[ aquarius records

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

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God hates us all, and has decided to punish us with probably the worst Slayer record ever.

Reign in Blood is one of the defining moments in metal. Specifically, pissed off technical thrash. Before Slayer, no one else was faster, more brutal, or controversial. Yet at the same time they managed to somehow translate their music into something commercially successful, which is as confusing as it is impressive. This, their seminal third album, produced by Rick Rubin in 1986, is what we think of when we think of Slayer. "Angel of Death," "Altar of Sacrifice," "Jesus Saves." If you're a metalhead - to any degree - you own this, or you need this. In fact, we're not going to go on too much about it because this shit makes its own case. For greater detail, you can always pick up a copy of the book about Reign in Blood from the 33 1/3 series. Slayer fucking rule, and this is one of their best records. Get on it!

MPEG stream: Angel of Death
MPEG stream: Altar of Sacrifice

C'mon, it's SLAYER!!! Does this even need a review. What if we said it was the heaviest and maybe best Slayer record in ages? There's never really been a -terrible- Slayer record really, there have been a few missteps, a stinker here and there definitely, and there was that one record that had rapping on it, oof, but for the most part Slayer have always ruled, and continue to reign supreme (and in blood!), and World Painted Blood definitely finds them sounding the best they have in a decade. The songs here are fierce and heavy and complex, catchy in that way only Slayer can pull off, wild squiggly leads, killer riffing, incredible drumming of course, and seriously some of the best Slayer songs in a while. The opening / main riff of "Psychopathy Red" sounds like it could have come straight off South Of Heaven, the title track is another killer, total classic Slayer until about halfway through when the band slips into a crushing half time solo laced chug driven breakdown, "Snuff" explodes right out of the gate with a wild frenzied solo, which you rarely hear, the first 40 seconds are ALL SOLO, fuck yeah! "Beauty Through Order" is a chuggy dirge, with some insane drumming, a wicked hook (like "Dead Skin Mask"), and a weirdly proggy arrangement. We could go on, track by track, not a bad one in the bunch, which definitely hasn't happened in several Slayer records, and is well worth celebrating by blasting this as loud as you can and playing it over and over and over. Bad ass artwork too, really grim and creepy, almost like black metal art, a blood stain bone adorned booklet, with strange diagrams inside with the lyrics and photos, and a thick red plastic transparency in front of the booklet, making the whole thing look blood soaked!

MPEG stream: World Painted Blood
MPEG stream: Psychopathy Red
MPEG stream: Snuff

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Okay metalheads, line forms here, to grab this, the final (?), and most elaborate issue yet, of the legendary and supremely kick ass Slayer magazine, #20, or XX as it's grimly printed on the cover, edited and written and put together as always by Metalion, but unlike the past issues, this one is a proper, super fancy hardcover book, a massive metallic tome, and while the outside may look super slick, the inside is the same old Slayer mag, cut and paste old school zine style, lots of drawings and cartoons, different typefaces, photos, no efforts made to smooth the edges, to hide the bits of tape or the staples that might have show up in the photocopies, nope this is a total DIY, kvlt metal zine, gussied up book style. Featuring interviews with and articles about Watain, Morbid, Whiplash, Bathory, Sadus, Kreator, Master's Hammer, Sadistik Exekution, Funeral Mist, Nifelheim, Destroyer 666, SUNNO))), Grotesque, Savage Thrust, Medieval, Invidious Deathrash, Obscurity, Nocturnal Graves, Pagan Altar, Strid, Jarboe and more. Also includes an exclusive 12" ep from Pre-Nihilist / pre-Entombed outfit Morbid, featuring original Mayhem vocalist Dead, consisting of 4 tracks of super raw, thrashing black metal, murky and muddy and blown out, old demos and a live track, and a creepy bit of spoken word from Dead, raw and primitive and heavy and hateful and BLACK. The perfect sonic companion. Also included is a big poster, on one side, Jon Nodtveidt of Dissection, the other side, a blown up version of the Slayer #20 cover art, featuring killer artwork by Erik Danielsson. So totally recommended. Every metalhead's bookshelf needs one of these! LIMITED TO 2000 COPIES!!! ALREADY SOLD OUT AND OUT OF PRINT, so these are the ONLY and the LAST copies we will ever get...

The now-defunct San Francisco stoner/doom band Sleep has sure gotten a lot of mileage out of this record! Dopesmoker is the original Billy Anderson-recorded (and latterly, re-mastered) demo version of their final statement, the infamous one-song-long Jerusalem. Originally slated for release by major label London, they were dropped and the album was shelved, released only as a promo with no art. Then it got bootlegged (by the band themselves?), before at last seeing a legit release via The Music Cartel. The boot and the TMC versions had different artwork, naturally, so some Sleep aficionados had to have both... Now Tee Pee brings us the same record again, under its originally intended title, Dopesmoker. And it's a different, demo recording, with rougher, more Melvinsy vocals, the whole thing sounding actually dronier and dirtier and dirgier than the Jerusalem you're already used to -- and longer too! 64 minutes vs. just 52. The twelve extra minutes aren't due to additional "parts" though, as near as we can tell, it's just 'cause the everything's played slightly slower and/or more relentlessly repeated. Not sure why they cut it down for Jerusalem -- you'd think if you're gonna do a one-song, super long album of maximum riff-repetition you might as well make it as long as possible. Did London insist that they prune it down for radio play? Ha. Anyway, Sleep fans who find High On Fire just a little too fast for them may want to indulge in the tarpit Sabbath-sludge of Dopesmoker/Jerusalem once again with this release. For further fan-temptation we should note that there's actually another (bonus) track on the cd, a live recording the singer identfies as "Sonic Titan", nine more minutes of what sounds like Dopesmoker part 2. Comes in a digipack (or gatefold LP sleeve for the vinyl) with art by Arik Moonhawk Roper.

MPEG stream: Dopesmoker (excerpt)

What more needs to be said about this stoner doom classic from 1992? Heavy, hooky, groovy, Sabbathy, a classic slab of metallic drugginess that launched a million pale imitators (not that Sleep were all-original either, being Sabbathy as we said!). Reissued now with, natch, a bonus Black Sabbath cover ("Snowblind" from the Masters Of Misery tribute comp) and the video for "Dragonaut", so completists might just have to buy it again, but even without those extras, anyone who somehow managed make it this far without hearing Sleep's Holy Mountain, well, now's the time to remedy that for sure... Needless to say, this shit is HEAVY! Dirge-y, cannabis fueled excursions into the dark realm, swinging Sabbathy riffs, pounding devil drum percussion, and a wailing howl over it all. Fans of Corrupted, Boris, stoner rock, sludge, doom, and all that sort of stuff, catch the hell up!! Sleep's Holy Mountain was this so-Sabbathy bands MOST Sabbath-like release, almost too close for comfort - we're not convinced that Tony and Geezer didn't actually write this stuff!! Which in it's own twisted way is a very very good thing indeed. Wow. ESSENTIAL!

MPEG stream: Dragonaut
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. By now you may be familiar with the saga of this record, which consists soley of one infamous 52-minute long Sabbathy stoner-doom SONG to end all such songs (originally titled "Dopesmoker"). The original label, London Records, dropped the band (which then broke up--I hear some of the guys are possibly now born-again Christians) and this release was shelved. Now, over a year later, it finally gets legit release (there'd been a semi-official bootleg in the meantime--this has different artwork). Suffice to say, that if you're at all interested in the possiblities of mind expansion through maximum riff-bludgeonment over time, and haven't scored this yet, do so!

Vinyl reissue of this classic from the Bay area's own sludge/doomer/stoner kings, S L E E P! No longer will you have to pay $100 for this puppy on EBAY. This is thick, colored vinyl, in the original lyric sleeve and an exact reproduction of the original cover. And this shit is HEAVY! Dirge-y, cannabis fueled excursions into the dark realm, Sabbathy riffs, pounding devil drum percussion, and a wailing howl over it all. If you don't already have this, what the hell is wrong with you?! Fans of Corrupted, Boris, stoner rock, sludge, doom, and all that sort of stuff, catch the hell up!! "Sleep's Holy Mountain" was this so-Sabbathy bands MOST Sabbath-like release, almost too close for comfort -- we're not convinced that Tony and Geezer didn't actually write this stuff!! Wow.

We listed this last week on our all-vinyl in-betweener. Been selling fast, but we do still have a few left, so here's probably your last chance if you haven't already pulled the trigger... The very unexpected return of stoner doom heroes Sleep, their first new music in more than a decade. It's a single side long sprawl, originally released as part of the Adult Swim monthly series of digital downloads, now available as a super limited 12", and while they last, we have the even MORE limited green vinyl version, housed in a plain brown sleeve, and sporting a bad ass spaceman etching on the B side! And as much as it can be, "The Clarity" is vintage/classic Sleep, starting out with a weird, almost electronic pulse, that soon supernova's into crushing, slithery, swaggery, stoner doom bliss, a massive main riff, the drums appropriately caveman crushing, the vocals the strangest part, seemingly beholden to post Sleep vehicle OM, sort of sung/spoken, doused in echo/reverb, but really, it's not all that different that the druggily chanted vox of the old days, and it all bleed and oozes into a perfect slab of druggy, downtuned heaviness, with plenty of tempo shifts, long stretches of doomy lumber, some seriously Sabbathy leads, the sort of head nodding crush few do better than these guys, the track bookended by a tranced out, spacey outro, where the drums gradually drop out, leaving just arcing streaks of guitar buzz, and droned out fragmented riffs, all tangled up into a mesmeric, pulsing, doom-buzz, minimal-drone coda that ends way too soon. Here's hoping this means there's a full length imminent... As mentioned above, it's a limited edition green vinyl version, with etched art on the B side, brown cardstock sleeves, and no info except the label on the A side with the logo, the song title, minimal credits, and what could be Sleep's mantra or motto: "Praise Iommi"...

Now that '90s doomlords Sleep are back together again, touring and even releasing new music (the one-sided 12" we recently listed), it's perfect timing for this release - their very first, long out of print album, officially reissued on vinyl for the very first time!! (With download, too.) Nascent underground heavies Sleep, after changing their name from Asbestos Death, put out this, their Billy Anderson produced debut full-length, way back in 1991 (when, remember, doom wasn't the popular genre it is today). The title is likely a nod to Black Sabbath's Vol. 4, as of course Sabbath are obviously a big influence - but Vol. 1 doesn't exactly swing as Sabbathy as Sleep's Holy Mountain, their stoner-groovy sophomore album, would. Instead, Vol. 1 is a darker beginning, aligned with the contemporary likes of Gore, Eyehategod, and the Melvins; its spare, lumbering riffs and unhappy vokills giving off an opiated evil vibe, more suggestive of hard drugs than friendly ol' pot. Though we're sure lots of marijuana was smoked in the making of this feedback-laced, plodding, nihilistic heaviness that anticipated the sound of Khanate some years later. Song titles like "Numb", "Anguish", "Catatonic", "The Suffering", and "Scourge" ought to give you an idea of the mindset here - this is the sort of Sleep from which you might never wake up. FYI: while we still have a bunch on hand at the moment, this first pressing is apparently already sold out at the label, so when we run out, it'll be at least a month or two before we'll see more...

