the one true dead angel

new year, new sounds.

2012-01-29T08:04:00.002-05:00

The Afternoon Gentlemen -- PISSEDOGRAPHY [Give Praise Records]

I know nothing about this UK grindcore band, but they've apparently been around long enough to accumulate a lengthy discography, mainly in the form of singles and splits, and that discography is presented here in full (as far as I know) -- all 38 tracks worth. It's classic grind in every sense of the word -- lots of serrated riffing and incoherent yelling, mostly short songs (some as short as 14 seconds), humorous samples gathered from a wide variety of sources, and titles like "Rusty Axe Through Aaron Turner's Head." As grind players go, this band is pretty good -- they abound with nasty riffs and drumming akin to pounding nails through your skull -- and unlike a lot of grind acts, their tunes are reasonably well-recorded. This is definitely an outing designed for grind fans only; those not attuned to grindcore's fast 'n furious, blink and you missed it aesthetic won't get this at all. Those down with the grind will find it entertaining enough, and at only five dollars for the download version (available through the site via Bandcamp), an absolute bargain.

The Afternoon Gentlemen
Give Praise Records

Bastard Priest -- GHOULS OF THE ENDLESS NIGHT [Pulverised Records]

I dunno, man… Sweden's Bastard Priest are a duo obviously weaned on old-school death metal like Autopsy and Dismember, which is fine, but they seem a tad bereft in the songwriting department and their Hammer horror shtick is not terribly original. They're not awful by any means, but they're not exactly metal's pinnacle of greatness either, if you get what I mean. What you get here is some standard-issue death metal with hardcore overtones and a bizarre mix that emphasizes the drums over the guitars, all in service of eight songs that don't have an enormous amount of variety. Which is too bad, because when they cook (like halfway through "Ghouls of the Endless Night"), they break out some swell riffs and rock with authority. They actually sound a lot better on the slower songs like "Poison," where their death crunch (aided by howling lead guitars circling like vultures overhead) approximate slow wasting doom in a death metal context, and "Enormous Thunder of the End," which actually owes more to NWOBHM's melodic catchiness than death metal (at least for the first minute or so, after which they devolve back into the relentless and monochromatic pounding that dominates the rest of the album). The seriously clunky drumming throughout the album doesn't help, either, or the strange sound effects that I would presume were intended to be interesting and unexpected but in reality are more jarring than anything else.

Bastard Priest
Pulverised Records

Black Skies -- ON THE WINGS OF TIME [self-released]

This is kind of interesting -- the band's sound is rooted in stoner rock, but their songs have more in common with the urgency of punk and the complex, movement-oriented structures of post-metal. It's a weird but highly listenable sound. The stoner rock vibe manifests itself through copious (some might claim inordinate) wah-abuse, but the riffs are far heavier than standard stoner fare, and even acoustic tracks like "The Other Side of the Mountain" and "Weightless" have a certain level of heaviness to them that makes them far darker, especially on the former, when the morose leads pave the way for a switch to much heavier playing. The combination of their post-metal aesthetic (including clear nods to bands like Neurosis and Year of No Light) and the stoner rock guitar sound results in grandiose, even bombastic songs that are still anchored by more traditional metal riffs. Which is not to say they are slaves to the past; many of the riffs in "Valley of the Kings" are more modern in approach, and work perfectly in the context of that song's extended suite of movements. Much of the time the band sounds like a progressive-rock mind-meld of Black Sabbath and Neurosis, which makes for some pretty adventurous listening. This is ambitious, well-crafted music whose reach does not exceed its grasp, and at its best delivers an emotional punch without sacrificing its visceral edge.

Black Skies

Book of Shadows -- CAYLEPER [Ikuisuus]

Albums by Austin's Book of Shadows tend to fall into one of two categories: conceptual albums with thematically linked pieces, or snapshot releases featuring a wide variety of recent tracks that not only have little to no relation to each other, but often sound markedly different. This album is one of the latter, featuring eleven tracks recorded live and in the studio, all definitely improvised but very different in mood and texture. Tripped-out psychedelic improv is a mainstay of these pieces, regardless of their actual tones and textures, with Sharon Crutcher's haunting, disembodied vocals a frequent highlight and strange, even exotic sounds encompassing everything from robot noises and bizarre effects ("Zizabah," "The Listening Pilgrim"), halting but beautiful piano ("Kresnayarsk"), pastoral sounds mixed with mad drone efx ("Hawkfib"), dark drone ("Coming At You Live Leper"), percussion and flute ("Earhorn to the Other Side"), and acid-folk guitar trippiness ("Tran-smitten"). Best of all is the lengthy track "I Played Crawling Chaos on My Jambox in the Graveyard," which incorporates many of these wildly disparate elements and the unorthodox use of lap steel into a sprawling epic of droning psych weirdness graced by Sharon's ethereal vocals. As always, the band's work is mysterious, unpredictable, and excellent. You need.

Book of Shadows
Ikuisuus

Book of Shadows -- POPPETS AND STRINGS 3" cdr [Kendra Steiner Editions]

This brief but stimulating 3-inch cdr contains two tracks, each approximately nine minutes, of the same mysterious, swirling, and dreamlike psych that has persistently defined the band's existence. The first, "Leander," features Sharon Crutcher vocalizing like a woman emitting sonic vapor trails over a clanking, droning river of guitar, keyboards, and electronics that's somewhere between slowed-down early Hawkwind and mid-70s Sun Ra; it's cryptic and mesmerizing, filled with enigmatic drones broken up by submerged fragments of experimental sound. The sound on "Poppets and Strings" is similar, only murkier and heavier on the drone aspect than the weird sounds, carried mainly by Sharon's vocals and the throbbing, bass-heavy drone at the center of piece. More swellness, and with only 82 copies to go around, something to hunt down quickly.

Book of Shadows
Kendra Steiner Editions

The Devil's Blood -- THE THOUSANDFOLD EPICENTRE [Metal Blade Records]

The second full-length release (originally released overseas last year by Van Records) from these Dutch occult-rockers finds them expanding on their obvious 70s-rock pedigree (including occult touchstones Coven and Black Widow). Led by guitarist / songwriter Selim and his sister Farida on vocals, the band returns with an amazing album that successfully cross-pollinates strands of classic psychedelia, 70s hard rock, and a particularly mystical brand of Satanism to create a record that sounds like a throwback to to the early 70s with modern production. How metal this is, though, is open to interpretation; to me, this sounds more like classic hard rock with occasional bursts of metal thrown in, which is not necessarily a bad thing, since the songs are far more complex and sonically ornate than most of what passes for metal these days. Then, too, Farida is an astounding singer whose voice would be wasted on songs built around heaviness for the sake of heaviness. The songs themselves are complex, well-crafted works that revolve less around riffs (although there are plenty of those present, and catchy ones at that) and melodies than an ambitious approach to layered compositions with many movements and plenty of dynamics. Those dynamic movements are definitely built around catchy riffs and melodies, though, all filtered equally through a classic-rock sensibility and heaping doses of full-blown psych guitar. This is definitely an album where the sum of the parts -- the individual players, the songwriting, and the production -- are all excellent to begin with, and together form the kind of high-quality listening experience from start to finish that's grown increasingly hard to find over the years. It's worth noting that the elements of the band's sound are all perfectly balanced as well; in other bands Farida's sensuous vocals or Selim's aggressive, inventive guitar sounds would be the highlights here, but instead they are merely part of the package -- essential elements, no doubt, but very much in service of a batch of excellent songs. It's not hard to see why so many metalheads are wetting their panties over this band. Highlights of the album include the piano-driven opener "Unending Singularity" and the epic "On the Wings of Gloria," "She" (which sounds like it could have been a huge radio hit back in the day), and the monstrous exercise in building intensity that is the closer "Feverdance," but truthfully, everything on this album is excellent. I normally have a hard time hanging with the retro movement, but I can always make an exception for a band with an album this brilliant.

The Devil's Blood
Metal Blade Records

Earth -- ANGELS OF DARKNESS, DEMONS OF LIGHT II [Southern Lord]

Guitarist Dylan Carson and pals pick up where they left off with the last album, and not surprisingly, it's more of the same -- slo-mo spaghetti western drone, only this time a bit more improvised and, in the case of the relatively brief (for them, anyway) opener "Sigil of Brass," more simple and minimal. Things get interesting on "His Teeth Did Brightly Shine," where the guitar sound (and the playing itself) takes on more of an acid-rock feel, with a guitar motif that's considerably less sparse than most of Carson's recent playing and a tone that's got a bit more squeal to it. "Waltz (A Multiplicity of Doors)" is closer to the sound of the previous album, but its name is no joke: it is indeed a waltz, albeit the slowest one you're ever likely to hear. There's some complex interplay between the instruments on "The Corascene Dog," where the convergence of instruments rises and falls, giving the song a dynamic akin to breathing, and the closing epic "The Rakehell" not only has a considerably different drum sound than the rest of the album, but actually borders on being funky. Granted, it's the slowest funk ever, but still, it's just another indication of the variety of approaches on this release. As always, the tones are gorgeous -- partly due to the swell chord choices, partly because the band's sparse, open sound allows lots of space for that resonant sound to expand to fill any given room -- and bassist Karl Blau brings to the table some of the best basslines in the band's history. Like all things Earth, the tracks unfold at a truly glacial pace -- Carson's internal clock must be moving at a quarter the speed of anyone else's -- but that just allows you more time to absorb all the nuances of his guitar sound and to let those heavily-reverbed guitar tones reverberate and die away. Those who got behind the first installment of this release will find this equally rewarding.

Earth
Southern Lord

Envelope and Jacoti Sommes -- THIS COULD GO EITHER WAY 12" [Palais du Pomeroi Recordings]

There's an interesting connection to Columbus Discount Records here, but I'm not going to tell you about it -- instead, I'm going to direct you to the hilarious and highly entertaining Envelope website (see below) to find out for yourself. This eccentric rap album (yes, it's a rap album, deal with it) is the product of Tony Envelope (who provides the MC action and overall aesthetic) and Jacoti Sommes (of Hugs 'n Kisses), who provides the beats and musical direction. Tony's third album has a distinctly DIY / bootleg look, with the graphics and titles screen-printed directly onto a plain white jacket, and the laid-back jams that populate the album are rap's answer to the lo-fi punk sensibility pervasive through the Columbus Discount Records catalog -- simple but catchy, anchored by fat beats and occasional minimalist keyboard action, and dominated by raps that range from the amusing ("I Wanna New Satan," "Drink My Drugs") to the apocalyptic ("We're All Gonna Die Together"). This is street-level hip-hop, not the blasé and overproduced stuff being vomited out by TV and radio, with a raw and straightforward attack that's as refreshing as it is stripped-down. Bizarre? Sure. Compelling? That too. Available through iTunes, for you poor bastards without turntables.

Envelope

Gnaw Their Tongues -- PER FLAGELLUM SANGUEMQUE, TENEBRAS VENERAMUS [Crucial Blast]

I have to say, right up front, that I really like the packaging for this release, which -- like all of the band's albums -- manages to combine blasphemy, perversion, pornography, and other taboo subjects into a gestalt that's far more unsettling than similar attempts by other metal bands. The artwork for this album features a robed Baphomet and several masked priestesses in various states of undress. Given that the album's title roughly translates to "with blood and whip, we worship the dark," the artwork's themes are certainly appropriate. The band's earlier work established a propensity for combined bleak elements of black metal and noise with classical instruments and an operatic grandiosity that would be almost funny if the sound and general aesthetic weren't so explicitly terrifying. That hasn't changed with this release, although the drums and percussion are far more upfront this time around, with plenty of tympani action (which produces a doomed-out sound more bands should investigate, really) and the integration of the band's wildly disparate elements have grown increasingly more sophisticated. The eight tracks flow into each other, depicting a sordid underworld of perverse black rituals and violent death, with a black and tortured sound that could best be described as chaos by design. A large part of the band's power derives from their ability to juxtapose sounds rooted in noise, black metal, and industrial with passages of music obviously derived more from the worlds of opera and classical music, which gives them far more depth and variety than most bands working in the same pained, murky sonic territory. With titles like "Human Skin for the Messengers Robe," Urine-Soaked Neophytes," and "Bonedust on Dead Genitals," you might expect the album to sound dark and bleak, and you would be right, but there are also moments of surprisingly melodic and harmonic beauty, especially in the use of massed choral vocals from time to time. Of course, these moments are offset by the depraved and often unsettling sounds of tormented people wailing in the background when the sheer volume of the sound dies away periodically, leaving the disturbing impression of the album as a soundtrack to the violence and suffering in hell. The result is yet another bleak and harrowing masterpiece of sonic true, ambitious in scope and unrelenting in execution -- essential listening for those who like to travel through the tainted landscapes that lie in the worlds between black metal and noise.

Gnaw Their Tongues
Crucial Blast

Haemoth -- IN NOMINE ODIUM [Debemur Morti Productions]

Ugly, ugly, ugly… just the way vile black metal should be. The French duo of Haemoth (guitar, bass, vox) and Syth (drums) returns after a seven-year absence with seven caustic tracks of hate and fear designed to upset people (and judging from the reaction to "Slaying the Blind," they have been successful in their mission). The core sound is pure black metal primitivism -- scything, treble-heavy tremelo guitar and muddy drums buried in the mix, with atmospheric touches here and there in the form of samples, bleak drone action, and vague clanking noises from the dungeons of despair. There's nothing wholesome here, just an ominous opener ("Odium") that presages the violent attack of tracks like "Slaying the Blind" and the even more furious "Demonik Omniscience." Even when they slow down for "Spiritual Pestilence," the paint-peeling guitar sound is so ugly that the melodies appear more as fragments of bone being patiently shaved from some tortured soul's skull. They get downright creepy in the introduction to "Son of the Black Light," with slow, dissonant intervals that are abruptly replaced by more devil-thrashing madness, and their entire viewpoint is neatly summed up in the closing track "… And Then Came the Decease," a lengthy and pounding exercise in hypnotic repetition and sensory overload. This is the real spirit of black metal, with an occult theology married to a bleak and misanthropic outlook invoked through compound layers of sheer, hellish sonic nihilism. Your soul will need a long, hot bath after listening to this.

Haemoth
Debemur Morti

Hypsiphrone -- AND THE VOID SHALL PIERCE THEIR EYES [Black Plague / Malignant Records]

This offering of chaotic malevolence, the debut release by a one-man band from Greece, follows in the footsteps of bands like Abruptum and Gnaw Their Tongues, but it does so by way of the cold industrial vibe of the early Cold Meat Industries bands. There's a lot happening here -- ghastly shrieking, walls of noise, stretches of cold dark ambient sound, electronic buzzing, massed choral vocals, and pretty much everything including the kitchen sink -- but it's generally employed in a manner more closely related to the aforementioned industrial-noise sound pioneered by the likes of Brighter Death Now and MZ.412 than to black metal. True, there are elements of black metal in tracks like "Bleak Old Shadows," but more often the feel of the album (especially in the dark ambient passages) is closer to that of the first Aghast album on CMI, one of the creepiest-sounding albums ever made -- in fact, creepiness is the major weapon in the band's sonic arsenal, given the high levels of dissonance and alienated ugliness pervading the sound on these tracks. Unlike a lot of other bands working in similar circumstances, Hypsiphrone doesn't need volume or enormous layers of sound to evoke an atmosphere of sheer dread; even when the music is at its most minimal, it's still incredibly nightmarish, like the work of someone who has never seen sunlight or other human beings. The otherworldly feel is only enhanced by the contributions of female singer Vitriol, who appears (to great effect) on "An Epiphany Written In Blood" and also contributed the grim, unsettling artwork. The percussion that shows up from time to time, especially in "Resurgence Of Mors Sexualis," is very much of the intense, plodding tribal variety, and is just more evidence of the band's industrial roots. When the music isn't fearsome and pounding, it's closer to a dark-ambient album recorded in a subterranean grotto; when the layers of sound grow heavier and more intense, it's more like the sound of demons multiplying inside a collapsing cathedral. Dark and heavy, far closer to a classic CMI release than anything happening in the current state of anti-music, and supremely spooky, this has all the earmarks of a classic debut that will only gain in stature over the coming years. Essential. Comes in a swank digipak and is limited to 500 copies, so glom yours now.

Hypsiphrone
Malignant Records

Locrian -- THE CLEARING 12" [Fan Death Records]

The fourth full-length album from Chicago noise / drone / metal deconstructionists Locrian, itself the follow-up to 2010's Utech release THE CRYSTAL WORLD, has been receiving a lot of good press over the past few months, and with good reason. As their sound -- originally rooted mainly in noise and drone -- has mutated and evolved over subsequent releases into something far more complex and difficult to define, their musical standards have risen in concert with their musical development. Never a band content to merely churn out the same material over and over, their experiments in noise, drone, black metal, and dark ambient crystalized in a powerful and exotic sound on THE CRYSTAL WORLD, and continues to evolve forward on this one as well. The album opens with "Chalk Point," an unsettling collage of seething dark ambient sounds, intermittent bursts of percussion, and otherworldly spaciness that eventually resolves into an actual song driven by the atmospheric drizzle of a faraway black metal guitar, slow and deliberate percussion, and droning vocals just one step removed from the sound and cadence of a Gregorian chant. Their proggy leanings emerge on "Augury in an Evaporating Tower," which is introduced by twisted synth bleating and other perverse sonic effluvia over more dark drone action; as these sounds work to establish a certain mood, blackened metal drums fade in along with more layers of dark ambient sounds, all of which eventually devolves into something resembling a dissolving free jazz jam session. "Coprolite" opens with a sick, sick squall of trashy-sounding black metal noise guitar that crawls along like a dead body wrapped in barbed wire being dragged through a dark field in the middle of the night, but when a stately piano figure and strings emerge, the starkly contrasting sounds provide not only a unusual texture, but an unsettling cognitive dissonance. And that's just the first side of the album; the flip side of the album is taken up entirely by the seventeen-plus minutes of the title track, which ties together all of their aesthetic and thematic concerns into one long, flowing composition built on the backbone of a hypnotic, pinging bassline over which other elements are gradually added and subtracted. The resulting sound is that of black metal infused with serious prog-rock and avant moves, a sound that owes as much to Yes, LaMonte Young, and Throbbing Gristle as it does to Burzum or Whitehouse. As usual, the overall album is excellent; the band's increasingly advanced compositional skill and ability to integrate a wide variety of tones, textures, and instruments means that their sound continues to only get better and more complex as it evolves. Bonus points for the excellent album cover art, which not looks impressively creepy without resorting to the usual metal / noise cliches but also accurately captures the band's entire aesthetic. The LP comes with a download card for those of you who like to be entranced on the go.

Locrian
Fan Death Records

Monarch -- OMENS [At A Loss]

The latest offering of exquisitely slo-mo blood and death from France's answer to Khanate raises, one more time, the eternal question: how the hell does such a scary, psychotic-sounding voice emerge from such a tiny li'l waif? The band opens in fine, menacing fashion with "Blood Seeress," just under thirteen minutes of growling, subterranean amp drone, ominous drums (courtesy of newcomer Rob Shaffer of Dark Castle and Yob), and lots of blood-curdling shrieking from vocalist Emilie Bresson, who consistently sounds like she's being flayed alive with a rusty potato peeler. While retaining the draining simplicity and minimalism of their earlier work, this track manages to work in a psychedelic element thanks to a guitar sound that appears to be fed through a rotating Leslie cabinet and plenty of ethereal drones wafting cloudlike over all the groaning death rattle before ending in a ghostly wail of droning harmonic feedback. "Transylvanian Incantations," possibly their shortest song ever at 3:45, dials back the doom in favor of dark ambient drone to haunting effect. That short track acts as a bridge between the first one and the final one, "Black Becomes the Sun," in which Emilie initially abandons the hellish screaming for a wispy, high-pitched vocalizing that could have been lifted from a Cocteau Twins album as the rhythm section plods along over another barrage of subsonic bass drone. Around the eight-minute mark, though, the song fades away into a passage of drumming like free jazz in slow motion and lurches into a darker and noisier sound that eventually sees Emilie resume her pained shrieking.

This is not only one of the best-sounding things they've done, but it's a step forward for the band, with a different feel than earlier albums and an obvious determination to move beyond just being slow for the sake of slowness. Without descending into prog-rock overdub hell, the band manages to add some much-appreciated detail and color to their aggressively stark sound. The cohesiveness of the album's sound is interesting given that the album was recorded in four different countries (Japan, Australia, Canada, and the US), although that was probably to accommodate the contributions of the various guest musicians (Atsuchi Sano of Birushanah, Yailen Munoz of Ensorcelor, Eric Quach of Thisquietarmy, Jeanne Peluard of The Sparteens, and former Grey Daturas / Monarch guitarist Robert MacManus). If you're not already familiar with the band's grotesque and mystical charm, now is the time to make their acquaintance. Limited to a thousand copies in a six-panel digipak.

Monarch
At A Loss

Nails / Skin Like Iron -- split EP [self-released]

This split EP is really closer to a single, with four tracks clocking in at just under ten minutes, but it's certainly a potent blast of fury that doesn't waste any time cleaving your skull in two. Opening with two heavy but melodic bursts of thrashing hardcore from San Francisco's Skin Like Iron, "Disappear" and "The Parade," the first side demonstrates that band's capacity for mixing noisy chaos with moments of surprisingly accessible melodicism, while on the flip side, Nails substitutes the melody with excruciating heaviness on "Annihilation" and the exquisitely brief (as in 25 seconds) "Cry Wolf," an extremely fast and pummeling roar of dissonant rage that's already over by the time it starts to hang fire. Heavy and energetic; fans of chaotic hardcore bordering on extreme metal will enjoy. The release comes in a one-time pressing of a thousand copies, with a hundred of them on blue vinyl.

Skin Like Iron
Nails

Nervous Curtains -- FAKE INFINITY [Latest Flame Records]

I'm not sure if this qualifies as retro or not -- there's no question they're taking most of their moves from 80s goth / new wave heavyweights like Gary Numan, The Cure, Joy Division, and Human League, and they take their synth-worship seriously enough to eschew the notion of guitarists, but for all the reaching back across the years, they sound surprisingly modern. (How much that says about how much modern rock music owes to the music of previous decades is an interesting question in its own right.) The second album by the trio led by former Paper Chase player Sean Kirkpatrick (here in charge of vox, piano, and synths) finds them offering up catchy pop tunes driven by buzzing synths and droning organ that combine the aforementioned 80s goth / synth pop aesthetic with a more modern postpunk aura of edgy, droning creepiness. The songs themselves strike a nice balance between the immediately-accessible, insanely catchy tunes like "Moody Photos," "Wired to Make Waves," and "Cats in the Dark" and the darker, slower, and more introspective tracks like "Come Around Viral," "Something Sinister," and the gorgeous yet bleak closing statement "Letter of Resignation." Their sound is enhanced by the smart decision not to get carried away with the limitless possibilities inherent to lugging around piles of synth gear; rather than piling on layers of synthetic sound and descending into a parody of Yes or something similar, they aim more for the Buzzcocks / Kraftwerk model of using as little as possible but using it well. The result is sparse, to-the-point songs differentiated by the careful tweaking of tones and pop structures that give the band just enough time and room to say what they have to say and then get the hell out. It's nice to see a band with such thoughtful songs and engaging sounds that also knows how to avoid overstaying its welcome.

Nervous Curtains
Latest Flame Records

Poison Idea -- DARBY CRASH RIDES AGAIN: THE EARLY YEARS [Southern Lord]

My knowledge of Poison Idea is mostly limited to the fact that a couple of its members played on the eternally brilliant S.W.A.T.: DEEP INSIDE A COP'S MIND album, they released an album with a rude cover that made Ian MacKaye sad, and they were such hefty dudes that they apparently had a four-man lineup at one point that clocked in around 1,200 pounds. Oh, and their main guitarist Pig Champion croaked a while ago. This is what I know; not much, is it? But now, thanks to Southern Lord, I also know that they are reissuing the band's back catalog (technically, they are releasing cd versions of vinyl reissues coming out on TKO Records), all of which is being remastered by World Burns To Death vocalist Jack Control. The reissues will also contain new liner notes and photos, plus previously unreleased bonus material. This is the first of those reissues, with 29 tracks that include the material from the original album plus the previously unreleased BONER'S KITCHEN demo from 1981, a live recording from the 1983 KBOO radio benefit, and outtakes from the sessions for RECORD COLLECTORS ARE PRETENTIOUS ASSHOLES.

First up are the six tracks from the 1981 demo, a crude-sounding an straightforward affair that's as succinct as it is ugly. The next ten tracks, which are pretty much equal in sound quality (and were probably recorded at the same time), are fro the original DCRA 7" EP; as you might expect from having ten tracks on such a tiny piece of vinyl, the songs are short and speedy, and while the sound quality is not exactly hi-fi, you can tell what's going on and they are stuffed like spoiled sausages with vitriolic attitude. The next eleven tracks are from the KBOO radio benefit, and while the recording quality is much better, the band's live sound is so loud and blown-out that you'll be hard-pressed to notice the difference. (You also get the benefit of singer Jerry A's rude, often profane asides, which may or may not be a plus, depending on your allegiance to snottiness.) The final two tracks, "Town Hall" and the cover tune "Motorhead," are recording session outtakes and sound better than everything else here. Playing-wise, it's all pretty consistent -- fast, thunderous drumming and rhythm guitar joined with tornado lead playing and lots of pissed-off shouting -- and while I'm no huge fan of hardcore, it's not hard to see how the band earned its reputation as one of hardcore's best bands. Hardcore historians and Poison Idea fans will find this useful mainly for the remastering and expanded liner notes; for those not already familiar with Poison Idea who want to get a sense of the band's early sound, this will make an excellent introduction.

Poison Idea
Southern Lord

Rex Mundi -- IHVH [Debemur Morti Productions]

Not to be confused with the Greek thrash band, this French band makes its debut with an album that's heavy on occult mysticism and an identity rooted in lo-fi, moderately progressive melodic black metal. The band's sound is rounded out by segues into dark ambient territory, the sound of monks chanting in Latin, and startling shifts in sound. While their sound is potent, they are nowhere near as diabolically abrasive as many of their country's counterparts, and while their riffs are not terribly complicated, their song structures are -- each of the seven tracks is composed of movements that differ significantly in tone and texture, and their tendency to shift gears without warning at unpredictable intervals gives them a sound rooted in tension and uncertainty. They even incorporate elements of death metal into the stop-start motion of "The Flesh Begat" and "Raising My Temples," as well as an almost industrial feel to their shuddering dark ambient into to "Bloodline Imagery," so they are obviously not slaves to tradition; nevertheless, their dark, murky sound is unquestionably black metal in nature, albeit one devoted to occult ritualism. Their imaginative reinterpretation of traditional black metal, combined with their mystical occult leanings, should hold enormous appeal for those into the more fringe elements of black metal.

Rex Mundi
Debemur Morti

Rue -- THORNS [Shifty]

Akron, Ohio's sludge demons Rue don't get much love (or attention, for that matter), although that may be largely due to the paucity of their output; since forming in 2003, they've managed to put out exactly one (that's one less than two, for those not so mathematically inclined) full-length album, a split with Aldebaran, and a track on an Eyehategod tribute. Given that this is their first release at all in over three years, even diligent metal devotees could be excused for thinking they had split up. But they haven't, and here they are with their first full-length release in many, many moons, and it's a good one; they obviously spent those lost years putting their time to good use. What you get for patiently waiting this long are twelve tracks of prime, red-meat sludge in the vein of Sloth, Hey Colossus, Eyehategod, and Sourvien, with the prime difference being that the dudes from Rue are not afraid to mix some melodic content into their groaning angst, especially on tracks like the opener "Brown" (which features acoustic guitar) and "For Thousands of Years," which includes melodic guitar passages and some actual tuneful singing along with the obligatory harsh barking. They have more of a psychedelic bent, too -- as evidenced on the tripped-out wah guitar lurching through "Sadaver" -- and considerably more variety to their songs than most sludge bands, with varying tempos and methods of sonic attack throughout the album. Especially impressive is their ability to make their sludgy doom sound accessible on tracks like "High Iron Blues" without abandoning their commitment to hopeless despair. Sludge fans tired of the constant beatdown, or those desiring a bit more accesibilityt to their suicidal angst, should definitely check this out.

Rue
Shifty Records

Sektor 304 -- SUBLIMINAL ACTIONS [Malignant Records]

The simplistic buzz on this seething industrial band is that they're Portugal's answer to Godflesh, but there's way more to them than that -- their infernal machine noise incorporates elements reminiscent of early Einstuerzende Neubauten, Treponem Pal, MZ.412, Dissecting Table, SPK, and maybe even Whitehouse. Working with traditional electric instruments as well as junk metal, power tools, and amplified objects, they open with a pounding, corrosive blast of noise on "A Carving On Metal Skin" and turn up the angst factor with booming, pounding tribal percussion and a kitchen-sink sound on "A Vessel of Guilt," which reminds me a lot of the first album by the tragically underrated Treponem Pal (whose early sound was essentially Swans with a more restless rhythm section and an angrier singer). Even on slower tracks like "Full Circle," their command of ugly noises (in this case, whining feedback) and slave-galley machine rhythms creates a genuinely oppressive vibe. Even better, the tracks frequently start off heavy and sinister and somehow grow even darker and more soul-crushing over time, no mean feat. The best part of their rhythmic assault is the extensive use of polyrhythms, which adds yet another layer of complexity to their dank, ominous sound. Then there are tracks like "Friction," which is closer to dark ambient, far more muted yet propelled by wavelike rhythms and irregular clanking noises -- the sound of bodies floating down a dark river in some underground dungeon, perhaps. The lengthy "Terminal Stage" is even closer to true dark ambient, a throwback to the isolationist movement even, and "Concrete Islands" deals out the same kind of heavy evil that makes MZ.412 albums sound so terrifying. The album ends with "The Prismatic Sun," a long and methodical descent into hell that only reinforces how focused their primitive atavism has become since their last album. Scary, scary stuff, and highly recommended.

Sektor 304
Malignant Records

Stone Breath -- THE AETHERIC LAMP [Hand/Eye]

This is a great album by a fantastic yet mysterious band that's been around off and on since 1995 in various lineups, but trying to describe it is causing me to pull out my hair. They get lumped in with the neofolk movement, which might actually be relevant in the case of some of their earlier recordings, but this one is a straight-up folk album employing only acoustic instruments and voice. Not sixties protest folk music, mind you, but the folk music of the Appalachian mountains and wild country, music that's both ancient and timeless, far removed from what passes for modern music and yet eternally accessible. The band at this point is founder and mainstay timeMOTHeye (playing such rustic instruments as banjo, wood flute, melodica, and stick dulcimer, among many others), vocalists Brooke Elizabeth (who also contributes percussion) and Carin Wagner Sloan, and guitarist / dronemeister Don Belch. Together they play music of another time that appears simple on first listen, but gradually reveals itself to be composed of many layers of sound and melody, especially on the droning "Terrible and Beautiful," which is anchored by slow, simple beats and an endless drone over which folk rhythms and snippets of melody burst forth from a wide variety of instruments. It's also interesting to note that while the songs are definitely unified in sound and theme, there's plenty of variety to them as well, especially in the vocals; sometimes there's one singer, sometimes two, and while most feature the lovely, haunting vocals of Elizabeth or Sloan, others (especially the more apocalyptic tracks like "The Sky's Red Tongue") feature timeMOTHeye's mournful vocals. Great songs + great sounds from another time + visions of the apocalypse = an album well worth hearing. The fearless leader's eerie illustrations and the triple-panel digipak design only add to the overall package. The fact that I've been playing this on repeat endlessly despite needing to do about a million other reviews should tell you something….

Stone Breath
Hand/Eye

Sunn O))) -- 00 VOID (reissue) [Southern Lord]

I reviewed this when it first came out about a million years ago -- check the archives if you don't believe me -- and as I recall, I was pretty impressed at the time with the band's lurching, bass-heavy, dark ambient deathcrush, not to mention their obvious Earth worship. This, their second album, was originally released in 2000, with a lineup consisting of Greg Anderson (Goatsnake), Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, KTL, way too many other bands), and Stuart Dahlquist (Burning Witch, Goatsnake), along with the odd contribution from Pete Stahl and Petra Haden on vocals. The reissue includes new artwork by Stephen Kasner (with layout by O'Malley). Despite the leadership of guitarists Anderson and O'Malley, the main attraction here is still Dahlquist's ass-quaking bass hell, a huge and fuzzy sound with the impact of tectonic plates shifting; everything else -- squiggly vapor lines from the guitars, the occasional screechy violin from Haden, disembodied vocals that float up every now and then -- is merely nuance and garnish, all of it sucked into the cyclopean black hole of sound that is the droning, downtuned bass throb. Turn it up loud enough and that bass sound is sufficient to make cement blocks levitate. For those who haven't heard it, the four songs are long (14-15 minutes each), largely percussion-free (there's something clanking away in the background toward the end of "Richard," sure, but it's probably not drums), and heavily indebted to the pioneering drone-guitar fuzziness of Earth circa that band's second album. Despite the band's metal pedigree, this is really closer to a heavy dark-ambient album than anything else, and while it might sound dated to some now and ponderously simple in comparison to many of the drone-doom bands that have sprouted in its way, it's still pretty effective in generating heavy doses of droning, bass-heavy angst. This is the one that contains a Melvins cover ("Rabbits' Revenge") so slow and devolved that even Melvins fans will probably find it unrecognizable, along with a general sound that might make some wonder if the master tapes were recorded at the wrong speed. If you're going to own a Sunn O))) album (and it seems to be a requirement these days), this should probably be the one, especially now that you can find a copy of it again.

Sunn O)))
Southern Lord

Wold -- BADB [Crucial Blast]

I was amused recently to see this album mentioned on the Metal Sucks site, where one of the Chief Suckheads was waxing apoplectic about how he didn't understand the album at all and thought it was basically unlistenable. Which, if you're strictly into metal and don't care for noise, I guess it is, but that's the entire point (a point he obviously missed). For the uninitiated, Wold is the disturbed Canadian duo of Fortress Crookedjaw (electronics, guitars, programming, box) and Obey (guitars), who are generally categorized as a fringe black metal act but who are actually closer to noise in practice, thus resulting in much confusion from metalheads who glom their albums from labels like Profound Lore and find them filled not with burly riffs but screechy noise and devolved earhate. They get the black metal tag from their pained, horrific vocals, a sound not unlike Gollum being anally probed with a taser, and their thin, treble-heavy guitar sound… but then they bury all that in steaming piles of noise offal and static dung. It's an aesthetic that works for me, but probably not so much for people who are more accustomed to listening to Steel Panther and Lamb of God.

The most interesting thing about this release is that while the concept of mixing black metal with noise is starting to hang fire nowadays, this album is actually the reissue of their second demo from way back in 2004, originally released in a cassette run of 100 copies, which proves they were way ahead of the curve. It also demonstrates that they really understood what they were doing from the word go, because this is an excellent work that combines the best elements of primitive, lo-fi black metal and harsh, ugly white noise in a manner that's almost psychedelic (although I wouldn't recommend dropping acid to this). The album is a conceptual work that is essentially a series of grotesque hymns to the war goddess, and its sound is appropriately blackened and apocalyptic. The vocals are in the same realm as the tortured, psychopathic wailing of the bent dude from Silencer, while the fizzed-out black metal guitar screech owes much to early Mayhem (only with gnarlier fuzz boxes) and the noise quotient is heavily patterned after the seminal sounds of Whitehouse and Merzbow. So yeah, it's probably an endurance test for your average metal dude. But if you're prepared to approach it with an open mind (or, better yet, already appreciate the joys of piling on different forms of ugliness to create a new and even more form of audio perversion), there's plenty of interesting things happening here -- surprisingly melodic guitar riffs buried in the monolithic wreckage, varied approaches to the brick-wall noise attack, peculiar electronic elements, all encapsulated in a sheer will to obliterate your hearing (and probably most of your face). It's not long -- nine tracks in just under thirty minutes -- but that's more than enough time to suck you into their diabolical (and intensely painful) worldview. Wold are genuinely one of the best bands ever to weld these two foams of extreme audio sickness together, and this is one of their best releases.

Wold
Crucial Blast

ten ninjas wish you a happy holiday season.

2011-12-23T20:19:00.001-05:00

TOTDA is taking a break this month for the holidays and will return in January with many, many, many more reviews of swell, swell, swell listenables. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday in the meantime!

no turkeys were harmed in the making of this post.

2011-11-27T04:09:00.000-05:00

A Death Cinematic / Great Falls -- split cdr [Dead Accents]

Like manna from drone / noise heaven, this three-track split release (featuring two tracks by A Death Cinematic and one by Great Falls) arrives bearing mysterious offerings to the agents of the random. The first track from ADC, "swimming in fires, where oceans touch the sky," is fifteen minutes of heavily distorted single-note guitar lines swimming in an ocean of spring-reverb drones and warbling sounds that build into dense layers of abstract sound laden with harsh noise and amp hum. By the time the track is halfway through, the crunchy guitar texture has turned into something bordering on sheer noise and even the drones have taken on a darker tone, and by the end of the track, the shredded-amp guitar sound has become an overwhelming force of chaos. The second track, "locust clouds have taken to the horizon," opens with sweeping bands of screeching noise, a sound that gradually morphs into the audio equivalent of a writhing nest of snakes as atonal lines of feedback wind around a hypnotic rhythm. The noise eventually turns into a more sedate, if somewhat ominous, guitar pattern and assorted squeaking, but while the tonal palette changes, the rhythmic movement doesn't. The themes of noise and chaos continue in the Great Falls track, "Mac Arthur Lineman, Wichita Park," along with a healthy dose of dark drone and dissonance. Like the previous tracks, it builds in intensity, although this one starts out intense and grows steadily darker and bleaker, like a black hole opening inexorably wider and sucking a disintegrating world into its soul-crushing gravitational center. If you like your drone action dark, noisy, and supremely ominous, this is for you. Limited to 127 copies, the disc comes in a cd wallet-pack with amazing art and design by Simple Box Construction.

A Death Cinematic
Great Falls
Dead Accents

Atrum Inritus -- PROGNATUS IN VORAGO [Altar of the Dead]

It's kind of surprising to find a black metal band from Minneapolis; it's amazing to discover they sound like they were born and raised in Norway. They favor the same bleak, frostbitten guitar sound pioneered by the likes of Emperor and Burzum (in fact, they cover Emperor's "Ancient Queen" on an unlisted bonus track) and employ the same mid-tempo feel of Burzum's bleakest offerings ("Dunkelheit" is a good reference point here). At their busier moments, especially when the sound grows thick and dense, they sometimes bear a passing resemblance to Wolves in the Throne Room, but mostly this release is very much in the spirit of the first wave of Norwegian black metal, which is a good thing (as far as I'm concerned, anyway). The material isn't necessarily revelatory in the way those first Norwegian black metal albums were, and some might complain about the fact that the drums frequently sound buried under the crushing guitar ugliness, but this is a pretty faithful representation of the "true" black metal sound, with good songs, excellent playing, and a grim atmosphere rarely achieved with such gruesome vitality on modern albums. This is one of the better black metal albums I've heard in a while, and well worth investigating.

Atrum Inritus
Altar of the Dead

BoxDeserter -- TWO REVOLUTIONS [Edgetone Records]

The two lengthy tracks (one 36 minutes, the other 42) on this disc were recorded live in Detroit at the Bohemian National Home, and even for an Edgetone release it's pretty out there, combining some of the more eccentric-sounding players of the American avant-jazz scene (including Thollem McDonas on piano and conduction, Hasan Abdur-Razzaq on reeds, and Joel Peterson on double bass) with political ideals (the performance includes a recitation by Brad Duncan of the history of colonization in Africa). The ensemble in question consists of seven players -- in addition to the aforementioned members, there's also Michael Carey (reeds), Marko Novachoff (reeds), Kurst Prisbe (drums), and Steven Baker (Laotian mouth organ) -- and the predominance of reed instruments results in a sound that's heavily weighted in favor of bleating and skronking; while there are moments of active percussion, those moments are relatively rare, and the same is true of the piano. Interestingly, given the political nature of the pieces, the playing is relatively restrained most of the time; despite the disjointed nature of the avant sounds, this is mostly sedate in temperament. When the violent moments come, though, they come with serious intensity, culminating in a wild cacophony of textured sounds. The second piece has movements that are so restrained and minimal that almost nothing is happening for lengthy stretches, but there are also times when the action ramps up considerably, not to mention a few places where the contrabass gets some extended play time. McDonas is also far more prominent this time around, whipping his piano into a frenzied state of excitement at times, bridging the more explosive moments with vaguely melodic runs at others. The reeds make an impressive return about halfway through, and the rest of the piece resumes a more chaotic and unpredictable feel that eventually returns to a more sedate passage before ending in a frantic burst of energy. Not a bad outing at all.

BoxDeserter
Edgetone Records

Dark Forest -- DAWN OF INFINITY [Cruz de Sur Music]

This is the kind of thing Iron Maiden used to do, back before they turned into a bunch of old men -- fast, frantic, melodic metal with big ideas and plenty of bombast. It's kind of interesting that they're from Birmingham, a part of the UK generally more known for spawning much heavier, darker bands like Black Sabbath and Godflesh; given where they're from, though, it's hardly surprising that they sound decidedly English. There's a faint Celtic feel to some of the rhythms, but the songs themselves are straight out of the progressive section of late-80s NWOBHM playbook, especially where the ornate song movements and elaborate solos are concerned. The singer's banshee wail gets a tad overbearing for my tastes at times, but he's at least tuneful and very much in sync with the band's grandiose vision. The band can play, too; this kind of absurdly ambitious sound really only works with bands with exceptional chops, and the band does not disappoint on that front. They also get bonus points for "The Stars My Destination" -- any band hep to the brilliance of Alfred Bester is all right by me. They're also remarkably consistent over the course of ten songs, which means that if you're down with this style of metal -- and especially if you have a deep fondness for Iron Maiden circa POWERSLAVE -- then you'll find the entire album excellent.

Dark Forest
Cruz Del Sur Music

Eloine and Sabrina Siegel -- NATURE'S RECOMPOSITION 33 [Eh?]

You know you're listening to an Eh? release when you're five minutes into the disc and you have no idea what the hell is going on, and this eccentric duet between Bryan Day and Sabrina Siegel is no exception. Over the nearly 45 minutes of the single title track, Day manipulates a variety of homemade instruments while Siegel doodles in abstract fashion with electric guitar, electric bass, and voice; of course, even the traditional instruments are employed in extremely unorthodox ways, and while the tactile sounds emanating from the speakers are not as totally random as they might seem on first listen, they're certainly not linear or confined to any kind of easily recognizable structure. What the performance (or more accurately, performances -- the material was recorded in Lincoln, NE in 2009 and 2010, then I would assume the pieces were edited together) lacks in order, though, it makes up for with a steady pulse of energy that continues unabated throughout the piece. Bonus points for the swell abstract cover art, courtesy of Siegel.

Eloine
Sabrina Siegel
Eh?

Hag -- MOIST AREAS [Eh?]

This trio operates with standard instruments -- trumpet, bass, and snare drum -- but they sure don't do standard things. They're big on dissonance and their musical offerings are couched in largely atonal bursts of sound broken up by the rumbling and puttering of the individual instruments being shaken and beaten to disgorge new dimensions of the shape of sound. At times they start off in a subtle, unassuming fashion, but it doesn't take long before they whip themselves into a chaotic frenzy of throbbing improv action bordering on noise. Still, there's an interesting texture to their bleating hell tones, and a number of divergent strategies that result in a reasonable amount of variety between the seven tracks. More to the point, they mesh together well as a unit, with a clear unity of vision that translates to a recognizable sound, one that remains consistent despite their different approaches from one track to the next. The trumpet -- bleating, whining, frequently sounding like a horn of the devil -- is the most dominant instrument here, although it's the percussion that provides the most intense moments and the smothering bass sound that provides the atmosphere. Strange and deranged, but possessed of a certain purpose, no matter how alien, that makes it all the more compelling to hear.

Hag
Eh?

