THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Wish WE were going to Bloodstock... or any of the other crazy metal festivals they have across the pond in August. Well we can live vicariously through the pages of UK metal bible Terrorizer, who put Behemoth's Nergal on the cover as part of their festival preview. Also this ish: Watain, Nile, Eyehategod, Grand Magus, Gama Bomb, Deicide, Mayhem, Cradle Of Filth, Nachtmystium, Old Man Gloom, Dimmu Borgir, and plenty more metal faves, big and small, black and death, etc. etc.
Plus, it as usual you get a free "Fear Candy" sampler cd.
Metal magazine madness! Terrorizer is the other glossy metal monthly we always turn to, this time with Dani Filth from Cradle of Filth looking kinda goofy (of course) on the cover. Also: 20 years of Darkthrone, Napalm Death, Grave, Sonne Adam, Dragged Into Sunlight, Anaal Nathrakh, Nuclear War Now! (label festival preview), Swans, God Seed, and more. Includes the usual "Fear Candy" cd sampler stuck to the front as well.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Metallica's Kirk Hammett is on the cover, been getting a lot of mileage lately out of his (admittedly amazing) collection of horror memorabila, with a book and all. Then, inside, also: Fen, Dordeduh, Weapon, Graveyard, Von, Destruction, Troubled Horse, Nine Covens, and more. Plus the usual news, reviews, and other metallic goodness. We particularly liked the regular "Mix Tape Mayhem" feature this ish, with the guitarist of Katatonia, who picks the likes of W.A.S.P., Priest, Crue, Maiden, KISS, a man after our own heart.
And there's also the usual cd sampler stuck to the cover, too!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Latest issue of this UK metal mag, stoner rock heavies Orange Goblin on the cover, inside, the usual fantastically varied cast of black/doom/noise/sci-fi/sludge/post metal (and not quite metal) outfits: Voivod, Suffocation, Tomahawk, Satan's Wrath, Septic Flesh, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, Cult Of Luna, Exhumed, The Bronx, Enforcer, Ghoul, Andee's new obsession the Chinese outfit Tengger Cavalry (who fuse epic metal with Chinese and Mongolian folk music, including horse hair fiddles, throat singing and more!), Vried, Koldbrann and more.
There's tons of reviews of course, as well as a Hard Of Hearing, Invisible Jukebox style listening session with Canadian metalheads Cauldron, and some back page mix tape mayhem from Nick Barker of Cradle Of Filth, Lock-Up, Dimmu Borgir, Old Man's Child, Brujeria, etc.
And as always includes a cd sample featuring new tracks from Suffocation, Devourment, Helloween and a bunch of bands we've never heard of including the awesomely named outfits Teaspoonriverneck and Fuckshovel!
Looks like a good issue of ye olde Terrorizer here. Darkthrone on the cover, also Kvelertak, Ghost ("And The Rise Of Occult Metal"), Clutch, Rotting Christ, Spektr, Kongh, Necrowretch and tons more. Including an article about a band called Sabzius, blurbed on the cover as "11 F*cking Hours! The World's Longest Song?!" Gotta read about that.
AND, you get not one but two free cds this time, one the usual "Fear Candy" sampler with tracks from Darkthrone and others, the other being an Eastern European metal compilation with a whole bunch of bands mostly new to us.
Another issue of UK metal mag Terrorizer, always a good read for those who want to keep up with the latest in the world of metal. We've been reading it for years and always look forward to perusing every issue. This one's got Finland's Children Of Bodom on the cover, also inside you'll find pieces on Kylesa, Blood Ceremony, Dark Tranquility, Sodom, Arckanum, Evile, Age Of Taurus, and plenty more. All the usual reviews and news and whatnot, plus the free sampler cd stuck to the cover. Oh, and the back page "mix tape" feature this time reveals favorite tracks picked by Metatron of Meads Of Asphodel, that's gotta be interesting, he talks about song by Stiff Little Fingers, Sigh, and The Doors among others.
The cover story in this new issue of the UK's Terrorizer magazine delves into the future of black metal, with a symposium of sorts on the subject featuring speculation from members of Gaahl, Ihsahn, Dani Filth, and Tchort (and if you don't know who they are, you probably don't CARE about the future, or past for that matter, of black metal anyway).
Also: Autopsy, Aborym, Jex Thoth, White Wizzard, Skinny Puppy, Orphaned Land, Deicide, Necropsy, and plenty more. Including the usual news, reviews, ads for awesome European metal festivals you probably won't get to go to, and the free sampler cd stuck to the cover! Plus, in the 'Mix Tape Mayhem' feature, Kreator's Mille Petrozza picks a song by Lana Del Rey. