V/A Hall Of Mirrors (Emperor Jones) 2cd 13.98
Anyone, ANYONE, who likes their psych all spaced-out and sludgy, with guitars and (especially) effects in full, uh, effect will definitely want to wash their earholes with this excellent new space-rock comp. Compiler Mason Jones (whom you might know as the ex-guitarist of SubArachnoid Space, currently in project called Numinous) knows his stuff and has pulled together tracks from a stellar international cast of rockers who like to freak-out, drone-on, and/or toke-up. Here's who's here: Kinski, Circle, Gravitar, Overhang Party, Tarantula Hawk, Up-Tight, Vocokesh, DMBQ, Bardo Pond, Acid Mothers Temple, Yeti, ST-37, Escapade, Rubble, Abunai!, SubArachnoid Space, Numinous, Farflung, Primordial Undermind, Fuzzhead, Speaker/Cranker, and Transpacific! Whew. As you can see, with Mason in charge, of course the Japanese contingent is well-represented.
The tracks on here are mostly live recordings, and, as far as we can tell, all otherwise unreleased (with the exception of the Tarantula Hawk one, which is an edit from their now-out-of-print Live At KFJC cd-r). Pretty much a killer comp, ranging as it does from the groove of Circle to the grind of Gravitar, with some bands doin' stuff closer to stoner rawk, others more on the bliss-drone side of things. Now, I might have tried to put the more rockin' cuts towards the front end of the discs, to avoid disturbing the slumber of those of us who like to doze off listening to the more blissful stuff (or maybe left off one or two cuts) but that's just me. Overall, Hall Of Mirrors is fully droned, stoned, and ET-phoned. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: KINSKI "Teen Center"
MPEG Stream: OVERHANG PARTY "Le Fantome De La Liberte (edit)"

V/A Hanged Man Vol. 1 (Hanged Man) cassette 4.98
This is the debut release from a new Seattle label, specializing in their own murky darkly psychedelic brand of doom / folk / drone / noise, a sampler of various artists on the label as well as likeminded noisemakers from the area, with a few familiar names (Megabats, Demian Johnston and Inh Halentropy), but way more unfamiliar ones (Kristian Garrard, Karnak Temples, Josh Medina, Them,There, Nightjar, Sokai Stiljed, Thunder:Grey:Pilgrim), all of them contributing this sprawling chunk of droning blackness, strange industrial ambience and looped psychedelic mesmer, all the sonically disparate tracks woven into a collection that works almost as well as an album proper. The familiar names first: abstract avant atmospheric (sort of) black metal weirdo Inh Halentropy lays down some John Carpenter style seventies soundtrack wooziness, all muddy and murky, programmed beats and sci-fi swirl over brooding rumbles, and theremin-like high end melodies, a gorgeous creepily atmospheric chunk of lo-fi faux soundtrackery, while Megabats offer up dense swirls of kosmische synth drift, and glimmering ambient dreamdrug haze, all super blissed out and trippy, and noisenik Demian Johnston delivers some blunted blurred soft-noise, all cavernous and industrial, thick swaths of blurred crumble and greyed out crunch, all smeared into slowly undulating blackened dronemusic. The rest of the tape follows suit, super abstract creaking and crumbling mutates into gauzy almost Pop Ambient loopscaping, thick whirring melodies emerge from slow churning sheets of whirring synths and echoe-y shimmer, delicate acoustic guitars drift amidst sitar like buzz, plaintive vocal harmonies and warm lustrous chordal swells, bleak black rumbles roil ominously through clouds of ominous low end thrum, metallic ragas seem to slowly melt into oozing blackened dronefolk, and finally wild tangles of clipped vocals and shards of melody are stretched out, then layered and looped into a druggy dizzy psych-out. Killer stuff for sure, and odds are pretty dang limited as well...

V/A He's No Good To Me Dead (Game Two) cd 10.98
This disc's compilers have enlisted five suitable bands to make sure this doom-core comp lives up to its subtitle: "74 Minutes Of Extreme Pain." Negative Reaction, Grief, Subsanity, Bongzilla, and Sour Vein all provide some lovely metallic downer dirge.

V/A Heavy Metal Killers (Earache) cd 15.98
Earache, as befits their name, has always been a label known for "extreme" music, whether it be grindcore, death metal, or even gabber. This compilation, though, highlights a different sort of extreme, new bands who are hard and heavy but also melodic, with lo and behold actual singing. These outfits ARE extreme - extremely retro that is. And (as far as we're concerned) extremely cool. Heavy Metal Killers, whose cover art seems to be a nod to that of Iron Maiden's Killers, collects tracks from Castle Donnington worthy youngsters who hark back to the glory days of the NWOBHM in the late '70s, early '80s. And thus it has more in common with classic NWOBHM era comps like Metal For Muthas than it does such previous Earache anthologies like Grindcrusher and Hellspawn. And despite the NWOBHMishness, these bands hail from all over the planet, from Finland to Mexico.
Between Allan and Andee at Aquarius, we possess albums by a goodly portion of this disc's lineup, but the rest are totally new to us too. (Which brings up another subject, perhaps to be addressed in a future AQ-blog post, about all the cool records Allan and Andee order for themselves that we somewhat inexplicably never review for our website or even stock in the store!). We already know and love Cast Iron, Cauldron (who should get an award for their track's title, "Chained Up In Chains"!), Portrait, and Enforcer (whose full-length from which their track here is taken is also reviewed this list, actually), but thanks to this comp are glad to be introduced to a slew of other denim-and-leather clad, true metal torchbearers.
As with all comps, some tracks we like better'n others, but actually these Heavy Metal Killers ARE all pretty killer. We'll just mention a couple highlights, like the opening salvo from Holland's Powervice, boasting perhaps the best dual guitar harmony motif on the whole disc, damn it's catchy. Then there's the Mercyful Fate-ish mastery of Sweden's Portrait, complete with King Diamond style falsetto. And we got a kick out of the unabashed Sunset Strip style pop panache of LA's White Wizzard. Other acts here include Ram, H.O.D., Celtic Legacy, Alltehniko, Voltax, In Solitude, and Crowning Glory. Only a few of the tracks are exclusives, most appearing also on these band's albums (upcoming or otherwise) but it's not like you probably have 'em do you??? Though hopefully we soon will, we know for sure we'll be looking out for more by a bunch of 'em.
Cool that this scene is getting big enough for Earache to jump on the bandwagon. Our only complaints? This comp shoulda had San Francisco's Space Vacation on it too! And Finland's Solitaire. And... well, hopefully there's a volume II in store!
MPEG Stream: POWERVICE "Behold The Hand Of Glory"
MPEG Stream: RAM "Sudden Impact"
MPEG Stream: WHITE WIZZARD "High Speed GTO"

V/A I Am Vengeance (OST) (MeteorCity) cd 13.98
The long-awaited "stoner rock/doom metal" soundtrack to the perhaps equally long-awaited psychedelic splatter/gore flick "I Am Vengeance" by low-budget underground director Richard R. Anasky, who, inspired in his filmmaking by both '80s slasher movies *and* '80s doom metal like Witchfinder General, hooked up with Meteor City to put together this soundtrack, featuring the likes of Sheavy, Count Raven, Eternal Elysium, The Quill, Bloodfarmers, Space Probe Taurus, Naevus, Lowrider, Las Cruces, and others. I thought that doom legends Pentagram were supposed to be doing the theme song (it's on their last album), but here it's done by Doomsday Gouvernment (ex-members of Count Raven, who appear all over this comp). Anasky's liner notes seem to indicate that the Pentagram track will appear on a *second* volume of songs from the film to be released by doom label Game Two, but I haven't heard about a release date for that. Anyway, this is a fine comp of mostly-new (or hard-to-find) material by some excellent, if obscure, bands -- almost all of whom seem to have singers vying for the "Sounds Most Like Ozzy Osbourne" award!
RealAudio clip: BLOOD FARMERS "Bullet In My Head"
RealAudio clip: COUNT RAVEN "Scream"

V/A I Love Metal (Triple Crown) cd 15.98
Simply put, this is a covers album by indie-kids of '80s metal classics... with Reggie & The Full Effect doing Slayer (imagine "Raining Blood" with zippy new wave keyboards--it's amazing!), The Get Up Kids reworking Motley Crue, Jejune covering the Scorpions, and the much sought-after really weirdo experimental acoustic country rendition of Slayer's "South of Heaven" by Modest Mouse + Califone! Electric Frankenstein, Supernova, Less Than Jake, and others also contribute. Yeah, it's basically a fun, joke record, yet at moments kind of incredible (like The Killingtons' strange, unrecognizably spaced out take on W.A.S.P.'s "F**k Like A Beast"). It makes me wish that there were bands that actually sounded like this all the time! Put it this way: Allan never ever thought he'd have any desire to own a record containing a track by Modest Mouse, let alone a band with a name like 'Mephiskapheles', until he heard this one. (Mephiskapheles do a horn-free version of Celtic Frost's "Necromatical Screams" by the way).

V/A In Conspiracy With Satan: A Tribute To Bathory (Hellspawn) cd 16.98
Norse black metal pioneers Bathory are honored by some of Nordic black metal's finest bands, including Marduk (2 songs), Emperor, Ophthalamia, Gehennah, Dark Funeral (2 songs), Satyricon, and many more.

V/A Insights Of The Profane (Ma Kahru) cd 7.98
Awesome low price introduction to this new East Coast metal distributor / label. From primitive black metal to dark ambient, from Finland, Austria, Canada and the United States. Features: Abigor, Judas Iscariot, Baal, goatWAR, Darkness Enshroud, Ontario Blue, Myrmidon, Murderous Vision, Anapthergal, Azaghal, Subklinik, and Archaean Harmony.

