Strom.ec - Divine Legions Beyond Psyche (Malignant Records)

As a confirmed mind fuck addict and audio thrill seeker, I was initiated very early on to the likes of Cold Meat Industry and even Wax Trax way back when, but could never get my overactive imagination it's fully satisfying fix until this label and No Visible Scars crossed my path this year. NOTHING on this label is anything that you HAVE heard before, it encompasses the enitre lengthy and diverse sound history of the best damn musical genre ever, Electronic, and manages to keep it unique and progressive. With that rather long winded intro and ass kissing to my friends and collaborators I will now commence with the review.

I don't know much about this artist except that they are from Finland, have toured with the likes of Nurse With Wound, and make some of the best harsh electronic/post-industrial that I've ever heard. At times this album is the soundtrack of a mad scientist's lab, the roaring and chuckling of a mutant animal as electrodes buzz and resonate like those in Dr. Frankensteins lair. The sound of electric chirps and weird space alien sounds are heard in the background, as some biological oddity hides beneath the surface.

The sounds of torture and sadistic acts sculk within this rumble, but are never masked. It's almost as if you were hearing a recording of a torture session in fast forward, there's no mistaking the distinct suffering of the victim and the criminal acts going on here, they are just warped into a mixture with the sounds of a thousand mega-watts of electricity resonating through concrete and steel cells. This stuff is pulsating, gyrating, demented, and brilliant, as much as it is even soothing and captivating. You definitely need to be in the dark with this one on, it's the total mind warping, subconscious terror striker that is almost uncomparable to anything else. Take the ultimate challenge and try sleeping to this one on sleep inducing meds listening through headphones and I guarantee the most bizarre thoughts and dreams will come to the forefront of your mind. No wonder I'm so fucked up.

Essential for fans of: Deutsch Nepal, Brighter Death Now, NTT, Subklinik, Indigo Larvae, Rasthof Dachau, Steel Hook Prosthesis, Yen Pox, Namanax...

"Hate-Male" - Live in Studio, 20th of May 2010

I just got done reviewing his "Decade of noise" when this one shows up as a complete surprise in my mailbox today. The back of the album sleeve reads, "This album was recorded completely live in one take, with no overdubs, editing, mixing or other post-production of any kind". My curiosity led me to immediately give it a spin and write about it as I was still recovering from the last listen to Lawrence Conquest, the man known as Hate-Male.

This is a 36 minute long sonic, mind bending, consciousness melting, wormhole ride of warps and wobbles through this digital travel log through parallel universes and subatomic particles. Warm fuzz like fresh urine on electrical wires, zapping and fizzing and frothing, as your head spins at lightspeeds around and around with this soundscape of noise. Everything that comes to mind when you think of electronic, industrial, power, experimental music is here and in abundance. Nothing says electronic like this stuff, it's cyborg and rivetting. This is some intense and awe inspiring stuff, brilliant and worthy of mention with the greats of the style.

Another one for fans of: This artist, Merzbow, Aube, Bastard Noise, Megaptera, NTT, Yen Pox, In Slaughter Natives, Sutcliffe Jugend, Skitliv, Subklinik, and everything noise and industrial....

"Hate-Male" - Greatest Hits 1999-2009 A Decade of Noise

For over a decade now this man has chosen to invoke chaos in the form of discordant and rasping electronic sounds, but not all of it is pure obnoxious noise, there are moments of hypnotic sound spheres like highspeed tapeloops amidst an ocean of fuzz as heard on "Comatose Vegetable Dreamstate Incurred By Repeated Blows to the Cranium".

Some of the experience here is equally psychedelic and dreamlike as much as it is rigorous and sharp in spots. This artist takes the masterful skills of Nurse With Wound in many areas of this collection and explores it to a few different extremes. Nothing here is pure noise, it's all sculpted into this experience of feedback, loops, high voltage current, industrial whirs and hums, buzzes, some synth work, and almost humanlike voices that becomes a resonating trip into something as horrid as it is enjoyable.

There is nothing left out as far as power electronics goes, this has pulsing rhythms, low-end booms and hums of basstone, lots of sound manipulation, screeching and shrill effects, and comes off like a soundtrack of being submerged in a deep pool of electronic synth sounds both liquid and flowing as they are dense and surround you.

