tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383550499516688962024-02-20T03:42:07.730-08:00Don't Try - Metal 4 PunxDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-69843324679320486172008-11-17T17:15:00.000-08:002008-11-17T17:16:18.216-08:00From Issue #305(Note - this was the final column. Want to know why? Write to MRR...)<br /><br />A few weeks ago Gothenburg, Sweden’s At The Gates came storming down the West Coast. I was in the Bay Area at the time and was lucky enough to catch the show at the Fillmore. It’s easy to dismiss At The Gates as overhyped bullshit given the thousands of horrible melodic metal and metalcore bands they spawned in their wake. But to do is just as cliché as all those bands trying to cop their sound. There are several reasons for this.<br /><br />First, At The Gates was around at the beginning of the death metal movement. And not just the death metal movement, but the SWEDISH death metal movement, the best and most amazing death metal scene of all. Tomas Lindberg, the band’s vocalist, was active in the scene prior to the formation of At The Gates in many ways, doing his zine Cascade, setting up shows and playing in The Grotesque who along with Nihilist, set the stage for the death metal boom in their homeland. The Bjorler twins played in the band Infestation, and original guitarist guitarist Alf Svensson played in many projects including mid 80s Swedish hardcore band Oral.<br /><br />Secondly, every album At The Gates created was a masterpiece, from their debut mini-LP Gardens Of Grief, on all the way up to Slaughter Of The Soul, the album for which they are most known, and in many cases the only one people have checked out (a fucking tragedy). <br /><br />Lastly to write them off for their popularity gives no credit to the fact that they are ridiculously amazing live band even today after a 12 year break. Not to mention, At The Gates became way more popular in death then they ever were life, they had no control over their own martyrdom.<br /><br />When Slaughter Of The Soul was released in late ’95, I bought the cassette the day it came out. I’d already been listening to the band for several years, and was into the direction they had taken on their previous release Terminal Spirit Disease a mini-album that also contained live versions of several classic older songs. I loved the old style, but the new direction was more straight forward and direct, not giving up on the complex brutality of the earlier releases, just honing it into a razor sharp machine. Yes, they had melodies, but they always did and it was still aggressive as hell and Lindberg’s vocals were top notch.<br /><br />At the time of its release the album was definitely acknowledged as being great, but no one seemed to realize it would become the most influential metal album of the 1990s. Judging by the fact that in 1996 At The Gates was touring as a support band and playing venues like the Berkeley Square (considerably smaller than the Fillmore) it was pretty clear people didn’t catch on right away.<br /><br />As time went on the album was picked up on by a lot of people, but not in time for At The Gates to realize it. They broke up in 1996 after a ton of touring for the album. They knew it’d be near impossible to write an album as good again and there was starting to be “musical differences” within the band. In fact, that they broke up at their peak has over the years added to their “mystique” despite high visibility by nearly all involved (Skitsystem, Disfear, The Haunted and Cradle Of Filth) and none of their subsequent projects being anywhere near as good.<br /><br />At The Gates came to be synonymous with the “Gothenburg Sound” of death metal, which is basically just melodic death metal. But aside from At The Gates almost every band ever called that has been total wimps and posers not worthy of the death metal label. Just look at In Flames for all the evidence you need; they’ve been carrying that banner ever since without a hint of the quality of At The Gates. There’s more fury in one At The Gates riff then the entire In Flames discography! The only Gothenburg band worthy to sit alongside At The Gates that had any integrity was the mighty Dissection who they toured the US with in 1996 opening for Morbid Angel.<br /><br />Nowadays people call Slaughter Of The Soul the Reign In Blood of the 1990s. I don’t know about that, but there’s no doubt that it is a fan-fucking-tastic record no matter what the haters say. The problem, as noted above, is that too many people have ignored the other amazing albums they did, which was clear by the crowd in San Francisco, many of whom looked confused and bored when anything aside from Slaughter tunes were aired.<br />The debut Gardens Of Grief is super raw, dark and under produced, and only hints at the classy complexity of the bands first two full lengths. Lindberg’s vocals are more varied, going low at times and high others, similar to his days in Grotesque. The classic track “All Life Ends” first appeared on this mini-LP.<br /><br />The first full length album The Red In The Sky As Ours is considerably different than Slaughter Of The Soul with supremely complex arrangements, tons of riffs per song, and even violins in a few places. It suffers from a shitty production, but the songs are killer nonetheless with brilliant stuff like “Claws Of Laughter Dead”, “Neverwhere” and the live favorite (at least for me) and set closer in San Francisco “Kingdom (fucking) Gone”. My vinyl version of this album remains one of the most cherished pieces of my collection.<br /><br />The follow up to Red Sky (as it’s often known) was the much better-produced With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness. It introduced killers like “Raped By The Light Of Christ” which starts acoustically and breaks into some seemingly classical influenced riffing. Lindberg’s pained high rasps are in near perfect form, a very stark contrast to the then popular Stockholm low guttural vocal style. To ignore this album and Red Sky is an unforgivable sin of omission to anyone calling themselves a fan of this band.<br /><br />Terminal Spirit Disease came next and its blistering title track clearly illustrated what was to come on the scene-changing Slaughter Of The Soul that came after it. Interestingly the band left Peaceville after Terminal and ended up on Earache who by that time were suffering from a serious lack of decent albums. It’s arguable whether they knew at the time they were about to get in on one of the most influential records of the decade, but once again Earache hit it big with Slaughter Of The Soul.<br /><br />Anticipation was high when At The Gates announced earlier this year they’d reform for a final tour. Their logic was that they broke up under circumstances that left them feeling things were unfinished, so this tour was meant to close the book. No new music, no other tours (supposedly). Could they be as good as they were back when I saw them in 95 and 96?<br /><br />The truth is, as good as they were back then (and they were fucking epic) they were even better in 2008. The band is acutely aware of their status as gods of the scene and the set did not spare the classics. Slaughter Of The Soul was played almost in its entirety and the entire crowd was going apeshit. They immediately ripped right into the fantastic title track, one that many count as their favorite, and proceeded throughout the night to play a few from Slaughter, then an oldie, then a few more from Slaughter, etc.<br /><br />Now, despite the album’s influence, which I acknowledge absolutely, for me the earlier albums are the real jewels, and I was eager to hear which older tunes would be unleashed. Mostly it was the old tracks that also turned up as live cuts on Terminal Spirit Disease. The band probably figured most of the fans who only owned Slaughter were most likely to have Terminal if they had ventured to other albums (it being Slaughter’s closest relative both stylistically and chronologically). But the live older tracks from that album are some of the best from the earlier material like the aforementioned “Kingdom Gone”, “All Life Ends” and “The Burning Darkness”. With Fear’s “Raped By The Light Of Christ” and the Red Sky track “Windows” were also let loose. About three original’s from Terminal were also played. All in all it was about as good as it could get for a set list for both recent fans and long time ones like myself. I was especially stoked they ended with an oldie, which I think was a nod to OG fans. I awoke the next day to the worst bangover of my life, my neck completely thrashed and near broken.<br /><br />Another reason I felt the need to write so much about At The Gates this month was I just finished reading the book Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth. The book was just released domestically in the US this July, though it’s been circulating in Europe for a year two. The American version has the English cleaned up and some additional stuff absent from the Euro version.<br /><br />Folks, this book is about as amazing a book as is possible for rabid Swedish death metal fanatics, of which I count myself as one. The thing is like 400 pages long with tons of interviews with members of Nihilist (Entombed), Morbid, Unleashed, Treblinka (Tiamat), Carnage, Dismember, Grave, Grotesque (At The Gates, Liers In Wait), Edge Of Sanity, Afflicted Convulsion (Afflicted), even punk dudes from Mob 47 and Asocial appear. Tons of old photos, flyers, demo covers, old zines and an exhaustive discography with knowledgeable and humorous opinions by the author.<br /><br />The best part about the book is that it is written like a fanzine would be written. No over analytical bullshit or posturing on the greater meaning of it all. No intellectual ridiculousness about its artistic merit. Just killer quotes and honest death metal fanatic discourse from a guy who grew up with it and was consumed by it (like me!). No one is here looking for outside approval.<br /><br />The book is published by Bazillion Points Publishing out of New York and their website is www.bazillionpoints.com. I would recommend this book not only to Swedeath maniacs but anyone into metal or hardcore, and especially anyone not yet familiar or just starting out with old death metal. This is the perfect place to get acquainted with the scene that helped create the modern metal underground. <br /><br />The author also agrees with me that the best album ever produced by the scene was Entombed’s Left Hand Path. For me, not only was that the best Swedeath album ever, but the best death metal album of all time – the guitar sound, the songwriting, the production and the vocals are all picture perfect. Yes it’s better than Altars Of Madness and any album by Carcass or At The Gates. <br /><br />Plus, the “where did the blastbeat originate” debate is given another twist by the author who claims the Swedish hardcore band Asocial was ripping the one beat as early as 1982, pre Siege, pre Repulsion, pre Napalm. The saga continues…!<br /><br />Anyway folks, between the At The Gates show and the Swedish Death Metal book, I’ve been engulfed in the old all month and have absolutely ignored any new and obviously inferior weak metal these last weeks. I’ll be back next month to talk about some new shit again but we all know it’ll never match the power and brutality of old Swedish death!<br /><br />Don’t Try, 120 State Ave NE #136, Olympia, WA 98501 USA, dontfuckingtry.blogspot.com, donttry@20buckspin.comDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-21691570189719381492008-11-17T17:12:00.002-08:002008-11-17T17:14:18.374-08:00From Issue #304Summertime in Olympia has finally arrived. Though it doesn’t typically get hot enough to reach the blistering heat of summer in the East Bay, having lived in Oly long enough to get used to the cooler temps, 85 degrees now seems the equivalent of 100 to my acclimating northern blood. I’ve always been partial to overcast weather and seeing as how it never stays sunny too long up here, for me it’s an ideal summer. With no more 120 day stretches of East Bay sun constantly shining in my face I’ve gained a new appreciation for the more infrequent sunny weather of Olympia.<br /><br />Another fun reality of Olympia is that fireworks are more legal here. Independence Day weekend just passed by and there were little fireworks stands all over the place. My daughter and I hooked up some sparklers, roman candles and some other relatively non-threatening, non-dangerous shit to light up. This made for my kids favorite 4th yet, as in the Bay she’s been limited to watching fireworks shows from afar. This time we had our own show with our friends; much better.<br /><br />I also recently bought a small record store in Olympia. Phantom City Records has been open for years and for a long time had been owned by Judd the screamer for Sex/Vid. Well I guess Judd burned out on doin’ the whole thing and if he couldn’t sell it he was gonna shut it down. I hate to see another record store close down so I scrounged up some cash, we made some backroom deals and when it was over, I got the store and Judd bolted to do a month long Sex/Vid tour. I’m pretty stoked to have a store even though record stores seem to drop like flys these days. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try and the timing was right for both of us. So if you’re in Oly stop by and buy shit so the store stays open for a long time to come. It’s right downtown on 4th street inside the Dumpster Values compound.<br /><br />The metal pickens have been slim lately with nothing super mindblowing coming my way in a while. That said there is some decent stuff circulating that might be worth your time and effort.<br /><br />When death/doom is used as a genre description it can mean a lot of different things. Japan’s Coffins always describe themselves as death/doom, which would be accurate since they sound like a death metal version of Corrupted. But typically death/doom is used to described stuff like early Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, even Asunder. In other words, it’s got a more tragic, depressing vibe to it.<br /><br />It’s from that more typical meaning that the music of Mourning Beloveth draws from. Mourning Beloveth is an Irish band that’s got several albums to their credit and have been active since the 90s. The latest album is called A Disease For The Ages, released on the Grau label. They embody the sound of the death/doom genre with the heavy, sad and slow guitar riffs, the deep guttural vocals and the epic song lengths, with only one track of the five clocking in under the 10-minute mark. Having been around a while Mourning Beloveth has definitely isolated the elements of their style into the finest points and have crafted some quality tunes that are among the genre’s best. At times they contrast the death vocals with a clean Saint Vitus style croon, connecting their sound with doom’s older generation. Great record that I’ll be spinning outside the context of review writing.<br />The German band Dornenreich has a couple new releases out. The first, a new album, is called In Luft Gentzt and is primarily an album of mostly acoustic songs. The second is a reissue of their 2001 album Her Von Welken Nachten which is sort of symphonic black metal with lots of keyboards and a decidedly absurdist spin on the vocals. Overall, I can’t recommend either album, though the band remains relatively popular among a certain subsect of the scene.<br /><br />Ascend is a new project that features members of SUNN and Iceburn. Despite the album’s project band nature, there’s actually some good interesting stuff going on here. The album, Ample Fire Within, starts with the very SUNN-esque drone of “The Obelisk Of Kolob” though the track does feature drums, and has a muddier tone than the SUNN records, sounding like an outtake from a Corrupted LP. The whole thing works more as a collection of collaborative tracks rather than a whole album with some tunes being a bit on the softer, creepy dark side rather than the crushing nature of the first track. Vocals seep into the mix on “Divine” that sound not unlike Steve Von Till’s clean vocal style for Neurosis. If you dig SUNN and its many bastard offshoots then check this one out as it’s definitely got a lot more to it then some of the others. Released by Southern Lord.<br /><br />After that dose of audial Nyquil I was glad to pop in the short, sharp shock of the demo CD-R from Japan’s Dellin Muller. My Japanese buddy Ryo does the vocals in this band. Some of you may have seen him doing the occasional guest vocal with The Endless Blockade and Coffins on their recent US tour. This demo consists of 3 bursts of raw deathgrind that rarely gets below lightspeed. Bands like Phobia and Retaliation would be an apt comparison. Check em out via myspace at myspace.com/dellinmuller.<br /><br />Tyr is a very popular Viking metal band. Viking metal typically features metalized ethnic Scandinavian style guitar work and epic vocal delivery, sometimes black metal style, but in Tyr’s case these are clean style vocals sung mostly in their native tongue. The choruses have the vocals layered many times giving the sing-along effect common to this metal subgenre. The riffs on Land are not so Norse folk sounding as with other bands playing the style, but on the whole this album is too polished for my blood. Well played, well-executed, but mostly boring. I see many Euro festival metalheads diggin’ this and maybe US kids into bands like Finntroll and Vintersorg, but give me Isengard any day over this madness. On the Napalm label.<br /><br />Aluna are a UK band with a new 3 song CD called Fall To Earth. They play bluesy Sabbath-inspired grooves in the stoner vein. What sets them apart is vocalist Soph. It’s awesome to see a female vocalist in a genre that is overwhelmingly dominated by gruff bearded dudes. Unfortunately her vocals are somewhat on the monotone side and often it feels like she’s holding back and not really letting loose. They’re too lazy, and the music follows suit as well. There’s just too many damn bands that are playing or have played this style. You really have to raise the bar if want to succeed cuz its been done to fuckin’ death. Check the first couple Fu Manchu records for reference. Check Aluna out at alunaband.co.uk.<br /><br />Some ex-Rwake dudes comprise Arkansas ugly doom peddlers Deadbird. After a stint at Earache they’re back to the more underground At A Loss label, a label that always releases some quality heavy stuff (ie. Black Cobra). This album Twilight Ritual definitely has the vibe of their brothers in Rwake with fuzzy Crowbar-esque lost-it-all riffs and pained vocal rasps with the faster material veering into Black Cobra / Kylesa territory. Never seen these dudes live yet, but I bet they’re great. I picture lots of beards, pro tats and trucker hats. If you dig the other bands I mentioned look into Twilight Ritual.<br /><br />The dudes in Northless are regrettably beating a bit of a dead horse on their self-titled demo CD. This is NeurIsis style post-doom rock with the usual elements that the subgenre entails, building heavy parts, wandering shimmery ping-ping guitar parts, tortured vox, etc. This is well done but just has too much in common with its influences to really stand out for me, a problem for most bands trudging these crowded waters. Also it comes in a DVD box, which is totally annoying. I wish bands wouldn’t do that. I don’t want my CDs mingling with my DVDs anymore than I want my precious vinyl mingling with my reading material. CDs over here, DVDs over there! Check out Northless at myspace.com/northlesswilwaukee.<br /><br />The unholy beast that is Spektr has graced us with a new mini-CD titled Mescalyne. I believe this band has a member of Gorgoroth in its two person ranks though I’m not 100% on that. Aside from the guitar all Spektr music seems to be produced via programming, sampling and drum machines giving the disc a distinct electro/industrial vibe not unlike later Dodheimsgard material, but without the absurdist bent of those crazy Norsemen. Rather the atmosphere is a grim, dank torture chamber of blackened speed riffs and high BPM drums. The more ambient sides tend toward the Nordvargr space of horrific nightmare scenarios. Fairly original and dark stuff.<br /><br />And now to some classic material. When people talk about Brazil’s Sepultura in terms of classic releases, there is a lot of debate. The mainstream metal press is always quick to tout later albums like Chaos A.D. and the really kind of shitty Roots album. The kultest of the kult are always talking up the early stuff like Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation. But the truth of it is, the best Sepultura album is, was and always will be Beneath The Remains, the 1989 LP that saw them spring onto the worldwide metal stage.<br /><br />The album’s dark acoustic intro, like something emitting from a deep cave, leads into the classic opening riff of the title track, a fast as fuck Slayer gone punk ripper propelling to the chorus of: “Who has won, Who has died? Beneath The Remains”. About 3:20 into the song it breaks into an amazing bridge that sounds like a thrash carnival before heading back to the final chorus and the dive bomb ending. A complete death thrash masterpiece that didn’t need any wacky-thrash gimmick shit to make its point.<br /><br />“Inner Self” wouldn’t be out of place on a crusty hardcore album of the time except that it’s too well-produced and complex. But the main riff clearly belies Sepultura’s obvious punk influence with bands like Discharge and Nausea factoring into the sound here as much as Slayer and Kreator. <br /><br />Andreas Kisser clearly steps up his role from the previous LP Schizophrenia, adding face-melting solos that showed an appreciation for the melodies hiding within the dark death thrash in a way the spazz out leads of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman couldn’t really match (let’s face it, every Slayer solo is almost completely the same post Show No Mercy).<br /><br />Moving on through classic tracks like “Stronger Than Hate” with its weird arpeggio ending and the hypnotic break in crowd favorite “Mass Hypnosis” Sepultura maintained their A-Game well into B-side ragers like “Slaves Of Pain” and apocalyptic album closer “Primitive Future”. Among the countless number of riffs on the LP, not one is wasted or misplaced. Total non-stop aggression, desperation and brilliance.<br /><br />Michael Whelan’s classic cover art of a decayed orange skull, sprouting flowers with a creepy looking beast peering out of the cranium looks like something to be found beneath the remains of some war torn 3rd world disaster area. One of the great metal covers of the late 1980s, Whelan’s work also graced the cover of the band’s Arise LP and Obituary’s Cause Of Death LP.<br /><br />Don’t let the fact that the music these guys and their off-shoots make now is crappy, if you have yet to check out Sepultura’s Beneath The Remains, find it immediately!<br />Next month I’ll let y’all know if At The Gates are as good live now as they were in 1996. Til death!