Hull -- BEYOND THE LIGHTLESS SKY [The End]

Heavy, heavy stuff, and apparently a concept album, too; a big, bold move for a bunch of guys from Brooklyn. Theoretically the album is a series of songs about the journey of two brothers in the Mayan era taking very different paths to their inevitable destiny, but since I have no idea what the vocalist is yowling about, we'll have to take that on faith. Certainly the songs are ambitious enough; while the opening "Earth From Water" is all heaviness and violence emboldened by an unusual guitar sound that's not quite ugly and dissonant enough to be noise but is still a far cry from any conventional metal guitar sound, it's followed by "Just a Trace of Early Dawn," a gorgeous neo-folk acoustic epic leavened with spiky bursts of bumblebee solo guitar action. Then there's "Curling Winds," which neatly marries the aforementioned neo-folk sound to a guitar riff that's half prog, half blues, accompanied by ringing harmonics, and "Wake the Heavens, Reveal the Sun" is a loping exercise in ominous, building sound that recalls late-period Swans. (Speaking of which, Jarboe is on this album somewhere -- possibly doing the creepy vocal intro to said song, in fact, although it's hard to tell, given her talent for sounding like almost anything, as long as it's creepy.) More of that strange guitar sound turns up in "A Light That Shone From Aside the Sea," where the neo-folk moves segue into something considerably heavier without turning totally brutal, finally ending in a swirling death spiral of psychotronic guitar noise. The rest of the tracks are more in line with the Mastodon version of prog-metal: heavy and dense with cryptic riffs, weird time signatures, and ambitious without succumbing to sheer pretentiousness. And heavy. Very heavy. So far the band's batting a thousand in the quality department; it should be interesting to see if they can keep it up.

Hull
The End

Illdisposed -- THERE IS LIGHT (BUT IT'S NOT FOR ME) [Massacre Records]

Denmark's Illdisposed have been around forever -- twenty years now, in fact -- so they have a legitimate right to sound like old-school death metal. True, somewhere down the line they started incorporating synths into their sound, and the results (on this album, at least) are mixed; it's very strange to hear tinkling techno keyboard lines burbling away along with the mandatory heavy-as-lead guitars. Not awful, precisely, but definitely… different. Aside from that, which is actually not such a big deal since the keyboards are only prominent on a few songs, this is a collection of standard-issue death / thrash tunes -- nothing particularly earth-shaking or revelatory, but still definitely the sound of old-school death metal done right. (Well, at least when they aren't indulging in distracting techno-frippery anyway.) True, the "revenge" chant and spoken-word bent at the beginning of "Rape" sounds an awful lot like an attempt at borrowing from White Zombie, with results that are more silly than scary, but the song itself is at least reasonably intense, even with keyboards (those damn keyboards!) present. 80s death metal traditionalists will like this, but those less enamored of keyboards in their metal will want to proceed with caution.

AIlldisposed
Massacre Records

Iron Lamb -- THE ORIGINAL SIN [Pulverised]

The Swedish quartet (including Daniel Ekeroth, author of SWEDISH DEATH METAL) have been in a whole bunch of bands, including General Surgery, Repugnant, Dismember, and Tyrant, so they have a solid pedigree in heaviness, but one thing is obvious more than anything else: they all really like Motorhead. (In fact, they do a passable cover of that band's early classic "Poison." No, it isn't as good as the original -- it is categorically impossible to improve on Motorhead -- but it's passable enough as Motorhead covers go.) They certainly share Motorhead's fondness for overwhelming rock and roll as expressed with furious, stinging guitars and super-heavy drumming, and while the singer's sneering delivery doesn't quite match Lemmy's instantly recognizable growl, it conveys plenty of the attitude necessary to propel such revved-up tunes. Titles like "Suicide!," "I Don't Want To Be Like You" (where it becomes clear that they've spent quite a bit of time spinning the first Sex Pistols record), and "I Don't LIke You" indicate an admirably healthy attitude problem as well, always a plus with this kind of punk-influenced metal. I'm not sure exactly how necessary this is in the grand scheme of things, seeing as how they're basically reinventing the wheel perfected by Motorhead and the Sex Pistols, but at least they're doing it right.

Iron Lamb
Pulverised

KBD(uo) -- ANY PORT IN A STORM [Eh?]

It takes a certain level of perversity to release a six-track album with no mention of the actual track titles -- some might say that's taking the concept of mystery a bit too far. Nevertheless, the tracks (which I'll helpfully give my own titles just because I feel like it) are interesting exercises in noise, drone, and feedback created by the duo of Michael Kimaid (percussion, electronics) and Gabe Beam (guitar, electronics). The first track, which we'll call "Sometimes at Four in the Morning When I Can't Sleep Because I Smoked Too Many Cigarettes I Fantasize About Nadine Jansen In Her Maidenform Bra," features draining sheets of feedback and bursts of crunchy, scrunchy noise that are occasionally emphasized by random drum hits, coming across like an incredible simulation of glaciers in the Arctic circle engaging in rousing acts of erotic telepathy. Machine-like squeaking and unexpected gales of tinnitus-inducing feedback just add to the composition's unnerving feel. On the second track (that's "Honey, Why Did You Leave Expired Milk in the Fridge Without Telling Me?" to you), simmering waves of feedback and lethargic percussion are overlaid with groaning sounds that are probably bowed strings but sound uncomfortably like a trapped person groaning in distress. The third track, "Pinballs in Heat," is a clattering collection of percussive sounds and twitchy guitar squeaks, while the fourth track -- "Merzbow and The Goat of a Thousand Young Give Birth To a Field of Radioactive Crickets" -- sounds like a vast field of crickets with efx boxes serenading a series of submarines being disassembled underwater. In the fifth track, "The Door Was Built So I Could Slam It Shut When Avon Comes Calling," irregular drum hits and inscrutable percussive noodling is offset by weird sounds of an indeterminate nature and the ghost-like texture of amp hum in the background, a sound only audible in the spaces between the chaos. The final track, a 25-minute epic of noise and deviance I like to call "Pictures of a Locust Colony Devouring Pictures At An Exhibition," is a seething superstructure of random percussion, hideous buzzing, and chaotic waves of sound that winds down about halfway through, turning more minimalist in structure and less chaotic in sound, until the density of sound builds up again, finally culminating in passage of amp hum, feedback drones, and doomed-out percussion that finally devolves into more minimalist clatter over the omnipresent amp hum. The total result is an impressive combination of drone, noise, and percussion that's surprisingly far more accessible than most Eh? releases, and one that's highly recommended.

KBD(uo)
Eh?j

Thollem McDonas -- GONE BEYOND REASON TO FIND ONE [Edgetone Records]

It's interesting that few people ever consider the piano as an instrument for making noise, or that so few musicians employ that instrument in noise compositions, because as anyone who has ever banged away at one can tell you, they are capable of making a hell of a racket. MdDonas has obviously thought of the piano's power to make an incredible racket, though; "For All Those Presently Living" opens with a titanic burst of jagged, atonal pandemonium as he hammers on a lot of keys at once (and I mean a lot; it sounds like he used his forearms to hit as many keys as possible), and while that eventually dies down into solo piano lines of varying intensity and volume, there are periodic bursts of full-on frenzy again, along with dizzying piano runs that alternate between the supremely melodic and grotesquely atonal. He gets some genuinely strange sounds out of his piano, too, suggesting that he might be using a treated piano. It's worth noting that the three tracks on this album were all recorded live, which is pretty impressive given the sheer level of technical talent on display here. His unusual approach to playing means these compositions are far more texturally expressive -- and often far noisier -- than what you would normally expect from someone playing the piano, and at its most dense, the sound on the first track is often quite violent indeed. "For All Those Who Have Gone Before" isn't quite as apocalyptic, but it certainly has its share of intense moments, with single-note melody lines that increase in tempo until his two hands are pounding away at two different melodies at blurry, mind-warping speed. The final track, "For All Those Yet To Come," is much shorter than the other two at only four minutes, and distills the same general themes and attack of the first two tracks into a concentrated dose of avant sensibility. McDonas is a frankly amazing pianist, and his superior command of technique is enhanced by far more imagination than you usually see in classically-trained players; this album (like his others, in fact) is a powerful testament to what is possible when someone with both an enormous level of technical talent and a wide-ranging imagination sets down to play. Highly, highly recommended listening, especially for those who modern work interpreted through classical skill.

Thollem McDonas
Edgetone Records

Megaton Leviathan -- MMIX ep [Volatile Rock Records]

So here's the deal: these doom-laden lovers of all that is shoegazing post-rock originally released the five tunes here as a self-titled demo in 2009 and are now making the remastered tracks available again as a vinyl offering (limited to 500 copies) on their own label, mainly to sell on tour. Which is a good thing, because this is swell stuff -- slow wasting funeral doom filtered through fuzzy ambient guitars that owe a lot to My Bloody Valentine, accompanied by the kind of mournful vocals that funeral doom bands do so well. The tunes are dark and forbidding, with wailing hoverbot guitars that turn into oppressive riffs played at a snail's pace and drums that plod along at an impressive crawl. The best part of this band's sound is is their inspired marriage of the slo-mo tempo of funeral doom with the thick and treble-heavy sound associated with the shoegaze movement; a lot of post-rock bands have tried over the years to incorporate that sound into their heavy tunes, with varying levels of success, but few have managed to do it so well (and sound so good in the process) as these guys. It helps considerably that the songs are not just a bunch of riffs strung together and joined by vague waffling; no, these are well-constructed songs played extremely well and with a great sound. If they sounded this good on their first demo, I can only imagine how their new full-length effort must sound. Highly recommended, especially for fans of doom and shoegaze.

Megaton Leviathan

Mister Fuckhead -- MISTER FUCKHEAD AND COMPANY cs [self-released]

The band with the genteel name is actually a collective of musicians hooked on noise and drone, including Dan Burke (Illusion of Safety), Andy Ortmann (Panicsville), Dave Purdie (Silver Abuse, Satan2000), Bruce Lamont (Yakuza), and a whole bunch of others you might or might not recognize. This 93-minute cassette is a mostly a collection of live actions rounded out by two tracks recorded in a meat locker, and it's some gloriously noisy anti-music; the opening track, recorded at the Empty Bottle in 2008, sounds like early Einstuerzende Neubauten attempting to recreate the collapsing studio devolvement of Zeni Geva's "Terminal Hz" with jackhammers, blowtorches, and possibly nuclear weapons. The live action that follows, recorded at South Union Arts, is not quite as synapse-shattering but still features plenty of grotesque sonic torture, and the third track on the A-side, recorded live at Ronny's (no, I have no idea where these clubs are located), is nowhere near as harsh but every bit as noisy, with plenty of thumping and bumping amid diseased sax bleating, ugly electronics-fu, and some creepy dude yowling in deranged fashion. On the flip side, the first of two tracks recorded in a meat locker kicks off with some seriously demented horn action courtesy of two saxes, coronet, and a trumpet all blaring away in an extremely dissonant variation on unity. The second track adds another coronet, although the wailing that results isn't all that much noisier (or dissonant) than the first track. There's a similar sound at work in the live action from Beat Kitchen, although it's spacier and possessed of an interesting tone (possibly due to the addition of French horn and electronics), heavy on the drone and glacial in temperament; things get even more musically existential in the live action recorded at the Darkroom, where a similar improvisation takes place with the surreal addition of a kazoo. The final track, recorded live at Elastic Arts and involving the use of tapes, electronics, and field recordings, sounds like the mutant re-processing of the music television stations use to sign off at night, further subjected to reverb abuse and other diabolical forms of efx processing. Final analysis: scrumptious noise + mondo drones + inscrutable aesthetic + devolved sounds = extended listening pleasure.

Mister Fuckhead

Morkobot -- MORBO [Supernatural Cat]

Now this is some seriously weird shit… but also monstrously heavy shit, diabolical heavy metal math rock channeling the spirits of Voivod, Melvins, and Lightning Bolt all at once. This Italian trio also reminds me at times of Zu, especially since they favor a really ass-munching bass growl (courtesy of two bassists) and the drummer pounds complicated circles around the other two. Also like Zu, they are purely an instrumental act, feeling no need to add unnecessary vocals to their mind-melting deathjazz. Beginning with the opening track "Ultranorth," they immediately start whirling around each other like dervishes, the musical equivalent of three madly spinning tops circling at high velocity and somehow never knocking each other over. The madness continues for seven tracks, with the band frequently sounding like squeaking, creaking robots undergoing particularly violent electroshock therapy. The twin-bass attack is not exactly a new idea, to be sure, but their unorthodox use of said instruments and the sheer number of efx boxes undoubtedly at their disposal gives them a really exotic, rumbling sound that's remarkably clear and sharp for such traditionally tubby-sounding instruments. This is psychedelic avant garde metal with some serious grooves, too, no mean feat given their byzantine riffing. All systems go; set the controls for the heart of the sun, doom childe.

Morkobot
Supernatural Cat

Noertker's Moxie -- SOME CIRCLES [Edgetone Records]

More smooth chamber-music jazz ensemble pieces from contrabass player Bill Noertker and a revolving cast of players, including four different drummers. So far Noertker has been all about the old-style lounge jazz sound, and this release is no different -- just twelve tracks of small groups improvising with different instruments, among them alto and tenor sax, oboe, and piano. The various drummers bring different styles of percussion to their particular tracks. There's a playfulness to many of his compositions -- he and his ensemble are serious musicians, but they're not uptight -- and a languid sensibility that's definitely out of sync with modern improv's more frantic and cluttered approach to jazz. More to the point, the material on this release, like the rest of the collective's output, is far more accessible than most modern improv work; despite the avant-garde nature of the work, there's a strong emphasis on melody and pleasing instrumental tones that makes these pieces highly listenable. This is relaxed, inviting music that lacks the confrontational edge and deliberate inscrutability so common in the improv genre these days. Those pining for the days before the improv / jazz axis began to wholeheartedly embrace ugliness will enjoy this.

Noertker's Moxie
Edgetone Records

Psandwich -- NORTHREN PSYCH [Columbus Discount Records]

Led by vocalist Ron House (formerly of Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and The Great Plains) and packed with veterans of psych / garage-rock bands like The Lindsay, Brainbow, The Tough & Lovely, and Washington Beach Bums, Psandwich is the latest in a long line of Midwest bands combining the aggressive, lo-fi sound of garage rock with the skull-frying freakout moves of acid rock. The operating manual here is pretty much the same for all garage bands since the dawn of the fuzz pedal -- short, fast, peppy songs filled with fuzzy guitars, squeal-tone solos, and ragged but rousing vocals. This is not slick music -- it's very much the product of guys playing loose and fast with the rock 'n roll rulebook, and there are moments where things threaten to come unglued, although that never actually happens -- but that's the entire point; this is more about enthusiasm and a devotion to all things loud. They do let up on the gas pedal somewhat for "Sketchnya," which opens up like a ballad before the rock vibe kicks in with plenty of string-bending blues action to hang with the rocking beat. You can tell they're real players, though, as opposed to dudes stacking up tracks in ProTools, by the way they like to speed up in supremely manic fashion through many of the songs. Best of all, like the best garage rock bands, they have super-mondo guitar tones, heavy on the treble but with enough heft to cut through the iffy production like a hot knife through butter. Swank stuff; the teenage heads will enjoy.

Psandwich
Columbus Discount Records

Ptahil -- FOR HIS SATANIC MAJESTY'S GLORY [Wraith Productions]

The poop sheet that came with this spouts a lot of silliness about "satanic gnosticism" and "adversarial ritual" (not to mention "dissonant flagellation" -- I must admit, I really like that one), but that's par for the course where satanic black metal is concerned, and it's easy to ignore, because the real meat is in the band's flagrantly vile appreciation for old-school black metal. This is black metal of the chaotic variety, so there are plenty of abrupt time changes and plenty of flailing away with relentless abandon at the guitars and drums; we're talking seriously wiggly tremelo action here. Even better, though, are the moments where the drummer puts four on the floor and the the guitars start chugging away in monster grooves. As with most black metal bands, there's no way to tell what the vocalist is yelling about, but he sounds like he really means it, whatever it is, and with song titles like "The Great Satan," "For His Satanic Majesty's Glory," and "The Black Flag of Total Death" (one of the best tracks on the album, as it happens), it doesn't take a genius to tell where they're coming from. There's a significant measure of punk in their sound, though, especially when they start hammering away at brutally simply but insanely catchy riffs. If they had released this twenty years ago, it would have probably become an underground classic; as it is, they're a little late to the party, but still supremely potent in their ferocity and drive. It's got a good beat and you can sacrifice goats to it; what more can a poor black metal boy ask for?

Ptahil
Wraith Productions

Rarefaction -- … THE DANCER, THE DANCE… ep [self-released]

This is billed as an ep, but if it were vinyl rather than cd, it would really be more of a single -- the three tracks here clock in at less than eight minutes, making it a fine display of brevity and restraint. Clearly a believer in the concept of less is more, multi-instrumentalist Jerold H. goes one step beyond by making those eight minutes count; there might not be much here, but it's all excellent. His aesthetic clearly owes a lot to the late 70s and early 80s post-punk era, with a sound that's heavily influenced by the uncluttered and well-crafted work of bands like Joy Division, New Order, and the Cure, and the gauzy aural clouds of the early 4AD bands like This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins. The first track, "SlowFall," is definitely something that could have appeared on one of the first 4AD albums, although its throbbing bass rumble is a bit meatier than anything This Mortal Coil or the Cocteau Twins ever came up with. "For Ophelia and the Silent Sea" is not so dirge-like, combining the aforementioned aesthetic with a neo-folk guitar that incorporates plenty of melody into its rhythm, and the brief but energetic "Happy Endings? (In the Stairwell Everything Was Better)" is essentially a highly rhythmic solo bass excursion that Peter Hook would have been pleased to cough up during a New Order rehearsal. Swell, swell stuff that leaves you wanting to hear more.

Rarefaction

Reclusa / Degenerate Slug -- split cs [No Visible Scars]

Crude but compelling sounds emanate like clotted blood from both sides of this split cassette. On the Reclusa side, the five tracks come across like a twisted venture into surreal, devolved sounds influenced by the more clanking parts of early Godflesh and (really) early Beherit -- pounding machine beats, murky sonic textures, pained vocal bleating, and howling, reverb-heavy slo-mo tornado guitar create the perfect mix of lo-fi necro black metal mating with first-wave industrial grindcore. Between the Recluse's psychotic vocalizing and the gruesome sludge wafting around the spooky keyboards, this is pretty unhinged stuff very much on par with Beherit's initial stabs at audio demoncy, only with more precision. (Of course, given the messiness that is early Beherit, this is hardly a difficult feat.) On the flip side of the tape, the diseased sounds of Degenerate Slug aren't any nicer; the liner notes helpfully lists influences including Dissecting Table, Abruptum, and Swans, among other things, and these things, I am happy to report, are all entirely true. The Abruptum influence is particularly prominent, especially on the first track, "Are You Receiving," which sounds like a Swans track playing back at half-speed on a warped tape deck. The tracks that follow -- including one with the absolutely swell title "I Smell the Stench of Your Menstrual Blood At My Fingers" (which also happens to be the track most obviously influenced by Dissecting Table) -- are big on grinding, clanking percussion, debased sonic stinkiness, and other forms of vile ugliness. As tasteful as a bloated corpse in your driveway but far more entertaining, and limited to 50 copies.

Degenerate Slug
Reclusa
No Visible Scars

Sky Burial -- AEGRI SOMNIA [UTech Records]

Talk about ambition, Michael Page has it -- the first track (of two) on this album, "The Synaethete's Lament," is forty minutes long, essentially an album into itself. A conceptual piece of work designed to evoke the immense emptiness of the cosmos and the enormous distances in a constellation of dying stars, the track is heavily weighted in favor of immense, decaying drones and an omnipresent cloud of sound like a the audio equivalent of an expanding gas nebula. The amorphous dark ambient sound is periodically punctuated by psychedelic touches, includes lots of bleating horns (sax or trumpet -- it's hard to tell), probably courtesy of guest player and Hawkwind guru Nik Turner. It's pretty telling that Turner is on board for this deep-space exploration, because this is definitely in the same vein as Hawkwind's more tripped-out space operas, only here the riffs Hawkwind would have employed to move things forward have been exploded and pulverized into an endless trail of space dust floating on a long stream of solar wind. As with previous Sky Burial compositions, the track remains interesting throughout, despite its length, and while it's subdued enough to work as background listening, it's detailed enough -- and filled with such an interesting variety of sounds -- that it rewards the close listener. The second track, "Within and Without," weighs in at a comparatively svelte sixteen minutes and is a bit more aggressive in sound, with harsh processed sounds mixed in with the cosmic drone, including bits that sound like percussion (or possibly synth beats) tweaked to sound like aliens beating on wood blocks and science-fiction phaser sounds. This actually sounds like an early industrial track retooled for a more ambient, efx-laden sound; it's far more rhythmically active than the first track, but every bit as alien, hinting at unfathomable rituals being held on distant worlds. The great sound is enhanced considerably by adroit mastering from Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, more side projects than there are stars in the sky), and the equally exceptional packaging includes a full-color fold-out inner poster and another example of the mind-melting psychedelic art deco artwork of Thomas Hooper.

Sky Burial
UTech Records

Tulum -- VOLUPTUOUS ASTRAL FREEZE cs [Mancat Records]

Unless you happened to be hanging around Austin in the late eighties and attending shows at tiny, seedy dives, you have probably never heard of this band. (Even if you were, you still might have missed them, since the band only existed for about two years under this name.) If you're down with psychedelic music, though, you might be interested to know that this cassette -- a reissue of their second cassette, originally released on an obscure Finnish label in 1986 -- is an audio snapshot of a band one bassist away from turning into the legendary Austin space warriors ST-37, a band still happening to this very day. I'll spare you the convoluted evolution of the band's lineup and sound -- you can grok the full details at the link below, if you so desire -- and merely say that this sounds very much a product of its time and place, melding elements of UK post-punk and the distinctly Texas take on psych. Comparable in sound and attitude to Scratch Acid, early Butthole Surfers, and The Wild Seeds (more Austin bands swimming in the same kitchen-sink sound inspired as much by The 13th Floor Elevators as by pills and blotter acid). While there are definitely shards of the sparse metallic rock of bands like Gang of Four and Joy Division in the band's sound, their fuzzed-out guitar tone and surreal atmosphere puts them closer to the sonic attack of the first couple of Butthole Surfers albums. Given the nature of the band and the period in which this was recorded, it's only fitting that the cassette is a rough 'n tumble affair with an exquisitely lo-fi sound, recorded pretty much live at the practice space the band shared with Scratch Acid and Not For Sale. Ten shambolic slices of pure underground Tejas, designed to be played in tiny, sweaty clubs populated by people whacked out on Shiner beer and hallucinogens, plus a mondo cover of Chrome's "Anorexic Sacrifice" that tells you everything you really need to know about the band and the scene that spawned them.

Tulum
Mancat Records

Ur -- CLANDESTINE MEETING PARK cs [No Visible Scars]

This drone-loving trio from Italy, who refer to themselves as the "Kali Jugend Orchestra" in the liner notes, have a sound that encompasses both the early industrial movement of the late 70s to early 80s and the more acid-drenched sound explorations of the late 60s / early 70s. It's a sound steeped in drone, muted electronics, ambient sound, and field recordings, represented by two soundscapes each clocking in at just under fifteen minutes. "I" features a buzzing drone and odd, reverb-laden sounds over an arrhythmic beat resembling the faraway sound of artillery fire; after a while, the beat becomes even more minimal and the electronic sounds more sinister, until they all fade away leaving only a bell-like sound that fades away as the track ends. The second track, "II," is darker and more turbulent, with screech electronics and other dark sounds swirling around like a slow-moving cyclone; the track definitely sounds like a dark-ambient take on early Throbbing Gristle. This is especially true toward the end, when the electronics coalesce over a thudding, repetitive machine beat. Subtle but interesting stuff, and limited to 50 copies.

Ur
No Visible Scars

because it's all about the bonus points.

2011-10-30T07:10:00.000-04:00

Archgoat -- HEAVENLY VULVA (CHRIST'S LAST RITES) [Debemur Morti Productions]

Well, wonder of wonders -- a full-on necro black metal band that understands the value of being succinct. The longest track on this EP is just over three and a half minutes, evidence that they know how to get their hate on without dragging things out endlessly. The music itself is pretty standard necro fare -- fizzy barbed-wire guitars, bass that might as well be nonexistent, wet-cardboard drums, a vocalist who sounds like he was weaned on grindcore as much as early black metal -- but it's violent and vicious, and when they slow down, the guitarist gets to demonstrate that he has a pretty swell grasp of harmonically-pleasing chords (especially in the slow portion of "Goddess of the Abyss of Graves") to go with his scathing guitar tone. Between the album title and song titles like "Blessed Vulva" and "Penetrator of the Second Temple" (dig those orgasmic moans at the beginning, doom childe) it's clear that they're equally obsessed with both perversity and anti-religious sentiment. I'll bet they have all the early Arkhon Infaustus albums; they certainly share that band's affinity for rudeness and (on the early albums, at least) willful primitivism. There's nothing revolutionary happening here, but it's solid enough and filled with all the right elements to appeal to those hep to the misanthropic necro sound.

Archgoat
Debemur Morti Productions

Blut Aus Nord -- 777: THE DESANCTIFICATION [Debemur Morti Productions]

You can always count on French black metal to be weird, and Blut Aus Nord are no exception. This is apparently the second portion of a trilogy, and while I haven't heard the first part, I definitely need to rectify that omission, because this is great stuff. "Epitome VII," which opens the album, is a dark and malevolent industrial metal dirge that sounds like a black metal update of the best parts of Treponem Pal and Godflesh that picks up where Beherit's experiments in the same field left off. The mechanical vibe and industrial-style groove is even more aggressive on "Epitome VIII," where they use drum machines they way they were meant to be used -- in other words, as bludgeoning instruments of desolate, inhuman terror. After a brief, near-ambient respite on "Epitome IX," the grinding industrial steamroller returns on "Epitome X," with occasional squeals of dissonant guitar riding over the death-disco beats. The remaining three tracks play out in a similar vein, although it's worth noting that "Epitome XII" is possibly the album's heaviest track. Unlike a lot of today's extreme metal, these are mid-tempo songs that favor heaviness and atmosphere over speed, probably a wise move given the band's mechanical sound and electronic leanings. There's a heavy drone element present in the band's sound, too, especially in the vocals, and despite the industrial direction, plenty of dissonant, paint-peeling guitar to satisfy more traditional metalheads. Bonus points for the nifty occult-themed cover art.

Blut Aus Nord
Debemur Morti Productions

Brains -- UNLOADED [Edgetone Records]

Two dudes, two instruments, three long songs: this is what they call improvisational minimalism, doom childe. (If you're not familiar with the genre, that's probably because I just made it up.) The two dudes are Drew Ceccato and Chris Golinksi, and the two instruments are winds and drums, a peculiar combination to be sure, but it's happening as a happening thing, see, with song structures that rely as much on space and the silences between bleats 'n beats as it does with anything else. That's definitely true on "Rictus," whose eighteen-plus minutes are punctuated by intermittent stabs at sound from the wind instruments and lots of silences in between the musical phrases; the beats get doled out in a most sparing fashion, but the empty spaces start getting filled up slowly but surely as the piece progresses, building into an orgy of whirling shards of sound… and then it goes back to the minimalist feel, dominated mainly by erratic percussion that slowly winds down until the piece is over. The other two tracks, "Dirt" and "Gnash," are essentially variations on the same theme, but they're interesting variations, and do plenty to demonstrate how much racket you can make with just two instruments. Abstract sound has rarely sounded so physical. If you think the meeting of woodwinds and percussion is a bizarre concept, check this out and see how much better it works in reality than on paper.

Brains
Edgetone Records

Dead in the Dirt -- FEAR 7" [Southern Lord]

Southern Lord sure does seem to be down with bands mixing hardcore and extreme metal lately. This is one of them, and they sure are heavy, but unlike a lot of their equally heavy brethren, they favor really short songs; nothing here is over two minutes, and several hover around a half-minute or less. Brevity, d00d, I am all for it…. They sound like a black metal band (especially where the guitars are concerned), but their song structures -- especially the ones that feature slo-mo breakdowns -- are closer to hardcore, and their tendency toward escalating levels of pure chaos is divided pretty neatly between the two genres. The really short songs are essentially crazed bursts of speed and terror featuring guitars that sound like Shrike missiles arcing across the landscape, and the (moderately) longer songs aren't exactly heartwarming lullabies, either. The short song lengths do explain how they can pack ten songs into a vinyl single, and anybody who's already down with the label's recent avalanche of hardcore-influenced heaviness will find this worth grabbing. The vinyl's available in a one-time pressing of 1500 copies.

Dead in the Dirt
Southern Lord

Encoffination -- O' HELL, SHINE IN THY WHITED SEPULCHRES [Selfmadegod Records]

They certainly live up to their name on this, their second album -- this is some seriously evil, diseased-sounding death metal. They remind me a lot of the German band Blood, who favored (and maybe still do) the same kind of relentlessly primitive kitchen-sink sound, although this band is far slower and doomed-out than they ever were. What's really interesting is how together this sounds, given that the band's two members live in totally different states (Texas and Georgia) and recorded their parts separately; they get major props for making such an unlikely arrangement work. As for the songs, they're slow, torturous monuments of slow wasting doom as played by a death metal band whose guitar tone walks the fine line between gut-wrenching ugliness and borderline white noise. Throw in lots of pained moaning, feedback-drenched guitars, and spaced-out atmospherics and what you get is something that frequently resembles the sound of early Abruptum while still retaining an actual structure that's recognizable (just barely) as metal. This is a grotesque, dark offering whose murky sound is comparable to that of Portal, minus the avant-garde theatrics, and every bit as unsettling. That heavy, restless sound also owes a lot -- and I mean a lot -- to the earliest days of death metal and the low-budget production style of those early records by Sodom, Death, and Venom; at the same time, their approach is nowhere near as retro as their sound, and they achieve a far more arcane, occult form of sonic darkness than any of those bands. This is genuinely nightmarish-sounding stuff, and totally irony-free. I greatly approve. The cover art (an appropriately morbid 17th-century painting by Juan De Valdes) is pretty swank too.

Encoffination
Selfmadegod

Exhumed -- ALL GUTS, NO GLORY [Relapse Records]

Some people think Pantera, in the process of transitioning from a Def Leppard / Van Halen clone band into cowboys bent on heaviness, stole a lot of their moves from this band. I have no idea if that's true or not, but it's certainly believable; this band is not only relentlessly heavy, but they favor the kind of riff-driven madness that made Pantera so popular. On this release, at least, their sound has a lot more to do with grindcore than groove metal (which probably explains why it's appearing on Relapse). The lead guitar style is certainly very much in the vein of what Darrell Abbott used to do -- plenty of whammy-bar wailing and blinding solo runs like lightning to the nations -- but these guys are far, far more relentless in their intensity (and speed) than Pantera ever were, less concerned with grooving and more with bulldozing through everything in their path. The constant barrage of high-speed madness gets to be a little much for me after a while, and there's not enough variety to the songs for my taste, but they're certainly relentless, overflowing with energy like a nitro-burning funny car, and they execute their intense songs with plenty of precision. It's certainly one of the most extreme-sounding things I've heard in a while, so if you're into that, then you'll definitely like this.

Exhumed
Relapse Records

FluiD -- DUALITY [Alrealon Musique]

Now this is something I can get behind: a diabolical mix of hip-hop, noise, and metal that's heavy on beats inspired by Massive Attack circa MEZZANINE (still my vote for the best trip-hop album ever, with the best beats), ambient weirdness akin to the dubbed-out cyclone of death tearing through Scorn's first album, and liberal doses of pure noise. Industrial music and hip-hop seems like an unlikely sonic marriage, but in FluiD's hands they work together really well. Fans of Scorn's debut VAE SOLIS will find this to be in the same ballpark, albeit nowhere near as aggressive and violent; with the exception of the driving opener DH-1,", these are mostly mid-tempo tracks built on fat beats, dub-heavy bass, and melodies that are often processed sounds swaddled in noise. The Massive Attack influence is particularly prominent on "AIC" and "Disrupting the Ghost," but "Iron Communique" (featuring buried vocals courtesy of Black Saturn) is closer to white noise with occasional beats and incredibly distorted guitar riffs, and "Dread Futures" opens with what sounds like voices underwater before segueing into bass 'n drums straight out of MEZZANINE and a lilting piano melody. "Refuge," nothing more than a droning string melody accompanied by a drifting collection of ambient noises, acts as a brief respite from the beats, and "Froz N II" is more about sounds and textures, with beats held in abeyance until halfway through the song. All ten tracks are strong, deftly mixing textured sounds and noises with uncomplicated beats that are nevertheless perfect for the occasion. In short: great stuff, and hopefully more will follow.

FluiD
Alrealon Musique

Glorior Belli -- THE GREAT SOUTHERN DARKNESS [Metal Blade]

French black metal takes some weird forms; just look at this band, who somehow manage to combine a desert-rock guitar style with a more traditional form of war-metal aggression, giving their unholy darkness a melodic pop sheen that's really unusual for this genre. They don't do so much for me -- I prefer my black metal primitive, ugly, and necro, not to mention untainted by the kind of sunny rock guitar normally associated with pot-smoking hippies -- but they're undeniably good at what they do, and they get a tremendous guitar sound. I'm also not so impressed by their songwriting, which tends toward songs that sound too much alike, but I'll admit that they are capable of throwing the occasional curveball (the title track, for instance, which deviates substantially from the rest of the album with its bluesy acoustic feel, at least until the moments where the metallic buzzsaw guitars crash the party, and the more doom-laden "Per Nox Regna" ), and the closing track, "Horns In My Pathway," one of the few mid-tempo tracks on the album, does a pretty swell job of mixing the more jarring elements of their style into something more organic and aesthetically pleasing. By and large it's not my bag, but I can see why others would like them. If you liked their earlier albums, you'll like this one; if you didn't, then this probably won't change your opinion of the band.

Glorior Belli
Metal Blade

Haken -- VISIONS [Sensory Records]

Progressive metal is a tricky thing to pull off, and this London band must know it, because they've obviously put a lot of work into making their mix of proggy synths, metallic guitars, pop vocal stylings, and experimental leanings work in a manner as unforced as possible. They make their intentions clear immediately with "Premonition," which opens with gentle piano and strings until the beat kicks in, bringing with it highly melodic guitar and bracing riffs backed by tasteful synth washes and unusual rhythms. The track that follows, "Nocturnal Conspiracy," is something else entirely -- for the first several minutes they sound like a bizarre but compelling cross between Cheer-Accident and Supertramp, more pop with a prog bent than anything else, but as the song progresses, metal elements creep in. although the song never gets terribly heavy. The songs that follow are all unquestionably steeped in the trappings of prog rock -- especially "Insomnia," which features plenty of jaw-dropping guitar solo action -- but unlike a lot of modern prog-metal, the band never grows too bombastic for its own good, and the songs are all memorable and distinct, filled with intricate playing and complex layers of sound. Several of the songs are long enough to incorporate many movements as well, especially the sprawling 23-minute title track, but despite elongated song lengths, the tracks are filler-free. This is an outstanding example of the potential of prog-metal, and while it's probably nowhere near heavy enough to win over fans of the more extreme sub-genres of metal, it's definitely recommended to anyone interested in hearing how well prog and metal can work together.

Haken
Sensory Records

Heartless -- HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE [Southern Lord]

More hardcore-influenced heaviness. Like the aforementioned Dead in the Dirt, they largely favor short bursts of frantic heaviness -- with only one exception, the songs are all under three minutes, and several are less than a minute long -- and as you'd expect given the nature of the label, they are oppressively heavy, especially when they slow the tempo down (as they do at points of "Undulations" and "Deject"). While they mostly favor a blitzkrieg style of sonic ultraviolence, the times when they do slow things down, the bone-rattling riffs and intemperate drums are heavy enough to drill holes in your skull. They do occasionally sacrifice variety for pure blinding heaviness, an occupational hazard with this kind of frantic grinding noise terror, but they never fall short on the intensity, and they have the good sense to keep things concise (the entire EP clocks in at just under 22 minutes). Extreme? O mas oui.

Heartless
Southern Lord

The House of Capricorn -- IN THE DEVIL'S DAYS [Swamps of One Tree Hill]

They have some strange ideas about metal in New Zealand; while this is ostensibly a stoner / doom band, there are elements of rock, pop, and even goth to their sound; for instance, "Les Innocents" sounds like a bizarre mix of Saint Vitus and Type O Negative, a combo that sounds pretty whacked-out on paper but actually works really well in their hands. The stoner hand of doom shows up on other tracks, too, like "Veils." Other tracks like "All Hail to the Netherworld" and "Coffins and Cloven Hooves" are considerably more rocking, with a heavy 70s stoner vibe and vestigial ties to the blues amid the heavy riffing. "To Carry the Lantern," with its interesting rhythms and unusual opening, is another one of the more uptempo tracks, and the title track is not only a full-on rocker, but the album's fastest track (although that's not terribly fast by modern standards, to be sure). There's a moderate occult vibe to their approach, too -- nothing real sinister, perhaps comparable to the mysticism of some of Wino's post-Vitus bands (The Hidden Hand comes to mind, especially since the cover resembles some of that band's artwork) -- as indicated by titles like "Arcane Delve" and "Illumination in Omega," which only adds to their air of mystery. Some other reviewers have compared them to Trouble, which is fair enough given their sound and occult tendencies, but that band was a lot more straightforward than this one, and this band's approach is more varied in terms of sounds and songs. Interesting stuff, and their ability to deliver on both uptempo tracks as well as the more doom-laden ones (along with their talent for crafting solid tunes with a really dark and potent sound) bodes well for their future, however cryptic and mysterious it may be.

The House of Capricorn

The Lords of Outland -- YOU CAN SLEEP WHEN YOU'RE DEAD [Edgetone Records]

Rent Romus is at it again, this time with a collective bent on laying waste to your ears via the cruel, cruel tones of black metal death jazz. Romus bleats away on various saxophones (and occasionally provides vocals and accordion work) as C. J. Borosque creates noise with no-input pedals while Ray Scheaffer and Philip Everett (on bass and drums, respectively) hold down the anti-rhythm section. There's a energy and violence to the more assaultive moments that recalls the frenzied efforts of Last Exit, a confrontational vibe that's only made more so by the addition of Borosque's often-scalding noise textures, but it's not all about flailing around and breaking shit; there are quiet moments in which Romus gets pensive and moody with the saxes, and those moments provide a bit of respite from the bone-rattling cacophony taking place much of the time. It's true that there's not enough of Borosque and her ass-kicking noise-fu for my taste, but given the already high level of barely-controlled chaos on display, that might have actually been a wise choice, lest the album turn into something closer to full-on noise than merely noisy free jazz. Any way you slice it, there's some happening sounds in their crash and burn action. Seriously, how can you pass up an album with both Romus and Borosque? They get massive bonus points, too, for the awesome titles, including "Do-Gooders Can Run But They Can't Hide," "Gasburger Sheep Slaughter House," "More Water Kills for the Money," "How To Be A Good CItizen In 3 Easy Steps," and "The Demonic Circus of Certified Insular Asshogs."

The Lords of Outland
Edgetone Records

Nunfuckritual -- IN BONDAGE TO THE SERPENT [Debemur Morti Productions]

Given the personnel involved -- including guitarist Teloch (Nidingr, Mayhem), Dan Lilker (Nuclear Assault, Brutal Truth), and Andreas Jonsson (Tyrant) -- you'd expect this to be an amphetamine-fueled blur of sonic violence, but instead it's the complete opposite. The songs here are slow and protracted exercises in doomed-out black metal; even when they occasionally pick up the pace, as they do halfway through "Cursed Virgin, Pregnant Whore," it's still not particularly fast. The sound, dominated mainly by fizzy, ugly guitar and atmospheric keyboards, is definitely a throwback to the early days of black metal, and in fact, the band's sound owes a lot to early Mayhem ( a connection made even more obvious by the appearance of Attila Cshihar on "Komodo Dragon, Mother Queen"). What makes them interesting are the sound effects that pop up from time to time, strange-sounding bits at the beginning and end of tracks, and the genuinely spooky keyboards. It also doesn't hurt that they eschew complexity in favor of simple but effective riffs and song structures rooted in a deeply morose and primitive sound. They're not quite necro -- the production is too good for that -- but they certainly have the necro vibe down cold, and the result is a parade of malevolent sickness designed to please the tiny blackened heart of any fan of old-school black metal. Bonus points for the ridiculous but highly appropriate band name.

Nunfuckritual
Debemur Morti Productions

Ordo Obsidium -- ORBIS TERTIUS [Eisenwald]

Yet another Bay Area band… what's up with the (apparent) sudden explosion of Bay Area bands with swell releases? This is the band's debut release, and it's a mix of raging black metal and intense funeral doom (a genre that appears to be making a major resurgence lately). Like many of their depressed, metallic brethren, they favor long songs -- the shortest is just under seven minutes, and two are over twelve -- filled with lots of movements, tempo changes, and a constantly evolving sonic landscape. Seeing as how they're from the Bay Area, it's not terribly surprising that at least some of their sound (especially in the more manic moments) can be traced back to their defunct neighbors Weakling, who have become the standard-bearer for intense USBM, but their sound is more complex and nuanced; like Wolves in the Throne Room, they have expanded considerably on their roots to forge a sound that at times borders on the psychedelic. Also like WITTR, they have a fondness for atmospherics and incorporating striking moments of quiet into their compositions, but it's the willingness to descend into the slo-mo world of creeping funeral doom that separates them from most of their contemporaries (although I have a feeling that within a year, this will be a standard operating procedure for most USBM, but that's not their fault). Heavy sounds + detailed textures + complex, sprawling compositions + persistent dread = swell listening for you. Bonus points for the appropriately grim album cover.

Oro Obsidium
Eisenwald

Sex Church -- GROWING OVER [Load Records]

Oooo, I like this: a rock band with a vaguely punkish bent that sounds like it was weaned primarily on no wave records and healthy doses of METAL BOX, a sound they put to good use immediately on the opener "Put Away," which opens with a grim bassline Jah Wobble would have been proud to call his own and steadily grows to a surging, pounding swirl of ugliness that segues into "Waking Up," in which screeching noise is joined by a lumbering beat and icy metallic guitars and dead-man vocals, suggesting Joy Division gone new wave. It's a sound that's pervasive through the entire album, and sounds best on tracks like the spidery "Dull Light," which is spiced up by plenty of dissonant noise action halfway through, and "Paralyze," the closest they come to a commercial offering (at least until the deranged oscillator noises kick in). Spindly baselines are countered by guitars that oscillate between a metallic clang, bursts of feedback, and howling tornado shrapnel without ever completely descending into white noise (well, there is "Colour Out of Space," a short track that's nothing but chaos and noise) -- all in service of actual songs, good songs, even. Despite the preponderance of dissonance and a tendency to occasionally devolve into abstract ugliness just for the sake of making a pleasingly atonal racket, these are songs driven by catchy beats and rhythms, and while there's no escaping their obvious influences, they at least have the good sense to steal from stellar bands and put their own iconoclastic spin on that sound. I'll bet it would be real interesting to see this band on a bill with Alaric, a metal band coming from a similar direction. Highly recommended, and not just to PIL / Joy Division junkies.

Sex Church
Load Records

Skoal Kodiak -- KRYPTONYM BODLIAK [Load Records]

Squeaky, creaky techno (sorta) by way of hallucinogens and a deeply warped sense of humor (but probably mostly hallucinogens) -- imagine Landed with Casio synths instead of guitars and you get the idea. They apparently have some link to the Cows, so the weirdness is almost certainly unforced, and despite their base location being Minneapolis, they've got some damaged funk in their DNA, possibly from standing too close to Papa George at some long-ago Funkadelic show. Were they sucked into the Mothership and irradiated with funk? We'll never know, but it sure sounds like it. Still, Funkadelic were never quite this out-there, even on acid-drenched classics like FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR ASS WILL FOLLOW, although you can draw a parallel between this band's kitchen sink and all sound and classic Funkadelic hip-wigglers like "Wars of Armageddon" and "Super Stupid." Different instruments (in this case, Casio synths, cheap-sounding gadgets, unidentified funny noises, etc.), same agenda: messing up your mind while forcing your hips to move. This is eccentric-sounding shit, brutah, but it's catchy and you can get up and move to it, although the sheer level of bizarro-sound oozing from the speakers may occasionally cause those hips to move the wrong way, at least until you get used to their bodacious dying-robot sounds.

Skoal Kodiak
Load Records

Untimely Demise -- CITY OF STEEL [Sonic Unyon Metal]

I've said before that I don't understand the retro-thrash movement, and it's still true -- I mean, I can sort of understand why today's metal kids would want to have their own thrash movement since the first wave of thrash was so awesome, but I was there for the first round, and now I'm old and don't see the point in rebooting a sound that's so completely and totally locked into an era that ended a long, long time ago. Having said that, if you're down with the retro-thrash movement, and into the current crop of bands doing their best to emulate every last inch of the sound of bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Exodus, and so on, then you'll love this band, who do an excellent job of capturing the sound and intensity of those bands. Seriously, "Hunting Evil" sounds like a face-melting cross between early Slayer and Metallica circa MASTER OF PUPPETS; "Virtue in Death" could easily have appeared on the second or third Megadeth album; and so on. The band is certainly competent enough to faithfully recreate the sound of 80s-era thrash, and while this is probably not going to replace MASTER OF PUPPETS or REIGN IN BLOOD in the pantheon of metal greatness, this is plenty intense in its own right. It's also remarkably filler free -- if you like this kind of sound, you'll like everything here -- and at just over thirty minutes, doesn't wear out its welcome. If you're going to embrace the retro thing, this band should be high on your list of ones to check out.

