EMOTIONAL JOYSTICK Bellicose Pacific (Zod) cd 13.98

EMPEROR Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (Candlelight) cd 14.98
The most highly-anticipated black metal album of the summer. You already know that, and you want it, right? Otherwise, what can we say... Emperor is pretty much THE black metal band of the 90's, unsurpassed at what they do, despite their legions of imitators, and this disc not only meets our expections but exceeds them. Formerly on Century Black, now a Candlelight reissue with bonus tracks.
While the Century Black domestic edition included as a bonus the songs & cd-rom video from their import "Reverence" ep, this newer reissue includes the same three ep tracks plus live footage from 1997-98 and an interview on a Finnish television program.

EMPEROR Emperial Live Ceremony (Candlelight) cd 16.98
The live intensity of Norwegian black metal standard-bearers Emperor captured on disc, from a show at London's Astoria theatre (the same show featured in the video of the same name, of course). This is probably a better investment than the video version, however, 'cause let's face it, it's the music that rules, not Emperor's rather static and grimfaced stage "act." Good sound, and a great selection of songs from all three proper Emperor albums. With Charmand Grimloch (Tartaros) on keyboards and Tyr on bass, plus the Emperor core of guitarist/vocalist Ihsahn and guitarist Samoth, and drummer Trym. Includes a cd-rom track with the video to "I Am The Black Wizards" as well as Emperor screensavers! Hmm. Screensavers aren't very evil. Maybe t-shirts are a little evil, but a screensaver!? Better yet, why not an Emperor computer virus? If you get any email with the subject line "Curse You All Men!" DON'T OPEN IT!

EMPEROR In The Nightside Eclipse (Candlelight) cd 14.98
A landmark Scandinavian Black Metal album essential to any good Satanist's collection. The forward impetus of this album is incredible, as the majestic keyboards, rasping cries, and pummelling drums all sweep together like a freezing, evil wave carrying pagan Viking longboats across the North seas to attack and pillage Christian lands. Like opera music for howling wolves. A Nordic church-burning classic. Formerly on Century Black, now a Candlelight reissue with bonus tracks.

EMPEROR IX: Equilibrium (Candlelight) cd 16.98
Kneel and worship. No, seriously, they're not called Emperor for nothing. These Norwegians strike yet again with an amazing, state-of-the-art black metal masterpiece. Fans of the genre won't have read this far, they're already down here at Aquarius buying it. But the obligatory description is thus: Emperor remain just as progressive and epic as they were on their prior album, adding some amazing King Diamondesque screams (go, Ihsahn!) and a bushel of death metal brutality...making for an album that pretty much defines the word "killer".

EMPEROR Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise (Candlelight) cd 14.98
Norwegian black metal emperors Ihsahn, Samoth and Trym are back with what's billed as their latest and greatest achievement in a career of evil that's second to none. And by latest we also mean last: supposedly this is their final album, ever, sob. And so they mean to make it a statement of utter superiority -- and pretty much succeed. Certain metal scribes are already falling all over themselves to praise this album, and while we can't agree that it's necessarily the best black metal album ever, or even Emperor's best, it's certainly up there! It's an insane, impressive sensory overload of brutal drumming, rasping and screaming and operatic-choir style vocals, jazz-inflected guitar labyrinths, gothic keyboard decadence... While of course grim and violent, they've really embraced the clean, technical, almost-Prog style developed over their last few albums. Parts of this disc could almost be from an '80s prog-metal album by, say, Watchtower! But their wall-of-sound "Nightside Eclipse" roots are evident too, as their prog-technicality is sooo extreme it's mindboggling, kind of exhausting, dense with complexity as well as heaviness. Ihsahn's majestic, mathematical compositions leave much to discover on repeat listens. All hail.
RealAudio clip: "The Eruption"
RealAudio clip: "The Tongue of Fire"

EMPEROR Scattered Ashes: Decade of Emperial Wrath (Candlelight) 2cd 15.98
This is the inevitable 'greatest hits' collection from the undisputed masters of hyper-technical, super proggy, grim and frosty Norwegian black metal EMPEROR!! Disc one is heavy on the covers as almost half is culled from tributes to Darkthrone, Mercyful Fate, Mayhem, etc... and is filled out with EP tracks and a few tracks from the amazing Thorns Vs. Emperor album. Disc two is all album tracks spanning their whole career. There's nothing here unreleased. About as "rare" as it gets is an Ulver remix that was a bonus track from the limited version of IX Equilibrium. So consequently, there's not much essential here for those of you who have been loyal subjects from day one, but definitely a great introduction for the uninitiated.
Random note: The disc comes with the official Emperor merchandise catalog and holy shit! No less than 8 cds, 1 DVD, 7 posters, 20 shirts, 12 badges, 2 knit caps, 2 baseball hats, 1 jacket, 1 patch, 1 mouse pad and 1 silver pendant!! Phew.
MPEG Stream: "Curse You All Men!"
MPEG Stream: "Sworn (Ulver remix)"

EMPEROR Scattered Ashes: Decade of Emperial Wrath (Candlelight) book+cd 19.98
Believe it or not, this is a big book of sheet music and guitar tabulature devoted to the songs of Norwegian black metallers Emperor!! Includes lyrics too. Wow. You know you you've made it when someone publishes a fancy 129 page book of your tunes, so that fans can read your music as well as listen, and presumably learn to play it all, though this stuff is waaaaay beyond our resident beginning guitar student (Allan). Maybe years from now if he really really practices.
13 of Emperor's "greatest hits" are detailed here, including such favorites as "Cosmic Keys To My Creations And Times", "I Am The Black Wizards", "Thus Spake The Nightspirit", and "The Loss And Curse Of Reverence".
It's page after page of horizontal lines machine-gun 16th note repetition, more rhythm than melody. It looks like this music was printed out by a runaway computer. We've never seen sheet music that looks this dense and linear. It's just kinda cool to look at!
These songs were transcribed by Emperor guitarist Ihsahn himself, by the way, who also pens a humble introduction to this tome. Includes a cd (disc two of the greatest hits/rarities collection Scattered Ashes: Decade of Emperial Wrath, featuring all of the songs in the book).

