle, W.A.S.P. style, though that didn't apparently lead to much success, oh well. Not bad though, more value added for the obscure '80s metal inclined. Furthermore, the 2nd disc contains a bonus 19 minute video clip, grainy footage from their first ever gig in 1984. And then there's a 22 page cd booklet with tons of color photos and EXTENSIVELY detailed band history.
Formerly Thee Plague Of Gentlemen... due to a pretty horrible situation, they had to change the name, and get a new singer... still the same heavy doom metal, now with female vocals. They do a Uriah Heep cover on this debut ep.
Solo album (and we mean SOLO), from the bassist for eccentric Spanish doomlords Orthodox. Avant-garde and experimental, this disc consists of improvised soundscapes of creaky string screech and droning, bowing rumble on acoustic double bass. It's all very dark and atmospheric, difficult listening at first, but then it gets kind of mesmeric, Serrato layering his bass textures into constructs of claustrophobic density. The penultimate track "Las Dos Caidas De Cuervo" adds horns and drums (all ALSO played by Serrato via the magic of overdubbing), for more of an overt free jazz (or "death jazz"?) approach.
Comes with liner notes from Serrato, commenting on each track with regards to this album's overarching "story" (a mythic concept about an unborn crow...) was well as citing specific musical inspirations including raw early '90s black metal, Hindemith, Xenakis, Ligeti, Black Sabbath, and fellow improvising bassist Simon H. Fell.
Orthodox fans looking for doom metal won't really find any here, not that it's not "doomy" in other ways. But if you like the more un-orthodox extremes of what Orthodox does, then check it out. By the way, Serrato also plays in the isolationist duo Jacob, whose disc on Utech we reviewed last year.
Latest from this mysterious 'alien black metal' duo whose sound definitely leans way more toward the alien than the black metal. We went pretty nuts for their Stratospheric Passenger record, a dizzying assemblage of psychedelic drones and outerspace black buzz, of dark drone metal and abstract otherworldly ambience. That record still ranks up there as one of our favorite slabs of outsider black metal weirdness, and then recently we got to see them play on THE BUS here in town, transforming an old city bus, parked under a highway overpass, into some sort of smoke filled, ear drum destroying, trance inducing sonic starship.
So here's their latest batch of strange sounds, confusingly packaged in an eye popping almost cartoonish, full color geometric cover, sealed shut with a similarly printed little band-aid style sticker. But inside, it's the same twisted blackened psychedelia we were hoping for. Spidery minor key guitars, field recordings, raspy metallic drones, harsh vokills way off in the distance. Simultaneously meditative and hypnotic, harsh and caustic, abstract and blackened, a sort of post rock black metal drift, warped and washed out and weirdly not all that black metal at all. But that's just the first track. From there on out it's a series of strange soundscapes, analog electronics, treated textural drones, creaks and thrums and moans, wreathed in strange FX and smeared into abstract sounds and shapes, everything bleary and blurry and indistinct, haunting and ghostlike, snippets of samples(?) surfacing occasionally amidst the layered drifts of chordal thrum and soft black buzz. Slow motion melodies unfurl over clouds of shortwave static, ethereal billows of muted shimmer, and delicately swirling textures, malfunctioning machinery, and all sorts of other slowly decaying sonic ephemera, suspended in some sort of rusted out, gauzy dreamworld, bleak and beautiful, creepy and claustrophobic.
LIMITED TO 80 COPIES!!! Each one hand numbered.
Another mysterious transmission from this alien black metal duo, whose black metal seems to get more and more alien with every release. This time around, the whole A side seems to recast SS's black metal as something much more abstract and indistinct, ultra lo-fi and darkly chaotic, a sprawl of murky free form drift, thick clouds of squiggly FX and gristly buzz, buried pulsing rhythms, heavily effected vokills, the vibe more black-drone-kosmische than black metal, the sound brittle and washed out, the opening track flowing directly into the follow up, which arranges the same ingredients but adds a bit more black buzz, to what sounds like blast beats, although they too are buried deep in the sonic murk, here too, everything blurred into a black psychedelic swirl.
The flipside cranks up the fidelity a bit unleashing a wave of thick droned out guitar buzz, laced with space-y squiggles, the sounds smeared into a heaving dronescape, until a buried rhythm surfaces, eventually transforming the sound into something more black metal, but still washed out to the point that it's almost ambient, before finally shedding all the blackness and all the buzz, leaving just a shadowy stretch of brooding kosmische synth swirl.
Pressed on super cool black smoke swirled clear vinyl!
NOW ON VINYL!!!
Finally, another dark missive from this 'alien black metal duo', long time aQ faves Servile Sect, whose ritualist spacepsych dronescapes crackle with black energy, occasionally erupting into full on metallic blackness, but just as often slowly drifting and expanding into sprawling stretches of blurred low end mesmer, laced with chant like vocals and buried bits of melody, mutant otherworldly landscapes of hushed ominous drift and muted psychedelic black ragas.
On past records, the black metal element seemed almost like an afterthought, the records way heavier on the drone and drift, but on Realms Of The Queen, right out of the gate, a blasting lo-fi drum machine rhythm sets the scene, while thick sheets of coruscating guitars and harsh shrieked vokills are laid over the top, but even then, the sound is not so much fierce and grim and sort of hazy and blackly psychedelic, like a black metal blurred into some sort of trancelike black raga, the guitars lush and layered, everything cloaked in a gauze of murky muted swirl.