V/A Invaders (Kemado) cd 13.98
If you're into heavy rock, psych and metal the way we are, then just one glance at the tracklist for this new compilation should sell you on it without much trouble. Yep, there's a bunch of the heavies here, for sure. Witchcraft! Witch! Pelican! High On Fire! The Fucking Champs! The Sword! and a dozen others. And quite a few of these 18 tracks are previously unreleased, over fifty percent in fact. So not a bad dealio indeed, rockers. This focuses on current indie darlings and more obscure upandcomers as well -- including several from right here in San Francisco -- so chances are you'll hear from a favorite band or two and probably get into something new too. Though the cover art (swiped from an old Metal Massacre comp) seemingly promises old school '80s metal action, that's not really what this is about. We wouldn't even classify a lot of these bands as "metal", really. There's just as much stoner psych and post rock and prog and Melvinsy dirge punk, but it IS all on the heavy side. As far as retro inspiration goes, it's the '70s and Sabbath that get the most nods. Faves? Among the Sabbathy, we already love Sweden's Witchcraft (who contribute a live version of "Queen Of Bees") and Witch (a track from their awesome album) but were also stoked to hear Portland's Danava for the first time, so spacey and rollicking. Of course Dungen's song is great (flute!) and you can't argue with Comets On Fire's blown out psych-noise either. Or with the metallic Yessisms of Diamond Nights. We also dug the unreleased cut by SF's hard rockin' Night After Night quite a bit. Heck it's hard to pick stuff out, there's a lot of cool tracks on here, from a bunch of bands we (mostly) love or soon will...
Ok, here's the fairly drool-worthy list of bands found here (asterisks indicate that they're contributing previous unreleased material): Saviours, Danava*, Big Business*, Black Mountain*, The Sword*, Dungen, Witch, The Fucking Champs*, Torche, Pelican, High On Fire, Witchcraft*, Comets On Fire*, Diamond Nights*, Wolfmother, Night After Night*, Warhammer 48K, Parchman Farm*.
MPEG Stream: DANAVA "By The Mark"
MPEG Stream: NIGHT AFTER NIGHT "Backseat Astronaut"
MPEG Stream: BLACK MOUNTAIN "Behind The Fall"

V/A Japanese Assault (Relapse) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another entry in Relapse's Assault series, a cartographer's worst nightmare, mapping out the world according to sheer brutality, and vicious pummel. Instead of the smooth flowing lines of hills and valleys, there are the sharp crags of buzzing riffs and guttural growls. And instead of the smooth colorful shades of elevations, there is only the black of pure grinding evil. Past entries in this series have focused the Czech Republic, Holland, Brazil, Sweden and Poland, but it was only a matter of time before the scales tipped toward the land of the rising noise. Japan has an incredibly rich history of heavy music, from hard rock psych gods Flower Travellin' Band and Les Rallizes Denudes, to thrash metal legends S.O.B., to crustcore legends Gism to contemporary heavyweights like Boris and Corrupted. So of course there's gonna be a swirling pit of lesser knowns just waiting to crush skulls and kick ass with the big boys. So Relapse has hand picked their favorite four of those heavy hopefuls, and while we may not recognise any of these bands, they are pretty well known in Japan and in international underground crust circles. The first fourteen tracks come courtesy of Senseless Apocalypse, fastcore legends from Shizuoka, who spit out a venomous splatter of lightning fast grind and stuttering stop start dynamics. All the songs hover around the minute mark but are stuffed to the gills with buizzing riffs, pounding blast beats and more parts than most 4 minute songs. Muga are up next, but don't be fooled by the pretty acoustic guitar intro, as it soon devolves into crushing Neurosis style metallic fury, with soaring guitar melodies over sludgy riffs and a dual vocal attack (high and low). Next up are Realized, who tune their strings so low they're practically falling off their guitars, pouring out thick grunting death metal, with impossibly low grunted cookie monster vocals and blast beats buried under a suffocating layer of guitarrrgghhh. Finally, we have Swarrrm (yep, that's three r's) who take the grinding metal of the their Japanese Assault brethren and mix in some SST/Greg Ginn style guitar discordance, some Swedish style melody, and some bizarre almost ambient bass/vocal breakdowns. Maybe my favorite of the bunch. And just like with the other Assault comps, you'll more than likely find yourself wanting more by at least one of the bands, if not all of em!
MPEG Stream: SENSELESS APOCALYPSE "Again"
MPEG Stream: MUGA "Resuscitation"
MPEG Stream: REALIZED "The World Of Complete Black"
MPEG Stream: SWARRRM "Weakness"

V/A King Diamond Tribute (Necropolis) cd 14.98
A diverse spectrum of bands herein interpret the compositions of one of modern metal music's leading lights, the Danish singer, rock conceptualist, and Satanic philosopher King Diamond. Several Scandinavian black metallers who owe so much to the King (and his facepaint) such as Ancient and Dark Funeral participate, as do deathsters like In Aeteurnum, Usurper, and local boys Exhumed. 80's style power metallers Dentiny's End even make an appearance but aside from them KD's trademark multi-ocatave vocals generally get the black metal rasp or death grunt treatment. A fun collection but no match for the real thing.

V/A Lean Into It: A Tribute To Die Kreuzen (Erosion) cd 13.98

V/A Lightnin' To The Nations : NWOBHM 25th Anniversary (Sanctuary) 3cd 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Occasionally whilst reading AQ reviews (or elsewhere too of course), you may have run across a reference to something called the NWOBHM, a curious acronym that stands for "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal". Hopefully we explained what it meant! Or it was somewhat clear from context, describing the influences of such bands as Slough Feg, Early Man, or Circle at their most metal (who'd like be be called a "NWOFHM" band, actually...New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal, natch). The NWOBHM began around 1979, continuing into the early eighties, almost a reaction to and also a hybridization of both punk rock and '70s classic rock. Some famous NWOBHM acts include Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Venom, Angel Witch, Saxon... a varied bunch to be sure. And without the NWOBHM, we'd never have had Metallica, and thus thrash, and thus death metal, and thus black metal, etc. etc.... well maybe. Anyway, in case you're, say, a fan of Pharaoh Overlord's 4 album (another "NWOFHM" release), or into grim black metal, but would like a little history lesson about the real old school stuff, this NWOBHM stuff, we've got just the thing. A three-cd set, imported from England, celebrating the NWOBHM in all its (mostly obscure) glory. 56 tracks from such bands as Trespass, Raven, Bitches Sin, Blitzkreig, Persian Risk, Satan, Heavy Pettin, Silverwing, Tygers Of Pan Tang, Holocaust, Ethel The Frog, Savage, Warfare, Jaguar, Vardis, Fist, Quartz, Cloven Hoof, Tyson Dog, Praying Mantis... the biggest names are probably Venom, Diamond Head, Angel Witch, and Samson. And believe it or not there are plenty of entries here from bands that we'd never even heard of before as well (Hellanbach, She, Avenger, Aragorn, Crucifixion, Xero, Horsepower...)!! A lot of these bands didn't have long careers, but still managed a killer single or two, which is why comps like this are treasure-troves, a NWOBHM 'best of' composed of some album tracks, 7" cuts (so many great ones on the Neat Records label) and tracks from back-in-the-day comps like New Electric Warriors (1980) and Metal For Muthas (1980). So for NWOBHM fans old and new, this is a nice collection of headbanging, party hardy METAL -- catchy riffs, wailing vox, guitars guitars guitars. Comes with a 12 page booklet full of record sleeve art and liner notes on each act, packaged in a box with the cds in cardboard sleeves.
MPEG Stream: BLITZKREIG "Blitzkreig"
MPEG Stream: DARK STAR "Lady Of Mars"
MPEG Stream: TURBO "Running"
MPEG Stream: SAVAGE "Let It Loose"

V/A Like Black Holes in the Sky: The Tribute to Syd Barrett (Dwell) cd 14.98
A comp featuring exclusive tracks by AQ faves like Circle, Jesu, and Stinking Lizaveta, among others?! Heck we'd want one even if it was a tribute album to, say, Kid Rock or Limp Bizkit. (Actually those sound like they'd almost be interesting in a sick sort of way.) This IS a tribute album, it's on the tribute-o-centric Dwell label after all, but the subject is much more acceptable: '60s psych legend Syd Barrett. And though we love early Pink Floyd and solo Syd too, none of us here are quite obsessed enough to expertly critique this comp's covers of Syd Barrett tunes from that side of things... but doubtless if that's the sort of detail you want, you can find some Internet chat page all aflame with commentary on the ins and outs and ups and downs of these bands' take on the music of Syd Barrett, who was most 'correct', and all. What we can tell you is, to our ears, this is a damn cool comp!
While tributes are often quick-buck cash-ins full of no-name acts, this one's good for several reasons, excellent songs to start with, with an equally excellent selection of bands doing the tributizing, several big-time AQ faves among 'em as we said: Circle! Jesu! Stinking Lizaveta! Unearthly Trance! freakin' Pentagram!! The compilers seem to have asked bands that lurk at the swirling vortex of heaviness/psychedelia/metal/prog and persuaded some of the best to put on the paisley and do their best Syd impressions.
Here's the full lineup: Kosmos (featuring Away from Voivod), Kylesa, Intronaut, Stinking Lizaveta, Jarboe (from the Swans), Pentagram, Giant Squid, Yakuza, Jesu, Unearthly Trance, Dredg, Circle, and Zodiak. Some do their Syd HEAVY, whereas others lighten up their usual sound. Intronaut definitely display some pop talent, and Stinking Lizaveta, normally all-instrumental, surprise with an excellent vocal rendition of "Matilda Mother" - but at about 1:48 into the song their true Stinking Liz identity comes to the fore, as they turn on the searing, psychedelic guitar soloing and bass-heavy groove. Lumbering cuts from Kylesa ("Interstellar Overdrive") and Zodiak ("See Emily Play") are true to form. Amidst this lineup, Jarboe's track, a version of "Late Night" (also recently covered by Belong on their Colorloss LP) is a bit of left turn, as it's all about her whispery vocals (nice, NOT annoying as sometimes we find her) and not so much about guitar like so many of the others here.
Some other random observations regarding a few of these tracks: Ancient doom metallers Pentagram, the oddest entry only 'cause it's so hard to believe they really exist in this time and place, stick close to the original of "Flaming", Bobby Liebling singing in his weird old man voice, but with an affected British accent (or maybe it's just how he often sounds a bit like Ozzy anyway). Giant Squid do a Syd song called "Octopus", natch, and make us want to check 'em out as we sorta slept on their album. Yakuza's intense version of "Lucifer Sam" really makes us think of Voivod - except Voivod, known for their Floyd covers, never did this particular one. Speaking of Voivoid, who here gets "Astronomy Domine"? Dredg, with a sparkling rendition. Jesu brings loads of shoegazing slo-mo fuzz and echoing vocals to their take on "Chapter 24", just as you might expect. And Circle's version of "Rats" is -very- Circle sounding, in their sorta folky-mode (a la their Forest album) with Mika Ratto's acid-gobbling vocals not at all out of place.
So, listen for yourself, this is one of those rare tributes you could probably enjoy either as a fan of the bands on it (as many of you are) and/or as a fan of the subject of the tribute. We imagine a Floyd freak could wind up getting into some cool new music as a result of this comp, and likewise it'll probably turn on some Jesu fans, or whatever, to the wonders Syd Barrett's melodic, acid visions.
And it's a "legitimate" tribute, in the sense that Syd Barrett and his Pink Floyd colleagues really were one of the crucial '60s artists to pioneer and make possible the wide range of weird, spaced out music we all love today, of which the bands on this comp are all good examples.
MPEG Stream: YAKUZA "Lucifer Sam"
MPEG Stream: INTRONAUT "Arnold Layne"
MPEG Stream: JESU "Chapter 24"