EMPEROR MACHINE What's In The Box (DC Recordings) 12" 13.98

EMPIRE AURIGA Auriga Dying (Moribund) cd 14.98
There aren't a whole lot of grim black metal bands from Michigan. And Empire Auriga aren't gonna do anything really to change that. They are grim, and black metal maybe, in their own way, but they're also industrial, gothy, a little new wavey, a bit shoegazey, even pretty poppy. In fact they're almost definitely more of all of those than they are 'grim black metal'. Yet they're on Moribund, and they are being touted as a sort of avant black metal outfit. We do see the appeal, black metallers have been expanding their horizons lately, opening up to bands like Brown Jenkins, Wrath Of The Week, Have A Nice Life, Nadja, and there have been groups like Blut Aus Nord and Spektr, distinctly black metal, but who have transformed their sound into something much more industrial and avant. 
So thus we have Empire Auriga, a duo from Michigan, Lansing to be exact, one guy on "communications", the other on "transmissions", and on repeated listens, we're gonna have to go out on a limb and say this isn't actually black metal at all, at least not in the traditional sense. The opener is all marital drumming, militaristic snares, over a nearly static sheet of slow shifting distorted buzz, some mournful horns (?) or at least a keyboard melody that sounds like horns, it ends up sounding like a metallic version of some medieval music, the vocals are a drawled sort of croon, more Joy Division than Darkthrone. And while it may not be black metal, it's still eminently cool. The next track is a lugubrious doomic trudge, super processed percussive pound, lots of drone and buzz, howled vocals buried in the mix, all very machinelike and lumbering, almost like a more washed out drone-y Godflesh. Later tracks get super industrial, the drums a mechanical pound, the vocals a demonic croak, again the melody distinctly medieval, almost like blackened Renn Faire music, others are just long stretches of staticky noise, buried radio transmissions, bursts of jagged interference, a weird sort of crumbling caustic drone, while still others are deep drifting stretches of creepy black ambience, rife with found sounds and disembodied voices. Only one track can really be called black metal, and even that one is pretty far out. The main riff is not so much a riff as a long drawn out buzz, the vocals are a strangled guttural growl, over the top a haunting Burzum like keyboard melody, but the cool thing about it, and exactly what makes it so not black metal, is the lack of propulsion, it's more like some fucked up buzz drenched ambient Whitehouse, really cool and creepy and grim, but only marginally black metal. 
All this talk about whether Empire Auriga is black metal or not, but to be fair, we could really care less, it's just the fact that they seem to get lumped in with other black metal bands, even though the connection is tenuous at best. But fuck it, we love black metal and we dig this big time. You won't necessarily love this if -all- you listen to is metal, but if you're into weird metallic noise, or dark rhythmic weirdness, or abstract blackness, or any sort of abstract arty heaviness, this is definitely all of that and more.
MPEG Stream: "Sorrowsong"
MPEG Stream: "Dreaming Of Breath And Stars"
MPEG Stream: "The Lurker"

EMPIRE OF HATE / MORTHOND split (Heidros Hart) cassette 4.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another killer tape of weird black metal buzz. This time it's Australia's Empire Of Hate and US black metal horde Morthond (not to be confused with the Cold Meat Industry Morthond).
Empire Of Hate whip up a black storm of relentlessly buzzing guitars, stumbling blasting drums, and some truly tortured vocals. Harsh glass gargling howls that dip into death metal gargles as well as the occasional hysterical shriek. The production is perfectly murky, a depressive suffocating crush, perfectly suited to the hellish buzz and inhuman howls.
Morthond counter with their own brutal black burst, channelling the raw trancelike sound of early Burzum and classic Darkthrone. Some mournful keyboards and whispering winter winds lead us into their wintry world. Mournful melodies give way to murky black buzz, galloping drums, everything drenched in reverb, a furious classic blast of vintage Norwegian style blackness. So good.
Awesome high school binder cover art, with a scary tree and a rabid dog or wolf and a dead body that kind of looks looks like a magic marker version of Munch's The Scream...

EMPIRE, ALEC Futurist (DHR) cd 15.98
Oh, how we still love Alec Empire. We just can't help it. We loved (and heck, still love) DHR so much. Atari Teenage Riot, Shizuo, Fever, EC8OR, Patric Catani, Bomb 20, for a while we were downright obsessed with all that stuff. Like all things new and exciting though, Empire and his crew sort of lost their relevance, their silly sloganeering, rehashed metal riffs, pummelling drum beats and screecheed vocals became more tired and boring than thrilling. Some stuff Like Empire's Destoyer stood the test of time a little better, but as music got more extreme, that whole DHR thing just didn't seem so badass. So the return of Alec Empire, could've been a sad rehash, but guess what, he's managed to knock us for a loop again. Your fist hint is Empire on the sleeve toting a guitar case, but Futurist is all ROCK. And heavy too. A super aggressive pounding metallic garage punk stomp. At times it sounds a but like Ministry or what we WISH Nine Inch Nails sounded like, which is hard to avoid when you're talking pounding beats and metal guitars, but it also sounds like the Hives or the Refused, super charged and slightly DHR-ed (some of the drum fills become that instantly recognizable DHR digital drill) A few tracks do slow down into chugging punk rock dirges and sound like some fucked up take on Fear or Fang or Flipper. But for the most part this is wild and sweaty, kick ass metallic garage stomp future rock. And we LOVE it.
MPEG Stream: "Kiss Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Night Of Violence"
MPEG Stream: "Gotta Get Out"

EMPIRE, ALEC Geist of Alec Empire (Geist Ltd.) dbl. cd 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Marking the end of his dealings with Mille Plateaux, Geist collects the best tracks from those albums, compilation appearances, and unreleased tracks. No digital hardcore...rather electronica, odd hip hop and musique concrete.

EMPIRE, ALEC Hypermodern Jazz 2000.5 (Mille Plateaux) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another in the continuing onslaught of Alec Empire output, this one foregoes the brutality of Digital Hardcore for a more "loungey" techno sound, as it says on the cover: "file under Easy Listening & Space Jazz." Fun stuff.