But soon after, the band dial back the buzz, leaving just the black, a crunchy, distorted almost Wolf Eyesian industrial dirgescape, all mechanical creaks and staticky hiss, but underneath, a mournful piano picks out a barely there lament, a swell of black buzz rises up from the murk, sheets of hiss, like super distorted vocals drift in, the result a haunting funereal industrial doom, that again is not so much heavy and crushing, and moody and atmospheric.
The rest of the record follows a similar pattern, creating lush ritualistic landscapes of distant buzzing drones, SUNNO)))-like avalanches of crumbling distortion, hazy crystalline streaks of almost new age sounding drift, synthy soundtracky tranceouts that sound a little like Zombi or Majeure being played at 16rpm and being broadcast from speakers submerged in brackish water at the bottom of some giant cavern, there are even occasional vocals, deep dramatic croons, way down in the mix, adding a gorgeous dark pop element to certain tracks.
Thick corrosive dins collide with shoegaze-y fuzz, murky avant blackness drifts into hushed minimal shimmer, gnarled black riffage gets tangled up into epic swirling blacknoise squalls, Sunroof!-like ur-drones settle into droned out blackness, culminating in the epic closer, "Universe And Self, Sender And Receiver", which sounds like a prettier fuzzier Wold, noisy and dense and black as pitch, but shot through with subtle melody, with rich layered textures, shifting constantly, a blurred murk that finally explodes into a surprisingly lush and lustrous dreampsych shoegaze softblack blowout that sounds almost like some sort of black metal dreampop, fuzzy and washed out, but still frenetic and fierce. So fucking incredible.
From the same label that brought us the amazing Gog records, Sounds Of Battle And Souvenir Collecting, comes this bizarre, and hauntingly beautiful slab of alien black metal. Not sure what else to call it, it's definitely black metal, but it's weirdly blissy and electronic sounding, more like Alcest or Amesoeurs than old school grimnity, but even then, it's still weirder, like it must have been played by robots or insects, or some massive black metal machine assembled beneath the surface of some mysterious moon. You can almost picture some mechanical monstrosity, pieces of human flesh, various organs, somehow built into the machine's inner workings, everything grinding and sparking all in a Herculean effort to produce this glorious droning buzzing blackness. A cloud of black buzz that will eventually drift through space and time swallowing any planets in its path, and extinguishing all life it encounters. Heck, even the cover of the record is the view from some sort of alien lander, looking out and the cold dead ground of some red planet, as if any minute some huge horrible black beast will lurch into view over the horizon, dashing all of our ideas about said planet being uninhabited.
The sound of Servile Sect is epic, and majestic, the guitars glistening sheets of sound, the surface of that sound peppered with bits of electronic shimmer, causing the long drawn out riffery to reflect and refract, tiny little sonic events occurring every second, the surface alive and constantly squirming and changing color, but viewed from afar, it's simply a blown out undulating buzz. Those guitars are digitized and processed, spread into thick smears of warm glowing whir, the riffs barely discernible beneath the constant roar of Servile Sect's sonic swirl
The vocals add just more buzz to the mix, howling and wailing, but stretched into streaks of sonic violence, and drums, assuming there are any, are buried, festering beneath layer after layer of crushing guitar fuzz, emitting noxious rhythms that don't so much blast or pound as they do explode into tiny squalls of still more buzz.
Occasionally, the buzz abates, leaving the guitar to sway lazily, the notes ringing out, the guitars lurking in the distance, but it's never long before the lilting melody is engulfed by a colossal buzzing roar, and the band locks into another extended psychfuzzblackdrone.
Another out of left field immediate AQ black bliss classic.
Fans of the new wave of droned out dreamy metal, black and otherwise: Nadja, Angelic Process, Ameseours, Alcest, etc. will dig this, as will dronelords who like their drones heavy and loud and yeah, a bit metallic...
The latest transmission from this alien psychedelic black metal duo, and when we first got this in, we were convinced we had already reviewed this before. And then realized that it was in fact, a vinyl reissue of the long out of print cassette that was originally released on Handmade Birds as a companion to Servile Sect's Trvth record, but it was something else, something more, and then it hit us, the new cover art was what was so similar, and then we realized, it's actually the EXACT same painting as the cover of the Lumerians' Transmallinia record. Doh! What can you do? It's obvious why both bands picked it, cuz it's a seriously bad ass painting by famous outsider artist Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, all cosmic and swirled greens and yellows, and in some weird way, it suits both bands. In the case of Servile Sect, it definitely taps into their weird alien vibe, and their subtle psychedelic undertones, both of which are present throughout Surrender. Here's what we had to say about the cassette version when we first reviewed it earlier this year:
Released as a companion to the group's recent Trvth record, Svrrender acts perfectly as an extension of Trvth, building on the band's sprawling blackened psychedelia and scorched blackbuzz drones. The record opens with sheets of thick buzzing synths, and swirling electronics, all over strange murky pulses, and laced with strange disembodied voices, before launching into a full bore blast of traditional sounding black metal fury, huge thick squalls of barbed riffage, programmed beats blasting wildly through the murk, the vocals a sick, raspy demonic croak, a blur of chaotic blackness, that manages to meld traditional BM tropes to something much more mysterious and experimental, the group infusing the seemingly traditional sound with all manner of unlikely texture and subtle warped FX. Definitely grim enough for unadventurous metalheads, but as this is Servile Sect, the sound soon shifts to something much more spacey and droned out, total psychedelic cosmic drift, thick undulating swells of crumbling rumbles and sci-fi shimmer, wrapped around chantlike vox and smeared layers and textures, and over the course of the five songs on the A side, the sound veers from that droned out celestial thrum to furious churning black metal blasts and back again, the whole side a dizzying twisted black/drone juggernaut.