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! AGE OF TAURUS "Desperate Souls Of Tortured Times" (Rise Above / Metal Blade) cd 14.98 ALTO! "s/t" (Raheem) lp 14.98 ANGST SKVADRON "Flukt" (Obscure Abhorrent) lp 21.00 ANGST SKVADRON "Sweet Poison" (Obscure Abhorrent) lp 21.00 ASH BORER "Bloodlands" (Gilead Media) lp 16.98 ASTROMASON + BLUE SABBATH BLACK CHEER "Endless Black" (self-released) cassette 5.98 BATAGOV, ANTON & YUNGCHEN LHAMO "Tayatha" (Cantaloupe Music) cd 17.98 BATILLUS / WHITEHORSE "Split" (Vendetta) lp 16.98 BAXTER, LES "Hell's Belles OST" (La-La Land) cd 8.98 BEGGARS "s/t" (Lotus House) 2cd 13.98 BIRTH CONTROL "Operation" (Repertoire) cd 14.98 BIRTHDAY PARTY, THE "Live 81-82" (4AD) 2lp 22.00 BLACK DICE "Beaches & Canyons" (DFA) 2lp 23.00 BOYCE, R.L. "Ain't The Man's Alright" (Sutro Park) lp 14.98 BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, THE / TEENAGE MONSTER (WALTER GREENE) "OST" (Monstrous Movie Music) cd 27.00 BRAN (...) POS "Den Of Ordure And Iridescence" (Rescipiscent) lp 15.98 BUG, THE "Filthy EP" (Ninja Tune) 2 x 10" 22.00 CARGO "s/t" (Pseudonym Records) 2cd 31.00 CLOSED ROOM "s/t" (Valse Sinistre Productions) cd 12.98 CLOUDS & CANYONS "A Challange To The Dark" (20 Sided) lp 9.99 COFFINS "Sewage Sludgecore Treatment" (Haunted Hotel) lp 14.98 COFFINS "The Fleshland" (Relapse) 2lp 27.00 COH "Retro 2038" (Editions Mego) cd 16.98 COLD STEEL "20 Years Of NY Thrash: The Demo Anthology" (Stormspell) cd 11.98 CRYSTAL SHIPSSS "Yay" (Three Ring / Raw Onion) 10" 12.98 DEAFHEAVEN "DFHVN (aka Demo)" (Sargent House) lp 16.98 DEATHCHARGE "Bad Dream Forever" (Unseen Forces) lp 14.98 DEN SAAKALDTE "Ol, Morke Og Depresjon" (Aesthetic Death) 2lp 21.00 DEVIL'S BLOOD, THE "III: Tabula Rasa Or Death And The Seven Pillars" (Metal Blade) cd/2lp 14.98/35.00 DIABOLIKAL SUPER-KRIMINAL, THE "ost" (Cinedelic) cd 15.98 DIE ANDEREN / APOCALYPSE "Kannibal Komix" (Long Hair) cd 19.98 DOVES, THE "The Lord Is My Shepherd" (Tembo) cd/lp 17.98/24.00 DRIVE (CLIFF MARTINEZ) "OST" (Lakeshore) cd 17.98 ECLIPSE BAND, THE "Inner Reggae Rhythm" (Onlyroots / Sydney Crooks) lp 15.98 ELEKTRO GUZZI "s/t" (Macro) cd 17.98 ELOY, JEAN-CLAUDE "Gaku-No-Michi" (Hors Territory) 4cd 60.00 ELOY, JEAN-CLAUDE "Shanti" (Hors Territory) 2cd 39.00 ENCOFFINATION "Elegant Funeral For The Unknown Dead" (Debemur Morti) lp 17.98 ENCOFFINATION "Ritual Ascension Beyond Flesh" (Self Made God) lp 17.98 EXTINCTION DE LOS INSECTOS "Untitled" (Lupus / Chingaste La Confianza) lp 19.98 FACTRIX / CONTROL UNIT "Elegy For Rusted Souls" (Backwards) lp + 7" 38.00 FLESH EATERS "No Questions Asked" (Mono) lp 17.98 FLOWERS, PHIL AND HIS UNITED FAMILY "Alpha And Omega" (Tuff City / Funky Delicacies) cd/lp 16.98/14.98 GIBSON, DAUGHN "Me Moan" (Sub Pop) cd/lp 14.98/15.98 GUITAR RED "Hard Times" (Funky Delicacies) lp 21.00 HACKAMORE BRICK "One Kiss" (Sony / Real Gone Music) cd 14.98 HIDALGO, JUAN "Tamaran" (Cramps) lp 15.98 HIGUCHI, KEIKO "Ephemeral As Petals" (Utech) cd 14.98 HUNX & HIS PUNX "Street Punk" (Hardly Art) cd/lp 12.98/13.98 HYETAL "Modern Worship" (True Panther) 2lp 23.00 ITO, AKIRA "Japanesque" (Bamboo) cd/lp 17.98/24.00 J. TEAL BAND "Cooks" (Vintage / Rockadrome) cd 13.98 JACUZZI BOYS "Double Vision" (Hardly Art) 7" 5.98 JANDEK "The Song Of Morgan" (Corwood Industries) 9cd 29.00 JERI-JERI "800 Percent Ndagga" (Ndagga) lp 22.00 JONES, GLENN "My Garden State" (Thrill Jockey) lp 19.98 KING GEEDORAH "Take Me To Your Leader" (Big Dada) 2lp 28.00 KING LOSES CROWN "You Can't Escape" (self-released) cd 7.98 KINSKI "Cosy Moments" (Kill Rock Stars) lp 17.98 KOWTON "Shuffle Good" (Boomkat Editions) 12" 17.98 LANEGAN, MARK / KAREN DALTON "Same Old Man" (Light In The Attic) 7" 6.98 LEE, OKKYUNG "Ghil" (Ideologic Organ / Editions Mego) lp 22.00 LEO BUGARILOVES, THE "Feelings" (Karkia Mistika / Ektro) cd 15.98 LESBIAN "Forestelevision" (Translation Loss) cd 14.98 LOS MICROWAVES "Life After Breakfast" (Dark Entries) lp + dvd 17.98 LYCIA "Cold" (Handmade Birds) 2lp 30.00 MAD RIVER "s/t" (Sundazed) lp 24.00 MAN OR ASTRO-MAN? "Defcon 5...4...3...2...1" lp 17.98 MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKAKKE "Far West" (Important Records) cd/lp 14.98/17.98 MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE "Twilight Of The Kali Yuga Tours" (Important) lp 21.00 MOIRA SCAR "Scarred For Life" (Resipiscent) lp 15.98 MOOMAW "Don't You Just Love" (Gazebo Music) lp 9.98 MORBUS CHRON "Sleepers In The Rift" (Pulverized) cd/lp 17.98/21.00 MOTION SICKNESS OF TIME TRAVEL / NOVA SCOTIAN ARMS "Crystal Anniversary" (Aguirre) lp 25.00 MR. ONDIOLINE "Le Siffleur Et Son Chien" (Finders Keepers / Cacophonic) 7" 10.98 MT. HAMMER "Dionysus" (self-released) cd 5.98 NATH FAMILY "Sounds Of The Indian Snake Charmer Volume Two" (Hanson) lp 21.00 NECROBUTCHER "Schizophrenic Noisy Torment" (Nuclear War Now! Productions) lp 17.98 NURSE WITH WOUND & GRAHAM BOWERS "Parade" (Red Wharf) cd 17.98 OCEAN CHIEF "Sten" (I Hate Records) cd 16.98 PALE MIST "Where The Darkness Is Praised" (Sinister Stench / Werewolf / Legion Blotan) cd 14.98 PALM HIGHWAY CHASE "Escape Fom New York" (Spectrum Spools) lp 22.00 PANZERPAPPA "Astromalist" (Rune Grammofon) 17.98 PARISH, JOHN "Screenplay" (Thrill Jockey) 2lp 19.98 PARMEGIANI, BERNARD "De Natura Sonorum" (Recollection GRM / Editions Mego) 2lp 32.00 PARTCH, HARRY "The Bewitched" (Finders Keepers / Cacophonic) lp 24.00 PEOPLE OF THE NORTH "Sub Contra" (Thrill Jockey) lp 17.98 PINK, ARIEL AND JORGE ELBRECHT "Hang On To Life" (Mexican Summer) 7" 9.98 RAINBOW "Rising" (Polydor) cd 5.00 RAINFOREST SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT "Black Magic Cannot Cross Water" (Blackest Ever Black) lp 23.00 RAMESSES "Misanthropic Alchemy" (Ritual Productions) 2cd 23.00 RAZOR "Armed And Dangerous" (War On Music) lp 17.98 ROGIE, S.E. "The Sounds Of S.E. Rogie Vol. 1" (Mississippi / Domino) lp 14.98 SACRED STEEL "The Bloodshed Summoning" (Cruz Del Sur) cd 17.98 SADISMO "ost" (Kritzerland) cd 8.98 SAI, YOSHIKO "Mikko" (Bamboo) cd 17.98 SALEM'S LAW "Tale Of Goblins' Breed" (Skol) cd 15.98 SALTY DOG "s/t" (Strawberry Rain) cd/lp + 7" 16.98/33.00 SATANIC THREAT "In To Hell" (Hell's Headbangers) cd 10.98 SCHLOSS TEGAL "Oranur III : The Third And Final Report" (Cold