EMPIRE, ALEC Intelligence And Sacrifice (DHR) 2cd 22.00
With the demise of Atari Teenage Riot due to Carl Crack's untimely death, Digital Hardcore's mainman Alec Empire continues to preach / sing / scream to the hordes of disaffected electro-punk youth. On the first disc of this set, Empire's tactics remain consistent with the ATR output, as heavy duty punk explosions signified by the relentless samples of gated, grindcore riffs are punctuated by huge 909 throbbing drum kicks and stabs of searing white noise. Not surprisingly, "Intelligence And Sacrifice" finds Empire aligning himself more with the industrial / metal crossovers of Ministry and the guitar crunch attacks from the mid-'90s Wax Trax! clones. The second disc lands more in a disjointed acid breakbeat / micro-glitch realm, that is as good as anything Mille Plateaux / Ritornell has been releasing during the past few months. Quite effective, but neither of the two aesthetic sides of Alec Empire can be purported as entirely groundbreaking.
RealAudio clip: "Everything Starts With A Fuck"
RealAudio clip: "Intelligence And Sacrifice"
RealAudio clip: "Vault Things Of The Night"
RealAudio clip: "Silence And Burning Ice"

EMPIRE, ALEC Les Etoiles des Filles Mortes (Mille Plateaux) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Unlike the adolescent brutality of this chameleon-like producer's digital hardcore, this is influenced by musique concrete, Stockhausen and Schaeffer. Cluster fans should dig this. No beats.

EMPIRE, ALEC Les Etoiles des Filles Mortes (Mille Plateaux) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Unlike the adolescent brutality of this chameleon-like producer's digital hardcore, this is influenced by musique concrete, Stockhausen and Schaeffer. Cluster fans should dig this. No beats.

EMPIRE, ALEC Miss Black America (DHR Limited) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
'You'd be hard pressed to find something this caustic from another eye-liner-wearing global citizen' preaches the gospel of Hrvatski. This Digital Hardcore Limited release (of 1500 copies!!!) is more of a reflection of the scope of Empire's work from the trebly lo-fi Amen drum & bass crash to trebly lo-fi polyrhythms which sound like Terry Riley on a crappy tapedeck to trebly lo-fi cacophonous collages from the crowd noise during a riot following a Black Sabbath show. Mostly recorded during the sessions for Atari Teenage Riot's '60 Second Wipe Out' while Alec was waiting for the rest of the band to show up...

EMPIRE, ALEC Miss Black America (DHR Limited) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
'You'd be hard pressed to find something this caustic from another eye-liner-wearing global citizen' preaches the gospel of Hrvatski. This Digital Hardcore Limited release (of 1500 copies!!!) is more of a reflection of the scope of Empire's work from the trebly lo-fi Amen drum & bass crash to trebly lo-fi polyrhythms which sound like Terry Riley on a crappy tapedeck to trebly lo-fi cacophonous collages from the crowd noise during a riot following a Black Sabbath show. Mostly recorded during the sessions for Atari Teenage Riot's '60 Second Wipe Out' while Alec was waiting for the rest of the band to show up...

EMPIRE, ALEC Plays Staubgold: Rauschgold (Staubgold) cd 14.98

EMPIRE, ALEC Squeeze The Trigger (DHR) cd 21.00
Sundries previously released on 12" 1994-1996. Killer digital hardcore rap techno.

EMPIRE, ALEC Squeeze The Trigger (DHR) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sundries previously released on 12" 1994-1996. Killer digital hardcore rap techno.

EMPIRE, ALEC The Destroyer (DHR) cd 12.98
The domestic issue of the bruitist drum & bass / Rotterdam fusion that opened the floodgates for future Digital Hardcore albums by Atari Teenage Riot, Shizuo, and the rest of the gang. Two new tracks added to this US version.

EMPIRE, ALEC The Destroyer (DHR) lp 11.98
The domestic issue of the bruitist drum & bass / Rotterdam fusion that opened the floodgates for future Digital Hardcore albums by Atari Teenage Riot, Shizuo, and the rest of the gang. Two new tracks added to this US version.

EMPIRE, ALEC The Destroyer (Digital Hardcore/Grand Royal) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of 4 singles from Digital Hardcore Recordings, Germany's nastiest, most extreme hardcore techno label, issued here in tasty uninitiated-friendly 7" format by the Beastie's Grand Royal label. A cheap way to learn all about what the hell is going on.

EMPIRE, ALEC The Golden Foretaste of Heaven (Eat Your Heart Out) cd 14.98
Most people probably remember Alec Empire best as the head of Digital Hardcore Recordings, or as the front man of Atari Teenage Riot, or for his various solo records, but here at aQ he's probably best know for the LOUDEST instore ever. It was pretty insane, not sure how we even got away with it. Folks were coming down from stores 4 or 5 doors down to see what the heck was going on. There was as big a crowd of lookie-loos as there was people to see the show. He was DJing with Merzbow albums or something.
But it's been years, and Empire has gone through a bit of a transformation since then, he's not so much into the super distorted jungle anymore, his more recent records have been more industrial, sounding like Nine Inch Nails or Ministry, but actually good. We dug his last, The Futurist, a slab of metal riffs and drum machine beats, of howled vocals and stomping garage rock. A weird mix, but one that definitely suited him. But this most recent disc is different all over again. First there's the glamour shot in the booklet, all bleached bangs and aviator shades, and the legend underneath the disc that says "This is an indie rock noise record...", and it is, sort of. But we'd also say it's a sort of industrial synth pop new wave record, borrowing HEAVILY from prime era Gary Numan, and a little from Suicide too. It may be derivative, but it's still awesome. The opener is worth the price of admission alone. A killer hook, total new wave goth-industrial dream pop, equal parts Interpol and Gary Numan (the synth line is criminally Numan), the vocals a bit robotic, a weird atonal bridge, but the whole song so fierce and catchy, and the sort of thing that would destroy a dancefloor filled with silver booted, multi-scarved glam pirates for sure.
There is some weird shit here too, robotic proto-funk, angular electro, murky ballads, groovy garagey buzz, it's all good, we're also reminded of the Mark E. Smith + Mouse On Mars project Von Sudenfed at times too. But the best parts are definitely rife with thick fuzzy synths, and killer beats, all wound up into groovy late night, strobe lit, stilleto heeled, funky, sexy blasts of buzzing new wave. Way cool.
MPEG Stream: "New Man"
MPEG Stream: "If You Live Or Die"
MPEG Stream: "Ice (As If She Could Steal a Piece of My Glamour)"

EMPIRE, ALEC & EL P Shards of Pol-Pottery (DHR) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hmm. Worst title ever? Digital Hardcore maven and Company Flow guy team up.

