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

SORRY. Classic first full length recording.

Never thought we'd be able to list this. Everytime we got it in, it would go too quickly, just flying out the door by word of mouth we guess. Clearly this '90s Norwegian black metal band has a cult following! Then we thought that this triple cd box had gone out of print. But thankfully No Colours just pressed up some more, and we think we scored enough copies to dare list it, even though the label may be out of it already. So...what's the big deal you ask, why are these Forgotten Woods so unforgettable? Well, first off, and at first listen, this will definitely appeal to the whole raw, old-school, Nordic forest black metal necrocrowd. Really good grim stuff in the unholy spirit of classic Darkthrone and Burzum, but with that extra kinda inept, Benighted Leamsish fuckedupedness to it that of course makes us love it all the more. And, additionally and importantly, there's also always a strange, unexpected sort of poppiness underlying everything, despite song titles like "Grip Of Frost" and "Dimension Of The Blackest Dark". As a friend (who also likes this band, and is a member of Thuja, the Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, the Skygreen Leopards and a bunch of other Jewelled Antler acts) put it, "man it's good...completely inept, like they're barely pulling it off, total 13-year-old-metal-kid-in-the-basement drums." That by itself would be enough to explain this band's appeal. But our sensibilities here at AQ are further stoked by the fact that the more you delve into these discs, the more you find yourself wondering just what the hell you're listening to...as Forgotten Woods mysteriously morphs by the third cd into something that sounds like jazz-inflected, naive indie-rock mopery, with clean jangly guitars that starts to sound like Felt or The Church or even Maher Shalal Hash Baz! Other tracks seem to echo The Cure, all slow and post-punkish... what a weird band! We can only wonder at what they thought they were doing, and wonder even more so at why they're so accepted by the grim black metal underground. So, even though this is a $25 import triple-disc set, it's the kind of black metal (like Benighted Leams, Xasthur, Lugubrum, Leviathan, Abruptum, Meads of Asphodel, Ved Buens Ende, and Sigh for example) that we have to recommend to all of our customers who are into (not-necessarily metal) weirdness. And in case you're wondering, this does collect the entirety of Forgotten Woods' output (three albums, plus one recorded under the name Joyless) from the years indicated in the title...

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MPEG stream: With Swans I'll Share My Thirst

Yes! The cd debut of this fantastic Finnish four-track project... We actually meant to list this, like, a month ago, but unfortunately the original review we wrote of it was lost in one of our several recent arggh-inducing komputoor crashes, but actually that's a good thing, 'cause it gave everybody here at AQ more time to listen to this, over and over, at home and in the store, and have us all decide that this HAD to be a Record Of The Week. So we ordered more copies from Finland, and re-wrote the review (which, in our memory, was actually probably better written the first time, so trust us on this) and here we go! Ah, Finland. We've said it before, we'll say it again. So many of our favorite bands hail from Finland, from the hypnotic NWOFHM space rock of Circle to the the funereral doom of Skepticism, with all the freaky forest folk of Kemialliset Ystavat, et. al. in between. And now Fricara Pacchu, solo project from a member of such underground Finnish acts as Avarus, Anaksimandros, Maniacs Dream, and yes Kemialliset Ystavat. Hopefully you remember our review of the Fricara Pacchu 7" and accompanying art/collage booklet that the Fonal label put out not too long ago (we may still have a few of those babies in stock, if you act fast). Both Allan and Andee accidentally wrote separate gushing reviews of it, that's how much we all liked it! That 7" left us eager to hear a full-length, and now here it is, courtesy of Lal Lal Lal. 12 wigged out instrumental tracks of Fricara Pacchu's undefinable, eccentric, psychedelic weirdness. We had compared the 7" to everything from the Boredoms to Oliva Tremor Control, and that goes too for the all-instrumental music on this cd, to which we can add such other disparate references as Neu! and When and Fuck Buttons. Fricara Pacchu's music is part techno, part noise, part pop... all awesome. Recording at home on a four-track, Pacchu creates a woozy, rhythmic soundworld filled with distortion and delight. A world of magical gnomes with chugging machines spewing colorful clouds... clouds of mysterious, maybe illegal substances that coalesce in pretty patterns you can hear, as well as kaleidoscopically see. There's dense, druggy layers of guitar feedback with electro beats; lo-fi fuzzy loops, gurgly computer bleeps and sci-fi sound FX swooshes; throbbing pound and gentle ambience. Fricara Pacchu produces fragile music box melodies that exist amidst exploding minefields of noise, like the detonations of distortion that rhythmically obliterate parts of "Four Seasons Of Violins". Noise that is taken to an extreme with the utter, surging distorto-destruction of "Sky Helicopter"... Whew! Wow. Maybe if the glorious synthscapes of fellow Finns Shogun Kunitoki were way grittier and guitar-ier, done more D.I.Y., and wrapped in steel wool and played backwards on a cheap cassette, that would sound something like the quirky and compelling music of Fricara Pacchu. By which we mean, this is great!

Only recently did we finally get enough of these to list, and we've been trying since we listed Funeral Mist's more recent album, Salvation, WAY back on list #203. Even so, we only managed to get a handful so if when we run out be prepared to wait for us to get more. For those of you whose black metal addled brains can barely remember all the way back to list #203 of last year, Funeral Mist's Salvation was quite possibly THE best black metal release of 2004, and one of our favorite BM records ever! Let's have a quick look at a bit of that review: "It's been forever since we saw a record this beautiful and frightening looking, and so weird but utterly heavy sounding. This is definitely black metal. Appropriately buzzing and grim, with fuzzed out riffs and blasting rhythms and death rattle shrieks, but unlike most other black metal records, this is HEAVY. No, we mean H E A V Y." And thus we went on and on about how unlike most black metal bands, where heaviness is sacrificed for speed and buzz, Funeral Mist manage to be fast and at the same time ultra heavy. Dense and completely pummeling. And beyond that, the songs are linked by and laced with bizarre suffocatingly intense ambient interludes, rife with unrecognizable samples, screams of terror, strange snippets of fifties orchestra music, thunder, lightning, droning rumble and smears of blacknoise, like the sound of hell, and Devilry is quite similar. In fact it might be even more intense, if that's possible. Devilry is from way back in 1998, and the sound is a little bit more raw, the production is a little bit more blown out, but the sound is very much the same, a frighteningly intense blast of Norwegian style black metal, with plenty of doomy melodic breakdowns, but the majority of Devilry is spent in full on blast mode, buzzed out guitars, impossibly heavy AND fast drumming, and super complex catchy songs. Hard to really put into words why this band kicks our asses so hard, their sound is just so visceral, and again SO HEAVY, the buzz is definitely still in full effect at all times, but the drums are hit so hard (there's even a sort of black metal drum solo!!) and the whole thing is just so LOUD and not at all lo-fi like so much of the black metal we love. A blackened upside down cross to the face, and we love it! Also included is the Havoc Demo from 1996, which is a lot more lo-fi than Devilry, like a foetal version of what they would soon become, but even in their demo form, these songs leave practically all other BM in the dust, fuzzy and buzzy, tons of super bizarre affected vocals, strange production fuckery, killer riffs all tucked beneath Funeral Mist's warm black wings. SO FUCKING GREAT!!

MPEG stream: The Devil's Emissary
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One of our ALL TIME favorite black metal records finally repressed and available again! It originally took us a good long while to get enough copies of Salvation so we could review it on the AQ list, and while we were super psyched to finally be able to turn every one on to this amazing disc, we were also a little freaked out, since suddenly we were faced with the prospect of trying to put into words just what it is that is so amazing about this record. And what it is we decided, is EVERYTHING, from the art to the songs to the production, just everything. It's been forever since we saw a record this beautiful and frightening looking, and so weird but utterly heavy sounding. This is definitely black metal. Appropriately buzzing and grim, with fuzzed out riffs and blasting rhythms and death rattle shrieks, but unlike most other black metal records, this is HEAVY. No, we mean H E A V Y. We often joke about the majority of metal records that speed does NOT necessarily equal heaviness. Never has. In fact it's almost always the opposite. The faster you go, the more brittle the sonic palette, and from a drumming standpoint the softer you hit the drums (until you're forced to compensate with triggers). That's why a massive downtuned riff and a pounding caveman drummer is so completely and utterly heavy. And that's why most black metal is washed out and buzzy and droney, but that's definitely part of the appeal, so fast that everything becomes a hypnotic blur. But when a band comes along and manages to be lightning fast but still crush, with ultra dense guitars and HUGE drums and ridiculously hellish howls, well, it's hard not to be blown away. And of course the record also manages to be catchy (not 'pop' catchy, but surprisingly memorable riffs and parts you'll actually find stuck in your head!) And if that wasn't enough, the whole record rife with ambient interludes and ends up being a complex and harrowing journey through some hellish musical wasteland, Sure, the metal is heavy and the playing is furious and intense, but the production is so weird and creative (especially for a black metal record) and the songs (and the whole record) are peppered with all sorts of unlikely flourishes, that add all sort of bleak weirdness, and quasi-religious creepiness, and make Salvation one of the most chillingly grim and darkly evocative records we've ever heard. From strange lilting choral pieces, to haunting drifting old-timey ambience, to quasi religious chanting. It's all woven seamlessly together and along with the artwork, evokes some Lovecraftian otherworld, all rainy and dark and washed out in miserable greys, and where everything is dead or dying, and every step could be your last. The cover depicts one of the band members crucified next to to eviscerated malformed babies, also crucified, in an alcove in some satanic church. The rest of the booklet is equally as striking (and fucked up) as if Stephen O'Malley and Joel Peter Witkin got together to try and design the most beautiful, most dementedly damaged and disturbing black metal artwork ever. Crowns of thorns, grim reapers, malnourished and emaciated dead bodies, hooded skulls and dark riders, multi limbed and Siamese babies and fetuses, all beautifully laid out amongst lyrics and text printed in ancient-scroll style almost illegible olde English script. The whole booklet is muted black and white, fuzzy and washed out, and again evocative of your innermost fears and a truly horrible place (and sound). In fact the whole package is like some dusty artifact of ancient evil, discovered buried a mile beneath the earth, and since being brought to the surface has caused unspeakable evil and the tragic deaths of everyone who comes near it. Certain damnation to anyone who gazes upon it or lets the hellish sounds within reach of their ears. Too bad we can't stop listening to it....

