From Issue #302

I’m starting to have a serious election hangover and we’re still months away from a general election. Obama this, Hillary that – Reverend Dude and his what-can-only-be-described-as-comedic outburts, gas tax voter bribery, every fucking primary being make or break, John McCain’s weird arm movements, the national enquirer masquerading as cable news foolishness, people voting for a candidate because they’d be fun to hang out with, and the Bush machine continuing to plunder away while the media ignores everything else. Oh please just let it all end. King Diamond for president once and for all.

I haven’t left Olympia for over a month now. I celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago with the intention of going to see some mixed martial arts fights in Lacey, the city next to Olympia and one that is vastly different for being only a mile or two away.

Mostly you find low IQ neanderthal jock morons who are typically fans of mixed martial arts and other bloodsports, yet I nonetheless have become an avid fan of this illegal in 50 percent of America sport. Watching two guys who’ve agreed to fight each other in the octagon with specific rules seems all right to me morally. And the variety of combat styles in MMA makes it 10 times more interesting than a typical boxing match.

So 12 fights were scheduled including a championship. These were XCC league fights which are not the primo fighters of the UFC and WEC but who gives a fuck. It’s guys fighting in a cage. Ground and pound. I’m in. My friend Tenaya bought the tickets the week before at the downtrodden Hawks Prairie Casino, which is little more than a glorified card room.

Alas, it was not to be. We drove all the way out to where the fight was scheduled to be held (which was admittedly only about 10 miles but that seems far when you live here) and there was nobody there. There was no indication that the fight had been cancelled, there was just no one around and the doors were locked. Some other people showed up too. We phoned the casino and my worst fears were realized. Fight night was cancelled, refunds at the casino. Fuck. Now I guess I’ll have to trek it down to the next Rumble at the Roseland in Portland. Happy fucking birthday.

Been a pretty weak month for all things metallic but here’s a summary of some stuff that came my way and other shit I tracked down.

Todesbonden play gothic metal in a style that’s different from most European bands of that ilk on their album Sleep Now, Quiet Forest. Female fronted vocals are operatic most of the time and at others like Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance. The music occasionally has the elegance of Dead Can Dance as well, like on the piano-laced “Trianon”, and it’s those tracks that are most preferable. An otherwise tepid affair in a style I don’t particularly care for. Acoustic guitars and violin make regular appearances. Amber Asylum fans may enjoy. On the Prophecy label.

Altar Of Plagues is an Irish band with a well-packaged self-released CD titled Sol. Three epic tracks in all. Altar Of Plagues plays blackened post-metal that most closely resembles Wolves In The Throne Room when they’re blasting away, and Isis when they’re not. “Twisted Structures Against The Sun” is a song with many peaks and valleys during its 11+ minutes. “With Fire In Our Veins We Drown In Light” is the centerpiece, 14 minutes of heavy building, collapsing riffage, meditative breaks and finally furious black metal. It won’t be long before this band is well known if they can break out of the Irish ghetto that often seems to hold back metal bands from there. Check altarofplagues.com for info.

A year or two ago Moribund re-released the 1998 album Wanderings by the obscure USBM solo project I Shalt Become. Now a new album has surfaced titled simply Requiem. I hadn’t heard I Shalt Become before the re-release but was instantly into its repetitive, dark ambience. Clearly bands like Xasthur had taken influence from the sound. Now with Requiem, S. Holliman continues his loner dirge with more trance-inducing, basement dungeon, suicidal bleakness. Like Xasthur the music creates a kind of narcotic haze through repetition and the Burzum influence is obviously here too. Particularly Filosofem era Burzum, though more in its trance quality as it lacks Filosofem’s chainsaw guitar sound. In fact this album is light on distortion and at times sounds like a more bleak version of some long lost demo of discarded ideas for The Cure’s Pornography period. I Shalt Become’s music is more stripped down and discernable than Xasthur’s muddy cacophony, which makes it preferable for repeated listens. Good for those long, lonely walks through the forests in the country, or through the forests of decayed buildings in the big city.

Deadsea plays a pretty schizophrenic mash up of thrashy prog rock metal. There’s some classic metal and stoner stuff thrown in as well. It’s professionally executed by guys who seem to have been around for a while, but ultimately sounds over-indulgent and unfocused to my ears. Nothing to latch onto. I can’t get into it. Released by Chrome Leaf.

The Bay Area’s Skin Horse is named after a character in the Velveteen Rabbit but this isn’t music for little children. Most would call this doom though of the experimental variety, and it’s only heavy occasionally. I hear some Mindrot and Morgion elements on this 3 song album that stretches out to 50 minutes in length. Not particularly my cup of tea but a lot of Bay Area heads dig this sound. You can hear the whole album on their site myspace.com/saidtheskinhorse. They’re in search of a label for this Billy Anderson produced release.

Agrimonia are a Swedish band from Gothenburg that have self-released this debut CD-R. But this is more than a demo, it’s a full length album almost an hour long, very well-produced and presented. Agrimonia are playing a dark, depressive, cerebral and sometimes melodic metallic hardcore that has trace elements of Neurosis, Tragedy and their Swedish brethren all at once. Ultimately though the band transcends their influences with a sound that’s distinct. Songs such as “The Unknown Bury Me” and “Scars Make Life” are intricately woven with many peaks, valleys and tempo variations. Certain parts have a Bolt Thrower-esque epic quality. Though Agrimonia may be a relatively new name, it’s obvious from the quality the players have been around a while and spent time crafting this record into something special. Nice screenprinted cardboard artwork as well. Some label will definitely end up releasing this thing. Really great, buy it directly from the band. They’ll be playing at the Punk Illegal fest on June 28th in Sweden. The CD can be ordered for 7 Euros or $11 postpaid. Contact them at myspace.com/agrimonia.