V/A Loco Gringos Have A Party: The South American Stoner Rock (Dias De Garage) cd 12.98
17 tracks from South American stoner rock bands, including Buffalo and Los Natas.

V/A Lords Of Chaos: The History Of Occult Music (Index Verlag) 2cd 19.98
Lords Of Chaos, the definitive book on the whole Norwegian black metal scene, heavily focused on all that church burning, band mate murdering drama, that made an otherwise grim and cult a household dinner party topic, even amongst folks usually averse to metal and murder and mayhem.
This two disc companion seems the be more thematically linked to the book, featuring tracks by many of the bands, while more interestingly tracing a history of occult music from the blues to seventies prog to industrial, eighties metal to underground subversive soundtracks to the current crop of corpse painted black metal warriors. It's an awesome introduction for the black metal newbie for sure, featuring tracks from Bathory, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Emperor, Ulver, Thorns, Abruptum and of course Venom, the godfathers of black metal. But it's way more than that. The first disc especially is jam packed with haunting, mysterious, metal and occult classics. Aleister Crowley, recorded on wax cylinder, invoking Satan, Robert Johnson (he did make a deal with the devil after all!), an awesome creepy classic prog jam from Coven, of course Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath", more amazing flute flecked prog from Black Widow, whose demonic elements seem to be more thematic, but a killer jam nonetheless, some creepy cinematic ambience from Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil (whose remarkable Lucifer Rising 4lp box we reviewed recently), maybe the biggest surprise, an 11 minute chunk of electronic looped weirdness from someone called Mick J (we'll go out on a limb and say it's actually Mick Jagger!), that we listen to over and over, Venom's classic "Black Metal" (of course!), then Mercyful Fate, Sodom, Hellhammer, finallty some industrial stuff, Monte Cazazza, Genesis P-Orridge and Psychic TV, as well as some goofy organ music from the high priest himself, Anton LaVey.
The second disc is where you'll find all the black metal, but also a rare track from Italian horror metallers Death SS, and some other random evil occult weirdness from White Stains, Electric Hellfire Club and Peter H. Gilmore, acting high priest of the Church Of Satan. Killer stuff, super varied, and easy to enjoy even if you haven't read Lords Of Chaos. Comes with a massive book, featuring a brief history of occult rock, a bit about all the artists and performers, plenty of pix, as well as an introduction by Michael Moynihan, author of Lords Of Chaos. Definitely essential, even for someone who is well familiar with most of these artists, plays like the coolest 'evil occult' mix tape any one could ever make you.
These have been tough to get, so if we run out, please be patient while we order more from overseas, best to grab one now while you can...
MPEG Stream: ALEISTER CROWLEY "The Pentagram"
MPEG Stream: COVEN "The Portrait"
MPEG Stream: BLACK WIDOW "Sacrifice"
MPEG Stream: BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL "In The Temple Of The Moon"
MPEG Stream: MICK J "Invocation Of My Demon Brother"

V/A Matter 10.2007 (Tape Of The Month) (self-released) cassette 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in September we got the first installment in what was meant to be a sort of tape of the month thing organized and recorded by two local guys, one who you all might know from his weirdo black metal band Amacoma (he also plays in Black Fiction and 3). It was a huge hit (we do have a few copies left if you missed it) and so they immediately got to work on the October installment. So we know what you're thinking, but it wasn't all our fault, just mostly. We got the October tape, right at the end of the month, but then stuff got crazy and we're only now getting around to reviewing it and it's December! But fuck it, just imagine that ten is a twelve and we'll be fine, it's just as cool and weird and varied as the first volume, with each dude taking a side of the tape, and this one like the first is essential for lovers of weirdo black metal as there's a brand new Amocoma track!
And it's a doozy, worth the price of admission alone. So buzzy and washed out, it's barely even black metal, it's more like some cavernous black ambient epic, the riffs more like throbbing pulses, the vocals hissy clouds of static, grim and fuzzed out, but because of the extreme blur and smear it's almost like black metal pop ambient. Here and there, the riffage does coalesce into extreme blackness, or splinters off into some spare clean guitar slither, but it always returns to the blossoming avalanche of black buzz.
There's a track by a band called Hash Hashish, that's a serious slab of gorgeous distorted dreampop, with some weird almost death metal vocals mixed in as well as some circusy keyboards and a dense wall of My Bloody Valentine blur. The 3 Leafs song is an awesome stretch of super spaced out druggy ambience, all whirling FX and disembodied voices, percussive thud and dark rumbling whir.
The flip side is packed with sonic weirdness, it's hard to differentiate which is which (ah, good old tapes!), but there are two tracks by Debre Damo, and two by Atom Eve, they all sort of blend into each other, but it's all awesome. Abstract electronic experimentation, bleeps and bloops, whirs and shimmers, very musiq concrete, woven into dense tripped out garagey space rock with thick guitars and pounding drums and of course lots and lots of FX. Weird alien guitar experiments are stretched out into crumbling glitchy ambience, it seems like maybe the names are just to keep it interesting as the whole side plays like a single piece.
As always, dying to hear more from all of these outfits, and keep listening to that Amocoma track over and over...

V/A Metal Injection (Bad Posture) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Death to False Metal! say the ten bands contributing to this underground true metal compilation. As with any comp, there's some less-than-valuble tracks (like Iron Rainbow's cover of Iron Maiden's "Man On The Edge"--what were they thinking?!
Maiden wrote lots of songs worth covering, but that's not one of them!) but the traditional metal fan should get some mileage out of the rest of the disc, especially the cuts by Shine (new band of Wino from The Obsessed/St. Vitus), Deceased side-project October 31, Japan's Vanguard, and SF's own The Lord Weird Slough Feg. You'll also hear from Gothic Knights, Sorcerer, Twisted Tower Dire, Internal Void...

V/A Moonfog 2000: A Different Perspective (Moonfog) 2cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Norway's most advanced "black metal" label has released a fairly amazing compilation here. Moonfog's incredibly elite roster contributes exclusive material: from the blackened thrash of Eibon (the supergroup containing members of Darkthrone, Mayhem, Necrophagia, Pantera/Viking Crown, and Satyricon making their recorded debut), to Dodheimsgard's mutation into the black metal techno of their new incarnation DHG, to the primitive country/punk black metal of legends Darkthrone (recorded at Necrohell Studios, otherwise known as their 4-track machine), to intense death/black brutality from Gehenna and Thorns, and more. 25 minutes on the cutting edge of Moonfog's vision. Absolutely essential to dedicated fans and adventurous newcomers (as well as the other way around), as this comp really runs the spectrum from classic raw stuff to sacrilegious trip-hop "black metal" 2000.
And, as a kind of bonus, you also get a second disc collecting popular cuts by Moonfog bands, compiled by users of The Moonfog Dungeon (i.e. website). They're all previously released tracks, so this can be regarded as a handy mix of some black metal faves.