<br /><br />Don’t Try, 120 State Ave NE #136, Olympia, WA 98501 USA, dontfuckingtry.blogspot.com, donttry@20buckspin.comDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-65183001271798527952008-11-17T17:12:00.001-08:002008-11-17T17:12:35.971-08:00From Issue #303 (Dedicated To Catheter)Currently I am stuck on a flight from Chicago to Seattle. Listening to Grief by Thobbing Gristle. Chicago was just the connecting airport. I flew out from Pittsburgh on a plane that held about 50 people. I was reading Drew Daniels’ treatise on Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats. The plane was getting knocked around enough to make a few drops of piss leak into my shorts. I’m waiting on drink service so I can get my whiskey on.<br /><br />I spent the last two weeks traveling to various Midwest and Eastern destinations. First week was spent visiting various friends and family. The second week was spent hanging out with, driving and guiding Japan’s Coffins at the tail end of their first US shows. I connected with Coffins and The Endless Blockade in Pittsburgh where they were playing their last show together after a week of shows in Boston, NYC, Philly, Richmond and Allentown. We met up at the house of Missy who helps run Pittsburgh’s Mr. Roboto Project, the location of that night’s show.<br /><br />Blockade dudes were tired out but Coffins wanted to go out and maximize their time in the US. I took em record shopping at Brave New World (maybe it’s not called that anymore?), got em some food and then we met back at the house to caravan to the show.<br />Slices opened the show to an eager and enthusiastic audience packed into the small space, the incomparable Mantooth on vokills – solid fucking set by those natives. They were followed by the highly anticipated and mighty Hellnation. Insane 1000MPH devastation and anger served cold and raw. A band not to be fucked with and yet, completely humble and likeable guys, who kindly drove Coffins’ gear to Maryland, due to lack of space in my van, where both bands were to play next.<br /><br />The Endless Blockade were next and by this time they’re a finally tuned machine. Nobody these days does powerviolence (sorry, neo-powerviolence) quite so well except maybe Iron Lung who are a different beast altogether. They mix in a sickly dose of noise and blaze through their set of mostly newer songs in the span of maybe 15 minutes. Coffins roadie Ryo joins them at the end on vocals during the set closing wall of noise barrage.<br /><br />Coffins is set to close the show and for me it’s special having been working with the band for about two years now yet only meeting them in person and seeing them live for the first time that day. They do not disappoint, recreating their skullkrushing guitar sound through songs from the first two albums and demo including “Sacrifice To Evil Spirit”, “Slaughter Of Gods” and “Blood and Bone”. Newer track “Mortification To Ruin” manages to be even more pummeling live. The crowd of mostly punks and a few metals seem equally enthusiastic. I for one have a big smile throughout as one does seeing a favorite band for the first time.<br /><br />That night Coffins and I crashed at my mom’s pad out in the Pittsburgh suburbs. The next day it was time to drive to Baltimore and spend an oppressive three days at the Maryland Deathfest. I was stoked at the chance to get to see Coffins on a bigger stage with a larger crowd, and the Fest was good enough to pay for Coffins flights to the US and make the other shows possible. But not so stoked at the prospect of 3 days of primarily 3rd generation Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus clones. Needless to say that was the majority of what occurred so I’ll just recount the highlights here.<br /><br />Coffins are a three-piece but with their roadie they are four. The roadie, Ryo, is the only one who can really speak any English and his is fairly limited too but we managed to make our points when necessary and communicate them to the other members, Uchino, Koreeda and You.<br /><br />We stayed at a hotel several miles from the venue in Baltimore since I made reservations kind of last minute. Apparently everyone else did too cuz there were many bands at that hotel including my old buddies in Impaled. We dropped our shit off there upon arrival and headed to the venue where things were just about to get under way. The band got free admission for all three days but Ryo and I had to pay the $90 3 day ticket. FUCK! Definitely not something I would have done had I not been escorting Coffins.<br /><br />Skarp opened the show with a powerful set, Renae decked out in a white summery dress to go with the hot Baltimore weather; a far cry from the usual ragged crusty attire that made her instantly stick out in the sea of black clad fest-goers. I believe they were a last minute addition to the fest after several other bands had to drop out for various reasons. Always good to see my friends in Skarp who are on an insane two and a half month tour.<br />Phobia also is on tour and played Friday as well. Solid set as always and my Japanese buddies were particularly excited being long time Phobia fanatics and not having seen them in Japan for many years.<br /><br />Not much else of note occurred on Friday that I can recall. I spent a lot of time outside knowing I’d likely be stuck at a merch table for much of the rest of the weekend.<br /><br />Saturday we arrived at the venue by noon. Coffins was playing at 8:30 p.m. We brought all the merch they still had left but we had nowhere to set it up. No one gave us any details about selling merch or if we even could. Luckily for us this guy Mike who played in a band called Divine Eve back in the early 90s, an influential band for Coffins, let us share his table. The shirt printer he works for, Sick Seranades, prints Coffins merch so it made sense. He and I switched off doing shifts at the table so Coffins could enjoy the fest and hang out. This worked out well and we made about $700 in merch on Saturday for Coffins. The table was set up in the main room where the bands played so we were able to watch bands while working the table. Most merch tables were set up in another separate room away from the show so we lucked out, especially with the merch area being elevated about a foot off the floor giving us an obstructed stage view when on our feet.<br /><br />When it was time for Coffins to play they, Ryo and I met backstage and got their gear up on stage as Disfear was getting theirs off. They tuned up, turned on and got right to pummeling the eager crowd. After so many fast as fuck bands Coffins’ Autopsy/Hellhammer pace was a welcome change, adding some direly needed variety. The crowd showed great respect to the visiting Japanese death doom lords fistpumping and headbanging like true maniacs giving a response worthy of a headliner. I was several drinks in by that point and watching from the side of the stage was brilliant. It was so fucking heavy! Doom Death Destruction Over Baltimore!<br /><br />About 4 songs in Uchino walks over to me, looking at me with paranoid eyes. We can’t talk so I’m trying to figure out what’s wrong. I look at his guitar and see a string dangling from the fretboard. He’d popped one, and the look in his eyes told me he didn’t bring in any extras. OH SHIT. So I’m frantically asking people backstage for a string but no one is stepping up. Finally the guitar player from Australia’s Fuck I’m Dead steps up and offers up his guitar. He hands it to Uchino and he tunes it up (well down actually) and Coffins gets back to playing. It takes a few minutes to recapture the momentum, but by the end of the first song post-breakage things are all good again. Ryo jumps in on vocals during the second to last song adding some extra movement and aggression. I can’t speak for the crowd, but with the set ending after 35 minutes or so, I was left wanting a lot more. Thankfully we’re already working on West Coast for 2009.<br /><br />Aside from Coffins, or maybe along with them, gotta give the best show of the Fest award to Ghoul. The Bay Area maniaxe pulled out all the stops with several different costumed characters adding to the theatrics of the masked executioner’s thrash attack. Although I don’t live in the Bay anymore, I’ve seen Ghoul many times in the past and they just get better and better. It was great to get a taste of home so far away, and show that as usual, the Bay Area always represents with the best shit and the best bands. They had the pit going about as crazy as I saw it the whole weekend, proving yet again that Thrash will always be the best form of metal in the live environment.<br /><br />Poor Monstrosity. As far as the early 90s death metal bands go they were always sort of second class citizens, never reaching the heights of their fellow Floridians like Obituary and Deicide. Indeed their biggest claim to fame is probably that they provided Cannibal Corpse with their second vocalist George Fisher. And at Deathfest the poor bastards had to follow Ghoul. About half the crowd dispersed by that point and with the exception of the very pumped vocalist even the Monstrosity dudes seemed to be phoning it in. Kind of a bummer after such a great Ghoul set.<br /><br />Saturday’s headliners were non-corpsepainted British black metallers Anaal Nathrakh, or Anal Mathrock as I prefer to call them. Back in 2000 or so when I was working for NeCRAPolis Records in Fremont I recall that Matt Harvey, Jason Balsells and I were very stoked on this band’s album they’d put up on MP3.COM. It was called The Codex Necro, and eventually saw release through some label, and remains the crowning jewel in what to my ears is an otherwise fairly average catalog of albums. The depleted crowd that remained was excited however and they ripped through songs that mostly bled together. The clean vocals were just horrid sounding like Maniac from Mayhem’s attempts at clean style, but even worse, and I found myself wishing they just stuck to the harsh stuff. Why do so many metal bands think that “evolving” means trying to sing like some emo band? Still, an OK set, but it seemed like a lot of people were too tired to be bothered after 12 fucking hours of mostly shitty death metal.<br /><br />Sunday was characterized by more of the same. A lot of the time I spent not working the merch table I spent dozing in the van. Highlights of the day included Impaled’s abbreviated set, which for reasons still unknown to me was cut short by Deathfest, pissing off Ross to no end. Dead from Germany played an amazing set of Carcass inspired comedic grind intensity. Those dudes were fucking A plus guys to hang out with as well. And the weekend was closed out by the occasionally reformed Nuclear Assault whose records I was always lukewarm about but live were pretty great fun. Maybe it was the alcohol kicking in, but those 40+ year old dudes thrashed about like young dudes giving a good lesson in violence to cap the weekend. <br /><br />By this time the Coffins crew and I are exhausted, so we go immediately back to the hotel and crash out. The next morning I drive them straight to the airport and we took our final pictures and said our goodbyes until they hopefully come back to the US west coast in the spring of ’09. All in all an exhausting, often tedious weekend but ultimately a successful one for my Japanese brothers in Coffins.<br /><br />The Coffins tour was the culmination of a lot of work for me, but would not have been possible without the help of many people most notably Andrew Nolan (Andy Stick if you prefer) of The Endless Blockade. Andrew booked the whole tour with the exception of Deathfest and made sure Coffins didn’t need to do much besides show up and play. <br /><br />Also gotta say thanks to Quinn Dillon for picking up the band at the airport and receiving all their merch at his house, Christina from Pittsburgh for driving the van around, and continuing to drive for The Endless Blockade. Mike from Sick Serenades/Divine Eve for the merch help. Brian from Watchmaker and all the other people who let the Coffins dudes crash at their place. Evan and Ryan of Maryland Deathfest, and anyone else who helped. It was a great time for all involved and the Coffins guys went home without losing any money and hopefully gained some new friends and fans.<br /><br />Anyway folks after all that, I’m too tapped out on brutality to review any material for you, so I’ll get back to the normal bullshit next month. ‘Til then…<br /><br />Don’t Try, 120 State Ave NE #136, Oly, WA 98501, dontfuckingtry.blogspot.comDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-4902942419425419872008-11-17T17:10:00.000-08:002008-11-17T17:11:06.493-08:00From Issue #302I’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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />Contact info remains unchanged: Don’t Try, 120 State Ave NE #136, Oly, WA 98501 dontfuckingtry.blogspot.comDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-33878145742945578562008-11-17T17:08:00.000-08:002008-11-17T17:10:25.985-08:00From Issue #301In March I ventured away from the colorless rain-soaked forests of Olympia for a week to visit my favorite southern city, Austin, Texas. Weather-wise the differences were pretty major with Austin already having temps well into the 80s. As many of you are aware this time of year is a good time to hit Austin due to the many hundreds of shows happening as part of, and around, the South By Southwest music showcases.<br /><br />I saw many great shows despite not having the required SXSW (as it’s abbreviated) wristband to get into the official shows. Some of the surrounding shows are arguably better and attract many of the same bands anyway. <br /><br />I spent a lot of time at a place called the Typewriter Museum where there are two days worth of shows called Fuck By Fuck You and Fuck By Fuck Y’all, set up by the guys who run the Australian Cattle God label. One day the bands fall more into the category of country, Americana, roots style bands, and then one day it’s punk, rock and metal bands.<br /><br />Both shows had many amazing bands. A few who particularly stood out were Lozen, all the way from Tacoma, Washington and This Is My Condition, from Lawrence, Kansas. Lozen is a two-piece playing a noisy, driving rock not unlike the Melvins. Great songs and presence from those ladies. They have a CD our already on Australian Cattle God and should have new material later this year. Look forward to seeing more of them at home in the Northwest.<br /><br />This Is My Condition is a one-man band, a guy called Craig Comstock. Craig sets up a drum kit and then straddles a guitar across his snare and floor tom, and then unleashes the fury on both with the sticks. Miraculously not only can he pull this off, but the songs are all rad heavy noise rock that could easily pass for a full band if you weren’t watching him. But watching this dude play is half the fun. Needs to be seen to be believed.<br /><br />A show was set up in the supposedly shitty part of town at a bar whose name escapes me now. This bar has a large “backyard” and out there was a show that included Sex Vid, Iron Lung, Annihilation Time and Municipal Waste. You can’t really ask for more than that. <br /><br />Unfortunately we lagged in getting over there and Sex Vid had already done their thing. Iron Lung hit the stage and ruled for the entire duration of their epic 7 minute set. I think cops showed up and tried to shut the show down. Iron Lung got off the stage. I don’t know what happened in the interim but Muni Waste set up about 20 minutes later and ripped into their set.<br />Municipal Waste is kind of a phenomenon. They are obviously the big dogs of the whole thrash revival thing. The kids absolutely go ape shit bananas when they play. Some shirtless fat dude exits the circle pit, comes over to where I’m standing, picks up a garbage can full of empty bottles and cans, returns to the circle pit, and tosses it all over the place, only slightly raising an eyebrow by the other initiates. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I don’t know the bands material well enough to point out certain tunes but it appears all the “hits” are aired and a particularly violent response is received upon the repeated chorus of “Municipal Waste Is Gonna Fuck YOU UP!” Great set boys.<br /><br />But for my money (even though it was free) the night belonged to Oakland’s heroes Annihilation Time who have perfected the twin-guitar NWOBHM meets SoCal hardcore sound they’ve been honing these last few years. New tracks played gave a taste of the forthcoming Tee Pee Records LP and the kids seemed to go almost as bonkers as they did for the Waste. Seems the larger metal and punk world will soon discover what many in the underground have known for some time, Annihilation Time are kings.<br /><br />Over at Beerland the next night Iron Lung and A.T. ripped through destructive sets again, along with Brutal Knights and the Marked Men. Closing the show out that night was Easy Action, the latest incarnation of hardcore’s greatest vocalist of all-time John Fucking Brannon. The crowd thinned out during this set, but Easy Action has the class of a band that’s been around. Brannon’s vocals are still raw as shit and the band tore through songs both old and new of their filthy Detroit punk blues. More people should love this band.<br /><br />During flights and layovers I had ample time to digest some of the shit I received in the mail over the last several weeks. First up, Cursed is a Canadian band whose latest album is titled simply Three. This was my first exposure to the band and it was a positive experience. An intro, “Architects Of Troubled Sleep” comprised of overlapping spoken samples and menacing noise blasts into “Night Terrors” a grind-influenced maelstrom of anger. From their Cursed distill their sonic brew with crust, grind, metallic hardcore and some Swedish hardcore. Sometimes within the confines of a single song. Songs vary in length, with most sticking below three minutes and that’s where Cursed are at their best – the short, sharp shock. The cover art on the CD looks eerily similar to Kylesa’s second LP and it’s not hard to imagine those two bands on tour together. Trap Them, Himsa and bands of that ilk seem a logical reference. Released by Canadian label Goodfellow Records.<br /><br />Dudes! T he Birkenstock wearing hesher punks at Oakland’s Tank Crimes have bestowed upon our unworthy ears one of the best records of this young year. The new LP from Population Reduction Each Birth A New Disaster is a fuckin’ masterpiece! Total hardcore thrash grindin’ weed-fuelled brilliance. Not one wasted riff on the whole record. If bands like Insect Warfare, Hatred Surge and Magrudergrind are doing it for you these days, do yourselves a favor and pick up this LP, it’s right up there with the best in the muthafuckin’ game. Sweet gatefold LP and total maniac artwork by Becky Cloonan. The songtitles and lyrics are pure comedy, like “Schnauzer Autopsy” “Road Rage At The Farmers Market” and “Black Metal Beach Party”. Folks, it don’t get better than this. Go to it!<br /><br />Lethe is a 5 piece from Lawrence, Kansas with a new 3 track demo in circulation. The band just completed a Midwest tour with Samothrace with whom they share a member, the bedreadlocked 6 string low ender Dylan Desmond. Nearly a half hour of music in these three tracks of all instrumental post-metal progressive doom rock. These guys are musicians. Three damn guitars and a six-string bass. I hear small doses of Floyd and Rush style influence mixed in with the heavier stuff. Musician types like this can often disappear up their own asses, but Lethe stick to the theme and keep the song at the forefront rather than their own wanking. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. I shoulda known it’d be great with Dylan the Dude involved. Anyone into stuff as far ranging as Stinking Lizaveta to Red Sparrowes will probably get into this. See for yourself myspace.com/lethecult.<br /><br />Punks who allow some black metal meat in their vegan diets will most certainly enjoy Just Fuck Off a CD from Canadian solo black metal unit Malveillance. This is raw-stripped and fairly one-dimensional d-beat style blackness with lo-fi recording and no-fi attitude. Just face-ripping Bathory meets Discharge damaged dementia. Bone Awl, Order Of The Vulture and early Impaled Nazarene would all make good reference points. Available from New Scream Industry, newscreamindustry.blogspot.com.<br /><br />Also out on New Scream Industry is a split release between long-running SF Bass destroyers Burmese and Cadaver Eyes. Both bands mix up harsh power electronics with guitar bass destruction like a collision between Whitehouse, Man Is The Bastard, Lightning Bolt and some goregrind. Tough on the ears and the nerves. Just the way I like it.<br /><br />Tractor is a UK band with a new three song demo, Cattle. Influenced by Godflesh and all things AmRep, what they’re doing isn’t new, but they’re doing it with effectiveness. The drummer Kunal runs the Superfi label. Check them out at superfirecords.com/tractor.<br /><br />I had somewhat high hopes for Animus Mortis seeing that they are from Chile. The South American maniacs almost always come with something different, but raw and ugly and truer than most of their Northern hemisphere brethren. Not the case here. Atrabilis (Residues From Verb & Flesh) is too overtly European to really set it apart, and as such is a fairly by the numbers deal. The production is good, the speed is there, the acidic vocals, tons of double kicks, but ultimately this just sounds like Glorior Belli, Mortuus and other such second tier bands. Not bad, but there’s just way too much shit like this circulating right now. This is what the N.E.D. label has spawned. Released by Debemur Morti Productions.<br /><br />Power Quest plays power metal not surprisingly. Every once in a while I’ll get into a power metal album – you know shit like Blind Guardian. I love me some Blind Guardian. But that band at least has some balls in their sound and a lot of thrashiness to go with their epic tales of Lord of the Rings style nerdness. Sadly Power Quest don’t deliver on that front. They sound like a weaker version of Hammerfall (who’s first few LPs I am into), or maybe a faster version of Europe if they played way too much Nintendo (big perm keyboard alert). The album is called Master Of Illusion, on the Napalm label. One for the white frilly shirt crowd. Otherwise avoid.<br /><br />Clutch, Crowbar, High On Fire, Mastodon, Akimbo and even Neurosis are all digested and regurgitated on the latest album from Taint, Secrets And Lies. Every song has many riffs, time changes and tons of highly charged rock aggression. Big ass production, including a loud mix by Alex Newport of Fudge Tunnel. I haven’t heard the first album by Taint but was led to believe it was more of a doom record. Those elements are definitely present here like on “Goddamn This City” but ultimately this record is aiming for a shot toward the more mainstream metal sounds of the aforementioned bands. Not my style so much but a lot of people will get into this kind of thing. Sounds like it should be on Relapse, but it’s released by Candlelight in North America and Rise Above in Europe. I do like the Napalm tribute title of low-key album closer “Mass Appeal Sadness”.