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MPEG stream: Numb
MPEG stream: Wall Of Yawn

We all loved the blurred washed out buzz of weirdo black metallers Velvet Cacoon. Even the non metalheads around here. And when they called it quits, thus was born Clair Cassis, which was like an even more fuzzy, dreamy, and poppy version of Velvet Cacoon. But if you ever wished even Clair Cassis was more dreamy, more shoegazey and WAY more lush and poppy, well then Sleeping Peonies are for you. Most folks missed out completely on their debut, Rose Curl, Sea Swirl, we only managed to get a tiny handful for the store, but we loved what we heard, and wanted to make sure that the next SP record would get reviewed and listed. And so here it is. Like the debut, this is a lush, smeared, soft focus buzzscape that's as much eighties 4AD shimmer as it is black metal buzz, if not more. Sure there are blast beats, and howled vokills, but they drift in thick clouds of warm whirling haze, and lustrous chordal thrum, and most of the more blackened blasts end up fading into sweet sonic swirls, notes are doused in reverb and left to drift in the ether, the sound seesawing between murky buzz and spacious glimmery drift. There's also lots of cool weird production, thick corrosive low end rumbles underpinning anguished wails, piano like melodies hovering over deep softly roiling shimmer, bursts of heaviness that are so high in the mix, they causes strange ripple effects as the sound threatens to overwhelm all the other sounds around it, yet even at its heaviest, it's so ethereal and ephemeral, the sound so washed out and woozy, that the black buzz is often rendered more as a sort of blurred doomgaze ambience. Within that ambience, swaths of dreampunk drift rife with lilting melodies blossom into heaving Nadja-worthy swells of crumbling distorted rumble, or collapse into gauzy fuzz drenched slo-mo dream doom. There's also a definite cold/new wave vibe, that reminds us of a way more lo-fi, ramshackle, blackened Soror Dolorosa, who themselves are indebted to eighties gloom pop anyway... Gorgeous stuff, total blissed out dreampop blackmetal weirdness that should absolutely hit the spot for anyone into Velvet Cacoon, Clair Cassis, Alcest, Amesoeurs, Les Discrets and other purveyors of dreamy buzzy blackness... LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!! House in a nice thick black envelope, with a hand bound 16 page booklet filled with lyrics, and a poster!

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MPEG stream: Pasmina Veils
MPEG stream: Lips And Candyfloss Wisps
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

Finally, a new record from this UK black-bliss / screamo / dreamo / blackgaze outfit, who take the post black metal of groups like Alcest and Amesouers to the next level, transforming buzzing, blasting blackness into bleary, beautiful blissed out heaviness, less black metal and more black tinged dream pop. The last Sleeping Peonies was so limited we sold out in a heartbeat, and even though we are the exclusive distributor for this new one, we're expecting the same thing to happen again, as it's limited to just 130 copies, of which we got less than half!!! It's a short record, less than 20 minutes, but it's more than enough, six tracks of gorgeously, melancholic and blissfully blown out heaviness, by turns poppy and prismatic, somber and haunting, the only real black metal elements remaining, are some insectoid guitar buzz, and some anguished vokills, cuz otherwise, sonically, it's much more aligned with classic 4AD goth, nineties shoegaze, modern bliss pop, and the production reminds us to folks like TIm Hecker or Leyland Kirby, all gristly and washed out, woozy and warbly, home brewed and super distorted, the sounds melting and crumbling, all wound up in gorgeous heart wrenching melancholy melodies. The opener, with the very emo title "A Timid Eyelash Flutter", sets the scene, with dark piano chords, wreathed in reverb and echo, slowly enveloped by huge billowy squalls of blacknoise, swirling soft focus static, the sound super psychedelic, and totally mesmerizing. "Dreamrrz" adds some raspy vokills to what would otherwise be straight up fuzzy new wave goth pop, and sans those vocals could be some Brooklyn band on Captured Tracks. "Cemetery Kisses" too is all Cure and Kate Bush, tangled up into something fuzzier and blacker, but only just, a slow build to an epic softly psychedelic coda, replete with dramatic deep vox and wild swaths of distorted guitar. The title track takes buzzing black metal guitar, and wreathed it in prismatic shimmer, and recasts it as something totally dreamlike and blissed out, with a soaring sonic climax, that would give Godspeed a run for their money, but the sound here is pushed way into the red, crumbling and blurring into gorgeous abstract smears, while buried beneath all this swirl and shimmer, drums pound and piano plinks, leading into the hypnotically cosmic "Snowbound In Hazel And Furs", which begins all hazy and poppy, before the sound darkens a bit, burying the poppiness beneath some wintry buzz, heavy, but softly, and woozily heavy, settling into something much more gloom-gaze goth-pop than metal, but it's that metal underpinning that gives this bliss pop teeth. Finally, the record winds down with a gorgeous ambient closer, all looped and layered, and wreathed in soft FX, man, would we kill for a whole record of that mesmerizing dreaminess! Gorgeous stuff for sure. Maybe too blissy and poppy for some metalheads, but their loss, and popkids might find this the perfect gateway to darker sonic climes, and really, anyone into all strains of shoegaze-y dream pop, who doesn't mind a bit of black and buzz in their jangle and shimmer, this is pure black-pop perfection... LIMITED TO 130 COPIES, housed in a purple parchment envelope, with a cardstock Japanese style obi, an 11" x 17" poster, an 8 page 5.5" x 8.5" booklet, album notes printed on gray parchment, the envelope hand decorated and adorned with faeries!

MPEG stream: A Timid Eyelash Flutter
MPEG stream: Dreamrrz
MPEG stream: Slowly Disappearing
MPEG stream: Blowing Out Candles

We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices. We managed to get in touch with him, and now we finally got a handful of the two Sleepwalker demos, one from last year, and a brand new one from 2010, most folks will probably want one of each, they're pretty crazy cheap after all, and they're amazing, but sadly, they're the very last copies we'll be able to get, we only have about 10 of each, so grab one before they're gone... Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive. The 2010 demo begins all gorgeously washed out and hazy blurred blackness that in some ways sounds more like Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker, the drums a buried metronomic pulse, the guitars a smeared swirl, a lumbering melancholic dirge that grows more and more jangly as the record porgresses, only to finally switch to what sounds like a black blast, but it's hard to tell the sound is so gauzy and indistinct, regardless it's simple more dense swirling buzz drenched blackness. The second track begins with a long stretch of frantic buzz, and spoken word vocals, only to finally slip into a punkish blast, the guitars again blurring into strange amorphous shapes, all wrapped up with weirdly crooned vocals, the production muddy enough that the heavier it gets, the more abstract and spaced out it sounds, and finally, the last track is all acoustic, but not just folky interlude style acoustic, it's almost like acoustic black metal, the guitar strummed fiercely, frantically, eventually strange almost industrial percussion surfaces and the track begins to sound like some sort of militaristic industrial folk before finishing off in a cloud of stel string buzz. The 2009 demo, is more post rock influenced, spare simple drumming, deep rumbling bass, spidery guitar melodies, repetitive and motorik, eventually the sound cranks up but doesn't get metal so much as it gets rocking, pounding away for a while before exploding into something more expansive and epic, sounding a bit like Godspeed, noise rock and black metal all woven together, surprisingly melodic and catchy, a little bit jangly too, although it does seem to get darker and blacker as it goes. The second track is much like the opening track on the 2010 demo, murky and washed out, blurred and a bit shoegazey, even the shrieks and blasts and buzz and smoothed out into something way more hypnotic and dreamlike, before the final track finishes off in a blaze of blown out, blissed out blackened post rock buzz, epic and majestic, hypnotic and repetitive, the vocals buried yowls, the drums way down in the mix, all riding on the soaring sheets of black-psych-metal-gaze guitars. Awesome. Both demos come in oversized white envelopes, each with a different pasted on front image, each with a small printed inserts, and unfortunately they're both out of print so these are the last copies we'll be able to get...

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Originally released as a super limited cd-r back in 2009, and more recently as an insanely limited lp, these first recordings from this Fell Voices side project get a second vinyl pressing, again on heavy white vinyl, mastered at 45rpm, and BEAUTIFULLY packaged. Here's what we had to say about this Sleepwalker record when we first reviewed the cd-r: We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices. We managed to get in touch with him, and now we finally got a handful of the two Sleepwalker demos, one from last year, and a brand new one from 2010, most folks will probably want one of each, they're pretty crazy cheap after all, and they're amazing, but sadly, they're the very last copies we'll be able to get, we only have about 10 of each, so grab one before they're gone... Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive. The 2009 demo, like the follow up, is seriously post rock influenced, spare simple drumming, deep rumbling bass, spidery guitar melodies, repetitive and motorik, eventually the sound cranks up but doesn't get metal so much as it gets rocking, pounding away for a while before exploding into something more expansive and epic, sounding a bit like Godspeed, noise rock and black metal all woven together, surprisingly melodic and catchy, a little bit jangly too, although it does seem to get darker and blacker as it goes. The second track is gorgeously murky and washed out, blurred and a bit shoegazey, even the shrieks and blasts and buzz are smoothed out into something way more hypnotic and dreamlike, before the final track finishes off in a blaze of blown out, blissed out blackened post rock buzz, epic and majestic, hypnotic and repetitive, the vocals buried yowls, the drums way down in the mix, all riding on the soaring sheets of black-psych-metal-gaze guitars. Awesome. As for the packaging, Vedavu have pulled out all the stops. The vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve, which in turn is housed in a full color jacket, all the images super bright and abstract, not really black metal looking at all, the cover looks like pouring milk or some mysterious white honeycomb, all very striking, and on top of that there's a thick textured paper letter pressed Japanese style obi, black on black. Wow. Already sold out at the label, these are the only copies we'll be able to get!

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Originally released as a super limited cd-r back in 2010, these early recordings from this Fell Voices side project finally gets a super deluxe vinyl reissue, much like the 2009 demo, also repressed and listed elsewhere on this week's list. But unlike I (2009), this is the very first time the second Sleepwalker demo has been available on vinyl. Like the other reissue, II (2010), pressed on heavy black vinyl, mastered at 45rpm, and BEAUTIFULLY packaged. Here's what we had to say about this Sleepwalker record when we first reviewed the cd-r: We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices. We managed to get in touch with him, and now we finally got a handful of the two Sleepwalker demos, one from last year, and a brand new one from 2010, most folks will probably want one of each, they're pretty crazy cheap after all, and they're amazing, but sadly, they're the very last copies we'll be able to get, we only have about 10 of each, so grab one before they're gone... Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive. The 2010 demo (here renamed II) begins all gorgeously washed out and hazy blurred blackness that in some ways sounds more like Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker, the drums a buried metronomic pulse, the guitars a smeared swirl, a lumbering melancholic dirge that grows more and more jangly as the record progresses, only to finally switch to what sounds like a black blast, but it's hard to tell the sound is so gauzy and indistinct, regardless it's simple more dense swirling buzz drenched blackness. The second track begins with a long stretch of frantic buzz, and spoken word vocals, only to finally slip into a punkish blast, the guitars again blurring into strange amorphous shapes, all wrapped up with weirdly crooned vocals, the production muddy enough that the heavier it gets, the more abstract and spaced out it sounds, and finally, the last track is all acoustic, but not just folky interlude style acoustic, it's almost like acoustic black metal, the guitar strummed fiercely, frantically, eventually strange almost industrial percussion surfaces and the track begins to sound like some sort of militaristic industrial folk before finishing off in a cloud of steel string buzz. As for the packaging, Vedavu have pulled out all the stops. The vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve, which in turn is housed in a full color jacket, all the images super bright and abstract, not really black metal looking at all, the cover image is all swirling liquids and abstract textures, all very striking, and on top of that there's a full color printed inner sleeve and a thick textured paper letter pressed Japanese style obi. Wow. Already sold out at the label, these are the only copies we'll be able to get!

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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Originally released as a super limited cd-r back in 2009, these first recordings from this Fell Voices side project finally gets a super deluxe (but sadly INSANELY LIMITED, only 100 copies, of which we got TEN) vinyl reissue, pressed on heavy white vinyl, mastered at 45rpm, and BEAUTIFULLY packaged (more on that below). Here's what we had to say about this Sleepwalker record when we first reviewed the cd-r: We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices. And they were right, Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive. The tracks here, originally released as the 2009 Demo cd-r, are more post rock influenced, with spare simple drumming, deep rumbling bass, spidery guitar melodies, repetitive and motorik, eventually the sound cranks up but doesn't get metal so much as it gets rocking, pounding away for a while before exploding into something more expansive and epic, sounding a bit like Godspeed, noise rock and black metal all woven together, surprisingly melodic and catchy, a little bit jangly too, although it does seem to get darker and blacker as it goes. The second track is murky and washed out, blurred and a bit shoegazey, even the shrieks and blasts and buzz and smoothed out into something way more hypnotic and dreamlike, before the final track finishes off in a blaze of blown out, blissed out blackened post rock buzz, epic and majestic, hypnotic and repetitive, the vocals buried yowls, the drums way down in the mix, all riding on the soaring sheets of black-psych-metal-gaze guitars. Awesome. As for the packaging, Vedavu have pulled out all the stops. Especially considering there are only 100 copies. The vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve, which in turn is housed in a full color jacket, all the images super bright and abstract, not really black metal looking at all, the cover looks like pouring milk or some mysterious white honeycomb, all very striking, and on top of that there's a thick textured paper Japanese style obi, embossed and printed in gold reflective ink. Wow. And again, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! We have ten and once these are gone that's it!!