The flipside is just as heavy, but in a completely different manner, taking the band's knack from blackened soundscaping, and applying it to a blurred, lumbering ultradoom, sort of SUNNO))) like in its slo-mo glacial heft, but the band's grim psychedelic dirgery somehow manages to take that sound and push it even further, the guitars grinding (or are they synths) and rumbling, streaks of spacey FX and glitched out electronics, not to mention heavily effected vox, swirl above whorls of feedback, and smeared synths, all anchored by a deathmarch ultradoom pound, a caveman creep wreathed in thick downtuned rumble and thrum, super hypnotic and heavy, but also caustic and abject and fucking massive sounding, not to mention somehow totally spacey and psychedelic. Easily some of the best stuff we've heard from these guys.
And like the tape version, this vinyl is also limited to so grab one quick before they're gone!
How does he do it? R. Loren of Pyramids, Sailors With Wax Wings and White Moth launched his new vinyl only label mere months ago, and already has a catalog that puts most labels who have been up and running for years to shame, releases from Blut Aus Nord, Celestiial, His Name Is Alive, Key, Evan Caminiti, Der Blutharsch (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), with forthcoming releases from Black Boned Angel, Blood Of The Black Owl, Circle Of Ouroborus, Human Quena Orchestra, Crooked Necks, Jasper TX, Our Love Will Destroy The World, Lovesliescrushing, Panopticon, Sutekh Hexen, Locrian, White Ring, Tenhornedbeast and TONS more, a mix of reissues and brand new records, and it wouldn't be so bad if everything wasn't so good, but if you're like us, you want them ALL.
Including this, a brand new release from black metal psych drone duo Servile Sect, formerly of Arizona but now split up with one member in Humbolt, the other in NYC, but the distance doesn't seem to have made much of a difference, with TRVTH taking up right where their last full length left off, a sprawling expanse of drugged out blackened psychedelia, programmed rhythms, buzzing lumbering dirges, thick guitars blurred into washed out streaks, harsh vokills that seem to hover wraith like within ever swirling clouds of dark effects and slowed down riffage, the sound shifts from blurred murk, to smoldering black effulgence, from grinding churning crunch to hazy abstract drift, SS's version of black metal less about the blast and buzz, and more about the vibe, the sound, the tone, the texture, the ambience, the mood, the feel, the duo crouched behind their duct tape adorned synths, a holy mountain of gear, hiding these alchemists as they unfurl sprawling soundscapes equal part haunting blackness, and druggy dreamy shimmer, each grim missive a controlled chaos of black hole dopesmoke drift and blackened ritualistic ur-drone buzz.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!!!
Killer three way split, two parts Japanese, one part USA. Essential for Sludge doom fanatics, as this features a brand new unreleased track from Japan's mighty, unsung doomlords Dot [.]. Maybe it's the weird spelling, maybe it's the paucity of available material, but Dot [.] are every bit as cool and weird and heavy as Boris or Corrupted and this track proves that once again. But the big surprise here are the two bands we have never heard of before. both amazing, one quite possibly our new favorite band!
Up first are Japanese black thrash outfit Sete Star Sept who spew forth 4 tracks of super downtuned, blackened thrashing grind metal insanity, super low cookie monster growls, furious riffing, massive blown out production, thick swaths of shrieking white noise. Like a killer old school UK crust band super charged and run through some cracked Japanese blackgrind filter. So cool.
But holy fuck, Watch Me Burn just totally and completely knocked us on our asses. So heavy, so weird, so utterly damaged and freaked out. Imagine the Boredoms circa Vision Creation New Sun, mixed with later tripped out trancier spacerock Solar Anus (even though they're American), then imagine that band playing some super schizophrenic what-the-fuck grindcore, with tons of totally unhinged studio weirdness, random snatches of Swedish death metal guitar leads, swirling drifts of acoustic guitar and garbled beats, bizarre ambient stretches peppered with hand drums and guttural vocalizations, abstract percussion super tripped out malfunctioning studio FX, occasional plodding processed death metal chug, super spastic drum machine, bits of slowed down doom groove, weird jangly guitars, super processed slabs of rhythmic interference, blinding super brief blasts of Merzbowian face melting grind and too much other confusional fucked up randomness to even begin describing. Like Soilent Green or Brutal Truth chopped up and reassembled by a very high jungle DJ with two broken turntables. So fucking amazing.
And finally Dot [.], who give us just what we need, an absolutely crushing slow motion stoned doom drone groovescape. Starting out more Church Of Misery than Corrupted, the band sways and swings before stumbling into a druggy glacial lurch, a sick Eyehategod dirge, that crawls and slithers, wrapped in thick peals of feedback, a harsh, rasped super demonic vocal over gloriously murky downtuned sludge. Absolutely essential.
I think French people have a different idea of what is scary. Take for example the French black metal band Seth. Makes you wonder if there are other French black metal bands called Todd, or Josh, or Erik, or Simon. Who knows? How about these song titles: 'Addicted To Psychotropic Angeldust' or 'Into The Spheres Of Spirtuality' or 'The Sons Of Seth'. Not so scary. But Seth do play some mean and -very- scary black metal. Fast and furious, with a really strange production (almost industrial at times) and some really weird playing/parts that make Seth stand out from their black metal contemporaries. Definitely fits comfortably next to your Immortal, Emperor, and Marduk records.