V/A My Own Wolf: A New Approach To Ulver (Cold Dimensions) 2cd 22.00
We've given tribute albums a bit of stick in the past. After all, the things seem to be a dime a dozen, sometimes the result of genuine fannish enthusiasm but often just a commercially-motivated exploitative exercise. Yet, it's still hard not to be tempted by the concept, as long as the former rather than the latter motivation is in force. (In fact, our own Andee has plans for a tribute album of sorts on his tUMULt label: I'm Sorry And I Miss You, a black metal reimagining of Slint's Spiderland! So we can't bag on 'em all.) Hard to argue with a bunch of your favorite bands doing songs by another favorite, really. And those are obvious rules of what makes a good tribute: a worthy honoree (who has SONGS, not just a "sound"), and a roster of participants from whom you also want to hear. One good example, on this very list we highlight a highly enjoyable tribute to Syd Barrett that certainly obeyed all those rules.
The black metal realm has spawned a few tributes, the most worthwhile we can think of being the brilliant (and out of print) Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone. It certainly met those two basic tests of what would make a good tribute, featuring bands equally as famous and influential as Darkthrone themselves (which also made it that much more significant of a tribute, to see the likes of Emperor and Immortal bowing down to Darkthrone).
Likewise, in this case, Ulver is certainly a worthy subject. Early on, they were a true Norwegian black metal force to be reckoned with, whether in their acoustic folk mode or when doing their own tribute of sorts to Darkthrone, the brilliant Nattens Madrigal. Later, they morphed in many surprising ways, pretty much leaving the confines of black metal entirely but still somehow staying Ulver. In fact, if you put together an anthology of Ulver's "greatest hits" it would sound a bit like a various artists album itself, since their career has been so stylistically diverse, from grim black metal to experimental electronica... In some ways, it's cool to have this tribute just to provide a perspective on the wide range of Ulver's output. 'Cause one byproduct of a good tribute is to get you to go back and listen to the originals, maybe even giving some attention to songs you had previously overlooked. That said, we're also pleased to see that a chunk of the bands appearing on My Own Wolf chose to cover stuff from Nattens Madrigal...
The next question is, are the bands appearing here worthy? Well, we'll admit we haven't heard of rather many of them. It is a double cd, though, with a ton of tracks. And the ones we know, like Aidan Baker (Nadja) are all pretty interesting, kinda avant-garde metal bands that probably all really do look up to Ulver. Some play industrial-metal, others acoustic folk, everything in between and beyond, from trip-hop to psychedelia to dooooooooom, each finding at least one if not several aspects of Ulver's multifaceted career to worship, really. There's songs here from probably every Ulver release ever, including their demos! And these bands are from all over the place, a lot from Russia and France in particular, but also from Finland, Ukraine, Australia, Israel, Germany, Latvia, USA, Canada, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and Brazil!
Here's the lineup: Unfurl, Avathar, Mura Hachigu feat. Nokturnes, Smohalla, Asmodee, Selvmord, Sael, Otzephenevshiye, Wardaemonic, FB[Force], Karna, Fluoryne, Year Zero, Sinestesia, Pryapisme, Joey Hopkins Midget Factory, Aidan Baker, Panacea Enterpainment, project:a, Catapulus, Jaaportit, Wheel Of Knowledge, Zweizz, Bosque, Noises of Russia, and Ashtar.
While there's already one "official" tribute to Ulver of sorts (the remixes disc 1st Decade In The Machines) this one is perhaps more honest in its tributor-to-tributee relationships, i.e., no hipster cred required. It's certainly more "metal" but plenty of other things besides. Obviously, compared to some tributes, the lineup on My Own Wolf is drawn from far deeper underground. No A-list black metal acts here like on that Darkthrone tribute. But you have to imagine that any band interested in doing an Ulver cover is at the very least not an "ordinary" band. And, indeed, some of 'em here are pretty interesting, and we wouldn't have heard about 'em otherwise. You gotta hand it to Ulver: who else could inspire tribute from such a diverse selection of bands/genres?
MPEG Stream: MURA HACHIGU FEAT. NOKTURNES "Blinded By Blood"
MPEG Stream: OTZEPHENEVSHIYE "Wolf And Destiny (Forest Fire Version)"

V/A NoisyMotions (Osmose Productions) dvd 16.98
Can't imagine a blackmetalhead who wouldn't consider this DVD absolutely essential. And it just might be enough to lure some unsuspecting innocents to the dark side as well. Videos from Absu, Immortal, Antaeus, Impaled Nazarene, Melechesh, Nortre Dame, Phazm, Arkhon Infaustus, Dark Tranquility, Gehennah, and a bunch more. As well as live sets from Angel Corpse, Immortal, Blasphemy, Inhume, Notre Dame and Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition. Pretty much everything on this disc is a blast, but definite highlights would have to be the two Immortal videos, the first, "Blashyrkh (Mighty Raven Dark)", features Abbath and Demonaz, in full corpsepaint and spikes, playing atop a mountain, above fjords and forests, with superimposed lightning storms, and occasional unintentionally hilarious mad dashes from peak to peak, while still rocking! The second video for "Grim And Frostbitten kingdom" has the band fully rocking out again, this time atop a glacier, again in full corpsepaint, except for fill in drummer Hellhammer, who is sans corpsepaint and wearing a frilly pirate shirt. The whole thing intercut with shots of Abbath singing through a sheet of ice. Wow. Then there's the totally over the top Notre Dame videos, especially "Scarecrows" which features the whole band strapped to wooden posts and singing from atop their perches, in the middle of a corn field. And howabout Impaled Nazarene's black metal "Smells Like Teen Spirit"-ish video for "Armageddon Death Squad." Woah. We could go on and on, but trust us, this is awesome! And for sure don't miss the bonus feature "At Home With Snowy Shaw", a goofy Cribs-like tour of Shaw's (from Notre Dame) horror movie memento stuffed house as well as a little acoustic sing along. So weird.
NTSC and ALL REGION!

V/A Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous (Karmageddon Media) cd 16.98
There are a handful of compilations, so well thought out, so well put together, with just the perfect artists and the best songs, that function like an impossibly perfect record. If you could somehow imagine that said compilation was in fact, a record by some band it would be absolutely the greatest record ever. Never has that been more true than in the case of a couple of black metal comps from back in the nineties. One is the amazing Darkthrone tribute, Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone, an absolutely stellar comp featuring Satyricon, Enslaved, Marduk, Thorns, Emperor, Dodheimsgard, Gorgoroth. So it should come as no surprise that another 'perfect record' comp is this one right here, Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous. While we're still waiting for that Darkthrone comp to be reissued, it's no small consolation that this one has been resurrected, to demonstrate once again, that no matter how amazing bands are now and how far black metal has come, it really was never better than in 1995.
A tribute to Euronymous, the fallen leader of Mayhem, who was murdered by Count Grishnack aka Burzum, beginning the non-musical 'Lords Of Chaos' saga of Norwegian black metal that would become tabloid fodder for the next decade, this compilation was actually already in the works as a showcase for the Scandinavian bands of the time, but Euronymous ended up dying before he could release it on his own label Deathlike Silence. So it was completed by his allies at Necropolis Records (RIP) as a tribute to their fallen 'leader'.
Like that Darkthrone comp, a look at the bands should be enough to tell you that this is something special: Abruptum, Mayhem, Dissection, Emperor, Mysticum, Marduk, Thorns, Ophthalamia, Enslaved, Mortiis and Arcturus. Basically every band that mattered, the bands that defined Nordic black metal. Plus these aren't just any tracks, these are almost all some of these bands' best tracks.
Abruptum's "De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet" is still a tweaked and damaged BM classic, completely unhinged, with angelic female vocals, warbly pitch shifts, blackened blasts, and those vocals... the perfect way to start things off. Next up "The Freezing Moon" by Euronymous and Mayhem, frosty and grim, but melodic and catchy and an all time classic. The reverb drenched blasts sandwiched between gorgeously melancholy melodies. And then Disssection's "Where Dead Angels Lie", maybe one of the greatest black metal songs of all time, with a killer fucking hook and some of the most amazing guitar playing EVER. And it just goes on from there, most serious black metal fans will most likely have all of these tracks, but it's like the ultimate BM primer. If they taught a class in black metal, this would absolutely be essential listening. (And it was indeed studied intently by those of us who were working here at Aquarius back during our big black metal discovery phase in the mid-nineties, we have fond memories of this album!).
Other highlights include Thorns' "Aerie Descends", a lurching slow motion blackened trudge, with creepy circusy keyboards and weird whispered vocals, a very cabaret vibe mixed in with seriously grim blackness. Then there's a killer rehearsal version of Emperor's "Moon Over Kata-Shehr" which proves it wasn't the production or the recordings that made them so good, it's the songs. Epic and complex and fucking fantastic. There's some classic Enslaved, and even back then at their grimmest and most buzzy, they still demonstrated all sorts of prog tendencies.
Pretty much every track on here is essential. Even if you have most of these, it's like the ultimate classic black metal mixtape, and like we mentioned before, if you've been hesitant to explore black metal, this is probably the best possible place to start!
MPEG Stream: ABRUPTUM "De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet"
MPEG Stream: THORNS "Aeire Descends"
MPEG Stream: ENSLAVED "Loke"
MPEG Stream: EMPEROR "The Ancient Queen"

V/A Originators Of The Northern Darkness: A Tribute To Mayhem (Avantgarde Music) cd 15.98
Considering that the Darkthrone tribute from a few years back was one of the best black metal records ever (compilation or otherwise) we had high hopes for this Mayhem tribute. It features all the big boys: Immortal, Dark Funeral, Absu, Gorgoroth, Carpathian Forest, Keep Of Kalessin, Behemoth, Limbonic Art, Gehenna, Seth, and Vader. But there are a few problems keeping this from attaining such godlike status. First, of course, is that Darkthrone are way better than Mayhem, and have certainly stayed truer to their sound, unlike Mayhem who have become almost cartoonish with their more recent post-Euronymous releases, dabbling in triphop and other deviant forms of music, not to mention their propensity for silly spoken word parts and bombastic military style marches. The main problem though, is that the bands, be it because of song choice or just stylistically, follow the straight and narrow and don't take any huge chances. On 'Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone' all the bands took the Darkthrone songs and made them their own, mixing in all sorts of ambient parts and industrial bits and really reinventing and reinterpreting the songs. Here, the bands just play the songs. Sure, the songs are great, and the performances are heavy and furious and pummelling, but it's really nothing you haven't heard before. Of course, if you're a fan of Mayhem, or any of these bands, you'll probably want this (I'm going to buy one!) 'cause it's not bad, it's just not as great as we had hoped.
Also the first few (for those of you quick on the mailorder draw) are the special limited version that comes with a fold out poster in an ultra-cheesy black vinyl pouch, intended, we suppose, to look 'leather' and 'tough' and 'scary' but instead only manages to look like the sort of fanny pack you'd find on some fat European metalhead passed out in a puddle of beer and piss at Dynamo.

V/A Polish Assault (Relapse) cd 14.98
Grind from the land of Poles, featuring Decapitated, Yattering, Lost Soul, and Dwole.