Untimely Demise
Sonic Unyon Metal

Warning Light -- WILD SILVER [Stickfigure]

The twelve minimalist tracks on this album are percussion-free instrumentals built around different combinations of repetitive, percolating sequencer lines and droning ambient keyboards, and if that sounds like mastermind Drew Haddon is working with a (deliberately) limited sonic palette, you would be right… but you would also be surprised at the level of variety in the tracks with only these tools (and some found sounds) at his disposal. While this is unquestionably minimalist and highly repetitive music, it's hardly boring, since there's a fair level of variety to the sequencer sounds and rhythms, and the tracks vary considerably from one to the next in terms of their balance between the sequencer lines and the ambient drone. Some of the tracks also include elements of found sound, such as the bird sounds and ambient noise of nature found in "Whispering Priest" (and to a lesser extent, minus the bird calls, in "Eventide Ladies"). Many of these pieces, especially the dreamier and more ambient ones, sound like soundtrack music for a series of wildly different films, and even the most minimal pieces nevertheless feature enough layers to the sound to make them worthy of repeated listening. This is a fine addition to the ambient techno wing of the minimalist canon.

Warning Light

yes, i am filled with joy to see rick perry flaming out.

2011-10-09T04:15:00.002-04:00

Alaric -- S/T [20 Buck Spin]

I've been waiting for something like this for ages -- doom by way of 80s dark wave, no wave, and punk. This is a doom band highly enamored of the hypnotic, melodic bass lines of the Cure and Joy Division, the dramatic intensity of bands like Killing Joke, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Christian Death, and the edgy punk violence of NYC no wave. These are good things, and they result in a sound that's essentially a doomier, far heavier (yet still surprisingly catchy) version of the classic 80s dark wave sound. The band is from Oakland and includes members of Noothgrush, UK Subs, and Enemies, and those diverse backgrounds combined with a shared love of the aforementioned dark wave / punk era are undoubtedly the key to their unusual sound. That swell sound would mean nothing without excellent songs, and Alaric has those too -- like the opener "Eyes," in which a pretty melodic passage mutates into prickly no wave riffing and then, as the drums kick in, slow tribal pounding and enormous, harmonically dense guitars that dominate an arrangement designed to let these elements unfold in a concise but compelling manner that's every bit as catchy as it is terminally ominous. The no wave nostalgia makes itself even more obvious in "Ugly Crowds," which sounds very much like it could have been lifted from Lydia Lunch's classic album 13.13, but updated and treated doom-style for maximum heaviness. They also make effective use of unexpected tempo shifts in "Your God" and especially "Laughter of the Crows," where their superior dirge action abruptly turns into galloping punk speed on more than one occasion. Other tracks like "Tribute" do a fine job of welding the no wave aesthetic to their creeping doom, while "Animal" is definitely inspired by the punk-metal fury of early Killing Joke. Unlike a lot of doom bands, they remain supremely focused, with songs that are often on the long side but arranged well enough that they don't grow boring, and the eight songs on the album play out in only 46 minutes, which is practically abrupt for a doom band, especially in an era of eighty-minutes CDs. This is another great album from one of the most consistently interesting underground labels in this country right now, and an album so catchy that I have been playing it over and over despite having no free time whatsoever for such self-indulgence.

Alaric
20 Buck Spin

Black Cobra -- INVERNAL [Southern Lord]

There sure seem to be a lot of Bay Area bands with new albums out right now -- this one is the punishing brainchild of drummer Rafa Martinez (formerly of 16 and Acid King -- he replaced Guy Pinhas on bass for a few years after the band's third album), and this is really heavy shit, doom childe. I don't remember their early albums being this heavy; maybe that has something to do with Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou being in charge of the recording (he recorded last year's debut by Nails, one of the heaviest discs to crawl down the metal turnpike in eons, as well as a whole pile of seriously heavy albums by Trap Them, Kverletak, All Pigs Must Die, etc., etc.). At any rate, they come storming out of the gate with two galloping tracks, the aptly-titled "Avalanche" and "Somnae Tenebrae," both of which neatly approximate the sound of angry rioters hurling chunks of concrete at your head. They're all hurricane drumming and distorted guitar fury, which is cool, sure, but things start to really get interesting with "Corrosion Fields," which opens with pretty, melodic guitar before they turn up the volume and step back on the tempo to strike a grinding balance between riff-heavy hardcore and crushing doom. The mosh-worthy middle section offer subtle hints at the band's stoner doom lineage, but transform that basic sound into something far more aggressive than anything from the traditional stoner rock canon. And while the album's thrash and burn intensity gets a bit repetitive after a while, they throw in interesting digressions and melodic interludes at unexpected moments on tracks like "Beyond" (where the brief respite ends with some of the album's most ferocious drumming) and the vaguely psychedelic strumming in the intro to "Abyss." Still, the meat of this album lies in the brutal combination of intense drumming and heavy riffing from guitars that sound like molten lava pouring through the speakers, so if you're looking for a gateway to the complete obliteration of your senses, this is probably cheaper than drugs and way more likely to annoy your neighbors.

Black Cobra
Southern Lord

The Body / Braveyoung -- NOTHING PASSES [At A Loss Recordings]

This collaboration between Rhode Island duo The Body and North Carolina drone orchestra Braveyoung is interesting, and hardly a surprise, given that the two bands have been touring together over the past year and have collaborated onstage more than once. I have no idea how much of the studio material here (recorded at Machines With Magnets in Providence) is based on or inspired by their stage jams, but it's definitely a collaborative sound as opposed to one band grafting its sound onto the skeleton of the other band's work; the layers of sound and sparse arrangements unfold in an organic manner that often recalls the expansive, near-ambient sound of the more sprawling tracks from the Swans double-album opus SOUNDTRACKS FOR THE BLIND. "Song One" opens with feedback and crushing, dirge-like noise, but it's the lengthy "Song Two" where the Swans comparison really kicks in, as the song evolves from brooding ambient vapor to minimal playing accompanied by wordless choral vocals, eventually building into something resembling an actual song with loping beats and hollowed-out cyclone guitar; the sound gets denser and more articulated as the conclusion draws near, thanks largely to a smothering bass drone that at times threatens to overwhelm the rest of the frequencies in the song (and deliberately so, I'm sure). On "Nothing Passes," they explore the gruesome inner beauty of harsh noise and static, which serves as a malevolent background over which they superimpose simple but emotionally resonant layers of chamber music; over the course of time, the noise element eventually dies out and is replaced by the desolate sound of a mournful synth droning away. None of which prepares the listener for their cover of Exuma's "The Vision," the only track with vocals (and lovely female vocals at that), backed by strummed acoustic guitar, muted drums, and subtle noise textures. I haven't heard anything else by Braveyoung, so I have no idea how this sounds in comparison to their usual sound, but this is definitely the most sedate and restrained thing I've heard The Body associated with yet. Haunting without being forbidding, and (on the final track in particular) occasionally even beautiful, this is certainly worth investigating.

The Body
Braveyoung
At A Loss Recordings

Brutal Truth -- END TIME [Relapse Records]

In some ways, this is a far more important album for the band than their first post-reunion album of two years ago, EVOLUTION THROUGH REVOLUTION; with that album, metalheads were so overjoyed to have the band back after a long hiatus that the actual content of the album almost didn't matter. This time, though, the album has to stand on its own. The band must be thinking about this too, because they certainly make it clear from the starting gate that they aren't content to rest on past glories -- they open with nearly sixteen minutes worth of "Control Room," a supremely devolved jam that sounds like they're possessed by the spirit of Sun Ra, only with a much more manic drummer. Those expecting standard-issue grind will be scared off immediately; everyone who sticks around for the rest of the album will be reassured. Things get even more eye-opening with the second track, "Malice," which is considerably slower than the band's usual fare, approaching doom even, but shot through with bizarre guitar effects and strangulated riffing that recalls some of the stranger moments of NEED TO CONTROL. The songs that follow are a bit closer to what you expect from Brutal Truth -- fast, grinding, weird, and short -- and at times so crazed that they start to resemble tracks from drummer Rich Hoak's band Total Fucking Destruction ("Crawling Man Blues" is one such song). Things slow down again with "Warm Embrace of Poverty," one of the longer tracks, which is driven by some gnarly-sounding barbed-wire bass and a riff that actually grooves rather than grinds, but then it's back to the full-tilt assault, leavened with the truly psychedelic sounds of guitarist Eric Burke (especially on "Butcher," where his wiggly-squiggly guitar lines sound like a grinding take on free jazz). It's worth noting, too, that the band is remarkably consistent in terms of playing and energy throughout the album's 23 songs. Those who were worried that their excellent comeback on the previous album might have been a fluke can stop worrying. As with most of their releases, this will also be available in a limited edition box set that includes six bonus tracks, a twenty-page booklet, and other goodies (including a marijuana-scented disc card).

Brutal Truth
Relapse Records

Chthonic -- TAKASAGO ARMY [Spinefarm Records]

This is definitely not what I expected -- I always had the nebulous impression that this Taiwanese band was similar to Japan's Sigh (which is probably what I deserve for going by reviews and articles by lazy journalists instead of checking them out myself), but that's definitely not the case. Well, maybe on the atmospheric opener "The Island," which incorporates reedy woodwinds and orchestral sounds that build to something resembling a Morricone soundtrack epic, but this segues into "Legacy of the Seediq," which makes it very, very clear that the band is far heavier than I had anticipated. Even with bleating synths and touches of Oriental folk music, this is pretty intense stuff… but their fantastic mind-meld of all things Oriental and Western gives their approach to heaviness a much different feel than that of American or European bands. Between odd, shifting rhythms and the use of Oriental scales, they immediately establish themselves with a sound that's just familiar enough to readily appeal to the average metalhead, but just bizarre and different enough to set them apart from other bands attempting to merge folk sounds and extreme metal. There's also a serious martial feel to the drumming, which is hardly surprising when you consider that the album is essentially a concept album about World War II. In fact, on tracks like "Takao," the orchestration in general resembles that of a military marching band (beefed up, of course, with a wall of thrashing guitar and hyperkinetic drumming). And maybe there really is a valid reason for comparing them to Sigh, given the proggy synths in "Oceanquake," but they lean more toward a native folk sound more than prog to balance out their extremity (especially on the brief interlude "Root Regeneration," the most openly folk-like track on the album). What's really strange is how much they remind me of Impaled Nazarene when they ramp up the brutality (especially the vocalist, who sounds like he's been taking lessons from Mika), although that might go a long way toward explaining how they ended up on a Finnish label. Few things are more surreal than a band equally influenced by folk music and drunk metal Finns. Bonus points for bringing a fresh perspective and sound to the largely moribund genre of war metal, and for incorporating traditional sounds of their homeland into a metal framework dreamed up by long-haired freaks halfway across the world.

Chthonic
Spinefarm Records

Craft -- VOID [Southern Lord]

Is it even legal for black metal to be this obscenely catchy? Once you get past the nineteen-second quasi-ambient intro, the rest of the album is essentially classic Swedish death-metal melodicism filtered through the gruesome sound and aesthetic of raw, minimalist black metal. You can tell it's black metal because the arrangements are so deliberately basic, the drums largely simple, and the guitar sound swaddled in barbed wire (with the occasional tremelo-picked passage), but not only is the album far more melodic than most raw black metal, but super-catchy riffs are scattered all over the place (and sometimes collected in one place; "Come Resonance of Doom" is filled with great riffs and exquisitely hypnotic to boot, the way good black metal should be). There's also plenty of grinding rhythmic hate on tracks like "The Ground Surrenders" and "Leaving the Corporal Shade" (which also features plenty of cryptic guitar squiggles buried in the dense sound, along with more great -- and greatly primitive -- riffs), with a guitar sound that's thick, diseased, and harmonically dense. The wonderfully titled "I Want To Commit Murder" could almost pass for a Motorhead track, if it weren't for the wild tremelo guitar action and weird tonal shifts, and "Bring on the Clouds" has plenty of punk in its metal, but it's on the title track -- with its atmospheric opening, chunky main riff, and increasingly misanthropic guitar sound -- that they make it clear that, while they're obviously influenced by the early wave of 90s black metal, they are still very much their own entity with their own sound. Even for black metal, it's rare to find an album so steeped in deliberate ugliness that is still so compulsively listenable.

Craft
Southern Lord

Egg Chef -- "Opinions are Meaningless in the Void" 7" [Apop Records]

From the look of the band (weird radiation suits and masks) and the way they sound, I'm guessing they have a lot of Arab on Radar / Scissor Girls / Locust DNA in their collective bloodstream. The difference here is that while they favor the herky-jerky, frantic no wave assault pioneered by the aforementioned bands, they are on friendly terms with melody (even if the melodies are strange and they do their best to obliterate this shameful lust by burying it under the singer's agonized bleating).They're also quite succinct, packing three songs into a short running time (approximately ten minutes), although their fondness for hyped-up, sugar rush tempos certainly helps in that regard. As you might guess from the influences listed above, they favor a busy, cluttered sound that flirts with dissonance without succumbing to it, and they are much more tuneful than most bands riding the no wave zeitgeist. Strange, yes, but also strangely potent. This handy item comes with a printed insert of liner notes and lyrics, a wordless two-page mini-comic that might or might be an attempt to elaborate on the band's mythical origins (and feels suspiciously like blotter paper), and is pressed on piss-yellow vinyl. Limited to 375 copies.

Egg Chef
Apop Records

Brent Fariss -- FOUR ENVIRONMENTS… COLLAPSING [Kendra Steiner Editions]

Austin sound artist Fariss is no stranger to the fringe realms of exploratory sound -- aside from his solo work on contrabass performing works by Pauline Oliveros, Cornelius Cardew, and Phill Niblock, among others, he makes regular appearances in Austin venues as part of the Waco Girls and has recorded with Rick Reed. His choice of artists to cover says a lot about where he's coming from, and the recordings on this album, revolving mainly around the abstract use of field recordings, electronics, sampled voices, and contrabass, are definitely works of unorthodox experimental art. The title track features four contrabasses recorded in multiple environments and embellished with enigmatic field recordings, fireworks (!!!), and sine tones that frequently sound like a field of electrified katydids. There's plenty of emphasis on texture, especially where the field recordings and electronics are concerned, but there's also a high level of detail to the layers of sound -- especially in the segment featuring the sine waves -- and a marked compositional skill that is vital to integrating such disparate sounds into a mysterious and enigmatic whole. The sequencing on this disc is great, too, maximizing the inherent potential in juxtaposing wildly different approaches, with the result that the hypnotic contrabass / sine wave drone that makes up the tail end of the title track abruptly gives way to the loud crashing and dissonant sounds at the beginning of "Three Spirit Recorings," built around field recordings, electronics, more sampled voices, and percussion. The first third of the track is essentially an urban field recording strategically leavened with bursts of ugly electronics, but this is followed by a segment involving a woman's lengthy description of an extremely bizarre dream as glitch-like electronics and other sonic devolvement toil away in the background along with a layer of drone that appears when the dream-talk ends. The same elements -- ominous drone, scratchy electronics, more voices, and incidental sounds -- form the core of the remainder of the track, only assembled in different ways, providing different varieties of texture and tonal contrast. Moving in a completely different direction, "Witchcraft, Minutiae, and Other Rhythmic Inconsistencies" is more about silence and the space between sounds, with lengthy gaps of silence between bursts of crunchy noise textures, and -- later in the piece -- some seriously perverted sounds from what I assume are the contrabass (possibly processed). "Palestine," the final track, is an intriguing and gritty mix of field recordings and electronics that also includes additional sounds of a more musical nature whose origins are hard to identify -- could be processed sine waves, could be contrabass, might be something else entirely -- but whatever it is, these sound act as a nice counterpart to the grainy harsh noise rumble that acts as the track's bedrock texture. Bottom line: good compositions + swell sounds + excellent use of found sound = engaging listening for you. Limited to 89 copies, so don't snooze.

Brent Fariss
Kendra Steiner Editions

Fuck the Facts -- DIE MISERABLE [Relapse Records]

I like this Canadian grind band's DIY ethic -- they recorded the album themselves at home between tours -- but while they're unquestionably heavy, I'm not sure they totally qualify as pure grind; there are too many other ingredients in their sonic milkshake for this to really qualify as straight-up grindcore. Sure, they share grindcore's restless sociopolitical lyricism, and there are definite elements of the classic grind sound in tracks like "Drift," "Cold Hearted," and "A Coward's Existence," where grotesque guitars and machine-gun drumming perfectly embody grind's relentless drive and gross, harmonically dead sound, but elements of hardcore appear in tracks like "Lifeless" and, even more so, "Census Blank," which opens with a heavily repetitive guitar figure that straddles the line between grind and hardcore before the the rest of the band comes in, bringing even more power and violence to the tune. Then there's the title track, which opens with an impressive simulation of pure eternal doom in turgid slo-mo as an irradiated guitar warbles like an air-raid siren stuck on in an endless loop, and "Alone," which opens with a spare and brooding slice of minimal (and melodic) guitar that sounds lifted from one of Akitsa's more pensive moments before turning into a crushing mix of hardcore and doom that eventually gives way to a full-tilt grind frenzy. So while they're definitely coming from a grindcore background, they get bonus points for expanding their sonic palette. As with most grind-related releases, this is best experienced in small doses, and the album's 35-minute limit certainly helps in that respect.

Fuck the Facts
Relapse Records

Lessons -- DAVID BOWIE MARYLAND [800 Wild!]

I have no idea what David Bowie has to do with any of this, but Lessons are a Baltimore duo consisting of Justin Marc Lloyd (also of Pregnant Spore, among many others) and Andy Livingston (Ghost Volcano), both of whom appear to be involved in a wide variety of experimental / noise / WTF projects. This one involves the twisted use of psychedelic sounds -- not in the acid-rock sense, but in the sense of people whacked-out on heavy drugs and interpreting sound and color in a manner very different than most people (witness their eye-raping psychedelic pinwheel background at their web page, linked below, for visual evidence) -- and a devolved anti-rock stance to impart some seriously tripped-out sonic meanderings that walk a thin line between severely damaged art-rock and outright noise. A lot of this sounds like keyboards might have been the original instrument of sonic mutation although they list their sound sources as electronics, field recordings violin, and record players, so who knows? Whatever they're using, they're certainly making a disorienting racket… but for all the noisy sonic bombardment, there's an element of melody (sort of) inherent to most of these pieces, not to mention a persistent motif of minimalist percussion / beats and endless repetition that keeps the pieces anchored in a realm at least tenuously related to music. This sounds like it should be some long-lost demo recorded in a college bedroom in Providence, but apparently people in Baltimore scarf acid too. Who knew? Fans of diseased, rhythmic antimusic will love this.

Lessons
800 Wild!

Mournful Congregation -- THE BOOK OF KINGS [20 Buck Spin]

Last month, 20 Buck Spin released a compilation album by these Australian masters of slow wasting funeral doom, a collection of tracks from split releases (plus a bonus track taken from an obscure compilation); if that wasn't enough for you -- and it shouldn't have been, because it was absolutely brilliant -- then you will be transported with ecstasy to learn that they now have a new full-length release of all new material. For those not hep to the band, this is full-on doom in the vein of Skepticism, Thergothon, Funeral, and dISEMBOWELMENT -- excruciatingly slow, intensely atmospheric, and exquisitely bleak. it takes the band nearly eighty minutes to trudge through four eerie dirges, all at tempos that allow for serious hang time between beats, at lengths sufficient to give them plenty of room to move from crushing heaviness to passages of beautiful acoustic lightness. The opening twenty-minute track "The Catechism of Depression" (whose title elegantly sums up their mandate), sounds like early (real early) Black Sabbath at 16 rpm covering a Gregorian chant; the band's affinity for mesmerizing arrangements and guitar riffs and solos clearly inspired by blues-based doom eloquently makes the case that they are coming from a much different place than the current trend of more drone-oriented doom bands. Which is not to say there aren't wonderfully droning moments -- because there definitely are -- but despite their stunted tempos, this is a band that plays actual music (as opposed to chordal and single-note sustained drones) with great precision and a high level of emotional involvement. "The Bitter Veils of Solemnity" is an excellent example of their alignment with old-school musical values rather than modern drone / noise aesthetics, as its blues-based sonic textures are leavened with generous amounts of classical guitar (and well-played classical guitar, at that). The album's real center, though, is the 34-minute title track, in which the band trudges through movement after movement of different styles of doom while retaining their own sound throughout. This is heavy, wonderfully oppressive listening, and highly recommended for anyone into unbridled heaviness that unfurls at a glacial pace.

Mournful Congregation
20 Buck Spin

Noothgrush -- LIVE FOR NOTHING [Southern Lord]

Few bands are heavy enough to appear on a split with Corrupted and not look like sissies by comparison, but Noothgrush are one of them. Not only are they heavier than a truckload of concrete blocks, but they feature a female drummer (Chiyo Nukaga), a rarity in the testosterone-fueled world of sludge-laden doom. They formed in 1994 but split up in 2001, only to reform last year (thus joining the apparently endless parade of reunions), and have since busied themselves not only with a lot of touring, but reissuing a lot of out-of-print material (including FAILING EARLY, FAILING OFTEN, a collection of demo tracks and rarities, mainly from split releases, of which they have many) and compiling unreleased work as well. This disc is one of the latter works, a collection of two live radio broadcasts -- one from KZSU in 1996, the other from KFJC in 1999 -- mastered by From Ashes Rise guitarist Brad Boatright, and it's certainly gruesome in its downtuned heaviness. The recording quality is excellent, and the band's chops are sufficiently tight that you would have no way of knowing when one session left off and the next began were it not for the helpful DJ announcements at the beginning of each set. Even better, though, is the fact that the sets are almost totally different -- out of eighteen songs between the two sets, only one ("Derrell's Porno Song") is repeated, making this a nice cross-section of the band's entire catalog. In addition to wrangling their way through classic tunes like "Sith," "Gage," "Dianoga," "Starvation," "Stagnance," and "Hatred of the Species," they also throw in a supremely devolved cover of Celtic Frost's "Procreation of the Wicked" that slows it down considerably and turns an already heavy tune into something severely oppressive. (It's interesting, in light of Celtic Frost's decision to slow down this and other early tunes on the MONOTHEIST tour, to speculate as to whether or not Tom G. Warrior was aware of this cover when he decided to do the crawl.) Outside of this intriguing curveball, though, the entire disc is essentially a document of stripped-down, soul-crushing doom designed to ruin your day, just the way it should be. Now if they would just get around to recording some new tunes to go the flood of reissues….

Noothgrush
Southern Lord

Sky Burial -- THRENODY FOR COLLAPSING SUNS [Small Doses / Phage Tapes]

Sonic somnambulist Michael Page returns with one of the more interesting entries in the Sky Burial catalog. The first track, "Return to the Peripheries," opens in typical fashion with glitch noises and dark, swirling drones, and as the lengthy (23:05) piece progresses, the droning layers of sound grow thicker and more harmonically dense, but around the six-minute mark, an astounding thing happens: a throbbing synth line appears, first in a deeply minimalist fashion, with the effect of subtly rising from the fog to become, over time, a major component of the track's sound. That synth line drops out after a while as the drones stealthily rise in pitch and volume to approximate a choral sound, but returns again around the fourteen-minute mark, this time at a faster tempo and in a more insistent fashion. This techno-ish synth line is certainly a surprise, given the largely organic nature of Sky Burial's sound up to this point, but it works within the context of the track, and adds a nice element of propulsive movement to the swirl of sound. The techno synth line dies out a few minutes short of the end, leaving the track to gradually fade out in a slow-moving cloud of drones, and the most amazing thing about this track -- and a testament to Sky Burial's ongoing brilliance -- is that the sounds are so well organized, and the arrangement so good, that it never bogs down despite its length. "The Cadence of Collapse" introduces percussion -- another rarity for Sky Burial -- in the form of a military beat whose industrial feel is a reminder of his earlier work in the equally excellent industrial / noise band Fire in the Head. The pounding beat is accompanied by more drone action and synths that rise and fall; eventually the beat subsides and the synths become spacier and take on a more classic dark-ambient feel, one that is garnished by strange noises sliding around in the background. Another melodic synth line appears midway through the track -- simple in construction, but highly effective in tonality -- that also serves as a turning point in the track, the point at which the synth washes become more dominant and are joined by lurching rhythmic sounds that are not quite noise but otherwise impossible to identify. The theme of this track, apparently, is mutation: the sound keeps shifting regularly in tone and density, with unusual sounds sprinkled throughout at just the right spots for maximum effect. The final track, "Refractions From the Rift," also mixes rhythmic electronic sounds with the band's established drone 'n drift sound, to excellent effect. More industrial-themed percussion shows up, too, and by this time it becomes obvious that one of the biggest motifs of the album (and one I like best) is how things fade in and fade out, as if being momentarily revealed by a shifting sandstorm -- elements of the overall sound are obscured and revealed in deliberate fashion at unexpected points. One of the most interesting things about the album is how organic it sounds, despite the obvious proliferation of electronic devices used to create the sounds -- no small feat. Definitely worth hearing, like everything else in the Sky Burial catalog. As a final note, I'd like to point out that this is worth owning on cd just for the amazing artwork, which can't be fully appreciated in the postage-stamp size of your average download image. (See here for a picture of the cover.)

Sky Burial
Small Doses
Phage Tapes

Victory and Associates -- THESE THINGS ARE FACTS lp [Seismic Wave Entertainment]

Okay, first fact: journalistic ethics requires me to divulge up front that I am biased about this album. Not only is singer / guitarist Conan Neutron a friend of mine, but I participated in the Kickstarter fundraiser that made the existence of this album possible. Second fact: even if these things were not true, I would happily sing the praises of this swell, swell band. (I contributed to the Kickstarter fund because I was already a fan of the band and knew they were going to make something worth hearing.) Third fact: the band is a quartet from Oakland, CA who play a loud, bracing form of pop-rock that draws equally from the wells of punk, indie-rock, and classic rock to craft memorable, anthemic tunes that are every bit as catchy as they rock hard. Fourth fact: the guys in this band have all been playing in rocking live bands for some time now; they are not even remotely neophytes at the at the art of fucking you gently in the ear, and their collective dedication to the fine art of winging it in front of drunks has only sharpened their already formidable playing skills. Fifth fact: they write really good songs, primarily uptempo anthems with titles like "Get Tough, Get Through It," "You Can't Eat Prestige" (probably my favorite track on the album), "Brothers Doing It For Themselves," "You Can't Stop the Signal," "Mistake Museum," and "Home Is Where You Hang Your Hope." They even manage to sound upbeat with tremendous sincerity without coming across as naive geeks (a monumental sense of humor, merely hinted at in the satirical titles, certainly helps). Sixth fact: They are an irony-free band. Humor they have in spades, but they really mean it, and while they don't take themselves all that seriously, they take their music (and, to an equal degree, their responsibility to their fans and supporters) seriously indeed. Seventh fact: if you buy the vinyl version, you may never make it to the second side because the first side is so awesome that you'll want to keep it playing it over and over. (When you do eventually flip the record over, you'll discover that the flip side is just as good.) Eighth fact: There are no bad songs on this album, a rarity in this day and age. Ninth fact: The packaging for the LP version of this release is exceptional. We're talking 180-gram translucent red vinyl housed in a full-color gatefold sleeve and an accompanying full-sized booklet with amazing photos, lyrics, and liner notes. Tenth fact: Did I mention that Mackie Osborne (that would be the wife of Melvins guitarist King Buzzo, fool, the woman responsible for their memorable album graphics) did the amazing cover art? Eleventh fact: You can preview the entire album in streaming format (and buy it in vinyl or download format) at their Bandcamp site. Twelfth fact: my cats, who have much better taste than I do, approve of this album. Thirteenth fact: if you can't enjoy an album this awesome (in both sound and packaging), then there is something wrong with you, and you should maybe, like, I don't know, look into that or something, all right?

Victory and Associates
Seismic Wave Entertainment

who stole the rain?

2011-09-05T06:21:00.001-04:00

William Bowers -- POST MODERN [Haute Magie]

Minimalist electronic music -- it does a body good, doom childe. Which brings us to this, the latest release by William Bowers (after previous albums under the names Christgau’s Last Stand and Narshe), in which he channels prime-meat Virgin-era Tangerine Dream by way of early Aphex Twin. Both of those bands, in the periods in question, were pioneers in the concept of using electronic equipment and sound processing to create interesting textures chained to relatively simple arrangements that derived much of their power from hypnotic repetition, an idea that first emerged in Tangerine Dream’s PHAEDRA and culminated in Aphex Twin’s SELECTED AMBIENT WORKS VOLUME II. A similar thought process is at work here, one that nods in the direction of these aforementioned artists (and possibly Brian Eno as well) while presenting an original sound and vision. The nine tracks on this album are built mainly around minimal synth warbling and repetitive sound textures and melodies designed to evoke the feel of the city at night; while there are elements of techno to the sound, what little percussion exists on tracks like “Art Nouveau” and “Subway Tourist” are simple and muted. Many of the tracks, in fact, have no percussion at all, or else percussion that is nothing more than a simple looped beat; on “Happy Wandering,” the closest the album comes to anything resembling a traditional techno track, the beat is almost nothing more than muffled static, which is then overlaid with bright arpeggiated melodies that weave together to form a new and persistent rhythm of its own. Other tracks, like “Skyscraper Nat’l Park” and “Atlas,” are closer to exercises in brooding dark ambient sound that is sometimes leavened with cryptic bursts of processed sound deliberately at odds with the more symphonic sounds. It’s interesting to note that Bowers often manages to employ sounds that, in a different context, might be considered nothing but noise, but which here are incorporated into genuinely beautiful melodies, giving those melodies an unusual and sometimes haunting texture. It takes a lot more talent than you might think to create music this consistently engaging from such minimal arrangements and simple sounds. Highly recommended listening. Limited to 100 copies.

Haute Magie

Cau-Cational Betreet -- DREDGE [Neigh Music]

I have no idea what's up with the strange name, but these cats are a three-piece noise-improv outfit from England and boy, do they make a fearsomely glorious racket. I don't know what they used to compose the five slices of mondo noise on this disc, but it's hard to believe only three people (a drummer and two guitarists) can conjure up such a vivid, swirling vortex of sound. The opening track, "Rot Gut," is a violent burst of near-random cacaphony punctuated by wild drum beats and what sounds like the two guitarists trying to outdo each other in coming up with the most violently shred-o-rific noise; "Foul Meadow" is a bit closer to an actual song, sort of like death metal by way of shrieking noise guitar, and "Vortice Churner" is a noisier version of dark ambient suitable for use as the soundtrack to a Shinya Tsukamoto short film; "Slurry Dump" infuses a hefty element of doom to their enigmatic noise bleat, while "Bilge Tank" -- at over sixteen minutes -- is their epic assault on the senses, and by far their most psychedelic, sounding very much like the unholy spawn of a primitive noise-rock band and Les Rallies De Nudes on a serious acid bender. This is what they call brilliant shit, doom childe. And real obscure -- the band doesn't appear to have a web site, and the label's site appears to be down, so how you're going to hear this whole-grain goodness is beyond me....

Neigh Music

Matt Davignon -- LIVING THINGS [Edgetone]

It's hard to believe all the sounds on this album were made with a drum machine, but there it is, listed as the sole instrument. Of course, those drum machine sounds have been heavily filtered and processed, and probably cut up and the pieces reconfigured as well, so the results sound nothing like what you would normally expect from a beat box. The resulting sounds are a mix of dark ambient, electronica, and psychedelic music, with tones that more often suggest synths and woodwind instruments; occasionally there are sounds vaguely recognizable as beats, but they are sparse, intermittent, and not employed for the normal purposes of timekeeping, which just adds to the mysterious nature of the recordings. The ghost of the drum machine can still be detected, though, in the heavily rhythmic feel to the proceedings -- even when the sounds don't even remotely resemble beats, they still appear in patterns as repetitive figures. What I like best is the really disconcerting tonal palette, one I associate more with the extreme end of dark ambient; in a lot of places the ambient sound has an alienated, hollowed-out sound that's one step removed from being something off an industrial record, or perhaps a grim interlude from an atmospheric black metal tune, but here that sound is employed in more of a psychedelic context. There's definitely a heavy experimental vibe to the sound construction and arrangements, too, which keeps things interesting. Peculiar indeed, but the execution makes it clear that the concept works much better than you might expect.

Matt Davignon
Edgetone

Desalmado -- HEREDITAS ep [Greyhaze Records]

If the heavy-ass sounds on this EP remind you of Sepultura, there's a good reason: not only are they from Brazil and obviously steeped in Sepultura's influence, but the album has a raw intensity on par with the early, stripped-down Sepultura releases. With six tracks flying by in fifteen minutes, they get their point across in a hurry (the opening track "Condenados Pelo Odio," at 3:51, is the longest track here), and while their grinding metal thrash unquestionably owes a lot to Sepultura (particularly their classic album BENEATH THE REMAINS), they are far more concise than Sepultura ever were. They're also every bit as heavy, especially when they slow down and deliver crushing breakdowns (there's a particularly effective one in "Miseria Escravatura"), although their songwriting skills could use some sharpening -- their punishing attack grows mildly repetitive after a while, which may well be why they opted to debut with a short slice of heaviness rather than the full-length (which they're currently working on, and which is being produced by Sepultura's Jean Dolabella) -- but they surely do not lack for chops or fierceness. This is a highly promising taste of what is sure to come on the full-length scheduled to appear later this year. Available as digital download or a 10" vinyl EP.

Desalmado
Greyhaze Records

Enablers -- BLOWN REALMS AND STALLED EXPLOSIONS [Exile on Mainstream]

San Francisco's Enablers embrace a pretty bizarre aesthetic: spoken word welded to a weird variant of prog-metal. It's not hard to see why Neurot Recordings (who released their first two albums) found them so appealing; but now, with their second album for EOM, they've drifted even further out into left field, with a wildly eclectic sound that builds on the interlocking metallic riffs of guitarists Joe Goldring and Kevin Thompson and jazzy drumming of Doug Scharin, adding a wild variety of sounds on top of this core to create a most unusual sound. Throughout the album, no matter what extraneous sounds have been piled atop the band's basic tracks, it's the core elements of the band's aesthetic -- the spoken-word vignettes and a sound that meets somewhere in the middle of prog-rock and jazz -- that carry everything forward. While their songs are surprisingly accessible for such an avant concept, they're definitely far removed from anything resembling pop or traditional metal. It's worth noting that they could never pull off something so bizarrely ambitious if they weren't such unquestionably skilled musicians; it also helps that they have interesting and fresh ideas about song arrangements, in which they manage to move in unexpected directions without sounding forced. The next time somone tells you there's nothing new or interesting happening in music these days, throw this on and demonstrate otherwise.

Enablers
Exile on Mainstream

End of Level Boss -- EKLECTRIC [Exile on Mainstream]

More proggy weirdness from a label that's become increasingly eclectic and out-there as of late, this time by London's End of Level Boss, whose third album features a new rhythm section and more technical prog in the vein of King Crimson and Magma. I can see their appeal to the label in that their vocalist sounds like he was drafted from a power-metal band, but the band itself is all about oddness, with complicated time signatures, bizarre shifts in tempo and dynamics, and a tendency to spiral off in a dozen different directions within the context of any given song. They take the weirdness of Voivod to a new level, with an attack that is heavy without being strident, and while they share technical death metal's fondness for ornate guitar lines and twisted song arrangements, they are less inclined to add excessive distortion to their sound, and as a result they frequently sound more like a post-metal band after being bent into pretzel-like shapes. It's weird, but it's a good kind of weird.

End of Level Boss
Exile on Mainstream

Massimo Falascone / Bob Marsh -- NON TROPPO LONTANO [Eh?]

More arcane sounds from the more eclectic branch of Public Eyesore (which is really saying something), courtesy of Falascone (sax, samples, electronics) and Marsh (violin, voice, more electronics). This is some seriously disjointed, almost hallucinatory stuff -- working together as a severely avant free (extremely free) jazz duo, they immediately transform their core sound, rooted in the interplay between sax and violin, by piling on a dizzying array of bizarre sounds through the use of a sampler and various forms of electronic processing. Just to make things even more peculiar, Marsh provides a twisted form of fragmentary vocals at what seem like random intervals, contributing snippets of phrases and odd grunts; much of the time his vocals appear to have been chopped and screwed, and in the context of already unpredictable playing, it often sounds as if you're listening to a tape that was left to warp in the sun. Throughout the ten tracks, they work tirelessly at tormenting their instruments and gadgets into bending the shape of sound into funny balloon shapes, to intensely disorienting effect. Those not down with the eccentric charm of the fringes of the improv world will probably find this unlistenable, but if it's mutant sounds you seek, this is definitely worth a listen.

Massimo Falascone
Bob Marsh
Eh?

IfIHadAHiFi -- NADA SURF + 3 ep [Latest Flame]

These are facts, dudes and dudettes: the four wholesome-looking lads (not five, despite what the NATIONAL REVIEW seems to think) of this compact rock 'n roll army are from Milwaukee, WI; the EP's enigmatic name is a tit-for-tat response of sorts to the band Nada Surf, who borrowed their name for the title of a 2010 album of cover songs; the "+3" segment of the title apparently refers to the tracks from a mythical single that may or may not be released in conjunction with the EP; and said EP will be available on vinyl (with a bonus download of their recent protest song "Imperial Walker") and cd (with the bonus track included). They're also on tour, playing to a series of largely empty rooms, which is too bad, since I'm pretty sure a band this energetic has to be swell live. Their sound is essentially a loud collision of no-wave noise, hyperactive punk rock, and drill-sergeant barking that's far more catchy than that description suggests -- you can dance to this, assuming you have enough energy -- and titles like "Minotaur Documentation," "Spy in the House of Fuck," and "Arson, You Let Me Down" suggest not only a surreal sensibility but a black sense of humor as well. The intensity (and sonic density) of their sound is matched by the heavy preponderance of swell riffs and, buried under the sonic mung, a surprising level of melodicism that helps considerably to separate them from the more pedestrian noise-rock pretenders. You can get a whiff of their politics on the bonus track, "Imperial Walker" (which is currently available for download on their Bandcamp site for a measly buck, which will go to Russ Feingold's new Progressives United PAC), a short and frantic burst of scorn directed at the doofus currently attempting to run their home state into the ground.

IfIHadAHiFi
Latest Flame Records

Lake of Tears -- ILLWILL [AFM Records]

I know next to nothing about this Swedish band, who formed in the early 90s, broke up for a few years around the turn of the century, then reformed again a few years later (the story of a great many death metal bands), but this is a pretty engaging piece of work. The sound they have on this album is supposedly a new direction of sorts, but since I haven't heard any of their previous work, I have no idea how any of it sounds by comparison. It's certainly European-sounding (especially where the face-melting solos are concerned), and like most Swedish metal, highly melodic, but the song structures (and tempos) owe much to early death metal. I especially like the rhythm guitar sound, which owes a lot to early Noise bands like Celtic Frost and Kreator, but while their songs are nowhere near as thrashed-out as those bands, they are well-constructed and largely free of the unneccesary ornamentation that trips up a lot of death metal bands who inevitably get too clever for their own good. They're also considerably catchier (it must be a Swedish thing). The emphasis on melody almost guarantees the presence of a ballad, and sure enough, "House of the Setting Sun" is a brooding sonic epistile that creeps along while constantly threatening to explode into something more aggressive without ever actually doing so. It's the only moment of anything resembling tranquility on an otherwise aggressive and remarkably focused record, though, and the album as a whole is certainly a respectable piece of work.

Lake of Tears
AFM Records

Lid Emba -- TERMINAL MUSE: BLUE [Stickfigure Records]

This is the second installment of a color-themed trilogy from Atlanta, GA's Lid Emba (actually one Sean Moore), with seven tracks of heavy rhythms swaddled in dark-ambient drone and noise. Early works by Cluster and This Heat are big influences on the experimental sounds that manifest themselves here; the opening track "dawning" brings the noise immediately, with stuttering bursts of static and keyboard drone that lead into "macedonia," with more machine-like processed rhythms doing battle with some truly avant, manic drumming that keeps rolling off in different directions without ever completely abandoning the beat. The fascination with processed noises and erratic beats continues on "stuttercrow," which sounds like a demented futuristic take on calypso music -- a transmission from the lost islands of the future, perhaps? Things shift into a more downtempo gear on the lengthy "iscariot," where ominious drone and slow, muted beats are the dominant feature; the piece evolves through the gradual layering of sonic textures and subtly growing dynamics, but never so much that it loses its languid feeling. The tracks that follow, "dusking" and "zakula," mark a return to the beats and noise combination of the earlier tracks, although the latter is initially less agitated than the others, even with the inclusion of some static-laden loops, although it becomes more intense over time without becoming strident. The final track, "macedonian," is a supremely devolved remix of "macedonia" by James Plotkin (who also mastered the disc) that turns the track into something even more bizarre and explosive. As strange as it is sophisticated, this is definitely a worthy exploration of the fields of experimental sound first investigated by the likes of Cluster, Eno, and This Heat. Art kills, indeed.

Lid Emba
Stickfigure Records

Mournful Congregation -- THE UNSPOKEN HYMNS [20 Buck Spin]

Now this is what doom metal should sound like: painfully slow and monumentally depressing. Hailing from Australia since 1993, they are early proponents of the funeral doom scene that includes equally desolate acts like Skepticism and Asunder, and this collection of tunes now being made available in the US for the first time is the reissue of four tracks originally only available on splits with acts like Worship, Stabat Mater, Stone Wings, Orthodox, Loss, and the godlike (and sadly defunct) Otesanek, plus a bonus cover. The first track, "Left Unspoken" -- a remixed version of their contribution to the four-way split FOUR BURIALS -- sets the dirgelike pace with creeping drums, drawn-out fuzz guitar, mournful vocals, and an atmospheric sound that's every bit as menacing as the song is slow (and believe me, it is real fucking slow). The other four tracks are every bit as slow and dirgelike -- it takes them over forty minutes to run through the bunch -- although each one has its own surprises, such as the folk guitar motifs and ornate solo of "The Epitome of Gods and Men Alike" (from the split with Worship). "A Slow March to the Burial," from their split with Stabat Mater, features a breakdown of sorts where they approximate doom-mosh (sort of) with a brief passage of double-time riffing... of course, at tempos this stunted, their version of double-time is not exactly speed metal. "Descent of the Flames," from their split with Stone Wings, is a return to the hellish simplicity of the first track, spiced with spooky acoustic guitar passages amid the soul-crushing doom. They wrap things up, appropriately enough, with a cover of "Elemental," originally by Finnish funeral doom pioneers Thergothon, an act so obscure that even serious doom enthusiasts may well be unaware of their existence (they formed in 1990 and split after the release of their one full-length album in 1994). Mad props to 20 Buck Spin for rounding up all this obscure material in one convenient package. In even better news, it turns out this is just a prelude to the forthcoming agony of their new full-length, which the label will release in November.

Mournful Congregation
20 Buck Spin

Neurosis -- SOVEREIGN ep [Neurot Recordings]

This is the latest installment in Neurot's masterplan to reissue their flagship band's earliest output, and it's significant for several reasons: one, it was the band's first release on Neurot (with the vinyl farmed out to Hydra Head); two, it bridges the gap between their classics TIMES OF GRACE and A SUN THAT NEVER SETS; three, this reissue includes a new and previously unreleased track, "Misgiven." Where TOG was the album where they began to move away from their hardcore roots into more experimental realms (including ambient music, found sound, and more unorthodox arrangements), and ASTNS was the point at which they began making music without worrying about their ability to play it back in a live context, this EP forms a link between the two, with tracks that are an extension of the sound they began exploring on the previous album, but still (probably) playable live. Their psychotronic approach to post-metal on this release centers heavily around repetitive tribal drumming and songs that move from bass-heavy riffs through ominous passages of simple but haunting playing before eventually growing heavier and more complex. With the exception of "Flood," which clocks in at a paltry 4:15, these are mostly extended songs designed for multiple movements and journeys through different levels of conflicting emotion (and levels of sonic intensity to match), culminating in the morose title track, which takes over thirteen minutes to club you into submission. The bonus track exclusive to the release, "Misgiven," is a grim and (intentionally) torturous exercise in deep-down bass hell and grinding, squealing feedback that is considerably different than the rest of the EP, if every bit as emotionally exhausting.