<br />Despite the shitty name Brown Jenkins’ latest recording Angel Eyes is actually a really great mix of sounds with a blackened foundation. Take the hypnotic meanderings of Burzum, Thorns and Ved Beuns Ende, then add some less obvious Justin Broadrick sounds and you have Brown Jenkins. All the tracks sort of blend together into a seamless whole with a cumulative effect of lulling the listener into a hazy narcotic nightmare. Interesting stuff.<br /><br />It’s worth mentioning that Southern Lord has reissued the Lurker Of Chalice CD as a digipak and included the bonus track that was originally on the vinyl version. For those that don’t remember Lurker is the other band of Wrest from Leviathan, and is as good, maybe even better. The CD comes in anticipation of Lurker’s long awaited follow up later this year Perverse Calculus.<br />In light of all the thrash hype it behooves us to look at one of the all time best thrash records ever, yet one that seems to get overlooked when talk of all the greats ensues. That is Eternal Nightmare by the Bay Area’s own Vio-lence. Released in 1988 this album came a little late in the game which may be one reason it gets overlooked, but make no mistake this is in the top 10 thrash records of all time posers. Every song is packed with riffs that are both aggressive and unforgettable. Sean Killian’s vocals take a little getting used to. Not as aggressive as Paul Baloff or early James Hetfield, he’s more of a singer, but has a good command of his voice giving a full range of personalities within the songs.<br /><br />Although the first side is all hits like “Serial Killer”, “Phonophobia” and the title track, it’s really the second side for me, only three tracks, that really elevates the album into the thrash metal Valhalla. It starts with “T.D.S. Take It As You Will” and then leads into one of the all-time great mosh classics “Bodies On Bodies” which twists and turns with precision and around the two minute mark breaks into a monster mosh gallop. The mob chorus of ‘Bodies And Bodies’ evokes visions of hundreds of thrashin’ maniacs piling on top of each other to get to the stage. Nearly 5 minutes into the song, it reaches its frenzied peak once again for another round of violence. Municipal Waste, if you’re reading, COVER THIS SONG. <br /><br />Another piece of thrashtastic mayhem closes the LP, “Kill On Command”. It’s full speed ahead, until about 3 minutes in and then it gets to the mid-paced mosh break and Sean Killian’s cry of “money, money, money, money, MONEY!” I recall spending a night of drunken mayhem thrashin’ around the warehouse of my old job with a few friends and causing utter damage while listening to this record. Seriously folks this ranks right alongside “Kill Em All”, “Bonded By Blood” and “The Legacy” as one of thrash’s crowning jewels. I found a copy of the vinyl at Rasputins a few years back for $3 and recently Megaforce reissued the album with a bonus CD of a full live set. Track it down chump!<br /><br />OK folks that’s all the energy I have for you this time around. I’ve got a busy weekend coming up with shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of all shades and colors. Friday its Reuben’s other band Gun Outfit, Saturday it’s Wolves In The Throne Room at Hall Of The Woods and then Sunday it’s Yellow Swans and Sissy Spacek at The Phoenix House. Busy times. Seems like in Olympia good shit happens packed together, and then nothing for a while.<br /><br />You can find the old columns at dontfuckingtry.blogspot.com. Don’t Try, 120 State Ave NE #136, Oly, WA 98501 USA. donttry@20buckspin.comDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-23731282148838044552008-11-17T17:05:00.000-08:002008-11-17T17:08:31.080-08:00From Issue #300In 1982 when Maximum Rock N Roll first appeared in print form I was five years old. In 2008, I’m nearly 31 and MRR has reached its mindblowing 300th issue. In a time when print mags with a far shorter lifespan have fallen by the wayside, reaching #300 really is a HUGE milestone and those who do far more for the magazine then I with this one brief column (the coordinators, the shitworkers, etc) should be praised by all who value what MRR continues to do.<br /><br />Not only has MRR remained viable and ethical in the age of the interweblogosphere, but has done so since those ancient days of the early 1980s, when all that connected us were Xeroxed zines and tape trading. It’s continued mission to cover punk rock (and even a little metal, shhh don’t tell anyone) from all corners of the globe remains intact. There’s been evolution, of course. It’s not the 1980s anymore. We’re nearly 20 years on from that tumultuous decade, and into our own, possibly more tumultuous time. MRR has adapted accordingly but has always kept its focus.<br /><br />Punk rock isn’t just youth music anymore, 300 issues in. It’s now a truly all ages show. Parents, kids, even some grandparents count themselves as punks. A vast array of sub-genres and micro-sub-genres make the punk underground as diverse as the many countries that it calls its home. The subculture has informed the lives of its inhabitants outside the music world. Many infuse the DIY ethic that is the subculture’s backbone into every facet of their lives, from diet to child-rearing to community service. This has arguably been punk rock’s greatest and most lasting contribution to society at large and MRR has been a huge part of that.<br /><br />So as one who has never called himself a punk, just a lowly headbangin’ hesher, I raise my horned chalice of metallic mead to those punks who continue to spread the gospel of DIY, both within and without the punk scene, and to MRR for documenting it all with enthusiasm along the way.<br /><br />One last sentimental reflection before we move forward to death. I first started checking out MRR when I was in high school, I guess around the age of 16 or so. The people I knew that weren’t mainstream dorks were into punk mostly. The only metalheads were me and my learning disabled buddy. They were all into AFI. I thought they sucked (we’re talkin’ 93-94 here, the band did get better). I saw them open a show for Ensign and Sick Of It All and thought, “This is what everyone is so stoked on?” How embarrassing for them.<br /><br />But one thing that bothered me about the metal “scene” was that it lacked that DIY sensibility and sense of community. It lacked street cred and that bummed me out. At least in my relatively sheltered world in the eastern Bay Area, that was my perception. I started checkin’ out MRR, usually bought at Tower Books in Concord, to see if there was anything I could like about underground punk. I was into the standards of course, Minor Threat, DKs, etc., but that’s as far as it went.<br /><br />Well a lot of the shit in there at the time, like Boris The Sprinkler and most of the Lookout bands, the garage-y shit, I knew that wasn’t for me, to put it nicely. But I did discover invaluable information on hardcore bands like Logical Nonsense and also on powerviolence, grindcore and sludge stuff. It wasn’t a lot of coverage but MRR was instrumental in helping me discover some of those bands, which led to hundreds of further discoveries on down the line. Powerviolence was really exactly what I wanted out of music at the time, it was extremely pissed off, but wasn’t overly simplistic and it had the punk idealism that metal lacked at the time. Being at Fiesta Grande, my first trip to Gilman Street, was an intense experience and one I’ve never forgotten. So for that discovery, even an old hesher is indebted to MRR.<br /><br />And now that MRR is moving to Olympia as Justin promised in the last issue, I’ll be able to contribute oh so much more (wink, wink).<br /><br />Moving into springtime now, emerging from the dreary winter months that usually lack a significant amount of records being released, I’ve been well inundated with new releases this month including a shitload of new black metal fury.<br /><br />I think Moribund must release like 10 records every month. It seems like every other week I get an envelope with another 3 or so releases from these people. Luckily a decent percentage of them are worth mentioning, three of which I’ll cover this time around.<br />First, the long anticipated new devilry from the Bay Area’s own one-man destroyer, Leviathan. As most are aware by now Leviathan is Wrest, aka Jeff Whitehead, old school skater and acclaimed tattoo artist. For many years now he’s been doing the bedroom black metal blues better than just about everyone else. He recorded a ton of demos and then started releasing records through a label including two that are in regular rotation at Don’t Try Deadquarters, those being The Tenth Sublevel Of Suicide and Tentacles Of Whorror.<br /><br />The new beast is called Massive Conspiracy Against All Life and it is the final Leviathan recording apparently, as Wrest is moving on to concentrate on his other project Lurker Of Chalice. <br /><br />So does it live up to the hype and expectation? Well, that would have been difficult. This is a solid album that will stand well with the prior output. “Seamless Garment As The Morning” has a swirling, murky chaos not unlike the sound Australia’s Portal cultivates. “Last Breath Of Expiation” feels like the final minutes on a respirator before they pull the plug as the song slowly fades to black. Leviathan’s sound often moves between these more introverted moments of being caught in a vacuum of solitude, and then pissed off flashes of in your face bloodshed. Vocals seem less prominent and mixed lower than usual, less harsh even. 7 tracks over the course of an hour that will mix well with the older material but there’s not a song like The Tenth Sublevel’s… “The Idiot Sun” that really stands above as a track to remember. Leviathan will undoubtedly be recalled as one of the more unique entities spawned by the USBM scene. Lurking about if you can find it is a cover he did of Black Flag’s My War that is rather ripping.<br /><br />Azaghal is a Finnish black metal horde that have been around for 10 years already. They’ve released 5 or 6 records in that time but their new album Omega is the first exposure I’ve had to them. I’m glad I caught this band already well into their lifetime because this is a totally colossal, experienced and rock solid assault of kold Scandinavian jawbreakers. I mean, all bangers and no mash. Azaghal does not fuck around and from the opening seconds it’s full on hyperblast warp speed now captain and it rarely eases up. Even during the more mid-paced moments this is violent as shit. “Pirun Verta”, the second track, registers a 9.5 on the air guitar body bang richter. Like if the Swedish band Setherial had actually written with songs in mind rather than just ripping your face off, it may have sounded like what Azaghal is doing on Omega. Should such a shameless display of ferocity make one happy? Azaghal might not like to hear it but black metal this good puts a smile on my face. Despite the occasional appearance of some keyboards there’s nothing light in the loafers going on here, total iron boots. “Quetzalcoatl” is a black metal blasterpiece, quite possibly the best track here even though I’d lose the keyboard break. Overall the tracks comprising Omega stand to be some of the best black metal storm-fucking-lieders of the year creating serious fire on the poop deck of destruction. And don’t worry Azaghal dudes, I won’t tell anyone that on the unpronounceable track “Kaikkinakevan Silman Alla” you copped a riff from Cannibal Corpse’s “Hammer Smashed Face” three minutes in. Oh, I will drink this milkshake, drink it up.<br /><br />So I’ve never been particularly horny for Finland’s Horna but their latest mini-LP Pimeyden Hehku might convince me to get in bed with these brutes afterall. Unlike their countrymen in Azaghal, this one has got a little more of a messy punk rawness up its blackened sleeveless. Call it primitive and filthy perhaps. Opener “Nostalgiaa” (yep one A ain’t enough for the Finns, their nostalgic enough for two) spits forth rumbling bass driven speed leading to some bangable mid-paced Horna-havoc. <br /><br />Sometimes Horna is reminiscent of the ugly Norsemen in Carpathian Forest and I’m reminded of that bands roughed up and bruised Black Shining Leather LP. Indeed the guy pictured from Horna has a nailed arm gauntlet the size of which would make the Forest’s Nattefrost green with envy. How can you get anything done walking around with 15-inch nails sticking out of your arm? No wonder his face looks all cut up. The mini-LP format works well for Horna. I haven’t been able to get through an entire Horna LP, but with Pimeyden Hehku’s four diseased songs in just 20 minutes it’s perfectly snortible. Good place to start if you’ve ever been interested in this fixture of the Finnish black empire.<br /><br />A new split is out between Arizona’s The Landmine Marathon and the Bay Area’s own Scarecrow. Landmine Marathon get the A-side with their three tracks. A modern aggro beast with grind-tinged metal recalling 21st century Napalm Death in places along with some Bolt Thrower dual guitar epicness. I’d guess this band destroy live and they haven’t quite captured what I imagine to be that destructive force. And they have to know that the first part of their song “Rise With The Tide” is pretty much Bolt Thrower’s “Forever Fallen” with a few changed notes. Compare the two and tell me it’s not, it’s pretty blatant. No beef, just sayin’.<br /><br />Been wishing Metallica sounded like 1986 again? Problem solved. Scarecrow is my old friend Matt Harvey’s baby, he of Exhumed and Dekapitator fame. It’s unashamed Metallica worship done better than just about anybody. I’m all for lack of originality when the imitation is convincing and this makes the grade easily. I don’t think Matt would deny it either as Metallica is his all time favorite band. The songwriting skill and musicianship with which Scarecrow works will keep them from being lumped in with the million man march of the thrashmania bummer currently happening. Muni Waste this ain’t. Seeing them live last year in Oakland was pretty revelatory. Bud Burke can rip through the classiest solo with a surgical speed and precision the likes of which are rarely seen. Matt’s vocals lack the power of Puppets-era Hetfield, but this is Scarecrow in their infancy and hopefully that aspect will be fine tuned to the extent necessary. Like their partners on the A-side, Scarecrow didn’t totally capture that absolute live magic on record, but hearing the songs this way first will make those who eventually check them out live that much more amazed. Can’t wait to hear what comes next. This band needs a $100,000 budget and a Flemming Rasmussen production. The split was released by the Level Plane label.<br /><br />For a self-released CD Orgone’s “The Goliath” looks and sounds a lot better than most albums with label backing. Insane guitar playing that jumps all over the place, weird rhythms and a death metal backbone. Musically this is very calculated sounding stuff. People might be tempted to use the word “math” but that’s kind of a misnomer since I wouldn’t put Orgone into that irritating genre. This is more on the extreme tech death tip with a prog vibe. Typically I never listen to this kind of thing, but this album is really fucking great actually. The harsh vocals fit perfect. There appears to be an interesting concept lyrically that combined with the tunes give this a real connection to the Prog world, but this is still firmly entrenched in modern death metal. Amazing artwork courtesy of my friend David D’Andrea who has done covers for Graves At Sea, Ulver and Witchcraft among others. I was watching David put this art together months ago when we shared an office in Emeryville but regrettably never checked out the music until now, 8 months later. Why this band is not on Willowtip, Relapse or Deathwish is beyond me. If they have the ability to tour then this band will be picked up by one of those big labels any day now. In the meantime the CD can be got directly from the band for $9 US and $12 world to Stephen Jarrett, 2828 Mckelvey Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15221. Their webpage is myspace.com/orgoneus. Go check them out.<br /><br />And now we take a trip back in time, only this time it makes sense for right now in 2008 as well. That’s because Displeased Records out of Holland has re-released the first two albums by the panzergodly Chicago death metal progenitors Master. Master was formed originally around 1983-84. Before doing anything substantial the band splintered with member Bill Schmidt moving on to Mayhem (US, not Norway) and band, uh, mastermind, Paul Speckmann forming the legendary demo only proto-death legends Death Strike (a full length with the demo ‘Fuckin Death’ plus other tracks emerged later). The Death Strike demo made a big impression in the underground and soon after that Schmidt and Speckmann reunited and went back to the name Master.<br /><br />Lots of drama ensued during the rest of the 1980s that I won’t get into here, but eventually in 1990 the self-titled debut Master recording was finally released. It featured all four songs from the Death Strike demo re-recorded, those being “Mangled Dehumanization”, “Pay To Die”, “Funeral Bitch” and “Re-entry and Destruction”. Six other tracks made it on as well. The album is packed to the gills with deathrashin’ greatness taking influence from Venom, Motorhead and Slayer and infusing it with the more recent (for the time) sounds of Mantas/Death and Possessed. The title track is an anthem with its punk leaning lyrical cry “Stand back all you preachers, Stop looking to the skies, We are your Masters, We need no disguise.” After a bass-solo a 100mph version of Sabbath’s “Children Of The Grave” pays tribute to the masters of reality.<br /><br />The second full length album “On The Seventh Day God Created… Master” was released just a year later in 1991. A collection of mostly new songs that hadn’t been circulating in the underground tape trading trenches for years before release. Again recorded by death metal legend Scott Burns at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida the album also featured some guest vocal spots by John Tardy of Obituary on “Latitudinarian” and “Submerged In Sin”.<br /><br />“Heathen” has a cruel bloodfiending Autopsy-esque death wreak in its slowed roll while “Judgment Of Will” is a personal favorite that was originally done for an album that Master recorded back in 1985 but never got released (more on that later). All in all “On The Seventh Day…” is another essential piece in the early American death metal pantheon.<br /><br />One of Master’s more annoying habits was taking American patriotic songs like “The Pledge of Allegiance” and “American The Beautiful” renamed “America The Pitiful” and making them their own. The songs are interesting enough but at the same time have the effect of giving the albums a joke-ish quality that’s not appealing in an early death metal band. The songs make sense given Speckmann’s obvious, if rudimentary, lyrical leanings toward politics, war and religion.<br /><br />These re-releases are the original mixes of the albums that Paul Speckmann was happier with than what was originally released by Nuclear Blast. I don’t have the originals anymore to compare with but the liner notes claim that Scott Burns triggered the drums and left off a bunch of solos unbeknownst to the band and that’s what got released. The drums still have somewhat of a machine-like quality even on these mixes however.<br /><br />Displeased has also included a DVD with each release. Two live shows from the time period the albums were released are contained on each DVD. Now these DVDs are mostly of low, bootleg quality – it’s the early 90s afterall, and so they are not essential except for Master completists, but as a bonus they’re a welcome addition. <br /><br />One final note on Master. In 1985 the band recorded an album for Combat Records, the label the released Death, Exodus, Possessed and a hundred other great bands. Unfortunately the band hooked up with a manager who demanded way more than Combat were willing to give and the label ripped up the contract and never released the recording. Displeased released the untitled 1985 album a few years back and it’s still available on CD. Many of the tracks ended up on the first Master full length in 1990, but these are different, and in my view rawer, uglier and hence, superior versions of many of those tracks; easily my favorite Master recording. All of these releases are worth getting but if you only seek out one, get the unreleased 1985 album. There’s a ton of Master info available at Speckmann’s website, www.master-speckmetal.com.<br /><br />Finally, I want to dedicate my column in this 300th issue of Maximum Rock N Roll to my friend from Concord, California, David Plumb. David passed away on March 5th 2008 one day before his 35th birthday. Dave was a fan of punk, hardcore and metal going way back and I sat with him in his garage many times listening to and discussing some of our mutually favorite albums including Neurosis’ “Souls At Zero”, At The Gates’ “Slaughter Of The Soul” and The Cro-Mags “Age Of Quarrel”. Rest peacefully now brother. You will be missed by all that knew your one-of-a-kind character.<br /><br />Dave, 120 State Ave NE #136, Olympia, WA 98501, dontfuckingtry.blogspot.com Beware The Iron Heel.Don't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-30805707632404616572008-04-06T15:19:00.000-07:002008-04-06T15:21:28.219-07:00Don't Try #11A 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.<br /><br />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”.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />“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”.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />“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”.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.Don't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-14267391790314824632008-03-07T10:45:00.000-08:002008-03-07T10:47:08.483-08:00Don't Try #10Spending a few weeks back in the Bay Area at the end of the year, I managed to make it on New Years Eve to Slims in San Francisco to see the Melvins. First up that night was Triclops! the newish Bay Area band featuring MRR’s John No on vocals. The band is getting ready to release an LP on Alternative Tentacles (full disclosure, I work there) and the crowd was still largely filing in as they began. They played a killer set of technically proficient prog-punk weirdness with John getting in people’s faces and writhing around on the ground as he’s prone to do. Great fucking band.