Spring) cd 17.98 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Conrad & Sohn" (Bureau B) cd 17.98 SCREAMING SAVIOR "Infinity" (Metal Hell) cd 14.98 SHANNON & THE CLAMS "Dreams In The Rat House" (Hardly Art) cd/lp 12.98/14.98 SHARPE, EDWARD & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS "s/t" (Vagrant) cd 14.98 SOKEA PISTE "Valikasi" (Ektro) cd 15.98 SPACE "Magic Fly" (Repertoire) cd 14.98 STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND / WERTMULLER, MICHAEL "Zeitschrei" (Trost) cd 17.98 STRATOS, DEMETRIO "Metrodora" (Cramps) lp 15.98 STREETS KILL STRANGE ANIMALS "Plan B: Back To The Analog Time" (Modern Sky) cd 12.98 SUDO "Caligula" (Ektro / Harmanov) cd 15.98 SUN ARAW / RALPH WHITE "split" (Monofus) 12" 13.98 SUN RA "Continuation" (Saturn Research) lp 12.98 SURPLUS 1980 "Arterial Ends Here" (Delphine Knormal Musik) 10" + cd 10.98 SVETOVID "Natures Fury" (Brotherhood Of Light / Werewolf Promotion) cassette 5.98 T2 "1971-72" (Acme) lp 25.00 TAIST OF IRON "Resurrection" (Skol) 2cd 16.98 TENGGER CAVALRY "Sunesu Cavalry" (Metal Hell) cd 14.98 THE SOURCE FAMILY: MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK (Drag City) lp 17.98 TOODY / THE WESTERN FRONT "split" (Mississippi) 10" 14.98 V/A "Bollywood Bloodbath" (Finders Keepers / B-Music) 2lp 28.00 V/A "C'est Chic: French Girl Singers Of The 1960s" (Ace International) lp 25.00 V/A "Frozen In Time: Music To Accompany The Films Of Ingmar Bergman" (Black Horizons) 3 x cassette 19.98 V/A "King Funk" (Ace) cd 16.98 V/A "Psychedelic Pernambuco" (Mr. Bongo) cd 14.98 V/A "Rough Guide To African Disco" (World Music Network) 2cd 14.98 V/A "Summer Of Fuzz Volume 2" (Fuzz City) cassette 8.98 VELA EYES "The Pleasure Sunrise" (self-released) 10" 9.98 VHK "Veled Haraptat Csillagot!" (Full Contact) lp 21.00 VINLAND SPECIAL SERVICES "Cemetary Without Crosses" (Brotherhood Of Light) cassette 5.98 VINLAND SPECIAL SERVICES / COSMIC BREATH "Hanoi Hilton / Five Pointed Snow Mound" (Brotherhood Of Light) cassette 5.98 WAKE, THE "A Light Far Out" (Factory Benelux) lp 41.00 WALLS "Urals" (Ecstatic) 12" 14.98 WATSON, CHRIS "In St. Cuthbert's Time" (Touch) cd 15.98 WHITE POPPY "Drifters Gold" (Constellation Tatsu) cassette 5.98 WILD ONES "Keep It Safe" (Party Damage) cd/lp 9.98/14.98 WOO "Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong" (Emotional Rescue) cd/lp 17.98/26.00 WORK / DEATH "Phone About To Ring" (Type) lp 22.00 XEX "Change" (Dark Entries) lp + dvd 17.98 XX, THE "Fiction" (Young Turks) 7" 6.98
All the latest in the world of metal here, folks: on the cover, Watain, also there's stuff on King Diamond, Annihilator (yes!!), Exhumed, Cauldron, Powerwolf, Revocation, All Pigs Must Die, Ramming Speed, Morne, Arabrot, Huntress, and more. Free cd sampler stuck to the cover btw.
No good reason not to buy this, even if it's hard to read while banging your head, you can get the hang of it eventually.
Cover stars (of course!!) are Carcass, back doing deathgrind surgery after so many many years. Also in this issue of the UK's premier 'extreme' metal magazine: Emperor (also making a return!), Saint Vitus, Satyricon, Gorguts, Vista Chino (aka Kyuss, basically), Fyrnask, Ministry, Subrosa, and plenty more. Plus the usual magazine stuff - reviews, ads for cool European metal festivals you'll never get to go to, reports on cool European festivals you didn't get to go to, etc. And, a free sampler cd stuck to the cover.
Paradise Lost & Lacuna Coil on the cover. Also: Onslaught, Kataklysm, Brutal Truth, UFOmammut, Skeletonwitch, Corrections House, Sepultura, Monster Magnet, Sahg, Toxic Holocaust, Pestilence, Dimmu Borgir, and more - including a look at the history and origin of Roadburn Festival. Plus a free cd sampler stuck to the cover. If you like metal, and you have a bathroom, you should be purchasing Terrorizer (and Decibel) every month, really.
Shane Embury of Napalm Death (and a million other bands!!) is on the cover of this, the venerable UK metal mag's 20th anniversary issue (congrats!), plus Deicide, Hell, Sepultura, Avatarium, Rosetta, Beastmilk, Vaura, Glorior Belli, Code, Conan, and plenty more - including a big 20 year retrospective on the magazine and metal itself. Tom G. Warrior among others (like ol' Shane) provide commentary. There's also the usual plethora of reviews, news, etc., and a free cd sampler too, stuck to the cover.
Another month, another issue of this metal magazine out of the UK that we've been reading for YEARS. This issue's got their preview of what to look forward to release-wise in 2014 (including a chat with Tom G. Warrior of Triptykon among others... personally we're most excited about the impending Immortal), also a bit of a look back at 2013 in the form of their critics' and readers' poll results (Carcass #1 in both!). Other stuff: Satan's Wrath, Ghost B.C., Year Of No Light, Iced Earth, Carcass, and more. Reviews, news, cd sampler stuck to the cover, all the usual stuff!
Bow before the might of Behemoth... 'cuz they're on the cover and that's what it says. In this new issue of the UK's premier monthly metal magazine, you'll also find stuff on Grand Magus, Slough Feg (yay!), Kampfar, accapella metallers Van Canto, Amon Amarth, sweater-wearers Alcest, Indian, Cradle Of Filth, Mayhem, and more, including a label profile on our pals at Pesanta Urfolk (Ash Borer, Hell, Merkstave...).
Also included, a cd sampler stuck to the cover, with tracks by a couple of the aforementioned and bunches of unknowns too.