V/A Powerslaves: An Elektro Tribute To Iron Maiden (Angelmaker) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Well, I suppose it had to happen. Or did it? And boy were we torn. On the one hand we really don't want to support this kind of thing. Electro versions of Iron Maiden songs?? But on the other hand, before even hearing it, we knew that we were gonna have to order a ton of 'em, and that we would ALL have to buy one. And as if to seal the deal, we threw it on the stereo the minute we got it, and within 15 seconds a customer was already at the counter telling us they NEEDED whatever we were playing. And our guess is that you're gonna need one too. I mean c'mon ELECTRO versions of IRON MAIDEN songs!! And the timing couldn't be more appropriate with the recent tragic passing of Anton Maiden, the original powerslave, who sang tunelessly over MIDI versions of Iron Maiden songs downloaded from his computer (which some of us liked even more than his singing...). And basically, this is just Anton Maiden with a way bigger budget. Which is a good thing. All those timeless riffs we love and adore played by fuzzed out analog synths and turned into buzzy alien melodies, the throbbing, unmistakable basslines of Steve Harris become burping squelches and rumbling pulses, and of course those dual lead guitar harmonies are transformed into wild squeaky squiggles. Does it work? Hard to say. It does sound great though. Funny and wild and fun and silly. We'd think they were taking the piss, but the liner notes take great pains to explain that the album 'was conceived with the greatest respect' and by having each artist pick their favorite Maiden song and album, often not the track they performed. There are a few familiar names here, Legowelt and Kitbuilders, but most of these artists are new to us (some other names: Captain Ahab, Rude 66, Maxx Klaxon, Ra-X, Imatran Voima, Luke Eargoggle...). The best track has to be Hidari / Platzgumer's Number Of The Beast, which starts so fucked up it's almost impossible to tell what song it is, and the drum programming is so fucked that the rhythm ends up being a damaged and stuttery mess of clicks and crunches. The vocals start out super vocoded and distorted, sounding quite alien / monsterlike, until the clean vocals kick in, and then the melody is sung weirdly, tuneless-y and strangely familiar a la Anton Maiden. Whatever reservations we had were definitely quelled once we heard this whole comp. How could they not be? And it's approved by original Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno himself. A fitting record of the week and for us, a fitting "moment of silence" for Anton Maiden. R.I.P.
MPEG Stream: HIDARI / PLATZGUMER "Number Of The Beast"
MPEG Stream: ACID JUNKIES "Wrathchild"
MPEG Stream: MR. VELCRO FASTENER "The Trooper"

V/A Powerslaves: An Elektro Tribute To Iron Maiden (Angelmaker) 12" 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We haven't been able to get the cd version of Powerslaves recently (maybe someday, we hope) but here's a vinyl 12" with four tracks from that amazing tribute comp: Acid Junkies "Wrathchild", Luke Eargoggle "Mother Russia", Rude 66 "Killers", Legowelt "Run To The Hills". Up the Irons (electro-style)!
MPEG Stream: ACID JUNKIES " Wrathchild"

V/A Primitive Finland (Northern Heritage) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Reality Part #4 (Deep Six) cd 9.98
Another compilation (number four, duh) of fast and furious, pummelling fastcore/grindcore/metallic punk rock. Some bands you know: 324 (from their recent split with Corrupted), Ruido, Unruh, Damad, Lack Of Interest as well as a ton of bands you don't: Haymaker, I Found God, Overpowering, Self Inflicted, Progeria, Halo Epidemic, Dudman, Pretty Little Flower, Inspite, Hawgjaw, Low Threat Profile and lots more. If you like this kind of stuff, you probably gotta have this.
RealAudio clip: 324 "Garden"
RealAudio clip: UNRUH "Fear And Loathing Among The Working Class"
RealAudio clip: RUIDO "Soledad Cortata"

V/A Recollection: Relapse Video Collection (Relapse) dvd 14.98
I don't have cable, so I don't know if the rumours are true that MTV (or MTV2?) brought the Headbanger's Ball back on the air. But if you have a DVD player you've got your own Headbangers Ball right here, and it's underground stuff that probably wouldn't get played on TV anyway. Relapse is one of the biggest and best metal labels in the country, and from their roster they've selected both new and long-time favorites to appear on this DVD video collection. From stoner metallers High On Fire (whose quite excellent video Andee does report having seen on MTV) to kinetic spazzcore heroes Dillinger Escape Plan, from the streetwise grind of Brutal Truth to the Nordic bombast of Amorphis, this ought to entertain any metal fan. Amidst the variety of metal styles and video budgets displayed here, we especially dug the rap-rock parody piss-take of grindcore outfit Blood Duster, the old-school macabre metal of Deceased, and Alchemist's industrial, psychedelicized channelling of Voivod. Other heavyweights also appearing: Unsane, Neurosis (twice), Today Is The Day, Dead World, Benumb, Alabama Thunder Pussy, and Uphill Battle.

V/A Requiems Of Revulsion: Tribute To Carcass (Deathvomit / Necropolis) cd 14.98
Covers comp, hailing the genius of British grindcore (grindgore?) masters, the late great Carcass. The more melodic, death n' roll of Carcass' last few albums (y'know, what the Champs sound like, when they're not doing the Thin Lizzy thing) is ignored in favor of their original, groundbreaking gross-outs: short, nasty, and noisy. The brutal riffs are matched in number by the multisyllabic medical terms employed. Such great underground metal bands as Exhumed ("Exhume To Consume" of course), Impaled, Cattle Decapitation, Nasum, Pig Destroyer, and 13 others appear, all showing much respect to the band that so inspired them. Heck, the first two mentioned definitely wouldn't exist if it weren't for Carcass. Pioneering Polish Carcass worshippers General Surgery even rise from the grave to appear on here!

V/A Right In The Nuts: A Tribute To Aerosmith (Small Stone Records) 2cd 18.98
Double cd covers comp in tribute to Andee's favorite rock band of all time, the mighty Aerosmith! The participating bands mostly hail from the realm of "stoner rock", such as Natas, Alabama Thunderpussy (who do a great "Sweet Emotion"), Atomic Bitchwax, Fireball Ministry, Drunk Horse, The Want, Core, Raging Slab, Altamont, and 18 more! As these tribute things go, a pretty good one. Furthermore, Andee sez: If this sounds even remotely appealing, you oughta order the Aerosmith cd "Draw The Line" too, which we also carry. It's probably one of the best 'rock' records ever. Aerosmith may suck now, but their first 5 records were '70s hard rock at its best; heavy and groovy and amazingly catchy. Their "Greatest Hits" were not their greatest hits. Trust me.
RealAudio clip: FIREBALL MINISTRY "Movin Out"

V/A Road to Nowhere (Poison Tree) cd 12.98
Road To Nowhere? No way, this road leads to stoner rock heaven. Hot shit badasses Fu Manchu, Nick Oliveri, Brant Bjork, Burning Brides, and The Dwarves share the joint (heh heh, pun intended!) with lesser known indie upstarts Big Truck, Winnebago Deal, Truck Fighters, Dig, The Sammies, In The Detail, Baby Woodrose, Leech, and locals Turn Me On Dead Man (unfortunately misspelled as "Dean Man" on the packaging -- guess spelling took a back seat to rawkin'). Oh yeah, and there's also a lil' band here called The Freeks whose lineup includes members of Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Nebula, Skin Yard and Earthless!
MPEG Stream: OLIVERI, NICK AND THE MONDO GENERATOR "Lie Detector"
MPEG Stream: FREEKS, THE "The Go Go Get"

V/A Rusty Axe - Under The Axe Vol. 3 (Rusty Axe) cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the label that brought us the mind blowing blackmetalnoise of Enbilulugugal and the noise flecked Midwestern redneck black metal of Blood Cult comes a label sampler featuring a whole hellish mess of demented and damaged, fucked up and retarded, baffling and utterly brilliant metal mayhem. Rusty Axe and its stable of musical miscreants is not for the metal dabbler, or the true grim warrior, this shit is messed up, in the best possible way. Metal sure, but all drenched in goats blood, satan's semen, huge splattery gobs of noise and loads of what-the-fuck! Some of these bands are so fucked up they seem like they must be joking, others are deadly serious and are as heavy and buzzingly brutal as any black metal you've heard. Probably the most exciting band on here is Baphomets Horns, super fast and heavy grim black metal, furious and recorded so hot, it sounds like the band is spitting blood and flame right into your lap. On the other end of the spectrum are bands like Defecated Corpse, who sound a bit like Venom fronted by a lounge singer, but with loads of shredding lead guitar. They also cover the Benny Hill theme song. Yup, "Yakkety Sax". And then there's Satan's Almighty Penis, who do have a hilarious name, but their music is far from a joking matter, fucked up and furiously fast, another band that could go up against the Scandinavian elite for sure. The whole comp is pretty jam packed with the grimmest weirdest heaviest most fucked up black metal you've never heard from groups like Kill All Resistance, Wollfsschanze, Dark Energy, Sacrificial Blood, Mephistophelian, Demonic Mortuary, the brilliantly named FINISHER!, Tjolgtjar, Bethledeign, War Plague, Melkor, and loads more. We're already dying to hear full lengths from all of these bands! Fans of Benighted Leams, Rehtaf Ruo, Rigor Sardonicous, Emit, Furze, Detsorgsekalf, and all that sort of OUT black metal may have just found their new favorite label!
MPEG Stream: DEFECATED CORPSE "Female Half Erection O'Brewer"
MPEG Stream: SATAN'S ALMIGHTY PENIS "Perishing Jehovah"
MPEG Stream: TJOLGTJAR "Midnight On Witches Sabbat"