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Up from the ashes of the beloved and astounding spectacle known as Idiot Flesh comes Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. At times, thunderously heavy carnivalesque metal like Mr. Bungle wrestling with SlipKnot. At others, minimal piano plinketry, disjointed

We still can't figure out how the hell we missed this band when they were still a going concern. Ex-members of the mighty Man Is The Bastard, a sound that is so aQ at times it sounds like they made this record just for us. Super rhythmic, hypnotic, krautrocky, heavy, noisy, squalls of analog noise, walls of feedback, buried distorted vocals, heavy and mesmerizing, like a power violence This Heat for sure. Sound familiar? It should. We described former aQ record of the Week honorees Geronimo similarly, which makes sense since basically, Sleestak eventually morphed into Geronimo shedding some of the grit and noise, but not all of it, tightening up their sound into something almost machinelike. Sleestak also sonically predated/predicted another aQ Record of the Week outfit, French post kraut noise rockers Aluk Todolo. So anyone who went nuts for either of those discs, or loved the Sleestak disc we listed a few lists back, you're probably gonna need this one too. Another mind blowing collection of mangled avant krauty noise rock, that is both brutal and abrasive, as well as weirdly repetitive and seriously heavy. The drums are the core, and the heart of the sound, locked into seemingly simple grooves, the belie surprisingly complex arrangements, the drums are dense, hard hitting, the recording lo-fi but still thick and crunchy, swinging from doomy plod, to tripped out and space rocky, to totally abstract and spacious. While the drums pound away, the rest of the band wrap the rhythms in thick clouds of buzzing analog crunch, all manner of glitch and grit, squealing synths, rumbling downtuned bass, streaks of malfunctioning electronics, strange sound bites and snippets, and vocals, that range from howling guttural roar, to hysterical shrike, to hushed whisper. The band lets the drums drop out, sometimes for long stretches, the electronics and synths spread out swirling and churning, changing shape and sound, building all sorts of tension so when the drums do crash back in, it's super intense. The Power Of Gemini(a was the first Sleestak record, originally released in 1997, and as such, it's definitely much more raw, more noisy, more lo-fi, the connection to MITB and various other post Bastard projects much more pronounced, but even back then, the band were already forging a super fucked up and gloriously idiosyncratic path, creating a sound, that managed to fuse the crushing heaviness and DIY roots of the members' previous bands, with a near maniacal future vision of some twisted, off kilter, and rhythmically obtuse post-everything sound. Gorgeously packaged in a silkscreened letter pressed fold up origami style cardstock sleeve.

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First off, this cd has the best packaging I think we have ever seen, printed on shiny metallic paper, with the inside pages on vellum. *So* nice. Too bad it doesn't scan well, or you could see it on our website. Anyway, you should all be familiar with Slipknot by now. Whether it's their music or their costumes. It's been sort of hard to miss, if you have MTV or if you've even

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We love Riot Season. Easily one of our favorite labels, consistently delivering fucked up heavy weirdness, far out psychedelia, and pretty much every variation in between, Shit And Shine, Acid Mothers Temple, Aluk Todolo, Black Boned Angel, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Todd, Skull Defekts, Mainliner, Circle, Hey Colossus, Aufgehoben, most recently Ultraphallus, and now Sloath, who couldn't have found a more fitting home for their sprawling slo-mo downtuned doomage. The label mentions Sleep and Sabbath and Melvins and Earth (old Earth we presume), and while these guys do carry on the tradition of doomed out heaviness, it's also it's own warped beast. Three epic jams, super hypnotic and mesmerizing, the guitars massive, so distorted that at times it sounds like the speakers are getting fried, but it's also melodic, lumbering and moody and epic, the vocals, wordless and chantlike, the band locking into full on psychedoomdelic space jams, like some sort of ultra heavy Hawkwind, the tracks laced with streaks of feedback, occasionally getting super dynamic, slipping from lurching groove to Harvey Milk like extreme plod to woozy slowcore slither. The final track is a massive 22 minute epic, beginning all post rocky and lightly psychedelic, clean guitars, simple minimal rhythm, but still subtly doomy and heavy, the sort of thing that psych rock heavies should be flipping for, the vocals delivered like some psych doom shamen, and after about 9 minutes, the hammer falls, the guitars explode, even more distorted than before, the track building to a seriously majestic in-the-red space rock doom sludge blow out, wild psych leads draped over the churning Sabbathy swing underneath, totally heavy and epic and fucking incredible. This RULES. These guys are the perfect bridge between the doom/sludge scene and the space rock / psych world, two sounds that really aren't all that far removed from each other as they seen anyway� LIMITED TO 500 COPIES.

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It's really crazy how many little scenes there are all over the world, scenes that could very well remain hidden forever, so many bands, some insanely amazing bands, who are perfectly happy to just play shows locally, release cd-r's now and again, never to be heard outside their little circle. Some scenes are particularly rich, bursting at the scenes with kick ass groups that deserve to be heard by folks all over. One such scene that we've been particularly smitten with, is over in the UK, Leeds we think. Their most famous export, at least around aQ, is Like A Kind Of Matdor, who released their first, and only record posthumously on Andee's tUMULt label. A crushing slab of flute flecked accordion laced doom prog. Which leads us to the Slomatics, another incredibly heavy, crushing and pummeling doom behemoth, hailing from the very same scene, and due to have a split 12" with LAKOM come out someday. Their sound is slooooow and doooomy and heavy, but unlike the prog tendencies of their LAKOM scenemates, the Slomatics traffic in a sound more Melvins-y, more sludgey, think Grief, Eyehategod, Bongzilla, Harvey Milk, Electric Wizard at 16rpm, that sort of thing, but a bit more abstract, a little more spaced out, repetitive, the sound layered and dense, a bit psychedelic, but still at its core, heavy, brutal, slow and sludgy. There are some brief moments of off kilter mellowness, clean guitars, loping drums, but those moments don't last long, quickly obliterated by another wall of lurching, lumbering crush. Some of the heavy parts are laced with almost buried wailing leads, and the vocals are howled and heavily reverbed, but not of that really matters as much as the riffs, and the riffs here are amazing, downtuned, blown out crumbling and MASSIVE. Our favorite thing about the Slomatics besides their crushing heaviosity? The line in the liner notes that reads: "Middle-aged professionals by day, aggro-sludge losers by night"! Heavy, heavy, heavy, and so very recommended.

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We first discovered the doomlords known as Slomatics via another doomy combo, now defunct UK trio Like A Kind Of Matador, who released their only record on Andee's tUMULt label, and Slomatics definitely hit the spot, slow, crushing bruisers, downtuned and spaced out, heavy as fuck, and nothing has changed since then. On this limited split, they offer us 3 more slabs of lumbering ultracrush, a sound that falls somewhere between Harvey Milk, Like A Kind Of Matador and Electric Wizard. Churning riffage, howling vocals buried in the mix, big booming drums, all very druggy and hypnotic. The two shorter songs here get downright rocking, at least by Slomatics standards, slipping into a head banging 16rpm groove, that sounds a little like ZZ Top on thorazine, and a LOT like a less melodic, way meaner Torche. Definitely need more from these guys and SOON. Slomatics team up with an outfit called Selaah, who couldn't be more different, solo guitar, looped and cyclical, a bit like a lo-fi Riley or Reich piece played on distorted electric guitar. Super mantra like, and circular, the sound does eventually build to a Sunroof!-like ur-drone finale, before suddenly shifting into a cool shimmering shifty layered upper register dronescape, before gradually growing prettier and prettier, and simultaneously more and more faint. Cool stuff. And definitely a nice way to balance the extreme low end heaviness of the first three tracks. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. Hand numbered...

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The aptly-named UK dronedoom duo Slomo creep forth once more! These Julian Cope compatriots (the drude dude himself contributes a 30-second poetic spoken word coda to this album) also have given this disc a perfectly descriptive title, The Bog. Slomo's Chris "Holy" McGrail ("Moog Taurus, Sunn Mustang 6 string, clatter") and Howard Marsden ("Korg MS10 & MS20, hiss") exude and extrude one loooong 65 minute track of sinister yet soothing rumbling. This Bog is a fog of burbling electronics and feedback, naturally slow and low and quietly creepy. It's like gastric gurgling from the cathedraloid stomach of some cumbersome, slumbersome, subterranean behemoth. The droning sounds of what may be subtle cymbal shimmer combine with electronic textures from the duo's synths and guitars, sometimes smoothly soaring like underwater whale calls, whilst elsewhere developing into a much grittier, frying, throbbing buzz and crackle. Other gentle chimes and pulsations come in to play as well, layered throughout this mesmeric, mysterious disc, which we could liken to a milder SUNNO))), perhaps sleeping and snoring and drifting in dream. Certainly recommended. (By the way, we have just a few copies of a new cd-r in stock from Slomo member Holy McGrail in stock as well, his infamous plunderphonic Stooges tribute, Raw Power Suite, so please ask about it if you're interested.)

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Could a band have a more perfect name? And an album a more perfect title? In this case, no. Slomo's The Creep is EXACTLY that. Creepy, creeping, slow motion music. One hour, one track, improvised and recorded live with minimal overdubs and "zero eye-contact" (it kinda sounds like it was recorded in total darkness, in fact). The ominous subterranean echoing seismic sounds of Slomo are the work of the UK's Chris McGrail and Howard Marsden. McGrail, as you might have guessed, is also the main guy behind heavy psych-dronesters Holy McGrail, whose Collecting Earthquakes was highlighted here last list. This heavy-lidded, cave-dwelling creature is a different, more somnolent beast, but if you liked that Holy McGrail disc we think you might like Slomo's The Creep too. It's something akin to a narcotized Earth or Black Boned Angel, but played with the spacious, quiet restraint of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. The crunchy feedback on offer is both spooky and soothing. Appropriately, the cd booklet contains an old rhyme on the subject of this duo's namesake, a folkloric character known as Slomo for his generally slow and slothful ways. The final line says of Slomo: "Whose detractors do call static... but whose champions call Ecstasis?" Clearly McGrail and Marsden are of hold to the latter opinion, as do we. This is a professional duplicated cd-r with quite lovely artwork, released in a limited edition of just 100 copies on Julian Cope's own cd-r label. We did get a bunch, but that's it, when they're gone we won't be able to get any more...so you'd better not be a Slomo yourself if you want one!

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Sleepers, awake! Or rather, the opposite, as we herald the return of Yorkshire, England's Slomo, a "Highly Ritualised Somnambulant Glumbient Downer band" as they describe themselves - and we couldn't have come up with a better description ourselves ("Glumbient", that's great!). The duo of Chris McGrail (aka Holy McGrail, leader of another, eponymous heavy pagan drone psych unit) and Howard Marsden continue to live up to their band name with over 67 minutes of slow-motion doomdrone bliss on The Grain. Two tracks this time, unlike the one apiece that appeared on their previous albums The Creep (2005) and The Bog (2008), but of course both tracks here are loooong. McGrail is credited with "strings & reeds", Marsden with "machinery"; what we're hearing is a lot of synths and some guitar, but it all of course takes a while to come into focus, the opening title track, duration 42:15, being just about thee ultimate definition of a "slow-build" piece! At the start, it's as if the sounds are emerging from nothingness, the primordial soup of (near) silence. Gradually, subtly, slowly, creepily, they build and build, a deep tone, a drone, another drone, at first purring, then softly growling... the rumble becoming rhythmic over time, echoing, echoing, echoing... When finally recognizable, McGrail's guitar manifests as a gentle subterranean wind-howl, or subaquatic whale-call. The gritty synth machine drones are equally cavernous, and the entire effect, especially after you've experienced the lengthy build up to full mind-altering force, is massively mesmeric, and indeed rather "Glumbient", we agree! Then, track two, "Against The Grain", while shorter (only 25:17) somehow sounds even more stretched-out, the grain of the drones here even more, uh, "granular", with sudden clouds of creaking clicking, like field recordings of some strange bird or insect, drifting about the soundfield, backed by deeper dronier windier waves. It really is a bit like one of those environmental recordings from a pond, the faux-electronic sound of amplified water beetles, their buzz and glitch married to the guitar-leaning-on-amp whoosh of any one of our favorite dronescapers. Nice! Somehow spooky -and- soothing, simultaneously. Definitely recommended to all old-school SUNNO)))-worshippers, if you can imagine SUNNO))), as we stated in a previous Slomo review, "perhaps sleeping and snoring and drifting in dream". Other good references would be old Earth (circa 2), Bohren, Black Boned Angel, Jonathan Coleclough, and Slomo's fellow rural UK, J. Cope-approved dronesters Urthona, with a slight dose of Coh or Ryoji Ikeda in the drone-mix. These two have also been known to refer to themselves as playing "agricultural" doom, as they they're some sort of slowly spreading strain of fungal potato blight or something. But, here, maybe we can hear it - tall fields of wheat, waving and rustling in the autumn wind, those sounds slowed down and amplified, likewise with the chittering of insects living it up inside the grain silos - but still, they sound more like guitar 'n' synth wielding dronologists than they sound like that long-ago AQ fave cd, Insect Noise In Stored Foodstuffs... Slomo's latest sure gives this week's other Record Of The Week honoree, Kompakt's new Pop Ambient comp, a run for its money as ideal going-to-sleep music - and none of the Pop Ambient tracks are this long, either, ever!! Coming packaged in an attractive, slender digi-sleeve, it's been worth the four year wait (with Slomo, naturally not unexpected), for this new dose of the duo's somnolent dronedoom. Highly recommended.