A Definite for fans of: Megaptera, Merzbow, Bastard Noise, Dissecting Table, Aube, In Slaughter Natives,Koerperwelten, NTT, Steel Hook Prosthesis, Painslut, Rasthof Dachau, and so many more...


http://www.myspace.com/hatemalenoise

Pathology – Legacy of the Ancients (Victory Records 2010)

Fellow San Diegans unleash a virus of infectious and hideous Death Metal this June by way of their latest vulgar spewing of brutal filth “Legacy of the Ancients”. If you haven’t heard this band yet, you must be deaf, they’re one of the loudest gore grunting horror fucks to rise from the dead. I’m not a fan of barf/monster effected vocals most times, but these creeps are the real deal. You can feel through the sounds the rotting bowels, septic flesh wounds, Ebola breathing, cannibalistic head banging monsters these guys are. You can hear: Immolation, Incantation, Malignancy, and massive grind elements within but this band still manages to pull it off as something of their own. I can’t get enough of this grime and grind/horror noise.

Obliteration and blood splatter coming your way low and HEAVY!!!!! I hope to catch these guys on tour with Immolation this year, they’ll be in the area in October, as they tour and spread the filth. Just when it seems that things are stale and even boring… and yes, even metal can be boring when it’s uninspired…this band does something that has been done before but somehow it still has something fresh about it. Maybe this bands rhythmic slaughter has caved my head in and my senses are malfunctioning, but I’m pretty sure that aside from my head being ripped off by vocal master zombie Matti Way I’m still sure that what I hear is pure slaughter in the brutal and bloodbath manner that makes this band so great.

This Fucker comes out July 6th, so sink your teeth into this one and catch them on tour, if they are this vicious on recording, you’ll never make it out alive form the live venture, but what a way to go.


info and audio: http://www.myspace.com/pathologydm

More awesome Doom releases

The second album of project of the talented musician Ryan reveals new masterpiece of symphonic funeral doom metal!
"Shadows Over The Cosmos" has a potential to become a master form of the genre along with best pieces of such bands as Colosseum and Ea: five endless tracks of majestic funeral doom filled with cold enigma and infinity of Cosmos. This sincere music will capture the listener until the very last second opening the beauty of Creation before him. Additional sense is brought by a picture called “Thaw” by a Russian painter of 19th century Feodor Vasilyev used in the artwork:. The CD is printed with pit-art and gold plated.
http://www.myspace.com/thehowlingvoid

The second full-length album of German band. New material, even more harsh and gloomy is professionally produced and ready both to bring joy to old fans of traditional doom-death metal and to attract interest of those who just has started to get familiar with the genre. "Withered Shades" accumulated heavy riffs and acoustic passages, combined dynamic parts and atmospheric interludes.
The new album of Ophis is a new precious book in the world library of doom.
http://www.myspace.com/ophisdoom

The debut album of young Russian band from Volgograd continues traditions of death/doom metal and represents the band as talented professional musicians. String material created without keyboards and other trend features will suit the tastes of fans of uncompromising death/doom in the vein of Mourning Beloveth, Process Of Guilt and Ataraxie.
http://www.myspace.com/thesullenroute

Re-issue of the legendary album of Ukrainian gothic doom death metal band! The album material is fully remastered and is supplemented with a bonus CD containing demo of 2006 "The Frankness Eve", cover versions of Mournful Gust songs by invited musicians and "With Every Suffering" video from the actual album. Enforced by new power "She's My Grief" album proves to be still state-of-the-art piece of music.
http://www.myspace.com/mournfulgustband

More Solitude Productions upcoming Releases

The first release of post rock/metal label Slow Burn Records is a split of two young bands Fading Waves and Starchitect. This CD demonstrates to a listener two side of post-metal genre: airiness and reverie by Russian band Fading Waves on the one hand and on the other hand, - hardness and severity mixed with refinement by Ukranian band Starchitect. This CD will become a gem in every collection: the booklet is embossed with gold, and the CD has pit-art and is gold-plated.

The activity of Slow Burn Records label is aimed for promotion of the actual post-rock, post-metal and post-hardcore music. Until now there existed no label oriented to such genres in Russia, and now the time has come! Slow Burn Records starts to act with the split-album of two young and perspective bands.

Label's site - http://www.slowburn.ru
http://www.myspace.com/fadingwavesband
http://www.myspace.com/starchitect

Solitude Productions New Release info!!!!!

The second full-length album from Spanish band. The band fuses death metal, dark metal, folk and gothic metal in their music combining growl with clean male and female vocals and adorning it with enchanting violin solos. The result would become a discovery for fans of heavy and beautiful music. Mixed and mastered during the spring of 2009 by Dan Swano in Unisound studios (Edge of Sanity, Novembre, Opeth, Katatonia, Theatre Of Tragedy)!
http://www.myspace.com/aslightdies

Drill Bra - Nancy Spungen Remixes (Datahex)

More weird and awesome stuff from this artist. What can I say aside from that, "I'm hooked and this stuff is one of the best highs out there ?"

