Defecation On The Divine Radio

New updates for this site!!!!

2011-09-27T12:57:00.000-07:00

Although the metal will be on other sites, this site will go back to being a site for noise/power electronics/prog/kraut/electronic/psyche etc. and will hopefully have more people working on it to keep it live. Expect big changes really soon and expect the dark and bizarre to show up again and in fuller detail.

Metal reviews and extreme stuff are now being featured at:

2011-07-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

http://forbidden-magazine.com/2011/07/the-crypt-label-feature/

I'm now working heavily with this amazing underground zine that REALLY does cover underground stuff and the interviews/articles/reviews are insanely good and updated constantly so you get new NEWS and a better range of reviews than anywhere else, so check them out for the stuff that used to post here.

The link above is one of my recent label features that is essential for oldschool death metal nuts!!!

Marrow/Machetazo split 12” (Dysphoria Distro)

2011-06-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

I worked with marrow last year when the Of Slaughter and Slime 7” was released on HPGD, and the boys were telling me about this project being in the works. Well, now it’s not only been released on 100 copies of silver vinyl, cut into the shape of a sawblade, and coated in blood splatter, which are now long gone, but also 400 copies of the black vinyl, cut into a saw blade still available. There’s also a bonus cover of Amebix’s “Axeman” !!!!! It’s only $12 to get this tool of the trade and start to further slash your brain into mush with the best of the filth these fiends can sling at us!!!! Pick up the Slaughter and Slime 7” too if you can swing it, that is a definite soon to be long sought after beginning of something ugly and timeless release.

“Testament to Dissection” seriously old school death metal, brutal, gore and violence loaded, down tuned, obliterating speeds, and that classic pig squeel!!!!! This track is about trying on human skin and severed limbs, it’s an Autopsy gore-orgy sped up a bit and just as putrid. This Baltimore band has been a fave of mine for their trademark sound, but here they seem to take it to another level of disgusting and revolting, not to mention completely awesome!!!! The bucket of pus continues to overflow, so take from it, bathe and rejoice, the truly heinous and ugly sounds will prevail!!!!

“El Torreon” sees a return to the more grindcore flesh peeling sound these guys are known for, expect something along the lines of Mortician fused with Incantation and Immolation, it’s a very dark and disturbing piece of murder and violence only fit for the die hards that can handle the noise and intensity with skillful execution. This band, hands down (because they hacked them off) is an execution by means of audio, these guys will have your viscera pulled out like the unwinding of tangled Christmas lights it’s that Goddamn intense!!!! Ahhhh, I cry from tears of joyful pain as the stench of the rotten and discarded pile and burn my eyes and nostrils like a snort of battery acid.

Support indie, support the loud, support the gruesome and ugly, and may your life be long and prosperous, Amen!!!!

https://store.dysphoriadistro.com/catalog/6

Hrizg – Inferno (Moribund Records 2011)

2011-06-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

With barely enough time to recover from this Spanish acts Anthems to Decrepitude, released in May on Moribund, the next assault is already set to explode in July. I found Anthems… to be something worthy for the black metal realm in the traditional sense of black metal, in that it was haunting, violent, evil, primitive, but melodic and hypnotic without gimmick. I have to say that Inferno ups the bands place in my mind yet again, the ancient/cryptic/medieval occult atmosphere that makes black metal so powerful in its simplest forms, can still convey violence, benevolence and evil without waning to trends or image. This release shows a HUGE change in production and composition, the sound is richer and the rawness in tone is abandoned for clearer and deeper ones that really give the album as whole, a sense of omnipresence. You actually feel like your in some ruin of a temple and witnessing a ritual take place, the production and dynamics turn this release into an experience beyond simply listening, so play loud and let it take you somewhere else.

The album plays out in 5 parts, each a chapter in the Inferno: “The Awakening”, “To Yield Below the Frozen Sky”, “Shadowshield”, “Ars Goetia”, and “Conqueror of this Wooden Abyss”. The actual sound is hard to nail, it fits into the black metal genre well but draws no exact comparison to any one band, but I would say that fans of the old school who enjoy that ancient cavern feel without selling out violence for atmosphere will find something in this one compared to the usual “usual” or the avantgarde. There’s something very pagan, ritualistic, and anti Christian in the sound that feels real as opposed to contrived but is hard to describe in exact words. Hrizg is not simply another black metal band, there’s something more provocative and interesting to this one that makes one somewhat curious to see where Hrizg goes.

Aosoth - III (Agonia Records 2011)

2011-06-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

Ugly, unmelodic melodies, screeching almost industrial distorted guitar tones, percussion that explodes as the combination of them with the guitars sounds like bombing raid sirens and artillery fire, but heard through some barbiturate induced state. That may turn many away, but it’s actually a compliment!!!! That ugly, awkward guitar tone that spread rapidly after Deathspell Omegas well known trilogy of “Si monumentum…” through “Fas…”, the one that sounds “out-of-tune”, combined with an almost power electronics hum and whirr of what sounds like symphonic audio clips from standard old horror films or a Latin Mass and a massive spiraling calamity spews forth war and devastation like none too many can.

All six tracks titled “I” through “VI”, unfold like a cinematic hurricane of aural chaos that’ll scare the Hell out of children and many adults, peel paint of the walls, and render the listener into a fit of the spins that’ll either result in the desire to kill and devote oneself to the darkside or horrendous vomiting from the force of the vortex. There’s dark ambient/Neo-classical elements to magnify the insanity and creepy haunting effect of the sounds, but never anything symphonic or remotely “melodic” in the traditional sense. The buzzing here is of a chainsaw heard through a morbid hallucination, this is definitely a mind fuck of a listen, but still manages to be actual black metal. Although ugly, and irritating to snobs and the ignorant, this album is a very unique and creative approach that will definitely appeal to the black metal horde that like the more militant and hate/violence fueled stuff. It’s convincingly sinister and reeking of diabolical tendencies and ideals, in other words, it’s exactly what it should be!!!

Forgotten Tomb - Under Saturn Retrograde

2011-06-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

Under Saturn Retrograde is the 6th studio album for these Italians that manage to defy exact classification and avoid surrendering to confinement within a style that tends to hinder creativity. The phrase being used to promote this release, “Nihilistic Black Rock Unlimited”, which fits, but it’s surely more metal than rock, definitely black overall but not avantgarde/post/whatever stuff, but there’s also sludge,death metal, doom layers in here that’ll throw the most discerning listener off bit in gratitude for the well blended concoction. In all honesty, I don’t give two shits about What it is as long as it’s heavy, aggressive, and solid, which this one certainly is. At first listen you expect one thing and keep getting another, equally impressive, slap across your face with each new track.

My standout track is the opener “Reject Existence” with it’s melodic fusion of modern black metal aggression, hardcore/post hardcore metal riffing and rhythms, and something that really gets under you skin and stains your brain to “repeat…play…repeat…”. This track has the whole “dark melodic anthem that gets caught in your head and rips you ass open” all at once.

“Shutter” brings in some doom metal/sludge elements that is an essential in my book, as those are two styles that really lay close to my heart, but they still tend o keep things oozing forth a bit more rapidly to give us a tarpit brawl on speed as they still manage to cut through swamp moss with a nuclear powered chainsaw.

“Downlift” returns to the melodic upheaval of “Reject Existence” but with a bit of the iconic death metal guitar squeal and more moody and brooding atmosphere.

Who can miss the cover of “I Wanna Be Your Dog”? A personal favorite of mine, and a great cover keeping the ugly punk rock spirit of the Stooges and still managing to add a bit more power to it to blacken like a blow to the eye with coal crusted iron fist.

The two part “Under Saturn Retrograde” showcases more of a polished and unique modern black metal style, but never losing it enough into too much shine and not enough steel toe stomping to bruise it up. Some things, especially metal, were not meant to be pretty afterall.

Overall this release is solid and promising, uncompromising, unique, and still maintains its metallic roots. I’d be very hardpressed to call it black metal, as I tend to be with much these days, rock (generally meaning too whimpy to be metal most days), or anything specific. I guess I’d think of it as a band similar to Nachtmystium, where they just keep evolving into something dark, melodic, and unique, but never losing their intensity.

http://www.myspace.com/darknessinstereo
http://www.forgottentomb.com/
http://www.agoniarecords.com/

Southern Lord Records Summer releases 2011

2011-06-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

Xibalba – Madre Mia Por Los Dias
These Southern California based slammers are a riot, guerilla warfare, and full on civil war contained in 12 tracks of sludge/death metal/Hardcore obliteration. I can really hear the Crowbar like sludge/metal aggression and hardcore roots, but have to say that it’s nothing recycled here. Of all three of the recent SL limited edition releases, this one fucked me up the most and the quickest, in fact I had to track down the label that recently did the vinyl edition and grabbed that one this morning.

Tracks like “Madre Mia” and “We Deserve to Die” showcase angular and almost “out of tune” chords that when running alongside the stomach churning rhythms and determined vocal outbursts form a massive arsenal of angst and doom.

“Times Up” opens up with a 911 call reporting a suicide and when the operator asks “who was the victim”, the reply is “I am”. Right after this opening the throbbing pulse of this bands upfront and aggressive approach just slams you into the floor.
I’ve been stressing my overworked brain to find out exactly what this band reminds me off, but I’m drawing huge blanks. That’s actually a good thing, it means that there’s something unique and yet comfortably familiar to this band that makes it stand out and also a safe and timeless investment. I wanted to say it reminded me of Indian (Slights and Abuse), the misanthropic sludge and sarcasm of 16 (“You Let Me Down Again”), and Kylesa (Static Tensions and Time Will Fuse it’s Worth), but the band itself is early death metal/grind with its pounding and chugging riffs and skull piercing jagged melodies and full frontal vocal onslaught. Whatever Xibalba is, it’s loud, brutal, well executed, and memorable.

There’s no getting around it, once you hear them you’ll not only remember Xibalba for years to come, but your vision will be blurred, your balance off, and your head will continue to throb for some time after the first bold introduction to them.
This version of the release is their S/T debut (vinyl on A389 Records) alongside songs from the Earthquake compilation.

Seven Sisters of Sleep – S/T
Another jawbreaker from the California wasteland featuring members of Arm and Sword of the Bastard God/Tafkata, bringing a short and blunt stoner fused hardcore massacre to the ears. Coming in at less than 20 minutes, the exhaustion from the listen will make you believe that you just completed the Iron Man in that amount of time and honestly, you’ll be psyched and ready to do it all over again right away…and you will. This is another essential one and the vinyl edition is available through A389, with the very limited cd through Southern Lord.

Planks – The Darkest of Grays/Solicit to Fall
The first time ever that these recordings are available on CD, and both of the full length 12”s from this German band together at last. This is one of the three that reminds me of the dissonance and despair heard and felt in the Masakari release last year, the gruff vocals expressive of frustration and need for revolt combined with crust/melodic hardcore and metal to yield something so resonating and dense that even Steven Hawking couldn’t describe it through some theory. At times the sounds will be morose and melodic, almost peacefully sad, and then there will be explosions of down-tuned diesel engine chugging rhythms and further explosions of decibel abusing and riot inducing chords that’ll inspire revolution in anyone. As a whole this is a vortex, spiraling violently out of control, to not be consumed is impossible. Here lay anthems of upheaval against the doom and despair of today’s world.

A389 Recordings Label Feature

2011-06-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

A389 Recordings – one nuclear blast to the eardrums that can’t be missed!!!!!!
Recently yet another slam dunk of hardcore/metal/crust/doom/sludge hybrids being given the cd treatment from Southern Lord have also gotten the vinyl treatment from this indie/DIY label that is seriously an awesome find for anyone hooked on the heavy, but light on the disposable income. All vinyl range from $13.99-$19.99 typically, from this labels releases, and the shipping is cheap, plus many appear to come with a digital download card as well!!!!!

Anyway, I had to buy the Xibalba beast on vinyl and wound up blowing cash on other crusty/metal/hardcore ear bleeders that’ll make my cats, coworkers and neighbors duck for cover AGAIN!!!!

Preorders for July 2011:

Gravehill - Practitioners of Fell Sorcery 12”
6-tracks from the early line-up featuring Mike Apokalypse (Gehenna/Devil/Sangraal) on vocals and Shane BastardDemon (Devil/Penetration Panthers) on drums.

Witch-Lord - Atomizer in the Black Solarian
This one is my absolute must have!!!! Described as “Nightmarish almost psychedelic doom…” , limited to 250 copies on lime haze vinyl, and conceived and birthed by DC Grave (Gehenna).

Penetration Panthers – Perpetual 80’s 7” EP
DC Grave and Shane BastardDemon bring forth a taste of early 80’s punk ala Black Flag, with this 3-track taster to prep us for their upcoming full length.

Gehenna – Land of Sodom II/Upon the Gravehill deluxe 7” and CD
Re-issue of the rare Land of Sodom 7”, with some improvements, and a bonus CD.

Other A389 highlights:

Pulling Teeth: Baltimore based 90’s sludge/hardcore/Death Metal bastard children seek revenge through audio aggression and riffs so heavy that it’ll make Buzzoven fans involuntarily shit themselves from the intensity. Check out the audio samples for “Paranoid Delusions” at the link below and try not to take away shredding leads and melodies bringing you back to early 90’s death metal layered over classic Sabbath doom riffs and southern fried sludge vocal deliveries that’ll have you reaching for the XXX moonshine jug and wearing overalls and bashing someones head in. “Blood Wolves” is a full on hardcore, melodic and amphetamine overdosed machine that’ll have you seeing pink elephants on parade before the song inadvertently flips a U turn at warp speed into a melodic and slower stoner/sludge instrumental. This band really brings in a range of heavies and dynamics that can only be compared to having your head shoved down an American standard industrial strength toilet and given the old “swirly” that’ll suck the scalp right off you form the suction. Aggressive and obliterating just isn’t going to cut it when describing this bands sound, there’s too much depth here. Just think sludge/hardcore with some metal overtones and you’ll be well prepared!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/pullingteethmd

Rot in Hell: UK act that brings the early, glorious, and crude beginnings of death metal, into collision with crust (and fast paced sludge even) and a massive long dive into a very shallow pool of hardcore. If you’re going to have your head caved in from low-end pressure and inhumane decibel levels, then this is the band to do it.

I just picked up their “Hallways of the Always” 12”, and will also have to pick up their “As Pearls Before Swine” beer colored 12” in the near future as well. You really cannot justify missing out on any of this stuff!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/rotinhellband

Frightener: yet another UK export stinking of early death metal beginnings and bringing a melodic metallic hardcore edge to a touch of stoner aesthetic. It’s definitely metal, but what the hell it is EXACTLY is neither obvious or important…it’s the fact that it is annihilating to the senses and could easily stun a grizzly bear that’s just been enraged from having it’s genitals hooked up to a 12V battery, into temporary docile confusion.

I just picked up the “Guillotine” 12” and could not pass up the chance to let you all know about some of these amazing bands!!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/frightener

Oak: Baltimore based death doom band that takes the heart palpitating pulse and slow motion blunt force trauma familiar to fans of Burning Witch, throws in some vokiller work sort of like Coffins being listened to through a haze brought on by almost toxic levels of THC and Vicotin flavored with periodic screeching Burning Witch outbursts. Although incredibly slow, like drowning in quicksand as a time warp occurs simultaneously and seconds are drawn out to days, this is not drone doom for the headphones and intoxicated. The riffs are classic doom metal, slow and brooding, reverberating like an earthquake under the floor boards, and there’s enough variation in the tracks to keep even the most ADHD affected listener like myself hypnotized and sedated. This is essential for fans or Burning With, early Electric Wizard, Cough, early Ramesses, and just about anything ultra heavy, crawling, bludgeoning, and hypnotic through pure brutality.

http://www.myspace.com/oakdoom

Definitely check out this labels growing selection of releases and talent: http://www.a389records.com/catalog/

Other essentials: Integrity, Caulfield, Seraphim, Ringworm and nice growing distro.

Dungeon Prayers and Tombyard Serenades (Razorback Records 2011)

2011-04-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

From the first moment that I’d heard this band on their split with Druid Lord I was instantly reminded of the haunting sounds of acts like Mephisto Waltz, Christian Death, early Dead Can Dance, and a chunk of my collection of obscure random neo-pagan/dark folk finds, but with some seriously raw distorted metal guitar. I’ve heard many things…many, many, many things, but nothing exactly like this band. To say that this band is exceptional is as pointless as farts stinking, urine staining, and hillbillies marry cousins, it’s just a fact that’s understood and accepted!!!

This two-piece cryptic horror/doom metal act consists of the haunting and supernatural incantations of Vanessa Nocera and the raw distorted and hypnotic guitar and drum work of Wayne Sarantopoulos and has to be one of the most ancient and distinctly satanic/pagan/occult sounding acts around period. The experience of listening to this band is that of witnessing a ritual being performed right there and recorded, the atmosphere and overall sensation of these songs is somewhere between an Edgar Allen Poe tale and a séance…if you’re flesh doesn’t turn cold and your bones don’t begin to shiver, you’re not listening to Wooden Stake. The back and forth between clean ethereal female vocals and demonic shireks and growls really grabs you by the throat, it’s fucking trippy and hypnotic.

So in summary, Wooden Stake defies all genres and categories and unveils a world of the supernatural, superstitious, spiritual, and absolutely raw, hollow and admiringly heavy. This album would be the perfect soundtrack for a classic horror film, black and white, spine tingling and just all around eerie.

With this full-length out on Razorback (U.S.) and the limited edition split 7” from Altsphere (France), prepare to journey into the true sounds of the occult and hand over your soul to join the damned. To my ears and mind this is a perfect 9-10 album and will absolutely appeal to doom heads, sludge heads, traditional cryptic Black Metal fans, and metal fans all around.

http://www.myspace.com/woodenstakedeath

Castle - In Witch Order (Van Records 2011)

2011-04-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

U.S. metal act, Castle, simply put...SLAYS!!!! Possibly it’s the rough and aggressive female vocals balanced out with an uncertain seductiveness. I’m somewhat thinking of something like Pentagram and Pale Divine fronted by Reino Ermitano vocalist Tanya Duarte, but even that isn’t quite where this bands sound is. Although clearly doom like, this release is obliterating in terms of its bludgeoning thunder alone, the songs rip through you like a jigsaw across the bone…jagged, distinct, and deliberate with each cut, rattling your body as it does so, and it shows a unique classic metal and doom concoction that is not only unique but completely a ten-thousand ton monolith of melodies, riffs, percussion and literary/mystical/occultic themes.

I’ve honestly been trying to move on to some of the other new additions to my collection, but can’t escape from the vortex created by the spiraling hypnotic menace that is “In Witch Order”. There’s pure energy… heavy metal energy, doom weights, and a sexy rawness to each track that is unlike anything else!!!! Set for release in May by Van Records (Germany), this band will scorch most others into stinking black streaks along the parched Earth under their trampling hooves. Alongside Woodenstake this band is a staple of current U.S. metal talent and will hopefully be only previewing their potential to us with this release. The band will also be looking for a domestic label in the future so check into this one if you’re looking to expand your true metal roster!!!!!

www.heavycastle.com

Moribund Spring Label Feature

2011-04-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

Dodsferd – Spitting With Hatred the Insignificance of Life
What to say about this project that hasn’t been said in it’s title and decade or so of audio misanthropy? Well, where progression with a band may render weakness and loss of the original potent hatred and angst, Dodsferd keeps it raw but somehow the once punkish cavern atmosphere of a psychopaths special lair has now taken a more melodic and outwardly intense stance. The best way to put it is that where the raw, emotional, and grim in black metal has become synonymous with suicide and isolation, and the melodic side has become almost EMO (puke!!!), Dodsferd has gone from swearing and plotting revenge in his dark place to take it to the streets and openly exact revenge on humankind. There’s more of a melodic vengeance and honest release of frustration that shows balls and integrity.

Just as Immortal, early Emperor, Mayhem and so many others could capture melody and full on belligerence without ever polishing the timelessly awe inspiring turd that made them great initially in those years, that was raw black metal in it’s purest glory. Any fan of the ways of old as many of you are alongside me, but want to hear something that captures that era and feel but is not a mere clone, will enjoy this release as much as I do. I’ve been a fan of this act for many years, although never following him intentionally, and have to say that this release is one of the more intoxicating releases of his to date. Definitely don’t miss out on this one, it’s misanthropy and vindication with some great dynamics.

The vocals range from cleaner shouts to the usual raspy wails of disgust amidst a clamor of percussion and chainsaw riffs buzzing like harvest time in a rainforest. The riffs themselves have an addictive rhythm that gets you hooked like a whore to crack, but then he throws in leads and solos on tracks like “Your Kingdom Was Built in a Lie” that blow harder than a holocaustal wind. The drumming is fucking amazing too, I’m not sure if that was a studio drummer and looped in, but who the hell cares when the tracks stomp and obliterate your senses like these do. This artist and his work is beast of it’s own as it is as natural and honest and never waning with trends or time.

Release date March 22,2011

Hrzig – Anthems to the Decrepitude
Spanish solo acts debut on Moribund shows that this label can still crank out a phenomenal cult album. I go back and forth some days with Moribunds catalog, some of it is a homerun out of the damn park and others are pop flys, but the little label keeps going strong through all the trends and economical bullshit because those true music lovers will always buy the hard copy and bands that are genuine these days stand out even more because they are so rare in places!!!!!

Anyway, Hrizg is a unique listen, while not entirely old school it has that dark cosmic void presence and supernatural sense that is now exploited into the shoe-gaze and EMO post-Burzum styles and runs with it back to the cauldron of doom and despair, but thriving with anger and power. The vocals are great for the style, they are raspy and deep in spots, giving the feel of a mantic necromantic chant as he curses and vows torture and malevolence to those around him. Fuck suicidal and self-pity solo shit, this stuff is soooo dense that it’s almost symphonic without keyboards and long passages. Think In the Nightside Eclipse, the dense and epic tracks that were so cinematic and just gargantuan, but still bastardized with the raw and unadulterated blackness, mist, and blood shed that nothing can escape the force of!!!!

While not as brilliant as ITNE, Hrizg is another one on this label that’s maintaining the atmospheric and mystical realm of black metal but keeping in mind that it is still black metal, ugly and violent, and not a cool sounding simple and effective way to play.

Release Date May 3,2011

Haeresiarchs of Dis – In Obsecration of the Seven Darks
I used to grab a hold of everything that remotely resembled Emperor (pre- Anthems era) and in doing so found some amazing bands, but years later when this US act hit my ears in 2010 it didn’t click with me and a few others because it is too much like old Emperor, almost literally at times. That in no way makes this band a clone or poser though, so don’t be swayed too easily by what we all write and hear ourselves.

With this 2011 release the similarities to old Emperor remain, but the subtle use of synth for cinematic effect and the varied range of dynamics and aggression in these tracks carry them into a new realm of warmongering and the occult. IOOTSD is an experience in itself honestly, it ranges from hypnotic ambient chants and metaphysical themes to full on battle and adrenaline fused explosions. There’s actually a lot of variation here in comparison to the predecessor, Denuntiatus Cinis. While I’m still completely sold that Inquisition is one of the most unique and accurately occult and mystical in sound and listening experience and my top pick these days, this act really brings a new direction to the melodic and epic black metal of old that sort of resurrects it without desecrating it as many others have.

Now that I’ve heard this band for another round I’m actually looking forward to what they will continue to develop into, and starting from strong Emperor is not a bad starting point either. I’d give this one a chance, it might blow your soul right out of your body or it might just simply sound like a decent release, but the chances of it being an absolute disappointment are slim so it’s a safe investment. There are a few surprises in places that come out of the shadows unpredictably and set the blood flowing.

Release Date April 19,2011

Satan’s Host – By the hand of the Devil
I’m bipolar when it comes to my music mood, one day it’s obscure U.S. power-prog metal, doom, grind/crust, and the list goes on to include shit like 70’s prog and Turkish psychedelic so when something catches me at the opportune time…it REALLY catches me as this one did.

This band is an insitution!!!! They’ve been around for decades, they have roots in essential 80’s acts like Jag Panzer, and they somehow mix Mercyful Fate/King Diamond horror/Satanic themes and epic vocals with hints of classic 80’s thrash in the riffs, and throw in a massive pile of classic Judas Priest here and there and that’s in one fucking track!!!!! I’m not going to go into details on this one, there’s no need to, if what’s been said isn’t enough to get your metal head saliva surfacing and your heart rate up then there’s no hope for you. Just buy this fucker and experience it for yourself!!!! This one truly does HAVE IT ALL!!!!!

http://www.satanshost.com/

Release date May 3,2011

Omision - In the Shadow of the Cross (Chaos Records 2011)

2011-03-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

Although just in the last decade these guys have been gradually rising from the decrepit soil covering the grueling pit of old school death metal this Tijuana based act has been active and slaughtering since ’93 and I’d be seriously delusional if I didn’t hear and feel 1993 and earlier in these battleaxe anthems. This album is best summed up as a collection of whiplash pit anthems of unrelenting speed and monstrosity spiraling out of control as the leads shred flesh and the rhythms pound and crush out all light and life leaving nothing but a freezing black void.