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Some of you probably already know Sloth, a mysterious band of Midwestern sludgelords who in the past shared splits with folks like Corrupted, Grief, Upsidedown Cross, Floor, Noothgrush and Grief, and sonically, these guys were a pretty perfect fit amidst such illustrious company, but even back in the day, the sound of Sloth was a bit cracked, a bit demented, hints of some serious psychosis lurking beneath their lurching, downtuned exterior. Surprisingly, this is their first full length EVER, but maybe not so surprisingly, given a whole cd to stretch out on, the weirdness factor is through the roof. This is most definitely not a proper sludge record, although there are some seriously sludge-y moments. There's also lots of weirdo rock, a bit of classic sounding grunge, some Amrep style postpunk noise, some cracked pop, and some seriously what-the-fuck sonic action all over the place. It sounds a bit like a musical clusterfuck, and it sort of is, but in a good way, and all those disparate sounds sort of fitting together, like some musical Frankenstein's monster. Not to mention, as the title suggests, the record is split into 13 songs and 13 samples, with each sample, some as short as 4 seconds getting their own track. So yeah, even with such an amazing sludge pedigree, we're not sure we would necessarily recommend this to those looking for something like Corrupted, Moss, Bunkur and the like. A Whole Other World Of Fun is more for folks who like their music, heavy, difficult, troublesome, confusional and very very very fucked up. Just have a listen to the sound samples and maybe it will start to make sense. Probably not though... The record opens with some grungy redneck punk rock, somewhere between Scissorfight and Fucked Up, but with some killer riffing, some weird death metal grunts, and some awesome post rock-y breakdowns. The rest of the tracks are really all over the place, from creeping Slintish mathrock (complete with spoken word vocals) and a twisted howled banshee like chorus, to a super blown out space rock groove, with an ultra distorted riff, some bizarre vocals, and some haunting keyboards making it weirdly propulsive and a bit krauty, to a sea shanty forest folk sing along, to killer lo-fi buzzing indie rock, plodding primitive black metal and every stop in between. The only truly sludge-y track is "Pike Flower Shop", a lurching, stumbling ultradirge, but even then, it's peppered with weird electric organs, raspy vocals, and fucked up production. There's also a bit of a Ween vibe throughout the whole disc, that is if Ween were some sort of weirdo power violence band. The record ends with a murky bass and drums plod, run through with buried in the mix group vocals, occasionally interrupted by a feral death metal howl, twice as loud as the rest of the music. Fucked up for sure, bizarre, but pretty damn cool. Which basically describes the whole record. Way recommended, but only for folks with a twisted sense of humor and a taste for heavy, all-over-the-map weirdness.

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Crushing and crusty Sabbath-y doom from the label that brought you Electric Wizard and Roachpowder. Maybe not as earth shattering as those, but definitely worth checking out if you dig that sort of thing.

Cavemen on the cover, and a title referring to being a throwback to an earlier era? Stentorian vocals? Powerful riffage? Philosophical concepts? Fleet-fingered guitar godliness? Heavy and hyper, loud and proud, leatherclad heavy metal with all sorts of unexpected twists, music from a band that is perfectly willing to be both silly -and- serious and utterly, un-ironically blur those distinctions? Yes! It must be...it is! A new album from The Lord Weird Slough Feg! (Or just plain Slough Feg this time around, it seems. But they're still plenty weird, lord are they...) We've been singing the praises of this San Francisco heavy metal band for a few years now, so with the release of Atavism, their fifth full-length, I think we can assume that a lot of AQ-list-readers are perhaps already familiar with these guys, and maybe even devoted fans! So perhaps we needn't delve into the usual introductory description of the 'Feg (which would include the following: eccentric, epic, riff-tastic '70s and '80s lovin' heavy metal with a twin guitar attack that owes a lot to Iron Maiden, specifically Maiden's early Di'Anno era circa Killers). Instead we can say, first off, buy this! It's the new Slough Feg fer chrissakes. And it's freaking great -- could be their best yet, up there with Down Among The Deadmen anyway. Heck it's hard to pick a favorite record of theirs, but this one for sure has got all the insane guitar leads, dramatic vocals, exquisite harmonies, triumphal cadences, folky motifs, complex arrangements, and pulse-racing head-banging METAL you've come to expect from these guys. Epic as they are, Slough Feg are also never ones for trying their listener's attention spans -- or their own. So all kinds of awesome riffs and ideas get artfully arranged into lean, mean tracks, all muscle, no flab. Indeed, Atavism clocks in at a concise 38 minutes, with several of the fourteen tracks, like "Robusto" and "Portcullis", being relatively brief (but action-packed) instrumental interludes. Their previous album, 2003's Traveller, was limited somewhat by the strictures of being a concept album, and Slough Feg seems more suited to a free-wheeling fandango like Atavism, that can range through time and space and rock out however and whenever it wants, allowing a song like the majestic "High Season V" to immediately segue into the '70s boogie-groove of "Starport Blues" (the lyrics of which make reference to Devo's Smart Patrol)... Likewise, the Thin Lizzyish "Hiberno-Latin Invasion" sits here comfortably next to an instrumental workout like "Climax Of A Generation", a track quite possibly inspired by Greg Ginn's Gone. Not to mention the declamatory acoustic introspection of "Atavism" or the doomy Homeric epic "Eumaneus The Swineherd" or the rollicking and defiant "I Will Kill You/You Will Die", etc. etc... all of 'em tightly and energetically interlocking, like they do it live. Delightfully prog one moment, headbangingly metallic the next, then suddenly off on a bluegrass-inspired tangent... from stuff that sounds like Slayer to stuff that sounds like show tunes, they are sworn to no rules, yet everything they do is unmistakably Slough Feg -- in large part to the larger-than-life vocal presence and unique style of singer/guitarist Mike Scalzi, whose baritone delivery has been accurately described by another reviewer as "like a warcry -- a lament and an oath all rolled in one". Hammers Of Misfortune fans know him too, but here in his own band he gets to fully unleash his vision of heroic, hectic metal madness. Not too long ago we listed a 7" on which Slough Feg covered an obscure NWOBHM song called "Heavy Metal Rules". So true. And they've followed that up with Atavism to really prove the point! Heavy metal does indeed rule, and bands like Slough Feg (of which there aren't all that many!) are the reason why.

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San Francisco heavy metallists Slough Feg (aka The Lord Weird Slough Feg), led by vocalist/guitarist Mike Scalzi, have built up a deserved cult following over the years, whom we guarantee will NOT be disappointed with the contents of their latest epic, eccentric metal opus Hardworlder, their sixth full-length album. Indeed, Slough Feg's fans should be quite thrilled. And with luck Hardworlder will recruit some new devotees to the cult of 'Feg as well, they deserve it 'cause nobody but nobody makes albums with this sort of peculiar panache anymore these days. Not since the '80s, or even the '70s, from whence the guitars of Hardworlder seem to hail, and there's a heckuva lot of guitar here... memorable riffs and virtuoso solos and Maiden-ized twin axe harmonies... guitars guitars guitars! It's evident that Slough Feg's latest revised lineup (which features a change of drummer, and "Don" Angelo Tringali of cult doomsters Cold Mourning replacing Hammers Of Misfortune's John Cobbett on second lead guitar) has if anything only enhanced the "guitariness" of this band, as if that was imaginable. The Scalzi/Tringali dual guitar teamwork is phenomenal, and both guys peel off leads left and right, not just to impress with the notes they can play but because they simply can't contain their love for the raw beauty that can flow from fully cranked Gibson Les Pauls. They've got the power, and the responsibility, to play like they've taken up the torch of every great heavy metal band from the '70s and the '80s that's fallen by the wayside... This album's title is a word they coined themselves, referring to the idea of a space-travelling adventurer bumming around on a rough planet in a bad part of the galaxy, a loner toughened by life on a "hard world" -- typified by Gully Foyle, the protagonist of sci-fi author Alfred Bester's 1956 classic The Stars My Destination (read it sez Allan and Andee!!). A book and character which provides the inspiration for the track "Tiger! Tiger!" as well as for the Kirby-esque comic-book illustration that graces this album's cover. Interestingly, if you Google "Hardworlder", you'll find that Slough Feg managed to come up with a term that ONLY exists in connection with this album. You'll find their website, their MySpace page, their Wikipedia page, the review of Hardworlder in last week's Village Voice (yes, strangely enough, right next to the new Pharoahe Monch and Smashing Pumpkins -- how'd that happen??? The Village Voice says, "Badass sci-fi metal that it's finally cool to listen to"...we've been telling folks that for years...). You might also run across someone else's MySpace page, who goes by the handle Hardworlder -- but it turns out it belongs to an Australian university student who's a huge Slough Feg fanatic. He's gonna be happy when he hears this! The album's opening one-two punch is hard to beat: the relentless build-up of adrenaline instrumental "The Return Of Dr. Universe" which leads us breathless into the impactful majesty of "Tiger! Tiger!", destined to be considered an instant classic in the Slough Feg canon we're sure! But the rest of the album is up to that mighty task -- the majesty continues with midtempo maritime lament "The Sea Wolf", and thence through to the doomy riffs of the album's title track, and onward... Hardworlder seems to possess an anthemic, sweeping, saddened grandeur, a more uniform overall feel than its shorter and more schizo predecessor Atavism, although you'll find that Slough Feg sashay down all the (un)usual skyways and byways you might expect from them. The manly, melodic doom-paced epics coexist here with rollicking '70s styled hard rockers (such as "Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues", obviously a nod to Atavism's equally boogie-riffed "Starport Blues"). "Insomnia" starts off Thin Lizzyish to the max, but halfway through the band rides into the Halls Of Manowar, and a wordless Viking chorus rings out... The galloping requiem of the psychological tragedy "Poisoned Treasures" (reprised from their split 7" with Bible Of The Devil) will get stuck in your head, as will much more on this impossibly catchy album... And one of our favorite tracks here is the lengthy show-stopping instrumental "Galactic Nomad", with an almost-Allmans level of gorgeous guitar interplay, that could illicit a "we're not worthy" from The Fucking Champs themselves. And while Hardworlder's obviously working the science fiction angle that proved popular for 'em on their concept album Traveller, it also serves up ye olde Celtic folk in the Slough Feg tradition -- in fact, one of the two (2) cover songs here is a version of "Dearg Doom" by '70s Irish folk-rockers Horslips. The other cover is "Street Jammer", originally by '80s American epic metal weirdists Manilla Road. Both are tributes to Slough Feg's influences in a general, not specific sense, since we happen to know that they'd never heard either band until years and years after Slough Feg's inception. Speaking of influences, if you listen close to "Street Jammer" you'll hear some Chuck Berry licks thrown in not found on the original... and we'll also note that Slough Feg deliberately selected an early Manilla Road song, that's a lot more hot rockin' than what people usually think of in connection with that band. Further, while we're usually more into covers that DON'T sound so much like the originals, in the case of these two songs it's OK that they do since a) they're pretty obscure and b) both still totally sound like Slough Feg could have written them. Ok, we're rambling, and you get the idea... Hardworlder is another ripping masterwork from a band that will either dominate your metal-addled mind, or you just won't get. We hope you do. 'Nuff said.