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It can be quite daunting to figure out how to navigate the releases of most 20th Century Composers. What is essential and what is not. That may be especially true for Philip Glass who has often walked the line between totally daring, trance inducing, mind expanding compositions and somewhat schmaltzy, overly sentimental syrupy pap. But there is no doubt, that when he's really ON, he still stands as one of the greatest minimalist composers of all time. Analog is -that- side of Glass, the side we never get tired of hearing. Recalling the intensity and brilliance of Music In 12 Parts, these recordings have been relentlessly seeping into our ears and brains and souls. Culled from never before released recordings made in the late 70's, it showcases Glass playing the electric organ, and it is absolutely hypnotic. Earlier this year you might remember us freaking out over a Finnish release from the band Shogun Kunitoki. It's uncanny how you can hear the roots of that record throughout these recordings. Warm analog notes played at a furiously feverish pitch that it's nearly impossible not to get lost in it's repetitive trance. The sound is so pleasingly physical and intense. And there are vocals, but fear not, they manage to become just another mesmerizing instrument working its way into your subconscious just like the flute, the (tasteful) sax and all the different keyboards. Originally conceived for his first scores for film as well as incidental music for a theater company, this is quickly becoming one of our favorite Glass recordings ever!

MPEG stream: Etoile Polaire: Victor's Lament
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While it does take a while for this Canadian nine-piece to build through the opening murky drones, this debut album (originally issued on vinyl through the small Canadian label Constellation) evolves into a dynamic orchestration that falls somewhere in between Dirty Three and Village of Savoonga. The most innovative album from Kranky in a very long time!

The second release from the Canadian nine piece ensemble is about as epic as 28 minutes can get. As with 'F#A#oo", Godspeed render the psychic desolation of the Canadian tundra as an intense soundtrack that swells from glacial strings to dense yet melodic orchestrations for guitars, bass, bells, percussion, and their string section. Certainly inspired by Morricone's mighty scores, "Slow Riot..." is also reminiscient of the dark musings of their contemporaries: Village of Savoonga, Rachel's, Mogwai, etc... Haunting. Beautiful. Awesome. A unanimous staff favorite.

The return of the mighty Gorgoroth!!! With all the non musical drama surrounding these guys it's sometimes hard to remember that Gorgoroth remain one of the only TRUE Norwegian black metal bands still totally capable of utter blackened musical destruction. Vocalist Gaahl has had it tough, arrested, headed for prison, but as we've learned from Lords Of Chaos, if you're gonna commit a heinous crime, do it in Norway. 14 years for first degree murder. Gaahl only got a year or so for taking a man hostage and torturing him. But what this might tell you is that Gorgoroth are indeed still very very EVIL. And they sound like it. There are seemingly two schools of thought on Gorgoroth. There are those who love OLD Gorgoroth, Under The Sign Of Hell being THE ONE, and there are those, like us who lean toward Destroyer, the band's most noisy and fucked up record. We actually love both, but as we're sure you know, we tend to lean toward the damaged and demented. Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam falls mostly on the side of the former, a TRUE buzzing and blasting blackness, that does sound fucking fantastic but is not really weird or noisy or fucked up. We still love it, cuz these guys can still basically do no wrong, ands if you are hankering for some blasting frosty fury, some true grim classic sounding black metal, this will definitely hit the spot. The production is better, the band is tighter, the songs are maybe catchier, but it basically sounds like a modernized version of Under The Sign Of Hell, which is a VERY good thing. Secretly we were hoping for the band to totally drop us in our tracks with the weirdest black metal record ever, cuz if anyone is capable of coming up with such a thing, it's Gorgoroth, but hell, we've been to busy banging our heads to really notice.

MPEG stream: Wound Upon Wound
MPEG stream: Carving A Giant

Maybe our favorite record from this infamous black metal horde, reissued on vinyl!! Which was released in the early days of the aQ New Arrivals list, so sadly, it doesn't have the sprawling, ridiculously verbose and oozing with praise review it so richly deserves, just know that the metalheads around here consider this to be one of THEE essential black metal documents, and here's the brief, but pretty spot on review from when we listed the cd WAY back when: Norwegian black metal of the most hateful, primitive, loud, noisy, evil variety. On this masterpiece of almost-avantgarde extremism, Gorgoroth evoke Burzum and Darkthrone. The Romanticism and Hammer Horror gothic cheese of "pop" black metal bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth are nowhere to be found here, this is so much more raw and hellish (tho some melody creeps in now and then)...

The latest from this traditional yet unpredictable Norwegian black metal band. Their previous disc "Destroyer" was a masterpiece of totally noisy, fucked primitive metal and electronics. With that out of their system, "Incipit Satan" is a lot smoother and melodic but bizarre in its own way, going so far as to include bluesy, clean vocals on the love (!?) song "When Love Rages Wild In My Heart".

Maybe all seems grim and dismal and you're in the mood for some truly wretched, nasty, evil-as-fuck black metal to match your mood? Or maybe you're perfectly well-adjusted, but like to explore extremes of mood and melody in a metal context? Look no further than this new disc from Norwegian black metal stalwarts Gorgoroth. Twilight Of The Idols provides eight delightful tracks featuring throat-ripped screams and distorto-riff-carnage to match. Carefully, artfully, Gorgoroth weave a complex tapestry, an ancient shroud, from these elements. Not as experimental and fucked up as Gorgoroth's Destroyer, nor as quirkily 'pop' as their last one Incipit Satan, this new album delivers the goods without any gimmickry at all (until, perhaps, you get to the final, what-the-fuck-? faux classical synth coda ending the album, that is). It's pretty much just straight-to-hell, do not pass go, do not collect 200 kroner. There's dense, downer epics of slow trudge, and trancey, higher BPM blur, both having about the same effect, a lot like a less overtly (overly?) prog Enslaved. With their sense of sick melody and technical execution, Gorgoroth are definitely one of the greats. Indeed, if these guys weren't hulking, face-painted, spike-draped Norwegians, but a bunch of skinny American metalcore guys, maybe we wouldn't take 'em for granted as much as we do, and we'd realize that all the praise heaped on the likes of Converge and Isis is also the level of worship worthy of this band...

MPEG stream: Exit - Through Carved Stones
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A couple customers suggest we track this down, the debut record from the Goslings, and from what we heard about it we were expecting yet another record of downtuned sludge doom drone, SUNNO))) / Earth worship, but man is this anything but. It's definitely heavy, but not typically heavy, or really sludgy even, which probably has a lot to do with the way this was recorded, ultra blown out and super distorted, sheets of crumbling high end and maybe the harshest crunchiest guitar sound we've heard in forever, but the Goslings take this white hot heaviness, this blown out brutality and somehow make it pretty, lovely, gorgeous even. Drifting female vocals and sweet sweet melodies are buried beneath a dumptruck of fuzz, like the a Mazzy Star record, covered by the Melvins, recorded by Merzbow or Masonna. Every track is hiding a secret center, a streak of lush melodicism that sound like bits of My Bloody Valentine, Jesus And Mary Chain, and huge slabs of warm and wonderful dream pop, all roughed up and dipped in tar and rolled in dirt and sent staggering through a minefield of razor sharp guitars, pounding Teutonic drums, all tangled up into a machinelike throb, trudging relentlessly at a snails pace, a head crushing plod wrapped in barbed wire riffs and a thick haze of violent whir, but still you can see a little glimmer, a shiny little wink from within the massively suffocating clouds of drum dirt and guitar grime, all tape hiss and recording grit and musical chaos, a glowing orb of crystalline shimmer, buried and barely visible, almost like someone was tossing bright shiny pop hooks into a pit filled with snakes and nails and used syringes and garbage and soiled diapers and rocks and dead animals. So is this the most gorgeous ugly record ever? The ugliest lovely record ever? The harshest, sludgiest pop record ever? The loveliest harsh noise-sludge record ever? Maybe all of the above. So good!