Each track comes at you mean and full of violent intentions, like a hurricane of thrash paced riffs, gruff but decipherable vokills reeking of death and decay, nuclear devastating rhythms that’ll convert lead into dust as they have the strength to penetrate that deep and heavy, and the downtuned riffage can be felt miles beneath the Earth’s crust…possibly into the core!!!! You can see the death toll rise as each track unfolds one after another, seething with blasphemy and swathed in crimson sweat.

For fans of: Malevolent Creation, Incantation, Massacre, Sepultura, Deicide, Morbid Angel, and everything classic death metal that is as brutally intense as it is rhythmic and yet still melodic.

Shitty Fucker – Diarrheality EP (Tankcrimes)

2011-03-12T13:18:00.001-08:00

The name alone sold me on this band, sort of like the Butthole Surfers and Anal Cunt…who, speaking of which, can be heard in these 7 scatologically pornographic anthems of brilliant stomping rhythmic sleaze. Pure Fecalphelia with a gritty sludge/grunge/grind/punk feel, the hooks and riffs are as unmistakable as the lyrics and audio clips about being “…hopped up on buttpolish…”, “…when are these kids going to learn to say no to buttpolish…”, a lovely audio clip of a female voice saying “I’m so happy I could shit…” then another friend following with “…you know how I hate the Brown word…”, initially you’re hooked with the opening groove of “Pirate Hooker” directly following the ripping “Jesus Fucks You” and wrenching sludge bomb opener “Putrifornication”.

Being equal parts Eyehategod sludge throttled through colon swamps and stagnant fecal water, black raspy rectal jelly crust vocals reminding me of my beloved Abscess and crust classics, and a serious skill for creating memorable and listenable vulgarity ala Anal Cunt and BHS, listening to Shitty Fucker is like a John Waters anthology done in audio. And why not, Warhol had the Velvet Underground and many muses, so why shouldn’t one of my artistic idols have his own noisy band to sponsor, he had Divine, Edith Massey, Mink Stole, and the guy who made his asshole lip sing “Oooma mowmow” in Pink Flamingos?

If you’re a serious fan of sludge, grind, classic hardcore, crust, heavy stoner tunes and a perverted sense of humor you honestly can’t go wrong here!!!!! The titles may say immature and “flush before opening”, but once you listen to this thing you’ll hear and revel in its awesomeness. It’s only available in hard copy as a Cassette for $4.20, but also as a free download at the link below, so shit or get off this pot!!!!!

http://downloads.tankcrimes.com/album/diarrheality

Just when I think that I’m finally growing up something like this lands in my lap and I’m back to picking my nose and rubbing it on my moms clothes and giggling that she’s a booger alien while dodging her swings and shrieks or pulling my grandpas finger…ahhh, those were the days!!!!!

Zombiefication – Midnight Stench (Chaos Records 2011)

2011-03-12T13:17:00.001-08:00

Available only on vinyl comes one of the best death metal releases this year from one of Mexico’s best and brutal, Zombiefication. For those who like it slow, crushing, heavy enough to have its own gravitational pull, and balls-to-the-wall completely evil and wicked look no further. The chainsaw riffs and arpeggios buzz like a black metal holocaustic cyclone, while the rhythm is a pure necrotic death metal earthquake, just listen to tracks like “Necrombulatory” and you’ll be crushed into extinction from the heavy weight.

“Sleepless Mutter” with the bell tower ringing, the slow melodic riffs and more screamed and whispered vocal styles is a complete transformation into black metal territory, but even amongst the fog and smooth pace this track still come out to dismember you at the end. Absolutely brilliant!!!!!!

“Last Resting Place”, “Hitchcock Screaming in Phobia”, “Jacko’s Funeral Pile”, “anthem to the Deathmarch”…they all come in distinctly and catch your attention somehow. It’s as if every time you get comfortable the next song throws you back into chaos again, it’s this never ending cycle of mania and violence. The overall sinister melodic leads and the right fluctuations between black and death metal, brutal and low end to festering and rotting along and then pure Hell unleashed, there are no two songs alike on here and the whole listen will fatigue you from the rigor.

These guys must literally kill live, the speed and solid aggression alone will cause a stampede, then put a few beers down folks and some will definitely get torn up or die. This band just completely caught me off guard and combines everything to amp me up for good riot, nothing right at this moment makes me want to wage war like this band does!!!!!

Definitely check the label website out, it’s based out of Mexico so at first the prices look scary, but once you change the currency you’re looking at a mere
$23 for this freak and honestly it’d be worth the $230 if it wasn’t priced in Pesos first. This is some seriously wicked shit that’ll appeal to fans of Black Witchery, Grave Ritual, Sacrilegious Impalement, Dimentianon, Nominon, Sectioned, etc. Bands like this keep raising the bar for brutal and skilled metal, I challenge most not to get completely adrenalized and high off of the stench of this release.

http://www.zombiefication.com/

http://www.myspace.com/zombiefication666

Uncanny – MCMXCI – MCMXCIV (Dark Descent Records 2011)

2011-03-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite styles and favorite labels right now keep churning out the old school Swedish Death metal resurrections with Toxeamia and now Uncanny. Nothing tops this stuff in my world, that era and those bands left scars on me that I proudly bare and revel in decades later. Each band has it’s own sound and feel and the crusty/grind/punk elements are still present in many of them that keeps it fresh and relentless.

This release is a special one, it’s a 2disc set covering their entre release catalog: Demo: “Transportation to the Uncanny (1991)
Demo: “Nyktalgia” (1992)
Split with Ancient Rites (1993)
Full length: Splenuim for Nyktaphobia

and it’s also a limited release as was their 3LP set last year, and an essential for fans of this style.

“Why my Intestines” is one of those classic openers that rips through your torso and slams your face onto a red hot metal surface. Bloody bowels, gruff and guttural vokills and a pure horror death raucous that bludgeons and annihilates everything else in your collection for a good period of time, but the thing that really gets me is the way they add this melodic instrumental piece toward the end that stops the song short and then underneath the pretty bits the devilish creatures slither and resurface to recapture the pure essence of rottenness that once was.

“Transportation to the Uncanny” continues to come down harder and heavier than many others on the listener courtesy of a 1990’s death metal hurricane of desecrating drums, explosive bass tones, and the overall rumble and barrage of riffs and leads to sever limbs and disintegrate bones. Tracks like this one and bands like Uncanny keep me in my adolescent daze, when this stuff was just oozing out like septic pus from a venereal sore and while disgusting and annoying many it also permanently changed fuck heads like myself into lifelong fiends of gore, violence, and all things dark and ritualistically aggressive.

“Timeless” then comes in fast and strong keeping the onslaught continual, but again they throw you off course with a melodic synth, sort of reminding me of an 80’s slasher film soundtrack, underneath the storm and then come in some phenomenal leads before reverting back to death metal rhythms and riffs. There’s something to the overall rhythm this band has, it’s not proggy technical stuff like Atheist and later Death, but shows some skill way ahead of their time. The melodic leads just make the sense of horror and blood sound that much more intense, it’s really hard to explain what it’s like to listen to this band altogether, there’s so much stuff going on without ever straying from classic Swedish Death Metal.

“Splenium for Nyktophobia” splits this collection in half with its brief symphonic presence before throwing you to the savage wolves of “Soul Incest”.

The first half is great, but the “Splenuim…” tracks are unrivaled in terms of power and assault, the effects and timing of everything creates that eerie and hellish atmosphere that is death metal. There’s sooooo much variety here, some of it has an industrial vibe like “Lepra” with the Ministry sounding metallic percussion that just crashes down on you like skyscraper, terms like heavy and intense barely scratch the surface here.

Everything on here is just amazing!!!!! This is one of those listens that really lapses time, you put this on and suddenly an hour- and - a- half literally disappears as you’re pulled into this void by their bloody claws gripping you by the throat.
I always get all jerked up and emotional when listening to and talking about this style and era, I just cannot get over the impact these sounds had on me, it’s almost like performing your first kill and reliving the thrill over and over again. It’s shocking, invigorating and intense, and yet the pure darkness and power that surrounds it begins to swell up within you and gives you a confusing high, you should be scared and traumatized but instead you thirst for more. I’ve been up and cranking busy this last week and this has been my soundtrack at home, work, and on the road. Whatever you want in a classic death metal album is here and in copious amounts so gorge and rejoice!!!!

http://www.darkdescent.net/store/

Catch 22 – Monumetal (Metal-on-Metal Records 2011)

2011-02-18T13:19:00.000-08:00

One of the U.S.A.’s finest modern thrash/classic metal bands comes at us with their latest attack of melodic and anthemic metal and timing is impeccable, as I’m about to burn a hole through my Judas Priest records from the last few months of chronic obsessive playing and labels like Heavy Artillery and Arkeyn Steel keep swinging the axe at me with stellar re-issues and new talent. No wonder I’m in pieces, but don’t try to reassemble them, I’m ecstatic about being split by aggressive and stomping melodic metal and hoping to be trampled all over soon as well.

This Ohio based band has been around since about ’93 with their self-titled demo and now roughly 10 releases under their iron belt, making sonic noise with classic chugging freight train riffs, that classic heavy metal density and almost an epic and barbaric feeling of glorious ancient battles that’ll appeal to fans of classic acts like Metal Church, Wrathchild America, Judas Priest, and Testament to name a few. Tracks like “Switchblade Hate” with a few “mother fuckers” thrown in to the chorus openly comes at your throat full of throttling rhythms, some of the best traditional metal vocals I’ve heard in some time, and pure MFing power (had to get another MF in this thing).

As with most MOM releases, trying to get through the stack without being stuck on one beast is damn near impossible, so while I’m wading through, neck deep, in cliché black metal awaiting review these SOB’s will again take center stage. So throw up your horn folks, get an ice cold fresh from the tap brew (you really gotta check out the new ultimate hopped ale, Hoptimum, from Sierra Nevada), crank the speakers and amps until they throw off enough heat to start melting the walls and prepare for Catch 22 to tear the place apart and shred your brain with it.

“Exciter’s Lust” and “Downward Spiral” really showcase they virtuosity and complexity of this duo. The intricate acoustic “Downward Spiral” with its mix of classical guitar arpeggios and bluesy licks over a steady bass and perfectly crafted percussion brings a fresh and yet still very “metal” track to break up the bombing of your cranium through this 1 track cyclone. Right after the anthemic fist pounders like “Exciter’s Lust”, “Ignitor”, “…and the fire still burns” and the ghastly assripping opener, “Power Revolution Mad” you need a brief recovery. Holy rat fuck Batman, this thing just gave us about a dozen new orifices and we’re only 2 minutes into this!!!!!! Fuck me and my potty mouth, but seriously….this band kicks everyones ass!!!! For those who enjoy it classic and heavy you HAVE to hear this:
http://www.metal-on-metal.com/home.html

The two tracks loaded are “…and the fire still burns” and “Catch 22”, two different tracks that’ll give you a good idea of the diversity and skill present here. I really enjoyed their last MOM release, Soulreaper(2008) but like most good things in this world, the band gets better with age.

Here’s more audio links and band info:
http://www.truemetal.org/catch22/
http://www.myspace.com/catch22metal

Heathendom – The Symbolist (Metal-on-Metal Records 2011)

2011-02-18T13:14:00.000-08:00

I own everything of theirs except this one, but that’ll be rectified soon enough, and this Greek band is always melodic and somewhat sinister in their compositions giving me chills and also sending my heart pumping hot blood into overdrive as their sound is HUGE!!!!! For me, “The Haunted in Hell” suite was the final nail in my coffin, I was hooked and reeled in by that point and wriggling around on their hooks throughout the duration of that opus. The dramatic, melodic, and devious atmospheres felt heavily throughout their catalogue sounds as if it’s even stronger than ever with this 2011 release. This is one that requires attention, so if folks think that metal is somewhat stale and that droves of black metal, retro thrash, and hardcore influenced forms are all that is left, then Heathendom is that special listen you’ve been waiting for.

With The Symbolist, the band displays a spellbinding mix of thrash/chugging/spiraling riff and rhythm assault that really drives this album into your consciousness like the heat of a newly fired bullet speeding through inches of your flesh and bone. There’s a great circular rhythmic feel throughout the entire album, giving a whirlpool effect as you spiral down into this dramatic horror tale of doom and despair, it’s damn near impossible not to listen to the whole album all at once because of that hypnotic pull.

The vocals remain high and mighty, horror inducing, intense, and masterfully switching between the highs, a middle tone, and some lower tones to really emphasize the atmosphere and dynamics of each storming track. Think of the versatility of King Diamond, John Arch, Messiah Marcolin…that massive and undeniably distinct vocal sound that’s classic and always good for triggering the opening of all of the millions of pores on your bodies surface.

The overall combination of leads and rhythm yields a massive and heavy hazy effect where the whole swarms and hovers over you like a dense wet fog over the long abandoned castle of some sadistic count under a blood moon. Although heavy on atmosphere, the album as a whole can rival even King Diamond for theatrics and pounding heavy metal. The melodies are a great accompaniment, but seriously this one really grabs you by the throat from the word “go” and you say have no say in the matter. Aggressive, melodic, and epic metal like this is not something you can just create, it takes real skill and passion for what you do and is the stuff that makes classics and Heathendom is a modern day classic. This one goes really nice alongside the newest Helstar for quenching a classic melodic metal thirst with a nice kick in the crotch for those who like some aggression and malice on their palette.

All audio and band info can be found on the MoM site at: http://www.metal-on-metal.com/home.html

No Visible Scars upcoming Releases Winter/Spring 2011

2011-02-17T18:23:00.000-08:00

My buddy Bill somehow always finds the way to my heart through loud, foul and crushing music and with these two recent additions to an already notorious catalog of great metal and extreme sounds he delivers forth two more messages from the abysmal crevices of perversion and lunacy chock full of fecal stench and colossal pile driver riffs!!!!! These two casette releases further showcase the quality of NVS releases in terms of sound quality, packaging, and choice in bands. Most of these releases are firsts, demos, promo full lengths and a great audio snapshot of rare and obscure must haves!!!!!

Here's the deal...I only kiss my own ass and am working on the flexibility to do so, but until I can bend and smooch my porcelain rump like a chinese contortionist dancer I kiss no ones ass and Bill is my buddy first and foremost because he releases awesome stuff. I'm an audio junkie and he's my dealer for a good fix . So let the review and audio samples convince you of the aweosmeness contained here and not my glowing rants about how awesome the label is :)

Blessed Offal – promo (2011)
If you’re gonna get your mouth ripped open by massive force until your jaw turns to dust while a titanic dick shoved down your throat chokes you until your skin sags and falls off the dick like a worthless used condom and then your asshole is the last bit to be flicked off of the pole, Blessed Offal is truly the band that’ll do it. I’m an oldschool death metal and doom death metal fanatic, but even this SOB has me shitting myself, it’s blistering, pummeling, raping, mutilating, and as filthy and hideous as the original bands but somehow rips you a different way this time around. Some stuff never gets stale, and crushing, brutal and vulgar is the unholy trinity for me.

No time to bend over and grab your ankles here, the 12 minute brutal massacre of “Bottomless and Seasons” that serves as an appropriate opening for this album is a full blown “blitzkrieg” on all of your senses and will have you drawn and quartered, impaled, and decapitated before you realize your totally fucked. Brutal with classic control of rhythms, riffs, leads, solos, and an intense and brazenly evil atmosphere this thing reminds me of my first listening to Incantations “Onward to Golgotha”, it’s so evil and indescribably heavy, but the skill in song writing and the cohesion of the band makes this thing apocalyptically powerful!!!!! If that album still gives you the spins and the “Fight or Flight” mode kicks in, you HAVE to get this thing!!!!! Every death metal, warmonger metal head, and tyrannical lunatic must own this piece of audio violence, it’ll rape your ears and cum shit all over brain!!!! Everything here is classic, essential, and truly redefines brutal and slaughtering metal, you haven’t survived squat if you haven’t been mangled by Blessed Offal!!!!! I have a long list of amazing death metal right now in queue, including Dark Descent’s re-issue of the brutal Swedish band Uncanny and this one pulled me away from that one. It’s a cassette, but get it and look out for this bands upcoming release on Black Mass Records, some stuff just can’t be passed up.

Elders of the Apocalypse – The Law of Iron (2011)
This one’s been on play with me for a few weeks as it perfectly captures the chaos, frustration, nihilism, and full on need to release aggression. The sound is raw, filthy, and sends a call to us from back in the early brutal thrash scene, it fits in so nicely with my current obsession, Sodom’s classic “In the Sign of Evil”, old hate fueled Kreator, and maybe even a rawer,cruder early incarnation of warmongering violent metal acts like Black Witchery. Whatever the hell it is, it’s mean and sheds oceans of blood in its path. The cassette overall, as with the labels inspiration, reeks of oldschool demo and it’s damn near impossible not to tear the roof off listening to it. Lots of promise shown here, Elders of the Apocalypse is a force to reckon with, so approach with caution. Absolutely essential for those who still love their metal fast, furious, spiteful, violent, and perfectly lo-fi!!!!!

Fen – Epoch (Aural Music 2011)

2011-01-23T18:52:00.000-08:00

Here continues more of the black metal influenced post metal/shoegaze and even a cryptic and violent black metal loving snot like myself couldn’t turn away from this release. The atmospheres are dense, foggy, murky, damp, and distant but not without some warmth from a fire burning for a ritual deep within the wintry woods. The clean vocals behind the mix in places and the use of melodic arpeggios really bring in a mystical/folksy flavor that I actually enjoy as it really breaks things up a bit from the clanging of drums and tsunami of guitar fuzz.
Many hardcore folks will scoff at this one for not being vicious, but the pagan atmosphere, thickness of the guitar, and supernatural sensations are enough to keep me from being bored. I really enjoy cinematic and deeply atmospheric stuff like this, it can still make your skin turn cold and get the adrenaline flowing as much as fire, brimstone and murder can. I think fans of stuff like Circle of Ouroborus and benighted Leams will be open to this one. Honestly, I won’t turn off Beherit or Inquisition for this one, but in the pile of black metal and black metal labeled stuff that I drown in these days, this one stood out and I’d be damned if I didn’t listen to it more in the future.

Recommended for fans of Wolves in the Throne Room, Summoning, Hellveto, Velvet Cacoon, Lik, Lifelover, etc.

Hellscourge – Hell’s Wrath Battalion (Dybbuk Records Mexico)

2011-01-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

I was sold from the cover and description alone as it was a neon radiating flash of old school black thrash/death annihilation and instantly upon listening it not only delivered, but did so in big heaping steaming sesspools. Recently I picked up the really early Sodom “In the Sign of Evil/Obsessed By Cruelty” and was more devastated and violated by the energy and evil generating from that beast that I thought nothing else was going to top that “Oh Shit!!!!!” moment, then along came Hellscourge.

Early Sodom, early Kreator, Sarcofago, Venom, Celtic frost, Scorched Earth fans must have this one!!!!! It sounds as if it’s a lost recording from the mid 80’s-early 90’s, the recording is raw and garage/demo like giving it a classic and genuine distortion that makes even the crappiest band sound somewhat desirable, but where some rely on fuzz and blowing amps to wow you this band brings in: shredding leads, debilitating rhythms, and full on thrash cyclones that only the truly skilled can pull off. Seriously, the leads are unmistakable and classic, these guys really bring in the full strength of metal in every track and its loud, adrenalizing, and addicting!!!!! Every pounding rhythm and thick chainsaw riff will pulsate through your neural system until you’re nthing more than a brainless zombie feasting on flesh to the vibe of this monster from hell. You do HAVE to have this release.

Release Date: April 2011

Band info/Contact:
http://www.myspace.com/hellscourge

Posts will now have live audio samples of one or more tracks off the releases!!!!

2011-01-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

It helps to hear this shit more so than read my opinion so I'm now including audio for you to decide!!! You will be able to hear full tracks, no cut offs and halfies on here!!!!

Sacrarium – March to an Inviolable Death (ATMF 2011)

2011-01-21T14:49:00.001-08:00

Whoa…this thing is melodic and vicious!!!!! It rips your most intricate orifices wide enough to swallow a bus and bashes your consciousness into dust and that’s just the intro and “Heartless Visions”.

“Demolish by Himself” brings to mind through atmosphere and pure strength of sound, images of the Earth crumbing into its core as the sky turns to shades of blood red and black. This is scathing fury black metal, not black metal influenced, I need to be clear about that as so much stuff gets lumped in to that genre that shouldn’t. This is black, it’s metal, and it’s fucking ferocious!!!!

“In a Circle of Dead Seraphs” comes in fast and unrelenting and then instantly explodes into this dark void of pure hell and misery, holocaust, and eternal torment. You can even feel the wind from wings of the demons swarming and gathering as the end is beginning. I’m halfway through this experience and already in fight or flight mode to finish off witnessing of the purging of all mortal life from existence. The atmospheres on here get as dense and whipping as a tornado of symphonic aggression, but never actually being symphonic, just huge and mortifying in sound and hatred.

Not quite as nasty and brutal as Black Witchery, but does step into the scorched territory of last years amazing hate-fueled beast that is Sacrilegious Impalements brilliant Cultus Nex. If you’re going to hate and murder, cleanse your self of anger through pure vindication and vengeance, then add this one to your anthems playlist. This is a testament of the true sound of black metal and one more essential release coming out in 2011!!!!! Storms like this one prove yet again that this stuff is pure energy and a style that never weakens or yields to anything.

W.A.I.L. – S/T (Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions 2011)

2011-01-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

I’m still riding high on my weird Finnish metal buzz and just after scoring some extra rare copies of early Irritate and a Dead Reptile Shrine this raging bastard comes stomping and storming to my ears!!!!! The best way to describe it is to say that it would be a perfect release on Hells Headbangers as there’s a good mix of Beherit/Ride for Revenge/Profanatica/Horse Lattitudes…it’s a death/black/sludge/gutteral/doom metal cyclone!!! There’s no way to categorize it as anything aside from electrifying!!!! This thing is so heavy, oozing, raw, low-end, bombing, shredding, pummeling, growling, nauseating, groovy, infectious and just completely unavoidably addicting. I put this one on and my skin instantly began to crawl right off he bone. Everything about this band is unique, well executed, filthy, heavy and just incredible!!!! Seriously, if you are a huge HHR label nut like I am you’d have to do everything including kill to get a copy of this release.

There’s this perfect trade off between doom death stuff like Winter/Autopsy/Coffins and black metal, and it really makes your bowels wrench at times like going down the first psychotic dip in a rollercoaster ride through some vast demonic vortex close to light speed. Each track is different in sound and mood but never out of place, some parts are dark and haunting and others thrash and gnarl with angular melodies and that distorted crusty diesel engine riff sound that crumbles everything at the right volume. To know this is essential is as obvious as realizing that Charles Manson bears an uncanny resemblance to the bastard Christ!!!!

Here's a link to listen one of the 5 killer tracks on this beast to hold you over until it's release:

Insidious Omen – Anointed with the Blood of Chaos mcd (Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions 2011)

2011-01-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

This three epic song EP is a welcome thrashing to my ears as USBM act Insidious Omen take the atmospheric and dark spiritual elements of true black metal and create something loud, aggressive and unholy, but methodical and intricate as well. There’s a unique production on this recording that makes it sound raw, but not by poor production, it’s as if it’s live. You can feel every drum skin beating and your heart throbs along with it in fight or flight mode as the wall of sonic blackness and defiant guitar melodies throttle your consciousness. I love EPs, usually on vinyl, but with something as dense and textured as this three song sampler it’d be an easy couple of bucks to shell out as the whole thing clocks in over 30 minutes and the dynamics within each track really submerge you into this abysmal realm.

Opening up with “Serpents Gate (Thus Malkuth be Reborn)”, a 10 minute excursion into angular melodies, ancient tones and atmospheres, but spewing forth negativity and hostility versus nature loving and pagan themes especially with the wailing and gurgling vocals. I want to say that I’ve heard this before, but I can’t, there’s a lot more hear than a standard raw USBM act.

“Feasting at the trough of Lies” really comes in with this bombing raid siren like lead guitar behind the mix and the guitar distortion suffocates you in its dark melodies and almost engine-like sound. I want to say that its cold, but it’s not, it’s angry and rawer than a gaping genital sore on an overworked whore.

“Through Stone and Steel the Flesh Speaks Deceit” is the climax of the pissed off scowling sentiment as everything is bumped up a notch to really grind the frustration into you. Each track builds on the last as this prophecy of demise is told over a barrage of crisp and precise percussion and sonic assaults to all of your senses. Bands like Insidious Omen remind of why I love this stuff when my ears get tired of the same old “same old” and instead of chasing me back to me old reliables I keep it in play. Fans of cryptic and ancient sonic black metal will find lots to feast on in this EP.

Band info and contact/audio samples:
http://insidiousomen.blogspot.com/

NEWS!!!!!

2011-01-13T06:19:00.000-08:00

I'm now officially working for Forbidden Magazine as well and looking to do a bi-weekly feature on underground bands and labels so if interested contact me through my Facebook link at the top or through this site.