More bomb blast beats and electro hell with a kinky twist.

Tracks:
"Satan Had His Coke Nose"
"Aliens Invade Earth"
"What Level is This?"
"I.D.K.F.A"
"Lady Death Skull Volume One"
"What Evil Organization Created Modok"

Drill Bra - Horror Movies Took Up My Time E.P. (Datahex)

Another awesome horror/perve inspired experimetal piece of power industrial work to come my way recently. If the name and album title aren't enough to spark your curiosity, then you're not the right person for this shit anyway so move on. This album JAMS!!!! Straight up hardcore electronics banging and throbbing with satanic chipmunks talking dirty behind the noise. The sounds of a 1000 video games at full volume in an arcade as midget lesbian prostitutes solicit underage boys to indulge in their wildest curiosites and pick up a different joy-stick altogether. Too cool for school, this will make you crank the up volume and laugh your ass off in places. Trippy, evil, groovy, thumping, pulsing, porno filth. If only Richard D. James was slightly more fucked up, Aphex Twin would have gone beyond "I would like some milk from the milkmans wife's tits" (Please tell me someone reading this has heard that track) and put some truly devious and jarbled up lyrics and samples behind the beats. I will be forever an Aphex Twin fan, but stuff here blows it away with a 44 caliber. I have to hear more from this artist, this four tracker is not enough to satisfy me... I need more!!!!

These people who make this stuff are running around loose!!!!!! And why doesn't that scare me ?
get your perve on : http://www.myspace.com/datahexrecords

Gonzar - E.P. (Datahex)

Taking the extreme beat underground and pushing the digital extremes to the apex of "you can't go there", this project dares to and successfully does. For some reason I expected the likes of Mick Harris and James Plotkin to push this boundary, given their grind/crust history, but they actually moved on to more complex and lenghty compositions of noise and experiment whereas Gonzar here pushes the idea of grind from a digital Atari noise perspective. Who the hell can refuse an E.P. consisting of tracks with titles like: "Thumbs up Corpse Down", "Trip out on Dogshit and Downers", "Potsmokearmyforce" ? Clocking in at under 10 minutes too.

Extreme throbbing basslines underneath machine gun fire, samples of electronic effected screaming, death ray guns, lasers...it's a soundtrack to some political war done sci-fi and digital. Interesting and worthy of checking out for sure. Check out the Datahex site at: http://datahexmusic.blogspot.com/ where you can download the comps and various sounds for free and show support. Very cool stuff folks!!!!!

Navicon Torture Technologies - The Gospels of the Gash (Malignant)

The experience that lays in wait for you inside this vortex of nightmarish dreamlike atmospheres is journey throught the mind of a sociopath. It’s almost a cry out from deep within the trapped and secluded mind of a delusional individual, losing a grip on the reality around him/herself as their neurological signals are crossed into a confusing matrix of psychedelic experiences. Like a schizophrenic whose nervous system is disoriented and what you smell becomes audible and what you hear becomes a sensation of touch, what once was one thing becomes another and in a psychotics mind becomes very real. A maze of the sounds of a hallucinogenic state of a homicidal manaic with distinct and specific sadistic urges. You will hear real news clips of actual grotesque crimescenes lurking beneath the fuzz of electronic vibrations that reveal the pulse of the heart of this beast on the prawl.

From somewhere along this monsters journey you experience the sound of a woman crying and screaming frantically as she pleads for her life at the merciless lunatic that has his hands around her throat. Maybe modern science has not found a way to get inside and actually read let alone visualize the subconscious or even conscious without the subject having any control over it, but this soundtrack which I describe here is the sound of what would be going through the mind of a psychopath. He/she runs the scenarios and pieces of memories of their kills and thrills, what events in their lives shaped them this way, what they are conjuring up next and you get it all in graphic detail, but broken up over 2 discs and tracks built almost like chapters in a jigsaw puzzle of a narrative. NTT is the mind in which you venture into and it's this scrambled story line that you must make the connections through.