We had never heard of these Baltimore heavies before their super limited Record Store Day 7", which sadly, we never got enough to review/list post RSD, but we were impressed enough to keep our eyes peeled for more, and now more has arrived, in the form of this bruiser, and like that 7", SSoS deliver a bludgeoning blast of blown out stoner sludge, crusty hardcore, and brutal blackened heaviness, opener "Ghost Plains" displays all three, starting out Eyehategod style, with gurgling basslines wreathed in a swirling cloud of feedback, before launching into some slithery, sludge-y downtuned creep, bellowed monster vox over thick tarpit riffage and caveman drum pound, eventually splintering into a full on blast of D-beat crust-punk, shrieked and furious, mathy and metallic, and a little bit blackened, only to wind down into some old school big riff classic sounding doom, before adding some frenzied double kick drumming, and some wild shrieked vokills. And while that seems like a dizzying mix, it somehow all gels, the band effortlessly slipping from metal to punk to sludge to doom and back again, some tracks like "Moths" lock into a woozy funeral doom-ic crawl, but before you know it have morphed into a sort of mathy metallic churn, and others are hateful ultra doom sprawls, that also eventually transform into something more dense and driving. Needless to say, absolutely essential for folks who like their metal blackened, crusty, sludgey, stonery, doomy, riffy, crushing, pummeling, downtuned and HEAVY AS FUCK. Includes a 32 minute bonus track that's a whole live show from 2012!
Sadly, rock has always been a bit of a boy's club. Sure most things are, but rock especially. And it only gets worse as you move toward the heavier and darker side of the sonic spectrum, metal, industrial, noise, women are few and far between. That's not to say there aren't woman making serious noise in those realms, there most definitely are, maybe none more fearsome than Sewer Goddess, aka Kristen Rose who traffics in some of the darkest, heaviest, filthiest sludge, blackened doom and abstract industrial we've heard, and whose particular brand of abject blackened noise is on full display here, a collection of various live performances over the years 2009-2010, and finds Rose, backed up by a full band, and engaging in some seriously harrowing soundmaking.
The opening track begins all thick bass buzz and keening feedback, soon industrial percussion emerges, and Rose's echo drenched wail, the bass buzz coalescing into sludgey dirgey riffage, while all around it guitars and samplers and effects fill the blackened sky with all manner of blackly psychedelic noise, the sound lumbers and lurches, before shifting gears in a flurry of horror movie shrieks, becoming more of a blackdrone, all layered hiss and skree and rumble, chaotic but weirdly hypnotic. The second track, the relatively brief "We Ate Their Eyes", introduces more of a groove, albeit just barely, more like a monstrous dirge, rhythmic and grimly propulsive, buried beneath an avalanche of shrieked vox and caustic low end crumble, before giving way to "Mother Agony" that channels Laibach and Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten into a Swans like creep, all hazy and washed out, the sound laced with streaks of high end, of sonar like pings, of gristly crunch and super distorted buzz, there's a definite Wolf Eyes vibe too, and then the vocals swoop back in, hysterical and terrifying, curdled with effects, it manages to be the most mesmerizingly hypnotic track here, while still retaining an unhinged mania.
The epic "Chained To The Cage Of Existence / A Lifeless Dreaming" seems to be the centerpiece here clocking in at 16+ minutes, and again begins as a blackened rumble, all buzz and blur, peppered with strange industrial clanks and clunks, before erupting into another grinding dirge, Rose's haunting deathlike vox adding a serious creep factor, the song a droned out rift, that seems like it might go on like that forever, until it splinters suddenly into a full on drum driven chunk of blackened noise metal crush, lurching, lumbering, shrieks and atonal riffage nestled amidst swells of black buzz and pounding rhythms and lots of feedback, before slipping right back into a sonic death march that continues until the end of the track, loping and minimal, laced with some cool metallic melodies, again slathered in feedback, and Rose's vox, that here remind us of the hysterical shrieks of black metal horde Bethlehem. And then finally, "Slavepiece" finishes things off, the most metal of the bunch, but sounding like it was recorded on a wax cylinder, the sound brittle and blown out, the band locked into a super in-the-red, feedback drenched riff heavy dirge, that sounds like an even more unhinged take on Brainbombs / No Balls. Fucking awesome, but most definitely only for the iron eared.
Fans of other blackened filth like Gnaw Their Tongues, Aderlating, Demonologists, Gorgontongue, and Hallowed Butchery as well as classic industrial / noise / blacknoise weirdness will be in heaven...
Elsewhere on this week's list (in fact, probably right above this review) you'll find the Disciples Of Shit cd, a collection of live recordings from blackened industrial noisescaper Sewer Goddess, aka Kristen Rose, a seriously brutal, but blackly beautiful collection of caustic live performances. Now that you know what Rose is capable of on stage, here's a glimpse of what she can do in the studio, and as you might expect, it's not to far removed, if anything, it's darker, heavier and LOUDER. But otherwise the same sort of droned out industrial crush, a bleak cinematic blackness that definitely reminds us of Gnaw Their Tongues, lots of industrial clank and clatter, a keening distant high end tone that seems to drift atop monstrous hissed vokills and streaks of blackened sound, the long stretches of buzz and crush infused with mysterious melodies.