Necronoclast – Ashes (Moribund 2011)

2011-01-11T09:17:00.000-08:00

If you were beginning to think that bands couldn’t get any colder this release comes out to prove once again that all things in life are dead and buried from the start. You can envision the cold blood stream across frozen soil as eternal winter has begun. Scathing, cryogenic, aggressive, painful and desolate come to mind while listening to Ashes, as if the entire world was scorched and then frozen over after the sun had exploded. I was thinking, “oh man I’ve heard this before when skimming through this album”, but after actually listening to it in the background things started to jump out at me, like a slight funereal and abysmal growl here and there that sucks me into the absolute void of darkness as my blood freezes on the spot. Yes, it’s nothing new, but it’s still pretty worthy in a world of “nothing news”. Moribund can be a "Hit or Miss" with me and they've been hitting 'em out of orbit with Psycho and now this solid piece.

Immanifest – Qliphotic EP (self-release)

2011-01-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hailing from Florida this symphonic death/black metal band conjures up huge ancient and occultic atmospheres in this 3 track EP that although doesn’t break any new ground it shows that not all symphonic metal is for pussies. With current U.S. acts like Veneficum and now Immanifest it’s hard to write off the genre as this is some of the darkest and most aggressive symphonic metal that I’ve heard in some time and makes me look forward to their upcoming full-length. Prepare for an abysmal and cryptic world in this bands sound!!! It paints crimson tones of ancient cults and sacrificial rites.

Band contact and audio samples:
http://www.myspace.com/immanifest

Svart Crown – Witnessing the Fall (Listenable Records 2011)

2011-01-04T17:33:00.000-08:00

It’s safe to say that the album title suits the content of this bands newest opus of blackened metal brutality. You can feel society fall, the crumbling of the Earth beneath your feet, vast desolate voids open up to swallow you whole, and the charring heat of the firestorms of hatred smelting your skin. There’s no mistaking the animosity and brute force with which this band consumes you with, my skull is throbbing. Experience it for yourself: http://www.myspace.com/svartcrown.

Wormsblood – Mastery of Creation Demos (Barbarian Records)

2011-01-02T09:16:00.001-08:00

Although not a new release, this is an essential listen for those into the obscure and bizarre raw black metal and left field metal stuff from Finland (Ride for Revenge, Dead Reptile Shrine, Fleshpress, Skullfuck, Circle of Ouroborous, Irritate, Anguished, etc.). Thankfully not out of print yet and available from retailers like Crucial Blast and Hells Headbangers, you’d be an ass not to jump on this one now if you like any of the already mentioned bands and even throw in some Urfaust for that matter.

The atmosphere is skeletal and spacey, like a deserted dead forest after a huge blaze and the mixture of very stark pagan melodies and simple snare drums help bring a sense of the supernatural to these tracks. Creepy, grim, raw, occult, and just awesome stuff, now that I’ve had the time and am scoring this stuff on vinyl I’m revisiting it and remembering all the chills and shivers from the frosty and barren sounds contained within this album.

Hemoptysis – Misanthropic Slaughter

2010-12-30T11:11:00.000-08:00

Arizona desert based Hemoptysis brings about brutal melodic thrash the old school way with limb ripping stealth and a slight nod to early thrashier death metal. Don’t expect anything retro or clone here, at times I hear some Rotting Christ (Non Serviam) with the sparingly used raw symphonic and atmospheric synth to make this thing a bit more evil but never watering down the parched aggression birthed from the closets things on Earth to Hades (vast desert wastelands). The leads and solos really bring in the classic metal feel as the riff battalion never loses haste throughout the album; it’s all about chainsaw riffs, industrial sized meat hook catches, and searing melodic leads to skin your flesh right off. Gawddamn this shit is brutal and I'll safely say that I'll be mopping up the drool pools left over from my jaw being on the floor for the last few hours spinning this one !!!!!!

If you dig oldschool thrash metal like Destruction and Kreator, Sodom and Onslaught, and such amazing underground acts taking thrash and raw classic metal to new eras like Excrutiator and Scorched Earth.

http://www.hemoptysismetal.com/
www.myspace.com/hemoptysismetal

Blut Aus Nord – The Mystical Beast of Rebellion (Debemur Morti 2011)

2010-12-29T18:31:00.000-08:00

This re-issue sees the original album plus new material “The Fall Chapter 7”, which show up on the promo version as Raita 01,02,03, to bring in 2011 with a black metal masterpiece. Blut Aus Nord have to be one of my all time favorite bands and it’s interesting to see how their sound changes through each album, from the grim and atmospheric like this one and Ultima Thulee to the ethereal and pagan melodic side of Memoria Vetusta I and II, and the more experimental and somewhat ambient work on Work Which Transforms God and Mort.

Expect nothing less than grim atmospheres, jagged melodies, and utter darkness that make them such a strong act to follow. The Mythical Beast… shows more of a belligerent black metal side than ethereal and experimental so if some were lost during that realm, you’ll be glad to hear them return to form. This one has heresy, hellfire and brimstone all over it and the guitar chords at times sound like a bombing raid siren so it’s pretty violent and annihilating. There’s some Darkthrone (Transylvanian Hunger) and Deathspell Omega heard and felt in the “Chapters” that really makes this one jump out at your consciousness right away.

Each song titled “Chapter (I-VI)” start quiet and end quiet so each one leaves this suspenseful gap between itself and the next “Chapter” as if they are meant to all be one track, my guess is that my digital promo version chopped it up. Available now already on vinyl form and set for cd release in the U.S. on February 8th, I’ll be getting my hard copy to experience the way it should be form beginning to newly added end. There will also be a vinyl re-issue of the awesome classic debut Ultima Thulee soon on the Debemur Morti label this coming year.

Onslaught - Sounds of Violence (AFM 2011)

2010-12-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

Set to detonate on February 8th and re-open that brutal thrash portal they initialized with legendary storms like Power From Hell (1985) and The Force (1986). Outside of Kreator I haven’t heard any recent thrash releases this purely violent and addicting, the blood dripping logo and album title suit this one all too well so prepare to have your cranium kicked in with Onslaught. Who the hell needs a thrash revival when old thrash heads like me can still have our spines ripped out by the very same classic bands that did it the first time!!!!? I gave this it’s first spin while watching a David Lynch short film “Six Men Getting Sick” where weird paint/collage animation vomit violently over and over for 4 minutes while checking this out and it worked perfectly and “The Alphabet” where the girl vomits blood all over herself as she has nightmares about here ABC’s. So it works with the surreal and macabre, but it’d be even more ideal to have war footage and riots though. The percussion and rhtyhm at times soudn like a swarm of choppers set to drop napalm, how rad is that?

BadMoodMan Label Releases for Winter 2010

2010-12-24T17:18:00.000-08:00

As 2010 winds down FINALLY, I’m getting caught up stuff that has been half finshed or not even started, including organizing my physical and digital music library which means finishing stuff that got left behind and deserves the recognition. So some of this is brand new and some is a few months old, either way they are recent and worthy of attention. This label and Solitude have kept me busy and really impressed this whole year, so hopefully that’s some extra encouragement to check this stuff out.

Amber Tears – The Key to December (Released 15December2010)
Considered to be the “Cream of the Crop” of Russian pagan metal, Amber Tears brings us their second release which thankfully shows more of an epic doom feel than folksy/pagan rhythms and sounds….although the Slavic pagan spirit is deeply felt in these majestic and intense tracks and some of the melodies are derived form Russian music. Seriously, at first I thought, “Oh shit…not another folk metal band” and then was shocked and intoxicated with the complexity and beauty of their sound, not to disregard the heaviness and abysmal feel to the tracks. The symphonic parts really bring the chill of a Russian winter just like the cover art displays and the sense of isolation is at the forefront of each song.

Hands down, this is one more of the best acts coming out of the eastern European scene and definitely one for melodic and epic metal fans as much as those of abysmal/funeral doom to check out!!!!! Thankfully labels like Solitude Productions and affiliates BadMoodMan and Slow Burn will continue to showcase some of the talent form those regions that get very little exposure. This one will be continually on play with me and is perfect for the cold and bomby weather I’m experiencing right now.

Raventale – After (Released 15December2010)
After represents the forth album by this Ukranian based band that is classified as depressive black metal, but shows a small amount of funeral doom in the mass and impact that these slugger tracks have on the listener. You can actually feel your skull rattle as your skin crawls a bit through the progression of the album from the condemning “Gone” through to the final “Untitled” track. The theme behind each song is to convey a chapter in life as one decays through the life cycle, sort of like expressing the concept that the moment after you are born you begin to die, and the album as a whole gives that feeling of a death cycle with a permanent end…no rebirth. The shoe-gaze like melodies really grab at your emotions and the tension makes this listen essential for those who enjoy deep thought and retrospection, especially in the late night/early morning alone.

Cebren-Khal – A Mass of Despair (13September2010)
Okay, not a winter release, but sadly slipped my radar until clearing through some files on my computer and albums sent to me for review the other day and if anyone deserved to be reviewed form the pile it was this one and Revelations of Rain. This French band sort of reminds me of a more epic metallic version of Alcest, where there’s this shoe-gaze melodic metal atmosphere that’s deeply beautiful and haunting with some black metal elements present, then these guys throw in some funeral doom to make it even more gloomy and misty. The black metal and funeral doom is best felt on the three epic “The Lunar Tragedy” tracks, which are pretty aggressive and brutal really bring the metal aspect back to the sound. There’s some depressive and nihilistic stuff here that’s definitely not dismissable for those who really enjoy stuff like Hellveto, Benighted in Sodom, Bethlehem, Benighted Leams….

I highly recommend the BMM’s Art of Silence Series for those into really dark pagan/occult/supernatural atmospheres and sounds, some of that stuff was undeniably creepy and beautiful (Sadael and Muhmood &Ego Ex Nihil).

For full info on the labels and artists: http://solitude-prod.com/

News!!!!

2010-12-24T10:52:00.001-08:00

More stuff will keep coming including a wrap up of some lost 2010 releases that deserve the review treatment. I will be adding more artwork (horror posters and shirt designs) as they get created. Contact me through Facebook if interested in advertising, shirts for your band ( I only charge about $5 a shirt which basically covers the shirt and some of the ink cost...no fees and other bullshit). Thanks for your attention and support, the new counter shows about 30-40 hits on avergae daily so some of you bastards read this thign and it helps the bands a lot so thanks again and visit any of the links or ask me about where to find some of this stuff if needed.

Hat– Vortex of Death (Abyss Records 2011)

2010-12-19T12:23:00.000-08:00

Follow-up to The Demise of Mankind this two-man Nordic black metal maelstrom unleashes yet another storm of old school, grim, and scathing fury that continues to show that the Nordic scene is still as wicked and ripe as it was back in the early 90’s. This is essential for fans of: early Mayhem, Darkthrone, Immortal and I highly recommend U.S.B.M. act Immolith and abyss records other releases: Chaosworn(Dissections fans) and Wan.

Moonreich – Loi Martiale (De Tenebrarum Principio 2011)

2010-12-18T19:06:00.000-08:00

All I can say to start this off is the initial response from when I got this sucker yesterday and that’s simply put, “Holy Shit!!!!”

Melodic, cryptic, raw, belligerent, nihilistic, French black metal that is as classic in sound as it somehow fresh and exhilarating. There’s a definite sense of early Emperor, Immortal, But Aus Nord minus the symphonic/pagan elements in this shredding and buzzing skeleton that is the very cold black heart of black metal. You can even feel the saliva swishing in the gnarled teeth of the vicious vocals so expect an evocative and engaging experience with this one and a definite must have for old schoolers.

Official release date: 24January2011

http://www.myspace.com/moonreichmusic

Solitude Prodcutions Winter 2010 Releases featured below

2010-12-17T08:32:00.001-08:00

Below are 4 reviews of some amazing stuff from this Russian label. The release dates are shown and the links for audio samples and artist contact:
http://www.myspace.com/solitudeprod
http://www.solitude-prod.com/

Shattered Hope – Absence (20December2010 release)

2010-12-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

This is the first full-length of this Greek band featuring guest vocals from the frontmen of Saturnus and Ataraxie creating a colossal atmosphere of dread and isolation. The keyboards play like a piano as opposed to a synth adding this ethereal quality that just broods sadness and desperation as the gutteral vocals bring in the evil and darkness that makes this genre its own. The epic closer “The Utter Void”, clocking in at 18 minutes is the sole reason to buy this album if it really needed a push… classic epic doom with gutteral vocals and lots of dynamics!!!!! Coming from someone deeply into Solitude Aeturnus that should last sentence should hold some weight. Definitely another one next to the other two that needs to be heard, you can even make out the dark poetic lyrics, which makes it even more rewarding.

Who Dies in Siberian Slush – Bitterness of the Years that are Lost (30November2010 release)

2010-12-17T08:28:00.002-08:00

This is the first official full-length of this Russian funeral doom band, and featuring a full line-up instead of the solo/one-man show that it has been previously. The best way to describe this one aside from the accurate album title is to say that it was a fitting soundtrack to the weird old Swedish movie “The Virgin Spring” , the one where the rich farmers daughter gets raped and beaten to death on her way to take the virgin candles to the church miles away and then the three brothers that did the deed wind up on the farm as lodgers, only to meet a violent death rather quickly when the parent figure out who they really are. Tragic and suspenseful is what this release is and yet another one for this genre that could easily be a one-note style but instead shows experimentation and variation with labels like this one scouring the Earth to find the unique sounds that it does. The sense of bitterness and struggle is strongly present and many can feel it with each epic track.

Septic Mind – The Beginning (30November2010 release)

2010-12-17T08:28:00.001-08:00

3 very epic, mind-bending atmospheric funeral doom tracks by this Russian band that bring an all encompassing sensory experience to the listener. Each track is about 20 minutes in length and comes over you like a full-blown narrative, it’s really incredible!!!!! If this one doesn’t give you chills and thrills, then there’s something wrong with you!!!!

Helllight - …And then, the Light of Consciousness Became Hell (20December2010 release)

2010-12-17T08:26:00.000-08:00

This one, a Brazillian death doom/funeral doom act stood out among others with the way it sounded like this majestic, Bathory (Nordland, Blood on Ice, Hammerheart) like mixture with amazingly haunting clean vocals that howl like a banshee on a blood moon night set against this really cryptic and cinematic funereal soundtrack. There’s something deeply pagan here as tracks like “Beneath the Light of the Moon” really bring in the feel of victory and tragedy. I’m a huge funeral doom fanatic but have to say that alongside Astral Sleep, I’ve never heard a band in that genre or any other exactly like this one to draw comparisons so expect melodic,epic, and devastatingly heavy funeral metal that will appeal to fans of black, death, pagan, epic metal and doom alike. I’m dead serious about the Bathory comparison!!!!!

A must hear for fans of: Bathory (Viking era), Atlantean Kodex, Astral Sleep, Evoken

DOTDR interview Finnish sludge/Doom act Horse Latitudes

2010-12-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

I’m always up for finding the obscure and heavy and Finland seems to be an endless source of exactly that. I’m a HUGE fan of the Finnish avant-garde bands like: Anguished, Ride for Revenge, Skull Fuck, Irritate; and the crazy Dutch act Urfaust that fits in with these guys really well. Although not a black metal band, these guys are black and heavy like cooling molten lava drips and the sludgy black steaming textures seen after a volcano eruption is the perfect visual to go with this black sludge/doom metals sound. These guys found me and already with an impressive demo that created some demand they now have a full length that is really incredible as well. Definitely check out the links toward the end of the interview to sample this stuff.

DOTDR: You guys are about to release your first full length, Gathering, in October and has some success with your demo selling out already this year, so tell us about Horse Latitudes?

Horse Latitudes: Horse Latitudes are a Finnish three piece regressive doom band, Heidi and Vellu on basses, Harri on drums and vocals.

DOTDR: You guys have been receiving a lot of praise in the underground, how long have you been active and how did HL come into being?

Horse Latitudes: Horse Latitudes came together in the summer 2009, when Vellu and Heidi came with an idea of a band together. Both played and wanted to play bass so the first idea was to make some serious low end stuff. To do riff (and why not also drone) based music with a minimal set of instruments. After a one jam session together Heidi had an idea of Harri playing drums. Harri, who had been playing guitar and singing in a few different kind of bands and projects, had been playing drums for about half a year in a thrashpunk band and had just become very interested in different kinds of slow, doomy and sludgy stuff, so he was delighted to be a part of the band.

First half a year was just diving into the different variations and possibilities these instruments provided and as the collective view of the band became more and more focused, the songs started to exude from our minds. First it was mostly instrumental stuff, but soon the lyrical dimension rose and became an important part of our music too.

We did our first gig in December 2009, and the demo was recorded from that starting point: the same three songs we played live with the addition of the final track “Healing Stones”, which is more like a primitive improvisation than a song. We made two little pressings (overall 150 copies) of the demo and during springtime, as we started to work on new material for the album that was planned with Aurora Borealis Records, we decided not to make any further pressings of the demo.

DOTDR: I’m partially biased as a bass player myself, but I really love the fact that you guys consist of two bassists and a drummer and feel that it really adds a uniqueness to your sound, not to forget the extra heaviness in the riffs.

Horse Latitudes: Like said above, it was the whole point of the band right from the beginning: reducing the number of different kinds of instruments while at the same time as concentrating on the essentials; crushing riffs and primitive vibration with the powerful beat.

It’s actually pretty hard to balance two instruments that deal in the low end of the sonic spectrum so that both are audible and recognizable from one another. While the basic configuration stays the same, our sound is constantly evolving. The quest for the perfect sound, or brown note if you will, continues..

DOTDR: Your sound is somewhere between epic sludge and classic doom, but it’s also really hard to make direct comparisons to anything specific. What did you guys aim for in sound? The classic doom styled vocals really add something special to the delivery in your tracks and might be enough to persuade stubborn folks who prefer pure doom over the stoner/sludge varieties.

Horse Latitudes: From the early point it was also clear that the vocals will be presenting the lyrical, somehow subtle, side of the music. If the instrumentations were adjusted to the most primitive and earthly oscillation, then the vocals alongside the lyrics are to reach for the symbolic side of being, making the connection and forming the relation between the rumbling cosmos and the shivering self. Reaching for the understanding, maybe. But of course, sometimes the vocals regress too and just combine to the droning base, fusing with the core of it all, but that’s all more or less necessary from this basis!

Our somewhat different musical backgrounds also helped shape our sound; while the punk influences may not be evident in compositions all the time, they’re definitely part of the overall aesthetics and work ethic. Even with our full length album, we strived for a live feel to the sound. The traditional doom elements are also a very natural part of our sound.

DOTDR: I honestly was leveled with shock when I first heard Gathering, it was classic but also fresh and just mature in sound and composition, so in closing is there anything else you’d like to say?

Horse Latitudes: Thanks for the support!

Band Contact/audio samples:
http://horselatitudes.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/horselatitudesmetal

Evil Amidst - – Lords of the Nine (Self-Release 2010)

2010-12-14T16:35:00.000-08:00

Honestly, this one just set me on fire from the first track…this is pure old school blackened death metal brutality and a bit of a Florida metal supergroup as well. Featuring: Xaphan (Kult of Azazel), Gio Gerace (Malevolent Creation, Upon Infliction, Wykked Wytch), Sean Tibbetts (Kamelot),Gus Rios (Malevolent Creation, Upon Infliction, Ressurection) and Lenny Wambrandt (Hate Plow); it’s no surpise that this beast shreds like it does and incinerates all matter within seconds from its heat of fury. This is yet another underground essential so fans of all of the bands mentioned above will HAVE to have this one. Seriously wicked old school talent that seeps from those old festering wounds like the vile indestructible puss that is black death metal!!!!!

Support the underground and revel in the strength of its bands like this one!!!!!
Band info/audio samples/contact:
http://www.myspace.com/evilamidstofficial
http://www.reverbnation.com/evilamidst

Toxaemia – Buried to Rise (Dark Descent Records 2010

2010-12-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

Consider this your last nail in the coffin for 2010 and what better way to finish this corpse off than with the entire re-issue of all of one of the original Swedish Death metal scenes important bands. Consisting of demos, an EP and the full length Kaleidoscopic Lunacy, consider this one another completed chapter of must have death metal history worth digging up to throw yet another vulgar mass of noise on these so called holy days and also give the glory days another spin around!!!! Brutal, throbbing, crushing, and gutteral…Toxaemia will rot out your innards!!!!

Street date: December 15, 2010

A must have for old school death metal heads (Entombed, Obituary, Malevolent Creation, Immolation,etc.).

Urfaust – Geist ist Teufel re-issue (Terratur Possessions 2009)

2010-12-11T19:37:00.001-08:00

I can’t get this damn album out of my head!!!!! I’ve only had it a few months, but the primitive and drunken necromantic ritualistic sounds on tracks like “Drundenfss” and “Auszug Aller todlich seinene krafte” really infect you like a brain mutating virus. I’ma long running fan of the left-field black metal stuff like Hammer of Hate Records releases, Bestial burst (Ride for Revenge), Dead Reptile Shrine, Dormant, Blood of the Black Owl, Circle of Ouroborus,etc. ,but this one hooked me the most and still leaves me confused as to why I love it so damn much.

“Drundenfss” is genuinely raw/grim occultic and yet the vocals sound almost like some folk song about ghosts or a curse, the sound is like an old shortwave radio transmission from the 1920’s-1940’s and the clean vocals have a nice pagan tone that really makes the track sophisticated and haunting. You just feel something cult and ominous although there is a slight feel of being a drinking song here.

“Auszug Aller todlich seinene krafte” is this folklike occultist jig being done by some guy with serious delusions and/or highly intoxicated, it reminds me of my parents Celtic folksong records but with me listening to them on something wicked!!!!! The vocals are awesome, they have a great tone, almost clean and the way he belts them out like a drunken folksong being sung in a cave is amazing!!!! You really do have to hear this one to understand it and once you do you’ll flip for it just like I did I’m sure. I wish I knew the lyrics so I could sing along with it because I get this one stuck in my head and bang out the rhythms for days afterward.

The album come to a close with two untitled tracks of dark cinematic atmospheres sort of similar to black ambient or neo-classical stuff like something on Cold Meat Industry (In Slaughter Natives),Cold Spring, Steinklang/Ahnstern.

This release is another one for those old macabre/horror films, put it on loud and sit in the dark watching weird macabre images in black and white and you’ll get why this thing is so damn great!!!! I had to review it because it needs to be heard and they have a new LP/CD, Der Freiwillige Bettler” out on Van Records which I’ll be reviewing when I get it in the next few weeks. If you’re a huge collector of EPs, vinyl, demos, and cassettes then grab up their back catalog, it’s totally worth it.

Band info/audio samples:
http://www.myspace.com/urfaustfans

PanzerBastard - Centurion EP (PATAC Records 2010)

2010-12-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

All that I can really say here is “DAMN!!!!!”, this is some heavy and great hardcore/crust/metal noise!!!!! Whether your poison is death/crust/grind/sludge this one will quench you need for brutality and one hell of a violent drunken rage soundtrack. While working on a new album, touring with other diabolical acts like Hellbastard these guys also manage to throw in two undeniably worthy covers of Celtic Frost ( “I Won’t Dance” and “The Usurper”), so if the mention of CF gets to you like it does for me… check this band out for sure!!!! There’s enough Crowbar, Dead Kennedy’s, and Celtic Frost here to spread the plague for millions of years so crank it loud and tear the place apart.

Band contact/info/audio samples:
http://www.myspace.com/panzerbastard

Hellbastard – Eco-War EP (Selfmadegod/PATAC Records 2010)

2010-12-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

I’m no stranger to this UK crust metal band and am really glad to see and HEAR that they are still in the works and as filthy and ballistic as ever!!!!! I really enjoyed their The Need to Kill… album (2009) and can feel the fury on this release that smolders that last release into minute ash as these veterans are louder and nastier than ever after about 26 years or so since they began making socially conscious noise. Those who have a serious craving for chugging artillery fire riffs and battery, a punk as fuck DIY aesthetic, and love melodic and bulldozing heavy metal will be completely devastated at what these boys are doing now!!!!!! This EP rips!!!!!! Classic crust meets thrash and pure metal Armageddon!!!!!

Band info/contact/audio samples:
http://www.myspace.com/rippercrust

Svartsyn – Wrath Upon the Earth (Agonia Records 2011)

2010-12-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

Here comes another malicious savage album from the Agonia roster that continues in the trend of pushing the boundaries of melody infused aggression in black metal. The best way to describe this one is to say that if you were drunk to the point of being two breaths away form being able to inflate a hot air balloon on your own and somehow got caught in hurricane. If that analogy doesn’t make your head spin and stomach do somersaults than just wait until you hear the album!!!!!!!! It’s “OOOH Shit!!!!!” from start to finish like one hell of a monster thrill ride that might take time to recover form before you can walk again. The riffs encircle around you like demonic buzzards ready to rip the flesh off your bones and the drums sound out the rhythm march of damnation and despair, it’s really wicked!!!!!! This thing will set you on fire and you’ll be begging for more gasoline!!!!!

Band info/Contact/Audio Samples:
http://www.myspace.com/svartsynband

Minotaur - Power of Darkness (I Hate Records 2010)

2010-12-09T17:48:00.000-08:00

Finally….I new thrash release that isn’t NEW!!!!!! For those out there who share my nostalgic love for: Sodom, Kreator, Destruction, Darkness…Teutonic 80’s thrash, will have to get their clutches on this one. After 22 years this Panzerbeast of old school angst, blistering leads, cataclysmic percussion, and rhythms that whip your ass bare of all flesh with an iron whip is properly re-released.