Deep enough into this album you can almost feel yourself losing your own grip on reality as the ramblings of the manaic and memorable clips from his/her victims and daily encounters, are distorted into almost robotic voices that keep coming through a throbbing rhythm and warm feedback. It's almost like drowning in transmission fuzz and RF signals as you spiral further into the web of this predator. Some breaks for serene and almost happy ambient moments appear briefly throughout, but gradually darken into the relapse of the hallucinations of this sadistic killer. Think of the film Vertigo as you begin to lose balance atop a roof while dangling over that edge and your fears and imagination cause you to fall hopelessly downward off of the deep end. You see the spirals of bright colors rotating like a nauseating carnival ride going round and round and flashes of horrifying images from your deepest and most disturbing imagination begin manifesting themselves in a strobe light pattern beaconing your demise as you plummet. The worst part for you is that you never actually do hit the bottom, you just flail and descend further into this house of horrors that now has become your life. Your existence as of now has no end and the beginning is erased, and you will cycle through this mind-fuck infinitely. The experience will never leave you, not even after the disc itself is over.

SOOOOOOO recommended!!!!!! This music goes beyond listening and becomes an experience, listen and be captured as well.

Hellas Mounds - New heaven/New Earth (Saw Her Ghost Records 2010)

I cut my teeth on : Isis, Pelican, Nadja, Mouth of The Architect , Sonic Youth, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and countless other bands, who manage to go from perfectly silent to airport runway loud in seconds without any hint that the change is coming, but just through sheer intuition and genuine improvisation they pull it off. Already hooked on the SHG label through the heavy and gnarly sounds of fellow labelmates: Beast In The Field, and Supracontinent, I knew that I had to give this one a try and they say third times the charm, and this one not only blew everything out of the water…it fucking blew the entire Pacific Ocean right out of the entire rim!!!!!! There’s fathomless depth within this music that far surpasses accurate or even fair description in words, it’s as if I’m trying to explain a vivid dream and expect anyone other than myself to understand the feeling and experience. This is personal music, the exact expression through music of that perfect moment of inspiration when you begin to feel as if you’re floating.

Based out of Phoenix/Tempe Arizona, this group chooses to bring to us the imagery of the prehistoric rock formations with the sandstone colors of a sunset etched with the stories of Earths volatile and constantly evolving lifetime. It’s as if you were actually walking in a Dali painting, with the ocean hovering above the seabed, hour glasses run upside and the clocks melt against a vibrant colored horizon. I don’t normally go into this much detail, but I’m so mesmerized with this band that I feel the need to drag you all into it with me. This stuff is so intense that it almost makes me cry for some reason although it’s not due to sadness, but rather an overwhelming sense of emotion coming to the surface.

Passage I: The sound of bells ringing and a gentle dessert breeze lures you into the next track.

Movement I: The surreal and intricate arpeggio introduces you to the feeling of freedom and pure open space as a mildly reverb effect guitar swoops slowly in like a bird from behind the massive rock formations. The amount of detail caught in the sound alone is as overwhelming as a perfect dream that you force yourself not to wake up from out of fear of losing that sensation. If there was an authentic and accurate way to describe what it would feel like to leave ones own body this album would be it. At times it reminds me of part Isis “Oceanic”, where the music is as equally ethereal as it is mysterious and almost sad, sort of like the feeling of being lost and wandering without aim or ambition. I also distinctly hear hints of La Otracina “ Tonal Eclipse of the One”.

Movement II: On a continual flow from “Movement I” the heaviness of the guitar comes in to deliver riffs in waves that crash against the geological formations as you stand at the bottom of what once was the bottom of an ocean. There’s a psychedelic, still Tonal Eclipse, sensation that continues to feed the listeners state of higher consciousness as it’s 10 minutes of psychedelic bliss wash over in gentle waves of reverb guitar as the almost silent “Passage II” guides you farther along into the next movement.

Movement III: Another melodic, dreamlike experience comes your way as the climax begins to make its presence known. A distorted psychedelic guitar solo surrounds you as swirls and spirals like cosmic waves through space. Listening to this album reminds me of the experience I had seeing the Mermen play last summer, it’s this odd feeling of euphoria through emotional and serene reverb and tremolo effect, no vocals or words to distract you…it’s just an absolute etherworld trip done without any physical travel. And one more thing that makes it so damn genius is that they get you into this trance then they come in loud and strong with the climax that spins your head and causes your brain to melt.