Triptykon. Twilight. Annihilator (yes, of "Alison Hell" fame). Pilgrim. Behemoth. Coffinworm. Autopsy. And plenty more extreme/metal sounds! (Including some -actual- sounds, via the free sampler cd stuck to the cover.)
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
From the same Japanese label that brought us Bathtub Shitter (still the best band name ever!) comes Tetsuo, a band that has way more in common with Corrupted or Boris than their bathtub shitting labelmates. Sludgy and repetitive, heavy and crushing with lots of solid state feedback a la Eyehategod and loads of midtempo wall of guitar pummel a la Neurosis. One epic twenty minute track that goes from slow motion sludge to furious almost-death-metal to crusty grind to stoner groove and back again. Fans of any of the above mentioned bands definitely need this.
Another blast of insane black metal chaos, this time from an entity known simply as...THE ONE. And chaos it is. Sure it has all the hallmarks of grim fucking black metal, but this is so weird and sloppy and punishing and weird weird weird. Everything (drums, vocals, guitars) is drenched in reverb, so that when things get going, I mean really going, it turns into one intensely hellish blur, that sounds almost like Merzbow with only the occasional cymbal crash to help you keep your bearings. The drumming, when not lost in a dense cloud of impenatratable bllllleeaarrgghhh, is a weirdly stumbling beast, stuttering through arrhythmic fills and continually fluctuating blast beats. And then there's the vocals. Some of the most insane ridiculous vocals ever, heavily distorted and reverbed monster growls that threaten to overtake everything they're so high in the mix! And tempo changes and new parts are occasionally demarcated by a very loud grunt that is reverbed through the roof or some maniacal sinister laughter also drenched in effects. There are also all sorts of bizarre sounds underneath the frosty onslaught: what sounds like jaw harps on track four and the hoofbeats of horses elsewhere. But at it's core, like Graveland or Nargaroth, The One takes black metal into the almost static realm, creating totally buzzing blurry drones, assembled from super distorted riffs and rumbling basslines smeared into endless washes of hypnotic sound. So totally mesmerising but completely insane and absurd at the same time. Highly recommended for fans of black metal weirdness/insanity a la Necrofrost, Abruptum, Vondur as well as the grim black metal blur of Nargaroth and Graveland.
It's been almost 5 years since we last heard from Greek duo THE ONE, who back then, were maybe not a duo, and who were most definitely in our pantheon of weirdo black metal, along with Necrofrost, Abruptum and Vondur, vying for the top spot with their heavily reverbed blackness and insane vocals.
But here we are years later, and The One are not nearly as weird as they once were. Like Necrofrost, who have also resurfaced and whose new record is reviewed elsewhere on this list, it might not be that they are less weird, but that the weirdness is better integrated into their sound.
Before, the music was a stumbling chaotic blur, everything tangled up with everything else, the mix super erratic, with various elements exploding out of the mix, the drumming wild and off kilter, lots of grunts and some of the growliest monster vocals ever, and we'd be lying if we didn't say we weren't initially disappointed that this record was so GOOD. And tight. And solid. Cuz it is. Good. Really good. Heavy and black, the guitars intense and thick and full, some awesome riffing, the drums hard hitting and audible in the mix, the mix itself lush and LOUD, plenty of groove and hooks hidden here and there, but not damaged or demented or fucked up. At least at first. No one can make music that weird and then suddenly ditch all the various elements that made that music so strange. So here, on I, Master, the weird shit is subtle, and generally tucked away amidst thrashing blasting blackness and chugging riffage, whether it's an impossibly long and harsh hissy howl, or some weird dubbed out cymbal shimmer, or even a creepy circusy interlude with a looped music box groove and whispered vocals, the weird stuff is definitely there, but that's no longer why we're here, this is some heavy Ravenstormy Blizzard Beastly blown out buzz drenched heaviness, with just the right amount of crooning chanted vocals and midtempo doominess to keep it interesting, but they have definitely ditched their fucked up fractured past in favor of something ultimately way more pleasing, a super epic, ultra heavy, dense and destructive, blasting and buzzing black metal, and so far today, we've listened to the whole record all the way through THREE times, and the night is still young...
- MPEG stream: I
- MPEG stream: III
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
First chance for us to check out this band of Belgian brutes and we're pretty impressed. Huge slabs of slowly shifting downtuned slow motion riffing, massive and pummelling, a perfect fit on Southern Lord. But it's the vocals that really make Thee Plague stand out. A bellowing, growling caterwaul not all that dissimilar to the mighty Killdozer. In fact, a thumbnail review could simply read: SUNNO))) meets Killdozer. Good stuff. On yellow vinyl.
A couple of years ago some of us here at Aquarius befriended a visiting Belgian guy, a big fellow with a waxed handlebar mustache named Steve. That is, the guy was named Steve, actually, not his mustache. But if his mustache had a name we wouldn't have been surprised -- it was quite a striking 'stache. ANYWAY, we knew that in addition to being a record collecting fiend, Steve was a musician and that he played in a band, but somehow we didn't discover until much later that his band was called Thee Plague Of Gentlemen (is that some sort of punning reference to the BBC comedy?) and they were proponents of something that we love so much: sheer HEAVINESS! We learned this when they did a now out-of-print 7" single for Southern Lord, that we decided sounded like an unholy union of SUNNO))) and Killdozer! While we haven't really kept in very close touch with our Belgian friend (if you're reading this, hi Steve, how've you been?!), we have definitely been on the look-out for more from his band. Well, here it is! A full-length cd of downtuned sludge and gargling vocal wail. Total doom. Something along the lines of Cathedral (circa Endtyme), Electric Wizard, Unholy Trance, Celtic Frost, and Winter. Slow and grinding and a little bit psychedelic, with occasional bursts of speedier brutality. Riff-heavy, feedbacking doom extremity that means business. This disc is enhanced with two Quicktime videos of the band performing live. That's the aforementioned Steve singing and playing guitar, the bald guy with more beard now than moustache. And he's wearing a Magma t-shirt!
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Found two (2) of these hidden in a box in the back of the store, haven't listed 'em since 2003, great album, grab one if you can, first come first served, sale price...
AQ pal Drucifer (and the guy who runs Dielectric Records, who released those amazing 12" a while back: Sote, Karen Stackpole, etc...) had been threatening to play this record for us for a while, and he's got pretty darn good taste so we were looking forward to finally checking it out. We always just sort of assumed from the title and from talking to Drucifer that it was going to be some sort of jazz, but boy were we surprised when we threw this on. The quartet in question is actually a trio, and while the music these three play does have certain qualities one might find in jazz, this is GRINDMETAL through and through. Five tracks of furious, chaotic, brutal and pummeling hyper complex metallic grind a la Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Pig Destoyer, Discordance Axis and the like. But unlike most grinders, TGWMQ stretch their songs way out (none of the songs is shorter than 3 minutes, most significantly more), allowing them to explore and develop and stretch out a bit. The final track is nine minutes long ferchrissakes, with lots of splattery free noise, rumbling ambient passages, found sounds and ethereal female vocals, almost-groovy riff rock parts, and buzzing droning weirdness. But don't be frightened off by all that, 'cause the core of this record is dense and grinding, ultra complicated, dizzyingly agile, and crushingly savage heaviness. So good. All you folks who freak out over Agoraphobic Nosebleed and their similarly sonic minded ilk definitely need this!