This is PURE FUCKING METAL CHAOS!!!!!!!! And as usual I Hate captures my attention and admiration with another solid release this year. Like old school death metal, this thrash style is vicious and I’m drawn to it like a newly paroled convict to a cheap F#$% and this one is absolutely worth the wait!!!! I don’t see this one leaving my player anytime soon and I might even crank it at work and piss people off or start a party, we’ll see (I’m betting on the latter because this stuff is contagious and nasty too).

Band contact/audio samples:
http://www.minotaur-thrasher.de
http://www.myspace.com/minotaurthrashers

purchasing and album info:
http://www.ihate.se

Horned Almighty – Necro Spirituals (Candlelight 2011)

2010-12-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

I’ve been a fan of these Danish shits since I picked up their split with Sargeist some time ago and have to say that a lot has changed since that vile and raw little Moribund split was released. For one the production on this one is amped up, but not enough to ruin the vulgar and treble tones of the metallic guitar buzzing, and they are out of the cave and fully unloading rounds into everything they can get a bullet into. The Celtic Frost/raw crusty black metal is still present, only instead of a militia it’s a full -blown cavalry!!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/hornedlamighty

Grave Desecrator – Insult (Hells Headbangers 2011)

2010-12-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

These days it’s hard to buy an album based on label alone, but as with every circumstance there’s an exception and that exception for me in terms of black/death/extreme metal is HHR. This Brazillian oldschool heretical blackened death beast lays in the desecrated blood soaked ground between early Sepultura, Incantation and Sarcofago. There’s a great crusty old school flare (Celtic Frost/Hellhammer) in the rhythms that kicks up the sacrificial tone of this virgin mutilating blood bath of an album that is sure to make heads turn, bang…and roll. This is absolutely essential for the old school horde, in fact I wholly recommend Gravehill alongside this one for a belligerent and bestial headbang. The riffs swirl around you like a tornado!!!!!! You can even hear and feel classic Morbid Angel in tracks like “Stained by Blood” complete with severing leads and brutal shreds!!!!!

Sample this rip fest@ http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/gravedesecrator/

Eastern Front - Blood on Snow (Candlelight Records 2011)

2010-12-07T17:25:00.000-08:00

This English black metal onslaught is as brutal and intense as their cover art is. There’s something unique about this band in the sound that is haunting and elusive, it’s just a simple synth behind the crusty and in-your-face aggression these guys bring forth, and some of the guitar work, but it really does something to this whole album to make it a bit creepy without being raw and grim. With all of the talent coming out right now it really takes something to stand out and even the subtleties on albums like this one make all the fucking difference. There’s some sad atmospheres of post war death and loss, cold snow covered barren trenches, and troops moving in the near distance. There’s even some death metal gutteral growls here and there to add the sense of a battalion approaching, this release really shows a lot of diversity but still remaining a classic and raw black metal band paying as much homage to Gorgoroth, Marduk. Immortal, Bathory then anything avant-garde. Definitely check into this band, in fact the album is produced by Andy La Rocques…

Band info:
www.wartornblackmetal.com
www.myspace.com/easternfrontuk

Drug Honkey - Death Dub (Diabolical Conquest Records)

2010-12-07T16:56:00.001-08:00

I’ve been craving my old Ministry/Pailhead/1000 Homo DJs stuff starting two nights ago and after cranking The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and the many EP’s form the great side projects of Al Jourgenson, I remembered that this one had crossed my path and perfectly fits Ministry or old Wax Trax bands doing raw early death metal sludge. It’s raw death industrial breeding with Eyehategod (?) or something in that ballpark, and really cool. Absolutely for fans of ultra low end sludge tremors like early Earth(non-drone), Rakhim, Fleshpress, with some Abscess zombie/horror vocals run through deep effects and a rumbling swamp rhythm raw and black like a 3rd degree burn still oozing and steaming. Fuck…I don’t even know what the hell this is but it grooves and bludgeons with the weight of its leaden riffs until your skull bursts, so definitely check the link below for this one!!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/drughonkey

Impiety – Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny (Agonia Records 2011)

2010-12-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

This 7th release from doom black death metal barbarians is a 40 minute epic war track that storms over you like a galloping horde of 10 million iron horses!!!!! Seriously, this one has EVERYTHING!!!!!!!! Bestial, unforgiving, relentless, debauched and violent…what more could you ask for, or want for that matter? The vocals are also spoken word crust/nuclear fallout doom themed, in fact it reminds me of the awesome Dead Neon cassette that I just reviewed, cool shit!!!!!

Set for release on February 15, 2011 and ready to scorch the heavens and the Earth, you won’t want to miss this one and judging from the noise and awesome cover art, you CAN’T miss it!!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/impietyofficial

Wooden Stake/Druid Lord - Split 7"

2010-12-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

Wooden Stake is a classic horror occult doom fiend’s greatest holiday gift that is sure to please everyone with the sultry and esoteric female vocals that sort of remind me of the less martial Dead Can Dance vocals over some stomping raw doom thunder ( DCD is on my playlist these last few nights so it struck the righ chord with me). The atmosphere is haunting and easily could be mistaken by the novice as a field recording of a modern day black mass. Just in time for the winter Solstice, grab one of these QUICKLY and rejoice in your doomy pagan spirits. This band is one of my top new finds and will become yet another of my doom obsessions. This duo has several awesome releases coming soon including a split with the amazing Blizaro on Razorback so don’t pass up on this one!!!!

Wooden Stake: http://www.myspace.com/woodenstakedeath

Druid Lord is Florida based death doom act similar to the brilliant Acid Witch, but just as brilliant in their own unique way. Having just reviewed this monster bands debut, Hymns For the Wicked (HPGD), this split couldn’t have come at a better time. For fans of Coffins, Acid Witch, Autopsy, Ramesses, Winter, doom metal, and classic horror films!!!! I can’t get enough of this stuff, but then again…what am I not obsessing over in terms of heavy essentials? DO NOT PASS ON THIS ONE, their debut, or any ACID WITCH…they are limited and once they are gone you’ll regret not picking it up as I have with the first AW!!!!!

Druid Lord: http://www.myspace.com/druidlordz

Veneficum – In tranquil Absurd (Self-Release 2010)

2010-12-05T14:09:00.001-08:00

I’ve been a fan of this Chicago based symphonic Black metal band since there brilliant “Dysphoria” album and when they came to me with this one I was totally humbled and excited. After about 6 years in the making this recent release is not only as intense and majestic as their debut, but even more. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that this release is the exact reason why I loved this stuff beginning with “In the Nightside Eclipse”, “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”, “Dark Medieval Times”, “Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism”, and “In Abhorrence Dementia”. The amount of atmosphere and brute force, not to mention evil, that can be captured in black metal is undeniable as these bands and newer acts like Veneficum continue to drop the bomb on the listener with their storm of metallic fury that we have come to expect from this style.

The album opens up with “The Return” featuring some haunting female vocals and chugging riffs that conjure up sensations of intense and chaotic bouts of struggle. Bands like Veneficum continue in the post Emperor era to prove that symphonic black metal can still be belligerent and annihilating to the senses through a battering ram arsenal of percussion, scathing fury, and dense atmospheres of black holes and parallel universe philosophies that’ll make your head spin as your mind tries to wrap around each piece of this audio puzzle. In Tranquil Absurd, to me is the sound of the cosmos and the dark universe that surrounds us as each tiny piece leads us further mentally and literally into unknown realms both mysterious and possibly treacherous. The entire album is a cinematic, lucid journey that is chaotic and at times celestial (?), you have to experience to understand it.

You definitely don’t want to miss this one:
http://www.myspace.com/veneficum

Fester – Winter of Sin re-issue (Abyss Records 2010)

2010-12-05T10:07:00.001-08:00

Fester is a wet dream for a doomy death fanatic like myself and this classic release from back in 1992 is being necromanced to unleash its raw venomous curse yet again. There’s the rawness of Autopsy and Winter and a bit of Darkthrone and Celtic Frost to freeze the blood in your veins, but overall Fester is its own beast with its own sound and feel and comes highly recommended for those who like their metal raw and filthy as much as I do. There’s a good balance between doom death and frosty classic Nordic old school black metal to savor here so definitely pick this thing up.

Band Contact and Audio Samples:
http://www.myspace.com/festernorway

Purchasing:
http://www.officialabyssrecords.com/

New Stuff Coming In!!!!

2010-12-02T11:06:00.000-08:00

New releases from Malignant Records, some really amazing electronic/kraut/psyche/prog finds and much more in the next few days. Thanks to those who stood by this site, it's been a rough last few months with many labels not following through and my time being absorbed in other things.

Fornicator -Demo 2000 (No Visible Scars 2010)

2010-11-30T18:19:00.000-08:00

No Visible Scars comes through yet again with this sexually sadistic grind/raw early death metal porn release. For those who want Mortician with T&A and full on XXXX ratings and the grotesque and brilliant brutality in lyrics and sound of Autopsy will HAVE to score a copy of this release!!!!! ALL of the lyrics are raunchy and completely obscene…cocksucking, fucking, gang rape, an overly horny dog, golden showers (urinating on people without their consent), fecal fetishes, and so many more are indulged in on this release. I’m only halfway through and am honestly in pain from laughing my ass off.

This is an absolute MUST have for the fans of the raw, brutal, exploitation, and the purely perverted: Mortician, Autopsy, Mental Funeral (the band) fans especially take note. Nothing will amuse you, thrash and kick some ass, and either amuse or thoroughly offend others around you like this one will. It’s even better than the tapes that I had as a teen that we’d play to offend the neighbors when they were walking by the house coming home from work or walking their dogs/kids: one was a bunch of cuts recorded from the adult channel that was always scrambled but we could still here the whole thing, and the other was of a guy taking a huge crap complete with farts, pissing, and grunts; thankfully this one is actually something worth listening to on its own as it completely shreds and rips. You haven’t heard sleaze until you’ve heard Fornicator!!!!!! Folks like this make me feel better about my diseased mind and help me to wallow in filth even further. With the holidays coming up, you couldn't pick a better gift for the adoring perv in your life, this one has sent me over into the top for the last few days since I got it.

Cavus – Fester and Putrefy (Listenable Records 2011)

2010-11-30T17:59:00.001-08:00

What better way to start off the New Year then to pillage and destroy any ounce of civilization with this blackened storm of violence and malevolence!!! Set for release January 25th this will be sure to leave some corpses in its wake, so if you’re in a mood to raise hell and cause some serious trouble like I usually am, and want total chaotic black metal misanthropy with some gutteral death metal bass tones and a blood thirsty hatred gnarl in the vocals, get your hands on this fucker and burn the place down!!!!

Band contact and audio samples: http://www.myspace.com/cavusmusic

Inquisition – Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm (Hells Headbangers 2011)

2010-11-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

As with so many acts on this label, I can’t get enough of this stuff and this band especially is just dominating this year!!!! If you haven’t picked up “Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult “ yet than do so right fucking now and purchase an advanced copy of this one from HHR as well, this is truly sludgy and plague ridden raw black metal that oozes out from some sort of demented mystical realm. The vocals are visceral like an incantation from some possessed beings intestines as the tempo and rhythms go through a slimy doomy tar layer then burst into full on hells fury and machinegun fire. I really love the slower vocals and mildewed, oily sensation of the guitar riffs, it’s almost like a mossy and grimy swamp of sound that you can just feel on your skin. I’ve recently been tripping out on Urfaust and Wormsblood, and always am digging deeper into the carcass of the more unique black metal forms to find obscure stuff like Inquisition, because no one sounds just like them and they do what they do so damn well. This is the type of stuff that makes me sit up and take notice and always makes me froth at the mouth, I MUST have this one to blast and wallow in my own filth to.

The official street date is January 18th, but definitely grab the advanced copy now unless you’re waiting for the vinyl and desecrate the holy season with this noise.

http://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/item.asp?PID=18261

Also recommended: Ride for Revenge, Skull Fuck, Prosanctus Inferi, Profanatica for a deeper gutteral and crushing listen.

http://www.myspace.com/enterthecult

new posts coming soon

2010-11-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

I've been really swamped and have not had the time to keep this going as of lately, but will be getting it caught up in the next few weeks with some more oddities and great stuff.

Encoffination – Ritual Ascension Beyond Flesh (Selfmadegod Records 2010)

2010-10-22T18:30:00.001-07:00

Already having circulated in the underground and having been released previously on both tape and vinyl, the Polish hell lords of grind and brutality at SMGR have bestowed upon us the cd version of this debut release of US death/doom metal Encoffination. Gutteral bowel rupturing deep growls come out from behind an eerie atmosphere of classic death/doom sounds that take that incredible genre to another sepulcheral dimension altogether. This is visceral and demented horror coming out at a slug shit pace that’s absolutely heavy and undeniably awesome.

This bands sound is somewhat of a mix of funereal doom like Evoken crossed with slow and burning death metal like Incantation, and current US based death/doom bands of Spun in Darkness and Mental Funeral, and classics like Winter and Autopsy. The purest brutality of death metal with the abysmal death and torture atmospheres of eternal suffering and postmortem vengeance is what lays in wait with “Ritual ascension Beyond Flesh”.

www.myspace.com/encoffination
www.selfmadegod.com
myspace.com/selfmadegodrecords

Agathocles – This is not a threat, it’s a promise (SelfmadegodRecords 2010)

2010-10-22T17:53:00.001-07:00

OOOH shit is this stuff hard, swift, and heavy like a hydraulic automatic sledgehammer giving repeated blows to your skull!!!!! I’m back in my death/grind/filth/crust mood again and alongside my usuals: Abscess, Autopsy, 324 and my personal fave, Bathtub Shitter, this band recently caught my attention with this fresh stench of Grindcore savagery that’s more sobering then being trappedin an airtight room filled to capacity with ammonia.

This is my first actual listen to this notorious grind band and will definitely scar me mentally in favor of listening to them from here on. The thing that stands out is the rumbling growl almost doom/sludge tone in the anthemic punk-like riffs alongside some killer d-beats that gives the tracks that ideal wrecking ball effect as they crash straight into your brain. Definitely brutal and unforgiving old school blasts that will make anyone stop and go “What the Fuck?” before responding in favor or against.

www.agathocles.com
www.selfmadegod.com
www.myspace.com/selfmadegodrecords

Hammer of Hate Records releases 2010

2010-10-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hammer of Hate Records has come at us hard and fast this year with several triumphantly aggressive releases from the Finnish black metal scene that push the boundaries of the cult and nihilistic to new and welcome extremes (Sacrilegious Impalment, Vitsaus). These are set for November 10th release so here’s brief look at the innards of some of these fermenting audio assaults approaching on the horizon:

1) Anguished – Cold
This is the debut release of this female solo black metal act from Finland that cuts into you with her banshee shrieks until your gashes are as raw and stinging as this albums sound will. No ethereal female symphonic shit here, this is adulterated, vindictive and torturous stripped down cult black metal pure and simple. Possessed Demoness handles all instruments herself with the exception of a session drummer and the classic black and white S&M cover art is the perfect accompaniment to the sounds heard within this dark lair.

These skeletal songs have a great melodic sound and depth to them as they perfectly compliment the isolationist and oppressive vocals and the result is a fresh leather induced gash across your bare ass. In terms of production, although deliberately raw, the sound comes out really clean for this type of sound and the mild delay effects in the guitar and vocals really define the layers of sound into something more physical and encompassing. After a few listens the lyrics really come out as on “Depart this Life” where you can actually here her agonizing rants of that exact phrase like she’s on some lunatic ramble on the verge of death.

2) Valoton – Beastificate
Set out to inflict a deadly blow to Christian dogmas and represent through sound and lyrics the theistic Satanic philosophy of mans passage through beast toward ascension, they succeed in capturing an atmosphere of turbulent trials and tribulations, often haunting and violent through these 9 glorious tracks.
The melodies and song structures are really unique and asymetrical, but are so addictive in the way the swerve, coil, and strike like a venomous serpent such that just when you realize you’ve been struck form a certain angle you’re being nailed from another direction. The amount of chaos and heaviness in these tracks is analogous to the power of a massive black cyclone coming out from some abyss that just opened up in the earth and within seconds whips everything up and desecrates into dust.

3) Evangelium – Nightside of Eden
Evengelium is the first signing of a non-Finnish band to the label and is also the debut of this Russian band as they release their poisonous aura through unrelenting and searing firestorms of hateful vocals and a maelstrom of low-end distortion and explosive percussion battery. The atmosphere here is dense and foggy through the noise and spite like the gathering of a million tortured souls set on exacting vengeance on the worthless mortal beings. It’s bands like this one that remind me of what makes this style so powerful and allows me to relive that initial chilling sensation of hearing something that just makes your viscera squirm and your heart skip a few beats because it’s so intense. This is some seriously vicious shit and absolutely one that will invoke continual listens for years to come.

General info and purchasing: www.hammer-of-hate.com

Vex – Thanatopsis (Horror Pain Gore Death 2010)

2010-10-17T16:59:00.001-07:00

Right from the opening track “Thanatos” it’s completely crystal clear that this is no ordinary death metal band as they play off slight progressive rhythms, black metal riffing, and purely melodic yet unrelenting dark metal. I’m slightly reminded of the truly timeless sound of Deathevokation on Chalice of the Ages, where band takes what’s already dark, brooding and heavy then somehow pushes the boundaries even further.

“Motionless” showcases some blackened death vocals and scathing buzz chords that take an old school sound and recycle it into a simple yet complicated track. The pace is steady as this track induces a sense of chaos. The guitar solo and melodic leads remind of classic death metal stripped down and charred rather than purely rotted, like the ones that are timeless and completely stick with you for years to come.

“Apocalyptic Dream” is pure gutteral, almost Incantation-like blackened death that reeks of plague and rabies, the way the rhythm spirals around and the guitar work chug along like a war machine. The lead and rhythm play off each other to give a thundering clamour that instantly feels like the moment before the apocalypse as the sky turns black.

“Erosion” is plain eerie!!!! The proper use of synth effects just reminds me of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow as the headless horseman rides through lifeless trees in the cold darkness of night to terrorize villagers. The riffs are death metal assaults that eradicate your consciousness within the first few strikes to your undivided attention. The rhythm pattern is circular, which is where the slight prog feel comes in, as it whips around with the fury of a barbaric demon swinging its mace with the sole intention and momentum to shatter whatever it hits in one blow.

There’s an essence of so many things familiar in this bands sound that makes it comfortable and at the same time they take those elements out of context a bit to where they are new and thrilling again. Prepare to be steamrolled by nihilism, chaos, and a melodic holocaust with Vex. Alongside this release I highly recommend their split 7” with Divine Eve also on HPGD and available through their site. With the likes of Vex, Divine Eve, Sectioned, and Dimentianon my endless need for the best and the darkest will continue to thrive.

Seriously whipping and furious, dark and moody Thanatopsis will make your skin crawl right off your bones from the chilling sensation they will bring down upon you. This is another album that you have to hide away after a while because it just dominates your listening when it’s right there in front of you or within reach. The depth and melody they capture is impossible to describe accurately because it’s just so hard to wear the shock off, this is one big motherfucking beast to capture without bringing the person face to face with it to experience it for themselves.

http://hpgd.comoj.com/indexmain.html

Dimentianon – Collapse the Void (Paragon Records 2010)

2010-10-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

Expect nothing less than the sound of chaos and turmoil as you spiral through this black void of blackened death metal experience. This NY based act has been a brute force within the NY underground scene since 1995 and unleashes their strongest effort yet with Collapse the Void, their third release to date. There’s a similarity in their sound to current Kult ov Azazel and Dissection as the buzzing hornet swarm of distorted guitar chords surround classic death metal angular melodies and jagged rhythms to give this sound the weight and destructive force of the sun exploding. There’s even this really ethereal instrumental symphonic track, “Fragmented Nostalgia” right in the middle of the album that adds that extra element of some sort of dark cosmic sensation. I can see and hear why Dimentianon has gained the status that they have as they take dark metal and audio chaos to the next level and show that the multidimensional sound that only the truly skilled can create.

I also highly recommend Sectioned alongside these guys if you’re looking for brutal, dark, sophisticated, and melodic metal without being losing the essential gnashing and gnarling beast of death/extreme metal. If bands like this keep going I’ll never grow out of my love for this stuff!!!!

http://www.dimentianon.com/
http://www.myspace.com/dimentianon

Maniac Butcher – Masakr (Negative Existence 2010)

2010-10-17T10:02:00.001-07:00

After a decade hiatus this Czech horror storm or bile and contemptuous black shredding metal and completely char everything in their path. I’d be hard pressed to find something better as of lately to rip my skullcap off through scathing fury and unabashed distorted chainsaw riffing. Masakr is the sound of total aggression and horror that have been festering and accruing for an entire decade, the old school sound and feel of Celtic Frost and a bit of crusty blackness has only improved with age. Absolutely awesome and worth picking up either to finish your MB collection or just to have your balls ripped off by something vicious.

http://www.maniacbutcher.com/
http://www.negative-existence.com/

Immortal Empire - Beneath Frozen Forests and Howling Skies EP

2010-10-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

As with another recent black metal act, Immolith, UK based solo act, Immortal Empire, is staying very true to the late 1980’s-early1990’s Nordic black metal sound without being a mere regurgitation. Aside from getting positive reviews in Terrorizor, he has also gained a strong following and reasonably so when you really get a chance to listen to IE. The sound is a blend of medieval/folk themes and rhythms, a raw and hollow production sound without jeopardizing the quality of the tracks, blistering guitar riffs, and some symphonic and ambient undertones.

From the first instant the opener “Benight the Howling Horde” comes on I’m catapulted back to early Nordic black metal days of Immortal, Burzum, Bathory, early Emperor, and Darkthrone. There’s the raw and pure energy in the pounding thunder of the drums and the heavily over distorted guitar tone like buzzes and revs like a chainsaw and the feel of being recorded in a hollow den somewhere. There’s a thrash-like youth to the riffs and the symphonic background giving a mysterious and foggy forest-like atmosphere to the track.

“Dark are the Hours” is more of a stripped down black metal skeleton of a folk/medieval influenced track. The main rhythm is a folk one, almost like a jig or old pagan dance that is accompanied by a variation of maniacal raspy screams and an almost chorus “aahh” among aggressive distorted riffs.

“Younger Days” continues the flow of folk-like rhythms and just launches out of a dark cavern with a furious guitar sound and the growling of the beast unleashing itself from deep within the bowels of utter darkness.

Artist contact and audio samples:
http://www.myspace.com/immortalempyre

Furze – Reaper Subconscious Guide (Agonia Records 2010)

2010-10-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

I’m a complete fiend for anything that’s called black psychedelic and doom, so when I heard that this one is a Black Sabbath influenced “black psychedelic doom” project by the cult Norwegian black metal act, Furze, I couldn’t resist investing the time into this one. Along with a massive Sabbath love, I really have dug Furze over the years and listening to this one I can say that this shit blows my fucking mind!!!!!

For starters, Furze is solely Reaper and here he steps away from his usual raw and cryptic Nordic old school for sludgy lysergic riffs and contagious grooves, man…this thing just fucking smokes. There’s a warm rumbling vintage hum throughout the tones of all of the instruments including a Goddamn Glockenspiel!!! This release is just so trippy that it makes me envision wild occult themed orgies as seen through a swirl of turquoise and tangerine haze, sort of like parts of the brilliant Venus in Furs. In fact, this would be a great soundtrack to that flick, as here you get the acid fuzz and weird murderous/supernatural ambience of the film with an incredibly groovy “oomph” that is heavy enough to make your chest feel like there’s an pink elephant sitting on it as you gasp for air in amazement as this album glides all over your body and mind.

Special care has been taken to capture the true Sabbath essence through recording on only high quality analog equipment dating from the 1940’s to the 60’s and 70’s and it shows, this thing is really heavy and thumping all the way. Two versions will be released: one being a very rare purely analog (A-A-A) produced LP which is absolutely essential for experiencing this one properly, and a (A-A-D) produced format for cd.

One last note: there’s still raw elements of Darkthrone-like black metal in some of the riffs and tempos so don’t be surprised to hear some scathing parts encrusted with distortion within these tracks. This will appeal to doom, prog, heavy psyche, sludge heads so don’t pass on this release, from “Earlier than the Third Might of the Cosmos” through to the final “Essential Wait” you will hover and glide subconsciously without a pause. One of my top picks of 2010 and absolutely essential period!!!!!!!

http://www.agoniarecords.com
http://www.myspace.com/blackpsychemetal

Interview with Gnaw Their Tongues

2010-10-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

I can’t even begin to say how fucking cool being able to interview the harsh death industrial mastermind of Gnaw Their Tongues, it’s like everything he creates is golden…well actually more black and crimson. Gnaw Their Tongues is a massive aural slaughterday to the senses and pure adrenalizing mindfucks galore that really extends the boundaries broken and re-established by In Slaughter Natives. This guy is a maniacal genius and chances are that if your reading this, you’re already aware of the depravity and craftsmanship that comes with the GTT title, and a really cool guy. I'll be getting the review up for the latest release this week, but until then definitely score a copy of this bastard and unleash pure apocalyptic hell upon your ears.

DOTDR: How did Gnaw Their Tongues get started?

GTT: Been making music for over twenty years now. I played in death/doom/black metal bands, but I also did electronic music. In the late nineties I started building my own studio and recorded lots of music. In 2005/2006 I decided to throw some of the music on the internet. That's how the whole GTT thing started (and DE MAGIA VETERUM).