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Not sure if this got repressed or if the label just found a stash of discs under the bed, either way, this monstrous slab of sound is available again, if only briefly... We've been pretty dang obsessed with the Goslings since the very first second we heard them. They have found massive favor with the SUNNO))) crowd, but other than being slow and heavy, they seem to be a whole 'nother beast. This married couple from Florida, craft impossibly noisy and gu wrenchingly heavy pop songs. That's right, you heard us, pop songs. "But wait," you say, "I'm listening to the sound samples and I don't hear any pop..." Well listen closer. Much closer. Hold your breath and close your eyes and dunk your head into the Goslings gorgeously abrasive soundworld and you will feel the pop. That's the beauty of the Goslings, each song is like a diamond dipped in mud and wrapped in barbed wire. Beautiful lilting shimmer-pop doused in crumbling crunchy downtuned guitar sludge and sheets of jagged feedback. A brief snippet, a casual glance, and all you'd see or hear is NOISE. But settle in, lean back, let the Goslings wash over you, suddenly shapes begin to emerge. melodies drift in and out, riffs take shape and then fade into the mist. A super blown out in-the-red dreamlike sludge, equal parts Boris drone, My Bloody Valentine bliss-out, and shimmering crystalline pop. Like a Mazzy Star record dipped in hot tar and then wrapped in a hundred layers of feedingback guitars. So beautifully heavy. And as we've mentioned in other reviews, the Goslings just might be the loveliest harsh noise-sludge pop band ever! Packaged in a cool silkscreened oversized sleeve with abstract pink art and the cd affixed to a little plastic nub on the inside. As always, way too limited.

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Not many artists can lay claim to their very own musical genre, but Hollywood, Florida's The Goslings are among the elite few who most definitely can. On first listen their sound seems to fit pretty comfortably amongst the current crop of distorted deconstructed decaying blissed out dreamy dirge rock that seems to be all the rave (Nadja, Alcest, Hjarnidaudi, Procer Veneficus, etc.), after all they often get described as half SUNNO))) and half My Bloody Valentine, but that's really only half (again) true. And while their sound does share some of the elements of those other bands, The Goslings are their own perfect, synergetic sonic force, an organic, original soundworld that has absorbed and re-synthesized those influences entirely. In other words, on this latest record, they somehow manage to sound way, way heavier and much, much more lush, transforming any vestiges of other bands' sounds into something distinctly theirs. Formerly just a husband and wife duo, Max and Leslie Soren, Occasion finds the couple joined by two apparently full-time members which does nothing but help make their sound, thicker, and more dense, more intense, more distorted, and impossibly, more beautiful. It's not a huge departure from the sound of their previous outings, but that's not really a bad thing. Occasion just serves to demonstrate that their sound is now even more of a particularly refined and menacing chunk of skull crushingly gorgeous sound. Each of The Goslings' records has been self-recorded straight onto tape in their $15 an hour rehearsal space. Before it was a 4-track, now it's a reel-to-reel 8-track tape, with any additional tracks being added at a friend's house in Pro Tools -- a slight upgrade, but again, one that merely serves to push their sound even further into some hellish sonic realm. Mastered by James Plotkin, their commitment to relatively lo-fi, analog recording a significant part of why each and every track is so totally ear-stabbingly, skull-fuckingly shit heavy. But beneath the obvious doom veneer, the crushing sludge, the washed out hiss and buzz, there are buried some lovely melodies and more of the Goslings' near perfect pop songs. Fear not though, it's not like Nadja or Jesu, where there is potentially enough of said pop to turn-off those more dedicated to the seriously heavy and/or utterly grim. Regardless of the surprising melodic structures lay hidden beneath the blown out bluster, or the prettiness of Leslie's vocals drifting ethereally throughout, the music, the sound, the Goslings' sheer power continually threatens to overwhelm, a bludgeoning slab of sonic destruction that's systematically destroying your entire life, note by note. Then out of nowhere, there's a weird little bluegrass number, a brief respite before the band lurch back into motion, unleashing another avalanche of village crushing, ultradistorted, stumbling, downtuned beautiful brutality. A higher recommendation would be difficult to give. Essential!

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We were first turned on to The Goslings, a husband and wife duo from Florida, by a couple of our more Sunn 0))) / Earth obsessed customers, so imagine our surprise when we discovered The Goslings to be in fact, a gloriously unlikely, sun dappled, fog shrouded, druggy, murky space pop combo. Sure they had certain elements in common with those dronedirge lords, but The Goslings were a much gentler, much more introspective beast. Taking their thick fuzz and spreading it out over their minimal blisspop like dew on blades of grass, each drop a sparkling, shimmering, glistening swirl of abstract color. This disc collects two long out of print cd-r's and is the portrait of the artist as a young band, their burgeoning expansiveness only just beginning to take form, but already blindingly beautiful to the ears. The opening track is an endless landscape of hiss and fuzz, rife with random room sounds, the glitch of instrument cables, the feeding back rumble of crappy old amps with unplayed guitars plugged into them, sounds a little like an audience recording of the random sounds between songs at a Dead C show, some drifting vocals surface every once in a while, as do creepy little chimes, and near the end the swirling fog begins to take shape and becomes a warbly organ melody. But such a harrowing, slow moving journey for such little reward. Such is the way of The Goslings. Once you realize that, you realize that every second of hiss, and every minute of near motionless hum are rewards in and of themselves. The rest is easy. The next track is more representative, a Harvey Milk-ish dirge, drifting blurry eyed dopelike dreampop, huge swaths of fuzz drenched melody, soft ethereal vocals buried beneath the fuzz, a strangely lo-fi doomier version of My Bloody Valentine. Elsewhere, guitars unfurl tendrils of simple indie jangle, floating weightless beneath crooning female vocals, all over a rumbling slow motion bass groove, later an almost country ballad, slurred vocals lounged lugubriously over a dusty ghost town of downtuned twang. Each track is its own subtle shade of dopesick and doom drenched, some sinister, some glowing, some crawling broken and buried, some floating heavenward, some cracked and crackly, some lush and dense with soft shimmer. But all of them gorgeous and mysterious.

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Hate to always do this but once again, we only managed to get a handful of these. These being the special oversized 8" x 6" book version. We'll be able to get more but they'll be the normal jewel case version. This is the newest release from Polish black metal legends Graveland. Dawn Of Iron Blades is yet another majestic blast of fuzzy, droney, Viking-tinged black metal brutality. Mostly midtempo, often waltzy in that droning seasick style we just can't get enough of. Buzzing and blurry, totally hypnotic and mesmerizing. Single riffs repeated mantra-like until you find yourself in a trance, sitting atop Valhalla, while the angels serenade from above in raspy black metal growls and the Vikings below pay homage with riff after Burzumic riff. Best to try and ignore the problematic politics (Nordic Pride bordering on white power) and just luxuriate in the thick fuzz of grim black metal glory!

MPEG stream: Iron In The Fog
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We gotta go way back for this one. A serious slab of black metal history. The first time on cd for Graveland's infamous third demo, originally released on cassette in 1992, Drunemeton, and while it is way more grim and lo-fi that we've come to expect, it's also way weirder, and you know how we love that. From the very Graveland like intro, tape hiss and church bells, whirling wind, huge buzzing swaths of primitive synth and harsh whispered vocals, you know this is gonna be good, but you definitely can't possibly be prepared for how weird and fucked it's going to be as well. This is so awesomely lo-fi, machine like drums (drum machine we presume) are the focus, WAY up in the mix, louder than everything else except maybe the vocals. The guitars are a churning throbbing pulse more than actual riffing, the vocals a harsh growl laid over everything. The only time you can actually hear the notes and riffs are when things slow down to a dirge and the blast beat becomes a mechanical plod. But the second the blast beat begins again, the guitars become a muted blur and suddenly it's some strange alien industrial jam. In fact, in a lot of ways, it's hard not to hear Godflesh or Pitchshifter in these songs. The drums are so industrial and relentless, a pounding that defines the sound here. Imagine if Godflesh had been into black metal, this is almost what it would have had to sound like. The slow parts are equally strange, with huge sweeps of ultra cinematic keyboards nearly swallowing up everything else, making the guitar buzz seem tiny, and the drums sound like throwing rocks against an aluminum garage door, everything during those slow parts is about the epic synths, moody and melodramatic, before the drums kick back in and we're back in black metal Godflesh territory. Some of the best moments are when those two sounds mix, the sweeping synths, and the industrial pound, and during those stretches the drum machine seems to stumble, struggling amidst a black sea of synth swells and crunchy guitar buzz. Elsewhere, there are weird backwards gongs (at least that's what it sounds like) strange circusy piano melodies, haunting chantlike vocals, the sounds of birds, mechanical clanging and clatter, all wrapped up in the record's machine-like black pound. As if it wasn't obvious by now, this is most definitely the weirdest Graveland record, managing to push both our old school industrial buttons and our grim damaged black metal buttons, AT THE SAME TIME!! The more we listen to this, and we can't seem to stop, the more it seems inevitable that Drunemeton is quite possibly our new favorite Graveland record.