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We thought WE were big fans of San Francisco's most (bizarre) metal export, The Lord Weird Slough Feg... turns out there's a record store, Megadisc, in Poland, who are even bigger fans. This past summer they arranged for Slough Feg to fly to Warsaw and perform a show (just them - no opening acts!), to be professionally recorded for posterity, in the form of this "official live cd" from Slough Feg, the first ever release on Megadisc's new record label. Basically, this is a release for equally obsessed fans. You probably already know if you're interested in owning this! But, if you want some more info... there's 13 tracks here, over 70 minutes of delirious riffery and epic shred. All of Slough Feg's eight studio albums from 1996-2010, with the odd exception of Atavism, are represented, with a song or three. They do "Red Branch" from the self-titled debut, "Highlander" from Twilight Of The Idols, "Sky Chariots", "Warriors Dawn", and "Traders And Gunboats" from Down Among The Deadmen, "High Passage/Low Passage" from Traveller, "Tiger! Tiger!" and "Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues" from Hardworlder, "Ape Uprising" and "Shakedown At The Six" from Ape Uprising, and "The 95 Thesis", "Lycanthropic Fantasies", and "Free Market Barbarian" from their most recent record, The Animal Spirits. Great songs, all of 'em. It's a good sampler for those you haven't heard all of Slough Feg's records, and it's cool to hear their earlier stuff done by the current (and, we think, best) lineup. Plus, for their finale, they do a crazed cover of Thin Lizzy's "Sha-la-la", which they had only previously recorded on a split 7" with Bible Of The Devil. The recording quality is indeed pretty excellent, but the disc sure still sounds "raw", 'cause that's the way the BAND sounds, and oftentimes just a bit sloppy, not that it's easy to play this stuff anyhow. As Slough Feg's mastermind, singer/guitarist Mike Scalzi states in the liner notes, and in fact takes pains to point out, they definitely didn't do any overdubs afterwards - this is a legit live document, not faked or doctored in any way. No flubs fixed, that means. And there are a few, definitely some fleeting fuckups, but most of the time the band is in fine form and certainly full of frenzied energy! Scalzi's vocals vary a bit from "on" to otherwise, as well. But heck, he's playing guitar too, and running around, and apparently operating on very little if any sleep... And as any fan would expect, his in-between song stage banter is inadvertently (or perhaps advertently?) hilarious, full of typical Scalzi non-sequiturs that probably puzzled the polite yet enthusiastic Polish audience. Scalzi sounds a bit bemused and abashed by the strangeness of the situation. "Metal night is no time to be polite." If you've never seen Slough Feg, this won't exactly substitute, you'd be missing the full Feg experience, for one thing you don't get to see Scalzi's acrobatic antics and how he interacts with the audience (and we get the idea that this particular show wasn't as wild in that regard as some). But, you do get to hear how they, in the tradition of old style '70s bands, like to extend and jam out on some of their songs in concert, for instance the guitar soloing duel the two guitarists get into in the midst of the 12+ minutes of "Warriors Dawn", which definitely gets a bit wacky... Comes with a huge 28 page cd booklet full of color photos of Slough Feg on stage in Warsaw, and also being tourists about the city, seeing the sights, eating ice cream, shopping at the Megadisc store, etc. Supposedly also soon to be released on vinyl, but we don't know about that for sure.

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MPEG stream: Warriors Dawn
MPEG stream: Sky Chariots

Huzzah! San Francisco's idiosyncratic old school metal masters Slough Feg are back with a new record, already! We made their previous album, 2009's Ape Uprising, a Record Of The Week, and wrote, like, thousands of words about it. So we'll be a bit briefer here, whilst still giving this our highest recommendation. If you liked it when they Aped it Up, then you know what you're in for on The Animal Spirits. Kinda... Slough Feg already did an album called Atavism, but THIS is their most atavistic yet. Their most '70s rock. (Heck, most Broadway too.) In part, heavy, ripping, raw. In part, majestically melodic. So very melodic, and often major-key, almost pop instead of metal. But not "pop-metal", no not that. And always, always, eccentric. Also epic, can't forget epic, though none of the songs are even over 5 minutes long. Speaking of epics, what metal band would do a song about somebody named Thor, on an ocean voyage, and have it NOT be about Vikings? Slough Feg, naturally, with this album's "Kon-Tiki", about Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's daring raft expedition across the Pacific in 1947. Another unusual, historical number is "The 95 Thesis", about Martin Luther and the Reformation, maybe the only metal song on that subject and certainly the only one to features the lines "Some hide in sophistry but you had the balls / to nail your thesis to the cathedral wall", as it's not so much about religious history as it is about someone being a badass. So, perhaps even moreso than on other Slough Feg albums, expect the unexpected. Like the crude but cool b&w artwork, for instance, drawn by the band's vocalist/guitarist/mastermind Mike Scalzi himself. Or the Alan Parsons Project (!) cover they do, "The Tell-Tale Heart", which utterly sounds like a Slough Feg tune, Scalzi totally owning the vocal part originally sung by none other than Arthur "I Am The God Of Hellfire" Brown on the 1976 original. It's also perhaps unexpected that this record would be released on cult avant blackened doom label Profound Lore (though they've lately been signing a lot of the Bay Area underground's best, it seems). Sure, PL has put out some somewhat "trad" metal before, like the last Hammers Of Misfortune double disc and the recent, recommended Dawnbringer opus, but this still has to be the weirdest release on Profound Lore ever... who, by the way, claim that Slough Feg are America's most important heavy metal band of the past 20 years! Over those years, especially with their current lineup, Slough Feg certainly have earned a reputation as an incredible live act, really you won't see too many more impressive or entertaining performances from a metal band, or any band, these days. They're a band that rejoices in being on stage, that revels in the skill they possess and the power they wield, and they capture that spirit and energy and showmanship and sense of abandon with these new songs for sure. The Animal Spirits is lively, dare we say playful. Sometimes cryptically, cleverly humorous. Bold and brash and totally unselfconscious. So they can do rockin' tracks like the frantic boogie of opener "Trick The Vicar", or the thrashy closer "Tactical Air-War" (which features special guest vocalist, Bobbie Wright of another San Fran metal cult, Brocas Helm!!), and in between find room for a few numbers that are closer to musical theater, though still quite heavy. We've talked about the unexpected, the other hand, you CAN of course expect plenty of guitar harmonies, shredding leads, bombastic vocals, and memorable riffs... they still sound 100 percent like Slough Feg (and thus a bit like Maiden, a bit like Priest, a bit like Sabbath, and a bit like Thin Lizzy). If you've ever said, nobody makes music like that anymore, well Slough Feg do. But they're original about it too. Oh, and good thing they released this in time for Halloween, as there's songs about both vampires and werewolves on here. The latter, live stand out "Lycanthropic Fantasies", is a show stopper on stage, and one of this disc's best as well. The former, "Ask The Casket", is a ridiculously melodic dirge inspired by the cult '60s TV gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows. Another of our favorite tracks is "Second Coming", which starts off acoustically, and features one of Scalzi's most emotive and heartfelt vocal performances, as well as (more) gorgeous twin lead guitarwork... like Slough Feg's earlier "The Sea Wolf", it's a song inspired by writer Jack London, but maybe 'cause the lyrics make reference to San Francisco, it seems like Scalzi's really singing about himself here, somehow. Finally, by the way, unlike Ape Uprising, which did have a song or two about apes, The Animal Spirits is NOT about animals (or spirits). The title refers to an archaic philosophical concept that Scalzi finds amusing, and we don't think pertains to the content of any of the songs on here.

MPEG stream: The 95 Thesis
MPEG stream: Lycanthropic Fantasies
MPEG stream: Ask The Casket
MPEG stream: Free Market Barbarian

First off: amazing drumming on this new album from San Francisco's Slough Feg - nimble, energetic, imaginative!! Ok, maybe we're prejudiced since their drummer Harry now works here at aQ, and besides we've been friends/fans of this cult metal band for years and years. But still, nice job Harry! Those fills, yeah. We're not kidding. Though we are trying to embarrass Harry a bit... Digital Resistance, Slough Feg's first full-length for big league label Metal Blade, finally follows up 2010's The Animal Spirits (on Profound Lore) with another lively and dramatic, vintage-analog sounding assortment of prog-influenced, super catchy heavy metal / hard rock weirdness, mixing Thin Lizzy & Iron Maiden style guitar harmonies, Celtic folk melodies, nimble drumming (like we said!), equally nimble guitar soloing, proggy keyboards (at least, on amazingly titled opener "Analogue Avengers/Bertrand Russell's Sex Den", a schizoid, especially bombastic track that sounds more like a crazed version of Slough Feg's sister band Hammers Of Misfortune than anything else, and is the most anomalous cut on a diverse disc), and more! This album is perhaps Slough Feg's most 'mature' sounding, with lyrics alluding to getting older in a changing (digital) world, and some mellower moments with acoustic guitars mixed in amidst the rippin' majesty. But they stick to their old school guns, and do it in style, and stay as eccentric and awesome and entertaining as ever. And you just can't argue with the riffs in such killer cuts as "Magic Hooligan" and "Laser Enforcer"! The unique warrior-philosopher-bard persona of mainman Mike Scalzi (vocals, lyrics, riffs) comes through loud and clear as well. Heck don't just take it from us, this album got a 8.1 on Pitchfork, believe it or not (apparently the end times are here - Slough Feg reviewed by Pitchfork??!). It's hard not to go on and on like we've done in many previous Slough Feg reviews, to talk more about favorite cuts like the "The Price Is Nice" (inspired by watching Vincent Price movies on late-night TV) and "Warrior's Dusk" (which seemingly starts off in a typical epic mode of Celtic mythology but turns out to be a more personal lament about growing up), but rather than indulge ourselves and our fellow Feg-nerds we'll pretty much leave it at, totally recommended - as per usual! It's true, that for those of you who find 2001's power metal space opera Traveller to be the be-all and end-all of the Slough Feg canon, then this album isn't going to top that one, that's not where their heads are at these days. But if, like us, you've been a fan through Atavism and Hardworlder and Ape Uprising! and The Animal Spirits, if you've always been digging Slough Feg's idiosyncratic, playful, seventies-inspired take on what "metal" is and can be, doing whatever suits their fancy, then Digital Resistance should be to your liking, a little weirder in some ways, a little poppier in others, definitely Slough-Feg-sounding (and sounding great, production-wise, too!). FYI, this is the domestic cd, but we'll also be getting import vinyl soon too.

MPEG stream: Digital Resistance
MPEG stream: Magic Hooligan
MPEG stream: Warrior's Dusk

Striking another blow for true metal, which as we all know belongs on vinyl, collectable vinyl at that (says Allan, who does not own a record player), our favorite San Francisco heavy metallers (featuring members of Hammers of Misfortune, don't forget) San Francisco's epic metal geniuses unleash their third opus. Sheer heavy metal mastery. Damn! If you like some real, melodic heavy metal once and while (instead of the "brutality" and "evil" of that ol' black metal/death metal stuff we love too) the way they used to do it back in the '70s and '80s, with all the crazy fantasy lyrics and shredding dual lead guitar solos you can handle, then you need to hear these guys. This is their best yet, really, with better production than their previous disc, "Twilight Of The Idols", but with equally wicked songs. This band is usually described as a mixture of Maiden, Lizzy, and Sabbath... That's true, they're all that, and not in just a wanna-be, "those are our influences" kinda way either -- 'cause after listening to "Down Among The Deadmen" you could imagine Slough Feg getting in the wayback machine and sharing the stage with any of 'em at Castle Donnington and holding their own just fine! This is one of the only bands I know of where the musicians started as punk/rockers but realized that instrumental virtuosity and compositional craft characteristic of their childhood/teenage metal heroes WERE valuable and could be put to non-ironic, non-lame use. And were talented enough to do it. So, inspired by the past they are, but they're also their own weird thing, a cult act if there ever was one. With songs about Roger Corman movies ("Death Machine" is based on motorcycles-in-the-future David Carridine flick "Death Sport"), fantasy Celtic mythology (the "Heavy Metal Monk/Fergus Mac Roich/Cauldron Of Blood" tryptych) and the classic science fiction roleplaying game Traveller ("Traders & Gunboats"), with Mike's decidely unordinary (but great) deepvoiced vocal majesty, and the plethora of amazing RIFFS, these guys rule! For those who need an obscure indie/metal reference, it's kind of like The Champs meet Cirith Ungol or something; bizarre, epic, baroque, proud, a bit silly, masterful, very metal. So worthy of the delightful cover painting by cult D&D illustrator Erol Otus. The true heavy metal record of the year. Unbelievable!