DOTDR: You create some of the most brilliant, chaotic, and insane sounds imaginable in your releases and coming from me that’s saying lot (and also a huge compliment), there’s nothing else exactly like GTT, it’s fucking great!!!!! In terms of your view of GTT, what do you strive to create on GTT releases? What inspires or influences what you create?

GTT: I'm inspired mostly by everyday horrors and inner hatred/dissonance. With every GTT release I strive for something special. I strive for making the most fucked up sonic killing spree.

DOTDR: That’s fucking awesome, and it shows in your releases!!!!! I know that L’Arivee de la Terne Mort Triomphante hasn’t been out very long, but with a high profile project like GTT there must have already been some responses to it, so how have people reacted to it so far?

GTT: Until now I read a few positive ones and one negative one… my music is not for everyone. The reviews seem to think this is my most orchestral sounding work and I think they are right.

DOTDR: I’d probably say so too, although they all have a heavy dark symphonic sound to them. I always like to ask the artist, what would your ideal reaction to this release by the listener be? Honestly, it made me stop whatever the hell I was doing and pay attention to it, it’s unbelievably captivating and intense.

GTT: Yes, that's pretty much what I aim for. Having people notice it. Sounding original and good. I’d rather have people react to my music (in a positive or negative way) than having no reaction at all.

DOTDR: It’s absolutely impossible to miss, it’s the sort of thing that you put on and people stop and go: “whoa…” or “What the Fuck is that?”, most of my listening tastes yields the WTF one for sure. Your sound is hard to describe, which is one of the reasons for its brilliance and success, but there’s a definite similarity on this release to chaotic neo-classical/symphonic artists like In Slaughter Natives. Do intentionally you set out to create something new and unique with each release? I ask because each one is quite distinct, really involved, and really impressive.

GTT: I try not to repeat myself and I try to have each release sounding different. The classical influences have always been there as I'm a great fan of modern/avant-garde classical music and horror soundtracks.

DOTDR: so with the success of GTT and your obvious level of skill, do you plan on keeping GTT going for a few years?

GTT: I did so much music these couple of years, that it's getting harder to come up with completely new things. I'll see what happens. I think GTT music has to come natural to me. It's never a good idea to force myself doing music. If I feel like it, or if I'm feeling inspired I record music. I at least got another full length planned, with some abstract ideas in my head. Will have to see how that one will turn out. I made a decision to reduce the amount of releases the next year.

DOTDR: You could always create something new under a new name and take a direction too, regardless of what happens with GTT, there’ll always be that massive crater left form the impact you made on the extreme side of music. With that said is there anything that you’d like to say in closing?

GTT: Thank you.

GTT contact, info, audio samples and purchasing:
http://www.myspace.com/gnawtheirtongues
http://www.crucialblastshop.net/

Fatal Morgana – In Quiet Us (Arkeyn Steel Records 2010)

2010-10-03T21:24:00.001-07:00

I’m sure many of you already can see where the influences in this one lay, one of my favorite metal tracks of all time off of Fates Warning, Awaken the Guardian, but don’t blindly expect FW here as this band has it’s own prog metal skill and style that is extraordinary in itself. Hailing from Hellas Greece this power prog metal bands 1995 2 song Demo (hailed as a monumental release back in the day) and previous unreleased Windfall album from 1996 are finally seeing proper release as In Quiet Us this month on Arkeyn Steel. I’m a huge prog head and there’s definitely Fates Warning here, but I actually more of a heavy melodic prog album with epic metal leanings. Everything about this band is the big pink elephant in the room named PROG, you can’t miss it and you certainly fucking love it…BUT it’s 100% classic epic metal as well so don’t expect anything less than that.

“Close at Hand” opens the album up nicely with a total Awaken the Guardian like heavy prog metal track. The guitars shred and chug along steadily to give it a bit of aggression as the rhythm itself noodles around behind it as a free flowing amorphous entity, no predictability, but absolutely smooth throughout. You can hear the bass notes as they walk through the direct the curvature of the song structure, nice and clear along with the leads and drums, the production is so clear that you can see straight through the mix and capture each instrument equally.

“In Speechless Words” continues with the FW comparison in vocal sound, but toward the last half of the track they bust out a guitar jam that has an almost gypsy/flamingo time signature and it just totally stops your heart for a moment to go “whoa” and gasp. This is definitely an audio treasure to behold, there’s nothing here that’s standard or been done before, this band definitely stands out!!!!!

“Tempest” is the album closer and is a heavy metal version of classic prog with the theatrical and eerie vintage organ intro reminiscent of old horror soundtracks, I totally hear Antonius Rex, that streams into a killer guitar arpeggio and semi classical vintage synth piece before being blasted into a heavy prog assault. Only 6 minutes, but screams out as a more modern version of the essential: Malombra, Antonius Rex and L’Impero Delle Ombre sound.

Totally essential for fans of: Fates Warning, Enchanter, early Queensryche (oooh yeah!!!!), Psychotic Waltz; also recommended for fans of: While heaven Wept, The Atlantean Kodex, and classic prog/prog metal.

Keep an eye out for the re-release of The Last Things rare 1993 album, Circles and Butterflies” if you dig Watchtower and Psychotic Waltz as I do, Arkeyn Steel will be unveiling that in the near future.

www.arkeynsteel.com

Secret Druid Society – Restless (First Fallen Star 2010)

2010-10-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

Opening up with the appropriately titled “Deserted World”, SDS illustrates imagery of the beginning of the universe, right after the initial violent eruption that led to the creation of all matter and the universe as a result. The ambient drones allude to the sound of an object in projection but retarded to a speed of liquid bead of viscous tar as it almost hovers past you.

The sense of aimlessly drifting in a state of uncontrolled motion and being only directed by the natural compulsion of the space around you is continued into “Restless”, as the highly entropic state of the universe is pure chaos, but the type of chaos that is pure freedom and riding a natural flow. Although the sounds contained within Restless as an album are hypnotic and cerebral, they do convey a sense of darkness…mystery, and even an eerie quality that could very well be describing absolute chaos as one would hear it if they were right on the cusp of being consumed by a black hole.

Right before entering a black hole it is speculated that everything slows down to the point a complete stop and to an observer next to you it’d appear as if you were frozen in that position for ever although you’d been long since removed from existence in the gravitational pull and “Lonely Moon” captures that odd sense of watching something freeze at the brink and remain that way as you do for an uncertain length of time that could be considered forever.

“Phobia (Stones are Moving)” is the ironic truth of the situation told through sound as particles in the universe continue to divide and collide amongst each other for billions of years and your existence was brief and almost meaningless in the whole situation. Things continue without you and the only memory of you is a snapshot carried by some sort of radiation of your final moment.

“Restless(Night is Here)” is a 15 minute drone drift through astral planes where the synth waves reverberate over you like time freezing to a pause, you can almost feel the lethargic chill from the wake of some sonic occurrence across your skin as this track makes it tingle.

“Dawn Over the Deserted World” represents your landing on the terrestrial surface of some ancient looking planet. There’s a distorted electronic flute serenade guiding your eyes across the horizon and a sense of tranquility and conclusion are now felt within.

“Endless Ice Planes” moves past slowly and heavily, as if you’re standing at the shore or on a cliff overlooking an alien turquoise sea and hear the sound of monolithic crystallic ice mountains as they crawl past you. If there was a sound for time at an almost stand still velocity, this track would come very close to it.

For audio samples and ordering:
http://www.firstfallenstar.com/main.php?releases&mn=1

Hell Militia - Last Station on the Road to Death (Debemur Morti 2010)

2010-10-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

This album opens up with a trippy, pseudo-hallucinogenic audio sample of a what sounds like a doctor dictating the behavioral pattern of a junkie which is pretty unique in itself.

“Born Without Light” comes in swiftly as a chaotic black metal assault to the senses as it murderously cuts into your soul with a raw and unapologetic guitar buzz and miserable vocals. There’s a sense of spite and bitterness is this weird cacophony of despair and all out violent bouts with a nice surreal, almost horror film sense to it. The drums sound like heavy footsteps echoing down the hallway as you cower behind the door in the dark fearing for your life. Given the opening track, it could be about struggling with the paranoia and delusions from withdrawals or just a state of pure insanity taking over, either way it’s definitely a bit creepy and unique and I fucking love it.

“Unshakable Faith” is sort of the dialogue/narrative of the evolution of the situation after the last track where the character has definitely gone over the edge and now the world is coldly assessing their view. About halfway through this cold and calculating track the main character unleashes his/her psychotic break in full with maniacal groans of pure lunacy and anger.

“Et Inferno Ego” is absolute insanity and chaos, somewhat reminding me of a rawer version of Deathspell Omega. It’s pure cyclone clanging and screaming that circles around you like a massive cyclone that inevitably sucks you violently into the deepest void of misery and hell.

“The Ultimate Deception” is another uniquely haunting and grim track that sounds as though it’s dispersing through some dark crevice from deep within the Earth where all is fire and molten lava. This whole album is unique but not too avant-garde, mixes the raw and belligerent black metal trademarks with a sense of blackened hallucinogenic and torturous personal atmospheres to create something of a soundtrack to a nightmare.

Highly recommended for fans of: Deathspell Omega, Krieg, Krohm, Leviathan, Xasthur, Tenebrae in Perpetuum.

Excruciator – By the Gates of Flesh (Heavy Artillery 2010)

2010-10-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

I recently made the public announcement in my review of the pretty impressive new school thrash act Vindicator that I’m not big on the new wave of thrash, well…as with most things there are exceptions to the rule and Excruciator is my exception. I really like this label and many like it who prevail to release some of the freshest cuts of metal flesh, and now they are releasing their "Heavy Artillery Wax Maniax Demo Series" featuring mini LPs and cds of some of the coolest obliterating metal sounds today, so for the oldschool heads out their, check that out for sure: http://store.heavyartillery.us

Now for this release, it’s vile, aggressive, colossal and just guts you like a pig ready for the roast with it’s gruff raw death/thrash vokills and unrelenting guitar stabs and jigsaw rip cuts of chords. As with many bands on the label there’s a good amount of progressive rhythm changes to give each track a sophisticated and swerving quality as you are tossed through the tracks like breakfast from your stomach due to a bad hangover. I would be willing to actually bet a few limbs that the first listen to tracks like “Nuclear Exmortis” and “By the Gates of Flesh” you will be climbing the walls as your jaw drags on the floor behind you from your initial, FAAAAAAAAWKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! response as this thing knocked it clean off the hinges. I HAVE to have this animal in my collection and living with a grouchy old punk, I think he’ll be more appreciative to hearing this thing alongside my Blood Feast and Nuclear Assault blaring then the doom stuff. Bow down to the power contained here, this shit will annihilate anything within 1000 miles of its sonic epicenter!!!!! You MUST have this!!!!!!!!!!!

Essential for fans of: Nuclear Assault, Blood Feast, Kreator, Celtic Frost!!!!!

Audio Samples and band contact:
http://www.myspace.com/excruciator1

Heirs - Fowl (Denovali Records)

2010-09-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

Heirs are yet another psychedelic, instrumental rock band who are well versed in improvisation skills and the perfect use of electronic effects to create a densely sweltering environment through pure creativity and rhythmic flow. The thing that really makes this album stand out for me, aside from the amazingly tribal and ritualistic rhythm/drum patterns used throughout, is how I start the album and before I even realize it the album is over. It literally captures your mind and zaps you into its universe and you really never pause because the ride just keeps you going through turns, loops, intensity, volume, and speed changes so you never get the chance to really stop.

It’s the coolest and weirdest thing, that’s why it’s taken me about two weeks or so to write this review, every time I sit down to review it I get caught up in it and lose track of time and place. You have to hear this whole thing in one listen, you could try to break it up and it’d work, but if you don’t have it uploaded and on a sort of shuffle feature where there’s outside control you’ll never make it through only partway, it’s that solid and consistent!!!!! Seriously, for those who dig the total mind melting, heavy rhythm, jam, tripped out stuff…YOU HAVE TO HEAR THIS!!!!!!

“Dust” opens up with some ambient/moderate effects, a smooth bass line and high hat to give an almost jazzy and lounge sense to the album, but just as you think you’re safe the guitar picks up some weight and the drums bring in the stomp and pummel and before you know it, the room begins to spin and your heart pounds.

“Fowl” comes in subtly to a tribal rhythm n drums and a looming sense of entering into some unknown place, some sense of uncertainty is present and the deeper you traverse into this labyrinth of sound, the sweatier your palms get and the lighter your head gets. By about the halfway point of this elusive journey you’re fully entranced and your heart even beats to the drum rhythm. After this everything becomes one big sonic blurb of pure reverb and psychedelic textures and you really don’t come back to reality until you go down the drain at the end, aptly titled “Drain”.

“Burrow” and “Tyrant” represent the den or hive in which you’ve now entered, the clicking and echoing of the percussion and the humming and buzzing of the bass denotes that you are closing in on the central layer of this mysterious lair you’ve somehow wandered into. The buzzing of the inhabitants, alien and yet familiar to you in some way as they are just synth and guitars distorted into a new language of tones, but having the same purpose as your familiarity leads you to believe. You’re now swarmed with instrumental psychedelic meanderings and cannot see past the end of your nose form the sheer density of this audio buzz.

“Men” -Like a tornado of sound that makes the whole world spin around in a frenzied cyclone to the tribal drum beating of ones demise. The drum sound is almost hollow and ritualistic as the swirling of distorted guitar winds sweep your consciousness away into the eye of this storm.

“Mother” a laidback sonic reverberation of modern psychedelic and feedback reminiscent of Pelican and new comers Del Rey. This is where the storm has settled and you regain solid footing to find that you are unscratched from the riotous wind tunnel ride you were on only moments before, but you now have the odd sensation that you wish that it would happen again and right at that very second.

“Drain” enters with a lovely reverb guitar intro which then leads you unknowingly into a warm cataclysm of vibrating, seismic hazes of guitars saturated in effects to drown you by the end of this 6 minute throb of circular rhythm patterns. Imagine watching the water in a tub drain very slowly as it circles and spirals around the opening before plummeting through and that’s the sensation you get on here, it starts out slow bit as you get closer to the opening things speed up to a wild vortex that’ll be sure to spin your head around a few times during the listen.

There you have it, and it took me three forcing listens to break it up because I kept missing it as it just consumed my mind altogether. This is one more piece of evidence that the wave of good instrumental, effect and jam laden rock talent has not lost it’s amplitude, it’s only getting started!!!!!

Essential for most, but fans of the following will already have bought this by the time they got halfway through my dissection of it: Boris, Hellas Mounds, Isis, Neurosis, White Hills, La Otracina, US Christmas, Red Sparrows, Del Rey, The Heads, Pelican….

Heirs contact:
http://www.heirs.com.au

Theologian – The Further I Get From Your Star, The Less Light I Feel On My Face (Crucial Blast 2010)

2010-09-26T21:21:00.001-07:00

Theologian is the newest artistic skin being worn by power electronic artist Leech, infamous for his long-standing project, Navicon Torture Technologies, which has now been laid to rest. The unmistakable brilliance found in NTT is still present here, the very same industrial dronescapes of dense electronic layers that seduce the listener into an unrelenting state of hallucinogenic ambient.

At times the sound of Theologian is urban, sort of like the sound of a freight train or subway passing through the tunnel very slowly and almost warm, as heard and felt on the title track and “Almost Gone”. The metallic subtleties like clanking along old train tracks and the white noise reminiscent of a drizzly urban twilight as the city slows down for a few short hours and is reduced to just environmental sounds…machinery… almost void of human life as the concrete jungle speaks for itself in these daily slow moments from the havoc of inhabitant clutter and clamor.

The trademark of Leechs creations begin to unfold a new chapter, still very surreal, but the sound manipulations in spots are further venturing beyond rigid mechanical to fluid and loose ambient fuzz, like an abstract and fabricated form of a field recording. Although there are moments of warmth and drone, there are still the traditional power electronic tracks present such as “The Fragility of the Male Ego…” and “Zero”, and even symphonic almost purely ambient experiences through “In Times of Need, we all go against our nature” and “Unfamiliar Skies”. In one single artists I can hear resemblances to Phaenon, Steel Hook Prostheses, and Rasthof Dachau, set against a backdrop of modern urban inspiration.

Set for release October 26th by the Crucial Blast Label, Theologian is a guarantee to raise the bar even higher as he bestows upon us the next progression in purely mechanical and electronic audio. By far one of the best releases of the year!!!!

For info contact the Crucial Blast webstore and label (click on the log up top of the page and it'll direct you to it)

Secrets She Kept - La Fin Absolue Du Monde (Metal Messiah Records 2010)

2010-09-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

Armed with malicious intentions, sheer brutality, and seething fury, Florida based Secrets She Kept, will be sure to sever some limbs. With SSK you’ll hear elements of Kult ov Azazel (Destroying the Sacred) fused with Incantation and even Dissection, to wield a savage axe of blackened death metal. Having started out back in 2002, this band has toured on it’s own terms and support and shared stages with well respected acts like: Horna, Nachtmystium, Dark Funeral, 1349, and Goat Whore, and now are unveiling their sophomore full length of viciousness and contempt with La Fin Absolue Du Monde.

This album opens up with the vicious and menacing assault of “Legion 666”, which wastes no time shrieking at you over this wicked guitar bit that almost sounds like the horns of an approaching army of mercenaries and the percussion bangs and pounds like a full blown artillery shower!!!! It’s clear form track one that this stuff is meant to take a thunderous dropped D tone and skin you alive with it’s speed and signature guitar shreds.

“Carrion Soul” keeps you under siege with a moderate hint of thrash riffing speed and the chaotic ramblings of what sounds like an exorcism on speed. Make no mistake…you get some dropped d bombs and concrete riff layers complete with the idyllic “squeel” of the classic death metal sound, the nihilistic hatred and blood thirsty quality of black metal, with some spiraling thrash overtones and this is not just in one track but the whole album!!!!!

The production is clean like a surgical incision and the layers of each track have a 3D effect where they really bring the full force of the SSK storm down upon you like Hells fury and scorn!!! Set to detonate in October, this one will surely be one to make an investment in, these guys blend a good amount of metal styles into a cohesive, skilled, and completely brutal holocaust on your senses!!!!!!

A definite look into for fans of: Drawn and Quartered, Kult ov Azazel, Book of Black Earth, Incantation, Morbid Angel and all things heretical and violent,

SSK contact:
http://www.secretsshekept.com/

Horse Latitudes - Gathering (Aurora Borealis 2010)

2010-09-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

Horse Latitudes are a new chapter in the aptly named N.W.O.F.H.M (coined by the awesome Jussi Lehitsalo of Circle/Pharaoh Overlord) bringing us doom heads a trippy, unique and ultra heavy take on doom. For starters the band is a three piece consisting of two bass players and a drummer so that alone generally points to HEAVY and according to the label, they are a blend of epic sludge and the more leftfield bands like Ride For Revenge and Urfaust with a hint of doom in the vocals. What variables in that equation don’t add up to completely fucking wicked!!!? And this is also one of the few times that the general description fits.

Several things upon listening stand out: the vocals are very much doom styled vocals, not sludge at all actually; the Sabbathian riffs being played out on a bass, more than likely also tuned down, give the muscle and impact needed to carry this heavy lethargic beast across it’s 50 minute span; and the production is deliberately minimal giving an almost genuine live feel but not poor demo quality lo-fidelity. At times I’m reminded of recent Aussie sludge act Atollah, where you can hear the actual pluck of the bass notes from underneath a film of sonic doom haze and the maze of effects glowing and echoing as they spiral about your consciousness.

The vocals are absolute lethargic and epic doom, but are spoken word in rhythm with the riffs and bass almost poetically, so if you were groaning a the sludge part you’ll be glad to know that this is more a of a psychedelic doom trio than stoner doom. Don’t get me wrong though, there’s definite similarities to Electric Wizard, especially in the almost spacey tripped out effects behind the basses, some of the vocals get raspy and almost whispered in spots adding an extra dimension to this fairly complex and surprisingly solid album. I guarantee that many of you will find much to enjoy on this 50 barrage of doom and LSD, so be sure to check them out and look for the album release in October.

For fans of:Ride For Revenge, Electric Wizard, Burning Witch, The Body, The Bottle Doom Lazy Band, Fall of the Idols, Saturnalia Temple, and even some SunnO))) but not any excessive drone; just epic, trippy, and lucid distorted visions of doom…absolute rumbling from the decrapitated bowels of doom.

Band site with audio:
http://horselatitudes.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/horselatitudesmetal

DOTDR talks to the black belly of the beast Nekrasov

2010-09-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

Nekrasov is a black, avant-garde, apocalyptic, and destructive force who just recently released his briiliant Extinction on Crucial Blast and I was really stoked to have gotten to hear it early and get a chance to talk with him about it a bit. For those who like all things unique and intense in their audio, I couldn't recommend this act enough to many of you. Check out the link at the bottom for audio samples, the label webstore( direct link is activated by clicking the banner at the top of the main webpage here) and also check out my review here on this site. Enjoy and step into the labyrinth of chaos:

DOTDR: I’ve been a huge fan of the Crucial Blast label forever it seems and when your release came across my ears I was still surprisingly surprised. It was actually power electronic, dark ambient and industrial/post-industrial oddly enough that got me deeper into black metal about 5-6 years ago actually, and so I’m completely foaming at the mouth at the mere thought and sound of anything that marries those sounds as you so brilliantly have on Extinction. So to start things off, how about introducing us to the apocalyptic world and mind of Nekrasov?

Nekrasov: Hmm, intros are difficult for me! Nekrasov was never intentionally an ‘apocalyptic’ or death industrial ‘vision’. I had always been experimenting with either noise, ambient, metal, punk etc for as long as I can remember.

Nekrasov really started to form around 1997 but the focus of it, or it’s ‘form’ started really to take shape just a few years ago.

It’s really an accumulation of all aspects of my existence really – hence you will have those elements you mentioned. But also, it’s just the way it comes out. It’s a very personal beast with absolute NO interest in being hip or the coolest noise dude or black metal one man whatever. I am usually guided by what I cannot define. My focus or ‘intention’ is communicating that which is very difficult to express on a lyrical level – the eternal black beast that is with us always. For me, personally, it comes out the way you hear it with Nekrasov. It may not be everyone’s thing but it’s where I am coming from – and I need to be as far removed from anything, even my ‘self’, in order to do that. So, at the same time, the term apocalyptic is apt as it is coming from the end (whether before or after) the self or world – also it’s not coming from that…if you know what I mean? Haha

The ‘mind’ of Nekrasov is surrounded and created by an eternal abyss – that’s the channel – as best I can conjure.

I am extremely honored to have this release with Crucial Blast – I have always thought Adam had a great vision and ethic to what he does.

DOTDR: When listening to and dissecting Extinction it became very apparent to me that it was story of some wicked battles and then the looming destruction and awkwardness of the PTSD afterward, was Extinction intended to be an ongoing science fiction/annihilation narrative or is it just my always overactive imagination that hears that? What was your intention to create with Extinction?

Nekrasov: Well the lyrics are withheld as Nekrasov is not about ideas at all – it is about reaching and pulling out that beast within. That which we know is there but try to avoid because it kind of does feel like annihilation. So, yes, to some degree it is about annihilation but it’s important for me not to give too much on the ideas level. Your imagery of it is your own, not mine – which, for me, is a great thing. Admittedly I do have quite a few responses from listeners saying they had all these images of humanity getting stuck in a black hole etc…Which really is an apt metaphor for ‘the void’ of Nekrasov. I would not say that the intention is sci-fi end times but I would admit that there is a strong focus on annihilation – a very subjective cutting and slicing of it for the listener, I hope.

Giving away my ‘intention’ for the album would be giving too much away; wink wink….And away, what more needs to be said? Extinction!

DOTDR: I have to say that the tracks are very well placed and composed, they alternate between nihilistic and chaotic black metal and the atmospheric electronic tracks perfectly to give it texture. Was this deliberate on your part and how do feel album as whole now that you look back on it?

Nekrasov: I always work with the expected and unexpected. There is a sort of non-place to go to where the beast void resides so I could admit there to some deliberation. The conflict of that though is once in there there is not much control or deliberation.

I don’t really look back on it to be honest. I am happy with the results.

DOTDR: What are some of the inspirations that motivate you to create in Nekrasov?

Nekrasov: This is one of those questions I find very difficult to answer! As there sort of is no inspiration but, of course, with working in sound etc.. I cannot avoid it but the attempt is to come from where there is no inspiration, if that makes any sense.

But, please, do not confuse this with art or anything as such…oh! forbid such horror!

You can hear the musical influences in there but there’s no need to go into those sort of details. I really am trying to give my piece of liberating pain on the world! haha

DOTDR: Black metal, industrial, power electronic, dark ambient, martial, and noise on their own serve as ideal mediums to create the most intense and exotic atmospheres through and when blended the result is terrorizing and bone chilling. What made you decide upon the styles used on Extinction? How would describe Nekrasov to those who haven’t experienced you yet?

Nekrasov: Ultimately it’s the freedom of those styles that works so well with Nekrasov. The intention was not to be 100% anything but 100% nothing! Haha. I work purely from a deep personal level without much involvement in scenes etc so I have the freedom to do what the fuck I want. I’ve always worked within those fields; it’s where I am most uncomfortable!