EMPIRE, ALEC VS MERZBOW Live CBGB's NYC 1998 (DHR) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A clash of the titans like this undoubtedly has noise freaks everywhere salivating like crazy. It sure as heck did back in 1998, when as part of CMJ, it was one of a handful of must see shows. By some weird set of circumstances, I (Andee) actually got to witness said clash, and it was something else. Something else in this case being a noisy, ear drum destroying mess. It was definitely a blast (literally). Easily the loudest show I have ever been to. So much so that we had to leave early. This set of supersonic skree translates a lot better on record than we expected it would. Live it was a minimal set up, Masami Akita hunched over his equipment, Alec Empire behind his sampler, occasionally shouting over the din. Sonically it's much as you might imagine. BIG digital hardcore beats pelted by jagged shards of white hot noise. Occasionally everything clicks and it sounds like the best DHR record that never was, and occasionally it just sounds like you're standing in the hallway of a practice studio listening to Empire and Merzbow doing their own thing, oblivious of each other. Either way, this is a beautifully furious, crushingly caustic set of big beat noise that should hit the spot for those who dig that sort of thing.
MPEG Stream: "The Destroyer And Merzbow"
MPEG Stream: "The Full Destroyer / Merzbow Meltdown"
MPEG Stream: "The White Man Destroys His Own Race"

EMPRESS s/t (Geographic) cd 17.98
Completely stunning, delicate and crystalline, slow motion dream rock. A bit like Movietone in mood, but Empress replace the murk, with a glowing diffused warmth and clarity, the musical equivalent of those little glowing orbs on the lens of a camera when it's pointed at the sun. Super nice. Definitely for fans of Low, Movietone, and the like. On the Pastels' Geographic label.

EMPRESS The Sounds They Made (Pehr) cd 13.98
Such a lullaby of an album! Ultra barebones... this British duo often craft their songs of just the same two or three notes plucked over and over ever so gently on a guitar while the sweetest, softest female vocals whisper-sing dreamily and a hushed organ-y drone drifts in and out. Lovely, fragile and haunting.
MPEG Stream: "The Summer December Starts"
MPEG Stream: "Vodka And The Verlaines"

EMPTY MIRROR Extricate / Misnomer (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
Empty Mirror is New Zealanders Ben Spiers and Karl Willis, utilising a strange array of soundmaking devices including acoustic guitar, violin, baby monitor, radio, reed organ, turntables, saucepan lids, dictaphone and more. In 'Extricate' (tracks 1-6) a haunting piano sets a somber mood while turntables sputter and spit out sonic fragments as a warm buzz threatens to envelop the whole sound. The sound palette soon expands to include radio static, industrial clang, arrythmic scrapes and skronks as well as almost-melodies. 'Misnomer' is less somber, more free and unstructured. Sporadic guitar strum, looped voices and far away organ almost coalesce into actual songs, but dissipate into free rock scatter before it can happen.
RealAudio clip: "Attraction"

EMPTY ROOMS Lacuna (self-released) cd 5.98

EMPTY ROOMS s/t (self-released) cd 4.98
New SF band Empty Rooms made quite an impressive first impression when we pressed play on this, their self-titled debut five-song EP. The band oozes with composure as they unfurl their solemnly brooding, verging on goth style of rock. They'll undoubtably draw plenty comparisons to the moody likes of Interpol and their forefathers Joy Division and Bauhaus. One song that particularly stands out is the second to last, "Form Has Two Faces" features additional female vocals from Carly Schneider which offer an effective counterpart to lead singer Andy Beyers' deep dour delivery. Hopefully she'll surface again (and more frequently) on their next release. Another highlight is the final song "Black Sugar", a super catchy smoldering pop song.
MPEG Stream: "Form Has Two Faces"
MPEG Stream: "Black Sugar"

EMPYRIUM Where At Night The Wood Grouse Plays (Prophecy) cd 14.98
All-acoustic, gloomy folk music from this German "black metal" band, who have abandoned the raspy vocals and distorted electric buzzsaw guitars of their previous releases (we're guessing, haven't heard 'em) for mournful string strum and doleful chant. Allan thinks this is beautiful, Andee considers it 'renaissance faire metal' without the metal. For fans of "Kveldsjanger", the acoustic masterpiece by Norwegian black metal eccentrics Ulver (I'm guessing that Empyrium are). And, c'mon, how can you resist a song (and album) title like "Where At Night The Wood Grouse Plays"??