Latest from black ambient soundscaper Theologian, aka Leech, he previously of long running power electronics / synthdrone outfit Navicon Torture Technologies, and like the recently reviewed (and awesomely titled) The Further I Get From Your Star, The Less Light I Feel On My Face, this new one Finding Comfort In Overwhelming Negativity is another collection of abject industrial blackness, of heaving, shadowy blackness, of harrowing cinematic ambience, four sprawling tracks that ooze and creep, blurring rumbling drones into stuttering mechanical rhythms, buried voices and smeared chordal swells, the opening track here, the most overtly rhythmic thing we've heard on a Theologian record, a hypnotic rhythmic loop, creaking and scraping, metallic and mesmerizing, churns away, while all around it, shades of black slither and shimmer, wreathed in streaks of black FX and shards of glitch and gristle and thrum.
The rest of the record ditched the rhythms, and returns to a more rumbling droned out black ambience, shimmery and atmospheric for the bulk of one track, corrosive and caustic for much of the other, the second sounding near metallic, roiling slo-mo riffage, draped over disembodied vocals and a swirling morass of mysterious sounds. The crunch and buzz, gradually smooth out and becomes a mesmerizing sprawl of staticky pulsations, and while rhythmless technically, are pretty tranced out and rhythmic.
The final track might be the noisiest of the bunch, a post industrial sprawl of chaotic noise, overlapping rhythms, streaks of keening high end, lots of hiss and hum, everything brittle and upper register, sounds almost like some strange field recording of a post apocalyptic wasteland, all rusted out robotics and grinding machinery, like some of the moments earlier, weirdly rhythmic, gristly and staticky, but also noisy, washed out and sort of of bleached out, as if at some point the sound was full and rich and simply decayed into the wasted skeletal sprawl that unwinds gradually, and ends the record with a slowly fading sky full of static and hiss...
Gorgeously packaged in an oversized book-style digipak.
Right from the opening blast of "Funeral Moonlight", even before the droning loping dirge of this album's lead-off track really surges forth, you know you're in for some true church-burning darkness from this Norwegian black metal duo. You'll also know that already if you've got their Unholy Holocaust Winds demo, which was released as a limited edition cd on the Paradigms label last year and got a rave review from us. Two of the three tracks ("Funeral Moonlight" and "Symbols of Winter") from that demo appear again here in re-recorded form, plus a three newer compositions ("Under Guds Hud", "Nattaander", and the title track), for a nearly an hour of grim, eerie black metal majesty. The expected frosty blurr of drums and guitars, and accompanying necromantical screams, is enhanced by Throne Of Katarsis' effective and somewhat unusual use of acoustic guitars, like some unholy mix of Darkthrone and Dissection.
We first heard from Norwegian black metallers via their Paradigms release Unholy Holocaust, way back in 2006, at the time, we had had no idea who these guys were, so we weren't sure what to expect, but what we got was a frosty blast of classic old school Scandinavian style grimness. A sound that fit perfectly amidst the elite, Immortal, Satyricon, Darkthrone, Enslaved, Emperor, yet Throne Of Katarsis definitely added their own twist, incorporating bits of fluttery folky acoustic guitar, and bit of druggy doom, even some super catchy Dissection / Iron Maiden like guitar melodies. Since then they've released one other record, An Eternal Dark Horizon, which found the band dialing back the melody and upping the grim frost, while keeping the acoustic guitars, to appropriately black and brutal effect.
So now here we are, 2 years later, and if anything (and if it were even possible), things seem to have gotten even frostier and grimmer in the Katarsis camp, there are still acoustic guitars here and there, but their appearances are brief, mere flourishes, mostly intros and outros, while the band seem more intent on thrashing and blasting coldly and blackly. The guitars here roooooaaar and the vocals howl, and the drums are boomy and crash and pound, the melodies are epic and majestic, the sound is super hot, super loud, everything doused in distortion and reverb, plenty of buzz obviously, but the sound is immediate and raw and furious and frenzied, almost like a classic nineties demo, cranked and re-energized, these guys sound fierce as fuck, tempering their cold Nordic steel with -just- enough melody and texture to keep it interesting, but no more, keeping the proceedings here, as mentioned above, repeatedly, cold and wintery, and frosty and grim, and heavy and so very black.
The third release in Paradigms' series of super limited cd obscurities, this time from mysterious Norwegian black metal horde Throne Of Katarsis. On first listen, this sounds like some lost slab of classic nineties Scandanavian darkness, ultra grim, super lo-fi black fuzz recorded on a 4-track, whirling drone drenched icy buzz, but the Throne manage to add their own little slant to the proceedings. The first hint that this is not just some typical BM group, is the warm church organ intro that manages to be totally misleading, unless you envision the ToK horder bursting in on a mass in progress and defiling everyone and thing in sight. Then there's the haunting acoustic guitar halfway through the eleven minute opening track, that quickly segues into some loping dirge-y doom, sounding sort of like a slowed down Xasthur. The acoustic guitar returns again closer to the end, and transforms that gloriously droning dirge into a strangely melodic, epic sweeping sway, sort of like Dissection or even Iron Maiden, albeit doused in muffled black grit and slathered with satanic skree. The second track is more straight ahead Norwegian black metal, bringing to mind Emperor, Mayhem mixed with newer black souls like Leviathan and Xasthur, especially with its weird sorrowful lilting Burzumish acoustic guitar melody buried beneath the fuzz. The final track is the real oddball (and maybe our favorite track here), partially recorded in the Liarlund forest, the sounds of footsteps crunching through the snow, the call of faraway birds, whirling whispering wind, all beneath a warm creepy blanket of muted synth and gargled demonic mutterings. Eerie and lovely, but still strangely black and grim...
Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.