I will have to break it to you that you an in a minority in your appreciation of what I do. Normally there’s ‘not enough black metal, too much noise’ and the noise purists think there’s too much metal etc..It’s really weird that in such a deep underground realm as the one where Nekrasov exists, seemingly far removed from ‘the everyday’ that such conservative ideas seem firmly rooted. But then again, I don’t really give eleven shits to it – I just do what I do and I didn’t even think it would get to this stage!

DOTDR: I know the release is brand spanking new, but how has the feedback been so far?

Nekrasov: It’s been good. For those that have sort of followed Nekrasov for a while – say they like it ‘the best’ (which is a funny thing to say about a Nekrasov release! Haha). To be honest, I never really know how to take it – the fact that people do listen to it is pretty awesome from my end of the world! It’s fairly tough work to get through….

DOTDR: What does the near future hold for Nekrasov?

Nekrasov: Nothing! There’s been so much coming out this year that the releases need a chance to hurt and maim a bit more…There won’t be another release till next year. The only thing that should be coming out is the previously intended split 12” with ONDO. The artwork is being done for that right now.

DOTDR: From where can one buy a copy of Extinction?

Nekrasov: Just go straight to Crucial Blast! Or if in Europe, places like Cold Spring etc..

DOTDR: Thanks for your time and a fucking wicked and brilliant listen! Is there anything you’d like to say in closing?

Nekrasov: I am honored to be a part of the DOTDR beast! Thanks for your support and interest.

Nekrasov info here:
http://www.nekrasovsphere.com/

Nekrasov - Extinction (Crucial Blast Records 2010)

2010-09-17T12:43:00.001-07:00

Extinction is an experience of absolute chaos and apocalyptic events through a blend of power electronics, black metal, and dark ambient. Three of my absolute favorite musical styles that go together so beautifully to create the perfect mindfuck come together into this science fiction, horror masterpiece.

Starting off with a really aggressive and raw (not in production quality though) black metal track “We are just an indifferent interpretation of the black plague”, I’m reminded of Ash Pool and Dodsferd (Fucking Your Creation). The machinegun battery of the drums and they belligerent guitar storm of angry distortion and almost hallucinogenic melody.

“Disillusion” sees us in a full-fledged barrage of symphonic black metal horror, artillery shell showers of percussion, and a diesel motor sounding chugging guitar. This track sounds like a surreal and cinematic alter reality of someone experiencing the end of the world first hand. You almost envision buildings collapsing and tsunamis crash over the shores and flood the cities as the sky changes through all of the shades of nuclear reds and yellows and bright flashes vaporize things into oblivion in less than the blink of an eye.

“Matter is the Bastard” is the soundtrack to the post-apocalypse moment when you gaze across the charred black, still smoldering and smoking landscape of what once was considered the center of the universe by arrogant and ignorant beings. Here we have a dark ambient atmospheric track that is perfectly designed for the post-traumatic events yet to come. All the while in the background there’s a hammering or stomping, sort of like footsteps or minor distant explosions muddied as you fight to regain consciousness.

“Void into Non-Void Master” launches us back into brutal black metal chaos and bloodshed, so apparently the war was not quite over, the next assault was heading towards us from across that span of rubble and debris. The almost diesel powered machine sounding guitar chords shredding and expelling shell casings all around as this swarm descends upon you.

“Pre-fetal Non-Mantra” brings us back to the aftermath of another massive annihilation attempt. Bodies are strewn all over, well pieces of what once were bodies, painted through a gusting wind of ambient and post-industrial drone.

All eight tracks on this disc switch out between nihilistic and ritualistic symphonic black metal, suicidal, genocidal, and maniacal post-industrial landscapes to form chapters of complete destruction in this diabolical story. I’m not over exaggerating here in this review either so if at any point you stopped and said “oh…shit!!!!!” then you’re right about where I’m at in my response to listening to this. This here is one the truest accounts of apocalypse and complete ruin, so if you think that you’re black metal is the real deal prepare to be humbled and destroyed by this holocaust!!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/nekrasovvoid

Benighted in Sodom - Hybrid Parasite Evangelistica (Bad Mood Man Music 2010)

2010-09-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

Benighted in Sodom is “Desperate atmospheric black metal”, and from first listen this album jumped to the head of the pile of new releases and I’ve been deeply focused on it for the last week or so that I’ve had it. It could be considered suicidal black metal in sound, but when listening to it in entirety it’s actually more of a narrative of being driven to suicide through pain inflicted and ending with the realization that your life was in fact worthless to those around you. This is some intense and driven creation that will captivate and disturb you as you can feel each word spoken and each painful gash made, it just aches with heaviness and burden. Some time has passed since something spoke to me as clearly as this release does and I cannot recommend it enough.

This album is dense and very emotive, you can actually understand their frustrations tribulations and they don’t try to mask them or muffle them either. The overall feel is supernatural and cerebral, but still very human. The opener, ”An Angel Circles the Drain” instantly slits your ephemeral artery with it’s jagged riff lash to open you and the album up. The way the layers of distorted and abstract guitar melodies swirl about as you listen, you can actually imagine the blood pouring out and flowing down a drain in much the same way. The vocals are furious expressive of pain, but this is not suicidal black metal….it’s vengeful and bitter instead.

“Liquid Flowing from a Slashed Wrist” starts out with a great almost horror film feel in the “unplugged” sounding strumming of the guitar over atmospheric effects. The vocals kick in with a frustrated yell and then speak in a demonic tone over classic buzzsaw guitar chords followed by a sudden pause to symphonic loomings and then the demon resumes his reciting. It’s almost like listening to the sound of some spirit torturing someone to the point of suicide as it chants out and bellows for one to kill themselves. This song reeks of torture and agony and definitely brings to mind some
sort of lunatics hallucination as he/she fights to avoid the inevitable self-demise to come.

“Nightshade and Arsenic” is a lighter guitar led instrumental piece that almost sounds like the final mortal resolution as the death has finally occurred and the soul is temporarily at rest.

“Solarium” comes in as a drifting wind with the synth and percussion, sort of like a soul moving on to its afterlife existence in some form or other. This track begins to feel more celestial and floating debris after a massive storm and then the theatrical spoken vocals burst out from beneath the debris almost as if they are the words of that soul condemning and cursing those from its former existence who caused the pain and suffering: “…Abuse yourselves and the ones you love…all I ever wanted to be was truly alive, and now before your eyes I will truly die!”

The final chapter of this saga is “The Surrogate”, comes out as a very bleak and melodic black metal soundtrack to a sort of psychological battle within oneself. The howling and raspy vocal line of “I was never there” repeated over a raw, churning and buzzing guitar riff makes one think of eternal pain and suffering, perhaps even irritation at the realization that no one cared that they were gone or were affected by their passing.

Again…this is some seriously intense listening, if it doesn’t make you feel something than you’re high or in denial. This was recently released this month and is monumental in my opinion, devastating, provocative and honest!!!!!

Fans of: Leviathan and Bethlehem, Krohm, Krieg, Xasthur, Carrion Wraith, and Benighted Leams take note.

Benighted in Sodom contact/audio samples:
http://www.myspace.com/benightedinsodom

Conversation with Immortal Empire

2010-09-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

I do this mainly for the artists and those of us who really give a fuck about the music so some of these might appear on Metal Maniacs eventually, but due to the lenghty wait for them to post on that site I'll be posting them here as well. This solo black metal artist came to me and has been receiving praise throughout the underground for his compositions and rightfully so as this stuff is definitely old school classic bm the way we still love it.

(note) This conversation is casual and shows my usual griping about something, although it's actually not in reality, it just reads that way so view it as sarcasm and don't dwell on it as much as the info given and be sure to check the links out at the end to hear his work.

DOTDR: I was so thrilled when you found me, in fact the more I write reviews and such it seems that the better artists come out of the shadows and I get to work with them. I'm completely surprised that so much good metal, in terms of black metal, is coming out of England these days, although it was sort of the birthplace of metal and has always been a huge exporter of extreme music in all of the styles that I dig, so how's it over there being a solo black metal artist that has managed to continue releasing truly dark and haunting sounds since 2002?

Immortal Empire: Hi, well thank you very much!
This all started off with just having a few ideas that didn't go with my other bands, even though I have always been in metal bands of this sort, my ideas were different and to be honest I don't think anyone (including me) really understood where I was going with them, I just knew I wanted dark and atmospheric and that was it.

Immortal Empire never really started officially until I had stopped playing with other bands in 2008, I came up with the name in 2002 when I decided I wanted to start a solo project and from then it was slow due to commitments for my other bands.

I write stuff with a live set in mind, for example I would plan out each part and as I have played just about every instrument in my bands it helped me to do this.

A lot of solo Black Metal artists don't seem to think about their material purely as a band and just go and record their bits and leave it as that just because it is a solo project (I did at first), but to me really, a recording is supposed to demonstrate what it would be like played live and I've known some people to record something that ends up totally impossible to recreate live. There are so many solo Black Metal artists around these days and I have only just realized the amount looking on Myspace etc. There are way too many for the slightest amount to be realized, but then again some people think it is "true" to be a lost shadow in the underground and lots of them state "looking for label" , but personally I think if you can get somewhere with your passions then it could be done, but due to the masses of bands now, getting anywhere is a long road.

I will continue to look for members for live sets again as playing live is definitely a reward, but again… if it did start to be a band, I would have to be the main decider on the music and I have my personal touches that would need to be understood.

DOTDR: I totally agree with you about the oversaturation of solo bands, I see a lot of it with the drone doom type stuff, which I’m not even a fan of myself, it has to be something truly worthwhile like Fleshpress where it’s a weird almost psychedelic and dark ambient nightmare-scape. I love doom …it’s a weakness of mine, but most of drone metal is just disposable overall and only a few good acts that are rooted in other metal styles can pull it off well.

As for the black stuff, the rawness and adolescent angst that defined the early stuff made it easy for people to just grab an instrument and bang around on it and then call it something like “cult” black metal, but what they fail to realize is that those bands developed and very quickly into the standards we hold others to today, where many of these random acts don’t do it for me period. If these people read up on the old school and actually listened closely to some of the current raw bands that get my foaming at the mouth because they are so awesome like: Prosanctus Inferi, Profantica, Vomitor, Perversor, and even more ethereal stuff like Brown Jenkins , Velvet Cacoon, and Xasthur, they’d see that it’s not just putting something out, there’s a definite melody and/or rhythm and true atmosphere created that makes these acts strong even if the overall sound is lo-fi. There’s a very bold and wide line between say: early Darkthrone, Burzum (although that really is the cut off), Celtic Frost, Satyricon, early Bathory, and what many try to emulate these days, so it shouldn’t be so hard to really miss the distinction between crap and respectability.

So anyway, how's it that really strong acts like yourself are unsigned? There's a few others that are unsigned that I'm working with currently (Ebonmillumini being one) and the level of talent can be substantially greater then when compared to much of the stuff being released by labels, it’s sad to a certain degree. But on the other hand there are also many who choose to stay independent which is the way to go I say, depending on what you really want out of it in the end.

Immortal Empire: I have been asked lots of times by small labels to work with them and many of them are based in places that I didn't even know existed! I am very weary of that sort of thing. I also get approached with emails, etc. by people from companies that claim to be distributers but I have heard so many stories about people getting screwed that way and really only the big bands seem to get the right support so I just carry on as I am.

The benefits of being signed and having CD's produced (for me) would be the funding (having someone do the producing and distributing and paying for recording and advertising). It gets expensive on your own and the first few CD's will always be of a poorer quality sound, but as more merchandise gets sold I save it for better equipment and for better recordings. I do spend lots of hours printing off CD's and sometimes I get so many people ordering stuff that I just lose track and get muddled up with what's been sent out. Advertising takes all year to save for! I suppose if I really wanted to I could find some slaves to take care of these operations so to be honest I would definitely consider a decent label and it would probably give me even more drive as well as help. But, I do cope and I am content in doing things myself, as it is very rewarding although you never know what will happen in the future.

DOTDR: The whole reason that I started Defecation on the Divine Radio was to create a site that gave good labels that put out my favorite stuff a free place to advertise on and also to show support for the true artists through reviews and the webstream. It’s been a year now and at many points feels like I’m getting my wisdom teeth yanked out again, but this time with no anesthetic and done with a pair of household pliers and brute strength. Every other week I want to flush it because some asshole label won’t work with me because they think that writing reviews for them is asking for a handout, some band wants a review and /or interview and then never sends the files in an email or mails the disc and even worse…I spend hours writing up an interview for them and it never comes back, I really can’t stand bullshit period regardless of whose crap it is. I also can understand frustrations on the side of labels as well as bands/artists because you really never know who’s what and it just takes time and caution to get through it all, but no matter what there’s always someone out there looking to screw someone over. Plus, these days there’s really no new band that is good enough to shit on other people like many do, but the ego is too strong for so many.

When you came my way and I checked out the audio on your page, which I obviously liked, I also saw that you have had some pretty positive reviews from Terrorizer and Zero Tolerance, not bad for a solo indie project in a crowded pond. So what is it actually like in the routine and creative process of DIY? Are there any words of advice, encouragement or discouragement to others considering the same route?

Immortal Empire: There are so many Black Metal solo artists about nowadays which makes it harder for each one to achieve success in the industry, but it is also something that incompatible people and loners can do. It is freedom to create and it is taking care of everything the way I want to and there is nobody to say, "that bit sounds wrong".

On the other hand, a lot of the time (in just about every track) I delete parts, I alter parts and change my mind about the feel of bits and change guitar bits for keyboard bits and vise-versa and sometimes a track will totally transform into a totally different song by the end of it. I've never had a plan in mind and stuck to it. Sometimes I do destroy a whole lot and start again if it don't go right and I have recorded tracks and left them to be forgotten because they didn't seem good enough and found them later and thought, “I like them now”.

The reviews though have been very positive and there is always concern at the thought of a bad review, which may come in time. The songs end up like your children, in the fact that you create them and then send them out to the world to be ripped apart. It is very exciting to see your review in a magazine as a solo artist and most reviews that I have had have made me feel that I have accomplished something once more that I was born to do and it has been accepted- that is a satisfying feeling!

I read a lot of the reviews and feel very lucky and also very sorry for some bands as the reviewers can be absolutely relentless and if they are not feeling in the mood for listening to a certain band, then the band is gonna get it! I have been lucky so far but that is also where it is good to have the chance to get a track on the covermount CD so the listeners can judge for themselves and having that chance is a goal in its self too!

There should be more reviews coming up, I think one in Zero Tolerance is next month.

DOTDR: I know how you feel about putting something out there with the chance of having your pound of flesh and liter of blood tossed around or devalued by some stranger. It happens to me in the chemistry thing, you will always have to prove your point and fight egos and moods, including you own, but at least there you have a saving grace that if the data is good people can only argue so much against your presentation. You can also misrepresent the data and that gets ugly really quickly too as you make an ass out of yourself for not for “not knowing what the hell you’re presenting, yet you got those results”, sort of like writing a prize winning novel and not knowing how to read.

I find reviews to be a mixed bag myself, so many put them out there, but they don’t always listen to the album or look into that style or the bands info. Prior to doing so and it weakens the review. If it’s out of my league, or like half of the new Moribund releases… I know Hacavitz and Godless Rising by name, but am not familiar enough with their sounds to feel fully confident reviewing those albums regardless of how much pressure is applied by the PR company to get them done so I haven’t yet.

As you pointed out already, there are so many bands period that even ones like I have just mentioned who put out solid stuff just don’t come my way are sadly one of thousands until someone directs me that way or I just find it on my own.

I’ve also bought my fair share of disappointments based on wrong reviews, I’ve also seen many like most in Decibel that rarely give really solid albums better than a 7 but will rank some juvenile stoner thing like Torche as a 10, I love some of the heavier and better stoner stuff as well, but that band and Floor just don’t work for me and I don’t see the hype in it myself.

I put my full efforts and hours into everything that I do, and it’s not easy to listen to music all day everyday and analyze it, it takes a lot out of me, but in the end it does become worth it when I find that awesome sound and also help a band out who deserves it. I guess it’s safe to say that nothing worth having is easy regardless of what you choose to do, but as this is about Immortal Empire and not my rambling on about everything else under the damn solar sphere, although it’s hard not to get off subject when things really strike a note, talk about what releases you have out, anything that's currently in the works and general info on where we can get some of your stuff?

Immortal Empire: The first CD to be completed was the demo, “Between Necropoliptic Realms”. I made the word “Necropoliptic” up with the words "Necro" and "Apocalyptic". I also have used this idea to create a few words that I have used in songs. The CD really is just demo versions of “Nocturnal (Cursed Rites)” and “Mist of Centuries” along with a couple of "airy" dark ambient tracks. This was also a home recording and really a test run for recording from home.

The next CD was one that kept changing it's title- “Beneath Frozen Forests”, and “Howling Skies” or formerly- “I Await or something similar”, back in 2006 and has been slightly re-mastered and revisited in 2009 to be worthy of releasing. This CD was actually the first plans of Immortal Empire and includes the tracks “Benight the Howling Horde (which was the revisited track)”, “Dark are the hours”, and “I Await (The Ravishing and Flame Adorned)”, which the last two were formed using the first ever ideas I had for my solo stuff that I didn't want to waste.

In the winter of 2009 I recorded the self-titled album. I had stopped playing in other bands by this time as people tended to lack commitment, and not having enough members to do things right and drummers were always very few in these parts, and one drummer always had at least two bands going already and could never fully commit so I concentrated on my own stuff.

In November 2008 I saw a message from Terrorizer asking for a track to be put on the “Terrorizer Unsigned CD”, so I re-recorded the two tracks from the 2005 demo (which were my personal favourites) to submit and I used my new ideas to create the rest of the album. These tracks were heavily influenced by Hammer Horror films and put together with poems/lines that I had written. There are some main parts of this CD that were influenced by classical music too. That CD was written and recorded within two months which was quite an achievement as far as recording goes!.

The next CD was the latest EP. titled , “A New Darkness Begins”, which was a more experimental one with different tunings and a more varied use of lyrical concepts including writers such as: Tolkien, Lovecraft and very old poetical works (Not too many direct influences I must say but more so of language use). The main body of literature was still the old horror films and fantasy (Satan, Witchcraft, and one thing I am always including -Vampirism, all things from a fantasy point of view). This has six tracks: an intro, an outro, and four main tracks. The outro track I had put into a visual piece that was a short video of walking amongst an impressive early morning snow-filled local graveyard in mid-Winter, which is also on the Myspace page.

I am currently in the process of writing a new album, which is a little heavier and a little faster. Elements of old and new are there and with the personal touches that I have become accustomed to it will definitely be recognized as Immortal Empire.

There are CD's and t-shirts for sale on the Myspace site and occasionally there is some stuff available on eBay but generally if I get an email asking for stuff I'll give a Paypal address and use Paypal.

DOTDR: Wow, you have quite a catalogue going so far!!!!!
And as mentioned already, you've been around as a strong solo act for some years now, so do you think you'll keep it going? I think it'd be worth it.

Immortal Empire: Definitely, for as long as I am still able to play!

DOTDR: I miss being able to play, I just don’t have the time these days, but I have nice equipment.

Aside from dark literary inspirations, mentioned earlier, what are some of the bands that you find yourself inspired by, even if you don't try to sound like them per se but want to create a certain feel and experience in the track that you produce? I'm completely obsessed with Italian Doom/Horror/prog stuff and kraut rock obscurities, and have a beautiful 5-string jazz master bass that never gets used to do groove along with that stuff .

Immortal Empire: To me, music is all about atmosphere… something to be immersed in. I have been inspired by a lot of different things and I think a wider scope is better for development and finding a personal style. With music, I have interest in progressions / changes / certain patterns especially diminished or classical sounding. I think as I've developed my own techniques I don't find myself looking for inspiration from others as much as I did.

Some of the bands that I have listened to in the past and recently that I have admired for energy and atmosphere are bands like: Theatres des Vampires (early years and especially live), the ruggedness of bands such as Possessed and Desaster(for the AngelWhore album), the older Hecate Enthroned with their heavy synth sound and bands such as: My Dying Bride, Creaming Jesus, The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Alien Sex Fiend, Cinema Strange and Wolfsheim; all for their personal strong atmospheres and dark tones.

No doubt I will have some sound changes in the future but it won't stray too far from what it is now.

DOTDR: I’m a huge Alien Sex Fiend fan, I really dig a lot of the old post punk/dark.death rock stuff like ASF, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Siouxsie and the Banshees, all of the early forms of The Cult including Theatre of Hate.

I also saw that you are on ReverbNation, a lot of great bands do a lot on there, but I've never asked about how well it works. I have an account but I haven't used it, is it at all worth the extra effort for or is it another free site for bands to throw away valuable time on and still be one diamond among millions of turds?

Immortal Empire: (laugh) Personally I think if you have the time then like any site -yes, it is all good promotion and advertising. ReverbNation is kind of an all in one control panel for all of your music sites as you can link all of your profiles/sites up to keep an eye on the overall progress. I don't know a lot about how it works yet but the good thing with this site optionalit the things like widgets and the media player that you can paste into any profile on the net and I haven't yet done it but you can get your tracks made onto professionaly made CD's to order including booklet/inlay etc. The site deserves credit, you can see which band is in what position in the local and worldwide charts (I had been number two in the Eastern region for quite a while until The Rotted crept up and took it though that was inevitable, I'm happy at number three:) and as it is worldwide there's bound to be benefits if used correctly because the intention of this site is mainly for putting stuff about not just on the site.

DOTDR: I’ll have to reset my account and update it for the website, I just have so little time that even that small effort can be a drain. Then again, the more people who read and hear about the great stuff out there more support will start to show, and that’s what I do it for. I also do a lot with power electronic/neo-folk/dark ambient/post industrial stuff on that site as well as metal so it has a great mix of obscurities as well.

As for the interview part, that's pretty much it for me, is there anything you'd like to add?

Immortal Empire: Yes, thank you very much, I kind of plan Immortal Empire one year at a time, I take the first part of the year experimenting and writing and the end of the year recording. I have drafted out the new album for maybe the start of next year. Setting deadlines never works for me so I will always say "the end of the year or start of next year" but keep an eye out for progress on the Myspace page and there are some compilation CD's coming up that will include some Immortal Empire tracks on so that too will be posted on Myspace page and most probably be for sale there too.

Cheers! and thanks too to anybody that reads this far:)
-Carl.

DOTDR: Thanks so much for the great responses and insight into what you do, it interests the hell out of me as I never went into seriously making music due to my never having the drive or opportunity and love to hear the inside info on what REALLY goes on. It really sheds light on what really goes on and that to me is just as important as squawking about an album for 10 lines.

Immortal Empire info,contact, and audio samples:
http://www.myspace.com/immortalempyre
http://www.reverbnation.com/immortalempire

Interview with Ebonillumini

2010-09-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Lurking somewhere between the realms of life and death, floating between both existences dancing among the shadows and drizzle of an English morning comes this amazing band, Ebonillumini. Having been around for a few years now and also releasing a phenomenal demo, The Ebon Channel, this duo is another avant-garde black metal band to surface. I’ve been a HUGE fan for the last 6 months or so since I discovered them on a compilation of UK Black Metal bands and was instantly engulfed by their sound. Many bands that go this route are successful as their background is generally in another form of metal of neo-folk/pagan and these projects become an outlet for a change and expression of something different. On the other hand there is a decent amount of exhausted mediocrity or just plain weak attempts to create a more neitherworldly or dreamlike environment within the music that will begin to surface as does with most good things, although drone doom never caught on with me too well.

It seems as if half of the stuff that I’ve reviewed as of late have been more of the atmospheric/pagan/avant-garde black metal and they have all been promising and so far delivering on that promise even with the nay-sayers labeling it all as weak and the labels promoting it as “shoe-gaze”. Maybe it’s just my personal bias as I’m a huge neo-folk/pagan/ambient fan and always have followed that stuff fairly closely and enjoy literature, and love to see some of that influence in music and art. I was wrong about Germany winning the World Cup and was almost certain that it was a sure bet because of a weird dream but I still couldn’t bring myself to make that bet, but I would be willing to make this bet that many will find this band to be as enthralling as I do regardless of their personal preference in metal/music. So without further delay, here’s my brief interview with the band and one of my most recent and longer lasting musical obsessions:

DOTDR: Although some elements of black metal are present, especially from the more ethereal and folksy styles of BM as heard in artists like: Alcest, Lifelover, Finnr's Cane, Sorgeldom, Lik. You fit perfectly in that void between the neo-pagan/neo-folk sound as heard from artists like: Ataraxia, Olen K, Allerseelen and the other artists mentioned. How do you guys view your sound and what do you want to portray through it?

Christina: I view our sound as Avant-garde black metal neo-classical folk!
The lyrical & musical concepts are intended to fascinate, disturb, evoke and entice, to reveal emotions & visualizations. The atmospheres created are the reactions of light illuminating deep inside all things dark, forbidden & shadowy. Our task as The Monk & Maiden is to convey and release the hidden stories, secrets, sadness and beauty hidden therein. The theatrical decadence of the avant-garde black metal domain has given me balance as a performer, writer, singer and musician to experiment into greater depths with the darker sides of my creativity.