Ugh, 5 seconds into Spitfire’s Cult Fiction I am thoroughly unstoked to hear mucho agro metalcore with wimp clean vocal choruses. I held out hope when I saw a song called “Dawn Patrol” but it’s not even a Megadeth cover. Some of the music here isn’t completely terrible (just mostly) but the horrible vocals really ruin this. Standard Dillinger Escape Plan angry guy vox. I assume this is what bands like Norma Jean and other Botch clones sound like. But I wouldn’t know. And either should you.

The weirdos in Blut Aus Nord have returned. Their last LP MoRT was like a really desolate black metal Godflesh. On Odinist: The Destruction Of Reason By Illumination there isn’t much of that mechanized aura. Meandering, churning compositions that bleed together into one black whole. Not aggressive in the least, Blut Aus Nord is more of a sinister suggestive presentation of satanic psychedelia. Blackened background music you might call this as it doesn’t require a great amount of attention, and in that regard could be seen as a success or a disappointment. Very different from where they were on previous albums like The Work Which Transforms God. On the Candlelight label.

Crucial Blast has put out a new CD by a project called Gnaw Their Tongues. The CD, An Epiphanic Vomiting Of Blood, is like a slow funereal doom album and a horror soundtrack playing at the same time. Great songtitles like “My Body Is Not A Temple, Nor A Vessel. It Is A Repulsive Pile Of Sickness” and “The Urge To Participate In Butchery” enhance the nihilistic vibe of this strange release. Good for your next haunted house to scare the children.

Cough is the name of a Richmond band that plays monstrously slow doom with a groove. Their new full length CD on the Force Field label, Sigillum Luciferi is a blunt force sludge covered behemoth in the proud tradition of Eyehategod especially and Electric Wizard. Cough’s got nothing new on the genre, but what they do they do effectively enough that it doesn’t matter. The riffs are good and memorable. Eyehategod toyed with faster songs at times but Cough keeps it slow throughout. Now that doom has largely moved on to artier pastures it’s nice to hear something raw and dirty like this more at home in the welfare line then the art gallery, a good kick in the south.

Dead Congregation is a Greek band whose LP Graves Of The Archangels has been out for a while now via the Nuclear War Now label. And as with most releases on that label, this album is a quality underground piece of work. Dead Congregation specializes in old-school death metal, a mix of the Swedish sound and American bands like Incantation and Immolation. Every song is dark, brutal no-nonsense old-school death metal with a powerful production that doesn’t rely on the modern death metal aesthetic of clinical sterility.

Also on Nuclear War Now is a new album from the Mexican Morboso Metal kings Morbosidad. Profana La Cruz Del Nazareno is another blasphemous assault on all that is holy in the fine tradition of their prior bestial black death atrocities. Beherit, Blasphemy, Profanatica and other such bands are obvious influences, but adding elements of their Mexican heritage into the mix as well sets Morbosidad apart and gives Profana a distinctive vileness of its own. Pure filth. Brilliant. I got the Diehard LP that comes with a couple posters, patch, sticker, heavy vinyl, etc. Nuclear War Now is one of the few labels that manages to deal in quantity and quality both, releasing high quality, great records seemingly on a monthly basis. Probably the best underground metal label around.

Also just released via Nuclear War Now are 2 LPs from pre Angelcorpse / Ares Kingdom death metal firebrands Order From Chaos. Order From Chaos existed in the early to mid 90s and were much revered by a select few but sadly never gained much attention at the time, perhaps due to the fact they came from Kansas City, not exactly known as a stalwart of the death metal scene. Nonetheless these ripping albums had a sound that was different than other bands of the time, a sound committed to the true underground. A keen philosophical and historical sense permeates the albums lyrically and visually which the controversial social Darwinist bandleader Pete Helmkamp would continue in Angelcorpse.

Other stuff I’ve been listening to lately worth your time to check out include Ash Pool’s World Turns On Its Hinge, quality black metal from Dom Furnow of Prurient and Hospital Productions. Speaking of which Prurient’s latest And Still, Wanting is a fierce noise record with enough variation to keep it interesting throughout, if noise be your thing. The Skull Defekts in another droning noise project of harsh power and decayed insane atmosphere whose Skkull release has left my mind in a permanent state of fear. Grey Daturas have a new release Return To Disruption out on Neurot that perhaps more than any other of their releases best represents their brainstew of improv guitar noise, post-rock and crushing doom. And for a completely weirdo outsider vibe check out Lamborghini Crystal whose 1992 Cool Runnings, Little Deuce Coupe T.V. Dinners and Dial 747-Creepozoid tapes are like a mix of 80s movie and TV soundtracks and damaged electro funk eccentricity played through a broken cassette deck left out in the sun too long. Fucking genius.

Old school records lately have consisted mainly of Liege Lord’s thrashing power metal opus Freedom’s Rise a duo of Manilla Road records Invasion and Metal, both mandatory for your next NWOBHM party, despite the fact they’re from Kansas and Morbid Saint’s old underground death thrash classic Spectrum Of Death. Much chagrined was I to learn that a dude from Morbid Saint is now a baggy panted, hair-braided dude in some cheesy going nowhere nu-metal band. Your 10 years too late brah. How the mighty do fall!

That’s it for this month folks. Next month I’ll have news to report on Maryland Deathfest and the Coffins shows with The Endless Blockade for which I’ll be traveling to the East Coast to be part of for a few days.

Contact info remains unchanged: Don’t Try, 120 State Ave NE #136, Oly, WA 98501 dontfuckingtry.blogspot.com