Don't Try #11

A band whose importance cannot be understated is Throbbing Gristle. Ok they aren’t a metal band that’s true but their influence is important for bands of all underground genres. As the founders of Industrial music they pioneered a style that at the time was the antithesis of punk; which was happening concurrently (mid to late 70s), and in some ways was meant to mock it.

TG was acutely aware of punk’s repackaging of inept rock music as pop culture rebellion. They had been working for years already as a performance art group known as Coum Transmissions. TG was the members’ attempt to infiltrate pop culture and media in a rock band context while delivering music and performances that simultaneously rejected, devoured, exploited and regurgitated all mass media, holding up a very ugly mirror for the punk scene, the art world and Britian’s ruling class who deemed the band “Wreckers of Civilization”.

TG’s music was an aural collage of sampled sounds, Genesis P-Orridge’s inept bass-playing that made Sid look like a virtuoso, cornet from Cosey Fanni Tutti, primitive analog synthesizers and other homemade “instruments” from Peter Christopherson and Chris Carter.

But the music was only part of the TG concept. They started Industrial Records to release their own recordings – one of the first bands to do so. They were one of the early bands to experiment with video manipulation. They printed and sent out a newsletter and postcards containing TG news, art and manifestos. They had specially made “uniforms” that they wore at times. In Genesis they found a mouthpiece and ideological spokesperson and had a very realized and thought out “mission” that encompassed many facets of media.

The term Industrial would unfortunately be hijacked later on to describe electronic rock bands like Ministry and Skinny Puppy, and even more embarrassingly, Rammstein. A bastardization of the term that has nothing to do with Throbbing Gristle and some of their early counterparts like SPK and (early era) Cabaret Voltaire. In the present day the power electronics scene bares the closest resemblance to anything that TG embodied, although there too the differences are major.

Like the Pistols, TG played their last show in San Francisco, at Kezar Pavilion in 1981. The band’s history is inextricably linked to punk rock because of where they are from and the time period at which they came onto the scene, but musically TG couldn’t be farther away from it. And while most early punk has not aged well, TG’s music sounds as though it could be current today. Members went on to play in Psychic TV, Coil and Chris & Cosey.

Part of the reason I bring up TG now, aside from their overall importance to contemporary music, is because they’ve recently released a 7 DVD box set containing a host of early material as well as more recent stuff from the bands reformation period of the last few years. Unlike most reformed groups, TG’s 21st century incarnation has yielded a surprisingly good new album, “The Endless Not”, and live performances that are merely informed by their early period rather than imitating it.

The box set is a beautifully packaged numbered edition of 2000 copies. It comes packaged with a 60-page mini-book of photos and texts by band members. TG documented nearly everything they ever did, including every live show (released over two box sets and about 35 Cds) and now they’ve finally released a definitive visual document. The older footage, the band states, is meant for documentation and was filmed with very early handheld VHS recorders. It’s not meant as standard rock video fare, but simply for historical purposes. The set currently is only available directly through the band’s website, throbbing-gristle.com. And while expensive it’s an essential purchase for any TG fan of which there are many, and for collectors of early punk artifacts as a document of one of the scene’s most fringe bands.

With that out of the way we can move on to some current albums making the rounds. Lots of relatively mediocre stuff this month and a few above averages. Draconian is a Swedish band whose sound most closely resembles a not-as-awesome version of Katatonia when they still had heavy vocals. Their latest album is “Turning Season Within” on the Napalm label. A major bummer about this album is the over-use, and just the use in general, of the ethereal female vocal parts. I know this is a big thing in Europe with bands like Nightwish achieving practically mainstream success but to me it ruins an otherwise totally average record. It’s got a goth downer feel throughout and so it’s not surprising it was recorded at a studio called Fascination Street and has a song called Bloodflower. I guess they like The Cure. One of the most entertaining parts of the CD was in some of the songs the music drops low and a Vampiric German voice comes on and says “You Are Listening To The New Draconian Album Turning Season Within”. The dude sounds like the governor of Kali-for-nia. That gave me a good laugh. Unfortunately that was the best part of this average record. They may sell boatloads in Europe but this shit ain’t gonna fly in the States.