RealAudio clip: Death Machine
RealAudio clip: Walls Of Shame
RealAudio clip: Warriors Dawn

Attention all headbanging nerds!! Look out, here's a brand new song from San Francisco's weird metal lords Slough Feg, a propulsive sci-fi themed rocker entitled "Laser Enforcer", sounding, especially in this rough-and-tumble demo version, a heck of a lot like some long lost NWOBHM single. We've heard it played live as well, it's a good one! It's slated to appear, in re-recorded form, on their upcoming studio album Digital Resistance, due out sometime next year on Metal Blade, but why wait? This raw rendition was originally intended for a split with cult Canadian doomsters Funeral Circle, but somehow that fell through, so here it is, self-released by the band on 7" vinyl, and paired instead with another, older recording from their vaults. We're especially taken with the groovy instrumental breakdown, with brief drum break and chicken scratch guitar pattern, that happens at about the 1:30 mark of "Laser Enforcer" and then recurs again a bit later on, both times segueing into emotive twin guitar leads, with lots of zip-zip-zap-zap sound FX swirling 'round. Elsewhere, the superbly melodic verse/chorus vocal parts find Slough Feg mainman Mike Scalzi's distinctive tenor in fine form, as he tells you the fantastical facts about what metaphysical effects his regime of laser enforcement will bring about. Despite the song's driving groove, it also has a sort of moody, melancholy vibe to it, interestingly enough. Definitely makes us look forward to the upcoming album, as if we weren't already. Then, for something completely different, the B side, from a previously unreleased 4-track recording that dates back to the Atavism era, is a Government Issue cover! Yep, the '80s DC hardcore band. Slough Feg do a dead-on job with their raging version of GI's "Blending In" from the 1984 album Joyride. It's a nod to Scalzi and fellow Slough Feg guitarist Angelo Tringali's roots in the punk scene back then; after all they've always cited the likes of Black Flag as an influence alongside Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Thin Lizzy. Limited to 500 copies.

Stop right there. FANS ONLY past this point. We're serious. Fortunately, we know that these heavy metal eccentrics have enthusiastic fans (as this release proves). Slough Feg have become one of those love 'em or hate 'em cult bands, where if you like 'em at all, you probably like 'em A LOT. Those of you for whom that's true, you just might be very interested in this double cd archival collection of, as the subtitle says, "Early Demos and Live Recordings". Meant to look a bit like a bootleg (since the band certainly doesn't want anyone to mistake this for a NEW Slough Feg album), it compiles obscure old recordings that many of Slough Feg's most dedicated followers haven't even heard. This stuff's from way, way down deep in the vaults. Be warned, though, the sound quality can be, in a word, rough. Shitty, even. Like we said, for fans only. If you're not already a 'Feg fan, but curious about these weird, Iron Maiden-y San Franciscan metal masters, may we suggest checking out their most recent opus Hardworlder (reviewed elsewhere on our site, along with all their other albums) and going from there? Ok, with that caveat emptor out of the way, we tell you true fans more about what you're gonna find here. Two discs' worth of Slough Feg history, going all the way back to the band's debut DIY demo cassette recording from the summer of 1990. That's what disc one starts with, the nine tracks of "The White Tape" (so called because the cassette they used for the master was white). The, er, "production" quality is seriously fucked up, lower-than-lo-fi with crazy level changes, weird bleed-throughs echoing from other tracks, abrupt edits, buzzing guitars and tape hiss... but give it a few minutes and you might get used to it! What do you expect from a tape made almost 20 years ago by some kids in a basement who barely knew how to work their borrowed 4-track?? However, people who have heard it had been bugging 'em to release it on cd and so here it is, in all its gnarly glory. The first thing a Slough Feg fan will notice is that it's not Mike Scalzi singing! The band lineup back then was quite a bit different from what most Slough Feg fans are familiar with. Band leader/chief songwriter Mike Scalzi wasn't the vocalist, in fact, he didn't even always play guitar. The band's original frontman was Omar Herd, who did his charismatic best to be "the black Paul Di'Anno". Chris Haa (older brother to eventual, erstwhile Slough Feg drummer Greg) was the lead guitarist. And Dave Passmore played drums. Mike, Dave and Omar had all been in bands together before, in the local Central Pennsylvania punk/hardcore scene. On this earliest stuff with Omar on the mic you can definitely hear their punk/hc roots. As raw and crappy as the sound is, the sheer frantic youthful energy and absurd abandon of these tracks is exciting and infectious. And despite the vintage and the variant lineup, it's definitely the Slough Feg fans know & love. You'll even recognize some of the songs, as the band recorded most - but not all - of 'em later on in their career. "Warp Spasm", "Highway Corsair", "Marauder", "Slough Feg", "Highlander"... But you've never heard "Sheets Of Red", "Journey Through The Halls Of Insanity", "Thoughts Of Sympathy", or "The Rock Song", although bits of some of them were cannibalized here and there for other songs. Maybe someday they'll do "The Rock Song" again, though it's hard to imagine Mike singing Omar's love gone bad lyrics about anchorman Dan Rather... Next up on disc one is what might be our favorite stretch of this whole set, a live soundboard recording from a 1990 show at a firehall in Altoona, PA. Mike plays bass, which is mainly heard as a clicking clacking of pick on strings, but very little actual "bass". Omar's vocals come through loud and proud though. And his between-song shit-talking, crowd-baiting banter is amusing. They do five songs off of The White Tape, plus a cover of Judas Priest's "Breakin' The Law". Again, the snotty, adrenalized, off-the-rails metallic madness of the whole thing is exhilarating and fun. Disc one finishes up with two demo tracks ("Highway Corsair" and "Highlander", the latter with completely different alternate lyrics) recorded in 1994, now with Mike on vocals, a couple years after Slough Feg (minus Omar and Dave) relocated to San Francisco. Disc two jumps forward to present live material recorded circa 1999-2002, after Slough Feg had some albums out. Bassists vary, but John Cobbett (Hammers Of Misfortune) shares guitar duties with Scalzi on all of this - stuff from a couple shows in San Francisco, and a gig in Germany (on tour with Solstice in 2000). Tracks from their self-titled first album, Twilight Of The Idols, Down Among The Deadmen, and Traveller all are aired, along with another never-studio-recorded number, a cover version of "Heavy Metal Hunter" by Japan's Metalucifer, which for a while was their standard encore. Though the distorted sound quality isn't what you'd hope for from an official live album, it's ok for a bootleg, which is basically what this is, a somewhat reluctantly authorized boot. We're only disappointed that they didn't include some other old demos, and/or live recordings we're sure must exist - where's their stoner rock jam "Radical Man" or their unlikely cover of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon"?! These discs are packaged with some of the artwork that inspired Slough Feg, from the Slaine comic book. Also there's old flyers from shows "back in the day" with lots of random local bands who definitely aren't still around, that's for sure. The booklet also includes photos, and lyrics to the songs. But no liner notes, unfortunately. As a substitute, you do get, as the final track on disc two, a candid, slightly silly interview with mainman Mike Scalzi done for a German radio show in 2000. Wherein he claims that Slough Feg would be much more popular had he called the band "The Shit Boys" or "Nuclear Fate Europe", cites Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Tiny Tim as his main influences, and openly discusses his gay love affair with Sacred Steel singer Gerrit Mutz. We're pretty confident that all diehard, true 'Feg fans (you might be one, if you're still reading this!) will find the material on The Slay Stack Grows to be of interest... historical, maybe hysterical, and without a doubt headbangin'. Besides, metallers tend to fetishize artifacts such as this, harking back to ye olde tape trading days, and while probably no one has ever traded a copy of The White Tape, that portion of this (and more) definitely evokes the ancient spirit of the eighties and earlier. Heck, maybe the scrappy (lack of) production will attract some underground black metal fans to the 'Feg. And now that The White Tape by 'the true' Slough Feg is immortalized on compact disc, fans can now wonder what the band would be like now if Omar had remained the singer... Oh, and speaking of diehard fetishistic stuff, get this: apparently Shadow Kingdom are gonna also release this on quadruple vinyl!! We'll believe it when we see it, however, 'cause that's crazy.

MPEG stream: Sheets Of Red
MPEG stream: Slough Feg
MPEG stream: Marauder (live 1990)
MPEG stream: Highlander (live 1999)

BACK IN STOCK! We thought we'd relist this, 'cause we finally got a handful back in, and they went so quick the first time, back in April, you might have missed them. You'd think this would be easy to stock since they're an SF band, but the label is in Italy and we've been out of 'em for months... AQ's favorite cult true heavy metal band, The (one and only) Lord Weird Slough Feg, are back with their fourth (can it be?!) compact disc of chaos and conquest, this time conjuring visions of cosmic adventure in a galaxy-spanning science-fictional Imperium of the sixth millenium AD, rather than the battefields of the Celtic fantasy world which inspired such previous Slough Feg albums as "Down Among The Deadmen" and "Twilight Of The Idols", though they've taken some of their trademark Celtic-tinged riffs with 'em into the future. Yep, the Feg boys have come up with a full-on scifi concept album here, each song contributing to a space opera story of far-future genetic warfare. It's convoluted and not just a little bit absurd (we'd expect nothing less from the Lord Weird) involving a megalomaniac mad scientist, dangerous alien spores, a hybrid race of sentient dogs known as Vargr (as pictured on the cover), asteroid miners, and a space pirate named Baltech Budapest who develops psionic powers after being turned into a dog-man! Huh? Well, all this is an excuse for Slough Feg to flex their collective metal muscles, showing off with dueling shredding guitar solos, majestic harmonies, dramatic vocals, shuddering doom riffs, and so forth. The European power metal legions traffic in such wares as well, but none with such flamboyant eccentricity and sheer insanity as the Slough Feg crew. Lost Horizon, Rhapsody, Blind Guardian, Hammerfall and the like might be more polished and synthesized, but for indomitable metal spirit and over-the-top anything-goes chutzpah you've got to hand it to San Francisco's Slough Feg, they'll take on all comers musically while upping the bizarreness quotient to impossible extremes. Raw, bombastic heaviness gives way to acoustic guitars, adrenalized thrash collides with show-tune catchiness, and the story of course is completely fucked. With their two Les Pauls going full bore, this is perhaps the last word in galloping, epic, multi-tracked guitar harmony metal... Their forbears like Iron Maiden, Queen, and Thin Lizzy should be proud (and a little confused). What Drunk Horse are to '70s boogie rock these guys are to '80s metal, except... Slough Feg really mean it! Even when it's hard to figure out *what* they mean. Fans will probably agree that the grandiose "Traveller" is the Slough Feg album most similar to "The Bastard" by their sister band Hammers of Misfortune -- both being continuous narratives ("Traveller" having but one vocalist to handle all the roles however). But while the Hammers' masterful metal operetta seemed all Dungeons & Dragons, this concept record is actually specifically based on -- and named after -- a once-popular science fiction role playing game called Traveller, D&D's spacefaring cousin. The cover design, and some of the lyrics, will make a lot more sense if you're familiar with that game!

MPEG stream: High Passage/Low Passage
MPEG stream: Asteroid Belts

Now on cd, as an Italian import. Supreme true metal from San Francisco, for those who find The Champs too "indie-rock" (just kidding). Slough Feg is a cult band that takes their influences not from other cult bands but direct from the masters: Sabbath, Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Queen. Celtic folkisms collide with doom metal riffs, guitar leads run rampant over epic song structures, and the heroic vocals tell stories fantastic and weird...a metal masterpiece! With keen Erol "D&D" Otus cover art.