The flipside is more riffy and dirgey, with some seriously creepy (and weirdly sexy) whispered vox, the buzz thick and corrosive, all tethered to a lurching mechanical rhythm, all within thick clouds of hiss and hum and whir, the vibe moody and murky and very soundtracky, but still bleak and menacing and seriously harrowing, shades of Wolf Eyes too, but the more we here from Sewer Goddess, the more we're beginning to think she really sounds like nobody else.
SUPER LIMITED, comes in a cool silkscreened jacket with a printed fold out insert.
We've always had a certain fascination with Eastern European black metal. Sure, there are some similarities to the hordes of Scandinavia, but there is just something about bands from places like Russia, Romania, and the Ukraine, home of Shadows Ground. At this point in black metal's long history, things are usually a little more raw, more bleak, and just a little more mysterious with bands from these places. Shadows Ground are very reminiscent, both sonically and lyrically of Old Wainds, who you might recognize as one of our favorite black metal bands of all time. Like Old Wainds, and to a similar degree OW-related project Nav, these guys give you a first hand glimpse into the cold wintry realms of their homeland. Depressing insectoid melodies buzz relentlessly over the non-stop blasts, and the vocals are a harsh demon croak spitting out classic black metal truths of darkness and despair. There are some nice pics of the band being irresponsible with knives and fire, and this certainly harkens back to the days when black metal still seemed like a threat, or at least something you would want to avoid in a graveyard. Even though there are plenty of other bands who may be doing things more unique in the way of instrumentation and presentation, sometimes you just don't want to fuck with classic formulas, and anyone who yearns for some Transylvanian Hunger styled madness will find plenty of reasons to rejoice with this.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Yet another conceptual series, this time it's heavy, metalcore bands covering the godfathers of Bay Area thrash. The first installment is Boy Sets Fire and Shai Hulud doing 'Fade To Black' and 'Damage Inc.' respectively.
But man, the packaging. I'm not sure how to explain it. it's very minimal, die cut so it's like a jagged sash, just barely covering the 7", and unfolded it's like a big fish hook/lightning bolt. weird and cool
It seems like maybe we're becoming a little predictable sometimes, letting the name of a band, or some insane cover art get us all gaga over a record before we even hear the music. But while it's only a theory, it seems like in most cases, the music is just as good as the artwork. Or the band name. For years, we've applied that theory to our record shopping and have rarely been disappointed.
So here we are again. You obviously know where this is heading since we ARE reviewing this record, AND highlighting it, but a while back, it was just a name, Fantastikol Hole. How could we not be curious, if not utterly smitten. A band called Fantastikol Hole? C'mon. SO we tracked down every shred of recorded music from these guys and got just a little bit obsessed. But this is the first one we could track down enough of to list. Four bands, all amazing, all totally different, all French we think, a record so heavy and weird it took TEN labels to release it. And after all that talk of Fantastikol Hole, they only have three tracks here, but it's enough to get you as obsessed as we are.
So what exactly are Fantastikol Hole all about? Super aggro, mathy, convoulted experimental heavy rock weirdness. Stop start stuttery arrangements, huge slabs of Neurosis-y sludge, bits of shimmer and drone-y ambience, wild tangled squiggly leads, angular atonal riffage, howled distorted vocals, long stretches of crumbling doomy buzz, and that's just the first song of three. The second is even more manic, a sort of proggy grind, with tons of space, and weird stops, jagged riffing, swirling dizzying bursts of buzzing fury, programmed drums, explosions of impossibly convoluted synth swathed hypergrind, shortwave radio interference. The third track is only two minutes, but they spend it plodding along doomily, a huge downtuned riff, wrapped around a simple percussive thud, the vocals processed and super distorted, so genius. Complex and confusional and mathy and heavy as fuck. We need to carry more Fantastikol Hole. We will remedy that as soon as humanly possible.
But what about the other fantastikol bands here? Well, there's Shall Not Kill, who offer up three tracks of their own brand of heaviness, a groovy stoned, heavy as fuck plodding midtempo post punk sludgy doom, rife with harmonized lead guitars, yowled vocals, super psychedelic squalls of twisted tangled leads, busts of furious octopoidal drumming, some super fast Maiden style jams, some blissed out droney dirges, but always returning to some sort of cracked classic doom sound.
Up next is Tekken, who are fast and fucked up and furious, a white hot metallic hardcore, bordering on grind, with weird samples, blasts of incendiary buzz, pounding chaotic drumming and snarling punk as fuck howled vocals. The last track finds their grinding punk chopped up and flipped backwards, slathered in static, turning it into some weird fuzzed out, stuttering soundscape of skipping punk rock cds and shortwave interference.
And finally, comes the band Moon, whose three long tracks fall somewhere between ultra minimal dronemusic, and the slow motion sludge riffery of Old Earth or SUNNO))), nearly ambient the slow low rumbles eventually build into a lugubrious downtuned crawl, the buzz occasionally receding, and revealing a glimmering glistening shimmer beneath the rumble.
A pretty weird combination, but a tough one to beat. We've found ourselves digging for more stuff from all four of these bands, although our heart still belongs to Fantastikol Hole.
WAY recommended.
Gooey crunchy sludge from the Great White North.
67 minutes of what sounds like the sonic equivalent of your head dunked in Robitussin�
Gorgeous packaging: a double LP on nice thick vinyl, an ULTRA LIMITED edition of 300, all hand-screened (inside and out) printed on brown heavy cardstock that folds like a big envelope.