Neurosis
Neurot Recordings

PAS -- PURE ENERGY OUTPUT SESSIONS [PAS Records]

This musical collective from Brooklyn, NY, spearheaded by one Robert L. Pepper, are an experimental audiovisual group with roots in dark ambient and processed sound who have collaborated in the past with the likes of Z'EV, Philippe Petit, Steve Bersford, Visitor Q, the Vultures, and a multitude of other like-minded artists across the experimental / industrial spectrum. They also curate events such as the annual Experi-MENTAL Festival and have performed not only in the US and the UK but in places as far away as the Netherlands, Greece, and Poland. They obviously have an impressive pedigree, and their experience in the gestation of weird sounds is reflected in the tracks on this disc. Their approach, while evidently informed by the early industrial sound of bands like Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Z'EV, is complex enough (and layered with the additional spicy bits of dark ambient and electronica) that it's largely impossible to even guess how the sounds in their exotic soundscapes were made. Is that a sampled and processed vocal chorus in "Travel Into"? What's the source of all that clanging that acts as a counterpoint to the heavy bass rhythm in "Explanation Without Words"? What's making all those high-pitched wailing sounds in "Faith," like an army of dying pipe organs? Such mysteries abound on just about every track. While it's true that these tracks are more accurately described as soundscapes than actual songs, they certainly aren't thrown together -- there's a cohesiveness to the way they collect and layer the elements in their sound collages, and their approach to tone is considerably different than that of their industrial forebears. Much of this, in fact, more closely resembles (at least in tonal quality) the early work of Tangerine Dream or Cluster, despite the fact that their approach and compositional aesthetics have more in common with the industrial movement that came a decade or so later (especially on tracks like "Piano Music For Volcano Eruption," "Joy," and "Sunrise of the Distorted Mind," where they briefly channel the spirit of Einsturzende Neubauten). Their background strongly suggests they are hardly novices at the art of constructing experimental soundscapes; the tracks on the disc easily confirm their talent for such, and this is definitely worth seeking out and hearing.

PAS

Peste Noire -- L'ORDURE A L'ETAT PUR [Transcendental Creations]

It comes as no surprise that this is the work of a French band, because only the French could interpret black metal in such a willfully perverse manner. This sounds like an unholy, puzzling union between French black metal, the obscure and operatic horror-obsessed band Devil Doll, early Butthole Surfers, and an oompah band tripping on serious quantities of mescaline. Seriously, leader Famine is credited with, among other things, "chicken imitation" (a first, I am sure, for a black metal band of any stripe). I'm not sure what to make of this (hell, I'm not sure what any rational person could make of this), but they certainly get points for originality. When the clouds of perversity part from time to time, the band bursts forth with some really manic, lo-fi black metal that manages to capture the spirit of second-wave black metal primitivism without obviously aping the sound of the classic band everybody these days likes to "borrow" from (Burzum, Darkthrone, Emperor, and so forth). The best track (and the closest they come to anything even remotely in keeping with traditional black metal) is probably "J'avais reve du Nord," a 21-minute epic featuring, among other things, ethereal female vocals, pagan-style fingerpicked passages, and plenty of intensely rampaging war metal. Even then, their raging black metal tends to devolve into weird experimental sound collages and other sonic craziness, to point where it's hard to tell if they're a black metal band with an experimental bent or an experimental band dabbling in black metal. Either way, it's one of the strangest black metal listening experiences you'll ever hear, and definitely recommended to those seeking a new take on an increasingly moribund genre.

Peste Noire
Transcendental Creations

Pestilence -- DOCTRINE [Mascot]

Here we have yet another old-school death metal band, originally formed in 1986 in the Netherlands, who have recently reformed (in 2008) after a long silence (in this case, fourteen years). This is their second release since reforming, and features some interesting changes; the lineup has been reshuffled to include Obscura bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling, who played with the band in its final years, and new drummer Yuma van Eekelen (also of The New Dominion). Original members Patrick Mameli (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Uterwijk (guitars) round out the band, but they bring an added surprise of their own this time around with the introduction of eight-string guitars, whose addition has forced Mameli to sing in a higher register to avoid his vocals being lost in the low-edge guitar crunch. I'm new to the band, so I can't comment on how much difference there is between this and earlier works (although since I know SPHERES mixed jazz fusion and guitar synths into their sound, I think I can safely assume this -- a far more brutal and metallic album -- is vastly different than that one), but this certainly holds up respectably as a weapon of sonic aggression, especially given the age of the primary members. (It helps that the drummer, who has the most physically demanding job here, is still in his early twenties.)

The album itself has progressive elements that echo back to their earlier days, most notably in the opening track "The Predication," which is basically Mameili doing an increasingly frantic-sounding spoken word piece, and the sound of strings at the beginning of "Dissolve," but their main focus is heaviness, sheer blind heaviness. The technical aspect of their sound manifests itself in bizarre, complex rhythms, and there's plenty of nods to their progressive side in solos that frequently take on a jazzy feel, but the speed at which they perform and the ferocity of their attack are pure throwbacks to the early days of thrash / death metal. They do a fine job of striking an excellent balance between technical prowess and sheer brutality, and Mameli's change of vocal direction only helps with the intensity of their sound. They even manage to infuse their heaviness with openly catchy riffs at times (as on "Sinister" and "Deception") without blunting the violence of their sound or their progressive vision. This is definitely not the work of guys coasting on previous accomplishments, and whether you're an old-school Pestilence fan or new to the fold, this is worth checking out.

Pestilence
Mascot Records

Qing CIA -- RURAL SOUND ANIMATION II [Neigh Music]

This sounds like it should have been released on Public Eyesore -- nine people (some actual musicians, some not, possibly all liquored up) got together and used whatever they could get their hands on, from real instruments to chairs and playing cards, to make three tracks of... of... well, something. For improv music -- although now that I think of it, incidental music might be more accurate -- this sounds awfully close to soundtrack music, at least on "The Tale of a Woman's Horse." These agents of the random ply their inscrutable trade in similar fashion on two other tracks, both of them long, one of which bears the awesome title "The hideous neighbor and his unusual hands," a title Dostovesky probably wishes he had thought of (or would if he weren't still so very, very dead). Is there much ugliness lurking in the sonic omlette? O mas oui, there most certainly is. Is it interesting, nay, even illuminating? Sure, as long as you're down with the whole random-sounds improv dealio. What are your chances of acquiring this deathless treasure? Not very high, seeing as how the label appears to have vanished, with a website that appears to have disappeared as well. Maybe you'll get lucky and PE will somehow dig this up and reissue it, but I doubt it.

Neigh Music

Random Touch -- TRIBUTARY (2 x cd) [Token Boy Records]

I know these cats are prolific -- since 1999, they've released at least one and sometimes two albums a year, most recently last year's REVERBERATING APPARATUS -- but here they are again, with not one but two discs of free improv encompassing 23 tracks in just under two hours. As usual, the trio consists of Scott Hamill (guitar, bass, and related efx), James Day (keyboards), and Christopher Brown (drums, percussion, vocals, and other odd noisemakers), and this outing finds them in a relatively mellow mood -- there's still plenty of unpredictable flow and chaos to their approach to improv, but with a few exceptions, it's mostly in the melodious realm rather than the cacaphonous. The first disc, entitled FLOW, opens with one of those exceptions; "To Be Hear" is all over the place, with a wide variety of sounds overrunning each other and culminating in a mad burst of wild dissonance, but the tracks that follow -- especially "Just So" -- are considerably more restrained, even meditative at times, although the use of distorted vocals (a recurring motif) appear on "More," which, despite its relatively mellow vibe, has some brief stabs of dissonant sound. Strange processed sounds are a regular part of the band's sound, especially on "How Blessed We Are," where insistent drumming, mutant vocalizing, and what sounds like various instruments being disassembled create a surreal listening experience. Eerie keyboard drone and wailing sounds play a big part in the sound of "Intend," where shifting dynamics (especially in volume), trilling guitar sounds, and enthusiastic free drumming ratchet up the excitement level.

The eleven tracks on the second disc (entitled FLOWER) are a bit more electronic in nature, but otherwise not radically different than the material on the first disc. "Inhalation" overlays electronic bleeps and dark ambient washes of sound over muffled bursts of percussion, while an electronic pulse forms the backbone of "From the Inside Out," over which mumbled vocals and errant bursts of odd sound come and go even as the density of sound builds into something much heavier and complex than the track's initial minimalism might have suggested. "Languid Limbs" largely lives up its name with a relaxed and jazzy feel that nevertheless manages to incorporate some unusual sonic textures and periodic bursts of percussive thunder, while the electronic rhythms make a return in "Gaining Orbit." Percussion and polyrhythms are the focus of "Festival of Inattention" and "The Opposite of Memory" (the latter of which also features more distorted vocals and electronica), while tracks like "A Rain of Grace" and "Into the Guns" are more subdued and restrained (although every bit as quixotic in their use of mystifying sounds and textures). The entire double-disc experience is very much in keeping with their most recent attempts at exploring the boundaries of sound in a manner that meets somewhere at the intersection of free improv, world music, and ambient drone, all while sounding like the world of a remarkably eclective live band. Enigmatic but intriguing, as always.

Random Touch
Token Boy Records

Same Sex Dictator -- FROM BENEATH YOU IT DEVOURS [Longway Records]

Now here's an obscurity: the band's second album, originally released on LP by Longway Records (which is apparently now defunct, so if you want a copy, you'll have to contact the band directly at flophaus@hotmail.com). These days the band is a duo (Lee Cizek on bass, synth, piano, and vocals plus Justin Straw on drums, percussion, and vocals), and while I think they originally started out as a hardcore band, they're certainly a far different beast these days, with progressive and doom elements to their sound. In fact, they remind me at times of The Body -- another duo with doom-prog leanings -- although they're nowhere near as catastrophically slow and heavy as that band. (Well, "Turning State's Evidence" is pretty slow, and certainly heavy enough for my tastes.) The subject matter varies (although with titles like "The Shocking Discovery," "Get Out of My Dreams and Into My Trunk," "Turning State's Evidence," and the title track, it's obvious those subjects tend to be morbid ones), but the dark, oppressive sound is a constant. Cizek's ominous guitar sound -- frequently modified by a battery of efx boxes, especially on the title track -- coupled with Straw's complex, proggy drumming and tortured howling create a genuinely forbidding sound. Still, there are surprises: the almost-funky fuzz-synth sound of "Beyond Thee Anti-Lord Beat," for instance, and the spaced-out dark ambient intro (accompanied by pounding, stuttering drums) of "The Redeadening," along with various electronic flourishes that appear from time to time among the other tracks. It's these extra details that elevate the band's sound to something more than just glowering doom; while their essential core is one of bleak heaviness, their fondness for prog rock and experimental sounds give them a much broader and more interesting sound than that of your average doom-rock enthusiasts. This is excellent stuff, as heavy and uncompromising as it is weird and different, and well worth seeking out despite its obscurity.

Same Sex Dictator

Sarabante -- REMNANTS [Southern Lord]

It's no surprise Southern Lord would be interested in this Greek crust / hardcore band; they are supremely intense, with a tremendous level of energy that never lets up in the 34 minutes it takes them to plow through eleven songs. What is a bit surprising is how melodic their sound is, even when delivered at train-wreck velocity. Their vocalist is a yelling kind of dude straight out of the old-school hardcore handbook, and their drummer has more of a crusty edge to his driving attack, but it's unquestionably the guitars that are the band's secret weapon. Their riffs are infused with a level of melodicism that's unusual for a band this willfully intense; of course, those melodic sounds are frequently disguised as bursts of audio shrapnel (as on "Revelation"), and played at such hellsonic speeds as to often sound like a whirling hall of knives being aimed at your ears. They slow down just a smidgen on "Our Day of Torment (Here and Now)," even pausing for a brief and deceptively simple guitar passage before racheting up the intensity level again, but outside of this and a few moments of respite (like the one that comes in the middle of "Remnants"), they remain fully in whirlwind mode for most of the album. Did I mention that they are intense? The album is available as part of the label's underground series, limited to a thousand copies.

Sarabante
Southern Lord

Secret Druid Society -- RESTLESS [First Fallen Star]

I never imagined Sydney, Australia to be a prime breeding ground for deep ambient drone, but that’s what we have here -- seven tracks of apocalyptic deep drone that’s both cold and majestic, with a symphonic sound that nevertheless owes much to the alienated minimalism of the original isolationist movement. Clouds of sound billow and drift, with a sound that’s deep and harmonically rich, and while nothing much happens -- as with the best minimal death drone -- it happens (or doesn’t happen) with style and enormous panache. The gorgeous digipack cover features snow-covered mountains enshrouded in fog and sun-dappled clouds, and those images are very much in tune with the clouds of sound emanating from the seven tracks on this album. It doesn’t hurt that the recording quality is excellent, with plenty of depth to the layers of sound; this is definitely not a four-track bedroom album. Excellent stuff, and far more soothing and tonally enraptured than the average dark ambient album. Limited to 500 copes.

First Fallen Star

Squash Bowels -- TNYRIBAL ep [Selfmadegod]

Polish grindcore is always nasty, hateful stuff, and this gory variation of the same is no different. Originally released in 2000 by the Czech label Obscene Productions, this version contains the original six tracks in a a six-panel digipak with new artwork and a redesigned layout. I don't know if they bothered to remaster it or not (is it sensible or even legal to remaster grind albums?), but it's grind the way grind should sound -- lots of hyperactive pounding and growling, propelled by a drummer so fast and yet so tight that it's hard to believe he's human and narrated by a vocalist who alternates between demented howling and guttural burps. I'm not so thrilled by the abrupt fade at the end of "Dark Corridors," and like most grind albums things tend to get a little repetitive (all the more reason it makes sense for this to be a short EP), but they liven things up with plenty of fitful stops and starts, diseased machine noises scattered through the tracks, and a truly ugly (and deliberately so) drum sound in "Zema Inpa." The brief passage of ominous dark ambient sound in the middle of "Black Thing" is a nice touch, too. As with most (maybe all) grindcore, it's pretty much impossible to tell what the vocalist is yelling about, but then again, with a name like Squash Bowels, do you really want to know?

Squash Bowels
Selfmadegod Records

Trophy Wives -- OLD SCRATCH [Latest Flame]

They hail from Louisville, KY, but they have less in common with that city's favorite (obscure) sons Slint than with roots rock -- not only do they have a vaguely alt-country (by way of Neil Young) feel much of the time, but this is a band that seriously believes in the disappearing art of the guitar solo. This is an old-school rock album advanced by an airtight rhythm section and a twin-guitar attack of considerable finesse; of course, none of this would matter if they didn't have good songs, but that they have in spades. You can tell they're out of step with the times (and in a good way) by the fact that they've been together since 2007 (they added a second guitarist two years later), yet they are just now releasing their debut album, which has given them plenty of time to write and craft a stellar body of tunes. They also offer a satisfying variety of sounds and stylistic permutations: bracing hard rock with fizz-laden guitars and brilliant, twisting solos on "A Taste of Your Medicine" and "Bad Tattoos," the poppier fare of "Crooked Cross," "Reacher," "Let Us Roll," and "Nick of Time"; hard rock infused with new wave hooks on "Bad Song" and "Death on the Radio"; the punkier, and even the uptempo vibe of "Nobody's Home" and "King Cab." There's something for everyone here, in an excellent body of songs made all the more appealing by some truly incendiary guitar playing and BIlly Bisig's equally impassioned vocals.

Trophy Wives
Latest Flame Records

Village of Spaces -- ALCHEMY & TRUST [Corleone]

They used to be called Uke of Space Corners County, but apparently nobody could get the cryptic name straight, because now they’re back with a new (and better) name to go with their new album. And wonder of wonders, their eccentric sound has morphed into something even more accessible than ever while still remaining obscure and mysterious. A heavy psychedelic country-folk vibe has crept into their sound, making them resemble a catchier answer to Six Organs of Admittance with actual songs and beautiful harmony vocals from Dan B. and Amy Moon. Country guitars and other country-related instruments like mandolin give the album a gentle and folky feel, and the singing is simply gorgeous; only the mystical lyricism of tracks like “Ovum’s Influence” and “Mountainside” hint at the band’s more eccentric origins. Still, this is hardly a traditional country-folk album, despite the convincing playing and mellow textures -- the Faheyesque guitar and background drone of “Montanta Telephone” and generally slow tempos, coupled with a certain element of drone inherent to many of the tracks, make their sound too weird to appeal to a country audience. Fans of the pastoral psychedelic movement of recent years, though, will find much to like here.

Village of Spaces
Corleone

Whitehorse -- PROGRESSION [At A Loss Recordings]

The latest offering from Australia's morose masters of ugliness is a strange work of severely damaged art, incorporating elements of doom, noise, and sludge metal to create something slow and truly oppressive. The first track, "Mechanical Disintegration," lives up to its title, opening with noisy sounds like a washing machine being demolished before lurching into soul-crushing drums and a titanic riff that often fades into screeching feedback before coming back to life again, then finally ends in a grotesque burst of violent noise. All of this, mind you, is accompanied by a vocalist who sounds like he's in the process of heaving up some of his vital organs. I have a feeling there's a lot of heavy rotation of early Buzzoven albums in the band's backstory (and maybe Eyehategod, too), but their glacial pace and downtuned heaviosity owes just as much to Winter and dISEMBOWLMENT, and the affinity for destroyed sounds and noise that pervades all the tracks is something else entirely. They pick up the pace a bit in "Progression" and "Control, Annihilate" without losing any of the opening track's heaviness; the latter is made even scarier by bursts of cyclone noise that periodically threaten to drown out the elephantine riffing. The real descent into hell, though, comes courtesy of the two lengthy exercises in abject bleakness that take up the final twenty minutes of the album, "Time Worn Regression" and "Remains Unknown," both so unspeakably heavy that they threaten to collapse time and space into a black hole. If you're down with desolate, hopeless, slow wasting doom, then you need this, and you need it bad.
Originally released on cd by Sweat Lung Records to sell on their American tour earlier this year, At A Loss is now making this available in both digital and vinyl formats. Given how bass-heavy and loud it is, I suspect hardcore fans of the band will want the vinyl version.

Whitehorse
At A Loss Recordings

Wolves in the Throne Room -- CELESTIAL LINEAGE [Southern Lord]

Olympia's unorthodox black-metal hippies, the ominous offspring of Weakling having its way with a dozen Krautrock bands, is back with its first full-length studio release since 2009's BLACK CASCADE. They may have started life as a brilliant but reductionist Weakling clone, but their own identity has solidified over the past few albums as their artistic vision has become increasingly more amibitious and their songwriting skills considerably more refined, and this is definitely the culmination of their aspiration to operatic metal godhood. As the final installment of a trilogy that began with TWO HUNTERS, this album is the obvious pinnacle of the albums, every bit as infused with drama as the previous two but even more sophisticated in its arrangements and the album's pacing in general. While bearing all the hallmarks of the previous work -- Aaron Weaver's furious drumming, the operatic tenor of Nathan Weaver's guitars, and the lustrous vocals of occasional singer Jessika Kenny -- there is far more emphasis this time on the ambient and prog elements of their sound, and the songs are arranged and sequenced in such a manner that the entire album flows in a series of movements, moving from the serene opening moments of "Thuja Magus Imperium," dominated by ambient sound and Kenny's gorgeous vocals, before moving into the more traditional black metal sound, which itself is augmented by proggy synths and moments that revert back to the motif of ambient sound and choral vocals. The seven tracks form an epic journey through a whirlwind of emotions and sounds, expertly shifting dynamics at just the right moments, shaded with subtle touches throughout (especially where the mix is concerned), before reaching the journey's apex in "Prayer of Transformation," which builds in epic movements from a slow beat and droning dissonance to a static-laden drone that rises in both volume and intensity before abruptly fading away to a dying wind. On this album, they also manage the neat trick of simultaneously fulfilling the expectations of their listeners and the promise of the earlier albums while realizing the actual sonic context of their vision in new and unexpected ways. This should go a long way toward cementing their growing reputation as one of the best (and most sonically diverse) American black-metal acts, especially now that Ludicra -- one of the few bands capable of matching them in diversity and imagination -- have called it quits.

Wolves in the Throne Room
Southern Lord

Robert Ziino -- PLAYING IN HELL [Experimental Artists]

I must say, I approve of the BDSM-oriented artwork, although I have no idea what it has to do with the album proper (although a few of the tracks, with titles like "Perverted Games" and "The Dominant Submissive," definitely echo the artwork's theme). Even among experimental artists, Ziino is a bit eccentric -- as a structural formalist of sorts, his albums generally consist of tracks of equal length (this time they're five minutes each), built on loops and tricked-out with all sorts of weird sonic effluvia. This one is no different in that respect; from the first track, "Hoarding the Algorithm," which features plenty of delirious sax bleating over a kick-heavy percussion loop, to the final track "Ignorance is the Enemy," which features psychotronic wailing and fuzzy bass electronics over a minimalist beat, each track is built on the backbone of a monochromatic loop, with strange experiments in devolved sonic textures taking place over the top. The predetermined structure of these tracks may be formal, but there is definitely variation in the strategy of each individual track: "Faded Death" is built on an electronica loop with overlaid sounds that shift in density and dynamics, "Perverted Games" is built on a warbling synth loop with an oscillating sound and spiced up with all sorts of electronic bleeps and bloops, and "Yes Master" returns to the use of percussion for its loop and derives the rest of its sound from synth squiggles that climb up the scale. The underpinning of the title track is a deep bass drone, while "The Dominant Submissive" is built on a loop of swirling, high-pitched electronic tones. Rhythmic intensity is definitely a major motif here; I don't recall his earlier albums being quite this focused on the rhythms, and here those rhythms are interesting enough to provide a highly listenable context for the rest of his bizarre forays into sonic otherworldliness.

Experimental Artists

soon i will be forced to put out the sun with blowdarts.

2011-07-31T05:55:00.001-04:00

A Death Cinematic -- YOUR FATE TWISTING, EPIC IN ITS CRUSHING MOMENTS [Simple Box Construction]

The one-man band with some of the best titles in the world returns with three more enigmatic slices of avant sound and epic drone clocking in at a little over thirty minutes, kicking things off in unsettling fashion with the title track, where shuddering loops of noise form a dark curtain of sound over which a lone twang-laden guitar plays a melancholy tune. Eventually the noise element dies away to be replaced by a slow piano dirge dominated by reverberating chords bathed in reverb as the guitar figure mutates at will, while the tone and dyamics settle into something akin to a funeral dirge. The changes continue over a span of approximately 22 minutes, leaving plenty of time and room for the gradual metamorphosis of sound to unfold at a stately pace. The short (just over two minutes) untitled second track acts as a bridge between the two lengthier pieces, and is a spaced-out, wavering fuzztone that speeds up, slows down, comes and goes... leading into "into the tumbling dawn light, their eyes fall frozen through the mist and rain," a nine and half minute exercise in creepy sounds and harrowing, hollowed-out drone that originally appeared on the Pest Productions compilation DER WANDERER UBER DEM NEBELMEER. The creepiness is softened somewhat by bell-like chimes and harmonic synth tones that would be almost soothing if it weren't for the rhythmic lines of static running through the piece. As always, the band's otherworldly sound is complemented by awesome handmade packaging; the cd is housed in a folding wood-cut frame that includes a poem on vellum paper pasted over a photo of an animal skull (echoing the cover art) and a die-cut sleeve that allows you to see the skull artwork on the enclosed disc. The package also includes a nifty set of water-slide decals of the same skull and bones. Limited to fifty copies. You can check out the sound (of this and earlier releases) at the Bandcamp link below.

A Death Cinematic
Simple Box Construction

All Pigs Must Die -- GOD IS WAR [Southern Lord]

The band with the charming name is from Massachusetts, but you could be forgiven for thinking they might be from, say, Sweden -- their hardcore roots are welded to the kind of melodic death metal chassis favored by Swedish metal acts, an influence that's especially apparent in the opening of the album's first track, "Death Dealer." Fueled by tumescent riffs, bursts of high-speed melodicism, and breakneck tempos offset by heavy half-speed breakdowns, the band combines the best elements of hardcore and death metal with a delivery that borders on the psychopathic. This is not pretty music for pretty people; no, this is a slashing collection of hate-filled rants suitable for staging a riot. There are some interesting flourishes from time to time -- for instance, the screeching noises used for emphasis in parts of the title track, and the pleasing harmonic squall of the guitars that introduce "Extinction Is Ours" -- but for the most part, this is simply a full-out assault on the senses with all the subtlety of a pack of hoodlums beating someone to death with a lead pipe. The moments I like best are the times when they slow everything down to a crawl and beat thick, droning riffs through your skull, as they do toward the end of "Third World Genocide." The final track, "Sadistic Vindicator," is another excellent example of how powerful they sound when they slow things down a bit and revel in a sound like razor blades straining to cut through thick slabs of tar. Their monolithic sound might be too monochromatic for some, but there's no denying that it's heavy, very heavy, and filled with an all-consuming anger that burns like a torch.

All Pigs Must Die
Southern Lord

Bloodbound -- UNHOLY CROSS [AFM Records]

It's amusing that their promo material mentions their stage mascot "The Nos" and links that to Iron Maiden's mascot "Eddie," because this Swedish band sounds very much like a power-metal version of Iron Maiden. At least they have the good sense to base their Maiden worship on the early (i.e., better) albums.... So, the lowdown: this is the band's fourth full-length release (not bad, considered they've only been in in existence since 2006) and the first with new vocalist Patrik Johansson (formerly of Dawn of Silence), and it's pretty much a case of Iron Maiden / Judas Priest worship with an operatic power-metal singer. Like most power metal, Swedish or otherwise, this is unapologetically commercial music with high production values, excellent musicianship, and vaguely proggy songs about big ideas and anthemic issues (titles include "Drop the Bomb," "Together We Fight," "The Dark Side of Life," and "Brothers of War," so just glancing at the song list gives you much insight as to where they're coming from). Given their nationality, it's hardly surprising that they're extremely melodic and possessed of a distinctly European sound that's at times neo-classical as well. It's not a genre that does a lot for me personally, but this is well done and draws heavily on a certain sound made popular in the late eighties when progressive metal was all the rage, so power metal fans -- especially those weaned on the power metal scene in flourish around the time of Iron Maiden's POWERSLAVE -- should find this engaging.

Bloodbound
AFM Records

The Body -- S/T [Corleone]

Those just now tuning in to the epic visions of The Body, thanks to their recent head-turning release ALL THE WATERS OF THE EARTH TURN TO BLOOD, may be surprised to discover that the band has not only been around for fifteen years, but has a pretty hefty catalog of obscure releases to their name. For those curious to hear the documentation of the band's earlier years, Corleone has helpfully assembled an anthology that collects all this hard-to-find stuff on one cd. Here's what you get: the four-song 2003 cassette on Armageddon Records, the four-song self-released 2006 cdr, three songs from a 2004 split and 2005 single (both on Corleone), one previously unreleased track, and four tracks from another self-released 2008 cdr. That's sixteen tracks of howling vocals, shuddering bass hell, and slow-motion destruction that does an excellent job of showing just how the band developed the mighty muscles they flexed to such terrifying effect on BLOOD. It's obvious that even from the beginning, they had a talent for mixing horrific vocals with the blunt heaviness of early Swans on a doom bender while throwing in elements of pop, math-rock, and pure avant weirdness from time to time just to keep things interesting. What's surprising is how potent and chilling their sound was from the very beginning; given their obvious talents, the consistent quality level of the songs is perhaps not so surprising. The final tracks, from the 2008 cdr, are among the most interesting, as they are an eclectic series of covers -- "Do They Owe Us A Living" (Crass), "Tired of Being Alive" (Danzig), "Police Story" (Black Flag), and "Black Boys on Mopeds" (Sinead O'Connor) -- all transformed into gruesome displays of heaviness (especially the Crass cover, which sounds like they might have broken the recording machine). If you're not already familiar with the band, now is your chance to meet one of the most genuinely unnerving and misanthropic bands ever to crawl through the tar-laden wastelands of doom metal.

The Body
Corleone

Brainoil -- DEATH OF THIS DRY SEASON [20 Buck Spin]

It's taken them a while to get around to it, but Oakland's sludgy Brainoil have finally coughed up a second album (their first came out on Life Is Abuse in 2003, and I defy you to find a copy of it now, doom childe). Their brand of sludge owes a lot to tarpit trailblazers like Buzzoven, Eyehategod, and Sourvein, and I have no idea what they've been doing all these years (time, maybe?), but the lengthy gap between releases hasn't diminished their soul-crushing heaviness one iota. Their crusty riffs are leavened with heavy, stunted-tempo breakdowns that come across like slow, wasting doom. Track after track, the classic signs of sludge are all there: punked-out crust riffs that dissolve into droning waves of doom, bass so heavy and hairy it might as well sport a beard, gnarled guitar tones wrestled away from the first Black Sabbath album and made even more menacing, and a vocalist who sounds like a man being forced to swallow hot coals. This is the sound of amps being beaten into submission; this is the promise of violent confrontations in a back alley after midnight. This is exactly the kind of oppressive heaviness you have come to expect from classic sludge bands in general and 20 Buck Spin in particular, and it will make an excellent panacea to the sludge-deprived soul waiting (and waiting!) for the new Eyehategod album to eventually appear.

Brainoil
20 Buck Spin

Chimerical Sound Engine -- LEARNING CURVE [self-released]

Fair warning up front: the mysterious agent behind the melodious tones and skeletal beats on this album is my brother, so I am naturally biased. But it would be a shame to skip reviewing it for that reason, because it's an excellent debut with plenty to offer. From the minimalist opener "sleeping on the floodplain" -- where a haunting bell-like piano figure repeats endlessly amid tidal sounds and other noises that come and go -- to the symphonic movements and processed keyboards of "trileptal," the instrumental pieces on this album straddle the line between ambient music and the more experimental end of techno. One of the more interesting things that separates this release from most modern techno or ambient music is the strong influence of classical music, an influence that is evident in both the string sounds and the arrangements on songs like "space bass go" and "hum of the big wheel." There's also a strong space-rock element to the extensive sound processing, in which nearly everything is made to sound like something else, with sounds like bleeping satellites and background sound effects one might expect to find on a science fiction film soundtrack. Then there's the beats -- quiet and minimal on "in the underspace," fat and insistent on "logic of the median" (which comes closest, of all the tracks, to sounding like traditional techno). Throughout the album, elements of drone, experimental sounds, techno, and a minimalist sensibility come together to form tracks that unfold organically in serene and ghostly fashion. But you don't have to take my word for it; you can listen for yourself by hitting the link below.

Chimerical Sound Engine

Debauchery -- GERMANY'S NEXT DEATH METAL [AFM Records]

They live up to their name with an appropriately debauched (and, honestly, kind of juvenile) album cover featuring a pneumatic bikini-clad bimbo holding a chainsaw even bigger than she is. I'm not sure this has anything to do with the actual album, but it certainly gets your attention, doesn't it? The album itself sounds like a strange variant of death metal that includes spoken-word segments in "The Unbroken" (and lots of wheedly-wheedly guitar spoo in the solo), a variety of vocal styles, and other jarring elements that often do nothing more than distract from what would otherwise be a highly competent death metal sound. They certainly understand death metal -- witness the great riffing and bursts of insane double-drumming on "Zombie Blitzkrieg," for instance, or the insistent pulse of "Warmachines at War," another song with plenty of swell riffs; hell, intense riffology abounds all over the album. But the bizarre and often off-putting switches in vocal style frequently detract from the songs, acting as an unwelcome distraction. Still, the primal attraction of the grinding riffs of the title track, the Slayer-styled riffing in "Death Will Entertain," and the gruesome death-chug of "Armed For Apocalypse," just to name a few examples, do a lot to make up for the peculiar vocal missteps. Still, they made some weird decisions on this album, and the less adventurous out there will probably want to hear tracks from it first before buying.

Debauchery
AFM Records

Einvera -- IN YOUR IMAGE [self-released]

The three members of this Los Angeles band met in music school, and it shows. The eight songs on this 33-minute album are rooted in technical metal, but that is merely the framework on which they hang complex musical lattices composed of just about every other genre imaginable (but mostly a mind-blowing cross-pollination of death, black, and progressive metal). The metallic core of the songs are leavened with touches of decidedly non-metal instruments like banjo, vibraphone, accordion, pedal steel, and glockenspiel, among others, but these unusual elements merely add color and texture to a series of spiraling technical epics Coroner would have been pleased to create. Plenty of bands have tried their hands at mixing wildly divergent styles into one cohesive whole, usually with mixed results, but Einvera are much more successful in their attempts at the same. Which is not to say there aren't some genuinely surreal moments on the album -- I never thought I'd ever hear a technical-metal polka, which is essentially what "Send Me Home" is -- but even at their most surreal, their chops are so fantastically tight and their imagination so willfully unbound that it all works much better than you would have any right to expect. It's a challenging album, to be sure, but the challenge of digesting this eye-opening hurricane of sound is worth the effort; it's not often you hear such a perversely diverse-sounding album whose songs actually work without collapsing under the weight of their ambition. I'd wonder why these guys are still unsigned, but of course, we live in the musical equivalent of the end times, so you'll have to stop by their site (or visit them on Soundcloud) to hear them until somebody has the good taste to sign them (which probably won't take long).

Einvera

Goreaphobia -- APOCALYPTIC NECROMANCY [Dark Descent Records]

This Philadelphia death metal band has an interesting backstory: they formed in 1988, but they broke up in the early 90s after releasing only a demo and a couple of singles, and didn't actually get around to a full-length release until reforming a few years ago to put out their 2006 compilation VILE BEAST OF ABOMINATION. This is their third full-length release -- the first on Dark Descent -- and it's essentially twelve tracks of hard-hitting old-school death metal. I don't know if it's old material that they're finally getting around to recording or if they decided upon resuming activity to pretend the last decade-plus never existed, but either way, it sounds like an album that could have been made in the late 80s to early 90s. There are no frills or cute references to the currently fragmented state of metal here, just four guys with an extensive death metal pedigree (having played in key bands like Absu, Incantation, and Demoncy) pounding out straightforward epics of brutality with titles like "Void of the Larva Queen" and "Footpaths in the Vortex of Doom." This is sick-sounding stuff, too, comparable to not only the bands they've been in before but classic bands like Death, Obituary, and Deicide. (It's interesting to me that they're from Philadelphia, since their sound is highly reminiscent of the early Florida death metal scene.) Standout tracks include the mid-paced death crusher "Shroud of Hyena," "Darkstar Dementia" (propelled by a gruesomely sinister riff), and "White Wind Spectre," which welds an intriguing beat and ominous bass sound to unusual guitar figures that alternate between murky chiming and startling bursts of melodic guitar. There's a reason this band is considered legendary in death metal circles, and it's good to see that the years between their dissolution and reformation have done nothing to erode the quality of their songs and sound.

Goreaphobia
Dark Descent Records

Hallowed Circuit -- DEAD PLANET TRANSMISSION [Inam Records]

This is the debut by the latest purveyor of drone on Inam Records, with six tracks of dark ambient drone mixed with noise built on layers of sound and guitar loops. The nature of construction via loops is not quite so obvious on the opening track "Pillow Dust," which sounds like ambient sound overlaid with tainted noise, but the nature of the beast becomes clearer on "Romans," where a loop circles over and over in cyclotron fashion, growing darker and more overmodulated as the piece progresses, until it resembles an overloaded machine tearing itself apart before it comes to rest. "HC1" is far more drone-oriented, with pealing feedback that rises and falls over looped waves of sound, resulting in a suitably cosmic sound akin to transmissions from a dead star. This hardly prepares you for the avalanche of noise-laden sound that comes next on "Sister Signal," where crashing waves of sonic violence bathed in ring modulation rattle and reverberate in yet another emulation of disintegrating machinery. The drone returns, this time augmented by bleeps and bloops, on "HC2," which segues into the (final) title track, in which the hum of the void is represented by ambient sound, crusty drone, loops of feedback, and static-laden noise that does a fine job of conjuring up the nameless dread of unmanned space probes disappearing into the far reaches of an empty cosmos. This epic slice of swankness comes in a stiff-paper sleeve and is limited to 30 copies.

Inam Records -- email: inamrecs@yahoo.com

Low -- C'MON [Sub Pop]

I've been listening to Low since their first album appeared in 1994, and one thing I've come to appreciate about the band is their resistance to being pigeonholed. Like the Melvins and Swans, the startling and original sound of their early albums, which were defined by stark songs and slow tempos, has caused a lot of lazy music journalists to define them in a manner that hasn't been terribly relevant for close to a decade, despite clear evidence that the band has evolved in both sound and songwriting every few albums. While they are still not exactly a speed metal band by any stretch of the imagination, their songs have grown in variety and texture over time, even to include electronica and unusual mixes on their previous album, DRUMS AND GUNS. So it's interesting that their latest album is being called a throwback of sorts, because while the songs on this album are far more accessible than the ones on their last album, this is hardly a return to the stark minimalism of their early releases. That many consider this a return an earlier sound is understandable, considering their decision to record it at Sacred Heart Studio, the same location for the recording of TRUST, but this sounds nothing like that album, possibly the darkest and most apocalyptic-sounding work of their entire career. Then, too, they have made the unusual move of inviting a number of outsiders to appear -- Nels Cline (lap steel, guitar), Caitlin Moe of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on violin, and Dave Carroll of Trampled by Turtles on banjo. They have also made the bold (some might say heretical) move of assigning the production duties to Matt Beckley (son of America songwriter Gerry Beckley), a mainstream producer known for his work with the likes of Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne.

The curve balls don't end there, though. One of the biggest differences between this album and nearly everything before it is the directness of the lyrics; for the first time in the band's history, Alan Sparhawk's lyrics are far more concrete and far less abstract than on previous albums. It's also interesting to note that drummer / vocalist Mimi Parker, still the band's secret weapon, is featured far more prominently than she has been in some time. One of her contributions, the languid "Especially Me," is not only one of the highlights, but (according to Sparhawk) arguably the linchpin of the album. The band unquestionably plays to their strengths on tracks like "Try To Sleep" and "Nightingale," where their incomparable harmonies are backed by gorgeous backing tracks, and the country-folk sound of "Something's Turning Over" is probably the closest they've ever come to approaching a genuinely mainstream sound, but tracks like "$20" and the slow-building "Nothing But Heart" are striking masterpieces of lyrical repetition, and "Witches" -- a song about dealing with nightmares in an extremely unorthodox manner -- is one of the most bizarre songs in the band's entire catalog. So believe what you want about how this is supposedly a return to their classic sound, but just note that, as usual, there's more to the picture than meets the eye.

Low
Sub Pop

Olekranon -- LISTERGA 3" cdr [Inam Records]

The always-swank Olekranon are back with an ep of four tracks recorded around the same time as the sessions for BILAL, and as usual, it's stupendous stuff. The title track kicks things off with paralyzing electrobeats and a gauzy shoegaze guitar attack that grows intense and noisy, backing off now and then to return even heavier than before, until it winds down in a wail of feedback that dies away, seguing into "Biclave," where skeletal beats are buried under hovering clouds of dark, ominous drone that morph into excoriating waves of white noise as the beats grow fuzzier and more machine-like, at which point the track turns into something far heavier and denser, slouching into the neighborhood of industrial music. That sound dies out amid a high-pitched whine and a distorted vocal sample until the guitars build to a crescendo of white noise and die away. On "Tarize," spring-loaded riffs unfold over blunt techno beats, then those riffs are joined by a massed army of guitars droning in thick waves of distortion. The final track, "Deadlights," is built on wavering dynamics, trippy breakbeats, and more howling drone guitar. Techno's answer to My Bloody Valentine succeeds in dropping drone science one more time.... The cdr comes packaged in a brown stiff-board sleeve and an insert featuring more of Megan Abajian's mysterious artwork, and is limited to 45 copies.

Inam Records -- email: inamrecs@yahoo.com

Planks -- THE DARKEST OF GRAYS / SOLICIT TO FALL [Southern Lord]

This limited-edition cd compiles the first two vinyl albums by this German hardcore band whose heavy but melodic sound is tinged with the dissonance of black metal, and as you would expect of a Southern Lord release, it's not for the meek. At sixteen tracks, there's also a lot of it; spinning the entire disc in one sitting is likely to leave you exhausted, but that's what music of this nature is for, right? Besides, it's not all endless torment; there are surprising moments of respite from the willfull tooth-gnashing in the form of quieter, slower, and more intensely melodic songs like "We Are Translucent" and the short "Fantasmes," featuring a female spoken-word passage over faint ambience in the background. Then there's "A Casket City," an instrumental piano passage of considerable melodicism accompanied by more vaguely ambient washes in the background. Tracks like these, though, are merely chances to rest your ears between the vicious assault of the other songs, all of which are steeped in heaviness and violence. Their hardcore roots are also frequently obscured by their other influences and the inventive use of both dissonance and an atypical clanging, metallic bass sound, which gives them a more varied and interesting sound than most hardcore bands. Strong stuff from an obscure band that should be of considerable interest to those seeking new avenues of heaviness, and with two hard-to-find albums on one convenient and affordable disc, a bargain as well.

Planks
Southern Lord

Rick Reed -- THE WAY THINGS GO (2 x lp) [Elevator Bath]

The man's name is probably unfamiliar to you unless you run in experimental music circles, partly because he joined the music revolution relatively late in lfe after deciding he wanted to make the kind of music he was listening to while painting (his original vocation, and one he still pursues; he painted the work that adorns the cover of the double-album), and partly because his commitment to quality over quantity has made his release schedule extremely limited and sporadic. (Not to mention that like most of the fringe artists in Austin's underground music scene, he is far less interested in promotion than performance.) Nevertheless, his name is highly respected in experimental music circles (he's performed with the legendary Austin sound painters The Abrasion Ensemble and members of AMM, among others, and was in fact once referenced in the title of an AMM record) and he plays a regular and vibrant part of Austin's experimental music scene. Elevator Bath has been documenting his work (or part of it, anyway) for a while now, and with this double album, they have generously presented us with what may be his best work yet.

The six tracks on this double-album flow together so seamlessly and organically that it's hard to believe they were recorded individually over the span of a decade. The first side alone -- featuring "mesmerism" and "capitalism: child labor" (from the soundtrack of the 2005 Ken Jacobs film of the same name) -- is absolutely amazing; using sine wave generators, old-school analog synths, shortwave radio, and found sounds, Reed sculpts two monumental tracks of shimmering drone and harmonic noise that take their time building in ominous fashion, stretching out the tension before culminating in thick waves of sound that are both beautiful and otherworldly. His allegiance to late 60s / early 70s Krautrock and spaced-out psychedelia is at its most obvious here, and he has assimilated all the right things from his listening habits. The album would be worth it for just these two pieces alone.

The rest of the tracks are worth plenty of attention in their own right, though. The flip side of the first record is taken up entirely by "celestial mudpie," where extended periods of silence segue into bursts of static and clouds of sound like electronic thunderstorms and thick slices of machine-like drone. Strange noises and textures weave in and out of the drone action as the piece rolls on, and the ultimate effect is the audio equivalent of an abstract expressionist painting. The two tracks on the first side of the second album, "hidden voices pt. 1" and "in a hazy field of gray and green," continue to bring the drone in a big way, especially on the first track, which is dominated by rippling sheets of drone, high-pitched sine-wave feedback, and ghostly electronic tones. The latter is an audio homage to textured sounds, opening with a crackling noise much like a dusty record revolving on a turntable and gradually expanding its sonic palette to include a wide variety of tones and noises, from shrill feedback to oceanic drones and more. The climax of the album is the side-long title track, an extended exercise in creeping drone mixed with high-frequency noise; over 22 minutes, waves of harmonically rich sound ebb and flow like the tides, washing over the listener with a serene and unexpected grace.

A word or two about the packaging: this is what people mean by quality presentation. Two LPs pressed on 180-gram virgin vinyl, housed in poly-lined sleeves inside a heavy matte-finish gatefold jacket featuring Reed's own exquisite artwork. The release also comes with a beautiful plastic download card (seriously, I put the card up on my desk just because it's a nifty piece of art in its own right) giving the listener access to the entire album in high-quality MP3 format. This is limited to 515 copies, and given the album's phenomenal quality and the fact that all but one of his earlier releases on the label are sold out, I'm guessing it won't be available for long. You need this. This is already a contender for my top ten favorite albums of the year.