EMTIDI Saat (Lion Productions) cd 14.98
Lion Productions' extremely welcome krautrock reissue campaign continues! This reish is another from one of scenemaker Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's labels, Pilz (after one by Guru Guru originally on his OHR label and Sergius Golowin's album on Kosmic Kuriere), and is appropriately trippy. Indeed, it's a minor masterpiece of cosmic-folk that no less an authority than Dag Erik Asbjornsen's encyclopedic krautrock tome Cosmic Dreams At Play calls "absolutely essential".
Emtidi were a hippy duo, Maik Hirschfeldt from Germany and Dolly Holmes from Canada, supposedly brought together by their participation in the Berlin production of Hair (not the first time we've heard such a story about artists from that era!). Emtidi made just two albums in their brief career, a self-titled, not-so-cosmic acoustic folk debut in 1971 (which has also recently been reissued by the way) and then THIS one.
1972's Saat is so special in part because they labored over it in the studio with well-known producer Dieter Dierks, creating a multi-tracked, synth-floating, electronically treated environment to support Dolly's airy and delicate vocals. Her sweet singing reminds us of UK folksters like Sallyangie and Pentangle, while the spaced out music is far freakier (generally placid, but including some acid rock guitar eruptions).
Maik plays vibraphone, synthesizer, bass, flute, guitar, percussion, and also contributes rougher, accented vocals, dueting with Dolly on several of the tracks, taking lead himself on the German-language closer "Die Reise". Dolly, as well as singing so beautifully, plays keyboards, Mellotron, organ and piano. And Dierks also performs on several instruments as well, including more Mellotron.
The album's centerpiece is the blissed out shimmer of the nearly 12 minute "Touch The Sun" but the cosmic journey actually begins with a walk in the park, on opening track "Walkin' In The Park". The combination of mellow, effected guitars/keys and the gentle vocals of Dolly (joined by Maik partway along) belies the stoned humor of the lyrics, something to the effect of: "There's a sign here... keep off... don't sit on the grass, it's too cold for your ass"! Though they do sound quite earnest about it.
As with all Lion reissues, this one boasts a thick cd booklet, with original album graphics, extensive liner notes, and a discography of the Pilz label.
MPEG Stream: "Walkin' In The Park"
MPEG Stream: "Touch The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Saat"

EMUUL ...On The Origins Of Motion (Monorail Trespassing) cassette 6.98
Yet another great tape from the Los Angeles imprint Monorail Trespassing; and as with many of the MT releases of late, the noise has been reduced in favor of narcotizing tone-float. Emuul is the nom de plume of Seattle's Kyle Iman, operating in the friendlier confines of ambient composition which enjoys the company of Celer, Stars of the Lid, and of course the man Brian Eno. On The Origins Of Motion sets forth a series of warm, enveloping driftscapes upon which slight melodic phrases, night-time / deep-thought droning, and shoegazingly distorted guitars demarcate the ambient soundscapes. Pure lulling music is to be found within this fine 28 minute cassette, which is the first that we've encountered from Emuul, even though he's released some cassettes via Digitalis, Stunned, and Blackest Rainbow. Limited to 100 copies.

ENABLERS Output Negative Space (Neurot) cd 14.98

ENABLERS The Achievement (Awesome Vistas) 12" 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This limited one-sided collaboration between artist Chris Johanson and local SF literary punks The Enablers is the second release on Johanson's record label, Awesome Vistas. Starting as a request to write a song that he could illustrate, Johanson and The Enablers instead came up with a more open idea for a piece where both parties would riff off of each other's work as it happened. Reading the lyric sheet for "The Achievement", the colorfully damaged South of Market characters seem directly inspired by Johanson's drawings of San Francisco streets, while the cover art by Johanson is more bruised, urgent and damaged, with all the process of mistakes and ideas vibrantly displayed Fitting right in line with the Enablers distorted amp squalls and Slint like sludge.

ENBILULUGUGAL Noizemongers For Goatserpent (Rusty Axe) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The guys in Enbilulugugal have been sending us cd-r's for a while now. Each one a perfectly putrid blackened slab of black metal drenched in full on NOIZE. Buzzing and snarling and speaker-melting white noise brutality that ended up falling way more on the noise side of things, with riffs subsumed by huge washes of scalding electronic fuzz, and any semblance of songcraft, dropped kicking and screaming into the fiery pit. On this latest cd-r, their first 'official' release, Enbilulugugal have finally harnassed their two sides, the confrontational head smashing noise side, and their troo, grim, cult BM side, and have somehow managed to put it all together into a crushing face-melting blast of ultragrim blacknoize, equal parts brutal lo-fi black metal, Whitehouse style pummel, and Faxed Head fuckedupness. Killer riffs collide with bizarre tape drop outs, howling demonic vox come screaming from dense clouds of Merzbow worthy analog skree, blastbeats become so distorted they sound like your speakers are malfunctioning. On top of all that they heap plenty of forest sounds (wind, owls, etc... ), demonic laughter, blooping bleeping damaged electronics, fucked up effects, and about a hundred extra layers of grime and girt and fuzz. Imagine Darkthrone circa Transylvanian Hunger, with Merzbow on lead guitar, Masonna on drums, and a steam locomotive on bass, remixed by Alec Empire, and you wouldn't even be close!
MPEG Stream: "Return To Hellrokken Goatsex"
MPEG Stream: "Nunsucking Necrophiles"
MPEG Stream: "Goatoplasm"
MPEG Stream: "Raped By Mammoth"

ENBILULUGUGAL VS. BLOOD CULT s/t (Rusty Axe) cd 8.98
Oh man, have we been waiting for this. Been ages since we heard from the mighty Enbilulugugal, and who better to share a split with those blacknoize freaks, than redneck black metallers Blood Cult?
So yeah, Blood Cult first, who we've raved about in the past, from Illinois, with a singer who moonlights as a country singer, who are seriously twisted and whose sound is like classic Scandinavian black metal, run through the raw primitive scum of Von, and then peppered with all sorts of weirdness, samples, clean guitars, catchy melodies, strange falsetto vocals, and whatever weird shit they can cram into a song.
Their half of the split starts off with some strange movie samples, than then explodes into what sounds like some furious grindcore before the band inject some strange spidery post rocky guitars, some haunting childlike vocals, and then more samples. But then the next track drops and it's as serious as all get out, dark and buzzy, with an incredible main hook, the riff churning, the drums blasting, but it's Blood Cult, so there's some weird twangy breakdown in the middle, that sounds a bit like the Butthole Surfers! The track after that is all strange keyboards and tribal drumming, mysterious vocals, the sound almost new wave, and a bit surfy. Later on they totally steal a Fleetwood Mac riff and blacken it all up. What the fuck? These guys are so amazing. Anyone who slept on We Who Walk Behind The Rows, the last BC full length needs to get into these guys. So fucked up and bizarre and heavy and genius. In fact, what the heck, we'll relist that record so check elsewhere on this list and if you don't own it already, do the right thing! You won't regret it.
But Blood Cult are only fucked up and demented sounding when they're NOT up against Enbilulugugal, who are indeed, one of the most freaky and damaged sounding black metal bands EVER. Think Faxed Head if they were black metal, and you might be getting close. Most of what they do is only barely black metal, instead it's like noise, and Butthole Surfers, and fucked up punk rock, and blacknoize, and D-beat and grindcore all tangled up into one seriously confusional chunk of blackened noise drenched whatthefuck.
Guitars buzz maniacally, shrieking hysterical vocals draped over everything, tons of sample and film clips, wild chaotic drumming, their sound slipping from punkish ultra raw pound to, chunky eighties style metal, to freaked out grind, to total damaged noise. Lo-fi, and accidentally experimental, the vocals totally remind us of Dr. Rockzo, the rock and roll clown from Metalocalypse, which is a VERY good thing. We always talk about how we're constantly on the search for the most retarded, fucked up, demented and bizarre black metal, but bands like Enbilulugugal (are there bands like Enbilulugugal) pretty much ruin the curve.
As always awesome high school rock binder, seventies van black metal cover art, and as always, we say YOU NEED THIS.
MPEG Stream: ENBILULUGUGAL "The Violent Shriekks Of TuKu"
MPEG Stream: ENBILULUGUGAL "Abhorre The Living"
MPEG Stream: BLOOD CULT "Goat Riders In The Sky"
MPEG Stream: BLOOD CULT "Kill, Kill, Kill"