Which is perfect, you need a cover this thick to contain the downtuned blobs of almost unbearable heaviness that these guys ooze.
And we mean that in a good way� Mob Wheel is a delightfully skull caving mix of Dopethrone-era Electric Wizard and some Floor or later Cavity. Maybe even some early Unsane. All that with a giant dose of Bullhead-era Melvins crush and just a smidge of early Eyehategod. Tuneful? A bit. Melodic? A bit. Heavy? Let's see, imagine a dumptruck full of gold bricks, dipped in tar and dropped from a plane. That's sort of heavy. Now imagine that dumptruck MADE out of solid gold and filled with black holes, and fired from a cannon, in space, directly at your earhole. Now you're getting closer.
Yeah, you definitely need this: the gooey, sticky, sludgy, icky stuff we can't get enough of! Like someone took the record, threw it in a pot to boil, then dumped it over your head.
Fans of the "new sludge" (Boris, Corrupted, SUNNO))), Earth) will be in heaven (or hell I guess depending on your preference)!
Featuring a former member of doom-dirge lords Sons of Otis and a current member or metalcore heros Cursed, Shallow N.D. has been a mainstay in the Ontario scene since 1992.
Unfortunately the band have recently hung up their touring boots and put the van up on blocks, so we'll just have to imagine what it would be like see these guys conjure up this dissonant crunch and thud on stage!
Album number two from these Finnish doom merchants and man does it make me want to just end it all. This music is dismal and bleak and totally hopelessly perfect. So slow and miserable and heavy and dark. Take the lo-fi doom of Skepticism, and beef up the
Shape of Despair deftly mix haunting funereal dirges with ultra crushing doom, but add gentle folk melodies and subtle but soaring strings. This is the sort of stuff that should be on the soundtrack to the new Lord of the Rings. You can just imagine being lost and alone in the forest, just waiting to die. So good.
Wow, people must sure get depressed up in Finland, with that long winter and all. That would explain the strain of bands like Thergothon, Skepticism, and now Shape of Despair, that are so good at moulding melancholic funeral dirge doom metal. Basically, if you like the suicidal heavy dirge of Skepticism, and the ever-so-slightly melodic misery of fellow Scandinavians Katatonia, you'll like Shape of Despair.
One new song and a bunch of rarities from these Finnish depresso-doom metal masters.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Fifth album from these Sabbath worshipping Canucks. Their claim to fame is that their singer sounds EXACTLY like Ozzy. Ozzy at his most nasal perhaps, but definitely Ozzy. And they exploit that vocal similarity to the utmost, by writing the most Sabbathy songs they can (which they do quite well). And who's to blame 'em? And although the too-obvious Ozzyness of the vocalist might hold these guys back from being taken totally seriously on their own terms, this should be at least as popular as the equally awesome Early Man, who also have been known to sound a bit like Sabbath/Ozzy.
Not that this sounds quite like what you think it might. This is Sabbathy, but really uptempo Sabbath, rocking hard. Sheavy might be the only Sabbath-copyist band in existence to sound like they're specifically trying to emulate the Sabs circa Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die, the final two albums of the original Ozzy era in the late '70s. So no "War Pigs" or "Iron Man" re-writes here. The slowest and doomiest they get is the instrumental, "Moments Of Silence", whereas the rest of this is pretty darn rockin'. Actually, maybe it's more just Ozzy than Sabbath that they're going for here, as they also sound a lot like Blizzard of Ozz (Ozzy's band when he went solo in the early '80s) -- even if Sheavy's guitarist never quite tries to scale the heights of Randy Rhodes. Though he's no slouch, either, and contributes plenty of crunch along with some sweet soloing. So for those of you partial to the rock (and Ozzy's pinched whine), Sheavy's Republic? would be a good one to crank. Produced by Billy Anderson, by the way, for the sludge-obsessives amongst you keeping score.
Break out the Molson, 'cause Canadian Black Sabbath doppelgangers Sheavy are back with another (stoner) rockin' disc. The Sabbath comparison arises mainly from singer Steve Hennessey's uncanny vocal resemblance to the nasal tones of Ozzy Osbourne. Although Mr. Hennessey probably won't have his own reality TV show (on Much Music?) in thirty years, he really does sound a heck of a lot like the bat-bitin' one, circa Ozzy's early '80s solo heyday. Sheavy utilizes this seemingly-familiar voice to lead the listener into melodic and heavy (as per their name) territory more rockin' than doomy -- their take on the Sabbath/'70s vibe is closer to Fu Manchu than Electric Wizard: wailing guitars, plentiful hooks, driving grooves, even some "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" style keyboards. Definitely one any Ozzy/Sabbath freak has to check out, but also a recommended album for all into good ol' old fashioned hard rock/metal! Retro like we like it, with lots of sci-fi and car culture references for max kitsch value. How come these guys weren't on that Fubar soundtrack? A glaring omisson indeed.
Your first reaction to his Canadian band will be: "I can't believe it's not Black Sabbath!" In a blind test, their singer could not be distinguished from Ozzy Osbourne by a panel of experts--it seems the only difference is that the guy in sHeavy hasn't bitten the head off any live animal (yet). That, and his band's got some better tunes for him to sing than what Ozzy's been up to lately. Normally, something that's this much of a copy would deserve scorn, but they're so damn good at it that you have to love it. This came out last year as an import, and now here's the domestic version, adding a (non-bogus) bonus track.