I rarely hear anything this dynamic to where I can actual feel the story of the Earths formation and continual transformation through a mind altering listen without any chemical help. Music that moves like this stuff does is truly timeless, now if only I could luck out to get to see these guys live sometime soon

Sensible Nectar/Gorgonized Dorks split (Rainbow Bridge Label)

Attention experimental fans: this one is a definite release to check out! Two extremely awesome underground, DIY , improvisation, electronic effect gurus collaborate to bring to cassette some of the freshest avantgarde in years. Imagine tape manipulation (Nurse With Wound) and knob twitching as hums and buzzes of electronic sound fade in and out, unevenly yet still maintain a certain rhythm and flow. That's roughly what you get here with Sensible Nectar, although there really is nothing "sensible" here except the sense-ations of live and uncompromising editing and manipulation of sound. Take the best noise elements of the cranky and crackling old tube amp analogue feedback when you get too close to it with the guitar and it gives you those awesome fuzzes, pops, hisses, and screeches and then add some sparse vocals of an industrial nature and that's what you have here.

"Apathy" opens up with the what could be described as Jimi Hendrix trying to solo in the middle of a strong magnetic field, the pickups cut out, the wah is extended and the warm fuzz of the guitar and synth output blankets over you in layers of dense vibrations as the screech of guitar feedback lurks behind it all.

"I'm No Man's Slave" is a definite power industrial, heavily effected spoken word track that immediately calls to mind the vocal effects of: Brighter Death Now, Painslut, Stahlwerk 9, Rasthof Dachau, and company, but coming through as a bad signal on an old transistor radio. In fact most of SN's contributions on this split could accurately be described as: the sound that you would get trying to get a shortwave transmission on an old transister radio, complete with jarbled and inaudbible speech, hints of some music from other signals crossing, and all of the hisses, pops and brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrbbbbb...eeeeeeeeeeeeek....rrrrrrrrrrrnk your grandpa would swear at during the second world war when his nightly programs were interrupted by bad weather or the interference from the war itself.

The equally insane and incoherrent electronic rambling from Gorgonized Dorks pierces another nice hole in your eardrum. Thunderous rumbles of low-end noise, filtered through something, and throbbing like your thumb after you just jammed it as you closed the door on it by mistake. I bet these guys would both be leveling to see live as both are welcome additions to the world of extreme audio. The general sound of Gorgonized Dorks lends itself more to a looser, but equally noisey and massive sound and intensity as power electronics does, but they also manage to soften it just a bit through analogue equipment and less of a sense of rage and agression. This may not bash your cranium in or lash at you with venom dipped chains, but it'll definitely blow the roof off when played at the right volume. Also guaranteed to piss others off.

Sektor 304 - Soul Cleansing

What to say about this Portuguese dark electronic/industrial outfit except that it is the sound of the industrialized world, amost cyborg at times, rusty and barren. As you listen you begin to visualize the true feel of oppression and post apocalyptic scenarios. Close your eyes and see: old delapitated junkyards of electronic waste, where the run off from the first rains of the season are washing the circuit boards gently as they corrode like the morals of this modern world. The toxic stream trickles away from the mountain ranges of cheap plastic and mercury as it stains the Earth with its invisible cargo of carcinogens and ecological homicide. The pummeling of cold steel rhythms and rusted pipes beat a march of silent death to those forced to live in this contamination. The buzzing behind you of electronics circle, in and out, and around like a vulture watching for the next corpse to pick from as the booming voice from amidst this sonic chaos of the man-made machine jungle screams out like a totalitarian dictator. This is the sound of the machine made apocalypse, man is held captive to technology and forced, often violently, to have his sanity raped at the discretion of the machine.

"Body Hammer", is the sound of being held captive in a death camp under a totalitarian regime. You can only see shadows through what used to be your eyes before they were burned out by an acid wash. In this pseudo-darkness of greys you hear the whirring of a drill, stricken with fear you realize the worst. You don't need your eyes to see what's going on, the prisoner next to you cannot scream, as his tongue has been torn out, but the sound of the drill and the feel of the wriggling of the body is enough to paint the most vivid picture in your mind.


When I think of industrial, I think of the sounds of the decaying modern world. Percussive instruments are 50 gallon drums, rusted pipes, industrial grade chains, and broken glass. Power tools and engines obtain more than just a machanical utility and become an atmospheric element amidst the "Whirring" of electronic effects and sampled vocals. The voices are only half cipherable as they are fused between electronic and human sound. Fans of Einsturzende Neubauten, Deutsch Nepal, Throbbing Gristle, Nurse With Wound, Dissecting Table, Nordvargr, MZ.412,and Bastard Noise take note. High voltage audio sadism is contained within, prepare to be shocked and your mind warped as you peruse this depraved and desperate experience. One of the best mindfucks around, this will steal your soul and scald it 'til it's pure again!!!!