ENCOMIAST Bathed In Sunlight (Crucial Bliss) cd-r 8.98
What to say about this guy that we haven't already. A long time aQ fave, every one of his records an absolute drone bliss gem. That's really the most difficult part of this job a lot of the time. First time out, a band's debut, it's easy to gush and get all poetic describing a band's sound, even with the second record, we're usually able to come at it from a different angle, to further describe the sound in a way that conveys what we're hearing through words. But after that, it gets a little rough, especially with a band whose sound remains fairly consistent. On the one hand, we could just say, "it's awesome, buy it", and that's all folks will really need if they're already a fan, but with every release, there are always a few more folks who are discovering a band for the first time, and their discovery is as valid as that of the folks who got the first super limited long out of print cd years back. And thankfully, most of the bands worth listening to record after record, do in fact alter their sound a bit, growing, progressing, exploring, Encomiast are no different.
Thus we have the latest from one man dronescaper Encomiast, on Crucial Bliss, the, uh, blissier sublabel of the more heavy oriented Crucial BlastŠ
From the first few notes, we're transported to some swirling sonic nether region, where everything is slightly out of focus, blurred around the edges, lit from within, sun dappled and misted with glistening dew, warm whirling washes of sound drift weightless, voices are pulled apart into their constituent parts and allowed to float freely through the ether, swirling and realigning themselves into dreamlike melodies, in fact the overall sound of Encomiast is so very dreamlike. Fans of Kompakt's Pop Ambient sound will probably wonder why they haven't heard this guy on one of those comps. The sound is appropriately breathy and blissy, soothing and serene, the opening track is the perfect soundtrack for somnolent drift. The second track is another bit of low end shimmer, but introduces some Eastern sounding percussion, tablas maybe, but very minimal and spare, spread out over a creeping doom chord progression, laced with swirling steel string guitar, gorgeously moody and dramatic.
The next track too, offers up minimal percussion, and some minor key steel string guitar, which instead of sprawling into some sort of moody ambience, takes the shape of some super abstract folk, lilting vocals way down in the mix, the melody sorrowful and melancholy, there's even some fluttering flute. The second to last track returns to more familiar Encomiast ground, a billowing dronescape of metallic shimmer, a sea of softly reverberating gongs, cymbals, and other chimes and bells, smoother out into long drawn out tones, and woven into what sounds like soft voices and whirring organs. Quite lovely.
The biggest surprise is probably the closing track, which begins with soft strummed acoustic guitar, crooned vocals, what sounds like strings in the background, until about the last two minutes, when the drums kick in, some distorted guitars swoop in, and the track is transformed into a slightly metallic soaring shoegazey coda before drifting off again in a fading cloud of processed cymbals and tribal percussion.
Gorgeously packaged like all Crucial Bliss releases, a full color two panel sleeve, the front panel folded over like an obi, revealing the full color, hand sewn sleeve inside, as well as a full color two sided insert with liner notes. And as always, EXTREMELY LIMITED.
MPEG Stream: "Pumpkin"
MPEG Stream: "If The Night Commands It"

ENCOMIAST Espera (H/S Recordings) cd 9.98
Back in stock! One of our favorite modern masters of the blissed out drone-y drift... Here's our review from before:
Another gorgeous collection of thick glistening drones from the man known as Encomiast. Whereas his Havens record that we listed a few months back was a more varied affair, dabbling in grinding industrial soundscapes, fuzzy ambient flutter and everything in between, Espera finds him in a more minimal, seemingly more subdued musical mood.
The tracks are still varied, but they are much more static, these are deep dark drones, the variations are subtle, each track is a slow shifting glacial sonic expanse, layered and dense, most of the tracks drift long darkly, all ominous low end, with some barely there streaks of upper register harmonics, a bit like an even more minimal SUNNO))) at times, but just as often referencing Chalk and Coleclough, even Organum, massive and thick, each stretch of sound a nearly static dirge. Gloriously bleak and dreamily dark and dreary. Essential listening for the drone obsessed for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Annel"
MPEG Stream: "Mechyn"
MPEG Stream: "Arthroscope"