Grimbane has ex-Blasphemy maestro Necrosleezer (renamed Barbarous) amongst its ranks and as you’d expect deliver raw war-tinged necro black metal. Their debut album “Let The Empires Fall” has just been released by my Port Orchard neighbors at Moribund. A mix of older Canadian and Finnish sounds in this one a la Conqeuror, old Impaled Nazarene, though not as good as either. “Cauldron Of Burning Iron” mixes some slower material and acoustic parts into the hyberblast stew, while “God Cremated” has a more melancholic vibe to start before plunging headlong back into violence. There’s a good amount of spoken samples on the album, which I’m always a fan of as long as I don’t recognize them. Vocally the dude comes from the satanic Popeye school of Immortal and Attila Csihar. File under not bad but ultimately forgettable.

For a band that’s apparently been around for well over 20 years Satan’s Host sound surprisingly modern. These dudes come from Boulder, Colorado and at one time featured the singer of Jag Panzer in their ranks. But the guys ain’t playing power metal anymore. Their horribly titled new album “Great American Scapegoat” has elements of Polish bands like Behemoth and Vader heavily informing its latter day blackened death approach. Petagno cover art on this too.

How come the demos I get are so often better than the shit actually being released on record labels? Say hello to Salome, some bludgeoning doomsludge with a Graves At Sea guitar sound that gets all gummed up in your ears. The vocalist Kat sounds a bit like the dude from Rwake and she also does some vocals for Agoraphobic Nosebleed. She’s mixed a little low and this is deeply heavy considering there’s no bassplayer in this band, which they should consider adding. 4 songs and over 40 minutes of primo doom with a groove. Contact em at myspace.com/salomedoom and salomedoom@hotmail.com.

Bastard Of The Skies from the UK have a new four song demo out. This is heavy sludgey rock that’ll sit well with those into stuff like Iron Monkey, Kyuss maybe even Laudanum. Good sound for a demo and songs like “You, Foe” and “A Traitor In The Herd” have a catchiness to them that defies the bands relatively brief life. It’s not something I’ll rock repeatedly but those into the aforementioned bands and some of the sludgier AmRep stuff will dig this. Contact em at myspace.com/bastardoftheskies.

The death doom masters return! Sweden’s Runemagick are back again with what seems like their 100th album. Actually it’s probably the tenth or so but this band has been prolific as hell and still every album is a killer, not a turd amongst them. Runemagick is another Nicke Terror aka Nicklas Rudolfsson project and the dude has always had tons of metal glory coursing through his fingertips. Deathwitch, The Funeral Orchestra, even Sacramentum were all worthy of praise. But Runemagick has been the one that’s lasted.

Runemagick has long taken the Swedish death sound, which was always infected with a cancerous Autopsy worship, and doomified it even more making whole albums that wreak of one of Autopy’s doomest gems “In The Grip Of Winter”. The only other band really pulling weight with the doom death sound these days is Coffins, but while their sound owes as much to Hellhammer/Frost nostalgia as to the old Bay Area deathgods, you won’t find much of that with Runemagick. This is pure Swedish meatballz with little to no Swiss cheese influence.

“Voyage To Desolation”, “Chthonic Temple Smoke” and “Retaliation” continue the Runemagick tradition of hooks and more hooks of the best death doom riffage around. The album is called “Voyage To Desolation/Dawn Of The End” and this North American version is released by the newly minted Enucleation Records who also released Coffins’ “The Other Side Of Blasphemy” on 2xLP recently. What are you waiting for? It’s Runemagick. Go get it! And while you’re at it pick up some of the others like “Envenom”, “On Funeral Wings” and “Death, Doom, Destruction”.

I’ve liked well enough some of the previous material of Norway’s Audiopain so I was hoping to be blown away with a full on thrash assault on their new one “The Switch To Turn Off Mankind” released on the Vendlus label. In light of the neverending thrash revival going on right now I had hoped these guys, who’ve been doing it since the late 90s, would show the new school posers how it’s done. But alas, this is merely average and come off like a poor man’s Aura Noir. Thrashin’ riffs abound, but that’s about all these tunes are; riff collections without the songs to back it up – similar to a lot of the new wave of disposable thrash. That’s one thing all these bands miss out on. The old bands had songs! Good ones. Even the crossover bands. If you can’t get enough thrash, check out Audiopain. They are good enough, but you’d do right to first check out Aura Noir’s “Deep Tracts Of Hell” or even “Merciless” for some ugly raw thrashin’ that dwarfs this in quality and will leave any maniac with a severe morning bangover.