Rick Reed
Elevator Bath

Totimoshi -- AVENGER [At A Loss Recordings]

Totimoshi are one of those bands who are okay with doing things the hard way. They have so far survived stolen gear, self-destructing vans, disappearing drummers, impatient labels, and a touring schedule that would make the average musician weep with outright fear. Their persistence owes a lot to the sheer iron will of guitarist / singer / main songwriter / tyrant for life Antonio Aguilar, who's ready and willing to walk through brick walls if it's necessary to keep his band going. (It helps that bassist / occasional singer Meg Castellanos, who co-founded the band lo these many years ago, is every bit as tough-minded as he is.) Their uphill climb to success has been hindered by constantly being pigeonholed as stoner rock (despite the fact that the only thing they have in common with most stoner bands is Tony's collection of fuzz pedals) and lazy comparisons to a really amazing range of bands (which should tell you something about the eclectic nature of their sound). The only regular comparison that holds any water for me is the Melvins, and then only because, like that band, they have managed to cough up a steady series of albums that are radically different while retaining a certain highly identifiable core sound. It hasn't helped, either, that they have bounced from one label to another for various reasons and endured an endless procession of drummers who weren't able to get with the program (at least until now; their current drummer, Chris Fugitt, has been with them for a while, and given the caliber of his playing, hopefully that will continue to be the case).

Which brings us to their sixth album, which is simultaneously their boldest and most accessible release yet. They've never been lacking in the confidence department, but for the first time, having a drummer around for two albums in a row has enabled them to focus more on songwriting and playing than training new skin-beaters. A large part of their sound has always been rooted in Meg and Tony's Cuban and Hispanic heritage, which has generally translated into complex rhythms not usually found in American hard rock, and there's plenty of that here, couched in tricky time signatures and shifting dynamics that give the songs a certain swing one would normally associate more with Latin music. There are times, particularly on tracks like "Mainline," where their complicated instrumental interplay borders on jazz, and on "The Fool," Tony's guitar playing is so fluid and inventive that he effectively blurs the line between rhythm and solo parts. Don't think this means they've suddenly started playing prog-rock, though; this is intense stuff. They rock like they're on fire, and Tony's incredible guitar sound -- roughly akin to a horde of angry wasps trying furiously to sting their way through the speakers -- is very much upfront through the entire album. They've also returned to a rawer, edgier sound after a couple of relatively clean-sounding albums, giving their sound an extra urgency that's equally matched by Tony's all-or-nothing vocal delivery. They also have a few surprises up their collective sleeve in the form of guest appearances from Dale Crover (Melvins), Brett Hinds (Mastodon), and Scott Kelly (Neurosis), which just adds an extra layer of interest to an already excellent album. I just hope this is the album that finally brings them the level of success they've deserved for long time now.

Totimoshi
At A Loss Recordings

The Winchester Club -- NEGATIVE LIBERTY [Exile On Mainstream]

Man, these are some long-ass tunes; of the five tracks on this album, three are between thirteen and fifteen minutes long. With a lineup containing members of End of Level Boss, Hangnail, and Chineseburn, this -- loosely a concept album about freedom (or the lack of it) in modern society -- is the latest addition to prog-metal's ongoing love affair with post-rock. The opening track, the wonderfully-named "Fuck You Buddy," sets the album's tone with a slow unfolding of guitars and drums that build from repetitive, minimalist figures to a wide-open vista of layered sound that owes as much to psych as to post-rock. The songs that follow unfold in a similar vein, often in surprisingly gentle fashion; for an album being nominally flogged as metal, this has a lot more in common with early Mogwai and My Bloody Valentine than anything passing for metal these days (except possibly Neurosis, the godfathers of the whole metal / post-rock crossover in the first place). Like most current post-rock albums, the extended jams here are instrumental; the only vocals on the album, in fact, come from the looped sample that opens "R.D. Laing (Little Chemical Straitjackets)" and the sample that opens "The End of History." There's a spaced-out, almost jazzy feel to some of the passages, especially at the beginning of the title track, a muted feel that only adds to the cosmic jam vibe. This is good stuff, as long as you don't mind songs that take a long time to get where they're going; of course, since your average post-rock hesher will probably wash this down with bong hits, that might well be the entire point.

The Winchester Club
Exile on Mainstream

Xibalba -- MADRE MIA GRACIAS POR LOS DIAS [Southern Lord]

These guys are awfully dark and heavy for a band from sunny southern Cali. This is serious, punishing death metal that welds early Sepultura's diabolical riff-hate with early Obituary's oppressive atmosphere, with fearsome results. Their worship of all that is heavy takes some interesting turns: the tail end of "Madre Mia," for instance, features dark-ambient guitar tones howling like a sandstorm over martial beats, and the downbeat sample that opens "Time's Up" might well be an olique reference to the sample-happy likes of Eyehategod and Buzzoven, only more judicious in their use of this particular device. Most of their time on this disc, though, is taken up by the systematic dispensation of monumental heaviness. No filler, no happiness, no in-jokes, just giants walking the earth and crushing everything in their path. This is a throwback to the early days of death metal, to a sound that -- in its infancy -- was sufficiently heavy and oppressive enough to genuinely scare people. This is the sound of the dispossessed with guitars and drums, fronted by a vocalist bent on self-immolation. This is the sound of bulldozers digging trenches to be used as mass graves. If this music were made manifest in human form, it would be a psychotic with his hands around your throat. This album -- which includes their debut and a compilation track tacked on -- might be the heaviest album Southern Lord has released so far, which is saying something. Besides, it's hard to argue with the unbridled misanthropy of songs like "We Deserve To Die," isn't it?

Xibalba
Southern Lord

"my my, hey hey / it's a national holiday."

2011-07-04T20:34:00.003-04:00

NOTE: I have begun epic recording sessions for the follow-up album to Korperschwache's EVIL WALKS, and I expect those sessions to continue through the summer, so keep that in mind if the schedule gets erratic or the reviews skimpy.

A Fucking Elephant / El Drugstore -- split cd [Nefarious Industries]

This split cd contains five tracks by A Fucking Elephant and four by El Drugstore, both bands from New Jersey, both heavy on the technical prog-metal tip. First up is the band with the rude name, and they come out swinging on "Blue Crab Fantastic," in which ominous hypno-guitars and an increasingly complex battery of percussion settles into a weird, loping groove and plenty of complicated drumming that becomes increasingly ornate as the track evolves. The remaining four tracks are very much in the same mold -- twisted guitar figures, absurdly complicated drum patterns, esoteric time signatures, and the occasional burst of agitated vocals. Their sound is considerably more hairy and fuzzy than that of the average prog-fixated metal band, which keeps their King Crimson-style action from turning sterile and lifeless; it's unusual to hear a band this obsessed with technical proficiency and baroque compositions sounding this heavy, which is a major point in their favor. The guitar sound in particular is dense and thick, most often swaddled in distortion, lending an extra layer of texture to the progged-out vibe.

The remaining four tracks are by El Drugstore, and while that band shares much of AFE's affinity for proggy metal, their method of attack is considerably more linear. Not necessarily any less complex, mind you, but definitely more linear -- they don't fly off in as many directions, and they favor song structures that are a bit closer to conventional metal, if filled with lots of really technical riffing and complex drumming. Unlike the other band, they are also completely instrumental; there are no vocals here to get in the way from the impressive musical gymnastics. Like King Crimson (an obvious influence on both bands), they manage to sound impressively gifted in the technical chops department without turning into a boring shred-fest -- there's plenty of instrumental wizardry going on, no question, but it's all in service of engaging, ornate, and considerably original songs. This album is definitely recommended to prog-heads who like their complicated jams rendered with some serious physical weight.

A Fucking Elephant
El Drugstore
Nefarious Industries

Aurvandil -- YEARNING [Eisenwald]

You know what's beginning to really annoy the hell out of me? Bands who insist on using Roman numerals to denote their recording and release dates. Mind you, this doesn't aggravate me nearly as much as bands who don't bother to put the proper playback speeds on LP labels, but it's still irritating. Which brings us to the first full-length release (after an avalanche of demos, splits, and one EP) by Aurvandil, apparently a one-man band from France (joined here by mysterious session dude Wiederganger on drums, whoever that is), a solemn purveyor of grandiose depressive black metal in the footsteps of Burzum and Bethlehem. He's also down with the pagan folk-metal scene as well, although that influence makes itself known mainly as flourishes and additions to the basic sound. The album opens with "Yearning -- Prelude," a melancholy acoustic dirge that's somber without being strident, but the songs that follow are squarely in the mold of minimalist, lo-fi black metal pioneered by Burzum and slavishly duplicated by about a billion others. Most of the material is mid-tempo with occasional bursts of speed, and while it's competent enough -- the wailing keyboards in "End of an Age" are a nice touch -- it's also nothing you haven't already heard, and many times at that. It is extremely well-done, however, and the acoustic interludes that crop up from time to time are genuinely beautiful, a nice contrast to the blackened necro tooth-gnashing that forms the basic bedrock of the band's sound. This is especially true of "Walking -- Interlude," a spooky acoustic passage that's the most haunting thing on the album. In fact, the acoustic guitar work is the one thing that elevates this into something more than a mere Burzum clone, and the single biggest reason to hear it. As for the overweening Burzum worship, at least they steal from the right albums.

Aurvandil
Eisenwald

Black Pus -- PRIMORDIAL PUS [Load Records]

Have a burning need to annoy your neighbors / roommate / people in hearing distance of your MP3 player of choice? Look no further! My, but this is obnoxious (and I mean that in the nicest way). You would expect nothing less from a member of Lightning Bolt, right? This is the fifth release from Black Pus -- the first available on vinyl -- and its piercing noise-rock aesthetic is similar to that of Brian Chippendale's better-known band, only applied in a different manner. Here he uses layers of exquisitely devolved drum loops, some stringed intstrument (or possibly a keyboard; given the level of sound processing involved, it's hard to tell) and lots of crunchy noise to create a series of highly rhythmic sonic irritants. Some of the tracks like "Cave of Butterfly" and "Favorite Blanket, Favorite Curse" approximate the demented rhythmic approach of late-period Arab on Radar, but here there always several levels of sonic chaos happening at once, resulting in a headache-inducing sensory overload. Squashed robot vocals churn away in the mix from time to time, not that you'll ever guess what he's saying (that must be why he helpfully provided lyrics for a couple of the songs in the liner notes), and there's plenty of squealy, squidgy sounds that are probably the result of a guitar being severely tortured, but the beauty of this album is that it's impossible to tell how he's getting such supremely hideous sounds. This is the deeply perverse sound of hallucinating robots disassembling themselves. It frequently sounds like he's channeling the spirits of several No Wave bands all at once, in a tidal wave of sonic ugliness so gruesome that it's beautiful in a deformed sort of way. Fans of Lightning Bolt will rejoice; those not down with the noise crown will hide under their desks and pee in their pants. I dare you to play this for your mother. Seriously, I dare you.

Black Pus
Load Records

Blackwolfgoat -- DRONOLITH [The Maple Forum]

This is bizarre shit, doom childe. The unique vision of Darryl Shepard of Milligram fame, the six tracks on this super-limited release (limited to 100 hand-numbered digi-sleeve copies with art by Alexander von Wieding) are an unusual combination of minimalist, machine-like percussion and strange sounds that might be processed guitar. On "Building Buildings," a persistent, monochromatic beat hammers relentlessly as squiggles of melodic sound chime and churn over it; on "Ruane," one chugging rhythm and another consisting of exactly one perfectly-timed note interlock in a hypnotic motif that is eventually joined by dancing melodic lines. Repetition and minimalism are the big keywords here; Shepard may be from stoner / metal bands, but this has far more in common with Philip Glass than it does with anything derived from Black Sabbath's sonic footprint. "Tyche" creeps into territory that's a tad more familiar with a big, fuzzy guitar sound, but it's every bit as minimalist as the other tracks. "Fear of Stars" features a funky robot bass loop that's gradually overlaid by brief bursts of melodic bleating and supremely sparse electronic percussion, while the buzzing drone guitar returns on "Event Radius" in the form of droning waves of wavering feedback. The title track is fifteen minutes of ping-pong repetition and growing layers of melodic guitar snippets for the first half, followed by loud, hairy drone guitar that grows louder and denser as the piece goes on before eventually trailing off into silence. This is certainly one of the more original-sounding albums I've heard in a while.

Blackwolfgoat
Maple Forum

Fungus Brains -- RON PISTOS REAL WORLD 12" [Load Records]

For our next amazing feat of musical science, we'll hop into our favorite time machine and head back to 1983, landing in Melbourne, Australia -- home of the Fungus Brains, a band featuring current Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner that was active from 1982 to 1987, as part of the same scene that spawned the Birthday Party (a band whose existence was coming to a close just as the Fungus Brains were getting started). Prior to his involvement with Fungus Brains, Turner played in Sick Things, who were actual contemporaries of the Birthday Party, so if some of that band's sound seems to have seeped into the musicial consciousness of Fungus Brains, that should hardly be surprising. (The Stooges circa FUNHOUSE would probably be an equally appropriate reference point.) Why Load decided to resurrect this lost treasure is anyone's guess, but it's a good thing they did, because this is too good to remain hoplelessly obscure. Similar in nature to the Birthday Party and other Melbourne bands of the time, they nevertheless distinguish themselves with swell songs and make a credible stake for their own identity with a wailing horn player and a truly eccentric (some might say obnoxious) vocalist who sounds like a bird trapped in a man's body.

Things open with a heavy bang on "Hairbrush," featuring some seriously hairy bass and pounding drums behind bleating horns and psychotronic guitar; by the time the aforementioned birdman starts his bizarre cheeping, you know you're in for a wild ride. On song after song, the band fashions tunes out of a ramshackle sound heavy on the bass and murky guitar, often sounding like they just made the song up on the spot and were taped running through it for the first time -- yet, despite this decidedly loose approach, they swing with a vengeance, and those arrangements are a lot tighter than they initially appear. This is garage rock driven by jungle rhythms and demented horns; it's hard to imagine any of them sitting still to play this stuff, that's for sure. That tribal feel is especially obvious on "Death Dance," where loping drums and a squiggly, snake-like guitar sound keep things hopping; hooting and hollering in the background just adds to the song's twisted charm. Things get even noisier on "Goin' Down," almost to the point of white noise over a demanding beat, and on "Car Accident" -- the final track of the original album -- the band descends into near-total cacaphony punctuated by the vocalist's frantic yelping and held together only by the drummer's simple but insistent beat. As an added bonus, this reissue tacks on two songs from the same era -- the slower, destroyed-by-blues "St. Kilda" and "Where teh Fuck is Wal," a song that's every bit as cryptic and inscrutable as its title suggests. This is swell stuff, and anybody down with the Birthday Party and the Australian post-punk bands of that period should definitely grab this while it's available (which may not be long, given the original's rarity and the fact that this run is limited to 650 copies).

Load Records

Harm's Way -- ISOLATION [Closed Casket Activities]

This opens up with one of the nastiest-sounding things I've heard in a while on a metal album, a track called "Scrambled" that's largely dominated by a bludgeoning, overmodulated sound filled gruesome crackling, like an unholy mating of industrial metal and noise; it eventually turns into an overdriven hardcore death march topped by truly psychotic-sounding vocals, which is not quite as soul-scraping, but still plenty intense. They do favor breakdowns, something that's normally the kiss of death for me, but their version of the almighty breakdown is really seismic in its heaviness, which certainly helps. Like many hardcore metal bands, they suffer a bit in the variety department; their complete and total commitment to unwavering heaviness means the tracks start to sound a like after a while, which is kind of a drag, but the tracks are all consistently good, and the bowel-scraping industrial metal approach makes tracks like "Becoming" sound like the studio is caving in around them. Relentlessly confrontational and noisy like the Unsane but considerably more metal than noise-rock, this is about as subtle as a gun in your face and as heavy as a battleship being dropped on your head. Crunchy, crunchy guitars and a vocalist with an attitude problem go a long way toward alleviating the variety issue, and this is definitely a pinnacle of soul-crushing brutality.

Harm's Way
Closed Casket Activities

Brett Hinds presents -- FIEND WITHOUT A FACE + WEST END MOTEL [Rocket Science]

I'm not a particularly huge fan of Mastodon and I'm ambivalent about Brett Hinds. Sure, he's a swell guitar player and everything, but his reputation as rock's current King of the Wild Men is something of a distraction, and I have to wonder how long he can keep that up before he ends up locked up or dead. Still, I guess that's his business.... I have to admit he sure must have a lot of energy, because in addition to his Mastodon duties, he's also found time to play in two other bands, Fiend Without A Face and West End Motel, and thanks to the swell people at Rocket Science, both of those bands are represented here in one place for your listening pleasure. And unlike a lot of side-projects, these are not bands in which he shuffles through cast-off material from his main gig; these two bands are not only totally different from what he does in Mastodon, but supremely differernt from each other. FWAF is essentially a rockabilly / surf band, while WEM is in more of an Americana vein, and I'm frankly surprised to discover that he not only has an interest in either genre in the first place, but that he plays equally well in both. In fact, I actually like what he's doing in FWAF more than anything I've heard him do in Mastodon. (Well, maybe with the exception of "Cut You Up With A Linoleum Knife.")

The first disc is the first album from FWAF (two more discs are already in the can, waiting to be released), with Hinds squiggling away surf-style in front of a rockabilly band, and I can see why this would hold much appeal for him -- in sharp contrast to Mastodon's heavily-produced epic, overblown prog-rock, this is essentially a bunch of guys whipping up tunes on the spot in the garage in between cases of beer. The songs are short and to the point (the longest three are just over three minutes, and several are under two), completely lacking in pretension, and bursting with energy in a style that's been out of style for at least forty or fifty years. Some of the tracks (like "New York") even feature a rollicking boogie-woogie piano, and the vocals (when Hinds bothers with them, which isn't often) are best described as a throwback to drunken garage rock. The album's entire vibe is one of an endless party, with a sound that's a neat combination of Dick Dale and the Stray Cats. The recording itself is as basic as you can get without descending into lo-fi, and surprisingly authentic in its recreation of surf-rock and rockabilly. They get bonus points for "Get Straight," an exquisitely devolved surf-rock cover of Devo's "Whip It."

The second disc, featuring the first WEM album (a follow-up is currently in the mixing stages), is another thing entirely -- seven tracks of Americana that references old-school country icons like Chet Atkins and more modern acts like Tom Waits and The Pogues. Opening with an amusing spoken-word bit called "The Confident Wino" that segues into "... And We Are Here To Entertain You," the rest of the album plays out in a moderately more serious vein. The Tom Waits influence really shows up on the slow and brooding "She's On Fire," and the twangy country-rock feel to the whole album is a marked contrast to the sound of the first disc. What's most impressive, though, is how Hinds fits into the sonic picture with considerable restraint and lots of tasty guitar playing. This is the work of an actual band, not just Hinds overplaying in front of some hired guns, and an entirely respectable entry in the Americana canon. For a guy who gets more attention for his drunken antics in public these days, Hinds sure turns out to be full of surprises, huh?

Fiend Without A Face
West End Motel
Rocket Science

Isolation -- CLOSING THE CIRCLE [Eisenwald]

Talk about taking your time to get things right -- this, the band's first album, comes five years after the release of their first demo (with two others and a split in between). Their first demo found them working in the area of depressive black metal; the second had more of a doom vibe, while the split material was more atmospheric, and here they bring all of these elements together in a highly original and sophisticated form. Structurally speaking, the songs on this album owe a lot to the depressive metal aesthetic popularized by Bethlehem, but they also have an almost symphonic grandeur without lapsing into the outright bombast of the average symphonic metal band, and they have extensive melodic chops that are emphasized on tracks like "This Moment." By drawing judiciously from several different genres and putting serious thought into integrating those different sounds in their compositions, they come up with highly sophisticated songs that often move in unexpected directions without sounding forced. The highlight of the album is the lengthy instrumental "Nomad," in which an exceptionally melodic movement alternates with much heavier passages without sacrificing any of the melody, building in intensity over time before pulling back again. One of the most compelling things about this album is the wide variety in the vocals; guitarist / vocalist Johannes Schmid speaks in places and sings in others, calling up different textures and emotions with his shifting vocal styles. Another important element at work here is the stellar bass playing of Andre Jonas, whose playing is distinct without being obtrusive, adding an extra layer of texture and melodicism to the tracks. The tracks themselves are also significantly different from one to the next, while still retaining a recognizable identity that gives the album a thematically consistent sound. The end result, while obviously influenced by the aforementioned genres, is something original and very much its own. Highly recommended.

Isolation
Eisenwald

Rale -- SOME KISSED CHARMS THAT WOULD NOT PROTECT THEM 12" [Isounderscore]

What I like most about Isounderscore albums is that they are, almost without exception, every bit as mysterious as they are excellent. Their latest release by Rale, aka Los Angeles sound artist William Hutson, is one of their most mysterious outings yet -- synth-driven minimalism that recalls the early days of Illusion of Safety, where volume and dynamics are of utmost importance. The LP consists of two side-long pieces that are as much about open space as they are about sound; there are lengthy passages of near silence interspersed with the electronics. The first side opens with a swell of electro-drone that quickly dissolves into an extended period of silence before the next movement of drone action floats upward, with a different tone, only to gradually lapse into silence again. This sound-to-silence motif recurs again and again, each time bringing forth a new set of sounds -- buzzing synth action, wailing feedback drones, crunchy (but not strident) noise, found sound -- with each new movement. The sounds used are simple (especially the synths, which are used to produce monotone drones), but the manner in which they are layered is fairly complex, and in conjunction with the rising and falling volume dynamics, creates the audio impression of a boat at sea passing through various zones of unidentifable activity. These themes and motifs are continued on the second side, with an opening sequence that marries rich and abundant synth tones with layers of noise and quickly fades into a muted, wavelike drone. Over time, crackling noises are introduced and the drone swells upward into something louder and denser. The drone eventually dissolves into a bed of crackling noise like static that continues for some time until the ominious, droning synth sound gradually returns. Noise textures emerge over time, appearing first as an undertone but eventually becoming every bit as prominent as the synth drone, and the fluctuating tension between these sounds continues, eventually dwindling into a short silence that is followed by a dark, droning coda. The journey from beginning to end is marked both by a judicious sense of composition and a stellar ear for sounds; despite the man's minimalist approach, there is very little sense of repetition thanks to the constantly evolving sounds and textures. In other words, another winning slice of audio enlightment from one of the country's most consistently interesting labels. Limited to 300 copies, and housed in a distinctive flourescent blue sleeve with a stamped geometric design by Brandon Nickell.

Rale
Isounderscore

Jess Rowland -- THE ENDLESS OF OF THE INFALLIBLE SEE (AND THE FUTURE IMAGERY ARCHITECTURE) [Edgetone]

Rowland sure has some interesting obsessions: one of her earlier albums consisted of songs about vending machines, and now she's back with a concept album about architecture. Well, sort of. The first half of the album's title (and the title of the opening track) is a reference to the papal decree against 14th-century mystic Meister Eckhart, and the second half of the title (also a song on the album) is a reference to US spy satellites. The medieval painting by Simone Martini, "Miracle of the Child Falling from the Balcony," also serves as a source of inspiration (and as the cover art). So right off the bat there's some peculiar intersections of the old and the new, along with art and architecture. As far as the sound goes, Rowland provides piano, organ, guitar, bass, and vocals; Pete Stalsky and Andy Tester are the rhythm section, playing drums and electric bass, respectively. Despite the use of relatively standard instruments, weird sounds abound, although mainly as elements of incidental sound. Some of the songs -- the title track, "Ladybird," and "Mordecai," for instance -- are more traditional, built around piano, organ, and vocals, and these tracks are ethereal and beautiful, with or without Rowland's gentle vocals. Other tracks, like "Dreamcatcher," are considerably more odd, mixing the aforementioned instruments with bell-tones, strangely dissonant guitar figures, and growling bass lines."The City of the Unexpected Universe" incorporates all sorts of strange rhythmic sounds into the track, noises that compete with a droning pipe organ, while "Murky Millay" approaches the sound of glitch electronica through the unconventional use of their instruments. Rowland strikes a happy balance between the old and new sounds, and this bold approach to mixing traditional and far more experimental sounds makes for a listening experience full of unexpected surprises.

Jess Rowland
Edgetone

Unearth -- DARKNESS IN THE LIGHT [Metal Blade]

I'm afraid I showed up late for the Unearth party (like, real late), so I have absolutely no idea what their earlier albums sound like, but this one is certainly heavy. I do know about the one big difference between this one and the earlier ones: they switched drummers this time around -- apparently the original guy wasn't metal enough for them -- employing the services of Killswitch Engage drummer Justin Foley. (There's another connection to that band, too; the album was produced by KE guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz.) As drummers go, he's certainly punishing, and his pounding, straightforward drumming drives the material with ferocious enemy. I'm personally not so enthusiastic about the band's constant reliance on breakdowns, but they at least do that well, and Foley is totally in sync with the rest of the band regarding the stop 'n start rhythms. They also have the good sense and focus to keep the songs relatively short -- only one song is over four minutes, and then only by a few seconds -- and they have a great, harmonically rich guitar sound, but their insistence on one breakdown after another makes for a really choppy sound, and contributes to a creeping sense of sameness from one track to the next. The best thing about the album, to me, is their furious and overdriven guitar sound, one that manages to be brutally intense and surprisingly melodic at the same time. The times they do deviate from their standard attack, as on the proggy intro to "Equinox" and the hypnotically melodic guitar intro to "Shadows in the Light," are all too brief and make me wish they had more moments like that on the album. Still, if you're okay with breakdown-heavy metal, this is unquestionably heavy stuff, delivered with an unremitting level of ferocity.

Unearth
Metal Blade

Voivod -- WARRIORS OF ICE [Sonic Unyon Metal]

I have to admit, I was really nervous about this release. While this is not the band's first live album (that would be VOIVOD LIVES, released on Metal Blade in 2000), this is the first one since guitarist Piggy's untimely death in 2005, recorded in December, 2009 at Club Soda in Montreal, featuring guitar from new guy Dan Mongrain; it's also the first live album to feature original bassist Jean-Yves "Blacky" Theriault and original singer Denis "Snake" Belanger. Turns out I had nothing to worry about -- while Piggy's astro-infinty guitar sound is pretty much impossible to replace or duplicate, Mongrain does a respectable job of fitting in with the rest of the band, and the entire band is in fine form (although Snake's delivery isn't quite as smooth as it was in the band's heyday, but age will do that to you). The 15-track set list is drawn mainly from their first six albums (plus two from their latest album INFINI) and includes some of their best-known (and just plain best) tracks like "Nothingface" and "Astronomy Domine"; it's a filler-free set, too, and the band's sound is closer to the raw, ripping sound of their early albums than to the more proggy feel they evolved into by the time of NOTHINGFACE and ANGEL RAT. It definitely sounds like a live album, too -- loud, intense, and chaotic -- but the sound is relatively clear and sharp, if overdriven, and the band's energy level remains consistent from start to finish. I haven't heard the other album and thus have no idea how it compares to this one, but the band has nothing to be embarrased about here, and the song selection makes it a pretty interesting peek at the band's early, classic albums.

Voivod
Sonic Unyon

be careful what you wish for.

2011-05-30T19:07:00.002-04:00

Across Tundras -- SAGE [Neurot Recordings]

The band's seventh full-length album (and first for Neurot) is the latest entry in an expansive catalog of atmospheric, spaghetti-western metal. The band's sound, while definitely metallic, is firmly rooted in Americana and laced with touches of psychedelia. This unique combination of disparate elements gives them an unmistakable sound that's immediately identifiable, albeit difficult to market (which probably explains why most of their albums have been self-released). They favor epic tracks (three of them are in the neighborhood of nine minutes, and one is over twelve) that frequently culminate in lengthy excursions of psychedelic lead guitar with a sound somewhere between King Crimson and ZZ Top, and while there are vocals, the emphasis is definitely on the instrumental passages. The metallic element of the band's sound is mainly in the heavy rhythms and distorted guitar sound, but the song structures themselves owe more to the band's Americana roots, and the guitar solos -- while bursting with psychedelic tinges -- are definitely derived from country blues power. This is what real progressive metal is all about: challenging, cryptic songs that move in unexpected directions, buoyed by highly eclectic, expressive playing. Their sound is a perfect fit for the Neurot label, too, and hopefully they'll find a permanent home there.

Across Tundras
Neurot Recordings

Aerial Ruin -- VALLEYS OF THE EARTH [Vendlus Records]

Well, this is kind of interesting: Vendlus is known for releasing unusual metal albums, but this is a metal album with pretty much all the metal removed. A solo work by Erik Moggridge of Bay Area bands Old Grandad, Drift of a Curse, and Epidemic, among others, this has only vestigal traces of anything resembling metal; instead, Moggridge constructs dark, haunting tracks of solo acoustic guitar swaddled in icy reverb, with heavily arpeggiated passages accompanied only by mournful vocals. He likens the sound to Low, which is is appropriate in terms of its deliberately lethargic pacing, but this is really closer to a more organic, less-processed version of Six Organs of Admittance, or even the recent solo acoustic release by Wino. (This makes me worry, too, that this will be the new metal trend -- heavy dudes making pretty acoustic albums -- now that the business of playing albums in their entirety live has peaked.) The songs are stark and unadorned, with a vibe that's both beautiful and desolate, riveting in their lonesome darkness. Moggridge's playing style is derived from complex country blues -- John Fahey and Jack Rose would have appreciated the man's playing, I"m sure -- but the pacing and dynamics, and especially the sensibility behind the flow of each song, are what provide the tenuous link to metal (along with the occasional burst of frantic, otherworldly sound, like the solo passage in "Sacraments"). Beautiful and moving, and definitely a stroke of unexpected genius that will catch you off guard before enveloping you in its morose power.

Aerial Ruin
Vendlus Records

A Life Divided -- PASSENGER [AFM Records]

This is a solid collection of European-style rock tunes that combines melodic, riff-heavy hard rock with electronic music in a package that, at times, comes close to being a less pretentious version of power metal. The electronic element comes mainly in the form of pulsing keyboards and the occasional background ambient synth wash, but the real musical meat here is in the five-piece band's command of a hook-laden, guitar-heavy sound. Radio-friendly without pandering, the album doesn't exactly break new musical ground, but the songs are good, the execution impressive, and on track after track, filled with catchy melodies and bracing riffs. The progressive nature of the song structures at times, combined with the singer's dramatic style, means the album's sound often creeps into the territory of power metal, but this is not quite as bombastic or operatic as the usual offerings of that genre. Regardless of how you perceive the band's sound or intention, this is certainly a respectable offering sure to please followers of the European hard rock scene.

A Life Divided
AFM Records

Aluk Todolo -- LIVE AT THE MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG cs [self-released]

This swank obscurity is exactly what its title suggests -- three lengthy tracks recorded live in Brooklyn, NYC during the 2009 WFMU Fest. Given its live origins, it's hardly surprising that this is much heavier than their albums, which are more controlled recordings; nevertheless, the sound is clear (and loud), and the band is in fine form. Two of the tracks here are, to the best of my knowledge, otherwise unreleased -- the opener "sheol," an intensely psychedelic workout filled with howling tornado guitar, and "march," an aptly-titled uptempo death march that may be the closest they've ever come to sounding like traditional black metal, punctuated by bursts of screeching, wounded-rhino guitar feedback over an intensely propulsive rhythm section. The final track is "woodchurch," from their first album DESCENSION, a slower and more hypnotic piece of work that takes on a more aggressive feel live, buoyed by earth-shaking bass and yet more wailing, moaning guitar action. It's an intense, assured performance that makes it clear the band is every bit at home on stage as in the studio, a rarity these days, and one that does not sacrifice their heavy occult vibe. Highly recommended, assuming you can find it; as far as I know, the only easy way to obtain this is directly through the band's website, and I'm sure it's a limited release that will disappear quickly.

Aluk Todolo

Aluk Todolo -- ORDRE 10" LP [Ajna Offensive]

Leave it to the always-swank Ajna Offensive to bring us just what the world needed right now -- namely, new occult hypno-skronk from the mysterious and brilliant Aluk Todolo. In this case, though, "new" is not quite the correct term, since this is actually a track recorded around the time of the material that appeared on their first full-length, DESCENSION, appearing here split into two parts to suit the vinyl format. It's very much in the vein of that album's sound, too; plodding drums shuffle along in simple but cryptic rhythms as wooly bass oozes out of the speakers in near-ambient fashion and the guitars make strange buzzing noises, only to coalesce in a marching black metal sound disfigured by more sawblade buzzing and other strange bursts of sonic otherworldliness. Flip the disc over -- and this is high-quality vinyl, by the way -- and the track just gets noisier and more psychotic, triangulating an unnerving signal between the points of black metal, ritual occultism, and flat-out noise. Eventually the madness fades away into a disappearing tornado of howling guitar that turns into a buzzing drone over the simplest beat ever (and I mean that in a good way). The band already has a sterling reputation for combining elements of black metal, ritual music, mutant prog rock, and noise into something diabolically occult and beautifully sinister; this only adds to the legend. As with all their other releases, the packaging matches the music by being simple yet striking, with a heavy occult vibe. You need this, and it's almost certainly limited to some absurdly small run, so you shouldn't dally in acquiring it.

Aluk Todolo
Ajna Offensive

Amon Amarth -- SURTUR RISING [Metal Blade]

Swedish metal has rarely sounded as savagely aggressive as the music on this release. Amon Amarth have been around awhile -- originating in Tumba in 1992 under the name Scum, a name they later abandoned for their current appellation -- and have steadily commanded more attention with each passing year and each new album. This album offers plenty of compelling evidence that their rise to stardom has been based on genuine merit; this is a hard-rocking piece of work indeed, with Johan Hegg's thunderous vocals riding over wave after wave of blitzkreig guitars and drums. I'm not normally a huge fan of Viking metal, but this is impressive stuff -- the band's penchant for epic rock is not weighed down by cumbersome noodling, and while there is definitely more than a hint of the melodicism traditionally found in Sweden's metal scene, here the melodic content is definitely subservient to the bone-splintering riff madness and rhythmic pummeling. The band's epic sound benefits from having roots in the chunky guitar sound of early death metal; that hammering attack has been honed to precision and elevated to something more than just sheer brutality, but without sacrificing any intensity. As with their earlier releases, the subject matter of these songs revolves pretty much around war, death, more death, and the joyous clang of steel on steel; they're nothing if not focused. It's a tribute to their enormous talent that such a monochromatic vision can sound so consistently entertaining over the course of an entire album.

Amon Amarth
Metal Blade

Argus -- BOLDLY STRIDE THE DOOMED [Cruz Del Sur Music]

The second album from Pennsylvania's Argus, featuring former Penance vocalist Butch Balich, solidifies their reputation as practitioners of a more modern form of classic doom. With a galloping rhythm section and guitar tone that recalls the more aggressive moments of Black Sabbath or St. Vitus and classic doom vocals, the ten tracks on this album straddle the line between a comfortably old-school sound and something a bit more updated. Here the doom lies mainly in their sound, especially the guitar tone, more than the tempo; while this is hardly speed metal, it's certainly far less lethargic in its pace than the work of its influential forebears. As with most doom bands, a lot rides on the guitars and vocals, and Argus excels in both of these areas. Their twin-guitar attack owes as much in its tightness and ominous attack to early Judas Priest as to Black Sabbath -- the leads are routinely stellar, oozing with old-school pentatonic appeal -- and the singer's impassioned delivery is every bit as powerful and captivating as the guitars. If there's a weak link, it's in the drumming, which is at times dominated by awkward patterns and a sometimes dodgy sound (although that could be a result of poor compression in the promo MP3 files). This should be especially relevant and enjoyable to fans of early Black Sabbath and the Scott Reagers-era St. Vitus albums.

Argus
Cruz Del Sur Music

Betzefer -- FREEDOM TO THE SLAVE MAKERS [AFM Records]

This Israeli band has two things I like a lot: a tremendously obnoxious vocalist comparable to Sepultura's Max Cavalera and nasty guitars soaked in distortion. The band is not as weird as most Israeli bands I've heard so far -- this is essentially standard-issue hard rock with fried metal guitars and a singer apparently weaned on black metal, with no real nods toward noise or industrial or experimental music, something common in Israeli metal circles -- but they're really good and intensely aggressive. They've spent the last couple of years opening for bands like Megadeth, Sepultura, and Lamb of God, so that should give you an inkling of where they're coming from; in fact, there are distinct traces of Sepultura in their DNA, even beyond the vocals, a fact made obvious by their strong, heavy grooves as much as the guitar sound. As the Sepultura comparison might suggest, they're not exactly creating an innovative new sound or anything like that, but what they may lack in originality, they more than make up for with intensity and sheer heaviness. There are worse things to imagine than an Israeli version of Sepultura, and the material on this album is strong enough to alleviate such reservations about originality.

Betzefer
AFM Records

Cynthesis -- DEEVOLUTION [Sensory Records]

This is a band featuring three members of Zero Hour and this, their debut album, was produced by Dino Alden, producer for such proggy types as Marty Friedman, Tony MacAlpine, Vinnie Moore, and the aforementioned Zero Hour, so it's hardly a surprise that it's a prog-metal affair. More than that, it's a concept album about evil industrial overlords who brainwash a shaman into becoming a puppet leader by which they can control the masses. This dystopian vision is accompanied by an unusually sedate playing style; the playing on this album is definitely progressive and filled with such un-metal moves as the piano on "Shallow World," and despite some face-shredding solos, this is not exactly a hard-rocking album. Some of that strategy may be an effort to distance themselves from the sound of Zero Hour, but whatever the reasoning is, it makes for a slow-moving listening experience. The playing is uniformly excellent throughout, but the pacing and lack of pure metallic heaviness means this is definitely going to be an acquired taste most likely to appeal to hardcore prog-metal devotees and fans of Zero Hour. Sure, "The Edifice Grin" does have a much heavier sound than the rest of the album, but by the time it arrives near the end, anybody but the dedicated prog-head will have probably moved on already to something that rocks a bit harder. Not bad by any means, but definitely not for the casual metalhead.

Cynthesis
Sensory Records

Death Agonies -- DUST IN THE LUNGS OF GOD cs [Cathartic Process]

Short but potent, this twenty-minute cassette by members of The Endless Blockade is, sonically speaking, a throwback to the early days of the American noise revolution. On the A-side, "Before The Span Of One's Life Is Run Out" comes on strong with harsh walls of corrupt, grinding noise and squealing audio hate. At one point everything goes silent for a few bursts of noise, only to resume with the full-on assault of rumbling, grumbling, shrieking earhurt. The tonal character of the sound evolves constantly while remaining consistently harsh and deliberately ugly, and the rapidly-shifting style of attack recalls early Macronympha and other early progenitors of power electronics. They take a different approach on the flip side's "An Unnecessary Stain," opening with bursts of compressed noise and gradually introducing a rhythmic element of machine-like throbbing that eventually becomes the main focus as the background sound becomes more chaotic, until the unstable rhythm is swaddled in a bed of hissing feedback and high-pitched whining. This gives way to a new rhythm of swirling noise that is in turn augmented by more crusty noise and bleak ugliness. After a period of clanking and thumping about that is largely devoid of the power electronics, the efx-generated grimness returns with a fuzzed-out machine rhythm swallowing the clanking sounds as the entire piece gradually descends into an orgy of white noise and psychotronic death rattles before ending in the sounds of everything in the room being broken. For a recent release, this definitely has an old-school sound. Bonus points for the cool heliocentric artwork.

Cathartic Process

Death Wolf -- S/T [Regain / Blooddawn Records]

Heavy, heavy, heavy... but it's on the label run by the main-man of Marduk, so you weren't expecting Peter, Paul and Mary, right? In fact, the band was formed in 2000 by the very same Morgan Hakansson and his pal Hrafn under the name Devil's Whorehouse (the name change came later). As far as I can tell, the entire purpose of the band's existence is so Morgan can play music that isn't atonal, hellish noise (Abruptum) or turbo-charged hell-music about running over cities with tanks and burning the bodies (Marduk). Which is not to say that the subject matter here is any lighter -- titles like "The Other Hell," "Sword and Flame," and "Unto Dying Eyes" make it pretty clear that this band is every bit as morbid and death-obsessed as anything else Morgan has been involved with in the past -- but musically speaking, this is probably a lot easier for the average metalhead to digest than the extreme sounds of Abruptum or Marduk. This band is more in the vein of classic Swedish death metal -- meaning, lots of melodic guitars in addition to the soul-crushing darkness and tempos that are nowhere near as frantic, leaving plenty of time for the gruesome riffs to pound their way into your skull. The biggest surprise, though, is singer Maelstrom's sonorous vocal sound, a cleaner and more passionate style than I ever would have expected of a band this heavy. The strong, brooding songs and surprisingly soulful guitar leads combined with this vocal approach make this a far more accessible album than anything I've heard on Regain, and while I'm sure a lot of purists weaned on Marduk and other equally uncompromising bands will find this too commercial for their tastes, it's definitely not a record to miss if you're a fan of the more melodic side of Swedish death metal.

Death Wolf
Regain Records

De Magia Veterum -- THE DIVINE ANTITHESIS [Transcendental Creations]

Okay, I can get behind this. The latest side-project of the mastermind responsible for Gnaw Their Tongues, Pompidou, Aderlating, and various other grim-sounding bands, this sounds like a furious (and I do mean furious) mashup of Leviathan, Xasthur, Blut Aus Nord, and a cement mixer, recorded with iffy fidelity and played back at triple speed. It's not quite noise, definitely derived from black metal, and features a rhythm section powered by what must be a drum machine pushed to its maximum limit; the result is hyperkinetic chaos, leavened with a lot of demonic screaming. You want extreme? This is extreme. There's some seriously complex stuff happening beneath that constant shrapnel attack, although it's not easy to tell (which is probably the point), and it's not all just noise and clattering drums, although the moments of clarity are few and far between, existing mainly to keep the sound from becoming too predictably monochromatic. It also never lets up -- the seven tracks are just a long, soul-draining blur of sonic violence and mayhem punctuated by hideous, psychotic wailing. Even Marduk is not this willfully obnoxious. I think that's a good thing; your mileage may vary. Nevertheless, if you're hep to the man's other forms of sonic ruination, or just a fan of elaborately psychopathic antimusic in general, you'll want to hear this.

De Magia Veterum
Transcendental Creations

Der Blutharsch And The Infinite Church Of The Leading Hand + Aluk Todolo -- s/t 12" LP [WKN]

I dunno what the dealio is with Der Blutharsch's new, unwieldy name, but their collaboration with French occultmusik masters Aluk Todolo is a brilliant one. I've never been much of a DB fan in the past, but I like what they're doing here with Aluk Todolo -- four tracks of drone-heavy ritual occult music that are a bit more traditional, structurally speaking, than Aluk Todolo's usual musical offerings, but far more exotic and sinister-sounding that what I've heard from DB in the past. The tracks are all lengthy workouts that run from ten to eleven minutes each, and it sounds like DB brought a sick-sounding analog synth to the party, so much the better to fill out the sound with haunting, harmonically-rich drone washes. The sound of the two tracks on the A-side is essentially that of Aluk Todolo -- pokey and minimal drums, hypnotic bass lines, and disturbed guitar sounds -- augmented by thick layers of keyboards, and it's a dark, beautiful sound indeed. Things heat up a bit on the flip side, where the first track features an uptempo beat and vocals that may or may not be samples; it's here that Der Blutharsch's hand in things becomes a bit more evident. The final track is straight-up electro-rock, albeit underpinned by Aluk Todolo's unorthodox take on ritual music, that -- bizarrely enough -- resembles something from Beherit's electronica phase. Excellent stuff all the way around, and possibly the most accessible thing either band has ever done. Fans of either band will want to check this out. Limited to 400 copies on absurdly heavy vinyl in a gorgeous (and minimal) sleeve reminiscent of Aluk Todolo's first album.

Aluk Todolo
Der Blutharsch ATICOTLH
WKN

Mark Deutrom -- THE VALUE OF DECAY [Southern Lord]

For those not hep to the name Deutrom, this is the same hat-wearing Mark D. who spent approximately five years slapping the bass strings for the Melvins during their tenure at Atlantic, until King Buzzo booted him out of the band after the HONKY album and tour. And yes, as you are no doubt already wondering, this does sound kind of like a Melvins record... more specifically, the album the Melvins might have made after HONKY if they hadn't thrown Deutrom to the wolves. Some might take this to mean Deutrom is ripping off the aesthetic of his former bandmates, but the situation is actually a bit more complicated than that; not only was he involved with the band in other ways before joining (first by helping record and release their first album, and later as the producer for OZMA, which included his former Clown Alley partner Lori Temple Black on bass), but his three earlier solo albums and his production credits for bands like RKL, Raw Power, and Neurosis prove that he was no stranger to weird musical antics even before being asked to join the Melvins. It's probably more accurate to note that he and the Melvins are working from the same general pool of weird-ass influences (not that this will keep lotf of people from whining about him stealing from them, I'm sure).