We've definitely mentioned it before, but it's worth reiterating, as much as we love all strains of twisted blackness, of damaged and demented whatthefuck black metal, of warped outsider grim stumble and blur, the weirder and the more baffling the better, we still love and treasure TROO GRIM BLACKNESS done in the old style - Burzum, and Emperor, and Immortal, and Mayhem, and Satyricon, the Norwegian elite, and while there are tons of black metal bands these days, few capture the same sort of black energy, the same sort of grim chaos, the furious buzzing blackness, none of this 4 track lo-fi whine and buzz piddle, we're talking massive squalls of black buzz that sound like a black plague swallowing you whole, drums like the thundering hooves of the four horsemen, vokills straight from the pits of hell, all blurred into a soul shearing black fury, no experiments, no ambience, no twisted gnarled whatever, just grim black buzz. Which brings us to Norway's Throne Of Katarsis, who for 9 years have kept the black flame burning, and even now on full length number three show no sign of letting up, or fo changing their formula, which we essentially outlined above. This is classic Norwegian black metal, modern maybe, but as far as we're concerned these guys could have released this back in 1994 and been included in that ultimate black metal pantheon, where they so obviously belong. Hell, they're in our pantheon for sure, every new record another batch of grim black bliss. They do offer up a bit of clean singing, but it's more of a Viking croon, and it somehow suits the sound, whether ToK are frantically buzzing and blasting, or unfurling lumbering doomic slabs of trudging black crush. These guys rule, this record rules, and if you're after some modern true Norwegian black metal (and why wouldn't you be?!), you could NOT do better than this.
Timed almost perfectly with the release of the third Thrones cd Day Late, Dollar Short (one of our Records of the Week last week, for those with short memories), we also just got a few copies of Thrones' 1996 debut disc Alraune back in stock. Sheer luck, 'cause it's out of print -- but one of our distributors managed to find a box of 'em lurking in the depths of their warehouse, so we grabbed 'em all while the grabbing was good. As you too should do, if you don't have this already and are a fan of all that is heavy! A quick background briefing: Thrones is Joe Preston, who has done time in both seminal dirge-masters Earth and the Melvins (he's also played in The Whip and SUNNO))) and is current the bassist for High On Fire). You probably know all that already, and this too: back when Joe was in the Melvins, each member put out a solo album (inspired by the same stunt KISS pulled way back when). Joe's was perhaps the best. Carrying on from that, he "formed" Thrones and set out to prove to the world that a one-man-band could be as heavy as any "normal" band (not that the Melvins are all that normal, ahem). Not only did he offer that proof with this Thrones debut, but also took it to the stage. A drum machine, double necked guitar bass, vocal effects and samples were (and still are) put to shudderingly heavy use by Joe in kicking out his weirdly prog and sometimes oddly pop Thrones drone anthems. The tracks on Alarune range from aggro Melvinsy metal to underwater drone to drifting New Age synth melody...a sinister combustion of sound that bridges Earth with Goblin! So, we're happy to have these again (for however long they last), allowing us to review it for the very first time (back in '96 we just weren't as on the ball as we are now I guess)! So, if you've still got an empty space on your cd shelf next to Sperm Whale and Day Late, Dollar Short now's the time to fill it.
We're big ol' Thrones fans here, and so the arrival of a third Thrones opus the other day was pretty darn exciting! It's been five years since the magnificent Sperm Whale, after all! And we're happy to report that Day Late, Dollar Short, despite its title, does not disappoint in any way (though, it's not exactly an entirely new album, more on that in a sec). Now, you know that the double necked guitart/bass wielding Joe Preston -- for he is Thrones and Thrones is he -- has quite the heaviness pedigree. He's played in the unholy heavy trinity of Earth, the Melvins, and SUNNO))), and he's currently the bassist for stoner metal lords High On Fire. Thus, from his one-man-band project Thrones you'd expect nothing less than H-E-A-V-Y, and you'd be right. But it's more than merely heavy. Thrones ain't just rubbery, head-caving bass, lotsa feedback nastiness, machine beats, and throat-rasped vox. Thrones is also really, really weird. As you'd expect from Joe, who used to be in the Melvins after all. There's certainly plenty of Melvins style fuckery going on here!
I mean, after the sheer noxious pummel (we like!) of track one, "The Suckling", you'll wonder what's going on with track two, "Young Savage". Punky and uptempo, with a gang-vocal chorus, it threw us for a bit of a loop until we figured out it was an Ultravox cover. That's then followed by the disarmingly gentle (but disturbingly child-voiced) "Algol". What's going on? Whatever the heck Joe wants, basically. And that's okay 'cause what he wants is to unleash a torrent of creativity that encompasses such things as utter sludge drone dirge, Buttholes Surfers-ish mania, indie rock pop (with some non-effected, clean singing even), drum machines kickin' old school hip hop beats, crazy prog structures, all-out rawk, thrashy riffs, electronic filtering, etc... almost all of which you'll hear in, say, track fifteen, "Obolus", which starts off doing the Melvinsy doom thing but with Bruce Haack/Electric Lucifer robot singing before segueing into a soundscape of bird twitters, bells and chimes, and waves of white noise (this from the "soundtrack" to La Foresta Della Norte). Then there's all the crazy covers that Joe tries his hand at: along with the Ultravox, this includes a Residents cover, a Blue Oyster Cult cover, and yes, unreleased track "A Quick One" is indeed a cover of a portion of the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away". Wow. Not afraid of a challenge, this guy.
And we do mean "unleash a torrent" -- there's 19 tracks here, almost 80 minutes of Thrones insanity, much of it compiled from rare, out-of-print singles, cassettes and comps, with some previously unreleased tracks as well, spanning the years 1994-2001. The lovely, bunny-adorned packaging (Mr. Stephen O'Malley, take a bow) also features personal notes on each track by Joe hizzelf. Here's hoping that he'll find time away from his regular gig in High On Fire to do a real *brand new* Thrones album... but in the meantime we're happy to have this "incomplete collection of smaller projects" all on one handy cd.
The long-awaited new Thrones album has finally sailed into port. Former Melvins & Earth member Joe Preston's fully weird solo project is a one-man-band (you've gotta see him live! He even pulls off a cover of Rush's "The Trees", sadly not found on this record) thud-metal art-rock backwoods behemoth. A direct influence on The Need, an inspiration to The Champs, and a joy to all who can enjoy thunderously loud, heavy, fucked up sounds: weird drum programming, electronically-altered pitch-flux vocals, incongrous keyboards and samples, devastating twin-neck guitar/bass riffage, chaotic song structures, more. The cd version includes the tracks from Thrones' previous 12" only release on KRS (which actually makes this less an album than a compilation of two 12"s). Oh, and as if he knew exactly what really floats our boat here at AQ, the cd also includes a lengthy hidden track of nighttime forest noises! Recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The heaviest one-man band in the land, starring Joe Preston (ex-Melvins, ex-Earth, etc.). Joe churns up a cloud of low-end bludgeoning sludge. Vinyl only.
Managed to get a handful of these split tour 12"s when Thrones, aka Joe Preston, was in town recently. This two song 45rpm12" matches up Preston's Thrones with the new-to-us Sedan, who we had never even heard of before, but whose track here kills, a moody broody rhythmic chunk of kick ass post rock, plenty mathy, with big drums, lush thick guitars, definitely sounds like it could be a new record by some nineties Thrill Jockey band, BUT, the group pepper their math/post rockisms with cool stretches of haunting cinematic chamber music, all layered drones and swoonsome shimmer. Pretty great, and unexpected, and has us definitely wanting to hear more.