J.D. Tait: I’ve always had a love for In The Woods… but only had the chance to express some of the atmospheres in small parts through my other projects. Ebonillumini gave the opportunity to create an entire release awash with dusky dark atmospheres. I would of hated to just imitate ITW so I tried to incorporate some stranger elements but the element which is most unique to our sound is Christina’s dark jazzy vocals which as far as I know no avant-garde Black Metal band have incorporated thus far. We wish to portray our journey through our part fiction part non fiction travels through areas of the world with elements of personal, historical & fantasy based concepts.

DOTDR: What do you guys have planned for the band?

Christina: We are planning on continual creative works which will expand endlessly in the form of our conceptual approach to be discovered with our forthcoming debut album.

JD: Our debut album is the next stop & will be following close to our demo but with some blacker moments as well as some stranger avant-garde moments. Once this release has birthed its gift we may start to think about the possibility of performing live. One thing you can always expect from us is the unexpected & to never close the door on evolving the bands sound.

DOTDR: Are you hoping to stay unsigned and independent (I totally support that route myself if a band can do it successfully)?

Christina: I am hoping that the work we produce will obtain optimum awareness; it is very difficult to achieve this without label backing.

JD: You can only successfully self release when you have built the foundations & gained a solid fan base. This is what we’re in the process of doing right now.

DOTDR: Are there any other releases out there besides "The Ebon Channel" and I've gotten several people ask me directly about how to get that release because they read the review and heard the tracks on the show/audiostream?

Christina: At the moment there are no other releases available out there ‘The Ebon Channel’ is our only release, which can be purchased through our myspace. However our debut album is now 90% complete.
www.myspace.com/ebonillumini

DOTDR: Is there anything that you'd like to touch on that hasn't been so far ?

JD: The avant-garde BM scene is flourishing at the moment & as always when a scene grows a lot of good but unoriginal bands start to appear. Your job as the listener is to discern between the dross & the truly unique bands that have something new to bring to the table, mediocrity is not something to praised.

DOTDR: I honestly can’t thank you both enough for your time and creations, your visions have begun to manifest themselves already and I’ve gotten massive responses to your music from my site. I’m looking to the album and everything that you guys create, as it is more of an experience than just another atmospheric black metal album. Best of luck with all of your prospects and keep evolving and being

For band info,contact, and audio samples:
http://www.myspace.com/ebonillumini

You really HAVE to check this stuff out!!!!

Interview with Mystified

2010-09-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

DOTDR: Upon receipt of your album Passing Through the Outer Gates and reading the info card, I was really interested because the whole idea of that Eulogy Series by FFS was to have each artist express their perception of the death experience in their music. Death is a fascinating concept to work with and it’s always pretty intriguing to see what peoples own perceptions are of it. In listening to Mystified I was pleasantly surprised at how meditative and celestial your take on it was, it really wasn’t very dark but more of a sense of achieving enlightenment. How do view the concept of death and what did you really want to convey in this release?

Mystified: Well, death is usually seen as an ending point to life, and in a lot of ways it is one. We lose our consciousness of this world (apparently) and leave our earthly connections behind. In another way, though, maybe death is a new beginning-- a transition of the soul away from the body. If it is our fleshy forms that cause so much suffering, then to depart the body might actually be a relief, though a scary one. In "Outer Gates" I imagined I was portraying the journey of a soul, from the moment it left its body, through various stages (or "gates"), until it found a place of rest at a distant quiet point. Actually, to me, the music is dark, though not as oppressive as some dark ambient releases.

DOTDR: I actually view death the same way as you do, as a sort of freedom as opposed to an end. This release definitely had the feeling of a souls journey and was still dark in sound, just not so ominous and morbid. Was there any specific response that you had wanted to invoke in the listener? What do you aspire to create in your artistic form of Mystified?

Mystified: I definitely wanted the release to be enjoyed as a whole. A person is welcome to listen to songs individually, if they like, but part of the point of the cd is to portray a complete transition. This involves a sad and moody beginning, changes and transformations both exciting and scary, and finally a peaceful resolution. So I was hoping the listener might find this trip to be engaging and might find a point of resolution at the end by listening. As for my artistic goals as Mystified, there honestly have been many, but one of my main goals has been to find music in the world around me, and to fuse different ideas of what might be called "atmospheric". For example, I have used data I gathered from flowers and star patterns to create music, and even actual radio waves generated by lightning. I did not use these techniques in "Outer Gates", but I did try to create a broad picture of atmosphere, with lots of expanse, and nice, graceful subtleties going on.

DOTDR: The album definitely is best as a whole and I really can’t see it in parts myself. The whole thing about using star patterns and radio waves generated by lightning, that’s completely awesome and is one of those facts that will make me run and get a copy of something. I’m always up for the unusual and new, so the most bizarre and intricate audio is more than just sounds for me, I really enjoy Japanese noise and experimental and have always been a big follower of Nurse With Wound, Einsturzende Neubauten, Monolake, and Biosphere, with all of them there is a change in styles from some groovier bits, jazz even, minimal, and so on. It’s as if each album is still distinctly them, but it’s not like the others either. Tell us a bit about Mystified as a whole (past, present and future)?

Mystified: Mystified is my main musical entity. I've been around for over a decade, and composed in many different styles. Looking back, I would say that the main element of Mystified is one of growth, which I feel I can observe through the years. I'd also hope that there has been a consistent insistence on a certain quality, especially in terms of sound and achieving atmosphere. If you were to listen to my releases in chronological order, you could definitely notice trends-- such as primitive ambient, phonographic, minimal drone, droney techno, and so forth. At this point, I have quite a few pieces. Rather than discard them, I keep them, for various purposes. I like to listen to the best pieces from each phase of growth.

DOTDR: I’ve always found ambient in all its forms to be fascinating because the compositions are generally cinematic, even the most minimal of them. They somehow conjure up images in your mind and play out a narrative derived from your unconscious and conscious responses to the sounds; it’s almost psychedelic in many ways as well. How do as an ambient artist view the style?

Mystified: I think your description is excellent. With "Outer Gates" it was especially interesting, because, for me, true ambient is abstract. It goes back to the original notion-- something quiet being played in the background, barely heard. Ambient music is a lot like elements of the world around us-- the sky, moon, stars, and such. They beautify or transform our surroundings, sometimes with us hardly noticing. But in "Outer Gates", when I submitted some minimal, "naturalistic" bell drones, Chris at the label First Fallen Star pushed me to add more to them, striving for more power and complexity. So I think especially with this release I explored the cinematic style of ambient, rather than the strictly abstract.

DOTDR: I definitely noticed the bells and found that they fit the compositions well, but I also really enjoy the abstract aspects of the music and this release was definitely abstract. I’m really drawn to most things abstract, I don’t typically go for simple and straightforward unless it’s something specific. Aside from this album and the theme of death, what themes/ideas influence your music, if they are anything specific?

Mystified: Certainly nature and the world around me, which I believe stems from some cosmic consciousness, or at least a great primal source. In this respect, I have done lots of stuff about urban environments (since I live in one, and it's also part of my atmosphere), tribal environments (for me pretty imaginary, but indicative of some primal atmosphere), science fiction, carrying with it a fascination with space as a part of the universe we are just beginning to explore, and many other themes. I would say I tend to be less emotive. I am moody, but not emotive. There is a trend in ambient I would like to call "Emo-bient". It's been around from the beginning. But I tend to shy away from that, a little, from the syrupy, gosh golly pieces. Feeling in Mystified is usually tempered by darkness, or maybe maturity.

DOTDR: I’ve been really inspired to start creating art based on urban environments and even did some architectural stuff for a conceptual art class that involved sketching of dilapidated old industrial areas. I really love the concrete and clutter of the urban environment, graffiti, trash, it all has a sculptural aesthetic I think. For me art is very personal and it’s not always easy to express what you want to and then be open to explaining it to others who might find it confusing or in my case disturbing. How do you view music, do you see it as something that can be very personal?

Mystified: Well, I do attribute a certain importance to the stuff I've done, which may be silly. But it is part of the human ego to connect with its creations. Honestly, most of my music is abstract and theoretical, so I feel less like I am exposing myself emotionally and more like I am interpreting or re-creating the world around me. "Outer Gates" is an exception, as with Chris at the label pushing me I really had to dig deep so you are seeing more of Mystified as a person in this cd.

DOTDR: I really respect what you have created with Passing Through the Outer Gates and look forward to hearing more of your stuff in the future. In closing, is there anything that you’d like to add?

Mystified: Thanks to Chris at First Fallen Star for his inspiration, to my fans for their dedication, and thanks also to you Janet for interviewing me and for your thoughtful and searching questions. Don't forget to visit me at http://www.mystifiedmusic.com

An Interview with Phragments

2010-09-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

DOTDR: I see that you’ve had a good number of releases prior to Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood, so tell us about Phragments (it’s inception, motivation, and anything that you feel relevant).

Matej: Phragments is a duo from Bratislava, Slovakia. It's a project of me and my wife, where I am responsible for the musical output and my wife Sonia takes care about the visuals at live events. We have started Phragments in 2002. Our first material (EP "We are all beasts", live CD "Switzerland Occupied", full-length "Homo Homini Lvpvs" and the second live CD "Awaken the Wolves") was released on our own label Construct.Destroy.Collective.
The second full-length album "The Burning World" was released on the Israeli label The Eastern Front. After that there was the three-way split "Scontrum Act VIII" on the Polish label Rage in Eden. Finally the third full-length album was released on the US label Malignant Records. My last piece so far is the collaborative album "Mysteries of the Greylands", created together with the Slovak dark ambient project Korinth, released on the young Italian label Greytone. I have also contributed material on a number of compilations.
As for my motives - well since my childhood I was always into music. In my teenage years I started to love the darker areas of art. Back then I was a lot into doom, black metal and gothic rock. Around 1996 I discovered Cold Meat Industry with it's amazing roster of artists. The Swedish scene has influenced me a lot and I think you can hear that on the overall sound of Phragments. Later I discovered other areas of industrial music, noise, PE and all sorts of other genres. I'm very open in terms of style, but I am very picky as well. The need to start Phragments was motivated by the need to express certain difficult emotions and ideas. This has not changed since I started the project. I'm glad that my music did find it's way to listeners all around the world. Their feedback is one of the things that keeps me motivated to create more music.

DOTDR: There’s definitely an emotional power contained in the music, which is one of the main factors in making it so strong. I’m also hugely interested in those labels and sound you had just mentioned.
Upon first listen your sound is intense and also archaic, there’s a lot of soul in the tracks created and each one sort of forms this experience of the angry dead resurrecting themselves to wage a plague upon those that did them wrong. On your MySpace Page under Sounds Like you put “Victims of genocides spitting fire into your eyes”, which is absolutely true in what I hear in your sound. It’s sort of the ideal combination of In Slaughter Natives with Arditi, you get the industrial militaristic and nihilism effect of one mixed with the more haunting and ethereal orchestral of the other. Obviously you intend to provoke a response within the listener and that for me, as already said, is what makes your sound so powerful so in your words: what do you want to create with Phragments?

Matej: Honestly, I have to say that what you just described is probably the closest anyone has got to what I want to communicate through my music. True, I put a lot of my soul into my music, sometimes almost too much. The music of Phragments has a lot of ingredients. There is the orchestral pathos, the mournful melodies, the noisier outbursts and last but not least, the ever-present darkness.
When I compose music, I tend to think of it as very visually evocative. I was always fascinated by large spaces created within music - that is probably why I use so much reverb. My music is music for dreaming, for contemplation in solitude, and even though nowadays it sounds as a cliché, through my music I try to create movies for the mind. I tend to perceive my music as very serious, dealing with serious topics and difficult (yet not necessarily negative) emotions. I never thought of my own music as fun, although I myself have a lot of fun during the creative process. It's hard to see my compositions as "songs", since they are often quite long and repetitive. This is one of my compositional tools - I lead the listener into a slightly different state of perception and after that I can have a better access to his / her emotions. I have always tried to provoke responses with my music - in my opinion all music is political, since it communicates some sort of stance or worldview. Even the stupidest pop music communicates things - it often evokes a vision of a perfect world, ideal people, well-structured relationships, etc. My music, on the other hand, points out the aspects of human nature and the world as such which people don't want to see. My music is a sort of mirror - I hope people end up feeling and thinking a lot after listening to it. And in regard to the projects you have mentioned - I have been fascinated by In Slaughter Natives since the mid-90s, yet I'm not a big fan of Arditi.

DOTDR: It’s really great to hear someone, an artist, say that they intend to invoke some sort of experience through their creations whether it be audio or visual, and of course some thought. I think that’s part of why the dark ambient/power electronic/martial sounds continue to grow and prosper, there's a lot of responses that are triggered while listening to it making it more than just audio most times. As for the darker atmopsheres, there’s something more to the darker and more disturbing emotions that makes them so enticing, there’s a thrill associated with them as well as mystery and a primal urge toward conflict. I also agree with you fully that music is political as is all art to some extent.
In my art I tend to want to create images that are intense and disturbing. Many people feel compelled to like them because of the detail and skill but can’t always get past the expressive content. I rarely finish them becuase hte feeling fades and I either emss them up and throw them out or just leave them unfinished. I’ve always had really strange dreams, I’m talking vivid ones where your entire family, friends, and even enemies sit down at a table made of carcasses and they openly plan on executing you next, and that's my main source of visual imagery. I’ve also always been able to find a soothing aesthetic in things that are solemn and dreary or even morbid and diabolical, just as there’s ugliness in much of what we deem as desirable, especially the superficial nature of our being. So given that, what influences in your life do you feel come out in your compositions?

Matej: Another cliché comes to my mind - I am influenced by the world around me, haha. But seriously, it's stuff that I see, hear, feel, read about that influences me. Psychology, anthropology, history are the main sources. There are personal issues as well as global ideas that I try to reflect with my music. I like to keep the interpretation of some of the meanings within my music on the listener. Politically though, I try to keep things simple and clear - my music is anti-totalitarian in every sense. I would be happy if all listeners of Phragments would see it the same way.

DOTDR: I saw that statement you made about Nazi’s and totalitarianists not being welcome and I really liked it. I didn’t know if it would be too upfront to mention it here at first but now I see that you’re pretty open about your music and expressions. I don’t support arrogance and stupidity of any kind, ignorance is curable but stupidity is forever.
I definitely feel a sort of freedom and space in your music that lends itself to more of a trance inducing state or a film, as you mentioned earlier, then anything political and appreciate that as much as I do some of the political stuff ( I really love crust punk stuff like Discharge and Doom, there was a real message and it was actually quite positive). For me when it comes to music and art, there’s so much to say but I have to stop somewhere, so in doing so is there anything left that you’d like to mention?

Matej: Well, there is a lot of stuff to talk / write about, so if any of the stuff that I wrote has provoked any questions for you, let me know and I will be happy to answer them ;-). Thanks a lot for the interview so far, I really liked your questions.

DOTDR: Honestly, thanks so much for your time and a brief look at what you create, it’s really remarkable and definitely deserves recognition. I actually love to correspond and interview the artists that make a huge impact on myself, it’s interesting to get the creators actual perspective on what they do. Studying visual art as a minor, I always hated critiques, but now I actually understand why they are so important and try to really develop my ideas and output and can really see it in other peoples work (or lack of it). I’ll definitely check out your other releases and wish and your wife the best with Phragments and any other artistic forms that you create.

Phargments online@ http://www.constructdestroy.com/

Phragments review here: http://defecationonthedivineradio.blogspot.com/2010/05/phragements-earth-shall-not-cover-their.html

Lamentations of the Ashen – In the Burden of the Hearts Plaint (Basement Cult Records 2010)

2010-09-12T16:01:00.000-07:00

Yet another solo atmospheric metal project that combines the intensity and skill of a full band within a single individual, Lamentations of the Ashen brings the somewhat warm and beautiful melodies of the more avant-garde black metal of Alcest, Lifelover, Celestia, and the stripped down, howling and turbid antics of say Xathur or Burzum.

The album opener, “ Tresses of Enamoured Auburn”, is a 17 minute dense and misty indulgence through tragedy, isolation, and even hope. There are ambient textures, haunting cries, and a solemn melody that all together make this track complex in theme and sound but never distract one away from unintentionally being swept up in it.

“See My Struggle” continues with the howling cries and muddy solemn atmospheres, but showcases more of the tremolo picking and distorted guitar elements that really bring in the ancient and cryptic sound of a skin and bones black metal track. The funereal organ and the echoing of the vocals from behind the mix create a whirlpool of the chills of a deep autumn night approaching.

What really draws me in to much of the avant-garde and atmospheric black metal is the incredible amount emotion that they can capture in the tracks, plus my long running obsession with Ambient/martial/post industrial tunes. There’s almost always a forlorn and tragic feel present, but then there’s some sort of hope or inspiration that shows face for a brief moment, and all the while the tracks are still able to remain in the shadows and exist in condemnation. This album, as do many that go by this style, sounds more like a classic horror, tragedy, or ghost story novel than purely a collection of audio tracks. Essentially, In the Burden of the Heart’s Plaint is a soundtrack for deep thought and inspection.

Band info and contact, audio samples:
http://www.myspace.com/lamentationsoftheashenbm

Haeresiarchs of Dis - Denuntiatus Cinis (Moribund 2010)

2010-09-12T15:18:00.001-07:00

Haeresiarchs of Dis is a one man US black metal project that manages to stir up massive furors of Emperor (circa In The Nightside Eclipse). The tracks are total hell storms of absolute symphonic black chaos but with every bit of sophistication as would be expected from a full band and yet Cernunnos and a few contributors manage to launch a full scale sonic storm that can not only hold it’s own weight but definitely devastates many acts out there today.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for anything that reminds me of: classic Emperor, Limbonic Art, Dark Fortress and the like, but I’m also pretty stoked when a new black metal release strays from the notable minimal, raw, and avant-garde styles and just brings me back the occultic and epic sounds of years past. There’s an atmosphere of an almost pure morbidity and cinematic existence within this album that cannot be ignored nor denied.

Band contact/info/audio samples:
http://www.toadstoolcomics.com/dis/

Mystified - Passing Through the Outer Gates: Eulogy Series volume I (First Fallen Star 2010)

2010-09-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Yet another essential release from newest collaborator, First Fallen Star, and a unique perspective from the musical perspective of death, Thomas Park (Mystified) sets out with this release to capture the experience of death from his angle and does so brilliantly.

If you imagine the experience of death as an ethereal transcendence, nothing violent or demonic, depressing or pessimistic, then you’d be in perfect agreement with Mystified’s post mortem atmospheres. Somewhat neo-classical and space ambient, Mystified paints images of eternal drifting and cosmos on top of a fairly minimal and spacious background. Each track sort of echoes and ricochets through a massive tunnel of space-time as would the soul as it journeys away from the mortal body into the absolute oblivion. If anything can convincingly illustrate the sort of Nirvana to be found beyond Earthly and mortal constraints it’s Mystified with Passing Through the Outer Gates. These are some seriously moving compositions!!!!

The album packaging is equally intricate as it’s presented in an A5 digipak with silver foil embossed lettering and a specially die-cut cover with a coffin shaped hole that reveals a small fraction of the awesome album artwork that lies underneath. There’s some serious care taken in each release in terms of artwork, packaging, and of course…the sounds.

Purchasing info and audio samples:
http://www.firstfallenstar.com

Dense Vision Shrine - Time Lost in Oblivion (First Fallen Star 2010)

2010-09-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Dense Vision Shrine is yet another artistic character embodied by Karsten Hamre and a simultaneous release on First fallen Star with his self titled acts FFS debut Through the Eyes of a Stranger. The title of Time Lost in Oblivion couldn’t have been better chosen for this release as the sounds herein sound as ancient and drifting as they do completely otherworldly.

Each track captures some alien world field recordings and then morphs them through a moderately warm and distorted ne-classical medium. The metallic clanks serve as a backdrop to the vortex of soft ambient hums and whirrs that circulate about your brain like a skilled hypnotist. Each track is stark, barren, isolationist drone, but never without any presence of life.

The tracks remind me of the image from Eloy’s The Tides Return Forever, where a man stands in solitude on a parched and cracked planet’s surface staring into oblivion as a gigantic beam of white light glares out at him from the center of the universe. That image exactly sums up what you will experience through Time Lost in Oblivion.

For Audio Samples and contact:
http://www.myspace.com/densevisionshrine

For purchasing:
http://www.firstfallenstar.com

Crisis - Reaktor 4 (Syndrom Records 2010)

2010-09-10T17:17:00.001-07:00

This is one of my new brilliant finds in the dark ambient/noise/industrial genre and although I haven’t had the actual album on hand to fully check out in detail I can comment on my first impressions of the work.

The sound is very mechanical, hypnotic, and almost hallucinatory, sort of like what the old main frame computers bleeping and chirping would sound like on LSD. Amidst the cold electronic whirrs and hums, rumbles and blurps, there’s an aesthetically warm, almost analog effect to the tracks like “Neutron” and “Strom” that remind me of some of Clusters darker moments.

Maybe some of the fuzzy electronic babble is some tonal alien lingo, that’s a definite possibility as these tracks really do somehow speak from within the feedback and variable frequencies, just listen to “Evakuierung” with it’s muddled and incoherent speech and you’ll know exactly what I mean. It’s almost as f you’re waking up from a deep narcotic nap and barely able to clearly discern any environmental stimulus, but there are some definitely familiar elements, living elements.

Definitely check out the audio at:
http://www.myspace.com/syndromrecords02

Winterfylleth – The Mercian Sphere (Candlelight Records 2010)

2010-09-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

Based out of Manchester, England and deriving their name and inspirations from their homeland and history, one can only expect the majestic and epic atmospheres that these guys deliver. The band are described as playing: “English Black Metal, with traditional Northern European Folk and ambient overtones. “, and nothing could be closer to the truth.

In terms of sound it’s somewhere in the Wolves in the Throne Room, Blut Aus Nord (Memoria Vetusta II), Altar of Plagues, Twilight (Monument to Time End) realm with a bit of the more pagan Bathory albums. The tracks are very dense, the vocals are ferocious but more deliberate in execution than just merely being part of the atmosphere. The mood of the album fluctuates between conjuring up images of a furious firestorm and the blazing violent winds where everything is charred and destroyed, the pure horror and chaos, and then the sort of intense memory of it when looking at the damage after it had passed.

The mixture of the tempestuous parts and the more subdued bits cover the range of war, victory, and even despair in some of the more acoustic sounding passages as heard at the beginning of “The Honour of Good Men” before the ravaging kicks in. As with bands like Winterfylleth and the others mentioned, there’s always a devastating storm, some really deep and insightful morose atmospheres, and a sense of pride and strength within the album and sometime each track. The folk elements are not over bearing here in anyway and nothing is cliché or redundant so the result is a melodic and solid piece of modern black metal. Along with this release I’d definitely recommend checking out Woe and bay area band Embers, both they really capture the extremities of the various styles they mix and the final result is pretty thrilling and intense.

Winterfylleth:
http://www.myspace.com/winterfylleth

Karsten Hamre - Through the Eyes of a Stranger

2010-09-06T20:25:00.001-07:00

One of my newest collaborators and gaining ground on Malignants stronghold over me in terms of awesome consecutive dark ambient releases, First Fallen Star has delivered a handful of neuron scrambling releases one of which being this one here. Karsten Hamre is no stranger to the scene, having releases work under aliases: Arcane Art, Penitent, The Flux Komplex, veiled Allusions, Defraktor, and now his own name and Dense Vision Shrine. Karsten is also a visual artist and not only designs his own cover art but also does live shows.

Through The Eyes of a Stranger is one of those rare albums that sort of stops time when it come on because it has a certain substance that completely catches your undivided attention whether you intend it ot or not. Tracks like " Keepers of the Bones",and "Remember the Past" showcase organic textures and an alluring and almost warm analog feel that instantly brings to mind the more cosmic and dronier work of Tangerine Dream (Phaedra,Rubicon) and Cluster (71), yet they are created using digital equipment. Other tracks such as "Darkness Gently Falling" and "The End of the World" tread the black waters of minimal symphonic scores as the synth swatches feel as if they are being frozen to a dead stop as they come toward you, then suddenly they speed up and whoosh past you to almost dissapear into some unseen void.

The brilliance of Karsten Hamre is obvious in the way that he can blend cosmic/celestial drone, neo-classical, dark ambient, and an almost psychedelic or maybe half-psychotic state of mind into seven tracks that somehow actually do put the listener in the mind and reality of someone else. This would be the perfect soundtrack to a film in which the enitre film is shot through the yes and experiences of the main character, you never see him/her, but you see and hear how that person interacts with their surroundings. This is definitely one of my new hot picks currently and highly recommended to those who enjoy the more cinematic aspects to their ambient.