We've been championing local San Francisco metal masters The Lord Weird Slough Feg for years and years now, so it's nice to see 'em getting more and more recognition. Indeed, they've become something of a cult heavy metal institution. Used to be, their releases were expensive imports from small European labels, then they got picked up by Profound Lore (who put out their eighth full-length, 2010's The Animal Spirits), and now they have just been signed to American metal mainstays Metal Blade. So, in advance of their upcoming new album for Metal Blade, the label has reissued three of Slough Feg's early hard to find albums (well, we usually had 'em, but other places not so much) as a package deal. Not exactly a "box set", though they do come in a slipcase. There's no bonus tracks or new art or anything, so if you already have 'em you don't need to buy 'em again. But if you're a Slough Feg fan who doesn't don't have 'em - or simply want a big dose of weird old school '70s/'80s styled metal done with eccentric aplomb - then you're in luck. This set comprises the band's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cds, originally put out via Italy's Dragonheart label. 1999's Twilight Of The Idols is the oldest, it came out back when we didn't write quite so much, ahem, about things on our site, so our review was short and to the point, and actually serves well as a description of Slough Feg in general. As we said then, they take their inspirations directly from the masters: Sabbath, Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Queen. Celtic folkisms collide with doom metal riffs, guitar leads run rampant over epic song structures, and the heroic vocals tell stories fantastic and weird... a metal masterpiece! Nowadays, a metal band emulating Maiden and Lizzy isn't so strange, but in '99 Slough Feg were out on a limb... and let's face it they still are, even if fashions have caught up (or flashed back) to them. Twilight Of The Idols is a raw, early work, but definitely captures the essence of the band, and contains several of our favorite 'Feg tunes, including the epic (there's that word again) nearly 9 minute "Great Ice Wars", as well as perhaps one of the most obscure cover tunes ever chosen, "The Wizard's Vengeance", a track originally from an absurdly rare, 1979 private-press lp by a bizarre American progressive rock act called Legend. Next up in the set is Down Among The Dead Men, from 2000. This is the one where guitarist John Cobbett of Hammers Of Misfortune et.al. joined the band. At the time, we said, we proclaimed it the "true heavy metal record of the year" and said, if you like some real, melodic heavy metal once and while (instead of the "brutality" and "evil" of that ol' black metal/death metal stuff we love too) the way they used to do it back in the '70s and '80s, with all the crazy fantasy lyrics and shredding dual lead guitar solos you can handle, then you need to hear these guys... This band is usually described as a mixture of Maiden, Lizzy, and Sabbath. That's true, they're all that, and not in just a wanna-be, "those are our influences" kinda way either - 'cause after listening to Down Among The Deadmen you could imagine Slough Feg getting in the wayback machine and sharing the stage with any of 'em at Castle Donnington and holding their own just fine! This is one of the only bands we know of where the musicians started as punk/rockers but realized that instrumental virtuosity and compositional craft characteristic of their childhood/teenage metal heroes WERE valuable and could be put to non-ironic, non-lame use. And were talented enough to do it. So, inspired by the past they are, but they're also their own weird thing, a cult act if there ever was one. With songs about Roger Corman movies ("Death Machine" is based on motorcycles-in-the-future David Carradine flick "Death Sport"), fantasy Celtic mythology (the "Heavy Metal Monk/Fergus Mac Roich/Cauldron Of Blood" tryptych) and the classic science fiction roleplaying game Traveller ("Traders & Gunboats"), with Mike's decidedly unordinary (but great) deepvoiced vocal majesty, and the plethora of amazing RIFFS, these guys rule! For those who need an obscure indie/metal reference, it's kind of like The Champs meet Cirith Ungol or something; bizarre, epic, baroque, proud, a bit silly, masterful, very metal. So worthy of the delightful cover painting by Erol Otus of D&D fame (who also did the cover of Twilight Of The Idols). Finally, batting third, there's 2003's Traveller, this time conjuring visions of cosmic adventure in a galaxy-spanning science-fictional Imperium of the sixth millennium AD, rather than the battlefields of the Celtic fantasy world which inspired those previous Slough Feg albums, though they've taken some of their trademark Celtic-tinged riffs with 'em into the future. Yep, the 'Feg boys came up with a full-on sci-fi concept album here, each song contributing to a space opera story of far-future genetic warfare. It's convoluted and not just a little bit absurd (we'd expect nothing less from the Lord Weird) involving a megalomaniac mad scientist, dangerous alien spores, a hybrid race of sentient dogs known as Vargr (as pictured on the cover), asteroid miners, and a space pirate named Baltech Budapest who develops psionic powers after being turned into a dog-man! Huh? Well, all this is an excuse for Slough Feg to flex their collective metal muscles, showing off with dueling shredding guitar solos, majestic harmonies, dramatic vocals, shuddering doom riffs, and so forth. The European power metal legions traffic in such wares as well, but none with such flamboyant eccentricity and sheer insanity as the Slough Feg crew. Lost Horizon, Rhapsody, Blind Guardian, Hammerfall and the like might be more polished and synthesized, but for indomitable metal spirit and over-the-top anything-goes chutzpah you've got to hand it to San Francisco's Slough Feg, they'll take on all comers musically while upping the bizarreness quotient to impossible extremes. Raw, bombastic heaviness gives way to acoustic guitars, adrenalized thrash collides with show-tune catchiness, and the story of course is completely fucked. With their two Les Pauls going full bore, this is perhaps the last word in galloping, epic, multi-tracked guitar harmony metal... Their forbears like Iron Maiden, Queen, and Thin Lizzy should be proud (and a little confused). Fans will probably agree that the grandiose Traveller is the Slough Feg album most similar to The Bastard by their sister band Hammers of Misfortune - both being continuous narratives (Traveller having but one vocalist to handle all the roles however). But while the Hammers' masterful metal operetta seemed all Dungeons & Dragons, this concept record is actually specifically based on - and named after - a once-popular science fiction role playing game called Traveller, D&D's spacefaring cousin. The cover design, and some of the lyrics, will make a lot more sense if you're familiar with that game! So, there you have it, three old classics from Slough Feg, available together for a baaaargain price! You're not gonna find a bigger collection of catchy riffs, weird lyrical concepts, and flashy soloing all in one place! Looking forward to what they have in store for us on their Metal Blade debut, being recorded now...

MPEG stream: Highlander
MPEG stream: The Great Ice Wars
MPEG stream: Sky Chariots
MPEG stream: Traders And Gunboats
MPEG stream: High Passage/Low Passage
MPEG stream: Asteroid Belts

When people talk about the 'happening' San Francisco music scene, they're not usually talking about The Lord Weird Slough Feg -- unless it's a denim-clad German metalhead who's doing the talking! Then, perhaps you'll hear them rave about these guys. Utterly trend-free true heavy metal rock n' roll, equal parts Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Queen, Judas Priest, Manowar, Manilla Road...and some Black Flag too, but you'd have to really pay attention to hear that. Slough Feg's music is epic, rockin', riff-laden stuff with heroic vocals and tons of lead guitar. Their lyrics deal with fantasy, insanity, and Celtic myth. They released their first cd, a self-titled half-hour-long mini-album, on their own Beef Rock label back in 1996, and it has long since gone out of print. Since then, they've managed to develop a bit of a cult following in Europe (with two albums so far out on Italian metal label Dragonheart) as well as among a select group of enlightened American metal fans, including quite a few Aquarius customers. They also spawned the popular metal opera project Hammers of Misfortune (on Andee's tUMULt label). Now Miskatonic, the label run by Rich Walker of the godly British doom metal band Solstice, has done us the favor of reissuing Slough Feg's debut effort, with new packaging and, better yet, seven bonus tracks taken from Slough Feg's pitifully-circulated early '90s demo tapes. All remastered of course -- the demo tracks definitely sound better than before. It's nice to have this be available again, as the original cd featured several of Slough Feg's best songs: the Sabbathy "Shadows of the Unborn", the Irish jig "The Red Branch" (always a live favorite), parts III and IV of their prog-rock epic "High Season", the ripping yet melodic "20th Century Wretch", and others. The bonus tracks are equally great, including such otherwise unavailable Slough Feg classics as "The Mask" and the fuzzy, doomy "Headhunter", along with demo versions of "The Red Branch", parts I and II of "High Season", and "The Room" (a different version of which appeared on an obscure comp called "Metal Injection" a couple years ago). They're definitely one of those love 'em or hate 'em bands, and lots of folks just aren't gonna "get" 'em. They're often seen to be too weird for a lot of metal fans, but also way too metal for everyone else. And the "extreme" metal crowd might find them too melodic as well. But for some -- not just me -- they're one of the best bands around. People who like The Fucking Champs for not-entirely-ironic reasons (or, actually, for those too, why not?) should check Slough Feg out. Slough Feg are *not* ironic, and *are* somewhat ridiculous, but they know it and have the nerve to do what they do anyway 'cause they love it. Besides, all that serious, dark, black, death metal can be pretty darn ridiculous too when you think about it or read the lyrics. Amazingly (note: sarcasm), Miskatonic has managed to totally capture the amateur, self-released design aesthetic of the original in repackaging this. From the black and white cover drawing of the Drune Lord Slough Feg in his cave (by Martin Hanford, who is better known for his Bal-Sagoth album covers) to the crappy caligraphic font used throughout to the poorly reproduced band photos, bad layout, and typos in the lyrics, this might actually look *worse* than the 1996 version the band put out themselves...oh well...at least the "underground" vibe is intact! And it's in print, with bonus tracks, so we really can't complain. Note, though, that Miskatonic also managed to run the songs "Why Not" and "Highway Corsair" together as a single track (#5), instead of being tracks 5 and 6 the way they are listed on the back of the cd. Whoops. Perhaps the vinyl version, slated to appear at the end of the year on German label Metal Supremacy, will correct these superficial problems. But if you're not a vinyl diehard, this cd is certainly recommended now.

RealAudio clip: Shadows of the Unborn
RealAudio clip: The Red Branch
RealAudio clip: High Season IV
RealAudio clip: Headhunter (demo)

Here's one epick, metallic seven-inch piece of plastic indeed, released by brothers-in-metal The Lord Weird Slough Feg and Bible Of The Devil, to commemorate their several tours together (including one upcoming this summer... as part of which both bands will be appearing together at the first annual "Alehorn Of Power" festival in BOTD's hometown of Chicago, IL, alongside Manilla Road and Gates Of Slumber, among others!). From San Francisco's Slough Feg, you get two songs on their side, a new one called "Poisoned Treasures" and a killer cover of "Shalala" by their Irish ancestors Thin Lizzy! Extremely rockin'. It's their first recording with new guitarist Angelo Tringali (of cult doom act Cold Mourning), who takes over from Hammers Of Misfortune's John Cobbett in Slough Feg's dual axe onslaught alongside Mike Scalzi. Meanwhile, on the flip, Bible Of The Devil take their twin flying V's into outer space with a tune called "Galactic Violator". Packaged with cool Masters of the Universe comic-booky cover art to boot, with a Galactus-dude on the BOTD's side of the split, mirrored by a horned barbarian guy on the Slough Feg side.

The Miskatonic Foundation -- the cultish, doomy metal label run by Rich Walker, guitarist for UK's Solstice -- has embarked upon a little tribute project here, releasing volume one of a proposed three-volume set of split 7" records devoted to cover versions of Rich's favorite New Wave Of British Heavy Metal songs. And we're not talking the anything obvious like Iron Maiden or Diamond Head, or even Tygers of Pan Tang or Tokyo Blade, we're talking bands like, uh, Nighttime Flyer and Desolation Angels! Real obscure stuff. And that's making a point about what was so incredible about the NWOBHM, the real underground acts that sprung up for just an amazing 7" or LP or two. Rich recruited AQ faves and SF locals The Lord Weird Slough Feg to appear on volume one, sharing the 7" with Portugal's Manilla Road worshipping headbangers Ironsword. Slough Feg are of course a great choice for a NWOBHM tribute, even though they didn't get to do something off of Maiden's Killers... Volumes two and three are slated to feature Orodruin and Scavenger, and Twisted Tower Dire and Revered Bizarre. And the neat thing about a 33 rpm single? Y'know everything sounds great at 45, that's the rule. Both bands' vocalists have voices low enough that on 45 they still sound like metal singers more than chipmunks... but of course you're supposed to play it on 33, and at that speed this is still a lot of fun! Slough Feg's rough-and-tumble cover of a song awesomely-entitled "Heavy Metal Rules" by Nighttime Flyer will endanger your sanity after the chorus gets stuck in your head, as it will. I don't think Slough Feg ever even had heard the song/band before Miskatonic sent 'em a tape from which to chose a track to do -- it was the b-side to Nightime Flyer's only release, a single from '79 -- but they picked it 'cause heck, how can you resist such a title/lyric? And the riffs are remarkably Fegesque in fact. The NWOBHM nugget "Valhalla" by Desolation Angels is ably essayed by Ironsword, who have improved in leaps and bounds since their first album by the way. And they've always had the proper spirit for this sort of thing anyway. This is clearly meant for serious fans...You gotta know Slough Feg and/or Ironsword, and what NWOBMH stands for. The bands being covered aren't even listed on the sleeve, just the song titles! Numbered and limited to 500. We've just got a few. Buy or die, Slough Feg fans! Same goes for NWOBHM freaks, Ironsword maniacs (there must be some) and rabid metal vinyl hounds.