The Thrones side offers up a different side of the Thrones we're used to, unfurling a dark, droney super minimal low end creep, all slithery and gurgly, a rumbling drone that soon reveals itself as being pitched down processed vox, the sound blur into a sort of post industrial black ambience, until the song blossoms into cool melody, but again, those synthy sounding melodies are in fact Preston's processed voice, it's total avant a cappella prog, or something, whatever it is, it's awesomely dirgey and droney and a little bit sci-fi, a tripped out minimal ambient soundtrack that might have some Thrones obsessives on the haunt for heavy scratching their chins, the rest of us can revel in Preston's mysterious dark soundscapery.
Probably crazy limited, so not sure if we can get more. Nice cover art too!
You like that so-called stoner rock? You like them Queens of the Stone Age? Then pay attention: Norway's Thulsa Doom boys are back with a follow-up to their fine "The Seats Are Soft But the Helmet Is Way Too Tight" full-length. The five songs on this not-quite twenty minute cdep are perhaps even better than those on their undeniably rockin' debut (though with less harmonica). We're talking quality stuff here: heavy, catchy, kick-ass songs with fat, fuzzy guitar sounds and odd, gotta-think-about-'em lyrics (try "Cities After Cheese" for a song title/concept). You can't throw a stone anywhere in Scandinavia without hitting a stoner rock band, but please don't throw it at these guys, 'cause they're freakin' good! We're reminded of Thin Lizzy (a bit 'cause of singer Papa Doom's vocal style), the kick-out-the-jams garage rock of the Hellacopters and their ilk, and, we'll stress again, the BIG GUITARS and pop smarts of the aforementioned Queens Of The Stone Age (and Kyuss too of course). Unlike that new Queens album, though (as good as it is) this is all killer, no filler, no messing around with in-jokes and so forth -- indeed, sometimes eps are better than full albums 'cause you can really get into each song, and they're all pretty great on this lil' disc. Destined for big things, if the world was fair (which it ain't, but we'll still keep rootin' for Thulsa Doom).
Yet more Scandinavian stoners getting high and rocking out. Groovy, fuzzy stoner rock, complete with wailing harmonica (!) and a vocalist that sounds quite a bit like Phil Lynott. The guitar sound is all Kyuss, warm and HUGE, with Queen style harmony guitars and Grand Funk vocals. And then there's that harmonica...
Fans of Thin Lizzy, Zen Guerilla, Kyuss and the like will eat this up!
Stoner rockin' heaviness from Down Under. Pretty great, especially on jammin' and getting jammier instrumental juggernauts like "Etherel Blue". Definitely in the upper echelon of the new wave of stoner rock (along with Ufomammut, Astrosoniq, and The Want) of
Stoner rawk alert! It wasn't easy, but we finally got a few import copies of the new release from Austrialia's Thumlock, sent over on the slow boat from Down Under. Maybe it's their fantastic/silly/crappy album artwork, or mystic/cryptic/ridiculous titles, but we dig this band. To be sure, their approach to the stoner rock genre is, well, kinda generic -- yet varied & interesting & well done. Urgent rather than laid back, Thumlock are a bit more 'metal' than most, with a flair for majestic riffs and Thin Lizzy licks tossed in among the Queens of the Stone Age style grungy desert rock and Monster Magnetic wah wah psych guitar jams.
Yet another blackened recommendation direct from the unholy oracle, otherwise known as AQ comrade in evil, Wrest of black metal horde Leviathan:
When asked to review a couple of discs for Aquarius, I was psyched to find they were among my favorites cds of '03. "The Burning Deed of Deceit" is this Polish artist's third official release and it is definitely Satanic Blackened Metal at its sharpest. Thunderbolt is created almost solely by Paimon, with a session drummer and keyboardist. Paimon, definitely from the school of Snorre Ruch (mastermind behind Thorns and father of the Norse guitar attack), writes hymns with ferocity not felt since early Immortal or old Satyricon. Noteworthy also is the fantastic drum playing and natural drum sound. Levitating blasts, odd time signitures and abrupt tempo changes make up this six song epic. Highlights include "Die With Your Religion" for its hauntingly dischordant keyboard and "The One Who Sleeps", which trudges through the fields of the righteous, the spell broken only by a melancholy acoustic interlude. The soundtrack to a blood-ritual in the name of the one with horns. Hail Satan!!!
For any one who's been keeping track, this is record number four from the mad genius behind the damaged brilliance of Xynfonica, Shevalreq and Gluttony. The master of the most important modern musical instrument, THE GUITAR SYNTH. Whose records are either twisted inspiration, or fractured insanity, most likely both. Music to some folks ears, utter garbage to others'. You know where we stand. And if you don't, read on...
The concept behind not just this record, but everything this guy does, is to take a guitar synth and jam out, with the sound of the guitar synth all weirdly atonal and creepy. Then wrap those creepy atonal jams around some high falutin' concept, Vikings, the Roman Empire or something like that, and then the piece de resistance, add some intense growling metal vocals over the top. Sounds insane, and it IS insane, but it's so twisted that we just can't get enough. And we can't be alone since the mysterious man behind the guitar synth keeps churning them out!
Xynfonica was meant to be orchestral, Shevalreq was 'world music', and Gluttony was 'jazz', this time the sound is based on Asian and Eastern instruments, not the real instruments obviously, but the settings on the guitar synth, so stuff like kotos and sitars, but synthesized! The lyrical concept this time around is based on the travels of a group of Danes, as they brave the Arctic Ocean to reach the kingdom of Jotunheim. There are plenty of lyrics, and liner notes so you can understand what's going on, as well as pictures of the synthesized instruments, a guitar, a sitar, lutes. The cover is pretty fantastic too, a giant gold statue, and some Viking archers, squaring off atop big Indian drums! Yep. We're not sure we get it either, but we love it.
So what does it sound like? Well actually, it sounds almost exactly like the other discs. Which is not a bad thing at all. More more more, we always want more. If anything it's even more insane and twisted sounding. The chords warble, the notes are uneven, the tempos shift and stutter, crunchy distorted electric guitars collide with synthesized sitars, long stretches of warped wah wah, the vocals raspy and demonic, the sound often morphing mid phrase into some murky orchestral sprawl, or some tangled freaked out synthpsychdrone weirdness.
Way recommended, essential for keepers of the first three keys (Xynfonica, Shevelreq, Gluttony) obviously, but equally essential for lovers of the weird and the obscure, the freaky and the fucked.
Originally recorded in 1991 and never actually released, Thy Grief Eternal is the band that would later become Eternal and then of course later still, the mighty stoner sludge behemoth Electric Wizard. But back in '91, Jus Osborn and his merry band of metalheads soundee completely different, as it was 1991, and in the UK, Thy Grief Eternal sounds like they would have been right at home on Earache, alongside Carcass, Napalm Death, Godflesh and the like. Pounding industrial sludge doom, with grunted gutteral death metal style vocals, pounding relentless drumming and BIG RIFFS, very sludgy and crusty, much more akin to the ultra slow, monochromatic dirge of funeral doom, as they had yet to discover the groove that would play such a crucial part in their later sound.