MPEG stream: The Eyes Of Balor
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MPEG stream: The Days Of Black Sun
MPEG stream: Drunemeton

Another crushing blast of grim blackness from this Polish black metal institution. Darken and his Graveland weave epic tales of Viking glory, wolves and swords, victory and bloodshed, fire and vengeance. As with many BM outifts, all of this Nordic (umm... Polish?) pride is really only one step removed from super problematic racial politics, seemingly always a part of black metal discussions, but as with Burzum and other groups of that ilk, you just have to decide if you can ignore the subtext and disregard the politics and enjoy the mesmerizingly buzzy blast of hypnotic black-drone-metal. It's hard not to, when presented with a disc as fucking amazing as this, all of stuff we loved about Graveland in the past, all honed to utter perfection, that thick layered droning black metal, is now somehow even more dense and majestic, huge slabs of guitars piled atop one another, all over thrashing relentless drumming, haunting minor key melodies buried deep beneath thick fuzzy swirls of droning riffery, but this time, there's a much bigger focus on vocals, lush swells of chant-like moans, Arvo Part like choral interludes, all add a certain gravitas, a creepy epic heaviness, that truly turns this into more than just another black metal record. It's like a black metal Godspeed You Black Emperor composing the soundtrack to Kurasawa's Ran, so epic and haunting and fucking MASSIVE, it's hard to listen to this without imagining all of the images the music is meant to project: huge black clouds of smoke drifting above burning funeral pyres, rivers running black with blood, the air dense with arrows, bloodied blades and mud caked armor, the stench of death and decay, the mysterious final trip to stand beside all of the fallen warriors from eons past. A massively epic, ultra intense, hauntingly majestic, crushing, droning black metal masterpiece. While they last we have the super deluxe oversized hardcover book version (limited to 1000 copies), once we run out of those you'll get the regular jewel case version (which also happens to be cheaper!).

MPEG stream: War Wolf
MPEG stream: River Of Tears

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

SORRY.

We recently listed the utterly amazing Memory And Destiny album by Polish black metal legends Graveland, a frosty and cult masterpiece of blazing buzzing black metal fury, droning and hypnotic, with unpredictable rhythms and stumbling blast beats. Not exactly new at the time, but we were finally able to get enough to list, and we also wanted to whet everyone's appetites for a new Graveland album, which is finally here! The Fire Of Awakening continues in a similar direction as Memory And Destiny although with a few surprises. The opening track for instance, is remarkably catchy, that's right catchy, with a riff that will stick in your head like a pop song. Granted it's swathed in distorted fuzz and battling thrashing midtempo drums and an angelic chorus, but it's a pretty amazing hook! Fear not though, the riff is subsumed soon enough into utter blackness, with epic Nordic riffery and tribal bleakness butted up against each other, while the drumming gallops unsteadily along, and sing songy folk melodies buzz wildly atop the melee. The best part of Graveland is how they switch from part to part, even though the parts don't seem to fit together at all. It gives everything this struggling, chaotic, almost messy feel, which totally adds energy and immediacy to what could otherwise be straight ahead black metal. Not a lot of blast beats either. Like Nargaroth, Graveland putter along at a hypnotic, trance inducing midtempo lope, with attempts at anything faster resulting in even more stumbling chaos! So epic and furious and heavy and intense and mesmeric and absolutely brilliant. Still problematic politically, however...

MPEG stream: We Shall Prevail
MPEG stream: Battle Of Wotan's Wolves

The return of our favorite Polish black metal Viking (huh?). Yep, it's Graveland, the master of epic and majestic Viking flecked black buzz. Graveland IS Rob Darken, perpetually clad in his helmet and tunic, armed with sword and shield, unfurling mighty tales of bloody battles and mighty journeys, of life and death, of blood oaths and sworn vengeance. All told through incredibly expansive blackened soundscapes, rife with killer drumming, awesome riffs, sweeping keyboard swells, Arvo Part like background vocals and tons of moody black ambience. As�with lots of records like this, and and as we've mentioned before, the whole Viking angle, and the Nordic pride thing is basically only one step removed (if that) from some very abhorrent racial politics, which unfortunately seem to often be a part of black metal. So as with lots of those bands, Burzum, Nokturnal Mortum, and others, you just have to figure out if you can enjoy the sounds and ignore the politics. It's a bit of a bummer, that a record this amazing has to be marred by that sort of thinking (no matter how subtle) but if you can make it past that, and enjoy Will Stronger Than Death for what it is, an emotionally and personally charged piece of musical art, you're in for what might possibly be the best Graveland record yet.� Gone are the days of inept drumming and stumbling rhythms, Darken has perfected his sound. Epic and expansive, open and majestic, and so so tight. Usually the one man band suffers in some department, maybe the one man is not such a hot drummer, or not the best singer, but this is prime Graveland, heavy and hooky, with tons of varied parts, an incredibly rich sonic palette, at it's core still a blast of grim buzzing blackness, but Graveland has turned into something so much more.� On first listen, very little has changed since the last disc, in fact, in lots of ways it sounds like�The Fire Of Awakening Part 2, which as far as we're concerned is just fine. The drums sound better than ever, instead of loping midtempos or furious blasts, there are plenty of cool, un-black metal beats, weird double snare hit, some of it surprisingly mathy, they perfectly compliment Darken's knack for the droning repetitive riffing, adding a whole 'nother layer of sound.� The guitars are massive, downtuned and buzzing, but weaving elaborate tapestries of black sound, some of it bordering on rock and roll, but not in a cheesy way, just an out of the ordinary way, which is maybe why some of these riffs are so damn catchy. But it's the strange vocals that take Graveland's sound to a whole other level, the aforementioned Arvo Part reference should tell you all you need to know. Gorgeous harmonies, choral backdrops to what would otherwise be simple buzzing black metal. It's like a black metal Godspeed sometimes, super dramatic and cinematic. So good.� At first we were a bit bummed by how similar this disc was to The Fire Of Awakening, but the more we listen to it, the more we realize ho different it really is and how much more is going on and how much has changed musically. Even if you think you've got all the Graveland you need, think again.� While they last we have the super deluxe oversized hardcover A5 book version (limited to 2000 copies), once we run out of those you'll get the regular jewel case version which will also be cheaper! BTW: We used to mock Darken's constant battle gear, posing in every photo in his armor and chainmail, always with some sort of weapon, but a close look at the thanks list reveals it may be a little bit more than just playing dress up, since he thanks the Great Warriors from Slavic and Viking Reenactment Groups!

Everyone went nuts for the last Gromm full length around here. And it wasn't just because it was called Happiness - It's When You Are Dead, although that was a big part of what we wanted to hear these guys in the first place. That record was a gorgeous blast of Ukrainian black frost, rife with buzz and howl, blast and roar. Hailing from the same area as other AQ black metal faves such as Nokturnal Mortum, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Drudkh, Hate Forest and others, Gromm share some similar sonic traits, if there was a 'Ukrainian sound' (which we do believe there is) then Gromm do fit right in, but as with most black metal we dig, especially the aforementioned Ukrainian ones, Gromm definitely had their own take on things, strange production, unique vocals, and of course their own brilliantly twisted and blackened riffs. Cold Old Thorns (another great title) collects all the old demos, as well as a new song and an unlikely cover. The first half of the disc is the Ferro Ignique demo from 2001-2002, originally a tape limited to 300 copies, which finds the band way stripped down and primitive, but no less ambitious, the sound is murky and lo-fi, the blasts seems to be played by a machine (or a very machinelike human), but the songs are still completely epic and fucked up, super dense convoluted arrangements, plenty of atypical not very black metal song structures, super dynamic, lots of start and stop, the vocals are even more tweaked than they are now, raspy and demonic, gnarled and super creepy, the guitars rip, incredible riffing, emotional and minor key, majestic but furious and fierce, all wrapped in a muffled muted production that makes the whole thing sound just that much more grim and gorgeous. The second half of the disc is made up of the Nails For Gods demo from 2003, also originally a limited-to-300-copies cassette, this time, the sound is a bit more high fidelity, but the mix is insane, the opener "Black Madness" is totally unhinged, the guitars and drums blasting blackly along, pretty low in the mix, while the vocals shriek and soar WAY UP FRONT, it almost doesn't sound like a voice, it's like a strangely musical scraping, steel on steel, and here and there, another guitar part, more melodic and moody joins the fray, also way louder than everything else, making the sound so strange and creepy, but so cool. And those vocals, holy shit! The whole demo is like that, a blanket of buzz over which those crazy inhuman vocals rasp and scrape and various melodies surface and drift. Fucking awesome. As if that weren't enough, there's a new song from last year, dense and fuzz drenched, midtempo and Burzumic, the vocals buried in the mix, just another layer of raspy buzz, four and a half minutes of loping droney black buzz, and a killer cover of Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls", the classic thrash prog epic transformed into a totally necro blast of grimness, the vocals harsh and super distorted, the whole thing blurred into a relentless black blur, except for the chorus, which ends up sounding like the catchiest Darkthrone part Darkthrone never wrote. Liner notes, lyrics, photos, and an awesome black and silver, shiny reflective sticker included...