Yen Pox - Blood Music (Malignant Records 2010)

Whizzing and humming sounds entrance you as they slowly render you incapable of turning back.
You can almost make out familiar sounds, but not enough to save you as you go deeper and traverse into the rabbithole of your subconsciousness. Not too far into the journey you begin to ask yourself, "What do I hear approaching?". You wonder, is it wind streaming through the concrete cavern in which you currently wander ? Could it be trains pulling into a station with the screeching of the brakes and the echoes in the hollow tunnels of motion and the traffic of life around you? Make no mistake, there MUST be something in the near distance, but by now even the near distance is too far from where you're at to bring you out of the trance.

Imagine sleep walking in a subway tunnel, along the tracks where the trains no longer run, but you can still hear them and feel the vibrations as they approach your location along their old abandoned route. The only catch is that they never arrive, yet you sense them as if they were streamlining right toward you from well within the damp and murky void that you are venturing into. You begin to imagine that there are people around you as you head toward this dim light at, what you imagaine, is the end of the track, but there aren’t any, no one is there nor will they ever be except you. You continue to wander aimlessly through the tunnels as you see that mirage of faint green and yellow light peer around the winding tunnels illuminating your maze, but will never lead you out. The sound and feel of motion surrounds you, the presence of human and machine is felt, but neither one is really there. Completely unaware of your altered reality you will continue to pursue your route through this labyrinth of soundscapes and meditative states. You will continue on this trek, unconscious and unaware as the sounds resonate in your mind and encompass you until you eventually come out of your somnial experience to realize that it WAS, in fact, only a dream. That’s the power Yen Pox, resonating and genuinely surreal audio for the expedition through your own mind where your experience is only your own.

Warning: Contents may cause the listener to accidentally slip out of consciousness at any given time during the listening. Do not operate heavy machinery while under the influence. Use of mind altering substances while listening to this album may cause the user to become delusional. Contents may induce a hypnotic state. Take caution when using this product as it may cause hallucinations and stimulate an overactive imagination. Those with mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia, paranoia, and various froms of psychosis are especially susceptible to irreversible effects. Indeed this is some fathomless and epic music.

I Shalt Become - Poison (Moribund 2010)

Attention: all assholes that think/thought that symphonic means “For Pussies”, this album along with acts like Hellveto are reinventing the style by giving it a true demonic possession that nothing can exorcise. I would really have to say that this release not only towers over others in that style but is even one for those of us who really enjoy the neo-classical/black ambient/ martial/ black-folk stuff. Honestly, it’s not everyday that something comes my way that is so intense that it busts my jaw open so and I have to review it ASAP before the shock wears off and I lose my initial thoughts on the album. I’ve been hearing about this USBM project for some time now and expected something along these lines, but not being this brilliantly evil and haunting of a BM soundtrack to an occult symphony of horrors and pure depression. I’m thrown off, but not disappointed as this is some wicked shit.

If there was one album that I’ve heard in a few years that screams out “Soundtrack to old silent horror films” this would be the one, and that’s a long list to top. Poison is not an album to go into with any expectations; it’s a soundtrack to a weird dream, a “Little shop of Horrors”, a tragic tale of loneliness and even victory, only to be experienced, and not just heard. It reminds me of the original Nosferatu, Vampyr, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari films, where a monster is resurrected in the night and reigns terror over the villagers through nightmares and murders. Not quite a symphony for the depraved but is definitely sinister and essential for those who like the real sound of darkness and mystery. Highly recommended for fans of: Velvet Cacoon, Gnaw Their Tongues, Alcest, Caina, Hellveto, Blood of the Black Owl, Summoning, Gravsahl, Brown Jenkins, Ebonillumini, Finnr’s Cane; but I’d say that anyone into: Steinklang/Ahnstern releases, Cold Meat Industry, Tesco, Old Europa Café, Soleil Moon, Cold Spring, and the War Office Propaganda labels will definitely appreciate this one.


The sound coming from this album is so cold at times that it will freeze your blood in an instant, then it proceeds to put you into a state of hypothermia, that’s the level of dynamics here. If it’s not the piano on “Leaving the Watership Down”, or the presence of female ethereal vocals buried within the violins and distorted guitar on “Harlow’s Vertical Chamber Apparatus”, it’s the sound of something haunting within the mix that really brings this album together. There’s even some raw BM aggression that stirs within and becomes violent and manifested on “ No Quarter at the Somme”. The sound here is HUGE, actually MASSIVE, so much that you’d swear this was a real orchestra, and each track flows perfectly into the next without any interruption. The musicianship, production, composition, atmosphere, and experience are perfect. I will almost guarantee that this is an album that not too many will have ever heard before.