V/A Rusty Axe: Under The Axe Volume 4 (Rusty Axe) cd 6.98
The world is full of massive metal labels, Century Media, Relapse, Metal Blade, each home to hundreds and hundreds of bands, lots of bands we love, but plenty we could certainly do without. There are way more tiny little metal labels doing their own thing, WAY below the commercial radar, each cultivating their own unique little scene, based on a combination of location, style, and in the case of Rusty Axe, a totally brilliant, massively fucked and utterly idiosyncratic DIY approach to metal music. Every little while, Rusty Axe release a super cheap label sampler and every time we are totally blown away by the sheer weirdness and genius of the bands they dig up.
This time around (volume 4!) there are way more familiar names than usual, but that in no way makes this comp any less appealing. In fact the known names will still seem pretty obscure to all but the most obsessive metalheads: The Wizar'd, Godless, Enbilulugugal, Black Vomit, V.A.C.K., Tjolgtjar, Marks Of The Masochist, and that's really about the only bands we know. Other until-now-unknown-to-us bands include Sermon Of Foulness, Trasher, Dead... Again, Sacrificial Blood, Talk Sick Earth, Esprit Derange, Brobdingnagian, Infinite Missiles, well we could go on and on, needless to say, for adventurous metalheads, this is the shit! Heavy on the black metal, but with plenty of doom and noise and fuzz and buzz and howl.
Highlights include: a new track from aQ faves Black Vomit, purveyors of True Sheffield Black Psychedelia, which hear means a plodding blown out wall of buzz, peppered with fucked up effects and creepy inhuman vox, so heavy and in the red, it manages to almost slip into shoegaze territory. Almost. Toil offer up some lo-fi blackness, rife with classic metal riffing, but some seriously fucked up howled vocals and some tangled confusional leads. The Wizar'd cover Witchfinder General, the drums stumble gloriously, the guitars SO buzzy and hot, the vocals like a karaoke Zeeb Parkes. Enbilulugugal don't disappoint (do they ever?) with some retro thrash, but rendered all scribbly and lo-fi with INSANE vocals that sound like a million pterodactyls. Infinite Missiles are all old school retro punky thrash, with killer riffing and shouted vocals. Gaiman offer up the 'short version' of their track, which clocks in at almost 8 minutes, a sluggish Burzumy trawl through sonic black swamps with some gurgling underwater vokills and a bit of Viking riffage here and there. V.A.C.K. offer up some maniacal basement black metal, furious drumming, buzzsaw riffs and howled hellish shrieksÉFuck, who are we kidding, all the tracks here rule, not all of them will have us running out to track everything down by the band, but in the context of this comp, they are all pretty darn near perfect, in their own totally fucked and fractured, demented and damaged way.
MPEG Stream: SACRIFICIAL BLOOD "Lethal Dose (NME Cover)"
MPEG Stream: TOIL "Distorted And Venomous Visions"
MPEG Stream: ENBILULUGUGAL "Reeking Of Diseased Goatbile"
MPEG Stream: BLACK VOMIT "Demons In The Black Smoke"

V/A Sacrifice At The Altar Of The Satanic Blood Angel: A Tribute To Von (Rusty Axe) cd 9.98
There are cult bands and then there are the TRUE KVLT bands. Few fit that bill better than San Francisco's Von. Von existed for a few years back in the late eighties / early nineties, recorded only two demos, and then split up and disappeared.
But that's just the sort of stuff that creates the cult, that turns a band into something more, that and an incredible collection of furious grim thrashing black metal madness. Fourteen songs, all fast and black, all quite similar sounding, almost like one long song chopped up into 2 minute movements, but like very few bands, there's just something special about Von, sure the sound, the production, the energy, but it has to be the songs too, since even played by other bands, those songs exude a strange black power, a grim malice and hellish energy that belies their simple composition.
Lots of folks have covered Von over the years, most recently SF's own Leviathan, on his split with fellow Bay Area black horde Crebain, but here we've got a whole disc of covers, most of them true to the spirit of Von, in that they are raw and primitive and buzzing, but each special in its own black way.
Very few bands here that we've actually heard of: Enbilulugugal, Black Vomit, Godless, Execrator, Beastcraft, Tjolgtjar, Raw Hatred and that's about it. Check out the names on some of the other bands: Blasphemophager, Unholy Crucifix, Godslaying Hellblast, Sermon Of Foulness, Nuclearhammer, Ceremonial CastingsÉ
And they all sound just how you might think, carrying on in the grim tradition of Von, lo-fi, thrashing, black, brutal, buzzy, the rhythms fast and relentless, the riffing and drumming in a constant fury, the vocals in various shades of howl and gurgle, lots of the tracks peppered with wild squiggly leads, sometimes the sound is thick and caustic, a white noise blur, other times it's a tinny practice space recording, once in a while, like with Black Vomit, the song is transformed into something freaked out and damaged, but for the most part, this is one for the true, the grim, those of black heart and cursed soul.
Definitely for fans of Von (obviously), Beherit, Bone Awl, Akitsa, Ash Pool, Darkthrone and other practitioners of raw raw raw primitive black metal.
MPEG Stream: BLACK VOMIT "Devil Pig"
MPEG Stream: ENBILULUGUGAL "Lamb"
MPEG Stream: BEASTCRAFT "Satanic Blood"
MPEG Stream: TJOLGTJAR "Christ Fire"
MPEG Stream: GODSLAYING HELLBLAST "Veinen"

V/A Sepulchral Productions Presents Waging The War (Sepulchral Productions) cd 10.98
[Adopts Victorian street urchin voice]: "Hot shit warehouse find for sale here! Getch yer hot shit warehouse find!"
That's right girls and boys, we stumbled upon a few - as in, literally, like, THREE - of these rad 2007 comps from Canadian metal slangers Sepulchral Productions, who have thrown together a tasty smorgasbord of blackened bile spewing hate that goes down all harsh and spiny-like. The bands come to us from the the wilds of Europe and the great Canadian north and include heavyweights like Antaeus, Negura Bunget, and Horna in addition to lesser known bad asses like Lord Belial, Nostra Drama, Veneficium, and Azaghal. Nay, not a Yankee to be found. As these bands, even the more famous ones, dwell within the deepest depths of the underground, you can bet this shit is evil and rifftastic in all the ways you so greedily lust for. Intended as a tribute to the early age of Black Metal whose legacy has been shamelessly and successfully prostituted to consumers like you and me all across the globe, these guys are keeping the flame burning ALL.NIGHT.LONG.BABY - if you're looking to find cute and fashionable Black Metal, the liners politely suggest that you bear this in mind.
LAST COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: ANTAEUS "Inner Way"
MPEG Stream: NEGURA BUNGET "Immortality's Elegy"
MPEG Stream: HORNA "Synkan Muiston Aarella"

V/A Sepultural Feast: A Tribute To Sepultura (Black Sun) cd 16.98
Black and death metal bands, many from Scandinavia (how strange...) pay tribute to Brazilian metal gods Sepultura. Participating are such bands as AQ-faves the super-brutal Defleshed and keyboard-happy Children of Bodom, as well as Swordmaster, Lord Belial, Sacramentum, Brazil's Mystifier, and nine others. Songs covered range from the earliest of the Sep's death-thrash efforts to "Ratamahatta" from their last tribal-metal album.

V/A Slatanic Slaughter (Black Sun Records) cd 16.98
Northern European tribute to Slayer, with ferocious covers by Dissection, At The Gates, Enslaved, Edge of Sanity and seven others.

V/A Slave To The Power: The Iron Maiden Tribute (MeteorCity) 2cd 17.98
Not one, but two cds of Iron Maiden covers! The 26 bands who took on the challenge of this tribute range from the well-known to the utterly obscure (well, ok, the most famous name on here is Sebastian Bach...you know, the former Skid Row singer, who belts out an admirable version of "Children of the Damned"). Many of the bands take a very straight approach to interpreting these metal classics but there are a few weirder ones, like the unknown (to us) Finnish band Hoyry-Kone doing "The Trooper" with trombone, cello, and saxophone; and Japanese doom metallers Eternal Elyisium's stoned, almost reggae-inflected but super heavy version of "Innocent Exile". Other participants: Solstice, Electric Frankenstein, Wardog, Crowbar, Iron Savior, Warhorse, The Quill, etc. A fun compilation that will soon have you dragging out the actual Maiden wax for sure.

V/A Slimewave: Goregrind Compilation (Relapse) cd 14.98

V/A Son Of The Transcendental Maggot (Tsuguri Records) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Got a few copies of this cd-r compilation via our pals the Oakland band Pigs, who have a track on it taken from their album Illuminati House Party, that we know a lot of you liked. Other acts also on here, and equally AQ-approved: US Christmas, Shit And Shine, Sons Of Tonatiuh, and a bunch more (13 in all) that are all pretty great. Although it's a diverse selection of bands, somehow the tracks that appear on this comp all go pretty well together. There's a tilt towards mathiness and heaviness, and also to weirdness and psychedelia, all good things as far as we're concerned. Lots of it is instrumental, as well.
We won't bother to describe the entire disc track-by-track (especially since it's cheap enough, just buy it!!) but will mention a few things that stood out... Shane Perlowin from prog-punk outfit Ahleuchatistas starts things off with a lovely bit of solo guitar action, vaguely exotic-sounding, something that Six Organs fans should enjoy, though the hypnotically jittery track by Ahleuchatistas proper that pops up later on the disc is more in line with the technically complex, frantic rockin' we've heard from 'em before on their Cuneiform albums. Meanwhile, Russian (???) band The Grand Astoria do a pretty rad space-rockin' cover of a song by Ash Ra Tempel. And then there's the oddly monickered yellowthief (a grindy duo consisting of drummer "yellowsun" and guitarist "yellowmoon") who contribute six tracks, all but one of 'em short sharp shocks of mathy spazz (and some moody melody) barely longer than 30 seconds apiece, with gibberish song titles. Ruins and Hella fans ought to dig, and we'll definitely be on the lookout for more from yellowthief in future.
Oh, and Pigs, if you haven't heard 'em yet, do their song "Lurch" which is exemplary of their Sabbathy, Melvinsy sound. The heaviest stuff here is probably by Sons Of Tonatiuh, though, who get two feedback-laden tracks to kick out the ugly doom jams, Eyehategod style. Shit And Shine don't wimp out, either, wrapping the disc up with a crushingly distorted atmospheric soundscape of sorts. And the other bands we haven't yet mentioned (The Wayward, The Asound, Akris, Enoch, Yuugen Syndrome) are all worthy too.
Certainly a cool comp that turned us on to some neat stuff we hadn't heard before, from denizens of a particular (and somewhat peculiar) underground scene that we hadn't quite conceptualized previously, though now it makes sense that these bands would all belong together on this comp - to the extent that you could almost listen to this and pretend it was ALL by the same, really amazing band! Comes with a sticker, too, by the way.
MPEG Stream: AHLEUCHATISTAS "Do What?"
MPEG Stream: YELLOWTHIEF "gbling gzilboggles"
MPEG Stream: AKRIS "Kentucky Russian"

V/A Sucking the 70's (Small Stone) 2cd 18.98
35 current stoner rock bands, doing covers of cheesy 70's classic rock songs. 156+ minutes. The bands range from well known to not known at all. Highlights include: Raging Slab "We're An American Band", Los Natas "Brainstorm", Alabama Thunderpussy "Hymn 43", Fireball Ministry "Doctor Doctor", Spirit Caravan "Wicked World", Gideon Smith & The Dixie Damned "The Pusher" etc.
RealAudio clip: RAGING SLAB "We're An American Band"
RealAudio clip: LOS NATAS "Brainstorm"

V/A Swedish Assault (Relapse) cd 14.98
A smorgasbord of crusty Swedish grind on offer here, featuring Sayyadina, Assel, Disfear, Gadget, and AQ-faves Birdflesh. Plus the less crusty, more rock n' roll stylings of Genocide Superstar.