MPEG stream: Cold Thorns
MPEG stream: Black Fire Legions
MPEG stream: Black Madness
MPEG stream: Provocation / For Whom The Bell Tolls

As far as black metal album titles, it's pretty impossible to beat Happiness - It's When You Are Dead. Sure Blizzard Beasts is awesome, so is A Blaze In The Northern Sky, even Rebel Extravaganza has its perverse charm. But no album titles we can think of are so simple and succinct. Happiness - It's When You Are Dead. Perfectly capturing the miserablism and death obsessed nihilism of black metal without the usual overwrought hand wringing wordiness. Simple. We like it. And we like Gromm too. Much like how the Russian BM bands share a sonic sensibility, so too do the Ukrainian bands, Nokturnal Mortum, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Drudkh, Hate Forest, and of course Gromm. If you like that stuff, odds are you'll like these guys too. And considering how insular and inbred those scenes are, we wouldn't be all that surprised if Gromm shared members with one, some or all of those bands. For those new to Gromm, on the surface it's everything we love about black metal, furious and frosty, blasting and black and brutal, with guitars that are super distorted, so much so that sometimes they seem to crumble and overload the speakers, recorded so hot they shoot into the red adding another layer of (unintentional?) distortion, the vocals are raw and garbled, not growling or grunted so much as twisted and strangled, the drums are kick ass, furious and blasting, but there is tons of melody in the music of Gromm, and not just in the slowed down melancholy parts, but in the buzzing frosty blasts, melodies and strange catchy bits lurk everywhere. There's some super weird production too, like when an ultra loud effects-heavy acoustic guitar is laid over the black buzz, so loud and thick that it spreads out and almost completely obscures the music beneath it, making it sound really damaged and creepy. And that kind of stuff is all over Happiness, but even without all the subtle weirdness, the record kills, the songs are amazing, the sound is epic and catchy, fast and fuzzed out, brutal and black. Extremely recommended.

MPEG stream: Seeds And Bones
MPEG stream: On The Way Of Chains
MPEG stream: Without A Pack, Without A Herd

The THIRD repress of this exquisite album on vinyl. If you missed it the last two times, don't expect this one to last any longer! The only difference is the black & white artwork, but the musical content is the same. Here's what we said way back when... Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill opens with an entirely characteristic yet coy swell of effected elemental smear, crumbling delicately yet forcefully, until giving way to what is, to date, and here is the coy part, Liz Harris' most songwriterly and structured album. As opposed to the rich swaths of drone that up until now defined her sound, Harris has shifted from the abstract towards a more distinct and figurative sound. True to the title, the record unfolds like a sort of mysterious and morbid fairytale, innocent in its clear and elegant melodies, yet creepy and highly abstract in its more droney and sublime interludes. For the most part, her guitar playing is laid bare, removed from the dense fog of effects that typically occlude them. And what we discover is actually a pretty strummy record, with plenty of clean guitar articulation though certainly the aroma of her previous tech heavy approach remains in what is relatively speaking still pretty effected. At times she even reverts back to the gorgeous icey crunchy string attack of some previous efforts. With so much space liberated in the absence of drones, we also get to hear her stunning voice. Furthermore, the occasional audible lyric creeps to the surface, one standout fragment being "Love Is Enormous," a somewhat shockingly affirmative sentiment from an otherwise darkly mysterious and abstract persona. From start to finish Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill lulls you into its graceful murmurings and hypnotic thrumming. An exquisite addition to an already compelling discography. Recommended.

MPEG stream: Disengaged
MPEG stream: Heavy Water/ I'd Rather Be Sleeping

What it is exactly that constitutes "Krautrock" is definitely up for debate. It seems often largely construed to be the insistent, motorik pulses of Neu! and Can. But to limit the genre to just that would be a mistake. Bands like Guru Guru and Ash Ra Tempel were also present, bringing some of the heaviest psychedlia ever recorded. Hinten is the former band's second album, and a classic. Free range guitars grazing on open, organic jams. It is more evidently structured than their debut, UFO, while still retaining an improvisational feel that is as playful as it is crushingly acidic. This is one of both Allan and Cameron's favorites within the genre. Halfway between killer rock riffs and complete psychedelic blow-out. Essential, though an expensive Japanese import in its current incarnation.

MPEG stream: Electric Junk
MPEG stream: The Meaning of Meaning

What it is exactly that constitutes Krautrock is definitely up for debate. It seems often largely construed to be the insistent, motorik pulses of Neu! and Can. But to limit the genre to just that would be a mistake. Bands like Guru Guru and Ash Ra Tempel were also present, bringing some of the heaviest psychedlia ever recorded. UFO is the former band's debut effort. Fans of heavy psych, German rock of the '70s, and free improv jams will consider this absolutely essential. And chances are, those fans already own this, or they simply haven't found a copy yet... here's the currently in print, Japanese mini-LP sleeve version. Repetitive, hypnotic, transcendent. And at the same time jarring. This is a fist full of mushrooms being shoved through the speakers. Embrace it.

MPEG stream: Stone In
MPEG stream: Der LSD - Marsch

Wholly enveloping, river soaked, fog piercing drone. Barn Owl's Evan Caminiti and a previously unknown-to-us artist named Lisa McGee collaborate to bring forth cathartic ruminations in the form of ghostly guitar, softly sparring vocals, various percussive devices and an unnamable, innumerable catalog of various other instruments. The collaboration was a live improvisational affair, which the liner notes claim was recorded "in the valley." The appropriately and cleverly named album, Haze Valley, name checks one of our own neighborhoods here in San Francisco, Hayes Valley. Anyone who checked out and enjoyed any of the releases by Cloaks, White Rainbow (particularly the more sedate side), Barn Owl (obviously), or La Monte Young will be pleased with what they'll find here. Make no mistake about it, this is definitive dronemusic. While it is beautiful and has some structured elements, this is for the true trippers. Those looking for hummable hooks and such may find more satisfaction looking elsewhere, but for an immersive, spiritual headphones experience, this is your destination. It is also worth noting that the cover art was made by Evan, and its burgeoning crystal pyramid couldn't be more lovely or more perfectly suited to the sounds found herein. Drone freaks beware, this could easily take over your stereo. LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!! These are the only ones we'll ever have...

MPEG stream: Crimson Cloud Ascension
MPEG stream: Winter Bloom

HOLY SHIT! we can't get enough of this record...or overcome the urge to say HOLY SHIT every few seconds while talking about this new great collaboration between our favorite art-damaged pop songwriter Ariel Pink and his unlikely partner in musical crime, Matt Fishbeck formerly of the shiny happy LA power-pop band The Push Kings. But don't worry Ariel Pink hasn't gotten all normal and boring on us...in fact in lots of ways this is his most captivating and compelling release yet! With a fuzzy folk lo-fi sound that reminds us of the glory days of the great New Zealand label Flying Nun or like some amazing amalgamation of Daniel Johnston and Roky Erikson playing Orange Juice covers. This is what we wish AM radio really sounded like, fuzzy and warped, demented and all twisted up like some poprock funhouse mirror, while underneath it all lurk perfect and precious. Totally catchy pop hooks and great timeless sounding songs. Fishbeck actually tackles most of the vocal duties here, although you'd be forgiven for thinking it was indeed Mr. Pink, and his voice sounds so perfect amidst the dabs of tape hiss, staticky cracklings and WAY off-kilter production. But deep down inside we know, it's Ariel Pink's cracked pop sensibilities that really mold and create the overall sound, warm and lucid, dreamy and trippy, an album that unfolds revealing a deliriously damaged dreamland and takes you on a pop trip that's weird enough to get lost in but cool and catchy enough that you want to stay lost FOREVER. HOLY SHIT we're in love with this record! Packaged in a cool shiny metallic gold and silver digipak. With a cute photo inside of the bandmates smooching out in a grassy field. Awww...

MPEG stream: Maus Is Missing
MPEG stream: Written All Over Your Face
MPEG stream: Tokyo Gamblers

There couldn't be a more appropriate name for this Swedish duo, as it's unlikely you'll ever hear anything colder or frostier. This is harsh and frostbitten, depressive and miserable black metal. Full length number two, after last year's Veins, Kold takes their monochromatic miserablism a step further, two tracks, two riffs, okay, maybe four at the most, one track twenty seven minutes long, the other nineteen, each one a loping midtempo buzz, the drums a relentless plod, the guitar a buzz so blurry and indistinct it almost sounds like a drone, and the vocals, well, you thought they were weird on Veins, they're even more strangled and bizarre here, somewhere between an Orcish death rattle and some sort of beast vomiting up its last meal, sometimes mumbling in a strange mewling grunt, other times a leather lunged glass throated growl, you can almost feel the blood and spittle. But it's the perfect compliment to the music. Hateful, sorrowful, suicidal, depressive, the sound of Kold is just that, so cold and lonely, emotional and intense. About three quarters of the way through the first track, the distorted guitar drops out leaving just a jangly clean guitar, drums and vocals, which is unexpected for sure, but ends up sounding strangely emotionally charged. Soon the vocals drop out too and it's just drums and clean guitar and it almost sounds like some outsider bedroom indie rock, before the buzz kicks back in and the track unwinds in a Burzumic blaze of frosty buzz. The second track may be even weirder, a blown out buzzy riff, and even doomier rhythmic plod, and the vocals are completely unhinged, falsetto screams, what sounds like that weird breathing-in-backwards singing, growling and grunting and shrieking and wailing hysterically, all over a surprisingly lilting minor key dirge, buzzing and droning, epic yet surprisingly melodic, with another surprise right at the end, a three minute clean-guitar and drum coda, simple garage-y drumming, sort of shuffling and crashing beneath some truly moody jangly strum.