<br /><br />Comets On Fire, the San Francisco by way of Santa Cruz group whose last two Sub Pop released albums have made them darlings of the hipster crowd played next. The fact is, Comets On Fire play a spot on mash up of Blue Cheer style amp worship and more psyched out jams that can be hit or miss live, but on this night, hit dead on. It’d been about three years since I last saw them play and in that time the band have toured all over and have become rock solid while maintaining their raw and gritty style. Guitarists Ethan Miller and Ben Chasny seem to have an unspoken dialogue with their playing and drummer Utrillo makes a lot of noise with a kit smaller than the average punk band’s.<br /><br />But the main reason everyone came out is for the Melvins. The Melvins have been doing their thing for a very long time and have outlived trends and fads ten times over. Their albums have sometimes missed, but they’ve always done something interesting, different and challenging and continue to do so presently. On New Years Eve, they played in their latest four-piece incarnation, which fuses Buzz and Dale with the dudes from Big Business, Coady Willis (ex Murder City Devils) and Jared Anderson (ex Karp, Tight Bros.).<br /><br />With this lineup the set consisted largely of songs from the one album released by this lineup, 2006’s (A) Senile Animal. The songs make good use of the two drummer lineup and also utilize Jared’s interesting vocal range to contrast with Buzz’s. Watching Coady and Dale play together is a thing of beauty, something for Kylesa to aspire to with their (also great) two drummer lineup perhaps. The band paused momentarily for Jared to lead the countdown to 2008, and then quickly resumed. They ended their set with an a capella rendering of the Star Spangled Banner, followed by Jared leading a chorus of Glory Glory Hallelujah! It’s been said before but I’ll say it again in agreement, the Melvins are the best rock band alive.<br /><br />The end of the year and the beginning of a new one is typically a somewhat slow period for new records. Being away from my mailbox for several weeks now, and not having the money to buy new records this month, I’m going to skip on new releases altogether and do a sort of expanded version of the way I’ve been ending this column in recent months, by revisiting older albums that I think are great. The point of this is not to cover something like Morbid Angel’s Altars Of Madness, an album that everybody acknowledges is classic, but records that have not necessarily ever been called that, and in fact may not even be considered a bands best album, but are worthy of your attention. So with that in mind, here we go…<br /><br />We’ll start with America since these looking back scenarios often find us in Scandinavia, where this column will inevitably lead. Absu have the distinction of being one of the first second-wave black metal bands from the US, forming in the early 1990s in Texas of all places. Originally a badly corpse-painted full on black metal band their sound took on a steady evolution under the leadership of master drummer Proscriptor McGovern, a dude with such skill on the skins that he was one of the finalists in Slayer’s drummer search during one of their open periods. They moved on from satanic themes of evil and took on a lyrical and thematic approach centering around magick and mysticism and celtic occultism. Absu’s 2001 album Tara, the last in a trilogy of similarly themed releases, is a blistering assault of combined influences that makes for excellent repeated listening, and I continue to pull this one out regularly many years after its release on Osmose.<br /><br />The title track, “Tara”, opens the record, a 2-minute bagpipe intro that paints a picture of vast Irish shores and then launches into “Pillars Of Mercy” a lightning fast blackthrasher evoking thoughts of Aura Noir and old Dodheimsgard with hints of Hell Awaits era Slayer. Those who find solace in Dave Lombardo’s machine gun rhythms will find much to like in Proscriptors drumming and Shaftiel’s surgically precise mile a minute guitar playing is its perfect compliment. The repetitive Mesopotamian riffing on “She Cries The Quiet Lake” would sound as if it had been lifted from Melechesh’s massive Emissaries LP, if it hadn’t been released more than five years earlier.<br /><br />Absu called it quits after the release of Tara but apparently reformed in 2007 though only Proscriptor remains from the long running main lineup that included he, Shaftiel and Equitant on bass (who also plays in Goreaphobia). Tara is an album well worth your time as are some of the earlier Absu recordings.<br /><br />The early 90s brought several prominent and long running Peaceville doom bands onto the scene. Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride are typically the two that are discussed the most. Paradise Lost’s Gothic LP stands as a monument in this pantheon and many fans of this early incarnation of the group think it heretical to vouch for anything after it. Nonethless subsequent LPs like Shades Of God, Icon and Draconian Times are frequently spun at Don’t Try headquarters, particularly the criminally underrated Shades Of God LP. As for My Dying Bride, the first LP, As The Flower Withers is revered among fans of early doom/death and the band went on to make a string of quality albums, sometimes missing but more often than not keeping things heavy as shit as the backbone to their flirtations with evolution. To this day My Dying Bride are still making completely listenable heavy records.<br /><br />But one Peaceville band completely lost the scent early in the game and that band is Anathema. In 1993 the UK band released its debut LP, Serenades. By 1993, when Anathema began to rise to the prominence they had hinted at with the prior Crestfallen EP, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride were already scene kings and black metal was beginning to take hold of the underground from the stagnating death metal scene.<br /><br />Serenades came in with a doom/death sound that was oppressively heavy yet dare I say (and I cringe as I type it) romantic in its application. Songs you might play at some sort of tragic wedding ceremony. A sense of utter sadness and defeat, rather than anger. Complete loss of hope. They didn’t sound much at all like Paradise Lost or My Dying Bride.<br /><br />Tunes like “Lovelorn Rhapsody”, “Sweet Tears” and “Sleep In Sanity” exhibit a crushing guitar sound and vocalist Darren White set the standard for what vocals in this doom style should sound like, low, pained and on the verge of a crying fit. The totally acoustic track “J’ai Fait Une Promesse” has sweet female vocals sung in French, a sort of time out from the heavy tunes, and yet it fits perfectly. The musical motifs in each song combined with the hopeless lyrics paint an impressionist picture of complete despair. If any one band provided a blueprint for Oakland’s Asunder, it was Anathema.<br /><br />Unfortunately not long after Crestfallen, Anathema’s style took a pretty drastic turn toward an atmospheric rock sound as they did their best to emulate Pink Floyd. I lost interest in the band at that point as it was pretty disappointing after the Serenades masterpiece. The CD version of Serenades available these days also has the Crestfallen tracks as bonus.<br /><br />A band that could be said to only be on the fringes of the metal world was the mighty UK beast GOD. God certainly had elements of Godflesh in its sound and Justin Broadrick was involved in GOD as a guitar player and producer, but the driving force behind GOD was Broadrick’s partner in crime in Techno Animal, Kevin Martin.<br /><br />On its 1994 release Anatomy Of Addiction GOD explored a sonic terrain existing in a fucked up wasteland where industrial, metal, experimental, free jazz, ambient dub and even hip-hop collide in a big bang of destruction. Perhaps not unlike places Mick Harris has explored with his Scorn project or John Zorn’s Naked City. But the Godflesh style metal guitars and percussive backbone hold things together so it never fully descends into a complete mess. It’s a lot like Godflesh but with way more going on musically; indeed the full God lineup consisted of no less than 11 players including two bassists, two drummers and two saxophonists. Again this is really avant garde shit (at least compared to the normal fare in this column), like Swans colliding with Peter Brotzmann and Bill Laswell, but in its own way, heavy and frightening as hell. This was released by Big Cat Records in the UK and several other GOD albums are worth checking into as well.<br /><br />Back to Texas again, Solitude Aeternus is one of the best doom bands of all-time playing in the vein of Candlemass, ie. soaring vocals, brick heavy guitars playing slow, memorable riffs with trad metal leads and Rob Lowe’s killer vocals. Rob Lowe (not the movie guy) is actually now the vocalist in Candlemass, which shows just how close the two are related and I’d wager to say that Solitude at their best are equally as good.<br /><br />Solitude Aeternus’ first two killers were released through Roadrunner in the early 90s, back when that label actually still released decent records. But the album we’re concerned with here is 1994’s Through The Darkest Hour, released by the Pavement label, a traditional doom ripper if ever there was one.<br /><br />It kicks off with what’s probably the best song on the album, a song worthy of release as a single, called simply “Falling”. A great lead riff, equal parts “stoner” and traditional doom, that eventually leads to the anthemic chorus chant of “Move, You Fall And We Die!” Total metal mastery.<br /><br />From there on the album continues straight through with no frills trad doom metal genius like the 7 minute “Pain” and the dirge-like “Eternal (Dreams Part II)”. The production is crisp and clean without feeling stale and lets all the instruments shine, and Lowe’s vocals are mixed at just the right level.<br /><br />If I recall, the album wasn’t immediately recognized by many at the time, including myself, as traditional doom had taken a back seat to death and black metal in a big way, and in some ways seemed a sort of relic of the past. Yet listening to Through The Darkest Hour now, it holds up a lot better nearly 14 years later then many of those same records I thought were so great in 94 (when I was only 17 so obviously my tastes could be questionable at that point).<br /><br />Finally we go up to Finland to visit the band Sentenced and one of my favorite records. Most people would expect to read about their album North From Here, a great death metal album for sure, but the album I present for your consideration is its quite different follow-up, the oddly titled Amok LP.<br /><br />Take Lee Dorrian circa 1992, and stick him into the lead role in the 1985 version of Queensryche and you’re starting to get the picture. Sound like shit? Quite the opposite actually. This record rips all the way through. There’s a ton of amazing, melodic and just complex enough guitar playing to excite tech dorks, but all the riffs kill and they never lose sight of writing awesome songs. There’s definitely a Maiden element to a lot of these tunes.<br /><br />Lots of great hard rock riffs on this one like on “Phoenix” which utilizes some well-placed female vocal flourishes. “Forever Lost” is another anthem. My favorite track was sort of an odd man out type song called “Funeral Spring”. It starts with some funeral bells, and leads into a fucked bass riff that’s got the wah pedal on overdrive and then busts into some brilliant fucking lead playing that sort of follows together with the bassline. It’s laid back groove is practically doom and coupled with Taneli Jarva’s gruff man trying to sing like Lee Dorrian vocals it’s total ear candy. And again, the leads on this track are some of my favorites – they’re just blues based leads, not overly thought out, but fit perfectly. I used to play this track on my radio show all the time back in high school.<br /><br />The second half of the album is as good as the first with more anthems like “Nepenthe” and the killer chorus in “Dance On The Grave (lil Siztah)”.<br /><br />A lot of people labeled this melodic death metal but it had almost nothing in common with bands usually tagged with that label; horrible shit like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. Sentenced were way more rock based and not nearly as fast and obsessed with guitar wankery.<br /><br />I never did understand why people didn’t get into this record. Maybe it was too much of a departure from their old sound. After this album, Taneli Jarva quit the band to concentrate more on Impaled Nazarene and eventually formed the kind of shitty The Black League. And it turned out to be fatal for the band, as although they recorded many more albums and got kind of big biting the Sisters Of Mercy, for me they lost it after Amok. Check this shit out though and see if I’m right or I just have shitty taste.<br /><br />I’m gonna call it quits on this column for the month. Hopefully some of you will find something to like in one of these records, or more. If you do check them out and dig them, or if I made you waste your money (or bandwidth as the case may be), let me know, I’m curious to hear what people think. I’ll be back next time with some new shit to let you in on. No life til leather…Don't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-12558260758726625102008-01-15T10:19:00.000-08:002008-01-15T10:21:24.895-08:00Don't Try #9The big news since last month is the announcement of reunion shows by both Carcass and At The Gates. Both bands have become even bigger in death then they probably were in life and these shows will give an opportunity for the bands to be heard in their element by a younger generation of metalheads.<br /><br />Despite At The Gates being responsible for some of the worst style advancements in metal, influencing a thousand cutely sleeved and well-coiffed metalcore bands with 5 or more words in their names, the band is responsible for some of the best metal of the 1990s. Not only did they create the much praised “Slaughter Of The Soul” album but also the superior earlier works “The Red In The Sky Is Ours” and “With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness”.<br /><br />Carcass as well grew out of the UK grind scene into a full on metal band with their classic opus “Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious” and the much-maligned-by-early-Carcass-fans brilliance of “Heartwork” where they finally shed nearly all comparisons to their early symphonies. <br /><br />Both bands dissolved in the late 1990s with At The Gates going out at the height of their popularity; Carcass having already floundered to some extent with the rather limp attempt at radio metal of “Swansong”.<br /><br />I was fortunate enough to witness both bands live before they called it quits. Carcass played twice at the Berkeley Square during their Heartwork tours. Pitch Shifter opened one of these shows and I can’t recall who else, although a local addition to one show came in the form of notorious Bay Area rapper, Rappin’ 4-tay; who was subsequently booed off the stage in an opening slot that still baffles the mind.<br /><br />At The Gates played direct support, first to Napalm Death, also at the Berkeley Square, and again at one of the best metal shows I’ve ever witnessed supporting Morbid Angel at the Trocadero in San Francisco. The opening slot on that show was filled by the now legendary Dissection.<br /><br />This was a hotly anticipated show. I had just recently gotten Dissection’s new record “Storm Of The Light’s Bane” and was only beginning to discover why it is so deservedly named (by me) as one of the great metal records of all time. At The Gates was supporting “Slaughter Of The Soul” which at the time was still fresh and had not been played out to the extent it has 10 years on. Morbid Angel still had David Vincent as their bassist/vocalist (in other words, they still had relevance) and were supporting their major label released “Domination” LP.<br /><br />I arrived at the show well before the gig began only to find that the hordes had already cleaned out all the merch for both At The Gates and Dissection. I had hoped to score some Dissection gear having already obtained a “Slaughter of the States” tour shirt from At The Gates at the Napalm show. It wasn’t to be. Every death metal head around was well-equipped with Morbid Angel gear by this time so their merch was readily available.<br /><br />Jon from Dissection was sporting a sleeveless Kreator shirt and had yet to become the muscle-bound skinhead ex-con of recent memory. All band members were decked out in leather gauntlets and bulletbelts. No corpsepaint for Dissection, they were never that sort of band. They had a short time to play, but made the most of it, churning out classics “Where Dead Angels Lie” and “Nights Blood”.<br /><br />All I recall about At The Gates’ set aside from it being overall amazing was the killer version of “Terminal Spirit Disease” that they tore through with ease. And Tomas Lindberg (he also of Skitsystem) having very long red dreads. Morbid Angel crushed as they always did while Vincent was still in the band.<br /><br />Immediately post-show I returned to my friend’s car to find him passed out drunk and sporting a black eye. Apparently he’d gotten into a fight during Dissection’s set defending the faith. Someone had made the mistake of insulting King Diamond, said friends hero, and he felt the need to protect the Great Dane’s reputation, and ended up being ejected from the club.<br /><br />So with the two bands reforming to play European festivals (and rumors of US shows as well) I have to wonder if they’ll really be as effective as they were all those years ago when they were still making the effort to be a band. I’m not a big fan of nostalgia, and generally think it best to let sleeping dogs lie. At the same time, it’d be great to hear the old classics one last time. Now if only Entombed would reform their real lineup and tour the “Left Hand Path” album…<br /><br />Not a whole lot of great shit to speak of this month. The Howling Wind is another project of the prolific Mr. Killusion, one of the masterminds behind such heresies as Unearthly Trance, Thralldom and the wonderful Villians project. Stripped down black metal in the mid to later period Darkthrone style (when they’re being serious) is the sound The Howling Wind are cult-ivating on their debut “Pestilence And Peril”. Raw stuff, with fairly simplistic, enjoyable riffs and acidic distorto-vox, comparable to, but not as good as, the excellent Blodulv. <br /><br />Lyrically it’s somewhat vague, but they seem to be done in an apocalyptic crust style, but much more vaguely and from a black metal perspective. Titles like “Stealth Eugenics” and “Forced Into The Pits Of Technology” give some idea and there seems to be a distant sense of a full concept going on. Human harvesting, and the sterility of modernity. Brought to you by Profound Lore Records.<br /><br />Burning Witch is back. Sort of. Southern Lord has just released a double CD called “Crippled Lucifer” which collects most of the Witch’s material in the form of the “Towers” LP and the “Rift.Canyon.Dreams” LP. This was a very early Southern Lord release and has now been redone in an expanded form.<br /><br />First the music. If memory serves, nobody really cared too much about Burning Witch during their actual existence. It was one of O’Malley’s first musical forays of note and still sounds more interesting then a lot of doom being done today, but it’s nothing groundbreaking. Perhaps due to the huge success of SUNN0))), Burning Witch has achieved a kind of legendary status. Now, I’m not saying this ain’t good. It is. But it never felt to me up there with the best of the genre at the time. <br /><br />The most interesting thing about Burning Witch were the vocals of singer Edgy59 which alternated between Buzzoven style snarl and St. Vitus-esque croon. But thumbing through the booklet, looking at photos of the dude, it’s not hard to believe that he ended up in a LA-style nu-metal/glam type of project post-Witch. It’s slow, it’s plodding, and every now and then the music rocks a bit. Graves At Sea often draws comparisons to the Witch, but the honest truth is Graves rocked heavier and harder than the Witch ever did.<br /><br />The original version of “Crippled Lucifer” was a single CD that contained maybe 7 of these tracks and some were also collected on vinyl on the Towers LP which was released by Chris Dodge on Slap-A-Ham, another possible reason they’ve achieved cult status. How many records like that did Dodge release? Not a helluva a lot. Back around 2000 I was working for a label called Necropolis (Necrapolis is more like it) and we had boxes of the Rift.Canyon.Dreams LPs that weren’t going anywhere at the time. If only I’d kept a box! (Incidentally we also had copies we couldn’t give away of the killer Weakling LP, now going for around $150 on evilBay).<br /><br />The redesigned booklet is thick with photos and a color-scheme that bites Jesu’s first release on Hydrahead. There’s a lot of useless pages, but the band photos and Dodge’s liner notes make it worthwhile. Aaron Turner of Isis also wrote some notes. In an ideal world the liner notes would have been bigger, more abundant and spread out more. Instead they are magnifying glass small and squeezed onto one page of the pretentious 40 page booklet. <br /><br />Worth mentioning is the zine O’Malley used to do around the same time Burning Witch existed. Descent it was called and was done in cooperation with Tyler Davis who now heads the Ajna Offensive label. Excellent read if you can track down a copy with equal parts metal and experimental noise, tons of reviews, and despite their sometimes tired elitist attitude about things, great interviews with bands you didn’t see being interviewed everywhere else.<br /><br />Another reissue comes in the form of Skullflower’s IIIrd Gatekeeper on the Crucial Blast label, now remastered, heavier and louder, by Scott Hull. Originally released in 1992 by Justin Broadrick on his Headdirt label it has been out of print for some time although not impossible to find by any means. This is Skullflower at its most accessible, if that is the right word; for even at its most accessible Skullflower still goes over the heads of most. Improv style Psych-noise guitar workouts layered over a foundation of slow, plodding Godflesh-like industrial-dirge rhythms (real drums though unlike Godflesh). “Saturnalia” has the building blocks of later post-rock heroes Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s epic guitar symphonies, while the Swans-like repetition in “Rotten Sun” is almost primitive in its application of trance-inducing rhythms.<br /><br />Excellent liner notes written by RKF, whoever that is, detail a large part of the Skullflower story up through the bands eventual dissolution in 1996 (re-emerging in 2003 as a solo venture for Matthew Bower). Housed in a nice gatefold CD jacket. An LP version should be on the way later in the year and according to Crucial Blast honcho Adam they’ll be looking to reissue a lot more of the early Skullflower material, including the much sought after “Last Shot At Heaven” LP which followed IIIrd Gatekeeper on the Skullflower timeline.