Here's the second album from these promising German doomsters, and it's a concept album perhaps, at least in regard to the track titles: "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday" -- there's a song for every day of the week. But the album has eight tracks, which means its has to wind up with the thirteen plus minutes of "Doomsday", the eighth day in Shepherd's apocalyptic week. Musically, this is mid-tempo, rocked-out stoner/doom fare in the vein of Goatsnake or Spirit Caravan. They're definitely into the latter -- indeed, they've brought in none other than the legendary Scott "Wino" Weinrich as a special guest, playing guitar on three of the tracks here and singing on one of 'em as well (demonstrating that Shepherd's usual vocalist doesn't do Wino as well as the man himself). The ultra-dirgey "Doomsday" boasts a special guest as well of interest to many AQ-customers: sax and Rhodes are contributed by a member of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore!
Record number two from these practically indescribable musical miscreants, er, GENIUSES. Where to begin? There's a label called Hekaloth, who in their own way are championing what they consider to be the most important musical advancement in recent history, the guitar synthesizer! And how do they do that? By making these insane records of warped warbly atonal synthesized guitar, accompanied by raw demonic sounding black metal rasps. And if that weren't enough, each record is a concept record, about some historical battle, and each one has some sort of theme: guitar synths mixed with jazz, or mixed with world music instruments, or Asian folk instruments. Did we mention the record covers? They generally feature statues or action figures piled atop and around guitar synth modules, which look just like stereo components, often laid out so the synth modules look like landscapes upon which some medieval battle just so happens to be taking place. In the past we've raved about the first Shevalreq record, as well as discs by Gluttony, Thursar and Xynfonica, to read more wild raving and hyperbolic ranting about these amazingly fucked up records check the website, needless to say, this upholds the high standards set forth by those curious collections of freaked out and fucked up weirdness.
The guitar synth sounds a little like a weird cheap organ, the melodies atonal and warped, there are different modules the player can install in the guitar synth, so out of nowhere some weird melody will surface that SORT of sounds like a koto or something. As far as we can tell this newest Shevalreq is meant to be a little Asian, but once we decided that, in swoops another track that sounds like the sound track to a Nintendo 64 Dungeons And Dragons game, all Renne Faire tinkle and lilting melody, and of course that deep ominous rasp. Some folks here are driven INSANE by this stuff, but some of us LOVE it, this shit is absolutely nuts. Totally bonkers. It appears to be serious, which only makes it more insane and impossibly awesome. Read the other reviews, listen to the sound samples, this is absolutely essential listening for folks into freaky outsider sounds and any sort of fractured fucked up musical weirdness.
We raved about a band called Xynfonica a few lists back. A baffling and ridiculous melding of 'classical music' with growled demonic death metal vocals. Some of us were blown away, others of us, well, were not. We discovered Xynfonica was created using nothing but a guitar synthesizer, and the man behind Xynfonica also had a record label, based entirely on this concept of musics made with guitar synthesizers, coupled with evil metal vocals, and had TWO OTHER RELEASES. One world music! And one jazz. Whatthefuck?! We knew we had to hear all of 'em!
So here we have the auspicious debut of Shevalreq. The world music installment of what seems to be a series of truly fucked up outsider musical weirdness. Starting with the cover, Shevalreq was already shaping up to be just as amazing as Xynfonica, the band name and album title in thick purple script, the cover a photo of the guitar synthesizer, and what appears to be a dat machine, and ON TOP OF THE synth and the dat machine are some miniature knights on horseback jousting!!! The back cover shows the same night posing next to the guitar pedals and still on top of the GIANT musical equipment. Inside are pages and pages of lyrics, again, an EPIC, this time concerned with some sort of ancient civilization, jousting, knights, murder, intrigue, castles and royalty, hard to say exactly, especially since it's impossible to understand the lyrics as they're delivered in that monstrous rasp.
And then there's the music. To be totally honest, it doesn't sound all that different than Xynfonica, lots of the tracks sound like a Youtube clip of a cat walking back and forth on a synthesizer keyboard. Coupled with the evil vocals, well, it's just totally bizarre, and to some of us absolute brilliance, but this one stands out as suddenly, the sounds will shift, and we're suddenly listening to tablas, or some Eastern sounding horns, and here and there, Monsieur Shevalreq even busts out little squalls of furious lead guitar. Wailing leads, soaring strings, plink plonky synths, growled invokations, rumbling fake cellos, all woven into a stumbling, damaged concept record about jousting and duels and kings and castles. What more do we need to say?
If you bought the Xynfonica, you almost absolutely need this, if you didn't, we still have some left, or you might as well start with this one. And next time, we'll review the JAZZ one?!?! We can hardly wait.
Latest from this all female Swiss doom combo, who we had never heard before but are digging a lot, their sound a blackened dirgey death doom, that slips easily from tarpit creep to almost Sabbathy groove, to churning metallic pound with all sort of variation in between, killer riffs, and a harsh raspy vokill (that can slip into a clean angelic croon). The record begins with a bit of clean guitar, draped over what sounds like the crackle of a fire burning, when the songs lurches to life, the riff is a slithery beast, driven by some muscled pound, only to drift right back into a strange bit of psychedelic shimmer, all muted buzz and ominously whispered vox, before the hammer falls, and the song bursts back into motion, this time with haunting clean vocals beneath the churning riffage. The follow up track begins lovely and lilting as well, but soon splinters into some filthy slithery sludge, laced with some surprising melody, and some cool post rocky parts, and an unexpectedly rocking second half. The rest of the record seems to shift freely between, haunting minimalism, and brooding chugging bombast, notable exceptions being the mostly mellow "Souls Colliding" which sounds more like slowcore than doom really, even when it gets heavy, and near the end, there's even some haunting lovely violin, or the clean vocal driven "(You Are) The Mirror" which sounds more like L7 or Hole but more doomy, the clean vocal harmonies a nice contrast to the downtuned chug and churn.