MPEG stream: Svag Fysisk Lusta
MPEG stream: Svartade Passager

Another gloriously grim and frostbitten slab of ultra depressive black metal dirge from these Swedes. Their last two discs were serious AQ faves, their monochromatic blackened plod totally mesmerizing and entrancing. And this one is no different. Rakbladsvalsen begins with an epic 34 minute blast of suicidal black stomp, but like the last few discs, there is a seriously melodic element lurking beneath the buzzing and pounding. In fact, at moments, the melody is almost dreamy, like some jangly indie rock band was possessed by the dark lord, transforming their bright jangle into dark buzz, but never fully letting go of that innate melodic purity. Mournful and melancholy, the main riff repeated over and over and over and over, the drums shifting occasionally from simple plod to stumbling blast and back again, the vocals harsh and haggard, so pained and anguished, but again, like the music, strangely pretty (in a strangled to death sort of way). The song is relentless, the only real shifts over the 30+ minutes are when the drums drop out, leaving the riff to buzz and hover briefly, until the drums once again kick in and the band lurches back into it's crushing black dirge. Theoretically, even though the disc is separated into 4 tracks, they are parts one through four of the same track, and minus the gaps, they do sort of sound like it, the same (or very similar) key, the same lurching loping tempo, harsh and brittle and buzzing and black, but always subtly jangly. The final track is the surprise, expanding on what the band had only hinted at before on past releases, a gorgeous post rock jam, simple and minor key, the guitar sound clean, the riff moody and melancholy, the drums a simple math rock groove, the guitar switches lazily between muted minor key melodies, like some June Of 44 or Slint rehearsal recording, two simple parts, both quite lovely, no blown out buzzing blackness, just a dreamy extended instrumental workout, that demonstrates quite well, that slow and moody can be just as powerful and dark as grim and buzzy.

MPEG stream: Part III
MPEG stream: Part IV

Finally after years of demos and splits and cassette tape releases, the first proper full length from Swedish suicidal black metallers Hypothermia. You might remember Hypothermia from their split with Dimhymn, in the review of which we described their sound as "Epic fuzzed out glacial dirge, with thick riffs spread out in a black smear, the drums a caveman plod, and some of the most fucked vocals ever: weird, something-caught-in-the-throat sort of strangulated grunts and mewls, guttural growls and strange falsetto-y squeaks." And not too much has changed. In fact, Hypothermia's final track on that split was an "epic 16 minute midtempo buzzscape, [with] looped riffs, totally repetitive and hypnotic..." and dang if Veins isn't three of those, each a massive buzzing midtempo black dirge, slowly pounding drums, simple raw hypnotic riffing, repeated and repeated, into a mesmerizing musical mantra, the relentless buzz blurring into near drones, and anguished, cries of utter agony, over swirls of dismal black buzz. Definitely for fans of Burzum, Nortt, Make A Change... Kill Yourself, Silencer, Xasthur and other purveyors of doomic black hate. And if the music weren't depressed and dismal enough, the sleeve sports some seriously horrific and blood drenched images, bloody slit wrists, the word failure carved into an arm, a bathtub splattered with blood, and all the lyrics written in blood on blood soaked paper towels...

MPEG stream: Isolation
MPEG stream: Failure

You might remember Hypothermia from their amazing split with Dimhymn a few months back, and we review the killer Durthang tape elsewhere on this list. But these two Swedish purveyors of bleak lifeless doomic black metal are the perfect match up. Hypothermia's side is an ultra lo fi blast of midtempo buzz, super murky, almost like a practice space recording, with strangled vocals, and some killer riffing. Definitely some serious cult black brutality. The flipside is two loooong tracks from Durthang, and further convinces us that this could very well be one of our new favorite black metal hordes. A strangely clean sound, but nice fuzzy riffing and way up in the mix drumming. Mournful melodies over relentless double kick drumming. Cool arpeggiated guitar lines over swirling buzzing blackness and blown out distorted vocal shrieks. A darkly depressive Burzumic buzz wrapped around melancholy minor key misery. So good. And so far the only Durthang recording available are on ultra cult cassette tape only!! LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

The return of Immortal!!! These frosty warriors may have hung up their spiked gauntlets, but their legacy still looms large. Easily one of our favorite black metal hordes EVER, these records have been frustratingly tough to keep in stock over the years. Thankfully, they've all been reissued, in all their frostbitten black blurred glory! At The Heart Of Winter is from way back in 1999, but is one of the later albums by these blizzard beasts. You might be disappointed by the lack of blurred blast beats and blazing Arctic riffs but you certainly won't be disappointed with the results of these corpsepainted Norwegians' last photo shoot! A newfound obsession with pro wrestling and a new, very large and perpetually shirtless drummer (sporting a black metal belly girdle!) make this cd great to look at, but it's actually a great listen as well. As mentioned, gone is the speed of their previous effort Blizzard Beasts --in it's place is a stripped-down, more midtempo, straight-ahead heavy metal sound. Better, more professional production than in the past, plus catchier riffs combined with stumbling, propulsive drumming make this a record that Andee and Allan both love (while big Immortal fan Josh from The Champs votes this as the *worst* metal album of the year--go figure). Note: in the years since this album came out (1999) ol' Josh has had a change of heart and now admits that it's a pretty good record! And Allan rates it as his favorite Immortal opus ever. Andee places it at number two, right behind the classic Blizzard Beasts!

MPEG stream: Withstand The Fall Of Time
MPEG stream: Tragedies Blows At Horizon

The final installment in the recent long overdue campaign of Immortal reissues (the rest of which we reviewed a few lists back). The return of Immortal!!! These frosty warriors may have hung up their spiked gauntlets, but their legacy still looms large. Easily one of our favorite black metal hordes EVER, these records have been frustratingly tough to keep in stock over the years. Thankfully, they've all been reissued, in all their frostbitten black blurred glory! As we've said before, you just can't go wrong with Immortal. It's like a big cold hug. For grim black metalheads that is! Everyone has their favorite Immortal. The raw early records, the slow more melodic later releases... and while we definitely love both, our hearts were originally captured by the brief two album black blizzard of buzz that was Blizzard Beasts (1997) and this here slab of frosty grimness Battles In The North. Originally released in 1995, BITN was the record that found Immortal finally unleashing their inner frost giant, from the album art, images of the band members crouching in the snow in full corpse paint with their instruments, to the much more explicit themes of winter and frost and blizzards and ice and snow, to the much frostier sound, a black metal white out, flurries of impossibly fast drumming, blinding swirls of buzzing riffage, the raspy winterdemon like vocals, Battles In The North is fastfastfast, a buzzy blinding blur, brief moments of folky guitar or droney ambience surface here and there, but for the most part this is a black metal avalanche, a huge white wall of black sound. Blizzard Beasts would up the fast and frosty ante a couple years later, but Battles In The North remains a pure and primal explosion of gloriously ultragrim Northern darkness!

MPEG stream: Battles In The North
MPEG stream: Throned By Blackstorms
MPEG stream: Grim And Frostbitten Kingdoms

Now available on vinyl for a limited time! Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, with new photos and design. Here's what we had to say about the cd (not a lot, but believe us, it's quite possibly our very favorite Immortal record): Highly-regarded Black Metal band (weirdly enough, Steve Albini's favorite) unleash their latest frigid barrage, an amazingly trance-inducing, complex blur of drums, rasping howls and icicle guitars, stopping and starting but at never less than 100mph. Their best album yet (as of 1997) and certainly their most Morbid Angel.

Now available on vinyl for a limited time! Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, with new photos and design. Here's what we had to say about the cd: The new Immortal has arrived. True members of the Norwegian black metal elite, Abbath (not as in "please take..."!) on guitars and Popeye vox, big ol' drummer Horgh, and new guy Iscariah on bass, (with the sidelined Demonaz still writing lyrics) come back atcha a year after their groundbreaking At The Heart of Winter, the disc that slowed down (a bit) the previously way FAAASSSTTT tempos characteristic of their speedy-demon classics Battles In The North and Blizzard Beasts and added more melody, more trad metal riffing, and mo' better production courtesy of Peter Tagtgren & his Abyss studio. Damned In Black follows the Winter blueprint, being kind of like a At The Heart of Winter Part II but without the amusing wanna-be WWF wrestler band photos that garnered so much attention/ridicule last time around. And while the title might suggest some sort of Satanic theme, the Immortal boys stick with their personal mythology of a frosty Northern dimension full of ice, wind, and cold. Immortal fans everywhere (even the ones here in San Francisco who got dissed by the band when they didn't show up to play and went to Mexico instead) should put on some mittens and enjoy this evil icecapade.

Now available on vinyl for a limited time! Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, with new photos and design. We never listed the cd before (it came out before we did reviews, let alone black metal reviews) but fans should know it, and that's who'll be interested in Immortal vinyl anyway. This was their very first album from '92, so probably their rawest, but still all about the winter wonderland that Immortal devoted their career to mythologizing.

Now available on vinyl for a limited time! Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, with new photos and design. We never listed the cd before (it came out before we did reviews, let alone black metal reviews) but fans should know it, and that's who'll be interested in Immortal vinyl anyway. This was their second album (from 1993) and is classic old school Norwegian black metal all the way. Grim and frosty!