<br /><br />Vreid is a Norwegian band whose new album “I Krig” is an amalgamation of lots of big time black metal bands like Arcturus, Dimmu Borgir, etc. Vreid however is not as blatantly pretentious as either of those bands. The riffs are solid and the production is crisp and clear with a sound alternating between epic and folky. Vocals invoke the standard black metal rasp but occasionally go for the clean Viking chorus and spoken vampire voice. Though it has interesting moments throughout, ultimately “I Krig” falls short as it lacks the intensity, attitude and darkness that makes black metal a potent form. It’s typical big label stuff; decent but ultimately forgettable. On the Candlelight label.<br /><br />Also on Candlelight, Killing Joke fans might enjoy the debut of October File called “Holy Armour From The Jaws Of God”. Not only is the album produced by Jaz Coleman and has a guest vocal from the man, but musically speaking October File is definitely paying a nice tribute to their most obvious influence (ironically, not Die Kreuzen). And while it’s clear October File raise the flag of the Joke with pride, the album is interesting enough to not be a mere imitation. The vocals are pissed in the modern metal way and this album might possibly cross the line into Headbangers Ball territory if the band agrees to comb their hair pointier and get the proper tattoos. At the very least the band might help spark a resurgence in interest of Killing Joke, who by the way lost an important member with the recent death of bassist Paul Raven (rip). Also, new rule: no debut album should exceed the 42 minute mark. At 55, this album could drop two songs and be just as effective if not more so.<br /><br />Being nearly the end of the year it’s time to recall some of the best of 2007. Some of the best heavy records for 2007 in this writers opinion that you should seek out immediately:<br /><br />Cobalt – Eater Of Birds<br />Darkthrone – F.O.A.D.<br />Magrudergrind – Rehashed<br />Wolves In The Throne Room – Two Hunters<br />The Endless Blockade /Hatred Surge – Split LP<br />Big Business – Here Come The Waterworks<br />Black Cobra – Feather And Stone<br />Watain – Sworn To The Dark<br /><br />There were plenty of other great records, some I’m sure I’m forgetting, and some I just didn’t get to hear but these ones probably got the most play-time on my headphones during 2007 as far as heavy albums released during the year. And of course it wouldn’t be ethical to include the stuff I released on 20 Buck Spin all of which are fucking brilliant, ahem. The Slammy for best live bands has to go to Kylesa and Ludicra, the two best metal bands in the States period, and I’m looking forward to new records from both during 2008.<br /><br />And that finishes another exciting column for this month. Until next time, stay whiskey bent and hell bound!<br /><br />Don’t Try, 120 State Ave NE #136, Olympia, WA 98501. donttry@20buckspin.comDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-40685147070335359262007-12-13T18:16:00.000-08:002007-12-13T18:18:37.097-08:00Don't Try #8So I’m back in action after leaving the Bay Area. I’ve settled into Olympia and have been here about a month at the time I’m writing this. Loading up that fucking moving truck made me realize I have way too much shit. True a lot of it was 20 Buck Spin label stock, but at least half of it wasn’t and it made me feel foolish. I unloaded as much shit as I could before leaving but it’s never enough. Didn’t Tyler Durden say “the things you own, end up owning you”?<br /><br />The weather here is predictably cold and dreary. Walking around downtown after midnight a few nights ago I realized I hadn’t felt cold like that in quite some time. Being a California boy hasn’t prepared me much for the harsher weather the vast majority of the country gets. And really, this isn’t even that harsh. That’s how weak I am.<br /><br />It’s a MUCH smaller scene here, and as metal goes it’s pretty much dead. There’s Wolves In The Throne Room and there is/was Funerot, and to my knowledge that’s it. So if there’s a heavy Olympia band reading this that I don’t know about, please get in touch.<br /><br />Not many people wear black here. Maybe I’m just used to a big scene full of black clad warriors in Oakland. A few months back there was a Gilman show with Ludicra, Wormwood and others, and I decided to wear some Rodney Dangerfield shorts, a white Coffins t-shirt and some blue and white tennis shoes (what the Brits call trainers I think). I stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the crustastic dreads and sullen faces. Like a ditched Muni Waste roadie. Everyone in Olympia is very colorful – it’s freaking me out. Maybe it’s the grey skies inspiring color into people’s lives. Now I feel like I stick out just the way I normally look. Good thing nobody knows me. Half the appeal of moving was a little anonymity afterall.<br /><br />Not a lot of shows of interest happening here yet either. Decent amount of shows. Just of no interest. Lots of indie and irony all over the place. Thrones and Grey Daturas came through on a day I just happened to be back in the Bay Area. Oh well. Iron Lung plays here tomorrow with Agents of Abhorrence at least.<br /><br />What’s nice about Oly from the perspective of a worn out Bay Area native is the less densely populated landscape, the lack of vehicular traffic, less foot traffic downtown, empty barstools, cheaper drinks, less cops, seemingly less bitterness and the funny looking sweater sleeves people put on over their clothes (they’re just sleeves, with no torso, like a sleeveless shirt inverted). And there’s wireless internet access all over the place; I’m writing this column from a coffee shop called Caffe Vita at the corner of 4th and Washington.<br /><br />In the two months since I last wrote this column there has been a ton of good new metal released and even more that’s completely terrible. This may be the same album to some people. Like the new Darkthrone. I love it. But Andy Nolan from The Endless Blockade says, “Everyone goes through this stage where they talk down the pub of all these "great" ideas they want to do musically but thankfully they never accomplish them. Darkthrone is the "dude, it would be RAD if we did..." conversation manifested.” Given that Herr Nolan tends to be just a tad cynical though, closer inspection seems prudent.<br /><br />The new Darkthrone album is called F.O.A.D., which as you can guess stands for Fuck Off And Die. Yes Broken Bones already did it, but since Darkthrone is arguably way better than Broken Bones it can be forgiven. This is not Darkthrone at their most serious, in fact it’s about as unserious as they could get. 15 years ago it’d seem insane to think that the band that would ultimately violate Euronymous’ code of No Fun, No Core, No Mosh, No Trends and put the fun back into black metal would be his close allies Fenriz and Nocturno Culto. But a lot of these songs, for lack of a better word, are indeed fun.<br /><br />The album starts with “These Shores Are Damned” which is a tune in line with the Darkthrone of the past few albums, a good, memorable opener. But next they hit us with “Canadian Metal”, a tribute in song form to some of their favorite Canuck’s like Slaughter, Voivod, Razor and others. At first and even second listen it’s ridiculous, but the songs Hellhammer riffing and perfectly inept soloing eventually reels you in and soon enough you’re bangin’ along.<br /><br />Next up another humorous entry in the form of “Church Of Real Metal” with more lyrics about being old school and a chorus that again, seems silly at start, but soon you’re hooked. At least I am.<br /><br />It’s followed by another more serious tune, “Banners Of Old” and then the amazing title track, which I can’t imagine any punk rocker gone metal not liking. It’s basically a perfect Motorhead meets Venom cocktail, and yet it don’t sound like Amebix, it sounds like Darkthrone. It’s a perfect anthem and captures exactly where Darkthrone are at on the “difficult” 13th album as Fenriz calls it.<br /><br />“Raised On Rock” delivers the goods again, musically and lyrically. “You have nothing in common with me, you think old school is 93, I’ve been a thrasher since 84, and almost nothing sounds true anymore.” And later, “If you don’t understand what I mean, fuckin’ listen to Venom’s Acid Queen.” They’ve been around long enough, they’ve earned the right.<br /><br />A lot of those who’ve supported Darkthrone over the years, and continued to defend them, will probably not make it through this time. Darkthrone has chosen to destroy the mystique that once surrounded them and in doing so have created an entirely new mystique, the one that says they’re just old heshers dedicated to the cause, defending the faith. Black metal has its Motorhead. Top 10 of 2007 for me, and this from someone that’s been with em since Soulside Journey. For more comedy check out, takemetoyourfenriz.com.<br /><br />Black Cobra is back to batter us again with 8 new songs collectively called Feather And Stone. Since the release of their debut, Bestial, the Cobra has toured pretty relentlessly and have recently relocated to the Bay Area.<br /><br />For those unaware, Black Cobra are a devastating two piece guitar and drum unit that play noisy, scuzz-covered heavy rock not unlike faster versions of their ex bands, 16 and Cavity. Both dudes are extremely adept at their instruments and witnessing this band live is total enjoyment in both sound and vision. For two dudes, they create a HUGE wall of riffs running together in a haze of distorto-grime.<br /><br />The tracks on Feather And Stone continue in much the same vein as Bestial with alternating tempos, here and there, always moving forward with nary a second to breathe. At 24 minutes in length, they come in for the quick beating and leave the listener bloodied but wanting more.<br /><br />The CD has some bonus live footage, and hopefully vinyl will be on the way soon. This band is probably gonna be huge real soon. CD released by At A Loss Recordings.<br /><br />Nekrasov is an Australian one man project featuring the ex-guitar player from one of my favorite Aussie bands, Whitehorse. Yet while Whitehorse deals in slow motion experimental doom crust, Nekrasov has a more black spirit, black metal that is, with some detuned blackened guitar noisescapes on its first album “Into The No-Mans-Sphere Of Ancient Days.”<br /><br />The 13 minute “Ashes Of The Lords In My Hand” features some Black Boned Angel / SUNN style guitar ambience, while Nordvargr like sounds creep into the background and rain falls endlessly. It’s followed by “Eternal Black Mistress” which is fairly straight-forward lo-fi black metal, drum-machine included. I’m feeling the creepy experimentation more than the black metal in Nekrasov’s case and would like to hear him more solidly fuse it together.<br /><br />“Into The No-Mans-Sphere Of Ancient Days” is a 100% DIY effort, with classy mini-gatefold packaging. If you’re into any of the aforementioned bands, check out Nekrasov. Support this evil beast by contacting him through his myspace page myspace.com/nekrasovguts.<br /><br />Syrach have a vocalist named Ripper and a guitarist named 8-Ball but that doesn’t stop them from playing English inspired death/doom in the vein of My Dying Bride with some Candlemass theatrics thrown in. The press release says “expect no lovely melodies or kitsch from Syrach”, an ironic statement from a label, Napalm, who specializes in just that sort of thing. Still this is decent.<br /><br />Syrach has apparently been around since the early 90s, hailing from Norway, but have only managed two albums in that time, “Days Of Wrath” being their second. The production is clean, but the riffs aren’t mean and dark enough for my taste. You’re better off checking out their labelmates in Ahab who deliver a bleaker,heavier doomed vision.<br /><br />Malachi is a Milwaukee based band with ex members of great bands like Artimus Pile, High On Crime and Laudanum among many others. A 5 piece sort of arty doom crust outfit, that includes a cellist amongst their ranks (this is not a bad or misplaced thing). <br /><br />4 songs in just over 40 minutes that sounds a bit like a lost record from the 90s when bands like His Hero Is Gone, Logical Nonsense and Neurosis reigned supreme. Malachi aren’t exactly like those bands, but you get the idea, this is cerebral, well-thought out apocalyptic heavy music from a punk background and with a doom spirit.<br /><br />Malachi is actively seeking a label to release this album, and once this thing is mastered it should be even heavier. Sounds like a collab album with Bastard Noise is in the works too. So labels and others, get in touch with them at myspace.com/malachimilwaukee.<br /><br />Belgium’s Enthroned has been around since the early 1990s, and although they’ve released several albums in the meantime, I hadn’t actually heard anything by the black metal band since around 2001. Enthroned’s album’s were always decent, but never anything that for me warranted perpetual listening. Second division through and through. I’m glad to say their 7th studio album Tetra Karcist is the best thing I can recall hearing from them.<br /><br />Tetra Karcist has a nice brutal production and the drumming, at times reminiscent of John Longstreth’s work on Angelcorpse’s Exterminate, helps propel this album and up the heaviness factor from prior works. Catchy arrangements and attention to song structure makes for memorable moments, with anthemic mid-paced portions and sickly aggressive speed parts. Tetra Karcist ain’t gonna change the black metal landscape but it’s a totally admirable record from a band whose hitting their peak when most have faded away.<br /><br />Another top 5 black metal album for 2007 is an obscure one from Mammoth Lakes, California of all places. The band is Valdur and their self-titled album released on their own Bloody Mountain Records is a bludgeoning cacophony of Gorgoroth inspired blasphemy. Unlike a lot of black metal, the rhythm section here is huge with both the drums and bass given a fat low end sound. Valdur’s metal is epic and battle ready enough to appeal to those into war crust as well as witnessed on tunes like “Thor’s Hammer” and “Slekt Av Fortidens Krigere” (there is actually a dude from Norway in this band). It’s sad that so much pathetic shit is released on big metal labels, and then something like this comes along, self-released, that just destroys it all. If these guys can take the show on the road, they’ll be big. Excellent fucking record and highest possible recommendation. Myspace.com/valdurkult.<br /><br />Australian death metal weirdos Portal have returned with the follow up to 2006’s Seepia, which was actually an older album, re-released. The production on this album is totally insane. It’s a death metal record, but it’s swamped in this murkiness like it was recorded in a vacuum through a phone. And it’s perfect that way, cuz for death metal songs, these tunes, like “Abysmill” and “Omnipotent Crawling Chaos” have creepy arrangements and strange riffs that in some ways parellel more the black metal genre, yet Portal doesn’t really belong there either. At times it sounds as though nobody in the band is playing along with each other, but each doing their own separate thing – chaotic, but it’s controlled to a degree that it’s cohesive somehow. It’s worth noting that the members of the band are called Aphotic Mote, The Curator, Horror Illogium, Elsewhere and Monocular, respectively. A seriously, weird and great record, with outstanding packaging. You’ll either love it or loathe it. Released by one of my favorites, Profound Lore.<br /><br />Turning back the clock once again as I’ve done in the past few columns, we need to remember a classic album from Sweden’s Merciless, The Awakening. Merciless were right there with the first wave of Swedish death metal bands and always kept a healthy dose of their Eurothrash roots in the mix. Maybe not as groundbreaking as Nihilist, Entombed or Dismember, they nonetheless crafted a minor classic with The Awakening, something Mayhem’s Euronymous realized even back then when he agreed to start his Deathlike Silence label in order to release it – AntiMosh001 (get it,like anti-Earache).<br /><br />And unlike their Swede contemporaries who held Autopsy in the highest regard, you hear some of that with Merciless, but a lot of Scream Bloody Gore era Death and 7 Churches era Possessed as well which is probably why it was more appealing to Euronymous then Digby Pearson.<br /><br />But listen to a song like “Dreadful Fate” and you’ll see why this album remains an overlooked gem. Killer deaththrashin’ riffs, followed by a catchy chorus that their Swede counterparts often lacked. Or check out the total Mercyful Fate homage during “Realm of the Dark”. Vocally it’s again much more in the deathrash style then the throaty, lower register sounds of Grave or Unleashed.<br /><br />The Awakening has a perfect blend of death, thrash and early black metal, along with a raw, gritty production, and those into the aforementioned bands as well as stuff like Sodom, Kreator and even Massacre should get immediately hooked on this record. Merciless is still in existence today and has released several quality records in the meantime, however have never quite recaptured the recklessness and youthful abandon they had on Awakening. Originally released on vinyl only on Deathlike Silence it has since been re-released with bonus live tracks on both CD and LP formats via Osmose Productions, and should be relatively easy to track down. The original vinyl goes between $50-75 these days, not only because it’s a killer album but because it’s a rare Deathlike Silence release, always sought after by collec-tors.<br /><br />Guess what, I don’t always listen to metal. Here’s some of the stuff I have been listening to outside the realm lately: Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Daniel Higgs, Venetian Snares (new album My Downfall), Totally Insane (East Palo Alto), Neko Case, Pentangle (not to be confused with Pentagram, who also rule obviously), Dax Riggs and Philip Glass too. All worth checking out if you’re not a total snob about punk and metal.<br /><br />A few people have asked, so I’m going to set up a blog with these columns so people can read em online as well. New columns won’t go up until the issue of MRR with that column in it hits the stands even though these columns are written over a month before publication. But the old ones will all be there, and I’ll keep adding em as the months wear on. Look for it at dontfuckingtry.blogspot.com.<br /><br />Finally new mailing address. Send stuff to: Don’t Try c/o Dave Adelson, 120 State Ave NE #136, Olympia, WA 98501 USA. Until next time dear reader…Don't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-4753687315909777882007-11-05T21:23:00.000-08:002007-11-05T21:24:45.599-08:00Don't Try #7I found out a few weeks ago that this famous chef has the same sort of cancer that I had. Normally that wouldn’t be so weird except we’re talking about cancer of the tongue here. Yes, there is such a thing. I really didn’t think it could get more tragic then what happened to me, but they really did it with this guy. A chef. A guy whose whole life is food.<br /><br />He has no idea what he’s in for either. His cancer is more advanced then mine was, and he’s basically going through a nearly identical treatment regimen. That shit left me ruined in ways I won’t even try to explain because it’s hard for a healthy, normal person to even wrap their naïve little brain’s around that kind of oddball damage. <br /><br />It’s strange to hear the guy talking about how he’s gonna keep working through treatment. Apparently his restaurant in Chicago is one of the most famous in the country. You see, it’s tragic because in a best-case scenario this dude is gonna lose much of his ability to taste food. In a significantly worse case scenario he’ll lose his ability to eat food completely (and much of his ability to speak as well). The worst case of course is death, which at his staging isn’t uncommon. And he seems to have no idea – like it’s just business as usual while he goes through this minor setback. Total PR.<br /><br />I thought that too. Figured I’d be in and out of the whole situation in a month or two. Instead it was nearly a year out of my life that completely ruined my health and altered me physically forever. And recovery is just as difficult and takes years, I’m still recovering. And won’t ever fully. That’s not even to speak of the mental anguish and permanent outcast status you achieve.<br /><br />So I guess my point is, cancer of any kind ain’t no joke folks. But when it’s rare, it’s arguably worse because nobody pays attention to it, there’s no fundraisers, no cute little bracelets to wear, no celeb endorsements or PR campaigns. It’s just you and the system and whatever’s left of you after it’s done. It’s real fuckin life, a kind you’ve never lived. Try to remember that when you’re busy whining about how your boss made you do this or that, or it’s so horrible that some show cost you 10 bucks. Once your health goes, most other shit seems insignificant in comparison.<br /><br />And with that, we charge forth to ruin…<br /><br />We lead this month with two releases from the consistently great Profound Lore label. The first of which, Cobalt’s “Eater of Birds” album, is a contender for top album of 2007. Cobalt was previously unknown to me, and I have no idea how they managed to pass under my radar. If given the chance I would have released this record myself. Cobalt hail from Fort Collins, Colorado and currently consists of just two members.<br /><br />“Eater of Birds” is a 70 minute epic that never gets boring and in fact seems over too soon – how many bands can say that about their 70 minute snoozefest? Stylistically it’s a mash up of Destroyer 666’s war metal blasphemy, Carpathian Forest’s blackened Motorhead steamroller and, of all things, AmRep style repetitive heavy noise rock. Strange formula, but one that works so perfectly for Cobalt.<br /><br />In the case of several tracks like opener “When Serpents Return”, “Ulcerism” and “Blood Eagle Sacrifice”, they start on the blackened speed tip and then segue to a layered noise rock break that builds and builds until it’s a crashing wall of huge drums and repeated, sped-up (good) Neurosis riffs that lay waste like a jackhammer to a concrete slab. And the best part is, the riffs are memorable and catchy as fuck. You’ll break your neck to some of this stuff.<br /><br />There’s three sort of different tracks that divide the album up into sections, all called “Ritual Use Of Fire” where Cobalt is free to explore noisy landscapes, some acoustic flourishes and creepy heavy breathing. Even Jarboe lends her pipes on a few of these. They are just slightly longer than they need to be, but do provide a nice respite from the beating one takes on the main tracks.<br /><br />The more I listen to “Eater Of Birds”, the more I love it – and the best part is, it was a total surprise, I had zero expectation going in and was for some reason expecting something much more syrupy and wimpy. Cobalt also has another earlier record out called simply “War Metal” which was released by Displeased. I’m tracking that down as I write this… Do whatever you need to do to get this one.