Desolate Void/ The Last Van Zant/The Parish (Crimes Against Humanity Records)

A new found buddy of mine sent this my way to review, he usually sends me the black and death stuff but along comes this sludge three-way that he felt I might like and I was sold after skimming through the Desolate Void tracks. 30 Seconds was all it took to convince me that this was one of those audio stains that I didn’t want to get out of my brain. No pussy grass stains (unless we’re talking about a different type of grass): this one is blood, sweat, mud, and beer; the true markings of the sludgehead.

In the Desolate Void tracks, all five, there is nothing but fast paced endorphin raging: Acid Bath/EyeHateGod/Black Tusk/Black Cobra, screeching and growling over a fist clenching storm of blazing fast riffs and bar room brawl inducing metal here. Southern Fried and greasy, steaming and dripping with the stench of horrid heat, hangovers and one hell of a wild night out, don’t blame me or these guys if you go ape-shit under the influence of this stuff, we warned you. With tracks titles like: “Broken Bones and Bullet Holes”, “ Ungrateful Bastard”, “Expect The Worst”, “ Unburn”, and “ 13”, you can’t go wrong here.

The Last Van Zant is another high-speed and low-end distorted obliteration of your senses through trench warfare in a pit. You can smell the BO, feel the boots in your back and the feel of someone’s face going into your fist as you spin around in a drunken frenzy that’s worth the bruises and possible broken bones (whether they’re your or not). This band brings the energy and addictive rhythms of the great bands mentioned above already. “Standing in Blood” really brings me in with the phrase, “Don’t mind me…Standing in Blood”, that alone makes me want to swing and go hog wild and blitzkrieg on everything around me. Another six tracks of solid adrenaline and drunken anarchy, approach with caution.

Now for the last two essential contributions to this split, I give you The Parish. Nothing different here from the other two, you just get a more epic Coffins/Winter sounding doom/death sludge on “Dark Days”, just as nasty and filthy as the other two bands, but this one is the darker side of it all. Killer riffs and slow Sabbathy grooves with growling vocals behind the mix sounding like a zombie in the background, almost a melodic stoner feel as well. Smooth and steady, melodic, yet every bit as aggressive and dangerous as the other two bands, The Parish polishes off this absolutely essential three-way sludge fuck as only the truly awesome could. If you can drink this one straight, you are one of the few and truly grimy…bottoms up!!!!!! This SOB SMOKES!!!!!!!!!!! Support the underground you shits!!!!

http://www.cahrecords.com/

Marrow – Of Slaughter and Slime 7” EP (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions)

Here I am again presenting to you the best of the scum that floats to the top of the sewage pot of audio grime and disease (in other words the best stuff there is). Recently I’ve been receiving tons of amazing audio from artists and labels (including HPGD), and this band from Baltimore is one that leaves your ears bleeding and your larynx dangling out of what once was your throat. Bringing you the sounds of unneutered and feral Death Metal in the classic sense, expect nothing less than to have your senses shocked and awed as this arsenal of gore, classic screeching DM guitars, roaring riffs, and bludgeoning rhythm section saw through you and pummel your remains to dust. Don’t expect “run of the mill” death metal here, the technicality is present and competes with the best and genre defining while bringing to mind some of my current favorites: the Swedish war machine of Nominon, and Finnish export of Sectioned; but also has some of the best production on an EP that I’ve heard in a while, this stuff is well done.

The lyrics are as scathing and ferocious as Kult Ov Azazel on “Destroying the Sacred” but are spewing out the guts of their last victim rather than defiling the holy. The rhythms are a mix of catchy and ripping Thrash Metal, Brutal Death, and leave no gaps or sense of wanting in terms of brutality or low-end executioner style thunder. The slow motion screech as the guitarist slides up and down on the neck gives you that necessary “WRRRRRRRRRRRRR!” that assures you this is Death Metal before getting into shredding mode. I hate to name drop, when many reviewers do it it's wrong and I wind up buying one thing and expecting something different than what I got, plus the measure of a good band is that they sound like themselves and stand on their own which Marrow does and will slaughter anything in its path.

This is Death Metal of the highest caliber, the mega bore that you shove down some assholes throat and blast them into oblivion. Talk about melodic aggression, this EP is essential for anyone in need of a gore infused slugfest by the best that a band can throw out there will be satisfied with this release. An amazing band to watch out for!!!!!