Two lengthy tracks. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
This record is impossible to figure out. When we first threw it on we thought 'oh great, another slow sludgy doom sort of band' but then almost as quickly as we thought that, we stopped, because suddenly it sounded nothing like that, it totally blossomed, opening up into this completey abstract chunk of big booming drum, downtuned fuzz guitar free jazz post rock psychedelic groove doom. Or something. One minute they'll be splattering random drum figures and the guitars will be scraping and squirming and freaking out, then suddenly the drums will just click, and a MASSIVE sixties psych groove will unfold as the guitar goes total Hendrix apeshit and spins wild-man-blues/notes-bending-all-over-the-place/druggy and deliriously buzzy and blown out LEADS into dizzying webs of searing white hot fuzz. Which of course results in glorious full on Hawkwind meets Comets On Fire meets LSD-march, postrock krautrock psychrock freerock Ur-jams. Endlessy throbbing and pulsing and completely mesmerizing. Some tracks twist and wriggle and writhe into sweat soaked, blood drenched full on rock blow outs, while others settle into impossibly static exercises in tension and drone, almost like a much free-er version of Dutch hypno-metal gods Gore.
Underneath it all the bass wanders and burbles sounding fretless or underwater, as if it was some sentient creature that just happened to be in the same room as the guitar and drums, and every once in a while just happens to fall in along side whatever crazed groove is being flung wildly about. The drums are as much the focus as the guitar, they sound huge, like the band is set up in an airplane hangar, sloppy and all over the place but tight and ferocious too. The whole while cascading sheets of distorted guitars swoon and sway and hug the chaotic drumming before once again exploding into some fuzzed out Hendrixian speaker blowing meltdown.
And for those of you who don't know who Tia Carrera is (ummm... Wayne's World?), do yourself a favor and next time you stay home sick from work, discover the oh so guilty pleasure that is the TV show Relic Hunter!
Hopefully you already are familiar with this Texas heavy psych band with the not-so-heavy name. We've reviewed a couple of their releases before - most recently, a way-cool 7" of all Lungfish covers, and previously, their massive November Session (we still have a handful of that cd in stock, so go read our review of it and snatch one up!).
THIS new disc comes to us via the Small Stone label, who've been getting much props from us lately (for the likes of Obiat, Iota, Sons Of Otis, and Los Natas) though we already knew the Tia Carrera was gonna be good. And it is. Freeform jammin' blown out psychedelic wahwah'd guitar wailin' freakdom here that we wouldn't hesitate to recommend to fans of Boris and Earthless and Pearls & Brass. And ol' Jimi Hendrix for that matter. Of course, if you're already into TC, we need only say that this new disc is another slab of dizzy distorted genius from them.
Oh yeah, if you're partial to Earthless in particular, by the time you're in the middle of the 22 minute "Unnamed Wholeness", the second track of The Quintessential, you'll have a new favorite band. Those into Tokyo Flashbacking acts like LSD-march and Up-Tight might think so too.
But then, surprise! While most of the album is all electric and instrumental, the fifth and final track is a strummed acoustic number, melodic and gentle, with stoned effected vocals and pretty guitar pickin', like Led Zep in the sunshine on the backporch getting baked. Really nice!
The Tides made a miraculous journey last year from the reject pile of a very shortsighted local music magazine into the loving arms of aQuarius where it quickly became a unanimous favorite and a big seller. Taking all the things we love about this new post rock / dirge metal hybrid that has been kicking our asses, Pelican, Isis, Minsk, Conifer, Mare and the like, and subtly twisting it into something all their own. Where as the last Tides record alternated between rhythmic moodiness and metallic bombast, From Silence manages to be a little less overtly heavy, and a lot more moody and brooding, dark and dolorous, with slow subtle grooves and warm washes of hypnotic dreaminess, basically just good old post rock minus the metal. Although the metal is still indeed present, just in very subtle ways, more felt than heard, informing the songs and the riffs, giving the music a sort of ominous, sharp edge, lurking just below the surface. However, fear not, for the final 11 minute track is apparently where Tides had been keeping all the metal riffing missing from the first two tracks. What starts as a spacious swoonsome jam, all downtuned guitars, softly strummed, shuffling drums and wide open expanses of swooshing ambience, erupts about halfway through into a thoroughly chugging pummel, crunchy and lurching, pounding and swaying like a much groovier Neurosis before blissing out into a washed out psychedelic drift that threatens to float away completely before the hammer falls again and that gorgeously chugging riff returns to lay waste to any and all in its way.
We love post rock. There. We said it. And we certainly love when our post rock is delivered with a healthy dose of metallic crunch! And indeed, there's been a bit of a post rock resurgence around these parts lately, from regular old post rock instrumental rhythmic workouts to massive metallic onslaughts, and everything in between. Needless to say we're digging every minute of it. So along comes a band called Tides, whose particularly epic and excellent brand of metallic post rock comes to us in a rather roundabout way. A friend of ours works for a magazine that has a VERY narrow stylistic focus. And we do mean VERY. So anything sent to the magazine that falls even slightly outside this focus ends up in what is lovingly referred to as the reject box. And this dutiful friend goes through the reject box and discovers and delivers to us gem after gem, whose only reasons for being cast into this box of rejection seems to be wholly unique and original attempts at music making. Whether it's too metal, not punk enough, too weird... whatever it is that keeps those folks from listening to something tends to be precisely what makes us LOVE IT. Thus we have Tides. A mysterious instrumental outfit that explores similar sonic territory as Isis, Pelican, Conifer and the like. Not at all what you'd expect from a label called Teenage Disco Bloodbath. Dirge-y fuzzy stoner grooves, huge undulating riffs with wailing keening melodies, majestic and mournful, relentless and epic, often splintering into stretches of blissy tripped out space rock, and sublime dreamy interludes of subtle drumming and acoustic guitar, slow building and gorgeously propulsive. All stretched over a framework of murky, moody post rock mesmer. Totally hypnotic, completely rocking and intensely emotional. Definitely one of our new favorites. Fans of Isis, Neurosis, Pelican, Circle, Old Man Gloom, Conifer, and all things post rock, metal and beyond should definitely check this out.
Super technical, brutal and melodic black/death metal with a slight industrial tinge. Lots of keyboards, blast beats, churning downtuned riffs, Emperor-ish guitar melodies and howled/growled vocals. Nothing earth shatteringly original but still really good. This is the kind of stuff my housemate Erik goes crazy for. So if you dig In Flames, Soilwork, late era Carcass, and that sort of thing, this is right up your alley.