<br /><br />Profound Lore also gives us a new album from France’s Alcest, “Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde”. Sounds very romantic and French doesn’t it? Alcest is not really metal at all, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as certain metal types will get into this – particularly those into mellow gothic doom and also newer shoegaze inspired type shit – two genres I typically detest. With all the bands trudging the My Bloody Valentine waters these days it’s nice to hear something that’s not just a heavy metal bastardization of the sound, but more like a forward-thinking, only somewhat obvious tribute. The mistake of adding in crushing post-rock crescendos is avoided in favor of keeping a purity and innocence (a word used often in describing Alcest) about the music. Where MBV felt sexy and drug-hazed, Alcest has a child-like sentimentality that pre-dates those feelings. Only the slightest embryonic gleam of mainman Neige’s black metal side (he does the killer Peste Noire) ever creeps in as you could imagine some of the passages on a track like “Sur L’autre Rive Je T’attendrai” being rearranged in that context. If you feel like a total simp for listening to the new Jesu album – which you should – pick up “Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde” a far better proposition for the new wave of white light inspired unmetal.<br /><br />Bloodhorse is a new band with a new release on the Translation Loss label titled EP. Although it’s called EP this is actually about 35 minutes long. This is “stoner rock” played by ex-hardcore people from bands like 454 Big Block, Shelter and even Saves The Day (!?). And with that in mind it’s hard not to see this as a bunch of dudes making inroads into a genre that they have not been involved with long. Theses songs for the most part are bland and rudimentary, utilizing the same riffs that third division stoner bands have been plying for over 10 years. I mean, why not just listen to the first Fu Manchu record instead? There’s more iommijuice in one Al Cisneros bassline then there is on this entire record. It’ll take another album, or even two, for this band to really find their feet I’d imagine.<br /><br />Today is the Day has a new one out called “Axis Of Eden”. Been a while since I rocked anything by TITD so this one came as kind of a surprise. Gotta admit I think Mr. Austin has lost a step or two over the years. The drum sound on this one is ridiculously bad – the double bass patterns are total typewriter worship. The heaviest parts of this record come off as a more death metal sounding Ministry but with worse production. I wanted to like this record. I have a lot of respect for Steve Austin. Couldn’t make it happen though. I’ll stick with the AmRep stuff. “Axis Of Eden” was self-released on Austin’s Supernova Records.<br /><br />Also on Austin’s Supernova imprint is Defcon 4 who play angry, noisy post-punk/metal with a vocalist who sounds a helluva lot like Sam McPheeters to my ears – a good thing. No surprise that Born Against is listed as an influence on their web page. The 22 minute album is divided into 4 “acts’ with each act having several different tracks. Those into Unsane might also dig some of what’s going on here. There’s some grindy moments thrown in a well – they cover a lot of ground in a short time. They’ll be touring with Today is the Day and I can imagine they rage live. I don’t like their band name, but I do like the music even if it does make me want to listen to Born Against instead. Strangely when I popped this into my computer it came up as Rage Against The Machine “Fuck Tha Police”.<br /><br />Dipping into the vaults of obscurity again as I did last month, we gotta look back on the Gehenna album “Seen Through The Veils of Darkness” originally released on the Cacophonous label in the mid 90s or so. Norway’s Gehenna is a black metal band not to be confused with the American band of the same name.<br /><br />Gehenna has gone through a few stylistic changes during their many albums. The first few albums were early Norse style black metal that incorporated moody synth patterns. Fans of this style often prefer the previous album “First Spell”, but both this album and the next one “Malice”, which started into a more aggressive direction, are worth checking out as well.<br />“Seen Through The Veils…” starts with the great “Lord Of Flies” beginning with a creepy, demented intro and blasts into a Euronymous style riff, then turns to a slower pace and eventually a killer 80s inspired Venom style riff. There’s weird chanting going on in certain parts as well. <br /><br />“A Witch Is Born” is kind of a haunted, memorable tune that incorporates mid-paced riffery with buried samples of a witch actually being born. The synth sounds are ever present, and really, synth only sounded OK on a few black metal records, but this one managed to pull it off with out getting too much into Dimmu Borgir style carnival theatrics.<br /><br />A personal favorite track is the nearly 9 minute “A Myth…” which infuses some jangly death rock guitar parts that almost sound poppy used in the context of a black metal record.<br /><br />As mentioned previously Gehenna followed up “Seen Through The Veils…” with “Malice” which was the close of the first chapter in their history. The bounced back a few years later, I suppose around 1998 with the relentless onslaught of “Adimiron Black” an album that still stands as an all-time favorite.<br /><br />“Adimiron Black” left behind any shred remaining of gothic whimsy and synth-based romanticism in favor of full on aggression. Basically it’s like a combination of Slayer’s “South Of Heaven” but much faster and almost death metal in its application of the black metal paradigm. <br /><br />Opener “The Killing Kind” is total Slayer worship but thankfully incorporates blast beats and far more brutal vocals, yet maintains its Slayerness with catchy hooks and killer choruses. It’s followed by “Deadlights” a nuclear inspired tune that is just total fury in motion. A non-stop barrage of totalitarian riffing that actually sounds like a prelude to a bombraid set to music. “Devil’s Work” is a deadringer for Obituary’s doomed death classic “Slowly We Rot”. Brilliant.<br /><br />After “Adimiron Black” Gehenna followed it up with “Murder’ which was even more Slayer-esque, yet lacked the punishing death vibe of its predecessor. After that Gehenna disappeared for years until they remerged a few years back with one member left, and recorded a return to black metal in the form of the somewhat lukewarm “WW”. Nonetheless, most of Gehenna’s catalog is well worth checking out with “Seen Through The Veils Of Darkness” and “Adimiron Black”, released by Moonfog, ranking highest.<br /><br />Sticking with Norwegian obscurity, we get to an album I continue to return to over and over, Hades’ “The Dawn Of A Dying Sun”, released by Full Moon Productions. This is Viking metal, but not the cheesy shit like nowadays. No, this is epic style Bathory worship (think middle period) with some buried Bolt Thrower-esque ugliness here and there. Everything is mid-paced or slower, and the guitars are awash in distorted buzz, making this noisy as hell. Riffs that draw on the folk influence of their home country, yet managing to stay heavy as shit without wimping out. The ten minute “Alone Walkyng” and album opener “Awakening of Kings” could be called standout tracks that best exemplify the Hades style. The low-key Tolkien-inspired “The Red Sun Mocks My Sadness” brings things down a notch with just a sullen flute melody and synth backbone.<br />Hades would go onto record another few albums, but didn’t ever seem to recapture the grandeur and brilliance they managed on “The Dawn Of A Dying Sun”. Anyone into epic Bathory worship and I’d venture even those into retro-metalcrust like Stormcrow and Sanctum would find something to like here.<br /><br />That’s it for this month. Don’t Try will be on hiatus next month as I’ll be in the process of moving away. I’ll be back the following month with more metal for your ma’s kettle. Should have a new contact address by then too.Don't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-39014032531121666022007-11-05T21:22:00.000-08:002007-11-05T21:23:27.275-08:00Don't Try #6I’ve decided that it’s time for me to leave the Bay Area. As great a place as it is, I’ve been living here my whole damn life and the need for a major change of scenery has finally won out over all the things that have kept me here for too long. In early October I’m calling it quits on the Bay and in the spirit of immigration – I’m heading north.<br /><br />So what lucky place gets to receive me as a new resident alien? For now it’s Olympia, Washington. It’s a completely different, and smaller scene there then what we have in the Oakland / San Francisco area, and that’s exactly what I’m looking for. Plus the dreary skies, tall trees and damp grounds appeal to my uber metal mentality. So, to the other 8 metal guys and gals residing in the more widely known indie/punk enclave; I say, let’s build a new scene and cross the triangle of flames.<br />What I’ll miss about the Bay is all the great shows we get on a regular basis, even just from the locals, as we have one of the best scenes in the country. I’ll miss many close friends and family as well. Things I won’t miss include the traffic, dense population, high crime, general paranoia, plenty of bad memories and assorted backstabbers and fakes (apologies for the semi 25 Ta Life style reference, bitch).<br /><br />As for Olympia, it’s clear to me that they need a metal injection up there. Maybe running my label there will help with that. Hopefully I’ll be able to convince more of the dark lord’s bands to come to town. Instead of the International Pop Underground, we’ll try to create the International Harsh Underground, or something. The point is, the Bay Area doesn’t really need me the way Olympia so apparently does, you see? It’s not just about me – I go where I’m needed.<br /><br />And it’s in Olympia that this month’s album reviews begin. Perhaps the bleakest thing to ever emerge from the city’s borders, Wolves In The Throne Room have seen to fit to bestow upon us their second full length record in the form of ‘Two Hunters’ for the Southern Lord label. <br /><br />More fully produced and layered then the bands debut album ‘Diadem of 12 Stars’, ‘Two Hunters’ begins with an extended buzzing intro that recalls some of Burzum’s more guitar/ambient moments run through a sort of post-rockish filter. The band espouses anti-modernism and a return to the ways of nature, and even without lyrics, the track musically conveys those ideas effectively.<br /><br />Things really get going once the second track gets underway as the Wolves kick things into black metal tempos and riff patterns. Clearly the band takes a large influence from some of their Norwegian forbears with early Emperor and Ulver coming particularly to mind. Songs tend to be of the more depressive, melancholy and epic variety. Those looking for raw, necro blackness in the Darkthrone vein should look elsewhere.<br /><br />Operatic and ethereal female vocals are incorporated in certain places, not in a way that detracts from the music (a mistake many metal bands end up making in an effort to be somehow ‘progressive’ or ‘experimental’) but not necessarily adding a great deal either – it just further affirms the albums bleak mood. Overall a strong second effort from another unique west coast metal band and I look very forward to seeing what they do next time around.<br /><br />Also coming from the Pacific Northwest, Portland to be exact, is Oakhelm, a band comprised of members of Fall of the Bastards and Wormwood among others. And once again, we have a record firmly rooted in some European metal subgenres but with enough to make it stand out from all the usual clichés that bands of this ilk fall prey to.<br /><br />On their debut album ‘Betwixt & Between’ Oakhelm are dealing in a Viking metal style that incorporates elements of black metal and death metal, with riffs that could often be played either acoustically or in metallized form. “Of Wood & Blood” starts the proceedings with great, epic riffing straight from the mead hall, an effective memorable chorus and enough speed and vocal venom for those into more aggressive stuff.<br /><br />It’s followed by the acoustic, female-vocal ‘Skal Shanty’ and then “As The Murder Flies” a tracks that brings to mind a band who trolled these landscapes years ago by the name of Mithotyn. Vocalist/bassist Pete Jay (also drums in Wormwood) has several alternating singing/screeching styles to compliment the different moods, tempos and arrangements. “Maybon Shore” is an acoustic downer complete with rain samples and great viking-folk melodies recalling again Ulver’s acoustic forays on the amazing ‘Kveldssanger’ LP.<br /><br />‘Betwixt & Between’ is especially recommended to fans of Fall of the Bastards. While not sounding in any way identical to that now defunct band, some of the influence in riffs and drum patterns is there and anyone into the Fall of the Bastards stuff will undoubtedly find a lot to like here. On a label called Forest Moon Special Products.<br /><br />A band that was before now unknown to me is Avichi whose ‘The Divine Tragedy’ album made its way to me courtesy of NMB Records of Dekalb, Illinois. This is totally premium black metal done in similar style to the stuff being released these days by Ajna except this is better and more effective. Strangely enough this was recorded at Steve Albini’s studio, though was not recorded by the man himself. <br /><br />Still, this album has a great, dark production value up there with the big boys of the scene like Deathspell Omega, Watain and Glorior Belli. Titles like “Messianic Deliverance”, “Purification Within The Eighth Sphere” and “Taedium Vitae” give you some sense of what you’re dealing with here. The tempo is generally just below blastbeat speed, but with plenty of changes and riff variation to keep things interesting for the more seasoned black metal veteran. Whether or not Avichi will garner respect remains to be seen but this album stands as one of the best in the current crop of American and Euro black metal.<br /><br />A band I didn’t really want to listen to because of their name, The Fucking Wrath, ponys up with ‘Season of Evil’ an album described by their label, Goodfellow, as a cross between Tragedy, Sabbath and ‘Kill Em All’ era Metallica. So I figured I’d check it out, since I like all that stuff. ‘To the Eels’ starts off sounding like a more polished Anti-Cimex tune then makes a fairly believable transition into a stoner rock style jam before heading back into Swedish Kang territory. The influences mentioned definitely shine through on most of these tracks and are given a modern polishing, and one could imagine these tracks coming off pretty killer in a live setting. With 11 songs in about 26 minutes the album doesn’t overstay its welcome, which after a half hour probably would have worn thin. Ultimately not something I’ll be listening to repeatedly but a lot of you will find something to like here.<br /><br />That’s about all the new music I managed to get through this month that was actually worth writing about – however there’s still a few things to discuss.<br /><br />A new issue of Oakenthrone Zine has been released. Oakenthrone is easily the best metal zine in existence right now. Not a glossy style rag at all, this is printed in a very classy style with a black and metallic silver cover, and good quality paper inside at the size of a 7 inch. Printed by 1984 printing in Oakland . Issue #5 has it all people. Sure it takes them the better part of a year to get these done, but what you get is 84 pages of top notch metal writing, illustrations done exclusively for the zine and amazing graphic design work by magazine co-principal Ben West. This new issue features extended interviews with Asunder, Archgoat, Coffins, Moss, Portal, Caina and Cult of Daath among several others. The album reviews are extensive and well-written. This issue also comes with a compilation CD that features all of the bands interviewed including an exclusive KFJC radio recording from Asunder. The magazine doesn’t sell copies direct but many underground metal distros are carrying this as well as some in the know stores so just search online if you can and you’ll find it. You won’t be disappointed.<br /><br />Now, since we still have some time and space left to deal with here, and no new stuff worthy of getting it, let’s revisit a few overlooked classics from the vault that you may not be aware of, but definitely should be.<br /><br />First up is Deathwitch from Sweden. Deathwitch began in the 90s and released a string of amazing gnarly Swedish death metal records on the Necropolis label. Band mainman Nicke Terror has also been involved with Runemagick, The Funeral Orchestra and Sacramentum among others – all totally awesome in their own right.<br /><br />After the Necropolis label took a shit on the band like they did to all their bands, Deathwitch split for a time while Nicke concentrated on other shit, but eventually came back to do our album of choice today ‘Violence, Blasphemy, Sodomy’, the last in a string of cleverly-metal titled albums like “Deathfuck Rituals”, “The Ultimate Death” and “Monumental Mutilations”. <br />The style here is ultimately most steeply based in Swedeath, but there are occasional flourishes of thrashy black metal in a South American vein. Nihilistic metal mayhem ensues on opener “Flamethrower Carnival” and follows with the amazingly necro-raw “Total Morbid” which features the brilliant lyrical nugget I don’t give a fuck, fuck you fuckin’ retards, I hate you, I hate everything… call me Total Morbid. Songs like “Necrosodomizer” , “Coffin Fornicator” and “Death Maniac” at varying times recall names like Nifelheim, Repugnant, early Entombed, Sodom and Autopsy. Surprisingly enough this was released by Earache, a deviation from the usual horribleness they’ve released this century. Not surprisingly the band went permanently awol soon after. Seek this, or any of the other Deathwitch albums mentioned out immediately.<br /><br />Another somewhat overlooked masterpiece is the first album by Sweden’s Bewitched, Diabolical Desecration – really their only truly worthwhile record. Bewitched originally started as a side project of members of Ancient Wisdom and Katatonia (specifically Anders ‘Blackheim’ Nystrom) as a project to just fuck around and play some killer old school euro thrash and metal riffs. After this record hit and they did a small amount of touring, they found themselves at the forefront of a brief revival movement termed “retro-thrash” at the time. Having no idea that the band would gain the amount of popularity it did, Blackheim quit as Katatonia was always his main band. Once he left, the band continued to release albums, but never as good as the debut.<br /><br />It starts off with Hard As Steel (Hot As Hell) a black thrasher that cops a riff straight from Mercyful Fate’s “Curse of the Pharaohs” altering it only just slightly to meet their needs. Tracks like “Hellcult” and “Triumph of Evil” don’t hide their obvious appreciation of Venom and you can hear references to bands like Judas Priest, Accept, Bathory and Slayer throughout, in some cases the riffs sounding eerily similar. Vocally it’s a trade off between Blackheim and Vargher with not a lot of difference between the two – a pretty standard angry black thrash rasp.<br /><br />Although a lot of metalheads might see this album as somewhat standard, for me it hit at the right time and place and along with Aura Noir’s “Black Thrash Attack” stands as one of the great “retro-thrash” records of the mid to late 90s that copiously copped the riffs of the ancient ones. Released by Osmose.<br /><br />So that’s it for this time brethren and sisters of my circle. I’ll still be in the Bay Area for a few more months but then I’m headed North By Northwest. For now, the same old contact info still applies: Don’t Try, 2340 Powell Street, #117, Emeryville, CA 94608 USA. donttry@20buckspin.comDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-23079502502100667952007-11-05T21:21:00.001-08:002007-11-05T21:21:57.819-08:00Don't Try #5I am having severe writer’s block this month. Coming up with anything remotely interesting to lead this month’s column has become a test of endurance that I’ve simply given up on. The last few weeks have been characterized by a lot of personal upheaval in my life, leaving me feeling relatively uninspired creatively and probably expecting too much from the releases that have been sent my way.<br /><br />As a columnist that reviews records and albums you’re always hoping for at least one that will totally blow you away, and become a permanent addition to your music collection rather than something to pass on to friends or co-workers. Unfortunately the vast majority of releases this month probably will not have a lasting impact in my life. In times of upheaval we tend to return to those albums which mean the most to us, and the older you get the more few and far between those become.<br /><br />Nonetheless dear Hessians, I have a responsibility, an obligation if you will, to let you know what’s happening in the world of metallic sounds and like in a relationship, you persevere through thick and thin, in good times and bad – at least in theory. So, to this month’s metallic munchies we go…<br /><br />From the Level Plane label comes a split album called Project Mercury from two east coast post-Isis groups, Balboa and Rosetta. Balboa gets first shot with their 3 tracks. This generally ain’t my style and I can’t listen to it repeatedly but I have to admit, they are bringing something different than most of the millions playing in this dead style. The first short track “Primitive Accumulation” starts off Isis-like enough but towards the end takes a turn into grind-lite territory before ending with a catchy melodic hardcore riff. The nearly 10 minute Kaddish is the kind of jam you’d imagine Neurosis playing at campfire, it builds and build and builds endlessly. Vocally Balboa has your fairly standard tortured Aaron Turner screams. I’ll be interested to hear a full length should one turn up.<br /><br />Rosetta will be familiar to some from their previous double album debut The Galilean Satellites another post Isis/SUNN behemoth that managed only somewhat successfully to set itself apart from the masses. “TMA-1” meanders through about 5+ minutes of syrupy postmetalgaze before adding anything resembling the heavy to the mix and then continues on for another 5 minutes in the same way. Rosetta are very adept at their instruments and crafting long epics, but it’s all too monotonous and I can’t but think to myself “If I want this sort of vibe, I’ll just listen to Godspeed You! Black Emperor” because they do it infinitely better and far more interestingly.