Profanatica – Profanatitas de Domonatia (Hells Headbangers 2010)

I have to start out by saying “ Holy Fucking Shit…this is some angry and vulgar stuff !!!!!, but the more profane the better, in my honest and disturbed opinion. I scored this one up in LA last month and couldn’t resist reviewing it for the sheer blasphemy and hatred that lies within this web of noise. Here’s the next form of audio inspiration to encourage me to delve into my twisted taste of the depraved and morally toxic. Just when you thought that bands couldn’t conjure up any more intense hate, be any more lewd and bitter, blasphemous and horrid, and above all else kick massive ass, here comes another one to prove that the well of hatred has not run dry, you just have to dig deeper and eventually you will strike the riches of Hell as these guys have.

This is the sound of being beaten to death, the hatred fumes from the speakers unleashing the stench of the Antichrist and its rotting bowels. Low-end profanity of the purest form of audio obscenity lies within these mega- low end rumbles of doom heavy lead riffs, some slow and pulsing, other Blitzkrieg Mother Fucking storm trooper fast coming at you. I’ve said this in reviews before, but have to say it again, this is a soundtrack to killing someone with your bare hands: crowbar to the skull, solid wood slugger to the temples, spine pulverizing, blunt force adrenaline fueled aggression infused with agony and despair and a genuine 100% Kosher disgust with anything holy and sacred. Don’t blame the band if you start to piss on the altar and vomit in the holy water.

The tempos and rhythms run through you as you begin to holler obscenities until your lungs burst and throat melts and then you begin to bash in and break everything you can in a violent frenzy. The legendary Profanatica deliver once again, a massive act of defecation on anything beautiful and hallowed, raise your pint glass and belch as you chug to rejoice in the violation of the inviolable. If you love filth as much as I do and expect your music to be as immoral and debauched as I do at times, then pick this up and rather than “love they neighbor”, “Piss upon him instead”. AAAAHHH, that felt good!!!!

Celestia – Archanae Perfectii L’Arche Arcane des Parfaits (Drakkar Productions, 2010)

In the last 5-6 years French black metal has been continually raising the bar and dominating the blacker side of metal through: fusing shoe-gaze, classical, ambient, belligerence, abysmal darkness, depression, violent occultism, and weird time-signatures into a concoction of beauty and nihilism with artists such as Deathspell Omega, Alcest, Ameseours, Peste Noire, Diononychus, and so many others. It’s almost ridiculous to expect anything less than unadulterated atmosphere and perfection when it comes to these bands and Celestia definitely keeps its end of the deal here. In my reviewing and collecting I hear so many bands and even though lots of them may be solid and good, and manage not to fall short,but too many just don’t stand out whereas this band does, and boldly.

The similarities in sound to bands such as Alcest, Altar of Plagues, Carrion Wraith, Caina, are present, but there still is something that makes this album unique. The album opens with a classical guitar instrumental piece, “Grandiohsia Obverturae/Vue Du Ciel”, that sets the tone for the album as something sophisticated and beautiful, then the album takes a truly grim downturn on the next track in, but never seems to lose the feel of nature, a dark forest, and the haunting pagan spirit, especially with the gypsy guitar melodies behind the main fuzz on many of the tracks. I don’t want to ramble on about this and bore the hell out of the readers, but have to say that if you’re one of those assholes that thinks that beauty and melody mean “weak” and “pathetic” than you obviously have never heard this stuff and probably should stick to your clone brutal and raw bands and avoid taking the risk of experiencing something that actually is bone-chilling and hair raising without needing to wield a chainsaw or holler "Satan" every two-a-half seconds. It’s artists like Celestia that keep the black metal and atmospheric/pagan/occult spirit alive and strong through progression and real depth. I’m as big a gore and raw blistering hatred fan too, but I believe that evolution is the way to go and need my break from the barebones and brimstone at times too.

This is some of the most intricate and well-executed releases that I have heard recently, and that’s saying a lot with all of the great shit coming out this year. This is music for the early morning, misty and drizzling, foggy, wet cobble-stone streets, old Europa architecture, and the haunting feeling of being the last mortal on Earth surrounded by only the spirits of the dead to keep you company. This will suck your soul out of you for sure, so beware if you’re one of the weak, stupid and pathetic, mentioned above. Absolutely essential and timeless music is contained within this release, not just for black metal and metal listeners, this stuff also is perfect for those who are fans of Ataraxia, Desiderii Marginis, Celstial, Raison D’Etre, Steinklang/Ahnstern releases, Old Europa Café, Soleil Moon, and Cold Spring.