Another release on the Napalm label comes from Isole (pronounced ee-so-lay) and their latest fullbanger “Bliss Of Solitude”. Any guesses based on the title? It’s epic doom metal, played good and heavy on the guitar sound and with trad vocal stylings. This doom school often lives and dies by the vocals. At the top of the genre you have people like Messiah from Candlemass and Robert Lowe from Solitude Aeternus. You can’t really hope to live up to those guys unless your name is Ronnie James but the dude(s) in this band pull the job adequately enough. The vocals are layered giving the impression of multiple vocalists a lot of the time and they include some harmonies in spots. The guitar sound is clean but meaty as it should be and the riffing tends more to the sad and dramatic then catchy hooks but always keeping it heavy. Those into Warning, My Dying Bride and the ‘Mass can probably get behind this and give it a good reacharound.

Indian from Chicago return this month with a new CD that combines two limited LPs, “Slights And Abuse” and “The Sycophant”. What you’ve got with Indian is a noise rock and doom milkshake that’s got thick layered guitars mixed with a healthy dose of furious anger. If bands like (the true) Middian, Buzzoven or even Akimbo scratch that itch then Indian likely will do the same. This CD didn’t crush my skull as I hoped it would based on what I’d heard and I won’t listen to it repeatedly, but I’m eager to check them out live. Somehow I missed Indian at Emissions last year, which is unfortunate because this sounds like it will come off better live. That’s not to say that this record isn’t good, but this is live music to be sure. The band will be touring the West Coast around the time this column hits. Indiandoom.com

Looking back in time this month we’ll turn to an album by Sweden’s October Tide. “Grey Dawn” was the second and seemingly final release from this project of Katatonia’s Jonas Renske and Fredrick Normann. At one point Katatonia broke up for a while and Anders Nystrom turned to his project Diabolical Masquerade while the other dudes continued with October Tide which was pretty much a continuation of everything Jonas brought to Katatonia. Not only a continuation, but one that combined elements of Katatonia’s best album “Brave Murder Day” with the direction later Katatonia albums would take.

Opener “Grey Dawn” is probably the best track on the album and stands alongside any of the tunes on “Brave Murder Day”. The vocalist sounds so much like Mike from Opeth, who handled vocal duties on “Brave Murder Day”, it’s almost uncanny (pun intended trivia freaks). The main riff is an absolute killer and the chorus is ultra-memorable. The break in the middle of the song leads into some tasteful soloing and melancholic rhythms before going back to the main theme again one more time. This is October Tide’s hit single.

“Heart Of The Dead” is another highlight of the album with several Opeth like moments and it leads into “Floating” a song that has a sort of tragic elegance in its mournful sadness. The album ends with the acoustic downer “Dear Sun”.

The simple 4/4 drum patterns so prevalent on “Brave Murder Day” are utilized here again to underscore and highlight the riffs and melodies. The drums are just a fragile backbone. Although the term “funeral doom” is associated more with bands like Skepticism and Tyranny, even Asunder, in some sense it would seem equally appropriate in describing October Tide.

October Tide had an earlier full length called “Rain Without End” which, while not as good as “Grey Dawn” is nonetheless essential for any Katatonia fan and features Jonas’ final “harsh” vocal performance. “Grey Dawn” was originally released in 1999 by the Avantegarde label from Italy and has recently been re-released by Peaceville, Katatonia’s current label. “Rain Without End” is also set for a re-release sometime this year by its original label Vic Records. I had a copy of it at one time but mistakenly let a friend borrow it and never saw it again. Anyone into European doom should give “Grey Dawn” a listen.

That’s it for this month folks. I’ve received letters from several of you in the last few months. While I appreciate you taking the time to write letters I just don’t have time to answer them at this point in my life so don’t’ be offended if you don’t hear from me. I’ve never been good at writing letters to people. Contact info remains the same for now and the blog will be updated once this column has been on the stands for three or four weeks.