From the cold frozen north (Norway) comes this, the latest cd from one of our favorite corpse-painted bands ever, Immortal. It's their seventh album but their first for new, big-time label Nuclear Blast, so expectations are high. And "Sons Of Northern Darkness" delivers, in fine Immortal fashion. It's got the unmistakable Popeye-gone-metal vocal stylings of guitarist Abbath, who rasps out the frostbitten fantasy lyrics penned by their former guitarist, the crippled Demonaz, all backed by a blizzard of drums from hefty skinbeater Horgh. Followers of Immortal's career know that they began as your basic, howling at the moon, primitive blasting black metal outfit. They quickly developed a reputation as the fastest band out there, reaching a peak of pure speed with the classic "Battles In The North". Unable to top that, they did an album of Morbid Angel worship, the hectic "Blizzard Beasts"...and then Demonaz left the band, unable to play guitar due to "arm disease". Regrouping, Immortal shifted in a newly melodic, heavy-metal-riff oriented direction, releasing the brilliant "At The Heart of Winter". Some old fans (Josh from The Fucking Champs, you know who you are) were disappointed that the songs wasn't as fast, and the production not as "necro" (i.e. bad) as before, but the drums still blazed and the better production (courtesy of Peter Tagtgren's Abyss Studio) combined with their improved song-craft made for a true masterpiece. They followed that up with "At The Heart of Winter Part II" (actual title: "Damned In Black"), and now here we are with what is essentially part three, "Sons Of Northern Darkness". No, it doesn't top "At The Heart of Winter" but it's indeed more of the same quality Immortal, totally satisfying! While their blasting abilities are still incredible, this disc is perhaps at its best on the slower songs, like "Tyrants". Cold, cold stuff. There's even a song about Antarctica! Immortal. Sometimes, there's nothing better.

RealAudio clip: One By One
RealAudio clip: Tyrants

Can the No Colours label do no wrong? Inquisition's Magnificent Glorification Of Lucifer is definitely Allan's favorite black metal release of the YEAR. So grim, so eerie, so very metal, and weird in a weird way. That is, there's nothing else out there quite like this band. They do that thing that the best black metal bands do: they're both totally of their genre (a formulaic genre, to be extra-redundant) yet manage to be utterly their own thing too. Fans of the elite likes of Burzum, Graveland, Mutillation, Xasthur, and Immortal ought to immediately bow to Inquisition whilst also recognizing just how different a band they are. And it's also the sort of black metal I might spring on an extremity-friendly music fan even if they were unaware of the above mentioned artists. Although this was the first I'd heard of Inquistion, it's actually the third album from this American (Seattle-based, but with Columbian connections?) Satanic black metal band. Redundant again? Sure, all black metal by definition is supposed to be Satanic. But these guys are so SERIOUS about it (well, I don't know for sure... the Inquistion duo of Dagon and Incubus do look kinda silly in the cd booklet photos...but I don't think that's intentional). That they go so over-the-top in their Satan worship is part of what moves them beyond mere stylistic formula and into a realm of obsessive uniqueness. This record works so well 'cause it's simultaneously weird as fuck (hypnotically croaking vocals, the aforementioned Satanically overloaded lyrix, and strange, keening high-end guitar parts that make this the EERIEST black metal I've heard in aeons) while being fully metal with a rock n' roll backbone: slow-to-mid tempos, memorable riffs, and killer old-school fuzz guitar tone. Indeed, were it not for the love of Lucifer they express with every breath, Inquisition could just has easily have opted to call this album The Glorious Magnificence of Fuzz (though a strain of fuzz quite different from the '60s garage fuzz as heralded elsewhere on this week's list in our review of the Plastic Cloud reissue)! Sonically, that's a big part of what satisfies here, a crucial factor in of Inquisition's equation of extremity. It's truly a heavy, buzzing, trance-like blurr. It's got to mean something when I (Allan) play something over and over and over again, considering how much (too much) music I'm getting every week. But this was -- is -- in heavy rotation in my home and even though I put it on my iPod I still took the cd itself along with me on vacation as a talisman/token/icon/fetish object just to look at... good thing I don't actually believe in Satan! I even had to go and track down their harder-to-find first two albums, also both excellent, though I do think this is their best... and if you want someone to back me up, note that Leviathan's Wrest himself is a big Inquistion fan, partial to their second album but also of the opinion that this one is brilliant too. So, an AQ black metal rave, make no mistake! Mesmerizing, crushing, gloomy, fucked up, beautiful, genius.

MPEG stream: Under The Black Inverted Pentagram
MPEG stream: Of Blood And Darkness We Are Born

Housed in a sleeve decorated with strange sci-fi airbrushed bondage artwork, this 1973 Brain-label krautrock album from the relatively obscure (but collectable) Kollektiv has now been reissued on cd. First track "Rambo Zambo" starts off with some echo effected flute action in the style of early Kraftwerk classic "Ruck Zuck"... when the drums kick in it's a pretty propulsive funky flute fusion groover we've gotta say, the occasional stabs of harder guitar also doin' it for us. It's not gonna be everyone's cup of krautrock but those that like it will love it. Wild instrumental psychedelic jazzy jamming, yeah. Some songs are extended, rhythmic workouts up to 12, 20 minutes long. Others just brief wacked out interludes with vocal ravings, probably funny if you understand German. Kollektiv fits in with the likes of Exmagma, Xhol Caravan, Thirsty Moon, Kraan, and Wolfgang Dauner's Oimels album. Recommended for the krautrock connoisseur into the jazzier side of the genre, though the acid guitar soloing is definitely rock. This nicely done reissue includes four bonus cuts, almost another half-hour of material recorded with different lineup... tracks like "Pap-Jack" and "Rozz-Pop" don't sound all that different from the album proper, though we're told there was more of an influence from King Crimson's Red album on this stuff... could be, the guitar is sometimes sorta Frippy, certainly searing and spacey, throughout the disc. In any event, worthy bonus material.

MPEG stream: Rambo Zambo
MPEG stream: Gageg

Final black and bleak missive from metal misanthrope Imperial and his black metal horde Krieg. Practically an institution, Krieg spew a particularly hateful and depressive strain of black metal, falling somewhere between the old school (Judas Isacriot) and the new school (Xasthur) of US black metal. A buzzing chaotic blur, mostly plodding midtempos, guitars a droning hypnotic whir, the drums a splattery framework way down in the murky swirl, the vocals squirming tentacles of howl and shriek, tangled amidst the buzzing riffs and the careening rhythms. Not nearly as harsh as past efforts, this final album is downright melodic at times, some classic sounding thrash riffs surface here and there, huge expanses of droning doom metal share the spotlight with the grim black thrash, the melodies minor key and truly sorrowful sounding, some tracks trail off into ambient stretches of white noise guitar, sounding a bit like Total or Hototogisu here and there. Blue Miasma is hate fueled and harrowing, harsh but weirdly mournful and melancholy, even the ultra fast parts end up sort of blissing out into droning doomy miserablism. Fucking Awesome. Word of warning, Krieg and Imperial have been know to espouse truly abhorrent views, political, racial and otherwise, sort of comes with the black metal territory a lot of the time. It's a personal choice, whether you can enjoy the music and ignore the politics of its creator. You have been warned.

MPEG stream: The Great Beast Trembled In Nightmare
MPEG stream: Who Shall Stand Against Me
MPEG stream: The Blue Mist

Maybe you remember the good old days. Obituary's Slowly We Rot, Morbid Angel's Blessed Are The Sick, and - of course - Sepultura's Beneath The Remains. THOSE good old days. The days when metalheads could look each other in the face and say things like, "Dude, Scott Burns fucking rules," and it would mean something. Maybe even one tattooed tear would drop. Earthdogs worldwide would only consider purchasing longsleeve versions of their favorite band's shirts. When the only guy in the band allowed to have short hair was the drummer. Guitar solos were mandatory. Well, Brazil's Krisiun have managed to continually exist within that realm. It seems that for them the only difference between then and now is heightened production value. Their music remains heavy, tight, and fast. You're getting zero corpsepaint, no buzzing guitars, and absolutely no art-school-esque Banks Violette collaborations. Metal dudes weren't wearing makeup and crying about how they hate people, because they were too busy trying to kick ass. Death metal, no bullshit necessary. We're not even sure if they know that black metal has taken the spotlight in "extreme metal" for like, oh, almost 15 years now. Make sure to bang your head in a circular motion, even while listening to their cover of fellow Brazilians Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist."

MPEG stream: Slaying Steel
MPEG stream: Origin of Terror

We're very excited about these two remaster/reissues from Germany's La Dusseldorf! La Dusseldorf were THE masters of anthemic open and clean-sounding happy funky krautrock, inspiring the likes of Eno and Bowie (Heroes-era). They crafted repetitive hypnotic percussion with layers of super clean life-affirming melodies that were driven by minimal lyrics. Neu! co-founder Klaus Dinger and drummer Hans Lampe (who joined Neu! for their 3rd album 75) formed La Dusseldorf following the breakup of Neu! They were joined by Klaus' brother, Thomas, on percussion and vocals, Harald Konietzko on bass, and Nicolas van Rhein on keyboards. Any fan of Neu! will immediately recognize that Neu! sound, which is still evident here, but where Neu! was icy and detached, La Dusseldorf is positive and practically bubbling with warmth. Like Harmonia (a product of fellow ex-Kraftwerker, Michael Rother), La Dusseldorf albums have an incredible, ahead-of-their-time production level and truly sound like they could be a current release (we've already witnessed a couple customers' disbelief at the year it was originally released!) Viva, their second record, is filled with Krautrock anthems, culminating in the 20 minute long Cha Cha 2000 - an epic of krauty proportions. If you've been reading some of our more recent lists, we should distinguish that La Dusseldorf do not fall in the krautrock sub-genre of WWII-effected dark & broodish-type stuff, a la German Oak. La D. better fit into the uber-clean & hypnotic song-kraft family of Neu!, Harmonia, Cluster, Can, Kraftwerk, etc. Both the self-titled and Viva releases are highly recommended as an integral part of any Krautrock kollection!