Having said that, there's no question that the sheer weirdness factor of this (digital-only) release is definitely comparable to that of the albums he made with the Melvins. Recorded over a period of years with Deutrom playing all the parts other than drums (provided by Okkervil River drummer Cully Symington), vocals (Jet Mullen appears on "Making A Killing" and "Curtains"; Lilian Budde sings on "Love Story Pt. 3"), and violin (Darcie Deaville), the fifteen songs are a bizarre mix of space-rock, experimental sound clusters occasionally bordering on musique concrete, and actual songs (weird songs, yes, but songs) that would qualify as art-rock if it weren't for the intensely muscular bass and guitar crunch. Then there's the cryptic "Love Story," which is sliced up into four segments and scattered throughout the album, with each segment sounding remarkably different. Some of the songs, like "Buried Jewel" and "Cities of Gold," are heavy, lumbering tunes with an oversaturated guitar tone that would make Billy Gibbons weep with envy (or in the latter case, maybe Tony Iommi); other songs, like "Au Printemps" and "Blood Fairies," are closer to experimental music that's heavy on the drone. All of it, regardless of the sound and vision, is excellent, and while Symington is nowhere near as out-there as Dale Crover, he's certainly a fine drummer whose tub-thumping skills bring a lot to the table. This is every bit as weird and perversely listenable as you would expect of a Melvins alumni, and probably the best thing Deutrom has yet done outside of that band. Highly recommended, even those who distrust musicians with hats.

Mark Deutrom
Southern Lord

Drainland -- ... AND SO OUR TROUBLES BEGAN [Southern Lord]

I have no idea if this band from Dublin, Ireland took their name from the depressing Michael Gira album of the same name, but their sound has nothing to do with that album (or Gira's other bands, for that matter). This eight-track album, a compilation of two vinyl-only EPs, is aesthetically a lot closer to the sound of early Sourvein or Eyehategod -- lots of distorted, sludge-heavy guitars and shouting from a guy who sounds like he drinks his hooch straight from the bottle then eats the empty bottle for good measure. This material is unquestionably heavy enough to stand up next to any of the American sludge heavyweights, and while the very nature of the genre keeps the band focused on a certain sound, there's enough variety between the songs (and within them) to keep things interesting, especially since they favor brief passages (usually in the intros, but not always) of neo-folk guitar amid the brontosaurus rumble. Like a lot of classic sludge bands, they lean more toward punk than metal, despite the sheer heaviness of their sound, with hardcore breakdowns and rattle-trap drums to emphasize their roots. Any way you slice it, though, this is morbid, intense stuff playing with hateful vigor by guys who might well enjoy beating you senseless. Sludge enthusiasts have a new band to listen to while shooting up, dig? The cd is limited to a one-time pressing of a thousand copies, and if you like this kind of stuff, you'll be real sorry you missed out later on when you can't find this on Ebay for under thirty bucks, so I suggest you investigate it now.

Drainland
Southern Lord

Enthroned -- PENTAGRAMMATON [Regain Records]

Birthed in Belgium seventeen years ago and featuring a lineup that includes members who have played in a wide variety of extreme metal bands like Emptiness, Gorgoroth, Plague, Infected, and Nefarium, the band's eleventh release is pretty much what you would expect. This is black metal with strong elements of brutality and plenty of needle-like riffing over rampaging drums, steeped in aggression and a consistently dark atmosphere. There's nothing particularly new or revelatory happening here, but the band makes up for it with a fearsome level of intensity and bursts of blinding, jagged speed akin to a locomotive hurtling over a cliff, and they periodically incorporate elements of dark, sinister melody into their lurching riffs that appropriately complement their bombastic approach. Nevertheless, the majority of their approach lies in furious speed and barbed-wire guitar immolation, a constantly raging sound that is often overwhelming in its violent grimness. It's definitely a sound that enthusiasts of traditionally blackened war metal will greatly appreciate.

Enthroned
Regain Records

Heirs -- FOWL [Denovali Records]

If you can get past the unfortunate cover -- seriously, I don't know what they were thinking when they approved this hideous cover, and I sincerely hope they were on drugs when they did, because there's no other good explanation for allowing it exist -- this is actually a pretty respectable instrumental post-metal album in the vein of Neurosis or Year of No Light. That's especially true on the title track, where a hypnotic, endlessly-repeated guitar figure is gradually joined by the other instruments and slowly but surely builds to a grandiose wall of harmonically dense sound. On other tracks like "Burrow" and "Mother," they demonstrate a strong grasp of composition along with an excellent sense of melody and a varied palette for their guitar sounds. Their brand of shoegazing post-metal incorporates a lot of interesting psychedelic touches as well, something that sets them apart from most of their peers working in the same territory, and this album is consistently interesting as a result. Too bad about the cover, though....

Heirs
Denovali

Kvelertak -- S/T [Indie / The End]

Norway's latest rock export has apparently taken the metal world by storm, judging from the way everybody and his dog in the metal media has been slobbering over them for the past several months and the attention they got for their (neary curtailed) appearance at 2011's SXSW. This is all the more surprising when you realize that they sing in their native language -- no attempt to pander to the American market for these guys -- and this album was originally only available as an import item on Indie Recordings (not that this means anything anymore in the internet era, when we're all basically living in each other's backyard). After hearing this, I can understand why -- thing bring the rock, seriously, in a way that recalls bands like Turbonegro, The Stooges, and a whole host of 70s boogie-rock acts. They get compared to Mastodon a lot, which I guess I can see, but they're nowhere near as pretentious as that band, and a lot more basic in their approach to rocking the fuck out. It turns out the language thing doesn't make much difference anyway, since the singer's bracing howl is pretty much impenetrable, while the hook-heavy brontosaurus riffing and pile-driving drumming does plenty to distract your attention from the shouting. Their sound is simultaneously catchy and brutal, combining elements of punk, rock, blues, and flat-out metal into something designed to be blasted at top volume on stereos at parties while drunks wreck everything in their path.

People are calling them metal, which makes sense given their intense heaviness, but at the core they're really a bombastic garage-rock band built to party. There's nothing subtle about any of this, either -- on track after track, they blaze like someone doused them in gasoline; their guitarists (there are three of them -- bombastic, remember?) whip up a frenzied hurricane of overdriven riffs and screaming melodic din while the drummer beats on his drums like he just caught them humping his wife, and if it all starts to sound a little bit the same after a while, well, that's one of the minor drawbacks to being full-bore all the time. And really, given that this is their debut album, they can probably be forgiven in this regard, especially when you consider how much sheer unbridled energy they bring to the game. As an added bonus, the American reissue tacks on six bonus tracks, including live recordings and BBC session tracks as well as demo versions of “Ordsmedar av Rang” and “Utrydd Dei Svake" that don't sound appreciably different than the originals outside of being of moderately lower fidelity.

Kvelertak
The End

Made of Hate -- PATHOGEN [AFM Records]

It must be legal to listen to Iron Maiden in Poland, because this band sure appears to have been listening to a lot of them -- which is pretty bizarre, since I think they're secretly a death metal band. Their singer sure sounds like it; he does the death grunt in impressive fashion. They get compared to bands like Children of Bodom and In Flames, which is fair, although the bring the Polish death metal sound in a big way, but with far more melodicism, even when they're squiggling away at high speed (which is often). Their roots in the Polish death metal scene, with its fondness for technical playing, are obvious in the stop 'n start riffing on "Russian Roulette" and "Yes, Departed," and on one track after another they display some impressive guitar chops along with the kind of superhuman drumming that made other Polish metal bands like Decapitated famous. What sets them apart from most of the Polish death metal scene, though, is the sheer preponderance of melody in their playing, although at the speed they usually play, that often translates into the audio equivalent of a cyclone of pretty pieces of stained glass hurled at your head. This manifests itself most impressively on "I Can't Believe," which is essentially an extended technical metal solo of exceptional melodic value surrounded by chugging rhythms and monstrous drumming. The intensity never lets up, which gets a bit exhausting after a while, but there's certainly nothing weak or hesitant happening here, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Made of Hate
AFM Records

Marduk -- IRON DAWN ep [Regain Records]

Marduk sure likes tanks; this is their third release with one on the cover. The war theme is prevalent in the three tracks on this relatively short (just over thirteen minutes) EP, and as you might expect given the cover and theme, those songs are blazing examples of relentless war metal not unlike being crushed under an army of jackboots. This can be seen as a companion of sorts to their earlier classic PANZER DIVISION MARDUK, the album against which (rightly or wrongly) their entire catalog is destined to be compared, and the comparison is certainly apt for the first two tracks, "Warschau 2 -- Headhunter Halfmoon" and "Wacht Am Rhein (Drumbeats of Death," which are built on pure blinding speed; "Prochorovka -- Blood and Sunflowers," however, is slower and almost industrial sounding, opening with sounds from the battlefield that lead into a mid-tempo death march in which heavy, bone-crushing riffing is complemented by ominous, trilling guitars. The EP is available as a six-panel digipak and a vinyl version limited to 666 copies, the first 200 available in yellow.

Marduk
Regain Records

Nekromatntheon -- DIVINITY OF DEATH [Vendlus Records]

This Norwegian trio may be new, but they sure sound old-school. More specifically, they sound like Slayer circa HELL AWAITS; in fact, the intro to "Gringo Death" essentially sounds like a spot-on rewrite of that album's title track. I'm not a particularly big fan of the new retro-thrash movement -- I grew up listening to the first wave of thrash and I don't particularly see the need for a new generation of rivetheads to reinvent the wheel -- but I can at least deal with the bands that actually sound old-school, and this is definitely one of them. They also have plenty of Dark Angel and early Sepultura in their DNA, and maybe a bit of PLEASURE TO KILL-era Kreator too, which definitely works for me. I also appreciate their brevity; of the eleven tracks here, only two are (barely) over four minutes, and most are around three minutes or less, which is plenty of time for them to spew out their gruesome riffs and warped, Slayeresque solos. In fact, the entire album clocks in at just over thirty minutes, just a few minutes longer than REIGN IN BLOOD. It's hard not to admire their purity of vision, either; there are no attempts at progressive artiness or pretentious Eurorock here, just an endless stream of blood-soaked riffs, frantic drumming, and aggrieved shouting. Despite being new, this sounds like it was recorded no later than 1986 (a banner year for the thrash genre), by a band sharing stage and studio time with all of the aforementioned thrash giants. Sure, there's nothing new here, but their intensity is real and their execution is flawless, so if you're feeling nostalgic for the glory days of thrash and wishing you could uncover some overlooked masterpiece from the era, this is certainly an acceptable substitute.

Nekromantheon
Vendlus Records

Conny Ochs -- RAW LOVE SONGS [Exile On Mainstream]

I have no idea if German singer / songwriter Conny Ochs is any relation to sixties folkie Phil Ochs, but he certainly shares Phil's propensity toward morose, doom-laden folk, which explains a lot about how he ended up on tour with Wino recently while he was flogging his own album of doom-folk. (Is that a new genre now? Is the world ready for doom-folk?) Let's just hope he doesn't follow too much in Phil's footsteps, given Phil's descent into dementia an alocholism, which only ended when he hung himself. At any rate, the pairing of Ochs and Wino makes perfect sense once you've heard this, the man's debut -- it's very much in the same vein as Wino's recent solo acoustic release, only even more stripped-down and stark, with a far more simple playing style and eerie, impassioned vocals that easily match Wino's own intensity. Encapsulating Tim Buckley's morbid lyricism and Robert Johnson's tormented drive, the album's ten songs are a mix of folk guitar and early Delta blues, in which Conny's mournful vocals waft over simple but compelling guitar figures and strummed chords. Don't be fooled by his association with Wino or what is nominally a hard-rock / metal label, though; there is absolutely nothing metal about this. In fact, the only instrumentation outside of his voice and an acoustic guitar are some unknown backing vocals on "Don't Know Her Name" and incredibly minimal percussion on a couple of tracks. The sound is certainly doom-laden, though -- these could easily have been unearthed tracks by Robert Johnson for all of their morbid feel. It's a beautiful and arresting sound, sure, but it's the sound of someone who sees the end just around the corner and has resigned himself to its inevitabilty. It's a beautiful but heartbreaking work of art, but definitely not recommended for the easily depressed.

Conny Ochs
Exile on Mainstream

Onslaught -- SOUNDS OF VIOLENCE [AFM Records]

If you're not an old fart (like, uh, me), you might not realize that despite this being only the band's fifth album, they are actually an old-school thrash band. Originally formed in England around 1983, they released three records (including their classic debut, POWER FROM HELL) between 1985 and 1989, then ended up disbanding two years later in the wake of lineup changes and the loss of their recording contract. After a lengthy hiatus, the band reformed in 2004 and released KILLING PEACE in 2007. The time off appears to have done them plenty of good, because the new lineup is bursting with energy, chops, and quality songs on this release. This is a fist in the face of complacency, featuring high-octane songs filled with blinding, heavy riffs and plenty of shred-o-rific solos. It's not all turbocharged fury, though; there are some slower-paced songs like "Code Black" and "Hatebox" that make for a nice contrast from the thrashing power violence without sacrificing any of the heaviness. On "Antitheist," they also do a nice job of combining the mid-tempo deathcrush with a strong melodic sensibility (which doesn't stop them from pounding nails through your skull as the song wears on, natch). Nevertheless, the vast majority of the album is classic brain-frying thrash delivered at supremely high velocity -- in other words, classic thrash metal delivered the right way. More proof that the US no longer has a hammerlock on quality thrash madness. As an added bonus, they close with a heavy and perfectly respectable cover of Motorhead's "Bomber," featuring guest appearances from that band's own guitarist Phil Campbell and Sodom guitarist Tom Angelripper.

Onslaught
AFM Records

OvO -- COR CORDIUM [Supernatural Cat]

The eternally puzzling Italian duo OvO continue to confound all attempts at rational thought with each new, radically different release, and this one is no different. Their Myspace page lists their genre as "black metal / classical / swing," which (true or not) gives you some idea of their deep sense of perversity. Stephania Pedretti (guitar, fiddle, hair) provides vocals that vary from a dark black metal growl to a clear, lilting soprano while Bruno Dorella handles the (usually minimal) percussion. If Pedretti's disorienting vocals (which often owe much to Yoko Ono and Lydia Lunch) weren't enough, Dorella's avant-garde drumming often veers into Ruins territory, and their songs are so exquisitely bizarre as to defy easy description. While they incorporate large amounts of noise into their sound, they are not really a noise-rock band in the usual sense -- if anything, they have more in common with Naked City or Painkiller than with the noise-rock bands people often compare them to, and their sophisticated, wildly experimental style (in both sound and composition) elevates them to a much higher level of musicianship than the average noise-rock band. Things are even more complicated on this album by the fact that this is the first time they've used overdubs, which affords them the opportunity to stretch out into even weirder territory than ever, and the fact that this is a concept record of sorts, dedicated to the memory of the English romantic poet Percy Shelley.

Which brings us to the music... the awesomely unpredictable, twisted, baroque music that incorporates elements of free jazz, death metal, avant-garde experimentalism, classical, psych, electronica, no wave, and more, as Stephania coos and shrieks, often sounding like Yoko Ono gone black metal. People who whine about how nobody's making original music anymore should listen to this band. They're so far out in left field that they might as well be orbiting Saturn with Sun Ra, although the jazzman from Saturn never aspired to be as heavy as this band is when the mood strikes them. Trying to describe the music itself is an exercise in futility; suffice to say that they make a fine art of being indescribably weird, with a sound that any devotee of truly extreme music (and not just the metal variety, either) will doubtless appreciate. Note, too, that in addition to the standard cd and download version of the album, it is also available in a limited edition that includes a cd, LP, and DVD of the band performing live. Essential listening for the adventurous.

OvO
Supernatural Cat

Pale Chalice -- AFFLICTING THE DICHOTOMY OF TEPID CREATION ep [The Flenser]

The raping and pillaging of black metal's rotting corpse continues; this time, the corpse in question appears to be that of Mayhem, circa DE MYSTERIIS DOM SATHANAS. I guess if you're going to plunder the mysteries of the grave, this would at least be a good bag of bones to dig up and bring back to horribly animated life.... So what we have here are a bunch of dudes from San Francisco doing their best to remind the world of time when Mayhem was still scary and worth listening to. They even manage to improve on this diabolical vision with a more consistent approach to their craft (meaning, they only exhumed the parts that actually worked and wisely left the more flaccid attempts at dippy mysticism back in the dark, deep hole). True, despite the abundance of ear-raping riffs and blood-thinning dissonance, they never quite reach the pinnacle of the Most Evil Riff Of All Time (that would be the central riff in "Freezing Moon," natch), but they come pretty close... and they're far more consistent in their rampaging attack than Mayhem ever were. You could argue that this is the album Mayhem should have made after their flawed masterpiece, and the EPs brevity (only four tracks in approximately thirty minutes) makes for a far more focused and potent listening experience, if you ask me. There may not be anything particularly new here, but there's also no filler, and they have a much firmer grasp of black metal's atmospheric, overreaching bleakness than most of the other bands currently engaged in musical grave-pilfering. This is a respectable offering to the blackened metal gods; it may not be terribly original, but it's certainly intense enough to pass muster with the goat herd.

Pale Chalice
The Flenser

Pregnant Spore -- SLIPPERY SLEEP cs [Christian Pop Records]

This is deeply weird stuff, probably best described as avant-garde psychedelic noise. On "Star-Gazing in Beds of Blood (Parts 1 & 2)," strange cut-up noises bleat and squeak in a rhythmic fashion that has just enough variation to keep it from sounding like a loop but in a fashion monochromatic enough to render it hypnotic, and as time passes, space-rock keyboards rise from the background like celestial cloud music, droning and shimmering over the grotesque bedrock rhythm. Eventually the keyboards die away and are replaced by pure noise in the form of bursts of static and tortured sounds like devices being shaken apart, only to return to the original rhythmic sound as the keyboard drones emerge again, this time not quite so heavenly. As the keyboards disappear again, the grand finale arrives in a deteriorating cacaphony of diseased sound. On the flip side, "In Your Hive" is dominated by more diseased rhythmic noises, which are joined after a while by lots of groaning, wailing sounds and other forms of sonic effluvia that turn the piece into something like a low-grade acid trip. As the track progresses, the sound gets denser, thicker, and stranger... and still the bedrock rhythm persists, as the sounds laid over it grow ever more deranged. It's chaos, yes, but remarkably controlled chaos, with an unusual and interesting style.

Pregnant Spore
Christian Pop Records

Same-Sex Dictator -- S/T cs [self-released]

Seattle's Same-Sex Dictator -- apparently a bass and drum duo now -- returns with a brief and cryptic cassette containing four songs of bruising, lo-fi metal (well, sort of). The first track, "Corpse Hoarder," is a furious blast of high-energy drumming and throbbing heaviness that resembles the earliest stabs at death metal, minus the obsessive guitar tomfoolery -- this is more straightforward in its sonic violence. "Cyanide Deficit" is slower and even heavier, with a sound like deconstructed grindcore played at half-speed, or maybe early Swans if that band had been coming from a more metallic background. On the flip side, "Return to Embryo Metropolis" is more bombastic but no less punishing, creeping into the ugly territories first mapped out by the early Amphetamine Reptile roster, while "Juiced Back To Life" returns to the pounding Swans-style groove and some truly distorted bass squealing. Throughout all of this, the vocalist barks like he's auditioning for the Unsane, which just adds to the intensity of their violent, ugly sound. Cool stuff; good luck on tracking it down, since there's no label or contact info.

Same-Sex Dictator

Scorpion Violente -- UBERSCHLEISS [Avant! Records]

So sick it has to be Italian, right? Well, maybe -- one source says Italy, another says France, but the French are plenty perverted themselves, so it could be either one. Wherever they're from, they're all about the sickness -- the cover, the titles ("viol et revanche" translates to "rape and revenge," and I'm sure the title track translates into something dirty), the eye-opening cover... but most importantly, the sound, which resembles Suicide by way of Cold Cave or something equally trashy and bleak. Tubbed-out bass, spastic techno beats, ice-cold synth bleat, and gusts of sandpaper-fresh noise result in a sound that's as catchy as it is filthy. Their minimalist aesthetic shines through in the use of extended repetition that you will find either incredibly hypnotic or intensely annoying. This is what would happen if Akitsa went on a Kraftwerk-inspired techno bender using nothing but extremely cheap and damaged electronic toys scavenged from pawn shops for the least cost possible. I am certain they were all on drugs when they recorded this. Maximum bonus points for the exquisite cover art and prurient bondage pix on the insert.

Scorpion Violente
Avant! Records

Seidr -- FOR WINTER FIRE [The Flenser]

Postblackmetal -- you knew it was coming, right? This is a pretty credible (if somewhat unholy) marriage of the two aesthetics, with blackened vocals and dissonant, metallic riffs buried in a sonic fog of majestic ambient drift. Like a lot of post-metal (and black metal, for that matter) bands, they favor long songs; five of the seven tracks are well over ten minutes long, and one goes over fourteen. Some of that is simply due to their creeping-death pace -- I'm betting these guys are huge fans of dISEMBOWELMENT -- although some of it can probably be chalked up the growing tendency in metal circles toward extended workouts. Speaking of those slow-moving Australians, the spirit of the slow wasting doom they perfected in the early 90s lives on in "The Night Sky and the Wild Hun," nearly nine minutes of slo-mo fuzziness interspersed with spaced-out sitar-style interludes.

It's not all crushing death or floating doom, though; "In The Ashes" is a suprisingly pretty and melodious acoustic dirge, both mournful and gorgeous, that appears halfway through the album and provides some respite from the dark heaviness everywhere else. (At 4:51, it's also the shortest track on the album; make of that what you will.) There's also a commanding guitar motif in "A Gaze at the Stars" that comes across like an inspired mind-meld of blues and prog rock that's equally matched by the freezing solo toward the end, and "Stream Keeper" opens with a simple acoustic passage accompanied by trilling, bell-like guitars that lead into a spacious-sounding funeral march complete with reverb-soaked drums and droning single-note keyboard (or is it guitar?) lines that eventually coalesce in a thicker, heavier sound and chanted choral vocals. Still, the main focus here is the mix of post-metal and black metal slowed down to a doom-laden crawl and plugged into some serious prog-rock tendencies. Impressive, assuming you're down with the stunted tempos.

Seidr
The Flenser

Suidakra -- BOOK OF DOWTH [AFM Records]

This German band's mix of Celtic motifs and straight-up thrash metal leans more heavily toward the latter; there may be Celtic elements running through their sound, but they're in no danger of being mistaken for a full-on folk-metal band. For the most part, their hectic, speed-obsessed attack has more in common with their current labelmates Onslaught than anything resembling pagan metal, and the Celtic influence would seem almost a tacked-on afterthought, something to merely trot out in intros and in the middle of songs, if it weren't for tracks like "Birag's Oath," which opens in suitable Celtic folk fashion before eventually turning into something far heavier and more metallic, and benefits greatly from a female vocalist with lush pipes, and "Mag Mell," which features both male and female vocals and is even closer to the traditional Celtic folk sound. Much of the time, though, the Celtic influence is incidental -- for instance, "Balor" begins like a lilting folk lament, only to burst into aggressive metal thunder and hyperspeed everything. Some tracks, like "Stone of Seven Suns," manage to effectively incorporate the Celtic influence more thoroughly and seamlessly into the band's basical metal framework, and the closing "Otherworlds Collide" -- at 1:45, basically a brief coda -- is essentially nothing more than a true Celtic guitar figure augmented by the sound of (big surprise) worlds colliding. By and large, though, this is a thrash band first and foremost -- one that has successfully integrated Celtic influences, yes, but still concerned mainly with thrashing your face off, something they do well.

Suidakra
AFM Records

Sky Burial -- DREAM DECIMATOR cs [Cathartic Process]

Even for Sky Burial -- the dark-ambient successor to Mike Page's legendary noise band Fire in the Head -- this is eerie, unsettling shit, starting with the disquieting cover by Michael Blodgett and continuing on the tape, where layers of dark, cycling drone and waves of sound build into an intense nightmare of discordant, dreamlike warbling and throbbing ambient bass tones. The sound is similar to early Lustmord, and while no mention is made of it in the sparse liner notes, much of the sound is probably taken from field recordings. The entire 60-minute cassette is one long piece, an ambitious move that would probably be doomed to failure if Page weren't so skilled in composition; as it is, the piece flows in organic movements, building and falling in terms of intensity and dynamics, always boasting a superior grasp of the mechanics of processed sound. Exotic sheets of unusual sounds float up to the surface at unpredictable intervals, with the epic drones and passages of noise going through an endless array of inventive permutations. The result is a continuous passage through the murky dungeons of industrial sound and sky-wide ambient drone that remains compelling throughout the entire journey. This cassette just confirms my ongoing suspicion that Sky Burial may be the most consistently interesting practitioner of the dark ambient arts in the US today (or at least unless the apparently-dormant Cold Electric Fire ever decides to release a follow-up to the brilliant IN NIGHTS DREAM WE ARE GHOSTS, an album very much in the same vein as this release). Essential listening for dreaming droneheads.

Sky Burial
Cathartic Process

Summon the Crows -- ONE MORE FOR THE GALLOWS [Southern Lord]

Now this is nasty stuff, steeped in the likes of Discharge and Amebix and a healthy dose of old-school death metal (especially in the gruesome cookie-monster vocals). It's the second album from this Norwegian band and it goes by in a blur, with ten songs in approximately 25 minutes. The velocity is high and the intensity enormous; there are brief (very brief) passages here and there where they slow down just long enough to make their inevitable return to blazing speed all that much more vicious, but otherwise it's largely a blur of sizzling chromatic guitars and frenzied drumming. It's a pitiless attack that doesn't leave much room for variation from one track to the next, but you don't listen to an album like this for variety, you listen for the excruciating experience of having your face stepped on repeatedly, and in that aspect, the band succeeds on all counts. Heavy, brutal, and filled with jagged, heart-stopping riff action mired in a dirty, overcharged sound that should warm the heart of any forlorn crust devotee. Unusually for the Lord, this is a cd-only release, and limited to a thousand copies.

Summon the Crows
Southern Lord

The Tunnel -- FATHOMS DEEP 12" LP [self-released]

Call me astounded -- The Tunnel's second album is a masterpiece of sound and design. Hailing from San Francisco and featuring Jeff Wagner (Tunnel of Love, Circus Proboscis, Jumpknuckle, Sharking Teeth), Patrick Crawford (Aus Rotten, White Gold), and Sam Black (Guilty Party, If Ever), the highly eclectic trio (aided in places by Josh Layton and Sarah Miller) bring to the table a vast cornucopia of experience in bands devoted to noise rock, metal, hardcore, goth, and Foetus-style theatrics. Which, of course, totally explains why the album sounds more like an inspired meeting of the minds from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds circa TENDER PREY, Gun Club, mid-period Swans, and Television, right? I have no idea how they got from there to here, but however it happened, it definitely worked. "Wraithes," the brief and brooding instrumental that opens the album, is dominated by a commanding guitar motif from Wagner, with a jagged tone that would bring tears of joy to Blixa Bargeld's eyes. The song that follows, "Strange Haven," is even more jaw-dropping -- a desolate drinking song that sounds like it could have been an outtake from MARQUEE MOON, but drenched in glorious guitar chords ascending in rich, stunning harmonies. Wagner's vocals and stinging guitar sound are also at the forefront of the similar but more uptempo "King of the Impossible," which builds to a hard-rocking crescendo that's totally devoid of irony -- and the rest of the band is every bit as sanguine as Wagner, presenting a level of musical talent that has largely evaporated in this era of bands piecing songs together in ProTools. The first side closes with "Fathomless Deep," a largely instrumental piece driven by a funereal piano passage and near-ambient guitar wailing that recalls the stark and terrible beauty of the Swans song "Fool."

The brilliant musical shape-shifting continues on the flip side, beginning with "The Beast-Catcher," in which they somehow manage to marry a jaunty Tejano rhythm and more of that twangy Television-style guitar to the dynamic bombast and thundering hocus-pocus drums of mid-period Swans. Have I mentioned that Wagner's guitar sound and chord choices are often reminiscent of prime-meat era Weirdos? Or that his piquant vocals resemble Jim Thirwell channeling the forgotten spirit of Johnny Cash on an amphetamine bender? And if that's not enough whole-grain goodness for you, there's the slow deathcrush blues of "Scurvye Dreames," the swinging interplay between the polyrhythmic drums and stuttering devil-guitar on "The Bitter End," and the chiming, unpredictable guitar work on the blues-laden "A Storm." How often do you stumble across an album whose every song is stunning?

Still. I see there are some of you who do not believe. So. Let's talk about the packaging. Don't be fooled by the fact that this is a self-released album; we're talking high-grade vinyl with exquisite sound, housed in a stiff jacket with frankly amazing artwork (hit the Bandcamp link below for pictures) and a handsome insert with more gorgeous art, liner notes, and lyrics. The album even comes with a download card so you can carry said swank tunes around your favorite digital listening device. (You can also download the album for free -- that's zero dollars, for those of you who are shaky at math -- at the Bandcamp site.) Might I add that they ask only a paltry ten smackolas for this handsome package? Seriously, if that's not enough to convince you that you need this, then you are wrong and I do not love you.

The Tunnel
The Tunnel at Bandcamp

Thinning the Herd -- OCEANS RISE [St. Mark's Records]

With a sound that's caught somewhere between classic stoner rock and 90s grunge, NYC's Thinning the Herd have a style that hasn't really been in favor for a while now. While they have a lot in common, sonically speaking, with the guitar-heavy stoner rock sound of a few of Wino's less doomy bands (which may explain how they ended up opening for Shrinebuilder last spring in NYC), they also frequently resemble the working-man blues-rock of 70s bands like Nazareth and Bachman Turner Overdrive. They definitely sound like a stoner rock band, but their songs are far tighter and closer to traditional pop / hard rock tunes than the sprawling jams so common to stoner rock, and while there's more than a bit of grunge in their attack, they are far more upbeat than most of the bands of that era. It's an interesting sound, to be sure, and the band is tight without being uptight about it; the guitarist in particular absolutely smokes. It's clear, too, that the band put a lot of work into coming up with good songs and executing them well; this is a filler-free album, and at 35 minutes, it doesn't wear out its welcome, either.

Thinning the Herd

USX -- THE VALLEY PATH [Neurot Recordings]

They're nothing if not ambitious, that's for sure -- this album is one long track spanning just under forty minutes. Elements of drone, doom, and (more than anything else) psychedelia pervade this monster of epic composition, like a more esoteric and spaced-out answer to Sleep's equally monolithic DOPESMOKER. The extended piece itself plays out in a series of movements, denoted by changes in tempo and texture, but always informed by a sparkling psychedelic sound. Some of the movements are considerably heavier than others, but regardless of the weight, there is always an identifiable psych element happening, usually in the tripped-out, efx-laden guitar sounds. The pacing throughout the piece is deliberate, with some variation in tempo from one movement to the next, but not a drastic one; the track remains completely in a mid-tempo groove from start to finish, the movements marked off more by changes in tone and texture than by tempo shifts. Their sense of composition, too, is sufficient to keep things interesting throughout the entire track, no small feat for an album-length work. It's ambitious, yes, but fully realized, and very much in line with the post-metal sound (and the quality) of other offerings from Neurot.

USX
Neurot Recordings

Vastum -- CARNAL LAW [20 Buck Spin]

Featuring members of Acephalix, Infest, and Saros, this Bay Area band specializes in a modern and forward-thinking brand of death metal, one concerned less with mindless brutality and more with finding unusual ways to expand the traditionally fearsome sound of death metal. Much like their neighbors Ludicra, their approach to metal is considerably more creative and nuanced than that of the average metal band. Their approach is distinctive enough, in fact, that it's difficult to easily assess their lineage and influences, outside an obvious Carcass influence in their lead guitar sound. One of the more interesting things about their sound -- and the album in general -- is their avoidance of speed; unlike a lot of modern death metal, this is mid-paced material, and as such the riffs and drumming are more sharply defined and easier to assimilate, rather than just a titanic blur of motion speeding past like a locomotive. Aside from the dual vocals, the most notable things about their sound are the consistently interesting, often unpredictable drumming and the guitar tone. The rhythm guitar sound is heavy and chunky, but just clean enough not to be muddy, while the lead guitar sound is full and dark; the leads themselves are concise and thoughtful, appearing only when necessary, a welcome contrast from the many bands that waffle on without end at every possible chance. This is highly focused, starkly rendered stuff that proves it is possible to be intense and brutal without descending into stupidity or silliness. This is death metal for people who have grown tired of the genre's fixation with juvenilia, coarseness, and lazy tendency to merely recycle the ideas and riffs of earlier bands. Highly recommended.

Vastum
20 Buck Spin

Samuel Locke Ward -- BARELY REGAL BEAGLES [self-released]

This is old-school DIY at its best -- one guy, one guitar (actually a banjo much of the time), the occasional guest (including Violent Femmes sax sideman Pete Balestrieri on two tracks), and lots of strange (but strangely appealing) songs. There is no one predominant sound here; Ward's muse wallows in punk, pysch, noise, and experimental sound, all coming together in songs whose primitive sound and experimental bent are often reminiscent of early Pere Ubu. Combining the absurdist punk aesthetic of bands like the Dead Milkman with an original delivery (including unpretty vocals that might give some pause) and the enthusiastic DIY sound of Midwest punk bands like those in the orbit of Columbus Discount Records (an appropriate reference here, since Ward's sensibility and delivery aren't all that far removed from the work of Tommy and Jay), the songs are structured in a straightforward manner but leavened with bizarre touches (distorted guitars, eccentric banjo flourishes, other strange sounds) and festooned with lyrics devoted to peculiar concepts. The seventeen tracks boast a considerable variety of sounds and genres and burst with unpredictable energy. It's a rough-sounding document, to be sure, not something that's going to pass for radio-friendly AOR twaddle, but that's precisely the album's charm.

Samuel Locke Ward

better late than never....

2011-05-09T20:48:00.001-04:00

Abel Ashes -- EAT PLASTIC AND OTHER EXPERIMENTS [self-released]

Even by my standards, this is a pretty eccentric album. Multi-instrumentalist Abel Ashes has a peculiar sense of humor and surrealist sensibility highly reminiscent of Frank Zappa circa JOE'S GARAGE, with an experimental neo-jazz sound to match. (When you have band members like Marcos Fernandes and others from the West Coast free jazz / experimental scene in your band, it's not quite as hard as you might think to match Frank's instrumental genius.) This is actually a reissue featuring the original album's ten tracks plus ten solo pieces recorded from 2000-2009 and four live recordings featuring Eric Hensel that were recorded at Lestat's Coffeehouse in San Diego in 2001. In the same way that Zappa combined elements of early rock and roll and doo-wop with jazz and progressive rock, Ashes combines a poetic lyrical sensibility (he was originally a poet before moving on to more musical endeavors) with a musical sound that straddles the divide between progressive rock and free jazz. If you're familiar with Cheer-Accident's idiosyncrastic approach to prog rock, then the eclectic sound on display here will be familiar. The solo pieces are even stranger and, by and large, even more experimental, often delving into the pure exploration of sound rather than anything resembling actual songs, while the final four tracks -- the live ones recorded with Hensel -- are every bit as bizarre as anything else on the album, but more intense and immediate. Recommended for enthusiasts of eccentricity and those still pining for the late, lamented Zappa.

Abel Ashes

Cock E.S.P. -- HISTORIA DE LA MUSICA COCK [Breathmint / Little Mafia / Sunship Records]

The diabolical (and often farcial) noise attack unit of longtime Twin Cities resident Emil Hagstrom has been warping minds and baffling sensibilities since 1993, and Emil's 17th full-length album -- helpfully subtitled "A Tribute to Experimental Music, 1910-2010" -- is a twisted homage / parody of the Cock's chosen genre and influences, featuring 125 tracks grouped into eleven different sections with hilarious titles referencing experimental incons, important albums, and other aspects of culture that have been placed in the Cockblender and pureed into noise masquerading as art. If there's a method to Emil's madness regarding the track grouping, it completely eludes me, but with titles like "4.33 Inches," "What's THIS Lube For...!," "Tol Cormpt Noise Noise Noise," and "Dude, Where's My Contact Mic?," it doesn't really matter -- the important part is that the brief tracks (125 of them in 38 minutes, remember) encompass just about every splinter faction and schism of noise / experimental music you can possibly imagine. Recorded over a period of two years with a lengthy number of conspirators, contributors, and collaborators (including past / present members of Pain Teens, Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck, Smell & Quim, Blowfly, Suffering Bastard, Ovo, and Weasel Walter, among many, many others), the album unfolds like a devolved connection of historical music snippets. Don't let the zaniness fool you, though -- this is a well-produced album of constantly changing sounds and noises sequenced in a manner that in both unpredictable and highly entertaining. As for the sound itself, everything is there -- and I mean everything; harsh noise, art-damaged disco, experimental sound, musique concrete, power electronics, peculiar samples, your neighbor's dog being set on fire, whatever... it's all there, stuffed into a constantly-evolving mix of sonic madness carefully sculpted into a dense mass of artistic befuddlement. Guaranteed to open up your third sphincter or your money back! Massive bonus points for the super shit-hot full-color art and packaging (on high-quality glossy cardstock in a resealable polybag); hit the band link below and see the discography for a look. Limited to 1000 copies. If you think you don't need this, you are wrong and I feel sorry for you.

Cock E.S.P.
Breathmint
Little Mafia
Sunship Records

Dan of Earth -- SHED A SOFT MONGOLOID TEAR 3" cdr [FTAM]

The earthbound Dan returns with more cryptic experiments in sound, steeped in mystery and heavy on the samples (especially on "Dog," which is essentially a series of barely-coherent and overlapping conversations set to an ominous bass drone). Dan's sound palette is derived from an unnamed series of homebuilt electronic and acoustic devices (and C++ programming -- does this mean a PC is involved somewhere?), and it translates to a murky and baroque sound that's eerie and often disquieting without being violent or harsh; even with a beat (as on "It Is the Golden Hour"), the strange near-ambient sound washes cycling in the background are subtly unnerving. The sounds on "Carrizo Plain" are even more exotic and minimal, like steel washers rattling in a cup while deformed sirens bleat endlessly in the background; "A Happier Orbit," the track that follows it, is similar but even more subdued in its draining minimalism. The final track, "Tourette's Machine," lives up its name, with erractic squealing and electronic barking noises that eerily mimic an Tourette's sufferer firing off random bursts of sonic chatter. Strange but intriguing, with some extremely devolved sounds, and unlike many such experimental efforts, the short running time means the weirdness never overstays its welcome.

Dan of Earth
FTAM

Daniel Christian -- HOLD YOUR BREATH [self-released]

It isn't often you see country-rock albums in rotation in the DEAD ANGEL listening booth, but I'm glad this one showed up in the mail, because I like this a lot. Not only are the songs excellent and the playing superb, but the album's sound strikes a nice balance between the country-folk and rock, with elements (such as the opening piano of "Corners") that echo the country-rock sound of the 70s popularized by the Eagles, and Jackson Browne. To some degree it's an extremely retro sound, but given the stale and overproduced nature of most modern country-rock, that's not such a bad thing. With a songwriting style comparable to a more laid-back Steve Earle and the later, more subdued moments of Tom Petty, the album is engaging and highly listenable without being breezy or too lightweight. At fifteen songs and sixty minutes, some might find the album too long, but fantastic songs like "California Song," "Other Side of the Ground," and "Summer's Gonna Roll You" more than make up for any such deficiencies.

Daniel Christian

Echtra -- PARAGATE [Temple of Torturous]

Talk about epic, this band does it: the album is nothing more or less than two tracks, "Paragate I" and "Paragate II," each one 23 minutes long. Stylistically, the band is down with the drone -- the first track opens with a mournful acoustic arpeggio that is repeated endlessly as dark, distorted drone guitars slowly and methodically rise and build around it. Eventually the arpeggio undergoes subtle changes as the rest of the band's sound grows thicker and denser, with distant pounding drums and a choral sound that might be vocals or processed guitars. Around the fourteen-minute mark, the acoustic guitar fades away as an ambient guitar drone becomes the predominant sound. The track continues to evolve into something more akin to a black metal drone, until it segues into the second track, where the acoustic guitar returns, this time with a more complex and melodic feel, and the background continues to subtly change in both tone and texture. Around the six-minute mark, everything but the acoustic guitar drops out, only to have another guitar return as a harmonic counterpoint. The new sound grows in volume until everything else abruptly kicks back in several minutes later, creating a new wall of fuzzy, ambient sound. Eventually the sound dies away to a singular guitar drone that is in turn replaced by minimalist acoustic strumming and, later, enormous power chords alternating with the acoustic guitar. Acoustic and electric passages continue to alternate for the rest of the track. The band's talent for pacing and textural variety keep the tracks from becoming stale, no small feat given the moderate tempo and song lengths. Definitely a band to watch, especially if you're down with the drone.

Echtra
Temple of Torturous

Pilesar -- RADIO FRIENDLY [Public Eyesore]

This is weird and avant-garde, yes -- no surprise, given that it's a Public Eyesore release -- but it's also surprisingly accessible, and while it's probably really not quite as radio-friendly as the title would suggest, it's still immensely catchy. Led by Jason Mullinax in conjunction with a long list of collaborators, the eighteen tracks here frequently sound like pop songs that have been perverted through strange aesthetic decisions, the unorthodox use of instruments, and a tendency to use whatever recording equipment happens to be available. Despite the avant-garde roots, Ween is actually a useful reference point; Mullnax appears to share that duo's quirky sense of humor and urge to hopscotch from one musical genre to the next (not to mention their tight songwriting chops). There's a heavily rhythmic element to the album (especially in the form of percolating synths that pop up on tracks like "Umbrella") that definitely sets it apart from most PE releases and contributes heavily to the album's accessibility, a sensibility that reaches its apex on "Gator Wrasslin'," where an infectious synth rhythm and complex beat is joined by an otherworldly guitar that manages to be noisy and melodic at the same time. The accompanying poop sheet (for reviewers only, so sorry) references Frank Zappa, The Residents, and Boredoms, all of which are obvious influences, and should go a long way toward hinting at the sheer bizarro factor involved here. Still, for something so deeply weird, it comes awfully close to living up to the title, assuming we're talking about a radio station on Mars.

Pilesar
Public Eyesore

Seeded Plain -- ENTRY CODES [Creative Sources Recordings]

The latest release (or one of them, at any rate) from this prolific duo finds improvisational artists Bryan Day and Jay Kreimer using a variety of homemade instruments cobbled together from many unusual sources to create bizarre soundscapes in a live setting. The five tracks here were recorded in Kreimer's own studio from 2009-2010 and they all sound pretty otherworldly; it's hard to imagine (even after having seen them perform) what kind of twisted devices they're employing to construct these puzzling sounds, but there's certainly no shortage of textural sounds littering their largely open sound pieces. Their sound occupies a nebulous space that discourages easy description -- too random to be actual songs, not quite random enough to be pure noise -- and places much of the emphasis on the method by which sounds are obtained more so than the actual sounds themselves. It's an intellectual approach that yields perverse results on disc; the sounds are interesting but disconnected, and there's a strong sense that the presentation was probably more revelatory in its original context, with visual cues to match up with the quirky sounds. Nevertheless, the disc remains an intriguing artifact of improvised sound, even if you have to guess at what they were doing to raise such a clatter.

Seeded Plain
Creative Sources Recordings

Sujo -- "Qatada" 3" cdr [Inam Records]

The ever-mysterious Sujo returns with twenty minutes of ominous, watery guitar drone and amp buzz over the course of one track that's a throwback to the original sound of the early isolationist movement. The flow of sound is not totally random, but definitely far more unstructured than the last few Sujo releases, and it's heavy on buzzing noise and dark sounds with sinister intent; this is uneasy music for rituals in darkened rooms, dark ambient noise in the vein of Sky Burial. This is music that sounds like it was made after dark with the intention of being played after midnight. Spooky, unnerving stuff, and like everything else by Sujo, highly recommended. The release is limited to fifty copies, so don't sleep on it....