But all of that is cast aside for the closer, a seriously abject slab of slow-mo sludge, with some sick demonic vocal rasps, the track a deathmarch dirge, pounding away maniacally, the bleak black pound only occasionally offset by cool clean almost chantlike vox, drifting over the relentless crush, which soon sink into back into the mire, leaving the track to return to its black murky malevolence.
Holy heck. This is some serious over the top "blackjazz" indeed. No, not "black" jazz like, in the African American sense (which would be rather redundant anyway), but more like, "blackened" in the metal sense. 'Cause this band is from Norway, y'know. And none other than that modern day Viking, Grutle from Enslaved, makes a cameo vocal appearance on one track. One could argue that this "blackjazz" is not really jazz at all. Unless your idea of jazz comes entirely from the works of John Zorn! And he'd be the first to tell you it shouldn't. But if you like John Zorn and Mike Patton and others of that ilk, you'll probably dig this. Likewise if you're already a fan of Shining, of course. We've certainly enjoyed their previous albums as well - notice now that they're not on jazz/experimental label Rune Grammofon, but on a metal label, albeit a fairly adventurous one, whose last release highlighted here was by Japanese weirdos Sigh, fans of whom just might be able to wrap their heads around this too.
If you haven't yet heard Shining, this album will pull no punches in the matter of acquainting you with their unique sound. Jazz IS a part of it (including saxophone... though there's sax in Sigh too and they're not jazz) but there's more, lots more.
The first track is a hyper spazzed, fuzzed out almost industrial metal onslaught (interestingly, they do it again later in the record in a more abstract, atmospheric fashion). And they just descend from there further into skronky, complex, heavy prog madness, laced with ADD electronic weirdness and improvisatory jamming, played with both metal and jazz chops. Speaking of which, the squealing saxes come to the fore on "Healter Skelter" (which is not a misspelled Beatles cover), a track that actually gives Japan's Koenjihyakkei ensemble a run for their money!!!
Then there's "Blackjazz Deathtrance", perhaps the album's centerpiece, the longest track anyway, nearly 11 minutes of utter, uh, blackjazz deathtrance indeed: spasming percussive assault, sampled screaming crowd noise, frenzied sax blat, shuddering fuzz riffs, spiraling into energetic disassembly, diving into droned-out depths, throbbing with electronic menace. It's kinda like 16-17 meets Fantomas. And that holds for much of the rest of the record too. You could also compare this to the likes of Guapo and Naked City, with some Jazkamer thrown in for good measure.
The disc ends with a cover of the oft-covered "21st Century Schizoid Man" but they do it really well (that's the one w/ Grutle on vox). And that particular King Crimson classic is perfect for Shining, being prog pioneers King Crimson's most metal composition (really one of the earliest metal songs ever) as well as one that's a natural launchpad for hyperchaotic free jazz freakouts too. In a word, when it (and this album) is over: whew!
The first two discs from this Norwegian "deathjazz" unit, reissued together as a double cd package. Here's what we said about these two albums originally - first, In The Kingdom...:
This Shining is not to be confused with the black metal Shining (who hail from Sweden). What be they, then, if not black metal? Hmm, let's listen...good grief, dunno the genre for this even...it's jazz we guess...of sorts. Powerful and freaky and technological. Lead by Jorgen Munkby (ex-Jaga Jazzist, as is the Shining's keyboardist) who plays everything from sax to accordion to church organ to guitar to mellotron to synths, and does drum programming too. But Shining is a five-piece band so as multi-instrumental as Jorgen is, he's doesn't have to do it all at once. And they leave the tubular bells to a guest musician. So, you get the idea that there's potentially a lot going on. The requisite Kim Hiorthoy cover art, which kinda looks like a blown-to-bits website, implies as much. The ten tracks here veer from booming bombast to melodic moodiness. Energetic ADD explosions of horns and percussion are calmed with weird wordless vocal parts, rhythmic frenzies give way to eerie grooves, and the players' jazz chops are chopped up. There's plenty of tension, and release, let's say! Just imagine some hotshot jazz guys gone on a dark, cinematic bender, unhealthily obsessed with Carl Stalling cartoon scores and arty prog rock and all possibilities of modern electronics. Your ears will feel fully exercised (and dare we say delighted) after a session with Shining. Very cool.
And then, Grindstone:
The previous Rune Grammofon album from Norwegian electronica/jazz outfit Shining we liked quite a bit - and sold quite a few copies of as well. But we don't remember it being quite as hard and heavy as this new disc! Some of this is almost industrial-metal, seriously. Herky-jerky rhythms one moment, sheer droning heaviness the next, with moody male and female vox amidst the instrumental/electronic onslaught. This has a sinister circusiness that makes you think that Mike Patton (Fantomas/Faith No More/etc.) must somehow be involved, though of course he's not. Doubtless he'd like how spunky, brassy, swirly, and dark this is, and that Shining haven't lost their any of their intense cinematic Morricone-ish sensibility.