MPEG stream: Viva
MPEG stream: Cha Cha 2000

We're very excited about these two remaster/reissues from Germany's La Dusseldorf! La Dusseldorf were THE masters of anthemic open and clean-sounding happy funky krautrock, inspiring the likes of Eno and Bowie (Heroes-era). They crafted repetitive hypnotic percussion with layers of super clean life-affirming melodies that were driven by minimal lyrics. Neu! co-founder Klaus Dinger and drummer Hans Lampe (who joined Neu! for their 3rd album 75) formed La Dusseldorf following the breakup of Neu! They were joined by Klaus' brother, Thomas, on percussion and vocals, Harald Konietzko on bass, and Nicolas van Rhein on keyboards. Any fan of Neu! will immediately recognize that Neu! sound, which is still evident here, but where Neu! was icy and detached, La Dusseldorf is positive and practically bubbling with warmth. Like Harmonia (a product of fellow ex-Kraftwerker, Michael Rother), La Dusseldorf albums have an incredible, ahead-of-their-time production level and truly sound like they could be a current release (we've already witnessed a couple customers' disbelief at the year it was originally released!) This self-titled 4-song cd is absolutely classic Krautrock! "Silver Cloud", with its huge drums and layers of simple, syrupy melody create one of our favorite krautrock songs ever! At the time of this album's release, it was played on German radio a bunch and even became a "funk" hit! "La Dusseldorf" opens with the chanting of a football [soccer] audience and leads into a pulsating anthemic rhythm also joined by the valliant one-word chant of "Dusseldorf". If you've been reading some of our more recent lists, we should distinguish that La Dusseldorf do not fall in the krautrock sub-genre of WWII-effected dark & broodish-type stuff, a la German Oak. La D. better fit into the uber-clean & hypnotic song-kraft family of Neu!, Harmonia, Cluster, Can, Kraftwerk, etc. Both the self-titled and Viva releases are highly recommended as an integral part of any Krautrock kollection!

MPEG stream: La Dusseldorf
MPEG stream: Silver Cloud

As producers, musicians, critics, and listeners alike seem to hail the traditional pantheon of landmark influences, like Can, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Fad Gadget, et al, there are still plenty of fantastic, sidelined artists who just continually fall through the cracks. Such is the case with Thomas Leer. Sadly, outside of collectors circles, he is practically unknown, even though he kept company with some of the biggest names in 20th century pop and avant garde music. After releasing the seminal bedroom techno-pop-industrial classic "Private Plane" 7" on his own label -- Oblique -- he collaborated with Robert Rental on The Bridge, an LP on Throbbing Gristle's Industrial imprint. In fact, those recordings inspired Chris Carter -- of TG and Chris and Cosey fame -- and a pre-Whitehouse William Bennett to pick up a Wasp synth. Not yet acquainted with Robert Rental? If you can get your hands on it, check out Live at the West Runton Pavilion, his collaborative effort with Daniel Miller of The Normal, and the founder of Mute Records. A fantastic document, it mirrors Thomas Leer's work as it subverts the traditional punk/rock paradigm, utilizing newly emerging technology to create music completely outside of the guitar/drums/bass framework. Some might say that it's at least implicitly as punk as anything else. That said, let's talk a bit about this particular release. Firstly, it does indeed have both "Private Plane" and "International." Okay. But there is plenty to glean from the rest of his lesser-known catalogue. Picture a synth-happy David Bowie and Konk collaboration, with a restrained sense of composition. Picture a soulful robotic version of Marc Almond making 4-track recordings for himself. Not under-produced, but understated and playful. Shriekback caught in an algorithm. Picture Cybotron and Inner City chugging Robitussin and trying their damnedest to picture what acid house might sound like if it were made in 1983. This collection amounts to exactly what it sounds like on paper: a great collection of work from an incredibly influential and diverse artist. Uninitiated? Check it out! Already a fan? You know you want to grab it! Totally recommended.

MPEG stream: Thomas Leer - Private Plane
MPEG stream: Thomas Leer - Mr. Nobody

Robert Lowe, of the now defunct 90 Day Men, as well as part time member of TV On The Radio, delivers his first solo record, using the name Lichens, and creates a ghostly otherworld, using primarily his voice. That's right. An acapella record. Well, mostly. Lowe's haunting impressionistic vocals are drenched in reverb and sent drifitng into the ether, a soft fluttering falsetto most of the time, a low monk like chant at others, swooping through ominous minor key melodies, over simple sparkling guitar lines, wrapped in a warm and shimmery haze, over a bed of rumbling drones and occasional chiming percussion. Delicate crystalline soundscapes equal parts Pelt, Sigur Ros, Scott Tuma and Jewelled Antler. All three tracks recorded live with no overdubs, all completely otherworldly and breathtakingly lovely.

MPEG stream: One
MPEG stream: Two

"Six days in 1976". That's what this disc represents. The entire lifespan, and output, of an extremely short-lived but also extremely awesome krautrock 'supergroup' of sorts. Organized by Dieter Moebius (one half of Cluster, one third of Harmonia), the Liliental project also featured the talents of Helmut Hattler and Johannes Pappert of psychedelic jazz-rock outfit Kraan, famed producer Conny Plank, soundtrack composer Otto Bekker and his protege, budding electronic experimentalist Asmus Tietchens (who contributes liner notes to this reissue). They never played live, and indeed spent only six days recording these six tracks. About 35 minutes of exquisite, oft glorious, softly moody and melodic instrumentals here on this one-off treasure... well, mostly instrumental, with some wordless "aahhs" here and there, and also some singing on the particularly quirky, catchy final track (which sounds more like a Brian Eno/Steely Dan collab than a Moebius thing, but that's not necessarily a bad thing). Since the tracks are sequenced on this disc in the same order in which they were recorded, it would seem that by day six they were ready to get a bit silly. On days 1-5, though, there was more restraint to their playfulness, their music sometimes joyous but as often wistful or otherwise serious-sounding. It's hard to describe, easier to imagine if you're already acquainted with Moebius's music solo and in Cluster and Harmonia. While this group had their own special chemistry, the overall vibe is one that will definitely seem familiar to fans of Cluster et.al., wonderfully so. Track three, "Wattwurm", could be from one of the Cluster & Eno albums, easily. And that's high praise! On that track and elsewhere you'll find Liliental to be rhythmic, poppy, breezy, beautiful, all these things... with shimmering washes of mellow synths (lots of Arp and Moog), percolating electronic embellishments, almost-ambient saxophone, and even some blissful bird twitter on one track. So nice. This reissue actually came out last year, and we've been wanting to list it for a while, but had some trouble getting enough copies. Now we have a few in stock, so get it, it's definitely one to add to the top of the pile of essential krautrock reissues we've raved about recently, like those Michael Rothers, La Dusseldorfs, Eroc, etc. In addition to Tietchens' notes, in both English and German, this digipack's cd booklet also includes color photos of Liliental in the studio (they existed nowhere else!), among them the group shot from which the cover painting was done - interestingly, amongst other small details altered, the cover artist decided to put long pants on Conny Plank (the smiling fellow on the far left) instead of letting him continue to wear the short shorts he had on in the original photograph.

MPEG stream: Stresemannstrasse
MPEG stream: Wattwurm

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

SORRY. Well, it looks like the Wooden Shjips don't have the market cornered on sixties inspired drone drenched psychedelic drug rock after all. The Lumerians offer up their own take on modern psych with their debut ep, 5 songs, all of them looooong and gorgeously tripped out. Where as the Shjips seem to be channeling the Doors, the Lumerians take ? And The Mysterians, mix in some Fuzztones, and filter it through the sound of Spacemen 3 and Loop resulting in a mesmerizing, repetitive organ infused doped up hypnorock. The second the opening track kicked in we were SOLD. Fuzzy blown organ, pounding simple drum beat, super sixties vibe, buzzy and trippy and druggy and totally divine. The vocals drawling over that relentless beat and that warm thick organ. Wooden Shjips fans will freak, and just might have found a new favorite local band. The second track is just as cool, but way different, super minimal, almost jazzy, with muted percussion, subtle bass grooves, soft shimmery synths, very spacious (and space-y) and laid back, like a druggier more psychedelic Necks. The B side is all slow lugubrious organ drenched crawl, shuffling drums, a wall of washed out buzz, with one track introducing some ethereal, blissed out female vocals, drifting weightless above the fuzzy groove, giving that track a serious shoegaze vibe. Killer stuff. Super limited. Only 500 copies, each pressed on nice thick clear vinyl, housed in a plastic PVC jacket with a thick color cardstock insert, and comes with a code, so you can download MP3's for your iPod as well.