V/A Swedish Death Metal (Index Verlag) 3cd 21.00
Writer Daniel Ekeroth really loves death metal. Specifically SWEDISH death metal. He's Swedish, yes, and plays in a Swedish death metal band, so maybe he's biased... but we DO have to agree, there's something special about the death metal scene in Sweden, particularly back in the very early '90s when it was at its fullest flower. Sweden has bestowed upon the world some of the best in guttural growling and blasting beats, crypt-rattling riffs and of course the "Sunlight sound". We reviewed Ekeroth's encyclopedic book Swedish Death Metal a while ago. Now, here's the audio companion compilation to said book. Maybe reading a 456 page tome all about the wonders of Swedish death metal is more than you're ready for. But even if you didn't read the book (and most definitely if you DID) you might still be interested in this. Either from reading the book you'll be curious to hear the obscure bands collected here, or from listening to this you too will develop an obsession with Swedish death metal and thus need to read the book... and listen to nothing else but Swedish death metal for the foreseeable future! Don't say we didn't warn you.
Lovingly put together, this triple cd set is packed with crucial examples of the SDM phenomenon. Mostly rare demo tracks, or songs taken from vinyl-only eps... There's quite a few of the big names of course (Grave, Entombed, Dismember, At The Gates, Unleashed, etc.) but also many, many more obscure but also important bands. There's pioneering early tracks from the likes of Obscurity, Merciless, and Nihilist. Forgotten and/or underrated greats like Crematory, Afflicted, and Nirvana 2002. And, keeping death alive, the set wraps up with a couple newer bands, like genius throwbacks Repugnant!
Here's some more names either to pique your curiosity, or if you know 'em, to whet your appetite: Edge Of Sanity, General Surgery, Grotesque, Desultory, Sorcery, Carbonized, Carnage, Tiamat, Furbowl, Seance... and there's tons and tons more. 52 tracks here by 48 bands!!! And we're telling you, it's quite possible, nay probable, that the heaviest, most brutal song EVER is one of the ones included on this cd. It must be.
Disc one, covering 1986-1990 is the rawest, thrashiest stuff, exploring the cult origins of the movement, some if it super lo-fi but still crushing. What's a little tape hiss and distortion when you're listening to singing that sounds like an asthmatic cookie monster anyway? Disc two, 1989-'93, includes some all time classics, in Ekeroth's book and ours, and also delves into death/black crossover with tracks from Marduk and Dissection. And then disc three celebrates some lesser known greats, mostly covering the period 1990-1994, with a track from '98 and another from as recently as 2007 just to demonstrate that true Swedish death metal will never die.
Like we said, this is clearly a labor of love, packaged in a handsome book-like package (it looks like the book, we mean). The four-panel digipack includes a thick cd booklet with notes on each and every track by author Ekeroth, who of course was one of this release's compilers. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: NIHILIST "Abnormally Deceased"
MPEG Stream: TRIBULATION "Irrevocable Act"
MPEG Stream: ENTOMBED "But Life Goes On"
MPEG Stream: CRYPT OF KERBEROS "The Ancient War"

V/A Texas Metal Archives Vol. 1 (Brainticket / Metal Rising ) cd 14.98
Wow, is this ever cool! We kinda took a chance on ordering one in, 'cause what do we know about '80s underground metal from down in Texas? Well now we know it RULES. At least, the stuff they picked to put on this cool comp sure does. So, we ordered a bunch more copies to share with y'all. 15 tracks here from 13 bands, recorded circa 1983-1987. When metal was at its zenith, really, 'cause this stuff is so killer yet so obscure - by underground, we mean, really underground. All this stuff is from self-released demo tapes, none of these bands ever got past the demo stage to get signed or make a "real" album. So, unless you're an '80s metalhead from Texas (with a good memory), or perhaps someone who was fanatically into the tape trading scene back then, you've never heard of these bands, ever.
Thus, there's no Pantera on here - though some of these tracks were recorded at the Pantera dudes' dad's studio, and one of the bands features a guy who sang for Pantera before Phil Anselmo joined 'em. Here's the lineup: Battalion, Sentinel, Valkyrie, Death Tripper, Necrovore, Baron Steele, Warlock, Heavens Force, Wicked Angel, Forced Entry, Scythian Oath, Morbid Termination, and Rotting Corpse.
You're really not metal if that list of names doesn't sound cool to you, just the names themselves, so totally typically metal aren't they??
While each band is in fact different, you can pretty much say it's all galloping old school heavy metal action, with tons of raging youthful energy, displaying then-current influences from England, Germany, and the Bay Area, some bands more melodic than others (Baron Steele and Wicked Angel ferinstance), most of 'em in the edgier thrash and speed metal style of the day, often pushing the envelope of speed and technique, and taste! Some tracks get even more extreme, witness the protogrindpunk of Death Tripper, and the early black/death belchings of Necrovore. Vocally, while there's some punkish hardcore growls here and there (courtesy of the latter two bands mentioned, mainly), most of these acts go for clean, high pitched screaming vocals, some of 'em really over the top. Countering that, the frontman of Forced Entry (the one who had the Pantera gig, briefly) has a sneering Dave Mustaine-like voice. And by the way, if you're an Absu fan, it's interesting to guess if any of these bands were an immediate (local) influence on 'em growing up, we'd imagine some might have been, we can kind of hear it.
Sound-wise, this is all pretty decent for 20+ year old demos, really. This is metal, nothin' wrong with a little distortion! The typically lo-fi production of a track like Scythian Oath's "Shadow Of The Torturer" is actually kinda cool, the way it's kind of fucked up, it almost gets weirdly psychedelic, the mixing strangely schizophrenically "active", elements fading in and out, up and down. (If you've heard that Wicked Witch record on EM, imagine them playing metal instead of funk!). Other tracks aren't necessarily so bizarre. Raw, yes, but that's nothing to complain about.
The thick, full color cd booklet contains super detailed liner notes, plenty of graphics, photos, old fliers, logos, etc. Our favorite pic has got to be the one of Morbid Termination, their singer posing in his stage regalia, modified football shoulder pads with spikes sticking out, very homemade looking gear indeed! And there's a lot of super detailed liner notes, written by compiler John Perez (Brainticket label owner and Solitude Aeturnus guitarist), who knows his '80s Texas metal for sure, having been a part of the scene back then himself. Very obviously this whole thing is a labor of love, and the packaging reflects that. Similar, really, to that excellent Swedish Death Metal collection we highlighted recently.
Heck we're not counting on selling a ton of these, but it would be cool if we did, just 'cause it you really do dig metal, we absolutely know you'll get a kick out of this! Looking forward to volume 2!! (And wondering if Texas was so special, or were there bands this rad in the places we grew up, too?)
MPEG Stream: MORBID TERMINATION "Metal Child"
MPEG Stream: FORCED ENTRY "Stacked Deck"
MPEG Stream: DEATH TRIPPER "Canis Major"

V/A The Electric Asylum Asylum: Volume 4 (Past & Present) cd 17.98
The folks at P&P know they've got a good thing going with this Electric Asylum series; appropriately monikered compiler The Psychomaniac keeps coming up with winners. In the grand tradition, here's Volume 4, and it's a relatively hard 'n heavy one, subtitled "Rock Hard British Freakrock", as if they knew that Vol. 3, fun as it was, didn't entirely deliver the dunt rock we crave. Well Vol. 4, as befits that unintentional Sabbath reference, is a lot more tough, less bubblegummy... and that even includes the band on here called Bubbles! (Whose badass glammy proto-punk strut "Zap n' Cat" reminds us of Ronno or maybe even Hard Stuff). Oh yeah, this Electric Asylum is again populated with some goofy names, most of whom we'd never heard of before. Here's the full line up: Hector, Slowload, Rog and Pip, Wolfrilla, Incredible Hog, Smoke, Spunky Spider, Ning, Quiet World, Henry Turtle, Bear Brothers, Hard Horse, Mustard, Tuesday, Godson, Bubbles, Sunshine Kid, Clutch, Jackal, and Sundance. 20 tracks in all, mostly taken from one-off, 45 rpm single only releases from flash in the pan bands we're lucky to get to hear at all, most never made an album and did just one or two 7"s... Actually, the only bands we really knew was Incredible Hog (whose entire album is great), and Wolfrilla (a fave from Vol. 2).
Coming from circa 1970-75, a lot of this can be summed up as a bit Sabbath, a bit Slade, platform boots in each camp. Though, each individual band often seems to emulate other, specific, better known acts. Like, Godson sound kinda the Rolling Stones, Hard Horse are a lot like Nazareth, and Incredible Hog come closest to Led Zep... while Ning's "Machine" is somehow part Steppenwolf, part Gary Glitter. And then there's Smoke's "That's What I Want", which is almost like The Kinks' "All Day And All Of The Night" re-written with a "Sweet Leaf" fixation.
While we're not all that surprised that nobody here really ever "made it", that doesn't mean their attempts to do so are without merit! Not if you like lotsa fuzz 'n distortion, acid guitar soloing, and grunting wailing vox! Get yer fix of obscure '70s proto-metal groovy rockin' pop here.
The booklet contains the usual detailed-as-they-can-be trainspotting liner notes on each and every track (from which we learn useful minutiae such as that Sundance featured original Judas Priest drummer Alan Moore, ferinstance) plus full color sleeve/label graphics and vintage b&w photos... too bad about the crap cover art though.
If they can keep digging up records like these, we'll keep digging these comps! After this, we halfway expect P&P to jump ahead a few years to the late '70s / early '80s and bring us the killer NWOBHM rarities comp we know ol' Psychomaniac has got in him too...
MPEG Stream: HECTOR "Lady"
MPEG Stream: ROG AND PIP "Warlord"
MPEG Stream: SMOKE "That's What I Want"
MPEG Stream: SUNDANCE "Eagles"