<br /><br />Also from Level Plane (and Vendetta Records) comes the uniquely packaged new CD from Graf Orlock called Destination Time Tomorrow. It comes in a shiny little bag and the CD is stuck onto a diecut insect looking creature with its fingers wrapped around the disc. And although it looks really cool, this will be easily damaged and can’t be considered practical. Musically Destination Time Tomorrow contains 8 songs in 16 minutes of sample heavy techymathgrind with riffs galore at times interesting like the breakdown heavy “A Misappropriation Of Sector Resources”, and at other times, not so much. Fans of stuff ranging from Dillinger Escape Plan to Pig Destroyer will probably get into Graf Orlock. 10 bucks says they end up on Relapse. Any takers?<br /><br />What’s this? A new album from cult legends Profanatica? Yes, it’s true one of the American undergrounds ugliest, older bands has returned. Profanatitas De Domonatia features 10 tracks over 40 minutes of underground black death metal that still sounds as though it could be a demo from the early 90s. “Unto Us He Is Born” , “Mocked, Scourged And Spit Upon” and “A Fallen God, Dethroned In Heaven” reek of a band of older dudes disgusted at what black metal has become. Fans of stuff like Blasphemy and early Incantation will find lots to like on Profanatitas De Demonatia. Blown out bass-heavy underground production values with no added trickery. Just pure blasphemous American black metal. Released by Hells Headbangers.<br /><br />From the opposite end of the spectrum comes a few releases from black metal’s burgeoning religious/intellectual movement being spearheaded in the US by the Ajna label. Occult symbolism, latin and hebrew textual flourishes, and lyrical subject matter meant to make you seem stupid are all hallmarks of this scene with Deathspell Omega being the genre’s obvious reference point. Plenty of bands are bringing their own take to this new scene as well, none so effectively as DSO, but interestingly enough to warrant further investigation.<br /><br />Secrets Of The Moon is the first of these bands to consider in this months column. The new album Antithesis is steeped in the band’s dedication to magic and a new personification of Satan, not as the exact opposite of all Christian values but as a muse for artistic inspiration and all things rebellious, according to the info-sheet from the label. A sort of positive spin on the dark lord if you will. <br /><br />But let’s face it, behind all the conceptual bullshit and pseudo-intellectual posturing, if the music isn’t there who really cares. Thankfully for Secrets Of The Moon they do have the chops to back it up, as this is a pretty solid album of modern, technically proficient black metal. A lot of the songs on here stretch past the 6 minute mark giving them time to develop and play with interesting arrangements. Nonetheless, the album feels too long at nearly an hour in length and the songs tend not to stick out much from one another. A solid second division album not in league with frontrunners like Watain and Deathspell Omega.<br /><br />Next up from the Ajna label is Mortuus with their album De Contemplanda Morte which I’m guessing translates to something like The Contemplation of Death or Contemplating Death. Mortuus should not be confused with Mortiis – make note of the different use of vowels and the lack of pointy ears and noses. Mid-paced black metal played in a vein similar to their contemporaries in Glorior Belli, Hell Militia, etc. “Penetrations of Darkness” is a decent enough lead track over it’s 7 minutes, but never really sounds like much more than a really long, glorified intro. Things speed up into Antaeus territory on “Astral Pandemonium” but you never get the sense that Mortuus are taking any risks with their black metal. They do what they do effectively enough, it’s solid work, but ultimately destined to be buried by time and dust. <br /><br />Weedeater is back with a new album God Luck And Good Speed and a new label in Southern Lord. Weedeater remain a one trick pony and really, would you want anything else? Crustified, stoner jams like late period Buzzoven which makes sense given bassist/vocalist Dixie Dave did time in North Carolina’s scum legends toward the end. Having seen these songs performed live a few times before hearing the album, I was already somewhat familiar with the material. Title track “God Luck And Good Speed” opens things up on the album, as it does with their live show, and has one of the strongest, instantly memorably, stoned riffs on the whole record. “Alone” breaks things up as a quieter, acoustic style summer day porch jam and a cover of Skynyrd’s “Gimme Back My Bullets” is thrown in to further announce their southern roots. Production-wise this is bass-heavy and super-distorted with the vocals fairly low in the mix. Beer-swilling, weed-smokin’, speed dealin’ music for those low brow, blurry-vision moments.<br /><br />Also on Southern Lord comes the new album by French black metal horde Glorior Belli, Manifesting The Raging Beast. The band’s debut LP O’ Laudate Dominus was a fairly standout piece of work, so I had a decent amount of anticipation for Manifesting The Raging Beast. However, after being inundated with the sort of mid-paced evil modern style black metal (see Secrets Of The Moon, Mortuus), I find this new record to be not nearly as much to my liking. Sure it’s got the twisting, contorting minor key riffs and anti-melodies, coupled with the usual fits of speed, but in 2007 the ante has been upped on this sort of thing and Glorior Belli sounds merely like one of many. Here’s hoping the upcoming Deathspell Omega record doesn’t suffer the same fate.<br /><br />Moribund Records this month presents Merciless Hammer of Lucifer from Seattle’s long-running death metal band Drawn & Quartered. This is the bands fifth album for Moribund which in itself is an achievement in this day and age, considering the band, as far as I can tell does not have a huge following in the death metal world. And that’s kind of a shame because this is well-executed underground American style death metal that should appeal to those into the “bigger” names like Incantation and Immolation who have also been plying this style regardless of trends since time immemorial it seems. My guess as to why this band isn’t up in the big leagues is lack of touring. Merciless Hammer of Lucifer isn’t going to make a big impression on the history of death metal in the long run, but it’s a well-executed album that newer fans to the genre could certainly latch onto.<br /><br />Once upon a time, in the early to mid 1990s there was an amazing Norwegian black metal band called Manes. Their demos were much sought-after artifacts of cold desolate blackness – one of the few to make a synth sound appropriate in the context of black metal and they were among the best the Norse underground had to offer. These amazing demos were collected on a CD a year or two ago and released in a limited edition that is now equally hard to find. Nonethless these demos should be sought out by any self-respecting fan of Norwegian grimness a la Emperor’s Wrath of the Tyrant. DO NOT seek out an album by a band still calling themselves Manes titled “How The World Came To An End” which is wretched electro-pop from a band masquerading under the same name. Change the fucking name.<br /><br />Wold is a Canadian project with a new album called Screech Owl out on the Profound Lore label. This is a cross between Cold Meat Industries style noise destruction and black metal buried deep in the mix that might most closely correlate to the harsher moments of Sweden’s MZ.412. I love this kind of stuff but it’s not for the faint of heart or ear. The noisier, less structured side of Skullflower could also be a reference point. “Ray Of Gold” clearly has a black metal riff at its core but is completely over-processed and blown out, and stripped to its base element so much so that its architecture is just barely audible beyond sheer harsh noise. Fans of the aforementioned projects as well as Kevin Drumm, Abruptum, etc should look into this one. At 72 minutes in length it’s ideal for the torture chambers at Gitmo. <br /><br />Godless Rising contains part of the original lineup of death metal veterans Vital Remains. Their new album Battle Lords is out now on Moribund. No nonsense mid 1990s style American death metal, more bestial then overly technical. At times the double bass sound is kind of irritating, sounding like a really fast typewriter – needs to be a lot deeper sounding. Not much setting this apart aside from this style of death metal isn’t being played as much now as it was 10 years ago. Sometimes that’s good, but not in this case. Vital Remains, Ritual Carnage and Morbid Angel fans should check it out, though it’s not as good as any of them. The cover art by Chris Moyen (Coffins, Beherit, Archgoat) is pretty weak, like his version of a Muni Waste cover.<br /><br />Now this I like – Hacavitz from Mexico play bestial black death metal on their second album Katun that most closely recalls Angelcorpse and bands like Conqueror, Revenge, Nox and even some Morbosidad. It’s a little less full sounding then Angelcorpse, probably because there are only two dudes in this band, but the riffs are sick and evil, militant and barbarous and the drums a full on destruction ritual. Again to invoke a comparison to Angelcorpse, like that band’s albums, this one rarely lets up on the speed dial, yet the riffs and changes remains strong and interesting enough that they can maintain the brutality throughout the album’s 51 minutes. For all the thrashers there is a bonus Dark Angel cover, “Hunger Of The Undead” tacked on at the end. Definitely one of the best albums to come from this month’s crop of releases.<br /><br />That’s the goods for this month. Keep sending the heavy stuff over to Don’t Try, 2340 Powell Street, #117, Emeryville, CA 94608 USA. donttry@20buckspin.comDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-16189341570233365532007-11-05T21:20:00.000-08:002007-11-05T21:21:23.495-08:00Don't Try #4Summer is finally, fully upon us. The East Bay is a great place to be during the summer. It’s sunny, and usually just hot enough without being too ridiculous – although there’s plenty of 90 degree and over days in which I do my best to cling to my trusty, but short-range, 5000 BTU air conditioner.<br /><br />Summer also means lots of great shows and tours happening around the Bay. Right about the time this column hits the mighty Mayhem from Norway are set to play at San Francisco’s DNA Lounge along with Ludicra, Dekapitator and Amber Asylum. It’ll be the first time Mayhem has played in the US with singer Atilla Csihar, the vocalist who recorded the legendary De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas LP, the best black metal album of all time. No doubt, they’ll be playing many tunes from that great album, which they generally avoided before Atilla rejoined. This should be a show to behold.<br /><br />A week after Mayhem, the Melvins will be doing two nights in San Francisco, the first performing the entire Houdini album and the second night doing the highly influential Lysol album, and Eggnog as well. As a long time Melvins fan this will be a summer highlight. Fucking Lysol!<br /><br />Gigs from Christ On Parade, El Dopa, Wormwood, Intronaut, Phobia, Book Of Black Earth and Slayer are all on tap for July and August as well.<br /><br />Summer started early in Austin, Texas this year where a week after Chaos in Tejas, the Emissions from the Monolith festival went down. Austin was typically humid, in the mid 80 degree range, and overcast and rainy for most of the Memorial Day Weekend.<br /><br />I had originally bought a plane ticket to Austin for Emissions in order to meet up with two bands I’ve released records by, Coffins and Graves At Sea. Both were set to play at the time. However, the shady promoter of the event, after making multiple promises to buy plane tickets for Coffins (they are from Japan) decided to never give them the money, or even tell them. So Coffins had to back out. Later Graves At Sea backed out, for reasons I’m still not aware of.<br /><br />So, knowing both bands were not playing, but being locked into a plane ticket, my friend Jason and I went anyway. The good news was that I’d still have the opportunity to meet up with and see Samothrace from Lawrence, Kansas, as well as some others like Middian, Rwake, The Makai, etc.<br /><br />I’ll spare you, dear reader, of all the details of the weekend, as it’d take too long to recall it all, but needless to say we were treated very well in Austin, met many great friends and become closer with the ones we already had. Special thanks to Maria Mabra for letting us stay at her house all weekend.<br /><br />Highlights of the weekend included Samothrace’s in store set at Snake Eyes Vinyl to a small but floored crowd. Middian played a crushing set, both at Snake Eyes and at Emo’s,, both times ending their set with a raging, albeit slightly slowed, version of Black Flag’s My War. Rwake’s blackened tarpit sludge destroyed all and Weedeater played their stripped down, stoned, late-period Buzzoven riffs with aplomb, after breaking down and nearly not making it.<br /><br />What’s nice about Emo’s is it has two stages in the main building and you can pay for one show and apparently go between both. So, we ended up getting to watch Melt Banana who was playing in the main room. They played a terrific set of melodic hardcore meets total spazzed out insanity.<br /><br />I do hope if Emissions continues on next year that it’ll be a more organized effort, and delivers on all the bands it advertises. I talked to many people who were disappointed at Coffins notable absence. Hopefully we’ll get them over for a tour in 2008.<br /><br />As I go over the stack of new releases I received in the past month, there is unfortunately a lack of anything that really blew me away. The one exception would be the demo from Samothrace. 3 crushing tracks over 25+ minutes of ultra heavy, slow motion doom crust apocalypse. What sets them apart is the bands sense for adding great minor-key melodies and a dynamic ability to build a song up to a crashing mid-paced peak. The best demo I’ve received in ages. The band can be reached at samothracedoom@yahoo.com.<br /><br />The latest album from Ensepulchered is called The Night Our Rituals Blackened The Stars, and has actually been out for about 6-8 months at this point. This is keyboard heavy black metal, focused on more ambient, moody, moonlit forest style haunting. Although Xasthur’s name is dropped in comparison, Ensepulchered hardly manages to create the thick-hazed, suicidal fog of that one man band, and instead remind more of early Dimmu Borgir, or a less good Emperor demo. The keyboards are so high in the mix that most of the time no discernable riffs can be made out, and the drum machine is too obviously a drum machine. On Autopsy Kitchen Records.<br /><br />A far more grim and dark album comes from a project called Diagnose: Lebensgefahr and its debut album Transformalin. The “band” is basically one man, Nattramn who did a band called Silencer some years ago that turned out to be very influential on the current crop of bedroom black metal superstars. As the story goes, Nattramn, was institutionalized shortly after Silencer split, and this album, made with money from the Swedish psycho wards he was held in were part of his therapy. A great story regardless of its truth, and indeed Transformalin sounds like the work of a man on the brink. The album is not metal all, but actually darker and more disturbing. Tracks of black industrial noise, dark ambient textures, spoken passages of madness and torment and military style marches all bleed out through the razor sliced veins of the albums 11 tracks. Reminds at times of the work of Nordvargr, the prolific Swedish noisebastard behind MZ.412 and countless other projects, and perhaps Boyd Rice. An album I will certainly listen to repeatedly. Also on Autopsy Kitchen.<br /><br />The Communion are a New York band who smartly made their demo less than 10 minutes long. It’s rare I give a demo more than a 10 minute chance unless it totally hits me over the head so it’s great to see a band (however consciously) aware of that, making their demo short and sweet, and as a result, far more interesting and effective. The Communion mix up some grind influences, but more often then not slow down to a rhythmic lurch. Nothing revolutionary here, but strong songs that probably come off killer when they play live. myspace.com/thecommunion<br /><br />A few blackened morsels from the Moribund label this month. First up, a raw CD version of the split LP of a few years back from two of Finland’s ugliest cults, Horna and Behexen. Horna especially have released a lot of material over the years. Their four tracks on this split, all titled in Finnish, have a lo-fi but solid production aesthetic and they come from the filthy and evil school of black grime. It’s raw and nasty, with a mix of faster and mid-paced tempos that naturally recalls Darkthrone (not as good obviously) and manages to sound morbidly epic without long, drawn out tunes. Behexen’s three tracks are longer and given more space to build on. The production is not as raw as the Horna tracks but not even approaching the polish of major label black metal. Epic grandeur without the use of pompous keyboard passages and noodley acoustic parts. I prefer their full lengths By The Blessing Of Satan and Rituale Satanum, but these are solid tracks.<br /><br />Returning this month is the mysterious Italian one-man project known as Fear Of Eternity. Moribund has released several albums from Fear of Eternity, all of which were recorded well prior to their release. This album, Funeral Mass, is apparently the first. This is ultra-keyboard heavy black metal that’s most similar to the Italian horror soundtracks of the cult legends Goblin. The only thing that makes this black metal are the use of heavy rhythm guitars in the background that give a foundation to the tunes and the vocals which are more silly then evil sounding but nonetheless fit with the tunes. If the characters sitting in the closet from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth movie attempted to make a black metal record, Funeral Mass would be it.<br /><br />Apolstolum plays so-called atmospheric dark metal that the label compares to forefathers of the genre like My Dying Bride, Katatonia and Anathema. Apostlum aren’t as good as any of those bands on their debut mini CD Anedonia. Musically it is depressive, melancholy and dark but they lack the dynamic ebb and flow of the prior mentioned bands, as well as the oppressive heaviness the early recordings by those bands recalls. While the vocals on Anxiety Attack are at times embarrassingly bad, the mix of heavy riffs and clean, catchy goth style playing shows that the band does have the potential to do something more substantial. Full on black metal is thrown in occasionally for good measure. Their cover of Katatonia’s unfuckwithable Brave is musically completely faithful, and if it weren’t for the more mediocre production, less impassioned though note-for-note guitar leads and the shittier vocals (though who can ever really equal Opeth’s Mike Akerfeldt when it comes to vocals) you’d never know the difference.<br /><br />All the way from Japan’s S.M.D. records comes a split CD between Japan’s Ryokuchi and Australia’s Fire Witch. Ryokuchi is a sort of experimental tribal doom duo consisting of just bass and drums. Songs build very slowly over several minutes and when the first track Homura finally explodes around the four-minute mark it’s much more of a slow, plodding Melvins/Thrones crawl then OM style transcendence. Both musicians are masters of their weapons and wield them with skill and conviction. With the popularity of bass/drums duos lately the time could be right for Ryokuchi to invade the States. Fire Witch are a band with two bassists and a drummer, playing a messy, unstructured stoner doom with a bluesey faux-Ginn style solo here and there and songs that veer off into meandering, experimental, totally wasted tomfoolery. As a stoner you’ll probably love these tracks. As a drinker like me, probably not so much. Like if Electric Wizard and Acid Mothers had combined in their embryonic states.<br /><br />Finally we finish this month with what one might facetiously call Finland’s metallic answer to The Pogues, Korpiklanni whose Tervaskanto album on the Napalm label is referred to as Finnish Humppa Folk Metal. Like a lot of metal, particularly classic metal, if you can look past the obviously embarrassing aspects of the album and just appreciate it for simple-minded, beer-drinking fun, then you might be able to enjoy Korpiklanni. In Finland where the pop and metal world’s frequently collide with bands like Nightwish and Children of Scrotum I have no doubt this band is probably playing to a few thousand drunk Finns on outdoor summer festival stages. They probably go down like the Dropkick Murphys at a Red Sox game. Anthemic, folk melody driven, huge chorus, traditional drinking songs, metalized for stadium consumption. Good fun for a party or to play a joke on your way too serious metal buddies or elitist punk rockers. Recommended for fans of Blind Guardian, Isengard, Flogging Molly, etc.<br /><br />That’s about all for this month folks. Reach me at the info below, until next time – DON’T SLOW PART!<br /><br />Dave Adelson, Don’t Try, 2340 Powell Street, #117, Emeryville, CA 94608 USA, donttry@20buckspin.comDon't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-85650056183877494032007-11-05T20:21:00.000-08:002007-11-05T21:20:45.425-08:00Don't Try #3The freeway in Oakland blew up a week or so ago. Before you start having terrorist nightmares (or fantasies as the case may be), let me rephrase that. A truck carrying a bunch of gasoline managed to catch on fire and the flames were so hot that the freeway overpass above it melted and collapsed. <br /><br />Everytime I drive to work now I get to see a huge chunk of this freeway overpass that’s completely missing, just waiting for some ingrate to attempt some ridiculous stunt when no one is looking. Not that I’ve thought about it.<br /><br />The situation has caused some pretty massive gridlock and transportation problems throughout the Bay Area. I can’t really say the traffic has cause me many problems, but in a city where the traffic is already some of the worst in the country, it makes a good case for further innovation and resources in the area of public transportation, which is becoming more and more essential as our cities continue to swell. If not addressed soon, the situation in the Bay Area will become utterly dire within 5 years, no doubt.<br /><br />But my main point, as this is not a political column, is that trucks blowing up and melting freeways is pretty fucking metal, hehe he ehehehe he.<br /><br />Leading the pack in this month’s releases is the new full length from Sweden’s Watain. Titled “Sworn To The Dark’, (eerily similar to the Morbid Angel tune Sworn To The Black, - perhaps an homage?) it’s the bands third full length release and first for the Season of Mist label (Ajna in the States). With the step up to a bigger label there’s naturally been cries of sell-out coming from the underground police. And indeed, ‘Sworn To The Dark’ is easily the most polished, accessible Watain record yet.