Inam Records: inamrecs@yahoo.com

Testa Rosa -- II [self-released]

Everything about this album is amazing -- the songs, the performances, the artwork, everything. This is the way pop albums should be made. The eleven tracks on this album are all built around the gorgeous vocals of Betty Blexrud-Strigens (who also plays guitar and organ), and the quartet plays with phenomenal grace and subtle verve; this is pop music, yes, but unlike most of what passes for pop music these days, this is music with a sophisticated sound that has more in common with Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, and Elton John's early work -- and with the vaunted 4AD sound of the 80s and 90s that made albums by the Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, and Lush so listenable -- than any of the current chart-toppers featuring one-name artists hiding behind a homongenized army of faceless hit producers. The best part of the album -- outside of the beautiful singing and consistently transcendent playing from everyone in the band -- is how polished the songs are, with plenty of subtle nuances that will undoubtedly translate into the rewarding experience of hearing something new each time you come back to the album. This is obviously the work of people who have spent a great deal of time and effort working out all the inherent possibilities of the material and trimming away all but the most essential parts. Normally I'd say it's a crime that such brilliant music remains unclaimed by a major label (the band released the album themselves), but given the way the music business has slid into the abyss over the past decade, it's entirely possible that was a deliberate move on the band's part, to avoid being swallowed by a self-destructing beast. In addition to the sublime music, the album is graced with some of the best artwork I've seen in a while; see more of it (including the digipak inner art, which serves as the header on their web page) at their site via the link below, where you can pick this up el cheapo (along with the rest of their catalog, including a free EP).

Testa Rosa

Matt Weston -- THE LAST OF THE SIX CYLINDERS [7272 Music]

The latest work from percussionist and composer Matt Weston is a tribute to the late Bill Dixon, a mentor and collaborator of Weston's whose colorful quotes provided the titles of the three tracks on this disc. On the first, "You've got to now how to wear a hat," Weston's bustling percussion is all but hidden beneath a roiling storm of noise generated by sound effects and the unorthodox use of wind instruments; toward the end, the storm of sound fades out and the last few minutes are dominated by strange, distorted sax bleating and other tortured sounds. "I don't want success, I want adventure" is not quite as noisy but every bit as chaotic, with loose percussion forming a bedrock over which shrieking saxes and other bursts of sound issue forth in erratic fashion. The rumbling percussion in "The reward has got to be that this is what you do" forms a noise in its own right, sounding like a train passing in the distance, as more sax bleating burbles in the foreground. Eventually some other wailing makes an appearance, although courtesy of what instrument I have no idea; whatever it is, it definitely sounds unsettling. This is an improv sound that incorporates elements of free jazz and, strangely enough, old-school industrial music (especially Throbbing Gristle), with intriguing and occasionally disconcerting results.

Matt Weston
7272 Music

Winter -- INTO DARKNESS [reissue] [Southern Lord]

The legendary (and incredibly obscure) New York death-doom trio Winter existed just long enough to cough up one classic and highly influential album (that, uh, would be this one) and an EP before splitting up. That album, originally released in 1990 on Future Shock and later reissued in various configurations by Nuclear Blast and others, sometimes with ETERNAL FROST tacked on, has now been reissued again in a limited run on disc and vinyl. For a lot of people, the album's legendary status begins and ends with the songs themselves and their withering, oppressive sound, one that was unique back then and still better than most of the most of the work by bands they inspired. For some, though, it's equally interesting to note the album's status as one of the earliest sources of the droning, heavy, slow-motion sound of doom / death metal, a transition point between several different genres leading into the doom-drone scene that has come to dominate the post-metal landscape in the past decade. If you weren't there, it's hard to imagine how alien this sounded to most listeners at the time, even those already into doom or death metal. At a time when most metal bands were obsessed with speed, Winter played much of the time at tempos as stunted as any on an early Swans album, and the droning, ambient, effects-laden elements of their sound had more in common with obscure experimental albums than anything in metal. Winter's sound was so unusual and well-formed at the time of the first album's initial release that it was hard to imagine its origins, but there are clear nods to early Celtic Frost in the album's vocals and combination of simple but powerful guitar progressions with sparse but complex drums (especially on "Servants of the Warsmen," which could easily pass for a slowed-down outtake from EMPEROR'S RETURN).

At the same time, they predate a number of similar-sounding but better-known acts floating around at the same time or a few years later, including Disembowelment, Grief, 13, Unearthly Trance, and Khanate, all bands with similar influences, styles, and sounds; in fact, Khanate's freezing and near-motionless bass tone sounds just like the bass sound on tracks like "Goden" and "Power and Might." You could make a compelling argument, now that I think of it, that Khanate basically sounds like Winter at half-speed with the rock elements removed and replaced with a high degree of psychopathic intensity (especially in the vocals). They were contemporaries of Earth (although this actually predates the release of Earth's first album) and Eyehategod, both bands who then shared certain elements of Winter's sound, especially when playing downtuned passages at stunted tempos, but Earth were never really metal and Eyehategod, despite their intense and murky riff-wrangling, were never really metal either (or drone, for that matter). While Winter were obviously very much a metal band, their sound was so strange and disorienting for its time, and a large part of Winter's appeal to cultists (and probably the same thing that has kept them obscure) is the difficulty in putting them in the context of any particular sound or scene at the time. The rest of their appeal is in their intensely anti-social vibe, both musically and as a band who didn't care what anybody thought about what they were doing.

A large part of the album's appeal on a purely musical level is how claustrophobic and heavy it is; the rest of the attraction is the album's surreal and incredible slowness (although subsquent doom bands would continue to inexorably drop the tempo, a tendency that finally culminated in Khanate's complete breakdown of time and sound). The dark, oppressive atmosphere is made even stranger by some truly unusual-sounding drums -- simple but heavy, raw and stark yet more complex than you might think on first listen, with a blunt-trauma sound that a lot of people have since tried, mostly without success, to replicate -- and the occasional unexpected burst of efx-created sound. A lot of people point to Earth as the starting point of drone doom, but I wonder if this isn't a more appropriate touchstone, especially since the jazzier and more experimental elements of Winter's sound have remarkable similiarities to work of the past few years is the experimental wing of doom / drone metal, while its overall sound and vocals put it squarely in the tradition of bands like Celtic Frost and Coroner.

If you're wondering why this particular obscurity is getting a (justly-deserved) chance of reaching and influencing a whole new audience more than twenty years after its intial appearance, it's because the band has reunited (for how long is anybody's guess) to play in April at the 2011 Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands and this reissue is essentially a tie-in of sorts. Southern Lord is offering the album (in original track listing, without bonus tracks) and what appears to be the original artwork with additional material, on 180-gram vinyl (white or black) in a heavy gatefold sleeve or a compact disc; both versions come with an 18-page booklet. I don't know how limited the run is, but this is an excellent chance to hear a remarkable album the way it was originally meant to be heard, and Southern Lord is also offering some attractive package deals including t-shirts for those who like broadcast their listening habits.

Winter
Southern Lord

delayed again

2011-05-01T21:07:00.002-04:00

The latest post has been delayed until sometime next weekend due to the usual forces of nature conspiring to wreck my schedule. Sorry about that...!

a short one

2011-04-03T08:17:00.001-04:00

15 Degrees Below Zero -- RESTING ON A [Edgetone Records]

Oooo, they bring the drone here, yes they do. Infatuated with droning noise but possessed of a compositional bent that separates them from the average art-noise band, the trio use laptops, samplers, keyboards, guitars, pedals, and a whole lot of sound processing equipment to create buzzing, minimalist soundscapes defined as much by texture as by structure. The eight tracks, all with impenetrable numeric titles like "3.4.4" (in which a buzzing synth lays down simple but penetrating drones as other sounds chitter in the background like insects, growing in volume and intensity as the track progresses), are masterful exercises in the use of space -- for all the gadgets at their disposal, there's not a lot actually happening here most of the time, although what is happening is both dreamlike and powerful. The album's centerpiece is "2.5," nearly 25 minutes of drift and drone that's as glacial and mysterious as it is oddly beautiful, with drawn-out ambient keyboard lines floating by as rhythmic noises burble up to the surface and fade away again. The sound on this album is heavily reminiscent of the original sound of the isolationist movement; the occasionally melodic keyboard flourishes and intermittent rhythms are unencumbered by any form of percussion, with a resulting sound akin to titanic icebergs coming unmoored and drifting through heavy fog in the darkest, loneliest reaches of the ocean. The other tracks, while nowhere near as long, are equally mesmerizing, their spacious-sounding structures embellished with a variety of odd sounds and intriguing textures (and, on "3.12.1," a vaguely disturbing recorded monologue). Mad props for both their intense drone-fu and homage to the glory days of isolationism.

15 Degrees Below Zero
Edgetone Records

Noertker's Moxie -- SKETCHES OF CATALONIA VOL. 3: SUITE FOR GAUDI [Edgetone Records]

The third in a series focused on Catalonia, the theme this time around is eccentric Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. Jazz composer BIll Noertker (here playing contrabass) leads a fairly large ensemble this time around that includes tenor and alto sax, drums, trumpet, piano, flute, and various forms of percussion. The ensemble makes an agreeable sound on the nine tracks offered here, with all the players having plenty of opportunities to step forward into the spotlight at one time or another. At the same time, the compositions remain firmly locked into the sound of a group, rather than a collection of soloists. For an avant jazz guy, Noertker sure seems to favor a more traditional jazz sound -- in a lot of ways, this is a throwback to the sound of the mellow jazz ensembles of the late sixties and early seventies, although his avant sensibility (and the combined talent of his players) keeps things from sounding like a mere exercise in retro-worship. The playing is energetic without being shrill or aggressive, and they get pleasant sounds both individually and as a combo (the piano playing is especially sublime). Those on the cutting edge of free jazz will probably find this a bit too restrained and old-school for their taste, but those who like their jazz more on the melodious side will appreciate this album.

Noertker's Moxie
Edgetone Records

The Spider Translator -- SPECTRASCOPOPARAUTOPHOBIA [self-released]

This is the kind of album that defies simple categorization or easy explication; we're talking a whole new level of weirdness here, okay? The brainchild of L. Erickson, former guitarist of Illinois goth band Pitch Black Manor (who toured with the likes of Legendary Pink Dots and Electric Hellfire Club, to give you an idea of where they were coming from), this is what it might sound like if Roky Erickson had cut his teeth in Coil or Psychic TV rather than the Thirteenth Floor Elevators. The ten exquitely whacked-out tracks on this album sound like pop songs that have been radically remixed and tweaked by vandals weaned on Throbbing Gristle -- while there's clearly a pop sensibility at work beneath the bizarre instrumentation, this is far too weird for the average consumer of disposable pop culture. Titles like "Abinisthine Express," "Three dead men," and "Dizzy, nauseated and flushed" make it clear that Erickson probably has no real aspiration toward wholesome pop acceptance anyway. What's most surprising is how diabolically catchy much of it is. Like Flaming Fire and Tunnel of Love, two other bands fond of twisting pop music into bizarre and unrecognizable shapes, he has a distinctly unique sound that remains highly accessible despite persistent attempts at sonic perversion. Elements of pop, psych, and first-wave industrial music (I wouldn't be surprised to learn he's down with Front 242 and Cabaret Voltaire) come together in a strange but oddly appealing fashion (at least if you have a propensity toward the surreal). It's definitely not your father's indie-rock, that's for sure.

The Spider Translator

v/a -- DRINKING THE GOAT'S BLOOD [Record Label Records]

This is strange stuff -- a series of experimental collages built around the architecture of sound and sonic textures more than actual songs -- but the cryptic nature of these tracks certainly makes for an interesting listening experience. The nineteen tracks (from eighteen artists including Wobbly, Fluorescent Grey, Ata Ebtekar, Nommo Ogo, Dalglish, Contagious Orgasm, Jacob Jarnigon, and 10-20) can be experienced as individual movements in a lengthy exercise in musique concrete using snippets of vocals, fractured beats, ambient sound, white noise, field recordings, piercing drones, sampled audio, and occasionally even passages of actual music. The arrangements in these tracks are often obscured by the strange sonic textures and collage activity, but the antimusic attitude makes everything all that more unpredictable, generating plenty of surprises along the way. The often intangible nature of these tracks and the context in which they are presented makes it easier to grasp if you consider the album as a whole to be one mighty work composed in segments by many artists; the individual tracks come together to form a gesalt image obsessed with the flow of sound in its many exotic permutations. Those not hep to experimental music or sound collages may find this inexplicable, but those transfixed by the shape of sound at its most bizarre will find this highly interesting.

Record Label Records

v/a -- ELECTRIC CARPETS [Record Label Records]

This is a companion to the aforementioned cd, with seventeen tracks by almost as many artists (Kossak appears twice) that are mainly electronica with strong hints of noise at times. Some of the tracks -- "Hello Zhomgmao" (Cubus), "Beautiful in Grey" (Terminal 11), "The Existential Bop" (Mike Dunkley, "Brookers Bible" (Kossak), Scuzi's "Matisse," Dr. Strangeloop's "World of Your Dreams" -- sail into the realm of psychedelia with their peculiar mix of cryptic beats, strange noises, and unconventional arrangements that deviate far from the standard notion of dance music. Others, like Brian E's "In the Jungle," BD1982's "Globos," Identity Theft's "By Folley," and Kcinsu's "Refraction" are a bit more conventional in their rhythms and almost pop-like in their catchiness. Between these two extremes, the compilation's definition of dance music is a varied one, encompassing glitch electronica (Fluorescent Grey's "Rag Doll Physics Prof," Kossak's "Mrs. Crabcake"), experimental sampler frippery (Future Image's "Music for Tones"), dubstep (Kush Arora's "the Hacker 2010"), and devolved techno (wAgAwAgA's "Nunwan"). Other tracks defy easy description -- William S. Braintree's "Kaitlin" features ambient keyboard washes over an eccentric beat with strange-sounding rhythms and melodic keyboard lines that multiply exponentially as the track progresses, while Not Breathing's "Tranny Smelter" is a bizarre collage of broken beats, quirky processed sounds, techno keyboards, and warped vocalizing that never quite turns into actual singing. It's strange and frequently disorienting, but the twisted musical ingenuity consistently on display here makes this an interesting compilation of sounds from the outer limits of dance music.

Record Label Records

new post coming soon

2011-03-24T23:39:00.002-04:00

The next post should arrive on the first Sunday in April, approximately two weeks from now. So much to review, so little time....

as the morning light streams through the blinds....

2011-02-27T08:23:00.001-05:00

Arkhum -- ANNO UNIVERSUM [Vendlus Records]

Oregon seems like a strange place to spawn a death / technical metal band like this one, but everybody has to come from someplace, right? Adding to the bizarreness factor is the fact that Voivod appears to be a major influence on the band -- not only do they favor weird rhythmic patterns and progressive elements, but their lyrical thrust frequently leans in a science-fiction direction. This is the band's first album, and it's a promising start, but not without flaws: the first handful of songs, while boasting impressively labyrinthe technical prowess and plenty of blinding speed, don't offer a tremendous amount of variety from one track to the next. The combination of furious deathlike riffing and double-bass drumming, though, throws off enough heat to make up for this, and that tremendous forward motion makes an excellent backdrop to some truly manic guitar solos. The samples that open "Appellation" and "Obviated Geocentricism" (a song that features some extended soloing of a highly technical nature) are the first signs of an experimental, progressive side that becomes more evident as the album rolls on, notably in the opening of "Bloodgutter Encircling," where complex layers of acoustic guitar, melodic electric guitar, and inhuman howling segue into an intense barrage of double-bass drumming and complicated guitar lines that swirl around each other before breaking down into crushing riffs. This action-packed frenzy finally gives way to a mournful piano line that fades out slowly, followed by "Officious Hoverer at L-Point 2," a brief and murky soundscape of ambient noises that abruptly turns into more fire and fury (and impossibly ornate scattergun guitar lines) in "Nilpulse." Despite my misgivings about the album's slow start -- they probably would have been wise to sequence the tracks differently -- their playing is tight and aggressive throughout the album, and this is a promising start for a band that could be genuinely great somewhere down the road.

Arkhum
Vendlus Records

Aube -- VARIABLE AMBIT [Housepig]

The universe has been conspiring against this release for a while now: first the original label it was recorded for went under, then Housepig's attempt to unleash it upon the public was foiled by various issues (including a fake cd plant scam)... but it's here at last, and everyone can always use more Aube, right? Long-time followers of Akifumi Nakajima's career (which dates back to 1991, and was initially perpetuated mainly through obscure cassette releases on his own G.R.O.S.S. label) will already be aware that this sound designer's albums are always constructed from manipulations and treatments of one specific sound source; this time it's feedback. Over eight tracks totaling 66 minutes, he slices, dices, and layers snippets of feedback into austere tracks dominated by unpredictable intervals of silence interspersed with screeching waves of high-pitched noise. Sometimes that basic sound is processed -- flanged, downtuned, stretched, or otherwise sonically molested -- and it's these permutations of that basic sound that create a broad range of textures throughout the album. Despite the perilous implications of the sound source, this is not even remotely one of his harshest efforts; the emphasis here is less on brain-scouring and more on composition and texture. On occasion, as in "Strayed Base Oblique," the sheets of sound are more psychedelic than anything else, and on some tracks like "Crocked Fringe," the stuttering feedback takes on a rhythmic feel; then there are tracks like "Ambush," in which the layers of feedback are arranged into something resembling glitch electronica. Throughout all of these bizarre manifestations of sound, the intermittent gaps of silence are the album's consistent hidden theme, turning what could have been an all-out noisefest into something more enigmatic. Aube's first full-length release in several years proves that he still hasn't lost his capacity for thought-provoking art disguised as noise. Limited to 300 copies.

Aube
Housepig

Baptists -- S/T 7" [Southern Lord]

For a label weaned on doom and black metal, Southern Lord sure seems to be down with hardcore lately. The label's poop sheet for this release name-checks Converge, Neurosis (the early years, I'm sure) and Trap Them, so that should give you some idea of where they're coming from. They're certainly not meek -- the first track, "Good Parenting," opens and closes with eye-watering feedback and features a furious performance from the entire band that's dominated by aggressive drumming, serrated guitar riffing, and angry vocals, while "Farmed" is just as intense, slowing down briefly in the middle before picking up speed again and consistently drowning in thick guitar tones. "Bachelor Degree Burn" slows the pace down considerably and features the single's heaviest guitar riff and most interesting chord changes; it's probably the catchiest thing here, too. "Life Poser" closes out the single with a return to the high-velocity, crash and burn approach of the tracks on the A-side, and like those songs, it's over in under three minutes. Heavy, focused, and brief enough to leave you wanting more, just like a good single should be.

Baptists
Southern Lord

The Bastard Noise -- A CULTURE OF MONSTERS [Housepig]

Those familiar with the band (at one time a side-project of, then successor to, Man Is the Bastard) and prepared for another skull-frying assault of sonic terror may be thrown for a loop with this one; the core of Wood and Nelson are joined here by Connell, the original drummer for Man Is the Bastard, and the results are... different. Very different. Sure, the noise is there, but it's largely relegated to the background, as a textural element in service of a prog-metal aesthetic that also incorporates a lot of space and heaviness to its sound. The album opens with the title track, a morose and forbidding spoken-word piece that segues into "Pincers' Movement," a lumbering exercise in welding death metal, noise, and free jazz that's powered by Connell's nimble and unpredictable drumming, resembling an updated version of Man Is the Bastard's basic sound. "Me and Hitler" expands on this approach with hook-heavy bass lines and squiggly guitar riffs that combine with the busy drumming to create a satisfying clatter... only to dissolve into ghostly ambient noise and drawn-out guitar feedback that extends into a lengthy dronescape before returning to the metallic death jazz. Things take an even more unexpected turn on "A Silent Night in the Horrible Garden," an atmospheric track featuring subdued piano and uncredited ethereal female vocals, but the aggression returns on "If Another World...," a short burst of fury whose hyperactive drumming and lurching, punked-out feel again recalls the style and substance of MITB. "Through Modern Existence (The March of the Trolls)" introduces yet another new element -- a Rhodes piano that accompanies the drum break in the middle of the song -- while "Lumberton" brings the pure unbridled heaviness again. The album closes as it opened, with a spoken word bit ("Interior War"), a profane solidarity that may or may not be a film sample. Fans of Man is the Bastard will definitely want to hear this; for those not already hep to Bastard Noise's ugly noise hell, this is certainly an accessible place to start. Comes in a swank-looking gatefold digipak with an extensive booklet.

Bastard Noise
Housepig

The Beast of the Apocalypse -- HENOSIS [Transcendental Creations]

The second album from this black metal band hailing from the Netherlands is an exercise in frantic, murky black metal (prefaced by an atmospheric progged-out track called "One"), a concept album built around the mysterious concept of Henosis, a cosmic belief system rooted in ancient Greek religion and Oriental philosophy. The black metal tracks vary in tempo, but have a dark and frozen sound that's obviously rooted in the early Scandanavian contributions to the genre, with plenty of hypnotic minimalism and dissonant guitar tones. While the rhythms are repetitive, the tones aren't; on "I Am Not Worthy To Utter Thy Name," for instance, the guitar sound modulates through several distinct sounds, all of them appropriately bone-chilling. In fact, the band's grim guitar sound is their biggest drawing card (although the presence of a real drummer, and an excellent one at that, doesn't hurt). There are places in "The Immortal Realm of Barbelo" where the guitar sound descends into such exquisite realms of full-blown necro primitivism as to border on white noise, always a good thing in my book. The album's diabolical sound and intensity are reminiscent of early Beherit, only with much better execution. As a welcome bonus, the disc also comes with a download card for the band's unreleased album THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS. Highly recommended for devotees of the old-school sound.

The Beast of the Apocalypse
Transcendental Creations

Conure -- STRINGS, LOCATIONS [Edgetone Records]

Mark Wilson's latest venture into the exploration of pure sound is a series of location recordings featuring guitars, field recordings, efx pedals, found sound, and keyboards. Across four lengthy tracks ranging from eight to twenty minutes each, he pits processed sound against different architectural spaces with varying results. "Amsterdam and 81st: A Reverie" is a dark, droning soundscape dominated by a baritone amp hum; over that basic sound, a dynamic range of noises, processed sounds, and field recordings are combined in deliberately uneven layers of density and sonic violence. 'Feedback Location String" is very much what its name implies: lots of stuttering, high-frequency feedback interspersed with enigmatic beeps like a satellite transmission against a background of increasingly chaotic white noise. "Ribbon Implementation" is more spacious, using sounds that are more rhythmically oriented and subjected to heavy processing; sheets of white noise come and go, along with a wide variety of textural sounds, but the circular rhythms, like the sound of a slow-moving centrifuge, remain the predominant musical theme. The final track, "Steel, Nylon and Foil: Oxidation Paintings" is the culmination of the album's progressively harsh tone, sounding like cement blocks being crushed into powder in a tunnel filled with gusting wind. It would be interesting to know more details about the locations for each recording, but that knowledge is not necessary to appreciate the many layers of sound and texture encrusted in each of these soundscapes. Limited to 525 copies.

Conure
Edgetone Records

Demonologists -- MISCARRIAGE OF THE SOUL [Crucial Blast]

Now this is some scary-ass shit, and I am a sad cheese because this is the first I've heard of the band, despite the fact they apparently have a pretty extensive discography, however obscure. This should get them plenty of attention, though. Hailing from Indiana, the duo of Dustin Redington (formerly of Ensepulchred) and Cory Rowell concoct bleak, harrowing noisescapes in the vein of Gnaw Their Tongues or Wold, shot through with violent sheets of harsh white noise straight out of the Merzbow playbook -- in other words, it's not for the weak, okay? On track after track (there are five of them, if you're counting) they sound like they're trying to whittle the planet down with a portable sandblaster and largely succeeding. There are elements of black metal in the primitive sound and necro tones (and titles like "Necro Prayers" and "Chalice of Snake Venom and Piss"), but this is essentially a noise album first and foremost, and a ear-scouring one at that; think early Merzbow as interpreted by metalheads obsessed with the complete and utter destruction of all that lies waiting to be destroyed. There are a few non-noise moments like the forbidding tribal drums that open the title track, but otherwise the disc is a blood-soaked ocean of blackened noise hell designed to bum you out. Caustic, chaotic, corrosive, and extremely loud. This is sound of nihilism at its finest and most alienated. Channel the horror if you dare. The disc comes in a dvd-style case with a 28-page booklet filled with abstract creepiness plus a sticker and one-inch badge. But act fast; it's limited to 250 copies. Seriously, if you're down with metallic noise, you'll regret sleeping on this.

Demonologists
Crucial Blast

Golem Gross / The Bastard Noise -- UNIVERSE OF DISHONOR [Housepig]

I know nothing about the mysterious Golem Gross, other than the fact that he (?) is from Brooklyn, but he certainly adds an interesting dimension to the Bastard Noise sound. The six tracks here, with titles like "Space Inseminator" and "Stegosaurus Wars," incorporate a lot of broken electronic sounds into the harsh noise whirlpool. There's a strong element of deliberate composition to the tracks -- the Golem Gross influence, I would assume -- that's especially interesting on "Stegosaurus Wars," where a wailing ambient sound is assaulted by bursts of static, white noise, and other random bleats of disintegrating machinery. The title track, built on a bass-heavy rumble like a building collapsing in slow motion, serves as a vehicle for shrieked lyrics about annihilation and brutality (shades of Man is the Bastard!) before devolving into several minutes of abstract sound mutilation over the rumbling bedrock of gruesome sound that culminates in lots of grinding excoriation, stuttering electronics, and blinding white noise. "Flood Plains Scavenger" offers disorienting hoverbot sounds along with the jagged blasts of noise that sweep in and out of the mix at seemingly random intervals; eventually the rotating hoverbot sounds descend into a lower register as the track settles into a hypnotic groove that winds down at the end with a wavering drone that fades out into oblivion. It's the final track, "Tar Suit Malfunction," that really brings the noise, with one wave after another of harsh sonic violence, infernal buzzing, and more of the damaged electronica and psychedelic hoverbot moves. The disc is an interesting and unusual addition to the band's considerable discography, and includes some particularly eye-catching graphics as part of the package.

Bastard Noise
Housepig

Grave -- BURIAL GROUND [Regain Records]

Sweden's Grave have been around forever -- one of the songs on this album, "Sexual Mutilation," is actually a remake of a track that first appeared on a demo back in 1989 -- and while they've had a few lineup changes, their sound has remained consistently heavy without necessarily being static. They've experimented with industrial sounds and even covered the Alice in Chains song "Them Bones" on AS RAPTURE COMES, but otherwise they haven't strayed too far from their roots. On this album they mix fast, intense riffing with slower and more doom-laden passages ("Semblance in Black" is one of the best examples, with a slow, crushing midsection offset by much speedier riffing elsewhere), and the riffs -- fast or slow -- are good ones, although (to me, anyway) they sound heaviest on the slow passages, where that special brand of Swedish melodicism becomes considerably more apparent. Their sound is old-school enough that it often reminds me of Obituary, especially during the slow parts, and this is definitely a good thing. The songs are consistently good, too, filled with relentless energy (especially where the drums are concerned) and brooding riffs that are direct and uncomplicated without being too simple. There's no question that track after track, it's just an unrelenting barrage of anguished heaviness. Fans of the band won't be disappointed.

Grave
Regain Records

Helstar -- GLORY OF CHAOS [AFM Records]

These are Texas boys, so theoretically I should be biased in their favor, but the truth is that I was never into the band during their initial run during the 80s, and they apparently fell off the radar in the 90s and the decade afterwards. They rose from the dead, more or less, in 2007 with the release of SINS OF THE PAST, and now -- three albums later -- they are back with another album that mixes elements of thrash and power metal (mainly through the operatic vocals of James Rivera). For a band that's essentially knee-deep in the second act of their career, this is a more than respectable piece of work; they burn like a band with much to prove, especially on high-octane tracks like "Pandemonium" and the appropriately-titled "Bone Crusher." In fact, the album is filled with machine-gun riffing and solos that manage to be highly technical and melodic at the same time, no small feat. Naturally, it wouldn't be a power-metal album without a ballad, and that one -- half of it, anyway -- is "Trinity of Heresy"... but since the band's roots and the album's sound are more aligned with thrash, it's the only one. (Well, there is "Zero One," the album's formal closer, but at less than a minute, it doesn't quite count -- ballads are epic, right?) The album's first pressing also comes with two bonus tracks, a cover of Saxon's "Heavy Metal Thunder" and the Scorpions classic "Animal Magnetism." While the Saxon cover is a bit questionable -- their brand of denim 'n leather metal doesn't really translate well into this band's style -- the Scorpions cover is actually pretty good (and definitely makes more sense).

Helstar
AFM Records

Juhyo / Joshua Norton Cabal -- HUMAN CARGO [Housepig]

Plenty of action happening here on this split-cd, all revolving around the subject of modern-day slavery. The first five tracks are by Juhyo (from Minneapolis), consisting of Brian Kopish (Surrounded) and Bill Henson (Oblong Box), who abuse a pile of oscillators, efx gadgets, samplers, and other tools of sonic immolation to whip up furious, unsettling sheets of noise. The following four tracks are by the Joshua Norton Cabal, featuring Andrew Nolan of The Endless Blockade, who induldge in a similar aesthetic. Juhyo's opening gambit, "Choose," makes the album's theme explicit from the word go, with an ominous processed sample on the subject of modern slavery over an oscillating drone of squelched harsh noise gone ambient, and it doesn't take long to segue into "Transport," a collection of harsh tones and bursts of static over intermittent bursts of metallic rhythms. The violence -- but not the volume -- recedes a bit with the piercing, alienated feedback drone of "Free Market" (despite sporadic bursts of hissing static), but eventually, in stealthy fashion, descends into a chaotic vortex of noise and strange sounds, including samples of repetitive chanting in a foreign language toward the end as the track segues into "Human Cargo," where the noises that rise up as the chanting recedes are more textural in nature, joined by clips of distorted speech and vaguely rhythmic pulsing in the background. Juhyo's final track, "Endless Shipment," is a more subdued and largely ambient soundscape built more around a sound akin to a disintegrating pipe organ, rhythmic motion drenched in delay and reverb, and more wavering oscillator drone-fu.

The JNC tracks are in a similar vein, albeit somewhat harsher, with a colder and more clinical vibe on "Xiu Sheng Chen." Things grow even more furiously chaotic and savage on "Mark Stewart," where spiraling oscillator sounds are pulverized by a disjointed collage of grinding noise, blasts of static, churning waves of dissonance, and other loud forms of unpleasantness. Pulling back a bit, various forms of noise-generated rhythm are the building blocks of "Joana Lee May Lin"; the dense and claustrophobic atmosphere is enhanced by some additional creepy sounds contributed by the always-bleak black metal artist Nekrasov. The final track, "Kwesi Renner," is the harshest thing here and a fitting closer, all jagged white noise shrapnel and out-of-control efx pedals being subjected to intense torture before ending in minimalist percussion (courtesy of Eric King) offset by bursts of noise alternating with silence at times and ambient fuzz at others. The genius of this particular collaboration is how at once the artists are similar enough to warrant being on the same disc, but just different enough to make things interesting. Excellent, and limited to 500 copies.

Joshua Norton Cabal
Juhyo
Housepig

slMakita -- CLEVELAND, OHIO [Housepig]

His name may not be immediately familiar, but if you're down with noise or extreme metal, then you've probably heard his work at one time or another; he's spent the past couple of decades toiling in such legendary anti-pop bands as Apartment 213 and Lockweld as well as contributing to various releases by Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Fistula. On this six-track album of experimental noise soundscapes, which pays more than a passing nod to Nurse With Wound, he employs a variety of unorthodox equipment -- power tools, variable-speed efx gadgets, metallic and plastic percussion, and damaged recording equipment -- to create mysterious compositions built on eccentric clusters of sound. The tracks defy easy definition, but are informed mainly by a bedrock sound rooted in noise that's augmented by cryptic snippets of found sound, deformed instrumentation, and other forms of unidentifiable weirdness. Fans of his more well-known work may find this awfully abstract -- this is far closer to musique concrete in the vein of Tod Dockstader than the power-violence / noise-metal assault of Apartment 213 and Lockweld -- but the compositions are interesting and well-paced, not to mention profusely littered with bizarre noises and textures from a wide variety of sources. Not surprisingly, given his professed love for Nurse With Wound, much of this sounds like an obscure United Dairies release, which is not a bad thing at all. Inspired as much by the decaying urban sensibility of Cleveland as by the aforementioned band, this is definitely a work owing more suited to the sensibilities of experimental sound enthusiasts than metalheads or harsh-noise enthusiasts, and reveals a previously unexpected sensibility that deserves to be heard and appreciated. Limited to 300 copies.

slMakita
Housepig

Olekranon -- BILAL [Housepig / Inam Records]

The mighty and mysterious Olekranon returns with another mind-melting fusion of bleak beats and droning guitar, with a bit o' the atmospheric ambience thrown in for spice. The brainchild of Ryan Huber (Bobcrane, Vopat, Inam Records) started out with a sound that was much more skeletal and ghost-like, but over time the beats have grown fatter and the guitar meatier; in fact, some of these tracks -- "adamkan" and "bilal" in particular -- are downright heavy, with pounding beats matched by landslide fuzz-o-tronic guitar. A lot of this sounds like what My Bloody Valentine might be doing these days if Kevin Shields could be bothered to get off his ass and lay down some guitars; while the heavy beats are rooted in techno, the howling, fuzz-laden guitar can be traced all the way back to the glory days of LOVELESS. Which is not to say that it's derivative by any means -- they may share a love for noise-laden, overdriven guitars, but Huber's a far more psychotronic guitarist than Shields ever was and the beats are much more of the hocus-pocus variety than anything MBV ever coughed up. On "mouths flame," the sound is more spooky and unnerving than muscular, a throwback to the sound of the earlier releases that ends with vibrato-heavy swelling like the soundtrack to an undiscovered horror film. The slow-moving "sunblind" is another such throwback, with a minimal beat and heavy drone-noise action, while "daisycutter" straddles the line between the two extremes with heavy, tripped-out drums and the cyclonic sound of an army of guitars being shredded in the wind. This is the sound of post-rock drone at its best, and what a swell sound it is. Limited to 500 copies and, as always, decorated with the amazing art of Megan Abajian.

Olekranon
Housepig
Inam Records: inamrecs@yahoo.com

Police Teeth -- AWESOMER THAN THE DEVIL [Latest Flame]

Are they punk or are they metal? I dunno, but I do know they're catchy as hell. So far I've only been familiar with the band via their association as tourmates with Mount Vicious (and more recently, Victory and Associates), but now that I'm finally hearing them, I regret not picking up on them sooner, because this is a pretty happening passel o' tunes. The awesomeness starts pretty much immediately, with the energetic "Send More Cops" leading into the amazing (and amazingly catchy) "Summertime Bruise," and while the tunes that follow vary in tempo and feel, the quality level never drops. The band are from Seattle, but their musical pedigree appears to have less to do with grunge and more with the city's long fixation on garage rock and weird mutations of punk and metal. A lot of the time, most noticeably on songs like "True Stuff" and "Christian Rudolph, A Man Of Science," their drill-press guitar attack is welded to clanging, high-end bass lines like the Cure and Joy Division used to favor (which is probably not accidental, seeing as how they cover Factory artist Tunnel Vision's "Watching The Hydroplanes"), and "Public Defender" probably owes more to early Public Image Limited than anything traditionally punk or metal. The band's high-octane sound and tightly-wound songs probably garner them a lot of of punk comparisons, but I suspect their influences are much weirder; their energy and aesthetic makes them sound like they should be signed to Columbus Discount Records, but the actual sound of their guitars is more art-metal than punk. So what does it all mean? I dunno, but any band that sounds this good and has a song called "Dude Handler's Permit" surely deserves your attention, don't you think? You don't need a musical flow chart to appreciate a band with this much energy and such swell songs.

Police Teeth
Latest Flame

Christian Renou / The Bastard Noise -- BRAINSTORMING II [Housepig]

The Christian Renou in question is probably better known by the name Brume, the name under which he has released a staggering number of cassettes, singles, and albums as a musique concrete / experimental noise artist. As the title suggests, this is not the first time he and Bastard Noise have worked together before; this is the sequel to BRAINSTORMING, a 2003 cd release on Desolation House. On the seven tracks here, Renou contributes the rhythmic pulse and harsh sound effects, while TBN brings... uh, pretty much everything else. If this sounds like a recipe for orgasmic noise on paper, it works out even better on the disc, with "Pollen" opening in most promising fashion with gruesome industrial rhythms, stucco-wall noise textures, unearthly feedback drones, and other ghostlike sonic effluvia that creates an atmosphere of unease and dread that's also surprisingly beatific in an alien sort of way. In the eerie "Concillia-Bullies," which sounds like it was recorded in a deserted canyon, a slow, choppy rhythm and bell-tones are juxtaposed with strange, floaty ambient sounds and slowed-down bursts of indecipherable speech; "Cut at 360" is filled with strange panning, more pulsing rhythms, swirling noises, and unsettling harmonic tones that convey the feel of faulty machines breaking down under intense pressure. On "Es Gebt Immer Weiter (Let It Be)," steel drums beat out a simple rhythm between gaps of silence until walls of white noise and dissonant, reverb-drenched shrieking rises to the fore, a sound that is eventually joined by a dark, fuzzy drone that persists among the chaos until everything fades out. The sounds on the other tracks are every bit as disorienting and inhuman, and while this is not a full-on harsh noise extravaganza, it's certainly a work of sinister intent. The packaging graphics are nice, too, especially that cover drawing of a hand clenching a grenade.

C. Renou / Brume
Bastard Noise
Housepig

Seeded Plain -- SECTIONAL [Digital Vomit Records]

Strange sounds, cryptic noises, homemade instruments... it's definitely out there a minute. Recorded in Lincoln, NE by the duo of Jay Kreimer and Bryan Day, the three lonesome-sounding improv sessions on this disc are heavy on mysterious sounds and low (deliberately so) on compositional coherence. This is the sound of controlled randomness and the urge to see what sounds you can make with bizarre instruments of one's own devising. Having seen Day perform live using some really weird sonic contraptions built from found junk, I can only imagine what he and his pal are using to make the bumping, scraping, wailing noises found on this album. The sounds are used in service of relatively spare arrangements -- there's plenty of space in these peculiar soundscapes, not to mention a wide variety of sounds and strategies for parceling out the units of musical information. At the same time, the flow of sound is steady, largely devoid of melody, and tonally unpredictable. Your mother won't like it, but you might.

Seeded Plain
Digital Vomit Records

Shelf Life -- SCHEMES 1 [thecountersubmarine]

The avant-garde need to wallow in exfoliated sound continues. The latest release from this band (represented on this album by Bryan Day, David Moscovich, and Joseph Jaros) is very much in the same vein as their previous releases. Across five extended improv jams, they use standard and not-so-standard instruments and devices to create inscrutable soundscapes rooted in textural noises and a free-form approach to... well, pretty much everything. Who's doing what? How are they doing it? What the hell is going on? It's anybody's guess, but as improv jams go, these are filled with a vast array of weird sounds and arrangements that best described as intensely loose. You could probably induce madness by listening too closely and trying to decipher the complex auditory codes playing out here, but you're probably better off just kicking back and letting it all wash over you as incidental music. Weird and puzzling, yes... but you expected no less by this point, right?

Shelf Life

Tiptons Sax Quartet -- STRANGE FLOWER [Zipa! / Spoot Music]

The quartet -- composed of Amy Denio (alto sax / clarinet / voice), Jessica Lurie (alto and tenor sax / voice), Sue Orfield (tenor sax / voice), and Tina Richerson (baritone / voice), with Chris Stromquist on drums -- is definitely sax-happy, all right, but there's a lot more to them than just jazzy bleating. This is the sound of jazz instruments employed in a wide variety of musical disciplines, inlcuding rock, gospel, world music klezmer, pop, and more. Each of the twelve songs are significantly different, encompassing far more styles than one normally associates with the use of saxophones; fortunately, the quartet's ambition is matched by their skill, and what could have been a train wreck is instead a remarkably varied journey through divergent musical styles, all united by the quartet's generous yet concise sound. It's interesting to note that the quartet itself is all female, but the presence of a male drummer creates a useful yin / yang energy that adds an extra dimension to the tracks with percussion. World music grooves and beatific jazz sounds make for laid-back but intriguing listening; there's nothing calculated or stodgy about this album. As with many such musical ventures including Amy Denio, what at first glance might appear to be eccentric turns out to be quite listenable, sometimes even mesmerizing, with plenty of verve and originality. Strange, yes, but swell, too.

Tiptons Sax Quartet
Spoot Music

the sun, the sun, who turned down the sun?

2011-01-30T06:33:00.004-05:00

Calm Hatchery -- SACRILEGE OF HUMANITY [Selfmadegod Records]

What the hell is a "calm hatchery" and why would a Polish technical death metal band want to name themselves after one? Is this something we can blame on drugs? Or were all the good names already taken? I dunno, man.... It's a good thing the album is better than the band's name. The poop sheet accompanying this release name-checks Decapitated, Immolation, Morbid Angel, and Nile as influences, which is pretty accurate, especially since the manic blast-beat drumming definitely owes a lot to early, pre-accident Decapitated. While the band is every bit as brutal and aggressive as the aforementioned influences would suggest, there are unexpected (and welcome) flashes of melodic guitar on tracks like "We Are The Universe" and "Lost In the Sands." Most of the time, though, the band's main forte is in constructing tortured, squiggly riffs around incredibly fast beats. At times the guitars slow down to a doom-style creep that's effectively eerie when pitted against the relentless turbo-drumming -- see "Hymn of the Forgotten" for compelling evidence -- but most of the time the guitars float around the beats in weird, cryptic patterns, employing a surprising amount of open space for a death metal band. (The abrupt stop and start action that crops up on a regular basis is a bit less surprising.) Sure, there's nothing particularly revelatory here -- the band themselves admit in the poop sheet that they're not exactly breaking new ground -- but there's no disputing their immense heaviness and considerable technical chops (especially in the truly demented guitar sound on "Shine For the Chosen Ones"). Recommended for those who like their metallic technicality on the brutal side.

Calm Hatchery
Selfmadegod Records

Daily Life -- NECESSARY AND PATHETIC [Load Records]

Now this is swank -- a synth-abusing duo from Providence who are essentially Suicide for the Zola Jesus generation. That's most evident on the opening track "Rogue Fate," where fat beats and an icy synth drone conjure up a sound that wouldn't be out of place on ZJ's current EP... but here the (male) vocals are more of a cocktail lounge croon. Like their forebears Suicide, the beats are simple but potent, and with both members parked behind synths, usually one is responsible for a minimalist rhythm while the other provides stunted melodies, washes of noise, and other sonic effluvia. On "My Time," the churning synth-drone is overlaid with waves of crashing noise where another band might place a solo; on "Hall of Mirrors," the looped mechanical beat and wavelike synth drone is complemented by another synth drone with a sawtooth edge that adds a menacing texture to the sound. Despite the adherence to a certain standard of minimalist song structures, there is indeed variety to the album: "Mindless Power" lives up to its name with an insistent beat like hammering nails in a coffin, but it's immediately followed by "Arousal and Dreams," a low-key electronic waltz anchored by a snare processed through ping-pong reverb and lush keyboard sounds reminiscent of a sixties love ballad. The instrumental closer, "There's No Solution Because There's No Problem," not only has one of the album's best titles, but some of the best sounds as well. Like the Clockcleaner album reviewed a while back, this will probably take some long-time Load enthusiasts by surprise, but definitely in a good way. Suicide by way of Zola Jesus is an aesthetic whose time has come, at least where this excellent album is concerned.

Daily Life
Load Records

Darkblack -- MIDNIGHT WRAITH ep [Stormspell Records]

This took me by surprise -- between the name and the monochromatic album cover, I was expecting raw black metal, but instead it turns out that the band (from Portland, OR, if you care about these things) is a throwback to old-school traditional metal in the vein of Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, and UFO. Think big, hook-heavy riffs, the kind of guitar tone you get from Marshalls turned up real loud rather than fizzy efx pedals, European-style solos (remember those?), and a singer who actually sings instead of grunting, barking, or growling. Seriously, this sounds like a lost album from the late seventies or early eighties. On "Power Monger" they even manage to sound like early Black Sabbath (I'm betting the guitarist is a real big fan of "The Wizard") without stealing any of Sabbath's riffs. I normally view albums this retro with deep suspicion, but this band is so genuinely good that it's impossible not to be impressed. It helps that they have excellent songs and impeccable execution. With only five songs in under 25 minutes, it's also obvious they know how to get to the point and stay focused; they don't wear out their welcome with extraneous playing. If you're old enough to remember when metal bands prided themselves on being catchy and melodic rather than brutal and ugly (or young enough to be curious about such an exotic notion), then you definitely need to hear this.