ENCOMIAST Havens (Crucial Bliss) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Crucial Blast has supplied us with plenty of head melting, ear shredding pummel over the last few years, Skullflower, Genghis Tron, The Mass, the Goslings, but they have a soft side as well, not really 'soft' exactly, but a little bit more, well, blissful. Thus we have Crucial Bliss, a sublabel dedicated to more blissed out drones and dense dark ambience.
We had never heard Encomiast before, but this release most definitely has us kicking ourselves.
Beginning with some drifting flute passages, these forest flutters are soon consumed by a thick churning wall of white noise, before everything suddenly blissed out into a dense drone, rife with deep reverberations, and grinding industrial ambience. Where as most drone records fine a sound, and just let it drift on and on and on, the tracks on Havens never stop shifting, sounds morph into other sounds, murkiness becomes crystal clear, before slipping into lo-fi hiss again, metallic sounds soften, dreamy fluffy smears harden and become spikey and dangerous. It's always dreamy and droney and moody and gorgeous, but each track is so dense with subtle shadings and is an exhaustive journey through an endlessly shifting soundworld. Equal parts Andrew Chalk, Troum, My Bloody Valentine, Jonathan Coleclough and Wolf Eyes, the duo of Ross Hagen and Megan Garland weave programmed rhythms, field recordings, guitars, flute and vocals into completely immersive and endlessly fascinating soundscapes. Delicate and beautiful, but at the same time harsh and threatening.
Definitely one of our new favorite 'drone' records. Absolutely recommended.
SUPER LIMITED. Since we only just discovered this disc, it's close to being sold out at the label, we did get a whole bunch but we'd bet they won't be around for long.
Packaged in oversized, hand sewn full color sleeves with a cool fold over sort-of-obi. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Lunaire"
MPEG Stream: "Jasli"

ENCOMIAST s/t (Lens) cd-r 7.98
Yet another disc from one of our favorite cd-r dronelords, Encomiast. Last heard from on the divine Bathed In Sunlight released on Crucial Bliss earlier this year, this disc is actually an archival recording from way back in 1999, gussied up in 2006, finally seeing the light of day right now.
Bathed In Sunlight was a big surprise as It featured more actual songs, with singing, acoustic guitars, even drums, we still dug it, but definitely nothing like the rest of the Encomiast catalog. This disc however returns us to the brooding slow motion dronescapes that made us dig Encomiast in the first place. Unclear what exactly the instrumentation is, but whatever the source, it's obscured enough that it really doesn't matter. The original sounds are offered up in streaks and blurs, whirs and rumbles, melody here is muted and subdued, this is not nearly as tranquil as some drone records, much of this is harrowing and ominous, sinister and downright scary, Lustmord, Wolf Eyes, you're not far off, some sort of post industrial sprawl, the rumble of distant machines, of subterranean engines, thunder filled skies, a world in ruins, painted in blacks and greys.
Later on in the record, strange percussion is introduced, a lurching distorted crunch, that gives the record some sort of strange propulsion, once again, trudging through an eerie wasteland, while all around strange sonic events occur, shining brightly and briefly before fading away.
"Concupere" is the record's nearly half hour centerpiece, an ultra minimal low end drift, shifting slowly beneath warm metallic swells, and haunting black ambience, eventually the track morphs into something much softer and dreamier, sounding almost angelic up against the bleak sonic sprawl that came before.
Incredibly dark, but also incredibly beautiful. Fans of the slow and low, of deep drones and of dark miserablism, this is your stop.
MPEG Stream: "Suborbit"
MPEG Stream: "Azazel"

ENCOMIAST Transit Bed (Gears Of Sand) cd-r 11.98
The problem with cd-r's, especially super limited editions, is that folks who are late to the party, usually through no fault of their own, end up missing out on so much amazing music. The other problem is that there really is no good reason for cd-r's to be limited, or to EVER go out of print. Because you can always make more! That was supposedly the whole draw of the cd-r, no need to press up 1000 or 2000 copies that may end up sitting forever in boxes in your house. Just make the discs as people order them. Sure, that doesn't play into the limited edition collector frenzy, and discs maybe seem more special if there are only 100 copies made. And sure we can understand wanting to move on and work on other projects, but as far as we're concerned, that shouldn't keep you from making more copies for folks who are dying to hear your music. After all, that's part of why we make music, for other people to hear, and enjoy. 
Anyway, the whole point of all this is, we've reviewed three different titles by Encomiast, all of them amazing, and unfortunately all of them no longer available. So now we've finally got a brand new disc, also a limited cd-r, that's just as gorgeous as any of those other now unavailable titles, we got a bunch but we have no idea how long they'll last, so if you're an Encomiast fan already you'll definitely want to grab one of these pronto, and if you've yet to experience the dark drifting beauty of Encomiast, well, then now here's your chance. And as the saying goes, you snooze, you lose...
Transit Bed is a glistening wide open expanse of interwoven low tones, spacious epic ambience, peppered with super reverbed percussion, and warm resonant swells. Besides the usual mysterious sounds, there are samples of a live performance, bits of flute and prepared piano, but those too are smeared into fuzzy indistinct shapes, left to float and flutter dreamlike amidst all manner of rumbles and whirs. Dark and dense, warm and so gorgeous. Highly highly recommended. And as always, it's highly recommended that you grab one of these sooner rather than later...
MPEG Stream: "Rains Pass By"
MPEG Stream: "Not The Time To Be Inarticulate"

ENCOMIAST Winter's End (Lens Records) cd 9.98
Finally managed to get more of these back in!!
Ever since we first listed Havens, a cd-r by one man free-noise/drone outfit Encomiast, folks around here just haven't been able to get enough. So we tracked down another older release, Espera, which flew out of here just as quick (we're not sure that one is still available or not btw), so we grabbed a handful of another old title, Winter's End....
So what is it exactly about Encomiast that has people all in a tizzy? A delirious blend of dark dreamy blackened drones and shimmering cinematic ambience, both deftly woven into long expanses of glacial, oceanic dreaminess. It's a crowded field for sure, anyone with a computer and a cd burner seems to have a label, or at least a drone record our, but there are a select few who are masters at sculpting sound, at creating music with depth and emotion. It's not as simple as notes sustained for the length of a disc. It's all about layer and texture and composition.
Winter's End, more than maybe anything else we've heard from Encomiast, is incredibly evocative and cinematic, in fact listening to this, it's hard not to imagine what images should be accompanying these sounds. From drifting fog banks of bleary fuzz and minimal shimmer, to haunting, string-like smears of minor key melody, rife with ominous longing and sublimated terror, to spacious expanses of murky thrum, hovering around drifting mysterious female vocals. From grinding buzz drenched blurs to abstract modern classical, this is music so visual and visceral, it's hard to just classify as 'drone music'. And it's equally hard not to think in terms of cinematic sound. This is the music of some mysterious journey, a lost kingdom, a tragic loss, impossible loves, restless spirits, an abandoned village, it's pretty remarkable that a single disc can invoke all of these thoughts and images, but Winter's End does. Definitely a new favorite...
MPEG Stream: "Io"
MPEG Stream: "Embrace:Betrayal"
MPEG Stream: "Without Fear Of Wind Or Vertigo"