<br /><br />Watain spent time a year or so ago touring with the reformed Dissection, the band from which they clearly take their biggest influence. It seemed almost prophetic when Dissection completed the tour for their Reinkaos comback record, and shortly thereafter frontman and songwriter Jon Nodtveit committed suicide in what was clearly a ritual, and very planned, act. Dissection’s Reinkaos, while a solid return to the scene, was largely viewed as lackluster when compared to their previous two albums, both genre-defining masterpieces.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Watain has sort of picked up the slack and stepped into Dissection’s shoes, essentially filling the void. ‘Sworn To The Dark’ is a much closer approximation of what most people were probably hoping Dissection would come back with. Not as overtly melodic and technical as much Dissection material, the darker aspects of the band as well as the ability to write amazing hooks and memorable tunes are all there.<br /><br />Compared to their previous albums, ‘Casus Luciferi’ and ‘Rabid Deaths Curse’, ‘Sworn To The Dark’ is clearly tailored for the live environment in which Watain seems to now thrive. And it’s that aspect that probably has the “true” underground complaining. Bedroom black metal has become the norm and people forget that great bands write great songs for the live environment (despite what the prophet Fenriz commands). Watain have already been on the road supporting this record in Europe opening for the mighty Kreator and Celtic Frost, and by the time this column hits will have done their first stateside shows with Angelcorpse and Nachtmystium.<br /><br />The album leads with “Legions Of The Black Light” an eight minute epic that begins with a riff straight out of the Dissection handbook and by the second riff the song is a complete headbanger that will have live audiences freaking out before heading into the fist-pumping chorus. The song is a perfect opener and easily a highlight of the record. Other highlights include “The Light That Burns The Sun” and the album’s anthemic title track.<br /><br />If there were one complaint to be made about this ripper, it’s that at nearly 58 minutes, it’s a bit too long. Single LP length would have been more appropriate and helped all the material sink in, rather than particular songs.<br /><br />Nonetheless, ever since Dissection was put to sleep because of Nodtveit’s original murder arrest the scene seems to have been looking for a successor to the throne they left empty. Watain are probably as close as we’ll ever get, and they carry the torch with pride. This will probably go down as the best black metal album of 2007 (sorry Mayhem fans). Seek out the 2xLP version if you can, a killer gatefold with tons of original artwork, a huge poster and a nice, thick booklet.<br /><br />As announced in last month’s column the mighty Angelcorpse has reformed after a lengthy vacation and recorded a new record, “Of Lucifer And Lightning”. It’s great to see these heralds of the apocalypse back in action after so long, pillaging with unclean desire, and bringing the aggression back to the live environment where they achieve the height of their destructive abilities.<br /><br />“Of Lucifer & Lightning” is nine tracks of the textbook early Morbid Angel pumped through a Panzer Division style that Angelcorpse is well-known for. After the “Credo Decimatus” intro, the bands storms into “Antichrist Vanguard” with a chaotic but clearly controlled lead riff and devastating double-bass flailing from original drummer John Longstreth.<br /><br />From there on through tracks like “Hexensabbat” and “Saints Of Blasphemy” it’s a non-stop storm of steel and iron. The band still has the effect on the listener of an army plowing forward at top speed leaving nothing but scorched earth in its wake. <br /><br />“Of Lucifer And Lightning” is not the best Angelcorpse album. The songs, while chalked full of anger and aggression do not have the same catchy hooks and songcraft quality of older classics like “Sons Of Vengeance”, “Wolflust” or “Phallelujah”. The production feels murkier at times as well. For a band who hasn’t released an album of new material since 2000 or so however “Of Lucifer And Lightning” stands as a fine return to form and hopefully an indication of what’s to come from the reformed death metal masters.<br /><br />I was ecstatic to receive all the material ever recorded by Disrupt spread out over two releases, a re-release of the classic Unrest album, and a collection of everything else cleverly titled The Rest.<br /><br />The Rest is a 2xCD collection of all the splits Disrupt recorded with bands like Warcollapse, Taste of Fear and Destroy, comp tracks and an unreleased track. The second disc collects the extra raw 1988 demo, a rehearsal from 1990 and live tracks from 1992. All in all The Rest has 78 tracks of late 80s, early 90s crustgrind devastation (arguably the best time period for that style).<br /><br />Also included in the well-designed booklet are a ton of lyrics, which were a vitally important part of the Disrupt experience, espousing their clearly pro Animal Liberation viewpoint among a variety of other topics like white power and the futility of the corporate lifestyle. Lots of photos, record covers and flyers included as well.<br /><br />The Unrest reissue is identical to the original CD version music-wise which had both the Unrest LP and the Deprived 7 inch together on one disc. The album still stands up today as well as it did back in 1994. Sure bands in both the grind and crust genres have come a long way in terms of extremity and creativity since Unrest came out but these deluxe reissues prove there’s still plenty of interest in bands who helped pave the way for today’s scene.<br /><br />731 is a devastating grind four piece from Australia that features members of doom titans Whitehorse among its ranks. The CD I received is called ‘Live On PBS 106.7 FM 06.12.2006”. 7 sharp blasts in just under 13 minutes recorded live to radio. The live recording gives things that extra rawness that sometimes is lacking on modern grind recordings, which often end up sounding too clinical and clean. This is messy grind played with a nice mixture of superfast and crushing mid-paced tempos. Not sure of the availability on this CD but a couple of these tracks will appear re-recorded on their upcoming split 12 inch with California Love. Keep an ear out for these dudes. Bonus points for the excellently titled “Record Collector Dissector”. Email: grind731@hotmail.com for more info.<br /><br />With the immense popularity of both High On Fire and OM and the by now legendary status of Sleep it was only a matter of time before Asbestosdeath had their material re-released (something I’ve been wanting to do myself for years!).<br /><br />A quick history for those out of the loop, Asbestosdeath was basically an early incarnation of San Jose’s Sleep that included all three members of Sleep, Matt Pike, Chris Hakius and Al Cisneros, and also Tom Choi on guitar as well. The band had two releases, one an EP on Profane Existence and another self-released.<br /><br />The four total songs on Dejection/Unclean total about 20 minutes in length and are basically early versions of material that would later by re-recorded for Sleep’s crushing Volume I release. Clearly inspired by Melvins and of course Black Sabbath these tunes display a bit more aggression and anger, particularly in the vocal department, then Sleep later become known for. Recommended for those interested in hearing Sleep in its rawest, earliest incarnation. Released by Southern Lord who will release the next OM record (Sleep’s rhythm section).<br /><br />Crucial Blast has released the debut album by France’s Year Of No Light simply titled “Nord”. The genre is classified as “brutal shoegazer” and while I have to admit that’s an accurate description here, I also have to admit that I’m a bit biased as I cannot seem to get past my disdain for this shoegazer style of music’s invasion of the metal scene. It seems akin to emo wrapping its clutches around every facet of current rock music.<br /><br />Fans of bands like Jesu (whose wretched new album Conqueror would seem a point of reference here), Mouth of the Architect and Explosions In The Sky, of which I am not one, will probably find much to like here. Lots of drifting, epic, sentimental, shed-a-subtle-tear riffs and songs that pass the eight minute mark. The second track (the French title of which is much too long for me to attempt typing out) does bring a bit of aggression into the proceedings in the way Isis creates their ever-decreasing huge heavy parts, but those moments come too infrequently for my thrashin blood. <br /><br />Indeed many of you will find a lot to like on Nord as it’s no doubt a quality record in a very modern context, just not to my particular taste. As good as any band playing this frustrating style of “metal”. Maybe I’m too impatient, but then again I had no problem getting through Crucial Blast’s epic, brilliant Monarch 2xCD…<br /><br />For a REAL shed-a-ton-of-tears record the new album by England’s Warning called “Watching From A Distance” is essential. Holy shit is this album a downer. If some bands want to spend time gazing at their shoes, this band want to gaze into the abyss of failed relationships. I know what you’re thinking, music about failed relationships equals emo bullshit. No way, this is true classic doom in the vein of Solitude Aeternus or Candlemass with an equal dose of My Dying Bride and early Anathema style acquiescence. <br /><br />It’s a fine line to walk between truly sad music and stuff that borders on cheesy balladry, but Warning balances themselves with ease. And these guys ain’t 17 year olds singing about high school love, these are older dudes who’ve been in the long-term trenches and probably fucked it all up. A clear St. Vitus vibe mixed in there as well. Stunning. Put your razors away upon pressing play. Released by the Miskatonic Foundation label.<br /><br />A pleasant surprise came in the form of a band called A Second From The Surface with their new CD “The Streets Have Eyes” released by the This Dark Reign label. This band plays a not overly technical form of modern grind metal with fairly catchy riffs and high monotone shouted vocals, mixed with occasional lows. A song like “Fleeting Swarm” mixes in some moments of melody, but without letting up on the gas enough to make it sound wimpy. There’s enough variety here to keep things interesting through the 10 tracks, which last just under 20 minutes - the ideal length for this sort of record. Not sure if there’s a vinyl release on this, but it would seem appropriate.<br /><br />I’ve got to say thanks to everyone who has been sending in music. I want to reiterate that smaller label releases will be given the priority in this column. There’s a million magazines and writers covering Dimmu Borgir and Cannibal Corpse, etc, etc, already and not enough metal mags give enough attention to the smaller stuff. That’s what this column is supposed to be for, so I need your stuff small labels!! I realize your budget for mailouts is small, I run a small label myself and can’t afford to send out many free copies either, but you have a much better chance of getting some word space here then in the usual glossy rags, not to mention a pretty different but no less interested readership. Hell, I’m fine if you want to get me your album digitally if that’s easier, I don’t necessarily have to have a hard copy (just don’t email it to me, I need to download it from you somehow).<br /><br />Send whatever, LP, CD, Tape to Don’t Try, 2340 Powell Street, #117, Emeryville, CA 94608 USA. Email: donttry@20buckspin.com. Until next time… WE ARE A BLAZE IN THE NORTHERN SKY, THE NEXT THOUSAND YEARS ARE OURS!Don't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238355049951668896.post-67815298042487568012007-11-05T20:20:00.000-08:002007-11-05T20:21:24.368-08:00Don't Try #1Writing about metal in Maximum Rock N Roll is no longer an oxymoron. When I was growing up it was. In Concord, California everybody at my high school (at least those into underground rock) was into A.F.I. and Screw 32. Me? I liked Napalm Death, Deicide and Eyehategod.<br /><br />I remember seeing those old Bovine ads in MRR that would mention an Eyehategod EP and I’d be shocked that I liked a band who maybe wouldn’t be completely ridiculed by the punk rock fashionistas in my city. If it was in MRR it must be acceptable to punks right? Luckily I quickly stopped giving a shit what the punks thought, realizing my lack of hipster cool ultimately had little to do only with music, and just did my own thing.<br /><br />Most kids seemed to get into punk first and then way down the line, in this more metal-friendly environment we live in today, they let some metal filter into their lives. My co-worker Jesse Luscious (of Blatz, The Criminals, The Frisk fame) is a perfect example of this – he’s constantly rocking out to Manowar at the office (sorry to out you Jesse, but if not me, somebody would) which probably would have been unheard of in his earlier days.<br /><br />I on the other hand was always metal, and eventually got into punk and hardcore through metal. And metal remains my first, er, love. And that dedication and commitment to the most non-poser of musics, led me to pester Golnar and Chris that metal still needed to be represented in MRR, so all the closet metalheads out there – and I know there’s a lot of you – can get a taste.<br /><br />First up I wanted to mention some shows that I hit recently. My buddy Jason (ex Deadbodieseverywhere, Funeral Shock, Agents of Satan) and I went to see Unleashed in Oakland at a place called The Metro. Unleashed go back to the early Swedish death metal days, and singer/bassist Johnny Hedlund was in the legendary Nihilist. When he split from Nihilist, he formed Unleashed and the rest of the band changed the name to Entombed.<br /><br />After sitting through three mostly terrible bands including Belphegor (whose singer looked like Conan The Barbarian meets Conan O Brian) and Brazil’s Krisiun who played their usual uneventful set, Unleashed hit the stage to seemingly less fanfare then the openers, yet quickly stepped up as the highlight. <br /><br />A lot of new tunes were played from the latest album Midvinterblot, but also classics like “To Asgaard We Fly”, “Neverending Hate” and “Before The Creation Of Time”. In true metal frontman fashion Hedlund lead the crowd in several call and response choruses, and did so without coming off as ridiculous or forced – just fuckin’ fun. And of course toward the end of the evening he raised his horn chalice thing and drank in tribute to the dedicated warriors in the hall.<br /><br />My first roommate 10 years ago had an Unleashed shirt from their last US tour in 1992 and I was always jealous, as dumb as that may seem (afterall Unleashed has one of the best death metal logos ever). I finally achieved a lifelong goal and got me an Unleashed shirt. Good fuckin night for metal in the Bay Area.<br /><br />Toward the end of February my girlfriend Sasha and I traveled to Seattle to hang out with our friends in Wormwood whose latest record Starvation I released on my label. They played two record release shows in their adopted hometown with several locals including Grey, Oroku, I Am The Thorn and a few others. As usual Wormwood were in a class of their own, leaving some amazed and some simply confused.<br /><br />Grey plays a slow, catchy doom style that naturally brings 13 to mind due in part to the three upfront members being women. Winter, Coffins and other Celtic Frost/Hellhammer inspired bands come to mind as well. Although I believe they are labelless at this point, it won’t be long before someone releases a record by Grey.<br /><br />Oroku really surprised me with their midpaced metallic crust onslaught. I was told by a few Seattle-heads not to miss them (which is what happened last time they were in the Bay Area) and I’m glad I didn’t. This band is totally powerful. The show was a release for their record out on Inimical, and you’d being doing yourself a favor to track t his one down.<br /><br />Enough about shows, time to get to some metal releases that need to be mentioned. First up I have to bring to your attention an album that went mostly overlooked when it was released in 2006, Repugnant’s Epitome of Darkness CD.<br /><br />If you, like me, were left feeling cheated by Death Breath’s lame label/press-hyped pisstake on old school death metal then Repugnant is the perfect antidote. One of the dirtiest, filthiest, ripping death metal albums to come out of Sweden since about 1991. A perfect cross between the first Entombed LP and Sweden’s vile blackened filth-peddlers Nifelheim.<br /><br />Epitome of Darkness was released on Soulseller Records on CD and an LP and Picture LP are due to be released hopefully by the time this column hits. Absolutely essential for those into Swedish death metal circa 1988-1992. With songs like “From Beyond The Grave” and the (in my mind) hit single “Premature Burial” you simply can’t go wrong. Easily a top 10 of 2006 release.<br /><br />Next up I have to mention a couple records being released by The End Records in the United States. First the new album from Melechesh called Emissaries. Melechesh are from Israel originally but have since emigrated to Europe. A lot of people reference Nile when talking about Melechesh because of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian themes, but whereas Nile comes from a death metal background, Melechesh approaches it from a black metal foundation.<br /><br />And they actually make Nile seem ridiculous in comparison. Melechesh are far superior. Every song on Emissaries is packed full of insanely catchy yet technically masterful guitar riffs and weird Middle Eastern melodies and chants. Songs like “Rebirth Of The Nemesis” and “Deluge Of Delusional Dreams” will be stuck in your head for days. I played this record 5 times in a row when I first got it. Everyone remotely into metal should love this record. Released by Osmose Productions in Europe.<br /><br />Also being released by The End in the US and Moonfog throughout Europe is the comeback record from Norway’s Dodheimsgard. A few of you might know that Dodheimsgard originally started as a typical black metal band in the mid 90s that included Fenriz from Darkthrone in their lineup. With the release of their “Satanic Art” EP nearly 10 years ago they took a huge right turn in favor of weird experimentalism that combined their old style with the style of other bands they had been involved in like Aura Noir and Ved Buens Ende with a post-modern eccentricity. The horribly-titled 666 International LP came next and took things completely off the charts of anything anyone had really heard.<br /><br />Now 7 or so years later Dodheimsgard returns with the Supervillian Outcast album. It continues in the odd-ball yet addictive style of the last LP, but with a better flow and seemingly more consistent approach. Dodheimsgard mixes up so many styles into their sound – black metal, world music, electronic – that on paper it sounds like a total mess, yet somehow it works. I also have grown strangely fond of the demented Beach Boys meets Ved Buens Ende a cappela interludes. If you’ve got an extremely open-mind when it comes to experimentation with your metal, then give Supervillian Outcast a try.<br /><br />Although both would probably hate to be called metal, I have to mention the new Split LP from Hatred Surge and The Endless Blockade recently released on Schizophrenic Records. This is one more for the grindcore and powerviolence lovers out there. Totally raging on both sides. Hatred Surge’s one man one woman grind devastation has all the elements that make a great side, incessant blasts, killer breaks, dual vocals. The Endless Blockade is one my favorite bands lately. They do a pretty even mix of fast powerviolence and monstrously crushing doom. Both bands have more coming in 2007 and this LP has a great layout, 12x24 full color insert and comes on half black half red vinyl.<br /><br />Tyranny’s Tides Of Awakening CD on Finland’s Firedoom Music wins the title of most crushing, wrist-slicing funeral doom of 2006. 5 tracks spread over an hour of impossibly low vocal agony, super low-end yet ambient riffing and un-ridiculous synth arrangements. Makes Skepticism seem upbeat by comparison.<br /><br />Bloody Panda has their first album about to be released on the Level Plane label. The band sent me a copy last year and they’re doing a somewhat different spin on the recent slow motion doom trend. They’ve got the slow, plodding rhythms and downtuned, wall of sound guitars intact, but the vocals set them apart from the pack. Vocalist Yoshiko Ohara comes with a mix of the usual screeching and an awesome take on Jarboe style singing, making Bloody Panda come off as something like a Burning Witch meets Swans (mid-period) behemoth. Aside from the vocalist the band all wear black cloaks and hoods when they play if you go in for that sort of thing. A split album with Kayo Dot was also released recently by Holy Roar Records. The band should be touring the east coast during April.<br /><br />Nadja also does a heavy doom guitar drone style. The excellent Truth Becomes Death was released by Alien 8 a year or two ago and since then a lot of stuff has materialized, most recently Thaumogenesis on the Archive CD label. Archive is known for their great packaging and this one comes in a neat foldout cardstock with the CD stuck right onto it on a plastic hub. Musically this isn’t my favorite Nadja release. One long track of very moody My Bloody Valentine stripped down and slowed to 16 rpm. Sold out through the label but still available through various distros.<br /><br />Obscurus Advocam is the name of a new project featuring members of Glorior Belli. Their debut Verbia Daemonicus is out on Battle Kommand Records, the label run by Blake of Nachtmystium. Mid-paced black metal aggression done with reasonable skill and craft. If you’re new to the genre or need to have everything then you should enjoy this. However, if like me you’ve been listening to black metal for upwards of 15 years or more and have become more discerning in your habits, then this one probably won’t really scratch you where you itch.<br /><br />That’s about it for this first column. You can send stuff directly to me at Dave Adelson, 2340 Powell Street #117, Emeryville, CA 94608 USA. Email: donttry@20buckspin.com. Please be aware that if you send something directly to me it won’t be considered for review in the regular reviews section unless you send a copy to the regular MRR address as well.<br /><br />One final note. I have to dedicate this first column to Roky Erickson for putting on an immaculate show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and putting most so-called rock legends to shame. Until next time…Don't Tryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13598078844936979309noreply@blogger.com0