V/A The Stranglers - Chapter 1 (Choking Hazard) 2cd 10.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Slow. Low. Downtuned. Crushing. Heavy. Sludge. Dirge. Doom. Buzz. Rumble. Pound.
By now, the appropriate parties should be paying attention, cuz this is for anyone who uses any or all of those descriptors to talk about the music that moves them. Two sprawling discs of ultra heaviness, all weirdly based on strangling scenes from horror movies, all tending toward the slow and low, a handful of aQ faves, a bunch of groups new to us, but all purveyors of metallic crush of one form or another.
The first disc is frontloaded for aQ, beginning with an exclusive track from UK doomlords Atavist, who start things off with some pretty delicate guitar, which is just a slow build toward a heaving wall of lumbering sludge, glacial and epic, pummeling and monstrous, growled vocals, and massive drum crush, but that delicate opening guitar continues on beneath the heaviness above, adding a strange vibe to the proceedings. UK bruisers offer up 3 slabs of feedback drenched Eyehategod worship, not all that slow, but buzzy and stonery and low slung with some awesome superfuzz and wildly howled vox. French one man sludge outfit The Austrasian Goat slows it waaaaaay doooooown, to a gut wrenching crawl, channeling, classic ultra funereal doom, into some gloriously abject sludge.
Up next is The Whorehouse Massacre, a Canadian one man band who spews some sick, super distorted ultra sludge doom, awesome stuff, we definitely need to hear more from this guy.
All the bands on the second disc are new to us, beginning with Stasis, who do their own take on twisted downtuned heaviness, offering up weird acoustic interludes between the blown out bursts of howled and shrieked dirgery. Feast Of Sins are classic funeral doom, even offering up one track of grim black ambience, bookended by some glacial gloomy creeps. Ghost Empire are another rad sludge doom combo, but with a bit of groove, after some super skeletal spaced out ambience, these guys piledrive with churning riffs, big drums, and throat shredding vox. And finally, Welter In Thy Blood, who hail from LA, offer up a seriously harrowing chunk of blackened doom drenched ambience, sick inhuman vocals, super spare drums, riffs that ooze like black tar, the whole track like a Khanate jam played at 16rpm.
Lots of killer stuff, all slow and low and heavy, doom, drone, sludge, if that's your thing, then THIS is most definitely for you.
MPEG Stream: ATAVIST "20:11"
MPEG Stream: MOLOCH "Green Pills"
MPEG Stream: AUSTRASIAN GOAT "Exorcism By Hatred"

V/A This Comp Kills Fascists Volume 2 (Relapse) cd 14.98
Another lovingly compiled (by Scott Hull of Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Pig Destroyer no less!) sonically hateful selection of extreme heaviness, grind metal, powerviolence, hardcore, punk rock, and pretty much everything in between, buzzing and blasting and brutal as fuck. A handful of bands we already loved, and a whole bunch we'd never heard of before, it's kinda like the metal mix tape you wish your mean metal older brother would make you.
So let's start with the we know and love. California crew Lack Of Interest spit out 7 tracks in about 4 minutes, blazing blasting punk rock, Noisear spit out insane bursts of frenzied grind, impossibly fast, super dense and twisted and complex, Drugs Of Faith do their dirgey punkish death metal, sludgey and sloppy and chaotic, the mighty Crom offer up "Hags" the longest track on the comp, a grinding, thrashing slab of whatthefuck heaviness, slipping from punkish blast to churning doomy chug, the vocals shrieking and grunting and howling, it even gets sort of pretty for a moment, but only a moment, fuck we love these guys, Ohio pigfuckers Apartment 213 spit out some serious powerviolence, a Neanderthal sonic pummeling, grunted vox, even slipping in a little groove at one point, but mostly just beating your ears bloody with their closed fist crush, Despise you kick down 50 seconds of churning, blasting grind, 2 songs blow by in a blink, but they cram some serious sonic punishment into less than a minute, Voetsek are the only female fronted outfit in this boys club, and they lay it down with some super technical grind metal, and some seriously ball melting vox....
Then there's the bands we're hearing for the first time here: Hummingbird Of Death, Marion Barry, Owen Hart, Septic Surge, Population Reduction, Superbad, Three Faces Of Eve, Idiots Parade, Triac and more, our faves being Hummingbird Of Death, not just for having the best band name ever, but for their chaotic, frenzied on the verge of collapse powerviolence freakouts, Owen Hart's metallic grinding thrash, infused with plenty of classic old school metal riffage, Septic Surge who get their drummachinegun on, a dizzying hybrid of twisted electronic glitchery and caveman heaviness... We could go on and on, a head spinning selection of audial brutality, crushing heaviness, blasting brutality, an overwhelming 74 tracks, all jammed into 78 minutes, by 19 bands, for anyone who likes it fast and heavy. Comes with a massive booklet, all old school punk rock style with each band getting a page for lyrics and photos and contact info. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: LACK OF INTEREST "There Is No Tomorrow"
MPEG Stream: OWEN HART "My Grandma's Fucking A Tranny From Alaska"
MPEG Stream: NOISEAR "Atrophy Of The Mind"
MPEG Stream: HUMMINGBIRD OF DEATH "You Are Not Going To Heaven"
MPEG Stream: MARION BARRY "Nuclear Bio-Chimp Assault"
MPEG Stream: CROM "Hags"
MPEG Stream: APARTMENT 213 "Standoff"
MPEG Stream: SEPTIC SURGE "Budmonster"

V/A Thrasher Skate Rock Vol 12: Eat the Flag (Volcom) cd 14.98
LEVIATHAN ALERT!!! EXCLUSIVE UNRELEASED LEVIATHAN TRACK ALERT!!! LEVIATHAN COVERING BLACK FLAG ALERT!!! What the fuck? It's true though. More on that in a second. We all dig skating (although most of us are not to good at it), and love to watch crazy skaters around town, often fucking themselves up in the process. Who doesn't? But typically skate rock has often been, well, not really that interesting. Okay, so maybe most skate rock sucks. But this Thrasher Skate Rock disc has a lot going for it, not the least of which is an unreleased Leviathan track, "The Third Blind Wound"! Most Leviathan obsessives will most definitely find this one track enough reason to pick this up, but there's some other killer stuff on here too. Exclusive tracks from a bunch of other bands including locals Hightower, and the always kick ass S.T.R.E.E.T.S. (an acronym for 'skating totally rules, everything else totally sucks') as well as some killer DVD footage including a documentary about skating in the 80's and 90's and a live performance from Norway's Turbonegro.
This is one of those dualdisc thingies, that won't play on some stereos so be warned!
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "The Third Blind Wound"
MPEG Stream: S.T.R.E.E.T.S. "Stop The Violence"

V/A To The Triumph Of Evil: A Tribute To Judas Iscariot (ISO666) cd 7.00
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All you need to know is it's a tribute to Judas Iscariot, a USBM institution, and features the elite of what might be considered the second wave of USBM cover classic JI tracks: Xasthur, Leviathan, Nachtmystium, Krieg and more! Holy shit!
After 10 years, Judas Isacriot hung it up in 2002, but they still manage to influence countless legions of musical minions. Most of the bans here owe no small debt to Akhenaten and his Midwestern metal outfit, which is obviously why they're here paying their respects.
The mighty Xasthur covers "The Cold Earth Slept Below...", the result is an incredibly lo-fi, brittle washed out smear of fuzzy guitars, stumbling dirgelike drumming, the whole thing so hissy and buzzy it's almost dreamlike, with some gorgeously mournful melodies that would make it sound downright poppy if it weren't so frosty and harsh. So fucked and hauntingly pretty it had us digging out our old JI records to hear the original. AQ fave Leviathan takes on "Where the Weather Beats Incessant", nearly 12 minutes of moody depressive midtempo blackness, with some strange droney interludes, super harsh distorted vocals, and strange drawn out guitar parts, the whole thing epic and majestic and almost post rock sounding. Krieg cover "Babylon", a furiously fuzzy, ultra lo-fi burst of muddy murky black buzz, guttural vocals vomited up from the depths, blasting beats, amazing lightning speed riffing, but the melodies buried in the mix are haunting and again strangely lovely....
Fellow Midwesterners Nachtmystium tackle "Gaze Upon Heaven In Flames", a super loud, in the red blast of relentless buzzing black metal, the riffs and the drumming a blinding blur, until about halfway through where the song breaks down into a strange, lurching half time almost-groove with creepy melodies and a odd timed hiccuping rhythm. Frostmoon Eclipse offer up their version of "Spill The Blood Of The Lamb" the grimmest and frostiest of the bunch so far, murky and muddy, but thick with buzz and thrash, the vocals a hateful demonic gurgle, the whole thing a buzzing snarling beast. The rest of the lineup holds their own nearly as well, offering up their own varied takes on classic Judas Iscariot material. Eternity Of Darkness, Sign Of Katu, Arkenstone, Merrimack, Dead To Earth, The Black Death, Carving To Nenia, Martyr and Birkenau.
The strange thing is, that as buzzing and black, as hateful and harsh, as dreary and depressive as these tracks are, we had almost forgotten how pretty some of the Judas Iscariot stuff really was...
MPEG Stream: XASTHUR "The Cold Earth Slept Below"
MPEG Stream: KRIEG "Babylon"
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "Where The Winter Beats Incessant"