Here's one for metal vinyl collectors: a picture disc single featuring local heavy metal heroes The Lord Weird Slough Feg on one side, and epic British doom-lords Solstice on the other, each covering a tune by Manowar! (An admitted influence on the Brits, if

Latest in God Is Myth's ongoing series of super limited 3" cd-r's. each a tribute, homage, musical offering to the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft, who, as we've posited before, has had more of an affect on heavy metal, than even J.R.R. Tolkien! And these are crazy limited, only 100 copies, we got 20, and it's already out of print, this is your first and only stab and nabbing one of these. The series so far has been pretty stellar, and surprisingly varied. Past installments have included UK experimental folk black metal one man band Caina, Appalachian heathen black metallers Harvist, mysterious blacknoise dronelords LVTHN, and Kentuckian black buzzers Sapthuran, who shared a split with the mighty Leviathan a while back. The newest comes from a truly bizarre and epic post rock avant black metal trio called Smohalla, who hail from France, and while not shoegazey like the other French BM outfits we've been so obsessed with as of late, Alcest, Amesoeurs, etc., they do display a similar unconventional approach to their black metal, and while not as blissy, it is quite fuzzy and tripped out and in many ways not very black at all. The intro is a brief swirl of atmospheric cinematic sort of krautrock, reminding us a bit of Silver Mt. Zion, epic and intense with some very Achim Reichel like vocals, delayed and tripped out. The second track we expected to burst into furious buzz, but instead begins like some apocalyptic folk track, all martial snares, and mournful melodies, swoonsome melodic swells, chanted crooned vocals, clean finger picked guitars, all dense and reverby, wrapped in a mist of fuzzy swirl, definitely more post rock than metal, very reminiscent of Ved Buens Ende, but more washed out and druggy. There are some black metal riffs, but they're delivered cleanly, and stretched over a loping rhythmic backdrop. Before the pic doomy breakdown near the end, a thick wall of roiling guitars, heavy, but more melodic and mysterious. The whole record tends to hover in a strange post rock landscape, where chunks of metal and buzzing riffage, drift by on steady currents of midtempo dramatic math rock minimalism, with occasional howly metal vox, but even then they're strewn over a chaotic avant rock framework, and the occasional blast beats too are nestled in thick reverby swaths of soft buzz instead of grim blackness� The only truly metal moment, is the opening of track 4 with it's dense furious buzzing riff, and harsh vocals, but even that is long passages of haunting piano, strange swirling FX, and disembodied voices, some very choral, the vocals like some ancient angelic choir. These guys may be a metal band, and this may very well be a black metal record, but the typical tropes of black metal are not the focus, instead, they're just elements of a bigger whole, a weird, creepy, off kilter, fucked up, epic, cinematic whole, the sound more dark and haunting than heavy, more loping and midtempo than blasting and buzzing, but in many ways that makes this an even more appropriate tribute to the Lovecraft and the magical worlds he created. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, and again we have 20 of those. You know what that means. Full color cover, each disc includes an insert with information on Lovecraft as well as a killer creepy portrait.

MPEG stream: Les Yeux Du Temps
MPEG stream: Nova Persei

This French avant post black metal outfit from France is named for a Native American 'dreamer-prophet', and the word can be loosely translated simple as 'dreamer', which might sound a bit pretentious, at least until you hear this stuff, which really, is barely black metal at all, other than in vibe and mood, lineage and perhaps the occasional bit of buzz, cuz for the most part, the sound of Smohalla is much more abstract and spaced out, swirly and shimmery and dreamlike, hints of post rock and krautrock and a sort of ethereal melancholia, lots of synths and effects, strange spectral vocals, all woven into a sort of gloomy avant pop, the sort of thing that will no doubt have folks into groups like Alcest and Amesoeurs flipping their lids. But Smohalla are even LESS metal than either of those bands. There are some killer riffs, that at first sound like they could explode into some frenzied buzzing, but instead seem to blossom into a weirdly prismatic blackened pop. The record opens with "Quasar", the title hinting at the cosmic / celestial sounds within, simple skeletal drumming, lots of glitch and swirl, echoey piano, and blurred synth smears, thick layered thrum, epic and majestic, strange sampled voices, choral like harmonies, some big distorted drums, with the synths and effects cranked up alongside for a seriously druggy shoegazey final few seconds. Which gives way to the aforementioned almost-black metal riffage, the song intricate and expansive, ghostly and surreal one second, lumbering and dirge-y the next, hints of BM weirdos Virus about, with weird mathiness, and gnarled atonal guitars. The bellowed dramatic vox and soaring synths, wrapped around more metallic riffage, definitely remind us of Borknagar, Solefald and Ved Buens Ende, but this is so much more far out, totally blissed out experimental blackness, but infused with huge heapings of pop, and a what-the-fuck streak a mile wide. That's not to say the band aren't capable of some serious blackened heaviness, just check out "Oracle Rouge", with one of the best riffs on the record, and loping woozy rhythm, some actual black metal shrieks, not to mention some furious blasting, fans of Peste Noire will dig this off kilter weirdo black metal doom pop weirdness, there's even some skittery programmed drums, some soaring strings, the final bit of the song seriously cinematic. And then it's right back into more creepy black pop mystery and abstract avant gloom dreaminess. There are a few more instances of serious blackness but for the most part, Smohalla continue to unfurl a fantastical black soundscape that has us thinking even a few weeks in, and even though technically this came out last year, we might already have a contender for (sort of) black metal record of the year!

MPEG stream: Quasar
MPEG stream: Au Sol Les Toges Vides
MPEG stream: Le Repos Du Lezard

From the same label that brought us the damaged depressive blackened genius of Happy Days, and the melancholic doom-ed black metal of Leaden, comes this, the first release from Swiss outfit Smorzando, who craft a strange and haunting world of melancholy black metal, mixing the creepy drone-y miserablism of Burzum, with strange abstract post rock, and super blown out in the red production, creating something both black and brutal, fucked up and mysterious, with a super unique sound that is as much noise rock or post rock as it is black metal. The drums are simple, the guitars go from distant minimal jangle, to blown out crumbling distortion, the melody is a simple keyboard suspended in a sea of black buzz, the vocals go from guttural growl to hysterical shriek, but are buried under swells of super distorted �in-the-red, shoegazey blackness. Occasionally, the songs lurch into furious blasts, but for the most part just lurch and lumber, lonely and forlorn, the deep bass and strange melodies sound like foghorns, the production wrapping everything in a grey fuzzy fog, the guitars effected and warbly, sometimes sounding almost electronic, other times sounding like a black avalanche of sound, always underpinned by a lilting melancholy melody or some ghostly ambience, so gorgeous and sad and heavy and absolutely beautiful. One of our new favorite slabs of depressive doom drenched black metal misery for sure. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. Each packaged in a super cool plastic clamshell cassette case, with haunting black and white artwork, and printed black and white fold out insert.

So what's a band to do when they're not playing their particular brand of crushing metal flecked noise rock brutality? Well, take on new identities of course. Offer up their masked visages and craft a whole new set of songs, under a different name, with an ostensibly different sound, but one that really is just a way poppier, stonier, spacier version of their band proper. Which is fine with us. So the mysterious Snailface, who hail from right here in SF, are in fact, the alter ego of aQ faves Kowloon Walled City, and traffic in a sound that has more in common with Kyuss and Queens Of The Stoneage and Torche and other heavy pop combos than the AmRep-y sludge that KWC specializes in. And the funny thing, which happens with lots of side projects / one offs / joke bands, is that the band is super relaxed, having fun, no pressure, none of the big band worries that come with a 'real' band, so whether they mean to or not, they end up ruling, and writing killer songs, and coming up with songs that are not just fun and funny, but that totally rock and are catchy as fuck, and if that band was their actual main focus band, it might even end up being super popular. Which is the case with Snailface. Sure, the songs have goofy titles, and silly lyrics, they're called Snailface, they wear costumes in the band photos, but you sort of forget all about it when you throw it on, big stonery riffs, super melodic vocals, catchy choruses, the sound epic and heavy and hooky, psychedelic and spacey, some killer leads, plenty of weirdness too, fucked up production, backwards vocals and guitars, field recordings, bizarre samples, but all that stuff just sort of decorates the songs proper, which RULE. The first record is way more blown out and desert rock, stonery and drug-poppy, while the second record, a concept record about Yetis. is way more classic rock / big production epic heaviness, with shades of Thin Lizzy, Blue Oyster Cult and Kiss added to the mix. But together, this doubleshot two-fer is fucking awesome. Fans of any of the above mentioned bands, as well as anyone into catchy groovy heaviness, this stuff will definitely hit the spot. Comes packaged in a hand screen printed cardboard box, the tapes both with full color printed inserts, one of 8 different buttons, all nestled on a nice bed of Yeti fur (3 different kinds!). LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!!

MPEG stream: Dancing On Landmines
MPEG stream: Drug School
MPEG stream: Toxic City Of The Sea
MPEG stream: Yowie Wants A Piece
MPEG stream: The Almasty (Kelermes Mirror)
MPEG stream: Triangle Visage Of The Hibagon / Skunk Ape

Snackpit, the magazine of tasty treats! No, wait, that's not it. SNAKEpit. Also a magazine of tasty treats - that is, if you consider obscure, old school '80s metal a treat!! Dunno why we've never listed an issue of Snakepit before, this "Heavy Metal Magazine" has long been a must read for the most metal of us here. Each issue, like this one, featuring a plethora of ultra in depth interviews with (mostly) long-defunct, cult '80s metal bands, or rather, the former members thereof, many of whom probably haven't done an interview in decades. The interviewer's questions are loaded with such obsessive minutiae, it makes most magazines, with the exception of Ugly Things, look vague and cursory in comparison. Usually the Snakepit writers seem to know more about the history of band in question than the ex-band members could possibly even remember! (They'll throw questions at 'em like, "On April 9th 1982, ACID played live at the Beurshalle in your hometown, Bruges, with SOGGY. What do you remember from that occasion?", stuff like that.) So, which denim 'n leather clad cults get the Snakepit treatment this time 'round? A bunch of our faves: Acid, Raven, Griffin, Watchtower, Obsession, and (early, Neil Turbin era) Anthrax, among others. And then lots more we maybe, barely had even ever heard of before, such as Blackkout, Voor, Sexist, Excalibur, Existance, Messiaxx, Witch Cross, Baron Steele... All gripping stuff for us metal geeks! Not everything is '80s, it just sounds '80s. One of the more recent bands interviewed is the late, potentially great Powervice. We'd been wondering what happened to them, they had a great, Iron Maiden circa Killers sounding cut on the Earache comp Heavy Metal Killers a few years ago, then (we learn here) broke up, bummer. Plus, this issue's densely packed 116 pages are also graced with a section of reviews (reissues, new stuff, demos) which are, interestingly, often quite harsh and negative. And there's plenty of ads for stuff we're gonna want to hunt down as well. Oddly, though, 'cause Snakepit, while its editorial offices are over in France, is published Stateside by the Nuclear War Now label, there's ads for current black metal stuff that they'd never ever cover in the magazine. The closest they'd come are things like early thrash / death metal crossover, like the feature on Chuck Schuldiner's pre-Death demo band Mantas in this ish. And, as a bonus, this comes packaged with the limited edition vinyl 7" with rare tracks by the Bay Area's own awesome Griffin, live in '82, including their classic "Flight Of The Griffin" and a cover of The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again".

[ aquarius records — Metal ]