ENCOMIAST / THE COPPER THIEVES 139 Nevada : Masked Mirror / Slam Your Doors In Golden Silence (Lens) 2cd-r 15.98
Latest from Encomiast, a long time aQ fave, whose expansive mysterious dark drones have never failed to blow us away, but this is not just a new album, it's a sprawling double disc concept record split between two separate groups, and recorded in one of the most haunted buildings in Colorado. The story behind this record revolves around the Belvedere Theater in Central City, Colorado, a group of musicians repeatedly visited with the idea of capturing EVP (aka electromagnetic voice phenomena), where else but an extremely haunted old theater would one be able to capture the voices of the dead, but alas, no such sounds were discovered or captured, BUT, the musicians did manage to record, and those recordings were reworked into the two discs found here. The first is by Encomiast, the second is by a group called The Copper Thieves, which is Encomiast along with members of Mandible Chatter. Both discs conjure up the dark spirit of that theater, each in its own way.
The Encomiast disc is downright frightening, all creaking moaning low end, deep ominous rumbles, all manner of tiny sounds drifting up out of the inky blackness, cold and sinister, abstract and ephemeral, the sounds of the theater's busted up old grand piano, smeared into blurred atonal clouds of clustered notes, the overtones drifting like lost specters, voices moan and bellow, the natural room sound as much an instrument as anything else, these deep dark drones totally evoke the spirit of that haunted space, headphone required, to truly get lost, and submerge yourself in these seemingly bottomless sounds.
The Copper Thieves disc is not nearly as minimal, but just as ominous and haunting, the piano again plays a big part, but the notes are distorted and blurred into a massive warm wall of softly crumbling sound, which gives way to a strange haunted house of thumps and creaks and glitches and disembodied voices, groaning layers of low end thrum, soft filed of overtones overlap chiming bells, pounded notes on the piano drift up from below like monstrous growls, the disc finishing of with long tones, that seem to glow, warm and almost sun dappled, as if capturing shafts of light, drawing delicate lines on the dusty floor, and illuminating the snowflake like motes drifting in the still air.
Both discs are fantastic, darkly evocative, and gorgeously droney, for fans of Lustmord, Andrew Chalk, Jonathan Coleclough, Troum, Organum and other droning denizens of the dark...
LIMITED TO ONLY 200 COPIES, a double cd-r housed in a textured cardboard box, hand stamped on the outside with two printed inserts featuring liner notes and photos.
MPEG Stream: ENCOMIAST "Freed From Time Yet Vulnerable To Air"
MPEG Stream: ENCOMIAST "A Nervous Light"
MPEG Stream: THE COPPER THIEVES "Something Shines Through"
MPEG Stream: THE COPPER THIEVES "Slam Your Doors"

ENCRYPTION Secrecy (Waerloga) cd 14.98

END II (ISO666) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yeah, there's a lot of black metal bands out there, guys running around in corpse paint, drawing indecipherable logos, and posing for photos with burning things. Why should you pay attention? 'Cause if you didn't, you might never know about some really really great bands, like this one, End, from Greece. Their black metal is, in a word, supreme. It's a fuzzed out frenzy of buzzing, blasting riffs and atmosphere, perfectly complimented by the disc's beautiful black and white and grey watercolor artwork. For fans of Weakling, Eikenskaden, Khold, Satyricon, and Burzum -- which means basically, if you like black metal, you want this! Actually, forget black metal for a second. If the idea of speaker-threatening fuzz-dirge loping from your stereo appeals to you, then you still want this. This second End record is as good as their first. Get it.
MPEG Stream: "Funeral Pyre"
MPEG Stream: "Defalcation of Psychopathia"

END III (Black Hate) cd 17.98
It's been more than 6 years since we last heard from Greece's End, whose last record, entitled of course II, we described thusly: "For fans of Weakling, Eikenskaden, Khold, Satyricon, and Burzum - which means basically, if you like black metal, you want this! Actually, forget black metal for a second. If the idea of speaker-threatening fuzz-dirge loping from your stereo appeals to you, then you still want this."
Which heck, still holds true with this most recent disc, the only difference being that the sound is a bit more polished, a bit tighter. Whereas the first two End records were pretty raw, III finds End taking their raw buzz and furious blast and adding some heft, and a bit of groove. For every explosive face-melting soul-shearing burst of frenetic grinding black fury, there's some lurching, loping doomic dirge, often slipping into gorgeous spidery drifts, or drifting toward something much more post rocky than black metal, there's still plenty of acoustic guitar, but instead of peeling back all the other instruments, the buzzing steel strings are woven into the buzzing blackness, adding another woozy almost folky dimension.
And the mention of Khold in the old review is even more applicable now, and heck Code too, as this new End, spends much of its time droning dramatically, or in cool mathy gnarled bits of Deathspell-ed crunch, with lots of stop starts, dizzying arpeggiated guitars, warped almost gothic sounding breakdowns, soaring melodies all over the place, weirdly technical, and dramatic, and emotional, there seems to be a new wave of avant post black metal, and End seemed to have tapped into it, and perfectly fused it with their classic Greek blackness. III seems to be another one of those records that benefits from repeated listens, the poppiness and sonic mystery that pervades pretty much every song, seem to no longer lurk in the background, instead, driving these songs and defining End's awesome new sound.
Packaged in a super deluxe 6 panel digipak, with a big booklet, and some seriously gorgeous (and scary) black and white artwork.
MPEG Stream: "Catastrophe"
MPEG Stream: "Self-Eating Mass"
MPEG Stream: "Still In Flesh"