Darkblack
Stormspell Records

The Devil Bat -- FABULOUS SOUL [Sister Skull Rekkids]

This five-track EP by Austin's swell purveyors of acid-drenched psychedelic country blues isn't anywhere near long enough, but given the way things are going with the music business, it's amazing this exists at all. The band's current state of existence is hazy at best, and the path to the creation of this EP was fraught with potholes and detours, so we should probably be grateful they managed to get this done, even if they were forced to put it out themselves (which means you'll probably have to contact the band directly to snag a copy). As usual, the band's sound is a complex mixture of coffeehouse folk blues, freakout psych along the lines of Sun City Girls, and fuzzed-out rock whose anti-authoritarian roots can be traced back to the Velvet Underground, Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and other heavyweights of the sixties. On songs like "Fabulous Soul," "Love Addict," and "Face the Dawn," LeeAnn Cameron's lovely and full-bodied vocals are complemented by the fizzy, psychedelic lead guitar lines of Lisa Cameron and Laura Creedle. "Nothing Left To Say," with its irregular rhythmic feel that eventually shifts into a higher gear as the guitars get even fuzzier and denser, isn't far removed in feel from some of the more recent tunes from Lisa's other band ST-37. There's more a country swing feel to the closing instrumental "Green Bean Snowday," with twangy guitars bathed in spring-reverb; as the song progresses, the sound evolves into swirling psychedelia, with strange noises skating in and out of the mix as the country rhythm continues unabated. This may well be the band's last gasp, but if that turns out to be true, at least they went out on a high note.

The Devil Bat

Drugs of Faith -- CORRODED [Selfmadegod Records]

It took them four years to get around to it, but their first full-length album is finally here. Part grind, part rock, all blunt, they blaze through fourteen songs in 27 minutes. Given their tendency toward political lyrics and music rooted in sheer dense heaviness, I have to wonder how much Killing Joke they have in their DNA; they're certainly caustic enough for that to be a real possibility. Their sound is a crushing wall of heaviness swaddled in distortion and driven by a powerful drummer who sounds like he's wielding a pneumatic drill; despite the chaotic wall of sound, though, the singer (who's actually more of a shouter) has no trouble making himself heard. The songs themselves are short -- "Grayed Out" is just over three minutes and the rest are shorter, sometimes much shorter -- and potent. The album's one main drawback is that there isn't a tremendous amount of variety to the songs, but given that this is essentially a grind record, that's not as problematic as it might be for an album of another genre. What really counts here is the unabashed intensity they bring to their performance on song after song; they are less a musical unit than they are a sonic battering ram. I've forgotten now how the first EP sounded, but the sound here is considerably better than what you usually hear on most grind records (mostly thanks to Pig Destroyer / Agoraphobic Nosebleed mastermind Scott Hull, who mastered the album; on a related note, Pig Destroyer's J. R. Hayes makes a guest appearance on their cover of His Hero Is Gone's "Anthem.") Fans of the band's earlier material should find this worth the wait.

Drugs of Faith
Selfmadegod Records

Earth -- ANGELS OF DARKNESS, DEMONS OF LIGHT 1 [Southern Lord]

In a recent interview, guitarist Dylan Carson described the sound of his band's new album as being closer to Debussy than Wagner -- meaning fewer chords, less clutter, and a diminished sense of bombast -- and this is true. Listeners weaned on the band's early, considerably more metallic albums, will find this nearly unrecognizable; the only connection between the band's two distinct phases is the devotion to lugubrious tempos. Of course, those who have kept up with the band are already aware that since the band's return from a lengthy hiatus in 2005 with their first release on Southern Lord, HEX: OR PRINTING IN THE INFERNAL METHOD, the new lineup has abandoned the metal and noise of the early releases in favor of a sound more in line with the soundtrack to a spaghetti western. Their latest release stretches that open, desert-air sound even further with nods to British folk-rock bands like Fairport Convention (the original home of guitarist Richard Thompson).

As usual, they take their time in letting the songs unfurl; "Descent to the Zenith" is the album's shortest track at 7:30, while the title track is over twenty minutes long, and two others hover around the twelve-minute mark. Listeners not down with the slow, deliberate pace of these songs might find them sleep-inducing, but if you can hang with the stately pace, the sound is both beautiful and haunting. These are songs so emotionally rich that lyrics are unnecessary; the baritone guitar, backed by solemn bass lines and spare drumming, says everything that needs to be said. One big difference this time around is the increasingly open sound and the extensive use of single-note guitar lines rather than chords, and while there has been plenty of melodicism on the last few albums, that tendency reaches its zenith here. This is not a riff-driven album by any means -- these songs are built around guitar lines that sound deceptively simple but are far more complex than they first appear. This move toward simplicity in sound also improves the clarity of the mix; everything here resonates in a tonally rich manner, to the point where the actual tone of the instruments is every bit as important as the arrangements or the notes being played. The inclusion of cello and other sounds on some of the songs only adds more complex textures to the growing refinement of their sound.

The sound of this album is a steady progression in the evolution of sound that began with the band's new direction on HEX. Anyone who has heard that album (or the ones after it) will recognize this sound, this mellow and reverb-heavy invocation of Americana; the band's direction now is focused mainly on honing and refining this countrified sound. Don't let all the references to Americana and folk music throw you, however; this music is every bit as heavy as anything they've done in the past, but it's heavy in a manner that's more subtle and nuanced, and while the structures and twangy guitar may have its roots in Americana and folk, the tone and feel are pure jazz. The world's slowest jazz, true, but still... jazz. And since this is (as the title implies) the first of at least two related albums, it will be extremely interesting to see how that sound develops even more on the next album.

Earth
Southern Lord

Earthride -- SOMETHING WICKED [Earth Brain]

Like Electric Wizard, Maryland's Earthride pretty much owe their entire existence to Black Sabbath. Led by former Spirit Caravan bassist Dave Sherman -- acting solely as the vocalist here, with the wooly-bully bass shudder provided by Rob Hampshire -- the band's third full-length album (which they have released themselves, for various reasons not terribly germane here) is a diabolical mix of straight-up doom and old-school Southern boogie. They may worship at the feet of Tony Iommi and his fuzz-loving pals, but they're equally enamored of bands like (early) ZZ Top, Motorhead, and Blue Cheer, not to mention the entire biker-rock aesthetic. This is no-frills, all-meat heaviness dominated by ass-quaking bass, frozen metal guitar, thunderous drumming, and Sherman's awesomely clotted vocal delivery, a sound that combines the throat stylings of early Ozzy, Lemmy, Buzz'oven's Kirk Fisher, and Eyehategod's Mike Williams into one paint-peeling howl. The songs are seriously groove-laden, and like their British forebears, possess a guitar sound seriously steeped in the blues. The only misstep here is Sherman's questionable decision to attempt actual singing over the acoustic intro to "Zodiac" -- some voices were simply not built for this sort of thing, and Sherman's is one of them. The rest of the album, though, is a brilliant return to the early days of doom, with plenty of downtuned chug-riffing and mystic, efx-addled solo action. As an added bonus, Sherman's former bandmate Wino (Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, blah blah blah) appears on "Supernatural Illusion" as a second vocalist. Bonus points for a bass sound so hairy and distorted it's guaranteed to eat holes in your speakers.

Earthride

Robert Horton / Lisa Cameron / Douglas Ferguson -- HORIZONTAL NEAR OAKLAND [Sister Skull Rekkids]

Weird and cryptic perversions of sound are afoot on this disc, a live collaboration between Lisa Cameron (Venison Whirled, ST-37, The Devil Bat), Douglas Ferguson (solo artist, sometime sideman for Book of Shadows, owner of The Still studio and Distillery Records), and Robert Horton (a man of mystery to moi, but obviously in good company). On the three tracks here, Lisa plays cut snares, vibrator, bowl, finger cymbals, and various efx gadgets; Douglas torments strange sounds from slide guitar, efx, and Ebow; while Horton coaxes weird noises from a boot, vibrator, gong, water bottle, harmonium, and just about everything but the kitchen sink (that will probably be on their next recording). The opening track "parakeets of doom" gets things rolling with a lot of strange clanking and other weird sounds, but it's on the lengthy centerpiece "this transmission is fucked" where they start to seriously get their groove on, adding some intense power-drone to the mix of bizarre sounds. The resulting sound is something akin to silverware in the kitchen rattling while powerful outside generators cause the house to shake. The final track, "somewhere in oakland (horizontal mix)," shifts the drone into a higher register and includes some exquisite slide-guitar skronk along with Horton's ever-evolving collection of twisted sounds. This is what underground Austin sounds like, even if it was recorded in Oakland. Lke most things worthwhile in underground Austin, you'll have to put some effort into tracking it down, since Sister Skull's catalog is not exactly available at your local Wal-Mart; I suggest contacting Lisa (since it is her label, after all) via the Venison Whirled link below.

Douglas Ferguson
Venison Whirled

Neurosis -- SOULS AT ZERO (reissue) [Neurot Recordings]

Oakland, CA's leading post-metal visionaries are celebrating their 25th anniversary, and what better way to commemorate the occasion than by reissuing (for the second time, actually; the album was originally released on Alternative Tentacles, then reissued by the band on Neurot in 1999 with three bonus tracks) their game-changing third album? This, after all, is one of the most influential metal albums of the past two decades, the album that essentially kick-started the post-metal genre. Given how heavily it's been ripped off since, it's a testament to the band's brilliance that it not only still sounds astounding nearly twenty years later, but it still outclasses most of the similar-sounding albums spawned in its wake.

The opening track, "To Crawl Under One's Own Skin," lays the foundation for everything that follows: strange electronic noises and overlapping samples of conversation lead into a melodic and decidely un-metal passage that seamlessly turns into an avalanche of droning sound and tribal drumming dominated by screeching, wounded-rhino guitars, and over nearly eight minutes, the flow of sound surges and recedes in unpredictable fashion. This one song, swaddled in ambient drone and structured like the soundtrack to an epic western, contains enough riffs, textures, and changes in both tempo and tone as an entire album by a more conventional band. The soundtrack aesthetic and a tendency toward a constantly-evolving sound are the two major elements connecting this and the remaining nine songs from the original album. Their aspirations toward King Crimson-style art rock don't keep them from being supremely heavy when the mood strikes them, however, as the title track demonstrates -- buried in all the shoegazing ambience are some seriously heavy riffs and plenty of hair-raising guitar howl. "The Web" is every bit as heavy and menacing, with crushing rhythms and shrieking tornado guitar. By contrast, there are delicate piano sounds and some of the album's most melodic guitar playing in "Sterile Vision," and strings appear midway through "A Chronology For Survival." Synths play an integral role to the album's sound as well, mainly as a textural element adding more depth to the oceanic sound. Some parts of the album remind me of the first Godspeed You Black Emperor album, which is kind of interesting; I'm having a hard time imagining those dour, politically-inclined Canadians as Neurosis fans, but you never know, do you?

As mentioned earlier, the first reissue appended three bonus tracks to the ten songs from the original release: demo versions of "Souls at Zero" and "Zero," plus a live track, "Cleanse III," recorded live in London in 1996. The demo tracks are well-produced, fully-formed tracks that sound less like traditional (read: primitive-sounding) demos and more like alternate studio versions stripped down to the basic tracks; with all the samples, ambient sound, and textural treatments removed, the songs are a bit more straightforward while still retaining much of the cinematic scope evident in the finished versions. The live track is considerably rawer in sound, and demonstrates the band's capacity for translating their heavily-layered studio sound to the live setting. It's all definitely essential listening for anybody entranced by the whole post-metal sound, especially if you want to hear where all the latecomers stole their moves.

Neurosis
Neurot Recordings

Nidingr -- WOLF FATHER ep [Vendlus Records]

You may not have ever heard of this cult Norwegian black metal band, but you've almost certainly heard other recordings by its various members, including bassist / guitarist Teloch (1349, Gorgorth, Ov Hell), bassist / guitarist Blargh (Dodheimsgard), drummer Hellhammer (Mayhem, Emperor, Thorns), and vocalist Cpt. Estrella Grasa (Kort Prosess). The album even features a guest turn from Garm, of the eternally inscrutable Ulver. For such an impressive lineup, though, the album itself is kind of disappointing. The album is hardly bad by any stretch of the imagination, but given the lineup involved, I was expecting something more innovative; instead, what this short album offers is a six songs of mostly high-speed chaotic black metal that's well-executed, but not particularly different (or better) than anything by the bands of the individual members. It's also kind of strange that for an album focused mainly on aggression and intense speed, the best moments are when they slow down and hammer doom-laden riffs into your skull (as they do in the middle of "Fafnismol" and "Baldrs Draumar"). But that raises another problem, since the songs are structured in such similar fashion that they end up doing this in almost every song. On the positive side, they get plenty of good sounds -- especially in the grim guitar tone -- and there are some interesting moments, like the mournful vocals toward the end of "Baldrs Draumar." Still, it's hard to escape the thought that a lineup this good should have come up with something better, or at least with more variety to the songs. The album is hardly an embarrassment, but it's also something that will probably be of interest mainly to fans of the individuals involved.

Nidingr
Vendlus Records

Plastic Boner Band -- THE WAY OF ALL FLESH [Power Silence]

Don't be distracted by the bizarre name; this is soul-crushing sonic violence at its most punishing. What you get here are four untitled tracks, ranging from nine to fifteen minutes each, of intense power electronics unhindered by vocals or melody or any of that sissy-man stuff. This is harsh sound designed to scour your inner ear with steel wool and leave you with a headache and a bad case of tinnitus. Like the best recordings in this genre, it's also quite loud, just the way a good noise album should be, although the third track scales back on the volume and brazen earhate in favor of weird cyclotron noises that fade in and out as throbbing noises drone off and on, adding an extra dimension to the album's otherwise grotesque intensity. Nevertheless, the three remaining tracks are a combined orgy of white noise, grating machine rhythms, efx abuse, and a generally hostile reaction to a decaying, uncaring world. This is what misanthropy sounds like; ignore it at your own peril.

Plastic Boner Band
Power Silence

Random Touch -- REVERBERATING APPARATUS [Token Boy Records]

The band's fourteenth album finds them in an enigmatic mood, playing free-association with their instruments over twelve tracks that frequently sound like jazz being deconstructed. There's certainly a strong element of randomness to much of the music on this album; many of the tracks, especially the ones dominated by samples of conversation and found sound, sound like incidental music attached to some mysterious documentary whose subject matter remains mysterious. The quote inside the cd case (actually a pressboard digipak), "To know the mechanics of the wave is to know the entire secret of nature," hints at a possible theme, given the number of nature-oriented sounds -- bird sounds, especially -- that creep into the mix from time to time; it's hard to tell if these are sampled sounds or the work of processed guitar or keyboard. Certainly, for a trio rooted in drums, keyboards, and guitar, there are plenty of sounds that don't appear to naturally emanate from any of these instruments. The playing itself is generally loose and spacious, unpredictable without dissolving into pure cacaphony; there's a strong free-jazz feel at work here. The band's sound is difficult to describe and even harder to quantify, but they're definitely interested in exploring the boundaries of unfettered sound. While the keyboard and guitar sounds are frequently off the wall, spiraling in unexpected directions that add a surreal element to the band's sound, the drumming is largely restrained and minimal, and even on the most freeform tracks the band retains a laid-back, almost languid, vibe that belies the more aggressive possibilities of the skronk factor. It's inscrutable, sure, maybe even puzzling, but adventurous, singular in sound, and every bit as listenable as any of their previous releases.

Random Touch
Token Boy Records

Sky Burial -- KIEHTAN [Lens Records]

Few things are more welcome around here than new material from Sky Burial, the brooding dark-ambient counterpart to Michael Page's better-known industrial-noise outfit Fire in the Head. Now that FitH is apparently defunct, Sky Burial has become his main band, which is good news, because everything Sky Burial has released so far has been brilliant, and this is no exception. Recorded as always on four-track cassette using a wide variety of sources, this album consists of two tracks: the lengthy (41:32) title track and a much shorter (6:12) "reconstruction" by Mark Spybey (Dead Voices On Air). The title track -- inspired by the name of the "creator spirit" of the same name of the Wampanoag tribe, original inhabitants of the Cape Cod area Page calls home -- is a drifting, droning mix of eerie and unsettling sounds that draws as much upon early prog-rock instrumentalists like Tangerine Dream and Faust as it does from the lo-fi dark-ambient soundbook. Despite its daunting length, the title track flows like a dark river winding through a moonlit forest; waves of droning sound and ethereal wailing form the bedrock of the soundscape as different textures and bursts of processed sound weave in and out of the mix over time. The careful pacing of these additional sounds and attention to dynamics (in both volume and intensity) are what keep the track from ever becoming stale, and Page's mastery of these elements, along with his jucidious cultivation of source material, is the single biggest reason Sky Burial is one of the best dark-ambient acts in existence today. Atmospheric and dreamlike, the track moves inexorably toward a fade-out that suggests it could have gone on forever. The additional track, "Himmelblau-starren," gives Mark Spybey (another dark-ambient titan) the opportunity to reconstruct Page's source material into a shorter but equally potent work that could be considered a condensed version of the title track. This is not only another quality addition to an already impressive body of work, but it comes in a stunning eco-wallet with graphics by Howard Forbes and mastering by James Plotkin (Old, Khanate, Phantomsmasher). The press run is limited to 500 copies, so don't sleep on this.

Sky Burial
Lens Records

Tankard -- VOL(L)UME 14 [AFM Records]

For a bunch of guys whose lives supposedly revolve around consuming vast amounts of alcohol, Germany's Tankard have managed to keep going for a remarkably long time -- since 1982, in fact. They were originally at the forefront of the first wave of German thrash along with Kreator, Destruction, and Sodom (all of whom are still recording and touring, as it happens; German bands apparently have a serious work ethic), and while they've have endured a few lineup changes over the years, they've remained a functioning band for nearly three decades, no small feat for a cult band whose members still hold day jobs and tour in their spare time. Which brings us to this album, their fourteenth, a particularly strong offering for a release so far into their career. Unlike many thrash bands who have dallied with changes in their sound to mixed results (Kreator and Metallica come to mind here), Tankard's approach has remained pretty much the same from their first album to this one. This album, a no-frills collection of thrashing speed and catchy hooks, sounds like it could have been recorded back in the 80s -- in fact, some of the riffs sound tremendously inspired by the early work of Bay Area bands like Exodus and Metallica. Frankly, given the current retro-thrash movement currently in vogue, I'm surprised that Tankard aren't more popular; their brand of old-school thrash is considerably more authentic than the riff-rehashing of bands half their age, and they rock out with a surprising level of energy for guys who have to be at least in their forties. Even better, their songs are crammed full of lightning-bolt riffing and intense energy; this is definitely not the work of a band coasting on old glories, but instead a band making a manic racket every bit as good as their early work. The metal kids geeking out over bands like Municipal Waste and Evile should give this band a listen and hear how it's really done by people who were doing it from day one.

Tankard
AFM Records

Weedeater -- JASON... THE DRAGON [Southern Lord]

Well, well, look what we have here... another album, another bad drug-related pun, another collection of resin-baked tunes. Pretty impressive for an accident-prone band who've endured shotgun mishaps, broken bones, and other mayhem over the past year. I guess if you have enough drugs in your system, you can forge onward through pretty much anything short of a nuclear blast, nu?

So, anyway. The album. Recorded at Electrical Audio by Steve Albini, mastered by John Golden at Golden Studios, supremely heavy and smothered in hairy bass fuzz. And while we're on that subject, I have to confess that this may be a problem -- I don't know if it's just the promo MP3 files or the album itself, but there are places where the sound starts breaking up, as if the album were mastered way too hot. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's supremely annoying. Outside of that, the album is mostly heaviness incarnate, filled with huge, lumbering bass riffs that pretty much bury everything else. What else would you expect with Dixie Dave at the helm? There are some surprises, sure -- a stripped-down acoustic sound and vocals even gnarlier than usual on "Palms of Opium," a short but intense drum solo called "March of the Bipolar Bear," and a little bit o' the banjo pickin' on "Whiskey River" -- but mostly what you get is lots of intense bass shudder and squealy feedback topped with Dixie Dave's pained shrieking. If you've ever heard Weedeater, then you know what to expect. Come to think of it, the name alone should tell you everything you need to know, right?

Weedeater
Southern Lord

Wino -- ADRIFT [Exile on Mainstream]

Wino's second solo album is heavy, but not in the sense you're probably thinking -- unlike his previous work in Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, and the like, this is a primarily acoustic album. There are bursts of electric guitar solos scattered through the tracks, and the final track, "Green Speed," includes a bass drum in the mix, but otherwise the focus is squarely on Wino's voice and intricate acoustic guitar playing. The other major departure from his previous work is a stylistic one; this is not stoner rock, but country / folk blues, with playing that conjures up the ghost of John Fahey more than anything else. The result may be the best thing he's ever done, no small feat given the high quality of his work to date.

Wino is an exceptional guitarist, even unplugged, and here he trades metal riffing for blues song structures and playing so complex it frequently borders on a jazzier version of traditional blues. On some songs the acoustic guitar is joined with blinding electric solos -- there's a particularly intense one on "Mala Suerte" -- and the sound he gets here is reminiscent of his track on the PROBOT record, one of the best tracks on that album. Always an interesting lyricist, he's sharpened his words to fine points to address everything from hypocrisy, aging, the rock and roll lifestyle, drugs, and love, with a vocal delivery that's hoarse but impassioned, filled with outrage and exasperation that makes a startling contrast against the frequently beautiful sounds he coaxes from his guitar. Two instrumentals appear, both different and interesting: "Suzane's Song" is a lovely piece of work on an otherwise angry and tormented album, while "O.B.E." mixes acoustic guitar and bizarre, acid-drenched guitar frippery to create an otherworldly atmosphere. And while the tempo and feel on most songs is fairly sedate, the closing track "Green Speed" isn't far removed from an actual rock song that could have written for one of his more rock-oriented bands. As an added bonus, he even turns the Motorhead biker anthem "Iron Horse / Born To Lose" into an amazing country blues tune. This album is certain to surprise a lot of people, as well it should. Excellent, and highly recommended.

Wino
Exile on Mainstream

Zu -- "Axion" (Phantomsmasher remix) / Chthonian (James Plotkin remix) 7" [Public Guilt]

You know the definition of diabolical? Taking two mutant-sounding tracks from the already bizarre jazz-metal band Zu and turning them over to James Plotkin (Old, Phantomsmasher, Khanate, Jodis, blah blah blah) to torture into new and exotic shapes. The tracks in question are "Axion" and "Chthonian," both from the CARBONIFEROUS album originally released in 2009 as a joint effort between Ipecac Records and Trips and Traume. Having not heard that album, I have no idea how weird the original tracks were (although given Zu's history of issuing forth deeply perverted sounds, I'm betting they were pretty strange), but in Plotkin's hands they have been twisted and distorted into exotic soundscapes. On the A-side, "Axion" (remixed by Plotkin under the Phantomsmasher guise) opens with what sounds like a glitch electronica symphony being sucked into a whirlpool only to spit out brief passages of throbbing hell bass and pounding drums; then everything but the drums are transformed into vile hissing noise as the drums clatter on, and before much longer the entire track sounds like it's being held over a ledge and shaken vigorously, then tossed into a mulching machine. Midway through, it dissolves into noise and high-pitched whining as the drums are chopped and subjected to radical processing treatment as the bass rumbles and groans until the whole thing turns into hissing white noise. On the B-side, "Chthonian" (remixed by Plotkin under his own name) is every bit as strange, with the drums EQed into tinny clanking over scratchy noises as the volume rises and falls; here the sax lines are turned into hellish screeching as the scratching devolves into full-on glitch electronica. Eventually the sound returns to something resembling normalcy, with the shuddering bass and heavy drums marching forward, but by the end the sound is nothing but a lot of anguished rhino-bleating from the treated sax. Weird, yes, but fantastic and otherworldly. Zu fans will definitely want to snag this one to tide them over until the band gets around to putting out a new full-length release. Limited to 500 copies and available in two flavors -- gray or clear with a gray haze -- and packaged in a black and white sleeve featuring artwork from the band's favored artist Scarful. Each single also comes with a download card for high-quality MP3s of both tracks.

Zu
Public Guilt

totda lives.

2011-01-15T22:18:00.004-05:00

Hello. As you may have guessed, TOTDA took a break for the holidays. Now that the holidays are over, I'm back at work slogging through the review pile. Expect a new post by the end of the month. Lots of interesting stuff coming up for review, so be sure to check back...!

it's the season for chilly willies, isn't it?

2010-12-12T06:13:00.001-05:00

Bison b.c. -- DARK AGES [Metal Blade]

This Vancouver band mutated out of an earlier, thrashier version; I have no idea how much of those thrash roots remained on their first album, EARTHBOUND, but their latest release is a lot closer to stoner rock with only intermittent bursts of speed to remind you of their more fast-paced beginnings. Of course, the vocals are often harsh and demanding, owing more to the principles of thrash than stoner rock, but the real story is in the riffs, and these are songs with big, brawling riffs swaddled in copious amounts of fuzz and played at high volume. Their skatepunk roots give them an energy that's sorely lacking in a lot of albums by their more stoned brethren, and their fondness for abrupt tempo changes and complicated arrangements give them a sound akin to Mastodon minus the pretension. Their aggression is intense, but not limited or monochromatic; they work themselves into a splendid frenzy of aggression bordering on white noise at the end of "Fear Cave," but are fully capable of realizing quieter and more intricate passages elsewhere, and for a band rooted in sheer blinding heaviness, they're surprisingly nimble, with a flair for interesting dynamics. They're also apparently good at self-editing; despite having two songs over eight minutes and two others nearly as long, the songs are remarkably filler-free. Each song has enough ideas and riffs crammed into it to fill another band's entire album, and this immense catalog of riffs and tricky time changes flows with the kind of grace possible only from bands with a significant amount of technical ability and the willingness to rehearse endlessly until they get everything right. Impressive, and completely worthy of all the swell press they've been getting lately.

Bison B.C.
Metal Blade

Circle II Circle -- CONSEQUENCE OF POWER [AFM Records]

For a band led by an American (former Savatage singer Zak Stevens), they sound awfully European. This is the band's fifth release (although not with the same lineup; there have been a fair number of changes in the personnel department over the years), and you'd never guess from listening to this that the band is based Florida, the home of cranky death metal. This is progressive power metal at its most bombastic, providing a busy-sounding background for Zak's operatic vocals. The rhythm section is impeccably tight, although the bass sound is a bit unusual for this genre, at times sounding processed, maybe even the work of synth bass. The guitar playing is squarely in the tradition of progressive metal, with plenty of ornate passages and heavy solo action. The songs are nearly all around the five-minute mark, with arrangements that are mainly high-tempo exercises in rhythmic propulsion designed not to detract from the vocals and guitar virtuosity, which becomes problematic after a while -- the lack of variety in arrangements and tempos causes the songs to sound an awful lot alike. Even brief flourishes like the piano introduction to "Redemption" don't do much to address this problem, which is too bad, because the band is good and Stevens is a fine singer (even if his style is kind of an acquired taste).

Circle II Circle
AFM Records

Deathly Fighter -- COMPLETELY DUSTED lp [Columbus Discount Records]

Yet another great offering from CDS, but this one is a bit of a surprise: less punk, more Krautrock, and totally hypnotic. This three-piece band started out as hardcore and somewhere along the way they mutated into an instrumental group heavily indebted to Suicide (minus the death-trip vocals) and the aforementioned Krautrock of Can, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, and especially Kraftwerk. There are also strong hints of the first (and only) Sisterhood album in the droning synth sound and clanking, repetitive rhythms on "Heat" and several other tracks. The tracks are all distinctive, but built from a similar template: beats derived from techno, cosmic rock, and hip-hop, a battery of droning, bleating synths, and dub-hell bass that provides an ass-quaking low end. The synths are often employed in the creation of weird sound effects and sci-fi noises -- while they don't include solos in the traditional sense, their souped-up synths frequently break out into wild and unexpected bursts of psychedelic sound instead, riding unpredictable waves over the more melodic keyboard motifs and drugged-out hypno-rhythms. Then there are tracks like "Facing Mecca," where the melodic bass sounds borrowed from Joy Division but with a heavy dub sound, while the beat and one tinkling keyboard are pure techno... but the other synth wails and drones like a more zoned-out version of the synths from that Sisterhood album, even offering up cryptic squeals from time to time. The best part of the album is that there's absolutely no filler here; everything is brilliant from start to finish. The band may have taken an eternity to get around to releasing their first album after being around in one form or another for the past decade, but that's just given them time to get everything right. Anyone yearning for the perfect fusion of dub, techno, and Krautrock should definitely acquire this. Limited to 500 copies; the first hundred are on color vinyl in hand-printed sleeves.

Deathly Fighter
Columbus Discount Records

Dimentianon -- COLLAPSE THE VOID [Paragon Records]

NYC seems like a strange place for a black metal band to call home, don't you think? Then again, any place where skyscrapers blot out the sun and homeless people live underground in the recesses of the subway system is probably an appropriate breeding ground for musical darkness. The band's third album is dark indeed, with a particular emphasis on the more chaotic wing of black metal's obsession with extremity. The first two songs are intense explosions of misanthropic aggression centered around hyperkinetic drums and a guitar sound that's both frozen and deeply perverse (especially in "Breathe Deep," which has one of the sickest guitar tones I've heard outside of a Xasthur album), and the final two songs are very much in the same vein. The real surprise comes on "Fragmented Nostalgia," the album's centerpiece, a haunting and atmospheric dirge featuring a simple, melancholy piano riff augmented by ambient keyboards and wordless, ethereal vocals. "The Forgotten" (a sly reference to their roots -- the band originally formed in 1995 under this name), during its more restrained passages, has an old-school black metal guitar sound, but when things heat up that sound becomes even heavier and more psychotic. The best part about these songs is their variety -- while the riffs and tones are unquestionably a throwback to the early days of black metal, the constant shifts in tempo and intensity make them considerably less monotonous than many efforts by similar bands, and the sheer level of chaos present most of the time makes their sound extremely intimidating. Which, of course, was entirely the point.

Dimentianon
Paragon Records

Khors -- THE FLAME OF ETERNITY'S DECLINE / COLD (2 x cd) [Paragon Records]

This double-cd reissue of Ukraine's Khors is a lot of black metal to digest: each disc includes the original album plus many bonus tracks (mostly remixes and demos), for a total of 26 tracks. The first album, originally released in 2005, is a competent but largely unremarkable entry in the atmospheric / depressive black metal sweepstakes, notable mainly for the guitars, which have a gruesome edge of frost-bitten dissonance that contributes heavily to the evil vibe. "Breath" is an exception, though -- a dark, atmospheric track dominated not by serrated guitars but ice-like keyboards and a simple but unsettling piano melody -- and "Spirit of Fury" has a restless, chugging rhythmic feel that's closer to death metal, while another mournful piano melody surfaces midway through the final song, "Flame of Eternity." Outside of these instances, however, there are few surprises on the band's first album, just a steady stream of metronome-like drumming, frozen keyboards, and old-school black metal guitar sound. The seven bonus tracks -- four demo recordings, two remixes, and one live track -- are interesting as archival evidence, especially since the remixes are much rawer than the album versions (almost, in fact indistinguishable in audio quality from the demos), and the live track proves that the band, unlike a lot of black metal bands who function purely as studio entities, is fully capable of acquiting themselves live.

The second album is a bit more interesting, as it shows a marked progression away from the basic tropes of black metal, moving into more progressive territory. For one thing, the riffs and song structures are more complex -- not enough so to drastically alter the band's aesthetic, true, but enough to make the album a distinct step forward in terns of songwriting. In addition, the brief, unexpected bursts of melody that appeared occasionally on the first album are far more prevalent here, even at the forefront at times (especially on the title track). In fact, guitar solos -- noticeably absent, for the most part, on the previous album -- are all over the place this time around. They have two quiet, brooding tracks heavy on the atmosphere this time, too -- "Whispers" and "The Abyss" -- and as for the rest of the album, while it has plenty of energy and darkness, everything is far more controlled and focused than on the previous album. This one comes with only two bonus tracks: an "art-rock version" of the title track and a live rendition of "Ashes." The reissue also comes with a new layout and a video for "Garnet," one of the tracks from the second album.

Khors
Paragon Records

Kickhunter -- ALL IN [AFM Records]

This is a strange album: what other kind of reaction can you have to a bunch of Germans (including Helloween's Markus Grobkopf on bass) playing music that sounds like a Southern-rock answer to AC/DC? Especially in 2010? Seriously, this album sounds like it was recorded twenty or thirty years ago. It even includes a okay but totally unnecessary cover of Blondie's 1980 hit "Call Me" and the German band Victory's 1987 radio favorite "Check's In the Mail." (Since guest player Herman Frank was once in that band, as well as Accept, this particular cover makes a bit more sense.) As I say... bizarre. Actually, there's more to them than the Southern rock and AC/DC affectations; on some songs they show a flair for electronic boogie reminiscent of 70s bands like Little Feat or Supertramp, which just adds to the album's surreal flavor. All of this 70s / 80s nostalgia is firmly welded to a power-metal chassis, though -- most obvious on tracks like "Another Tear" -- which is hardly surprising, given that so many of the players involved have ties to power metal (including Jan Eckert and Axel Mackenrott of Masterplan). Of couse, it wouldn't be authentic power metal without a weepy ballad, which explains the presence of "Feels Like Home" and "Deep In My Heart," right? I have to admit this is a nice deviation from the usual sound of power metal albums, and the band is certainly tight, but as with all power metal, how much you'll dig this depends heavily on your tolerance for bombast and guys who sing like their pants are on too tight. If that's your thing, however, you could do much worse than to check this out.

Kickhunter
AFM Records

Necrite -- SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI [The Flenser]

Some bands like to take their time about getting their heads screwed on straight; Necrite, who have released five demos in six years and are just now getting around to a proper full-length debut, is obviously one of those bands. Specializing in a particularly grim and misanthrophic version of ambient black metal, they hail from the west coast -- meaning they come from the same scene that spawned Weakling, Leviathan, and Ludicra -- and favor a sound that owes a lot to the hellish murkiness of early Abruptum, although rhythmically the band is closer to the baroque riff madness of Norwegian heavyweights like Emperor and Mayhem. Recorded, appropriately enough, in a basement, the sound on these five tracks is simultaneously fogbound and violent, with a suicidal vibe comparable to Xasthur's bleaker moments. They're bold, too; they open with a sixteen-minute track that sounds like an epic battle taking place in a dank and claustrophobic dungeon, and the title track is a twenty-seven minute epic of rumbling noise, minimalist guitar, fogbound keyboards, and pained vocalizing swaddled in enormous amounts of reverb. The forbidding drums are definitely the work of someone weaned on Weakling, especially on "Bathing Open Wounds With Shards of Glass" (a title that neatly sums up the band's aesthetic, especially since it's filled with lots of tortured screaming). "Worship the Sunn ((O))" reveals another telling influence, in both its title and the sound of jagged waves of noisy bass feedback. Soul-crushing stuff, and an excellent debut indeed.

Necrite
The Flenser

Noveller / unFact -- BLEACHED VALENTINE split LP [Saffron / Ox-Ghost Recordings]

This is one of those splits where you spend as much time wondering how it came about as you do listening to it -- the first side features three tracks from Noveller, the avant-noise / electronica musical outlet of filmmaker Sarah Lipstate, while the flip side holds four tracks by unFact, aka David Wm. Sims, the former bassist of Scratch Acid, Rapeman, and The Jesus Lizard. While it could be fun to speculate on how such an unlikely pairing came to pass, it's probably more instructive to note how well the two artists complement each other on this release. On Noveller's side, "Starve" features a pretty guitar melody that slowly but surely begins to mutate into swirls of ping-pong delay and scratchy noises, managing to be perversely accessible yet deeply mutant at the same time. The lengthy "Happiness Can't Make You Happy" is much trippier, a psychedelic art-noise soundscape filled with backwards guitar and flanged sounds that devolve into aching sheets of drone and ambient rumbling, eventually turning into a sea of high-pitched shimmering drones that could be the product of processed guitar or keyboards. "Bleached Bleach" returns to the pretty guitar melodies, but adds a swell bass line, muted noise fuzz, and foghorn synth drones to create a swell noise-pop tune that sounds like Tangerine Dream aping METAL BOX-era Public Image Limited (a sound more bands should aspire to, if you ask me).

The flip side is equally interesting; at first glance, it may seem surprising to find David Wm. Sims working the avant-noise angle, but then again, given that Scratch Acid and The Jesus Lizard both flirted with noise as an elemental fixture of their deliberately grating anti-rock, maybe it's not so surprising after all. Using bass guitars and a variety of efx boxes and looping devices, Sims turns out four tracks of strange, hypnotic sounds heavy on the bass drone and infused with lots of repetition in their sound motifs. A lot of the time the sounds are so alien that it's difficult to imagine how they were created, even knowing what instruments and devices were used, but "Valentine" is a bit more conventional in that respect, built on a slow but highly melodic bass line. By contrast, "Our Friend the Atom" is a murky stew of bass clang and drone resembling the sound of a ship swirling slowly down a waterspout as a quirky electronic rhythm dances madly across the horizon. "Returning from Antartica" opens with another melodic bass line that gradually turns into a looped riff overlaid with processed sounds akin to horns; the loop gives it a machine-like sound, but the horn-like sounds have a jazzy feel that acts as a melodic counterpoint to the constant rhythm. It's certainly an intriguing departure for a guy most people are used to thinking of in a rock context. The album itself is a nice, heavy slab of white vinyl, limited to 500 copies, and comes in a clear plastic sleeve with a download ticket so you can carry the tunes around on your favorite listening device as well.

Noveller
unFact
Saffron Recordings

Unholy Two -- SKUM OF THE EARTH lp [Columbus Discount Records]

Holy Christ, these people make a hell of a racket. "These people" are mainly Chris Lutzko (vocals, maybe guitar -- it's hard to tell), Adam Smith (power electronics), and Bo Davis (drums), with the occasional synth bleat from Anthony Allman (on loan from El Jesus de Magico). Their collective attitude problem is immediately obvious from the rude totems on the cover art (an upside-down cross, spelling SSKUM with the SS lightning bolts, a general sense of primitive crudeness lifted from your average ransom note) and titles like "Sick Fuck," "(Do The) Horsecock," and "White Devil" offer less than subtle clues about where they're coming from, but even that cannot prepare you for the senseless path of destruction they wreak on the album itself. Seriously, I can't even tell which songs belong on which side -- it's just one track after another of squealing, overdriven guitar feedback, shouting, turbocharged sonic violence, howling, drums transported through time from a Neanderthal tribal war session, electronic gadgets being abused to the point of explosion, wailing, heavy Echoplex abuse, more wailing... this is the sound of psychotics with instruments. Were they on drugs when they laid these tracks down? Did they bother to tune anything before they started playing? Is it live, recorded in exquisite lo-fi by someone cowering near the stage as objects were hurled into the audience? Who knows? Who cares? Imagine the Oblivians reborn as a power electronics band and you're on the right track. This is heavy shit, brutah, seriously unhinged in the best way possible. Much of it sounds like a landslide in progress; the rest is a glorious odyssey through a sewer of excruciating white noise. If you're craving coherence, sanity, and actual tunes, you've definitely come to the wrong place, but if you're seeking the healing power of pure blinding sonic filth, well, you may just have found a new god to worship in the filthy debasement ritual of your choice (ostensibly involving heavy drugs). Limited to 500 copies, pressed on thick, heavy vinyl, in a sleeve screen-printed by hand. You need. Trust me.

Unholy Two
Columbus Discount Records

Victory and Associates / Hurry Up Shotgun -- split 7" [Seismic Wave Entertainment]

Victory and Associates come on strong with "Turn Down the Guitars," a catchy lament any loud musician can relate to, namely the eternal running battle between bands who like to play at full volume versus sound engineers worried about preserving their precious PAs. Fronted by vocalist Conan Neutron and rounded out by four other Bay area dudes (all of whom have played, alone or together, in more bands than you can imagine), the band takes pride in whipping up songs that are upbeat and clever without being forced or sappy, and this one is perfectly in that vein, with an interesting arrangement and enormous amounts of energy. The Hurry Up Shotgun track, "Paths," has a more idiosyncrastic sound; the first half of it sounds like a demented tribe of scattershot punks jumping around to bizarre rhythms along with a lot of shouting, but the second half sounds like slowed-down pop metal, like a radioactive isotope derived from the likes of late-era Husker Du. The single itself is an unusual artifact in its own right -- lathe-cut in a limited edition of 100 and made of clear vinyl with no label (making it initially confusing to figure out which side is which, although it's evident upon listening which song is which). The single version is worth owning just for the swell cover art (hit any of the links below to see for yourself). Both songs are available as downloads via the label or through iTunes, for those sad, sad souls unfortunate enough to not own a record player.

Hurry Up Shotgun
Victory and Associates
Seismic Wave Entertainment

We Insist! -- THE BABEL INSIDE WAS TERRIBLE [Exile on Mainstream]

This is bizarre stuff, and certainly not metal; in fact, the band's sound hopscotches across a number of styles that coalesce in a schizoid version of art rock. There are definitely nods to proggy bands like King Crimson and Tool, but there are also bursts of cryptic electronica and angular guitar rhythms that are one part no-wave and one part math-rock, not to mention serious nods to free-jazz and occasionally even noise. Their sound is eclectic and all over the map, but lurking in these diabolically enigmatic songs is a surprisingly catchy power-pop center. Perversely enough, despite sounding like a rabid pack of Chicago art-rock devotees weaned on Cheer-Accident and the Scissor Girls, they are actually French (which probably explains everything, now that I think about it). A lot of avant-garde bands try this approach of marrying several wildly different genres into one sound, usually resulting in a train wreck of wretched sound and vision, but in this case it works, although it's a sound so steeped in weirdness and the unexpected that it takes a while to get used to it. It helps that the entire band boasts scary levels of technical proficiency and a canny grasp of how to make wildly different sounds work together. I haven't heard a band this successful at being studiously weird since Cheer-Accident, although since they've been together for at least fifteen years, they've certainly had plenty of time to hone their approach to the sonically inexplicable. Consider this your escape hatch from the growing trend of cookie-cutter bands who all sound alike -- there definitely aren't many bands who sound like this, that's for sure. And most of them aren't this good.

We Insist!
Exile on Mainstream

Wojczech -- PULSUS LETALIS [Selfmadegod Records]

German metal, especially extreme metal, has a tendency toward the incredibly intense, and this band is no exception to that rule -- but they're a grindcore band, which means they're intense even by German standards. If they were any scarier they've have to be Polish, right? They don't deviate much from the essential grind template laid out by bands like Brutal Truth, Phobia (a big influence here), SOB, Gasp, and the like, and while they have the kind of burning, psychopathic energy found on Discordance Axis albums, they are nowhere near as complex and avant-garde as that band. This is essentially straightfoward, no-frills grind, but it's definitely good grind, with insane blast-beat drumming, crusty guitars, and an appropriately psychotic-sounding vocalist. The album's production is also significantly better than most grind albums (meaning it doesn't sound like a muffled recording of a cat heaving up hairballs playing on a damaged ghettoblaster), especially ones from overseas, which is a definite plus. The twelve tracks are all fast and furious, with only one longer than three minutes -- half the album's tracks are under two minutes, in fact -- and they are all played with the ferocious attitude of someone stepping on your face. Repeatedly. Bonus points for oodles of clanging, dissonant guitar that wouldn't be out of place on a black metal record along with the obligatory gut-wrenching hyperspeed grind.

Wojczech
Selfmadegod Records

Year of No Light -- AUSSERWELT [Conspiracy Records]

This album can be summed up in three magical words: epic drone metal. Four tracks, each nine to thirteen minutes long and filled with an endless sky of dense, harmonically rich guitar drone. There are beats, too, but it's the enormous guitar sound that's the star attraction here. As with all instrumental rock, though, it's the arrangements that make or break the band, especially when the band is prone to sprawling, lengthy tracks. Fortunately, the band has excellent instincts regarding how long to push certain sounds and riffs before seguing into the next movement, and they create a consistently evolving approach to dynamics by allowing the drums to come and go as the guitars ebb and flow in volume and intensity. While there are riffs aplenty in the rhythm section, the more melodic guitar sounds are less about conventional lead solos and more about waves of reverb-heavy cyclone drone. Their majestic, echo-laden sound resembles a louder and considerably more metallic update of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western soundtracks; this is music designed to play along with a visual backdrop of deep canyons and wide open skies. Their sound is every bit as subtle and detailed at times as it is grandiose -- they employ a vide variety of sonic textures in addition to the fuzzed-out riffs and caterwauling drone. Drone-rock has become something of a fad in the past few years, possibly because it doesn't take a tremendous amount of technical skill to churn out ambient fuzz rock, but few drone metal bands possess this much skill at arrangement and sheer sonic drama, and even fewer are as meticulous about consistently getting things right. This album proves they're definitely in the top tier of the drone rock sweepstakes.

Year of No Light
Conspiracy Records