For fans of: Tangerine Dream, Cluster, Klaus Schulze, Phelios, Collapsar

Audio samples and contact info:
http://www.myspace.com/karstenhamre

art info:
http://khamre.deviantart.com/

related acts:
Dense Vision Shrine: http://www.myspace.com/densevisionshrine
Penitant: http://www.myspace.com/penitentno

Poison Tongue-Lick You Sweety (No Visible Scars 2010)

2010-08-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

Lethal and addicting!!!! Make no mistake, this is one seriously dense horror narrative told through a power electronics format and with the coldness of the electronic whirs and clanks cunningly maneuvering through the haze of rumble and hums of bass toned feedback, and no other medium could capture this accurate of a slasher or insanity scenario. As each track plays out like the soundtrack to a scene in a psychological thriller you get to thoroughly experience the graphic stalking events of the maniac and the adrenalizing suspense as you would in watching a classic thrasher filmor reading a really great book on weird murders. Artists like Poison Tongue have the natural ability to create the most intimate and graphicly horrifying experiences that only can be understood through the experience of listening. I have to admit that my mind mine is completely thirsty for this album and seems to get thirstier after each listen.

Tracks like "The Lizard Lord", "Diabolos", and "Lust" build up the suspense as you travel through the inner workings of a derranged sexual sadist, complete with inaudible human voices in the distance that are either a result of delusions or are a display of how muddled his reality is, as his only true reality is his quest for inflicting excrutiating pain on others. The tracks seem to lead up to "interlude", which is a throbbing bassline, pulsing, ordered chaos...i.e. the absolute climax to where the flesh is finally severed and the perps sense of sadistic thrill hits it's maximum. The album then comes to a perfect close with an almost warm buzz and hum of the dark ambient on "Ripping".

Not everyone has the capacity to sit and watch and read some of the stuff that is depicted through sound on here, but thankfully I CAN and gladly do. Influenced by the great Giallo films and following in the blood trail left by the dark and brilliant works of acts like: Atrax Morgue, Navicon Torture Technologies, Steel Hook Prosthesis, Rasthof Dachau, and similar artists, Poison Tongue will deliver the stark post-industrial soundscapes and a massive mind fuck with it while walking the fraying tightrope over purely apocalyptic audio.

Released on classic black chrome C-30 casettes by one of the most gripping and promising labels in extreme audio, No Visible Scars,and packaged in a 7' EP sleeve these sounds will rip through you like a nice butchers blade through soft and still warm flesh.

Avaliable for purchase through Malignant Records and Hells Headbangers webstores (just click on thei logos at the top of the page and it'll direct you to those sites)or email NVS directly at: novisiblescars@gmail.com and they'll get back to you asap.

For audio samples, they are on webstream here so you might catch it, but also go to: http://www.myspace.com/novisiblescarslabel

Woe – Quietly, Undramatically (Candlelight Records 2010)

2010-08-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

Woe, is right!!!!! This album is an aggressive slab of angst fueled by the scalding of suffering and frustration, it honestly reminds me of other US bands: Nachtmystium (Assassins era), Twlight (current line-up), Ludicra, Embers, Minsk, and Neurosis. It seems as though so many of the tremor inducing new bands want to take: the stripped down distortion, battering ram percussion, and raw aggression of black metal; depressing and ultimately heavy swarms of fury; barbituate induced pseudo-psychedelia, creating a half conscious somnial sort of atmosphere; classic crust rhythms and influence, and pull from those influences to create the devastating intensity of some of their forebears. Needless to say, the album title is ironic as this is anything but quiet and undramatic!

It’s bands like Woe and the ones mentioned above that make todays pool of talent one of the best ever because the few that strive to do something legit and right really have a lot of foundation to pull from: crust/hardcore/psychedelic (new and old)/industrial/black metal/ doom/death metal/grind/thrash/ambient/jazz……
The true mark of a badass band/artist to me is that they do one of two things: something solid and classic, but still stands as a worthy addition to that genre/style; pull influences from all over the spectrum of awesome sounds and execute it well, as does Woe. Melodic, catchy, stomping, pounding, melody, aggressive fusing black metal with crust and some sludge doom psychedelia, you won’t be disappointed with Woe.

I definitely hear a lot of the Minsk/Twlight/Nachtmystium influence on this album so if you dig those sounds you’ll be wanting to embark on this listening experience. I’ve been listening to music all day regardless of my mood to at least get an idea of what some of the massive pile of audio coagulating on my “to do list” is and this one was dramatic enough to be that sort of caffeine buzz to relieve my semi coma state and inspire a review. That should say something for the power behind this one, really good pick for Candlelight too. Set for release October 12,2010 and oyu better believe I want to get my offical copy as this one will be on continual play with me for time to come.

Chekc them out at:
http://quietly.woeunholy.com/

Krohm/Tenebrae in Perpetuum - Split

2010-08-24T18:58:00.001-07:00

Krohm/Tenebrae In Perpetuum- Split (Debemur Morti 2010)

A split released conceived by two bands drawing upon their Italian ancestry and their darkest internal and personal inspirations to create beautiful yet ominous tracks of bleak aural landscapes. Each band furnishes three tracks that prompt the listener to experience the feel of the old world, the beautiful and dilapidated buildings, cobblestone streets and narrow walkways and the sensation of isolation among some sort of ruins

The sound that drew me to Krohm back with “A world Through Dead Eyes” is still thrusting and encircling my senses like a deep winter chill through my veins with these three tracks. As always with Krohm, there’s that illustrious buzz of guitar that is so primal yet crafts these impenetrably dense atmospheres of gloom and isolation, that truly “ancient” sound that makes black metal so inspiring and alluring to many is perfectly expressed in these compositions. It’s almost impossible to listen to Krohm and not be aroused and have your consciousness absorbed into the tracks as they play through. Definitely ideal for dim lighting and a late October evening when the chill begins to set in and the days grow shorter in favor of the night.

Tenebrae in Perpetuum is yet another one of my isolationist favorites. I was turned on to this act only about two years ago, it was during a cold spell and I was laying back and exhausted and some of the most incredible draconian images and feelings came into the back of my mind, sort of like having an old silent horror film playing beneath my blank conscious thoughts of mental fatigue. I love the way these tracks unfold from barely skin and bones riffs and passages into a rolling thunder of catastrophe and then a calm resumes.

As for both bands contributions, there’s always a loneliness or suffering that is overwhelmingly present within each track, half foreboding and half inviting. The vocals ranging from maniacal screams dampened with mild reverb to howls of pain and misery really hone in to the abysmal feel of hopelessness, although for myself this music is somehow very positive and refreshing. It’s almost like experiencing something supernatural and unexplainable while listening to the sounds as they cloak you in a swell of frigidity and utter blackness. Prepare to be sucked into this void of desperation and watch as your colorful world slowly distorts into shades of gray and blur until nothing but the black is present. Set for a late October release as well, this will be one of the best bleak atmospheres created in time for the oncoming winter.

Krohm:
http://www.myspace.com/krohmvoid
http://www.krohmcrypt.com/

Tenebrae in Perpetuum:
http://www.debemur-morti.com/

DOTDR talks with Andre of Sektor 304

2010-08-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

Alright!!!! My first interview for this site and the first one to really get to talk music in as well. If you have not had the chance to check into this portuguese industrial/avant garde electronic act, then do yourself the favor and after reading this or even during it, go out and check them the fuck out!!!!!!! Many thanks to Andre for his time and those of you who support the true artists and love of audio and art, especially the insane stuff.

JW of DOTDR: I received Soul Cleansing from Malignant and seeing as how Jason has been consistently churning out some of the best in dark ambient/industrial/power electronics that I’ve heard in general it was not a surprise when it completely sent me into a gratuitous shock. I love the blend you have of ambient, minimal, industrial, and power electronics, it’s almost a perfect fix all in one release as it flows through the styles to keep it alive. How has Soul Cleansing done so far? How do you guys feel about it looking back at it? In “Death Mantra” that continual beating like a heart is really great, it adds the right rhythm or “pulse” to the track that is seemingly stark.

André: First of all, thanks for your words about our work. We are glad so many people are enjoying what we do!
Well, looking back at the album I still feel that the necessary distance for an objective view upon it has not yet been achieved. It was a hard work getting the album ready. It took about a year to record, mix and to get the artwork all done, and there were a lot of headaches throughout the process. In the end, we both feel that it represents the best we could do at the time, technically speaking, and we are quite proud of the outcome.

In terms of outside appreciation, it’s been great. All the reviews have been quite positive, some have been surprisingly very good and Jason has done a fabulous promotional work. We couldn’t feel better with our situation.

JW: I’m glad that it all worked out for you guys, the hard work really shows in the final product and I’ve been sold on it from day one. It must be great to be on a label like Malignant that releases of such a high caliber, I’m never disappointed and you all seem to strive to put out the most intense audio possible. I’ve been mainly an industrial/noise/electronic head and just recently in the last five years or so have returned to metal and am used to interviewing metal bands who typically don’t want to get into music ironically or personal, so it’s really great to actually talk to artist like you who create stuff that is intentionally deep and are less concerned about image and Satan.

André: Well, one thing that both me and João decided since the beginning is that we would go wherever we feel like. No boundaries, no genre definitions, no nothing. Of course that with time, Sektor’s identity has become more defined and now we know what it’s best and what’s inconsequent to do, but by no means we are limited by “conventions”. Both of us listen to a wide variety of music, from industrial to kraut rock, heavy metal to dub, noise to free-jazz, etc…

I believe that if you take a good look at our catalogue, from the two early CDRs to the album and our collaboration with ambient/noise artist PS, you can clearly say that we do not focus on one type of subgenre, but we actually search around, collect ideas, digest them and use what we want. Take a look at “Final Transmission”, then listen to “The Beast”, both from the “Soul Cleansing” album and compare them, for example.

It’s also interesting that you mention the “image” factor. This is quite an important point for us, especially since I deal a lot with graphics and artworks and currently work as a freelance illustrator. Image is something that should matter a lot for a band. Above all, it should be a reflection of the music, concepts and it should work as a whole with the record. The problem only begins with the image does not reflect honesty or if, above all, it begins to gain weight over the actual music.
I prefer having an attractive packaging with graphics that honestly reflect the music.

Sektor 304 deals with tension, power, brute force, in sum, it deals with primordial forces, ritualistic and claustrophobic environments. We do not wish to be a part of the goat herd just for the sake of it. I would never put a rune or a horned beast filled with pentagrams on the cover just for the sake of it. It doesn’t suit our music. I owe more to Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness” rather than “Mein Kampf” or “The Satanic Bible”.

JW: Like you guys I’m really diverse in my listenings and also do art on the side, so I completely understand the strain to put out something good and how high ones own expectations can be. Thankfully you guys are honest and strive to go for who and what you are and not cater to something that will simply bring in superficial fans. The more influences that you have, the better and more unique your art will be whether it’s visual or audible.

You have a huge list of acts under the “influences” column on your MySpace page, most of which I really love like: Einsturzende Neubauten, Nurse With Wound, Vetrophenia, Lustmord; and then you go into the listing of kraut and prog stuff like: Eloy, Cornucopia, Annexus Quam, Amon Duul (I and II). I’m a HUGE fan of all of those bands and am really surprised to see you having so many influences and interests as I do. Although Sektor 304 is purely industrial/electronic, do you feel that some of the dreamlike atmospheres created in the kraut and prog stuff influences you here?

André: Ahahah that list! That was one busy Sunday reminding all those names! Yeah, like I said before, we listen to a lot of different music. I believe it molds your way of working and the trick is actually be able to comprehend the best from each one and then work with all that information in order to built your own body of work.

You mentioned the kraut and prog “dreamlike atmospheres”. I think we do have influences of that. Take the “Final Transmission” track for example, or even the “Transmissions” cdr, prior to the album. They are all exercises in ambience, from noise to clear dreamlike spaces. Curiously, those bits usually come from improvised sessions… hum… interesting…
The recording of “Final Transmission” was actually quite interesting with the ending going almost into this psychedelic scenario with me on the bass, João playing the guitar filled with delay and reverb effects and it was this friend of ours called Sara, who was just there with us, that saved the day by slowly adding a fade-out to the rest of my sounds while I was tripping with this monotone bass line. That track was directly recorded into a minidisc recorded with no overdubs… how nice! So I guess there is a strong psychedelic music influence on us.

JW: I try to really pay attention to what I review and when I wirte interviews I also listen to the artist stuff to ensure the right inspiration comes out. I love to just improvise to minimal drum and bass and experimental stuff and use effects on my bass to create weird psyhedellic pieces inspired purely by mood and where ever things take me, I love to hear that in other artists too.

Speaking of prog/kraut/ambient psyche music, I found a really cool disc last summer of an obscure kraut/dark psychedelic act Damenbart and it’s this dark ambient similar to some of the Amon Duul stuff on Tanz Der Lemminge. I’m hoping to start putting prog/kraut/psyche stuff up on this site soon as well because it’s amazing and I obsess over it too.

André: I never heard Damenbart. Got to check it out! Thanks for the suggestion! You should start that kind of stuff on your website. Introduce it to other people, especially if they aren’t used to that kind of music (like people who only listen to metal and stuff like that).

JW: Absoltuely, it's really amazing!!! In fact that’s my whole purpose behind DOTDR, to expose people to so many great thigns that they would never normally know about. I also hope to start a trading forum for obscure and cool acts on vinyl, disc and cassette. People glance at the site for one specific review and they get a crazy audio stream of stuff and tons of additionally interesting things including art and custom silkscreen shirts soon too.

I’d like to know more about you guys, partially because of the cool music that you dig, but also the stuff that you create. I can definitely hear the Einsturzende Neubauten in the use of live percussion and power tools, but it doesn’t jump out at me as them, you have a great sense of rhythm throughout the tracks and I’m a rhythm fanatic. Can you tell me more about Sektor 304 and what you do?

André: The rhythm came in naturally since João is a drummer in several bands. If you hear our first cdrs, there are fewer rhythms, but things naturally began to take that course. Perhaps, more than Neubauten, I guess the main influence was both Test Dept for the junk metal percussions and Swans/Godflesh for the more severe pounding you find in some tracks like “Death Mantra”.

Another inspiration came when we started hearing African music and African field recordings of processions and rituals. Their use of drums is quite powerful, to the point where nothing else is needed to fill the spaces. Besides, the rhythms are also quite unconventional in a western / European perspective, with lots of strange tempos and a notion of “group performance” that we loved (and that is quite similar to what Test Dept. did).

When it gets to composition, I believe that most tracks that have a strong rhythmic basis always start developing through the rhythm or the programmed beat. It’s central.

Usually, when the rhythm is played it’s up with João. He handles all the percussions, along with junk manipulation, fx pedals and in “Soul Cleansing” he also handled the bass. I work with sampling, loop, programmed beats, synths and vocals. Since I work with samples, I also have to deal a lot with junk manipulation through contact mics in order to get good sound waves and also field recordings. This is quite a generic task division, since there are several small things where we shift places. I guess in the end we do everything…

Right now, we have this third member for live performances that will handle an electric double bass. We were lacking someone to perform the bass live and when this opportunity came, we took it. The electric double bass becomes more diverse that just the bass. I still can’t believe the amount of sounds he can draw from there… and the instrument looks quite nice too ahah

JW: That’s fucking wicked, I really love a lot of non-western music and try to incorporate that in some of my scales and chords when I play acoustic guitar especially. The combination of those tones and different finger style techniques can create some trippy and even beautiful results.

From what it sounds like, you guys really know what you want and seem to have this insatiable urge to create something unique to yourselves and I respect that so much. I’d love to some good live acts again that are similar to what you do, the coolest live show aside from Boris in the last year that was improvised a bit and hypnotic was acid Mothers Temple. AMT had an opening act called The Sonic Suicide Squad, which was three guys: one on drum with a mic to each one for effects, and an alto saxophone with an effects mic, the third guy ran the effects and did some wild effects with both instruments and being a jazz nut I was floored!!!!! I need to find those guys again and work with them a bit more.
I’d love to see you live, but in general would you consider yourselves mainly improvisational?

André: Well, it depends on the track and what it demands. Like that “Final Transmission” example I gave you before. Other tracks collect improvised moments with others more organized and recorded track by track, like for example, on “The Beast” or “Voodoo Machine”.

In studio, everything in the end is calculated, measured and put into place. In a lot of tracks there is actually a compositional effort.

When we play live, things tend to get out of hand a bit, some songs might take longer with some room for improvisation on some noisier sections or in those ambient parts with lots of sounds taken from amplified objects and construction materials. Things get more intense and we let ourselves get carried away by it.
Both rational thinking and improvisation take place in our method.

JW: Now that I know more about your musical tastes, I’d love to talk tunes. What are some of your favorite artists and albums? Mine change on a daily basis and have been: The Heads, White Hills, Eloy, Embryo, Boris, and Captain Beyond this week and part of last.

André: Curiously I’ve been listening to the Heads this week ahah.
Well, lately I’ve been a lot into that old school death metal thing, with bands like WarMaster, Bolt Thrower, Teitanblood or Rippikoulu (93 Finnish Death Metal!! Awesome!!) and Crust/Metal stuff like Dishammer, Tyrant, Sacrilege or Nausea. So I guess I’m in a Metal phase right now, hem?

Anyway, Danzig’s last record has been playing a lot and I never let go of my good dose of Celtic Frost or Amebix!
IRM’s “Order4” is very good, as well as Yellow Swans “Going Places”. Grunt’s “Petturien Rooli” is awesome too!
Also, I recently bought this triple King Tubby cd that pops in sometimes with the bass level on max.
I’ve also been stuck to Miles Davis ”Bitches Brew”.
I guess that’s what’s been going on my stereo recently.

JW: Oh man, I’m always in a classic death metal phase combined with some good old crust, in fact I should have two custom shirts coming in the mail today for Discharge and Doom, and Celtic Frost and Hellhammer as well. I can rarely escape those bands or that style, it always seems to fit my mood. As for King Tubby, I dig the dub stuff and had some a while back, I really love the german dub techno stuff like Basic Channel and just pulled that out again last week to crank at work. Being a jazz fan, Bitches Brew is one of my standout releases from Miles Davis, I really dig the fusion stuff but also the hard bop and avantgarde. I love Sun Ra and most of Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and the like.

We both seem to be huge music nuts and it’s my favorite subject outside of visual art and chemistry, so given your diverse tastes what if any, album/s or artist/s inspired you to create Sektor 304 as opposed to another style like heavy psychedelic prog ?

André: We don’t work by opposition. We love everyone. Some more than others, or course… ahah
JW: Good answer, I could never pick one either and never rely on any speific anything to do my stuff, I sort of pull from stuff as I go. Currently is there anything else in the works for Sektor 304 like live shows, splits, new releases?

André: We are probably playing at this Metal festival in October. Let’s hope we don’t have to deal with rotten tomatoes or empty beer bottles. We could try to add a guitar solo to “Body Hammer”…
Other than that, we are still recording new stuff for a forthcoming album. No titles yet!

JW: You guys’d shred most I’m sure so hopefully the crowd won’t be too stupid and bombed to behave a bit (laughs). I look forward to anything you do in the future and wish you luck. Thanks for your time as well, I really appreciate the opportunity to talk with you a bit.

André: Nice talking with you and thanks for your interview! See you next time!

Check these guys out: http://www.myspace.com/sektor304

Gravewurm - Blood of the Pentagram (Hells Headbangers Records 2010)

2010-08-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

From the decrepit bowels of the U.S. Black metal/metal underground pusses forth the final infection of the 20 years of audio plague known devoutly as Gravewurm. This disgusting and hideously glorious band goes out with a magnificent stench with Blood of the Pentagram, so if you are one of us who enjoy the ugly and truly scummy side of metal and are a rabid fan of acts such as: Profanatica, Inquistion, Nunslaughter, Hellhammer, Goatlord, Prosanctus Inferi, and anything related to those sick fucks you will not be missing out on this bastard. Classic raw, aggressive, nihilistic metal with a moderate punk grit like most early black metal classics, this thing delivers the true feel of cult and rotten nostalgia.

Reeking of only the rawest, ritually rhythmic and murderous melodic metal cults spewing forth over the last several decades I honestly can’t say anything except buy this sleaze and wallow in the blissful filth that Gravewurm unleashes. This release brings tears to my eyes, quite possibly from the foul burning fumes that leach out from within this album, but it’s more than likely my sentimental side that is always deeply touched when paying a farewell to the beautifully perverse and crude. Sophisticated scum fucks like myself rejoice and fester, HHR releases yet another brilliant and solid piece of underground cult history and another one for me to grab up this year. Set for detonation this October on double disc, keep your ears and antennae in tune for this one!!!! If HHR keeps up this momentum I’ll never break the spell and my cash will continue to drain out like the warm blood of a fresh virgin slaughter.

Check this stuff out@
http://www.myspace.com/gravewurm
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/

Phaenon - His Masters Voice (Malignant 2010)

2010-08-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

My first listens to this album were done under heavy prescription sedatives and it was exactly I’d expect from the novel that it’s based off of by Stanislav Lem. An absolute science fiction experience is captured perfectly in these drifting and minimal, yet undeniably expressive tracks, so beware of the power that lies beneath the barren sounding surface of this album. If you are not careful it will abduct you, then again if you are careful it will still capture your mind and render you submissive to its alien prowess.

Okay, maybe it was the sedated and intoxicated mindset that enabled me to drift off to sleep to this and imagine a world of pure machinery, the opening track “Neutrino Radiation” is close to 20 minutes of humming, almost like what I’d imagine floating through space would sound like as everything slowly approaches and recedes from view and the solar winds blow across your skin. The actual coldness of space in most spots away from suns, reaching as low as near 0K or -273.15 °C, is equally manifested in the tone found on here and your skin should tingle a bit during the listening experience. As relaxing and drifting as this may sound as you listen through it, it is as mysterious and sinister as it appears not to be.

For at least the first two tracks His Masters Voice is celestial, minimal, and void of any emotion whatsoever, then with the third of the four tracks, “Interstellar Semantics”, there’s a minor shift to slight melody, although very slight and a hint of labelmate, Phelios, can be heard here as whooshes of analog synth brush your mind like an astral breeze as you are suspended and weightless and the volume increases dramatically as if you are actually approaching to land on a distant planet or star.

This ideal science fiction soundtrack comes to a colossal end with the magnum “Part 2-Ignoramus”, another twenty-some minute trip as was the opening only this time it’s more dramatic. In fact this is the most dramatic piece on the album and serves as the perfect end to this ambient narrative. When I think of space music I definitely envision something like what Phaenon has delivered here. For me I see the math and concepts come to life that describes the quantum world and all of it’s quirky and abstract ideas and it finally starts to make sense to me for a brief moment as it really isn’t supposed to if one truly understands it (?). Some say to get stoned, turn on some trippy space music like Tangerine dream or some trippy obscure prog act (which helps me out) and then try to fathom quantum physics, but perhaps they should just avoid the mind altering substances and turn up the volume on this one instead.

Yet again Malignant releases an incredible celestial experience that is as close as I can get to an out-of-body experience. Next to Phelios, Collapsar, Iszoloscope/AhCamaSotz Camanecroscope, and Oophi, this is will be one of my stand out sci-fi ambient releases and a definite somnium accompaniment. You even feel like you’re in a vacuum as you listen to it, it’s really undeniably awesome and just as thrilling when not under doctors ordered sedatives.

Defintely check this act out and Malignants other essentially mind melting releases to pulse your neurons out of commission, and also the artwork as that is always one of the ebst parts and this album is no exception.

http://www.malignantrecords.com
http://www.myspace.com/malignantrecords

Phaenon:
http://www.myspace.com/szymontankiewicz

Year of No Light - Ausserwelt (Conspiracy/Music Fear Satan)

2010-08-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

I never get tired of atmospheric heavy music and regardless of how saturated the badly coined “shoe-gaze” metal genre gets there’s always an act like Year of No Light that captures that exact feeling in their sound. Fans of acts like: Nadja, Methadrone, Hallowed Butchery, Hellas Mounds, Neurosis, Minsk, and Mono will appreciate this one very much. To add to that list I also need to include: Ahab, Evoken, Alcest, Primordial, and Altar of Plagues as this is definitely a heavy storm of unrelenting destruction. Given the intensity of the sounds and my reasons for being engulfed into this massive void I will be best off taking this one apart track by track

“Persephone I”: Eleven minutes of one wandering through a wasteland, barren and complete uninhabited. You can feel the journey and looking for even a mirage to ease your loneliness, but there is none and you continue your aimless path through what appears as a never-ending journey. The sound is blissful and soothing but still very morose, you know something will happen and it’ll be tragic. It’s almost as if the end of the world did come and you were the sole survivor left to rummage through the remains and relive the horror.

“Persephone II” : Some of your burden form the last track is eased with a dramatically beautiful sound of discovery that something does exist and there might be a purpose for your travel afterall. This track is sort of the light at the end of the tunnel, but quickly dissolves into a sense of doom and dread halfway through the track. The guitar comes at you in crushing waves of doom-like riffs and the reverb guitar wails like a banshee from beneath the storm of chords crashing against you. So much for getting out of this one peacefully, or at all…

“Hierophante“: The surreal horror continues through dense melodies as you continue to unveil the misery that you will now absolute sadness, although it is very melodic there is a heavily draped layer of emptiness that clouds the track in a state of balc

“Absesse”: A haunting, atmospheric, instrumental departure from the conscious state of being into the true reality of isolation and spiraling rapidly into a dark crevasse as you come to the horrid, yet relieving realization that your life was in fact rather mundane and uneventful until now, but alas it is over. This is one powerful end to a heavy album in terms of sound and weight of atmosphere so definitely jump on getting this one, especially those who are skeptics and avoid this genre for reasons mentioned already. Really great stuff!!!!